Fifty Fridays #43? or #1?

It is Friday and I am reviving my commitment to post old photos from the virtual shoebox.  When I mentioned to my older son that I would be reviving these posts his eyes lit up.

"Another year's worth?"  he asked. 
"Well, more like finishing off the fifty, so maybe only another 8 photos to go." I said.
"Oh." he said.

Sensing disappointment, I am going to go out on a limb and try to get all of 2014's Fridays filled in.  And so I set to work choosing a photo for today.  I fell at the first hurdle with the online storage site unavailable this morning.  Reneging on a promise this early in the year would not be a good omen, I think.  The real shoebox came out and I just made photos of photos - the fuzzy quality adds to the nostalgia.  Here are three that I really liked and had completely forgotten.  

Me...sometime in 1969.  It is either just before or just after I got married.  I remember the hat and the dress which I made myself.  Somewhere, lying on a chair, will be a royal blue wool cape with purple satin lining that I also made. The hat is a gorgeous white felt affair that I absolutely had to have.  We still wore hats then.  Those were the days!

These are the three sisters: me on the right; my younger sister Roz on the left; and youngest, Mary, in the middle.  This photo was taken at a family gathering for my Mom's 60th birthday.  We are at my brother's house which is newly built and yet to be landscaped.  Not sure whose gifts we are inspecting.  I am holding a quilt that I made as a housewarming gift.  Don't we all look happy?  And so young!

And, this one, I just love.  Remember the 'children's table'?  When I was a kid, every big family dinner had one.  Adults sat at the formal dining table and the kids at a smaller table.  Sometimes, it was a card table placed in the dining room.  Or, like this event, it was at the kitchen table.  These are all the cousins - minus the two older ones who got to sit at the big table.  Taken in 1990, this would have been a Christmas dinner with the whole family.  I love the expressions on the kids' faces and their various eating styles.  Talk about a candid shot!

I'm diving back into that box of photos now.

Happy New Year!

Not having been around since August (!) I thought I could put on my best sheepish grin and tip-toe on to the blogger stage.  I am, I hope, back for a while.  I have missed everyone coming to visit.  I have visited many of you but rarely speak up.   So, here`s to a brand New Year!

The back end of 2013 has been busy in other places.  Not to say it`s been a bad year...no sir-ee!  There have been some absolutely smashing times.  Unfortunately, the camera also took a hiatus so I haven`t much in the way of proof.  Here are a few highlights that you may not have seen...

a visit to Spokane which was an enjoyable surprise...

Not all the fields in Sequim, WA are full of lavender...

My favorite part of the PNE...

My shawl took a red ribbon at our local fall fair...

And the best for last.  We welcomed a new little girl to the family in November.  This is Lexi on her second day in the world.


 Happy New Year, everyone!  I`ll be back next year.

Saturday Stash

Just a quick post to catch up today.  I have some finished stuff....

The hand towel is finished.  I like it a lot but it will be a gift not a keeper.  They say that the best gifts are the ones that you want to keep.  This must be a great gift!  The cotton is so soft and thick; it was a pleasure to knit up.  And easy, too.

I have a shawl just starting. I am using the pattern for Annis which is doubly fitting because it is for Anne.  She chose the yarn from Paradise Fibers but I got to choose the pattern.  It's an alpaca/wool blend and I think it will be toasty warm as a scarf worn on a cold, windy day.  Winter will come back.

And, I'm going round and round on this skirt which has been on the needles for wa-a-ay too long.  It's about half-way there and I'm determined to finish it.  Actually, a simple pattern with a bit of lace at the bottom.  I'm not positive of the exact fiber but it is wool of some sort. I quite like the b/w tweedy look and suspect it is two different fibers plied together.   I have have knit up, washed and dyed a swatch.  It fluffs up and softens quite well with a soak and takes dye, too.  Knitting it is like working with mountain goat yarn...or what I imagine that to be like.  I'm not sure whether I should dye it when it's finished.  I didn't even contemplate dyeing it before casting on.  Can you see the gigantic cone of this stuff?  Too much skeining for me and my niddy-noddy.  So, as add rows around the perimeter, I keep wondering: should I dye it or not?  What do you think?

Fifty Fridays # 42

Sort of a day late with this one.  Oh yes, it is Friday but the day I want to remember was yesterday.  It was my Mom's birthday and she would have been 91.  I find that just amazing to think of.

This is one of the few photos I have of Mom at her own birthday celebration...her 60th.  She is standing with her first three grand-children - there would be 4 more that she wouldn't meet.  And as you can see, she was a proud Gran.  Now the little boy has 4 - almost 5 - kids of his own and the younger girl has two. She would have been an even prouder great-Gran. 

When I was growing up, Mom and I had the typical mother-daughter relationship: ups and downs.  Sometimes, the downs were very low, indeed.  But as I matured and she mellowed, we came to understand each other better.  There was nothing Mom liked better than a natter and since we didn't live close to each other, a natter was the first order of business when we came to visit.  My Mom liked to read, she loved to learn new things and I know she enjoyed a challenge.  Her drawing skills always made me jealous. And she always had a great sense of style - even if I didn't think so with my youthful style-consciousness..    She had a wicked sense of humor and, even when younger, tended to be a tad absent-minded.  She was shy and didn't really do parties or big social gatherings happily.   I think Mom would have made a good interior designer.  I have lots of  memories of her (frequently) changing the furniture arrangement, re-painting furniture or cupboards or poring over magazines and library books for ideas.  She sewed all our clothes when we were kids; was a great knitter and baked the best oatmeal bread in the world.

Her most memorable advice to me?  If I was feeling down it was time for a new hat! 

Happy Birthday, Mom!