Week 4

Hello my friends.  Another week has gone by.  Time for me to write a little bit about my happenings this past week.

There has been knitting..............lots of knitting.

Another Wee Sherlock is being made for a very special baby girl to be born in January.  I started this last Sunday afternoon and was sailing along quite well.  On Wednesday I looked it over and thought this as waaaay too big for a newborn.  Maybe because I am a loose knitter and also because I was doing 3-6 months size.  I only had about 1 inch left on it before I was to start the sleeves but I just could not continue.  I frogged the entire sweater and started again using the instructions for the 0-3 month size.  It is oh, so much better.  I should have the second sleeve completed yet today.   The second sleeve has also been knit twice.  There was some very loose stitches the first time it was knit.  After it is all finished I will be on the search for some very feminine buttons that are NOT pink.  Mom is not a fan of pink so I will adhere to her wishes of no pink.

That is it for knitting.  The sweater outfit needs to be completed by the middle of August so I have time to wash, dry and wrap this little jewel up for the baby shower.  Every other WIP is on hold until this is completed.

I did do one other fiber related item this week.  My own design of a lacy boxy sweater that has been languishing for the past 6 years got frogged on Monday.  It was not an easy decision to make.  I just knew I would never wear it and the yarn was way too expensive for it to just hang in my closet.  So, now I have 1100 yards of Blue Heron Metallic DK weight yarn to find a pattern for.  I was thinking a shawl but I looked in my closet and I must have close to 15 shawls in there already.  I am sure something will peak my interest soon.

That is all for my crafting this past week.  In other news.........................

Can you hear Queen singing "we are the champions"?  We took first place in our trivia group Wednesday night.  If Josie had not been with us, we would have bombed out.  We needed her young mind to help with many of the questions concerning today's events.

Remember I told you we got solar up and running the 15th of this month?  Remember how I said we had so much cloud cover it was hard to tell if it was producing enough solar to really make a difference?  Well, Sunny Arizona has not had a full day of sunshine in over 10 days now.  In fact, it started raining here Thursday evening and it is still raining today!  According to my rain gauge.........................

We have had almost 3 inches of rain since Thursday night.  That is almost a half year's worth of rain for our area.  (Isn't my rain gauge adorable?)  It is supposed to clear up tonight sometime and just be nice and muggy for the next week.  With all this rain and cool weather our pool has dropped from 90 degrees to 82 degrees.  Our high temps have been in the low 80's for the past few days which is a real joy for us. 

This coming week I will have teen/dog duty.  Josie starts swim camp for her school swim team so I will be busy dropping and picking her up as well as taking her to her play practice.  Her dad is out of town again for business and her mom is working so the retired Mimi gets to have some fun with the Grand daughter this coming week.  This will be her last week to be 15 too.  She turns 16 next Sunday.  She has already told us she will be going to the DMV on Monday to get her driver's license.  

Time to get back to that sweater!

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

Week 3

 

Hello again.  It is that time again to talk about what I did this past week in my crafting.  Hopefully you won't get tired of seeing these.  It is all I have going at the present time.

Hubby's plain vanilla socks with FLK heels.  The orange marker is where I was last week.  Both of them are now on the same row count.  This week, I will be increasing the number of stitches so they will be able to fit over hubby's calves.  Not sure when they will be completed.  There are other projects needing to be started ASAP plus another project that I started last month that I need to give some love to or it will not be completed in time for an October birthday.

On Tuesday I did a little Amazon shopping.  Finally, I found some cloth baskets to fit in my craft table cubicles.

They are just perfect for putting my yarn into and will keep the yarn a bit more protected from dust.  It also makes it much easier for me to find what I am looking for since all I need to do is pull out a basket and look into it rather than bending over and trying to reach into the back of a cubicle which is 15 inches deep.  When these arrived, I just 'threw' my yarn into the baskets. This week I would like to take the time to organize it a bit more.  The baskets on the left have all my DK weight and the ones on the right have all my fingering weight yarns.

But wait.....................there's more................................

There are three of these storage units in my craftroom.  Well, one in my craftroom and two in the craftroom closet.  The one you are looking at is in the room itself.  I got these cloth baskets off of Amazon too.  Most of them are holding my worsted weight yarn and one of them is holding my lace yarn.  The ones in the closet hold my cotton yarn and my WIPs.  Those are now in these baskets.  It is nice to have the yarn more protected.  Plus, this way people don't gawk at the amount of stash yarn I have when they walk into my craftroom.  

We finally got our solar system up and running on our house, this past week.  It has either rained or been overcast each day since then.  (Sigh)  Not thinking we will see a big difference this month because of that.  We are in the heart of our monsoon weather.  I am not disappointed in the fact we are actually having a wet monsoon this year.  In fact, I am quite thankful for the moisture.  I was just kind of hoping to see how much of a difference having solar would make on our electric bill.  Oh well, this monsoon won't last much longer.  Maybe another couple of weeks and then we will be back to blue skies and hot dry weather.

Today I do not have any plans what so ever.  Hubby is watching the British Open.  Me?  Playing with yarn today and listening to my audio book is the only thing on my list.

What is on your list to do today?

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

Part Deux

 

Guess what I woke up to today........................RAIN!  I could not believe it.  It has been so long since we have had any measurable rain.  Maybe this monsoon season will be a wet one for a change.  We are in such a severe drought.  

With the rain falling I got another burst of energy today.  That makes 3 days in a row.  Hubby had errands to run and I gave him my grocery list so while he was out he could do it all.  While he was gone I got on my 'to do' list.

First up was changing our wifi passwords and then getting all our electronics re-synced with them.  That took me over two hours to complete.  Making up hard to guess passwords is not for sissies.  Hubby normally does it but I decided it was time for me to learn something new in the techno world. There were 2 loads of laundry done while I was working on that password mess.  I bought a new comforter for our bed several weeks ago and finally got around to putting that on today and taking the old one and getting it ready for donations.  Then there was this watermelon on my kitchen counter begging to be cut up and put in the fridge for snacking.  By the time all of this was done it was time for lunch...........thank goodness!  I was starting to get tuckered out.  Hubby came back from his errands and brought me a gift.

He loves to bring me flowers and I love receiving them.  

Last night I made picadillo empanadas for dinner.  I had 4 empanada discs left over. 

 So, I decided to make a yummy desert for us.

Cherry empanadas with almond flavored glaze.  Some folks call them hand pies or turnovers.  Here in the southwest, these are empanadas.  They are cooling now but I have a feeling they will be gone by the end of the day.

I am finally kicking back and getting ready to pick up some knitting to work on.  Tomorrow our electric company will be coming out to get our home switched over to solar energy.  Hopefully we will have sunshine then LOL.  Then tomorrow evening we have a handyman coming out to look at what we need to have done and give us an estimate on price and time.  Friday I have a lunch date with one of my friends and that normally lasts 2-3 hours.  The only other thing we are waiting on is our roofing guys.  During the monsoon wind storm, part of our roof shingles in the back yard completely lifted off and are laying upside down and buckled on our roof.  It may a while before they can get here though.  They are working on a home whose roof collapsed.  I think that take priority!

Tonight's dinner is going to be easy..................air fryer beef kielbasa with sautéed onions on hoagie rolls.  I'm going to make tomorrow's dinner at that time too...............ham pasta salad.  

How is your day going?  

Until Next Time......................................

Just because

 

I was just sitting here researching some stuff for a dear friend of mine.  After I got done I thought, "why not do a quick blog post".  It's not like I have anything major to talk about.  I just like dropping in to say "HI" to everyone on days other than Sunday.

Yesterday I got so much stuff done.  Of course I did......it was Monday.  I got labels sewed on the prayer shawls, menus made for the next 2 weeks, made a bday card for a friend's 91st bday, made a lunch date with a friend, sent texts to a couple of relatives to catch up on their lives (they have not responded back) and worked on hubby's socks.

Today, it is still morning but I have emptied the dishwasher, cooked the meat for tonight's empanadas, fed Arthur, cleaned up the kitchen from cooking and talked to my dear friend in Las Vegas for a bit.  After I post this, I am going to jump in the pool and get some water aerobics going.  I have teen duty this afternoon.  It is only a pick up and drop off but it gives me a chance to talk to her for a few minutes....face to face.

It is nice to have things completed before lunch time.  That give me the chance to goof off in the afternoon.  Actually, it is giving me the chance to do some amazon shopping LOL.  I am looking for baskets to go into the cubbies that hold my yarn.  It will be easier to pull out a basket and search it than to try and see clear to the back of a 15 inch dark hole.  Right?

What do you do during the week?

Until next time................................................

Week 2 of YOP 11

 

Another week has gone by and my fingers have been busy.  There is another FO this week.

Another "To the Point" prayer shawl is completed and heading to the prayer shawl ministry at my parish.  I had stopped making these for a while as we were not mailing out shawls because of covid.  Now that things are settling down, the shawls are being sent again.  I am hoping to use up the rest of the worsted weight yarn I have by making these.  Once that is used up, I will only purchase worsted weight weight for projects calling for it.  Like these prayer shawls and like this:

Yup, another Wee Sherlock is going to be made soon.  We have a dear friend (who calls me grandma) that is expecting her first baby.  Her husband is my BFF's son.  We are so happy for them.  I just had to get some lovely soft washable yarn for the wee one that is expected to arrive in January.  There will also be a hat, baby mitts and booties made to go with this. They live in Texas where there is actually cold weather!  We will know the gender the end of this month and the buttons and embellishments will be gender specific.  The yarn is from Hobby Lobby and is their Soft and Sleek low pill yarn.  Perfect for baby garments.

There was sock knitting this past week too.

I took them off the magic loop and put them on DPN's.  I am sorry, I do not find magic loop quick at all.  It seems I spend more time pushing the project up and down the needles then I do knitting.  The orange marker is where I was last time I worked on these.  The sock on the right has a few more rows on it than the one on the left.  But no worries.  Each of them has a row counter attached to it so they will be even in the end.  This is my TV watching project.

Speaking of row counters:

I purchased two more chain row counters this past week and they arrived on Friday.  You might remember I had a lemon row counter a while back.  Well, someone fell in love with it and I gave it to them.  Luckily KnittyGnat (on etsy) had another one in her stock so I grabbed it along with the sea turtle.  That gives me 4 counters and three are already in use.

That covers all of my crafting this week.  In other news:

Wednesday, I accompanied my BFF to go and help her pick up two foster puppies.  

Just had a bath

She has fostered before but never puppies.  Even though she has 2 dogs of her own, she tries to help out when the rescues get over run.  On Friday, I helped her take the puppies back to the rescue.  Her one dog got physically ill from the puppies bothering him all the time.  He quit eating and started throwing up all over the house.  He does fine with 'adult' dogs but not so much with 6 week old puppies.  She felt so bad taking them back but the rescue understood....especially since the dog that was getting sick came from them too.  Talked to her yesterday and her boy is all better now.  Eating and drinking and keeping everything down.

I spent the first part of the week deep cleaning my refrigerator and our upright deep freeze.  Oh my, the fridge was in dire need of cleaning.  It looks so pretty now and the shelves and drawers sparkle.  I only found 2 expired items in the fridge which tells me we have been pretty good about eating leftovers and/or watching dates on perishable foods.  In the freezer I only found 3 items that had not been vacuum sealed properly and were severely freezer burnt.  What the freezer needed was a total reorganization.  I would jump back each time I opened it as usually something big and heavy would fall out where my feet would normally be.  It now is all organized and opening the door is no longer a scary thing.  I still need to go through the freezer attached to our fridge.  Maybe that will happen this week.

We are in our monsoon season.  The past two nights we have had 30-50 MPH winds whipping up dust storms.  It has happened after dark so no photos of it to show.  We got a trace of rain last night with it but that is all the rain we have this monsoon season, so far.  Everything outside has a nice layer of dirt on it from the storms.  It feels so gross.  My car has changed from garnet red to dirt brown.  I would wash it but there is really no need until the season ends.

Today, Hubby and I are planning a chill day at home.  I will head to the grocery store at some point to pick up fresh produce again.  There will be some sourdough bread being prepared for baking tomorrow.  Hopefully, there will be lots of knitting done too.  I have a zoom meeting this afternoon with my Silk & Sonder journaling group.  Those are always so enjoyable and I learn so many new ideas on journaling.  Next week I have some teen/dog duties to attend to.  Other than that, it should be a fairly quiet week.  Maybe the socks will get close to completion. 🤞

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

What????

 

Most of you do this big bang up cleaning sometime in the spring.  Not me!  I wait until it is hotter than blazes outside and then decide it would be a great time to do some deep cleaning in my house.  I'm not talking about decluttering either.  I am talking about pulling things apart, cleaning everything and putting it all back together.

Yesterday I did the refrigerator.  I pulled everything off the shelves and made sure there was nothing expired going back in.  (Only found 1 expired item)  The shelves themselves are glass so they got a good scrubbing to make sure any drips that were on them were all gone.  The fruit and veggie drawers were emptied and given a good scrubbing too.  Then there is another drawer for cheese and meat that got all spiffed up too.  That whole task took almost 2 hours.

Today, I am going to tackle our upright deep freeze.  Every time I open it, I step away from the door.  There is so much in there, things have a habit of spilling out when it is opened.  I need an inventory of what is in there so I can make better menus to start using up the older meat that is in there.  That should take me another couple of hours today.

My goal for tomorrow is to clean out the bottom freezer of our fridge.  My big hope is to be able to move some things from that freezer into the deep freezer, once it is organized again.

I have not done this for well over a year.  I do wipe up spills when they occur but to totally empty and clean is not something I do often.  The nice thing about doing these three areas is, I do not get exceedingly hot doing them.  All that nice cold air keeps me cool while working.  

My real goal for this week was to go through my kitchen again, to remove items that are not being used.  Even though I did this just a few months ago, I still feel like there is an overload of unused items in there.  Some of it might be the fact I have quite a few baking pans that only get used in the winter time.  I refuse to use my oven when it is 100 plus degrees outside.  So, maybe, the kitchen just needs to be reorganized.  I could move all those winter only items to an area all by themselves.  Gosh!  What a great idea.  I am so glad I came on here today to think this through.  That makes so much sense.  I only bake for about 4 months out of the year.  But, during those 4 months I do A LOT of baking.  Brilliant!

After I complete the deep freeze today, I am going to hit that pool.  Hubby and I got into it yesterday and it was so refreshing.  That is only the second time this season I have been in the water.  We have been so busy with travel, I kind of got out of the habit of making it part of my routine.

Is anyone else doing some deep cleaning during the hot months of the summer?

Until next time............................................................

WEEK 1 OF MY 11TH YEAR

 

WOOHOO!  Year of Projects started on July 1 for me and several other people.  This is year 11 of this group and it is also my 11th year to be in the group.  Each year I set goals for myself in my craft world.  Seldom do I ever completely make all those goals.  And, that is ok.  This group has a no judgement policy.  We welcome all crafters from all over the world.  If you are interested in joining us, go to this site and join in.  The site is on Ravelry and if you are not a member of that website, you can sign up and then join the group.  It is all FREE!

So, here are the goals I have set for this year.

WIP'S

Boxy Sweater -11/7/15 (my own design and will probably be frogged this year)

Sock Scraps Granny Stripe - 7/8/20 (This too, will probably be frogged this year)

Madonna & Child - 8/7/20 (cross stitch kit and it is a big one)

Everything is Possible with God - 3/23/21 (cross stitch kit)

TAAT Car Socks - 3/6/21 

Summer Lace Stole - 6/13/21 (Needs to be done by October)

SOCKS

Rose City Rollers

Car Socks

Hermione Everyday Socks

Try at least one new to me pattern this year

Clothing

Roe Cardigan

Dishcloths

Try to use up cotton yarn

Shawls

To the Point for the prayer shawl ministry

Blankets

Giant Granny Square blanket to use up stash yarn

Another Mosaic blanket from Tinna's patterns to use up stash yarn

Cross Stitch

My hope is to complete the ones I have started as well as the other 2 that are waiting for me to start.

***********************************************************************************************************

It is not a huge list this year.  It seems I normally get a bit distracted or have people asking me to make things for them.  This gives me some leeway during the next 51 weeks.

Oh, and I already have an FO from this past week.

I made a "To the Point" shawl for the prayer shawl ministry at my church.  I finished it up yesterday.  

And for all my USA friends...................................Happy Independence Day!

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