ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Once again it is time to answer questions that have appeared on my blog over the past couple of weeks.

Are you going to try to do the same stripes on the next one or let them be "fraternal twins"? (Maria)

This question is about my Rose City Roller socks.  They will be matching and just so you know, the yarn I am using is self striping.  I wish I was talented enough to set up stripes like the yarn does.

How long is your pool enjoyed? (Becki)

That depends on our weather.  We can usually get into it in June, even though it is still a bit chilly.  But once you swim a couple of laps, you really don't mind.  Our season usually lasts until sometime in October.  Here is the key to swimming in Arizona.  Daytime highs need to be near 100F and night time lows over 70F.  As summer goes on and our night time temps stay in the upper 80's the pool becomes unrefreshing,  Then what you hope for is, to go swimming and pray there is a nice breeze when you get out so you get a bit of a chill as the water evaporates off of you.  You also want to be sitting in the shade when you come out to help with the cooling process.  Most of you think water temps of 72 as being great.  Not so much here.  We like our pools to be around 80. (I will venture in at 78F)  Right now my pool is 92, which feels like bath water.  Remember, at 110F, an 80F pool is 30 degrees different and therefore pretty cool to our bodys.  Our night time temps start to dip back into the 70's in September and October.  By the middle of October the water is usually back down in the 70's and none of us want to be in it.  We might sit on the side with our feet in it though.  Also, we have no need to winterize our pool.  The coldest I have seen our pool get is 52F.  

You must have AC to relax with knitting in that heat! (Mary-Ann)

You betcha!  I also have a little personal fan that sits next to me and I have it blowing on my lap while working on the blanket.

This is my best knitting friend from May through October.  In the other months, I have doors and windows open letting in the nice cool breeze.

I have to show you something else I purchased recently.

Is this not adorable?  I found it at Hobby Lobby for $.99 in the clearance aisle.  I use it to keep my 'trash' in.  The idea came to me after seeing Ali from Simply Summer Street Fame have something similar next to her sewing area.  Now that I am cutting plastic canvas, I always have little pieces of plastic floating about.  I can now grab them, throw them in the jar and dispose of them when the jar gets full.  Also nice to have a place to stick my little scissors for trimming off yarn.

I heard from Hubby last night.  It looks like he will be home on Wednesday for sure.  He is really hoping to leave Tuesday but there are no guarantees on that one.  I will be glad to have him home.  Yes, I have enjoyed my alone time but.......I miss having him here to talk to and bounce ideas off of.

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

WEEK 4 YEAR 9

Hello again.  How are you all doing today?  Hopefully you are able to keep cool during these summer days.  This weekend has been very warm here in Arizona.  We have been over 110 for the past 3 days.  We will be getting a little break next week and hopefully some rain too.  This has been one of the driest monsoon seasons I can remember.  So far, we have had 1/2 inch of rain in our neighborhood and yet, my BFF who lives 4 miles away has received nothing.  Crazy weather, right?

Since it has been so warm outside, I have not even wanted to jump in the pool.  The pool is not even cool anymore, so not really refreshing.  Since that is the case, knitting has been my main thing to keep me busy.

I am happy to report, the baby blanket saw the most work on it.

The red spot is where I was last week and the blue spot is where I am as of this morning.  I have about 2 more inches of white yarn left and then one more skein of blue and it will be finished.  My goal is to have that done before next weekend.  And by complete, that also means weaving in all the ends.  That would mean 545 yards of stash is out the door!

The only other item worked on this week is:

Hubby's second Rose City Roller sock.  I am on the 'boring' foot part and work on this when I am out and about.  It might be done next week, or not.  We shall see.

That is all I worked on this past week.  I did manage to pick up some more plastic canvas from Hobby Lobby.  Now I am not as concerned about making counting errors as I cut out the shapes.  Finding 10 count plastic canvas is not easy.  HL is the only place in town that had it.  I bought their last 2 pieces.  Hopefully they will get more in soon, just in case.

My cardi is laying right next to me, begging for a little attention.  Poor thing.  Once the other two projects are off the needles, it will be picked up again.  

No any change in the list this week.

YOP 9 GOALS

Finish Boxy Sweater started in 2015

Finish Eva Shawl started in 2011

Finish Forrest Path Shawl started in 2018

Summer Top for me
  Spotting Clouds ( this time with fingering yarn )

Cardigan for me
  It Really Fits  Cardigan 7/1

Short Socks
  Rose City Roller 7/4
  
Regular Socks

Project bags/totes

Market bags

Produce Bags

Tissue Box Covers

Plastic Canvas Nativity bought in 2009  7/17

Bookmarks

Shawls for both Prayer Shawl and Personal

Blanket/Throw
  Polly Plum Squares
  Baby Blanket  7/12


Dishcloths
  DW Pattern (no longer available online!)

Doilies/Table Runners

Baby Items
Wee Sherlock  7/2>7/9
Little Boy Blue  7/10>7/10
Easy-Peasy No Sew, Stay On Baby Booties  7/11>7/12

Purchase of yarn is prohibited!!!!!  I have over 21,000 miles of yarn to play with this year.  (38,481,140 yards)

Any other project that falls into my lap.

Not purchasing any yarn has been especially hard this past week.  There have been some really great sales at a couple of my favorite online yarn shops.  I have finally learned not to even open their emails anymore.

On to other items.

Hubby left on Thursday for Vegas.  He is helping get his mom's house ready for her return home.  He is hoping to come home Tuesday.  I will be glad to have him back.  Even though I have binged watched the Hallmark Channel since he left LOL.  I have caught up on all the Christmas shows they have shown over the last 10 years.  Today is a 'Good Witch' marathon on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries.  I will be glued to the set for that.  It was one of my favorite shows.  I am pretty sure I missed at least one of the sequels.&   Maybe that blanket will get done today!

I have been kitty sitting too.  Our son and his wife took off for Vegas on Friday.  I have been feeding their cat and fish.  It isn't a big deal.  The grand kitty is 17 years old and pretty mellow.  He does need a little cuddling while I am there though.

There was some organizing done in our 'back room'.  The one, hubby has been pulling glued down carpet out of.  More organizing needs to be done but will need a strong man to help me with it.  I did manage to get quite a few things ready to go to Big Brother Big Sisters.  They are picking up tomorrow.  WOOHOO!  I love getting unused items out of my house.

Hubby had a Dr's appointment just before he left.  We are going to be changing some of our eating habits.  He will need to be counting his net carbs.  I finally found an app that will do that without having to go up to the paid 'premium'.  I tried 'My Fitness Pal' but needed to pay to count carbs.  The one I found that works the best is "Carb Manager".  I have been playing with it since hubby has left and it is really pretty easy to use.  Hubby will be rechecked in 6 months.  Hopefully, his blood work will be MUCH better then.  As well as the new app, I have been going through recipes and getting ones that will fit into his new lifestyle.  This will not be a short term thing but probably life long.  I will be going back to making bread all the time too.  That way I now what is going into the bread and can put it through the recipe builder to make it easy to count on the app.

Good thing I am retired, as this is all going to take some time to do.  It will all be worth it though.  We had done this once before and it all worked and then life happened and we fell off the wagon BIG time.  Now we know what happens to hubby when this happens.  Not good.

Ok, I think I have talked about everything.  I hope you all have a marvelous week.

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

UH OH

Hubby has left to go and get business taken care of in Las Vegas.  He plans on being gone for a week.  That means he has left me in charge of all sorts of stuff for the next week.  UH OH!  I have already gone and cleaned out some areas of the back room that he is working on for remodeling.  I figured by the time he is back home, I will have that room all organized and he will never miss anything that 'goes away' from there.  (evil laugh)

On top of that, I have lots of knitting I need to work on.  That baby blanket needs to go faster so I can get the package out of my house.  But alas, it is only gets worked on for about an hour a day before I start to melt.  

I will also be babysitting my grand kitty this weekend.  He is VERY old and they have switched him from dry food to wet food and he is doing so much better on it.  His fur is unmatted now and he actually has been cleaning himself.  He is also starting to put some weight on.  I have a feeling this is going to be one of those cats that lives into his 20's.  He is already 17!

There is a to do list on my bullet journal for things I want to do in the next week that are hard for me to do when hubby is around.  I am so excited to surprise him when he comes home next week.  Hopefully, it will be a good surprise for him LOL.

And one last thing.....................I found out the TV does have other programming than sports and cop shows! Chic flicks are on the menu for the next week. I will miss him this week.  He is the one person that knows how to keep my spirits up.  

OK., I hear the baby blanket calling my name.

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

House Guests

Before I go into details of this post I need to tell you about where I live.  Our home is in a lovely well established neighborhood.  The houses here were all built in the early 1970's.   The city we live in has almost 500,000 people in it and is 133 square miles.  If you ask anyone living in this city, they would tell you all their grocery stores, restaurants, religious institutions, schools and shopping can be done within 5 miles of their residence.  So, it does have a small town feel.  That being said, you can see that I live in a city.  I do not live out in the wilderness or in a forest or on a farm or out in the boonies. 

 So why, I ask you, have I been finding these in my home this week?

This is a Mediterranean Gecko.  This is about the size of the 2 we have rescued and released this past week.  As I was stepping into the shower, this morning, I found the second one clinging to the shower curtain.  Poor little guy was terrified.  They do not scare me.  I have no problem getting them into a little container and then taking them outside.  If I didn't think my dogs would kill them, I would leave them in the house.  They are wonderful bug eaters.

Speaking of bugs......................We have been pestered with these for over a week.

Crickets! YUCK!  I have been killing one of these little darlings daily for the past 10 days.  After the sun goes down, I can hear them singing in the house.  I hear they are good luck in Japan and China.  It is even said it is bad luck to kill one, even accidentally.  Whoops..........I am killing them as soon as I see them.  They love to eat cotton fabric.  Since it is summer and cotton is a mainstay of our wardrobe, they need to either stay outside or suffer the consequences.

Now you know why I would love to keep the geckos in the house.  They could get really fat just off the crickets.  

OK, I now return you to your normal life.

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