Missouri Star

Walks, Lace, Quilts and Tomotao-Eating Dogs

Perhaps it's the contrast with the hot muggy climate of Orlando, but our weather here has been spectacular of late.  We returned to cool rainy weather, which felt great.  But later in the week the sun came out.  Mid 70's, low humidity, perfect!  For many years there was nowhere safe to walk around our house, but one of the few positive effects of development has been the creation of some very nice walking areas.  Maggie and I found a new one shortly before we left for Orlando.  It's a nice walk out our backdoor and through the woods to some new housing developments and from there to a beautiful community park complete with children's playground, soccer fields and a Frisbee golf course.  It's 1 mile there and 1 mile back - a nice workout for us both.  I had decided that a good pedometer might inspire me to keep at it, but in looking at them, the really good ones were rather expensive.  Imagine my delight when I found an application for my iPod that works beautifully! 

It records steps, mileage, speed and then emails me the result for an Excel spreadsheet!  All for $1.99.  And I can listen to audio books while I walk.

As I've mentioned, stress at work has kept my knitting rather simple, but I'm finally feeling like tackling some more ambitious projects.  I'm about halfway through my Embrace the Lace club selection, the Heart to Heart beaded scarf.  I'll settle in with Battlestar Galactica tonight and should reach the point where I start decreasing.

 

Hubby and I had decided to take another stab at growing tomatoes in our sunroom.  It doesn't really get warm enough around here to have much of a success growing them outside.  The plants were doing rather well when we left for Orlando, but suffered from a tad bit of neglect while we were gone.  However, we did have a few respectable little cherry tomatoes taking shape and some just about ready for picking.  Until we came home the other day to find the plants totally denuded of tomatoes and Maggie just finishing up munching on a green one!  The little stinker had eaten all but one of our tomatoes!! 

The only one left was too high for her to reach.  Maybe we'll try again next year, but put them on a table or bench.

Today has been a blissfully free day and I started working on one of a pair of matching quilts for the girls.  This one will probably be for Isobel - Abby helped me pick out the fabric while I was in Orlando:

My original plan was to make them both the same, but Abby suggested I use the same fabrics, but different designs.  So I'm on the lookout for a design for Ivy's quilt.

Off to work on the quilt for a little longer and then dust and shop for few groceries.  The usual mad social whirl!

Hot and Steamy Orlando

Greetings from hot and steamy Orlando.  This is our last full day here; we leave tomorrow for home.  I will miss my children and grandchildren - I will not miss the weather.  For instance, today it was in the mid 90's and at least that much humidity.  Hubby read that the heat index was 103.  I think they were a little on the low side.  Abby and the girls and I headed out to the park for a blogger meet-up.  Kris, of Sonny and Shear, and her daughter Anna Grace met up with us.  We look happy, but we were standing in little puddles of sweat as we slowly melted into the ground:

Honestly, though, this has been the hottest day so far - the rest have been at least tolerable, but we have had a lot of rain.

The girls are absolutely delightful!  They have grown and changed so much and are so much fun.  Their parents are doing an outstanding job of raising them:

Both girls adore their Yeh-Yeh (grandfather), especially Ivy:

The first thing we hear in the morning is "Yeh-Yeh, oh Yeh-Yeh."  But Nana has gotten in a few coups herself.  Yesterday they had a little girlfriend over to play.  While the rest were watching cartoons, Isobel decided that knitting is way more interesting:

In fact, any time I've gotten my knitting out, she's come over to help.  Needless to say, not much knitting has been accomplished, but there is certainly a yarn lover developing.  She especially likes to cuddle with my yarn and sniff it!  Yep, Izzy, I love the smell of wool too!

Yesterday I fully intended to post on the blog, but when I went to retrieve my laptop, I discovered that Ben had taken it to work, thinking it was his.  Reasonable error, I guess, when this is the scene on the counter:

 

We are definitely a Mac loving family and I think we have a new convert:

 

Ben and Abby gave hubby an iMac!!  They weren't using their desktop and offered it to him.  That's one of the advantages to having technologically advanced children - we get their cast-offs, which are still pretty up-to-date.  I've been trying to convert hubby, but was a little leery of spending a lot of money to find that he didn't like it.  So far, I think we may have a winner.

A busy day tomorrow, with 4th of July celebrations, packing and then a long trip home.  It will feel so good to sleep in my own bed and be able to sit out in the yard in the cool of the day.  But I will miss the family here.  Good news, though - Ben and Isobel are coming out to visit in July for a family reunion.  I can't wait - and neither can Maggie.  I think she and Isobel will really hit it off!!

Lace, Flowers and Fruit

Well, work is still a bit on the stressful side.  I went in yesterday to find that the server had gone down.  It took me about on a hour on the phone with tech support to fix the problem.  Then I come to find out that every computer in the office can connect to the server except mine.  How fair is that?  Another half hour on the phone and it was finally solved.

However, I must be taking it a bit in stride because my brain wasn't sufficiently fried that I couldn't face tackling a new lace project (and inserting some double negatives to keep you guessing).  I started the Heart to Heart scarf by Sivia Harding from my Embrace the Lace club:

I don't know if you can see clearly, but it is beaded.  This is turning out to be a great project.  The yarn, a cashmere blend by Mama Llama is just delicious and once I got used to it, the beading is just motoring along.  I have, however, decided not to take this on my trip to Orlando.  It's definitely not plane knitting - I just see my little tin of beads scattering all over the floor of the plane.  And it's not one to entertain with a toddler around. 

My sister came up this weekend and today we went to a Garden Tour in town.  We saw some beautiful gardens and it gave me a chance to practice with my new camera:

I especially like the last one - the flowers just seem to glow!  When we came home we found that our sweet neighbor had brought over a flat of strawberries for us:

These are local strawberries from a farm just down the road and they are some of the best strawberries I have ever tasted.  Just look at this beauty:

We all had strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I also managed to get a few model shots of Hidcote:

I think I always look a little dorky in the model shorts - I'm just too self conscious!

Next post should be brought to you from sunny downtown Orlando!  We fly out on Saturday morning.  Abby's been tempting us since yesterday with all kind of cute video and audio messages from her new 3G iPhone.  Can't wait to get my hands on those babies!

Lace Blocking and Retail Therapy

Those who know me well know that I hate shopping.  And I especially hate clothes shopping.  As a result, my wardrobe is sadly outdated.  Thankfully the standards in a pediatric office are a little less casual than say, an upscale cosmetic practice.  So it surprised me a little that clothes shopping served as a little retail therapy this week.  I was hoping this week might be a little less stressful, but while less frantic, stress was in good supply.  I'm having trouble with my DSL.  For unknown reasons, it just quits on me.  It doesn't seem to matter what I try to do to resolve it, but after a while, it spontaneously comes back.  Not a big deal unless you're trying to close out the day (which requires a connection with the bank) and you really, really want to go home!  Then yesterday, I got a call at home at 6:00 a.m. (never good news!).  The anesthesiologist called to say that his equipment wasn't working and he had to cancel.  We had a full day of general anesthesia scheduled and I had to call a bunch of disappointed parents to tell them we had to reschedule.  It escapes me why the anesthesiologist can't call them - he has all their numbers.  Must be why I make the big bucks (Haha!!).  So anyway, I decided to take my new found day off and go shopping on the mainland.  My original plan was just to buy a few summer tops.  However, I came away with 7 tops, two pairs of slacks, two dresses, some undies and two (count 'em) two! pairs of shoes.  Just about everything was on half price, so I really didn't spend a ton of money.  So I may still be stressed, but at least I'll look good!

Today is a blessedly free day off with nothing pressing, so I decided to block Hidcote.  I had help:

Maggie was in a bit of a funk because Kirby got to go ride in the car this morning.  Kirby would just as soon have forgone the trip to the groomers, but Maggie was disconsolate!  It's long been a standard in the family that Kirby is the lap dog and Maggie is the car dog.  She was very unhappy and parked herself in the middle of the living room, put her head up in the air and howled!  I've never heard her do that before.  Then she pouted:

About halfway through the blocking process she decided that "zoomies" were in order and started tearing, at breakneck speed, around the bedroom.  Unfortunately, her route took her right over the shawl I was trying to block.  Thankfully I remembered a suggestion of bones with cream cheese stuffed in them and frozen as a dog treat.  I had put one in the freezer and Maggie was more than happy to be diverted with that.  So Hidcote was finished blocking with no further incidents:

Stats:  Hidcote by Miriam Felton, unnamed lace yarn from my stash, size 4 Knitpicks Options needles.  Started in January, finished about a month ago, but not blocked until today.  While this was an interesting knit, I did find several errors in the pattern.  They were not enough to throw an experienced lace knitter off, but might trip up a novice.  They may have been corrected in later versions of the pattern.  By the way, I would have never been able to capture that picture with my little point-and-shoot.  The new camera with wide angle lens is wonderful!!

Now what to do with the rest of my day?  I may work on some digital scrapbooking stuff.  I have a class that I bought months ago that I have not had time to play with.  How nice to have a day stretching ahead with no firm plans!

How Do You Spell S-T-R-E-S-S?

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this subject yet, considering it's been such a huge part of my life for the last 6 months!  I have alluded to stress in my life to explain why my knitting projects have been fairly simple.  Six months ago the dentist I work for told me that he was selling the practice.  He had an opportunity to go back to school to become an orthodontist and decided to take it.  However, I was sworn to secrecy until it was made public, only about a month ago.  That in itself has been stressful, but nothing compared to the whirlwind of activities that was required of me, both in preparation for the sale and the transition.

The new doc started last week and I have to say I am favorably impressed.  Although he is different in temperament, he seems to be kind and gentle and has a nice way with the kids.  But nothing (and I mean nothing!) in a transition is simple.  Even in the best of transitions there are a lot of ruffled feathers both with staff and patients and I feel torn in a million different directions.  Then there are the logistics, making new arrangements with insurance companies and DSHS to make sure we get paid, talking to telephone companies, computer software people, you name it!  We were told by DSHS that it would take 90 days to get all of the new doc's paperwork through due to a changeover in their computer system.  I just hit the wall on that one - 90 days of no service for our Medicaid clients??  So I spent a lot of time on the phone and found a friendly woman who actually walked our paperwork through and got us qualified in just a few days.

I worked last Sunday and I have to go in today (Saturday) to deal with some computer issues.  The new doc wants to upgrade our internet to DSL (yes, we were in the dark ages and still on dial-up).  But after an hour on the phone with Verizon I was having no luck at all.  I think it may be that our computer equipment is too old!  So I have to go in today and meet with the IT guy to see what the problem is.

So, you can see why I'm under just a little bit of stress.  I'll feel better when we start receiving payments from insurance companies and I know our cash flow is, well, flowing.  Oh, and to top it all off, the new doc is still commuting to his old job as Head of Pediatrics at Loma Linda University (yeah, he is well qualified)!   During this time, the old doc is working some days, the new doc is working some days and our part-time doc is working some days.  I told them I was going to name them Who, What and I Don't Know.  Who is working Mondays and Tuesdays, What is working Wednesdays and I Don't Know who's working on Thursdays!!

However, stress relief is on its way!  Yesterday I booked our flight to Orlando for later in the month.  We have about a week when none of the docs are available for a few days.  I got a sub for the other two days and told the new doc I was taking off!  I think a little granddaughterly therapy is in order.

Hubby was quite instrumental in stress relief this week as well.  He called on Wednesday and said he was at the Navy Exchange and they had D-SLR's on sale.  We had been doing a lot of research and had it narrowed down to a Canon or Nikon, but I was thinking we would need to wait until the end of the year.  I told him to use his judgement and the sweetie came home with this:

 

It's a Nikon D60.  I haven't even gotten beyond automatic and I can't believe the quality of photos that it takes.  I tried getting action shots of Maggie chasing bubbles, but she's too quick:

 

However, when she sits still the results are amazing:

 

Hubby and Kirby are kinda cute when they sit still too:

 

 

I was especially impressed by its yarn photo capabilities.  My prize yarn arrived from Sonny and Shear and this photo was taken in the kitchen under artificial light with a flash:

 

The color is just about spot on!  The darker blue is Cascade Heritage and the teal is Araucania Ranco.  They will both be destined to become Cookie A. socks if I can ever again in my lifetime wrap my mind around a complicated knitting project. 

In the meantime, I've taken break from baby sweaters and have been working on Ivy's Christmas sweater:

 

I think it's just too cute.  I had decided not to worry about the color runs, but to just go with what the yarn gave me.  Imagine my delight when I attached a new ball to do the second sleeve that it matched the first sleeve exactly!  I couldn't have planned that.

I will leave you with this observation from Ivy (handing a toy to her mother), "Oh no!  It's broken.  Jie-Jie (big sister) broke it."  Ah - the blame game starts early!

To Spin of Not to Spin?

Lately I've been toying with the idea of taking up spinning.  I figured after 24 years of hard work, I would splurge on a retirement gift - something that I could carry with me into retirement and provide me with a new learning experience.  I talked to the nice lady at our LYS who offered to let me come in and spin on several different wheels to get a feel for them.  I talked to several friends who are spinners and I spent time cruising the internet looking at different wheels.  My decision?  Not to spin.  First of all, I don't need to take up something completely new and I figured anything that stood between me and casting on a new project would only cause me frustration.  And there are so many beautiful yarns out there that I still want to sample, I don't really need to create my own.

Instead, I'm going to look at getting a good, high quality SLR camera.  I love photography and would love even more getting good at it.  This is also something that I can share with hubby and something that I can integrate with what is becoming a passion almost as great as quilting and knitting - digital scrapbooking.  I just bought some CD's with three years of back issues from Scrapper's Guide and have been having a blast learning new techniques in Photoshop Elements.  Here's my latest page:

 

So, if any of you photography buffs out there have any suggestions for a camera, please feel free to chime in!

I've continued my baby sweater obsession and have completed two more:

 

I decided that I needed to make some little boy sweaters, but when I dived into my Encore stash, this is what I found:

 

Do you think having granddaughters has skewed my color wheel?  So I had to go out and buy some blue.  While I was there, my local pusher had to show me some new yarn that had just come in, and of course, it jumped right into my basket and made its way home:

 

This is King Cole "Splash".  Although I usually avoid 100% acrylic, I loved the colors in this so much and it's very soft and not at all "squeaky".  This will be Ivy's Christmas sweater - a simple cardigan from "Top Down for Toddlers".  In the picture, it is actually upside down - the garter stitch area is the collar.  This is DK weight and I'm finding it a rest for my fingers from the worsted.

Today when the mail came, I received a surprise - my Embrace the Lace shipment.  I had entirely forgotten about it!  I think many of us were just a little disappointed with the first shipment, but this one made up for all of that:

 

Included in the shipment were notecards, two cute heart boxes with beads and a stitch marker, a heart box full of candies, a heart tape measure, a sample of a yarn soak, a highlighter pen, luscious cashmere lace yarn from Mama Llama, a great beaded scarf pattern by Sivia Harding, and a cute bag to put it all in!  Definitely a winner.

And speaking of winner - I won Sonny and Shear's monthly trivia contest!  Woo Hoo!  I hardly ever win anything.  But I now have $25 gift certficate to spend in their store.  Now I just have to decide on what sock yarn to buy.  Thanks Kris!

Babies and Bears

The Babies and Bears juggernaut plows on!  I finished the third and have cast on for the fourth:

Several knitters have expressed interest in the pattern, so I thought a critique and some suggestions might be in order.  The construction on this is most of the fun.  You start at the sleeve edge and knit one half of the sweater.  A small front band with a pattern is then knit on and the first half is set aside while you knit the second half.  Another front band goes on that and then a back band goes on only one half and is then kitchenered to the other half.  Neckline stitches are picked up and a hood knitted on.  The pattern calls for the hood seam to be kitchenered, but I did a three needle bind off, which I think gives more stability and a nice, neat finish.

The last step has you putting held stitches from the left band, across the bottom and right band on one needle and knitting a front/bottom band with buttonholes.  It is at this point that I think a break from the pattern is in order.  The sweater, knit as instructed, is too short.  I tried several different ways of dealing with this.  On the first, yellow sweater, I did short rows across the bottom. 

This helped some, but I still think it's too short.  On the next sweater, I tried another method of short rows, but this came out even shorter.  It really escapes me exactly what I did, but since I don't want to do it again, that seems a moot point!

On the third sweater I hit pay dirt.  Before picking up the last set of stitches, I put only the bottom stitches on a needle and knit 10 rows of garter stitch.  I then put all of the stitches on one needle and finished as instructed.  This does give two more ends to weave in, but I think the finished sweater has much more pleasing proportions:

 

This also gives a very pretty back:

Probably the biggest disappointment I have with the pattern is that it is technically only written for one size.  It was advertised as fitting from newborn up to 36 months.  But in order to do that, you have to change the weight of yarn.  A fingering weight will fit a newborn, but for a three year old, you have to use bulky weight.  I do understand that the construction of this sweater has limitations.  Like the baby surprise jacket, it does not easily lend itself to proportional adjustments.  Cottage Creations has come out with an adult size (I believe without the hood), but child sizes have been more elusive.  But for the purposes for which I intend it, as a charity knit, it fits the bill perfectly.  And I do think it will become my "go to" baby shower gift.  If I want a hoodie sweater for a child, the Wonderful Wallaby has any size you could possibly want, and they have recently come out with a cardigan version with either a zipper or buttonholes and a hood or a collar.  Oh, and the Babies and Bears only takes two skeins of Encore, so it is quite an economical gift as well.  And have I mentioned - no seaming!!  Once you've made a couple, you'll have the pattern memorized, so it's a good on-the-go knitting project.

I think now, though, I need to give my fingers a rest.  Although I plan to keep on churning out little sweaters, I think I'm ready to pick up my Cookie A socks, which are feeling totally neglected.

Have wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  Remember the men and women who have made sacrifices for our freedom.  Hubby is driving in the Memorial Day parade and will be carrying a Pearl Harbor survivor.  And our weather is supposed it be picture perfect!!

A Mad Social Whirl

The past two weeks have been so busy - with one social obligation after another.  It's so difficult to be popular!  I have managed to have a little down time, but when faced with the decision to blog or to knit, knitting won out.  On the positive side there is now something to blog about.

Our road trip was a lot of fun and very successful.  The drive over the Cascades is always beautiful with snow capped mountains on every side:

Graduation brought back some wonderful memories and knitting was accomplished at the ceremony, by both the attendees and the graduate:

My sister-in-law actually got a photo of herself knitting during the ceremony, but I don't have a copy yet.  I think the other graduates thought she was a little strange, but they're young so we'll have to give them a little latitude.

After many years of hard work Debbie has earned her Master's Degree and we are very proud of her!  Her boss posed for photos with her, wearing the handknitted socks she made for him:

The road trip provided almost 12 hours of concentrated knitting time.  I finished one little baby sweater and started another, which I finished shortly after arriving back home:

This is the Babies and Bears Cardigan from Cottage Creations.  I don't know when I've had so much fun with a pattern.  It is truly addicting!  I've started another one:

These will all be for charity.  My sister belongs to an organization called Eastside Baby Corner.  They are a clearinghouse which coordinates getting donations to the appropriate organizations that can distribute them to those who need them.  Irrationally, I was feeling a little guilty about knitting the same thing over and over, but I'm not sure why!  I'm having fun and I'm doing something that's needed.  So I may just knit a dozen!!

Saturday was the Third Annual Spring Tea at my house.  The teacups waited patiently for the guests to arrive:

We had about 20 honored guests:

Maggie was in doggie heaven because the girls attending spent a lot of time outside playing with her.  Hubby said she crashed big time afterwards, only rousing herself briefly to eat dinner.

After the party was over, my sister and I did a quick clean up and headed off for the opera in Seattle.  Yes, I overbooked myself!  We saw "The Marriage of Figaro".  It was wonderful!  The cast did a great job with the comedic portions and the arias, especially those of the Countess, were awe inspiring.

So there you have it!  The Mad Social Whirl.  I think I'll go back to work tomorrow for a bit of a rest!

Road Trip!

It just occurred to me that hubby and I have a road trip coming up at the end of the week and I need to get my knitting ready!  We're driving over to Pullman for WSU graduation.  My sister-in-law is receiving her Master's Degree.  Way to go Debbie!!  She doesn't have a blog, but her Ravelry ID is "waitingtoknit", so pop on over and give her a congratulations if you're so inclined.  We'll be staying at the same bed and breakfast as last year.  I think the trip will be fun and bring back a lot of nice memories.

Anyway, I have some decisions to make - at least 12 hours on the road provides a lot of knitting time.  Of course, there are socks:

The black speckled is a plain Jane sock that should be easily finished in no time flat.  And then there are the Cookie A socks that I put aside for other projects.  There is the last sleeve for hubby's Torgier:

That, too, could be easily finished.  Or should I take something new??  I got a case of startitis this week and cast on for a baby afghan for our Pregnancy Care Center.  It's for charity, so of course that justifies anything - right? 

The only problem is that I used size 8 needles because my size 7's were engaged with another charity baby afghan.  I've decided that 8 is my breaking point for needle size.  Regrettably I think I am developing arthritis in my right hand.  I've been having a lot of pain in my index finger knuckle and have trouble gripping things.  This week hubby put in a lever type doorknob on the door to the garage because I was having trouble opening it.  Anything larger than a size 7 is really hard on my hands.  But on the positive side, lace knitting on teeny needles does not seem to be endangered.

The baby afghan on size 7's is also presenting its own set of problems:

Yes, it's lovely, but I can't tell you how many times I've ripped the dang thing!  The pattern is not that difficult, but I keep getting off on my stitch count.  Part of me says to just rip it and start over, the other says that I will not let a simple afghan defeat me and I must press on!!  The yellow one will be frogged to be started over on smaller needles - any votes on the fate of the the little hearts?  And while we're at it - any suggestions on your favorite baby afghan pattern?

We had a new little visitor at our bird feeder yesterday:

I know that squirrels are considered a real pest at feeders, but we get them so seldom and I'm inclined to think that they deserve a little snack now and then too.  We'll see how fast he goes through sunflower seeds.  He didn't seem too shy and let me get pretty close for a picture.

Two birthdays this week - Isobel turns 4!!!  How can that be?  And hubby turns the big 60.  How can than be??  I'm close behind him and find it hard to wrap my mind around that.  Neither of us feels 60 - except when trying to grip size 8 needles.  So - how old would you be if you didn't know how old you were??

Coming and Going

I've been meeting myself coming and going this week!  It hasn't been any one big event, but just dozens of little things that have conspired to eat away at my time.  Hubby's sister is gone on an extended vacation and we've come to realize how much caregiving she does for my mother-in-law.  It's taken two of us to take up the slack!  On the plus side, I've done a lot of sitting around waiting during her various appointments, so that translated into some good knitting time.  I was able to finish one sleeve of hubby's Torgier:

Sorry for the crappy photo - you're lucky to get that much!

What I haven't had is long periods of time at home, which I miss.  It has really made me long for retirement!  And things have been pretty challenging at work (more on that to come), so when I get home I haven't had energy to do more than just veg in front of the television.  In fact, I've been so exhausted when I get home that I've really been neglecting going out for walks with Maggie.  I think that's been a huge tactical error.  Tonight when I got home, I made myself go out and found that when I returned, I actually had more energy rather than less.  Plus I had one very happy little puppy who is sleeping peacefully at my feet rather than running around like a crazy dog!

Saturday I spent at church with a group from my quilt guild making Community Quilts for the hospital, foster children, CADA, etc.  Every time I go I keep thinking I need to take my camera - maybe next time!  When I came home I was able to scratch out a little time to work on some blocks for Quilts of Valor - quilts for wounded servicemen:

Both types of sewing really fit into my schedule and mind set this week.  You're basically handed a pattern and pieces (some already cut out) and all you have to do is sit down and sew mindlessly!!  Just what I needed this week.

My usual distraction technique when I don't have much exciting to talk about is darling granddaughters.  Today is no exception: