Christening gown for my niece's baby

hmmm. sunday night and i am here

it's sunday night and it's late. wanted to be on here earlier. had a busy weekend, and a lot on my mind.  watched a disturbing documentary... "one nation under dog".  poor dogs. makes me appreciate my babies more than ever. even when especially when chewie will just walk by and give me a lick. it's like his way of saying i love you. and i love that. even if it's gross. and gizmo, he's my boy in all his jittery glory!

i weeded the garden... still have that cosmic question of why oh why does the grass grow with total abandon in my flower garden and not in my lawn? WHY. but i didn't do it all, there's other weekends to come, and hopefully less hot, and less humid. meghan, God bless her, helped me. what a good sport she is.  took her for a manicure today. she deserves it for helping me pull weeds! what i need now though is a good swedish massage- my back is KILLING me!

also was thinking about depression, too. having suffered through it for years, even with medication, makes me wonder what gene or chromosome makes it come and go, or even just come and stay. and why some lucky women don't get post partum depression and some of us do. and why it seems to get worse with each child... and then can linger and linger. i have been off anti depressants for a while now, but that doesn't mean i don't fight it. and it doesn't mean it's any less real. i think i needed it (medication) for a long time, and pray i don't need it again. i used to say i could have/should have been the face of prozac. i never had the worst of the side effects that people complained of, or "allegedly" died from, from committing suicide. i did gain weight on it, but it was a small price to pay for keeping me from being an absolute nutcase. and there are some who would say i was anyway. but i truly believe i would have been waaaay worse. or not here. that's a blog for another day, though. it's enough that i've made it this far.

and now off to bed... good night, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite, as my mom used to say when she tucked us in.

i have been working on knitting projects. i LOVE knitting, i have only been knitting since march of this year, but i love to learn this crafty, useful past time.  i have made slippers and scarfs, a little Christmas tree motif washcloth, infant socks, a baby blanket, and a couple of baby hats. i'd like to share some of those here.. the baby socks are with plymouth yarn, and a plymouth pattern, jeannee.  the baby blanket is also plymouth yarn, and i think the pattern is from a book of afghans, something along the lines of 12 hour afghans... can't remember exactly, and my apologies to the pattern maker and the publishing company. when i get the correct name, i'll post it.  the little ruffly hat pattern is from bernat yarns, but it was made with plymouth yarn, same as the socks.  and the little blue hat is also a plymouth yarn and the pattern is bev's seed stitch cap for newborns.

i don't know why these keep rotating, when i preview them, they are fine, put them in here, and all rotated. drives me NUTS.  anyway, pretty soon i will start on a christening gown for a niece. once that is underway, i'll post photos of that, too...  but for now, happy knitting, quilting, cooking, or sewing!!!

to the right, is a Christmas project- for a change, i am starting early...
next, is meghan's scarf; halfway done!!!  i posted two, because i was not sure that the beautiful kelly green color was coming through.

erin's scarf is about a 1/4 done. it is chunkier yarn, using larger needles- but i think will keep her really warm on walks with charlie in the cold winter!

again, meghan's scarf, 1/2 way done

and this is my practice strip for new stitches. the first little section was when i began the purl stitch about a week ago... love the look of stockinette stitch, so happy that i am finally getting the hang of it!!!! i do rows of regular garter stitch in between practicing new things that way i can keep track of where my mistakes are                                    

mistakes... mistakes

today is palm sunday. its got me thinking a little bit. i believe in God, and Jesus. i am lapsed from the catholic faith, and while there are those who would disagree, i don't believe that makes me an awful person... BUT....

i know i am only human. i make mistakes, i speak out of turn or say incorrect things (aka putting my foot in my mouth), i am terrible with correspondence (i.e. returning letters, sending birthday cards and thank  you notes... sometimes even phone calls-which are the easiest thing to do), my kids think i am harsh at times, and that i give back handed compliments (which is NOT my intent, and i LOVE THEM to death).  i mess up with food, eat things i know i shouldn't, which sends my blood sugar through the roof. i try to be civil to the people i can't stand (don't truly hate anyone any more, that's really too strong. and at my age i hope no one truly hates me either), or just try to avoid contact with them.  thank goodness every day is a new day. and some days there are no mistakes, some days- LOTS.  and for that, i am sorry, especially to anyone i may have unintentionally hurt, one way or another. i hope everyone can forgive me. i apologize from the bottom of my heart.

so, getting that out of the way, i have decided that i have to rip out the beginnings of my quilt that i posted a while back. yeah, the beautiful red and black that one is turned sideways in the picture that i couldn't make make rotate.  i fully intended to leave all the seams the way they were, but i have decided that that is a waste, and while ripping out seams is a HUGE waste of time, the quilt will be better for it in the long run. it's just gonna take a while. so there won't be any pictures of that for a while.  in the meantime, i will try to get photos on here of my 3 knitting projects that i have going on. 

knitting is going well. i find it challenging, learning a new craft. it's great on the train, except when the rude chick sitting next to me keeps BUMPING ME and invading my space. (ok breathe, she was young, maybe didn't ride the commuter rail alot)... here again, i am chock full of mistakes. not very thrilled about that, but i have only been knitting for 5 weeks, and still learning, so i will cut myself some slack for that. edwina is a wonderful instructor, very very patient, and kind.  and you tube is a great asset for when i get home and she is not with me!!!

well, gonna get back to my day, and try to see what mistakes i can avoid.  i hope everyone has a blessed, mistake free palm sunday!!

 this was our winter last year...

















it is so much nicer this  year!!!

today's lesson

ok, so i had my first knitting class today. it's the little green thing above my typing. it went well, and i have, well almost have - the hang of holding the yarn, the needles and actually getting through a row. it's just the "knit" stitch for now, i am attempting a scarf. i have no doubt i will get it done, but of course, once i got home, and away from the instructor, somehow i managed to add another stitch to the row. so instead of 30 stitches, i had 31.  instead of leaving it, i tried to fix it. BIG mistake. much worse than adding a stitch. i had watched my very kind instructor, pull out a couple of rows while she was teaching me. i had hoped i could do the same, and with successful results, but that was not to be. so i kind of just muddled along, and kept going to keep the practice of holding the needles and yarn. but it became VERY clear, it wasn't looking too pretty, so i stopped.  i will try to get to her shop on wednesday evening, but i am not holding much hope that she'll be open by the time i get home from work. 
on a brighter note, i have two rows together from my mystery quilt. it's slow going because my seams are all off because i did not have an exact 1/4" seam.  this is not my couple of months for successful quilting, but i continue because i enjoy it. and i think this quilt, will still be very pretty, just a tad smaller than the pattern called for. i tried and tried to rotate it so that it would be in the proper direction, but it looks like that's not happening. if you tilt your head to the left, then you would see the top row, and the second row...
and meghan has started a quilt...  i'll get a picture of that for the next time... potentially next weekend.

but, for now, what's next is stopping the crafty stuff for the night, and settling down with game of thrones by george rr martin. i am really enjoying that, it's as good as the television series.  so good night and i hope your stitches are even,  your needles slide well, your seams are accurate,and your sewing machine hums along!

a picture of the swan boats in the beautiful boston public garden

ok... that was wrong.

http://www.anniek-whatsnext.blogspot.com/

i think this one is correct.

ohmygoodness...
got answers on how to get back into this one... for two other recent posts, please see the other blog...

http:// http://www.anniek-whatsnext.blogger.com/

and now that i know how to get back into this one, YAY...

very confusing.