Grace got me into this, but really I have been thinking about creating a blog for myself for awhile, ever since people started asking me to email them advice on healthy diets and news about my knitting projects. This blog is especially for my family—son and daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, and two precious grandsons—as I am keenly interested in their health and well-being.

I have always been an opinionated person, but after reaching 60, I have become even more so and now I don't mind telling people what my opinions are. There are some perks that come with age. And I get increasingly tired of repeating myself on certain subjects when I feel people are not getting the message. So be ready for strong words and critical comments.

But I am not all vinegar and no sugar (wait 'til you hear what I have to say about sugar!), and because nothing draws attention faster than a picture, here are my two entries into the Yuletide Gnome category. The design is by Alan Dart and was published in the British knitting magazine, Simply Knitting, in 2005. There has been such a demand for the pattern that they are re-printing it and you can order it from them here.

The green one was completed first and rode with me all the way to AZ for Christmas with my son and family. I made the second one while there. My older grandson liked them so much, he decided he wanted to crochet a stuffed toy for himself. His mom had already taught him to do a simple chain and the single crochet stitch. So we searched the Internet and found an easy pattern for a Pikachu. He bought the yarn himself and was doing quite well with the project when I left. He was fascinated by the instructions. To him it was like learning to read a secret code. We had quite a knitting/crochet circle going as I was teaching his mom to knit at the same time and was also working on a sweater for my daughter.