Lots to Do

Well, here it is 3 days before Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe.....but it's true. Making a grocery list and bracing myself for the market.....it's going to be crawling with people. Aaah! I think I might wait until tonight. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

I heard the geese honking as they flew overhead this morning. Headed to warmer places....I wonder if they'd mind if I went with? So, that's definitely a sure sign that winter is approaching. Old Man Winter, please be nice to us.

I've been working on a neck warmer....the 2nd one. I must say they are coming out quite nice. I trekked to A.C. Moore the other night to look for buttons for them but to no avail. One would think a craft store would carry buttons. So, this weekend a trip to Joann's Fabrics will be in store. Maybe I'll have better luck there.

And, yup, I'm getting so excited about my Etsy shop opening....WOOHOO!

Blueberries

YAY! It is now the beginning of August and I'm just getting around to picking blueberries.

The weather has just been too hot and muggy for it. I went this morning although it was a tad warm and the humidity is coming back. But I was a trooper!

I picked through them all, putting some on cookie sheets in the freezer for me for another time (probably winter baking), kept some in the fridge and the rest were given away. There definitely was enough picked to go around.

I'm still waiting on my 4 sunflower plants to blossom as well as my Cannas. :-)

Some Handspun

FINALLY, I got to get some spinning done.....YAY!
Merino/ Mohair blend ~73 yds. ~ 1.5 oz.

who would have thought?

Who would have thought that I would actually enjoy, never mind make knitted dish cloths? It's pretty much out of necessity that I stumbled upon them.

It's been a while since I've really knitted....thanks to everyday stuff and especially work (very long hours). So, I needed something that I could pick up anytime, be portable and be very simple and pretty much mindless to knit. I found dish cloths. (I still can't believe it myself.) It's so simple that after a long day of work I can still knit a few rows even if my mind isn't the sharpest or is on the tired side. And I've never been real fond of garter stitch...who knew?

I have one done and working on the 2nd one. When I have the set completed I will post pics so you can all see the wonder in these charming little treasures.

I haven't done much spinning either. My wheel calls out my name every time I walk by...with the gorgeous red yarn already wound on the bobbin...not quite full yet, just waiting for me to spend quality time.

I really need to hit the lottery or have a huge donation of money passed my way so I can be at home and do my fiber work full time...as a career. Oh, the bliss of that would fill me to the brim.

So, on to the garden. Well, I'm a huge lover of sunflowers. My all time favorite flower...always has been, always will be. I had great success growing them last year so I doubled the amount of seeds I planted. Instead of 2 packages I planted 4 packages. All different kinds. Purple crimson, the big ones that the birds love for the seeds (their name has escaped me), smaller fluffy yellow ones, etc.

I check the garden every day with great enthusiasm for new shoots. Well I've been doing that for a few weeks now. Do you have any idea how many sunflower plants I have? Take a guess....ok, never mind I will tell you. FOUR! Yup, that's it! Not forty, not four hundred.....FOUR!!! Talk about disappointment.

I'm pretty sure I know what happened. They were brand new seeds, new packages. They were planted on the outside of the fence to the vegetable garden. Someone, not me, decided to go out and weed the garden, including where my precious flowers to be were. It's kind of hard to tell which is a seedling and which is just a weed when they are surrounded by weeds. Unless ,of course, you have a trained eye and know what to look for and pull out and not to pull out.

I appreciate the lending of a hand but next time, stay away from my flowers.... aargh!

Off to work on dish clothes.

'til next time
Cheryl

Irish Cottage Knitting with Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl-McPh

Ha Ha! Silly me! This is the video of the Irish Cottage knitting by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.
It was pretty simple adding the link to my blog considering YouTube makes it easy for you to share these links. Well now I know!

'til next time

Cheryl

Renate Hiller - "On Handwork"

Another video I really enjoyed about handwork...

Cheryl

Knitting and YouTube

I was checking Facebook and emails this morning and went to a link that one of my FB "friends" had posted about knitting on YouTube. I had never searched YouTube except for music so was surprised that knitting videos or anything like that was on that site.

So, I was like a kid in a candy store checking out as many knitting videos as I could. One person you really should look up is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. She is hysterical. And she can knit up a storm.

She has a video on YouTube about Irish Cottage knitting. I so have to practice knitting like that. I know I've seen it in books about Shetland knitting where the needle in your right hand is stationary and tucked under your underarm. And it lets you work so much faster.

I usually work with circular needles because straight needles, for me, where cumbersome and bothered my wrists but I'm going to give this a try. Very little movement involved at all.

If you have a few free moments, go to YouTube and check her out.

(I will post the link here if I can figure out how to do it....LOL)

'til next time....

Cheryl

Spinning

I
haven't had much time lately to do much knitting or spinning which I miss terribly. But I was able to squeeze a small amount of time to spin up beautiful deep red Merino/Mohair roving which I purchased a few weeks back at the Ct Wool and Fiber Festival.

I have 3 wheels, 2 Ashford traditionals and 1 Homemade Ashford Traveller replica made by my first husband who passed away in Sept. 1996 (xoxo Joe).

One of my traditionals needs the piece that holds the treadle to the upright to the wheel is broken.....the plastic hardened and broke.

So, I sat at the other traditional with only a few minutes done...and then the string on the wheel was slipping....needs to be waxed again.

By this time, I'm frustrated because I was so excited to finally find some time to sit and spin to my hearts content.

Then it came to me.....I have that little spinning wheel in the dining room that I've used for decoration more than anything over the years. So, I oiled and tightened, weighed out my wool and began.

I was in heaven!!! Works like a charm! This baby will certainly out last any "modern" wheel with it's leather holding the treadle and upright together and all of it's brass hardware. A beautiful heirloom piece to boot.

Spins like a dream.......

6 More Weeks Of Winter?

That's what our friendly little groundhog told us. But I'm good with that....the days are still getting longer. Slowly but surely. Spring is on it's way! YAY!

Well I missed the Superbowl sale at Woolworks Ltd. in Connecticut yesterday. I had a baby shower to attend...lots of family I had seen in ages was there so it worked out. But I will be taking a drive to check out the shop. I'm hoping to bring my daughter with me who just recently started knitting. She's almost finished with her first scarf. She's done a wonderful job. I will most definitely post pictures of her creation when she's done. (I'm so proud...possibly another fiberholic in the family..woohoo!)

So, today will be filled with knitting after my menial chores are done. Then the real fun begins. I'm going to finish a hat and conjure up my next project. Although I should tackle the umpteen unfinished projects I have. We'll see. Let's see what the imagination can come up with first.

'Til next time my friends.....