Hats for the Twins

Our family is on vacation in Oakridge this week and I got to walk with my dear friend, Lori, this morning! After exercising I was able to give her the hats that I made for her twin grandbabies. Her daughter gave birth to her second set of twins on June 10. Mother and babies are doing well. This is the hat for her little girl, Breea. Using the Crystal Palace pattern http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/iceland_babyhat.html
And this is for the little boy, Nakoa.

I also gave her the hats I made earlier this spring. http://alittlebackwards.blogspot.com/2009/03/hats.html

Thank goodness for Amber's baby doll to model for me - and no red eye!

June's Mid-Month Dishcloth

I have finished June's mid-month dishcloth. The recommended color was a variegated yarn, but I couldn't see the pattern of the cloth because of the distraction of the color changes, so I ripped it out and started again with a solid color.
After knitting the red cloth, I made a change by doing rows 1-10 twice to balance the center diamonds. Mom says this is one of her favorite patterns so far.

Feeding Babies

I've been trying to get pictures of the birds feeding their babies, but they don't seem to like my flash and interuptions. Bryce and Amber have seen a baby beak and tiny head. They think there might be only one baby bird, but I'm hoping for more.

More Dishcloth Catch-up

I only have a few more patterns still to catch up on. Here is February's Monthly KAL.

I didn't really care for this pattern. I have tried to figure out why, and decided that it may be the same reason that I don't like posters on bedroom walls or wearing T-shirts with writing on them. Since I didn't like it well enough to do another one, I found another valentine type dishcloth and decided to make it.

Bird's Nest

Last week we heard what sounded like a bird in the house. We have had birds in the house before when the big garage door was opened, but we have not had the garage door open much this whole year. We all started looking around and James discovered this bird's nest right outside the library window. This morning I found what I assume to be Mommy bird sitting on her eggs. I'm a bit surprised that this picture took so well through the screen.

Exciting New Toys

Once upon a time, Lance and I were vacationing at the great Oregon coast. I like to relax with yarn and knitting needles or a crochet hook. So, Lance took me to a local yarn shop and let me pick out some yarn for our little vacation. I was very naive at the time. I didn't know there was a difference between a hank of yarn and a skein of yarn. Anyway I got two beautiful hanks of variegated green and purple merino wool, which I made into what I still consider my favorite scarf. When I got back to our room, I had to figure out how to convert my hanks of yarn into usable balls of yarn. From that day on, I have wanted a yarn swift and a ball winder. I have been saving my allowance and my birthday money.
Finally, I got my yarn swift
and a ball winder.

When set up like this -

I can take hanks of yarn, like these -

and these -

and wind them into usable and very beautiful balls of yarn.

I am very excited about these balls of yarn because they are going to become baby hats. Two will be for my friend Lori's grandbaby twins. I think they were born a couple of days ago. I'm still waiting to hear. The other ball is for Maya!

American Flag

June's Monthly Dishcloth KAL was the American Flag.
After doing the flag above, I thought it would be fun to do it in color. I have knitted different colors only by changing color at the beginning of a row. Intarsia is a technique where the color is added in the middle of a row. I figure this is as great a time as any to learn a new technique. I think I did o.k.