...the f-stops here..

I recently bought myself a present, a new lens for my camera.  After talking with Steph about her new camera and learning a bit about f-stops, aperture and depth of field I knew I needed a lens that could help me with that.  Enter this…

It’s the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm 1:1.8 G and it’s just about everything I could want.  It’s taken my pretty good photos to pretty awesome, if you ask me.  I’m no professional but I sure do like what I am getting with this lens.

In other news, my friend Marcy has some pretty exciting news!  She has a new design that has just been released by WEBS for their 40th anniversary.  It’s a super cute sweater that is sure to be a staple in every knitters wardrobe.  I can’t wait to knit one for myself, just need to figure out which beautiful color to pick!  

I’ll leave you with a photo of some new additions we found in our barn about a 10 days ago….

p.s.  If you'd like to contribute to our goodie bags for our Strung Along June Retreat let us know.  Email us at StrungAlong@yarnharlot.ca, we'd love to hear from you!!

...back to school...

This weekend is Mom’s Weekend at Oregon State University.  It's an event that has been held at OSU for many years, in fact I remember when my mom came down and spent the weekend while I was a student there.  It’s a great event with a lot of really fun things to do including attending classes with your kid. 

I’ve gone to Mom’s weekend with both of my girls while they were students. Lots of great memories.  But this year was a little different.  This is the first time I have been to Mom’s Weekend while my daughter, Erin, is teaching there.  She has been teaching  in the Speech Communication department for several years but I’ve never been able to make it to see her teach.  But this year things lined up perfectly and I got my chance.   We come from a long line of teachers so it’s really wonderful to see her continue on with this family tradition.

It was fun to be a student again, but even more fun was watching my daughter take command of a classroom where all eyes (including mine) were on her, pens and pencils frantically scratched notes and hands were raised to ask questions.  Her lecture today was on emotions in communication and believe it or not I learned a thing or two.  The one thing I’m thankful for is that I don’t have any homework…

I drove home thinking that I know that Erin’s grandmother, who was a teacher, would be so proud to see how well Erin is doing in the classroom, following in her footsteps.  I know I sure am.  I sure wish she could have been there to see it too.

...happy easter..

Happy Easter!  I hope you have a wonderful day whatever your traditions are!

...10 years..

It’s been 10 years since my mother passed away.  It’s hard to get my head around this.  It seems like she is still here.  I think about her every day.  I still have times when I think, “I should call Mom and tell her…”  She was a very important part of my life.  

In the 10 years that she has been gone she has missed many things.  She’s missed graduations from college, the weddings of 2 of her grandchildren and the births of her 2 great-grandchildren.  She would have loved these two little people and they would have loved her.  We tell them things about her all of the time, keeping the memories alive.

She’s missed Christmas and Thanksgiving, family trips and parties.  I guess you could say that she really hasn’t missed these things, we’ve just missed having her here with us.  I guess you could say that really she has been with us for all of these things.  She’s been here in our hearts, in the traditions that we carry forward that where hers and in the people we’ve become because of her.

I remember calling her when I was a new wife and later when I was a new mother and asking for advice.  Sometimes she would just listen, sometimes she would give advice, sometimes she just laughed and said, "Good luck."  Now my girls call me.  The great circle of life.  

I remember thinking when I was young and foolish that I hoped I wouldn’t turn out like my mother.  Thankfully, my wish did not come true.  I have more of my mother in me than I realize.  I catch myself saying things that my mother would have said, doing things that my mother would have done, being the person that my mother was.  And these are good things.  

Mom, I miss you everyday and I can’t believe it’s been 10 years.  It seem like yesterday.

...something new...

So, I have something new!   Thanks to Heather at Stitch Sprouts I have a new logo and business card!  I love everything about them!  Heather did exactly what I would have done…if I had that kind of talent.  

I am slowly working my way through adding my logo to all of my business stuff.  Man, that’s a lot of stuff.  As you can see by the header on my blog, gone are the monkey slippers.  Those monkey slippers have been there for a long time!  Out with the old and in with the new.

I am in the process of reformatting all of my patterns so stay tuned for that!  And up soon will be a new look for my website.  As I said this is a lot of stuff!  But slow and steady wins the race.

If you are in need of a logo/business card design you definitely need to look up Heather!  She’s super easy to work with and took all of my ideas and made them even better!  Thanks Heather!

...once upon a time...

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who wanted a sweater…that was red…

She asked her LaLa to knit one for her.

It needed special buttons.

And so her LaLa knit the little girl a sweater...that was red.  The little girl said she wanted to wear it every day.  She did, and they lived happily ever after.

The end.

...deadlines be damned…

About a week ago, Paytan and Elliet had a couple of days home from school due to pneumonia.  I packed up and headed down to stay with them while Mom and Dad went to work.  While there we read a new book, Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep.  

It’s a great story about a farmer that shears his sheep, then take the wool to a man that cards it, a man that spins it and a woman that dyes it, all the while his sheep are following him to each place.  Why are they following him you might ask?  Because they are cold.  When Farmer Brown realizes that the sheep are cold he does the only thing he can do.  He knits them all sweaters.  Of course he does.

While reading this story Payan kept pointing out the things that I can do that were just like those in the story.  She would say things like, “Lala, that’s just like you."  "Lala, you can do that too!"  "Lala, you can knit just like Farmer Brown!”  I told her that yes those were things that Lala could do too, just like the people in the story.

When we finished the story I asked her how she liked it.  She said it was great and then she did something that I will never forget.  She turned to me with those big blue eyes, took my hand in hers and said, “Lala, can you knit me a sweater….that’s red…with buttons?  Red is my favorite color, just like yours.”

I said the only thing I could.  “Of course I can.”

So last weekend while at Vogue Knitting Live I searched for the perfect red yarn to make the perfect red sweater for this special little person in my life.  I came across this.

So even though I have 3 different deadlines in front of me I am busy with a little red sweater.  Deadlines be damned.  This deadline is way more important.  My granddaughter wants a new red sweater.  And so I am knitting one.  But I know that this sweater isn’t the only one I will be knitting.  Paytan also told me that I had to knit a sweater for Elliet too.  But her’s has to be pink and purple.  After all Paytan said, “Those are her favorite colors.  Can you knit one for her too?”  I said the only thing I could.  “Of course I can.”

Hang on deadlines, I’ll be back in a bit.