{"id":38,"date":"2008-01-13T02:13:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-13T02:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/i-specialize-in-squares-and-rectangles.html"},"modified":"2008-01-13T02:13:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-13T02:13:00","slug":"i-specialize-in-squares-and-rectangles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/i-specialize-in-squares-and-rectangles.html","title":{"rendered":"I Specialize in Squares and Rectangles"},"content":{"rendered":"

So…how many of you know that I knit? A show of hands…don’t be shy.<\/p>\n

A few of you — probably those who received some of my handiwork as Christmas gifts or baby shower gifts, right? What you probably didn’t know is that my dear Mom taught me to knit when I was about 10 years old, and I was happily making baby doll blankets and pot holders for a couple years. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out casting on\/off, or any other stitches besides the basic knit…so I didn’t keep the interest much beyond age 12 or so.<\/p>\n

“How the @#$%^& do you find the time to knit???? You’re keeping up with 2 kids, working part time, blogging like mad, making Whoopie Pies and bad potato dumplings!”<\/p>\n

Easy, I ONLY knit when I’m either (a) sitting on my ass in front of the TV in the evenings after the boys go to bed or (b) sitting on my ass in a moving vehicle. I did an entire baby blanket (Faith!) on a round trip on Amtrak between Cary, NC and NYC.<\/p>\n

So why the recent resurgence? My church started up a Prayer Shawl Ministry<\/a> summer 2006 and thanks to mill end 1lb. sacks of yarn at A.C. Moore<\/a>, I was able to quickly make up about a 1\/2 dozen or so simple shawls in the latter half of 2006. Before we knew it, the 10-12 ladies contributing were up to our ears in shawls and ended up slowing down our work. In the meantime, I was working on other projects to train myself on all those techniques that I didn’t have the motivation to learn as a teenager. The book “Knitting for Dummies”<\/a> (again, thanks to my Mom) was great, too! I made up about 10 shawls and simple scarves for friends for Christmas in 2006.<\/p>\n

I think 2007 was the year of the baby…I ended up knitting 7 baby afghans in 2007, they’ve ended up all over the place! Let’s see if I can recall: Steve and Heather B., Will and Casey B., Rich and Naomi W., John and Bethany H., Joe and Keri T., David and Dawn H., Paul and Faith T. I have two more in the queue…I hope to start on my next one next week for Baby Girl Courtemanche in St. Louis. I’ve my pink and purple yarn all ready to go.<\/p>\n

What am I working on currently? Well, for the first time, I’m making something for my<\/strong><\/em> family. Dave asked if I could make up a simple afghan that would match our couch. Poor Dave, I’ve been squeezing the afghan in between all these baby blankets and plastic bag crochet projects (see below about the crochet). With this pattern, I’ve been practicing making cables (i.e., a pattern that looks like twisting rope). Here I am sitting on the couch with the almost-completed afghan. I think I have two more days worth of work. Now, in the lower right you can see a clump of the same pattern…I have two edge panels that will be attached to the final product that will make this pretty big when all’s said and done: about 48″ x 66″. Definitely my largest project ever!<\/p>\n

\"\"
I even started crochet recently — but that was in enthusiasm of a cool project I learned about back in October. The recycled plastic bag bag<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is the last one I’ll be making for a while…unfortunately, each of these bags takes 100-125 plastic shopping bags from Target or Walmart or Food Lion, but I think it’s the ultimate message when it comes to recycling. It was unbelievable how quickly I cleared out my piles and piles of plastic bags and started soliciting friends for theirs. I was able to do 3 of them for this holiday season, and thanks to Maryann G. and Wendy W. for your bag donations. Megan H., Maryann and Lisa C. are the recipients of my first 3, and if I accumulate enough bags to make another one, my sister will get the next one for sure! These 4 ladies are my favorite reusers\/recyclers!<\/p>\n

This bag was also the first non-blanket\/scarf\/shawl I’d done. As the title suggested, I’m most comfortable with simple patterns — I’ve yet to attempt a sweater, hat or anything fancier. I’m part-way through a sock and lost interest in that quickly. Meanwhile, my Mom is putting together matching sweaters for all 5 of her grandsons once a year! I remember last Christmas she said “I think I’ll make some mitten ornaments out of leftover Christmas yarn.” One hour later, she had a little pair finished! I’m not that good, but I really enjoy it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So…how many of you know that I knit? A show of hands…don’t be shy. A few of you — probably those who received some of my handiwork as Christmas gifts or baby shower gifts, right? What you probably didn’t know is that my dear Mom taught me to knit when I was about 10 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[26,27,28,29],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-C","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":79,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/02\/latest-baby-afghan.html","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":0},"title":"Latest Baby Afghan","date":"18 February 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi! After having made several of these blankets, I finally took the time to feature one of them in a photo shoot of its very own!I just finished it tonight and I can't wait to ship it off to its recipient, Baby Madeline, who lives near St. Louis. She was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"crafts\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":678,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/hurlburt-spouses-club-charity-auction.html","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":1},"title":"Hurlburt Spouses’ Club Charity Auction","date":"19 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I just got home from the Hurlburt Spouses' Club Charity Auction. \u00a0This year was the 25th year of the auction. \u00a0The auction is the year's biggest fundraiser for the organization's scholarship fund.Being that this was my first HSC auction experience, I didn't really know what to expect. \u00a0All the ladies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force wife\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-x8_E1y7sH0U\/Tsc_ExP7bWI\/AAAAAAABbsQ\/FX0wsvhNUts\/s640\/IMG_0021.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/is-this-lazy.html","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":2},"title":"Is this lazy?","date":"21 January 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Who thinks this might be a lazy thing to do? This is a first for me, making uniform thank you cards.But HOLY COW, thanks to Google Picasa and Walgreen's, it's quite easy to do. I was able to do everything while sitting on my ass at the computer...and the next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"parenting\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":290,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2009\/01\/howie-my-forgotten-baby.html","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":3},"title":"Howie, My Forgotten Baby","date":"04 January 09","format":false,"excerpt":"I just realized that I never blogged about Dave's and my first baby, Howie.From HowieThe day we got him, he had to wear the leash for about 24 hours straight and the crate was his home for the first 18 months or so.Or Howard.Or Howie-the-Wonder-Dog.From HowieHowie is our 8 1\/2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"family\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":666,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/timmys-scrapbook-day-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":4},"title":"Timmy’s Scrapbook, Day 2","date":"06 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave Update: \u00a0With the kids at home to help Dave (most of the help he needs now is picking up stuff that he's dropped, by the way), I was able to go back out to the weekend crop on Saturday and take advantage of a few more hours of making\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"crafts\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-bE2F55APspI\/Trare5zsiLI\/AAAAAAABbUU\/ROx_LvxUJvE\/s640\/IMG_6094.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":83,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/02\/my-baby-is-growing-up.html","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":5},"title":"My Baby is Growing Up!","date":"19 February 08","format":false,"excerpt":"My baby boy is growing up. Today, in the middle of a very very difficult morning of trying to run a billion errands with both boys, Jake matter-of-factly told me that one of his lower teeth has been loose for a few days.We were in the van at the time,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"parenting\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-scKNpKCLAwg\/TbzYY-sA-VI\/AAAAAAABVMg\/Z3wrjsJMcZ4\/s400\/9May03%2B002.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}