Back to crafting

After the last post, I think it is time to return to all things crafty. I have been working on lots of things lately and have even finished a couple projects. A purse for Kelley and one for myself using a free pattern from jcaroline

A cast cover, for the broken arm that wasn't.

I also went back to knitting group last week after a looooooong hiatus. I am working on a gift for my soon to be born nephew, so I will wait to post a pic until it is sent to my sis-in-law.

I have also been working on knitting Coppelia for Chloe and I am LOVING the look. I modified the yarns quite a bit because the Berroco Tutu is about $15 a skein and I need 6! I wasn't sure how it would work out, but it is great and I might have enough leftover to make a skirt for my Lily.

So, I decided to make some simple nightgowns for my girls for the summer, but Lily has decided she wants a dress to wear outside, so now I am trying to figure out how to make one with the limited fabric I have. I am probably going to wing something without a pattern similar to this, wish me luck.

In the next post, I will recap our wonderful trip to Mexico. Stay tuned.

Mark

On April 14th, my mom's partner, my (almost) stepdad, and a wonderful grandpa to my kids, suddenly passed away leaving a giant hole in our hearts.

He always had his arms open to hold a child.

He was more than willing to change poopy diapers.

He looked up science experiments on the internet to do with my kids.

He starved so he could take my mom on a date.

He waited up for me and my sisters.

He was teaching Lily how to ride without training wheels.

He was a fantastic writer and I wish I had saved more of his e-mails.

He was a dog walker, dog trainer, and dog groomer.

He loved gardening and was my mom's "lawn boy".

He was always reading and knew facts about any topic.

He was always so grateful and appreciative for what he had.

I will miss him immensely.

Brush with greatness

The Yarn Harlot (aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) came to speak in Ann Arbor last night and I convinced a non-knitter friend (Thanks, Megan!) to go with me to hear her speak. We got there an hour early and there was no seating in the main room, in fact some people got there at 11:30am for a 7 o'clock talk! That's dedication. We sat in an overflow room, which also filled up, and got to see her on a big TV.

Her talk was quite interesting, about how knitters are viewed by non-knitters and why knitting is not a "mindless, waste of time activity" (which knitters already know). I waited in line for 1.5 hours to have some of her books signed, which seemed excessive, but I got to meet some great people while waiting. In fact, that may have been the best part about the whole thing, getting to be together with such a large group of knitters and meeting some great people.

Ravelry

I am finally on Ravelry, yippee! Most of you (2 people that read this blog) are like "WTF is Ravelry and who cares", but it is a very cool knitting community and a great way to keep track of your knitting projects and see what others are up to. I am a dork, I know, but what can I say the website is beyond cool. No more scouring the net for the "just right" pattern, I can find it in Ravelry. It only took me an hour to figure out how the put the button on my page (yes, I am a dork who knows nothing about HTML) (look to the right), so if it doesn't link, my name is magwilky, not original, but easy to remember.

Hope to see some of my knitter buds on there soon and maybe make some new ones.

Jon and Kate + 8

This show makes my life look calm. Thank you for that.

April fools???

Well, it's April and hovering around the freezing mark, gotta love Michigan. There was snow on the ground for Easter, 2 years in a row now! I thought I took a picture, but I think I was far too depressed.

I will leave you with some adorable pics of my girls on Easter Eve and Easter. Despite the snowy weather and illnesses, we had a lovely holiday.

I'm baaaack!

Wow, I cannot believe it has been almost a year since I have posted anything. Yikes, so much has happened. I signed up for Ravelry and am waiting for my invite, so I figured I'd better get back on the blog. I would love to become a part of the internet community of crafters that I lurk around in on a daily basis.

I have been crafting like a fiend, my new love has been sewing, but knitting, I haven't forgotten you! I will hopefully get a Flickr finished objects doohickey on here whenever I can figure out how.

Speaking of Flickr, I got a new camera (Yay!), a digital SLR, which I love, love, love, so I will be posting pics of my kids ad nauseum (grandparents won't mind at least) and probably other random items as well. If only I could photograph as well as Dooce!