Ah! Sweet Mysteries of Shawl at last I Knit You

A couple weeks ago I joined the mystery shawl 3 KAL along with what is now over 4000 other knitters. Friday the first clue was posted. My yarn hadn't arrived yet so I didn't try to download the clue until late last night. My yarn showed up today so I put down my sock and my cotton vest I've been working on to give the shawl some of my time. The yarn I'm using is KnitPicks Shimmer - alpaca/silk lace weight. I haven't knit with it before and I've only done 30 rows so far but I really like this yarn.

The ranting I was doing a couple days ago at work is still a potential problem but the mass quantities of chocolate and TV watching seems to have done it's work (not to mention the high volume of knitting I've done the past few days).

In the middle of all this insanity at work I got a call from my Dad's place. He had icky eyes (my term not theirs) and needed to see the doctor. This call came at 3pm Friday so I had to hustle to get an appointment and get to him and to the doctor before the weekend appeared and everyone disappeared for several days. Good news is Dad's weight is up a little bit and all his blood tests looked good. He let himself get way down to 132 lb. at 5'8". This low weight doesn't help cope with other life problems well. But now he has been eating well since last Sept and being taken care of well where he lives so he is healthier and able to deal with eye ick better. We got some goo to put in his eyes and went back to his place in time for supper.

Back to the work traumas I won't talk about (you are too nice to be bothered with such mundane things). What I will talk about is - I ended up changing my vacation from middle of July (way too much to do to take a week off) to mid August. I'll end up having the week after Stitches Midwest off. Which means - I'm seriously thinking of driving down to Chicago Friday night and hanging out at Stitches Sat & Sun and drive home Sunday night. I haven't done something like this for a few years and with the craziness in my life I think I need to do a fun crazy think

I had someone email and ask about the window that Bert looks out of in his pictures. It's from a Cat Cottage I got at Dr. Foster & Smith. It's a 4 story (4' tall) cardboard box. Each set of windows has a floor with a hole to move around in on the inside. The boys love it. The other thing in the kitty corner is their Jungle Gym. It's from Target and so far has held up well to both of them leaping on and off. The last part of the kitty corner tends to be junk on the floor. We usually have a big shoelace, a plastic bag (for Chief to chew on), assorted bits of wadded up paper, you know, the usual necessary kitty items. This unfortunately is not just contained in the kitty corner - it's all over the house. After all, I am only allowed to live with them and their toys.

Charts are our friends

I need a good rant!

I'm in need of a good rant. I started writing about my socks while I was having lunch but the afternoon went down hill and by the time I left work I felt I was desperately in need of knitting time, a good TV show and major doses of chocolate. I'll tell you about the socks later but first - I rant!

I'm convinced Taurus' are out to get me. On the way to work I was driving along in the middle of 3 lanes and a guy in the left lane decided to come into my lane right where I was currently driving. I like my SVU (my bright royal blue SUV that ANYONE can see from miles away) and have no desire for a new one so I tooted my horn. Taurus guy pulled back into his lane and proceeded to give me the finger and gesture madly for about 4 minutes. PLA-LEASE! All I did was let him know I was in the lane so we didn't have an accident. I found his genturing rather assuming but he obviously was having such a day (or life) that he can't handle a small thing like not being able to go into a lane when he wants to.

We'll bypass the afternoon events at work because THAT rant would take till midnight. On my home I stopped at the store to get major doses of chocolate (part of my coping devise). Leaving the parking lot, a lady almost ran into me because she was so busy lighting a ciggy-butt that she didn't notice me and my royal blue SUV. The lady was driving - you guessed it - a Taurus. They are out to get me!

So here I am at home with chocolate (makes that mass quantities of chocolate), a SUV with out dents in it (still bright blue that anyone who doesn't drive a Taurus can see), my sock-of-the-month sock to knit, some fresh brewed ice tea, and a DVD of Rosemary & Thyme.

This should get the day's bad mojo out of me. Let's talk socks.

More Sock Info

Sorry about not putting full sock information with the picture yesterday... The yarn is supersocke 100. I tried to "Ask" for more information about the yarn because I don't now this one but had a hard time getting a manufacturer web site. It's a nice yarn but I've had more splitting with it than other sock yarns I've knit with. There could be 2 reasons for this. I've been knitting with my older size 2 needles and I've been knitting while more tired then usual. I'm down to the gusset now and switched over to size 1 needle. I have thicker legs and the pattern was for a ladies medium. Without doing a lot of calculations I figured knitting the leg on bigger needles would be the easiest fix. So far it looks okay. We'll see how the foot turns out.

The pattern (sorry I didn't state which one, guinifer!) is Country Girls Socks from Hearts Strings Fiber Arts. It looks like leaves pointing downward. The leaf movement and lace is enough so it shows up well even with all the yarn color changes.

Knitting Styles

It's interesting to knit the same project with a group of people. People tend to get competitive (well, I tend to get competitive). We were about 10 people sitting around a couple tables knitting Monday night. Chatting about work, family, trips, etc. Lots of conversation about the socks. Some people tried 2 circs for the first time and needed help. Some were knitting magic loop. I was in the 4 double point group. It's the way I was taught and I can knit pretty darn fast with them. Anyway - I got the most knit Monday knit. Told you I was competitive! But back to the point of community knitting.....

Some ladies were talking about the charts. The pattern has many charts for the different sections. Some had never used charts- didn't know how to read them ("start row 1 at the right side just like you're knitting" - "Oh, I can do that.") "What's the little pictures mean?" , etc. Now- to me - charts are heaven. You can glance at where you're at, don't have to get lost in a string of K1,yo, k2tog,k16,ssk,yo,k4,yo. Somewhere halfway through a string like that I lose where I'm at and have to re-read a ton of times. With a chart- no problem. Get something to mark the row you're on and knit like the wind! This also helps when I'm trying to knit and have both cats trying to get my attention by climbing all over me and the pattern. Charts remind me of the old TV commercial about some sort of car - "The lines are our friends. Stay between the lines." I say The charts are our friends......

Now - onward to chocolate, knitting and TV.......

Bert says he and Chief will help me forget the day too!

While the Mom's Away....

Most days I get up - go to work - come home - pet the boys - settle in for a quiet evening. Not today. Today when I got home we got to play the ever popular game of "When the Mom's away the cats will play". Today's episode did not include a ball of yarn unwound around the house but instead involved discovering what could possibly in in the drawer in the kitchen. (note the ugly floor that is being replaced next month - YEAH!)

Anything you boys want to tell me?

Sorry, Mom.

Here's the sock yarn I told you about yesterday. The color doesn't show up real well. It sort of old fashioned blues and green. I have a family afghan from the 40s that has the same colors. I think I'm going to like these socks very much.

Chief and Bert do the Laundry

Last night was Sock of the Month group at Amazing Threads. We got our yarn and pattern and sat around for a couple hours to knit and chat. I haven't belonged to a knit group before but this is very comforting. I don't know anyone's name but I can tell you who's the daughter of whom - which 2 are sisters - who's going on a boat cruise next month. Next month I'll work on remembering names - I've always been bad at that.

The yarn this month is ON Line Supersocke 100 - color 917 and the pattern is Country Girl Socks from Heart Strings Fiber Arts. I'll get pictures posted when there's enough to show.

The past few days Chief and Bert have tried to be very helpful to me. Chief babysat Bert while they both helped with the laundry.

You know - we would be more comfortable on the kitty hammocks.

This is MUCH better!

WHAT? We're supposed to fold the laundry!?

Have you ever noticed how many pictures I tend to get of both the boys together? They're usually joined at the hip and not too far from me. They're such Momma's boys and I LOVE it!

It's been a good week

I had this week off. The plan was to work at least 3-4 days at the other house and get much packed and ready to get a moving company to get everything down here so I can finally clean it up and put it on the market. I also planned to get some leisurely knitting done.

Here's what I did:
1. so far spent 1 day at the other house, got some packing done. I'll put in another day this weekend.
2. Knit on my grey silk cardigan. The first sleeve is done. Now I have to decide if I'm going to do a sideways knit body from the sleeve or be traditional and knit the body waist up. I'll have to stare at the sleeve for a while and think. I also knit on other smaller projects and played around with some designs to add to my garter stitch collection (easy knits for my friends that are going to learn this fall).
3. Bought some beads and wire and made a few stitch markers. Fun and easy.
4. Bought a new kitchen floor. This took 3 trips to Lowes and an installer coming to the house to measure things up. The current floor is from the 70s and I planned on getting a new one after I got everything moved in the house but, it's time. I really hate the current floor and it has holes in it. The new one will be installed next month and is pergo hardware floor-look. I'm happy.
5. I took Mom & Dad to the American Swedish Institute (See last post).
6. I only turned on my work computer 2 times. Monday I promised to check to see if more info was needed for a big meeting Tuesday. I lucked out and didn't need to do any work. And today I turned it on long enough to approve my time card on line. I had many emails waiting for me but only glanced over them and sent a quick answer to 2 of them. Pretty much saying - I'll take care of this first thing Monday. I also saw I have 3 meeting set up Tuesday that I wasn't planning on. But - I deal with that Monday. I'm still on vacation.
7. Bert and I played a rousing game of "Fishy-fishy". We have a small fishing pole with a stuffed cloth fish on a line. He loves to chase around the house after this thing. If I go into the stupid human talking to a cat voice and say "Where's the fishy-fishy?" He'll madly wiggle his butt and go hunting for it. It doesn't take much to amuse either of us.
8. Chief has been enjoying extended bed time. I have been sleeping in until 8:00 which gives Chief extra cuddle time. He's happy. I'm happy.
9. I got together with friends Saturday night for dinner at a good India restaurant and a casual time on my deck afterward.
10. I watched a lot of TV and movies and pretty much vegged out. I needed that and feel almost ready to tackle what Monday will bring. The notable movies were "Bridge to Teribithia" - loved it and cried a lot; "Flushed Away" - ya gotta love a good rat story!; "Music and Lyrics" - can you tell I wasn't in to serious movies this week?; and I also watched the 6th season of "Monarch of the Glen" - it's a BBC TV series about a family in the highlands of Scotland this a castle and lots of amusing problems.

Well - 2 days left of vacation and I plan to enjoy it fully!

60 years and still going strong

Today was Father's Day. Don't double check your calendar. You're okay. I'm okay. Today was Father's Day in my world of dementia coping. Sunday would have been too many people and noise where ever I took Mom & Dad and that would not work well. Dad needs quiet and order and routine. Mom's not far behind. So - Wednesday being quieter during the day became our Father's Day. The public library's in the Twin Cities have a deal right now where you can "check out" 4 admission passes to many of the museums around town. So- we took advantage of these and went to the American Swedish Institute.

I picked up Dad at 1pm. Had to call Mom to remind her to come over - she forgot. Redress Dad and make sure he zipped up his pants, etc. Wait for Mom. Re dress Dad. Get his afternoon meds and we were off. We actually got started at 1:30. Only 1/2 hour after I planned. This is pretty good for us. On the way to downtown we had our usual conversations - how much would a car like this cost - we're so lucky to have a daughter like you - you're so smart. Apparently being able to make a right turn after the light turns green is occasion for being declared the smartest person around (again). We made it to the museum. I won't bore you with details. We walked around, enjoyed the place for about 30 minutes and Dad got tired. That makes the free passes even nicer. I don't mind short visits when we don't have to pay.

On the way back to the car I had to quick grab my camera and get this picture.

60 years married and still holding hands. How special is that! It was a short day but they both enjoyed it. Well worth the having to hear the same conversations over and over again.

What will the sweater grow up to be?

Fruit Ice Cream
We're going to start with a very strange but good recipe. I make this every summer cause it's good and very low calorie. There's really no recipe but here's what it is... take frozen fruit - berries work best but you can use any fruit. Put in a bowl. In a cup or glass take about 1/2 - 1 cup of milk depending on what you decide is wanted. Mix in a little vanilla and non-sweetened sugar product (I use splenda). Pour the milk mix over the frozen fruit and watch. After about 3-4 minutes stir things up a bit. The fruit will give up it's cold and turn the milk to slush. The picture below is the process part way through. It ends up tasting like a fruit ice cream. Really good and really healthy!
Knitting
I've actually got some knitting done. These are more squares heading off to the Rebuilding Greensburg project. Four of the squares are from the same skein of Plymouth Encore. The fifth is the remains of a skein from my Victorian shawl.

The last month's Sock of the Month are done. They were easy to make. Sockotta yarn. Our next sock comes next Monday, I can't wait!

Finally, the sleeve to my silk cardigan. I got many skeins of this from a sale last month and decided to play around. I have no idea what this will end up looking like because I'm making it up as I go. It's going to be a sideways knit sampler style cardigan. The color is actually lighter than the picture but this picture shows the pattern better than the picture where the color is accurate. I think I'll end up knitting both sides from the sleeve to the center and graft the center back together. This will give both sleeves and side a mirror image look. We'll see when I get to the middle if I keep going or start at the other sleeve - time will tell.

Garden

Dad was wonderful with the garden. He'd look at a plant and it would grow - bigger faster stronger. Wait that's the bionic man- back to gardens. I have managed to not kill all the plants yet and actually have a few that are doing okay. So - here are a few of Dad's plants I haven't killed by neglect.

We'll have apple pie this fall - lots of apples on the tree.

There's plenty more of these guys but this one was perfect!

There's 4 of these rose bushes around the garden and they're full of blooms. What has remained without my care this year is so pretty I decided I better take care and become a gardener, at least part time. Dad will be so proud when I tell him.