Bustin' My Balls: Part 2

Here's what it looked like last week.

And here it is this week.

Not much different, yet. Actually, it looks bigger. Weird. Must be the way I arranged them this time. At any rate, I've made 15 squares so far.

Thankful Thursday

It was cold today. The windchill was -35C. That's -31F for you non-metric folks.


I'm thankful for being retired so I didn't have to go out in that brutality.

Woo Hoo Wednesday

Also Weigh-in Wednesday. I'm down another 1.5 pounds for a total of 10 pounds this month. Six inches also disappeared off my body. I can feel that my pant legs are a bit looser. Aiming for another 10 for February.

I got 15 squares made from my Ball Bustin'. The top two rows, as well as the two centre ones on the bottom row, are made with yarn that was just a bit thin so I added baby weight to them.

I got 2 more squares for the memory blanket done and half of another cancer cap. I love the chestnut-y colour of the brown.

The yarn I'm using for the memory blanket is a self striping one but since the squares are so small (4"), the stripe doesn't show. What I get is squares of different colours. I had just a wee bit of the orange-y to start the next square and then had to start a new skein which is why there's an abrupt colour change. It'll all work out in the end.

I worked on the purple go-over but only added a couple of inches to the sleeve. Not enough to merit a photo.

What was your Woo Hoo this week?

I've Been a Baaaaad Girl

On Saturday, I went to the next town over with my 13 year old g'daughter. She has 2 little brothers (4 and 6) and their house is in a state of chaos while the flooring is being replaced after a laundry room flood. I figured she could use a break.

Walmart was my undoing. I had to pick up a few things there and then remembered that I needed some green yarn to finish the memory blanket. Not really certain how much I'd need, I got two balls.

Then I spied some fun colours for the chemo caps. That particular stash needed some jazzing up, colour-wise. The blue one on the left practically glows and the turquoise in the centre is far prettier than it appears.

Then it was off to another store that I'd heard about but never been to. I wasn't sure if it was a regular second hand store or a consignment store. I didn't go with the intention of buying anything. I just wanted to see what the store was about. I learned that it's a regular second hand store. And they had yarn. A bit more costly than what our local thrift shop charges but still cheaper than buying new and it's worsted weight instead of the baby yarn I usually find in ours.

As promised, it's been tucked away until I use up my current stash.

Somebody put me in time-out.

Bustin' My Balls

Hahahaha!!! Not those balls, y'all!

*These* balls!

This is what was in the tub of balls I had after organizing my stash. I guesstimate there are about 75 squares hiding in there. Grampa and I are leaving for a holiday March 6th. I'm challenging myself to bust as many balls as I can before then.

C'mon. Admit it. You thought this was going to be a naughty post, didn't you? lol

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful to B who agreed to work for Grampa today. Today was Grampa's second day off this month. He's getting burned out and really needed today. Thank you, B.

Woo Hoo Wednesday

First things first...Weigh-In Wednesday. I'm down another 3.5 this week for a total of 8.5 this month, so far. Woo Hoo!!!

For the last month, or so, the team that Grampa works with has been putting in some long hours and had to deal with some difficult situations so the company is taking them, and their spouses, to supper in a nice restaurant tonight. I am NOT going to count or care about calories. This will be my first cheat day in 3 weeks. It's probably going to take me all week to recover from it, calorie-wise, so I'm not expecting much of a loss next week.

Remember these?

I got all the light blue yarn worked up and finished the dark blue one. I ended up frogging the grey one because I realized the yarn was a little thin so I'm going to add a baby weight to it. There were actually 6 blue skeins when I started working them up so this is what I accomplished, square-wise, this week.

Sixteen squares for Knit-a-Square

I finished the back of the go-over and now I'm working on the sleeves. I've slowed down on this project because I'm getting bored of seeing the colour. This always happens when I work on a big project. It's why I always have several things on the go. Anyone else like that?

Another cancer cap, this one in a solid denim-y blue. I figure some kids might prefer a solid colour instead of stripes.

Another big Woo Hoo was getting my stash organized. Took me 2 hours but it was so worth it. Things had gotten so jumbled up. Now I'll be able to quickly find what I need.

What was your Woo Hoo this week?

I'll Show You Mine If...

...you show me yours. Your stash, that is.

It was Grampa's weekend to work so Sunday afternoon I decided to organize my stash. Figured it was a job best done when he wasn't around to see just how much I actually have. You all know what I'm talking about. *wink*

Good grief. Even I was surprised. I mean, I knew I had a lot but, geez, Louise!

First up are the WIP's.

This is an afghan I started ages ago to give my mom who is a huge fan of jigsaw puzzles. I don't have enough of the lighter purple to make a piece so I added a couple of others so you could see what each section will look like. Mom knits like crazy for charities but, like many of us, doesn't make anything for herself.

The following are things I'm working on for Knit-a-Square .

Go-over.

Tank-top style vest.

KASCuddle for babies. I make these with the little bits of leftovers. Two strands and always one light strand and one dark. I love the tweedy effect it gives. And because the colours are always changing, it doesn't become boring to work on.

Hexagon sweater.

I've had the light blue yarn for literally years. I remember buying it when my eldest, now 32, was a child. Eek! So I've decided to get it used up. It's a little thin so I'm pairing it with the green baby yarn to make the square a bit thicker. I came across the other two squares that I had worked on as a take-along project and then forgot about.

This is the yarn I have for the cancer caps I'll be taking to Mexico.

Crochet cotton picked up at the second hand store. The plan is to use it for embellishments on some of the darker squares.

Reeeeeeeeally old school Phentex that's been discontinued for ages. Some I bought way back when and some I found at the second hand store. This stuff is fabulous for slippers.

Bought to make myself a shawl.

Also bought to make myself a shawl. Lighter weight than the previous one and probably way more than I'll need...lol.

Baby weight.

Sport weight.

Chunky. The large ball of green on the left is actually neon green.

Textured yarn.

Christmas yarn.

Worsted weight above and below.

Some yarn I found after I got all the photos taken. Again, the green on the right is the most glorious shade of neon. Going to make a scarf for the teen aged g'daughter with that.

A 44 Qt/41.6 L tub of balls.

The KASCuddle yarn.

And here it all is, minus the WIP's and crochet cotton. Sorted by weight because that's what makes sense to me.

And I see I missed three large skeins of a nice soft worsted weight. Doesn't surprise me. You should have seen the state of my living room while I was doing this...lol.

My goal is to use this all up this year without buying more. I'll still pop into the second hand store to see what they've got. I generally don't get too lucky there as yarn gets snatched up fairly quickly. But anything I pick up will be set aside for next year. Wish me luck!  Haha!

Ok. Who's brave enough to show their stash?

Thankful Thursday

Yesterday we had a wicked wind that arrived during the night and it blew like mad all day to where a wind warning was put out. Wind gusts were 100kmh or more.


Thankfully we had no damage. There's an 8 foot strip of metal that landed between our house and deck. It's not a very wide space...maybe about 6 feet. It could have so easily come through the dining room window, but it didn't. I'm thankful for that.


Our eldest daughter has one of those fancy dancy fences that doesn't require painting. The wind took out several sections of it. Hopefully it's covered in her insurance. If not, it's going to cost them a bundle to have it repaired. The trampoline in their backyard went dancing in the wind. It travelled about 150 feet and then hopped the fence to end up in the front yard and leaning up against their fifth wheel. Thankfully no damage to the 5th wheel. And, thankfully, nobody was hurt.

Woo Hoo Wednesday

It's also Weigh-in Wednesday and I'm down 3 pounds this week for a total of 5. Woo Hoo!!! Only a bazillion more to go. *sigh*

Blogger still won't allow me to post photos. I've successfully uploaded them from my computer in the past so I have no idea what's going on. Any suggestions?  *Update in previous post.

I didn't get as much crocheting done this week as last but sometimes life is like that. I completed four more squares for Knit-a-Square and added a bright crocheted flower to a couple of last week's squares that were made from a very dark and sombre green.

I got the front of the go-over done and I'm about a third done the back. And I got another 2 small squares done for the memory blanket I'm working on. No idea how that pic got turned sideways nor how to fix it. Sorry about that.

I finished the cancer cap and have cast on for the next one.

So what Woo Hoo did you do this week?

Woo Hoo Wednesday

Woo Hoo Wednesday is where I'll post whatever I've accomplished since the previous Wednesday.

First up...Wednesday is weigh-in day and, with the help of SparkPeople I lost 2 pounds this week. Woo Hoo!!!

I've tried 3 times, unsuccessfully, to post pictures. Things just freeze up and I have to ctrl/alt/delete to escape. So, sadly, no pictures this post. I'll try another day.

Update: Google tells me that Blogger and IE aren't playing  nice at the moment and to use Chrome or Firefox. Success!!!

Since it was too darned cold to leave the house the past week or so, I decided to try my hand at Tunisian crochet. I have a wooden hook that belonged to my grandmother and it was pretty cool to put my hands where hers had been so many years ago. I did a swatch in sport weight and one in regular worsted. I think the hook is about a 6.5mm and seemed to be too big for both yarns. The fabric really didn't feel any thicker than if I'd done single crochet using my 5mm hook, as I normally do for these yarns.  I'll make another swatch using a bulky yarn to see if I like that any better.

First attempt.

Second one.

I also made some hand/foot balm this morning. My poor hands and feet are so dry and cracked. Lotion is useless when they get this bad. I used to make, and sell, cold process soap as well as my foot balm and a few other personal care goodies but I got tired of hauling it all back and forth to Farmers Market so I stopped. I love my foot balm. It's better than anything else I've tried. I put some on this morning and already my feet are thanking me.

I crochet for an organization called Knit A Square which provides blankets for AIDS/HIV orphans in South Africa. In a nutshell, knitters and crocheters around the world send in 8 inch squares which are then sewn into blankets and distributed. I'll try to remember to do a proper post on this fabulous organization in the near future. In the meantime, do click on the link to learn more about them and the different ways one can help.

This week, for this group, I crocheted 6 squares and have the front of a go-over all but finished. The 2 rust coloured squares are for a memory blanket I'll send later in the year.

We have a condo in Mexico that we plan to snowbird to when Grampa retires next year. In the meantime, we manage to get down there for most of the months of March and November. The big city nearby has a hospital that does cancer treatments, specifically for kids. There has been a request for soft caps/beanies for the kids for after they lose their hair. So I've dug out my knitting needles and worked on those as well. This week I got one done and half of another. I took 6 down with me this past November and would like to have another 6 for March.

I also made myself a crocheted Swiffer cover. I'll need to do a bit of tweaking on the next one. It shrunk a bit width-wise and I would like it to be just a smidge wider. Four stitches should do it.

So...what were your Woo Hoo's this week?

A New Year, A New Start

I've neglected my blog so badly that I'm glad there's no Blog Protective Services to come take me away.


So, with the new year, comes the resolution to take better care of it. I retired the end of September, so I really haven't much excuse for not posting more regularly. I was thinking that having some categories for specific days might help. Maybe something like Debi's  WIP Wednesday or Foodie Friday. I'll have to cogitate on this some. If anyone has any ideas, do let me know.


Grampa had rotator cuff surgery in September and was off work for 7 weeks, giving me a taste of retirement together. All I can say is, that man better find himself something to occupy his time with. Something that doesn't include the TV going all day. Good grief. I was ready to throw that darned machine out.


His surgery went well but he has so much arthritic wear and tear that his surgeon told him he'd likely need a shoulder replacement in the future. Poor man has already had both hips replaced. He says, when they dig up his body a few hundred years from now, they'll wonder if we had robots and why would we bury them...lol.


In November/December, we spent 3 glorious weeks at our condo in Mexico. It was miserably cold, here in Canada, while we were gone and hasn't warmed up since. It's been cold all across the country without much relief in sight. I've only left the house twice since Christmas. I'm grateful, though, that we're not in any of the areas that were hit with the ice storm, blizzards and ensuing power outages. Those poor folks have sure had a rough go of it.


And that is about as exciting as my life has been.


TTFN