Ya gotta love fall and it's food!

Today is Mom's birthday. It's the first of her birthday's that I haven't been able to celebrate with her. So - I went over to spend some time with Dad. He didn't know what day it was but what was important was we spent time together.


Mom's birthday always signals my need to get busy with Christmas/winter knitting. This past week I started working on gloves and some other items that will end up as presents. There's a free pattern out there for a fun pair of gloves that uses sock yarn. Knotty. Do a search on Ravelry or - if you're not a member of Ravelry, join and then do a search!


Anyway - they take 1 skein of Socks that Rock , I'm using a couple skeins of KnitPicks Memory(no longer available). The gloves are long and have a bit of cable knot work at the wrist.




They're wonderful and easy to knit.

The cuff is nice and long and will keep things warm during the cold Minnesota winters.


The next time I make these gloves, and there WILL be a next time, I will use a yarn colorway that is closer to a single color. Something like a kettle dye that has some depth to the color but not such a variation as this yarn. The cabling just doesn't show up as much as I'd like.


Mom's birthday also means time to make comfort food. I love fall and the foods that come with it. I love apples, squash, soups and stews, fresh made warm bread and all the goodies we think of with fall. Every Halloween when I was a kid we would have breaded pork steaks, baked potatoes, squash, fresh bread, and dessert would end up being the candy we got from trick or treating. Yup - Mom's birthday-fall-Halloween - ya gotta love the food this time of year.


My cardinal bag pattern is almost ready. I'm hoping within the next week to have it available for sale. This is a felted bag pattern I created in memory of Mom. She loved red and cardinals. We used to play a game of trying to count all the cardinal stuff around the house. (but I babble) The bag has been test knit. I received some excellent feed back and I'll be refining the pattern this week.

Five foot one half inch of Energy

Mom was never Five foot tall. She always added "and one half inch" as if it were a badge of honor. That one half inch seemed to be filled with extra energy. Mom never walked she bounded. Her one arm would be swinging back and forth as she walked to get out extra energy so her short legs could keep up with everyone. Life was meant to be lived at full speed ahead.Mom's stove had 2 temperatures - off and burn. Her car had 2 speeds - accelerate and brake.

This energy field around her would often drive me crazy. She would tell me my bedroom had to be cleaned by Saturday and by Wednesday she would be in my room cleaning because she couldn't wait for me. I was just a bit more casual about housekeeping and would have gotten around to it - really!

Everyone loved her. At church she served where ever needed and with the same energy. At lodge she served and gave her all. In the neighborhood she was known as the cookie lady and all the kids knew they could come over for a hug and a cookie. Even at the sr. apartment where she spent the past couple years she went nonstop at all events. She didn't know people's names anymore but was a friend to everyone.

Two weeks ago I got a call from the staff at Mom's apartment. She was having problems at breakfast eating and didn't seem to be able to swallow. We went to the ER to get things checked out and over the course of a couple days we discovered she had several old strokes which explained the confused words and dementia. They also seemed to have affected her nerves in the neck area causing an inability to swallow without gagging. Within a few days she couldn't get anything down.With everything going on - dementia, etc.- I called my brother and we decided no extreme measures, no feeding tubes. She wouldn't want that. The past couple weeks I've been spending my time between work and the hospital.

Yesterday morning this bundle of energy had no more to give. She died quietly in her sleep. It's a every strange feeling. I'm sad but not. How could you be sad for someone who lived such a full life and was so loved by everyone she met.

Mom loved red and especially cardinals. We had a billions cardinals around the house. Once things settle down a bit I'm going to design a bag. It will be red and full of energy. Mom will like it.