ECF - Evening Air Edition

Leaving my office last night I noticed that a local restaurant had their outside eating area set up to welcome guests. Certainly there are many more cool nights ahead, where dining al fresco will be the last thing anybody would want to do but it's nice to have a little reminder that warmer weather is coming soon.

At Long Last a Finished Object

My sweet baby is one step closer to having some Mommy knits. I felt like I needed to catch up on baby gifts before I knit for my own babe. So I have been dawdling and procrastinating over a silly baby sweater for my cousin's son for months. There is nothing that puts quite the same damper on a project as the feeling that it's required. It saps all the fun out of it.

Then I heard that my cousin, who lives in Canada, was going to come down for the 70th anniversary party. Suddenly I felt the urgent need to finish it so that I could give it to her in person. That and the fact that the "baby" will be one next month.

So I pushed through it. I really focused and neglected everything else and I got all the knitting done, the pieces sewn together, and the ends woven in with a few days to spare. Then I was ready to install the zipper. Damn! Wrong size and wrong type. I went looking for the correct zipper but I really didn't have the time. Who knew it would be so hard to find a separating zipper? Not me.

So I did something that totally goes against my nature. I gave it to my cousin without a zipper. Mostly I wanted her to see that it was done. I offered to take it home and finish it off but she said she'd work it out. I suspect that my aunt is going to be getting a call.

All that aside, this really is a sweet little sweater with a lot to recommend it. The color is yummy. My cousin was thrilled with it. The yarn feels nice and soft and light. Perfect for a baby sweater. The pattern worked out perfectly. This is my second Sirdar pattern and I found it very easy to work. Well written and reasonably easy to follow. I'll be starting another one of their patterns soon. The finishing work (aside from the missing zipper) makes me proud. It gets better and more enjoyable each time I sew up a sweater.

Thanks to Miss M for modeling her cousins sweater. She wiggled and waved and demonstrated well that this sweater has plenty of room to grow. That good to know for the mommy knits ahead.

A 70th Anniversary!!!

This is my grandparents favorite picture of themselves. It was taken in the summer of 1942 when they were newlyweds.



Since then they've had 2 children, 6 grandchildren, and 9 great grandchildren with one more on the way. Like most couples they've hads ups and downs. They've dealt with illness and loss but they've also celebrated weddings and birthdays and many, many other wonderful events.

Through it all, my grandparents have remained together, as one unit. There is no way that I can imagine one without the other.

When my grandfather looks at my grandmother you could swear that he's seeing the girl he married on February 21, 2042 - her 21st birthday. Maybe that's why he'd rather celebrate her birthday than anything else. He regularly refuses to celebrate his own birthday in December and, instead, asks that we wait until hers for any gathering.

He still adores her and is incredibly protective of her. It's the way it ought to be. It's what we all want. Someone who loves us intensely and without end.

This is my grandparents at the party we threw in their honor this weekend because a seventieth anniversary is rare and wonderful and demands to be celebrated. It was an honor for my sister and I to put together a party for them and the real gift was just having them there to mark the occasion. I'm lucky to be their granddaughter.