socks | Up a Creek in Lower Slower Delaware

Posts Tagged ‘socks’

Independence Day

July 5, 2008

We are having quite a thunderstorm. I think every town in the area is having fireworks. There has been a lot of thunder and lightening, but when it settles down the fireworks start. Poor Gus is very upset. He doesn’t know what is going on. He runs back and forth between Doug and me and whimpers. Maude is out. She’ll show up later as dry as if the sun were out. Is this storm why I am so listless today? I didn’t have much of a walk this morning and I’ve been aching all day. It was nice enough during the day to sit out on the deck and knit. I am almost to the heel on my socks. I did about three rows on the sweater. The blueberry cake was a success. When I was beating the egg whites, I forgot about them. When I came back, they were so stiff when I lifted the beaters, the eggs came up too in one big lump. It took forever to fold them into the batter. It was the best cake ever. Well. I’m tired. I’m going to bed. Come on, Zip. Zip!!

zip

Tags:fireworks, socks, storm, Zippo
Posted in Family and Friends, Knitting, my pets | 1 Comment »

New Hat

July 4, 2008

We went tonight instead of tomorrow so I wore my flag shirt anyway. I also wore my new red capris which are a size smaller, thank you very much. I almost bought my jeans shorts a size smaller, but I do a lot of walking around in them and they need to be washed a few times. I can still take them in if necessary. But not until I finish my quilt. Unless I really start hating it, I finish what I start and other stuff just has to wait. I love seeing the finished product and pray that it looks like the idea I had in my head.

No sewing was done today. I had to bathe and wash my hair and make blueberry cake. I swear it gets better every time I make it. It’s so nice to have the time to experiment. I wasn’t too happy with the strawberry banana muffins, but I have some more ideas.

I’m not real happy with the pattern of my new socks and I have changed a few things to make it knit faster. The pattern is so hard to see that it doesn’t matter. The yarn is wonderful. I”m thinking about going to a size smaller needle when I get to the ankle. I may also loose a few stitches.

Tags:cooking, finishing, socks
Posted in Family and Friends, Knitting, Sewing | Comments Off on New Hat

Ordinary

July 3, 2008

We had another day with low humidity and temperatures low enough to turn the air conditioning off. I love to sleep with the windows open. The Powers That Be say it’s going to up to ninety-two tomorrow so I’ll enjoy it while I can. I did some gardening. I bought Doug another Hibiscus in orange and Linda gave me some Cone plants. I put mulch some yellow daisy looking plants and pulled grass out of the Impatiens. We still need to look at trees for the creek-side. We don’t know what we want. Zip knew what he wanted.

I worked on my blue socks later in the day. Now that I have the pattern pretty much memorized, it’s going a lot faster. The leg is over half done. I made 106 split squares for the quilt border. I think that’s enough. I hope that’s enough.

I got my confirmation letter from Stitches. I already knew because my second choice for Friday was sold out the first day. I will be taking Shadow Knitting with Vivian Hoxbro on Friday and Danish Skra-trojer with Beth Brown-Reinsel on Saturday and Sunday. I like an all day class and a two day class is even better. It should be fun. The brochure came the same day. Why wasn’t it sent out before the first sign-up day?

Tags:gardening, quilt, socks, Stitches classes
Posted in Family and Friends, Knitting, my pets, Sewing | Comments Off on Ordinary

I Didn’t Go

June 30, 2008

My son called me around 10AM. He asked if I had left yet because I didn’t have to come. He said he was having a panic attack last night (as if I didn’t know). He had since settled down and talked to someone. He is getting some help this evening and tomorrow before class. He really did sound much better this morning so I stayed here. This has happened before and it will probably happen again. At least he recognizes that he is this way and can straighten himself out. We talked about getting together in a couple weeks. I promised to bake him something good and bring leftovers. Doug always complains that there are no leftovers when I go, but he says it good naturedly.

I couldn’t decide what inner border to use, so I put two on. Tomorrow I hope to start making the patches. I couldn’t resist that orange, yellow,red and purple stripes. Doug isn’t stepping on Gus. He’s rubbing his belly.

I hate Blue Jays. If they are not dive bombing Zip, they are dropping their kids on our deck. We have to get every cat in and wait. In the meantime, the little twerp poops all over my deck. Maybe the rain tonight will wash it off. Darn. We forgot about the chairs. Oh, well.

I also got a little work done on the blue socks.

Tags:blue jay, quilt, socks, son
Posted in Family and Friends, Knitting, my pets, Sewing | 1 Comment »

They are Done!

June 26, 2008

The socks are finished and I have completed an inch on the next pair. Tomorrow, I go to the doctor. We’ll see how much I get done then. I also get my machine back. It had a nice trip to Ohio and is feeling wonderful. I bought it two new presents. If it gets as hot as the weather guy says, I’ll have some time to play with it. Right now, it’s too nice to be in.

Tags:socks
Posted in Knitting, Sewing | 3 Comments »

Almost

June 25, 2008

I so wanted to finish my other sock today. I knit until I couldn’t see. The sun went down and about 8:30, I gave up and went inside. Yes. I could have knit inside. I could have turned on my Ott, sat in my favorite chair, turned on the TV and finished that sock. But I didn’t. This is where I knit big things that I can’t easily carry. So I did the dishes, then worked on my big sweater. I got about two rows done which equates to about one and a half hours. If I don’t make myself do this, I would never make those nice warm sweatrs that I enjoy wearing when it gets cold. I would probably have a million pairs of gloves, hats, scarves and socks, but only a thousand mittens.

My deck buddies. I tried to get Gus to smile, but he wouldn’t do it.

Tags:socks
Posted in Knitting, my pets | Comments Off on Almost

I Don’t Nap

June 21, 2008

I’ve tried, but it just doesn’t happen. I put my head on the pillow during the day and I stare at the ceiling. There are times when I have napped. Last year, after surgery, I could nap, but I couldn’t sleep for more than two hours at a time anyway. Once in a while, when I am absolutely, completely bored, my head will nod. That hasn’t happened since I retired. I would have liked to nap today. Even after three big cups of coffee, I still felt like a zombie.

It was a nice day, so I took my knitting and sat out on the deck. The neighbors weren’t overly interesting, but the wife was sitting in one spot weeding for about two hours. I kept thinking she was dead. She only moved once every five minutes. I kept wanting to call 911, but her husband was walking around the yard flinging mulch so I figured it was just some bizarre ritual. They have no idea how good they have been for my sock knitting.

The sweater is coming along. And that’s all I am going to say about that.

See this tree? And see the bat house on it? (You might have to double click on it.) See how high it is from the ground? Last night, Maude decided it was a good place to sit. I didn’t have my camera at the time so this is all you get. If it wasn’t for her orange and white hind leg, we never would have known she was there. After a good while, she backed down most of the way before jumping. I don’t know about her, but I lost one of my lives last night.

Tags:bat house, Maude, nap, socks, sweater
Posted in Knitting, my pets | Comments Off on I Don’t Nap

Boss

June 7, 2008

It was pretty humid when we went out on our morning walk. It’s supposed to get hot tomorrow, so I am hoping to get out early.

I found out that Maude has a friend, another female named Cat. She goes over to her house and picks her up and they go off together. She actually sits outside and waits for Maude to come. I am not surprised that Maude has a flunky. She is quite a cat. Look at that innocent face. Behind those eyes lies the mind of a fierce jungle cat.

She is sitting on the scratching post so she can be properly admired.

I worked on some more blocks for the quilt this afternoon. I have four half blocks to sew and then I can start sewing it together. This quilt really has been a lot of fun. I like the step by step idea. It made it less daunting. My socks are coming along, too. And I worked on the big sweater this evening. I feel like I got something done today.

Tags:Maude, quilt, socks
Posted in Knitting, my pets, Sewing | 1 Comment »

Not My Mother

June 5, 2008

I don’t want to be like my mother and I strive not to be. I grew up feeling like I was an inconvenience to her. I don’t know if she even loved me. When I needed a hug, I would walk to the bus stop and wait for Daddy. He always smiled when he saw me and he gave me a hug. I wish he hadn’t died so young. I miss him. He wasn’t the best Father, but, you know, I knew he loved me.

We are having some weather here. Maude was too far away when the rain started, but she came home when it let up. We were without power for 4 1/2 hours. I was going to make roasted red potatoes and asparagus, but I have an electric range here, which I am still getting used. We wound up having hot dogs on the grill. They were really good. About once or twice a year, I crave hot dogs so we were lucky. Neither of us felt like going out.

My socks are coming along nicely. I didn’t have time to work on them today. We had to go shopping and drop stuff off at Good Will. Just as I was getting the potatoes out, the power went down. Afterward, there wasn’t enough light. Doug has a great flashlight with rechargeable batteries, but I am used to working under an Ott light. I tried winding some yarn, but I couldn’t even do that right.

Tags:rain, socks
Posted in Family and Friends, Knitting, my pets | 1 Comment »

Happy June

June 2, 2008

I had on sandals when I went walking this morning so I was only out for about half an hour. The problem being that it rained cows and pigs last night and the ground was soaked and very squishy.

I wore my new socks to knitting group this afternoon. I didn’t mention them, but somebody did notice them. I must say, they did look nice with my red sandals. I have gotten down to the heel on my socks. It has the standard heel, but i prefer what some call the “After Thought Heel”. I think they last longer. I can always change it later. There was an error in the pattern, but I caught it almost right away. Two rows of the pattern were reversed.

I got a haircut while I was down there. No sense in wasting the gas. It’s a forty mile round trip. I am so glad the color that it was dyed is so close to my natural color. It’s about half grown out and doesn’t look too strange.

I finished my album blocks and I am working on the half and quarter blocks. I am making extra full and half blocks as I finish each step.

Before and after. With and without the flash. Is that center square too much? Why do I ask? It’s staying.

Good Night.

P.S. Hope I haven’t bored you too much.

Tags:album blocks, haircut, knitting group, socks
Posted in Family and Friends, Knitting, Sewing | 1 Comment »

Up a Creek in Lower Slower Delaware