A Crocheter in the Family

First off I want to praise my baby cousin for being a wonderful and creative crocheter.  She makes and sells these jumpsuits.  It's her own pattern.   She makes them quickly and they are perfection.  She has sold several already.

A bit about my Family

This post began as one thing but grew into something else because I can't talk about one baby cousin without speaking about the other siblings.  

Baby Cousins

Baby Cousins are the children of my first cousins.  I really feel like they are my nieces and nephews since my first cousins were more like my siblings.  Now these two began ballet lessons when they were wee ones.  They are now just turning 20 and 21 and are at university now.  

As you can imagine we are quite proud of them !

Even their little brothers are taking ballet lessons.

Hope you all have a great weekend !

Father's Day

There is so much that I could say about my Dad Joshua.  He was a "Together" guy.  He was patient, excellent with finances, loved cruises, did everything he could to make his daughters happy.  He was a snazzy dresser too.  This photo was taken at Belle Isle in Detroit and I would bet his slacks were sharkskin.  Even on the grill he was a sharp dresser.

https://twocables.blogspot.com/2010/07/better-place.html

Enjoy the rest of your Weekend !

Plans

Some crafting has been going on around here but not a lot.  I've been coloring and working on my Afghan and these socks.  These are house socks made from worsted yarn on size US 4s.  I didn't bother to block them because I wore them right away.  I have yarn already for another pair.

Plans 

This weekend I plan on taking a serious look at my WIPs as well as potential new projects.  

Emails and Messages

A few posts ago I touched on the confusion and unrest that's going on in the world.  Well, somehow that post offended a few people.  Comments were made that they were not going to follow My blog any longer because a craft blog was not the place to talk about anything other than crafts.  This cracked me up.  Another person stopped commenting and following me altogether.  Ohhkay.  I find all of this to be very sad and not commenting on my blog, not following my blog is not a punishment to me but really ladies, take a look at yourself.  

Oh well.  On with life.

My concentration has been off in terms of plans and crafting.  I wish I could turn away from it but if course I can't pretend that the world is not in a state of unrest.  

A Great Weekend to You All.

This Weekend

I've been breaking in my new box of color pencils.  I like working with pencils better than working with the markers because they don't bleed through.

I spent almost three hours untangling this yarn.  It was very theraputic.

I started the rim of a hat.

I have about 40 pages of my book to complete.  

On to Sunday...

My Day so far...

• This morning I ordered a manicure set from Amazon because no matter how clean my nails are the cuticles are trying to be the boss of me.
• There is a book I saw reviewed on MSNBC called An American Marriage written by Tayari Jones.  The book is included in Oprah's Book Club which I stopped following over a decade ago.  Most of the books were good quality reading but boring as in dead boring.  An American Marriage however has been endorsed by Michelle Obama so I'm in.  My dilemma has been whether to Kindle it or get the actual book.  
• I am grateful to my friend's Facebook post this morning stating that she was watching the Unsung episode on Minnie Riperton.  This helped me seeing as for over the last week I kept the television running on MSNBC and CNN.  For some reason  I need to know every single detail of the virus, the Michigan flooding, the George Floyd killing, the Minneapolis riot, Trump's careless comments all of it I need to stay in tune with it all.  I'm happy to say I'm watching Unsung with a bit of knitting.

How I'm seeing this craziness 

My friends and neighbors have asked me how I keep so disciplined staying in all the time without even sitting on the porch.  There is no need to explain since they have chosen to stop social distancing.  Staying in doesn't bother me.  My Mom in Michigan has been down about all of the people that have passed from the virus and are still passing.  It has helped that my daughter speaks with her a couple times a day.  They are close and look forward to each other's conversations.

This may sound funny or corny but I would say my attitude towards what's going on with the world right now has to do with the history of my reading.  In the mid-80s I became an avid science fiction reader but before that I was a Stephen King and Peter Straub fan.  So the strangeness of what we're going through globally is not so strange to me.  It all feels familiar.  Has anyone noticed how many deaths of band members and character actors there have been ?  These are not people that you would know right off but after a while you're like "Oh yea, I remember".  There have been loads of them and not all have passed from the virus.  No one can say for sure but is it possible that had the officer responsible for George Floyd's death been arrested immediately perhaps there may have been No riot or much less of a riot.  So after the riot began they decided to arrest the officer.  Very poor decision !  the fact that social distancing is being viewed by many as an imposition and a violation of civil rights instead of the government trying to protect people.  What about instead of seeing masks as a necessary protection they have become a political issue.  It  doesn't help that Trump just won't quit with his careless words.  Thank goodness no one really takes him seriously.  What about the flood in Midland, Michigan ?  As a Michigander I'm here to tell you that waters may rise but we never flood especially to that capacity.  How about it was reported that children were not affected by the virus then they were then a few passed then the virus has now been connected to the Kawaski disease.  All of this to show us for the millionth time that the scientists have made no headway with the virus.  There are just so many things that are happening at once.  It all feels Stephen Kingy, science fictiony to me.  We will probably never know the reason but there is a reason why this is happening. It is above our heads and not meant for us to know.

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Projects

I'm still working on my Granny Striped afghan.  I just ordered a few more colors to give it even more punch.  It's coming along quicker than I thought.

Enjoy Your Weekend !

My Week so far

Knit Therapy

I don't post FOs and WIPs that often but I'm always working on something.  At some point in the day the knitting needles have been in my hands and I have accomplished rows.  Like these socks I completed months ago. I made them then tossed them to the side.  I don't need them I just needed the therapy they provided.  I have a small pile of FOs that simply need to be posted.  Not just posted they need to be presentable and posted.  Measuring  the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment in regards to making versus posting an object for me the making wins.  

There is no pattern just shortie socks out of mini-skeins.  My daughter has expressed a desire to have them.  She may have them as long as she keeps the promise not to put them in the dryer. 

The Encounter 

I am fortunate to have such a great team of medical personnel to come in and work with me.  I have excellent physical therapists, occupational therapists, LPNs and RNs.  I am impressed and pleased with them all.  Last week I received a call from an aide telling me that she was assigned to visit me.  I wondered what her purpose was because as far as I was concerned I was covered.  I would ask more questions when she arrived.  ~ The aide didn't knock and announce herself instead she knocked and entered.  I was totally unprepared for that which left me scrambling for my face mask.  She had a mask attached to her ears but didn't have it on. "You're suppose to have your mask on." I told her.  The aide then begin to cough and the already alarmed me stared at her.  Then unbelievably after her coughing she pulled her mask down.  Inside I had a fit and asked her why she removed the mask.  The aide looked dumb-founded.  Then I noticed she had no gloves on.  Where are your gloves ? "Oh, I don't wear them in people's homes.". I thanked her for coming then called the hospital and ask that they never, ever send that worker to me again !  My mind put her in a slot of "Those".  You know, those people that refuse to wear masks or wash hands, that hang out in lines shoulder to shoulder as if they don't know what social distancing is.  Yep.  She was one of those.  Bye bye Those !

I don't have a lot planned for the weekend except a bit of reading and organizing a few things.

Enjoy !

I was doing All the Things !

Well, almost all of the things.  I have been busy for the past few weeks with crafts, reading and doing things to challenge my brain.  I have a daily-theme crossword app that I visit every day.  It's not a tough crossword puzzle by any means but I'm learning trivia and I love trivia !

Long Overdue

I am years overdue for making an afghan.  Every January I tell myself "For sure I'm making an afghan...)  I started this Granny Striped Blanket the other day and it's fun.  I found several skeins of acrylic yarns in my stash that were sort of in the same color scheme so why not.  There is no rhyme or reason to my matching these stripes.  This blanket will strictly go by my mood or vibes and I will hook it as I see fit.  Instead of doing two rows and changing colors I'm going to change if and when I feel like making a change.  Not much about this Afghan will be uniform.  It's going to be very hodgy-podgy.

I was inspired by Lefty-Crafter by her Lapgham post to try a motif.  I love motifs so I thought I would try.  One try turned into one type then another then another until I laid the yarn down.  One actually came out pretty decent but I was still not satisfied.  I will try another day.  Practice makes perfect.

On Books

I'm the last two weeks I have read one book, one novella and listened to a relatively short audiobook.  The first book The Dreamers was amazing.  The writing was pretty good, the development of the characters and their lives was pretty good.  A couple of my friends had recommended the book to me without really telling me about the book.  Guess what.  It's about a pandemic but the virus is more of a sleep virus.  That alone hooked me to the story.  So much of the author's pandemic is like the pandemic we are going through.  Karen Thompson Walker covered her pandemic well. It is an interesting read and I would recommend this book especially since it is not a long one to get through.

Midnight Son I would recommend to anyone.  This short story is set in Alaska and is about a native named Teddy Smith that had branched away from what his town was use to.  Teddy Smith actually got into show business and was respected by his town until an unfortunate event happens.  Teddy is not the main character but the the author is. James Dommek jr. who sets out to find out exactly what happened with Teddy Smith that caused Smith to get into trouble.  James Dommek jr. investigates and interviews everyone that he can as he is seeking the spiritual and non-spiritual explanation of the incident.  I won't say anymore except this story holds my heart and is definitely worth reading.

So Long Lollipop was a Kindle book that was given to me for free.  I will accept almost any free book even if it isn't what I usually read.  The story is relatively short, well written and about zombies.  If you're into zombies I would recommend this one.  it's typical in that the human characters are always fighting the zombies.  This is the first part of Ms. Fleming's zombie series.  I hope to find another interesting read this weekend.  

Coloring

As an adult getting back into coloring I feel new to it.  It's not flowing yet.  I am using Crayola's watercolor markers (set of 20).  They bleed and the tips are round.  I have a set of Crayola pencils but I'm thinking I will need a more professional set.  To be honest I have never colored with pencils.  I will try as the coloring is fun and tests my patience though.

Pretty intense huh !

Good thing I checked...

I was going to post these socks on Friday but when I put them on the sock blockers I discovered that the cables were incorrect on one of the feet.  It was above the heel so the foot and heel had to be taken down.  Arrrrgh !  There's no rush to have them or work on them so into the TBC (to be completed) pile they go.

The cables are supposed to look like this throughout but somehow I got off track

As you can see these cables are short.  Not acceptable !  I have work to do.

I have more all the things but I'll share the next time I post.

Enjoy Your Weekend !