Just Checking In

It's been so long since I wrote on this blog and there simply is no excuse. So we'll just leave it at that.

I've been knitting, knitting, knitting. It seems like forever. I belong to a swap group on Ravelry that focuses on Fairy Tales and legends. Each swapper makes a wee tiny sock, and includes other items to represent the theme. This month's theme is Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. I didn't really know the story. So I went to my online resource: Wikipedia. The story of Ali Baba come from the Tales of the Arabian Nights. My wee tiny sock represents the booty that Ali Baba's brother, Cassim, stole from the cave belonging to the thieves.
In addition to the wee tiny sock, I sent along a little plastic basket, a small sewing kit, a mini notebook and pencil, a lighted keychain, glittery nail polish, and a small, portable quilted pad that turns into a basket. My swap partner lives in Scotland so it will be a while before she gets it. I can't wait to see what she is sending to me.

On the knitting front, I'm knitting a beautiful shawl as a test knit for my designer friend. She is quite the designer, is our Meggie. Meagheen Ryan designs socks, hats, scarfs, shawls, children's' cardigans. She is doing a series of shawls called Women of Substance. Women who have made a difference in the world. There are 40 shawls in the series, plus 12 in a Knit-A-Long that are being brought out once a month for a fee. The money collected from the Knit-A-Long will go to scholarships for women going to school with a focus on service. July 31 will see the first shawl in the KAL - Eleanor Roosevelt. I am testing the pattern for the September 30 KAL - Mary Magdalene. I can't show you the whole thing yet...but here is part of it. It will have over 1500 beads once I'm done. I love knitting this shawl. I'm also testing the Unsinkable Molly Brown for her.
Like everywhere else in the U.S., we are living thru the heatwave. John went to Utah from the 30th of June to the 10th of July. He had a blast! Me? Well, I lived in a blast furnace most of the time he was gone. You see, 2 hours after he left, the air conditioner died....I mean DIED! On a holiday weekend, I lose a/c. I called John and, from Utah, he arranged for a repair man to come out...it seems the motor finally went to the big motor graveyard in the sky. Well, that's fine, but it's darned hot here in Marshfield, Missouri. And the humidity is a killer! The motor had to be ordered, and overnighted and then installed. For 5 days, I lived in misery. The temperature inside the house got to 89 degrees during the day and down to 85 at night. When the repairs were done, 5 days later, I hugged the repairman! I told John he is NEVER allowed to go away on vacation, even to see the Grands, ever! Something always breaks when he leaves.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tour de Fleece Begins July 2nd

Yes, folks, the Tour De Fleece 2011 begins today!....now there are a lot of folks out there who are scratching their heads and wondering what the heck that is, and why is Sally so excited? Well, pull up a chair and I can tell you about it.

The Tour de Fleece was thought up several years ago as a way for spinners (of yarn, not tales) to process all the fiber they have sitting in bags in the closets, just waiting to be spun.

Based on the Annual Tour de France bicycle race, this version uses spinning wheels, drop spindles, and anything else that can be used to spin fleeces into yarn. Well, fine, you say...but Sally doesn't spin...she doesn't own a spinning wheel or any of those spindle things...why is she so excited?

I've been thinking about learning to spin...but the cost of buying even a beginner's wheel is so high that it's stopped me from proceeding. Then a friend suggested a drop spindle. Those are really inexpensive and can even be made from a dowel, a cup hook, and a cd disc... so I got an inexpensive spindle and some fiber and allowed myself to be talked into competing in this year's Tour de Fleece. Each spinner spins each day that the race goes on, with one of the days to be a challenge day (that's the day the bicyclists go up the hills in their race) and there are 2 days that we don't have to spin at all cause they are resting days. I've committed to spinning 10 minutes each day...I figure if I spin more than than, fine; if I only spin 10 minutes each day, then my spinning will improve slower, but I'll not put any pressure on myself...heaven knows, I don't need any more self-inposed pressure.

John left on Thursday night to spend 10 days with the grands in Salt Lake City. As usual, something happened about 2 hours after he left - the a/c unit stopped working in the house. I noticed it was getting a bit warm in the studio - it's the warmest room in the house but it got really warm. I looked a the thermometer and it read 79°...not what we normallyhave in the house. I walked down the hallway and checked the thermostat - 75° and it was set to turn on at 70°...did all the standard checks and nothing happened. Called John on his cell phone and he gave me some ideas to check and then I called the repair man - at 10:00 at night and on the start of a holiday weekend. Got the ceiling fans going....and hoped the guy could get it fixed the next morning. Here we are now on Saturday - still no a/c! That guy spent all day trying to get it fixed and gave up on Friday nite around 8:00...we called someone else from Springfield (45 miles away) and that blessed man came out last night at 10:45 to see if he could figure it out. Evidently, the circuit board wasn't bad, as was first thought, it was the motor...an $1100.00 motor! AND he can't get the part till Wednesday. In the meantime, it is sweltering in the house...this morning it was only 84° which was down from the 89° temperature from last night. Fortunately, today is the last day of 100° heat so we might get a bit of relief between now and Wednesday. Will be spending the next 3 days of my holiday in very short shorts, a tank top, and no bra....so beware if you come to visit. It's hot and so am I!!!

Wishing you all a wonderful Fourth of July Holiday....Thank you to all military members and veterans, police officers, firemen and women, farmers, and anyone I might have forgotten to mention who is responsible for making and keeping this country the great country it is.

God Bless America !

Aftermath

Just checking in with all of you folks...some of you have emailed me directly, some have called, some have just prayed for us. Thank you to everyone! We live about an hour east of Joplin, Missouri, along the I-44. While we had horrendous winds, vicious rains, and large hail, we had no damage. This is what I encountered on my way to work on Monday.
Wicked black low clouds. Rain and wind. And that's what we've had each day this week. Today, Thursday, we have low clouds still but no rain. Hopefully by the weekend, we will see that blazing yellow ball in the sky once more.

Shortly after the news of the Joplin tornado, I looked outside and saw this.

Right off the back deck, a double rainbow. While the tornadoes this week are reminders that we are not in charge, this double rainbow reminds us of exactly Who is in charge.

Thanks for checking on us, praying for us, and caring about us. And thanks for stopping by.

Two of My Favorite Men and a Sock

I cast on and finished this Wee Tiny Sock on Sunday nite. "Orla is Stressed" is a lovely and fast little knit. It's a bit scary to drop stitches at first but once you get over the initial fear, it is fun to release all your stress by dropping stitches deliberately.

John called me last evening, as he usually does around 5:00, to tell me that he was on his way home from work. He also said that he'd gotten a phone call from our son. It seems our son was on a business trip in Kansas City (3 1/2 hours north of us) and wondered if we would like to drive north and meet him halfway. We left home at 6:00 last evening and got to our meeting point at 10 minutes till 8:00. Young John arrived about 5 minutes behind us. We hadn't eaten dinner so our meeting took place at a Chinese buffet. We hadn't seen John since Christmas and that hour and a quarter we got to spend with him was a true gift! Thanks, Son, for thinking of this lovely treat for us. We love you!
Sorry there's not much content to this posting...I just wanted to share a bit of the joy we felt yesterday at getting to see our son....Utah is so very far away from Missouri....

Thanks for stopping by.

May 2011

Wow, it's been so long since I last posted. Saying I was busy sounds so lame, but I swear it's true. I've been knitting up a storm...nothing to show for it right now...am working on a test knit for my friend in New York. She has designed a lovely series of shawls to commemorate historical women. Rosie the Riveter, Rosa Parks, Emma Pankhurst, and the Unsinkable Molly Brown. I'm testing Molly Brown for her. It's my very first shawl and I must say, it's quite lovely. I'm knitting it in a Wollmeise fingering weight yarn in Lila Ludmilla (violet). I promise I'll take a picture once it's done and post it here. Promise!

In the meantime, here's a Wee Tiny Sock I knit last night. My friend in New York comes from a really large family - 26 children in all (no adoptions, one set of twins!) and they all knit, even the men! There are several doctors in the family and they all work with Doctors Without Borders. This family is involved with a lot of charities, and they encourage all their friends to help when they can. My friend designs socks and shawls and hats and wee tiny socks and sells them with all the proceeds going to charity. Recently, 3 of the brothers, all doctors, heard that the Doctors Without Borders group was still working in Haiti but was running out of money for that area. They decided to tap in to their sister's network and designed a set of 3 Wee Tiny Socks, placed them in kits with yarns and patterns, and sold them thru their sister's Ravelry Shop online with the understanding that all proceeds would go to DWB and used toward Haiti relief. I bought the

set and it has sat here awaiting me for several weeks. Last night I had some time, not enough to work on the shawl but enough to devote to a WTS...I cast on the first sock in the Healer series. This one is called Let Them Be Children. I love how it came out...

Missouri in Spring is quite lovely. So green and fresh. It won't be long before the humidity sets in and then it will get miserable. Until then, John is taking advantage of the nice weather and putting in a second garden bed. Last year he only had one bed...we had 11 tomato plants and several herb plants. Last week I went with him to the Marshfield Greenhouse and we picked up some basil, rosemary, chives, oregano, and sage. We also go 3 roma tomato plants, 2 Brandywine tomatoes for cutting tomatoes, a broccoli plant, and 4 pepper plants (yellow, orange, green, and red). One of the girls at work gave us some small brussels sprouts plants and 4 Carolina Gold tomatoes along with 4 Cherokee purple tomato plants. John wants the tomatoes in a different bed from last year so he is building a new bed. He planted all the herbs and the other vegetables last weekend. This weekend he hopes to get the new bed done so he can get the tomato plants in the ground. He is racing against the rain....clouds are building up as I write this.

Some sad news to report...we lost our 2 year old cow, Dolly, a couple of weeks ago...she was unable to give birth to the calf she was carrying and both she and the calf died. While they say that you can't have livestock without occasionally losing some, and it is part of nature, it still is a sad thing to happen. And life goes on!

I will try to post more often in future. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.

Soul Stud!

Several yarn shops in this area are sponsoring a Yarn Crawl and I decided to check them out. I usually only go to one yarn shop - my favorite One City Market (Hi, Lisa!) but the opportunity to check out other shops was just too much. Included in the knitter's version of a shop hop is the White River Alpaca Farm. Stacy and her husband have some really darling alpacas...I got to meet Soul Stud - he's a really lady's man! And his fur is so soft..poor baby was so hot and he is not scheduled for sheering till next week. His eyes are huge and so soulful.

This past weekend, John and I went to the commissary at Fort Leonard Wood...first time since the beginning of January. Once John brought all the bags in, our Gilligan decided he needed to make sure that black bag didn't levitate off the counter. I recall a friend saying that cats are either "up" cats or "down" cats....Gilligan is definitely an "Up" cat!

Finished the Shop Hop today with my friend Peggy...had a lovely time visiting a couple more shops and then got some Chinese food for lunch. Am now home and about to continue knitting the Round 3 socks for Sock Madness....Will post a picture once I get a bit further along...in the meantime, please keep good thoughts winging their way toward me and my fingers....there are only 25 people from my team going on the Round 4.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hay, Man!

Today was one of the first days that the air outside wasn't frigid and breezy. A beautiful spring day. One of our friends stopped by to deliver hay for our cows. It's amazing how excited John gets when the HayMan stops by! And the cows get a bit excited about it, too. Now they've got enough to last till the grass starts growing in the south and north fields.

Sock Madness 5 is in full force. I made it into the 2nd Round and began the pattern for Nornir. It's a deceptively simple pattern...I say deceptive cause it looks quite easy and simple. While it really is easy and simple, it takes forever to knit. I began to think that someone came in each night and unraveled everything I did the day before....it felt as though I'd never get done with them. I finally finished, sent my email to the organizers along with the required picture, and snagged spot #29 out of 37 to get into Round 3. Here are the socks I have since named Groundhog Day Socks! Knit with a lovely yarn by Pagewood Farms with the colour name of Army Girl.

I've no idea when Round 3 starts, probably sometime during this next week. Will have to post once I've got those socks finished.

I'm knitting Easter Socks at the moment...will post once they are done.

Thanks for stopping by.