hand eye crafts

Yesterday's Winners: Sean Bean, Samantha Bee (by one vote), and the Fillionettes turned out to move Nathan on to Round Two! Today's Contestants: Pair Twenty-Two Pair Twenty-Three Pair Twenty-Four Pair Twenty-Five

One of the members of my knitting group has offered to teach me to crochet.  Specifically, to crochet Granny Squares, as I'd like to make an afghan that is one huge square.  But then, today on facebook, one of my friends posted this photo: Isn't that pretty?  If I get the hang of the Granny Square thing, I just may have to make one of these, too. The group met last night, and I passed out donated worsted to everyone, asking them to make 6" squares that we could put together for an afghan or lap blanket.  And it was decided that, at our next meeting, everyone will cast on socks.  I was flabbergasted to find out that hardly any of them have ever made socks before.  My experience with knitters has always been that socks are a regular go-to project.  Everyone but me will be knitting them in the round, unless I brush the rust off my two circulars skills. The people are at Mama and Daddy's house, preparing for the estate sale.  It still loo...

All the for sale items have been left for the estate folks to deal with.  All the not for sale items have either been clearly marked or placed in rooms/closets where no one will be allowed to go. Easiest room to do --- Daddy's.  All the furniture is staying, his closet has been mostly cleaned out for a while. Hardest room to do --- Mama's.   Too many items, too many difficult decisions, too many memories. Funnest room --- Briton's.  It's where all the toys have always been kept.  I had the best time going through every single thing and remembering how attached he and Hannah were to a lot of them. Weirdest lack of feeling --- Closing the door as I left, knowing I was looking at all those things for the last time, and not being weepy about it.  Things I've had around me all my life, and I was able to leave without doubting myself.  Quite shocked that that happened.

Hebetude.  Lassitude.  They've all settled in at Chez Dean, and the animals and I are helpless to take up arms against them.  We're all just rather lying about, shuffling from room to room only when absolutely necessary. And yet, despite the torpor, I finished the other "beach" sock, wrapped up a Noro scarf I had also been working on at the beach, and finished Gentlemen and Players  (which contained quite a twist, let me tell you.)  I'll be casting on a dishcloth at some point today, and have already begun the "I" book: John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany , which I began once, but did not finish.

I saw two things I'd never seen before: In South Carolina, female  prisoners on highway-side trash pick-up and in Georgia, a turkey in flight.  Right in front of my car.

1.  Why does ribbing take so blasted long to finish? 2.  And why do designers call for twisted rib, when you can rarely tell the difference anyway?` 3.  My girl crushes are Olivia Wilde, Sara Hess, Rachel Maddow and Rashida Jones. 4.  Why is the saying that money doesn't grow on trees?  Why not stalks?  Or stems?  Or directly out of the ground? 5.  I should start a list of the song that are in my head when I wake up each day.  Thursday, it was "Wanted, Dead or Alive."  Yesterday, "Another Saturday Night."  Today, "Horse With No Name." 6.  Still, if I have a free moment and don't have anything pressing to do, I think, "I'll call Mama." 7.  Knitting is still a chore --- I'll start a project, think things are going fine, and then find a mistake serious enough that makes me want to unravel the whole thing.  And start something else. 8.  Repeat #7. 9.  The only thing I've finished in several months is a simp...