Look, Mom! I'm knitting!

"I have 20 tiny needles of my own and I'm helping!"

Before and after! Well, not entirely finished, but what a change!

My favorite Martian!

I wonder where this is going....

Pardon the early morning haze.
While taking a short break from the irish hiking scarf (lately if I sit down long, I fall asleep!) I had a sudden urge to make a something. So far,this is the result. I plan a longer...thing...(what is it??) somewhat like a poncho only shorter.
Nope...don't have a pattern...didn't scribble down what I was doing or how many I did. The theory was to just do it, and if it was awful, well...skeins can be stored in many forms. Or just rewound.
So far it drapes over the shoulders with a ribbed neck. I plan it to go down perhaps to the elbow. Just a warmer while at the computer or in place of a sweater. Possibly something to experiment with pretty edgings.
Any ideas for a stitch pattern to finish the length of it would be nice, since my brain seems to have stuttered to a halt. (I so need a clue....!)
Whatever this turns into, it did give me some wonderful ideas for fluffy, ruffly bedjackets and such. Help me out here...
Meantime, we'll be painting our house and deck for two days. Yes..that painting that didn't get done in September, but two months behind plan is normal.

It was lovely day to sit back and knit! My two scarves are fun and I've learned to cable reliably and do a bit more modular knit. This is the modular scarf, growing along nicely, or at least it was until I ran out of yarn for it. I'll find another skein somewhere and finish, that's the new Strata yarn. And the Irish Hiking Scarf, my first real cabling project. They're both fun to do!

Boo!

.. "trick or treat, smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!"

I would be blogging, but I've been busy holding a memorial service for my lily bed. You can see why.
It's been busy all this week, altho for the life of me, I can't explain just what I've gotten done. Aside from a few more hats, they keep me sane when my fingers itch for knitting and I can't seem to count past a 3 stitch repeat without losing it. That probably would happen to anyone dealing with a 2yr old roaring thru the house gleefully attempting to round up 3 cats, couple dogs...
I did get a pie made tho. It was a nice pie. Brief, but nice...



Buttermilk Pie:
1 cup coconut
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk (yep..buttermilk)
1 stick butter (I'm fairly sure you can substitute cream cheese for the butter.)
1/2 tbspn vanilla
Cream the butter and sugar, dump the rest all together, mix up into ghastly, lumpy mess and pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Chill the pie before you serve it. It's yummy! You can experiment with adding lemon juice and zest to the ingredients for a nice change.

EDIT: Leave off the butter, replace that ingredient with 4 oz. (I use 6oz) or more cream cheese. Add a tblspn. of lemon or lime juice. Bake until lightly browned on top. It's a lovely pie and this change vastly improves our old family recipe.

Our 36th Anniversay today.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

by Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me ye women if you can.

I prize thy love more then whole Mines of gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,

The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persever,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

And that pretty much says it :)

Scarf is done! Will try for better picture later!

It's a nice scarf that knits up quickly, inspiration by The Yarn Harlot.

A purple hat for a granddaughter that loves that color! She fell down on the playground last week and is sporting a cast that perfectly matches the new hat. The scarf is on the needles and will be finished tomorrow I think. Soon all the little heads will be nicely covered and warm around here!

Guess who came to live with us!

This is Cooky (yep..very original name). She's 7 months old, from the humane society shelter in Forsythe, Ga. She's gone from a scared little creature to Attila the Hun...in a good way. She's perfect! Excellent manners, good company, great with the grandkids....please support your humane societies, folks. Lots of wonderful fuzzy people that need a helping hand, and receiving Cooky with her shots all done, veterinarian visits taken care of, spaying and general care for only a nominal fee....well...you have to know the great people that help these little ones out are in the hole financially for it. It's a labor of love. And if you can't support the societies with money, offer a couple hours a week helping with time, send a "care package" (contact them for things they need) and neuter/spay your pets if you aren't a licensed breeder. Love comes in all sizes, shapes and colors and this is the only life these little ones get. Help make it a joyous one!

In answer to the question of what yarns I used, the shawl is WoolEase (I think by Lionbrand) and is a little wool/acrylic blend that survives lots of use. I used 6.5mm needles (us 10 1/2) or so..something big enough to keep the drape loose, but not so open as to loose the warmth. It hasn't pilled at all. The hats are from those single skeins I end up with and know not what to do with...(they multiply when I'm not looking) and I just finished another hat, in grey with a couple black stripes. Definitely a guy's hat. I seem to be dropping hats off my needles like the sycamore outside shedding its leaves. I'm sure it's because I'm avoiding the endlessly monotonous autumn red pullover....
My chair was handy for the backdrop since my poor camera is plugged into the wall.

Where there's a cord, there's a way...

Still no batteries handy, Bea, but I did find that elusive power cord..and added a few pics!
The kids hats I made this weekend, the comfy shawl Theri is kindly wearing for a picture (it's plain, but sooooo soft and nice!), and Leo diligently holding down a crocheted blanket. That shawl was made a month or so ago, I just happened to like it a lot.
Leo is the starveling kitten that turned up on our roof last Easter. I'm very glad he did.

 There...here's a picture of the very handsome Nelson!  His description in the Humane Society has been amended to "no small children" so perhaps soon he'll have exactly the right home!

Well, on the puppy news...Nelson (half Jack Russell, half Corgi, so a bit larger than we planned) came to visit from the Humane Society in Rockdale Co. Wonderful little guy, but sadly not for us. It was hard to take him home again, he attached to me completely, but bit at anyone that came near me and as he was already a year old, changing his habits would have been slightly harder. We have five grandchildren, all animal friendly types (they grew up with all sorts in our rural home.) and not given to pulling whiskers or annoying the beasties. Nelson is perfect for a quiet home with his own adult person. We continue our search for a sociable little goof that will simply keep my husband company and limit his aggressions to more minor expression. If we were looking for a doggie for me, I'd have immediately chosen the wonderful Beagle-Bassett 5month old pup. The perfect Gomer Pyle kid! We'd love an adult dog, since most people adopt the cuties, but we might have to consider younger ones too. On the good side, the extra socialization surely did a little to expand Nelson's world, and the hugs did him good too.

Then for some reason I knitted four kid's hats. I thought the Strata skein (the only skein left at our local Walmart) was the ugliest knit in the world, but when done, it's the kid's choice of the lot and is quite cool!! I'll have to get some more of that stuff, it appears to be relatively indestructable and not as scratchy as I thought!
I have to get some batteries for my camera, this is driving me nuts!~

And where have I been lately...well, the camera is down temporarily, but the plain knit sweater I've been diligently working on is coming along nicely. It's taking forever, but it's getting there. Also a couple kid's hats on the needles for a break from the total monotony of endless sweater. I battle the urge to suddenly start cabling all over the sweater in an effort to stay awake when I work on it, but I slog onward. It's sort of a fallow time for me. I enjoy restfully fallow times, they're followed by rebirths of creativity, of family laughter, glorious seasonal moments, nostalgia..fallow times rest my senses and my heart. We're human. If our souls don't take a rest time, perhaps we become desensitized to the wonders of life. I can't explain, I just enjoy it in the rythmn of living.
And while loving the mellow days and readying for autumn slipping into the trees with brilliant paints and frosty fingers, we've been learning Italian. It's a lovely language! We practice and attempt to limit our communication to the extent of our Italian abilities, which leads to hilarity and confusion. Somewhat like babies learning to talk.
Will post more later, right now my sweet husband is nudging me. We're off to find a little housedog to keep us company. We'll scout the humane shelter in Atlanta and see.

Comfort stuff!

Try this out, it's seriously good!

Green Chili Corn Chowder
- 1 tbsp. canola oil- 1 1/2 cups 1/4" diced celery- 1 tbsp. minced fresh garlic- 3 oz. Mild Italian Chicken Sausages 1/4" dice- 1 4 oz can mild chopped green chilies- 2 tbsp. flour- 3 cps 1/4" diced red bell pepper- 1 1/2 cups corn kernels- 1 1/2 cups 1/2" diced small red potatoes- 2 tbsp. minced fresh cilantroHeat oil in soup pot over high heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic; saute 1-2 minutes until onions are translucent. Reduce heat to low, stir in sausage and green chilies, sautes 1 minute. Stir in flour; continue stirring, and cooking for 1 minute. Return heat to high, gradually whisk in milk. Bring soup to a boil, continuing to whisk the soup very often to keep from scorching the bottom. Add bell pepper, corn, and potatoes, allow soup to return to a simmer, simmer for 8-10 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Adjust soup to taste, adding salt, or fresh ground pepper to please your palate.

I have been so neglectful of the blog! Somehow it got lost in the daily stampede of life around our house. Then again, I couldn't type fast enough to keep up with the chronicles!
On the good side, couple baby sweaters done, pair of socks done, wonderful buttons have been found, a few kids hats have been made, dinners fixed reasonably on time (or the 2yr old would make me regret being 5 minutes late), dogs bathed, cats cuddled, 6yr old's homework seen to..hmm..there's more, I'm sure..there always is. Oh..and somewhere in all that, I found time to read Michael Connelly's "The Lincoln Lawyer" which was a good read. He's one of my favorite fiction authors.
I did not get the house painted or the deck resealed yet. That was one of my goals for end of summer, but there's still time here. Georgia weather melds softly into fall rather than suddenly slamming in. Sometime in September I'll find a paint sprayer thingie and freshen up the house outdoors.
The Knitpicks needles have been a delight in case you wondered. I don't use the DPN's, since they are extremely slick and slither right out of my knitting.
Yarn? Oh yes..tons! I ordered some from Knitting Warehouse and due to a snag on the final page of ordering it, it tripled ordered. But it's washable and soft, so it'll be perfect for busy young moms that throw everything into washing machines. Hope everyone likes autumn red. And grey.

And yes...I played Warcraft a bit. *blush*

In progress

Settling back in after a weeklong visit to the family we rarely see these days, I've been muddling along on redesigning and learning again.
My present victim is a baby sweater that I'm sort of creating as I go. Yup, there are flaws in the design, but that's how I learn new methods.


The other pic is of a disastrous choice of yarns (it was all I had at hand when I decided to tinker with things..) and will live forever in the UFO basket. I'm remaking it with softer, prettier yarn.

Trip

Our Genealogy Trip to Mo

This is our trip to rediscover family connections, add to the Tree and enjoy new people.

Family pictures

A grouping of women thru time.

The old town, Charleston, Mo

Much as it was long ago.