Happy Birthday Mom!

Dear Mom,
I wish you the happiest of days! I couldn't ask for a better Mom.
Love,
Kim

1942

1945

1946

1949

1953

the caption on the back of this one:

"Her first teen-age picture!"

1958

1958

2008

A Wedding, More Knitting and an Unexpected Gift

Dear Mom,
The long drive to and from the weekend wedding destination offered plenty of knitting time. We had terrible driving conditions on the way up on Friday evening- it rained the entire drive- and I tended to my knitting to avoid getting nervous and making My Hero even more tense than he already was. When it got too dark to see my knitting, it was time to help navigate unfamiliar roads.

The wedding reception was well underway when we arrived. Now, there are times when it is glaringly obvious that my children favor one side of the family or the other, and when The Young Man immediately disappeared to join the crowd on the dance floor, I didn't have to stop to wonder where that came from. It wasn't from me.  The Young Lady joined me with the quieter out-laws.

When family pictures were taken, the patient photographer needed to take several of the boisterous group. When it came time for a "just the outlaws" picture, she only needed to snap one because we took our positions, smiled for the camera and held still.

I was able to knit some more over the weekend and then a little more on the drive back home. (When I wasn't dozing.) I think the fact that My Hero left his voice in Detroit at the Red Wings game making it difficult for him to yell at instruct the other drivers on the road, along with listening to football on the radio, made the ride home a tad more peaceful than normal and I kept nodding off.

I did finish these mittens and the hat to go with them, though.

I am tweaking my hat design. I started another, in a fingering weight yarn. We'll see how that goes and then I may offer the pattern.
I purchased the buttons for the mittens at Skeins on Main, a yarn shop my soul sister-in law, Cheryl, took me to on Saturday morning.

On Saturday, another outlaw, as if he didn't have enough to do what with just having hosted a wedding and all, asked me if I would like some raw wool from his sheep! I was struck speechless. He misinterpreted my condition, thinking that I was trying to find a polite way to say No Thank You when in fact so many happy thoughts were scrambling in my head and fighting to be the first spoken that they were jammed up and nothing would come out! I did find the words, and brought home this:

Processing, or having it processed will be a learning experience. I will document the progress of the bag o'wool here on the blog. If I am successful, there is more wool for me if I want it!

I must be off- today the weather calls for homemade soup and bread for dinner, and I need to make a quick trip to the grocery for ingredients.

Love,

Kim

Mission Accomplished

Dear Mom,

It took some panicky marathon knitting (I knit through the entire school day on Thursday with the first Harry Potter and Chocolat- the movie not the food- to keep me going) and my right arm may never completely straighten out again, but I managed to get the black lace duster off my needles in time to have it blocked and dry (thanks to a box fan blowing on it all night) so I could wear it to a niece's wedding on Friday night. 
It is soft, flowing and comfortable. It deserves a better name than "black lace duster". I used Classic Elite's Wool Bam Boo yarn. The buttons were purchased at Inish Knits.

I have ideas for modifying this design a little to make an everyday casual sweater, but it is nice for this knitter to have a dressy handknit of her own design.

This next is a poor self portrait using the timer, but maybe you can get an idea of how the whole thing looks:

Tomorrow I will show you what I finished over the weekend. And the exciting gift I was given.

Love,

Kim

A Magic Night

Dear Mom,
I took the kids and my favorite neighbor to one of my favorite places.  We met the authors of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi!!  WOW!!  We spent the evening listening to them talk.  They were funny, animated, serious . . . fabulous.  They shared where some of their ideas came from.

We watched Tony Diterlizzi draw his incredible pictures!

We got to listen to Holly read from the newest book in the Beyond Spiderwick series.

We were entranced.

Holly and Tony played a trivia game with the kids in the crowd.

And the teenager won the motherload of prizes!!  He won the original drawing from earlier in the night, he won the Spiderwick Chronicles movie and he won a book that hasn't been released yet!!  It's the entire Spiderwick Chronicles, The Completely Fantastical Edition, all of the series in one book!

Holly and Tony also sat and autographed books and talked with every person.

I can't believe how magical the night was.  In Spiderwick terminology, it was completely fantastical!
Love,
Wendy

Perfect

Dear Mom,
I am faced with a difficulty that has almost silenced me....?.!.... I Know!
I had a blissful, contented, perfect four day getaway with some knitting friends. So perfect that I am afraid I won't be able to come up with the words that will do it justice. And the four days definitely deserve the blog time.

The anticipation of our getaway had us planning projects and packing yarn for weeks in advance. We needed projects for car knitting, talking knitting, drinking wine knitting, I am in the mood for this kind of  knitting, and the delusional I can do this complicated thing anyway knitting. (That last one was me, but I did notice that GinaWhoCanParallelPark started counting stitches OUTLOUD.) Was 5 projects too many for a 4 day trip? What if I run out of knitting?

This was also a low key, we may never leave the cabin kind of weekend and CarolWho'sHouseGot StruckbyLightning confessed to planning her "sweats ensembles". I think we all did; she just admitted it first.

Yes, we wore our finest clothes and comfiest pajamas. By the second day, I had really crossed the line and combined a sweats ensemble with my pajamas. But I matched because I was wearing stripes. It was also pointed out that I had a food on my sweatshirt, just to complete the image.

On Friday, we did leave the cabin for lunch at a local restaurant. Which delivered on its promise of good food.

We then went to the most charming and probably my favorite in the whole world yarn shop, Inish Knits.

The owner, Melissa, could not be more welcoming and friendly. Her shop is thoughtful, organized, inspiring and smart. I wish I didn't have to drive 7 hours to visit.

On Saturday, we did not leave the cabin. In fact we barely moved at all, content to sit in our individual knitting nests in front of the fire, only moving to prepare and eat the next meal together. Or open a bottle of wine.

                                                                                      

                                                                                      

DebbieWhoHasthePrettyFarmHouseandthePerfectCabin planned tasty, healthy meals. Every bite was delicious. Every. Bite. And we all took alot of them to make sure. Soup and chili and lasagna, and my favorite chocolate cake that only DebbieWHtPFHatPC can make. As a hostess gift to DebbieWHtPFHatPC, the four of us created a unique pair of socks. Working in teams of two, we used Claudia's Handpainted Sock Yarn in a colorway that just looked like our hostess (colorway is Donna's Favorite) and basic sock measurements. The goal was not an identical pair of socks, but a sisterly pair she could wear and remember, and one we could all knit our  appreciation into.

Even though at some point most of us needed to abandon our ambitious and complicated projects for talking and wine-friendly ones, all that knitting time was productive with CarolWHGSbL finishing a pair of mittens to be felted and making good progress on her Parka, GinaWCPP worked on some felted slippers, DebbieWHtPFHaPC made a helmet liner for a soldier and ConnieWhoNeverHeardofBobbySherman (We are trying to forgive her for that. She is the youngest one of us. She also only watched the Mary Tyler Moore show because her babysitter watched it. Some information just makes a person feel old.) finished a baby sweater and sewed some long dormant blocks together to finish a blanket.

After knitting the same row wrong several times and having to rip back, I gave up on the black lace (can you say wine?) and switched to another project. A reasonable person would have turned to one of the 4 other projects she had packed. Althoooooough, one could argue that a reasonable person would not have believed she could continue to knit a black lace pattern while drinking wine and talking to begin with. No, Melissa's fresh handspun yarn (purchased the day before from Inish Knits) was more appealing. On Saturday night I started a hat (the pattern just sort of blossomed out of my head as I was knitting) and I finished it in the car on the way home.

Some of the best parts of the weekend have to stay there, but it was all.....well, I wouldn't change a thing.

Love,

Kim

RIP

Dear Mom,
It is with a heavy heart that I deliver the sad news that Lucy Fur has passed on. Lucy was not the nicest pig we ever had, earning her the middle name FUR. (As in Lucifer or Lucy ferocious. Take your pick.)
Her departure came as no great shock as she has been declining over the past few weeks. We made her as comfortable as we could.
She is survived by her human family, Smokey the Rabbit Who Lives, and her guinea pig sisters, Oreo and Teddy.
Lucy was buried in a private ceremony and rests in a well-marked grave under a custom headstone.

In lieu of flowers, give your pet an extra hug.

Love,
Kim

13 Reasons Why

Dear Mom,

It is my BFF's birthday.  Today.  And in honor of her, I am listing 13 reasons why I love my BFF.

13.  She is inspirational.

12.  She is steadfast and true.

11.  She is painfully honest.  Which is good.  And bad.

10.  She is an enormous encouragement.

9.  She is extremely giving.  Of her time.  Of herself.

8.  She is the Queen of Sock.  And she will jump off of a couch quicker than the blink of an eye if you even mutter the words, "Dude!  Free Koigu!!"

7.  She is charismatic.  Don't believe me?  Just watch her in a crowd.  Everyone is pulled in.

6.  She knows her math.  11 + 2 = 13.  And 10 + 3 = 13.  Clearly.  Duh.

5.  She is hilarious.  The funniest woman I know.  I will ever know.

4.  She is a wicked genius.  With her knitting and designing.

3.  She is wicked creative.  You should read her stories.  She has such a way with words.

2.  She is just plain wicked.

And the Number 1 reason I LOVE MY BFF:

1.  She is non-judgmental of me, accepts me for all of my flaws and still allows me to come back to her for her unconditional love. 

Happy Birthday, Brookie!!  I love you; you don't even know how much!

Love,

Wendy

October First

Dear Mom,
The air is getting crisp.  The mornings are chilly.  Leaves are just starting to turn colors.  Fall is here!  In honor of Fall and October First, I made my favorite Chicken Pot Pie for dinner tonight!

I will give you the ingredients and the method, but let's face it, I pretty much "wing" it every time.  I'm not much for strictly following this recipe. . . . . but no one complains.

Chicken Pot Pie

2 pie crusts (you can use your favorite recipe for making pie crusts or buy them . . .whatever!)

1 roaster chicken, cooked and cubed

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

1 onion, chopped

salt/pepper (whatever looks and/or tastes good to you!)

1 1/2 cups chicken broth (I boil my roaster chicken and then use the broth here)

1/2 cup milk

2 cups mixed vegetables

1.  Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Place one pie crust in a 9" deep dish pie pan.

2.  In medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add onion; cook until tender, about 2 minutes (or really just until you can get the next ingredients ready . . . )!  Stir in flour, salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring constantly (or not so constantly!), until mixture is bubbly.  Stir in broth and milk.  Heat to boiling, stirring constantly (again, not so constantly!).  Stir in chicken and vegetables; remove from heat.

3.  Pour chicken filling over crust.  Place second crust over filling; flute the edges (if you care).  Cut slits in several places.

4.  Bake at 425 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

On another note, a HUGE congratulations to one of my very most favorite-est neighbor boys.  He made the Jazz Explosion at University of Cincinnati!  Woo hoo!!!  Way to go, favorite neighbor!!  And to celebrate, we had to bake brownie cupcakes from Martha's Cupcakes!!!!

Happy October First to you!  Stay warm!

Love,

Wendy

When?

Dear Mom,
I don't know when it happened.

But this morning I had to remind this boy to shave for his school picture.

Love,
Kim