Easter Blessings and Some Knitting Progress

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Easter Blessings...

This year, I had a fabulous Easter....and received a surprise Easter Blessing! As I was leaving church on Sunday morning, I spotted a familiar face standing behind our pastors. It was Paw Lay and her family! My church had helped sponsor her family when they arrived here from Burma via Thailand. They were granted asylum here and we all pitched in to help them acclimate to their new home and get settled in to life in the US.

I haven't seen Paw Lay or her family for about 2 years. Once they'd completed ESL classes and adapted to life here in the US, they moved to Utica, NY where there is another large Burmese community. I have really missed them, so it was a fabulous surprise when they drove down in their own car to visit all of us on Easter Sunday!

The boys have grown so much! It seems like they left for NY as little boys and came back as young men! They're such a beautiful family. Adele is standing with them on the left. The funniest part of this picture is that I had just got a new cell phone and wasn't sure where the camera function was so I could take a picture. Thit Tu took a quick look at my phone and showed me the path to the camera function! (And to think that just three years ago I was showing them how to do something!)

Their ability to adapt to life here in the US is phenomenal! When they arrived here, they had never used a dishwasher, freezer, electric stove, microwave or many of the other conveniences we all take for granted. It's been just under 3 year since they'd arrived, but you'd never know they hadn't lived here their entire lives!

Knitting....

I haven't completed as much knitting as I would like, but I have finished a few small projects. First off, I've completed 2 additional dish rags. That makes a total of 3 for my mom for Mother's Day. It seems a bit lame to give her something to do housework with, but she really like the hand crafted dish rags, so that makes it special.













I've also completed one pair of booties for Destiknits "Spring for Babies KAL/CAL". I still plan to complete a few more as well as some matching hats. These will be sent to one of the many local charities that provides hand knit goodies to new moms.



I finally finished the first of the "Dark Chocolate Raspberry" socks and decided that the distance from the bottom of the cuff to the bottom of the heel is just too short. I'm going to do the second sock on size 1's instead of size 0's and see if that will correct the problem. Then, I'll rip out the first sock and reknit it on size 1's. Argh! What a pain!

Knitting Tip...

Ah...I have a knitting tip to share from my friend Melinda.

Now that Easter is over, ever wonder what to do with all those plastic eggs that had once contained candy and treats? If your house is like mine, they seem to multiply year after year. They CAN be the perfect knitting gadget.

The little eggs are the perfect size to hold a mini-ball of sock yarn. Once you've finished a pair of socks, or any other knitting project, create a little ball of the yarn used, pop it in a plastic egg, label it, and pop it into your knitting basket. Voila! Now you have the perfect container for your "mending yarn" - useful for darning socks or making other repairs to your knitted garments. It will keep your "mending yarn" dust and tangle free in an easy to store container! How cool is that?

Cherry Trees...

Finally, I thought I'd share a few photos of my cherry tree blossoms over the past week. They're almost at full bloom right now, but it's quite rainy and I'm afraid that I may miss out on the peak.

Start of week

Mid week

More mid week

Saturday

Sunday