Where I've Been; Where I'm Going

When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.

- Elizabeth Bowen

And I meant to post sometime in July . . . So where have I been?

Working, of course. Loving having my husband home. And doing a little creating here and there.

Knitting

Debbie Bliss' Alphabet Blanket, which was vastly entertaining and far less painful than I had feared.

The Heirloom Baby Aran from an old IK - they weren't kidding about the "heirloom" part - this one took forever.

A little stashbusting in garter stitch.

And I didn't just stop there:
Lots of little sweaters, hats, and even a pair of booties.

Sewing

Blankets, complete with (fairly) straight seams and not-too-bad-for-a-total-beginner machine applique.
Flannel burp clothes (and getting this adorable doctor one from a friend).

Noticing a theme here? Because here's the big project:

Growing a Baby

A baby boy due January 29th! He's already the world's most adorable baby/soccer star, and we couldn't be more excited. And distracted. And terrified. And exhilarated.

So it's probably no surprise that all my crafting energies have turned to wee small things. And the rest of my time is spent researching car seats, cribs, and the like. Blogging is just not in the picture for me anymore, although I'm enjoying keeping up with all your blogs in my feed reader. I've loved sharing our knitting and our lives over the past few years, so thanks for that, and thanks for your good wishes as we move on into this next wonderful phase of our lives.

A baby will make love stronger,

days shorter, nights longer,

bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier,

the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.

- Proverbial

Nope, Not Dead Yet

For most folks, no news is good news;
for the press, good news is no news.
-Gloria Berger

I logged into my blog email account tonight for the first time in about 2 months, only to find out that a number of people think that there must be something dramatically bad for me to drop off the face of the (blogging) world.

All evidence to the contrary. Life has been so good, and full, that blogging has just taken a (distant) back seat. I'll have a longer post later this week, but in the meantime, here are the recent highlights:

1. My husband returned home from Iraq, safe, sound, and thrilled to be back.
2. Weekend trip to Catalina.
3. My orders changed.
4. Realized that grocery shopping is much more involved when there's a husband around.
5. Had houseguests 3/5 weekends.
6. Graduated from residency.
7. Started my new job as an attending in the Internal Medicine clinic at the hospital, which is good, but busy.
8. Gave my husband his second anniversary cotton sweater.
9. Studying for my boards.
10. Knitting, some.

I have a longer post planned for later this week, but I wanted to let folks know that life is good. I may not be returning to blogging in any serious way, but we'll wait 'til things calm down a little to determine that.

Pluses and Minuses

Never awake me when you have good news to announce,
because with good news nothing presses;
but when you have bad news, arouse me immediately,
for then there is not an instant to be lost.
-Napoleon Bonaparte

Sometimes I love being an adult. Sometimes not. There are pluses and minuses. And I'm a bad-news first kind of gal.

Minus: A tire blowout on the I-5 on my way to work.
Plus: I didn't die, cause a 5-car pile up, or get held up at gunpoint while getting my Starbucks . . . or any of the rumors my friends spread after I called them to cover my ward team while I waited for the tow truck.
Minus: Tires are expensive.
Plus: They really had my interns believing that I threw coffee in the face of an armed Starbucks-robber.

Minus: A crazy-busy week at work.
Plus: Being a doctor. Only three more months of residency.
Minus: Which means new orders (see below).
Plus: I saw a patient in clinic this week whom I've been following for just about 2 years, since the end of my intern year. I called a consultant for her, and as she left she commented on how wonderful it has been to watch me "grow up" and become such a confident physician.

Minus: Getting orders to a Marine unit.
Plus: Co-location with my husband. All those 96-hour weekends the Marines like to take.
Minus: Wearing camouflage.
Plus: I joined the Navy so that I'll have something to talk about when I'm 80 (you know, since I've spent my 20s talking about knitting). The Marines always give you something to talk about!

Plus: Being married. Definitely the biggest plus to being all grown-up. It's no secret that I adore my husband. And he sends me flowers. To match my camouflage.

Why I Knit Socks

It's no use going to the goat's house to look for wool.
-Irish Proverb

This is my sister, about 3 minutes after I gave her a new pair of socks. Specially requested to be like the last pair - that is, "too soft to be wool." (Thanks Judy!)

These are in Fiesta Baby Boom - a delightful squishy sock yarn that is definitely "too soft to be wool" and meet the demanding requirements of my sister that they be perfect for reading legal treatises in a drafty apartment.

And that, my friends, is why I knit socks. Keeping feet warm and comfy from Somewhere, Iraq to Philadelphia to San Diego.

In Like a Lion, or a Lamb

When you realize how perfect everything is
you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.
-Buddha

Sometimes it's great to live in Southern California. I know my mom is happy about her snow day today, but she did just get plane tickets to come see me. Probably for weekends like this. This weekend I had a brief respite from a crazy call schedule and actually got 2 whole days off. In a row. Imagine that! I spent the last day of February roller-blading around Mission Bay Park, which is pretty much straight out of a movie set. Wind in my hair, music in my iPod. Kites. Laughing children. Lots of palm trees.

I then spent the first day of March finishing my husband's cotton anniversary sweater and watching the end of Veronica Mars, Season 1 with my deployment buddy. (Teen girl noir, filmed in San Diego, what's not to love?) That was after a rather distressing attempt to buy cute sundresses for the coming home that's coming up. I know it's a recession and all, but by the time I haven't seen my husband for seven months, I'm really not wearing gray or black. I spend far too much time daydreaming about making the cover of Life magazine!

Regardless, March promises to be a good month. Out of the ICU onto the less-punishing call schedule of the wards, flowers blooming everywhere, and - not least of all - the end of the deployment is in sight. I don't mean soon, exactly, but at least in sight. (It's also classified, so you'll probably hear about it next when you see us looking really cute and happy on the cover of life magazine. Right after the Obamas get a Portugese Water Dog like my parents' dog.)

I did a great deal of knitting this weekend, and I have a whole bunch of stockinette stitch hanging out, courtesy of the ICU. I've also been a bit lax in my blogging habit, so I'm going to get back on an even-day blogging schedule. Consider today a bit of a catch up, and a sneak peak:

Seaming of the anniversary sweater:The beginnings of Laila's Stockings in a delightful blue and gold:
Finally done with Bondegard, featuring the world's most adorable buttons: Stay tuned for a veritable parade of FOs and WIPs.

Hope

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
-Albert Einstein

I know my blogging has been sporadic lately. I've been more than busy at work; I've been . . . immersed. Occupied. Mentally engaged. And I've been thinking a lot about hope.

The best and worst parts of medicine tend to be the same. I am up close and personal with people and their families when they are ill. Much of the time, I deal with chronic illnesses, with managing things that will play out over one, five, twenty years. In the hospital, I admit young patients whose illness is a brief detour in their normal life, or older patients who seem to spend more time in the hospital than outside of it. It gets routine; until it doesn't.

Last week was, for my patient and his wife, the absolute worst week of their entire lives. A healthy and vigorous man in the prime of (retired) life, and some minor symptoms, minor blood work abnormalities, and then every day the news was worse. Ultrasound, CT scan, MRI, biopsy, PET scan, and three emergency procedures scattered throughout, and a healthy man learned that he has months to live. The medical folks out there know that none of this is particularly unusual, per se. What was unusual was how they approached it. What was unusual was the hope.
Hope must be the only word for it, I realized days later when I couldn't stop thinking about this patient. From that first moment when I told him that we needed to run more tests because it might be cancer to that last day when we told him that the cancer was uncurable, he looked me straight in the eye and thanked me. He was kind to the doctors, the nurses, and the cleaning staff. He was gracious in the midst of excruciating pain. When he went home to get his affairs in order, he cried, hugged me, and thanked me for being upfront with him. And all throughout, he asked all the hard questions, weighed all the options, and held hands with his wife. None of the options were good ones, and yet he radiates hope.

Hope is not what we have when times are good and the going is easy; hope is what we have in the face of unsurmountable odds, when life is hard, and when none of the options seem ideal. Hope is based firmly in reality, in knowing just how bad things may be and yet still believing that there is a best.

On Inauguration Day in these challenging days, I keep thinking about my patient and his sustaining, irrepressible hope. In the midst of my rounds today, I walked past many TVs and heard snippets of the calm and steady voice of our new president as he addressed the nation. I rounded on an elderly woman who doesn't know where she is, or why, but when we asked her what today was she cheered "Yay Obama." Because Hope can permeate any hardship. My patients - and that one patient in particular - are teaching me that Hope has so many more faces than I ever thought possible.

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
-President Obama's Inaugural Address

Goodbye, Hello

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors,
and let each new year find you a better man.
-Benjamin Franklin

One might think that with the last twelve hours of 2008 at my disposal, I would have some deep and profound thoughts. I don't have many. The past year has been a good one personally, professionally, and certainly knitterly.
I tried to count the finished projects of 2008 for a year-end wrap up, but I lost track after 100. The year in my mind seems full of snapshots, so I'll share some of my favorites.

As my sister says, it's not every year you get to marry your husband all over again.There's nothing cuter than a baby in handknits.I discovered just how much I love stranded colorwork knitting, no matter how little it suits my current climate. I also discovered what a grateful recipient my husband is.I made two adult Dale sweaters this year (yes, I know you're still waiting for good photos of my Park City), and in the process discovered that this is my favorite thing to knit. Expect to see much more in 2009.

I have plans for the coming year, not so much resolutions. As I tell my patients, there's a difference between a goal and a plan. A goal is "Exercise more." A plan is "Lay out my gym clothes at night, set the alarm for 5:00, and go to the gym for 45 minutes before work." Plans have a way of making goals come true. And as 2009 is the year I will knit whatever I want to knit, when I want to knit it, expect a bit of a cast-on frenzy coming up.

After all, it's already 2009 in Iraq.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Good Friends

A friend is the only person you will let into the house
when you are Turning Out Drawers.
-Pam Brown

Good friends help you dye yarn (way easier than I thought! The hardest part was finding an old pot at the Salvation Army!)
put together bookcasesand throw pizza dough in the air.Crust recipe available here.

Oh, yeah, and there was lots and lots of knitting. There'll be lots of FO posts in the coming weeks.

Thankful

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that

the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I've been learning a lot about gratitude this year.

I've spent a lot of time working, and learning that my worst day being a doctor is better than the best day being sick. I'm grateful for that.

My husband deployed (and he ran a turkey trot this morning), and any day I talk to him is better than any day I don't. While we haven't been married very long, I think we're learning a thankfulness that will last a good long time. That we're grateful for any chance to talk; that nice real conversation is better than a quick "hello," but that a hello is better than nothing. That my mother is right, and there is an art of the greeting card. That there really is only one person who completes me. That we are strong people, and we're doing just fine. But we're stronger together. I'm thankful that we're learning this now.
Being thankful means taking nothing for granted, and enjoying the roses my husband sent. Being thankful means I need to go peel all those apples for the pie . . . and looking forward to having a Thanksgiving chicken for the first time in my life. Because I'm so very thankful for the friends I'll be sharing it with, and they just don't like turkey. I'm thankful that at least they like cranberry sauce!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Seasonal

A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero;
he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around.
-Edgar Watson Howe

Yesterday some friends and I went up into the mountains to escape the unseasonal 80 degree weather and smoke (from wildfires not that close to here).
It was all kinds of seasonal up there, and in the photo essay you can even see the corner of the Nantucket Jacket. It might be a cotton sweater, but any day wearing handknits is better than a day not wearing handknits.
The best part, though, is the pie. And the apple dumplings. And maybe that I got to finish half of the last sleeve of Park City on the drive. No, it was probably the pie . . .

The Things We Inherit

Think what a better world this would be if we, the whole world,
had cookies and milk every afternoon around three o'clock
and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.
-Robert Fulghum

Your regularly scheduled knitting post has been hijacked by the fact that tonight I'm working downtown at the free clinic for the homeless, and I kind of forget until now. So instead I'll share two other acheivements from my day off on Tuesday.

1. I baked biscotti. It was fun, and actually sort of easier than regular cookies. You bake them in a log and then cut the log into strips after it's baked to bake them again. I thought that sounded cumbersome, but it's actually easier than dropping or shaping individual cookies. Plus, I think they'll survive their trip to the either side of the world.

2. The biscotti are yummy, but this is the recipe I've got to share: Macademia Butter Cookies with Dried Cranberries. You'll notice that there's no dairy butter, the butter comes from pureeing the macademia nuts. It was an amazing nutty flavor, and good texture. Good thing I hid a whole jar of macademias when my father-in-law brought them back from Hawaii!

Macademia Butter Cookies with Dried Cranberries

⅔ cup macadamia nuts

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375°. Place nuts in a food processor; process until smooth (about 2 minutes), scraping sides of bowl once. Combine macadamia butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and ground nutmeg, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until combined (mixture will be very thick). Stir in chopped cranberries. Chill 10 minutes. Divide chilled dough into 30 equal portions; roll each portion into a ball. Place 1 tablespoon granulated sugar in a small bowl. Lightly press each ball into sugar; place each ball, sugar side up, on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Gently press the top of each cookie with a fork. Dip the fork in water; gently press the top of each cookie again to form a crisscross pattern. Place 15 cookies on each of 2 baking sheets. Bake cookies, 1 baking sheet at a time, at 375° for 9 minutes or until golden. Remove cookies from pan; cool on a wire rack. Repeat procedure with remaining cookies.

It's even a Cooking Light recipe, so it's not too bad for you.

As I was packaging these up to send in a care package, I remembered a conversation I had with my mom the day before my husband deployed. We were in the throes of packing everything he needed for 7 months, and my mom started to tell me something I should do . . . I interrupted her because I knew exactly what she was going to say - that I should put little notes in his pockets, in between the pages of his books, and pretty much anywhere so that he would find them as he unpacked, or wore that set of camis, or what have you. The best part? I had already done that.

These are the things we inherit. And I'm all for passing on this awesome cookie recipe.

A Weekend in Pictures

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
-St. Augustine

As you know, last weekend I went here

(Santa Fe, New Mexico), to see these folks(my parents), and these folks(flitgirl's parents), and drink good coffeeand show off a new finished object.(Ignore that I really need a hair cut. Thanks.) I guess you know that a finished object is successful when it gets stolen within a day of being cast off. In a fit of excitement last week, I decided that November's yarn of the month was destined to be a cowl. It was delightful - this cushy handspun merino singles that I bought in the Union Square Greenmarket about 3 or 4 years ago. And feather-and-fan. And speedy. I'm so in love. (And so is my mom, wearing it above.)

Greenmarket Cowl
Pattern: Luxe Neck Warmer from Knit 2 Together (Ravelry link)
Yarn: handspun merino from the Union Square Greenmarket
Needles: US 10 (it's like knitting a hat, without needing dpns for the top!)
Notes: No changes.
Best Thing About This Project: I've already made another one of these (if my mom liked it that much, she's definitely getting one for Christmas), and started Nova's Birthday Cowl in some other yarn. This is the best bandwagon I've been on in a while!

Vote Today

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.
-Abraham Lincoln

The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.
-Albert Einstein

Need a reason to vote today? I've got one:
My husband in Kuwait, on his way to Iraq some 35 days ago. Not that I'm counting.

We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long
that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting
how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights.
-Felix Frankfurter

Say It Isn't So!

Many things - such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly -
are done worst when we try hardest to do them.
-C.S. Lewis

I'm tired. Too tired even to knit. I know, crazy, right? A month of call every third night is finally catching up with me. But I do have a teaser of good things to come . . . And now, back to my previously scheduled presentation writing. Yup, that presentation that I sort of forgot about, until now. Oops. The good news? It's almost November, and my schedule's about to get much better. One more week . . .

A Taste of Fall

Life is partly what we make it,
and partly what is made by the friends we choose.
-Tennessee Williams

I guess you know you had a fun night when you wake up to a sink full of empty wine glasses. I had some friends over for dinner last night for some yummy new recipes, good conversation, and even a little knitting. One friend just pulled back into port after a joint exercise in Canada (turns out they have a bar and a velvet Elvis portrait in the officers' mess on Canadian ships!), and the other friend is my deployment buddy. My husband and her fiance are hanging out in the same coffee shop in Iraq, so we're getting a lot of pedicures and watching Veronica Mars. Living up the girl fun while the guys are away.

Since my knitting was limited to simple stockinette socks last night (Did I mention we enjoyed a lot of wine?), I'll share with you my new favorite autumn dessert. This was amazing - like pumpkin pie and apple crisp all at once.

Pumpkin-Apple Streusel Cake
from Bon Appetit, October 2001 (wow - that's been in the "to-try" file for a long time!)

Apples
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cups diced peeled cored Granny Smith apples (about 4 large)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cake
11/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (firmly packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs

Vanilla ice cream

For apples:
Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples; sauté until apples begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add sugar and cinnamon and sauté until golden brown, about 3 minutes longer. Cool.

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan. Combine flour, brown sugar, butter, and salt in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until mixture resembles coarse meal. Set aside 2/3 cup of mixture for topping. Beat pumpkin, sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, spice, and baking soda into remaining flour mixture, beating just until smooth. Beat in eggs. Transfer batter to pan. Scatter apples evenly over top. Sprinkle reserved topping over apples.

Bake cake until topping is golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 20 minutes. Run knife around pan sides to loosen cake. Release pan sides from cake. Transfer cake to platter. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.) Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream.

Enjoy!

Works in Progress

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth
until the hour of separation.
-Khalil Gibran

Thanks for all the good thoughts you've sent to us - me on the homefront and my husband on deployment. I definitely plan on knitting to keep me busy while he's gone, and getting used to it is a bit of a work in progress.

As the long time readers remember, last year when he was away I knit him the Dale of Norway Salt Lake City sweater, and a bonus welcome home present of the River Forest Gansey (same post). Is that why you're all wondering what I'll knit him this year? Well, our second anniversary is coming up next summer (probably right after he gets home), and the second anniversary is COTTON. So, a sweater of course. I gave him a few pattern options and we decided on the Tree Bark Pullover from an old IK (Rav link here). I'll be making it in Mission Falls 1824 cotton like it calls for - I think it's a good match, but in more subtle colors - ivory and sand. Should be classy.

I will, of course, have to order the yarn for this project. Which is worth it. Especially because I've been making really good progress on the stash. I'm now down to 469.5 skeins and 95,560 yards, with lots of stuff on the needles. Now that I'm under 100,000 yards, I have to start thinking about how big my stash should be at a comfortable size. I know I'm not there yet, but it's getting close.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll catch up on all those FOs that have eaten up the stash, but for today I'll start with a photo of my favorite work-in-progress:I get a Dale of Norway sweater, too. This is my Park City (Rav link), which is from the same year as Salt Lake City. As a bonus, my sweater is way faster than the sweater for my 6' tall husband - it's flying along!

I'm Blue

Blue, navy blue, I'm as blue as I can be
'Cause my steady boy said "Ship ahoy"
And joined the Nay-ee-ay-vee.
-Diane Renay (song)

Leave it to the Marines to leave for deployment two hours before dawn. Dark, early, and still he promised me he'd smile. Doesn't he look ready?
Rather than focus on the leaving, there's always a silver lining, right? Right. For one, finally a modeled shot of the Bed and Breakfast Pullover. It's chilly that time of morning. And, for another, how to pass the rest of a strange and surreal day? Winding yarn for all the knitting I'll be doing. There's Koigu, Manos, Silke-Tweed, Socks That Rock, and Cascade 220 in that pile. Nothing like some really nice yarn to cheer up a gal.

Now just sit back, relax, and we'll catch up on several months of knitting.

The Face of the Earth

I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.
-Abraham Lincoln

They say it takes 30 days to create a habit. Is that how long it takes to get out of a habit? Perhaps.

I have not quite fallen off the face of the earth, but I've been busy.What? You weren't distracted by an archived Hawaii photo? Sheesh!

In no particular order:

1. My husband is getting ready for an all-expenses-paid business trip to the cradle of civilization. That would be, uh, Iraq. I hear it's lovely this time of year. And he's leaving pretty soon.
   
2. There's a lot of pre-deployment paperwork.
3. I'm knitting too fast to take blog photos. Seriously. Burning through the projects.
4. The stash is down to about 97,000 yards.
   
5. I'm rotating at a civilian hospice this month. Picking out my own clothes every morning is a challenge. Matching is hard.
6. I've been cooking.
   
7. And baking peanut butter cookies as a pre-business-trip treat.
8. And I finally started running again. No amount of time on the elliptical machine can kick my you-know-what like a little running.
9. There's a large pile of to-be-blogged handknits sitting on my dresser.
10. I'd say I'll take photos this weekend, but I won't.
11. We're going to Palm Springs for a little getaway.
    
12. Maybe next week. If not, then certainly I'll be back in full form when my husband's away.
    

Random Monday

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship,

communion or company than a good marriage.

-Martin Luther

Happy August! (My birthday month, for those of you tracking these things.)

Because Random Wednesday is more random on a Monday, and I'm still recovering from a little jaunt up to Washington State this weekend.

I got to spend the first weekend of August on a very exciting trip to see the incomparable Kate D. marry the love of her life. Gosh, I love weddings! Go on, congratulate her. She doesn't leave for her honeymoon until Wednesday.

While I was there, I also had the great privilege to sleep under a fabulous handmade quilt and admire some beautiful embroidered pillow cases. And I took pictures. I'll share once I upload them.

Speaking of travel, have you ever flown Virgin America? It's a new airline with only a few airports so far, but it's a life changing experience. Leather seats and electrical outlets - in coach. Friendly quick service. Your own personal TV/entertainment system. And competively priced tickets. I've never been airline brand loyal, but flying all the domestic carriers these days is so depressing, that I was positively delighted to find this airline. They're expanding - look for them. It's like flying internationally, only shorter. And still in the US.

What else? I got a cool and completely unexpected package in the mail the other day. A friend of the family back in Pennsylvania was doing some closet cleaning and found a whole bunch of knitting books, so she packaged them up and sent them to me. There are some real gems here - Knitting for Him, the Nicky Epstein series, and an Erica Knight book, as well as some basics. What a great surprise!

And, since I got lots of knitting done on the plane in my nice comfy leather seat, I'm ready for the new August projects. The big one is my Dale sweater - Park City. This will complement my husband's Salt Lake City, as they're from the same Olympics. I'm making the off-white version, and I wanted a slightly brighter CC2 in blue, but I worry that the one I ordered might be a little too bright. Any thoughts from the photo to the right? Never fear. My sister-in-law is in town and she was the recipient of my last Dale sweater. I'm sure she can help. In the meantime, go leave her some blog comments.

And . . . She's Back

Happiness consists of living each day as if it were
the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation.
-Proverbial

So, where have I been?

Hawaii



Working

(use your imagination)

Baking
And Knitting
All that knitting leads to lots of FOs. Expect a veritable parade to celebrate my return.