More from the loom

 I'm still having fun with the knitting looms. Amanda picked out some scrubby yarn so I've been making more of those.

No two look the same with this yarns. I did one using the scrubby yarn along with a crochet cotton and then I decided to try them with just the scrubby yarn alone. They came out just fine so that's how I'll do all future ones.

The one on the right has the crochet cotton with it and the two on the left are the scrubby yarn alone. 

I also did another headband. This was using a white and an aqua worsted weight yarn. I like to use a double strand because they are much thicker. 

I tried another one with a single strand of yarn and  I didn't like it nearly as much.

Drawings year 2 week 20

 

A day out with my daughter

Today I talk about the rest of the day after the cemetery. I took very few pictures. I keep forgetting and if Amanda doesn't remind me I probably wouldn't get any.

First we went to a craft show at a school. There were lots of good things there but I didn't get any pictures at all. 

Next we went to a place I saw posted on Facebook. It was called Countryside Farm Market. It's another of those Amish stores. It was rather small but they had a lot of yummy stuff there.

I bought a couple of these orange cookies on someone else's recommendation and they were totally delicious.

Next was Perkins for lunch. We chose Perkins more out of my need for a restroom than anything else.

They had a lunch duo where you could pick from 3 different sandwiches and either a cup of soup, a salad or one other category that I can't remember. I got a chicken tender sandwich with loaded baked potato soup. It was so good and I left totally stuffed. 

The last stop we made was Walmart since it was on the way and I needed to pick up a prescription and a few groceries. By the time I got home it was laundry and very little else. I spent the remainder of the day napping and watching tv.

St. James cemetery

 Saturday October 18th, Amanda and I had another fun day. I'll get to that tomorrow but today I'm going to talk about the cemetery.  We were approaching it and Amanda was talking about her friends dad who was buried there and that she thought they had finally gotten the head stone in. I asked if she wanted to stop so we did.

As we went up the hill I saw some other visitors.

   

As long as we were right there we also visited my dads grave as well as a few of my other relatives. First my dad

This one is my grandparents on my father's side

This is my dad's sister and my favorite aunt.

  

And finally my dad's youngest brother and his wife.

A chilly morning

 Friday October 7th was a chilly start to the day. There was frost on my windshield when I went out to leave for work. I snapped a quick picture of the temp to show you how cold it really was.

Before I left I saw one of the workers out back taking a picture of the sky as he walked up to the job sight. I had to take a look myself.  It was a pretty sky but mostly obscured by the house and trees from where I stood.

On my way to work the sky looked amazing. I tried to sneak a picture but it didn't even come close to what I actually saw. 

From hats to headbands.

 I finished making that hat with the homespun yarn and still had more left. I decided to try a headband ear warmer that I found a pattern for. I'm more apt to wear an ear warmer than I am a hat.

These use a knit pearl repeat patter where as the hat uses just an e wrap knit stitch.

Since this picture was taken I've made another of the headbands. I still have more of the homespun yarn left and may try to get one more out of it.

Men at work

 Actually there was only one man working and the rest were all just standing around watching him.

You can't tell in this picture but at one point there was one man down in the hole digging and the rest were all just standing around watching him. These were taken on Monday October 13. I was off that day and got to watch the guys out there working. Of course Gibbs wanted out a million times that day and every time he went out he did nothing but bark at all those guys .

Pumpkin redo.

 When I first showed the pumpkin I made on the knitting loom, I wasn't completely satisfied with it. Mostly I didn't care for the stem.

I wasn't going to make another one but then changed my mind and tried again. I was much happier with the second attempt. I still used the felt stem but cut it shorter than the first time. Then I added some silk leaves and some excelsior 

I also tied a piece of yarn around it tightly in 3 different spots to give the appearance of veins in the pumpkin. 

Snowman

 Well I finished my snowman that I was making on the knitting loom. The last time I showed him he looked like this.

I added some buttons eyes and mouth, made a nose from a piece of orange felt, a scarf, and added a little decoration to his hat. And here he is, ready for his first winter.

All in all I'm happy with how he came out but I wish I would have had smaller buttons for his mouth.

The Toddler Descent

A Grown-Up Guide to Navigating Stairs with Arthritic Knees

Let’s be honest—aging isn’t for the faint of heart. Especially when your knees decide they’ve had enough of your nonsense. Mine? They’ve staged a full-blown rebellion. And nowhere is their mutiny more obvious than on the stairs.

Step One: Accept the Toddler Within Gone are the days of bounding up steps two at a time. Now, I descend like a cautious toddler—one step at a time, gripping the railing like it’s the last lifeline on a sinking ship. And you know what? Toddlers rarely fall. They’ve got it figured out.

Step Two: Lead with the Good Leg (and a Good Attitude) “Up with the good, down with the bad.” It’s not just a physical strategy—it’s a life motto. I take the wins where I can get them, even if it means celebrating a successful descent like I just finished a triathlon.

Step Three: Embrace the Accessories Ice packs, braces, topical creams, and a device called an Enso that sounds like it should be brewing tea but actually zaps my knee into behaving. I’ve got more gear than a minor league athlete—and I’m not afraid to use it.

Step Four: Laugh When You Can Because if I don’t laugh, I’ll cry—and crying makes my nose stuffy, which is just one more thing to deal with. So instead, I write. I share. I connect. And I remind myself that even if my knees are cranky, my spirit is still doing cartwheels.

This post was written by Bing AI but it was created through a conversation discussing my current knee pain issues.

Drawings year 2 week 19

 

Shopping with Amanda

 Saturday October 11, Amanda and I went shopping. First stop was the mall. They had this set up for Halloween

From the back I thought it looked like a giant middle finger sticking up.

In the mall we stopped at Boscov's, Bath and Body Works, J.C. Penney and The Shoe Dept. Then we went to Hobby Lobby. All our shopping trips include Hobby Lobby

We had fun trying on hat and headpieces.

We also stopped at Panera Bread for lunch.

Yet another hat

 Still making hats and I've finished another one. This one might be my favorite so far. I used a regular yarn along with a homespun yarn. It resulted in a very soft hat.

I'm a zero

 Working where I do, internet security is a high priority. As a way to test employees to see if they are being careful they send out fake phishing emails. We have a button on our screen to report phishing. When they send these fake emails they hope that you will report it rather than click on any links. 

This is my report card so to speak. I'm a zero. I've had no incidents and no unreported phishing emails. Sometimes being a zero isn't so bad.

Albion Marketplace

 Tuesday, October 7th the store that I worked at for 28years opened it's doors again under the name of Albion Marketplace. They aren't entirely set up yet but they didn't want to delay any further. The town responded with an amazing show of support. They ran out of donuts in 1 hour and they posted that they made more for a total of 1,300 donuts on that first day. I stopped before work and picked some up for myself and the girl I work with.

Sorry I took a few bites before I realized I should get a picture. I didn't eat both of these that day. I saved the croissant for the next day. They were delicious, although the cream filled one was too full. As the girl I work with said, it was more filling than donut. At least it wasn't just me that thought that. I considered that maybe since it was someone else making them, I might be a little too critical. Of course I do have some experience.