Start-itis

   I seem to have developed a case of Start-itis since I have several projects on the needles!  Besides the Test Knit socks which I've just about completed...only have to rib and bind off the 2nd sock, I have a shawl with some of the same navy blue New Zealand Merino that I complained about so much with the socks.    It's called 'Betwixtmas' and 

Betwixtmas Shawl

was designed by Black Sheep Wools and I'm not having any trouble with the it now.  Of course, it's on US4's...not US1's and that would make a difference...and I haven't gotten to the lace, yet.  I also have the 1st sock that I think will be for Jeff's birthday ready for ribbing and bind off,too.  I'm using some more of the New

Zealand Merino...this time in red-white-blue...that I got in my last Yarn Pal package.  That gives me 2 months to finish 1 sock!

   Then, I've got 2 children's hats...out of 3...about done and ready to mail,too.  Two go to Jeff's granddaughters  

and are rabbit hats.  I think they need a little 'something' so

so I'm going to super-glue some false eyelashes around the eyes.  The girls are in 2nd grade so I think they'd like it.       

   The other is going to my cousin's new great-grandchild...a just-born boy.  I have a baby-version of the

Dog hat...a Puppy Hat...but I don't know if I want to send it or a Baseball Hat.  Since he was just born, I guess I can wait until Monday to decide which one to send.

   This winter I've been collecting shawl patterns from Ravelry.com...for free...because I have 3 skeins of beautiful, hand-dyed wool that would knit up beautifully as shawls but I've been trying to wait until I finish the navy blue one before I start another one.  Today I found a pattern for a shawl on Facebook...not for free...that called for bulky yarn and has embroidery in one corner.  I gave in and bought it!  Hey, it only  cost me $3.95...much cheaper than most on-line patterns.  I even have some bulky yarn that I bought last fall and never used so I think I may find it difficult to wait on this one.  It's called 'Freda' and was designed by Nerissa Mujis.  I may have to give in and do this one before anything else is finished!  (You can't tell, but the shawl has a buckle in the back (behind the neck) that I haven't decided what I think about yet.)

Freda Shawl

1/31/20  Another shawl pattern I just

found.  It's called 'When in Scotland' by Rilana Riley-Munson and it's based on one the character Claire wears in a recent episode of the Outlander series.  That makes 6 and I think that may be enough...to start with?  Anyway, let's try it.  (I'll try not to collect anymore.)

When in Scotland by Rilana Riley Munson

Test Knit

       I'm still fighting my way thru the sock I'm test knitting.  It's been 1 week and I finally got the first sock finished.  The directions are well-written and except for the few techniques that are new to me, I've been enjoying the process.  What I don't enjoy is the size US1 circular needles and the navy blue yarn I picked to use.  I can't do anything about the needles but I wish I had chosen a lighter colored yarn.
         I've actually finished the 1st sock twice.  The first time I got the sock worked up to the leg, I dropped a stitch...in pattern...and by the time I got it back on a needle, I had dropped 4sts more and they were 7 rows down.  I tried to work them back up to where they belonged but didn't make it and ended up ripping the needles out of the sock and rewinding the yarn.  The next morning I cast on and started again.  
   That day(Sunday) I did the entire foot, gusset and turned the heel without any problem.  I didn't drop any stitches, lose my place in the pattern or any other problem while I watched Kansas City win a very exciting football game on TV.  Jeff had started a fire in the stove for me and it was so comfortable sitting there next to the stove knitting and watching football. Jeff had put together a pot roast in the slo-cooker and it smelled so good,too.  It was nice to have the woodstove going, my test knit coming along nicely and supper cooking all at the same time!    
   Yesterday I finished the leg and tried to bind off.  I couldn't make the bind off stitches  be as loose and relaxed as they should be so I had to rib out my bind off ...only 6 row...but I had trouble putting all the stitches back on the needle.  Once I got that fixed I looked up 'stretchy bind-off' on Google and watched a video on YouTube.  It showed a very easy way to do one...which I'll try tomorrow in the daylight!  I posted a 'feel sorry for myself' complaint on one of my knitting groups and was told to try all the new techniques with worsted on a US6 or 7 before using the sock yarn and the US1.  That made a lot of sense to me.
   Anyway, I've got 1 week left to finish the 2nd sock and report back to the designer.  I really want to get it done because I need a pair of socks and there's a lot of other things I want to start doing.  I promised Jeff's granddaughters I'd make them animal hats and I've got 1 more to do!  And then there's the shop,  I want to do some hats and maybe a new sweater or two for them, too.  January has gone by faster than I thought it would.  I'm kind of glad we're not planning on reopening until the middle of April this year.  That will give me a couple more weeks to knit!
   (I'll post a photo of the socks when the designer gives permission.)

Mom's Birthday

   This was yesterday,  It made me feel good to see the response.  I'm sure it would have made Mom feel good, too, to see that so many people still thought a lot of her.  Thank you everyone for posting something.💓💓💓                 

Mary Terico is feeling sad.

Yesterday at 10:50 AM · 

Today is the 106th anniversary of my mother's birth. Josephine Molinaro Terico was born in Herkimer to immigrant parents. She went to Herkimer schools. As a young woman she walked from the family home on Mohawk St (where Denny's is now) to Durbees factory (the ARC building on E German St) every day, rain or shine. winter or summer. She married Tony Terico in 1948, had me in 1950 and kept sewing in dress factories until she retired in 1978. She died in 2013 3 months short of 100 years old. I still miss her today. There is so much I'd like to say to her, show her what I'm doing, ask her advise. Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.

22Tim Bannigan, Nancy Stowell and 20 others

16 Comments

Like

Comment

Share

Comments

View 8 more comments

• 

  Dawn Mosher Martin Happy Birthday Mary's Mom, she was a awesome lady.

  • Like
  •  · Reply
  •  · 16h
• 

  Nicole Kozlowski Happy birthday Mrs. T! She was a wonderful lady! 💜

  • Like
  •  · Reply
  •  · 16h
• 

  Lucretia Lonis Mrs T!! A lot of happy memories with her❤️
  Camp especially was fun-always good food, great conversations and lake antics. Thanks for sharing your mom❤️

  • Like
  •  · Reply
  •  · 16h
• 

  Colleen Phelan-Paul Awww, sweet Aunt Jo, a lovely & loving lady, wonderful to me and my children❤️

  • Like
  •  · Reply
  •  · 13h

Hurry Up and Wait!

      Just back from Jeff's appointment with the vascular surgeon, Dr. Ignatovskyy, at Basset in Herkimer.  While there is a partial blockage in his right carotid artery, Dr. Ignatovskyy wants to wait 3 months and do another ultrasound before deciding if stents are really necessary.  We are both very relieved.  It was not something either of us was looking forward to.  Don't know if 6 months on Plavix will lessen the blockage but it will prevent it from getting any worse and, besides,  any surgery should be avoided for at least 6 months after a MI...a heart attack.  We see him again in April.  He's also interested in the old 'green break' in Jeff's right leg.  Wants an ultra sound of that, too.  Seems every new doctor Jeff sees is interested in his right leg!  Too bad a doctor wasn't interested when he was hit by a car and it was broken when he was six.
   Now, for a celebration dessert, I think I'll make a chocolate pie...before the dogs get a hold of the 2nd box of chocolate pudding mix!

Such A Weird Winter

      I will be glad when winter will be over.  It started out lousy with Jeff having a heart attack and needing stents put into his heart arteries and it hasn't gotten much better.  Then Jeff started going to PT for the arthritis in his shoulders 2 months ago and while he's improved his range of motion, the pain hasn't lessened.  Now he's got to see a vascular surgeon because of a blockage in his left carotid artery.  Looks like he's going to need a stent in that one.  We'll know Monday after we see Dr. Ignatovskyy, a vascular surgeon.
    The weather hasn't been the greatest lately, either.  It's been hard to tell it is winter outside if you just look out a window lately.   Either it's been blue sky and sunny with no snow on the ground or the sky has been dark gray, with the wind howling, pouring rain and the trees swaying like mad.  The temperature today was in the mid 60's!!  I almost wish we'd get a nice, heavy snowfall and have a foot or more of snow on the ground.  Might make the house warmer.  We just got fuel oil this week, too.  Over $500's worth.  That's the 3rd time we've gotten fuel oil this season.  And I don't keep the house that warm, either.  
   Last weekend Jeff's nephew, Doug, came down and put up a new chimney

pipe for the wood stove. That will help some...if Jeff ever gets the stove clean so we can use it.  Jeff said now he knows how Uncle George felt when he (Jeff) first went up there to live with him.  Doug had the old chimney down and the new one together and up in practically no time.  Jeff said it made him feel like an old man.  Both dogs barked and then hid when Doug first came in but Zoey worked her way out from under the kitchen table during lunch...had to see what she could beg from him to make it worthwhile, I guess.
     I finally got my Yarn Pal package ready to mail-within the deadline.  Some of the yarn I had ordered took it's time getting here but it finally all made it Thursday.  I had fun looking for candy to include in the package that wasn't usually available in Canada, and instead of buying a large bag of 1 kind of candy,  I bought several 'snack' size packages of different kinds...hope she likes them!  However, when I took the package to the post office it was rejected because the clerk said there was an omission or mistake in the address I was sending it to.  When I got home I sent the group moderator a PM and told her my problem and she gave me the info again.  Maybe it was just typed wrong at some point.  Anyway, I asked for the 3 day extension to be on the safe-side and I'll go back to the post office Monday. I also wrote a thank you letter to the woman, Maria Bentley, in New Zealand who sent me the fabulous Yarn Pal package I received last week.  That's ready to mail on Monday, too.
   In the meantime I'm still working on a pair of socks for Jeff using some of the New Zealand Merino wool Maria sent me.  It is so soft! 

Eventho there is enough of the navy Merino she sent to make socks and a shawl I'm tempted to make socks for myself with this one, too.  I could start the skein on the outside so the stripes spiral the other way so we wouldn't get our socks mixed up.  That and the fact that his socks are 2" longer in the foot than mine should be enough so we could tell them apart!!

  I volunteered to be in a Test Knit...to do socks but haven't been notified if I've been chosen.  I'll have to learn a new cast on for toe-up socks and a new way to turn the heel.  Hey, anyway to learn something new!  Just have to wait and see.

A Large Squishy Package

      I got the most fantastic Yarn Pal package yesterday.  Actually I got a notice that the Post Office had attempted to deliver a package last week but I never got to town to pick it up until yesterday.  And then, I had to ride around while we were doing our errands and shopping with this huge, squishy package at my feet.  When we finally got home...and got all those bags from Aldi's in the house...I finally got to open it.   (When I got the 'notice to deliver' I checked the sender's name with the membership list on Yarn Pals and found it and knew that my package was from New Zealand and who it was from.)
   It was definitely worth the wait.  There was so much yarn I was overwhelmed!  I didn't

know what to pick up and squeeze first!!  Jeff spied the red-white-blue balls and asked if that was sock yarn.  It was...and enough to make a pair for him!  It's 100% New Zealand Merino, superwash and still so soft!!  I know I said the next pair of socks I did was going to be for me, but that yarn...Paton's Kroy ordered from JoAnn's Fabrics...hasn't gotten here yet, so last night I started those merino ones

for Jeff.  Oh, I love
the way that yarn feels!  He's never going to want to take them off!

   There were several balls of navy merino, too, probably enough for socks for me AND a shawl. But the topper was all the Alpaca!  For awhile all I did was hold it and stroke it.  I have never used alpaca but I got on Ravelry.com and quickly found several shawls that would look speculator in it.  
   Most Yarn Pal packages include knitting accessories because knitters never have enough stitch holders or stitch markers.  I

never do because I usually can't find my stitch holders and I manage to flip stitch markers instead of slipping them. (And once a stitch marker is airborne and one of my dogs sees it,  it becomes a target and my dogs both feel its their sworn duty to catch that bugger and eat it.) There were also cable needles...I've seen them in catalogs but never would have bought them for myself.  And the point protectors were shaped like sheep instead of cones!  Oh, those long, 3-pronged things are stitch holders.  Again I've seen them in catalogs recently but.... So much here I just wouldn't have bought for myself....
   The calendar that was included besides having photos of beautiful New Zealand,

highlights holidays and seasonal days...like the 1st day of Autumn-March 1st, the 1st Day of Winter-June 1st and Picnic Day-August 3rd.  There are a lot of Anniversary Days highlighted without much explanation, so I think I'll have to do some research on Google on them.  Oh, and I never knew any other country had Daylight Savings Time, too.
   There was also a box of Lindt's Gourmet Truffles that I think may just have to be saved for the March birthday dinner.
   My Yarn Pal is Maria Bentley and she lives in Wellington N.Z.  I think this was just about the best soft squishy package I've every gotten.  Thank you, again, Maria.  I am going to enjoy every bit of this.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

   HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
   It's 2020 already and the more things have changed, the more they've stayed the same!  I started in the '50's, enjoyed the '60's, and '70's, endured the '80's and '90's, got my mojo back in the '00's and made it thru the '10's.  Don't know what to expect from the '20's but whatever it is, I'm ready for it!  Like a cartoon I saw on FB yesterday, 2020 was the setting for the Jetson's so where's their space car?  (or the robot maid?)
    I decided to watch the Rose Bowl Parade on TV yesterday morning but didn't watch long.  It didn't seem as exciting as it use to be.  The bands were as big...and loud...as usual but the few floats I did see didn't impress me like they use to.  I left the TV on and went to help Jeff in the kitchen.  Ed was coming over for supper and Jeff was doing a 1-pot meal but he wasn't using the crockpot.  Instead he was using the dutch oven that is part of the set of enamel-coated cast iron cookware that Sherry gave us for Christmas.  And instead of a pot roast, the meat was chicken.  (The veggies stayed the same: medium and mild peppers, carrots, mushrooms, onion, potatoes.) He's been trying different seasoning mixes, too.  Yesterday it was a Thai skillet casserole but he had more meat and veggies than the packet called for so he put in a can of cream of chicken soup and half a can of whole milk.  My contributions to the meal were brown-and-serve dinner rolls and a sugar-free pudding cheesecake.  I thought the cheesecake was a little bland so I put out a jar of Maggie's strawberry jam.  The guys seemed to think that made the dessert!  Everyone had 2 slices!  And the main course disappeared, too, along with the dinner rolls!
   After supper Ed and I sat and talked over coffee as usual while Jeff went to take a nap.  Then Fanny, our big dog, got sick under the kitchen table and I had to call Jeff for help! The Head School Custodian in him came thru like a flash and suddenly there was kitty litter (that we keep and use for icy stairs outside) on the mess.  He had it swept up in no time and headed back to finish his snooze, telling me to 'mop the floor'.  When Ed and I got back to the table for a 2nd cup of coffee we got talking about our high school, college and life experiences. He was surprised his mother hadn't told my mom some of those stories but she never did. I explained why while not keeping my Hodgkin's Disease a secret, I chose not to talk about it a lot at the time. (I had 2 very good friends being treated for breast cancer at the same time.  I saw what they were going thru, how they were being mutilated and how it effected them and how my treatment was effecting me.  I had only 1 surgery...a biopsy.  They had multiple surgeries.  They had reoccurring malignancies and I didn't.  I felt they needed all the good thoughts and prayers that might have come my way if I had been more open.  In fact, I wish they had had my oncologist, Tom Ryan!)  Anyway, 2 pots of coffee later, we had solved the problems of being only children with older parents and maybe got to know each other better.  Ed is 8 years younger than me, l of 2 of the younger grandchildren, I am the middle grandchild and the rest of our cousins were all at least 15 years older than me.  Most of the cousins we grew up with were the children of our cousins!  We even called cousins 'aunt' and 'uncle' because that's what they called our parents!  Talk about a large Italian family!!
   Fanny recovered enough to eat a bowl of dry dog food later last night and she slept thru the night.  I don't know what she got into outside that could have made her that sick but she is the one noted for picking up stuff left by other critters!  She spends a lot of time grooming her feet so she could have walked thru something, too, and ingested enough of it while cleaning herself.  Sometimes dogs are as much bother as babies.
    Since I finished Jeff's Christmas socks on New Year's Eve I didn't have anything on the needles to work on yesterday.  I got the notice Tuesday that 'My' sock yarn should be delivered Friday-tomorrow and I don't know if I want to start something else before then or just wait and start MY socks.  I guess I'll make a couple of cotton washcloths til then.  We need some new ones!!