Halloween Rules

Look! Buddy Bill's afghan is finished! The final round was completed at knit nite last night. Details? Crochet granny square. Generic. Lots and lots and lots of Tatamy Tweed Worsted. At least 10 balls. I am amazed at how much more yarn crochet uses up compared to knitting. Size H hook. Nearly a month to complete.
Tonight the kids will go out begging for treats. Mayhem is a witch of sorts. Absent-Minded Professor is becoming one of those kids who doesn't dress up but goes begging anyway. He is only wearing camouflage pants and shirt and a camo bucket hat - you know, kind of like a guy from M*A*S*H. At my house, those kids get Dum Dum lollipops instead of chocolate. Really. (The same rule applies to adults who drag infants out trick-or-treating. Puhleeease! We know who will be eating that candy!) If you can't take the time and effort to come up with a costume, you don't get the good stuff. Some of the high school kids in the area, armed with only a pillow case and no costume, know to bypass my house because they have learned that I have two separate bowls and the unspoken rule of "no costume, no chocolate." I have heard them pass on wisdom to others, "Hey, don't go there. All you get is a retard sucker!"

Wait until you see the wonderful jack-o-lantern that has been carved for our yard! It's gonna look great all lit up in the dark.

Both kids have had colds for the past week and today it sidelined me. Absent-Minded Professor's cold is turning into something bigger and he may head to the doctor. Mayhem has turned the corner and is almost well. And me? Too soon to tell. I spent the day sleeping and getting a little TLC.

After three weeks away, I made it to Insanknitty last night. I'm back in the corner with Patti, Mary and Julie (another crocheter) finishing the afghan. (I stole this photo from Insanknitty blog! Shhhhhhh!)

Stay warm, friends. It's supposed to get chilly!

So much to say, so little time

There's so much to catch up on, but there's a really important baseball game coming on in an hour, so I'll let these photos do it for me.

Mayhem can knit! Slowly, painstakingly, but she is, at last, knitting. She sat with a bunch of us knitting girls at Panera yesterday morning and did it! (Too lazy for links, but hi Sarah, visiting Renee, Mary, Johari, other other Karen.)

The afghan for Buddy Bill is growing, and growing. See? Another row of oatmeal, two more rows of gold, then a border and I'm calling it finished! I need to get back to Cobblestone. (The colors are little washed out in these photos - sorry)

Yesterday afternoon was a perfect day to get pictures of our beautiful autumn foliage. Buddy Bill and I took a walk and I photographed the trees. Don't laugh, but one of the cemeteries here in town has the most beautiful maple trees, so that is where we went.

Have a great week, everyone.

Heat Wave

How in the world can it be 87 degrees in October?

Look! This is on my back porch, on the north side of the house, in the shade of a BIG apple tree.


Yesterday we set a record for high temps, and the weekend forecast is for temps to be near 90.


And what am I knitting and crocheting? An afghan and a wool sweater! Hello!? It's not summer anymore!! Guess what I did last night? I turned my AC back on!!! (But in October in northwest Ohio??) Then I curled up on the couch under the granny square afghan for Buddy Bill and stitched away. Here's a pic of the afghan in progress. All those leaves prove it really is October.


I survived my tests this week. Buddy Bill was a godsend on Thursday for the EMG. He offered to take me and I gladly accepted the offer. Wow, am I ever glad I did! First, there was a mixup on scheduling and I reported to the hospital where I requested the test, only to find out that the person who scheduled it booked me at a different test site. We schlepped back thru the maze of corridors so typical of hospitals to the parking garage and drove to another hospital. Once there, we waited to register all over again, and then wound our way thru another maze of corridors to the correct place. The EMG was pretty unpleasant, but not the worst thing I've ever been through. I did end up sleeping for an hour and a half afterward, though, I think mainly from the stress and frustration of the runaround, but maybe from being tasered for 30 minutes. I also have bruises at each needle insertion site. Buddy Bill took very good care of me all day afterward, getting me Starbucks, fixing soup and salad for lunch, propping me up on the loveseat with my book... A girl could get used to that kind of spoiling, you know?

Oh, back to my tests! Anyway, the EMG made the mammogram on Friday seem like nothing. Really. No big deal. If for some reason you are dreading it, the mammogram is over quickly and really isn't that uncomfortable. Just go do it. The longest part of the whole procedure was waiting for the technician to make sure she had clear images on the films afterward.

Know what else? My sock yarn is calling to me! I am just dying to start knitting socks again. My hands will probably not like it, and I am going to resist the call for a bit longer, but I have all of this gorgeous sock yarn stashed here and eleventy-billion sock patterns. I really want to knit socks! Maybe today I'll wind some yarn...

Cough Cough Sniffle Knit Cough

Being sick is the pits most of the time. This time around, it's tolerable. Yesterday, after the Fossil Fest, I was at Buddy B's and snoozed on the couch and knitted while watching football. He was thoughtful enough to untangle the yarn for me, since the inside of the ball was in a knot, and then kept feeding the yarn to me as I knitted. Without being asked, I might add. (And yes, I know that's a fragment, not a sentence!)

Today I stayed at home sick after coughing all night (and also pulling or tearing a rib muscle which makes it more painful to breathe! ow!) and Buddy B brought me Starbucks and decided a walk in the sun would help me. This is the kind of day we were having... 65 and not a cloud in the sky.

The Toledo Botanical Garden is close to my house, and a peaceful place for a walk. Like always, I took plenty of pictures.

The dahlias were gorgeous!!!

In knitting news, Cobblestone is getting closer to the point where I will be starting the sleeves. At last measure, the body was 13.5" and I have to get to 17". As if I don't have enough to do, I dug out a crochet hook and some yarn from my stash and started a granny square afghan for B's couch this morning. A few months ago, I bought Tatamy Tweed on clearance at my LYS. I bought a huge amount of it. (Confession: I bought 16 or 18 balls of it!!) Right now, Oatmeal, Harvest Gold, Forrest, Birch and maybe some Ginger are being made into a big ol' granny square.

You see, yesterday, while snoozing on B's couch, I realized something was missing. Yep, he needs a blankie to snuggle under. Or should I say, *I* need a blankie to snuggle under?! Since I learned to crochet when I was seven years old, I can crank out a granny square afghan pretty darn quick. I'm not making a bunch of small squares to sew together, however. That would pretty much guarantee this would end up a UFO. Looking at it now, though, I see I need to use much more Oatmeal and Birch to make this a more neutral-colored afghan.

This yarn is very soft and completely machine washable, making it perfect for at B's place.

Forecast: Pictures

When I want something crafty made in a hurry, I still go back to crochet. I know I can produce a granny square baby blanket in short order. This one is made with Lion Brand Jiffy that I pulled from my stash. Time? Less than three hours! My mom (who is still around) and Tante Annemarie (who is with the angels) taught me to crochet when I was about seven years old, so like reading or typing, it's a skill I don't really have to think about.

I thought you might like to see a sock progress picture. Even if you don't, here's my sock, dammit!

And even though my little sister hates to be called Christabelle, here's Christabelle's Birthday Booga Bag nearing completion. I love the colors. Probably because I bought the yarn for me. Go figure.

I am productively knitting (and crocheting). Work is really getting in the way, though. Tonight is the third night in a row that I've brought work home with me. UGH! Don't get me started on the state of affairs at my school. There's not enough space in the blogosphere, which is really sad. The morale in my building is at an all-time low, and I don't see it improving anytime soon.

Guess I'll just keep doing this: knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit breathe knit knit knit knit knit knit knit breathe knit knit knit knit knit knit knit...