Things at the dropped stitch household have been a bit Topsy turvey lately. My grandmother has been very ill lately and that means that I've been doing a lot of sitting and waiting. I'm not good at being patient unless I have something to do, reading, knitting, sewing...you get the idea. Last Christmas my mom had picked up my copy of Interweave Knits Winter 2009 and was flipping through it when she saw the Nora's Sweater by Pamela Powers. She held up the magazine and yelled at me across the whole family talking and the TV blaring that this is what she wanted for Christmas. Since Hubbs and I have been traveling so much this year I seem to have lost my knitting mojo.

Due to my Grammies illness I've had to sit and wait so much I had to force myself to get my knitting mojo back. Last week when I went to go stay with my grandmother I grabbed my knitting bag and the yarn that I had already bought to make the Nora Sweater for my mom. I cast on and my knitting mojo came back with major force. I finished the back yesterday and am working on the center back inset piece.

The front

(picture from Interweave Knits)

The back with the Center Back Inset
(I love the pleating)

I chose Knitpicks Swish Worsted in Cobblestone Heather.

So far I'm loving this pattern. The back was pretty boring because it was mostly just stockinete stitch, pretty brainless. But it was really great because I was able to focus on what my grandmother was saying while my hands stayed busy. It was really nice because my grandmother knits too and we were able to talk about knitting among other things. She kept saying that I'm a better knitter then she is (which I heartily disagree) and that I'm faster then she is (that part is true but I'm 50 years younger then her). We all got a good laugh when I reminded her that for Christmas last year everyone in the family got a sweater for Christmas but me. I got a pattern and yarn. When I asked her what gives, she said, "You knitter better then I do. I'm not knitting for you anymore!" Sheesh! lol She's got spunk, that's for sure!

Thankfully my grandmother is doing better now then she was last week. I'm still working on the Nora Sweater, which I'm calling the Jules Sweater for my mom. I'm hoping to finish it before Christmas. I'm still being pulled by the sewing too. Most nights it's a hard decision when I'm trying to decide what to do. I have a couple of things in the works right now and I'm sure that they will be done soon. Hopefully pictures to follow on those. Until then, I'll just keep trying to get things done and pray that my grandmother continues to get better.

Finished! A while back I cut out and sewed part of this shirt. It's Simplicity pattern 2892. Friday I finally finished it. I needed to do some hand work on it. I needed to stitch the yoke lining to the inside. I'm not sure it looks exactly like the picture on the pattern but I think it was mostly because I had some trouble with the gathering on the yoke.

I used a swiss dot fabric. It's really light and comfortable. I think I would make this again but I would like one in a jersey fabric.

Happy Fathers Day to the worlds best father! Love you Dad!

A few more pictures from my garden.

How I spent my Saturday or 6 years in the making, I got a new car!

I've needed a new car for a long time, a really long time but it seemed like there was always something else that we needed more. So buying me a new car was low on the list. Hubbs and I started saving up and kept saving up and when my aunt passed away in February we inherited a little bit of money, not much but enough to be able to buy me a new car. I started doing research and testing driving everything that was in the price range of what we wanted to spend. I finally settled on a Subaru Outback. So off Hubbs and I went this morning to buy a new car.

Getting the keys!
Front end (you can see my old truck there on the right at the curb)

Passenger side

Back end

Driver Side

Dashboard

I love this car. It drives so smooth and you can't even feel the transmission change gears at all. Plus it gets great gas mileage. Now I can go where ever I want to go anytime I want to go! No more asking Hubbs if he needs to use his truck on any one day so that I can plan to use it. yay!

Hubbs and I spent yesterday doing chores. After being gone for a week we needed to do some clean up in the house, return the 5th wheel to storage, go to the nursery, do the grocery shopping and work in the garden. It was a very productive day. I spent way to much time in the sun without sun block on the first decently sunny and warm day of the year and the result was me being turned into a crispy critter. My arms and the back of my neck are bright red and burned. Ouch! But it was totally worth it. My garden is in great shape.

My dahlias are so pretty this year!

The volunteer sunflowers are huge! When I uploaded this picture I laughed out loud because I captured a bee in flight at the top of the picture. I seem to be capturing a lot of bees in pictures lately, both on purpose and on accident.

I got an artichoke at the nursery. It's itty bitty right now but I'm sure next year we'll get some really wonderful artichokes.

Since I'm a bit behind in getting my garden in this year due to all the travel we've been having to do, I purchased corn instead of growing from seed like I normally would have done. 6 plants was all I was willing to take on for right now. I'm hoping for some really great, tasty corn.

I purchased 3 tomato plants at the nursery and when I was weeding one of the other beds, I found a volunteer tomato plant. I'm calling it the "mystery tomato." Not sure what it is but I can't wait for it to grow up and show me.

This is another volunteer sunflower. It's got tons of blooms on it and looks like a sunflower tree. The colors are really soft and pretty. I love volunteer plants. It's like free plants!

My herb garden is doing great also. I had to transplant the mint into a larger pot earlier this year because it had totally grown out of it's small pot and needed a much larger pot. The bed has my rosemary, sage, thyme, chives and oregano.

The bees are loving the chive blooms right now.

Hoooooweee! What a trip! We took a week off of work to spend in Oregon with my family. I haven't been up to my dad's house since before Hubbs and I bought our house 6 years ago. I guess I was over due for going up. We left on Saturday morning and headed up. We had great weather going up, blue sky's all the way. Cinder cone north of Mt. Shasta.

Mt. Shasta. The snow was so beautiful with all the green trees around it.

Sunday afternoon we skipped some rocks on the Rouge River. Hubbs skipped the furthest by a long shot. Got one all the way across the river.

We took a Jet boat ride on Sunday evening. This boat can travel in 6 inches of water!

It was dinner cruise and we got to have an all you can eat chicken and ribs dinner at their lodge. We really enjoyed the dinner and we all ate way more then we should have.

Tuesday we went fishing. I caught the most fish and the biggest fish!

All but two of these fish. Best fishing day I've had in a long time. Normally I don't catch anything.

Wednesday we headed up to see Crater Lake. It was all fogged in and we didn't get to see it at all but on the way back we stopped to see the Rouge River Gorge. 144,000 gallons of water passes through here each min!

It rained the entire time we were at the gorge but we didn't let it dampen our spirits!

Hubbs and my baby sister gave each other a hard time the entire time we were there. I can't believe that she's 14 already.

Thursday my dad gave us a tractor driving lesson. He sure loves that tractor, just look at that grin.

The wild flowers were beautiful while we were there. The rodadengens were blooming but we just missed the peak of the season.

For some reason I've been taking a lot of pictures of bees lately. My dad had Mexican Sage all over his property and the bees just loved it.

Our trip was really wonderful. It was over too fast. We're home now but I'm already looking forward to our next trip. I can't wait to go back.