I have a project

I have a project I would love help on. An acquaintance on my holiday year long knitting group on Ravelry is a teacher in Michigan. Most of her students qualify for free or reduced fee lunches. During the winter they can not go outside unless they have a hat and gloves/mittens. Because they are low income it is the last thing on their parents minds to buy. I would love to help her out with some mittens and gloves. I will be making gloves for next years class, however, this year they have nothing and there really isn't a lot of time to get them, so I am headed out to do some shopping for some of those magic gloves and some hats. Usually the dollar store has those kinds of things and sometimes even in sets. Do you want to help me out? I'd love it if you wanted to either buy or knit something for these kids. They are 2nd graders, so about 6 or 7 years old. Let me know here in the comments or you can send me an email to mommy_birdto2 at hotmail dot com. Thanks. :)

Puppy News

We got the call this weekend that Lily was ready to be picked up any time. Kim has had the flu for over a week and we hadn't gotten out to see Lily for almost 2 weeks now. Kim's fever finally went away on Saturday night and Sunday we decided that if she continued this trend of feeling better, we could go pick up Lily on Monday. So, today we traipsed out to Beavercreek and brought her back home. It is an hour drive one way, and she cried most of the way back home. I'm not sure if it was because it was a new experience of going in the car, or if it was leaving everything she knew, but it was awfully sad. She's been a good little puppy at our house so far, two minor accidents, one caused by excitement. We've gotten her outside for all the other needs so far. Kim will be up with her in the night if she needs to go out. I'll take over first thing in the am, then Kim gets her after she wakes up. She's such a sweet puppy so far. I'll try to get some video of her trying to antagonize Panda the cat. It is really cute and funny. The cat doesn't seem to be too bothered by her yet. I did put some pictures and video up on Flickr. The videos are still loading right now, but should be up soon. Tomorrow we head to the vet for a well puppy visit and to talk about how we want to do vaccines.

Pretty and Cute Overload

I love the Fall.  Cooler weather, rain, and the changing colors.    Kim and I went out to Sauvie Island one day last week.  We brought home a pumpkin to try our hand at cooking it and making pie.  I got it cooked up, but was gone all weekend so the pie hasn't been made.  Tomorrow, we will have pumpkin pie.  

The trees in our neighborhood are spectacular.  We went for a drive way out in the country today and saw more beautiful trees, but didn't get pictures of them, we got other pictures instead, which you will see below the trees.  :)

Around December 6, this little gal will come home to live with us and be Kim's dog.  She is a Red Merle Mini-Australian Shepherd.  Kim is stuck on a name.  She thought she wanted a dog name Guienevere (or however it is spelled), but when Kim say her pink nose, she thinks Rose might fit better.  We have 6 weeks to come up with something that will fit this little one.  We will be going out to see her again in two weeks, then a couple of more times after that. 

The puppies in the basket are a few weeks older from a different litter.  Cute, but not exactly what Kim wanted. 

John took a liking to her sister sibling.  If only we could afford two purebreds right now.  

Thank you from my dad

I talked to my dad tonight on the phone. He is extremely appreciative and wants to thank all of you for saying prayers for him and sending good thoughts. Thank you! He is doing well at home, eating more, navigating the house with either his cane or walker. He sounded good. I couldn't hear his lip "lisp" when talking to him, but did notice it on the message machine earlier. I am so glad he is home and doing well. They are still limiting visitors because it just wears him out. He wants to go to church this weekend, but I told him he needs to be really careful, especially with all the colds and flu out there. And my mom has to play the service so she can't keep an eye on him and keep folks from wearing him out. I advised him not to go this time, but I am sure he will be there anyways. ;)

Another Dad Update!!

Woohoo, Dad's going home tomorrow. He is walking by himself and navigating stairs. Hopefully he will be home in time for lunch. Thursday he sees his regular neurologist and maybe they can figure out what's going on with his lip and if it is Bell's Palsy or not. Thank you so much for all of the prayers and good thoughts. Now I almost wish we lived in CA so I could be closer to help out more.

Dad Update

So, they didn't release him on Friday, actually a good thing! The x-ray that showed no broken hip made them look further and do a different scan that showed a muscle bleed on his right side. They gave a unit of blood last night to replace what he lost and he is now doing much, much better. They moved him to a rehab center today. It's one of the best in the area, has a pool, etc. He is looking forward to being home after this event. It's going to be a lot of work, but we think he's ready for it now. He was up walking on his own more today, with just a wheelchair behind him in case he needed it. Thank you for all of the prayers and thoughts, please keep them coming though.

Oh another thing they found out on Friday. His insurance covers 100 days in the rehab facility with no co-pay! I think after the 100 days, it's $100/day.

2nd update of the day

I just found out that they will probably be releasing him tomorrow, he will go into skilled nursing, he walked 300 yds today with the help of a walker and practiced getting in and out of bed! The x-ray came back negative for any breaks, so likely a bruised bone, which hurts just as bad. Woohoo! There is still talk of building a new front porch with a ramp, which would be good anyways.

Update on my dad

Sorry for not posting. I was without an internet access for several days and then we headed home. On Sunday evening/Monday morning, dad did an about face. He has really improved a lot. Maybe it was some of the medications for pain that they took him off of that helped. His breathing is better, his kidneys have started function better, not perfect yet, but better. His mental state is much improved, at least mostly back to where it was, unless he is really tired. They are talking about releasing him, no date yet, he needs to improve a bit more. He has not had enough physical therapy to be up yet. He will likely be released into a skilled nursing facility with rehab. He may be hooked up to several things when he is released as well. If they can get his mobility back, he will eventually go back home, but he needs to be able to navigate 6 stair steps that are fairly high. Mom also has some personal contacts who do home health care and cooking and cleaning. I want a cleaner in there before he comes home!

My brother came down on Monday and never saw dad at his worst, but saw him at the turn around point. He helped me drive back home yesterday. It was a very long day, but we are glad to be home again.

I have lots to do here to clean up from just unloading everything last night. Thank goodness for days off and a fiber festival this weekend.

Some pictures

Kim took these two pictures of Lake Shasta. There was a section before this, where you could look down to see the water, and there was no water! Shasta Lake is always low it seems, but this year it looks like the lowest we have ever seen it. Granted, we usually see it earlier in the year and now we are at the end of summer.


This mural is at the entrance to the Cardiac Unit of the Kaiser Hospital. It is really cool! Dad's not in this unit right now, but we come out of the elevators and the first thing we see is this. I want to go there. :)


Especially with the Poppies, Lupine and Indian Paintbrush.

My dad

The kids and I made the drive to San Jose on Wednesday and Thursday. We are staying in a nice hotel that serves us a good breakfast! A shopping center with all kinds of restaurants and a Safeway is in the same complex. It takes us 15-20 minutes to get to the hospital depending on traffic.

Dad has had ups and downs this week, with last night starting a down ward spiral. He hasn't pulled out of it this morning and we are waiting to hear what is going on. It doesn't look good at this point. If he does buck up, he will not be going back home, but into a skilled nursing facility aka nursing home. I HATE nursing homes and I hate to do this, but mom can not care for him anymore.

I have dozed a little bit each night we have been on the road and here, so I am exhausted and near tears all the time. I am going to try some Benedryl tonight to see if I can at least get a little bit of sleep. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers, especially John as he seems to have a migraine today. I think he woke up with it. We still have over an hour before we pick up Robert at the airport. I need him and he's only here for about 24 hours.

A couple of finished items

I started this Hoodie last year around the end of September, got the back done, one of the fronts and started the second front. I put it down to do some Christmas knitting and didn't get back to it until March or so. I thought I would get it done fairly quickly, but you know how life gets in the way. I finished sewing the seams earlier this week. It is very comfy and toasty. I need to find buttons for it, and I plan to do some little crochet closures. I also need to block it quite a bit. It is a snug fit and could be longer. I made the 40" size too and was good on gauge. I think it makes an excellent Fall cardigan.

Specs: Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky
Yarn: Alpaca With a Twist--Highlander
Colorway: It must be a number, but it is a rich dark chocolate brown with cream flecks.
Needles: US size 4 for my loose gauge.


I hadn't made a Clapotis yet, and upon freezing at the convention center during Sock Summit, I realized I needed a wrap of some kind for future events.

Specs: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert
Yarn: Silkie Socks That Rock
Colorway: Blech
Needles: US 6

I've been busy canning more stuff in the last couple of weeks. Tons of peaches, peach jam, spiced peach jam, peach chipotle sauce, apricot jam, apricot chipotle sauce, salsa, dilly beans, picked Elderberries and made a large jar of syrup for cold and flu season and froze 5 qts for later use.

Now, I'm working on a cute lace pair of socks for Kim. I've never knit with Cherry Tree Hill. I like it, but the tiny needles are killing my wrists so I don't knit on them for too long.

Please keep my mom and dad in your thoughts and prayers. Dad is in the hospital again, possibly with a heart related issue, we aren't sure yet. I may end up driving the kids and myself down this week to see grandpa, as John starts classes next week and won't be able to get away until Christmas. He hasn't seen grandpa in over a year so it's past time!

Life has been busy lately........

I was involved with working Sock Summit 09! What an experience that was, in a good way of course.(Well, maybe not the exhaustion) I got to see so many friends from all over the US, and meet many more new friends from all over the world! It was an experience well worth it.

Other than that I really haven't had any time for knitting. I've been doing a little bit of spinning, but only at our spinning group. Two of my recent finished spinning objects are Musique based of the painting by that name. It is from the Zen Yarn Garden and her Fibre Club.




and Spring Mix a BFL fiber from Stitch Jones. She's a local that I buy yarn and fiber from once in a while. She'll actually bring her products to our spinning or knitting groups, which I love!


I've also been doing a fair amount of sewing, right before the SS09. Specifically for the Sock Hop that happened one evening. I left my camera in our booth at SS, so didn't get any pics of Kim and myself. :( We still need to do a photo shoot for those outfits. Mine was a 1954 Vintage Vogue Pattern. Lovely blue roses. Kim wore a pink poodle skirt with a black poodle. She did all of the extra embellishments on the poodle, collar, bow, leash. She had a great time dancing the night away too. :) One of our friends from Vancouver, BC was there with her boyfriend, and he loves to dance, so Kim had a great dance partner to practice her ballroom moves with. Seriously, Angela, thank you for letting Doug dance with her. :)

The other thing I've really been enjoying are these tomatoes!




4 lbs of tomatoes came home with me from our CSA share this week, as well as cucumbers and 2 large bags of basil. So here we have at least 4 kinds of tomatoes, I know one is Brandywine, the others are orange and yellow and a regular red one; some lemon cucumber, slivers of fresh basil, slivers of red onion, fresh cubed mozzarella, some garlic, a couple of dashes of Balsamic Vinaigrette and some salt and pepper. Yummy!

The only other thing to share right now is this really cool mug that followed me home from SS09. JenniethePotter!

Thank you Anonymous

I just saw your response to my request for natural migraine help. I do think some of my migraines are from allergies. Some years I tend to get them more during high pollen times, though my biggest allergen is grass seed, but don't seem to have migraine problems then. I have found that if I keep my allergies in check, I don't have as many. So, thank you for the reminder. :)

What I've been up to lately

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for Father's Day. Strawberry jam too, but no pictures of it.



Sewing classes for me. A flannel robe.

An apron.


And some cotton pajamas.

Knitting has been happening, but no finishing.

3/50

This sounds like a really cool project. Click on the badge and check it out. Will be back later to show off some other cool things.

Pay no attention to the sweater behind the curtain

The February Lady Sweater in that last post. I am going to rip it out. I don't like how the sleeves pooch out mid way in the garter section. If I rip back to just a couple of rows after the increases, I should be better off. I am going to wait until I see some of my knitting friends on Wednesday, I think. I see some other ones this afternoon, so I may ask them what they think and start it sooner. I'm bummed, but I really enjoy knitting this sweater so it's not too horribly bad. ;)

Amiss

According to my daughter I need to blog more. I think about it quite often and even compose blog posts in my mind. I just never get further than that. Today I'll just say that I am fighting another cold/cough and show you some FO's.

This is my Lovey Helena. It is a pattern from Knitty.com. It is done in Heavyweight STR in the colorway Love. It is probably a size 18 months. It will be headed to my cousins house this week as her littlest one is having a 1st birthday pretty soon. :) If you can't tell, it has picot cuffs around the sleeves and bottom hem. So cute!


Leyburns that I knit for Kim out of some Zen String Serendipity Sportweight, colorway is Chocolate Cherries. It took me way to long to knit these for her! I try to customize socks to feet and it's more difficult if they aren't my own feet. As you can tell, it's sunny here today. Wonderful, except for the stuffy/runny nose that accompanies nice weather. :)


My second February Lady Sweater. This one in Woobu from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, colorway is Atomic Six. I just need to do some buttonloops and sew on the buttons I bought while we were in downtown in March. With the sun and warmth today, it should dry fairly quickly.


I have one more February Lady Sweater to make and it will be for Kim. It is in a lovely green, like grass. She found the yarn at the Blue Moon Sale in December.

What's In Your Basket O Shame?

Over at Honey and Ollie, Rainy posted a KAL of sorts to finish those projects that have been hanging out for way too long in the knitting basket. Go check out her rules and join us. Let me know what's in your Basket O Shame!

Oh, just so you know, I did not include any of my current projects that I am enjoying like the February Lady Sweater, Kim's Leyburns, and my Central Park Hoodie. Ok, I may not be enjoying two of those, but they are currently being worked on. :)

In my basket of shame at the very top!! is an afghan I started for my husband many years ago when I started back to knitting. He keeps asking about it.

1. Afghan for Robert

2. Chevron Scarf

3. Pirate’s Booty Sweater

4. Knee Hi to a Grasshopper

5. Icelandic Lace Shawl

6. Fingerless gloves started for Robert last year in March

7. 4 seasons afghan that just needs seaming!

8. Aran Afghan KAL that has two out of 20 or so blocks done

9. Mystery Stole #2 I think it is. It is the Scheherazade Stole.

I think that it is it with the shameful ones.

Kim's Day

We celebrated Kim's birthday yesterday with lunch out at PF Chang's. We love their Lettuce Chicken Wraps, and have used this recipe at home to recreate when we feel like it. It's the only recipe I have tried and I think it is actually pretty close to the original if not better. Oh, and just so you know, PF Chang's at least over on this side of town is not real busy on a Saturday afternoon!!

We came back home and gave Kim presents.

Two skeins of Stitchjones Sock Yarn. One is the Glam kind with silver sparkles in it. And the other regular sock yarn. The Glam colorway is Garnet and the other is Twisted Sister.

The Twilight Series on audio. (It's for me too, since I've only read the first book. ;))


A ring that she has had her eye on since last year. It has crosses on the outside and on the inside it says, "Guide me waking, Guard me sleeping."


She made her own cake as she wanted to experiment with frosting and fillings. She made a plain vanilla cake and used a can and a half of chocolate cream cheese frosting. For a filling she melted chocolate chips and a chunk of other chocolate and spread it in between the two layers. It hardened up so it was like a chocolate candy bar in between. It was very yummy!!


Happy Birthday my young lady. One more year till your license.

Happy Anniversary

Carrot cake with a pineapple flower and beer brittle. Definitely worthy of an anniversary cake.


The Steel Bridge.


Made in Oregon sign.


Our deck.


Our private hot tub.


Wild skin(terry cloth) robes in our room.


New rings that were originally a Christmas present, came in time for an anniversary.
My beloved is Mine & I am His/Hers.


A beautiful box.....


with a beautiful gift, from my sweetheart. Bought because they match my eyes. (He's a keeper)


Buttons for a new sweater.

Lots of fun wandering in downtown Portland over the last two days. My legs hurt now, from walking so much. :)

Oops

I did mean to come back sooner and time got away from me.

When I went out to take these pictures, they weren't in full sun, it was shaded. However the sun was shining brilliantly. I was getting pictures that were full of white because of the sun. Over exposure I think. I also wanted to play with the macro settings and once I started with that, I found that I could control some other settings that filtered out the extra light. These are the final results.

Wow! No substance......

I just took a look at my blog for the last couple of months. What a bunch of hoooey. There's been no substance at all. Ok, so the snow posts and Kim posts are important to me. But, there's been not a lot of knitting going onto the blog. I wondered about that when I joined Ravelry well over a year ago. Ravelry has stolen all of my knitting. In fact, Kim has gotten after me to blog more. So, now I need to go find some pictures of what I have finished in the past month or so.

This is the Leaflet Scarf and Mitts by Anne Hanson of Knitspot. It is for my ISE7 pal. I found online a sportweight from Miss Babs. Love it!! This colorway is called Ironweed and I bought a total of 5 skeins. I used 2 full skeins and a few yards of the 3rd one, so I have almost 3 left. I am thinking Spiraluscious and the mitts to go with them, also by Anne Hanson.




Some spinning I did in January. It was 4 oz of Alpaca, Merino, Silk from Abstract Fibers. I picked it up at OFFF last September. It was heavenly to spin with and I don't think I have shared it with you here. I think I am going to make some bulky mitts with it, or maybe mittens.


In January we went to the coast. Newport to be exact. We went to the Aquarium and the Marine Science Center. Oh and the beach as it was something like a -2 low tide. It was pretty awesome!! We are going back in June for another low tide and camping.






Tomorrow or so I should be back with some Spring pictures, just as the weather changes again. I found crocuses in the yard this week and got some neat pictures of them. Just need to get the pictures onto the computer.