The Spring Skeleton

 Just love these creative neighbors:

This is the fifth iteration of this skeleton.

Family Friday: An Old Photo

Earlier this week Dear One and I were talking about putting pictures into the Memories section of FamilySearch.org which is a wonderful huge online family tree where everyone is invited to connect their family and ancestors for free.  Always free.  Besides the tree there are many databases and records freely available to all to assist in your family history research. 

One of the best parts of the FamilySearch.org tree is the ability to share family photos, documents, recipes, audio files on Memories.  Once the files are uploaded they are safe and available for all to enjoy.  If there are living people in photographs, users are encouraged to keep the photos private rather than public.

Here is a photo Dear One showed me this week.  When we went to the local FamilySearch Center we immediately went to the copier/printer and accessed the option of "Scan To FamilySearch" so we could put the photo on the printer glass, signed in with our FamilySearch account username and password then scanned the item directly to our FamilySearch account Memories section.  So great. So easy. Free for anyone.  If our small local FamilySearch Center has this option, I expect most if not all FamilySearch Centers also have this option.

Here is the photo we put up:

This is a picture of Dear One's mother with her big brother right behind her. Can you tell what her brother is doing?!!

Strawberries Growing On The Deck...

 A couple of weeks ago when at Lowes I saw a rich-looking strawberry plant.  I grabbed it up, took it home and put it on the shelf in the kitchen.  For several days.  Eventually I planted it in the green garden tower whose name escapes me at the moment.  And left it for two days.  When I got back I noted that it was very very wimpy looking so I doused it in water. I had forgotten that you need to water things every day when their foundation is plastic.

The strawberry blossom had bitten the dust by the time I watered it and the three runners had been burned to a crisp. I apologized to the  dear little plant and watered it. And have watered it again and again.  Here she is:

This makes me much happier.  Since the strawberry farms are in full picking mode, I am hoping this little guy recovers enough that we can have one or two berries from our own deck.  If we play our cards right and the plant puts out runners....well, maybe more than one or two berries.

OH-- it is a GreenStalk garden tower....a vertical garden and it works great as long as we water and fertilize the water occasionally.  If you follow the link you will see they have pink towers and blue towers.  Boy, would I like one of each!  Don't you think they are beautiful?!!  I do.  Not a lot of room on our deck for more though.  At least not in Dear One's opinion...even though I removed the huge old plastic "tree" planters we used for tomatoes and zucchini last year.

Popovers Are Swell!

Last week my sister sent me her recipe for popovers.  Popovers were a real treat from out childhood.  She made a quadruple batch for a "Family Home Evening" she and her husband host every week.  This morning I tried the recipe, but only a single batch for us.

They came out perfectly:  nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside ready for a nice spoon of jam.

Popovers

1 cup bread flour
1 cup warmish milk
2 warmed up eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend well--at least 30 seconds.  

Grease a popover tin or muffin tin.  Fill wells one-half full then bake for 20 minutes then reduce temperature to 350 degrees F. for an additional 20 minutes.

Do Not Open Oven Door until baking is complete unless you want your popovers to collapse and be unpleasant.

We let our popovers cool for about 10 minutes before pulling out of the tin.  Raspberry jam was so good dolloped inside, plus a little butter.  

NOTE: If you do not have bread flour use all-purpose flour with one Tablespoon of vital wheat gluten mixed in.

The Country Wife From Vermont--New YouTube Channel Name!

 In two weeks I have gone from a YouTube watcher to a YouTube channel creator!  Funny... And I just changed the name of the channel to The Country Wife From Vermont so it is not confused with the play by W. W. which seems like not the thing at all. I started reading a summary of that play and instantly wanted to be totally disassociated with that.  Not that I was associated with it but when I told people the channel was The Country Wife, that play is the only thing that came up...

This is a late-at-night post to begin a new week with up-to-date news.  Everyone is welcome to view the channel and encouraged to subscribe and comment.  I truly hope this channel will be useful to anyone who watches.  I hope we can all make improvements in our lives and are willing to share how they are progressing. 

 I hope the channel helps me, (and you, too!) keep my nose to the grindstone as far as home and life organization and getting my health together.

Do good.  Be good.  Do it now!

XOXOX

Snapdragons, Maybe?

 Today we were at the temple and saw these beautiful flowers out front.  Are they snapdragons?  Thanks for helping me identify them.

Swatching For Double Knit Button Band! Very Fun!

The sweater I am working on for the Knits That Fit course by Tonia of Nerdy Knitting calls for a ribbed button band.  I don’t want to do that. A year ago I saw a sweater with a double knit button band. I just had to knit that sweater so I purchased the pattern for a chunk of change. I then saw it was knitted with fingering weight yarn. That would take me about six years to knit in my size…so I scrapped that idea. Every pattern I have seen with a double knit button band has a V-neck. I like that neckline for shirts but I want a crew neck in a sweater to keep warm. I wondered if I could knit a double knit band on this crew neck sweater so I made a swatch!

Here is the cute little crew neck sweater swatch with a double knit button band…knit with two different-sized buttonholes so I could decide which size buttons to use…not these specific buttons but these sized buttons. Dear One liked the size of the yellow button. What do you think?

The steek went fine but I used the crochet plan for reinforcing the steek. I did not like that method nor the leftover stitches which made a bulky mess. In class tonight Tonia shared that she had needle felted her steek swatch and loved the simplicity of this method and the results. I have a good mind to make another swatch and steek with needle felting, though I totally can take her word for it…

Ran Out Of Yarn—If You Can Believe It!

 Today I went to the eye doctor. Love her and nice people there but it is always a significant amount of time invested. I ALWAYS take knitting with me so I don’t get into mischief. I specifically put the purple shawl in the car to work on and brought it into the office with me. After paying the upfront costs I went into the waiting room and pulled out the shawl. I was less than one row across when I ran out of the lavender yarn! 

So annoying since I expected a long wait. All of a sudden I remembered the sock project in the car so I excused myself, went to the car, retrieved the sock bag, returned to my seat and proceeded to knit for another five or six rounds before I was called.

As I was sitting there knitting I began a big fight with myself about buying another ball of lavender instead of only using what yarn I had at home. Checking my calendar I saw that this is the Hobby Lobby yarn sale week, so I lost the fight. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought one ball of  lavender yarn. I will use that up and call the shawl big enough. The second strand will be a mystery…! I really won’t buy any more yarn for this project. I will just slide in partial balls of yarn already in my collection.

First Strswberries of the season!

 Dear One brought this lovely box of strawberries home today!  I have eaten four so far. I was actually planning on eating strawberries for supper. He suggested pizza…

We did not have any ingredients except for crust so off to Food Lion I went.  Came home with pizza plus!!! He is happily munching Chester’s Chili Cheese Fries, some sort of chip-like thing. He will have eaten all his calories before he even gets to the pizza, I think.

First Solar Dyeing Project!

 Just finished, more or less, the first solar dyeing I have done!  I am thrilled.  I skeined up a ball of Patons Classic Wool and tied it in four places.  In a quart Ball jar with lid I placed one cup tap water and 1 Tablespoon of vinegar and stirred well. Next I added four or five drops of blue gel food coloring and stirred well.

Adding about half of the damp yarn I dropped on four drops of yellow food color then four drops of red food color then shoved in the last of the yarn.

After carefully filling the jar with water I put on the cover then shook the jar to make sure there was water everywhere.

Next step was to put the jar on the back deck railing in the sun for three days.  I brought it in every night so it would not chill down too much.  Heat is a big part of solar dyeing. I am thinking this summer will be a great time to solar dye!!!

This morning I emptied the jar in the sink and found that the dye bath was entirely clear! That is good news. I then washed the yarn and hung it to dry.   

Here the yarn has just been rinsed.

The yarn is hanging to dry.

I will be happy to see what happens when I knit it into something.  I wonder what I should knit...any ideas?

Monday Marvel!

 Over the weekend I finished the first project on the Ashford 32” rigid heddle loom. I am so happy.

As you know, I am trying to use up the yarn collection this year. This project, a shawl, used up five-plus balls of yarn…blacks and whites.

Every ball was different. Each was listed as bulky weight so I imagined they would weave well together.  Well, they almost did, but I think it was good enough.

Even with the problems, I am happy and will weave other one though maybe with the same type of yarn.

All Warped Up And No Place To Go...

 As I have said several times, this is the year I am going to use up the yarn in the house.  This is so I can with good conscience buy more for specific immediate projects.  This is probably a pipe dream, but hey, it is still a good idea. And it really is not a pipe dream because I do not now, nor ever have I, smoked anything of any kind--well, except for that one puff on a cigarette during play practice on the stage at South Royalton High School when I was a sophomore and coughed so much I nearly, or did, throw up.  That put me off smoking forever.  Adding that episode to my lungs being what they are due to all the pneumonia and bronchitis I had as a child...well, smoking has not been part of my life.  And I try to stay away from people who are actively smoking even today as it is still hard on my lungs.

So, that was an odd digression.

Now back to the subject in the title...

Yesterday I got up and started roaring around  getting things done early in the day.  By this I mean that I was downstairs by 9:00 AM having already completed my morning routine and was ready for something else. Well, Dear One would have loved breakfast but I was not interested in that. 

 I want to weave a shawl for the Relief Society closet.  The yarn I pulled out a few weeks ago for this project was all the bulky yarn I had picked up on very serious sale at Hobby Lobby.  These have been waiting for me in a nice flat-bottomed grocery bag from, I think, Harris Teeter (when we go on vacation I like to buy one of that type of bag from whatever store we use to buy our groceries-though on that front I am hoping not to be self-catering from now on, going out to eat has some real pluses to my mind--I know some people like to buy tee shirts to remember trips. Dear One likes to buy hats though they sometimes disappear on him...) so I pulled out that bag and took it downstairs with me.

Last year I had been fortunate enough to find an Ashford 32" rigid heddle loom with the old-style stand that has the little shelves on each side.  The loom was $175 and came with a good variety of parts.  If you don't know about weaving on a rigid heddle loom you should know that they are set up to use stick shuttles to wrap your yarn on for weaving the weft threads.  For the 16" rigid heddle loom, I use a boat shuttle which came with it. That loom and accessories were WAY WAY more expensive than this 32" loom but did have several heddles in different sizes, etc and would have cost a couple hundred dollars more if I had tried to buy everything new.  So this loom seemed like a good idea and was only a four-hour round trip to pick it up.

So...first thing yesterday morning I was ready to
warp the loom--which means putting the yarn on the loom through the heddle slots which will be the warp threads, as in the threads that run north and south in your project.  The weft threads are the east/west threads in your weaving.  Well, last week one day I decided how long the warp threads needed to be to give me the shawl length that I wanted and had measured the kitchen from the end of the island where the warping pegs would go to where the loom needed to be sitting to get that length.  I meant to take a picture of this but was so into warping that I just carried on to the next steps.

Here is the loom all warped up.  You recall that I said I was using up yarn?!  Those are all five different yarns. The things they have in common are: 1.  They were very cheap on sale...$1.26-$1.86  per ball, 2.  they were colors that I did not think would look terrible going together, but that was not high on my list of criteria for choosing them, and 3. I thought there would be plenty to warp the loom and weave the shawl.  Well, that dog did not fly! 

From right to left in the photo, they were all full skeins. They all except the lefthandmost yarn(that yarn was meant to be weft!) seemed to have lots of yarn in the ball.  Turns out, they were not even close.  Actually, looking at the photo, I guess that is not true...but I did think I had enough of the second and third balls to completely warp the loom.  Math was never my strong point...!

Anyway, I did get the loom warped and ready to go. The next step was to wind the warp onto the loom.  Usually you want to wind paper or some other separator in with the winding on process so the threads do not fall into each other.  This is probably especially important with wool yarns because wool loves to snuggle in together with its neighbor which would make weaving more difficult. This is acrylic yarn which came into being all those years ago to mimic wool yarn and be more price friendly. 

In the photo you can see one piece of rolled paper hanging down.  That is the leftover from the separator/winding on process. I didn't want to cut the paper because I might want to weave a longer length of fabric next time.  On the side where you do not see paper hanging down, the pieces of paper I used were all used up by that point. Actually there were several shorter lengths of paper that I used.

I moved the loom over to my chair in the living room next and started threading up.  Threading up is when you take one of the threads from the slot you had pulled the warp thread through and thread  it into the hole in the heddle to the right of the slot.  This enables you to make a shed where, when you move the heddle up and down, the threads in the slot go one way and the threads in the holes go the other way...up and down.  The space in between those is called the shed which is where you slide the shuttle through.  In this case the shuttle must be a stick shuttle as you cannot "shoot" a boat shuttle through as there is nothing to slide it on like there is on a floor loom which has a little "shelf" for running the boat shuttle along.

So now, finally,  we get to the "no place to go". My plan for the day had been to warp the loom first thing and then when I finished a taxing "fifteen" I would rest in front of the loom and do a fifteen weaving.  If I did all the fifteens I had written in my journal as the plan for the day, and did fifteen minutes in between each of them weaving, I was thinking I might actually get the shawl finished by bedtime. DID.NOT.HAPPEN!

Why did it not happen you ask, because I had not noticed that I did not have a 32" stick shuttle.  What a dope!  If I had checked things out when I first thought of weaving a shawl a couple of weeks ago, I would have known I needed to get one or more.  SO...I went to The Woolery's website and tried to order an Ashford 32" stick shuttle.  Did not have any available.  So I checked out Kromski stick shuttles. They were in stock.  I ordered two.  It was a bit wrenching because I am a brand loyal person. I really like Ashford.  They make good things that hold up.  Things I have: Ashford Traveller spinning wheel, Ashford E-Spinner 3, Ashford 16" rigid heddle loom, Ashford 32" rigid heddle loom, Ashford 10" SampleIt rigid heddle loom (Dear One's project), and multiple smaller accessories for the looms.  Brand loyal with good reason!  These tools work very well.  If I had a problem, Ashford answers emails and maybe even phone calls.  I won't swear to it, but I think I called them once.

When I was looking for the stick shuttles and realized I needed to get the Kromski brand I remembered that I had talked  with Kromski America before I found the first used rigid heddle loom.  I had thought I would purchase one of their looms but then the 16" Ashford fell into my lap.

So now we wait for UPS to come next week sometime, hopefully, then I will get back to the weaving project.  Maybe by then I will have completed a few other pressing projects and will be able to just sit down and spin.  Based on the math problems as I was warping, I am unsure if there will be enough of the weft balls of yarn.  The cream ball is half used. I have two black-ish skeins of the same type of boucle-like yarn but have no idea if there will be enough to finish the shawl.  If not, then I will figure something else out about weft yarn.  I WILL NOT BUY MORE YARN.  I am saying this out loud for my benefit, not yours. I just need to continually remind myself that I have enough yarn,  that I have to use up the yarn in the house NOW!  What a feeling that will be.  I will feel very virtuous if I get there.  No, I will feel very virtuous WHEN I get there.  Hopefully before Christmas.

HandKnit Socks and Compression Stockings!!

 A few days ago I put all my used hand knit wool socks and compression stockings in a bin of water with Eucalan jasmine soap.  This is a no-rinse soap. I like it.  I let them soak for about 30 minutes then drain lightly.  Since I learned that our washing machine has a "Drain and Spin" cycle I have been using it every time I wash the socks.  These socks have been washed, drained, "drain and spin" cycled and now are lying on the towel on the guest bed breathing in the fresh air.  

As you can see, I just went with the photo as is instead of cropping out the "real" stuff!  In the foreground you can see the clippy hair things that I use to attach ends of yarn skeins to keep them organized.  In the background you can see a big pile of pillows I threw off the bed so the socks can complete drying...

One of my favorite hand knit socks has disappeared.  You can tell that my planned organization project has not come to total fruition!

Better Three-Stitch Knit Bobble

 The Golden Hour shawl that I am making for the Relief Society room closet is coming along.  There are seven sections to the shawl.  I am using up yarn! At this point I am working on the second strip which includes two rows of bobbles (which is Section Six!!).  The first strip of bobbles had very ho-hum bobbles.  I saw a video about making bobbles then I saw another one.  Both were making five-stitch bobbles.  This shawl pattern uses three-stitch bobbles.

As you can see, the upper bobbles are rather wimpy-looking.  The lower bobbles really pop out.

Sadly, I did not keep track of the videos I watched.  I was so excited to see the techniques that I just went for them.  Maybe one day I will make a little video showing how I do them.  In the meantime, here is text describing my process.

Knit to the spot where you want the bobble.  The pattern calls for KFBF (knit in the front, then knit in the back, then knit in the front of the same stitch again before taking it off the left needle.  The girl whose video I watched suggested to Knit, Purl, Knit in the same stitch instead before taking off the needle and proceeding with the bobble.  So much better.  Well, a little bit neater anyway.

Next step is to knit back backwards!  Yes!  You can do it.  Go to YouTube and find instructions which may be better than what I say.  Elizabeth Zimmermann is the first person I heard speak of knitting back backwards.  THIS MEANS YOU NEVER NEED TO PURL AGAIN IN FLAT KNITTING!      Such a convenient thing.

Basically what I did was to insert the left needle into the back of the stitch on the right needle, wrap the working yarn around then pull the stitch off the needle.  Slick as a whisker!

Next you will knit back from right to left.  (This is your third row of knitting...(first row:making three stitches out of one stitch, second row: knitting back backwards --or you can turn your work and purl but I don't do that anymore-, third row: just knit the stitches.  Finally you bind off.)

Now "bind off" the stitches:  as in-- insert the left needle tip into the front of the second stitch on the right needle and lift it off over the first stitch on the right needle.  Now with the left needle tip, insert into front of the third stitch on the right hand needle and lift it over the first stitch.  You now have one stitch on the needle having gone from three stitches to one stitch.

The thing that makes the bobble really pop out is next:  take the working yarn and move it between the needle and the bobble, bring it around the bottom of the bobble and behind the bobble  then insert the right needle tip into the next stitch on the left needle and pull the working yarn tight and knit the next stitches until you get to the next stitch for the next bobble placement.  You are basically strangling the little bobble.  It works great.  Maybe soon I will try to make a video if this seems unclear.  Let me know!

Zipper-Topped Fully Lined One-Yard Project Bag: Easy

A few months ago I decided to start the organization process for all the knitting and other projects going on. I became annoyed at all the plastic bags hanging around and since the Hobby Lobby had a 40 percent off fabric sale that week and zippers for 99 cents, I headed over. I purchased three one-yard lengths of cotton quilting fabric plus three colorful 22" zippers and took them home.

First thing I did was cut off about a 3" piece of fabric across the top of the fabric with the fabric still folded.

one yard fabric with 3" cut off top

Second: I cut off the open end of that strip about 6"-8" long.  The part that still had the fold in it was the perfect piece to make a handle.  With right sides together, sew along both raw edges at one-quarter inch.  Turn and press, then, using a thin dowel, I pushed the folded end through then pressed the strap flat. (On other bags I have left out the pressing step, but if you want a nicer-looking bag, press it.

on the right you see the two raw edges pieces and on the left the folded piece for the strap

Third:  Fold in the fabric on both bottom and top raw edges to make a nice fold then press.  Pressing here makes it easier to sew in the zipper.  I have done it without pressing, just using pins, but this does not look as nice.  You can fold in however much you want but I usually fold in 1/4" to 1/2" which gives plenty of fabric to attach to the zipper.

edges folded in and pressed

Fourth:Hold the closed zipper up to  short side of the bag, then with the zipper about 1.5" to 2" in from the left edge/zipper pull side of the bag-to-be,  unzip the zipper a few inches then cut off the zipper tape just past the metal stopper.  Place one of the two short pieces of fabric folded over the end of the zipper tape then sew straight across with a 1/4" seam.  There will be excess fabric on both sides of the zipper tape. Leave it for now.  Do the same for the other end of the zipper tape--cut off the excess zipper table about two inches in from the end then fold the second piece of fabric over the end of the tape (it is easier if you do not pull the tape apart at this point!) and stitch across at 1/4" seam allowance.  I usually stitch, back stitch, then stitch across the zipper one more time so there are three rows of stitching securing the zipper to the fabric.

zipper cut off ready for fabric extension

fabric extension pinned to zipper ends

zipper with extensions sewn to fabric

excess zipper extension fabric being removed

Fifth: Time to sew in the zipper. Now is the time to cut off the excess fabric so that the fabric extension piece is the same width as the zipper tape.  Take one end of the fabric piece with the nicely pressed folded-in fabric and lay the zipper face down on the fabric with the little zipper fabric extension lined up with the edge of the large folded fabric.  Carefully sew along the zipper tape using a zipper foot.  OR you can do it extremely carefully with your regular presser foot but be prepared to kick yourself for not taking the time to find and attach your zipper foot. I will assume you know that when sewing in a zipper you cannot sew past the zipper pull...you have to sew to a few stitches before the closed zipper pull, leave the needle in the fabric, then raise the presser foot and carefully move the zipper pull back the way you had been sewing to get it out of the way, then put the presser foot down again and continue sewing to the end of the zipper fabric extension.

Sixth: If you want to topstitch along the zipper, now is the time to do it easily.  Once your have sewn in the other side of the zipper you will have to open the zipper fully in order to topstitch.

Seventh: You are now ready to sew the other side of the zipper. Bring up the bottom of the big fabric piece and pin the zipper the same way you did the first side, with the zipper facing down.  You will probably notice at this point that you are making a double thick/lined project bag as easily as anything!  You will be pinning the second pressed folded-in edge to the zipper and the zipper pull will now be on your right...  Go ahead and stitch the same as before.

here the second bag end is pinned to other side of zipper ready to sew in

Eighth:  With the outsides of the bag held together, unzip the zipper about half way across. Take your little strap that you made in step two and, with the two ends together, pin them about 2"-3" down from the zipper with the folded over end of the strap well to the inside of the bag.  Feel free to let those two ends extend outside of the bag.  You can trim them off later.  Pin down the length of the bag, until about three inches from the bottom.  At that point, put your thumb in the bottom of the seam and push up to make a little pleat 1-1.5" at the bottom and pin in place.  Pin the other side of the bag with the zipper fabric extension folded together then pin down the bag and make another little pleat at the second bottom edge.  This becomes boxing for your bag without all the measuring and cutting, etc.

the ends of the strap are  almost ready to be trimmed off

these are the pleats in the bottom of the bag for boxing...always pin together then stitch across at least twice

Ninth:  Sew along both edges at 1/4" to 1/2",  whatever pleases you.  Backstitch at the top then at the bottom, stitch over the "boxing" pleat at least twice.  I do it three times.

here is the nice "boxing" pleat completed. I like them.

Tenth:  Turn your bag right side out and admire your new fully-lined zipper-topped project bag in the cool fabric you chose!  It is ready to use.  Well, add a key ring to the zipper pull and something to pull (I used a clippy thing because it was handy and useful.)

q

 PS After you make a few bags, you can make one in about 30, unless you are fastidious about pressing, then it will take a little longer.

Cute Tiny Crocheted Carrots

 A few weeks ago I saw a crocheted carrot. I thought it was darling and decided to try one.  It was made from a granny square...one of the simplest of crochet projects...just a magic ring, chain stitches, single crochet stitches, double crochet stitches, and slip stitches.  Could not be easier once you know how to do all those basic stitches.  A bit of a learning curve when you start but I think we can learn about anything we really want to, though it may take a great deal of effort sometimes.

Here is a picture of a single carrot with two little treats inside and a bunch more filled carrots in my first ever zippered clear vinyl pouch!  Pretty happy with the pouch even though it is far from perfect.  There are more in the future!  Happy enough with the carrots.

The first carrot I made was about five inches square.  It was too big and open to put treats inside so I went down a couple hook sizes --to a 3.5 mm crochet hook--and made these 3" squares.  They worked like a charm.

To see the whole pattern, in case you want to make some spring carrots, go to my Ravelry project page.

Lock Out Annoyance!

 Saturday morning I leapt out of bed early, something I NEVER do on Saturday, because a friend who has been working towards baptism for a year and a half was ready for baptism and I did not want to miss it.  I thought it the ideal time to get rolling again on the newest health kick by walking over to church.  If I walk really fast I can get there in 18 minutes.  If I saunter and don't build up a sweat, something to be deplored when going into company, it takes me about 23 minutes.

Because I did not want to get lathered up, I walked out our front door with my headphones on listening to the latest of the Nick Hawkes book series I had been reading (The Syrian Stone) and happily locked the door behind me and started up the driveway pushing my nice purple "stroller".  I had barely stepped onto the driveway when I realized I did not have my keys. I also did not have my purse.  Even worse, I did not have my phone.  They were all sitting sedately on the dining room table where I had placed them before un-garaging the stroller from the front window.

Rats!  And I mean, RATS!!!  I rang the doorbell a hundred times...well, not that many but many times, knowing absolutely that it was going to do me no good as Dear One was upstairs at the back of the house (the pond side of the house) watching the Saturday morning news or some other thing that caught his attention.  No luck with ringing the door bell so I started banging on the door.  A lot.  Really loudly.  I knew that would not work either, but I kept it up for a while, hoping to hear his feet in the hallway.  No such luck.

At that point--five or eight minutes into this fiasco, I decided to walk around to the back of the house and knock on the sliding glass door on the deck.  Tried it.  Nothing happened.  Kept trying it. Still nothing happened.  I happened to glance toward the pond and our blueberry plants and saw the water hose!  Great idea!

Carefully got down the steps of the deck and walked down to pick up the hose.  The water was on so I started spraying water on the upstairs window beside his recliner.  I kept changing the water pattern and finally got one that seemed pretty solid.  I kept after the window,  getting closer, and all the while water was running down my arm and so pleasantly running into my armpit and drenching my nice church dress.  I gave it up, shut off the hose and walked back around to the front of the house ready to give up and just sit on the front porch in a snit.

Just as I got around to the porch the front door inched open!  I blasted through the door, grabbed my purse, moved my stroller back into the house, thanked Dear One for opening the door, then said I would have to take the car since by now there were only about ten  or twelve minutes to get to the baptism, and I flew out of there.

The church parking lot only had six cars in it so I did a U-turn and drove over to Bojangles for a quick  breakfast burrito.  I have learned that blood sugar goes up even if you don't eat first thing in the morning, and I had had not one tiny taste of food.

Came back to the parking lot and found about ten cars in the lot so I quickly swallowed the last of that burrito and went on it, hoping that I had sucked all the remaining breakfast from my teeth.  It was 10:02.  I walked in with a new friend who I really like.  We sat together and chatted until 10:35...when the baptism  program finally started.  I have no idea why it was so late starting.  I also realized that I would have had time to walk over after all.  Oh well.

Maybe the next time I plan to walk will work. I had decided to walk over Sunday morning, but it was raining.  I don't mind a little mist, but walking to Church in the rain, certain to sit in wet clothes for two hours is not on my list of desirable activities.  The sun was shining when we were ready to leave but by then we had been away from home for more than four hours and I was bushed.  (We had opened the FamilySearch Center after Church meetings for the first time.  Maybe half a dozen people stopped in to chat.  It wasn't genealogy but it was current family history and so sweet to be there to listen.

The beautiful blossoming tree photo is something I have recently seen. I think it was Saturday when I was on my way to Church from Bojangles but I won't swear to it.

Monday Morning Sights

 Early in the morning you can see some lovely sights.  A recent morning I thought I saw the sunrise then lifted the blinds in the room and took this photo.

It was so wonderful to see the sun come up a few moments at a time and shine on the tree closest to our house.  How I love the morning!

Food Friday: DIY Angel Cake with Confetti

 For years and years our family celebrated birthdays with either a No-Bake Lime Cheesecake or a Confetti Angel Cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

This year I could not find the Confetti Angel Cake mix at the Food Lion (and was too much of a lazy slug to go to the work of making the cheesecake...maybe next birthday!) Since I was pretty much at the end of my rope when I got to that aisle of the grocery story, I just got a regular angel cake and made some DIY changes to make the "confetti angel cake".  It worked!

This is how I did it:  in the Bosch mixer I placed the package of angel cake mix and 1.25 cups of filtered water and whipped for nearly two minutes.  When the time was up I dumped in 3 Tablespoons of Sprinkles and stirred them in. Using an angel cake pan I dumped in the batter, gave the pan a solid tap on the counter then put in the pre-heated 350 degree F oven on the lowest rack for 33 minutes.  The top was only mildly browned so I returned to oven for about 5 more minutes then removed the pan, turned it bottom side up on the counter then let the cake cool for 1.5 hours.  When the cake was completely cool I used the slim sharp knife to run around the outer rim of the cake pan then the inner tube and let the cake fall onto a plate.  Here is the cake after the first slice was cut for the birthday boy.

We serve this cake with sliced, sugared strawberries and topped with sweetened whipped cream.  So yummy to those who have a sweet tooth!

Emotional Support Chicken #8...a Giant!

 Since Dear One received his moose on Monday I have been knitting up a storm.  Three days, quite a few partial balls of yarn, and a full bag of fiberfill...and a giant Emotional Support Chicken is ready to hop into a box and head west.

Here she is:

This chicken was knitted using two strands of worsted weight yarn held together and using US #10 knitting needles.  This is the largest chicken yet. I hope its recipient likes it.  It made me happy to knit it.  I can say that the comb is the best one I have made so far.  This is acrylic yarn rather than the wool scraps I have used for every other chicken I have made.  It was a little taxing on my old hands but worth the effort.

A Darling Bull Moose!

Yesterday I arrived home from a foray out of the house...though at the moment I cannot remember why I had ventured out...and checked the mailbox for a parcel that was supposed to arrive over the weekend and did not.  There was nothing in the mailbox.  I asked Dear One if there was any mail...sometimes mail comes in when I am gone and is not easily visible...!  He told me a couple of ads came in.  There was a box at the table with a brown something wrapped in plastic.  He said it had his name on it but it was clearly mine since it was yarn.

WELL!!!  Wrong on all counts!  I could not remember ordering anything brown yarn, though I really do love brown yarn and fabric.  As I started to take the plastic off to unroll the brown yarn (I would rather spin brown yarn!), I noticed the word "moose" on the label and instantly I remembered the adorable moose our daughter-in-law had given our oldest son for Valentine's Day...and handed the package to Dear One to continue opening it.  He was mystified.  I pointed out that our son frequently sends birthday gifts and the lightbulb went off!

Here is that darling bull moose Dear One received as a birthday gift from our oldest son. 

Here he is outside on the front porch.  I wonder if we will have a name soon.  Bullwinkle is a bit...cliched...I suppose.

You will fall over dead if I tell you the next thing...but I have to let you know again what a kind loving generous man I have been married to for almost fifty-two years.  He said to me after seeing his moose and holding him for a moment, "You need to make a chicken for our son."  I believe I will!

 

Food Friday: Fresh Fruit and Dry Oatmeal. Amazingly Good!

 One of my favorite breakfasts is a bowl of dry oatmeal with a few fresh blueberries and some sliced fresh grapes. It sounds nasty but is really good.  Refreshing, and good for the body.  It is said to assist in cleaning cholesterol from the body. Sadly, I have not eaten it enough times in a row to verify.  If I start again today, and eat it every day until my next blood work,  then I will be able to actually verify.  I think.

Here is a small bowl of oatmeals, green grapes, and blueberries.  Good stuff.  Even Dear One eats it but he prefers to add milk...

My Favorite Bird Feeder Which Does Not Invite Squirrels To Sup on the Bird Seed

We have often had bird feeders during our life together.  We love birds though we are not "birders".  Often in Vermont the squirrels got more bird seed than that birds, which always distressed me.  The reason is that squirrels are able to store up food for winter but birds only store what they can eat day by day.

Now we have ( and have had for a couple of years) a bird feeder that is strictly for the birds.  Don't get me wrong, squirrels enjoy the seed, but only the seed that falls to the ground.

Here is the feeder, and then pictures of it taken of it while it is apart so you can see how it assembles and why the squirrels cannot get into the feeder.  It cost $50 and has been well worth the cost.  

Bad picture.  I don't have life enough to get up and take another picture at the moment...

This is the feeder disassembled into three parts--the inner reservoir for seeds, the outer casing which keeps the squirrels away, and the little green handle with a triangular top to hang on the cast iron hanger.

Here you can clearly see the outer casing has been replaced over the bird seed reservoir and the rod sticking up with a hole in it for the covered rod to be inserted then hung on the "tree hanger".

This shows the covered rod being inserted into the hole and when flipped up will attach to the tree hanger and keep the hole from rusting out in the rain,

We are so happy with this feeder because both the birds and the squirrels benefit in their own separate ways.  You will notice the white plastic bucket  which is where we store the bird seed.  It is a two-gallon bucket with a Gamma Seal cover.  If you don't know Gamma Seals, and if you store things in two-gallon or five-gallon buckets, you need to research those Gamma Seals.  We have used them for many many years and love them.  They give your buckets screw-off covers. I used to destroy my fingernails and fingers trying to get the miserable covers off buckets.  Now I don't!

OH! IMPORTANT NOTE:  The reason the squirrels cannot get into this feeder is that when they climb onto the little footholds, the weight of the squirrel makes the outer casing slide down over the food tray at the bottom of the inner seed reservoir!  So smart.  There are other feeders, I think by the same company who, when a squirrels weight shows up on the feeder  the weight causes the feeder to twirl around really fast flinging the squirrel away. I could not bear to do that.  I might be mean, but I am not THAT mean!

Wednesday Wonders: A Recipe That Passed The Test!!

 Recently I saw a few episodes of Brand New Vegan on YouTube.  Also I saw someone reviewing recipes from Chuck Underwood's book about vegan comfort foods.  Since Dear One is leaning more towards plants again, I decided to give another look at Brand New Vegan.  This the recipe I tried:

My Grandson's Favorite Air Fried Tofu (I will let you go to the link to get the actual recipe...)

Extra firm tofu (I used Super Firm tofu in case I did not have time to press it, which time I did have so it was a moot issue...)

For the marinade:

Soy sauce
Vegetable broth (I used water and some  teriyaki sauce to give it a little flavor)
Minced garlic
Rice vinegar
Maple syrup
Cornstarch

For the "breading":

Granulated garlic

Granulated onion

Smoked paprika

Cornstarch

These are the ingredients from Chuck's recipe.  The process is to slice the block of tofu in half horizontally and set it to draining on paper towels on top of a cutting board with another cutting board and more paper towels on top then a heavy item. I used the cute little 6" Lodge cast iron skillet and the even cuter heart-shaped  Lodge cast iron skillet as the pressing agents.

Chuck puts the marinade ingredients in a quart jar with a cover then adds the pressed  and diced tofu and shakes and lets rest, shakes and lets rest, for a quite a while so the tofu can soak up the flavor.

Next he puts the breading into a gallon ziplock bag along with the drained-from-the-marinade-tofu and shakes gently until all the tofu is covered in the breading.  Bake 400 degrees F in an air fryer for 15-20 minutes, shaking the basket every five minutes to keep from sticking.

At that point I varied from his plan.  We had some leftover matchstick carrots, half a sliced sweet onion, and half a chopped red pepper.  I poured a tiny bit of olive oil in the frying pan, added the vegetables and started cooking them while the tofu was in the air fryer.  By the time the tofu was about done, so were the vegetables cooked enough to be pleasant to eat. I added the tofu and the leftover marinade to the pan and cooked until all the vegetables and tofu were nicely covered with sauce.

Finally I poured this over some Ramen noodles I had cooked in plain water without the seasoning packet and mixed them all together.

I put it on the table and let Dear One serve himself.  He took a serving.  Then he took ANOTHER serving.  And if that was not enough, he said, "This is pretty good."  That is not something we hear in this house very often!  Made me happy.

This is not a good picture but you get the idea.  Go for it. It really is pretty good.

Updated Wreath Again...

 Here is the newest iteration of the St. Patrick's wreath hanging on the front door.

It still looks kind of icky but that is all I had time for over the weekend.  Two puff flowers in green from Hooked By Robin on Youtube,   Two periwinkles from  the Knitted Flowers book...the green one was knit in worsted weight acrylic on US 5 needles and the purple one was knit with two strands of two different purples held together and using US 9 needles.  I did not put a different colored center in the purple flower.

Things are beginning to close in on me busyness-wise but I hope to post again soon, even if it is just a photo.  Best to all.

PS. If someone has ideas on how to make the wreath attractive, just make the suggestions and I will try to do it.  I really am not at all clever but I can make stuff that is suggested to me....

Knitting Set Up, Upstairs and Down

As I have aged I have found that there are some things that make my hobbies more enjoyable and productive.  One thing that has really helped is a metal music stand with magnetic strips. I can put pattern pages on the music stand and place the magnetic strips strategically to keep track of my place in the pattern or on the chart.  Works like a charm...unless I have several pages then the magnetic connection is tenuous and can fall off.  This always aggravates me and reminds me to "just do it right"!  Which means have only the one sheet of the pattern on the music stand and everything else organized elsewhere.

This is the set up!  The music stand is to my right with my headset waiting for me to use listening to an audio book if Dear One is watching something on the television.  I have my pattern for the mug rugs there with the line magnet at the top. (Hopefully I was successful in blanking out that pattern since it was a paid for pattern. I do not ever want to violate copyright.  People work very hard to create and if they want to be paid, far be it from me to take away their remuneration.)  There are stitch markers on the little wire arms that help hold the pattern pages to the stand.  The aqua lanyard has a small pair of very sharp scissors  attached and a little bottle which has a set of large tapestry needles for weaving in ends. (I feel very smart about that bottle--it is an empty pill bottle.  I got out the Dremel tool and drilled two tiny holes in the top of the cover then inserted some yarn in and made a loop to hang up the bottle.  Works great.).   There is also a pencil which I use for making a little chit sheet when I am making things like the purple periwinkle flower that is going on the front door wreath soon. You can see the chit marks for two different periwinkles. You can also see the television in the upper left.  When Dear One is not watching something, I use my phone to "cast" YouTube videos up there to keep me company and teach me stuff.  I love to learn new useful things.  

Speaking of learning useful stuff--I think I heard through the grapevine that a dear old lady friend in town is getting one or more sheep!  Yay!  I am looking forward to finding someone local who will give or sell me a fleece from time to time after they shear.  I am hoping she wants sheep to graze her lawn, and not necessarily for their fleeces....Does that sound bad?  I want to become a good enough spinner that I can  consistently spin yarn worthy of  knitting into useful garments.

Also in this photo you can see a new book that arrived this weekend:  Teach Yourself Visually -Sock Knitting.  I just saw yesterday that the deadline for Sock Madness was two weeks ago.  Probably just as well I missed it. I used to participate every March or at least for a couple or three years. I did a lot of sock knitting and learned a lot.  Eventually I gave those socks away.  Now I have sock yarn again and have socks on the needles all the time, ready to put in a few rounds at the drop of a hat.  I would REALLY be happy if I could spin reliable sock yarn!  But I don't expect that will happen.

Also in the photo you see a nice orange sunflower-y project bag. I "designed" my own zippered project bag.  I made about a dozen of them in different colors.  I do love them.  They are all filled with projects. This is in an effort to organize myself and prepare every needful thing.  Does it count if the bags are all full?!

So that is it for today.  One day I will put up the pattern instructions for the project bags.  You need one yard of cotton fabric and one 22' plastic teeth zipper.

Out With The Old, In With The Updated!

 So Valentine's Day has come and gone so it was time to take down the heart-shaped wreath on the front door.  

Last year I had made a sort-of St. Patrick's Day wreath.  It was not so hot, but it was a decoration.  I put it up earlier this week but felt it was lacking in....character?  Or something else....so today I picked up a couple of balls of cotton yarn that needed to find a new home and tuned in to Hooked By Robin on YouTube. I really like that girl.  She is a wonderful crochet teacher.  Even the beginning-est beginner can create lovely crochet items by following her instructions.

Here is the wreath from last year hanging on the door.  Not so hot, but still, a decoration instead of a plain black door.

This is the rather pitiful flower I made following Hooked By Robin this afternoon in a short time.  (Sometimes a quick project is what you have time for but if you want a truly lovely result, more time is needed.  Like today. Oh, well.  Soon.) You will note that it is nowhere near as vibrant as the flower I made last year to go along with the "silk flowers" from Hobby Lobby.

Here is the updated wreath.  Still it is not so hot but I am happy enough with it for this afternoon.  I will look for some more patterns to use and some more vibrant yarns...which I am pretty sure I have!  After all, I am in process of organizing the yarn collection and should be able to find just what I am looking for, right...?!

NOTE:  The Hooked By Robin video I linked to above is not the flower I used but I did not quickly find that video so I shared this one.  I do like that puff flower and think I might give it a go and see what happens.  Stay tuned!