A Little of This and...

Try, Try, AGAIN...

2009-03-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

Here I am again. I didn't get any FO's in my knitting this winter. :o( But, there's always next winter.

Mom and I went to a card making class at the local Arnie's a few weeks back. I have made a couple of cards since. I just bought the oil-based pencils, so that will be the next thing to try for my cards, well, here at home.

Jerry and I went to Florida for a week with my dear cousin, Cheryl, and her DH, Gordy. What an experience that was!

We moved Mom into Valley View on the Saturday of our return from Florida. She is doing much better there. She has a townhouse and it has a 'just out of town' feel to it.

Since then I have been ill.

But, I'm looking UP!

2009! WoW!

2009-01-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

What a year was 2008. Again, where did the time go?

I am pasting my 'Christmas Family News Letter' here: (Makes it easier for me!)

First of March, Ed and Wendy became first time home owners of a nice home on an acre and a half of land very near Greenville. They have been busy remodeling the main floor. The living room carpet went in the first of December so they were able to have their Christmas tree upstairs!

No April Fools, but, on April 1st Jerry left Bankers Life & Casualty and became an independent agent with an agency out of Grand Haven. Boy, what a change that made in him! He’s a much happier person to live with, and more fun too. It has been a good thing for him.

Taylor was in her first play in April, what fun that was to watch. She has many talents.

In May Jerry bought a 1971 Chevy Nova, project of the year and the next too!

The end of May through June brought a busy baseball season. Both Taylor and Jamison had games for us all to enjoy watching. That time also brought Jerry and I moving back to my favorite place in the world…the cottage at beautiful Crystal Lake.

Dylan was part of the ‘Science Olympiad’ for Sts. Peter & Paul. Of course they were ecstatic to get him. ;o)

July we reserved a week for our family to enjoy Silver Lake. Members of the family came and went as their schedules permitted. The sand was awesome, as were my family.

In August we were blessed with one new great- niece, Madison, on our Jamison’s birthday, and one new great-nephew, Keegan. My brother and sister-in-law became grandparents for the first time. The babies are just four days apart!

Our lake neighbor, Bonnie, had her gardens displayed in ‘Country Gardens’ magazine. Of course a party was called for in honor of this great accomplishment. I now have a signed copy! You can imagine the pressure of have these gardens next door!

September brought the beginning of ‘Tasker-Hoekenga Cakes’. We did our first cake together that served 600 guests! After that the next few cakes were, as they say, ‘a piece of cake’. We are looking for more orders, as the $$$ is always welcome.

The grandchildren are now: Dylan 14; Taylor 11; Jamison 7; Angelina 6. As we all say…Where does the time go?!

On December 9th my dear Dad went to be with the angels and our Aneta. What a year of struggles it had been for him. A stronger man I may never know. He waited to leave this earth until he had news of his two new great-grandbabies. Alli Elizabeth was born in Nevada near mid-night, and Keith III was born about two hours later. We will hold happy thoughts and funny times in our hearts as we go through this blessed season.

As the year ends out, we wait for Rachelle to sign the papers for her new-old house. It is over 130 years old and is near downtown Ionia.

Anyway, that's all for now...

Weekend North

2008-01-27T20:39:00.000-08:00

Not much accomplished this weekend. We did spend a nice weekend with Wendy and Ed. We were able to sit down with them and help them discuss their options on the purchase of their house. Wendy was greatful to get some input and ideas. We had a fun dinner at the casino in Petosky, huge buffet, tons of choices. We even put a couple of dollars in the slots. We also went to an art gallery. Wendy was inspired with the photography. I hope she will seriously take up her camera. Wendy and I talked, too, about doing the cake decorating business. I will start accepting cake jobs. This will give her some extra money and make her feel she is contributing to the household income.

Accomplishments!

2008-01-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I finished another pair of socks! As I was rummaging through my sock yarn bag I found ONE sock. So I finished the other. They are just a plain pair of worsted acrylic but the variegated yarn is pretty.

I also picked up another UFO and started working on it. It is a baby

jacket that I started for Lilly, the seed stitch pattern took so long to knit up that I gave it over for a quick afghan. I knitted about 2 inches and discovered that I had made a boo-boo and had to rip. I still have the last toe to finish on Wendy's socks. I need to work on that when I am not tired and can concentrate. That said, I started another pair of socks today. I had a hair appointment and needed something brainless to do while the color set. These will be for Michelle. She loved the socks I am making for Wendy so I think I'll surprise her with a similar pair.

Today I placed our SL cottage on the "Vacation Rentals" web site. We don't have any rentals for this summer so we needed to do something to get it rented. The photos are not good but all I had. We will see...

I have all the Christmas stuff boxed except the tree decorations. Now to just get them in the closet! Jerry doesn't want to take the tree donw, ever! But you know, it must come down.

Time to grab the knitting and head for the couch!

Day after New Year's Day

2008-01-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of making calendars for January and the new year. I have a logo on the main calendar for WW. Below it I have "2008, Lose the Weight". I was able to get on the tm today too, 45 mins. Not as fast as I would like, but a start none the less. I have beeen working on Wendy's socks. I have one finished! The second has the top started.

Part of my time over the next week will be spent taking down and putting away the Christmas decorations. Jerry wants to keep the tree up...forever. I don't think so. I can hardly imagine looking at that in the spring. I am trying to keep a good attitude about putting this stuff away. It seems that after the new year starts I want to get on with the things I didn't get done before doing the holiday things. I have all the scrapbooking stuff shoved into the ds bedroom. I really want to get that organized so I can get on with scrapbooking things like the wedding.

I'm going to go to my desk now and try to organize the day.
Later gator.

2007-12-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

'Twas a few days after Christmas

2007-12-29T05:15:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are, just a few days before the new year! Christmas was good. The house was full. Everyone enjoyed the day. :o)

I took photos of the socks that I made Mom. The pattern was "Deb's Socks", a free pattern at sockpatterns.com. The leg pattern, which does not show too well in the photos, is Row 1: K2, P2, K3, P2 Row 2: K all Row 3: K2, P7 Row 4: K all. They turned out nice even though I was not too pleased with the yarn. It was supposed to be 85% wool and a worsted weight. It had no give and was thinner than I felt a worsted weight should be. Nice forest green color with colored flecks.

Now I have a pair started for Wendy. I had the first top done and decided to rip it out and add more stitches. I can never understand how to get the size right. For one thing yarn weights are never the same. They all knit up differently it seems. This pattern is an eight stitch pattern. That meant adding 8 more stitches, which was scarey. The pattern is "Get-Together Cable Sock". I am knitting it out of Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes), marked 4 medium weight, in 'natural geranium'. I had planned this yarn for me, but Wendy needs warm socks more than I do. I am knitting them on #3 needles. They are truly beautiful. I hope the foot goes well. This will be my first time continuing the pattern down to the toe.

Here are a couple of photos of the Christmas stocking I made for Wendy. It is made out of felt. I hand cut the snowflakes and then beaded them. I put a few beads on the blue too, as if it were snowing. I am pleased with the results. So is Wendy! I have started one for Ed, but that will be worked on later, much later, next Christmas?

Well, I'm off to do some relaxing.

'Twas a few days before Christmas

2007-12-22T11:00:00.001-08:00

Wow, I've done it again. It's been a very long time since I have posted. But, the good news is that I have calmed down. Over the last month or so I have been relatively emotionally calm. I have a theory...

A couple of weeks ago I bought a set of knitting looms. I quickly made a few items: 'sweater' for stuffed dog; 'sweater' for Tucker (Dylan's dog); small hat; larger hat. It was fun playing with it. Then back to the mittens I had on the needles. After that I picked up the green socks that I had started last late spring. I am trying to get them done for Mom for Christmas. I am about to the end of the heel on the second sock. Wahoo!

I have started a tote bag for Angelina for her 'Littlest Pet Shop' pets. I had hoped that Michelle would have brought back my thread today...but alsa, no. Time is getting tight on that one!

I made Wendy a Christmas stocking from felt. It is light blue with white snowflakes and cuff. I beaded the snowflakes. It turned out very pretty. I have a stocking started for Ed, but it won't be done in time for Christmas. It is more intense than the one I did for Wendy. I hope to get a picture of Wendy's so I can show it here and have a record of it.

I made an afghan for heather's Lilly. I had planned to knit a coat but it was going too slow. So I quickly knit up the bluky yarn, big needle afghan. That was in November.

This year for the holidays my house is in pretty good shape, all considered.

Labor Day

2007-09-03T05:46:00.000-07:00

I have been looking in the "Knitsmithy" blogs at all the socks and then into the galleries. What inspiration! I want my yarn! But it is still in Palo.

September!

2007-09-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

It is so hard to believe that it is September 1st! The wedding is done. It went off beautifully. Photos to follow when I get some. The ones on my camera are not good. I do have about 7 disposable cameras to get developed. I had thought to do that this week but somehow the week just got away from me. After the wedding was over I first felt relief, then fear (What do I do with my life now?), and exhaustion on top of it all. Today I really got a few things done. There have been piles that have almost became moldy waiting for me to take care of them. Today I finally finished the old wooden folding chair. It has taken me three summers to get it painted. I was taking the fabric off the seat to replace it and the seat split, now sure how to handle that. I sanded it's mate today also.

I have been thinking of what to do with my 'life'. I guess I should wait to have my mammogram done first. That will be the 19th of the month. I have conflict about what to do. I don't want a 9 to 5, I want my summers and weekends, I want to be available ( Rachelle going back to work and Dustin taking care of Dylan in the evenings, scarey), I want it to mean something.

The other thing on my mind is .... Jerry wanting to move back to Palo.

Well, this will all have to wait. I'm off for tonight.

Later....

"Time keeps on slippin', slippin' into the future..."

2007-06-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Boy, I had no idea it had been so long.

'Long Time No See' -Myrtle

2007-04-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

I am going to try knitting in a knit-along. This one is for "Charmed Knits", Harry Potter knitting. Ah, yes, I am a big fan. They are starting with 'House Hats'. These can be sent in to a designated address and then off to 'Warm Woolies', for children in orphanages in cold climates. So I will be going through my stash of yarn soon to see which house I have the colors for in wool combo yarns. Oh, and I just pre-ordered "Charmed Knitting" & "HP" #7...WAHOO!

I have started a scrap afghan. It is in granny square type pattern, except that it is hexagon! I hope to use up a BUNCH of those pieces of 4-ply acrylic yarn. This may take a loooonnnggg while! I am also looking at a dress pattern to knit for the wedding. I'd be taking a great chance that it would fit AND that I'd get it done! There are so many little things that need to be done for the wedding.
It's late and I better get some sleep!

linda

March 13th, already!

2007-03-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

I am not feeling well again today. I will be glad when the school and the family stop passing all this stuff around.

I took some photos today of the baby sweater and hat that I made for Steph's Danielle. I also took some photos of the candy box I decorated for Wendy to put her treasures in from her engagement and wedding.

The baby sweater pattern I found at www.geocities.com/finkatt/lacy.html back in 2002. This sweater for Danielle I made from Bernat cottontots, a 4 ply cotton yarn, in 'Confetti'. It is white has flecks of pastels in it. The pattern calls for DK yarn. I am finding that I do not have good tension on cotton yarn. It does not slide on itself like most yarns. I added a picot edge to the collar. It is too high but oh well. I made this same set in finer yarn for Angelina when she was born. That was done in a soft pink.

As for the box, I had fun doing it. It took me forever to do. I have never done anything like this and so it was trial and error. I hope she has fun with it too. I made a frame on the top to put a photo in, added a pocket with a fold out tag that has words and definitions, a mini calendar with a heart on the date they were engaged, more fun tags, and palm tree stickers (they love tropical). On the inside, the left flap has the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" on vellum attached there. I made 3 vellum envelopes for keepsakes to go in, a 'matchbook pad for notes or photos, and a mini note pad that I altered. I could have easily gotten crazier with this but I stopped myself.

"Tomorrow is another day." -Miss Scarlet

Snow Day/Sick Day

2007-02-26T04:06:00.000-08:00

Thankfully there is no school today. D gave up his stomach five minutes before the alarm went off. Not the best way for either of us to start the day. After I came here to my computer, I told him there was no school. He said, "Oh, no." I said, "That is good. Now you don't have make-up work to do and you can get things all straightened around." He says, "Yah, your right."

I tried to scrapbook A's holiday program yesterday. I finally got the pictures where I could accept them, then I had the hardest time finding paper to work with them. But, I had too many other distractions to be able to do any more than that. Maybe today I can get it finished. My goal is to be able to put the Christmas scrapbooking things away.

Note: I was not able to get back to this today. Just one of those days!

Weather Advisory or Not?

2007-02-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

Today we have a winter weather advisory. At first issue it was thought to be much worse than is being advised now. I don't know if I want really want awful weather or not! I was supposed to go to a baby shower today. I thought against it due to the nasty weather and the driving. We did not go to church because the weather looked like in the next few hours it could get bad with all the snow coming down.

The last couple of days have not been nice with D. He has had some rotten attitude sessions. His mouth needs to be smacked, but... I wish I knew what was setting him off. When these sort of emotional upsets come along I get little done. It drags me down so, and it is so much work to put up with. As a result I have not finished the boy sweater either!

Duty calls...

HP Charmed Knits

2007-02-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a bit of the post announcing the book:

Yes, I've been working on a book - Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter - (when boys and baby on the way have allowed me) for the last year and it's almost time! And what a time it is - the book should come out in May and the next Harry Potter movie and book are both coming out right afterwards in July. The book is chock full of fun HP patterns by me and other designers I'm sure you know, as well as many knitter/fans turned designers you might not know. Stay tuned to this blog for details and some sneak peeks of the projects (and maybe even a pattern preview)! And you know we're going to do some Potter-knitalonging 'round here, right?

Monday, still the Danielle sweater, & found blogger

2007-02-19T05:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I bought a knitting magazine while picking up the gift for the baby shower. It was not a good one, but it did have some ideas and ads for places to visit on the web for patterns. So not a total loss. Meijer did not have any of the Bernat Cottontots. I had wanted to pick up another of the white and one of the blue. I will have to look again somewhere else. Living way out here it is difficult to get to places that have a variety of yarns.

While thumbing through that magazine, I found a knitters name and looked her up on the net. She has a blog, http://alison.knitsmiths.us/, and it was fun to look through. She has some patterns on it too. I, being the HP fan, am interested in her new book due out, "Charmed Knits:". I'll keep watching and hope I see some sneak previews.

Today I finished up the baby sweater and added a picot edge to the neckline, because it looked a bit plain for the lacey pattern in the sweater. I looked in my stash for buttons (way too long I looked) and did not find any of those either! One more item for the list. I have a bit of the sweater yarn left and I started the bonnet this afternoon. I will get some photos and place them here along with the pattern. I want to call Cindy and ask if they know the gender of the grandbaby for which the shower is next weekend. Then I can look up ideas for that baby. I still have D's socks on the needles. One is done and the other is to the heel.

Today is the last day of the long weekend for me. J is gone to the office for the day and there is no school today. I am trying to take advantage of that but it is not going as well as I'd like. How can a person put pressure on themselves to relax?! I have the laundry, plus the laundry from the flood, and picking up allllll the stuff I let pile up while I did nothing for the last few days, and...

Enough of that!

Friday, No School, Flood, Yarn

2007-02-16T16:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after Dylan left for home I left to go to the cottage for a few days of peace and quiet. I stepped into the cottage and immediately turned and called Jerry. There was about 3 inches of water covering the kitchen, living room and den floors. A pipe had broken in the ceiling above the frig. Jerry came right over. I swept water out of the house and dried up what I could. We ended up calling Brad's Cleaners. They came at about 8:30 and started drying things out. I went home after Jerry had called Brad's (like 7:00) as there was nothing I could do further. Today I went back and spent about 3 hours boxing up the things in the kitchen cupboards. Jerry arrived at 2 p.m. and that's about when I left.

I had thought to straight home and get some of that 'peace and quiet', but I just kept driving! I went to Greenville to the 'dime store' and bought yarn. I had tried to start a baby sweater for Steph's new Danielle, the shower is Sunday, and it was a disaster. I have little yarn to make baby things with. I ended up buying 2 Bernat's cotton tots in a white with touches of pastels, 2 of the same in blue, 2 Patons SWS in a lovely color called 'Natural Geranium', 3 in white with threads of pastels. When I got home I looked for a pattern to make up a sweater for the baby. I choose the one I used for Angelina when she was born. I had used a yarn that was just heavier than baby weight for hers, so this is a worsted weight cotton and making up much larger and faster. Angelina's fit her as a new baby. This will most likely not fit for a while on Danielle. It is looking very pretty. Now the challenge is to get it done!

Jamison came home from the hospital yesterday. Taday Michelle took both the kids to the doctors. Jamison is recovering and now Taylor has pneumonia too! At least it is the weekend and hopefully all can recover. Poor babies!

Well, I'm off to knit some more and watch one of my ol' stand-by movies...they don't take too much contration.

No School - Grandbabies

2007-02-14T04:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I got both Taylor and Dylan up for school, came to the computer to check up on emails and found an email that said there isn't any school today! Huh? Looking out my windows you would never guess. There is only a dusting of new snow. I guess the wind was blowing pretty good last night and out side of our woods there are drifts. Trent came to get Taylor and take her to the hospital with him. Jamison went into the hospital yesterday at about noon because he has pneumonia. Jerry went to see him last evening and said he was doing much better. I didn't go because, again, I have some kind of virus. Just the congestion stuff. So, I have Dylan here for the day.

Yesterday I was able to spend some time, not much though, knitting on Dylan's second cream colored sock. His feet get so cold so the wool will be nice for him.

I don't have any appropriate yellow beads for the " Marguerite Daisy Pin' I have almost done. I want to get that done by Sunday so I can give it to Aunt Audrey before she leaves for NY. I need to look on line and see if I can find the instructions for the beehive technique.

Off to start my day!

My First Blog!

2007-02-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

Good Day!
After reading blogs from others, I decided that maybe it would be a good thing for me to try this. I like the idea of having a place to record my 'Little of This and a Little of That'. You see, I have interests in many different things. I LOVE to craft. I just wish I had a magic wand for such mundane things as laundry, dusting, dishes, meals... I knit, scrapbook, bead, sewing,gardening, surf the net for research in health topics (my dd has health problems that no doctor seems to help with), and the list goes on. Kind of a 'Jack of all Trades'...you know the rest.

I am married, 33 years, have three daughters (two soon to be 31 and one soon to be 28), a spoiled kitty, Mirage, and 4 grandbabies. We winter in what we have called home for 30 years, and summer a whopping 15 miles north of there. We like to say we go south for the winter! Home is in the middle of the woods. Summer is on the shores of a beautiful lake. All of this is in the middle of Michigan.

We are raising our eldest grandson during the week. He goes to school at our little K-8 school here. He is in the 6th grade. His class has both 6th and 7th grades in it. There are 15 students in his room! D has had many problems with school over the years; a lot of his troubles come from his stepdad. He is a brillant child and has ADD. There have been great strides since September. He still has many things to work on. We are very proud of him. He has been a pleasure to have around...and a lot of work! I am not used to raising a child like this again after the years of not raising children.

My plans for this blog are to:
-track my projects
-notes on family
-and who knows what at this point!

So this is the first of it all!
linda