For Grandma

I have an awesome Grandma. Seriously. I love her. She turned 95 this summer and she still lives on her own. Sure, she has help. She's never driven a car, so my aunt takes her to do groceries and other errands. But my Grandma still does all her other housekeeping tasks. She cooks for herself. Cleans. Gets up on chairs to get her good teacups down. (Giving all of US heart attacks meanwhile.)

So when I was knitting this dishcloth at my parents a while ago and my mom mentioned Grandma would love one, it wasn't a hard sell. I was doing it to use up the yarn anyways, and pretty much anything I can do for my Grandma, I'm there.

I mean, considering my knitting love probably does mainly stem from my afghan love - an afghan my grandma made me by the way. So, I kinda owe the woman my life and my love of knitting. Two very important things. Right?

Thus Grandma, next time I see you, expect this to be coming your way!

Dishcloths and Jam

Blog? Hunh? What's a blog? Wait, I have a blog??

Oh yeah. ... totally forgot about that one.

Just joking. But it's been so long since I've blogged that it feels like I've forgotten about it. I have the general excuses of being busy. (My go to excuse...) But so many things have been keeping me busy and not blogging. Things like CAMPING! So much fun!! :) Things like my garden. Things like soccer 4 nights a week most of the time. Things like having a TON of tiny homegrown pears to use up. (Well, grandma-grown pears.)

I used some of those pears to make jam:

The pear jam is the one on the left. Doesn't it look yummy? It is! I'm so proud of it!! It's cinnamon/ginger pear jam. And once I was done my mom took the spatula to the pot and cleaned out every last drop. She loved it too!

So the jam above is for the Steph Chows 2nd Annual Jam exchange. Yay! I love jam exchanges. :) I'm sending Pear jam, peach jam, blueberry jam and cucumber sula. (Cucumber Sula is a family recipe that makes a relish. I don't love it, but the rest of my family does...)

And I'm also sending two granny square dishcloths. Com'on. I can't not send something I knit.

Not the cutest thing ever, but I thought they were cute in the simple old-fashioned I-just-made-jam sort of a way. Right? Plus, SUPER simple to make. I'm still liking simple these days.

So hopefully my jam exchange buddy enjoys my jam. Can't wait to see what I get! :)

Easy is good

In case y'all hadn't noticed... I've kinda been in a crafting slump of late. That's why it took me a month to finish this bolero! I just haven't felt inspired to knit or craft recently. Maybe it's because it's SUMMER. Or maybe because I'm so busy with a super secret project. Or because I play soccer 3 times a week. Or perhaps it's because I'm turning !30! . Um... no. I don't think that last one is it...

What ever the reason, I figured I'd do the only sensible thing there is to do. Go back to basics.

Garter Stitch!

I decided to make some dishcloths. You can't get more easy than that! Good thing they are super cute!!

But be prepared to see a lot of simple little projects over the next little while. I'm hoping they will pump me up and inspire me to do more exciting stuff!