A picture of our family and a picture of Vollrath Bowl, at graduation.  From left, Gary, Emily, Sarah, and Dawn, taken in our backyard.  At Vollrath, you can see Lake Michigan in the background.  South sits to the south, in red.  North sits on the other side, in blue. It’s so pretty.  The band (not visible) dresses in khaki and white, so they don’t detract from the grads.

June and July dishcloths: All fun to work on.  The contrasting yarn in the Peacock cloth made it more fun.  The Father’s Day cloth was knit sideways, so it was hard to tell what the picture would be!  The Flamingo was hard to see at first, because we started with the legs.  Eventually, you could tell it was a bird. I love doing cloths that you don’t know what they will be, before you start.

Wow, I have been such a horrible blogger and then as it went on and on and on, I knew it would be a big job, so I put it off even longer!  We are going from meals in the crockpot to meals on the grill.  Also, from winter jackets to shorts!  In June, my younger daughter Emily graduated from high school.  We had a fun family party and a beautiful day, for the most part.  Weather is a factor, since Sheboygan tries to hold their graduation outside!  We did get sprinkled on a little bit, but never for longer than 5-10 minutes at a time!  I’m so happy that both of my daughters got to graduate in the “bowl” by Lake Michigan!

I’ve been busy knitting, though, in the past 6 months!  All the pictures are in the gallery above.  Will still post pics of Emily’s graduation, too. Weather has been hot and rainy most of the summer.  It’s mid-July and the grass is still green and soft enough for barefeet!

• February – Kiss Me (hot purple in Bernat handicrafter yarn on US 7 needles – Lisa Millan of Digknitty)
• Mid-February – Circle Cloth (Tan Sugar’n Cream and Fiesta Peaches & Creme on US 7 needles – Hakucho)
• March – Pot O’ Gold (Yellow Peaches & Creme on US 7 needles – Emily Jagos)
• Mid-March – The Windmill Dishcloth (Aqua Mist Peaches & Cream and Teal Sugar’n Cream on US 7 needles – Sew-Funky)
• April – Illusion Egg Hunt (White Peaches & Creme, Light green Peaches & Creme, Hot Purple Bernat Handicrafter on US 7 needles – Deborah C. Tilley)

Also, since we happened to be driving through Fond Du Lac today, and stopped at Animal Outfitters to buy some Sam’s Yams sweet potato treats.  Jasmine’s Gotcha Day is in 2 weeks and we wanted to get her a special treat.  You can see that she enjoyed her slice of dehydrated sweet potato.  It is crunchy and has ridges, so it’s supposed to help keep teeth clean.

Sarah got a new cellphone today.  It’s an LG Banter.  It looks pretty neat and takes awesome pictures.  She will have fun with it.

Yarn and dishcloth, Fiesta Peaches & Creme, with Tan Sugar'n Cream

Macro shot of mid-February dishcloth

Two nights ago, the weathermen had us with a winter storm watch, for 5-8 inches of snow. Then yesterday, it was only a winter storm advisory, for 3-5 inches of snow. Overnight, we only had about 1/4-inch of snow. It barely covered the driveway and Gary’s car, which has to stay outside, was barely covered with anything. I’m listening to the radio at 7:00am, and WTMJ has a reporter in downtown Sheboygan, reporting about who it’s drizzling a little and the visibility is low. Uhhh, no. I had just been out with the dog and didn’t notice any drizzling or decreased visibility. I can’t believe they sent a reporter up here, all the way from Milwaukee for a measly 1/4-inch of snow! Must be a slow news day. The weathermen get to excited about their models, when maybe they should just look out the window.

The ballband was started while sitting at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI, while watching the Brewers play the Colorado Rockies. I had a blast, even though the Brewers lost that night. We were there as a part of Stitch n’ Pitch.

2009 January KAL - Ice Skate

2009 Mid-January - Cheyenna

Ballband in Brewers' colors, that was started on July 9th, at Stitch 'n Pitch

My family was very happy that Obama won the election and that it was a done deal even before we went to bed on November 4th. We look forward to the Inauguration now!

We had a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful Christmas, although I was so busy I barely got to enjoy it. Had fun at Christmas celebrations on both sides of the family. My family did a White Elephant gift exchange. Parameters were that the gift had to weigh about a pound and cost $10 or less. I ended up with some Charmin’ Ultra Plush toilet paper and while my sister thought toilet paper would be the ultimate gag gift (and we did laugh about it!), my family was in desperate need of toilet paper, at that precise moment, so we were glad to get it! LOL! Gary got a bundle of bungie cords, Sarah got some fancy hot chocolate mix, and Emily I can’t remember anymore. Gary almost got candy, but that was stolen away by a candy-hungry nephew! Bungie cords are more useful for him, anyway.

I didn’t get to open Gary’s present, until we were together with Gary’s family. He had it shipped to their house and then had my SIL wrap it in 3 different boxes, each one completely wrapped with ribbons and bows, too. It turned out to be an 8G iPod Nano in turquoise blue! So, I’ve been busy uploading music and getting that all set up to my specifications! Also, we had to delete a ton of music from my iTunes library that even Sarah wouldn’t be listening to anymore.

Emily earned all but $20 towards a Nintendo DS. She got Polar White and is enjoying it very much. Sarah was doing some video work for my nephew Ryan and got paid nicely for that, so she went out and bought a Wii. We’ve all been having fun with that. I bowl better on the Wii, than I do in real life! The cow racing game on Wii Play is hysterical. It’s also hard to play the game, when everyone is laughing really hard.

I’m way behind on posting pictures of finished knitting projects, but I was finding time to get them photographed.

We are also wondering how long it takes tomatoes to turn red! Can you tell we are impatient? There is one that is so big, too! Can’t you just see it in a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich? Yummy. [Insert green tomato picture]

I finally got a picture of my latest dishcloth! It’s called Summer Breeze, by Sue Schaefer. I knit it with Aqua Mist Ombre Peaches & Creme yarn and US 7 needles. You had to be careful reading the pattern on this one. Sometimes, there was a k2tog, that you wouldn’t expect and it kept messing up my stitch count, if I wasn’t paying attention! LOL! This is the 14th of the 24 dishcloths I expect to knit this year!

2008 Mid-July KAL - Summer Breeze

I finished my second red scarf, too, last Thursday! Woohoo! I should be swatching my sock yarn, about now! LOL!

The weather has calmed down, although it could be warmer. I’m guess I’m not complaining, since it’s saving us a bundle in air conditioning costs.

This is the mid-June KAL with 2 days finished. I’ve been too busy posting my pictures to knit, this morning! LOL! It’s just yo, k2tog, p2tog, etc, that is making the cable-y design. We aren’t using a cable needle. I love the lacy texture! I’m having fun knitting it. The yarn is 181 Faded Denim Peaches and Creme yarn, on US7 needles.

Oh yeah. It finally stopped raining. My computer corner is all back together, with a new rug on the floor. I love how the new feels to my feet. It’s a lot cushier than the 10-year-old rug was. The laptop was nice, but my regular computer, even at 7 years old, is a lot faster and has a much better monitor.

My heart goes out to the people still affected by the flooding. Ugh. Even when we had 18 inches of water in our basement, 10 years ago, it still wasn’t as bad as other people had it.