Another pair done - almost feel like I might be able to finish in time!

I finished the 3rd granddaughter's socks Thursday & started on the gusset for the 4th granddaughter's socks.  I also put the 2nd heel into my son's gf's socks.  This is her 1st knitting project and maybe this weekend it will work out to be able to get her socks up above the ankle and then teach her to purl so that she can put some ribbing on the socks.  I think she is just planning for them to be about ankle height, so she is nearly finished if that is correct.

 

About 2 weeks ago my oven died, so yesterday part of my day was spent in shopping for another stove.  I got this stove.  Then I waited to get my son to pick it up for me in his truck, but he had a very low tire on his truck, so we waited about 3 hours for Wal-mart to get that fixed..  Delivery just doesn't work for me with both of us working days, etc.  There is no one that I can have wait here to let them in nd I can't usually take time off from work.  I might be able to after the 1st of the year by taking the 1 vacation day I will probably have, but I don't want to wait that long.  I need another oven for Christmas baking.  I still have my old stove hooked up to the gas in the kitchen, so just had my son & his friend leave the new one in the box at the top of the stairs, then after they had left, I took down the dog gate & scooted it across the floor to the kitchen, got a Stanley knife & opened the box, then found a good sized dent/scratch in the upper top right hand side.  It is where with a little bit of paint, with it butted up against the end of the counter, then I won't hardly be visible.  So I have contacted Sears about getting a partial refund.  They told me last night that they would give me 5% back, but then when I looked online, I saw that the same stove had an online discount of 5% for yesterday.  So I printed that out & think I just might see if I can get 10% because of that.  That would be about $60 instead of $30.  I know that it will only cost me about $2 to cover up the damage, but I still don't want to pay full price for a damaged stove.  Will see what he says when I get there.  There was absolutely no damage to the box, so this was done before it was boxed.  And I have pictures of the box as well as the damage.

I set up a hair appointment on Friday and will finally get my hair cut again after 3 months since my disastrous haircut back in September.  There are still sections that may not even be long enough yet, but it should for the most part be good.  So 2 weeks from tomorrow!  Just in time for Christmas!

I have gotten through my first semi-annual "big" inventory at work!  I don't know that I helped a lot since there were only certain things I was allowed to do being new.  But I helped count parts, checked serial numbers on parts, and helped the person over Advance Exchange as she read off serial numbers and I marked them on her lists.  I personally didn't think it was as bad as they all seemed to think, but maybe that comes from either me doing the inventories for my other jobs over the years or because I wasn't given as much responsibility.  I know today I was glad to be able to start putting tickets back in the system so that I wasn't just sitting there twiddling my thumbs.

I stopped at my LYS (Local Yarn Store) on my way to shop for the stove and thought I would check into some sock yarn to make me a shawl/capelet/poncho for wearing at work this winter.  I was envisioning something that might have points front & back, but only hit at about elbow length on the sides so that it would be warm for my shoulders, while still not getting in the way while I am working.  I didn't want to have to come up with my own pattern though, so I bought 2 skeins of Lang Jawoll Magic in color # 84.0079 - a black/green/turquoise colorway and then searched Ravelry for something that might work.  I found this pattern and think I can just stop it at the right point by trying it on periodically as I work.  Right now it probably shouldn't even be in the works, but it is!  I don't know many knitters that can resist the temptation.  Right now I have it on straight needles and I have some Chiaogoo needles on order for it to eventually be worked on.  I still have at least 2 projects to work on for Christmas gifts, so will be putting it aside now that I have it started to do that, but I think this will be my gift to myself as soon as I get those done for being semi-patient.  I do have a crochet project that I started for my niece that I will have to get back to as soon as I get done with Christmas stuff, but I just might finish this first so that I can have it.  I usually am a bit cool at work already and am afraid it will get worse.  I am thinking that with the wool, this will possibly be warmer than even my acrylic sweater that I have been wearing.  And I am thinking I will put some buttons or something on it to hold it closed in the front without having to fiddle with adjusting it all the time.  Will see.  But I didn't want anything that I had to pull over my head at all.

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

Birthdays - originally posted 2/27/10

I don't think I ever blogged about C's birthday party in May and then in December J's 2 girls had birthdays and that was followed by A having a party in February.

C had a zoo party the same as T & A had for 2009. She asked for a frog cake & wanted it leaping. Only issue was that Grandma isn't great with making frogs & especially when I don't have a frog shaped pan. I did my best and she was happy, but I think it looked more like Gumby.

The day J's 2 daughters had their party was a busy day already for me since I already had agreed to help E with a boxing show he was putting on that night. So I made 2 cakes for them, but didn't get to stay for their party. Just took them each a gift & the cakes. B, who was turning 5, wanted a Princess cake. I had a bit of a mishap making it - was using a small paint brush & some silver to add a bit of sparkle to the crown, but lost the entire container of silver onto the cake - so while she was happy, I could see the flub-up on it! K was turning 8 & wanted a car cake, so I used a race car pan & made her a car. She liked it as well.

A was turning 10 & told me that she thought she was too old for an animal cake, so I made her a grown-up cake that involved lattice work & climbing flowers.

Taylor's birthday cake - originally posted 5/23/09

Well, it is done & now I just hope he likes it. I think he really wanted a more mature White Tiger, but I have a cat pan, so made it more as a cub. In looking online, it said a white tiger has blue eyes, so I did that & that a white tiger has less stripes - so didn't do a many as when I did a different tiger cake years ago. The red & blue one was done for a cake walk years ago when my kids were in grade school. It was the school colors & the school mascot. When I took it to the school, the people in charge of the cake walk decided it was too good for a cake walk, so they auctioned it off by itself. If I remember right, I think someone from Haven bought it.


I do need to get up, get dressed & go to Wal-mart to get T a gift before his party in a bit. I had thought about just telling him I would also take him shopping like I already am to do with A, but then I also have C's party next weekend to do a cake for and to get a gift for. Am thinking a set of shorts, maybe a shirt & a Bionicles for T. Just not certain if D will let him have the toy yet. She had taken his toys away from him as a punishment this spring.

His party is to be a trip to the zoo in Wichita, like A's was, since D already has the family membership there & so it will not cost as much for her with 2 birthday parties a week apart.

Original comments:

2 comments:

1. 
   AudreyJuly 9, 2009 1:31 PM

   What happened to your blog? Did you give up on it?

   
   
2. 
   Cindy/KSJuly 9, 2009 3:27 PM

   I do need to catch it up with C's birthday, don't I? And maybe some pictures from the ball games - not that I ended up getting any of C's - she only had 1 game that I was told about & got to. I know 1 was on the same day as 1 of the birthdays, but what happened to the others?

Misc. Tuesday Ramblings, but no pictures

Last night I was working on my Earthen Ruins version of Sangria and realized I had forgotten to do one of the two repeats of several rows of Chart A.  So, I decided that the two version won't be identical except for the color.  I will instead add one repeat of Chart B, then on Chart D I will go ahead and work rows 155 through 164 instead of stopping at 154.  The Ruby version, I followed exactly the way the designer said she did her version of it & I had a bit of yarn left at the end, so I think I should be able to do those 10 rows.  I might add a lifeline just in case, so that if I find myself running out of yarn before I finish with the border, then I could rip it back to the lifeline and do the border from there.

This coming Saturday is the annual reunion for Sherman Junior High, which is the school I attended for grades 7-9.  It is an all years reunion & I can't remember how many years they have been having it, but I went to it in 2009 & 2010, I believe it was.  Then 2011 I wasn't feeling well, so I skipped it.  My son went with me to the 2 years that I did go & I believe he will be going with me this Saturday as well, but I am also hoping I can get my dh to go with me too.  He works with several of the people that would be attending, so even though he didn't go to school here in Kansas, it's not like he wouldn't know anybody.  He might actually know more people to talk to than I would.  I was so very shy when going to school that I barely knew anyone except by sight.  I was really good with remembering names & faces.  Just not with talking to them.

My dh worked a couple of 16 hour days last week and today is his 2nd this week.  I don't know if he will be working overtime tomorrow again or not since I really haven't seen him to find out.  It's great for the budget considering that I still haven't found a job and my unemployment is about to run out.  Then I guess, according to the government's standards, I will no longer be unemployed!

Today it got a little warm again, but still was only in the low 90's.  Quite a change over a month ago.  But they are forecasting 90's pretty much all week, I believe.  We did get about 4" of rain this past weekend, which was great, but created a bit of humidity.

We had the 14 year old grandson over for a weekend visit this past Friday to Sunday.  He really wanted to go to the movie theater, but I told him I just can do that right now with my unemployment running out.  So instead we rented a couple of movies from Redbox for $2.05 total - had a coupon code to get 50¢ off 2 rentals.  Then he went through some of my movies and we watched Airplane, Airplane II, Naked Gun.  Forgot to look to see if Naked Gun 2 1/2 was on Netflix Instant Play or not.  He was loving all the spoofs in these movies.

I've been a little bit irritated today.  I know some of it is because I must have slept wrong a couple nights ago and my neck has been stiff for two days.  But 2 weeks ago, I had requested to join a sock knit-along that I had seen mentioned several times of a blog I have just started following.  Thought maybe it would give me some new ideas or something with my sock knitting.  Anyway, I applied to join - which included a section where I had to tell why I wanted to join.  Then I got an email saying that I had to reply back within 7 days telling about myself so they could see if they would want to add me.  Which I immediately sent back, even though I felt it was overkill since I had already told them about myself when I applied.  Nothing.  Today I get a denial email!  I had been denied for not sending back the info that I did send back.  So I replied to the personal email of one of the people who are moderators of the group that I had sent the info & attached the info I had sent with the date showing on it of when I sent it.  I just got back a reply that she couldn't do anything & that I would have to reapply & go through it all over again.  And it's not even that I mind that, but her message back to me just came across as rude.  So I replied back that I might have to reapply, but how would I know that the same thing wouldn't happen again & that the problem wasn't on my end, it was on theirs, but that I thought they needed to be aware of the problem.  A bit later - I did go in to request to join again - tried sending my info as part of the telling why I wanted to join & telling them it was my 2nd time of doing so, but there is a 200 character limit, so it wouldn't let me.  So then, I got the response that I had to reply with the info about myself - which I sent both to the email that came from & the personal email of the person I had been emailing with earlier.  So far, all I have gotten back is a 2nd reply from her about my original email saying that the problem was theirs.  I do think when I supplied the proof that I had done as requested, that I should have just been added, not told that I just had to request to join again.  I am an owner of several yahoo groups, so I know they could do this.  She said if I have any suggestions on what to do, if they haven't tried them, then they would be happy to try them.  Well, the first thing I am thinking about suggesting, is that if you know you have this problem - why are you doing overkill with 2 responses being required about the person!  Second, maybe instead of having it all the way at the end like you really don't want anyone to email you personally, just put your email at the beginning of your message requesting this additional info & say outright that you aren't getting responses that are sent to the moderators email, so to email the reply directly, instead of saying if you don't hear anything after a week?  Yes, I should have probably sent a message after a week, but they could have been more pro-active by letting me & others know to begin with that there definitely is a problem.  All this makes me wonder if I even want to be a part of the group & mostly it's because I feel I got a rude response from the moderator to begin with - no apologies for the problem or anything - just saying you will have to reapply, there is nothing I can do!  Well, if you weren't so quick to delete the requests, maybe there would have been something you could do!  I had done everything they requested, except sending a private email 7 days later when I didn't hear anything.

My dh came home over the weekend, after spending several hours with at least part of the 4 granddaughters.  He started telling me about it & ended it with a comment about how he had been training the next generation of bosses.  Then he asked me why I was smiling about that!  I remember my sister telling me that she believes the man is the head of the house & I replied to her that I did also, but that I believe I am the neck that turns the head to help him in making good decisions.  So to hear my dh saying that females are the bosses, struck me as funny!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

I'm a mean Grandma!

Well, today is a hot one!  It may have been hotter before, but right now, weatherbug is saying 96 degrees.  I hear tomorrow may be worse, so I may break down & turn on the AC tomorrow for a while at least.  We do get quite a bit of breeze with the windows open, but it's still a hot breeze right now!

My grandson T. is trying to earn some money.  He is 14, so can't drive himself & can't really get a job yet.  So after a few weeks of trying to find people who wanted their yards mowed in his neighborhood, his mother, our daughter, brought him to our neighborhood last night & this morning.  He did find 1 family that hired him to mow & he thought he was going to be able to do theirs on a weekly basis after talking to the wife last night, but today the husband was home & he says no.  We told T. to give it a week or 2 & try back, maybe they will change their mind.  In the meantime, he didn't find any others that wanted their yards mowed today.  It has been so dry that there really hasn't been much need to mow.  So I had left home for a while to try to get some Avon deliveries done & then to do a little bit of shopping done.  My dh was home & I knew that not only did my grandson have his cellphone to call me or his mom, if he needed us, but I knew he knew how to get into my home.  I got through with my shopping, decided to drive around the neighborhood to see if he was alright, but I couldn't find him.  Decided to come home & saw that he had to be here since the lawnmower was here.  Sure enough - he was taking a nap!  So being a mean grandma, I woke him up & asked if he had talked to his mom about not being able to find any work?  He hadn't, so I had him call her.  I didn't mind him taking a nap, but she needed to know what he was doing since I didn't consider myself as being responsible for him at that time!  So she came to get him & took him to their neighborhood to give him a chance to try there again.

Yesterday, a group of people who grew up in my hometown were chatting on Facebook about things we remembered, including cream horns made by the bakery of a local grocery store.  We were remembering how good they tasted, how tender they were, etc.  The ones that are sold now just are not the same!  So it got me curious, I searched online & found a recipe that looks really good for them.  I picked up the supplies for them today while shopping, except that I don't have any cream horn molds or forms to bake them on.  So I decided to go to a local kitchen gadgets shop - w have some, but no - they didn't.  But I did find some on eBay that are 4.7" long - which were over 1/2" longer than others I found, so I ordered some.  They are coming from Hong Kong, so won't be here for a couple weeks,  but I will just put the puff pastry, etc. in the freezer to wait for them.  Maybe then I can catch a cool morning & make some to try out!

I have been making a crocheted afghan for an August wedding.  Because of the heat, I have only been able to work on it when it is cooler otherwise the yarn sticks to my fingers.  But I am now over 1/2 the way done!  It's 100 squares wide or about 200 stitches & 100 rows across, so I am on row 51 now.  It is a filet crochet, so I am following a chart.  I have made this pattern many times in the past for weddings - including 1 that was 200 rows long.  That was the year I got really tired of doing the same pattern since not only was that one double length, but there were about 3-4 others I did that year.  I haven't done 1 now in about 2 years though.  This picture is when it was about 40% finished.

I can sometimes do some knitting if I can't crochet, so I have also been working some on my grandson's socks for Christmas.  I am using a pattern called Taylor's Orange Socks from Ravelry.  But maybe I am not!  I didn't use their toe portion - I just figured out how many stitches I felt the toe needed to have based on their pattern & then I just did my normal cast on & increase for a toe up sock.  Then I decided I wanted a different heel with a gusset, so I borrowed that from another sock - Waffle Stitch Toe Up Socks by Wilma, also on Ravelry.  Now I am on the leg portion & knitting the pattern portion all the way around the sock.

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

It's been a busy week!

It's been a long & busy week around here!  Some of it was getting a few projects finished in time for a baby shower today.  Some of it was cancelling a trip to OK for a family reunion & instead taking the 5 grandkids to Abilene, KS to the Greyhound Hall of Fame & the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, KS on Friday.  I had a short night before we started & then just under a 2 hour drive each way with 5 kids between the ages of 7 & 14.  Then we picked up a cousin of mine & brought her back near here to her grandparents home - which is my aunt & uncle's home.  It was raining off & on all day as well.  I did spend some of the driving time on the way there talking with my oldest brother - he is a trucker & was delivering a load near Denver that day.  The grandkids were involved in watching a DVD.  One of the best inventions when traveling alone with kids!

I knitted 4 pair of baby socks in the last couple of weeks as well as making a crocheted Granny Square afghan.  I literally finished the afghan about 30 minutes before the shower was due to start today & was 1/2 hour "late", although it was a come & go shower.  Can't say I have ever heard of having a come & go baby shower before though!  No games, just cake, etc. & opening gifts as well as getting a chance to hold the baby since this was an after the birth shower today.

While I was in Abilene, my youngest brother drove into town with his 2 girls, the bf of the 1 & the cousin that I brought back with me later.  He also brought me the gift he had bought for me for my birthday - a Brother KH836E standard gauge knitting machine!  I will have to get a sponge bar, I believe for it, which is normal (also need them for my Brother KH930 & the ribber that fits on both of these, I believe).  In going through the manual for the "new" machine, I believe I need a pair of claw weights & some 24 stitch punch cards to make it complete.  I am hoping to figure out what would have been original as far as punch cards go & try to find those to begin with, but as long as they are pre-punched, I will be happy.  Later on when I am more familiar with the machine, I might consider punching my own, but for now, I know nothing about it!  But everything does seem to work fine.  I know that I paid about $400+ each for my KH930 & the ribber & my brother only paid $50 for this one according to what he told me.  Said they had it marked at $150, but they accepted his offer of $50 for it.  I know on e-bay someone has a KH836E & a ribber & they want about $675 for the pair of them, so feel like he got a good deal!



Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

Graduations, Stress & Friday Ramblings

We have had 2 more events this week regarding schooling.  This time it was 2 of the grandchildren.  Our 12 year old granddaughter had her 6th grade promotion on Wednesday evening and then our 14 year old grandson had his 8th grade graduation on Thursday evening.

I got a very unexpected call on Wednesday that put us in a bit of panic, but now that we have all had a chance to breath, it's something that while it will take a bit to resolve, seems to be manageable!  The grandkids are probably not going to be happy, but I have decided not to go to the James family reunion this year.  I hope to still see my 2 aunts & my uncle soon, but will probably just have to go to see them at a later time.  This requires my attention now more than a trip that I might want to take.

Today started out smelling like it was going to rain, but nothing has happened so far.  There is a breeze though.  It has finally made it up to 81 degrees.  I put a roast on to make bbq beef sandwiches for dinner, which still sound good, but not quite as good as when it was only 70 degrees out!

We are planning a gathering here on Monday of the local kids & grandkids!  I still need to do a little bit of shopping for it, but at least got more briquets & starter fluid last night while I stopped to get the cats & dogs more food.  The cats had been totally out, the dogs still had some, but I figured I would just take care of both while I was at it.

I need to go to the cemeteries either today or tomorrow.  I just can't do it Monday - too many memories to handle doing it by myself.  Memorial Day 1986 is the last day I saw my Daddy alive!  Next Friday is 26 years since his death.  I was almost 27 years old the day he died, which makes it hard to believe that he has been gone almost 1/2 my life now!  In just 5 years I will be the age he was when he died!

Last night - after the 8th grade graduation, the granddaughters & I went to E. & I.'s home for some fun & games.  I. went shopping with me before I got there & so we had an evening of movies, Simpson's Clue, chips, Mounds & Twizzlers!  I. has said that she will attempt to learn Monopoly on Monday while we have our family bbq at our house.  Now to decide if we will do Hutchopoly, K-State, Millenium, Las Vegas, Elvis, Rudolph, Scooby-Doo or Disney Monopoly!  And I may have even missed 1 or 2 that I have!  Can you tell we like to play Monopoly?  E. says he has a Simpson's Monopoly as well & I know that D. & J. have a reproduction original.

 It looks like I. will get a different car within about a week, which I know she will like.  We thought we had a problem on making it happen right away, but figured out a solution!  When family sticks together, that is how it is - a solution can be found to just about everything!  It may not always be the one we want, but it can work!  That is something that my mother never really got the message on when she tried to keep the family divided!

I believe the grandkids leave for spend the weekend with another set of their grandparents today.  I hope they have a great time, but I really hope they don't forget the sunscreen this year or at least to use it!  Last year C. had a whopper of a sunburn!  I think she is like me - I can get a 2nd degree on my back for instance in about 20 minutes!  So I avoid full on sun every chance I get.

Have fun, have a great weekend, don't forget those have served our country so that we may be free & Happy Crafting!