WEEK 17

 

It's coming!  Fall is coming to the deserts of Arizona!  This week we are going to drop 20 degrees in 24 hours.  I am so excited!  We will still be considered 'warm' by most folks.  But, for us, it will be sweater weather.  

This past week saw so much happening.  I tried very hard to maintain my, 1 hour per project per day, routine.  For the most part, it did happen.  Let's take a look at progress.

I finally finished sock #1

This little gem was cast on in April!  I have no idea why I let it sit and stew.  Well, yes I do.  I started working on cross stitch again and it consumed me.  You will be happy to know I was a good knitter and cast on sock #2 right away.

The striping is not going to match 100%.  I really don't care as these are for me and being short socks, you really won't notice.  This baby is ready for me to do the heel.  That will happen today, hopefully.  I want these off the needles so I can cast on some more socks for ME with my new Cotton Sox yarn I purchased a few weeks ago.

I also finished the Basic Baby Beanie for Josie's pregnant friend.

I always like the crown of hats.  Now, all I need to do is get it to Josie so she can get it to the expectant mom along with the matching blanket and sweater.

I was good and worked on my shawl this week too.

A few more rows added to it.  It is almost halfway completed.  Hopefully I will hit that mark this week.  I always seem to forget how large this shawl is.  The size is the reason I really like it.  It actually is a shawl for warmth and not just for the looks.

There will be a new project started this week once I obtain the yarn.  My daughter has requested a throw blanket.  I have the pattern and only need to purchase the yarn ( which is on sale this week) and I will be set to go!  It is a crochet project so I am excited to add that to my list of daily projects.  Come back next week to see what I am making and how far along I got.

The puzzle......This one has been a real challenge.  Yesterday, I was able to really get some pieces put in and now all the main figures are attached to the edging.

Most of what is left to do is grass and dirt and blue jeans.  So, it will be a challenge to work on from this point on. Will it be completed by the end of the World Series?  Maybe.  Depends on if the Yankees manage to win a game against the Dodgers.  Dodgers are ahead 2-0.

I continue to make goodies in my kitchen.  This past week saw another loaf of sourdough bread made for hubby and I.  There will be another one made for us today.  I also made a spice bundt cake ( one of hubby's favorites), sourdough brownies (for our TX son and family) and a loaf of cranberry orange bread (for Tiffany).  My sourdough starter (Dottie) is the best I have ever made.  I think having the little sourdough fridge has been the secret to it's success.  A constant temperature is the key. 

Have you ever heard of a blind book date?  Am I the only one late to this party?  I was introduced to this fun thing last week at our church's annual fiesta.  Here is the gist of it.

You pick up a brown paper wrapped book.

On the front is a little synopsis of what the book is about.  It is a VERY general synopsis.  You purchase the book on what you read of the synopsis.  Once you have your purchase, you open it up and see what you received.

It is really fun and I purchased two blind book dates.  Here is what I got.

Four really cute stickers....two in each of the books wrapping paper.  I have no idea what I will do with them, but they are so cute.

These are the books I received.  I doubt I would have even picked them up to look at them in a book store.  Yet, the synopsis of each book is something I will enjoy reading.  Just so you know, these are not used books either.  They are brand new and just waiting for me to dive into them.

In other news..............................I went for a needle biopsy of my thyroid this week.  Holy Moly!  My throat has been sore every since and I have a lovely bruise on the base of neck where the Dr put the needles in and out.  Now, I wait for the results.  This is the hard part.

Jaxon is back in the hospital.  She went in because they thought she had another hematoma in her leg.  It was not and the Dr's saw she had healed enough to do her skin graft....FINALLY!  The graft was done yesterday and she will probably be in the hospital until Tuesday to make sure things are going well for her.  Poor kid has been through the ringer from this accident.  Hopefully this will be the last stage she needs to go through and can just finish healing up.

Josh is doing well.  In his last MRI, they can still see the tumor that was there after the surgery he had a year ago, but it is just sitting there and not growing.  This is good and we hope and pray this will continue for a long time.  He and Stacie just returned from his business trip in Florida.  They were there for a week.  It was a little mini vacay for them.  I am so glad they went.  He tolerated the trip quite well and is planning several more trips to different places over the next few months.  Traveling and making future plans seems to agree with him.

The rest of us are doing well.  Looking forward to the cooler weather.  I want to open my windows and let some lovely fresh air in.  Our birds, that fly down here for the winter, have arrived and it is so nice to hear their singing each day.  We normally only have mourning doves and pigeons.  So it is nice to hear other bird songs for a few months.

And now, for your humor for the week........................

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

WEEK 16

 

I am late getting this post up today.  I ended up taking Josh and Stacie to the airport for their trip to Florida.  Josh is on business and Stacie is going for his medical support and a little R&R.  Then, Jay, TIffany and Jaxon and her guy friend came over to spend some time with us.  Tiff went with me to drop the 'kids' off at the airport and then she and I went to a furniture store to pick up a storage bench to put at the foot of their bed.  Jay made brisket street tacos for us.  We celebrated Tiffany's birthday also, with the German Chocolate cake I made for her.  It was a full and very lovely day.

This past week I tried to do something new.  I didn't seem to be getting anywhere on all the projects I had going.  So, this week I only allowed myself to work on one project for an hour at a time and to rotate through each project daily.  Not only my knitting/crochet projects but also my coloring and puzzles.  The only project I did not include in this was my cross stitch projects.  So, here is how I did.

Baby sweater:

It was completed on Saturday.  I have 2 more babies to make sweaters for.  I am thinking I am going to find another pattern to use.  Getting a bit tired of making this one.  Time will tell what I decide.

Socks:

Look at that!  I got over 30 rows completed on this sock.  It has languished for way to long.

Shawl:

This project takes quite a while to do a row since it has so many stitches on the needles.  It felt good to get to put my hands on each of these projects.  

Since the baby sweater got finished I needed to start ....................

A matching baby beanie.    It shouldn't take long to get this finished.  It will be nice to have this ready to give to the expectant momma.

Coloring:

I am really enjoy working with colored pencils.  I am no artist.  I do enjoy playing with color though.  This is just one of the many pictures I have completed so far.  Love my Gnomes!

I worked on my puzzle too and have the top half completed.  Now it is taking me almost an hour each day just to find 5 pieces.  Very slow going.

On the baking front.  I did make the cake for today's birthday.  I also made another loaf of Sourdough bread.  I used the same recipe as I did the last time, however, this time I cut the recipe in half.  It turned out so much lighter and we are actually enjoying it more too.

I don't think we will be needing to throw out half of the loaf anymore.  This is just the right size for the two of us to use in about 5 days time.  The crust is not as hard as the larger loaf crust.  The inside is soft and very yummy.  WIN-WIN!

Here is your funny for the week.....

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

WEEK 15

 

Still hoping for fall to happen here in my neighborhood.  Supposedly, we will be dropping below 100F next week and should be in the 80's by next weekend!  Hooray!  I am so ready to be able to sit outside and enjoy some front porch knitting time.  

This week I had to do a thing with the baby sweater..................I frogged the entire thing.  I did not like the way the fabric looked.  It also was measuring waaaay to large for a newborn.  I dropped down 2 needle sizes and restarted it.  Here is where I am now.

  I am much happier with the fabric.  Not to mention the cable is more pronounced.  Here is the comparison.

The top photo is the bigger needles.  The cable kind of blends into the sweater.  Not anymore!

There was a little other crafting this past week.

I was walking around Hobby Lobby and these little guys jumped into my cart and begged me to make them into stitch markers.  Being the nice person I am, I granted them their wish.  They are so darn cute and very light weight.

Other than that, I have been working on my puzzle but don't have a lot done on it yet.  I also started coloring again with colored pencils and adult coloring books.  I forgot how much I enjoyed coloring.  It is so relaxing.  

With Amazon Days happening this past week, I was finally able to find a Dutch oven that would fit into my countertop oven.

I have been wanting to do my sourdough bread in a cast iron Dutch Oven for a while now.  Most of them are about 1-2 inches too tall with the lid.  This clears everything by 1.5 inches! As for how it does for bread?

I am in love!  This makes so much more sense than the round loaves.  Now I can have sandwiches on sourdough as well as my bread machine bread. 

Someone asked me to demonstrate how the cable locks work that I talked about last week.  

See how the stitches are all grouped towards the working end of the circular needle?

It locks onto the cable while you are knitting away.  Once done, you push the little button on the bottom and slide to the other side to hold those stitches when you switch ends.  It really does save me a ton of time.  Especially when I am doing large projects, like the shawl.  There are almost 300 stitches on there so it is quite cumbersome to keep pushing the stitches up as I knit along on it.  Is that clear as mud?

I am looking forward to this coming week.  I only have one day where I will be out of the house doing errands!  Last week, I was gone everyday doing something.  Might be why I didn't get much done on the puzzle and the sweater isn't finished.  

I have a ha-ha for you today too.

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

WEEK 14

 

Nope, still not autumn here.  We are cooling off at night though.  There is hope.  The best glimmer of hope is......when I turn on the cold water faucet, cool water now comes out of it.  Don't laugh.  In the summertime here, there is no such thing as cool water coming from any faucet in your home!  Trust me, cool water from the faucet is a good sign things are going to change.

This was such a fun week for me.  Let's get to it and find out why.

Last Sunday -  we had family day at Jay and Tiffany's home.  It was so nice to get the kids all together again.  (well, all but 1)  So much laughter and joy going around.  Even Jaxon joined in with all the fun.

Monday - Took Josh to his therapy appointment.  I always enjoy the one on one time we have when in the car.  After I dropped him home I went and filled our water jugs up for the coming week.  From there I braved going to a LYS that I had said I would never step foot in again.  Well......I figured after 30 years, things may have changed and boy howdy, did they ever. 

I was greeted with smiles and helpful hands the minute I walked into the store.  No one pressured me for anything.  I was allowed to look, touch and ask questions and no one thought less of me for it.  Oh!  I was in heaven for the entire hour I was there.  I did come home with treasures.

Barber Cord......This is what I originally went to the store to pick up.  Thanks to Maureen, I discovered this wonderful helpful item when putting 'on hold' stitches when making items.  If you can get past the strong smell, it is wonderful and makes life so easy.  Hopefully, the smell will dissipate with use.

Then I saw these:

Cable locks to keep your stitches from creeping down the circular cable while knitting on 'large' items.  I got two sizes and wanted a third size but they were out of them.  I have been using them for the shawl I am making as well as the baby sweater.  They are the bomb!  I had seen them advertised before and often thought of getting them but never did.  Well, when they are right there infront of you....who could resist?

Another thing I saw thanks to Maureen:

Yarn socks to keep your wound ball of yarn in while you knit.  No more yarn decided to unwind when being transported from bag to bag and place to place.  I might need to stop reading Maureen's blog posts.  She is an enabler LOL.  Actually, she has been a wealth of information to this knitter.

My last purchase there:

Did you think I would leave a yarn shop without yarn?  I was stoked to find cotton sock yarn.  One of the ladies that works there is also allergic to wool and has used this and really likes it.  Although, it does not have the stretch most sock yarns have, she said it wears well and does not slide down the leg.  So excited to make some short socks out of this.  I seldom wear long socks since our temperatures seldom require them.  I do have a few pairs for those for the rare times I go somewhere it is 'cold'.

There will be more trips to this LYS now that the personal in there has changed.  They have so many lovely yarns that I can use.  The shop is set up so it is easy to find the weight you are looking for and then according to fiber content.  Super easy to find just that right thing.  Not to mention all the cool accessories!  Oh my!  I am so happy!

Unfortunately, Jaxon went back to the hospital today.  She developed blood clots in her bad leg.  They admitted her and started her on heavy duty blood thinners to get those bad boys dissolved quickly. 

Tuesday - Josie came over to have me work on a dress she had purchased from a thrift store.  She finds the cutest clothes at these places.  Some laundry got done and I made pumpkin spice cookies. Hubby was very happy about the cookies.

Wednesday - Had a nice visit from Tiffany.  We sat and chatted for a couple of hours.  Yes, I think we solved all the problems of the world LOL.  I spent the rest of the day working on my puzzle and then on the baby sweater.

It is completed!  It was a challenge which is good.

The baby sweater is coming along.  On sleeve island.  Still need to find some cute buttons for it.

Thursday - Finally got my Thyroid biopsy scheduled for the end of this month!  This has been going on since July!  Josie and I went to see Jaxon in the hospital.  She had surgery earlier in the day to replace the integra (plastic skin) on her boo-boo.  They are hoping to be able to do the skin grafts in a couple of weeks.  The surgeon also found her knee had frozen and she took care of that too.  Jaxon is now under orders to walk a lot and to bend that knee!  Hubby and I had Adoration in the evening.

Friday - Spent the day in the kitchen playing with my sourdough.  I got dough made for bread and bagels.  The bagels even got baked that evening.  The bread dough got shaped and put in the fridge for an overnight ferment.  Jaxon got released from the hospital today...again.  Started a new puzzle today.

It will look like this when completed.

Since it is playoffs in baseball I decided this would be perfect to work on for the next few weeks.

Saturday - We finally were able to go and pick up food for our food bank again.  Afterwards, we took the beast (the new car) to the car wash and got it all slicked up.  Had a little visit from Jay and TIff, went to Mass and then did a trip to Sam's club to pick up few things.  Look at these little cuties.

I just couldn't resist them.  Most of our Christmas decor is done in nativity sets, but I wanted to add a bit of whimsy with it this year.

Today - Laundry is being done as I type this up.  Hopefully, all the bedding in the house will get washed today too.  We have had a few visits from Joe's brother so need to get the guest room sheets done.  I slept in the grandkids' room while Joe was under covid so those sheets need to be done too.  Not to mention our master bed sheets need to be washed too.  Luckily, I do not have anything else planned for the day.  It will be interesting to see how much I do before I wear out.

Here is your ha-ha for the day................Can any of you related?

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