Turn Turn, Turn

Even after all these years of retirement, Labor Day weekend and the beginning of the school year seem like a new beginning.

Can you think back to that delusion you had that once you didn't have to gear up for another school year (as a student), that life was going to be really easy?  My goodness, that seems like a long time ago!

From grade school to the awfulness of Middle School, and then the pressures of High School.  I'm sure that's harder now than when I was in High School.  Even though I went to class and worked as a waitress in a truck stop after school.  (I'm sure I didn't work every night----though it seemed like it.)

In nurses' training we were up at six a.m., worked on the wards until after the morning coffee break, then we had classes until three p.m.---after which I used to collapse in bed and sleep through supper.  Then we had enforced study hours until nine, and we had to be back in the residence by ten.

That doesn't leave much time for a social life.  I don't think the enforced study hours lasted much longer past our class.  I can't imagine that kids in the next few years buckled under to that.  In order to try to have a greater percentage of the class make it past the first six months, they tried to help us have good study habits.

Now when I look back on the busy-ness of having five kids and two of us parents with jobs, and kids playing sports in a town twelve miles from our house, I think we must have had a lot of stamina.  All of us.

I have finally settled into a life style that matches my energy level.  Retirement suits me well.  Though today I read about a woman who took up body building when she was 71.  

Hmm.

Of Knitting

This is the photograph that appears with the pattern for "Hitchhiker" on Ravelry, which is a website devoted to works of yarny goodness. There are spinners, knitters, crocheters, independent designers, and all manner of patterns, both for purchase and for free.

I bought this pattern and two beautiful skeins of alpaca lace yarn, to give myself a Real Treat after I'd lost 35 pounds.

This is as opposed to baking the biggest pan of brownies in the free world.  It was a tough choice, but I'll have to learn sometime!

But I digress.  I suppose you can guess, even if you are a non-knitter, that knitting with yarn the diameter of a spider web, with needles that a very small makes for a time-consuming project.  But, it's summer and who wants an afghan on their lap, right?

This is the progress on mine.  My yarn is getting used up, since the rows are long now, so the end is in sight, as they say.

If you were here in the days of Good Guy's sweater, you'll think I'm hung up on this cranberry color--and you would be right.  I have a jacket that color too.  My new jacket is green though, so perhaps there will be a change.

Can you see the diameter of that yarn?  It is so fine, and so soft you would never believe it!

I love working with it.  When I bought it, I thought I'd made something really lacy with it, but I chickened out.  Wait for the next project.  That will be really lacy.  I had a close-up picture of the texture and yarn on here once, but blogger decided it wasn't necessary for you to see that.  Oops, it's back.

In other news, the surgeon will make short work of my gall bladder problems next week on Thursday.  At least that is my ardent prayer and hope.

Good Guy and I grabbed for the gusto on the last hot day we had and went for a swim in a actual lake.  We are in Michigan where, it is said, you are never far from a lake, river, or stream.  I wasn't worried about the getting into the lake part.  It was the getting into the swimsuit part that worried me.  (There will not be any pictures of that.  Trust me.)

With that chuckle, I will leave you for today.  Cheers!

We Love Words

The Limelighters (remember them?) had a line......"In answer to a diminishing number of requests..." which always cracked me up.

If you visit here often you know that I'd rather use words than pictures, and that photography isn't a skill of mine, but since you clamored so politely, I'll share such as I have.  This is the Words Quilt.

The largest view:

With the borders this puppy measures 92"x 92".  Winters are long here and our bedroom is about 62 degrees.  The basic pattern I used, for those who do this sort of thing and keep track, was called Olde Hickory designed by Pam Puyleart.

(Always give credit where credit is due.)  I needed something I could adapt to use the large funny cartoon pieces that I wanted to showcase.

This would have gone quickly if I had just followed Pam's excellent directions, but I needed to work in the word panels, so that caused some delays and extra fiddling.

There are fabrics with coffee words, and the language of flowers, quilting words, and these animal cartoons and sayings.  My favorite is a quotation from Groucho Marx, who said, "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.  Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."   I can't get this layout to do what I want it to do, so I will leave it at that.  (Knitting pictures later----by next week.)

Have a great weekend!

Friday

I have decided that I have a limited amount of creative energy.  Therefore when I am quilting, sewing, knitting and gardening, I have no time to blog.Therefore I am appearing here briefly to leave a fragmented message of sorts, link up to Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin' Time's Friday Fragments, say hi to all my Friday Buds, and get back to my busy work.

Not much is happening with my little library.  I wrote up a flyer to carry around to the neighbors and to encourage their participation---as soon as I can find the time, and overcome my extreme shyness.  (Oh stop that foolish laughing!  I might be shy!)

I have completed the WORDS quilt top.  It is enormous and I have bought 3 yards of 104" wide fabric for the backing.  I need to rent a hall to get the layers together, I guess.  I have no table space or floor space free that is large enough to get this done.  I'll post a picture over the weekend.

It looks okay from a distance, but the real charm is to view it up close, because so many of the fabrics have words, jokes, proverbs, etc. printed on them.  It is also very personal since it has our own preferences imprinted upon it.

I signed up for Knitspot's Fall in Full Color club, in which after joining and paying the membership costs, a knitter is provided with beautiful handspun, hand-dyed yarn and a beautiful pattern (which in my case, will expand my learning).  So I have spent lots of time trying out the pattern on other yarn, so I know what I'm doing.

This has taken considerable time.  Enough said.

Also on the needles is another project in lace weight yarn on size 1 needles.  I am making progress, but it takes about 10 rows to make an inch, and there must be 200 stitches on the needles by now.  Slow going.  I'm not starting the project above until this is done.

And, lastly, I am piecing a Triangle quilt of all my brown, beige, tan, gold, yellow and natural muslin scraps.  (No new fabric.)  This sounds like it should be a "stash-buster", doesn't it?
Alas, the more scraps you use, the more scraps you have.  It's like some of the salads you order when eating out, where you eat steadily for 20 minutes and have only eaten 1/3 of the salad.

When I informed my quilting buddies of this project, they all chuckled indulgently.  Silly old Annie!

So that's about all I can dredge up.  (I see the surgeon on Monday.  I'm feeling fine.)

The Great New Addition

This photograph was taken this very afternoon when my favorite contractor put the Little Free Library on its pole and stand.

I think you may have gathered from previous grumbling, that we have limited handy person skills here.

On the other hand, this dear man was happy to build my little building, make it waterproof, weatherproof, attractive, sturdy and he did it all quickly.

These tasks remain to be done.  I need to move the pile of dirt and stones which Good Guy dug up to make a hole for the 4x4 and the cement.  I need to print and distribute the letter I drafted to invite my neighbors to borrow books, for we are eager to share.  And I need to choose books to put into the box.  That part sounds like the most fun.

So Little Free Library, Number 2588 is almost up and running.  We are pretty excited!

These Critters are The Contractor's animal companions.  They would dearly love to be out of the car licking his ears while he secured the house to the stand.  Meet Fritz and Suzette.  Suzette, the older black poodle, is quite a proper, fun-loving dog.  But TC says that Fritz is fun impaired.  He won't chase a frisbee, but he runs around because Suzette does.  Perhaps he'll learn as he goes.

Thanks for all your concern and good wishes.  I am feeling fine as long as I avoid fats.  It's pretty easy when you know it makes you feel uncomfortable.

So now I'd better get at my librarian duties.  Come back soon and borrow a book!

Fragging

Hi all y'all.  These fragments are gathered by me, and linked to Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin Time, as usual, as she hosts Friday Fragments once again.  I hope.

This week has been more eventful and fragmented than usual. In that....

1.  I spent 48 plus hours hospitalized to Rule Out a heart attack.  It was more likely a gall bladder attack--and it proved that it's easy to over react when you are unaccustomed to pain.  My symptoms had our local heart specialist declaring me "a puzzling case".   (Lesson learned, I can't handle an outing that includes a cheesy, cheesy pizza.)

2.  I had to get out of the hospital in time for a crown prep at my dentist's office first thing on Monday morning.  Some choice, huh?  The primary pain will be to my bank account, I suspect.

3.  Tuesday I saw my own doctor, which made me feel MUCH better.  Funny how that works.

4.  Wednesday I was grateful and happy to spend a day with my sisters, brothers-in-law, nephews, and their families.  The Photographer and Grandsons were on hand too, camping on the shores of Lake Superior.  It was a lovely, cool, breezy day and it was so pleasant to catch up with their lives.

I spend time with my sisters pretty regularly but it's rare to have all the kids together, too.  We all loved it.  Daisy Dog loves it up there in the sand.  Dig, dig, dig, all day long.

5.  I had a nice loss today at Weight Watchers, as a result of my malady.  I knew I was really in the hospital, that it wasn't just a bad dream, when the tray showed up with green jello on it.  I said that to the nutrition department employee when my tray came, and she busted out laughing.

6.  And last, but not least, I read a really fine book this week by Carol O'Connell called The Chalk Girl.  She writes the most delicious characters, even the minor characters.  

That will have to do for this week.  It was most unpleasant brooding about how I felt.  I felt like that person in the quotation, "A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package."  

Have a great weekend.  I can't wait to see what you've swept together.

Friday Dribs and Drabs

I'm late, I'm late, not because I have so much to share.  Rather I miss you all when I don't take part in Mrs. 4444's Friday Fragments clambake.  If you don't already join up, here's the place.

1.  My granddog, Maggie, became injured on her walk a week ago Monday.  She was lacerated badly enough to require a trip to the vet and a number of stitches on her torso.  Since she could reach them with her tongue and teeth, she also needed to wear a t-shirt to keep her from worrying it all day long.

This morning I got the message that they wouldn't need to return to the doctor to remove the stitches because Maggie took care of that herself today.  Busy, busy.

2.  I have been berating myself for leaving my car windows open during our biggest rainstorm of the summer.  I hadn't been able to close or open any windows except the driver's side front window.
Good Guy (my hero) fixed it by pressing the window lock button.  (Slaps forehead!!)

That reminds me of the quotation---We already have enough youth, what we need is a fountain of Smart!

3. Do you think it's culture shock to the beach volleyball players to be playing at night in the chill and damp of London?

4.  This weekend marks yet another reunion this summer.  Good Guy's dad was part of a large family and one of his uncles also had a large family.  Many of these fine folks will be together at an enormous feed, game, visiting opportunity and we are hoping for excellent weather.  I have only heard about some of these folks, and I'm looking forward to meeting them in person.  (Now I wish I'd done my memory calisthenics!)

5.  I finally finished my WORDS quilt top and I'm looking forward to having it out of my workroom.  It is bigger than 90"x90".  I couldn't do much with it in my small space and had to move my operation out into the living room.  That speeded things up, because I couldn't leave a mess in there.  (Company's coming, so the factory had to go back into it's usual quarters.)

6.  My Little Free Library is almost all built.  (I hired a guy who is having fun doing it.)  More about that when the installation is completed.

7.  Our harvest has begun with my favorites all represented.  I made a meal out of salad and cooked green beans last night.  Good Guy opted for leftovers, of which there was a good selection.

That's all folks.  Have a great weekend, and I look forward to reading your entries.  Don't you love Mrs. 4444's puppy???