OUR "LITTLE"

Just received this picture of our nearly 7-months old great-grandson.   Can a little guy get any cuter than this:

I sure wish we were closer to give him hugs as he grows.   He lives in Washington and we live in Arizona.   We last saw him when he was a month or so old - so huggable!  He's already sitting up by himself, saying ma-ma and da-da and just started to crawl yesterday.   Sorry, didn't mean to go on and on about him, but just can't help it.

On the knitting front, I am working on this cowl with some wonderful Sweet Georgia BFL Sock yarn that is so wonderfully soft and the colors are beautiful.

I'm not very far along on this project, but am loving the yarn.  Unfortunately, I cast on on a 24" needle which is certainly on the short side.  I'm hoping it works out well, or I may have to knit off onto a longer needle before this is finished.

Will be posting more pictures as this grows and becomes more "photogenic"!!

 

LOVE MONTH IS HERE!!!

Well, I accidentally deleted the first version of this post, so that's not a good start.  I'll see how much I remember of what I said.

Yes, love month is here!   I love February for several reasons:  I get to make Valentines to send to my grandkids and others; my brother and son-in-law both have birthdays this month and I get to pick out funny (age-wise) cards for them.  Of course, they send the same kind back to me since my birthday is also this month.

The Arizona weather has been beautiful the past week or so - in the 70's - can't get any better than that!   In my last post I discussed the cold weather we had - down to as low as 18 degrees.   Even though we covered everything: citrus trees and plants, (see photos in last post), our yard now is filled with dead-looking trees and plants.   This is a photo of our lemon tree:

Our landscaper stopped by today and advised us to do nothing for a least two weeks before trimming off the dead ends of all these limbs.   He said the lower part of the trees are still alive, but they're sure ugly right now.   I supposed we won't be getting any lemons, limes or oranges this year....sadly.

I finished my Align mitts.   They're so soft (mostly alpaca) and will gifted to someone in the family as they wouldn't get much use around here.   I've already cast on to make a cowl next.  I knit every day while waiting for hubby to get his radiation treatment, then sit outside the front of our house in the sun for an hour or so (until I get too hot).

  

 

 

Arizona is warming back up - thank goodness!  I know for some of you, our lows of 20 degrees F are to be laughed at, but for us, that's cold!!!!  Our highs are back in the low 70's and night times in the high 30's to low 40's.  

We've gone from this scary picture, (kinda looks like 7ft. tall ghosts) showing our 3 citrus trees and many of the small plants covered,

to this:

 
I even went out on our front porch and knitted a little the last few days - the sun is so welcome.  Here's what I've been knitting on:

Finished these, which turned out to be little snug so that the design doesn't show up well.   That's fine, they'll be perfect for any of my 3 great-granddaughters.

I've started on these fingerless mitts, and loving the yarn which was hand-dyed by my good friend, Trine. 

I'll be spending a lot of time in doctor's offices for hubby, so that means lots of knitting time!

ONWARDS & UPWARDS

Time to blog again to let you know what's going on around here.

First off, let me show you this beautiful sunset taken from my front yard (in Arizona) just two evenings ago.  That's one thing we've noticed - the sunsets are much more colorful here than back in Washington state.  There was some wind blowing and the forecasters were predicting 40% chance of rain - but nothing ever happened.   It is turning cold for the next 4 days - by cold I mean highs in the 50's, but low in the low 20's, so we had to cover our citrus trees, and half a dozen other plants around the yard.   Hope they don't freeze!

Next I wanted to let you see my Mal Hand Thingies.  I'm loving the pattern, but the yarn I'm using (Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherds Wool Worsted) is not real stretchy, so they're turning out too small for me to wear.  I can get them on, but it stretches the "slip-stitch" design out too much.  But...I have 3 granddaughters out there that would love to have them, so no problem.

I've knitted a few rows of the 2nd mitt, and am looking forward to finishing so I can knit these Ghislaine mitts next from yarn I have in my stash.

Some days I get a lot of knitting time and others not.   Hubby is currently going to physical therapy a couple times a week to ease the pain in his hip.  He's trying to put off hip replacement.   Then in the next week or so, he'll start radiation treatments for prostate cancer (45 treatments = 5 days a week/9 weeks).  It'll be a long drive (60 miles round trip) - so knitting time should be plentiful.  Lots of stress in my life right now, worrying about him, and having the son of our best friends pass away from the same cancer this week.  I'm counting on knitting to help me along.  I've never had a massage and am thinking maybe now is the time!

Hug your loved ones!

IT'S OUR 50TH ! ! !

Today is our 50th wedding anniversary!  Hard to believe we ever made it this far, as it only seems like yesterday.

We got married in Boise, Idaho on December 30, 1962 and have moved about a few times from Boise to Casper, Wyoming - to Spokane, Washington - to Sequim, Washington - to Graham, Washington and just this past Fall to Maricopa, Arizona.

We both retired in 1999 and I think it's after that when you find out how much love and respect you have for each other.  After your kids are grown and gone, your work career is over, and you just have each other around (all the time!) you really learn to appreciate each other.   I think I'm really blessed to have such a great hubby - and he says maybe we can make it another 20 years.   We'll see if our health holds out that long.

He brought me these dozen roses:

We drove north to Fort McDowell - lovely day for a drive, paid our dues at the casino, had a wonderful dinner.  I had liver and onions, which I usually only have once or twice a year, as hubby can't stand the smell of me cooking it at home!

I've been working on these fingerless mitts yesterday and today:

They are Malabrigo Hand Thingies and I'm loving the "slip stitch" design just starting to show up in the upper part of this photo.  I'd like to finish them tomorrow.  They seem like they might be too small for my hands, so may be gifted to one of my granddaughters, and I'll try them again on larger needles.

Happy New Year to my friends and family!!

HOILIDAYS ARE HERE!!

Thought I'd post here just this one last time until 2013 rolls around.  Hopefully, I'll be getting in some knitting time in between other "goings on" around here.

It's been hard to realize it's the Christmas season with the temperatures outside being in the 70's today.  Of course no snow, no rain, no cold - just doesn't seem quite right. 

We've discovered we live on a street with a lot of great neighbors who get together to "eat" at least once a month.   Had Thanksgiving at one neighbors with around 30 people there (all orphans from their families), then had a "leftovers" party the next week to eat up what didn't get eaten that day!   Today, there was a brunch for the people on the block who had birthdays in December.  Great spread with about 18 people - all who have welcomed us warmly!  Good feelings.

Unfortunately, our children will not be joining us for Christmas, but we understand.    We will be having a Butterball turkey breast with all the trimmings for just the two of us.    

Also this month (the 30th) is our 50th wedding anniversary and we'll be going out to dinner somewhere special.

New Years we'll be spending at home - I'm sure K will not be far from the TV and the football games!


Today he's watching the U of Washington play Boise State (his favorite) since he's from that area.  There is a "lunch" wager on with our friends who are rooting for UW.

Since my "handle" is knitterbeader, I should show a picture of my most recent knitted article.  This was a gift to a granddaughter (I don't think she reads this blog).   Pattern is Lazy River Scarf, knitted in Cascade 220 Sport.

Picture update:
1st picture is one of our 5 bougainvilleas in the back yard.  Aren't they beautiful and hard to believe this is the 2nd time they've bloomed since August. 

 This 2nd picture is of Keith enjoying one of the many lakes in our community.  This is about 1/2 a block from our house and is a very peaceful place to enjoy the sun and the waterfalls.

 This last one is a close-up of a lime on our tree which is about ready to pick.  The tree was just put in a few weeks ago (7 ft. tall), and has several limes on it and lots of blossoms.  Don't know how many of the blossoms will actually become fruit, but can't wait until I can get enough of them at a time to make a key lime pie!!

Anyway, so long for now and see you next year.  Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, enjoy the season, and a Happy New Year!

Hello From Arizona

It's been quite some time since I posted last and a "lot of water has passed under the bridge", as they say.

We moved to Arizona in the middle of August - temps were between 115 and 119 degrees when we got here.   We stayed in a motel for 10 days until our house was completed, so spent a lot of time in the room, inside air-conditioned stores, in the air-conditioned car, etc...  you get the idea!   Was like a furnace blast when you walked out the door.  You better believe we asked ourselves over and over, "did we do the right thing?".    We're loving it now however, it's cooled off into the 90's and now very pleasant and enjoying the wonderful sunshine every day - no sweatshirts on, etc. like it is now up in Washington state where we moved from.

We've moved into a 55-plus community called Province, in Maricopa, Arizona.  There are approximately 1100+ homes here now that have been sold, and room for about 1100 more.   In fact there are 4 new houses being built on our side of the street at the present time.   There is a 33,000 sq. ft clubhouse with all the activities you'd ever want - huge outdoor swimming pool and a lap pool inside, lots of exercise rooms, craft rooms, cards, town hall for big banquets/dances, etc.

There were many funny (or sad) anecdotes over the moving period, but one we're still laughing about is:  I put the "important" keys to the upright freezer, hubby's rollabout Craftsman tool chest, a custom-built gun display case for an antique shotgun of my days, and other keys, in a ziploc bag and put it somewhere safe where we could get to it right away when we got here.  In other words, we carried it down in our loaded mini-van for that reason.  Well.........we've never found the keys, yet anyway.   The freezer was fairly easy to open - just put a putty knife between the rubber stripping around the door and lifted up and it opened - same with the gun cabinet.   BUT, the toolchest that was another story.  We looked online and found Sears and other places do sell replacement keys, but this chest is about 12 years old - no longer made and no keys available anywhere.  We went to a locksmith and they had the key blank and made a key - brought it home and it was pretty difficult to get in the keyhole and then hard to turn, so hubby put pliers to the key, turned and broke off the key in the lock!   We found on the internet, a diagram of the locking system of the chest, so he started drilling about 2 to 3-inch holes in the back of the chest to reach in to twist lock mechanisms.  There were several of them so he has 4 big holes on the back of the chest.  But he got it open, so all is well there. We had gotten some red masking tape for something else, but it worked great to cover up the holes (matched the toolchest).

It's been fun decorating and not so fun trying to figure out where to put everything.  Most everything is done except for my office/craft room.  I don't have as much storage space, so having to buy several more bookshelves to store supplies on.

We've met quite a few of the neighbors, at least the ones who are full-timers.  Most of the "snowbirds" aren't here yet.  Everyone is very friendly.   We have both joined the community Golf Club - Keith plays every week and I'll be joining him to play Couples Golf, also once a week.  Couples is in the "twilight hours" somewhere around 3pm (when it's still quite hot for most people, but cheaper rates), followed by dinner afterwards.   A lot of my aches and pains in my shoulder, hip, knee and foot have gone away and I'm getting around pretty good now.

We miss our friends and families up in Washington state, but are happy here and enjoying being able to be outside a whole lot more.

I might add, that with all this sunshine and water, most of the plants have doubled in size since these pictures were taken.  The tree in the foreground is a lemon, and back in the middle is an orange tree.  Guess it'll be another year or maybe two before they bear fruit.