Escaping the heat

Friends invited me to their TN home in Pigeon Forge. Awesome home, great fun with friends, beautiful scenery, lots to see and do, and not one day of 90 degree temperatures!!!!

The last time I was in that area was in the late 50s. At that time Gatlinburg was a quaint little town with lots of handmade things to see in various shops. What a shock at the change. It is now major "tacky tourist" shops everywhere.

I much prefer Pigeon Forge. We visited several wonderful craft shops . If you are in the area, by all means seek out Smokey Mountain Pottery. Gaye Ann and Dennis are really nice people and their shop is awesome! I limited myself to only 3 pieces of pottery but it was hard. Am I the only person who starts out looking for gifts and then finds things for themselves instead? Maybe it's just not close enough to the holidays and I don't feel the "shopping pressure" yet.

Pictures will follow when they are uploaded....which may be after I actually get around to unpacking the suitcase .

Oh, well, I guess I'll just go ahead and post the pictures. Unpacking the suitcase means I am going to have to do laundry and I've already been to the grocery store today.

Well, rats! My computer is acting like a mother. I had the pictures posted, they were turned sideways , I deleted them and tried to upload them again and nothing is happening. Geez, an electronic monitor is just what I don't need. I'll try later to sneak up on it and see if I can post. See, I have been reduced to playing games with an electronic device. I sooooo told you it was magic.

Baby knits

OK, knitting for babies is fun! The stuff is little and you can actually finish something within a reasonable length of time. Amazing. The latest is a hat for my soon to be born nephew and it is purple. The pattern was the Apple Hat pattern but I had purple yarn on hand and so made a grape instead of an apple. It was such an enjoyable knit that I am now doing one in yellow.


Since it is knitting and no yo, k2tog until toward the end, I am now starting a pattern search for something a bit more challenging to do as well. I need to check my Que on Ravelry as the list is really long.

Added to the challenge is trying to find a pattern that uses something from my stash. I really, really need to stop buying yarn for a while. The stash is beginning to take over the house. (Everyone knows yarn multiplies at night since you couldn't have possibly purchased that much yarn.)

Update later in July: Baby arrived and Mother, Father and baby are doing great. Can't wait to see pictures. So now I have a deadline to get the pictures posted and hats in the mail. I function so much better with a deadline.

The Oak

I see such strength in this oak. It lives next to the parking lot of the Hospice where I volunteer. I love to drive up and see it there. It's a reminder that life goes on and there is a power greater than we are. I find comfort from that oak and what it represents to me. When I have finished making my calls and offering what help I can to grieving individuals, that oak is waiting for me. I always feel as if I could rest quietly under that oak and be at peace.

It reminds me that God is our strength and He shelters us even during the most difficult of times. There are so many reminders all around to let us know we are not alone.

In the past 2 weeks, I've lost 2 friends. One of them died way before his time and the other was 93 and it was still too soon for her. Although they were so different there were many similarities. Both had people around them who loved them. Both enjoyed a good laugh. Both gave great hugs. Both had a strong faith in God. Both will be greatly missed.

Knitting in the heat

Well sometimes setting records is a wonderful thing. Sometimes, it's not. This is one of those times. Record heat day after day gets really old. Throw into the mix every bit of pollen imaginable and you have a wonderful excuse for staying inside and knitting like a woman possessed.


I have put the Dr. Who scarf aside for a bit as sitting under that thing and running the a/c full blast seems sort of counter productive. Instead I am working on cotton cowls. I just finished a purple and gold one of mercerized cotton (Sassy Skein) and am working on a turquoise one (King Tut mercerized cotton). Although the King Tut was a better bargin (more yardage for your money when on sale) I find I prefer the Sassy Skein as it doesn't "untwist" when using it.




The purple and gold one is from a pattern on Rav and the King Tut pattern is out of my head. I started out using a pattern from Rav but got totally frustrated following it and after it had been ripped out 3 times, I decided to wing it. Nothing particularly wrong with the pattern but I wasn't in the mood to k6, k2tog,yo and then the next row k5, k2tog, yo, k1, etc. I kept forgetting to add on the last knit stitches. (Brain has probably melted from the heat.)

My pattern is more of a yo, k2tog, k6 but with one row "sliding" into the next one so there isn't a definitive pattern. Row 2 is yo,k2tog, k5, etc. I work down from 6 knit stitches to 2 between the (yo,k2tog) groups and then back up from 2 to 6. Yes, I know, it's a wonderful thing that I don't write patterns. The erratta pages would fill a notebook.

My project for tomorrow is acquiring a Furminator. Several of us tried one out on a couple of cats and a friend experimented on her lab. Talk about harvesting hair!!! Can't wait to see that the Shelties think of it. Talk about making dust bunnies.



This is the finished prayer shawl for the mother of the fallen soldier. I'll get a better picture before I mail it to the family. This is such a pleasure to knit. Check out Prayer Shawls for Fallen Soldiers on Google if you are interested. You sign in with the group and as shawls are needed you are contacted if they are in your area. If you are busy and don't have a shawl available at that time, there isn't any pressure but if you can, you may want to give it a try.

Two Too Many Big Projects

When will I learn? Doing 2 big projects at one time is just not satisfying to someone who wants frequent ohhs and ahhs for finished projects.

I am currently knitting on the Dr. Who scarf for J. If you have looked at one of these things, you know it will take pretty much forever to finish it. I am possibly almost, but not quite, 1/3 of the way finished. Which translates to having 2/3 of this hummer to go. The one positive note--it's a great project to drag along when you want to visit as it is straight knitting and doesn't require many brains cells to function at once.

The prayer shawl for the family member of a fallen soldier is in better shape. I have knitted 15 inches of the required 24 inches. Hopefully I'll have it finished and mailed to the family in another week or so. I may have to take a break and work on a smaller project or two before I run screaming into the night trailing yarn after me.

The heat is ridiculous right now so I am doing an impression of a bear hibernating only I'm knitting instead of sleeping during the day. Thank goodness for floor fans. They are a life saver and using them I can keep the a/c on 78 during the day and turn it down to 74 at night. NOTE TO ALL: Floor fans also have the advantage of herding the dust bunnies into a couple of groups rather than scattered around the room. Very productive. Makes for less cleaning.

Speaking of cleaning...a brilliant friend is now cleaning her place by spending 15 minutes a day doing it. She sets the timer and when the timer goes off, she stops cleaning for that day. I thought it was a wonderful idea and when we discussed it on Saturday, I decided I would start on Sunday. It is now Tuesday and I am 45 minutes behind schedule. Somehow I don't think this method is going to work for me.

As Scarlett so beautifully put it, " I'll think about that tomorrow." Hey, if it was good enough for Scarlett, it's good enough for me.

Knitting and iPod

The knitting on the prayer shawl for the family of a fallen soldier continues. I am using the Old Shale pattern which is only 4 rows. Only one row is actually a pattern row with 2 rows of straight knitting and one row of purl. As long as you remember which row you are working on, it goes smoothly. A friend told me about putting the pattern on index cards which are on a ring. I love this method as I can just flip the cards as I knit and it does help to keep my place. Previously I had used post a notes or a piece of paper upon which I made pencil marks.

I am currently listening to The Camel Club by David Baldacci. This is very riveting and certainly a timely story. Can't wait to see where the plots goes next. This is my first book by Baldacci but it won't be the last as I enjoy his style of writing.

I was going to garden some this morning but with the heat index already well into the 80s I changed my mind. Hopefully the heat will kill some of the weeds. Much better to knit in front of the fan. I am having to almost physically boot the Shelties out the door to go potty. They aren't into the heat any more than I am.

Laptop crazies

My wonderful beautiful Dell Studio 15 laptop arrived. I love it! J truly gives special gifts and then is so patient explaining to me how they work. (I tend to think that magic and electric are the same thing.)As a computer programmer he doesn't hold with this theory .

L and C came over and while L and I talked knitting and spinning, C set up the router. I played on Studio for a while that afternoon. That night I plugged it into an electrical outlet to charge away. The next morning I went to get on, sitting comfortably on the couch with feet propped up, and Studio wanted to get the latest updates...and then you know what hit the fan.

In the middle of this lovely download with the computer flashing "Do not turn off your computer" at me the battery died. It beeped once and died, really dead. My shouting "no, no, don't do that" had no effect on it and so I immediately took myself to the nearest working electrical outlet and plugged the Studio in. (Apparently the outlet I had used last night didn't work.)

The updates seemed to continue, however it got in a loop and would not get out of it. Feeling as I do about the magic/electric thing, I was hesitant to touch anything lest the magic/electric gods rear their angry heads and banish me from the internet forever. I was patient!!! We're talking 3 hours.Finally, in desperation, I used the pc to im J and ask what the same hill was going on. After I tried a couple of things he suggested, and nothing worked, he suggested that I get on line with Dell tech support.

Thus began my 2 1/2 hours visit with "Benjamin". I found out where the battery is on my Studio, as well as the cd portal. Also found some other little square thingie that comes out when you poke it but until I get better reading glasses, I won't know what it is. Thankfully when I poked it again, it went back in and the Studio didn't fall apart .

Benjamin was kind enough to mention that I wasn't the longest chat he'd had, several people had needed 4 hours to get things fixed--not encouraging. NOTE TO SELF: If you are going to be on the phone with tech support for over 2 hours, put a comfortable chair next to the laptop plugged into the electrical outlet. The little kitchen stool is not the best for sitting or trying to knit while maintaining your balance.

Why didn't I unplug the computer and move to the more comfortable couch, you ask? HA, I was taking no chances on the battery dying again. I'd learned my lesson so I balanced, knitted and mumbled about Vista, Microsoft, and wondered whether Bill Gates really liked the rest of us or this was just a cruel jest on his part.

After finally re-everything (boot,load, whatever) the Studio it was up and running. I considered asking Benjamin for a mailing address so I could add him to my Christmas list but I am pretty sure he was in an area of the world where Christmas wasn't celebrated by most of the population.

This morning I got up, confidently turned on Studio and everything looked good until I got the notice that a program wanted to do something and should McAfee be notified. Dang it! Number one, I had already told Studio that I didn't want to deal with McAfee but there was no "go away" option in the annoying little box. Then, there it was at the bottom of the screen, the little flashing notice that said "Java Updates". Well, I'm not falling for that one again! That's what got me in trouble yesterday. I carefully shut Studio down and came into this room to report all this on my pc.

Could this be a plot on the part of XP not wanting to be replaced by Vista, or the pc not wanting the Studio to be more loved? I may yet prove that magic and electric are the same things. Laugh now, but think of that the next time you take Vista out for a walk on the internet.