Under The Tree - Bucilla

 I have finished the current felt applique stocking! Hurray! It's titled Under the Tree and is from Bucilla. I think they have the cutest felt applique stocking kits.

I made it for me. You're supposed to put the name on the back of the big ornament hanging on the upper left corner, but I didn't like that, so I put it on the stocking itself.

Here's a close up of the toys at the bottom.

I lined it. I used some cotton quilting fabric I found in my stash. I used the stocking itself to make a pattern. I traced around the outside edge onto a piece of newsprint paper. Then I drew a quarter inch seam allowance around that.

I cut two pieces, sewed them together on my sewing machine, then installed the lining in the stocking, carefully hand stitching around the top edge. I am very very happy with this stocking!

While I was stitching the lining into the stocking I had a thought. I got to wondering if there are people who enjoy doing this as much as I do and if they've created a group. I decided to look on Facebook and I found one! Actually, there is more than one, but I just joined one of them. It's been fun looking at all their finished projects. Someone asked the group to tell us all how many kits they have and whatnot. I have 6 kits in my stash. I thought I was a bad girl for having so many! I'm an amateur! Some of the group members have over 200 of them. I feel so much better about myself now. Heh heh.

I already started another one. It has a snowman on it. I plan to put Zoey's name on it. I've also ordered another kit to make for Opal. It has Santa driving a train on it. 

I've been working on the ripple afghan! I've got the first set of stripes done. I'm using 3 shades of purple and white. I'll take a pic later as I progress more on it.

We have had sunshine the last couple days. It's been so nice to see, even though it's friggin' cold outside. They're predicting snow for the coming weekend. 

Finally got all the Christmas decorations down and put away. I feel pretty good about getting that done. I haven't been feeling all that well the last few days. I've been coughing a lot. This cough feels like a possible lung infection. I should go see a doctor before it turns into pneumonia. Ugh. I hate winter.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Happy New Year!

 It's a new year ripe with new challenges and opportunities. I hope they're all good ones. 2023 was okay, though it didn't end so good. I'll talk about that later. Right now, I want to talk about Christmas. I had a wonderful one, despite the bad stuff before.

We had a peaceful Christmas Eve watching tv and I puttered with the knitting needles. We needed that. I roasted a nice Turkey Breast for dinner that was so moist and tender. My gosh, it was amazing! Mashed potatoes with gravy, and string beans. No dessert because I'd spent part of the day making dessert for Christmas Day.

Christmas morning I got up pretty early-7 am. I couldn't sleep, so I thought maybe I'd get up and fall asleep in the recliner. I do that sometimes and it works. It didn't. So I got my Christmas stocking and dug around in it and logged into Facebook. Later when Doug got up I brewed some coffee. Ruth was really late getting up. Ugh! I wanted to open my presents! Had to wait for her. After our coffee, we finally opened presents.

My daughter and I were especially excited to have Doug open his present because he'd been out of town for a few days and we'd figured out what to get him. It is a Shaq office chair. He really wanted it. In fact, we visited Office Depot a couple months earlier because he wanted to check it out, but they're so expensive! We were out and about Christmas shopping and I mentioned it to Ruth. She suggested we go look at it. I'm glad we did because it was on sale! It was a great deal too! 

I put it on my credit card. I haven't used my credit cards at all for almost 3 years. We usually use them when we travel, like on cruises. Haven't been doing that kind of stuff since Doug started school. Earlier this year I'd lost my Capitol One card because of that. Capitol One closed my account. So I have been looking for ways to use the second card I own because I don't want that one cancelled too.

It came in a huge box that was pretty heavy. Quite frankly, I was surprised it even fit in my car. Thankfully we own a hand truck so when we got home Ruth and I were able to wrestle it into the house. We bought extra large wrapping paper and wrapped that giant box. Geez! That was a difficult thing to do because the box was so heavy we had to slide it around to move it. Picking it up was a strain even with both of us doing it together. We would lean one side over a bit and slide paper under it, then lean the other side. Trying to get it all flat and even around the box was almost impossible. I was pretty tired when the wrapping was done.

Anyway, Doug is pretty happy with the chair. Ruth is happy with her main gift, which was the Chiaogoo Twist interchangeable Mini needle set. There was chocolate and nuts and snacks and silly things like felt tip pens and stuff too.

My main gift was a huge surprise. I am the proud new owner of an iRobot vacuum cleaner! I love it!

I was never keen on these things, but a few month ago I started wondering how much help it would be with my war on loose fur floating all over the house. I will spend half the day carefully vacuuming every nook and cranny in the whole house to get rid of it. Then, I'll be leaning against the pantry door observing how wonderful the floors look, and a giant grey fuzzy ball rolls past me. I hate it! I just can't keep up with it. 

Well, I've been sending the iRobot, which I've named Fuzzkiller, all over the house and it's working! It doesn't get every bit of it because there are places it can't get into, but I can't believe how much better it is in this house! I've been running it every day. At first, it was filling up pretty fast with fur, but the last trip it was only half full when it was done. The floors look so much better. I'm very happy with it.

My daughter, Ruth, knit me some beautiful fingerless mitts. I love them! Tiny stitches and tiny needles and they're so perfect. They fit me perfectly. I will enjoy wearing them.

Husband also got me a couple chargers. This first one was in my Amazon wish list. It's a solar powered portable charger for charging phones and stuff like that. I think it will be great for camping.

The above pic is the side with the solar panel. It's pretty cool! I put it in the window to charge it up. It was cloudy out, but it still charged. It'll be great for when my Kindle runs out of juice in the middle of the camping trip. I'll just plug it in to this thing and it'll charge that Kindle right up.

The underside has a compass on it. One end has the usb ports.

The other end has some extremely bright led lights. I can set them to flash if there's an emergency too. I'm pretty happy with it.

My husband also got me a NOCO Boost Plus, which is a portable device to jump start your car if the battery should go out.

I've got it all charged up and ready to put in my car. I hope to never have to use it, but it's nice it will be available should the need arise.

Two Fridays before Christmas Doug's nephew called to tell him his mother was really sick and could he come over? She lived over in Westport, WA. Doug was in the middle of grading papers and projects because it had been finals week (He taught a class this semester.). He said he couldn't head over until Wednesday. Then, as his sister progressed to worse, he ended up going over on Tuesday. She passed away from Congestive Heart Failure an hour before he got there.

Doug came home Friday. Saturday I got word that my dear friend, Early, passed away from Congestive Heart Failure. I'd just seen her a week before! We had lunch together. I met her when I had my shop. A group of ladies started coming to the shop to eat lunch and knit together every Tuesday. After the shop closed, we got together once a month for lunch. Been doing it for more than 20 years. Early was such a kind wonderful person. I will miss her a lot. So, I'd been crying a lot by the time Christmas eve rolled around. It was a difficult week. I'm managing it okay, but --- darn!

On Christmas Day we went to my best friends house for food, fellowship, and fun. I took dessert, which I made the day before. I made a Chocolate Victoria Cake. Just an idea I thought up. Looked in my cook books for a nice cake recipe that used powdered cocoa (The Joy of Cooking won.) and went with it. I put Raspberry filling and whipped cream inside and fresh Raspberries on top. Oh my gosh, that cake was SO good! Definitely gonna do that again some time.

That's all I want to write about tonight. I hope your Christmas was a good one too and I wish you a very 

Live long and prosper. \\//

It's Christmas!

 

Octopus Hat

 Christmas knitting project number 2 is done. And sent. 

Pattern: Classic Octopus Hat by Molly Kent
Size: Adult

Yarn: Berroco Vintage
Content: 52% Acrylic, 40% Wool, 8% Nylon
Color: Mochi

Yarn: Berroco Vintage
Content: 52% Acrylic, 40% Wool, 8% Nylon
Color: Mocha

Needles: ChiaoGoo circular size 8

Started: November 30, 2023
Finished: December 7, 2023

Comments: This pattern turned out to be a huge frustration. Gauge was supposed to be 5 stitches to the inch with a size 5 needle. Cast on was 96 stitches. I could not get gauge with the suggested needle size. I knew that before casting on. So I went up 2 needle sizes to 7. The hat turned out very small. I mean child size. I did some math and yeah, it's the pattern. 96 divided by 5 is 19. So I added 16 stitches and went up another needle size to 8. The average adult head is 21-22 inches around. This time it was the right size.

Close up of octopus.

After getting this done I immediately started the next Christmas project. The cat mittens I started in early September and ended up frogging. I chucked the pattern and found a different one. I also decided on different colors. Instead of white and brown, I went with white and purple. I have frogged them 3 times. On the fourth try.

Again, it's the pattern that is the problem. The cast on is only 60 stitches, in fingering weight yarn! Needle size is 1. I couldn't even pull them on, so I went up to size 3. The cuff is still a little snug, but useable. The hand was impossible! The designer must have very small hands. I have frogged back to the cuff and did some reading. 

Now, you have to remember that mittens in fingering weight and stranded are a big challenge for me. I'm having a difficult time with them, but I'm determined to conquer them. Mostly, it's a tension issue. I don't know why, but I can knit stranded socks without any trouble, but the mittens? ARRRGH!!!

Earlier this year I purchased two books that are the word on "stranded" style mittens. Estonian Knitting Volumes 1 and III. It was a little difficult to find these at an affordable price because they are out of print. My google-fu is strong though, and I found them, in English!

I decided to look into volume 3, which is about mittens and gloves, and do some reading. Yeah. 60 stitches is ridiculous. The smallest cast on I could find in that book was 70 stitches. So I decided to add 10 stitches to the pattern. There is one row of straight knitting between the cuff and the beginning of the charts. I did the increases there. I  guess we'll find out how they work out. In the meantime, there is no way I'm going to have these done by Christmas. I'm hoping I will get at least one done by then. The targeted recipient is local, so one with a promise of it's mate will do fine.

We got this years Christmas tree up. Purple theme this year.

Saw a tree on Pinterest that had this wide mesh ribbon. I decided to try it and I love the result. I bought some more plastic purple ornaments too. I really love the plastic ones. They're getting really pretty. If the cats get into the tree and knock them off, they won't break.

Weather this week has been warmer than normal. We have snow from two weekends ago, but it's melting away. It's rained quite a bit. Expecting more as the week progresses. In Coeur d'Alene there is no snow. We're expecting no new snow before Christmas. Kind of unusual, but not unheard of. I remember in the early 2000's when I had my store we had a winter that I only had to have the parking lot plowed three times. So, not unheard of. 

Live long and prosper. \\//

Buffalo Plaid In Beads

 I finished this Christmas ornament some weeks ago, except for the little gold crown. Finally got that done last week, and some pictures today.

I have been on a Buffalo Plaid kick lately, so when I saw this pattern, I had to make it.

The pattern is Cozy Plaid 21PBL024 from ladylunarcat.com. This is made by making a series of 20 triangles and then sewing them together. It calls for 3 colors of Miyuki size 11 Delica beads. I stuffed it with chips of memory foam, available in the craft department of Amazon.com.

This particular pattern includes instructions for making a little crown for hanging it on a Christmas tree, or display stand as the case may be. I liked it so much I made some for the other two balls I finished too.

I had a lot of fun making it. The pattern is pretty easy to follow. There are lots of pictures, and there's both colored graphs and word chart. I'm looking forward to putting this little beauty on my tree next Christmas.

This designer has this plaid in a 3D Star ornament pattern too, which I have. I don't have enough beads in the colors required to start it, so I'm going to have to wait until I can order more.

Last weekend was a busy one for the Park family. We held a memorial service for Sue, my sister-in-law, who passed away last November from cancer. It was held at her husband, Dan's, house. When we all get together it's amazing how much we can do. We cleaned up Dan's yard, obtained tents, tables, table cloths, chairs, flowers, and made tons of food, set it all up, and took it all down afterward. About 80 people showed up. Lots of family came from out of town and it was so good seeing each other. Sue's workmates came too. We all told stories about Sue. The whole thing was wonderful. It was exactly what Sue would have wanted.

The weather has been gorgeous. It was perfect for Sue's memorial, and I've been spending lots of time out on the deck enjoying it. We did have one day of rain last week, and we were glad to get it.

I need to do a WIP post. I've got some projects going.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Peyote Stitch Christmas Ball

 A few months ago I saw a picture someone posted in one of the Facebook beading groups of a Christmas ornament ball done completely in Peyote stitch that was so beautiful I had to find the pattern. I found 3 designers of these wonderful things. This is the first one I've made.

The pattern is Peyote 3D ball Poinsettia 20PBL005 by Lady LunarCat. It's made with Miyuki delica's in 5 different colors. 

You make 20 triangles, then sew them together. It's not difficult. The pattern is very well written with both color and word charts. It's just time consuming. In my book, more time beading something is more fun to have.

The balls need to be stuffed so the ball will hold it's form. I stuffed mine with memory foam chips. Other people have used all kinds of things to stuff them from aluminum foil, to polyester fiberfill, styrofoam balls, or custom made foam balls. 

It's about 3 inches in diameter and it looks great on my tree.

If you're interested in making one, click the link above. I have ordered some delica's for my next one.

This is my Christmas tree for this year. My daughter and I put it up and decorated it.

We put all the beaded ornaments I've made on it and about 3 dozen glass balls from our first Christmas. I love the lights we have. They're led and change color. They were white when I snapped the picture, but change to colored. The star does the same thing. I'm very proud of the fact I got both of them white in the picture.

Live long and prosper. \\//

A Knitting Bag For Phyllis

 I made it through Christmas! Hurray! It was actually quite pleasant. On Christmas Eve I cooked a dinner of boneless leg of Lamb with side dishes. It was delicious. We love lamb, but it's horribly expensive. When I splurge for it, I get it at Costco. Their lamb is excellent.

On Christmas morning I found a small flashlight in my stocking, and a few chocolate kisses I'd put there. Sweet Hubby and I failed each other in the stocking department. Our daughter, Ruth, had a properly filled stocking. I don't know. The last couple months have been so incredibly stressful, and sad, and depressing. It was very hard for me to get excited for Christmas. I didn't put the tree up until 2 weeks before. I did get some nice presents. Chocolates (Yum!) and some Television series DVD sets- The Closer and Major Crimes. Those should get me through the rest of winter knitting.

I got my sweet hubby a flannel shirt. Originally I was going to make him one, but I couldn't find a fabric I liked so I shopped at my favorite internet tall mens shop. Maybe I'll sew one next year, for our anniversary, or something. I also got him a folding level. Great for using in corners. It's kind of cool, and very well made. I'd never seen one before, so I got excited when I stumbled across it.

Later in the day we went to my best friends house for dinner and cards. I had such a wonderful time. I think it's the first time I've really relaxed since Sue got sick. The meal was excellent. I made dessert, which was a Raspberry Victoria cake. 

It's my favorite. I tried stabilizing the whipped cream this time, which worked beautifully. Recipe for the cake and whipped cream are here: Victoria Cake  Stabilized Whipped Cream

Enough about Christmas day. I have some completed projects I couldn't blog about because I didn't want the receivers to see then before Christmas.

I did some sewing for my friend Phyllis. I made her a knitting bag.

I've used this pattern before. It's called Charm Pack Tote Bag. It's fun to sew. It uses a charm pack, or fat quarters that you can cut into 5 inch squares. There's a bit of gathering (red polka dot line) and quilting. It's a good beginners project.

I found a fat quarter bundle on Etsy, or was it Ebay, that had all knitting themed fabric. If you look up close, you will see it. There are knitting chickens and sheep. and 4 of the squares are knitting stitches. 

The bottom fabric is pink sheep knitting on a black background. It's a Timeless Treasures quilting fabric. I love their fabrics.

I used a polka dotted fabric (from Joann's) for the button loop and the ruffled line. I found the button in my stash. It's an old antique one.

This is the back.

I put a pocket inside too, and I used light beige fabric for the lining. I hate black lining in purses and bags. You can't see anything when it's black inside.

Phyllis was very surprised, and pleased. She made me a Christmas present too. She knit me a purple tam. It goes with my purple fur coat perfectly, and fits good. It's so wonderful when someone knits something for me.

Last week the weather was abysmal. We had dangerously cold temperatures for about 3 days. One day the high was 9F, and the low was -13F. Our poor furnace could not keep up so it was cold in the house. Sweaters were worn, and blankets wrapped around us, and a lot more coffee brewed than usual. This week started with a huge change. It's been in the upper 30's and low 40's, and lots of rain. It's a crazy winter!

That's all for today. More later. I've been beading!

Live long and prosper. \\//

Ramblings Before I Go

 I'm heading for Mexico early tomorrow morning with hubby, his brother, and wife so I thought I'd do a quick post.

I have figured out what I'm taking for knitting. The Vespergyle mittens. 

I'm still working on the first mitten. It's very slow progress, which I realized while knitting on it last night that it's probably because my hands haven't completely healed from the drapery hemming incident yet. In the morning when I first get up all the tendons of both hands are sore and stiff. This has affected my knitting considerably. I find myself dropping stitches quite a lot, which is not normal. Fortunately, I'm finding them quickly before disaster happens and fixing them. Easy fixes actually. By the way, this is a fun knit.

I had a very nice Christmas and New Years celebration. I got a new Samsung Tablet for Christmas. Also the usual chocolates (yum!). My daughter Sarah and her husband gave me a device that is water proof and you put your phone in it so you can take underwater pictures. It will come in handy when we go snorkeling. She also gave me a high tech beach towel that soaks up lots of water and dries extra fast. I debate the drying, but perhaps I didn't have it in the right environment. I pre-washed it, as instructed on the label. It says to dry in the dryer on low, so I did but I put a couple other items in with it. After two cycles in the dryer, it still wasn't anywhere near dry. I think the moisture from the other items was preventing it from drying. Instead, it was soaking up the water from them, so I hung it up in the bathroom and it dried very quickly.

My daughter Ruth gave me a set of Star Trek glasses. They are awesome! I told her the red one will probably get broken first. Ha Ha. I have no plans to break any of them.

On Christmas day we went to my best friends house for food and fun, as usual. We had so much fun playing cards, and the food was outstanding. My BFF is a very good cook. We spent part of New Years Eve at Dan and Sue's house. We had Papa Murphy's pizza. Some of the other in-laws came too, and we had a nice visit. Went home around 10 cuz we got tired. I ended up staying up past midnight anyway, knitting and watching DVD's.

I got some bad news this weekend. The coffee shop, Calypso's, where my Thursday knitting group has been meeting weekly for 10 years, has changed ownership and the new owner has made it clear on her Facebook page that Democrats and Liberals (a group most of us fit in) will not be welcome. She is also bragging about having participated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. I am completely gobsmacked! 

I avoid talking about politics on this blog because it's none of anyone's damn business what my political thoughts are, but I do have to ask since when does a business bar people with different political leanings from their establishment? This country has gone completely bonkers, and I blame Trump for that. But, I would not bar someone just because they have different political leanings. Insurrection though? A whole nuther ball game. Nope, nope, nope! Anyway, the shop is closed for the next couple of weeks for remodeling, and the name has been changed. We will find a new place to meet when I get back from Mexico. I'm not giving an insurrectionist my money. I might give a call to the FBI instead.

Weather info-we have snow. Lots of it. This is my poor barbecue grill.

I hadn't realized just how much until I went out Saturday to refill my bird feeders and it was up above me knees. It's also been bitterly cold. Yesterday was the first time it got above 20F degrees in several days. I am so looking forward to the trip. I will finally thaw out.

I'm still coughing. Hoping maybe some tropical sun will chase it away? I am so tired of it. Sigh.

So, behave yourself until I get back.

Live long and prosper. \\//

First WIPs of the Year

 After finishing the Cowichan sweater, I took a short break, then got back to the knitting. I've got 2 projects going. First is a sweater for Zoey using the usual pattern.

I'm just about to the leg holes. I wanted to try another houndstooth check. I am using a brightly colored variegated yarn with white for the background.

It's looking pretty cool.

I started the first layette set of the year too. I've knit this pattern before. I'm working on the second sleeve.

I've also been beading. I bought three beading kits from Mary Maxim for some really cute Icicle ornaments. I'd planned to make them for this last Christmas, but didn't actually get to do them until the weekend after New Years. These first ones are done with wire, glass beads and Swarovski crystals.

I tried getting some pics of them hanging in a tree (I've put the Christmas tree away), but it was just a little too windy. Best I could get.

This second set is plastic beads and wire. Not the same brand as the kit above. The tiny pearls are kind of cheap quality, but the larger ones are very nice.

I don't know when I'll get to the third kit. I'm not in a big hurry.

So those are the current knitting wips and finished bead projects.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Ramblings

Just some newsy items for myself.

We have angered the knitting gods. During this past weekend, we got 28 inches of new snow. I woke up this morning to another 8 or so inches. I think mother nature is trying to make up for the no-snow December. I shoveled a lot of snow yesterday. So much that I can hardly lift my arms.

I went down the hill yesterday to wipe off the satellite dish so I could watch some television. I had to wade through the snow down to the gate, then shovel a space wide enough to open the gate. The snow is heavy. Finally got it done, opened the gate, waded down to the dish and it is not only covered in snow, but there's an inch of ice frozen to the dish underneath the snow. I could not get it to come off. So I waded back up to the house in defeat. By the time I got back I was so exhausted I sat down and watched Netflix instead. I had intended to go down after a nice rest with some hot water and a plastic spatula to clean things off, but I just could not face wading through that snow again. It's exhausting when you're a short person. I don't know if I'm gonna give it another try today or not. Especially since there's an added new bunch that makes it higher than my knees.

The overnight snow on Sunday caused a lot of power outages. Our power stayed on, but it went out at the well house. It took most of the day for sweet hubby to get the well going again after the power came back on. Turned out to be a blown fuse and a bad set of directions in the manual for how to get it going again. He figured it out, and I got my shower around 3pm. You don't really appreciate how important running water is until you don't have it. I was in the act of melting snow to get enough in a bucket to flush the toilet when it came back on. I was so happy to give that chore up.

I have been knitting, of course. I'm about a third through the Crazed Scandinavian cowl.

The yarn I'm using is supposed to be purple and blue variegated with long color repeats. It seems to be a lot more blue than purple. It will still go with my coat though. Just a tiny bit disappointed.

After New Years day I cast on the baby cardigan for Layette set #42. I'm trying a new pattern. It's color blocks.

I've got the blocking, shoulders joined, and the sewing done. Now it's time to knit on the button/neck band. I was going to use yellow for that, but I think maybe black would look better.

The yarn was given to my by a new friend. A group of new members has been coming to our Thursday Yarnies meeting. They are a fun bunch too. One of them brought a sweater to the meeting that she'd found at a thrift store. It's a Mary Maxim Intarsia sweater someone had made. It had the wearers initials on it. She thought they were duplicate stitched on and removed them. It turned out they were knitted in so she ended up making a big unsightly hole. She brought the sweater to show us and ask if there was any way to repair it. I repaired it for her during the meeting. In exchange, she bought me 3 skeins of yarn in my color choice. I consider it a fair trade.

I had a nice Christmas. We spend Christmas eve at home, just the three of us. I made a roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, and what not. We opened one present that night. The big box that came from Sarah and Frank. It had a house air purifier in it. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift. They thought it will help with my asthma, and it has.

On Christmas day we opened the rest of our presents. Sweet Hubby gave me a new coffee maker.

I had to laugh because we have a perfectly fine coffee maker but he hates it because of the pot, so he got a new one. The pot is pretty much the same as in the old coffee maker. The coffee maker itself is a new design that is much easier to clean. It comes apart and the upper half can go in the dishwasher.

My daughter Ruth gave me the complete dvd set of Downton Abby. I also got a new french beaded flowers book by Lauren Harpster,

a Star Trek calendar, and lots of chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate. Later in the afternoon we went to our friends house for dinner and cards. It was a very fun evening.

Frank loves the sweater I made for him. It fits perfectly too.

Sarah loves the socks I made her too.

This week I've gone back to working on the bicycle cross stitch project I started last year. Initially I was going to try and have it done in time for Christmas but soon realized that was totally unrealistic, so I'm aiming for daughter Sarah's birthday near the end of April. I'm wearing reading glasses to work on it. It's been hard to get used to them. I miss my near vision.

Well, I suppose I should get busy shoveling off the back steps so the dog can get in and out. I'm hoping this snow attack will end soon.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Merry Christmas

Live long and prosper. \\//