Pumpkin Sunrise

This weekend was quite eventful.  Our daughter graduated from university on Saturday.  The ceremony was held outside and we lucked out having sunny skies and mild temperatures!  Our son missed most of the graduation because he was at district tennis playoffs for singles.  He unfortunately (or fortunately) lost the very first match.  This meant that he was able to whip over and catch the very end of her graduation. We also attended a luncheon for top honor graduates.   Sunday was relaxing and peaceful with walking, talking, knitting and being together----a perfect Mother's day :) Weekending hosted by Amanda at habit of being .

I casted on for the swallowtail shawl yesterday and so far it is a really fun pattern.  I chose lace weight yarn .  My sister is using fingering weight yarn, I have no idea what brand or color.....yet.  Anybody and everybody who is interested in knitting this shawl with us is more than welcome.  The pattern can be found here .  The yarn that you choose is pretty flexible-lace, fingering or DK/sport.  Also in the pattern the designer gives you approximate yardage needed.  I am always thrilled when a designer has charts included. I seem to knit super fast with a chart.   Today we will be moving all of our daughter's "stuff" from her dorm room back home.  That means that my clean house will be a mess.  Now by clean I mean uncluttered.  My house could always use a dusting or a sweep up.  I am looking forward to her being here and going on outings (she is always up for a car ride!).  She has her last final sometime this afternoon and then she will be done with und

I sure am glad I did not reveal what I started two days ago with this brown alpaca silky lace because it went into the frog pond.  I cannot really pinpoint why I was not thrilled with the scarf, but I just wasn't thrilled.  So this beautiful yarn will become a swallowtail shawl .  I do believe my favorite sister (and only sister) might be joining me for a little knit along!  I need to call her and confirm that.  I think it is a tragedy that I have not knit this very popular shawl and that needs to be remedied. And speaking of favorite sisters, last Thanksgiving for either my birthday gift or for a Christmas gift, I cannot remember which one since I opened both, she gifted me this super lovely Madelintosh merio light skein.  I am happy to say that it will become another traveling woman shawl .  I have knitted this before and blogged about it here .  I thoroughly enjoyed this project and I ended up giving the shawl to my step mother for Christmas.  So I really need to make one tha

I am still reading Water for Elephants.   I am find it interesting especially since my son really enjoyed the book.  We frequently have similar tastes in novels.  I was doubting the similarity when I first started reading and then last night the plot thickened! So I must say it is too soon to give an opinion, I need to finish the book!  On my needles is my cardigan  which I just blogged about here . The progress is slow and I am getting a little impatient to have it finished. I am also working on a scarf but will post about it tomorrow if I do not rip it out first.  I am feeling quite wishy washy about whether I want to continue knitting. Today I have a lot of errands to run.  They should not take me long to do.  All of the regular tennis matches are finished.  Now it is just practices the next two weeks for district play offs.  May is such a busy month with tennis, prom, and end of the year banquets at the school.  It always flies by! Joining Ginny for her Yarn Along.

Finally finally finally!  I am on the front shaping.  I thought I would never ever get there.  I love knitting on tiny needles (these are size 4) but at some point during a big project, like a cardigan, I think I must have lost my mind to make a sweater with a small gauge.  And yet I want to make another featherweight cardigan , go figure.  Since the front of this cardigan  is a deep v-neck, the shaping is going at lightening speed.  Before you know it I will be posting about the sleeves. I just could not resist a picture of Frodo with his new hair cut (can't tell because of the big old mustache and beard he sports).  In this picture he was being nosy.

On Saturday, daughter and I went to a local craft fair in town.  They block off the main street and vendors display their items for sale.  There are also lots of non profit groups with kiddie games and information.  Of course there are food vendors selling everything that is not healthy in a diet......but it sure does smell so good!  I forgot to take pictures while browsing the vendors.  I did managed to buy a jar of homemade jam and a bar of homemade soap.  The first three pictures were from the town.  Can you believe they had donkeys?   The last picture of the dogwood is from my front yard.   This week our daughter moves back home from university and we will have both kids home until mid to late August.  My house will be so much more messy and disorganized.  However, August will be the very first time both kids are off to college and we will only have Frodo.  I feel like I have almost completed my job as a parent. Are we really ever completely done?  I am looking fo

Yippee!  I finished another shawl.  This one  was a lot of fun to knit.  I really enjoyed the garter stitch for the main body of the shawl.  I sort of wished that I had more yarn so that I could keep going on the feather and fan portion of the shawl.  The pattern was quite easy and very well written.  The yarn  could have been a little bit softer but I still like it.  If you are a beginner knitter you might want to try this pattern for a first lace shawl project!

A whole bunch of thunderstorms came through last night and our table umbrella is lying on the pool cover!  So I thought I would post some pictures I took last week when it was chilly and spring was slowly evolving.  I couldn't resist putting a picture of Frodo in :)  He will be visiting his "beauty salon" tomorrow and will be a new man when I pick him up......oh and he will smell really really good. The last photo is the duck pond at the bottom of my hill.  It belongs to someone else but I feel like it is mine.  Every day when you drive by it you always have to yield to the ducks and geese.  The ducks are pretty easy going but the geese act so insulted when they have to move.  I have not seen any babies yet but they are always in abundance through out the spring, summer and fall.

This past week I started to read Water for Elephants  by Sara Gruen upon the recommendation from my son.  He really really enjoyed this book.  So I thought I would give it a try.  Frequently when he likes a book I will like it.  So far it is interesting and has not been a slow read.  For knitting, I am still  working on the Mermaid Tail's Shawl .  I should be finished by this weekend. I also continue to work on my cardigan  but am still on the back armhole shaping.  I have to admit that it has been neglected most of the week.   Today is the last home game for tennis!  As long as it does not rain. Yesterday was another hot and humid day.  I am not terribly fond on humidity it makes my joints hurt.  Luckily there will be a cold front moving on through by the weekend. For more knitting and reading posts take a look at Ginny's Blog- Small Things .

Even though this shawl is an enjoyable knit, I have made it to the best part!  Feather and Fan stitch always reminds me of my mother.  She would always make a blanket out of feather and fan stitch.  In keeping with tradition, I made a blanket many years ago with the same stitch that is in our family room.  It also makes great baby blankets!  The main reason that I selected this pattern is because I can keep knitting the feather and fan stitch until I run out of yarn. We went to another tennis match yesterday and boy oh boy was it hot and humid outside.  Our son lost his match but his opponent was polite and quite talented.  He has three more matches and the season is over.  All that is left is district tennis which will be on Saturdays.  It seems like his senior year went so slow and now that April is almost over it is whizzing by!  

Our daughter turned 21 over the weekend and we celebrated by going out to dinner and eating yummy cake.  Why can't the high calorie stuff be good for you?  We bought her a variety of books, a bento box for her lunches, and an armband for her ipod touch so she can exercise AND listen to music. My husband surprised me with some lovely tulips on Friday!  I really hope when we plant them outside the rabbits stay away from them.  It would be nice to have these tulips bloom again next spring. I came up with a brilliant idea for Easter dinner.  We earned a free turkey at our supermarket for Thanksgiving (because of all the money we spend there) and it has been in the freezer without any plans for it.  So this Easter I thought why not turkey instead of ham?  I did not realize that the turkey weighed 19 pounds! So I thought it would be neat to make broth/stock out of the turkey bones.  I ended up in the kitchen for most of the afternoon and evening washing dishes, cuttin