Stocking caps, anyone?

This is my first little foray into knitting anything with an actual shape. You know, other than a rectangle or a square! I have knitted scarves, but that's about it. I was visiting Darcie over at www.quiltingbydarcie.blogspot.com and she's just so nifty with her crochet. She does these adorable handbags that she felts. Way cool. And I can just see her sitting on her couch, quietly crocheting the cold winter days of North Dakota away. All domestic like. So I decided to try the knitting, again. My great-grandmother, Oe, used to knit a sock every night when she went to bed. Just sit there in bed and knit a sock. She had 14 kids, so I am sure that was the only way to keep them in socks! There is just something all homey and...momalie, about handwork. Knitting, crocheting, tatting, handsewing.

I bought me a how-to book at Walmart for $2 and started in with the cap Boo is wearing- she's on the right. I started it on my trip to Alabama, and my friend, Donna, sees me knitting and says, "I didn't know you could knit." "I can't," says I. Showing her my little booklet and telling her I am attempting to make this hat- don't know if it will work out, though. She laughs and asks, "What do you do with that little tail hanging down there." "How should I know? I haven't got to that part, yet!" Just let me say right here, that $2 doesn't buy you what it used to, because there was not even a little unillustrated side-note of what to do with that tail... any knitters out there? I just pulled it back up through the seam at the back of the hat and after a few inches, snipped it off. I have made 4 of them, so far- all different. Abe's has ribs, and I wish you could have seen him leaning against my legs, "Is it done, yet?" He tends to wear it around the house. No doubt it will be lost in a week, but it wouldn't be a great loss, as the size... well, that's something I am still working on. I am determined to get it just right on a cap for Jack- see? I have plenty of models who aren't too particular and don't mind wearing my mistakes.

We are having a lovely time with my parents being here. My dad can fix anything- and he has proven that, here. I had this wire sticking out of the wall above the stove- intending some day to get an exhaust fan and light put in there. It has been hanging for...about 8 years, now. So he just wired it up as an outlet- looks much better. Then, there was a light fixture that needed moved over a foot so you could get in and out of the attic without bashing it in... he took care of that and even installed a new light fixture for me- isn't that fun? It was an old one- with embossed sunflowers. My water dispenser in the fridge was broken- fixed that. My ice maker was leaking- fixed that. My cordless phone had it's little cord chewed by a mouse- varmints! He fixed that. My stove wouldn't ignite on it's own anymore- fixed that! Who wants him next? He tends to talk a bit and rant about the nitwits who design things so poorly, but really, he is well worth the "trouble." No trouble at all, and he'll eat anything. The perfect pet. My mom keeps the dishes done, the table wiped, the children fed. She made bread pudding, yesterday- I had some cinnamon bread in the freezer, and I thought Evie was gonna make herself sick, she ate so much! She said, "Ya gotta eat it while it's here!" Spoken like a true child of a large family. Mom and I plan on having lunch out, tomorrow. Dad will be on kid duty. No doubt, they'll wrangle him into watching a movie with them. Or maybe he'll be putting that backsplash in above the stove... Ya can't keep a good man down!