The Dark Side

In the past four days, I've produced 3 FO's. *All crochet* (whispered)

This....

Which I half-frogged and redid. It was wonky and WAY too big. The last washcloth I made shrank up and became too small. This one, I was going to make as big as a regulation terrycloth washie. I got bored and came up a few inches short. I didn't realize that kitchen cotton is about ten times thicker and heavier then terrycloth. (Yea, I'm a dolt.) I frogged back to where I'd accidentally added the extra stitches, then I crocheted 4 more rows and added one round of double crochet. Perfect! (We'll see. When it shrinks, but it should still be big enough.)

Then there's this....

Here's a shot of it in action...

And here's a shot of the one I made last Xmas for the boys bathroom (as per Uberstrickenfrau's request)...

And then there's this...

It's a cover for my Swiffer WetJet. I think it's obscene to pay $12 for 8 WetJet pads. Also, I have to use 2 whenever I clean the floors. (Maybe if I cleaned them more frequently, this wouldn't be the case.) I have a fair sized kitchen floor and then the two upstairs bathroom floors (both relatively small). But I also have little boys and they don't have the best aim in the bathroom. I do the kitchen floor, change pads, do our bathroom, then theirs. Anyway, I wanted one that I could rinse (and ultimately throw in the laundry) and re-use. Viola!

I'd been thinking of making a cover for awhile and then a couple of weeks ago, I saw someone talk about it on another blog (I forget which one). They had a link to a site that had the pattern for a knit one and a crocheted one. It took awhile for me to get to it but since I was on a crocheting spree, I thought, might as well!

Here's the pattern I came up with (modified from the one I saw online).

US H hook, Sugar 'n Cream yarn

Chain 15, start in second chain, single crochet across (14 sc)

single crochet every row for about 14" Fold over 1" on the end and slip stitch the edges closed.

Then tightly chain 17 and attach chain to other edge (you want this chain to be just short of the width of the piece).

At other end, fold over 3" and slip stitch edges closed.

I finally replaced my favorite scissors.

I had bought this contraption years ago and in the past few years, I haven't been able to find it. When we moved, I did a thorough search of my old cross-stitch stuff while packing. It's gone. So, I used my Sunday 40% off coupon at JoAnn's and bought a new one. I LOVE these scissors! I doubt they'd be let on any plane anywhere but I rarely fly so that's OK.

They are Gingher and they are so compact and easy and sharp. I heart them.

After dinner, on the 4th of July, I convinced Dave to take a walk around the block. It was so nice out, it didn't take much convincing. I really wanted to walk past Rachel's house. She and her daughter had been on vacation for the past 10 days and since she's really the only person I know here, I missed her! She and her family were outside and we stopped to say hi. (The boys were riding their bikes along with us.) We spoke for awhile and her husband set off a few firecrackers. Then we continued on. Around the corner, there was a HUGE block party going on. One of the women at the party insisted we stay. (My husband was mouthing, "I don't want to stay" but she was really so insistent, it would've been rude to leave.) Turns out there were quite a few Husker fans in the crowd. So now my husband has new friends.

We ended up staying almost two hours! We met a lot of neighbors and the kids had a great time. The guy with the table full of fireworks in his garage, had this game that he and some friends made up. I wish I had brought my camera. It's called Washoe, it's like horseshoes only... let's see, how can I explain this....

There's a team of two people and there's this box (about 4' X 2'). Two boxes, two teams. The boxes are covered in fake green worn-down turf and there's three holes, evenly spaced, cut into the length of the box. The boxes are set about 5' apart, short ends facing each other. There's a person from each team at each box (Box A has a team player from Team 1 and Team 2, Box B has the other team players). The player stands on a box at the end closest to the other box and throws 4" washers (hence, Washoe) into the holes of the other box. There's some elaborate scoring system: The hole closest is 1 point, the middle hole is 3 and the farthest hole is 5 points. If a team member makes a point it's subtracted from the other teams points. First team to make 11 points wins.

I didn't play but I was fascinated at the complexity and the fact that someone took the time to not only come up with the game but to actually make the boxes and develop a scoring system!

There were sparklers and fireworks galore!

And Davis scored a new girlfriend! This is Cora and at the end of the evening, he's actually sitting in her lap. She's a girl in Trevor's class. The entire evening, Cora was running around with Davis in tow, holding his hand. He was fine with it! At one point, I look over and Cora's got Davie's hands, another girl's got his feet and they are swinging him back and forth!

I can't begin to explain how happy fireworks make me. I was ecstatic! Somewhere during the evening, I (obviously) did go home and get the camera but I didn't take many pic's because I was running around looking at all the bright lights. We could see some professional one's over at the city and at the development to the East of us. Also, there seemed to be some pretty professional looking ones over on our street. When we finally made our way home, we were just in time to see the people across the street bring out some more of these professional (albeit, illegal as all get-out) fireworks. They asked if we'd mind if they set off their "grand finale" one. We said, "Go for it!" They brought out this 2' square box with a fuse. The guy lit the fuse and me and the boys laid on their lawn watching while it shot off 30 high altitude sparkly bursts!

When Dave and I were living together, we worked at resorts next to each other. His resort had the golf course and they used to have a professional fireworks show each year. The golf course maintenance guys would "volunteer" (they were paid but not required to be there) to be at each hole to make sure and report if any fires started (it was a desert after all). The first year, D and I sat at one of the holes overlooking a canyon. The next year, we laid on the grass of the hole right next to the hole where they were setting off the fireworks. We had to wait for awhile in the golf cart for a Gila Monster to leave the hole but other then that, it was the best show I'd ever seen!

Roller Coaster and Fireworks. Every Time, Ruth!

P. S. Got some very cool packages (from Faith and Uberstrickenfrau and Claudia). Pic's on Monday!