Today I visited a dear lady and saw this quote on her wall which she kindly allowed me to photograph:
I love it! I would never say "All work and no play", either. I hope everyone reading this takes time for some play every day. I don't mean spend ALL your time playing but a little play keeps the spirit happy.
Today the sun is shining. The lawnmower man is going to arrive soon. We get to go see the doctor today for Dear One. I like to go because if tattling is needed, I can do it! I think we all have times when we don't want to spill the beans entirely to the doctor because of potential unpleasantness, but... the doctor cannot be useful if she does not know the whole story...thus, I am accompanying!
This weekend I started crocheting granny squares for the first time in ages. Well, I have crocheted a few grannies in past months but only as samples. Now I am crocheting for a project. I hope to get all the squares crocheted this week then join them into a small blanket. We shall see how this goes…
The thing I am doing differently this time is that as soon as the crocheting is completed I am sewing in the ends. This will make for a quicker end to the project.
If you would like to see the specifics you could go to:
Thecountrywife.blogspot.com
There you can see all the projects I am working on and the ones I have finished.
Recently I foolishly purchased another loom...a large (10.5" square loom by Harrisville Designs) potholder loom. I had seen that it was possible to find wool loops, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Immediately I warped up the first batch of loops and have been using the pot mat. It works really well.
Yesterday I looped up the loom for the second mat. Sadly there were six loops missing. I did contact the seller and was assured they would add some loops to the mail asap. I look forward to them arriving soon.
This morning I began another project to use up lots of yarn. I thought! I found three full skeins of I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby in Navy, Medium Mossy Green, and Linen. Well, those might not be the actual names but that is the closest colors I can suggest.
The first order of the day was to empty the kitchen island and scrub it immaculately then measure its length. I thought it was 60" long. Turns out the creators of the island skimped on the length by three inches. Makes me mad if I think about it, but it works so, bucking up here at this late date!
Now came the warping of the 32" Ashford rigid heddle loom. The plan was to make a baby blanket of about 30" by 45". I thought I would use the random 2, 4, 6, 8 warping thread pattern. Which to me meant to start on the two selvedges with 8 ends navy then 2, 4, 6, or 8 white threads, then the same with the green then back to navy and green. So I followed that plan.
In the meantime since the last time I warped the loom I have learned that it is a good idea to have each end thread be in the holes not the slots. This is what I did.
Another tip from a weaver was to take bulky weight yarn and double it over, keeping a loop at the left end of the loom, and using it that way for packing the end of the yarn by the apron rod. I did that, too, and it seemed like such a great idea. When the weaving is done it will be so easy to pull out those threads. And keep them for next weave...
Now it was on to the weaving. I wove a little less than two inches then did the hemstitching then kept on weaving. By the time I had woven 6-7 inches I knew absolutely that I was not going to use this yarn to make a baby blanket. At least not a woven blanket. Sad. Oh well. Good to learn it now.
This yarn was just too nasty for weaving though perfectly fine for washable knitting. I will now take the yarn off the loom and begin a knitting project. Oh well, again.
Today I tried a new-to-us recipe in the VitaMix. The recipe comes from BlendingForGood.com.
Place ingredients in blender jar in order listed:
Today was bloodwork day. I snapped this photo of the wall. Well, three times I tried moving the photo here but it would not work. Here is the quote:
NOTE TO SELF
Your feelings are valid.
Your boundaries are important.
You are doing the best you can.
It is okay to ask for help.
You are worthy and lovable.
You are allowed to say no.
You are capable of amazing things.
It’s okay to start over and try again.
And I will add my own:
You are loved.
How I love our family, our friends, and all the kind people who read this blog and make sweet comments.
❤️🦋🌺❤️
Just love these creative neighbors:
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:
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:
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.
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.
Popovers
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.
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.
Do good. Be good. Do it now!
XOXOX
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!
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…
