Here I am!

I can't believe it... I finally managed to post a picture of myself! I don't know what I did, and it's not my favorite picture, but I managed to get it on there.

This is the last day of Dave's vacation, so I should be able to spend some guilt-free time on all the things I love! We went to Minnesota to visit Andrea, Jake, and Lily. I was the lucky one... I was given babysitting duty while everyone else hung drywall, planted grass seed, killed poison ivy, and painted.

I was working on my crocheted curtains and Lily asked me what I was doing. I told her and she watched very intently. After a few minutes, she said, "It's like knipping." I had to laugh! I thought maybe she remembered helping me knit on her sweater at Easter time, but I think it's more likely that she's been watching Andrea knit a bag that she's going to felt.

I finished the A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie this morning... just what I needed for a light summer read. I can't believe it took me so many years to read one of her books! By the way, I do know that the titles of books should be underlined or italicized, but for some reason the keyboard commands don't work on my Mac... instead, my mail window opens!

I can't believe it took me so long...

Can it be? Did I finally figure out how to add a picture to my blog? If it worked, this is a picture of my first lace curtain panel... can't wait to see if I succeeded!

I can't believe it took me so long to read an Agatha Christie book! I just finished Murder on the Orient Express. It was great! A few weeks ago my favorite store, Barnes & Noble, had a sale of Agatha Christie books (but 2 get 1 free). I just couldn't resist! I like to read a little in the morning and a little at night, and sometimes I read a lot in the middle of the day when school's out! Of course the housework and the knitting/crocheting/tatting/sewing suffer, but I'm happy!

I finished four repeats of my second lace panel yesterday... only 34 to go! Dave and I are taking a short road trip next week, so I'll have plenty of time to work on it in the car. I'll also take my traditional road trip project... dish cloths!

Denise and I set another challenge for ourselves yesterday. We're planning on attending Stitches Midwest in August. I went last year with my daughter Alison, and we had a wonderful time. Of course we saw people wearing beautiful knitted pieces, so Denise and I want to go wearing something we have knitted. Convention centers can be chilly, so we plan on making ourselves shawls with yarn I purchased at last years convention. We chose the Garter Lace Triangle Shawl from Martha Waterman's Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls. I made this shawl years ago when it was featured in Interweave Knits. It's very simple to do and very pretty when finished!

Yesterday's mail was fun to open... I received my Ring of Tatters newsletter... can't wait to try some of the pieces! I also received some hand dyed thread from Yarnplayer Arts (Marilee Rockley http://yarnplayer.etsy.com). This is my third skein of thread from yarnplayer and it is beautiful! I'm thinking of using it for an Iris Niebach pattern.