Three New Dresses!

Can I ever get them to look in the same direction?



Last Lord's Day three little girls came to my class with identical dresses curtesy of Gramma C. She would object to my telling you that unless I also mentioned that I gave her the material. So there you have it. I thought they turned out well. And I thought they looked adorable!

Final Concert - Guitars

You can hardly see her but Laura is sitting in the back row wearing a hat. She just had gum surgery and thought she could hide. Um, Laura, nice try but it didn't work. Poor girl. She was in misery and then to have to perform for her final mark was not fun. To top it off we said she looked a bit like a chipmunk. That didn't help her "self esteem" one bit.

There must have been about 25 guitars playing all at once in this program. I must say it sounded pretty good to my tin ear. Either that or I'm deaf.
I'm not so dumb as to embarrass my high school senior. Thus the very bad photos. In order to get good ones I would have had to stand up and move closer to the front. And I was already in the 2nd row.

Or maybe I didn't want to embarass myself?

The rest of the concert was a little entertaining and definitely loud. I guess the louder you are the better you are.

B and I were very glad to finally get out of there. Minus our hearing which was already poor to begin with.

Ooops!

Yesterday I said I was putting an "after thought" heel in the Cat in the Hat socks. But while lying in bed last night I realized that it was not an "after thought" heel after all. What was I thinking? With the ATH you have to actually cut the knitting right where you want to start the heel. I'm not so adventurous. I would rather rip. So I did. Out came the yarn to the heel spot and in went three needles with a 4th to knit. Maybe some other time I'll try the ATH...when my mother is around to hold my hand as I snip that one stitch. Ouch!

Now this is an after thought heel! It's a patch to go on the heel of the socks I made Kedge...after she wore them out. And I thought about it.

The thin blue yarn is knitted in with the main yarn to (hopefully) help strengthen the heel and make it last a little longer.

And then there's always the thief that is there to help out!

They Come Back

What is it? And what can you do with it? It's a sock. One of a pair.


I kind of like these socks. They remind me of the Cat in the Hat. You know the story. The one in the book we didn't have to read. At my house it came in the mail along with The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. About 45 years, or more, ago. Whew! That sure dates me! And I still like the Cat in the Hat.

These sock were actually made for Laura. When she put them on we decided they were too short. They also needed a heel. I thought I could get out of making heels by knitting up a tube but it looks too strange.

So, what's being added is an "after-thought heel". Great name, so creative, but yes, that is actually the name E. Zimmerman gave it. If you knit, her books are some of the ones you ought to have in your library. She has a lot of great suggestions. Even though her books were written years ago and the models are all out dated the techniques still apply.


So these socks, much like the Cat in the Hat, came back for another round (Pun unintended. Just the second one.)

I Finally Found Them!

Before our anniversary B asked where I would like to go for a few days. Without missing a beat I responded, "To the Oregon Coast!"

There's no doubt that this is one my favorite places. There are so many good memories there for me.

We left Sunday afternoon and ended up in Cannon Beach the next morning. For lunch we enjoyed a small bowl of clam chowder at this cute little restuarant.

Later we happened along this candy store that must have had every candy known to man in it. At least when I asked the clerk for two specific candies she was able to direct me right to them. That brings me to my great find. I have been searching for these candies for ages! My grandmother use to keep lemon candies in a little candy dish by her front door, (handy for those on their way out!) Sweet on the outside and very sour on the in.

For years the only place we knew to get them was at Gramma's house. Once in a while she would take us to her source--under the terminal of the Philadelphia Train station at 30th Street . We would hop the train in Paoli where she and Granpa lived and ride to Downtown. There at the terminal under the tracks we found a small little shop that sold these wonderful candies. She would buy enough to restock her candy dish and then some. I don't know if they still sell these in the train terminal of Philadelphia or not, but I would love to find out. Until then, I'm content with going to Cannon Beach...for more than one reason!

Here you see my stash. I had a much smaller amount piled on the scale but both B and the clerk persuaded me to add more. I didn't need much arm twisting! There's enough to share so if you email me I'll send some to you. If I run out I guess I'll have to go back to Cannon Beach!

Another favorite candy I found there is one I've only been able to find in Leavenworth. They're like malted milk balls but much more chocolaty and with a mint flavor. No, H, they do not taste like toothpaste!

If you have a favorite candy that you can't find, this is definitely the place to go. They will even let you taste test to make sure you're buying what you want.

Here's Haystack Rock and B on the way from a restaurant that sells delicious desserts!

Birch Bay

We couldn't ask for more beautiful weather. It's been warm and clear for about a week here-- a perfect excuse for a holiday.

On Friday B decided we needed a day off. When he said he wanted to go to Birch Bay I immediately thought of the yarn shop there. I hadn't been for a long while and was not disappointed in the least. There was so much there that I would have liked to buy. But this girl has enough yarn to last three lifetimes! Even still I did manage to walk out with some reinforcement yarn for the socks I'm working on. (Kedj, two months is too short for socks to last. Send me your holey ones.)

Annnnnnnnd.......some yarn to make this! Don't expect to see results any time soon. Maybe by the end of the summer because I'm still working on my pi shawl: (from this book).

It's taking longer than it needs to because I keep having to "tink" and, alas, "frog" which is worse. Last night I visited Gran and while there got quite a bit done. Or so I thought. When I got home I picked it up again to work on it and saw that I had a HUGE loop a couple of rows back. I was hoping it was only one row, but nope it turned out to be three! What's the big deal, you say? Well, each row has 576 stitches! (plus or minus--I can't keep track properly. --i.e. I can't count.) So I painstakenly, started to take out each stich. One by one. When I realized it was several rows back I had no choice but to RIP!!! And I did. And it hurt. I worked for over two hours and finally couldn't take it any more. I quit and went to bed only to finally finish in the AM. Now I'm ready to go again and I'll be upstairs if you call, enjoying my mocha on the back porch (which only has five boxes on it now.)

Birch Bay

We couldn't ask for more beautiful weather. It's been warm and clear for about a week here-- a perfect excuse for a holiday.

On Friday B decided we needed a day off. When he said he wanted to go to Birch Bay I immediately thought of the yarn shop there. I hadn't been for a long while and was not disappointed in the least. There was so much there that I would have liked to buy. But this girl has enough yarn to last three lifetimes! Even still I did manage to walk out with some reinforcement yarn for the socks I'm working on. (Kedj, two months is too short for socks to last. Send me your holey ones.)

Annnnnnnnd.......some yarn to make this! Don't expect to see results any time soon. Maybe by the end of the summer because I'm still working on my pi shawl: (from this book).

It's taking longer than it needs to because I keep having to "tink" and, alas, "frog" which is worse. Last night I visited Gran and while there got quite a bit done. Or so I thought. When I got home I picked it up again to work on it and saw that I had a HUGE loop a couple of rows back. I was hoping it was only one row, but nope it turned out to be three! What's the big deal, you say? Well, each row has 576 stitches! (plus or minus--I can't keep track properly. --i.e. I can't count.) So I painstakenly, started to take out each stich. One by one. When I realized it was several rows back I had no choice but to RIP!!! And I did. And it hurt. I worked for over two hours and finally couldn't take it any more. I quit and went to bed only to finally finish in the AM. Now I'm ready to go again and I'll be upstairs if you call, enjoying my mocha on the back porch (which only has five boxes on it now.)

We Go Mad Straightening Pins

After the gospel meeting people often end up at our house because there is nothing else to do. We usually sit around the dining room table and just talk. If they are like me, and most people are, believe or not, they can't sit still and just do nothing. So we put them to work! Why sit around doing nothing when you can be counting beads, folding pamphlets or even straightening pins! Yep. Pin Straightening is the lastest in the entertainment department around here. So that's what we had our company do the last time they were here.


You take a pin and hold it in one hand while you pull it straight with the other. Often it doesn't get straight til you do it several times. Your fingers and hands gets sore and dirty. You get weak in the knuckles (and knees). At the end you promise yourself that you won't ever visit the A's again until all the pins are straight and out of the house! It's that bad.



Each bag has about 1000 bent pins in it. Don't ask why the factory sent it that way. They knew we had bored company? The tediousness got to someone eventually.


We only got one bag done before C went mad.





(But it was only a trick to lead us to think that she went mad.) And happily she has been back since. But not to straighten pins.