Time Flies!

Wow, time does fly or so it seems. It certainly doesn't feel like weeks and months have gone by, but they have. The pain I feel in my heart is less, only by a small bit, but still, it doesn't hurt as much. I still burst out crying at the most inopportune moments, but I'm dealing with those as well. I don't think I will ever stop missing my sister, but I will continue to live my life as if she were still around since I know she's not far in my heart.

What have I been doing?

Looking for a job, any job! And there's not a heck of a lot out there. Mostly ads from temp agencies who are collecting resumes. Big whoop! And the few legitimate job ads that do show up every few days are flooded with applications I'm sure. With all the layoffs, I'm not the only one searching for a job. I keep applying with the hope that my resume will be first in line and that someone will actually read it over.

I've been knitting and crocheting a lot! I made wristwarmers for a very special friend's birthday in a lovely shade of blue, her favorite! :)

I'm still working on the Adamas shawl for a friend of a friend. But with the summer heat setting in, worsted weight yarn in a large shawl does not set well on my lap. I've also got another shawl in the works, but again, the heat is not amusing for shawl work.

I've made several more washcloths which will end up in a Christmas package for my Mom. Still have to do something else though. Sending just washcloths seems cheap in a way.

I'm currently working on a dress for Xandy. This will be for fall when she starts school! It's dark pink with a lovely frill of Bernat satin faded glory ombre shade. I'll also be doing the front bodice using the satin as well as a small frill or cap for the sleeves. Right now, the bottom frill is killing me! LOL I have 528 stitches to purl, and k2tog, yo, k1 that is taking forever to do one repeat of! But once the frill is done, I'll be going down to ONLY 264 stitches! That should speed things up.

The pattern I'm using as a base is from Knit 'N Style June 2007, Viva la Violet dress, size range 2T to 6 years. I'm knitting the size 6 just to make sure the dress will be worn more than just one season.

I've been stewing over ideas about what I want to make for Christmas presents. Just have to get them down on paper and actually start making them.

The blanket for my son is slowly growing. I have the 24 outer squares done. Started working on the first of the 24 inside squares last night. Thankfully the squares are small enough 8x8 that I don't end up with a lapful of worsted weight yarn. Much too warm for that!

My darling daughter is looking for yarn for a summer top she wants. She found it in a back issue of Sandra magazine. Model 29 I hope she finds yarn that she likes so I can knit it for her.

I started knitting a curtain. The whole thing started when I spotted a cone of laceweight yarn in a lovely teal shade that was only 2 dollars at the local Talize store! I bought it thinking I could experiment using it on my Passap 201 knitting machine. But, alas, it was not to be. The solid metal workings of the Passap literally ripped the poor laceweight yarn to shreds. So back in it's box went the Passap. Out came the crochet hook as well as several skeins of a white acrylic laceweight yarn that I didn't know what to do with and I combined the two together. I found a lovely lace pattern in my stitch encyclopedia and off I went! The curtain is 24 inches wide by about 14 inches in height at this point. It needs to reach aproximately 24 inches in height and then it will replace the faux lace curtains that are falling apart from old age in the bedroom window. I'll take pics soon! I promise!

I finally found a pattern for a fall/spring jacket or coat that I like. Mind you, it will need some modifications since the collar and lack of buttons doesn't do it for me. But what else is a knitting pattern for except to modify and make it to suit yourself!?! My darling daughter purchased a large number of Bernat Solo which is a chunky yarn and would be perfect for this jacket. The pattern I found is from the free downloads at Knit 'N Style and is called Wrap Jacket.

The oversized collar is going to be turned into hood. I'll be adding a button band since I don't like my coats flapping in the wind. And since I love cables, there will be some added cabling but that remains to be seen. I still have to work out how I'm going to do it.

I love the overall construction, just don't like the collar and closure.

And last but not least, as some of you know, I play Neopets. Last week, the Random contest was called Life sized, and asked members to recreate one of their petpets in a life sized version. I chose my catamara Chewie to be the designated victim.

Using basic amigurumi techniques I crocheted this little guy and submitted pictures. I won! Came in the first place group which really was amazing! And this is what my little guy looks like.

Happy Birthday

Today would have been my sister's 40th birthday. I can't even begin to express how much I miss her, talking with her, joking and laughing.

The above picture is how I remember her best. I left home when I was 18 and she was only 10.

Happy birthday ma belle Roxy.

Someone mentioned that the poem in the picture was difficult to read.

When I miss you, I don't have to go far, I just have to look inside my heart because that's where I'll find you.

Homecoming

My brother is going home today!

The doctors are astounded at his recovery rate. The right eye they said was dead is now discerning shadows and movements and he could see as though through a thick fog the 3 fingers his wife held up. This is amazing in itself! He still has issues with paralysis in his face, especially his upper lip but the doctors are hopeful that with time, movement will return to that area. The nerve pathways are filled with blood and debris from the accident and until these things are cleared away, the nerves won't function properly. It may take up to 6 months before any discernible changes happen. The doctors compared this to Bell's Palsy which affects the facial nerves.

The other good news is that his career as an EMT may not be over after all. There is discussion of rehabilitation, re-training, testing and eventually he may be able to drive an ambulance. At this point, he is still an EMT, but would not be allowed to drive which is understandable.

Everyone is cheering him on, his fellow workers are there for him at the drop of a hat as are his wife's friends. Over the past couple of weeks, friends have gone over to their home daily and fed the farm animals, cleaned the house, stocked the freezer with ready to eat meals, cut the grass and many more chores that need doing. Both his children finally got to see their Dad last week. It was a joyful reunion as both of them are Daddy's boy and girl. Considering their age, 5 and 8, it's normal, but it was still a special time for them to be able to see Daddy again.

Thank you to all who have sent messages of support, said prayers and helped in any way possible. All these gestures have contributed to healing my brother and I am grateful.

Life is short, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.

and there was great rejoicing!!!

My darling little brother is AWAKE!!!

The doctor took him off the sedative in order to do an accurate EEG and my brother woke up! He recognised everyone, spoke despite the broken jaw and even made jokes with the nurse. He remembers everything that happened except for a short period of time after the accident. This is the most amazing news and by far the bestest news!



For everyone who sent encouragement, prayers, kind thoughts and strength, thank you!

And the angels danced! (this beautiful angel is my daughter)

Life

Sometimes, life hands you things that you really don't want to deal with. Once again, our family has been hit. My baby brother is in ICU in critical condition after a freak accident while helping a friend.

To make a long story short, since I tend to be long winded at times, he fell into a deep trench and hit his head on a large stone. He has fractured just about every bone in his skull and face including his jaw. He also suffers from a severe concussion and has to be kept sedated, despite the fact that he is in a coma, to minimize movement.

He's already gone through one surgery to remove a blood clot and move some bone pieces that were putting pressure on his brain. There will be more surgeries once the swelling goes down to wire his jaw, reconstruct his cheek bone and repair the two breaks in his skull, one large break across his forehead and another smaller break at the back of his skull caused by the impact.

One cheering point to the past couple of days was this photo my daughter sent of herself. She attended a bartending competition at her workplace and a professional makeup artist offered to paint her face. Such a pretty girl is my daughter.

WIP it Good!

I finally did it! I finished my daughter's hoodie!

She is the most patient child when it comes to getting things. I started this hoodie with the intention of gifting it to her for her birthday which was last October. Since that didn't work out, I was planning on gifting it to her for Christmas. Again, life kept me from working on it. Then I managed to finish all the pieces but needed to get a matching zipper. After a trip to various sewing notion stores with darling daughter in tow, we finally found a matching zipper!

Now that I had the zipper, it occured to me that I had not a clue on how to install it on a knit item! I can machine sew a zipper in minutes flat, but I couldn't machine sew this one. A wonderful lady on Ravelry gave me the method to sew a zipper to knitting and I could finally move forward. I sewed in the zipper and worked in all the yarn ends and finally my daughter got her hoodie last week!

She adores it and wears it everywhere! I didn't have a chance to wash it before giving it to her, but she did wash it and a wonderful plus, it got softer and cushier. The pattern Li'l Red Riding Hoodie came from the book Domiknitrix and was supposed to be done in wool. Since she is allergic to wool, the hoodie is made of Georga acrylic yarn, 2 strands held together throughout. It makes for a nice thick fabric that's soft and cuddly. Two other requests from my daughter were that I not add the sweatshirt style pockets and the elbow twisted stitch patches. I also lengthened the ribbing on the sleeves to accomodate her long arms. Otherwise, the pattern is true to form.

Surprise!!!!!!! and more...

I will have to blog separately for the rest of last week since it turned out to be an incredible birthday week instead of just one day. This has never happened to me before and I'm completely blown away.

I wanted to post about this first since this came as a total surprise to me. I had entered an anniversary giveaway on this blog. I like Carrie's blog, she has interesting posts about knitting, life and is very crafty and exciting.

Little did I know that entering her 300th blog post surprise giveaway would lead me to receiving a much wished for item as I was the winner! Here is the post about my prize which I am excitedly waiting for. Even my husband was very impressed with how beautiful the functional jewelry piece is.

Thank you Carrie for a beautifully crafted one of a kind yarn cutter. I never dreamed I'd finally get one and gorgeous to boot. Thank you!

You can see other works of art at Kelly's etsy shop. Her work has a heavy celtic influence which fits my taste to a T.