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.