What A Suprise!!

Friday night I was in my apartment relaxing, having a glass of wine and reading my book. Pretty laid back for being on call. I was expecting a very boring night and weekend. Oh but then my cell phone rings. Unusual in itself but even more unusual when I hear DS's voice. He says "I've got bad news" "Guess where I am?" What is a person to think so I said-"In jail?" or "In the hospital?" Luckily my first instincts were not correct. I never could have guessed in a million years. He was in Dallas where he had flown to see an old girl friend. They had rekindled an on-line romance or so he thought. But when he got there it was not how it was at all and the whole thing didn't feel comfortable for either of them. So she asked him to go elsewhere and of course the only persons who could rescue him was us. So Dad went down and got him and brought him home. I got to come home Sunday night and have had today with him. Dad takes him back to the Dallas airport tomorrow after I leave for work. It was a short visit but ok when they were not arguing politics at the top of their lungs.

With all the other goings-on this weekend I did not get much crafting in. I did kind of work on Maddies birthday card and bought the elastic for Katie's PJ's. But that is all the little stuff I got done. On a more productive note, I finished the body of the shawl and started with the edging. It took a couple of tries to get the hang of knitting on the border but I think I have it now. I am actually doing it a little differently but it looks good so I am happy. They had you joining the border to the body on the purl side but I like doing it better on the knit side. My only concern is that I will not have enough yarn. I am so tempted to take out 4 repeats of the main pattern which will make it 1 border repeat shorter on each side. But how can I know for sure so I am going to trust my original calculations. I wouldn't be sweating so much but this yarn is completely not available anywhere anymore for any price. So if I get to the end and it is not enough I will have to take out considerable work in order to have enough yarn for the entire border. But oh well-I have taken out major amounts of work before so why not now??Only time will tell. I have the 2 biggest balls of yarn left to try and finish the border. Any one a betting person? Maybe we can start a pool?? So far the pattern has not been that hard although it required a trip to Michael's to buy a magnetic line minder and a stand to place the pattern on. Otherwise I went blind and crazy trying to not get lost. Now it is a breeze although never something I will be able to memorize. I did start toe up socks this week and although I loved the method I will probably rip them all the way out. The Louet's sock yarn is not very generous and will not make very long socks so I think I can use the yarn for a nice baby sweater set instead. But not to be without sock yarn as I bought a new skein of Opal at Carol's Knit Studio on Saturday. Plus there is a new new sock pattern ready to be posted on June 1 on the KAL. They are calling for a solid yarn and I have several options already purchased and I just have to wait and see the pattern to see how it speaks to me.

Other than that I did a bit of reading this week. I am about 2/3 of the way thru my current book "The Fiery Cross". Lately Jamie and Claire have been spared any bodily injury and instead Son in Law Roger has been getting pummelled. So far he has been hung and lived, and then almost burnt alive. Claire and Jamie have just survived being struck by lightening and all Brie has had to do was keep the home fires burning!! Till next week then......

Look What Followed Me Home, Can I Keep Him, Huh?

Look what I found on my walk this morning!! He was crossing the street and I just had to rescue him. All those times I could not save the turtle crossing the highway but this one I could. I brought him home and placed him in the cool shade of the garden. Once I got out my camera he got much shyer and would not stick his head out of his shell. I hope he decides to stick around-I have plenty of bugs for him to eat and lots of color for him to look at in the garden. Alas I probably don't have a mate for him or her so I am sure he/she will move on.

The garden is doing well and putting on a great show. My grape tomatos are really setting well and I should have some to eat very soon. I actually harvested some fresh basil and made a great roasted tomato soup with it. I got the veggies mulched and that should really get them growing if the sun would only shine for more than a few hours a week. I am seeing some nice butterflys but still no bees. This week one of our mockingbirds attacked our sliding glass door in order to get my cats attention. I guess he bothered them just a little too much sleeping in the sun right inside the door!!

On the crafting front for the week, I completely finished the socks I started in Paducah. They were simple top down, knit5/purl1 rib out of Opal on size 0's. These are comfortable socks and it is too bad I have to wait for winter to wear them for the first time. Things that worked well on this pair is casting on with long tail over size 2 needles then switching to 0's to start knitting. That I will definitely do again. I also knit alot (and I do mean alot) on the lace shawl. I only have 5 repeats to do to be ready to do the edging. I will take it with me to OKC this week to work on over my call weekend. I figure the quiet of my apartment is the perfect place to start the complicated part of this project.

I was just waiting to be done with the Paducah socks so I could cast for more socks with the yarn that I bought while in Paducah. This is Louet hand dyed sock yarn in a springy colorway. Even tho it is 50g it does not seem like a very generous yarn so I felt like I just had to do top up socks for the 1st time. I sifted thru some web sites I had saved on the web trying to find a set of instructions for toe up socks that I liked. I finally settled on the Sherman toe/heel toe up sock. I followed the instructions to a T and after several tries I mastered the steps. I muddled thru and knit thru to where the sock is finally on all 4 needles. I was not happy with how pointy this toe style was so I am going to frog and look for another method. There is certainly no shortage of methods on the web and I know I will find one to use.

I am still reading the Outlander series. I am about 1/2 way done with The Fiery Cross. In this book we are about 4 years away from the war of Independence and of course Jamie is being drawn in to it on the wrong side despite what his wife, daughter and son in law know will happen in the future. At least Jamie and Claire are finally getting old enough that they do not need to have sex every other page!! Until next week then......

Lots of Flowers,not much Knitting!!

Boy was this week busy at work. I think it set some sort of record for the number of in patients needing MRI's. Towards the end of the week we were just out of spots and we were having to call the ordering physicians and turn patients away. I told one young female resident that I was going to take her ordering button away!! This is not the McDonald's drive thru!! I told another guy that in order to scan his patient I would have to stack the kids like cord wood and scan them 2 at a time. He wasn't really listening to me and said "Ok"!! All I can say is I hope this next week calms down both for our sake and for the patients who really do need scanning.

I was not able to get very much knitting in. I am almost done with the foot on the 2nd Paducah sock and should be able to finish up this week. I knit quite a bit on the body of the shawl but am barely half way. I can actually knit without the pattern in front of me. I keep thinking I am past making mistakes and can get a couple of repeats done without frogging. Then all of a sudden I am ripping out 1/2 a repeat and getting frustrated but I will perservere and get this done. I would take a picture but right now it is not photographing well at all so you will just have to take my word on how nice it looks. I have been looking at the pattern for the knitted on border and Lord help me it is going to take some concentration. Wish me luck.

I have found 2 new sweaters that I would like to knit. One is a bonus pattern on Knitty. It is a cardigan knit in a mosaic design. It would look so nice with a t shirt and jeans. The other is the sweater on the cover of the new Interweave Knits. I am just a sucker for cables and raglan sleeves. The guage given for the sweater makes me think I could use the CLassic Elite's WoolBamboo which I have been craving since I knitted some into a winter scarf for Ladda my hairdresser this winter. Of course neither of these are suitable for using the actual yarn I have for my next project but oh well-I like to dream ahead.

Our garden is finally really coming along. All 4 tomato plants have buds but have not started to set fruit yet. I don't imagine it will be long since the nights are starting to get warmer. The green peppers have started setting fruit and I have several very very small peppers!! The herbs are starting to get a little bigger and it should not be long before I can harvest both basils, chives and the stevia. I am anxious to try the stevia. You are supposed to be able to use one or two leaves to sweeten a glass of tea. To bad I don't drink cold tea!! I have lots of flowers blooming and the yard is all full of color. I am starting to see my first butterflys of the year. But alas there are absolutely no bees. What we are hearing on the news about the missing bees is true. 5 years ago my garden was always buzzing with the sound of bees pollinating the flowers. Now it has been almost 2 years since I could say I have seen a single one. I sure hope someone figures out the mystery and finds out how to bring them back.

I had a funny thing happen to my reading routine this week. I finished "Drums of Autumn" and was totally ready to start the next book. When I picked it up it seemed to take an odd jump in time. Now Diana Gabaldon has a habit of doing this anyway but I looked inside the book jacket and quickly found I had bought the wrong book. I bought book 6 instead of 5. I figured I would just go buy the last one on my way out of town Friday but I just could not wait. So Wednesday night I rushed out of the hospital and hit Barnes & Noble just before they closed. I rushed in, bought book 6 and made it home to read 3 or 4 chapters before going to sleep. Now I am well into this volumn. And while I was at B&N I was relieved to see that Harry Potter book 7 does not come out until July so I can finish this series up and be ready in time. Next week I will tell you some of the rumors I am hearing about what will happen in Harry Potter and how I feel about them and the rumor mongers!!! Till then....

New Projects

It has been a boring busy week for me. It was the first week back at work after my great trip to Paducah and there were lots of changes that happened while I was gone. Lots of politics and other things that just get in the way of good patient care but we have to deal with nontheless.

It was cloudy and threatened rain all week. The sun finally came out on Sunday night for a little while before it rained all night. My garden is looking good but my yard sucks!! I finally got weed and feed down today. I am afraid it will not work and the weeds will just finish off the burmuda-or it will work and all the weeds will die and leave the sparse burmuda looking sick and lonely!! I did get a few pics made of my first perennial blooms of the year but the lighting was not the best since the clouds came right back after a short stint of sun this morning. The veggies and herbs are doing great and we are looking forward to our first harvests in about a month.

I have 2 projects in the works. I made one sock while in Paducah with Opal yarn. Just a simple Knit5, Purl 1 leg and upper foot. I am past the heel on the second sock now and should be able to finish this week. I probably won't get to wear them again until winter as these are good heavy socks but I can go in the closet from time to time and admire my work until fall!!

My 2nd project is the shawl made from my Tulsa Loops yarn. This is Claudia Handpaint fingering weight yarn in the Hyacinth color way. The pattern is from Victorian Lace Today. It is a rectangular shawl with knitted on borders. All this is new for me but so far so good. The body of the shawl is a simple 8 row, 6 stitch repeat from a chart. I have had to frog from time to time as sometimes my yo's don't behave but nothing to bad. Now the border chart looks ominous along with the fact that you join the border as you go to the body of the shawl. We will see but I am sure I will make it work somehow.

Other than that I have been busy trying to get things ready for the kids birthdays. Brooke is taken care of as far as buying her gift. I did not get her card made so I will be late sending it out. I got Dans card ready with a check and it will also be slightly late getting to him. He called the other night but Ken was on the phone so all we got was a message. He promised to call back tonight but no cookie for us!! I am still not great at card making but I am getting better. It doesn't cost more than $10.00 now to put out a card!!

I am almost done with Drums of Autumn. Brianna, Claire & Jamie's daughter, jumped thru the stones and arrived in Scotland. She found her way to the ancestral home and found her parents were in America so she travelled there. Then the love of her life followed and Roger has had as many adventures as the Frasers. I have bought the last book and will probably get to start it this week. Unfortunately I found several other books I need to buy as soon as I am done with this series. I keep wanting to run out of books so I can get more knitting time in. I guess challenging my mind in several modalities will keep me from developing Alzheimers any sooner!! Till next week....