Pumpkin Sunrise

I'm excited to share with you a new ebook that has been recently published by knotions magazine titled Lacestar written by Elizabeth Felgate. This ebook is filled with useful information regarding lace knitting which is perfect for beginning or early intermediate knitters who are dipping their toes (or knitting needles) into lace knitting and want to understand some theory as to what is happening when you manipulate the stitches to create lace. Lacestar  covers many topics including:  placing a lifeline, making yarn overs, increasing and decreasing, the best cast ons and bind offs and making nupps as well as many other topics.  I found the section about fixing mistakes quite useful. Throughout the Lacestar ebook, there are links to tutorials as well as to additional resources to broaden your library.  Each section is supported with a written explanation about along with many photographs to understand the topics covered. There are nine exercises that progress the knitte

This past week I've been grateful for the sunny days when the rainy days overwhelm me.  I find myself walking into the gym wondering why I'm a little grumpy.  Oh, there's no sun, that is why.  I'm usually not affected by sunless skies or at least I wasn't aware of my reaction.  This year because of record rainfall, I'm noticing.  This endless rain does water all the new bushes and plants my husband has planted.  He is finished cutting down the bushes around the house and now I'm in the habit of stopping at Lowe's to check their clearance section (half off the lowest price runs intermittently...).  Nearly all of our plantings are from the clearance section.  Overwatered outside plants can be loved back to life, as long as they are not indoor plants that I'm taking care of - indoor plants meet their doom from my diligent watering love. I've visited the gym four times this week stretching the strength of my body.  I'm exhausted but in

The knitting time has been gradually increasing a little bit each day, which is perfect for the beginnings of my summer break.  I've been working on two projects this past week.  The cowl out of leftover yarns is coming along nicely.  While I doubted the color combination initially, I'm totally in love with the colors together now.  Sometimes I have to knit it to see it.  Even though this is an easy knitting pattern, I've managed to mess up the eyelet row.  I boldly thought each time that I could knit and read while executing the eyelets.  Oh the untruths that I believe in.. The hitchhiker is coming along.  This is a fun relaxing knit that I know i will knit again and again.  I can see what all the fuss is about! What are you creating this week?

Ah, the first weekend of my summer break.  I felt relaxed and did all the things that bring me joy.  I wore shorts yesterday and today and the weather was perfect with low humidity and sunny skies.  I did some knitting and some painting each afternoon. Oh, I read a book --- during the daytime!  That felt decadent. I'm still knitting for limited hours but my hands feel fine.  So I think the worse is behind me.  I had a solid week of aches and pains that would pop up in one joint for 4-6 hours then disappear and pop up elsewhere.  It was weird and annoying.  However, how blessed I am that it comes and goes! We went to Saturday night Mass and stopped at the local bakery on the way home.  We skipped the pizza run because we were determined to eat all the leftovers from the week of cooking when our son was here.  Today a friend came over to knit, but we talked more than knitted by the pool.  It felt like vacation sitting outside with a gentle breeze. How was y

Today is the official start of my summer break!  Oh my goodness, I've been romanticizing about this day since mid February and through the end of the terrible twos and the beginning of a temper tantrum.  Wahoo!  It's all downhill from here on out. How are you?  Thank you for your well wishes with my RA mini flare.  I'm doing pretty good overall and keep hoping that the day will come when I am not thinking about a body part. I missed the gym for a one and half weeks and discovered two things: 1. I need someone to tell me what to do (personal trainer) because  left on my own I do nothing 2. Going to a climate controlled gym is wonderful and much better than the humidity or heat of summer which annoys my joints My son left today and I cleaned some of the house and it feels like it's almost back to the way it was prior to his arrival.  Holly will be thrilled he has left because she tolerates his presence.  I've announced that I am NOT cooking for many days

While my hands are feeling better, they are not perfect and so I've been easing into my knitting.  I try not to do long hours of knitting in the hopes that the break will speed my recovery from my arthritis flare.  I've been doing lots of walking and going to the gym which helps. My hitchhiker is coming along - I love how easy the pattern is and how satisfying it is to complete a repeat.  Ah, the pleasures of knitting at its finest. Yesterday I started the first of a series of three color cowl gifts for the holidays.  I'm scaling back who(m) I'm knitting for this winter.  I went overkill last winter and the gift knitting became stressful.  I'm casually and slowly making these cowls and my number one person to knit for will be my husband who didn't get a knitted gift last year from me. *** Thank you for the prayers for my son's Lasik surgery.  However, on Sunday night the hospital called and CANCELLED the procedure because the outpatient bu

I'm having technical issues and hope it's not contagious.  I've struggled with uploading my monthly back up of photos to Flickr.  They recently did a major overhaul with their hosting site so that might be the reason.  Google is having some hiccups too.  Ah, how we need the technology yet when it fails it's quite inconvenient.  Paper and pencils never fail. How is your weekend so far? clover is the main blooming flower on our property Our son is back for another week, tomorrow he has Lasik surgery and then there are a series of doctor rechecks to make sure all is well.  I've written a menu plan for the entire week.  This is huge since I usually decide what is for dinner the hour before dinner time (with the hopes of eating out instead). Every single day we've had rain.  To be honest I'd rather have rain than a drought, but golly it's wet around here!  I've been swaddling Frodo who trembles when it rains heavy.  It seems the s

Everyday lately is a thunderstorm day, sometimes Mother Nature switches it up and gives us a tornado watch or warning.  Daily rain yields flowers blooming (that's me focusing on the positive).  My weather app shows clouds every day for the next ten days.  I'm hoping that the sun will visit once in a while just for giggles. Next week is my LAST week of babysitting and then I'm on summer vacation for TEN whole weeks.  I'll miss the little preschooler but reclaiming two days a week will be decadent.  So far here is my summer bucket list (in no particular order): - walk with my husband and Frodo - weather permitting -watercolor daily and improve my skills -sketch daily -read a book a week at least (lofty goal because I do not read much during the day) -go to the gym five times a week (weight training stays at 3x/week) -improve my endurance on the never-ending step machine at the gym -knit holiday projects -go thru my yarn stash and pick projects to knit

I've discovered that when you are in a car for 8 hours, you can get a lot of knitting done.  I have to be honest, I typically do not knit that much in the car, I tend to window gaze and daydream while talking to my husband.  However, this trip I was focused on getting this shawl off the needles.  And I did. I enjoyed the shawl pattern, easy to remember after a few run throughs.  I did have a bit of trouble setting up the edging.  It was probably my fault and was too lazy to count those multitude stitches so I just fudged the edging in as best as I could.   I highly doubt anyone would be able to find that fudging so I'm pleased with my craftiness.   The wool is 6 Karat by Schoppel-Woole .  I liked it!  There is a bit of silk mixed in with the wool that makes the stitches glide on the needles.  Ravelry notes

Grab a beverage and sit back for the extended weekend recap.  On Thursday we drove up to London Ontario to visit family.  We stayed at my mother in law's house for three days and also visited with my brother in law and sister in law.  What a fun weekend and our son went with us! Friday we went to a few shops then stopped at the cemetery to visit my father in law's gravesite.  The day was beautiful, sunny and the air was perfect.  In the afternoon, I painted a picture for my mother in law that she requested.  She paints as well!  We took her to an art store so she could get some paints and other supplies. On Saturday we shopped at the attic book store and grooves record store .   I bought nothing but my husband found some treasures. We ate at some great restaurants as well as at my sister and brother in law's house.  I enjoyed seeing everyone again. Yesterday we came home (sweet wonderful home!).  I've been unpacking and catching up with all