Creating the Calm Cowl

Creating the Calm Cowl and really warm hats!

I took a little fall on Sunday and messed up my leg. I just kept ignoring the pain, until I couldn’t walk. It was such a bummer for me, I have been trying to hit at least 8ooo steps a day on my fitbit now I am only getting 2000 and that’s on crutches.  My husband is now way ahead of me in milage so once my leg is healed I am really going to have catch up.

All this down time has lead to some serious knitting and crocheting.   

The hat is from Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitting Without Tears" book, it's a really easy hat to knit, you cast on 91 stitches and knit until it's the desired length, then you mark off 7 decreases and decrease every other row. It knits up quickly and my husband really appreciates having a nice warm hat.  I knit it with Knitpicks wool of the Andes in a blue and am working a another in Patons Classic Wool Worsted in Grey Mix. Elizabeth's book recommends knitting two and then putting one inside the other so that's what I am working on now. The book is really no nonsense and straight forward.  I have a thing for hats, my son, Michael loves to wear hats so I am always looking for a new hat to make.  

  

A good view of the crown of the hat 

The brim rolls up on the hat

It's a quick and easy knit and using wool makes it nice and warm. I plan on making more of these in the near future.

This is my year to have all the children together for Christmas.  We are looking to rent a vacation home in Michigan for the festivities. It will be nice to have all the children together, they haven't been all together since Tricia's wedding.  Since that time we have added 3 new members to the family, 2 grand daughters and a a daughter-in-law  or as my mother-in-law likes to say a daughter-in-love. Tim will be home from his mission so we will really all be together!  I can't wait. I have managed to acquire a bit of yarn here in China so I will be making quite a bit of the presents this year.  I am working on photo books and knitted items. Should make for a fun Christmas, I love giving presents to my children that I have made, I spend the entire time making the gift thinking about the person I am making it for.

The first gift I have completed is the Calm Cowl    by indigoDot....., it is a free crochet pattern that I found on Ravelry, my favorite knitting site. It turned out beautifully.  Although it is not as full as it is in the pictures with the pattern.  I used a wonderful light green yarn that I acquired here in China, it has a nice drape and the single crochet, chain one stitch really shows off to an advantage with this yarn.  I also plan to make a hat to go with the cowl for the Christmas present.  I just downloaded the Hurricane Hat Pattern, also found on Ravelry.  I will be using #7 needles on a 16" circular to knit the hat.  I love these needles for knitting hats.  I first started using them for hats I knit for this past christmas. The Seedling Hat by Jen Lucas (cost of $5.50) looked difficult but was so easy to make. I ended up knitted 2 of them will probably make more.

Michael wearing his new hat!

as the hat is being blocked.

This one is made from left over yarn from a christmas stocking.

Zion's People

Tim, Liz, Daniel, Tricia and Cecilia after Tim was set apart 

Recently, during a sunday school class, the teacher was discussing how he didn't know how to be of one heart or one mind, (Moses 7:18) he had been married 30 years and didn't even approach that with his wife. In the mean time, I was sitting there thinking about Christmas 2013.

Our first day at the beach

 Our family had gathered together in Destin, Florida of a holiday celebration.  We had rented a condo in Destin so that we could spend time with Dave's folks, Allan and Judy Koespell. It was a 4 bedroom condo about a block from the beach.  All of our children except Tim (who was on a mission) and David (who was in China watching my silly dog) were with us, as well as our two wonderful sons-in-law, 2 beautiful grand daughters and Dave's folks.

Lizzy and I, at the Harbor, in Destin

It was an amazing time for me.  We had just gone though all the stressful events of Cecilia's birth, nearly losing Tricia to drug induced Lupus (caused by Macobid) and were desperately in need of a vacation. We cooked


together, did the dishes together, if a baby needed anything, someone was there to change, cuddle, sing to it. We explored the Destin area, with Grandma and Grandpa taking us to some of their favorite spots. This experience give me a glimpse of Zion and also a glimpse of just what the Celestial Kingdom will be like. Everyone working together, striving together to bring joy and happiness to those around them.

Grandpa with Liz , KC and Audrey

We spent many happy hours shopping at an amazing outlet mall, playing on the beach, listening to Mike and Liz sing. And eating great food, that's the thing about going home, you just miss the food you grew up eating.  China has some great food but it's not the stuff I grew up eating so when I get a chance to eat "real" food it makes me very happy.

Mike singing his Super hero's song.

I even found a yarn shop.  My kids thought it was funny that even on vacation I could find a yarn shop!  It's called "Destin Yarn Shop" and was on the way to the outlet mall, how could an avid knitter miss something like that? They had an awesome selection of yarn.  I was able to pick up some to knit my mother-in-law some knee warmers.  I also picked up some yarn and patterns for knitting my grand daughters some sweaters. I recommend stopping in when you are in Destin.

4 generations together!

But the best was seeing Grandma and Grandpa with their great grand children.  It was a priceless time for me.  They are such caring and wonderful people.  I am so blessed in both sets of my in-laws, but then I guess when you marry a man like Dave that is only to be expected, he had to learn it from someone.  We attended Christmas Eve services with Grandma and Grandpa, it was a magical night.  There was a BELL CHOIR!  So beautiful.

Christmas Morning, Presents!

Christmas morning was a special treat for me.  I was able to hold Audrey and snuggle her.  I don't get to spend much time with her since I live in China so the time I am able to spend with either of my grand daughters is extra special to me.

Mike and Grandpa

Grandpa and Cecelia 

Grandma and Stephanie

Cecilia 

I read something this past Sunday, "The family is the most important organization in time or in eternity."(Joseph Fielding Smith) Moments like the week of Christmas 2013 help me to realize that the true joy in life comes from spending time with our families. Nothing else I have experience in my life has brought me the same level of joy.







Joseph Fielding Smith also said, "Far more important than the question of occupation or wealth of people is the question of how their family life is conducted. All other things are of minor consequence..."

Audrey in her Christmas jammies. 

Hot Weather

Not really envying two of my daughters right now.  They are pregnant.  The heat has to be hard on them and on the babies.  It's been so hot.  And it's staying that way.  It's hard for me to imagine that the temperatures in Idaho are hoovering around 100 degrees.  I expect that type of weather here in Asia but must admit I was usually cold when I lived in Idaho.  I did purchase an air conditioning unit for the month of August but it didn't get this hot.  It's been 100 degrees+ here in Hangzhou.  Fortunately we live on the river and have a nice breeze most of the time.  Today, we were blessed with clear skies.  I could see to the mountains in both directions.  Hangzhou is a beautiful place.  I am told that Macro Polo stated that "Hangzhou was heaven on earth."

One of the great paths in our garden

The gates to our apartment

Playground 

exercise area

 I love the flowers, the streets here are lined with rose bushes.  Every day, Chloe and I, walk in the gardens here at our complex.  It has lovely brick lined paths.  They don't mow here, they use a weed whip to keep the grass short.  There are all types of flowers that line the walk ways.  It's a beautiful place to walk.  The flowers on the left remind me of KC's wedding.  Almost the same color.  I have been chatting with a nice woman from India, she has two wonderful children, a girl and a boy.  The little girl seems quite taken with Chloe.

 We were also greeted today by two golden retrievers.  They were beautiful dogs, very clean and well groomed.  Typical golden retrievers, very curious and full of energy.  I thought one of them was going to pull it's owner right off the ground. Fortunately, they were on leashes not a usual occurrence here. I am constantly afraid that Chloe will get free and run off.  With the traffic here I doubt

she could avoid being hit by a car.  There are a lot of dogs here that roam free so I also worry about her being attacked by them, something that happens when she is with me, when it does occur, I reach down and pick her up!  She loves to smell all the different areas of our daily walk, I like to imagine her thinking "Hmm, Harry must have been by here earlier today" I am not sure why I wonder what my dog is thinking but she sure is amusing.  She makes life so fun!  And she waits patiently every day for her two walks with me.  I am very grateful to have such a good dog!

The skies here are sunny and bright.  I can even see blue in the sky today.  The smog here is usually so great that I usually can't see that far out of my windows.  Although it is still hazy you can see the bridge not far from our apartment building.

And this wonderful picture of our apartment building shows the beautiful blue sky. Our building flows across the sky.  We have 3 balconies and since we are on the 26th floor we have quite the view on beautiful days like today.

We found a Papa John's pizza recently.  finally pizza that tastes like home!  We have already eaten there twice this week.  There is a Pizza Hut here in Hangzhou but it tastes like China.  Papa John's really tastes like American pizza.  McDonald's is just like home expect for their shakes, very thin, watery and artificial tasting. The ice cream is go though.  Kentucky Fried Chicken is better here in China then it was in Rexburg and they recently have begun to serve mashed potatoes!  Such a treat.  Buying groceries is expensive here.  We spend about $500 U.S. on meat, flour, sugar.  Vegetables can be cheap depends on what it is.  We have fruit and vegetable markets right outside the gates of our apartment so it makes it very convenient to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables every day. (A little bit of a pain, to have to do it so often but very fresh) If you go in the morning right after they get their deliveries you have a great selection.

I knit another pair of booties, this time green with peach flower centers and white daises. I have downloaded Saartje's bootees as well as Christine's baby booties to try next.  I am currently working on the Divine Ms M for Elizabeth. I plan to watch some more Call the Midwife and knit for the rest of the day.

The Proposal 

Our life has been consumed with a wedding these last couple of months, they were married 6 April 2012, in the Rexburg Idaho Temple, followed by a reception. Though it all I did do some knitting to keep me sane as well as began designing another quilt for the bride and groom.  Unfortunately, my camera has disappeared so I can't post pictures but I wanted to let you know they would be starting up again next week.
    Meantime, I have downloaded photoshop elements to play with and scanned about 1500 pictures from our family photos so the fun is just beginning!  Please bear with me until next week.

Stashes and Anniversaries!

I thought I would throw in a few tips from over the years about organizing my stash!

I always kept a bushel basket beside my cutting table and all my scraps would go into the basket (for me a scrap was anything I could not easily cut into anything else with ease. So left over parts of 2" strips etc).  That basket was fair game for my children.  They could use anything in the basket that they wanted.  (All my girls are sewers today because of that basket). I love string quilts so when the basket would get to full, I would randomly grab scraps to make a block, when I had enough blocks I would put them all together to make a quilt. I loved the book Liberated String Quilts! What's great about these is if you have different types of fabric you can have baskets for each type and when you have enough make a quilt.  I used a lot of flannel, cotton and corduroy.

As far as my stash was concerned, the best for me was to organize it by color. My colors would go from light to dark.  It made it very easy if I was designing a quilt for a class at midnight to find what I needed for the quilt.

I have always shopped my stash first then added what I needed from the quilt store! 

But my stash grew because there was always something wonderful coming into the store that I had to have!

I found a great article on the net for working on your To Do List 

http://www.ivillage.com/managing-your-do-list/7-b-309711?nlcid=hh|01-04-2011|

I also found a great recipe I thought that I would share with you for brownies, it's called whatever floats your boat.

1/2 cup of butter melted

1/2 cup of coco

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-2 cups of chocolate chips (or vanilla chips or butterscotch etc)

Combine butter, coco and sugar until the sugar dissolves.  Add eggs one at a time.  Stir until combined, stir in vanilla, flour and salt until just combined (don't over mix) at this point you can add nuts, toffee chips, whatever you like.  Pour into a greased 8" square pan and bake at 350" for 25 minutes.  You can double the recipe for a 9x12 pan and bake 30 minutes.

You can find the recipe and more yummy goodness here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/whatever-floats-your-boat-brownies-32204

My husband had an interesting experience yesterday at work.  A mouse ran up the inside of his pant leg and tried to burrow under his sock!  It was the first time he was wearing his new hand knit 100% wool socks, that I made him for Christmas!

 Today is our 28th wedding anniversary.  Seems like only yesterday we were heading to Washington DC to get married! We have lived in 18 homes, 6 states and 2 countries.  Though it all I am so glad that he is the one sharing this journey of life with me.  Back when we have been married 3 years I wrote him a poem and find that it applies even more today then it did then.  Here it is:

"I don't crave mansions of silver or gold,

Or worldly platinum and wealth untold!

For they soon tarnish as they grow old.

A wealth far greater that I cherish,

It rises with me when I perish,

A wealth far greater that I hold,

Each time my husband I behold!

Happy New Year! 2008

Wow, it's been awhile since I have posted. I had a total knee replacement in October and am just now starting back with sewing and being active. I completed 6 Christmas stockings for gifts this Christmas. I used a Thimbleberries pattern. I am not sure why I always do several instead of just one at a time but they turned out very cute.

I gave 2 to a wonderful family in our ward at church (The Matt Chandler family). When I was laid up after my surgery they took over teaching my seminary class which was 5 days a week at 6 am. Considering she is pregnant the least I could do to thank her was to make stockings for her little ones.



I also had my first UFO finish for 2008 today. I made 2 place mats and a table runner for my mother-in-law. She should have received it for Christmas but now she will receive it for Valentines day. I used a pattern by Nicole Chambers called Simply a Pleasure. It was a very well written pattern and I am looking forward to making it with colors of my own choosing. I have one I am working on that is navy and red. I think the contrasts will be better.


I also finally received some pictures from my son who is serving a mission in Germany. We were able to talk to him at Christmas and I requested some photos so he sent a half dozen. Here is one I think he took of himself! He looks very German to me in the photo. He has been serving for a year in Frankfurt Germany, he is currently in Karlsruhe. He loves it there and says the scenery is out of this world. He loves the Black forest and can't wait to show us after his mission.