Happy Birthday, Son

Today is my son's 29th birthday. Unfortunately, he had to work today. He works for the City Water Department. Today he is putting in a valve in an 8 foot deep hole during a rainstorm. What fun on your birthday!

He is my youngest child. He has a sister eight years older.

I am making him a strawberry cake for his birthday. The big guy will be grilling hamburgers later. He comes by nearly every day for a meal. What's a single guy to do. Fast food gets old, and he eats at least 2 meals a day on the run. So we always try to have something on hand for his evening meal.

Anyway, Happy Birthday my little buddy.

Inspired

Thank you, Yarn Harlot, for the inspiration. I went through my stash this weekend. I separated the skeins and hanks from the leftovers. I bagged everything in Ziploc bags and put it back in my deacon's bench. I don't have a very big stash. It is all sock yarn. (All the acrylic from years gone by has been put back for a garage sale.) The leftovers were rolled into balls. Well, most of it.

Then I shopped at The Loopy Ewe. Some stash enhancement is on the way.

Bunny's vet has OK'd us to start decreasing her phenobarbital on Tuesday. Last time we tried, she had seizures again. This time she has been on additional herbs which we hope will hold off the seizures as we begin taking away the phenobarb. Cross your fingers for us.



A big Thank You to everyone who served in our armed forces. (I miss you, Dad.)

Old Dog and New Tricks

I'm an old dog and I'm learning new tricks! Thanks to some help from other members of Ravelry, I have successfully posted pictures there. First I had to open an account with Flickr. That was easy. I tried several times to take a pic from Flickr and post on Ravelry before I got the hang of it.


About knitting. I'm trying to get some socks finished before the SOS08. I have finished one of the gray/black/sparkly pair and I'm well into one of the blue ones for my sister. I don't know why the silver flecks don't show up in photographs. I laid this one down in the sun and it still didn't show. Trust me, it is real sparkly.

I still have a pair to rip back and fix for another sister. The heel didn't fit down into her shoes. I haven't decided how far to rip them back. Will it work to just shorten them a little? Or will I have to rip all the way back to the heel? I hate to go that far.

Summer of Socks 2008

Summer of Socks 2008, Ravelry, Flickr; I joined them this week. Big step for me, I'm not very confident about doing new things.

I found on Wendy Knits that Summer of Socks was happening again this summer. I think it will be fun watching what socks others are making while I am knitting. Since I haven't worked up the nerve to knit sweaters yet, maybe this will push me to push myself a little bit.

Earlier I had put my name on the Ravelry waiting list, finally got my invitation, now I'm dabbling in Ravelry. I need to learn some things about it so I can post pictures. (Making comments or posting replies was easy. Hopefully I'm not to old to learn a few new tricks dealing with pictures.)

Therefore, I needed photos on Flickr so I could put them onto Ravelry. Whew! I never intended to get in this deep. I posted pictures of all 25 pairs of socks that I have made. I'm still working on #26 and hope to get 26 and 27 finished before the kick off of SOS08.

Received my Tempted Sock Club yarn this week and OMG! it is gorgeous! Shades of blue with silver running through it. It is called Bon Voyage. Wow! (Photo will follow later.) I'm going to have some really nice yarns to work up for SOS08.

Heel is Turned

I have turned the heel on my gray/black sock. I admit to being a slow knitter, and if you have any tips on how to speed up I would like to hear them.

Today was a golf day for the big guy and me. It was an overcast day with little wind. We had a fun time even though we didn't score very well.

Two new socks

Here are the two socks I cast on this week. (The picture isn't the best.) The blue one is identical to a pair that I made for a gift. The gray/black one is from the sparkly Tempted yarn I wrote about earlier. Again the blue one is for a gift for my sister who is a yoga teacher.

A reader asked about the softness of the gray/black one. It is surprisingly soft. I was impressed. I guess I was expecting it to be scratchy, but it is not.

We golfed on Friday. It was a beautiful day with very little wind, maybe 10 mph. For those of you who know Oklahoma in the spring, it was a great day. I also had a very acceptable score for a change.

I spent a lot of Saturday untangling a whole cone of Peaches and Cream cotton yarn that Bunny had played with. I ended up with a ball that was the size of a cantelope or maybe a little soccer ball. Whew! I was glad to get that finished.

Sunday I did laundry for our son (does it ever end?). Maybe someday I will have a daughter-in-law who will do that for him. Later the big guy and I chose up dogs and took naps. Now everything that has to be done is done and I'm going to knit until bedtime.

A No-Knitting Weekend

Yesterday was "work in the yard day." I went to three places looking for plants, pots, soil, a new bird feeder, and fertilizer. I ended up with several colors of petunias, a pink and white begonia, some red geraniums and the biggest Boston fern I have ever seen. I also bought a new birdbath bowl and a cement squirrel. When we got home, we repotted the hibiscus to a larger pot, potted the geraniums to a hanging pot, repotted the old geraniums to little pots (to see if I can save them), hung the fern and the begonias from the tree limbs. We refilled the bird feeders and and old birdbath and put the new birdbath on the stump of the tree we sacrificed to the ice storm gods. It is beginning to look pretty out there.

Today I transplanted some bulbs that were in the front yard to the back yard. They were in my dad's yard and when he died I brought some of them to my yard. I don't know if they will live because the soil is not very good, but I saved some of them for my sister C to put in her yard. That way we will surely save some of them. I wish I had a start off my mom's lilac and snowball bush.

This is my daughter's birthday. Happy Birthday Sissy, all the way to Houston. Hope you have a very nice day. Do something fun today.