Ravelry, Rain, Smoky Mountain Spinnery & Turnip Greens

Alas, I've been in Ravelry about two weeks. It's big, very big. Sufficient is the description is all I have time to say about it today.

We got some very refreshing rain this week. Thank the Lord! \O/ We needed it badly.
(Note the drops of rain on the turnip greens below. :)

Ain't it purty..I got this beautiful yarn a few months ago, and I thought I'd share the picture since I had it loaded for my Stash folder in Ravelry. Consider it the "flower" of the week pic. ;)

I've been asked several times if there were any yarn stores in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, so I'm a-tellin' y'all, happily, there is a lovely little shop in Gatlinburg called Smoky Mountain Spinnery. The owner is helpful and pleasant. Here's the address and a pic of the store:
SMOKY MOUNTAIN SPINNERY In Winery Square
456 Brookside Village Way
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
(865) 436-9080
email: smokymtnspinnery@aol.com
Actually, I got the yarn pictured above at the Spinnery. If you get a chance to visit the shop check out the owner's cash register. It's a beauty from bygone days. Here's a picture of the back of the shop which is in the back of Winery Square, not visible from the main road. Call ahead for directions, Y'all. They're ready! My turnip greens are finally ready to be picked and eaten. I can see these on my plate; all cooked & seasoned & gone in a heartbeat. :) Have a great weekend, Y'all. :)

Wonderful Weather in the South, Y'all & UFOs

We're having wonderful weather in the South! It was a long time coming this year, but I'm so glad the temperatures are finally in the 70s and 80s in the daytime and dipping into the 50s at night. Yay! I'll be having to bring this begonia in the house soon, but I'm so ready for fall. I don't have anything to show you that I've finished since last week, so I thought I'd show you a few(chuckle) of my UFOs (unfinished objects) I'm finally getting back into knitting socks. I ran into a wonderful sock tutorial with loads, I mean loads of pictures so you know you're on the right track all the way through the process. It's called Silver's Sock Class. She has tutorials on different methods of knitting socks. Check it out; you'll be glad you did. I'm using one size 4 circular needles and an old ball of Lion Brand Imagine yarn. I'm using sport weight yarn because it's been so long since I knitted a pair of socks I thought I should start with something thicker than sock weight yarn. I'm not sure if I'm liking this method better than using double point needles though. I'll let you know when they're finished.I ran across this when I was looking for something else earlier this week. This 1/4 finished Shells & Lace afghan has been in the UFO bin for over a year. I'm using Caron Simply Soft yarn with a G crochet hook. At the time I started it I wanted to make a much larger afghan for someone, and this one just wasn't going to be large enough so I squirreled it away for later. Now, I'm working on it again..looks like it's going to take awhile to finish.
The afghan pattern is from an old Leisure Arts booklet called Victorian Beauties. It's the one shown in blue below. It's a great booklet, easy to understand, and I like most of the patterns.

Here are more of the mints that I made for a baby shower last weekend; buggies, bears, bottles and pins. Tney were made by pushing mint dough into a rubber mold and turning it out onto waxed paper. It's easy but time consuming.
Have a good week, Y'all!

Two Finished Projects

Thank you for visiting my blog; and Happy Autumn even though it's still a bit warm here in the South. We're still looking forward to red and yellow leaves on the trees and cooler temperatures.I used Homespun yarn and knitted this shawl 20 inches wide and 6 feet long. It's just plain garter stitch, but it's very soft and warm; and the color is one of my favorites. Susan's prairie shawl that you can see at her blog Chipmunk Knits was the inspiration for this one. Her pattern is in the comments section of her blog under the brown shawl. Thanks, Susan!
(Okay, inquiring minds wanted to know: Cast on 55 sts and knit till the end of 3 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun yarn. Cast off; weave in the ends. go for it, y'all)

It's done at last, my crocheted Mile-a-Minute afghan. It's folded here, so you can't see that it's twelve strips wide, but it is. Have a big, beautiful banana baby buggy, Y'all. They're delicious; I'm making these mints for a baby shower that our youngest is hostessing this weekend. I'll show you a pic of the bears, bottles and pins next time. :) They're fun to make. The grandgals beg to get to help make them. Don't tell them it's work.

The plant I mentioned a few posts ago is mullein. It grows just about anywhere, especially along the roadside. It's great for putting an end to the terrible hacking & coughing that comes with colds and flu. I dry the leaves, crumble, and store them in a tin; then when the cold winds blow I'm ready and can make a tea with them. I use 1 tsp. mullein per cup of boiling water; steep 5 mins. and flavor with honey and lots of lemon. There's an abundance of herbs just outside the door just waiting for us to check them out. Have an herb-y week, Y'all.

National Museum of USAF & Flea Market Trip

Last weekend we took a little road trip to the Cincinnati, Ohio area. We toured two huge flea markets where I found these beautiful doilies. (Somebody's not appreciating their grannie's talent, but that's okay; I do.) I got these beauties for a quarter each at Turtle Creek flea market. See link below. Another great find at the same market is Mama's basket. The young man who sold this to me for $3 said his mama wasn't there so he would make me a deal. He did, and we were both happy.

We found the local Michael's craft store after the flea marketing was finished. I found these 12 skeins of Moda Dea yarn for $1 each. It's 75% wool/22%acrylique/3% polyester. I was thinking of making a felted tote, but I'm not sure it'll work well with the unfeltable gold thread in there. Any ideas what I could make with them?

The entrance to the USAF Museum.

We took in two very large flea markets, Turtle Creek and Traders' World and the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Really, I wasn't a huge fan of either the markets or this type of museum, but I did find some nifty things at the flea markets, and I have to say the four hours we spent at the museum were very interesting. I could easily have stayed much longer, surprisingly. The planes are exhibited in a very interesting manner. They span the aviation era of the Air Force from the early bi-planes to the near present.

An early bi-plane used during WWI.How's this for a little color? There were USAF "personnel" (mannequins, of course) on hand servicing the retired planes.
And "officers"barking out orders to get it done right!At the entrance to the WWII exhibit hangs a quilt commemorating the determination of the Holocaust survivors to "never forget." The NASA exhibit is big, very big. This should give you an idea how huge the buildings are for real. If you go; allow yourself a day or even two to see and do everything there. We didn't get to see the films because they were full already. I have a ton of pictures that I took while we were visiting the museum, but they don't hold a candle to being there, really. It was very impressive.