End of 2021

 

This is it.  The end of another year.  This was a year of ups and downs.  Highs and lows.  Happiness and sadness.  And, if you think about it...............we can say the same thing of each year as it comes to a close.

One thing I enjoyed so much this past year has been reading other people's blogs.  It has kept me connected to the world, so to speak.  It feels like I have friendships with people I have never met in person but................if we were to meet up, we would have so much fun and so many things to talk about.  So, if you read my blog and find yourself anywhere near the Phoenix Arizona area.............give me a shout out.  Maybe we could meet up for a couple of hours and enjoy learning more about each other.

Through other's blogs, I have found out about books that I have loved reading, patterns I have knit, songs that inspire me, decorations that make me smile, recipes that make my mouth water, and so many other things that touch my heart.  I have gotten to see babies come into families, pets get adopted, gardens giving nourishment, families getting to be together again and travels made by others to places I can only dream about.  Thank you fellow bloggers for letting me into those areas of your life.

What will 2022 bring?  Who knows.  But if we were able to survive the last two crazy years, it won't be anything that we won't be able to handle.

So, I have set goals for next year.  I don't believe in resolutions..............those never work for me.  But if I set a goal, I have a chance to obtain it in the next 365 days.  There are daily goals, weekly goals and monthly goals.  Do you set goals?  Or do you do resolutions? How about choosing a word for the year?

Last year I set 6 goals.  Of which I completed half.  This year there are 8 goals.  Five of them are new goals and 3 are carry overs from last year. My word for this year is "FAITH".   

So, as this year winds down, I am doing up all the laundry, cleaning out last years dust, cooking goodies to be eaten in the new year and enjoying all of it.

May your new year be filled with joy, peace and blessings.  Thank you for being one of my blog readers.  You are so important to me.

Until next year..........................................Peace Out!

WIP Wednesday

 

I haven't done a midweek post in quite a while.  Today I felt I needed to come here and show the progress I have made on 'the' sweater.  

The neck is completed.  I did two rows of ribbing for it.  The pattern only called for one row and it also wanted it a bit wider.  I did not want the neck that wide so decreased  few stitches on the front of the neckline.

The right sleeve is completed.  This is a drop shoulder sweater and I made the sleeve to hit me just above my elbow.  I also changed the edge of the sleeve.  It called for ribbing but I decided to have it match the edging on the bottom of the sweater.  Gives it a bit more personality.

At the present time I am working on the left sleeve.

Nine more rows and I will do the edging on this sleeve.  It should be completed today.  After that, I will weave in the ends from the sleeves and add 2-3 inches more onto the bottom of the sweater.  If all goes according to plan, this will be done in plenty of time for our trip to Las Vegas in 10 days.

I have tried on the sweater a couple of times and really like the fit and feel of it.  This will get quite a bit of wear both in winter and then in the warmer months too.  In the winter I will wear a long sleeved undershirt under it to make it nice and warm.  This has been a pleasure to knit.  Now, I look forward to making my next sweater.  As for this sweater pattern.....I will be making it again.  Next time, I think I will make it using more than one color of yarn.  The ideas are already marching around in my head.

I am hoping to be able to do 'nothing' today....other than knit and maybe do a load of laundry.  Sunday, after I blogged, we worked on getting things put away from our Christmas gift exchange.  Monday, we got half of the house cleaned, did laundry, made bread and went to a Rosary for our sweet friend who passed away last Monday (20th).  Tuesday at noon, we went to our friend's funeral Mass.  Then in the evening we went to our BFF's house to do menu planning for our stay in Las Vegas.  There will be 12 of us there so, we needed to figure out what foods we would like to have so our hosts would not be responsible for feeding all of us.  

By the time the middle of January rolls around, hubby and I are hoping to be back into a normalized routine.  We will have buried his mom, seen all of his side of the family, visited with good friends, traveled many miles, and put away all of our Christmas decor (I hope).

My wish is for all of you to have a blessed and happy 2022.  

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

WEEK 26, MY HALFWAY POINT

 Hello again.  How has you weekend been?  Were you able to spend any time with family and/or friends for Christmas (if you celebrate)?

This past week was a busy one for this household.  There was fudge to make, gifts to wrap, house to clean, veterinarian visit to go to, laundry to do and other snacks to prepare for Christmas Day dinner.  OH, you want to know if any knitting got done?  Well yes, I did manage to get about 3 more inches added to my Vixynn sweater.  I didn't figure you needed another photo of it.  I am almost to the end of this skein of yarn.  When it runs out, I will put the stitches on a loooooong cable and try it on to see where it hits me.  I think I will work on the sleeves before I finish the bottom of the sweater.  Just for a little change of pace.

I did make a little something for our local Grand Daughter for Christmas.  I did not take a photo of it but here is the photo from the pattern.

The one I made is just like the one on the right side.  I also made a little frog hat for it too.  I text my Grand asking her to send me a photo, but it seems she was out very late last night is still getting her beauty sleep.  (do you remember being a teen and doing that too?)

Since this marks the first half of my 11th YOP, I thought I would do a quick update on what has happened so far this year.  So here is a very abbreviated review:

3 items frogged

3 pairs of socks completed

3 hats done

1 baby sweater done

4 dishcloths done

4 shawls completed

1 cross stitch completed

1 little duck done

6 WIP's waiting

Not too bad for the first 26 weeks.  Hopefully the last half of this year will see many of those 6 WIP's completed too.  Now, onto the rest of my week.

I was asked to make the bread for Christmas dinner again this year.  I decided to mix it up a little bit this time.

The top photo is flour tortillas.  My mother in law taught me to make them shortly after I got married.  I still use her recipe to this day.  We all love them.  The bottom photo is my regular bread I make using 'stale beer'.  It is our favorite bread of all time.  After dinner was over, I was asked to leave the rest of the tortillas and bread.  Guess they liked them.

We had a great time yesterday at our son's house.  There was plenty of food, drink, fun, laughter and love to go around.  Here is a photo of us just before we dug into dinner.

Let me just point out my daughter in law who took the photo is wearing the hat I made for her a couple of weeks ago.  She loves it and wears it quite a bit.

Today, I am going to try and do as little as possible.  I have done so much baking and cooking over the past 3 weeks.  I am kind of burnt out.  I do need to make us a loaf of bread and I want to make just a few tortillas for dinner tonight.  Guess there will be kitchen duty today anyways. (sigh)

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

WEEK 25

 

Hey there.  Glad you could come by today.  Winter has finally arrived in the Phoenix metroplex.  Friday, I left my home early to run errands and as I drove past the front of my house, I noticed my roof was covered with frost.  Yup, that is about all the colder we get here where I live.  Frost is our winter.  But, travel an hour or two north of us and you will find snow and ice.  I love this state!

Want to see what I did this week?  Okay, let's go.

First up is my Vixynn sweater.  I know I know, it is all I have been showing you for the past few weeks.

This week I finished the bodice and now am onto the ruffle bottom part.  I am making this quite a bit longer than the pattern calls for.  The pattern has it stopping just below the waistband of pants.  Sorry, but this lady would like to cover a bit more of her body than that.  It is mindless knitting at this point too.  My goal is to have the body of the sweater completed by the end of this year.  Then I should be able to do the sleeves and neck in the first week of the new year.  That means it will be ready to go with me when we go to bury my MIL.  Well, that is the plan I have in my mind anyway.

Remember my Roe Cardigan?

All that was left to do on it was sew up the left side/arm seam and do the collar.  I did the side seam this week and made the collar I had designed.  Tried it on and this is what it looks like now.

I was greatly disappointed in it.  It was had no real shape to it other than the sleeves which were my own design.  The body of this sweater did nothing for a full figured woman.  In fact, it made a full figure look even fuller!  Anyway, I am reclaiming the yarn and have picked out a poncho pattern to make with it.  That will suit our weather here better anyway.  

The only other thing I made this week was Peanut Clusters.

I have never made them before.  They were the easiest candy I have ever done.  It is all done in the microwave and took me about 5 minutes from start to finish.  Now, here is why I made them this year...................Hubby bought peanuts from our bulk grocery bins.  When he got home he grabbed a handful of them and started eating them.  He got a funny look on his face and then it turned into a sad face.  He was thinking he had purchased dry roasted peanuts but instead had purchased salted peanuts.  He was going to throw them away but I told him I would find a recipe in which to use them.  Ta-da!  I have enough Vanilla bark to make half of what I made the first time.  I will be making that today and taking them to our family Christmas dinner along with other goodies I have been making this year.

Did I tell you I made my mom's fruitcake this year?  I know, many people can not stand it.  But I swear this recipe is so yummy and moist.  Probably because we marinate it with booze for three weeks before we eat it.  This year I used Fireball to marinate it with.  Hubby and I finally were able to have a piece on Friday.  Oh My Goodness!  It was so good.  We decided the Fireball was even better than the brandy my mom usually used.  The cinnamon flavor really added to the tastiness of the cake.

The end of this past week was not as pleasant as we would have hoped for.  There were two deaths in our family circle.  One never knows when their time on this earth is up.  So, please, tell those close to you how much you love them.  Make memories everyday to last forever.  If you see someone without a smile, give them yours. And finally, if you can be anything.....Be kind.

Until Next Time........................Happy Crafting and I Love You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEEK 24

 

Hey there.  Nice to have you stop by for a little visit.  It finally feels like winter here in Arizona.  We have snow up in the mountains and we have had rain here in the valley.  My vertigo has gone away thanks to my awesome physical therapist.  Hopefully, it will decided to take a permanent vacation. 

On to my progress this week.

I finished my DIL's hat.  This is it with a messy bun.

And with a ponytail.  The pattern is ponytail-poof hat and is free on Ravelry.  I had a real hard time making gauge on this hat.  I was using a worsted weight yarn (at least it said it was on the band) but when completed, it could have fit a third grader.  I tried changing needle size but that gave it too much of an open weave.  I finally broke down and bought the yarn used by the designer.  It is not an expensive yarn by any means.  I just didn't want to buy yarn.  LOL  Once I got the proper yarn, it only too me a couple of evenings to complete the hat.

Then there is the sweater........................

It is pretty easy knitting now that it is joined and being knit in the round.  I have a couple more inches to go and then I will be starting on the ruffled bottom.  My plans are to make this longer than the pattern calls for.  I bought quite a bit of extra yarn just for that purpose.  My idea of having this completed in time for our trip in January is starting to fade.  In a weeks time I only got about 6 inches completed.  That means in 2 weeks I could have the ruffle done and then there are still sleeves and a neckline to do.  We will see how it goes.

That is all for my knitting this week.  Oh!  I did finish the gusset on my sock.  But, it is in time out until I get this sweater completed.  I have another sweater I want to do waiting patiently for me to cast on as soon as this one is done.

My physical therapist told me that movement (walking, exercising etc) has shown to help keep vertigo at bay.  So I have been making a conscious effort to move more daily.  One afternoon, I went to Sam's Club just so I could walk around without being bored.  I spent about 45 minutes just walking.  Ok, I did buy my hubby a container of dry roasted peanuts.  But that was all.  Another day I went to Kohl's and walked all over their kitchen department.  Hubby was with me that time.  We did end up buying a double air fryer.  

We do so much air frying and right now, I am using 2 air fryers at one time to get our food cooked.  This takes care of that and uses less room than the 2 fryers take up.  It was on sale, I had a % off coupon and store credit so we got it for less than half of what it normally sells for.  Plus, I got lots of steps in while waiting for them to pull it from their stockroom.

After we got that, I delivered my DIL's hat to her house and talked for a little bit with our son and his dog.  Then we went to our cellular store to look at what specials they had.  My phone is about 3-4 years old and the battery is not doing well.  I end up charging it 3 times a day.  On a road trip, I have to carry a portable charger with me so I can charge it while out and about.  It was not fun.  BUT...................I love my phone.  I am used to my phone.  I know where everything is on my phone.  I have organized my phone into folders so I can find things easily.  And then this happened.

I got a new phone.  It is the Galaxy Flip 3 by Samsung.  Notice it is in my favorite color too.  My last 2 phones have been purple.  The above photo shows it closed.  It is nice and compact and fits nicely into a girl pocket on jeans and leggings.

Here it is opened.

Why yes, I do use the wallpapers from Knit Picks each month.  It took me 2 days to get all my folders set back up and figure out how to use the different features of this phone.  So far, I really like it.  Being as small, is nice.  I no longer need a purse with huge side or back pockets to carry my phone.  And yes, I got to do a lot of walking around in the cellular store while waiting for my old phone to transfer all the data to the new phone.

I will leave you with some photos of my Christmas decorations.  I know I showed you my tree, but it was just a half shot.  So here is a photo of the entire tree and also a shot of my fireplace.  The stockings are needlepoint, done by my mom and the framed cross stitch in the fireplace is also done by my mom.  Sweet memories of her during this Advent/Christmas season.

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

We Interrupt Your Schedule.......

 

Remember how I said I was going to work nonstop on my Vixynn sweater?  I have grand plans of having it finished before the 9th of January.  Well, I did work quite a bit on it yesterday.  In fact, I have now joined it to be working in the round. Things were moving along so well and then this happened.

 My DIL is a dear person and does not ask much of me.  Her mom is also a great knitter.  I asked if she had asked her mom and she had.  I don't know what her mom said.  I would imagine her mom declined since she is visiting here from another state and probably does not have the necessary needles and other supplies to make this.

Then I asked the fatal question: "When do you need it"  The answer was "Whenever you finish it.  It is cold at work with the garage doors open".  My DIL works a second job as a bar tender/server for a small place.  They keep all the doors open so it is a 99% open air place. Yes, once the sun goes down it gets quite chilly here.

The next fatal question was: "what color do you want it?".  Answer; "Black".  UGH!  We all know how much I LOVE working with black yarn.............not.  I went into my stash and found a skein of black yarn her mom had given to me last year.  Fingers crossed I will have enough to make the hat.  The hat calls for 120-180 yards and this skein has 163 yard (if it was full and I have no idea if much was used from it).  It feels full so I have my fingers crossed I have enough.  If not............I do have some other black yarn that will work with it.

At 9pm I started the hat and managed to get 2 rows of ribbing completed before I finally decided I needed to go to bed and start fresh today.  Well, that is, after I do some laundry, and make menus for the next couple of weeks.  One nice thing about hats, they normally only take a couple of days to complete.  Hopefully this one will be no different.

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

WEEK 23

 

Hi there.  Glad you could stop by again today.  This has been a very busy week for this lady.  There has been baking, decorating and knitting happening all week.    I wrote about the baking and decorating here.  But, let's take a look at the knitting.

I pulled my RCR socks out of hibernation last night.

I got a few more rows completed in the gusset.  They are perfect for watching the Hallmark Christmas movies.

I also worked on my Vixynn sweater.

Picking up the stitches from the cast on edge, to make the front of the sweater, was not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I kind of like the ridge it created too.  At least I will know where the top of my shoulder is.

Once the front is as long as the back, I will connect the two parts and start working in the round.  I am really enjoying working with this yarn.  Now, my plan is to have this finished in the next month.  Not sure if that will happen, but that is my dream.  I would love to wear this for my MIL's interment in January.

That is all the knitting I did this week.  Most of that was done on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  That is when my vertigo came back and made it quite hard for me to continue baking and decorating.  

The decorating is 3/4 done inside and 100% completed outside.  So that is not too bad.  The baking is 1/2 done and what is left is not too complicated.  But, until I can bend over without the room spinning, it will need to be put on hold.  (sigh)

Our weather is just now starting to get 'cold'. (For us)  We have been sitting in the 80's each afternoon.  This coming week will see us in the 70's and even a couple days in the 60's.  Thankfully the nights are down in the 50's an 40's so I open windows and doors and let all that cool air rush in.  Keeps the house pleasant for the entire day then.  We might get winter after all.

That is all for me today.  The rest of the day will be spent knitting and planning our menus.  Hubby will get to do the grocery shopping for us this time.  (I am not allowed to drive.  Stupid vertigo)  He is a very good shopper too.  He did it for many years after he retired and I continued to work.  

What are your plans for the day/week?

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

A Little Post

 

There has been quite a bit going on at my house.  There has been baking:

Have any of you ever made the Rolo Pretzel Delights?  They are so easy to do.  The most time consuming part is unwrapping those little Rolo candies.  After they come out of the oven you are supposed to push a pecan on top or another pretzel.  I used pecan halves and also:

Reeses Pieces!  So yummy.  I made 450 of these little gems.  Hopefully there will still be some left when Christmas rolls around.

All the Chex Mix is completed (nuts and bolts) and today will be the second time to marinate the fruit cake.  Still have a few more recipes to bake and it will happen.

There was decorating happening too:

The tree got done.  I have it going between white lights and multi colored lights.

Hubby did the outside for us.  He does such a good job each year.

When I went to water my plants today, I saw this:

This little cactus was given to me last year by my daughter.  It was just 2 stems with 3 leaves on each stem.  I babied it and loved on it for the past 8 months.  Today I see it has buds ready to bust open.  I am so excited.  

I am still working on the interior decorations and probably will be for a while.  My vertigo reared it's ugly head again yesterday which has put the brakes on doing too much until it goes away.  I am halfway done decorating so, hopefully after my physical therapy appointment next week, I will be ready to complete it.

Since I am kind of limited as to what I can do comfortably, my sweater is getting lots of attention.  So, it's not all bad.

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