WEEK 16 UPDATE

Hello everyone.  It is that time of week, for those of us participating in YOP, to do an update of how our week of crafting went.

I was quite monogamous this week.  I worked on my Drops Of Jupiter shawl.  I worked on it a lot.  Any time I sat down, I picked it up and worked on it.  I spent HOURS doing nothing but working on this shawl.  Last week I had said I thought I would have it off the needles and ready to block by today.  I don't know where I got that idea from.  Did I forget how much time it takes to add beads to a project?  Here is my shawl as of this morning.

The third repeat of the pattern has just been started.  It has a total of four repeats.  Here is where I was last week.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of progress happening.  There are 371 stitches on my needles as this time.  I am still loving the pattern though.  The gradient yarn has made this project extra fun for me too.  The yarn is Scheepjes Whirl, in the colorway Lavendarlicious.  I will gladly use this yarn again.  Me thinks I need to find another shawl pattern for this yarn.

My goal is to finish the shawl this week and get it blocked or at least ready to block.  Our weather has turned quite cool and this shawl would be a welcomed addition to my wardrobe.

I started back to the Prayer Shawl group AGAIN this week.  Since I got the all clear from my had Dr, I decided it was time to get back to this lovely group of ladies.  Forest Path shawl got attention for 2 hours that day.  That is the only other knitting that I did besides 'the shawl'.

We got some more rain this week.  In fact, it rained for over 12 hours yesterday.  We got over 2 inches of rain at our house.  This was the scene in our backyard.

Yup, once again it was flooded.  When we left for Mass the main cross roads by our house were completely under water.  The water was up to the running boards even on trucks.  We managed to get through it OK, and by the time we had dinner, after church, it had all drained away.  Our backyard is back to normal this morning too.

Today, we are taking our daughter and her husband out for a lovely dinner.  Today is her birthday and yesterday was his birthday!  They asked if in lieu of gifts, we could go to a nice restaurant and have a really nice dinner.  We are going to a Brazilian Steakhouse.  We have heard great things about it.  

The rest of my week will be taken up with running the Grand around for her volleyball games.  Her team made the playoffs.  Unfortunately, the playoffs are in the BIG city and the drive there is not fun!  I won't be able to work on 'the shawl' during the game, but the prayer shawl or my scarf may be taking a road trip with me.

Until next time.....................happy crafting!!!!!

YOP UPDATE WEEK 15

This update is coming to you from a very rainy Arizona.  We have had more rain in the past week then we normally get in 6 months.  Our plants are loving it and so are we.  My dogs, however, are not a fan of all this moisture.  Today there is quite a bit of thunder to go along with it.  They especially dislike THAT noise.  So I am writing this with a dog glued to my side, shaking to the point I feel like I have a vibrating chair.

I made quite a bit of progress this week.  Let's start with the item that saw the least amount of love.

Rising Tide scarf.  The red on the right side is the what got added this week.  Not much but I have a good reason.

 Next up:

Snoqualmie Socks.  I got a second pattern repeat done on one sock only this week.  This pattern is working so  well with this yarn.  I am very happy with it.

The most love was given to:

Drops of Jupiter shawl.  Hubby and I decided to make a little trip to Vegas after Thanksgiving.  This shawl will be perfect to have in the casino.   The gradient yarn has me falling in love.  The pattern is fairly easy to do providing a person is not consuming an adult beverage while working the lacy effects.  I spent 3 hours yesterday morning tinking back 3 rows of boo-boos.  It only took 1 hour to put it all back in correctly.  I added 70 rows and 194 stitches since last Sunday.  I have 58 rows and 66 more stitches before I do the bind off.  I am hoping to be darn near done with it by the end of this week.  Adding the beads slows down the process a bit.  It is worth it though.  They will add some POP to the finished garment.  The fun part will be blocking it.  Supposedly it has a wing span of 90 inches and a drop of 30 inches.  Since the fabric is cotton AND acrylic, I am not sure how well it will block out for me.  Fingers crossed I am able to get some sort of shaping done on it.

This coming week looks pretty normal.  There should be plenty of time to work on my knitting.  Once the shawl is done, I really need to get going on this years Christmas ornaments for the grands.  I can not decide between little mittens or Santa hats.  

In other boring news...................I cleaned out our freezer this past week.  We had so much stuff in there that had to be thrown out.  I felt horrible doing it.  What a waste.  We had failed to vacuum seal quite a bit of meat and it was all freezer burnt and so nasty.  There was shrimp in there smelling up the whole freezer which tells me it had defrosted and refrozen at some point.  NASTY!  I did find a turkey breast in there and will be having the hubby smoke it soon.  I also found a spiral cut ham that had been buried.  That will be cooked up in the next month or so and we will have a nice little family/friend gathering for that meal.

Our pool has cooled off too much to swim in.  The rains we have been having have really dropped our temperatures down which makes the water cool off quite quickly.  We haven't even hit 90 degrees this past week.  This is unusual for us.  I can remember Halloweens where it is 85 when we start walking the neighborhoods with the kids.  For us to be in the 80's during the day and 50's - 60's at night already, is a real joy.  Just about time to open the doors and windows and let in some fresh air.  Just might do that today!

Since the pool is too cold to swim in, walking the neighborhood will begin to be my exercise.  Besides, my dogs could use a bit of walking too.  Will wait until the rains stop though lol.

Reading has also been happening here.  I am just about done with the Butternut Creek Series.  They were such good clean fun books to read.  No gore, sex, language or crimes.  Perfect bedtime books.

This is the last book in the series.  I have ordered another 2 book series from Thriftbooks.  Hopefully I will enjoy it as much.

My book I placed on hold at the library finally came in.

This one is not a light frivolous story.  It will be perfect to read while baseball playoffs are on.

That is all for today.  We went to Mass yesterday as we have a meeting at church this morning to go over our fall retreat.  I don't need to cook today as we have leftovers from last nights dinner out as well as leftovers from Friday nights dinner we cooked.  How luck could I get?

Until next time....................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!!!

Midweek

It has been such a lovely week so far.  We have had lots of rain which makes me want to be Suzy Homemaker.  I have been knitting quite a bit, doing lots of laundry and even tried a new bread recipe.

I am trying to make an artisan bread out of spelt flour.  My first attempt was ok, yet I feel I could do better.  We will eat the one I made and I will be trying it again with some modifications.

The free lilies I got from Sprouts, are making me happy.

This was them on Monday:

Here they are today:

Beautiful, right?  There are 2 more buds to open up.  I have no doubt they will open in the next day or 2.  The aroma is stunning.

Time to pick up my knitting and relax for a little while.

Until next time................happy crafting!!

Monday News

Here is hoping you are having a marvelous Monday.  I have lots of photos to share with you today.  Let's get started.

Last night, the local Grand and I went to a Christian Music concert.  What a great time we had.  I have the pictures to prove it.

These shoes/feet are getting ready for some dancing to music.  

The teen and I got an opportunity to have our photos taken with Josh Havens (from the Afters) and Matt Maher.  It was pretty exciting for us.  We have been going to Matt Maher concerts for the past 5 years.  First time we got to be up close and personal with him.

Waiting for the opening act, Tyrus Morgan, to take the stage.

Matt doing one of our favorite songs.  There was lots of audience singing.  Seems we all know his songs and love singing them and he loved having us sing with him.

The concert was supposed to end by 8:30 but it ran about 45 minutes over.  We didn't mind though.  The teen still got home before 10.

Today, hubby and I had errands to run.  Our last stop was Sprouts for some much needed veggies and fruit.  As we were checking out, one of the employees handed me a bouquet of star gazer lilies and said it was her last batch and they were free!  I was so happy.  I love having flowers in the house.  There were some dead blossoms on the stalks but I was able to save quite a few buds and am hoping they will open in the next few days.

They have such a strong aroma.  I love it.

Tonight, hubby and I are having dinner with some dear friends.  We will be playing catch up with each others lives.  It has been several months since we have gotten together.  We actually had to plan out when we were all free.  This has been planned for a month now.

My BFF turned in her notice today at her job.  She has been there for 13.5 years.  She got offered an opportunity last week and it was too good to pass up.  I am so happy for her.  She is a very hard worker and is always willing to pitch in and help out where ever she is needed.  She totally deserves this change of employment.  I am so happy for her.

We Arizonans are waiting for the wrath of Hurricane Rosa to hit.  We have already had a bit of rain but have been warned we will be getting up to 3 inches in the next 24 hours.  That will cause flash floods for us.  We just can not take that kind of rain.  Our soil here is not very absorbent.  Good knitting weather!

Until next time...................happy crafting!

WEEK 14

Another week has flown by.  It was a busy week in our household.  There was the brotherly visit, our Grand's volleyball games, a daughter's visit and of course, lots of knitting.  The knitting is what keeps me sane during busy weeks.  Here is what's happening in that area.

Another pattern repeat has been added and the second pattern repeat got started last night.

The little yellow arrows are pointing to the shimmer effects in the scarf.  They are kind of hard to see, yet, when I look at the scarf while working on it, they seem to jump out at me.

I started my Drops of Jupiter shawl.

It is coming along nicely.  I enjoy watching this grow and am getting excited as the first color change is coming up quickly.  I am up to 147 stitches and the ending count will be 407.  It is a fairly easy knit that can be done while watching TV.  

There was a pair of socks cast on this past week also.  Remember this yarn?

I could not stand it as plain vanilla socks.  After frogging those socks, my Grand Daughter asked me when I was going to make another pair of Snoqualmie Socks.  I realized it was a pattern I dearly loved and this yarn would be perfect for a 'water fall' inspired sock.  After the first pattern repeat, I must say, the teenager was right.  I love this yarn with this pattern.  I am doing the socks concurrently on separate circulars.  Unfortunately, I will not be able to do the FLK heel on these socks.  The ribbing pattern runs all the way through that sock.  I will do the prescribed heel this time. (sigh)

I almost cast on a sweater this week, but managed to hold off.  I have other WIP's languishing away in my 'to do' basket.  They need some love before I cast on anything else.

This afternoon, the teen and I are heading off to a Matt Maher concert.  He is a local fellow who has made it to Nashville with his Christian music.  He comes 'home' a couple times a year and always puts on a fantastic concert.  We always get the VIP tickets when he comes.  That gives us the opportunity to talk directly to him and ask questions.  Since the teen is very much into the performing arts, this gives her a chance to get an idea of what being 'famous' is like.  He is a very 'down to earth' person and easily approachable.  His fame has not changed him from the small town boy he was.

Next week does not look as crazy busy as this past week was.  That means the house will get cleaned and the laundry done.  There will also be home cooked meals being consumed.  A perfect week in my thinking.

Until next time........................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!!