Surprise Baby Sweater & other stuff

I bought a kit for the Surprise Baby Sweater Kit from Schoolhousepress. It is a weird little sweater that looks nothing like a sweater when you cast off. It needs folding and a little stitching to become a sweater. I've heard it said that once you get the hang of it there is no easier sweater. We'll see!! The kit came today and I've just finished up Row 5.
I went swimming yesterday and today. Today was cat shelter day and boy was it hot in there! And stinky. I didn't eat right today, but I did the best I could and tried to eat less calories (missed lunch due to hubby's monkey wrenching my afternoon and taking off with part of my lunch).
It's almost 11, I'm off to beddy-bye. Tomorrow is Joe's half day at summer school. When he gets home I'll take him, do a tad shopping (including picking up the Pokemon Battle thingy for the WII which we don't have yet - Early Christmas shopping).
Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite.

New pictures added.

I'll have to get online and write later, just updated the blog by adding some pics of Tariq and Aishah (Eva). I even have the ultrasound of Grandson-to-be, Saad William. Tariq is in charge of giving the children (well, we are hoping for more than one grand from them) their Islamic names, while Aishah gives them their middle name. Aishah picked the name William to honor my father and hubby's brother. It really brought tears to my eyes...I still miss Dad soooo much. There is a lot of him inside me though, I find his navigation skills popping out when I least expect but most need them! I hope I'm half as wise and wonderful as he was when I turn 70! He passed on when he was 72. I'll write someday soon about him.
Enough for now, Joe will be home soon from his first day in summer school at the new school. I'm hoping he had a good day and liked it. I have to get lunch ready for the two of us and prep dinner so it will be easy to cook (then I can go downstairs, and relax in the pool with Joe for a while).

A CLUSTER OF CROCHETERS

Jean Leinhauser brought up an interesting topic. What to call a group of crocheters...
She suggested:
A cluster of crocheters?
A skein of crocheters?
A shell of crocheters?
I'm going to keep track of this...I like making lists of things anyway, so why not!

Barb (Busha) suggested:
A clutch of crocheters

Perry suggested:
A knot of crocheters.
A frog of crocheters.
A harem of hookers. :)

Elaine in Pensacola suggested:
A cluck of crocheters

PattiJo suggested:
A bundle of croakers
She explains it: "...the "bundle" part refers
to balls or skeins of yarn...and Crokers? a combo of Crocheters and
Froggers"

Marti suggested:
How about a WIP of crocheters! After all, we are all WIP's, aren't we? (smile!)

Arianna suggested:
Happy Hookers

Kathie added her 2 cents:
A Chain-gang! ha ha ha
Ok seriously, how about a stitch of crocheters.

Linda came up with:
"Hook and Crook or Croch" "Crochet Magic Circle"

Jenny came up with:
A stash of crocheters

Or based on my great experience of CP

A counsel of crocheters

Or on a more retail base

A walmart of crocheters

A chain gang?

A loop of crocheters
A turn of...
A bobble of
A swatch of

oh this is fun and i haven't even had coffee yet!

A delight of...
A creation of...

Okay I have to stop and do some work now, I really do!

Laura came up with this::
a crush of crocheters

According to Roget's Thesaurus, "crush" is synonymous with gaggle, flock, herd, etc.

Pinka thought this was a good one:
CAS of crocheters

CAS = Crocheter Acquisition Syndrom

because we all know that each of us has a case of YAS,
TAS, PAS, HAS or whatever else has to do with crchet.
:-) :-) Not everyone admits it, but we all know the
truth. :-)

Judy thought this was appropriate:
How about a chain of crocheters? Each link of a chain makes a firm foundation of friends.

PattiJo cracked herself (and me too) with this one:
"A Crush of Cro-Ribbiters"

Ann in Phx had this to offer:
A craft of crocheters?
A croft of crocheters?
A bobble of crocheters?
(I'm partial to "cluster" of crocheters.)

Debbie offered:
A hook of crocheters

Narelle in Australia offered:
A company of crocheters

Pattianne came up with:
My own...
a flock of fiber nuts
a tangle of hookr's
a Skein of Hookr's

With Thesaurus assist by looking up 'group'~

crew of crocheteer's
coterie of crocheteer's (I like)

notice that one of the synonyms is "chain" didn't know it was one but appropriate for us

Thesaurus:
"group" accumulation, aggregation, assemblage, assembly, association, assortment, band, batch, battery, bevy, body, bunch, bundle, cartel, category, chain, circle, class, clique, clot, club, clump, cluster, clutch, collection, combination, combine, company, conglomerate, congregation, coterie, covey, crew, crowd, faction, fit-out, formation, gang, gathering, grade, league, lot, mess, organization, pack, parcel, party, passel, platoon, pool, set, shooting match, society, sort, suite, syndicate, troop, trust

My daughter Eva and I came up with:
A murder of crocheter's (as in a murder of crows) - they would all dress in black, crochet with black yarn and thread and watch alfred hitchcock movies.

Helen suggested:
CROCHET CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

Dee came up with:
Intergalactic Loopers (Mission: to bring Respect to Crochet)
The Million Musket-crocheers (all for one & one for all!)
The Million Stitch Marchers (to celebrate National Crochet Month:
March)
Captain Boye and Susan Mates (Aye!)
Thread Ticklers and Yarn Yodelers

Connie seconded this:
"knot of crocheters"

Janie offered:
a hookery

While Chris (in Western NY) added:
a rocker-y hookery

Rules To Live by...

EAT TO LIVE, DON’T LIVE TO EAT

(Dinotopia)

HOW TO EAT TO BE HEALTHY

1. This is a lifestyle change not a diet.
   
   
2. Don’t eat to fill yourself up, eat to not be hungry.
   
   
3. Don’t eat just because the clock says to.
   
   
4. If it hasn’t been 3 hours since a meal, you are NOT hungry.
   
   
5. Try to eat every 4 – 5 hours to keep your blood sugar stable.
   
   
6. Always carry healthy snacks.
   
   
7. Never fail to plan your menu, or you will plan to fail.
   
   
8. No one is perfect.
   
   
9. A little hunger now and then won’t kill you.
   
   
10. The first bite always tastes better than the rest.

Please let me know if you come up with any other's that might fit in here.

Shop Till you drop

Yesterday was fun with my friend. We had a few laughs along the way and went to two Catherines stores, Avenue, Rainbow and out to eat. It is always good to get together with her. I got a really nice blouse and skirt to wear to the crochet dinner/fashion show in July, and a couple of basic tee shirts in one Catherines. The other Catherines had this awesome blouse. The minute I put it on I KNEW I'd be bringing it home. There was woman who went in with a really great pantsuit I'd been admiring in the store, and when she tried it on and came out, WOW! It was made for her, she looked awesome. My friend got a pair of shoes and some loose house dress/muumuu kind of dresses. One of them was quite suitable for an upcoming wedding she's going to. She has several other choices at home. I wonder which she will choose! Good thing I made room in my closet.
This week I hope to get going on my room, the living room is not perfect, but getting there. I need to check on where to get my other friend's mother's wheelchair sold too. It's in my living room kind of in the way. If it were me I'd offer it on freecycle.
I thought for sure with all the walking, standing around and all that I'd be stiff and sore today, but I'm not too bad!!
I'll try and go out swimming today even if it is kinda cold for it (high expected to be: 65 and that's not on the coast like we are)!!!

"Your Name looks like"

Ok, I went over to Monster Crochet and found an interesting idea. Go to Google, type in your name and then "looks like" (as in "Karen looks like", quotes and all) and then hit search and pick out some of the responses. Here's some for me:

"Karen looks like she is on the verge of tears."

"With her perfect skin, Karen looks like a Jewish milkmaid."

"Karen looks pretty cool and pretty as a blonde."

"Karen looks like a fun date, and a sophisticated person."

"Karen looks like the kid from the Campbell’s soup commercial, all dimples and freckles, carefree and happy."

"except karen looks like an anorexic pumpkin"

"She insists that her best friend Karen looks like a cat!"

"Karen looks like a woman who will never be comfortable alone again."

"He looks hot hot hot and Karen looks like the cat which had the cream!"

"Karen looks like she's normally cheerful, but her face is tired-looking, now, with sunken eyes under large sunglasses, and a weary frown. "

"Karen looks like a Playboy Playmate and constantly turns heads wherever she goes."

"Karen looks like a sad moose."


My hubby Fred did it for his name. I roared! Funny stuff. Go try it with your name!
Thank you for the laughs LADYLINOLEUM!

Flying Low is Still Flying!

Well, here it is the end of a very good day. The Beef and Eggplant Chili was a resounding success even with my son, Joe. He didn't know there was eggplant in it and ate it down fast. I'm not even sure he chewed, just sort of vacuumed it all down!! When I told him about the eggplant he was going to gross out but he figured out that wouldn't work after his raves about dinner!
I'm going to stop by the kitchen on the way to bed and "shine my sink". It has been clean all day! Got almost the whole kitchen done. Just a tad more tweaking on the organizational aspects and I'll be done.
I'm not flying high yet, but I'm getting there. I'll be sure to set out an outfit for tomorrow morning. Oh and don't laugh when I tell you where I found the quarters for the laundry. I didn't find the bag they are supposed to be in (which has some quarters in it), but I did find the rolled quarters I bought the other day in a plastic shopping bag under my latest crocheting project which was partly beside me and partly under my butt!! Maybe my menfolk will do laundry for me tomorrow. or I might just get a load or two done before my friend gets here, and then another couple of loads after we're all done shopping.
Tomorrow I'm going to visit with my friend and we're shopping!! Watch out here we come. It will be good to get out together and get caught up. We've known each other since 1985! I wonder where we'll end up for lunch?? The plan is for her to come up this way and we'll go from here, but I left it up to her if she wanted to change her mind. If she does I'll be going down her way. Walmart, Catherine's and Fashion Bug are on the list so far.
Nighty night!!

Today, timing is everything...

I used to FLY, but I had some health issues and needless to say was grounded. Well everything piled up everywhere and I'm in the middle trying to sort it all out. Sidetracking is something that happens a lot to me. I'll start off meaning to declutter the living room and I'll pick up something to put away and it's like a magnet and draws me in. Like a magazine; I pick it up to put with the magazines to go over in my free time and an article on the cover will catch my eye. Before I realize it I'm not just reading the article, but going over the magazine cover to cover.
This morning I picked up two Nintendo DS's, mine and my son's. I hadn't played much the day before, and I decided before I put them away I'd just get that daily berry from the Berry Master just outside of Hearthome City (I'm playing Pokemon Pearl). About an hour later I'd gotten the berry, and was leveling up my pokemon prior to getting my eighth gym badge in Sunyshore City sometime later today, reading my email and sipping my water when I read a message from Flylady about laundry. Oh that's what I meant to do today!! I popped off the sofa and went to grab my bag of quarters and couldn't find them. Uh oh! I figured I'd get a little picking up and decluttering done and find the quarters.
Well, I still haven't found them, but in reading more emails from Flylady, I decided to get back to flying (health problems having resolved themselves). I went into the kitchen (since I have to cook dinner later - beef and eggplant chili) and set my microwave timer for 15 minutes and started doing dishes. I did a lot more than I thought I could and then went in the living room to read email and play my video game having set the timer for 40 minutes (gives me time to get up, and go do the necessary down the hall before setting the timer for another 15 minutes of cleaning in the kitchen.
This has happened twice now, and I feel very good about getting it all done. You can do amazing things in just 15 minutes. Before long I'll be Flying with the best of them! I just wish I could find the quarters, I love multitasking. See if I could find the quarters I could have the laundry going while I clean or play!!

Shelter cats

I've fallen in love with so many kitties at the shelter. Let's see, there's Whiney, a big black and white cat who adores me and sets to "whining" the moment he sees me and loves being patted and ruffled and likes to give love nibbles and attack my arm playfully. His brother Bond should come with him since they came in together and he does WANT to be friendly, he's just so scared to be. Then there's Max, who I call Madd Maxx. He's a lovely, huge, long haired buff-colored marmalade (orange tiger) cat with huge double paws up front. He adores me too. His buddy is Buddy and they should go together. Max loves to head butt, and Buddy is getting friendlier every day. He's a shorthaired marmalade cat, tall and rangy. Twinkie is a lovely black short hair and so is Chipper. They are little sweetie girls. We are worried about Alex, who is not eating. Things look very bad for him. This weekend will be the make it or break it time for him. He loves to be held and patted and is still responding to his name. If I stop patting him and put my hand in front of his face he rubs his face on it and butts it. Alex had a home, but I guess they tired of him and kicked him out. He was pretty beaten up by the time someone managed to trap him and bring him to us. He is also FIV. He deserves a break. I held him and loved him up today so he'd know someone cares.
Then of course there's Pippin, I've loved him from the first, a long haired black cat with a tad of white on his face. Tom comes with him, but I'd balk at taking psycho Tom. They live in the hallway between the rooms with Chipper.
Oh, and then in the white room we have so many...here are a few of my favs: Phoebe is a sweet black and white long hair that craves affection. We are worried about her because she is not eating much and she's basically a bag of bones. Then there are two lovely black and whites that crave affection. There's two ferals who are well socialized, Trina and another one. Trina is a dilute calico and the other is a grey cat who was a TNR (trap, neuter and release). The grey allows you to keep patting all day and doesn't like other cats to get affection when he is. Trina takes it for a while and then gets fritzy. There is a very nice looking tiger with a long asian muzzle that will allow me to pat him if he doesn't look at me. Recently he's started to look at me as I pat him. I can't forget to mention Blacky. Now there's another weird kitty. First off he's a black short hair, and his head looks too small for his huge body. He also has a very short tail for his body (no, it doesn't look like he lost any, just never quite grew as long as it should have). He would need someone who can put up with his fritzy behavior and has no other cats. Blacky does NOT play well with others. He's very rough with humans too, although I haven't seen him attack with a vicious attitude, it's more like he's not sure what to do, so he jumps up on you and bites. Joe loves him and found out that if Blacky wants you to keep patting you and you stop, he'll hold you with his paws (yes, the claws are out). Sometimes he gives a good bite to you, to remind you to keep patting him. Poor Simon who just came to us was losing the battle and had to be euthanized over the weekend. He was a very friendly sweet cat. He had a number of medical problems, and I think he just gave up. At least while he was with us he was patted and cuddled.
In the feral room there's the one I call nutzy Fagin, a sweet but fritzy black and white short hair, and Jerry AKA Kong, a white and tiger kitty and Bunny Girl, another little black and white with no tail. Ms Mapps is a dilute calico who just can't stop hissing when you come near, Sally from the alley aka Grey Girl, a long haired grey cat, a buff cat called Butter and yet another dilute calico who's name I don't know. She will sniff my finger, eat food off my finger, and rarely allow me to pat her.
In the Sick Room (Feline Leukemia and FIV kitties) there's Dee Dee's Boy, Todd, Midnight and Ricky (I call him Rikki Tikki Tavi). Shana's devotion to Arlie (very sick little kitty going to have a special treatment on the 13th) has tugged at my heart, and she and Arlie are on my fav list now. Oh...and Tristan...boy he's a headcase for sure, but I do love him. Purely for his looks, his personality stinks, but then we never know what has happened to him in life.
This weekend I'll make up a big pot of chicken livers for my "kids". I cook them in chicken stock and then puree them. The sicker cats find it easier to eat that way, and the well cats don't care how you serve it all up. I'll probably also bring shredded turkey breast and roast beef for the sickest kitties.
It is hard to be there and not bring them all home, but I have limited space, and I'm not all that sure that Princess Paris would allow any other cats to own us.

Heart of the Rosary Pattern

Heart of the Rosary
Instructions for an all Crocheted Rosary

Designed by Karen O'Grady and Lily Bergen, March 2007.

This is a copyright pattern. You can use this pattern for your own
personal use, or sell the rosaries you make from this pattern. You may
NOT sell the pattern itself nor claim it as yours! You may make copies
of this pattern for other people as long as you print it out as is
with these restrictions. Feel free to link to this pattern.

I would like to thank the testers, Lily, Michelle, and AJ. If I've missed including you as a tester, please forgive me, remind me and I'll add your name. Lily made such great suggestions I felt she deserved co-authorship of the pattern.

Materials: I used ecru cotton size 10, and a size 5 hook. Michelle, one of the testers, suggested adding a filament in gold or silver, or using a thread with some bling already in it.

"Bead" = popcorn stitch 4dc (count first three ch as 1 dc)in ch indicated. Drop loop from hook, insert hook from front to back in bottom of ch 3 and draw loop through, pull tight to form a sort of ball.
"Large bead" = 6 dcs.
I found that it makes more of a bead shape if you make the bead and then make a sl st into the middle of the top of the bead. For the smaller bead it would be in the top of the second dc and in the larger one, sl st in the top of the 3rd dc. Then continue with the pattern as written.

1. Crochet a cross (Apostles Creed)(see below for a link to some online patterns, you can design your own, or use pattern below).

Cross Pattern:
Chain 5, join with sl st to make a ring. Chain 7, dc in 4th chain from hook, and in next 3 chs. Sl st into ring. Ch 12, dc in 4th chain from hook, and in next 8 chs. Sl st into ring. Chain 7, dc in

4th ch from hook, and in next 3 chs. Sl st in ring. Chain 6, dc in 4th chain from hook, and in next 2 chs. Sl st in ring. Turn, sl st back to top of cross, sl st into space between chain (first dc), and 1st dc worked into 4th chain and sl st into middle of that chain.

Follow directions for rosary:

Part 1: Chain 9, make a "large bead" in 3rd chain from hook. Chain 9, *make "bead" in third chain from hook, ch 4, Repeat from * once, make a "bead" in 3rd ch from hook. Chain 9, make a large "bead" in 3rd ch from hook. (Our Father, Three Hail Mary's, Glory Be to the Father, Announce the first Mystery).

Part 2: This is the first half of the heart that will be completed in Part 4: chain 12, make 6 tr in 4th chain from hook, turn, chain 4, tr in next 2 tr but hold last loop, draw loop thru three loops on hooks (cluster)
continue the rest of pattern.

*Part 3: *Chain 9, *make "bead" ch 4, (repeat eight times more) make "bead" in 3rd ch from hook. (Ten Hail Mary's while meditating on the First Mystery) Chain 9, make a "large bead" in third chain from hook. Repeat from * four times. (**Our Father, Ten Hail Mary's while meditating on the second Mystery, Repeat from ** for Third, Fourth and Fifth Mysterys)

Part 4: Chain 5, make a 3 tr cluster in other three tr of row 4. This completes the
heart started in Part 2. End off. Weave in ends.

There are other prayers to pray after the Rosary, you can find them at this website which I chose to base this pattern on:

How to pray the Rosary


I was inspired to make this pattern for a dear friend who has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. She finds it helps her to relax and put the day behind her if she prays the Rosary at night in bed. The problem is, she keeps waking up with imprints of the rosary on her face! She wondered if it was possible to crochet one entirely from thread. Of course it is.

I hope you enjoy this pattern.

Last night, more drama, getting things done and Virgin Mobile

Last night I went downstairs to wait for someone from freecycle to come and get some heavy duty cardboard, set of drawers (two sets brand new still in plastic). I noticed a state police car (SPC) out front with it's lights going. As I got closer I noticed another and then another. I went outside to take a look and they were blocking the street directly in front of my apartment. I went down the drive and looked beyond the pool and there was yet another SPC just after our back driveway!
One neighbor reported that her daughter heard someone yelling, "Watch out he's got a gun!"
Another neighbor went over to the SPC near the back driveway and asked what was going on. The officer said he couldn't talk about it and to watch the 10pm news. As my neighbor walked away, he thought the officer muttered, "Just remember not to run away from the police." Another neighbor saw several males (men or boys I don't know) sitting on the curb down by the Suffolk Downs barn area (their car had been pulled over) and there was one or two police cars there.
At the time we had no idea what all this meant (only that there was a body on the MBTA Blue Line tracks).
This morning we learned that a car had been pulled over (most likely the one my neighbor saw by Suffolk Downs), one of the occupants had run, there had been a foot chase involving local and state police and that the man had shot himself.
Two years ago there was a stabbing death on the other side of my building at the Lion's Den. Then there was a woman's body found on Revere Beach...the world is a crazy place - at least it feels like my corner of it is.

If that's not enough drama, one of the workers at the cat shelter I volunteer at either quit or was let go this week after a (verbal) fight with the woman who runs the shelter. I have no clue what will happen, as the other worker and I can't do all the work ourselves (I'm not physically able to and the other worker is only paid for 5 hours and ends up working 7 every Tuesday and Thursday. She also comes in every day to feed the sicker or pickier cats too with cat food she brings - she isn't paid to do this, just very dedicated to her "kids"). On top of that one of the other workers who only works 1 day a week has called and said she won't be in on Monday! She does this quite often. I have no idea what will happen to the shelter. The woman who runs it said she was down to the last $1300 and with little money coming in she would make the decision in June whether to close the shelter. I asked about the cats, and she told me she'd have to have them all euthanized if the shelter closed.

This morning I was possessed to clear away more clutter. YEAH! Feels good to get stuff done. I had to do something until it was time to go to BJ's to get Joe's glasses fixed (vision center opens either 11 or 12) and more water.
First I attacked the storage drawers near my old computer (which Fred has yet to make available via an a-b switch (or however). I've got it down to two (three drawers each) from 4! I then attacked the closet where guests coats are supposed to go. I had three boxes in there. Two of them now have addresses and will be on their way on Monday! Also on Monday I'll be dropping off my medical records from my old dr. On tap for this week sometime is getting the "Heart of the Rosary" pattern up on the blog.

Last October (October 28th, 2006) I bought a phone online at VMUSA for my son to replace the one he lost!! I was charged on November 1st for two phones and two phones came! I only ordered one. I called VM back then and was told they'd send out return labels and a return authorization number. I put the box with all it's stuff in the coat closet. I haven't touched the closet since, except to throw various stuff in there. Not a good idea. This morning I called VM again and was told to pack it all up with a note about what had happened and that I was sent and charged for two phones and that I wanted a credit for the second phone. This is all done and one of the two packages ready to mail.

The other package is a sweater I hand crocheted for my husband from the Jacob's Sweater pattern by Peter Franzi. Hubby never wore it, so I asked my daughter if her hubby would. I think it might be waaay too big for him, so I've added a note that if it is, could he please find someone it would fit that would like to have it. Obviously hubby did not appreciate it.

Enough for now. Time for a shower and getting ready to go:
1. BJ's
2. AC Moore's
3. Stop and Shop