2012 December 14 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

December 14, 2012 · by JudyL

Not much looks better than seeing my man working!

Vince Priming the Gate

Yesterday Vince was out working on getting the gate and entrance pipe primed. I had been to visit the neighbor and stopped to talk to him.

Looking South

I love that most any direction I look, as far as I can see, I don’t see another house!

Vince sanded all the pipe down, then coated it or rubbed it or did something with it with Ospho, then primed it and then will paint it with Sherwin Williams industrial enamel. Once the gate and entrance are finished, he has to sand all the pipe fence around the house, then treat it with Ospho, then prime it and then paint it. The fencing here may not have had good prep done before painting because the pipe shouldn’t be rusting after five years. We’re making progress!

Primed and Ready to be Painted

The rust color is the primer. The real color is going to be a dark forest green. Some day we’ll get some gate decorations — maybe a yellow jacket or, Vince said he would like to find some old iron eagles to put on the two fence posts at the ends of the gate. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have this project so close to completion. It took a long time to get the driveway done, the entrance and gate built, and the opener installed. We ended up losing “friends”, who I guess may not have been friends anyway, over this project but . . life goes on.

Can you see that concrete foundation just past the gate? That’s left from when our property was part of Camp Bowie, which was a pretty big base during World War II. There’s still activity at Camp Bowie, mostly National Guard maneuvers, but it’s kinda neat living here and knowing this was once a part of such a big base.

Vince Chasing Me Away

Here he comes! He’s telling me to leave . . get . . he has work to do and I’m causing him to lose daylight. Fine . . I left.

Look at that gorgeous Texas blue sky! This was yesterday. Today, so far, there is no blue sky. We’ve had rain . . that glorious life sustaining liquid that falls from the sky, albeit rarely! The last time we had a drop of rain was September 29. You can bet there are lots of folks in this area who are thankful for whatever amount of rain we get today.

On The Needles – December 14, 2012

December 14, 2012 · by JudyL

There’s still a struggle in my mind going on about using DPNs to make one sock at a time or using two circular needles to make both socks at once. It’s so nice to have both socks finished at the same time, and they’re both exactly the same. But, it’s relaxing for me to use DPNs and not have to deal with two balls of yarn at once. Even putting them in separate bags, there’s still some amount of twisting and paying attention that has to be done. To me, using the DPNs is just mindless and keeps my hands busy with no effort at all.

This week, I’ve worked on the salmon colored socks on the DPNs. I will get back to the green socks on the two circular needles.

I probably say this on every sock post but I love this yarn. It’s Djinni Sock by Dragonfly Fibers. The color is Peach Melba which is not currently in stock at The Loopy Ewe, but that’s where I got this. The yarn is 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon. It’s a very tightly twisted yarn and not fuzzy at all.

What’s on your needles?