MIDWEEK MUSINGS

There is not always a midweek post from me, these days.  Yet, this week seems to warrant one.

Happily, I have completed all 7 of the Harry Potter books.  Hubby is on book #4 and is really enjoying them also.  It was fun to read books that my Grands have read.

  After I finished the last book, I grabbed the next book on top of my 'to read' pile.

This was on top.  I had wanted to order and read this book for sometime.  I had it on a wish list at Thriftbooks and when it came in they notified me and I ordered it pronto! It was recommended by another YOP blogger.  Did I like it?  Honestly?  I don't know.  It was a super easy read. (finished in 2 bedtime readings)  The characters came to life, quite well.  The story line is what got me.  After finishing it, I found myself weeping silently off and on until about 2:30 in the morning.  It really hit me hard.  

I pulled the next book off the top of my reading pile and now am back into my Jan Karon books.

This is book #14 in her series with Fr Tim Kavanaugh.  They are so good.  I have no issue reading these before bed.  No insomnia from the story line of these books.  There are 2 more after this one to read.  Yes, I have them.

There is something else I have been trying this week.  Each day I am 'trying' to do a bit of knitting/crocheting on each of my WIP's.  I am not sure this is the best way to get things done.  In fact, I normally find one of my WIP's gets missed each day because of running out of time.  Like I said, this is something I decided to try just this week.  Not too sure this will continue into next week.  Maybe next week, I will try just working on project per day.  I have 5 projects on the go so that might be the answer to getting some real progress on each item.  What do you guys think?

Tonight, hubby and I will pick up our friend and head to trivia.  It is our one night out we look forward to each week.  We are not good at it but.........it is dinner out and time spent with other people.

OK, need to get back to my knitting.  I have only worked on 1 items so far today.  We leave in 2 hours, so I need to get cracking.

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

WEEK 14 UPDATE

Well, hello there.  How are y'all today?  We are all fine here.  Just kicking back and watching American Football.  Want to see what I accomplished this week?  OK, then, here we go.

First up is a finished object!

The Pine Lake Shawl is off the needles as of Tuesday night.  It is all I worked on from the last update until it was finished.  On Sunday, last week, I did frog it from the size 8 US needles and cast it back on to a size 9 US needle.  I love the drape of the fabric now.  It still needs to be blocked so the lace section will open up more.  Maybe this week will see that happen...............maybe.

After the shawl was done I decided to focus my attention to my Fawkes sock.

The orange marker is where I was last Sunday.  I have 8 more rows and the heel gusset will be completed and then it is on to the foot.  This sock has the pattern continue on the top of the foot until the toe is started.  I kind of like that as it isn't quite as boring as just knitting in the round row after row.  I do promise as soon as this sock is done I will cast on the second sock.

Other than that I have not done any other fiber stuff.  The alpaca shawl and the cardigan are staring at me asking why they have not gotten any love this past week.  (shrugs shoulders) Just didn't feel like it.

The one thing I did start last week was this:

A Thomas Kinkaid puzzle.  It is 1000 pieces, so I think it will be a few whiles before I finish it.  I have 5 more puzzles, after this one, to do.  Of course, I have not been back to my friend's house lately to see if he has anymore he wants to get rid of.

That is all the crafting I did this week.  I did have someone else do some crafting on me this week though.

I finished up my family's tattoos.  I have had the bunny/butterfly, in honor of my mother, since last August (yes I know it needs a touch up but it was done in TX and the local artists do not want to touch someone else's work).  The top one is in honor of my brother who I lost in January this year.  He was a BIG motorcycle geek and was a member of the Christian Motorcycle Association.  The bottom right is for my dad who I lost in 1976.  He was a very devout Christian, was retired Navy and loved without question.  (Cross, heart, anchor).  I am the last one in my immediate family now, so there will not be anymore ink in my future.

In other news................I finally got back to my hair stylist that truly 'gets' me.  She was able to get my hair back into the undercut I love.  I have been struggling with a bad cut I got 3 months ago by one of her co-workers. She finally gave me her cell phone number so I can text her to find out when she will be working!  Thank you Sarah!

Hubby made it home safely last Sunday.  It is nice to have him back home.  My dogs are not great conversationalists.  But, they are great listeners LOL.  

I have bread in the bread maker, pork red chili in the crockpot and pinto beans cooking on the stove top.  I caved and bought tortillas instead of making them myself this time.  Since dinner is already cooking I now have the rest of the day to do what I want to do.  Sounds like a perfect knitting day here. 

Last and not least......................we had a bit of an increase in our temperatures this past week.  We will be close to 100 again on Monday and Tuesday. (Sigh)  Then it heads back down to the 80's (hooray).  It is October, right?

OK, that is all for me today.

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

WEEK 13

Hello!  Are you as happy that last week is over as I am?  Phew!  It was for me, a frog and dog week!  Let's take a look at what I mean by that, OK?

First up on the frog list.......................the Sleeveheart Shawl.  Yup, it was not making me happy.  The material was too compact and the pattern was not making that gorgeous Alpaca sing.  So I pulled (Frogged) it all out and went in search of another pattern.  It only took me 3 days to find one that I thought would do the fiber justice.  Say hello to Pine Lake Shawl.

I am not 100% happy with it as of yet and may decide to start it again, but this time go up a needle size.  It is still a bit too tight for my liking.  I do love the pattern, though.  The Asymmetrical shawl is my favorite shape and this fits the bill on that part.  I had to laugh as the instructions say this is something you make in one weekend. Nothing I knit gets done in one weekend.  

Next on the frogging block..................................my "it really fits cardigan".  I finally decided to really try it on and not just one sleeve of it.  Oh My Goodness!!!!!!!  Hubby and I both could have fit into that thing!  I proceeded to unravel the entire sweater and started it again but this time going down a size in the hopes, it will be perfect this time.  I do like my sweaters oversized, but it was ridiculously HUGE.  So here is where I am at on the cardi now.

I do not think this will be completed by the time I go out of town in November.  Although, just by looking at it this time, it looks to be a better size than the last one.

My sock did not get unravelled..................well not all the way.  I picked it up one evening and found I had dropped a stitch about 4 rows back.  I was able to weave it in and started knitting again.  Then I found out I was off on my stitch count because I forgot to do a YO.  I was able to fix that without tinking back too.  Then I discovered I had dropped a stitch again in 2 different areas and was not able to weave them in as they were about 8 rows below where I was at.  Well, darn it!  I unraveled the entire 8 rows, picked up all the stitches that had been dropped and started back again.  Here is where I am at now.

I do love this pattern, Fawkes.  The reason I keep dropping stitches is...............There is one stitch in the 12 row repeat that calls for knit 3 together. Somehow, one of those three stitches misses my needle and BOOM...............dropped stitch.  I have been much more careful since the unravel party.  When I pick up the 3 stitches to knit, I give them a minor tug to make sure all 3 are on the needle.  Otherwise, this has been a great pattern to knit.  It is my carry along project.

Last but not least, my lace alpaca shawl has grown a tiny bit.

Working with a size 10.5US needle on slippery alpaca takes a bit of time and patience.  I really need to watch as I knit on this as the yarn is so thin it makes it very easy for a person to accidentally knit 2 stitches together.  Also, do any of you know how warm alpaca yarn is?  My hands are super warm working on this and I can only imagine how warm my lap will be when it gets long enough to lay on it.

So that ends my crafting news.  Now on to my other news about dogs.  First, I want you to know I love my dogs.  I really do.  They are cute and have been part of our family for almost 10 years.  They have their quirks though.  We think we have figured out what those quirks are and so we make sure not to leave anything around, when we are gone, that could make those quirks manifest.  Evidently hubby forgot that rule this week when he left to go to California. 

When a suitcase comes out, we have two dogs that get mighty nervous.  Even though they have a lovely dog sitter that comes to stay with them, they pull this guilt trip on us every time.  They sit and watch the suitcase get packed and sulk for hours.  This time, Hubby was the only one packing up and they seemed to be much better.  I did have to take him to the airport., I think they thought I had also left them.  When I came home, I prepared the house for our grand puppy to come over and spend some time with me and my fur babies.  While getting things ready I discovered this.

My dogs LOVE to chew plastic and ink pens are their specialty.  Hubby had left a pen by his side of the couch and when I left with him they had a blast with it.  There was ink on the couch (I did manage to remove it), on the floor and even on their paws.  Hubby has been grounded and I told him he is only allowed to have pencils now as they are much easier to clean up after.  (The dogs like wood too)

So, the grand puppy came over to play.  His owners had to go out of town for his mistress' swim meet.  My dogs are 12 and 7 and have no desire to 'play'.  After 4.5 hours of him barking and pouncing on my dogs, I took him home until his owners came back.  Once we got to his house, he went to sleep right away.  

No that is not him sleeping, that is him taking a break from the barking and pouncing.  He really  is a cute dog and I do adore him.  My dogs do not adore him though.  We will continue to have him come over.  Just not for long periods of time, until he learns not to pounce on my babies.

On the way to take the Grand puppy home  I spotted this:

That cheered me up and made my day a bit brighter.  We have had quite a bit of rain this week and it was much needed.  In total we got 2 inches of rain.  It has cooled us off to the point, we don't mind being outside during the day.  I know you all think 90 is hot, but remember, we really don't have much humidity in our air, so 90 is quite comfortable for us.

OK, I have pretty much told you everything that has happened this week.  Hubby returns home this afternoon.  I have some errands to run this morning, a pork tenderloin to marinated, a loaf a bread to make and of course, knitting to be worked on.

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

Look What We Have

That, my friends, is a lot of rain!  It has been raining here since around 3 this morning and just stopped about 8:30.  I have no idea how much we got but we are under a flash flood warning until around 10:30 this morning.  The rain is supposed to continue off and on until sometime Thursday.  We so need the moisture. Our monsoons this year have been a bit of a disappointment.  The monsoon season is officially over on September 30th.  Fingers crossed we get more rain to help with our wildfires and keep the ground wet so no more fires break out.

I really need to get my 'weather station' put up.  Remember him?

He has moved closer to the outside.  Hopefully I can get out today and pick up some liquid nails from Home Depot and get him attached as well as fix the sprayer on my sink that is flopping all over the place.  

OK, need to get busy with chores so I can sit down later and work on some of my knitting/crocheting projects.

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

WEEK 12 UPDATE

It is that time of the week again.  Do you look forward to Sunday?  Since I have been doing the YOP for the past 9 years, Sunday's have been one of my favorite days of the week.  It is so exciting to read other's blogs to see what kind of crafty business has been happening throughout the world.  Before I head off to read other crafter's blogs, I must get mine written.  So let's get this blog going.  Warning, there are quite a few photos this week.  

Let's talk about frogging items.  Actually, it was only 1 item I frogged last week.  It was an Eva Shawl I had started in July of 2011.  I was crocheting that shawl in a lace weight alpaca.  What was I thinking?  Obviously I wasn't.  Frogging the 11 grams of lace was a royal pain!  I managed to reclaim all but 3 grams of the yarn.  I found another pattern to make with the yarn.  I started it on Friday and here is where I am at.

See how much halo this yarn has?  Imagine trying to frog that from a crochet project!  Not fun.  I am just kind of winging it with this pattern.  I have already cast on almost twice what the pattern called for.  I changed where the lace rows will pop up.  So basically, I am doing my own thing.  This will not be done anytime soon.  It is just nice to have this yarn being turned into something I will use.  

Do any of you remember this shawl?

Wow, that is some crappy night time photography.  It is country blue and lime green!  This is the Forest Shawl I started in July 2018.  I pulled it out this week and have been adding a section to it here and there.  I really am trying to clear up some of those UFO's that have been hanging around for way too long.

I also have been working on my cardigan.  There is no photo of it.  All that has happened on it is the addition of about 20 rows to the first sleeve.  So, basically, it looks like it did last time.

There was quite a bit of Cozy Alpaca yarn left over from my Great Nephews layette.  I really did not want to just stick it on a shelf and forget about it.  It is such a lovely soft yarn.  So I went searching for patterns for the amount of yarn I had left.  I found this:

Sleeveheart shawl.  It is based off the PI shawl and it is a very relaxing knit.  This was also started on Friday.  I have no idea how large it will be by then time I run out of yarn.  Hopefully, it will be large enough to be either a shawlette or a caplet.  We shall see.  It is going pretty quickly so far.  Could be because there are only 64 stitches on the needles.  It will increase to 260 stitches before I bind off.

There were more squares made this week also.  

Only got 2 completed this week.

There must have been a startitis virus going around on Friday.  Here is the third project I cast on, on Friday.

OK all you Harry Potter fans.  I am sure you will know who/what Fawkes was. (He is a Phoenix bird)  Hubby wanted to know if these socks were for him.  He had quite the sad face when I told him these were for me this time.  These need a little bit of attention when working on them.  There is counting involved.  The pattern said to cast on 60 stitches, and yet I know, I am a solid 64 on a 1.5 US needle.  That means I had to play with the pattern a little bit but it is working out just splendid.

That is all for my crafting this week.  

Life happened this week.  

If you do not follow me (shame on you) I will let you know we ended up purchasing a new washing machine on Monday and it was delivered on Tuesday.  Laundry is all caught up!  

I started working with my Sony A6300  camera again this week.  I had been ignoring it as I felt it was too much of a pain to use.  After setting it up and working with it I remembered why I bought it to begin with.  Love all the different things I can do with it and all the lenses I have to go with it.

Our local Grand Daughter is on the swim team at her high school.  She had been on a swim team about 6 years ago but dropped out when they refused to heat the pool in the winter and still demanded they swim.  But, I digress.  She had a swim meet this week that I was able to attend.  This is where my Sony camera came in handy!  It stops actions so well!

The top photo is of her beating her breast stroke record by 26 seconds.  Yes, that is twenty six seconds!!!!!  The bottom photo is her going in for her free style swim.  It was about 102 outside and I was quite tempted to jump into that pool myself!  This place does heat the pool in the winter.

Hubby was busy on Thursday running the vacuum cleaner.  We had little rolls of dog hair floating around everywhere.

Enrique is not a fan of the vacuum.  He is burrowing between my two pillows.  Poor baby boy LOL.

Saturday night was homecoming for our local Grand Daughter.  This was her first 'date' since going into high school.  Her dad was having a good time with her before her 'date' showed up.

(Please, no negative comments about the fire arm.)  Not that her dad is protective or anything.  She is an only child and the apple of his eye.  This man even donned a tutu to do a daddy daughter dance routine when she was around 5.  Yes, he is that dad!

Here is her and her date just before the dance.

They clean up pretty good, huh.  I am sure I will hear all about her date later today.  We are going over there later for smoked brisket and some American football.

I am really looking forward to the coming week.  We are supposed to get some rain and our temps are going to drop down to 90 and some 80's.  Night time temps are heading to the high 60's.  This means our swimming pool has seen the last of my body this year.  It is time now for me to clean off my rocking chairs on the front porch so I can enjoy the cool morning air with a cuppa and my knitting.  Fall is going to come to the desert!

Until next time...................Happy Crafting!!!!!

To see what other crafters have been up to go here.