I’m going to be a Grandma!!!

That was the BIG NEWS over the weekend. Peter, my oldest who married Jeannine last May, called on Good Friday as Mariah and I were on our way north for a week and shared their wonderful news. So, of course, almost the first thing I think of is “I don’t have any yarn.” Or needles. Or a pattern. After fretting for a few minutes, I realized that my next stop already was Stonehedge Fiber Mill and Deb has some lovely superwash fingering weight wool that I knew would be perfect for the task at hand. Once I got to mom and dad’s I surfed the ‘net trying to find a pattern, but nothing with a free pattern jumped out at me, so then I went to mom’s old knitting pattern stash. I found a pattern that I could modify for these Aran booties. I was happy and they certainly were a quick knit. But, I picked up way more yarn that that needed for booties from the mill, so when I arrived at Bois Blanc Island (where we’ve been since Easter Sunday), Christa and I started sampling from the Barbara Walker treasuries. Finally we found a crepe stitch that is almost a brioche stitch in that it is thick and cushy, but not too holey for a babies little fingers. So I swatched. Worked out the pattern and cast on last night. They have decided not to learn the sex of the baby, so the blanket is also natural in color. I think it will be quite elegant.

As many of you know, a week on the island is always productive for me. This is the first time I’ve brought Mariah for an extended stay. We’ve played Monopoly twice (we’re one-one) and taken some nice walks. This morning she asked me how come I was working on the computer, “wasn’t I on vacation?” Christa educated her, or at least tried to, that what I am doing here is fun! These photos are from our walk Easter Monday. I do believe there is something inherently wrong about temperatures in the 20s in April!

Today is work-on-patterns-day. I spent the last two days a) recovering from the “real” world, b) getting Knit Michigan paperwork ready for 2008 and c) discussing Christa’s new love: double knitting and the design possibilities. The Spring Fiber Retreaters will have an opportunity to see her experiments and the double knit vest for Shelby that she is working on. Of course, all the work is in alpaca and it is drop-dead gorgeous. We will be scheduling a double knitting design workshop at Heritage in the new year for those of you that would like to experience this fun way to think about and experience knitting.

Tomorrow Mariah and I fly off the island and head to northern Illinois to see Peter and Jeannine. We’re driving “over the top” so have quite a long drive ahead of us – hopefully we’ll find a few knit, antique and yarn shops along the way.