Update week?

Since I started this YoP a week or two late I have no idea what week I am on.  I think everyone else is on week 4 or is it 5.  Anyway I wanted to let you know how I did for the week.

I didn't think I was going to get much done this week.  It was not a wonderful week for our family.  I you don't follow my blog on a regular basis then you don't know that we had to put our Greyhound down this week.  He was very sick and it was so hard to see him go but we know he is no longer in pain.  That being said it was hard for me to concentrate on knitting when there is something like that going on.  I wanted to spend as much time as I could with the big fella so the knitting got put to the side for about 4 days.

I did make progress though, much to my surprise.  Here is a shot of the scarf on the tiles again so you can see how much longer it is.

Over 4 feet long now!  I only have to go to 6 feet and it will be done.  Oh, and the little thing in the picture is our newest addition to the family, Enrique.  Our other little dog was grieving something fierce so we had to do something for you.  He is still looking for his foster mom and whining alot but that is ok, he has only been here for 2 hours.

Several of you suggested I take a picture of the scarf outside in natural light.  So I did.

I hope you like it.  It is really really hot and humid out there!  But as you can see it is a lot brighter than the shots from in the nice cool low humidity house.

Thank you all for your comments.  It feels good just knowing someone is FINALLY reading my blog!

Happy Crafting!

A Sad Good Bye

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our best friend.  He has been living with us for almost 9 years.  He was great a keeping secrets.  Never did he tell me he didn't like my cooking.  He never complained about his bed being lumpy.  He never had any wild parties.  He was kind to everyone he met and never had a cross word to say to anyone.  Here is a picture of our best friend.

His official name was Live Wire.  But we just called him Wire.  We rescued him when he was just 15 months old.  That is quite young for a pup to come off the track.  But it seems that this gentleman did not have any desire to go chasing a rabbit that he knew he would never catch.  So he would go out of the gate and then tell the rest of the crew that he would meet them back at the club house and turn around and go back to the kennel.  (smart dog)

This was our second greyhound to own and they are the best pet ever.  They are so wonderful with children and other animals.  (well most of them are)  But they are prone to a lot of health issues and we were well aware of this when we adopted him.  And health issues he had.  He had Hypothyroidism, Valley Fever, Pannus, Arthritis and finally ended up with Osteosarcoma (bone cancer).  He had just turned 10.

He was a proud boy.  Never complaining about anything what so ever.

He was smaller than our first grey but still a big guy, weighing in at 80 pounds in his prime.  The last month he had started to loose weight so we knew he was going downhill quickly.  Because he did not stop eating.

Last year we noticed that he was starting to slow down and knowing that greys do not have a longevity of more than 10-12 years we decided to get another dog so it would not be so hard when he left us.  So we got this:

A total opposite of him but a complete complement for his personality.  She did wonders for him.  He perked up and started to play again and act like he did when he was first at our house.  It was wonderful. 

But sadly we could not stop the things in life that are meant to be.  So last night we took him into our vet's office and spent the last hour of his life loving on him and giving him more loves that he could have even imagined.  My best friend was there as well as her hubby and their 16 yr old son.  I was very nervous about being there during the final moments of his life............but decided that I could not leave him alone.  After all he had been by my side for the past 9 years through all my ups and downs.  So my hubby and I stroked him and kept talking to him as he passed from this world to the rainbow bridge.  There was a real peace about being there with him for the end.  It was not horrible.  It was not traumatic in any way.  It was not scary.  I know a large part of that is due to the staff of the animal hospital where he has been going for the past 3 years.  They are wonderful.  Even the Vet had a hard time keeping her eyes from tearing up.  He had touched many lives.

So it is with a heavy heart that I bid my friend goodbye.  But he can go and chase Rascal and Dopey with our other grey, Zeke.  They will like that.

And if you are wondering how the other little dog is doing.................she is grieving.  She has not eaten all day today and is not her perky little self.  But we expected that.  If this continues for too long we will look into getting her another buddy to play with.  But no more greys for us.  They just break your heart too much when they leave you.

Progress!

After my last post on Friday, I really didn't know how much progress I would make on the Reversible Cable Scarf.  But I am happy to report I managed to frog the 30 rows and get them back in as well as about 20 more rows.  Here is a picture of where I stand now on the scarf.

The tiles that this is laying on are 12 inch squares.  Last week it was only 2 tiles long and this week it is 3 tiles long!  Now if I hadn't frogged 30 rows it would be closer to 4 tiles but that is OK.  At least I will know that this is done to the best of my abilities when it is gifted to a very special young lady.

I do need to let you know, my daughter saw the pictures last week and informed me that the camera did not do the color any justice at all.  She is right.  This is a very vibrant lime green that I am using and it is quite muted in the photos.  In fact my daughter calls it "burn your retinas out" green.  She is a character.

Hopefully by next week there will be more progress on this.  I have looked at my schedule for next week and I have something going on each and every night of the week!  Three of those nights will allow me to bring knitting and work on it. 

Today is family day at our house.  There should be plenty of knitting time during that (I hope).  We are having a new recipe today that I found from http://www.skinnytaste.com/  She has some amazing recipes and we have tried several and have not found one yet that we will not repeat!  Todays feature is Sweet Barbocoa Pork with Cilantro Lime Rice.  Yummy.  It is all made in the crockpot and rice cooker so there will not be any heating of the kitchen up today.  And very little mess to clean up too.

That is all for now.  Have a great week and.......................................................................................

Happy Crafting!

Sad Face

  This is not my going to replace my Sunday update but I just had to get this off my chest.

I am wearing a very sad face.  I was so excited with the progress I was making on the green reversible scarf.  I had it almost to the half way point.  I was admiring my work and then.......I saw it.  I looked twice.  I tried turning it around to make sure it was really there.  I pulled on it........I squinted hoping it was my contacts needing being replaced.  I held it up and shook it.  Nope.....nothing helped.  It seems that when I took the stitches off the cable needle I took them off the wrong end of the cable needle!  What the heck?  Am I an amateur knitter.  (well actually I am)

OK, so I think............well it's not really that noticeable.  No one will know but me............unless the wearer puts the scarf on with that side showing.  UGH!!!!  I don't want anyone to think I don't know how to do a cable!  How embarrassing when they would ask the wearer where she got and and she would say my name! 

I thought about it for 2 days and continued to knit on it.  (like that would make the mistake go away)  Finally, last night I decided that I could not live with that glaring BOO-BOO so I frogged it.  Thirty rows were frogged out before I went to bed so I could sleep.  I also put 3 rows back in just to make sure I didn't do it again in the same spot.  (like it might be a cursed row or something)

So hopefully by my update on Sunday I will be back to my half way point.  We will see.

Happy Crafting!

Week in process

Ok, this will be a long post since it is full of pictures.  But I need for you to see exactly what it is I will be working on for the next year.

Here is the scarf that I am currently working on.  It is made out of Caron Simply Soft yarn and the pattern is called Reversible Scarf (published by Caron!).  I found the free pattern at Hobby Lobby but when I started to make it I found out the flyer was printed wrong.  Lucky for me I found the correctly printed pattern on Ravelry.  This needs to be 72" long and right now is only 24 inches.  Scarves do seem to take a long time to do.  This is my first cable pattern in many years and I am really enjoying it.

This is a picture of a finished Spiderman Blanket.  This one is going to my Grandson in Texas.  This will cover a single bed nicely.  My friend, Bev, made one and hers is much smaller but she is a VERY tight crocheter where I find crochet very relaxing so mine is much looser.  This was a free pattern off the web.  It is made with Red Heart yarn.  It seemed so scratchy until I wash it and then it is nice and soft.

This pattern is called Hey Teach and I got if off of Ravelry.  This is the back of the cardigan and I really love the pattern.  I am doing it in Caron Simply Soft and really had to watch my gauge as this yarn has a tendency to knit up a bit bigger than the cotton that was called for.

Please stop laughing................but these are my socks in progress.  I barely had the toes started when I got the wild idea that I needed to do a couple of blankets for grand children so they go put on hold.  I have not decided on a pattern for them yet but I am sure by the time I have the toes finished I will come up with something.  They are made with Bernat sock yarn.

This is the shawl I am making out of the Alpaca/Silk yarn.  And I use the word yarn loosely here.  It is very fine but listed as a worsted weight because of the furryness of it.  The pattern is Eva's Shawl and I have made several of these.  They are gorgeous and hang so nicely when finished.  This is the first time I have worked with Alpaca and really like the feel of it but it is REALLY warm to work with.

My homespun shawl titled Arrow Lake.  I got the pattern from Lion's Brand website.  It looks easy but you really have to keep track of your rows or you will be frogging a lot.

Here is the Cancer Survivor Ribbon Shawl.  It was published by a church group and it has two different ways to make the pattern.  One of them is just the ribbons all the way across and the other one has small crosses in it too.  It is a fast crochet because of the fillet and really is not too hot to work on year round.  I made one in pink for my fellow employee's mother who survived breast cancer.  This is done in Caron Simply Soft because most cancer patients can not handle anything that would have the least amount of wool in it.

This is La La's shawl.  It was a knit-a-long on Ravelry last year.  Needless to say I never finished it.  I am doing it in Dark Horse yarn.  It is super soft and really a nice pattern.  But once again you really need to keep track of what row you are on.  I have frogged this more times than I would like to admit.  I think I need to put this on longer circulars as it is really starting to bunch up badly.

Here is part of the yarn for the scarf and mittens I need to do to go with the hat that has already been made and given to the owner.  It is Impeccable from Lions Brand.  It's a  very nice acrylic that works up wonderfully.

And here is the yarn for the Log Cabin lapghan.  It is "I love this yarn" from Hobby Lobby.  A great yarn that is really reasonably priced. 

Here is a photo of all my sock yarn and also the yarn I have picked out for the other prayer shawls.  I have to admit that this is only a fraction of the yarn I use to have.  I cleaned out all my yarn about 5 months ago and took 9 kitchen trash bags of yarn to a local church for them to make prayer shawls out of.  But I knew I would never in my lifetime be able to use all of that yarn and these ladies are so wonderful and supply shawls to our Cancer ministry at our parish.

Now one thing you all might have noticed is that I rarely use anything other than acrylic type yarn.  Well, I am allergic to wool as are many members of my family.  I do have some sock yarn with wool in it that I use for my mom.  I also did a lovely hat, scarf and mittens in some Lorna Laces DK weight yarn and it was wonderful.  But that went to Wisconsin.  You don't have much of a call for woolen items in the desert of Arizona.  I know lots of people here that do use it but it seems like a bit of over kill to me. 

Anyway, this is how it looks now.  Hopefully the scarf will be much longer by Sunday of next week.  I will keep you all informed.

Happy Crafting!

Surprise!

 Well, looky, looky.  I am back before tomorrow.  You see, I organized my craft room a couple of weeks ago and everything is in it's place and easy to access.  So I was able to make my list of projects quickly and easily.  So here is my list:

1.  Scarf, Hat and Possible Mittens set (in process) (does this count as 3 projects?)
2.  Spiderman Blanket
3.  Cardigan (in process)
4.  Socks (in process)
5.  Alpaca/Silk Prayer Shawl (in process)
6.  Homespun Prayer Shawl (in process)
7.  Cancer Ribbon Prayer Shawl (in process)
8.  La La's Prayer Shawl (in process)
9.  Scarf and Mittens (to go with a hat that is done)
10  Log Cabin Lapghan

And if for some strange reason I still have days left before the end of the year I have enough sock yarn for 36 pairs of socks plus enough other yarn for 5 shawls.  The only yarn I am missing for my projects list is for the spiderman blanket.  But I am making that as a favor for my friend and she is going to buy the yarn for it. (yea)

Do I expect to get all of this done?  Who knows?  But I do have a time table on some of these items and here it is.

Number 1 has to be done by the middle of November.  It is a birthday present.

Numbers 2 and 9 need to be done by Christmas for gifts

Numbers 5, 6 & 8 will not be worked on until summer ends (around middle of October here) and before the heat starts again (around the first of April)

Numbers 4, 7, 3 & 10 can be worked on any time as they are not intended for gifts and in fact #4 and #3 are for me!

This will clear up all but 2 works in progress for me.  I think this will be a great thing.  And since I have to report each Sunday, I know I will be more diligent on working on my yarn crafts more often and on the computer less.

With that said, I think I will go and work on my project now for about an hour and then get ready to go to Mass.

I will check in tomorrow as expected and I might even have a picture of some of the projects I am working on for you to see!

Happy Crafting.

Year of Projects

I have a new "gadget" on the right side of my blog.  It is from Ravelry.  I have joined their "year of projects" blog along.  We are suppose to list all the projects we want to complete in a year and post about them each Sunday to update how they are coming along.

I got started on this 2 days ago so I am behind already by 14 days.  But that is ok, because I already had a project started (actually I have several projects started) and I am making my list now as to what I want to complete in the next year.

Hopefully by tomorrow I will have the list completed and I will start each Sunday posting pictures and updates as to how I am doing on my "list" of projects.


If you are a knitter/crocheter, hop on over to ravelry.com and take a look around.  (that is if you aren't already there)  It is a marvelous place for learning, getting patterns, joining groups that have the same interests as you and just a fun place to be.  I can be on there for hours at a time if I am not careful.  But if I do that, then my projects list will never get completed.

So off I go into my craftroom and look at the yarn I have and what projects I have started and make my list of exactly what I want to get done by June 30, 2012.

Happy Crafting

I promised

I have been promising pictures for some time now.  Today is the day.  So let the show begin.

How proud Josie, Daddy and Mommy look here.  She was just awarded with Student of the month.

There was the annual Mother's Day Tea at the place where my mom lives.  It was really lovely and enjoyed by all of us ladies.

Remember these lovely cactus just outside our eastern wall?  Well they are lovely to look at and the birds love to build nests in them.  Then the birds love to hang out there and hang their bottoms over our side of the fence and drop nasties there.  Our fear has been if there is a really strong wind we would have one of them come crashing into our pool.  We already had one fall but luckily it landed in the street, but it cost us a small fortune to have it removed.  So........

This gentleman was in the area

And gladly removed both of the Saguaros for us.  We did wait until all the baby birds had hatched and flown away before we did this though.

Kindergarten graduation came so quickly.  This is Josie with her two teachers.  She loved both of them so much and learned more than I could even imagine she would

On Mother's Day she lost her first tooth.  She was so thrilled.  So told everyone that she was like her cousin Ruby now.

This is the prayer shawl I knitted for my best friend's birthday.  She is so special to me that I wanted to do something truly different for her that was from my heart.

We are not in need of shawls right now when the evening temps are still in the 90's but there will come a time when it will cool off and she will be glad she has this to cuddle with.

I am now working on my God Daughters scarf and hat that is due by November.  I did finish up my Grandson's spiderman blanket and just got another request for one today.  I will do that next one once the the temperatures go below 90 degrees.  Otherwise I will be a little pool of water on the sofa.  Those things are HOT!

So there you have it.  I post with pictures.

Happy crafting.