Did He or Didn't He?

Today is Groundhog Day and being a Pennsylvanian, we have THE official word on all things pertaining to the pesky rodent.  I haven't seen any news yet this a.m. but he couldn't have seen his shadow around here.  It's depressingly gray and dreary.  Maybe in Punxatawney the sun was shining where he has his burrow.  They can have their six more weeks of winter.  I don't want it here!

Oh, I forgot, we haven't even had six weeks of winter yet.  Yesterday it was in the 60's!  This has been a wonderful uncommonly warm winter and I love it!

Speaking of pests helpers, Deiter makes a bee-line for my desk the minute I sit down to type.  How am I supposed to see the screen with a 20-lb. groundhog sized cat in the way???

With the warmer weather the last few days the stinkbugs are beginning to emerge.  One happened to fly by and land on Deiter's back.  Feeling something on him that wasn't supposed to be there, he quickly bit at it.  Horrible surprise!!!  He gagged and went flying around the room like demons were after him!  I felt really sorry for him, but it was still rather humorous.

Last evening I finished the sweater vest I was test knitting for Julie at Knitting at Large.  This was a fun project to knit.  I wasn't sure how I'd feel about sewing in a zipper by hand, but it went well.  It's finished just in time for spring.

Julie has included an alternate fancier cable in the pattern.  I'm thinking about doing another vest in a light gray heather with the Celtic cable.
The Carnation vest pattern will soon be available for sale on Ravelry.

In the past year, thanks to Julie's encouragement, I've completed three sweaters and this vest.  I'm about at the end of my knitting marathon.  I'm still working on a sweater for Mom, but anything else for myself is on hold for a while.  Time to get back to rughooking and maybe some weaving, along with sewing of course.

Last year about this time (I think, maybe longer) I joined a challenge on Rug Hooking Daily.  I never completed the project.  A few days ago, while digging in my rug supply cupboard, I found the rug that I had begun and then decided I didn't like.  I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder because it doesn't seem to awful after all.  Ha-ha!  So I will be working on this again.

The theme of the Challenge was Grandmother's Trunk.  We were to create a rug that would remind us of our grandmothers by using items that might have been in her memory trunk.

Both of my grandmothers were needleworkers.
My father's mother was a maker of 'quilts'.  She and my great-grandmother called them quilts, but they were really knotted comfortors.  They loved the crazy patch kind with the satins and velvets and then did decorative stitching along the edges of the blocks.  I still have one that they did in wool for the wedding of my one aunt and uncle.

My mother's mother loved embroidering pillow cases, making doll clothing and crocheting rugs.  For most of my childhood she lived across the street from a graveyard.  Back then, when people put flowers and wreaths on the graves, the ribbons were actually satin, not the plastic we have today.  When the flowers had faded (they weren't plastic either!) the kind man who was the caretaker would remove the ribbons and give them to my grandmother.  She would carefully wash and iron the ribbons and use them to crochet rugs.  As you can imagine there were a lot of pink, red, and yellow rugs given away to all of us family members!  She also used cotton rags which made more conventional and attractive rugs.

I decided to include these grandmother passtimes in my rug along with the teacup since both of them were lovers of tea with lots of milk.

Speaking of which, I could use another cup!
Have a great weekend everyone.  Thanks for stopping by.