Love Actually

It all started on the train.... my friend was on the train with her friend and a man on the train from the mere sight of her.... knew he had to know her. He was able to get her phone number (from my friend's friend) and a relationship was born.

Fast forward one and 1/2 years....

On Tuesday, Dumplin' and I went to their wedding. It was a simple, lovely, beautiful wedding and I was so pleased to be included.

Here is the bride... she borrowed my headpiece - I was so thrilled! My Christmas present to her is the shawl she is wearing.... can you guess the pattern?

It was a wonderfully romantic day!

Heart & Sole

This summer I designed two projects for an accessory book from Coats & Clark titled "More than Socks"..... all the projects in the book are made from Red Hearts Heart & Sole sock yarn.

This lacy scarf is super quick and looks great!

These wristers take only a few hours to crochet. The lacy edge is crocheted back and forth in rows first and then the body of the wrister is worked in the round from the lace.

Right now I am finishing up a knit design, then I have 2 more work projects to complete and then I can work on something for me!!

New Year's Day

Thirteen years ago today, I lost my maternal grandfather Norman Holcomb. I woke up to the phone ringing and news of his passing. I was a newly married woman and went downstairs to have a cry. While downstairs, I found a live bird in my house.... I knew that bird was my grandfather coming to let me know he was free (he suffered from Alzheimer's). I caught the bird, went outside in the cold and said a prayer to my grandfather. I opened up my hands to let the bird free and to let go of my grandfather. What a beautiful story, it really happened and because my life is so full of humor I will continue....

So when I open up my hands to let the bird go, it keels over and falls to the ground. "Holy crap!" I say through my tears and bend over to retrieve the bird. Turns out it was just stunned and after I righted it it flew away. Not really Hallmark, it would have been had the bird taken to flight right away, but real life isn't the movies or a channel on cable. And so, on this day of new beginnings, I thought I would share what I consider a new beginning. The beginning of my life without my grandfather:

Here he is holding me for my first Christmas in 1970.

Here he is in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. He was a mover and moved Babe Ruth's things (among others) when there was a restoration of the Hall of Fame. While visiting there in 2006, Mr. Fantastic found the picture (he is the handsome man in the center of the picture, holding the picture of Babe with a bat). It was a thrilling moment for me.

Here he is today:

He is in the stubbornness of my first born and in his golf swing.

He is in the beautiful face of my second born and his very infectious and distinguishable laugh.

He is in the unbelievable ability of my third born to fall asleep in any position.

And his face is in my mother, in her humor and if I squint real hard...... I see him.

So you see, I never have to live my life without him, he is still everywhere if I take the time to look. Happy New Year.

Why I Knit

When deadlines are looming (they are again) and I am sick and tired of knitting or crocheting.... I am going to watch this. I love you Mom.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year!

Mom is Busy!

Hey all! Otis here, Mom is real busy getting ready for the Holidays, so I thought I would check in and show you what's been going on.

Santa came on the Firetruck and the kids all got gifts, and I got really scared.

We decorated the tree in the family room. That was fun and you know what? The water in the tree tastes sooooo good!

I like to lay around under the tree in the knitting room. It messes up the tree skirt, and it makes me giggle that Mr. Fantastic has to fix it a million times a day!

I had my first professional groomer come and that was lots of fun.... the groomer says I was a perfect gentleman and I was so fluffy and smelled like blueberries...... I had to fix that - so the next day, I went out back, dug myself a nice hole laid in it..... and now?

I smell like a man again.

I went to Jared!

As in Jared Flood aka Brooklyntweed, not that annoying jewelry store!! Well, I'm sure the jewelry store is not annoying.... but the commercials on TV are super annoying. I walked into the store rockin' my new Quincy hat (available in Jared's new book) and I wore a skein of Malabrigo as a scarf. Turns out, people loved the skein of yarn for a scarf thing!

Anyway, on Saturday my LYS Knitknack had a book signing and on Sunday Jared taught classes (which I heard were amazing!) Can we all stop at look at how CUTE he is!!! Holy cow and he was so nice and just a regular guy. When I walked into the shop, he was sitting behind a table and there was a lull in the action. The shop was quiet and he look at me and said, "Hi, I'm Jared." Yeah, no duh! So in my most casual, not starstruck what-so-ever voice, I said, "Hello, if I weren't' happily married would you run away with me so we could live on a farm with sheep and knit all day long? my name is Kimberly"

Look at what Meera (LYS owner extraordinaire!!) is wearing! It's the newly competed (did I mention no one is getting handmade gifts from me this year?) Moss Fern Wrap in a larger weight yarn.... Doesn't she look pretty??? Cool thing about it is that it only takes 1/2 of the ginormous skein, so if I were making holiday gifts this year I could make 2 from 1 skein!!! Hop on over to Ravelry (I'm fiberlover) and check out the specifics I did modify the numbers for this one - it took 2 days to make and 1 to block and dry. Great, great last minute gift - well, not really a minute... more like frantic crocheting for hours and hours... but you get my drift!

Finger Work

I know I have been silent..... I know my family has missed me..... I promise I will be back after Dec. 1st.... I have been working my fingers to the bone, to the bone I tell ya, and I have nothing to show for it.... Here is a bit of my other finger work! Make sure to note around 50 seconds how my Dumplin' goes from pure happy, to something different!

And speaking of fingers..... I am officially addicted to butterfingers. It started at Halloween, I had about, oh.... 15 of them (fun sized, that is) and I love them, I know... but I do. Well, after I went through the leftover candy here..... I started to pilfer through my children's candy when they weren't looking. I told them to hide their candy from me because well, I know me, and I would eat it. Turns out.... my children have sucky hiding spaces and to be honest? I was a little bit peeved that my 11 year old chose under his bed. Under your bed?!! Please, his butterfingers didn't have a chance - poor things.

Total 'finger count for today..... 6. Well, now it's 7 because I was writing about them and needed to have one while my video was processing.... Crap.