Knit a Square

I found the website: http://www.knit-a-square.com/ quite by accident, reading tweets on Twitter about knitting.  The idea of knitting for charity was not a new one.  I've thought of this often but time just got in the way.  Now that I have some unexpected time on my hands, I have decided to make use of some of that time doing something for my fellow man--or in this case, for a child.  Knitting instructions are simple--knit 8 x 8 inch squares in any stitch pattern as long as it is warm--and mail them to the group that runs this site. 

I've finished one and almost my second.  I hope to do one a day.  I have such a "stash" (should be called a warehouse as stash just does not suffice) already waiting for a project or left over from a project that I just know this will allow me to accomplish two goals--reach out to help someone else and work down on the excess in my yarn closet (room might be a better description).

I hope anyone who reads this blog entry will check out the site and see if you can fit in some knitting squares time in your busy lives. 

Be sure to note that you will need to keep acrylic yarns separate from wool and label the envelope as "acrylic" due to a safety factor described in the site.

Twitter Me...

Please find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lblack07

Grandma's Got You Covered!

Covered with knit hats at least. Probably not ready for Knitty or Interweave knits, but they will definitely do to have something from their Grandmother made with love.

My Sweet Coby is Dead!

Coby has been battling mast cell carcinomas now for 15 months. He reached the point we had to put him to sleep this past Thursday and my heart is breaking. He started having intermittent diarrhea and vomiting for a couple of months now, but the vomiting reached the point that he was miserable the prior couple of days. Both my husband and I decided the time had come. We took our sweet boy to the vet, the same one who diagnosed him and operated on him last year, and after a quick injection our boy was gone. We buried him in the garden in front of our home and my daughter made a headstone for him by painting a cat statue to look like him. We had actually deluded ourselves into thinking he was getting better, had seemed to put on some weight a bit before all of this started going downhill in a hurry. Now we miss him terribly. I will not be using this blog anymore after this entry. He was a bright sparkle joy in our lives now that we are empty nesters and we had him with us for 12 wonderful years. I pray some day they can come up with a solution that is not so hard on the pet. We gave him Prednisone for several months but it caused his hair to come out and he had an awful itchy, scaly rash all over. We decided that it was not worth an extra month or so for him to suffer as much as he was. Since stopping the Prednisone, his hair had regrown and the rash was all gone and he did gain some weight. He had been almost nothing but skin and bones for a while. We hate so much he had to suffer. Despite his suffering, he was still such a sweet and loving pet. God, please watch out for our precious cat in heaven until the day comes we join him.

UPDATE--It is hard to believe that time can ever heal sorrow and a broken heart, but I am able now to return to this blog--though with sadness over the loss of our special friend--I find that now the bitter pang of heartache has lessened to the point that I can appreciate reviewing Coby's photos and not come to tears. I thought I would never post on this blog again, but I have decided he needs to be remembered and treasured.

Flickr

Oh the Agony!!!

My faithful laptop computer DIED!!! I am now trying to figure out a new laptop and get somewhere close to where I was before. I had to buy new software because my old stuff didn't work with Windows Vista and of course you can't get anything else!

I have been lapse in updating my email of late. I have been busy knitting but have taken no pictures. I have to wonder where the time goes. My husband had his knee replaced and he is still recovering 10 weeks later. My father spent 15 weeks in the hospital and has finally come home. My sister-in-law who battled cancer for 3 long years lost her fight December 22nd and our family has been in mourning for this dear lady that we all loved so much! Things have been busy in our family.

Yet, I have found some time to knit but no time to blog! I will try to do better... Lord, please don't let anything else happen!

I'M IN... My invite to Ravelry has finally come!

You would think I could at least have some pictures taken and some WIP ready to go, but NO! That would be thinking ahead. I plan to get started tomorrow though. Tonight my time just got away from me.

What I look for Ravelry to be fore me: A good reference, a social setting, a way to list all my stuff in an easily accessible site. I am so interested in getting little details put down somewhere for posterity. Knitting is a journey for me. I am itching to grow and develop skills. I have no one around me who knits, which makes for a rather lonely hobby. If I run into trouble, I have to either search the web for a cure or FROG and start over. The latter is definitely my least favorite.

If anyone else wants to visit me at Ravelry, I'm Lindab2603. Hope to see you there. Please leave comments.

More Ipod Cozies...Twisted Sisters Help!!

I think I'm stuck in a rut. I've knitted two ipod cozies this week already. My goal is to start a vest. I'm still trying to learn more about fitting and designing before starting on this project. At my size (3x) there aren't many patterns already made up, so I want to do it from the ground up.

I purchased a book called The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters..A Knit-to-Fit Workshop. While I have only had time to skim through it, there looks to be some good information there and I am very hopeful to finally get the confidence to try a bigger project.

Coby is acting much more like himself. We learned a magic trick from our son--there is a neat little product sold at pet stores (don't have the name handy) but it is something like pill popper. The pill goes inside a small chunk of highly flavored mixture (his is salmon flavored) and after a whole week of stress-filled attempts at medicating him it is now a simple matter of giving him his "treat" twice a day and he gobbles them up and begs for more.

Which Needle? Which Yarn?

I'm kind of in a knitting funk right now. Not really interested in working on current OTN projects but don't have a strong desire to start something new yet. I've cast on 4 times this evening -- do I want to do a hat, a baby blanket, another Ipod cozy--WHAT!!! I just don't feel strongly about anything tonight.

I guess I am wishing I could start loading my stash and OTN projects on Ravelry but there are 8600+ ahead of me. I spent some time at Knitting Help forum reading about others--ones who are waiting like me or the ones who have already gotten in. I surely hope it is worth all the excitement.

I'm hoping that by entering all my info I can see how much I really have and QUIT BUYING MORE! I purchased on ebay 6 addi lace turbo needles. Good price but gosh really I don't need anymore needles. I've got my eye on the new wood version of Knitpicks Options. They are SO GORGEOUS!! If only my pocketbook was as big as my wanter!

Mr. Coby is doing well after a week on steroids and antibiotics. He acts much like him old self. We got a call mid-week from the vet who said the biopsies they checked did not have any mast cells in them, so he has a better outlook than predicted earlier. My baby girl (24 yo) is past her surgery and growing stronger. I am hoping against hope that the hysterectomy will somehow improve her lupus. The inflammation in her uterus was enough to flare something up for sure.

It's 3 am and I have got a ton to do tomorrow, so I've got to say night-y-nite!

The Big Day with Coby has finally arrived!

Coby had to have an ultrasound and spleen needle aspirate done this morning. The plan was if they found he had just a splenic mass that was positive for the mast cell tumor, they would remove it. Instead they found other things--one of his kidneys has quite functioning, the other has a kidney stone, plus he has several small masses that they really don't know what they are but with the kidney problems they didn't think the prognosis was good. So he was sent home without surgery for us to hug and kiss all we could. He was given a couple of medicines--an antibiotic and the other was steroids. Hopefully this will help him have more time.

We had to wrestle with him to get the medicine--at least some of it--in him this evening and it was a real challenge. He has to take the Prednisone twice a day and that means getting up earlier.