Max and Nell have been in Australia since Wednesday and their plan is to work and travel around the land of Oz over the course of the coming year. They’ve set up a blog to chronicle their adventures down under and I hope you’ll have a chance to check it out from time to time.

I’ve had a little trouble connecting with the two of them due to the time difference. Australia is 17 hours ahead of California in time – nearly a whole day! So to help me remember the time difference, I’ve installed the location clock below (which seems to keep disappearing).

If you’re as OCD as I am about this kind of stuff, you can get your own world clock here.

I had some visitors in town recently – Ali, Max and Kelsi – and have therefore been unable to knit much. I promise some progress shots real soon. I thank you for your patience.

I had the distinct honor of watching my son and his girlfriend, Nell, graduate from Indiana University yesterday. What a thrill! The speaker was Quincy Jones who received his 14th honorary doctorate degree. The venue was immense as you can see here.

Today I was pampered and spoiled for Mother’s Day, even being treated to Iron Man 2. I am grateful to my children for making me a mother. Tomorrow, I make my way back to Chicago and then SF. See you all on the west coast soon.

I’ve been completely obsessed with hats recently churning them out at the rate of one every few days. This is my kind of project requiring absolutely no sewing except for weaving in the ends. Fantastic! So quick and easy but I have to work on not making them quite so BIG!

Max is modeling the extra large one at Muir Beach (80 stitches on 10.5 US with double strand of Patons Classic Wool Merino). Remember, this hat is a variation on the pattern Thorpe by Kristen Kapur and starts from the crown of the head. Each hat I make is a new adventure and I modify every subsequent version every so slightly. Currently I’m working on a grey one with pointier ear flaps – more of a “V” shape.

I’ve even started Nell on her first hat in the round – the Adults-Only Devil Hat from Stitch ‘n Bitch. Also a blue hat like the one she’s modeling below. This hat obsession show no signs of abating. My next hat will be striped using all the colors of PCWM that I have on hand.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I’ve got family in town this week for the holiday, namely Max and Nell (pictured above at the Caffe Trieste in North Beach), and we’ve been running around the SF Bay Area taking in the sites. Today we were at the California Academy of Sciences (along with Alice and Liz) which I haven’t seen since it’s been remodeled. We also had a hat modeling session at the beach the other day with photos coming soon. Stay tuned!

So much so that yesterday I downloaded Wake Up by Arcade Fire and I’ve been listening to it non-stop since then.

[101609: I just discovered a blog entitled Terrible Yellow Eyes which is dedicated to works, mainly illustration, inspired by Where the Wild Things Are. Pretty cool.]

This is angry young Max – still one of my favorite photos.

Long haired Max. Tenth grade I think.

Long haired Max in SF.

Long haired Max in SF in front of the GG Bridge.

Space Ghost Max.

Ninja Max.

Vampire Max.

Graduating Max.

Max in the East Bay Hills.

Max at Last Thursday.

Max at Camp Pit.

Max at Cha Cha Cha.

From all of of us, Happy Birthday Max!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s been a few weeks but I return with the regular Wednesday Doodle feature and it’s another one of Max’s doodles from years ago. Oh the twisted imagination of the male adolescent.

Before I forget, I have a few links I wanted to share with you. The Ministry of Cats turned me on to the Bread Art Project and maybe the Gray Hair gallery too. I can’t remember. It’s been a few weeks and I can barely remember anything from five minutes ago! Both cool sites and worth checking out.

Also another shot of the graduate Alice taken by Sean Morrison, photography instructor at Union High School. Check out the entire set at flickr if you have time. Pretty cool shots of high school students about to commence. I found them quite touching.

It’s kind of funny that Alice, voted “Best Smile” by her classmates, barely grinned in the photo.

Here are my two children, Alice and Max, in 1991, when we first moved to Oregon. Alice was only about six months old in this photo. Seems like yesterday.

*sigh*

If you are a parent of young children, go and hug your child right now. Go. Now. I’ll wait for you. The one thing I wish I had done more, was to hug them and hold them while they were still little. You can never give your child too much love.

This shot was taken in July 2003 and many of you will recognize the famous landmark in the background. It was a warm and dry summer evening and even though Alice hates this photo, it’s one of my favorites.

And this is Max and Alice from two days ago. Yes, Alice is now a high school graduate and I am officially an empty nester. Time for some big adventures…for all of us. With any luck, we’ll have a college graduate by this time next year.

A shout out and big congratulations to a trio of young women who were members of the first graduating class of Union High School in Vancouver, Washington and are now entering the “real world” as my friend Patricia likes to say. From left to right it’s Alice, Gabby and Chelsey. Good Luck to all of you.

So what about knitting? This blog is supposed to be about knitting after all and no, I haven’t forgotten how.

In fact, I finished the May pair of socks and immediately cast on for June’s pair pictured above. They’re the Ribbed Ribbons pattern from Wendy Johnson’s book, Socks from the Toe-Up in lovely Malabrigo sock which I’m enjoying very much. SO utterly soft and stretchy and yummy. The colorway pictured here is #416 “Indiecita”.

Stay tuned. I haven’t given up knitting…not by a long shot! I’m only just starting.

Remember when the only way to get through a day of High School was to draw?