windy weekend

The winds have been kicking up a bit ...... this is looking right at the mountain's!

on the way to town..........you couldn't even see the valley

Beads and Wire

There are a few things I just love to "play" with..........yarns, buttons, crystals/rocks and beads.

Now I can add wire to that list :D

I would never have given it much thought if I hadn't seen wire knitted up lol

I had to give it a go............. yeah well that was only so so..........do you know what that does to a set of needles :( I couldn't put my needles through it ........ the trauma

I made one button and knitted wire pin but gave it away without taking a photo, it was nice and felt good but not my thing just thinking about how it felt on the needles............ that scraping ugh........... until I saw it done with a crochet hook............not real damaging to the hook, this is where it shows that I'm a knitter not crocheter........

This a crocheted wire and bead button pin, very quick to make, just string a few glass seed beads on some 26 gauge wire and chain stitch a few inches, I used a G hook, place beads as you go.

Attach to button and pin with wire, by 'sewing" them together through the button holes.

I like how quirky they come out no two a like :D

Playing with the seed beads again was fun. I had used them with my cross stitch in the past, but wanted to do more, so I got a bead loom.

I used this pattern in a knitted baby towel a while back, still need to test knit the pattern before posting :(

She's smaller than she looks in this photo, only a few inches long.

As you can see one thing leads to another.......wire, crystals, beads, buttons, pins... all go together so nicely

I was gifted some out standing beads, some old pretty leafs, crystals and hand painted glass beads........ they are so nice. I used a old button to match them, wired onto a pin. The crystals and beads are hanging from some wire work. Thank you so much Kelly :D

I used thicker wire this time. I made this pin to use with my skirts ( the wrap around scarf style )and thought stronger would be better............that lead to wire wrapping.....and these

brass and crystal earrings

as well as these crystal and copper ones, that lead to playing with stronger wire and this

stainless steel and lapis wire wrapped bracelet

Now how do I add knitting back into all of this.............

Seamed pot holder

I wanted a pot holder that was easy on and off, would work with different sized hands. Quick to make.........

Seamed pot holder
Size 6 US needles
exact gauge is not essential to this project, just keep it on the tight side and do both sides the same :D
about 100 yards of 100 % cotton worsted weight
Yarn needle for seaming

k = knit
k1 tbl = knit 1 stitch through the back loop
k2tog = knit 2 stitches together
k2tog tbl = knit 2 stitches together through the back loop
yo = yarn over needle

Cast on 5 stitches
1 ) k1, yo, k to last stitch, yo, k1
2 ) k1, k1 tbl, k to last 2 stitches, k1 tbl, k1

Repeat 1 and 2 until you have 41 stitches

Knit 7 rows

Decrease
1) k1, k2tog tbl, knit until the last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1
2) knit
Repeat 1 and 2 until you have 19 stitches left

There are 2 ways you can do the cuff of this pot holder
1) Done in the round = bind off stitches and make a second piece, seam them together. Pick up stitches across each side, knit 2 by 2 ribbing ( k2, p2 ) for about 1 inch, bind off.

2) Done with 2 needles = after reaching 19 stitches,
Cloth # 1 * k2, p2 * across ending with p1 for 1 inch, bind off.
Cloth # 2 p1, * k2, p2 * to end. Bind off.
Seam both pieces together.
　

last few weeks

Let me tell you about our last few weeks….. You might want to get a cup of tea, as it is a long story………
This month started well enough……… okay it started well for about 10 hours lol
In this part of the world we are unaccustomed to truly cold weather, we tend to freak out if we have to put coats on…… so when we heard a big storm was coming…. no one was really concerned about it, even though we were seeing what it was doing to the rest of the country. We tend to worry more about the 100 plus degree weather for weeks on end with no rain…….. you know desert and all……. until last week I have never seen snow last more than a day down here …..
So while we bundled up and got the extra heaters out of storage…. never once did I think to store water……..
Coming from Wisconsin I did know enough to try and keep our water from freezing, couldn’t do it….. froze while it was running……… it was coming out like a icy machine…..
Not only did our sink pipes freeze but our toilet lines did too……..we were some of the lucky ones…..our family next door were able to keep some of their water running…… and while our sink drains froze our toilets could still be flushed with buckets of water……..
One of the reasons we couldn’t keep our water from freezing besides the sub zero weather, was the power kept going out….yep we heat with all electric…..couldn’t even keep the gas oven on ( electric ignite )….. for two days between power outages Jorden keep it from going below 44 degrees with his candles… he was making them as fast as we were burning them……he keep a dozen or more candles going….and kept the cats away from them, not even a whisker lit up :d
Brent was also able to get more hay for his dogs and my sisters as well as my aunts dog. With the tarps, warmed up food and defrosted water, they did pretty good. Better than I thought they could be, when this all started we had just had a party at our place, the girls got so excited I thought we were going to lose them that day….Pretty Girl wouldn’t stop walking around for hours until her hips started to give out, and Coco wouldn’t stop trying to bark and was paying big time with her allergies……I should have realized they were having too much fun to slow down……the weather took care of that lol they are doing good now….
After three days of frozen pipes we saw how that clearly wasn’t the end of our issues…..as our pipes slowly defrosted…..the leaks started to show themselves……..
Over the course of the next few days Brent spent every minute he was awake trying to get us water……he was soaked to the sink more than once in below freezing temps crawling under our trailer in the dark most of the time….. We had a total of 5 breaks….most of them were the pipes split along the length of them……..as I said were are among the lucky ones……not only can Brent do work like that….but he had most of the parts to do it……it was only $30. for a few parts…….. It did cost him in his work hours as the whole town came to a stand still…… however we have water and some people in town still don’t…..everyone else had the same issues going on….the few parts Brent needed to fix things were hard to come by……stores were selling out of everything from water pipes to water…..the only time Brent stopped was to help fix my Dad’s furnace……
After a few days he got water to the yard so we didn’t have to haul it as far…another few days and he got it to the house……just past midnight……he was able to take a long bath and go to bed before Jorden woke him saying something was wrong….that Brent should turn off the water heater….. Brent couldn’t see any reason to do it but did it anyhow……..when we woke up he went out to look, the water pipe to the heater had burst while we were sleeping, we could have not only drained our propane tank but killed the water heater as well….pretty lucky in our eyes……after coming in soaked to the skin again he called his voice mail as he had missed a called while we were asleep…… that’s how he got the news his father passed away….
We are not going back to Wisconsin this time ……..…..and I must say another life and death trip across country didn’t sound like the best of ideas to me…..so we did our own little thing down here in honor…..
there is a good side to this as hard as it is to say, I believe his dad is happier now….he was in bad shape for a number of years
All of this is going down when we discover we are missing the guys “papers” good thing were not headed to Arizona lol …………they may have been tossed with some old mail…….good thing we don’t get a chance to take the trash to the dump yet, even better that it’s been pretty cold so not as many bugs to dig through lol ( knock, knock, knock ) so there is a bit of hope we still have them……. I can tell you for sure they are not in this trailer…..I have gone over every inch of it twice…. it wasn’t easy…..no water for a week can really trash a place……just coming up for air now…..
As of right now we are coming down with a cold… Jorden is right in the middle of his…….but it seems to be moving fast thank goodness for Reiki
Speaking of Reiki before I had Reiki I couldn’t stand the cold at all….. my knees would go out and I would be in such pain it was unbearably from the cold alone ( that’s one of the reason we left Wisconsin ) … while the last week or so was hard it wasn’t undoable I was cold but not in pain….
Going through things like this can make you take a good look at how your spending your time, getting things done……
We have decided to call off all but the next workshop out of Pi Yoga. Life is too short to spend a day or two of recovery after every workshop or share….. We are doing the master workshop as we have people signed up for it already and don’t want to go back on our word…..I would have been very upset if it happened to me lol
We have had a lot of fun working out of Pi, Ellen is great, we now count her as a friend……with these new hours of Brent’s we get about 3 hours of sleep before workshops and shares, that makes our allergies even harder to control, we end up getting very spacey…..than spend the next day or so unable to go about our everyday life as breathing becomes a issue…….it’s not that Pi smells bad, it smells great, it’s just that it smells at all lol we can only take a limited amount of any smell not just nasty smells……oh that would be so nice to only have to stay away from ugly smells……
We will still be doing Reiki workshops and shares but out of places we have more control over the environment and can do later hours…. ( I will not not spend time with Brent every night :D )
We will miss going to Pi….. We wish them well……
All in all I’m really looking forward to Spring :D
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Brent's folks

Melva and Neil Szabrowicz 1955

I think we maybe keeping our wash clothes a bit past prime ;) funny part is even though I asked him to please give up on it this time, it made it back into the wash lol

Fun times

We got an another drum to add to our tools :D it feels great

we also picked up this.... talk about sweet, clear quartz and I have had our issues in the past... not this one :D ( both from Pi Yoga )

A friend gifted this to us knowing how much we like Bill Davis's art work

if you ever get to the Las Cruces Farmer's Market stop by his and Kelly's booth. They have wonderful feeling hand made items. I can not help but to smile when I look at or use any of their mugs plates or jewelry.

New pattern book and basic scrubbie pattern

My mom just sent this book over, they're so cute lol I'm going to have to make a few of these :D


I'm a huge fan of scrubbies, acrylic round ones. I just love them, I've got a lot of my family and friends hooked on them. I've made dozens. So how is it when I went to make a few the other day I was at a loss..........I could not recall what my cast on number was, I know I have it written down some where........


I've seen at least half a dozen patterns for close to the same style as I make. Could I find one, nope my Internet hook up was not going to help me out at all :( I couldn't get any of my knitting sites to pop up.
After playing around for a few minutes it came back to me....... but what if next time it doesn't lol


Like I said I've seen more than one pattern out there on these, I started by using one of them ( couldn't find that site either ). I changed it up some to suite me a bit more. I like a larger needle size not only for speed of knitting but the little bit looser stitch is great for scrubbing dishes, acrylic is also great for scrubbing. Redheart works very well. Holds up so long you'll forget how to make the pattern ;) I have some a few years old and still going strong. Just toss in the wash with your towels and your good to go again :D
I'm posting it here so I can find it again lol


About 3 1/2 inches
15 yards worsted weight acrylic yarn
needle size 11 US
yarn needle for seaming

K = knit
k1 f/b = knit the next stitch in the front and back, making new stitch
k2tog = knit two stitches together

Cast on 21 stitches

1) k1, k1 f/b, k16, k2tog, k1
2) k1, k2tog, k16, k1 f/b, k1

repeat these two rows 6 or 7 times, until you are almost out of yarn saving enough to bind off and seam together.


After binding off sew the cast on edge to the bind off edge, tie off with other tail from cast on. This helps keep the scrubbie's shape when you go to pull your yarn tight in the next step.

Weave tail of yarn through the open edge as you would a drawstring and pull tight. Turn right side out and weave through the last edge as before and pull tight. ( Don't worry about any other tails of yarn if using scrap pieces or color changing. They just add a bit of thickness, just tie the new yarn with the old when adding a new color to keep them from loosening up with use. )

Sew through the center a few times to weave in the tail end of the yarn, this adds firmness to the center of the scrubbie adding to it's longevity.

Christmas

We had the best Christmas to date this year :D
For years we have been trying to talk my family into not going all out on gifts. That's just not what it's all about.
This year we got them to agree to only shopping at the dollar store :D one gift from each person to each person. It was the most fun we have every had at Christmas. No one felt bad for over spending or under or whatever lol
We laughed so hard all night long, even the food came out good ;)
Everyone agreed to do the same next year :D
I hope you all had a wonderful time as well :D

Winter Moon

The was just the most wonderful night. We got to meet new people, spend time with new friends and old alike, and this moon :D Sweet