Sunday, September 30, 2012

It's fall isn't it?

So why is my crepe myrtle just now blooming?
I guess because we're just now getting some rain.

The flowering crabapple with white blossoms and green leaves is loaded with fruit for the birds.
But the one with pink blossoms and rusty leaves has lost everything.
The holly berries are just starting to turn red.
They'll be bright red all winter, and come spring the returning birds will feast on them and then sit in the walnut tree and poop in my car.




Thursday, September 27, 2012

Great-Grandchildren

Both my older sister and I are getting two of them this year. I already have some, but these are the first for her.

My great-granddaughter was born on July 2nd and hers came yesterday, September 26th. My great-grandson is due in two weeks and hers some time in November.

We must be getting old to have great-grandchildren. Right?

Brady's blanket's done!

 That's a crib mattress (his crib is stored here until they're ready for it), to give you an idea of the size. He'll be using it for many years. His 7-year-old cousin still has hers on her bed, and I think it is not quite this big.
This is the back, to show how neat the intarsia knitting is. It also shows the shadow-knitting name, although backwards.
I was going to crochet a border around the whole thing, but decided to try something different. On the ends of the side borders, I knit up stitches on the right side, and then cast them off in purl on the wrong side the way I had cast off the other stitches. Then I used the yarn tails to connect them to the other cast-off stitches. I'm very happy with the way it looks.

Now on to other projects.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Busy Weekend

Last week, Alyssa asked if I could pick Lexi up Friday afternoon and take her to the Gourd Patch Festival in Mayfield on Saturday. Then I called Sara and asked if I could pick Rose up Saturday morning and take her to the festival, too. She said it would be more convenient and helpful for her if I got Rose on Friday afternoon. OK. Both girls would spend two nights with me, we'd go to the Gourd Patch Festival on Saturday and to church on Sunday.

When I got to Alyssa's house Friday, she said Sara had called and said that Rose didn't have school on Monday (teacher in-service training day), so she hoped I would let her spend Sunday night with me as well. Sure, why not.

Saturday, I spent most of my time at the festival sitting with a friend in the beekeepers group's tent, and let the girls visit the children's tent, ride on the haywagon (very small), and watch some of the gourdmobile races. In the children's tent, they created a fox from pieces of gourd.
Lexi says it was her idea, but Rose helped her find the pieces. (Several of the local people who make things from gourds set aside their scraps for the kids tent each year.)

Between them, the girls brought three American Girl dolls. We got home from Mayfield before 3 pm, and they had a good time playing with the dolls for the rest of the day. They had a birthday party for one on them.

They also played school, and had picture day, then took a picture of the dolls with their pets.
 


The doll on the right is wearing a dress that they made.

This morning, after church and Sunday school, we went to Panera for lunch and then to Metropolis to take Lexi home. Alyssa suggested that Rose spend the night there, and she would take her home tomorrow. She called Sara to get her OK. I'm sure Rose has had much more fun playing with Lexi and Devin this afternoon than she would have had here. Those two will have to go to school tomorrow, but Alyssa can probably find more things for Rose to do than I could. Of course Rose's 'stuff', except for her doll, is here, but I'll take it to her on Tuesday. Alyssa said they had a bag of things Lexi has outgrown to take to Rose anyway, so she could wear something from that.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Combing and Spinning

I spent several hours today on the back porch using these
mini-wool-combs, to turn this


 washed fleece from a Shetland sheep into this


 combed roving, with the parts that didn't comb well going here.
Then I used this
 Louet S10 spinning wheel, to turn it into this
 wool yarn. When I had the bobbin relatively full, I wound it into a center-pull ball and plied the two ends together to create a sport-weight, two-ply yarn that will be nice to knit with.

Then I used this


table-top drum carder to turn the parts that didn't comb nicely into this
a carded batt. Since I couldn't get a smooth preparation, the yarn I spin from it will not be as nice as that from the combed roving, but will be OK for some things.

The caution sign in the middle picture of the carder is serious. Those teeth on the 'licker in' are dangerous. The ones on the large drum are nothing to play with either.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Changing diapers

That's something I hadn't done for quite a few years, until yesterday.

Sara called me Thursday evening and asked if I could get Rose off the bus Friday afternoon. She said she would then feed me supper, and I'd be there for Kyra's family birthday party. I got there ten or fifteen minutes before the bus came and waited on the front porch (with my knitting, of course). Rose had a key in her backpack to let us into the house.

Reggie arrived about half an hour later, with Lily, who had been at his grandmother's house. She was sleeping in her carrier. For the next two hours or so, she stirred and opened her eyes a few times, but then went back to sleep. Sara was home from work before she really woke up, but was busy, so I picked her up and changed her diaper. The disposable diapers sure are different from the cloth ones I used forty-plus years ago. I did use disposables some with Dominic, because the sitter wanted them, but I always used cloth ones at home. There have been a lot of improvements in the disposables since then!

Sara fixed a bottle, and I sat and fed Lily, until Alyssa got there, sat down beside me and asked to hold her. Then others wanted their turn, as well.

After supper, we had the cakes:
And opening of presents:
The American Girl doll that Kyra's aunt Casey is holding was the big one. There were also clothes for the doll and matching pajamas for Kyra and the doll.

Alyssa had asked me if I could drop Lexi off at her grandparents' house for the weekend, since it's very little out of my way. It started to storm shortly after we left Sara's. When we stopped in Mayfield for gas, Lexi commented that now she understands why there is a roof over the gas pumps. Some of the lightning was blindingly bright. The rain was not bad when we got to the Gills, but I pulled as close to the door as I could, so she wouldn't get wet. Just then, the rain increased and so did the wind. I sat there for a couple of minutes, but then decided to go on. However, by the time I got to the end of their short driveway, I decided to stay a while, because the downpour made it hard to see. I backed up a little, then turned off the motor. The wind was buffeting the car. Within ten minutes, the storm had let up and I went on. There is a little road that cuts off from the main road to the one the Gills live on - two lanes, but not wide enough to have any lines painted on it. When I got to the end of it, there was a tree blocking about 3/4 of it. Fortunately, the ditch is shallow, so I was able to get around it. I was really glad to get home.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

O is for octopus

This afternoon at Panera, I noticed two little boys seating themselves at a table with cookies. Their mother came over to the table where we knitters were sitting. It was Heather, whom I hadn't seen for ages. I don't go to the evening knitting group, and the afternoon one doesn't fit into her schedule. She looked at me and said,
"You made the octopus for Ben, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"He took it to school the other day for show and tell for the letter 'O'."
"Great! I'm glad he still has it."
I blogged about the octopus here.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Happy Birthday, Sara!

My second granddaughter is 26 today!

I started the day by having a CT scan of my chest. Apparently, something looked strange on the chest x-ray I had a couple of weeks ago. Probably nothing, but Dr Pat wants to be sure.

Then I stopped at Dollar General for some dishwasher gel, and also bought a soda and some peanut butter crackers (Lance). Next to the Art Guild. Mary was already there. We did a little needlework and a lot of talking, as we munched on the crackers.

Later I went to WalMart and bought a cake for Sara. I figured that, even though she's an adult, she needs a birthday cake. I knew it was too early for her or Rose to be home from work and school, but I went to their house anyway. I knocked lightly on the door and then decided to sit under the carport and knit. In the shade, with an occasional light breeze, it wasn't bad. After I had knit five or six rows (32 stitches per row), Reggie came out. He had been napping with Lily. I went inside, where it was cooler. Lily was still sleeping, until after Rose got off the school bus. Shortly after that, Sara came home from work. She, Rose and I had some of the cake. Rose wanted me to stay for supper, but I declined. I did hold Lily for a little while; she snoozed on my shoulder for a few minutes. She's two months old already!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Remnants of Isaac

That's what we're getting since Friday evening. When the wind started up then, I tethered the porch swing to the pillar and brought Bonnie's mums inside so they wouldn't get blown away. We've gotten a couple of inches of rain, which was sorely needed. It's too late to help this year's crops, but will help replenish the aquifer.

Another denomination visited:

Lexi is getting a good overview of Christian worship styles. When she is with her paternal grandparents, she goes to a Church of Christ. When she is at home, she goes to a Baptist Church with her step-grandparents. When she is with me, she goes to an Episcopal Church. However, yesterday we went to a Lutheran Church (ELCA). Grace Episcopal and St Matthew's Lutheran had a combined service at St Matthew's. I guess it was because, on a holiday weekend, neither church would have many in the pews. A woman from Grace read the first reading and our deacon preached, but the St Matthew's pastor conducted the rest of the service, including the children's 'sermon' and blessing the elements.

When we were walking to the car afterwards, Lexi started asking about the Lutheran church. She knows about Martin Luther King, but had never heard of Martin Luther.  So I told her a bit about him.