Love Letter

My Beloved Blog,

Happy Fifth Blogoversary!  Words can't describe all that you mean to me, but I'll have to try, because you have no thumbs and wouldn't know what to do if I gave you yarn.

When we started out together five years ago, I didn't even have a camera other then the crappy one in my flip phone.  You never let on how bad the photos were. 

When we first met, I barely had the guts to post at all, but you patiently reminded me with your readership stats that if I wanted to reach the knitters, I had better show up with something to say.  When you told me that we had 10 real subscribers to our rss feed, I knew that I'd be devoted to you till the end. 

You never bug me when I fail to post.  You never judge me when I say something dumb.  You help me remember what I was doing last summer, and last week, and yesterday.  You gently remind me how far I've come, and how far I still have to go.

There have been losses, and successes, and failures, and hilarity.  All the things we hope will fill a well-lived life.  But mine have the great good fortune to be shared with the Gentle Readers.

Oh Blog, if I could have guessed at the blessings the Gentle Readers have brought to my life, I would have started you much earlier!  Back when we began, I thought that Blogs were like belly buttons, and everybody had one.  What you taught me, though, is that there really are people who want to read what I write, see what I knit, and share their lives and knitting with me.  What better discovery could there be? 

Blog, Dear Blog, you've made me a better writer, a better knitter, and a better person.  You've helped me make new friends, and rediscover old ones.  You've become a full-fledged member of my family.  We say things like "I don't know, maybe you should ask the Blog;" and "Wait till I tell the Blog!", and my personal favorite: "Mom, look what I made! Can we put it on the Blog?".

In a way, It seems like I've known you for longer than five years.  You are the sparkly pink diary with a golden lock and key that I never had.  You are the place where I can put it all, with the assurance that it lands in the capable hands of friends.

I Love You, Blog,

Your Knitter

Catching Up

Greetings, Gentle Readers!  I've missed you, and I thank you sincerely for your good wishes while I took a break to rest my eyes.  Happy Belated Independence Day to you all.

I've been making hats.  Lots of hats.  Crazy hats, pretty hats, scary hats.  I'm feeling a little bit like Bartholomew Cubbins.

And the good news is that I've reached the halfway point on my book!  And my publisher likes it so well they've asked me to make another one, this time on slippers.  Yay!

Lindsay attended band camp.  Campbell and I are building a picnic table together.  Phillip is teaching summer school and acting in a play (his first in about 15 years).  It's a good summer.  We're busy, we're hot, and mostly, we're together.

I had a crazy idea (the kind that usually come to me when there is no possibility of acting on them) that I should really adapt this rabbit into a sweater.  What do you think?  I would totally wear that:

Oh, and my eyes are slowly improving, thank you for asking.  I'm no longer wearing dark glasses indoors, and all it took was getting a shot in my eyeball.  Gross, but worth it.  More or less.  What's new with you?

One Blind Mouse

CLICK HERE to knit this cute little mouse.


Not to worry, Gentle Readers; I haven't gone missing, only sub-radar. There's a situation with my vision that makes everything I like to do (knitting, driving, blogging, knitting) temporarily challenging.

Turns out I have the left eye of someone much older and less healthy than I am, for reasons which escape my doctors. The official diagnosis is THIS, if you're interested in such things, and if you're not (neither am I), the short version is that one of the veins in my retina is blocked, which caused swelling and hemmoraging, and well, eww. The cure is just to wait until it goes away, and if it won't then there might be things like injections and lasers in my future.

For the moment, though, I'm resting my eyes as much as possible. Which isn't much because there are hats to be knitted, a book to be written, and a whole bunch of other things which require looking and seeing. The usual end-of-school maelstrom of Field Day, Junior Rose Parade, banquets, dances and dinners to attend has been cranked up to eleven by the fact that Campbell is graduating from Elementary School and Lindsay is graduating from Middle School at the same time.

Come to think of it, no wonder I'm bleeding out my eyes.

I'll be posting as much as possible, but in the meantime, knit on, and try not to blow any blood vessels.  I'll do the same.