Knit & Crochet

I finished this a few days after my last post. It was made with yarn my Mother bought when Erica was born. She was going to crochet something at that time, I assume for Erica, but didn't get around to it as Poppy died.

I found papers relating to that time in the bag years ago before she died. I remember thinking at the time she was going to use it to keep her mind off of the troubles at the time. I was extremely depressed and we were moving into the house off of Harney Rd.

Nice to be able to make something for one of her great grandchildren with it. It's a kind of continuance for me. I also used Crochet, which she was quite good at. There are several doilies around in the family and extended family, some of which are really impressive.

The Spifed-up version

Well, in my VERY biased opinion, he's already an incredible cutie, but this is the bathed and dressed, before anything else could happen version :-D

Personalized Tattoos

Since so many of us in the family have tattoos, my grandson creates his own with markers and enlists the aid of his family members.

Last weekend he decided he wanted to have some like his Dad. So between Mom and himself he came up with some pretty cool ones.

My grandbaby

What a nice weekend. I got to spend time with my grandson. I had the opportunity to snap some shots of him playing tug-of-war with Jindo.

What charicatchers! Marcus would hold out the frond and then Jindo would de-leaf it. The spent half an hour literally tugging each other around the yard. I was fun to watch. The dog caught on real quick.

Between wars, they would take turns chasing each other around the yard. It was a lot of fun to watch.

The four legged children

Jindo

Shiela
Brewer Dino

Rody

In my family, I am often teased about the many four-legged children. My favorite response is "I work for dog food" :)

I thought I'd like to put some of their pictures up since I'd done so with my "other" children.

Our Matriarch is Miss Sheila, she's a Heeler, or Queensland Heeler, or Cattle dog - blue. She is 13 yrs. old as of January.

The black Lab is Brewer, as in he'll drink your brew if you leave it unattended. Brewer is 11 yrs. old as of last November and our "Old Man".

Next is Rody, he's our only mix and my baby. He' getting a little gray now too. He's going to be 8 yrs. old in late October. We're both October babies. This dog is the vassal that carries my heart.

Then there is Dino. :) He came to us as an adult. He's about 4yrs old now and a mixed tri-color Heeler. I saw a picture of him in the Vet's office and thought he'd be good breeding stock. As it turned out he was very good breeding stock, but he was so focused on the female (not shown) that he was losing weight. After the puppies were born and distributed for free, because we hadn't planned on a litter, we gave the female to a cousin in AL because she was making Sheila's life a hell.

And last, but by not means least, is our newest addition, Jindo. Jindo is the Chinese word for his breed which is also a Heeler - Red. We waited three years for this little guy, who is not so little any more. He's frighteningly intelligent, as in he watches everything you do. When I make coffee he comes and puts his paws on the counter and watches every detail, the same with my S.O. when he drives his truck. We decided to really keep an eye on him in case he decides to go for a ride or to make coffee. After all, he's not insured and I don't want him to spill water everywhere. He will be 1 yr. old in July this year.

Entry Table

This table came to me from the afore mentioned junk man. He and his wife are retirees. Being that he has lived in our rural (dirt roads) area since the "beginning" I refere to him as the President of the Old Boy Network. The area is about a 25 mile radius. Of course, he has contacts in all of the surrounding large cities.

As I was saying before I went off on a tangent about the honorable Mr. Art, this table was in a home behind were he lives. The house burned down one afternoon, no one was home at the time, thankfully. So this table was originally an off-white (again) and all of the paint was fire damaged. I was really pinning after it so one afternoon my husband says that Mr. Art would like me to come down to see him. He didn't know at the time what it was all about.

Well I took that table home and went through the same steps as with the entertainment center and "wha la", it is now in MY entryway and what a nice thing to have. I really needed one so this was a nice fix, don't ya think? :-D

An old chair

I've just gotten this old chair. As you can see I've taken the cushions from it already. I'll have to cut wood to size and then recover them. The back support it going to present some challenges. Since both sides are visible I'll have to cover the front and back in two pieces and then use a decorative trim around the edges to cover were they have been attached. It will be fun to see how it turns out.

I'm going to take my husband's grinder with a wire brush attachment to remove the old paint and then reapply a white enamel spray paint.

I was overjoyed to see this chair in his truck bed after doing a job for a customer. It was scheduled to go to a friend who does junk metal, but one look at it and it said to me, " I'll fit under that vanity you've been using as a desk in the bedroom" and winked at me. Well, that was it!

Now I'm daydreaming about what material will go best with the room it will be in.

#1 Noro Kureyon Bag

This is a bag that I have been having trouble getting the dowels for and then it took me forever to find the end pieces, the balls. I finally found them at JoAnne fabrics Etc. and they were only $.99. The dowel came from the local Home Depot.

I started out at the bottom using Plymouth Tweed, color 5319 on us8 needles and then I was at the local yarn shop, one of only two in about 150 miles, and saw the Noro Kureyon color 184 lot D. That was that!

I'm in love with this stuff. It's 100% wool, but it's hand died and the da__ things cost $8.50 each skein. I will buy more of those if I can find them. The other skeins of the same yarn, different color were $11 each, but I bought 3 of them that day and am still using them.

Anyway, since I'd started out using the us 8's I kept using them with the new color I added in, even though they called for a us 7. As you can see it turned out quite pretty. I wish I could have used only the 184 D, but there wasn't any more :(

It felted really well and I will do MUCH better with my next one.

Baby Blanket w/hats

This is the baby blanket that I wanted to post on Friday, but I also wanted to give my Son's better half the chance to see the site before I put this on it.

The hats are a little hard to see unless you double click it, which will enlarge it. There are two sizes so at least one should fit :)

I used U.S. 11 needles with Lion brand 315 Tudor in Moss stitch. It took two skeins. Since we don't know the baby's sex this is a nice nutral color.

Entertainment Center

When I got this entertainment center it was a VERY drab off-white with quite a few dings and some loose trim.

I sanded it and then used some acetone to clean any remaining debri from the surface and make the minor repairs. Then I primed it and painted it. I did this with a "press board" hutch and china cabinet that I'd had for 15 or 16 years and even embleished it with some little ivy leaves. After I'd painted that one I used the same green paint that is on the walls of the livingroom and kind of washed it to appear aged, but with green. I turned out very well. I'd oringinally planned to do the same with this project, but it will be going to the new house and it's primary color is blue, so I left it simply "new'" off-white.

The S.O.

This is the S.O., Significant Other, Robert the Hunter :-D We never have to buy meats of any kind. These days with fuel so expensive that's a real God send. We plan to plant a garden when we FINALLY sell the house in FL. We have a home I'm SE Alabama and are chomping at the bit to get there and start work.

It's amazing the difference between the two states! We have 1 acer with well and a nice double wide in Fl, $180,000. In AL we have 10 acers with a nice single wide and it was just under $40,000. And the property taxes, that's really amazing. In Fl we don't have to pay nearly as much as so many of the people you hear about in the news, but compared to Al, it's at least a $400. difference. We are graced with NOT being one of the thousands on the verge of losing their home.

The house depicted above is the "hunting lodge", as it were. In the summer there are a/c units in the windows and in the winter you use a lot of blankets. Yes, there is running water and toilets. I get an incredible amount of knitting done during the hunting season and in the off season we do property improvements like fencing in the 10 acers. We've got to finish two of the four perimeters.

Well, gotta go do some work, then I'll have time to post some of my knitting projects :)

My Babies

This is my baby, Erica :) She's the Mommy of my only grand son, at this time. :)







The picture of the young man I'm hugging is my Son, Jacques. He's the one that will be a new parent this year, the Lord & Lady willing.







I'm very proud of my children and I really think all parents are. I don't know what I did right, but I'm glad that I did it. Truthfully, I think it was their genetics so in all fairness I can't take credit for it even if I did raise them alone. Widowed.





As you can see by the other pic, they really are Spider Man nuts. Jacques got those shirts in August of 07 while he was here on vacation at Universal Stuidios in Orlando, FL.

My First Blog

This is the light of my Noni-hood. My first grandchild. I have to say that he has brought me more joy than I could have imagined.

You know here in Fl, you see those bumper stickers that say, "If I'd known being a grandparent was so much fun, I'd have done it first" ? Well now I know what they were talking about. He is my youngest child, my daughter's, first and only born.

My son has decided to get in on the action and I'm very much looking forward to all of the wonderful knitting I'm going to be able to do. I'm so excited that I've already started.

I completed my first baby blanket for the newest member of the family even before we know the sex of the child. The parents-to-be don't really don't care what the child is and I have to agree. My only motive for wanting to know is to enable me to pick applicable yarn colors - selfish I know :P

As far as the name of the Blog, The Blissful Knitter, the sweater that my grandson is wearing is my first "child" creation and, of course, it is too big, but that is a good thing with children because they grow like weeds, literally.

It was done on US8 straight needles and it's a basket weave. I love to collect patterns, but I've discovered something about myself. I collect a ridiculous amount of patterns and then graph my own creations with elements of the patterns. This was one such creation.

Originally it was to be just the blue you see, but when he and I went to get a little more to finish the project he decided he wanted the red you see in the picture. Soooo we ended up with Spider Man colors and since he and my Son are both SM freaks, that worked out just fine. all's well that ends well.

Well, this is the end of my first blog and I must say that I think my, My space, just died. This is so much more user friendly and it doesn't take four days to load when you have no choice except dial up because of where you live.