Anxiousdog - Knitting and Jesus Addict

Ghost

anxiousdog — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:15:01 PST

If it's been more than 3 months since your last post, does that mean you no longer need a blog? I don't post like I used to anymore. I've been like a ghost! My site is haunting the internet. Time to consider what I should do!

Chromalicious

anxiousdog — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:39:38 PDT

Last week I tweeted that I had installed Google Chrome and was really really falling in love with it. A few off my tweeps replied to me to ask why. I can't very well explain it all in 140 character bits, so I decided to blog about it a bit.

I have always been a big, huge, giant, enormous fan of Firefox. I have often pushed and teased until I got someone to switch from IE to FF. Now I may do the same with Chrome. But for those of you reading this, you may want to know that I'm basing most of my comparison and feature love off of my already beloved FF.

The Good

It's fast. Really fast. We have a small Acer Aspire One that our family uses primarily for web surfing on the go, and we have always used FF for the surfing. Unfortunately, when you open a new page, the mouse cursor freezes while the page loads. You can't just skip down and read while you wait for the photos to load. You're losing precious seconds while you wait for the cursor to come back. The other tricks like the space bar, arrow keys. and Pg Up/Pg Dwn buttons are also useless. Chrome loads pages lightening fast and that's one huge plus.

Simple, slim, and sleek. The design is really minimal, as you can see if you visit the Chrome site and watch any of the videos. Some may not like this, but I do. Less is more in my opinion. Especially when you're trying to read big web pages on tiny monitors.

There are tons of other features that I can mention here (like the one box for everything), but mostly I think you should check it out for yourself. If not by installing it, then watch the videos.

The last thing I wanted to point out - and have been trying to point out to my husband so we can use Chrome for our children - is the Application shortcut feature. Basically you have one or two clicks to turn any page into a short cut on your desktop.

Let's say you do this for Google Docs.

When you double click the desktop application, it launches a new window without any tabs, address bar, or other buttons. This gives you (or your child) a distraction free web application that looks very much like a desktop application.

I see this beneficial for webmail/gmail, google docs, and some online games like Runescape where you'd want to run it full screen.

The Bad

Don't get too excited here. There isn't that much that I can complain about. However, my number one issue with using Chrome is that there are very few add-ons (if any) to help you browse/work smarter.

My favorite add-on for FF is Xmarks which will sync bookmarks across multiple computers. This is great if you have one computer for work, another for play, etc. I often bookmark homeschool sites, then need them when I'm at another computer. Right now Chrome can't sync like this. However, I've heard that they will be doing this soon through Google Bookmarks, so theres there.

Anyway, for me Chrome is perfect for 99% of what I'm doing online. Give it a shot!

A Huntin' We Will Go

anxiousdog — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:16:37 PDT

Yesterday evening we packed up the kids and drove to a nearby blueberry farm. Or is it called an orchard? Either way the kids were pretty excited about this endeavor. At first I thought the excitement was due to the potential yummy snacks, desserts, and muffins they would get to eat, but soon realized they liked the hunt.

Each kid got a large bucket lined with a plastic bag, and were sent off to find their share of the harvest. We walked down rows and rows of berry bushes picking and choosing as we went. Jer pointed out which would be sour and which would turn out to be sweet.

We hunted for quite a while and when we thought we had enough, we started to head back. The kids really wanted to stay and keep picking which made me smile since they usually complain about any work at all. Maybe we should hire them out to the farm as workers!

Lizard Ridge Blanket

anxiousdog — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:39:10 PDT

It took me just under a year to knit this beautiful afghan, but I did it! If it had been my only project, I could have done it in 2 months. Of course knitters are not notorious for being monogamous with their projects, and neither was I. Toward the end I got excited about finishing this project, and really focused my energy on it.

The yarn for this project is quite expensive so you really have to consider that before you start casting on. You can easily spend $300 in Noro alone. I'm very grateful for all of my friends who donated their scrap yarn and also gave me several balls for Christmas and my birthday. Thank you!!

Pattern: Lizard Ridge by Laura Aylor
Source: Knitty Fall 2006.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon

I intended to knit 30 squares for a 5x6 blanket, but after laying them out and looking, we all decided that longer was better than wider. So since the pattern calls for 24 squares, I did 28 which added another row to the bottom. Now we can use it long-wise to cover up on the couch, or I can curl up and not have to figure out which I'd rather have hanging out: shoulders or toes.

Rather than use the crochet border, I just did a garter stitch all the way around leaving 6 bumps (12 rows). I'm considering adding an i-cord border all the way around in the same red, just to give it a little something more. (And because I'm insane!) I guess I still can't get enough of working on this!

Blank Screen

anxiousdog — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:21:01 PDT

I'm sitting here staring at a blank screen wondering what I could write of interested to the few blog followers I have left. I could tell the Internet all about my lovely evening at a local knitting circle where I met several awesome ladies, but that's probably boring to non-knitterly people.

Moving away from my comfortable home-town has been hard, but very good in the long run. Our family is closer because we spend far more time together than before, and we've enjoyed the spacious home and property we have. I do really miss my friends, but I'm feeling better about making some new ones.

Cherry Brioche Pastry

anxiousdog — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:04:24 PDT

I've been baking a lot of bread lately thanks to my friend Linda, who gave me a great book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Automatic Coffee Maker

anxiousdog — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:24:55 PDT

Each morning when I wake up, my coffee has just started brewing. I don't have a fancy coffee maker, but in fact I have a really cheap Mr. Coffee machine that is so old that it needs constant cleaning with a batch of vinegar.

I've often thought about getting one that you set up at night and set an alarm to get your coffee brewing when the alarm goes off. But instead, I have a child who wakes up about 5 minutes before I do, checks to see if the coffee and water are set up, and flips the switch on the coffee pot.

I'm thinking we'll hold off on that fancy machine until the kids are all grown up.

Pet Therapy

anxiousdog — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:43:59 PDT

Several times a month, my children and I head down to one of the local nursing homes with our two chihuahuas, Lucy and Barley (shown here). We make our rounds stopping in every single room to see if the residents would like to see the dogs and visit with us a while.

The kids handle the dogs and have them perform their various tricks, which always brings a smile. We also offer to help with anything that we can, such as getting fresh water, wheeling someone down to the community areas, or just adjusting them in bed.

Sometimes our usual friends will be taking a nap or maybe off at the beauty shop, so we miss them. On other days we meet new residents and they are delighted to know that they can look forward to our visits. One of my favorite residents used to sleep all day long and the nurses had difficulty waking her up and getting her to move around. After we started coming to visit, she began getting up on her own to go have her hair and nails done for our visit. Now we wake her up and walk her outside and spend extra time with her.

Our two huas, as we call them, have very different personalities. Lucy is a bit more excited to meet new people and squirms all around in their laps. She often jumps up to lick them in the face. We usually keep her on the floor or stand very close by so that we can grab her before her quick movements can scare them. Barley, our long haired hua, is the opposite. She is calm and at times a little shy. She only weighs 3 pounds so we know that she's not going to hurt anyone by standing on them, and she usually just tries to find a spot to curl up and go to sleep.

Giving a bit of our time and sharing our pets with these residents has become a wonderful blessing to many. We love watching our children interact and care for the elderly. The residents have a consistent visitor where sometimes they may go weeks or months without any. And of course, the huas get all that attention, which they can't deny makes them very happy puppies. :)

Susannah's Garden

anxiousdog — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:23:20 PDT

I just finished reading Susannah's Garden by Debbie Macomber. I really enjoyed her "Blossom Street" books, and since I knew that Susannah would eventually end up there, I decided to check it out.

I really enjoy Debbie's books because they are so easy to read. I'm used to reading books that have a deep plot and several metaphoric meanings. Books that have history and are descriptive of certain time periods. Books that are over 500 pages long and seemingly take forever to read.

There is nothing wrong with either type of book and I do enjoy them all. But lately these quick reads are a nice distraction and help me fall into a hard and fast sleep.

Susannah's Garden was a great book. I do wish that she would have developed the other characters like Carolyn and Chrissie a bit more, but I think that I'm used to her other books where each chapter is about one of the characters and you really get to know them. However, I really enjoyed the story and even got a little sad as I read about her mother's struggles with growing old.

One thing that my friends and I always seem to discuss when we talk about Debbie Macomber's books, is the foul language. I realize that the language is probably less vulgar than what we're bombarded with on every day television, but really... do we need it in these charming books? I think not.

As someone I consider a Christian author, I think that Debbie should hold herself to a higher standard and make her books totally clean. They will be just as enjoyable, and I won't hesitate to let my daughter read them in a few more years.

Italian Tubular Cast On

anxiousdog — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:05:25 PST

I really should blog more. But I hate blogs where people whine about how they haven't blogged so I'll not do that here.

I started making Endpaper Mitts for my friend Molly last night. The first thing it says is to use the Italian Tubular Cast-On to cast on 56 stitches. The purpose of this is to create a neat, but stretchy cuff for your mitts.

A new technique could be daunting, but it's very satisfying when you succeed.

One method that I tried was the long tail tubular cast-on as instructed by Ysolda. You can watch her YouTube video here.

My problem with this method is that my stitches seemed to slip off and come untwisted if I didn't pay attention.

Instead I found this method by Francesca to be much easier for me. It's the same Italian Tubular Cast on, but it doesn't require waste yarn. It's similar to Ysolda's method, only you are using both hands to transfer the yarn, rather than moving the needle around the yarn.

If you scroll down to the end of the blog post, you will be able to watch a QuickTime video which will make a lot of sense.

Once you are in the rhythm of moving the yarn back and forth, you'll be able to cast on very quickly. This is a great cast on for cuff-down socks, sleeves, or even the hem of a sweater since it's very stretchy but looks very neat and clean.

Once you have cast on your stitches, you will need to knit two rows flat before joining in the round. Both videos cover this and Ysolda even discusses how to make a 2x2 rib since the most common is a 1x1.

I hope you give this method a try sometime. I think it will be a great knitting skill to conquer.