Lights on your dash means living in a car repair black hole

I had been having warning lights in my dash being on every once in awhile. I had asked the car dealership about it. They tried to read the code the lights were throwing but no success. They were too slow and the lights were off by the time the got around to it. o.0

So I made an appointment to come in and get it checked out. They said it would take 2-3 hours. I brought a book and my Fountain Pen Shawl which I was working on at the time. It took at least 5-6 hours with no solution. o.0

Finally all 5 of the lights that came on were on at once. Plus the fan for the air conditioning didn't work then either. I was in the big city, so I drove it in to the dealership service department and they asked if I had time to wait. I told them no I have to get to work. I knew if they waited to long the lights would be off and the opportunity would be lost and I was on my way to a rant. The service man was just smart enough to realize he had a woman about to explode and asked what I wanted done. I told them to read the code from the lights so we could find out what is going on. o.0

It took them 5 minutes total to get the machine, plug it into the car and wait for the results. Can you tell my why they wanted me to wait for that?? o.0

So we made an appointment. I took the car in and got it fixed. It needed a new starter switch.

Okay. I brought the car home, filled it with gas and put it in the garage. Got out of the car and heard this loud whooshing sound. Yes. Tire going flat. o.0

Took the car to our local gas station and had the tire repaired. Went back later that evening to get the car. Window was rolled down. Key forward. Battery mostly dead. Just enough juice to close the window and lock the doors. The gas station was closed for the night. o.0

Went back the next day and the battery had recovered enough to start the car. On DH's advice I drove around for 1/2 hour to recharge the battery.

Finally got my car home after having lights on in dash, flat tire and dead battery. 3 things. That should do it right? I hope so.

On the knitterly front this is what the Norwegian Woods Shawl looks like now:


A closeup of the beads I'm adding.


It didn't call for beads there but I'm experimenting.




I've got about 1/2 of the 2nd repeat of the 2nd chart left. It's moving right along even if I'm not knitting every day!

And weatherwise, we've had cool fall weather and now this:





Nice warm temperatures.....





Clear skies and a little wind. Just the right thing for harvest. :)

/can't get the words and the pictures to stay together. blogger drives me nuts sometimes. o.0

A switch in the weather...a change in the season

It was hot and humid for days. We all were anxiously waiting for different weather. And in the process of changing weather it was expected that we'd have a major storm. But...

The weather changed. Now it's cool and dry. No storm for us. Just a gentle change from hot/humid to cool/dry. Nice. Everyone is more at ease.

But it seems we went suddenly from Summer with a capital S to almost fall. With the windows open you can hear the rustle of a few dry leaves being scuttled down the street by the wind. It makes you go hunh, when did that happen?

I like fall. The cooler temperatures. The drier air. Thoughts of jackets & coats. The plaid fabric in the stores. The tweedy fields after they have been tilled. Harvesttime. Riding along in the combine to get to see DH for a bit. And school starting. The school supplies in the stores. Why is it when I think of school starting I always think of crayons? And a real old fashioned tablet of paper....I think it had a red cover with an Indian on it....am I right??

So, all seasons are good but fall is probably my favorite closely followed by spring. It's the changes that make them interesting.

New Things

I never thought to look in other craft departments at Joannes Fabrics for things that I could use for knitting. But look what I found in the counted cross stitch area of Joannes. A chart keeper! I was using up an awful lot of post it notes. The sticky just doesn't last very long on them!

It says to put masking tape on the edges because they are sharp...and they are. Couldn't find masking tape so I briefly considered duct tape and then settled on electrical tape. What!? I'm a farm girl. We use what we have on hand.

There isn't much for magnets with it though. Just short ones. So I bought a roll of sticky magnetic tape that you can cut to the length you want. I used electrical tape on that too to cover the sticky side.

Now I have enough magnetic strips to hold the chart securely in place and underline the row that I'm on too.

And my most recent discovery at Walmart is a new pair of readers to put a little jazz in my reading time. If I remember correctly I got the book at Walmart too. It's an interesting read.

I had time to kill while I waited for DH so I bought a pair of size 10.5 needles on sale and 4 skeins of Wool-Ease in red and started a Red Scarf. It wasn't on my mind until I read Norma's post about the Project and reminded me to get going! :)

And I have gotten a nice start on my Norwegian Woods Shawl. It's coming along quickly. I have slightly over one repeat left on the 1st chart. I'm using Cascade Heritage Sock yarn. I've never used Cascade of any kind before. It's very soft and the price is right. And I do like the color!

Our weather has been so humid and warm. I am anxiously awaiting the middle of next week when we have highs in the low 70s and I'm really really hoping for lower humidity too.

Fountain Pen Shawl....all done.....

I don't know if the bead color is a good choice but I liked how the addi turbo lace needles looked against the yarn and so I went with beads that were similar to that. I just couldn't find brick colored ones like the yarn....and yes this yarn is brick not the rosy pinky color in most of the pictures.


















My try at an "artsy" picture! :)




















If you look at any of these closeup, there are cat hairs everywhere!




















Another try for an artsy photo.







The color is brick. Dye Dreams yarn. Fingering weight. Size 5 addi turbo lace needle. One small tube of Toho seed beads put on with a crochet hook. The pattern is charted. Oh! And that reminds me! This shawl has many firsts for me. First time beading. First time reading a chart. And the first time I've gotten nupps to work. As the grandkids would say....TA DA!

Computer issues

I'm still around but we've been having computer problems. Major, lose everything on the computer, problems. We took it to the 'place with the Geeks' and they said the hard drive was shot so then we took it to a local computer repair place and they are going to give it a look see.

I've got years and years of pictures on that computer....sons' weddings, baby births, graduations, vacations....some printed out, some saved on a jump drive but I know there would be alot lost. Uff.

Well, we'll see what the computer repair guys say. I'm hoping they are GOOD!

The computer was a lemon from the word go....I hope it's replacement isn't the same!

Whatcha reading??

I'm reading Steig Larrson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire". But only after struggling to get past the prologue. That was a little upsetting.

I'm also reading Laura Bush's book "Spoken from the Heart". A book that actually has a bibliography and and index. How cool is that!? I haven't seen that since I was in school mumblemumble years ago and reading textbooks.

I'm liking both books but talk about diversity! :)

On the knitting front I have 2 repeats of the body to go on The Fountain Pen Shawl and the I'll just have the edging to do. I haven't looked at the pattern enough to know how many rows or how difficult that is.

I hope your day is as sunny and pleasant as mine looks to be.

Thank you knitting community

As I was sitting at my computer this morning looking at my blog and Ravelry I realize that I've advanced as a knitter A LOT since I found Ravelry and met people through blogs.

I've been able to see what others are doing and have had encouragement to try it myself and now I'm doing more than stockinette and ribbing. There are still a lot of things I haven't done, amoung them is steeking. That just seems wrong! :) But you know eventually I may try that too. I've now learned never to say never when it comes to knitting.

So here is my heartfelt Thank You to Ravelry and everyone in the knitting blog community. I'm able to knit lace and sweaters and socks! WooHoo!!