TODAY IS A GIFT!

I do still find some time to do hand knitting!  Two pairs of fingerless mitts are completed;  and it is always a challenge to knit with black yarn! lol  These are knit with the pattern that mimics little leather gloves like bikers wear!

Yesterday I woke up and hit the road for all kinds of errands, then went to Quitling Group and then home, finally. 

 I was pretty tired.  

I did a little sanding on the two woodshop projects

 but have some finished projects today--

I get to stay home today!!!!

 

FLAT AND FORM!

I will take this with me to quilting group today. 

 I hopt to finish the inner clamshells 

and then I can figure out the borders!  

(I'm thinking of applique four the outside but no promises!)

I have been distracted from the studio because of this wood! 

 It works up beautifully and it looks great

 for something that came from a chunk of fire wood! 

 (it is a piece of 8:" Maple!)

Another chunk of the same is now on the lathe wating for me!  

I only have to hollow it out and apply some finish! 

 It's been wonderful to work at the lathe regularly again!

 

MANUAL LABOR INTENSIVE!

See the green anole? 

 He is the only native lizard in No. America. 

 He is often called a chameleon because he can 'tint' to his environment but he is not a true chameleon. 

 We love to spot these guys!

So yesterday I asked for Bill's help in finding some of his reclaimed lumber to make a floating shelf.  I watched a YouTube video  several times and was ready to give it a go myself!  

He cut several boards to size for me and I began the job of sanding the 'aged' color off so I could stain it a light oak color.  Here it is being held together with clamps so I could then put in finishing nails!

For this floating shelf, you build the outer shell to size which will then fit over the 'framing' that is first attached to the wall with bolts.

I cut all of the inner pieces making them just 1/8" smaller than the inside of the outer shelf so I would have wiggle room to slide it over the frame when it is installed on the wall-

The inner frame is all glued and clamped and just waiting for me to screw it together when I wake up another day!  

My body was worn out with all of the lifting, 

cutting, sanding and nailing!

And I closed out the day with the rest of the skein of the print on one side and ivory on the inside for this beanie.  

Today, I am going to visit my youngest son after church because it is his birthday!  

 

TAKING A BITE OUT OF MY DAY!

I drew a mandala on that square piece of wood....

so I can fill in the shapes with 'just a few' of the hundreds of shark's teeth!  (these were from my son-in-law!)  It's working out well--I decided I need to paint in the lines of the mandala first and then lay out the glue in each small area at a time

 for the 'mosaic' of teeth to be applied!

And I am going to be that Grandma who has to brag about her oldest granddaughter....she is2nd from the right, second row.    (blond hair-no hat)    This is a screenshot so it's showing only about 1/4th of the size of the choir!  she was part of the Bob Jones University choir for the annual tree lighting and caroling night--it was live and we got to watch it on tv!  (gotta love technology to keep us connected!)  We had friends over and I tuned in for the concert and we listened together--it was wonderful!

 

TOUCHING ALL POINTS OF INTEREST

I woke up to this...Lena doesn't always spend the night on my bed but an occasional visit is great!

I painted this wooden square to be something new for the wall--more to come.

I drilled holes and sprayed this Birch bit with lacquer to help preserve the bark curls-more to come.

I started a new bowl-am finishing it with a new product-

more to come.

I started the quilting lines at the frame but--you guessed it--

more to come.

But I did finish a hat from the new yarn acquisition 

and love the look! 

Today will be some finishes! 

ECCLECTIC SOUNDS BETTER THAN FLITTING!

Yay for December first!

I have so many Christmas Cacti in bloom or just about in bloom!

  I love the shades of fuschia/pink/red against the green. 

 This plant lives in a big pot with a spider plant 

and they get along very well together!

It looks like a stage full of ballerinas!

I loaded the star quilt on the frame and should be able to get that quilted today and off the frame so I can load the completed QOV.

I did a lot of 'finishing' little projects like putting these resin/shark's teeth on clips so they can decorate some student bookbags!

And I used most of a skein of the coral yarn in gradations by Red Heart. (their newer yarns are so much softer than the old ones!) The blue hat is just some leftover yarn from the stash. 

 I have used up more than 2 dozen skeins of yarn!  

And then I visited HobbyLobby and bought 6 new skeins of yarn which will become more hats in very short order! lol

 I am in that place of using up the last of the acrylic yarn and what I have is a lot of (boring) solids which I will just have to put into my favorite formula for brimmed hats 

which is 40 rows hat side 1... 45 rows brim... 40 rows hat side 2! 

 Skein to hat in 35 minutes including tags ,

pom buttoms and poms!  

 

LATEST SOCKS

The newest sock on the needle is a fun jacquard yarn from Premier;  it is a 75% superwashwool/25% polymide. 

 It has a nice halo on the wool. 

 I  had grabbed some #3 needles in error,

 I usually use #1's but since it was all I had with me in the car,

 I knitted away and then I reallly liked the fabric. 

 Just right for a pair of in-the-house socks for a guy!

 

USING UP YARN!

 Another hat--a slightlly different number of rows

 and added a tag to shake it up!  

Made from worsted acryic.

Look what I have been picking each day--a Satsuma orange which was named for the area just 10 minutes north of me where they were legendary until the big frosts of the mid-1900's and again in the 1980's which did the groves in.  

You can still buy them for your yard--and even though we only planted this one last year only last year, it produced a bumper crop for me to eat!  They peel like a tangerine, taste deliciously sweet and juicy like an orange and have hardly any seeds! 

 I'll be glad to eat one for you today!

QOV FINISH!

The mystery QAL from QuiltyGirl concluded recently 

and I finally managed a finish myself!

I made so many mistakes, I almost despaired of ever completing this one but I took a lot of deep breaths and ripped out and then sewed it back together too many times to mention!

  But when I put those borders on, 

I was thrilled!

I will get this loaded on the frame later this week!

 

SOCKS ON SUNDAY

Signs of December are showing up in the yard; 

 I will include one a day all week! 

 This is a poinsettia we have managed to keep alive

 since last year!  

The red is just beginning to emerge as a 'flower'!

And the watermelon socks are completed! 

 These were a very enjoyable knit--I have new socks on the needles already, I am glad to say!

 

AND JUST WALK AWAY

I wanted to spend time in the studio first thing in the morning yesterday but I kept making mistakes!  I sewed all of the sashings together without any problems but I sewed one strip on upside down and then after ripping it all out, I sewed the wrong row to next and had to rip that out!  I decided it was better to walk away and start fresh tomorrow!  

I did manage to finish this block--it reminds me of Celtic knots!  But if you look closely to the top garter rows you will see they are a bit off on the color.  Yup, the two skeins that I ordered were of diffeerent dye lots and I have no more.  I might just knit another block in the full skein now but I couldln't think about it last night.  My start and finish were a bit rough! lol

Here's to a new day and better adventures!

 

THANKSGIVING

Our day yesterday went off without a hitch-

very relaxing and filled with laughter and love.

(proof that I can bake-pies are a once a year event! lol)

And here is the nonsense of trying to fit us in a selfie!

Leftovers and quiet for today's agenda!

 

THANKFUL DAY!

All the baking is finished and the meal prep is done so that tomorrow can be stream-lined to give us the most time to enjoy the get-together part of a big meal!  I even had time to sit and do some knitting on the newest block .  This one was a tough one;  it has a 40 row repeat and is not intuitive but that just made we want to stick with it so that I could get results like this!  What a good knit!

Have a wonderful day today whether your Thanksgiving crowd is large or small.  I am thankful for each one of you who read and respond and interact on this blog!  

 

THE WRONG TURKEY

We have a different kind of turkey visiting us today!  I've never seen them inspecting the dropped seeds under the bird feeders!  It made me think of  Araignee's friendly vulture!

I did a lot of cleaning (floors mostly because living on sand, there is a lot carried in by man and beast!) and resting in turn yesterday so I was ready to do the kitchen duty baking today. 

 I did make these small bowl Koozies to give my guests on Thanksgiving.  I like them for holding my ice cream dish 

so I don't get cold hands while eating

 and I thought others would like these, too!

They are a nice size for small bowls!

I hope you are having a good time preparing for tomorrow's feasting with friends and family.

EVEN WHEN i'M DOWN...i'M KNITTING!

When my schedule gets too busy...my body rebels. (MS) 

 If I don't listen, I get dropped like a rock!  Usually a few days of staying in bed is what is required.  I no longer fight it because that only prolongs the down time!  Anyway, I have been in bed but I sure am glad I can knit!  I have a sock ready to begin the gusset, a sweater almost to the bottom ribbing, a little mitt done and its mate is soon to join it!  And most of all, I like whipping off a hat and then enjoying the finishing work with hands on quiet work.  This one now has a faux cable braid with a variation.

I ran down a stitch on the top layer like I have been doing but this time, I ran one down the inside to match stopping at the 'brim' line.  Then I crochet three strands together of the top layer and slip stitch up three strands from the bottom layer to alternate the color.

The hat looks like this on the inside.  Still neat and unosbructed.

 The inside and brim are different colors because I am still using up all of the colors I can in my stash

--I have used up so many skeins! 

 It's a great way to rest and still create!

As of today, Tuesday, I hope to be up enough to get some baking done and set up a cooking-game-plan for Thanksgiving.

  I'm having family here, just a smaller number than last year!  

Which will be just what my body ordered!

QUILT, KNIT, REPEAT

I managed to stitch all of the star blocks together and even added borders!  When looking for the borders, I found a large enough chunk of fabric to use for the backing--that doesn't happen too often anymore because I have used up the larger pieces !

And look, another cable braided hat is off the Sentro.

I  used only half of the skien for this hat so another one in a different contrast color will happen.  And I have one more skein of the worsted Muse yarn to use for 2 more hats. Nice to know that the variety of yarns work well with this machine! 

SOCKS ON SUNDAY

The watermelon fruits socks are half done!  What a good knit!  None of the drama from the last pair I knit-- this one made me glad to knit socks again!

And then I knit another braided cable hat on the Sentro 

and sewed on the label tabs.  I am so enjoying making these! 

 I played yarn chicken on the pink Muse but it worked out to my favor by 5"! lol  I have purple set aside for the next  one!

And for the record-we started our first fire in the fireplace yesterday!  We have had several mornings in the 40's and it looks to be cloudy and cooler all week.  The fires just takes the chill out of the house!

 

FOLK-STYLE BEANIE

I watched a YouTube to add a bit of pizz-zazz to the dropped stitch cable (adding another color with a single stitch to secure each loop-group) and then I thought it would look good if I added a chain stitch at the line of the color change! 

 I think it is a very sweet look.

 The inside of the hat is the brim color-the rest of the skein of yarn from yesterday's hat.  I thought it was 'I Love This Yarn' but it was a skein of Vanna's Choice in Silver Heather.  

The pink is another skein of Muse and this time, I used only half so I can make another one similar to this!