Life

The dog-chewed afghan has a new life

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Earlier this year Lulu ate part of my husband’s afghan. We caught her red-handed, or red-pawed, depending on how you look at it. Yep … I already blogged about it. I didn’t have the heart to throw the afghan away so it sat neatly folded across the couch all tattered and torn-looking. Recently over Sunday dinner, my son-in-law mentioned that I really ought to fix it.

“Why don’t you just unravel the yarn and then sew it across the bottom?” Chad asked.

I started with this little rant about why you don’t “sew” yarn. Chad didn’t know it yet, but he had planted a seed.

I had been thinking for several months the afghan was unfixable. The project was knitted years ago. I didn’t have the knitting pattern anymore with the cable design. I didn’t know the size of the needles I had used. I knew there was no way I could find the same color yarn. That is a lot of negative stuff.

But Chad got me thinking. What if I just didn’t worry about the pattern matching? What if I got a different color yarn for the five or six inches I needed to add to the bottom so my husband’s toes didn’t stick out when he snuggled? Make it look like it was meant to be a different color. Yeah … I could totally do that!

After a road trip to my favorite yarn shop Twisted Yarns right down the street from Old Town Spring, I was ready to tackle the project!

It took a couple of week of searching all the nooks and crannies around the house to find the knitting needles and just a little while to unravel the bad part of the afghan. Then I picked up the stitches and knitted a bunch of rows.

Thanks Chad for the inspiration! What do you think of the results?

New yarn bowl is uncommonly good

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Ceramic yarn bowlI received a beautiful ceramic yarn bowl for my birthday the other day. I know … “yarn” and “bowl” do not sound like words that belong in the same sentence. But trust me … it is a lovely gift for a knitter-type person. Right now I’m working on a colorful scarf. Yep … the bowl is coming in quite handy.

So the premise of the bowl is it also happens to be the perfect size for a hefty-sized ball of yarn. There is also a keyhole, or squiggly slot, in the side where a yarn strand can unfurl naturally. No more balls of yarn falling on the floor in a tangled mess. And it is a tad easier keeping our anything-knitted-eating dog away from my yarn.

My daughter purchased it on Uncommon Goods , a website that reminds me of Etsy, both great places to purchase unique gifts.

Did I mention my great experience on Etsy this last Christmas? I purchased for my son and son-in-law Breaking Bad cutting boards from Etsy. Heck, we are still having Breaking Bad separation anxiety since the series ended. At least the cutting boards make the boys smile until the next wonderfully written series emerges.

Flashlights and frozen peas

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Little Jake
I’ve learned lots of new concepts over the past few weeks about birth before our grandson, Jake, entered the world. The little fellow was in the breech position and, according to doctors, probably will not turn by the time he is born. The news was not what our daughter and son-in-law expected to hear.

When Chad heard the news from the doctor, he grabbed his iPad to perform some research. He told me there were some really wacky-sounding ways to nudge a baby to turn 180 degrees. They sounded like old wives’ tales to all of us. But was there a smidge of any truth to be found?

Did you know if a mother-to-be places a large bag of frozen peas where the baby’s head is located it is supposed to encourage a “swim” in the opposite direction? I was keeping an open mind.

“All we had was a bag of frozen corn. We tried it but nothing happened,” Chad smiled.

Katie’s dad thought the idea sounded intriguing but put his own spin on the idea. Rick suggested a bag of frozen chopped broccoli might just do the trick because … wait for it … of course every kid hates broccoli. You see what I have to live with?

There are also “baby spinning” suggestions (www.spinningbabies.com) on the Internet involving acupuncture, doing handstands while you are in the pool, getting on your hands and knees to scrub the floor, and playing music with headphones on your stomach. Of course the music one also has an ad for special headphones, called Belly Buds. They only cost $49.99, excluding sales tax and shipping. Who knew?

“We tried the music, without the special headphones, but apparently baby boy doesn’t like rock music. All he did was squirm,” laughed Katie.

Yoga was also mentioned. Apparently there are a bunch of exercises that are touted as helpful at spinning that baby around. It would be Katie’s luck that baby boy would wind up doing a 360 and be right back where he started. And how about just plain old visualization exercises? Basically, the premise is if you see it in your mind’s eye, he will turn. Sounds like taking wishful thinking to a new extreme.

My own personal favorite was the one using a flashlight.

“After the frozen corn, we tried the flashlight. It’s where you start at the top of your belly and move to the bottom and hope he ‘moves towards the light.’ It didn’t work either,” Katie chuckled.

Flashlights, frozen corn and rock music were all interesting but failed attempts to spin their baby boy around. Jake was born via C-Section last week. I do think the “baby spinning” concepts will make for some very interesting entries in the little tyke’s baby book. Welcome to the world baby Jake!

It was a “Tough Mudder” kind of day

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My Air Force son, Ricky, ran in his first Tough Mudder event (www.toughmudder.com) on April 12, in northern California. One of the dudes in his squadron, the 60th Aircraft Squadron, organized a group of seven for Tough Mudder. They represented another great nationwide cause, Run for the Fallen (www.runforthefallen.org), which runs one mile for every service member killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Since I have this “thing” about mud … I basically don’t like it … I was having a hard time understanding what was the big draw for the event. I mean … everyone is smiling in the photographs for Pete’s sake.

After a little Facetime with Ricky, I now totally get it. Ricky started off by proudly showing off his scraped and scratched-up knees. OK … so I showed off mine. The dog had pulled me down in the groomer’s parking lot the other day but I wasn’t exactly proud of my battered knees.

This is what I learned about Tough Mudder. Tough Mudder is a sponsor of Wounded Warrior Project. Mudders have raised over $6 million for the organization whose mission is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors. Since 2010, there have been over 100 Tough Mudder events all over the United States. 80% of the participants are teams and 78% of those that compete complete the race. So far, I’m pretty impressed.

The course on April 12, was located in Patterson, California, a small farming community. The course was 12 miles in length with 15 obstacles. Ricky and his group finished all the obstacles!

“I was worried about the monkey bars, the Chunky Monkey, because I have pencil arms, but I made it! I had two favorite obstacles. One was the Artic Enema. It reminded me of jumping into a wine chiller. The other was Walk the Plank, a twelve foot high dive into muddy water. I really like the water ones,” said Ricky.

There was also a buddy carry event, a log carry and a one called Killah Gorilla. Use your imagination on that last one. The whole event took their group 5-1/2 hours. It had water and food stations along the way and a beer tent at the end.

At the end, they give you a head band, t-shirt and beer. All in all I’d say Tough Mudder is Ricky’s new favorite thing to do … especially since he signed up for the next Tough Mudder event in Tahoe in August!

Most of the photographs were taken courtesy of Tough Mudder.

Mimi’s ‘Adventure Wall’

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My three babies
Finally took down the baby pictures in our hallway to the kid’s bedrooms. I mean … Ricky and Katie are married and one of them is having our first grandbaby in a few weeks. It’s time. Life is a transition, so I decided to get with the program! But what to replace them with … hmmm.

I’ve been plotting and planning an “Adventure Wall” in the family room for a while now with photos of world travels. I’ve finally got our favorites all picked out with about half of the photos blown-up. My engineer/husband has the large wall they will rest on plotted out on paper like a blueprint. Heck, I even know how many vertical and horizontal pictures I can fit on the wall before it blows up.

Carrying on with the same theme, I wanted something different for the walls vacated by my babies. It was earlier this year I decided Mimi should have her own “Adventure Wall.” She has been going to a special needs summer camp (Camp C.A.M.P. near Comfort, Texas and Camp for All in Burton, Texas) since she was eight-years-old having her own kind of adventures. Mimi will be thirty years old in July. Every year a disposable camera went with Mimi to camp for her “buddy” to take photographs. We’ve gotten some interesting photos of her fishing, petting boa constrictors, in a canoe and even hanging from a zip line. A couple of times they even got her in the pool. I think it is the splashing she detests. But by far Mimi’s favorite activity has always been horseback riding.

Obviously, Mimi on the horse is the first photograph she sees as I wheel her down the hallway to her room.

Mystery of the chewed on afghan solved!

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Chewed on

Lulu did it!
Hubby and I were sitting on the couch last night snuggled under the afghan I knitted for him several years ago. It’s heavy and knitted with two thick strands for maximum warmth. All of a sudden I heard Rick gasp. It was very unlike him to make that sound especially during an episode of “The Big Bang Theory.” After Rick pulled up one end of the afghan I sneered.

“Lulu just took a bite out of my afghan,” Rick growled in Lulu’s direction.

The yarn strands were still wet with her doggie DNA. My heart sank. Lulu is mostly well behaved … but has her moments. She is partial to shoes having taken out my favorite pair about a month ago. Now we know Lulu also likes knitted things. And that means it can be confirmed that Lulu was obviously the pooch that took the chunk out of my favorite afghan last year. The mystery is solved. Lulu is definitely on my “poop list.”

It’s for the little rutabaga

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I knew when I first laid eyeballs on the quilt kit at the International Quilt Festival last fall, it would be my first purchase. I mean … our daughter and son-in-law will have our first grandbaby in early May. Hooray! Oh, and our daughter also works at the Houston Zoo (www.houstonzoo.org). Naturally, a quilter, and grandmother-to-be, I had to run out and make a quilt for the little rutabaga.

We used to call our grandbaby-to-be a “sprout” for the longest time. It seems now all the rage is to compare their current size to fruits and veggies. Today it is the size of a rutabaga!

Picking which animal quilt option was a no-brainer, as back last October we didn’t know if it was a boy or girl. I figured the giraffe was generally gender neutral, although the pink flamingo and the monkey were also pretty darn cute. I have to say applique is not my favorite way to manipulate fabric, but I decided to jump in anyway with both feet. With the help of my trusty “Applique Pressing Sheet,” I could do this project in no time. Made it easier to build the whole giraffe and then fuse one large piece onto the quilt top.

Next step is to sew around the edges of the applique pieces before sending it on to my long-arm quilting lady!

The adorable animal quilt is published by “The Teacher’s Pet,” http://www.the-teachers-pet.com, out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The quilt pattern is called “Peek-a-Boo Pals” and includes all four animals in the pattern. An alphabet chart is also included. I opted not to put a name on it since the first name is not entirely settled.

2013 … a look back

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I only managed to complete two quilts in 2013. I have loftier quilting goals for 2014! The first completed 2013 quilt was a Christmas present for one of my husband’s many, many lovely sisters. Dipping into my collection of Christmas fat quarters, I used a disappearing nine-patch pattern (future blog alert) that I learned to make at our church’s prayer quilt ministry. A real stash buster and lots of fun to make! Did I mention that Becky is one of nine sisters in the family? She lives in San Antonio and runs a soup kitchen. I finished the quilt in the nick of time … only one year late!

The other quilt went to a charity gala for The Village Learning Center (www.villagelac.org). I make one every year for them. It’s the least I can do. Among other wonderful things, the Center runs an adult day program that my special needs daughter attends. Mimi’s favorite day of the week is Tuesday when her class goes bowling! Life should be so simple.

Just so you don’t think I was a total slug in 2014, I did manage to make coordinating pillow cases, dust ruffle and a little skirt for under Mimi’s television. It goes nicely with the quilt I made for her wall in 2012 with a collection of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters. The fabric on one side of the pillow cases is blue and the other green. The pillow cases were a booger to make until I learned the “hot dog bun” method of making pillow cases from my friend Angela. Now I just gotta figure out what to do with Mimi’s curtain-less window!