From the Island of Baby Blankets

From the Island of Baby Blankets, I bring to you, yet another Heart Blanket from Leisure Arts book #3208, Knit Layettes for Little Darlings. Again, I've altered the cast on amount, to 137 stitches, increased the seed stitch rows to 10 for each seed stitch stripe,(US) 10 addi turbos, and have used Hobby Lobby's Baby Bee, Sweet Delights Baby in Pink-a-Boo. The late afternoon setting sun without a flash, really washed out the light pink color. But, it's just as snugly as the lavender Heart Blanket that seemed to put me right to sleep! This was done much faster, and I didn't fall asleep one time! Go figure why that happened the last time back in September.

Here's a close up of one of the squares. I'm getting to the point where I only need to look at the pattern for 2 rows most of the time. By the end of this blanket, I didn't need it at all.

I find that a quickie project between blankets is a good call. Here again, another Grandma's Favorite, in Sugar 'n Cream Natural Ombre.

Are you starting to feel like the movie, Ground Hog Day here? Seems like all I've done lately are the 3 kinds of blankets, and Grandma's Favorite dishcloths here. Ha! I guess that's a good thing that the kids keep asking for the same things over and over again. That must mean that they like them.

And in keeping in our Ground Hog Day theme here, another Crayon Ripple Throw blanket with the Rainbow colors. I believe that there are 3 blankets to go...before I can go back to a few other things (like 2 more after those 3 for family babies on the way-I guess that really makes 5 more).

Have you started with your holiday ideas yet? I'm not sure I'm going to do much knitting this year for gifting. Possibly one idea plus the others that I have in my to-do pile. And one, actually two of them, are waiting for the yarn to arrive. With any luck, next week, I'll be winging my way back to Michigan to meet up with my oldest daughter so we can cook and bake for my parents, brother and niece for Thanksgiving.

Good wishes that my turkey won't cook too fast and flip inside out, dripping from the ceiling as it did years ago when my parents came out to California to spend the holiday with us. One would think, that after 13 Thanksgiving Dinners by that time, it should have been easy-peasy....huh? Nope, add in a brother and sister-in-law, brother-in-law, plus a set of Grandparents apparently makes the perfect recipe for disaster in my kitchen. ulg. We'll see what happens this time! And now that Dad has started with some soft foods, I won't have to grind up the turkey for him. YEA!

Time for me to close for tonight..the Iron chef is over, which is my clue that it's bedtime. Love that show!

I'm "Two Box"

I am officially, as of yesterday - Two Box.

What's Two Box, you ask?

Well...does this give you a hint?

What does "Two box" look like?

Alert the fire department!

Some of my "knitterly" gifts

One of the best parts of yesterday? Hearing Mom and Dad both call to sing me the Birthday song! Dad's doing better every day! With any luck...oldest daughter and I will be with them for Thanksgiving. Still trying to get more of the kids up there, too. Just wish their bosses would understand why it's so important for them to have a couple of days off from work to come along with us. This year, more than ever. Too bad they're not still at the age where Mom can call in and excuse them like they were still in school.

See, it's not all about the cake..I've been knitting, too! And this time, it's NOT putting me to sleep. Thank goodness!

Stay warm, Dad said it was 37*F last night, heading below freezing. With 12" of snow predicted before Thanksgiving. I'm thinking...the UGGS have to do some Thanksgiving traveling this year.

Flaunt your Colors with a hint....

Things in my house are somewhat back to normal. Today I was able to open doors and windows without causing a headache or an asthma attack.The sky was quite blue, all things considered...and I was able to hang laundry out back. Yep...with the dryer not putting out any heat as it spins around and around..I've been hanging laundry on the line again. Haven't done that for years. Kinda like the way it reflects itself in the gas and electric bills.

I want to say thank you for everyone who have sent comments and emails with well wishes and prayers for those in Southern California who were affected by the fires. As angry and upset as I have been, it's always good to see the best in people come out during really cruddy times. It means a lot.

How do you handle stress? Cook, eat, knit? I did a bit of knitting the past couple of weeks. And while knitting up another Flaunt your Colors Scarf in U of Michigan colors, I thought I'd take a couple of pictures to demonstrate a bit of a trick I've been using on really long scarves.

Don't you love the look on your face, when you think it's only the scarf in the picture? ha!

If you happen to be short, like me, the more you knit a scarf..no matter how you flip it, it's going to get to a point where it's a tad cumbersome to keep flipping around and around. What's a knitter to do?



About the time the scarf hits the top of my feet length, I start rummaging around in my 'notions' bag for a stitch holder.

I'll flip the scarf over...




So that the opened end is closest to me.





And start rolling up...

up and up...

towards the top of the scarf where I am knitting...to about 3 stripes down.

And then I slip in the stitch holder through the top two layers being careful not to split stitches.

It will be about this length then when you look from the side.





And the back....

Pick the length that you feel comfortable with and knit away. Just move the stitch holder up every so often as your length grows. I will then let the 'roll' section sit on my lap so the weight, as it grows, won't pull and misshape the scarf.

Next up? We're 3/4ths of the way into the next pink heart blanket...but I forgot to take a picture of it this afternoon while I had daylight. And this time, it's NOT putting me to sleep!

Arial View of Malibu Fires

Click on all pictures for larger views.

300,000 people displaced

1,000 homes destroyed in San Diego

100 homes destroyed in Running Springs

2 Dead

at least 37 hospitalized

Leaving LAX...can you see Brown air?

Brown air layers.

Look at the 'film' on the water's surface here..the 'cracks' are the water showing through.

Look carefully on the left side of the smoke. It's another structure going up. The dark smoke with the flames to the left on the bottom.

It's NOT ok with me, for people to set arson fires. AT ALL! EVER!!!!!!!!!

More pictures

Forgive the TV pictures, but I'm not getting any closer than this to the fires. I'm angry...I'm really, really mad...now there are 2 fires that have been announced that were deliberately set. Irvine and Foothill Ranch. Bless those who are fighting this..and those who will be forever affected by this. What a waste. From Santa Barabara to San Diego.

See the top of the left picture? That's a house on fire. See the smoke and how close it is to the houses? See how close those houses are to each other?

check out this DC-10...converted from an American Airlines passenger plane...watch what it can do NOW!

They finally can fly up into the canyons-it was too windy earlier today for them to fly. Between the Santa Ana fires and the winds that the fires generate by themselves, once a plane is loaded with water, it can be too heavy to fly in unstable winds. They fly close to the ground where the winds are the strongest and the wildest. TV cameras fly higher so they are out of some of the strongest winds, even though they're still battling the winds.

I'm counting 9 fires on this map. The winds are kicking up for the evening. That's not a good sign. Correction, there are 17 fires in California tonight.

She just said...Foothill Ranch was deliberately set!!!!!!! They have found 3 areas that were set on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As always, if you click on the pictures, you can see them larger.