Back to winter again

We have left the warm springtime temps of Hagerstown, MD, where we sat for the weekend (we're talking temps near 80), and have entered the very chilly temps of northern Indiana (tems around 40). Last night when we stopped to sleep, it was sprinkling. When we woke up this morning it was a torrential downpour and our truck was leaking. There was a steady little drip at the head of our bed that soaked one corner of each or our pillows. This woke us up at about 4:45 a.m...we weren't even supposed to get up for another hour and change, but up we were. My poor DH...he got out the flashlight and was tearing apart different parts of the truck to see where the water was coming from. It is baffling why the truck is leaking, and he spent a couple of hours on Sunday caulking with silicone and it's still leaking.

I finally got the Springtime in Paris socks done. They are nice and fit me perfectly. I still hate the yarn that I used and will probably not use it for anything else, although I really like the idea of the yarn, but don't like executing the knitting with it. I love the color in the sock. They are a real departure to what I usually use, but I do like them and will wear them with my birks and crop pants with pride, because darn it.....I like them. They were knitted on size US 2 circs, toe up, two at a time out of Tofutsies yarn.



In this picture you can kind of see the Eiffel tower pattern on the one sock and the raindrop pattern shows on the one above. I will most probably wear them with the eiffel towers on the inside and not on the outside because I like the outside fabric better than the inside fabric.








Here's a picture of the very first DW dishcloth that I have done. I really like the way the red and white worked out and patterned on this. I also liked how fast this cloth worked up. It was super quick, I think I got it done in one afternoon of knitting going across Texas. This was knitted from Peaches and Creme in colorway peppermint. It was done on size US 7 needles just like the directions said to do.





Here are the things that I am working on right now. This picture, taken on the keyboard of my laptop, is a new face cloth for my mother. I made her one for Christmas that was knitted out of a cotton/linen yarn that she says that she loves and she asked for another one or two. This is being knitted out of a new yarn from Elann called Adara. It is 87.5% mercerized cotton, and 12.5% linen. It is a wonderful yarn to work with and the colors in the yarn line are incredible. My picture does not do this justice in any way. the colors in this are two purples, a bright pinky red, and a natural linen yarn.

These are the socks that I am working on for DS. They are being knitted toe up, 2 on two circs following the Crazy Heels and Toes method. They will eventually be Horcrux socks, from the pattern for the six socks KAL, but I really like the way that socks knit up using this method because it is easy peasy. They are being knitted on US size 0 circulars with Knit Picks essential tweed in a grey color way.

In my last post, I posted that I wasn't disappointed because I knew that my surprise from my SP was sitting at home. Well.....I now have it in my hot little hands and am thoroughly enjoying reading all of the text and dreaming about the patterns. There are so many that I want to knit, and I will. Thank you Tart Diva for your thoughtfulness in providing me with the hours of enjoyment that I will get out of this book.

I also want to thank all of the people that commented on my post about losing my grandmother. It was a pleasant surprise to get the emails for the comments and to know that people were reading my blog and cared enough to send their condolences. I would answer each comment separately, but I haven't figured out how to go from the comments to the email address of the poster. I will have to do so from the pages of my blog, but know that I do read everyone and appreciate all of the comments, unless of course they come from a mean spirited troll and then they will get deleted, because I can.

We are now going through Chicago, and the sky is so overcast that we can't even see the tops of the buildings that identify the Chicago skyline. Not only that, the traffic is terrible. It has been a while since we were through here, and there is all kinds of road construction that wasn't here the last time we did come through.

Well, I think that is probably all for now. I don't have any other knitting to show off, and I haven't taken pictures of the yarn I got when I went home (but I will and will post some yarn pRon for you) so I can't show and tell. Needless to say, I got some wonderful stuff and will show it the next time I post.

Another Trip through Texas

Do you know how big a state Texas is???? See how straight that road is? That is the kind of road we have been traveling for three days and most of that time was in the state of Texas. We made a pick up in Wyoming and took it to Louisiana and about 600 miles of that trip was in Texas. Then we picked up in Louisiana and went to San Antonio area. That was another 500 miles in the state of Texas. Then we went to Laredo and picked up a load going to slOhio. (Yes the sl is supposed to be in front of the Ohio, because that is what truckers call Ohio when they aren't being crude. Trucks have to travel at 55 mph, which is a hazard for the trucks and the cars because of the difference in the split speeds. Cars get to travel at 70 mph and it is sometimes kind of hard to judge the difference in your speed and the truck ahead of you when they have to go so much slower and you come up on them really fast at 15 mph difference in speed.)

All of the travel in Texas showed us a different part of the state than we have been in most of the time. We got to see the eastern border, as we came out of Louisiana and that part of the country is beautiful. All green and lush and not at all like the mental picture that you get when you, or at least I, get when you/I think of Texas.

This is a really good time to travel in Texas because it is green and hasn't had a chance to dry out. Most of western Texas is farm/ranch land and during the summer, the parts that aren't irrigated are dry and dusty and windy. Right now they are just windy. Here are some pics to show you some of the beauty that is North and West Texas....Don't you just love the blue bonnets. There are carpets and carpets of these along side the road and in fields and they are just gorgeous. They make you glad that spring is here.

Let's see....knitting....I am still working on dishcloths, my springtime in paris socks, although I have gotten both of the heels turned and it's just a matter of knitting the legs and cuffs as far up as I want them to be, which won't be far. I love the pattern, I hate the yarn I am using. I love the colorway of the yarn, and I will probably like the socks when they are done. I just don't like the yarn right now because it is very splitty and I am using the wrong size needles, but they were what I had when I started and I got gauge, but it is not working out to be a really nice fabric that will wear well. Oh well, I won't buy anymore of it again....(although I think I have two skeins in different colorway. Sounds like swap fodder to me.)

I also am getting ready to start on some socks for DS. I am part of the six sock kal and I think that I will do the Horcrux socks for him. His feet have gotten so big that he can actually wear with comfort all of my store bought wool socks. Besides that, I have some really nice knit picks essential tweed that will work up nicely for that.

I was going to post some pictures of the dishcloths that I finished, but when we went to visit my granny last week, I showed them to my mother and she snagged them. They were really nice. They were knitted on US7 needles in the basket weave pattern that was the mid march dishcloth KAL. One was done in a really springy Lime green, yellow and white which I liked so much I bought another ball of it. The other was done in maroon, blue and white. The both turned out lovely and I guess that my Mom really liked them, but I just wished that I had gotten pics of them first. LOL

I am knitting a DW cloth this week in Peaches and Cream in the peppermint colorway. I like this cloth. It's not as fast for me as the basket weave, but I do like the way it works in variegated yarns.

I posted last week that my DH took a detour on the trip to Louisiana so that I could go and visit my granny, who was extremely ill. We got the call yesterday morning(afternoon) that we had lost her. I am a little sad, but she is no longer hurting and has gone to heaven. She had gotten so that she wouldn't eat, couldn't breathe very well and her white blood count was very high, for no reason that the doctors where she lived could find. She was supposed to go to a hematologist and an oncologist yesterday, but that didn't happen. There was some thought that she had developed some kind of leukemia or some other blood disorder or cancer. I personally think that she was ready to go. She was so uncomfortable and absolutely hated the fact that she couldn't feed herself or get out of be and was dependent on everyone around her for every little thing. But, it was funny, when we went to visit her, even as sick as she was, she was still worried about how her hair looked, because she had company, you know.

We won't be going to the funeral. I don't feel the need to go and say goodbye, I did that when we saw her. I don't feel the need to go see all of the family that might be at her funeral because they didn't see her when she was sick, and that makes me angry. My cousins, and there are a lot of them, couldn't be bothered to go and see their grandmother when she was on her deathbed. Most of them live in the same town/city that she did and it was too much to ask for them to go and spend 20 minutes with her. Anyway...that's my rant about that. I feel better now.

I guess that is all that I need to say tonight. We are done driving for today (at 8:37) and we might get to watch a movie or something.

I am no longer disappointed

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but because we outran our signal, I had to wait until today to actually post it.

I am no longer disappointed. My Secret Pal came through for me.
She knew how much I was lusting after this:

and Lo and behold when my sister went and checked the mail the other day....there it was with a nice little note about this being only the first surprise. Now that is exciting, granted, I haven't gotten to actually see or hold my very own copy of the book yet....but I have it on really good authority that it is with my mail and will be there when we get on the other side of the country again and can pick up the mail.

We are in Colorado right now. My grandmother is extremely ill and so my wonderful DH decided that we could go the long route to our delivery in LA and swing through Colorado Springs, CO and see my granny. My folks picked us up at the truck stop because it was their day to come to town and spend the meal times with my granny feeding her and just being with her. We also had to have another small problem (less than $200) with our truck fixed and were able to do that before my folks got to town and so DH was able to go with us to see granny and out to lunch. We went to a Chinese Buffet and had a good lunch with my folks. We then had to get back to the truck and head out, but not before we went with my Dad to look at a truck that he's looking to buy. He kind of wanted DH's opinion on it, so we went and spent an hour or so looking at it and my Mom and I sat and visited in the car while the boys took the truck out for a test drive.

I have some pictures of things that we saw on the road from Peetz, CO to Casper WY. You know you always hear about the land marks that people saw as they were traveling on the wagon trains. Well we went up the back roads out of Sidney, NE and were able to see Chimney Rock. It was about sundown and the rock was outlined against the colors of the sky. It was beautiful.


Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoythe glimpses of our journies

April Snow

Yesterday, April 6th, this is what we woke up to:
Great big fat snow flakes....it's April for goodness sake. I guess this is Global warming in all its glory! LOL

The really weird thing about this snow was that 10 minutes later, this is what the view out our windshield was:

This whole thing was repeated about 3 times in the time that we got up, got dressed and walked over to Waffle house to have breakfast. The sky would be blue with not a cloud in it and then 10-15 minutes later another snow squall would blow in and the process would be repeated. It was pretty, but made for some slick walking and driving.

Here is some snow on the fender of our truck:

After we left the truck stop I spent most of the day working on my knitting. I finally finished a dishcloth of the man in the moon that I had been working on and started the one from the 2007 March Mid-month KAL. I know, I know, I'm running a bit behind on the dishcloth KAL. But, like the Yarn Harlot says....there are no knitting police and I can do things in MY own good time.

I sent my secret pal a surprise the other day, and it seemed to go over well. That's good, you know, as I don't want to send things that are crappy. I'm just hoping that I am reading her answers to her questions correctly and purchasing the things that she likes. It's really kind of fun because we have a lot of the same likes and dislikes, so it's kind of like hunting up things that I would like.

Today the weather in Iowa is absolutely visually beautiful. The temperature when you go outside is kind of brutal, but visually it "looks" like a spring day. We stopped in a rest area yesterday that had a bunch of spring flowers out that were looking just pitiful. The temps had fallen so low that they were "frosted" and kind of just curled in on themselves. I felt bad cuz they were so wilted. Not that there was anything I could do, but you know...

Again, I want to wish everyone a "Happy Easter".

Lynda

I'm disappointed

My secret pal told me that she sent me something and I didn't get it before we had to leave out again. :-(

We had a load snafu yesterday and so we went home to get the week's mail and take showers and sleep in a bigger than single bed. We even went to the post office this morning to make sure that we got all of the mail that was there. The postal people didn't have it all put up, but the postmistress that was on the counter was kind enough to check and make sure that we didn't have any cuz she knows that we drive a truck and we had told her that we were leaving. Oh well....I'll have to get it next time we go home.

We applied for our own authority today, or at least we filled out the paper work and sent it to the office of OOIDA for processing today. It will take a month or six weeks until we actually have our own MC number and have the ability to haul loads that we choose instead of being subject to the vagaries of the powers that be.

This whole thing is just more than a little scary. While we are leased to someone they are responsible to find our loads and to pay us, whether they get paid or not. When we go out on our own, we have to do the collection and finding the loads and all of the paperwork that that entails.

Anyway, in the linear course of getting to the point that we can do this on our own, we signed up for one of the internet load boards and when our company is slow in coming up with something, I go online and find us a load. The only problem with the internet load boards is that a lot of what ends up on them is the crap that nobody wants. Stuff that moves for $1.11 a mile just don't cut it. We really have to have more than that to keep our heads above water.

On the knitting front, I have turned the heel and finished one of the feet on my Springtime in Paris socks. I really like the pattern and the colorway of the yarn that I am using, I just think that I am using needles that are a little too large and probably should have used US 1's or maybe even horrors US 0's. They look fine, and they fit fine, I just think that the fabric could have been a little firmer and therefore they would probably wear a little better than I think they aren't going to wear.

We are on our way to Colorado. Have you ever heard of Peetz, Colorado? Me neither, and I grew up in Colorado. See that little blue box on the map? Peetz is about in the middle of that little box. It really is out in the middle of, as my Dad would say, "Nowheresville". I guess that they are putting a wind generating farm out there and we are delivering parts of one of the cranes that is going to be setting these things up. This load is a load that I found for us and before the company took its cut, it paid about $2.00 a mile. That's not a bad freight rate.

Going to Colorado seems like it will be a good thing. I talked to my Dad today, and I found out that my granny is very ill. She's 88 or 89 and scrappy as all get out, but Dad said she isn't doing real well. He and his siblings are taking turns sitting with her during the day, so it sounds like maybe we should get there to see her. I guess that when we drop this load, or before, I will get online and see what there is that picks up in Denver and heads south or West and we'll take a detour through the Springs to see her.

I guess that's all the news that I have, at least for now, so I will sign off before I am booted off by losing my connection.

Have a Happy Easter!!!!!! and remember that Christ rose from the Dead on the third day and that is the reason we celebrate.