New Year 2010!!!!

I must say, 2009 flew by rather quickly. An awful lot seemed to happen this year; I am very glad it is drawing to a close. My work life has settled down considerably. I am home at night to make dinner for and eat it with my boys. I have time to work on my crocheting more. Our house is getting prepped for new floors, new kitchen appliances and a new coat of paint. Maybe even a new porch off the back, fenced in yard, and new windows, too! My new Cabrio washer and dryer are to be delivered on New Year's day......I've never had a matching set before, so I am joyfully harkening in the New Year!
Jeff has found his new career path in Nuclear Engineering. Stevie is gearing up to graduate HS and go to Az with Jeff this summer. Timm is working diligently to get into a great college to be some sort of aerospace whiz, and is even working at Wendy's (he's so cute in his uniform).
I have also learned to appreciate my friends and family more, to cherish each gathering and meeting with those who mean the world to me, both old and new friends, and to appreciate the wonderful world around me.
I hope to post some pics from Christmas and some new things I've made on here in the next week. Until we talk again, I hope y'all have a happy, fun, joyous and above all, SAFE New Year's. I will be safely in the lab at the VA....but hey, at least I'll be awake at midnite!!!! See ya in the new decade!!!!!!
PK

Christmas is Over....

and I can't believe I haven't posted a word mid-October! I must admit, I was busily creating gifts for family and friends. I will post pics in the next week or so, but I will also say that one of my New Year's resolutions is to pay more attention to my blog world. I find a two month plus absence from my beloved cyber world is just tooo long!

Christmas was fun...on Christmas Eve, we took the trip to Zellwood station for the annual DiBiasio family Christmas. Liken it to Griswold's without all the lights! There's food, drink, cookies, cheesecake and oh yes, the yearly gift exchange. We all pick names at Thanksgiving. I received a great hot cocoa/coffee basket from my sister in law, Teresa. Haven't had time to try anything except the white chocolate kona coffee. yummy! can't wait to have the cocoas and marzipan coffee.

I crocheted a pink panda bear afghan for my niece, Rachel. She posted that she wanted one after seeing another that I had made on facebook. The only differences were that I used black and white fun fur for the panda and the tunisian stitch, to make it go quicker. Yes, dear friends, I waited until the last possible moment to cram this into my stitching schedule. I finished it and she loved it. I hated using the fun fur, particularly on the black parts. Stitches were dropped and repaired a few times!

I also crocheted a sweater for my SIL Susie. She had seen a few I made about 5 years ago for my nieces and said that she also wanted one. Yes, 5 years later, she received it! I was upset, as Jeff's gf Sam is still in Arizona working and wasn't here to try it on before I gave it. I made it in Sage Mary; Kim, another SIL, wants one of the same colors, also. Yes, I think I have my work cut out for me for next year, and it's only December 26!

I still need to finish Madelyn's blanket. I 'm three rows from being done. I really think I have separation anxiety from finished projects. I will get that blanket done before her birthday in February! I also need to make socks, earflap hat and arm warmers for Stevie's gf, Nicole. I guess I'd better get started soon!

The fun part of Christmas this year was making the boys wait until 4pm on Christmas day to open their presents. I was at home by 8:15 am (I work the graveyard at the VA hospital lab in Gainesville, 45 minutes from my home), but was soooo tired, I climbed into bed to sleep for a couple of hours. The boys wanted to go see Sherlock Holmes, so I had Fandangoed the tickets on Christmas Eve. Glad I did, too. The line was around the theater when we drove up at 12:55 for a 1:10 pm show. It was AWESOME to be able to walk in and stroll right to our movie! We loved it....and we all went as a family....the only person missing was Sam. We came home, Bob cooked our standing rib roast while I wrapped the rest of the presents. Then it was time to unwrap! The boys had fun...they all received NERF guns...have been sporadically running around shooting one another at opportune times....which starts yet another war. Steve's waiting for his Bass pedals and cables; Tim's drumsticks and heads are on their way....he went out with me on Black Friday and we got his other shopping done, along with his dad's; Jeff and I are going laptop computer shopping next week. Jeff wants to take online school to study nuclear engineering. YAY!!!! He found something he wants to be when he grows up!!!

OK, enough for now. Next post will have pics of the above mentioned projects! Until then, continue to enjoy your holidays and most of all, love the family and friends around you and far away! And as always, find time to do whatever makes you happy.....be it crochet, knit or some other craft!!!!

Merry Christmas and have a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!!

Menopause, hot flashes, lack of sleep and knitting

Ah yes, menopause. It is hitting me in waves lately. Heat waves, as it were. Working the graveyard shift, I get to lay down at about 9am. That's after the boys are fed and on their ways to DHS. I sleep for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours and wake up drenched in sweat, heat radiating from my core. Hubby, sweet thing that he is, suggests that I take a cool shower or dip in the pool. Surely that would cool you down. I snarled, no it won't work. You should try; my fangs bared, I growl, "no, trust me, it's from the inside. standing in the pool will NOT work." Then one night, the dear man reached over and felt my hot, sweat soaked skin. (No, not amorously; rather to see what all the ruckous was about with the hot flash). "OMG!" he exclaimed; you feel like a furnace. "Yeah, I TOLD you so......" Never was a dip in the cool refreshing pool brought up.
Anyway, yesterday was a day when the hot flash racked my body, sitting me straight up in bed at 11:30 am; I had fallen asleep around 9am. Hubby snuck out the door to work his noon to 9p shift.....personally, I think he slunk away a little early, just to escape the snarling and growling from my lack of sleep.
Unable to sleep, I decided to surf the net in search of learning to knit info. I have been an avid crocheter since I was 8 years old (thanks, Grandma Till!!), but knitting has always eluded me. I don't have the patience to watch someone and do what they do. We usually both end up frustrated and I give up. Reading the directions is like me trying to read Greek....uh, yeah, I don't get it from a 2-D picture. I have a couple of really cool EASY knitting patterns I want to make. So, I stumbled to You-tube. There are instructional videos to teach you almost anything you want to learn. I found the basic knit and purl stitches, plus the cable cast on required for the first attempt; The Garter Ridge T-Top from e-patterns central. I made my test swatch, no holes and no problem. Didn't even rip it out, as the son expected me to do. Like I usually do when I don't like the way something turns out. I proudly bound off and showed my little 2 x 2 inch creation to my boys. "That's nice, Mom." I am very happy that I was able to learn this! Can't you show a little more enthusiasm at my accomplishment? Uh, nope!@
So then I progressed to the 89 stitch cable cast on. Almost gave it up, as it took me 2 1/2 hours to get it right......10 stitches was a breeze! I perservered, frogged, tried again and again. Finally, all 89 little buggers were on the needle. Garter stitch for 10 rows. Easy, peasy. Then came the purl stitch. I forgot. Oh no, what will I do? Lion Brand has lovely photos and diagrams to jog the memory. Ah yes, there it is!!! Not as difficult as you were trying to make it.......DUH moment set in.
I am well on my way to the front of the sweater. I am still very excited that there are NO HOLES! Keeping my fingers crossed that my luck holds...So, if it were not for the hot flashes and onset of menopause, I would not be unable to sleep and needing something new to attempt, in order to stay awake until said hot flash passes. Perhaps I will be able to de-stash a bit with this new little twist in my life. Guess we'll find out soon enough!!!!

More FO's!!!!

Yea! I finished the Hearts and Gingham Nap sack I started in April 2008. The great nephew that it was originally for is wayy to big for it, so I had to make it for a friend at work. She was due Oct.22. but had a beautiful little boy on Sept 30. If the kid had been on time, I would have been done in time!
This was fun to make, but I hated putting it together. The string took about 2 hours to weave around the outside. Hope Johanna and the little guy like it!

finished projects

End of September. Hard to believe the month of September is almost over. This year seems to be flying by faster than usual. In my absence from the blogging scene, I have been working, fighting a cold, abscessed tooth and crocheting! Yes, I have finished a few things:

The above two lapghans were done as a CAL for the group CrochetNChitchat on yahoo. Am sending the blue and black one to my 90 yr old aunt for her b-day. She loves blue and loves when I send her things I make. The pineapple centerpiece is another attempt to fit my kitchen table....not a chance. Only 35.5" across. I'll keep trying. Really love the Elizabeth Hiddleson pattern, though.
The last picture is of my leaf green sweater from Crochet! magazine, May 2009. I didn't like the plain dc stitches, so I did a cross stitch instead. A little airy and light to wear in cooler weather. Now to move on to a sweater coat for me. Too bad I found the Tokyo pattern at Caron.com. May have to make that first:

http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/tokyo/tokyo_1.html

Jeff and Sam are safely in Arizona, training at Palo Verde nuclear facility. They are loving the change of pace and learning something different. Jeff said the funniest thing was trying to find a hazmat suit that fit sam...she's 4'11" and tiny. Best they could do was get a size XL; she looked like and oompaloompah. I would pay to see that!
I am once again, hoping to be able to post more frequently. There's just not enough hours in my day! Take care and have a great afternoon, my friends!

Long awaited UPDATE!!!

I cannot believe it's been soooo long since I last posted. So much has happened; prepping for our long drive to Washington, DC and Boston, the DiBiasio family reunion, oldest son getting ready for an adventure working in Arizona. Work again has gotten in the way of my blogging. Life seems to be settling into a dull roar, so hopefully I can be more frequent in my posts. I will post pics from our vacation; the boys stayed home. Their girlfriends and they cleaned my house, carpets and kitchen. WOW, it was spotless when we came home from our week away! They did a wonderful job. Now, to keep it that way....gonna be tough as my vacuum cleaner blew up on Steven while cleaning. Washing machine lid switch is burnt out, so jamming it into place won't work. Oh yes, and the pool pump died, too. Luckily, we had the original in the shed that had never been used. It is pumping away and my pool is crystal clear!
I will post about Mr. Bob's and my adventure from home; that's where all the pictures are kept! We did an awful lot in a very short period of time....I think I am finally recovered!!! Hope all is well out in Blog land. I have missed you and will be more diligent with my posts from now on....barring any unforseen circumstances!

Graveyard shift and Russian White Nights

I was just reading my friend, Henya's, blog, Chickenstitches. She was talking about the Russian "White Nights" and how she never truly experienced one, but likens being up with her various 6...yes, Six (God bless her...My three drive me nuts) children, at various times of the nite. Henya finds respite in knitting, crocheting, making stitch markers, as one of her "blessings" is up and about. She got me thinking as to how my graveyard shift is similar. I spend a great deal of time waiting for the lab work to come to me. I have begun to bring small projects to work on during the down time. Then it hit me, I can write on my blog. I'm hoping to be able to do this more frequently, as I have been lax. My dream of miraculously getting all caught up on my far behind projects has yet to happen. I cannot get motivated to work on them, just as I cannot motivate my butt to exercise again. I blame it on trying to adjust to graveyard again. Not true; I have been playing with my new computer, trying to get it just right. I have TONS of storage space on it for my patterns. YIPPEEE! Thank you, Sir Pauly for your hard work! Also my new i-Phone and it's neat applications.
Oh yes, and then there's the chauferring service that I render to my two youngest boys. They are teenagers with driver's permits, but I must be present when they drive. Who would have thought that I would be spending a lot of my free hours trekking them across Ocala and it's environs? I do most of my crocheting, mostly on my EH pineapple centerpiece (8 rows to go, folks!), in the car. That also enables me to miss some of their more inexperienced driving faux pas. Nothing too major. No accidents so far (fingers crossed.)
The point of this post it that I feel as though I am on a forever "White Night". The bright flourescent lights of the lab keep it quite white. I just wish I could be more craft productive like my friend. I will get there, I know I will!