YOP Week #13

What a week!  The weather is perfect and I have to use it while I can.  You won't see gobs of progress on YOP's... just steady until Winter.  I have to balance it with outside work and also Project #2...The Kitchen, Day #2 is today.  Actually, yesterday was but I was over at the neighbors helping her pack up as she is the widow (they were separated) of my neighbor Paul, who died.  She came back from Florida to arrange for an estate sale and also to rent out the house and move what she was keeping down to Florida.  My heart went out to her as you could tell it was all a bit overwhelming for her.  But there were several helping her besides me and I met my new neighbor!  She's a retired teacher from Iowa!  Do you believe it?  She's very nice, loves animals and loves to read!  She was custom made to be my next door neighbor!  Anyway.......this is my "progress" at the end of the day when I was too tired to do anything else. LOL!
 Remember the afghan I was trying to resurrect with this Lion Brand Homespun yarn? Well, it wasn't working so I tried my favorite blanket pattern (again in crochet) and the problem with this yarn (besides being the yarn from hell) is that I can't count my crochet stitches which means you can't follow any pattern in crochet.  Someone mentioned they had no trouble knitting with it so I found a knitting pattern on Lion Brand specifically using Homespun.  The other problem was I had no idea it is technically a "bulky" yarn....that might have been part of my problem.  Anyway, I am off and knitting a "throw" and it is called a "wave" stitch which describes it perfectly as that's the effect you get after about 10-12 rows.  It's 136 stitches cast on and it is all squeezed on my long needles but so far so good and the one nice thing is even if I make a mistake I'm not sure you could ever see it! LOL!  I hope it will be big enough....it's hard to tell.
  I've got it figured out if I do 3 rows a day I should be done by the end of November or beginning of December.

 Another "bulky" project I dislike............the rug which will take forever but I do some each evening...it's a good t.v. project.........

and of course the long standing sock project........but...I am starting the heel!

Kitchen Project Day #1 got me this far...........I cleaned off this bookcase in my kitchen and put all my appliances and big pots on it with room left over.  I think I will make a curtain for it to keep the dust out plus appliances aren't all that attractive...lol!

I also started a new book my daughter brought me taken from journals and real life but made into a fictional account for young adults.  It got the Newberry Award and I may be looking into more "young adult" books as I love them!  This story is about a 16 year old orphan who inherits a "claim" and a shack to go with it in Montana but she has to "prove" the claim by fencing it and farming it.  I could read these types of books all the time. 
 *Katrina....if you haven't read this you should...you will love it.....it's right up your alley!

Last year I bought the niftiest tool.  I don't like chain saws and most are too big for me to handle but this is a chain saw that you use like scissors and is more for saplings and limbs (no tree felling using this) which is all I need to do with it.  It works slick and as long as you can get the  "scissor" around it you can pretty much take it down.  It's also cordless and made by Black and Decker.  LOVE!!!!

This is my handiwork from yesterday.....easy peasy!  I told you it was a jungle down here! LOL!  At least in my yard it is.  I'm 66 and have RA so you can see how easy it must be. Plus, much safer for me than a chain saw.

Well, that's all for the YOP's but stay tuned for more progress on my 50 million other projects before winter comes! LOL!
Happy Trails!