Family and So Forth

My mother's side of my family are generally very long-lived; she was the youngest of 5, and was nearly 82 when she died in January. One of the siblings died at 82 in 1995 from cancer. When I was in kindergarten and grade school, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and my aunts. And in the late 70s one of my cousins was stationed at the air force base in Denver, which gave us the chance to become friends as adults. He is the brother I never had, and we are still close in spite of the miles between us now. Last fall my cousin and his dad visited the rest of the siblings, and sent me a photo of them all.

The sibs are sitting in birth order, with my oldest cousin on the left next to her mom and my 'brother' cousin in the back next to his dad. My aunts are 98 and 86, my uncle was 90. Both of these aunts were very loving to me as a kid, part-time mothers. Sadly, my youngest aunt (on the right) passed away in January, from complications of surgery. My oldest aunt was just honored by the local Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), for her years of work as a grade-school aide and, since about 2004 when she had to 'retire' from that level of activity, her telephone support and 'check-in' network for the seniors in her area. She is the last of the original RSVPs in her area, having become a volunteer in 1973 when the program started. I just hope that I am blessed with even part of her stamina as I grow older.

This Just In
Right after I posted about our Family By Love, our newest DGS arrived, after a very short labor for Mom Anna. We're having 'technical difficulties' getting photos from there to here in a format I can post. But I received photos of Abram, the DGS who joined the family in March, shown here with his Big Brother Noah.






Limited Knitting Content
After quite a hiatus, knitting mojo has returned. Yesterday I finished nearly 3 repeats of my Sand & Sea Shells stole, with enough Sea Silk left for perhaps 2 repeats and the border. Between Friday night's SnB and last night's work, I also added another few repeats of my Dazed and Confused Zigzag Scarf.


I've promised myself I'm not going to cast on another lace project until I finish Sand & Sea Shells; I've got the new project ready to go, from a new KAL at Ravelry, "One Shawl to Rule Them All" . The group has selected a shawl for each of the four races represented in the Fellowship, hobbits, men, elves and dwarves, and I'm planning to start with the Elven choice, the Woodland Shawl. I have 2 skeins of Dream in Color's Smooshy yarn in the Beach Fog colorway, a pale version, which makes me think of Galadriel.