WIP Wednesday

It's that time of the week again.  I noticed the cats were playing with the camera while I busy looking for something.  I haven't found it yet.  There is a pattern I want from an old Workbasket.  I knew where it was in Rochester, I just can't remember where it is packed.  That is I hope it got packed in the boxes I have down here.

From Knitting Kitties

Could you disturb this? Yeah, I couldn't either. However, when the need for a comfortable place to sit became greater than my want to avoid disturbing him, I gave him a gentle pet and he jumped right in the air like I pounced him. Poor thing. He's currently sharing with me.

Miss Bootsie wanted to introduce this week's WIP.

From Knitting Kitties

Pink is my color, don't you agree?


She has high hopes. Where is the afghan? I'm still hooking away on it. I thought everyone might be sick of looking at what seems to be the same picture.

Yesterday, we needed to go to Wal-Mart for the bunnies Timothy pebbles. When D asked me if I needed any knitting stuff, I said I wanted to look at yarn. I found the blog attic24 last month and I've been wanting to make a granny square afghan ever since. I started out crocheting granny square many years ago. It's comfort crafting, like grilled cheese is comfort food.

From Knitting Kitties

I love the new wrappers on the Simply Soft. I just picked out these two skeins, though they had some peach I really liked too. There is always another time. D never bugs me about how much I have started and I don't try to push it when he suggests I could get some yarn. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with squares. My granddaughter loves pink, or she did when I was babysitting while my daughter was in a training program. I was thinking maybe a pillow or a small afghan for her for Christmas.

From Knitting Kitties

Speaking of Christmas, I reading someone's blog last night and the had a Christmas countdown ticker that said 87 days until Christmas. I think I threw up a little at the thought. Unless, I get a job between now and Thanksgiving I will have to break my rule and make presents this year.

It's a good thing my neighbor Di pointed out to me she reads my blog via Facebook.  I totally forgot I had linked up on Networked Blogs.  *waves* Hi Di and J.  This means possible my sons and daughter might read about what I'm making them.  Just possible, highly doubtful they pay attention, but one never knows for sure.  This means I won't posting about your present either, Di.

From Knitting Kitties

From Knitting Kitties

This may or may not be Christmas socks.  Back when I was dying yarn and selling on etsy, I made a few of these sock blanks.  Someone had asked me what they would look like knitted and I hadn't made a sample.  I still have them and this one of the dyed ones.  I've been toying with idea of selling some of my extra stuff I know I won't use on Artfire, for a while now.  I really need to get things more organized before I do that.

These are knit on size 1 dpns with a stitch count of 92, knit from the top down.  They will be plain vanilla knee highs with calf stitch decreases.  The nice thing about these sock blanks if you like to knit two at time is that it is double ply.  I don't like the whole 2 socks on circulars knitting so I'm winding the second strand into a center pull ball, so they will be a matching pair when finished.

I should somewhat of an FO to post for Friday.  It will be a technicality but FO's happen so rare here, I'll take it where I can.  Speaking of rare, I could sure use some rare cool weather.  We tied the record of last year with 101F today and we're supposed to tie it again tomorrow.  I read So. Cal has had record heat of 110+F but LA is supposed to cool down to 88F tomorrow.  The weather man says we should cool down to the low 90's sometime next week.  *weak* Yeah.  I believe it when I feel it.  I sure would like to kick about 10 or 20 degrees off the thermometer.

For WIP posts go over to Tami's blog, she is hosting this.  The list keeps growing every week.  I finally remembered to post the link back.

Snooze Report

From Knitting Kitties

Bootsie here reporting for Mom.  Mom's been going through all my, err her stash.  She says she's looking for something new to post for Wednesday.  As you can see here, the afghan is coming along and quite comfy.  I'm product testing, yeah, that's it.

From Knitting Kitties

Hi, I'm Bright Eyes.  I'm really quite worried, Mom is making quite a mess.  She's looking for something.  I told her to reach in any tote and work on the first thing she pulls out.

From Knitting Kitties

(CRASH!!) Did you hear that Bootsie?

From Knitting Kitties

Oh no! This can't be good.

From Knitting Kitties

Well, you go check it out Bright Eyes.  I have more product testing to do.  Move along, folks, nothing to see here.

Indecisions And Sunday Randomness

I've been wanting to go through my quilting fabric and sort it out for some time.  I have a ton of organizing to do. One of the biggest problems of moving for someone with many creative hobbies besides packing everything up, is the sorting and organizing afterward.

From Knitting Kitties

To the left is stack and whack quilt blocks I bought from ebay a long while back.  I still can't decide how I want to arrange them.  I have about a yard of the matching fabric.

From Knitting Kitties

That is the rest of the Marcus Brothers Pansy fabric I was able to find when they re-released some of them a couple years ago.  I had the whole collection when they came out about 8 years ago, but I lost it a move.

From Knitting Kitties

This piece of fabric, I bought several years back at Joann Fabric Black Friday sale.  I had just pulled the bolt off the shelf and was looking at it, when a woman came up and tried grabbing it out of my hands.  I hung on and she said, "You not buying all of that are you?"  There wasn't much on the bolt and I should have said yes. Before I could answer, "Do you think you will be getting just a yard?"  Still kinda shocked at her rudeness, I just stammered, "Probably." 

"Well, then I want the rest." she demanded glaring at me.

I had hoped with crowd in the store we would ditch her and we would have.  We went to the back in the home fabrics to wait for cutting.  Then my mom went to the front area and came back saying that area was moving faster and we should go up there.  We no more than got in line when psycho lady swooped down on me.  "I thought I lost you."  She snatches the fabric out of my cart.  "I'm having my stuff cut now, so I'll have the clerk cut off your yard, and I'm getting the rest."  She dashed back to the cutting counter before I could protest. 

I looked at my Mom and said, "I knew we should have stayed in the back of the store."  So Mom, went up to the counter to make sure I got my yard, which the clerk gave her.  Mom stayed there for a second longer and saw that the lady only got 2/3 of a yard.  Psycho glared at the clerk then turned to my Mom like she was going to snatch the yard from her. Mom just spun on her heal and walked away. 

Now, it might be said that maybe she had that fabric at home and needed more.  Had she politely said that, I would have let her have the fabric.  I'm a "too nice" person.  However, she was rude, and I still regret that I let her run over me like that.

From Knitting Kitties

Little by little, I've been collecting fabrics that sort of go with it.

From Knitting Kitties

I got this fabric to make a pillow out of a rose I'm cross stitching. However, when I started it, the rose is more yellow than peach that the cover picture showed. I haven't decided if I want to use that in a quilt or find another cross stitch rose pattern that will work out better.

That wasn't even the tip of tip of the ice berg of my fabrics. I have four 50 gallon Rubbermaid totes to go through. Then to decide which fabric will go with which. Hardest of all for me to decide what pattern I want use. When my kids were very young all my quilts were made of scraps of left other from making their clothes or quarter yards I would buy on sale. Back then 100% cotton was between 1.99 and 2.49 full price. For some reason I didn't have as much trouble deciding what I wanted to do.

From Knitting Kitties

I wandered around the ABC Stitch Therapy site looking at rose patterns. Then came across this painted needlepoint canvas. Pansies are one of my favorite flowers especially blue, purple and pink ones. This kit. Is $170.00. Yeah, that will be sitting in my wishlist for awhile.

From Knitting Kitties

Fresh produce makes me absolutely giddy. Nothing says summer and fall like fresh produce.  I love all the possibilities of it.  It's what I miss most about home, the Saturday Farmer's Markets and roadside stands. It seems not much other than cactus grows in the desert.

Watch out for baked good coming soon.  I need to go decide what I want to make pretty quick, fresh produce won't sit and wait for me like fabric. 

WIP Wednesday

It's been one of "those" days. I'm sure you know what I mean.  Our refrigerator died during the night. I knocked on the manager's door at 9am to let him know.  He said he would have one in 30 minutes, he just needed to figure out which empty unit had a working one.  He pulled one out of storage and plugged into the laundry to make sure it worked.  Nope.  That storage unit is literally a mausoleum for dead refrigerators. He told me I had to wait until after 3pm for some of his guys to come over and help him pull one out of one of the upstairs units.  At 4:30pm, I finally got a working but very tiny, 1/3 smaller, refrigerator.  He said, he would get us a bigger one in a couple weeks after the first when another comes empty.

It was very cool and actually rained for a bit this afternoon.  I would have liked to have sat outside after the rain stopped.  Instead, I was busy dealing with the above, and I'm exhausted.  I was going to make a special cake and post it on Friday, since I know I won't have an FO.  However, the sour cream didn't make it.  (I kept scream for cream.  That sure is a Freudian slip. haha)



I know it looks the same as Saturday's post, but really, this one full repeat completed. The second ball of yarn for my granddaughter's dress is much different from the first. The only thing I can think to do is rip out the skirt and make the body a bit longer, finish it off as a nice pullover sweater.



Here is my second WIP, it's Villa Mirabilia - Cross Stitch Pattern. I've been putting in a few stitches here and there. I think the colors will go really well with the afghan. It should cheer the place up quite a bit.

I'm going to put my feet up and work my afghan for a bit.  I think one more pattern repeat should finish this center panel.  Thank you to everyone who left comments.  I really enjoy reading them.

Ripping Out

That's what I'll be doing today.  I worked diligently Sunday and Monday on my afghan. I completed one full repeat by last night, then I noticed I missed a loop 6 rows back.  It was midnight, so I just shoved it back in the tote and went to bed.  I was working on the afghan to avoid a worse ripping project.



This is bottom of a dress I'm knitting for my Granddaughter. I spun the yarn 2 years ago, in this post. It's done in 2 8oz bumps, except I ordered them a couple weeks apart. They looked alike and I really think I started the second ball at the wrong end. I'm going to rip out the last bit and rewind the ball, because silly me, I didn't wind it as a center pull. Hopefully, the other end will match up better. Worse case scenario, I will have to rip the whole thing and rotate balls every few rows, which I should have done in the first place. Oh well, I suppose it's a good thing I'm process crafter and not a very productive one.

I have been enjoying visiting other blogs and looking at all the wonderful fall pictures. I do so miss the fall season. Except with cold, damp weather comes pain, I have to keep reminding myself that. Since moving down here,  I've been able to ween myself off all the narcotic pain killers that my chronic pain Dr. had me on back on NY. It's hard to believe in just a little over a month, I will have been here a year. I have more pretty good days than kinda bad days now. My kinda bad days are like my kinda good days back in NY, which were few and far between.



These are the mountains I view when I walk out the gate and onto the street in front of my complex. Tucson is in a basin with mountains surrounding all around it. I'm used to the mountains in Upstate New York. When I first visited here, all I could think of was how the mountains looked like huge construction piles.




Some of the foliage I see when I take my walk up the bus stop.



Last nights sunset.



This morning's sky. It's pretty cloudy today. While today is supposed to be the first day of autumn, it was 92F by 10:30 am with 40% humidity which is quite high. The humidity is usually around 17%. There is a 40% percent chance of rain. We haven't had rain for a couple weeks, so I hope it does. I love the smell of rain in the desert, it has an ozone smell. I guess unless you've been to the desert you wouldn't understand the smell. I wish I could bottle it and sell it. This past summer's monsoon season has been really unimpressive.

It's now early afternoon. I'm off to see what trouble I can get into today. Thank you for coming and sharing a bit of my world. See you tomorrow for WIP Wednesday.

I Wish Bunnies Could High Five

I know I'm a day late and a dollar short from posting Friday FO.  It's one of the many stories of my life.   Truth is I did finish knitting the foot on Thursday morning, but then I procrastinated kitchenering the toes.  I'm the queen of procrastination, and I dislike kitchener stitch.  Though, not as bad as I hate sewing on buttons.

Anyway, it was Friday and D's day off, which meant neighbor barbecue and game night. We all pile into the next door neighbor's truck, we'll call her Di and her current bf we'll call him J.  We head up to Fry's grocery and get ingredients for the nights meal, and we do a bit of shopping for the week, that would be a pain for me to bring home on the bus.  The guys do the cooking, while Di and I hang out.  After dinner we break out the Scrabble board.  It's like those neighbor parties our parents threw back in the 70's.



So, I finished the socks this morning. The yarn is Pagewood Farms, Denali in colorway New Horizon. I used a version of Leyburn, from the top down, cast on of 68 stitches. As I stated in the previous post, because the stitch pattern was not conducive to decreasing stitches, I got the leg decrease by using a smaller needle every 4 inches. I used this method in past with lace patterns in knee high socks when I couldn't or didn't want to figure out pattern decreases.





Here's an afghan I've had in progress for several years. So many in fact, I can't remember what year it was. I do know it was the year Simply Soft came out with their Brites. It's Bargello Beauty(Rav link) from Herrshner's Blue-Ribbon Afghans.  I pull it out every fall, convinced this will be the year I finish it, do a couple repeats and oooh, what's that shiny over there. Actually, the reason I haven't worked on it more is because it was such a pain in the butt to pull the big plastic bags of yarn out of the closet.  Then because we have cats, I would have to shove it all back in.  With the big move last year, I transfered it all into a Rubbermaid Tote, which I keep on the top of a stack of totes.  Now, the problem is having to clear off all the bits and bobs that accumulate on any flat surface.  When I do finished with all the afghan stitch and single crochet border, the problem will then be this:



How long will it take me to weave in all those ends?

Ok, but why do you want to high five bunnies? Well, last I left you, Mr. Butterscotch was having our eternal daily war over my chair.  Thursday, during Nippit's turn out of her cage, she laid down a several feet in front of my chair for a bit of a gaze.  That's what wild bunnies do out in a field.  They sit or lay several feet or yards away in view of one another.  Each has their post to warn the others if danger approaches.  That's why house bunnies will flop in front of the tv, so you can gaze with them.



So, Nippit is gazing and Butterscotch is on the floor several feet away from Nippit having a nap.  I got up to answer the door, and when I turned back around Nippit and Butterscotch are sitting up in full attention.  As I head back to my chair, Butterscotch starts his race. He trots out a head, then stops to wait for me to catch, leading me to believe I might make it first.  He trots a head again, then hesitates one foot from my chair then just as I catch up, he jumps for the chair.

This must have annoyed Miss Nip.  When Butterscotch got to my chair and started to jump, Miss Nip dashes in front between him and the chair and grunts at him to back off.  He looks a bit startled then backs away.  I totally wanted to high five her paw, but she dashed under the futon. Her job was complete. The bunneh's totally rule in this house and beware to the cat that doesn't listen.

WIP Wednesday

I found a new group on Ravelry, The Blog Hub.  They are having a WIPW posting weekly.  This is something, I know I can do.  I have so many WIP's, I could post a new one every week for a year or two.  The catch is that it has to be what your currently working on.  Actually, as slooow as I move, I'm set for weekly posts for years and years, probably decades even.

I've been currently trying to finish these socks for my Mom's birthday that was a month ago today.  I told you, I'm slooooow.  Actually, they would have been done quite awhile ago, but I knit and ripped the first sock 3 or 4 times.  First, I knit it in plain vanilla pattern, but decided the yarn would look better with a pattern.  So, I chose a variation of Leyburn, knitted top down.  Also, I wanted knee highs so I used a trick to have the decrease in size without having to figure out how to decrease stitches.  I started out with size 2 dpns, knit for 4 inches, then switched to size 1, knit for 4 inches, then size 0 to finish 4 inches of leg and the rest of the sock.  I should have tried it on as I went along, then I would have realized I was knitting to tightly.  Rip, start again with size 3 for 4 inches, tried it on, perfect. Size 2 for 4 inches, tried it on, doing good. Size 1 to finish.




This should, I repeat, should be finished by Friday for an FO post.  I think the yarn is Pagewood Farms which yarn and color, I would have to get up and walk into the other room to find the label on my nightstand.  I know exactly where it is.  I'm just not getting up out of my chair.  Butterscotch and I have been having quite a tousle over my chair today.  At one point he stretched out on his back and kicked with all four seven-toed feet, right into my bottom, when I tried to sit down.  I finally got it arranged so we are "sharing" comfortably.




That's a picture from my front door heading back to the dinky parking lot.  This is before the manager trimmed the bushes really low today. The bare patio, that's mine. The patio with lots of stuff, that's my next door neighbor and new best friend.  On Duane's nights off, she lets him drag her Webber grill over to our side and we have a community barbeque, then she pulls out her folding table and we play Scrabble into the wee hours. By the way, the temp is climbing back up here, it was 102F here today.

What was that?  Oh, Mr. Butterscotch states he's not comfortable.  I think he just mumbled something about the width of my back side.  I'm going to head out now, need to give a certain male cat some head noogies.  He might find himself on the floor.

Kinda Funny

Another post, so soon. I know, I'm either very absent or here frequently. My life in extremes, I'm trying to find balance, slowly, very slowly. Here's hoping the Universe at large doesn't have other plans for me.

This wasn't the post I was going write today. I was browsing some of my favorite blogs last night and came to this post by Hyperbole and a Half. It had me laughing pretty hard. It even made D laugh when I showed it to him before he went to work today. I have to say it's a honor to make him laugh, it doesn't happen that often. It also reminded him of the same person, the crazy neighbor I mentioned yesterday. We'll call her S and her 18 year old son SH.

So if you haven't clicked over there yet, do so now, then come back here. Pay close attention to level 3 and 4. Really, go there now, I'll wait for you. Then I will tell you my level 5, because S took it to much higher levels. Note the last picture, that's so me back then.

Disclaimer note: I'm not insensitive to people with mental disabilities, I used to work as a nurse and spent a lot of time on dementia units. It's just when the crazy doesn't try to help itself and becomes obtrusive into other peoples lives, I become impatient.

Ok, did you read it and back now? Good. So we started out at level 3 with this person at 4am on the first day. We were very quietly trying to unload the van of the last of our belongings. She and her son live in the one-bedroom 50 feet across from us. Note also, she has a beat up old loveseat on her small patio, facing directly at our door. So, at 4am she comes out to do laundry, which I found to be a bit odd, but maybe that was the only time she had to do it.

She tells me her son is bi-polar and frequently goes off his meds and flips out. Don't flip out and call the cops or the manager like the rest of place did the previous week when he flipped out. I just look at her and say, Ok, well, I used to be a nurse until I became disabled from an injury. Why I said that, I don't know.

Then she tells me that one of her son't Dr's told her she had bi-polar too, but she didn't agree. Do I think she is bi-polar. I answer that I'm not qualified to answer that. She then goes on to tell her life story and I'm standing there freezing. Teeth chattering, and she just keeps talking and talking. It was warm enough for shorts and tank top during the day of packing and moving, but now at 4am it had cooled down to almost freezing. So, I awkwardly respond with, I have Fibromyalgia. I need to go inside and sit down. Sorry, we only have one chair empty.

Over the course of the next few weeks her son's sits on the loveseat and stares at our door. The minute he sees it open he either comes over, or tells him we are up and about and she comes over. Then he will come over and they bicker like children, right there, in MY living room.

Level 5

D goes out for a job interview and I go with him to the door. She's watching and immediately runs over.

Her: Where's he going?

Me: To a job interview.

Her: (rubbing her face up and down on my screen door making Miss Piggy faces at me) I need to tell you something.

Me: Ok (trying to ignore the fact she is making Miss Piggy face with her nose)

Her: Let me in for just a minute, I don't want anyone to over hear.

Me: (trying to think of something I need to do) I was just going to take a shower.

Her: I'll just be a minute. (Grabbing the handle and opening the door) (Damn, I forgot to turn the lock when I saw her coming)

So she then sits down on my futon and begins telling me her life story. I listen for a bit then tell her, "well, I wanted to take a shower."

Her: Oh, go ahead, I'll just sit here.

Me: No, I'd rather not. I need to be alone.

Her: Why? It's just a shower.

Me: (thinking) It's because of my fibro flaring today. I need to drip dry so I'll walk around naked and don't want anyone to see me.

Her: Why on earth do you need to do that? (looking at me like I'm the strange one)

Me: (thinking fast) The texture of the towel makes my skin hurt, my nerves are hyper-sensitive.

Her: (Squinting at me, like she doesn't believe me.) Well, just let me tell you one more thing.

She goes on to tell me several more things and I get up to use the bathroom. When I come back out she's standing in my dining room area. I look at her.

Me: What are you doing?

Her: How long are you going to keep that ravioli sitting in your cabinet.

Me: (What the hell?!!?)(It bursts out of me) What the hell?!!?

Her: I'm wondering when are you going to eat that ravioli?

Me: (I just can't hold it in) What the hell?!!?

Her: I don't have any food and I'm wondering if you're ever going to eat that ravioli. It's been sitting on your shelf since you moved in. (Obviously she's been peaking my cabinets every time I use the toilet when she is over.)

Me: What the hell?!!? But I give her the ravioli and a couple cans of Spaghettios I had to send her on her way. I make sure to click the lock the second she is out the door. As I stand there with my back against the closed door, my brain, it can't stop. (What the hell?!!?)

After the manager got her to relocate to another complex, I got to meet the other tenants, who had been hiding from her too. I told them that story, plus many others. That one however, they love best. Every once in awhile when they see me, someone will ask. "Hey Denise, just wondering. Did you eat that can of ravioli yet? When are you going to get to that?"

So, I'll leave you with a picture of the pineapple upside down cake, I made over the summer. We used fresh pineapple. Enjoy your day, and I'll back with some crafty, yarny stuff tomorrow.

Long Over Due

It's been long over due that I should have posted here. We've moved as of February 1st to a cheaper apartment in a different section of town. I've been in a funk after that move. The kind of funk that makes me want to evade life. I have to tell you, Facebook games are dangerous when one is in that frame of mind. Click, click, click. I wish I had a penny for all my click, click, clicks. I would be a rich woman.

D finally found a decent job, the beginning of June, right at the eleventh hour. Just before things were about to turn very ugly yet again. Not that things had been ugly enough at that point. We had to deal with some batshit, crazy neighbors for awhile. They're gone now, the manager finally sent them on their way. So, I won't dwell on that part anymore than I have to. Besides, I could write a novel on our experience, the kind of weird sitcom type.

This complex reminds me of those 60's type motels. D says they're more from the 30's period. It's not a converted motel, the individual are too large to have been that. I took a picture of my handspun yarn on the pool fence to show what it looks like.

That's all yarn I spun over the winter, when I wasn't on Facebook, I hypnotized myself with my spinning wheel. It's not that bad, draft, draft. It's not that bad, peddle, peddle. Anyhow, I stood on my patio to take that shot of the pool and the apartments across the way. My side looks similar, only with nice sized patio areas. I'm looking forward to getting plants out there once the weather starts to cool down a bit more.

Speaking of weather, I made it through the hot summer days easier than I thought I would. Central air helps a bunch. I can't imagine living without it down here. It's hard to believe in just a month and half, we'll have been down here a year. I have to admit, I'm getting wee bit homesick as it heads in what my mind knows should be the fall season. I say should be because we are still getting days with temps in the high 90's.

I miss the cooler fall days that cause the leaves to change color. Going to the farmer's markets and the fall harvest of apples and pumpkins. Making soups, and stews and baking pies. But with comes damp, cold weather that my muscles and bones just doesn't like.

Any way, I'm doing much better down here, so I'll have to search out those crafty blogs with pictures of the seasons I miss. This winter I can post pictures of my sunshine, cactus and flowers. I'm forcing my self to go out for a daily walk in the evening when I don't have errands to run. My fibro is still having it's flares but not nearly as bad it was. I'll try to remember to take the camera with me for my walk tomorrow.

One day at a time, things will get better. If they don't get better, I can usually count on them being interesting.