On Simple Knitting Fun:

Yes, I know you came here today looking for something spooky for Halloween. Gothy me with my cemetery pictures, horror story writing and all that. But for me Halloween is not a big deal. So I will leave it to those that only do it in one big bang on only one day of the year.

I dress up everyday and ghosts don’t pick only this day to say ‘boo!’ to me. I write my horror stories on any given day of the year. So that said, I will say, “Welcome to my world for the day.” and I will get on to what is really exciting me today.















I spent last evening and some of this morning making two sets of US 4 or 3.5 double point knitting needles out of Poplar dowels. I have a set of steel but I don’t like how the weight of them pulls them out of my work. I spend far too much time putting them back in place.

The reason I made two sets is that I want to make both socks of the pair of socks at the same time. I even made a few extras for dropped needles while I‘m working.















This will be a two fold new project for me because they are also the first toe up socks I’m making. I have always hated the waiting for the second sock to come off the needles. So this is something I’m going to enjoy.

The label on the yarn says Sassy Stripes, stripes and patterns appear as you knit or crochet. I’m really going too have some fun with this project.















The yarn is an acrylic Moda-Dea from Coats, size 3 and I’m using the color Stormy. It has a web address on the label if you are interested. www.modadea.com I saved it from a discount bin in the clearance isle of one of my local, national chain, craft stores. And who can say no to a pair of self knitted socks for under two dollars? (Even if they are acrylic. They too have there uses.)

The Pattern is from Cookie A. and can be found here.

Edit: I have added the lace pattern I used here in my Nov 1, 08 blog posting.

Hi friends,

A double posting today. I just got thru reading the other blogs I look in on and Fallen Angel & Hidden Demons reminded me about RavensBlight 's web sight.

On it he has a Toy Shop full of free printable paper toys and scary masks to make.

If you are looking for a last minute costume mask and have a printer you are in luck. Even if you are not it is a great site to look in on.

Sincerely, Lady Euphoria

On The End of the Fall/Winter Storm:

The yard outside my window this morning once it got light.

The lights are back on for most folks around here. There is still a lot of clean up of downed trees and branches to be done. The early winter storm will be only a memory by tomorrow when the temp will be back up and the kids will be out hunting candy and fright on Halloween.

I was busy knitting up a storm of my own. I made a 100% woolen toilet paper scarf. Out of a bulky Acrylic, Mohair, Nylon mix one small and most of a larger Jester Hats for cancer patents, and a blond Hallow Wig. . And I’m a quarter of the way through a Sheldon the Turtle made of Wool-Ease Acrylic/Wool blend. All of these are from Lions Brand Yarns gotten at a discount sale.















The hats still need bells on the horn points. And I amazed myself by how much I got done when there wasn’t much of anything else to do. By that I mean I couldn’t play my video games.

I will revisit my Sims video game today mostly because I had just gotten the latest expansion pack ‘Apartment Life’ loaded on Monday. This is because I don’t add them until the patch is available and it only came out last Thursday.

Witches and Warlocks have come to live in my Sims towns now, just in time for Halloween. Magic and secret rooms will be luring my hands away from my knitting needles for a while I fear. And you know where you can find me tomorrow. The Sims in the town of Belladonna Cove are calling me to play.

Edit: The Jester Hat pattern is missing some information that I added here in my Nov. 01, 08 blog posting.

On Lost Friends:

In the past few days some of the people in the blogs I read have been dealing with the loss of friends to death. Little Black Crow with the first anniversary of her good friend Julie’s death and Judith with the recent death of a friend and co-worker Peg have been two in particular in blogs I read regularly.

As you know death is never far from my thoughts. But I am aware that this is not so for everyone. Still just because I think about endings often doesn’t mean I’m any closer to understanding or embracing it. Nor do I feel it has to be all sad and depressing.

Whether I’m strange or not I have been acquainted with the death of people I held close in life. My grandparents and other older relatives have all passed on, friends have met with an early grave, and my son was killed in a car accident.

It never gets easier to deal with or any less painful when it happens. The loss always leaves gaps unfilled and the dynamic of other relationships change because of this. Death and loss change us in ways we don’t like, leaving us with feelings of sadness and depression, of being lost in a once familiar place.

Reading their blogs reminded me of how I felt shortly after my good friend Loretta died in an apartment house fire. It was the same time of year and the pensive feelings we all seem to get in the autumn lends itself to feeling the loss all the more.

I miss her a lot to this day. She was intelligent and a good friend. She had her demons like we all do. And I look to them to make myself feel better. ‘At least she is not bothered by them anymore.’ I tell this to myself so I don’t feel so bad anymore. It doesn’t really help, but I try none the less.

I have a hole in my life for every loss. Today I’ll try again to make them fit into a lacy pattern in my life instead of a sign of destruction and decay of relationships lost. I’ll also find some joy in this day. It’s there to off set the sadness, I only have to be open to looking for it.

On Things Can Change Rather Quickly ‘Round Here:

Mountain Man has been franticly working in the garden to put it to bed for the winter.

Yesterday evening it looked like this.



























The arbor for the gourds had been taken down and it had been cut up and added to the wood pile. Mountain Man took down all the temporary fences and poles for the various plants to grow on. He had cut down all the plant matter and composted it. The rest he tilled back into the soil. He did get done but it was too dark to take a picture by then.

I woke this morning at 5:30 to this…















Last night when I went to bed they were saying a dusting to an inch. We are now being told by out local weather forecasters to expect 3-6 inches of heavy snow before it is over. And living on the top of a mountain means you take that kind of forecast to heart, higher elevations and all. We are over 1600 feet here.

Mountain Man will be getting the snow plow out and ready for the tractor early this year. I’m very glad I had gotten all the winter laundry and airing done. The extra blanket on the bed was a God send as the cold winds blew last night.

Water is filled into pots because the leaves have not come off of all the trees and heavy snow means downed tree limbs and possible power outages. The thunder is shaking the windows in their frames. This is cooking up to be a good storm.

More than a few plastic boxes sit full of yarn and crafting materials. It looks like it’s going to be a long winter around here. Fewer sun spots this year predicts it too. I am ready for a snow in. I just wasn’t expecting the first one to be before Halloween.

On My Yearly Health Check Up:

Today is my yearly cancer check up. It’s a good/bad day. I’m of course glad that the cancer is gone but at the same time worried that it might have come back. And of course I remember the treatments and how devastating they were on my body and mind.

The smell alone of the place brings back memories. Chemo is the smell of raw fear touched with hopefulness.

I take my bath in the morning assessing my body and the changes it has gone through. Today is a memory day. Many things are brought back to the fore. I touch the scars and note the healing.

Baldness, weakness, sickness, tiredness, fear, thoughts of death, strength, perseverance, will power, hope. All tied together like a knotted ball of string.

I am a cancer survivor. I say this with a touch of pride and disgust. I carried a lot of baggage at that time. Things I no longer care about or care if others still care. Now I live for today.

The office will be bathed in pink. Breast cancer month has come again. I don’t like pink, never have. But it has been pressed upon me in the last few years. I push the pink gifts to the back of the closet or drawer. I don’t do pink even if I am a breast cancer survivor. Others can carry that banner.

I’ll sit still for the blood work and exam then make my way to the car. Shaking the dust of the place from my feet. Holding close the love/hate relationship I have with the place and people within. Knowing I will never be the same for what I lived through.

One word says it all. Cancer.

On Sleeping In:

Today I slept in. I don’t do that often. I’m one of those people who wake naturally every morning at about the same time without an alarm clock.

I find sleeping-in a strange occurrence. The day doesn’t start quite right. Everything is off time and tempo. I missed my morning Yoga. I missed my morning pill. The day is out of order.

How do people do this sleeping in thing? I suppose that it is something good to people who don’t sleep enough. I sleep less then the suggested eight hours on a regular basis. Still, I just wake up the same time every day. That is most days… Except for days like today.

To me it’s a cause for concern. Am I sick? Is my body out of balance? Am I working too hard? Am I depressed about something? No, I just over slept even though I was in bed at the usual time.

I have never been able to plan a sleep in. I have stayed in bed wide eyed and bushy tailed, chomping at the bit to start the day. I just don’t know how to roll over and go back to sleep. I can’t make my body do that.

I am just a morning person. I dislike missing a moment of the morning. Hearing the first bird sing. Seeing the first blush of light glow in the pre dawn sky. Opening myself to the possibilities along with nature.

I like starting a new day, not one semi used. Like opening a pre-read news paper. It is not the same. The news print hasn’t changed but the crisp freshness is gone. I wonder what I have missed. A rabbit crossing the lawn? A deer in the field? A new bird traveling through? It is lost, gone to my experience of this day.

Tomorrow will be like the others. Early to bed, early to rise. Mountain Man will stay up late and sleep-in in the morning. And the rhythm of our lives will be restored. But for me, today I am missing something. A piece of the morning I can never get back.