So where have I been?

First I had the flu. I got sick of complaining about being sick so I decided to post about it AFTER I got better. Then, I never got better. Then the kids got it and well I'm better now, but I really am sick of talking about it.

I couldn't knit when I was sick, when you have fever horizontal is all you want to do.

Then, my computer, mysteriously gained a lot of weight - 79 gigs to be precise. No room to upload any pictures. I hate pictureless posts, so I've been cleaning the old girl out but it is becoming painfully obvious that music files take up more space than my circa 2003 system can digest.

Then there are the zillion and one spring recitals, plays, community events that happen with spring.

Then there's the garden, time to clean it up.

Then there's graduation and my town doesn't just do a simple high school graduation. There's the prom, there's the dinner dance, there's the senior send off for every club your child was associated with and there are the town wide scholarship applications and... Well you get the idea I hope and I hope you all forgive my absence...

Film and pictures to follow...

Birthday surprises

Thank you to everyone for all of your birthday wishes. Believe it or not, I look forward to my birthday each year because it marks the end of the winter months. The older I get, the more I find it difficult to deal with the cold. This winter, with all of the strange temperature swings, really brought a new twist to the season. I saw Cherry Blossom trees in full bloom in January and minus degree'd wind chills in February. While that isn't so unusual for Denver, it was sure weird for Jersey.

As my garden begins to thaw, I wonder what all of my perennials and bulbs thought about our tricked out climate. Things below ground don't generally appreciate freezing and thawing and freezing again.

Gifts

I must tell you about some nice surprises I received from two blogger buddies.

Laverna sent me some delicious Koigu yarn from Purlsoho in New York City -

and they are desperately wanting to be socks

Stickchick sent me a beautiful skein of the softest hand dyed and some bejeweled stitch markers

Visit her Etsy shop, StickChicShwag.

An Almost Finished Shawl

I'm trying to finish this shawl as my first finished object for spring

I love this yarn, it is so soft and nice to knit with. I almost don't want it to be over.

Phyllis' Sweater Bag

Remember when I told you about going over to Phyllis' house to watch her convert to a bag a beloved sweater she knitted over 30 years ago? Anyways, I've finally got her to stand still for 30 seconds to take these pictures





She then "reined" in the design by having authentic horse reins attached as handles. So cool!

Beautiful!

Knit Mitt Kitt Swap

I totally neglected to post about this swap from Swap-bot. Here's the deal, you made a kit for knitted mittens (or gloves) that had to include yarn, needles, instructions and a hand made bag with which to tote it all in. Of course, many of us include other fun stuff. My swap buddy, Betty Parkes, was so generous with her goodies. I got some wonderfully soft alpaca yarn from Knit Picks and two nice and challenging glove instructions. In addition to all of that, Betty included some other fine crafty stuff - some stitch markers, a metal and beaded book marker, the coolest post-it cover made like a matchbook (I really liked that) and some chocolates and soap.

Thank you Betty!