Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Wow, one day it's 45 degrees then today it's 95 degrees! At least that is what the car thermometer read as I pulled away from the restaurant in Port Jervis. Broiling hot!

By the time I drove down our block, the heat had cooled to 88 degrees, which is warm, but not horrible. All Spring it has felt like late Winter; and now this! But, it won't stick around for long. Anyway, it's Spring!

Here is what I call my Tri-Color Wrap. Just knitting it last month made Spring seem that much closer; the colors are bright and cheery.

I used a worsted-weight acrylic yarn. Puchase at least 800 yards for the main color, 1 skein ea. for your contrasting colors.

I have lime green, pumpkin, and yellow. But, you can use any color combination you like, in fact, it just came to me that varying shades of one color, (blue, for example) would look fabulous!

Size 7 or 8 needle and the finished size should be approx 60 inches or longer.

Using white, cast on a multiple of 11 stitches, plus 2. I used 90 sts.

Knit 6 rows.

Row 1: (RS): K1, *k2tog, k2, (k into the front & back of the next st., ) twice, k3, ssk, repeat from * to last st, k1.

Row 2 and all even rows: K1, purl to last st, k1.

Rows 3-12: repeat Rows 1 and 2.

Row 13-16: change to first contrasting color and knit 4 rows.

Row 17 - 28: change to white, repeat Rows 1 and 2.

Rows 29 - 32: change to 2nd contrasting color and knit 4 rows.

Rows 33 - 44: change to white, repeat Rows 1 and 2.

Rows 45 - 48: change to 3rd contrasting color and knit 4 rows.

Repeat this sequence until desired length, ending with 12 rows of white.

Knit 6 rows, BO.

Something summery for those cool restaurants, or evenings out, or even to church on Sunday.

It knits up easily and you can take this anywhere to work on as there is just one row to memorize.

It may be warm, but I just put the kettle on; nothing like a cup of tea!

How ya doin?

Being someone who grew up close to NYC I can get away with that title; and if you don't think so, 'get lost'! Just some New Yawk stuff; I love the city anyway and the whole tri-state confusion and traffic and news and radio and TV. It's in my DNA.

It's nice to write about nothing. My life is just like yours, filled with this and that, and only a variation on the theme of life. I am waiting for Spring to appear; snow is long gone, but very little has bloomed or even made an attempt at budding, but the waiting is good. Patience is all around us in Nature; we only forget to see it. Little daffodils and crocuses are out and the forsythia's just blooming yellow; little grasses are sprouting here and there, only not enough to drag the lawn-mower out for.

Yesterday was 73 degrees and the ants were parading around the kitchen sink. Not for long. The garage needs a good cleaning, again (!), before the bugs find the nooks and crannies for the summer. A good sweeping and a good spraying should do the trick. And a good throwing-out, too.

In between working at the restuarant, I'm working on dozens of dishcloth patterns, seasonal, by color, placemats, jewelry, and shawls. I should have a goodly amount of wares to sell in the Fall at the Christmas craft fairs. In between knitting my fingers off, I love to read. Right now I am in the middle of "The Death of Satan" by Andrew Delbanco and have just started Sharon Kay Penman's "When Christ and His Saints Slept", just for fun. I read all kinds of SEO stuff online, and read and print various encyclicals and letters off of EWTN. I'm still finishing "The Letters of Abelard & Heloise" a Penguin Classic, and also do about a chapter a week in a self-study book called "A Catholic Guide to the Bible" which is VERY interesting and should be mandatory for everyone who calls themselves Catholic. Actually, I have a long list of books for Catholics, but not today.

Then there is my Knit Stitch overhaul. I don't know what to do with that yet; so I will do nothing. In addition, I'm pondering over a short online course on tech writing I think I will take. It promises to SHOW us the jobs and that's my main concern. Us over-fifty types have been deemed obsolete (can you imagine), in this screwy world we live in; so rather than run myself all around to people who do nothing but make faces when they see me, I'll sit in front of my computer and give you instruction manuals, operations booklets, and the like for a fee! I'm the best damned writer I know.

One last thing, . . . Candle Reflections. My book on memoirs. I am saying today, April 19, 2009, ten years and one day shy, of that terrible day at Columbine high school in Colorado when 2 students decided to go target shooting. Life can go away in an instant. And there are things I have to say; things I want the world to know came from me. So.

By July 1, 2009, a little over 2 months from now, I will be publishing my book. On Amazon. It's thoughts, impressions, events that have occurred in my life in the past 50 years or so, and grounded in my Catholic faith they have made me look at the world the way I do.

And we shall see.