Here...Let Me Get That For You

This weekend was something else.  I think I slept most of it away.  Saturday we went and bought our Christmas lights, LED's this year and they were on sale.  I used my rewards card and managed to get 20% off of the lights.  We saved a whole $14, which is nice. 

Gary started the light hanging process.  So far, looks good.  I spoke with one of my nieces and she said that she wanted to get the light hanging process started as well, she plans to start it this weekend coming up.  We both agreed that it just feels like it should be time.  I told Gary I needed some cheer. 

Sunday we went to lunch and boy was that disappointing.  I won't be going back to that restaurant, it wasn't good at all.  We came home and sat down on the couch, I fell asleep.  I had a bad headache.  I woke up 3 hours later with a worse headache.  It was just headache day. 

I did pick lemons off of the tree, and some of them fell off as soon as I disturbed them.  I took a huge bag to Melinda.  She was happy to get them.  I told her if she needs more, to come on by and she can have some.  The tree is completely loaded with fruit this year.  I have no idea what we are going to do with it all.  I have told family members to bring their bags to come picking.  I think this coming weekend, I am going to call them all and tell them to head over, the lemons are ready.  They can have a lemon picking party. 

My sister, Cheryl said that she juiced her batch and it is sitting in her fridge.  I let her know that the lemon juice is zingy.  It is a meyer lemon.  She loved how thin skinned they are.  Yep, easy to work with and very juicy. 

My okra is still producing and Gary informed me he is sick of okra.  We have eaten a bunch of okra this year courtesy of those 5 plants.  I think for my summer garden I am going to only plant two plants.  I am working out my plans for my garden for the summer.  I have my seed order ready to go.  I think we decided to only plant two kinds of tomatoes this next year.  We had tomato issues.  One of them was a massive vine that took up space and didn't produce a damn thing.  Total waste of my time.  Come to find out, it likes really cool weather...GRRRR!!!!  We are in a drought down here and cool was not the weather we had.  It was very disappointing. 

Hopefully, as we go along our little garden will keep producing what we like to eat.  I do enjoy working out there, it is very relaxing.  I just hope we no longer have a milk weed problem like this year.  It was awful.  The weeds were everywhere and I was weeding them out.  I couldn't keep up. 

Today I get to work on my pool...I am not very excited about that prospect but, it has to be taken care of already.  sigh!  I need to add water and figure out what is going on with it.  I know I have to load my chlorinator...ugh.  I hate dealing with chlorine, the stuff is completely awful.  sigh!  Just the story of my life. 

Some of my Pretties

Here are some of my roses in the backyard in bloom.  The Kennedy, top photo, hasn't bloomed this well in a long time.  Mr. Lincoln is the red one, which always produces the most beautiful blooms and they are generally massive, it is one of my favorite roses. 

The Noisette, Madame du Alfred Carriere is dead.  The drought killed it.  Poor rose.  I miss it terribly but, there was nothing I could do to save it.  I watered it and the amount of heat did it in.  I guess Texas weather was just too much for it. 

These two roses are hybrid teas.  I don't spray them, I just water them occasionally and give them some plant food every now and then.  They are fine. 

Introducing Bad Girl

This is bad girl, a new yarn of mine.  I hand painted the yarn, and now I am making a beanie flap out of it.  I can't decide if I should sell it or if I should give it as a Christmas gift.  It reminds me of a certain pastel licorice candy, I was going to name it that but, I really don't want to infringe on someone's licensing, I don't roll that way. 

The yarn is a Peruvian Highland wool, which I love, it is not scratchy, it is soft.  It knits up like a dream.  I am using size US 8 circs for this and I will switch to US 8 dpns when the time comes for crown shaping. 

Charity Knitting and Me

Lately, I have had more and more people needing charity knitting and then there was yesterday.  I felt really awful that I wasn't able to help the lady out.  I have given to several groups this year and the really sad thing is that this lady has a noble cause, unfortunately with the economy sucking on so many levels, I had to refuse her.  Yep, I can't do anymore this year.

I donated the hats that didn't sell at RHF to a chemo group.  They were the last ones I had.  I hope they will help out poor souls who need them. 

The lady who begged me for assistance wanted cash.  I don't have any cash to spare.  I am on a tight budget and I was giving the one thing I had, yarn knit up into something.  I have yarn galore in my stash and I can help out that way....you see it all started when I first learned to knit, I started buying yarn when we had money.  If I saw a sale, I bought yarn, good quality wool.  Now that we are in the lean years courtesy of the economy, I have something to fall back on.  Like Mom and Daddy always said, you put aside for lean times.  Well, they taught me well, I did just that.  Now, I have yarn.  I would make her something for her to sell but, right now, I am worn out.  Completely worn out. 

My right hand is sprained and I am working slowly on the Joe sock.  I am still on the first one which should give you a clue.  I am usually very fast knitting socks.  Not with this one.  I am going to have to find a way to make my hand work better.  Right now, it isn't happy.  I have been dropping stuff courtesy of that hand.  I can't stand for Gary to hold my hand, it hurts too damn much.  The fingers are swollen and it hurts.  I may have to find a mitt for it and wear that to help it out.  I have some single mitts running around here some place.  Yes, I am a one mitt knitter syndromer.  It used to be socks but, I have worked past that.  My next goal is to become a two mitt knitter and get past that syndrome. 

As a knitter, I refuse to stop but, when do I stop before I completely damage the hand or screw it all and blow the hand out completely.  I know that the hubby is reading this and telling me to not be stupid and stop working and let the hand rest.  I have to agree with him.  I am going to slow down and give the hand a nice time out and let it rest.  If I owe you custom knitting, sorry, I need a time out. 

Once the hand heals satisfactorily, then I will continue on my yarn journey.  Each project I knit up is a journey through life.  What people do not realize is that knitting does take time and yes, each piece is a part of time.  It is a relaxing journey and there is that section of "what the hell is this pattern talking about?", and having to rework it many times.  It mimics life.  The section of frogging evil when I am screaming in frustration and throwing it across the room, only to pick it up when I am looking for another skein of yarn in just the right shade...what do you know, I am going to work on this again and realizing how stupid I was to chuck it.  Or looking at it and deciding the yarn can be put to better use with a different pattern.  So, I wind it back up into a ball and move on to another pattern. 

For the time being, no charity knitting will be done, talk to me after the New Year and  I will think about it.  There are plenty of other knitters who have yarn to spare and the time, please seek them out. 

Happy Thanksgiving and I hope everyone stays safe. 

The Joe Sock, a Work in Progress

Here is the freaking huge Joe sock.  As you can see, I used a normal sized ball point pen as my scale object.  Not only is the sock wide but, it is very long.  I am working on the leg right now and then the cuff will be last.  I am going to have to bind off really loosely for this one.  This by far is the biggest sock I have ever knit.  The biggest, I can't stress that enough.  I would be lost without my sock wizard software, it has more than paid for itself over the years. 

The yarn is from Elann.  It is more conservative than Joe but, I thought it was a nice manly yarn.  From what my gauge is, I thought I would use more yarn on this ball than I have.  I guess the US 2 needles make all of the difference.  This yarn is comparable to Opal.  It will hold up to carpet quite nicely.  Gary loves the pair of socks I made for him.  I will get pics of his socks when I can get him to wear them and I have my camera handy. 

This yarn is a superwash wool and nylon blend.  My niece, Meagan said that is great since she can just throw them into the washer and not have to worry about shrinking them. 

Knitting Along...ONE Project at a Time

This hat is 50% wool and 50% llama.  It was fabulous to knit.  I added hot fix jewels to it for a little added sparkle.  It went to my niece, Carol for her birthday. 

The little pink hat made out of 50% wool and 50% llama that has pink hot fix jewels.  This hat will be having two ear flaps added on plus some pom poms.  Maribeth insisted.  There is also a pair of matching mittens to go with this hat. 

This hat was a lot of fun to knit.  I used a bulky weight wool with some of my hand spun yarn.  I love how nice it turned out. 

A pair of much needed socks for me.  The yarn is from Elann and it is a dream to knit with.  It is cotton/wool/nylon/and elite.  I ordered several more skeins of this yarn.  One skein made a pair of size 8.5 women's socks.  I used US 2 needles for this project. 

Pictures of the huge sock will follow when I get a chance to snap a picture. 

Sometimes Life Just Intervenes

Lately, I haven't had time to post a thing...life has been hectic around here.  The month of October was fully packed with obligations between DAR and family.  Hopefully, the month of November will slow down for me.  I am ready for some quiet knitting time.  Time to just sit and work on the sock of the month. 

The sock of the month for me this time around is a size 14 man sock for my nephew, Joe.  I may have posted about it earlier.  Frankly, I can't remember.  Joe has been wanting hand knit socks for, well forever but, his mom a knitter, refused to knit them for him.  Since I just finished two pairs of socks, one for me and one pair for the hubby, who insisted they be knit in size 12, what is two more inches of knitting?  So far the sock is coming along nicely, when I have time to sit and knit on it. 

We have been discussing razor blades or the price of the cartridges...did you know the brand the hubby uses wants $13.70 for 4 of the things, and the really exasperating thing is the older razor that the company has is more expensive!  I refuse to drop $15+ on razor blades, just for 4 of the things.  He even suggested he buy a straight razor.  No, those things scare the hell out of me.  I don't want one in this house.  So, I was toodling through wally world today when I saw it....Wilkinson Sword Razor Tech 3 for $5 and the blades for 4 of them are the same price...$5.  That was a sold deal.  I even noticed a woman's version and threw that in the cart as well.  Same price as the men's and same price on the refills.  I brought them home and I tried out the women's version...works just the same as that expensive brand...it starts with a G.  The only place to get them is Wally world.  Oh well, I go to the one by Melinda since it is cleaner and less crowded than the one by me.  It is a smaller store, too but, that is okay.  I don't like being pushed, prodded or run over by a moron pushing a cart.  That usually happens in the one over here and I manage to always catch something in that store. 

I bought sock looms for the two older nieces, the ones who always want hand knit socks...I don't have time to knit for them anymore.  I have no time to knit for me.  So, I am hoping it will inspire a need to knit in both of them.  I can try to get them to learn the art of knitting and to better themselves with it. 

Now, I am going to find a huge glass of ice water and go knit on the sock.  Happy Fall to everyone.