Christmas 2008

sarah lounging in her new Tonka dump truck!


Scarves I knit for Christmas gifts for family and friends.



Sarahs new smile! She has her daddys ski hat on!



Sarah playing with her new Camera. She took over 400 pictures before the batteries wore out. She took pictures of EVERYTHING!!! She was more interested in seeing what the view screen showed than the actual taking of the pictures. It only took her two pictures to figure out that she had to push the button on the front of the camera in order to have a picture. Reviews on this fisher-price camera were negative on the childs ability to use this camera. My God!! Sarah is only 27 months old and she used it for two days!!! Now to find her some rechargeable AAA batteries for this.

The ride home was horrible. We woke up to light snow then it turned to freezing rain. When we headed home at 10 a.m. its wasn't bad at all...just the roads weren't plowed or salted or sanded. We got to Newport and it was pouring!!! Temps were 35F. I am amazed at the drivers. If the big rigs are not going any faster then 45 MPH should tell you something! We saw one very serious accident in Bangor in the southbound part of the I. The further north we went the worse the roads got and the faster people wanted to go. I just took my time and stayed in line with the rest of the traffic and we got home without any problems. We had a car pass us and then up the road about 5 miles they were off the road. So called 911 and reported it. Told the dispatcher that they needed to get the plows out to salt and sand. Was told there is no money for it so just take my time. Love this state!!! Don't lay of the people in the office building, lay off the men and women out there in the plow trucks and let us worry about how we will get home safely. Love our governor...he is such a jerk!!!

Well heading to bed to rest. My back is sore and my ankle is swollen and it needs to be elevated for a while. Happy New Year Everyone!!!

KNIT ON!!

Sony Camera

I got an email today from Sony about my camera. Mailed it out two weeks ago and they just got it today! Now I go in to their site tonight and I have to call them...this is supposed to be a recall. I don't know if they are open this time of night so will wait until morning.

All my christmas presents have arrived by mail or UPS. Even with paying postage I saved a lot of money of these gifts. I am amazed. I received all my orders within 7 days...most came two to three days after placing the order. Thank you Amazon.com!!

I haven't felt like knitting much lately. I did get the four pair of socks done for my friend and she is very pleased with them. I told her she should learn to knit. At our age it is something to do with our time and it does produce very nice results for me and the giftee! Lets see how long it takes for her to ask me for lessons. She said she was taught by her grandmother as a young adult. It wouldn't take any time at all for her to remember how to knit and purl. I would gladly teach her how to read a pattern...even though the new ones today with "charts" make my head spin. lol

DGD is learning to use her potty! Got a call today from her to tell Grammy and GB that she went 4 times yesterday and 2 time today!! She is growing up so fast!!! Next month will be big changes in the house for her. A new baby brother...I call him the "little guy" and I think that is what I will call him after he's born. Now it's a big secret what his name will be...DS is the name picker as DDIL was the one who got to pick Sarah's name. Hope our son is kind to this one...nothing to long to learn to spell..lol

We got a lot of rain this weekend and most of the southern part of the state was hit hard with ice and power outages. We had a couple of flickers but nothing that stayed off. I stayed off the computer just in case it did go out. Hate to have it shut down like that.

Have my Christmas cards all written..now to get to the post office tomorrow and mail them. Supposed to snow and we could get 6 inches of the white shit! LOL I will get to plow!!! Yippee for me!

Dh had two things removed from his bald head last Friday. He missed a day of work because they changed the time on him...so he decided to be home in case they changed it again..and they did. Called us at 7:30 to say they had a cancellation due to the snow/rain mess so he went in an hour earlier. Will know next week sometime if they are cancerous or not. One looked like the one he had on his back removed 18 months before and that was basil cell. The other had changed some and was sticking up so the doctor took it as he was already there ....haha DH has 5 stitches in each one. And they are so GROSS! DH said they are very sore and burn. I bet they do. I have changed the bandages for him each night and I am so glad I haven't gotten light headed like I did when I was changing the bandages when he had his gall bladder out!! Almost passed out doing that! LOL He still teases me about it. Oh well. Must be because I love him and don't want him in any pain. He gave me the shots when I had my knee and ankle replaced because I couldn't stick the needles in myself and never complained (too much anyway) about that. lol

If I don't get to post again until after the holidays "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" everyone and May God Bless you all!!!!

KNIT ON!

Christmas Gifts for a friend

This pair is from Red Heart Acrylic yarn. I swapped with my friend Nadine for this...she was looking for some of the pink camo yarn to crochet a couple of sweaters..good trade for us both.

This one is from Brunswick Yarn that I had left from my shop. It too is acrylic worsted weight. I hope the young boy that is getting them likes them and they fit.

The purple ones are from Brunswick yarn that I have had left over from my yarn shop days. I have so much yarn I will never use it all in my life time!!!!
One pair left to go for this little girl. Gerry I hope they fit your step-grand kids.

My Sony Camera is at the repair shop in Texas. I got my shipping labels after I hounded them three times in one day. Oh, they emailed them to me. No you didn't!!! So I called and finally got an American in the USA and he got me the labels ASAP...so I packed it up and took it to the UPS place in town. Now for them to replace that LCD part and get it back to me before Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed that they can do what they promised me!

The weather this week has been one weird ride!! Monday it was -20F with the windchill and it was snowing all day too. Today it was 56F and rain. Tonight it is down to 27F and supposed to be heavy snows tomorrow and possibly into Friday. I am so glad I have my Christmas shopping all done. I did most of it locally and on the Internet. I took a ride to Lincoln to Walmart on Tuesday to get a fisher price digital camera for DGD. The Internet price was $40.00. I printed out the page and took it with me. I was told that would not honor any Walmart.com prices. So I put it back and came home. I checked out Amazon.com and got one with shipping for less than $38.00..and it will be here Friday!!! Yippee. I also was able to find some blanket sleepers with feet for Sarah. I got 7 of them for her for $68.00 with shipping..at Amazon again. I saved enough money that I went and ordered her a cabbage patch doll...$13.33 and that will be here Friday too. So Santa is going to come to her house with some nice presents this year...her other grandmother got her a new leap frog thingy so she can learn some more words. She already knows her alphabet, colors, and 0 to 10. Nice to have a mom and grandmother that have a college education. Her other Grammy is a school teacher and also teaches a couple of courses at the local college. Not us, we are from the school of hard knocks. I was one of the first females to work in the paper mill in town..talk about women's lib!! We sure have "come a long way, baby!" Today what us girls went through would get a person fired. We were told that we were walking into a mans world and if we didn't like it we better find another job! What we did for the women of today!!

I hope to get the last sock done tomorrow for my friend and then finish up the second Christmas stocking and start the last one for Rosemary right after. We will see.

I did go back and order all the Christmas stocking patterns from Annie's yesterday. I really like them. Done on a circular so there is no sewing it up the back and it looks so much better..IMHO Sarah's sweater will be on hold for a bit. And I signed up for Death By Socks today for their DBS starting Jan 12, 2009. I have some fingering yarn here now to get the gauge done so that when they post the directions I am off to a good start. I would like to at least get to the second round of this..and not be "assassinated" right off. If anyone is interested in this, the deadline is Friday, Dec 12 at midnight. It is a Yahoo group. Last year I did a sock swap with a lady in Minnesota. She did a beautiful sock for me out of a sport weight with a nice pattern to it and I knit her a pair from worsted weight Bartlettyarns. I hope she got to use them to keep warm last winter! I have enjoyed my socks many times this past year.

DH has to have some minor surgery on his poor bald head right off. He has two pre-cancerous spots and now they have turned to basil cell cancer. At least that is what the doctor is thinking. It sure looks just like the other one. Of course DH hasn't seen the first one or these ones as they are on the back of him..and looking in a mirror doesn't look the same as what you can see up close and personal...ha ha They will get him in ASAP to get this done. This is the second time he's had this type of cancer. I hope this will be the last of it..but he is so light complected and burns so easily that he will probably have more of them in his lifetime. We didn't have sun screen like we do today. And being so blond and white skinned he burned many times as a kid and blistered each time. Me, I have enough of my great great grandmothers Indian blood in me that I just get darker and darker..I will burn but it takes a lot to get a burn like DH gets in just an half hour in the son. And our son and DGD are both dark like me. Now if I could just get the benefits that the American Indians get I would be happy..don't have enough blood line for that.

Well, I am going to go read some more of my new books I got on Amazon.com...right now reading the Spenser series by Robert B Parker. Have read the other series he has but haven't gotten to the single books yet. The library here has a very small and limited amount of his books so buy them online at a good discount rate for second hand books.

KNIT ON!

Christmas Sock is finished!!

I have finished the sock and put it in a Ziploc baggie so the cat won't bother it..lol The pattern is from http://www.annieswoolens.com/StockingKitsPatterns.php The site has a lot of new patterns that I plan to order after Christmas. I will have to order some more wool from Bartlettyarns to make these...and I think I may do a couple of craft fairs next year around the Christmas season. (If I don't give them all away like I did today...lol)
I am waiting for a new pattern book I ordered from Mary Maxim on Monday...was told they would be here tomorrow. So while I wait for them to get here, ordered 4 of them, I have finished a pair of acrylic socks for a boy with a size 5 shoe in boys...which is the size I wear in them so I know these will fit him..they are gifts for friend to give as Christmas gifts. She is paying for the yarn and I am doing the knitting. I will start the second Christmas stocking when I get the mail tomorrow afternoon...already have the yarn. The second one will be a poinsettia and the third one is a snowman. I enjoy knitting these so it will be fun to make more of them after Christmas is over.
The weather has been rain, sleet, and snow all within an hour today. We have a lot of black ice on the roads and sidewalks so it is not fun out there at all right now. I am being very careful not to fall and injure my new body parts!
We do have some snow on the ground but it isn't much. Just enough to be white and icy.
The sweater for Sarah is on hold for now. I want to make sure I get all the socks and mittens done before Christmas this year. I do want to make some felted mittens for my DH, DS and myself. I made some about 9 years ago and DH finally wore them out last winter. And he said his hands were really too warm at times.
Finally got my UPS label for the camera to be returned to Sony last night. If I lived closer to Bangor all I had to do was take it to the UPS store and they would pack it up for me, but I don't. So now trying to find a box sturdy enough for me to wrap this camera up and take it to the little UPS place in town and it should be done in 10 days and back to me before Christmas...and I have my fingers and toes crossed on that promise.
Time for knitting and watching a little TV is on my to do list...so take care, be safe and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!!!

KNIT ON!!!!!!

Christmas Sock 2008

Making this Xmas sock for a friend...she also wants one with a snowman on it and a poinsettia. I had two of these with the moose on them done, but I think a moth got at them and ate a hole in each one where I had folded it and put it on the couch last spring before we moved to the lake.

I am using Canadiana yarn that I have left from my yarn shop days. The yarn has held up well for over 15 years since it has never been used before and it comes from a smokeless home. Cats, yes, cigarettes, no!!!

I hope to be able to design the other two from this pattern as I have the diagrams for them but I do not like to knit these socks on two needles and sew them together. So I will take the designs and incorporate them into this moose pattern. I have already figured out how many more rows I will need to add to this pattern and once I get my head around the rest of it I will be able to get them done in a couple of days from when I start.

It is snowing here again. The last couple of days it has been so foggy you couldn't see across the street. It is 34F so this snow won't last long.

Hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday? We went to DH's cousins for supper. DH came after he got out of work and we all had a great time. The ride home was slow due to fog, but we both made it home in our own vehicles. I drove the truck down there and he had the car at work. I made a couple of graham cracker pies from scratch the evening before so we had a lot to eat and a lot of great company to share the day with. Tomorrow I am going to cook my turkey for us.





KNIT ON!!

Winter is here!

Since I have no camera to take pictures of the weather or my sweater progress I'll just write a little bit about it.
We got some snow yesterday with heavy winds and a lot of Arctic cold. This made for bad driving conditions and more wood in the wood stove. The winds are still howling today and the windchill is around 0 F. Too cold too soon if you ask me. I did go out to the dump yesterday cause DH is working 12 hour shifts and he won't be home before it closes at 4. Once out I decided to visit with cousins for just a few minutes to see how they are. Haven't been over since before I had surgery in July. Forgot to go to the grocery store to pick up DH RX...two days in a row now. They will put it back if I don't get there today and by the looks of the wind and cold today, I am not going out!!

Working on a Christmas stocking for a friend. She gave me a pattern for them (2) and I really don't like it. So trying to take the snowman and poinsettia designs and work them into the pattern I used for family socks. My pattern doesn't have enough rows for the design without taking away from the one that is there. Oh well. Don't want to make them too big or long. Will just have to figure out something else or find a different pattern with those designs in them.

Have the two panels for Sarah's sweater up to the neck..now to start decreasing then then increasing for the back. They are made in one strip from front to back. Then you pick up the sleeves from the panel. Different!!!

This economy is sure bad. I am hoping our new President will be able to help us get things back on the right track quickly. If not, this country and the whole world will be in deep do-do. The thing that really pisses me off is that it's more taxes and we are taxed so much right now, no wonder we can't make ends meet. These big companies and banks should be ashamed of themselves for asking us Americans to bail them out! We make squat compared to their income and benefits and they still want more. They should be put in prison for their greed! Making 27 million a year and then going to the government for more money just so they can keep their live styles and we lose what little bit we have?? (Ford execs., auto execs) What a joke this country has become! Talk about taxation without representation!!! I think we need another Boston Tea Party only it should be a "No more Taxes" party. Let these companies take care of themselves. We sure aren't getting any help.

Nov 24, 2008

I heard on the news today that we are now bailing out CITI bank! Wow! I want to be on that bail out list too! Where do I sign up? If we could get help to pay off our camp loan we wouldn't have to sell it!! Come on people!!! Where will this end? I have no income at all and only DH is working and now it's going to be pay more taxes while the big wigs keep it all and I go without??? I just don't see how we can bail anyone out and still keep our head above water too!!!

Well enough of this crap...I am stepping off my soapbox for now!

Have been knitting on my alpaca socks last night. Have the heel turned and will have to wind some more yarn to finish this one up. Then I only have one more pair of them to make for my DS for his Christmas gift. DDIL is done and so is her mothers so that makes a couple more gifts done.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL!!!

KNIT ON!

Sarahs sweater Part 2

Started the new sweater this afternoon. I am knitting the two front parts at the same time. I love this yarn!!! All the pretty colors from the 5 different colored skeins will be eye catching for sure. I will have enough left over to make some little baby socks for my new grandson due in Jan. 2009.

Rosemary..again, thank you so much for ordering all this beautiful yarn and the pattern book from Berroco!!

My Sony Camera is Broken

Well, I am so upset with my camera's not working. I bought it 5 years ago and have had no problems with it until recently. Yesterday I wanted to use it to take pictures of my finished sweater and all it did was have a black screen. If you took a picture it was black. I could use it to view my other already taken pictures but that was it. So last night I went to the Sony Cyber Shot website and chatted with a rep. He asked a bunch of questions and then gave me a link to the problem and read that. I filled out all the forms, online, and submitted it. They charged me $15.oo for shipping it to and from but are going to fix the problem for nothing....YIPPEE!! Seems that one of the components was faulty and they had one batch manufactured with that in it and mine was one of them. When I bought the camera I got a notice that my camera WASN'T one of them..but they fibbed. And it is! I just hope they can get it fixed and back to me before Christmas.

On yesterday post I tried to link Rosemary's Gift Shop to her website link and all I managed to do was connect it to the heading. So am going to try this again. Rosemary's Gift Shop link http://www.maine-crafts.com/ Hope this works! If not click on the heading on this and the other post.

Sarah's new sweater

Received my pattern book and yarn from Rosemary's Gift Shop in Cornish Maine. She has been so good about ordering for me. I am going to make this in a size 4 so Sarah will have it next fall. Trying to keep ahead of the growth game. They grow so fast at times and then slow down.



The book and yarn are from Berroco. I should have a lot left over as the pattern called for one skein of 4 of the colors and 2 of one color. I can always make socks with the leftovers.

This is the yarn I am going to use. I had to use my scanner to upload today as my Sony camera isn't working. I am so upset with this camera. I paid over $1200 for it in 2003 and the last couple of years it has been acting up. Today I went to photograph the yarn and books and the finally finished hooded sweater and it won't do anything but show me already taken photos. The screen is black when I try to use it to shoot a picture. I can see all the writing the camera has on the battery length and such, but it won't work...all I can see is black. But it will display my previous photos. Darn, darn, darn!!!!! Nothing seems to be going good right now. Oh well.

Our new little grandson to be is coming along well. Anna had her checkup last week and all is fine. He is right on schedule...whatever that means. LOL They are thinking about naming the little guy after his great grandfathers...Laurence Reynold. I think it is too long a name for the little guy, but not my kid. Great grandads would be pleased with the name I am sure. But time will tell. They could change it at the last minute. But it is up to the parents to name their child. Whatever his name will be I will call him a little nick name like I do with my son.

The weather here today is weird. We are supposed to have thunderstorms tonight and heavy winds. It has been raining for 3 days now and I swear we are going to have to go get the boat at camp and bring it home in case we need it...like Noah's Ark. ha ha.

Ankle is getting better every day. I am not using my cane any more, I just have to be careful when I get up to move as it is stiff until it gets stretched out. Now if the numbness would go away from when the doctor cut the skin and bones. No one ever talks about that part of knee or ankle or any bone replacement numbness. It has been over two years for the right knee and I still have a lot of that prickly numbness on the outside of my knee. It is very irritating at times as it seems to be worse on some days then others. My ankle has most of it on the outside and the heel area. It is continuous and very hard to not think about at times. Oh well, time will tell how much of the nerve endings will rebuild or not. And I have no patience for waiting..ha ha.

Take care all and KNIT ON!!

Our cat family

This is Tonto. He had most of his teeth pulled last Tuesday and is finally getting back to being himself...old bastard! He is 16 1/2 years old. DH said it would have been cheaper to put him down then to pull the teeth, but that was all that is wrong with him so I gave him some more time with us. He will have a hard time until his gums heal, but he is already eating the dry food. Maybe he won't kill all my squirrels and birds next summer...lol


This is Feather. She came from the hovel and had been stepped on by the horses. Her pelvis and back leg were broken. She was so little she didn't know how to eat food. Took her to the vet and then kept her in a cage for a month. All that time we spent teaching her how to eat moist food by making it into almost a liquid...it didn't take long for her to learn and heal up. She bonded with DH and she still thinks he's her mother. She is 14 years old.



This is Samantha. Always up for special attention from us. She is no longer with us. I still find myself looking for her or calling her name when I call the others...lol



An this is Penny. She is the youngest of our cats. She has had a hard life. She came to us after someone dropped her and her sister off and they had given birth to 4 kittens each. We took them in, mothers and kittens, and then found homes for the kittens. Kept the mothers and had them fixed. The other one we called Shadow as she had no voice. Penny made up for that!! We lost her about 2 years after she came to us. We still think someone took her home as she was so bright white and pretty. They were both so starved and thin when they found us.


Knitting is coming along fine. Working on too many projects right now. So only going to work on the one that I have for my DILs friend Wendy. I have the front, back and the two sleeves done and sewing it up today. I will then start on the hood. Hope to have it done by this weekend. We will see. Then to start the little cabled blue sweater for our new grandson that is due in Jan.

Well, back to knitting. Take care all and

KNIT ON!!

Crystals baby shower

Crystal with her ribbon and bow hat on after she had opened up all her wonderful gifts. She got so many things she will need a UHaul to get it all back to Bangor!!




I knit this little dress for her. It is acrylic so she can machine wash and dry it.


Here's the little hat I knit. Didn't get the little sweater done in time...she isn't due for another 6 weeks so I should have time to get it done.

We all had a wonderful time at the baby shower today. I got to see a lot of relatives I haven't seen in years. Some had their grandkids with them so that made the party a little more lively!! Got the kids to pick up all the leftovers for us and clear the tables...all at that age where they want to help!

KNIT ON!

Yarn, raven, Dog in sidecar

This yarn is going to be a side to side sweater for DGD.

This big raven was on the deck eating the cat food from their dish and then drinking from the cats water dish. I have 2 outdoor cats and one indoor one now.

He was so noisey I thought that someone was running up and down the deck. When I opened the blinds up I saw this big guy having breakfast at the cat dish. He was HUGE!! One thing to see them on the side of the road or flying over head, but when they are right there 4 feet from you...let me tell you this one was a big, big guy! Even the outtie guys stayed away from their food and water dish that morning. LOL


This picture I took in Kingfield Maine when we had to stop for the parade that was on the highway. We walked up to the parade and I saw this guy sitting there patiently waiting for his owner to come back and finish the ride! They were stuck for 45 minutes with all of us.

I haven't posted in weeks and here I am posting a ton of stuff. LOL

KNIT ON!!

Ankle surgery.

This first picture I took a few days after surgery. I was on the couch, glad it had a queen size bed in it, and stayed there for 8 weeks. The next picture my DH took the morning of the surgery. I had worn that brace for 5 years and it was on it's last leg..no pun intended...lol. After paying $1500 for it, I got my money out of it.

Samantha Marie

Samantha came to us on June 12, 1991. She was from a litter that was dropped off at the horse hovel at my neighbors barn. We had just put down "Sam" and had him for over 15 years. On October 15, 2008 I had to finally let her cross the rainbow bridge and stop her pain. She has a liver disease and was very sick the last three weeks of her life. I took her to the vet on Sept 25 and they did an IV with Vitamin B12 and it was like she was a kitten again. She also had a very rapid heart beat and he gave me medications for that. For the first week after this IV she was great. Now vomiting, eating like crazy, playing with yarn again and back to sleeping with me or on me all day long when I was resting my ankle. Then it started again a couple of days before I finally called and had her put to sleep that next day. We drove to Orono with her and she was like a kitten all morning. But the illness had gotten into her bowels and bladder and she had blood in her urine and stool. She was crying and trying to pee all the time. So it was time for me to be an adult and do the right thing. Samany I sure miss you little girl!

This little girl was my best buddy. She stayed with me all summer while I was laid up recovering from ankle replacement surgery. She would sleep on my pillow at night with her paws on my arm and purr. Or when I was on my side she would climb on my and lay with her nose in my ear purring. She was my first INDOOR cat. I had her spayed and declawed at 6 months. She had double paws front and back.

I told DH that after the other 3 cats are gone I will not get any more. It is too hard to say good-bye. My other ones are 16, 14, and 12 years old. So I won't have them much longer either.

All my cats were "throw aways". I took them in when the people in the apartment houses around us would pack up and move and leave them behind. I hat 14 at one time. All were spayed or neutered and well taken care of.

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Recovery is coming along!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am getting better every day. I will start to put some weight on my ankle next week. Right now I have a knee walker that I am using to get around on. I have had a lot of people comment on it...kids are amazed that an old lady like me is using a scooter!!!

I have knit 44 dishcloths these last couple of weeks, a couple of baby hats for this winter and started another "Mexicali baby" sweater for Sarah. I ordered the yarn from The Knittwitt in Mass. Can't remember the name of it but will post it later with some pictures.

Had to buy a new keyboard as my other one died..that is why there wasn't any writing the the archery pictures. sorry about that.

Have PT tomorrow so I hope to come to town early and add to this blog with some pictures.

And I drove to town today by myself for the first time in 5 weeks! Talk about feeling free toady! I have done nothing but lay in bed for 5 weeks reading, knitting and watching TV. Our cell phone doesn't work that well in the camp so I haven't been able to talk to anyone on that!

Yesterday we heard the news on the local news channel that the mill my husband has worked in for the past 40 years will be closing their doors on Sept. 2. They have lied to the workers for months now...and now they gave them all a one week notice. HOLY SHIT! NOT AGAIN!!!! We went through this in 2003-2004...18 months closed. New owners and now they are of the cost of oil. Promises, promises, promises is all this town had heard. We were praying for another 3 years before they closed, DH would be able to retire then, and now this. Oh well, will keep you posted as to what happens with the mill.

Take care all and

KNIT ON!

POKE & HOPE Archery tournament

My husband and I went to Durham, Maine for this traditional tournament. I don't shoot any more but hope to after my ankle is better.

This tournament was a two day event, but he didn't want to drive back down. There was another shoot in Old Town Maine on Sunday so he went there.

I got to go to a yarn shop, but her prices were so extreme that I didn't get anything. And she wouldn't sell her books unless you bought the yarn the pattern book called for from her. Oh well.