WEEK 5 OF YOP 12

 Sunday already?  Goodness, another week gone.  I did get some things done though.

First up:

Hubby's socks are done and have already been worn and washed.  He truly likes the Rose City Roller socks the best.  I have offered to make him more 'long' socks but he keeps asking for these.

I actually took a day off from knitting after those were done.  I went through all my printed patterns to see if anything inspired me......nope.  Then I went through all the patterns I have on my computer for inspiration.........nope.  Nothing jumped out at me so............

Another pair of RCR socks are on the needles.  They are not going to match 100% but hubby says he doesn't care since 98% of the sock is in his shoes.  He has a point.  

I spent two days this past week getting one of our bedrooms ready for our son.  Josie helped me since it is 'her' room he will be staying in.  In all actuality, it is the room he was in when he was a kid too.

Most of this will be going to charity.  The dolls on the right are being kept until Josie figures out where she can keep them at her house.  Not being shown is the 33 gallon garbage bag full of things to be disposed of.  Our son will be arriving this coming Saturday or Sunday.  We are still in shock that he and his family are moving here.  He has been gone for 23 years in the Navy.  But he says he has always missed Arizona.

Today is clean out the hydroponic garden day.  Our tomatoes have pretty much ended their production.  The basil is only offering about 3 leaves per month.  The jalapenos I grew from a seed are not at all what I was hoping for.

See those 2 jalapenos?  Notice they are smaller than the leaves on the plant.  They measure just about 2 inches long.  I will say, they are spicy but not as spicy as I was hoping for.  Plus this is what the entire plant looks like.

Super rangey.  Not a fan at all.  Not to mention the leaves fall off at an alarming rate.  I am constantly picking them up so the dogs don't eat them.  So, today, I will be taking both gardening systems and throwing away the plants that are in them.  Then I will clean them up so they are all shiny again.  Next up to plant will be lettuce.  I am going to try rosemary again (it never germinated last time) and more basil.  

On top of cleaning out the hydroponic gardens, I will be heading to our local ranch market for some produce.  I already have a loaf of bread going in the bread machine.  It is amazing what I can do when I wake up at 4:30 in the morning.  There will also be a bundt cake baked today.  This time I am making a lemon bundt cake.  I love anything lemon in the summertime, don't you?

OK, time to go and mix up the cake and get it baking.

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

WEEK 4 OF YOP 12

 

Hello again.  This past week just flew by.  That is what happens when a person travels over 800 miles in 4 days.  Tales about our trip will be at the end of this update.

Sock #2 was my priority this past week.

Last update, all that was done was part of the rolled cuff.  After our road trip, I had gotten it up to where the contrasting heel was to be added.  That means the heel and what is completed on the foot was done from Wednesday through last night (Saturday).  There are still 25 more rows to go before I start the contrasting toe.  It should be completed in the next couple of days.

And that, my friends, is all of the crafting I did over the past week.  Kind of pathetic, huh.

Last Sunday I wrote my blog from our hotel room in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I have always enjoyed this town.  There is so much history there and the diversity in their cultures is fantastic.  They have the best Mexican food of any place (other than my house).  Their Native American culture is present every where but really shines in their jewelry and art work. The weather is similar to ours but a bit cooler (100 compared to 115).  It is a big town with a small town feel.

We rolled into Albuquerque late Saturday afternoon.  Once we got checked into the hotel we were whisked away to our friends son's home for a fantastic dinner and games.  Once the sun went down we all sat outside and enjoyed the night air which was about 20 degrees cooler than the night air at our home.  We watched the 'kids' play volleyball in the backyard.  It was a perfect end to a long day.  (I drove the entire way again.  Hence no knitting got done)

Sunday we were picked up by another friend and taken to his church for Mass.  Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and changed clothes and went to another home for light lunch and fellowship with the family of the man who's funeral we were there to attend.  I was extremely exhausted so we left after a few hours and went back to the hotel and had a light dinner and crashed.

Monday was the funeral and reception.  To say it was emotional would be an understatement.  The gentleman who passes away would have been 92 on this day and loved by so many people.  The eulogies were wonderful and heartfelt.  Afterwards, we all gathered at his home again and talked, laughed and cried.  Hubby and I left after several hours and went back to the hotel and walked across the parking lot to Cracker Barrell for a yummy down home type meal.

Tuesday morning we both woke up super early.  We got packed and left for home by 4:30 in the morning.  Hubby drove about half way and then I took over and got to drive through the mountains with all the switchbacks.  Luckily traffic was very light all the way home.  

While we were gone, a huge monsoon storm hit again.  We got this photo from our granddaughter.

  Another piece of roof got lifted.  (sigh)  So, on Wednesday, hubby got the ladder out to go and see if he could fix it.  Evidently, either our 115F temps melted it back down or someone fixed it for us without our knowledge.  Either way, I am thankful.

Since we have been home I have made menus, grocery shopped, helped clean the house, done several loads of laundry, made bread, ordered baking items and cooked our main meal everyday.  We are trying very hard not to go out to eat for a while.  Plus, we are also trying to have our main meal of the day at noon and then eat light in the evening.  So far, it has worked well and I actually enjoy making our main meal earlier in the day.  Now, when our son moves in, 2 weeks from now, we may need to go back to the main meal being in the evening since he will be working 8-4 each day.  We will see.

And that, folks, is how our week has gone.  Today, I am making a fresh fruit salad to take with us to a pot luck we are going to tonight.  It is for one of our church ministries we are involved in.  This is our planning session for the coming year.  I will take my knitting with me as the meeting is usually a couple of hours long and that will give me some good knitting time.

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

WEEK 3 OF YOP 12

 

I am writing this from my hotel room in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We arrived yesterday afternoon.  We spent the evening with friends and family and made new friends.  But that is not why you are here.  So, here is this weeks progress.

Sock #1 is completed.

Hubby is quite happy with it too.  I did the Fish Lip Kiss heel this time.  I like it best when using contrasting heel and toe yarn.

Sock #2 is started and is here in New Mexico with me.  I might get to work on it today and tomorrow.  But, no promises.  We have more gatherings today as well as a funeral tomorrow with a gathering afterwards.  There is always the drive home.  I drove all the way here and I think hubby will drive back.

That is all for today.  We are getting ready to join family/friends to go to Mass.

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

Midweek Update

 

It has been a while since I have done a mid week update.  Thought it might help keep my Sunday update a bit shorter if I did one.  Also, we will be out of town this coming Sunday, so my update will probably be a bit shorter anyway.

Today is cleaning day at my house.  We take 2 days each week to clean the house.  When there is 2700 square feet of house, it is easier if broken up so we don't kill ourselves doing it all in one day.  Hubby does the vacuuming and mopping.  I do all the countertops, sinks, cabinet doors and mirrors.  We both do dusting.  It all works out so well for us.  Since hubs is vacuuming, I thought it would be the perfect time to put a few lines here.

Monday was the first half of the house cleaning day.  While the hubs was doing his thing I dived into my craft room to try and get it a bit more organized.  For some reason, it has become the dumping ground when we can not figure out where we want to put items!  The room is much neater now and many items got put in the 'take to charity' pile and other items were gifted to people that has asked for them and then there was this:

That is a stack of knitting and crocheting patterns I have printed out over the years.  These are the ones that found their way to the recycling bin.  Either they have been made and won't be made again or they will never be made for various reasons.  That took me well over 2 hours to go through.

Monday was also my errand running day.  I usually run errands in the early morning hours but since I needed to give my son a ride home in the late afternoon, I decided to do them then.  UGH!  It was 115F when I did my errands.  That heat totally wiped me out by the time I got home.  My main reason for going out was to make sure our early voting ballots got mailed before we left this weekend.  DONE!

Tuesday was a quieter day.  I made a loaf of banana nut bread and a loaf of bread using 'special beer'.  Here is the beer I used this time.

This one is supposed to have a coffee/chocolate taste to it.  All I know is it made a gorgeous loaf of bread that we used for grilled cheese sandwiches.  YUM!

With our temperatures soaring again this summer, I decided it was time to forget the grand idea of letting my hair continue to be chin length.  Off to the beauty salon I went and had my gal whack it all off.

I am talking 4-5 inches of hair was removed from the front of my head and about 3 inches from the back.  Oh my, does it ever feel lighter and not as hot.  It also shows how much gray is really in there.  Yes, I know it will not be 110+ for the rest of the year and it will get chilly eventually.  But that is why I am a knitter and can make adorable hats to keep my head warm!

Hubby and I are leaving Saturday for Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Our dear friend's father passed away and we are going to attend his rosary and funeral mass.  We have another funeral, of a friend, to attend on Friday, before we leave.  I am just about done with funerals!  That makes 3 in less than 30 days.

I am still working on the RCR sock and have high hopes of having sock #1 completed before we leave town and sock #2 cast on.  The cross stitch has also been worked on a bit this week but is in time out so I can get the sock done.

That takes care of all my news for this half of the week.

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

WEEK 2 OF YOP 12

 

Another week has flown by.  It has been a fairly busy week for this household and I will get into that later in the post.  First, let's take a look at the craftiness that has happened this week.

The sock is moving along nicely.  I only work on this in the evenings while watching TV.  It is a totally mindless knit until I reach the toe.  

Then there is this:

The cross stitch I started last year is back.  I have been dreading the part I am doing now.  Cross stitching white floss on white fabric is not fun.  It requires very close attention.  I have already made one mistake but refuse to correct it.  Since I know where it is I will just work around it and no one else will be the wiser.  

If you read my post from last week, you will remember I was making 4 loaves of bread for our 4th of July get together.  There were to be 35 people at the party and I think only about 20 showed up.  Only 1 loaf of bread was eaten and I was able to give away the other 3 loaves with no problem.

So this week, when making my bread, I tried something different.  As I have told you in the past, my bread is made using beer.  The recipe I use said it is fun to try different beers in the bread to help change up the flavor a bit.  I decided to try that this week.  I went to Total Wine and perused their single can craft beer section.  

This is what I used in my bread this week.  I was hoping the red chili flavor would come through but it is very subtle.

It did make my bread have a bit of a red coloring though.  Mainly because the beer itself is brewed like an Irish red beer would be.  Hubby and I both agree it has a lovely flavor and texture.  I bought two other craft beers to try in my next 2 loaves.  I will let you know how those turn out after they are used.

In other news.......................Our Luna girl gave me a pretty good scare last week.  She was refusing to eat and became very lethargic.  I was quite concerned that we had come to the end of the road with her.  Monday evening I decided to add a little shredded low fat cheese to her meal to see if I could interest her in eating at all.  GOODNESS!  She scarfed the food down and was begging for more.  The next morning she was up early with me begging to be fed.  I once again gave her a tiny bit of the low fat cheese mixed in her food and she ate it all up.  She has been eating just fine ever since and acting like herself again.  PTL!  I know at 16 we are on borrowed time with her.  Yet, it is still hard for me to think of loosing her.  So, we take each day with her as a gift.

This past week has also been busy inside our house.  Tuesday we had new furniture delivered before we were able to get the old out of the house!  Good thing we have a very large family room.  The old furniture cushions had broken down pretty badly.  I tried to get it restuffed but it was going to cost more to do that then to purchase what we found at our furniture store!

This is the new furniture.  I chose leather this time.  Dog hair on cloth is a huge pain to keep free of said hair.  This is so nice and easy to keep clean.  Just take a damp rag and clean it off.  It is a medium dark gray color.  We really lucked into this set too.  We had seen this on the showroom floor but in brown.  I really had my heart set on gray.  The salesman said he had it in gray but it was in the back of the store........................CLEARANCE!  Seems this color sold out so quickly they only had one sofa left in stock.  We kind of wanted 2 sofas but settled for a sofa and a love seat.  If you are wondering why the foot section is up on the love seat.......it is to help Luna be able to get up there better.  Her jump is not as good as it was a few years ago.  Hubby and I take the sofa and the dogs take the love seat.  (No they are not spoiled)

The old furniture was put on the curb with a 'free' sign on it and was gone by that evening.  I love it when things get repurposed.  

Hubby also got a new work bench for his man cave (back room).  It took him 2 days and a couple of phone calls to get the thing put together.  The instructions were less than stellar.  He even asked me to read certain parts of the instructions to see if I understood them.  NOPE!  They were not written for mechanically challenged people.

There was some exciting news this week too.  Our youngest son and his family will be moving to Arizona!  This is the family that lives in Texas.  He and his wife are both retired US Navy.  He is working for a flooring store and saw an opening in our area for his position and applied for it.  He got the job!  He will be coming to live with us the first part of August.  The rest of the family will be joining him the middle of December.  (They have a lease that can not be broken cheaply.)  I am beside myself with joy.  That will give me 3 out of 4 children living close.  I doubt the fourth one will ever move here as he owns his own business and is well established in Washington state.  But that is ok, because I love visiting where he lives.

If you made it to the end, congratulations!  I know this was kind of long but there was so much to talk about.  There is so much more I could put in here but I am sure you have better things to do today. So............................

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

YOP 12/WEEK 1 The Beginning

 

Hooray!  It is finally here.  The twelfth year that Year of Projects (YOP) has been in existence.  It also happens to be my 12th year participating in it.  I have met some of the greatest people in the past 12 years and learned so much from others.  It has helped me improve on my skills as a crafter and for that I am very grateful.  It has also been educational as I read blogs from people who live in countries and areas I only dream about visiting.  

So, today, I will give you my ideas of what I would like to accomplish in the next 51 weeks.  Take a look.

 WIPs

Sock Scraps Granny Stripe (fingering weight) - 7/8/20

Madonna & Child - 8/7/20

Giant Granny Square blanket to use up stash DK yarn - 9/9/21

Happy Camper - 2/24/22

PRAYER SHAWLS

To The Point

    6/26/22 - 7/2/22

SOCKS

Rose City Roller

    6/26/22 -

SWEATERS

PONCHO/CAPE/CLOAK

GNOMES

DISHCLOTHS

SCRUBBIES

MISC

As you can see, the list is pretty vague.  This list is more of an outline of what I would like to see done yet gives me plenty of wiggle room to play around with different patterns.  Let's talk about it for a minute, ok?

The WIP's are carried over each year.  I am hoping to complete at least 3 of those this year.  The Sock Scraps is still in limbo until I decide if I want to make it a lapghan or a shawl or even frog it.

Then there is the Prayer Shawl catagory.  Yes, I did complete one this week.

It is my go to "To the Point" shawl pattern.  These shawls help me use up a lot of my worsted weight acrylic yarn. 

Then there is the sock category.  Hubby loves the socks I make and I enjoy making them.  He requests the Rose City Roller socks most often.  With the heat here in Arizona, I can understand this.  I did start a new pair for him this week.

I have not done a Fish Lip Kiss heel in quite a while.  I prefer it when doing contrasting heel and toes.  This time I am also only doing one at a time.  Since the yarn I bought for this is made for shorty socks, I was a bit concerned about trying to divide it equally into two sock quantities.  

Sweaters is one of the catagories I am trying hard to decide what pattern I would like to use.  I have a sweater quanity of yarn already purchased.  There are 2 patterns I am debating between using.  Maybe by the time I decide to cast on, a decision will have been made.  Or, maybe I will find another pattern that speaks to me.

Then we come to Poncho/cape/cloak.  I made a cardigan last year and hated the way it fit so I ripped the whole thing out.  Now I have this lovely yarn just begging to be made into an outer 'winter' garment.  I though I would make a poncho, but realized I do not like the fact it goes on and off over my head.  (messy hair)  Maybe a cape would be better and then I saw cloaks that were so awesome.  Needless to say, there is no concrete pattern yet.

Gnomes!!  Oh my, how I love gnomes.  Mary-Anne has made some of the best gnomes and they make me smile each time I see one of them.  This will be my 'new to me' challenge for this year.  Since I had no clue where to start, I bought a pattern book to help me get going.

I figure once I get the basic construction down, I can go with the flow and have some fun with it.

I doubt I need to explain the last three categories.  I always have dishcloths on my list as they are my palette cleanser after working on a long term project.  The scrubbies fit into that category too.  And of course, MISC, covers all those other things that pop up during the year that were not planned on.

If you are still with me, I need to show a couple more things I did this week.

I finally made old fashion cinnamon raisin bread in my bread machine.  It is so yummy.  Hubby and I toast some each morning, slather it with butter and enjoy it for breakfast.  Oh my, so good.

On Monday, we will be going to our BFF's house for a little 4th of July get together.  I offered to make bread for the BBQ brisket and ribs.

This is loaf #1.  Loaf #2 is also done and loaf #3 is baking as I type this.  Loaf #4 will be completed later today.  WHAT????  Four loaves of bread?  From what I heard there will be about 35 - 40 people coming in and out for the day.  I know we will not be staying long as we need to be home before the fireworks start going off in the neighborhood.  Enrique is terrified of them.  Not to mention, most of the 'party' will be outside and it is dang hot out there.

That's all for today.  If you would like to join in on the YOP, here is a link where you can read all about it.

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