Scrap Wrap & Diamond Cloth

So far nothing has changed on my pc, but blogger & AOL seem to be getting along this mornin' so I'm taking advantage of the temporary truce.

Susan liked my cast iron skillet so well that I decided to show her a few of my cast iron treasures that are a bit more interesting than my stack of skillets. Left to right are an antique mortar & pestle that Goodman bought for me at a flea market; a gingerbread house pan that has molds on the other side, too; a snowman bank, how do you like them boxing glove sized mittens?; and lastly, my cast iron napkin holder, another flea market find from Goodman.
I was inspired to knit this wrap after seeing fluffyknitster's gorgeous one on her blog. The pattern is here. Bertha May is modeling for me, again, thanks Bertha!

Closeup. I used 7 balls of Moda Dea Cache that I found on sale at Micheal's last summer.
It's big, it's fluffy & it's warm. :)

The January Mid-Monthly KAL, Diamonds on Lace. The pattern is here.
Little River that runs through the Great Smoky Mountains.
A big thank you to all who left encouraging comments concerning my bloggin' woes. It's awfully nice to know you're being missed. :) Thanks, again.

Knitlikeyoumeanit, Y'all!!

Happy New Year, Y'all

I love cooking with cast iron, and even though it's heavy, to me it's just downright necessary. What isn't necessary is this newly acquired set of cast iron birds. I found them at a half-price sale.
Cool, huh. Oh, they're talented, too...
They get around.
And they're quite inquisitive...

And they've just formed a quartet.  Here they are singing I'll Fly Away!  (Not bad for 1/2 priced birds.)

Happy New Year to one and all!!
May your knitting needles fly, and may your blessings reach the sky.
(With Irish roots I just can’t help the prose sometimes.;)

Enthrawlin', Completely Enthrawlin'

Feel that chill in the air? We're having a li'l blackberry winter here in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. I don't mind it a bit, though; it sure makes a nice cup of coffee seem extra good. Here's a look at my purple clematis.Goodman and I went to Virginia to see Youngest and her DH over the weekend. We had a good visit with them and a very nice time taking in several of their area nurseries. We stopped at the first two and just enjoyed looking, but at the last one this beautiful hanging basket of petite petunias called Superbells caught my eye almost immediately. Youngest noticed how much I liked them and snapped it up for me for Mother's Day. (It looks even better in person. :)Truly, I'd planned to just look at all the nurseries' offerings, but this burgundy petunia was too pretty to resist. I do love burgundy flowers and petunias especially.
On the way back home we decided to take a back road near the mountains, and what do you think we passed right by? Uh huh, the Lodge Factory Outlet Store in Sevierville. It's one of my favorite places to browse. I could spend a lot of time in there. It takes a while to look at all their cast iron pots and pans and fireplace accessories, etc., but this skillet stood out right away. Yep, those bears followed me all the way home.
Remember the circular shawl I started a few weeks ago? Well, I've run into two problems with it. First, a disheartening mistake further back than the ones I'd already redone, and then..the book that the pattern is in has vanished. I'm at a loss as to what's happened to it and, frankly, I don't want to think about it right now. See, we took four or five boxes of books to the Habitat Thrift Store recently...oh, yeah. Sigh. So, pressing ever onward, I started crocheting this completely enthrawlin' little shawl. The yarn is CotLin from Knitpicks in their Linen colorway. I'm about one-third finished with the body of the shawl and will start the border very soon, hopefully.
Hope your week is a good 'un. :)