daily yarns 'n more

who's expecting?

We are expecting our 26th grandchild next month.  I wasn't able to go to the baby shower in Michigan, so I had to send the gifts I made there.  I made a baby bib on my embroidery machine and knitted a baby hat.  Anyone want to guess which team the hat represents?  If you don't know already they are having a boy :)

I made a blanket out of minky fabric, a Dr Seuss blanket and I threw in a couple of Dr Seuss books.  I do like the minky fabric end results, but dislike working with it.

I can't wait to see our newest grandchild.

 

fingerless gloves

Two years ago I had made a pair of fingerless gloves for myself.  I wore them so much they have bit the dust, they are so worn out I had to make me a new pair. So I searched Ravelry high and low until I found the pattern that I fell in love with.  I also didn't want to buy a pattern, I just love those freebies, and I didn't want to buy any yarn since I had so much yarn in my stash.

What is really nice about these is that you can fold the top cuff down and they turn into a pair of mittens, well, almost a pair of mittens.

The link to this pattern is HERE.  The only change I did to the pattern is that I shortened the length.

 

have i told you lately that i've been busy?

One of my daughter-in-laws wanted me to make her an apron, so in between making Christmas gifts I jumped at the chance to make one, I needed a break from what I've been focusing on, it's not that I was getting tired of what I was doing, I just need to do something different for a while, change it up a bit.

I can't show you what I've been knitting, these are gifts as well.  I'm finally on the last one and I can't wait to be able to show you, but that will have to wait until after Christmas.

Fall garden harvest...kale and carrots taste great with homemade bread and locally raised pork.  We didn't plant a lot of kale but next year we will.  The Pioneer Woman has a recipe for fried kale in one of her cook books which is to die for.

This is a bit of what's been happening around here.

Sewing, knitting and food.  Nothing gets better than that.

 

i'm still here

Wow, where did August go?  And September seems to be slipping by as well.  I got my knitting done and it was sent to Texas, tho I still have more knitting I'm doing.  I can't show those yet, as they are going to be Christmas presents.

The garden is being harvested and my pantry is filling up.  The drought hurt it some but I am getting enough out of it.  I made salsa, canned some whole tomatoes and need to get out and pick more tomatoes.

We've made 4 batches of strawberry jam, froze some and brought strawberries to Illinois and our DIL made 2 batches plus we had strawberry shortcake :)))  The strawberry patch is doing great this fall.

Jim found a neat shaped strawberry in the garden yesterday.

The pumpkins are getting big.  Last year I didn't get not one to grow and this year they are doing awesome!

We've had some rain here and the other day a rainbow came out, it felt wonderful to see that.

I finally started working on some quilting UFO's that I need to get done.  I've been kind of taking a blogging break if you haven't noticed by my lack of visiting.  I will be back again, tho I miss visiting you all, I have been needing my time away to get things done here.

 

on my needles

I love having my needles going clickety clack, clickety clack.  I have another project going that I'm excited about.  This one is a shrug/sweater that is going to a granddaughter down in Texas.  She starts school next week and though it's hot there she can't wear her sun dresses because they have no sleeves on them (school policy).  So, I am making a shrug type sweater in 100% organic cotton in a natural un-dyed yarn, which should be a cooler yarn.  I hope to get this done in the next few days so that she can wear those new school clothes.  It's so funny, I had e-mailed a couple of patterns to my dil, then I went to the yarn shop and picked out yarn for the exact same pattern that they decided on.  I was going to knit two of them if they had picked one of the other patterns.

I can't wait to get it done and I sure hope it fits, if not I'll knit up another one.

 

summer :: fall

I finally get to show you a couple of bags I made.  These two were sent down to Texas.  I thought these were perfect for living by the gulf, to be able to cram all their beach stuff in them.  And right when I was about finished with the second one my embroidery machine locked up on me, NOT GOOD.  So, that is in for repair.

But, in the mean time I knitted myself a vest for the fall.  Yes, I have a turtle neck shirt on under the wool vest, and yes the temps were probably in the mid 80's, and no I won't show you my red face from the heat.  Luckily the shot came out okay for me to call it good so I could get the heck out of these warm clothes.

I hope to get visiting you all today, it's just been busy with our weekend project going on here that is almost finished.

You all have a wonderful day!

 

raise your hand if you're having a heat wave

Can you see my hand raised high in the air?  And it looks like the forecast is going to still continue to climb.

I've been hunkered down inside the house since we got home from our vacation.  I walk in the early morn before the heat really hits, then pick up my needles, not the coolest project I know, knitting a vest for cooler weather, but with no A/C, moving around is not an option.  My embroidery machine is in the shop getting fixed, so sewing is out, not sure what happened to it, nothing else to do but knit.  I had 4 skeins of this yarn I bought in 2008 to make a bag, only I never made it.  I decided to make something else with it, but since I didn't have enough yarn to finish a sweater and this yarn is no longer available, I decided to add brown stripes in it, we'll see how it turns out.

I've been a lazy blogger lately, not posting like I usually do or visiting.  I hope to get around to you all soon.  I can't wait to show you my photos from our trip to Door County, so I'll leave you with this one.

Try and stay cool if you're having a heat wave going.

clickety :: clack

Doing a little knitting to help me beat the heat, and I need a little bit of help from you knitters out there.  I started a sweater a few years ago and I took it down to Texas with us in January.  I finished the back when we were down there and started on the front and I'm just not liking it.  I'm thinking of ripping it all out and starting over with another pattern.

I like the pattern, it's a tulip pattern, but after getting this much done, I'm not totally sure it's ME.  I'm thinking it's TOO much tulips in the sweater.  I just don't think I'm going to be happy with the finished work, the tulip pattern will also be in the front and the sleeves.  Is it just me thinking it's too much?

Question: Am I crazy????  Has anyone knitted this far or farther and ripped it out and started over? 

 

trying to beat the snow

I had errands to do in town and on my way back I stopped to take this shot.  The roads were starting to get bad on my way back home so I didn't get out of the car like I would have liked to.  I worried about getting back up on the ridge and some hills can get pretty slick.

I was happy that I finished the hat I was working on, just in time for our snowfall.

Home safe and sound, watching the snow fall, my bread machine rolls rising by the wood stove.  Since Jim has cut sugar out of his diet, I've been substituting honey when sugar is called for in recipes and of course whole wheat flour.  Speaking of honey, here's a link to some pretty interesting facts about honey and cinnamon.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

continuing to clean out

I'm still continuing to clean out my cupboards and now I'm on to my fabric and yarn stash.  I seem to have lost my hat since getting back from Texas.  I've looked high and low but can't seem to find it.  So, I dug in my stash and found a couple of skeins that I haven't used for anything, so I decided to make another hat, since winter is still here and probably will be here for a while longer.

On Valentines Day I went to town to the local Quilt shop to sew for a "cause".  We are making baby quilts and I dug in my stash for fabrics.  I found a cute pattern at the Moda Bake Shop blog, and used the extra fabric from the jelly roll that I made my ironing board cover with for the baby quilt I worked on.  The quilt top is done and now to put it together.

It sure feels good to be on the roll that I've been on.