Coming up for Air

Hello Everyone!  Did you think I dropped of the face of the earth?  Well, I sort of did.  I thought that once school was out, things would slow down a little bit, but that's just not the case.  And this week, my immediate supervisor is on vacation, so work has been a little hectic as well.

Friday Night we went over to the retirement home to visit Car Guy's grandmother, Mom Brady.  They had a band outside on the lawn playing beach music and fresh lemonade. We sat on a blanket and listened to the music until Mom Brady was ready to go in.  She claimed that it was "alright" but, since I was sitting right beside her, I noticed that more often than not her feet were tapping quite happily to the music.  The picture to the left is of the clouds as we were leaving.  The sun was coming through so beautifully.

Saturday night we went over to Robert and Araceli's house to celebrate Sue's birthday.  Araceli is an amazing cook and she fixed us all dinner. This picture does NOT do it justice. We had steak tacos, stuffed peppers and rice.  The peppers had just enough heat to be spicy, but not so hot you couldn't eat them. 


Then there was desert...OMG!!!
Amy made tiramisu.  I couldn't help myself.  I had two helpings.  I've been eating really well lately and losing those pesky pounds that I gained after my surgery, but I couldn't back away from this.  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!

The rest of this week has been busy with work and family.  My hooks have been quite lately in lieu of knitting and I'm really missing them.  I've almost finished knitting the hat for the recent graduate.  I've just got to do the decrease rounds, weave in the ends and add a pom-pom to the top. That yellow/gold is so bright, that I think she'll stand out anywhere except in the sea of black and gold at her chosen college.

Well, that's the week in a nutshell.  Nothing really exciting going on, but I thought I'd come up for air and stop by to say hello :)  Hope every one's week is going well.  I've enjoyed seeing what you all have been working on and as always, I appreciate your visit.  I'll try to be around more often!

Ta Da!!!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!  Things have been so busy!  This morning I took Number One Son to have his Senior Pictures taken. The picture to the right is one of the locations that they take the "nature" pictures.  This is one of those "Rites of Passage" things.  Next year is his last year in High School, then he'll be off to college. So before Graduation, there will be pictures taken, special banquets, etc.  All to remind me that one of my babies is leaving the nest..sniff, sniff.  I can't believe how quickly the time flies.  My baby is a young man now!

Number Two Son made it home safely from Tulsa.  He had a wonderful time with his Aunt, Uncle and cousins.  I spoke to him twice while he was gone, so obviously I missed him a bit more than he missed me. At least he remembered to call his dad on Father's Day.  I'm sure I have to thank his Aunt for that phone call!

I have two Ta Da moments today.  The first is a scarf that I made for a friend's daughter that I've had the joy of watching grow up into a beautiful young lady.  She will be attending Appalachian State University in the mountains of North Carolina next year.  Since it gets rather cold in the mountains, I crocheted her a scarf in the school's colors of gold and black.  She will be getting a hat as well.  I'm feeling rather brave these days, so I decided that I will knit her a hat...in the round...I haven't started it yet, so we'll see if I can get it completed before school starts in August. Hopefully it will go much quicker than socks.

Speaking of socks......

Ta Da!!! It's a completed sock!!!  I can't tell you how excited I am by this! I had to watch the video several times in order to complete the kitchener's stitch, but it's done and I absolutely LOVE it!

Here's another picture so that you can see the ribbing around the top. I've already started the mate and I've noticed that they aren't going to match perfectly, but that doesn't really bother me because I think they will perfect in their imperfection.  I recently read in a knitting book somewhere that hand knitted socks are like lingerie -  no one knows that you're wearing them, but they make you feel special.  Isn't that brilliant?  I wish I could remember who said that because they so deserve the credit for their intelligence.

Well, lunch break is almost over.  I'll try to pop in later this week to update everyone on all the knitting drama.  As always, I greatly appreciate the emails and comments.  You guys are the best at encouraging me.  If it weren't for you and my Yarn Girls (Hey Ladies!!) I don't know if I'd have finished one sock, much less attempted anything else without all your warm thoughts.  Just imagine what a sad picture it would be of circular needles and DPNs crammed into a dark corner with neglected sock yarn, looking lost and forlorn.  That would have been their lot in life without your encouragement, so I'm sure they are thanking you as well :)  Have a WONDERFUL day!!

I'm Still Here

Hello everyone!! I just wanted to pop in and say I'm still here. Things have just been a little busy.  School wrapped up for summer break last week which means some students were graduating, so gifts had to be found, parties attended, etc.  Then we put Number Two Son on a plane to Tulsa, Oklahoma to spend some time with his Aunt Wendy, Uncle Greg and his young cousins. He left Sunday and since I haven't heard from him since his plane touched the ground,  I can only guess that he's having a wonderful time.  The really wonderful part of it is that, other than missing him terribly, I'm not the least bit worried because I know that Wen will take care of him as her own.

Currently, I'm dealing with dysfunctional plumbing as well.  Right before I went to bed last night, I went to the kitchen, opened the cabinet under the sink to get the dish soap out and found a sagging cabinet bottom holding 2 inches of standing water.  Yikes! So I turned off the water under the sink, got Car Guy's shop vac, pulled everything out of the cabinet and cleaned all the water up.  It was about 12:30 am when I finished.  Needless to say, I'm a little pooped today.  I hope my caffeine kicks in soon because it's Tuesday and that means I'm supposed to get together with my Yarn Girls. 

Speaking of yarn, my socks are moving along nicely.  I'm just about ready to close everything up with the toe. I've heard that Kitchener Stitch can be tricky to get the hang of, but I've come this far so there's no turning back now!

By the way, I'm not too worried about the plumbing problem because I'm so blessed to have married a wonderful man who can actually fix things! Cars, plumbing, etc.  It really is wonderful.  Whenever something happens to my car and someone makes the comment about having to take to a mechanic and how much is that going to cost, I just smile and totally shock them by saying I'm not worried because I took care of that years ago,  I just sleep with my mechanic.....Oh!  Naughty! Have a wonderful day!!!!

Moving Forward!

I hope everyone is doing well on this lovely Monday.  It's funny, a co-worker said something about wondering if we started the work week on Tuesdays, would it make Mondays more bearable.  I said that it would make Mondays better, but we just start dreading Tuesdays.  I guess the old saying is true, it's just a case of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  We had a lovely one.  We went over to Sue's house Friday night, sat out on the back porch and enjoyed the beautiful evening, wonderful friends and a lovely bottle of wine. It was so relaxing.  On Saturday, we stayed close to home, because I was bound and determined to get something done......TaDa!

As you can see, my sock now has a heel!  I can't tell you how happy  I am!  I followed a friend's advice (Hi Alice!) and went to a quiet room, all by myself and figured it out and there you have it.  It's really quite easy when you don't have distractions.  I know that it helped that Mel walked me through the process on the first sock.  It's not her fault that I messed it up :)

I then decided that since I was able to figure this out, I should be able to do something else.......

I tinked the other sock back to the point were the flap started, redid the flap and viola! Another heel! How cool is that?! Now when I meet with my Yarn Girls tomorrow night, I'll have some progress to show and hopefully, I'll be able to finish my socks.  Then I'll get to start on the mate for each pair. There's not much that feels better than a sense of accomplishment.

Socks weren't the only thing happening this weekend.  There was a sidewalk art festival on Sunday called the Parisian Promenade.  It was held at the Tanger Family Bicentennial Garden and it was gorgeous.

The artist were underneath the canopies selling their works.

A band was playing music in the bandstand.  Some people were dancing in the lawn.

My three men enjoying the sights and sounds.  My Boys are now taller than Car Guy!

The parl has a lot of really neat sculptures...

and some beautiful natural areas.

It wouldn't be complete without a gurgling creek.

Here's a lovely lady enjoying the park :)

There was a good size crowd enjoying the day.

After spending the better part of the day at the park enjoying a warm day, we went to dinner and then went home where we all relaxed and cooled off. It was a wonderful day that makes me appreciate cold lemonade.  

I hope you all had a pleasant weekend and got to spend it with the ones you wanted to.  Also, I wanted to say thanks again for all the encouragement with my socks.  As you can tell, it's kept me motivated!

Show & Tell Time!

Oh dear, I'm running a little late.  Only a day or so.  I'm just so wrapped up trying to figure out socks, that the days slipped up on me.  Who would of thought one could become obsessed with a knitted tube? *sigh* But now it's time to pay it forward!

Photo credit: http://thequincetree65.blogspot.com/

June's Show and Tell is Sue at The Quince Tree.  Sue is a fellow crocheter and home maker in Worcester, England. I don't know how many followers she has, but I'm sure it's a ton.  She mostly blogs about food and healthy food at that.  Her photos are amazing and having made a couple of her recipes, I can say that the food is pretty dang good too.

Photo credit: http://thequincetree65.blogspot.com

I mean seriously, look at that food?  Doesn't it look amazing?  Yummy?  Hello?!?  Have you left to go scrounge through your kitchen now?  I will admit that the one drawback to her blog is that I'm usually hungry after reading her posts.  There is just something so amazing about these photos that makes my mouth water and my hips quiver with growth as they try to break free from the tight confines of the cloth that contains them from over exposure. I seriously feel like I've gained weight on some days. As I'm writing this, these two lovely items to the right are on her blog along with Nutella Cupcakes...Oh....My...Goodness...Did you hear that?  Sorry, it was my stomach.  Seriously though, the thing that I love about her is that so many of her recipes are truly healthy and made with natural, fresh ingredients, which of course makes them taste better. She also has great tips for stocking a healthy pantry and fridge and some money saving tips as well.  Go check her out.  You will thank me later, but your waistline might not :)


Legal Jargon - Disclaimer - the pictures above are from Sue's Blog.  They are solely her work, her photography and her property.  I am not claiming them as my own in any way, shape or form cause I ain't no thief.  Also, Sue doesn't know me from Adam's house cat so this is not a paid endorsement.  Does that take care of all the legal stuff? Thank you for your time!

Now for a quick sock update.  My first sock is still sitting in my bag waiting for my meeting with my Yarn Girls (Waving - Hey Ladies!)  I think it might be a little disgusted with me, but not nearly as disgusted as I am with it. Car Guy actually caught me scowling at it...Ooops!  My second sock is coming along nicely and I am currently working on the heal flap.  Next comes the heel, which is where everything fell apart last time.  Oh dear!  We'll see how this goes. And while we are here, talking about my socks, I just want to take a moment and thank everyone for their encouragement, sweet emails and virtual lessons.  You guys are so awesome!! I don't know what I'd do without you......except maybe not knit socks? Anyway, you are much appreciated!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  I'm off to work on my heel flap & eat lunch, cause for some crazy reason, I'm really hungry now.

Sock the Madness!

Hey there!  Did everyone have a wonderful weekend?  We were able to enjoy a lovely quiet long one, much to Car Guy's consternation.  He's in constant go gear so relaxing at home isn't high on his priority list. But it really was a wonderful weekend. 

On Monday, Mel came over and we worked on my sock.  Doesn't it look impressive?  It now has a heel flap and the start of the heel....I wrote down the instructions for the heel before Mel left. I was a polite host, walked her out to her car and explained how to get out of my crazy neighborhood.  I went back into the house, spoke briefly with Car Guy and The Boys about dinner, puttered around in the kitchen for a few minutes and went back to work on the heel of my sock.  I really wanted to get the it done so that the next time I met up with Mel, we'd be able to pick up stitches and start the foot. Well....that's not going to happen. 

 I don't know if you can see it because the picture is kind of really blurry and I really couldn't get a good one that close up, but something went wrong and I'm not sure what.  In the time that I walked Mel out and puttered around, the stitches decided to do a little boogalou on the needles and a few jumps for good measure and got all discombobulated.  I cannot even begin to tell you how frustrated I was/am.  I thought about tinking it, but I just don't have enough experience to do that at this particular point in the sock.  I'd probably make it worse and end up having to start all over again. Yikes!  I really don't want to do THAT!

But don't worry! I am not one to be defeated.  I decided since my circular needles were "tied up" I'd try something new....Yes, I do believe I'm a glutton for frustration and I started another sock on DPNs.....are you ready? There it is! This took several aborted attempts, but finally, after watching a video on YouTube, I got the hang of it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get the heel on this one done so that I can fix the other sock and learn how to pick up stitches for the foot next I meet with Mel.  Bless her heart, she didn't know what she'd signed up for when she agreed to teach me how to knit socks. After this is all said and done, I wonder if she'll even speak to me?

Anyway, that's the update on the sock madness. I'm just slowly but surely plugging along.  Please note that the emphasis is on slowly.  I hope to have something a little more impressive to show you all next time.  Have a wonderful week!!!