Enduring the heat

For all the talk I do about being a blogger, I sure am slacking in that department lately. 

I meant to write last week.  Seriously, I did! 

I have no idea what happened to last week. It was one of those weeks that just *flew* by. 

So this post is in part to remind all you groovy cats that I'm still here.  I've just been busy. With everything and nothing. 

On the work front we were headed towards a publishing day. 

I had a doctor appointment.  I got some good news. Yay! 

I did a whole bunch of crafting. A lot of it on the secret stitching I'm working on. ... I thought I'd record a flosstube this week.  The timing just never worked out. 

I decided to just let it be an "off" week.  If that makes sense. Just go with the flow and not have any structure. 

A few highlights from the week: 

On Tuesday we used our new fancy pressure washer to work on power washing the house.  And by "we" I mean my husband did the work, and I kept him company. 

Hmmm maybe I should have taken an "after" photo, too. 

Wednesday was my doctor's appointment. After the appointment I cruised over real quick to the mart of Wal (Ha!)

I picked up something that my hubby has been wanting for a while. So it is sort of an early birthday present. 

The boys brought it in to the house, and I started putting it together.  Another part of the birthday gift. 

I'm sure it took me less than an hour to pull together. 

A lot of boxes and packaging. The directions were pretty good. 

Voila!

To say it's been a hit would be an understatement. 

Friday I seasoned it and we've used it every day since. 

If any one has any tips please share them. Thanks!

Friday evening, after a chat with a fellow crafty friend, I decided it was time to *finally* make the sock project bag I've been wanting to make. 

I decided to follow a tutorial by Woolenvine and cut out the fabric. 

Saturday, once the weather got warm out, I went back in to the house and sewed the bag together. 

I only thought about taking a photo when I was making the wristlet band. 

It took me a little bit longer than I hoped to sew it together. I made a couple of rookie mistakes and had to undo a bit of work, before redoing it. 

Overall I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  I haven't made a bag like this in many, many years.  Close to 10, maybe. 

I promptly grabbed some sock yarn and cast on a new vanilla sock. 

Okay, so it's hot out there, right? It's hot all over. My area is not used to really warm temperatures, because we are next to the world's largest air condition, which is known to everyone as Lake Superior.

I noticed on my camera roll that I was saving screenshots from various days showing what the current temperatures were. 

Tuesday, 10:57 a.m. - 74 degrees F, with a real feel of 87 degrees

Tuesday, 1:32 p.m. - 80 degrees F, with a real feel of 94 degrees

There were more, but I won't keep boring you. 

We had some pretty warm temperatures this weekend.  Each day last week was gradually getting warmer and warmer to what the local weather people were calling a heat dome. 

"A “heat dome” high-pressure system will keep the Northland hot, humid, and dry Sunday night and Monday. Low temperatures will remain in the 70s, with highs in the 90s. Feel like temperatures will be in the triple digits. A west breeze will not help in keeping us cool, and it will also keep fire weather dangers very high and extreme."

So yeah, it's getting hot out there. No. It is hot out there. Tomorrow is supposed to hit a high of 98. Who knows what the real feel will be like. The humidity is doing it's part to make it feel like a gross armpit out there.

Today I brought Feffer in to the house, after making sure the girls (chickens) had plenty of fresh water.

Sweet little Feffer.

This is him settling down into the sweet spot of where the fan was blowing across my lap/

He was a sweet boy while we was in the house. Though there was one time where I had to corral him while I went and took care of the evening meal.

Oh the thumps I heard! Even though he was right in the cross breeze of a fan and was just fine.

When I was done with what I was doing, I picked him up and set him back on my lap. He was so happy. He was bopping around and crawling all over me. At one point he climbed up to the back of my chair.

He sat up there like a little potentate who was surveying his kingdom.

When I sat back down, he came over by me and immediately tickled me with his whiskers, before crawling back down to settle in my lap.

He's such a good bun.

More than likely he'll be back in the house tomorrow.

So that's a "quick" little update on what's going on with me. I'm hoping to be more productive this week. With the heat how it is, we shall see.

A few photos from this evening, when I went out to tuck the girls in.

Beautiful sky tonite.

Midweek post

 A blog post on a Wednesday? That is just crazy. 

Well, being that it's the start of a new month, and I actually had some chatter to share, I figured it was as good of a time as any to write my thoughts down. 

Now what were they? ... 

Ha! I crack myself up. 

We are still in the phase of what I'm going to call "Quiet times" at work and at home. I've been taking advantage of the quiet times and catching up on a few work things that have been on the back burner for a while.  I went to the office today and it was like a ghost town there.  Then I remembered that it's holy week and people are either taking time off, or are out and about doing holy things. 

On the home front we've been dealing with cooler temperatures. Again. Currently it is 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Supposedly we are in for another storm.  Last I saw it was supposed to be a mixture of snow and ice. Who knows what we will wake up to tomorrow. 

Can this *please* be the last snow weather event? Please? 

Just about any time that the weather is decent I'm out in the greenhouse.  I'm starting to worry I might be starting some things too early. But, really, I think I'm thinking that because the weather keeps going cool on me. 

Last night I decided it was time to make the second patriotic-themed project bag. 

I love that I've figured out how to properly use a zipper foot. 

And this style of project bag is so great. 

I still need to figure out measurements for making a larger bag.  While I love how compact this size is, I want a larger size for the projects that need bigger hoops and Q-snaps. I still haven't figured out what style of project bag I want to make for those Peter Rabbit animals I want to make at some point. 

This afternoon I spent some time with my old man Feffer. 

Yes, he was on the table. Do I care? No. This could be his last year with us and I'm going to indulge the heck out of him. He was super lovey this afternoon, too.  I wonder if he senses the storm that's supposed to be descending upon us? 

With it being April 1 (and I totally forgot about it being April Fool's Day) I started a new stitch-a-long with my friend and fellow flosstuber Alison. 

We started Farmyard friends by Lori Holt. I keep wanting to call this one barnyard friends. ... 

Here's my start.  A whole 170 stitches. 

I'm using the called for DMC and 14 count aida that I dyed myself. 

I've been absolutely awful lately about posting my projects, updates and pertinent info on the blog lately.  I really need to fix that.

And this reminds me that I posted a new garden journal video yesterday. 

I've got kind of a funny story about this one.  Maybe not funny ha ha, but funny odd. 

I loaded the video to youtube early and had it unlisted, with the intention of making it live today. Yesterday I saw a youtube notification pop up from a friend leaving a comment, saying she had a hard time finding the video but eventually persevered in finding it. I was like "huh?"

This was me: 

I went, looked and verified the youtube video was still unlisted. How? How did Youtube sneak that one out? *shrug* I decided to publish the video early. If you watch, I hope you enjoy it. 

Another thing that happened this evening was the launch of Artemis II. We are headed back to the moon! This time it has nothing to do with the stock market. (Ha! There's that hilarious wit of mine again.)

I said to my husband that the last space launch I remember was Columbia in 2003. Well, wait, that's not true. I remember watching that one spaceship launch where it put itself back in it's spot. That doesn't sound correct as I type it.  Let me go google it. ... 

It was this one, though I didn't actually watch the launch. 

Pretty trippy. 

Tomorrow is my work Friday.  I'm looking forward to a four-day weekend. I have Good Friday and Easter Monday off. I don't have a game plan for the weekend just yet.  I do know I want to make a carrot cake. I haven't had a carrot cake in years. I'll likely end up menu-planning on Friday. I know what the main course for Sunday will be.  I haven't figured out the sides. 

Well, until next time. 

Oh look, it's raining again ...

I mean, "Hooray! July is here!" 

*ahem* 

I meant to write yesterday. The day got away from me.  I spent the evening working on my bunny stitch. 

I told my hubby that the closer I come to completing this stitch the more goof ups I make. 

Over the weekend I started stitching up the bee. 

And quickly realized I had made some mistakes stitching up the leaves.  I thought "I can make this work." until I realized I couldn't make it work.  

Bah!

So yesterday I spent my lunch hour ripping out stitches.  

Ugh ... no matter how I try to rip out a large number of stitches, it turns into a mess and then the mess takes longer to clean up than if I had been able to just take the threads out. 

Last night I diligently worked on this little bee and put the final stitches in around 9 p.m. 

Finally! Now the back stitching can commence. 

This cross stitch project has been my main focus. 

When I wasn't working on my February Lady Sweater.  Mostly I've been working on my sweater in the mornings, before getting ready for the day and work. 

I am done with the sweater body.  Yay!  Time to start the sleeves.  I have just over four skeins of the Temu yarn to work with.  I'm optimistic that each sleeve will need only 2 skeins each. 

I had the idea that I would write a post at the beginning of the month stating what active projects I have, and what I hoped to get done by the end of the month.  Overly enthusiastic, perhaps. The list will help me get things in perspective since I'm still kind of all over the place, project-wise. Frankly, until I get this bit sorted out I don't feel I can move forward and make a flosstube. 

So things that are currently in the works/percolating along. 

Knits

February Lady Sweater - I would like to get this complete by the end of the month

Monkey socks - Another project I'd like to get done by the end of the month.

Princess Passenger socks - No deadline since I'm only going to work on them when I'm a passenger.  I will pick up stitches on the heel flap in the house.  I don't think I'd be able to do so in a bouncy vehicle. 

Quilts

Sandpiper quilt - I have the top all sewn together and the backing sewn together. I'm debating on whether to put a label on, or not.  The binding still needs to be cut. I would like to have this done by the end of the month. 

Just picture all my squares with sashing and borders around them.

Yes, this is my quilt backing, all in a heap. I think the color will look fantastic with the front. 

Dancing stars quilt - I have about half the quilts squares to sew, still. ... I think I'm going to hold this one until August, unless I get the other things done. 

I have no current photos of completed squares. Sorry. 

Sewing projects

I now have fabric for five WIP project bags.  I want to make them by the end of the month.  I could maybe accomplish this.  It's something to strive for. 

Spinning

My spinning has been pushed so far to the back burner that I haven't touched it in months.  I would like to spend one evening each week of July spinning my little heart away.  Currently the Tour de Fleece is going on.  I've never been good at following any kind of a-long, so I didn't even try to start it this year. 

No current photos of the wool I'm working with. 

Cross Stitch

Currently there are three cross stitch projects going. 

Bunny stitch before the back stitching. 

Where One Piece is. I haven't touched it in a while.  The goal is to get it done by Christmas, at least.  If not, then February next year. 

You may be surprised to read that I *finally* started my porkie cross stitch.  I decided to make it a birthday start.  Well ... I started it during my birthday week. 

It's not much but it is a start. I was still a bit intimidated to start it, and then I just went ahead and set up the aida cloth on my q-snap and started it. 

All the colors ... all 49 of them. 

I've been on the hunt for a porcupine needle minder.  Most of what I find are hedgehogs or images that really don't look like porcupines.  I may end up making my own.  Though I'm not sure how I will go about it. 

Project Name: Porcupine cross stitch

Chart purchased from Etsy: Purple Stitching
Started: June 2024, during my birthday week, 

Finished: 

Floss in called DMC colors: 167, 168, 169, 310, 317, 318, 413, 414, 415, 433, 437, 451, 452, 453, 524, 535, 611, 612, 640, 644, 645, 646, 647, 648, 762, 779, 840, 841, 842, 844, 927, 928, 934, 935, 939, 3021, 3023, 3031, 3032, 3041, 3072, 3371, 3756, 3787, 3799, 3828, 3863, 3864, 3866

Needle Size: 26

Made For: myself. 

Against my better judgement I kinda kitted up a few more cross stitches up that have come across my social media the last month or so. ... I'm really tempted to clear the cache, so to speak and take them out of the bucket until I get less projects on my plate.  As I keep reminding myself, there are no deadlines or urgent reasons to work these projects. So I just may file the floss back in to my storage system and put the charts away for now. 

My WIP bucket. My February Lady Sweater is in the blue daisy bag. 

I have this other project going.  It hasn't been touched for a while.  

A month ago, or so, I saw something on a few flosstubes and I thought "Hey, that's a good idea."

What, you may be wondering ... 

Putting a master set of floss on floss drops and sorting them by color families. 

I don't remember who came up with the idea but it took flosstube by storm, I think. 

This is a set of floss from Temu. The colors match DMC.  It's amazing! 

So my idea is to use this floss for my master set of colors and fill in the few that may be missing with regular DMC.  Also, if I need some floss in a pinch, I can use the floss from my master set. 

I think it will also be helpful to make color subs in the event I'm not wild about a color listed on a chart. 

I don't know how many I have put on floss drops yet.  I sort of burned out on it after a weekend of punching out floss drops.  I think I might have done some damage to my punch. Or, the card stock I was using for making themed floss drops was thicker than what I'm used to.

I'll post more in-progress project photos on my Instagram

Something just happened and I lost the tail-end of my blog post. I guess that is my cue to go work on my back stitching. 

I see bubbles!

Monday ... There isn't much to say about the day itself. It was a publishing day and I made it through! 

The chickens are mad at me because I haven't let them out in several days. 

Feffer, the mini rex, acted like he didn't know me. 

That's okay. Tomorrow I'll be forgiven for not letting the chickens out, and Feffer will decide he needs to do a quick snuggle up by me before bounding off to his hidey-hole. 

I'm pretty sure that earlier in the day I had an idea of how to approach today's writing.  Right now, at 9:15 p.m., not so much. 

Sorry. 

Around the noon hour I paid attention to my sourdough starter. The whole discard and feed thing. 

I took at peek at it tonite.  

She's starting to grow.  Just a little bit. 

And we have some bubbles! 

My last fat quarter solids club bundle arrived today. I canceled my subscription as soon as I received the shipping notice. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll pick out the colors I want for this last block and iron and cut the pieces needed. 

I've had the fat quarter bundle club for the last two years.  I think I'm set for fabric for now.  I know, crazy talk, right!

Oh! I just remembered something I wanted to mention.  Yesterday my husband and I decided to take stock of garden seeds in my collection and we placed an order for hot peppers. 

More Carolina Reapers, and some I haven't tried before. 

Trinidad scorpion, Scotch bonnet orange pepper, Dynamite XX Hot green chili, and some hatch green x hot, rattlesnake green.  Don't they sound fantastic?

I also ordered some shishito peppers because I kept hearing about them last year on some of the youtube channels I follow.  

Come January a ton of my attention is going to be focused on seed starting, planning and setting up for getting everything started. 

Now, even, my attention is starting to turn back to gardening.  I'm starting to watch more garden shows, and some garden-content youtube channels.  

So yeah, seed starting is practically around the corner. 

*ahem*  

I have almost everything I need, save some soil for seed blocking.  Maybe a few more tomato seeds. I'll purchase those at Menards when seeds become. 

Oh, I just remembered onion sets.  I'll probably need to get onion sets.  

In other news, I finished the ornament I was working on. 

It is wee and adorable!

12 Days of Stitchy ornaments

Started: Dec. 3, 2023

Finished: Dec. 4

Designer/Source: Erica Made Designs

Fabric: 14 count aida opalescent

DMC floss in called for colors: 3862, 498, 470, 472, 598, 761, 745, 844, B5200

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. 

Wednesday works in progress update #9 for 2023

 It looks like it's been a bit since I've done a WIP update.  I've had something in mind, but keep backing out of doing it, so that's why ... Yes, I'm mysterious. 

I've had the last few days off work and have been enjoying them.  House stuff has been caught up so that means time for vegging out and watching Fr. Brown and working on my knit and cross stitch projects a bit. 

When I'm not napping.  

Just kidding, I don't nap that much.  

In the last couple of weeks I've started a few new sock projects, a new cross stitch project and I've kitted up a few other projects, so to speak. 

My handspun.

Definitely a work in progress, despite my finishing it up this past weekend. Last night I decided I'm going to use it to make a cardigan. Specifically, the Bly cardigan by Berroco yarns. 

Photo is from Berroco's website. 

I decided I wanted to make something on the more easy side.  This seems perfect. 

Picture this pile of squishyness in a cozy cardi. 

I'll start this as soon as I get a few skeins wound up in to yarn cakes. Wish me luck! 

First sock project is my Monkey socks by Cookie A. 

Project Name: Monkey Socks
Started: Nov. 12, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: knitty.com

Yarn: Forbidden Fiber Co.

Colorway: Tale as old as time, on the Fortitude base.

Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm

Made For: myself. 

Yarn is a pleasure to work with. 

Next up is a vanilla sock

Project Name: Vanilla sock
Started: Nov. 13, 2023

Finished: 

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Amythest stripes

Colors: dark purples.

Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm

Made For: myself. 

I started this project up for the times where I want to knit, but don't want to think of a pattern repeat. You can see I've got a LOT done on this sock so far. 

Up next is another Vanilla sock

Project Name: Vanilla sock
Started: Nov. 18, 2023

Finished: 

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Coastal stripes

Colors: variations of blue and some white or grey.

Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm

Made For: myself. 

I started this sock on a 9 or 11 inch chiaogoo mini twist. I recently started watching the Knitting Traditions podcast on Youtube, and she mentioned making socks on the small circs and I thought I would give it another try.  So far it hasn't been as tough as I remember. 

Cross stitch ... 

I started a new cross stitch project. A few weeks ago I saw Javagirl Stitches pop on with a new youtube video and an announcement of a new stitch-along and I fell in love with the Quilted Cross Stitch charts, despite my already having christmas charts to work on. 

*sigh* I was SO enabled. 

So I went to walmart and picked up some 18 count adia and dyed it myself.  I wrote about it not long ago. It turned out so lovely. 

Started: Nov. 15, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Emily Call Designs

Fabric: Charles craft aida cloth 18 count I dyed myself. Purchased at walmart.

DMC floss in called for colors

Blanc, 168, 469, 3712, 3045, 816, 310

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. 

I'm not sure if I've worked on my snowflake cross stitch since I last shared it. So I'm sharing again, possibly. 

Project Name: #723 Snowflake

Started: Jan. 1, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Tiny Cross Stitches

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart. Aida has silver threads running through it. 

DMC floss in called for colors

747 ; 964 ; 995 ; 996 ; 3756 ; 3761 ; 3843 ; 3846 ; B5200

Colors: blues

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. I've decided I'm keeping it for myself.  I told my husband that when it is done, I'm putting it on display year-round. 

It looks like I have done a smidge of work on it. 

Quilty stuff ... 

I haven't done any actual sewing on the two quilts I've had going. I'm cutting fabric.  If you are a quilter you know that cutting and prepping the fabric can take a good long time.  

I feel like I've been working forever on cutting fabric for my Dancing Stars quilt. I really need to make a hashtag for this one. 

I didn't look to see how many more fat quarter bundles I need to cut up.  Feels like a hundred. It's probably four or five.  Each bundle takes about an hour to cut.  I've been working on a bundle at night while watching "The Mindy Project" or "Burn Notice." 

Last night I decided to switch over and cut up some fabric for the sandpiper quilt. 

Project Name: Sandpiper quilt

Started: Jan. 21, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: It's Sew Emma / Fat Quarter Shop

Fabric: Fabric from the Solid Fat Quarter Club

Colors: A different color palette each month.

Made For: Myself

I think I have four more squares to cut for on this quilt. Then I can start assembling.

I have a feeling January is when these two quilts are going to see a significant amount of love. 

Future projects ... 

I decided I'm going to make another Harvest cardigan.  The last one I made I made using carons simply soft. That yarn, combined with my lack of knowing how to care for big handknits like this, cause the cardigan to stretch out. It looked awful.  

I'm going to use acrylic again, but this time I'm using a hobby lobby yarn, and I won't be throwing it in the dryer. 

I purchased this yarn about a year ago. I think it's going to look great. 

Started: Soon

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Tin Can Knits 

Yarn: Hobby Lobby "I love this yarn"

Colors: Cinnamon Cedar

Needle Size: US #6 / 4mm & US #8 / 5mm

Made For: myself. 

This pretty yarn is going to be made in to something very soon, too. I saw a amigugrumi in a facebook group and decided I had yarn in stash that would be perfect for it. 

It will be a gift for someone.  Not saying who just yet. 

That is all in my bag of tricks, friend. Tomorrow is the big turkey day. We are planning on smoking a turkey (so yummy). My son will be working.  My hubby will be working on some projects he's been wanting to do for a while, and I'll likely be puttering in the kitchen and knitting when I'm not in the kitchen. 

So, until then, happy Thanksgiving to all of you!