hand eye crafts

As some of you know, we have been dealing, and are continuing to deal, with some very serious issues in our family.  Since this is a "public" space, and I am not the only person involved, I won't go into exactly what is happening, for the sake of privacy.  But blogging is likely to be sporadic for a bit. Still, I have promised monthly reviews of products from  Chewy.com , so, here we go for April: This is Nature's Miracle Just for Cats Odor and Stain Remover.  For the very, very most part, my cats don't abandon their litter boxes.  But there have been accidents, and I wanted to see what this would do.  It is formulated for both floor and carpet, and I tried it on both.  It did a bang-up job of removing some spots on the kitchen floor: there was no sign of the "misses" when I was done.  On carpet, it worked very well on odor, but not so much the stain.  Fortunately, I'm talking about only a small spot on my hallway carpet, so the st...

Your next Blankapalooza square should be THE COLOR OF YOUR BIRTHSTONE:

The wrap I've been test-knitting was claimed as a bed by one of the cats overnight.  (Rupert is in the clear, because he doesn't take the time to claw and tangle and wreck stitches like a cat.)   The guilty feline made herself quite a little nest of what was becoming, very quickly, this: The Piret Scarf , by my friend Kelli Slack.  Although I can't be sure, the yarn in this photo looks very much like the yarn I am/was using.  It vary subtly shades from grey through pewter to a silver, and they all sort of glisten, due to the tencel in the yarn.  I was enjoying making this, as there are written instructions --- I'm hopeless with charts. I did that thing where you start unravelling very carefully, thinking, "Maybe I can save this," then move into, "I should be able to pick it up somewhere in here," to just all-out ripping .  And, maybe cursing.  There may have been cursing. Thankfully, I have both an easy  hat  and a  fa...

This ToT is right in my wheelhouse, and looking at my friends' lists has been so  much fun!  We've been asked to list ten of the albums we can listen to start to finish.  No skipping songs allowed. 1.   Main Course  --- Bee Gees My be-all and end-all album. 2.   Go For Broke  --- Ian Matthews I had never heard of him, but read a review of this album in Rolling Stone , and wanted to give it a chance.  I've gotten everything he's made since. 3.   Keeper of the Flame  --- Delbert McClinton Ah, Delbert.  You couln't have gotten any closer to perfection. 4.   Here at Last, Bee Gees Live 'Cause it's the Bee Gees.  And they're live. 5.   Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town --- Emmylou Harris Some of her best vocal work on some genius lyrics. 6.   Graceland  --- Paul Simon The beats are good, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo a wonder, but the words to the songs are absolutely re...

1. What's the most you would pay for a skein of sock yarn?  Twenty dollars.  I like socks knit out of baby yarn just as well, and it is so much cheaper and longer-wearing. 2. What part of a pattern intimidates you?  Any pattern that is charted only, I go right past.  Can't do the chart thing, which is peculiar, considering all those years I did counted cross-stitch from charts. . . 3. What is the most delicious thing you have eaten lately? A Granny Smith apple with honey peanut butter. 4. If you had the grave misfortune of being in a fire, would you grab your stash or your FO's? FOs.  They all have stories.  Things in the stash haven't happened yet. 5. What is a big compromise in one of your relationships? (sshhhhh you can tell us!)  Whenever my best friend, Lisa, and I go somewhere, whoever drives gives up the right to choose music to the passenger. 6. Do you bathe your pets? Only Rupert. 7. Have you ever been bi...

David Letterman used to say that he "wouldn't give [his] problems to a monkey on a rock." The things going on in my life right now would have me knocking that monkey off that flippin' rock so fast, he wouldn't know what hit him.

Big day in Athens.  It's G-Day (Spring scrimmage game), and Rosanne Cash is playing in town tonight, to which I have tickets.  As a matter of fact, the starting time for her show was moved, in order for the crush of football traffic to get gone.  (She's playing in a music hall on campus.)  Worth the wait.

And the color of yarn you should use is one that MATCHES YOUR MOOD TODAY. If you don't have your own idea about what to work, this website can help.  Remember mood rings? https://www.bestmoodrings.com/blog/mood-ring-color-chart-meanings I, personally, am somewhere between orange and peridot green, according to that page. This might help, too:

Know who's a great-looking guy?  Mark Harmon. The three colors of Lorna's Laces  I found?  "Aqua," "Dusk," and "Sage."  I don't see the latter two on the website.  "Dusk" is a grey denim blue.  "Sage" is a silver green. Did I tell you I'm test-knitting a shawl for a designer friend?  I'm not sure how "secret" things are supposed to be, but I'll wait a while to let you in on it.  I wound the yarn today --- it's tencel, which I've never knit with before, so it's an adventure all the way around. Know who's a great-looking guy?  Nicolaj Coster-Waldau.  Good-ness --- look at that forearm and hand. Are all of you clear of the weird/unpleasant/dangerous weather now?  We've gotten a little rain tonight, after forecasts that called for significant rain Monday and yesterday. Camille, you wanted to see the gnomes? Left to right, you have Gnadine, Gnora and Gneville. And m...

I keep my cotton yarn in a wicker laundry basket.  When I was making all those dog toys, it was easier to have everything handy.  I dove into the basket this weekend to start on a wedding gift of dishcloths, towels, oven mitts, etc., and in the basket was (other than all the cotton): 3 baby hats --- which will be going to  Pine Ridge , 1 baby bib, which will also be heading that way, 3 of my little gnomes --- coincidentally, I've been wanting to make some more of them lately, 3 skeins of Lorna's Laces, obviously bought to make a tri-colored . . . something. Oh, and there was also a pencil. It made me feel accomplished, seeing things that I had made some amount of time ago.  Something I finished more recently --- yesterday, to be exact --- is the hat for Harry's Hundred I showed here the other day.  Another scarf will probably be next.  Or socks.  There are rumblings inside my Knitting Mind that are definitely pro-sock. A wee bit c...

I've started another hat for  Harry's Hundred , using sock yarn.  Casting on, and working the very first rows, this caught my eye: STOP one color, START the next.  Usually the colors sort of flow into one another, right?  Nope --- "We're tired of the navy.  Start another color immediately." And might I say (this could easily have gone in yesterday's post) that ribbing with sock yarn on #3 needles is incredibly boring.  It was 2 x 2;  1 x 1 would have had me snapping the needles in half.  In fact, I didn't even make the ribbing as deep as it was supposed to be, because it was getting very trying. This is my life.  I have been in this house for five straight days, because there has been no energy or reason to go out. Today, I dragged myself to the shower, put on make-up (!) and headed out before there was time to think twice about it.  And my car wouldn't start.  

. . .Nearing completion of a project with a yarn that I am thoroughly enjoying, but I have no idea what it is.  It was bought at a LYS now out of business, and wound by them, but there are no labels in the wound skeins.  Don't people always put the labels in the wound skeins?  I want more and more of this yarn, but have no idea what it is! . . .Was so stressed out by the oncoming season finale of "The Walking Dead" last week that I had to take extra anxiety medicine Sunday night.  Then they (the writers and producers) completely and totally LET.  ME.  DOWN. Jeffrey Dean Morgan didn't let me down.  He was perfect.  But, writers and producers, really ?

I'm glad Kathy provides Monday memes.  This week's  Ten on Tuesday  was going to be a difficult task for me. *Do you Listen to  or watch any Knit Podcasts? No.  The only podcasts I've listened to are "Nightvale" and Ice T's "Final Level." * Do you purchase pattern books now that you have Ravelry? Not too many, but not because of Ravelry.  If I find a book that has enough pretty patterns to justify its price, I'll buy it.   *Do you have a photo of yourself knitting?  Several, actually.  My favorite shows me sitting in my Daddy's chair. *Do you have a photo of a relative who has passed knitting or crocheting?  It seems like there's one of my Grandma knitting, but I couldn't lay my hands on it right now. *What is your favorite two color combination? Black and gold. *Have you ever had an injury that prevented you from knitting? Sadly, yes.  My dog Finn attacked me last year, causing loss of sensa...

Oh my goodness, I didn't publish this after I put it together.  SO sorry. THE COLOR YOUR FAVORITE SONG BRINGS TO MIND (Personally, this color is easy for me to think about, but may prove difficult to find amid my yarn.) Happy Palooza-ing!

Before I had children, I carried purses.  Then came years of carrying diaper bags, and I just put any of my necessities in with the babies'.  That led to becoming accustomed to not carrying anything but my billfold and my keys. When Briton's cat got sick, and I was making fairly regular nursing trips to his house, I put together a tote bag with knitting, a book to read --- things to pass the time.  It's a "Knit Happy" bag, which was very graciously given to me by  Kathy : In it are my knitting for this: The 4-Way Vest from Patternfish,  and this book: There's a bottle of water, and I usually throw in a cold can of Dr Pepper.  My iPod, paper, pen, lip stick/balm, napkins, hand cream, something for headaches, and my phone and billfold if necessary. What's in your  Go Bag?