Been a While!

It has been a long time since I have been here.  Kick up your feet, grab a beverage of your choice and stay a while!

I was busy last fall and then Blogger decided to become unhappy with the version of Internet Explorer I was using so, since I was unhappy with the way Explorer was acting, I switched to Mozilla.

Since we last had a chat we have had a new addition to the Place.

Her name is Shadie Lady a/k/a Wiggles and this pic is of her at six months and 50 pounds.  She's now seven months and weighs 60 plus pounds.  Gonna be a big little girl!!!

It's been a rough winter for me.  In November, I lost my best friend, Estelle, my own golden girl.  She was 96 years young when she traveled the rainbow bridge and I miss her!  Her wisdom and kindness were legion and the world is a lesser place without her in it.  We have had a lot of snow and ice in our area which has kept me penned up in the house for days and days at a time, which leads to depression and makes me very hard to live with....my poor DH bears the brunt...but my wiggles keeps me laughing and/or cursing at her antics.

I've tried to stay busy to help combat the depression but it doesn't always work.  Since Christmas I've made a back pack and sweater for my gson's birthday this month.  I'm also working on a jewelery box with cross stitch in the lid for my oldest gdaughter's birthday in April. I'm also knitting a baby afghan for a new grandchild.  I also completed my first fair isle project; a hat.  I need to finish the rosary I started for my youngest gdaughter's first communion in May.  All I need is chain then I'll be finished.  I'm taking a bit of a break from ornaments at this time so I can work on these projects.  But i'll get back to them as some point in time....lol

I did have one felicitous occurrence though.  At a very small local yarn shop I discovered a wonderful brand of knitting needles.  They are made by ChiaoGoo and can be viewed at this link: http://s406140097.initial-website.com/products/interchangeables.  They have several different kind of circular needles.  I prefer the "SPIN" needles.  They are interchangeables made of bamboo.  The nifty thing about them is that the cable will spin as you work on them.  All of the circular needles I have used in the past the cable connecting the two needles would get all twisted up and make knitting difficult.  These cable actually turn while you use them so they don't get all wonky.  Plus I like the way their interchangeable points work.  The connections are made of steel (I think) and are very smooth and the yarn doesn't snag on them like some of the plastic interchangeables do.  They also have a metal set of interchangeables called the Twist Red Lace needles.  I haven't tried them as they are metal tips and I don't care for metal knitting needles.  The one down side to the interchangeable needles is that they have two distinct sets.  The small set encompasses needle sizes 2 through 8 and the large set encompasses needle sizes 9 through 15.  This is due to the size of the connectors on the needle tips.  For someone who knits a LOT using many different sizes of needles they do sell these in sets with all tips, cables, connectors and a nice case.  I don't knit a LOT so I'm buying them as I need them from a source on Ebay  http://www.ebay.com/itm/ChiaoGoo-SPIN-4-Inch-10-cm-Bamboo-Interchangeable-Tips-Knitting-Needles-/330810349298?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item7dc04b47d4#ht_3500wt_619.  The service at this shop is terrific and they do not charge shipping on the needles.  I'm not buying them from my local yarn shop as they do not sell the interchangeable tips separately only in sets. 


I'm finished for now and will come back to chat when springs warms us up around here!