Snoctober!

Well.

I took some photos of our beautiful leaves last Thursday night.  The yard and the trees were so beautiful!

And then Friday came.  And so did the snow.  

This was just the beginning.  We ended up with about four inches.  And it's still here!!  I feel like it must be December.  (I have refrained from playing Christmas music, however!) Five days of snow and cold in October.  Tomorrow is supposed to finally be above freezing and then maybe the snow will melt.  

We stayed in and cozied up to the fireplace and I've been knitting away on those brown socks.  Good news!  I should be done tomorrow.  I was able to get away with undoing just the toe of the too-short-sock and I'll be the first to say how amazed I am. I'm just glad it worked!  Time for a new color of yarn!

I'm also getting the Christmas wall hanging quilted, a little at a time.  I finally decided to just stitch in the ditch using my Bernina 830 and a walking foot.  I'm so thankful for a machine with a large throat space and my nice sewing cabinet so that everything is level with room to spread out.  Spoiled, that's what I am.  

Well, that's the latest here at the Resort.  Just trying to stay warm and get a few projects done. I made a yummy ham and pea soup in the Instant Pot this week and that's kept our tummies warm, along with muffins.  I do love winter cooking!  ♥

Last Day of September

How can it be the end of September already?  But as I look outside, I definitely see signs of fall--leaves turning color, that blue, blue sky of late September, early October.   Such beautiful days we've been having! Perfect, as a matter of fact.  

Now that I've finished the peaches, I've taken a few "lazy days" and relaxed with some reading and knitting. I'm still working on the brown tweed socks of last spring and discovered that somehow I made the first one too short in the foot area.  Never mind.  I'll see if I can rip back and go again.  If not, I'll just reknit the whole thing.  Mindless, relaxing work.  Sounds good.

Here's a few picture of our house ready for the season. 

I love the fall additions to the hearth.

My favorite corner.

We took a big plunge last week and met with a contractor to do some much needed work on two of our bathrooms.  The lovely (not!) green tub, the last vestige of that awful color in the downstairs bath, will be replaced with a walk-in shower and the upstairs guest bathtub will get a beautiful new surround.  I'm so excited!  He said they would get to it in six to eight weeks, so all should be done by Christmas.  

Meanwhile, we are also toying with raising the sunken living room to the level of the rest of the main floor.  Our advancing years are making us ponder work that could enable us to stay here more years and that step down was a real headache for my parents.  Mom crashed twice when she forgot to step down. 

It's pumpkin season!!  Let the leaves fall and the wind blow and candy corn rule!  ♥ 

It's a Knitting Kind of Day--In August!!

Yes, people, it's barely sixty degrees and cloudy out there.  Brrr! I'm thinking of picking up my knitting needles and getting back to a pair of socks I started earlier this year.  It's just that kind of day.  

Dan and I have been saying for the past few years (maybe even ten), that fall seems to arrive in August anymore.  When we were kids the famous words were "hot August nights", but we've burrowed under the covers all month.  And daytime temperatures have been mostly in the eighties.  We're not complaining! Dan grew up in Spokane and remembers many hot, hot days and nights and the little town I grew up in was in a canyon and never cooled off at night after day temperatures in the nineties and hundreds.  I remember laying on top of the covers and having the windows and curtains wide open hoping for cooler air.  No one had air conditioning in those days.  

(And let me drift off, for a moment, and remember shopping for school clothes on 90 plus degree days in unairconditioned stores, trying on wool sweaters and skirts.  And of course, we did this in the nearest "big" town, so my mom, coming from the Seattle area, insisted we had to dress up to go to town and that included wearing nylons.  Yikes!  Of course our car had no air conditioning either, and it was a 45-minute or longer drive to get there.  There was, of course, the ol' "four-sixty air conditioner" -- sixty miles an hour with all four windows rolled down, but that created havoc with our hair. . .)*

Suffice it to say that I'm not the least bit sorry to have a cool day today.  Here's a picture of my finished quilt top on my design wall.  I think I've come up with my quilting plan so hopefully I'll get to that in a few days.

I've been in a baking mood since finishing the top and tried Joanna Gaines recipe for blueberry rolls to great success.  If you have her second cookbook, I can totally recommend her recipe.  Our zucchini have come on and I made a double batch of zucchini bread two days ago. An old standby, but still so delicious!  Just had a mid morning snack (or as the British call it, elevenses) of a piece with my coffee.  

And last, here's a picture of the butte and sky to our south taken a few evenings ago.  Love the light.

And that's the news for now!  ♥

* I realize I've used "of course" three times in a row in this paragraph, but on reflection, they needed to stay. They define the situation.  Of course! 

Another Day--With Sunshine!

It's true!  The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the windows are open. It's a glorious day for certain! It's amazing how a lovely day can boost the spirits.

We were excited to learn yesterday that the yard waste section of the recycling center was reopening and so my sweetheart is out mowing the lawn and gathering up the few remaining leaves from last fall. He's a happy man! Ann, Eric and boys have taken advantage of this beautiful day and loaded their kayaks and headed for the river to, as Ann termed it, "isolate on some water."  As Eric works, Ann teaches, and the boys do schoolwork from home using their computers and other devices, the time had come to go have some fun.  Good for them.

Dan and I went to the store the other day, my first outing in three weeks.  We found everything we were looking for and as we checked out, I thanked our outgoing and smiley clerk for her work. Before she let us put our purchases on the counter she had very thoroughly cleaned every inch of her stand as the previous customer left.  She looked at me and then said, "I'm marking you down as one of my angels," and proceeded to make a tally mark on her left forearm.  I looked at her and she said when customers were nice as I was, she marked them down and it helped her get through her day.  I still must have looked confused so she told me that many of her customers were angry and rude; some yelled and one even gave her the one-fingered salute, and not the good kind.  I was shocked! She nodded and then gave me a big smile and said, "Thank you."  If I could have hugged her, I would have.  

I'm continuing to knit on a new pair of socks although the color is not the greatest.  I've loved the other socks I've knit from Knit Picks Stroll Tweed sock yarn, but this brown isn't very appealing. They'll be warm and cozy though, and that's all that counts.  (I'm still loving that adorable yarn bowl!)

I also finally bought a cover for my iPad with help from Eric while we were on vacation.  I'm not really a pink girl, but this makes me smile every time I see it. 

I love that it turns off the iPad when it's closed, and when I open it, it quickly goes right back where I left it without punching any buttons.  That grooved top also folds to become a stand.  ♥

Catchin' Up

Well hello there, faithful readers!  We're back home and settling in as we weather this virus thing. I'm a homebody anyway, so staying home is no problem for me, but Dan likes to wander so this is a bit unsettling for him.  He's trying to find ways to keep busy, but even yard work is at a halt because we're unable to use the recycling center or transfer station for leaves, etc.  Right now he's studying up on how to use a camera he's had for years but balked at learning all it can do.  (I should be doing the same with my camera. . .)

We had the most wonderful time at the coast.  The weather could not have been more perfect! Blue skies, fifty plus degrees, and little wind.  We sat out on chairs (me), walked the beach, and some intrepid members of our group even donned swimsuits and braved the waves, if only briefly.  

View from our house

The house we rented was built with the living areas on the second floor, along with a luxurious master suite which Dan and I got to use.  Another master suite was on the first floor along with a nice queen room and a bunk room as well as a lovely big family room.  These, along with the four baths allowed us all to spread out all over the house and never feel cramped.  The kitchen was beautiful and pretty well equipped so we were able to have wonderful meals with not much adaptation.  The house is less than two years old and had windows everywhere giving us gorgeous views from dawn (Dan and Daniel) to sunset.  

It was definitely barefoot weather!

Now that we're home, I resolutely turned my hands to finishing a doll sweater that has challenged me for the last month.  I definitely learned some new skills with this one!  How could one tiny sweater take so much time?  At any rate, I finished it last night and here's Rose modeling it for you all.  She's quite happy with it.

A full view

And a close-up of the pattern

I don't think I'll ever make another one, but I am pleased that it turned out and fits her perfectly.  She thinks it'll make a lovely open cardigan with dresses when it warms up a little.  (Did I mention that it snowed here this week?)

I hope all my readers will take care and, as we are all under the "sheltering at home" order, find time to do things we've wanted to do but didn't have time for. Reading?  Knitting?  Quilting?  Hang in there, friends. As we say at our church, "God's got this!"  ♥

Sunshine and Sweaters

March has arrived and the sun is shining! Love it! I'm actually wearing a shirt rather than a fleece top today and I feel so free.  Spring is definitely on its way and the last lingering piles of snow have disappeared.  Of course, more may come, but still, spring is on its way!

I finished the little sweater I was working on and here's the finished product on its intended wearer:

It turned out just right and I was able to pick up the stitches around the front and neck with no problems. Ditto sewing the pieces together.  And if you don't recognize this little girl, she's Clementine, a Girl for All Time doll.  They are created in England and the various dolls are from different eras in British history.  Clemmie's era is WWII.  I fell in love with her face as I perused doll patterns on the internet.  Every time she was the model, I wanted her.  I finally consulted with Dan and he asked why I hadn't already ordered, so I did.  I call her my Valentine's present.  

Here's a closer look at her sweet face. (Don't you just love how I chopped off the top of her head?  A photographer I'm not.)

I purchased the sweater pattern from Pixie Faire and the designer is Genine Allan of Genniewren Designs.  She is British herself and the pattern includes a wonderful history of wartime clothing in England.  

I am currently knitting another doll sweater for, I think, my Magic Attic Rose.  It's quite an involved pattern and I'm learning tons (in addition to learning how to carefully unknit rows!)  I've decided it's a lesson in patience and skill building.  ♥

Pieces

Well I've finally looked up from my knitting needles and decided it was time for a post.  I have been on a doll sweater binge and made a new one for my AG Samantha and then branched out into a pattern that's been a bit more complicated.  Hopefully it will all go together.  I blocked the pieces today and here's a picture of them as they continue to dry.

The sleeves look so big compared to the body of the sweater, but I think that's true of all sweater knits. Here's a closer look at the pattern it's knitted in.

I've enjoyed knitting this, just have a little trepidation over putting it all together and then picking up stitches to knit the neck edge and plackets.  

After I finished the blocking (which I did in my sewing room), I turned around and saw the Valentine table runner I'd started before knitting pulled me in.  Just one block was done and so I sat down and began stitching.  I got the other two center blocks completed.   It's a kit I ordered from Shabby Fabrics and I really like their instructions which you can see in the following picture.  

Since they put the kit together, all the fabrics in the pictures match the actual fabrics which makes it much easier to get things in the right places.  The center blocks start with a simple nine-patch which is then cut and more squares are added in.

Here's a finished one.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get more done if I don't fall prey to the knitting bug and decide to work on finishing the little sweater.  ♥

Knitting and Me

While I was knitting this afternoon, my thoughts wandered back in time to my knitting beginnings.  Have I told this story before?  I don't think so.  Not here, anyway.  

So, long about 1959 or so, maybe even earlier than that, I must have expressed a desire to learn to knit.  Or maybe my dad just thought it was time for me to learn. At any rate, he sat me down between his legs on the step at the back door and showed me how to knit.  How, you ask, did my outdoors man, paratrooper, smokejumper dad know how to knit?  Simple.  He was mostly raised by his maternal grandparents after his father's death, and that grandmother was a knitter.  She taught him. I remember seeing a pair of socks he'd knitted when he was around fourteen in a trunk at my grandmother's.  

After showing me how, Dad turned over the remainder of his Grandmother Whitworth's knitting supplies to me--needles and yarn in army green.  She died in January of 1945 and had been busy knitting warm things for Dad who had just spent Christmas in the Battle of the Bulge during one of the coldest winters on record.  (I have a vest she knit and managed to get sent off to him before her passing.)

With my own supplies, I began to churn out scarves and hats and slippers.  I was hooked!  And appear to still be hooked.  

Here is a picture of my Whitworth great-grandparents, she of the knitting needles, along with their faithful dog (and my dad's true buddy), Boots.  

I've heard so many stories of them, I wish I could have known them.  I think she'd like that one of her great-granddaughters loves to knit, too.  ♥

And It's Lincoln's Birthday!

Hello Bloggy Friends, how is it the middle of February already?  Of course, with leap year, February is a little longer this year, but still. . .  And Lincoln's birthday.  I remember in elementary school that this was a big day. We made black stovepipe hats, log cabins, and talked of splitting rails and so on.  Now poor Lincoln is combined with George Washington and it's just another Monday off for federal and possibly state employees.  Do they color cherry trees and make hatchets any more?  Oh well.  

And what's been happening at the Resort?  Well, after two trips by the Culligan man, we seem to have conquered the wet basement, much to Dan's relief.  I think he was dreaming of wet basements for days, poor man.  We have finished our sorting and he's built a platform for the bottom of the laundry room pantry so boxes no longer sit right on the floor.  Of course, we're hoping for no more floods, ever, but it pays to be preventative.  

And me?  I've been obsessed by knitting.  Our Ann always calls January knitting month, but we have both extended it this year.  She's knitting a lovely throw for her upstairs family room, and I'm still knitting small things for dolls.  I took the Mary Maxim hat pattern and by using different sized needles and yarns, made hats for two other dolls.

Magic Attic girl Rose. The mirror at the side gives full view

14" Betsy McCall in hers and AG Samantha in new teal one

In both cases, I followed the pattern exactly and they came out perfectly just with needle and yarn differences.  So glad, too, that I bought all the different sizes of pom pom makers.  

And now?  I'm working on a sweater I've made before, this time using an App that my longtime blog friend, Judy of Patchwork Place, recommends.  It's called Knit Companion and is available both iOS and Android through their App Stores.  You can download a free version that is quite helpful and usable, and of course you can upgrade to two more levels.  

I'm using a free 7-day trial of both upper levels right now and attempting to learn all I can so I can decide if I want to pay the amazing price of $19.99 per year for them.  At first I thought, $20 a year?  No way! (Sometimes it's hard to get my brain out of the last century when it comes to money!) But then I did a little calculating and it came to $.05 a day for the use of the program with all its bells and whistles.  I especially like being able to highlight the row I'm working on and even enlarge the page to make it easier to read.  

Here's a look at my iPad with the pattern I'm working on.

It also works for charted work such as cross stitch and crochet and those amazing Scandinavian sweaters.  

So I'll sign off for now, as I'm almost done with my little sweater and I'm longing to see which doll it looks best on.  It's a sunny yellow, just the right harbinger of spring on this cold, mostly cloudy day in mid February.  ♥

Algebra Rules!!

I grew up in the '50's and '60's--you know, back in the last century.  It was a new time for girls and for the first time in history (or so they told us), women could be any thing they wanted to be.  I was a pretty good student, and so it was assumed I would go forth and do Great Things.  I could become an engineer and design new things, I could learn to fly! Oh, the list was long and impressive.  No more careers in nursing or teaching for the new women.  So I took math classes.  Algebra I and II, geometry, and "advanced math", a would-be trigonometry class. And then . . . I became a teacher.  

All those math classes (and more in college), what need did an elementary teacher have of them?  Well, I do use geometry in my quilting.  And just this week, algebra came in very handy.  How you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.

I loved the doll hat pictured in my last post so much that I immediately set about to make another. (And I really wanted to try out a pom pom maker.)  I found some left over lilac yarn and churned one out in short order.  But now my doll needed a sweater to match!  I had downloaded a simple cardigan pattern from the Norwegian lady and liked the looks of it, but it called for finer yarn than I had.  What to do?  Then I remembered that a blogger I follow who knits had recently mentioned that any pattern could be knit in any yarn.  Hmmm... She also suggested that a knitter knit a test swatch with recommended yarn and needles to be sure it comes out true to size.  (Here is where I confess I have never done this. Apparently I like to live dangerously, at least in my knitting.) 

After a brief pondering, I choose a needle size and picked up my yarn and knit a swatch.  I knew from the pattern directions that 30 stitches was supposed to equal 4 inches.  My swatch came out five and a quarter. Algebra to the rescue:  5.25x=4, x=4/5.25, x=.76. Yes! All I had to do was multiply all the stitch numbers in the pattern by .76 and I was ready to go.  Did it work?

Why yes, it did!!  It fits little Amalia like a glove!  And that pom pom?  Perfection!

Who says we'll never use algebra in our regular lives? Not me!!  ♥

Snow, A Finish, and New Little Gadgets

It's four days later and winter has indeed arrived . . . and stayed.  We've had at least a foot and a half of snow, alog with wind, and cold temperatures.  As I type, the wind is howling and I'm thankful to be indoors, dressed in a cozy fleece top, jeans, and warm slippers. Ah, the life of a retiree!  

I finished the doll outfit and I'm so happy with how it turned out.  The directions were easy to follow and it was actually fun to do.  My American Girl doll, Samantha, is happily wearing it and is glad to be so cozy and warm in this weather.  

The kit came from Mary Maxim and I also ordered the black pants, top and boots because I really wanted those boots! They make the outfit.

I followed the directions in the pattern to make the pom poms at the ends of the scarf and for the top of the hat and they turned out okay, but not very full.  I'd like to make at least the hat again, and if I do, I want a better pom pom since it'll probably be a stand alone piece, so I googled pom pom makers and found one made by Clover with great ratings.  I ordered yesterday and the UPS man dropped it at my front door this morning.  

A set of four, making different sizes, wasn't that much more than ordering one singly, so I went with the set. There are lots of videos on YouTube showing how to use these, so I'm looking forward to trying them out soon.  ♥

Snow!!

Wow!  Winter has arrived!  As I type (I'm old school, I don't think I'll ever use the term key-boarding), Dan is out on the 4-wheeler plowing at least 8" of the white stuff.  It's been coming down heavily as he's plowed so I'm sure it's continuing to pile up.  As this storm winds down sometime later today, another is slated to arrive tomorrow, followed by much colder temperatures.  

Plowed and already turning white again. . .

Brrrr. . .

As I sit warmly inside, I've found this to be perfect knitting weather.  I'm currently working on a doll sweater set for my American Girl doll.  I've finished the front and back, and am alternating between the sleeves (almost done) and the scarf.  With this weather, the doll is in need of some warmth.  :-)

Oh, and I need to show another potholder.  I found the snowman fabric and matching snowflake design in my stash.  I had no idea it was there, but then I remembered back and realized I'd bought them to make a table runner.  Well, potholders seemed to be a better idea.  I was only able to make three because of the amount of the snowman cut, but they turned out so cute!  I gave two away, and still have this one.

The red/white stripe was just the perfect choice for the bias tape and was leftover from a pillowcase project from last year.  I love puttering in my sewing room and knitting in my living room! ♥

February! And Knitting for Dolls!

Whoosh! The first days of February have whizzed by. Basketball games, an impending visit by a niece (which was cancelled just today because of weather), and the usual cooking, cleaning, laundry, and all those other fun necessities of life.  So here we are, on the fifth already.  

We have snow and cold.  And the cold, below freezing, is predicted to last for at least the next two weeks.  The insert in our basement fireplace is blazing!  The dolls are happy, too, because that's the room they live in.  Which is a nice segue into today's topic:  knitting for dolls.

I recently posted picture of a sweater I made for my American Girl doll.  She began as Samantha, circa 1910, but just lately I decided to change her era to that of my own childhood:  the 1950s.  She has my dark hair and eyes, and even her hairstyle is one I had in upper grade school. It's been fun to remember outfits I had during that time and try to figure out how to recreate them in miniature.  So I have begun.  I had a sweater similar in style to the one I knit; however (if I remember correctly) it was green.  I couldn't find any green yarn after I made my test sweater, so I settled on purple.

Here she is wearing it, grateful that it's wool and snugly on this cold, cold day.

As I dressed her I was reminded of sweaters I had knit years ago for Ann Estelle and Betsy McCall so I dug around and redressed them for the winter weather.  

Ann Estelle is wearing hers backwards so it looks like a pullover when actually it's a cardigan.  These little sweaters are so much fun to knit!  The one for Betsy is from a free pattern I got through a Tonner doll list I was on "back in the day", and Ann Estelle's was taken from an old Petite Doll Knitting Book written for Barbie dolls that my cousin Diane bought for me when she worked in Billings, Montana, in the early '60s.  I took the cardigan pattern in it, used larger needles, and voila! It worked! Now I just need to find a source of fingering weight yarn in colors other than baby pastels so I can knit more and expand their wardrobes.  

Oh!!!  And I almost forgot a very important find.  Poor Ann Estelle has had legs that wobbled almost since the day I got her.  As I dressed her this time I found that she had totally lost the ability to stand and I was forced to seat her.  This made me very unhappy because she's wearing some very cute red boots that needed to be seen!  

I made an internet search and found the answer.  It seemed so strange that I didn't believe it would work, but as you can see, work it did.  Here's the link to the blog that explains what to do.  I didn't have the small rubber bands she shows so I took a larger one and just looped into three rounds. I could see that it was working, so I took another and did the same thing. Perfection.  Each leg took two bands, equal to six of the size she shows. I'm one happy doll mama!!  ♥

Catchin' Up

Just a little check-in.  Can't believe it's been a week since my last post!  The tree is down, always a bit of a sad time, but it needed to go.  So, Saturday morning I took the first ornament off, and after that we were committed.  I'd said "good-bye" to it the night before and thanked it for being such a beautiful tree.  (Yes, I always do that.) The take-down went quickly and before we knew it, we were sweeping up the needles and putting the boxes away.

I've slowly started to take down other Christmas decorations as the days go by.  The main hall bath returned to normal today.  Yes, I decorate even the bathrooms.  I don't think a room in our house goes without signs of the season, even the laundry room has its decor.

Later on Saturday, I dropped in at a baby shower at three before heading out to Keat's basketball games starting at four. The shower was for a young couple having their first child and I remembered going to the shower when the father-to-be was born.  Continuity! Oh, and both games (JV and varsity) were won.  Poor Keat was feeling a little down from a cold he's had, but played in both games although he'd come back to the bench with a red nose and looking a bit dazed. 

So what else is new at the resort? I have started a new doll sweater, in purple.  One sleeve is completed.  I hope to start on the second today.  Dan has fallen in love with the pecan pie granola and I need to make him a new batch this afternoon.  In further kitchen news, I have no idea what we're having for supper tonight.  Hopefully, something will come to mind before six o'clock! 

Lastly, last Wednesday was our forty-seventh anniversary!  We spent the evening celebrating Daniel's eighth birthday (way more fun than dinner out), but Dan did find this little item on Tuesday and thought it was just "us."  I think so, too! It's just perfect sitting in the kitchen as a daily reminder. 

And that's the news on Monday, January 14! ♥

The Crazy Knitter

As my faithful readers know, I have a few dolls that I have on display in our family room.  I don't actually do much with them, but I do love dressing them.  And I've enjoyed making doll clothes as long as I can remember.  I have amassed quite a collection of patterns over the years, even a few left over from my childhood.  The problem is time; sewing for dolls can be as time consuming as sewing for a person, sometimes more given the fiddly nature of sewing in miniature.  

I have several sources of patterns that show up in my Facebook feed and the other day a sweater for American Girl type dolls surfaced.  I decided to indulge myself and so bought and downloaded the pattern.  And decided to make one immediately, before the desire wore off.  I had several choices of leftover sock yarn and thought each would be enough.  After all, how much yarn could one small, actually tiny, sweater need?  Well, as it turned out, more than I had left of any one color.  

At first I thought it wouldn't matter, I'd use this as a test run.  But I hadn't reckoned with the intricacies of the design and as I knitted I wasn't certain I would want to make another one. I kept knitting however, and it almost seemed miraculous that the yarn continued. I got much further into the sweater than I ever thought when at last the yarn ran out.  I had another color in the same type of yarn, and the knitting had finally gotten easier, so I attached it and kept on going.  When I finished, I was amazed at the result.  I think it's cuter than it would have been in just one color!  Amazing!

I used my new yarn holder which was a Christmas gift from Ann and just love it!  It holds the yarn and makes pulling out new lengths so easy.  Not to mention that it's just the cutest!

I even think I'll try another version of the sweater.  I'm a glutton for punishment!!  ♥

I'm Gambling!!

Well, not in the traditional sense, with money and a bookie.  With yarn!  I bought a knitting magazine a few months ago, the holiday issue of Knit Simple, and there was a pattern for a scarf in it that I liked.  The crazy thing about the pattern was that each row was exactly the same, over and over again.   

I finished my oyster tweed socks and, ready to make something besides socks, remembered that pattern. I had a skein of rusty red yarn.  Would it be enough?  I decided to gamble!  I started a few days ago and pick it up several times a day.  The pattern is called mistake stitch rib and it creates a lovely, dense knitted fabric that almost feels like a super waffle knit.  I really like how it's turning out, but I still have no idea if I'll have enough yarn to make a usable sized scarf.  

Care to place a bet?  ♥

A Little Sock Tale

It seems that every year when the seasons change in the fall, I fall prey to a cold.  And that's what's happened again.  Arghhh!!!  So, I decided to make the best of it and rest and knit. I had started those oyster tweed socks and so I knit, napped, and knit. I usually don't have much problem with socks because I've knit so many of them at this point (about a dozen pair over the years which equals twenty four individual socks), but this sock was soon to become my nemesis.  

Saturday night I thought I'd reached the spot to begin decreasing for the toe, so I began the process.  I stayed home from church yesterday because I didn't want to infect anyone, and besides, I had no voice.  As I continued my decreasing, I suddenly realized the sock looked a little short.  What?!?  I grabbed a previously knit sock to compare and sure enough, I'd started an inch too soon.  Nothing for it but to pull out all four needles and unravel, hoping I could catch all my stitches back up onto the needles.  It took some doing, and I can tell (but hopefully no one else will be able to), but I was finally able to get back to knitting round and round, for that extra inch.

Last night, Dan was gone for a while and I was back to decreasing, and almost to the end, when a stitch slipped off the needle and defied my attempt to get it back on, instead running down a row or two, taking some decreases with it.  Nothing to do but rip back a few rows again.  And in the process of picking up my needles to put the stitches back on, one fell through the crack between cushions on the sofa.  Oh no!!  

You see, our sofa and loveseat are both Lazy Boys and that means they are recliners.  I'm guessing the sofa weighs several hundred pounds, and it sits right down on the ground, no legs.  In front of it sits our big coffee table, which has drawers in it full of books and CDs (I know, why?  We haven't played them in years, but...).  All this to say that the coffee table is very hard to move.  I managed to get the end by the lost needle shoved a little way from the sofa, activated the recliner, and with a flashlight in hand, got down on the floor to start looking.  And I could see nothing but a lot of mechanical pieces.  I attempted to crawl back out of my little space and for a brief moment thought I was stuck, but I made it.  I left the flashlight on and tried peering down between the cushions from above and finally saw what I thought was the needle.  The crack was far too tight for my hand to reach through.  

I had an idea though.  Dan has a magnet on the end of a swivel handle for jobs such as this so I headed down to his workshop to fetch it where I could not find it.  Forced to admit defeat, I went back to the sock and was able to thread all the stitches back onto the four needles I had left, and then waited for Dan to get home. I couldn't actually knit because I needed that fifth needle.  (I do admit to some, um, frustration over this whole little fiasco.)

Well, needless to say, my hero arrived home, found the magnet thingy, moved the coffee table further out, and was able to retrieve the needle.  I carefully finished up the knitting and decided to leave the last, harrowing (at least for me) grafting of the ends using the Kitchener stitch until this morning.  

Such an innocent looking sock, and its friend, the crack.

I'm blaming the whole episode on my cold and my fuzzy head. (Cue Meg Ryan saying to Tom Hanks in You've Got Mail, that she has a cold and, "My head's all fuzzy.")  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I have started the mate.  Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment.  Cough.  Cough, cough.

Knitting Ponderings

It's starting to look like a sock!

Knitting is very conducive to pondering.  At least the type of knitting I do, which leads to a pondering in itself. Take my sock knitting.  I have several patterns for socks which have some pretty stitch patterns knit into them.  Every time I start a new pair of socks, I get out all the patterns, look them over, and then decide to use the one I always do.  They're just plain and simple socks. That's what I like to wear--plain and simple socks, plain and simple clothes. So why do I have those other patterns?? Because I think I should make them because other knitters are making them.  A case for pondering.  And I think I've finally come to the conclusion that it's okay to just knit plain socks.  I am who I am! (She said with determination.) 

So, as I knit my plain Jane socks in all kinds of yarns, I can let my mind wander because I'm simply knitting in rounds, knit, knit, knit.  Not even any purl stitches until I get to the heel flap.  I'm free to ponder life, plan new projects, and even decide what to have for dinner.  It's my kind of multi-tasking.  As I said, I'm a simple person.  

I can actually relate sock knitting to life.  There are those times when all is well, which equates to those rows of just knitting round and round.  Then there are those times when more attention is needed to keep things going well, in life and in socks.  When casting on, the stitches are to be transferred to four needles and kept from twisting.  Care must be taken then, and so it goes when life throws in something new.  

As I knit along, every now and then I need to measure.  Am I getting close to where I need to be for the next step?  The same goes for life--a little stop and check now and then can keep us moving where we need to go.  

And then there's the heel--adding the heel flap, turning the heel, and then picking up the stitches for the gusset and working them down.  Adding and subtracting to make things come out right in the end.  We have to do it all the time as we move through life.  

And at last, we come to the toe of the sock.  We subtract stitches and then we have to do some intricate work to join the last stitches together so our toes don't stick out.  I find I have to talk out loud to myself, repeating the steps until all is done, sometimes loudly to block out whatever is going on in the background.  And don't we have to do that, too, when we come up against especially tricky times in life?  I think it's called prayer.  

Saturday

I know that we're retired and all, but there's still something about Saturdays that makes them special.  I made a coffee cake this morning that I haven't made in quite some time.  Isn't it strange how some things just disappear off the mental menu list?  The recipe is from the quite substantial cookbook that came with my very first microwave, back about 1981.  It was a GE and of course it was huge.  Anyway, this recipe has stood the test of time and I'll share it with you.

Microwave Coffee Cake

1 1/2 c. Bisquick

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. milk

1 egg

2 T. oil

Topping:

1/3 c. Bisquick

1/3 c. brown sugar

2 T. butter

1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix Bisquick and sugar.  Beat milk, oil, and egg together and add.  Mix well, by hand.  Pour into greased 8" round dish.  Blend topping ingredients until crumbly; sprinkle over coffee cake.  Microwave 5-7 minutes (although in my newest one, 4 1/2 does it).  

Couldn't be easier, or quicker, and it's just perfect.  It's often made at Ann's house, too.

I finished my socks and they're on my feet today.  And that cute little knit pumpkin?  A present from Ann last Thanksgiving.  

And I've started another pair.  I think I'm in sock addiction right now!  I'm loving this Oyster tweed from Knit Picks.  

We had frost yesterday morning, and while the sun makes its appearance almost every day, it's cool, cool weather.  The trees continue to respond!

Dan invited me out to lunch today and we went to Subway.  We haven't eaten there in a long time and we discovered their rotisserie chicken.  We ate it on their flat bread and enjoyed every last bite.  What a fun thing to do on the spur of the moment!  

And now I'm taking my half-finished hot chocolate and heading for the sofa and my knitting needles.  Happy weekend!!  ♥

From Soup to Socks

It's a gorgeous, gorgeous fall day.  The windows are open and I can hear the neighbors' rooster crowing and I can't stop telling Dan how beautiful it is and how much I love hearing that rooster.  It's a perfect day!

A blogger I have followed for years and years, Judy of Patchwork Times, has shifted her crafting focus from quilting to knitting.  (She's also the one who alerted me to the joys of the InstantPot.)  It's been a while since I picked up my knitting needles for anything other than an occasional kitchen dish cloth, but this week she inspired me with some links to a series of knitting videos.  I finished my last dish cloth and looked at my stash of sock yarn, picked one, and cast on.  

This was an, ahem, expensive yarn I ordered probably five years ago, and it's so soft and beautiful.  On a day like today, I love knitting in the sunshine so I can see all the colors this hand-dyed yarn has in it.  

I've been knitting away all week and have made much progress.  I turned the heel yesterday and am almost done with the gusset.  It's been at least four years since I've done a sock, so I'm sticking close to the pattern, which I see I downloaded in 2010.  Here's where I am today:

While I'm knitting, I can look up to my favorite corner of the living room.  It's decorated for fall, and I just love how it looks.

And here's a bright showing from one of our pots of gerbera daisies out on the deck.  

Wishing you all a beautiful fall!