My kids have a somewhat warped sense of humor.  Can't think where they got it from. So we present to you what I got for Mother's Day yesterday when I had asked for a flowered coffee cup.

Flowers from the rose bush in the yard: Free

Gifts from Barnes & Noble with a gift card I already had (thanks Kathy!): Paid for

Getting that floral cup: Priceless 

Yes, I have one.  So here, on my knitting blog, I want to confess…I crochet, too.  Not too much any more, because I like the look of knitted items better, but there are some things that you can only crochet.  Like the string bag from a Bernat newsletter I got this weekend, that I made in honor of Earth Day:


I know, it’s very pink, not “green” at all, but this IS me we are talking about.  I asked James if he would consider using it in our weekly shopping run to Aldi, but he refused.  Not because of the string bag idea, but due to its extreme pinkness.  It’s just that I don’t HAVE that much non-pink cotton yarn!  Or non-pink (red/burgundy/purple/lavender) yarn of any kind, really.  I do seem to have some forest green kitchen cotton, so I might make another one for him.  It went really fast – I started it Saturday night and finished it Sunday afternoon, and that included figuring it out and making it bigger than the pattern.  I made the strap too long, too; the idea was to use it as a shoulder bag for taking stuff to work.  The strap is too long anyway; the pattern calls for making it 18 inches long. I was just crocheting along on it and one minute it was 12” long, and the next it was 22”.  It does go over my shoulder rather handily, though.

There is interesting knitting news too, though.  I subscribe to Berocco’s weekly newsletter, and I confess that I have on occasion made fun of their patterns.  Some of them are, well, not very sophisticated, particularly the free ones.  OK, OK, some of them are downright fugly  .  So imagine my surprise when I got an email telling me that I had won a free sweater kit!  There are a couple of catches in that…you have to pick from two most recent books,, and you have to take the yarn in the color shown in the picture.  This is the one I ended up picking: 

The yarn is rayon, linen and silk, and I like the color.  I probably won’t make the wrap, but there should be enough for a cardigan from it, I think.  So now I feel bad about making fun of their patterns.  Kinda.  If you want to know why I don’t feel worse, click on the two links above the photo.

Happy Earth Day -- go do something nice for the planet.  Especially if it involves knitting (or even crochet...)

New technology!  I am at home today, supervising Katie's room renovation.  She rounded up two of her friends and they are painting her room, previously a lovely pink.  Now it is white with one black "accent wall."   Actually we got blackboard paint for the black wall, and it's going to be kind of neat.  Katie can write the song lyrics of the week or whatever she wants to, and then erase it when things change.

Here is the work gang, I mean the kids painting...

The  new technology part is my new laptop.  I got a refund from my taxes this year so I used  part of it on this little cutie:


We also had some sock knittage over the last month or so while I haven't been blogging.  I finished the pair from my German souvenir yarn (Regia Canyon colors):



and started a new pair in Knitpicks new sock yarn, Felici.  This color is called Arugula, and even though I'm not generally a green lover, I really like this one.  The yarn is really nice too...very soft for a machine-washable yarn that is part nylon.  Not bad for $5 a ball instead of $8 or 10!


As for the room renovation, the ladies are pretty much done painting now.  Katie just has to bully, um I mean ASK her brother to help her carry her stuff back into the room when the paint dries.  I haven't had to do anything except buy the paint and a couple of pizzas for the workers, so it's a good deal for me, too.  Wonder if I could get her and her work detail to paint the rest of the rooms??  She's a born manager.

Well, I was supposed to get these pictures up on Sunday or Monday, but it seems to be Thursday today, so this is when you get them.  Although it’s very nice and springlike here in SC, it is still snowy in the Frozen Northland!


Easter in South Carolina

I have put the blankie into time-out for now, since I seem to have my sock mojo back.  I am almost done with a pair I started with some of the Regia Canyon Colors that we got last summer in Europe.  Souvenir sock yarn, whee! 

Coming up next is finishing some socks I started from the “Lonnie” yarn that Kathy sent me a while back.  I started it in a lace pattern, Baby Fern from More Sensational Knitted Socks, but I only have a few inches on the first leg.  It looks very pretty, but I think I got tired of them because I was making a blankie strip at the same time with the same pattern, so it was lace overload.  Enter the nice stockinette socks that I can knit in my sleep!

Oh yeah, since I have no sock pictures and I blogged Katie above, here’s James’s band picture.  We just went to look at proofs yesterday. This is his “I am a movie star” pose.  No Sandra, unfortunately he hasn’t had a haircut, it’s even longer than ever.  This was just a ponytail day, I suppose.