Knitting

Comfort Shawl – New Update

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Click picture for larger image

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Well, I’m not knitting it as fast as I should be, but here is an updated photo.  I lost track of my rows one day and did a wrong row and didn’t feel like frogging or tinking back so I corrected the row below each stitch as I knit the next row.  Slow going I admit, and it probably would have been faster to frog the row and re-knit it and then go on, but then that was what I chose to do. 😛  I’m hoping I won’t be sleepy tomorrow so I can work on it some more.  When I’m sleepy and I start knitting, it makes me even sleepier until I can’t hold my eyes open anymore.  It is a little more than a 1/3 of the way finished.  I really need to put more time into it and get it finished.  Maybe I will have a bigger or finished picture to put up next week end. 🙂

Well the Cowboys can’t decide if they are going to play well or kill themselves with penalties.  I’d like to tell them, if you can’t do those things well that you are trying to get away with, stop it!!!  You are beating yourselves with them.  Tho I have to admit, there were a couple of questionable calls in the 1st half that even a Viking fan admitted to.  Even tho they are at the bottom of their division I will still root for them and hope they get rid of their penalty prone ways.

I finally got that call that all members of the Church anticipate with some intrepidation.  Yes, I will be giving a talk in Church this Sunday.  It’s a bit scary getting up in front of the congregation and talking about what ever spiritual subject the Bishop or his counselor have given you to talk about.  It’s similar to giving a 15 min mini sermon for those not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons for those not familiar with our formal name.)  As part of  my talk I decided to give an experience I had this Monday while driving to work just before the sun came up.  The Lord gave me some spiritual pause when I saw it.  I will share that experience below.

This last Monday as I drove to work, at 7 am when it’s not quite light yet, as I turned onto a street off of a main road just outside of town, I saw a car to my left on the shoulder of the road.  The people were standing outside the car looking to the right side of the road.  I looked over and saw a doe that had obviously just been hit by that car.  Because it was not quite light yet, I wasn’t able to see the damage to the car but the doe was just lying in the grass (not flat on the ground, but with her feet gathered under her), still alive but obviously injured and I knew she would probably be put down.  My first thought was, as I looked at that beautiful creature and tears started to well up in my eyes, “oh you stupid deer, if only you had just stayed off the road, you would still be running around.”  I wondered how many times she had crossed the road with no problems until she had become desensitized to her natural instinct for fear and danger.  Then I thought how often do we not heed the counsel of the Lord and his servants, or the promptings of the Spirit when, like the doe, we see no danger or do not understand the danger, until we too become desensitized to it, and like the doe, who paid a physical price, we pay a spiritual price.

Comfort Shawl Update….

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click on picture for larger image

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The gauge wasn’t coming out right, so I frogged it and decided to go up to a size 9 needle from a 7 since I was doubling the yarn (one strand too light a weight, 2 strands a little too heavy but closer than the 1 strand) .  The pattern called for a size 8 needle, but I was using a 7 since I knit a little bit more loosely than others and generally have to go down a size needle to get the correct gauge.  The gauge is now more correct and the 10 skeins should make the shawl, tho it will only be 58 to 60 inches in length instead of 63, because I will run out of yarn before I get it that long.  But it should still be a nice length.  This yarn is very soft, which is why I wanted to use it.  A comfort shawl should bring comfort in every way possible.  I’m almost done with the first 2 skeins so I am about 1/5 of the way done.

Off to bed, 5:15 am comes awfully early.  Will be soooo happy when we get that hour of sleep back when they turn back the clock next month, which is almost here!!!!  I love that as much as I do football :).

Scarf Finished

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click on picture for larger image

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This is the hand dyed (Wilton cake icing coloring – Purple), hand spun and hand knit scarf that I have just finished.  It was interesting to see the colors the food coloring broke into.  The last time I used the purple Wilton cake icing coloring, it turned out different shades of purple and no blue, you can see it here.  This time it had a beautiful pastel blue in there as well, see it here.  You just never know when you use the Wilton colors what you will get.

I wish it was longer, but I mis-judged the amount of fiber I dyed and because I can’t match the color, it is a bit shorter than I had intended to make it.  I’ll be more careful to weigh the roving before dying next time. 🙂

I originally had different plans for this scarf, but felt prompted as I began knitting it to give it to my neighbor who has been graciously giving me her Sunday paper every Sunday so I could look for work.  She’s a very nice lady and it will be a simple thank you gift.   Now I will have to chose a different fiber to spin on :).  Think I will begin spinning more of the cria (baby alpaca), it’s so soft and soooo relaxing to spin. 🙂

Comfort Shawl Started

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Comfort Shawl

I finally made my choice  and started this shawl today.  I decided on something simple and quick, but elegant looking.  It’s called High Effect Feather & Fan Shawl.  This is for an acquaintance at Church who lost her oldest daughter in a car accident about 6 weeks ago.  I hope it will help her to know that others feel her pain and care.  I tried to lighten this picture up but it’s a navy color and just very dark.  It will show up better (I hope) when I get more knit and have a larger project to take a picture of.  I wanted a lighter color but this was the only color I had enough of  in this alpaca yarn, which has been discontinued, and I wanted it to be soft and warm.

The Cowboys played the Texans tonight, and did not do well at all.  They were very sloppy on the field.  Only consolation is that it is still pre-season games.  I hope they look much better on the field when the regular season starts.

I’m still knitting on the scarf, but there is no hurry and it’s something I enjoy working on during my lunch hr at work.  I am enjoying my new job.  It’s very busy and fast paced, but has all the things I enjoy doing.  I’m  looking  forward to being permanently hired and having that financial security that temp jobs just can’t give.

The weather here has been really nice this week.  Still a bit warm but much better than last week when I felt like I was going to melt.  I much prefer the hot DRY weather out west to the hot HUMID weather in the mid-west.  Winter has never been my favorite season, so you can understand that I also prefer the warmer winters out west too :P.  I could so be a snow bird :P.  But we just have to grow where we are planted.

Knitting with My Handspun

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Spun Hand Dyed Superwash Merino on the Niddy Noddy

Skein of handspun, hand dyed merion superwash

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Well, on the left, you can see the Merino superwash roving, that I was spinning, wound on the niddy noddy.  It made a nice baby weight yarn.  I did have the wpi (wraps per inch) but forgot to write it down and so much has happened this week that I have forgotten what it was.  Some of it plyed all purple, some all blue and some heathered with both colors.

On the right is the final skein after it came off the niddy noddy, and below is the lace scarf I am working on with the skein.  🙂

Knitting a lace scarf from the hand spun

My computer is fixed (thanks to a very nice neighbor who had a boot disk and the operating system that I use.)  My 2nd hard drive was large enough to put my things on from my main hard drive so now it is just a matter of moving things back over to my newly reformated main hard drive.  So nice to have my computer back up and running!!  You don’t realize how much you depend on them until they are not available.

I started my new job on Tuesday.  It is very busy, but not stressful and I am doing things that I enjoy and working with people I worked with last year when I had a long term temp job at this place of business.  Things are a bit tight as I have been on unemployment for the last 3 weeks, but when the new month starts life will be back to more normal financially.  My job starts at 7:30 instead of 8am, so I will have to get up a little earlier sigh, but it’s just so nice to have a job that will become permanent in the next month or two. 

Yesterday was my youngest son’s birthday.   My daughter was going to come with me to the cemetery, but it was storming.  I went anyway because I can’t give him presents like I do my children who survived him, all I can give now is my time – so I did.  He would have been 29.

Are You Ready for Some Football? 2010

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Dallas Cowboys!!!

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Yep, it’s pre-season again!!!!  Dallas won their first game against the Bengals (16 to 7) and lost their 2nd game against the Raiders (17 to 9).  They lost against the Raiders in pre-season last year too. 😛  I didn’t get to see either game tho, I need the NFL channel ;).

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Well I’m doing this from my daughter’s computer because I did the last Micro Soft windows update and now my computer will not boot up. 😦   It won’t even get to the windows screen, it freezes before it gets that far.  So when I get some money saved up, I will take it to a computer place and have them get my data off of the hard drive, and reformat and add the OS back on and then restore my data.  Computers can be such a pain, but you almost can’t do anything without them anymore.

I hope everyone is surviving the heat.  We have been hot, hot, hot the last several days.  Suppose to cool back down starting tonight, thank goodness.  I have some pictures of the yarn I finished spinning, plying and am now knitting into a scarf. 🙂  But I will have to wait to do that until I get my computer fixed so I can upload the new pictures.  sigh

Oh yeah, I have a temp to perm job that is suppose to start next week either on Monday or Tuesday.  It’s at the bank I worked the long term temp for last year :).  I’ll be grateful not to have to keep changing jobs, which is sooo stressful.

One Month Today

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Son & Grand Daughter

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It’s been a month since I lost my youngest son.  This picture was taken about 2 weeks before his loss.  There is much upheaval in the family with my other children as they wonder if there was something they could have done, if they could have reached out more, feeling guilty because they took him for granted, etc.  I want them to understand that I too have the same feelings.  I need them to know that there was nothing they could have done.  I want to tell them that maybe taking him for granted will help us all as we go forward to remember that life is fragile and we should relish all our relationships.  I wanted to thank them for their help with his funeral arrangements and the financial support they are giving for that purpose.   That shows me how much they loved him, and it speaks volumes, because I know their financial situations are as precarious as mine.  Life is short and we shouldn’t put off spending time with those we love.

Patriotic Dishcloth

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I have started to spin a little bit again, and  I’ve been working on some dishclothes during my lunch hour at work, I’m too tired to knit when I get home from work – I’m not sleeping real well.  This is the last one I finished.  You can’t really see the pattern very well because the color obscures it.  The yarn is Sugar N’ Cream Stripes and I thought I remembered where I got the pattern but I can’t find it at the moment.  If I’m able to remember it, I will edit this post and put a link in.  I’m working on a different pattern now, that will end up being a smaller kitchen towel, but I’ve had to frog it twice already.  I’ll get it done, it’s not hard, my thinking is just not always on task at the moment.

Ebbs and Flows

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My grand daughter

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This last week end, my daughter had her wedding reception.  She got married on the April 15th (hoping it would take the sting out tax time?) in Las Vegas and had the reception here.  The picture is my youngest son’s daughter.  He lives in state but about 4 hrs away so I don’t get to see him or my grand daughter very often.   But I got to see her and him as we celebrated his sister’s wedding.   I promise to post a picture of the wedding as soon as I get one ;P.

While my daughter celebrates wedded bliss, my son is going through a divorce and this sweet little girl is caught in the middle with the divorce and custody upheaval.  She wants to spend more time with her daddy but in IA the dad has little say in what happens in custody cases and unless it is pre agreed, full custody usually goes to the mother with the dad getting every other week end.  My personal feelings are that in all states there needs to be automatic joint custody for the sake of the child unless there is found to be abuse.  A child needs equal access to both parents.   But no matter what happens we just need to patiently get through the hard stuff. 

I’m still working at my long term temp job.  It is a fun job and I actually enjoy going in every day. 🙂  I hope I can find a permanent job that I will enjoy as much.  Working temp jobs is a bit stressful because you never know, when that one is done, how long it will be before the next job and if it will be something you will enjoy or not. 

I am doing a little knitting on my lunch hr, the rest of my life has been a zoo lately and I haven’t gotten much done on the spinning or knitting front.  But I plan on spinning some today so I can relax.  I think I will take my spinning wheel out on the balconey and enjoy this cooler spring weather today. 🙂  Hope all of my friends haven’t been hit too hard by this crazy spring weather that has been churning up all those storms.

Spring at Last, or is it?

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1st Day of Spring!

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The weather has been in the 40’s and 50’s for a couple of weeks and our snow was mostly melted off, except some of those huge piles from the snow plows.  Then on Friday it got cold, in the 30’s.  Saturday was the 1st day of Spring and this is what I woke up to, and yes it’s already melted off and the weather is back into the 40’s and 50’s :).  I never take warm weather for granted here in IA until May and sometimes Mid May, we’ve been known to have snow in early May.   Hopefully that will not be the case this year :). 

 
 

Slippers

Here are the slippers that I’ve been working on, they are at knitting on the net.  As you can see on their site they have a pompom on the front decorated as a chicks head.  I chose not to put that on, my grandchildren would have those torn off in nothing flat :P.  I’ve only had time to knit at lunch and these are actually the 2nd pair I’ve made.  The 1st pair was a blue pair for my grand son and I gave them to my daughter before I got a picture of them ;P.  These are for my grand daughter.  She will get them in the morning when my daughter picks me up to take me to work :).  Hopefully my car will be repaired soon, being carless is so not fun!!!

Daylight Savings Time, Once Again

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Old Indian Wisdom - (click on picture for larger image)

 I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t like Daylight Savings Time!!!   And to be honest, the older I get, the longer it takes me to adjust to the new time and less I like it!!  I want my hour of sleep back, and I don’t want to have to wait until fall to get it back!  Ok I’m feel better, still tired but I feel better ;P. 

They don’t have Daylight Savings Time in Arizona or Indiana, anyone else?  Glad to see someone thumbing their nose at it.  Sigh, I wish Iowa would.

I’m working on some knitted slippers for my grand children, I’ll post a picture and the link  in a day or two, when I can find the time  to post and not fall asleep when I try to knit :P.

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