Almost Half Over Already

January 15, 2020Leave a comment

That would be January, that is. Look how fast it can sneak on by when we’re busy doing what we do. Remember, way back in the beginning I did mention that I have a tendency to fail to keep posting on any blog that I’ve created over time. I’m here. Really, I am.

That would be the result of the 2019 year-long KAL with Jimmy Beans Wool and Ambah O’Brien. There are a whole lot of these out there that all look just like mine. This is the Jimmy’s Choice color scheme. I want to make another one with my color choices including some yellows, greens, white, browns – you know – the colors if you’re imagining an actual sun shower.

That’s the Adventuresome Wrap, also by Ambah O’Brien. This was the Advent KAL from December, 2019. Each stripe represents the days before Christmas including a stripe for Christmas. I ran out of the gray gradient yarn so had to order more. Guess how much I actually needed to use. Half of the stripe for December 23rd and all of the stripe for Christmas Day. I thought I’d need more of the gold but didn’t so now I have another ball. This was Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball. Since I had leftovers of the gray I used it.

There’s more to share but why use them all up now? Since I’m probably getting close to using up my storage space here in my photo library I’m going to have to start pre-planning each post by finding the photos online then sharing them through their URL. All of these photos are also on my Flickr since I upload them there to move them over to Ravelry.

Back to my comfy chair and tonight’s knitting project. I’m also working on an Einstein Coat by Sally Melville. Oh, that reminds me. I finished another Sally Melville design a couple weeks ago. The Classic Shirt cardigan. I’ll share a photo soon.

I’ve also started my Carbeth by KDD (Kate Davies). I bought the Cascade 200 Superwash Sport over a year ago and finally decided it was time.

It’s that Make Nine in 2020 challenge that’s getting me motivated to finally knit those projects that I’ve purchased the yarn for.

Stay tuned.

Have You Been Patient?

December 23, 2019Leave a comment

You’ve been surfing the ‘net daily just waiting for me to post something, right? Sure you have.

Here I am. Yes, I have been here all along just knitting away. You know, it’s the knitting that keeps me from typing. Hmmm. If that were totally true then all that yarn wouldn’t keep arriving at my house. There isn’t a Yarn Fairy Godmother just sending it. There’s online shopping going on. Way too much online shopping. It’s crazy I tell you.

Day 19 — Adventuresome Wrap by Ambah O’Brien

This is mostly what has been keeping me busy over the past couple weeks. To be honest, since December 1st. Right now it’s on hold until more yarn arrives since I ran out of the silver. There’s enough of the gold left for one more day which is fine since there is only one more day of gold. There are two more days of silver. The last stripe is for Christmas Day. One of my thoughts was to knit Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in another color. A different ball of Shawl in a Ball with greens in it. I have one. There are greens and blues in it. It could still happen.

Other than knitting, what else have I been up to?

I’m trying to get organized for Stashdown 2020. There are two Ravelry forums that have lured me in. This should be fun. One forum is right in Ambah O’Brien’s group and the other is in Team Michigan. We are knitting from stash and sharing how many ounces, grams or yards of yarn we’re using up as the year progresses. We are allowed to buy more yarn during 2020. However, those purchases don’t count towards the Stashdown. We can only claim yarns that were purchased prior to 11:59 p.m. December 31, 2019. The great race begins :01 January 1, 2020 and ends 11:59 p.m. December 31, 2020. Oh, I feel the excitement already.

Do you?

Knitting and More Knitting

October 29, 2019Leave a comment

This is one of the sweaters that I’ve finished since I’ve been away. This one is #19 Drop Shoulder Pullover from a winter Vogue Knitting issue from about five years ago. The yarn is a close-out boucle from ICE Yarns purchased through Paradise Yarns. Since Paradise Yarns has such great prices, this sweater cost about $6 in materials and there’s a whole lot more yarn leftover. I’m thinking maybe a hat and legwarmers. I even doubled the yarn.

What else have I been up to?

For a few weeks I had a communications issue where I just plain old couldn’t access the world. Then, my phone would randomly turn off while I was using it. My mobile hotspot wouldn’t stay connected. That all lead to even more excitement.

While I was on the Verizon Facebook page in a conversation with several other VZ subscribers regarding our connectivity issues a customer service rep requested that I contact them through Chat. So, I did. They found that there was nothing wrong on their end and they were just as baffled as I was. I did some Googling and found out through one of the Windows Forums that the 1093 update may have something to do with hotspot issues. So, we created a new password and logged in again with the new information thinking that my laptop might think it’s a new network. It worked a little better but not much.

In the meantime – beware of any CSR that pops up in a Facebook chat in messenger. They may not be who they seem to be especially if their last name is Brown. I was contacted by two different reps with the last name of Brown wanting to know how my service was working. One had me so convinced that he was real that I gave him/her too much information which led to a new VZ account, new bank account, and an attempted bitcoin account creation.

Verizon is working with law enforcement to investigate since the person is impersonating one of their employees and used their logos and the exact verbage as the real person that I chatted with on the previous day right down to the order of the questions asked.

Beware. I never thought I’d be sucked in and there it was.

Oh yes, and a new phone made all the difference as well.

Monday Morning

August 26, 2019Leave a comment

Another Week Begins

This morning wasn’t as pretty as yesterday. I’d share a photo from yesterday but, as I’ve complained previously, getting photos to easily upload to the internet these days is a real pain. This sunflower photo was from a couple days ago. It’s not Mammoth as the seed package said it would be. The plant itself is about 6′ tall but the flower is less than 12″. Either way, it’s pretty. I’ll try again next year. There are a few other plants. One’s going to have twin blooms. That should be fun.

The painting on the house is almost done. There are two more boards that need to be done but we’re waiting for new gutters. Then, we have these hideous looking boards just under the porch roofs that need something. We found out that milled wood didn’t hold the Sikkens stain that we used when we originally stained the logs. Paint may be the way to go and I may just do it myself to save some $$$$. All I need is a brush, roller, paint, and a ladder. Lightly sanding the wood will have to be done first.

Originally, I was going to head up to the cabin this Thursday. Now, I’m feeling like I just want to ‘vacation in place’. It’s too funny when I say that. How does one who isn’t gainfully employed Vacation? My husband was going to go up with me but would have to return for work while I was going to stay for an entire week. My knitting group meets on Sept 10th and we’re going on a field trip to a yarn shop. So, I’m going to go up on the 9th or before. Can’t miss the field trip. There’s yarn involved.

Knitting. You know it’s going on here. I’ll share a photo of my Glass Houses shawl after today since I’m pretty sure it’s going to be finished today. I’ve got just about 30 rows left. There will be 215 stitches on the last row after all the decreases so maybe it won’t be done today.

My next project to finish is the Shakerag that is turning into a cardigan. Right now I’m up to the armhole separation. Silly me started the neck decreases at the same time. No, I don’t want my front neckline as low as the armhole on my cardigan. Good thing I realized what I did only 8 rows into the mess.

Market Bags. I want to knit some. I’ve got five giant cones of cotton in a cabinet. Bulky or heavy worsted weight cottons in earth tones that I bought close to 20 years ago. The quality of the cotton is similar to the dishcloth cottons so it will all be perfect for market bags. I’m getting real tired of those plastic bags.

Back to my Glass Houses before breakfast.

Have a great Monday!

Oh, So Frustrated

August 23, 2019Leave a comment

Shakerag by Amy Christoffers (Did I spell that right?)

No, not frustrated by a finished Shakerag although that had me in quite the challenge. It’s all fixed and better now. I was up to the armholes on the first attempt and discovered that I had used too many strands of yarn so it was turning into a sweater that two of me could fit into. It’s oversized to begin with.

I wore it a few times now and it’s so comfy and breezy on a hot day with those sheer stripes where one strand of yarn is used.

Now for the frustration. My internet has been awful. It doesn’t matter where I am. Up north, down here. My mobile hotspot will not stay connected so, once again, I’m pretty sure I won’t be using up my 15gb of montly allotment of the high-speed data. Righto. High speed. Sure.

Geeze O Pete

July 27, 2019Leave a comment

Current Knitting Project

Half-Pint Hoodie by Bonnie Evans

So, those of you who are knitters. I have one extremely important question for all of you.

Why in the world do you not buy all the yarn before I get onto the internet every day? Huh? What is with that? Why are you leaving yarn out there for me to buy? Will I live long enough to knit with all this yarn?

Maybe I should start selling some off and start a yarn IRA or CD or some kind of investment fund. Are there yarn companies that sell stock? I could trade my WW stock and buy yarn shares. No. I won’t. I hardly paid anything for my WW stock and it’s doing rather well at the moment. Thank you Oprah.

What else have I been up to? I’m a grandma to fraternal twin boys now. They arrived one month early on June 26th. Their due date was July 25th but, hey, why wait? They tried to get them to change their minds but they weren’t having it. Both boys are home with Mom and Dad now and doing rather well. I haven’t visited them since the were reunited but will be this coming week unless they are still under strict house quarantine. They’re still tiny so visitors are limited to none or just Grandmas or Grandpas. That’s a crowd in itself.

Keep stopping by. Who knows? Maybe I’ll write something every now and then. I warned you, didn’t I?

Wore Out Another One

June 15, 2019Leave a comment

Pretty much, since starting this blog, the photos that you’ve seen came from this little beauty. This year we’ve been starting a downward spiral of our friendship. It began in May when I discovered the fungus forming under the lens. Somewhere around here I have a photo of that and, maybe in a minute, I’ll look for it and share it with you.

This past few days Elph has been really persnickety and has been sassy. He will take one photo and be fine but only if that photo is taken with the default distance when the camera is turned on. Zooming just makes him mad and he turns off and gives me some sort of cranky message about a Lens Error and must shut down followed by a please restart camera.

Been there before. This little guy was cheap enough so, off to eBay I go. Actually, I had already surfed eBay a couple weeks ago to see what was out there. Maybe Elph was too close to the laptop screen and saw that.

In a few days Elph’s replacement will be arriving. We’re going back to the red side, although the seller calls it pink. Canon’s pink is usually closer to red. I’ve had a red PowerShot before and still have another refurbished PowerShot SX400 IS that is not pocket-friendly. My previous red PowerShot met up with my hind end when I sat on it in my red Jeep TJ one afternoon.

So that the uncooperative cameras don’t end up sitting around here just looking cute but not pulling their photographic weight, I list them on eBay as is. They sell. Quickly, too, I might add.

Maybe one of you out there has my previous red PowerShot and it’s treating you well. I don’t have the patience or the knowledge to take these apart, fix their issues, put them back together successfully so that they can live on.

Now, a sewing machine on the other hand – if it’s an old one, though.

Note: The fungus photo is not to be found. It’s here somewhere but probably still on my phone.

A Sunny Day in June

June 11, 2019Leave a comment

Here’s proof of the claim that it’s a sunny day. Note the date in the lower right hand corner? Although, I have had cameras with their dates all messed up before which I noticed the other day. My other Canon was off by a year and I’m hoping I fixed that.

What else? The baby shower went well – sorta. There were games but not the traditional baby-shower games. We played Mario Cart then had a raffle using the coins that we won just by meeting certain requirements such as RSVPs, bringing diapers, gifts, playing the game and catching other party attendees saying one of four words “baby, babies, twin, twins.” I caught my mom saying ‘babies’ then she tricked me into saying it. She got her coin back.

Playing Mario Cart didn’t go as well for me as I would have thought it did. You see, back in the day I was pretty darn good with those video games. My first competitor was my sister Cyndi who I beat out. My second competitor was Chad’s friend Craig who was messing with me telling me he wasn’t good at games. I saw through that since he’s of a certain age that grew up playing these games – the same age as my kids. Yep, he won.

The best part was that Craig’s daughter Madison was one of the two finalists. Revenge time Craig. My daughter Laura was Madison’s competition. Madison had a smug look on her face like a teenager can surely knock out a 30-something. Not so fast there Madison. Laura is one awesome game player and she kicked butt. Go our team!

That’s a whole ‘nother topic. Laura. Somewhere along the way in our post-divorce from her father relationship she has developed some sort of hatred towards me so when we’re in the same room it’s like playing with two magnets. Did you ever do that? Put two magnets on a table and move them towards each other with the opposite ends so they run away instead of stick? That’s Laura. She has totally attached herself to her dad and his wife which is odd to me since he was always her least favorite parent growing up since he was always so hard on her when, at the same time, not hard at all on her younger sister.

Mother’s Day comes around each year with no acknowledgement from her. It’s only been the last two years that a happy birthday text comes through.

As all the photos from the other shower attendees are being shared and posted online I don’t show up anywhere but their dad and his wife are all over the place. It seems that invisibility is my best talent at these gatherings. The same happened at my niece’s wedding last August. The one who takes the most photos, Laura, is a former professional photographer and has an excellent skill at keeping me out of photos.

Yes, the whole situation makes me sad and makes me wonder what it was that I did or said. Karen said she knows but she doesn’t want to get into any drama. Any time I try to find out anything I’m told not to start drama. When there’s a gathering, even those not related to me tell me to not start any drama. I am not one to start drama. Why do they all think I would start drama? Where does that come from? Is it because I’m hurting inside all the time over the past ten years or so? They think it would be starting drama if I try to find out what it is?

You know how something just gnaws at your insides? I lose sleep over this. This is the first time that I have put any of this in print. Laura doesn’t follow me anywhere any longer and has unfollowed me on social media other than Facebook where she rarely goes anyway. She unfollowed me on Instagram while I was standing right next to her while we were at my niece’s (her cousin’s) wedding last August. Not like you’re not being obvious there, right? I was doing nothing with her posts since I am not an internet troll.

Got me totally confused.

Sadly, I’ve got friends who also have one child who treats them the same way.

June!

June 5, 2019Leave a comment

2019 Temperature Table Runner

I pulled this out on Sunday and managed to add four days worth of stripes. That brought me up to February 24th. Yes, it’s a little bit behind in progress but, we can’t finish these until after December 31st anyway. No worries. It will be done in a timely manner, promise.

Other actions going on around here are varied. I’m working on my vegetable garden and am thinking of expanding the size for next year. When I mentioned that to my husband he said “go for it”.

We finally found someone to work on our house so yesterday the porch on the east side was almost done with the ceiling painting. After the tongue & groove is done then the beams are next. All of us failed to put the work request/quote together properly to include the porch on the west side which is identical to the porch on the east side. No worries. It’s just more time and money and we’ll get it done. After the porches are done then it’s time to move to the trim boards up on the second floor dormer windows. All eight of them rotted where they come in contact with the roof. The house is 14 years old now so some things need to be done.

I’m knitting. The baby shower was Sunday so all those baby things have now moved to my daughter’s house. There are more in progress for colder weather wear that they will get after the boys are born and going forward as they grow. I’m updating all the photos of the finished sweaters on my Flickr and in Ravelry.

Right now I’m working on Same But Different by Anketstrick (Fallmasche) which is a variation of Walnus (spelling?) It’s a top-down project which requires more concentration if you ask me. If you miss something it makes a really big difference. I’m below the armholes now so there’s shaping and design elements going on at the same time. The yarn that I’m using is a recycled 100% alpaca that I purchased from a seller on eBay that buys sweaters and unravels them. This yarn is so soft and would have cost me a whole lot more than the $20 something that I paid for it.

I’ve also got a Shakerag top in progress for those times when I don’t want to concentrate so much. I’m using two cones of laceweight yarns that I’ve had for close to 30 years. One is silk and the other is linen – both in the same shade of sage green. They were purchased from Robin & Russ Handweavers for probably around $5 each. The yardage is non-stop.

We’ve got rain coming again and could be here any time now. They say by 7:44 it’s going to be in the town that southwest of here. Since I didn’t go buy the stain for the porch beams I’m hoping for a day of reprieve between the paint and stain.

Have a great Wednesday!

May 22, 2019Leave a comment

I have baby plants! Yay! Does this mean that this year’s garden will be way more successful than last year’s? I’m hoping.

Last year, though, I had a problem with interlopers. A mamma rabbit decided that my garden would be the perfect nursery for her three babies. They stuck around for just over two weeks. I found them when I was weeding between the lettuce rows and couldn’t figure out why there was a small pile of grass clippings in between the rows but close to the lettuce. I’m thinking she may have preferred lettuce over kale, maybe?

When I found the grass I went to pick it up to put it in my weed bucket and it started squeaking. They were older than newborns and already had their eyes open and sassy dispositions. Mom must have had them there while I was up north the previous few days. My trail cam was set up and it was rather entertaining seeing how often Mom came by and when she let them out at night to run around. She also popped up from time to time looking over the edge of the wood to check on them during the day.

We have another set of babies now under one of the arborvitae on the south side of the house. My trail cam has been watching and I’m finding that Mom is visiting more frequently than I’m seeing her and she keeps a tight schedule.