Lauren is so good to make sure I get my physical exercise. It's the only way I'm going to continue to be able to walk. Twice a week, he walks with me up the hill on the dirt road around the county dump and back - about 45 minutes; and he tries to find manual labor for me to do over at our church, Mt. Olive. In the last few weeks, he's given me the courage to learn to drive the tractor and to use the riding lawn mower. But I don't just sit and drive these things around all the time. Today, for example, I dug up a pile of dirt and shoveled it into the wagon behind the tractor, and then I drove to the back of the church lot, shoveled the dirt out of the wagon, and filled up a low place. Lauren trimmed vines and branches, and I loaded those into the wagon, too, and then took them back to the dumpster and tossed them in. We were over there for about 1-1/2 hours - a nice workout.
Hooray for Lauren! After 42 years together, plus our dating time before that, after all the ups and downs, happy times and sad times, struggles and smooth sailing, we've come to a good place. We are thankful that we have both lived long enough to get to this part of our marriage and lives together. Not all our friends were as fortunate. I am thankful that he takes care to do physical workouts with me, ones that aren't boring!, several times a week.
Although I've made some headway on my big quilting projects, I'm in another interlude where I'm finishing up my Lydia project knitting (I had two sweaters in progress), and I had a big urge to get those crayon tests incorporated into bags. I have about 11 bags now almost finished, and six more to get to the same stage - and I hope to finish them all by this weekend, and then I'll take photos.
I posted pictures of both sweaters on flickr, but the one I linked to, above, is my favorite. This is Bernat's Satin yarn, and it's so soft and nice. This is the third one I made with a slip stitch pattern and the fourth sweater I've made using Jacqueline Fee's Sweater Workshop bottom up formula. Probably the only reason I made this sweater is because I made that little cap out of this yarn when I was with Donna and I was playing with things you can do with a slip stitch, and I liked it so much that I knew it needed something to go with it.
My next baby sweater will be a hoodie. I found a basic top down (the hood first) pattern, and the only seam, I think, that's required is sewing two edges together to make the top of the hood. I like working on circulars, and I like having a garment that doesn't have side, shoulder, and sleeve seams. The pattern is free from Knitting Pure and Simple at http://www.knittingpureandsimple.com/babycardi.html. The pattern is at the bottom of the page (requires scrolling down) and is in pdf form. I'll make it plain, the way it is, before I begin to experiment with it. One of the big advantages of this pattern, in addition to the fact that it meets my "no seams" criteria, is that it uses ties instead of buttons. It has no gender! That's a definite advantage when you're knitting for those you don't know and will never meet!
Hugs I
Originally uploaded by Suzie Rozie.
I've had some success working off my UFOs (unfinished objects) and so I'm stretching my luck. I picked up a doll, much like the one in the picture above, that I started during my first retirement - maybe sometime in 2001 or 2002, and I'm going to finish it. The one I'm working on has maroon hair, and I just about have all the hair in place. I have a little blue smocked dress UFO that I'll need to finish, too. I'm hoping that effort will get me back into smocking. I really enjoyed that when I was doing it. I made smocked dresses for several of my friends little girls, from new born to age 4, and I even made one for Donna.
Bread's baking, and it's just about time to take it from the oven. Ymmm. It smells good! Tonight, I'm hoping to have some success with Steve's pizza recipie - dough ripened in the refrigerator over night and pesto for the sauce. We'll see. When he and I made it together in Pagosa, it was one of the best pizzas I've ever tasted!
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