What's New This Summer

     Spring has been good at the shop, Cooper Country Crafts, for me.  My revised sheep design, Sheep in the Meadow, has been popular with customers.  By limiting the sheep to just the yoke, the majority of the sweater is done in stockinette without having to count rows or stitches.  Once the sleeves are finished the body just knits up in no time!  The 'meadow' is enclosed by a few rows of ombre yarn that compliment the main color.  The color combination makes the sweater look so smart but keeps it simple to knit. (The revised design eliminates a lot of yarn ends that need to be worked in making me very happy!)

  This is a size 2 cardigan I just finished and put in the shop yesterday.  (There are 2 more sheep on the back.)  It is done in Red Heart's worsted weight acrylic in Amethyst with the trim done in Monet, which has become the most popular color combination for this sweater this spring.  I've also done it in White and Pink with the trim in Monet or Tourmaline (shades of pink from the palest to the  hottest), all Red Heart acrylics, in sizes 2 and 4.  Yesterday I started a size 1 in Gray Heather wih the trim in Icelandic (shades of Aqua and Gray).  I've been using old pearl buttons that my friend, Maggie Schanz, gave me as well as some new pearl buttons that I bought.  I have very few of the round buttons I used last year (from Buttons.com) that I really liked.  They were the perfect size and had the nicest colors but this year everything I wanted was 'out of stock'.  (Blaming the shortage on Covid!!) I'm hoping they get them back in stock soon!  Even buying buttons at Walmart gets expensive!!

   I'm planning on doing some baseball sweaters in size 1, too.  The smaller sweaters make up faster and if they're going to sell well, that's the kind I need to make!  Several customers have said size 2 and 4 hoodies don't need back zippers as long as they have a Henley opening in the front.  I can agree with that for a size 1 but will have to think about it for the other sizes.

   My sweaters are always available at Cooper Country Crafts, 2 Doubleday Court, Cooperstown, NY.  They may also be ordered in your choice of color and size thru the shop(607-547-9247) but must be paid for when ordered

(including postage if they are to be mailed to you.)

   Now it's time to get back to knitting!

Trigger's Tree

    We had some thunderstorm this morning!  It woke me around 3am and the thunder had the dogs diving under Jeff's bed!  I laid there for awhile but couldn't go gack to sleep so I finally got up and put on a pot of coffee...while the power was still on.  By 5:30am I was sitting in my chair, wrapped in a blanket with a cup of coffee and a book.(My window was open part way and while there was a chilly breeze, it smelled and felt so good I just snuggled in my blanket!)  And no dogs...they were still under Jeff's bed!  I  fell asleep in the chair around 7am and slept there until almost 10am.  I could barely walk when I finally woke up and decided I needed more coffee.  The russle of Cherrios falling into a cereal bowl brought both dogs into the kitchen...followed by Jeff and when he came back in after letting them out, he said the top of one of the evergreen trees close to the house broke during the storm.  I went out to see which one it was.  It was Trigger's Tree.

   Trigger was our neightbor's Shetland Pony.  This was 1962 and I always thought he was old but maybe not, maybe just gentle.  He had 2 large pastures...one across from our house and the other between our house and the neighbor's garage.  In the summer he was also staked out in the field across from our garage.  As Trigger got older he was allowed to roam around the lawn with just a rope hanging, clipped to his halter.  He stayed away from the road and didn't go into the woods.  

   My younger cousins loved to come up and 'ride the horse'.  An adult would put a kid up on Trigger's back and lead the pony around the property. They talk about it still! I don't remember anyone getting hurt or being afraid of Trigger.

   The spring after we moved here my father got a dozen or so pine trees thru Cooperative Extension and planted them around the property, including two he put along the driveway between the house and the gargage.  They all grew taller than the house except one.  Meanwhile, Trigger was free to roam and he would come up to our house everyday and stratch himself on that one little pine tree.  My father had to stake it to keep Trigger from knocking it over!  That tree barely stayed alive and never grew while Trigger used it as a stratching post but once he died it took off and ended up taller than the house!  

   In the last few years the tree has started to lose branches and Jeff has had to trim off the dead wood.  If losing the top of the tree kills it, it's going to be interesting taking it down.  The house and garage form an L around it and the electrical wires run along the driveway.  Oh, the joys of home ownership!

P.S.  After Trigger died our neightbors got another Shetland pony but he didn't stay too long.  He was nothing like ol'Trigger! 

Just Another Day As A Crafter

       Today was my turn to work in the shop so I made sure I had a couple of my Sheep in the Meadow sweaters with me.  I even remembered to bring my camera and make sure it  had new batteries!  Here's the picture I took of my  white Sheep in the Meadow.  It's a size 2T, raglan, knit from the neck down.  The other one in the shop is pink and I'm ready to do one in purple.  So far, this season I've sold 6 of this design in size 2T and 4T in those 3 colors.

I've done 3 cardigsns and 3 hoodies with Henley neck openings and back zippers.  I think this purple one may be a cardigan with a hoodie and just buttons up the front.  

   My display looked so empty today...even after I hung up these 2 sweaters!  I haven't been able to keep sweaters on the shelf for long this spring.  (It's rather like crying all the way to the bank!)  And the worst part is that I can't get those buttons anymore.  The company I was buying them from has them listed as 'out of stock'.  I hope they decide to make some more...and soon!

Strange E-Mails

    I've gotten some strange emails this week supposedly from an old friend who's been living and working in China for the last 13 years.  He's been home a couple of times but I've managed to miss seeing him both times.  Anyway, I got an email asking if I could do him a favor.  I answered 'what's up?'  No response for several days and then a repeat of the first email.  That time I answered 'what' wrong?'  Today I got a long, heartful email telling me about his 'sister' who lives in the Ukraine and needs an operation.  The cost of the medical procedure was $13,000.  The email said he was just back from visiting her and giving her all the money he had...$8000.  She was in a great deal of pain and he wanted to help her as much as possible, so could I lend him $5000.  

   Of course, I said no.  

   A day or two later I got another email.  This time he asked if I could send him anything because she really needed help.  Again, I said no.  

   Both times I explained that we live on a fixed income, in an old house that constantly needs repairs.  I was sorry but I couldn't help.

   Earlier today I was knitting and since that was when I do my best thinking I started thinking about this problem.  Suddenly I thought if only I could check out the sister angle.  And the easiest way was to check his father's obituary.  Then I couldn't remember his father's first name. That stopped me for a few minutes.  In the end I did a search on his step-mother's name and guess what?  His father's obit popped up!  When I read it and didn't find a sister/daughter mentioned, I was sure the emails were scams.

   I sent Wayne another reply and told him not to bother me again.  I knew he didn't have a sister. I asked Jeff if he thought the Chinese Mafia could be behind it but he said maybe a Tong.  We'll just have to wait and see.

6/8/2021   Just heard from a former student of Wayne's, Liwanen Lily in the Philippines, and she said she got similar emails from him.  She was able to contact him and he confirmed his email had been hacked!

Thank You, Ray Brunette!

    I'm not a very good housekeeper.  There is always something else I'd rather do...knit, read, play, play on the computer, you name it, I can always find something else to do besides housework!  Jeff isn't much neater so our house is fairly messy most of the time.  One of my cousins use to say it had the 'lived in look'.  Well, anyway, there are times when the housework bug does bite me and I do things. This week I've had it with the empty soda bottles and cans.  Before the lockdown I was taking our returnables back weekly or every other week but during the winter they got away from me and started to pile up.  Then I remembered that the Fire Department collected returnables so I decided to take them there.  

   On our way to town yesterday we took our empties to the Fire Station.  There must have been 5 or 6 garbage bags in the back of the car...you could hardly see out of the back window!  But when we got to the fire station we couldn't find where to leave our bags, so we droved on to town and then home with them.

   When I got back online later yesterday I sent a message to the man who told me I could take them to the fire station and explained why we didn't.  He offered again to come over and pick them up so I gave him our address and went out and put the bags of bottles and cans in the wagon of the Cub Cadet which was parked in front of the garage.  They sat there all night waiting for him. Jeff even put a couple of more bags in the wagon early this morning!  I don't know what time he came over and collected our offering but I never heard the dogs bark.  (Remember, Zoey is our early Beagle warning system.)  

   E. Herkimer is a volunteer fire department and collecting returnables is a way for the department to earn extra money.  I'm happy to give them what we've got massed.  When I figurer out where to take them I'll do it myself.  In the meantime, Thank You, Ray Brunette, for picking up our bottles and cans. 

Doctor's Appointments, Memorial Day Picnic and a Sweater

    Today I had an appointment with an endocrinologist to check my osteopenia/osteoporosis and my thyroid.  She looked at the results of my last blood work and said I was still anemic...C,B,D levels were good but iron was still low.   She was happy that the D levels were up and suggested another dose of  Reclast to help strengthen my bones, and to redo the blood test.  This will be my 3rd annual dose of Reclast--leaving only 1 more available.  But it is helping to strengthen my bones!  Besides having a family history of osteopenia, I also went thru chemo and radiation therapies and they both leach calcium.  (I react well to the Reclast and my bones are stronger so it's worth the IV.)  My mother and 2 of her sisters had sever osteoporosis and suffered broken hips.  I am terrified that I will, too, especially since I manage to fall on the ice in the driveway every winter!  (I was lucky this past winter:  I only fell once!)  She also decided to order a scan of my neck and thyroid...something seems to have developed where there shouldn't be anything (I had part of one lobe of the thyroid removed about 30+ years ago because it had some rather large cysts in it that were pressing on my windpipe).  The levels for the thyroid enzymes were still in range but lower than my last blood work.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get that scheduled for as soon as I'd like...nothing was available until June 22nd. (Herkimer fills up fast!)  It's a fasting blood test so I scheduled the  appointment for 8:15am, with the thyroid scan directly after.  I'll have to remember to bring a power bar with me!

   My cousin, Ed, came over for supper last night and we had an inside picnic.  It's been raining off and on most of the week so that seemed the best thing to do!  I got potato salad, macaroni salad and a summer slaw that Jeff & I really like!  Hannaford had corn on the cob, too, so I got some of that.  Jeff was going to get a London Broil but he didn't like what they had so he got a rolled roast.  He seasoned it up and let it sit for a couple of hour before  putting it on our RonCo rotisserie.  I let it cook for about 50 minutes and it was perfect!  I also got a loaf of garlic bread to round off the meal.  The meat was so tender we were able to cut it with our regular knives!  (Jeff made chili for supper tonight and he put part of what was left of the roast in that.)  Ed brought dessert:  blackberry cobbler and vanilla ice cream.  Walmart's been having this cobbler since the holidays and it is good!  Thicker than a pie!!  I love blackberries!  Can't beat this for dessert.  (I made Ed take home what was left...I'd love to eat it but don't need to!!)

   So far this year the new version of my Sheep sweater has been a good seller.  I took 2 down with me last week when I worked and they both sold!  I'm trying to do a couple more before I work again, (June 11th). That makes 6 that have sold since we opened in April.  I haven't even started a baseball sweater!  Tomorrow I'll try to post a photo of this one...if the new HP lets me but right now I think I'll call it a night and try to get some sleep.

How do you like your new PC?

   My new HP PC arrived on Friday and Jeff got it up and running on Sunday while I was at the shop in Cooperstown.  When he plugged in the old monitor, nothing happened so he dug out one of the older HP monitors his sister had given him when she replaced her PC's.  Seems my trouble all along was the monitor.  It had died, not my PC.  $398 because of a spent monitor.  Oh, well.  Yesterday while trying to wipe the old PC Jeff discovered that I had less than 1 byte of memory left available on it.  That got me a lecture on discarding emails and other nonessential junk.  Anyway, my old PC is now wrapped in the packing material/box the new one had arrived in and stored away 'in case of an emergency'.  With the limited memory left on it, the timing was right for a new one and I got a good deal.  Unexpected but a good deal nonetheless. I don't think I can take many more 'good' deals like this.

   Sunday in the shop was slow and I didn't knit 1 stitch.  Gave my hands a good rest...boy, did they need it, too!  My next scheduled day to work is June 11th and I want to get an ordered sweater and a pin-stripe (both size 4, hoodies) finished by then.  Then I have just over a week to do something to fill in the spaces before my next workday (June 21).  My summer vacation starts then!  No scheduled work days for 6 weeks...but I will restock if and as necessary!

   Maggie stopped by last week.  Brought me some of her delicious jam and some plants from her garden.  I want to restart the flower bed by the driveway...just got to get the energy!!

   Got an appointment for a bone density test today before my upcoming annual endocrinology exam the week after.  I really hope they find something wrong with my thyroid!  I am so tired...10 hrs sleep isn't enough and although I am taking a variety of vitamins (B,C,D, and Iron) I am still anemic.  After my initial problem with my thyroid (cysts that were caused by the radiation treatments for Hodgkin's Disease) back in the mid 80's, a part of one lobe was removed.  That endocrinologist forecast more trouble and said it was his opinion I'd end up losing the entire thyroid eventually.  I think 'eventually' may finally have arrived.  He also said it wasn't anything to fear.  Synthroid would take care of it and I would be better off.  I just want to know why they've waited over 30 years. 

  I've been asked that question (how do you like your new HP?) so often since Sunday and my answer isn't very nice.  I don't.  Not really.  Not yet.  I had 'shortcuts' with my old HP that I liked and used that are missing with this one.  I'm sure I'll develop them with it but in the meantime, I'm a little lost...and a lot slower...with the new PC.  I have to adjust the focus on new pages and the size of the font...nothing terrible or difficult just time consuming...when I open a new site.  (Jeff says it's my eyes, not the PC and I should go to the eye doctor or get new reading glassed.)  I also have a basic fault with the new PC...with every update Microsoft puts out...WHY??  What was wrong with the old one?  The original one?  Oh, well, I'll get use to it eventually, I guess.  I hope.

Oh, I just discovered this new font and I like it!!  Something good at last!