Busted!

Caught ya! Elvis is a handful of trouble looking for a place to happen.

Earth Day

Everyday should be Earth Day.

Monday Madness

Last week's insanity is this Monday's madness. In other words...more of the same.

Insurance adjuster,



contractor's for repairs on the workshop siding, the swim pool equipment, the workshop AC, the fence....

and the unending telephone calls...from me/husband and for me/husband. Down with telephones!



I'm cranky and my blood pressure is soaring to new heights. And I'm even more behind on deadlines then ever. My solution?



Knit a sock. Hopefully I'll be less behind by the end of the week. ;)

Feeling blessed this Easter

It could have been worse. About an hour before we were evacuated, I took this picture from the west side of our backyard looking southwest.


The northeast wind was driving the flames directly at us. Sometime during that hour or just afterward, the winds shifted from northeast to east just enough to keep our property from looking like this



which is an aerial photo of what was a neighbor's house and driveway - just up the street from us. See the pick-up in the lower right of the photo? A 40 foot camper was attached and now unrecognizable. That is one of several homes that were destroyed in our neighborhood.

What happened to our property:


the forest at the rear (north side) of the property burned and fire traveled into the yard around the swim pool


and up to the gazebo. But since it was surrounded by cement and rock landscaping, it didn't make to the backside of the house.

Fire continued traveling east along the fence line, burning grass and melting the siding of the detached workshop but never burning the wood part of the structure (very blessed). The only real damage done was to the swim pool pump that was housed at the rear of the workshop.






It continued to the east destroying the wood fence along the side of the workshop and into this neighbor's yard. Small amount of damage to his home - he is blessed also.

The west side of our house was similarly lucky.


The neighbor on the west side lost utility shed, storage building, and wood fencing. But their house was spared.


The flames on the west side went through the yard and into the front missing the storage building we have on that side.

I am thanking our Guardian Angels today. And the previous owners for surrounding the house with cement - dual driveways (one on east and one on west side), cement surrounded swim pool and gazebo, sidewalks connecting everything. I think that between the shift of winds, the cement, and the grace of God, we were spared.

Happy and Blessed Easter.

Midwest City/Choctaw wildfire

I thought I had left wildfires behind after moving from California to Oklahoma. Nope. Yesterday afternoon brought another evacuation from our home and a night of wondering if we would have a home to come back to.

The high winds blew this fire through Midwest City and Choctaw so quickly that it was an huge effort just to get people out before the flames took over. My heartfelt thank you to the Emergency Crews who drove through this area with their bullhorns, and knocked on doors to get everyone out. Seriously, it was close. I saw flames in yards at the entrance/exit to our little community as I drove our RV out with daughter and dogs safely inside (husband was at work).

We were allowed back in this morning. Thankfully our home is safe but we are surrounded by devastation. Many homes in our little rural neighborhood have burned - nothing left. Almost all of the remaining have damage to the house, the outbuildings and/or lawns. We have some damage to our detached workshop and the pool equipment, lawn, and storage building. The lawn burned up to 5 feet from the house. It was that close.

The woods surrounding us have burned including damage to this water tower.
Our Guardian Angel(s) must have been hard at work looking out for us.

I have many emails from friends and I will answer each one after I've recovered from the shock. This one was a little too close. But I did want to let everyone know we are fine and are not homeless.

Loom Knitter's Circle

Spring 2009 issue is live with Karen's beautiful gloves on front cover. Beautiful!

Wishing

Tonight I am wishing I lived closer to New York.



The story is here (along with other pictures like this on....which I borrowed)

New Knifty Knitter pattern - Cap Cozy

Instead of knitting the new projects I have going, I decided I would spend the afternoon putting some energy into getting the website updated with another one of the designs I did last fall/winter. Here is Cap Cozy.


You can read about it here. My husband is a baseball cap wearer so this one was designed with him in mind.


As always, if you have any questions let me know. Thanks!

Just knittin'

Nothing exciting around here...just knittin' - on the loom and the needles. Hope to have some pictures to show as soon as I get the pictures downloaded. (lazy)

I plan to cast on for a Sensational Socks book KAL on Ravelry...trying to pacify sock knitting addiction (maybe it will help me to keep my hands out of the chocolate).

For fun -

In pursuing a friend's blog, I saw this blogthing. While I'm not always up at sunrise (ok, rarely), the remaining description is fairly accurate IMO. I do love life as it is since I'm really lucky to have the family and friends that I have. They are really tolerate of me (lol that's lucky!!)

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Family Sunday

Lovely day spent in the company of my two most favorite people - husband and daughter. We enjoyed an afternoon movie -




- Monsters Vs Aliens. Yes, we are kids-at-heart but still weren't the only adult-types in the audience without "little people" in tow.

After the movie, we had a scrumptious meal at Zio's Italian Kitchen in Bricktown (downtown Oklahoma City). Delectable Artichoke Spinach Dip and a Caesar salad - yum!

Must do again soon.

Making stitch markers

What a great idea! I never thought of using lever back earring wires...



...to make beaded stitch markers that can do the job of these...




Find the instructions here.

Tempting

No secret that I love knitting socks. So I'm surprised that I missed knowing about the Socks A La Carte book. (Must have been the move, the settling-in, and the broken ankle.)

I do know that it looks very interesting as the pages flip so that you basically are creating your own pattern. Sounds similar to Sensational Socks books but with pictures as you can create a visual to see how a cuff, body design, heel, etc., will look when put together.

Is it a good book? No idea. But I am tempted to find out!

If you have an opinion, let me know.

Happy Pi Day

Today is Pi Day.

Math geeks celebrate this...




Needle knitter's think of this...



...and Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl.

Loom knitter's might think of this Pi...



...found in this book. Hey, I had to mention it since it's my design. ;)

And I also have to mention my husband's favorite Pi saying...


I'm planning to celebrate by knitting since I'm feeling so much better.

Peacock's Best Vest

Daughter and I are still sick with bronchitis (pause for a moment of self pity). Between the lack of oxygen to brain and the medications to get well, I have no brain power for anything beyond the necessities. So all designing is at a halt including a proposal I had hoped to have done by now. Oh well (cough, sniffle) However I manage to browse internet looking at patterns for projects I would like to do.

Peacock's Best Vest from SWTC has caught my eye BIG time! Seriously LOVE it. Go look! I'll wait. ;)

But I don't love 19 skeins X $12.60. Maybe I'll browse for alternatives when feeling better. Let me know if you have suggestions.

(cough, cough)
___________________________________________

ETA (10 min later) - I have no will power. Have purchased the pattern. Will concern myself with the yarn when I'm feeling better.

"Stand Back, I'm Going to Sneeze"

One of my favorite books for children, use to read it to my daughter when she was little, and so appropriate for my household right now.

Family has been sneezing and wheezing for over a month. No one is sick at the same time but we do seem to be passing it around (like the game "hot potato").

Actually doctor says it's not a germ but the allergens in the area. Having lived in the high desert of Southern California for over 15 years, we're having to get use to new types of blooming plants here in Oklahoma. The cottonwood seems to be the main problem right now.

Whatever. We're sick and on medicines.

I wonder if knitted handkerchiefs are practical?

Wordless Wednesday (equation)

+

=

More on beading

Bead Therapy Bangle is now available for download here. I haven't edited the website to include it yet but will as soon as I find the html software (it's always something).

And speaking of beading, I just received an email that this book will be available in May -



I love weaving with beads and this one is 3D loom weaving. Very exciting as I love creating 3D beadwork.

A couple of my 3D creations -

Bead woven using mostly peyote stitch.

Beaded on weaving loom with 3D leaves.

Bead Therapy

So much knitting leaves little time for beading. But I needed a few minutes of bead therapy. Here is the results



A simple bangle, loom knitted with left over cashmere yarn.

I plan to upload this as a free pattern as soon as I get the new computer set up with the software I need to make it into a pdf file. That's the only problem with having a new computer.



But at least I don't have to share now. hehe

Signs of spring

As Bill Engvall would say, here's your sign....





The wasp picture was borrowed from the web. I never intentionally get that close to a stinger.

Yarn sale

JoAnn is having a 30% off yarn sale with free shipping (over $25). So I thought I would spend a few minutes browsing. Each time I click on a yarn, I get an error.



Hey yarn-aholics! Save something for me!!