Sansi Shawl

I ran across some of my favorite alpaca yarn while going through the stash. Galler Prime Alpaca. I made a shawl out of this same yarn about eight years ago and just loved it. This particular batch has sat in the stash for a while. It has tried to be many things but I was always disappointed in the patterns so back it went. This last week I ran across the Sansi Shawl by Emma Fassio, www.emmafassioknitting.blogspot.com . It has a lacey look but the pattern is repeated enough after you get going on it you get into an easy flow. This is not to say it will get finished fast. 102 degrees in Texas in June does not make for fast work on alpaca. I also seem to be jumping from project to project lately. But this is a simple pattern so we will see how long it takes.

Beginnings of the Sansi Shawl

RA and Heart Disease

Check out www.theseatedview.blogspot.com . Lene has written a great article on how RA with it's systemic inflamation factor affects the heart. Most people think of RA as just "plain ol arthritis". It is not. Heart disease is just one of the issues we deal with when we have RA.

Pretty Warm Hat

A while back I made this hat. JE had made one and then gave me the pattern. It is made on size 15 needles with chunky yarn. I made it and thought it was ok but never sewed it up. I have been in a finish up mode lately (also a start another project because I can't concentrate mode) and decided to sew it up. It is very warm and fits nicely. Unfortunately I can't tell you what magazine it came out of because it is not on the bottom of the page but JE is checking for me. I love that it covers up the ears nicely. By the way not only is it on size 15 needles and chunky yarn but the yarn is doubled. It does knit up fast.

Lion Brand Jiffy Yarn #107 Denim

Finished

I have to say I do not think I have ever finished a shawl as quickly as I did the Cotton Shawl. I finished it Monday night but this is the first time I had gotten a picture made. I think because it was crochet it went faster plus I usually knit lace shawls and they do take longer. This shawl was finished in less than a week.

Point to point

Across the front

Edging

This was a very enjoyable pattern. It came from

www.solgrim.blogspot.com

It was a nice change of pace to crochet instead of knit

but since I can't crochet without looking knitting will

still be my main projects.

Coffee

Matthew and Corteney got back from Italy Sunday. They brought me several wonderful things from there. One was this coffee cup from Rome. Love it. But what is a cup without some coffee. They also brought a small bag of Italian coffee. I am not sure what kind it is because everything is written in Italian. Today Allison and I made a pot. Oh my goodness it was fantastic. Not wanting to waste any after dinner I drank it over ice. Outstanding. Thanks you guys. I love it.

 This is one of my favorite pictures of them in Rome. Looks like so much fun.

Great Idea

Friend Lene ( www.theseatedview.blogspot.com ) posted this picture on Facebook today. I agree with her someone had great planning. What kid doesn't like to swing.

More Yarn

I used up all the "found" yarn on the half granny square shawl. I then "found" this yarn at Hobby Lobby to extend the size of the shawl. Amazing, I am clearing out the stash of yarn I did not care anything about but had to buy more yarn to be able to finish the project. I am not sure how big the shawl will be but man cotton is heavy.

I Love This Cotton from Hobby Lobby.

#235 Camo Print

I did not start out to get a cream, green, brown yarn. I wanted to try and find a yarn with a cream that would match the one I was using. There was this and one with purple that I felt was too bright. So this is the one. Here is what it looks like so far. 

Should have used a better contrast but you get the idea. I have found I cannot do crochet without looking at the piece I am working on. This is interesting because I can knit without looking at what I am doing, watch TV, even knit with my eyes closed. Not crochet. Strange. I also got this yarn with a 40% off coupon so it was very cheap. It actually works up much nicer than the more expensive yarn it has been paired with. More updates as I hopefully finish it up tomorrow.

Found Yarn

Lately I have been wandering through some blogs on my blog roll. This of course leads to links to other blogs and the sudden realization you have been reading about knitting/crocheting for a couple of hours and using up all the ink out of your printer printing off patterns. I am not sure why but I was looking at a lot of crocheting, something I do but not as often as knitting. www.squaregrannie.blogspot.com has some wonderful crocheted projects. I clicked on a couple of more links and found www.bunnymummy-jacquie.blogspot.com   www.collectedyarns.blogspot.com  and www.solgrim.blogspot.com . These are wonderful sites for crocheting. I have crocheted since 1973 and but knit far more than crochet. Maybe it was going through all the crocheted doilies lately and thinking of my grandmothers that has sent me to these sites. I found a very cool crocheted heart on BunnyMummy. Also on Solgrim I found a half-granny shawl. I thought it would be fun to do and a change of pace. Hobby Lobby had a bunch of yarn on clearance so I thought I would get some for the shawl. I mean I have no yarn you know. When I got to Hobby Lobby I found out they closed at 8pm. It was 8:30. Well dang I wanted to start on it. It is not like I do not have enough knitting to work on. I hope you understand my frustration. Next morning I was digging around in the stash and "accidentally" ran across some yarn I had bought at least 7 years ago. It came with a cute bunting pattern I had wanted to do. Well I hated the yarn and did not like the pattern. The yarn was cotton. I am just not crazy about cotton. It just does not flow like alpaca, wool, or even some acrylics. I just do not care for it. Here it is.

It is Fantasy Naturale from Plymouth Yarns. It is 100% cotton. So I have three skeins. This is perfect. I can make the shawl and use yarn from the stash. A very satisfying feeling to say nothing of making room for more yarn. Coach had an appointment yesterday that was going to mean having most of the day with a lot of quality knitting time. By last night I had two skeins used up. This pix is before I finished the second skein.

I suddenly realize that this little project is going to take more than the amount of yarn I have to get the length where I want it. So today, before 8pm, I am stopping by Hobby Lobby and finding some sort of contrasting color that will go nicely with what is already crocheted. My main concern is matching the creamy white enough it does not look weird. We'll see what I can find.

Morning Sun

Too Big

Today we went to Target and were looking at shoes. This three year old is growing up too fast. Here is Scout looking at herself in some shoes she found and pronounced as so cool.

Happy Flag Day

Flowers

I do not have a green thumb. I have probably killed more plants than most people have planted. It didn't used to be that way. Many years ago I had some pretty nice houseplants. Somewhere along the way I lost it and have actually killed hearty ivy. This year with the new house I wanted to have some plants on the balcony. Allison gave me a Spider plant ( I think we used to call them an airplane plant) for Mother's Day and with the morning east sun it was doing really well. So I decided I wanted more. We got two more spider/airplane plants. While we were looking Allison mentioned she would like to have a plant that her grandma always had, Purslane. I found some and got her a yellow one then decided I needed a pink one. Now understand that I was afraid to plant them because, well, of my history with plants. So dear son in law TJ put them in pots for me. So far they are doing great. Now I think I may need another Purslane.

Purslane

One of the airplane plants.

All three airplane plants have lots of baby shoots and tiny white flowers.

Deja Vu

Back thirty years ago we used to go to Pop and Granny's in the summer and put up the garden. We did corn, beans, peas, okra, cucumbers into pickles, peaches, potatoes. As you can see we were busy and in the fall and winter that stuff was fantastic. The garden at The Ponderosa has been going crazy especially after the rain. The tomatoes, carrots, onions, and cucumbers are going crazy to say nothing of the yellow squash and zucchini. Today we went and I made 12 quarts of pickles. Allison has already made something like 60 quarts. It was fun but also tiring. I had forgotten how long it took to wash the cucumbers and pack them in the jars to say nothing of the "soaking" time before you seal the jars.

Washing the cucumbers.

Water bath to prep the cucumbers.

Adding the vinegar and salt water along with the garlic and dill.

Yum.

All done.

Allison and I with the finished product. I carried them home

and put them on the shelf. Now just have to wait six weeks

for them to "pickle". It is hard to be patient. Can't wait till they are done.

Remember This

My friend Sandra posted this quote on Facebook. It came from Positive Thinking. We need to remember this quote and maybe the next time someone acts badly toward us our feelings won't be quite so hurt.

Hats From Scraps

I knit more when I am stressed. Well I knit simple when I am stressed. I am trying to use up scrap yarn on hats for Knit a Cap. Right now I have 160 hats and I don't ship till September. After I ship hats I knit scarves for soldiers with Operation Gratitude. I am fortunate that my RA does not keep me from knitting. My rheumatologist told me he would never tell me to stop knitting because it does keep the hands limber. Scrap yarn did not sound very nice. Actually it is mostly little balls of yarn that I end up with when I get bored with a certain color. Then I just match the colors I like and make a hat. I noticed Square Granny (www.squaregranny.blogspot.com) has been doing the same type of thing with afghans.

Actually this is not too bad. I have had a box full before.

A couple of hats I just finished. I just knit till the ball is gone and add another color.

Today is a perfect day for knitting. It is cloudy, rainy and 70 degrees which is so not Texas in June. Actually any day that ends in Y is a perfect day for knitting.

Easy Green Chile Enchiladas

Today was a typical Monday. Mondays tend to get weird. Our air conditioning was acting up yesterday and this morning at 5:30 am I woke up realizing we were not getting any nice cool air. Long story short we got it fixed by about 2pm so it was not a totally HOT day inside. Remember I live in Texas so 97 is not "un-normal" in June. It did get to 88 in the house so I was very appreciative when that nice cool air started coming out of the vents. I also figured that since it was as hot outside as in I would clear out the storage area. The grandgirls want to play cooking so I needed to get their "dishes" tub out. After enjoying the heat, yeah right, I decided there would be no cooking tonight. This is a recipe from www.pioneerwoman.com . She had it on her blog last week. It was so completely yummy and easy. I had made it last week but today went even more simple.  I just loaded up the tortillas with grated cheddar cheese on a plate and put it in the microwave to melt. Then took them out, stacked one on top of the other and doused them with Old El Paso green chile enchilada sauce. They are just as yummy as doing the way that takes a little more time but the flavor is so great either way. I did not take a picture because I ate them first so here is the picture off Pioneer Woman's blog. Try them you'll like them.

Swimming

The grandgirls came to swim this weekend. First swim of the summer. Hot for us, cool for them.

All excited!

Scout started counting before she was going to "jump" in the water.

Well we thought she was going to jump.

 

Happy Birthday Joseph!!

Cannot believe that my my youngest baby is now as old as he is. He was the biggest baby at 10lb 12oz. But he was a cutie and still is. Happy Birthday Joseph. I love you bunches!

Yes those are some chubby cheeks but what do you expect at 10lb 12oz.

With sister Allison who still hugs him this tight.

This just cracks me up.

With protective brother Matthew.

Joe Cool

At one of Jonathan's ballgames.

Joseph and Caitlin this winter.

Happy Birthday Joseph!