Things I have learned this year ...

 Probably the biggest lesson I've learned so far this year is that Mother Nature can be really mean. ... and unpredictable.

Seriously ... 

Here we are, at the end of April, and there's still snow on the ground.  Granted, not as much as there was a couple weeks ago, but still. 

All the plans I had for gardening for this time of year were based on last year, when grass was starting to grow and the snow was gone.  

I've slowed down on the seed starting because I am out of room in the house.  

I recorded a garden vlog at the end of last week and uploaded it yesterday.  

You'll see how big everything is.  All my plants are *so* ready to go into the garden. 

If only Mother Nature would cooperate. 

As I'm writing this blog post, I'm about five weeks away from my last anticipated frost date. There are so many different flowers I want to try starting.  I need to get going if I want to see them bloom this year. 

This past weekend I planted some flower seeds, and some more broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. The weather was supposed to be sunny and nice. 

Well, they got the sunny part, part-right. 

I was making soil blocks while standing in snow and the wind was blowing just enough to make the whole experience miserable. 

I had hauled out all my plants, thinking I was doing them a kindness. 

I don't think my tomato plants have forgiven me. 

My hollyhocks are *so* ready to be in the ground.  Why did I start them so early? Craziness! 

I'd say the only thing that really liked the weather was my lettuce plants. 

Now I should tell you what flowers I planted. ... I'm trying to recall them all.  I planted a few different types of marigolds and zinnias. Coleus, on of my favorite plants ... Dahlias ... Without getting up and going to look ... I can't name them all off the top of my head.  So much for my notes taking this year.  

Another thing I've learned this year is that you really shouldn't plan your projects. 

I have so many things I wanted to make/create/craft this year.  Things have gone so much more slower than I anticipated.

A few weeks ago I noticed my eyesight has really gone downhill and now I have an appointment to see an eye doctor in early June.  Why so long? There is an optometrist shortage in my area. 

With my near vision in the tank, cross stitch and knitting has come to a standstill.  I'm going to attempt to continue work on my crochet blanket, and pull the spinning wheel back out, dust her off and get to some spinning up some wool. I've already tried cutting up fabric for quilting, but it's hard to see the ruler marks.  Too blurry.  Blurry vision sucks. Specially when you are a crafter. 

If there are any typos in this blog post, now you know why.  Please forgive them. 

Until next time ...

Works in Progress Wednesday #4 for 2023

 Back in January I was so full of piss and vinegar, and it included plans of doing a WIP post once a week.  

January I had vacation time and thought "Oh, I can do this, and this, and this, and it won't be hard at all. 

I was so young and idealistic! 

March feels like a wash. With all the snow moving that was going on I did not feel like doing much crafting in the evenings. 

Things are starting to slightly pick back up, however. 

First on the WIP parish is my crochet blanket

Project Name: Inspired by Joy

Started: Dec. 26, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: The Crochet Crowd

Yarn:

Color A - Red Heart - White

Color B - Caron One Pound - Rose 

Color C - Caron Jumbo - Rosewood

Colors: white and rose colors with hints of green.

Required Amount: I purchased two skeins of each color

Needle/Hook Size: 5.5 mm /  I/9

Gauge: beats me ; pattern calls for 13 dc x 6 rows = 4″ [10 cm]

Made For: Myself, maybe

Dye Lots: Will find that out later.

Crochet ... why do you hate my wrists so?  The last part of part 4 was rough.  I had double-crochet shells and there is so much wrist twisting.  Is there a way to make shells where I'm not constantly twisting my wrists? Or is this a thing for everyone?

I am very pleased to say that I am done with part 4. 63 rows down, eight more rows to go! 

When I started the section with the shells I discovered I was making more shells than what the row called for. It was about halfway through when the ruffling became noticeable, and I decided it was going to become a design element. No WAY was I going to rip it back.

Next is my vanilla socks.

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: Jan. 7, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Mexicala stripes

Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white

Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: WL238520

I haven't touched my sock in ages. In fact, I forgot what project bag it was in. It took me a while to track it down. 

The project is now back in rotation. Maybe this one sock will be done by the end of the month? 

Cross stitch fun is next!

Project Name: Month to Month - February

Started: Jan. 15, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stitchinghousewives

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart.

Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss

Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself

I started out *so* strong with this chart.  Then I lost steam with all that dark text.  It didn't help that I wasn't going to finish by the end of February.  I think the next Month to Month chart I'll do is the August one. 

Last thing is my snowflake

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. Maybe. I haven't decided yet if I want to give this away. 

I have made a lot of progress on my snowflake.  Then it hit me that this is *way* hard and I didn't have the headspace for it.  I will love how it will look finished.  Whenever I get it finished.  So ... no progress on it since my last WIP post. 

Weekend catch up

 Back on Friday I did a thing.  I made a delightfully awkward video of myself showing off my seedlings!

I loaded the video up on Saturday.  If you've viewed it already -- Thank you! 

This entire weekend had mostly nice weather.  Thank goodness! 

I'm looking at things in my Facebook memories over the last several years and see that it's not unusual to have snow on the ground at this time of year.  I think I'm in denial about it.  However, the area I live in usually doesn't have feet and feet of snow on the ground at this time of year.

The snow is starting to recede.  It makes my little heart happy to see patches of shingles on our roof. We've had a few snow flurry storms over the weekend and today. Not enough to stick around. 

Anywho ... enough about the snow, right? 

Saturday I had a lovely and leisurely morning.  In the afternoon we ran to town and took care of errands. 

I was cruising around Menard's and spotted their bags of onion sets, asparagus, and strawberry roots. 

Yup, you guessed it, I came home with a 10 pack of strawberry roots. I'm going to give those a try. 

Sunday I spent the morning up potting seedlings and my tomato plants.  

I used a pair of embroidery scissors for thinning, and a small pampered chef spatula for cutting the soil blocks apart.  You know, the appropriate tools for the job.  (I'm so funny)

Last week my husband picked up a second 4 shelf greenhouse for me and these plants are in there for now, until I can start having stuff outside. 

Sunday afternoon we went to a local feed store and picked up some BABIES! 

I'm mamma to 10 more cornish cross birds and 5 barred rock chicks. 

As you can hear, my Furby June was NOT happy at this invasion of *her* home. 

She caterwauled for most of four hours. 

My husband said Furby was doing her best to let us know what a horrible mistake we made. 

When I was looking at my Facebook Records I saw that *today* is the one-year anniversary of when we brought chicks home last year, and Furby was just as miffed last year. Hilarious!

I moved Furby's tote over by my husband, since she now seems to be a daddy's girl.  She still wasn't happy and continued to vocalize.

In a last ditch effort, my husband put on a song we know Furby likes. 

It did the trick. 

In the evenings this weekend I worked on my blanket. I was mindful of how fast I was crocheting and how long I was working on the blanket.  Sunday I was happily crocheting on it, thinking how I was almost done with the section I was on, and would be done with working a seven double-crochet shell.  

How disappointed I was when I realized I wasn't as far along as I thought.  I still have a whole side to go! 

After I finish this row I will have ten rows left! I haven't read ahead on the pattern so I don't know what the last bit includes. 

This weekend I discovered a new-to-me Youtube channel, and I LOVE it! It's called Sprout. It's all gardening shows. 

I also found Gardener's World on my Britbox subscription. 

Yeah, I might be a wee bit obsessed.  I'm a bit burned out on the few regular Youtube channels I've been watchings, and seeing all these beautiful gardens is hitting the spot!

Works in Progress Wednesday #3 for 2023

 It has been a hot minute since I last posted a works in progress post.  Just shy of a month. 

Working on my projects has slowed down dramatically. My hands. I do so much work with my hands that I need to give them a break. 

First up is my crochet blanket

Project Name: Inspired by Joy

Started: Dec. 26, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: The Crochet Crowd

Yarn:

Color A - Red Heart - White

Color B - Caron One Pound - Rose 

Color C - Caron Jumbo - Rosewood

Colors: white and rose colors with hints of green.

Required Amount: I purchased two skeins of each color

Needle/Hook Size: 5.5 mm /  I/9

Gauge: beats me ; pattern calls for 13 dc x 6 rows = 4″ [10 cm]

Made For: Myself, maybe

Dye Lots: Will find that out later.

This weekend I completed part/chart 3.  Finally.  I've got 12 rows left to go, or thereabouts. 

I spent hours on it on Sunday, while watching Louisiana Law. Then decided to go one row in on part 4.  Then I had to call it quits. Crocheting that intently just trashed my hands. 

My last progress photo

Next is my vanilla sock.

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: Jan. 7, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Mexicala stripes

Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white

Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: WL238520

I've made quite a bit of progress on this sock. 

I did something different when I picked up the gusset stitches and you can see them on the outside of the sock. 

This shot shows the progress markers from the last time I shared progress. 

Yes, I knit my socks inside out.  That is what I am most comfortable with. 

My next project is something that has been languishing for a while. 

Project Name: Stars and Stripes

Started: July 16, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Eszter Marjanovic of SubRosa Design Pattern out of Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher

Fabric: 14 Count Aida by Zweigart, in "toast."
Pattern originally called for 36 count linen, in a light mocha color

Floss: I'm using the called-for colors in DMC

Stitch count: 74 x 122

Size: Too lazy to do the math right now

Needle Size: size 26

I had to make some mods to the project. I should have had the aida going the other way. There was no room for the border. Once I realized this I put the project in a time out until I wanted to decide what to do for a border. 

Bummer because I really liked the original border. 

I decided to go with a simple border all around.  I will turn this into a pillow.  The photo above shows the fabric I pulled from stash to make the back of the pillow.  Pillows aren't hard.  it's just a matter of me getting in to the craft room and taking care of it. 

Next is my snowflake. 

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. Maybe. I haven't decided yet if I want to give this away. 

I'm still trying to get the sparkles to show in a photo.  Can you see them? 

Last progress photo. 

A couple weeks ago I started a small quilt project.  It's a quilt pattern I received in a a Fat Quarter Shop sew sampler box last year. 

Project Name: Daydreams lap quilt

Started: Feb. 5, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Fat Quarter Shop

Fabric: Beautiful Day collection by Corey Yoder

Made For: Myself. 

I'm making the lap quilt size. 

I haven't made it very far in the fabric cutting. It's a start. 

I have grand plans of hanging it up in my bedroom. 

Finally, we have my sweet Furby June. 

Now that I consider her a work in progress.  Though I suppose she could be. She's currently hanging out with the hubby, listening to Everlong by the Foo Fighters.

I know I've mentioned that she's been behaving different the last little bit.  She looks out her window a lot. 

I'm pretty sure a squirrel comes and cruises by every day.  Maybe that is what she's looking for. 

Here's when she heard the camera click.  "Are you taking my picture?"

She doesn't have much of a view.  Currently she sees the wood wagon and a snow bank. Well, some snow falling, too. 

She definitely has a charmed life.  

Snow storm .... blizzard?

 We have had such nice weather this last little bit.  False spring got me!

Last night it rained. This morning it was snowing. Weird weather. 

The driveway was so crappy I decided to keep my son home from school. There was no way he was going to get out the driveway. 

I tried driving his car.  Just backing up and I felt the car sink down in the the slushy, sloppy mess. 

Normally, I'm not one to be bested by weather. However, this stuff was yucky. 

Wind was howling and the snow was going sideways. 

Then, about noon, it stopped and the sun came out. 

Temperatures are supposed to steadily drop for the next few days.  Ice. Fun. ... 

However ... I have happy garden news. 

The first seeds for the garden have sprouted. My broccoli started popping up yesterday. I've been watching them break through the soil blocks and grow through out the day.  I'm not at all obsessed. 

Nothing for my pepper plants yet. I'll feel a lot better about them once I see them start sprouting.

Slowly, this green house is getting filled.

"What is that on top?" you may be wondering. 

Well, that's some lettuce. 

Back in January I spotted this all-in-one growing kit at Menards.  It was on sale for a wicked cheap price and I just had to give it a try. 

February 1 I watered the coco coir and sprinkled the seeds on top. 

On February 3 I saw the first little bits of green. By February 10 I was seeing true leaves.  Fun! 

It's so nice to see some green. 

Supposedly I can take the first harvest in 28 days. 

In the meantime I'm enjoying watching the mixed greens grow. 

The last several days I've been working on my Inspired by joy blanket.  Each side is now more than 120 stitches and takes me a lot longer than I think it should. 

I'm getting close to finishing off my first skein.  I'm so close to being done with the third part of this blanket.  Then *only* two more parts. 

Works in Progress Wednesday #2 for 2023

 I haven't worked on as many things this past week. 

I worked on my Inspired by Joy blanket.  

It's at row 44 or 45, in part 3. 

Progress has definitely slowed down.  There's a stitch in particular that takes me a while.  It's where you skip a stitch, do a treble crochet, and then do a double crochet in the skipped stitch. 

I put a marker where I last took a progress photo. It doesn't show up well in the other photo.  

Last week's image

Project Name: Inspired by Joy

Started: Dec. 26, 2022

Finished: 

Designer/Source: The Crochet Crowd

Yarn:

Color A - Red Heart - White

Color B - Caron One Pound - Rose 

Color C - Caron Jumbo - Rosewood

Colors: white and rose colors with hints of green.

Required Amount: I purchased two skeins of each color

Needle/Hook Size: 5.5 mm /  I/9

Gauge: beats me ; pattern calls for 13 dc x 6 rows = 4″ [10 cm]

Made For: Myself, maybe

Dye Lots: Will find that out later.

I had visions of this cross stitch pulling together a lot faster than it is.  I haven't touched it since this past weekend.  I was holding the q-snap in my hand, and stitching.  Then I decided to set it up on my Hope stand and started stitching with two hands.  That was a lot faster. I was hesitant to use my Hope stand because it was set up just right for a different project that is on lugauna. 

Last week's photo: 

Project Name: Month to Month - February

Started: Jan. 15, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: https://www.etsy.com/shop/stitchinghousewives

Fabric: Aida cloth 14 count Hobby Lobby Zweigart.

Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss

Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself

The first Sandpiper quilt square is complete.

I am happy with how it looks. I thought I would not starch the fabric for this quilt.  Now I'm wondering if I should have. There's a bit of waviness to some of the fabric that I know wouldn't be there if I starched. 

In progress shot: 

I'm using my new Janome Memory Craft 6650. I didn't purchase a quarter-inch foot for this machine.  I'm still debating on if I should get one. In the meantime, I've got painters tape. 

There was one boo-boo that resulted in my ripping stitches and reassembling.  I accidentally put the center bit on the wrong end of one of the pieces. I have started  shortening my stitch length to 1.5 so it was a bit of a pain to rip those stitches out. I thought I took a photo of it before I realized what I did.  Turns out I did not accidentally record my mistake. 

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.

January 2023 is blue (Blue Jay)

Made For: Myself

My vanilla sock.  I've made it down to the heel flap and I've got six rows in, I believe.  I've been trying my hardest to not be tense or feeling stressed when I work on them.  The last few pairs I've made I've had an issue with ladders on the sides because I've been pulling the yarn too tight. I learned a LONG time ago that when I'm feeling really stressed or anxious that I shouldn't knit socks.  

Project Name: Vanilla socks

Started: Jan. 7, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: My own pattern

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Mexicala stripes

Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white

Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams

Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)

Gauge: beats me

Made For: Myself

Dye Lots: WL238520

Well, that's all that I've been working on since the last WIP post. I decided to take a break this evening.  It's been snowing and I know I've got snow moving/removal in my near future.  It usually wreaks havoc on my hands and wrists. Not to mention the wood I carried in to the house yesterday.  My wrists need a break. 

Quiet-ish weekend and a good mail day

Is it possible to forget what happened a day or two later?  

Not that I had a lot going on this past weekend. It was a fairly quiet one.  We drove down to Rice Lake for some chicken feed. Stopped at Menards and picked up a few things. The usual. My friend Dawn is probably laughing if she's reading this. 

My husband did some snow chores and rotated my tires while I was busy doing other household stuff. 

I didn't previously mention that I had taken time off the latter part of last week. I have vacation time to use or lose. There's always something going on lately so I don't feel like I got a lot of crafty stuff done.  People assured me that I have got a lot done. Okay. I will go with that.

I spend some time on my Inspired by Joy blanket. 

 I got a start on my Sandpiper quilt. 

And I have one portion of the square complete. 

Exciting! 

It feels good to be quilting something. 

This weekend we did have something exciting happen. 

Turkeys! We've lived out here for 10 years and never had turkeys consistently come through our property.  They usually made a beeline to the neighbor's property via the cedar swamp.

They've showed up every day now, and cruised on through. I love watching them. 

Last week I took a walk through the back 20 and saw the deer have been making a tidy trail. 

Deer aren't small animals. Yet they make such thin game trails.  I hadn't been back there since we snowshoed back there to collapse the hunting blinds.  Slowly, but surely, the deer are making their little highways to who knows where. 

I hope they make it til spring.  Last year we saw so many fawns, twins and even a few triplets.  Which, I did not think triplets were possible. 

They use the trails in our back yard too. 

The weather was pretty grey this past weekend.  Thankfully warm enough to be able to do work outside without freezing.  

Today we had some snow and then the sun popped out for a bit.  Once again, the area looked like Narnia thanks to fresh coat of snow.

I wish I had my phone with me when I went out to get mail. The sun poked through the clouds and everything looked so peaceful and bright. 

Can you see the tidy snow cleanup job my man did? Meanwhile, in some of the areas we are running out of room to move snow to. 

 

Just enough snow to cover the solar panels.  Our area is supposed to get a cold front moving in later this week, or the weekend. 

Now I'm going to bare my calendar soul.

I ordered the Needle Worker's Book of Days. 

Look at my January.  I started out with such good intentions.  Then before I knew it, it's almost the end of the month and I've written notes for ONE DAY.

I'll be going through my camera roll and see if I can sprinkle some notes on these two pages. Maybe put some doodles so it's not completely bare

So ... speaking of that good mail day. My Sew Sampler box arrived. 

At the beginning of 2022 I signed up for it through Fat Quarter Shop because I wanted to do something fun for myself.  I've enjoyed most of what I've received.  I haven't sewn any of the projects yet.  I want to change that this year. 

If you are signed up for the sew sampler box, and don't want to see it yet, then I suggest stop reading now.  ... Or not. ... 

Just keep scrolling if you want to see. 

Fun!  

I do love Lori Holt's stuff.  She has such cute fabrics. I rarely buy "fancy fabrics" for myself.  If I do, I need to have a project in mind and it has to be a good one. 

One of these days I'll have to give the paper piecing a try.  However, I'm LOVING the reader glasses.  They arrived at just the right time, too.  I wanted to get more readers for the she shed and the craft room.