Hello Sean 2 or Our Weekend in DC

Dear Sean- Well. another July 4th is drawing to a close. I can hear the sounds of clandestine fireworks in the background. Dad and I spent a pleasant afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Laude looking at old family photographs.

We also spent some time looking at old photos with your other grandparents this past weekend during our quick trip to DC. Grandma Huang is ambulatory again after her recent pelvic fracture. She and Grandpa enjoyed a respite from Goodwin House food by dining out with Dad and I on two consecutive nights-Italian on Friday and Peking duck on Saturday. (The Peking Gourmet Restaurant in Virginia is popular with the Bush family. Both George Sr. and Dubya have dined there with their entourages.) We spent the rest of the evenings reading your blog and looking at old Huang family photos. Grandpa Huang has a huge collection of slides which he is starting to convert in order to save them for posterity (ie: you and your siblings).

I'm still having difficulty formatting my photos and text! We did spend all day Saturday at the new Air and Space Museum out in Chantilly, VA, next to Dulles Airport. It's basically an enormous hangar filled with original air and spacecraft-no replicas here. The collection includes the space shuttle Enterprise (which never actually went into outer space, accounting for it's pristine condition), the Enola Gay (which dropped the first Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima-those B-29 bombers are HUGE)and an entire Concorde airliner. Dad spent a whole hour looking at engines while I got aerobic exercise circumavigating the vast exhibit floor.

We also managed a brief visit to the Mall where the annual Folklife Festival was in full swing.
Northern Ireland was one of the featured countries this year. We spoke with employees of Harland and Wolff, the company that built the Titanic and sniffed Bushmill Whiskey.





And of course-the main reason for our trip, the Nazaretz-Radjou wedding. They were blessed with perfect weather-sunshine and low humidity for the outdoor ceremony. The reception was a blast. After several shots of vodka, Dad was a willing dance partner!



Congratulations to Anna and Saeid!

Good luck on the rest of your journey through the mountains, son. love, Mom

Hello Sean!!

Dear Sean- As you pedal away across the USA with the Illini 4000 for Cancer, here's an update on the events you've been missing at home. First of all, we enjoyed visiting with you when the group stopped by in the Chicago area. Hope you enjoyed the strudel from Pompeii!


The cicadas made their 17 year appearance around Memorial Day, slowly emerging from the ground and making their way up tree trunks, shedding exoskeletons on the way. Their noise was deafening at times, especially when temperatures were warm. Dad had to wear earphones when working in the yard! I think most of the males are dead now as their high pitched whine is gone. All that remains is for the eggs to hatch. The larvae will fall to the ground and dig in for another 17 years.



Amy's graduation from Loyola's Stritch Medical School on June 3 was a joyous occasion. It took place at the Grand Ballroom at the end of Navy Pier. Afterwards, we were treated to a great buffet and a panoramic view of Lake Michigan. As you know, your Grandpa Huang came into town for the occasion. He and Grandma have been faithfully reading your blog. By the way, in deference to us older folks-is there any way you can increase the size of the font to make it easier to read???

Finally- my cousin Roger the endocrinologist came from Sidney, Australia with his wife Carol (also an endocrinologist) to attend the American Diabetes Association meeting in Chicago. We managed to meet them for lunch at Heaven on Seven. His visit has piqued my interest in visiting The Land Down Under someday.

Well-that's about it for now since I can't figure out how to get text underneath the last photo.
Will post pics from our recent trip to DC. You would have enjoyed seeing the new Air and Space Museum. Happy Fourth of July!!!! love, Mom

Mothers Day II

I'm still not entirely comfortable with formatting this blog but fortunately DS#2 Sean (a Computer Science major) is around now to give me some pointers. I now know how to move the photos around.

DS #1 Brian was happy with his recent birthday gift-a bizarre hoodie that zips all the way up over the face. I whipped it up on the standard gauge machine using a Mary Ann Oger raglan pattern with acrylic yarn (Symphony) from my stash. It is my first attempt at sewing a zipper on a knitted garment with the sewing machine. I just hope that he doesn't try to rob a bank!

It's nice to have fellow knitters push you to try new things. My friend Shirley wanted me to help her learn how to do Entrelac so we basically started a "Market Squares Tote" knit- along. I was able to knit it entirely out of stash Cascade 220 and Patons wool from Michaels. Here it is before felting:



And after:


I love the way the colors blend together and how irregularities in the knitting disappear!

Gracias Amy!!

I breathed a sigh of relief when DD Amy arrived back from her 6 week stay in Peru. She spent a month working a clinic in St. Clothilde, a tiny village somewhere in the Amazon Basin accessible only by boat. Fortunately while there "Doctorita" Amy managed to avoid any major infectious diseases or or other hazards like snake or crocodile bites. Afterwards she was joined by her boyfriend and they explored the rest of the country- Lake Titicaca and Machu Picchu in particular.

Knitting is also big in Peru. Apparently the women spin the yarn and the men knit: (note the dpns)



Women are the weavers.

Amy found these lovely ladies in Cuzco before her trek up to Machu Picchu and ordered a Mothers Day gift for me:




The wool yarn is hand spun and hand dyed with natural dyes. It's fingering weight, so it's thin enough to use on the standard gauge machine but in keeping with it's origin I think I'm going to hand knit with it.

Knittin to It Knit Club

I spent most of this weekend devoted to machine knitting events since the Knittin to It Knit Club met the next day after the Interknit Machine Expo. We had a nice turnout for Dean's presentation. He was really nervous but did a great job sharing his considerable expertise with us. Cheryl Schmedeke of Knitting and Sew Forth brought items from her shop and was amazed at how fast the Yeoman yarn sold!

Dean improvised this handy toolholder from a milk crate:



These fun snowman ornaments sport knitted arms and scarves. Caps can be knit too, of course.

The star is an E-wrapped surface embellishment using three different colors.



Finally, he showed how to attach pieces together to make a knitted patchwork.


I videotaped Deans presentation for the benefit of absent members. Unfortunately, I was so engrossed in the production that I can't remember the content! Please contact me if you would like to arrange a viewing.

Interknits Machine Knitting Expo

The Interknits machine knitting club hosted a Machine Knitting Exhibition on April 14th. Members brought their equipment and demonstrated various techniques as well as finished objects. It was alot of fun to see what everyone has been doing and as a bonus, Carol Foster from Our Shop brought yarn to sell!
If we had been giving out prizes, I think Gail's portrait of her late nephew would have won. It was a spectacular example of what can be created with Photoshop, DAK and double bed jaquard.

It's been a cold April here in the Midwest and East Coast. I spent Easter weekend in the Washington DC area where we received a dusting of snow.




The frosted cherry blossoms were a pretty sight.



After my return to the Midwest,we woke up to this a few days later. My husband was glad that
he hadn't changed the snow tires on his car yet!


Well, I've posted my first photos. More about knitting later.......

Testing, Testing, One, Two Three

I'm trying to keep my creaky middle-aged brain oiled by trying something new-creating a knitblog! My goal is to keep in touch with fellow knitters and any interested family members (especially the globe-hopping daughter). Now that I've updated my browser I'll try to post some photos.