Life

Comfort Shawl Update….

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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 :).

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.

Wedding Pictures

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Daughter's Wedding

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I promised pictures of my daughter’s wedding.  She finally got them and here were my favorites.  She waited several years, saving for this and it went flawlessly.    They are both very happy.

My daughter’s youngest two children are 2 years and 1 week apart.  They had their birthday party together last week end.  Her daughter (now 4 years old), loves movies.  She was easy to shop for, I got her Kung Fu Panda (one of my favorites). 🙂  Her son (now 2 years old) loves music.  Music plays and he dances, so I found an alligator that sings and moves as it sings.  He loved it when I gave it to him and then I showed him it would move and sing.  He backed up and was moving to the music but would not hold it again.  When it quit singing I showed him how to push the foot to make it sing again.  When it was time to push it again, he would not, he grabbed my arm and made me push it again.  I was laughing because he loved it but was afraid of it because it moved!!  He’s fine with it now, wish I had gotten a video of that for when he gets older. 🙂 Little ones can be so funny.

I’ve found two patterns to chose from for the shawl I want to knit.  The High Effect Feather & Fan Shawl or to make a shawl from the Concert Scarf in Alison Jeppson Hyde’s Wrapped in Comfort.  I’ll try to make a choice by the end of this coming week.  I’ll have to spin some more baby Alpaca because I only have one skein spun and I’ll need probably at least 3 skeins.  But first I need to finish the pastel blue and lavender wool that I have on my spinning wheel.  I’ll try to work on that this week, it has a special purpose and I need to finish it.

I hosted a friend in my home this week who’s daughter needed surgery for an ovarian cyst.  It was really good to see her (she lives in another state).  She’s always been there for me and I’m glad I could repay some of her kindnesses to me.  Still it’s always good to get back to the regular routine.  It makes me realize that I have come to like living alone (or perhaps it’s just a comfortable routine), something I didn’t ever think I would want.  It would seem that some of the curves life throws at you find some permanence in your life.

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.

The Loss of a Son…

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8-20-81 to 5-12-10

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It is with great sorrow that I acknowlege the loss of my son.  He leaves behind a daughter, Leena (who was his pride and joy), a sister, two brothers, grand parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and me.  He was preceded in death by his father in 2008 around this same time.

I miss you sweetie.

The loss of my son is devastating and he will be greatly missed.  How grateful I am for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice and the peace and hope it brings.

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.

Officially Spring in Iowa

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I thought because most of the pictures I had taken were of snow this last winter that I would show you that Iowa really does have spring, it just seems forever to get here!  The leaves are starting to come forth and the robins have been here for a couple of weeks now.  But I know it’s really spring because the Magnolia buds are starting to bloom!  I don’t have a picture of that because I don’t have one close to my yard and I didn’t have my camera with me when I saw one yesterday.  We got pretty warm a week  & 1/2 ago, then late last week it got cold again, freezing at night again.  That is typical here tho, I can’t really depend on the warmer weather to stay until May. 🙂

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Spinning wilton dyed superwash merino

I have been spinning slowly on the wilton dyed superwash merino.  I’ve been busy with a temp job (which should last until mid May), my car wasn’t drivable for a couple of months and I had to rely on others to get around for errands, getting to and from work, church, etc, I caught a cold from my grandson 2 weeks ago and tho I am feeling better there is still the coughing thing going on (a wonderful repercussion from my asthma).  I’m gearing up for the spring cleaning in the house and (now how many excuses have I listed? :P).  Anyway, I’ve started spinning on it again, and it really is lovely.  I wonder what it will look like when I have enough to ply. 

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I have my car back again!  A friend and his wife, from my church, helped me get the steering rack and brakes fixed.  He said it still needs axels (they are ok for a while so we will do that this fall before winter comes) and the carborator needs a kit to rebuild it and he’s going to find a new handle for my passenger side front door (don’t even ask how that got broken – don’t want to embarrass one of my sons because he really is such a sweetie :P), and it needs a tune up, and the  jets for the windshield wiper fluid have never allowed fluid to come out, but it’s getting fixed little by little, the more important things first and hopefully all by the fall.  It’s just so nice to have it back and drivable and be independant again!!!!

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!!!