Category Archives: Family

Family, Knitting

Mail Call

Posted on by Jean

Weeeee!  Look what came in the mail from Knit Picks last night:

That’s the Andean Silk and it’s destined to become a Clapotis.  It’ll be a couple of weeks at least before I can get to it, but I’ll keep you posted on whether I fail or succeed.  I loved that colorway the second I saw it on Kary’s (sheep at the beach) blog.  Now the pressure’s on. Here’s hoping the color wheel and book help me with my color problems.  I’m color deficient.  My dad is completely color blind.  I have the hardest times with colors that are similar.  You know the little numbers in the dots color test?  I flunk it every time except for the green and red.

Speaking of the Clapotis… I just found out how to say it this weekend from Erica (knittin mama).  It’s much more elegant than the Clap-OTIS that was spewing out of my mouth.  Probably why I haven’t been inclined to knit it yet.  Who wants to knit something with such an ugly name?…. “oooh… that’s so pretty! What are you knitting?”  “Why it’s the Clap-OTIS”  “Oh…. okay.”  You see what I mean?  lol.  French is the one language that I’ve never been able to even fake while reading it.  Not that I knew it was a French word.  What?  You mean I should have gotten that from the very obvious description in the pattern?! Ya.  I know.  Welcome to my world. I don’t do obvious. I swear I gave up a little piece of my brain with the birth of each of my four boys.  Either that or I’m going senile already.  Can that happen at 42?  I sometimes wonder.  It’s scary.

I’d say that I need to “brush up” on my French before our trip to visit Nilda (Waltzing Natilda) in Brittany next month but there’s nothing to “brush up” on.  I’ll leave the par-le-vou to Nilda and her hubster.  They could kick us out of the country the way I butcher their language.

So, I got to meet up with Kathleen (Knits Well With Others) and Erica (knittin mama) this weekend.  We had a BBQ at Kathleen’s just north of Nürnberg on Sunday.  It was a lot of fun.  Very international.  Kathleen had friends from every country on the globe there it seemed.  We brought a taco dip (YUM!), hot dogs with American condiments and the ingredients for S’mores.  About five minutes after Erica left, Kathleen and I realized that we didn’t take any pictures!  Bad…. BAD bloggers.  It seems that Erica caught a most flattering shot (snort) of Kathleen and I chatting.  It’s posted on her blog for all the world to see.  Sneaky, sneaky, Erica!  😉  A good time was had by all.  Can’t wait to do it again girls! 

Luckily we had great weather that day which is more than I can say about the weather we’ve had since then or are supposed to have for the next week.  Cold and wet.  I checked the weather in Garmisch (where we’ll be next week) the other day…. SNOW!!! And Monica was worried about the place we’re staying having a pool. Sure.  That’s great if you’re a penguin!

I can’t believe my SIL and crew will be here in a little more than 48 hours!  I’m out-of-my-mind excited!  They are in London right now, but will be heading for Paris and Normandy today.  They landed in London on Tuesday morning.  Dan calls the hotel that night (they were taking a nap before dinner), takes on his best British accent and this is how it went (Hotel name and room #’s have been changed to protect the innocent) :

Dan: Yes… um… ‘alo mum.  Is this room 654?

Monica: No… it’s room 635 (great! My SIL is giving her room number out over the phone! That makes me feel secure about their safety.  She “claims” she was just half asleep. lol).

Dan:  Yes… well…I’m sorry ’bout that mum. This is the front desk.  We’re ‘avin a wee get together down here for our new guests and we’d like you and your family to join us.

Monica:……….silence……… Now????

Dan and I were about to pee our pants we were laughing so hard.  It’s the only reason she figured out it was her brother.  Monica, Monica, Monica.  Who loves ya baby?

So then he calls his mother to let her know that Monica, Peter and the boys arrived in London and are fine.  Same British accent:

Dan:  ‘alo mum.  This is the Grand Hotel in London.  We do the service of letting family members know when  their loved ones have arrived safely at the hotel ‘ere in London.  Monica, Peter and the boys are up taking a wee nap right now tuckered out by their travels.  We’ll make sure to take right good care of them for you.

MIL:  What a wonderful service!!  Thank you so much for letting me know.

OH MI GAWD!!  LOL!  Please, God… don’t let my children be so gullible.  What makes this funnier is that Dan does this every single time he calls home except it’s usually in Spanish… posing as an old woman looking for charity.  My MIL falls for it every time. Scary. 

Have you all seen this baby set? It’s adorable and the pattern is free from Opal.  You can find it on the PT yarns site.

I’m 3/4 finished spinning the Kool Aid wool.  I want to finish it today or I never will.  I’m one of those spinners that has to be able to finish the entire process of one skein of yarn in one sitting.  I spin the singles, wind it off on the ball winder and then ply from a center pull ball.  I hate having little bits of singles left over and I hate having to try to get my ply twist right when the singles have been sitting on the bobbin and have set.  As I ply I check the twish of each legnth by letting it hang before I let it wind onto the bobbin.  Probably takes me twice as long.  I really wish I could be more carefree about it but I guess I’ll always be a little anal about my spinning.

UPDATE:

Just a few moments after I posted this post I got a Fox News bulletin about the bombings in London.  I immediately called the hotel but Monica and Peter had checked out at 9am… just a few moments after the first blast.  Because I’ve been to London a few times I could map out where the tube stops were, the hotel and Waterloo (where they’d be headed for the train to Paris).  I was pretty sure they’d take a taxi and they’d just miss everything.  It was a scary few hours but we just got a call from Peter and they are in Lille, France and fine.  He’d gotten my cell phone message and called wondering what the problem was. They were just minutes ahead of everything but had no idea what had happened.  I was telling them on the phone and they were relaying it to other passengers.  Luckily, I found out they were okay just about the time that our families in Texas were waking up so I could tell them before they saw the news.  I want to thank those of you that emailed your prayers.  My heart and prayers go out to all of those effected by the tragedy in London.  I think I need a shot of tequila now.

Animals and Nature, Family, Knitting

Lace and Socks….

Posted on by Jean

I’ve been working on my photo album of finished projects for the past week or so.  It’s funny how you think you’ve done much less than you have.  There’s tons more that I never even took pictures of. 

Jayne commented that she wanted more lace…

This is the shawl that I knit about six years ago for Joseph’s Baptism.  I bought the pattern and yarn in Lerwick, Shetland.  I tried to find the pattern online, but couldn’t.  It’s Paton’s booklet 8008 for Fairytale 2 and 3 ply – 1985.  I knit it with jumper weight wool from Jamieson and Smith’s.  Not sure if I actually got the pattern there or not.

Finished my Gramp’s socks up this weekend.  I was going to get the soles at the yarn shop in our Marktplatz, but it’s closed today due to a German Holiday.  Figures.  At least I know they’ll be done in plenty of time for Father’s Day.

My favorite plain vanilla sock pattern is from Pricilla Gibson-Roberts Simple Socks Plain & Fancy I always do them from the toe up so that if I’m using handspun and I’m cutting it close, I can do each one separately until I run out of yarn.  It also makes it easy to try it on as you’re knitting the sock.

I’ve been having fun playing with the camera, but I need a lot of lessons and practice.  Anyone know how to put a frame around your photo in Typepad?  I know it’s something simple, probably staring me in the face, but I can’t figure it out.  I’d appreciate some help.  Here’s a picture I took of Bailey.  Such a sweet girl.  She got tired of me chasing her around with the camera.  It would have been perfect if she hadn’t been under the coffee table:

Family

Catch ’em up time

Posted on by Jean

What a whirlwind of a past two weeks it’s been.  Jeremy arrived on the morning of April 1st and we took him back to the airport for his trip back to Iraq yesterday.  Sad trip as it was on top of the fact I’d caught a stomach bug on our way back from Garmisch so I was down for the count our last evening together.   The two weeks went way to quickly but it was a nice break for him.  The best part was the last few days we spent down in Garmisch at the Edelweiss Lodge Resort.  It’s an Armed Forces resort that they just opened in October and it was wonderful.  Jeremy spent one day up on the mountain (Zugspitz) snowboarding.  He went up the second day but was so sore we had to go get him after and hour and a half. lol.  We had rooms that connected on an inner corner so our balcony’s connected.

Here’s a great photo of Daniel, Joe and Jeremy together in Rothenberg.  It’s a great little tourist town about 20 minutes from us.

Family

My Baby’s Comin’ Home!!

Posted on by Jean

  Okay… he’s not a baby anymore.  He’s almost 23, but you moms know what I mean.  He will always be my baby.

I got an email from Jeremy a couple of mornings ago that he’s getting his two week R&R from Iraq NEXT WEEKEND!!!!  We’re going to do things around here for the first week and let him rest and then we’ll take him skiing in Garmisch the second week.  They just finished the new Armed Forces Resort Center a few months ago and it’s gorgeous. It’ll be a great change from the sand of Iraq for him.

This picture was taken at his Basic Training Graduation in Ft. Sill, OK in October 2001.  Dan was at the Pentagon assisting with the 9/11 investigation at the time, so it was just Daniel, Joe and I driving across country to celebrate with Jeremy.  Daniel and Joe are so little in it. 

We don’t know exactly what day he’ll get here, but I won’t tell Daniel and Joseph until the end of the week or they’ll be useless in school.  It was hilarious the other night with Joe.  It was the night I found out and Joe was saying his prayers.  We always do the Guardian Angel, Our Father and one Hail Mary.  After that he does his blessings.  After his Hail Mary he started the Sign of the Cross.  I asked him about his blessings and he said, “But I’ve been praying for a long time for Jeremy to come home and it hasn’t happened yet”  I laughed and told him not to give up.  Then I asked him if he’d rather have Jeremy home or go to Garmisch (Joe LOVES Garmisch).  He said Jeremy.  Won’t he be surprised when he gets both! 😉

fleece

On the fiber front…. meet Molly.  Okay… it’s just Molly’s fleece but it’s scrumptious.  Beautiful silver grey Romney.  I bought it from Melissa at Skylines Farm.  I wanted to scour it yesterday but it’s rainy here in Germany so I’ll have to wait for a sunny day.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a very happy Easter!

Family, Travel

Back from Scotland

Posted on by Jean

   We got home at 3am on Saturday morning.   I’ve spent the past couple of days doing laundry and getting the house back in order.  Now I have time to share some photos from our trip. 

We got into Glasgow City Center around 10pm on Monday night.  It was pouring rain and pretty much stayed that way for all of our trip.  It kind of adds to the ambiance of Scotland though so it wasn’t so bad.  In fact, if the boys hadn’t been sick it wouldn’t have bothered me much at all.  We did miss out on a lot of scenery though because the clouds were so low.  That just means we’ll have to go back! 😉

We got our rental car Tuesday morning and headed for Stirling.  Thank God we rented the car.  The tour bus we were expecting to take around Stirling isn’t running until after Easter.  Some of the things to see are quite a drive from the center.  We saw Stirling Castle, Bannockburn and the Wallace Monument.  It’s a beautiful city.

From there we headed up to Aberfoyle where the Wool Center is.  I got to speak to one of the women that spin there and bought some of her hand spun.  All of the outside activities were closed because of the rain.

We continued on through the beautiful countryside to Crianlarich where our B&B is.  If you are ever in the area, Jan and Sandy at the Riverside Guesthouse were wonderful hosts and their place is simply beautiful.  This is the view we had from the large window in our room (the Dochart Room). 

It was the perfect middle point for all the places we wanted to go to.  In the evening we went to The Ben More for our dinner.  The boys made friends with the new owners’ son, Charlie, and played pool with him each night while we enjoyed a pint after we ate.  Again, a great place.  The new owners have only had the place for a few weeks, but the food and friendly atmosphere was terrific.

Here’s an outside shot of the guesthouse from their website.  Notice the blue sky?  We didn’t see that. lol.

On Wednesday we headed up through the Highlands to Glencoe.

The scenery was gorgeous all the way up.  We had spurts of rain with little bits of sunshine that gave us great views like this on at the visitor’s center in Glencoe.

They have a great exhibit on the history of the Glen.  I was happy to find out that my Campbell Clan was not as guilty in the massacre that happened there as was once thought.

Thursday was all about the islands of Mull and Iona.  We left the B&B at 6:30 so we could make it in time for the 8am ferry out of Oban. 

Look closely at this photo of our rental car.  See the green door?  Notice how much room is not left behind our car?  That was what you call a very close call.  Some dummy I forgot to reserve the ferry!!  I’m the most organized traveler on this planet and I forgot something as huge as that!!  As you can see, we just got on that ferry.   Our entire day would have been ruined if we had to wait for the next ferry a couple of hours later. 

After the 45 minute ride from Oban to Craignure on Mull, we drove straight across the island to Fionnphort to catch the ferry to Iona.  Here are Dan and the boys being cheesy for the camera with the Iona ferry in the background.

And another one below of some of the island sheep grazing.

It’s a good thing we’d only planned on spending an hour on Iona.  The skies absolutely opened up on us and the only place to hide was in the alcove of the bathrooms by the ferry ramp.  Joe was the only one not in a waterproof coat.  He was drenched.   To make matters worse, as we got off the ferry back in Fionnphort a wave came over the ramp and finished him off. 

Our hostess from the B&B had packed a great picnic lunch for us.  We ate it in the Ferry waiting room in Fionnphort waiting for the rain to subside.   It didn’t so we ran to the car and drove to see Minty on Ardalanish hoping she’d have a dryer for Joe’s coat and shoes.  I forgot to mention… I finished the scarf in her own sheeps’ wool in the car on the way to the airport but I completely forgot to take a picture of it.  Bad, bad blogger!  I bought the wool when I visited her farm with the Knitting/Spinning group in July. If you have really good eyes you can see it on her in this photo of her with her two-day old Highland calf.  How cute is he? (the scarf is the Robert Seaman’s Scarf from Myrna Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves)

When we arrived she gave Joe a dry pair of socks and a wool blanket to wrap up in.  She’d made us a delicious cake with apples and bramble berries and some tea.  She made the boys some hot cocoa and we sat in her sun room taking in her beautiful view of the ocean. 

After tea, we went down to the weaving workshop and to the barn to see the new baby cow.  She showed the boys where her chickens lay their eggs (not in the hen house), let them climb up in the tractor and feed the chickens.  As we were leaving, she gave me one of her Black Hebridean fleeces to take home with me.  We only had about an hour before we had to get back to Craignure for the ferry back, but Minty managed to make us feel very warm and comfortable for the time we spent with her.

Here are some of the cows on the side of the one-lane road that goes through Mull.

We got back to Oban to wave at the camera.  Jeremy didn’t see us.  As luck would have it, he started his shift right when we were there waving frantically at the camera.  We had a friend here in Germany text messaging us to let us know when the camera was on it.  It was actually pretty hilarious.  At least some of you all saw us and our friends here in Germany did too.  It would have been a shame if no one saw the goofballs. lol.

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip.  It’s the boys with Oban in the background.

When I was in Oban in July I bought some gorgeous wool lap blankets (thanks for the tip, Dodie!) for about $20 each.  There was a sign saying they were on sale, but I thought it was a tourist thing and I’d get more when I came back.   They really were on sale because they are twice that now.  Argh.  Now I wish I’d bought at least two more.

The next morning we got up, ate our last full breakfast and headed back to Glasgow.  Somehow I navigated us directly to the car rental place without getting us lost.  Okay… Dan had to make a couple of illegal turns, but we got there.  I love Enterprise Car Rental.  They picked us up the first morning and gave us a ride back to Central Station when we dropped the car off.  We put our luggage in hold luggage at the train station and headed to the Science Center.  When we got off the train we realized we were only a few blocks from the car rental.  Now we know for next time. lol.

The boys LOVED the Science Center.  They’ve been to Science Centers all over the place, but we had this one to ourselves after some school groups left.  It was awesome.

We spent a couple of hours there and then headed to John Lewis so I could drool over the yarn.  The exchange rate was so bad that I didn’t buy any but I did get the new Jaeger book.  I saw the cover sweater in my new Knitters just before we left and knew I had to make it.

That about sums up our trip to Scotland.  It was very hurried but we saw a lot and the boys loved it.  Next time we’re going for longer than four days and we won’t try to fit so much in.

I miss it already.

Family

Brown Sheep Squadron

Posted on by Jean

  This is a 1st Armored Division soldier fixing the concertina wire to keep wandering sheep out of an Army compound.  Their wool and faces look just like our guys’ desert BDU (Battle Dress Uniforms).  Too funny.

On the knitting front… I’m a little more than half done with the 2nd front piece of the Must Have Cardigan.  I also did the ChicKnits Shaker Rib Hat:

It’s a quick and thick hat!

The week before last I’d forgotten that I took pictures in Joe’s K-garten class after I did the spinning demo because they were on the letter “S”.  I gave them each a piece of wool and a card with a sheep outline and spinning wheel on it.  They made up their own little souveniers.  Here are some of the kids:

Family, Knitting

I Don’t Mean To Brag….

Posted on by Jean

I don’t mean to brag, but c’mon…. Hardangervidda is done!

I’m pretty stoked right now.  Look at that good lookin’ guy in that gorgeous sweater!!  I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my arm from patting myself on the back. lol. 

Even the weather cooperated this morning and gave a little snow effect.

Seriously, is it any wonder why I married this man after only knowing each other two months? He proposed after we knew each other for three weeks, dated for one. Gasp!  That was over twelve years ago so I guess we weren’t as nuts as everyone thought.  In our defense, we were both in the Army.   I was at NSA in Maryland and he was in San Antonio.  If we didn’t get married we couldn’t be together.  So we went to the JP in Annapolis, MD and we had a big church wedding a year later.  Happens a lot in the military.

I did change the bottom.  Got rid of the middle ribbing.  Dan’s like me.  Plain vanilla, except he goes for the chocolate when it comes to ice cream.

Asperger's Syndrome/Autism, Family, Knitting

Meet Hans

Posted on by Jean

Meet Hans… the sweater from Best of Lopi (pg 95). The boy is Daniel and you’ll meet him later in this post. Was there ever any doubt I’d have it done by next Thursday?  Actually, yes.  When I realized I was cutting it a little really close with the main color.   I thought I was going to have to wait till I could get more.  Think I’m kidding?  This is what’s left:

This is right off the needles.  The underarms aren’t even woven yet.   I wanted to show it so that people who are new to color knitting can see it’s not all smooth and even until after you block it.  As luck would have it, you can’t really tell this from the picture, but hey… I tried.  I’m hoping that when I take another picture of Daniel in it tomorrow after it’s dry, you’ll be able to see the difference. 

Family, Knitting

On a Positive Note

Posted on by Jean
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I cast this on right after I finished Joes’ sweater the other day.  It’s the Hans sweater from Best of Lopi (pg 95).  I’m using Winter Blue, Indigo, Natural and Primary Red (which I toned down with brown dye) Gjestal Naturgarn from Elann.  I’m up to the underarms on the body and just about finished with the first sleeve.  I promised Daniel I’d try to have it finished by next Thursday so he can wear it to school.  They have a dress code, but next Thursday is Dress Down Day.  It’ll be interesting seeing him put on a turtleneck under it.  He picked out the sweater and red, white and blue colors, so we’ll see….

In the last post I told you that Dan kept saying, “Smile right!” to the boys.  This is why:

As you can see, all that’s missing is Joseph’s little red horns.  lol.  The child is every bit as onerey as he looks in this photo and then some.   He is his father in every way from the tip of his hair down to his cute little Flintstone feet.

Family, Knitting

The Lopi is done already!

Posted on by Jean

Well that was quick, wasn’t it?  It hasn’t been blocked yet, but Joe wanted to try it out this afternoon.  Okay.. yea… I see it’s a little big, but Daniel can get some wear out of it this year and Joe should be able to wear it next year.  He still wanted to model it for the blog since it’s “his” sweater.  lol.  I’m a big believer in getting full wear out of kids clothes.  Especially if I’m knitting them.  Notice the green grass?  The last time I checked it’s January and I’m in Germany.  I think that’s gonna change in the next couple of days.   They’re predicting the white stuff.

  Here’s a picture of the change purse I gave my friend LeeAnn for Christmas.  I have one more to do for my SIL, Monica. Click it.