Joined Ravelympics

I wasn't going to do it but I gave in and joined (with a very minimum twisting of my knitting arm) Teamjersey and I will do a sock during the Summer Olympics. We had fun with our team a few years ago during the Winter Olympics. I'm going to do a sock with my new STR club yarn.

I am just about finished with a new quilt for Caroline's friend. Just a bit more quilting then the binding and the label. I'll get it finished probably Friday because I am going to see Mama Mia tonight.

My friend's husband power washed my house yesterday and we had dinner together, vegetable lasagna and a really nice upside down peach cake. I'll miss this when I go back to work!

Good News for Me!

Yesterday I got an email from my sister in California that she and her husband have gotten a ticket using their points for me to fly to California to visit with them at the end of August. I am so excited. Caroline will be out there at the same time for her job so we'll be all together for a while.

I had been hoping to squeeze out some money for a ticket for myself but there have been too many other expenses this summer. My sister has lived n Australia, Chicago, CT and now California. With my job, expenses and Bob being sick I only got to go to CT. Any suggestions on what to see in San Francisco?
I spent a few hours gathering up all my knitting books from the little hidy spots in my house and listed them all in Ravelry. Now I have them organized in a few bookcases in the family room. I have about 60+ books and some that are not possible to list AND that is not counting the Quilting books. I started to feel guilty about having so many then I just decided that lots of people have many cookbooks and they have not cooked everything from each book and they don't say well I will not buy a new book until I've cooked more from the ones they have! And I have used many of these books. Just organizing them brings back so many memories of things I've knit and would like to knit again. I should just feel lucky! not crazy!

Knit-tink-knit-tink

I usually do not tink, (knit backwards --- pull out what I've just knit) BUT for whatever reason the Lady February Sweater is doing that to me! It is a simple pattern, seven stitches repeat over 4 rows two of which are purl! I normally can read my knitting and know when I've made a done something wrong quickly BUT with this pattern I just keep loosing the pattern adding or misplacing stitches!


I knit at a hot air balloon festival yesterday and when I got home I unknit everything I had done. Then when I looked at it again this AM I think I have more tinking to do! I may just go back to the sock for a while.

The balloon festival was nice, there was too much wind so they did not actually fly the balloons just cold inflated then and let everyone see them hooked up to the ground. Actually they are very beautiful but almost everyone had some type of commercial advertisement. Hopefully I'll get there next year and really see them go up.

getting lots of kniting done

This was a good knitting week for me. I went to my regular Tuesday group and then had some of the women over to knit Thursday and yesterday I took a vacation day from my vacation and spent most of the day relaxing and knitting. I got my new STR club selection and I REALLY want to knit up this yarn. I can't cast n yet because I already have two socks on the needles, one is a really nice German yarn that Debbie gave me and the other is my last STR club yarn which I lost for a month. I was in my WW bag so that shows how serious I am about WW this summer. I might break my own rule but I'm not sure yet!

I did try to take a nap in the hammock I got myself for Father's Day. We have been in this house for years and I have a nice shady yard with beautiful trees and I always wanted a hammock and I finally got one. So yesterday I stretched out in it to look at the new sock patterns from STR and I drifted off the sleep. I woke up to the noise of my pattern blowing away and I grabbed for it. Well, you can't make sudden moves in a hammock so I got dumped out and I swear the dog was laughing! So I went back into the AC house and knitted and napped. I have the Lady February sweater done to the armhole divide. This sweater seems to be eating yarn much faster then the pattern indicates so I'm glad that I ordered more on Ebay.

Well, I have another baby quilt to make so I'm off to quilt then knit.

Post # 201

I finally reached over two hundred posts! Not easy to do when I constantly forget or put off posting!

I had a knitting night at my house last night. I knit with a great group of women in B&N every Tuesday night and last night some of them came over to sit on my new furniture and knit. I think it was a very pleasant night--- the only problem is that I made a no bake ricotta blueberry cheesecake and everyone also brought in great snacks and one friend even brought in some wine AND I got left with TOO many good things to eat. I need to delay WW by at least another week!

This week has been busy, we got a new attic fan on Sunday and the upstairs floor is really cooling off and I finally painted the redone closet in the living room. NOW I just need to get after Lowe's to get the last pieces I need for the cabinets, finish the power washing of the house and then all that is left from the summer plan is CLEANING OUT of stuff. I don't know how I became such a pack rat. I surely never intended to save the amount of junk I did and so now I have to clear out my husband's saved stuff also. I am committed to getting rid of junk so that my kids don't have to go through piles of stuff, really boxes and bags of crap after I die. I'm not including yarn or fabric in this THAT they can just deal with when I go! Really --- I hope I still have good knitting friends who can pick my stash clean when that time comes!

Kitchen update

We have gotten lots of progress done on the kitchen. The cabinet is mostly installed, I need to wait for Lowes to get in the finishing kit and Joey still has some stuff to do then I can finish painting and start to move whatever into the cabinets. I'm planning on using one of them and my laundry room to store what is left of the soap business. My next big project is to dismantle the upstairs kitchen which used to be known as the soap kitchen and now is just the junk kitchen BUT I need to catch up financially and take a rest first!

BTW, I finished the red Mr Green Jeans sweater. It is just waiting for buttons and blocking and edging. Pictures to follow!

livingroom update

I've had a little over a week to enjoy my new furniture and I'm loving it. These pictures are a little strange in showing the fabric. The three pieces are covered with a textures fabric, green with some brown. I'm going back to get a small chest to go right near the door. Yes, under the lamp on the floor. I'm making a quilt to throw over the couch, the fabric roll is on the coffee table. Caroline and I have been sitting in the living room and it is not even Christmas!

Taking the Day Off

I'm on my way to the beach. The last few days have been very hectic. I'm just about finished painting the kitchen cabinets, the new counters and base cabinets should be done on Monday. I got my new living room furniture AND I love it. It is so nice to walk in the living room and not see mismatched and old stuff with throws concealing tons of old whatevers!

Gizmo is continuing to bring drama into the house! He was at the groomer on Thursday and she found a huge abscess on the glands near his backside. So we had an emergency visit to the vet and now the poor guy is on meds and hot compresses but is really doing better. Actually he is happy with all the extra treats going his way to hide the pills!


Today I am going to the beach with friends. I plan to swim, work on my sweater sleeve, get some sun, eat and just rest before the next round of day labor around here!

Moving Right Along

Yesterday I had lots of excitement with my dog. I was working on painting the cabinets and he has a history of being a pest around paint so I put him outside in the backyard. After a while he ran into the paint area and I though "Didn't I just put him out?" So I scooped him up again and put him out. When I went to check on him a while later he was gone. The gate was open and Gizmo was not to be found. Now. I'm in panic mode. I'm running around calling his name and one of my neighbors tells me that he found him out and tossed him back into the house! Didn't I feel like a fool to say I popped him back into the yard!

Luckily for me I found him. A boy from around the block saw Gizmo, thought he knew whose dog he was and put him in some one else's house! So while I was searching for him, Gizmo was playing with another Shih Tzu in an air conditioned house! Gizmo was Bob's dog. He was so worried about that dog when he was passing on. The one promise he asked me for was to take care of the dog! Now any of you who know me know that I am not a dog person. I always feel so guilty when something, anything happens with this dog. In spite of myself I am very attached to him. The couch we just just threw out was the couch Bob spent so many years on sick. I could not get rid of it for a long time. It is just over two years ago that he went into the hospital and his two year anniversary is on August 14th. Caroline and I have made so many changes to the house, I think he would be shocked at some of them but deep down I think he would be happy at how well Caroline, Steven and I are doing! And even the dog is doing OK. He gets groomed today so he will look nice and neat by mid morning.


I have the frame of the cabinets primed and half of the doors primed. The man at Lowe's tinted the primer the same color as the paint so I really think the cabinets will look good. I'll probably get the new cabinet and counters cone Sunday or Monday so pictures will follow by early next week!


AND my new furniture is coming between 11 and 2!!!!!!!

July 7th

I've been very busy but a good type of busy. So far since I've been off from work,
* I've caught up on all sorts of household stuff,
* power washed most of my house using my own power of a scrub brush and a bucket of cleaner ( I did get a power washer from my sister to finish! -- Just could not get Caroline up on a ladder for the third level),
* made a really nice baby quilt with prairie points,
* did a yo yo stuffed puppy for my niece's new baby
* made a quick knotted fleece Yankee blanket for the same baby
* bought new living room furniture
* carried out the old couch (with the help of Caroline & Katie)
* switched the old living room furniture to the family room and the family room stuff to Caroline's sitting room
* started refinishing the kitchen cabinets
* ordered two new cabinets for the kitchen
* made machine embroidered heart pillow for me
* went to the quilt shop to get another lifetime supply of fabric
* celebrated Natalie's college graduation

My daughter is threatening to send me back to work so that she can get some rest! I made a list of stuff I wanted to do before I go back to work in September and I am making progress!

Today I am going out for lunch with friends and the most energetic thing I have planned is knitting on my sock and folding laundry!