Bead Knitter Gallery

Wheat Rib Uploaded

2012-01-31T17:26:00.000-08:00

Finally, the testing and editing for my Wheat Ribs Socks is done and I've uploaded it to the net. If you're interested in having your very own copy of the pattern, visit my pattern blog:

click here ----> Beadknitter Patterns

Live long and prosper. \\//

Poinsettia Santa Progress

2012-01-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

I should have included this in yesterdays post. I've been working a bit on the felted Christmas stocking.

I added the packages and leaves at the toe last night. The black dots on the pink package are French Knots. I'm so proud of myself. I didn't have to redo a single one of them.

The weather is continuing the sunshine and blue sky today, though not as warm. It's 29F. That's quite a difference from yesterdays balmy 41F. Snow is predicted for the weekend.

I got quite a bit done on the BRS second sock yesterday too. I'm almost done with the foot part. Soon I will be doing the heel, following the patterns instructions I've written one line at a time to make sure I got it right.

Well, I think I'll take Cable for a walk. It's so beautiful out, I hate to miss the opportunity to soak up a wee bit of vitamin D.

I leave you with this.

Please Mom, can we get rid of the dog already?

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday 1/25/2012

2012-01-25T17:06:00.000-08:00

Here's an update on the projects I'm working on this week. Of course, we have yesterdays pictured sock.

We also have the orange baby cardigan. The left front is almost done.

Then we have this, which is supposed to be the sleeve of a shrug for Knit Wits.

I stopped at this point because all of the first of the 3 balls of fuzzy yarn I have has been used and it's obvious that I do not have enough to do the whole shrug. (Did that make sense?) So I'm going to frog back a ways and start a stripe pattern. I really thought I could make the 3 balls of mint fur work, but alas. No such luck. I've found a skein of a mint/blue bulky boucle' to use for the stripes. Just gotta sit down and get to it.

I'm also working on this beading project.

It's a Christmas ornament cover I started some time around Christmas. I was doing it with size 8 seed beads instead of the 3mm pearls that the pattern called for, but I didn't like it, so I put it on hold until I could get some pearls, which I did a couple weeks ago. Last night I worked on it a bit, removing the size 8's and putting in the pearls. I like it much better now.

That snow we were gonna get last night ended up turning to rain. It got all the way up to 38F before I went to bed. There was a very warm wind blowing from the south and at least half of the snow we had on the ground melted away. Interesting turn of events.

At yesterdays Rathdrum Knitalong meeting I gave a little presentation on basic sweater finishing. I took my Jiffy Steamer, blocking board, and whatnot. The members made 2 swatches in preparation for the 'class'. I taught them how to steam block and then I went through some basic techniques for sewing sweater pieces together. I really enjoyed doing it. I'll have to think up some other subjects to present to them.

Speaking of teaching, you may notice I don't have the "Classes I'm Teaching" button in the side bar any more. I have decided to stop teaching at the shop. I got so few students in the last year that setting apart that day each week for it just isn't worth it. I can find more productive things to do with my time. Besides, being in 3 different knitting groups keeps me busy enough.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

One Foot To Go

2012-01-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

I finished the first sock of my new design. It is tentatively called the Blog Reader Special socks cuz that's what kind of yarn I'm using to make them, one of Knitivity's Blog Reader Specials.

I love the way the colors pooled on the foot. I hope the second sock will be similar. I am also proud of the short row heel. It's the best one I've done-hand knitting, that is. (My machine knit ones put this one to shame.)

Speaking of sock designs, Wheat Rib Socks is still being tested. Man, did I make a lot of mistakes in the writing of that pattern. The way I wrote the instructions for the heel was a real mess. I'm so glad I've got test knitters other than me. Testing ends by the end of this month. Then I'll be able to post it on the pattern page.

I think I mentioned in my last post that we have snow. It's melted a little bit, but then we got more last night and now we have 8 inches. It's snowing again right now. We'll probably have more by morning.

Cable absolutely LOVES snow. She lays in it, rolls in it, runs in it, happily frolics and dances in it. I've never seen a dog that loves snow as much as she does. It's funny to watch her playing in the snow. I took some pictures of her.

Here ya go Mom.

She's getting pretty good at retrieving too. It's so nice to be able to toss a toy and she'll run and get it and bring it back.

Wheeeee!

Catch the vicious frizbee toy!

Waiting for me to throw it again.

Rolling in the snow.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Vanguard Ribbon Bracelet

2012-01-21T15:41:00.000-08:00

I did some beading. I made a bracelet. I joined my first Bead Along of the year. The pattern was written and provided by Carolyn, owner of CSD Designs, an Artfire shop. She is also the owner of the Yahoo beading group, Seedbeadersters that had the Bead Along.

I finished the bracelet yesterday morning. It was so pretty I decided to wear it when I went grocery shopping. Somewhere between the front door and the store the bracelet fell off and I lost it. I spent the better part of the day looking for it in the snow around my car (we had over 8 inches), in the house, in the parking lot at the store, and in the store itself. I was quite upset about losing it. Especially so quickly. It had only been done an hour!

Well, today my sweet hubby and I went outside. We kind of dug around the snow a bit in hopes of finding it, but no luck. So hubby decided to plow the parking area. He put all the snow that was around or under where my car was parked in a pile and then come spring, when it melted, if the bracelet was there, I would find it. After he got done, I was standing in the freshly plowed parking area when I looked down and there, in the ice, was my bracelet! He'd run over it several times with the tractor, so it took some doing to pry it out. But it wasn't damaged. In fact, it's just fine.

The base is Peyote stitch done with size 8 pearl off-white seed beads.

It's embellished on top with size 11 Czech seed beads in silver lined Montana Blue and size 12 Charlottes in pearl off-white. The picots on the side are off white transparent size 15 seed beads. The 4mm crystals are Mountain Blue Swarovski.

I put a silver box clasp on it. I have learned to make sure it's hooked together properly before leaving the house.

I did have to adjust the pattern a bit because it called for Japanese size 11 seed beads and I used something just slightly smaller in the embellishment. I added extra beads where necessary.

The pattern is available at CSD Designs as the Vanguard Ribbon bracelet.

We did finally get the snow storm. It snowed Wednesday night and all day long on Thursday. It snowed a bit Friday too. We had a total of about 8 inches. Today it warmed up and melted some and now the weather prediction is for rain.

Well, I think I'll get some knitting done this afternoon. I've gotta finish that sock for Ray.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Simple Woman's Daybook for January 18, 2012

2012-01-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...

The snow has finally arrived. It's coming down like crazy. We've already got 3 inches in just 3 hours. It's supposed to do this the whole rest of the week.

I am thinking...

I need to get some beading done today.

I am thankful...

that I have a nice warm comfy home to be in during this kind of weather.

In the kitchen...

is a pile of dishes that need to be done. I will tackle them after I get done with this. For dinner tonight, we're having beef stew and grilled cheese sandwiches. Good food for snowing evenings.

I am wearing...

A light avocado green short sleeved sweater and dark avocado green pants.

I am creating...

as always. I'm still working on the new sock design. I've spent a great deal of my time on the writing part, working on the heel and leg instructions. Not as easy as you might think. I've got it printed out and now I'm going to see if knitting it as written will work.

I am going...

no where today. Heck no! I'm staying out of that nasty white stuff! I'm going to get some laundry done, and do some beading. I'll knit this evening after dinner.

I am wondering...

how deep the snow is going to get. Originally, this storm was supposed to be here on Monday and drop 12 inches in the valleys (more in the mountains). That didn't happen, so then they said it was coming on Tuesday and it would drop 12 inches in the valleys. That didn't happen either. By yesterday afternoon they were saying the worst of it was going to be south of us and we'd probably get 2 to 4 inches today. Sheesh! If it's worse south of us, I have some empathy for those folks!

I am reading...

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I decided to find out what all the fuss is about. I'm enjoying it, though it's a bit more violent than I'm used to in my mystery stories.

I am hoping...

the weather will let up some tomorrow because we're supposed to have our first Yarnies meeting in our new location. As I mentioned last month, we were asked to stop meeting at the yarn shop (yeah-I'm stunned too) so we're going to start meeting at a coffee shop in downtown Coeur d'Alene called Calypso's. I went in and talked to the manager/owner about it and he was very happy with the idea. I tried their coffee too and it's pretty good. They roast their own right there on the premises.

I am looking forward to...

having Cable fully crate trained. We bought a collapsible wire crate for her last week. I've got her understanding that 'kennel up' means to get in the crate, but she doesn't like being forced to stay in it. I did leave her in it for a couple hours yesterday while I went to the Rathdrum Knitalong meeting, but she was pretty stressed out when I got home. The bed was bunched up into a corner. So every day I am going to have her in the crate for awhile while I'm here, making her stay there while I do something in another room (like taking my shower). I did that today and she actually started to relax a bit after being in there for about 30 minutes.

I am learning

how to take care of Cable. She is so different from the Iggies. For one thing, she doesn't sleep 2/3rds of the day away like the boys did. She's awake pretty much all day and wanting to be entertained. Fortunately, she plays with her toys very well. I'm also figuring out what kind of dog chews she likes and I've taught her to retrieve already (did I mention she's smart?) so I can exercise her pretty well throwing her frisbee toy out in the yard, or a stick, or a ball. She definitely loves to run. She also loves the snow.

Around the house...

It's pretty quiet. The cats are sleeping on Ruth's bed and Cable is laying on the floor next to me. She's not asleep cuz I hear a sigh every so often. Ruth is not here. She left last Saturday to go visit her sister in Rhode Island for two weeks. I am not used to being all alone here with the fur kids.

I am pondering...

why there is so much insanity going on in this years race for presidency. I'm worried about the mess this country is in right now. No one qualified to fix it has stepped up to the plate. No one in our government seems to have the courage or character to do what needs to be done to fix it either. When they are sworn into office, they take an oath to protect the constitution and the people. Lately I feel like they are doing neither.

A favorite quote for today...

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
Steven Weinberg

One of my favorite things...

Pouring a shot of Irish whiskey or Southern Comfort and putting it in the microwave for a few seconds. Boy, that'll warm me up nicely.

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Not much. Yarnies tomorrow. Other than that, my plans are to stay warm and dry and get some things done around the house. Maybe knit and bead, and continue to teach Cable.

Picture thought to share...

"Oof!"

If you want to join the Simple Woman's Daybook, click here.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday 1/11/2012

2012-01-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

I'm getting some knitting squeezed into my day.

I'm making good progress on the orange baby aran. The back is almost done. The orange is looking a lot brighter to me knit up than it did just in the skein.

I also started a shrug for Knit Wits. At the meeting last week I fell madly in love with a mint green fur yarn with sparkles in it. I decided to bring it home and do something with it. I'm starting with some plain off white acrylic, doubled, for a ribbed cuff. I'm doing it in the round so I don't have to sew it up later.

I think I'll do 5 inches for the cuff, then see how far I can make the fur go using big size 15 needles and a drop stitch pattern. I've got 3 balls of the stuff, 82 yards per ball. I should be able to make that work. This will be my brainless portable project.

I am also working on the BRS sock for my friend Ray.

I've had an interesting time with this design. As you'll remember, I chose a slip stitch pattern because it would look great with the variegation of the yarn. Slip stitch patterns, in general, tend to make a fabric that is wider and shorter than fabric done in stockinette stitch. It can be vastly different in gauge despite the same number of stitches and rows knitted. I wasn't sure if that would happen with this particular pattern, but I suspected it would. The only way to really find out was to start knitting.

This is another one of those stitch patterns that can't be reversed, so the socks are being knit from the toe up. After getting the toe done, I started with stockinette stitch for the sole and the slip stitch pattern for the instep (top of foot). When the slip stitch side was 3.5 centimeters long from the toe there was a very visible puckered look to the sole. I measured it and it was 4.5 centimeters long instead of 3.5. That is quite a difference for so short a distance. So I tinked back to the toe and I'm doing the whole foot in stockinette stitch. I'll put the slip stitch pattern on the leg.

We haven't had any more new snow, but it's been cold enough that what we have isn't melting much during the day. Watching Cable play in the snow is very entertaining. She LOVES it. She rolls around in it, frolics in it, lays in it-on her back and on her tummy, and even eats it. I'd say that's the Husky in her

.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Adventures With Cable

2012-01-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

I have been quite busy of late. Mostly cleaning. I won't go into details why, but my daughter is now paying us back $1300 by working for us cleaning the house from top to bottom since she doesn't have a real job. Think in terms of spring cleaning type activity going on here. It would be nice if I could say "clean this room" and walk away, but it's not that easy. I have to instruct her how I want it cleaned, and at the same time she's cleaning I'm going through everything taken out of cupboards and boxes and getting rid of things we don't need or use any more. So it's taking up a lot of my time. Somehow, it doesn't seem right that I should be working so much harder when it's the daughter who's the one in trouble. My kitchen hasn't been this clean in quite awhile though, and daughter took a rather stuffed car load of items to Goodwill yesterday.

Last Thursday and Friday we started working on my knitting room, which hasn't been a knitting room since I closed my yarn shop. It's been a storage room. I want it back. I want to set up one of my knitting machines so I can use it. Can't do that until I get that room cleaned out. It's been 6 years since I closed the shop. It's amazing how much of that stuff I brought home, like office supplies and whatnot, I don't want or need any more. I actually unloaded a whole closet full of stuff on to Goodwill.

I also can now see how much knitting machine yarn I have. Sheesh! I need to get my machines going!

The room is not done yet, but progress has been made.

We have a bit of snow. Last week Sweet Hubby ordered a new Touring bike, custom built. The day after he gave them the required deposit, it started snowing. So he probably won't get to ride that new bike until spring.

Cable is adapting to her new home. She's definitely to the point that she's accepted it, happily. She loves it here at the Parkarosa. So now she's started the misbehaving.

On Friday, she stole a pork chop off the platter that was sitting on the kitchen counter after dinner. Just grabbed that sucker and ran with it. She also has been caught licking dirty plates on the counter. She is so much bigger than the Iggies were! She stands up on her hind legs and the kitchen counter is clearly available for her amusement. It's going to take some adjusting on our part to keep things away from her, and she has to learn to keep away from the kitchen counter.

On Sunday Sweet Hubby took her for a walk on the Parkarosa. I told him not to let her off the leash yet. It's too early. He didn't listen. Somewhere in the woods she ditched him. So he spent time trying to find her. In the meantime, she'd come home and was waiting for him outside in the yard. My daughter saw her out there trotting around the yard, but assumed her father was out there with Cable. It's good that she came home after ditching Sweet Hubby, rather than taking off down the road like she did the first week we had her.

Later that day we decided to take Cable over to brother-in-law Dan's house to meet their dog Tripper. It is important that Tripper and Cable be friends because we do so much together. Well, it didn't start off so good. Tripper attacked (which is not normal for him) Cable because he was startled to find a strange dog in his house. We pulled them apart. Then Cable was afraid of Tripper, hiding behind me and growling at him for awhile. We leashed Tripper up to prevent any more fighting and took both dogs outside for a walk together. Within an hour they were all happy and playing together and having a good time. I am so relieved.

Me? Misbehave?

Yesterday I had to go into Coeur d'Alene so I locked Cable in the bathroom with her bed, a blanket, a chew toy, a bone, and her lizard stuffy while we were gone. Oh boy! When I got home and opened the door, she'd been a bad girl. She ate a goodly portion of the toilet paper, and managed to drag most everything off the bathroom counter, including a couple bottles of my medication. She'd chewed the plastic bottle of one of them into pieces. Pills were all over the floor. It scared the bejeezers out of me! I gathered all the pills and carefully counted them. ALL were accounted for. She didn't eat any of them! She just ate the plastic bottle they came in. Nothing harmful got into her. I think we were pretty lucky there. Leaving her in there wasn't a good idea.

She also got her collar off and chewed it into pieces. She is now sporting a brand new much heavier and somewhat tighter collar. I don't think she'll be chewing through this one. We are going to be purchasing a crate for her later this week. She can't be trusted on her own when we leave her to go somewhere. I think, though, in time, that will change as she learns where her boundaries are. She's such a smart girl. I've got her retrieving now, and she comes immediately when she's called every time which is great!

I am going to be getting a wire collapsible crate for her. She is such a big dog she'll need a big crate. We don't have room in this house for a large crate sitting around all the time. At the feed store, in Rathdrum, they showed me this really cool crate that collapses flat so it can be easily set up, taken down, and stored. Sounds perfect for us.

I have been knitting and beading too, but there's nothing to show because I promptly frogged it all and started over. I'll get into that more tomorrow.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday 1/4/2012

2012-01-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

Lets start the first Wednesday of the year with a WIP Wednesday post, shall we?

On New Years Eve I started a Baby Aran sweater for Knit Wits.

The yarn is a Lion Brand Sayelle 100% acrylic that was donated to Knit Wits. So far, I'm liking it. It's nice yarn to work with even though it is very old.

I started a new sock project yesterday. I'm going to design some sock patterns for an independent yarn dyer, Knitivity, for him to sell or give away with his yarns. I worked out the stitch pattern I'm going to use and made a swatch to see how it will look in the yarn I chose. I'm using a slip-stitch pattern with an interesting cable in it combined with regular rib. I'm waiting for Ray's opinion before I cast on the first sock.

I decided to start with a skein of yarn I actually bought from him last year. It is one of his Blog Reader Specials-yarns he dyes with leftover dyes, or maybe they're yarns that didn't come out the way he wanted for a particular customer so he puts them up on his blog and sells them. All of them are one-of-a-kind yarns.

I am teaching Cable how to fetch. I bought this funny looking frisbee toy to do it. The first time I took her out, Monday, I would throw the toy and say 'fetch'. She'd run to the toy, then run back to me, leaving the toy behind. Yesterday she brought the toy back to me about 50% of the time. That is pretty good progress! I expect by the end of the week she'll be a pro at fetching. She is such a smart girl and seems to learn things quickly.

We still have no snow. The temps have dropped down, but the sun continues to shine and the days are beautiful. I have to admit, it's a lot easier walking a dog in this kind of weather than if we had a foot or more of snow. Yesterday morning I heard Towhee's up in the trees. It was a surprise to hear them. Usually I don't hear them until spring. Last summer I heard a lot of predictions about being in snow up to our ears this winter. They haven't been accurate. We do need snow on the mountains though, or it will be a very dry summer.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Wow, where did 2011 go? I can't believe it's 2012 already.

As you can see, I am starting the New Year with a new blog template. I have been having problems with the format of the old template and could not figure out how to fix it. After some discussion with Sweet Hubby, I decided to get one of the Blogger WYSIWYG layout templates and customize it. It's more compatible with Blogger and much easier for me to mess around with.

I hope your New Years eve was a pleasant one. We went to my nieces house and partied. I played two games of Farkel and actually won one of them. I also started a new knitting project, which I'll talk about at a later date. Mostly I ate, drank, and was merry.

The biggest thing, though, is we took Cable with us and introduced her to the family. I was very nervous about this. Dogs can sense your nervousness and will feel anxious too, so I was trying very hard to remain calm. I was worried about all the family dogs. Would Cable get along with them? Would they accept her?

You see, Tommy and Morgan were not socialized properly with other dogs, which has remained a complete and total mystery to me because Morgan was a retired show dog (he was afraid of dogs bigger than him. He was fine with dogs smaller than him) and Tommy spent 2 years in a shelter with big Greyhounds. But he had a terrible time getting along with other dogs. For the most part, I had to leave them both home whenever the family had one of it's parties. So I was expecting bad things to happen with Cable.

I need not have worried. Rocky and Gracie (my nieces dogs) were happy to meet her, and she was happy to meet them. None of the other family dogs were there, so it was less overwhelming for me and Cable. We'll meet the rest at a later date.

Introducing her to the people was a little bit more difficult. She is extremely timid around humans. Especially men, which makes me wonder. She really pulled on the leash when we walked in the door and she saw all these strangers. But I dragged her in anyway. I introduced her individually to each person (this is your cousin Brendan, this is your grandma Diane, this is your aunt Sue...), and everyone gave her lovins. My husband's family are big dog lovers. I sat at the table most of the evening playing games. She spent the time under the table, watching. Every so often she'd venture out to sniff someone, then retreat under the table. By the end of our evening she was much more relaxed and willing to be petted.

I remember when I first brought Morgan home he was deathly afraid of people. Especially men, because his prime abuser was a man. After a year with us he would happily trot up to any stranger he met. I think, in time, Cable will get over her fear of people too.

The knitting project I started will be a baby sweater for Knit Wits using my favorite baby aran cardigan pattern. I'm using a soft orange yarn. I got it cast on and the bottom welt done.

I've been thinking about what knitting goals I want to set for 2012. I want to get a sweater made for me. I should work on the Alice Starmore sweater and get it done. I'm going to write more patterns to post on my Beadknitter Patterns blog too. That should keep me busy.

What knitting goals do you have?

Live long and prosper. \\//

Stacked Lace Fingerless Mitts

2011-12-31T18:12:00.000-08:00

My last finished project of 2011.

Purple Stacked Eyelet Fingerless Mitts

Pattern: Stacked Eyelet Mitts by me
Size: Womans

Yarn: Jojoland Melody Superwash
Content: 100% Superwash Wool

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 5.

Cast on: December 15, 2011
Completed: December 30, 2011

Comments: I designed these to match the Stacked Eyelet Cowl. I made up the pattern myself. I will probably write this up later, after I get the current sock pattern done (which is being test knit).

Close up of stitch pattern.

These were supposed to be done before Christmas, but I didn't make it. I guess they'll be late getting to their future owner.

Now, what to work on next.........

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did I mention I had a good Christmas? Well, I did. Christmas Eve we went to BIL Dan's house for the annual dinner with the family. It was extra fun this year. I think because I was feeling fairly good. I was still coughing a bit and my nose was dribbling a little. My energy was coming back, though, and it felt great. Dinner was delicious. SIL Sue prepared an awesome Prime Rib roast. There was potatoes, and salads, and veggies, and jello piled high. So many different dishes I couldn't try them all before I got full. Then there was dessert. Groan.... I definitely ate too much.

The next morning we got up and opened our stockings and presents. I am now the proud owner of the complete Star Trek Voyager series on DVD. I'm looking forward to watching it because I missed seeing at least half of the episodes when it was airing on tv. It was being shown at an inconvenient time for me, and we didn't have DVR back then.

Woo hoo! I own it all now. (Well, except the animated series but I'm not interested in that.) I am in Star Trek heaven.

I also got chocolates, a $25 gift card to Amazon (does my family know me, or what?), a clock with a Moose on the face, a tiny little Spock Christmas ornament complete with tiny little tricorder in his hands, and more chocolate.

We went to our friends house for Christmas dinner, and stayed up late playing cards. It was a very enjoyable evening.

It snowed just enough that weekend to give us a white Christmas. Then, on Monday the Pineapple Express hit town. The winds blew in from the south warm, rain fell in torrents, and the snow is all gone. On Thursday the weather was so warm I took Cable on a nice long walk. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and it was 50F degrees.We went 2 miles.

On Friday it was a little wetter because it slushed the night before. Yes, slushed. It was like walking on spilled Slurpys from 7-11. I took Cable on a stroll in the woods for about a mile. Now I ache from head to toe. Ugh. But she sure enjoyed it. The slush melted away and things dried up later that day.

Rumor has it temps are going to be dropping this next week.

Cable is amazing. She is so smart and well behaved. And so quiet! We haven't heard a single bark from her. When the chicken mailman delivered a package on Thursday morning she didn't even react to it. She saw the truck through the window and just sort of shrugged and went back to chewing her bone. Tommy usually went ape nuts with the barking and the jumping and running outside to greet him. The mailman was very afraid of Tommy. I never saw a mailman so afraid of a little dog in my life. All the other delivery guys that come by would just get out of their trucks and walk to the door, ignoring Tommy and his barking completely. Not this mailman. He'd sit in his truck, honking his horn, and yelling that the dog wouldn't let him out. Give me a break. He could have sent Tommy flying across the yard with one kick.

Meanwhile, we have not told the mailman that Tommy is gone yet. A few weeks ago he came by and had pepper spray in his hand. Tommy never harmed that man. He just stood at a distance and barked at the guy. To bring pepper spray! It made me angry. So I decided he can just go on being afraid for awhile. I don't know what he's gonna do when he gets a look at Cable. She's a lot bigger than Tommy.

I noticed the formatting of my blog is weird today. I don't know why. It's nothing I did. I haven't touched the code of my template at all. I'm assuming Blogger has a bug messing things up and it will work itself out eventually.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Cable Knit Park

2011-12-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

I've got fantastic news that I'd rather write about than how nice my Christmas was (and it was very nice).

I have a new fur kid!

I drove up to Panhandle Animal Shelter in Sandpoint yesterday to see this girl. She is 1.5 years old, part German Shepherd and part Husky, and weighs about 60 lbs. She is so sweet and gentle. Her name was Cuddles, but we've changed it to Cable. Cable Knit Park.

She tends to be pretty timid around strangers, but other than that she was everything I'd been looking for in a dog. Potty trained, good with cats and other dogs, quiet (not a barker), smart, healthy, young, right mix of breeds.

I noticed how friendly she was with the shelter volunteers so I knew that timidness could easily be overcome.She is warming up to me fairly quickly. By 10pm last night she was kissing and hugging me.

Her previous owner turned her into the shelter because he "didn't have time for her any more". I'm not sure what that means, but his loss is our gain.

At the shelter, they took her into the cat area so I could see how she is with cats. This dog loves cats. She's had cats for friends before. I don't think she'll ever make friends with my 2 because they don't like dogs, but she won't be trying to kill them or chase them around which is the most important thing to me. She seems to understand they have sharp parts too. When she walked up to Chenille to sniff her, and Chenille growled at her, she backed right off (with a quiet little whimper).

Last night I had her sleep on a blanket on the floor next to the bed. I hooked her leash to the bed post so she couldn't be wandering around. It took about half an hour for her to settle down. She wanted up on the bed but I didn't let her do that. Eventually she laid down and went to sleep.

About 3 am she woke me up by pushing her nose against my arm. She wanted to go outside. I took her out and she did her business right away. In fact, every time I've taken her out she's done her business. We haven't had an accident in the house yet. Anyway, after that she settled back down on the blanket and went back to sleep. She was quiet until I woke up at 7am this morning.

It hasn't all been roses though. This afternoon I went into Coeur d'Alene for my monthly blood test. While I was away Ruth took her out for business and a walk. We had a temporary leash/collar thingy that the shelter gave us until I could get a decent collar for her (I already own a whole slew of good leashes that were Morgan and Tommy's). She managed to jerk it out of Ruth's hand and took off into the woods. Ruth tried to catch her, but couldn't keep up. In the meantime, I returned home to find no Ruth and no dog in the house or in the yard. I was kind of worried because it was getting very dark out. Eventually Ruth came in the door, crying, to tell me Cable was lost.

I had a small panic attack. Lots of woods, dark, and a black dog that hasn't bonded to us or would know her way back home. I feared I would never see her again. Ruth told me where she'd last seen her, out on the road running west. I got the car and we went looking. Thankfully, it only took 15 minutes and we found her about 3/4 of a mile up the road trotting along. She was in the middle of the road coming toward us and her eyes reflected in the headlights or I'd have never seen her. I stopped the car in the middle so it would block traffic, turned on the emergency lights, and got out to catch my wayward girl. Fortunately for me, she now trusts me enough that she came to me when I called her name. Her new name! I really wasn't expecting that, so I was very relieved. I grabbed her by the scruff and held on tight. Then I picked her up and carried her to the car. She was very wet and muddy, and no leash/collar thingy anywhere near. After getting her in the car, I headed back to the house. Ruth burst into wails of tears in the car. Tears of relief I'm sure. She was pretty devastated by the whole thing. Poor kid.

I'm just glad we found her. It could have been disastrous. Cable is now sporting a brand new Martingale collar that I'd bought on my way home from Coeur d'Alene, and a nice sturdy leash, so that won't happen again.

Tomorrow I am going to schedule an appointment with my vet for a check up and her rabies shot. She hasn't had one yet. The shelter gave me a coupon for a free vet check so I'm gonna use it.

So, that's what's been going on the last couple days. I am SO pleased with this dog. She's amazing. I can't imagine why anyone would dump her in a shelter. Besides pottying on command, she can also sit, lay down, and shake. I'm looking forward to teaching her new tricks.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Holiday Greeting

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Live long and prosper.\\//

The Week Before Christmas

2011-12-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

I have had an interesting week. I've been sick most of it. As soon as I'd get rid of one bug and start feeling good again, I'd catch another bug. I see pictures in my mind of us walking off the plane upon returning from Hawaii and a whole crowd of nasty germs yelling "Hurray!!!" and leaping on us. I say us because all 3 of us have been sick since we got home.

Wednesday was the worst one. It was a stomach virus of some sort. I did quite a bit of throwing up and I ached all over so bad. I spent the day in bed.

Being sick made it extra hard to get ready for Christmas. I was behind as it was. This made it worse! But somehow, I managed to catch up. Partly with help, partly with chucking the things that were lowest on the priority list.

So, what did I manage to do? Well, first of all, last weekend, on Saturday, we drove all the way into north Spokane to the Spokane Humane Society to check out a dog. Yes, we are looking for a new fur kid. I can't stand being dogless any more. I really miss that wagging tail and bouncing body of joy greeting me when I get home from somewhere. And I have no one to eat the left over crust of my pizza, or share my lunch with, or take walks with on the Parkaosa.

I'm looking for a German Shepherd mix, less than 2 years old, female, puppy okay. There was one in Spokane that sounded perfect. However, someone adopted her and left literally seconds before we walked in the door, so I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Later that evening, at home, we had a visitor and I managed to get photos of her, though not very good ones. It was getting dark. A moose! She munched in the back yard for close on to half an hour.

It was odd, because it was so quiet out, except for the sound of her munching. There was, every so often, the sound of twigs and branches cracking somewhere in the brush to her right. I couldn't see anything, but I knew it was there.

As she started to leave, a little one came bounding out to follow her.

Awww, so cute! I wish it had come out sooner, but it was more interested in minding it's mother.

Monday I took care of Ruth. She was very sick, doing the throw up thing (she was the first of us to succumb to that particularly vile virus.). I was feeling so so. Not much energy, but I spent some time wrapping the gifts and getting it all under the Christmas tree and doing some much needed house work.

Tuesday was Rathdrum Knitalong day. I was feeling very tired, but not sick. (Daughter Ruth was human again, but not up to much.) I went anyway cuz I hadn't seen the gals in 3 weeks. I'm glad I did because I had a very nice time. After the meeting I went shopping for the Christmas food items I needed.

Wednesday, as I said above, I didn't do anything but moan and spend a great deal of time in the bathroom. Ugh! Since Ruth was feeling better, I sent her out with a list and my debit card. She finished my Christmas shopping for me and did a fantastic job of it. I will always be forever thankful to her for that.

Thursday I awoke feeling half human again. So we started cooking. I decided this year I was going to bake Panettone for the family. Panettone is an Italian Christmas bread with dried fruit in it. Kind of like a fruit cake, but much lighter, fluffier, and eatable. I'd never tried making it before, but I am very good at baking bread (when I do it) so I leapt in with full confidence.

I found a simple recipe on the internet. I also found out it requires a special pan. A coffee can will work, but I don't have any. So I did a bit of googling and found instructions for making your own paper panettone pans with brown paper, scissors, and a few staples. The idea is a good one. It works pretty well. Here are some of the pans I made:

The instructions say to use large paper grocery bags as your paper source, but I used parchment baking paper instead. Didn't have to grease the pans that way. Here are five of the nine Panettone's Ruth and I made over Thursday and Friday.

They turned out so beautiful. I started out planning to make seven. Burnt one of the first ones on the bottom, so we ate it. I needed to make sure it was gonna taste good anyway. Don't want to give a gift that tastes awful. Believe me, it's good. It's VERY good! If the good ones taste even half as good as the burnt one did, they are fantastic.

Well, then I had to make another one for myself that wasn't burnt. So we made nine.

If you make this, and you decide to do the do-it-yourself paper pans, do not use a black cookie sheet underneath when you bake them. It causes the bottoms to burn. I have one black cookie sheet and 2 shiny aluminum ones. Using aluminum worked much better.

We made four Panettone's on Thursday, and five on Friday. I had no energy, and was coughing, but the nose stopped running-Yay!

Around about Tuesday I got the low down on the family Christmas Eve party plans. Mostly, who is gonna be there. My sister-in-law is gonna be in town and at the party. I had not made plans for a gift for her. I didn't think she'd want a Panettone all for herself (I could be wrong about that though) but I know she likes my beading so I decided to make her a necklace. I spent a good part of Thursday-between bread risings and long into the night, and most of Friday morning, working on it until it was finished. As it turns out, I love it! I hope she does too.

It's fairly simple. I made an Octahedral Cluster beaded bead for the focal point. I used some 6mm Hematite beads for the core, and glass seed beads for the lace overlay.

I strung some matching glass, Hematite, and Silver beads on either side for a total of 5 inches, and finished off the rest with spiral rope stitch.

I did something a little different with the rope. I did an alternating pattern of one matte black and one silver metallic for the core beads. The outside beads are shiny black. It's made for a very interesting look. I used a sterling silver Lobster Claw clasp.
.

I decided to go with black and silver cuz it goes with a lot of things my sister-in-law wears. I ended up with a necklace with a total length of 20 inches.

Now, last, but not least. I did manage to knit a couple rows this week. I think, considering how sick I felt and how busy I was, I did darned good at getting that much done. I finished the first of the fingerless mitts I'm making to go with the lace cowl and started the second one.

Now, obviously, I didn't get this done to send out in time for Christmas, so it will be a Happy New Years present for the recipient instead. I know she'll understand.

By the way, all the other Christmas gifts I knit did get in the mail on time and have arrived at their destinations.

Today I will be wrapping the Panettone's and getting them all ready to go. Tonight is the family Christmas Eve party. I am looking forward to it, though I really wish I had more energy and the cough would give up already. I take comfort in knowing that everyone else there will be coughing too.

Hey! It's snowing! Looks like we're gonna have a white Christmas after all.

Live long and prosper. \\//

What I Did on My Vacation

2011-12-18T17:05:00.000-08:00

I am sharing a few of the hundreds of pictures we took while on our trip to Maui.

The motley crew.

First thing we did upon arriving at our destination is, well, first we went to Costco and Walmart. (I'm still wondering why we went to Walmart.) to buy food and drink. Then we checked into our condo, located right on the water in the town of Kihei. Immediately after that we had to go down to the beach and put our feet in the water.

This is a view from the beach of the lawn and pool area in front of the building where our condo was located.

One of the activities we did was go on a luau. It was held at sunset. I got a nice shot of that sunset.

I didn't take any other pictures of the luau. Too busy eating, drinking, and watching the hula dancers I guess. It was very good food and very good hula dancing.

The day after the luau, we took a drive around the eastern part of the island. We started from the upper part of highway 37 and drove around the whole loop that went south, east, north, and back. The first part was on the drier side of the island. As we went further south it got drier and drier. I even saw cactus in some areas.

This is how the beach looks on most of the southwest end of the island. Very rocky. It was also very windy. Almost blew me off my feet. The beach was mostly rocky. Where there was sand it was black or gray.

This is what the area furthest south looks like. Nothing growing but scrub grass and a few low bushes.

We drove east along the coast and gradually got into the wetter half of the island. Wow! What a difference just a few miles made. We saw waterfalls and miles of thick vegetation.

We stopped in the Hana area and hiked into the Seven Sacred Pools of Oheo. It was pretty crowded with tourists, but very pretty.

The difference in climate between this side of the island and the western side is very striking, as you can see. Along the highway we drove through forests of these African Tulip Trees. They are quite tall, and the flowers all bloom in the tops. I read that these are not native to Hawaii. They are a landscape tree that 'got away'. This particular picture is taken above them, looking down into a deep gully.

We stopped at one little roadside park along the drive where we found this leaf lying on the ground from a banana tree.

What I really love are all the 'houseplants' that grow wild there. I used to have one of these Monstera Deliciosa Philodendron growing in a pot in my house. It never got this big, that's for sure! It's a good 50 feet tall and the leaves are HUGE.

The next day we went on a sailing cruise to the island of Lanai to go snorkeling and be fed wonderful Hawaiian food (except for the Poi. Ick! Poi! Like eating slimy cardboard sludge. It desperately needed something for flavor-like garlic. Lots and lots of garlic!).

The snorkeling was AWESOME. The tour guide showed us how to properly put on our gear. Finally! I can put swim fins on without making a complete fool of myself. They also made us wear these floating belts (they use them in water skiing on the mainland.) which was wonderful. I could float on the water without worrying about sinking. I took my own personal snorkel and mask with me. I have one that is prescription, like my glasses, so I can actually see the fish when I'm wearing it. For the first time, with the belt and everything on correctly, I was able to snorkel continuously for over an hour. The fish were amazing! Every color you could imagine! Here are just a few pictures of what we saw.

I should mention that the night before we left on our trip, my daughter and I gave Sweet Hubby his Christmas present early. We got him a waterproof digital camera. He's always wanted one for just these kind of occasions. These pictures were taken on his new camera.

This is some coral growing on the reef with a sea urchin. This urchin was quite large. About 8 inches in diameter.

This is a huge school of Convict Tangs with a Yellow Tang joining in who were nibbling on the coral. I don't know if they were eating the coral itself, or just the algae growing on the coral. The water was pretty deep, so it was hard to get a really good picture of them. There were well over 100 of them. It was fascinating to watch them.

This is a Moorish Idol fish nibbling on the coral. It's so pretty!

Another Yellow Tang and a yellow Trumpet Fish. Yellow Tangs are my absolute favorite saltwater tropical fish. They are so cute. I followed a small school of them for several minutes watching them eat and play.

On Wednesday, the guys went deep water fishing. They caught a few small fish, but nothing large. (We ate them for breakfast the next morning.) While the guys were gone we girls slept in, then went out to lunch at a very very nice restaurant in one of the big resorts. The food was excellent. After the guys got back we just relaxed, played on the beach, went swimming in the pool, and whatnot. I spent some time knitting out on the lawn with that gorgeous view in front of the condo.

On Thursday Doug went on a 60 mile bike ride around the west end loop of Maui. He rented a bike. I drove him to a Park and Ride a few miles from the condo where he started, and I agreed to pick him up there in a few hours. Then Ruth and I went looking for yarn shops. There were 2 listed on the internet. One of them was actually in the phone book too. Both were located in Lahaina, which was about a 40 minute drive from where I left Doug.

Unfortunately, both yarn shops were gone, long out of business. We're talking 2 years. It was very disappointing. We did a little bit of shopping in downtown Lahaina where I bought myself this beautiful hand made knitting bag made by a local artisan.

I also found a bead store just a few miles from the condo in Kihei. It was a wonderful little shop. The owner was very sweet. She makes lamp work beads, so I bought some, along with some very small pearls, some tiny faceted donut shaped beads, and she gave me the shell pendant.

When it came time to meet Doug, he didn't show. The ride took longer than he thought it would. So he called and asked me to drive toward him on the route he'd taken because he was tired. So, we headed out his way in our bright red rental Jeep. Ah, what a disaster. They don't mark the highways very well in Maui. I was following the highway through a town when it just ended in a residential area. I figured I must have missed a turn somewhere, so I turned around and headed back looking. I turned on what I thought was the right road and happily drove on, and on, into a deep valley where the road ended at a park. I was totally lost! In the meantime, because it was taking so long for me to find him, Doug had managed to ride all the way into Kihei, to the bike shop where he got the bike. He was trying to call me, but that deep valley was totally out of cell service.

Meanwhile. I turned around and headed back to the little town. Eventually I found the highway and was going the right direction-not knowing that I was not going to find Doug cuz he was already back at the condo (Sue drove down and got him from the bike shop.) Finally, we got back into cell service about half an hour down the east side of the island. Doug finally was able to get a hold of me. I was not happy about finding out I'd completely missed him. I turned around and drove back to the condo. All in all, I drove 2 hours for nuthin'. But Ruth and I did have a very scenic adventure.

On our last full day, we took a drive up Haleakala mountain in Haleakala National Park. It was a beautiful drive, until we got about halfway up the mountain. Then it got foggy. By the time we got to the top it was so foggy we couldn't even see the caldera or the view from the mountain. We did see these though.

This is something you'll NEVER see in Idaho. A Poinsettia tree, 5 feet tall, growing in someones yard. They were all over the place. Some of them were as much as 8 to 10 feet tall! And so beautiful covered in their bright red blooms. Yes, this is the same plant we buy every Christmas season in little pots and chuck into the trash when the holidays are over. I'd heard they grow big in their natural habitat. But you know how it is, you don't believe until you see.

These are called Silver Sword.

They only grow on Mount Haleakala. Nowhere else in the world. Very intriguing plants. I felt the leaves and they were a lot softer than I was expecting.

On our way back down the mountain we had to stop and wait for these Nene, Hawaiian geese, who were strolling across the road.

This is the end of my vacation pictures that I'm sharing on the blog. Between me and Sweet Hubby, we took almost 800 of them, so it was hard to choose which ones to share. These are my favorites of the highlights of our trip. I hope you have enjoyed them.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Hawaii Knit FO's

2011-12-14T17:59:00.000-08:00

I have two FO's to share today. First, we have the simple lace cowl/neck warmer.

Purple Stacked Eyelet Cowl

Pattern: Stacked Eyelet Cowl by Ami Madison
Size: One size fits most

Yarn: Jojoland Melody Superwash
Content: 100% Superwash Wool

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 5.

Cast on: November 24, 2011
Bound off: December 8, 2011 in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii

Comments: It only uses one 50g ball of yarn. I used fingering weight, though the pattern calls for sport weight.

I did make one change in the pattern. I added 6 rows of garter stitch at the beginning and end so the edges don't curl.

A super easy pattern that would be great for a beginning lace knitter.

~~~~~~~~~~

Next, we have the fingerless mitts that I made for my Dad for Christmas.

Fingerless Mitts for Dad With Deer

Pattern: Jeff's Mitts by Lorraine Ehrlinger
Size: Mens

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
Content: 100% Superwash Wool

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 5.

Cast on: November 28, 2011
Bound off: December 12, 2011

Comments: I really like this pattern. It's well written. It has a nice thumb gusset.

The cuff is done in 2x2 rib.

The mitts are kind of plain, so I decided to duplicate stitch deer on the back of each mitt. The chart can be found on KnitPerfect.com

Not the best embroidery job I've done, but I think Dad will be happy with it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Didn't go to Rathdrum Knitalong yesterday or Yarnies today because I'm still sick. I think the worst is over. I definitely feel much better now than I did this morning. Now it's just an annoying cough.

Yarnies has been permanently cancelled at CDA Yarn and Fiber. In other words, we won't be meeting there any more, at the owners request. We'll figure out a new meeting place and resume our weekly get-togethers after the holidays are over.

I was pretty angry when I was given the news today. Her reason was that she can't get any work done because we want to visit with her while we're there. I've never heard of a yarn shop owner who felt 'bothered' by a knitting group that meets at her shop and spends money before. It is rather insulting. I will abide by her wishes. It's her shop. I am very disappointed, though.

Well, I've got laundry to take care of, so until next time

Live long and prosper. \\//

Ugh

2011-12-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

Hi! I'm back. We arrived at our home yesterday afternoon. I then promptly got sick. Headache, sore throat, chest congestion, cough, a bit of a fever. I think it's incredibly cruel for a virus to jump on me that quickly. Anyway, I am going to try and kick this virus.

My trip was wonderful. I'll go into more detail and share a few pictures in a later post. I did get to see all the things I mentioned in my previous post, and more. Maui is so beautiful. It had absolutely perfect weather while I was there. Not only that but my sinuses cleared up, the asthma stopped bothering me, and I felt absolutely great. I really didn't want to come home. In fact, my daughter actually had to give me a shove to make that first step onto the plane. I told the flight attendant I was boarding against my will and I just wanted her to know that. I would have stayed if I could.

We took the red eye home Saturday. We arrived in Seattle around 6 a.m. We picked up our car and drove home from Seattle. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got home. I'd been up for 2 days. I slept a little bit on the plane, but not enough to call it rest. That may be what gave the virus the opportunity.

Had an interesting home coming. It turns out we accidentally locked Lindy, the grandkitty, in my bedroom. She's not supposed to go in there. Obviously she snuck in while we were getting the luggage loaded in the car and whatnot. She spent the whole week locked in there. Fortunately for her, someone left my bathroom door open and left the toilet lid up. We hardly ever do that. She got water from the toilet, but was pretty hungry when we let her out. And upset. Wow, did she chew us out.

Lindy tore up the carpet in front of the bedroom door trying to get out. It's a mess. But she did not ruin anything else. She peed in the bathroom sink, and used the throw rug for a litter box. It smelled bad, but was really easy to clean up. I'm just glad she's okay. She spent several hours meowing loudly at us letting us know in no uncertain terms we were in the dog house. By morning she'd forgiven, though. I am wondering, though, why my nephew, who was supposed to be taking care of the cats while we were gone, didn't let her out. I will have to ask him.

I got some knitting done on the trip. I knitted on the plane on the way to Maui. In fact, I was able to bring my knitting in my carry-on bag both directions. I knitted a little bit just about every day. There were wonderful places to sit and knit around the condo we stayed at. There was a really pretty roof garden with a fantastic view, and there was the lawn overlooking the beach. And, of course, there was the beach too. I also knit on the balcony of our condo a bit each morning while drinking my coffee. I got the lace neck cowl done. Just needs to be blocked. I've also finished the knitting of the fingerless mitts I'm making my dad for Christmas. I just have to do some embroidery on them now, which shouldn't take more than a couple days. I'm going to duplicate stitch deer on the back of each mitt.

Well, it's late and I'm tired. I'm going to bed now. I'll post more later.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Have Knitting, Will Travel

2011-12-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

I am on vacation. I won't be back for just over a week.

Hopefully, while I'm away I will get to see something like this:

and this:

Oh yes, the doctor said I can swim now. In fact, he said I could do whatever I want now. Yay! I definitely intend to go looking for fish like those ones above. I'll let you know if I do when I get back.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday November 30, 2011

2011-11-30T16:51:00.001-08:00

Here's a WIP Wednesday post for ya.

I'm working on some fingerless mitts for my dad. Just a basic stockinette pattern. Nothing fancy. I'm using some dark navy blue Cascade 220 Superwash wool. I love this yarn. It is SO nice to work with. This is just the first mitt. It's knitting up very quickly.

This is the cowl I started and then decided to save for the plane ride to Maui.

The yarn is Melody superwash fingering weight from Jojoland yarns. This is the first time I've worked with it and I like it very much. It moves in the needles and hands very smoothly.

This morning I went to Yarnies and while there I picked up another ball of the Melody so I can make a matching pair of fingerless mitts to go with the cowl. Of course, I'm assuming I have enough time to get that much done before Christmas. Heh heh.

We're leaving for Maui in 2 days. I can hardly stand it I'm so excited!

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Owlings II

2011-11-29T10:26:00.001-08:00

Another Christmas gift finished. Owlings fingerless mitts.

Owlings II

Pattern: Owlings by Kerrie James
Size: Womens medium

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in 874 Medium Brown Heather.
Content: 100% Superwash Wool

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 5.

Cast on: November 9, 2011
Bound off: November 27, 2011

Comments: As I did before, I made some modifications to this pattern. I made the wrist part a little longer and added a thumb gusset. Here are the instructions for those changes:

*****

After knitting the first set of Owls I did 11 rounds of 4x1 rib.

Rnd 12: Knit in 4x1 rib for 4 repeats. Before the 4th purl stitch M1R, then purl the stitch, then M1L. Continue in 4x1 rib to end of round.

Rnd 13: Knit 4x1 rib for 4 repeats, knit 3, continue in 4x1 rib to end of round.

Rnd 14: Knit 4x1 rib for 4 repeats, M1R, Knit 3, M1L, continue in 4x1 rib to end of round.

Rnd 15: Knit 4x1 rib for 4 repeats, knit 5, continue in 4x1 rib to end of round.

Repeat Rnds 14 and 15, increasing one stitch on each side of gusset on the even number rows and knitting the gusset stitches on the odd number rows until there are a total of 15 gusset stitches.

Next Rnd: Knit 4x1 rib to thumb gusset. Knit gusset stitches then place on a stitch holder, cast on 1 stitch, knit 4x1 rib to end of round.

Continue the rest of the mitt as written. Note: I did the last 2 rounds in 1x1 rib instead of 4x1 rib.

To knit thumb:

Place thumb sts on needles. Join yarn and knit gusset stitches, pick up and knit 3 stitches over gap.

Knit 4 rounds.

Knit 4 rounds of 1x1 rib. Bind off in rib.

Weave in all ends.
*****

I sewed on size 8 seed beads in chartreuse for the eyes.

I made a new hand model cuz the old one was falling apart. I acquired a much thicker piece of cardboard that is white on both sides (the old hand model was bright orange and yellow on one size cuz I cut it from the lid of a shoe box.)

~~~~~~~~~~

I thought of some more Christmas gifts that need to be knit. As I mentioned in my last post, I've cast on for a cowl. It will be a Christmas gift for a friend. I am hoping I will have enough yarn left over for a matching pair of fingerless mitts.

I also cast on some fingerless mitts for my Dad. It occurred to me that he could probably use a pair. I'm doing them in a dark navy blue superwash wool.

I am enjoying these quick knit projects. I'm thinking about starting a pair of socks to take with me to Maui-as a project. Not finished. I feel the need to take a couple projects to work on. It would be nice to sit on the beach and knit for awhile. I also want to knit on the plane. It's a 6 hour flight. I need something to do!

Haven't seen any wildlife since a couple days before Thanksgiving. No moose or deer. The turkeys that were hanging around left. I think they knew that Thanksgiving was coming. It's hunting season now in this area too. I'm hearing gunshots almost every day. Especially from neighbors doing target practice. Nothing says Happy Holidays like the neighbors firing off their guns (sarcasm here). One of the drawbacks of living in the wilds.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Simple Woman's Daybook for November 27, 2011

2011-11-27T09:03:00.001-08:00

FOR TODAY

November 27, 2011

Outside my window...
The sky is dark and grey. The trees have lost their leaves for the winter, and all is quiet out there. I see frost on my car. The cold has returned.

I am thinking...
that I wish I could enjoy my sleep as well as my grandkitty Lindy.

I am thankful for...
my house. It may be small, but it's warm and cozy and keeps me sheltered from all the nasty weather.

From the kitchen...
UGH. It's a mess. Dishes weren't done last night.

I am wearing...
I am being lazy this morning. I am wearing my black nightshirt with the lace trim around the neck, and my new leopard print fuzzy robe. I bought the robe to wear after my surgery cuz my purple fuzzy robe is looking kind of raggedy. I'll get dressed after I'm done writing and posting this.

I am creating...
Still working on the Wheat Rib sock pattern. I think I will make a tutorial on how to do the stitch pattern for the beginner knitters out there who might have some difficulty with it. I am also working on the Owling mitts, the snowman cross stitch, and Luis the seahorse. I've started a new knitting project. A cowl for a Christmas present. I'm thinking about taking it on the plane when we fly to Maui next weekend. It's one of those projects that would be perfect for a plane ride.

I am going...
to Maui! We leave next friday. We're driving over to Seattle on friday, spending the night at a hotel across the street from the Sea-Tac airport, then boarding our plane to Maui early the next morning. I can hardly wait. Temps have been in the 70's and 80's there all this past week.

I am reading...
I finished Invisible last night. It was kind of a disappointment to me. There were aspects of the plot I didn't like. The author uses this mystery novel to proselytize the Christian religion. Not what I read a mystery novel for. Other than that, it was fairly entertaining though I almost didn't finish it, but I wanted to know who killed the murder victim. This book was a freebie for my Nook. I'm glad I didn't have to waste money on it.

Now I've started Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason, another murder mystery. It was a Nook freebie too. I've not read anything by this author either. I figured since it was free I'd give her a try.

I am hearing...
a train going by. We live near some railroad tracks. Trains go by fairly often. Sometimes as often as every 10 minutes depending on the time of day. The track is a main line to Canada. Most of the time I don't even hear them when I'm inside the house. I've become used to them.

Around the house...
it's looking pretty good. I've been putting up Christmas decorations this weekend. Ruth and I got the tree done yesterday. I've put out some of my silk flower arrangements I've made with poinsettias and whatnot.

One of my favorite things...
is tinsel garland. I've acquired quite a collection of it. Some of it is quite fancy. I think I'll see if I can get Ruth to help me put them up today. I like to put them around all the doorways in the house. It really makes things festive when they're up.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Packing, packing, packing! It's all that's left to do before the trip. I also plan to go to Rathdrum Knitalong on Tuesday, and Yarnies on Wednesday. I have my blood test on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday I've got an appointment with my surgeon for a check up. This one will determine if I can swim in Maui or not. I hope he says yes.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...
My lovely tree for 2011.

Live long and prosper. \\//

If you want to join The Simple Woman's Daybook, click here.

Ramblings

2011-11-25T14:56:00.001-08:00

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Everything went very well. I sort of puttered through out the day working on one part of the meal for a bit, then resting, then working on some more, then resting. The house cleaning got done the day before so I didn't have to worry about it. I even had time to knit. It was one of the most relaxing Thanksgiving meal preparations I've ever had. My turkey turned out fantastic. Well, everything did. We had a wonderful meal. I was pretty tired by the end of the day, but not excessively so.

On Wednesday I dropped into Steins Family Foods in Rathdrum, the grocery store nearest to me, to pick up a few last minute things and get some flowers for the table. The florist at that store is extremely talented. I just love her work. Anyway, here's what I brought home. I think it's absolutely gorgeous!

Besides cooking and knitting, I also uploaded a new pattern to my pattern blog. It's for a hat made with the popular furry yarns. Go here for more info.

Fuzzy Hat

I've been working on a pair of fingerless mitts, to be a Christmas present. I've got the first one done, and I'm halfway through the second one. I'm using the Owlings pattern but, as usual, putting in a few of my own modifications.

The biggest complaint I have about this pattern is there's no thumb gusset. It's so easy to put one in, and they fit so much better with it.

Today we got out the Christmas decorations from storage. Ruth and I put up the tree, with it's lights. Tomorrow we'll add the ornaments. I am super happy to have it up now. It brightens things up so nicely.

All that snow we had? It's almost completely gone. The snow I was expecting in my last post never arrived. Instead, a pineapple express blew in. We've had blasting winds, rain, and warm temperatures. It actually got up to 55 on Wednesday. The snow melted like crazy. I kind of hope it stays like this for awhile. I don't want to get a lot of heavy snow while we're gone on our trip because if the load gets too much on the roof, we won't be here to shovel it off. We kind of worry about that when we travel in the winter time.

Here's something that's just plain funny. My cat, Chenille, has this little quirk. She likes to store her favorite balls in the water dish. This morning there were four of them in it, and she also added a twisty tie and a piece of plastic she's found somewhere.

She uses the water dish as her personal toy box. Such a silly girl!

Live long and prosper. \\//

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T08:45:00.001-08:00

To all of you who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a fantastic day.

To all of you who don't celebrate it, Live Long and Prosper. \\//

Weekend Projects

2011-11-22T09:19:00.001-08:00

As promised, I'm blogging about what else I was working on over the weekend. It was a cold and very snowy weekend. We got 8 inches of new snow. So I had no desire to go anywhere. I decided to see if I'm recovered enough from the surgery to do some beading. I worked on Luis. Before the surgery I was embellishing the front and back with the swarovski crystals. I actually finished that step, but then discovered I'd managed to slant some of them in the wrong direction. You want all the crystals to slant the same direction. So over the weekend I did a little frogging and fixing. Luis is starting to look decidedly Seahorse-ish.

Christmas is coming soon. As usual, my thoughts turned to the cross stitch picture of the little snowmen that I started 6 years ago (good heavens!). I found myself longing to work on it, so I dug it out and worked on snowman 10 of the 12.

It feels good to be cross stitching again.

Yesterday I worked on the Owling fingerless mitts I'm making for a Christmas gift. I'll have a pic of that project in my next post.

We got rain last night. Lots of rain. Such a surprise. We were expecting a couple inches of snow. It knocked down the snow we had a couple inches. It's all wet, slippery, and gloppy out there now. Tonight we're supposed to dip back down into the frigid zone and get snow again.

Two very young turkeys have taken up residence in our yard the last 3 days. They were born earlier this year. I know this because of their coloring and the fact they still have feathers on their heads. They discovered the Parkarosa Bird Buffet and can't seem to get enough of it. Sweet Hubby blew a nice trail all the way around the house with the snow blower (for the cats) and they've been hanging around in it. This morning they were out front munching on bird seed. Sweet Hubby complimented me on the lovely animated Thanksgiving decorations I put up. Hee hee!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we are having dinner at our house this year. There will only be 8 of us. My brother-in-law Dan and his family are coming over. I think I can handle that. Especially with Sweet Daughter here to help me. I went shopping for the turkey and fixings yesterday. I wanted a fairly large turkey-I was thinking 20 pounds minimum, but the largest one they had was 17, so I settled for that. It's plenty big enough for 8 people. I was just kind of hoping for a bit more leftovers than we'll get.

I also bought fixin's for The Day After Thanksgiving Dinner. It's a Park family tradition. We all gather at Dan and Sue's house the friday after Thanksgiving and have a huge pot luck. We bring our leftovers (that we're willing to share anyway) and something new to add to them. I'm going to make my well liked Strawberry Jello salad for the occasion.

I have a strong desire to put the Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving. It's the dark. It's getting to me. (I have to turn the lights on around 3:30 now.) I don't have time. Got too much to do before the big dinner. I did talk Sweet Hubby into putting the lights up on the house though. I helped him. It is so nice to have a bit of color out there now.

Today is Tuesday, so I have Rathdrum Knitalong. I'm looking forward to it. I've got an idea to propose to the group. I want to do a lesson on fixing mistakes. I've come up with a swatch that everybody could make with mistakes knit into them on purpose and I'll teach how to fix them. Dropped stitches, a purl where a knit should go, how to unknit one stitch at a time, how to rip and put the stitches back on the needles, stuff like that. They need to know this stuff so they can fix mistakes without my help between meetings.

Live long and prosper.\\//

Wheat Rib Socks are Done

2011-11-20T12:35:00.001-08:00

I have not been idle. In fact, I've been quite busy. I finished the Wheat Rib socks.

Wheat Rib Socks

Pattern: Under construction by Me.

Yarn: Fortissima Schoeller Esslinger by Schoeller Stahl (discontinued)
Color: #21
Content: 75% Superwash Wool/25% Polyamid

Yarn: Trail Socks by Fleece Artist yarns

Color: Wine

Content: 80% Superwash Merino/20% Nylon

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 2.

Size: Mens Medium (size 8 shoe)

Cast on: August 1, 2011
Bound off: November 19, 2011

Comments: These are knitted from the toe up. I designed (created?) the Wheat Rib stitch pattern.

I usually prefer knitting socks from the cuff down, but the stitch pattern won't work in reverse. So I had to adapt.

They also feature a short rowed heal.

I did a 3 by 1 twisted rib for the cuff. I just adore twisted rib. It has just a little bit more oomph aesthetically than plain rib.

I am currently writing up the pattern with plans to post it on my pattern blog. I need to test knit it some more before I'm confident enough to let it go public.

This is not the only thing I've been working on. I will tell you about the rest in my next post.

Live long and prosper.\\//

Bucks Playing

2011-11-15T16:18:00.001-08:00

I had a nice weekend, I guess. Went to a Funeral on Saturday. It was someone I didn't know, so I was spared the crying and feeling wretched part, which was nice. But it was a friend of my husbands family, which was sad. Anyway, that was the big activity for Saturday. I detest funerals.

On Sunday Sweet Hubby and I went into Coeur d'Alene to visit Costco. We needed a few things. Man, is that a big store when you're not quite recovered from surgery. I was so exhausted when we got back to the car. I just wanted to lay right down on the ground and take a nap. I expected to feel really awful on Monday cuz I was certain I'd done too much. I felt fine Monday. That was a nice surprise. I feel fine today too.

Sunday afternoon we had some visitors. A flock of 10 Turkeys came to enjoy the Parkarosa Bird Buffet.

It looked like there was a big hen and a bunch of not quite full grown ones-probably were hatched last spring. Here's a close up of one.

You may have noticed the snow in those pictures. Yes. Four inches fell between Friday and Sunday morning. It's been slowly melting ever since. It's been so cold during the day. Upper 30's and low 40's at our house. It feels very winterish.

Today we had a couple of Whitetail bucks visit us. I saw them first as they were grazing on grass at the bottom of the hill, near the satellite dish.

They both raised their heads and looked at each other for a minute.

Then they started banging their antlers together.

They weren't going at it hard enough to be a serious fight. Just a bit of gentle poking and pushing, so I figure they were probably just playing with each other.

After a few minutes of that, they stopped and went back to munching on grass. Eventually they wandered off into the woods together.

I've never seen anything like that before. I'm glad I had my camera so I could capture it for posterity.

I've gone back to working on the second Wheat Rib sock. I finished the heel and have started the leg. I've got about 2 inches of leg done now. I need these socks to be done before Christmas cuz they are slated to be someones present, so I better get my rear in gear!

I also have started a pair of Owling fingerless mitts in a light heather brown for another Christmas present. It is probably going to be the extent of the Christmas knitting for me this year. I don't feel like making much more than that. Especially since I did so much gift knitting for folks last year.

Tomorrow I am planning on going to Yarnies. It will be my first time back since the surgery.

Right now I've got a load of laundry in the dryer that is calling for me. So I better get to it.

Only 2 and a half weeks left until the trip to Maui.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Seed Stitch Striped Mittens for Men

2011-11-11T10:16:00.001-08:00

At last, it's all done. My first mitten design. It's for guys, or ladies with big hands.

Seed Stitch Striped Mittens for Men

Pattern: Seed Stitch Striped Mittens for Men by Me.

Yarn: Clarks "O.N.T," Wondura (discontinued)
Color: Dark Green
Content: 100% Orlon Acrylic

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 5.

Size: Mens Medium (8.5 inch hand circumference, 11 inches long)

Cast on: September 30, 2011
Bound off: November 9, 2011

Comments: I started out with the intent to make stockinette mittens, but decided to make it interesting by incorporating some seed stitch stripes. I've written up the pattern and you can find it, free, on my pattern blog.

I love the texture. They knit up quickly too because they're made with worsted weight yarn.

The pattern features a knit in thumb gusset for comfort and fit.

For extra warmth, but ease in care, I recommend superwash wool.

Christmas is coming. They'd make a nice gift for the man in your life. Or, better yet, knit a pair for charity in memory of someones beloved fur kid.

I'm donating this pair to Knit Wits in memory of Tuxie, my friend Judy's pug, who passed away yesterday. Rest in peace Tuxie. You will be missed.

Let me know how you like the pattern.

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Very Sweet Gesture

2011-11-10T15:19:00.001-08:00

Last month, when Tommy died, I posted the news in the Sighthound Splendor group on Ravelry. One of the Ravelry members, kerrylinnet, saw my post and asked if she could knit a pair of mittens for charity in Tommy's name. I think that is one of the sweetest things anyone has every asked me. Of course, I said yes. Recently she let me know that she finished them and posted them in her Ravelry notebook. I have her permission to share the picture with y'all here on my blog. Here is the pair of mens sized mittens knit in Tommy's honor and donated to the Global Knit organization.

Thank you so much for this kerrylinnet. You have touched my heart and honored my precious little boy in a beautiful way.

Ravelers are such wonderful people.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday November 9, 2011

2011-11-09T13:37:00.000-08:00

How about a WIP Wednesday post for today? I've been working on the mitten pattern. I finished the hand part of the second mitten last night.

I finished the top differently than the first one. I wanted to see if I like a kitchener stitch finish, or the gathered finish. Here's how the two look.

I think I prefer the kitchener stitch finish. So that is what I'll put in the pattern. I should fix the gathered mitten so it matches the kitchener stich one. However, I hid the tail so well I can't figure out where it is to undo it. So I'm thinking about just leaving things as is and hoping no one notices.

I think I've found all the mistakes in the pattern I've written while test knitting it, but I'm not feeling real confident after what happened with the Rainbow for My Hands pattern. I really hate having errors in my patterns. Well, I hate errors in all patterns, but especially my own.

So, you may be wondering how I'm doing? Okay. Healing, slowly. I went out on Monday and did too much and paid for it on Tuesday.

First, I had my post-op appointment with the surgeon. He said they tested the items removed from me and there were no cancer cells or pre-cancer cells found. That is always good news. He also asked me if I knew how much my uterus weighed? (That, in fact, was the second thing he said to me after saying "Hello Linda.") Good heavens! I will never be able to live this down. I think my dismay must have showed on my face cuz he then went on to reassure me there was no way they could have known before the surgery that it was that large cuz the ultrasound didn't really show it. Sigh. Other than that, the appointment went well. I'm coming along nicely.

I do not need to be on hormone therapy even though my ovaries are gone now. I am not having hot flashes, so I am home free. The doctor thinks I was far enough through perimenopause that it's had no effect. I say, yay!

After that my daughter had an appointment with her counselor, so I sat in the waiting room for an hour waiting for her. I took my Nook along and read rather than knitting.

Then I went to the DMV office to renew the license on my car. It expired last month but in all the surgery fray I forgot to take care of it. I got lucky, there was NO LINE at the DMV. I was fully prepared to have to wait 2 hours. So that was a very nice surprise.

After that we went to Walmart for a few things. Our local Walmart is a huge superstore. So, even though I only needed a few things, they were at opposite ends of the store making for a lot more walking than I should have done. I was exhausted by the time we got back to the car, so we came home and I had a wee nap.

Tuesday I felt wretched. I ached from head to toe. Even my hair ached, and I felt sort of sickish. So I took it easy, except for the trip into Rathdrum to attend the Knitalong meeting at the library. I enjoyed it, but it sure wore me out. I took a nap when I got home.

Today I have an appointment at 2 to get my hair cut. It's the only thing I'm doing today, aside from puttering around the house. My hair looks so awful. I will be glad to get it snipped back into shape.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Edit to Add:

I forgot to tell you how much my uterus weighed. 3.5 lbs. Yup. I lost 3.5 lbs having surgery. Actually, more, cuz that doesn't count the fallopian tubes, ovaries, cervix, and assorted sundry fibroid tumors floating around. Not a diet I would recommend though. It's rather painful.

Random Thoughts

2011-11-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

I'm having a brain fog kind of day. In other words, I feel like my brain is in a fog. Every so often it clears up a little bit, then goes foggy again. I know it's the drugs from the surgery. They take time to get through my system. It's still a bit disturbing though. The fog makes it hard for me to concentrate, think, and stand up without feeling like I'm gonna fall over. I have to really think things through before I make a move. There's a lot less pain in my body now. That is a good thing.

Yesterday it was a beautiful sunny day, although very cold. The high was 39F. I dug out the winter coat and went outside for a bit anyway. I even walked to the mailbox and back. It was nice feeling the sunshine on my face. The birds seemed to be in a joyful mood, swooping, flashing by, and twittering themselves into a very loud chorus. I think they were enjoying the sunshine too.

Today it's grey, cold, drab, and silent out there. No breeze, not a single bird tweet. It feels like the whole world is holding its breath, waiting for something awful to happen.

Snow is in today's weather forecast. Just like that, autumn is done. Winter has arrived. There is no pussyfootin' around with the seasons in north Idaho. No gentle drift from one to the other. One day it's autumn, the next it's winter. It even smells like winter out there. I went out and walked to the mailbox and back anyway.

I also got daughter Ruth to help me fill up the bird feeders and put out the suet cages. It's time to open the Parkarosa Bird Buffet for the season. Belly up to the bar, birds! The seed's on me!

After coming back into the house and getting warm again, I folded and put away some laundry. Wow, did that ever wear me out. Such a simple task. So much energy expended.

Now I'm working on this blog post and watching Season 3/second disk of Boston Legal. You know, there are an awful lot of former Star Trek stars in this show. In the episode I'm watching right now we've got Captain Kirk (TOS), Odo (DS9), Quark (DS9), and Neelix (VGR).

I have been working on the heel of the second Wheat Rib sock. I'm writing and knitting at the same time. I knit a bit, write it down, knit a bit, write it down. It's a slow process trying to work through the brain fog. The next step will be to type up what I've written on the computer. Eventually, I'm going to have this pattern done.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Hello?

2011-11-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

Is anyone out there?

Whew! Yes, I'm still alive! And I'm finally starting to feel halfway human. It's been a difficult past week and a half and I'm so glad to be past it.

So, the drama over robots or not was still going on when I arrived at the hospital early that Friday morning. In fact, the nurses weren't even sure how to prepare me for surgery. The confusion scared the you-know-what out of me. I was left laying on a bed, anxiety levels high (not even a Xanax!) for almost 2 hours. Finally, my doctor showed up, obviously quite frustrated, and told me the insurance company had changed its mind again and were refusing robotic. This fight was going on between the hospital and the insurance company. Not him and the insurance. Something about a charge the hospital wanted to add on for using their facilities or something stupid like that. In the interest of getting things done, he was chucking the whole robot idea and doing a regular laparoscopic hysterectomy. He assured me he'd done lots and lots of them and I'd be fine. I put my trust in him. 30 minutes later I was all hooked up and on my way to the operating room.

I'm told the surgery took quite a bit longer than expected, but all went very well. I was also told, many times, as the night in the hospital progressed, that I had the biggest uterus they'd ever seen. It was epic! Doctors and nurses were all coming to my room to tell me how they'd never seen such a big one and....... all very enthusiastic and excited to say the least. One doctor-with his hands demonstrating "It was THIS big!". Clearly, these folks enjoy their work. They offered to show me a pic. I declined. All I wanted was more morphine, thank you very much.

My ovaries and tubes are gone too. I will never have problems with the baby making equipment again. Yay!

Now, I'm cold all the time. I used to be cold all the time. Then one day a few years ago, I remember feeling like a switch had been turned on and I was hot all the time. That was when the perimenopause got started, along with lots of hot flashes. Things must be reverting back to normal. I welcome being able to wear long sleeves again in winter time.

I am not taking hormones. I assume I don't need them. I'll ask about that next week when I see my surgeon for a follow up appointment.

I have not done much of anything. It hit me harder than I was expecting. My brain has been in a perpetual fog. I'm wondering how many times I've called my surgeons office to schedule my follow up appointment. I know at least twice, cuz they told me so. I hate what happens to me when knocked out with drugs.

I've watched a lot of dvd's, and some really bad television, (Who decided weddings are supposed to be so painfully theatrical?), but mostly I've been sleeping, walking, sleeping, trying to eat, and sleeping some more. I'm finally totally off the painkillers, and my appetite is coming back.

Now, to get back to doing fun things, like knitting, and beading.

The weather is beautiful today. The sun is shining and the sky is bright blue. The leaves look so beautiful in their oranges, yellows, and browns. But, it's frigidly cold out there, and snow is predicted for the coming weekend. Winter will soon be here.

Even Robots Jobs Are In Danger In This Economy

2011-10-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

The last couple days have not been drama free. I went out to lunch with some friends yesterday and when I returned home there was a message from the surgeon. My insurance company wasn't going to cover the robot surgery, so he was going to have to do regular laparoscopy instead. I was just a bit upset because they'd okayed it earlier. I had a letter saying so.

Today my surgeon called me again and told me the robot surgery is back on again. I guess Blue Cross suddenly decided they weren't covering any of the robot assisted surgeries ever again. The hospital powers that be got angry and they had a big meeting this morning with Blue Cross. They worked something out and all the robots are back on the job. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Nothing is ever simple, is it?

Whatever happens, I better not have a uterus when I wake up tomorrow afternoon.

This is my last post for a few days. I will return when I've recovered enough from my surgery to do so. Thank you for all the well wishes and prayers. Until then...

Simple Womans Daybook for October 19, 2011

2011-10-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

FOR TODAY

October 19, 2011

Outside my window...
The sun is getting low in the sky. Another half hour and it will be down behind the nearby mountains. The trees are changing into their fall wardrobes, and the grass is nicely mown. Sweet Hubby did the last mowing of the year on Sunday.

I am thinking...
our medical insurance company, Blue Cross of Idaho, sucks big time. My hysterectomy surgery, called the Da Vinci Surgery, was to be done with robots. It's supposed to be much safer with a very quick recovery. My doctor is one of the few in the country who is an expert at it. However, our insurance company decided today that they will not cover it. Period. My doctor has to do Laparoscopy surgery the old fashioned way. I am a bit pissed about that.

I am thankful for...
my husband and daughter. They are going to have to take care of me for at least 2 weeks.

From the kitchen...
delicious smells. I have Dilled Pot Roast in the crockpot. There will be mashed potatoes, gravy, and some kind of veggie to go with that later this evening.

I am wearing...
a red tunic with layers of small ruffles down the front and my black slacks. It goes well with the incredibly ugly red plastic bracelet the hospital slapped on my wrist yesterday when I went in for some pre-op bloodwork and an EKG. I am not allowed to take it off until I go home after the surgery. I went out to lunch with friends today, so I dressed up a bit.

I am creating...
not a whole lot. I'm doing more UNcreating. For every 2 rows I knit on the Wheat Rib sock I find myself undoing 1. I spent a couple hours on Monday working on putting the crystals on Luis, triumphantly declared that step done, then discovered I'd switched directions the crystals were leaning as I put them on. They are all supposed to point the same way! I've set it aside for another day when I can concentrate a little better. The brain is just not working all that well right now. It does that when there's a lot of stress in my life.

I am going...
well, from here on out, pretty much to the hospital. I have to go in tomorrow for another blood test, and Friday is surgery day.

I am reading...
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
It's about an English nurse in 1945 who, while on a second honeymoon with her husband, accidentally gets sent back in time 200 years to the Scottish Highlands, where she falls in love with a Scotsman and marries him. There's lots of emotional conflict because she loves both husbands, and the story is full of lots of adventure. The book is over 600 pages, but it's moving along very quickly cuz I have a hard time putting it down when I read it.

I am hearing...
the tv. My daughter is watching Mythbusters.

Around the house...
it's looking pretty good, actually, I've been cleaning it here and there all week in preparation for being out of commission for awhile.

One of my favorite things...
is a real good Corned Beef Hash and I got some today at the restaurant we had lunch at. It's called the Garnet Cafe. They serve brunch food and it is very very good.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
to do everything the doctor tells me to do and take care of myself so I recover quickly.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

If you want to join the Simple Womans Daybook, click here.

Sunday Ramblings

2011-10-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

Last night we went over to Dan and Sue's for dinner and Hawaii trip planning. We figured out what major activities we're going to do in Maui and made reservations for those that needed it-specifically a Luau and a day long sailing trip over to another one of the islands. After we got that done we sat in the hot tub for awhile. Ahhhhh, it turned out to be exactly what I needed. I came home feeling so relaxed I slept the whole night and didn't wake up until Sweet Hubby slammed the bathroom door at 10am this morning. I feel so much better now. It's amazing what a little sleep can do for a person.

I got a new knitting book: Omas Strickgeheimnisse by Erika Eichenseer, Erika, Grill, Betta Kron, and Gunter Standl. The title translates to Grandmas Knitting Secrets.

It's a book of 200 knitting lace stitch patterns in chart form.

It's totally in German, but it came with an English translation for the chart symbols. I am extremely pleased with it. There are quite a few patterns in it that are new to me. I got very excited about some of them. I see new sock pattern designs in my future.

This is what I had for lunch today.

One of the two large tomatoes I picked before the frost a week ago was finally ripe. It only took 2 slices for a whole sandwich. Oh. My. God. It was soooooooooooooooooo good! Heaven on toast with mayo. Worth the wait. I'm so glad I got at least one sandwich worth (Sweet Hubby ate the other half in his sandwich). I just wish I had a few more so I could eat a few more tomato sandwiches. Maybe next year?

After lunch I worked a bit on Luis.

The base of RAW cubes is put together and I have started embellishing the surface with the 3mm crystals.

Live long and prosper. (Indeed.)

Stash Enhancement eXperience

2011-10-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a fun day. A very fun day. After the past few weeks, I needed a fun day, and boy did it deliver. First of all, it was a gorgeous day. Blue sky, fluffy white clouds, warm spicy autumn air, and cash in my purse. It doesn't get much better than that.

First I took my daughter out to lunch. We wanted to try the brand new Burger King that just opened in Post Falls. Gourmet eaters, that's us. It was typical Burger King fare. Full of fat, flavor, and calories. I enjoyed it. All hail the Whopper!

I get paid a small sum for working at the North Idaho Fair as the Knitting Superintendent. When the check arrived in the mail, I cashed it and put the cash in my purse where it's been ever since while I thought about what I was going to spend it on. I wanted it to be on something special because I so very seldom get to 'earn' money these days. After careful consideration and a bit of research, I decided to spend it on beads. So, yesterday, Sweet Daughter and I took a trip into Spokane Valley and visited Beyond Beads Gallery. I had a specific project in mind plus specific colors and types of beads I wanted to add to the stash rather than just a willynilly impulse buying spree. In other words, I had a very carefully thought out list. Oh boy, did I have a good time filling that list.

First of all, the project I had in mind. The necklace on the cover of Laura McCabe's book, Embellished Beadweaving.

I'm doing a different color scheme. Here are the beads I bought for it:

The pattern is an embellished spiral rope. The upper parts are embellished with Keisha pearls that are shown in the picture as being flat and drilled front to back. I could not find any pearls drilled that way. They were all drilled through the side, so I settled for these sort of slightly flattened fresh water pearls. They're about 5-6mm wide. It will look very different, but that will make it uniquely mine. I also got a strand of Swarovski 3mm glass pearls just cuz I wanted it.

I got an assortment of drops, flowers, lentils, and whatnot for the center part which is covered in fringes.

I've also got beads in the stash that are slated for this project. I'm aiming for gold, purple, pine green, and burgundy as my color scheme. We'll see how it goes.

I acquired some seed beads I've been wanting in my stash. Mostly size 15's.

Some of these are for the project, some are just for the stash.

I also purchased a book. I've been looking for a really good book on bead embroidery. I found one, Dimensional Bead Embroidery by Jamie Cloud Eakin.

I've had her first book, Beading With Cabochons, since it first came out. I consider it THE book on that subject. Her new book is just as good. In fact, it's absolutely FANTASTIC!!! It's chock full of wonderful techniques and tips with detailed graphics, and the pictures! Oh my, they are stunning and get the creative juices flowing like crazy. I would consider this almost a sequel to the Cabochon book, but not quite because she goes into much more detail of bead embroidery itself, not just decorating cabs. It belongs in every serious beaders library. I am so so very happy with this book.

When we got home from our shopping trip, there was a package waiting for me from Firemountain Gems. Hurray! The 3mm crystals I ordered!

The crystals I bought specifically for Luis are in this pic, rather than the one above, even though they came in the same order.

Needless to say, as soon as I could I got busy on starting Luis.

First thing, I make a Right Angle Weave cube. Then I need to add 22 more cubes to it in a row. I was having trouble keeping the tension tight, but I found a very helpful article in the current issue of Bead & Button Magazine. The tension improved immediately.

I knit about an inch on the second Wheat Rib sock.

WIP Wednesday October 12, 2011

2011-10-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've got a WIP to share today.

I got the first of the mens mittens done that I mentioned last week. I just love the seed stitch stripe pattern I put in there. So much more fun than just plain stockinette. I'm using size 5 needles with a worsted weight yarn. It's nice and firm, but not too firm. I think they will be warmer than the average mitten would be if I'd knit them on a size 7 or 8 needle as would be expected for this weight of yarn. If there is any interest, I might write up this pattern and post it on the pattern blog, for free of course. Let me know if you think that's a good idea.

I am also well on the way to finishing the second Wheat Rib sock. I got the toe done, and I'm just over an inch into the foot. I was much further, but last night I realized I'd put the rib pattern on the sole of the foot, so I had to frog back to the toe and start over. My brain just isn't working so well right now. It's so distracted, or maybe easily distracted. I am having a hard time concentrating on anything and sleep is but a memory. I'd love to be able to have some sleep. I'm having small panic attacks too. I think Tommy's death has put me over the edge in the stress-handling-ability dept.

I have started a new beading project. It's actually a sidetrack kind of project. I'd planned to do some other things, but after seeing this pattern, I HAVE to do it, now!!! The name of the pattern is Luis. It's a Seahorse pendant!

I did not make this one. It's what mine is supposed to look like when I get it done.

It's so cute! It's also in German. I started it today by translating the pattern into English (Yay Google Translator.). It's done in Right Angle Weave with some herringbone stitch. I ordered the crystals for it over the weekend. They should be here in a day or two. If you feel brave (or speak German), you can find Luis on Fantasiabeads. He's a PDF pattern (and he's about $18 US).

I finally heard from my Gynecologist/Surgeon on the results of my pelvic ultrasound. Urg. I heard from him about 6 hours after Tommy died. Not a good time to hear that the Endometrial Ablation is a no go. You know that 'small uterus' he thought I had? It's actually a 4 inch diameter tumor attached to the inside wall of my large ute. With that, and the whole outside covered in tumors, he said there is no way I can have anything less than a complete Hysterectomy. I'm not surprised, but it's still scary to think about. Thankfully, nothing is cancerous. It's all fibroids. He said I'll be in the hospital for a at least one night, maybe more depending on how things go.

My surgery is scheduled for October 21. In some ways I'm looking forward to it--"hooray, no more periods, no more birth control, no more bleeding like crazy, no more cramps, no more money spent on pads and tampons!" (Think of the money I'll save!) The other side of me thinks "Yeeks! Surgery, pain, agony, helplessness, trusting doctors to keep me alive, ick!"

I'm most afraid of the Coumadin 'bridge' I have to do. I take Coumadin, which is a blood thinner, because of a genetic blood disorder I have that causes blood clots in bad places. I can't be on the Coumadin and have surgery, so I have to go on Lovenox for 3 days before the surgery, and then 3 days after. It is also a blood thinner, so I don't really know why they are switching me to it. Either way, they are worried about bleeding me to death in the surgery. I don't like Lovenox. I've had it before. I have to inject needles into my tummy twice a day. Yuk!

I'm so glad we've got that Hawaii trip scheduled for the first part of December. I'm gonna need a vacation after all this. Assuming there are no complications, I should be completely recovered by then.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Tommy Martini Park

2011-10-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Something awful happened late last night. About half an hour before we were going to bed Tommy went outside to do his business. He came back in a couple minutes later and sat on the floor licking himself. He was sitting kind of weirdly, but I didn't think much of it. Then he got into his little bed and I covered him up with his blankie. A little later I told him it was bed time (he sleeps in my bed at night), but he couldn't get out of his bed. I picked him up and set him on the floor and he was clearly having some kind of weird seizure and in severe distress. He couldn't stand up at all. His whole body was almost paralyzed and he was in a lot of pain. We rushed him to the Emergency Animal Hospital.

The doctor thinks he had some kind of stroke or blood clot. (The only way to know for sure required an MRI, but the nearest vet who had one was a 2 hour drive away.) There was nothing they could do for him. He was suffering so much. I found myself making the horrible decision to have him euthanized.

Just like that. My happy bouncy little boy is gone! I can't believe it. I keep hoping I'll wake up and the nightmare will be over.

I love you so much Tommy. I will miss you forever.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Honeycomb Bangle

2011-10-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

I finished my Honeycomb Bangle.

My tension seems to be rather uneven. Sigh. It's a lot harder to keep it even than one would think.

But it fits me perfectly and, of course, it's my favorite color. I admit it was a challenging project to make.

If you want to make your own Honeycomb Bangle by Cynthia Rutledge get the April 2011 issue of Bead & Button Magazine because it's in there.

I also finished the first Wheat Rib sock.

I do like, very much, how it's turned out. Now the fun part-writing it all down in an understandable format and knitting the second one to test it. I've been told these look like Frank socks. That's good, because that's who I'm making them for.

We got a real frost last night. I can't believe we made it all the way to October 6th without losing everything to frost. Still didn't lose everything, but the tomato plants are pretty much green slime. The dahlia's fared fairly well so I get to enjoy them just a few days longer.

Speaking of tomatoes, last week we picked a couple ripe ones.

Yes, that is a dime in the picture with them. You won't believe what variety they are Mega Bite! We haven't got anything larger than a cherry tomato from it yet. I ate them after taking this picture. They were tiny, but chock full of great tomato flavor.

Actually, as tomatoes go, it was a lousy year. My plants didn't get any more taller than they were when I brought them home from the store (Home Depot), which is weird cuz they got plenty of good food, sunshine, and water. We didn't get anything from the Early Girl plant at all. The third plant, Bush Champion, didn't grow very big but it had 2 very large tomatoes on it. They aren't quite ripe yet, but they have a definite orange hue. I picked them and brought them in the house yesterday to finish ripening since I knew frost was expected. They are gonna be nice sandwich slicers.

All in all, I still wonder why I bother though. I just don't have any luck with tomatoes. It's always such a struggle just to get 4 or 5 fruits.

My surgery has been scheduled for October 21. I've got several appointments for medical tests between now and then. That should be fun. Not. I'm feeling much better this week. I'm starting to get my energy back.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Wildlife Visits

2011-10-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share some pics I have taken in the last couple days.

First, I got Tilly in the front yard. I was at the front window, hiding behind the blinds with my camera lens poking through just waiting for her to stroll by. I was successful, though I did get a bit of glare from the window.

Click on the pics to embiggen.

She was looking for bird seed that might have fallen on the ground under the Parkarosa Bird Buffet.

There isn't any. I haven't been stocking the feeders because there is so much wild seed on all the plant life around here right now. I did dump a small cup of bird seed on the ground in the back yard today, though, just for her. She seemed to enjoy it.

It was a beautiful day today. I decided to sit out on the deck and do a little beading. While I was working on a bracelet (to be shown after it's finished) I heard a racket of thumping and branches breaking in the trees. It sounded like kids playing, or maybe even a hunter thrashing around in there (we occasionally get trespassing hunters at this time of year-a scary thing to be sure) so I yelled "Hey, is anyone out there?!" It got quiet, and then this fellow stepped out.

He stood there and stared at me for the longest time. Then he turned and walked back into the trees.

My goodness but he's a big fellow. I could hear him stomping around in there for quite awhile. I have locked Tommy's gate so he can't run around the yard unsupervised just to be safe. I wouldn't want him trying to nip this guys heels. I suspect this fellow will hang around for a couple days.

I heard back on the uterine tissue sample tests. Everything seems to be normal, and no cancer. Hearing that one does not have cancer is always good news.

Tomorrow is Rathdrum Knitalong. I'm looking forward to it.

Live long and prosper. \\//

What a Week

2011-10-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

My week has been filled with medical tests and full on just-short-of-panic-attack anxiety. By last night I was so exhausted I went to bed at 8:30.

On Wednesday I saw the Gynecologist. A very nice young man (when did doctors become the same age as my kids?). He took some samples of tissue from the uterine lining.( Geez, that hurt more than I thought it would.) We will find out the results some time next week. He told me my uterus was small, which he seemed to be happy about, and that I would be getting an Endometrial Ablation. Due to my blood disorder, it is best to avoid hysterectomy, and I looked like the perfect candidate for EA. There will have to be some kind of medication bridge because I have to be taken off Coumadine before the procedure, but still be on blood thinners. Sigh. That means returning to injecting myself with needles several times a day for a few days before, and a few days after the procedure. Oh well, I was then scheduled for a pelvic sonogram to see what's really there.

Thursday I rested, unbeading and unknitting. Yes, the plan was to bead and knit. The weather was so beautiful I spent a few hours just enjoying it, some of that time on the deck crafting. I started a mens size mitten, as planned,

but ended up frogging half of it back because I decided to put a silly striped pattern in it. Was worth the effort cuz I am loving the results.

The beading was a continuation of the Honeycomb bangle. I was at the part where I was putting on the Rondelles. I got about half way around and realized the whole Rondelle round was way too tight. The bangle couldn't even curve into a circle. I took some measurements and discovered the real gold beads I was using were not 3mm. They were in fact 2mm. Oh yes, they were 3mm wide, but only 2mm long along the bead hole. That was a problem. This bracelet really needs that hole length to be 3mm. So I had to frog it back to the round where I put those in. I dug around in the stash and found two strands of 3mm gold metallic Czech firepolish crystals. Not real gold, like the 3mm beads I was using (rats!), but just as shiny. I am now back to the Rondelle round, but probably won't get to it until tomorrow.

So, though I didn't actually make any forward progress in my projects, I think it was a productive time on the deck. And I so enjoyed the sunshine, blue sky, puffy white clouds, the buzzing bees on the brightly colored dahlias, the warm sweet spicy breeze caressing my back, and Tilly and Tommy playing with each other on the lawn as I worked.

I can't believe my dog has made friends with a wild turkey. Will wonders never cease?

Enter the pelvic sonogram. It was done on Friday. I've had one before and I hated it. So I wasn't looking forward to this. Fortunately, I got a wonderful technician (unlike the last time when I got an old battle ax with a chip on her shoulder-sigh. Whole 'nuther story) who was very helpful and informative. I relaxed quite a bit after meeting her.

That small uterus? So wrong. Yes, the inside is small, but the outside is a whole 'nuther nightmare. It is so covered in fibroid tumors and fibroid tissue that it is the size of a 20 week pregnancy. The technician couldn't even find my right ovary. It's been imprisoned in fibroids. Now I'm wondering what the Gynecologist felt that he thought was a small uterus? Oh yes, and I have a teeny tiny bladder. Poor thing. It's being squished.

No wonder my uterus won't stop bleeding. Suddenly a whole lotta stuff I've been dealing with the past few years came into focus and made sense. I've come to a conclusion. I don't want it anymore. When I see Dr. Gynecologist next week, I will say "I WANT THIS THING OUT OF ME." I'm willing to go through whatever drug therapy I must to get rid of the ute. I don't need it any more. It's just causing a lot of trouble. I don't want it. Period. Yank that baby out and lets be done with it. While your at it-take that poor abused ovary with it. And lets get this done asap. I've got a trip to Mauai in December. I wanna be in good shape for it.

Oh yes, and please be generous with the pain killers. ;-)

Today is Parktoberfest. I am going to really enjoy it this year. I need the fun and fellowship of friends and family right now. I'm going to be making White Chili and Plum Crisp for the occasion, as soon as I get done here. Sweet Hubby wants the White Chili. It has been awhile since I've made it.

The Plum Crisp is of necessity. I've never had it before. We have a wild Plum tree in our back yard. Usually, we don't get much of the harvest because the birds and wild animals beat us to it. However, this week we had a brief but powerful wind storm that knocked most of the ripe plums out of the tree where they landed on the thick soft lawn. Sweet Hubby gathered them all up, and now I have to figure out what to do with 2 shopping bags worth of ripe Plums before they start to rot.

I'm not really a Plum lover. I'll eat them once in awhile fresh, or tossed in a fruit salad, but I've never cooked with them. I googled and came up with a Plum Crisp recipe that actually sounds good.

So, that having been said, I need to get busy cooking.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Ramblings

2011-09-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have an appointment with a Gynecologist for this afternoon and I'm extremely nervous. No, let me rephrase that. I'm scared to death. A Xanax sounds really good right now. I will refrain though. I'm afraid to take it under the circumstances.

My blood test results came in yesterday morning. There was a bit of a panic at my doctors office. It's never good when that happens. Yeah, I've definitely lost too much blood. Drug therapy is out apparently. I fail as a candidate for that. Rats.

Today was the soonest a Gyn could see me. I've been taking it easy. When I'm this anxious, though, I can't bead at all, and knitting is difficult. I have almost no ability to concentrate. My thoughts zip around like crazy. Reading a novel is helpful. It seems to stop the zipping and calms the mind down. I finished The Mote in Gods Eye (it is every bit as good as I remembered) and now I'm reading a CSI novel, The Killing Jar. Pure entertainment. It's all I can handle.

I have added a couple inches to the sock. I'm thinking, though, that I need to do something really brainless cuz I'm tinking as much as I'm knitting on that sock. I'm going to start some plain vanilla mens sized mittens for Knit Wits. We are seriously in need of them and they make a good portable project. Maybe I'll do the hand part in seed stitch so I don't get too bored.

Firefox is my web browser of choice. For some reason, it has stopped working on my laptop. I spent most of yesterday trying to get it working again, including a complete uninstall and then install of the newest version, checking for disk errors, scanning for malware and viruses, and all manner of things. Sweet Hubby worked on it for a few more hours after he got home. He couldn't get it to work either. We don't know what is wrong. I worked fine on Monday morning and that afternoon it wasn't working anymore. There are days when I really really really really hate computers.

So now I'm using Internet Explorer, which I can't stand. My daughter says to try Google Chrome. She used to use Firefox, tried Chrome out of curiosity, and never went back. Maybe I'll do that. I hate to abandon Firefox cuz I've really loved it up until now. I'd much rather know what is wrong and fix it.

The weather has been unseasonably warm this whole month. It's giving my tomatoes half a chance of getting ripe before frosting. We did get a nice cool day of rain yesterday though. It cleaned a lot of the smoke and dust that is typical for this time of year out of the air. The air smells wonderful right now. It has that sweet spicy aroma of autumn.

Tilly the turkey seems to have taken permanent residence in our yard. There's a reason for that. About 3 weeks ago, after Sweet Hubby and daughters latest brew, they dumped the used grain into the brush in the back yard. Tilly has been eating it like crazy ever since. No, she is not drunk. There isn't much alcohol in that grain anymore. They made this brew of millet, which is sold as bird seed in the US. It tastes pretty darn good (the brew that is. I didn't try the grain). I can see why Tilly likes it.

She has been deliberately teasing Tommy. Even going so far as to stand under the open living room window and clucking to get his attention. She waits for him to come dashing out the doggy door and around to the front. Sometimes she runs, letting him chase her in circles. Eventually she leaps out of the circle, stops, and watches Tommy continue in a circle (he is not a smart dog). It will take a couple laps before he realizes she's stopped. I think she gets a kick out of making him run after her and then jumping up and flying into a tree. Silly dog, she has his number. She is extremely camera shy though. She sees it, she runs. She's providing us some very good entertainment, and getting Tommy to exersize. I see that as a good thing.

Along with the ripening of tomatoes, I'm getting Dahlia blooms that I would not normally get with the lengthening of this summer. I leave you with this pic I took over the weekend.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Sometimes Ones Body Is Not Ones Friend

2011-09-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

I have not been feeling well the past week. So much so that I've not even wanted to knit or bead. I did get a little bit forward on the sock. I settled on the type of heel that would be used in this pattern.

Now I'm going up the leg. I weighed the skein after getting the heel done to see if I might have enough to finish and I think I do. I had slightly more than half left. If I get to the cuff and it's pretty clear I don't have enough I've decided to do it in the red. I'll be glad when I finally get this sock done. I will be knitting the second one to test knit the pattern after I finish writing it. It may become one of those Yazi projects.

Sweet Hubby was away most all of last week on his bike ride. He came home safe and sound and very happy. He had a wonderful time and wants to do it again next year. His legs are also so sore he's having problems walking. I'm pretty proud of him though. 350 miles in 5 days is no small accomplishment.

On Sunday morning my glasses broke. I picked them up to put them on and one of the arms fell off and hit the floor. I had a really really bad night Saturday. Got hardly any sleep at all and was in a very foul mood. The glasses were no help at all. I was quite upset.

Today, though, I went to Visionworks (formerly Eyemasters), where I bought the glasses, to get them fixed. They were out of warranty, naturally (just barely too). But I got lucky. They still carry the frames so I was able to purchase new ones exactly like the old ones. The sales clerk let me have them for half off too, which was nice of her. I didn't have to get new lenses, which is a huge relief. She just used the ones from the broken pair. I kept the broken frames so I have some spare parts, just in case.

As I've mentioned, I'm not feeling well. Today I went to the doctor. The news isn't good. I've been going through Perimenopause for a few years now. You know when they tell you you'll get hot flashes, mood swings, and 'menstrual irregularities'? Yeah, that last one is a variety of things, including Flooding. It's when your period flow is so heavy that you think your going to bleed to death. You're changing the pad every hour and usually getting huge clots along with it. (When I say huge-I mean lemon sized!) It's normal to have Flooding for a day or two, but I just went through an entire week of very severe flooding. I've lost so much blood it's affecting me pretty strongly-headaches, dizzy, weak, tired, heart pounds at the slightest physical effort, and I'm so darn cold. When I told the doc what's been going on the past week, he said "You're scaring me Linda." I'm scaring him? Not nearly as much as I've scared myself.

The doctor is sending me to a Gynecologist. I expect to be having surgery in the near future. Something has to be done to eliminate the problem. Usually drug or hormone therapy (Estrogen) is what one would start with, but I can't have that due to meds I'm on and a history of DVT. So surgery comes next. Not sure what exactly. I guess I'll find out. In the meantime, I have to take it easy, increase my iron supplement intake (which I'd already done a couple days ago), and eat more steak and other iron rich foods. Thankfully, the flow has eased up quite a bit today. If it goes back to being heavy again, I'm to take myself to hospital emergency immediately.

Aging. It sucks.

I don't want to end todays post on a negative note, so here's something cool. I ordered a new t-shirt last week and it arrived today.

It's a take on the phrase "Haters gonna hate". If you are interested, visit Spreadshirt.com. I'm looking forward to wearing mine to my next knitting group meeting.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Catch a Falling Star

2011-09-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a productive weekend so far. I finished painting the headboard. Just waiting it to be completely dry before I attach it on my bed.

I also got the necklace for the star donut done. I've named it Catch a Falling Star.

Click on the pics to embiggen.

The strap is done in tubular Herringbone stitch with size 11 and 15 seed beads. I used the pale yellow and dusty pink ones to pick up the colors in the stone donut. There are 6 beads in a round. I wanted something a little thicker than the typical 4 bead round.

This is a view of the necklace with the back side of the donut showing. I wish I knew what kind of stone it is. I am pretty sure it's Jasper, just not what specific type of Jasper.

I made a toggle clasp with peyote stitch.

All in all, I'm pleased with it.

The pattern for this is on the French blog Bienvenue Chez Fly. If you click on the link, scroll down for the November 8, 2009 post. You will need to click on the picture of each pattern page, then save the picture on your hard drive, or print it.

The work on the sock is not going so well. I discovered the gusset heel doesn't work with the design so I've frogged back to where the gusset started and will try a short row heel instead. I am learning quite a bit about toe up socks with this project. They are definitely different from top down with their own set of construction problems.

Sweet Hubby is getting ready for his big ride. He leaves on Tuesday. He's been packing for 2 days now. I think he's a little excited. We went shopping yesterday to get a few things he needed and to refill my pantry. Costco was packed. It took twice as long to get around the place because there were so many shoppers. I don't think they're feeling the 'recession' as much as other retail businesses.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday 9/14/2011

2011-09-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

This day is not going as planned what-so-ever. It started last night with Sweet Hubby informing me I had to stay home today because he'd ordered a new phone and someone had to be here to sign for it (it was FedExed overnight). I had plans! I was going to Yarnies. I also had an appointment for my monthly blood test and a few other errands to run. As much as I love Sweet Hubby, it really aggravates me to have him dismiss my 'life' so much that he can't even ask me first if or when I'll be home on a given day before scheduling me for something. I find it rather rude. Sigh.

Anyway, I have some WIPs to show you.

First of all is this headboard. I bought it from my friend Judy last year in the fall. I started stripping it then, but then the weather turned wet and cold so I put it away for the year.

2 weeks ago I got it out to finish it. It was horribly hot so I set up some shade to do it in. I don't have a garage to do this kind of thing in when the weather is bad and there was no way I could do it in the house either.

I got it all stripped, sanded, and looking nice so last week I went and bought paint. But it was way too hot to paint. I tried priming it first but it was drying so fast! By the time I would stroke my brush from one side to the other, the beginning of the stroke would be dry. That will not work. Paint that dries too fast will peel rather soon. I want this stuff to stick for the rest of my life, so I put it on hold until things cooled off enough.

Today it is much cooler. Since I ended up being home anyway, I went ahead and primed the whole thing. I hope to start the actual paint tomorrow and if I have any luck at all, it will be done by the end of the weekend so I can start using it. I haven't had a headboard on my bed since I was single. I've wanted one all this time, but just never got around to it I suppose.

I am painting it with a matte dark purple. The color is the same as the purple on my droid phone cover. Not because I was dead set on having that exact shade of purple in my bedroom, but because when I said "I want a dark purple" to the fellow helping me out at the hardware store, he said "how dark?" and I, thrashing around for an example, pulled out my phone and said "Here, this will do." He matched the paint to the phone. It is very pretty. Should look nice on a headboard.

I have been beading. First of all I'm working on a necklace to hang the Star Donut pendant on that I made last year. I seem to still be in a Herringbone mood.

I have started a bracelet project that has been on my mind for some months. I bought the beads for it last June. It's about time I got it going. The first step toward my Honeycomb Bangle.

Just iris gold delicas in a tubular band so far. I was kind of surprised to find the pattern is free online. I found it in the April 2011 issue of Bead & Button magazine. It is the cover project.

Here is the current situation with the Chevron sweater.

I'm ready to decrease for the armholes. Or increase. I've got an idea I want to try out. Just haven't had a chance to sit down and work out the math yet.

Those are the WIPs for today. If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

The Red Toe

2011-09-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

Early last week I was thinking about knitting on the sock I'm doing at the moment even though I really didn't feel like knitting that day. Just to remind you what sock I'm talking about, though I was actually up to just starting the gusset when it entered my thoughts:

I thought about how nice it was going to look with that red toe and heel. I was thinking about how I hoped the person I'm giving the socks to will like them. A picture of the partially knit sock flashed in my mind.

OOPS!

What red toe? Arrgh! I forgot to start with the red.

I did not want to frog and start all over. I've already frogged this sock so many times I could scream. I tossed it in a corner for a much needed time out.

The next day I dug it out of it's bag and tackled the problem. I decided, rather than frog the thing, I would remove the toe at the row just before the first stitch pattern row, place the open sts on a couple needles, and knit the toe top down. Here's the removed toe:

Here's the sock in it's current construction.

Success! Didn't take long to fix at all. Took a lot less time than starting all over again, that's for sure.

Top down toes look different from toe up toes, so I'm going to have to do something about that in the second one. I'm going to start with a provisional cast on where the stitch pattern begins, then knit the toe top down like I did the first one. However, the instructions I've written are as it should have been done. Cast on with red, knit toe, change to brown when stitch pattern begins. It will be a 'do as I say, not as I do' kind of pattern. Lets learn from my experience, shall we?

Please keep this to yourself. It's a secret.

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Fawn and a Turkey

2011-09-09T17:43:00.000-07:00

About an hour ago we had some visitors. Tilly the turkey met a fawn. Click on the pics to embiggen.

Hello! What are you?

Lets play!

Mmm, this grass is yummy!

Are you coming with us?

'K, thx, bai!

Live long and prosper. \\//

Simple Woman's Daybook for September 6, 2011

2011-09-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

FOR TODAY
September 6, 2011

Outside my window...
Sunshine! and the distinct look of fall. Leaves are changing color and the forest undergrowth is turning brown and dry.

I am thinking...
summer is too short here.

I am thankful for...

the cool air coming in through the window. It's supposed to get into the 90's today.

From the kitchen...
what a mess! The kitchen looks awful after yesterday's brewing session. Sweet Hubby and daughter making spirits.

I am wearing...
my jammies and favorite purple robe. Eventually I'll be into jeans and a feminine style t-shirt. Haven't decided which one yet.

I am creating...
as always. I've got 2 beading projects going at once, and I've actually made a small bit of progress on the chevron sweater.

I am going...
to Rathdrum Knitalong this afternoon. I'll take the Chevron sweater to work on.

I am reading...
The Mote in Gods Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It's a classic Sci Fi book about humans first contact with an alien species. I read this book years and years ago (Freshman year in college?) and loved it. Thought I'd read it again.

I am hoping...
the weather holds out long enough for my tomatoes to get ripe. I've got a couple nice big green ones.

I am hearing...
the tv. Live with Regis and Kelly is on. Don't particularly like the show, but since I'm not paying attention anyway it doesn't matter at the moment.

Around the house...
it's pretty quiet. The fur kids are asleep.

One of my favorite things...
is this time in the morning when all is quiet, the Sweet Hubby has gone to work, and I'm doing my computer thing.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Lots going on. Besides Rathdrum Knitalong today I've got Yarnies and Knit Wits tomorrow. I will be taking all the KW fair stuff and giving it back to it's rightful owners. I'm looking forward to handing out all the ribbons. Knit Wits members did pretty good this year.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...
My daughter baked her first berry pie. Blackberry, to be precise. It was delicious.

If you want to join the Simple Womans Daybook, click here.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Fair Entries that Impressed

2011-09-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Finally, I'm getting this post done. These are some things that were entered that I thought were pretty impressive, or fun as the case may be. Click on the pics to embiggen.

This was the big winner in knitting. Aside from the knitting itself being very very good, what impressed the judges the most was what the knitter did to this yarn. She loves this color but it only came in a 4-ply worsted weight yarn. The pattern calls for 2-ply fingering. She split the 4-ply yarn in half so it would work for the pattern. That is some dedication to a colorway in my book.

This sweater was a very simple pattern. Stockinette with a ribbed collar. But, the stitches were so even it looks machine knit. Big winner.

This fairisle vest is absolutely awesome in it's workmanship. It won Grand Champion Adult Knit.

This coat got a lot of attention from folks wandering the building during the fair. Isn't it gorgeous? The fabric was knit at just the right tension for a coat too. Won Grand Champion Senior Knit.

This was the one and only lace thread item entered this year in knitting. Gorgeous!!!

For something fun, my daughter entered a pig with a wig. The judges got quite a chuckle out of it.

I love these fairisle mittens. About as perfect as is humanly possible to knit.

The Grand Champion Junior Knit (knit by a child) was this pink hat. It is almost perfect in construction. A very talented young lady.

The afghan is crocheted. I talked the maker (she's in Knit Wits) into entering this baby blanket. She didn't really want to. I can hardly wait to deliver her Best of Show Crochet ribbon to her at this weeks meeting.

Another crochet afghan made by a member of Knit Wits. Lu always impresses me with her projects.

We had a LOT of crochet afghans made in a round pattern. I like this one the best. (It's probably the purple.)

I don't usually care for tatting, but this doily is so pretty!

I am feeling much better today. The nasty headache of Friday is gone and I'm human again. The weather is perfect today, so I think I'll go enjoy it. Have a great holiday weekend.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Fair Report for 2011

2011-09-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

The fair ended on Sunday evening. Monday we took everything down and returned the entries to their owners. We will be having a follow up meeting on how things went later this month. Other than that, it's done for the year.

On Tuesday the weather cooled off. It has been quite pleasant since. I have been exhausted. It all caught up with me and I've been feeling pretty lousy all week long. Still, I had a lot to do because I was behind on stuff from not being home to do it all last week. I've been trying to get caught up.

This morning I woke up with a massive headache, runny nose, nausea, and mild fever. I was exposed to something at the fair. I'm glad my body was able to keep it at bay until it was all done. Now I have a 3 day weekend to be lazy and recover. Anyway, since I'm laying around feeling wretched, I thought I'd do my fair report on my entries.

I had 4 knitted entries and 5 beaded entries.

On my Mohair cardigan I won a White ribbon.

On my Flirty Fir Harvest Dew socks, I won a Blue ribbon.

I won Blue on the entrelac mitts. To the left are my daughters entrelac mitts she made while test knitting the pattern for me. She won a Blue ribbon too.

There is a Blue ribbon on the Gansey style baby sweater.

I won a Blue ribbon on the triangle pendant necklace.

A Blue ribbon was won on the Herringbone Donut necklace.

I won Blue on the French fancy donut project.

But the ribbons I'm most proud of are the ones I won on the Loop de Loop necklace. I won Red for construction, and Blue for "Old and New".

Old and New is a special category for things made with recycled materials. The beads for this project were rescued from an old sweater. I tend to make my fringes too tight with the tension which is why the red for construction. I need to do it more so I get good at it.

Tomorrow I will show you pics of some of the entries in the Needlecraft building that really caught my eye. For now, I'm gonna go take a nap.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Flower Power Pendant

2011-08-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

This morning I finished the flower pendant I started earlier this week.

For those wanting to know, the pattern is called Flower Power by Holle Randy. It can be purchased on the Sova Enterprises site. If you decide to make it, just a couple things. It is made by starting with the outside edge and beading each side separately toward the center. The two sides are zipped together on the inside edges. You want to keep your tension fairly tight. Each side will be kind of wavy and warped, but when you zip it together it flattens right out. It's a very fun project.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it now, but I've taken tons of pictures experimenting with my camera and whatnot and I'm just going to post some here for posterity. They are some of my favorites.

Still workin' hard at the fair. It's been rather hot-in the 90's F. The needlecraft building is metal with no insulation, air conditioning, or even a fan and it gets like an oven inside. I am very tired of the heat. I drink so much water I feel like I'm gonna burst and I still feel thirsty. That, and I hate being all sweaty. Especially when it slides down my nose, or drips in my eyes. Ick. It's still better than snow though.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Just Call Me Moth Whisperer

2011-08-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

This morning I went outside to take a picture of my new shoes.

They are metallic black and purple LAGear shoes with Honeycomb cushioning. Since my sprained foot is still sllllooooowwwllllly healing, I felt the need for some really well made comfortable cushioned shoes to walk the building in because the floor is concrete and my foot didn't like it after last week in leather loafers. (Actually, my back disliked it even more.) My sneakers are over 15 years old and well worn out. I needed new ones.

I wore them to Rathdrum Knitalong yesterday. They are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn in my life. Not exaggerating! Usually with a new pair of sneakers you get a few days of pain while breaking them in. Not these. They are very light in weight too. Like wearing little hugs on my feet. I am so glad I bought them.

Anyway, to get back to the story, after taking some pics of the shoes I grabbed my lens cover and flipped my camera over to put it on and there was this little golden moth sitting on my index finger.

Click on pic to embiggen

If you've been reading this blog a long time, you might know this happens to me quite often with moths and butterflies. It posed for the camera for a few minutes, then fluttered away. Totally cool!

I have been working on the chevron sweater. I had planned to take it to Rathdrum Knitalong yesterday, but I misplaced the pattern I'd scribbled out. I was wishing it was in my phone. After returning home, I found it-right where I thought I'd left it. Didn't see it the first few times I looked there. I just hate it when that happens.

This morning I went out on the deck while it was still cool and shady and worked on the chevron. I was still wishing it was in my phone in case I forget to take the pattern with me in the future when my phone beeped. There was an update available for one of my apps. Oh yeah! I'd forgotten about that. I have an app for 'scanning' documents and turning them into pdfs. Silly me! Now my pattern scribbles are safely in my phone. If you're a knitter, and you have a smart phone, I highly recommend an app like this. It works great. I have CamScanner-Phone PDF Creator.

This afternoon is my first Walk The Building shift at the fair. I'll let you know how it goes.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Fair Duty Stuff

2011-08-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive. No, really!

Fair entries are way down in building 3 for everyone, except Sewing. They have more than normal. Did sewing get popular again? Perhaps it's a regional thing. I'm just glad someone had an increase this year.

I had Wednesday off, but I wasn't home. I was running all over tarnation doing errands like grocery shopping, going to the drug store, etc so there will be supplies during the days I don't have off.

Thursday was judging day. On judging day it is my task to take each entry to the judges, and get them back when they are done. Then I pin any ribbons awarded on the entries and make sure things get recorded into the computer. I don't do any judging myself. In fact, I'm very careful not to say anything about the entries unless asked by the judges, and then it's facts. No opinions from me. I don't want to do anything that might influence them. I really like our judges. They are very good at what they do. They both have taken courses to become fair judges. It was interesting watching them go over every knit item entered, inside and out, inspecting seams, looking for dropped stitches, ends not woven in (more of those than I care to think about) and things that make each entry special. The two top winners surprised me.

One is a vest knit by a woman who split 4ply yarn in half so she'd have 2ply yarn for the project (a fact that totally blew the judges away). The vest is almost knee length. The thought of splitting all that yarn makes my eyes glaze over. She really loved the color and wanted it that bad for her vest. She also did a beautiful job of knitting it.

The other big winner is a charcoal gray shell done in stockinette stitch with fingering weight yarn. The stitches are so perfect the judges were wondering if it was machine knit. It wasn't. I know the girl who made it. She used two sticks.

I really am amazed at what can be done with those sticks and a bit of string. I'll try to get some pictures to post here.

Friday we set everything up for display. It was a somewhat frustrating day for me. As with every other human endeavor, there is politics and personality conflict to deal with which I refuse to partake of, so certain people got a bit upset with me (no, the quilting dept is not the be all and end all of the fair. It's the Needlework building, not the quilting building). And then there's the people who don't have the authority but lord it over everyone and if you don't bow down they get upset. (I'm really good at doing that-getting them upset, that is.) I was constantly being scolded for wanting to use mannequins by people not in the sewing dept. even though I'd already discussed the matter with the head of that department and we both knew what I was doing (I ignored them.). Despite all this, we got the job done early. The quilters weren't done hanging quilts on the wall when I left, but they made it abundantly clear they didn't want my help, so I gladly went home.

Saturday I had to recover from Thurs. and Fri. I was very tired. I didn't do much. Laundry was about it. I slept a lot too.

Sunday my husband left early to go on a day bike trip. He rode 105 miles and was actually still functioning afterwards. Quite different from the 100 mile trip he did last May (where I was wondering if he'd live to tell about it), I am so proud of him. He will definitely be in shape and ready for his big ride in September. He's going on a 5 day 350 mile ride on the Selkirk trail which basically starts in Sandpoint, ID, goes up north into Canada, then west and down into eastern Washington eventually coming east back to Sandpoint. He's wanted to do one of these rides for years.

While hubby was gone I did more laundry (urg) and spent some time out on the deck beading.

That is half a flower which will be a pendant when I'm done with it. I wasn't real confident about my color choices, but seeing it in a photo, I'm quite pleased. That yellow was definitely a good idea.

I have been knitting some. I've been taking a sock with me for those times when I've had to sit and wait while doing fair stuff. I'm creating a new pattern. This one is from the toe up.

You have no idea how many times I frogged before I finally got the stitch pattern to look right. The only way to make it work is from the toe up. This is a mens sock right now, but the pattern will be unisex.

The fair starts Wednesday. I can hardly wait.

Live long and prosper. \\//

It Was a Slow Day

2011-08-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first day people could bring their entries in to the fair. Wow, it was slow. Depressingly slow. I have less than half the entries we should have by now. And it's just not the knitting department. All the departments in the building are experiencing the same thing. I sure hope things pick up today or we're not going to have much to display during official fair time.

The weather is being unseasonably cool for August. 70's and 80's. In fact, the whole summer has been cooler than normal. We have only had 1 day over 90 degrees this whole summer. Yesterday it was almost cold, but the sun was out. To be honest, I've been enjoying it. I can spend more time outside when it's cooler. I feel really bad for those who are baking and roasting in the south and on the east coast. I think they got our hot summer weather.

On Sunday we (we being me, hubby, daughter, brother in law, sister in law and nephew) took a drive up into the Coeur d'Alene mountains over Lake Pend Oreille to pick Hucklberries. My nephew was visiting us from Boise and we wanted to give him an adventure.

The picking crew.

Where there were berries up higher, they were all green. Where the berries would have been ripe, there were none. Commercial pickers have cleaned the place out. We didn't even find a whole cup worth of ripe berries. The drive was nice though. It's so beautiful up there. At one point we stopped on a ridge that overlooked the lake and ate a picnic lunch.

From the south end looking north.

My daughter had a hard time keeping her cookie away from Tripper.

Mine!

Tommy enjoyed the trip immensely.

Such a sweet boy.

Further along our drive we saw the lake from the east side.

What a view!

We eventually made our way to the east side of the mountains overlooking the Clark Fork river. The valley is gorgeous right now.

Clark Fork river valley.

Montana is off in the background somewhere. We came down out of the mountains into this valley and then headed for home. We didn't find much in the way of berries, but it sure was a beautiful day for a drive.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Sunset in Idaho

2011-08-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

I had a beading marathon on Saturday to finish this baby in time for the fair. Actually burned some midnight oil. I call it 'Sunset in Idaho'.

Here's a close up of the focal point. (Click on pics to embiggen.)

Some large firepolished pink a/b crystals, some 4mm white a/b firepolish crystals, some 3mm gold beads (literally gold.) and a couple purple iris 12mm fluted czech glass beads. Oh yes, almost forgot, some gold bead caps for each end of the tubes.

I made odd count peyote tubes for this part using same delicas and seed beads as are in the triangle, except the purple ab ones-those are size 11 instead of size 6.

A peyote stitched toggle clasp. At the moment, it really is my favorite type of clasp.

I'm looking forward to wearing this one, but not until after the fair.

Speaking of the fair, today is the first entry day so my daughter and I will be down at the fair grounds, in building 3, helping people enter their items. I'm hoping for an incredibly busy almost chaotic day cuz that would mean lots of entries. The more the better! ;-)

Live long and prosper. \\//

Ready For The Fair At Last

2011-08-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

A Rainbow for My Hands is ready for the fair. Somehow I managed to match them up pretty good (color repeat-wise) despite not having the first one in my possession while working on mitt 2. (It was on display at the shop.)

My daughter kindly let me use her hands for modeling. Back:

The second mitt worked up much faster than I expected. Palms:

I find the texture of Entrelac extremely fascinating. Don't you? So complicated looking, and yet, amazingly easy to do.

Using a yarn with long color changes will give you this wonderful effect of making it look like you spent a lot of time choosing your colors and deciding how to arrange them.

I showed them to one of my nephews the other day and he had a hard time understanding that the way the colors laid out was just the way the yarn is dyed. A happy 'accident', if you will.

I designed and made these mitts for a class I taught last April for CDA Yarn and Fiber.

If you want to make these mitts, you can, because I wrote up the pattern and posted it on my pattern blog for free. It is currently my most popular pattern. Click the link below to go to it:

A Rainbow for My Hands

Live long and prosper. \\//

War of WIPs Call to Arms 2011

2011-08-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

It's finished! Hurray!!!

I'm so glad to have it done. It turned out better than I thought it would too. (Yeah, I know. I brag about my knitting way too much.)

For those who may not know. This sweater was donated unfinished to our local Knit Wits charity knitting/crochet group. The lower front, back, and cuff on one sleeve were done, but there was not enough yarn to finish the whole project. I added the stripes in the yoke and contrasting sleeve so it could still be a sweater.

I have 6 more unfinished donations to do. Urg.

If you care to join the War of WIP's 2011, please do so.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Insert Wolf Whistle Here

2011-08-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post before I head out today. This fiiiine looking young fellow dropped by around dinner time yesterday.

Takin' a little stroll across the yard.

Stopping for a bite to eat. I guess Thimble Berry bush is a delicacy.

Just a reminder, the horizontal cross bar on the fence is 4 feet high.

Small as moose guys go, but still, darn big! He snorted a bit at me, so I kept my distance and used the telephoto lense.

Life at the Parkarosa is never dull.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Herringbone Donut Necklace-Check!

2011-08-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

Another fair entry is finished. I worked on this on the camping trip.

I made the Herringbone chain using a tutorial by Perlen4U.de called Schnelle Herringbone Kette. I found it via the blog Beads For Brains. Its a PDF file and written in German, but the graphics are very very good so no words are needed. It goes so well with the donut, doncha think?

I love this donut. I should make another one. The pattern, Donut Herringbone, is by Vyolina.

The pattern is written in French and is 4 pages, so make sure you look for the other three cuz the above link goes to page one.

The necklace is 19 inches long and has a simple Vermeil clasp.

Now, to make a necklace to hang that wavy twisty triangle pendant on.

Live long and prosper. \\//

War of WIPs Call to Arms

2011-08-04T22:24:00.000-07:00

I really didn't think I'd be able to address this until after the fair, but I was wrong. I actually worked on one of the aged WIPs yesterday. I took it with me to Knit Wits and worked on it during the meeting, between fielding fair entries and knitting questions.

I got all the seams sewn. Now I just have to put the neckband on and it will be done. I will probably do that this weekend. I was putting this thing off because I was dreading sewing the yoke to the body. Lack in confidence that I could make it look good. Turned out to be easy peasy. Silly me!

If you care to join the War of WIP's 2011, please do so.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Loop de Loop

2011-08-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

I got the necklace using the beads from my sister-in-laws mothers sweater done while we were camping.

It's 19 inches long.

It's tubular netting stitch embellished with fringe loops at each intersection.

The loops gradually get longer the closer to the center they are.

The size 11 gold glass seed beads and 4mm plastic pearls are from the sweater. I added the white seed beads from my stash for contrast.

The camp ground we stayed in had some interesting places to use as backgrounds for my photos.

It's ready for the fair.

The original sweater.

The camping trip was great. I'll write more about that tomorrow.

Live long and prosper. \\//

It's That Time of Year

2011-07-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

We had our planning meeting for the 2011 North Idaho Fair this week. I am so EXCITED now!!! It's fair time. Woo hoo!

North Idaho Fair

We are going computer for entries this year. Our building will have wifi and 2 computers for entering the info for all entries. This will be so much better than writing it all down, sending it to the office, and having some one there type it all in. We can stop the mistakes right from the start, rather than finding them two days later.

Another good thing is I got my daughter Ruth on the payroll as a department clerk. She does the work anyway. Might as well get paid. So now I will have 2 clerks, which is fantastic. So, technically, I can say now my daughter finally has a job. It only lasts a month, but that's okay. It's something.

You won't be hearing from me for a few days. We're going on our annual Park family camping trip to Priest Lake. Try to keep out of trouble while I'm gone, okay? I do not want to have to bail you out of jail when I get back.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Flirty Fir Harvest Dew

2011-07-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

The Flirty Fir socks are done.

Flirty Fir Socks

Pattern: Harvest Dew by Rose Hiver Designs.

Yarn: Summit Sock by Impulse of Delight
Color: Flirtatious Fir
Content: 80% Merino wool/20% Nylon

Needles: Addi Turbo Circular size 2.

Size: Ladies Medium (size 8.5 shoe)

Cast on: June 21, 2011
Bound off: July 23, 2011

Comments: I absolutely love the yarn I used for these socks. I love the color combination in it, the way it pooled, and the way it feels.

The pattern was very fun to knit, and fairly easy to do too. I'd recommend it for anybody who wants to knit socks.

Leg showing stitch pattern detail.

My excellent gusset corner and bit of the heel pattern. I'd not done this heel before. I like it.

The toe detail.

On my feet so you can see how the stitch pattern decreases to the toe.

All in all, I love love love them! I'm going to enter them in the fair this year.

~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't want my needles to get a chance to cool off ( hee hee), so as soon as I was done with the socks, I cast on another project. Well, actually, it's the continuation of a past project.

I've decided to make the second Rainbow For My Hands mitt and enter the pair in the fair. It's next month, so I gotta get busy.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Expensive But Oh So Worth It

2011-07-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hanging out in foreign bead forums and blogs exposes me to beads and beading supplies that are not available in my own country, which, considering it's the USA kind of irks me. Why aren't our bead shops keeping up with the new stuff? Anyway, I've been waiting awhile for these to come into the US and now, finally, they have. Not locally though. I had to order them online. They arrived yesterday and oh man! They are AWESOME!!!

Peacock daggers-matte Caribbean Seas.

Tye Dye daggers in beige.

Peacock daggers in matte red and black.

Peacock Triangle daggers in matte green and light blue.

Tye dye daggers in matte black and vitrail.

They are 5x16mm in size. They are expensive too, as daggers go. Prices ranged between 34 and 37 cents each. Colors and patterns are limited here in the US. For instance, no one has purple, or the checkered or square patterned ones yet. But it's a start. If you find yourself feeling the need for some dagger bling:

The matte silver and brown ones were purchased at Beads Gone Wild.

The rest were purchased at Beaded Impressions (via Amazon.com)

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Call To Arms

2011-07-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

Just found out about this.

If you have projects that have been waiting around way too long to be finished, then this event is for you. Revelations of a Delusional Knitter is hosting it.

"Make a list of your intended conquests - WIPs that have been hanging around, how long they have been hanging around (if you can remember) and vow to finish them before the end of 2011! "

I'm joining. I've got a few WIPs nagging me to get done, some waiting as much as a few years for me to get off my tush. The really sad thing is it wouldn't take a whole lot of time to finish them. These are the ones I'm thinking of:

The mate to the above Blackberry Rick Sock is the first thing that came to my mind. I started these in March of 2010. The first sock went fine, but the second one not so good. I got frustrated with how awful it looked, and tossed it in a corner for an attitude adjustment.

Next is the red and white sweater for Knit Wits (February 2011). I need to sew it together. I got it all blocked in May. I took pics but never got around to posting. Usually I enjoy the finishing part of a project. For some reason, I've been dragging my feet on this one.

There's the lap afghans I need to sew together for Knit Wits too. I took this project on early in 2010. It should have been done a long time ago. I've figured out how I want to do it, I just have to sit down and --- DO IT!

Does anyone remember this one? Geez, I started it in July 2008. Molly the felted Moose.

And then there's that last pair of Entrelac mitts pattern that I was working on and got side tracked.

I have a couple non-knitted projects that really need to get done too. Like the felt applique Christmas stocking. It would be nice to have it done for Christmas.

And the Star Donut necklace. The donut is done. The necklace to hang it on is not. I started it but I don't like what I've got. I need to frog it and do something else.

Last, but not least, it sure would be nice to finally finish the counted cross stitch snowmen. I've had this one simmering for 6 years now.

Officially, I can't work on any of these until after the North Idaho Fair next month. But I'm going to commit myself to finishing them before the end of the year, in addition to the other stuff I'm working on. I can do it, I just have to apply myself.

If you, too, are interested in joining the 2011 War of WIPs, there's more info and sign-ups here:

2011 War of WIP's Call To Arms

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday July 20, 2011

2011-07-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

It's WIP Wednesday. I guess I could have saved Mondays post for today, but what is the fun in that? How about a knitting WIP? My Chevron sweater back is coming along nicely.

The fabric has a wonderful drape to it. I attribute that to it being garter stitch, as well as the yarns qualities.

~~~~~~~~~~

I have some good news to share. You know that twisted triangle pendant I made last week? Well, I hadn't linked to it because the place where I found the pattern made it hard, if almost impossible, to link to. Thanks to a fellow Yahoo group Seadbeaderster member, I now have access to a pdf link of the pattern and it's translated to English! (Not in Russian like the original.) So, if you wanna try the Wavy Twisted Triangle Pendant, click the link.

If you're interested in participating in WIP Wednesday, please join us.

Live long and prosper. \\//

ETA July 22, 2011:

I've found a link to the Russian pattern that works: Russian Wavy Triangle

Simple Womans Daybook for July 19, 2011

2011-07-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

FOR TODAY
July 19, 2011

Outside my window...
its wet. A fast and furious storm blew in and dumped on us for 15 minutes leaving half an inch of rain behind.

I am thinking...
the summer is going too quick. I wish our summers were longer here.

I am thankful for...
life, however fleeting.

From the kitchen...
Ruth has just finished doing dishes. I've got chicken marinating in a pineapple/Mango sauce. I'm planning on barbecue for dinner.

I am wearing...
a pale turquoise v-neck t-shirt with purple and yellow embroidery around the neck and some navy blue knit pants.

I am creating...
my second Flirty Fir sock. I'm doing the heel flap now. Hurray! I see the end in sight.

I am going...
into Coeur d'Alene tomorrow for my monthly blood test. Yarnies has been cancelled because Andrea moved the shop over the weekend and she wasn't sure she'd be open yet at the new location.

I am reading...
Murder She Knits by Vivienne Fagan. It's about a woman who loves to machine knit and murder people. It's been very entertaining so far.

I am hoping...
the wet chilly weather doesn't stick around much longer.

I am hearing...
"Hip Hip Hooray!" on the tv. I've got a 1946 movie starring Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains, and Stewart Granger playing called Caesar and Cleopatra. I'm having a hard time believing they talked like that in ancient Egypt. Lol!

Around the house...
all the kids are napping, both fur and skin.

One of my favorite things...
Potatoes. It's good that my husband brought me to Idaho to live. I may have been born in Washington state, but I'm Idahoan at heart. I love potatoes. I will eat them fried, boiled, baked, roasted, blended in soup, chipped, chunked, mashed, shoe-stringed, and frapped on toast. Mmmm, potatoes.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
The blood test on Wednesday, of course. If she needs it, I'll help Andrea unpack all the yarn and put it on the shelves for her. I plan to take Ruth to see the new Harry Potter movie too, maybe on Thursday. We'll see.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Aren't they pretty?

If you want to join the Simple Womans Daybook, click here.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Looping a Net

2011-07-18T23:18:00.000-07:00

The weekend wore me out. On Friday, and part of Saturday, I helped my friend Andrea move her yarn shop. You don't really know how much yarn is in a yarn shop until you have to pack it all up and haul it to a new location. My goodness there was a lot of it. There were 5 of us who showed up to help on Friday. I had a blast. It was so much fun, though exhausting work. I went back on Saturday to help move the furnishings. I could only help for a couple hours, but we got a lot done before I left and the whole job was finished later that day.

Saturday afternoon was a family get together. A birthday party for my nephew Brendan, who is now 16. (Where did the time go?) Nephew Tyler, who joined the army last March, was home from boot camp for the first time. It was good to see him and has shaved head.

Sunday I spent some time beading on a fair project.

This is what the beads wanted to be. I am so much happier with this idea than the original. It's an exercise in embellished netting stitch. I'm about 1/3rd done with it. If you'll remember, the gold seed beads and 4mm pearls are from the sweater that belonged to my sister-in-laws mother. The fair has a category for recycled things. I'm recycling these beads into a jewelry piece.

For the Twisted pendant, I've decided I'm going to do some tubular peyote for a necklace to hang it on. I'll enter it in the fair in the peyote stitch category.

I got 3 inches done on the leg of the second Flirty Fir sock. Yay! I think I'll have them done in time for the fair. I got a couple inches done on the summer sweater too. I worked on it at the party on Saturday.

My foot is slowly healing. I'm still hobbling, and I get pain at night, but during the day I'm having pain free periods now. Considering all the work I did Friday with the moving, I'm quite pleased with how it's doing. I did wrap it up, and babied it. I was careful about not overdoing it too.

For me, as Superintendent of Knitting, fair stuff starts next week. We're having a planning meeting. Then in August it's workin' time. I'm looking forward to it. In fact, I'm downright excited.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Twisted

2011-07-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness but this project is fun to do! I wanna make more!

Wavy Triangle Pendant

It stands up all by itself.

Side view.

Into the Vortex! (Just kidding)

Mount Twisty!

Now, what am I gonna do with it?

Live long and prosper. \\//

Just Fluff

2011-07-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

Not a lot to say today. Just wanted to share these pics I took.

I love the way the sun glints through this fuzz. Can you guess what it is? (Click on to embiggen)

A Salsify puff ball. They're kind of like giant dandelions. Grow wild around here. The ball is about 3- 4 inches in diameter.

My roses have started to bloom. The color is very striking.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Twisty Fun

2011-07-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile I get a hankering to make something so strong I have to just do it and put everything else aside. That happened over the weekend. Oh, I got plenty of knitting done, to be sure. I've got 6 inches done on the sweater now. But there is this beading project that has been percolating in the brain for quite some time. I saw the pattern a few months ago in a Russian beading forum that I inhabit. It was pretty cool looking but I had something else going on at the time. Then, over the weekend, I happened to notice an ad for a class taught at the Bead and Button show (which I didn't go to). There was that project I'd been thinking about, only it's being taught as a very expensive class by an American (which irked me). Not by the person who wrote the free pattern I saw originally. I did some digging and found it, printed it out, and today I spent part of the day making the first half of a very interesting pendant.

It's named the Totally Twisted Triangle. It looks incredibly complicated, but it's extremely easy to make.

If you can make a peyote stitched triangle, you can make this cuz that's what it is. It is the use of different sized beads-just like Cellini spiral (or flat Cellini spiral)- that makes it twist. To finish this pendent, I will make a second triangle like the first, then weave them together at the edges so it's double sided. I'm thinking about doing the second side in a different color just for fun. Then I'll have two pendants in one.

I had a very pleasant evening last night. I had planned for a barbecue steak dinner. We ended up taking our steaks over to BIL Dan's house and having dinner with them. Afterwards we sat in their hot tub and watched the sun set. Since I'd spent quite a bit of time earlier in the day de-weeding the front yard flower beds, I really was happy to get in that tub because I was sore.

It is getting rather threatening looking outside. It's hot, muggy, not a bit of breeze blowing, and dark black clouds are rolling in. I expect a thunderstorm is gathering itself. A little storm would kind of be nice.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Clover on the Parkarosa

2011-07-10T18:14:00.000-07:00

Right now the wild Clover is blooming all over the Parkarosa. I took pics of the ones growing closest to the house. The variety is astounding. These are just a few. They all have the 3 leaflet style leaves on them. But the flowers are unique for each variety. Please click on the pics to get a more detailed view.

I call this lawn clover because it grows in our lawn but technically it's White Clover (Trifolium repens).

It came with the grass seed, so I guess technically it's not wild.

This is a Least Hop Clover (Trifolium agrarium). Each plant stands straight up, 6 to 8 inches high, and the flowers are about half an inch across. Notice the leaves are thin.

This is another yellow clover. I've been unable to find it's name. At first I thought it was the same as the above yellow clover because they are living right next to each other all mixed up in the woods, but it's actually a totally different species. It's flowers are teeny tiny and much more complex in structure. Until I saw this photograph, I had no idea it was this fascinating. The leaves are much rounder. It gets to about 6 inches tall maximum but mostly it grows along the ground spreading tendrils out like a ground cover.

This is called Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), though it looks purple to me. These flowers get up to an inch in diameter and grow 2 feet tall.

I love the colors in this Pink White Clover (Trifolium repens). So bright and feminine. It stands about 12 to 18 inches tall and the flowers are about 3/4th inch across.

This is called Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis). It grows very tall. I've got pictures of my husband standing in a patch that grew 10 feet tall one summer, but most of the time it's between 4 and 5 feet tall.

The flowers themselves are about 4 to 6 inches long. It smells wonderful! The air is thick with a sweet and tropical odor when it's in bloom.

This is White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba Medi). It has the same basic structure of the yellow, just a different color. This is NOT an albino of the yellow. It is it's own species. What's very interesting is that some years yellow dominates the landscape and other times white dominates it, all depending on what kind of winter and spring we have. If spring is early and a bit dry, we get lots of white Sweet Clover. If spring is cold and wet, we get lots of yellow Sweet Clover.

I hope you have enjoyed my little article on the clovers of the Parkarosa.

Live long and prosper. \\//

So It Begins

2011-07-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

After a bit of close personal time with my calculator, paper, and pencil, I have come up with a pattern for a short sleeved sweater that should fit me perfectly if all goes well. I cast on immediately and have 3 inches done on the back already.

A close up of the stitch pattern. (Click on the pic to embiggen.)

I'm using a variegated yarn and a matching solid in chevron stripes. I'm enjoying the stitch pattern. It's garter stitch, but it's not boring with the increases and decreases every 9 stitches. The fabric feels good too. Not heavy, like I was expecting.

The cooking experiment was a resounding success last night. It was the best roast beef I've ever cooked. I will be doing that gain in the future.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Flirty Fir Progress

2011-07-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

I have finished sock one.

The colors have pooled in an interesting pattern. I really like this and have already started sock 2. With any luck, it will look similar.

I've been working away on my beaded fair project but I'm not happy with it. So I'm going to frog it and start over. The beads aren't working with the design idea. I need to do something else. Kicking ideas around.

I knit swatches for 2 days this week trying to get gauge for the summer sweater I want to make. Arrgh! It was very frustrating because I couldn't even get close to it. So I did a little research on the required yarn that I'm substituting and discovered it's not worsted weight like I thought. It's sport weight. Well, no wonder! I still want to make the sweater with the yarn I have, so I've been calculating and rewriting the pattern based on the gauge I'm getting.

Wow! Where did the week go? I can't believe it's Friday already. We're supposed to have good weather this weekend. Maybe I can get some weeding done. The flower beds are getting out of control.We had 2 really hot days on Wednesday and Thursday. It got up to 90F degrees. Totally snow free too. Not one flake fell this week. The evenings have been nicely cool so we can sleep. By sunset, the temps are in the low 60's.

It's cooled way down today. Only 67F. The wind is blowing pretty hard too, so even though the temperature is pleasant, it would be hard to enjoy sitting on the deck. Kind of like sitting in a wind tunnel. It should be nicer tomorrow.

Oh yes, I wanted to tell you about a cooking experiment I did with Sweet Hubbys new barbeque grill. We are loving that grill, by the way. Anyway, I decided to try cooking meatloaf on it. The grill has 4 burners. I placed the meatloaf on a pan I made with aluminum foil over two of the burners which I left turned off. I turned the two burners the loaf was not sitting over on low. I put some apple wood chips over that part too so there would be some nice smoky flavor. I let it cook like that for an hour. Oh my god, that was the BEST meatloaf ever and I didn't have to turn the oven on inside the house. Tonight I'm going to cook a beef cross rib roast the same way.

We are starting to see flocks of baby turkeys with their mothers in the neighborhood. They are so cute! One hen had at least 12 babies. That's a LOT of turkeys. If all of them had that many, we're going to be over run with them. I hope to get a pic of some of the babies before they get too big to be cute anymore, but they are so camera shy. I will keep trying.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Peonies!

2011-07-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

I planted 3 Peonies 15 years ago. They were baby plants put in admittedly lousy soil. It takes a long time for Peonies to establish themselves before they start putting out flowers, but I didn't know it would take this long. They bloomed this year. Hurray!!!

They smell soooooo good. The whole house smells like Peony. My nose itches and my eyes are watering, but I don't care. I have Peonies!

Live long and prosper. \\//