A Construction Zone

That's my bedroom at the moment. Usually, my DD Jan puts everything back together at the end of each work day. Today started a little late and continued until completion, after dinner. She was priming walls and ceilings. The walls in the closet area had been wall papered and soaked up the primer.Everything took longer than she had figured on.

I was having a blah day. I suggested grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, with bacon and tomato. I'd pick up the tomato on my way home from the gym. I got off to a slow start, slow getting out of bed, slow getting breakfast made. And so it went. I couldn't decide what I wanted for breakfast, so i kept knitting on the sock. The heel got finished, which was good. Finally I went off to the gym, my usual Tuesday morning activity.

Most days, I have meals planned ahead. I know today what I'm eating tomorrow. Today I finally decided to make a pancake. With  a just add water mix, I can get the batter quantity down so there are no leftovers. Dinner was Tuna Helper, and we ate enough so that what is left will be part of tomorrows lunch. We'll have Scotch Broth soup from Kristin Nicholas's recipe. It comes out of the freezer tonight.

My Holiday break from work begins at 5:00 tomorrow. There is a Mass being said for my husband at 5:30 pm. We'll both go, come home to a quick dinner, and she'll be off to spend the night with a friend.

There are a couple of small gifts still to be knit, and a pair of felted slippers, which may not be delivered until February. If I get them done quickly, I'll mail the gifts to that family, but they'll be here in February.

'Tis the Season

I've finished all the gifts for next weekend. Out of town people are coming in later. I still need to wrap gifts and mail a package to Illinois. They'll open it as soon as it comes, so I don't send it too early.

Festivities started today with grandchildren in a children's service at their church. Dad is a tuba player, usually playing unseen in the balcony behind us. He has a snowflake on the tuba bell that lights up (battery maybe?)

Then the children came in and sang carols.


Then came the explanation of the history and meaning of Christmas. My favorite letters were:

M is for Manger, and






A is for Angels. At the end, the letters spelled out CHRISTMAS.









I've knit some dishcloths for a gift.

And more dishcloths for another gift. Each one is a different stitch pattern, so they're really like large swatches. I think I'll do some more of them for future gifts.

I do have socks on the needles. The entrelac socks are proceeding apace. They'll be a January birthday gift. The blue socks are a little bigger, but they mostly sit unknit. Their turn will come.

We have snow on the ground, so it looks like it will be a white Christmas. I wish everyone Happy Holidays.

Family Cookie Fest

I forgot to say that I also had a birthday party, thrown by my knitting friends at our regular Thursday night get together. They bought cupcakes and candles and sang Happy Birthday to me. A very nice surprise!

Saturday night my neighbor held a Christmas party for the neighborhood. It was scheduled for 4-6 pm, so I left work a little early to give me more time at the party. I usually work until 5:00. I met a few new people. One was the fiancee of a woman down the street. I just hadn't met him yet. The other was a newcomer to the street. She's single, retired, and new to the area. She's looking for women to do things with when she gets back from Florida. Her children now live here, so she moved from Atlanta. We exchanged phone numbers, I'll hear from her when she comes back.


Sunday afternoon was our family cookie baking party. It was at my daughter Jen's house. It's a good thing that her house absorbs people well. It was pretty full! She invited extended family and friends. There were about 12 children under the age of 10. They were too busy to cookie bake, or the kitchen was too full of adults! Extended family included my sister with her husband and adult daughter, my husband's cousin with three of his daughters and a granddaughter. Jen's sister-in-law with 3 daughters and assorted friends, my son with wife and two children, my daughter Jan and her SO.

Supplies were stacked on the counter one foot high. The table was covered. There was a spare table in the living room for processing things like no-bake cookies, which need to be formed before they cool and harden. The area to the right is the stove, where many of the no-bake cookies were put together. The oven and microwave out out of the picture to the right.

She had loads of food to eat. As college teachers with many grad students, they know how to feed a crowd and buy much of what they need from the local grocery store catered sandwiches section.

Cookies are shared with all present and I came home with some frozen lasagna and some chili.I still have to make a pot of chili for Jan's lunch tomorrow, so I will have lots in the freezer when I'm done.

Knitting progresses. I'm making dishcloths for gifts and am working on the third one. The entrelac sock has a heel and the foot is growing. The blue sock is a little bigger. My sister brought her knitting because she had a problem with her sock. I helped her turn the heel. The heel flap was already knit. Her daughter wants to knit a hat like one she owns. I'll send her info about Ravelry and Knitty. She lives a couple of hours from me, so in person help is hard to do. Grandchild knitting will happen on a quieter day. DGD Erin stopped while getting dressed one day to inspect a sweater I had knit her and try to figure out how I had done the stitches. I think we will have a real knitter in a few years.

A very nice birthday

Wednesday was my birthday, the first that I have celebrated alone in my life. By alone, I mean no mother or husband to orchestrate a celebration. DH always remembered, but never did a big celebration, so quiet was to be expected. Actually, this one was more festive than many. I worked all day, then was taken out for dinner. Some of my children decided that I needed to experience Ethiopian cooking. DH was a meat and potatoes guy, but I'm more adventurous. We had a great meal, a meat and veggie sampler, eaten with what someone called rubber bread, tasty rubber bread. I got some phone calls and even had a gift to open. One of my Florida daughters sent me a gorilla tripod for my camera.

I have finished the socks for DGS and will deliver them tomorrow. It is family cookie day and his parents will be there, even if he has to work. The family gets together and does lots of cookies and them divides up the results. The sock pattern is from an old Stahl Socka book. It's fairly simple, but the dark yarn and user brain cramps made for some mistakes and ripping. All is well now!

I have started two more pairs of socks. The blue ones are for me. They fulfill a requirement for the Socktopia group on Ravelry and are my own design. I'll write up the pattern soon. I've called them Techtonic because they look like an earthquake has hit them.

The other pair is for Sock Knitters Anonymous on Ravelry and will be a gift. They fulfill both the entrelac technique category and the left over yarn category. I'm using six different yarns left over from other socks.

I have decided to knit dishcloths for Christmas presents  and have finished two of them. No pictures yet.

We have had snow, but today, we actually have a little left on the ground at the end of the day. You almost can see it on the grass. The wool socks, hat, and mittens come in handy. I made new mittens last year and really love them. They replaced a worn out pair and coordinate with my hat and scarf.

Yes, There Has Been Knitting Recently

A few posts ago, I showed the start of a pair of socks. they will be a Christmas present for DD#1. The yarn is Crystal Palace Panda Cotton, a bamboo/cotton/elastic blend. The pattern is called Hypnosis by Janel Laidman from her Eclectic Sole book. I made them longer than she made hers. I do like a longer leg and ether was plenty of yarn.

I'm almost finished with  a birthday pair of socks for a grandson. The pattern is from an old Socka book. I was looking for something simple. The dark yarn offers enough challenges. It's Knit Picks Stroll, and I don't like the yarn. It's very splitty. I've used their yarn before, but the last couple of times have not been fun.I won't be buying it again.

I finished the front of my tree bark sweater and started the collar. It's in time out right now, while I finish the sleeves. A large collar is called for, and will be smaller if I run short on yarn. I should be all right, but I inherited this batch from my other, who died in 1988. She probably got it on sale as discontinued. It's a nice sport weight wool called Pomfret from Brunswick.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I had a field trip with my daughter and her kids to our Natural History Museum. They showed me how woefully inadequate is my dinosaur knowledge. This is the newest exhibit, an Allosaurus from the Jurassic period. We looked at the bones to see which ones were real, and which were replacements for missing bones. To the right of this one is a Haplocanthosaurus, which is twice as tall.

The kids showed off their knowledge of astronomy at the planetarium show. We were lucky to be there when they feed the wild animals they have rescued, so we learned about the bobcats, foxes and otters. As museum members, they had seen the animals, but had missed the feeding and talks about different behaviors.We had to see the beetle display and find the anomaly. One of these things is not like the others.

The trip ended with climbing on the Stegasaurus, a real favorite activity.

A Day to Give Thanks

With two deaths in the family this fall, it's been hard emotionally. Today is a day to look at the good in my life.

• For over 50 years, I had a good partner in my life, (almost 50 of them we were married.).
• My wonderfully supportive and loving children, who have gathered around for family support.
• My sister Carol, who had a rough start at married life, but she and her two children found a good man and a good life.
• My sister Beth who found her man on a blind date and they're still together.
• Family gatherings like Thanksgiving dinner at my daughter's house.
• My house is paid for and remodeling continues, with most of the work being done by family members.
• My friends, mostly knitting ones.
• My weight loss. I started after Easter, and am reaching the end. I've dreamed of this for years, and finally found something that works for the rest of my life.
• Not to forget my dog. I am never alone in my house.
• My yarn stash. I can knit for a long time without spending money on yarn. Buying yarn is optional.
• A freezer full of good food that I have cooked over time. Cooking is optional, although I've done a lot of it recently.
• My new iPhone acquired when my last phone went swimming and drowned. I'm still learning about all that it can do.

What can I say?

Another death in the family

Last month it was my husband: 9/8/1941-10/13/2011. He had been among the walking wounded for years. Then he caught pneumonia and was diagnosed with lung cancer. It was too much.

At the same time, my sister was also fighting cancer. She went in the hospital for her final treatment, and got pneumonia. Her body struggled with it from the end of September and finally lost the battle.

My sister Carol: 3/31/1945-11/18/2011.

 We lived at opposite sides of the country, and weren't as close as we would have liked to be.

Thankfully, there are no more known illnesses in the family. I have my children, their spouses, and my one remaining sister to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I really don't know what to say!
word seem so inadequate.