Auf Wiedersehen For Now

Goodbye for two weeks. I'm off before dawn on my annual trip east to visit parents and friends.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Knitting For Mom

I'm headed east at the end of the week to visit friends and family and spend Thanksgiving with my parents. I want to take Mom a knit present, but that would kinda be like taking gold to Fort Knox.

Mom learned to knit from her Grandmother when she was about three. She's good, darn good. I figure she can knit anything. She knits fast too; the clicking of her needles sounds like a train coming down the tracks. I tried to learn to knit from her when I was in grade school, but she was so intimidating I ran screaming from the room every time I heard the word purl until I gathered my courage and borrowed "Knitting For Dummies" from the library last February.

In short, there's nothing I could knit for my Mom that she couldn't knit better, and faster, herself.

But... but... All she ever knits with is Red Heart; a mundane, but perfectly serviceable, acrylic yarn. I'll bet she's never felted anything in her life.

So I bought some 100% merino roving wool and I'm knitting a tote bag to felt. Chose the color especially for Mom. I know she'll like the color. I just hope the bag comes out well and that she likes the whole package.

BEM Hat

If I'm honest, I have to admit that I (mostly) like the end results of my knitting. Oh, some of the things don't seem quite so shiny after a while, but I think that's partially because I'm a new knitter and still learning the tricks o' the craft.

This evening, I finished the best project ever. I am so tickled with it that it's practically unbearable. Unfortunately, there was no head of an appropriate size around to model it.

Then I remembered Bear, the teddy bear my paternal Grandmother gave me the Christmas I was a year old.

Is this not the coolest BugEyed Monster hat? I almost wish it was big enough that I could wear it (and what does that say about me?)

True, the eyes are a bit like Marty Feldman's, but that's part of the BEM mystique.

Another First

Iron Needles likes my blog.

Thank you so much Iron. I am very honored.

This is my first YouDoneGood blogging award.

Ain't it shiny?

Here are the rules for the award recipients (not required):
1. Please mention winning of the award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
Iron Needles, fellow knitter, a spinner, hiker, mom and grandmom extraordinaire.
3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.

Now I have to figure out which blogs to pass the happy along to. Let's see, in alphabetical order:

Bioephemera - the intersection of science & art, good brain food

High Altitude Gardening - plant caretaker and killer

Needles of Iron (back at yah) - multidimensional knitter

Sendy Illustration - she doesn't post often, but she's trying to make it in a foreign country (the USA, she's from Indonesia) as an illustrator, gotta admire her.

SpinDyeKnit - she knits lace shawls from the heart

I hope receiving this makes y'all as happy as it made me.

My Very First Eyeball

And only a couple of days late for Halloween.

Now I know how to crochet a sphere.

I plan to make a couple of amigurumi Christmas ornaments for a friend who said she wanted something soft and textured to appeal to her 4-year-old grandaughter as her own Christmas present. (She doesn't know about the red elf hat which I've already knit for her grandkid.)

I do have plans for the eyeball, though.

Bwaaa-haaa-hah!