Free Pattern Sneak Preview

Here is a sneak preview of my next free pattern. It's a cabled fingerless mitt. Enjoy!

I Made PDF's - yay!

I made PDF files for my current free patterns (see free pattern page)! I used "scribd" to create the links. Check them out and let me know what you think!! I hope this will make it more "user friendly" for people to print out my patterns. I know I am sometimes deterred to print out someone's pattern when I have to print the whole page of their blog, so hopefully this will be helpful. Enjoy! There are more to come - I'm thinking about once a month I'll add something new...

Trip to Washington, DC

I took off work on Thursday to go with Jarett on his class trip to Washington. It was such a wonderful day. First, we went to Arlington and got to see Kennedy's grave and the eternal flame. Then we got to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers. It was amazing. I have the video on my phone but can't get it to send to my flicker account... I love technology, but it doesn't always love me....

After that, we went to the Lincoln Memorial and saw the Washington Monument and "The Wall." It's a very awesome experience standing there.... Here is a couple of pics of Jarett:







From there we went to see the Museums. I learned something new about my son - he loves museums!! I had no idea! We spent over two hours in the Museum of Natural History. He loved the gems and rocks. Here is the Hope Diamond:






After that, we went through the sculpture park. Check out this house - it looks different from different angles - how cool is that?!







After that, we went to the Art Museum. Jarett loved walking around there too. I was shocked - who knew??? I can't wait to be able to take him to the museums here now! There were some cool pics and sculptures there too. This one was kind of both put together:





After spending a good hour there, we went to the gift shop. Can you imagine my surprise when I saw yarn necklaces??? After I saw the price, I was even more surprised! You can buy a ball of this novelty yarn at Michael's for $1.99. Here's what was done:



See the price tag:



That is just crazy! Actually, I think the one in the front of the photo is Plymouth Yarn - I have the same yarn. Who would have thought I could through a lobster clasp on and charge $28 for a few strands??? Clever marketing for whoever that person is!

Musical Confessions

I'm doing report cards right now (well, actually stopped to blog, lol!) and the good part is that I can sit and ponder things while waiting for screens to change and load.... So, here is what I've been pondering... A month ago, Brennan and Max came to visit. They play the same instruments as Jarett and Matt - piano and guitar (or "goo-eey" as Matt calls it). The house was rockin' and rollin'! Tracey talked about her growing up in a house where her dad played the "fiddle." Right around that time, I got a new "listening center" for school that has a radio. I have been playing classical music during class. I've missed listening to it and it is relaxing. The kids were annoyed at first, but now they seem to like it. A week or so later, I caught an episode of Celtic Thunder on our local PBS station. They are a trio of men who have the coolest accents and sing all different kinds of songs - not just Irish or Scottish. Of course, they sang to an orchestra in the backround and I honed in on the violins. Explanation? I started playing the violin in 2nd grade and quit when I got to college. I could go on and rant about the different reasons why I quit, but they don't pertain to this so I'll let it go for now. A few days or a week later, Celtic Thunder was on again and as I paged down on the TV guide, I saw Celtic Women. I changed the chanel and there was this beautiful blonde Irish girl dancing and playing the violin. Once again, the heart panged for what was. I hate to sound like I'm bragging - but I was good. Better than good. I was Concert Mistress in grade school and played first violin my whole life of playing... A few days later, I was sitting in the room where we eat lunch at school and one of the teachers brought up Celtic Thunder. I was surprised but joined in the conversation and mentioned the Celtic Women. They had heard of them too and I said about the violin and how I used to play and they all started telling me I should play again. Then, last week I took Matt to the place where he gets his guitar lessons and they had a violin for sale. Not that I was going to buy it, I have one, but it was just this weird "here I am giving you a sign" type thing. Matt asked the woman if they gave violin lessons and she said no, but that there was a woman in Langhorne who does... Another "sign" for me?? She wrote her name, number and e-mail on a card. Then, we went Thursday night to a private viewing of the movie "Karate Kid" where Matt's demo team performed and guess what the "love interest" does - yes, you guessed it, plays the violin. So, is someone trying to tell me something??? I haven't contacted the person the guitar place gave me yet. I'm trying to figure out why I'm having this longing for playing again. It's been going on for about a good month now - really since listening to the boys and wanting to join in... also listening to the classical station and hearing pieces I used to play. So, I'm not sure why I'm really posting this either.... I thought maybe if I wrote it, I could get it out of my system. I don't know... maybe I'm looking for advice or another "sign." All I know is that it is bugging me and my mind keeps wandering to it....

Jarett's piano recital

Jarett's piano recital
Originally uploaded by shoelzle

Second post of video. For some reason when I sent it from my phone you have to go into my flickr account to see it. The sound is a little grainy, but it's cute!! Enjoy!

National Knit in Public Day

National Knit in Public Day
Originally uploaded by shoelzle

Okay, the pic's a little dark, but I am knitting in public! We are sitting in the Liacouras Center for our friend Jess's graduation from the University of Phoenix.

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Jarett's piano recital

Jarett's piano recital
Originally uploaded by shoelzle

Here is Jarett playing a song for us - enjoy!



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What to name them???

So part of all this "mystery," I posted about is a new pattern I'm working on. It won't be free so see the pics here and on my projects page on Ravelry. It's one of the team things that Mary and I are doing. I'm so excited about it though, that I had to post pics and see what you thought. I've based the stitch pattern from a stitch dictionary called "falling leaves." but didn't want to call the mitts and shawl that. I've thought of Twining Leaves, Rambling Leaves and Spring Leaves... any thoughts? Here is a pic of the mitts:





I have added beads in the leaves of the shawl - I'll post pics of that another time, but it's really pretty, if I do say so myself!! So, any thoughts as to what to call these???

We're on Twitter!

So Witchyknits4ewe is now on Twitter!! Woo Hoo!!!! What exactly that means, I am not too sure... Mary is much better than I am with all the technology stuff... but, nonetheless, we are there! So, add us for your tweets (is that what it is??) and check out the free pattern page as we add new patterns. We're thinking of a once a month kind of deal... then, as time moves on, you may see some other things popping up leading to our announcement... only time will tell....

Boat tour

Boat tour
Originally uploaded by shoelzle

The view from the boat on the Boston Harbor - how pretty!

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What does Bandit do all day??

Did you ever wonder what your pets are doing when you're not there? I took today off and out of curiousity, I remained quiet to see what Bandit would do when he thought I had left...


Apparently, he doesn't just sleep in bed at night time!! Can you believe how he got under the covers? People always laugh when I insist that he sleeps like a person. He lays next to me with his head on the pillow or on my shoulder.

Now I have proof! Laugh no more - this dog is one of the family for sure!