Doctors. hmmph! Sometimes I swear.

My lil gr-daughter had surgery last week. Tonsils/Adenoids.  FINALLY!  stupid doctors. They never listen. Them doctors been diddle dickin around for last six years, which is her entire life. "oh, it's just allergies". Trying this pill and that pill. She's been on prescrip allergy pills FOREVER, even as an infant.  Well, the surgeon came out and told us that her adenoids/tonsils were soooooo hugh that they physically were blocking over 50% of her airway. Said they should of came out a long time ago. Couldn't believe they waiting so long to refer her. I am mad. 

My poor lil baby.  No wonder she always seem about to die every-time she was sick. I kept telling em'.  Somethings not right.  I told them she never could breathe through her nose while chewing food. Always had to chew with her mouth open. And lordy, try to stick a thermometer in her mouth she'd suffocate!   You know them doc's should really learn to listen to a mother's instinct (ok well grandmother's instinct in this case).  Sometimes they should really stick their degrees up their whazoo.  btw, did i tell that i am mad!  Mess with my baby like that.

Guess what?  yup, already she can breathe through her nose when she sleeps now. I'm a happy camper for her now.

And she hasn't snored all week. First time ever for her to sleep all night long without waking up.  Can you imagine? That's like six years of sleep deprivation.  

ok, almost forgot to tell...for my sock-a-month club I did a quick lil pair of baby sockies while gr-daugther had her surgery and re-cooping.

Two pair baby newborn socks freshly handknit! 
Wish I could remember name of this sock yarn as I adore it!

Both pairs cast-on 22 stitches and both were knit the same amount of rows.

Left pair on size 2 needles/ Right pair on size 4 needles.  Circulars of course!!!!

Can't visually tell much difference between the two pair... but is it just me or does the left pair seem to have a fuller instep? which doesn't make sense to me as would thought the size 4 needle would have the fuller instep... but it just looks a tad leaner and longer.

Left pair is very snug on just one finger inserted into cuff. Much more wiggle room for growing on right pair.

A quick update on my projects DONE!

Crazy quilt tooth-fairy pillow for granddaughter ;) yippee I got it done!

a toesy cozy for my niece who broke her leg flying a kit in wearing flip flops instead of sneakers. ouch.

just plain warm socks - 2 strands Patons stretchy sock yarn

Shur'tugal socks pattern from Ravelry! Used Deborah Norville Serenitiy sock yarn

Dobro dosao! Found my lost family in Croatia!!

Image via Wikipedia

Am so excited!  Great discoveries going on with finding lost relatives of my grandfather Anton's family -- the descendants of his father Adam Varoščić from Dragovci, Croatia !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been happily crying and overcome in stunning dreamy realizations!!!   We are sharing that it's really happening, that we are really cousins and we know where and who our relatives are!!  More news to come as I catch my breath!   Many wonderful hugs and cheers to Otilia Varoščić and so many more to name who are currently corresponding back and forth with me!

  I have installed two language translators on this website to make it more user friendly for new visitors.

1st - at the top you can see all the flags of country language translations available. Just find your country flag and click on it and this page will become in your native language that you desire!

2nd - to the right top corner section is a different translator link that people can use if they desire that format.

Both types are new to me, so I am learning right along as I go.

To my sock-a-month pals needless to say my September socks came so close to being done but I didn't quite make it. Have just the toe left to finish so I will report those for Octobers draw!

Also, Tonight is our town's Football Homecoming Game!

GO FISHER BUNNIES!

  

July is over and Fall will soon be on it's way.

Its a nice cool 63* degrees this early a.m. on August 1st.  My cup of tea!  Don't get me wrong, I love summer and I tire of the long months during late winter but my body is prone to go on strike when the mornings start out at 80* before the sun even wakes up.  I also eye-spy'd my first patch of spider-web covered bushes this morning!  That doesn't usually occur around here til end of September or even into October.  Just can't make heads or tails of the seasons anymore. Reason too why I was surprised to see the spider-web bushes is the newscast was just saying the other day that we are too expect summer dog days clear up until start of maybe November. So whats' going on here I ask?

whew, yesterday I remembered just in the nick of time that being the last day of the month that I had an invitation to accept and entered my lot into the
Sock A Month 10 knitting club.

 I had found this group earlier in the month and got started. Photo is my July pair.  It was my first pair of footies that I've ever done. I was a bit scared as it seemed so daunting to do the cuff and than just jump right on to the heel. I was afraid that without a leg it would be too loose and saggy around my ankle. And I used Patons stretchy yarn.  Yes, it IS stretchy. I did find after a bit of wear that the footie tries to sneak off my heel so to fix that I made a pom pom out of left overs and attached it at the heel along with gathering a few stitches on each side of it. Worked out rather nicely.  There's still enough of the 2 skeins left that I'm making granddaughter a pair of short socks, child's size.  Guess what?  She starts kindergarten this year! Gosh she is growing up so fast. It seemed like just yesterday she was just three yrs old.  I thought that once you were a grandma that time slowed down a bit and you got to enjoy more stuff longer. What was I thinking. Time seems to be going faster!

This summer finds me trying to learn how to do 2 socks at the same time on one pair of circular needles.
The book "Knitting circles around socks" by Antje Gillingham is what I started learning on. She does a wonderful job of teaching it. There are 33 photos of all her "how to" steps.  The remaining 40 pages cover about 8 or so sock patterns.  At the end she explains how to convert patterns from double-point to circular needle patterns. Quite useful!  Especially as there are some really wonderful old patterns floating around that I want to try.

I love CIRCULAR Needles to knit socks on. It's not that I love it more than dpn's. I've never even tried dpn's.  It's just that I first learned how to do "a" sock on circulars. AND I LOVE IT!   But I will admit, my brain had a tuff time learning how to do "two" socks together at once and remembering which way to turn and flip my work along with both those 2 strands of yarn hanging around! lol.  But since I love doing the socks on circs of course I have to make myself learn how to do both socks at same time!  Now due to some neurological cognitive issues I don't mind telling you that I spent months trying to get thru this. It twas just not to be.... so it seemed.... ;(   but alas....  I have a little something something that I invented and want to share with you......

 My Needle Position Flowchart
 for 2 socks @ at a time on circular needles
Draft Final Revision Aug 7th 2010

 It's my Needle Position Flow-chart that I came up with to help me keep track! It's just drawn on a piece of printer paper and accordion folded into four sections for quick and easy travel storage.  Wish I knew how to patent something like this. I think it's a wonderful idea.

Now I can easily find my way back in case I grab a wrong needle.  The sequence of which row to do on which sock next diagram is what has saved my sanity from my obsession to learning this task!

I find it imperative to keep one color marker at end of instep row on sock 1 and a different color marker for sock 2 also at end of instep row. This way I know that I will be next starting a new round with heel of Sock 1.

The other important thing that I found makes my sequence work so well is that it's.....


MOST imperative to have socks threaded on same needles opposite each other.

What I mean by this is ....

when you lay the needles and work down on a table you will see ...

that the heel of sock 1 is on one end of needle 

and instep of sock 2 is on the other end of the same needle.  

Clear as mud huh?  Well hopefully it'll make sense.  If you click on the photo it should expand full size and you will see more clearly what I'm talking about.

This sequence for me is what works !
Sock 1 - Heel
Sock 2 - Heel
Sock 2 - Instep
Sock 1 - Instep
           than you can repeat for next rounds.

I hope others will also find my flowchart useful while trying to learn.

well, that's bout all for the moment. tah- tah for now.

bad blogger me! Where have I been these last 6 months?

bad blogger me! Where have I been these last 6 months? No where really. Just hanging around home, watching my granbabies grow and still trying to re-cooperate. In February I crocheted a spider-man round ripple afghan for grandson and entered it in the July fair exhibits. Out of ten other entries I placed fourth! If feels good to place ;) Soon as I figure out how to get the photo off my cell phone and onto this 'puter ya'll can see it.  .... cool, see I finally did it!

Spiderman (Round Ripple) Afghan

My granson just loves it!  [Click on the photo caption to transport to the site where I learned the pattern from] I did tweak the length and number of pattern rows a bit to suit my tastes in appearance. The photo makes the blue yarn look rather more purple but it is a true blue the skein label states.

All three colors: Red, Blue and Black are a Turkish yarn of 100% Acrylic that is made for & can only be found at Hobby Lobby. Is called "I Love This Yarn" - rightly so!  My afghan took 4 red, 4 blue & only some of 1 black.It pretty much covers a twin bed as best a round blanket can. With taxes I did spend $29 total for the yarn.  Usually I'm not a fan of Acrylic yarn, but you have GOT to try this one! It is truly has a soft hand for acrylic yarn that I have ever touched.  7 ounces skeins (198 grams) = anywhere from $1.99 to $2.49 depending on your stores sale prices vs. regular.      


hmm, lets see... what else... March came in beautifully and so did the months of April and May! These were the only three months that I have really been outdoors a-lot. Considering I haven't been able to do much these last seven years due to mobility issues and several life issues I sure was enjoying playing out in our yard trying to catch up on my poor neglected flower beds and yard work. I also managed to sneak junk from the garage out to the garbage cans every wed. for a few weeks. Hugh improvement in regaining space! It's really quite funny. Never before had I realized how much work I did around here until I got sick and all the small things that annoy me all started to pile up.

DJ siggy quilt

Yes, Yes, I am a janiac! This spring 2010 I also finally finished hand-quilting my dj siggy quilt! Turned out terrific!

Oh how I yearn to get back to working on my
dj blocks . I call it my "Freedom Jane" quilt and that's I how in my mind I want it to look like. But alas it's sat idle for a long long time these last couple of year as I haven't found a way to run my sewing machine from a prone positin! lol. If you like this quilt pattern come join us oer' at dearjane.com

my sewing room

After the 2010 new year I managed to completely clean out and re-organize my sewing room, but even that hasn't kept my focus back on track. It's been nine months now since mum passed away last year and I am starting to just now spend more and more time in my sewing room. Below are 2 pics of mum's funeral. I couldn't put a pic of mum (herself) up as it's too painful when I see her face.   If it weren't for both my daughters and niece this past few years I have no clue what I would have done.  And to my youngest daughter. Kenny Rogers sang it best!  You have been my rock taking on what I could not.

I was and am not very good at having "Emily Post" manners. Never have been, prolly never will. But I do want to give a very special thanks to my sister-in-law from the Carolina's. [link goes to her online store dressygirls.com She makes dresses for pageants/party's/communions.   I really really did appreciate your presence, help and kindness!

mum's funeral Oct 4, 2009

My brother's and husband (he's in middle)

June and July have been really really pretty this year! But my body and the heat are not friends at all. I guess it is the neurological maladies that became a part of my life forever now that have caused this enemy friction. Since the heat came on I have been sleeping many long naps every day, like three to four hour naps. At nite when it is cooler is when my body seems to try and function better.  Also my eyes and the brightness of the sun are not friends either. Sunglasses have become a more constant part of my wardrobe. Big Hollywood looking sunglasses. Actually there not that bad. Daughter picked them out for. Quite fashionable. Have initials DB monogrammed on ear pieces. Dolce and Gabbana I think. I like them cause they fit over my regular prescription glasses and I can bumped them up on my forehead when I need to. I can even knit, do the 'puter, pull weeds and read with them on. But as I have never been a constant wearer of sunglasses my whole life like some others- it does get tiresome wearing them all the time when I'm trying to do stuff, especially when my brain starts to go into melt-down from over-exertion & the heat and beads of perspire drip drip drip off my face and into my sunglasses. There have been many days that I have just opted to stay indoors because it is too bright outside.  I yearn to be outdoors the eye pain and headaches and fatigue are not worth it.
 Tho it's been a long seven years, I do not give up easily on things. I have spent many a day and evening relearning how to walk with pain and mobility issues. I'm sure it's been quite funny-looking entertainment for people to watch as I refused to give up going for my beloved walks that I have always enjoyed my entire life. I used to be extremely active, since I was a small child. Always outdoors. Always doing something, whether it be bike riding, hiking, fishing, dog-walking, camping, yard-work, gardening... you name it I was doing it. Reason I know it's been funny entertainment for others as they have been brave enough to tell me. Back in 2005 one family member told me they wouldn't be caught dead outside trying to walk like that! ha! Thanks for the support there and making someone feel good. oh well. I just chalk it off to me being a strong person. I guess that's why I have survived. This early part of this year so far is the most agile I have been in a long time. I hope it doesn't disappear.

2 socks @ at a time on circular needles

Anywho, currently [July 2010], I am knitting some socks. They will be either for my youngest daughter or I might just keep them. Haven't yet decided. I'm also newly joining SAM 10, a sock month club!

CQ tooth fairy pillow still a "WIP" as of Aug 2010

Also have in the works a crazy quilt tooth fairy pillow that is for our granddaughter. This fall should see her first tooth fall out as she starts kindergarten. This cq pillow is my first ever attempt at crazy quilting. I have always admired that type of needlework but was always to intimidated to try it. Here is one site that gave me lot's of courage and motivation to just finally jump right in and bit the bullet and start this lil project. It's almost done. I'm hoping to get it completed by early fall of this year 2010. The center has a photo of a what I think a tooth fairy looks like. I printed it off my 'puter onto fabric using bubble jet set chemical for preparing the fabric. It's really a great product to use when you want to print on fabric.

Husband's Fireman Quilt

Two years ago I finished my husbands Fireman quilt with oer' a hundred photos on it.  This was the quilt that I first learned how to used "Bubble Jet Set" on.  [No affliation with products...yadda yadda yadda. Any mention of any products on this website is purely from my own pleasure and experience.]

Well, it's been a long ramble. Seeing as how 1:30 am started my day with jolt waking dreams again and now daylight is breaking, it's time to go make my favorite breakfast. Oatmeal with fresh blueberries. Than I can settle down with the socks that I frogged yesterday. Didn't like the heel turn. It was too puckery and anklet cuff rode to far below my ankle. I'm using Paton's stretchy sock yard in a plum, orange & green variation. So in the mean time until later.... Toodles ~ Nelsonjane ;)