So Long, Farewell, Alas Goodbye

2009 - twas a very good year- lookin' on the bright side, that is. (Did the title make you think I was leavin' the bloggin' scene? I might sometime but not just yet. You ain't that lucky...ha ha.)
Have a cheesecake truffle and think on the good things. Youngest made these and did pretty well, I think.
If you haven't had breakfast then have an apple pancake. They're good, too.My stars, yes, this is another ditto post. Another round of six-point stars. This time in two colors.These stars are stiff as boards. I soaked them in liquid starch and pinned them to make the points sharp.
Who knew? Goodman sportin' his fingerless electricians' mitts. And here I thought fingerless mitts were exclusive to our lil knitting world. o.OA red-bellied woodpecker on a grey, gray day.And just like that woodpecker, I'm still hangin' around.
Happy New Year, Y'all!

Lacy, Starry, Flaky

It's been a starry kind of week as I've been crocheting these six-point stars. The tutorial for five-point stars is free at The Royal Sisters. And you may want to check out the other tutorials there; they're very well done. I just added a cluster of doubles and chains on the base row for six-points.
I sprayed them with spray starch and blocked them to sharpen the points in a room-full of bad lighting...oh, it's bad.
Nine starchy stars in a stack.
Nine starchy stars not in a stack.

One hangin' away from the pack.Stringin' along, singin' a song, hangin' out with very frosty friends.... on my old Hoosier cabinet.Hope your week is goin' as cool/cold as mine. :)

Ditto My Last Post, Well...Sorta

We were out-of-town over the weekend and missed our first snow. I hear we got about two inches. This is what was left on the deck Monday morning...just enough to blow the cover of a nightly visitor. 'Coon tracks; they are. :)
I whipped the bindin' on this baby animal print fleece for a gift. Whipped? You wonder. Uh huh, 'cause I've sewn for 40+ years. And I can tell you that even sewing gets easier as you go along; yes, it does. Just wait - someday you'll cross the sewin' bridge from Labored to Whipped just like I did. Tutorial is in the sidebar. See, I'm constantly repeating myself. I should just type ditto and leave. :P The fabric is from Walmart if you're interested in doin' one yourself. (I know, I'm tryin' to boycott that store, too, but I gave in for the fleece. Stone me softly, please.)
This is not the fleece from my last post. No. It's cotton fabric in the same print. Am I blessed or what? Now, to decide...whether we get out the sewin' machine again or...
finish this crocheted ____? You get twenty guesses for what this is going to be, and the first nineteen even don't count. _chuckles_See you next time..the Good Lord willin'. :)

This Blankey's Fer Me

2 posts in the same week = Bloggin' Restitution
Oh sure, there is such a thing... chuckles.. makin' up for lost time, I am. There will be no rakin' leaves for me today. I'm ignorin' those maple leaves on the ground under that stubborn tree and bloggin' instead. Look what great, rich colored fruit and BIRDS (somebody pinch me!) on this fleece fabric.
I grabbed some blanket binding and...some thread and...in just a few hours I had a cozy blanket for my nest on the loveseat.
The tutorial is right there in the sidebar. --------------------------->Fleece & bindin' are at your local craft store.
By the way, two yards fits a twin bed. Go ahead; make a kid happy.
Sew, see you soon, the good Lord willin'. :)

Nick o' Time November Post

Hi, Y'all. It seems like I blinked and missed bloggin' for most of the month of November. Really, it's not my fault. I'm blamin' it on these sugar maple trees and their siblings. Goodman and I have raked and raked, and the end of it just now in sight. One stubborn tree is still hangin' onto most of its leaves...lol.
I've done just a bit of knitting. This is the infamous (here at my blog, anyways) Scalloped Waves Spa Cloth knit with an autumn-y cotton yarn by Peaches and Cream. They named it Juanita Rose, Y'all. o.O No kiddin'. I'd have called it somethin' like pumpkin patch, but they didn't ask me. Ah, well. (Really, who's Juanita? & Where's the rose?)
I really enjoyed knitting this Scalloped Waves Spa Cloth and Daisy Options doily with Lion Brand Purple cotton yarn. Purple is good.
I trimmed the Mr. Flurry pattern down to about 2/3 of the original pattern to make this li'l guy. He has no eyes yet, but I think he's cute anyways. If you try this pattern don't be alarmed if he looks for all the world like a white birdhouse gourd when finished. The hat and scarf make a world of difference in the transformation from yarn-gourd to snowman. Here are his mug shots.Here's (not) lookin' at you. :)
We have a row of holly bushes in our backyard as a good neighbor fence. Goodman found this little bird nest in one so I snapped a pic to show you.
'til next time - Hope your nest is warm and cozy. :)

Two Down...UFOs, That Is

Hey, Y'all. It's a rainy day in the foothills today, but we're busy inside so... let it rain, I say. :)
I've finished a few knitting projects that I had put aside in the UFO (unfinished object) bin.
This is a pair of black, Brown Sheep wool (camera makes them look gray) Fetching fingerless mitts.Toasty mitts from a free pattern. I know I really shouldn't complain about a free pattern, and they are cute now, but... See (below) how the thumb looked before I sewed the holes together using a tapestry needle and the yarn end. I think this is called an after-thought thumb. It's not a true gusset and a bit difficult to hide the holes after the thumb is added. Just my opinion, but I don't really care for this method of making the thumb for mitts. The thumb for Fetching is similar, but with that pattern there are more stitches in the thumb which kept the stitches from straining at the join and made it easier to finish. I do love this soft yarn though. I used a Noro silk/lamb's wool/cashmere yarn, and I'm glad I did. I love them now that the thumbs are under control.
We finally had a frost or two so I harvested my stevia plants.
I pulled off the leaves ready to be cleaned.
Most bugs don't bother stevia, but some li'l gnats do, and then there's the dirt factor so three good washin's after the leaves were stripped from the branches was a must.
I let the leaves dry for about three weeks then pulverized some of the leaves in a blender jar that I use for chopping herbs. I kept most of the leaves back to crush and steep as you would a tea. I'll make a liquid sweetener with those.
Lo, it's green! It's sweet, but really green. My first thought was..I sure hope Goodman will be okay with that. (I did grow the stuff for his sake, afterall.) The commercial stevia he's been using is white, and probably over processed so I thought..we'll see tomorrow mornin' when his coffee is set before him, but nah, he won't go for this. Little green thing-ys in his coffee. Nuh, uh. I better get to brewin' some liquid sweetener from the other leaves for his coffee. I bet I could hide this in something else, though... green cookies?..we'll see.Here's a link if you want to read more about growing, harvesting and using stevia to lower your sugar intake. Hope y'all have the sweetest week ever. :)

Cherohala Skyway Road Trip

Goodman and I took a little road trip last weekend in search of some fall color.
The Cherohala Skyway is a beautiful two-lane roadway that stretches from Tellico Plains in Tennessee to Robbinsville, North Carolina. It runs through the Cherokee National Forest on the Tenn. side and through the Nantahala National Forest on the N. Carolina side. Can you see where they got the name Cherohala for the road? Cherokee is a Muskogee word that means "speakers of another language."The drive is just beautiful in the fall..
We started out from Tellico Plains on our side of the skyway.
All along the way we drank in the autumn hues.
We stopped at several overlooks to take pictures.
A very enjoyable little trip.
Nantahala means "land of the noonday sun."
The highest point of the skyway is in North Carolina at Santeetlah. By the time we reached this point the leaves were all gone so we headed back toward home with one more stop along the way.
On the way up the skyway we were talkin' and missed the turn to Bald River Falls so we went by there on the way back down. This picture was taken from our vehicle. It's a drive-by falls, Y'all. - Gotta love it.
I finished the Fetching Mitts and they're on the way to a new home. Now, I think I may have to rummage through the UFO bin soon and make myself work on something from there. My conscience is just tearin' me to pieces over so many unfinished projects. Ah well, we'll see if my conscience or what I want to knit next wins out. The grandgals were here visiting this week, and Goodman took the oldest along with him on a trip to Tractor Supply Co. Nearby is a pumpkin stand so he let her pick out a pumpkin to take home with them. Hmm...I don't know if I'm a fan of this "colorway" or not. o.O I'm glad I'd already gotten them a plain-jane orange one. Have a great week, Y'all.

Chronicles of Yarnia

My DRT prize package arrived today so I thought I'd let everyone know how my team did in the Dish Rag Tag 2009 competition. Well, we did pretty good if I say so myself. Chronicles of Yarnia was a great team of knitters from all four corners of the USA, and eight out of ten members were able to send the box back out the same day they received it. That's pretty good. My team's box arrived at the finish point the same day another team's box got there. At that point it was out of our hands and up to the postman. Huh? Yep, that's what I said. We won second place instead of first because the postman put the other team's box in Emily's mailbox first. Ah well. It was fun anyway.
Here's the contents of my prize package for 2nd place. There's a knitting gauge measure thingy/key ring, a starbucks gift card and some 'fficial DRT stitch markers. Kelsey knit the dishcloth I received (in record time, I might add.) Thanks, Kelsey! It looks great. And thanks to Emily for puttin' on the best li'l knitting game around.
I've been busy knitting these fingerless mitts from this free pattern using the magic loop method of knitting in the round, (and yes, they will have thumbs where the red and pink stitches are when I finish the cables.) I do like this method of knitting two at the same time. There is no second mitt syndrome to suffer from. When you're done, you're done.
Hope your fall days are full of knitting, pumpkins and beautiful leaves.
'til next time..fare thee well. :)