Our House Part Two

[judianne]

Thanks Cindy. That yarn is an old batch of an off brand I got a long time ago. I never knew what to do with it...until I put it next to the green and the light bulb moment happened. Simple patterns really show off variegated yarns well.

[Skysmom]

Morning all. I'm on my phone at dd's. Luke is sick again and Zach has gymnastics.

 

Another crazy few days for us...we took Jess for yet another procedure among other fun things

 

Judy-Love the baby 'ghan!

 

more later

[imanurse55]

Cute blanket, Judy

 

Busy day today Hair and nail appointments today. Trek to trader joes. Playing catch up from the lost weekend last weekend with the blizzard.

 

Finally going to sit down and knit.

 

I am almost done wIth my 4th grandsons baby blanket. I'm up to the border. It I'm in the mood to knit tonight.

 

Mary. Hope everything is ok with Jess.

 

Hi to the rest of the house.!!!!, Hugs to you all.

[judianne]

Morning peeps.

Joanne, its hard to believe it was only a week ago since the blizzard! Will you posta pic of the little guy's blankie?

 

Mary, is Jess doing ok?

 

Well, I undercounted the number of rows I needed foor graph ghan, but the good news is I'm half finished with the USMC letters and there will be 10 single colkr rows ached that, then the border. I pushed it yesterday and except for the letters, all ends are woven in too. Our friends may be coming by in two weeks, so I'll definitely be ready.

 

Have a good Sunday everyone.

[imanurse55]

Good morning and happy Sunday!

 

I'm planning on doing some cleaning and then meeting up with my 2 NJ daughters this afternoon. As soon as I finish the blanket, I will post a pic

 

Judy. I give you so much credit for that graphghan. I don't think I would have the patience or fortitude to make one. Maybe if I didn't work full time, but with my limited time, I like to keep my crocheting and knitting simple. :-)

 

Hope everyone in the house has a great day.

[judianne]

One week post blizzard

[Skysmom]

Hi House.    I feel like a stranger lately, but I'm just trying to deal with everything and not whine too much.

 

Judy ~ You'll make it...wonderful progress with the graph 'ghan!    I love the picture.  That's still a lot of snow left!

 

Joanne ~ I hope you had a wonderful day with your DD's.

 

Cindy ~ I hope your foot is much better.    Your day with GS sounds just perfect!

 

Linda ~ How are you feeling?  Much better, I hope.

 

Hi to the rest or the House, too!

 

Luke is better today.  (Their pediatrician has weekend hours and she took him back in this a.m.)   I started working on taxes today...oh dear!

 

Have a good night, everyone. ♥♥♥

[tobybob]

Hi Ladies,

 

Judy, Cute baby blanket. Your making great progress on the graphghan. 

 

Mary, I hope Luke is feeling better soon. I helped DD do her taxes yesterday. Your not whining. Were all friends and what are friends for. It's better to talk about things then leave it bottled up. Hugs!

 

Cindy, Sounds like a fun day with DGS.

 

Linda, Hope your feeling better soon. 

 

Joanne, What did you and your daughters do?

 

It's been a busy few days here. We had  garage sales here in the park, a bake sale and breakfast burrito sale with proceeds going to relay for life. The bake sale and burrito sales made 801.00. We sold over 600 burritos. Suna bought a kitchen aid food processor. We used it for the potatoes and onions, it chunked them for us. That saved us a lot of time and work. We all wonder why we didn't get one 10 years ago. One of the ladies from Michigan had four of her children here visiting and they all helped us in the kitchen. One from Michigan, one from Virginia, one from Las Vegas and one from southern Texas. Her other daughter is coming in two weeks. They always help us when they come. I told her how much I appreciate them helping. They like doing it. They even come up to there moms home in the upper peninsula and help her church when they have there yearly bake sale. 

I bought a briefcase full of craft patterns, mostly crochet books. I haven't searched through it completely but I know there is some from annie's attic. I don't remember what I paid for it but I know it was under 5.00. 

Hubby is going golfing with the guys today. Were having some nice temps this week. Hope everyone has a good week!

[judianne]

Mary, I laughed when I read your comment about there still being a lot of snow left. Ishould have taken a picture of the 10 foot mountains we saw piled up in the corners of the big strip mall we went to yesterday!

And you can vent any time kiddo. Like Marlene said, its not good to always bottle it up. Hugs....

 

Marlene, have fun looking through the pile of craft books.

 

I'm on the graph ghan border now. Need to go for a routine appointment with my cardio this afternoon...cuts in on hook time!

 

Later, gators

[imanurse55]

Mary. Big hugs to you. Feel free to vent or whine of you need to.

 

Like Judy said, you should have seen it just a few days ago. Now we r getting rain and a good portion of my front yard is down to the grass.

 

Marlene. We set up the baby registry for my middle dd who is expecting in May. Another boy will join the family and my youngest daughters som and middle daughters son will be about 3 mos apart in age.

[Skysmom]

Thanks for the hugs, ladies.

 

Judy ~ I hope everything was okay at the doctor's.  Already on the border???  Wow, you've done so much in such a short time!

 

Marlene ~ You all do so much and the fundraising amount is awesome!  Yay for the new food processor...serving that many people will be easier now!

 

DD and I had lunch and went shopping today.  It was a wonderful day!  We both agreed we need to do this more than twice a year.

[Gardener]

Hello ladies. Our internet has been down, so I had a productive day cleaning cabinets.

 

I couldn't sleep last night, but I had a 7:30 meeting this morning so I had to get up. As a result of that and all that cleaning, I'm dragging. It will definitely be an early night for me. Work tomorrow and Wednesday, so no sleeping in then either!

 

Mary, I haven't ever thought if you as the least bit whiny! We are friends, vent if you need to!

 

It's been unseasonably warm here for the last couple of days, so our snow is mostly melted and what's left is dirty and dingy. It's been cloudy and gloomy as well. According to Dh, freezing cold is coming, along with more snow. Darn, I was hoping for an early spring!

 

I have three rows plus the cast off to do on my knitted baby blanket. That will be one of my long term WIPs off my conscience! I'm too tired to work on it tonight, but I hope to finish it tomorrow evening.

 

Good night, friends.

[judianne]

Morning peeps.

Cindy, yay for the blanket finish!

 

Mary, yes, more than twice a year. My friend around the corner and I are going for pizza tomorrow. We usually only do it Oct and Dec for our birthdays but decided we needed more girlfriend time than that!

Doctors appointment went well. Scheduled some routine non invasive tests for april and I talked to him about the benefits of one statin drug over another. I really like this guy! I also found out there are 17 doctors in the cardiology practice with offices scattered over at least two counties.

 

Joanne, I hope your day goes well.

 

Have a good day my friends.

[Busy-Bee-Linda-T]

Good evening my friends.  GS didn't have school because the forecast called for a weather mess and that is what happened.  I had planned to pick up mail and a couple of other things at the apartment, but decided that it really didn't look like fun out there.  The last time I let Sweet Pea outside it looked like a lot of ice on top of everything else.  We've had snow, freezing rain, and sleet.  DD stayed home from work today as well and if she doesn't feel like driving on the roads, then I sure shouldn't be.

 

Mary, vent/whine all you want.  We've all done it and this is a safe place to do it.  Bottling things up is a good way to create an ulcer.

 

 I've been doing a lot of reading lately.  DD and I have been watching some of the Downton Abbey session each evening.  They are so very good.  Evidently they are planning on this being the last season which makes me sad.  The characters are delightful.

​

Good evening to all of you.  Stay safe in whatever weather you are having. ​

[Gardener]

Hi ladies. I had the slowest day at work today, but I managed to walk nearly three miles despite that!

 

Linda, my son challenged me to a reading challenge, so I've been reading a lot too. You are supposed to read books from various categories throughout the year. It's supposed to broaden your horizons. So far I've read a book of poetry, a biography, a book about a current social issue, and now I'm reading a Pulitzer Prize winner, "Breathing Lessons" by Anne Tyler. I'm halfway through, and it's really quite a boring book. Apparently the Pulitzer Prize committee had fairly low standards that year...or there wasn't much competition. Once I finish this one, I'm planning to read "Mary Poppins" for the children's book category. I've never read that one.

 

It's really yucky weather here. It's raining and snowing and thundering and lightening. The worst of the weather is supposed to be north of us. I hope so, I have to work tomorrow.

 

Good night ladies.

[Skysmom]

Hi House.

 

Judy ~ How was the pizza?  That sounds so good right now.  I'm so glad your appointment went well and that you like your doctor.

 

Cindy ~ Oh, the reading challenge sounds fun!  Way to go on finishing another WIP.   I hope your foot is much better.?

 

Linda ~ Downton Abbey is something I look forward to!  I record it and watch when I have some crochet time.    Our uverse DVR box went out a couple of weeks ago and we had to get a new one.  So all the previous recordings are gone.    Maybe time to get the DVD of all the seasons...I think it would be fun to watch from the first season again.  Stay warm and safe!

 

Hi to the rest of Our House, too!

 

DD still hasn't received the biopsy results, but she's hanging in there.  She is going with SIL to Austin this weekend (legal conference), so we'll have the boys.  I need to take extra vitamins. Lol

 

Have a good evening, everyone. ♥♥♥

[judianne]

Woow, Mary....the boys for the weekend! Caffeine and vitamins are definitely in order!

Glad DD has things to do so waiting will hopefully go faster.

 

In addition to the two older series, I also have all the new Sherlock Holmes shows on dvd. Worth every penny. Most days there isn't much on tv so when I hook that's when they come out. I'm always hearing somethng I missed! I never got into Downton Abbey.

 

Pizza(veggie one) was delicious....and huge. I wasn't hungry for dinner so had a couple of light snacks later that evening.

 

The graph ghan is finished. Pictures to follow later on today hopefully.

 

Have a good day my friends.

[judianne]

The ghan

[Gardener]

Good morning ladies. It's snowing hard here, big fat flakes. It's very pretty out there, now that new snow is covering the dirty, dingy old snow. I have no plans to go anywhere today or tomorrow so I don't mind the snow.

 

Judy that graphghan is spectacular. I'm always impressed with how crisp and clear yours come out.

 

I finished the knitted baby blanket yesterday and have it blocking it's probably dry by now. I will try to get a picture later on today. Next I think I'm going to finish a crocheted dress that I found half finished in my WIP stack. Luckily the pattern and hook were in the bag, along with notes because it appears that I used a different weight of yarn and had to rework the pattern a bit to get the size right. My goal for this year is to have 12 items made for donation to the pregnancy resource center. Ideally, I would find yarn in my stash for these projects. Last year I only made two blankets, both of them used odds and ends of yarn leftover from other projects.

 

Mary, you will be tired after this weekend! It will be fun though. Hope DD gets her results soon. I'm watching my three youngest grand children on Tuesday while DD and the three oldest boys go skiing.

 

Linda, I've never watched Downton Abbey. My daughters tell me it's wonderful, but I'm afraid that, like Judy, Sherlock Holmes is more my style.

 

Judy, I know you are a bit of an Anglophile...this is for you. Yesterday, my oldest DD told me about this British show that is similar to our "House-hunters". It's called "Escape to the Country", and I found dozens of episodes on YouTube. It features people who want to move to the country, and each episode has some interesting historical and/or cultural facts thrown in. The show itself is pretty ordinary, but I found the houses and landscape very interesting. The shows I watched featured houses dating back as far as the late 1600s. Even inside though, they are very different from here. Nearly all the houses were extremely cluttered and the potential buyers didn't seem to be put off by this at all. I watched three episodes and in two of them, the buyers didn't choose any of the houses they showed.

 

Have a great day, ladies.

[cristopher2k]

Hello house!

 

Boy you have all been super busy!  I am not sure that I can keep up.  

 

Judy-your graph ghan is stunning!  wow!  You finished that in record time.  Good work my friend!

 

Mary-ohh you are going to be super busy over the weekend, how neat to spend time with your grands.  I bet they are excited.

 

Cindy-this weather has been something else this year.  Do you usually have long winters?  I have tons of wips too, need motivation to get some more done.

 

Joanne-it's almost time for your sweet grands to make their entrance, are you dd's super excited?

 

Linda-hope that you all feel better soon.  

 

Hello to anyone else that I missed, I apologize I have been trying to get on here for days.  

 

Life is always speeding by in my neck of the woods, last week we had our annual Ice Festival.  What fun!  Our building won 1st place in the snowman building contest, we also served hot cocoa and popcorn, fun fun fun and lots of work behind the scenes.

 

Tonight is my bi-weekly craft night, I am ready. Other than the hustle and bustle the cold/bug has visited us.  My dd was sick yesterday, now dh has it..I have had a touch of it since last week..hoping that it will pass up ds.

 

off to the never ending paperwork. hugs and warmest of wishes!

[Busy-Bee-Linda-T]

​Good afternoon.  I got awakened early today.  GS couldn't wake up at the usual time, so he was late going to school.  I had gone to sleep earlier than my norm so all the commotion woke me up.

 

Last night DD and I were watching a show on Netflix entitled "Call the Midwife."  It is set in East London in 1957.  It is something she was watching while I was doing something else.  Suddenly something caught me attention, so we backed it up and watched it from the beginning.  It centers on some young nurses who have recently qualified as midwives.  They are living in a nursing convent.  The responsibilities and conditions are somewhat riveting.  I kept thinking that I was 7 years old at the time this is set and the conditions here in the USA were so very different in post war England.  You can see ruins from the bombings of WWII in the background.  The conditions in the East London would be considered slums here in the states and yet the people have a quiet dignity about them as they make the best of their lives.  One couple is expecting their 25th child and yet this one is as wanted as all the rest of the children.  Older children are helping take care of the younger ones.  When asked when her last period was, the dad answers that she hasn't had any, she just keeps having one child after another with no breaks in between.  The mother speaks Spanish and the husband doesn't speak any Spanish, but the love between them is so apparent that they don't need it.

 

I finished up the crocheting of the latest prayer shawl while watching it.  Just have to hide the four tails and it will be ready to go.  I think that I will work on one of the Celtic Knot shawls next.  I have one started in navy, so won't have to buy any yarn for it.  I do have to be in the right mood to do the fillet crochet pieces.  I started this one right after finishing one in turquoise and it was just too close together.  I've had a break now, so should be able to finish it with no problems.  This particular Celtic Knot looks the same from all sides and stands for the interconnectedness of us all and never ending friendship.  I find that particularly appropriate for a prayer shawl.

 

Judy, your marine corps afghan is stunning.  So very beautiful.

 

LeeAnn, You sound just as busy as ever.  Have fun with your craft group tonight.  I bought one of those kits just to have extras of the hooks and the booklet has some very lovely items to make.  I particularly like several of the patterns and have made multiples of some of them. 

 

Of course, my favorite patterns are still those that I inherited from my grandmother.  What can I say?  They have great sentimental value.  I have found that they are better written than some of the more modern ones, too.  When a pattern booklet says the cost is 10 cents, I have to remember that that would be the equivalent of $5-10 now days.  They had to be well written then, too, because the people who bought them were located far apart, mostly on farms, with no one on hand to help interpret the patterns if they had problems. Some of the patterns are older than I am.  What a scary thought!   In my grandmother's day a 7 mile trip took most of the day to just get there and back again.  Horse drawn wagons didn't move very fast at all and the roads were far from being smooth.  They were just dirt tracks in many instances.  How the conditions have changed in the last 100 years.  My grandmother grew up in the horse and buggy days and lived to see a man on the moon.  She went from boned corsets to polyester pants with no corsets at all.  To trips that took all day to get to grandma's house with a horse and wagon to making the same trip in a car on paved roads in an hour.  She was 96 when she died and saw so many changes in that time.

 

I must be feeling very nostalgic today.  My 65 years have taken me from growing up on a small family farm with a party telephone that hung on the kitchen wall, to cell phones for every family member and lap top computers and being a city dweller.  I remember the day when President Kennedy was shot.  The whole school was in mourning, with radios turned on in all the classrooms to hear the latest news.  First was the news that he had been shot and taken to the hospital, followed by the news that he had been killed, to the swearing in of the Vice President.  The killing of Martin Luther King a few years later.  The forceful integration of schools.  The Vietnam War.  Hippies.  The Beatles and Elvis Presley.  (My mother was scandalized when Lawrence Welk had Elvis on his TV show.)  From the manual typewriter to computer keypads.  From the early days of science fiction to where it is an accepted major genre.  From Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans to Sesame Street and the Muppets.

 

Anyway.  I hope that you are all having a good day and looking forward to a nice Super Bowl weekend.

[Gardener]

Here is my knit baby blanket.

(Excuse my lousy photography, it really is all nice and square. It's small, about 30 by 32 inches.

[judianne]

Thanks,my friends! Hubby was so impressed....especially when I draped it over our friends favorite living room chair. He and his wife should be over within the next two weeks.

And I crochet tightly, esp when doing the color changes. That might account for the crisp look. I'm careful to maintain the same tension.

 

Cindy, thanks so much for the YouTube info! I'll definitely be checking in to that. I always love House Hunters when expats are searching for homes in England...and their amazement at hw small everything is.

 

Linda, great news on the prayer shawl fnish. And I do love my Celtic knot shawl that you sent me when my furbaby Susie passed...the love and understanding it symbolizes has always meant so much to me. I'm going to be making some smaller things and a shawl like that would be a great thing to make and give to my church or donate on my own. I think i have that pattern...I'll look tomorrow.

I remember when call the midwife was on. I never saw it, but heard it was good.

All the things we've seen over the years....it seems like more lifetimes than one at times. I'm about two years older than you so your retelling of history was very vivid for me.

Stay well, my friend.

 

Hi to LeeAnn,Joanne, Marlene and everyone!

[judianne]

Cindy, that blanket looks nice. I enlarged the pic to see if I could figure out what stitches you used. I'm not nearly experienced enough of a knitter to figure it out. How long did it take you? Or was this one of yuour UFOs?

[Gardener]

Cindy, that blanket looks nice. I enlarged the pic to see if I could figure out what stitches you used. I'm not nearly experienced enough of a knitter to figure it out. How long did it take you? Or was this one of yuour UFOs?

Judy that blanket is super simple. It was one of my UFOs but I could have easily finished it faster. It's alternating bands of garter and stockinette stitch. It consists of only knit and purl stitches, and every other row is straight knitting. It took me about 13 to 14 minutes to do 2 rows. This is the pattern:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/garter-rib-baby-blanket