Christmas Shopping Blitz

I was getting a little nervous about time passing swiftly as we rush towards Christmas, because I have done nothing to get ready. The spouse suggested a quick trip Friday night to The Container Store to look over their stocking-stuffer specials. We left the house at 6:48, drove to the next town, did our shopping, and drove back into our driveway at 7:20. This is a record, even for us. There was little to no traffic during the dinner hour but even I was surprised at our speed. Now that both families have a name draw and a $10 limit, Christmas is not nearly the hassle it used to be.

My daughter is doing the Christmas baking, and I did a lot of the family present buying online, so I think I am about done with the shopping. I have a lot of house cleaning to do, though. I just wish the weather would brighten up, but I should be grateful we are not up to our necks in snow like a lot of the country. We are just whining about a little drizzle and overcast.

Black Friday

This post isn't about knitting at all, but this week has been full of scary adventures, and I am now hoping for some nice boring days. I never do the shopping thing on the day after Thanksgiving because I have worked in department stores on that day, and hoped to avoid being in any store on that day for the rest of my entire life. However, I saw on the Joann sale circular that the flannel was on sale today for $1.29/yd, and who can resist that?? One of my daughters had an accident last night and had to go to the emergency room (she is fine now), so I decided I needed to do something fun for a change as an antidote to drama. I was in the line at the Joann a few minutes before six this morning. When the people surged into the store, I headed right for the flannels and grabbed nine different prints. Then I went right to the cutting table, got my number ticket, and lo, I was number 1! The mob was already forming around the cutting table, so I was feeling really triumphant to be at the head of the line. In addition to the flannels, which are destined to be made into pajamas for the daughters and myself, I got a couple of apron patterns, a flexible ruler, and a free pair of scissors they were handing out at the door.

When I was waiting in line before the store opened, I got to talking to a nice lady ahead of me in line, and she told me that she had already been to several stores. I guess some were opening at 4 am. She had been to the orange home supply store where mobs of people were buying the 99 cent poinsettias. She told me that some people had carts full of the potted poinsettia plants. I don't think I would get up at 4 am to buy poinsettias.

Back To The Weave-It

Knitting is handy when you need a carry-along project for those times in life when you do a lot of waiting around. I have been spending lots of time with an ailing relative lately, sitting in doctor's offices or waiting around the house, so I have several sock projects in a tote bag along with some paperback books. That way I will never be horribly bored which is something I totally hate. I have also picked up the Weave-It again because I can make squares while I am watching TV. The colored squares will eventually be a scarf, and are made with sock yarn. I decided to experiment with a slightly heavier yarn, so I tried out Baby Soft from Lion Brand. I'm trying to decide how to sew them together.
This is how they look when they have single crochet all around, then sewn together like afghan squares. The downside of this method is that there are extra ends to sew in, and it takes a lot longer. I'm also not sure I like the contrast of the lightweight fabric and the heavier crochet.
I'm loving the sock yarn squares, though. The yarn cycles through different colors, so you never know what color the square is going to be until you are done with it.

Knitting Again

I can almost feel the knitting mojo coming back. I have been sewing for months and months with no real desire to knit much, but now that the weather is finally cooling off I am looking at the knitting machine with interest again. In the meantime, I did finish another pair of socks for A.


This yarn is Berroco Sox in Color 1477. The photo shows the colors almost exactly as they are, and I did manage to match the socks to each other pretty well. I used a size 2 needle and 64 stitches for a plain sock, but if I were to start over again, I would use a size 1 and 72 stitches for a firmer sock fabric.

I had put aside the aqua sweater I was making because I was too busy sewing, but now I am gathering up the various pieces and thinking about hanging them on the machine and finishing that sweater. I had knit the body and sleeve borders in a lace pattern.

My birthday was this month, and my daughter, M, is knitting me a shawlette in the most beautiful orangey/yellow yarn, so I am looking forward to using that this winter.

Never Forget

This flag was issued the day after 9-11, and hung in our window for years afterwards. It only came down when we had the windows replaced. It may be old and faded, but we still remember.

New Socks

I finally got started on some toe-up socks using some sock yarn from my daughter. She recently had creative differences with her stash and got rid of some of her sock yarn. I knit a lot of socks for the other daughter, so I added her rejects to my stash. Here's my freebie yarn:

I am using the Wendy Knits book for the pattern for these socks. I decided to learn new things so tried Judy's Magic Cast-On. I really couldn't figure out the instructions in the book so I looked on the internet, and there are several places where you can see a video showing how to do it. It took three tries before I could get the stitches the way I wanted them to be, but now I am almost to the heel.This Yarn is Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks in Color 1767. I'm using size 1 needles with a sock circumference of 72 stitches. I'm not really a fan of the short-row heel so am going to try one of the other kinds. When I use a new kind of sock yarn that I haven't tried before, I keep a record of the number of stitches cast on, size of needles, and number of rows to heel and toe. This way, when I use the yarn again in the future, I have an idea of what works and what doesn't.

A Completed Knitting Project!

I finally finished those Deborah Norville Serenity socks. For some reason these just dragged on and on, but they are done at last. This is the color 'Sapphire'. I liked the feel of this yarn, but I guess my knitting mojo has been gone for a long while now and I had to force myself to finish these up. I think I am just soooo tired of knitting socks from the top to the toe, so I am going to get started right away on a toe-up pair. I have both Wendy Knits books so I just have to choose a pattern and get started.

I have been busy with the harvesting and putting by for the winter. So far I have made pickle relish, jams, applesauce, and hot pepper jellies. The garden did, and is still doing, great this year:

A forest of volunteer zinnias came up in the middle of one garden patch, hiding the beets and carrots, but I just left them there. The butterflies love our yard and so far we've seen tiger swallowtails, monarchs, and of course, those blasted white cabbage butterflies. We planted extra this year because it is such a bad economy, and our daughter was out of work, and other family members were feeling the pinch. The good news is that our daughter found another job, as did my nephew and his wife, so we are feeling very thankful. I wasn't sure how those hot pepper jellies would taste since I tried some new varieties, but I took several jars to my brother's birthday party last Saturday, served them over cream cheese in the usual way with crackers, and since there were only empty serving plates left in a short time, I would have to say they were acceptable. I made regular green hot pepper jelly, apricot/cranberry/jalapeno jello, and pineapple jalapeno jelly.

Here's an August view of 'The Back Forty' which has changed quite a bit since last month. There are very many winter squashes hiding under those leaves. It's amazing how much you can grow in a small suburban yard.

I know that most of the eastern and middle portions of the country are having a blazing hot summer, but here in the west we had a mild summer with only a few patches of really hot weather. Most of the time the nights have been nice and cool. We got a really late start on the yardwork this year because we had to go back to the Midwest in May for my inlaw's anniversary party, so that set us back weeks (though it was well worth it). I was surprised how fast the garden got with the program and started producing. Makes me wonder if the effort of trying to start the seeds in the cold spring is necessary.

Right after we got back from the trip, I found a new stash of vintage knitting pamphlets, so I'll have to get started again with Retro Knit Friday. Just not today.

Garden Progress

We are well and truly into the hot weather now, and the plants are growing. Sometimes they grow several inches overnight. The beans are climbing the trellis, and the apples are already falling from the tree, which means I will be in the kitchen putting up applesauce pretty soon. I already put up the golden plums, and will get the puree out of the freezer and make jam when the weather is cooler.Here's a view of what the spouse calls 'The Back Forty'. It was an unused area in back of the playhouse that used to have a woodpile on it. It gets a lot of sun so we are growing winter squashes back there. I am trying tomatoes in a new location, right up against the white wall of the playhouse, and so far they are doing fine:

We went to the fireworks in Benicia last night and it was great fun. We asked the policeman if it was ok to set up our chairs right on the sidewalk next to the Bay, and it was. We soon found out why there weren't many people in that location yet : the wind off the Bay was freezing and included spray. Oh well, we endured and enjoyed it. The fireworks were right over our head, really huge bursts of fabulous color. I love sitting right under the blast, because the sparks fall down around you and it is like that scene inside the alien ship in Independence Day - a big empty sphere with sparkles all around. The crowd was friendly and funny. After one particularly huge fireball of firework beauty, some guy in a group of young people next to us shouted, "Up yours, England!!" Ah, the Glorious 4th!

Busy Summer

I have finished all the hand knitting lace parts of the aqua sweater and need to hang it on the machine. Other than that, we have been busy working in the garden and harvesting the unexpectedly early crop of golden plums. I remember back to when I was a kid and we had to sit at a table chopping fruit up by hand for jams, but now we just cut the fruit away from the seeds and throw it into the food processor. I package the prepared fruit up and freeze it to make into jam later, because nobody wants to be slaving over a stove canning when it is 104 degrees out there.

This seems to be a slow year for knitting so far, but at least I am sewing a lot.

Victory Garden

The photo above shows our garden at this time last year. Below is our garden this year:

This year the spring was long, cold, and rainy and we got a very late start. Things are shaping up, though. I always wanted to have a fall garden because you are supposed to escape most of the trouble with bugs, but what I thought would happen was that I would harvest the spring stuff and then plant another crop for fall. This year we are only getting the fall part, but that's OK. We aren't growing a wide variety of stuff, just the old regulars: beets, carrots, radishes, onions, chard, beans, cucumbers, squashes (winter and summer), and basil. I did buy a few tomato plants to try, but I usually don't have much luck with those because of some disease in the soil, but hope springs eternal in the garden.

In knitting news, I am still working on the aqua sweater in fits and starts, and just need to finish the lace edging on the sleeves before I hang it on the machine and do the stockinette part.

Lily

I just got this lily at Lowe's. I didn't even know lilies came in this color. I hope it thrives because it is the prettiest lily I have ever seen, all red orange and glowing in the rain. Rain in May, what a weird year.

Thrifting and Crocheting

This Saturday we went to Sebastopol again because we had some crafty stuff to donate to the Legacy Thrift Shop (which carries only craft items). My daughter had a huge box of yarn to donate so that she could make room in her closet for what else, more yarn. I love that shop and found some great lace and trims for some lingerie I plan to sew in the near future. In the meantime, I have been working on the aqua sweater and trying my hand at hairpin lace crochet. I made a hairpin device out of a paperclip and made some lengths of small-loop hairpin lace. To this I added some edgings and produced the top two edgings shown below.

It was lots easier for me to crochet into the hairpin lace than into a starting chain since I hate having to work with the skinny chain which twists around. These trims will be used on some Mexican Peasant Blouses which I plan to make for the daughters this summer.

Spring is late in arriving, and it is still cold at night here. The spouse is just getting the vegetable bed dug up and I have just begun to start the seed sprouting. When we had the semi-rotten deck replaced last year, the workmen really tore up the area around the deck, so I was afraid that the poppies would not come back this year. I was wrong:

I even have one pink poppy which I hope seeds itself all around.


This row of flower plants survived the winter and surprised us with blooms this month.

Weave-It

I have been practicing with the Weave-It Loom using the Poems Socks yarn I got at Stitches. This particular yarn has large color repeats which make it perfect for using on the little loom. The color repeats seem to be the perfect size so that each square comes out a different color, yet they all blend together nicely. As a first project I am making a scarf. I expect this yarn to felt up a little so I am going to make the scarf four squares across and as long as necessary, yarn permitting. I only have one ball of yarn so it will be interesting to see how many squares it will make. Each square doesn't really seem to take much yarn to complete.

Invasion

In the continuing big dog saga, those new dogs next door have stopped jumping up and scaring me when I hang the clothes. However, I discovered yesterday that they have dug big holes under the fence and are running all over my yard leaving their calling cards. Since I object to that, I spent yesterday hauling any big rocks, bricks, or cement slabs I could find and temporarily filling in the holes they had dug. After that, I was too tired to knit.

A Lucky Day

I found two Weave-It looms at the thrift store yesterday! They are in great condition and the instructions were still in the box. I paid 25 cents each. I started trying it out for the first time this morning using worsted weight. I think I should have started out with a thinner yarn, but the weaving is not hard to learn. I would like to use sock yarn in pretty colors to make a scarf. This Weave-It is the classic 4" square.

Meanwhile, we are having a bright and sunny week, and the bulbs are blooming:

Thrift Store Finds

I like plastic knitting needles from earlier decades. I like the silky smooth surface and pretty colors. I found these in a drawer at the thrift shop and was especially interested in the aqua pair because I have never seen that color before. It was a common color for interior decor in the 50's but I had never seen needles in that color before. The needles are obviously not in the original packaging since they are definitely not aluminum, but they are size 9.
I think the shop charged me about 50 cents for a pair of knitting needles.

I finished the pattern knitting for the back of my new sweater and am working on the front. It is going faster than I expected for pattern knitting.

Back Handknitting Finished

The pattern portion on the back is finished and taken off the needles onto a length of yarn. Now I need to hang it onto the machine and finish up the stockinette portion, but first I will knit the pattern portions of the fronts and sleeves.

In the meantime, the neighbor has acquired two humongous new dogs (maybe a new roommate with dogs?) who are scary at best. They are excitable and leap up into the air trying to get over the fence to gnaw my bones. Since this is about 5 feet from where I stand to hang the clothes on the line, it is annoying. My dad advised me to have a hose on hand to squirt the dog, especially that huge Rottweiler, as it tries to clamber over the fence. I tried it this morning, and it worked like a charm. The dogs are more wary and respectful. I will have to keep this up for awhile to train them, but I think things will work out. Here he is, watching me from a safe distance:

New Sweater Started

I love the color of this yarn, a very cheerful aqua. The color is called 'Aruba Sea' which brings to mind shallow warm, beautiful water washing up on a sunny Caribbean beach. Here's my design sketch:
I am going to knit the pattern by hand then hang it on the machine and finish up the stockinette portion quickly.

February

This is the primo month for knitters in our area with Stitches coming up in a few weeks. I usually save up my money for months ahead of time and my sisters and I go to the convention for a fun day while my husband stays home and works in the yard. I try to buy one big item and then just shop around. A recent Stitches purchase was the Jumbo yarn winder which is really wonderful, and I use it all the time. I don't know what I am going to get this year, but I am sure to think of something.

The economy makes spending a lot of money on yarn for sweaters very difficult for a lot of people so I would like to put in another plug for Red Heart Supersaver. I know lots of yarn snobs look down on Red Heart yarns, but I love it. I could never afford to spend $100 on a sweater that would inevitably shrink, pill, or be eaten by some insect or other. I love being able to wear the sweater while I am cooking or working in the yard, then to throw it into the washer and dryer. I have heard people say that the yarn is harsh, but science has marched on folks, and my sweaters, after washing, are lovely, drapey, and soft to the touch. I like the wide variety of colors. The yarn is perfect for sweaters for children, and Red Heart also makes other yarns that are full of pep and color for children (like RH Kids). I use the Supersaver on a bulky knitting machine, but I knit all the ribbings and some special features by hand.

Here are some sweaters made of Red Heart Supersaver:






The chest of drawers that I used to store my sweaters went away with one of my daughters when she moved into her new apartment several years ago. I recently got an Anaboda chest from IKEA to store them in, but now I have to assemble it. Today I am off to the hardware store to buy myself a ratchet screwdriver.

Beginning a New Year

Well, I won't kid you, last year was hard. My knitting mojo died off and I spent the second half of the year mostly sewing. I think I feel the urge to knit returning, though, and I will start off by making something smallish, like a hat. A girl can't have too many brightly colored hats, so I will have to start looking around for beret-like hat patterns. I don't like a hat that smooshes down your hair since my hair needs all the help it can get.

Most of my yarn is still in the storage unit. Here's the deal - after the window replacement and having to empty out the sewing/knitting room, we decided to replace the haphazard storage with a nice Expedit unit from IKEA. However, now we have to take down the current shelves and the stuff that is on them before we start putting the unit together. Oh yes, we have to buy the unit first, too. It has cubbyholes that will hold a lot of yarn. My daughter M has a black one stuffed full of beautiful sock yarn, but I am getting a white unit. I also have a bunch of pretty fabric storage cubes to put on top of the wood shelves. This is so that the avalance that will probably occur during the next quake will be somewhat soft on the head. Only after this is all in place can my yarn come home. On the bright side, the spouse has finally found the extra key to the storage unit and told me the secret code, so I can now go visit my yarn if necessary.

In other hat news, my daughter gave me two lovely handmade hats for Christmas, so I will try to take photos this weekend and show them off.