Still alive and kicking!

Yes, I am still alive and kicking, (That's what my soon to be 92 year old father (on Dec. 16th) always says when asked how he is) but blogging has taken a big back seat in my life. I will catch up eventually once things settle down around here.

Just before Thanksgiving my Dad had an infected toe which required an ER visit on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Subsequently diarrhea followed and after several doctors visits, it was finally starting to get better when the bottom fell out. Early this past Friday morning his lifeline was activated by him. Luckily I was still home because I had a migraine, which I was thankful for....pretty bad when you are thankful for a migraine. He was flat on the floor fully dressed. He was in pain...mainly his back. Called 911 and he was brought to the hospital. It wasn't until later that I realized he had been laying on the floor all night. He fell when he unplugged his TV at bedtime. Luckily no broken bones, but lying on the board that the paramedics put him on was excruciating. He was like that until almost 1 pm. He has muscle damage due to being on the floor so long. I was just so horrified and upset when I found out. He didn't press the lifeline button because he didn't want to bother me. It just about killed me knowing he was lying on the floor all night in pain. He still needs some more evaluating so that's why they have kept him in the hospital, but he may either go to short term rehab or come home with a visiting nurse and PT. Needless to say...I've been running and having quite a time with keeping up with things at home as well as email, etc. I have to forget the blogging for right now. Hope you all will understand. As soon as I have some free time I will try to catch up, I promise :)

One good thing I did finish the mate to the mohair socks last week before all the upheaval and got them in the mail. Have not heard from my sister as to how they fit. Hopefully I'll hear from her soon.
While he was in the ER I was so upset I couldn't even knit, plus I still had my migraine. Not much knitting to show you, but I do have to get going as Christmas is right around the corner.

Well, now you know why I've been missing. Hopefully things will settle down soon so I can get ready for Christmas and get caught up with everything.

Happy Knitting every one :)

Mohair Sock Saga

I finished the first mohair sock...a very fuzzy sock!
Separating the mohair plys was a challenge. I'd be lying if I said it was anything else. It's a real shame I couldn't use the yarn as my sister sent it to me. It was way too thick. As is, single ply still makes a thick sock. I can't even imagine it full strength :) Speaking of strength - the yarn breaks so easily in it's reduced state. Not fun to knit with. In fact I had to resort to using some regular sock yarn for the toes and heels. Trying to start the toe was very frustrating. If I had trouble and needed to rip back - the yarn would break. I should have taken a picture of the pile of all my broken pieces of yarn. I tried starting the toe about five times before I came up with using a different yarn. It's ok, but not what I envisioned. I emailed the picture to my sister and she likes it. I just hope that the companion to this sock comes out equally well and when she receives it, it fits and feels good on. The yarn is very unpredictable. I doubt that I have it in me to make another pair of mohair socks. I was planning on making another pair for a Christmas gift for someone special who loves fuzzy things. Now I'm leaning toward using the mohair full strenght as mittens. Maybe she would like fuzzy mittens? Now I'll be on the lookout for a nice mitten pattern :)

I am having a lot of trouble believing that Thanksgiving is a week away. Where has all the time gone? I have so much to do that my head spins. Must get organized and get a ton of things done before next Thursday. In case I'm not back again until after the holiday, I wish each and every one a very happy Thanksgiving :)

happy knitting :)

Purls for a Purpose and a few other things....

Lots to show and tell you about this time. I probably should post more frequently, but I'm afraid that will probably never happen!

First check out my Christmas cactus this year:
Actually part of the plant is a Thanksgiving cactus...the fushia colored. My husband gave the plant to me when my youngest son was born (almost 14 years ago on the 24th of November. He was born on Thanksgiving Day.) The other part of the plant, the peach part, is a cutting from one of my mother's Christmas cacti. The beginning of September I transplanted the two hanging plants into one huge pot with a tray that has wheels. It is one very heavy pot now. The hanging plants were in a bad way (root bound, no soil left and the pots were disintegrating) and they needed to be transplanted desperately. I wasn't sure that the plant would bloom this year, but it did! I guess it likes it's new home :) I just looked back two years ago when I last posted photos of the plants. Looks like there were some white flowers mixed in. I think perhaps I must have lost that part of the plant. I'm just happy that most of it did survive and bloomed this year :)

Next up my knitted squares for Purls for a Purpose for the Pine Street Inn Knit-a-thon:
I decided to knit the same type of squares as I did last year...garter stitch stripe squares ...with all sorts of leftover yarn. I find knitting these squares are lots of fun. I ended up with fourteen squares.

Several weeks ago I won a contest on Lindy's blog! Lucky me (I've been so lucky this year in winning prizes...it's been a very good year.) I was able to choose one of her lovely patterns that she sells on her blog. It was hard to choose, but I ended up picking her "Hearts Quilt 2":
I was very happy with the results. I think it will make a lovely washcloth. Thank you so much Lindy for giving me such a wonderful pattern!

As I was still in the cloth knitting mood I decided to try another mosaic stripe cloth.
This time I used the fushia yarn combined with a varigated. Last time I used two solid colors. This is a cool cloth pattern( Lily Sugar 'n Cream Kitchen Kolors!. (#570821)), but one has to stay focused while knitting as it is not a mindless pattern. Sometime you need to stay on your toes...guess it was a good change after letting my mind go to mush while I knitting all those garter stitch squares :)

Yesterday the mailman brought me a box of mohair yarn from my sister in Oregon:
She sent me five skeins of beautiful soft mohair that she hand spun. Four skeins are natural white and one skein is red for accenting the socks I will be knitting for her. The yarn is so soft I could just sit and pet it all day. She did a beautiful job spinning it.

I have one BIG problem though. The yarn, as is, is very heavy(more worsted weight) and not really sock knitting weight. I emailed her right away to see what kind of socks she wanted, slipper socks to use without shoes or socks to wear with shoes and boots? She replied that she'd like them for wearing in shoes and boots. Now what was I going to do?

Looking closely at the yarn you can see that it is made up of two plys:
I have taken a photo of the yarn in contrast with some of my sock yarn. You can see on the far left the yarn she sent me. In the middle I have pulled apart the two plys and on the right is my sock yarn. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to separate the plys.

I started today with the separating...you can see I didn't get very far:
Good thing she's not in a hurry for her socks, because I think this will take me a while and definitely will cut into my knitting time. Must have patience...good lesson for me :) Wish I knew an easy way to do it... Such a shame I have to undo all her hard work and beautifully wound yarn cakes.

Guess that's about it for now. Happy Knitting everyone and wish me luck with my project :)