A Beautiful Christmas card

A friend sent this link to me for an interactive Christmas. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

http://ecard.ashland.edu/index.php?ecardYear=2004adm

Peace and joy for the new year!

Finally, I am back online again!

After a major computer crash and other realities of life, my son is loaning me his laptop until I can save enough for a new computer. Which may be a while!

I just moved into the senior apt that I had applied for, waited for, prayed for! Of course, not one to do things the easy way, I managed to have fever and diarrhea for two weeks before the move! Lost 14 lbs. (I do NOT recommend this as a diet strategy!) Had to go to the ER one Sunday as I was so dehydrated to get an IV. And keep packing whenever I could manage to sit on the edge of the bed for more than a few minutes!

Thankfully my church came and moved me into the new apt., helped Pat get moved into his new apt. Pat comes over now and does my shopping, laundry, etc. We've come through the worst of it!

I kept myself from going totally crazy by knitting socks for myself. We had one huge snow storm that dropped 2 ft of snow on us here in upstate NY. I have a lovely view of the city from my apt, perfect for snow watching! I'm on the fourth floor, the apt. has elevators (no stairs, hooray!) and I go out as rarely as possible!

Ann is going to share some of her acrylic stash with me so I can make baby things and kid things for the Rez. Hard washing, hard wearing lovely acrylic! I love knitting with wool, but new moms need easy things to take care of and no worries about shrinkage.

I may soon have a female cat. I contacted the local Humane Society and as always, they have an abundance of cats ready to be adopted. They told me that they have a number of cats that have very reduced adoption fees, which is what I would need with my skinny budget! But it would be so nice to have a furry little companion! I will have to make a place on the window ledge where she can watch the snow come down. There is a large tree by my living room window and the top of it can be seen. I got up the other morning and it looked like the tree had been dusted with powdered sugar! Of course, Spring will bring green leaves and birds to visit, which will be a treat for the cat and I.

I hope all of you have a happy holiday season with your families. Patrick is going to visit friends, so it will be a movie/knitting day for me, which is fine.

Pictures at Last

I finally took some pics of the socks I've been knitting for Akkol. Here they are:



The red/white ones are Joan's Socks pattern and the red/brown ones are Wool of the Andes with afterthought heels. The blue/white ones at the top are another pair of Joan's Socks in progress. I really like that pattern. I use one strand worsted and one strand of sock yarn--both wool. You can find it here:
http://www.knitlist.com/95gift/joan.htm

Tomorrow is a Resting Day

I had a 9 AM doctor appt. and finally got home four hours later, totally wiped out. I took along my washcloth (which will be sent to Rabbitch) to knit on and managed to get a few rows done here and there as I WAITED. I love KIP as it makes me feel less like at least something good is getting accomplished. And it also starts up a lot of conversations.

But tomorrow is Resting Day for me. I really don't have much energy for anything else, but it makes me happy to know that I will have big blocks of time for working on my socks for Akkol. I have two pairs in process and will post pictures later. My next pair will be using the Joan's Sock pattern from the Knit List. Several people have commented how much they like that pattern, so will give it a try. Since they are knitted with two strands of worsted yarn on size 8 needles, they should go fast. And warm. With 40 below zero temps at the orphanage, the kids need warm!

Sewing is at a standstill for the moment. Just can't get anything started. So knitting is what I am doing until some other mad inspiration strikes me.

Off to see the mechanic!

Well, I've gone and done it now! I bought myself a Sebring convertible and it is great. I got tired of working out rides with family, so now I can get to where I need to go so much more easier. The exhaust needed repairs, which the dealer is paying for, so I will be sitting in an air conditioned waiting room with some knitting to keep me company. I have no idea how long it will take, but I have a 9 am appt.

I plan to take some socks that need to be finished. Have gotten to that endless foot section on both socks, so this will be a good chance to make some progress. These are of sock yarn on size 1 Addis. Will get a photo up of these socks when I finally get them finished. The NEXT pair I make will be for Akkol for the orphanage there. Those have to be thick and warm for the cold winters. A boot sock type. Those will knit up a lot faster on wool worsted and one sock yarn for extra color!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mittens_for_Akkol/

I have some cone yarn that is well aged and ready to be socks for the kids there!

A Nice Surprise!

Ann nominated me for Rockin'Girl Blogger! Pretty nifty! So now I get to nominate 5 other girl bloggers that I read.

1. Sherie at http://whimsyknits.lightshines.net/
Love her charity knitting projects.

2. Marguerite at http://stitchesofviolet.blogspot.com/
Who does CIC knitting and makes wonderful patterns.

3. Margie at http://www.fairisle53.blogspot.com/
Who does really incredible socks and inspires me to make my own!

4. Wool Winder at http://woolwindings.blogspot.com/
I love the spinning info and pictures of the flowers.

5. Lisa Grossman, AKA the Tsarina of Tsocks at http://www.tsocktsarina.com/blog/
She talks to her yarn and gets it to do wonderful things!

There are many others, of course, but I do enjoy these for the variety. Probably my favorite blog is Sheep Shots. But Ann has been nominated already by Mariella.

Knitting:
Mittens for Cora's classmates.
Thick wool socks for Akkol.
A hat for the Rez.

Sewing:
Cool ties for the troops.
Some shorts for myself, but I keep putting them on the back burner! Maybe I should make them pants for the winter!

Material Arrived

Well, the material arrived for the cool ties--but not the crystals! Maybe early next week. I'm not sure the material is going to work out. It is homespun gingham check and the color is okay, but I will have to make a test cool tie to see if the material is dense enough. I ordered some more cotton material in case it is too thin. This time, 200 ct cotton. That should work just fine. I couldn't find a thread count on the homespun. If I can't use it for the cool ties, I'll use it to make summer shorts/pants for the kids on the Rez. Nice medium green that boys or girls can wear.

The yarn for the Mitten Stash is full of as many bright colors as I could find for Cora's class. I'll probably put stripes across the palms to make them into pairs, etc. Cora wants her's to have a string so she won't lose them. Probably a very good idea! The ones for the mitten box will just be singles, though. Easier for the teacher to dole them out. And the kids won't necessarily care whether they match or not as long as they get to go outside for recess!

That's about it for today. Still writing letters to the troops.
Check out
http://www.halosandheroes.com/Ways-to-participate
I joined the Letter Writing Team. They send me addresses each week and I write at least one letter to them. Sometimes they write back and we become penpals. I'll be sending cool ties to them when the crystals FINALLY get here! I just write about ordinary things going on in my life. To someone who is getting shot at, "ordinary" sounds pretty good. And gives them a little break from the stress.

It doesn't matter whether you approve of the war or not--these guys and gals deserve to know that someone cares about them. They are young (18-20 yrs old), in a hot miserable country (whether Afghanistan or Iraq)and truly in harms way. When I watch the news and hear about more troop deaths, I can't help but wonder if one of them was one of my soldiers.