Christmas Flag

I made this little wall-hanging for my Mom. It's about the size of a place mat. Lots of other projects have lent their scraps to it. We must be poor if we only have buttons to decorate our tree!

Happy Muddy Dogs on Thursday !

Would you let this dog sit on your lap?

Would you let this dog kiss you?

I'm cheesing so big for the camera, I don't even see the french kiss coming.

Have we really come to this?

When my doctor (gyn) called me with my cholesterol test results, I asked to get a copy. He discouraged me and wanted to know what I would do if I had it. He would send it to another doctor for free, but I would be charged a fee. Okay.

At the clinic, the office manager comes out to again quiz me about my NEED to have a copy. She explains that they are now being discouraged from giving patients copies of their lab results because people lack the ability to understand them. She says that the State of Missouri now requires her to charge me $17.50 to get a copy. (LOAD OF CRAP?) Maybe they "allow" her to charge that much, but I doubt the "require" it.

She gave me the brief lecture and the copy, but didn't charge me for either.

I understand that a great portion of the people in the world are in fact morons. But I doubt that it is the morons who are requesting information to be more pro-active about their health.

work-in-progress wednesday

This is what I've touched but not finished this week.

A wool sock to be felted. The yarn isn't as soft as I wish, so maybe felting will smooth it out. If it works, it will be child sized.

The log cabin-ish scrappy acrylic baby blanket for Warm Woolies. Seed stitch & reversible. I decided that as long as I hold two unrelated colors together, without regard to what comes before or after, it will be scrappy enough to look like I planned it. Or it will be the butt-ugliest thing ever. Either way, it will be warm.

Single Sock Samples

My first attempt at faire isle knitting. There was never any hope of matching a second sock, so I call it a dog christmas stocking.

A tiny sock to test a bit of yarn. See how impatient I was by the time I reached the foot? No toes allowed.

I'm Thinking About Christmas

I quicky-knit this ballband dishcloth so that I would have something finished to show. It is small, about 6". Just the right size for a facial cloth. My thought was to pair it with a bar of homemade soap. I used to make soap to sell at a farmers market, back when I had a milk goat. Now you can't even buy lye in a store. Those darn meth dealers have ruined it for all of us. There is a website that offers lye for sale, but I worry that it might be delivered by a DEA agent.

Crafty Fun

This is the crafty business we fooled with last night. We made orange/jasmine scented bath salts and decorated jars to put it in. (The left one isn't done.) We also melted scented candle bits, then dipped pinecones in it for fire starters. The smell is strong enough to just open the jar to purty-stink the whole room.

Good Cholesterol

An August LDL screening was disappointing. I begged 6 weeks from the doctor to transform my life. As I was leaving, he said "I'll call you with the bad news."

Since Wednesday I've been in the twilight time between having my blood tested and getting the results. Expecting to be cajoled into medication, I've been on a 5 day bender. Turkey, chocolate, hamburger, and ice cream. I put REAL BUTTER on my potatoes.

The doc just called. Good LDL, good HDL, good total. No meds. My plan worked. I guess I'll get to celebrate with a bowl of high fiber cereal.

What did I do? No animal fat, low saturated fat, all the olive oil & guacamole I wanted, lots of fiber, and plant sterol supplemented foods (margarine, o.j., granola bars). My biggest heartbreak was finding out that there is coconut fat in hot chocolate mix.

Here's a dilemma: my new best friend is in the no-fly(into the mouth) zone. That's right. Caffeinated cocoa. Farewell dear friend. I loved you only briefly, but passionately.

No sympathy- It's only perimenopause

I left work early today. All day feeling worse & worse. After lunch, covering for anothers lunch break, I decided my day was done. Finish this and that and tell so-and-so the other thing, and I was out of there. If anyone tried to stop me I would just quit my job. Okay perhaps that was a smidgin irrational.


Nobody tried to stop me. It was MUCH WORSE. I felt hot. Sweaty. Tears began to fill up. So I sat down with a fan blowing on high right into my face. Leann walked up and asked if I was alright. I would have been fine if only she had said "Bitch, pull your shit together and get back to work."

Don't people know by now that if you see someone with a hint of tear in her eye, the most merciful thing to do is avert your eyes and keep on walking?

As I'm leaving, I tell them "I'm going home sick, but be sure to come to my party tomorrow."

If I wasn't me, I would certainly be talking about me behind my back.

Turkey Violation

There is a giant turkey in my oven! Are we allowed to roast a turkey this close to Thanksgiving? Has the Butterball Hotline even been activated yet? Maybe I should gather fix'ins just in case.

Wiley Coyotes, a.k.a. Dogs on Thursday

Doesn't Everyone decorate the inside of their fence with cinder blocks?

You might if you have a digger like I do.

Who Dunnit?

Puddin is a likey culprit. But she tires so easily. And she is a very good dog.

It was the butler, in the parlor, with the candlestick!

No, wait...

It was a team effort. Trixie draws up the plans...

While Gus distracts Puddin.

Disaster Preparedness

I commented on Knit With Snot For You ( see link ) that I watched Dawn of the Dead recently. She referenced the movie 28 Days Later, which got me to thinking. I love post-apocolyptic disaster films. Probably because I was raised in the "former farmer, home canning, judgement day, nuclear holocaust" tradition. The belief that you have to have 2 years supplies put up in case of a total crop/garden failure or the end of civilization and national infrastructure.

Our emergency supply shelves currently contain 4 gallons of water, a can of chili, and a can of soup. Last winter we had an ice storm that cut the power for 7 days. We had a gas stove to cook but the only heat source we used was candles and body heat accumulation. And it was freezing out!

I decided to take action. I ate the soup.

Hamburger cookies- Yum!

I'm planning on having the girls over Saturday for a "craft night" & barbecue. We've gathered for "game night" before, but the cool weather has increased my crafty urges. These three ingredients (plus sesame seeds and food color) will be magically transformed into...

HAMBURGER COOKIES!!!

Other than that, I'll be serving whatever needs to be cleared out of the freezer.

Jill's Young 'ens ( a.k.a. My desperate attempt to get my sister to read my blog)

Jill with Maddie and Jackie

Newcomers Lucy and Ricky

BONUS PHOTO

Maddie as Punkinhead

Paparazzi-shy Puddin

You can't imagine how hard it is to get a good picture of this dog. Puddin will be 7 next month on Halloween. I got a new costume for her this year so she doesn't have to go as a hippie AGAIN. What is it? Tune in next month and find out.

Fingerless Mitt for Fall

First photo of fall fingerless mitten.

I started with bulky yarn on size 10 needles. It's puffy & loose enough to go over a shirt sleeve. At the wrist I added a second strand of the same yarn and then decreased a little to give it a snug-in-place feeling. Since I couldn't decide whether to knit a thumb or leave an opening, I compromised and did neither/both. Increases made the opening feel intentional, but short enough not to impede movement. The extra stitches were decreased on the first row of seed stitch at the knuckle.

WIP WEDNESDAY

Toddler snuggie/blankie, log cabinish baby blanket, spiral scarf, & felted bag purse.

Did you notice I love cable needles?

Sheep!

When Jill and I were in college we would yell SHEEP! whenever we drove past any. I'm not sure why, but I still get pretty excited when I see some.

single mittens, too

I didn't see the point of knitting a mitten in lightweight sock yarn. You wouldn't be wearing mittens unless it was frosty outside. Since it's still in the "what if" stage, this mitt is knit from recycled wool. A Goodwill sweater that I unravelled. Nice, but not baby's bottom soft.

evolution from foot to hand

I wanted to knit a flip-flop sock. It didn't seem right, though. The bind-off curled back and my pinky toe disappeared completely.

So I'm playing around with it, thinking how to tweak the pattern to fit better, when it fell onto my hand. Eureka!

Sandal season is almost over anyway, right?

I love this yarn

The time I spent with this yarn has formed an unhealthy attachment within me. It is some of my earliest non-novelty (ridiculously slubby) handspun. Mostly lincoln wool, with bits of black rambouliet-cross spun in. Other than black, all the colors were from natural dyes I collected in the wilds of Missouri. Well, the wilds of the back pasture. I found lichen growing abundantly on limestone outcroppings, sassafras saplings invading the field, walnuts in green husks, goldenrod flowers, and so many other plants that I would make tiny batches of.

I plan to rip out the sock, and start over. Maybe it wants to be fingerless mittens.

the eldest only

Poor lonely sock. I knit this over a year ago. Whatever plan I had is long forgotten. It began as a spiral tube sock. Simple. Quick. But the cuff was so bulky that I couldn't imaginge it fitting inside a shoe. So a basic foot was born. The sock was away from home (and patterns) when I decided to shape the toe. Sad, pointy toe. Just looking at that toe and knowing that I would have to rip it back and reshape it sent the sock and all its yarn buddies into exile.

Trixie & Gus

A year ago my pretty puppies came to stay. So small. So much potential (now wasted).

Alas, they choose to use their powers for evil. Ever watchful, ever vigilant, searching for unattended bamboo needles or projects in need of unravelling.