WEEK 24 UPDATE

 

Sunday again?  The weeks are just zooming along.  This time next week I will be at the airport picking up one of my grands from Texas.  She is coming to spend Christmas with us.  Her parents have to work during the Christmas holidays (The US Navy does not take off for holidays) and she asked if she could come to be with us for that time period.  How sweet is that?

Today, it is sunny outside with a high expected to be around 63F.  I will be spending a bit of time outside knitting in the wonderful sunshine.  This is my favorite time of year here in the desert.

This past week saw me getting quite a few things done for the upcoming weeks.  Once the Grand comes, as well as all the other guests, who will be coming and going, I want to be able to just enjoy the time with family and friends.

When I left you last week, I showed you the makings for the Chex Party Mix (nuts and bolts).  We went to our friend's home and were able to cut the baking time from 8 hours down to 2.5 hours!   What a difference 3 ovens make.  It made 18 gallons of mix and we have already given out 4 gallons of it.  Not to mention the 1 gallon we have sitting in our kitchen for our eating pleasure.

As for knitting/crocheting.  I have a finish.

The socks for my sister in law are done and were mailed yesterday.  I very much enjoyed doing the two at a time socks from the toe up.  After talking to several other knitters, I found out their tension was indeed, looser on magic loop vs DPN's.  Therefore, I need to use a size US 1 (2.25mm) needle for magic loop and US 1.5 (2.5mm) for DPN's.  You may not think it a huge difference in the needle size but it does make a HUGE difference in the gauge.

I was asked to make another baby sweater.  This one will be for another little girl due to arrive in March 2020.  Once again, I told the soon to be Grandma, "You buy the yarn and I will buy the buttons and do the knitting".  She complied willingly.  

Yes, this is the Wee Sherlock pattern again.  It is so versatile for either male or female.  This is the first time I have ever worked with Red Heart Soft Baby Steps.  It is 100% acrylic and SO SOFT!  I love the sheen it has also.    I started this on Thursday evening and it is just flying off the needles.  I am making the 6-12 month size this time.  After the sweater is completed, I will be making a matching hat also.  I so love making baby items.

While knitting I have been listening to audio books.  It is so nice to listen to books.  It reminds me of when I was young and my parents would read to me each day.  It is so soothing and what a great way to multi-task.

Hubby surprised me this week.  He offered to do some of the grocery shopping and when he came home these were in his hands.

My favorite color of roses, yellow.  After 44 years he still remembers these are my favorite.  They are fully opened this morning.  I just wish roses lasted longer than a few days.

Speaking of my hubby,

What a good sport he is.  We were in a store and I saw this jacket.  I asked him to try it on and got a photo.  I sent it to our kids so they could have a good laugh.  Wild Christmas outfits have been a running joke in our family for many years.  We got to be the first with the photo this year.  We could hear the eye rolls from all over the US.  LOL

We have been working on some decluttering.  Everyone of our Christmas boxes is being gone through and tomorrow Big Brothers/Big Sisters will be coming by to collect items we are donating.  So far we have 6 storage boxes ready to leave the house.  I also have gone through a couple of closets and there are clothes leaving our home too.  It feels so good to watch all this 'stuff' leaving our home.  

Today, I will be working on the baby sweater, hoping to complete the body and start on the sleeves.  There will be more decluttering today as well more audio books while the hubby watches football (US style).  I hope you all have a wonderful day and find something to smile about.

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

Muddling Through

The photo above kind of describes how I feel today.  It is the middle of the week and there is so much I had wanted to accomplish by today and didn't.  My mind now is on overload wanting to get all of it done NOW.  By the end of the week I will be all smoothed out and relaxed.  I have no idea why I always work this way.  You would think after 66 years I would be able to accept this about me.  I am still a work in progress LOL.

On Monday, we had a 20 minute hail/rain storm.  I love storms as long as it does not cause injury to anyone.  The above is a video from my bedroom window looking into our backyard.  Once again, it flooded during this downpour.  The hail is not a common occurrence for us so it was a lot of fun to watch it accumulate.

Last night, hubby and I had our first glass of eggnog.  It was so yummy.  We did not have any last year, which made me very sad.  It does not seem like the holidays without a bit of eggnog.  Years ago, I made eggnog from scratch.  It was such an ordeal but tasted so much better than what you can get at the store.  Maybe someday I will make it from scratch again.  Maybe.

The sock is still not finished.  I have gotten the heels completed and just need to add a couple of inches on it and then do the cuff.  I do not know why, but I am not excited about working on them.  They could be finished in just an evening if I would just pick them up and work on them.  

Hubby and I did our grocery shopping yesterday and today I have cleaned the kitchen and am getting ready to do some laundry and go through the boxes of Christmas things we have not used in several years.  Once they have been gone through, we will be donated them to charity as I do not need them taking up real estate in my storage shed anymore.

Today, I leave you with a little tidbit I received from one of our church friends.

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

WEEK 23 OF YEAR 9

Ah yes, it is that time of the week when I take the time to update my goings on for the past week.  It is dark outside, quiet inside (other than dog snores) and I have my cuppa.  So let's get going.

I started TAAT socks on Monday evening.  It has been years since I have done TAAT socks and longer since I have done toe up.  My reasoning behind doing them TAAT toe up is, they needed to be done quickly and I wanted to make sure there would not be second sock syndrome.

The socks need another inch or so and then I will do the heel.  These are for my sister-in-law.  When I was in TX for my brother's passing, she mentioned how much she liked the bed socks she had inherited from my mom when she passed.  She did mention they were just a tad big on her though.  I got the hint LOL.  I thought it would be nice to get these done and sent to her for a little early Christmas gift.  The pattern is Southern Mossy Socks.  Even though it is for a 'regular' sock, I figured I would just stop and add a cuff when it was ankle length on me.  

Question for all you sock knitters.  Do you find your tension is different on magic loop than it is on DPN's?  These seem to be a bit bigger than when I work on DPN's.  I used the same number of stitches I always use and the same size needle.  I'm thinking I could have gone from a 1.5 US (2.5 mm) to a 1 US (2.25 mm) and gotten my DPN results.  Anyone else notice this?  Did you say swatch?  Are you nuts?  

Anyway, that is all I have done with fiber this week.  My extra time was spent decorating for Christmas.  Here a a couple of photos of some of my favorite areas of my home.

The tree is all trimmed.  It is so hard to get a perfect shot of this.  The tree is a flocked tree and that is the only part of the tree I dislike.  When the tree goes up and comes down, we are cleaning up flocking for DAYS!  We are seriously thinking of getting a plain Jane tree for next year.  Well, a prelit plain Jane that is.  

My next favorite area is our fireplace.

We have horrible inversions during the winter here, so seldom are we allowed to have a fire.  So, what to do with our beautiful stone fireplace?  We use it to showcase different things throughout the year.  The cross stitch in the back of the fireplace was done by my mom many years ago.  It is so nice to have it as a central point of our decor and reminds me of the talent and patience she had.

Today, hubby and I will be going to a friends house to make our annual copious amount of Chex Party Mix.  This tradition has been passed down from my mom to me and we have continued it for several years.  Take a look:

This is most of the ingredients for the mix.  It will make about 16 gallons of chex party mix and by the time we get done handing out the bags, we will end up with 2 for ourselves.  This is my hubby's favorite snack food.  It is time consuming and normally takes me 8 hours to make this much.  We have a friend who has 3 ovens so it should cut our time down to about 4 hours.  I will let you know after we complete it, how long it took.

Now that the house is decorated and ready for the season, we are looking forward to all the people we will be entertaining in the next few weeks.  Our Grand Daughter from Texas is coming to stay for a week during Christmas.  My husband's sister and a brother will be here for a few days close to the end of the year.  We may have one of our nephews and his wife for a day.  Our dear friends from Las Vegas will be joining us for a gathering the last weekend of the year.  It will be a busy time for us and by the beginning of next year we will be tired by so blessed by the love of family and friends.

I want to leave you with a little look of what I see daily.

He is patiently waiting for me to settle into my 'chair' so he can jump up and cuddle next to me.  Look at those eyes.  How can I say no to that look.  His 'sister' has already taken her spot on the seat next to me (it is a divided love seat).  She is not as big a cuddler as he is.  She enjoys her loves and pets but likes to sleep cuddled with a blanket instead of a human.

But when the UPS guy or Amazon person comes to the door, this is what you would think.

Yup, they turn into Rambo!

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

That Didn't Last

Remember how I said I did not have any socks on my needles since last week Thursday.  I changed that yesterday and have a look.

I cast on TAAT (two at a time) toe up magic loop last night.  When my brother passed away, his wife told me how much she was enjoying the bed socks I had made for my mom.  I knew that was a hint that she would like some that fit her a bit better than my mom's did.  

I had a lovely skein of yarn I received as a gift from ruthmckeon over a year ago.  It is Green Elephant hand dyed yarn.  It is 75% superwash Merino and 25% nylon.  I am unable to wear it myself but am enjoying knitting with it.  I know my sister in law will love them and they will keep her feet nice and toasty at night.

I still have not found my advent wreath but made a make-shift one with 4 electric candles.  Hubby and I are not able to remember where we put it last year.  I seldom put it with my Christmas decor since I want it available before all the decor is done.  We finished up the inside decor today and did not find it in any of the boxes.  I went through all the boxes we did not use this year and still not advent wreath.  I am sure it will show up about week 3.

I am just glad to have the decorating completed and now I can sit back and enjoy the rest of the season.

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

Week 22 Update

Hello from a very chilly morning here in the deserts of Arizona.  It is 43F right now but will warm up into the 60's today yet.  Today also starts the first day of Advent and I have yet to find my Advent wreath to put on my table.  Hopefully I will find it today while going through our Christmas decorations for our home and tree.

There was crafting done this week, I am happy to say.  Let's take a look at what I did. 

One Christmas ornament was made this week for the local Grand Daughter.  She is the only one of the Grands that puts up a Christmas tree.  In fact, they put up 2 trees.  Yes, the spots on the mittens are sparkles.  This was made with some Lion Brand BonBon yarn I bought many moons ago with the idea of making American Girl Doll clothing.  The pattern called for DPN's and I made the first mitten with DPN's (it is the one on the right)  The second one I did with Magic Loop (the one on the left, duh) and it was much easier and turned out slightly nicer.  I put the dime there to give you a reference as to how tiny these are.

Then this happened.

A cute paw ornament.  Since the Grand got a puppy for her 14th birthday, I decided to do an ornament for him too.

That is his adoption photo I glued in the middle of it.  The family loves it.

The Fawkes socks were completed Thursday evening. (Thanksgiving)   I do no have any socks on my needles at the moment and really do not have any desire to cast on any either.  That may change in the coming week.  Who knows 

Now, this next one is totally new to me.  I told y'all Hubby bought me a Cricut Maker back in February.  It has been gathering dust since then.  I finally took a class at JoAnn's to learn the basics of how to use the thing.  Friday, was the day I decided to venture into the world of cutting vinyl for decoration.

The tumbler set is for a secret Santa gift with the family this year.  They were quite plain so I decided to dress them up a little.  It was so much fun.  I am now thinking of all the things I can make with this machine.  There are tons of gifts I could do with it and probably will.  I have joined a couple of Facebook groups that are just for Cricut users.  You may be seeing quite a bit more of this craft on my blog.

Today, we are going to be heading to Mass shortly.  Then it will be time for me to trim the Christmas tree.  Hubby got the outside of the house done yesterday.  We will also get our collection of Nativities out and put them around the house.  Tomorrow we are expecting company for the night so I also need to get the guest beds ready for them.  It will be busy around here today with all of that going on.  Good thing I have a couple of audio books loaded and ready to go.  Hubby will have football on the TV and I really do not have an interest in watching that when there is so much to be done elsewhere.  

OH!  I did manage to complete the daily blogging last month.  That is the third year I have done it but only the second year I followed through.  It was a challenge some days.  Especially since we did some traveling during that time.  The laptop/tablet I was using was so slow during the traveling.  Hubby had pity on me and bought me a brand new Windows Surface 7!  They were on sale at Costco a week ago.  He had been wanting to get me a new one for a a couple of years but I had been dragging my feet.  My old 2in1 was 'working' so why replace it.  Well!!!!!  After setting up my Surface I can see why he wanted me to switch.  Using my Cricut design space on the new one sure was a lot easier than on the old one.  The new one boots up immediately and shuts down in record time too.  With my old one, I could make a cup of tea and grab my breakfast while it was booting up and shutting down.   The best part of the new computer........my RA mis-shapen left hand does not have a problem typing on the keyboard.  This means I can once again type at my 70 WPM!  Ergonomics are very important to RA patients.  Thanks Honey for the early Christmas gift! 

To see what other's are up to "go here".

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

Day 30 of 30

This is the last day of National Blog Posting Month.  It was fun to post daily and yet at times it was a chore.  I do not think I could post daily 365 days a year.  There are many a blogger who does this and I admire them for their commitment.

Here is my thankful item for today.  I am very thankful for the ability to knit/crochet.  These crafts have become my resource when I am; bored, scared, anxious, happy, sad, worried, confused, in physical pain, hungry, etc.  Both my mom and her mom knit.  My Maternal Grandmother also crocheted and tatted.  Watching these woman ply their skills helped me to appreciate this art form.  They are both deceased and yet that art form lives on through me and now I have taught others in my family these skills.  My hope is, they then will teach their sons and daughters this art form also.

Tune in tomorrow to see what I have made this past week with these skills.

Day 29 of 30

Did you all have a good day yesterday?  We had such a great time at our Son's house.  There were 8 of us for dinner and it was splendid.  My DIL had things so well organized.  Things went so smooth.  We all walked out of there with leftovers too.  Yummy turkey sandwiches today.

Today I am very thankful for teachers.  I don't just mean school teachers either.  All people that teach others.  I have taken craft classes from some of these people and they have the patience of a saint.  I can be a bit hard headed when it comes to learning a new skill.  Yet the teachers I have had were so patient and kind.  Never did they roll their eyes or swear under their breath.  I have even remained friends with a few of these teachers over the years.  There are school teachers in our family also.  The one thing I learned quickly.....never tell they they have it easy.  Never tell them they only work 9 months out of the year and only from 8 until 3.  Never ever say those things unless you have quick reflexes and can dodge what ever may be thrown at you.  School teachers work from sun up until well past sun down.  Their biggest issue is not always the students either.  The parents can be their worst nightmare at times.  So, if you know a teacher (school or other type) take the time to stop and thank them for their time and patience.

TTYL