Trying to get back on schedule

 Went to see my parents last weekend. And since I took the train, I got some tatting done. Learning entwined rings, and trying in size 3 since size 40 about broke my brain.

 I tried it with some linen thread I had, but running out of thread and reloading messed me up.

 I made an earring from Marilee Rockley's book Tatting with Beaded Jewelry, but size 10 is a bit large/long for earrings for me. This will probably be a bag charm or a pendant.

 I've done it again in black size 20 thread. With smaller beads, too, of course. 

It snowed this week. We got about 3 inches of it. Then some melted and froze again. Then melted and froze again. 

Not far from my house, the day after it snowed

very wintry look

I got some shuttles from the craft resale shop. One is a Tatsy, with the instruction packet. There was a Boye shuttle in the same package, with some thread still on it. I tatted one of the patterns from the sheet.

I ran out of thread

 There was also an Aerlit,, with thread and a few rings tatted. I had to retro-tat a ring that had gotten twisted up, then continued the edging until I ran out of thread. I tat much tighter than that original tatter.

 As a bit of a giggle, I made a hat for a coworker's cold cat.

 

And I made progress on my scrap bag (from Karey Solomon's Bring on the Buttons) during Richard Embry's Tat & Chat yesterday.

And I spent some time practicing Marilee Rockley's technique for Victorian set split chain. I haven't mastered it, but I do have a better idea. Bad picture, but it was the only one I could get at the time.

 

Two Weeks in a Row, I'm on a Roll

I went back to work on Friday, and that was a bit of an adventure. The road slush froze overnight on Thursday, so work didn't open until noon. I didn't want to drive to the park & ride (see: slushy roads) and my usual bus doesn't run in the middle of the day. But I checked the trip scheduler online and found a bus to take from home to the park and ride. I made it, just in time and got to work 45 minutes early. I wasn't supposed to report yet, and I was hungry. I ate lunch and then went to work.

I stayed home on Saturday (and did some ridiculous prep for my upcoming Blue Rose character). Sunday, I drove to see Mom. Some of the residents have flu or flu-like symptoms, so it was visit at your own risk. I
took her shopping and finally got her stuff to wash her dishes (dish drain, dish cloth, etc). It was t-shirt and light jacket or (in my case) shawl weather. I wore my house of swank "Winter can kiss my butt' shirt and got a couple compliments on it.

These are the acorn squash I made for various holiday dining events. They were tasty. Acorn squash, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, and a touch of salt.

CD's scarf is up to 21". I managed to break my loom, so while Mom and I were out shopping, we went by JoAnne's and I bought a replacement. I also bought some glue, which was my first choice. I managed to glue the loom back together, I hope it stays fixed.













 I want to work on a temperature scarf. I could do it for this year, I'm only behind 23 days (plus however long until I find/buy the yarn). 

Tonight, I went with my co-worker, MB, to water aerobics. She's been going for over a year now. This was only the second time I've gone. It's a really good work out. Last time I wore a skirted swimsuit but the skirt kept floating up and getting in my way. I bought a new one and it's really cute. It zips up the front so I know it won't slip off. However, the base of the zipper isn't well padded and the end of the coil kept scratching me.

Here are some pictures and videos of the snow.

Snow Day

It's been cold. And we have snow two weeks in a row. I need to ask my Dad if he is having flashbacks to when he first moved to North Carolina. Apparently it snowed every Wednesday the first January after my parents moved to North Carolina.

This time we lost power for about four hours. However, I was dressed warmly, have blankets, and the house's insulation is decent. The snow is also insulating, which helped. I barely got chilly, but when the sun set, I napped. I woke up about 5 minutes before the power came back on.

At least I'm not an American alligator.

I have more than 18" of CD's scarf done. I only have 30" to go. My cables are blargh, but they are my first cables, so it's not a surprise they are loose. Autumn Breeze showed me how to tighten them, but I don't do that until the scarf is done.

I'm working on my class for Palmetto Tat Days. TotusMel was fabulous and let me have one of her patterns. However, she needle tats and I shuttle tat. I am translating it and this is one that needle tatting makes easier (oooh, shocking).

And here's a neat graphic about US immigration over time.

Our Deadlands game is drawing to a close. I'll have to say goodbye to Alis Reeves. She's been entertaining to play. (and I love this picture of her. If you're interested in commissioning the artist, I have her contact info).

DR, the GM, has said he wants to run Blue Rose next. He had been trying to decide between Blue Rose and another game but when I posted 'for my next fantasy game PC, I want to play a woman with adult children, who now that her kids are out of the house is going to fulfill her dream of being an adventurer.' Nahla is about 40 years old, a widow with three children. The youngest is 17, and is a journey craftsperson. Her oldest is married with a child of his own. I also did Nahla's extended family, more plot hooks for DR. Hmm, now that I have an idea what Nahla looks like, I need to ask the artist if she has time for another commission.

I'm still working on my State Fair entry idea. I keep getting distracted by other projects.

Mom is still doing okay. I've convinced her to get out and walk about the halls to get some exercise. The last couple times we went shopping, she was worn out halfway through the 1st store. However, she's really sick right now. She got hit by some stomach bug, which is just miserable.

SR loaned me 3 seasons of The Librarians. I've been watching it and enjoying it immensely.

There was a screw up at the blood drive at UNC (they scheduled appointments right up to the point of 'needles out, not taking anyone else' -which since no one get seen immediately is a definite mistake) and I got turned away by the Red Cross. I went ahead and scheduled a platelets donation during the UNC closed day (no holiday pay). It took 4 hours. And by the way, when your lips and fingers tingle, you NEED the tums. Or unpleasant things happen. I had 4 minutes to go. Ugh. Next time, I need to up my calcium intake a couple days beforehand. At least they can use what I donated. But I can't donate again until late February. Which is annoying but not too bad. Except there's a shortage of blood and the Red Cross has called me 3 times this month. 

I got sick the week of Thanksgiving. I went into work on Monday long enough to check there was nothing needing my attention. I canceled lunch plans with my Dad and had supper with CD's parents. And fell asleep after eating. I was still recovering. I was still a little sick the Monday after, but I felt well enough to go to work without worrying about a relapse.

My Halloween costume

I wanted to practice split chains so I did this tiny basket by Sue Hanson. I messed up but the final result is a cute variation. And yes, it's very tiny.

At work, we went to visit Ramses. We talked to the family who hosts him, and his little herd of goat companions, and his girlfriend and lambs.

Tri Tatters had our 10th anniversary. That's the cake one of the members made. I made lace cookies. They were incredibly sweet, but good. And fast to make.

I'm still having trouble connecting my iPad to my laptop to download pictures.

My 4th place ribbon for my beanile necklace.

I just like how raindrops look on this leaf.

Depression, I Haz It (and do not want it)

There was a bead show locally this past weekend. I made it as far as my porch on Sunday. At least I got some laundry done. Oh, and I wound the rest of my buffboo yarn. I've even picked out the pattern. I just need to brace myself (review the crochet cast on) and get started. It's really the small victories, I guess.

plum flowers?

I think the Duke Power thing is finally straight. Or at least, they finally got my POA in her file. It was 'in the wrong place.' It was suddenly discovered when I asked to speak to a supervisor. I don't know if that's true or what, but I'm still pissed about it.

Still haven't found Carry's present. She didn't want the knitting needles I picked up somewhere, because she doesn't use that kind. I showed her my cable knitting. She noted the cable went odd at the end, until I told her the last two were deliberately in the other direction.

Here are some of the calendar pages I've colored.

I'm working on another bracelet; varied red with the 2-hole seed beads. I don't have any pictures. However, here is my turtle earrings, ice drop pendant, and bracelet set, with designer names.

Deadlands game is ongoing. We're discussing using a shared google doc for the game notes. Right now, I talk all the notes and SR fills in when I'm not there, or can't notes for some reason. I try to take them in the 'voice' of my character but it's hard when I'm covering stuff she's not there for.

It snowed Sunday morning. It was gone by 2 pm. I didn't get any pictures but it was powdered sugar snow (looked like someone had dusted the ground).

I'm Blaming the Weather

This is what I woke up to on Saturday morning.

 And this is what I saw later; there's a layer of ice, a layer of snow, and then a glaze of ice on top. Do I need to mention that I didn't drive to go see mom on Saturday? Or on Sunday?

 Thanks to unusually cold temperatures, there wasn't much melting, except in direct sun, until yesterday. I knew it was Tuesday, but I still forgot to make my blog post.  There was no reporting to work for me on Monday or Tuesday. I go back today.

Yesterday we finally got above freezing temperatures so I cleaned off my car. Since I need to make a trip to the fabric/notions store, I'm driving to the park and ride today.

I woke up at 3 am, managed to doze until about 4 am and finally got up at 5 am. I was starving and thirsty and just couldn't get back to sleep.















This is the gaiter I made for Cs nephew, to match his scarf. I need to go buy buttons and sew them on.

I gave this book to my Dad almost 20 years ago. He started working on it while working nights. When that job ended, he lost track of the book. He found it recently and loaned it to me at Christmas. I scanned the pages he's filled so far and then returned it so he can continue to fill it.

 I started using my coloring page of the day calendar. I'm already behind. This is the only page I've completed.

This is the hand crocheted scarf SNS made for me. Each color is a different yarn; fiber, etc. It's gorgeous! Her daughter also introduced me to a new term 'stupid scarf'. It's a name for an infinity or circle scarf, because no matter how stupid you're being, you can't/won't drop the scarf. C said he wants one, which makes me happy. I've been wanting to make one for him, but he's been reluctant because he doesn't spend as much outdoors as he used to.

I've been reading Rejected Princesses, another of my presents. I'm still reading Drunken Botanist from last year. It was on my TBR pile and I picked up a couple months ago. I've been reading one plant per night most nights.

My date with  C went...unexpectedly. She gave me some lovely gifts from Williamsburg, Va (powdered ink, handbound journal, quill pen, and a couple coasters). However, while I was waiting for her, she called. Her car had died. I went and picked her up, we ate supper, and then her boyfriend came and got her so she could get her car towed.

I've been shopping for a lacy pattern to use the buffboo yarn CD gave me. I got the two skeins wound into center pull balls but it's been difficult to find a suitable pattern. There's three main limitations; yardage, my skill, and my knitting is on a loom. One lovely pattern called for a cast on more stitches than any of my looms have. I finally bought a book of loom knitting shawl patterns. I'm starting with Sweet on Ruffles, as it looks simplest and will get me used to working a shawl pattern. I'm using a bulky yarn and I made a decent start last night.

Since I didn't see mom last weekend, I'll go this weekend. I have her new remote control, which will helpfully fix her no DVD player problem. We'll see. If not, then I'm buying a new player for her. TV runs out quick. I also need to pick up some books for her.

And as a treat, this is JJ's corrigated boxer. She's still a puppy and she's a corgi/boxer mix. She fell asleep on my leg during the party.

Jane's TIAS starts today. I need to load my shuttles and start.

Yep, It's Winter

Week before last, the weather was fabulous. I did not have to leave the building for any reason. This past week? 3 days of meetings to go to; including last Tuesday when it was so frigid.

Meeting on Wednesday, late morning. And mid-afternoon, when I finally went on lunch break, power went out in the building. Turns out there was an accident, in the building where I'd had my meeting, and it blew a transformer (and an employee was badly injured, otoh, there's really good care nearby). Apparently power was restored about 7+ pm.

I got a ride to my meeting on Thursday, and a ride back, which I don't always get. The weather was a little cold, but fabulous.

It sleeted, snowed, and freezing rain came down on Friday. Early Thursday evening, work let me know it would be closed on Friday. That was nice. I had two cups of hot chocolate to celebrate. That wasn't my wisest decision. I used almond milk, but the hot chocolate mix had powdered milk, I think. At least, my IBS said it was milk.

before dawn

I stayed up late, and turned off my alarm clock. Guess what, I woke up about 15 minutes before my alarm clock would have gone off. I tried to go back to sleep, but got up and took a couple pictures.

I went at far as the front stoop and took some pictures once the sun was up.

Still early

You can see the grass

look carefully, you'll see the bird footprints

 I played some computer games, finished a dragon, and worked on the 2016 TIAS.

untrimmed, not blocked

2016 Day 6

2016 TIAS Day 7

Can you see my footprints?

yes, that's my car

a bit of snow, on top of ice

accumulation

grass is still partially visible

yes, there are footprints there, really

 I went out later to get something out of my car. I took some pictures after I saw my footprints are barely visible. I could hear the gas creak, but it held my weight.

CD cleaned off his car after lunch and we went to the grocery store. It turned out our eggs had gone bad. Oops.

Our road was still pretty snowy and icy; one of our neighbors decided to walk to the grocery store. She wanted some exercise and it's only about a mile away. We checked on the way back in case she needed a ride.

Once we got to tertiary roads, they were slushy and secondary roads even had clear spots. The highway looked wet rather than slushy, from what I saw.

I worked with some size 80 thread (remember the tin of thread?) on Friday night. Messed up and decided to put it away until I had better light. I found a neat little pattern on Saturday (from an old Priscilla tatting book#1 online, figure 20) and well, it's an old book. I finally just wrote it in modern and corrected it. Tatting meeting was cancelled on Saturday so working on size 80 was my substitute, I guess. 

Sunday, temperature finally got above freezing, letting snow and ice melt, to run off the roads. Then refreeze when the sun set.

Work started at noon, and my bus didn't start until 3 pm. I went to the park and ride, and fortunately, the temperature rose enough that it only took me half an hour to completely clean off my car. I love the long-handled ice scraper/brush Mom gave me.

Needless to say, the bus was very crowded. I was lucky to get a seat. I was not lucky on the way home. When I got home, my knees were killing me.

This morning, I learned I had listened to the wrong weather forecaster. It did get down below freezing and the road was a sheet of ice. I was happy I had not planned to drive. I took the local bus instead. Walking to the bus stop was interesting. I didn't want to try the ice-glazed slopes of the sidewalk, so I walked in the icy snow and along the ditch. It was interesting hearing the ice crack and watching the crazed cracks form under my feet. It's a shallow ditch so I wasn't stressed about breaking through the ice.