Never a Dull Moment!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  We went to Anna's for dinner today. It was fun for all of us to be together for dinner. We are a very thankful family this year.  For one, we have a new son-in -law and for two, we have a new baby in the family. For three, God protected my husband(Jeff, The UPS Store guy), our employees and our customers, from certain harm.

On Monday, I called to warn The UPS Store guy about a heavy rain storm headed his way and I hear him say, "I can't worry about that right now, a customer just drove through the front window." I said, "Are you kidding or serious?"  You see, if you knew us personally, you would know that we love to laugh and have fun and tease each other.  Well, he was absolutely serious.  :\  However, no one was injured, a miracle!

Since I was at Anna's helping out, and he said that he had it under control, I waited until the next morning to go and see him.  Here is what I found. The green car is the culprit, that turned our UPS Store into an open air market store. If you look closely you will see that the window is gone from the front of the store, and so is the door. The UPS Store guy is standing where the door and windows were.

This picture, below, was taken right after the accident.  The car is still in the store.  I am glad that I saw The UPS Store guy, before I saw this picture!  Geez. She hit the copiers, the cards and card racks and we lost 2 counters/cabinets and some other things. All can and are being fixed and replaced.

The local fire department had to come and get the electricity turned off, so the car could be removed.  Seems she pulled some wires in with her from the signs on the window. The the brave firemen, turned on her car and backed it out.

This picture, below, is one I took on Tuesday, the day after.  The window/door man's tools are there. He has since replaced the door, but we are waiting on some windows.  You can see the broken copiers and the UPS Store guy waving in the background.  Yep, we were open for business. 



So, you see, I have a lot to be thankful to God for this year, and that is just in the last week. Some repairs are being done now and some will be done in January, after all the Christmas presents are shipped.

If you are curious, like me, I was told that she wasn't on her cell phone or texting on her phone. She thought she hit the brake, but the car revved and in she crashed.

He's Here! and some projects too.

What joy! A new little life has entered our family. Here he is with his beautiful and happy mom, our daughter. 

Here he is with his handsome and kind dad, our son-in-law.

Here he is with his beautiful and happy aunt, our older daughter.

What fun to have a new little baby around. We are all very excited and so are his cousins, gramma and grampa. Will get some pictures of his open eyes soon.  :)

On the project side. I have made another Queen Anne's Lace scarf.  These are so fun! When done you have a gorgeous piece of lace and it really isn't a hard pattern. Same 3 step repeat over and over. About 200 yards and a J size hook made this one. I used Snowflake yarn from Hobby Lobby.

Don't think I showed you this either. I made this shawl this summer on my trip with our older daughter to NY. I used my Take 2 shawl pattern and my handspun merino yarn to make it. The merino used is called Snapdragon and from Ashland Bay.

Queen Anne's lace and it is almost Baby Time!

I have shared a lot of what I have been knitting for our new grandson. Here is a sweater that I designed and knitted for him.  I used a very soft wool for this sweater and made it to fit, so that he will probably be able to wear it as a coat all through winter, until March.

My friend, Laurie, called me a couple of weeks ago and told me about a great scarf pattern that she found. Hmmm, crocheted, too. So, I looked it up and printed out the pattern, but didn't go much further than that.  It was and is very pretty, but I am test knitting several of my patterns right now and trying hard to finish them. 

Wednesday arrived and Laurie showed her scarves for show-n-tell and I was hooked!  (Pun intended)  :)

I came home and searched through my stash of yarns, and decided to use some handspun yarn for my Queen Anne's lace scarf.  I love this scarf.  Making it is so much fun, too.

I used every bit of the ball of yarn that I had. My scarf isn't a real long scarf, but it is a great length and I will wear this. AND more are in the works, too.  If you want to make this scarf, here is the link to the pattern.

My yarn was a bulky weight and I used a size K (US) crochet hook for it.

Time Flies!

Wow! It is November already!  It feels like I just posted about our extreme heat.  Fall has pretty much arrived in north Texas, thankfully. But, it is still fairly dry here and we still need rain.

A couple of weeks ago, I had our younger granddaughter over and we made some cut out cookies together.  I let her have a free hand at decorating the cookies, encouraging her artful self ,and we had some wonderful cookies to look at and to eat. It truly was a fun time!!! When I took her home, she was able to take half of the cookies home to share with her sister and parents. :)

I have two large plastic boxes filled with felted sweaters.  Felting sweater is habit forming. Once you start felting your thrift store finds and realizing the great fabric that you have, you want to go and get more and felt more. :)
If you have never felted a wool sweater, here is how I do it.  First, I have a top loading machine.
-I set it on the longest wash and hot water.  Set the level of water appropriate for the size load that you have.  If my sweater is all alone, I will put a t-shirt in with it. Be careful and put only similar colors together.
-Fill washer, with hot water and put in your normal amount of laundry soap.
-Check the sweater, about every 10 minutes, before the hot water drains.  If it isn't felted enough at the end of the wash cycle, reset the cycle and agitate again.
-When sweater is felted as you want it, let the washer finish rinsing and spinning.  I use a cold water rinse. Shocking the wool, with cold water helps it felt a bit more.
-When washer is finished, you can air dry your sweater, BUT I like to place it in the dryer for a short drying cycle. Make sure that you clean your dryer filter when done.
-After the sweater is dry, cut it apart at the seams, so that you now have fabric.
Hints: Use only wool or animal fiber sweaters. Cotton, or other plant fibers, and acrylic(man-made fibers) will NOT felt.  You do need to use only wool or other animal fibers; ex. cashmere, angora, mohair.

So, I cut up several co-ordinating sweaters and then sewed the squares together to make a scarf.  Then I used one of the sweaters and made some hand warmers.  I crocheted a lace edging on the hand warmers, and did a simple machine stitch around the scarf. The scarf is made from wool, cashmere and angora. The handwarmers are from a wool/angora sweater.  Soooo, very soft.

 The set is for sale in my etsy shop.

In July, I decided to write a new pattern. I thought that I would get it done quickly, but no.  I have knitted it several times and have had it tested.  After receiving the tester's notes, I decided to put some more work into the pattern.  I love that my tester is honest with me.  :)  Originally, the pattern was for fingering/sport weight cotton. Now I have been using wool sock weight yarn and wool worsted weight yarn. When this pattern is done, there will be many variations that will work .

This one is knitted from cotton sport-weight yarn.

This is the same scarf, stretched out lengthwise.

It, too, is for sale in my etsy shop.