Thanks so much for all the good dentist mojo.  It worked!  My dentist is very kind and gentle and he took excellent care of me and I didn’t feel any pain at all.  Well, until they gave me the bill.  $730 caused quite a bit of pain to my wallet! Now we just have to wait and make sure that I don’t have any pain or sensitivity so think good thoughts for that if you can.

Like any trip to the dentist, the best part was when it was over.  And guess what?  When I went outside the sun was shining!  Yay!

Just as soon as I got home I headed out into the sunshine with a couple of things to photograph for you.

I knit these fingerless mitts for my friend Wendy’s mom.  She lives in Maine and those winters are mighty cold up there so when Wendy asked (and gave me the yarn) I was happy to oblige.  They were fast and the pattern is free and a great way to use up a small skein of sock yarn

Speaking of sock yarn, check out these beauties.

I cast these on last week with a very specific purpose.  You see, the yarn is Judy’s and I thought it would be most appropriate to knit socks with her yarn while wishing for speedy healing for her broken foot and the Wooly Babe’s hip issues.  Turns out that Mr. Etherknitter is having some issues these days, too, so I’ve included him in my healing-knitting-mojo as well.

Finally, in case you aren’t aware, the deadline for this year’s Red Scarf Project is rapidly approaching.  Don’t fret it you don’t have time to knit a scarf as they are more than happy to take your money!  Just be sure and tell Norma because she’s running a nice contest with some pretty sweet prizes.

So that’s what I’ve been noticing around the blogs.  What about you?

It’s raining.  It rained on Friday.  It rained on Saturday.  It rained on Sunday.  And now it’s Monday and it’s still raining.  Enough already.

There are plenty of things you can do in the rain.  You can knit and snuggle on the couch.  You can knit and watch tv.  You can knit and read, knit and talk on the phone, knit and listen to music.  Did I mention you can knit?

You know what you can’t do in the rain?  You can’t take pictures of all the knitting you’ve done.  No pictures of the finished Twist.  No pictures of the finished pair of fingerless mitts for a friend’s mom.  No pictures of the finished sock.  Nope.

And no pictures = nothing to write about.  Except the rain, of course.

P.S.  I go to the dentist today to work on the stuff I’ve been ignoring for 10 years.  Think good thoughts for me, won’t you?  Thanks.

Despite my wishes for a summer that would last forever it would appear that autumn has indeed arrived.  Leaves this beautiful definitely help make it more bearable.

Have a great weekend!

It’s been a really long time since I did one of these posts.  It’s highly overdue, I think.  Plus, I’ve got nothing else to talk about right now.

~I found, via Ravelry, a link to a really cool blog post on how to calculate button hole placement.  It’s awesome and really saved my ass when I knit the button hole bands for Twist.  The blog is The Knitting Fiend and the link is here.

~If you’re paying attention then you should realize that Twist must be done if I’ve been figuring out button hole placement.  It is and I love it and I hope to get some photos up next week.

~I found another really helpful link via Ravelry.  This one is on how to evenly space increases and I used it for calculating the eyelet row increases on the February Lady Sweater.  You can find it here.

~I made Roasted Eggplant and Sausage Soup for dinner last night.  It was just as good as the one other time I made it.  Do you remember?  Recipe.

~Here in Massachusetts we have a standardized test called MCAS.  It’s supposed to measure academic success and must be passed by students in 10th grade in order for them to graduate.  It’s a lousy way of measuring a student’s progress and yesterday the scores for the most recent rounds of tests were made public.  There has been a decline in reading scores of elementary school students for the second year in a row.  Coincidentally, there has been a decline in staffing at school libraries in recent years.  Does anyone else make a connection between declining reading scores and declining school librarians?  Sheesh.

That’s all I’ve got.  What’s making you go hmmm today?

Several of you asked to see the new dishes.  I’ve also been asked to show the progress on Hannah’s February Lady Sweater.  Since I’m all about the multi-tasking, I present both:

Hannah didn’t quite understand why I asked her to sit at the kitchen table and model the partially finished sweater.  Then I explained that I wanted to show you the dishes so she happily did her Carol Merrill thing.

Yes, they are square.  Dale wasn’t sure what he thought about square dishes but he’s managed to overcome his aversion to them and he eats his dinner just fine.

So, the sweater is moving along nicely.  The yarn is Dream in Color Classy and I love working with it.  It’s smooshy and squooshy and the color is great.  Hannah is tiny so I was worried that the XXS wouldn’t be small enough.  Wouldn’t you know I had the yoke all done on size 6 needles and it was too small (yes, I knit a gauge swatch and yes, gauge swatches lie) so I ripped and started again on size 7s and now the fit is just right.  Time to visit sleeve island.

Who would have thought I could pull together a post from dishes and a sweater.  I think I’m really be stretching my use of the word blogger.

Thanks again for the kind birthday wishes and all the supportive and thoughtful comments you left yesterday.  I’m all verklempt, I tell you.  But enough about that, let’s talk about my birthday presents.  Specifically, my birthday presents from my two nearest and dearest friends, Lois and Sharon.  The reason these presents are so special?  They made them.  Yup.  They made me stuff.

My present from Lois was this fabulous quilted topper for my kitchen table.  She actually made it and gave it to me this past summer when I got new dishes.  It matches the dishes perfectly and really looks beautiful on the table.

My present from Sharon was this awesome hand knit scarf.  It’s the Oh, Canada pattern, downsized to one repeat, and the yarn is Judy’s sock yarn.  It’s beautiful and I love the fact that Sharon took the time to knit it for me.

Aren’t those the best presents ever?  Sometimes we don’t feel appreciated when we give someone a hand made gift but in this case Lois and Sharon know that I adore these gifts and I adore them, too.  Good friends who give good presents definitely make for good birthdays!

Thank you all very much for the birthday wishes.  I appreciate them so much and they really made me feel special.   But the thing is, birthdays aren’t easy for me.  It’s not turning a year older or feeling like time is going too fast or anything like that.  It’s that I really miss my mom on my birthday.  She’s the one who would make me my favorite dinner, know just the right present to buy and bake me a red velvet cake because I loved red velvet cake.  Let’s face it, she’s the only other one who was there on that day – it was sort of her birthday, too.  She got what my birthday meant.

And the truth is that no one will ever make me feel as special as my mom did on my birthday.  So, when my day rolls around I tend to get kind of emotional and sort of needy and mostly hard to please.  Ask Dale and he’ll tell you all about it.  Ahem.

I did some things this time to honor my mom, though, and I feel pretty good about that.  Saturday night we had friends over for dinner and I the same dinner that my mom used to make for me on my birthday.  We had roast chicken and stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, Brussels sprouts and acorn squash.  I baked a pumpkin pie for dessert because its my favorite kind of pie.  It was a lot of work but I enjoyed every minute of it because I felt like I was honoring my mom and doing something special for my friends (and me) all at the same time.  It took some of the sting out of the day.

On Sunday, my actual birthday, Dale and I went to the beach.  I sat and knitted, listening to the waves and enjoying the warmth of the sun.  I thought about how much I love the beach and how I got that love of the beach from my mom.  After we left the beach Dale and I had a wonderful dinner in Plymouth and I thought about the times that my parents took me out for my birthday.  I was just a little girl and they would always secretly tell the waitress it was my birthday and after dinner she would bring over a cake.  I was taught, from about the age of 4, that I should pick out another couple in the restaurant and I should share my cake with them.  I loved looking around the restaurant during dinner and contemplating which couple would get part of my cake.  I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that I can still some see of the faces of those people all these years later.  It was a really special thing for my parents to teach me and I’m grateful for those lessons.  I hadn’t thought about it in a long time and I’m really glad those memories came back to me yesterday.

I still miss my mom and I still wish she (and her red velvet cake) could be with me on my birthday.  I’m still learning – even after 11 birthdays without her – to live with the loss, to enjoy the memories, and to not expect anyone else to be able to take her place.

Looking back, moving forward, finding peace.  I guess that’s what life is all about.

The Autumn Joy Sedum is in full bloom.  Of course, I would feel more Joyful about this if it was Summer Joy Sedum.  Know what I’m saying?

I’ll be busy turning a year older this weekend.  What will you be doing?

I was wracking my brain yesterday trying to come up with a post for today and I suddenly remembered that we haven’t talked about food for a while. I’ve tried two new recipes in the last week and they were good enough to share. So I’m sharing.

The first is a summer salad that I made for last Saturday’s excursion to the alpaca farm. Sharon and I have a pretty sweet deal when it comes to outings like this. She drives. I bring lunch. I wanted to bring a salad but not a potato or pasta salad. I searched through Tastespotting and I found this August Garden Salad. I don’t have pictures of the one I made but it looked pretty much just like that one. I used 4 ears of corn, one can of beans, some grape tomatoes and a green pepper. I used some gorgonzola cheese instead of goat cheese because I think goat cheese is pretty disgusting. For the dressing I followed the recipe exactly. It made quite a bit and I shared with Kim and Manise and they both loved it, too.

The other recipe is from Real Simple and it’s for Cheesy Baked Shells and Broccoli. I found this one on Dine and Dish and that’s another great food blog, if you’re a food blog reader. Anyway, I changed this recipe a little bit by using fresh broccoli, which I steamed while cooking the pasta, and I used some half ‘n half instead of milk because I had it. Oh, and for the cheese I used a combination of cheddar and monterey jack. I made it ahead of time and stuck it in the fridge so I had to actually bake it for a bit rather than just sticking it under the broiler. For the topping I used some more of the cheese blend along with corn flake crumbs because we love a crunchy topping around here. I served it with some baked salmon and it was delicious. It’s really just a variation on mac ‘n cheese but that’s fine by me.

I enjoy trying new recipes and I do enjoy cooking but this weekend will be for eating out. Tonight we’re going to the Greek Festival — lamb, dolmathes, loukamathes!! — Friday night we’re going to the Scallop Festival — fried scallops and clam chowder! — and Sunday we’ll be dining at my favorite restaurant to celebrate my birthday.

It’s going to be a real challenge to not gain any weight this weekend.

Hannah’s Sweet Sixteen Birthday Socks are finished.  Of course, her birthday was two weeks ago today but better late than never, right?

The yarn is Knitterly Things Vesper Sock Yarn in the color Sweetwater and I finished them on the Sixteenth of September.  Sounds like a sweet sixteen theme – Sweetwater Socks for a Sweet Sixteen birthday finished on the Sixteenth.  You’d think I planned it that way but I didn’t.

No surprise that they have a picot edge, right? And in case you’ve forgotten how to knit a picot edge, Claudia explains it best. Right here.

You all know I love Vesper and this is why.  Just look at those perfectly matched stripes.  Brilliant.

The color is pretty brilliant, too!

The sixteen year old, though?  She’s a klutz.  I asked her to put her feet up in the air and she fell over.  Gotta love the little goof.