I’ve been so quite….

Nothing against any of my wonderful friends, but I have not been on-line much lately. I get on for an hour or two a day to check e-mail or play one or two games; but basically I have been busy doing other things.

With football now a thing in the past until next July, I have been looking for other things to keep me busy. I started knitting scarves the last week or so of football before Halloween as the weather had gotten pretty cool in the evenings.  As a matter of fact, we had record breaking cold temperatures!  I knitted a scarf for me and one for a coach; and then decided I would just keep on knitting scarves….I have 2 patterns inspired by the “Harry Potter” movies that I follow. I thought if I could get some “house” scarves done before the release of the next movie on November 19th that I might be able to make a little extra money.

Then my mother in law asked if I had any patterns for baby afghans, as she had several skeins of baby yarn she wanted to get rid of.  So I found a pattern I want to at least try.  Generally, I can follow simple patterns with no problem….I have no idea how to do complicated cable knits or fancy stitches.  As a matter of fact, the only other thing I ever knitted was mittens…Because that is what I originally learned how to knit….Compared to mittens, scarves are easy!  I found a favorite site “The leaky Cauldron” that has a variety of “Harry Potter” inspired crafts to knit or crochet.  I doubt I will try socks, but I am going to try some hats and arm warmers…And I have a pattern for leg warmers.  My mother in law gave me several books mostly of crochet patterns, and there are some things I may try to do like doilies and even a skirt.

One day I was going to go buy more yarn as I wanted some different colors and I had to buy a new circular knitting needle.  My mother in law stopped me and gave me several pairs of regular (straight) knitting needles as well a a fairly large box of odds and ends yarn she had….

Some were full skeins but most were partial skeins. I have plenty to keep me busy at least for awhile.  My son wanted a scarf with the light and dark blue so I decided I would try that on a smaller circular needle.  The scarf won’t be as wide as the “Harry Potter” scarves and hopefully I will have enough of the two colors to complete it without having to go out and try to match the colors. 

An ex-sister in law saw a photo of the 2 I completed for myself and asked for one in her favorite Team colors; blue, yellow and white.  So I started a third scarf….Now this may seem a little hectic to some, but I now have 3 scarves going at once!  Every day I knit about 40 rows of each scarf…and sometimes even more.  My sister in law’s scarf is almost complete.

Now with all this knitting going on, one may wonder if I have time for anything else.  The answer is yes I do…Yesterday I spent about 2 hours gardening.  I cut back my mother in law’s Hostas that she has beside her side of the duplex…a project she had started but just didn’t have the energy to finish…It took me less than 20 minutes with a good pair of pruners.

Hostas

Then I looked into the backyard and decided to do some fall cleaning and pruning there, too.  We have a variety of flowering plants including Day Lilies,  roses and various bulbs.  I had already dug up the wonderful marigolds that bloomed all summer, and my husband helped with our “volunteer” cherry tomato plants that mixed with the morning glories on the rear fence…I pruned some of the dead branches from the roses, dug up a wild ground cover that had taken over most of the garden, cut the lilies down to encourage new growth in the spring and even planted a few dozen more bulbs. I cut down several Tree sprouts that had invaded from the neighbor’s yard and trimmed back their wild growing Japanese tree that the owners planted practically in our yard along the fence….It’s wild, ugly and uncontrollable!  

Lately, my mother in law and I have been sharing the cooking duties.  One day, she made a huge pot of vegetable soup.  She took out what she could eat and gave the rest to us.  Yesterday, she gave me some polish sausage she had in the freezer and some cabbage to fix for dinner.  I added cubed potatoes  and put it all in the crock pot…When done, I took a bowl over to her.  Today, she brought over a bag of frozen vegetables for me to fix to go along with the steak and gravy she has in the oven.  It worked out great for all of us as we never have to worry about leftovers or making too much.  I take her to the store and she has been known to pay me back with some of the “Buy 1 Get 1” offers she comes across.  Last weekend, I made a meatloaf and took her over a healthy slice….

My best buy this week was a 20 pound turkey…for $2.80!  Whenever possible, I use coupons or special buys.  The turkey was a special buy with an additional $10 purchase…(Who goes to the store and doesn’t spend $10??  I even have coupons for the craft and fabric stores….40% of any one item, 10% off entire purchase….

So I haven’t forgotten my friends.  And I am not trying to ignore anyone….I am just trying to keep my mind and my hands busy to keep from missing my grandchildren.  Tomorrow is the Football banquet.  I have to make a dish, finish a project for the assistant coaches (A photo collage), and give the book I created on-line to my grandson…(a birthday present I have made for him for the past 4 years)….even though he has not talked to me in over 1 month.  I was shocked when I finished the book one day, paid for it the next and received an e-mail confirming it was completed and shipped the same day!!  I hope he likes it.

Love and Hugs to all my wonderful friends!