Big red socks

I finished the big red socks that I was working on for M4A, tonight. They are big and red and fuzzy, sure to warm the feet of some teenager in the orphanage at Akkol. Now, I need to find the brown mohair that was donated for charity knitting and get some even bigger ones made. I doubt that a teenage boy would want these big red ones, but brown ones would surely be welcomed by a guy. And there is a ton of the brown mohair somewhere in this house. My LYS owner gave it to me when she found out that I knit with all wools for my orphanage knitting. It was some kind of cape or something that a former customer had knit and when the customer passed away, a relative brought it into the lys hoping that someone could use it. I am going to get a lot of fuzzy socks out of it, I'm sure.
Well, thanks to my stinking fibromyalgia, I didn't make it to the baseball game this afternoon. I'm so bummed. I missed a winning game and a chicago dog! Rats! And DD Karin caught the only fly ball that came anywhere near the family. She is such a sweety, she got it autographed by the SilverHawks mascot and gave it to the Spanish exchange student who is staying with DD Annie and her family. So, he not only got his wish of seeing an American baseball game, he got an american baseball to take back to Spain. I stayed home and moaned and groaned and said blue words because I wasn't there with the rest of the family.
Crocheted 2 little preemie hats, today. I am slowing down on hats, I have a lot of other things to get done. I did start a bubbles blankie and got about 6 inches done on it. That will be a slow one now too. Tons of family gifts to knit between now and the end of October. About 7 pair of socks, that will be some kinda record, along with all the charity knitting that I want to get done, too.

Posting without pictures

is like knitting with my hands behind my back. I don't like it. I enjoy sharing pictures and I'm not clever enough to come up with interesting banter without piccies. Well, actually I'm not clever enough to come up with interesting banter with piccies, either. LOL
There is talk on one of the groups about how many needles a person has. Hmmm, now I know for sure that I don't have enough fingers and toes to count all the circs that I own. And I'm not sure that even if all my kids and grands contributed their fingers and toes that there would be enough to count them all. I gots a lotsa needles. LOL
On the Stitches of Violet blog, Marguerite mentioned having stress when she has more than 3 projects going. Ha-ha, I don't even know how many UFOs I have going, but I do know that every once in a while when I sit down and think about it I do feel a little stressed. So, I choose not to sit down and think about it very often. There's enough guilt in the world, I'm not adding to it by counting projects and needles. <>
My little preemie hat count is somewhere over 50 now for the month of July. Yeah, me! It's hard to believe, but I don't have one of those addictive little buggers we call the bubbles blankie going right now. But, I will probably have one on the hook before the weekend is out.
We are going to a minor league ball game in South Bend, IN on Sunday. Good family fun. DD#1 has an summer school exchange student and we are all gathering together to show him the great American pastime. I just hope that they have Chicago dogs at that park. I only get about 2 a year and I'm overdue! I love them, but I'm quite fluffy and don't need the calories and fat(not to mention all the chemicals and preservatives) so I limit myself to just a couple a year.
On the needles, I have just about got the gussett decreases done on my big red fuzzy socks for M4A. Now, these are going to be some very warm socks. Which reminds me to talk about Mittens for Akkol yahoo group. We are trying to get at least 256 pair of socks knit for mailing the first part of September to go over to Kaz. The children only receive a small bag of candy at their holiday time and our group leader wants to take a pair of socks for each child to receive with their little bag of candy on their holiday. Our group leader, Nanci has adopted 3 teenagers from Kaz and is going over the end of Sept. to pick up her fourth teenage child. Bless her heart, I can't imagine having so much love to give. But the world is certainly a better place with people like Nanci and Dave and others like them who are willing and able to do this wonderful thing. If you are reading this and are not already involved with knitting for charity, please consider doing just a little something. There is so much need in this world and it only takes one person doing one little thing for the whole world to be better. and if you are reading this and you are already knitting or crocheting or sewing for charity, thank you! You are very important!
Gotta scoot.......til later.

Knittin' away the summer

I've been Mrs. busy-needles again. I have 49 little preemie hats done for Lubbock. And so far there are 6 little preemie blankies for them. I have passed the turn of the heel on my big fuzzy red socks for M4A. Grubbed thru the Wool-Ease basket and found the camo color for SILs gift boot socks that are due by Aug. 25. Spent a little time winding that into two balls and finding the pattern notes from DGSs similar socks. While I was in that basket I got out the rose colored WE that will be DGDs boot socks, too. but hers will be knit with just one strand, not 2 like her Dads. Much easier on my hands. I have decided that I will make one more pair after these for my DH and then there will be no more 2 stranded boot socks, They will have to wear 2 pair at a time if they need that much thickness and warmth. Personally, a single strand of WE is too warm for my feet most of the time. but when the wind is blowing and the floors are real drafty, I love them.
DH has been off work all week, vacation at home. I must be getting really mellow in my near old age, because I really enjoy having him around. LOL Of course, he has spent some time power washing the house and painting the trim. and several evenings he was away fishing with the youngest DGS. Next week I willl be back to being alone most of the time and I guess that is OK, too. I do need some alone time, especially for the more complicated patterns that I like to try from time to time.
I know it's crazy, but I am going to try again to upload a pic. Even tho I am quite certain that it is a corruption somewhere in my IE program that is the problem. I have windows 98 on a very old computer, so there is no support available and right now I can't afford to pay the computer guy to come work on it. I just hope that I can get down to DD#1s this weekend to try uploading from there. With gas prices being what they are, we don't go very often, but that may be my only way of uploading from here on out. There is no new computer in my future. Unless, someone wins the big one and gives me a computer! LOL Oh, wait. You have to buy tickets to win the lottery, don't you?! Well , then that's not happening. LOL

I still can't seem to upload any pictures. I keep getting a message that the page cannot be displayed. and it happens when I try to upload to other websites, so I guess I have to take back all the 'blue' words that I said about blogger. LOL
Well, my knitting needles and crochet hooks are still working, thank goodness for that! I have been able to get a dozen and a half preemie hats crocheted since July 1st and I have another preemie Bubbles Blanket almost done. Finished a little blankie last night, too. that stack of blankies is growing, I'm going to have to get a big box to put them in soon. They are out-growing the basket that I usually use.
I have another pair of socks started for Mittens for Akkol. I wound some Patons Classic Wool Merino and some old BonBon Mohair together and cast on 36 sts with size 8 US needles. they are really nice thick and fuzzy socks that will fit one of the bigger kids at the orphanage. I have a boat-load of med. brown mohair and some off white mohair that I salvaged from a bit knitted thingy that the LYS owner gave me. Somebody had brought it in to her after a loved on passed away because they didn't want it or know what to do with it. So, of course, being the yarn scrounger that I am, I gladly brought it home to age at my house until I could figure out what it wants to be. I know for sure that some of it wants to be wound with other wool and used for socks for the kids at Akkol. Really, it does. (VBG)
Won't be going to DDs house this coming weekend after-all. That means I will have to wait until the 15 th to upload piccies at her house. We are going down to go to a minor league baseball game. DD and family have an exchange student visiting for 4 weeks from Spain and one of his wishes for his visit is to attend an American baseball game. So, pretty much our family is going. We prefer minor league ball to major league. More family oriented and we like that.
Gotta go warm up my crochet hook and see if I can get another hat done before I call it a night.

Well, so much for another try at uploading my pics. If I don't get it done from home, it will have to wait until the next time I go to DD Annie's house and I will do it there. May be a couple weeks though. Drat!
I was able to get 3 preemie hats crocheted last night while I was watching Tom Selleck in "Jesse Stone'. I made another one today and started another little preemie blankie for Lubbock. I am still working on the next blankie for Parkland, too. that just needs about 10 or 15 more rows, depends on when my yarn runs out. I'm alternating a space dyed Jiffy with a cream colored Jiffy so that I can use them up. I don't really care for Jiffy, but it was part of one of my garbage sale finds. (no I didn't spell that wrong) LOL
Mmmmm! We made homemade pizza again tonight. We put fresh basil and some parm cheese in the crust. Yummmo! DH loves to bake, so he makes the crust and I doctor the sauce and put on the topping. Then we both sit and drool while we wait for it to bake. (VBG) Now he is baking pineapple coconut cookies, he didn't want to waste the heat of the oven on just one thing. Suits me!
It was such a beautiful day here in SW MI. We spent about an hour and a half out back just watching the little wild bunnies romp around. Of course that is when I started the new blankie for Lubbock. There was a wonderful breeze blowing and the sun was just dappling thru the leaves of the trees. A few birds and butterflies completed the scene. We love it back there. We have a complete wall of green that separates us from the 'civilization' that is down the ravine from us. We really need to spend more time back there.
Well, I will try to upload piccies again tomorrow. till then..........