Birthday Blues

J's 3rd birthday during his Blue's Clues phase

This week, my family had two celebrations.  My only son, J, reached his 15th birthday and E came home from her first term of college.  I don't know where time has gone.  My sweet little boy has somehow turned into an adult-sized creature.  Well, almost adult-sized.  We're all small people in our family and I'm grateful J is at least taller than me, an achievement his older sisters have yet to reached.  I get startled sometimes when I here his voice booming up the stairs.  Why is there a man in the house and why is he playing video games on the family room couch?!!

I miss those days when Mom can do no wrong in his eyes, and a kiss could cure all manner of boo-boos.  He was the youngest for almost 5 years before M came along.  Sometimes, I think he's never forgiven me for dethroning him as the baby of the family.

On another note, I got a surprising message on my computer when I woke up yesterday.  E asked me, "will I be okay bringing knitting needles on the plane?"  Boy, was I proud.  My daughter knitting on an airplane!  It almost brought tears to my eyes!  Then I saw what she was knitting and I really wanted to cry.  Poor kid.  She's knitting on size 15 needles, yet her stitches are so tight, you can barely get the right needle into the stitches.  And her scarf is not only growing length-wise, the width is growing too.  I switched out her monster 13-inch metal needles for a pair of circulars.  At least she won't be poking anyone in the eye on her return trip to school.

I've actually done quite a bit of knitting since Halloween.  My February Lady Sweater acquired some pretty buttons purchased from Webs.  I didn't bother blocking the sweater and have worn it already.

The double heelix socks are off the needles and been worn at least three times.  I even managed to stretch them over my big feet to match a purple and blue Christmas sweater.

I knit a hat from leftover Peruvia and Mochi Plus I bought during a trip to San Francisco.  My mother-in-law loved the hat so much, I knit another one for her.  My niece got the first one.

A watermelon hat was started and completed for the littlest niece.   

Another one was made for M's Bitty Baby doll.

  Just to mix things up, I crocheted a fan scarf for a birthday present.

And, I knit the druidess beret  during the Thanksgiving long weekend for another niece that looooves hats.

Wow.  Despite the holiday madness of shopping, cleaning, cooking, decorating, I've managed to spread some handmade love to my family.