Are you ready for some football?
.
I was afraid that there wasn’t going to be any football this year. But they got it all figured out and we are in Pre-Season!!! I didn’t get to see the Cowboys play their first pre-season game because it wasn’t televised, but they won!!! I watched the Bears beat the Bills last night. My son-in-law I’m sure is a very happy camper because he is a huge Bears fan :). My daughter, like me, is a Cowboys fan, makes for an interesting household when those two teams play each other :P. My oldest son is a Steelers fan, no accounting for taste :P. My 2nd son has no interest in football and neither did my youngest son, what can I say.
.
3rd Comfort Shawl started
This is a simple shawl by Lionbrand yarn. It’s a garter stitch (knit every row) using their homespun yarn. Very simple but the yarn makes it beautiful. I have a co-worker that was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She did the radiation and they found that it had migrated to her pancreas so she is doing radiation again and I believe they will follow up with chemo. These treatments make her very sick and she gets cold easily so I thought a nice heavy soft shawl with a soothing color would be nice. I’ll post a picture when I finish, which I hope will be be soon. I’m not feeling very well today so I haven’t been knitting on it today. I only have about a 1/3 of a skein left. My grandchildren (3 & 5) saw it and wanted me to make them one. I told them I would make them one for Christmas, they were so excited. You don’t see little ones excited about a hand knit item very often, was a good feeling.
.
Our weather has cooled down significantly and I’ve been able to use my air conditioner much less. Has been much less humid and much more comfortable. :) My ferret and my parakeet both did their shedding/molting thing early this year, so I expect we will see an early fall and winter, sigh.
.
I watched the Cowboy’s game against the Giants that was played on Sunday, on Monday night because I recorded it to watch on a different day, and OH MY GOSH they were awesome - it was like a different team. I was going to gloat about their amazing win, and I was going to, with great excitement, let my family know that my supervisor where I am working let me know that my permanent position would start Dec 1st instead of Jan 1st, I’ve been looking for permanent full time work for 3 years and was excited to have found something I enjoy. But I got some very sad news today. Not just one but two sad things. My daughter let me know that her Grandmother (her father’s mom) had passed away this morning. She was a wonderful lady in every sense of the word, she was always very kind to me. She will be greatly missed. Then my sister called me and let me know that my Uncle had passed away today. So my happy news was swallowed up with sad. This has not been a really great year. All we can do is pick up and go forward, hoping for a better next year.
Click picture for larger image
.
Well, I’m not knitting it as fast as I should be, but here is an updated photo. I lost track of my rows one day and did a wrong row and didn’t feel like frogging or tinking back so I corrected the row below each stitch as I knit the next row. Slow going I admit, and it probably would have been faster to frog the row and re-knit it and then go on, but then that was what I chose to do. :P I’m hoping I won’t be sleepy tomorrow so I can work on it some more. When I’m sleepy and I start knitting, it makes me even sleepier until I can’t hold my eyes open anymore. It is a little more than a 1/3 of the way finished. I really need to put more time into it and get it finished. Maybe I will have a bigger or finished picture to put up next week end. :)
Well the Cowboys can’t decide if they are going to play well or kill themselves with penalties. I’d like to tell them, if you can’t do those things well that you are trying to get away with, stop it!!! You are beating yourselves with them. Tho I have to admit, there were a couple of questionable calls in the 1st half that even a Viking fan admitted to. Even tho they are at the bottom of their division I will still root for them and hope they get rid of their penalty prone ways.
I finally got that call that all members of the Church anticipate with some intrepidation. Yes, I will be giving a talk in Church this Sunday. It’s a bit scary getting up in front of the congregation and talking about what ever spiritual subject the Bishop or his counselor have given you to talk about. It’s similar to giving a 15 min mini sermon for those not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons for those not familiar with our formal name.) As part of my talk I decided to give an experience I had this Monday while driving to work just before the sun came up. The Lord gave me some spiritual pause when I saw it. I will share that experience below.
This last Monday as I drove to work, at 7 am when it’s not quite light yet, as I turned onto a street off of a main road just outside of town, I saw a car to my left on the shoulder of the road. The people were standing outside the car looking to the right side of the road. I looked over and saw a doe that had obviously just been hit by that car. Because it was not quite light yet, I wasn’t able to see the damage to the car but the doe was just lying in the grass (not flat on the ground, but with her feet gathered under her), still alive but obviously injured and I knew she would probably be put down. My first thought was, as I looked at that beautiful creature and tears started to well up in my eyes, “oh you stupid deer, if only you had just stayed off the road, you would still be running around.” I wondered how many times she had crossed the road with no problems until she had become desensitized to her natural instinct for fear and danger. Then I thought how often do we not heed the counsel of the Lord and his servants, or the promptings of the Spirit when, like the doe, we see no danger or do not understand the danger, until we too become desensitized to it, and like the doe, who paid a physical price, we pay a spiritual price.
Tags: Football, Knitting, Spiritual
Comfort Shawl
I finally made my choice and started this shawl today. I decided on something simple and quick, but elegant looking. It’s called High Effect Feather & Fan Shawl. This is for an acquaintance at Church who lost her oldest daughter in a car accident about 6 weeks ago. I hope it will help her to know that others feel her pain and care. I tried to lighten this picture up but it’s a navy color and just very dark. It will show up better (I hope) when I get more knit and have a larger project to take a picture of. I wanted a lighter color but this was the only color I had enough of in this alpaca yarn, which has been discontinued, and I wanted it to be soft and warm.
The Cowboys played the Texans tonight, and did not do well at all. They were very sloppy on the field. Only consolation is that it is still pre-season games. I hope they look much better on the field when the regular season starts.
I’m still knitting on the scarf, but there is no hurry and it’s something I enjoy working on during my lunch hr at work. I am enjoying my new job. It’s very busy and fast paced, but has all the things I enjoy doing. I’m looking forward to being permanently hired and having that financial security that temp jobs just can’t give.
The weather here has been really nice this week. Still a bit warm but much better than last week when I felt like I was going to melt. I much prefer the hot DRY weather out west to the hot HUMID weather in the mid-west. Winter has never been my favorite season, so you can understand that I also prefer the warmer winters out west too :P. I could so be a snow bird :P. But we just have to grow where we are planted.
Tags: Football, Knitting, Life
Dallas Cowboys!!!
.
Yep, it’s pre-season again!!!! Dallas won their first game against the Bengals (16 to 7) and lost their 2nd game against the Raiders (17 to 9). They lost against the Raiders in pre-season last year too. :P I didn’t get to see either game tho, I need the NFL channel ;).
.
Well I’m doing this from my daughter’s computer because I did the last Micro Soft windows update and now my computer will not boot up. :( It won’t even get to the windows screen, it freezes before it gets that far. So when I get some money saved up, I will take it to a computer place and have them get my data off of the hard drive, and reformat and add the OS back on and then restore my data. Computers can be such a pain, but you almost can’t do anything without them anymore.
I hope everyone is surviving the heat. We have been hot, hot, hot the last several days. Suppose to cool back down starting tonight, thank goodness. I have some pictures of the yarn I finished spinning, plying and am now knitting into a scarf. :) But I will have to wait to do that until I get my computer fixed so I can upload the new pictures. sigh
Oh yeah, I have a temp to perm job that is suppose to start next week either on Monday or Tuesday. It’s at the bank I worked the long term temp for last year :). I’ll be grateful not to have to keep changing jobs, which is sooo stressful.
Tags: Fiber, Football, Knitting, Life, Spinning
Frost in the Trees
.
Ok, I’ve lived in IA off and on for 11 years and I don’t remember having fog like we have had for the past several days, tho it did lift today, and I certainly don’t remember fog causing frost in the trees like this. But it is beautiful. I have another picture below. I wish I had had my camera with me this afternoon when I was out and about, because there was a large group of trees in a snowy field and the frost on the branches stood out making a very stark picture against the sky, but oh so beautiful!
Closer view of the Frost on the branches
You can click on the pictures for a larger view. We are having our mid winter thaw, and the temps have been in the 20′s and lower 30′s this last week and so far this week, however it is suppose to be maybe up to 42 this Saturday – woohoo!! The mid winter thaw is almost like an early spring, but it goes away followed by more cold snowy winter until the real spring breaks forth. Come on Spring!!!
Well as you probably already know, the Cowboys did not win their game on Sunday. Actually they didn’t do very well at all. But having said that, I was happy to have them make it to the playoffs this year, it shows that they are starting to get things together, now if they can just keep it together ;P. I’m sure they will have a great year next year. :)
Roc Day Take 2
Roc Day Take 2
Well, it was decided that since the weather ruined our official Roc Day celebration that we would reschedule our spinning celebration to yesterday. I know it’s not really Roc Day, but fun was had by all!! These are the wheels that were there, I took these while we were busy with our pot luck lunch :). The spinner below on the right (and owner of the local spinning shop, R. Rabbits Fiber Studio ,) is enjoying her unoffical Roc Day spinning. ;)
.
Roc Day Take 2
It's Llama Yarn!!
.
The Llama is FINISHED!! That is what I did at our Roc Day, finished spinning the 2nd spool and plyed and skeined off. I washed it and hung it to dry yesterday afternoon and used my new swift and ball winder this morning to make a center pull ball from one of them. I will wind the other skein and my son will have the Llama yarn he has been patiently (ummmm) waiting for. :)
Next Project
As you can see I’ve already started my next project. I really wanted to spin the Suri Alpaca, but I have a gift project to finish first, then I can spin that Suri. :) This is the Merino Superwash that I dyed with the Wilton purple cake decorating color. The last time I used it I got beautiful shades of lavender and light purple. This time it was light purple, lavender and light blue. Gorgeous colors, but they are so unpredictable, great if you want the excitment of a mystery color, tho’ be prepared to be surprised at the finished colors. :) But before I spin any more of this I need to finish knitting my grand daughter’s blanket. She has been plenty patient and I need to get it done :).
Ok, YES!!! The Cowboys beat the Eagles again (played them three times this year and beat them all three times and the Eagles are no slouches!!) They not only won their division the week before last when they beat the Eagles, but this week’s win against the Eagles won a wild card slot for the playoffs. Now this Sunday they play the Vikings, that should be an interesting match up. I’ll be recording that to watch on Monday night :P. The Cowboys have finally started to work together as a team and what a year they’ve had!!! :) Now they just need to work on those penalties! :P
Tags: Cowboys, Fiber, Llama, Spinning
Still More Snow
.
.
Well mother nature has certainly been busy this winter. According to the weatherman, we got about 4.5 inches of snow over night and expect anywhere from 1 to 3 more inches today. But at least it was 12 above today!!! It’s been in the single digits and below zero ambient temps lately. Supose to be only around 3 to 6 above ambient temps for the next two days and I know that means minus temps with windchills. Sigh, I’ll ask again, is it spring yet?
Swift & Ball Winder Set Up
My sister, for Christmas, sent me an Amazon.com certificate. I went to amazon and looked and hemmed and hawed and finally made up my mind (hard to spend unexpected money when you’ve been on a budget for so long :P) and decided to get a swift! I had a ball winder but had wanted a swift for several years but could never talk myself into spending the money on one. So I decided to treat myself and it came today!! It really is a nice one, sturdy and seems to move well. I’ll give it a workout when I get that Llama skeined off so I can wind it into a ball for my son. :)
I intended to spend Roc day today spinning with my local spinning group to celebrate the new year. However the weather wasn’t co-operating and I did not want to take my wheel out in this. If you would like to know more about Roc Day you can check this wikapedia link or this Florida link.
Well the Cowboys beat the Eagles 24 to 0 last Sunday (tho I didn’t get to record the game to watch because it wasn’t on cable) and won their division. They get to play them yet again this Saturday evening for a wild card slot. It’s always an interesting game between Dallas and Philadelphia – cos’ they are not the best of friends ;P. I will get to watch it this time :). GO COWBOYS!!!!
Tags: Cowboys, Football, Snow, Spinning
Old Man Winter - 2009
.
.
This was what we received from the blizzard that hit the midwest last week. We got rain and freezing rain (mostly just rain) until the end and then we got about 4 inches of snow. Much less than other area’s who received 2 or more feet. Snow on the ground and covering the branches in the trees is such a pretty and peaceful sight, until you have to go out side and deal with it, and besides that it’s cold, brrrrr. :P
The “Boys” are doing well. They beat the Saints week-end before last, and their old arch rivals the Redskins, this last week-end. They will face another newer arch rival this week-end, the Eagles. If the Cowboys win they will win their division. Woohoo! They’ve had a decent year this year :). I hope they win, but even if they don’t they’ve had an exciting year.
I’m spinning more Llama for my son, I have one spool filled and am working on the 2nd spool. When it’s full I can ply and hopefully will have enough for 2 more skeins. Incase my grand daughter is reading, I am also knitting on your blanket, it’s cosy to sit on the couch and knit in the evening.
Thor, my awesome ferret, is finally finished sheding his summer coat and has a wonderfully soft and warm winter coat. He’s fluffy and beautiful, and I have much less ferret fur to vacum up :P.
My Church is having a New Year’s Eve party Thursday evening. I will be glad to usher out the old and ring in the new, it’s just been one of those kinds of years, so I’m definately ready for the new and hoping for a better New Year.
Wishing all a peaceful and wonderful New Year!
Tags: Cowboys, ferrets, Knitting, New Years, Spinning, Winter
Dallas Cowboys!!!
Woohoo!!! Pre-season football has started!!! Dallas plays their first game this coming Friday night. Since I babysit for 3 of my grand children on Friday nights, I’ll be training my 3 year old grand daughter to be a football fan, (don’t tell her dad I will teach her to root for the Dallas Cowboys, he’s a Bears fan)! :P The oldest one (11 years old) isn’t interested, waited to long to indoctrinate her :P, and the youngest (1 year old) will be in bed by then ;P. So it’s Mady and me watching the Cowboys on Friday night :).
**UPDATE** Oh goodness, I missed Dallas’s first game which was on 8-13, where they lost to my 2nd favorite team, the Oakland Raiders. I can’t believe I missed their first game, sigh.
click on picture for larger image
I’m spinning the baby Alpaca (called a Cria) roving, that I bought at a fiber festival in TN last year, on my Ashford Traveler. This roving is sooooo soft, I can hardly wait to handle the yarn and knit it into a capelet. I’m not sure if the 6 ounces I have will be enough to do a shawl, I’ll see what the yardage is after I have finished spinning it all, it should be a heavy baby weight or light sport weight. If I think I have enough, I might do a shawl instead. The jury is out on what I really want tho. :) I have plenty of time yet to make a decision.
Hand dyed superwash merino roving
This is some of the white superwash merino that I bought some time back. I dyed it with Wilton icing dye. I used the purple, and it broke into different shades of light purple, lavender and light blue. It’s actually a little bit more pastel than it looks in the picture, quite pretty. The last time I used the Wilton purple it was just different shades of purple and lavender. You just never know what you are going to get with the Wilton dyes, but they are fun to play with. This should be interesting to spin. :)
Tags: Fiber, Football, Spinning
1