Hard to tell

Occasionally I have a handful of needles that are different sizes and can't tell which ones are which,  particularly if they all look alike and are the same color.  See?

If they are more than a size or two apart, I can lay them all flat in a line and roll them back and forth like I'm making a play-doh snake until I can feel which ones are thicker.

Or like I did just now, I can push them together like spaghetti at one end and the other end will tell me that the longer ones are all the same size and the shorter ones are the other size. Ha Ha!  My detective skills are phenomenal, I must say!

I finished Slouch Gray Sock Number One.  Its also phenomenal.  Now to top myself with my skillful knitting ability,  lets see if I can do another one exactly the same.  I doubt it.  But here goes anyway! 
I did a few alterations; hope it won't look like a neanderthal man knitting the thing.  Fingers crossed.

Slouchy Sock One

Thanksgiving was wonderful and this year was especially nice because my daughter and daughter in law helped cook the meal.  It really freed me up to enjoy the day more.

Spice Girls!

In fact, we made a bunch of homemade pizzas on Black Friday night, since the Turkey Day cooking wasn't so bad. I went shopping Friday afternoon with the girls and avoided most of the crowds, but the boys braved the midnight sales and 5 a.m. door busters!

Southern Living Pumpkin Cheesecake!

Turkey(ham) and dressing - uh-mazing!

Getting ready for the big day!

Those that didn't cook washed dishes (what troopers!)

And Saturday, my father in law took us all to a late breakfast at Cracker Barrel down the street (we go there a lot).  So today we finally got out the leftovers for lunch after church.  Just in time to watch the football game, and boy was it a good one!

I started decorating for Christmas yesterday after everybody left, and realized I still had some more boxes to get out of the attic.  Gosh I hate going up there.....

Fear of Decorating

I've begun working on the heel stitches for the the first sock and will have to do some Speedy Gonzales knitting tonight after dinner. The waste thread has been pulled out and I've put all the heel stitches on two needles.  Once I've completed the heel on this first sock  I'll get to start sock number two.  Woo hoo!!

And I really, really want to finish it quickly so that I can go back and finish the other skinny sock stocking (below)  before Christmas Eve.  I'd like to be able to hang the stockings and stuff them with lots of goodies and gift cards!

After the Thanksgiving weekend, I plan to decorate the house for Christmas, so its crucial that I get this stocking finished.   Motivation to get my hiney in gear and knit!

Decorating for Christmas is not my favorite thing to do and I'll tell you why. I really dread getting down all the boxes of decorations from the attic.  The pull down stairs in the garage are narrow and precarious, and I am already afraid of heights.  Plus, someone I used to work with stepped through the attic floor at his house and broke his back a few years ago moving boxes of Christmas decorations, so I'm doubly nervous about the task.  But, guess what! Yesterday I went to the garage  to start cleaning around the area where I'd "land" the boxes from the attic when I realized I'd never actually put the boxes in the attic from last year!!  Oh my goodness, what a surprise! My lazy streak (fear of the attic stairs) has finally paid off.  Now I only have to walk into the garage and drag them into the house, scaling only two small steps at the back door.  Unbelievable! 

And let me tell you of another fortunate thing. Yesterday afternoon I met a friend for coffee on the spur of the moment.  We needed to do some catching up and before I knew it, the time had flown by and it was time to get home.  On the drive home I was moving along at a good pace (speeding) and had the music pretty loud since I was alone.  I was selecting music from a portable device which is pretty close to texting while driving.  I made the turn toward my little town when I saw a string of tail lights that went on for miles.  Ugh.  Five o'clock traffic ahead, as I looked at my watch and it really was 5:30 p.m.

I decided to make the best of it and kept on listening to my music and was glad that I wasn't coming home from a long day at the office.  Several miles later, I could see that the traffic was so slow because of a terrible accident.  I don't know exactly what happened but the entire northbound lane was closed off (I was southbound) and there were lots of emergency vehicles around a power pole that was bent sideways.  The power lines were stretched and twisted and the police officers had on their reflective vests, directing cars to keep moving past the site of the accident.   What a close call!  I had been completely unaware of what time it was when I left Starbucks, and was oblivious to the danger I could have been a part of, had I left earlier.  You just never know how close you've come; how blessed you are and how your life may have been spared many times over, every single day.   I do believe someone up there is watching out for me!!

Noah's Ark

Many nurseries today are decorated with pictures of animals walking two by two into an ark. They seem to be oblivious to the fate that's about to overtake their friends.

A couple of years ago, I took a trip that began with a flight where the pilot announced we were going to try to take off pretty quickly in order to miss some serious storm systems moving into the area.   I had no idea how bad those storms were going to be, and frankly I'm glad I didn't know.  And I don't think Noah or the animals getting on the ark were aware of what was about to happen to them either, or how long it would take for things to get back to normal. 

When we carry on with our daily lives oblivious to the indicators that storms may be coming, we could be caught unawares.  But if we are diligent at keeping an eye on things, we can avoid damaging winds that could be costly.  Its so easy to keep looking  at the same things all the time and never see how far we've gotten course.

What's wrong with this picture?

three different thicknesses of yarn!

After spinning the entirety of the military blue (midnight blue?) wool, I realized that the last skein of yarn was way thinner than the first and the second skein. Little by little, I was spinning finer and finer.  Dangit!

In order to be more consistent I now have a little string of bright purple yarn that I look at whenever I'm spinning.  Its keeping me where I need to be.  I want to spin this fuller and fatter for a bulky yarn; keeping the ply as thick as the purple example is my goal.

purple standard

future bulky yarn (can you see the face?)

Sitting down to knit at night is such a treat for me.  I really look forward to the whole creative process.  I've made it past the afterthought heel thread and I'm finishing the foot.  Soon I'll close the toe and  begin the heel, then on to the second slouchy sock!

Betsy's slouchy sock #1

Pinterest, Twitter and oh yeah, Facebook

We all have favorite TV channels, places to eat, and websites we go to when we open our computer.  I like the news I suppose, since my home page on the computer is a news site.  But its never long before I check the weather (my cell phone homepage) and then some social networking sites.  Recently I've pretty much left Facebook and stayed mostly with Twitter and Pinterest.  Pinterest is mostly for girls, judging by the photos posted of guys.  But I really like the feeling I get after looking at photos of beautifully prepared food and neat, orderly living rooms and back gardens.  Seeing things that make you feel good should be a medical prescription.  I heard once that listening to music you like  is good for your brain and body, and that's been proven.  I've heard that newborns need affection and touch early on to set them on the right path as well. (I think I've even heard that babies need eye contact.)

We just got back last night from a trip to the mountains for a retreat.  I'd like to know the root of that word, because it really was a "treat" to get away for a few days.  Mostly our getaways are for seeing family or taking care of business, but I really enjoyed looking at the fall leaves while we were in Pigeon Forge. The mountains and valleys looked like calico. Even though the trees are starting to become bare, they have a Sleepy Hollow appeal and the ground covered with leaves makes everything look cool.

The teaching at the retreat, provided via Family Life, was top notch and the best I've ever seen or heard in over 25 years of marriage.  There was restoration of marriage on the brink of divorce and renewal of commitment by almost everyone there.  Fantastic in every way.  So truly, coming home I feel rested and renewed and the pictures in my mind of the leaves and my new friends are things that make me happy today.  I wish I could pin them on Pinterest!

There was no knitting done all weekend, but I'm ready to jump back in.  The closer we get to the really cold weather, the faster I'm knitting in my mind.  Lets hope my hands can keep up!

Take two

If you're reading this, you must be at least computer-savvy enough to know what its like to have your computer crash.  You probably also spend a little more on internet service that makes everything happen faster, cause you're probably like me.  You hate waiting forEVER for pages and programs to open.

My computer has been so slow lately that I am losing interest in even being on the internet.  My husband is a Mac guy and assures me he never has this kind of problem, but I have had both Macs and PCs and I guess I'll stick with my HP.

Now, back to the issue at hand.  I'm trying to move everything valuable off of the hard drive to start over.  Hopefully this will make everything go faster, so says my hubby. So I know my first step is to copy  everything to an external hard drive.  For some reason I thought, What the hay, I'll do my laptop, too, while we're at it!"
You can stop laughing.  I realized today after I'd finished just the big tower computer, 6 hours and 15 GB later, that doing my laptop as well was gonna take a while.  It did.

 I had to go outside and pretend to smoke a cigarette until I got my composure back when I was through.  (Okay, a cup of coffee and two cookies from the cookie jar made a good substitute.)
When I was all finished I still had to find all the installation stuff that came with the computers, which took a while as well. But I found them.  Yay!

So tonight, after a delicious homecooked meal from Taco Bell, I spent some time unwinding in front of the TV, knitting on this.

Take two - slouchy gray sock!

Voila!  I'm as far along, lengthwise with this second version of the slouchy gray sock, as I was on the other one when I stopped knitting it.  This one's going a heck of a lot faster because I eliminated the confusing honeycomb part.  Now it's just straight cables (8 stitch), with knitting and purling.

Sadly, I had to cancel our spinning meeting this coming Thursday, since everyone had a schedule conflict. I have a prayer meeting that night and  I'm going out of town the next day so it worked out well for me.   My husband and I are going on a marriage retreat!  I'm hoping to take my knitting along and get in some serious progress while I'm there.  (Hope they'll let me knit during the sessions!)

I wish

I wish I could share with you how beautiful this day is.  It is pretty much perfect in every sense.  Number one, it's Saturday, so most people have at least a small shot at enjoying it if they choose to.  Number two, the temperature shouldn't get much above 70 degrees which I think is ideal for fall.  Number three, the sun is shining. Number four, we get an extra hour of sleep tonight.  I don't know what else it would take to make you happy.  That has to be enough; but someone out there is inevitably complaining about something.  I, however, am saying woo hoo for today!!!


The lovely gray sock I've been knitting for my daughter has come to an abrupt end.  I realized that the cables were taking up all the circumference of the sock, and diminished it by about a third.  So I laid aside the needles, found a bigger pair, and cast on again, this time adding a third more stitches.  Take that!  This one should be much better, and will hopefully fit someone who's over 12 years of age.  The previous work of art should be perfect for a skinny little stocking, that I will press and make a loop for hanging over the mantle come the first part of December.

My son and daughter in law spent the night last night and we all went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast/brunch.  The fire had not been lit, but the sounds of the holidays were all around.  No dancing Santas but musical elf hats, clocks that chime carols, and of course the vast array of ornaments, one or two I will definitely try to make.

One is a little miniature stocking ornament, and the other was a miniature sweater ornament with sequins.  How can I not knit something so small and so easy?

Future Kitchen Garden 2012

But I can't get my mind off of the yard.  I cleared a flower bed a couple of days ago, that I am planning to use as an herb garden.  It's in a back corner near the fence and has enough space for me to experiment without anyone complaining about how it looks if it gets raggedy.

Perfect posture!

The latest news from my spinning wheel is that I have pretty much mastered the art of tension.  This is what I spun, which seems benign to the naked eye, but to a seasoned spinner, it's truly a work of art.  There is not twist when hung.  Absolutely none.

Straight as a board

  I amaze myself.  The credit however must go back to the Youtube video I posted previously.  Advice when taken, is such a wonderful thing!

Oh, and one last thing.  In October of 2004, seven years ago, I started this blog.

Here is the camera I used back then, which required that I use a card reader when uploading photos, and do all the "blogging" old school with codes and such.  Thank you Blogger for improving my blog experience.  And thank you to the slim few of you who have been reading this blog all these years!  Happy Blogiversary!

Today was a good day

After

Today was one of those beautiful days that just sent me straight outside to the garden.  I have overgrown flowers, shrubs and grasses that desperately needed pruning.  If they could cry out loud, they would have been wailing by now, screaming for a haircut. So I gave it to 'em.  Boy did I ever.  Sorry guys, you may need a ball cap for a couple of days!

Before!

After pruning, raking and cutting all those tiny limbs and branches into pieces small enough to fit into the designated "yard waste trash can", I stood back and started dreaming of what I could plant in all those bare places.  I dug up old day lillies and swore off letting them come back ever again.  I dug up some old mums that no one sees, around the back side of the house.  Anyway, it looks better.  And I felt pretty good about myself until I walked back to the patio to go in the back door.  There was the small flower bed bordering the patio that just looked at me with mockery.  I looked back and waved my clippers at it.  "You're next," I said.  "You just wait."

The slouchy gray cable sock(s) requested by my dear daughter is coming along a little slowly, but it's fun enough to keep me interested, even though it's a little challenging.

I keep looking at the pattern book like a man in a bar, checking out the goods.  So many cable patterns to choose from, and I am gonna be a while with these socks.  What I can do, is play with some sample swatches, and try out some of the yarns in my stash.

I like this pattern, called the folded cable.  I want to get out those Knit Picks needles I ordered a while back.
Their new catalog just came out and I love, love, love the color palettes.  Every yarn comes in colors so outstanding, I can hardly wait to try my hand at dyeing some more wool.  Or maybe blending some of what I've got.  Lots of color!
Kind of reminds me of the kids who came to my door on Halloween night.  They took one look at my huge bowl of assorted candy and made wide-eyed comments about the pixie sticks.  I'm so glad I bought them.  Mostly for nostalgic reasons, but they were a hit, anyway.  And God bless those little ninjas, princesses and teddy bears!  You all looked great!