YOP LIST 2023-2024

Sunday, September 29, 2019

WEEK 13



Hello!  Are you as happy that last week is over as I am?  Phew!  It was for me, a frog and dog week!  Let's take a look at what I mean by that, OK?

First up on the frog list.......................the Sleeveheart Shawl.  Yup, it was not making me happy.  The material was too compact and the pattern was not making that gorgeous Alpaca sing.  So I pulled (Frogged) it all out and went in search of another pattern.  It only took me 3 days to find one that I thought would do the fiber justice.  Say hello to Pine Lake Shawl.


I am not 100% happy with it as of yet and may decide to start it again, but this time go up a needle size.  It is still a bit too tight for my liking.  I do love the pattern, though.  The Asymmetrical shawl is my favorite shape and this fits the bill on that part.  I had to laugh as the instructions say this is something you make in one weekend. Nothing I knit gets done in one weekend.  

Next on the frogging block..................................my "it really fits cardigan".  I finally decided to really try it on and not just one sleeve of it.  Oh My Goodness!!!!!!!  Hubby and I both could have fit into that thing!  I proceeded to unravel the entire sweater and started it again but this time going down a size in the hopes, it will be perfect this time.  I do like my sweaters oversized, but it was ridiculously HUGE.  So here is where I am at on the cardi now.


I do not think this will be completed by the time I go out of town in November.  Although, just by looking at it this time, it looks to be a better size than the last one.

My sock did not get unravelled..................well not all the way.  I picked it up one evening and found I had dropped a stitch about 4 rows back.  I was able to weave it in and started knitting again.  Then I found out I was off on my stitch count because I forgot to do a YO.  I was able to fix that without tinking back too.  Then I discovered I had dropped a stitch again in 2 different areas and was not able to weave them in as they were about 8 rows below where I was at.  Well, darn it!  I unraveled the entire 8 rows, picked up all the stitches that had been dropped and started back again.  Here is where I am at now.


I do love this pattern, Fawkes.  The reason I keep dropping stitches is...............There is one stitch in the 12 row repeat that calls for knit 3 together. Somehow, one of those three stitches misses my needle and BOOM...............dropped stitch.  I have been much more careful since the unravel party.  When I pick up the 3 stitches to knit, I give them a minor tug to make sure all 3 are on the needle.  Otherwise, this has been a great pattern to knit.  It is my carry along project.

Last but not least, my lace alpaca shawl has grown a tiny bit.


Working with a size 10.5US needle on slippery alpaca takes a bit of time and patience.  I really need to watch as I knit on this as the yarn is so thin it makes it very easy for a person to accidentally knit 2 stitches together.  Also, do any of you know how warm alpaca yarn is?  My hands are super warm working on this and I can only imagine how warm my lap will be when it gets long enough to lay on it.

So that ends my crafting news.  Now on to my other news about dogs.  First, I want you to know I love my dogs.  I really do.  They are cute and have been part of our family for almost 10 years.  They have their quirks though.  We think we have figured out what those quirks are and so we make sure not to leave anything around, when we are gone, that could make those quirks manifest.  Evidently hubby forgot that rule this week when he left to go to California. 

When a suitcase comes out, we have two dogs that get mighty nervous.  Even though they have a lovely dog sitter that comes to stay with them, they pull this guilt trip on us every time.  They sit and watch the suitcase get packed and sulk for hours.  This time, Hubby was the only one packing up and they seemed to be much better.  I did have to take him to the airport., I think they thought I had also left them.  When I came home, I prepared the house for our grand puppy to come over and spend some time with me and my fur babies.  While getting things ready I discovered this.


My dogs LOVE to chew plastic and ink pens are their specialty.  Hubby had left a pen by his side of the couch and when I left with him they had a blast with it.  There was ink on the couch (I did manage to remove it), on the floor and even on their paws.  Hubby has been grounded and I told him he is only allowed to have pencils now as they are much easier to clean up after.  (The dogs like wood too)

So, the grand puppy came over to play.  His owners had to go out of town for his mistress' swim meet.  My dogs are 12 and 7 and have no desire to 'play'.  After 4.5 hours of him barking and pouncing on my dogs, I took him home until his owners came back.  Once we got to his house, he went to sleep right away.  


No that is not him sleeping, that is him taking a break from the barking and pouncing.  He really  is a cute dog and I do adore him.  My dogs do not adore him though.  We will continue to have him come over.  Just not for long periods of time, until he learns not to pounce on my babies.

On the way to take the Grand puppy home  I spotted this:


That cheered me up and made my day a bit brighter.  We have had quite a bit of rain this week and it was much needed.  In total we got 2 inches of rain.  It has cooled us off to the point, we don't mind being outside during the day.  I know you all think 90 is hot, but remember, we really don't have much humidity in our air, so 90 is quite comfortable for us.

OK, I have pretty much told you everything that has happened this week.  Hubby returns home this afternoon.  I have some errands to run this morning, a pork tenderloin to marinated, a loaf a bread to make and of course, knitting to be worked on.

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


Monday, September 23, 2019

Look What We Have


That, my friends, is a lot of rain!  It has been raining here since around 3 this morning and just stopped about 8:30.  I have no idea how much we got but we are under a flash flood warning until around 10:30 this morning.  The rain is supposed to continue off and on until sometime Thursday.  We so need the moisture. Our monsoons this year have been a bit of a disappointment.  The monsoon season is officially over on September 30th.  Fingers crossed we get more rain to help with our wildfires and keep the ground wet so no more fires break out.

I really need to get my 'weather station' put up.  Remember him?


He has moved closer to the outside.  Hopefully I can get out today and pick up some liquid nails from Home Depot and get him attached as well as fix the sprayer on my sink that is flopping all over the place.  

OK, need to get busy with chores so I can sit down later and work on some of my knitting/crocheting projects.

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

Sunday, September 22, 2019

WEEK 12 UPDATE


It is that time of the week again.  Do you look forward to Sunday?  Since I have been doing the YOP for the past 9 years, Sunday's have been one of my favorite days of the week.  It is so exciting to read other's blogs to see what kind of crafty business has been happening throughout the world.  Before I head off to read other crafter's blogs, I must get mine written.  So let's get this blog going.  Warning, there are quite a few photos this week.  

Let's talk about frogging items.  Actually, it was only 1 item I frogged last week.  It was an Eva Shawl I had started in July of 2011.  I was crocheting that shawl in a lace weight alpaca.  What was I thinking?  Obviously I wasn't.  Frogging the 11 grams of lace was a royal pain!  I managed to reclaim all but 3 grams of the yarn.  I found another pattern to make with the yarn.  I started it on Friday and here is where I am at.



See how much halo this yarn has?  Imagine trying to frog that from a crochet project!  Not fun.  I am just kind of winging it with this pattern.  I have already cast on almost twice what the pattern called for.  I changed where the lace rows will pop up.  So basically, I am doing my own thing.  This will not be done anytime soon.  It is just nice to have this yarn being turned into something I will use.  

Do any of you remember this shawl?



Wow, that is some crappy night time photography.  It is country blue and lime green!  This is the Forest Shawl I started in July 2018.  I pulled it out this week and have been adding a section to it here and there.  I really am trying to clear up some of those UFO's that have been hanging around for way too long.

I also have been working on my cardigan.  There is no photo of it.  All that has happened on it is the addition of about 20 rows to the first sleeve.  So, basically, it looks like it did last time.

There was quite a bit of Cozy Alpaca yarn left over from my Great Nephews layette.  I really did not want to just stick it on a shelf and forget about it.  It is such a lovely soft yarn.  So I went searching for patterns for the amount of yarn I had left.  I found this:



Sleeveheart shawl.  It is based off the PI shawl and it is a very relaxing knit.  This was also started on Friday.  I have no idea how large it will be by then time I run out of yarn.  Hopefully, it will be large enough to be either a shawlette or a caplet.  We shall see.  It is going pretty quickly so far.  Could be because there are only 64 stitches on the needles.  It will increase to 260 stitches before I bind off.

There were more squares made this week also.  



Only got 2 completed this week.

There must have been a startitis virus going around on Friday.  Here is the third project I cast on, on Friday.



OK all you Harry Potter fans.  I am sure you will know who/what Fawkes was. (He is a Phoenix bird)  Hubby wanted to know if these socks were for him.  He had quite the sad face when I told him these were for me this time.  These need a little bit of attention when working on them.  There is counting involved.  The pattern said to cast on 60 stitches, and yet I know, I am a solid 64 on a 1.5 US needle.  That means I had to play with the pattern a little bit but it is working out just splendid.

That is all for my crafting this week.  

Life happened this week.  

If you do not follow me (shame on you) I will let you know we ended up purchasing a new washing machine on Monday and it was delivered on Tuesday.  Laundry is all caught up!  

I started working with my Sony A6300  camera again this week.  I had been ignoring it as I felt it was too much of a pain to use.  After setting it up and working with it I remembered why I bought it to begin with.  Love all the different things I can do with it and all the lenses I have to go with it.

Our local Grand Daughter is on the swim team at her high school.  She had been on a swim team about 6 years ago but dropped out when they refused to heat the pool in the winter and still demanded they swim.  But, I digress.  She had a swim meet this week that I was able to attend.  This is where my Sony camera came in handy!  It stops actions so well!



The top photo is of her beating her breast stroke record by 26 seconds.  Yes, that is twenty six seconds!!!!!  The bottom photo is her going in for her free style swim.  It was about 102 outside and I was quite tempted to jump into that pool myself!  This place does heat the pool in the winter.

Hubby was busy on Thursday running the vacuum cleaner.  We had little rolls of dog hair floating around everywhere.



Enrique is not a fan of the vacuum.  He is burrowing between my two pillows.  Poor baby boy LOL.

Saturday night was homecoming for our local Grand Daughter.  This was her first 'date' since going into high school.  Her dad was having a good time with her before her 'date' showed up.



(Please, no negative comments about the fire arm.)  Not that her dad is protective or anything.  She is an only child and the apple of his eye.  This man even donned a tutu to do a daddy daughter dance routine when she was around 5.  Yes, he is that dad!

Here is her and her date just before the dance.



They clean up pretty good, huh.  I am sure I will hear all about her date later today.  We are going over there later for smoked brisket and some American football.

I am really looking forward to the coming week.  We are supposed to get some rain and our temps are going to drop down to 90 and some 80's.  Night time temps are heading to the high 60's.  This means our swimming pool has seen the last of my body this year.  It is time now for me to clean off my rocking chairs on the front porch so I can enjoy the cool morning air with a cuppa and my knitting.  Fall is going to come to the desert!

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

To see what other crafters have been up to go here.


Tuesday, September 17, 2019

GUESS WHAT?????



Image result for guess what

Have you guessed yet?  Do you want another hint?

Image result for lg 5.2 front load washer

I have one of the above washers in my laundry room.  It is very busy right now, helping me get caught up on the past 2 weeks of laundry that has been sitting in baskets waiting patiently to be washed and dried.  Who knew that buying a washing machine could be so darn stressful?  

Mr Repairman came out yesterday morning and after I 'talked' to him about how my laundry habits have not changed in all the years I have used that machine, he decided to do a little diagnostic work on it.  While working on it he found $1.10 that had been rattling around in it for many years and a piece of cloth that was blocking the drain pipe.  We were lucky we hadn't had a flood!  The final diagnosis was..............'You need a new motor'.  The cost difference between and new motor and a new machine was not enough to make a difference.  Not to mention with a new machine you get a years warranty and with a new motor you get 90 days.  New motor takes 10-14 days to arrive and new machine is the next day delivery.  REALLY?  Let's go shopping!

Here is the kicker.  Our last washer was only 36 inches high.  Today (13 years later) all washers are 40 inches high.  So what?  My on/off valves for the washer are 37 inches from the floor.  When you put a washer that is 40 inches tall in front of them, you are hard pressed to reach them to turn them on and off if need be.  Not to mention the lovely shelf that held all my laundry supplies was at 39 inches.  No, we did not re plumb the shut offs.  Yes, we removed the shelf and put all laundry supplies in a cabinet.  It is not as handy in there but does look neater.

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It took us 2 trips to the appliance store to make sure this washer would fit our space.  There was quite a bit of measuring and mathematics happening yesterday.  The nicest part of the entire day was, we were able to buy a machine that had one little scratch on the side of it and were able to get it $300 below the 'perfect' model!  It doesn't effect the way it works and who is going to come to my house and look all over the machine to see if there are any boo-boos.
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I received a phone call at 6:45 this morning to set up today's delivery.  Good thing I had insomnia last night.  Normally I do not get up much before 7!  The three gentlemen that came out to install the washer were phenomenal!  I even called the appliance store and told them how happy we were with the installers.  Hubby gave them a monetary tip since they really took their time to make sure everything worked right and our house was back to the way they found it. (They had to remove a door to get the machine in)

My life is getting back to normal.  I have bread in the bread machine.  Menus, for the next 10 days, have been made.  I have been able to knit on my sweater and also on a languishing WIP shawl.  I got to watch DWTS that we recorded last night.  Last but not least, I am on my last load of laundry!  I want to do my sheets but will wait until tomorrow.  I am starting to run out of steam.

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So that is the last 24 hours of my life.  OOPS!  I left out the part where my family and my cousin met up for dinner last night.  It was so nice to see the cousin again.  He spends his winters here and is planning on becoming a permanent resident by the end of next year.  It will be nice to have more family in the area.

Yup, that covers all of it.  Time to go and switch the loads around and get some lunch.

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


Sunday, September 15, 2019

YOP WEEK 11

Hello lovely readers.  A big thank you to all that sent their well wishes to me last week while I battled a bit of a virus.  If I had been 13 yrs old, it would have only lasted 3 days.  Since I am 66 with a compromised immune system it lasted 7 days.  It never got so bad I had to stay in bed.  I did go through an entire box of Kleenex though.   So, thank you once again for your well wishes.

On to fiber related items.  Finishes first.


Hubby's RCR (Rose City Roller) socks are completed.  A discovery was made this past week.  The second sock was completed within a 48 hour window!  Since I was a bit under the weather, I cast on the second sock on Thursday afternoon and it was completed before noon on Saturday.  No, I did not knit nonstop.  Meals were prepared and eaten and I also worked on a couple of other projects (not craft related).  These socks were made with the rounded toe this time.  I wanted to see if hubby would notice the difference.  He did and likes the rounded toe much better.

After the socks were completed, I handed them to him and his first response was, "Am I still a knit worthy spouse?"  He cracks me up!  I told him as long as he continues to wear what I make for him, he will continue to be knit worthy.  I even caught him eyeing my sock yarn stash the other day and picking out colors he likes.  Yes, he is extremely knit worthy.

There were squares crocheted this week also.

Five more were completed and added to the pile.  What a fun way to use up all that worsted yarn I have had languishing in my stash for so long.

Lastly, I am working on the sleeve of my Cardigan.


The pattern suggested working on the sleeves before completing the body.  That way you don't worry about running out of yarn when it comes time to do the sleeves and you can make the body as long as you want until the yarn runs out.  I thought that was a brilliant idea.  I want the body longer than the pattern calls for and I know I have more yarn than the pattern calls for so this will let me knit away on the body until the the yarn stops.  The sleeves on this are HUGE!  I have big upper arms but not this big.  Instead of decreasing the arm every 10 rows, I a decreasing every 5 rows until it is down to a manageable width.

That is all the fiber arts I worked on this week.  After looking at a few things in my WIP basket, I have decided to frog one of the items in there.  I just hope it will frog OK.  It is an Alpaca fiber and has lots of halo to it.  I am afraid it will be a challenge to take out but I really do not like the pattern I started with it.  In the next YOP update, I will let you know how it went.  Here is a quick look at my list so far this year.

YOP 9 GOALS

Finish Boxy Sweater started in 2015

Finish Eva Shawl started in 2011 going to frog this, hopefully

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>7/31
  Rose City Roller  8/3>8/27
  Rose City Roller  8/29>9/14
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>8/3
  Victorian Lace Squares Afghan 8/11

Dishcloths
  DW Pattern (no longer available online!)

Doilies/Table Runners

Baby Items
Wee Sherlock  7/2>7/9 & 8/31>9/3
Little Boy Blue  7/10>7/10 & 9/3>9/4
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) So far no yarn purchased other than for the first baby outfit.

Any other project that falls into my lap.

As for the rest of my week....................my washer decided to stop spinning on Tuesday this past week, while I was washing a load of towels.  I was able to take the sopping load over to my BFF's house and get them spun out and then came home and dried them.  The repairman could not make it to our house until Thursday.  He ran the towels through it and all worked just fine.  He said the load was unbalanced and I needed to be more careful.  I started doing laundry again on Friday and BOOM!!!!!  On the second load of just everyday clothes the spin cycle stopped working again and this time the door locked and I could not get it opened.  I called the repair place and was informed they could not get anyone out until Monday, called the manufacture to find out how to get the door unlocked so I could get the clothes out so they would not mildew in the next 4 days.  They were no help at all.  Finally I unplugged the stupid thing and waited for about an hour and tried the door and was able to open it.  (the machine is a front load)  Yea me!

I hope the repairman is the same one because he and I are going to have a little conversation.  I have owned this machine for 13 years and have NEVER had an issue with the way I load it to do laundry.  So, he better not tell me the way I am doing laundry is causing the problem!  I am not in the mood for sass!  I need the washer fixed as I am starting to get a bit low on certain items of clothing!  Phew.......I feel much better now that I got that off my chest.

As for reading................Harry Potter is still my reading companion.  I am on book 6 and half way through it.  That leaves one more book in the original series to read.  My Grand Daughter also loaned us all 7 of the movies.  We have watched the first two so far.  Hubby is just now reading book 3 of the series.  I hate to spoil the books for him by watching the movies, but he says he will still complete the series even if we watch the movies.  Works for me.

Today will be spent watching American Football, trying to frog an alpaca shawl and working on my sweater.  I plan on making jalapeno poppers and wings for dinner tonight.  We try and have pub food for dinners during football season.  It gives the day a little bit of a special feel. It is the one day of the week we don't really worry about our dietary needs.  Otherwise I have been very faithful following what we should and should not be eating.  Oh, I think a loaf of bread will be made today too.  Finally have a recipe for my bread machine I love!

That being said, I did take the time this past week and cleaned out my pantry, deep freeze and the refrigerator freezer compartment.  I can now find things to make for dinners and was also able to give away quite a bit of canned goods to our local food bank.  When I don't feel good, I love to clean and organize. OH, I also organized my laundry room and found items to donate to Big Brother Big Sister's on their next collection day.  Then I went through all the coffee cups we have accumulated over the past several years and got those ready to donate too.  There were kitchen drawers and cupboards cleaned and reorganized also.  Feels so good to be able to open up a drawer or cupboard and see it all neat and organized.

And the best news of all............................Our outdoor temps have finally given us a break.  We will be between the 90's and 100F this next week!  For us, that is a BIG break from the 110's.  Our mornings are in the 70's now.  Of course, this also means our pool will not be swim-able shortly.  Once the night time temps fall into the 70's, the water cools off pretty darn quick.

Ok, I think I am done bending your ear.  If you made it all the way to the end, thank you so much!

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