Always in a hurry

Alison Boon of "Born to read and knit" made a comment on my creations. She ask me "What's next?" I went into a bit of detail on the last thing I knitted and future projects. One of the things I replied was about the jacket I just finished and the desire to make another one. The reason I enjoyed knitting the jacket so much was because it filled the good ol' U.S.A . compulsion for NOW! Fast food, fast cars, fast, fast, fast. We want what we want and we want it NOW! I wonder how that came about??? I read a comment in a knitting magazine about knitters in China that said the Chinese are simply not in a hurry to finish what they are knitting quickly. They are content to knit with fine yarn, small needles (and I am sure they do a fine job). I, however, am always in such a hurry to get to the next project I always have UFO's sitting around. As I have said, I always finish what I start but sometimes it takes a while to get back to it and finish it. I receive two knitting magazines in the mail. While I was perusing the latest one that my BB brought home I commented: "Life is too short". I had to explain to him that receiving those magazines are sometimes not a good thing for me. There is always something new in them that I want to start. I have a mitten almost knitted and want to finish the second one to get the jacket, scarf and mittens in the mail NOW even though all that heavy covering cannot be worn NOW. Much too hot all over the U.S. right NOW.

Sadly I have to leave home on an errand or two today. Just think of the stitches I could finish if I didn't have to do errands!

Below is a bit of "eye candy" for you. This is a picture of "Picacho Peak" seen from my kitchen door.


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Silly little something

Well, durn! The picture didn't turn out very well. The little purse/bag that I crocheted is something I did to keep my hands busy while I gave them a rest from knitting the big heavy jacket. I like it a lot. It has very nice colors but doesn't show well in this picture and I am too lazy to try again. The handles are hard plastic of some kind and are a pretty pearl color. I purchased the handles at a garage sale for .25 cents. Who knows where the crochet thread came from. Another thrift store or garage sale. It is so satisfactory to me to get something from nothing...so to speak.

Memories

I suspect this is going to be a ramble. So many thoughts going thru my head on the way home. I will try to get them in order.

I am a 70 y/o widow. My husband of 40 years died in Jan. of 2000 when he was only 61 y/o.

Today I received a phone call from a long time friend (I dated him in high school.) He was the last fellow I dated before my intended came along. I say "intended" because my dad ran almost all the other fellows away and let my future husband stay. Dad DIDN'T run the last fellow away, my future just appeared and as the old saying goes, "...and that's all she wrote!" It was a done deal.

Anyway, Bill, the long time friend who called today (he and I enjoy each others company when we are in the same state, he lives in N. Calif. and I in Southern, VERY SOUTHERN, AZ) called to tell me a man (another fellow I dated in high school) died last Sunday. I looked that old "boyfriend" up on the computer and read his obituary and also remembered another fellow I dated, looked him up and found that he had died also.

After that, I decided that I didn't want to stay home for the rest of the evening. I don't believe I was indulging/muddling in sad memories, I seldom, in my whole life have ever gotten depressed. I simply decided that instead of staying home, I would go out and celebrate life. Mine. I once, after my husband died, was feeling very sorry for myself and was looking in God's word for comfort. I found comfort in the following verses in Psalms.

Psalms 116
I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. The I called on the name of the Lord: "O Lord, save me!" The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. the Lord protect THE SIMPLEHEARTED; (ME) when I was in great need, he saved me. Be at rest once more, O my soul for the Lord has been good to you. For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. NIV

Now, even though I am not a good Bible student, I know that there are different meanings to the above words that were, perhaps, not intended for MY need but, I went out tonight and CELEBRATED LIFE!

For knitters only.

Becky (only the middle child, sigh.....as she is fond of saying) agreed to model this jacket and scarf/neckwarmer, VERY BREIFLY, (it was a great favor considering that it was close to 100 degrees outside). On, off, very quickly.

I thought I would make another jacket in a different color right after I finished this one because it came together so quickly but...my thumb, clear up my wrist is still suffering from over work. The jacket is made with four strands of yarn throughout. Hard work. I tend to knit much looser than everyone else, including what the pattern directions call for. This jacket called for size 17 needles so (after checking the gauge once again, I HAVE LEARNED THE HARD WAY TO ALWAYS CHECK THE GAUGE) I once again had to choose needles two sizes smaller than the pattern called for.

I was very unhappy with the collar. (If you look closely you can see the collar, it is white and lays under the scarf) It rolled from the edge toward the neck. Very unattractive. I took it out twice and finally decided to ignore the directions. I knitted the last 3-4 rows in a size 17 needle and in a garter stitch and I WON! Now it stays where it is supposed to stay. The sleeves are also too short for the size so I believe I will knit mittens or gloves in the blue with long cuffs to cover the wrist. I might even knit the jacket again when my hands are rested. It is great fun to see what I can get out of my stash and not have to go to the store or order online for the project.

The jacket continues on down below and ends in all blue just as the sleeves end in blue. It should be pretty warm for the one who enjoys receiving surprises in the mail. Hummm. I wonder who that will be?

Just a little something

I don't have much to share today. Just can't believe how fast this week went by. Old age? I had a very young grand child tell me one day that time was zipping along for him/her? also. Tuesday just simply disappeared. I had a friend/neighbor come by and share some of her time with me (muffins also) and therefore that shortened the week. I was away from home all day yesterday doing errands and appointments so that day disappeared also.

I DID finish the jacket and stole/neckwarmer. When I can get someone (Becky or Danica) to model it for a picture I will show it to you. It is so heavy that I can't imagine that either of them would be willing to put it on even for a picture or two.

Below is candy for your eye. Monsoons are still around. Love 'em.

I'm back

We are perhaps, sadly, toward the end of our Summer Monsoon Season. At times we have pretty severe weather involving thunder storms. A lightning strike took out the internet for several days until it was repaired. Meanwhile, I always find things to keep me busy. The first two pictures are an almost finished jacket. Another garmet that can't be worn here in my desert. It is made with 4 strands of yarn through out which makes it knit up mighty fast. I got it completely knitted in a weeks time. It is in the process of being blocked. I may even make another one because it was so satisfactory to make, having come together so quickly. I have errands to do today and can't wait to get back home to put it together.




Below is a way I figured out and erected in my sewing room to store my "feet" for my Bernina sewing machine. I ask about a way to store them at the Bernina store and they basically had NOTHING!. What you don't see is the rest of the peg board which has all sorts of usful things hanging from it.

THIS IS ME TODAY

Finished!!!!!

A few days ago I told you I was almost finished with Sammies hoody and a quilt. I finished both yesterday. HOORAY!. I can never finish projects fast enough. There is always something that excites me that I want to start next. I have already started knitting a heavy coat even though I will probably never wear it because is will be way, way to heavy.

Below is the back of the jacket I knit for Sam. He wanted me to knit him a hoody that had many colors in it. The first picture is of the back. The second is of the front. It may not have turned out the way he imagined it and he may never wear it but I had a nice time knitting it for him. It looks like the hood is way to small for the jacket but actually it is just laying funny but is the right size for the jacket.




This is a quilt for my baby Beth. Of course my youngest baby will be 39 y.o this December. Oh boy, am I ever getting old!! But I digress. The quilt---it took me several weeks to make it with a couple of months vacation in between. The sewing room got cleaned up and all the scraps put away and it was out of mind for a bit. This quilt is very heavy, one of the reasons is because it has a bazillion seams in it. It will take a trip to Tennessee this fall for Beth. I am sure she will get more use out of it that I would here in my desert.

I have already started another quilt. This one is altogether different than the ones I have already made. I AM NOT A QUILTER. Quilters are very precise and do such perfect work. I would not like for a QUILTER to inspect this quilt.

Needle pouches

Yesterday, as I was choosing needles for yet another project (I am almost finished with Sammies hoody/hoodie? and the crazy quilt but a coat pattern kept putting itself before me and my mind wouldn't leave it alone) I pulled out my needle pouch and thought you might like to see how I store my needles. I made pouches for my crochet hooks, my knitting needles and also one for my dp needles. I marked the size of the needles on each slot. A much more convient way to store and find my needles. As you can see, there is a flap that can be closed and then the pouch can be rolled up when I am ready to put it away.

New babies

Becky brought over the newest members to her family. New twin baby goats. Goats are such social animals that they will follow her anywhere and she doesn't have to worry about herding them.

As usual I have the pictures out of order but will try to comment on the ones that need a comment.

The babies are only 3 weeks old but they are still tiny.


Suck, suck suck, they will try to suck on anything. One of the babies simply didn't know what to head for and still is a little "dim" on the whole eating thing. Becky milked the mama and the dim baby seemed to do a little better drinking out of a pan. I told Becky that if that baby was in a whole herd of goats and didn't have the attention she gives it, it would have simply starved to death.




In the window of the door you can see my cat, "Kat" taking a great interest in what is going on. You can also compare the size of the baby goat with the cat.


Becky "loving" her baby.


I suspect that the goat is trying to eat Becky's shoe


This is the picture I wanted to show you first. It is of Becky bringing the goats for a visit.


And this is of the whole "herd" heading home.

July 7th is the date of a celebration in our family. On Friday we all were able to get together for the celebration and three of the men in my family LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Sushi and frequently go to a Japanese restaurant where they order the "all you can eat boat" that is in the first picture. The get together was great. I love my family and miss the TN part of my family but I have had enough Sushi now for another 5-10 years and I didn't even partake of the all you can eat servings. I enjoy most food and can eat almost, ( you will note that I said ALMOST) any food but there are other choices that I make most of the time.

The boat below is intended to serve 4 people. That is not counting the salad and soup that automatically comes with the meal. BB said he was not going to do the all you can eat anymore. He "hurt" himself. Way too much food.



In the picture below you can see grand daughter struggling with the chopsticks and if you look closely you will see that Michael has a little spring device connected to his chopstick to make them work a little easier for us non-Asians.



Below, Uncle Carl (BB=baby brother) is the only one aware of the camera. Must be that he is/was a pro photographer.

Going, going,...

Because of the monsoon season and the dust in the air, we have some very pretty sunsets. I always thank God for His good work. The first picture is a closeup of Picacho Peak (it is perhaps 10 miles from us as the crow flies, alias "Piggy Mountain", as my TN daughter calls it. If you use your imagination you can see the mama pig looking Heavenward. Heading toward Phoenix while on the highway you can see a smaller peak facing the mama piggy that looks as if baby piggy is also looking up.

Tricks

It runs in the family. Playing tricks on other people. I remember old family stories about tricks played. Some a bit mean, some funny. My grandparents on boths sides of my family had porch swings. Good memories come with those old porch swings. Sadly, I don't have a place to hang mine anymore so it is out in the "South Forty" hanging in a tree that no one swings in anymore. The porch swing story: My dad took an old telephone generator? (hope that is what it is called. It was what was used to crank the phone to ring up the operator) and connected it to the metel chains that the porch swing was hanging from the porch roof with. When my my uncle (his brother) sat down in the swing and put his hands on the chains, my dad cranked up the telephone generator thus sending an electrical shock raging through Uncle Lloyd that caused him to lift him and the two who were sharing the swing high up into the air.

Another trick: On April 1st, my grand dad situated himself, standing in the corn crib where he fed his cows, put a rope around his neck and simply waited until grandma came to find him, of course playing out the look of being hanged until dead, tongue hanging out, head canted sideways. That was a mean one. Meaner than the telephone trick.

These stories lead up to the picture below. My BB's youngest daughter, who lives and works in San Francisco, put tape on the bottom of a co-workers mouse to his computer and sat by enjoying his trying to get the mouse to work, tapping it, wiggling it, all the things you do to make it work. HE GOT EVEN! The next day she came to work and found her cubical FOILED! As you can see, her whole cube is covered with foil. I believe the only thing that was not covered with foil was the screen to her computer and Amanda herself.

Amanda: I didn't have anything else to share so you are the blog for today.

Just something for the blog today

When I reached age 70 I started to realize that life is way to short! I have way too many UFO's. (To you who are not into knitting or crocheting, UFO means UnFinished Objects). I always finish what I start but sometimes it takes me a while. There is so much yarn (and fabric) in my sewing room, so many books and patterns that I feel the need to hurry, and as one lady said on a blog, when she puts down one UFO and starts another project: "I can't help myself". I never use the word BORED but sometimes I can't wait to finish a project and get started on another exciting one. All that said, I posted a picture below of me knitting something I DID finish and now don't even remember what it was.

Now I need to clean up my kitchen, perhaps pull a weed or two out of my veggie garden (it rained yesterday and that task should be a bit easier, easier if I can whomp up enough energy to get moving) and then work on a sweater/jacket/hoodie my grandson as me to make for him.

Bowl, not blow

BOWL.......BOWL.........BOWL........EVERY SINGLE TIME I TRIED TO RETYPE THIS WORD IT CAME OUT BLOW...........IT IS NOT MY FAULT, IT IS THE FINGER. MUST BE THE ARTHRITIS!

More IBM pictures

My grandmother gave me a cream and sugar blow along with matching gravy boat many years ago. I believe she was considering "moving on down the road" and wanted to leave me something to remember her by. I ask her where she got those items and she said, "OH, don't ask me". She couldn't remember. At 70 y/o I am forgetting where I obtained some of the items I have. Below are more paintings we aquired along lifes way but I don't remember where we bought them. Now, they are just pretty pictures to hang on the wall.





I DO remember this picture. It was taken on our trip from CT. to Nova Scotia. It seems to me that the name of the place was "Peggy's Cove". The artist in Tucson painted the picture. She got the little boat floating a litte too high in the water but it is a good memory.

IBM

I----I've
B----Been
M----Moved

A long time acronym for the comapany of IBM. I don't know if it stands true anymore because my late husband retired after working for IBM for 30 years about 19?? (can't remember, over 15 years ago at least). At any rate, we started moving with IBM in 1975 and lived in 4-5 places because of IBM. We learned to enjoy the local artist where ever we moved and made it a practice to purchase a painting in each place we lived. I will show you some of the art work we purchased.





This picture is one of my favorites. My husband, early in life (high school) was a serious photographer. He took wedding pictures, working in a photo shop and earned spending money and did the same while working his way through college. He and I each had twin Suzuki 850 touring motorcycles (purchased while we were living in Danbury, CT) on which we took many memorable road trips. We took one trip from Danbury, CT to Nova Scotia. While we were there the Lupins were in full bloom and as tall as our thighs. He enjoyed taking pictures of churches. He took this picture and we had it painted from the picture after we moved to Tucson, AZ. The church in the photo was not a very picturesque church, being an old, old clapboard building so he gave the artist another picture of a prettier church and she painted it in.

This is the only picture my husband ever purchased w/out me. He had accepted a job in Boulder, CO and as typical of our moves, was there before the rest of us while we remained behind trying to sell our house. As you can see, it is a picture of the Aspen trees and a mountain river. It must have spoken to him.




This picture is one of the first oil paintings we ever purchased. We started in San Jose, CA (good ol' silicone valley). We purchased three paintings by this lady. Her name is Nancy Kaiser. She told us that she was in Spain when she saw the possibility of a painting in what she was seeing outside a restaurant window. There was a gardner tending the flowers in the old cart and when she approached him to ask permission to take a picture of the cart, not understanding English but seeing her camera, was very flattered and made a nice pose with a big smile for the picture. Of course, as you can see, she painted only the picture she had in mind, sans the gardner. It is a very large picture that I have hanging over my piano.


No more pictures for now, I have knitting to do.

Remember this?

Some time ago I posted these pictures and ask if anyone knew what it was.
I received several suggestions/guesses. Amazing, amazing. Yesterday I went to the Bernina store and purchased a guide for "Accessories, Presser Feet and Attachemtns for my machine. Amazing again. A picture is in the guide with the explanation for it's use. The most amazing thing is, that it is an attachment for my machine and it came in a bag of various sewing things at a thrift store. I owned a Necchi for almost 50 years and finally got to the place where I thought perhaps it would be OK if I purchased a new machine. I bought the Bernina almost two years ago and love it. I am having a great time. I am almost finished with a Crazy Quilt. I will post a picture of it when it is finished.

The "Whatzit" is: An accessory which may be used in conjunction with
Darning Foot #9 and is called a Darning Ring...this hoop stabilizes the area to be mended. The arm of the ring fits into the bed of the machine to hold it in place, while the hoop portion is movable so the fabric can be positioned and manipulated freely for stitching.

Now good friends and readers, you can stop thinking and puzzling about the Whatzit and get some much needed rest!!

Just a few more

I tried to put this picture on yesterday but the computer was not co-operating.

A tired puppy. Too much vacation

Becky, working on the ever present crossword puzzle

Uncle Boyd

BB and oldest daughter. BB is about 6'2' and daughter may be about the same. Her grandpa on her mom's side is about 6'5-6" I told you we grow 'em tall in our family.

Becky's husband, clowning for the picture...I think!

Big kids and small had a good time in the Activity Room

One of the Unc's. On the way home. He sais he wanted his hair SHORT for the summer. His wish is my command. Short it is. The good thing is...hair grows.