~Finished Pendulum~

This was a knit that I finished quickly! Cast on: December 2, Bind off: December 22.

And then: I blocked it! Hurrah for me! No waiting 2 years to wear this fun knit. :-)

When I finished knitting the shawl, I was kind of "meh" about it. I thought, "Wow, that was a lot of knitting for that." And then, I moved on to the blocking a few days later. If you look on Ravelry, knitters block this shawl with it either being knit from the neck edge down, or as if it were knit from the bottom edge up. It is designed as being knit from the neck edge down, but from looking at other projects, I decided to block it in the opposite direction. As I was blocking it that way I was again feeling as if I had taken way too much time knitting something I didn't like very well. So I took the pins out and blocked it according to the pattern and I instantly started liking it very much!

Project notes found here (Ravelry link).

~Hair Cut~

My daughter's hair is very thick, and while she really wants it to be long (like a princess!) for this season we are keeping it shorter, so that we have fewer tears and complaints about drying it, brushing it, and caring for it. Trust me, we still have tears and complaints! But this just works out so much better.

Anyhow, when we first got her hair cut (early last summer) I watched carefully and cut her hair on my own the last two haircuts. This time around I decided to see if there was something online to walk me through it. Well, there was!

So with the help of Little Bear (television show), and this video:

I got this result:

It's not perfect (there's a little spot on the left side that bugs me!), but I'm super happy with the results! So far, it's the best I've done. I didn't want the layers stacked too much, so I kept the layers short rather than angled as much as the video shows. I'll watch this video again next time I cut her hair.

~Thoughts on Canning~

I previously blogged about my remaining apples to make into sauce, but alas and alack, those apples ended up in the compost. Thankfully it was a waste of only $6 or so. Kevin dumped them for me and I guess the apples on top looked semi-usable but the bottom apples were becoming vinegar.

So! I cleaned up my jars and moved everything back down to the basement to await for next summer's madness. My jar count for this year ended up being 227. That's my all-time record--so far! I will probably try to outdo myself next year, if I know myself very well at all. ;-) If you'd like to look at my list, it's up on the "pages" section under my blog header.

If this doesn't look like 227 jars, we've already gone through quite a bit. *smiles*

I am trying to think of a better way to approach canning. I love canning. I love having my shelves in the basement loaded with home-canned delicious foods. I love the fact that I don't have to buy tomato products, or canned green beans, or applesauce. I opened a jar of sauce the other night as I prepared dinner and inhaled deeply. Mmmm....

But, there's always a downside to something so wonderful, it seems. My downside is the kitchen in a terrible upheaval. Dishes that multiply by the second as I can.  My daughter who is not quite able to help but seemingly unable to entertain herself the second I get my canner out.

So next year, as I prepare to can, I want to go about it more purposefully. One can't choose the timetable for when vegetables and fruits are ripe and ready to process, but I can choose the time of day. I can choose to not buy as much so I am not forced to spend quite as much time in the kitchen. Having a smaller amount of something is not so horrible. It makes it more of a treat! I can choose to skip some of the more time-consuming recipes.

This next year we're planning on growing just as big of a garden. I'm planning to can just as much, if not more. But somehow I am hoping it will be just a little less crazy feeling! One can hope, anyhow. ;-)

~Knitting Happily Along~

My shawl has been such a fun knit! I can't stop knitting! I find myself picking it up and working on it throughout the day.

Since it is on circular needles, which want to curl and twist, it is not very photogenic at the moment. ;-) I love the pattern, and (depending, of course, on how this one turns out in the end!), very much want to knit another one!

~New Project~

I have birthday money burning holes in my pockets. Yes, holes. ;-) I've been fretting over the perfect way to spend my money, and for a small portion of it, settled on this project:

Pendulum, by Amy Miller (Ravelry link, picture from the author's Ravelry pictures).

In August, I walked into a yarn shop, and this pattern was worked up and on display right inside the door. I was fascinated by it immediately, and even took it off the mannequin bust and tried it on!

I chose Lion Brand Sock Ease for this project. I bought the yarn today, and the check out lady at Michaels was kind enough to let me do two transactions so I could get both skeins at 50% off.

I've already cast on, and have the first section finished! I'm looking forward to this project!

~Blocked, II~

I'm home from church with my little girl who is still sick. I'm telling you, this sickness just hangs on! I got it first, a week ago Saturday, and I am still feeling some lingering effects!

In my previous post I showed my scarf which I blocked. Well, once I got that one unpinned, I moved on to my Lace Wrap (Ravelry link). Now that it is truly finished I am looking forward to wearing it! I think I'll most likely wear it as a scarf more than a wrap/shawl.

You can see that the edge is a little wobbly, but wrapped around my neck it isn't obvious at all

I'd still like to get a set of blocking wires, I think it would make blocking easier! But until then I know I can get reasonable results with pins!

Now I'm thinking about what to knit next. I am kind of lost though. Knitters, any ideas for me?

~Blocked~

I finally, finally took the time to block my Rivulet scarf. (Ravelry link). I only finished knitting this last January of 2012...

What took me so long? Perfectionism and a lot of excuses. I didn't have blocking wires, I knew it would take a long time to pin out, I knew the edge wouldn't be "perfect". So I never took the time.

But yesterday, with a sick little girl nestled on the couch watching football with my husband, and a long afternoon in sight, I decided to tackle blocking this scarf. Um, yeah. Totally should have done this ages ago!

I am looking forward to wearing this now! Yay me! :)

Next up? Another blocked scarf!!!

~Mixed Media Art~

Inspired by Amy's recent post show-casing her girls' art, I decided to something similar with my daughter.

This is what she came up with:

Snow White and Cinderella

I cut out the faces and we glued them to the paper. My daughter decided that they should be princesses. Snow White has some hefty arms there. I don't think she's ever been depicted with such large arms. ;-) My daughter did all the drawing. The "grass" is part of a chair which I cut in strips for her, the tree was a houseplant which she had me cut without the stem. She decided clouds were necessary, so we used cotton balls.

This was a lot of fun, and I can see that we'll do it again sometime!

~Ugly Shoes~

I was thinking about this poem recently, which I posted on my blog a few months after I experienced my loss. I bolded the way I feel right now.

"An Ugly Pair of Shoes"

I am wearing a pair of shoes.
They are ugly shoes.
Uncomfortable Shoes.
I hate my shoes.
Each day I wear them, and each day I wish I had another pair.
Some days my shoes hurt so bad that I do not think I can take another step.
Yet, I continue to wear them.
I get funny looks wearing these shoes.
They are looks of sympathy.
I can tell in others eyes that they are glad they are my shoes and not theirs.
They never talk about my shoes.
To learn how awful my shoes are might make them uncomfortable.
To truly understand these shoes you must walk in them.
But, once you put them on, you can never take them off.
I now realize that I am not the only one who wears these shoes.
There are many pairs in the world.
Some women are like me and ache daily as they try and walk in them.
Some have learned how to walk in them so they don't hurt quite as much.
Some have worn the shoes so long that days will go by before they think of how much they hurt.
No woman deserves to wear these shoes.
Yet, because of the shoes I am a stronger woman.
These shoes have given me the strength to face anything.
They have made me who I am.
I will forever walk in the shoes of a woman who has lost a child.

Author Unknown

The reason I was thinking of this poem actually had something to do with a physical pair of shoes. A pair of shoes I bought to wear on Easter Sunday, just two short Sundays after my loss had been confirmed. A pair of shoes I have rarely worn. They are ugly to me. They hurt my feet when I wear them. And they hurt my heart. I threw them away. They had lots of wear left in them but I realized I just didn't want those shoes hanging out in my closet any longer.

Today, my baby I lost would have been 3 years old. It's a bittersweet day for me. Knowing my baby is with the Lord is very sweet to me. But not having my baby here with me is very bitter. Till heaven, sweet little one. Mommy loves you. XO

~Monday Musings~

Ah, Mondays!

This morning it is raining steadily.

I'm coming down with a cold.

Coffee is all I've had yet this morning, so I'm thinking about what is for breakfast.

Thinking about the work I need to put into tomorrow's class for CC.

To do list: dishes, laundry, straighten the house.

Going: nowhere! Staying put today.

Ink and stamps going on to my right, I should be putting a stop to it but I'm kind of out of it this morning, so self-entertainment is a good thing. Mostly. ;-)

So as it is raining, it is of course not good lighting for pictures, but here's a little something I whipped up on Saturday:

A coffee cup sleeve! I came across this fabric which I'd purchased quite a while ago, and sat down and made a little stack of coffee sleeves. I plan on using the extras for gifts and possibly selling a few as well. We'll see. 

Incidentally, I went to the coffee shop yesterday afternoon and totally forgot to take mine with me. I had a free drink at the coffee shop, because of my birthday. It was enjoyable until it made my stomach sick because of the high sugar content. Since this last summer I've not been eating (or drinking! LOL) much sugar at all so I've found that sugar in any amount over a teaspoon or so really bothers my stomach. But...that's ok! I've lost just over 20 pounds as a result of better diet and fewer calories, so I guess I can't really complain. ;-)

And there you have it! Random thoughts for Monday! :-)

~Pick a Pin: Craft Project~

One of the things that my daughter has really enjoyed from Classical Conversations is the art that we've done. She has continued, on her own, to draw the things we learned to draw in the first six weeks. I've been trying to come up with more craft projects for her to do, since she enjoys it so much.

Today I looked through my pins on Pinterest and found this simple craft. The blog is written in Italian, but there are pictures, and in fact I didn't even look at the link before we started.

This morning we painted fall trees, using a paint brush for the trunk and branches, and Q-tips for the leaves:

Right now my daughter is busy with scissors and glue. Pretty soon we'll be cleaning confetti out of the living room but for now she's entertained. :-)

~November!~

On this first day of November:

Rain. It is raining, a drizzly type of rain that picks up and lets off every once in a while.

Presents. I'm sewing for Christmas! I'm so excited about my project(s), but I will have to refrain from actually saying what they are or showing pictures until after Christmas, because some of the recipients read my blog.

Apples. I'm so over the apples I dragged home a few weeks back. I was so proud of myself being proverbial and all ("she bringeth her food from afar", don't you know) but now I still have 3/4 of a bushel of apples still in my kitchen. That'll teach me to start thinking of myself as a Proverbs 31 woman. ;-) I shouldn't be so down on myself because I've actually worked through a lot of them, including a batch yesterday. But I just see those apples and....le sigh...it's so much work still!



Apples! 5 half bushels, plus a half bushel of squashes thrown in for good measure.

But: blue jars! I bought some blue jars on clearance and I had the brilliant idea (yesterday, while I was standing at the stove stirring my sauce) to can white beans in them. Oh my, I can hardly wait. They will look so pretty! So I need to get the apples done so I can work on the beans. And then I'm going to haul all my canning equipment downstairs and be done with canning!

My birthday: tomorrow. How is it that I'm getting so close to 40? I feel like I just turned 30, and here I am, turning 30-something-rhymes-with-Kevin. Hmmm. Kevin and our daughter went out shopping and got my presents several weeks ago, so that has been dangling over my head. My daughter is a good little surprise keeper, so I have no clue as to what I'm getting.

Happy November!

~Staple Dress~

A friend's church has a hobby night about once a month, and I try to go when I can. There are several reasons: not only do I Get to Talk to Grownups and Get Things Done, but I get to Eat Yummy Treats. And also? I get to Skip Bedtime (my daughter's bedtime, that is!). So it's a great chance to get out of the house!

This weekend I lugged my machine, iron, fabric, pattern, pins, etc. and made a dress! When I came home all I had left was the hem and the shirring. I finished it Saturday and wore it Sunday.

If you look closely, the belt is not quite covering the shirring.
I had trouble getting the shirring in the right spot,
but I think that if I had a wider belt it would cover this issue.

This pattern, the Staple Dress, is a fun sew. No buttons and buttonholes, or zippers; no darts or sleeves. Honestly it only took me four hours to make because I was talking. Oh, and eating. :-P

I mentioned before, that I won the pattern in a blog giveaway, and that the fabric was some I had on hand. The fabric is a cotton, but it has something stretchy in it as well. It isn't stretchy like a knit, maybe just a little spandex? I'm not sure. I happened to have matching thread, and the elastic thread for shirring. It's always nice when I have everything I need on hand!

Because my serger is still at the machine shop, I followed the directions and did French seams. With regular seams finished with overlocking (and no talking, just sewing!) this dress could go together very, very quickly.

 

I came home high on caffeine and giddy that I'd made myself a dress. :-) I'm pretty sure this is the first dress that I've made for myself since the 90's! I've made clothing items since then, of course, but not a dress. I'm looking forward to getting some more sewing projects done in the coming weeks! I've been so busy canning I haven't spent time sewing, and I truly miss it!

~Thinking about...Crocheting~

The other night I pulled out a stack of crochet booklets I have and looked through them.

Crochet Fantasy! March 1986! Goods that are great for BAZAARS!!!

Besides some little doilies, handkerchief edgings, and hideous stuffed animals, there is this beauty:

 

Don't you love that sweater? The sleeves look so cozy, almost like an afghan. No, wait. The shawl on the left is what caught my eye. Truly, I think it is beautiful. Would it be too much like wearing a giant doily? I don't know. But the current trend for wearing shawls is to wear them backwards (what would our grandmothers think?) as a scarf.

And the second thing I'm thinking about is this tablecloth. It is made up of 4" squares, so it wouldn't be too daunting.

So...those are two projects I'm thinking about! I don't know if I'll do more than think about them, but it's fun to dream sometimes! :-)

~Thinking about sewing~

A few weeks ago I was doing laundry, and I noticed one of the rags that came through was really, well...raggy on the edges. So I serged the edges. Actually, I serged one edge. The other edge messed up my machine. Oh, the irony of trying to make a worthless rag look nicer only to break my machine!

I got word back from the sewing machine shop today that the blades are messed up and since they don't have them in the store it will take about another week before I have my machine.

I haven't sewn much of anything this summer. But faced with the fact that my machine is in the shop, I keep wanting to sew!

I think this will be my next project:

I won the pattern in a blog giveaway, and the fabric is some I was given. I think this will make a nice fall dress (with a sweater). I don't plan on doing the high-low hem version. :)

~Blah, blah, blah~

Well, then! Happy fall and happy 1st day of October! :-)

Thing have been busy around here! I have been canning my little heart out. I love canning, then I dislike canning, but I love it all the more after seeing all the rows of canned produce on my counter! I love it more than I dislike it so I keep on going! Interested to see the list of things I've canned so far? You can click over to my page, Putting Food Up - 2013. My jar count is at 205 right now. I've yet to get apples for applesauce, and I would really like to get some more Concord grapes to make some jelly. Oh, and I would love to can some more beans!

I read canning recipes in the winter and dream of canning in the summer. My main "dislike" with canning is truly the accompanying dishes. It seems like my whole summer's story has been, "Do the dishes so I can can; do the dishes from canning". LOL

I've mostly had enough jars, though I had to buy a dozen pints, and a dozen jam jars. Not too bad. I dug into jars I bought off Craigslist a few summers back, and thought it was funny to be canning in "antique" jars that are as old as myself:

A friend has Concord grapes, and kindly offered some to me. I canned 14 quarts of grape juice:

My friend makes her juice this way, and I'm anxious to see how it turns out. One jar unsealed when I was putting them down in the basement - the jar had a tiny chip on the inside. The juice wasn't very strong, but from what I read you're supposed to wait 3-4 weeks before opening it. I got some mineral water and made "soda" for my daughter and myself. Since we don't drink real soda, she was easily convinced. ;-)

And then, moving on to other randomness: I picked up a new pair of glasses tonight. They are quite a departure from my other glasses!

My daughter asked me to measure her recently,

making me realize that the reason she's been proverbially eating us out of house and home is that she grew 3/4" in a little over a month!

Well, that's it for randomness for now! Happy fall, y'all!

~CC Update~

Since I posted that we would be doing Classical Conversations, I wanted to post a little update!

Today was week #2 for our Classical Conversation classes. So far it is going so well. I ended up with six little students in my class. I have the 4's and young 5's, including my own daughter. Initially, I wanted to tutor my daughter's class because I wanted to do CC with her at our campus as well as at home. However, I have come to see that this will present its own set of challenges. But that's ok! We hit a little bump in the road today toward the end of class, but otherwise things have gone fairly well. We'll see what I say in another month. ;-)

I was so overwhelmed before everything got started. Last week, before our first class, I was in tears sobbing to Kevin that "I just can't do this. I don't know what I was thinking when I said I would do it!". I sent off an SOS email to a friend who is a few weeks ahead of me, tutoring in CC as well. She called me and reassured me and sent me some extra links to help me along.

On Tuesday morning, I did it. :-) I was exhausted, but I tutored the class and covered all the subjects!

Last night, I wasn't in tears, but I again was bemoaning to Kevin, "I just can't do this. I don't know what I was thinking when I said I would do it!". And then, I got everything pulled together, and guess what? I did it all over again this morning. :-D

I'm not really afraid of the little four year olds, with their cute little faces looking at me in expectation. No, it is the parents! What are they thinking? Some of them have said to me, "WOW you are so brave!" and "THANK YOU!" so maybe the parents aren't as scary now!

So, after my second week of tutoring, I can say that I am glad that I'm doing this! Stepping outside of my comfort zone is stretching me, but in a good way. I'm thankful for this opportunity to connect with other homeschoolers and families.

~Pansies~

Did you know that if you plant pansies in the fall, they'll bloom again the spring? I've wanted to plant pansies in the fall for quite a few years now, but until this year I haven't done so.

Saturday I had a little time to myself, and one of the things I did was stop by the nursery and pick up some pansies. I cleared out some of the summer flowers, and planted my pansies. I didn't do a lot of yard work, but it was nice to get the flower beds in the front somewhat ready for fall. There are still more flowers that will need to come out, but that can wait till after our first frost!

~Cherry Peds~

Today I finished a pair of socks! All I had to do was kitchener one toe closed. That's it! I already had all the other ends woven in, and the other sock was finished.

 

I love how closely the stripes match up!

When I got the yarn at Hobby Lobby, I wanted a simple footy, so I wouldn't have a ton of knitting to do, but also because I don't like long cuffs on my socks, even in the winter. So I searched and searched and ended up using a pattern I had favorited on Ravelry a long time ago. Doesn't that figure!

The second sock had a very tiny amount of brown striping on the toe. That bothered me a lot because the other toe did not have that striping. But when I finally got them off the needles and on my feet, I realized something: I can't see that color variation when they are on!

So--another pair of socks to tuck into my drawer and wait for cooler weather (though we've had plenty of cool weather this summer!).

Yarn: Cherry Sours by Paton Stretch Sock
Pattern: Pom Pom Peds by The Purl Bee
Needles: US 2

More project details here (Ravelry link).

~Garden Update~

The last two years, we had a spot at a community garden. When they raised their prices, we started looking for a different community garden. But the others were just too far away. So then we discussed our yard. While it isn't "perfect" it has been a great option for us. Our back yard is too shaded, so the only option was our side yard.

This picture was taken about a month or so ago, but it gives a good idea of what our garden is doing:

 

Unfortunately, the soil at the very back was not very supportive for the crops we had, so our yield for that area was not that great. The zucchini and corn have been taken out. The green beans had a slow start but are now producing well. We have three varieties of tomatoes which are all doing well, plus a cherry tomato. I've been canning and putting up tomatoes like crazy. The peppers went bonkers, as have the tomatillos. We tried a new variety of bean this year, a golden bean, and they have produced well also. Our cucumbers didn't do very well, in fact I ended up buying a peck of cucumbers so I could get the pickles I wanted.

 

The radishes, carrots, green onions, and sugar peas all did well this spring. We talked about planting more for reaping in the fall, but we didn't do that this year. Maybe next!

 

All in all, it has been a good first year of gardening from our yard! Next year, we hope to build raised beds and bring in some good soil, enhancing it with compost from our compost bin.

 

Our weather this summer has been very cool, so some plants have been quite slow to produce. But that's ok - if the tomatoes were coming on any faster I would go crazy. ;-)