Author Archives: Jean

Family, Knitting

We Interrupt This Blog Break…

Posted on by Jean

We interrupt this blog break with some actual knitting content.  I know.  You’re shocked. 

Note the title of the book:

Baby Knits For Beginners  Key word: “beginners” 

See the simple little diamond knit/purl pattern?  Okay.  I’ve knit several projects from this book with success and I consider myself a fairly accomplished knitter.  I’ve been knitting for 20 years (since my first birthday).  If this book is for beginners, why then, am I having such a *((*&&%#$*#* time with this little bitty baby sweater?!  I’ll tell you why.  It’s because it’s knit flat.  I am an Elizabeth Zimmermann baby… okay not really, I wish though, but you know what I mean….  I’m all about knitting in the round.  I usually even change patterns just so that I can knit them in the round.  But I looked at this tiny thing and thought, “Heh.  No problem. Simple little knit/purl texture.”  Yeah.  Right.  You can’t tell where the heck you are when you’re on the back without constantly flipping to the front and thinking opposite (I have a hard enough time with regular thinking).  And then I got to the armholes.  Threw me WAY out of whack.

So I was supposed to have this finished for a baby shower this afternoon.   I thought I could finish it during the shower and be all smooth and hold it up at the end of the shower with a big ‘ol, “Voilà!”  Not. I have had to rip out, frog, what have you, more times than I’m willing to admit.  I could have knit three sweaters of this size in the round in this amount of time.  If I ever finish it, I’ll post a picture.  Oh, c’mon… have a little faith.   You know I’ll finish it.  The baby is due in a month.  I have PLENTY of time!

Okay…. another thing plaguing me this week (besides the obvious absence of my husband)….  I’m missing my Preemie Projects and my beloved ebony double-points. They were my favorites. Seriously, it’s driving me nuts.  I woke up at 4am on Friday morning because I’ve been looking for them all week. I could swear I put them in a bag to take on the road somewhere so I could knit while Dan drove but I can’t find them anywhere.  I’ve had those beautiful needles for probably six years. I’m half expecting hoping Dan to say he found it in his stuff in Afghanistan. 

It’s been a weird week getting used to Dan not being around.  PMS isn’t helping the situation, that’s for sure.  Here’s the first photo he sent me.  We’re calling it “Change of Command – CID style”.  It’s taken in front of their office/living quarters door.

We can’t do web cams like we thought.  Their system down there is so bogged down that it’s taking several hours for our emails to reach each other. They aren’t allowed to use web cams because it just makes it worse. I can’t complain.  He’s able to call home every day.  A lot of guys can’t do that.

Daniel has been really trying hard to be helpful and behaving.   Joseph has been… well… Joseph.  lol.  It’s our fault.  We spoiled him rotten and now I’m paying for it.  Being a single parent sucks.  My hats off to those of you that can survive it better than I.  Even Aggie isn’t behaving.  I don’t know if she’s just going through her adolesence or if she misses Dan or what the deal is but she’s had accident after accident in the house.  Right by the back door and right after I’ve let her out.  She’s driving me crazy with it.  I’ve tried everything.  Even starting over with the crate.  She insists on going on the remnant by the door instead of barking to go out.  She did better when she was two months old than now at five months.  All she has to do is look at me with that, “Whaat?”  look and she’s forgiven.

I’m really looking forward to Summer.  I think a lot of moms dread it.  I’m looking forward to being able to just kick back and relax with the boys and do our own thing for a while.  It was a busy week volunteering at the school and I have a busy time with Confirmation and 1st Communion coming up at the church.  I also need to start planning the Teacher Appreciation dinner for my volunteers.  Good that it’ll all make time go fast, not so good that it’s all stressing me out.

I’d really like to thank you for the emails and comments of support.  I’m trying to get through all of them to reply personally so please bear with me.

Family

365 and counting

Posted on by Jean

Yesterday was the big day. It was like slowly pulling of a big band aid. This is us, Dan’s troops and their families.  The picture was taken shortly after we all arrived at the Air Base Terminal.  We still had about four hours to wait and then a two hour drive home (ours was the shortest – the other families had at least four hours).  I feel the worst for the two moms and their kids.  The husband and wife to the right of me (wife is in red shirt) are newlyweds.  There are five little kids (the three boys are six), the youngest is two, and two teenagers.  There are also three other kids that aren’t in the photo.  This is going to be a tough year.  Especially for the young mom.  This is her first deployment and you can see how little her kids are.  Only one of the soldiers is single.

Joe had the other two boys to play with in the play area so they all kept busy while we waited.  Daniel surprised us and got very emotional.  We did take him off of his meds back at Christmas and have seen a whole new personality (that we love) emerge.  It really hit Joe last night after we got home during story and prayer time.  That was usually Dan and his routine.  Dan had taken a Texas A&M clock that I’d made for him from his office and put it next to Joe’s bed.  Daniel came in when we were saying prayers and told Joe that it was pretty cool because he could hear as each second went by to when we’d be closer to Dan coming home.  Joe liked that idea.  He finally went to sleep and about an hour later Aggie woke him up.  She was barking at Dan’s side of the bed thinking he was there and wanting to go to bed with him.  So the three of us called it a night and climbed in together.  They went to school this morning but I’m glad it’s a long weekend.  We can get this show on the road and settle in to our routine after spending some time just relaxing.

Dan called from Kyrgyzstan this morning before we went out to the bus.  He’s just waiting for his flight into Afghanistan now.

Oh!  Valentine’s Day!  Seems like Dan and I both had the same idea.  We got each other ipods! lol.  I had his fully loaded and ready to go for his trip.   I loaded just about our entire CD collection (took me days) and some video podcasts.  It’ll keep him entertained on the long trip and his down time.  Now I need to work on mine.  I’ll download the knitting podcasts to listen to and get the car accessories so I can listen when I’m driving.  I knew I’d figure out a way to knit and drive at the same time!

I did start a new knitting project (baby gift) but didn’t get very far.  Didn’t think the Polizei would appreciate me knitting on the Autobahn on the way home. lol.  I’m sure I’ll finish it this weekend and will post a picture then.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Say a little prayer for our troops, will ya? 

Animals and Nature, Family, Knitting

Cabled Cutie

Posted on by Jean

Don’t you just love it when something just comes together?!  The partially knitted sweater back I showed you yesterday worked out great for a sweater for Aggie!  I snipped a thread inside two of the diamond cables, picked up stitches and did a couple rows of ribbing.  Presto!  Leg holes!  I added ribbing around the top for a neck and stitched the sides together into a seam!

As you can see we got lots of snow yesterday.  We did a little sledding today.  The snow was a little deep in spots for Aggie so she got to ride in style:

Knitting

Little Finds

Posted on by Jean

I found this partially knitted sweater back in my stash when we moved here.  It’s the big oversized cardigan from Knitting in America (republished as America Knits) knit in a Classic Elite silk/wool blend.  The problem is that I saw this as one of those projects I’d never finish. I sold the leftover yarn on Ebay years ago.  What a moron I am sometimes.  I so know that I’d finish it now if I had the yarn.  So.  I think with just a little bit of work I have a great sweater for Aggie here.  I’ll just make a little strap to go across her belly and start knitting a little ribbed neck in the round at the top.  Stay tuned…

Knitting

A Weem O Wip

Posted on by Jean

Next time Daniel goes in for dental care, and I know he’s getting laughing gas, I’m bringing a video camera!  Dan said it was HILARIOUS.   He’s a pretty serious kid most of the time and dentists make his nervous meter go way off the charts.

Evidently, all he needs is a little laughing gas.  He started out hollering, “Houston!  We HAVE a LANDING!”  He went on to sing, “Up on the rooftops, click, click, click” and at the end when they turned off the gas and were bringing him down he started softly singing, “A weem o wip o weem o wip…” and gradually got louder and louder until he was hollering ” O WEEE-eeeee  oh oh oh oh ooooooh….”  I’d give anything to have seen that.  I just don’t understand how they got into his mouth to do the filling with all that singing and hollering going on!

Finished the baby sweater up on Friday night.  I still need to get some buttons to put at the shoulders.  I’m telling you.  If you haven’t done cables yet, this is a perfect first cable project!  Trust me.  The yarn I used was some German wool (sport weight) I’ve had in my stash for about eight years.  I bought it at a yarn shop in Würzburg when it was going out of business.  The pattern is in Knitting For Baby:

Animals and Nature, Family, Knitting

Silent Night

Posted on by Jean

It’s quiet around our home tonight.  Dan and Daniel took off for a post about two hours from here.  Daniel has to see the dentist there in the morning so they took the opportunity to spend some time alone together and spend the night there.  It’s left the house very quiet.  Which is funny because Joe is normally the noisest person in the family.  It’s just weird.

I managed to just about finish the baby sweater from Knitting For Baby.  I just need to sew it together.  This was a very easy and satisfying knit. I wish I could say the same for the photo.  It’s tough to take good photos without good light and it’s hard to find good light in Germany in the Winter.  I’ll take it outside tomorrow and take a good shot of it all finished up.

I’m happy to report Aggie’s doing much better today.  She keeps forgetting that she’s sore and she’ll jump up and catch herself just wrong and yelp but she’s doing good.

You can see her little shaved leg in this photo from her IV.

I’m telling you, I’ve always been a dog lover.  I have never fallen so hard for a dog in my life. There’s just something about her.  I don’t know if it’s because I’ve watched her grow since she was three days old or what, but she’s the easiest dog I’ve ever had.  She cocks that little head at me and I’m lost.  I can’t believe she’s almost five months old already.

She really needs a playmate since Bailey died.  I want another Cav but I think we’ll wait until we go back to the States.  Dan said I could get a Black and Tan one because he thinks they’re hard to find and I won’t be able to. Bwwwaaahahahaha! Kim has two!  Sign me up Kim!!! 😉  (Oh relax, Dan.  I wouldn’t do that to you… I don’t think…)

Joe and Aggie enjoying a quiet evening in our casa.

Knitting

Teensy

Posted on by Jean

As promised to Tracy (Wool Windings), I knit one preemie hat and one pair of booties last night (both from Bev’s Country Cottage and both of these things are QUICK!).  Of course, I don’t read directions very well and made them from wool (merino super-wash that is oh-so-soft) but I’ll send them in anyway and stick to acrylics and cottons from now on.

Fun, cute, quick and for a very good cause.   What more could you ask for in a project?  So I’ll *have* to go back to the yarn shop and find some more appropriate yarns.  Yea… like I’m not always looking for an excuse for that little trip.

I finished the back to the baby sweater from Knitting For Baby.  It’s a very easy pattern as all the cable patterning is done on only two rows of the eight rows total.  Very easy and quick.  Perfect for those of you that haven’t tried your hand at cables.  Really.  Would I steer you wrong?

Did you all see this in the new Martha Stewart Kids magazine? Way cool little book that you can take out of the center.  Lots of pictures of sheep and stories and then this very cool page.  It’ll be perfect for using when I do demos at the elementary school.

Family, Travel

Fantabulous!

Posted on by Jean

I have to say this was my favorite trip to London.  The hotel was perfect (Premiere Inn).  Budget (for London), in a quiet neighborhood (Southwark – near London Bridge Station) and CLEAN!  Breakfast was terrific in the attached pub.  Across the street was a great restaurant called Nando’s.  Terrific, filling chicken meals for about $50 for the four of us.  That includes the pints of African cider Dan and I had.  Nummy. The hotel is right on the river.  The first night we got in and threw our bags down so we could go find something to eat.  We saw Nando’s but thought it looked expensive so kept going.  The first thing we saw on the river was Tower Bridge.  Beautiful all lit up at night.  We also saw the dome of St. Paul’s.

As you know we were going to see The Lion King.  I’m telling you.  Where ever you are…. GO SEE IT!!!  I bawled during the opening it was so beautiful.  We had an aisle seat in row L, so they were great seats.  During the opening song an elephant (huge puppet with people inside) brushed right past Joseph.  All of our mouths were just hanging open.  Dan turned to me after the opening and said, “We could leave right now and I’d be satisfied”!  Seriously, it was that good. 

The next day we went to see if we could get tickets to see Stomp but it didn’t run on Monday nights.    We went to see Mary Poppins instead.  It was Supercali… well, you know.  While Lion King was more about the special effects, Mary Poppins was more about the singing and dancing (they had a few special effect tricks up their sleeves too).  Because we didn’t buy the tickets until that day we ended up in the first balcony, 2nd row.  Wouldn’t have been bad if Bouffant Hair Lady in front of me would have stayed sitting back in her seat instead of leaning forward.  I didn’t want to get in the way of those behind me and there were side balcony seats open.  At intermission I asked if we could move into one of them.  They let us so we had an unobstructed view for the 2nd half.  At the end Mary Poppins flies across the stage and then comes out over the audience.  I wish you could have seen the boys’ faces (probably ours too) as she came straight for us.  She went up just as she got to our balcony.  We could have reached out and touched her foot.

Before we went to find the tickets on Monday we went to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards.  The boys didn’t get to see it last time we went and Daniel doesn’t remember when he went the first time.  I hope that’s the last time we have to do that one! lol. The crowds were bad enough in January.  I can only imagine what it’s like in the Summer. 

It was a fantastic trip.

I’ll give you a sneak preview of the baby sweater:

Animals and Nature, Family, Knitting

Insomnia

Posted on by Jean

Can’t sleep.  It’s almost 4am here in Germany and I have to get up in four more hours to get ready for our flight.  This happens every time we travel.  I layed there for at least an hour trying to get back to sleep.  Why fight it?

Checked the weather. 

It’s London so it’s pretty much as we expected but it would have been nice to see one little sunshine in there.  At least the temps are balmy compared to here in Bavaria where we’ve been freezing our patooties off all week.  I wish I’d kept the cheap little plastic raincoats we had to buy the boys in Italy.  Handy little things.  Kept the boys bone dry without worrying about an umbrella.

Worked on Dan’s V-neck last night while we watched TV.  I’ll take it along for the three-hour car ride to the airport but I doubt I’ll risk trying to take it with me since we aren’t checking any luggage and the flight is only about an hour and a half anyway.

The bucket hat for Ann at Elann is finished.  It’s Elann’s own Pure Alpaca in color #3727 (the name escapes me). The alpaca felted just as nicely as the Highland Wool always does.

Here it is before I felted it.  The color is much more accurate in the felted photo:

I also cast on this little beauty from Knitting For Baby:

I had some German wool that I bought about six years ago when a store in Würzburg was going out of business.  A friend/neighbor that works in the office at the school is due next month.

I think the Sandman is calling my name.  Maybe I can get a few winks in before it’s too late.  I leave you with a picture of Daniel and Aggie.  She has definitely helped all of us with the loss of Bailey.  An update for those that I didn’t tell via email…  the final diagnosis was a tumor in Bailey’s spleen.  It was about the size of my fist.  One thing we learned is that if your dog starts drinking ridiculous amounts of water… get her to the vet.  It wouldn’t have mattered for Bailey, but in a lot of cases it could help.  See you when we get back from England next week!

Animals and Nature, Family, Travel

Bloggers Strike Again

Posted on by Jean

I’m beginning to sound like a broken record.  It never ceases to amaze me how the blogging world can be so very supportive.  I’d like to collectively thank everyone for your support, prayers and well wishes about Bailey.  She was a very sweet and loving dog and she’ll be missed.  Aggie still looks for her and they only had about six full weeks together. 

Because it was drawn out over several days we were prepared for it.  In fact, since about the second day I just wanted her out of her misery.  She was obviously suffering and I couldn’t take it.  So to see her peaceful face in the end was actually a relief.  Hard to accept we’ll never see her again but it’s part of having pets as part of the family.  It’s a good thing we already have Aggie or I think it’d be a very long time before we got another dog.  It’s just too hard to say goodbye but a relief that she isn’t suffering any more.

Onward…

  As you all know, we went to Italy over Christmas.  It was a bus trip through the Army MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation).  We got on the bus in the evening and arrived in Pisa the next morning.  You can imagine how pretty we all looked.  Note that you don’t see me in the photo.

We were only there for about two hours (not much to see in Pisa) and then headed further south to Florence.  Beautiful city.  We saw the church of Santa Croce where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried.  We saw the statues of David and Neptune and pet the lucky pig in front of the market place.

The tired travelers boarded the bus again that afternoon and headed for Rome.  We arrived at the hotel late that night.  We were one of the last families to check in and they didn’t have a room for us.  That was actually a lucky break because they gave us two adjoining rooms so we now had two showers to help out with the rush in the morning.

The main reason we went on this trip was to go to Midnight Mass at the Vatican.  We’d always planned to do it our last Christmas so the boys would be older and hopefully remember.  Obviously, Dan won’t be here next Christmas so we did it this year.

After visiting the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum our guide informed us that they didn’t have the tickets to Midnight Mass that they’d promised and because it’s the Pope’s first Christmas, they’d been gone since early December.  Decision time.  Most of our group decided to go anyway.  They went to dinner first and then stood out in St. Peter’s Square for about six hours. It was freezing and they watched the Mass on huge screens.  We decided to just go to Mass in the morning.  It’s probably one of the best choices we’ve ever made.  We had the best Christmas ever.

We thought Mass was at 9:30 and I was freaking out a bit because we didn’t get there until about 9:00.  Our guide and a couple of people that go to church with us here went with us.  We were in jeans and travel gear because we fully expected to be out in the rain in the square.  We walked right into St. Peter’s Basilica and it was virtually empty.  We were stunned. Suddenly all the disappointments of the night before were gone.  We were in the Vatican for Christmas Mass!  Come to find out, we were early.  Mass didn’t start until 10:30.  So we waited for them to move the rope so we could sit down.  We’re were right up front of the line.  Actually there was no line but by the time it was 10:15, there were a few hundred people behind us. 

A priest standing next to me warned me to hold onto the boys when the opened the ropes.  He wasn’t kidding.  Daniel was immediately squished between me and the woman in front of me.  We grabbed the first seat we came to (in the back) to get out of the mob.  The man handing out the leaflets in Latin ran out just as he got to our pew.  He shrugged an apology and I shrugged a “that’s okay” back.  He made his way down the pew and said something to us in Italian.  Dan told him we were American and asked if he spoke English.  He asked if we’d like to bring up the gifts!  Is the Pope Catholic?! 

So he tells us that we must wear our jackets (we were a little embarrassed at the way we were dressed, but we didn’t think we’d get in).  When he saw my bright red coat he said that he was sorry but that was too bright.  An American woman a few pews over was already ripping off her black coat and saying, “Take mine!  Your boys can’t miss this!”  He took us up to show us exactly what to do (we’ve done it in our own parish, but it’s a little fancier at St. Peter’s).  He was worried about Joe.  He joked with him not to mess up because the Pope would be watching. lol.  We got to sit in the very first pew and when the choir starting singing, I started bawling.  The whole service was a beautiful experience that we will never forget.

After wards we went out to the square to watch the Pope’s Blessing.  Oye!  The people! For as far as you could see.  Tens of thousands of people.  Just as we were trying to figure out how we were going to get through them we were guided to a spot corded off for those that had been in Mass.  We ended up right under the balcony!  This day couldn’t get any better.  Why.. oh… why didn’t I bring the telephoto lens?!

Dan called his mother in Texas on our cell phone to tell her what had happened and where we were.  It was hilarious because I was trying to explain to the boys how special this was and Joe said, “But can he make it stop raining?”  I know. I laughed too.  But it stopped raining the minute that man came out and it started pouring the minute he went back in.

What a lucky day, but it wasn’t over.  We were walking by the Spanish Steps and the Kinder Chocolate (big chocolate company here in Europe) people had a Christmas tree lit up and were playing music with their little Kinderegg guy running around.  Then a Santa came over and gave each of the boys a huge red bag filled with their chocolate products.  It was about six pounds of chocolate each!  Don’t ask me why we didn’t buy a lotto ticket that day.  lol.  It poured all day and the rest of our group was miserable.  The four of us couldn’t be brought down from our cloud for anything.  Smiles all day.

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to Naples, Pompeii and the Island of Capri.  We could have spent days at Pompeii.   Incredible.  I had no idea how large that city had been.  It was very interesting to see how advanced the people were.  We took the train to Sorrento so that we could catch a boat to Capri.  It got dark less than half an hour after we arrived on the Island, but we were able to get a quick photo:

After all the miles we traveled, it was time to head back up through Italy to Germany.  As we got closer to Venice the weather turned pretty ugly.   For the fourth time in my life I was within an hour of Venice and didn’t get to go.  No worries.  The guy that will be Dan’s Detachment Sgt. in Afghanistan lives in nearby Vicenza.   We’ve already made plans to visit each other while the guys are gone.  We stopped instead in Innsbruck, Austria and visited their Christkindlmarkt.  We found a great little cafe and had a cup of cocoa to chase away the cold before making our way back to the bus and back home. 

So that was our Italian journey.  It was a lot of time on the bus time.   You’d think I’d have gotten a lot of knitting done, but I didn’t.  It was dark most of the time and I didn’t want to bother my fellow passengers with the light.  I managed to finish Chick Knits Felted Bucket Hat for Ann at Elann.  She collects them each December 29th (I know I’m late) for cancer patients in memory of her dear mother.  I’ll share photos in the next post.  I still have to felt it.

Next week is our last journey before Dan leaves.   We’re headed to London to see The Lion King (click the link and check out the video clips in the top right).  The boys are so excited… okay… so are we.