Unexpected Journey

Before Christmas I was looking through my old Threads magazines for something and saw this September 1995 issue with the bias scarf.  When the magazine first came out I made a bunch of these scarves from polar fleece.  Seeing the cover again, I thought they needed to be made from felted wool.

I immediately stopped my search through the old magazines and pulled out the washed wool bin.  Happily, I found fabrics that suited each member of the family.  I even had pink wool! How did that get in there?  B's is made from an old tartan kilt I had in college and the others are made from thrifted yardage.  In a short time I had four scarves made, wrapped, and under the tree.

The scarves can be worn down around the neck or on really cold windy days can be pulled up around the face.  P hopes that hers will keep flying snow out of her face when she sleds.  We are supposed to get more snow tonight so we may be able to see if it works to her satisfaction tomorrow.B and the boys took advantage of the snow free ground and finished cutting up the fallen apple tree.  It will make good firewood next year.

P thinks the chainsaw is very loud.

I never did find the article I was looking for in the Threads magazines. However, I think I am happier now than I would have been if I had found it.It is good to recognize when this happens.  Perhaps it will make life's unexpected journeys easier to enjoy.  When we are not on the path we think we want to be on, we can still be happy with where we are going.

Heart Warming

I am a sucker for compliments on my work.  That is how M got this quilt a few years ago. While I was making the scrapbuster quilt top, P mentioned several times how much she liked it especially the PINK strips in the middle of each block. I decided at the time that this quilt would be a gift for her. I didn't let her see that I was working on it again.  I worked while she napped and after she went to bed.  The two days before Christmas she spent a lot of time in the basement helping dad.  I got much done then.

It took me a long time to decide about the quilting. I ended up doing some liberated lines that follow the shape of the scraps. Once the decision was made I jumped to work.Things were looking good. It was Christmas Eve and I had the binding halfway sewn on - then, I realized that the edge of the quilt did not lie flat.  Because the edge of the quilt is all bias it had gotten stretched. I took the binding off, steamed the quilt edge flat, and started again with the binding. I washed the finished quilt for that soft crumply old quilt look and feel.

She was very excited when she opened the quilt on Christmas and even asked to be sewn into it for her nap!

That is what I call a successful gift.

It warms my heart to give a lovingly made gift and see the recipient be so genuinely happy with it.

Thoughtful Sunday

"Little Rabbit, being with you is the best gift of all."

Shall I Knit You a Hat? a Christmas Yarn, Kate Klise, 2004.

Merry Christmas

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Family Fun

Earlier in the week we had very cold temperatures.  There was a lot of snow from three storms but it was not wet enough to play in.  The wind whipped it up into drifts and covered our walk and drive after they had been cleared.  At times, the temperatures were below zero without the wind chills.

We have been collecting eggs several times a day so that they don't freeze and crack their shells.  The chickens don't want to go out when there is snow.  They just put a toe out and that is enough for them.

Today it has warmed up a good bit and is actually raining. But, finally the snow is wet enough to stick together.

We have our wet winter wear drying by the wood stove in the basement.

I hope you, too, are having a day of family fun.

Helmet Hats

It all started with an old Workbasket magazine and a pattern for an infant's helmet hat.  I adjusted the pattern to be worked in the round and made this hat and scarf out of some super soft alpaca yarn when she was a baby.

I liked it so much I knit her a larger one with mittens and a scarf to match.

I like that it comes down and covers the ears. It has a strap that buttons under the chin and really keeps the hat on while playing outside. I had to have my own version.  I started it for LAST winter but only finished knitting it Thanksgiving week THIS year. I put the button on today, after I found the hat in my knit bag while I was looking for something else. So it goes.

P chose the button for mine. It is pink with a rhinestone in the center.  As she was helping choose the button she pondered why her hat has a white (vintage off white)  button.... when she likes pink.... shouldn't her hat have a pink button....

B thinks mine looks too much like a helmet. I like it because my ears stay warm.  We had some nose rubbing fun during our photo shoot.  P is silly.  Much silliness.

I hope you are keeping warm this weekend.

Side Tracked

We woke up today to lightening and thunder in the middle of a snow storm.  School was canceled and everyone seems to be happy about it.  It was chilly in the house this morning and P informed us that her little kitty was cold and we needed to make her a sweater and a hat.

Luckily, I remembered that I had knit a few little sweater Christmas tree ornaments. Still, the kitty was cold, so, I knit her a pink hat.

She was then warm enough to go outside and play in the deep snow.

I adore the little top knot.

P has now put in an order for matching scarf, mittens, underpants, and tights for kitty - and maybe tiny little slippers too!

Hey, it's not like I could work on any gifty projects while P was helping. But, now she naps, so I must get busy on other pink items.

Fair Isle Socks

It seems like I was working on this sock forever. In fact,  with all of the knitting and reknitting on them I could have made several pair!  I do like the way they turned out.

The pattern is the Fair Isle Sock in Kerter SRK 402. We also used the recommended On Your Toes 4 Ply Sock Yarn. If you do make this pattern please note that the chart is labeled incorrectly. The main color and accent colors are reversed in the chart.  Also, the pattern should be for 72 stitches. We found that the 60 stitches in the pattern makes a very small sock. The sock pictured is knit on 72 stitches.  We also used an afterthought heel instead of the one in the pattern.

A. let me borrow her 12 inch circular needle which really helped with the fair isle work. I did find that I did a lot of reknitting because a round on the sock goes so quickly. I would get in the rhythm of the row pattern and keep going and be well into the second row before I noticed. This was probably not the best time of year to work on this project because it required more concentration than I could give it while talking, or in only small amounts of work time. The week AFTER Christmas would have probably been a better choice.  I learned a lot from making these and will probably make more fair isle socks. But, I think I'll work on some simpler socks first.

The next pair of socks will be mine. I need to go digging in the freezer (wool storage location) and see what I can find.

Mouse Cookies

P and I had some fun in the Kitchen yesterday.

We saw the cute little mouse cookies in one of our magazines and had to make them. We had to adjust the ingredients a little to items we could find.

2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (we used chocolate graham crackers because that was all we could find)
1/3 cup sour cream
red nonpareils (we just picked them out of the cupcake sprinkle container)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
black shoestring licorice (we used hot cinnamon twizzlers)

Melt chocolate chips, stir until smooth.
Stir in 1 cup crumbs and sour cream.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

For each mouse, roll about 1 tablespoon chocolate mixture into a ball, tapering one end to look like a mouse.
Roll in remaining chocolate crumbs to coat. Position nonpareils for eyes, almond slices for ears, and licorice pieces for tails.

We made about 25.

P wanted hers to have pink eyes and noses.

Thoughtful Sunday

"They had never even thought of such a thing as having a penny.  Think of having a whole penny for your very own.  Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny.There had never been such a Christmas."

Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1935.

Lighting the Way

Our busy weekend also included putting up the lights on the chicken barn. We put them over there so that we can see them from the house.

I am not typically an outdoor lights fan but I do enjoy the warm glow from these through the darkest part of the year.  It gets dark so early and these lights make it a little more fun to go check on the chickens and collect eggs.

Today, P and I will start cleaning and moving things to make room for our tree.  There is sort of a domino plan to the moving. The guest bed needs to be moved from my sewing room so that my cutting table and P's desk can be moved from the living room into my sewing room. Then, we can move the couch. THEN we will have a place for our tree. The problem is that I am not sure where the bed is going...

We also have high hopes of making chocolate chip pumpkin muffins.

And at some point I need to start some secret sewing.  I want to finish this quilt for a certain little person who likes the pink in the centers. She has given me lots of compliments in the top so I thought it should be hers. It will be a good size for her. She sometimes gets tangled in her big quilt.  My secret sewing/knitting list is very long.

House Warming

We had a very busy weekend starting with the cleaning of our extremely rusty well and replacement of the pump. (sorry, there are no photos of this procedure as I was working at the Art Show. I heard that it was very interesting but no one here thought to take pictures.)  This was the Hometown  Holidays weekend in town there was much scheduled that we did not get to attend.  B took P to see the local performance of the Nutcracker while I was manning my booth at Art Show on Saturday. Sunday, the boys had two performances with the local Chamber Music group.

We also had our winter supply of home heating fuel delivered.

We heat our home with corn grown on the neighbors farm. We have a boiler designed to burn pellet fuel and mix store bought wood pellets with the corn to help it burn a little better.

The corn is stored in the old cistern (used to store water many years ago) in the basement.  We fill the cistern through the basement window.  B put an auger in the cistern that will fill the hopper on the boiler with the flick of a light switch.  We fill the hopper every morning and twice a day when it is very cold.

A piece of old metal roofing forms the chute for the corn to get through the window.

I always find the delivery process interesting.

Thoughtful Sunday

"'Maybe Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!'"

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss, 1957

Final Harvest

It is still fall but we are really having some wintery weather.  I like the snow but wish we didn't have to get out to go to school. B decided that with the predicted low temperatures we should get the rest of the carrots out of the ground.  We had been leaving them in the ground as long as possible and  harvesting them as needed.

P enjoyed bringing some of the harvest to the house when she got home from preschool.

When D got out of school he helped finish the harvest. We now have carrots in our root cellar stored in buckets of wet (damp) sand.  B researched and found this to be the recommended method of storage. We shall see.

Today was indeed the right day for the harvest. It is currently 11 degrees F.

Knitting on the Road

I have been working on the latest pair of socks while traveling in the car and visiting with family. Adele chose this pattern and knit the sock on the left. I am knitting the one on the right. This pair of socks is challenging as I have to match the sock that is already complete.  I had several inches knit and compared the two. They were the same diameter but I noticed that if I continued the way I was working that for the same number of pattern repeats my sock would be inches longer than the other.  I turned them inside out to see if I could see a difference there. Adele's sock, on the left was knit stranded and I had knit mine by weaving the yarns.

I pulled it all out and tried again. The second attempt worked so that the pattern repeats were equal but my sock was narrower. I kept knitting but then decided to take it out again.  This time I am knitting with both yarns in the right hand, alternating colors.

The third time's the charm. Right?

Thoughtful Sunday

"Today is gone. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one."

One fish two fish red fish blue fish, Dr. Seuss, 1960

Scrap Quilt Ideas

One of the first years I went to Gwen Marston's quilt retreat the theme was string quilts.  I was overwhelmed with all the possibilities and could never settle on a design that I wanted to make.  Instead of doing one big project I tried lots of different ideas and came home with a selection of small sample ideas for future projects.

I liked this little scrappy tulip to be used in an applique quilt.

This was another fun one that has the continuity of a common color like the scrapbuster that I just finished. Here, the accent fabric is set in a pinwheel design. The block is built from four squares.

This one makes a "spider web" pattern when the blocks are all set together.  Each block is made from four triangle sections.

This next one uses up odd bits and pieces of fabric. Just built squares and set them together however you want. Four patches are always good. With sashing or without sashing. Anything goes.

Gwen's approach to quilting helped things sort of "click" for me.  I came home and purged pattern books from my quilting library and now focus on books with photos of old and antique quilts.  I would rather follow a "recipe" to made a quilt than follow a pattern.

Scrapbuster Success

I love successful projects.  I think this is a winner for several reasons.

1. I like the finished top.

2. There is now space in my scrap bin.  Seems there is soon to be a little more room. P likes that piece with the bunny on it!

3. There was little waste. This little pile is what I am throwing away.

Here is the finished top.

And if it looks like the quilt has dandruff it is because it was snowing when I took the photo on the porch this afternoon.

Now, I am left thinking of how to quilt it. It will be machine quilted because of the large number of seams.

Midnight Stars

I finally finished another of my retreat quilts.

I machine quilted it so that it could be laundered. The colors make me think it would be great for a baby to sleep under.

I like the contrast of the bright stars and the varied blue background. I like the backing fabric as much as the front. It reminds me of the aurora borealis which we have seen several times.

The quilt is 35 x 35 inches.

Just in Time for Snow

I got a package from my Two Make  a Pair partner on Friday. I knew it was the latest pair of socks arriving just in time for snow. Saturday, I put them on and they are toasty warm. They are great for sleeping too.

This pair is knit from some beautiful hand painted yarn from Briar Rose Fibers. I do love Chris's yarn. The pattern is Ann Budd's Undulating Rib Socks in Favorite Socks 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave.

These socks are a pleasure to wear. They are like getting a little hug (around my foot) from my friend in a another state. I miss you A.