Socks, socks and more socks!!!

These are call soctopus from the book Thinking Outside the Sox.

I finished my first pair of sock, they're going to be to big for my four month old niece...but oh well, so much for using the yarn I have and not buying any more for the project.
Her big sister is getting these.

These are caterpillar lace also from Thinking Outside the Sox.

We All Bleed Red

In March I was asked to work for my mom, I didn't want to but I did it. The first week started well, I thought maybe this wouldn't be so bad, I was back in the kitchen again, I was open myself up for the first time since Nov...then came the missing keys. I had go to a church activity on Thursday night, when I went to get my car key the next day for work they weren't in my jacket, so I looked in one other place, before calling my mother to let her know and inform the manger, (which I would have done personally, if I had her number.) Then figured out a plan with my mother before I looked any further. Sure enough I didn't have them, they were in my mom's car 25 miles away. So I made it to work and hour late...only to walking to a conversation about how I was getting special treatment because I was the boss' daughter ( if I had gotten special treatment I wouldn't of had to show up at all...or at least in my mind, and I got there as fast as I could as it was.) Well I heard it, but acted outwardly that I hadn't but inside I was PISSED!!! My mother has never allowed her children to ever get special treatment because of her, if we got it we EARNED IT PERSONALLY.
Well the woman who said it found out that I heard, and asked my mother if there was a way that we could meet up so she could apologize to me personally. She was told to send a card, and maybe I would agree to meet up with her. I found out on Tuesday that this was going down, then received her card the next day. I've been trying to if I was able and ready to forgive her, so I prayed about it and came up with an interesting answer. I was really hoping to have time to make it happen, but when I got the card I was still trying to decide if I was ready to forgive her when the thought popped into my mind, "You've been waiting to know that you've been forgiven of your own sins, do I think her waiting is any easier. And that she want's to have this burden lifted  just as much as me."  I knew at that point I had to call her now, and not make her wait any longer for her to ask for forgiveness. Then I continued to pray that I'd be able to accept her apology sincerely.
So at lunch, she wouldn't let me hid my pain, she made me look, instead of letting me kind of laugh it out and drop my eyes so she couldn't see the pain. I told her that I had prayed that I would be able to accept her apology, to which she replied, "You should never have to accept someone hurting you, just their sincere forgiveness."  She doesn't know how much that helps me. I made it through the rest of lunch really enjoying it and talking, then on the way home I heard the song "We All Bleed Red," and I feel that was my answer to my pray about forgiving her...now I only have to learn how to apply it to forgiving myself for letting someone else hurt me.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElCIGdLx4UM
 I also feel that my putting her first helped me accomplish my impossible need to finish my niece's sock, so she can have it when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit.

God's wisdom.

My father was looking for some training that could help him get a raise...there was one he was really looking and wanting to attend but didn't get the grant money to attend when he was hoping to. So he asked to go to HASPA training in New York, this week, it wasn't the training he wanted and really wasn't sure what it would really do to help him, but it was more training for his job. When he arrived in New York and started his training he found out that if he passes the test at the end of the week, his name will go on an international list for HASPA inspections. He will also be the only person outside of Texas, and New York with this training at this moment, the instructors are really excited that he is there. They figure that he could be able to handle any inspections that cover the Midwest states, which will help the inspections happen quicker since he will be in the area, instead of the instructors having to travel from Texas to do them. My father also has realized that NO ONE at Purdue has this kind of training which may help him in getting a raise, because who else can say they are on an international inspection list???
No one of the thing that my father wants the most right now is that my mother be able to quit her job since it stresses her out A LOT!!! and she spends 12-14 hrs a day at work. If my father is able to get the raise he wants, and get to do inspections that will put him on a federal pay level for each inspection he does...it may help him get that wish...now all that is left to do is sell a house and a boat.  The other plus is that if he has to fly to the locations of the inspection...that means more flight rewards, and possibly more hotel points, which means he might still be able to travel and see his kids wherever we may be.
Is anyone else seeing God's wisdom in this this??? And at some level I see God's humor in this also.

the original crazy quilt

The whole quilt...almost.

Some pictures to show the amazing details.

There is a feather stitch and a flower stitch in this pic.

Just look at all of the different stitches in this one pic.

The orange block has a flower stitch at the base of it.

A better pic. of the flower stitch.

My mother inherited a crazy quilt from her grandmother Runkle. I remember looking at it as a child and seeing the different embroidery stitches, and wondering how they were done. It intrigued me that you can take different shaped pieces of fabric, and stitch them together and make a beautiful quilt out of them. So I wanted to share pictures of where my inspiration came from to make my own crazy quilt.

Seed Stitch and Double Seed Stitch

Seed stitch is created by knitting one stitch, then purling the next one to the end of the row and the last stitch of the rows is the same stitch you start the next row with.

Double Seed stitch is created my doing two rows of the seed stitch  pattern the same then switching to the row of the pattern.

This now means I have enough blocks to do one complete row!!! Wow, that even surprises me, now I just have to finish some other knitting projects so I can get back to it.

A Rose is a Rose

A rose is a rose, is a song I heard long ago and loved. It made me start thinking about roses and how there are so many different types. I began to see women as roses, you have some small and dainty ones, you have some that are only beautiful looking, but are very fragile, you have some without any scent, or some without thorns. Then in a book I read about wild Scottish roses that grow big, thick, nasty thorns on them to protect themselves. When I read the description of those roses, that had thorns hard enough to pierce a man's skin, I knew that was me.  All my life I have been covered in thorns, to protect myself from getting hurt by others...but now the Master Gardener has come along and has removed the thorns, that I have built around me to protect me. Have thorns had protected me, but hurt me at the same time, it kept those away who truly would have cared about me if I had let them. Now, He has gently removed the thorns and is teaching me that healing comes from having the thorns removed, and letting the places they had been heal. The interesting part of all of this is that I'm now stronger without the thorns, and I was with them, because I'm letting the Master Gardener, heal me and help me grow. I'm now a rose with very few thorns or at least much smaller ones, someday I probably won't have any at all.

Reverse Stockinette Stitch Stripe

Reverse Stockinette Stitch Stripe.

This is the fifth block I've completed for my quilt. Memorial weekend was spent on the boat at Lake Michigan, and we had a tornado warning. So I gathered my knitting and went to the bathhouse with it, I proceeded to knit through the storm, and meet a lot of women from the marina that I didn't know. They asked me questions about what I was making then later in the weekend would comment how I had finished and started a new block. It was an interesting way to meet different people, and it will be interesting to see what happens as the summer goes on.