Rambling on a Sunday

    My hands hurt. See, I joined a knitting group on facebook, read through all through all their rules and nonsense, and now my hands hurt from clenching them and not typing smart ass response comments to some of the stupidest things I have ever read.


    If I do comment, I'd for sure be thrown out of the group and banned for life. I mean, seriously? Someone buys a  36" circular needle and wants to know if she can make a baby hat with it??? What baby does she know that has a head that big??


    At least I can vent here. In other news, my camera battery is dead. My Jeep is still in the hospital. My pool rehab, however, is coming along nicely! I am not allowed to post any photos of that, however. Just take my word for it, Club Scheffler will be the place to go swimming next year! I just hope it's all done by my birthday, as my one wish is to swim in my pool on that day. They have 27 days until then. And I'm watching. So it will be done just in time to close it for the season. But no matter how cold the water is, I want to swim on my birthday.


    We will have a new dark liner, and steps to get into the pool. We will have a new surround/walkway and even a new fence around the pool. It's all very exciting. I can't wait until it's all done!


    As far as knitting goes, I am plugging away on two 10 Stitch Blankets, and occasionally pick up one of the many other WIPs that are in a time-out. I have plans to make a very unique, crocheted scarf that a friend designed. I brought out all of my Malabrigo worsted weight wool that I could find in my stash, just for this project. I just need to get out my swift and ball winder and get to work.
  

My adventures with the 10 stitch blanket....

    As you know, I caved to peer pressure and started the 10 stitch blanket. I read so many posts about it on the facebook knitting group page. So many people were having trouble with it, I decided to give it a try. ( I never realized that knitters were so prone to peer pressure)


    I told you about all this yesterday. Well, I didn't have any problems with that first double corner. When I read about the people having trouble, I think to myself that they should do what I tell my good friend Bonny to do.... Just do what the pattern says. Don't overthink it.


    So my first adventure was deciding to find a circular needle to use instead of the bamboo double points. (which I should say, worked perfectly fine) I searched through all my needles and couldn't find a single size US 8. I finally found one is my unfinished stash, so I pulled whatever was in progress off that needle, and used it. Unfortunately, it was only 16" long. After a couple of rows, it was driving me nuts. It wasn't long enough. I wished I had found a 24". So I went back to the bamboo double points. They really do work best.


   Then I decided to search mystash for more Amazing. Now, I have seen at least a couple more balls while searching for other stuff in my stash. It should also be noted that there is no organization whatsoever of my stash. The best I can say is that most of it is contained in three of those giant Ziplock things, the ones with handles, that are the size to go under your bed. Unfortunately, none of them are actually zippered closed.


   But I kind of like it this way, it makes every stash dive an adventure, as I never know exactly what I will find! I love that kind of surprise. Anyway, it took a while, but I went through all three containers, and a few bags as well. I found two unused balls and one ball that was being used for a crocheted hand warmer thing. Evidently I didn't like it, or I would have finished it. With those in hand, I got out my ball winder, and began to frog the hand warmer.


    That was an adventure in itself! Amazing yarn is fuzzy, and like all fuzzy yarns, it does not like to be frogged. It sticks to itself horribly. I managed to get about 3/4 of the ball frogged and wound up neatly. At one point the yarn broke because I was pulling it so hard. That's when I quit. The rest of the yarn in the warmer just wasn't worth the aggravation. It's in the garbage. If I have to, I will buy a few new balls.


    So now to the TA-DA moment! Here is my progress so far, and I just took this photo before I sat down to write this.

    I went back to Ravelry, and downloaded the free pattern again. This time, I was logged in, so it was saved. I moved it into my documents on my laptop, and then was able to move it onto a USB memory stick. That is where I keep most of my patterns now. That way when I want a particular one, I can just print it out.


    I believe that yesterday I mentioned that I didn't read the pattern, I just watched a video on youtube and followed along. It was a great relief to read that I had done the corners correctly.


    The ladies of the facebook knitting group are right, this pattern *is* addicting! I am already picking out yarn for the next one.....

What I've been up to lately...

    It's been a while since I last posted, and for that I apologize. Sometimes I have things to say that just can't be said. Or I just don't feel like posting that particular day. So I guess I've been really lazy.


    And lately I've been keeping secrets too. My mom was feeling left out of the information age, and especially missed seeing all the photos of the great-grandchildren that get posted on facebook. So.... she asked me about getting her a computer. Hubs and I looked at many different ones, then Hubs had the great idea of a tablet for her. No buttons! Touch screen! Easy peasy.


    So we researched and decided on the large size kindle fire HD. She already has a regular kindle, and is familiar with the concept. She herself called and got her own wifi hotspot. I was there today when it got turned on. The man who came was very helpful and understanding.


   She now has an email account of her own, and is signed up on facebook. We thought we'd start with just a couple of things to get her going. She is an intelligent woman, and can figure things out. Even if she went to a one room schoolhouse.... And she is 81 years old, and in nearly perfect health.


    If she decides she can't handle it, she can sell her kindle fire, and get rid of her hotspot. I thought she deserved to have a chance at catching up with the 21st century.

A Non-Crafting Ramble

   This morning I was up very early. After I got home from my journey, I decided to stay up and make coffee. As the morning wore on, I decided I was tired and lay down to try and take a nap.


    As one lays there trying to relax enough to sleep, the strangest things run through your mind. In my case, I was thinking about those little quizzes they have on facebook, from which I discovered that I am Elmo from Sesame Street, I am the Classic Rock Band Led Zeppelin, etc. One of the quizzes was to discover what my ideal job would be. Curiously, it seems I was destined to be a writer.


    That thought brought to mind the fact that I had, many years ago, an idea for a novel. I had characters and details about their lives and circumstances, all written out in an outline. But I never did anything with it. I couldn't think of anything for them to do. Basically I lacked a plot or storyline.


     Looking back, I see I could have taken the circumstances I'd made up for my characters, and made the story all about how they got to where I originally put them. Unfortunately my notes are long gone. I remember most of the details now, and perhaps sometime I will try to recreate them and see what happens. I'll let you know what I decide, and what happens. In the meantime, does anyone have any thoughts?


   

Funny Friday

    I found this on facebook, and it made me laugh. Sometimes that's just what the doctor ordered!

First Impressions

    Last month was my Hubs' birthday. I am friends with some of his friends from childhood on facebook.  One of them contacted me, and said she had birthday gift for him, and to keep it a surprise.


    We arranged to meet. Thankfully it was on a day that Hubs was working; I might have had trouble explaining exactly why I needed to go to Stewarts at a certain time that day. It was very exciting for me to finally meet someone who knew Hubs when he was a child. His mom wouldn't talk about it. She had no stories for me of any cute things he did, or trouble he got into.


    I'm afraid I was a little over excited when I met up with her that day. Sometimes I tend to do that. I might have come off as a little hyper. But I was so excited. I realized shortly afterwards that that was how I had appeared. And I feel bad that I made a non-favorable first impression. I would like to become friends with this woman, and possibly meet other people from Hubs' past. She was very nice, after all. And if she's reading this, I hope she sends me another personal message and gives me another chance.

I'm hooked for sure now...

   The other day, as I was playing farmville, they added something new. Normally I can take it or leave it, I do play a lot, because I'm bored. A while ago, they added a dairy, where you make different products to fill orders. Wonderful.


    Well, now they've got me. They added something called the Yarn Barn. Where you harvest cotton, wool, angora, and alpaca fleeces. There's a carder, and other stuff. Just like the dairy, you have to make stuff to fill orders. I am powerless to resist.  Here's a photo of what it looks like:

    This sucks in the biggest way, Hubs already thinks I spend too much time on facebook...  So now I'm fantasy crafting as well as really crafting. Is there a group for this yet?? Thanks so much Zynga.

The Super Power Post

    I think, as a kid, everyone chooses a super power they would want. It's only natural, with all the super hero comic books we grew up with!  I have to say that over the years, I've gone through a few different ones myself.


    The first one I wanted was the ability to fly. I used to run down the hill next to our house in Lake Peekskill so fast that it felt like I could take off. I would dream about that, running down the hill, and pushing off with both feet, up into the air. I would fly around the neighborhood, seeing all my friends.


    For the longest time, I just wanted to fly. But recently, I've been rethinking that choice. Especially since I'm really terrified of the dark. So I changed my mind about my super power. I want the abiliy to create light around me. Shoot light out of my hands, even.


    Then today, I asked my question on facebook. I got several interesting answers. But even asking the question made me think about it some more . I mean, it would really be cool to make light around me, but wouldn't it be more useful, given my phobia, to be able to see in the dark? Let's add heat sensing to that too.


    I would love to hear from my readers. Tell me what super power you would want, and why!  I look forward to reading your responses!