Episode 13 - Patience

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting with me today. It's been a while since I recorded, thanks to Mother Nature, everybody being sick, and various other things that keep life interesting.

Grab your favorite drink and come sit a spell.  I have nothing to drink in this episode because I left it on the counter. 

To listen to an audio-only version go here, or click play below.  The audio-only version is also available on Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocketcasts, RadioPublic, and Spotify



I called this episode "Patience" because I had to learn patience with a few knitting projects, a cross stitch project ... basically lots of the crafty things I was working on.  Anytime I ran into a problem, I had to stop, set the project down and walk away from it for a while. At a result, I do not have a lot of finished objects. 

FOs

Pattern: Lia sweater pattern from Knitty.com
Started: Let's say ... Aug. 25, 2019
Finished: Let's say ... Nov. 14, 2019
Needle size: U.S. 11, 8 mm
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash bulky
Colorway: Garnet Heather

Will not make this pattern again. The yarn didn't grow like I was sort of expecting.  I heard superwash grows. Knit it to pattern. *If* I was to make it again, I would make it longer in the body. 

This is the photo I mentioned in the video.

I mention:

Pattern: Nanner socks by Wendyknits
Started:  Let's say ... Aug. 31, 2019
Finished: Frogged permanently
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5mm
Yarn: Knit Picks bare yarn I dyed bright yellow


WIPs
Vanilla sock
Started: Let's say ... November 2019
Finished: 
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm
Yarn: Nashua handknit socks yarn
Colorway: 7335
Dye Lot: 3555

Cross stitch

FOs

Chicken Joy by Priscilla Blain
14 count Aida cloth, purchased from Hobby Lobby
DMC floss in almost all the called for flosses.  There was one fancy floss and I substituted it for the blue. 

Sparkly Snowflakes
14 count Aida cloth, purchased from Walmart. Color reminds me of oatmeal or a real light grey. 
DMC floss.  None of the called for colors, since it is an Aurifill pattern.

YouTube channels/Flosstubers I mention

Kimberly Jolly at the Fat Quarter Shop

Fat Quater Shop's Flosstube. 

JavaGirl Stitches She does lovely finishing.  She also has three teenage sons, so I feel I'm getting a heads up on what might be coming my way. 

Brenda and the Serial Starter - These two gals are a hoot to watch.  I love how they interact with each other. 

Roladex Stitches -  She keeps it real and it's a bit of a breath of fresh air. I like that she's true, if that makes sense. 


This is the Ottlite I purchased to help me see my cross stitching better. 


Quilting

I did some quilting!

Two WIP project bags. Made during Thanksgiving week. Fabric from Hobby Lobby. 

I love this fabric.  I'll be sad when it's no longer available. 

Table runner using three "Mother's Choice" blocks. Sent out as a gift. I was so pleased with how this turned out. I almost kept it for myself. 

I started a new quilt. It is the Friendship Stars quilt by Christa Watson.

In the Kitchen

This is the recipe I made for work: Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins. Yum!

For dinner I made: Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole.  It was a hit!

This is the WIP tutorial I followed. 

So ... things will probably be quiet until the new year. Until thing: Happy Holidays!

Getting ready for another cold spell

The past weekend was spent pushing snow around and shoveling. My son and I shoveled off the deck, and around the house, after my husband climbed up on the roof and got rid of some excess snow weight. I was so sore yesterday. I'm not used to that manual labor.  Not this early in the season, anyways. 

Last night someone sent me this meme:

Winter hasn't officially started and I think everyone I know feels this way. 

This was on the morning news last week.  We are *way* above the average snowfall. 

We are managing to keep the driveway fairly clear and wide, but the places we can shove the snow to is shrinking. 

Thankfully we have a new snowblower on the way.  This weekend we ordered a new Honda snowblower that is so easy to use, I can use it. Pictures will be posted when it arrives.  It should be here within the next few days *fingers crossed* 

I've also been doing battle with keeping the mailbox cleared for the mailman.  I'm losing on an almost daily basis. The first few times I was able to clear the area easily. Now there are layers of hard-packed snow in the fluffy stuff.  I'm using a scoop shovel to break through it all and remove the snow. 

Every time I think I've got it, the plow or grader goes by and packs it all in again. 

In the meantime, another cold spell is hitting the area.  I could feel the bitterness when the wind blew just the smallest amount.  This means keeping the wood stove stoked and going.  The weather is supposed to warm up next week. Just in time for Christmas. 

Right now I'm watching an episode of The Great British Bake-off.  I seldom watch regular tv, and I have seen very few episodes of this particular show. Someone is making a tiramisu and I'm reminded of the time I made one and brought it to the office for someone's birthday.  Oh, it was so good. One day I should make it again. 

Winter

Winter came early to Northland. Snow, snow and more snow ... 

At first, it was really pretty.  That sentiment hasn't lasted very long.  Not for me, anyways.  

Our first decent snow dump arrived the day before Thanksgiving.  I decided I wasn't messing around this year, and I was pushing all the snow all they way out of the way.  That way, when we got the second snow storm, the weekend following Thanksgiving, there would be room to push all the new snow. 

After the second snow storm, you couldn't tell that I had done anything a few days prior. Snow blowing and drifting.  It was a moon landscape. My husband spent four hours, at least, plowing and snow blowing. 

Ever since, I feel like all we've done is snow-blow, plow and shovel.  

Ugh ... 

This is from today.  I went out to get mail and wasn't really surprised to see it snowing.  Again.  

If I didn't have to move it, I'd probably think it's beautiful. 

In other news, I recorded a podcast episode today. I recorded it on my phone.  That was a fun experience.  I think I was more relaxed, too. Probably because I didn't really know where to look.  It will get posted sometime next week.

Life has been moving pretty steady for me, these last couple of months. Always something going on. So ... blog writing and recording has gone by the way side a bit. Sorry. I'm still here.  I'm just going, going, going. 

Family is good.  We are all finally healthy! I was worried about all the school my son was missing, due to all the sickness and pink eye. *sigh* His grades weren't affected too much.  One think I love about his school is how they care  about the students.  I know his teachers worked with him to make sure he didn't fall behind. 

All the rabbits and chickens are doing well. The young hens have started laying. We are starting to get a small surplus of eggs to sell. Which makes some of my coworkers very happy. 

I've got some half-baked plans and ideas of crafty stuff for the next year. First thing, though, is to decide on a sweater pattern for myself. Even more important than that, I think, is spinning.  My big project of the year will be spinning at least one sweater's worth of yarn.  I "owe" my man a sweater.

Until next time, I'm still here. :-) I hadn't realized how long it had been since I last wrote anything. 

If we were having coffee ... The tired edition

This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share, or when I feel the need to catch up. 

So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice. I'm drinking coffee, because I need a pick me up!

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you how I am a tired girl. It's a combination of the weather, fighting technology and being the mom of a teenager, I think. Weather has been less than ideal.  Fall/early winter is officially here, with high temps in the 30s and low 40s.  Not much sun shining.

Last week I updated the OS on my work computer.  I've had lots of issues since then, mainly programs not opening, and everything being extremely slow. I've been moving old files over to an external hard drive.  This has helped a bit.  I'm sure there is something more I could be doing, but I'm not techie enough to know what it is. 

I've had been dealing with two-factor authentication and Apple ID.  I learned the new OS's now make two-factor authentication automatic now, and if you change your phone number, you better still have that phone number so you can try and keep your Apple ID.  They need the number to "verify" whatever it is they need to verify, and they are slow as molasses. I am reminded that security is not convenient.  They did not make this convenient.  It's almost like they went out of their way to make things miserable. 

So ... yeah, it's been a tough tech week for me. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd talk about the corn maze my son and I went to a couple weekends ago.  The two of us have gone to this corn maze every year, (except the year they were closed) since we moved out here. It usually takes us about 45 minutes to find all the stations. 

This year was a bit interesting.  On the wagon ride out to the maze there was a guy and his girlfriend, their dog, and their cans of beer. The guy said he lived right behind the farm and he was on good terms with the farmer who runs the corn maze.  He was full of stories on the way out. Then I never saw him again. I wonder if him and his girlfriend got lost or they found a little corner, or what.  

If we were having coffee ... I'd blather a bit about homesteading stuff.  A couple weekends ago the weather was gorgeous. I took advantage of the weather and cleaned out the majority of the garden.  I left the broccoli plants since they were still going. I can feed the broccoli to the rabbits.  They love broccoli. 

I also drained my fountain and covered it up. I love that fountain so much that I never shirk that duty. 

The trees have lost the majority of their leaves.  I am still debating on whether I should run the lawn tractor over the leaves. Does anyone do this? Someone at work recommended I just leave the leaves. 

The hens enjoyed the last of the "nice" weather. They ran around the yard and scratched into the leaves, looking for good stuff.  Or, the roosters make food magically appear, and the whole horde goes running to see what has been made for them. 

The two younger roosters have discovered girls, for lack of a better phrase.  I don't recall if I said this in the podcast.  The hormones have kicked in and now they are trying to assert themselves with the hens. Or, they are chasing them all over the place and K2 is busy trying to keep the girls safe from those other horrible roosters.  It's comical. This morning I let everyone out and one of the younger roos was trying to mate a hen.  K2 went running over there, knocked him off, and the hen went chasing after the roo, as well. Like "Yeah, how dare you try to have your way with me. You get out of here!" 

If we were having coffee ... I'd mention how my son was home sick for a full week.  Yes, again.  I don't know what the deal is, but germs have been running rampant through the school, or something. I spent a lot of time wiping down all the door handles, cabinet handles, tv remotes and anything else I could think of. I have concerns of what this flu and cold season will be like if people and kids are getting sick this early. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd talk about Halloween.  It was this past Friday. My son gave up trick or treating a few years ago.  It was bittersweet.  Now we have a Halloween date and then go visit with his grandma. 

I promised to make him a peanut butter pie. There is a recipe I use in a cookbook that I always get from the library.  I thought I'd be able to quick google a recipe. I didn't find anything remotely close to the recipe.  So, I winged it.  My son was pleased with the end result.  He asked if I could wing it again. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd say I honest and truly meant to record a podcast this past Friday. However, with how grey it was outside (and still is) and how tired I felt, I don't think it would be a very inspirational video.  I will strive for this week. I'm still trying to get back into some sort of routine.  Illness and crappy weather are working against me.  I haven't done a ton of knitting or spinning.  I did get smitten by the quilting bug and I was working on a table topper/runner. It gave me some fits, but I tamed it this weekend

In the meantime, I'm going to end this post with a photo of a darling tea towel my sister-in-law picked up for me when she was on vacation. 

Episode 12 -- On the fly

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting with me today. Grab your favorite drink and come sit a spell. 

This episode I recorded with no shownotes. Once the video is posted and I've watched through, I will update the show notes. 

In the meantime - enjoy! 

To listen to an audio-only version go to: 






Also available on Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocketcasts, RadioPublic, and Spotify

It's a good tired

This past weekend was pretty busy for me.  Being a few days removed from it and now I can't recall all the details. Boo!

There was a successful deer hunt. Yay!  Meat for the freezer.  We spent a lot of time on Sunday processing and freezing venison.  I have no pictures.  Sorry. 

On Saturday my husband and son dug the carrots out of the garden.  Some of our bigger carrots. 

I spent Sunday afternoon, into the evening, cutting and blanching carrots. My feet were pretty sore by the end of the day. 

A peek into the messiness of preserving ... I was watching, mostly listening, to Warehouse 13.  I forgot how much I like this show. 

I forgot to weight the carrots.  It was around 15 pounds. 

Weird weather also happened. It alternated snowing and raining. 

Sunday afternoon the sun starting breaking through the clouds. It was minutes at a time, though. My area is set to receive more oddball weather tonite. The rest of this week is supposed to be sunny. 

If you don't like how the sky looks, just change directions. 

In other news ... we have baby buns in the house. 

Getting them used to people.   Right now they mostly snuggle with each other. 

Episode 11 - A quickie

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting with me today. Grab your favorite drink and come sit a spell. 

WIPs
Pattern: Nanner socks by Wendyknits
Started:  Let's say ... Aug. 31, 2019
Finished:
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5mm
Yarn: Knit Picks bare yarn I dyed bright yellow

Pattern: Lia sweater pattern from Knitty.com
Started: Let's say ... Aug. 25, 2019
Finished:
Needle size: U.S. 11, 8 mm
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash bulky
Colorway: Garnet Heather

Here is when I tried the sweater on. If the yarn doesn't fluff up I'll definitely wear something under the sweater. 

I'm definitely going to take my time with this project. 

Spinning
Taking part of the Spin Together, spinning challenge. It's running Oct. 6-12. I'm working on four pounds-plus of fiber. The end goal is to spin a sweater for my husband.

I haven't done any spinning in September.  So I'm a bit out of practice.  

I've got two bobbins done.  

Coffee talk
I'm still recovering from illness. 

Nothing really going on in the kitchen. We've been living off easy to make foods. 

I did feel well enough to go sit out in the deer blind for a bit. 

Haven't done any reading.  Hoping to rectify that soon.  

The audio-only version of the podcast is now available on Itunes and the Google Play store.  I feel like I have arrived! 

September: The lost month

September is a month I'd sort of like to forget. 

It started out fine.  My son started school, and it sort of went downhill from there, for me. 

Actually, I can't lay the blame on the school, but that is where the fresh and new crop of germs was laying in wait.

I don't remember exactly which day it was I started feeling ill.  The first full week of September, maybe.  I caught a virus and that laid me out for well over a week. I was diagnosed with viral pharyngitis. My lymph nodes were swollen. My whole body hurt. Half my face swelled up. Then I started feeling a bit better, and was quickly knocked down by the flu. 

By that time, illness hit the entire household.  My son started with a sudden rash and the cold turned into pink eye. My husband caught the flu and he was pretty miserable.

Meanwhile, the last of the nice summer weather drifted past me as I was laid out on the couch, wishing the pain would go away. 

The fall colors have started. 

Currently the weather has been wet.  It started storming last night and I think most of the day.  The rivers are rising and roads in my county are closed, due to washout. 

A few things I learned this month: It's okay to let the housework go when you feel like you are at death's door.  (Okay that may be a slight exaggeration, but this is the longest I've ever been sick.) 

Also, it is entirely possible for me to sit and watch tv without having any knitting in my hands. I have done almost no knitting this month. It wasn't until this past weekend that I felt like picking the needles up. 

I also learned that it is entirely possible to live off of peanut butter and butter sandwiches. I know that may sound awful, but it was the one of the very few things I could eat and keep down. It's everything a body needs: Proteins, fat and fiber. The other thing I was living off of was chicken soup.

All the plans and ideas I had for September had to be let go.  I even missed bow opener for deer season. Yesterday was my first day sitting out and I was so worried I was going to have a setback. 

Nothing came to my deer blind.  *sigh* I take that back.  A lot of birds and one really noisy blue jay came and kept me company. 

Well, here's to a new month and a fresh start. 

Episode 10 - Welcome back

Welcome back! Thanks for visiting with me today. Grab your favorite drink and come sit a spell. 

I recorded this podcast at the beginning of the month.  Then I got hit by a virus, followed by what I'm assuming is the flu.  My apologies for not posting this sooner. 

Finished objects

I wrapped up a pair of vanilla socks. 

Project: Vanilla socks
Pattern: My own
Started: July 10, 2019, or so.
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm, circular needles
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici 
Colorway: Surf's up, Mostly blues with a stripe of purple

Notes: I made these socks a bit different.  I followed the pattern and it wasn't the correct way.  All the decreases are on top of the foot, instead of the usual on the side.  However, the socks fit really nice this way.  Did I unvent something?  

Pattern: Easy half circle shawl from LionBrand.com
Started: I don't know. 
Finished: Can't recall. 
Needle size: U.S. size 8, 5 mm
Yarn: Lionbrand Shawl in a ball
Colorway: Windchime

WIPs
Pattern: Nanner socks by Wendyknits
Started:  Let's say ... Aug. 31, 2019
Finished:
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5mm
Yarn: Knit Picks bare yarn I dyed bright yellow

Pattern: Lia sweater pattern from Knitty.com
Started: Let's say ... Aug. 25, 2019
Finished:
Needle size: U.S. 11, 8 mm
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash bulky
Colorway: Garnet Heather

Spinning
Currently working on some superwash wool for socks. I have plans to spin up a bunch of fiber for a sweater during "Spin Together" set for October. 

Book Chat
Started reading "Gaudy Night" by Dorothy Sayers. 

Coffee talk


I have figured out a way to load audio only so those who want to listen on the go can now do so. The RSS feed is slowly aggregating to the different podcatchers.  I admit, I don't know the first thing about this side of podcasting.  The hosting page is here: https://anchor.fm/amniconstudio.  The RSS feed is https://anchor.fm/s/69e4f5c/podcast/rss I don't know if I have to submit it to the Itunes store, or if it will eventually make it over there.