12 Oakdale

I counted the time: at  40 minutes/4-row pattern and with 97 repeats, it took me about 65 hours to knit Hazel’s blanket. It certainly seemed longer, but mostly because I did it in 4-8 rows at a time. My hands and shoulders just are too old for marathon knitting sessions anymore. One can only take so much ibuprofen. To have continuity of color,  I efficiently used the blue, white and taupe yarn left from Teddy’s blanket and added “rhubarb” in the same baby-weight washable wool. One could say an homage in red, white, and blue to our country’s 250th birthday this year. That is, if one were not absolutely livid about our dear leader’s ineptness and his ridiculous war. Maybe we the people will wise up. The waffle pattern, Baby Fern Lake from Berroco, was an easy 1, 2 repeat, but I had to watch every stitch so I didn’t miscount. Very different from the stockinette stitch of Teddy’s, the Easy Striped Baby Blanket by Dabbles & Baubles. That one I could read or watch tv while I kni...

I’ve concentrated on finishing 3 projects: mittens, charities, and bougainvilleas. First up, the mittens I’d started some time ago with yarn from Mountain Meadow Wool Mill. One was almost done, then set aside.  Not as abandoned as some projects I’ve started, since I bought the yarn after our 2021 trip to Yellowstone. I had planned to finish them before our next trip to cold weather, which turns out to be this Saturday.  Not a difficult project, lovely to the touch wool. Just needed time with needles in my hands. Not too much at once since I haven’t knitted in a while and I didn’t want to aggravate my wrists or shoulders. Fifteen minutes at a time over the past couple of weeks: done. However they are too large for me, so Grant gets a new pair of wool mittens. I will wear my fingerless gloves inside a pair of polyester ones. Should I consider buying more yarn for the next cold weather event? Not until I’ve finished the socks I will make with the yarn I bought last year in Nee Ze...

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, during one of his night bathroom trips, Grant stumbled. Somehow he grabbed the toilet seat. He was fine. The toilet seat was not: broken hinges. With our current supply chain still functioning, (one wonders what Our Dear Leader’s tariffs will do to that), he ordered a new one to be delivered that afternoon. Monday morning , I had a Windermere Garden Club board meeting, followed by an afternoon appointment with Julie, the outgoing Membership chair of Bloom and Grow Garden Society, whom I am replacing next year. I had just enough time between the two to stop by the house for lunch and to ask how the seat replacement was going. Medium. Grant was able to get one bolt unscrewed. The other was firmly in place, spinning with its anchor when he tried to remove it. He was watching videos about what to do.  When I returned just before dinner time, many videos had been watched, much turning of the screw (bolt) had happened, no progress had been made. Why ar...

With Gracie’s help, I’ve finished the wool neck scarf I started a while ago. I’d ordered the kit from Mountain Meadow Wool Mill in Johnson County, Wyoming, a place we visited when we took Clara to Yellowstone. They buy wool from the local ranchers, trying to keep that industry alive. They also buy wool from university herds, then weave blankets in school colors. The alums love it.  I checked, but University of Florida’s sheep are grown for meat, so no blankets from them. Not surprisingly, University of Miami and Georgia Tech don’t teach agricultural so no sheep. Besides, I have no use for this warm scarf I’ve knitted, much less a heavy wool blanket. Now I’ve started a baby blanket in a washable wool for Molly and Spaulding’s baby, due late November. They are coming in mid-September for a baby shower, so I have an earlier deadline. The pattern isn’t as complicated as the scarf, however there are a lot more stitches. Only 1 more stage of the Tour de France to knit through, but the To...