Cats and knitting

I finally got my 202 stitches cast onto my needle for the sweater that I am making for my mother for Christmas. I m sitting on the couch...everything is set to go. Raven gets up from the other side of the couch and sits right next to me. I look over he is kneading my ball of yarn. I get his claws out of there and he stands up and he is wrapped around the strand of yarn that I pulled out for knitting tension. I finally get him unwound and I can get back to knitting. He lays right next ot me and goes to sleep.

I am hoping to get to a certain point in the project so that my SIL can help me through the section of the pattern that I don't really understand. I am seeing her over Labor Day weekend. Wish me luck getting it to that point this week.

I have to go back to work on Tuesday so my knitting time will be limited again. UGH! to think the Summer is over all ready is a sad thought. It went by so fast and it was not really Summer with the crappy weather that we had through 3/4 's of it.

Everything is going wrong

I wanted to cast on for my mother's vest that I want to make her for Christmas. I got everything set last week. I took out the yarn that I had bought, Looked for the right size needles in which I have. Then got the call about Michael passing away. Got side tracked talking to relatives. Then of course my parents need to come down to my house for the wake and funeral. I can't work on the vest with her here. Then I think about the fact that I need longer needles for the amount of stitches I ahve to put on. I can't find them anywhere.

Today I go to Saftler's again hoping that they have restocked. I find some needles that are longer but not sure if it is enough. I bought them and will cast on and check the room on them for work.

My truck brakes seemed strange to me on the ride over there. The pedal was going to the floor. I didn't think I would make it home safely so I stopped at Jiffy Lube. They said the brake fluid was extremely low but they don't top off fluids. I started to drive home when the brakes felt worse. I pulled over in a parking lot and called a friend that lived near by..he was not home. I called my Joe and he told me to walk a short distance down the road and there is an auto body shop there that a friend of ours frequents. I walked there and he was there chatting..He is the one I tried calling at his home. The guy there that owns the place drove over to the truck and put some fluid in it and I drove it home. It is now being towed to Sullivan tire to be looked at.

I am now stuck at home so I guess I have time to start the project that I have mentioned. I hope the needles that I bought are long enough for the stitches and I can get started. I will cake the yarn today and hope that it goes smoothly. Wish me luck at getting started on this today.

Emotional day

Today we laid my 29 year old cousin to rest. It has been a long week for his immediate family. They had a real nice slide show at the funeral parlor and today his brother made an emotional speech at the church. If there was a dry eye in the church there wasn't after that.

Hot Hot Summer

Now that it is almost over Summer has arrived this week. We had to put the A/C's in the windows and take cold showers. It was actually nice to see the sun for so long and feel some heat instead of clouds and rain like we have been having most of the Summer.

There is Hurricane Bill to watch as it comes up the east coast. ( A tropical storm) I think we will get some rain but it won't make land fall here. I am going by the weathermen and we know how they are at predicting weather. A shark has been spotted on the Cape at Chatum Beach. Now things are getting exciting. These are usually the stories we read about all Summer.

I have not done much knitting because it has been very hot in here. I only have AC in one room downstairs. My mind also has not been focused on knitting or reading. My cousins oldest Son ( 29 years old) died unexpectedly this week and I am thinking about her and her family and what they are going through. The wake is on Thursday night.

What a wekend

I had a sleep over at Kelly's on Wednesday night. We had Pasta, salad and garlic bread for dinner. On Thursday Kelly picked up Melissa and the 2 girls ( Bellah 2 years and Haley 5 years) and we headed to Maine. It was Halloween weekend. We stopped at the NH rest stop for a picnic lunch and to stretch. Then we stopped in York Maine at the Wild Animal farm and amusement park. We saw Several species of monkey's, lions tigers and bears oh my. We fed the goats and deer they also fed on Bellah. At the amusement park all of the rides are geared for little kids except the ferris wheel. Haleydid not want to go on the ferris wheel so I took her to ride on a caterpillar ride and we both went on the merry go round. We were at the park 3 and a half hours. We got to the campground after 8 O'clock ate hotdogs and went to bed.

The weekend was fun. Haley was a fairy for Halloween and Bellah a princess, I gave out the candy and then helped with the games up front. Joe arrived on Friday night so I rode home with him on Sunday. The weekend was the best Summer weather we have had all Summer. Hot, Humid and Hazy. We spent Friday and Saturday down by the lake.

I got a little bit of knitting done but not much. I am making placemats for Kelly..she picked out the yarn.

Home again

I have been up in Maine for 3 weeks. Me and my 2 cats. Joe came for 2 weeks. The weather was a mixed bag including some hail. This was the time of year when everyone shows up. It was a busy time. Kelly had a surprise 50th birthday get together for me on Friday July 31st. On Sat Aug. 1 ( my real birthday) We had our annual campers stew day. There was 26 of us this year. We made 6 stews to share. Everyone showed up for the cutting and chopping. Only one grill caught on fire this year. Last year was ours this year my dad's.

This past weekend was Halloween. We had 78 trick or treater's . Then my mother and I were in charge of the food area at the games. We had pretzel sticks dipped in Vanilla, chocolate or strawberry frosting and then covered in sprinkles, popcorn cups and fruit punch. It was sometimes hard to keep up with the demand, but being in the food service profession I handled it. We didn't go in the haunted house, we will next weekend.

In a few days Kelly and Melissa and the girls will be arriving for the second Halloween weekend. I'm not sure if the costumes for them yet it will be a surprise. I will be busy with them here too. We are going to the York wild animal farm in York ME.

I did get some knitting done. I worked on my afghan for the trailer at the beginning of the vacation then the hot weather finally arrived so I switched projects. I made 2 and a half Christmas stockings for the soldiers . I need to have them completed and turned in by October so that they can be filled. I hope to make 2 more out of the yarn I have so that I will have made 4 all together.

I have a lot of projects lined up along with requests so I am staying busy knitting.