Flosstube 50 - Celebrating a milestone (Aug. 18, 2026)

In this video I celebrate what I consider to be a significant milestone in the flosstube/youtube community. ❤️ I also share current works in progress, a fully finished object and a few new starts. (Even though I said I wouldn't start anything for a while. 😂) Thank you so much for spending time with me! 

Current Works in Progress

* USA 250 by Wrought Iron Stitching

Project name: USA 250

Started: April 12, 2026

Finished:

Designer: Wrought Iron Stitching

Chart purchased: Etsy, 2026

Fabric: 14 count Aida, brown hand-dyed by me

Floss used: 832, 824, 3866, 3777, 898

* Farmyard Friends by Lori Holt

Project Name: Farmyard Friends

Started: April 1, 2026

Complete: 

Designer: Lori Holt

Fabric: 14 count aida, dyed by me, green.

DMC: 347, 893, 151, 976, 3820, 3052, 3848, 3813, 926, 3768, 930, 3799, 535, 3866

Stitch-along with Alison, @Mrs.AZfamilyzooStitchesAlison. Chart was won in a giveaway hosted by Becca, of Sambrie Stitches, on her Instagram. 

* George's Frog by Mudpuppy Stitchery

Project name: George's Green Frog

Started: May 1, 2026

Finished: 

Designer: Mudpuppy Stitchery

Chart Purchased: Mudpuppy Stitchery patreon freebie

Fabric: 14 count Aida, "toast" fabric purchased at Hobby Lobby

Floss Used: B5200, 09, 11, 223, 304, 610, 644, 906, 907

Started this during #MudpuppyMay

Fully Finished Object

* Cherry by LumiStitch

Project name: Cherry

Started: June 26, 2026

Finished: July 1, 2026

Designer: Lumi Stitch

Fabric: Aida 

Fabric Color: White opalesence

Fabric Count: 14 count

Floss Used: DMC 321, 777, 816, 987, 3347

Link to pattern: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4530794096/picking-strawberries-cross-stitch-pdf?ref=shop_home_feat_4&sr_prefetch=1&pf_from=shop_home&pro=1&sts=1&dd=1&logging_key=81a2c6491a8c1bd6bda49b2ab28efde1ab68f922%3A4530794096

Birthday SAL chart.

Finished Project

* Secret Stitch is done! Will share it when I can. 

Started: June 23, 2026

Finished: July 26, 2026

Stitch Count: 3,540

New Starts

* Love is Patient by Artful Offerings

Project Name: Love is Patient, Love is Kind

Started: Aug. 5, 2026

Finished: 

Designer: Artful offerings

Chart Purchased: Gift from Denise of Black Ribbon Studio

Fabric: Aida

Fabric Color: Ivory

Fabric Count: 16 count

Floss Used: DMC 349, 606, 310, 646, B5200.

SAL with Denise at Black Ribbon Stitch Studio.

* Picking Strawberries by LumiStitch

Project Name: Picking Strawberries

Started: Aug. 8, 2026

Finished: 

Designer: LumiStitch

Chart Purchased: Gift from Jessica, the designer

Fabric: Aida

Fabric Color: Spa (kind of a green)

Fabric Count: 14 count

Floss Used: DMC 169, 310, 743, 815, 816, 869, 987, 3031, 3078, 3347, 3865

I forgot to take a progress photo of this project before working on it again. This photo shows more progress than in the video. This is the birthday stitch-along chart my friend Mair chose for her birthday stitch. 

Knitting

* Vanilla sock. The low-priced PDF is by The Crazy Sock Lady

Project name: Santorini blue socks

Started: July 11, 2026

Finished:

Designer: Vanilla sock pattern by Kayla, Crazy Sock Lady

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Yarn

Color: blues

Needle size: U.S. 1.5 / 2.5 mm

* Porcupine Island Shawl by Denise Bartels

Project Name: Porcupine Island Shawl

Started: June 16, 2026

Finished:

Designer: Denise E.M. Bartels

Where I got the pattern: Ravelry link - https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/porcupine-island-shawl

Needle Size: U.S. 2 / 2.75 mm

Yarn: Deep stash Forbidden Fiber Co

Yarn Color: Wisp - Blue

Guage: We don't need no gauge. 

Crochet

* Premie Octopus and blanket

Project Name: Gift for Nephew and wife's first baby

Started: Aug. 1, 2026

Finished: Aug. 2, 2026

Link to pattern here: https://web.archive.org/web/20251006161815/http://mynomadhome.com/octopus-for-a-preemie-osmiorniczka-dla-wczesniaka/

https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://mynomadhome.com/*

Premie Octopus crochet pattern.

Pattern originally found on www.mynomadlife.com. Pattern by Gosia of My Nomad Home.

Try and I might, I can't get the link to the wayback machine to work properly. I already had a few people reach out and ask about the pattern. So here we go!  Disclaimer: This is not my original pattern. All credit goes back to Gosia of mynomadlife. Her website is no longer up and the wayback machine links don't appear to work. At least not for me. This is as original as I can make it.  I was also able to grab a PDF of the blog post.  If you'd rather work with the blog post PDF, that is here. 

ch – chain

sc – single crochet

2 sc tog – 2 stitches together

sl st – slip stitch

R1: 6 sc in a magic ring – here’s a tutorial

R2: 2 sc in all st (12)

R3: 2 sc in every 2nd st (18)

R4: 2 sc in every 3rd st (24)

R5: 2 sc in every 4th st (30)

R6: 2 sc in every 5th st (36)

R7-14: 1 sc in all st (36)

R15: *4 sc, 2 sc tog* – repeat *-* 6 times (30)

R16-17: 1 sc in all st (30)

R18: *3 sc, 2 sc tog* 6 times (24)

R19-20: 1 sc in all st (24)

R21: *2 sc, 2 sc tog* 6 times (18)

R22: 1 sc in all st (18)

R23: *7 sc, 2 sc tog* 2 times (16)

R24: 1 sc in all st (16)

R25: Here you start the arms: * 1 sc, 50 ch, turn and make 2 sc in each ch, finish with 1 sc*. Repeat 7 times so you get 8 arms. End with 1 sl st and pull the yarn through. If your arm doesn’t want to twist try making 3 or 4 sc in each ch. And here is a nice photo tutorial on the arms.

If the outstretched arms are longer that 22 cm, make fewer chains.

The bottom of the octopus:

R1: 5 sc in a magic ring

R2: 2 sc in all st (10)

R3: 2 sc in every 2nd st (15). Finish with a sl st and pull the thread through. Weave in the ends.

Fill the octopus with the fiber and sew the bottom to it.

As for the decorations such as eyes, hats etc. let your imagination run wild. For example, I made the octopuses’ eyes with 6 sc in a magic ring and then 2 sc in all st (12). Then I weaved in the dark yarn and that’s it:) You can find many nice tutorials on the Internet on how to make amigurumi hats, bows and eyes, e.g. this one here. Here is a very useful tutorial on how to embroider the details to the body.

*Battenberg squares

I started this project at the beginning of the year, with my friend Leann, as a crochet-along. As of Aug. 18, I have 120 squares. I think I need 800 total.

*Maeve Squares

This is a blanket crochet-along I started with my friend Cat. We are doing 20 squares total to make a blanket. I'll be mattress stitching my squares together. 

Link to pattern here: https://www.madamestitch.com/maeve-granny-square-crochet-pattern/

Spinning

* Shared about the wrap up of Tour de Fleece

Started strong, finished tired. 

In the Mail

Shared some goodies I received in the mail from a fellow flosstuber for a share.

Group 2

Group 1

Items I made:

Project bag, with matching thread bed.

I dyed some 14 count opalescent Aida fabric, using some rit dye. 

Life update

* Life stuff

* Garden stuff

* Family project

* Future family stuff

* Celebrating 50 episodes

Other channels mentioned

Alison ‪@Mrs.AZfamilyzooStitchesAlison‬ 

Jodi ‪@Stitchyplum‬ 

Jessica ‪@LumiStitch‬ 

Denise ‪@BlackRibbonStitchStudio‬ 

Mair ‪@sincity_crossstitcher‬ 

Leann ‪@leann.stitches‬ 

Cat ‪@StitchinWiththeGriffin‬ 

Patty ‪@StitchingWithMyKitties-xe8qz‬ 

Kayla ‪@CrazySockLady‬

Kenzie @MudpuppyStitchery

If we were having coffee ... where did June go?

Once upon a time I subscribed to The Perpetual Page-Turner blog and she had a post titled "If we were having coffee together." I thought to myself "What a clever idea." This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share. She still has a blog.  Amazing!

So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice and join me. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd ask, in all seriousness, what the heck happened to June? I feel like all I did was blink and here we are at the start of July.

I think I know what caused it. I took a lot of vacation time in June. The work schedule was conducive to it, and my hubby was able to take time off for similar reasons. So we had nearly two weeks of free time to do what our little hearts desired. 

All in all, June has been a pretty nice month. 

I was looking through my phone's camera and realized I didn't take as many photos as I thought I did. Also, I was pretty boring this month, when I get right down to it. 😆 I puttered in the garden, I knit, I cross stitched. I fretted about the weather and if we were ever going to get rain.  (Spoiler alert: It did.  Then it turned humid and gross for a while)

If we were having coffee ... I'd let you know that after 25 days (I was told) I got my beloved Rav back. Oh my gosh, I missed having *my* vehicle so much. 

I got the call earlier this week letting me know that the parts arrived and the techs were working on it.  Then about an hour later I received a call lettting me know everything was done and I could come get it. 

I went up to the dealership the next morning, signed the necessary papers and very happily gave them the keys to the loaner. 

I was so excited to see my Rav that I didn't even ask where it was parked.  

I meandered around the parking lot a bit before spotting her. 

If I could have, I would have run over there. 

Instead, I clicked my fob and unlocked the vehicle, to make sure it was mine. 

Then I opened the door, slide into the seat, relished the familiarity I felt, and sighed contentedly. 

A quick selfie was taken and sent to my husband, with the message "Did you hear that sigh of contentment?" 

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you that I had a very nice birthday.  It was quiet on the day, and I sort of reveled in it. 

Jessica over at Lumistitch gave me a copy of her "Cherries" chart, and gave me three copies for a giveaway. I decided it would be perfect for a SAL. I started a cross stitch stitch-along/start-along for my birthday.

Here's a photo of my start. 

It's a fun, quick stitch and sort of potato-chip-y and I don't really want to stop working on it. My friend Milka is already done with it!

My husband made me my traditional birthday steak dinner. Yum!

If we were having coffee ... I'd chat real quick about Amazon Prime Days and how we managed to mostly abstain from shopping. Almost. 

We decided to order a pressure washer.  It arrived on this past Friday. Oh. My. Gosh. It is a beast! 

The first project we used it for was to power wash the deck so we could re-stain the deck and rearrange the furniture a little bit. 

After power washing the deck. I cleaned so much old stain and grime off the deck. 

The next morning we stained.  But first ... we opened the can of stain I bought and immediately declared it wasn't the right one. Bah!  So it meant a trip to Menard's so we could exchange and get the right color. 

With the correct color in hand, we went back home and started the project. 

Looks great, right? We decided it was maybe a little *too* red, so we we got another color and used that for a second coating. 

We are so happy with the end results.  And this new set up. 

I took this photo right after it rained. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd chat real quick about some of the other crafting I've been doing. 

I worked a little bit on my Porcupine Island shawl. 

It's slow and steady progress on this shawl. Despite how careful I'm being, I'm winding up with extra stitches.  It's so weird. 

Squares for the Battenberg blanket have been worked on. 

I haven't touch my Battenberg blanket, or my Maeve crochet square project in ages.  I'm trying to get those projects back in to the rotation. 

If we were having coffee ...  I'd give a sneak peek at the garden. 

Oh! I just remembered something.  We have caterpillars on the milkweed. At least we did this past weekend. I haven't checked to see if they are still there. And all the photos we took are on my hubby's phone. Shoot!  

If we were having coffee ... I'd mentioned that it's the Fourth of July holiday this weekend.  I've been enjoying seeing all the patriotic stuff I've been seeing on social media. Am I doing anything special this weekend? I'm really not sure.  It depends on the weather. We've had some rain this week.  More rain is in the forecast. 

Okay, well, I guess that is it for now. It's been quietish around the homestead. I've been in my own little world probably more often than I care to admit. I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton of stuff to write about, too. 

Thanks so much for reading my nonsense.  I appreciate it. ☺️❤️

Getting back to the routine

I'm getting back into the whole work routine and I'm exhausted. 

It's a recurring thing I'm seeing on social media the last several days.  The holiday hangover. 

I took extra work off between Christmas and now. It went by in a blur. 

It was so enjoyable though, which makes the return even harder. 

Also, it's hard to believe it's Wednesday.  Just goes to show that my nose has been to the grindstone. 

Looking back at my last blog post to see where I left off. ... 

I feel inspired by my friend Becky to share a meme. 

The weather has been erratic.  Warmer than usual temps.  Then dropping down to below freezing. Snow.  Then rain. Yeah, rain. It wasn't even above freezing when that happened.

When I wasn't running around with people I was slowly working with crafts. 

Okay, okay, when I was running around with people I *was* crafting. 

After the start of the new year I took the tree down and did something I told myself I wasn't going to do. ...

Yeah, I did it. ... 

I put up the indoor greenhouse. Not all the way, mind you.  You'll notice I don't have the lights set up yet. Well, not the grow lights. ...   For now ... it has all my succulents and houseplants.  

Furby Jr. did such a good job guarding the Christmas gifts that I put her and her boyfriend in charge of the plants. The plant on the bottom shelf I'm hoping will come out of dormancy and isn't actually dead. 

What prompted me to go ahead and put the greenhouse up? 

This: 

Jan. 2, people. The earliest I've ever seen seeds at Menard's. 

I was a good girl. I only took a photo for the blog.  I still need to go through my seed collection and see if there's anything I need. Some of the garden Youtube channels are already discussing what seeds to start this month. 

I'm staying strong, you guys. 

Monday I was back to work. While I was expecting a ton more email, the other work more than made up for the lack of messages. I'm still not fully caught up. We are, however, sitting quite nicely for the upcoming publishing day. 

In the evenings I've been working on this and that, on the crafting front. Not as much as I thought I would.  I've been wiped out and tired after work and when supper is done. I'm thinking maybe it's a barometric pressure thing, because the tiredness feels so random after having so much time off work. 

So, despite my best intentions of doing so, I didn't do any writing in the evenings like I thought I would. 

Proof that I've been doing *something* crafty: 

My work bench hasn't been this full of *stuff* in a while.  Last night I was inspired to make some floss tags, floss ring bling and a needle minder. It was all fun to make. 

I ordered a few new things to help with various crafty things and finishing cross stitch projects. And since things can't travel alone, I have a few new charts. One of these days I'll have my very own Stacy Nash Animal Cracker all done. 

If I remember correctly, I ordered the badger one. Why? Because I live in the badger state, of course. Now that I think about it, I might have ordered two, and the second one is a bunny. 

I've been working on my cross stitch, knitting and crochet. You'll see the start of my Armande cardigan in this photo. 

Back in November I broke down and ordered a yarn cake turner thingy. I finally got to use it this past week.  I LOVE it. 

This morning I was working on the second square for the granny square CAL I'm doing with my friend and fellow flosstuber Kat. I realized that maybe I messed up the first square.

The first square: 

I shared this one on social media.  Yes, nothing looks wrong, but I realized that I missed a few rows where you make that line. 

Have I fixed it yet? No.  I kept on with the square I was working on.  I had to rip back a bit and rejigger. 

How the squares should look:

Now I'm sure you noticed that the two don't look quite the same. Well, the second square I followed the directions.  The first one (green one) I thought I'd make some adjustments.  Since I have to rip back part of the square I'll be going back to what the directions originally called for. I made changes because I thought it would be easier.  Not really.  I'll be rewriting directions so they make sense to me and I don't have to keep rewatching the video that accompanies the blog post. 

Well, I guess that's all for now.  Catch you on the flip side! 

That weird lull between Christmas and New Year's Day

 Don't mind me. I'm over here thoroughly enjoying my time off during this oddball time of the year. 

This was me out in the she shed a few days ago.  My husband saw me out there and thought I'd appreciate a photo.  I did. ☺️ It's not often I get out there and spend quality time doing this and that out there. 

How are you? How am I? Well, I'm doing fine. I've been resting and relaxing as much as I can during this transition to the new Year. 

2026. Wow. Back when the calendar year turned over to 2000 (Y2K) I don't think I ever imagined I'd see this far over on this side of the year 2000. Did any of us? 

Crazy. 

I know a lot of people are using this time to reflect on the past year and thinking about all they want to do in the upcoming year.  I haven't done any of that yet. Not really. I have a couple things percolating, but nothing really definite.

Which is probably part of why I haven't written for a while. I didn't know what to write. 

I do know that I'll be approaching the new year with caution.  The last two years have been a bit of a beast on the health front.  I tried to make plans and goals for the garden and my crafting.  The universe laughed heartily at me, and blew up most of my plans. 

So, yeah. ... I'm being cautious right now. 

What will I chatter about? 

I'll tell you what a good job Furby Jr and her boyfriend did guarding the gifts and making sure no one snuck a peek. 

Christmas was a nice day for the three of us.  It was a quiet day with good food.  Such good food.  Surf and turf.  I know, totally not traditional. We are starting to make our own traditions now. And so far I suppose our tradition is to be non-traditional. Ha!

I've noticed a trend across social media. People commenting about how different the holidays are now for them.  Kids growing up, moving away.  It's an adjustment for them to not have a houseful of people.

We might sort of resemble that, a little bit.  Our son is an adult.  He's in a relationship and he wants to spend time with her, and spend time with friends.  It's a new chapter in all our lives. 

We all received lovely gifts. I forgot to take a photo of what I received. My SILs sent me garden things and a cross stitch book.  My son gave me a gift card to Hobby Lobby.  I don't mind say that he spoiled me something fierce with that gift card.  I received a tablet from my husband as an early Christmas present, so I've been using that for a while already. What a game changer! (I can't remember if I mentioned it on the blog already) 

What else ... I feel like the perpetual broken record ... "It's been quiet."  There's been work, crafting, snow ... Flosstube, and not much else, really. 

Oh!  We *finally* received the new appliances.  There wound up being a bit of drama around the delivery. Ugh. ... The appliances were set to be delivered on a Saturday.  The coldest day of the year, so far. ... The delivery never arrived and there was no communication about it.  It wasn't until I called customer service a second time at 3 p.m., wondering what was going on. Allegedly the delivery people called me 20 minutes after I called customer service the first time around 11 a.m. No.  They did not. 

To say we were annoyed with how the whole day went is putting it mildly. Especially that there was no communication about the delivery being rescheduled for a few days later. 

Finally, *finally* the appliances were delivered. 

The one delivery guy was pleasantly surprised at how *everything* was ready for them to make it as easy as possible for them to haul everything in. 

While I was making general chit chat I was told the guy who was running the truck for the original delivery had his diesel gel up and ALL the deliveries that day were rescheduled. 

After being without these appliances for a while (A week-plus without a stove) it was SO nice to have a fridge and stove again. 

The chickens finally allowed themselves to be sweet talked in to going outside of the coop. 

And once they were comfortable with being outside, some decided they needed to play supervisor. 

I almost forgot the best part! 

The girls have started laying!  They were hatched out later in the season so it felt like it took  FOREVER for them to finally give us the first eggs. 

I did receive some fun mail in the last few weeks. 

I won a giveaway over at Stitching With the Griffin's channel. Kat was celebrating a channel milestone with a few giveaways. 

Isn't it darling? 

Coggie, over at The High Fiber Diet Podcast was clearing out some of her bags and I said I would love one.  She sent me two bags from the retreats she used to hold, plus a little extra.  So sweet of her!

Jessica, over at Lumi Stitch  contacted me and said she wanted to send me an ornament. She also asked if I would be interested in a cross stitch kit that she had but decided she wouldn't have time to stitch. I said yes and that I think I already had a spot in the kitchen for it. 

The ornament is beautiful.  As I'm typing this I'm kicking myself for not putting the ornament up on the tree for a photo. Yeah, as I look at this again I realize what a horrible photo this is.  Well, I'll be sharing this stuff on my next flosstube/podcast so if you watch, you'll see them displayed in a better way. 

Since my last flosstube last week I basically stopped working on any projects except the crochet granny square blanket I've been working on as a CAL with Kat, at Stitchin With the Griffin. As mentioned in my videos, I've been slightly frustrated with some of the squares, so I've been swapping granny squares out that cause me fits. 

Well, this afternoon I completed it! 

Project: Granny Square CAL with Kat
Designer blog post: https://www.madamestitch.com/2025-granny-stitch-sampler-blanket-free-crochet-along/
Started: October 2025

Finished: Dec. 28, 2025

Yarn: stash yarns

Colors: Mauve, gold, green, white

Hook size: 5 mm

I wasn't sure I was going to like this blanket once it was done. ... As I'm typing this blog post, I'm draped in the blanket. 

Okay, my laptop battery is getting ready to die, so I suppose I better quick get this proofed and published.  

If we were having coffee ... the quiet time catch up

 

If we were having coffee ... It's been several years since I've sat down and had a "coffee date" on the blog. It's been a while since I've written and I don't have anything framed up, so to speak, so I thought it would be a good time for a coffee date.  I save this type of blog post for when I have a lot of little things, or when I feel the need to catch up. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd say that I felt there wasn't really anything interesting to write about the last month, give or take a week ... We'd been getting outside stuff ready and winterized ... nothing very interesting about yard clean up, making sure the coop is ready for winter, and that everything is in it's place outside.  

It almost looks like I felled a mighty giant and laid it down in the green house.  That's the new fountain. It was too tall to stand up by just a smidge. 

I'm sure there's still things I'm forgetting to do outside. It feels like I'm forgetting something.

So, yeah ... up until more recently, all my extra time was going to prepping for winter.  By the time evening descended I was pretty tired and not much in the mood to do much of anything.  Even go out for a walk on the internet and social media. 

Then the time change happened.  Is it just me, or is anyone else ready for bed at 5:30 p.m.? The chickens have been putting themselves to bed at about 5 p.m. It's crazy how early they put themselves to bed.  They aren't even hanging around out in the run or milling about on the floor of the coop.  Nope, they are up on the roost and waiting for me to tuck them in. I talk to them for a few minutes before shutting the light off. 

Back when I was getting the coop and run ready for winter, I took the solar lights from the garden and put them in the run, so they'd have a little bit of extra light when winter takes hold. 

If you were wondering what was hanging down, those are pine needles. They fall on the coop run and then hang down.  It's too much of a pain to try and keep the roof clear. 

You'd think the girls would appreciate what I did for them and want to hang outside just a little bit longer.  No.  They want to go to bed as soon as the sun starts going down. 

I decided to take the lights I previously had hanging on the run and move them over to the she shed, just to see what it would look like.  

Heh, right? It's something I sort of put up there as a temporary thing. Just to see if the solar panel picked up enough sun to have the lights going for a while.  Then we didn't get any sun for a few days.  I haven't had the opportunity to really see what happens when the sun is out for the entire day. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd share about the Christmas cacti I have.... They are blooming up a storm. 

I brought all the plants in from the greenhouse and they decided it was a good time to start putting out flowers. 

Earlier this year I had rooted some of the pieces that broke off one of the plants when it fell and those are starting to bloom as well. I did not expect that for the first year. I can't kill these plants. I had read they were hardy. I do not do great with house plants.  Christmas cactus, however, is a whole other breed and seeing those bright colors sure brings a smile to my face.  It also reminds me of this lone Christmas cactus my MIL had. In fact, I bought my first one sort of in memory of her. I have no idea what happened to her houseplants. 

Let's see ... what else should I mention .... 

If we were having coffee ... I'd share sky photos from over the last week. 

This was when I was heading out to the back 20 to collect SD cards. 

Photos don't do it justice, of course. 

That brings me back to deer hunting.  I haven't been doing any. I only have a buck tag and all those darn bucks are nocturnal right now. I'm keeping an eye out for anything that looks promising for daytime action.  

I liked the juxtaposition of the clouds and the light in the sky when we were driving to town one morning. 

Speaking of town ... 

If we were having coffee ... I'd share that the Christmas stuff has been up at Menards since before Halloween. 

Christmas will be here before we know it. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you that we have our first snow. 😭

I don't think it will stay.  Temperatures later this week are supposed to hit 40 degrees F (5 degrees C). 

If we were having coffee ... I'd say the time change has been mildly kicking my butt.  Give me another week, or two, and maybe I'll feel like my old self. In the meantime I've been feeling like it's 7:30 p.m. when it's only 5:30 p.m. It's sort of affected my crafting.  However, when I was started writing up shownotes for my next flosstube, I realized I've got a lot more done than I thought. I was thinking I had slowed way down.  Not necessarily. My crafting direction has shifted a bit and I've been crocheting a bit more than anything else. 

I've been working on a granny square crochet-along.  It's mildly kicking my butt. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd mention that today, Nov. 10, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. My friend Becky did a real nice blog post about it. 

Growing up in the city where the ship last left port, I'm quite familiar with this tragedy. 

As soon as Halloween passed the Fitz took over Instagram.  Or at least it did my Instagram. 

Years ago I came across what I consider to be one of the best Youtube tribute videos made for the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

Well, that's all for now, I reckon. It's a quiet time for me right now, and I don't quite know what to do with that.