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 (Unpublished)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. \\//

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. \\//

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. \\//

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. \\//

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. \\//

Socks With Squares

 I have finished a Christmas present! I'm calling these

Socks With Squares

Pattern: Socks With Squares by Linda Jo Park (No pattern)
Size: Mens 8

Yarn: Garnstudio DROPS Fabel
Content: 75% Superwash Wool/25% Nylon, Fingering weight
Color: Off White

Yarn: KnitPicks Stroll Fingering

Content: 75% Merino/25% Nylon, Fingering weight
Color: 25025 Aurora heather and 23699 Pumpkin

Needles: ChiaoGoo circular size 2 and 3

Started: March 18, 2025
Finished: October 3, 2025

Comments: I have designed these socks and intend to write up the pattern during the winter. It took awhile to get them done because I put them on hiatus while I worked on the blue afghan.

I started these socks from the top with an inch and a half 1 by 1 rib cuff.

I love the little stitch pattern. It's easy to knit and easy to memorize. I used it on a pair of mittens I made last year. 

For the heel, I tried something new for me called The Mock Short Row Heel. It's much easier than your typical short row heel. You'll find a video tutorial here: Mock Short Row Heel.I highly recommend trying it.

I did my usual toe, though I did try something new on it at the end. I usually do a 3-needle bind off because I don't like doing the Kitchener Stitch. I've never been happy with the finished product of Kitchener stitch. I actually finished the first sock as usual.

Then I found the Finchley Graft. No complicated setting up of rows and stitches. Just a quick easy to learn weaving with a tapestry needle, from the wrong side. I like it a LOT! It has a very nice seamless look. I undid the toe finish on the first sock and redid it with the Finchley Graft. I will be using it from now on.

Serious knitters want to see the inside of stranded knits, and I'm particularly proud of this one, so here ya go. My tension is getting better and better.

I tried these socks on because the last couple pair did not fit Opal. I looked at what I did when I made them and I don't know what I was thinking but in both cases I didn't cast on nearly enough stitches. I will have to remake them properly. In the meantime, these ones are plenty big enough.

I took quite a few pictures of these socks. I just love that stitch pattern so much.

It looks like a 3-color stranded pattern but there's only 2 colors in every row.

My Marigolds are still going strong so I picked it and used it for some arty photos.

There's no frost coming for at least the next two weeks. The weather has cooled off from the 90's so it's much more comfortable. We've had a bit of rain too, which is helping with the smoke from wild fires. The leaves have started turning and the air has the strong smell of autumn. Winter is on the way.

Sweet Hubby's heart is still beating steady and regular, like it's supposed too. He has so much more energy, and he's sleeping better. It's nice having him back in good health.

The new afghan kit from Mary Maxim's arrived. I've cast on and started it.

That's the news for today.

Live long and prosper. \\//