Not Good News!!!

I got back from Rochester, NY last Monday night. I was so excited to show my DH the pictures that I downloaded in my laptop. My computer crashed and died on me!!!! I was so shocked!! I lost all the pictures from last weeekend event. My DH tried to retrieve the pictures but no luck! I'm going to bring my laptop to work tomorrow and hope someone can rescue my pictures. *sniffling*

Note to myself: Never delete the pictures from my camera till I get the backup copies! Grrrr!!

Yes, I'm pretty upset about that!!!

Recap of my Crazy Crowd Craft gathering will be coming up soon.

Happy Belated Fourth of July!!

I do hope you have all had a wonderful Fourth of July celebration!!

I really had every intention of writing a post after I got back from a long Fourth of July weekend. But I was so busy making something for the 12th annual CRAZY Crowd Craft gathering. Good thing I started making something last Spring and left them for a while till I finally finished everything last Saturday. 4 same pins, 4 same ornaments and 4 same gifts.

I can not tell you what I made but will definitely show you after I get back from the long CRAZY and FUN weekend!!! It's TODAY that I will be flying to Rochester, New York to join with my CRAZY gang!!! I.really.can't.wait!!!!

Speaking of Anniversary/Fourth of July weekend, my dear hubby and I decided to go a trip somewhere in the west of Pennsylvania by his toy, convertible car. The weather were so perfect that we left our car top down all weekend. I didn't care where we go but I just need to relax and knit something. I spent hours knitting February Lady sweater. It was mindless knitting but I noticed something was little off from the lace and realized that I messed up by knitting twice on same pattern row. If it was not noticeable, I would leave it alone but it was really obvious that the laces were not matched. I frogged 8 rows of laces and started again. I messed up again!! I gave up and put it away till later. I guess my timing/mood was off.

As we drove down the country road, we saw two black bears running across the road in front of us. Geez.. my jaw dropped and wish I had a camera with me but I left it in back of the car trunk knowing that the battery was dead!!! My DH was so disappointed that I was not prepared to get the battery charged. Sorry, DH!!! But I finally got two batteries full charged when we checked in the motel. I missed out taking several pictures of beautiful scenic places.

Oh oh... We saw fireworks in THREE diferent places within an hour and half on Fourth of July.... Well.. I lied!!! We actually watched DC and New York City fireworks through television. The real one came out in the view of our hotel room's window in a small town of Franklin, PA. We were so lucky that we got the best room with perfect view to watch the firework for another 30 minutes.

My world best chauffer did all the driving for the weekend!!!

Dang, I wish I remember the name of this place when we stopped by for lunch. Real beautiful view of this area.

Don't you love to look up at the tree while driving down the road? It relaxes me so much every time I look up at the trees and sky!

Good thing that my DH had sharp eyes seeing something on the road map book on our way back home. We stopped to see Flight 93 National Memorial and Flight 93 Chapel in Shanksville, PA. It was very heartfelt experience for us to visit and pay respect the heroes who were killed in the crash of Flight 93 on September 11th.


We stopped at FLT 93 Chapel (three miles away from the crash site).

We went over to National Memorial after the chapel. There are a lot of crosses, caps, flowers, patches and angels left by many people at the temporary place on hilltop where they can write their thoughts and feelings about the event and for the heroes.

The temporary memorial is created on the hilltop overlooking the crash site (where you could see the flag posted on the fence). Although we are deaf, we could feel the silence and peaceful around the area. It is a right place for quiet reflection and expressions of respect. Definitely, it was powerful feeling.

It was very good weekend for us.

I better get ready for the trip in a few hours. I'm sooooooooooo ready for another long weekend. I will be back next week with news and of course, pictures of the projects we make.

Have a great day...happy knitting!!!

Gosh!!! Where did the 20 years go????

July 1, 1989

Today is exactly 20 years ago that I married to my BEST friend. He was and is and shall always be my real soulmate, lover and best friend. A toast to TWENTY wonderful years, my love!!! Happy Anniversary, Craig!!! I'm looking forward to our 50th years anniversary!!!!

Here as I promised.....

I need to update on Ravelry and am trying to remember the password for Flickr. I will figure it out later but will work on details later. I realized that I didn't do good job taking pictures of my projects. I need to redo to post them up in Ravelry this weekend in bright day. So forgive me for lousy pictures.....

So here goes:

Fair Isle Yoke Cardigan (ravelry link)

I need to block it to make it more smooth on buttonlines.

Yarns: Reynolds Whiskey

I finished the pieces last January and didn't seam them up till later in March. I found the right buttons from the antique store two weeks ago.


Everyday Cardigan (ravelry link)


I finally finished it after two years of hiberating!!! I really love the Peace Fleece yarns so much and the color of the sweater. I can't wait to wear it when winter comes.

Pretty pewter buttons.

Fair Isle Sweater (ravelry link)

This was the easiest pattern and took me 9 days to finish it.

I want to use up the yarns that were left in my stash basket for years and I'm so glad that it came out great.


Forest Canopy Shawl - this was my second one. I could not find the pictures of the first one that I made last December.

I made it for my mother's birthday last January.

Close details - isn't that pretty!!! I used Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool yarn.

I have four "hiberating" projects that need to finish but they are either too boring to knit, too hot to knit or to difficult for me to understand/follow the instruction. Eventually, I hope to finish them this year. But only one is Cascade Yarns 220 Wool that I'm eager to work on February Lady sweater. It doesn't bother me knitting it in the car when my DH and I went out for a ride to Mechanicsburg, PA from here all day yesterday. I'm almost finished with the garter stitch part and will going to work on lace part soon.

Happy Knitting!

Back and Much Alive....

Helloooooo..... ***hand waving****

Wow....I know it's been a while (well...almost 8 months) but time flies too fast for me. I'm doing okay, considering ups and downs since New Year. My DH was laid off on January 31st and still has no luck in finding job ever since. My dad gave me and my mom a real scare when he had quad bypass surgery last April. Good thing that my dad is doing very well. Not only that, my laptop was acting up for a while till last week, it went kaput!! Good thing that my DH is very handyman. He had magic hands to fix it all day and night. He had extra hard drive from his old laptop. It comes back alive and more faster!!!

Anyway, you *might* be wondering what I’ve been up to (that is if you’re still checking, or you could wonder if I change my identity or have completely forgotten about me, considering the 8 months and all…) :) Still just knitting, working, reading, eating and living. It doesn't sound like all that when I write it that way, but I personally want to focus on myself and spend closely with my DH that I really enjoy so much. Death of my sister was the hardest for me to deal with. I still get choked up when I think of my sister. I miss her so much.

I've been reading a lot (lot ...lot...) books since I signed up 52 books in 52 weeks. I read up to 42 books so far. I knitted 3 sweaters, two socks, two scarves and two shawls. Sorry, no pictures yet but I need to find my camera to take some pixs of my latest projects.

I really want to say Happy Father's/Husband's Day to all dads, especially two my favorite men!

My DH, Craig and my Dad!!!!!!

I'm going to look for my camera now. Happy Knitting!!

My Kimbo

Thank you so much for your kind emails and comments in my blog. My mind is still so blurred as if I'm having in a bad nightmare that I can't wake up. I lost my precious sister, Kim to liver cancer on Oct. 6th. She was 48 years old.

I know I didn't mention in my blog exactly what happened to my sister in last 20 months. My sister had GIST tumors on her stomach, liver and few tiny spots on her lungs. She underwent surgery to remove half of her stomach on March 30, 2007 . Kim had to take Gleevac medicine for life. She was very optimitic and hopeful to keep the liver tumor strunk or stablized.

Fast forward to last May with the bad news. On a follow up visit, it was found that the tumor on her liver grew bigger. The Gleevac medicine didn't work at all and she took different medicines. She suffered with serious side effects and was very sick all summer. She went through another CT scan in last week of August and found out the tumor grew aggressively bigger. The doctors decided to schedule her to have the surgery to remove half of her liver and gall bladder on September 18th. Before the surgery could begin, Kim had a various health related complications. A CT scan indicated that the cancer has spread throughout her liver. The surgery was no longer an option. The doctors would not be able to give a good estimate for how long she could live but the cancer was too aggressive and told us that she will not live within weeks to two months. The news has broken all of our hearts to realize that my sister is not going to be with us forever. In last two days before she passed away, the doctors informed us that the tumor grows so aggressive that cause her right lung collapsed and told us that she will not live within a few days instead of weeks to 2 months. My sister wanted to approach the time she has left with the strength, grace and dignity. It really defines her personality. She died peacefully on Monday morning on October 6th surrounding with my parents, my DH and me.

We had a memorial service in Milwaukee where my family are from on October 18th and another memorial service in deaf school in Boston where my sister taught mathematics high school last Monday. The services were overwhelming beautiful. My sister has touched many of our lives with her intelligence, generosity, patience, talent, wit, humor, and amazing positive outlook on life. Her high school students where my sister taught told us how much my sister impacted and touched their lives by her caring, patience and positive attitudes. She was the most compassionate person I have known. She cared deeply for the students and her friends in her life and it was always apparent in her actions. If the student had a problem, she was eager to lend an eyes and help in any way she could. If the students were sad, she would cheer them when it seemed impossible. She brought joy and happiness to all of our lives. She was a model of compassion and caring. She was a great role model to high school students.

I really miss my sister so much more than I can say . Her spirit is always in our hearts and minds forever. We bless her on her journey and put our trust in the great Light that surrounds her now. She is home and is free from cancer.

I have to move on with the faith of Lord to guide me with all the strengths and happiness I need from now on. We will leave tomorrow morning to Portland, Oregon for the wedding of my brother-in-law this weekend.

More to come later with the knitting news after I get my life back to normal, hopefully real soon.

She is in Peace

My Angel

Mary Kim Roberts

July 20, 1960 - October 6, 2008

My precious sister died this morning, peacefully.  

I am unbearably sad but she is no longer suffering.

Her spirit is in my heart forever.