tasty and crafty bits

 Thrift store frames for husband present.  My father - who used to be a professional photographer - is taking a picture of each kid for inside these, instead of school photos.  I really dislike school photos, stupid expensive and they always seem to look weird. So I popped the backing and the glass out and...

Spray painted them copper, three coats and a matte finish.  $4 present.

 Apple pie with beef fat instead of butter or shortening in the crust. Very flaky and tender. I happened to have the fat - rendering for soap but not actually making soap continues around here - so I figured I'd try it. I did tell them - after they ate it and praised it.

 Scarf finished and about to be wrapped for my uncle. I love the texture.  The yarn was a problem I ran out before the end only to find that the yarn was discontinued.  I was upset, I did not want to rip it to the beginning but what else could I do! Then I was at Joann's on Black Friday - not a bad experience for those of you who have not done that - and saw this lion brand yarn labeled Fisherman's wool, and as I was fairly sure the color was a match and the label stated 100% wool, I grabbed it. I can not tell were one begins and the other leaves off.

 As you can see I remembered to photo it at the last possible moment.

 And this is what I am calling a Scacowl. (Scowl) the table is a yard wide. the scacowl is doubled in the picture and longer than the table. It is so soft and light and pretty! It can be wrapped around the neck three times or twice and having one loop over forehead and ears, sort of a scarf/cowl/necklace.

 A more detailed shot.

And the mohair cowl for my cousin. Back to knitting with one set of hands, wrapping with another and doing craft projects with the kids with the third. Oh wait, only one set of hands, that explains why I am so tired.

Hope your projects are going smoothly and that you too have a friend, who when you tell her you have too many projects to finish before Christmas, kindly sends you more great ideas! ~ Julia

Yarn along - just keep knitting

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~ Ginny at Small Things

 This is a thrift store find, I got this soft fuzzy yarn for 99 cents.  It is acrylic and nylon. I was only able to get one skein, but they had another that was in a pale green that co-ordinates okay. Truthfully, I am hoping just the one skein is enough as I think it is better by itself. This is on it's way to being a cowl for my Aunt, she has a lot of pain in her neck so I wanted something pretty and very lightweight. I need to get it done fast as I need to ship it.

 This is a thick scarf for my uncle, and needs to get shipped too. The problem, I am out of yarn. This is a Spanish wool, natural coloring and soft and warm.  I am knitting four strands at a time & love the result. My Uncle is a surveyor and while he mostly works in the office now, I wanted something warm for him.  

 Another crocheted bead soup necklace, this time on memory wire. I think it will be a bit nicer to wear and lighter but it moves differently and is not as dramatic as the other one. It was easier to control the tension and move the beads where I wanted them, but I could not put it down, each strand had to be finished before I could let go.

Some progress on the socks, but I mostly set them aside to finish up the items for boxes that need to be mailed before Christmas.  I would like to be done with everything to mail and ship it out on Monday (I was hoping for today, but that is not to be.)  Mouse's sweater has also seen little progress.

On the reading front, I am mostly reading blogs and reports on screen as I can read and knit that way.  I have also decided to try listening to podcasts and have been searching for interesting free ones.

Tomorrow is low pressure as it is just my parents joining us.  A nice fun relaxing holiday is what I am going for. My parents are bring salad stuff, dry sausage, and a feta cheese dip my Mom found a recipe for. We are putting out some other cheese, fruit cheese (I made,) summer sausage and cracker and playing games together.  For the big meal we are having turkey (with sausage stuffed under the skin,) stuffing, mashed potatoes, acorn squash, mixed veg, rolls, pickled cranberries, and cranberry sauce.  For desert, apple pie, pumpkin muffins, and an apple-cranberry crisp.  I am making the muffins and pie today to save space and time tomorrow.

Today is Mouse's birthday. We had the party over the weekend and he had a great time. I got extra hugs this morning and help in the kitchen - loading the dishwasher with me and setting the pumpkins to bake.  We stopped and got him cupcakes to take in. His school requires all treats to be store bought, annoying on so many fronts, but he was excited. When I was going to school, it was better not to bring a birthday treat than to bring in something store bought.

Have a wonderful holiday or if you live elsewhere have a wonderful day with your friends and family! ~ Julia

remains of the...Garden

 A dear friend was talking today about hardy herbs still lingering in the garden, and while I expected t use the sage on Thursday, I really thought that would be about all that was still working out there.  As I was surprised, I figured a walk in the garden was in order. Come with?  I did not spend a lot of time out here this fall busying myself with fiber related or child related projects and up can tell, but the garden seemed to survive despite me.

Chives growing rampant and attempting to take over the entire yard. Not sure I would mind really, but it might smell odd on mowing day.

 See I do occasionally weed, this is chive and creeping charlie growing just find in my weed collection bucket.

 Lavender - I hope this survives the winter I have some at my front door that has, fingers crossed.

 Lemon thyme - since it is here it will be added to the festivities.

 Creeping thyme - I think it did not like where I planted it as it was never much better looking than this.

 Sage - the star of thanksgiving menu!

 flat leaf parsley - I spent 69 cents on the two little bunches of this. Scraggly looking little things but I had a recipe I wanted to try and if it didn't grow there was enough got that anyway. They just keep going and going, I have cut it to nothing at least four times, each time figuring well I got my monies worth out of that. It's back.

 Peppermint - I think this is growing again, I also think I need to make more tea.

 Rosemary - Growing well - tea and thanksgiving here too.

 I am fairly certain these are last years' onions - oh well I can use some nice green onions.

 Lemon balm - also appears to be re-growing. Yay for more tea!

 Oregano - I should make some tomato sauce with this.

 Spring planted garlic - I am going to try to tuck some garlic in yet this fall.

 Collard greens - Aren't they pretty. I might add these to thanksgiving dinner as the store did not have any brussel sprouts.

Horseradish - I want to harvest some before it has died back so much I do not know where to dig.

We all have unexpected treasures in our lives, my garden is one of them for me. From the outside it is not much to look at but it is a bit like a walk of discovery, hidden in there are treasure untold. Thank you for exploring them with me. Next year I plan to add plants for dying, do a bit more weeding, and I want to ask the neighbor if I can cut back some of her trees that are shading my property. Hopefully that will help my garden to grow.
Hope your garden is growing or sleeping well and that you have a wonderful time with your family this week. ~ Julia

Yum and a busy weekend

Coddle - this is a yummy soup my husband makes.

 One year my husband was looking for something to serve on St. Patrick's day that was not corned beef and cabbage as we would be eating that on Tuesday with company. He read a lot of recipes for Dubin Coddle and his is his adaptation of all of those. Bacon, sausage fried in bacon grease, potatoes, onions, cream. Basically it is cream of the yummiest bits of pork soup.

Bead Soup necklace

 Crocheted then braided bead on wire necklace, it was a lot of fun to make. Christmas present.

Brown and pink bracelet and earring set.

 Friday I beaded, a lot. My husband is from a large family on both sides, he has cousins as young as our oldest.  These sets are for them.

Purple and turquoise bracelet and earring set.

Green, hematite, and pale blue bracelet and earring set.

Earrings to go with the first bead soup necklace.

First beaded chain of second bead soup chain. 

Pasta Carbonara - Friday's lunch

All that hard work deserved a nice treat and a great way to use up leftover pasta.  Off to knit, I think I need three more sets of arms to get everything done in time.... 35 more days.

I hope all your projects are going smoothly and all your presents are done and wrapped! ~ Julia

Yummy food and a longish day

Feather weight bread rising from a bowl made by my mother in law.

 I wish I could tell you that we ate healthy homemade food today, much like what I am showing today, unfortunately the lure of knitting with other ladies at my local yarn store and needing to get a few things from the store(s) led us to the temptation of store bought doughnut holes and McDonald's.

Ham & Bean soup which we had for lunch on Tuesday, also in a MIL made bowl - a smaller one though.

 The burger was tasty but the doughnut hole were sticky and oddly lemony. Oh well, Badger and I had a nice time, both with the shopping and crafting.  She made these cute yarn pumpkins and I worked on my socks and got a bit of help on a bead soup necklace (more on that tomorrow as the light is bad for pictures tonight.)

I meant to take a picture of the bread fresh out of the oven, but I blinked and all that was left of two 20inch loaves was this.

I really dislike that I planned so poorly today, as I don't want the extra junk in my diet and I think happy meals tend to make my children un-happy in the long run. We had a nice day, but there is a bit of tarnish on it for the loss of good intentions.

I hope that you are finding your days long enough to get everything done and live to your convictions. ~ Julia

Yarn along - and going and going

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? -- Ginny at Small Things.

I am still working on Mouse's Sweater -the green- but limited by my hand pain to between a half an inch to an inch at a time. It is going slowly but looks good and every time he sees me working on it I get a kiss. The red and pink things are socks knit toe up and two at a time. These are the practice version, the author suggested a practice pair in non-matching colors to aid in learning the technique and lessen confusion. These are a second practice pair as the first are done.  My kids were all very excited to see whose feet the practice socks would fit! It was a sock lottery, tiny feet trying out for the role of Cinderella or in this case sock owner.  Butterfly won. So I am knitting a second set to give her two matching pairs for Christmas.  These knit up very fast and the naughty little voice in my head is saying something about 'if I get everything else done, I could knit a pair for each kid, in time for Christmas!' I am thinking about drowning that voice.

I am still reading (more like staring puzzledly at) the weaving book from last week. Not to sure about it, the beautifully written and engaging historical sections have past into technical descriptions that make reading how to program a vcr easy.  I am adding this book on gardening plants used for dyeing, I have not started it yet, but many people have recommended it.

I love my tea cozy - a present from Resee last year - and could not resist adding it to the shot.  In the pot is cold earl grey tea brewed yesterday and left overnight with the tea in. I forgot to grab more coffee last night when picking up the kids from school, being distracted by realizing the Butterfly was sick.  She is home from school today and bored.

Meet the new addition to my studio family:

I am very excited to try it out!  My parents sent away for it as a birthday present and it arrived yesterday.  I am a bit irritated with the postal worker who left it on the bench by the door without even ringing the bell. She did not need to wait, but I was home and would've liked to bring it in right away. I had been watching for it but she arrived much earlier in the day than she normally goes around.  I only got it in the house before kid pick up time because the boys competition team (both boys paint figures and build models in an internationally placed team) stopped by to bring the boys there models and medals from the show in Chicago.  Beaver took Silver and Mouse (who made the team in July) took Bronze. I'll post pictures of the models tomorrow.

I am excited to see what everyone is working on!
~Julia

In my kitchen, in my life

It is 10:25, I have been awake since 6 and probably should have awoken about 30mins earlier, but oh well. Beaver has to be to school for gym by 6:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I like that he has this option so he can keep Spanish in his schedule and take the reading lab. I dislike getting up, I dislike that he - who normally is great at great up - stumbled to the shower without checking the time, I dislike that he loves wearing the same sweatshirt every day all day! I dislike that I ended up yelling at him right before dropping him off, but I really dislike the disrespectful smart ass way of speaking he has picked up. So I will live with having yelled at him, and having made him angry by taking the sweatshirt and I will wash it (in really strong soap) and hope he remembers I love him.

After dropping him off I came home to wake up Butterfly, hoping not to wake Badger, nope! Oddly Butterfly was super crabby but Badger, who was soaked and chilled, was cheerful.  Toss a Badger into the tub and try to convince a Butterfly to eat hoping a little blood sugar would help. What helped was walking into the playground at school holding hands. It helped me too!

I came home to find that Mouse had taken all the garbage from bathrooms and bedrooms and gathered it together for garbage day, helped his sister out of the tub (husband was home but getting ready for work) and convinced her to get dressed. Other than wearing shoes he was ready for school and playing nicely on the computer.  We had a nice walk to school holding hands. 

So it is 10:36 and my garbage is out, my dishes washed, bean soup bubbling away for lunch, bread rising for dinner, floors are swept and the whole day seems bright if cold. I know that 30 is not really cold, I live in Wisconsin, if this were March we would be running around in sweaters talking about how warm it is, but I am cold.  I want a fire in the fireplace.

I will be casting on the second half of my mismatched toe up two at a time socks today, they are Butterfly sized and will be a Christmas present. She won the whose foot will fit into these practice socks lottery. Now they all want socks.  I doubt I will get the rest done for Christmas presents but maybe I can start right after.

Each year I make the Children make presents for their siblings and try to make the godparents a homemade gift too. Usually that ends up being something I made decorated by them. Badger has taken this to heart. Her siblings each got homemade birthday presents from her - so did I which required closing my eyes, and teaching my husband to finish a beaded bracelet - she has also made my mother her birthday present. The photo above is her present to her siblings for Christmas. Recycled Crayons, she also made a second set (my muffin tin for melting wax is a 6 holed one) with different colors of glitter mixed in.

I hope you are getting along in your holiday preparations and are having a productive Tuesday! ~ Julia

Yarn Along - bring on warp speed.

Linking up with Ginny and the other wonderful ladies of the Yarn Along.

Warp speed knitting - when you suddenly realize that you have way too many projects to get done before Christmas. I am warp speed knitting. The real problem is I have been have this pain in my left thumb. It starts after I have been knitting awhile or knitting tiny for a long time, it will if I push it eventually cause my wrist to hurt and hurt badly enough to stop me from knitting (switching to spinning after it was hurting did not help) for a few days. It seems to bother me less when working on larger (10) needles or switching from small to large sizes. I am worried and aggravated by this new problem.

On my needles, I have the sweater for mouse in green tweed wool and a cowl in mohair for my cousin. I can get about one repeat in the sweater before having to switch projects so at about 1/2 and inch a time the sweater will be taking a while. The cowl is wool I bought at my local yarn shop, the knitting instructor was stash busting her home and brought in all this wool she would never get to. She had packaged it in bags with a pattern and enough wool to complete the pattern.  I bought this ball with two others and a shawl pattern for $10. I hope to make a few cowls with it. It is so fluffy and soft to work with, this is the second cast on as I managed to twist the join on the first and had about 2inches on when I noticed. 

I am working on reading up on weaving so that I can play with my loom.  I would really like to make a table runner - just a simple rectangle here nothing fancy - as a Christmas present. so I need to get on that. This book Weaving A Handbook for the Fiber Arts by Shirley E. Held is a very interesting read with lots of history and charming side facts. Well written and engaging as a history text, I do think I was looking for more of a how to but maybe that is in later chapters.

Hope your projects are going well and your needles are going clikkety-clackety at a reasonable pace! ~ Julia

tea parties and other fancy things

For Butterfly's birthday she got to invite a bunch of friends from school over to the house for screaming... I mean for a tea party. They were delightful.