Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax...

Or rather, of birthdays, socks, and other things....

Last Saturday was my eldest's birthday.

She is only one year short of a decade. Her last year in single digits. I really don't know where all that time went, but I truly cannot imagine life without my "flower child".
In nine years, she has surprised us with her understanding, her verbal skills, her love, her dreams, her amazing growth in a short time, and so much more. What a blessing is my miracle child.
When Daisy's birthday comes around, Joel and I always remember her first one- her birth. We do with all the kids, but with my Daisy it's different. There's always a deeper level of amazement, thankfulness and joy in remembering when she came into our life. Yes, part of that is due to the fact that she was our first. But mostly, it's because when we remember her birth, we also remember what almost happened.
And then, I'm truly thrilled to tears that I am here. That I am watching this lovely young lady grow. 'Cause I almost wasn't. God is so good. And I thank Him for every day that I get to enjoy my amazing, beautiful family.

I'm also pretty thankful for knitting. But that's on a slightly different level.... ;) But this is one of the reasons I like it:
When pretty colors on string become pretty colors on something useful and make a necessary garment a lovely and fun garment- I like it. :D

This is from The Unique Sheep's 7 Wonders club.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

There are some designs that come to me fully formed; triggered by a variety of things- a certain yarn, a picture, a phrase. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon sock was one of those. The name and pictures of it put a picture in my mind of the sock that wanted to be created from it. I really had no color to the picture- Kelly provided the awesome colors, but I had a basic idea of thetexture and patterning. A little browse through Walker's Treasuries provided more of the bones for the skin, and there it was! I think the pictures of the terraces with ivy and trees hanging off and growing up was the main trigger for this design (sometimes it's hard to know exactly with the ones that hit me like that)- the combination of smooth rock and
textured vine with the sun shining through and dappling the stone....I think it transferred nicely to the sock.

In other knitting news, I completed 3 new sock designs in the last 3 weeks. Whoo-hooo! I think it's a record for me!

2 for the Wonderland Club, and 1- surprise! one more LotsR design!! I just can't stop designing from LotR. There is so very much there... No, unfortunately we are not doing another club series. 2 years of LotsR clubs is a pretty good run! Remember last June, The Unique Sheep published a booklet with the LotsR designs from the 1st series? Well, we are hoping to put together another one with the 2nd and 3rd series designs in them for you. Aaannndd maybe with a couple extra NEW patterns?...... stay tuned!

As to the other things-

Well, Joel purchased a van last night. Another Chevy Astro- complete with payments. While the payments aren't really something we want, we are very thankful for the Lord providing for us to get this van. It is so very needed. We are afraid that the van we have been borrowing from his Dad is quite falling apart under the rather hefty weight of the tools he has to haul around. Yay for a van that is built to handle heavy stuff. :D

Better Late than Never....

I really should have posted this at the beginning of December, but it just didn't happen. (obviously)
But now, I introduce to you, the last of the Lord of the stRings Sock Clubs:

The Days of the King

Please forgive the horrible photography. It is very difficult to accurately photograph your own feet. Really, it is. Try it. You'll find your feet twist in funny directions rather than being straight up and down!

It is hard to see in these pictures, but the design on the front of the sock is of a tree with seven stars around it.

Inspiration?


“Tall ships and tall kings
Three times three,
What brought thee from the foundered land
Over the flowing sea?
Seven stars and seven stones
And one white tree.” The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien

And the crown of Gondor Aragorn wore in the movie.

I couldn't get the design to work exactly like I wanted. I would have needed a larger canvas than a sock- and more colors too.

Incidently, the colors you see in these pictures are not the colors we wound up with in the club. Instead of the dark grey, the main sock color is a gorgeous royal blue. Black would also work well, but the base yarn of this sock is Sushi Socks, which takes color softly. And, in my personal opinion, no other yarn base would work half as well. This is the best sock yarn I've ever used for Fair Isle work. I loved it.


And so ends the Lord of the stRings. Thanks for the fun.