Knitting

Wasn’t it just Day Light Savings Time? SPRING!!

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Old Indian Wisdom (click on picture to read words)

I notice the older I get the faster things come up.  Remember when you were young and it took forever for your birthday or summer to get here?  Now they just whiz by at an alarming rate, that seems to be one of the unfortunate things that happen as we get older and gain wisdom (well I hope I have accrued some wisdom anyway :P.)  At any rate, I used this Old Indian bit of wisdom again because (with just a hint of sarcasm) obviously the federal government didn’t pay attention last year when I used it on my blog and day light savings time is here again this year.  sigh.

Well, WOOT WOOT, my car has been repaired and is in my garage!!!  However (don’t you just know there is always a however?)  my foot isn’t healed sufficiently yet to drive it.  I drove it home from the mechanics house about 20 mins away and my left ankle is letting me know about it (it’s a manual with a clutch and not an automatic transmission).  So it will be a couple more weeks before I can drive it because I went back to the Dr yesterday, (my supervisor thought my foot should be healed by now and suggested I go back to the Dr), and she said “nope, as long as you are using that ankle the ligaments you tore will be very slow to heal”.  She wanted to put an air cast on it because she knows I am single and self supportive and staying totally off of it is not an option, but they didn’t have one and I have to wait until I get paid on Tuesday to afford it.  But I want it to heal so I can drive and walk and all that other stuff that I haven’t been able to do since the middle of Jan when I fell down the stairs, so on Tuesday when I get paid, I will go get one and use it (the pharmacy is only a few blocks from my house).  She did put a splint type of brace on it which she said would be better than the soft support one that I was using, and she put me on a high dose of ibuprofen every 6 hrs for a full week to help with the inflammation.  So I’m crossing my fingers that in 2 or 3 weeks I will be back to more normal :).

 After 4 trips to the frog pond, I have finally figured out my pattern for the new comfort shawl I am making.  When I get a bit more done on it so that you can see the pattern I will post a picture of it.  When I am completely done I will post  a link to the original daisy shawl pattern and my version of a rectangular shawl pattern for it along with the picture of the finished shawl :).  I’m torn right now between wanting to spin and wanting to knit, but the knitting is winning out at the moment.  Perhaps later this week when I need a break from the shawl, I will pay more attention to the “come hither” from my spinning wheel.

I did see the geese flocking back a week ago last Thursday (March 3rd) and all the wonderful red-breasted Robins!!  The female Robins should be showing up in the next week or so – they are usually about 2 weeks behind the males so the males can set up their territories to court the females and entice them to their carefully picked out and fought for spots.  AHHH, SPRING IS IN THE AIR!  Farewell Old Man Winter!! 🙂

One Lone Christmas Catus Bud

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Late Christmas cactus bud

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While I was watering my plants this last week end, after neglecting them for a little over a week,  I noticed a single bud on my Christmas cactus.  It has already bloomed this last November or December and I have never seen one bloom so late.  Not sure why just one bud or why so late in the season.  But I will just enjoy the beautiful blossom when it unfolds and wonder.

Also this weekend when I was trying to update my wordpress software for my website, it failed and knocked out my blog and other pages.  I could see my home page but that was it, I had no access to my admin functions.  So I went to my brilliant son (who is the server administrator for my website, and a programmer). When I told him I wasn’t able to get into my admin functions, he looked at it and said “it is very broken”.  But he had it restored and up and running before I knew it.  If you are needing a new website and interested in someone who is willing to listen to your needs and work with you do check out his website TDM Web Consulting. 🙂

I’m still working on the design for the comfort shawl, but after having to frog it 4 times, I’m going to cast on a few patterns of the daisy with some scrap yarn and work on that instead of messing up this nice alpaca yarn, until I figure out what I need to correct the pattern.  Maybe this week end. 

Also we are suppose to have 40’s and 30’s the rest of the week, WOOT!!!  Gotta love that Spring is right around the corner.  I haven’t seen them, but someone told me that they have already seen male robins before March 1st.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them here before March.  I’ll be on the look out and see if I can get a picture.  🙂  I guess that means an early Spring, maybe that groundhog was right!!

Current Projects & a Tease of Spring

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Another Pair of Cabled Gauntlets

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Lest you think I haven’t been doing anything – tho with no current blog post or picture I can understand why you might think I wasn’t doing anything ;).  Anyway, I just finished another set of my cabled gauntlets, found on My Free Knitting Page here .  I use the 12″ circular needles to do them because I really don’t like working with double pointed needles (I will if I have to, but I try really hard not to have to :P.)  They always turn out nicely on the short cable circular needles.  I hope my friend will like them.

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2nd Comfort Shawl

This is the start, or restart, really it’s the 3rd restart of a comfort shawl I am trying to knit for the other mother who lost her son (to cancer) last fall.  It’s a rectangular shawl, unlike the one shown in the link a little farther below, I’m just using the daisy stitch for the shawl.  You can see the nest of yarn because I started it and didn’t think I had enough stitches so I had to frog it (rip out rows at a time) and cast on more stitches, only to find out I had enough to begin with, was just reading the chart wrong (I have to write charts out because I can not read them very well, thus the error in translating it to something I can read better) so I had to frog it again.  But the pattern, the daisy shawl pattern,  is pretty and I’m not one to give up when I start a knitting pattern.  This one has a double yarn over, which isn’t hard to do, but I’ve discovered that the purl row after the double yarn over is a bit confusing, so I’ve gone to my knitting list to enlist some help in how to purl a double yarn over and still have two stitches that are open and lacy when I’m done.  I may have to tink (take out stitches one at a time) the last row I knit, hopefully I wont have to frog two rows.  I’ll follow up when I figure out what I’m doing wrong and get a bit farther with the shawl.

We had beautiful weather Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week, was awesome!!!  40’s and even middle 50’s.  But it’s just a tease of Spring, because Winter isn’t really over here in the Midwest until late April or early May.  But hey it was a week of 30’s to 50’s instead of teens and sub zero weather, and I’ll take it!!!  Come on SPRING!!!

Happy Birthday to my 2nd Son

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Tim

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON!!!

This is my 2nd son.  Of course he’s “a bit” older now, but isn’t he a cutie?

I was looking at my daughter’s youngest (my only grandson) the other day and thought oh my goodness, he looks just like my son!  He’s a cutie too. 🙂

Comfort Shawl

 I finished the comfort shawl that I have been knitting on for the last several months.  This is as it lay blocking.  I didn’t get a chance to get a better picture of it on someone before I gave it to the intended recipient.  I hope that it will bring her the comfort intended. 

I have begun the next comfort shawl that I wanted to make for the other mother in my church who lost a child last year.   Last year was a hard year.

 

We have gotten quite a bit of snow from this storm.  Blizzard winds today and forecast for tonight (about 40 mph) – we’ve got about 5 inches of snow so far today and it’s suppose to keep snowing through the night.  I’m suppose to call a number in the morning to see if we will go in at the regular time, late or no work at all.  Guess you know which one I am hoping for :P.  

Ok I’m a klutz!

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 This isn’t me (and yes it makes me feel less embarressed to know there are other klutzes out there too) but this was the gist of what happened Friday morning after leaving my apt and just starting down the stairs to the lobby of my apt complex as I was off to work.  I missed the first stair and the rest was all “down hill” from there ;).  I have bruises down my right side and sprained my left ankle (not sure how that happened) but yes, I am a klutz.  This accident is making me stay mostly on the couch with my feet up (the other ankle was injured but not as badly as the left one), so I have lots of time to knit until I go back to work on Tuesday – I should have the comfort shawl finished and blocked by tomorrow – I’ll post a picture of it when it is all blocked.  Yes I went to work on Friday and they let me leave 2 hr early to go home and put my foot up and I went to the Dr yesterday morning and they sent me for x rays, which I haven’t heard rather it is just a sprain (as I suspect) or fractured (which I doubt), so for the most part, it’s feet up girl.  I’m glad I work for a bank and have a paid holiday on Monday!!!

My “little” sister has begun a new blog journey.  I loved her old blog and was sad when she let it go, but I’ve been pestering her for a few years now to restart it.  She has and it looks like it will be even more wonderful than the last one.  She is quite a photographer, into paper making, fused glass, mosaics and other things.  The name of her new site is “Eat It Anyway” just click that link, I hope you will enjoy it – she’s awesomely talented :).  I’ll also put this link on my blog roll ;).

Back to the couch for a while to put my feet up.

Winter Weather & Thor

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Christmas Tree 2010

.I put my tree up the first week-end after Thanksgiving.  It’s a lovely little fiber optic tree that I bought from someone at work about 4 years ago.  I love the color changes and that it’s small enough to fit in my apartment.  Brings back memories of my mom’s first favorite tree.  It was one of those silver aluminum trees that had the color wheel that you put close to it, and the sliver aluminum branches would pick up the changing colors.  Later in her life,  she had a beautifully flocked artificial tree that looked as real as any I’ve ever seen, and the skirt was a beautiful alpaca fleece, it even looked soft in the pictures.

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Evening of Snow Storm

 

Next Morning

Well, we had a blizzard yesterday evening and through the night.  However because the snow was heavy and wet it didn’t blow around in the up to 40 mile an hour winds, so we were spared that part of what most people experience in a blizzard.  This was our second snow of the season and the snows are coming late this year, tho I’m not complaining, we will have plenty yet to come.  We didn’t get very much, certainly not as much as those north of us. 

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Can I come out now?

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Thor is doing well and is such a joy in my life.  He has been such a blessing to me.  He only expects food, water and time with me.  Well, and an occasional treat that I can’t resist giving to him.  He’s getting older, he will be 5 next spring which is getting old for a ferret.  I’m blessed that he has been and continues to be healthy, but I know the time will come when his health fails, then he will need me to be a good mom taking care of all his medical needs, which I will do with as much love as he has given me. 

I’m still knitting on the comfort shawl, it’s about 3/4’s finished now.  I’m also finding time to work on spinning the cria fiber, I love the softness of it as I spin it.  I’ve found that working on the comfort shawl for someone else who lost a child and spinning that wonderfully soft fiber has been comforting to me this Christmas season as I find my self missing my youngest son so much.

Navuoo Temple

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Early Morning Trip to Navuoo, IL

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I had the chance to go to Navuoo again.  It’s about a 2 & 1/2 hr drive and it was cold with a bit of freezing rain this morning until we were about 1/2 hr out of Iowa City.  The Temple in Navuoo is so beautiful inside. 
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On the way home we stopped at Stringtown Grocery (a grocery store with lots of bulk spices etc) run by the Amish.  I’ve been there once before and hadn’t noticed that their lights are gas lights since they don’t use electricity.  I love their bulk spices and other bulk items.   I was able to do some knitting on the way back (I was napping on the way up :P.)
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 I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas Season and that we are remembering the “reason” for this season.   May the Lord bless and keep you all.

Christmas Cactus – First Bloom for 2010

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1st Bloom for 2010

1st Bloom almost fully open

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They bloom fast once they get going.  I missed getting the picture of the bloom opening.  They are very unusual but pretty.  I love the hint of a very soft pink they have on them.

I’ll get another picture when I have several of the blooms open.

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click on picture for larger image

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Another update on this comfort shawl, which really should have been finished by now.  It doesn’t look like it, but it is half way finished.  By the time it’s blocked it will be much longer and wider than it looks.  I love knitting with Alpaca, it’s soft and squishy and it should be a wonderfully soft and very warm shawl.

I have several shawls in the wings after this one, so I best get my bottom in gear!!!

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My supervisor at the temp job I am working let me know this week that they will be hiring me permanent full time in Jan.  I am very happy to know I will finally, after 3 years of working part time or temporary jobs, have a permanent and full time job and it will be nice to be paid for the holidays they take and will make my financial situation a little less precarious.  I know we are given trials to learn from, and it has been a learning experience.   I hope I learned everything I needed to learn because I certainly hope I don’t have to re-learn anything in that experience again.

Happy Birthday Dad!

/ LDSVenus

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My dad is celebrating his “29th” birthday again.  My dad grew up in the great depression and is no stranger to hard times and struggles.  He lost his dad, at a young age, to pneumonia because they didn’t have penicillin yet.  He’s seen vast developments and changes in our society in his life time, and has a lot of wisdom because of everything he’s seen and been through.  Because he lost his father early in his life, family has always been his number one concern.  How blessed I am that he is my dad.  You are a wonderful father, dad, I just wanted you to know that.  Have a wonderful birthday, with much love from your oldest daughter.

I Hope You Voted!!

/ LDSVenus

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I hope you all got out today and voted.   I did.  My son and I tease that we cancel each other out.  But that is alright, it’s our civic duty to vote, what an awful state we would be in if we didn’t have that right and opportunity!!  Guess we will see in the morning who will be in control of the House and Senate and our state.

lsfiberadventure has posted a picture, of the PIF I sent, on her blog. 🙂  You can see it here.   PIF’s are fun to do, they take time and a little bit of money :P, but they are fun.  I think the most fun is waiting to see if they will like what you sent, and well, yes – the excitement of getting your own PIF package in the mail ;).