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.

I've done it again . . .

and no one reminded me that I hadn't posted for ages.

That ice I mentioned in the last post disappeared by 9 am the next day. We've had one dusting of snow since then, but most of the precipitation has been liquid. That suits me just fine. The daffodils started blooming three weeks earlier than usual, but they are still going strong. They are always such a cheerful sign that spring is coming.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading, mainly on two series: one by Julia Spencer-Fleming in which the main character is an Episcopal priest in a small town in upstate New York, the other by Phil Rickman in which the main character is an Anglican priest in an English village on the Welsh border. The Spencer-Fleming series has titles that come from hymns, with the words of the hymns printed on the page before the story begins. I find myself singing them before I start reading (you don't want to hear it).

And of course, I've been knitting.

I've never liked anything on my head, but recently I decided I wanted a hat to keep my ears warm. I knit this with some of my handspun yarn. I like the pentagon on the top.

And here are some shawls I've finished. Lexi said she'll probably take one of the red ones for her teacher. I don't know what Rose, Kyra and Devin will want. I will have others for them to choose from, too, before school lets out in May. Whatever ones the kids don't want for their teachers will go to the church to be blessed and given to people who are ill, bereaved, etc.

Lexi took these pictures when she was here last weekend. I asked her if she wanted to be the model or the photographer - she chose photographer. She's actually better than I am in both jobs.

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted here. I guess I've been busy with knitting and reading. I've also spent several hours on a few days playing with Brady so Alyssa can get more of her work done.

Last Saturday, Alyssa invited me to have supper with her and Lexi at Olive Garden in Paducah. Then Lexi spent the night with me. On Sunday, we did not go to church in the morning, but went there at 4 pm for a grandparents and grandchildren thing - decorating cookies, then eating them with punch or coffee, playing a couple of 'getting to know you' games,and then a Eucharist service around the labyrinth that has been created with masking tape on the floor of the parish hall.

Tuesday this week, I went there in the afternoon and then accompanied Alyssa to  Shawnee Community College for the Ninth Annual Shawnee Pride Jr. High Honor Band concert. Band directors from thirteen elementary and junior high schools in southern IL had selected students to participate. Lexi was one of the kids selected from Metropolis Elementary. The kids spent the entire afternoon there, working on the music, and then played four pieces for us. The concert started at 7 pm, so I didn't get home until 9:15.

I did my normal Wednesday knitting group thing yesterday. When I got home, there was a voicemail from the Mayfield library saying that one of the books they had requested for me last week from another library had come in. So today I went there to return two of the books I had checked out last week and to pick up that one. I then went to the senior center for lunch.

Tuesday I noticed that they had started pretreating the roads. I hadn't heard the weather forecasts, but that told me a 'winter storm' was expected. This morning, when I left home it was raining - slightly more than a drizzle - but I ran out of it before I got to Fancy Farm. When I left Mayfield a couple of hours later, it had started sprinkling there, and continued all the way home. When I got here, I sat down and read for three hours. When I got up to make a cup of tea, I saw that the trees are coated with ice. The precipitation is coming down as rain, but is freezing on the trees, etc. Now there is also lightning and thunder. I think I'll shut down the computer and go back to reading.

Another 130-mile Day

That was yesterday. Alyssa called and asked if I could come over and play with Brady in the afternoon (Stephen worked 12:30 to close.) I told her I need to go to Mayfield, but would be over after that. She suggested that since I was going to Mayfield, I could pick up Bob (her dad) and give him an outing with his grandson.

So I left the house about 9:30, went around the corner to pay my water bill, and then headed to Mayfield. First stop was the Senior Center, where I donated this scarf

to be a door prize at the fund-raising supper that night. I told them I didn't know if I'd make it back for the supper or not (I didn't). Then I filled the gas tank, exchanged the toilet tank flap at the hardware store (I'd selected the wrong one last week, Fortunately I discovered my error before opening the package.), bought aluminum foil at Big Lots,  and went to Goodwill and Kevil Korner (local thrift shop that supports a sheltered workshop) - not in that order. Then I picked up Bob about noon and headed for Metropolis.

We spent a few hours there, during which I picked Lexi and Devin up from school, and Brady shit on my sweatshirt. Alyssa had just changed his diaper and handed him to me. I heard and felt a small explosion and told Alyssa I was sure that was a wet fart. She picked him up and changed his diaper again. I looked down and saw a line of mustard-colored poop on my sweatshirt and couldn't help laughing. I went to the bathroom and cleaned it off as well as I could, then took off the shirt. There were only slight spots on my turtleneck shirt underneath. Both shirts are now soaking in a Biz solution.

From Alyssa's house, we went to Sara's, taking Alyssa's Christmas presents for them and picking up Bob's laundry (Sara's a sweetheart to do it for him.) It was the first I had seen Lily since just before Christmas and Rose since Thanksgiving. After I dropped Bob off, I got a sandwich at Burger King and came home. It was 8:30 already, so I got in bed and read.

Today I'm staying home, but tomorrow I'll be back out again, to church (haven't been there for at least three weeks) and knitting.