F is for...

This is my attempt at getting caught up on the ABC Along. Many of the flowers in the pictures from today were not up when I first started taking pictures for this post (2 days ago). Spring is so amazing!

MAKE it a great day!

Acts of Kindness

Every day, here in blog-land, I'm amazed by the kindness, the caring, the support, the love that's shared - often between people who've never met. Understand that when I say "Blog-land", I'm talking about knitting blogs - I really don't read any others. Hell, there are so many knitting blogs, who has time to read any others? :-)

I haven't had this blog very long, but already I've "met" such wonderful people. People I feel a connection with. I've met people who used to live in Lancaster County, who used to live in PA, who live close to my relatives in NY, who live where I used to live...you get the idea. Right from the start, I had people willing to help me learn how to add things to my blog - people I didn't know & still haven't met in person. And if you look around, it's going on throughout the knitting blog community. It's amazing. And so wonderful.

Now I'd like to share another act of kindness with you. Several days ago, Wendy gave us a tour of her bedroom, in preparation for the "Flash Your Stash" on April 1st. In her post, she mentioned having some yarn that she will never use, doesn't like, and wonders why she ever bought. Some of the yarn happened to be a kind that I've used for Prayer Shawls. So I left a comment, saying that it works well for the Prayer Shawls & she could send it my way since she doesn't like it. I was semi-joking because I didn't really think she would send the yarn to me. She e-mailed me, asked for my address, and said that she would send it to me. She wanted me to tell her a little about the shawls so that she could see if she had any other yarn that would work.

Well. I got the package today - look what was inside. 12 skeins of yarn! Some Wool Ease, some Micro Fiber, some Crayon, and some Cotton Tots.

I figure I will be able to make at least 3 shawls from all of this yarn (I'm going to double some of the colors). As soon as I opened the box, I pulled out some needles and started to play with the yarn.

The pictures show two shawl color combination possibilities. And, since I just love to start projects, here's the start of a shawl. This is the Microfiber and the Cotton Tots. I'm using size 10 1/2 needles.

Thanks Wendy!

That's all for tonight. I have a sinus infection, can't breathe through my nose, sound like a seal when I cough, and am tired. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep well tonight. :-)

MAKE it a great day!

More FO's...

Yes, I have more finished objects to report. But first, let me go back...waaaayy back...back in time... :-)

Remember the chicken bbq/country auction fundraiser for the Queen Princess' school? I'm donating several (knitted) items for the auction. I have a felted knit bag that I'm donating. The bag's been finished for some time, now. It's just waiting for me to finish the handles.

Saturday, I decided to make a lining for the bag. I'd purchased some fabric pieces at one of the local fabric stores and I had a design in mind for the lining.

I love bags. But I like them to be useful. So when I'm considering buying a bag, I look inside to see what featues it has. One of my favorite purses is this (in Nantucket Navy). I also have this tote bag (in Sherbet). I love both of these bags because there are pockets around the inside. I can put my wallet, cell phone, keys, pens/paper, lipgloss,etc. in these pockets and then the center is free (for a book, or for knitting). I can carry alot of stuff in one small bag. I especially love to use these bags when I'm flying somewhere.

That made me think about the lining for this bag. And about what I would want in a bag. So I started sewing (remember, this is my 2nd time using a sewing machine - I'm happy to report that I didn't stab any fingers or thumbs this time!). I made a lining with lots of pockets. 4 sides of pockets. Two big pockets, several that are sized for a pen (or knitting needles!) and several medium sized. The pictures show these pockets. Not too bad for my first lining. I learned alot about sewing while working on this lining. Now comes the fun part - sewing it into the bag. Wish me luck!

So that bag is almost a finished object.

What I did finish is a shawl. This is one of the patterns we use for the prayer shawls, but I didn't make it for the PS ministry. This one is a gift for a friend of mine. It's made out of Knit Picks Crayon, which is 100% pima cotton. I used size 7 needles. It's a very light feeling shawl and is so soft.

Update on the Prayer Shawls. The second shawl I made (which was my first triangular shawl) was given to someone - to a woman who recently had thyroid surgery. We've given out 3 Prayer Shawls in the past two weeks. We currently have 2 more "in stock". I'm currently knitting two - one is a rectangular shawl & the other is triangular. I hope to have both finished by our next PS meeting (which is after Easter).

Remember this post? Our first Prayer Shawl recipient? Well, I was talking to her on Sunday. She told me that the Pittsburgh Pirates were dedicating one of their upcoming games to her son (he was a Pittsburgh fan-football & baseball) and that her grandson is going to throw the 1st pitch. How cool is that?


Sunday I started another garter stitch scarf. This is in the QP's school colors & will be donated to the upcoming auction. I plan on donating at least 2 scarf/hat sets. The scarf is almost finished. The second scarf will be yellow with black stripes. I'm using Lion Brand Wool Ease - 2 strands - and size 10 1/2 needles.

MAKE it a great day!

Pictures...maybe

These are pictures of my 9'10" scarf - some of the scarf is hanging down the back of the chair. I'm going to make several of these (no, not as long as this one!) to donate to an auction (fundraiser) at the Queen Princess' school. Every year the school has a Chicken BBQ/Country Auction fundraiser. It is their biggest fundraiser.

For those of you not from Lancaster County, the bar-b-qued chicken they make here is unlike any I've found anywhere else. They don't use a barbeque sauce - they use vinegar (and I think) salt water.

Chicken barbeques are very common in Lancaster County. The fire companies usually have them (our fire departments are all volunteer, so they have fundraisers). Some churches also have them. And I've seen at least one Boy Scout troop that had one. You can buy the chicken (usually half a chicken) or buy a dinner. The dinner is usually a small carton of something to drink (like Turkey Hill iced tea - which alot of Lancastrians swear is the best iced tea), chicken, a baked potato, a roll, butter, cole slaw (usually Pepper Slaw- also called Pepper Cabbage - which is not the creamy kind of cole slaw) and a dessert (cupcake or brownie).

But you didn't come here for a Lancaster County food history lesson, did you? You came for knitting pictures. Here are some more.

This is the felted needle case. I used Paton Classic Merino yarn. The true color shows up best in the bottom left picture. That was taken right under a lamp. The picture on the top left was taken on the dining room table (the light's not as good there). The pattern is a free one from Paton's. There are three flowers - bottom right picture - on the outside of the case (which didn't show up well in any of the pictures I took). The beads (on the flowers) are some seed beads which are left over from Odessa. The tie is made from DMC floss. Not the regular DMC floss, this floss was more like thin cording. I braided 6 strands of it together & then sewed it to the back (when open) of the needle case.

Yay! I was able to upload all of the pictures!! Woo-hoo!! 2 finished objects and pictures! What a great week.

MAKE it a great day!

Finished Objects

Can you believe it??? I have some finished objects!! Woo-hoo!!

The first finished object is a garter stitch scarf. I first learned about this type of scarf here (look at the post for December 13th). I had some yarn that I bought when I first got into knitting (which means that I randomly purchased this yarn without knowing about dye lots or how much yarn I would need for anything). When I cast on the number of stitches the Yarn Harlot recommended, the scarf didn't seem long enough. So I cast on more. 250 stitches in all. The finished scarf is something like 9feet, 10inches long. What I learned from this experiment? Don't second-guess the Harlot! :-)

My second finished object is the felted knitting needle case. Remember this? The miles and miles of never-increasing stockinette stitch? Well, apparently it did increase, because it was finally long enough to felt. It felted sooo nicely! The yarn is Paton's Classic Merino. I only had to wash it once - and it was felted solid. Love that!

I had the case all (hand) stitched, all I had to do was put the tie on and add the flowers when I made an awful discovery. The needles got stuck on the wool as they were going into the case. So I thought about that, and decided to add a lining - a fabric lining. I ripped out all of the stitching. Instead of hand-stitching the case (and lining), I decided to sew it with a sewing machine (my Mom has one). I've never - do you hear me? NEVER - used a sewing machine before. But, how hard can it be to use a sewing machine to make a straight line?? Right?

I did manage to get the case sewn. In the process, I injured my thumb. No - I did not sew my thumb! It got stabbed with my scissors as I was trying to cut off some of the millions of threads that are left when one uses a sewing machine to sew straight lines. Don't ask me how it happened. I don't really know. I think I had picked up the scissors to use them, and somehow the (very sharp!) point ended up in my thumb and blood started oozing out. No - this was not the first time I'd used those scissors. I've had them for years and have used them in cross stitch as well as knitting. I blame the sewing machine (I know that's not logical - but how do you explain it??). Now this wonderful, simple (or so I thought!) needle case has a blood spot (a very small one) to go along with the uneven stitching.

What's that, you say? Pictures? Oh, yeah, I have pictures - of everything...I just can't seem to upload them. And, since this post is dated March 21st and it's now March 22nd (because of the damn pictures not uploading), I decided to post it without any pictures. Perhaps someday you'll be able to see my 9-foot scarf and my exquisitely sewn (but you have to promise not to laugh at the stitching!) needle case...and my poor, hurting thumb. :-(

I leave you with one more thing:



Stay tuned! For more information on the Wild Goose Chase, check out JenLa's blog.

MAKE it a great day!

A quick post...

I had another post planned for today but am having trouble uploading pictures to my blog. Maybe tomorrow everything will be working.

In the meantime, go to Michele's blog to congratulate her on the birth of her 1st child - a 10 lb, 1 oz boy! Yes, you read that right. Ten pounds, one ounce! For those of you who don't live in the US, or who are men, most women cringe when they hear of a 10 pound baby - that's a REALLY big baby! She has some pictures posted and he's so cute!

That's all for today. I'll try posting my other post tomorrow. :-)

MAKE it a great day!

"E" is for...

...EVERGREENS! There are these huge evergreen trees growing all around my house. They grow on both sides of the front yard. They form a line in the back yard. So we have the back yard and the way back yard (the vegetable gardens and compost pile are in the way back yard). These trees shade the house from sun in the summertime. They help to block wind and snow and rain. When the wind blows through them, you feel like you're in a mountain forest where there are no people. These trees are also home to birds and squirrels (and spiders) .

The first picture (top left) shows the trees along the side of the house - so you can get some kind of idea of the height of the trees. Are you proud of me? I actually remembered to rotate the picture before I uploaded it! There's a church next door to my house, so to the right of those trees is the church parking lot. The second picture (right) shows the trees in relation to the height of the church - that picture was taken from the QP's bus stop.

These trees are wonderful for blocking wind and for shade trees - but there is a downside to them.

There's always alot of yard clean-up (see bottom left picture)to do in the spring. Plenty of branches, twigs, needles and pinecones to rake up. I tried to upload a picture showing the twigs that end up on the ground, but Blogger isn't cooperating with me today. All of this yard "waste" gets added to the mulch pile, for later use on the gardens. It's our yard recycling program. :-)

That's it for today (and I know my "E" entry is late!). MAKE it a great day!

An Update

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes/prayers/good thoughts. The weekend was pretty busy. I don't even remember if I got online at all.

Anyway. My Mom got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon. The blockage had moved & the doctor started her on real food. She didn't throw it up, so they released her. Still no word on what caused the blockage and/or how it can be prevented in the future (she's had these "episodes" almost every month, for the past 2 years - although, usually they clear up within a day or two).

Last night, we went to the Olive Garden for the Queen Princess' birthday. That's one of her favorite places to eat. She was excited to have the servers sing to her. I have pictures of her (making silly faces) before we ate, one of her as she was being sung to( with her cake from the Olive Garden) and one picture of her holding the cake I baked for her.

Last night I made & decorated cupcakes for the QP to take into school today. There are three kids in her class with birthdays either the 11th or 12th of March. Friday, the class celebrated the birthday of the boy (who's b-day is March 11th) and today they'll celebrate the QP's and the other girl (who's b-day is March 12th). It's funny that we (the Mom's & babies) were all in the same hospital, 7 years ago, within rooms of each other & now, 7 years later, the kids all attend the same school. The hospital opened up a Women's & Babies hospital the end of the year that I had the QP. When the QP was born, Maternity was still at the main hospital. That section is now regular hospital rooms - in fact, the room my Mom was just in is 2 rooms down from the one I was in when I had QP.

No knitting updates. I didn't do much knitting this weekend - except a few inches of a Prayer Shawl while I was waiting with Mom Friday as she was being admitted to the hospital.

Now, I'm going outside (it's in the mid 70's here today :-) !) to knit some endless, never-increasing stockinette stitch (the felted needle case).

MAKE it a great day!

When it rains...

I got some money for my birthday. So I had the belt replaced in my car (it had needed it for a while and finally, the car wouldn't start - so I hadn't driven my car in 2 months). Which was cool. I have my car back. I'm happy.

Tuesday my Mom gets sick. Throwing up, abdominal cramps. Something she's had damn near every month for about 2 years. It usually goes away in a few days. The doctors never could figure out what was wrong. The GI (gastroenterologist) sends her to the surgeon (who did some hernia surgery 2 years ago on her), surgeon sends her to OB/Gyn. OB/Gyn thinks it's hormonal & will stop after menopause. Last night , she still wasn't able to keep anything down (not even water). My Mom had Crohn's disease and had her colon removed 20 years ago (she has an iliostomy). With all of this, dehydration is a serious thing. She went to ER last night. They took x-rays and sent her home. Today she called her doctor's office (to find out about x-rays) - they had to have someone call her back. Several hours later, they call back & tell her they want to admit her to the hospital. There's an obstruction in her small intestine. She still can't keep anything down. I took her to the hospital (around 2:30 this afternoon). She gets an IV - so at least she's finally getting some fluids in her body. She won't be allowed to eat or drink until that blockage moves.

My Dad picked the Queen Princess up from the bus stop (after school). They hung out (did yard work, went to eat) and then came to the hospital.

We leave the hospital around 9PM. I turn on my car and the "Service Engine Soon" light comes on. So, now I won't be able to drive my car until I get that checked - and who the hell knows when I'm gonna be able to do that?!?

The Queen Princess cries because her Grandma is in the hospital. And to top it off, it looks like she'll be in the hospital Sunday (which is the QP's birthday).

It should be a fun weekend. Makes me want to ask "what else could happen???" - but I'm too afraid that something else will go wrong!

Anyway. Thanks for "listening" to me whine. :-)

I need your help...

I've always been an artsy-creative kind of person. I've drawn, painted, used pastels. I like to make cards and do scrapbooking/memory books. I've done some things with beads (wooden, plastic, glass). I've used rubber stamps and embossing powder. I've done counted cross stitch & even latch hook rugs (the rugs, I did when I was young). Now, knitting. Spinning and weaving really interest me, too but I don't have alot of space or alot of money - so those two things are kind of on hold. Lately I've been thinking that I should have a sewing machine (mainly because my hand-sewing sucks and a machine would be quicker and should look nicer!). But sewing machines nowadays are kind of...scary. I mean, there are sewing machines that run on Microsoft Windows!

Here's where I need help. What should I look for in a sewing machine? What bells & whistles do I need? And what brand(s) are good? I just want a basic sewing machine. One that, well, sews. You know. Straight lines. One that's pretty simple to use (I've never used one!). One that doesn't cost a ton of money. Oh! And one that's not huge (remember my space issues). I know alot of you sew...so, any suggestions????

By the way, a quilting magazine was given to me. I looked through it, at the sewing machine ads, thinking they might help...they were NO help! In fact, I'm more confused now than I was before!

Lent-Along Update: I haven't been doing much knitting. My arms/wrists/hands have been hurting me (even when I'm not knitting), so I've been doing minimal knitting. Maybe my tendons (or whatever) are still healing from the Killer Shawl??? I refuse to think that it's some kind of serious damage. Because, really, some days, I think knitting is what keeps me sane and calm - so I refuse to think that perhaps I won't be able to do it!

Enjoy the weekend...and MAKE it a great day!

Thank you!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes, e-mails, e-cards, blog listings, hugs and dances. :-) You all made me feel so special!

I went out to eat last night with my family. We also had birthday cake. The Queen Princess was more excited about my birthday than I was (when you're almost 7, birthdays rank right up there with Christmas). She asked (before we went out to eat) if we could tell the server it's my birthday so they could sing to me (they don't do that where we went, luckily!). I told her no. I don't like to be sung to in a restaurant. She still told the server it was my birthday.

I didn't get any knitting done yesterday. Last night, I was able to read for a little while after the Queen Princess went to bed. I didn't read for long, though, because I was tired (old age, ya know?).

So that's it for today. No knitting. No pictures. No finished objects (or even newly started ones).

Just a BIG thank you, for making me smile on my birthday!!

MAKE it a great day!

March ~ the busy month

Your Birthdate: March 7

You are an island. You don't need anyone else to make you happy. And though you see yourself as a loner, people are drawn to you. Deep and sensitive, you tend to impress others with your insights. You also tend to be psychic - so listen to that inner voice! Your strength: Your self sufficiency Your weakness: You despise authority Your power color: Maroon Your power symbol: Hammer Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

March is a busy month for my family. Today is my birthday and my parent's anniversary (yep! My Mom was in labor on her 1-year wedding anniversary). The Queen Princess' birthday is the 12th. One of her Aunt's birthday was yesterday (the 6th). Her cousin's birthday is the 13th. I have two cousins & a friend with birthdays on the 9th. Oh! And my best friend's daughter's birthday is on the 17th.

Here in blogland, there are more March birthdays:

Ken - March 3rd
Maribel - March 9th
Iraida - March 10th
Anybody else??

Don't even ask how old I am today - I don't want to talk about it!

You may have noticed the Lent-Along button on my sidebar (while you're looking at the sidebar, check out my Flickr and put a pin on my Frappr map). Kimberly had a great idea for a way to get some UFO's finished. Read all about it - and sign up - here.

Here is a picture of my unfinished objects. Just one picture. I didn't feel like taking one of each object.
*(top left) ~ that wonderful piece of never-ending stockinette stitch will one day be a felted knitting needle case
*(top center) ~ a hat I'm knitting, using Lion Brand's Magic Stripes yarn
*(top right) ~ my Magic Loop sock
*the sock & the hat are laying on a knitted bag which will be felted, as soon as the miles of I-cord handles are finished
*under the needle case, you'll see an Irish Hiking Scarf - this is the "matching" scarf for my Odessa
*(bottom left) a felted knit bag that's already been felted - it's just waiting for the I-cord handles
*I'm also working on two triangular shawls - but since they're an ongoing thing, I'm not really considering them unfinished objects

That's it for today...MAKE it a great day!

Backyard Greetings

It's Sunday. Time for Countrygirl's Backyard Greetings meme. Participants are to take a picture of their backyard so that everyone in blogland can take a "trip" to each others' backyards.

I have to tell you, this is not the time of year that my backyard looks its best. It is much prettier in the spring/summer! Plus, the light is not very good in the winter (the position of the sun & the tall evergreens pretty much block out the light in the backyard in the winter). So keep those things in mind as you look at the pictures. I'll have to take some more pictures once spring is here, so that you can see how beautiful everything looks.

I like my backyard. It's quiet (except for the birds & the wind whistling in the tall trees). It feels like you're miles away from other people, traffic, etc. But it's not. I love to sit outside and read (or knit) while the Queen Princess plays on her swingset or in her sandbox.

The backyard has several flower gardens, several vegetable gardens, a swingset and sandbox, a small shed, several birdbaths and birdhouses and lots of grassy area. The wildlife include squirrels, chipmunks, birds, bunnies, ground hogs and an occasional deer or oppossum.

The first picture ( left) is of the yard as seen from the breezeway. I took this yesterday afternoon. All of the other pictures were taken this afternoon. The wind thing (that red, blue and yellow thing) is in one of the flower gardens. This garden is amazing. Things start to grow. Then one day (all of a sudden) every growing thing in this garden is huge! You can no longer find the path that winds throught he garden. In this picture, you can also see the swingset - and that red thing by the tree is the sandbox. Back behind the swingset is where the vegetable gardens are. Last year they were mainly a restaurant for the wildlife.

The next picture ( right) is of the yard as seen from the back (looking towards the house). The two trees that are closest are in one of the flower gardens.

The third picture ( left) is of a wisteria. This is so beautiful when it blooms! There's a church next door and we've had several people come over to have their picture taken under the blooming wisteria (wedding pictures, etc).

The last picture is of the pussywillow tree and the amazing blue sky today. The pussywillow are not quite open - but it won't be long. The sun's out, the sky is this incredible blue & it's cold & windy. You gotta love March!

That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed your tour! Enjoy the weekend and MAKE it a great day!

Happy Friday

You Are 68% Open Minded

You are a very open minded person, but you're also well grounded. Tolerant and flexible, you appreciate most lifestyles and viewpoints. But you also know where you stand firm, and you can draw that line. You're open to considering every possibility - but in the end, you stand true to yourself.

How Open Minded Are You?

I love these things. Sometimes they're pretty true and other times they're off the wall. This one is pretty true about me. I like to be places where there's a mix of people (you know, diversity - different races, religions,different styles,people from different countries/states/cities - you get the picture).

This is probably due (in part) to my Dad being in the Navy when I was growing up. By the time I finished third grade, I'd lived in 4 states and 5 cities. In fact, I went to 3 schools for third grade (in 2 states). One question that people ask me, that I never really know how to answer is "Where did you grow up?" or "Where are you from?". I mean, I live in PA now - but I don't consider it my hometown (even though I've lived here for almost 20 years!).

Wow. I've lived here for almost 20 years! 2 decades! That's a long time.

Did you ever do that? Not realize how much time has passed until you figure out how many years it's been? Take my best friend, Lana. We became friends in 7th or 8th grade...that was something like 22 years ago! I mean, we can't be old enough to have been friends for 22 years! Don't mind me, it must be my Soon-To-Be-A-Year-Older-Self-Reflection!

Ok...on to other (less depressing!) things. You know how I love colors, right? And yarn. Well, there's a new online yarn store. Sundara Yarn. She hand-dyes the yarn. Click here to see all the pretty yarn colors. I'll wait while you check it out.........aren't the colors AMAZING??? I think I was drooling when I first checked out that site. How do you choose a color when they all are sooooo beautiful (stunning, amazing,vibrant,wonderful)??

Check out Countrygirl to learn about the Backyard Greetings meme. It happens this Sunday.

Oh! And in case you haven't noticed, I've added a Frappr map to my blog. Take a moment to add your pin so that I can see where you are! Thank you!

MAKE it a great day!

Wintery mix...

The "Winter Weather Advisory" today is calling for a "wintery mix" of weather. For those of you not on the East coast of the USA, that means we could have snow, freezing rain, sleet, rain - pretty much whatever. Schools are on a 2-hour delay this morning. So the Queen Princess is still sleeping. I, however, have to wake up on time - to find out if there's a school closing or delay. Poor me. :-(

I have alot of things planned for today, too. Now they'll have to be shuffled around because of the delay. Boy, I miss winter in Southern California!

But anyway...I found this thing (sorry - don't know what it's called) on Ann's blog. Here are the results I got when I entered "AngeliasKnitting" as a "her". Check out Ann's results, too...her's were pretty odd!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about AngeliasKnitting!

1. Tradition allows women to propose to AngeliasKnitting only during leap years.
2. AngeliasKnitting is the largest of Saturn's moons.
3. AngeliasKnitting is picked, sorted and packed entirely in the field!
4. The first domain name ever registered was AngeliasKnitting.com.
5. AngeliasKnitting can't drink - she absorbs water from her surroundings by osmosis!
6. AngeliasKnitting is often used in place of milk in food photography, because milk goes soggy more quickly than AngeliasKnitting.
7. AngeliasKnittingicide is the killing of AngeliasKnitting.
8. AngeliasKnitting can jump up to sixteen times her own height!
9. The condom - originally made from AngeliasKnitting - was invented in the early 1500s!
10. AngeliasKnitting can clean her ears with her tongue, which is over thirty-nine inches long.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimit&l t;option value="p">them

Crazy, huh?

Feeling creative? Want to win an awesome prize? Visit Jay's Craft Room to learn more about the Jay's Craft Room Celebration Challenge. I'm trying to get my brain un-stuck, to come up with something I can do so that I can enter this challenge. Did you see the yarn he has in the prize??

That's all for today. 2-hour delay means that I have extra knitting time today! :-)

MAKE it a great day!