Snowed in

Well, not exactly. When I came home from my ophthalmologist appointment on Monday, I got stuck close to the top of my driveway. I went out twice on Tuesday, and managed to get it a few feet farther. Since my neighbor with whom I share the driveway has gone to Superior, Wisconsin for the winter (most people go south, but he has to be different and go north), I'm not inconveniencing anyone. I figured that when I went to meet my friend Mary in Mayfield on Wednesday, I'd let it roll down to the bottom of the hill and then back out onto the road. However, before I left, Mary called to say that the Art Guild, where we had planned to meet was closed (I think they take snow days whenever the county school system does.) I suggested that she come out here, but warned her that my car was blocking the driveway. She had her two nieces with her since the schools were closed. When they got here, she parked at the bottom of the drive and walked up. Then she took my keys and went out to see if she would have more luck than I had. She wound up rolling back down the drive to get a running start. It took two tries, but the car is now in its usual spot. She then went down to bring her car up. Her 4-wheel drive Suburu had no trouble at all.

I had planned to go out today - to a program at Rose's school and then to Paducah for a knitting group this evening. However, since Graves County Schools are closed again today, there is no program to go to, and since I would hate to get stuck in the driveway again after dark, I'm not going out this evening either. Maybe in a few days this stuff will get melted or washed away and I will get out again. In the meantime, I'll knit and figure out how I'm going to warp my little 8" Structo loom now that I have finally gotten the old spools off.

November's almost gone

My brother just reminded me that I haven't posted here since the beginning of the month. It's not that nothing's happened; I've just been lazy.

Have you ever watched first and second graders play basketball? Rose is playing this year. They've not quite got it down yet, but they're trying. I noticed that the refs (I think they're high school boys) never call them on 'traveling.'

The Graves County school system has eight elementary schools, so they have their own league.

I also went to Massac Junior High, where Lexi is a cheerleader, and watched seventh and eighth graders play. What a difference! And the cheerleaders are good, too. Cheerleading has changed a lot since I was in school in the late 1950's.

On the 11th, I went to a Veteran's Day program at Rose's school. The following day was a teacher in-service day or something, so Rose came home with me for the night. She wanted to knit, so she picked out a ball of yarn and a circular needle, and I cast on a few stitches for her. She did a few rows, and then took it home with her. I may have lost one of my good Addi needles that I paid at least $10 for twenty years ago.

I'm ready for the Walk through Bethlehem next week (except for zig-zagging across the ends of 62 bookmarks). The loom is dressed, folded, and ready to be picked up.

When they come for it, I'll also have them take these things.

The rustic stool is what I will sit on as I weave. The partial bolt of fabric is some I bought almost ten years ago to make curtains for my back room. Since I have not made the curtains by now, I probably never will. They can use it in the fabric stall to make 'bedouin headdresses', with lengths of the blue stuff to tie them on with. The two bags hold the 'miniature rugs' I wove for the kids to 'buy' with their 'shekels'.

The rest of the stuff I will carry with me on Wednesday.

The white basket holds 156 two-inch squares. The sign says they are four for a shekel, and they can sew them together however they wish. The larger basket has my weaving supplies and the fingerless gloves I wear.

Then there is my costume.

The brown is a long gown with sleeves. The white is a rather long, open-fronted vest to go over it, and the striped fabric is my head-covering. I can't find the 'rope' I used to tie the gown with in prior years, so I'll use one that goes with a long sweater I have. My long underwear is there, too. (It's cold weather here, and we'll be outside.)

Another thing I've done in November is knit two dozen tiny hats. This is a project to spread the word about seafarers and the work of the Seaman's Church Institute. The director of their Christmas as Sea/Christmas on the River program will be in Paducah on December 12, with tags to put on the hats. Then we are supposed to 'hide them in plain sight', for instance, on the ketchup bottle at a restaurant or supermarket. I'm not sure I'll be able to meet her then, because that is the day of Rose's school Christmas program. I'm hoping that I can do one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

Aren't they cute?!?

November is here

I could have sworn I posted since October 4th.

On the 19th, we celebrated Rose's birthday although it is really the 26th. She is now 8 years old and is pretty and bright.

She's guarding her gifts. This year she and Kyra didn't pout while the other was opening gifts on her birthday like they did last year. I guess they're growing up.

Front and back views of the sweater I knit for her. There is a matching one for her American Girl doll (she now has three, I think.) I don't know what prompted that weird expression on her face.

I love this one of her holding her 4-month-old cousin.

As proof that she's bright, I offer this little story. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Kroger for a few groceries. My bill came to $36.08. I signed a check, gave it to the clerk to print with the machine, and told her that I wanted $20 back. That apparently baffled her. She knew that was allowed, but she didn't know how much to write the check for. The boy doing the bagging was no help, so she was trying to get the attention of the woman at the check-cashing window across from her. She finally took my word that she should write the check for $56.08. I told her and the bagger that they were much too old to have a problem with such simple math, and that my 8-year-old great-granddaughter could probably do it. I later checked all the kids. The older ones didn't even need to think about it, and it took second-grade Rose (no, that's NOT second-hand Rose) less than a minute - without writing it down. Kroger obviously doesn't give applicants any kind of math test.

Books:
The Friends of the Mayfield/Graves County Library had their annual (or maybe it's semi-annual) used book sale last weekend. The books that didn't sell then, were left in the meeting room all this week. I stopped in on Monday after the fiberarts meeting in Murray, and bought six books at the rate of $1 for a hardback and $.50 for a paperback. I've already read two of them - short, easy reads. This morning they posted on FaceBook that today was the last day, and the price was now $1 for a bag (the kind you get at WalMart or a grocery store). So I went back after I did other errands in Mayfield and filled a bag - 10 books, mostly hardbacks.

The top two are the ones I've already finished. I did eeny, meeny, meiny, mo to decide which one to start tonight. These should keep me in reading material for a while.

I will probably donate some of these back for the next sale, but some I will keep on my shelves. This morning, I spotted some I had donated, some of which I bought there last year.

Vests for great-grandsons

Brady will be one year old on Tuesday, so I've knit this vest as his birthday present.

I think he'll need to grow into it, but that's OK. I'm pleased with the way it turned out. When I go to his party on Tuesday, I'll also take this vest for his big brother Devin.

I made a vest like this, but it was too short. I think this may be a bit long, but at age 10 I expect him to grow taller. It does look very long, doesn't it?

My Yardwork Angels.

Saturday morning, Mary called and asked if I was going to be home all day. She wanted to bring her nieces, Rena (14) and Sam (12) and mow my yard. (She wanted to give the girls a lesson in charity.) They brought a walk-behind mower and a walk-behind weed-eater. I think she hadn't believed me when I said how high the grass was. They spent several hours here, weed-eating, mowing, raking. Rena got one of my mowers going (I can't pull hard enough.) and I mowed a few circuits of the fenced area behind the house. Mary and her husband came back Sunday afternoon with that weed-eater and a riding mower. They finished the front and side yards, including raking up more than half of it. Mary also started my mower again, and I finished mowing the fenced in area, and raked some of it into windrows, to make it easier to pick up. When they left, they took the wheel from my wheelbarrow to fix the tire.

On Monday, I picked up a lot of the grass-cuttings from the fenced area and raked the rest into windrows. I now have a couple of haystacks in two of the quadrants of my 'herb garden'. They should rot down pretty well over the winter. I also picked up a couple of mop-buckets of black walnuts and dumped them where I always do for the squirrels to take. I think Mary will come out again sometime and take walnuts. Or maybe I'll take some to her.

Tuesday morning, I heard a mower running - my neighbor's friend was mowing in my back yard with the neighbor's riding mower, which has been on the blink most of the summer. When I went out later, the mower was sitting in the middle of the yard - it had broken again. However, when I got home several hours later, the mower was beside Rob's house, and my back yard was completely mowed.

Now for the last two days, Rob and his friend have been cutting brush from the bank on my side of our shared driveway. They did this about two years ago, but some things (like wild olives) grow VERY fast. Now Rob has enough fuel in his back yard for several bonfires.

What don't we do for great-grandchildren?

Wow! I don't post for a month, and then post two days in a row.

Alyssa called this morning and asked if I could bring something with me when I visit her on Thursday. Well, of course, if I can.

It seems that Lexi's science class is studying trees this year, so they need leaf specimens. She only thought of holly and Japanese maple, and asked what else I have. I walked around the yard this afternoon with pruners, zip-lock bags and cards on which I had already written most of the names. I have:
black locust
bald cypress
golden raintree
Washington hawthorn (I made sure to get one of the thorns)
redbud
black walnut
pecan (from my neighbor's yard)
flowering crab apple
Japanese maple (unfortunately, since the sun is no longer so intense, it is no longer red)
crepe myrtle
wild olive
nandino
pine (I think it's white pine)
holly

Knitting for great-grandchildren

Knitting:

Last Wednesday was Kyra's birthday; we celebrated it Friday evening with cake and ice cream, and gifts, of course.

Here's the cake.

And here is the birthday girl with the gift table. (I couldn't get the red eye out in this picture.)

I knit a sweater and matching purse for her.

I didn't realize she has longer than average arms.

More pictures of the sweater and of the purse, which I think she likes better than the sweater.

One side of the purse is the gauge swatch I did to determine what size needle to use. My friend Mary came up with the idea of making a matching piece, sewing them together and adding a strap.

I have also made a vest for Devin. His birthday was in May and I did not give hm anything at that time. He hasn't seen the vest yet; I hope he likes it.

Weaving:

I am finished weaving mugrugs - 515 of them. Now I'm working on book marks. I have 30 off the loom, so far, but they need to be zigzagged across the ends, and you know how I dislike sewing. I wound another warp about two weeks ago, but haven't put it on the loom yet. I've been too busy with knitting.

I haven't fallen off the planet, really.

I've just been busy with the normal things.
A little bit of knitting:

Round dishcloths. While working on the one on the left, I let Brady play with the ball of yarn:

He had fun, and I was able to untangle it without too much trouble. Of course at 9 months, everything goes into the mouth, so some of it was a bit wet when I was knitting it.

Then I decided to use the same short-rowing technique to knit a baby blanket:

It's 31 inches across. I used a size 7 needle; I wish I had used a 9, which would have made it drapier (not really a word, but you know what I mean).

I've also knit dresses for the great-granddaughters' American Girl dolls.I should do more of those.

And I've been working on 'miniature rugs' for the Walk through Bethlehem in December. My goal is 500, and I have 367 off the loom, 37 of which need to be zig-zag stitched across the ends. I'm about halfway through the warp that is on the loom now, and I figure three more 8-yard warps will put me over my goal. I'm using a variety of 'stuff' in weaving these 'rugs', and have spent a good deal of time on the front porch preparing the stuff for weaving both the miniatures and the bigger rugs I will weave during the event in December. When I sit out there, I can enjoy my crepe myrtle and my daylilies.

Most days the weather has been very good. I have not turned on the A/C yet - just have windows open and ceiling fans running - my kind of summer.

Does a dance recital need to last 4 1/2 hours?

Rose's recital was last night - started at 6 pm and ended about 10:30, with a ten or fifteen intermission in there somewhere. Even the tiniest ones were in at least two pieces, and I think every teenager had a solo, or at least a duet. Rose was in four dances, plus the finale. I took some knitting, of course, and got a few rows done. I'm glad I remembered a sweater - the auditorium was cold enough to hang meat in it. The dance school is in Mayfield, but the recital was in Lovett Auditorium on the Murray State University campus. My round trip was 80.2 miles. By the time I got home and got ready for bed, it was midnight!

Edited to add: Lily was an angel during the whole program. That's saying something for an 11-month old!

Yard Sale

No, not the 400 mile one along US68/KY80, which was this weekend.

This one was at Alyssa and Stephen's house in Metropolis on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Alyssa had asked me last week if I could help with it. I decided that rather than drive over there (38 miles each way) three days in a row (I did that a couple of weeks ago for the kids' programs at school), I'd pack a bag and ask Lexi to let me sleep in her bed for two nights. She slept in the recliner Thursday night, and she and Devin spent Friday night with Stephen's parents.

Why do people start yard-saleing so darn early?!?!?! We started setting up about 6 am, and people were coming before we finished. They seemed to come in spurts - four or five at a time, and then no one for ten or fifteen minutes. Alyssa took pictures of some of the things and posted them on a FaceBook sale page; she got quite a few responses from that. Quite a bit of stuff sold, but there is still more left. She may take some things to a consignment store and donate others to a women's shelter.

We started packing things away about 2:30 each day, because Stephen had to be at work at 4 pm. I know he's tired from getting up that early and then working until about 10:30 pm.

Lexi had volleyball camp all week, so on Thursday and Friday, Stephen's mom provided the transportation for that, then came and sat with us. The kids also sold cookies and lemonade on Thursday and Friday - there were no cookies left on Saturday. They split the money and used it as their spending money for the Superman Festival Saturday evening.

Today is Lexi's twelfth birthday. She had four friends sleep over last night. So that was another thing for Alyssa to prepare for. She baked the cake yesterday morning.

Two of the girls were at a church youth event that lasted longer than they had expected it to, so they missed the pizza and singing Happy Birthday, but met up with the others at the Superman Festival. I'm sure they all had more cake and ice cream later.

Brady is doing well after his surgery. Here's a picture of him on Friday in one of the items that was in the yard sale.

This was a little 'tent' sort of thing, about four foot cubed. A young family with three kids (two boys and a girl) bought it. In taking it down, Alyssa explained how to set it up. I'm sure those kids will have a lot of fun with it.

Sleepy day

I don't know why I'm so sleepy today; I slept well enough last night.

My first stop this morning was at the Purchase Cancer Group to get my port flushed at 9:45. Then I mailed a bill payment and went to Grace Church. Since the service is not until noon, I sat on one of the benches in the garden and did some knitting. But I got very sleepy, so I laid my head over on the wall beside me and dozed. Eventually, someone said, "Adele, it's ten to." It was Blaine, the sexton, who knew I was there for the noon service. So I got up and went into the church.

After service, I went to Panera to meet my knitting friends. I left there about 4 pm and drove home. I was sleepy on the drive, as well, but not so much that I felt it was dangerous. Now I am very sleepy again, so I think I'll crawl in bed early.

Another week has passed,

since my last post. I've been doing the normal knitting, weaving, etc. My mugrug count is now up to 295. I figure another six 8-yard warps will do it. We've had mainly nice weather, so I've spent time on the front porch cutting up t-shirts friends have donated to the cause. I cut the body of the shirts (hem to underarm) in one long strip about an inch wide. I plan to use those pieces in December. I'll tell people that a customer brought worn-out garments and asked me to cut them up and weave a rug for her. How does that sound?

The sleeves and top parts, I cut about half an inch wide. I'm using those pieces for the mugrugs, sometimes mixing them with the thread stuff I showed earlier. Some of them are solid color, some striped. Most look petty good.

On Wednesday, I spent the afternoon and evening playing with Brady. He had surgery on Tuesday to repair his birth defect. Hypospadias and chordee. The first word means that his urethra did not come out to the end of his penis; the second that the penis was curved (don't know how they can tell that something that small is curved). He came home with a catheter in place for a week. On Wednesday, he was quite rambunctious, climbing all over me, biting my nose, trying to pull the embroidered Eeyore off my shirt, trying to get a jelly bean out of the covered candy dish. He didn't like taking his medicine (antibiotic and Tylenol); he, Alyssa and I all had a few dots of it on our clothing, but most of it went into him. Changing his diaper is definitely a two-person operation. We accomplished it with no complications until about 9 pm. Then as I was gently but firmly holding his arms and one foot and Alyssa was cleaning him and putting salve on, there was a strong stream of urine and Alyssa said, "Oh my God, it came out; the whole thing came out!" The catheter was lying there, attached with two tiny stitches to his penis. She called the local emergency room, but they said she needed to call the hospital in St Louis where the surgery was done. After about 45 minutes, someone there was finally able to confirm that they must return him there, even though it is three hours away. The woman also said to cut the stitches so the tube was not hanging off him. He was probably more comfortable without the catheter, but it needs to be there to keep things in place while the healing gets underway. When Stephen got home from work, they headed back to St Louis for the second time in 36 hours. Stephen's parents came and took Devin home with them, and Lexi was still with her father's family, so they didn't need to worry about either of the older kids. It was about noon on Thursday that they got home. I just hope and pray that there are no more problems.

All in one day?

This morning I wound an 8-yard, 40-thread warp on the warping board, tied it onto the remains of the last warp, wound it onto the warp beam (I've discovered the best thing for separating the layers of these 4-inch wide warps is 'wide craft sticks', often called tongue depressors.), tied it onto the cloth beam, and wove 38 mugrugs. They're off the loom now; I need to cut them apart and zig-zag across the ends with the sewing machine. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. The 43 that I took off the loom yesterday also need to be zig-zagged. These bring me slightly over halfway to my goal. I think I need a knitting break now.

The crazy lady's at it again!

Working on ways to use up some of the stuff I've accumulated. About 15 years ago, at an 'antique mall' in Paducah, I bought a few dozen cones of sewing thread. The man in the shop said they had come from one of the sewing factories that used to be in Mayfield. I don't remember exactly what I was planning to do with them at the time. They have sat on the shelf, and been moved from an apartment in Mayfield to a house in Mayfield, and finally to this house in Milburn. Yesterday, I gathered about a dozen reds and blues and used a large crochet hook to make a loooong chain. I rolled that into a ball and will use it as weft/filler in some of the mugrugs. During the night, it struck me that I could combine them much faster by plying them with the spinning wheel. So this morning, I turned this

(there are 19 cones there - I wonder how many miles of thread are on each one)
into this.

I did three bobbins full, put them on the lazy-kate, and plied them together.

This gave me a nice size thread/yarn to weave mugrugs with. And there's plenty more on each of those cones.

I think I'll do this with the reds, the blues and the oranges, as well. Maybe some day I'll get rid of all of it and my kids and grandkids won't need to worry about it when I'm gone.

I also have a lot of stuff that came from a pajama factory - the jersey-knit material used for cuffs and neck bands. Some of it is a nice width and I've been using it for years to weave rugs. However, some is rather wide for that. It's in 'wheels' up to a foot across. There was one wheel in a nice lavender, that was only about five inches across, but the width was twice what I wanted to work with. So I put it on the lazy-kate, and cut it down the middle as I pulled it off the roll. I didn't bother to roll it back up - just stuffed it in a canvas totebag.

Now I need to put another warp on the loom - What color?

Weaving & sewing

I've been weaving mugrugs recently. These are for the Walk through Bethlehem that I will probably participate in again this December. The kids are given 'shekels' when they enter the village, and can spend them at the various stalls. The mugrugs will be available at the carpet stall, where I will be weaving.

First I put on an 11- or 12-yard, pink warp, and got 44 pieces from it. Then I put on an 8-yard dark green warp and got 31 pieces. Finally I put on another 8-yard, beige warp and got 35 pieces. I've decided that 8 yards is about the easiest length to wind on my warping board. In addition to the colors I've already used, I have medium green, pastel green, medium blue and black available for warp. I'm using a variety of things for the weft. I had zig-zagged across the ends of 20 of them with the sewing machine a few days ago, but did the other 90 today.  I hope to have about 500 pieces done by December. There are several dozen 2-inch squares left from last year.

I also hemmed the dozen small rugs I wove during the Walk last December. They are in the washer now, because some of them got pretty dirty in moving the loom on the wagon each night. I don't bother to wash the mugrugs.

For some reason, I didn't put enough on the ends of the red ones to turn under, so they are just zig-zagged across the ends, but the blue and gray ones have turned-under hems. The warp on all of them is blue and beige.

I have some tote-bags I need to complete, as well, but I only have so much patience for sewing. I don't know why that is, since I learned to sew much earlier than to weave or knit.

Art Show Receptions

Two in two days!

Thursday was the opening of 'The Art of Grace - Vintage Views' an exhibit of art created by Grace Church members 60 years and older. There was work by 35 of us, in a number of mediums: ceramics, photography, metalwork, drawing, jewelry making, writing, sculpture, fiberarts, woodworking, etc.

Friday was the reception at the Ice House art gallery in Mayfield for the work of Fred Merida, all made from gourds. To see some of his work, go to www.icehousearts.org

I Hate Steroids!

I've probably said that here before, when I was taking Dexamethezone regularly as part of the treatment for Multiple Myeloma. I had a shot of Cortizone on Wednesday because I have hives, probably caused by some fresh berries (strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries) that I ate. The shot stopped the itching, for which I'm grateful, but it caused my left foot to swell. When I took the Dexamethezone, both feet would swell (the left one was always worse), my face would get puffy and my hands would feel stiff and swollen, although they didn't look like they were. And this, too, shall pass. The doctor also prescribed two anti-histamines. I should be back to normal before long.

There's a body in my trunk!

And two on the back seat.
They're the mannequins I've borrowed from the Mayfield/Graves County Art Guild to be used at Grace Church for the Vintage Views exhibit of artwork by the church members over 60. One of them is child size - we can use that for the top/sweater I knit for Alyssa when she was six or seven. (She's now 28.)

I call it Alyssa's Garden.

The other item I've put in is my Hearts and Flowers shawl I won some ribbons on at the county fair in 2010. It also won a merit award sponsored by Mayfield Tourism at the juried show at the Mayfield Art Guild that year. The exhibit at the church is not one with prizes - the idea is just to let people see the talent there is in the parish.

Mostly medical

But first - When I was taking one of my knitting breaks from cleaning out flower beds on Monday, a hummingbird hovered about a foot and a half in front of me for half a minute before flying off. I felt like he was saying, "I'm back! Time to put up the feeders." I did put one up later that day.

Now for the  medical. Wednesday I had my quarterly visit to the oncologist. After we exchanged pleasantries, Dr Winkler pulled up my information on the screen (everything is on the computer now) and looked at it for a minute or so. He smiled and said,
"You're incredible!"
"Oh?"
"Your labwork from January shows no sign of Myeloma."
"Good."
But he wants a bone survey, bone density test and 24-hour urine study. And I reminded him that it's time for my annual mammogram. So the appointments were made for those things, as well as for a port flush in six weeks and another visit with him in three months.

That night, in one of my wakeful periods, I thought about that bone density test. I knew the last one I had was in my family doctor's office at about the time that her mother got very ill and she went to upstate NY to care for her, but I couldn't remember whether that was last year of the year before. The last report Dr W had was from March 2011, but that time of year didn't seem right. Yesterday morning, I checked my 2012 calendar, and found 'bone density' noted on August 8. So, on my way to Metropolis yesterday to play with Brady while Alyssa took Lexi to the doctor (she has strep throat), I stopped at the Cancer Group and told them about my find. They checked with Dr Pat's office - the report from that test had not been sent to Dr W. So all I will need to have done on Wednesday is the bone survey (about three dozen x-rays of every bone in my body!)

After I left Alyssa's, I drove home through Mayfield (adds about 15 miles), stopping at the drug store to get a refill on my blood pressure medication, and at the hospital to pick up the jug for the urine collection and to pre-register for the mammogram. (Is it strange to have some things done in Mayfield and some in Paducah?)

Today has been an almost complete waste, although I did get one load of laundry done. I have wasted a good bit of time taking trivia quizzes about Kentucky, Minnesota and New Jersey. I did lousy on the Minnesota ones, but then I was only 10 1/2 when we left there. I did so-so on the New Jersey ones (I lived there for 28 years), but very well on the Kentucky ones (I did take Kentucky state history in 7th or 8th grade, after all), except for two that were about Louisville. 

Spring!

I spent a lot of time outdoors today: first about two hours cleaning out the peony and gladiolus beds on the south end of the house; second mixed up some weed killer and sprayed several places; then spent about an hour cleaning out the bed on the south side of the shed. I had cleaned out the hosta bed on the north end of the house a week or so ago, so now there are only the beds in the front. Between these tasks, I took knitting breaks on the back porch. I would have done more spraying, but it started getting breezy.

I may never be able to stand up straight again!

What's blooming?

In my yard, the dogwood, pink flowering crabapple and lilac are beautiful, but the redbud and white flowering crabapple are past their prime. The daffodils are done, but moneyplant and bleeding heart are in full bloom, and I noticed one iris open on Wednesday. The holly is almost blooming - that will bring the bees.

I've spent the last two days knitting and reading (what else is new!), when I probably should have done some work outside. We had a few nice, warm days, but then yesterday was windy, it rained all night, and today is so cool I have the heat on again.

Frustration

I don't know what happened, but I've had so much trouble getting into my blog-site that I don't remember what I planned to write.

A Good Day

First I went to the Mayfield Library to return a book and check out three others. Then I met Mary at the Art Guild and we talked and knitted (me) and crocheted (Mary) for a couple of hours, after first looking at the new exhibit that was still in the process of being installed. It is the work of the Piecemakers quilting group. It's coming up to the annual quilt show in Paducah, so this is loosely tied in with that.

Then came the best part - I went to Sara's house. Lily was still taking a nap when I got there, but woke up shortly afterwards. I have seen her so seldom that she always considers me a stranger when she first sees me. She's nine months old now and is taking a few steps at a time before she falls. She does a good job of keeping herself occupied.

Reggie was there, since he has been transferred to night shift. That only started last week, so he's still working out his sleep schedule. He was asleep when I got there, but then got up (he'll get a couple more hours of sleep later) and had some soup for lunch. When Lily saw him eating, she stood beside him so he would share his food with her.

After Rose got home from school, Sara went into town to do some errands. Rose's homework was reading a certain story (the last one in her book). I got her to read it to me. She then went back and read all of the stories to me. She reads very well. I reminded her that two years ago she was jealous that her step-sister could read and she couldn't, and that I had told her at the time that she would learn to. I think she had forgotten that. She'll be going on two field trips next week. On Tuesday the class will go to Paducah for a performance of The Berenstain Bears at the Carson Center, and a visit to the National Quilt Museum. On Friday they will be going to Murray to watch some of their school-mates perform (I don't know what kind of performance).

The blog saves the day

Carmen messaged me asking if I had general instructions for the helmet liner with scarf that I made for a friend of hers a few years ago. I looked through my binders of patterns and didn't find it, so I messaged back that I couldn't find it and didn't remember how I did it. Then I thought that I may have put pictures on my blog, and would be able to tell something from the pictures. Not only are there pictures of Lexi modeling it, but on 9/17/09, in a post titled Designer? Me? I described what I did. Maybe I'll make more of them. I wonder if Seaman's Church Institute would be interested.

Spring, I think

I spent a little time outdoors this morning, getting dirt under my finger nails. There's a lot more to be done, of course, but I'll take it slow. The daffodils are pretty much gone now, and the flowering fruit trees are starting to blossom.

This afternoon I sat on the front porch for a while and then on the back one, knitting, of course. Since I finished those two shawls last week, I started three more. Maybe Dominic's right - the family needs to do an intervention for me.

On Tuesday, I got Lexi to model those two shawls for me.

Isn't she cute?

Happy Easter

I've been quite productive in the past few days. In addition to completing warping the loom, I have woven three mugrugs.

The filler is from an old thermal undershirt of Dominic's. The spacers between the mugrugs are cut from Styrofoam egg cartons. (Did you know Styrofoam is a proper noun?)

This shows my method for keeping the warp from spreading out too wide - L-shaped brackets held against the warp-beam by metal hose clamps. You don't see much of the clamps because they are covered by the venetian blind slats I use to keep the layers separated. This is the first time I'm using the brackets and clamps - so far, so good.

Yesterday, I completed two of the shawls I've been working on for a while. One is a Pie-are-square shawl from Elizabeth Zimmerman's books.

Do you think it's colorful enough? Sorry some of the pictures are a bit fuzzy. I've thought about doing a rainbow Pie-are-square for some time. I actually have another one in the works, but in a BGYORV order rather than this ROYGBV one.

The thing I like best about Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns is that she doesn't expect you to knit them exactly like she did. Her prototype for this is in garter stitch in one color, but she suggests using other stitches to make your shawl your own. I sort of think she'd have liked this one.

The other shawl I finished is what I call a random one.

I cast on 131 stitches and used a different yarn in each row, leaving the ends to be fringe. This one really is more purple than anything else - somehow the pinks and blues in the variegated yarns show up better in the photo.I still need to trim the fringes.

And today I have finally filed the 3/4 inch stack of patterns, etc, that I have printed out from various websites since I last filed them. I think I need another binder.

Nothing much happening

Cathy reminded me today that I haven't posted anything here for a while.

When I started this blog almost six and a half years ago, I intended to write about my knitting and gardening. Shortly thereafter, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and it became mostly about my medical problems. The myeloma has been in remission for almost three years, so there's mot much to write about that. I still see the oncology people about every six weeks to get my port flushed and every three months for blood work, etc., but that's about it. I was at the family doctor's office because I had run out of my blood pressure medication. I shouldn't have been, and the nurse straightened things out with the pharmacy, so I didn't even talk to the doctor. I had the nurse check my blood pressure, since I had been a week without the medication.  At the oncologist's office in January, it was 128/64 (good); yesterday it was 150/90 (not good). I guess I really do need the medicine.

I'm still doing a lot of knitting, but very little gardening/yard work. I'm getting very lazy in my old age! The latest knitting project I have completed is a christening blanket for church.

It looks rather white here, but is really yellow. It has a plain cross in each corner, worked in four different simple stitch patterns. The other symbols are a crown (representing Christ the King), a scollop shell (used to pour the water of baptism), a heart (love), a butterfly (representing the Holy Spirit), and a chalice and host.

I have five shawls and a queen-size blanket on the needles. I keep switching from one to another; I'll finish them all sometime.

I've been spending some time at granddaughter Alyssa's playing with Brady, so she can get more of her work done (she works from home).

He looks like he's praying, doesn't he? At almost six months, he's getting more interesting (I'm not much of an infant person). He already has his bottom front teeth, and has fairly good control of his hands. He also is sitting up for more than two seconds.

Another sign of sping.

Wednesday, on my way to Paducah, I saw a robin, and Thursday I saw one in my yard. It's warm today (it was yesterday, too), but the forecast is for cooler temperatures for the next couple of days - not cold, but cool.

What could be more cheerful

than a bed of yellow daffodils?

They're in my side yard, where I see them from my kitchen window. They started blooming about a month ago. They've been sort of beaten down a couple of times by cold, rainy weather, but they're still going strong.

Of course Lexi's lamb (that she likes to sleep with at my house) in the hat she made for it last weekend will put a smile on your face, too.