I told myself last Friday that if my hair came out good I’d put on the Everyday Cardigan and take some self portraits.  So here we are.  And can I just say?  Self portraits are hard!

Taking self portraits involves a lot of walking back and forth.  Move the tripod closer.  Take a photo with the remote.  Walk back and check.  Move the tripod closer still.  Take a photo with the remote.  Walk back and check.  You get the idea.  It takes a while.

And you feel a little silly, too.  Holding up the collar, throwing your arms out to the side, posing for no one in site – you hope!  But it was worth it because I really wanted to show you my new favorite sweater.

The fit is just what I wanted and the color is great.  Sometimes it looks green, sometimes brown, but it always has those colorful flecks of blue and purple and pink and white.  I only made one modification to the pattern – I lengthened it by a couple of inches.  Easy to do and it made it much more wearable for me.

I thought I might have a hard time finding buttons that would match but I actually found 3 different ones that I liked.  I went with these metal ones and I love them. I also love the way the collar is knit. You pick up stitches and then knit 2X2 rib and then a few rows of garter stitch. This makes a pretty little roll and I think this style collar should be used more often.

I’ve worn it a LOT since I finished it and that’s the real test. And Peace Fleece, while it may be a little bit scratchy until it’s been washed a few times, doesn’t pill!

I guess this is all meant to say: I love it!

In no particular order, this weekend I:

~Bought myself some tulips.

I’m so sick of snow and ice and cold. These helped to brighten things up a bit. Thanks for the suggestion, Deb!

~Baked a pound cake.

It wasn’t as light and fluffy as I thought it would be but it was good. Those of you who know me know that I bake when I’m stressed which leads me to . . .

~Moved more stuff out of my father’s mobile home. It feels like every time we take one step forward we take two steps back. I could sure use any good thoughts, prayers and energy that you could send my way this week. I won’t say more right now but things might actually be moving in the right direction.

~Went to the movies. The Oscar nominations are out and now my goal is to see as many of the nominated films as I can so yesterday we saw Frost/Nixon. It was fantastic. Go!

~Hung out with Mason.

That’s for you, Cookie.

What did you do this weekend?

I had a restful and relaxing weekend. Dale had some commitments so I had plenty of free time for hanging around, watching tv, and knitting. Yesterday we did a bit of Christmas shopping and decorating at home and then last night we went to Vespers at Wheaton College, my alma mater.

But all day yesterday I felt kind of off. Punky, if you are familiar with that term. Not quite sick but not quite right either. I went to bed last night hoping to feel better this morning but that’s not the case. I now have a legitimate cold. Stuffy nose, sore throat, headache, body ache – you know the drill. Ugh.

Today will be spent drinking tea and napping. Maybe there will be some knitting but right now all I want to do is sleep.

It seems to me that on this date, the anniversary of a terrible day, it’s important to focus on our future.  To remember that there are good things in our lives – family, friends and so much more. It’s entirely appropriate to look back with sadness but I think it’s even more important to look forward with hope.  And what could be more hopeful than the upcoming birth of a baby and the opportunity to cover that baby in woolly goodness?

This is my first Baby Surprise Jacket and I doubt it will be my last. I’ll admit that I didn’t think I was doing it right for a good part of the process but I just kept the faith (and my trust in EZ) and worked my way through. I wound up with this:

Pretty funny looking and sort of hard to picture becoming a baby sweater, I think. But lo and behold, a simple fold or two and I had this:

Now we’re cooking with fire! I sewed the shoulder seams and added some buttons and wa-la:

A Baby Surprise Jacket!

The yarn is Hello Yarn Fat Sock that Adrian custom dyed for me last year. It’s wonderful and squooshy and the colors are just what I wanted.

It was a fast knit, too. I started late on Saturday and finished Tuesday night. That’s fast – even for a baby sweater. It must have been because of all that help from Mason.

Babies are hopeful. Babies are our future. And babies wearing hand knits, well, they are just about the best thing ever.

This is our kitchen table:

It’s simple and beautiful and – here’s why it’s special – it used to belong to Dale’s grandmother. This is the table that Dale’s dad grew up with and by some stroke of luck it wound up with us.

I truly love it. I remember when we were doing the kitchen over and Dale asked me if I wanted to get a new table. I thought he was kidding as it never would occur to me that we would get rid of it.

The wood is worn and gouged. There are marks from where Dale’s Swedish grandmother set down the ever-present coffee pot.

There’s even a mark from a night when Sharon and I, drinking perhaps too much wine, dyed some yarn and left a stain on the table.

Yes, it’s scarred and stained and burned. But it’s where my family sits down to dinner every night. It’s where I roll out pie crust and decorate cupcakes. It’s where Hannah did her homework when she was little and it’s where Dale rolls countless Swedish meatballs every Christmas. And as we do all those things we remember that those same things were done by generations before us.

This table is a part of our family and I can’t imagine our kitchen without it.

This jewelry box belonged to my mother and it was one of the first things I brought back to my house after she died. I bought it for her for her birthday in 1975 when I was 10 years old. I saw it at the store and fell in love with it because I thought it looked like something a princess would have and of course my mom was a princess to me.

Honestly, I don’t know if she truly liked it or not. The green certainly didn’t match her bedroom and the style was probably a little fancy for her taste. But she used it for the rest of her life and that’s saying something.

Even though it’s been on my bureau for over ten years now I’ve never actually cleaned it out and moved my jewelry into it – it’s still filled with her rings and necklaces, earrings and pins. Boy did she have a lot of big pins!

When I was little I would go in my mom’s bedroom and play with her jewelry. I would put on her rings and necklaces and pretend I was a princess.

Now all this jewelry belongs to me and someday it will belong to Hannah. I love the continuity of that. J is for a Jewelry box full of memories.

I realized the other day that I haven’t done a “Things That Make Me Go Hmmm” in a really long time. I’m sure I’ve thought of lots of things to put on this list but they are always so fleeting. My thoughts, that is. If I don’t write this stuff down, well, it’s just gone. Anyway, I do have a few things that have made me go hmmmm in the past week . . .

*When Hannah is out with her friends I have a rule that she has to check in when she changes location. For instance, if she’s at the pizza place and wants to walk to Dunkin Donuts then she needs to call me. Simple, right? Well, she told me the other day that this makes her feel like I don’t trust her. That’s not it at all, I just want to know where she is. So, I’m asking you all for advice on this one. How do I make her understand that it’s of my peace of mind and not a matter of trust? Hmmm?

*A family of bunnies has taken up residence in our wood pile. We’ve seen two adult sized ones (mama and papa, we assume) and a few itty bitty ones. They are awfully cute and it makes me glad we don’t have a vegetable garden this year.

*Kristi has designed a wonderful new sock pattern and all the net profits go to support The Seeing Eye, a non-profit school that provides guide dogs and training to the visually impaired. You can see the sock here and purchase the pattern on Ravelry.

*In the interest of catching up with the ABC Along I have decided that I is for Icarus and this post now counts as my I contribution. Now I just need to come up with a J. Hmmm.

*Finally, it must be officially summer because Dale and his band are playing outdoors again. We worried about thunderstorms Tuesday night but they managed to get their annual hometown concert on the common done. It doesn’t get better than a beautiful summer night of fun music with all your friends. Hmmm indeed.

I have fallen woefully behind on the ABC Along. I am just now getting to H and I think I’m supposed to be on L. Hillary assures me that I can catch up so I’m going to give it a try. Besides, a perfect H fell into my lap.

Actually, this perfect H started when something else fell. Namely, the top of a flag pole. A cast iron top weighing 6 lbs. I’m sure you recall the incident. And I’m sure you recall the spectacular bruising that resulted. Need a reminder?

Pretty gross. However, a few of my readers suggested that those colors might be prettier as yarn than as part of my husband’s face. So I asked my good friend Scout if she was up to the challenge of dyeing some yarn to match Dale’s black eye and of course she was.

Presenting: Heads Up! sock yarn by Scout

Isn’t it awesome? We batted a few names back and forth but I think Heads Up! is the perfect name – and a great reminder to look up when you’re doing stuff like raising a flag because you just never know when a flag pole might fall on your head.

I think the colors are a perfect replica of Dale’s bruise, too. And you guys were right – those colors make very pretty yarn!

I just know it will make even prettier socks. And I just know you all want some, too. Go see Scout and get some Heads Up! for your ownself. Tell her Carole sent you.

I resisted doing G is for Garden since I just posted F is for Flowers. I thought perhaps I was being redundant. But last week I raked out the perennial bed and now every time I walk by it I can’t help but notice how fresh and green it looks. And since there are no flowers this time of year, I think perhaps it’s not redundant after all.

This is my perennial garden. Please ignore the big brown patch in front – yes, we need to re-seed. I moved many of these plants here from my old house when Dale and I got married nearly 11 years ago. People told me it was the wrong time of year and the plants wouldn’t survive and I was wasting my time. They were wrong.

Look at these day lilies. They came from a neighbor at my old house. She was very very old and said these day lilies had been in her yard since she was a little girl. I cannot find this variety in any book. I’ve even checked with a friend who is a day lily expert and she hasn’t been able to identify them. They’ll be in bloom in about a month and I know I’ve posted about them before but I’ll be damned if I can find it.

See the ground phlox? My mother bought me one small flat of this on my first mother’s day in 1993. It has spread and grown and every year when it blooms it brings back such sweet memories.

The peonies are just starting to send up their red shoots. These are the plants everyone said wouldn’t survive the move. I’m really glad they did, though! The gorgeous white blooms always come right in time for Dale’s birthday and he loves them.

This poppy is the first successful poppy I have ever grown. I planted them for years and they never came back but this one is back for the third year running now. Hooray! I love their papery thin bright orange petals.

The iris I could probably live without but they do make a nice tall green back drop for the other plants. And they grow without any effort and there’s a lot to be said for that.

Later in the season there will be tall phlox and hollyhocks, black eyed susans and more, but for right now I love seeing all my plants coming back to me after the long cold winter. It’s the fulfillment of a promise we made to each other. I plant and weed and care for them and they grace me with their beauty. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

I tried to come up with something more original for “F” but I kept drawing a blank. So, flowers it is. I love to take photos of flowers. Whether I’ve got a bouquet or I’m in a garden, whether it’s wildflowers in the woods or poinsettias at Christmas time, give me some flowers to photograph and I’m entertained for a good long while.

I’ve taken lots of photos of flowers since I started blogging. So I took a bunch of those flower photos and made a mosaic.

I like it. And I hope you all do, too.