These are my birthday gifts from my best friend Kathy. One is a Suss Knit Kit to make a very colorful poncho. She knows how much I like different shawls and ponchos :) The other (hard to tell from photo) is a Knit-Wit from Bucilla. No knitting knowledge is required to make quick and easy no knit fashions. I have never seen one, and am looking forward to trying it. Thanks Kathy for making "my day" special.

I received this cute little tote from Christine at Yarn Yoga, a yahoo knitting group. I won this for a posting challenge for the first part of April. This tote is the perfect size to take small knitting projects with me when I go out. Thanks Christine :)

Tonight I started the sweater for my grandson Donovan. It is going really good so far. Although I only managed to get 6 rows done, I can see that it will go rather quickly. The cast on was something different for me. It was the Provisional Cast On, using a crochet hook and waste yarn. I guess this makes it easier for joining....unsure as it is my first time. Will post progress pictures as I get further along.

Today I made the decision to join Weight Watchers. I no longer will justify the "next" larger size of clothes to accommodate my lower hernia, by saying I need to get some jeans with a "looser" fit. Although my hernia is a reality, and does cause me a lot of discomfort, I can no longer hide behind it. There is so much I want to do....Living up here....Hiking, exploring and enjoying the wonderful surroundings I am blessed to be a part of. Therefore, I will take a more active, rather than passive, appoach to making me a better, healthier person.

A Sunday afternoon at Hurricane Ridge, sledding. It was a warm, sunny day, which made it more enjoyable to play in the snow :)



Me with sled .............Hubby, David and Kyle


Youngest son Kyle (12).... Oldest son Corey (20)

My progress as of 4/23 on my shawl. The pattern is becoming more defined as I go along. You can now see the diagonal stripes appearing. It only has 2 colors, but it looks like 3 or 4 shades. I have now completed 101 rows of the Garnet and Chianti colors. Only 179 more rows of this color combination and then the center strip and the right half of the shawl. A lot of hours will be going into this one!!

I got these wonderful flowers, and balloons, for my birthday from my two daughters, Kristen and Katelin, and my grandson, Donovan. What a nice surprise when the florist showed up at my door!!! Thanks kids :) Love you bunches and bunches and even more....

This is another Vivian Hoxbro kit called Rainbow Jacket. I love all the colors of it, and it reminds of the song "A Coat of Many Colors"!!! I will have to adjust the size, as the largest is a XL, so I hope I don't have too many problems with that. The lady at the LYS also said that I can switch the colors around, so if I want the purples and reds to be prominent, I can do that. Which is what I will do, as I am not too much into the green/yellows, and want it to be bolder.

This is the sweater I am going to make for my grandson, Donovan. The pattern is from "Shadow Knitting" by Vivian Hoxbro. The pattern is called Square Top and I am knitting it with Merino 2000 in royal blue and a grey blue. I don't see where the colors are marked on the label, so I can't give exact colors.

Progress on my large shawl as of Sunday, April 9th. After finally charting out the complete pattern, the knitting is finally going smoothly. I am more of a visual person, so I needed to have directions for each row in the pattern, and not "continue in this way" for the whole 52 rows of the pattern. Directions only went through row 16...... Although I am using size 3 needles, I no longer notice how small they are. I am whipping right through the rows :)

I got this from ebay right before I went on my trip. I have never knitted socks, but thought I would give it a try, since everyone seems to be doing it!!! The pattern is called RickRack sock by Joslyn's Fiber Farm and so is the yarn. She is located in southern Wisconsin. I think the yarn is called Pinwheel Easter. You can visit her at:

www.joslynsfiberfarm.com

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This yarn I saw at Joann's and I just loved the swatch they had knitted with this. It is bright and cheerful. Although I certainly don't need any more scarves, I thought they would be fun....so I got 2 different colorways, Primary, multi and Orange multi. It is by Sensations and is called Oceania. They were quite expensive, so a scarf is all that I can afford to make with them. They were on sale for $4.99/skein and have less than 32 yards to them.

I bought some wonderful mohair to stitch with the hand-dyed yarn I got for the sweater. I was finding that the yarn was too thin to meet the gauge, so I decided to add a yarn. This mohair is a perfect compliment to it. It is made by Cascade Yarns and is kid mohair. Just beautiful and I can't wait to get it on the needles. I plan to start this sometime this week, and will work on it when I am tried of knitting my shawl with the size 3 needles!!!

This is my progress on the shawl as of Sunday April 2nd. I didn't work on it much the last 10 days as I was helping my oldest son, Corey, relocate here with us. I did start completely over, as I had made a couple mistakes, and the perfectionist I am, I would have always seen them. I am now past where I was when I "ripped" out and am quite pleased with my ability to keep right with the pattern. I now have 30 rows done....only some 545 rows left to do!!!!

Spring has sprung here in northern Washington. Our beautiful tulips are blooming, and all the other hidden spring bulbs are doing the same. As you can see, we have pink and red tulips.....with one lone yellow/orange tulip in the middle :)