Well, at least one reason I love to knit, is because I get pictures like this. Here is Adeline, our erstwhile baby blogger now grown into a little girl, modelling her new Bubblegum Baby Set: According to her equally adorable mom, Kristin (shown here recently with her second kiddo, baby Sullivan): "Addie insisted on wearing her new sweater and hat all weekend. You would be amazed by the number of compliments she received. Strangers kept asking me if I had made them. I was like, totally… this 5 month old and 2.5 month old just docilely read books while I... Continue reading

Hiya, all! Minnesota is experiencing a very strange spring indeed - heavy snowfalls this week caused power outages, within in a week of weather in the 70's. It is very strange to watch snow coating newly green grass. However, we are supposed to have some sunny, warmer days this week, which I'm hoping means that the snow is gone for good, at least for a few months. Even hardy Minnesotans have their limits! My dad is doing better; he was transferred to a rehab facility just 10 minutes from where he and Mom live. My sister finished her 2-week stint... Continue reading

Maybe it is because I turned 50; or maybe it is because I'm thinking a lot more lately about what you can accomplish in your lifetime, as my dad is in still the hospital (thank you so much for your kind comments. He's doing pretty well, recovering from surgery, but it is going to be a long time before he is home, mobile, and back to leading a normal life). But I find myself thinking a lot lately about the meaning of life, or more specifically, the meaning of my life. I recently attended a seminar on resilience and lawyers.... Continue reading

I've had a strange few weeks. Work has been really busy (with strange projects taking unexpected turns; I've had to wield unexpected skills in areas of public relations, mathematical analysis, and really hard-core negotiations regarding alleged payment defaults). On the personal side, things have been a bit fraught as well. One of my uncles passed away recently, so my son, Nathan, attended his first funeral this week. And my mom called at 5:30 AM on Thursday to tell me my dad was in the hospital; he's still there, going through some diagnostic tests while they figure out what is going... Continue reading

How can you NOT leave your heart in San Francisco? Such a feast for the senses; a visually stunning city, with kind and thoughtful people, incredible architecture, great food, perfect weather. The next few posts will be devoted to photos and descriptions of my trip. I think that was simply one of the loveliest, happiest weeks of my life. There is nothing like getting to spend time with the people you love best in the world, in a city so endlessly interesting and lovely. But first of all, I wanted to thank you all so much for the kind comments... Continue reading

Believe it or not... I've completed my Knitting On Top of the World Knitathon Journey, with the completion of the very last project in the book: The Great Plains Blanket Bag! This was a fun knit- two matching pieces of fair isle knitting for the front and back. I wove in all the thread ends, seamed up the sides and bottom: Then I put it in the washing machine in a zippered mesh bag in the hot water, in the cycle with the most agitation, let it spin to dry, and set it on top of some cardboard magazine boxes... Continue reading

Hello. I'm back from my whirlwind tour to New York to visit Nicky, to New Jersey to visit my parents, and to Massachusetts to visit my nephew. Taking 11 days off of work in a row took its toll on my workload, however, so here it is, a full week later, but I am just now getting the chance to tell you about my travels! I should get caught up at work by Valentine's day, just in time to get on a plane to visit my sister Susan in San Francisco. I flew in to NYC around dinnertime on Saturday,... Continue reading

I finally finished the Lisbon Lace Jacket! Can you say, WOO HOOOO!!!!!!! For those of you who are counting, that leaves only the Great Plains Blanket Bag, number 50! On Thursday night, I knitted the very last stitch on the matching fronts and backs, but now have a load of yarn-ends to weave through. And I'm leaving at noon to take a trip to the east coast through Sunday, Jan. 20- and this is not a great travel project. Not sure how the TSA feels about scissors, but I don't think I'll risk it. I'll finish it when I return.... Continue reading

OH! I wanted to get to the end of the KOTOTW Knitathon so badly within 3 years instead of 4! But although I am quite close, I won't be able to make it, considering today is December 30 and I have to work tomorrow. But I have no reason to be blue; my holidays have been busy but full and happy ones. Here are some fun pictures from Wuollet Bakery of their Christmas cakes and cupcakes; ever since they opened a branch in the Minneapolis skyway, I enjoy seeing what is in their windows! My friend from Russia, Anastasia, was... Continue reading

Finally, Minnesota had its first real snow day of the year - I think we had 7 to 11 inches down here in Apple Valley. I used my nifty "petite" snow blower 4 times (it is pretty much done in if the snow gets higher than 3"), and my very kind neighbor helped me when the plow came by and threw up a 2-foot berm at the end of the driveway. His little girls, Eden and Maia, stayed in the car with their mom, but popped out to give me a big hug before they drove away to church. I... Continue reading

Will I make it to the end of my KOTOTW journey by the end of 2012? Still too early to tell. But at least I lived through my big presentation at the RE institute and lived to tell the tale (PHEW!) There is no feeling so wonderful as stepping off the stage and realizing that your speech went just fine, all of your nightmares about (a) the audience falling asleep; (b) your being struck dumb and unable to speak; (c) your accidentally saying something that could be taken as a double entendre and would forever be associated with your name;... Continue reading

Hello, all. Thinking deep thoughts today; here's my latest revelation. I have spent most of my life thinking, "If I can just get through the next few days/weeks/months and finally catch up/finish/get through/complete X/Y/Z, then I'll be through the rapids and onto a calm place in the stream where I can catch my breath, relax, smell the roses. etc." But I think that is just a myth, a fairy tale I tell myself to help me keep plugging through X or Y or Z. Most, if not all, of life, actually IS the rapids. And it is up to me... Continue reading

it is amazing how productive I can be when I'm avoiding something- namely finishing the stitching-up of all those little motifs that make up the Lisbon Lace Jacket. I'm worried about how the sleeves go onto the rest of the body, and since my mannequin doesn't have arms, and Nathan at 6'4" with broad shoulders isn't exactly a suitable substitute (let alone the yowls of protest I would likely get if I asked a 16-year-old boy to try on a lacy jacket), I'm, well... stalling. But our old friend Anastasia is coming this Wednesday night through Sunday, and I bet... Continue reading

Thar Be Dragons! Yes indeedy, I've finally FINISHED something! (Sniff, sniff - I'm so proud). Not one, but TWO Hai Riyo Dragons: (They appear to be doing the tango...) I made two so I could send one to our fearless leader, Ms. Epstein (evidently hers went missing during a yarn shop gig!) (Update: She received the package, and was telling someone at Vogue Knitting about it, and they told her that her dragon has been in someone's cube there... so now she has two!) I always enjoy making "critters," as my friend Renay dubs anything knitted that is toy-like and... Continue reading

Sigh. I miss those weekends and evenings when I could actually relax and knit, without having to come home, turn on the computer, and start right back in digging out from under the ginormous amount of work that I seem to have agreed to do. The looming deadlines are really getting to me lately; both short-term and long-term, all the way from the emergency lease agreement that took up 2 solid days and nights this week, to the matter that has to close by next week (and the signatory goes to Europe on Tuesday, so tomorrow will be exciting, to... Continue reading

Hard to believe we are in August already! Sigh - I've been spoiled by the less frantic pace of life, while my son is on summer break. I haven't had to drop him off at school by 7:15 (somehow this has resulted in my not even being out of BED by 7:15 most mornings...) I've been busy with some work events; my friend (and assistant) Melissa both volunteered at the annual Gilda's Club Twin Cities golf event on July 23, and helped with a competition at the 'celebrity golf hole,' with local DJ BT Turner and friends. It was in... Continue reading

Well, you finish some, you start some... In case you are wondering what ever happened to the Lisbon Lace Jacket, well... I have been having a bit of a struggle in figuring out how to put it together. I tried first to lay out the pieces flat inside a pinned string outline of roughly the shape of each piece: But somehow I couldn't manage to follow the diagrams in the book in mirror-reverse. My pieces just didn't seem to fit together the same way, and the piece got distorted. Then, I tried to put the collar on my dressmaker's dummy... Continue reading

Since I'm always showing off my own knits on this blog, and I have so many amazing knitting friends, I thought I'd showcase some of the stunning stuff flying off their needles for a change! My sister Susan just finished a wonderful Norah Gaughan sweater called Nidden: Gorgeous! The front bands continue up around the back yoke. Gorgeous! (note the cool North Beach San Francisco backdrop...) I bet she'll get a lot of use out of this great neutral cardi. It is made in Berroco Linsey, a cottony lineny yarn, just right for the San Francisco climate. Needless to say,... Continue reading

... that is what my life feels like lately, so this blog post will reflect the roiling, confusing, don't-know-what-to-do-next muddle that is my life, and the too-many things I have been storing up to tell you. 1) Back from Chicago! Where Nathan and I saw tons of amazing Legos at Brickworld 2012: From Monty Python and the Holy Grail (It's only a flesh wound!) Anakin or Darth Vader, depending on where you are standing... A beautiful building... and the Village People at a Lego Rave! (Hard to make a minifig dance to "YMCA...") We also took time off from Lego-ing... Continue reading

As promised, I wanted to give you a tour of my wonderful birthday quilt this week. But first I realized I forgot to tell you some things about my fabulous birthday celebration. When my sister and I got home from the airport the night before we left for the knitting retreat, there was a strange styrofoam box of prodigious size sitting on my doorstep. Inside, was a feast of German baked goods from my sister Jenny, who lives in Dusseldorf! I spent some time in Germany and often crave their wonderful dark bread, and plum cake, and strudel, and the... Continue reading

Finally - I have a brand new computer that is up and working, and am ready to tell you all about my fabulous 50th birthday party! My friend Renay and my sister Susan really out-did themselves and planned a weekend long extravaganza, that was just wonderful fun from beginning to end. I worked a bit on my birthday (Thursday, May 10); I had to attend a fundraising breakfast (which hardly counts as work) for my favorite charity, Gilda's Club Twin Cities, Inc., and then introduce a speaker at the Hennepin County Bar Association Real Property Section's continuing legal education meeting.... Continue reading

WELL, I was all set on Sunday to sit down and tell ALL ABOUT my fantabulous 50th birthday celebration, and downloaded all of my photos, and started to try to re-size them... and then it happened. The dreaded BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!! Oi. Well, I remembered that Staples commercial on TV, and just brought the whole darn CPU to my local Staples, bought a new computer, and asked Rob (the charming salesguy) and Derek (the tech wizard who never met a hard drive he couldn't crack) to help me. Derek thinks that he was able to retrieve all my gigabytes... Continue reading

WOW, lots of stuff to share with you guys! I also wanted you to know, that I will work on getting some photos of the sweaters with me actually wearing them -- I have some company coming soon that might be willing to help out with a little photo shoot! Sorry for the radio silence; I had an unexpected computer glitch last week. I went to type a blog entry, and found out that all my files and photos were... gone! Wiped clean! My home computer has been sort of threatening to give up the ghost, but when it did,... Continue reading

One more KOTOTW project is finished! This is the Ottoman Empire Jacket. I lengthened the body slightly, but I didn't need to lengthen the sleeves. This was a truly enjoyable knit, with lots of my favorite things - a textured stitch body, Fair Isle sleeves, and a shawl collar. The shawl collar was knitted in two pieces and joined in the back - to make a more generous curve along the bottom edge in the back, I knitted short rows along the final rows of each collar in the back. The Julia yarn is very beautiful - 100% wool in... Continue reading