Dreary December Day

We are not having the biting cold, snowy weather that seems to be gripping the rest of the country, but it is very overcast, about 37 degrees and rainy.  It seemed to be pitch black this morning when I got up, so on went the Christmas lights and the fireplace to spread some cheer.  That is one of the best things about the decorations for Christmas, all the twinkle lights and bright colors keep us cheerful leading up to the Winter Solstice.

My decorating is done, my shopping is almost done and we will get the trees this week.  Just trying to decide how many Christmas cookies I am going to make this year.  Maybe just gingerbread, pizzelles, cut outs and jam thumbprints.

My Christmas knitting is moving right along (and why I do Christmas knitting, I just don't know!).

 Five washcloths done, two to go.

 One slipper done, three to go.

Half a cowl done.  This yarn is flashing and pooling in a very charming way and I think will look really good wrapped twice with a black coat.

More knitting tomorrow.  Hopefully, more Christmas presents finished.  I have a distraction problem whenever I am working on a project that has a deadline.  Every other project in my queue, every other project that I see on other knitting blogs or Pinterest seem so much more interesting and desirable than the one that must get done.

Unknitting: It's the Journey, Not the Destination!

Knitting.  It can be very satisfying and very frustrating, both at the same time.

I had too many projects in various stages, so I pledged to finish up everything before I started any more.  I had one sleeve left on the Dahlia cardigan an aboslutely beautiful cardigan with a really intriguing construction, started in the middle of the lace on the back, afterthought sleeves, a real challenge.

Top picture, it is done!  I tried it on and hated it.  I looked terrible in this!  When will I realize I am not a slinky 20 something and will not look like the model in the pattern picture-ever.  So I didn't even hesitate and took it apart immediately.  I knew I would never wear it and the longer I waited, the harder it would be to take apart. I think this color was totally wrong for the project.  It really was too busy.

I then took out the Tempest sweater (middle picture).  All pieces were done, just had to put this together.  It had sat in the bag like this for over a year, all blocked and really pretty.  I again took a good look at it and realized it would never fit.  Way too small.  Again, not a skinny 20 year old.  I do have plenty of yarn and I still think that the sweater would look good on me so I will make it larger.

You would thing the last project, a pair of socks, would be a breeze after all the sweater trauma.  No, no. The second sock had sat all summer needing just its heel and foot.  But I had forgotten the pattern and the little tweeks I had made to it.  It was a very sloooow process at the heel of knitting and ripping, trying to get the stripes to match.  I think I knitted as much as a pair of socks, with all the knitting and ripping I did to get this pair to match.

I have two other projects waiting and I am almost afraid to look at them too closely, a sweater (which I will tackle next and the Frost Flower Shawl, which is going to be a slow process.  I will try to do one row every day or so, just to keep the pattern fresh in my head.

My main goal right now is to finish Afterlight and that means I will try to be a monogamous knitter.  I have the back done and am almost to the armhole on the front.  Love to have the sleeves going by Thursday's knitting group, but I'm not going to push it.

One of the things I discovered is I really am a process knitter.  It didn't cause me much of a pang to rip out all that work.  After all it's just knitting and now I get to knit something completely different!

Time For New Books

With the cooler weather, kids back in school and publishers getting out their newest books, it's reading time once again.  My plans for summer always include lots of reading, but the reality never comes up to my imagination.
While waiting for the latest Nora Roberts's In Death to come out next week (hurry up Sept 17th) and Louise Penny's latest Inspector Gamache to be available from the library (where I am next in line, yeah!), I picked up some titles that were recommended on the Barnes & Noble blog by Ms Penny.  I started with the first book in the new (to me) Rev. Clare Furgusson series "In a Bleak Midwinter" and am loving it.  This is another series set in upstate New York like the Troy Chance series I happened on this summer.  Wow, two new authors with strong female main characters.  I also picked up "Smilla's Sense of Snow" and the first of one of  Rhys Browns' series "Her Royal Spyness".  I'm really hoping I like this author as she has two other series that sound just like the cozy mysteries that make me very happy!

In the TV, movie viewing we happened upon the "Longmire" series on Netflix (have I mentioned how I could do without cable but never Netflix on demand?)  We plowed through the first season (I think its called binge viewing) and thought we could get the second season on line, but other than the last few episodes or buying them on iTunes we are just going to have to wait.  This is very tough, as we both really enjoyed it.
But the new season is starting this month, so I'm sure there will be plenty to watch.  More than we actually have time for probably, as we only  watch about 2 hours per day.  Shows have to be mighty good for us to spend our TV watching time on them.  I guess that is why I like Netflix,  we are able to find shows that we missed on the network, not have to watch commercials so spend only about 20 or 40 minutes watching.

When complaining about the lack of vegetables in our garden this year, I forgot to mention the raspberries which are plentiful and delish!  We do have to try and beat the bees to them, but this is a potion of what my DH picked yesterday. Enough to eat and freeze.  That's after enough last week for raspberry pie and breakfast eating.

Not a great picture, but here"s Frankie sunning herself on the lounge chair.  Silly dog!

Happy Place

 I love this time of the year.  So full of possibilities.  Even though the summer flew by and we didn't have as much swimming time toward the end of August as I would have liked and we didn't seem to get to do as much as we thought we would, it is good to have that crisp air in the early mornings and the bright yellow school buses taking the kids back to school.

The garden, as you can see in the pictures, is still full of color.  I planted, I think,  almost 100 gladiola bulbs.  I did stagger the planting in order to have color a bit longer.  Not sure how many have come up, as I have been picking them for a few weeks and still have quite a few still growing.  The mix of sunflowers is adding lots of sunny, happy to the back garden.  The Autumn Joy sedum finally got replanted in the right spot and is full and changing into its purple fall color.

The vegetable garden was not too good this year.  Eggplant need hot weather and so do the tomatoes.  the winter squash is doing just fine and I think we will be harvesting enough to take us through the fall and early winter.

We have plans to rework the right side of the back garden.  These were the only beds that didn't get redone this spring.  Plans are for more of a butterfly garden in one of the three 8x8 beds.  We have our eye on some milkweed in a field and I want to get some of the seeds, I also have a few pots of bee balm that I grew from seeds to replant, once we have all the debris cleaned out.  I would like to have a raised bed in one of the other spots for herbs and greens.  It needs to be built up so that the family of rabbits that have lived under our shed for the past 20 years can't get to the veggies.

Fall is the perfect time to do the heavy lifting that these projects need.  Hopefully we will get it done.

Summer Relief

Hot, hot, hot this past week.  Highs in the 90's, low in the not very low 75 range and humid as all get out.
 Last night the weather broke with a vengeance: we lost power about 8:30 at night and didn't get it back until 4:30 this morning.  The thunderstorm lasted an hour and a half and seemed to be right over our house.  It also brought torrents of rain.  Frankie and I were very scared.  The crack of the thunder followed the lightning immediately.  I kept imagining the tall trees in our backyard coming down on top of us, but we only lost one small limb.

Did I mention the torrents of rain?  They are continuing today in brief spurts.  The windows are all open and the house is getting a refresh.  Feels so good!

I took pictures of all the lilies I have blooming right now.  I want to keep a journal of all the varieties I already have so that I will get different ones when I fill in the two beds in the back that I am redoing.  So here are some pretty pictures:

There are quite a few of the dark red variety, although they each different characteristics.  Some are small, some have a yellow heart, one variety keeps blooming into August.  Still, need some more pinks and white.  These are all day lilies.  The earlier Oriental lilies were yellow.  Need some variety there, also. 

Tomorrow, maybe some knitting.  Today is mostly just recovery from the hot and the non-stop visits from all the kids to swim.  Not that that was a bad thing, just a bit tiring.

Some Knitting

It's really spring!  The magnolia tree is spectacular and the forsythias are blooming also.  There was lots of outdoor activity, like cleaning out garden beds, golfing, and lawn mowing and raking this weekend.  The weather couldn't have been nicer for this, sunny and not too hot.  Today it is overcast and the rest of the week is going to be in the 70's.  Yeah!

Transitioning from winter wools to summer shorts is never a gradual process in our area.  It usually happens so quickly you haven't gotten out the summer duds or put away the boots.  Snow and frost can happen well into May, so tender annuals can't go in the ground too soon.

I potted most of my seeds; zinnias and sunflowers, beets and beans.  I like to start them growing in pots before I transplant them in the garden to give them a head start and keep the bunnies away from their tender new shoots.

I finished a pair of socks for myself this weekend and started another pair.  I have to add to my drawer as I had 4 pair that developed holes on the heels.  I think one of my pairs of boots had a spot that wore them through.  I'll have to replace them before next winter.  My favorite pair, of course.

The Kroy striped sock yarn is usually free from knots, but one skein had several knots and I was worried I would have two non matched socks (hate that!)  but it didn't turn out too badly, just a little difference in the toe, that only I will notice if I keep my shoes on!

I put another sock on the needles as soon as I finished the Kroy.  It is a limited edition Kertzer in blues and purples.  I think I might do a pattern as the pair I did for DD#3 pooled a bit.  Got to be an easy pattern as I take these socks with me everywhere and work on them when I have a spare moment.

I have three sweaters in the almost finished pile that I am going to commit here to finishing this week.  

1. Pat's cardigan has the buttonhole band to be finished and the side seams to sew up.  

2. My striped Tempest has to be sewn up and the button band and collar done.  Hmmm! That one could take a while.  Maybe that's why it's been unfinished.

3.  My Dahlia cardigan has one sleeve partially finished.  Once both sleeves are done it is completely done and that is a good thing.

Maybe one week is too ambitious.  I'll just devote myself to these three projects and see how long they take.

I'll check in next Monday with a progress report.

Free day, one of the kids is sick.  We have a bowling banquet tonight so no cooking tonight!  A really free day!

Sewing Monday

When my girls were little and I was not working outside the home, I did a lot of sewing for them.  Everything from t-shirts to jeans and fancy, smocked Easter dresses. I remember one Easter eve staying up until the wee small hours finishing up 3 dresses.  There was even a time when I sewed and crocheted various stuffed animals and sold them at craft shows with a friend.

I am no novice, but it has been quite a number of years since I have really done any sewing other than mending.  I got the itch to pick it up again and decided to start with something simple.  I always have a need for more project bags and there is plenty of  coordinating fabric in my stash.  This weekend I decided to get some sewing done.

I know what I like in project bags.  The small bags from knowknits.com are my absolute favorites for my sock knitting.  The reasons are clear, no zippers or velcro to trap my yarn.  I want larger bags to hold sweater projects and tried to find a pattern I liked.  None of the commercial patterns had everything I wanted, so I am trying to engineer the type of bag I like.  I am modifying a Simplicity pattern and adding features that I think I will like using.

My sewing skills are more than a little rusty, I will admit.  I am using two very plain fabrics to make the prototype.  I also cut the basic pattern out of a medium weight interfacing so I can reuse the pattern, if I get it to turn out the way I have it in my mind.

One thing I noticed about the pattern instructions, is how very brief they are.  A novice sewer, I think, would have a hard time knowing just what to do.  I am not sure if this is true of every pattern that's out there, but it sure is true about this one.

Stay tuned to see how this turns out!

It is in the high 60's today,finally, so I went out to do some gardening this morning.  I cut down the clematis vines on the side of the garage and cleaned up the debris that gets blown in that corner and did some weeding.  Wow, am I sore!  Winter was too long and I haven't been keeping in shape.  A little at a time is how my garden is going to get ready for the summer!