More Solar Power

I finally have photos of the solar powered lights that were added to my yard this year. The green lights are butterflies. Still don't have a good picture of those. In the front yard, the lights close to the house are insects, which change color. We have had lights before, but they wore out. all these are new. I makes me smile to look at them. Isn't that what you want from your yard?

I think I am surprising myself by how much time I'm spending working on the yard this year now that the whole thing is my responsibility. The lawn was DH's job, which he delegated to a landscaper the last few years. The short story is that we had a relatively new mower, and I won't cut down flowers.

I'm trying vegetables again this year. The tomatoes are doing well, although not red yet.

Last year, the rabbits ate all the leaves from my pepper plants. This year they are in containers on my porch. the first to ripen is a purple variety. It's about 2" long now. I'll pick it when it starts to turn red. I don't know what size it will be, so that seems the best way. The other peppers are coming along. the next biggest one is green.

 Business has picked up at work. The orders are bigger this week. One of the most interesting jobs involved making a sari blouse. The sari comes with fabric on one end for the blouse. In this case It was a coordinate, sewn to the end of the sari. Different from fashion blouses, these are very fitted and short. They are made with about 1" of fabric in the side seams to be let out if needed as the wearer grows/ages. These garments are kept for years, so the flexibility is needed. The sari itself is wrapped to fit every time it is put on.Other than that, it's been hem week at work. I probably do more hems than anything else.

Knitting has been a large pair of birthday socks. My Olympic knitting challenge will start when these are finished. These match a pair knit for my daughter earlier this year.

What a week

It started with a birthday party for the 5 yr old paleontologist. Not surprising, most of his gifts were dinosaur related, as was his cake, both of them. His day stared with a playground party with his friends. DD said it was the easiest party ever. Note that the cake is made of cupcakes, so easy to serve. DD#1 was there, having ridden her motorcycle in from Jacksonville, Florida. She's staying with them for the week.

My gift to him was a Stegosaurus hat, similar to one I had made for his brother at the same age.

Sunday night my nephew from Hawaii arrived in Ohio. Luckily for me, he was staying with my sister. His plane actually arrived at 1:00 AM Monday morning. The 5 hour time difference was in his favor. My sister and her DH went straight to bed. We had dinner with them Monday night. It made for a long day for me, since it's a 2 hour drive each way. I left work at 12:00 and had a nice afternoon with them. My bookworm granddaughter went down with me. She'll be a high school senior this next year, so it wasn't like herding cats, which I'm out of practice at. Nephew C is at the center. He hasn't been to Ohio for 25 years, since my mother died.

The photo was taken on Tuesday. My sister gave me a trunk load of plants for my yard on Monday. She noticed that my yard was sparsely planted and she had lots fo things that needed thinning. I spent Tuesday in the yard, in the heat, mowing, edging, weeding and planting. I also had bought more solar powered lights, which are now installed. Note to self - get a picture when they are lit. I also bought some dragonflies for the front yard. Half of them aren't dragonflies, but still pretty. It took me four days to notice the difference. They change color; red, blue, green. I am so tempted to buy some more, but I'm resisting so far!

Wednesday, I ate left overs from Tuesday. DD#5 flew into Ohio, but had a business meeting at Kent. She booked a hotel room and invited me to join her. The hotel room gave her peace and quiet to make notes and digest the meeting. She was treated to dinner, so I came down after work. We hung around for the evening , swimming in the pool, sitting in the hot tub, etc. I was knitting a sock for her DH who has a birthday in early August. The hotel is in Cuyahoga Falls, right on the falls. I had to get home quickly in the morning to let the dog out. DD had rented a car, so she came shortly after. She stayed with me Thursday night.

Thursday we were back at my sister's house for a baby shower. Her youngest daughter is due in September and it was a good time for another family gathering. It's a large family with all my kids and their families. At least one advantage of not being able to get everyone at one. Dear Nephew got to meet them gradually. Monday's dinner included DD#4 and her 3 kids. the kids stayed home Thursday. Those attending were Me, my son and his daughter (same as Monday's gathering), DD#1, DD#4, and DD#5. The shower was held in the garage, due to a 70% chance of rain. Of course, in thei drought stricken area, it didn't rain until we were driving home. Yes, I missed getting a picture of the mom-to-be.

Friday we gathered at DSon's house, just my family, so out of town daughters had a chance to spent time with siblings.

Saturday was a high school graduation party at DSon's. Sister came with nephew and her older daughter B. B had just arrived from New Yiork city. More getting to know each other better. She's becoming a teacher, and spent much time talkingtalking education theory with DD#5, a social psychology professor at Florida State. Phone numbers and e-mails were updated as well ad snail mail addresses. This is the year of more communication. One of the benefits of having my DH die. We realized that we needed to connect more with each other.

What to eat?

This is my first summer alone. I've been trying to figure out what I want to eat in the hot weather we had been having. It's cooler now, but easy recipes are always good.. If anyone has any good suggestions, let me know.

So far I've discovered quesadiillas, pasta salad where I make the dressing, pizza whith my choice of ingredients and salmon salad wraps.I found a quesadilla recipe in a weight watchers cookbook, filled with chicken and salsa, topped with cheddar cheese. It was accompanied by a corn and tomato salad, yum! I had not cared for pasta salad , but talked to daughter #5 and found a WW recipe with a yogurt based dressing. I ate part of it with tuna added. Daughter #1 suggested that pizza can be made with any topping. I had some ready made crusts and topped them with spaghetti sauce, chicken and mozzarella cheese. Pizza shop pizza is too salty for me. I also had a quesadilla filled with spinach and goat cheese, topped with parmesan for breakfast the other day.

I sewed myself a knit dress the other day and I think I like it. It's comfortable, but maxi length. the pattern showed it to be shorter. I got lots of compliments, so i guess it looks good.

Most of my knitting has been on the charity scarf I'll be donating a guild meeting tonight. Here's an in progress photo. I actually have no socks on the needles at present. I must be sick!

The dog survived

June's end was quite stressful for my poor dog. Tuesday, the 26th, I did not get a new roof, but my neighbors had three trees removed.

Wednesday, the roof guys came. I had to work, so took the dog with me. That was not a successful as I had hoped. All the customers got barked at. She also barked every time I went to the Ladies room. My shop is in office space, so this was not a good thing! She survived.

I took the finished picture a few days later.

The refrigerator got fixed on Thursday. The fix-it man had a new computer board, but had a few problems leftover form the Sears repair team a couple of years ago. Sears did not fix the problem because they said that we needed to have a grounded outlet. We had an electrician rewire two floors of the house and the basement last summer. I decided that it was time to get the ice maker fixed before the July 4th party with the family. Mission accomplished!

Now that the house is put together again, I can have family gatherings. We found all the pieces to put the tarp up for shade. The tarp and poles were in the garage. The ropes and stakes were in the shed. DH didn't know what had happened to hem, so we didn't use the tarp for a few years. The food was in the garage. As usual, everyone brought a little something extra. Dear son cooked the burgers. The group at the table is working on the ice cream. The grand kids are now old enough to help crank.

When the ice cream was finished, the paddle was put on the table. I missed getting  the picture of the dog, cleaning up the ground with ice cream dripping through the cracks of the picnic table onto her head. Clean-up is an important job, and she loves it. When the party was over, I hosed down the table.

This was the first family gathering at my house in a long time, and with a little help, it all went well. Thursday was a rest day. I got a lot of knitting done on the Christmas stocking project. The first stocking of five is finished except for pompoms. I need to find something the right size to wrap the yarn around that will match the size of the stocking I'm copying. I have made this pattern before. It's an old Bernat pattern, modified. by the customer's mother.

Busy, expensive week

The green socks are finished! It was a struggle. I ran out of yarn in the last toe. Since I had already re-bought this yarn when I lost a sock last year, I didn't want to buy it again to finish this project. I love the yarn (Crystal Palace Panda Silk), but I'd like another color.

Ravelry to the rescue. I found a couple of Ravelry members who had the same yarn and had used most if it in their projects. One was moving and all her yarn was packed up, but the other sent me the 8 gn she had, which was more than enough.

I'm now finishing socks for my son, but no photos. I first knit these socks for my husband in a semi-solid black. That doesn't photograph well, but he liked black. This time they are beige4, which photographs well, but I've sold the sock pattern. I have a deal where they will go to the August photo shoot and be returned to me so my son can wear them this winter. The pattern won't be published until spring.

The dishcloths for my daughters are done. Now I want to do some for my sister, but they will be a Christmas present. They're such fun to knit. I really make a large swatch of a pattern, using cotton yarn in a color I think appropriate. My sister has crocheted dishcloths. She says when the centers get thin, she uses them between the pans in her cupboard. She cooks with electricity and has non-stick pans which benefit from the protection.

Toimorrow will be a day to drive the dog crazy, not that it's hard to do. The refrigerator fix-it man is coming back. He's fixed my ice maker water valve, so we now have ice, but it still doesn't come through the door. That'll be expensive, but I knew that. In addition roofers will be her early in the morning. It's an expensive week!

It's been a long, long time

For the past month, I've spent much of my free time in the yard. I've learned to operate the lawn mower and the weed whacker. The watering system has been conquered. Weeds have been pulled. Flowers, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs have been planted.I'm getting close to the maintenance phase of the job. I do enjoy it, but so many things this year have had a learning curve attached.

Knitting has occurred, but not as much. I haven't worked much on the yellow sweater, but this is what the yarn looks like. I finished a sleeve, and the back is started.


















I finished a pair of socks for myself. Crystal Palace Mini Mochi is not an indestructible yarn, so not suitable for gifts.


I've knit many dishcloths. This last batch was a wedding present for a kitting friend.



For mother's day we did the traditional family breakfast at Bob Evans, trying a new location near me this time. I received this picture of a group of silly little people and two measuring cups with markings I can read. The white rings can be read from the top.

I'm one of many people who keep using what we have, even when it should be replaced. apparently I said something about not being able to read markings on one of my measuring cups.

I've been in training for Ravelympics. The Stash Knit Down group has a training challenge. Right ow I'm doing endurance training, knit the same project for ten days. I started a pair of socks with a simple pattern last Friday night (June 1). I needed something to knit while my friend drove tot he wedding.  These socks also qualify for the Sock Knitters Anonymous challenge since I am using an under appreciated pattern. This one is from a 1994 Socka book. I can triple dip with the solid socks group since the yarn is semi-solid and green for this month.

In addition, it is a Crystal Palace yarn (Panda Silk) so will count toward the 12 month challenge in that group.

I skipped the sock challenge last month to finish my jacket and get the dishcloths done for the wedding. It's not like I need socks. What I need is to knit a few other things on my list!

The joy was clouded

I wore the jacket to work and the sleeves were too short! They may have gotten shorter during the day. The rest of the jacket was fine and I got compliments on it, but I didn't want bracelet length sleeves. I decided to try sleeve surgery and grafting, in seed stitch! If that didn't work, I had to remove the sleeves and reknit the sleeve cap. I decided on an extra 2" of length. Luckily that worked. It was a challenge to separate the parts because of the three colors involved, but it worked. I have worn the jacket a couple of times since and everything is good. If the sleeves shrink up a  bit in washing, that will be all right. I think they'll stretch out in wearing. Although the jacket is cotton, dishcloth cotton doesn't seem to shrink and all the yarn I used has already been washed in its previous incarnation.

My  DIL requested a hat for a 20 yr old man with cancer. That went fairly quickly and used up more stash. It's all garter stitch. I used Caron Simply soft for the start of the hat and filled in with the black when it became obvious that I would run out of yarn. That head is a little small, but my pottery head is among the displaced and I don't know where it is. It belongs in my living room, the last room to be painted.

The kitchen is finished and I've been moved back in. I have been doing more cooking for time intensive recipes and also baked a couple of batches of cookies.

The dining room is finished for now and the living room is primed. There are small jobs in many rooms, but for the most part they are finished and put together.

I have started another sweater for myself. This is a summer sweater that I designed a couple of years ago for TKGA. I didn't get to keep the original. It looked like this. They put it on a wider model and I didn't plan the neckline to be that wide.

I'm using yarn from two different cones, one cotton and one a rayon/cotton mix. One sleeve is finished and I've started the back. I was appalled at the numbers in the pattern. I should have been tech edited. I failed to take into account the six stitch pattern and multiples thereof. I'm reworking the numbers for myself and put a notice on Ravelry in the notes that I would refigure for anyone else that wanted to knit it. The swatch looks like this, of course the sleeve was a swatch too,

Much of my time this year is taken up with yard work, which I enjoy. I didn't have to do so much of it before DH died.. Next post, I'll have to show pictures of the yellow yarn and the socks I'm knitting, and perhaps some remodeling photos too.