I think I'll stay put here..

I lack the will to redo my links and sites on a new place. Or I might scribble on both sites out of general wickedness.
I haven't posted in so long! But we've been delightfully occupied with the newest little one!
She looks so much like her mom at that age. We adore her...she never fusses about little things like....well..no..we didn't really put that little cardigan with the orangutan length sleeves on her. But she wouldn't have fussed, I'm pretty sure. Sleeves are being ripped back as we speak...I blame that on her 2yr old cousin who helpfully (and repeatedly...) brought me all the pretty dpn's that were holding the sleeves in progress. Maybe I thought I was knitting a head start on his next "helping" me, I really don't know...
Our youngest daughter is revisiting her new knit skills and we're doing a simple shawl together. We're both bored to tears with our shawls tho. This could lead to a dozen new projects at any moment.
I'm still campaigning for a new digital camera. It will happen, I promise!

Am I moving?

I'm considering it seriously, altho I've gotten rather comfortable here and learned a little html the hard way.
I imported here to http://grandmother.wordpress.com/
and could really use your opinions. Go see, tell me what you think..Wordpress does have advantages..it's easier to add links, doesn't take me 2 hours to figure out how to talk to the template code to make a thingie or decorate. On the other hand, personal decorating is limited in Wordpress, but they'll probably figure out toys for that soon.

Let me know!

Oh..and I did find my beloved old spindle! Corky finally gave it back with only a little slobber on it, so I'm very happy again.

Anna is here!

Lovely Anna Elisabeth made her appearance..the day after Easter! 7lbs, 8oz. of noise and dimples! Pictures forthcoming (it's that silly camera problem again..)as soon as I can, meantime all are well, even if my post is so long overdue. She's going to be brown-eyed like her mom and has beautiful brown hair. First baby in a couple generations that didn't arrive looking like Winston Churchill on a bad day.

My favorite fat old hen proudly hatched 5 chicks on the same day, it's in the air..!!!
So we celebrated with a family cookout and discovered the yummy fragrance on the wind enticed a ragged starving stray kitten to our roof. He's a sweet little buttercream tomcat and is quite fat and sassy since moving in with us.

Obviously..Spring has sprung!

Okay, that makes two jammie bottoms, two sweaters, a baby blankie..and the latest addition to the family still is being coy about making her grand entrance.
Possibly she's waiting for gramma to get a new digital camera? (this is my argument, anyway)
But if she's waiting for a Faire Isle miracle, it's going to be a while. I can't even begin to focus on choosing a pattern and the idea of steeks still makes me shudder.
(Edit: These are finished, but no pics of finished items.)

Oldest daughter is about to pop! The new baby is apt to make an appearance by this coming weekend and I still have half a leg of jammie bottoms to finish, two sweaters and a blankie to put together! (Panic!) Since she’s so near term, we’ve kept her 3 year old, along with our son’s 2 year old..you can imagine how much knitting I’m getting done here! Ack! In our little retirement cottage this is bedlam!

I have been a very naughty gramma ... but..but..it was so pretty! Knitpicks had the Palette yarn for such a nice price..and Christmas will be here again before we know it! (that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it)
So many colors! Now doesn't that look like molten sunshine!
I'm not even going into the Inox spree last week....

Okay, I'm just not into making a sweater for myself. It's been frogged and returned to nice skeins (it was green, it was boring...and 80 degree weather didn't motivate me) so now I'm planning Dale of Norway! I have wool to dye when I decide on the colors for them...yes, "them!"..I want to make one for a 2 year old grandson, a 7 year old granddaughter, my 6'2" son..this could occupy me for the next three months! And of course the newest to arrive (Soon!!) will have soft, handknitted things while I ponder the colors for the others.

A Blog Reborne

A Blog Reborne *Cheers!* Now that's some bobbling! Good job!

The sweater I decided I should knit for myself is going to take forever and many reruns of "Law and Order" to finish, so I thought I'd add a few visuals of the Unknitters Association that inhabit our lives (and delightfully so!).
Dinah, the reigning Dowager tabby is 16 in March. She effectively raised our three children to respectable adulthood and declines to raise the grandchildren. Job well done, Dinah!
Embers of the tender heart and vacuous mind gently urges the grandchildren to new mischief at every opportunity. She's 6 and uses decoys of black fuzzballs she creates here and there to evade the results of her complicity.
Corky..is Corky. Half chihuahua, half schnauzer, he's the constant companion of the two year old grandson and a chewer of many knitting needles and...well..his list of sins is long. He still refuses to confess as to the whereabouts of the missing drop spindle.

While I knit along, I thought I'd post a couple pics of a few things my DH has made. The odd one by itself is made from a banksia pod which grows in Australia. I can always tell when it's been in the house, I can smell it...no one else seems to be able to, but I detect a pervasive and inescapable odor from it.
These are just a few things he's done, I love watching him turn a twisted old burl into something lovely and flowing.
If my drop spindle doesn't reappear somewhere soon, he'll have to make me a new one. Here's hoping the spindle wasn't one of Corky's victims.

I found my next project finally! It's a lovely hat, top and pants set for baby Anna, done in waffle stitch. I don't plan to use waffle stitch for mine tho, I'd like three little cabled owls on the shirt or perhaps a color pattern instead.
I'd post the pic of it, but the URL doesn't paste well at all, so not sure I should use someone else's pic without that. I'll just wait and post my finished work instead. Suspense is good!
My pretty new sock yarn arrived yesterday from Knitpicks.com, but...I need a new set of dpn's to accomodate it. I'd love to find some size 3 USA Inox dpn's. I haven't used Inox yet, it would be fun to try them.
Yep, I'm obsessing quietly with my yarn so the usual chaos at our house won't drive me mad. And it's going to be chaotic for quite a while, since two of our kids are planning to combine their family efforts to revive our old home. (My husband and I moved from there to a wee, cozy cottage with 20 acres for our retirement, all of four miles away!) It's a monstrous house on about 11 acres and we're all oddly fond of the place, so we cling to the fantasy of restoring it. I love the pond there...lots of memories of kids and moonlit swims on hot summer nights. The old swamp willow that shaded our favorite fishing spot finally surrendered to age and my husband made a beautiful wooden jug from a little of the tree. So it really isn't altogether gone.
And now our grandchildren laugh and swim and fish in the pond while our children remember...

Oh..and while I wasn't knitting today, I made a few more needles. The darker set is red oak.
They make nice gifts, my mother likes the ones she got for Christmas. Ulterior motive there, I was gently enabling her new knitting skills.

They're fun to make, so I don't flinch when Corky hides one under the sofa.

I am going to knit some baby pants. I was very sure of this until I got to the part that gave instructions to knit 'em.
Apparently my inability to follow simple instructions (or in my case, destructions) has carried over into my knitting. This gives me two options. Or three. 1: I can scream hysterically and bury the evidence of my ignorance deep in the trashcan. (Tempting!) 2: I can drive smarter knitters crazy trying to explain these quantum theories that are blithely called patterns. 3: I can do what I usually do-bury the destruc..umm... instructions in the bottom of the trashcan and make up my own pattern as I go.
I like the third choice, it's always an adventure and someday I'll learn to follow a pattern without weeping helplessly amid piles of yarn.
AND...I'm going to make myself a sweater. Or I will as soon as I figure out where Corky spit out my homemade (yes...it's homemade, suits me fine, is biodegradeable and toothmarked by the pooch) cabling needle. Oh...that and I learn how to cable where I'm supposed to. I'd rather do one in Fair Isle but the yarn I happen to have is a dark green wool. And some brown, couple grey...no..I don't buy yarn with a project in mind, I buy yarn that that feels wonderful and wants to cuddle.
Fair Isle is wonderful fun, by the way!! And for the first time in my life I'm so VERY thankful to be ambidextrous! It makes things easy and neat! Maybe this week I can get more nice colors to complement the dark green.

Yes!!!

I did it! I made a Button and it works!!! Now ain't that purty!! I like the brightly colored one best.

Yep..this is getting rediculous...
These silly little mindless hats are great for very small kids tho, they can put them on easily and not have them flopping over their eyes.
Meantime...am wracking my brain for a new project while I get rid of scrap yarns.
If I make gifts with wool the recipients will inevitably forget and drop them into a hot washing machine. Instant and efficiently felting said items...but I'm tired of synthetic yarns.
What to make, what to make...hmmm.

And..voila! As I whisk his hat off for a quick scan...

And then there's the Hat...one of them, the other's on the little one's head at the moment. Bet they won't mix this one up at the Nursery, lol. Quick, easy and fun way to clear out the leftover yarn bits that collect in the bottom of the stash bin.

The infamous Shawl is done!! Still needs washing and blocking and fringe, but it's officially done! At least the knitting part, which I was getting a bit tired of the thing.. And then, while reclining in my recuperative sloth, finished a new hat for the littlest grandson and am halfway thru the next one as well. I'll stick a pic or two up soon as I can, the new printer apparently can read the camera chip and do the pics from that. At least I hope..
It was a definite learning experience. Next time I tackle a thingie I "see" in my mind, I'll work it out on paper first.

Having overestimated my strength and recuperative abilites this week, I knitted for a couple days. That ghastly orchid pink yarn that looked so wonderful on the moniter is ...ghastly. I slog onward tho, armed with a ton of kool ade for when it's finished. The dye test swatch turned out a great color, so there's hope!
I learned a few things in the making of this shawl. My attempt to put some texture and design into it is a definite learning process and however this monster turns out, I'll treasure it for that at the very least. I should have started at the top and worked down, to insure it tapered porportionally into a triangle...and probably will work out some basic arithmetic next time. It's a bit elongated so far, so the increases should have been consistently more increased. Doesn't help that I can't really tell the shaping, since it's overgrowing the needles. I'm using my dear old Addi's for this.
I did get a set of the Denise Interchangable and fell totally in love with them. They've never come apart in the knitting, but they snap together so easily I'm constantly afraid they'll snap apart just as easily. I'll get over this in time, lol, they're almost too comfy to be real.
Having corrupted my crocheting mom into learning to knit, she needed a circular needle or two, so I passed the old Needlemaster set to her. Mom will be 83 in March, she's going great guns with the knitting challenge.
I kind of miss the old set, (probably one of my sentimental things) but I have a few Addi's and absolutely love them and the Denise kit.

Ouch!

Trip to hospital and had bit of surgery. Back when feeling stronger, but am home today. (Yay!)
Remember me grumbling that my tummy hated me lately? It got really mad at me again Monday night so I wimped out and went to the ER. They removed nasty gall bladder yesterday, lol. (Owie!) It's been sore and chronically inflamed for quite a long time, but I attributed that to adhesions from the exploding appendix episode ages ago. (I never really get sick, but when I do, it's an epic.)
Why am I sitting at the puter? Cuz...this is most comfy chair in the house...and I ain't gonna try getting in bed til I find all the pillows.
Toby (bless him!) got most of the tile laid in puter room while I was loafing around and fending off nurses with sharp objects. He forgot I wanted the under-stuff under the tile so not sure how that's going to progress. On the other hand, doubt I'll be in here yanking anything up this week. (Sigh of relief from beleagured familykins...)
This post is probably a little incoherent, I still have Gecko vision.