YOP WEEK 5

 

Another Sunday, another day to update you on all the happenings going on at Casa de Noce.

I completed a couple of things this week.

Yup, both of the socks I had on the needles managed to get completed this week.  I was not sure I was going to like the contrast color on the RCR but once completed it kind of grew on me.  The car sock took forever because of the length of the leg.  But hubby is happy that I made it long enough for him.  BTW, I was asked what a car sock is...........here is the hyperlink to the pattern titled CAR SOCKS.  It is the first sock pattern I ever did and have loved it ever since.  I have since changed the heel up to do the FLK heel.  However, if I ever do a heel flap, the one in this pattern is the only one I will ever do.  Super cushy and wears wonderfully.

So as not to have SSS (second sock syndrome):

I cast on both socks right away.  Needless to say the RCR will be finished first.

Those will be on hold for a couple of days, though.  I have been commissioned to make something for a very special person.

I have found a pattern for this (thanks ravelry) and have the yarn picked out:

I know the pink is much brighter than in the photo but I think it will stand out better than the paler one.  Plus, I didn't have the pale pink LOL.

Why am I doing this?  Because this happened.

Yup, Josie has her very first car.  It is a gift for her..............hang on to your seats for this..........18th birthday which is August 1!  This is a used mini cooper and she is in love with it.  She got the surprise yesterday morning when she got up to help her Dad with some chores.  Guess I better get busy and get those strawberries completed so she can hang them from her mirror.  This also means she won't be borrowing my car anymore!  Wonder if I can borrow hers LOL.

In other news...........We had a heck of wind/dust/rain/hail/thunder/ lightning storm on Wednesday night.  It tore off roof tiles and wrinkle other roof tiles.  Good thing we are getting a new roof in 2 weeks!  More storms are predicted over the next 3 days.  We do need the rain but would rather not have the damaging winds.  So now we have hot and humid weather here.  It has been 30 days of temps over 110F.  Arizona is not a place for sissies to live.  I feel sorry for people in the mountains who do not have A/C as their temps have been in the 90s and that is really hot for them.  Our night time temps finally went below 90 a couple of days ago.  Liz, I am looking at Scotland for my summer home LOL.

That is all for today.  I hope your all doing well.

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

WEEK 4 OF YOP 13

 

Hello from one of the hottest places on earth,  So far we have had 24 days of over 110F temps.  This is a record we are NOT proud of breaking.  It is even too hot to go swimming unless the sun has gone down.  So, I stay inside and knit.

I did finish the RCR socks.

I am impressed as I did not try and make them matchy matchy.  I wanted to make sure the neck of the socks matched and that was all.  I am shocked they match this well.  I had only had them off the needles for about 30 minutes and then I see this.

 He is so knit worthy!

I had some empty needles so just had to cast on another RCR sock.

The heel is some leftover yarn from another pair of RCR socks.  Just wanted to see what happens when two speckled yarns are mixed together.  It's interesting.  Good thing it won't show LOL.

I also worked on the car Socks.  I am trying to do 10 rows a day on them.

 

I fell a little short of that goal as you can see from the progress keeper.  If I do 10 rows a day this week, this sock will be done and I will be able to cast on sock #2.

Since it is below 100F outside, (it's 94F) I am going to head out and get our groceries for the next week.

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

BETTER CHOICE

 

Do you see that?  Not even 2pm and already 115F!  Downtown Phoenix has hit 117F.  We are about 20 miles from there.  

Today, I made a better choice of activities.  I have tortillas left from yesterday so no need to make more for tonight's dinner.  There are also leftover Pinto Beans so the only thing I need to do for dinner is throw the boneless country ribs in the instant pot and cook them up.  The only 'strenuous' thing I did was a load of towels.  Otherwise here is what is going on at our house.

Watching Stargate SG-1..............again.  It has been a while since binging the series.  Besides, who doesn't like a little Richard Dean Anderson action adventure.

Time to work on socks again.  *sigh*  Will they ever get done?  Maybe.

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

Great Day

 

Finally!  We got our first dust storm last night and it was a doozy.  It started around 6:30P and lasted until after 8:30P.  Yes, the above photo was taken by one of our news channels.  Now, if it would come with some rain behind it I would be ecstatic.

Today was laundry day.  I got 2 loads done and will finish up tomorrow.  It is just too warm out to do to much.  I did go out and brush down the pool steps this morning.  Our A/C drain pipe was also displaced from the high winds last night so fixed that too.  I thought about jumping in the pool but the weather is so humid and hot it is not even refreshing at this time of year.

So, what did I do?

Well, I made flour tortillas, of course.  Can you see the temp on my Alexa?  It is 113F at 5:30P!  We are now at 19 days in a row of over 110F.  It is a record.  One, none of us really wanted to break.  The tortillas are going with the carne asada and seasoned pinto beans (all from scratch).  I do like to cook and am lucky that hubby does the clean up after we eat. BTW, the tortillas are made with sourdough starter and are so yummy.

Time to finish up the kitchen.  (Hubby puts everything away but does not load the dishwasher)  Then I can kick back and do some knitting while watching baseball.

Unitl next time..............happy crafting!

WHY NOT?

 

Do you see the temperature on the above photo?  Yup, 108F and that was after the high of the day.  So what do you do when it is this brutally hot?

Why not bake cookies!  Molasses cookies to be exact.  I am very thankful I have this lovely contraption.

It bakes perfectly.  It is also an air fryer and broiler.  I have not turned on my oven in over 2 years.  This counter top oven does not heat up the kitchen like the oven does and it cools off quickly too.  LOVE IT!

I also got some sad news this past week.

Signature Needles Art is going out of business.  They are the only needles I have used in over 2 years.  They are made in Wisconsin and have the best points of any needles I have used.  I ordered another set of DPNs in the 2 sizes I use for socks.  I have a habit of loosing a needle now and then.  There are many items in their store on sale (not needles).  If you are in need of yarn or accessories, give them a look.  All sales are final and once items are gone there will be no more stock.  Here is the link Signature Needle Arts.

Oh, hubby got the faucet parts ordered today while I did our errand runs.  Man, it is hot out there.  118F when I sat down to type this up.  Time to kick back and work on some socks.

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

WEEK 3 OF YOP 13

 

Hello!  This week has been the week of getting things scheduled.  I will give you the run down of that AFTER the knitting news.

Thursday, I finally cast on sock #2 of the RCR socks.

There was decent progress made on it.  If I really try, I may be able to have it done yet this coming week.  That would be sweet.

I worked a bit more on the car sock also.

The marker is where I was last Sunday.  I love contrasting heels and toes, don't you?  I know, this sock is really long.  Hubby requests them like this. He says, when he sits down and crosses his legs he does not want his 'flesh' to show between the sock and pants.  Luckily, he does not have large feet so a full skein of yarn will make his longs socks looooooooong.  

And that, my friends, is all I worked on this week.  The baby blanket is still in time out.  It is over 115F here and the thought of it just makes me break out in a sweat.

As for this past week and schedules.  I told you last week about our hybrid car stopping in the middle of construction on the highway.  (It is a battery hybrid not a plug in)  We called the dealership where we purchased it and was told they could get to it in September!  Uh, no!  This is a safety issue.  They offered nothing else for us other then to have us call all over the valley to find a dealership that could see it earlier.  There are 10 dealerships just within 30 miles of us and they want us to call each one?  Nope!  Not going to happen.  So, hubby put a call into the general manager of the dealership.  It took 5 phone calls and 4 days to get him to respond.  The general manager gave hubby the general number for Hyundai and said they would do the leg work and find a dealership that could get us in quickly.  Sure enough, after a 5 minute phone call to them, we have an appointment for this coming Wednesday to get this issue taken care of.  In the meantime, I have refused to drive the car.  Luckily, I do have my own gas powered SUV that I adore and love to drive.

The next fun appointment thing was our roof.  We have extensive hail and wind damage and need to have our roof replaced.  We had an inspector come out and approve it for insurance.  We got a quote from them as to what they will cover and found out they did not include the removal and reinstallation of our solar panels.  Hubby called every day for a week as well as sending emails to the inspector.  No response.  He finally called his manager to get some answers.  They will be covering all of the solar panel expenses also.  And guess what!  We now have a new agent to contact with any questions.  Hmmmm....wonder what happened to inspector/agent number one?

So, then we had to coordinate the removal and reinstallation of the solar panels with the roof replacement.  This all takes phone calls and lots of patience.  It has all been scheduled for the middle of August.  Now we just need to pray we do not have any monsoon storms during the time this is happening.

The next thing we had to do was pick out what tiles we wanted on our roof.  UGH!  It is so hard to imagine what they will look like from a photo on the computer.  Even with us putting our home in the photo it still was tough.  So, I have picked out a couple of different tiles and am hoping they have actual samples they can bring by so I can see them next to the house.  Yet, another phone call to be made this coming week.

The last straw was my kitchen faucet.  The regulator that switches from cold to hot has gone kaput!  I get hot water 100% of the time now.  So, another call will be made on Monday to get a replacement.  Luckily, the faucet we purchased 8 years ago is covered for life and all replacement parts are free!  Now, we just need to have someone come and install it.  (not free)

Yet, through all of this we still feel blessed.  We have met some really wonderful people.  There has been laughter on many of these phone calls.  We have been educated in areas we did not know much about.  (Education of any kind is a blessing)  

That is all for today.  I need to go and throw the corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot.  Hubby is thrilled about this.  After St Patricks Day, our grocery stores had a plethora of corned beef left so they marked them down by over half.  We picked up a couple and threw them in the freezer for later use.  Well, today is a later use day LOL.  This is one of his favorite meals.  Me?  I like it but not near as much as he does.

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

PS:  If you would like to know when I put up a new blog post, you can now subscribe to be notified by email.  The bright purple gadget on the top right of the page is where you sign up for blog updates.  If you had subscribed before and have not received recent notifications, please re-sign up.  For some reason my 'latest post' gadget disappeared when I redesigned my blog pages.  Thanks!

WEEK 2 A LITTLE LATE

 

Ha!  Bet you thought I forgot to make a post for this week.  Nope.  I was in Las Vegas, until today, celebrating my BFF's 20th wedding anniversary.  Six of us went and had a great time.  We were busy the whole time we were there and loved it.  

I know, you would rather hear about what I did the past week in ways of crafting. So as not to disappoint.................

First up:

Sock one of the Rose City Roller socks.  I have not cast on sock #2 yet.  I finished this one the day before we left on our trip.  Casting on will happen this week.  No second sock syndrome for me.

There was the Car sock

I took this photo early Sunday morning.  I got quite a bit done on it last week after the RCR got done.

There was not much knitting time this weekend.  I did have some time to work on it while hubby drove us home.

Amazing how well those colors pop in direct sunlight.

There was some pretty scenery too.

Purple mountains majesty.  No, this is not painting, it was taken while going 75MPH with my phone.

A glimpse of the Colorado river running though Arizona.

My favorite scene was the one from our room at the hotel.  The waterfall was fabulous.  We woke up each day to this view.  Until today.......................................

Sometime over night the fountain got drained.  What a surprise!

We are now home safe and sound.  We did have a little car trouble on the way home.  Our car turned off in the middle of a construction zone on the highway.  The message "check your hybrid system" flashed on the GPS screen.  Luckily, hubby found a place to let the car coast to so we were out of traffic (and there was A LOT of traffic).  He hit the 'reset 12V battery' button and tried to start the car.  Hooray!  It started right away.  No more issues all the rest of the way home.  He had taken the car into the dealership the day before we left to make sure things were working right.  It is only 2 years old!  Hopefully we can get this issue solved very soon.  Until then, I refuse to drive his car.  I was so scared.  

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

YOP 13 WEEK 1/THE BEGINNING

 

And so it begins.  Year 13 of the Year of Projects Ravelry group.  This is my 13th year and I must say it has been a blast 'meeting' so many people from all walks of life and in all parts of the world.  

Before I show you my 'good' intentions for the coming year, let me show you what happened this past week.

I was working on the Scatterby socks and loved the 4 row pattern.  What I did not love was the yarn I had chosen to work it in.  So................FROG!  I still wanted to use the yarn for a sock for hubby so decided to just do my Car Socks I have done many times in the past.  This yarn wanted to be noticed for all it's glory and the Scatterby pattern hid it.

I am much happier now.  There are so many different colors in this yarn and I wanted to make sure they all got seen.  I am doing this on magic loop this time.  We are taking a road trip next weekend and DPN's are not the best car buddies.

I did manage to get more work done on the RCR socks.  Man I love making these socks.

They seem to almost knit themselves.  Hubby loves them and can not seem to have enough pairs of them in his drawer.  

I also got a little acquisition this week.

These are from Leading Men Fibers.  They had another 'mystery' yarn sale and I decided to go ahead and try it again.  I am quite pleased with the colors this time.  They are both fingering weight in BFL (blue face lancaster) wool.  I have never worked with BFL before and am looking forward to doing so.  The ply on this is so lovely and I think will show great stitch definition.  Will need to find a pattern with some fun texture.  Maybe the Scatterby socks would be fun in one of these.

Now for a little look at my goals for the next 53 weeks.

YOP 13      2023-2024

CARRY OVERS/WIPs

Madonna & Child - 8/7/20

Happy Camper - 2/24/22

Rose City Roller Sock 5/30/23 - 

Baby Blanket 6/5/23 -

Car Socks 6/26/23 - 

Three of these will be completed, for sure, before the end of this calendar year.

SOCKS

RCR

Tube Socks

I have sooooo much fingering weight yarn!  I am going to take the yarn neither hubby or I will wear and make tube socks for charities.  If y'all have other ideas of what I can make and donate with some of this yarn, speak up please!!!!

CLOTHING

Wee Sherlock

Bear Ear Hat

There may be other clothing added later but for now, these 2 items are needed for our great grand daughter who is making her appearance in October.

SHAWLS

To The Point

I seem to still have a lot of worsted weight yarn.  That means there needs to be more Prayer Shawls made for our church's cancer ministry.  The 'To The Point' pattern is still my favorite one to make.  The shawl stays on the shoulders so nicely so is perfect for someone undergoing cancer treatments.  Also, since it is crocheted, it goes rapidly.

AMIGURUMI

Gnome

What more do I need to say about this.  My 2 gnomes are in dire need of friends.  There is also a toadstool and cottage that are greatly needed.  Not sure if they will show up this year or not so did not put them on the list.

STUFF HAPPENS!

We all know that during 52-53 weeks things pop up that need to be crafted.  When it does, it will end up here if it does not fit in any of the other above categories.

That should keep me busy for the next year, right?  Before I close I just wanted to give you a look at what my next week will look like here in Arizona.

I took this screen shot yesterday.  I will either be in the house or in the pool for the next week.  You will NOT see me out walking around the neighborhood!  Nope, too darn hot.  These temps will be around from now until the middle of October.  Actually, it isn't too horrid until the middle of July when the humidity sets in with the monsoons.  Then, even going into the pool will not be refreshing.  *sigh*  It's ok.  Come November I will be all happy again and be outside a lot.

And the last thing to show you.............................

My boy is waiting for me to get off my computer so he can come over and cuddle with me while I knit.

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