Knitting Guild Afghan Square

So, this pic isn't the best. However, what it does show is that I can do a combination of different patterns and really enjoy it. I had gotten about half way through this and thought I had made a mistake on row 8 . . . went back and reviewed and reviewed the pattern and then read it all the way through to discover that I hadn't. For whatever reason (and it may be that it is designed to be part of an afghan), the first row after the border is knit across. You do the same thing on the last row before the top border.

The only thing that I would have done differently would have been to split the last pattern between the top and the bottom. In order to get a 12" square, there is three full repeats of the center diamond and then you only do 13 rows of the next repeat. I would either split the repeat to have the "top" and/or "bottom" points of the diamond at the top and bottom OR not do the diamond at all but leave the six/seven rows at the top and bottom without any diamond pattern.

The yarn was Plymouth Encore worsted.

Friday Fill in - July 31, 2009

Love one another and you will be happy.

It’s as simple and as difficult as that.
Michael Leunig




1. It's time for really hot weather . . . we need really hot weather . . . it has been seasonally cooler and damp this summer.
2. Bed; it's not a bad place for sleep and other fun stuff.
3. I must be Friday since I am doing Friday fill in.
4. Knitting is the best thing I have ever known to keep my hands busy and my eating controlled
5. My husband is simply a great guy.
6. The last time I laughed really loudly was last night . . . Lindsey was out with her friend, Dave and I had sat outside for a long time and then came in after dark. Lindsey came home and we were still sitting in the dark and scared her! What fun.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to spending one on one time with Zachariah, tomorrow my plans include having friends over and 4:30 mass with the Youth Liturgy group and Sunday, I want to do minimal stuff but we will be having friends who will spend the night Saturday so I will make breakfast on Sunday, clean Sarah's room, marinate chicken for dinner, welcome Lindsey home and having Janet over for dinner and she too will be spending the night!

Toes and squares

“Fitness―if it came in a bottle, everybody would have a great body.”
―Cher

So, I went to the podiatrist yesterday. My achilles tendon is much better. Thank goodness. But, I stubbed the big toe on my left foot on Monday morning, cracking the toe nail down the inside and, when he looked at the x-rays, he thinks I chipped the bone on the inside edge. What hurts is the outside edge. Crazy, huh!

Before he took the x-ray, he did this thing with a tuning fork, going all the joints of my toes. No problem, no problem, no problem, no problem . . . holy crap! A tuning fork. I kid you not. I felt it in my teeth. He laughed. Besides digging out the broken nail, he really couldn't and can't do anything for the chipped bone. Eventually, we will do something.

But, this is the kicker. He wants me to lay off riding my bike for two weeks. For one thing, he really thinks that is what caused the achilles problem and secondly, the biking puts too much pressure on the toe joints. Sigh. I can still walk but I really like riding my bike and my other doctor wants me to increase my exercise to an hour a day. It never ends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the knitting front, I did finish the square for the Grindstone Guild's afghan and if blogger ever allows me to, I will post a pic.

I have also finished more cloths. I am enjoying them. Again, someday, I will have pics to show.

Completely pointless

“Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.”
―Bill Watterson

While this past weekend was jam packed with events, it was in many respects completely pointless.

I had taken off from work on Friday. In the morning, we went to Oberlin to visit the Allen Memorial Art Museum. After we left there, we drove to Lodi to get Dave dress pants for school (start with the hubby getting ready for school). On Friday evening, we went to a picnic at his principal's home in Solon. Basically, we put about 180 miles in on Friday.

On Saturday, Zachariah's baseball team was supposed to have their last game (because of rain-outs, they are still playing this week). Since Dave is the coach, we scheduled a picnic at our house for right after the game.

Sunday, we (Sarah, Kyle (and the girls), Lindsey, Andrew (her first beau), Zachariah and I went to the Cuyahoga County Irish Festival. We had a blast. Afterwards (we got home around 5:00), the kids all went swimming and then we had hotdogs for dinner.

It was, basically, a very busy and pointless weekend . . . but great fun.

Simple Woman - July 21, 2009

"A life without love is like a year without summer."
—Swedish Proverb

FOR TODAY

Outside my Window... the sun is shining and the weather is FINE!

I am thinking... I wish I were home instead of at work

I am thankful for... the fact that I have a job to go to

From the kitchen... still dieting so nothing much fun going on in the kitchen. I did make cream puffs for my niece's graduation party!

I am creating... Cloths of the Week and really enjoying it. I also have a 12" square I need to do for the Grindstone Knitting Guild. And, we are doing a KAL from the Whoduknit group.

I am going... to do nothing this evening. I have an inflamed achilles tendon and the doctor doesn't want me doing much of anything this week.

I am wearing... black slacks, pink t-shirt and black and white jacket

I am reading... Murder Most Crafty

I am hoping... to finish the 12" square by tomorrow evening, although that would require my focusing on it and frogging it (AGAIN).

I am hearing... people arriving. Work starts in 35 minutes and everyone is beginning to get here. The chatting begins.

Around the house... the kitchen/dining room floor NEEDS to be washed. Hah! Three of them are home all summer and guess who is going to do the floor this Friday when she is taking a day off of work . . . if you guessed me, you would be right!

One of my favorite things... clean windows. Forgetting the previous comment, Dave loves washing windows and usually does them all the first week after school gets out. He also washes the sliding door off the dining room every week. I shouldn't complain.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... not much . . . I am taking Friday off and we are going to a picnic at Dave's principals home that evening. I like most of the teachers and their spouses. I cannot stand the principal but for Dave, I slap a smile on my face and talk her up . . . plus, she just announced that SHE will be teaching the 4th and 5th grade math this year . . . Zachariah will be in 4th grade. Bah humbug. On Saturday, it is Zachariah's last baseball game and, since Dave is the coach, we will be hosting the end-of-season picnic/swim party at our house. Sunday, we will be going to the Irish Festival.

All dressed up nowhere to go

All dressed up nowhere to go
Originally uploaded by mlj1954ohio

The fashion princess . . . Lindsey loves wearing sundresses . . . somethings never change. When she was little, she lived in sundresses, even in winter. She would just layer them. Often she would have a sundress over a turtleneck shirt and sweatpants. If you close at this picture, she has a shirt on underneath this dress too!

Friday Fill In - July 17, 2009

1. Grilled Cheese and tomato soup make a quick and easy dinner.

2. Wizard's First Rule is the book I'm reading right now.

3. July brings back memories of family picnics and get togethers.

4. That it was going to rain today was obvious when I woke with a sinus headache!

5. They say if you tell your dreams they won't come true.

6. Take time to think important decisions over.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to our Church's picnic (we rent the local rec center once a month, people bring picnics and the kids can swim, play on the playground, etc.), tomorrow my plans include a friend's father's funeral in the morning, a wedding in the afternoon and a graduation party for my niece later in the day and Sunday, I want to do nothing, but we will be meeting Sarah for lunch and playing either outdoor games or inside games, depending on the weather!

Another cloth of the week pattern done

This one is one of the 2nd anniversary cloths called Summer Fields. The color in Peaches and Creme is in Apple Green. It is a great color and I like the pattern.

I am still having problems uploading documents from flickr, my computer or directly from the computer. However, photobucket will allow me to do these one at a time. Sigh.

Cloth of the Week, first two

Blogger is once again not letting post pics directly. But, I did get this posted through photobucket.

The orange is double delite and the yellow is C4 Lattice. Both knit up quickly. The orange is Peaches and Creme. The yellow is some of the yarn I received last year as part of a Whoduknit swap.

HAP rectangles

So, what are these strange things???

They are crocheted rectangles for the Whoduknit HAP project. Used Deborah Norville's Serenity yarn. I skein makes four 6"x9" rectangles. This stuff is very nice and very soft. I have another skein in Walnut. My local Joann's didn't have a good variety of colors. This green, which is called "Jade," and the Walnut which is a purplish beige, but the price was right (about $3/skein).

and they are wed

My beautiful niece, Amy married the love of her life, Ron, this afternoon. It was beautiful ceremony, surrounded by those who love both of them, at their home in Spencer, Ohio.

I have to be totally honest here . . . Amy holds a special place in my heart. She always has and always will. Amy is one of my older sister's youngest daughter. There are times when I can still see her, in mind's eye, as a little girl. The cute little red-head with a load of curls and joyous laughter. I remember taking her Cedar Point and having her do cart-wheels and hand-stands all around the park . . . in fact someone asked us if she was part of the entertainment!

Last summer, in fact, she was doing cart-wheels and hand-stands in my back yard. Still with the red curls bouncing and her laughter bubbling over.

In any event today is the day that Amy was wed. They wrote their own vows and shared their love for each other with each other and all of us who were blessed to witness the ceremony. Now, given the description above, you may think that Amy is still a child. However, she will be 37 in two weeks. Her husband, Ron, just turned 50. It was each of their first marriage. They have both been in other relationships (which is a good thing or everyone would have thought them odd). And, they both have children from those relationships.

However, to see them with each other and especially today, as they joined hands and expressed their love and joy in each other, accepting and recognizing the truth of their foibles and faults and announcing their intentions to love each other forever and always, it was easy to see why they both waited and knew that someday they would meet, recognize and love their soulmates.

Congratulations! I love you both because you are special people. God bless you and keep you safe and cherished together for many years.

p.s. And while I didn't need to wear my grey shawl at all during the day (the temps hovered at around 80 degrees, this evening after the wedding and party, some of the members of my family and friends, came to my home and as the evening progressed and cooled down, I was glad to have the shawl to toss casually over my shoulders.

Lindsey sans braces

Lindsey sans braces
Originally uploaded by mlj1954ohio

Lindsey had her braces removed (after almost two years) on June 11. It is good to see her smile and it is truly amazing how much happier she is without "metal mouth." Strangely enough, even her acne is clearing up. Hmmm.

Grey Shawl with beads

Grey Shawl with beads
Originally uploaded by mlj1954ohio

It is done. Finally. It is blocked and if you look closely at this pic, you will see the beads. It could have been longer, except that I ran out of yarn, which was a good thing because the idea of knitting one more row of this thing was enough to make me want to scream. I would have had to end anyway since I was down to eight beads.

Truth be told, I'm not sure I even like the silly thing.

Friday Fill In - June 19, 2009

1. All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting them to drop something (dishes, a "bomb," etc.)

2. Show me a good loser and I will show you a someone who screams in a shower.

3. Making and eating good bread with real butter is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one time.

4. Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy doing stupid things and ignoring the wishes of their constituents.

5. I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine driving someplace and asking for directions.

6. It is impossible to think of any good meal, no matter how plain or elegant, without garlic or chocolate in it.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching "the Boy in the Stripe Pajamas," tomorrow my plans include Zachariah's softball game and Sunday, I want to do nothing!

Friday Fill In - June 12, 2009

1. I grew up thinking that my parents only kissed on holidays. I caught them "necking" on a Thanksgiving morning and then went "looking" on Christmas and caught them again.

2. Robynn's Ravings was the last website I was at before coming here.

3. Why don't you get a cup of tea and your knitting and sit down for a spell?

4. My knitting and a nice cup of tea helps me relax.

5. Thanks for reading my blog.

6. I find perfumes and colognes very off-putting.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching Australia, tomorrow my plans include going to a meeting with Lindsey for Engineering Camp and Sunday, I want to do nothing!

I << heart >> reading

I really do love to read. Just about anything. Although, I have to admit that as I have gotten older, books that don't grab my attention quickly are often delegated to the "gee, maybe if I have nothing else to read" pile.

This past week, I have finished The Ice House by Minette Walters. While many in my WhoDuKnit reading group did not like The Ice House, I definitely did. I loved the quirky sense of humor in some of the characters, despised the negativeness in others and appreciated the creativity of some of the secondary story lines and the characters involved.

I also started reading The Taking by Dean Koontz and then decided that I really did not want to read another story about aliens and weirdness. So, it went back to the Library.

Also, our library has started a new audio program called "Playaway." For whatever reason, Blogger isn't allowing me to direct link titles to websites . . . therefore if you want to learn about Playaway, go to http://www.playaway.com/. The cool thing about Playaway, is that you can get current titles on a pre-loaded player. You don't have to have a CD Player or the weight of a CD Player in your knitting bag. You don't get frustrated because the batteries died half-way through your knitting (or the story). You don't have to load a story onto your Ipod or MP3 player and then try to remember how to get it off when you are done. I am currently "reading" True Evil by Greg Isles and thoroughly enjoying the portability of the thing.

I am very excited about Lindsey's summer reading for her AP Government class. They have to read one of three books or, preferably, all three books. Liberty's Daughters (about women of the Revolution) by Mary Beth Norton, All Too Human (about Bill Clinton) by George Stephanopolous and Team of Rivals (about Abraham Lincoln) by Doris Kearns Goodwin. We did get these books at the library. I can hardly wait until she is done so that I can read each of these books, well, maybe not All Too Human. I can't stand Bill Clinton and hate to give him any of my time.

The Dangers of Sexting

The Dangers of Sexting

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Yarntopia . . . Another contest . . . super FAB!!!

YARNTOPIA TREASURES FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY

Yarntopia Treasures has been kind enough to give ONE lucky winner 4 diffrent yarns YES 4 different yarns and these yarns are fabulous. Seriously, check them out!!! You need to go to Ohio Girl Talks to learn all about how to enter and for the links to Yarntopia!

Although, if you don't enter, that will leave me with a greater opportunity to win!

Simple Woman - June 1, 2009

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
—Helen Keller

FOR TODAY
Outside my Window... the sun is shining, the sky is blue and, of course, since it is Monday, I am at work . . . sigh.
I am thinking... that there are times when I am jealous of my husband's schedule. He is a teacher and in a week or so, he will be done until mid-August.
I am thankful for... my husband, who over the summer, does all the yard work and takes the kids to their various appointments.
From the kitchen... nothing. I'm not eating.
I am creating... the gray shawl. Still. Almost done, though.
I am going... all over the place this week.
I am wearing... brown slacks, green t-shirt and print sweater
I am reading... "Interred with their bones"
I am hoping... to finish "Interred" by Wednesday or Thursday
I am hearing... the radio and people arriving at work
Around the house... we weren't home most of the weekend. The house looks like it. Things get dropped and tossed everywhere.
One of my favorite things... visiting with friends and family
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... work today (and training for new jobs), more training and WW tomorrow and time with Zachariah and I in the evening as Dave and Lindsey won't be home, Wednesday a meeting at SJA with Lindsey for the AP classes she is taking, Thursday we have the managers meeting (or is that Wednesday?) and a swim team meeting Thursday evening, Friday Dave is scoring in the evening so it will be Lindsey, Zachariah and I and we will finish the laundry.

What a weekend

This past weekend was so jam packed, it will be good to get to work just to slow down a tad.

We had a funeral to attend on Saturday morning. After a long illness, my sister-in-law's sister passed away a week ago. She had been in the hospital for two months but has suffered with Crohn's and diabetes for years. She was 50.

After we got home, Dave and I went to a local grower's green house to get our garden plants. We got 36 regular tomato plants (beefsteak and another kind), 18 roma and 18 grape tomato plants. We also purchased 18 eggplant and 18 cabbage, 36 regular sweet peppers, 18 Hungarian yellow and 18 Jalapeno peppers. After Dave had finished preparing the beds on Sunday (alternating between the two rotatillers), we planted. Besides the seadlings we had purchased, we also planted a bed of zucchini and yellow squash and another entire bed (although a smaller one) of green string beans. Seriously.

On Sunday, Lindsey and I joined my sister, Peg and her daughter, Amy, and grand-daughter, Allyson and we went to the Great Lakes Fiber Fest in Wooster, Ohio. It was FABULOUS. Of course, Lindsey and Allyson only went because they didn't want to get stuck having to do work around the house.

Anyway, I showed tremendous amounts of restraint and limited my purchases to one skein of Briar Rose's Grandma's Blessing yarn (1200 yards), two skeins of Trekking sock yarn, and a couple of patterns XOXO (hat and scarf) and Boxleaf Wrap and another scarf pattern from Briar Rose.

My sister spins, so except for one skein of sock yarn, she only bought fiber (some alpaca and alpaca blends and, her absolute favorite, buffalo).

After we got home, Lindsey was horribly disappointed to find out that Dave had not yet started planting. Remember, the whole goal of going to the Fiber Fest was to get out of the garden planting. However, since he had spent so much time getting it all ready, we easily planted everything within about 90 minutes. It was incredible. And, you know what, it doesn't matter if we spend an entire day or 90 minutes, my back and legs are killing me today.

On Monday, Sarah and Kyle came over, along with Lindsey's friend, Andrew. I made macaroni salad, potato salad, cole slaw (I guess I was having a salad kind of day) and stuffed hamburgers (cook and crumble bacon, saute onions and mushrooms in bacon fat, drain well; I then flatten half of the package of ground meat into a large rectangle, spread the bacon mixture on top of the meat, add slices of American cheese, top with another layer of ground meat and cut into about 4" squares, grill and serve . . . . yummy).

Later, Zachariah and I "balled" some of the yarn, including the Grandma's blessing (1200 yards is a lot of yarn). He also was going through my stash and found some Lorna's Laces in Black Watch and asked if I would make him mittens and a hat. We then wound that yarn too, along with another skein of KnitPicks bare wool.

I am exhausted.