Now with More Goodness!

Brenda, of the Tuesday Morning Knitting Group, is just that kind of good person. The kind that does the good stuff quietly and never tells anyone that she's doing it , even when she's doing it right in front of you. You could almost not like her for that kind of good doing-ness, but then, it's Brenda. And she's just about the nicest person on the planet and you can't fault a person for being nice AND good AND not a bragger person - I mean - can you?


So, sometime a while ago - no one knows exactly when - Brenda started sneaking away to a memory care facility every other Wednesday. Her mission, to spend some time with the residents and to knit and crochet with them. The goal, to simply make squares. And they did.

OK - some looked like the upper part of the state of Minnesota . . .

. . . or hour glasses. But week by week, the squares grew (or shrank if they became unwieldy and Brenda had to rip them into submission). And our girl sat patiently with these ladies and listened, and learned; taught and was taught; laughed and probably cried (Brenda never cries so I'm just guessing here).



And for the past two weeks at the regular meeting of the TMKG, she's just been sitting over in her designated spot with an enormous crochet hook and big fat yarn (SO not Brenda - let me just say!) and playing with these weird squares of different colors and shapes and sizes. Finally, some asked: "What the hell are you doing over there?" And non-braggy, wonderful person, good doing Brenda shared the story with us. OK - I do cry and I did! She's crocheting all the squares together for a lap blanket to be used in the TV room at the memory care facility. See me - I'd keep it. After all - who would know?


Brenda - you already know that I love you like a sister . . . (OK - you know how I feel about my sisters, so I love you more than like a sister) . . . but this thing you do, it's just so . . . so . . . Brenda!

Thanks for being such a great inspiration.

Love ya,
Deb

Sweet

Our weekend - sweet! Two date nights with the Mr. I finally got to see "Star Trek". He indulged me. As a result of Saturday's funky weather, I had plenty of time to . . .

. . . finish up skeining, measuring and petting 125 yards of merino/silk/bamboo. And then I just stared at it, and showed it to Mr. a lot because I really like it . . .

and . . .

. . . I finished this side (Solid Square #149 from 200 Crochet Blocks) . . .


. . . and this side (Fretwork, #197 - same book!) of my potholder I seamed them together for the Tuesday Morning Knitting Group's "Let's Just See If We Can Crochet Potholders and Then Decide What To Do With Them".
Extreme close-up to show the tidiness of my crochet stitches.


And . . I decommissioned something that many of you might have called a "poncho" if you were inclined to get "that look" from me and a stern lecture that it was NOT a poncho but more like a "multi-functional wrap with one hole and no sleeves." This MFWWOHNS, made from Eco-Wool was skeined, washed and left to dry in the room with the world's largest residential dehumidifier. Eventually, this will become Copine.

Everyone needed a break by Sunday and thankfully the weather cooperated enough to spend the afternoon and evening outside, rolling in the catnip plants.

How was your weekend?

Head, Shoulders . . .

. . . heel and toes,
. . . heels and toes. Now-blogless-Jeanne brought back gifts from Stitches. Miss Babs Yummy and Yummy Toes in Falling Leaves and Aubergine. So now I'm thinking, with these little feet, and all that left over sock yarn down there and all the left over scraps of un-dyed yarn . . .

. . . or maybe Jeanne will just keep going away, cuz that sound much easier! Thanks Jeanne!

One Thing Leads to Another

When I arrived at The Tuesday Morning Knitting Group yesterday, everybody was a-buzz. Frantic almost. The conversation was fast and furious and a person had to act fast to get a word in. Brenda, the calm, easy-going one (which is so odd as she has a son ready to leave the nest for Boston College in the fall and another son testing his wings as a finishing high school freshman - and yes - she's the calm one!) was fraught with anxiety about the pace of conversation. Just last week we discussed the idea of of a discussion list- putting our topics down on paper so that no ones topic would be overlooked. Mind you, at best we are 5 sometime 6 grrls (props to Margene!)

So I decided to put my topics down half way through the morning. You can see that the Ravelry Discussion spawned several other discussions. We did get to Books (upper left hand) and eventually the topics of Dance and Cell Phone came up. Oh, and Brenda's getting a dog. But then I lost track of the numerous side conversations that took place as a result. I also lost complete track of time.

We usually sit and enjoy each other's company from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM. I got home at 1:00 PM Not saying it wasn't a grand and glorious time but . . . some people were a bit upset about being left alone . . . because when I got home I . . .

. . . promptly put my knitting bag on the counter . . .

. . . and my knitting basket on my desk.

So Far Away

It's really sad when such good people live so far away. Take the very lovely and wonderful Mrs. Pao for instance. A request for a magazine only available in the UK was made. Now, I thought I was asking for kind of a lot. Leave your comfortable home (or office); go to a yarn store (OK - not a stretch); lay out the UK kind of cash for 2 copies (one for me, one for Guinifer) of said magazine; send them to me - in the United States.
What a girl. She came through. Here is the magazine.
Here is the sweater Guinifer and I want to make. So badly in fact that we put poor Mrs. Pao through all that stuff outlined above. Purty ain't it? But then she has to go and do all this extra stuff - like pack the box full of stuff that's really great and special and thoughtful and turns out, perfect for two people to share!

Like the dark chocolate candy - Guinifer got it.

And the Mag Bags: I took the colored one, Guinifer took the Toile bag. Perfect because I always want to color in Toile every time I see it.

Guinifer doesn't like tea. I got to keep all this cool stuff.

The white chocolate dipped mangoes with lime and chili pepper - Guinifer claimed those. She has boys. But the cat toy on top......

"Mom, pah-leeeeeeze don't tell Tig we got a new toy. I want this one all to myself!"

There was another cat toy - a painted ping-pong ball, but Sammy lost that about 5 minutes after opening the box.

Yes, it's sad when wonderful people live so far away. But then if they lived close, you'd never have the opportunity to get cool packages from them. Or to brainstorm even cooler return packages FOR them. Thanks Sam! We loved EVERYTHING!

Better Endings

When your day begins on a really crappy note - moderating your book club and having the only strong, and negative, opinion about a controversial book and feeling forced to defend said opinion - it's best to have lunch plans with people will just love you for your knitting.
Like Guinifer, working on her gozillionth pair of socks.

And Amy, knitting up a "cast cozy" for her injured pinky.

And the Mysterious Miss T, who was also working on a sock but hiding behind something else mysterious. I guess that's the nature of the name.

They erased all memories of the morning while we spent a a lovely few hours knitting, lunching, discussing TV shows and our knitting. And while we showed our digital readers off - no one talked about books. It was probably for the best. Because I was correct in my opinion of said book and I had facts to back me up too! Damn it!

Mug Shots

Last night was our annual "Chris and Jeanne celebrate Deb's birthday and Deb and Chris celebrate Jeanne's Birthday" celebration. As always the party includes cats and cake.
Mayhem was in the bag early on.
But escaped in time for presents for there was tissue paper involved. From Chris I received a beautiful sheepy mug, some softy-soft Baby Silk Catalina yarn, two skeins of Vinca sock yarn and a spoiled kitty magnet! See the kitty in a bag in the background? Not Mayhem - just the card but considering May's evening activities - very apropos!

CAUTION: Cutest kitten card EVAH alert!

From Jeanne - who had to go into a place where things sold to spinners where sold at great personal sacrifice - a beautiful braid of merino silk roving. And I mean beautiful. I teared up a bit just thinking of her going in, talking to a spinning person and actually having to sort-of cross over to the dark side to purchase this thing of beauty for me. Also included were magnetic page holders and a needle gauge charm. I'm still waiting for the grey kitten.
They claim not to have color coordinated their gifts but I think they've been secretly meeting without me and put this whole thing together with the pink / maroon / autumn thing in mind. It's SO like them.
Because see - they are so matchy-matchy now. The last two knitters to have the Starbucks mugs! Thanks Louise!!

" Mom - I need to text you. She is SO not working on the yellow sweater!!" - Mayhem

Thank you so much Jeanne and Chris! You really know how to spoil a girl. I LOVE everything. And the grey kitten will fit in just fine here. Whenever he or she gets here.

There Will Be Bag

It's still gift time here. We've changed recipients however. Went to see some pals last night that I've not seen in way too long and there was a birthday to celebrate. Here's what I took. Let's just see how long it is before you see these little treasures posted again out on the internets, k? Then you can know whose birthday we were celebrating.
Some soft and yummy Misty Alpaca sock yarn. Not exactly this person's color range, but then there really wasn't anything in her color range. Maybe she'll re-gift it. I wouldn't blame her if she did. Heck, my birthday's coming up; maybe I'll get it back.

Clever. Put cat paw anti-skid things on your socks. I guess so you don't slide around in your shoes?

Proof that I have absolutely NO imagination whatsoever, the new "it" book and a Zecca pointy scissor cover-upper thingy. What I lack in creativity, I make up for in volume. Now to pack it all up and wrap it...

And lo . . . there will be bag. Gift Bag.

Just Crazy

Big excitement yesterday! Yes, Jon came home and got right to work putting the bed together but my day was better. I had plans to meet up with Jeanne. You remember Jeanne don't you? You'll note the absence of a linky-link here because you'll no doubt recall that Jeanne has gone dark, as in blogless, a fact she rather shamelessly say she does not miss, not at all, not one bit (I'll pause for the collective gasps). Our plans were to lunch and knit and celebrate her new job which will give her a perk of being able to travel with reckless abandon - once she gets over her fear of flying. But in the meantime - doesn't she look happy? Say "Hi Jeanne!"

It's Crazy Days in Excelsior (otherwise known as "put all the stuff that hasn't sold in years on a table, under a tent, outside your store and see if the tourists coming in from the city will buy it now"). Jeanne arrived just as the gates of hell opened up and unleashed a wicked thunderstorm upon us; we waited for a break before heading into Excelsior for lunch at our favorite 318 Cafe.
Hmmmmmm. Something is amiss; this doesn't look so crazy. Where are the madding crowds and cars? The vast sea of humanity?
Or the vendor tables that used to be in this spot. Ah, the storm. Literally blew most of the tents and stuff away. Along with the power in many of the stores, including 318 Cafe so lunch was at Jake O'Connor's instead. I think we might have been the first ever knitters there. But knit we did until we could venture back out on to the street and survey the damage.
Oh thank goodness, the giant lemon survived - along with it's inhabitant.

I have the lemon's business card if you ever find yourself in need of a giant lemon for some kind of function.

Oh and look!! The power came back on at the yarn store too. Sale continues through Saturday!

What Time Is It?

If you have a pre-teen, "Disney" girl, you know that the answer to that question is:

Party Time!

Tuesday was birthday day for the June birthdays in our Knitting Group. We have two back-to-back birthday girls , Sue and Peggy. Sandy's was in May, and we celebrated that too - but without a camera!

Peggy needed a little assistance and had to search for her scissors to cut her ribbon. Sue, on the other hand was able to tear right into her package.


Of course the camera battery died for the close-up shot so a description will have to do. The necklace each have four die-cut washers with one word or phrase on them. I selected the ones that remind me of each of them. So for Sue - friendship, journey, strength, to life. For Peggy - faith, mother, happy home, friendship. Sandy got one on her birthday too - dream, journey, friendship and I just can't remember the 4th one!, On the back of each washer is a blessing for each.

Birthdays or not, these are the among the most precious people in my life. In case I forget to tell them someday. they will always know, everyday, what they mean to me! Happy Birthdays girlfriends!