A Hint of Spring

   Today we enjoyed a hint of Spring.  The sky was blue and the air was warm...in the 50's (that's warm for the end of February!!)  Jeff, Fanny and I went to Jeff's sister's in Utica this afternoon so he could fix her gutter.  It had come loose during last week's rain storm and was in danger of coming off the house.  It took him about 10 minutes to refasten it.  We had gone to JoAnn Fabrics in New Hartford first because I was looking for 18" white zippers for my hoodies.  No luck there.  I did get 2 navy blue ones that I can use but they were out of the white zippers I really need. And no red ones, either.  But I did find some Paton's Kroy Socks FX yarn...the weight Jeff prefers...in a blue-gray ombre  called Cadet Colors so I got 3 skeins for a pair of socks for him. And they were on sale, too (regularly $6.49 for $4.86)!  When I got back in the car I handed him the bag of yarn and said "Happy Birthday!"  They won't be done by his b-day on Tuesday but he knows he's getting them!
   After he did his handyman gig at his sister's
we went to the Bass Pro Shop in the mall on the way home.  They allow dogs to come into the store so Fanny went in with us.  She wasn't too happy about that because people kept talking to her and trying to pet her. (She is very timid.)  The greeter at the front of the store offered her a dog treat when we first came in but she didn't want anything to do with him. But when one of the clerks in the gun department who is in a wheelchair offered her a treat she took it!  It surprised both Jeff and me.  She wouldn't get friendly with him but she took and ate the treat!  A real first for her!
   And since there is a Walmart Super Center next to Bass Pro Shop,  we stopped there before heading home, hoping they might have white 18" zippers but again no luck.  I'm beginning to wonder if there is a shortage on 18" white zippers for some special reason. I did pick up a jumbo skein of Red Heart turqua in worsted weight for a Black Sheep Sweater...maybe even a hoodie. 
   Oh, I was reading my emails and found a pattern in AllFreeKnitting for a dog hoodie so I did one last night in small thinking one of Sherry's dogs could model it for a photo today.  (She has a mini Schnauzer and a mini Schnauzer-Cocker) but both Max and Sunny aren't 'small' any more...more like medium.  Oh, well, here's a photo of my Doggie Pin-Stripe.  It would look a lot better with a dog...even a stuffed dog...in it but that's the way things are going today.  No white 18" zippers and no doggie models.

   Now it's time for the next-to-last Downton Abbey episode.  I'll miss that show.

Pin-Stripe Hoodie

   My first pin-stripe hoodie of the season is finished...well, it's still needs the back zipper but that will have to wait until I can get to JoAnn Fabrics because Walmart hasn't restocked zippers in the local superstore yet.  I decided not to pin-stripe the hood because my right hand couldn't take it.  After 2 days of steady knitting...soft navy on straight US 7's...got the sleeves finished and then 109 stitches in white on a circular US7 finished the body...I was having spasms in the palm of my hand (arthritis) that even woke me up during the night!  I pin-striped it yesterday and then decided the hood could stay plain.  I'm pleased with it.  Today I'll try to do 2 toddler hats before starting another hoodie.  My stock bag is getting full!  There's just a little over a month until the shop reopens.  Got to stay busy!!
   The Imprezza has an appointment with the mechanic this afternoon to have the exhaust pipe fixed.  It blew a fitting last week and Dave had to order a part to put it back together.  The hood latch needs to be looked at, too.  Jeff is going to ask about trading it in toward a Forester that's on the lot.  The Imprezza is great on gas but doesn't stay on the road for us very well.  It has too much sway and play...especially in the winter on snowy, icy roads.

Keeping Busy

   Yesterday I went with Jeff to Bare Arms, a neat little gun shop outside of Little Falls where he had ordered his new hand gun (a Smith & Wesson SD9)  after spending a couple of weeks researching the gun online.  He had picked up the gun in the morning but was having trouble with it and his holster so we went back and he got a new holster and took some time to shoot the gun on the practice range with the shop owner.  Jeff is pleased with the S&W pistol and now wants me to get a gun permit so I can learn to shoot it, too.  He surprised me with that in the pistol permit office!  Now all I need is $125 for the fee!!  We'll see.  I have enough trouble trying to sight a long gun, I don't know if I can do better with a  hand gun.  I think we're going to have to join the Fish & Game club because it has the only shooting range around here.  Oh, Fanny sat in the car quietly while Jeff was on the shooting range and didn't seem upset by the shooting.
   I worked on my pin-stripe hoodie a lot yesterday, too.  I've got the white hood and 1st navy sleeve almost finished.  I should finish that sleeve and do the other one this afternoon.  The rest of the hoodie is white...until the bottom ribbing which is soft navy...so this hoodie should go fast.  The pin-striping will take a couple of days, not because pin-striping is difficult but because my right hand hurts...arthritis...and the palm at the base of the fingers is a little swollen making holding on to a sewing needle, even a yarn needle, a little difficult.  But if I keep at it, I can finish it by the middle of the week.  If I don't knit for a day my hand hurts just as much AND I can't bend my fingers as easily.  I'll keep knitting.

The Red Baseball Hoodie

 The red baseball hoodie is finished...except for the back zipper, of course, because Wal Mart still hasn't restocked 18" zippers.  I think a trip to JoAnn Fabrics in Utica in the next couple of weeks may be necessary.  Not only can't I get the zippers in my local Wal Mart, the selection of Red Heart acrylic worsted is, how shall I put it in a politically correct way, not vast.  Yesterday I wanted to get a 7oz skein of white and a 7oz skein of soft navy.  Instead I came away with 14oz skeins of both...and the navy skein was the last one on the shelf.  I got the last 3 card of baseball buttons by LeBouton, too.   They're a little expensive 
($1.49 a card for 2 buttons) but they really finish the hoodie.  I think the next hoodie will be a pin-stripe (navy ribbing and sleeves with white hood and body with navy pin-stripes) and then a navy/white hoodie.  Hopefully by then I'll have found some nice, girly colors to do some pretty hoodies.  Oh, can't forget to do 2 toddler hats between each hoodie.  The shop opens in 50 days and I might have a nice selection of new sweaters after all.
   I met a nice older lady in the yarn department who was getting ready to teach a class at the senior apartment building where she lives.  She was a little apprehensive that she'll get a dozen women her age (about 80) who've never held knitting needles before and blow the class.  I told her to just go slow and the class size would probably decrease in size by 50% each week so after 3 weeks she would have just a few interested students.  And that's what she wants.  Jeff even modeled a pair of his wool socks for her which she loved!  I hope she does well.  Now I wish I had offered to stop in at her class...
    

Spring Training Camp Opens This Weekend!!

Remember neat TV lamps like this one that Jeff unpacked this week?  It belonged in his grandparents. house in Cornhill.  A quick wash and a longer hunt for a lightbulb that fit and the ship has sailed into our TV room!  We had a black jaguar TV lamp that moved to camp in Lake Pleasant with us but didn't make the move home. I think this ship looks good in front of the TV!
   I've had a bad case of "I don't want to" this week.  My red baseball hoodie has 1 sleeve finished and about 1 evening's work left on the 2nd one but I don't want to work on it.  I've got a pile of library books but I don't want to read them.  Instead, I've been playing cards online and watching TV.  Not much energy necessary for those activities, huh?   I went with Jeff yesterday morning to add a gun to his pistol permit.  Little did I realize it would take so long!  There were 4 people in front of us when we got there at 10am and 6 behind us when we left nearly 2 hrs later.  Now he wants me to get a pistol permit.  I'd probably do it if it didn't cost $125! We went grocery shopping afterwards and then stopped for lunch.  When we got home Jeff started a fire in the wood stove and I put on a pot of coffee.  Pretty soon the warmth from the fire lured me into a nap and I never touched my knitting or library books all day.  Today Jeff got the audio turned on my netbook and now I just have to buy a pair of earbuds and I can watch Netflix and/or Acorn TV in bed.  Talk about being lazy.... I have been collecting knitting patterns and have several shawl patterns I'd like to try.  Just have to get the energy and yarn to do them.  Oh, well, I think I better get the baseball sweaters done first since pitchers and catchers report to training camp tomorrow.  The shop opens April 8th!!

Winter's Back!

    Well, Mother Nature decided to listen to those of us who live in Upstate Central New York and return Winter to us but it just goes to prove you've got to be careful what you wish for.  The weather forecasters are saying the next 2 days will break all the records for cold with the wind chill going down to -21 to -29 during the day and actual overnight temperatures down to -24!  We're also suppose to have some snow tonight...a trace to 2"...but that's what we've been having with lake effect snow for the last 3 or 4 days!  Right now the temperature outside has warmed up to 20 from an overnight low of -6.  I've been sitting next to my wood stove knitting...like I'm suppose to be doing in February!  I just finished a blue and white size 2 hoodie in Red Heart acrylic on US 5 &7's, a knit-from-the- neck-down raglan with a Henley front...and anchor buttons...and a back zipper, but when I went to Walmart yesterday to get the buttons, zipper and some yarn for the next sweater, there weren't any 18" zippers! 

Still in need of a back zipper!

The hoodie is finished, the ends worked in, the buttons sewed on and now I have to wait for the zipper.  It does not make me happy, but I will stock up when the store does!!  Oh, well.  Today I'll do a couple of baseball hats...they take about 2 hours to knit...and maybe tonight I'll cast on for a baseball hoodie.  I found 2 5-oz skeins of Red Heart acrylic in Denim yesterday at Walmart...haven't seen that color for a long time...and grabbed them both.  (5-oz is not enough for 1 sweater and 10-oz is too much, but I can use what's left over for hats.)  Walmart also had baseball buttons for a change and I got enough for 2 hoodies.  I have a 7-oz skein of Red Heart in red for a baseball hoodie and since I 'force' myself to do 1 red baseball sweater every year I might as well get it over with now.  Then I'll do a pin-stripe sweater...maybe even a hoodie.  In between each sweater/hoodie, I want to do 2 toddler hats to help fill up the stock bag.  Walmart didn't have a wide variety of spring colors yesterday for my Black Sheep or  girly lace trimmed sweaters, either.  That means either taking a day and going to Utica or ordering on-line and paying shipping.  But, I stopped at the library yesterday and picked up some books that I had requested so if I run out of yarn I can always sit by the fire and read.

At Last, I've Started!

   I finally got the honeydew sweater finished!  I had to rip out parts of it a couple of times...the last time was the collar.  I had picked up too few stitches and the collar pulled. This time I picked up a stitch for every stitch I had cast on and it worked!  The lace edging made the buttonhole, too.  Quickly, I worked in all the loose ends and sewed on the button.  I think coffee got spilled on the yarn so it's going to get a quick wash and dry before it gets a price tag.  At least, one sweater finally joins the 2 pairs of baby socks and the Flapper hat in my stock bag.  Now it's back to baseball hats and pin-stripe sweaters.

The Lazy Days Of Winter

   Boy, I have been really babying myself with this cold.  I haven't been further out the door than to hook up Fanny since Tuesday...and I've gone thru a box of tissues and 2 rolls of tp blowing my nose!  Now Jeff has it and last night the house practically vibrated with our coughing and hacking all thru the night!  He ran the vaporizer next to his bed and that helped some.  I think it helped both of us adding moisture to the house...it's a small house, remember...but he just gave me a dirty look when I said that.  Of course, he's not staying home taking care of himself but out running his errands.  I have to admit I never stayed home to nurse a cold before.  It's kind of nice just to be lazy, laying in bed, reading, drinking hot tea or cappuccino, napping in the middle of the day, watching what TV I can get over the airwaves in my room, using my netbook for the internet (the type is so-o-o small!).  I keep saying 'maybe tomorrow I'll go __', but when tomorrow gets here I don't go anywhere! But all this idleness has an limit. I have to have my monthly INR (finger prick) on Monday so I have to go out then. All good things must come to an end, huh?  Besides, I've got to get back to knitting.  It's kind of hard knitting while you're blowing your nose all the time!
   I wanted to share this, one of the photos my cousin, Mary Carol, recently scanned and posted of my mom, my aunt Fran and my cousin Skipper taken in 1945.  Skipper, John Vereuck, died last week in California. His family moved west when he was about 6 or 7 yrs old (I think).  I know his mom and younger brother and sister visited regularly after that until the early 1970's but I don't remember Skipper or their dad once they moved.  Since he was about 6 years older than me, I don't expect he hung around much with us 'little kids' when they did visit.  My mom, my aunt and Skipper's mom, Ro, were really BFF's besides being aunts and niece because they were close in age. (Skipper's grandmother was their older sister, about 20 years older than my mom and my aunt, Fran, was a year or 2 younger than Mom.)  Another

sister, Antoinette, owned the camera and loved taking photos of everyone and everything!  There are enough photos of me as an infant/toddler to fill up 2 albums...oh, yes, they do fill up 2 albums and that's why I never liked having my photo taken as an adult!

Ground Hog's Day

   I don't know how that groundhog can say we're going to have an early spring when we've never had a proper winter yet!  All sorts of storms can happen before April breezes in and personally, I'd prefer a little snow to all this rain.  Today's temperature is suppose to be in the mid-50's.  This is February!?!
   I had my annual cardiology checkup yesterday.  The doctor was very pleased that my St Jude Mechanical Valve 'sounds like new'...it is 7 years old!  In fact, he even agreed to cut the dosage of Metoprolol, a beta blocker, when I asked if it was really necessary.  I've never had high blood pressure...I take after the Tericos with low bp and the faulty heart valve...and I had asked if the beta blocker was contributing to my constant cold hands and feet...with the Warfarin.  He agreed that it was and while I can't stop taking it completely, he could cut the dose.  Of course, I see my regular MD in about a month and if my bp or heart rate has changed, the dosage will be increased again. There is nothing anyone can do about the Warfarin.  I'm stuck taking it for the rest of my life.  Oh, the cardiologist also said if the dog who likes to put her head on my chest (to check my valve clicking?) starts acting differently, get back to a doctor fast!
   Jeff's socks got finished with the legs ending up at 14".  I think I could have gone another 1/2" but I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn and besides, I was tired of those socks!  It was time to start something for the shop.  I found an adult sweater pattern that I liked so I adapted aspects of it to my raglan-from-the-neck-down toddler sweater.  I've still got to

The collar is too tight.

finish the collar and sew on buttons but that shouldn't take too long.  I also found an adult Flapper style cloche that I adapted into a toddler hat.  That used up the

Little Flapper

skein of Red Heart acrylic worsted I had in  honeydew.  I think I'll get some Red Heart acrylic worsted in lemon and try another sweater.  Or navy and pink.
   Another of my cousins
died this week but I didn't

know him very well.  Skipper, John Vereuck, lived most of his life in California moving there with his parents and brother and sister as a child.  My mother had several photos of him from when they lived in Herkimer...she was BFF with his mother as well as her aunt.  I had 1 story that I shared:  I was the only granddaughter at the time and 3 young
grandsons went 'hunting' after my 1st birthday, capturing my giant stuffed rabbit and pulling it's ears out.    Skipper was the oldest 'hunter' according to the story. I found the photo and sent it to his daughter.  The rabbit was as tall as I was!!  (Jeff says it was an act of mercy...the rabbit was ugly!) 
   I've got a good head cold (is there a bad one?) and don't feel like doing much of anything.  I told Jeff that when I was working this would have been nothing and I'd just go to work.  Now that I don't have to go anywhere, I don't want to, so I don't. Yesterday he asked me if I wanted to go to the mall and I said no, I wanted to stay home. He went alone and I slept for 3 hours.  Today he's running errands in the rain and I'm headed back to bed for my nap.  There are positive points to being retired!