Knitting and Fondue Makes A Great Combo!

In the late summer of 2008, my niece Allyson and her daughter Hannah (making me a Great Aunt) decided to learn to knit. We started to get together more regularly to work on projects and so that I could help them if they had questions or got into a jam. Driving 2 hours to my house for our Family KnitFest started to become a regular thing.....which I think is a perfect way to spend a weekend day!

On one of these days, Grant had a rare day off and so not wanting to be left out, he pulled out his Knitting Supplies that he received at one of the Padre's Stitch N Pitch games.

FLASHBACK: At that particular game Petco Park handed out a beer cooler with two balls of yarn and a set of knitting needles to people for that Stitch N Pitch. Enough to make a scarf. I told Grant that since he received this knitter's pack he HAD to knit something. He immediately started knitting along with Janeva and later interviewed for an online magazine.


Not to be outdone by the rest of us knitting on our projects, Grant decided to prepare an elaborate Fondue to graze on during our Family KnitFest.

So knitting and grazing that day led to two completed projects. I finished the Rusted Root sweater for Hannah.

Allyson finished her first project, a baby blanket for one of her co-workers. More projects have been started since our Family KnitFests began and it looks like there will be more of us attending the Stitch N Pitch games this year too!!

The Winterberry Hat

I'm on a roll....another post about a knitting project!!!

In October 2008, I took a class for this Winterberry Hat at Lori's Frames Fibers and Frills in Alpine, CA. The pattern design was developed by Charlie Hada, one of THE best knitting mentors/teachers one could hope to find. I will say now that it has been a privilege to have had the opportunity to be in her class for 6 years and to continue on with Athena who started out as Charlie's assistant.

This is a perfect project if you want some instant gratification. It took less than a week to knit up and then with a little extra embellishing using French Knots, Duplicate Stitch and a Lazy Daisy or two it just looks like a intricate pattern that required so much more time.

This is a great project for winter gifting if you need something FAST.

Hannah received this hat as a birthday gift and I was tickled to death by her reaction. Everyone should have a Hannah to knit for!!

Cabled Coat Survived

Started this project approx 2 weeks after receiving Vogue Knitting in the mail in 2007.

Fun knit, lots of pattern and texture going on. Ran into a few problems initially on the charting of one of the cables but it was fairly quick and easy to correct.

It took roughly 5 weeks for me to knit all the pieces. The problem I ran into was the constructing the pieces together. I would baste it all together and then the seaming would just look “off” and didn’t sew together as nicely and neatly as the knitting appeared. Frustrated I set this project aside and would occasionally pick it up and in frustration set it aside again.



Seriously, this project caused me a bad case of “Knitter’s Constipation”. I could finish it, hated not finishing it so I felt guilty when I’d start and finish projects while it sat in a corner of the closet.

November of 2008 I found out that a good friend and knitting mentor, Charlie Hada was starting a finishing service. She agreed to put this sweater together for me and NOW I LOVE IT! I felt vindicated too because she found it a challenge as well.

Charlie’s finishing is flawless, the seaming particularly around the collar and the center seam on the collar with matching the cable stitches perfectly just blow me away. I could never have imagined that this would come together so beautifully after all my attempts.

Sadly, my photography doesn’t do it justice.

Eyeing the situation.......

At first I thought Grant had a reaction when he saw this year's Christmas bill.......but it turns out he caught a box with his eyeball while at work.

He was very lucky and the doctor said he should fully recover in about four to six weeks.

That should give him enough time to write a best selling novel about a dysfunctional family and their holiday celebrations, eh?

Massive Bailout

Another kind of a Massive Bailout dumped by The Bluebird of Happiness is my guess.

Seriously this bird had to be scary HUGE given it's dump capacity.

National Photo Exposure

Last May we were in the midst of a hectic end of school year schedule. Jillian was graduating High School and turning 18, Janeva was graduating Middle School and turning 14, and Grant's daughter Angela flew in from Australia and was turning 19. All three girls have birthdays in a three week span. Grant planned a birthday bash which would be a kick off for his daughter's visit with us. A lot of our Geocaching friends came to Peter Piper Pizza to celebrate Angela's arrival and all the girl's birthdays.

I was taking pictures throughout the evening. Among the pictures were random shots of all the girls individually, together, and coupled at random. They were just your normal snapshots of time. I have always been a prolific photographer at family events so this was no different.

I think it last July or August that I was viewing some of my favorite websites. One of my clicks took me to the Family Circle Magazine website and I saw a photo contest link. The photo contest was themed "Family Time Photo Contest". I read the rules and thought it looked interesting and I thought it would be fun to submit a few of my photos.

I went through my files and piles of photos and decided on four or five photos that would fit the theme beautifully and were some of my personal favorites.

On the 17th of November I received an email from the editor of Family Circle Magazine notification that I had won third prize and requesting more information....address, full name etc. Out of some 5900 entries, one of my photos won third prize!! I was in total shock and some what disbelieving. Two days before Thanksgiving, I received a very official package asking me to sign a release so the photo can be published in an upcoming issue and to sign off the tax papers in order to receive my prizes. One prize arrived yesterday and THAT is when all of this became real to me. OMGosh!! I WON THIRD PRIZE IN A NATIONAL CONTEST FOR A MAJOR PUBLICATION!!!

The problem is, I don't know WHICH photo won so now I'm dying of curiosity now to find out which one of the photos will be published!

I am now a Mobile Blogger!

I am now a Mobile Blogger, thanks to the new camera phone that Grant surprised me with. (Thank you Honey!)