Getting Ready

We have been busy since Sunday.  We had a marvelous time at our son's house with all the family that was in town.  The smoked brisket was wonderful as was the swimming and conversation.  

Monday I requested a quiet day to get my head wrapped around what the coming weeks had in store for us.  We had brats and I made my mom's potato salad to go with them.  While waiting for it to be time to cook the brats, we watched a couple of movies, I knitted and then we decided to try out our pool.

It was a little cool but by the time I swam a lap or two, it felt just fine.  I had to snap a photo of hubby in the pool.  He is not a water person by any means and this was day 2 that he had been in a pool.

I worked on my socks but was so bored with them and really didn't want to work on the WOOL scarf so I went into my craftroom closet and dug through my WIP pile to find something I wanted to work on.

TA-DA!  My boxy sweater that I started in November of 2015.  It has been languishing for a couple of years.  I almost have the first half of it done.  Hopefully by the end of this week I will have part completed.

Tuesday, I started on getting the laundry all done.  I managed to do 4 loads and even got it all folded and put away.  That is quite a feat for me.  Hubby got a phone call from Nevada informing him there was going to be a BIG meeting next week, about his mom and her care.  He needs to be there for the meeting.

Today I had a nail appointment and while I was gone, hubby got half of the house cleaned for me.  I came home and did 2 loads of towels.  Those pool towels take up a lot of room in the washer!

The reason for the title of this post is.....................our Grand Daughter from Texas arrives on Saturday this week.  She will be with us for a week and then we will send her home again.  She has never been to our home alone before so we are looking forward to getting some time with her.

I have a feeling there will be quite a bit of swimming happening as well as a little sight seeing.  Unfortunately, hubby has to leave on Sunday for Nevada and won't return until Wednesday afternoon.  We have a wedding on Thursday which really, only gives him Friday to spend with her.  She is spending the day Saturday with my son's family so we won't see her after Saturday afternoon.

I probably will not be posting next week, other than for a YOP update.  I haven't missed a week yet, this year, and with only 4 weeks left, I would hate to miss now.  Be prepared for some photos and several posts after she leaves.  

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

WEEK 48 UPDATE

Good day to all of you blog readers.  We have a bright sunny day here (again) and are looking for our temps to be near 100F.  This afternoon, hubby and I will be going to our son's home for a family day.  Our daughter and her hubby will be there as well as our niece and her family.  It should be a grand time.

This week I decided to do some quick projects.  I was so sad after frogging my Tadpole socks.  I chose to make market bags.  I completed 2 of them this week but one got taken out of the house before I could photograph it.  I think hubby was exited that I made one just for him!  Here is the first bag I completed.

Hubby's is black, red and white.  These bags hold quite a bit of groceries.  My favorite purchase to put in them is produce.  They just hug it so nicely.  I will make another bag with all the leftover thread I have.  It should be interesting.

I took a class this week to learn how to make this:

The yarn does all the work for you but the 'short row' they use in it is something I had never done before and m instructor had not either.  We finally figured it out.  That has been my main project I have been working on ever since.  It is quite slow going as it is 100% wool and I can only work with it for so long before my nose and hands drive me nuts.

Here is where I am at.  The pattern calls for it to be 9" wide or however wide you wish.  I believe 9" is going to be way too wide for my daughter's neck so will see how it looks at the end of this skein.  I have another skein of this yarn, so I can go to the 9" if needed.  I am hoping the colors start to fall into shape soon.  I am using the recommended yarn but in a different colorway.  Fingers crossed.

While taking the class at the LYS, I perused their non wool yarn.  I wanted some sport weight yarn for a test knit I was preparing for.

This is 50/50 cotton and bamboo.  It is so soft and yummy.  I am not sure when the test knit will start.  It is for Knitterarium (Ruth McKeon AKA Celtic Knits).  Her mother passed away this past week and she is taking an indefinite amount of time off from her designing work.  I am so sad for her.  I can totally understand her grief.

This past week I got to spend almost every afternoon with my local grand.  It was her last week of school also.  We had so much fun and did something special everyday.  She will be starting 8th grade this fall.  It is hard to believe all my grands are no longer babies.  The youngest will be in 7th grade this fall!!!!!

I need to show you this:

This is Howie.  He belongs to my local grand daughter.  He does not like me............actually he doesn't like too many people.  But...............I brought my knitting to the house and he thought I might need some help with it.  Gotta love cats and yarn.

Last night we had our niece and most of her family over for dinner.  Her oldest son wanted to stay and play with his cousin and her friend.  So we got some one on one time with his sister and this guy...............

He is such a sweet baby.  We had so much fun with him and his sister last night.  Can't wait to do it again today.

Here is a reminder for all of us as to why we have Memorial Day this weekend.

In Flanders Fields

BY JOHN MCCRAE

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

Let us never forget those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom!

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

Rambling Thoughts

This week has been a bit off the rails.  Not at all like a normal week for us.  I have been out and about all week and it is only Wednesday!  Hubby has been super busy working on the house and yard.  These are the times I wished we had decided to downsize into a place with no yard work and a community pool.  But...................I love my home and the memories it gives me as I go from room to room.

Sunday, I told you I was thinking of starting a shawl or market bag or both.  Well, I did start a market bag and finished it on Monday evening..

Nothing super special about it.  The colors were just thrown in there from thread I had laying around.  I started another one Monday night and am still working on the bottom of it.  I would have completed it by now but................................I went to my knitting class Tuesday morning and FINALLY learned how to read the pattern for the scarf my DD wants.

I got started on the scarf and it is so much fun to do, I couldn't put it down for the rest of the day.  It is 414 stitches of sock weight yarn and I have already managed to get to the second round of pattern.  The color of the yarn does not speak to me but it spoke to my DD.  She was so happy to hear I finally got started on it.  It has been languishing on my WIP rack since October last year.

While taking the class at my LYS, I decided to look around.  I am getting ready for the test knit and it asks for sport weight yarn.  I was going to use DK as sport weight (non wool) is a bit tough to find.  WELL.............I will never under estimate my LYS again.

This is the special entrance to my LYS.  It is their back door.  They are on the main street of our town and it is quite hard to park there, now that we have a light rail train that goes right in front of the shop.  But.....The nice thing about that light rail.....in the next year I will be able to take it from my house to this store and not worry about parking again!  The new station will be 1/2 mile from my house!

But I digress............................back to the sport weight yarn

It is 50/50 cotton bamboo and super nice to the touch.  It has a lovely ply to it and I do believe it will show stitch patterns quite well.  You can not tell in this photo, but it has a little shimmer running through it too. Being cotton and bamboo, I will, also, be able to block it when completed.

This is also the last week of school for my local Grand.  She and I have been hanging out each day after school.  Normally her dad picks her up since he works from home, but he is out of town this week.  So I have had the joy of spending some quality time with her.  Monday we hit up Baskin Robbins for a couple of dips of ice cream.  It was quite yummy but made me care less about dinner that night.

Yesterday I let her choose our activity.  She wanted to go to Barnes and Noble book store.  So off we went.  She saw a ton of books she would love to add to her library.  She is keeping a list on her phone of all the books she wants to read.  While she was perusing the sci/fi and fantasy books, I wandered over to the cookbook section.

Every book you see in the photo is a cookbook.  I was not able to get the other 2 racks, that were behind me, in the photo.  How on earth is a person supposed to find anything unless they know exactly what they want.  I was looking for an instant pot cookbook.  There were so many of them it was over whelming!  I left without a cookbook!

After the bookstore we went to her house and watched a movie of her choosing.  We watched "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief".  It was quite good.  When I left, I told her to think about what she wants to do today after school.  We have almost 3 hours before her mom gets home from work.  I can't wait to see what she chooses today.

Thursday I do not get to hang out with the Grand.  She does volunteer work at our food bank that day.  Friday, we have an out of school bash at the local aquatics center for a swimming/pizza party.  We will probably watch a movie after that.  Being in this heat for 2 hours will tire out a body.

I need to get to the DMV and renew my drivers license.  Mine expires on my birthday this year.  That is only 9 days from now.  I only need an eye test this time but the lines are always super long there.  Maybe that will be my outing tomorrow morning.  Gives me a reason to get moving in the morning.

I think that gets me caught up on the week's activities.  Now I want to go and work on some crafting goodness.  I think I will work on the market bag so I can get that done and off my list.  The scarf will not be needed until November at the earliest and I use the market bags weekly.  We try not to us any plastic or paper bags from the store anymore.  Plus, we get $$ credit for taking our own bag.

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

Week 47

Howdy, dear blog readers.  Another week has passed by.  I hope it was a good week for you.  It is amazing how much can happen in a matter of 7 days, isn't it?  

If you will recall, last week, I was on the foot of my Tadpoles socks.  Here is a look at them today:

I might have shed a tear or two when I had to frog them.  I tried them on to see how close I was to starting the toe decrease.  They hardly fit over my heel and it took forever to get them off my foot, once I did manage to get them on.  There is no stretch to this yarn!.....none, zip, nada, zero!  I had not used this brand in quite a while and had forgotten that small fact.  So, all that work is down the tubes.  I will use this yarn to make a shawl or something like that.  It is not a good sock yarn for this lady.

I did not let that keep me down.  I got right back into my stash and pulled more sock yarn out.  Naked Sock Yarn...............lots of stretch!

I am doing these on my 9 inch needles.  I started out doing My Dearest Loveliest Elizabeth pattern but realized, the pattern is lost in the colorway of the sock.  I am now just doing a plain vanilla sock.  No need to rip these out because I changed my mind 4 pattern repeats into it.  They are my socks and no one will see the tops of them under my pants anyway.  Besides..................I had messed up the pattern repeats on one of the socks right by the ribbing and didn't catch it until pattern repeat #3.  I plan on sticking to the 9 inch circulars all the way through this time.  They are quite nice to work with when doing a plain sock.  Plus, I want to try and do the FLK heel without moving the heel stitches to DPN's.  

I am thinking about doing another To The Point Shawl today and also start on another market bag.  Those are both crochet items.  Crochet goes so quickly for me and I am in need of a quick project again.  Dishcloths are not on my radar, even though they are a quick knit.  No one I know NEEDS any dishcloths at the moment.  There is also a test knit coming up in the next week or so and I have already asked to be in the test group.  Once the test starts, I will be concentrating on it so I can complete it in the required amount of time.  Hence the reason for quick projects this week.

That is all for my crating news this week.  I do take my knitting class this coming Tuesday.  The excitement is bubbling up inside of me.  The pattern I want to learn has been sitting in my house since last fall.  I have it cast on and the first row knit BUT..................I do not understand the instructions from that point on.  It is a 2 hour class, so I should be able to get it through my thick head how to do it.  

Hmmmmm......after reading through this post I realized something..............Startitis has hit this crafter!  Stay tuned this week.   I will let you know if I succumb to this disease or not.

Until Next Time......................Happy Crafting!!!!!!!

My Yard

I had some spare time today and decided to go outside and take some photos of my flowering front yard.

 This is our Texas Rain sage.  It only blooms when it has water.  We do water our plants every 3 days.  Now when it rains, this bush explodes with these little purple flowers.

 Our Mexican Bird of Paradise.  We have two of them.  One on either side of our front walk.  see those little reddish round buds?  in a couple of days they will open up and look like the ones below them.

Our purple Lantana.  This grows like a weed.  I love the purple color.  So many people have the yellow or orange lantana...........I wanted to be different.

That is it for my yard.  My next door neighbors have this plant

I have no idea what it is but it sure is pretty.  They have 2 of them and they bloom all year long.

I have shown you this before, but I had to show it to you again.  This is across the street.

A gorgeous bougainvillea.   

I love our blooming desert.  I have lived in many states and each of them have their own beauty.  You may have to look hard to find it, but it is there waiting to be discovered.

Here is a shot of a plant given to me for my mom's memorial service.

I love peace lilies.  I am so happy this one is blooming.  Of course, this is inside the house.  I was able to keep the last one I had, alive for about 7 years.  Hopefully, this one will last quite a while also.

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

Simple Pleasures

There are so many things to be thankful for.  Especially those simple pleasures in life.  What are some of those things for me?

Waking up to see one of my dogs with his nose right in my face.

A sweet 'good morning' from my hubby.

Catching up on my blogs and emails while enjoying my cuppa.

Sitting on my front porch enjoying the fresh morning air while knitting.

The smell of homemade bread waffing through the house.

Reading a book.

Saying I love you.............often.

These are just a few things I enjoy and appreciate daily.  Today, I got to enjoy another simple pleasure that felt like a little luxury.

I got a haircut!  Now mind you, I do not enjoy having my picture taken, but for you to see my new do, I kind of had to.  It had been almost 2 months since my last cut.  Seems my hair decided to really grow during that time.  She cut over an inch off today!  It feels so much better.  Little things make me happy.

What are some of lifes simple pleasures you enjoy?

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