Has it really been a month or more!

 Yes, I have been lax in updating my blog...other social media calls before our blogs now!  Which is sad.  I use my blog as a diary of sorts.  I print out each year and I so enjoy reading my blog book when it's printed.  This year may be the cheapest printing I will have.  

I'm pointing to the decorative side panel!

Well, after my 2nd carpal tunnel surgery (this one on the right side) I am back to knitting.  I may just finished this sweater before Christmas....I am working on the right sleeve in this picture but Kalee is being my model this time!

I am not happy with my workmanship but I will still wear this piece....It wasn't really as difficult as the lace tops I've knitted...so not sure why I had so many issues with it.  BUT I will finish and wear at least once!  HA

And on another very sad note, my next door neighbor passed away.  It was so sad.  I did get to say goodbye two days before she passed.  She wasn't responding but I do feel she still heard me.  She's no longer suffering and for that I am glad.  But I am so sad for her hubby and two daughters.  A life cut short...toooo soon.

And to read a story about Lori and I and the snake...click here...Snake Story  You have to scroll down a paragraph or two...you'll see a snake pic!

My daughter always makes Thanksgiving dinner for her hubby's family.  She cooks most of it at home then they do a 'delivery' and she'll also put in an apple pie while they are eating.  She's such a sweet daughter.  She got me these beautiful flowers because she wouldn't see me/us on Thanksgiving.  

I just threw out the flowers.  They have lasted so long!!!  

We had our Thanksgiving at Darrin's house as usual!  It's always such a feast and good food and company.  

I love these grand kids.  Hard to get a good pic of us all but at least I remembered to capture one of the three of us!

Kris always makes the best meal(s)!!!  She's an awesome cook and prepares the entire meal all herself.  

 I did get a pic of my plate!  It was delicious!  We had pumpkin squares made by my DIL's mom, Nancy (which were yummy!).  I made lemon pie, cream puffs and white bark candy.

These cream puffs are SO good...it's from an old, old recipe I've kept all these years...at least from the 70's or 80's!

We took home the pumpkin bars and ate during the week!  SO GOOD!  Nancy is a great cook!

This was what was left of my lemon pie.  Yes, it was good.  I love lemon pie and another recipe from the 70's!

One of Kris' displays at the kid's house!  So pretty!

And that it was!  A Happy Thanksgiving with loved ones!  

Another Farmer's Market Find!

 

Last weekend, I met a delightful young lady named Alexis.  This young woman is trying to raise funds to go to Peru!  She is  a wildlife biology student at the University of Michigan who is working to raise dollars so she can spend a month (next August) in the Amazon Rainforest in Peru studying. 

Her trip sounds amazing and for an animal lover I am sure she'll do well and learn so much.  

I purchased one of the hand made bracelets to send to our great grand daughter.  They were made by locals in Peru.  She also had some really cool key chains her father made for her to sell.  But we don't use key chains anymore do we!

I did visit her blog to read how and why she decided to do this journey.  It's quite interesting.  Hope you'll check it out here: 

Alexis Blog

And you can follow Alexis on Facebook, Instagram and she has a Fund Me page as well.  All the links are here:  https://linktr.ee/followmyarrow

I wish this young lady all the best!  To be young and adventurous!  Heck, I don't want to go more than 10 miles from my house!  Let alone go to Peru!

Knitting Iceberg Sweater

 Yep, after my 3 time ripping out the pattern, I started a fourth time and I'm almost to the waist!  Woohoo!

It's been a struggle...not sure why other than I got so used to reading a chart, I can't keep my eyes from wandering and reading the pattern correctly!  But I'm on a roll now!  As is my sister!!!  She's making the same pattern, which is nice so we can bounce off of each other when we struggle!  HA

My right hand carpal tunnel surgery was put off until Nov. 3rd (from Oct. 27th!)...dang.  I really want to get it over with so I can start healing and not have the pain/numbness/discomfort...but it is what it is.  So, I'll just keep on keeping on!  

Love the Brioche stitch pattern for the neck and chest area.  This same pattern will be at the waist on each side.  At least, that's what we're hoping for!

Her sleep cap is kinda cute...different but interesting.

Just one of the times I ripped out!  HA

Sitting out on the deck this past week knitting with the beautiful weather!

This is upside down!  HA  oops

Finally making good progress!

Getting there!  Long way to go but perhaps it's best I'll still have my right hand to knit with!  A reason for everything, right!  Guess my surgeon knew I needed to finish this sweater before surgery!  HA

Cyano Printing Again

 Yep, with the Florida weather we've been having, I thought I'd make the most of it by doing some more Cyano Prints.  I've finished the printing for my Christmas cards but decided to play around with some of my watercolor paper that I created based on my drawings from Hilary's online class in 2019!

I painted each watercolor paper with the Cyano print chemical and let dry (in the dark!).  

I wasn't sure this would work covering up the pastels or crayons but it did!

This was how the paper looked when painted with the Cyano print chemical.

This was after it sat in the sun for 5 min. for the print to take effect.

And this was after the chemicals were washed out. 

Not bad...

Another finished piece

You can see each one was covered with the chemical before I set out in the sun.  These were in the drying process.  You have to keep in an area that is dark.  After dry, place in a black bad to keep the chemical from reacting to any light.

Happy with the results...not sure how I'll cut them apart but I'm sure they'll go into cards!

Yes, I am knitting...just too busy to post but I'm trying to get caught up...on my blog that is!  HA

We love our home town farmer's market!

 

Living in a small town/village has somany advantages...one this summer is being able to walk to our own Farmer's Market.  It's held every Sunday (2p.m.-5p.m.) a mile from the house...actually shorter because we can cut through my friend's back yard to the church parking lot where the market is being held.  And that's what Donna and I do each Sunday!  

There is so many different options to purchase, from veggies, to desserts (yes, lots of desserts!), breads, plants, jewelry, wood working, etc.  I wanted to share some of the vendors that I was impressed with!  

First up, is MaryBeth, a delightful young lady who creates beautiful beaded earrings.  I was so impressed with her workmanship!!!!  

MaryBeth  creates indigenous beaded art, primarily earrings.   Her workmanship is outstanding.  I didn't get a better picture of additional pieces of her work.  I may have to take more pics next week.

You may be able to zoom in on MaryBeth's table and see more work on the left side.  

She doesn't have a website but is on Instagram.  Do check out her page here.  Her site is called @bubsbeadwork.  MaryBeth said they always have called her 'bub'!  I'm sure there's a story there!  

Next up is Wummel Design Co.   Another great vendor who does creates art using wood as their palette!  Nicholas' woodburning art is outstanding.  He achieves such detail on  beautiful wood, for example,  cherry wood.    

He also creates tables (white oak with black walnut), cutting boards, etc.  Do visit his web site to appreciate all that this couple create!  Christmas is coming...gift time!

Jenny Shulskie makes the best breads!!!  I purchased her Jalapeno cheddar bread a few weeks ago and it's fantastic! 

Jenny doesn't have a FB page or web site but you can zoom in  on her sign and call her if interested!  

This is the bread I've purchased.  I ate half a loaf all by myself.  I love Jalapeno's so this bread was right up my alley!!!

Jenny also makes a honey whipped butter that is delicious on the cheddar bread!!!  

This is 'bitter melon'...I was curious as was another lady so we split the basket!  I looked up this veggie online...it appears to be an Oriental veggie.  I saw different recipes for Chinese and Vietnamese cooking.  Will give it a try!

This was taken shortly after the market opened at 2 p.m.  So far, the attendance has been great and I think successful for the first year.  I sure hope more vendors will sign up for next year.  

I purchased some blueberry muffins from a couple and they were DELICIOUS!!!!  I'll have to find out the name of their farm!  I don't remember all of them...ha.

And, yes, I have purchased cakes, cookies, honey, peaches, pickles and other leaf veggies....so, so good!  

Take advantage of small or large markets in your area.  So great to keep our folks farming and being productive members of our areas.

I forgot!!!

 Can't believe I forgot to post about our family reunion in Ohio earlier this month!   My daughter and I drove together from Michigan to Ohio!  We had a good time to and from!!!  And, I got to see my sister as they were in Tenn. so opted to drive to Ohio!  Also got to see all three of my nieces and met my sister's grandson and his wife and baby!  It was a wonderful time and I am actually looking forward to meeting up next year!!!  Bob did great with the girls, which made me feel better!!!  

Here's a video I put together from pictures I took!  

 

Now, let's get into a project that you have to read and think!  Which for some reason, I don't do well when reading a knitting pattern.  Hence, I love charts!  For some reason, that makes sense to me.  Words are easy for me to 'read into them' what I think is happening!  

This is a sweater I want to make for Christmas...I didn't say which Christmas!!!!  Trying to shoot for 2023 but I am realistic!  HA

The pattern is by Hinterm Stein on Ravelry.  I also have another one of her patterns I want to make.

I started this past week  and thought the center pattern was really cool!

But then I ran into some 'issues' I caused myself...yep, not reading correctly...but I struggled through and thought...boy, this is hard!!!  

Just one of the edges didn't look right...of course, I didn't notice until I had knitted about 10 rows!  DUH.

I also noticed I was off ONE stitch!  Grrrrrrrrr

So what's a gal to do but rip/rip!

Started to unknit here and decided it was easier in above pic to wrap the collar area around my coffee cup!  

So now I'll be starting over!  But that's ok...it's a lot of work to knit projects and I'd rather start over and have it correct than get frustrated because it doesn't look right or fit!  So that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Back at it! Well, sorta!

 Before I get into the current knitting project, here is my Dye Dog #3 that I am hand stitching.  Doesn't look so great now but in given time, who knows how long!, it will work out.  I can always cut this piece up for more totes!  HA  I certainly don't need any more wall quilts.  

The white areas are the iron-away white pen I'm using to mark stitching areas.  I really like the heat erasable markers by Madam Sew.  I've used the red and black in my beading, which worked great.  The first white pen I had just didn't mark at all...but the refill worked great.  You just remove the marks with a warm/hot iron.  

It's nice to have a project that is 'mindless' that I can work on while watching a movie or baseball (if I'm not watching a movie on my laptop!  HA).  All you do is stitch around a mark!

And in my next post, you'll see why I need a mindless project to work on in between knitting!  

Quilting Dye Dog #3

 

This was the finished layout of my dye dog #3

I started to play around with how to quilt the piece.  I taped together some tracing paper and laid on top of the quilt.  That gave me some ideas on how to quilt it.  

It's rather hard to see, but after I sandwiched and stitched in the ditch, I started to free motion horizonal lines alternating rose and turquoise threads.

The white circles are a disappearing pen that I used to mark out some circles.  I'm planning on hand stitching quite a lot on this piece....the color and quilt look a tad rough but it does look good in person!  

I was going to try and show a technique for tying threads from the top...I don't remember which quilting professional showed this but I love it.  Hope my pics and explanation make sense.  Keeps those knots from showing up on the back of your quilt and are hidden on the front! 

You need to pull your bobbin thread to your quilt top and tie in a surgeon (over/under).  Or just make a knot!  HA

Taking any size needle and 1 piece of sewing thread, thread your needle and keep a loop at the bottom.  Make sense??

Put your bobbin and top thread through the loop......

Now take your needle back into where your top and bobbin threads are and slip through the batting and backing.....and come back up to the top of your quilt.

Now pull your needle through and both top and bobbin threads will appear!   By having your quilting threads in the loop, you'll pull the threads easily to the top!   All you do is cut the thread....

This is the back of the quilt and you can't see any knots or threads...a little dog hair or is it my hair!  HA

And this is the front...same....no bobbin or top threads show!  Hope this makes sense and if you have seen this and know who has shown this method, please let me know.  Wish I could remember!!!

Stay tuned...I will take this quilt with me  to hand stitch while in Ohio.   My daughter is taking her knitting as is my sister.  I'm still working on a gauge swatch to determine which size needle I'm using on a new project....next post.  Think any of us will get any hand work done with 11 in a household...HA HA HA