How bad is the economy ? It's SO bad... source: "The News Gazette" e3 section Sept 23-29th 2010 issue]
- I got a predeclined credit card in the mail.
- I ordered a burger @ McDonalds and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"
- If the bank returns your check marked "insufficient funds," you have to call them and ask if they mean you or them.
- Hot Wheels & Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
- Beverly Hills & Malibu parents are firing their nannies and are learning their own children's names.
- Motel Six won't leave the lights on anymore.
- BP laid off 25 congressmen.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
New Drug FDA approved for multiple sclerosis sufferers.....
For those who suffer with Multiple Sclerosis there is a new drug Gilenya on the market now that has had a 2 year trial showing superiority compared to Avonex to significantly reduce relapse rates (the primary endpoint of the study) and slow disability progression. What is excitedly cool with this in my opinion is that it is in pill form.... meaning NO NEEDLES yea!!!!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Pop on over to Grannyg 's podcasting & wish her a 1st year Happy Birthdaversarry!
Get a slice of crafting fiber fix New Zealand style with GrannyG ! Yesterday was her 1 year anniversary and it's her wish for 300 listeners to leave a comment. She does the MOST interesting and awesome interviews with those in the fiber craft community. And her "In the Tins" section is scrumptious inspiration! So go on fiber addicts... pop on over and wish her Happy!
CRAFTERNOON TEA WITH GRANNYG
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
My granddaughter so badly wants to learn "pletenje čarape"
pletenje means knitting. appears pronounced as spelled except for the [nj] sounds as the "ni" in "onion", i.e., an "n" followed by a short "y"-sound. Just guessing here as I really have no idea how to learn... maybe sounds like plut-ny or plah-tin-ey ? Sorry for my mutilated attempt.
čarape means socks. The first letter č with the lil U shaped accent oer it has your tongue behind lower front teeth speaking a mixed sound between the “ch” of “check” and the “ty” of the British English word “tune”…. Clear as mud huh ?! drats, I still have no idea how this sounds.
My new Croatian words for the day ;) Thank you to Tomislav Kuzmic who lives in Croatia and it's from his personal project the European dictionary. where I looked the meaning of these words up from. It's touted as a wonderful collection of online dictionaries for the languages spoken in the European Community and the countries that will become members of European Community.
So how fitting is it that I came across this picture of
19th century Croatian socks! Thank You Elegant Erica for this gem! I have been collection anything I can about Croatia as that is my paternal granfather's heritage. Eric describes the part of the sock that covers the foot as hand-knit while the shaft is of heavy wool fabric and embellished heavily. Croatia has a deep historical element of regional dress going back centuries. These types of socks would have been worn with knee-length pants so the ornate decorations would be most visible. See, it's stuff like this that make me crave my family history. Wish I could have had the privilege of knowing my Croatian ancestors. Too bad I waited as an adult to learn knitting. Imagine my skill level if I had began needlework as a small child.
My poor doggy! Patches has some sort of really bad something wrong with all four of his paws. He is suffering so badly itching, licking his paws raw and bleeding and bald! Vet gave us an antiboitic to get the swelling down and infection under control but I think Patches has some sort of yeast infection on his feets. Today was his last pill.
Been googling the problem. Came across homemade recipe for "thornit powder" consisting of:
4 oz. zinc oxide powder ; 4 oz. boric acid powder ; 1/2 oz. Iodoform powder. But where do I get these ingredients?
Our vet won't be back in town til Friday as he travels throughout the state to smaller towns and rural farms. This recipe appears to be mainly used for a dogs yeasty ears but I'm sure it should work for his poor lil feet. So desperate this morning to give him relief that I have been smearing neosporin ointment all over bad area and than I went to grocer and bought yogurt and mixed in with his dog food. Even smeared the yogurt on his feets. He did get quite a-bit of some relief it seems today. Amazing what simple yogurt can do. But his paws are so red and inflamed. The antibiotic pills have done nothing at all in my opinion except allow the problem to fester. If anyone has any advice I'm all ears.
On a health note I was able to get in to see the neurosurgeon last week at the referral of my pain dr. and apparently I am just going to have to accept the diagnosis of disease rather a fixable injury ;(
I was really hoping & praying for the latter. Guess it's still my turn to get a "NO" to my prayers.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, but it sure feels like "NO" has come my way the majority of 47 years. People always say he don't give a person more than they can handle or it's his way of testing ones strength. Personally I'd have to say my shoulders are sagging and I'm tired. But oh well, life goes on and than you die. Come tomorrow I have to figure a way to the next town over as that neurosurgeon is making me go have some sort of arterial doppler studies in all my arms and legs. He said only my left foot could he feel strong pulse. hmph. I'm hoping he had wax in his ears.
dear hubby came home from work with a cool surprise to show the grankids. See he rides his bicycle to work and home, well - tonite on his way cross the creek he spotted a soft shell turtle. Yup. It will be a catch and release type of thing but not before the kids get to see and touch and inspect it close up. Ick. Not my cup of joe. "Of course you know, this will have to be a show-n-tell item at kindergarten tomorrow" Speaking of my darling baby grangirl.... She's only been in school one month and she can READ! Tonite we sat as audience to her while she read from her 1st reader pamphlet!
Five pages worth! yeah, I know there's only one sentence to a page, but hey I'm proud as a peacock for her!
I don't know how those teachers do it. Really. I've been working with her since she was two years old. Taught her the ABC's. Taught her each and every letter. She could identify all of them. Way before school started she pick up anything and look at it and took her pencil and paper and copied down exactly what she saw. Speech wise she is very eloquent and verbally very expressive. Same thing with my own kids. But I could not teach her how to read. It was very frustrating for me as a granma.
dear hubby says it's like when the lid is stuck on a jar and you ask for help opening it and soon as you hand it to them they get it open with barely a turn. Well, you did just loosen it for them. lol. same principle here he says. How sweet he is. Always trying to make me feel better with a lil quick wit. ;)
Still, my nagging conscience keeps at me. If "I" couldn't teach her how to 'read' how in the world am I ever going to be able to teach her how to knit. I had nobody to teach me as a youngin and had to be self-taught. But I am here in her life now and she wants to learn so badly! She loves messing around with my needles and yarn.
For some extra eye candy go visit the Bata Shoe Museum. They are not socks, but are feet related. And W O W, a highly exquisite collection.
oh,,,, btw - yippee I am progressing right along on my sept sock! so far it appears that I have guesstimated my previous pattern problem correctly. I'm past the heel and headed toward the toes :0
My new Croatian words for the day ;) Thank you to Tomislav Kuzmic who lives in Croatia and it's from his personal project the European dictionary. where I looked the meaning of these words up from. It's touted as a wonderful collection of online dictionaries for the languages spoken in the European Community and the countries that will become members of European Community.
19th century Croatian socks! Thank You Elegant Erica for this gem! I have been collection anything I can about Croatia as that is my paternal granfather's heritage. Eric describes the part of the sock that covers the foot as hand-knit while the shaft is of heavy wool fabric and embellished heavily. Croatia has a deep historical element of regional dress going back centuries. These types of socks would have been worn with knee-length pants so the ornate decorations would be most visible. See, it's stuff like this that make me crave my family history. Wish I could have had the privilege of knowing my Croatian ancestors. Too bad I waited as an adult to learn knitting. Imagine my skill level if I had began needlework as a small child.
My poor doggy! Patches has some sort of really bad something wrong with all four of his paws. He is suffering so badly itching, licking his paws raw and bleeding and bald! Vet gave us an antiboitic to get the swelling down and infection under control but I think Patches has some sort of yeast infection on his feets. Today was his last pill.
Been googling the problem. Came across homemade recipe for "thornit powder" consisting of:
4 oz. zinc oxide powder ; 4 oz. boric acid powder ; 1/2 oz. Iodoform powder. But where do I get these ingredients?
Our vet won't be back in town til Friday as he travels throughout the state to smaller towns and rural farms. This recipe appears to be mainly used for a dogs yeasty ears but I'm sure it should work for his poor lil feet. So desperate this morning to give him relief that I have been smearing neosporin ointment all over bad area and than I went to grocer and bought yogurt and mixed in with his dog food. Even smeared the yogurt on his feets. He did get quite a-bit of some relief it seems today. Amazing what simple yogurt can do. But his paws are so red and inflamed. The antibiotic pills have done nothing at all in my opinion except allow the problem to fester. If anyone has any advice I'm all ears.
On a health note I was able to get in to see the neurosurgeon last week at the referral of my pain dr. and apparently I am just going to have to accept the diagnosis of disease rather a fixable injury ;(
I was really hoping & praying for the latter. Guess it's still my turn to get a "NO" to my prayers.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, but it sure feels like "NO" has come my way the majority of 47 years. People always say he don't give a person more than they can handle or it's his way of testing ones strength. Personally I'd have to say my shoulders are sagging and I'm tired. But oh well, life goes on and than you die. Come tomorrow I have to figure a way to the next town over as that neurosurgeon is making me go have some sort of arterial doppler studies in all my arms and legs. He said only my left foot could he feel strong pulse. hmph. I'm hoping he had wax in his ears.
dear hubby came home from work with a cool surprise to show the grankids. See he rides his bicycle to work and home, well - tonite on his way cross the creek he spotted a soft shell turtle. Yup. It will be a catch and release type of thing but not before the kids get to see and touch and inspect it close up. Ick. Not my cup of joe. "Of course you know, this will have to be a show-n-tell item at kindergarten tomorrow" Speaking of my darling baby grangirl.... She's only been in school one month and she can READ! Tonite we sat as audience to her while she read from her 1st reader pamphlet!
Five pages worth! yeah, I know there's only one sentence to a page, but hey I'm proud as a peacock for her!
I don't know how those teachers do it. Really. I've been working with her since she was two years old. Taught her the ABC's. Taught her each and every letter. She could identify all of them. Way before school started she pick up anything and look at it and took her pencil and paper and copied down exactly what she saw. Speech wise she is very eloquent and verbally very expressive. Same thing with my own kids. But I could not teach her how to read. It was very frustrating for me as a granma.
dear hubby says it's like when the lid is stuck on a jar and you ask for help opening it and soon as you hand it to them they get it open with barely a turn. Well, you did just loosen it for them. lol. same principle here he says. How sweet he is. Always trying to make me feel better with a lil quick wit. ;)
Still, my nagging conscience keeps at me. If "I" couldn't teach her how to 'read' how in the world am I ever going to be able to teach her how to knit. I had nobody to teach me as a youngin and had to be self-taught. But I am here in her life now and she wants to learn so badly! She loves messing around with my needles and yarn.
For some extra eye candy go visit the Bata Shoe Museum. They are not socks, but are feet related. And W O W, a highly exquisite collection.
oh,,,, btw - yippee I am progressing right along on my sept sock! so far it appears that I have guesstimated my previous pattern problem correctly. I'm past the heel and headed toward the toes :0
Friday, September 10, 2010
I'm stuck on the directions for the heel of my September Sock... Help!
First I'd like to God Bless the families in San Bruno, Calif. where there was a huge gas explosion that demolished and leveled their neighborhood and most likely several people have died. oh those poor people, my heart goes out to them. Somebody in B.I.G trouble at that gas company for lack of follow-up and poor residential communication. 3 weeks of lingering gas smell is a LONG time and for company to show up only once during is very bad.
Back in the late 90's our town's gas plant had a huge gas explosion in the middle of the night except it was two miles out in the country from our town. We were extremely lucky that our fireman were able to cap it off before our whole town exploded.
Back in the late 90's our town's gas plant had a huge gas explosion in the middle of the night except it was two miles out in the country from our town. We were extremely lucky that our fireman were able to cap it off before our whole town exploded.
I guess I'm just not used to those four rounds being included under the heel category of sock patterns. They really feel like they belong to part of the leg instructions instead.
The next paragraph shows three rounds that DO seem like the heel flap, even tho it's not labeled "heel flap". Guess I'm just used to very literal directions. Hope I've got this figured correctly. If so, than this was a nice exercise in broadening my horizons!
I tried to contact the pattern author at the website but am not able to find an email link. So If anyone out there wouldn't mind giving me their two cents on this question I'd be most grateful !
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| Shur'tugal heel directions |
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| Shur'tugal gusset instructions |
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| Close-up of heel - gusset - instep for Shur'tugal sock |
Friday, September 3, 2010
Nightingale Sock .... how cool, eclectic and just plain awesome
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| Nightingale Sock |
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| side view |
Nightingale Sock pattern by VintagePurls. Originally it was available in their 2009 Winter sock club. I am so enamored with this design. It is so cool, eclectic and just plain awesome! This is a toe-up, stranded colour work sock that uses just two yarns; one variegated and one almost solid. The pattern is listed as costing NZ$6.00 which converts to US $4.43
Over at Grannyg's blog is a really good review of this sock [July 27th. 2010 episode] by one knitters journey, Stella Lange ! And it's set-up so you can PDF print off the whole article. These photos by Stella Lange are from her reveiw.
I see that my area wool shop Needleworks is offering a 2-fisted 2color knitting class this October 16th. & 23rd. Most of my skills have all been self taught so far but I am looking forward to the taking class. It's a $40 fee so I better starting my pennies now. Class description is: You will learn the skills needed to do stranded two-color (“Fair Isle”) knitting, with one color in each hand and no floats on the back of the work. Materials: You will need two 100g skeins of worsted-weight yarn, in contrasting solids, 16" circular size 6 or 7 needles, and a set of double-pointed needles in the same size. We will begin by knitting the Fake Isle hat in the round. Download a copy of the free pattern at http://www.spunkyeclectic.com/pattern_fakeisle.htm, and come to the first class with 1 1/2 inches of ribbing, in the main color, on the needle. You'll select your own pattern(s) to knit flat -- either as a sampler or as part of a second project.
~ toodles for now ;)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
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| Ack ! a spider ! |
Look at this creepy nite-time surprise I walked into out my back door . ack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The very first step out the door too. I literally walked into it. yup, face first. than I fell back on my bum all freaked out. This was one BIG spider too. I still get shivers and feel the sticky web on my face when I think about it.
On a much nicer note..... here is a peek at my September Socks that I'm working on. This is that twisted stitch pattern called Shur'tugal socks that I found on ravelry. I finally have a rhythm down now with this stitch and it is fun to do!
The pattern is a bit hard to discern in the photo because the socks are in such a relaxed state right now. As you can see from the photo I'm using Deborah Norville's Serenity sock wool in her Amethyst coloway. I'm still learning about how the striping patterns of variegated wool plays out. I would have thought these particular grey stripes would have been somewhat skinnier than what they are, but I still like it. I am wondering do ALL self-striping wool work out to have their stripes be on the diagonal? Is the only way a person can get good horizontal stripes is to use two different colors wool and to start & stop with each color ??
Well, I'm off to do some more on these socks while I listen to some more podcasts. I've been listening to Crafternoon Tea with Grannyg and CogKNITive all week ! Stop in and have a good listen with these ladies ;) In one of Dr. Gemma's earlier CogKNITive podcasts... episode 14 or something... she talks about how Knitting is good brain exercise for warding off Dementia because using both hands simultaneously works both sides of your brain. I thought that was so cool to know as I had never heard that before. This really interested me as 1.) my mum had dementia and 2.) it's always great to have a good reason to knit! [Growing up I remember hearing aunts & uncles during their talks go... psst, so & so has the big "C" ya know.] Well people... I'm more scared of it than of cancer i think. I know that sounds terrible. I am sorry too for everyone who is sick with either, but dementia scares me to death. So to learn more I did some googling on the subject ... found sorta a bucket-list of twenty things a person should consider making habit even as early as in their 30's & 40's it says.... w o w oh, and... get your vitamin D levels checked ! It's real important they are finding out.
Get this. research shows that ... The people who danced three or four times a week showed 76 percent less incidence of dementia than those who danced only once a week or not at all.
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