Dang, I'm A Bad Blogger

Yes, it's been ages since I posted last, but it's been a busy time. First of all, I had a TKR (Total Knee Replacement) on my left knee in early June because of  bone on bone arthritis and now I'm getting ready for replacement of the right knee in early October. I went through 5 weeks of physical therapy, was able to shed the walker at the end of the first week for a cane & by the end of the second week I found myself forgetting to grab the cane when moving around the house. I still use the cane if I'm going out because sidewalks & cracked parking lots can be tricky.

I've kept myself entertained by reading - list on the sidebar and those of you who follow the blog & get a notice of an update, chances are I just added a title or two to the list. I had to miss over a month of my knitting groups out at the Sr. Center before I could drive again. This time around, I think I'll use the NOTA bus afterwards as while I could drive with the right foot for both gas & brake, I don't know how that will work when it's my left foot that's the "good one"..

I have to confess that while I took my knitting to the hospital, I barely cast on one dishcloth & only knit a few rows. Since then, tho', I've been busy.

First of all, more toddler sweaters that will go to the Red Bird Mission in KY with the group from the local United Methodist Church again this year.

These last two, I cut back the stitches by 25% to make smaller sweaters but I kept the neck opening the same 32 stitches on each side so they should be easy to put on a smaller child.

Some of the dishclothes I knit before & after my hospital stay.

And some curly crocheted scarves out of mohair yarns - I've made one more since these and just finished a scarf in Paton's Pebble, a thick & thin yarn. With one skein left, I'm going to try to make up a hat pattern to match.

The Seven Sisters Rose that we transplanted from the old house two years ago is thriving - mostly thanks to my  neighbor watering her garden on the other side of the fence. This was the only time I got out in the back yard since early June, but I had to get photos of the rose. It came up again over at the other house & we were able to transplant two new ones down at the other end of the fence. The two new ones even bloomed a few weeks after the established roses! Right now the trumpet vine on the west fence and the rose of sharon that's about 8' to the left of this photo are blooming and we often see humming birds at the flowers as well as at the feeder just off the deck. Last year, the rose of sharon seeded and and I have about eight "babies" that are about a foot high now. The original plant is about 7 or 8' tall now after nine years. Love it when flowers & shrubs reproduce!

Beautiful, isn't it? This is a rose that my Grandfather gave me when I was still in elementary school. I was so glad that we could rescue it from the farm when Mom & Dad moved over here and that it's so stubborn about putting up new shoots over at the old house so it's multiplying.

That's about it for now - and I really will try to post more often.

Two Months & One Day Later - Hey, I'm Getting Better!

It's been a while - looking back to when I first started blogging, it's hard for me to believe that I was writing something almost every other day. But I haven't been sitting on my hands. First up, 30 cotton knit dishcloths. I mentioned in my last post that I'd taken advantage of the $1 sale on Sugar & Cream at Michael's so here are the latest results. They're in our display case and will be sold to raise money for yarn for our other projects.


The first of a long line of lap robes for the Veterans' Hospital in Ann Arbor - I turned nine of them in this last Monday. These are all approximately 30x36" and sized for wheelchairs as that hospital gets many of the amputees from the wars. These first four are all crocheted in plain double crochet which lets me change colors more easily as I can work over the ends as I go.






Up to this point, the photo shoot was moving along - and then .....



Boomer decided to get into the act. This one is knit and I tried something new, blending the colors by knitting two rows on one blue & then two rows of a second blue. When blue #1 ran out, I added a lighter shade (#3) & continued alternating with #2 and so on until I reached the correct length.


Another knit one, this one out of the bin of greens.


Boomer says "you're not going to get away with just moving the next lap robe away from the one I'm occupying - at 3' from ears to tail I can easily span both!!"


Three more simple double crochet ones.






This one is in brick stitch and was finished except for running in the yarn ends with a needle. I love this pattern but it doesn't allow for crocheting over the yarn ends so I tend to use it when I have almost full skeins to use so there aren't as many color changes. Boomer was fascinated with the loose ends.


Another one that needed another row or two to be complete. I finished these last two off during Monday's knit/crochet class so they're ready to be delivered. Notice that tuft of white fur just to the left of Boomer?


Just in case you ever wondered why it's difficult to get the vacuum run at the same time as the camera batteries are charged, this last photo may explain it. I think I had less than five minutes before "the boys" were mixing it up again and there was fur flying.


In other news, the garage sale season so far has been very good. I took two large bags of yarn in on Monday & more on Thursday. DH had even better luck Thursday afternoon while I was at K4 and I came home to my chair entirely filled with bags of yarn. Today we went to a community garage sale up in Oxford and I was able to buy 35 skeins of yarn for $4.00 - 18 skeins of beige, 6 of turquoise, 6 of medium blue & 5 of dark blue. I think I'm going to need DH's help to get this all from the car to the craft room come Monday!