Thursday, February 26, 2015

Thursday Thoughts

first and foremost  Happy Anniversary Curtis and Ria!!!

next on my mind is this stupid (MHO) Victoria Secret swimsuit show tonight at 10 on channel 2.  Wonder what the viewing rating numbers will be, they couldn't find a rerun to fill the hour, even DH said he wouldn't have any desire to see it. 

Then we have the final episode of TWO AND A HALF MEN----for the most part, I love it, Walden has come to grow on me, but Alan is/was a bit over the top this past season. He was having too much fun playing a gay man! But in all the rememberings about Charlie, he all of a sudden became a big drug user which you never saw in the 8 years he was on the show.  The future scene was terrific, Jake coming back for a visit was fun, and Arnold Schwarzenager was so funny as the police. 

Another bee in my bonnet so to speak this week is all the folderol on Ravelry about a new Jersey based company called Cozmeena.  They are on Facebook----the woman who runs the company is being taken to task for many different things but from what I can see she is doing nothing wrong. She is not claiming to raise money for cancer, she is not saying she makes the yarn she sells, she IS providing comfort and a level of ease to those who wish to take part, and that is the key----they want to take part, if you don't don't but lets keep it civil folks.  She has not come and ripped the money out of your pocket.  NBC news even did a clip on her the other day.  I don't have the funds to take part right now, and even though I could reverse engineer the shawl and buy my own yarn, I won't until I can buy a kit from her. 

I may have mentioned him before, but if you like looking at babies, check out Dr. Bob, I just adore seeing the photos he posts of the babies he has delivered in the hats he has knit!!!

These are all my opinions and not really open for debate, if you don't agree that is fine ---its just what is on my mind!!

KNIT ON! 

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Knitting

I really have been knitting, I just don't have any new photos to show because I am too lazy to do a photo shoot. 

I am working on The Final Straw and up to the 4th color change already, I have made some adaptions to the pattern to account for the yarn I am using.  I also started a shawl called SANDALO a free pattern from manos del  uruguay.  I am using a lovely yarn that Ria gave me for Christmas named Summer ---its shades of green and yellow (I started it on my Signature needles but will eventually put it on Addi lace)

I am working on a super stellar secret project but more about that after it is done.  It is a gift for a very special birthday coming soon.  AND I did complete my 6 charity baby hats for this month.  I want to make a St. Pat's hat for Miss Maisie which I will cast on this afternoon. 

Ria and I tried a new to me restaurant for brunch yesterday. It was delightful---called the PotBelly. I enjoyed the food but enjoyed the company even more. 

KNIT ON! 

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Time Periods You Would Visit If You Had a Hot Tub Time Machine!

of course the idea is to list 10===I just don't know if I have that many periods in time I would like to visit


  • I would have loved to have been part of Queen Elizabeth the First's court. Preferably a Lady in Waiting and not a scullery maid. 
  • I would have enjoyed experiencing the Gatsby era, the parties, the dancing --all the frivolity. 
  • Maybe a member of the Pharoah's court so I could see the pyramids actually being built. 
  • The future as depicted in Star Trek: The Next Generation--no longer a need for money, replicators provide your hearts desire and health care is not only universal but inter galactic!just eliminate the Borg
  • An old fashioned British Tea with Queen Victoria.
That is about all I can come up with--I don't want to visit wars, or massacres, I don't want to be a part of discovery, If push came to shove I have been born right when I should have been, its what works for me.

KNIT ON! 

Monday, February 23, 2015

Weekending

BORING
Nothing exciting at all---Tom worked all day Saturday and yesterday we did nothing except have breakfast out and watch golf, we were supposed to visit Maisie but cancelled when the weather looked terrible, of course it was a gorgeous day and here we sat.

I have been working on this month's charity hats, and Tom wound a bunch of yarn for me, I think a severe case of startitis is coming on.  I tried to get a dr. appt for today since Tom is home to go with me but the medicaid doctor who is assigned to me, decided not to have hours today, they have the worst staff I have ever ever encountered.  Downright nasty.

Right now, Tom went to the bank and post office and to visit a friend, then he will do laundry this afternoon.  I get to clean up the place and then knit.

we didn't watch the oscars, we haven't seen any of the films and just don't give a hoot, we didn't watch Daytona =Tom is more a dragster, funny car fan, we don't go out to eat because of his special diet. Grrr we are turning into boring old geezers!!!

Oh well off to get things done!!!

KNIT ON!!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Thursday Thoughts


  • Valentine's have been put away and Shamrocks are up.  I was going to make my St. Pat's decorations but then I went to Michael's for something for the front door and found all these foam shamrocks that worked for cheap. I brought them home, poked holes in them and strung green yarn through them.  VIOLA!!!
  • I started the Final Straw---its a shawl/scarf from Helen Bingham, in the description she talks about acronyms but it doesn't make sense to me, "

 I am a positive person so even though the name of the pattern has a negative connotation it’s acronyms are positive.There are eight color segments which are named after the positive acronyms. Each color segments has three sections made up of stockinette stitch, eyelets and stripes.    "      Oh well I like the pattern and its a lovely knit in Rowan Felted Tweed. 

  • I am enjoying my daytime drama  THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, its Feb sweeps month and there is tons of action happening, on the soap forums people are complaining, I don't get it---why watch if you have to analyze everything, its fun to have something be just pure entertainment. 
KNIT ON!!! 





Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Ten on Tuesday

Things I am looking forward to:


  1. starting some of my new projects but I want to finish the old ones too
  2. sitting outside with my knitting and iced tea soaking in some sun
  3. the hours my neighbor is at work and silence reigns
  4. a vacation--anywhere just not here, hopefully to see Debb but I would like to go to the ocean too
  5. Visiting with Miss Maisie, she always bring joy to my life
  6. my noon time cup of tea, it is the best of the day
  7. my next brunch with Ria, we couldn't do last week, or this week so hopefully next week
  8. my next visit with my sister Christine, if I had all the money in the world and no worries I would probably move closer to her
  9. A martini ==it has been month's since I have had any alcohol and I have been craving a martini with lots of olives.
  10. the next book in Hope Ramsey's Last Chance, Series, the next book in Sheila Robert's Series, the next books by Betty Hechtman, Sally Goldenbaum, and Anne Canadeo. 
KNIT ON ! 

Monday, February 16, 2015

Weekending

Our weekend started on Friday---Tom took the day off, so we went to breakfast together. He had a few odds and ends he had to take care of, but made a wonderful salmon dinner with veggie studded quinoa. it was truly delicious. Our noisy neighbor was the center point of the evening. 

On Saturday he had to go pick up carpet for a friend's side job, came home and got me and we had breakfast together, then he went off to do the job.  I spent the day knitting, we did share valentines earlier in the day and noisy neighbor was the background noise of the day. For dinner that night he made a very rich homemade white pizza with mushrooms onions and red peppers. 


On Sunday he got up early and did the laundry, then came home and made Dutch Baby with strawberries and syrup and sausages, It was delicious.  All the noise from upstairs neighbor previous to  today was just a prelude. OH. MY. GOD.  The noise was unreal, of course Tom napped all day through it and I cried sitting in my Barcolounger.  I really hate noise, I have since 1987 when I was laying in bed with the mumps and my kids were watching Top Gun over and over again in the next room really loudly, it totally unnerves me, so everyone including Tom tells me to deal with it by turning up the volume on the TV or music and that just makes me more unglued.  I don't know how to adapt to this;;;;and  I know I am heading to a nervous breakdown.  Saturday night, she and lover boy literally woke us both up and we think they were moving furniture, Last night she had the family over and when they were leaving at 9:30 one of them dropped something very heavy down the stair well, That woke Tom up from his slumber ---and they laughed and laughed.  Now I must weigh twice what this woman does and I can walk around the apartment and not make a sound, she is a heel stomper.



For dinner Tom made his own sausage into meatballs, with cheese gnocchi (also scratch made) and sauteed apples. While good it wasn't my favorite of the weekends dishes.  He had also made me my favorite comfort food for lunch, a dish I invented when I was 12.  

My weekend knitting was frustrating, I had started a shawl called Tuscany from the book NO SHEEP FOR YOU in a bamboo yarn that I have from Saki Yarn, The yarn is gorgeous but is self striping and it just did not work for the shawl, Now I really want to make the shawl and I really want to use the yarn but I will have to find alternatives for each. I found another great pattern this morning  DROPPED AND FOUND  its free on Ravelry  check it out!/

Now for the cutie of the year, one photo in a hat I made her for Valentine season and the other in her holiday gear!!!


KNIT ON!!!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

This and that and the other thing!

things are louder here today, the lady upstairs is home and the stereo is going,  It was supposed to be snowing but so far it is not so I did go out for a while. 

we, sadly, have had a series of acquaintances and old friends pass away recently, one was my favorite teacher back in school, Dr, Frank Calabria, another was a worker at a restaurant we have enjoyed in the past, Bruce, third is my brother in law Bob's best friend, Paul  and we just learned that our favorite maintenance man and neighbor Joe died on Monday----Joe was only 48 and has been battling cancer for a while, yet we saw him working just last week.  His wife to is ill with recurring Breast Cancer.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them all. 

Below are some of the projects on the front of my queue,  I am still plodding along on the lace edged baby blanket, and the table runner but these are calling my names (all available on Ravelry)

 this is the circular shawl in the new Noro Lace book   I actually have yarn for this one
This is Blanketflower and I have the yarn for this too a pink gradient from Apple Tree Yarns it will be my dining room table cover 
This is the Final Straw by Helen Bingham --a designer I favor, I have lovely Rowan Felted Tweed for this 
and this is zickzack  which is a free pattern, It calls for Lang Colore Mille Baby---which I don't have so I have to decide to take the plunge and buy it or see if I can find something in stash!!!


Of course my list changes all the time  ----but these are my faves at the moment!

KNIT ON!!!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Dilemmas

I was thinking this morning about what to post, I was on the way home from the diner, and thinking about how just going there for an hour everyday makes the day better.  I am and always have been a loner, I make great use of time spent alone, but as I have gotten older I find that isn't always so.  My depressions sets in deeper and quicker on the days that I don't hear from anyone.

Now at the diner I have many acquaintances, people I see every day at about the same time because we have a similar breakfast routine.  we nod or say hello--just the pleasantries, and if one of us is missing for a while inquiries are sometimes made.  There is an older couple, Heather and Kathleen, Heather's kids, Henry and Peter, the crossword puzzle guy and the tow truck driver.  Every Wednesday there are the group of old men, who have been friends since high school and every 4th Thursday the group of old ladies, then there are the waitresses Jen and Maryellen and Lorena, the bus boy Azzie, and the owners Johnny or Jimmy.  They all play an important roll in my emotional well being,

But then you get the one person, the person who wants to be your best friend, that starts talking to you while you read your book and eat your meal, who want to give you advice and are only happy if you are miserable.  It is enough to make you stay home. Anxiety strikes every time you pull into the parking lot wondering if they will be there.  I am very non-aggressive and I don't know how to deal with this, I usually run and find a new place to eat, but I have exhausted the ones I am comfortable at. It is very hard for me to stand in the kitchen and make breakfast for myself or I would give up the camaraderie and stay home but that isn't going to help my mental well being.

Dilemmas----

Pictures of the Valentine Heart babies I made for my sister Christine.




KNIT ON!

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Things I Love:




  1. I love Tom---we met 45 years ago this March, this is our 44th Valentines together. 
  2. I love My Children and Grandchildren---the best presents I have ever received
  3. I love Knitting----it truly centers me for 89 % of the time, I have been fighting a stronger bout of depression and even knitting isn't cutting it right now
  4. I love cookies----all kinds, any time, anywhere. Especially with my next love, Yes you guessed it
  5. I love Tea---hot cold lukewarm iced, mostly black--roobois--and some decafs
  6. I love Golf---I love watching golf on TV, we watched Torrey Pines this weekend, ohhhh how I would love to go there
  7. I love the YOUNG AND ThE RESTLESS---I have watched this day time drama since it began in 1973, Peter Bergman and Doug Davidson are the best. 
  8. I love Roses----all flowers are wonderful but roses will always be my favorite
  9. I love Breakfast----it is my favorite meal of the day! I enjoy it out or when someone else cooks it for me at home.
  10. I love my computer---it keeps me connected, since I truly dislike telephones. 
KNIT ON!!!

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

more about the dress

Remember a couple of weeks ago I talked about the Christening Gown  my sister Christine made, well there is more to the story then I originally believed.

my sister Christine came for a visit, she came down to bring me a piece of furniture and then we three went to breakfast, we were talking about the Christening gown she made for Maisie and we had falsely assumed all the embroidery (celtic cross, shamrocks and her M) were machine done, but she actually did them by hand

She showed us photos of how she drew the concept up of hearts and shamrocks, and then transferred it onto the Irish Linen, she then used two types of crochet thread to get the effect that she wanted.  She estimated that it took 24 hours to do the embroidery without the hat, and all total she worked on the outfit from the day after Christmas until the 2nd of January.  I am amazed, although I should not be Christine has always been an avid seamstress and is an excellent crafter. But to combine all that while recovering with a busted ankle, the holidays, her job as the superintendent of schools and preparing for a trip to California---well she just blows me away!!! 



Knit ON!

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Good Night Moon

we all know the book Good Night Moon, well that is the book I will be giving Maisie for Valentine's Day---I needed something to go with it, and found this on Ravelry. 


it had some challenges but was still a fun knit!!!

KNIT ON !!

Monday, February 2, 2015