Knitting and Grandchildren

I have the honor of taking care of my oldest grandson this week-end. His parents went on a little trip to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary. It has been a great experience and one that I am always willing to take advantage of. He is a wonderful little 2 year old and we get along very well. Of course, he has grandma's undivided attention. We have been spending a lot of time playing "cars"





Grandpa was the only one who could "unwrap" the presents from their boxes--to get the toy un-hooked so Charlie could play with it.



I have even been able to get a little knitting done--during his nap times that is. I began knitting a scarf for the Winter Games for the Special Olympics. It is a project that I read about in a knitting magazine that I picked up at my local knitting store, Knitted Together. The magazine, Knit Simple, Holiday 2008, has a lot of wonderful gift ideas and the article about the Special Olympics scarf project caught my eye. The yarn is Coats and Clark's Red Heart in delft blue and white. The pattern is a simple garter stitch and is knit the length of the scarf, rather than the width. The ends are finished with 1" poms--4 on each end. I think it was the colors and the poms that I fell in love with. It works well with taking care of an active 2 year old as I can put it down and pick it up again without having to remember where I ended. I am hoping that the evening Stitch and a Prayer group will be willing to help out and knit a few scarves before the January deadline. I know I have a couple of new people to the group and since they have never knit before, this will be an easy project for them to begin their knitting obsession.

Obsession: that is how I describe my knitting. I can never have too many patterns, too many needles, too many tools, bags, and other knitting accessories. And the stash of yarn is taking over a small bedroom--well it isn't a bedroom anymore. I may have OCD--obsessive, complusive disorder--about my knitting. Is that a bad thing? I hope not.

Sweater Vest Project: I have almost completed one sweater vest for the grandsons. But I am struggling with the ribbing around the v-neck. I have started over on it so many times, that I am afraid I am wearing out the stitches around the neck line. I don't know what I am doing wrong!! It is very frustrating. Perhaps that is why I switched to something easy--a scarf for a charitable cause. How do you handle knitting when it isn't going so well? I don't want to give up on this project either. I have another one to do, but would like to get it figured out before I complete the second vest. AGGGGGHHHHH!

A Two Year Old

We celebrated Charlie's second birthday yesterday. It was a Cars theme (you know, Cars the Disney movie). He got a lot of gifts--a ton of hot wheel type cars and a few clothes. There were about 25 people at his party. Matt grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. The rest of the lunch was very good--Nikki made her great potato salad, Matt made his wonderful version of baked beans and Matt's step-grandmother brought broccoli raisin salad, but the variation was she used cranraisins instead of regular raisins. There were cupcakes for dessert. And all of the children attending received treat bags and a car made out of gum, peanut butter cups, peppermint patties, and miniature Hershey bars. There was even a "stoplight" treat made out of graham crackers, frosting and red, yellow and green M&M's.

I managed to get Charlie down for a nap, but he really didn't want to leave all of his new toys. I know he was exhausted by the end of the evening. He really did have a good time with all of his friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. It is hard to believe that he is two years old already!
I will post some pictures very soon.

Knitting for Charity

A group of women at our church have been meeting regularly to knit hats for charity. When the group first started, there were 2 groups--an afternoon group and an evening group. The evening group sort of fell by the wayside for a time, but now it is beginning again. I am excited because I can actually attend the evening group and got to help decide when it would meet. It will meet on the first and third Monday evenings of each month. We are hoping that several others will join us and are encouraging anyone who wants to learn how to knit to come along for the "ride". I have even made up beginning knitting kits for the newbies to checkout and use until they are comfortable knitting.

The group is called "A Stitch and a Prayer" and you can click on the link in My Favorite Places to see what the afternoon girls have been doing.

September, ALREADY???

Where does time go? It is flying by and there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do. Is anyone else having the same experience?

School is back in session and I have meet with my class for 2 sessions. There are 20 in the course. They are all going to be teachers and I have the great opportunity to guide them in the use of technology integration in their classrooms. I took photos of them all on the first day of class-mainly so I could remember who they all are and learn their names.

Charlie will soon be 2 years old. He is quite the little guy--talking more and more each day. He definitely has a mind of his own--hmmm, so did his mother at this age. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree--or so the saying goes.

Kalub does his best to keep up with Charlie. He loves being with his cousin. They are so cute together. They run and chase each other and laugh and laugh. It is fun to watch.