Meet Willow

 We, as in myself, hubby, and daughter, have a serious mouse problem in our house. We are inundated with them. In the last week, my dog, Zoey has killed 3 of them in the living room-paying homage to her dachshund heritage. They've been in every room of the house. I'm finding nests everywhere. We've all gone on the warpath. But it's a hard task. I'm seeing just how much hunting and mouse maintenance Merino and Cashmere were doing. Something has to be done.

 I'd like to introduce you to my new kitten. This is Willow. 

We've had her for a week. I got her at the local shelter. She is now 9 weeks old, and she's feral. When I say feral, I mean it. You can't believe how hard it was for them just to get her out of her cage and into a small carrier just so we could meet her. I tried to touch her and she bit me, and scratched me twice. She's a very wild little girl. 

I decided to take her home. She's an incredibly beautiful little girl, There's a low chance of adoption because she's so wild. We took on the challenge. My daughter and I have been reading up and watching videos to learn how to tame a feral cat and we are making incredible progress! The first day didn't go so well, I got bit again, and we both got scratched. She's feisty! Since then, the progress is better.

We've set her up in the sun room in our wire dog crate, which is pretty large because I bought it when we had Cable. We've got the cat carrier for a little house, a small litter box, and all the things a kitten needs: Food, water, and toys. 

One of the things we're doing is, once we can get a hold of her, we wrap her up in a towel and turn her into a burrito. Like swaddling a baby. That way we can hold her without ending up bleeding and it's been quite successful! 

The first time I held her like this, she was pretty scared. I could feel her shaking in fear, but after about 15 minutes, she started to relax. I gave her a complete tour of the house, including where she doesn't belong-like kitchen counters and the table. I took her first selfie too.

She's a quick learner and is starting to understand we don't want to hurt her.

The second time I burritoed her, she relaxed right away and actually fell asleep in my arms. It's been so long since I've been able to do that. For the first time today, she asked to be picked up by my daughter and cuddled. 

She's vocal when she wants something. She wants to play with Boba so bad, but he's a little afraid of her yet. I'm looking forward to her being able to have freedom in the house, which should be in the next week or two.

Now, for more news. today hubby and I are leaving for the airport to catch a flight to Miami, FL. We are going on a cruise to the Caribbean. It's been 9 years since our last one (to Alaska) in 2017. We had to stop when my husband was laid off from his job. We couldn't afford it. Well, now officially retired and getting our Social Security, we can cruise again. My brother-in-law has a girlfriend and wants us to meet her, so he talked us into going with him and Trisha. We're taking Norwegian Cruise Lines Escape for 7 days visiting Cozumel Mexico, Belize, and two other ports who's names escape me at the moment. I am so excited! 

I'm taking two knitting projects with me. This ship has organized knitting get togethers. I've gotta do that! I'm taking the dog sweater,

and the scarf I started a few months ago. 

I don't know if I'll blog while away. I will have Wi-Fi, and I've installed the Blogger app for posting on my blog on my phone. I guess I'll have to see how it goes.

Our daughter isn't going with us, so we've got someone taking care of the fur kids. 

It's been oppressively hot around around here the last couple weeks. Our heat pump stopped doing air conditioning about 2 weeks ago. I got a repairman to come look at it today and, as I feared, we need to replace the heat pump. Good heavens! Have the prices gone up. Our old one was bought 11 years ago. We paid just under 5 grand. The new one is over $16,000! Urg. Fortunately, we've got money saved up for it. But really?!? 16 grand? Anyway, it will be installed next week so daughter doesn't have to deal with intense heat while we're gone.

And that is the news for now! Until next time...

Live long and prosper. \\//

New WIP

I've finished knitting all the pieces for the mohair cardigan. I just.need to sew it together and do the collar and button bands. No pic of it, yet.

Since I'm at the finishing point, it's time to cast on something new. I've decided a smaller project is in orderso I've cast on a new sweater for Zoey.

The rainbow yarn has a story of sorts.

 

 Recently I noticed that Temu, the discount online store, has yarn. Most of it is made in China.  I'm a curious person by nature, so I decided to order some of their 100% worsted weight Acrylic varigated yarn. It was very reasonably priced at the time. 

It's been a surprise! I love it. It's an amazingly good quality yarn. Well made, nice and soft to the touch, and a joy to work with. It comes in a lot of different color combinations, some exceptionally beautiful. Unfortunately, as I mentioned already, there's no label, and Temu doesn't provide the yardage in each skein. So I've taken an education guess. They're 100 gram skeins, which average about 200+/- yards for worsted weight yarn. 

I have noticed some of the other yarns have yardage in the descriptions. I have bought more of their yarn. They have variegated worsted weight wool too.

I'm planning to make another mohair cardigan, this one for me, in shades of purple. This will be one of the strands to go with the mohair. It comes with a label, but everything is written in Chinese. Rats.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Blue Mohair Update

Just a quick post. I'm making good, if slow, progress on the blue Mohair cardigan. I finished the body a couple weeks ago. 

I immediately cast on the first sleeve and finished it earlier this week. I've got the second sleeve underway.

It will be done soon, hopefully.

We've been having sunny rather warm, weather, but it's summer. This weekend, though, it's rain and clouds. I'm sure the plant life is enjoying it. 

Gotta go.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Pinks

 I finished making this necklace about 2 months ago. Maybe 3? It's another 2-needle right angle weave project.

This one is made with 4mm pink glass pearls, 4mm white glass pearls, 4mm Swarovski bicone crystals in the color Padparadscha, and some size 11 silver seed beads. I bought the Padparadscha crystals quite some years ago. I don't have any left to make a matching bracelet or earrings.

So I found someone on Etsy that had them in stock and ordered more. The color has changed dramatically in the years that have gone by since the first purchase. They don't match at all. So that's the end of that.

I had this clasp in the stash too. If I remember correctly, I got it from Fire Mountain Gems. It's a box clasp. You push the pointy thing into the hole in the box. To release it, you squeeze the clasp and the pointy thing slides right out. 

I was going to link to it on Fire Mountain, but I couldn't find it, so here's one from Amazon, which looks different, but works the same. Box Clasp.

This necklace is about 19 inches long. I've worn it a couple times, but I have a problem with it that I need to solve. It won't lay flat. It keeps trying to twist. I'll figure something out.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Morels

 When we first moved here, we could find Morels on occasion in a particular spot in our forest-toward the Northwest corner, but in 1995 we had a freak storm that took down a large portion of our trees. This destroyed the Morel's environment and they just never grew back.

Something really exciting happened last week. My daughter went for a walk and found a large-ish patch of Morels, which are a wild mushroom, in a spot we've never had them before. She picked 2 and brought them to the house to show me. Then she and my husband walked back to the patch and they picked a meal's worth. They were pretty big. I carefully washed them.

They were beautiful and perfect. Not a worm or bug on them. This was the largest one. It's almost 4.5 inches long.

I'd never cooked or eaten Morels. I googled for a basic recipe on how to cook them. I sliced them vertically and sautéed them in just a bit of Olive oil. Just before they were done I added butter and fresh garlic to finish them off. Oh my gosh, they were so good! The absolute best tasting mushrooms I've ever eaten. They were a real treat.

I had a very nice Mothers Day. Usually, we take a drive in the mountains to look at wildflowers, but I was not up to doing that this year. I came down with a couple days before and still wasn't quite feeling ship shape yet. So we went and saw the movie The Sheep Detectives.

It was a wonderful movie and I enjoyed it very much. After the movie, we went to Red Robin for Banzia Burgers. Yum!

My daughter Sarah and her partner Opal sent me flowers for Mothers Day. They're so beautiful.

I redid the wheels on the train cross stitch and I'm happier with them.

I have just a bit of black backstitching left and it'll be done. I will be glad to get it done.

Until next time

Live long and prosper. \\//

Train Engine

 I have a couple WIP updates. First, I've finally cast on the blue mohair cardigan for my daughter.

I have 6 strands of yarn being knit together on size 15 needles. I've cast on 3 times before I finally started knitting it correctly. I messed up my increase after the ribbed welt first. I decided to knit it all in one piece to start rather than 3 separate pieces sewn together. That's why I messed up my decreases. I forgot I was doing the front pieces with the back and didn't increase enough.

Then I discovered I'd forgotten to add the gold metallic thread after the second cast on So I frogged it and cast on with the gold. Now it's right. 

While doing this, I decided I'm going to make myself another one, in purple. I've ordered the yarn for it. 

That's the knitting WIP. I've also made good progress on the cross stitch train. I've done all the back stitching and embellishment on the 2 cars and caboose. They are done. Now I'm working on the engine. I'm putting the large wheels on. They're done with a 1/8th inch metallic silver ribbon. I am not happy how it was looking. The silver ribbon is really flimsy and looks terrible. I can see the stitches behind right through it. Since taking the above picture, I ordered something else to use than the ribbon I had, and I've removed the wheels I'd already done. I'm going to be much happier.

We've had some beautiful weather the last few days. Perfect spring weather in the 70's, blue sky, fluffy clouds, and the flowering trees are blooming. The flowering plum is spectacular!

I've been making time to sit out on the deck and enjoy the weather, but it's getting difficult. The city of Rathdrum owns a dump across the street from us and they started burning trash on Monday. Urg. Ash is falling out of the air like snow. Way to ruin things for us.

I am having problems with my Roomba. It won't stay connected to the internet. If it doesn't stay connected, I can't tell it what saved job to do. I've tried all sorts of things trying to get it to work right to no success. It's been very frustrating. Not sure what to do. Maybe I can set it back to the factory settings, which will delete my programs, but I can redo them. In the meantime, I guess I'll get my regular vacuum cleaner out tomorrow. The floors are getting very dirty.

Well, that's it for now. Until next time...

Live long and prosper. \\//

Catching Up 4/12/2026

 I thought I'd post a bit about what's going on in my life right now. First of all, my husband bought me a new laptop! We did the taxes last week and we're getting a nice refund. YAY! Thus, the new computer. My old Lenovo is getting obsolete because it runs Windows 10 and that's it. It can't support 11, so it's days are numbered. 

He decided to get a Dell 16 DC1625125. He bought it from Amazon and I think I like it. I'm using it right now. One of the things I like about it is the right shift key is in the right spot on the keyboard. The old Lenovo did not have it in the right spot. It has Windows 11 on it so there's gonna be a learning curve. 11 doesn't look or work like 10 at all.

The laptop arrived Friday. I looked at how to get the old stuff from my Lenovo into the Dell hoping there was an easier way to do it than the last time I moved into a new computer. There is software that will do it for you. I looked at the various choices and decided to purchase PC Mover. I was going to do it Saturday, but I felt absolutely horrible that day, so I didn't get to it until this morning. Let me tell you, it was worth the price! I had to install the program on both computers, then I clicked on the start button and it WORKED! It was super easy and now everything from the Lenovo is on my Dell. All the apps, programs, files, pictures, and everything else. There were two small problems I had to solve. The first one was it said I needed to install a utility program in order for one of my programs to work. I clicked on install, and it tried, but it said something else was using it right then, so it couldn't install it, which makes no sense to me. It said it would try again later.

The second issue I had was with the pre-installed Microsoft web browser, called Edge. Of course, it set itself up right away and I used it to get everything downloaded and going for the transfer. After installation of everything, it wouldn't let me visit Facebook with my web browser of choice, Chrome. It kept saying it didn't exist. I had to change some settings, including setting Chrome to be my default browser, and then going to the Facebook website and signing out on the old computer, then signing in on the new computer. It seems to be working now. We'll see how it goes.

I have been doing a lot of cross stitching on the train. I have all the cross stitches done on the train itself and I'm working on the tracks now.

The local spring wildflowers are starting to bloom. The Squill down the hill is in full bloom. It's so pretty!

I love the shade of blue.

A few weeks ago my husband and Ruth went for a walk and took Zoey with them. Husband made a bunch of walking trails on the property during the winter since there wasn't any snow in the woods and we needed someplace to walk that was safe. Anyway, when they got back Zoey was limping her left back leg. No one saw how she injured herself, unfortunately, because I would like to know. I took her to our veterinarian and the doctor said Zoey's sprained her equivalent of the groin muscle. She said keep her indoors for a couple weeks and gave us some painkillers for her. She was doing fairly good at the end of the two weeks, but now she's limping and in quite a bit of pain again. She's been tearing around the yard, and walking with husband. I don't know if I should take her to the vet again or not. We're out of painkiller now. I'm a bit frustrated.

Well, that's about it for now. Until next time...

Live long and prosper. \\//

Pearls and Cubes

 I have a new necklace and bracelet set.

This is from a Facebook video tutorial for a bracelet here:  Easy and Elegant Beaded Bracelet 

I used the same tutorial to make the necklace too.

It's done with 2-needle cubic right angle weave. I used Preciosa 4mm AB Clear bicone crystals, 4mm glass Ivory pearls, 4mm Purple Velvet cube crystals and 2mm gold plated round beads.

I used this inexpensive box clasp on both pieces. It's super easy to put on.

This is the bracelet.

I have been knitting. I felt the need to take a break and do something small and easy, so I'm doing this scarf.

I don't need a scarf. I already have several and I don't wear them very often, but the stitch pattern looks so intriguing I had to make it.

We've been having quite a few visits from the local wild life. I got this picture of a large flock of wild Turkeys that have showed up a couple times now. There are 30 in the flock. They were eating the bird seed that a fat bratty squirrel dumped on the ground by opening the top of the feeder and turning it over.

I wish I could make that squirrel go away. He's been a real pain in the neck this winter.

Speaking of winter, last weekend we had a big snow storm and we got about 14 inches of snow out of it. We were told it was going to be about an inch. Boy, did the weather guys get that one wrong. It has all melted away rather quickly. The temperature was up over 60F on Friday, but it was cloudy with occasional showers.

That's the news for now.

Live long and prosper \\//

New Project

 Guess what I got to do yesterday? Knit outside, in the sunshine! The temperature was well over 50F. It was a beautiful day, so I dragged my camping chair out and set it up in front of the garage. It was blissful! 

I put together everything I need for my next project which will be a mohair cardigan I promised to make Ruth over a year ago. Here are the yarns I've chosen.

When I closed my shop back in 2006, I brought some yarns home. This is one of them. It's a sport weight Navy Mohair with a multi blue novelty thread with little puffs on it. I purchased two other yarns to go with. A plain royal blue Drops silk/mohair that is sport weight, and Lion Brand Heartland in Olympic which is blue.

I've made this cardigan before in 2011.

Me in my orange mohair cardigan.

I worked on the test swatch yesterday. Pattern calls for 2 bulky weight yarns, and 2 carrying threads as well as size 15 needles. I used 3 strands of the novelty mohair, 2 strands of the plain blue mohair, and 1 strand of Lion Brand Heartland in blue. The gauge was way off. I needed 8 stitches in 3.5 inches, I had 6, so I removed 1 strand of the novelty mohair and tried again. Got perfect gauge!

Half knit swatch

I can't cast on just yet though. I've ordered a thin metallic gold thread to knit into it. It won't change the gauge. Just add a little sparkle, which this pattern needs.

That's it for now.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Bicycles For Sarah

 Mittens are done.

Pattern: Bicycle Mittens by me. (Unpublished)

Made For: My daughter Sarah

Size: Womans Medium

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash Wool
Content: 100% Superwash Wool, Worsted weight
Colors: 227 and 863

Needles: Circular size US 5 (3.75mm)

Started: November 19, 2025
Finished: February 26, 2026

Comment: I actually started with a free published pattern called Ragbrai Mittens, written by Bill Turner, but there were problems with it, like I couldn't get gauge using size 5 needles. That's the size required, but he did make a note that it might have been size 3 and there was no way I was using size 3 needles on worsted weight yarn. They would be cardboard! 

Back of hand

The size was written for men and I would have to recalculate the whole pattern to make it women's size Medium. Since I was going to have to recalculate anyway, I decided to just integrate a few things from the pattern that I liked, like the bicycles, and do my own thing. In other words, it's been "modified".

Palm side

I decided on Corrugated Rib because it's so pretty. Then, to really girly it, I put in a Latvian Braid.

Here's a close up of the bicycle on the back of the mittens. It's a pretty easy knit. I put in some spotted diamonds. I didn't want to get complicated.

I kept the diamond pattern for the palm side. It was easy to memorize so I wouldn't have to look at the chart. The chart for the back of the hand was complicated enough.

I used the thumb chart from the original Ragbrai pattern because I really like it. This is the back of the thumb.

This is the inside of the thumb. Again, this was easy to memorize so I only had to follow the back side chart.

I am very happy with how they turned out. They fit perfectly, and they will be nice and toasty warm, being made of wool.

That is the last Christmas present I needed to finish. Just need to get them into the mail now. Better late than never, of course.

The weather has warmed up again. It was a glorious sunny day with a high of 50F today. It's supposed to be the same tomorrow. I really wanted to spend some time out in the sun but it didn't work out for me. Too much indoor stuff to do. Anyway, this winter has been so unseasonably warm that my Salome daffodils have sprouted, in February! I sure hope everything doesn't suddenly drop into subzero temps and tons of snow. If it does a lot of buds are going to be killed off.

I have finally ordered the knee braces my doctor told me to get for my arthritic knees. They've been pretty painful the last few days. I've been doing the physical therapy exercises and I got a little bit carried away last weekend and did way too much.

I got the mittens finished on Thursday and found myself without a project to take to Knitting at the Rathdrum Library. I was going to start another pair of mittens but I couldn't find a pair of size 2 circular needles. They're around here somewhere. I can't believe I haven't found them. I must have at least 5 pairs of them, all 24 inch circulars. Argh! Time to start putting the unused knitting things laying around the house away so I can find them when I want them. My house is such a mess right now. I'm such a pack rat. Anyway, I have a scarf pattern and the yarn for it that I am planning to make, so I started that at the meeting. I'll blog about it some time.

Live long and prosper. \\//