Works in Progress

by Kelly

A short post today, about three projects in the making. Remember candy dots? Well, I thought it would be cute to make a candy dot scarf and hat set. What kid wouldn't like to wear candy as clothing?

I've been plugging away at this project for awhile now. It's a strange mixture of boring knitting and frustrating knitting, but I refuse to put it aside.


Then, of course, Dawn took Donna and me to a truly enormous Joann Fabric store, and I came away with material for two other projects:

The materials above look fairly ordinary, but the projects are actually really interesting, or at least I think so. Stay tuned!

Braided Flag Scarves

by Kelly

Autumn is officially here, and the trees are beginning to put on their annual fall finery:

And of course, you know what that means for us? That's right...it's time to start churning out hats, scarves and mittens for The Mitten Tree, a local charity that provides for less fortunate kids.

I have sort of a head start, at least as far as the scarves go:

That's a French scarf, an Irish scarf, and an Italian scarf. I'd make an American scarf, except I'm struggling with a way to make stars on the blue. I considered making appliques, but on further thought I think there might be an easier way. I have to experiment a little, though.

I'm also going to give mittens and gloves another try this year. With a different pattern this time, one that explains how to avoid making a hole by the thumb.

I love all seasons equally, but fall and winter have added benefits now that I can crochet and knit. So many possibilities! And I'm going yarn shopping on Saturday with Dawn and Donna. I think we'll have a fantastic time hanging out together in a yarn store, especially since one of them once purchased a whole shopping cart of yarn, while the other one has a $50.00 gift certificate, so even if I don't buy a thing, I can live vicariously through the purchases of others.

My husband said that the idea sounded a little dangerous to him, but I just pointed out that it could be worse - I could be going shopping for books, after all. He thought about it for a minute, then agreed that yarn shopping didn't sound so bad after all.

Knitting Books

by Kelly


Books! One that I purchased at near cover price (gasp) and 2 others from a library sale.

Yes, I'm getting overconfident again. I'm dreaming of a lovely, warm, knit sweater that won't break the budget because I made it myself.

But I do know my limitations, and I can see at a glance that Viking Patterns for Knitting and The Celtic Collection are out of my league. Ah, but look at the eye candy inside:

The Celtic Collection

The Celtic Collection

Viking Patterns for Knitting

Viking Patterns for Knitting

Meanwhile, the Debbie Bliss book has patterns that are still beautiful, and might actually be attainable one day:

Celtic Knits

Celtic Knits

I love, love that dark blue sweater above. And once I get past the basics of sweater construction, that's the first one I'll tackle.

Meanwhile, it's time to go to the closet and break out the simple sweater project that has been reproachfully falling on my head lately, and calculate what I will have to do to make the gauge. (*sigh*) Where did I put that calculator?

Chicken Scratch Skull and Crossbones for Talk Like a Pirate Day

by Kelly


Arrr...so, me mateys, today be Talk Like a Pirate Day. Landlubber that I be, this one would have slipped right by, but I be married to a pirate, you see...and we have the cutlass to prove it.

via Wikipedia

No, not THAT kind of cutlass! THIS kind of cutlass...

But this be a crafty blog, and the prize we seek is always handmade. So behold, all you scurvy dogs...and cats, if there are any...a bit of craftiness for this special day :

A Chicken Scratch skull and crossbones? Aye, that's right! It was either that or sing the 'yo ho, yo ho' song again...or show you a few things I learned from The Captain (*picks up cutlass*).

Aye...that's what I thought! You're welcome.

Local Wildlife

by Kelly

I thought I'd post some pictures of the local wildlife, since it's fall, after all, and some of them will be leaving for the winter.

I've been putting out peanuts on the back patio for a few weeks now, and I have attracted a whole gang of these guys:

Tufted Titmouse

I was originally hoping to lure in a few of the thousand and one squirrels that live around here, but they're too busy to be bothered. But that's okay, I got a photo anyway.

I also cleaned and filled a hummmingbird feeder this morning and look who came by for an afternoon snack.

Ruby-throated hummingbird?

This feeder has been out of order all summer, so I didn't expect any results at all, let alone such a quick response. I queried the mighty Google and am guessing that this is a Ruby Throated female, but I am far from a hummingbird expert.

Oh, and here's one more native creature, that I caught on the fly:

That's an Assisi work deer that I made. And how did I do multi-color Assisi embroidery? I'm afraid that's a trade secret :)

I got the inspiration for this from my FIL, who saw a white deer in our shared backyard a few years ago. I wanted to make an embroidered deer running against an autumn background, but I couldn't find any patterns that I liked. So rather than design my own, which was way too much trouble, I decided to try Assisi embroidery, because that's just one color of floss used to outline an image. Of course, then I got bored with working just one color and anyway the deep autumn red that I chose really started to bug me, since I thought it was too purple, so I came up with a new technique instead.

The funny thing is, my FIL is a hunter, so naturally when he told me about the deer I asked if he was going to get out his bow and try for it. He looked at me as if I were crazy, and said, "You don't kill a white deer."

Oh.

So you'd think that, over time, if everyone felt this way, the white deer would become extremely common, since they were the only ones who had a truce with the hunters. Strangely, they're still really rare. Must be some genetic thing.

This particular white deer is listed in our shop. It's going to be really rare too, because I don't think I'll take all that trouble again. Next time, I'll just get out the graph paper.

Then and Now by Donna

It is canning season in the midwest and I am busily canning salsa, pasta sauce, and stewed tomatoes.  This is a picture of my work from last year since my camera isn't working and I keep forgetting to get it fixed.  Canning can be exhausting work even if you have everything close at hand and all the right utensils.  I use a hot water bath canner like the one in the picture.

I was born in the 1940's and started helping my mother can in the early 1950's.  We did not have running water in our house so we carried pails of water from a well using a pump like the one below.  Using that pump was definitely good exercise for the arms. 

That is a lot of pails of water when you are canning.  We did not have a gas range.  We had a stove that burned coal and wood like the one in the picture.  I learned how to cook and bake on a stove like that.

We did all the cooking of the things we were going to can on this stove, put everything in jars and then took the jars outside.  My mother did not have a canner like I have.  We had three concrete blocks with a washtub like the one in the picture on the blocks.  We filled the tub with water and built a fire under the tub and put the jars in it.  You got the fire hot enough to boil the water and then left the jars in it for whatever time was necessary. 

While I was searching for these pictures I found a couple of survivalist sites where they describe canning this same way now.

I can just a few things although it ends up being quite a few jars.  My mother canned everything she could get her hands on.  We had a garden, we went to orchards and picked apples, peaches and pears, we picked blackberries.  My sisters and I shared a bedroom that was just off the kitchen and half of one wall was shelves where all the canned food was stored.  All this work was necessary if we were going to eat all winter.  Its no wonder my mom was always tired.  I definitely prefer canning now to back then.

Oh, Snap! Eyes for Amigurumi

by Kelly

Snaps make pretty good eyes for amigurumi :

I ran out of black embroidery thread, so I couldn't sew eyes for this one. I tried button eyes, but that gave the bear what I think of as 'creepy doll syndrome', so I cut them off. It was while I was putting the buttons back in the jar that I ran across a snap and thought I'd give it a try. Of course then I had to pour all those buttons out onto the table again and try to find another matching snap for the other eye, because these are buttons after all, and organizing my collection of loose buttons has never been high on my priority list.

I was surprised that the jar contained so many snaps. I inherited this jar from my mom when I moved out into my very first apartment. I guess she thought that I would do my own sewing after I was out on my own, but, ha, that wasn't what happened after all. In fact, I still have never sewed a snap on anything (until now, that is) although I have replaced the occasional button. I never realized that snaps came in so many different varieties - I guess they're almost like heirloom tomatoes.

Oh, and the bear is available in the shop  if you would like to adopt him. There will be a small rehoming charge, of course.

Also, that funky, old fashioned yarn that the bear is made with came from my aunt's partial de-stashing. Here's a picture of what she gave me:

So what do you call it when you are gifted with someone's de-stash? Is there a word for that? Re-stash, maybe?