July 16th???

Oh my goodness, how could it be July 16th already?? Memorial Day was just last week, wasn't it??  Yikes!  No wonder I'm getting perilously close to my next birthday which starts with a 6 and ends with a 3.  This weekend we attended an event which included several people with whom I graduated from high school.  They all looked great, but definitely not eighteen.  Hmmmm...

I totally forgot to take my camera to my friend Kathy's Century Farm picnic on Saturday.  It was a wonderful time and the farm is an absolutely beautiful place.  Her grandparents homesteaded there in 1896 and it has been in her family and continually farmed since that time. Spurred on by her husband, Kathy completed all the paperwork to qualify for Century Farm status and invited friends and family to be there for the award.  We had a lovely picnic under a huge maple tree, complete with a breeze which kept the temperature perfect.  Dan and I stopped at Mom and Dad's and took them along.  Kathy says that they are the last people she knows who still live where they're supposed to--in the house she remembers from her childhood.  

Today is cool and cloudy.  Dan is out working on our sprinkler system and I'm still waking up.  Yes, I know it's around 10:30, but I've never been, and probably never will be, a morning person.  When I get done here I'll go make the bed and start to function.  I have run through the shower, however, so I'm all clean.  :-)

Happy Monday!  

OTN Friday

Yup, it's Friday, time to see what's happening on my knitting needles.  I'm thinking they look rather Christmasy with the red and green.  

As you can see, I'm using Patons Kroy Socks for the yarn and the color is grey ragg stripes.  When I ordered it, I thought I was getting a grey and black stripe, so when it arrived I was rather disappointed.  I still wasn't crazy about it when I was just a few inches down, but now I really like how it looks.  (Well, maybe that funny little grey-spotted heel doesn't make me smile, but it won't show.)

I was knitting away the other night and I said to Dan, "There something just so, so..." and I couldn't think of the word, "about knitting socks."  He said, "Right."   And I said, "Yes, that's it!  Knitting socks is just so right!" And it is.

As always, you can check out more knitting over at Judy's.  

Paintin' and Piecin'

I'm happy to report that there's been substantial progress being made here at the resort in the last few days.  Following the texturing of the ceilings and entryway walls, Dan has been busy priming.  It's looking more and more like a finished project!

Pardon the shadows, but he had a big light on the floor to help him see.  Nothing like white on white to drive you crazy trying to figure out where you've been.  Until it dries!  (Which is why I pretty much gave up painting about twenty-five years ago when I dissolved in tears because I couldn't figure out what I'd painted and what I hadn't.)  Anyhow, it's coming along.

And, I am more than pleased to announce that I've finally finished the top of the appliqued flower quilt!!  If you'll recall, I was making it for the shop.  I took the blocks in, arranged them on the shop's design wall, and ended up having four ladies who wanted a class.  Mission accomplished!  But I still had to sew those blocks together, so I finally brought it home and went to work. I was too lazy to bring it upstairs and lay it out on the floor, so here's a view of it spread out on my quilting machine.

You can only see half of it as the quilt has six rows of five twelve-inch blocks.  I was so pleased with how well it all went together because those points all had to meet. Using the Clearly Perfect Angles was absolutely the way to go.  I'm still in awe of how well it all worked out.   

And so, as you can see, things are progressing.  And we're glad!  :-)

House Update!

Yes, people, we are still working on the house.  Dan has been very busy with his consulting work, so projects have been on hold, but this week he was determined to get some work done.  The next thing up was texturing the scraped breakfast nook, hall and entryway ceilings and the new sheet rock in the entryway.  Any way you look at it, texturing is no fun: there is a ton of prep work, the actual doing makes a mess, and the desire to have it come out perfectly creates stress.  And then there's the cleanup.

I do believe the prep work takes way longer than the actual doing.  I didn't take any pictures of the spraying because I didn't want either the camera or myself to be covered with fine mud, and of course pictures of the texture itself would be pointless--a square foot of "orange peel" wall.  :-)  But trust me, it all looks great!! Next up:  paint!! 

Meanwhile, Dan is off to Missoula to spend the weekend with some old buddies from his just-out-of-high-school days so I'm holding down the fort and planning to stitch, knit, and just loaf.  It's a tough job but someone has to do it!   I will water the planters and bring in the garbage can.  :-)

On and Off the Needles

First, apologies to those who are bored spitless by my knitting escapades.  I will do two posts today and cover other "stuff."  

BUT, my scarf is done!!  I actually had both sections completed a few days ago, but joining them together needed all my faculties so I waited until I could give it my full concentration.  There were two recommendations for joining and I decided one wouldn't work at all; the other (the Kitchener stitch) I can do, but each time I've done it, I've been frustrated.  Then I remembered that a knitting magazine I picked up a couple of years ago had a feature on the Kitchener stitch, so I hauled it out and read and reread.  I'm visual, so it takes me a while when dealing with print, but finally several key features sank into my brain.  For those interested in the article, here's a picture of the front cover (visual, you know) of the Spring 2010 Interweave KNITS:

My joining went well--as a matter of fact, I finally caught on to the "rhythm" of the steps and I think I've made it over the hump with this process to which I say, "Hallelujah!"  In the next picture, you can see the joined section because of the diamond shapes where the two tops of each section come together:

A little blocking and I'm all set for winter!  I can't wait to make another.

And for what's on my needles now?  A new pair of socks, of course.  I love knitting round and round.

For other knitting projects around the country (world?), check in over at Judy's for some inspiration.

P.S.  Here's a quote from the magazine about the Kitchener stitch:  "British Army general Lord Kitchener was concerned that sock seams maimed the toes of this soldiers.  A smooth grafting technique solved the problem.  Today, Kitchener stitch (also called "weaving" and "grafting") has risen far above its utilitarian sock-toe origins to become a star technique of mainstream knitting."  

Needles and Stuff

It's Friday, time to report on what's on my knitting needles. I've made progress since last Friday, but the scarf isn't finished yet.  Gettin' close though!

The joining of the two pieces had me a bit worried, but I contacted CJ, whose post inspired me to try this pattern, and she told me she used the kitchener stitch and that it worked well.  (The pattern gives two choices, kitchener and a three-needle bind-off about which I knew nothing.) I've used the kitchener stitch to join the toes of my socks and while I still find it less than easy to do, I can do it.  

And so, on to stuff.  Dan has been gone all week, but he'll be home later today.  Yay!!  I've spent the time doing ancestry research for my Dad on his family, which has produced much information.  His family on all sides goes waaay back here in America.  I'm into the 1600's, which is fascinating.  

Last night I decided to do a little work on Dan's family (in the interest of equality), and I stayed up until well after one o'clock!!  Got a good start, but this stuff is addictive! Just one more try, one more idea.  It works, though! The internet is so amazing.  

And now, I'd better eat some lunch and make it look like I did some work around here!  

Family History

Yesterday Dan and I accompanied my mom and dad to a family reunion in a nearby town.  The official name  of the reunion is the Webb Family Reunion, and no one in our family is named Webb, so you may well ask what we were doing there.  The answer was that Dad and the oldest Webb family member there "share a great-grandfather." Confused?  I have always been.  

I came home determined to make some sense of this relationship and got on the computer.  I knew this man's name so I started with him.  Aha!!  There he was, along with his two wives and all his children.  His second child, a daughter with his first wife, married a Webb and became the matriarch of the reunion group, while my dad's grandfather (my great-grandfather) was the third child born to him and his second wife.  (He had two children with his first wife and nine with his second.)  I could click on my great-grandfather's name and follow his marriage and see my grandmother and her siblings, and on down to Dad, and even to me and Bruder Bear.  Oh my goodness!  

It all makes perfect sense to me now, but somehow that phrase "shared a great-grandfather" always made me think of someone cut in half.  Or something.  

Out of curiosity, I decided to do some more checking, this time on my dad's father's side of the family.  I'm making some headway, and was delighted to find several pictures.  I'd never seen either one of them before.  The most amazing one is of my great-great grandmother. She was born in 1844 and died in 1881, just in her late thirties, probably following the birth of her eighth child (I'm guessing here since the year of his birth is the same).  Her name was Belle:  

And here is a picture of her oldest daughter, who became my great-grandmother and helped to inspire me to quilt and knit, as a young woman.  Her name was Carrie:

Sometimes it's positively amazing to think of all the family that came before us.  I'm thinking I just may be picking up a new hobby...