A Pretty Little Necklace

 I mentioned I'd made a necklace a day or two ago. Here it is.

The Facebook video tutorial is here: Elegance-192

I used gold size 11 seed beads and 4mm Bicone clear AB crystals to make it. Also some gold chain. It's the first time I've used chain in my jewelry.

The pattern has you use a crystal teardrop for the focal bead, but I didn't have any, so I used this glass bead instead. Someone gave it to me about 15 years ago.

It was surprisingly easy and quick to make. I've ordered teardrops do I can make more.

I have more progress on the mittens. Getting excited about having them done.

We had a beautiful day today. Got up to 45F with sunshine, blue skies, and the occasional fluffy white clouds drifting over. I was going to go sit out in the sun for awhile, but I had too much to do today. Maybe next time.

Zoey is still limping so I've made an appointment at the vets at 8:20 a.m. tomorrow. I'll let y'all know the results.

Live long and prosper. \\//

I've Been Playing With Beads

Warning! Lots of pictures.

For the last 2 weeks, I've been playing with beads. For some reason, a video reel popped into my Facebook feed of a bracelet made with 2-needle Right Angle Weave. It was so pretty I had to try it out. I've made 5 bracelets.

This is the first one I made. I have quite a few glass pearls in the stash and this used some of them.

I used gold and black size 11 seed beads and 4 mm glass pearls from the stash in this bracelet .

I found the cutest clasp on Amazon, of all places.

My daughter liked the above bracelet so much I made her one.

I used a silver clasp that I found on Amazon.

I used silver and dark green size 11 seed beads and 4mm glass pearls  from the stash to make the bracelet.

I found this bracelet tutorial on the page for the first bracelet.

I found a simple pearl clasp for it, again, on Amazon. It matches the bracelet so nicely.

I used silver size 11 seed beads, 4mm Czech fire polished crystals in a pale blue, and 6mm glass pearls  from the stash in its construction.

I thought about my daughters wife and made this for her. Same pattern as above, but I changed the beads used.

I found this really simple folding clasp on Amazon.

For bracelet construction, I used silver size 11 seed beads, 4mm clear AB bicone crystals from the stash, and 6mm Natural Stone Colorful Selenite Gypsum Beads that I bought from Amazon.

Then I made this bracelet for daughter. She wears a lot of green because it goes with her red hair.

I again used a simple silver fold over clasp like the bracelet above. The beads are silver size 11 seed beads, 4mm lime green bicone crystals, and 4mm glass pearls from the stash.

I am surprised at the quality of beading stuff I bought from Amazon. I didn't expect that. I've since bought some more very nice glass pearls and 4mm bicone crystals (Preciosa) for other tutorials I want to make. Everything is very good quality.

If you are a member of Facebook, here's a link to the FB page I got these tutorial videos from: Wedding Decoration Ideas . I was going to link directly to the first bracelet tutorial, but I can't find it. She's got a LOT of videos to scroll through. 

I promised my daughter a knit cardigan some time last year. I've got all the yarn, but now I can't find the pattern. It's around the house somewhere. I will keep looking because I can not purchase another copy. They are no longer available. Sometimes I wish I kept my stash more organized. Not enough to do anything about it, of course.

Live long and prosper.\\//

The Green Ripple

 One of the unfinished Christmas gifts is finished. 

Green Ripple for Ruth

Pattern: Shaded Ripple afghan by Melissa Leapman

Made For: Daughter Ruth

Size: 52 x 68 inches

Yarn: Maximum Value by Mary Maxim
Content: 100% Acrylic, Aran Weight
Colors: Aran, Light Green, Medium Green, Dark Green

Needles: Circular size US 9 (5.0 mm)

Started: October 3, 2025
Finished: February 2, 2026

Comment: I can't believe it took me 4 months to get this done. The daughter is happy with it, thankfully

Here's a close up of the stitch pattern. The hills and valleys aren't as wide as the purple one because she didn't want me to stretch block it out like one usually does with a lace pattern. She likes it the way it is.

Ripples are so fun to knit.

Zoey has given it her seal of approval.

I have bought yarn for a 3rd one. I want to make one for my oldest daughter and her partner. I guess I'm in an afghan knitting frame of mind.

I am working on finishing up the mittens now. The body of the first mitten is done and I'm about a third of the way through the second one.

I'm hoping to get them done by the end of this week.

This is my back yard as of earlier today when I took this picture,

and this one.

Notice the lack of snow. The first week of February and there's no snow! It actually got up to 50F degrees last Wednesday. It's been an unseasonably warm winter. There is very little snow up in the mountains. We've had plenty of rain though. I don't know what to think of it. I am a little worried about my flowering plants. They are starting to bud out. It's too early. Now we run the danger that temperatures will drop down to where they are normally this time of year and all the buds will be frozen, killing them. I hope I'm wrong.

Two weeks ago I saw an Orthopedic Surgeon about my knees. I got to see the x-rays of my right knee taken earlier in December. They were very interesting. The doctor explained to me what I was seeing. There is no cartilage on the inside half of both me knees. Plenty on the outside half though. He also showed me the arthritis. It was horrifying to see. Arthritis is bony growths on the bones. I figured they were small bumps. They aren't. They're huge triangle shapes pushing into everything around them causing a lot of inflammation and pain. I've been told my knees are pretty bad and I should think about knee replacement surgery. I'm surprised. I didn't think they were that bad. 

I have a high tolerance for pain, which I did not know. I've always thought I'm a real wimp. I don't want to replace the knees yet. I want to start with physical therapy first, so that's what we're going to do. I've been referred to one just a couple miles from my house. I'm supposed to wait until they call me. I'm not to call them. I expect at least a month wait, maybe a couple weeks longer. In the meantime, I've googled some mild exercises to do while I wait and they are helping quite a bit.

I've been beading the last couple weeks. I've made 5 bracelets and 1 necklace and I'm really having a good time doing it. I've been doing two-needle Right Angle Weave. More about that later.

That's it for now.

Live long and prosper. \\//

The Snowflake Throw

 Finally! I can blog again. I'm going to post the finished details of the Snowflake Throw today.

Pattern: Snowflake Throw by Mary Maxim
Made For: A Special Friend

Size: 48 by 54 inches.

Yarn: Big Twist Soft
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: 5020 Dark Denim

Yarn: Big Twist Value (Solids)
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Colors: 5001 White, 5018 Light Denim, 

Needles: Circular size US 8 (5.0 mm)

Started: June 13, 2025
Finished: December 22, 2025

Comment: Oh my gosh, I love this afghan! I love the colors and the yarn I used for it. I loved working on it. It was a wonderful, enjoyable, challenging project. I'm so glad I made it!

It took a lot longer to make than I thought it would, but so worth the effort. Actually it's more accurate to say it took me longer to get it blocked than I thought. I kept procrastinating, which put me in a not so good position when we got back from our trip to get it finished. Sewing those 5 seams took quite a bit of time!

This is a free Mary Maxim pattern called Snowflake Throw. It is 6 panels sewn together. 

There are 4 stranded-knit square charts. 

The 3 colors are varied from square to square giving lots of varieties of squares.

So I never got bored with making them.

Between the stranded squares are rows of seed stitch and bobble stitch patterned rectangles. They were knit in all three colors too.

Another thing that was a challenge with the stranded squares is that the fairisle bit is in the middle. I had to be careful I didn't leave holes where it started and ended.

The blankets recipient is very happy with it. I offered to line the back, which I had planned to do (even bought the fabric) because I wanted to protect the floats from getting fingers caught in them, but ran out of time. 

As it turns out, I didn't have any loose ones anyway because I wove the floats every 3 to 4 stitches. 

It was great fun watching my friend open the present. She was so surprised! I'd worked on it right in front of her several times. I stopped doing that when the panels were done.

I did not finish the mittens for my oldest daughter or the afghan for my youngest daughter. Sigh. I didn't get nearly as much knitting done on the trip as I'd hoped. First, I found out I get car sick if I knit in the car while it's moving (Rats and Phooey!). Then, about a third of the way into the trip I started having problems with real pain in my knees which made it hard for me to knit for some reason. I couldn't concentrate on it.

I will talk about the trip in my next post, but I did manage to accomplish repetitive stress injuries in both of my knees, though the right one is way worse. The doctor said it probably was caused by getting in and out of the car so often, because we did a lot of that every single day of the whole three weeks. My Prius, being a sporty car, is low to the ground so I have to push up more to get out of it. It's time like these that I wish we had a two story house. I would have much better knees if we did because I'd be used to going up and down the stairs all the time so they'd be a lot stronger.

I was advised to use ice packs and rest my knees until the swelling went down, and she referred me to a specialist who has yet to call me. I think the holidays slowed things down. I'll probably hear from them in the next week or two. In the meantime, trying to get ready for Christmas  was pure torture. My knees got in the way, plus being extremely stressed because I couldn't do the Christmas preparation I really wanted to do. I had to really scale down my expectations. I was relieved to get what I could done, and it all turned out fine anyway.

We didn't get the tree up until three days before Christmas. I don't think I would have even done that much but I'd bought new lights and we wanted to see them on the tree. So we put it up and put on the lights. That's it. I intended to get some ornaments up but just didn't have it in me.

The lights are pretty. A little more purple in real life.

Last week I caught a nasty flu bug going around and it was one of the worst flues I've ever had. It was extremely painful! Every joint in my body hurt so bad I could hardly move. I cried quite a bit the first night because it was so  unbearable. I can only take Tylenol, which didn't do squat, because I'm on blood thinners. So I suffered. I'm much better now. I hope you don't get it.

Our weather still has been weird. There was NO SNOW on Christmas. In fact, we were still getting temps in the 50's. Some of the plants I have in pots on the deck are still alive, and unbelievable amounts of rain! Good lord! I haven't seen rain like that since I lived in California! It melted all the snow on the mountains and we had flooding everywhere. Only one pass going to Seattle is open because there was so much flooding and mud avalanches. It was so sad seeing so many peoples homes flooded. I'm so glad I live on a hill.

It snowed the day after Christmas. We got a couple inches, then things warmed up and it all melted and still, the rain. Our ground is not frozen yet, which is probably a good thing under the circumstances. That will change. The cold will be moving in to the area in a couple days.

Live long and prosper. \\//

It's Holiday Time

 Just popping in to let folks know I'm still alive and kicking. I have been so busy. I hope to write this coming week.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Project Progress

 Still plugging along. I did more stitching than knitting this week. I got the caboose almost done.

I thought I'd have a chance getting it done before Christmas, but there's the little matter of doing the back stitching, ordering a frame, framing it, etc. I don't have time. So this will be a birthday present instead.

It took 4 days, but I finally got past a certain dark green stripe (the top one). I don't know what was going on but I could not get past it without making multiple mistakes. I think it was just all the stress going on in my life. 

Our home insurance was cancelled. The insurance company dropped everyone in our area because they say the fire danger has become too high (Thank you climate change!). It should not be legal to do that. We've been good customers for a long time with not one claim made.

Then we got an overdue notice on a bill. A large bill. I could have sworn I paid it. Husband insisted on getting a Home Depot credit card when we bought the supplies for the new back porch. I hate credit cards. Anyway, he was pretty upset I hadn't paid it, and I was even more upset with myself. I did start working on it by going on the Home Depot website to set up an account and pay it, but I didn't get it done. I think I got interrupted by something and didn't get back to it. Whatever, anyway. I spent an evening trying to get that set up so I could pay the bill. I ended up calling them and paying it that way. Their web site sucks.

I wasn't feeling good last weekend and coughing a lot so I went to the Immediate Care Clinic. I found out I have pneumonia again. It's a mild case, thankfully. I've got some meds that should get rid of it.

And then there was the accident. We're almost done with that one. The Prius has been repaired and we got it back last Friday.

I've also been working on getting ready for the road trip. We're going to Pawtucket, Rhode Island to see our daughter and her wife and spend Thanksgiving with them. It's been a few years since we've seen them. We're taking three weeks and doing a road trip with the Prius. I'm hoping the weather is kind to us. I do not like traveling at this time of year, unless it's on a plane to a cruise ship in the sunny south. I've been overruled. My niece is taking care of our house and cat while we're away. We're taking Zoey with us.

I'm leaving the cross stitch train home and taking two knitting projects. One being the afghan, and the other being the supplies to make a pair of mittens for a Christmas present. Years ago I made a hat for my
daughter with bicycles on it. She's an avid bicyclist. Recently I found a pattern for mittens with bicycles on them, so I'm gonna make them for her. I am using the same brand of yarn, but I don't have the exact same colors because both have been discontinued. I'm using some that are close. I wonder if daughter still has the hat? I guess I'll find out.

Weather has been wet and in the 40's and low 50's. Occasional sunshine has appeared to dry things out just in time to for the rain to get it wet again. We've had a couple days this past week of real hard downpours making our metal roof rumble.

I don't know if I'll post while I'm away. Haven't decided if I want to take the laptop or not. I will see how much room there is left in the car after we get all the suitcases and whatnot in. In the meantime,

Live long and prosper. \\//

What The .........!

 Life has been interesting since my last post. I was in a car accident on the 28th of October. My daughters and I were on our way to Coeur d'Alene to pick up our new glasses. I was stopped at a red light with a a dozen other drivers, waiting for the green light. It turned green and suddenly there was a horrible "bang!" and the car shook. The gal behind me hit the gas as soon as the light turned green. She didn't wait for all of us in front of her to get going first. Plowed right into my back end and pushed in a sizeable amount of the hatchback door as well as damaged the bumper. 

She was driving a new pickup truck that was absolutely HUGE! There was no damage on it. I don't think the dust was even disturbed on her bumper. 

I was so rattled it ruined the whole day. I immediately called the police, then moved my vehicle off the road so I wasn't blocking traffic. The police officer was very kind and helpful. Fortunately, the damage didn't prevent the car from being driven, so I went ahead and continued on to get the new glasses after the officer was done making his report.

Since then, I've contacted my insurance, and the car is at the repair shop being worked on. I should be getting it back in like new condition by Friday of this week.

I've been working like crazy on the train cross stitch. I've finished the cross stitches on the train engine car.

It took quite a bit of time to do. It's more complicated than it looks. I've started the last car, which is the caboose. It's going to be much easier to do. To be honest, though, I don't think I will get it done in time for Christmas.

I'm still knitting the green ripple afghan. I'm about a third of the way along.

I took a little stroll out in the back yard today and found some fungus I was not familiar with. This is called Black Elfin Saddle mushroom. It is edible, though I've not tried it.

It's got an interesting look to it.

The weather has been wet and chilly. There is snow on the mountains. Today was sunny, so I took advantage of the opportunity to sweep all the pine needles off the deck and stack the furniture for winter. 

We are going on a road trip in a couple weeks. We've been missing our oldest daughter, who lives in Rhode Island. We haven't seen her since the pandemic so we're going to drive out and spend thanksgiving with her and her partner. The plan is to take the Prius, so I hope it's ready for it. 

I am very nervous about the trip. Husband wants to take our time driving across the country and stop to see things. I don't know how many things will actually be open, seeing as it's almost winter now. I don't know how wise it is to go on a road trip this time of year, but it's what Doug wants to do. I'm hoping for nice weather. 

That's the news for now.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Progress

 I really haven't made good progress on my projects lately. I'm not sure why, because I have been working on them. Here's where I am with the train cross stitch. Not much more to do on the engine. Just wheels and small detail stitches. I have one last car to do after this one.

I'm here on the green ripple afghan. It's been frustrating because I feel like I've done more unknitting than knitting on it. I keep dropping the yarn overs, or forgetting to do yarn overs. Then I find myself ripping back to fix it. Ugh.

I've been having problems with my hands lately. I've been doing activities that are making them sore. For instance, I participated in the No Kings protest and held a sign up over my head for 3 hours. It went really well. We had over 1000 people show up and the public support was overwhelmingly positive. 

My hands and arms were so sore the next day. I didn't knit or stitch for two days to give them time to recover. I am amazed, though, that my feet and knees were fine the next day because I stood for 3 hours on all that arthritis! I was definitely hurting. I took a 15 minute sitting break halfway through. That little break helped a lot.

A little over a week ago I managed to break my glasses. I hadn't been to the optometrist since Covid, so I was way overdo anyway. I was starting to see things a bit blurry too. I needed a new prescription but have been dragging my feet to get it done. I got my eyes checked last Saturday. They are perfectly healthy (yay!) and the new glasses should be ready in another week. I took my daughter with me because she hadn't had her eyes checked since 2017! Hers are healthy too, and her new glasses will be ready at the same time as mine.

The weather around here has taken a nosedive down into the cold dept. It's been in the 40's and 50's consistently for a couple of weeks or more. The leaves are falling off the trees, and autumn is definitely ending soon.

A couple nights ago we had a storm. No lightening or thunder, but plenty of wind and rain. Around 11:30pm the power went out. Found out later a large tree had fallen in a road and dragged the lines down. It wasn't fixed until after 7am the next morning. Doug and I did not get much sleep that night because we discovered we can't sleep in bed without our CPAP machines. I sat in my recliner all night, reading. Around 5 I must have fallen asleep in said chair because when the power came on it woke me up. We have ordered a portable power system for our CPAPs

Earlier that day, just before dark, we got a rainbow. I took a picture.

It wasn't as bright as they usually are, but the sun was just barely above the mountains and it was getting dark out with cloud cover.

Dougs heart is still in proper sinus rhythm. Hurray!

That's the news from the Parkarosa.

Live long and prosper. \\//