Knitting Paragon

KNITTING: to make a fabric by looping yarn together with special needles. PARAGON: a model of perfection or excellence.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Our wedding day


We will be celebrating our eighth anniversary on Monday, January 28th. This weekend the Boys are heading to grandma & grandpa's house for an overnight and we are heading to a movie and dinner. Truth be known, we'll probably rent a movie, come home, pop some corn and end up falling asleep by 10 p.m., but we'll see...even so, this has been an awesome eight years.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Happy birthday

Boy A at 6 months




Boy B at six months



Together at 15 months. (Boy A is in yellow, Boy B in green)


And here they are being a little silly this fall before starting school (Boy A is in front, Boy B in back):


Oh how time flies.

We have a big day planned. When dad comes home from working a half day, we are going to their favorite restaurant, "Big Boy" then to the bowling alley. They have never been. Then, this evening my mom and sister are coming over for their favorite meal: macaroni and cheese surprise (the surprise is ground beef). Then chocolate cake. Yum.

Six years ago today, after a long and strict bed-rest pregnancy, we were heading to town for an anniversary dinner before my 1 p.m. appointment for a stress test on the babies. We knew this would be the day. Sure enough, my blood pressure forced a C-section delivery of two perfect boys. Even though they were four weeks early they were both over 5 lbs. It had been a long road, but one worth taking every curve and bump.

Happy birthday my boys.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Ravelry

Playing catch up

Halloween:


Boy B is the ghost and Boy A is the frog. I know the frog costume is creepy, but he was happy.


We drove to my brother-in-law's to trick or treat in their town with their cousin who is a little older. It rained and rained, and then rained some more while we roamed the neighborhoods, all while the boys begged for candy. (The alm


Christmas:

Frosting cookies (well, eating frosting...same thing).



Christmas Eve with my family. One of the many gifts from grandma were cap guns. I had a headache by the end of the afternoon. The boys love them.



Christmas morning came early. 3:20 a.m. early. These parents did not cave, however, we sent them back to bed to wait until at least 6 a.m. Of course, that doesn't mean we slept.

Boy A has been wanting a dolly for two years. Red is his favorite color. You can imagine his surprise when he woke to find this:





Santa was good to us all. It was a very Cars Christmas at our home. My Santa brought me many gift certificates, a bubbly and hot foot bath and a new purse. DH received the software he had been wanting for the toy he got for his birthday.

I did do some knitting between the middle of October and the new year. I made a "necklet scarf" (my own pattern and sorry, no photo) for one of the doctors I work with. The Andean Silk from Knitpicks was great to work with. I used pitch (black) and have some left over to make another scarf. I also knitted a purse for my mom based on the Sophie Bag pattern. I made mom's a little larger. I also made a pocket thingy that goes inside to hold small items and her phone.

In the past few weeks I have finished the Christmas stocking (out of stashed acrylic yarns) and have a good five inches into the second of four we'll need. I made a baby kimono: from this book.



You need to know that this is all I had left. Seriously.


I got down to the last few rows and had my knitting group praying that I had enough to finish and bind off. With six stitches left to bind off — I ran out. I had to cannibolize from one of the longer tails enough to finish off those six. Of course, using the mattress stitch means no worries about the seaming yarn showing. White yarn worked just fine.

I also made this pair of multi-colored booties and mom made one and a half of the white pair (I finished it off and seamed them). Last night, while watching the boys roller skate for two hours, I whipped out a pair of baby mitts (thumbless). If you want to know the patterns to the booties or baby mitts, place a comment at the end of this blog entry and I'll lead you right to them. They are free!

The baby kimono, booties and mitts are for a local charity.

This brings us to the boys' birthday. It is this Monday, January 21. They will be 6-years-old. It is hard to believe that six years ago today, I was ballooning up into pre-eclampsia and DH and I both knew that, when I had my check-up on that day (also a Monday), I would be having a couple of babies, not just a check-up. We purposely ate at Red Lobster to somewhat celebrate our anniversary (it's the 28th) before going to the appointment. That stunt cost me not having the C-section until 7 p.m. The food was great though!

Currently, I am working on another baby kimono for someone at my office who requested one to purchase. I have many things I want to knit including some great garter stitch mittens for the boys and myself. The Baby Surprise Jacket pattern arrived at my door last week. I still have a sock on needles (who doesn't?).

Whew!
What a relief it is to have all of this off my shoulders!

Oh, and by the way, you can find me on Ravelry these days. I am still working on loading pictures of projects and stash, etc., but if you're a Raveler, come on over and look me up! Now I need to get a Ravelry button on my blog.

My work is never done...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Zillion things

What is a person to do? It has been since before Halloween that I wrote a post. Friends and relatives are pestering me to write and I want to write. I have things to write about. I have pictures to make those writings more interesting. I simply have many things to say, but...

Here's the conundrum:

Do I: A) post a zillion things with a zillion pictures all at once or do I: B) post chronologically but slowly so not to overwhelm you? What do you think? Does it even matter? Am I just procrasting even more by asking you? (don't answer that)

I better run to get my camera and start uploading all of the pictures. Beginning with Halloween costumes. Oh boy!