Things........This is Fun!! C'mon, Join In......

"kmkat and her kneedles" has posted lists of things: Do, Don't, When alone, When with her sweety....sounds like fun!  Play along if you want to.  Here we go.....

Things I Do Every Day:
1.  Get out of bed
2.  Get dressed
3.  Thank God for another day
4.  Think about what I'm going to do for the day
5.  Watch the evening news
6.  Eat (probably should be #1 or #2)
7.  Nap

When I'm Home Alone:  (one of my favorite movies, btw)
1.  Wander around the house like I was just dropped into a castle....and it's all mine!
2.  Enjoy the quiet!
3.  Play rock n roll on the radio
4.  Eat
5.  Do odd jobs around the house
6.  Putz in the gardens
7.  Watch craft shows or mindless comedies
8.  Nap

When BH and I are home together:
1.  Play computer games
2.  Watch movies
3.  Eat
4.  Talk.....about everything
5.  Kiss him throughout the day
6.  Enjoy each other
7.  Nap

Things I don't do everyday:
1.  Ditto on the shower
2.  Ditto on washing hair
3.  Change my clothes.  Nothing wrong with wearing the same clothes to scruff around the house in for a few days
4.  Laundry (due to #3)
5.  Cook
6.  Clean the house (I used to scrub, dust, vacuum 3x a week!!)

And a new catagorie:  Things I don't do anymore:
1.  Cook everyday
2.  Work
3.  Get up with the alarm clock
4.  Bake every week
5.  Run to the grocery store every day
6.  Grocery shop every week
7.  Worry about everything and everyone
8.  Babysit

Things I try to do everyday:
1.  Knit
2.  Spin
3.  Be thankful for all we have
4.  Be thankful for a new day
5.  Thank God for my husband...he's been my partner, my best friend, my lover, my faithful husband for 22+ years now.
6.  Straighten up the house
7.  Try not to worry about everything and everyone
8.  Talk on the phone.  I hate answering the phone; I hate talking on the phone...on a regular basis.

How about you?  Got anything you would add to the lists?  C'mon!  Have some fun!!

More Pattern Info for Judy (Happy Acres).....

Judy,
I searched for the pattern. If you enter Red Oak Designs in the search bar,  it'll show up in the listings.  Click on Red Oak Design knitting patterns...... It'll take you to "I See Spots Farm".  There's a whole list of the patterns they sell.  "Poncho with Lace" is in there; price is $6.50.

Or their phone # is: 1-866-yarnfun. (I hate it when they don't use numbers!!).  The SKU # is: roa18.

Do I sound anal????  Sorry.  But I know what it's like to be interested in a pattern and can't find it!

Have a great day!

Answering Comments Questions......

Hi Sandie (Stash N Stitch)and Judy (Happy Acres),
Thank you so much for the beautiful comments of my FO pix.  It inspires to know that they're being viewed.

Sandie - the pattern for the tam is from the book "Homespun Handknit", a compilation of patterns edited by Linda Ligon, published by  Interweave Press. I know it's sold in book stores and yarn shops.  It's a plain stockinette pattern, but I took a stitch pattern from "365 Knitting Stitches in A Year - Perpetual Calendar"; published by Martingale & Company. I bought it at a wool festival some years ago. You can probably get it at a book store; ISBN: 1-56477-432-5.  It's great for finding other patterns to substitute for plain knitting.  I've used it a lot!! 365 stitch patterns!! Lots of info, too.  This was day Nov. 27, called "Small Twist Pattern".

As for the blue yarn, oh yeah!  It takes me a while to spin up 8 oz. or so, especially when I'm plying it with other colors!  I'm still spinning blue!! Working on 4 oz of a medium blue now; then there's 8 oz. of a navy blue to be done.  Goal --- enough blue for a sweater.  That's if the urge to knit a hat, mitts and socks don't take over!  I always buy a color in abundance!  Don't know why --- I think it's a "hoarding" thing. Hehehe.

Judy, the poncho is a pattern I bought about 5 yrs ago at the Michigan Wool Festival.  This is the second poncho I've made with it.  But some day, I want to try and change the bottom patterning from lace to something else.  The pattern is from  Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm.  Website: www.ellenshalfpintfarm.com   Designed by Red Oak Designs and the pattern is "Poncho with Lace".

I don't know if they're still in business, or if the pattern is available for sale still.  Hope you can find it ok.

Thanks again, gals!  Happy spinning and knitting!

FO's......Finally!

Finally - pictures!

Worsted wgt.; 3 ply. 2-Romeny/Columbia, 1-Merino

This worked out great! Love the patterning.  Ski hat and fingerless mitts.

I think this is more Romeny/Columbia in maroon. White is generic wool.

Tam and mitts; merino with beads added as knitted.  "Wave" pattern

Sorry about that streak in the middle. Don't know what that's all about!

You can see the beads better on the mitt.

And now - the poncho.  Finally got the collar knitted.  The colors look a little off in the pictures; sorry.  But they are beautiful Fall colors!

This is the true color of the poncho

Wishing you all a great spinning and knitting day!!

Still in Pain........

After 5 days of the heating pad, ibuprophen and muscle cream, I've given up. It is what it is.  My neck and shoulder do have moments of fooling me into a false sense of being healed.  But alas, the reality is something different.  So I've decided to let nature take it's course.  All things heal in time.

But time is the one thing I didn't really want to lose.  I was on a roll.  I was feeling great.  I was proud of my accomplishments and looking forward to steaming ahead til all was done.  Crap.

For the past 3 nights I have gone to bed feeling pretty good; visions of getting back to the duties at hand; laying out plans for continuing with the rest of the house cleaning-decluttering day by day.  Only within a few hours after getting out of bed, reality strikes again.  No - better not attempt that today.

Well thank God it hasn't interferred with spinning or knitting.  At least I can still do that without much after effects of pain.  And, as you can see, I can still type! Hehehe.  Only this does cause more discomfort.

BH and I walked to the back yard on Thursday.  We were going to pick the apples.  "Ehh, let's pick one, cut it open, taste it and see if it's 'apple-ee' enough", was my suggestion.  So we did just that.  Nope.  Not 'apple-ee' enough.  Well, we'll take our chances and leave them on the tree for another week or two.   We made that mistake some years ago, the first time the tree bore fruit.  Picked too soon; we didn't taste them; went ahead and prepared them for the freezer.  Made our own apple pie for Thanksgiving.  No taste!  No apple-ee taste!  What a disappointment.  Ahh, but the next time, we left them on the tree until the frost.  Perfect!! Very "apple-ee"!! 

We had 2 good frosts last week -- 28 and 21 degrees.  It didn't do any damage to the apples.  So here's hoping that by next week, they'll be good to go.  And so will I.

I'm Too Old for This......Seriously

Well it's Fall housecleaning season.  Actually, it's "anytime the mojo hits" housecleaning season.  I haven't been one for this seasonal waste of time business for a long while.  Spring, Fall, Summer, Holiday seasons....whenever the mood strikes.  It has struck this season.

I've been at it for a week now.  Dining room - check.  Family room - check.  Our bedroom - check.  However, a couple of slight injuries and a commitment on Friday have now led me to postpone further drudgeries until possibly this weekend.  There is still the bathroom, hallway, kitchen and utility room to be done.  There's also been little cubbie cabinets that haven't seen a dust rag or cleaning solution in years that have finally been done.  Cleaned, cleaned out, re-organized.

The realization is this:

**I am getting too old to be climbing step stools, at least a thousand times, with arms stretched over my head, scrubbing ceilings.

**I am getting too old to be flapping my arms up and down, as if I'm getting ready for take-off, scrubbing down walls.

**I am getting too old to get down on my knees, up again, down again, up again, etc., scrubbing baseboards, bottom of walls and floors.  Also scrubbing vinyl blinds in the bathtub.

**I am getting too old to struggle with a caulk gun and a tube of caulk that somehow seems to have dried up in the tube and takes all the might of Hercules to squeeze it out; caulking all the piecemeal woodwork around the gigantic window (from the previous owner).  Total time: 2 1/2 hours.  Results: Beautiful.  Though I ended up with pulled muscles in my shoulder.

**I am getting too old to be running back and forth, hanging washed curtains, blinds, shades, lampshades, blankets, quilts on the wash line and retrieving them.

**I am getting too old to be ironing newly sewn curtains for said gigantic window, once again stretching arms out as far as they will go.

**I am getting too old to be shampooing wall-to-wall carpeting throughout many rooms, stopping, emptying dirty water resevoir, refilling clean water resevoir too many times to count.

**I am definitely getting too old to be pushing heavy, enormous furniture back and forth  and lifting smaller (yet unbelievably heavy) pieces.

I do have to say, though, that once it's all done, the results are amazing!!  Everything so clean and fresh, a few new adornments here and there.  BH even said it all looks great!  I told him to enjoy it because it's probably my last "Hurrah"!!

The injuries?  Well, there was the pulled shoulder muscles on Sunday.  I took Ibuprophen before bed and was much better Monday.  But last night I have like a pinched nerve on the side of my neck and something wrong with my thumb - feels like arthritis - kind of numb feeling -  hurts like hell.  I forgot to take the Ibuprophen last night.  So I will suffer in silence today and nurse the sore areas.  No cleaning.

There's always next week.  I'll start again.  Ah, but the apples are about ready to be picked.  I'm hoping we don't get a hard frost before I can get to them.  We figure about 20#s worth.  To be peeled, cored, sliced and frozen.  Then there's the perennials to be cut down (lots of perennials!) and weedwhacking for the last time.

I also got my form for the school craft show in the mail yesterday.  It's held on the first Saturday in November - deer season opener.  I so wanted to take part in that this year.  But I didn't knit up as much as I thought I would, and never did get the storage house cleaned out.  All the bins of crafts are stored there.  I wanted to go through them to see how much  and what items I had left from years before.  I'm not making crafts anymore, but I did want to get rid of what's left to free up the bins and the space.  Aaarrggghhh!!

But, who knows.  Maybe that mojo will strike me, I'll get it done, and be on my way to the craft show once more!  In the meantime, I gotta take some pain medication and rest.  Us old folk have to do that.

New Season......New Plans.........

Oh, yeah, baby......Fall is on it's way!! My favorite time of year!  I've just about had enough of Summer.  I'm not a big fan (no fan, actually) of hot, steamy weather.  And all the "have to's" of Summer are wearing thin.  Don't want to weedwhack, don't want to water, weed, replace batteries (in the solar lights), chemicalize and clean the pool, don't want to hear the constant drone of the A/Cs and the fans, don't want to keep the windows and door closed all day and the shades, blinds and curtains drawn.

  Turn me over and stick me with a fork ----- I'm done.

We started emptying the pool yesterday.  It'll take about 4 days for all to dry out to be put away.  Also gathered up the paraphenalia and stored it.  Clipped most of the annuals - too overgrown.  But there might be another 2 months of decent weather, so maybe they'll grow back to their bushy, flowering self.

BH thinks he's cutting the grass for the last time this season.  Hehehe, silly man.

Today we go to the big box stores.  Gotta get some things for the upcoming season.  New chain for the chain saw, roof gunk to seal the roof and caulk for -- something.

I've been debating for 2 days whether I should paint the family room.  And do some cleaning that was never done in the Spring or Summer.  Well, my better side tells me "no. Paint next Spring".  Ok then.  But I will do some cleaning starting tomorrow.  Washing curtains, shades and blinds; window frames and windows.  Hopefully I'll get to shampooing the carpets, sofa and recliners.  I can also wash down the walls and ceiling in the family room.  Do same in the bathroom.  The bedrooms are pretty clean, but I do want to change out the bedspreads with comforters and maybe clean out the closets.  Oh yeah,  gotta put Summer clothes away and bring out the Winter ones.

We're supposed to have beautiful, sunny, warm (not HOT) weather for the rest of the week.  This sure spikes the adrenalin! 

Today we have a meeting with daughter and her case worker to find another provider for independent living.  The group she's been with for the past 16 years has really been boiling my water for quite some time.  This past month was the last straw.  Helpers who don't show up, cut the scheduled time with her on a moment's notice, or just quit their job without notice.  Now they're telling her to take the bus to her appointments and errands; "to make their clients more independent in the community"!!!!  Mind you, this organization gets thousands of dollars from the State, every month, just for her, to provide services.  Very frustrating and aggravating.  Especially when we are an hour from her and can't always get there within a few hours notice.  AAAARRGGGGHHHH!!!!!   Here's hoping we find a more conscientious, professional  provider.

Still spinning 1 1/2 - 2 hours each morning.  Doesn't look like much of a dent in the stash, but persistance pays off.  Right?   Knitting too.  Finished a patterned ski cap and fingerless mitts.  Got one sock finished, moving on to the next.  I still need to knit the collar on the poncho.

Anybody else thinking of Christmas?  This has been on my mind lately.  What to make for who, when can I get started, how many gifts can I make in time.  My brain is scrambled.  It'll be here before we know it.  And I'll still be scrambled!

I can't think about that now;  I'll think about it tomorrow.  Afterall,  tomorrow......is.........another day!  (Scarlett O'Hara, "Gone With the Wind").

You all have a great week!  Sure hope Fall is as calming and colorful for you as it will be for me!!  (Fingers crossed)