Things I Learned On My March Break

As evidenced by the absence of March Break blogging, Grandchildren filled my time  last week.  And since old dogs are never too old to learn new tricks, I thought I'd share what I learned during their visit.

15 year old Granddaughters no longer think it cool to visit Grandma for March Break.

10 and 11 year old Grandkids still love to come.

My 11 year old Grandson  and I wear the same size shoe.  This we learned when, in the early morning of a still wintry north, he got into the car wearing his heavy winter boots, arriving 10 hours later in the sunny, spring-like south, to realize he had not packed any shoes.

11 year old boys have perfected the art of putting on and taking off shoes without undoing the laces.

I really enjoyed The Lorax.

Kids survive even when Grandma lets them eat  only candy and pop for lunch at the movies.

Alice In Wonderland, as a bed time story, still enchants. 

Grandkids doing tricks on their roller blades at the skate park can give Grandma a heart attack.

10 year old Abi plays better Euchre than I do.

Lucky Charms is the cereal of choice for spring 2012.

Both Grandkids understand the subtleties of the game of curling better than I do.

Both grand kids shoot pool as well as I do.

 The future of the world is in good hands.

Back to normal and knitting - if I can find my needles.

Creatively Plodding

Can one plod creatively? Only in my knitterly world, perhaps.

My creative top-down is coming - slowly. 

One sleeve has been started,

along with 'take two' of the neck line.

 

There will probably be a take three as this one still doesn't please me completely.

The body is finished -

or so I thought until I tried it on again and feel it needs another inch or so.

The triangle decorating the lower front

 didn't materialize quite like my vision.  It wasn't supposed to look quite so Christmas-tree like.  Oh well. 

That little bit of triangular, colour work necessitated a few inches of flat knitting, so there is a short seam to sew.

 

This sweater has been a real plodder for me. I can't seem to get excited about it.  Partly, I think because despite loving the softness and colour  of the yarn I am not sure it is meant to be sweater yarn.  Better perhaps as a shawl or an afghan.  But, if not in knitterly denial, at least in a state of knitterly  acquiescence, I plod on with what has become, most  definitely,  a process sweater.  If I don't like it when it is done, well, it will make a good give-away.

Not Much Knitting

Weekend visitors here at the Harris household meant not much knitting for Brenda.  But after waving good-bye to our guests, I did spend a quiet Sunday afternoon catching up on blog posts and reading ravelry.  As always, there was lots to capture my attention.

Stash Queen, Christy  posted about a group called Craftsy.    Christy, alreday a member,  had taken advantage of the  members-only 50% discount offer  and signed up for one of their on-line labs - Fit Your Knits.

Fit Your Knits sounded like a course I could use - something that might help me achieve my 2012 goals.  Immediately, I went to the site and looked up the course.  Ouch!  Too expensive for me for a course that,   save Christy's blog post,  I knew  nothing about.   I took the 'crafty' way out and for free,  simply joined the Craftsy group. Who knows, I thought,  maybe  someday they would offer another member  discount.  Well, lucky me, once signed up, my welcome package included my first on-line course for a greatly  (Sorry, Christy.  My price beat your price)  reduced fee.  Now that's what I'm talkin' about. 

The course is taught by Stephanie Japel, can be started/taken any time and re-taken as many times as I like  need.    Two free patterns come with the course and I am so excited - I can't wait for school to start.  Good thing the timing is at my leisure as tomorrow the Grand kids come for March Break, so there will be little knitting and no studying for Grandma while they are here.  Sacrifices, sacrifices!