WEEK 31 & BUMMER

 

Hey there.  This week's craftiness is as follows:

I cast on another pair of Rose City Rollers last Sunday afternoon.  I keep offering to make hubby long socks but he keeps requesting short ones.  This fiber is one I bought during Covid from a vendor who, like all of us, did not get to go to the Dallas Fiber Fest.  I had originally made it into a small shawl but hated it.  So now, it will warm the feet of my husband.  It is a DK weight yarn yet it is thinner than most of my other DK.  I am knitting on size 2.25mm (US 1) needles and it is coming out to the same gauge as my fingering on 2.5mm (US 1.5) needles.  Fingers crossed they fit ok.

Next up is my To The Point shawl for the prayer shawl ministry at church.  I started this on Wednesday.  I am past the halfway point on it so it will go fairly quickly now.

Then there was some baking done.

Sourdough Snickerdoodle cookies.  This is the second time I have made them.  We love them!  There was also a loaf of sourdough bread machine bread made.

Got my new glasses this week too.

Why, yes, they are purple.  Did you expect anything less from me?  I also like the abstract arm of them.  Hubby looked at them and said "those are so you".  I think that's a good thing but am not totally certain yet.

I decided to bring something back from Texas other than my DIL's mom.  A VIRUS!  Are you jealous?  No, it was not the Covid virus.  It was just a plain old COLD!  Who knew those were even a thing anymore.  It started on Monday with a stuffy head and by Wednesday it had moved to my chest and I was coughing so hard I bruised a rib or two.  That makes it really hard to cough.  By Saturday my right ear was hurting and I could hardly hear out of it.  I woke up this morning around 1 with blood coming out of my ear.  UH OH!  I quietly got dressed and drove myself to our local stand alone emergency room.  Oh Boy!  I popped my ear drum.  So, now I have antibiotics to take and need to make an appointment to see an ENT in a week.  Hopefully it will heal on it's own and will not need a surgical patch done to it.  The excitement never ends over here LOL!

That is all for this week.  I am going to relax today and work on my new projects from last week.

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

WEEK 30 PLUS STUFF

 

This may be a bit longer than normal.  I have so much to tell you that happened from this past week.

Let's start with my fiber fun.

I finished the Giant Granny Square blanket!  I am so happy to have this languishing project completed and marked done on my YOP list.  This is laying on top of a full sized bed.  It does have about 6 inches of hang over on each side too.

Here is the finished half double crochet border.  I did 7 rows and declared it done.  Will I make another one?  Not anytime soon.  We have such a short 'cool' season here, it takes a loooong time to make a really big one.

I also finished these:

Hubby's RCR socks using Diversity yarn.  I am so glad I bought a lot of this yarn when I found out it was being discontinued.  It has such great memory to it.  Can be washed and dried in the machines.  And wears like steel.

That is all of the fiber stuff.  I do another craft last Sunday afternoon.

My daughter and I went to "As You Wish" pottery painting studio.  We each got a bowl to paint and turn in.  It will be fired and then sold the end of February.  Proceeds from the sale will feed the homeless in the town next to mine.  My daughter and I are going to go to the sale so we can see how our bowls turned out.  Yes, mine is painted to look like a watermelon.  It was so fun.  This is only my third time to paint pottery and I already want to go and do more.

The rest of the week was going so smoothly until Thursday.  I got a call from my DIL who just moved here.  She was leaving to make an emergency trip to Texas to get her mother and bring her back here.  Her mom has several medical issues and was not being cared for well.

I volunteered to go with her and she accepted.  We left at 10am Thursday morning and got our 'home base' in Texas around 3am Friday morning.  After 3 hours of sleep we hit the floor running to get everything completed so we could leave Saturday to come home.  We finished and got back to bed about 11pm Friday night and woke up and were on the road by 3:30am Saturday morning arriving home by 6pm Saturday evening.  There was over 2000 miles traveled in those 3 days.  I do not recommend trying this anytime soon.  It was super hard to do and very emotional too.  But her mom is now here and will get some excellent care.  Here are some photos of the trip.

Rock formations along the road as we were leaving Arizona and heading into New Mexico.  Look at that gorgeous blue sky!

Snow on the mountain tops in New Mexico.  So pretty to see from the roadway.  I did not get any photos from Texas.  Doing 34 hours in a car in 72 hours?  Crazy!  I will say, if you need to bond with someone, go on an emergency road trip with them in the confines of a car.  

I am having to play catch up today.  There are several loads of laundry to do, another pair of socks to cast on, a prayer shawl to start, and grocery list and menus to figure out for the week.

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

WEEK 29 OF YOP 12

 

Hello from 'cold' and rainy Arizona.  Our mountains are getting slammed with snow today and we are getting some liquid snow here in the valley of the sun.  I do enjoy a good gloomy and rainy day.  It is the perfect day to stay inside and either read or work on some yarny goodness.  *sigh*  I will not be staying inside today, though.  I have a date with my daughter to do some charity pottery painting today as well as visiting a dear friend in the hospital.  But, you didn't drop by for our local weather report.  I do have an almost FO to show.

The Giant Granny Square blanket's main body is complete.  Even the ends are woven in!  This is laying on a 6 foot long table.  It is just about 6 feet long and once I complete the border it should be right at that measurement.  This was a great mindless crochet project.  Yet, it was a long time getting to where it is.  Sixteen months to be exact!  It was impossible to work on in the summer time so it only came out once our heater was turned on in the house.  That means it only got about 2-3 months of love each winter.  

I have only done 2 rows of border on it so far.  This is not the border that was recommended to me.  I tried it and actually disliked it quite a bit.  It was all single crochet (US terms) and took me over an hour to do 1 row!  I switched to doing a plain half double crochet (US terms) in each stitch and space with 3 stitches in each corner and love it.  It goes much quicker and adds inches quicker too.  Sometimes I think half double crochet is the least used stitch in crochet projects.  I like the look of it.  It is not as 'airy' as the double crochet and not as tight as the single crochet.  A nice happy median.

As for how much DK yarn I still have left.................................

Too much!  These are stacked 3 deep in this container.  I probably have enough to do another granny square but am not planning on doing that again with DK.  I am thinking of doing small granny squares or victorian lace squares and making lapghans for our prayer shawl ministry. I can work on those year round without melting. 

The only other things I worked on were hubby's RCR socks.

Just a few more rows for the one on the right and then it will be time to do the toe.  The one on the left only got about 3 rows added to it this week.  Once the blanket's border is completed I will concentrate on these so I can get them off the needles and move on to something else.  By now, y'all have got to be getting tired of seeing the same two projects on my blog page, week after week.  I know I am!

This past week I have done some more bread baking and muffin making from my sourdough.  You can read all about that here.  

There have been a few people asking about my new medicine that has been so wonderful for me and my RA.  It is Enbrel which is an injectable biologic.  My RA Doctor had wanted to start me on this several years ago and I refused.  All those TV commercials about the product with all the 'warnings' and side effects had done a real good job into scaring the bejeebins out of me.  Yet, after spending 24 hours unable to walk and being pushed around in a wheelchair, I realized, that could be my future shortly and decided it was time to listen to my Doctor.  She was wonderful in explaining everything to me and calming most of my fears.  Also, I have a dear dear friend who is a pharmacist and she had a wonderful heart to heart with me.  I am so glad I started on the medication.  I am now able to actually enjoy each day to the fullest.  I still have a ways to go to get all my stamina back.  There have been too many days (weeks, months, years) of sitting and doing nothing because of pain. I have set daily goals of movement to get some strength and stamina back.  It is helping as hubby and I went out and about for over 5 hours the other day and I did not 'collapse' when we returned home.  Not everyone has the same experience with this drug as I have.  Therefore, I am thankful.  It has been a God-send for me.  And yes, I give myself the injections.  No, it is not that scary.  But then, I have never had an issue with needles.  I also have 2 daughter in laws who are trained to give injections so I can also have them do it if I need.

All of our Christmas decorations are down and put away.  I rearranged our year round décor a bit this year and am loving it.  Also, when I was putting the year round décor away for the Christmas décor to come out, I decluttered several items and gave them away to some people at our church.  Just by doing that, my home looks so much less cluttered with knick knacks. We are also proud of the fact our Christmas decorations now fit into just 4 plastic storage bins!  We remember a time when we had over a dozen bins and would use everything in those bins to decorate with.  It would take us DAYS to put up and WEEKS to take down.  What were we thinking?

This coming week will be my 'after Christmas' attack on my craftroom.  It becomes the dumping ground during the holidays.  It doesn't bother me until all the holidays have passed and I go in there to water plants.  When I have to move 'stuff' to even get to my two plants, I know it is time to get the cleaning done.  It will also be a good time to re-evaluate my stash and make plans for using it.  I have plans for my DK and worsted weight yarn.  I need plans for my fingering weight and not just socks.  Good golly, if I just made socks with it I could supply an entire battalion of soldiers with enough socks to wear for an entire week! Suggestions are welcomed.

And....................that sums up my thoughts for today.

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

JUST BECAUSE

 

It has been a hot minute since I have done a blog entry that is not for my Sunday Year of Projects post.  Well, today I am going to break that little cycle.  Since the last time I posted nothing major has happened.  Just normal everyday stuff which gives me so much joy.  

Case in point:

Monday I decided to try another sourdough bread machine recipe.  This would be the third or fourth time I have tried to make sourdough in my bread machine.  All of them have been a failure.

It worked this time!  Yes, you need to use yeast to make this bread, but it still has such a lovely sourdough taste to it.  Now, before you think this tastes like the SD you would get in San Francisco, it does not have that taste at all.  You see there is wild yeast, in the air,  everywhere you live.  But, the wild yeast in my hometown is totally different than say that in Kansas City or San Francisco.  Therefore, the sourdough made in different places will have a different tastes.  Yet no matter where you live, sourdough is so much better for you than the store bought breads that can sit on your counter for weeks without going bad.  My SD gives me about 3-4 days to use it before fuzzy stuff starts to grow on it. 

My sourdough starter is very active and therefore I seem to have quite a bit of discard.  Instead of throwing it away I decided to try my hand at more recipes using said discard.  (The above bread was made using discard)  Tuesday morning I got up early to make us some sourdough cinnamon muffins for breakfast.

Oh my, they were very yummy.  Next time I will add some raisins or dried cranberries to the dough for a bit more flavor oomph.

I have snickerdoodle and gingerbread cookies to try using discard too.  Who knew you could make so many items with sourdough starter.  Now that Christmas and New Years are past and the decorations are put away.  I find myself gravitating towards the kitchen and making healthy meals and snacks for the two of us.  Working in the kitchen also brings back so many joyful memories of my mom and grandmothers who were all superstars in the kitchen.

This morning I woke up early again.  (This has been happening since I started my new RA meds)  I fed the boy dog (the girl dog is a late in the morning riser and eater) and then went to sit and plan my day out.  

This is what sits right next to me every morning waiting for me to get my day started.  It is also where I sit to work on my knitting and crocheting projects.  I consider it my 'safe' place.

Then I look to my left and see this sweet powder sugar face;

My sweet sweet Luna curled up and snuggled up to my hip.  She is not ready for breakfast.  Just wants some love and cuddles for a little while until she wakes up 100%.

Then I look down and see this:

My project basket holding my Giant Granny Square Blanket.  The time has come for me to weave in ALL the ends and start on the border.  Weaving in ends is not something I hate to do.  Not at all.  I just don't feel I am very good at weaving them in.  While hubby is busy today mopping floors, I am going to work on weaving in ends.  I would like to be able to start the boarder yet today.  It will be so nice to get this item completed and off my WIP (work in progress) list.  Afterall, there are other projects on that list that need my attention too.

Let me leave you with this funny I found on Facebook yesterday.

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

WEEK 28 OF YOP 12

 

Hey there.  Happy Feast of the Epiphany!  Today is our last day of Christmas.  Tomorrow we will take all the decorations down and put them away until next year.  *sigh*  This year's Christmas is one of the best I can remember.  With having 3 of our 4 'children' living here in the valley..... The joy in my heart is overflowing.

This week saw me working with yarn everyday.  YIPEE!  Here is what I worked on.

I finished my DIL's Azel.  I was very happy to have this completed and so was she.  It is still cool enough in our early mornings for her to get some wear out of it.

I thought I had buttons for it but found out I was 2 buttons short.  So, a trip to JoAnn's to get 2 more buttons.  Guess what.  If you wait several years between button buying trips, they change stock!  This meant I needed to buy 12 new buttons for the Azel.  DIL is very happy with these buttons.  She wears quite bit of silver jewelry.  Win Win situation.  

Once it was completed I still had a full skein of the super bulky yarn.  What am I going to do with it?  What any good knitter would...............

Make a matching hat to go with the Azel.  This is the Allagash Beanie pattern.  It worked up super quick and DIL loves it.  Especially the furry pom pom on top.  She and her hubby keep talking about heading up into the mountains to play in the snow.  She will need a hat for that trip.

Once those were done and delivered I pulled out some WIP's to work on.

Remember this?

The Giant Granny Square Afghan.  I only put 2 rows on it this week.  One color has already been depleted.  Not that anyone other than myself will notice.  This was supposed to be big enough to go on my king sized bed.  I am starting to rethink that idea.  This thing is already quite large and hard to work with on my lap.  I am thinking of finishing this round of color combos and then putting a lovely border on it.  As for the rest of  the DK yarn I will still have....not a clue.  I could do small squares and make lapghans for the prayer shawl ministry at church.  There are so many ideas going through my brain.  But first, finish what I have started.  Let me just say, it felt good to crochet again.  Other than prayer shawls, this is the only crochet project I have worked on in a long time.

Another WIP was also worked on.

Hubby's RCR socks!  The progress keepers is where I was the last time I picked them up.  They might be done by the time summer rolls around LOL.  It felt strange going from a size US 13 needle to a US 1.5 needle.  

In other news...............................................

We had our annual family/friend gathering last Sunday.  It was so much fun.  People started showing up around noon and the last ones left around 8pm.  Hubby and I had all the food cleaned up and most of the dishes done by around 9.  There ended up being 13 people attending.  We had so much food left over.  I didn't cook for 3 days afterwards.  Which worked out well since I had cooked for 3 days for the get together.  

The last month has been kind of willy nilly when it comes to making meals for hubby and myself.  This past week I finally sat down, made out menus and a grocery list.  My goal is to use the foods I have in our freezer and pantry for meals.  It was fun making menus with that in mind.  Sure made for a low grocery bill too.

How was your week?

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

Week 27 of YOP 12

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  No, Christmas is not over for me.  In our church we celebrate 12 days of Christmas beginning on December 25th.  So I have another 6 days of celebrations happening in our home!

I am all ready for 2023.

My new daily planner and new journal are out and sitting by my favorite spot. Even though each day is a new start, the beginning of a new year has such a special feel to it.  Do you agree?

I missed posting last week.  We were enjoying the beginning of our 12 days of Christmas.  We started out on the 24th, by going to Mass.  On the 25th we all gathered at Josie's home for a lovely family dinner and white elephant gift exchange.  Our white elephant gifts are nice gifts that anyone in any age group would enjoy.  This year I got a game and hubby got several bags of Ghirardelli chocolates. We gifted games and my home made candies put into Lock n Lock containers.  There was a total of 14 people at dinner.  Everyone brought some type of food to add to the dinner too.  It was sooooo yummy.

This was after dinner.  Thor was getting some much needed loving from our son (from TX) with his wife looking on as well as Josie and her boyfriend.  Yes, Thor got gifts too.

As for crafting....................................

I am still working on my DIL's Azel.  The purple marker is where I was 2 weeks ago.  I still have about another 5 inches to add to this and then do the neck.  It is the only thing I am working on because I want it off my needles so I can get other WIP's finished.  It is amazing to me how this looks charcoal grey in photos when it is a very deep rich black.

Also, I started my new medication on the 26th.  (the 2nd day of Christmas)  My Dr told me it could take up to 3 months for me to see any results.  That was a little depressing to hear.  When I woke up on the 27th (the 3rd day of Christmas) I was completely pain free!  Seriously!  I had tons of energy and a 100% improvement in my mood.  I didn't even know how much pain I was in or how fatigued I was all the time until that day.  The Azel I am working on is done with super bulky weight yarn.  Normally I could only do about 4 rows before I had to put it away.  I am now knitting without any pain and the only reason I put it down is because I am weary of looking at black yarn.  My husband is amazed at the energy I have and how much work I am now doing around the house everyday.

Case in point:  We are having our yearly gathering of friends and family today.  There will be around 15 people here.  This past week I have planned today's menu, made 3 different dips/spreads, organized games to be played, set up the kitchen, dining room and both living rooms for food and fun.  And still, I have done the normal daily routines of laundry and making dinners for hubby and myself.  It feels wonderful to be able to do things again that bring me joy.

Which brings me to my word for the year. This year my word is Joy.  I want to be able to find joy in everything.  Even in times of sorrow and pain.  I wish Joy for all of you readers too.

Now, I will leave you something I found online not too long ago.  For those of us who bake, this could be quite helpful.

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