Run down

So here I am, sitting with little pup crawling up my shoulder, using one of my sisters computers because my notebook is in the shop (Microsoft failure), writing a brief update.
Jenny and I went on an adventure a couple of weekends ago, we drove to Owatonna to the Doll house, pictures were taken, yarn was touched and more will be written later, about this and Smitten with Knitting.

I have been in Mankato for about a week and will return to the cities some time tomorrow, Bella has a vet appointment. I am not sure I will be going to any knitting or crochet groups when I get back, as the people around me have been getting sick. So far I am ok but feel a bit stuffy today.

It is a lay low day today and we will watch movies; we begin with Angels and Demons.

Making progress on eh Red cable and Narvik, one sleeve on the way to being finished.

Will up date soon.

Happy Stitches

Politics and Knitting (not that they go together)

Knitting in groups, one may find that the conversations can run quite a gammit, reaching out to current events, social affairs and politics. Knitting groups as many knitters know, can be very ecclectic and diverse.
For me, I thrive in the environment and my relationship with DH can attest to my drive for intelligent  and factual conversation.
One thing that we sometimes do not get about our fellow Americans, is that we tend to hear a lot of parroting of information where people have not checked thier facts.
Another thing I find that makes my head shake, is how anyone who is poor in this country could be Republican.
How is it that we need to check even foreign news to get a better view of what is happening in our own country.
Thomas Frank, an american writer and Journalist thinks that US voters have become blind where thier real interests are concerned.
"It's like a French revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."
I have always shaken my head when I hear people in working class and in moderate to low income espousing the value of the Republican party. For more information on this topic and other information, follow that link below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8474611.stm

I have been catching bits of the televised capital sessions and I have to say something about wages and how things are going inthis country.

Yes in these times we all need to tighten our belts. Trickel down economic theory is just that, theory. I caught a bit of a sesson on the Minnesota bonding bill and to negate a law in order to pay workers less in these economic times is in my opinion, the wrong answer.
We pay for what we get, however, in a time when taxpayers and businesses (this began before the hard economic times, if you will remember, budgets have long been tried to be balanced on the backs of workers along with company bottom lines). If Governments and companies truly want to cut costs and lower wages, They have to start at the top, before they get to the working class.
Cut out bonuses for five years, do not give the governors, presidents or auditors raises until the crisis is over; STOP vicitimizing the American workers for heavens sake. Dear aristocracy, put your money where your mouth is!

Knitting is going very well. I have completed the front and back of my Red Dolce' cable sweater and I am working on the sleeves and making good progress. I am sewing shoulders tonight, then picking up and knitting the neck.
Finished or not, this weekend I am picking up the rest of the yarn for my gray Rowan cable Narvik sweater and finishing that by March 5th. so I can wear it to the Rowan show at the Textile Center for the Knitters Guild. I am very excited and looking forward to this.

Puppy Patrol
Bella has gained a few ounces and keeps Sadie quite active, they play quite a bit and Sadie actually chews rawhide at home now. For a bit we were not getting a lot of sleep, but now Bella is sleeping better at night so we all are. Yeah!

Happy Knitting Everyone

Life on the knit and a frustration with bobbles.

Today Kimberly, Mary and I went to knitters palette, I bought the new Piece work magazine, which is the 4th Annual historic Knitting issue. The articles speak a bit about the rich knitting history in England and Jewish Lithuania. There is something lovely about historic patterns and the ladies who made them, such as Miss Money; a bit of a question as to who she was. The nostalgia is warming, even though I get a bit lost in the curious way they used to write patterns in those early times and written patterns were not common.

I thought I would begin a pair of socks which I purchased the pattern and yarn for a couple of months ago. Start them I did and don't you know, I am feeling that the little baubles that make the cherries are more frustration than I need right now. Back to the stash bin for that project, it will hibernate for a bit, or longer.

Miss Bella is fitting in well, quite perky and of course energetic as she is a puppy. Bella has no fear, seems to think she is a much larger dog than she is, because she is definitely not intimidated by larger dogs and chases down cats that have more than ten pounds on her. Bella seems to fly when she leaps or flings herself forward. A trim was definitely in order for this little hair ball and she looks more like a dog than something you would find Whoville in. 
Sadie looks out for Bella, still gets annoyed when chewed on too much by her, but they get on well.

I am trying to finish the back of my red cable sweater, I am almost at the point where I can shape the shoulders, measuring in the morning to see where I am at. The rest of my yarn for this sweater needs to be wound yet, so I am going to work on getting that done this week as well as work on the Rowan Narvik sweater I began. I am adding length to the Narvik as it is a cropped cardigan and that will not do on me, would look quite hideous.

So cherry socks aside for now, onward to finis my red sweater and Narvik by March 5th. Just in time for the Rowan's 30 year retrospective traveling show at the Textile Center. As a bonus I will have two new cool sweaters to wear to the retreat our knitting group has going on, thanks to Lisa for finding a place and organizing it; I am really looking forward to this, I want to take a complicated project and an easy one. Imagine, sixteen knitters all tucked away in a couple of cabins, knitting and perhaps some wine.

 

Abella Ami

Yesterday I drove up to Little Falls to pick up our new little family edition. A spunky little puff of fur and such as she is that I at some point began to call Abella, or Bella for short and decided on Abella Ami at some point, which means beautiful friend in French.

Bella is four months old, and was a litter runt, who was given away to my friend Binky's mom, who then after two weeks had her fill of house training and was tired of cleaning up  messes. She is less than two pounds, spunky, loves to play, does chew and is apricot in color.

Binky and I thought Bella would be a good companion for my little peanut Sadie, who likes friends and has been spending her mornings alone while I am in class. Sadie was very excited when she first saw Bella, who tried to cower from Sadie's sniffing, then rolled over on her back in submission.

I was a bit worried, Bella's diet had consisted of milk and cat food as she did not like her own food, and I was not successful in getting her to eat or drink most of the evening.
Since it was craft night at my friends house, Bella came with Sadie and I to craft night and meet the rest of the pack.
We carefully introduced the dogs, Copper, a more dominant male beagle, Rocco, The less dominant male Corgi and Gatto the Main coon male cat who seemed to feel that the little puff of fur was not significant enough to acknowledge. After a while Bella was running around checking stuff out and scurrying the edges of walls and furniture like a rodent, but would not eat or drink anything, did chew and lick a soft treat, but only chewed it to pieces and did not eat it. Each time there was a potty break Bella was taken along to observe, but seemed to not understand why we wanted her to be on the cold ground outside.

After dinner and our visit Sadie, Bella and I went to Petco, where we talked to the dog trainer and got advice on food and such. It seems as though, due to poor diet, Bella is loosing her hair and is flesh and bone under all that hair; I got a discount on the food, which I was grateful for. I found Bella a little mint t-shirt and jacket at Petco on clearance for+ .99 cents each. She was wearing one of Sadie's smaller sweatshirts that is now too tight on Sadie and is too big for Bella except that it kind of works with all the hair.

My goals for the rest of the night were to 1. get Bella to eat something, 2. get Bella to drink something. and 3. hopefully have a successful potty episode outside without accidents.
I am happy to report that, Bella ate some wet puppy food and without accidents has had three, successful outdoor potty episodes, I am concerned that I have not seen her drink, but the wet food has moisture and I am going to mix it with warm water to get her more fluid and because it is not complete nutrition, there is the dry puppy food and all of Sadie's food that she has been eating.

Sadie sleeps on the bed at night, we went to bed and took Bella with us. Bella was not ready to settle down, to her it was time to play and eat, since our bed is a king size and is high from the floor, and little Bella has no fear of jumping off cliffs as I discovered (she flumps on the wood floor and scurries off), we kenneled little Bella for the night and then we all slept well.

This morning when DH got up, Bella of course started mini barking, which started Sadie barking, which meant I was up for the day at 5 a.m., nope not used to that! DH lets Bella out of the kennel and she immediately scuttles off and I have to chase her down so we can all go outside, where she successfully pottied. Yeah! First she watches what Sadie does then does the same.

Needless to say, Bella is kenneled for her own safety during the day, because she has no fear and she is so small.
Our cat Sasha, just looks at Bella, hisses loudly and runs upstairs, she dislikes Bella's scurrying, barks and mop like look, so pretty much everything.

A note on knitting:


I have divided for the the arms on my Red cable sweater and I am working up the back. Yeah!



Happy stitches

I think its midpoints

These are dance leggings I made for Tia, before leaving Mankato. 

 



 I am near midpoint in a class for office career/ training, refreshing skills I have not used in a while; we are taking a test, I finished and think I aced it, but time will tell. It is strange remembering the things you did not know you forgot, and working with the few things that do not transfer from XP to Vista, they seem to function a bit differently and Vista docs do not seem to transfer back to XP smoothly when you send them out.
I have read and completed the assignment for today and have completed the assignments for Section 1 in the book, so here I sit with time on my hands.

I pass an interesting house when I travel to and from class. the street signs are flash from the past, the sixties to be sure, there is one faux pas, the sign that says Hippies use the side door, or something like that (I hope it all shows well in the pictures), They did not call themselves hippies sin San Francisco during that time, in fact they disliked the term and buried the hippie in effigy, complete with funeral. Unfortunately the individual signs do not show well enough to read, I will try my hand at zooming, no promises though.

Here is a better picture.

Winter is taking a bit of a break here in the upper Midwest. For us at this point the lower double digits feel like a heat wave, and some people are becoming a little lax with the outer wear. I have to admit I am one of those culprits. sometimes carrying my coat to the car, I made sweaters and option and sometimes just layering and not using a coat. Heaven forbid I get caught unawares, or would that be caught aware?

I have found myself thinking about Dad again, and how sad and dis-jointed I was before he passed away. Having worked in nursig homes and group homes you see the signs, the person is aware and you become confuzzled in feelings, at times pulling back, worrying too much, profoundly sad and even though you know it is coming you are completely captured in grief, missing the person at times even before they are gone.

I was thinking on my way to class today how much my neices and nephews do not know about our parents and grandparents.  I met a woman last night who is writing a memoir of her parents, based on old letters they had kept, which were passed to her by various methods and relatives. Sadly, we do not have that for my parents and grand parents. To rely on memories, which fade and are not always processed the same between people, we have poorly cut puzzle pieces.

I tried a few years ago to get my siblings to write their favorite memories, not a success I might say, I may have more success with a couple of nieces, they seem to miss dad a lot.
Grandpa (my dads, dad) police officer, and then went to work for Hormel's, where he retired from. He would drink coffee all day if he could and eat straight ketchup by the spoonfuls. He was an avid fisherman and could spend all day in a boat fishing, it seemed to be his favorite hobby. Grandpa was a great cook, it is his stuffing recipe that has been passed down, definitely no stovetop here!
It is also Grandpas side of the family that heart disease came down through, he had atherosclerosis and had a few heart attacks. I remember one time when he was in the hospital, tired of being there and wanted to leave, I cannot remember the specific reason, a smoke or a coffee? anyway he went into a stair well and got locked in, he did not get out and could not get back in, he was found while they were conducting a search for him.

Dad had atherosclerosis as well, he had several heart attacks and two triple bypass surgeries at least. When he was at The hospital in Austin, he would end up with the nurses in his room playing chess or some board game during slow times at the hospital. He had a great sense of humor, he would tell wild stories to the neighbor hood children when we lived in Ramsey, he and my uncle Bill would be laid off from road construction and they would tell these wild tails together, about being cowboys, being shipwrecked at sea and riding back to shore in a whale, using it for food on the ride back.
In the summer dad would always manage to start water fights, he would begin with a small squirt gun hidden in his hand, we would feel a spritz of water seemingly from out of nowhere and move on to buckets and the hose out in the yard. Dad loved to fish, he was not as avid as grandpa, he would take anyone that would go, fishing with him. The cutest was when he took his grand nephew and god son BJ fishing and BJ caught a fish, dad was helping to reel the fish in, BJ was about six maybe and when he saw the fish kind of fight and jump he got scared at how big it was and began to run, dad had to call him back, reel the fish in and calm BJ down. When they got back to Zel and Bills, they took a picture of BJ with his fish which was about as long as BJ was tall.
I will make a file of these and other memories as they come up, I may have mentioned one or more of these stories before, but when you loose a parent these things come up now and then, you need to acknowledge them when they do.
Dad had a heart murmur which kept him out of service, he was a preemie that was not supposed to survive, his head was not deformed from the birth process, he was born at home as were I believe all of his siblings. The doctor gave him a slim chance of living through his first night, grandpa took care of him that night and he did survive, of course we would not be here if he had not.
Grandpa had a lot of home remedies for things, mustard and onion plasters were a couple of the things.

I wonder if My dads sister Zel would spend time with me and tell me the things she remembers about her parents and mine. I will call and ask, I would like to see and visit with her again; I will ask my sisters for input again as well. I think it would be easier to record these sessions.
A cropped photo from a scan of my dad.

Happy Stitches and Trails.

Decembers end Recap

Decembers end, a re-cap

I spent the last week or so of December in Mankato visiting with Heidi and crew. For me it was a good visit, we knitted, fested and  visited.

The kids are well, some are having more of a difficult time on life's path and others are planning for a solid future. Connor is about nine months old and is in the 90th percentile for a  ten month old in everything; trying to walk, talk, and eat his way into a more communicative and mobile existence, he is beginning to take steps (albeit short ones) on his own, his dexterity and all are coming along well. Connor and his walking toy; he is happy as usual.

Here are Blake, Tia and her Boyfriend 

Boys are so rambunctious, especially when there are several around. There seems to be the avid interest in sport and fight stuff. On the more girlie side, Bean is growing into an interesting young woman; she is taking some great photos that seem as good as any in a magazine.

the 18 year old is making his plans to go away to college this coming Fall, moving to Georgia permanently.  He is getting engaged to his long time girlfriend as well, so....... perhaps a trip to Georgia will be in my future at some point, or would it be another state, hm. need to remember where she is from.

A couple of times a girlfriend (different one each time) of Heidi's came for lunch and a visit. An older couple from the church had lunch with us and visited for a bit. 

Everyone enjoyed opening presents, lots of toys, clothes, books and movies. Ty and I each got a copy of Pride Prejudice and Zombies.

Sadie got  a set of pink leg warmers with a matching scarf from Bean and Heidi gave her a doggy necklace,or bling as Heidi called it. 
Sadie models her "Bling"   

 

This time I did not go to Mary Lues Yarn http://www.woolenmill.com/  

or A Tangled Skein 

http://www.knitmap.com/locations/the-tangled-skein-yarn-shop

I did find Smitten with Knittin, when I drove to Waseca to hand off bean to her dad.

http://www.smitten-with-knittin.com/

Smitten with Knittin was a bright, well lit shop with a lovely selection of yarn. I chatted with the owner and a couple of ladies at the table knitting, they had been to Linden Hills Yarn and most seemed to have lived in the Twin cities Metro area at one time. I did not have long to chat as Ty was waiting in the car with Sadie, they rode with to drop Bean off.

the owner had received a shipment of Encore yarn and been stocking it on the shelves. It was a nice quick visit and I am sure I may stop the next time I am through Waseca.

 










We celebrated the New Year rather mildly as we are not night owls and went to bed.  I managed to make a little sock and put it on the last sock blocker key chain I had and gave it to Heidi, who liked it very much.

Yesterday held a trip to Austin to have dinner with DH's family and celebrate Christmas.  It was good, even as a day trip; we had not seen them in a while and I really enjoyed the chats and hugs. Sadie discovered other canine family members who came along, Tulsie, a mixed poodle type breed, who she was very excited to see again she met Shrek the Chinese crested as well as Marnie, who I think is a collie of some type. 






Happy Stitches to all.

A few days before Christmas, from Mankato

Just wanted to say hi from Mankato, here visiting Heidi and her family. 

A picture of the tree, Hope everyone is having a nice Holiday and knitting away.

happy Stitches