Camp and knitting

the road is open to camp. BUT!!!!! The culvert they replaced last fall has washed out. It is down on our end so no one is in a hurry to fix it. DH hauled two loads of gravel yesterday and at least now we can drive over it without killing the truck and ourselves. LOL We are getting old. We are putting in a new hot water heater...we are going tankless this time. It will be so much easier to close up the camp without the big 40 gallon tank of water to drain. Mike is going to put it in and put easy disconnects for us so that we can blow it out and replace with anti-freeze and not worry about that for the winter months.

I have received my hand-painted wool that I ordered from Knitivity. One group is of the colors of Samantha and the other is from our grand puppy Ollie. Going to knit myself a cardigan with hood out of the Samantha color and some socks. Possible a hat and some mittens if I have enough. The Ollie colors are in worsted weight and sport. Knitting some hats and socks for DS for Christmas gifts. I will work on them at camp this summer.

We have someone coming to look at the camp as soon as the road is graded. It is a mess this year. No one took the road rake this spring so it has hardened up quickly and with the ruts from the logging trucks still there. And the sides of the roads are very soft. Someone was stuck today...lol They must have walked to the main road and got a ride home. When we came out this afternoon the truck was gone but you could see the area he was stuck in. Get too close to the edges and they mud just sucks the vehicle in and there is no stopping it. Ha Ha. Better them than me! Mud is worse then snow any day!! lol

I have another pair of socks finished and one and a half of another pair too! Hope to post pictures tomorrow if it is raining out. We will not be heading to camp too early tomorrow..need to run to Medway to the vets to pick up Penny's medications for her thyroid problem. lol Hard to believe that a cat has the same problems humans have.....oh well. She is worth it...she is needed at camp to catch mice for us again. This has caused her heart muscle to thicken so now she has heart problems too. She has had a good life with us and we will keep her going as long as she isn't in any pain. But for now she is taking her meds, eating and has put on a pound in the last 6 weeks. I will start looking for a kitten soon to replace Samantha. I know that Tonto will not be here much longer as he is over 17 years old now...almost 18!!! We don't want Feather to be alone, she hates it when we go out and leave her alone now, can't imagine what she will do if she is the only cat in this house. She has never been alone.

Time to go watch the Young and Restless, or as DH calls it...the old and useless! lol Want to finish my sock tonight. God Bless!!

Take care all and KNIT ON!

Sox from Knitivity sport yarn

I finished up this pair of socks from Knitivity yarn I ordered from Ray. This is from sport weight yarn and the color is Art School sr. This is 100% wool. Down Home art yarn is the brand. There were no knots or tied together strands in any of the skeins I have used so far. I had more then enough to make this pair of socks and enough left over to make me a single sock with a short cuff. But I am going to make a little sweater for my DGS with the other skein and will keep this leftover for just in case....lol. Winding a different color to start tonight with. Will post when finished.

The pattern I used is from my head. I cast on 52 stitches on size 3 dP needles. The cuff is knit and purl and the heel is half of the cast on. Nothing to knitting up a pair like this for anyone. If anyone wants the directions that I have in my head (lol) just ask. Will gladly try to write them down. Oh, I do use wooly nylon for the heel and toe reinforcment on all my socks.

KNIT ON!

Two pairs of socks done!

Two pair of socks knitted from Rays yarns. Love knitting with this yarn. Can't wait to get my big yarn order.


Sarah discovered Grammy's yarn yesterday. She was having a blast pulling the yarn out faster than I could knit it.
This is from Ray also. I have one sock done and hope to finish the second one tonight...after I get off the computer!!

We went to our son's yesterday. Sarah and mommy baked Grammy a birthday cake..it was so yummy. No one took any pictures so can't share them with you. I had the best birthday ever!!! Got to play with Sarah and Ben all day and then tried to teach Sarah about knitting. She is a little bit to young, but will bring over some needles and yarn for her on our next visit. I think she will enjoy trying for about 20 seconds...lol

KNIT ON!

The Socks are Finished!

Here are three pictures of the socks I knit from the yarn I got from Knitivity. I really enjoyed working with this yarn. I am impressed that it only took one skein to make this pair of socks. You can see the amount that I have left over in the photos.


This picture I used the flash. I do not care for it because it doesn't show the true colors. The photos would have been better if I had taken them during the day and not after 11 pm.




The color is Storm Surge. 100% wool. Can't wait to get the special ordered yarn of Samantha and Ollie colors.

KNIT ON!

New Yarn

I have one sock completed and the second one about half way down on the cuff. Will take a pic and post it tomorrow if I don't get that April Fools Virus everyone is talking about.
KNIT ON!

Yarns from Knitivity

Check out this website... www.knitivity.com His email addy is: ray@knitivity.com

Ray is very talented and hand paints the yarn in his shop. I ordered this when he was having a sale. I can't wait to wind up the Storm Surge tonight and start on a pair of wool socks for my DH.
I ordered worsted weight, sport weight and fingering. The yarn is 100% wool.



Got an email with this yarn in it for sale from sockyarnsales website. I checked out the website and ordered this yarn. I am very pleased with it. Tonight I start by winding this yarn and making a pair of wool socks for DH. This one is called Storm Surge and it is WW.


This one is called Glacier Berry. It is sport weight. I can see some pretty socks for DDIL.

These four skeins are four sport weight. They are colors Art School, Jr. and Art School, Sr.

These are two skeins of sport weight and two skein of fingering weight yarn. The color is Graffiti.

This a picture of them all together.

This is just what I have needed to get my out of that "don't know what to knit" hump that I have been in for a couple of weeks. Have knit a couple of dishcloths but nothing big. I still need to finish Sarah's poncho. I have the two panels done but need to pick up the 200+ stitches on each side of each panel for the sleeves. I will wait for the days to be longer so I have better sunlight.

I hope you all take a look at Rays Yarns. I sent him a couple of pictures of my cat Samantha and sons dog Ollie. He is going to paint me some yarn for a cardigan for me out of Samantha's color and some socks, hats and mittens out of Ollie's colors for my DS for Christmas gifts.

KNIT ON!!

Camp for Sale in Maine with owned Land

As you can see in this picture, we have put in windows on the porch and a new front door and storm door. We are planning on finishing the porch this summer and making another bed/sun room out of it. I am hoping to put in some nice hardwood flooring in this room so I won't have to worry about it getting dirty like the rug in the bedroom. Love rugs, but prefer to wash flooring then rugs any day!!

We are also going to see what the cost will be to put a metal roof on so we don't have to shovel it every snowstorm...which is a lot easier to do with just a few inches rather than a couple three feet of snow like most of the other camp owners do. I enjoy going up there for the day, so now we can just enjoy the day without a lot of extra roof raking..just the deck and ramp and driveway to do. I hope we will be able to match the deck color if we do have the metal roof put on, but that will be if we have enough money left from taxes to do that. First to get finished will be the new room. Need to get a door for inside as we will be taking the window out and making a doorway there.


 

Here are a few pictures of our summer home. The camp is 28 x 40. The bedroom is 16 x 18 ...the deck is a three sided wrap around.The bathroom is 12 x 12 with a tub/shower and closet space. There is a loft with two beds and a screened in porch that can easily be finished into a second bedroom....10 x 16 in size. The land is 1.75 acres...consists of 275 feet of shore frontage. The lake is spring fed and is one mile by 2 miles. It is very private and secluded area with families living there year round now. We are on the snowmobile trails and the ATV trails.

Rainbows are plentiful here too. We seem to get a lot of them on this end of the lake due to the suns rays.


The loons are right out front all the time. This one let me take many pictures of it without swimming too far out so that I got some good closeups of it.


The camp was built in 1998. It has a new septic system, bathroom, roof, deck (2000)

Snow Dump, Sarah and Ben

Alan is standing in front of the snow pile that is put there by the town crew. They bring snow from around town and blow it up on this bank and it grows daily!






Sarah is playing with her leapfrog...and Zoe the cat is not at all bothered!!




Alan snow blowing the deck on Wednesday. Just a little on the deck as the winds seem to blow most of it off. Very little on the roof too.





Sarah and Ben. She kept saying to take her picture with Ben on his play mat. He was crying and just didn't want to lay there while we took pictures...only got a couple of shots. And he is crying in each one!

Snow Storm 2/22/09

The neighbor trying to knock some of the snow off the roof of his two story house. We got over 2 feet of the white crap again!!! Where is spring!



One of the kids in the neighborhood enjoying a no school day because of the snow. Roads were not opened up until late morning in our little town..just got so much of it and all the cut backs haven't helped either.




Tough plowing conditions at camp. We were only able to plow in part way. So much snow and the banks are too high for the plow to push the snow over them it kept falling back under the truck and making it too hard to go forward. Here are are stuck and the road goes on for another 2 miles. So we backed up and went home. Now to get one of the big logging crews to go in and open the road for us. Still have a couple of families still stuck in there.




Intersection of the highway in town. As you can see the snow is piled high and no where to put it. The whole town is bogged down with this lastest storm. The two lane roads are down to one lane in most places so driving around town is slow. Everyone is putting their snow in the roads for the town crew to clean up and they have no place to put it either. Hope they get our street soon. Can just get a car up and down the hill now.

Knit content!

Working on a pair of the socks I knit on Death by Socks. I had to go to a size one needle to get them to fit me. Wow what a lot of stitches this pattern has. I cut it back so that I don't have all of them and the socks are still looking good.. will post pics later.

KNIT ON!!

The Letter that the Orange County Newspaper refused to print!

The Letter that the Orange County Newspaper refused to print!

ORANGE COUNTY ( CALIFORNIA ) NEWSPAPER

This was a very good letter to the editor. This woman made some
good points.
This lady made the argument pretty simple. But it was NOT printed
in the Orange County Paper ........ Newspapers simply won't publish
letters to the editor which they either deem politically incorrect
(read below) or which does not agree with the philosophy they're
pushing on the public. This woman wrote a great letter to the
editor that should have been published.

And, with your help, it will get published via the internet!

New Immigrants

From: 'David LaBonte'

My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC
Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to
'print' it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along
if you feel so inclined.

Dave LaBonte ( signed)

Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the
Orange County Register:

Dear Editor:

So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land
is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should
tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question
aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis
Island and other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people
like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this
new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a
rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people
had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be
documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and
kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support
their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English
a primary rule in their new American households and some even
changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children
a new life and did everything in their power to help their children
assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free
lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had
were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to
trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of
age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men
whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France
and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any
thought about what country their parents had come from. They were
Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They
were defending the United States of America as one people. When we
liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the
French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The
people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that
represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have
thought about picking up anther country's flag and waving it to
represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their
parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants
truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the
melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.

And here we are in 2007 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the
same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing
with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement
card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm
sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe
that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's
deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice
in raising future generations to create a land that has become a
beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they
would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those
waving foreign country flags. And for that suggestion about taking
down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the
citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start
talking about dismantling the United States just yet.

(signed) Rosemary LaBonte

I don't know this person, but I feel the same way! If you come here to be an American, be an American!!!!

KNIT ON!

Blessed

Just reflecting on how lucky I am. I have a wonderful son, daughter in law, two beautiful and healthy grand kids, a husband who is my hero and all the yarn and books I could ever want. lol Alan and I are truly blessed!

I received my socks from Judi yesterday in Death by Socks. I love them. she put beads on the top cuff and they are just perfect in the fit too. DH wants me to take the beads off so he can steal the socks. He likes them too.

Hope to go visit next week one day and see Ben and Sarah. Sarah will be so excited to see her GB and Grams. She is getting so tall and talking more and more in longer sentences. Time is going by too fast. So glad to have my family in my life. And they are so kind and caring about sharing with us too. Anna calls daily to let us know how things are going and lets us talk to Sarah...who has learned where the off button is and is good at using it. She likes to answer when the phone rings and knows we will call her back and she gets to answer. lol

Well, back to my socks...and Ben's little aran sweater.

KNIT ON!

Ben and Sarah

Ben sleeping in his grandfathers arms yesterday. We went to their house for a visit...so glad we did. He is getting big already!






Sarah loves her baby brother...she is kissing him and being a good big sister already! She was so much fun. She is saying more and more words in larger groups now and we just have to laugh at some of them.


My DBS victim died today. She wrote her own obit...she leaves behind 3 children and her husband. Too funny Sarah. She called me this afternoon but we were out. So I called her tonight and we talked for a while. She is a young mother and has just started knitting socks last year. She said the socks were a little loose, but she had them on and was very pleased with them all in all. So glad she liked them..my biggest worry is laid to rest.

KNIT ON!!

Death By Socks #5

Have the heel turn on the first sock.




The top of the sock pattern.


Finished socks!!!!!


This picture is without the flash..it shows the design better.

Finished and in the mail this afternoon. It is snowing so hard that it will be hard to get out tomorrow to mail them so was very pleased when I finished them at 2:30 pm today and then went to the post office. The whole state is in shut down mode because of this big storm that is just getting up to this end of the state now. Predictions are for up to 24" of snow and we could get some freezing rain/ice at the end of it. The hot air is aloft and it will be up to Mother Nature as decide what we will get so will not lose any sleep over it. But will be plowing early tomorrow morning and Friday.

KNIT ON!!!!

Before and After....felted mitten

 

Here is a picture of one mitten done...no thumb yet, and one felted. I have 5 pair of these drying and it has been over 24 hours and they are stlil very, very damp! Have them by the woodstove but they are so thick it will probably take another whole day to finish drying them before giving them away.

The weather has been COLD! There is no other way to discribe how cold it's been. We have been at - 24F and today we got up to 3 above...it was down right balmy out! Went to my cousins to knit. Helping her with her felted mittens. I started a pair of two strands of worsted weight mittens for my hubby. He wore out two pair already this year using the roof rake at camp. More snow is coming tomorrow and the weatherman says around 9 inches or more. Oh well. At least it will warm up once the clouds come in and that northwesterly winds changes direction and we start getting some of the southern warmth in the jetstream.

And what about that plane landing in the Hudson River! That was one big miracle right there!!! My niece said if she would have been one of those passengers she would have bought 12 powerball tickets!!!! LOL Thank God they all survived and are ok. The pilot was one quick thinker!!! God Bless them all!

Time for bed...-11 right now and just got home from an evening of knitting!

KNIT ON!!