Just curious... do I still have any followers?

So... it's been five years. A few things have changed. A lot of things haven't. I still knit, but my mojo went missing for a while. It's back now, thank goodness! I've completed three projects recently and I've just started another. And I'm working on writing up two patterns, with more ideas swirling in my head.

I still homeschool my daughters, but only the younger two, because the oldest(18) is in college! Angel's name is Theresa, and she's a sophomore at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, studying youth ministry. She was on the Dean's List both semesters last year, and is on track to do it again. She joined the choir and an intramural ultimate frisbee team. And she just auditioned for and got a spot on Chapel Teams, which means she'll be helping lead worship for chapel occasionally! She's thriving, and I'm so proud of her.

Theresa, aka Angel (Photo by Assassin)

The daughter formerly known as Princess(15) informed me several years ago that she didn't want to be Princess anymore; she wanted to be Assassin. I agreed, but told her she's not allowed to kill anyone, so she's The Assassin Who Doesn't Kill Anyone(and if anyone understands the reference, you're awesome). She's a junior in high school, and she's taking two online classes through a local community college. She's super close to earning her black belt in karate; she and the youngest have been training for almost three years. She loves photography; she got a fancy camera for her birthday last year and has taken thousands of amazing photos with it! I'll put one of them at the end of this post.

Assassin, breaking a board with a flying side kick(photo by mom)

I haven't called the youngest(13) Kitty in years; she's usually Weirdo or Goofball(don't worry; those aren't insults in our family). She's in eighth grade, and she has developed good coping mechanisms for her dyslexia; she's reading and writing well, and she's actually ahead of her peers in math, she's started Algebra 1. She loves art, especially the kind she can do on her own body; she does amazing FX makeup, as well as very glamorous makeup. She is a brown belt in karate, so she's roughly a year away from earning her black belt. Even though she started karate at the same time as her sister, she was in the younger class for the first year and a half, and the younger kids work at half the speed of the teens. So she is three belt ranks behind Assassin. 

Weirdo/Goofball (photo by Assassin)

This is one of my favorite photos that Assassin took. I love how she captured the reflection in the window of the campus coffee house at Theresa's college. OKWU is a beautiful place.

New patterns are up on the pattern blog!

I had fallen pretty far behind on updating my pattern blog.  I finally got Evellyn Anne and Julia Lynne posted today.  I also put up a free dishcloth pattern.

I designed this Buttonheart Dishcloth for a dishcloth swap; I got to spoil "buttonheart", so I decided to make it personalized.  It's knit in the round, from the center out.  The buttons could be left off, but they're great for scrubbing, so why would you want to? ☺  I used half a skein of Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton" to make it.  For the pattern, click on the link over there → that says My Pattern Blog.

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And I finished the blue Evellyn Anne blanket!  It's soaking right now, so you'll have to wait for a picture.  Now I need to focus on the Crown Jewels shawl; I had said I could get it done in a month, and the month is half-over.  And of course, Katiee is bugging me for her bag....

I am frustrated.

My hands have been hurting, a lot. I think I have tendonitis in my fingers. It's from too much knitting, but (of course) I still want to knit. Time is getting away from me. I have Christmas gifts and other things to knit. I want to knit, just for the serenity, the calmness, the joy it gives me. Yesterday I didn't knit a stitch. I did not like that, at all. My hands still hurt today. But I'll take at least the morning off, since it's library day anyway.

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Another reason I'm frustrated is that people are having difficulties downloading my patterns from my pattern blog. I didn't consider the fact that not everybody is using Microsoft Windows Vista when I saved my patterns as "xps" files (whatever the heck that means). So some people are able to access the files (I assume they are Vista users) while others are not. I need to save the files as another file type and see if that makes them accessible. If you are one of the people having trouble accessing the files, please bear with me as I attempt to solve this problem. I'm just relieved at this point that the mistake was mine, and I don't need to find another file storage site. I apologize for my shortsightedness. I just wanted to let you know that I am, in fact, working on it.

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Here's a sneak peek at what I'm working on...or at least what I want to be working on...

It's a top-down in-the-round poncho for Princess. I've only spent one evening and one full day working on it (which is partly why my hands hurt so much) to get it to this point. It's very easy...I started with my new favorite cast-on: the tubular cast-on(I love it because it's much stretchier than the traditional long-tail cast-on...did about an inch of ribbing, then began increasing, just like I would for a raglan sweater, with basic rope cables between the increases. I haven't decided yet whether I will continue increasing, because if I do, this thing is going to be huge; it will be a square if I lay it flat. But then, Princess is a very active little girl, and I think she might need that extra space to be able to play as hard as she'd like. So at this point I'm undecided. Anybody want to offer an opinion on the issue?