Knit One, Quilt Two

April Breads

2010-03-31T17:07:00.009-04:00

I made both of the two breads for the HBin5 group this session. The first one was Carrot Bread, made with whole wheat flour, shredded carrots, coconut, walnuts, and dried cranberries. I really liked this one. I used sweetened coconut so this made a lovely toasting bread for breakfast.

Here is a closeup showing the cranberries, freshly sliced and ready for butter! I would be happy having this bread for breakfast every day. Maybe I would alternate this one with the apple bread, both make great breakfast breads.

The second recipe this time was for Olive Bread. This bread was made with spelt flour, plain yogurt, and lots of sliced marinated green olives. I bought the big deli olives, pitted but not pimento-stuffed. We served it with spaghetti and a nice green and orange salad (baby greens, orange sweet peppers and baby carrots). It was very good.

I found this bread to be moist, salty and slightly sourdough in flavor. I probably won't make it again because my family is not really made up of olive lovers, even though I love them. Perhaps I would try it with garlic cloves.

Would you like a slice?

2010-03-17T15:20:00.000-04:00

I want to share some of the projects I have finished over the course of the winter. I made a scarf from the pattern "Shaken Not Stirred" by Wendy Gaal to wear with my winter coat. The kit, which included the pattern, fingering weight yarn in the color "Margarita with Salt", beads, and a cute martini stitch marker, was part of a knit-a-long/contest, of which I was a winner! I won a skein of hand dyed sock yarn in the colorway of my choice. Here is the scarf:

I let my daughter Jessica choose the colorway of the yarn I won and promised to make her a pair of socks for Christmas with it. She chose the color "Seabreeze" and I knitted a pattern from the book Toe Up! by Chrissy Gardiner called Gull Wings. She likes them.

I knitted a pair of Entrelac socks from a skein of Scheafer "Anne" yarn, a blend of merino and mohair which is just luscious to work with. However, it is a very fine yarn which I had to work on a size 00 needle. I chose this colorway because it was called Boop, and so I call them my Betty Boop socks. They are super cozy!

I knitted a pair of pretty pink socks from Cascade Heritage sock yarn, using the pattern "Kristi" by Cookie A in the book Sock Innovation. I love working the intricate patterns from this book, they really hold my interest. I am not a knitter who can finish the "mindless" projects with miles of stockinette or garter stitch, I am always looking for a challenge.
I also joined a Mystery Sock knit-a-long where we knitted a mosaic two-color sock designed by Star Athena. At the time, I was listening to an audio book on my iPod by Dan Brown called The Lost Symbol. I think it is a little bit obvious from my color choices, don't you?

This was the first pair I knitted with the 9" circular needle in the photo above. I don't care to work with double points, I am always poking myself or losing one. I do like the 9" needle, but my hands got a little sore because you have to hold them differently. Here are the finished socks, which I gave to myself and wore for the first time on Christmas day.

Just recently while my husband Gary and I were driving to Florida and back on vacation, I worked on a pair of socks made from Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball wool. I love the color changes in this yarn! It is so bright and vibrant. I used the pattern "Changeling" by Janel Laidman from the book The Enchanted Sole. I will share more projects with you very soon! I am trying to get back into blogging more often. I must say I miss it.

See you next time!

Guacamole Bread

2010-03-16T14:56:00.003-04:00

This week we made guacamole bread in the Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day group. The dough called for chopped garlic, chopped tomato, and a whole mashed avocado. In bread? Sounded odd to me, but it was actually very good! It was nice and moist with a slight garlic flavor, and the loaf rose nicely in the oven. Both my husband and son liked the bread, even though neither of them cares for avocado.

With the leftover dough, I made a batch of crusty rolls to serve with our favorite soup, Cheese Vegetable Chowder. It is always a big hit!

I never got around to making the second recipe this time because I came down with a terrible cold, but still want to make the Pesto Bread next. I will post about it later, see you then!

Assignment 4 for HB in 5!

2010-03-01T13:24:00.002-05:00

Already on the fourth assignment for HB in 5! How time flies! Well, truth be told I baked these breads early because I didn't want to miss out while I was on vacation. When the March 1 bread braid falls due I will be vacationing in Florida and I can't wait!! I SO need a break from the frigid north.

It is actually Valentine's Day as I write this post, and I wanted to share my delicious lunch with you. I defrosted one of my Soft Whole Wheat Hamburger buns, split it, spread it thickly with fig jam, added ham and swiss cheese and grilled it panini style in my Foreman grill. Oh my gosh was it good... and thanks to Rachel Ray magazine for the idea.

Well this week, we began with a full recipe of 100% Whole Wheat with Olive Oil dough. I had a little trouble getting the olive oil in incororate into the dough. During the initial rise the oil seemed to settle on the edges leaving a greasy crust.

I let it proof overnight in the refrigerator and the next day baked this loaf of bread. The dough was still on the greasy side when I shaped the loaf, but the bread came out okay. Here is a picture:

Gary used it for sandwiches and didn't say much about it, so I guess it was okay. I preferred the Soft Whole Wheat recipe.

The next recipe was Aloo Paratha, which is an Indian style calzone stuffed with curried potatoes and peas. I was really looking forward to this recipe because I love curry, but it wasn't as good as I had hoped. I used Yukon gold potatoes and frozen peas. I am afraid I overmashed the potatoes, they were pretty mushy. I made 2 large ones, and sliced them to go with supper.

Fresh from the oven: And sliced, ready to eat: I felt these could have used a lot more curry powder. When I told Gary they were stuffed with curry he was surprised. He hadn't even tasted the curry. It pretty much tasted like bread with mashed potatoes and peas inside. Just bland. Next time I would stuff it with cheese and tomato sauce.

The third recipe was my favorite this time. It was Southwestern Focaccia Bread with Roasted Corn and Goat Cheese. Doesn't that sound great? However, finding the ingredients locally proved to be a major challenge. I lucked out with the fresh cilantro and even the goat cheese, but finding a fresh poblano pepper in the frozen tundra of Maine in January is impossible. The closest I could come was an Anaheim pepper. No fresh corn either, I had to use frozen. The authors said you could use frozen, but didn't tell you how to go about roasting it. I put some in a pan and stuck it in the oven while it preheated to 450.

I rolled the dough into a circle on parchment so I could slide it onto the stone without fuss. Parchment has become my new best friend in baking! I added the sauce and corn and dabs of goat cheese:

then I baked it. When it came out of the oven I sprinkled the fresh chopped cilantro on top.

And I ate two healthy slices for lunch!

It was really good.

Assignment 3 For HB in 5!

2010-02-13T18:30:00.008-05:00

This week the HBin5 group made some recipes in honor of Valentine's Day.

First, we made Red Beet Buns. I started with 3 fresh beets which needed to be shredded. I got out my food processor (which I rarely use), couldn't find the manual, so I reasoned if I wanted the shreds to fall out of the side chute into a bowl I would use the pain plastic disc beneath the shredding disc to prevent the shreds from falling into the bowl. WRONG! All of the beet shreds wedged themselves firmly between the two discs until the whole thing came to a noisy halt. The only thing that came through the side chute was 3 blood red drops of beet juice. I have no idea how to work this darn thing.

After cleaning up that mess and wondering why on earth THIS recipe is in a book claiming to take 5 minutes a day, I added the shreds to the other ingredients and stirred them up in my Kitchen Aid mixer. With all the confusion of figuring out how to use the food processor, I mistakenly mixed up a whole recipe of the beet dough rather than a half recipe the assignment called for.

The dough seriously looked like bright pink frosting!
But as pretty and pink as it was, this dough was not at all sweet. I made a batch of beet buns to have with corn chowder for dinner. I thought Kaylee would be excited by the pink buns, but she took one look and announced she was NOT eating those.

I made another batch the next day to put in the freezer, then still had enough to make a loaf of red beet bread. Gary has been taking pink tuna sandwiches to work this week, the guys at the Home Depot got a kick out of that! Here is a beet bun buttered and hot from the oven.

The taste? Well, I would have to call it strange. I am a beet lover, so much so that I make pickled beets on a regular basis, (using the lazy fool method, dumping canned beets into leftover pickle juice and letting them refrigerate a week) but these buns were, well, strange... When I served them I felt all Jessica Seinfeld-ish. (Here kids, you'll never notice the beets I hid in your buns... NOT!)

Anyway I have had enough beet bread for a while. So has Gary.

The second recipe this time turned out much better! We were to make a half recipe of the Whole Wheat Chocolate Espresso dough and make Chocolate Tangerine Bars. The dough contained bittersweet chocolate chunks (I used Ghiradelli), cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark) and espresso coffee along with the usual ingredients.

For the Tangerine bars, I added the zest of a tangerine, more bittersweet chocolate and dried cranberries. Then I baked them in a square pan as if they were brownies.

It only took half the dough, so I put the rest

into 6 muffin cups, sprinkled them with raw sugar, and baked them into what I call "Wake Up! Muffins".

Although they appear to be fudgy like brownies, the bars are actually breadlike in crumb and absolutely delicious. Not very sweet, but rich, moist and chocolatey! (Not at all dry Josie!)

My breakfast:

A rich Chocolate Tangerine Bar with the tangerine segments, hot espresso and a good book on the Kindle!

This is my favorite recipe from the book so far. Apparently I have a pretty strong sweet tooth, who knew?

More Healthy Breads!

2010-01-31T11:40:00.008-05:00

I have completed my second group of breads in my HBin5 bake-a-long! First we made the Soft Whole Wheat sandwich bread. This one I baked in a loaf pan for a more traditional sandwich bread. I loved it toasted with a little butter and jam for breakfast. The addition of honey to the dough really made a big difference in flavor to me.

The second bread I made was the Apple Strudel Bread. Oh my, I could eat this one EVERY day! It is rolled out and covered with apples, raisins, cinnamon, walnuts and raw sugar, then rolled jelly-roll style into a loaf. You sprinkle raw sugar and cinnamon over the top of the loaf before baking for a crispy sweet crust. Here is a picture of when it came out of the oven.
And here is a cut slice of this yummy bread!
The third assignment was the Soft Whole Wheat Hamburger (or hot dog) buns. I shaped these into 6 mini boules and left them to rise... brushed them with some water and sprinkled with sesame seeds, and this is what came out of the oven -I thought they were very good, however, all of the sesame seeds fell off when you picked up your sandwich! I made mine into a Veggie Burger and Gary took some egg salad sandwiches to work. He reported back that he felt they were "too much", so I have two of these left in the freezer.

A good baking week I would say!

Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day!

2010-01-15T14:01:00.004-05:00

I recently watched the movie "Julie and Julia", which I loved, and became motivated to attempt to bake every recipe in a cookbook. I couldn't use a general cookbook, because, quite honestly, I am a bit of a fussy eater. I would completely fail the chapters on seafood, meat, poultry, and even eggs. But I like bread. ALL breads! (Well, not wonder bread...) There is nothing I love more than a good marbled rye loaded with caraway, a luscious dark pumpernickel, or steaming fresh sourdough loaves straight from the oven. With breads, I am in my element. Yeast is in my blood. I have the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" and have made many wonderful breads from that book. The techniques are easy, quick, and I only needed to purchase a pizza peel, an oven stone, and a large container for storing dough to make most of the recipes.

My New Year's resolution this year was to begin eating healthier, and part of that pledge to myself and my family is to eat more whole grain breads and use less white flours. So, I have joined an online group of bakers who have pledged to bake every recipe in the book "Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. It will take us almost 2 years to make all of the wonderful sounding breads in the book. There are challenges every 2 weeks to make 2 or 3 recipes/breads. I hope to blog about each of them!

As a December warm-up to the challenge, we started with a Whole Grain Challah with Cranberries and Orange Zest which Jeff and Zoe gave to us as a freebie on their Artisan Bread blog. I made this bread to serve on Christmas morning. I purchased an orange zester to make the zest, and I was lucky to have recieved a box of fresh Florida oranges as an early Christmas gift. (Thank you Mom!!) The zester made the strips a little thicker than I would have liked so I ended up cutting them down with a knife. I also made orange sugar by running a few strips of zest through the mini-chopper with about a tablespoon of raw sugar and letting it air dry for a day or two. This made a great topping. I had no trouble with braiding the dough as I have made many bread braids in the past. Since it was Christmas time, I formed this bread into a wreath. This is my bread fresh from the oven (I wish I were a better photographer!)

Our January 15th challenge was to make the Master Whole Wheat Dough recipe and form a Boule, an Epi, and with the remaining dough a batch of Spicy Whole Grain Snack Crackers.

The Boule (round loaf) proved no problem, that's the way I normally shape my artisan breads. However, I did take a suggestion from the authors and made my own seed blend to dust the top of the loaf with before baking. I mixed several seeds I had on hand, including caraway, poppy, sesame (dark and light) and cumin. The lesson I learned was not to use 2 strongly flavored seeds in the same blend, the flavors will fight each other! The caraway and cumin seed did NOT taste good together. Next time I am buying flax seed to add, they have so many healthy benefits, and will not be using cumin seed.

Next, I didn't think the Epi (Wheat Sheaf loaf) would be difficult at all. I read the directions and thought I understood them. I just had one small problem, my oven stone is round so I had to shape the long dough into a horseshoe shape to fit onto the stone. There the trouble started! Once I made the clips into dough, I could not alternate the direction to turn each "leaf", and had to turn them all outward. I intend to try this shape again next time I make bread because I considered this a failure... Please don't laugh at my bad Epi! The taste was very good, we tore chunks off and ate it with a beef stew for supper.

The last assignment was intersesting. I have not made cracker in many many years. The challenge was to roll the dough EXTREMELY thin. Papery thin. Then I pricked it with a fork, brushed on a little olive oil, and dusted liberally with chili powder and salt. Then I cut them into squares with a pizza cutter and baked them on a sheet of parchment. They were really good! The thinnest ones were the crispiest. For a healthy lunch today I made a guacamole, sliced up an apple and some reduced-fat cheddar cheese and served them with my crackers. Delicious and healthy!

My Quilt Room is Back!

2009-05-14T14:54:00.017-04:00

After the long cold winter with my quilting room closed off to save energy costs, I am dee-LIGHTED to have it back again! And I have a quilt in progress, too! I made most of the blocks a year or two ago, and I get to do the exciting creative part now, arranging and sewing them together. Here is a picture of a few of them with my lovely little quilting apprentice: I have some rules for this quilt, what good is a quilt without rules?

Rule 1: Every block must include a solid fabric. However, they must NOT contain two solids, I tried it here and every time I look at this block I get this sick bored feeling in the pit of my stomach... I may have to applique some circles on it.

And on this one I used four solids! I am definitely going to sew this circle on top. I love the way the colors work together! And I am not sewing the circle on top because my points don't match, they match very well thank you. It is just to relieve my boredom. For our purposes here, the polka dot fabrics also count as solids. After all, they are just solids with dots printed on top. So it is really FIVE solids!

Rule 2: Every block must contain a polka dot fabric. Polka dots make me happy. And hey, you've got to have some sort of continuity, right? I love the green polka dot in this one!

Rule 3: Every block must contain a floral fabric. This block appears to contain two florals (three if you count the appliqued dot). However, if you walk down the road a mile and a half I will hold it up and you will see it is a polka dot and a solid. I swear.

When I realized this block was a plain and boring 9-patch I had to pep it up with a circle!

Rule 4: Add some blocks that don't meet any of the rules, but make me smile. For example:

Or this one:

Rule 5: Be spontaneous. Be brave. Be daring. Don't overthink things.

Rule 6: Sew circles on top whenever I want to. Circles make me happy, just like polka dots do. See the nine patch and the card trick blocks above.

Rule 7: Use lots of stripes. I love the way they lead your eye around the quilt!

Also, if the stripes are thin enough they can count as a solid, too! Again, walk down the road to check...

Rule 8: Don't worry if other people think my blocks are too "busy". I like busy. Busy is better than boring!

This block is busy but I find it visually stimulating. It is not too busy for me. Neither is this one:

Rule 9: Make this quilt mostly green. It will be my green quilt. So where did all that pink and purple come from??

This block is a rule-breaker and a winner!

Rule 10: Have fun. Most of all, have fun making this quilt.

So those are my quilt rules for making these blocks and a free preview of my next quilt. I welcome any comments!

We have a new addition to the family!

2009-04-09T11:03:00.004-04:00

Introducing Delaney Anne! She was born April 8, 2009, at 8:26am. She came close to being born in the car!! She weighed 6 lb. 15 oz. at her official weigh in, and measured 20 3/4 inches tall.
Here is Delaney with proud mommy Josie, my lovely daughter.

Here is a picture of Delaney with her Daddy Richard, meeting big sister Savannah for the first time!

And here is the proud big sister holding the baby. Doesn't she look happy?

We are all very happy that Delaney is here and healthy. I can't wait to hold and snuggle my new granddaughter again!!

Our Vacation, Part 1

2009-02-16T13:27:00.015-05:00

My husband and I took a much needed break from the cold weather to travel south for a couple of weeks. We left on January 26, with the temperature at -19 degrees that morning! We were very anxious to warm up. Traveling south we spent a little time in Pennsylvania's Amish country, where I was lucky enough to visit the People's Place Quilt Museum. I wish I was a better photographer so you could see the beauty of these quilts. There was no flash photography allowed, and apparently I have shaky arms since most of the pictures were a blur. These are some of the better ones.

First was a gorgeous Cathedral Window quilt made by a woman in her 80's, I believe. She used over 30 yards of muslin in it! The stitching was exquisite.

This is a typical Amish-style diamond on point quilt with beautiful traditional quilting. There was a bright light pointing to it which made it difficult to get a picture of, but at least it highlighted the stitching.

I was stunned by the beauty of this flower basket quilt, just lovely...

And this one is an award-winning star quilt made by Fons and Porter, who had a special exhibit at the museum. The workmanship was out of this world.

Once we were in Florida we spent a day recovering from the journey, then went to visit Silver Springs in Ocala. The live oaks drip with Spanish moss and the cypress trees raise their knobby knees in every puddle...

The marshes are rich with greenery, cypress and flowers.

The trees were in blossom with small red flowers:

We took a ride in a glass-bottomed boat just like this one.
In the bottom of the deep crystal clear water we saw many catfish, turtles, caves, and long nosed fish like this one.
We even saw a giant alligator covered with mud! The boat was moving right along, so it was hard to get a good picture of him. Can you see him?

Oh! And who is that looking into the river? Gary, me (holding camera) and Mom!

There was a wildlife area with a lot of animals, including giant Kodiak bears, llamas, ostriches, self-shearing sheep (I had never heard of such a thing!), and giraffes, both topiary,

and real! We nicknamed this guy "Stinky" for a very good reason. He looked very old and wrinkled.

These white birds were everywhere, especially outside any restaurant, looking for handouts. We always save them a little something.

And there were birds in captivity too. This crazy looking one fascinated me,

these two had a sign saying "We bite".

And there were lots of Florida's favorite pink long-legged birds, the flamingos. We got to see a flamingo fight, too! I think that was the highlight of our day. I attempted to take a video of the fight, be sure to press play if you have never heard the sound of a flamingo's voice. Just unforgettable!

Here is a nice picture from later, when they had kissed and made up.

Lastly, of course there were loads of alligators, the most tourist pleasing animals in the park!

Including Silver Spring's famous white alligators. They are so very strange looking!

We enjoyed our day at Silver Springs very much. We were entertained all day by a country singer performing in the stage area, but we never did find out who he was! I think it was Colin Raye though. Good music.

Our Vacation, Part 2

2009-02-16T13:06:00.007-05:00

We went to Disney World Hollywood Studios on our second week of vacation. I love Disney World, but this park was not one of my favorites. The day we went was overcast in the morning and rained all afternoon. Here is a welcoming topiary of Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
This shop is one of the first ones you see after entering the park. I loved the truck!

We went on the Star Wars ride, which felt like you were being hurtled through space at light speed, narrowly missing asteroids and planets, visible through the big windshield.
Here is Gary inside the building, in line for the ride. R2D2 is behind him.

I didn't go on the "thrill rides" at the park, mostly because I don't like to go on them alone. I almost had Gary talked into going on the Aerosmith Rock 'N Roller Coaster, but we had to run to make it across the park in time for a show!

The other great ride is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, I am still kicking myself for not going on. I get worried about aggravating an old whiplash injury I had from a roller coaster in the 80's. I have to be very careful of my neck. But darn it all if one of my kids had been with me I would have gone on with them! We saw the Muppet Show in 3D. You had to wear 3D glasses and got to see the little flying guy flit right into your face! He said "Everyone here thinks I am looking at them, but I am only looking at YOU!" and pointed his finger in my face and made me jump. I enjoyed that a lot. It was a very funny show. Here is the water fountain in front of the building. I love it.

We also saw a stunt show featuring scenes from Indiana Jones movies. They pulled some people out of the audience to feature in the show, Gary and I did not volunteer! Here is a pic of Indy outrunning the famous giant rock: (oops, looks like he ran right out of the picture...)

When the rain started really coming down, we ducked into the covered arena to catch a show. I was soaked to the skin and shaking all over. I was as cold as I was back home! Why couldn't we have had a sunny day? I guess if we had, there would have been longer lines everywhere. Anyway, we saw the wonderful show "Beauty and the Beast". Really, no one can put on a show quite like Disney. The costumes, the lights, the colors, the singers, the dancers, all were fanastic. I enjoyed this one as much as I enjoyed the Finding Nemo show last year at Animal Kingdom. Here is a picture of the dance finale.

The car stunt show was supposed to be great, but we only got to see half of it because the rain got too heavy for the drivers. We did see Herbie the Love Bug and a lot of backward driving tricks.

The American Idol TV show was holding auditions that day, and I saw a girl with a "contestant" sign around her neck in the ladies room. Gary said I should try out, and I said "What would I do, knit for them?" And we had a long laugh... This is the building.

All in all, with the cancelled shows and parades I did not feel that this park was worth the $75 admission fee. I'll go back to the Magic Kingdom again and again from here on in... it is my favorite!
The rest of our vacation and the long ride home was fairly uneventful. I did get to America's largest Yarn Store (yay) in Northhampton Massachusetts, we finally found it open! Of course I bought only sock yarns, sigh.

On Valentines Day I got a dozen roses from Jess, Jed and Jacque. They are just beautiful! Gary gave me an orchid and took me to our favorite Mexican Restaurant.

I had quite a bit of free knitting time while Gary drove us home from Florida. I finished my pair of Vortical Socks and got a lot of knitting done on my pair of Baroque Socks too! Here are the Vorticals:
The yarn is my own hand-dyed, I call it Raspberry Truffle. The pattern worked up pretty quickly, but the Baroque pattern is proving to be more challenging. I shall have it finished soon though! That's all for now!

2008 Wrap Up

2009-01-18T08:29:00.019-05:00

I haven't written in my blog for some time now, so I thought I would do a final wrap-up of 2008. I had an extraordinarily busy December, working on many Christmas projects and shopping, but unfortunately I couldn't share them with you because my family reads the blog now, and I didn't want to spoil any surprises! Now that Christmas has come and gone, I am happy to share!

We had a wonderful holiday, Santa was too generous, as always! The new mantle did a wonderful job of holding up those heavy stockings! Daughter Jessica and granddaughter Kaylee spent the night with us, so we had four stockings filled to the brim!

The biggest and most ambitious project I finished this year was a wedding quilt for Josie and Richard who were married last March. I worked many 12-hours days at piecing and quilting, determined to have it done by Christmas, and I made it! Here is a picture of Gary holding up the finished quilt (I find it absolutely hilarious that the sun was so bright that day you can see Gary's silhouette through the fabric! However it did not give us much warmth...)

Here is a picture of Josie and Richard after they have opened the present. I am so glad they liked it! It is on their bed now. Richard is wearing an alpaca hat that I knitted for him. I didn't make Josie's crown though, it was the prize inside a Christmas cracker! We all got a crown, a joke, and a tiny present, a fun new tradition for this year.

I made a pair of Malabrigo merino wool mittens but I ended up falling so madly in love with them I couldn't bear to give them away. I like to knit while listening to audio books, so I have decided to start naming my projects after books listened to while knitting. Therefore I dub these my "Edgar Sawtelle" mittens! Sorry I couldn't get a better picture.
I knitted a pair of alpaca "Salto" socks for Josie, from natural cream colored alpaca. The pattern comes from Knitty, the online free knitting pattern site. And here they are on Josie's feet:
I made felted angora blend mittens for Josie and Savannah:
And a scarf for Savannah from my handspun bamboo/merino yarn along with some commercial bamboo yarn:
Isn't she the cutest thing in that Santa's elf dress? Here is another cutie (Kaylee) on Christmas morning with her Grampy:

And here is granddaughter Bryanna with the Peek-a-boo mittens I knitted for her. The tops can fold back and button down to have your fingers free:

Daughter Jessica got that fancy mixer AS SEEN ON TV:

And Harley Rose got a new bed to put next to the fireside. She loves it.

I also made socks for daughter Sara, (I don't know why I didn't get a picture of them) a hat for my son Jed, and fingerless gloves for Jed's girlfriend Jacque and also for Jessica, shown here:

Since Christmas we have had an INSANE amount of snow, and temperatures as cold as -20. Lucky for us, we have been able to hire this amazing shoveler for the cost of a Tootsie Pop!

One morning I opened the back door to put Harley out and found a foot of fresh snow! The flash on my camera refused to work, sorry...

I have finished my Rivendell socks, from the book "The Eclectic Sole" by Janel Laidman. I used wool that I hand dyed a delicious emerald green. I love them!!

And the close up:

We are leaving to go to Florida on Sunday. I cannot wait to be away from the ice and snow! Hopefully my next post will have vacation pictures!

I Love a Good Book...

2008-12-01T13:32:00.005-05:00

Once in a great while a book comes along that hours, days, even weeks after reading it, you just can't stop thinking about it. The characters become a part of you that you can't close your heart on when you close the back cover; the unanswered questions burn holes in your brain , and real life becomes an annoyance until the story clarifies itself to you in some way.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is such a book. If you have read this book, please, let's talk.

It's Veteran's Day

2008-11-11T09:53:00.004-05:00

So I would like to pay tribute to my favorite Veterans! My mom, who served in the Army during the Korean War:And my Dad who also served in the Army at the same time:
And my husband, who served as a fire fighter in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

My brother David served in the Marines after he finished school, but I didn't have a picture handy to post, and the scanner is not hooked up right now. I am proud of you all!

My Morning Constitutional

2008-10-13T07:59:00.015-04:00

The frost is on the pumpkin here in Maine, or should I say on the Queen Anne's Lace. I have taken up morning walks and am enjoying the beauty of nature changing into her autumn clothing like never before.

The trees are alive with color. I walk by this lovely young maple daily and can't help but give her the onceover, she is just so pretty in her red dress...The milkweed pods have dried and opened to release their angel winged seeds...

and the thistles have dried into myriad prickly sprigs.

I walk across a small bridge and see this babbling brook every day. Some days the water is high, some days it is low.

On Saturday mornings Kaylee is with us, so we put her in a stroller, wrapped her in my shawl to keep her warm and headed for the open road...

We walked her up a big hill to see the local dairy farm. I am proud I was able to push her up the hill!
As we come down the hill we can see the cow barn and a beautifully colored woods in the background. Kaylee waved to the cows.

She especially liked this one sitting near the road and chewing her cud.

Then we took her to see the horse who lives across the street from the cows. She was all excited when Grampie took her to see the horse up close, but when the horse got a little to close for comfort she started to cry...

I have been walking nearly every day, or at least 10 days out of every 11 ever since my birthday last month. Two days ago Gary, Harley (dog) and I walked down a country lane to find a flock of wild turkeys grazing in a field. I loved seeing them so close. Today we walked 3 miles together. I hate the thought of winter coming and putting an end to our colorful fun, why can't it stay fall forever?

Back on the home front, we have finally gotten the gas fireplace to finish off the living room renovation. I cannot tell you how much I love this thing. We have a remote control to turn it on or off, and the amount of heat it throws off is amazing. Just the thing to warm those tired toes, which, by the way, are wearing the completed silk birthday socks.

Catching Up With My Knitting...

2008-09-16T11:47:00.000-04:00

I thought I would catch you all up with my knitting. I am participating in the Sock Knitters Anonymous Mystery Sock for September challenge, which must be knitted in the color orange. Since I didn't have any orange sock yarn on hand, I dyed a skein of 70% merino/30% silk sock yarn into this lovely "Cheetos" shade of orange. Here it is drying -

I really love how it came out! Once it was dry I balled it up and started the mystery sock pattern. Here it is after the first day of knitting:

And here it is after finishing the first clue:

I am now working on the second clue, where the "zig" starts to "zag".

I had previously started the Druid Mittens from the cover of the Fall Vogue Knitting magazine. I was using my hand-dyed and handspun red and black yarn. This one:

And here is the mitten in progress:

EXTREME CLOSE UP!!
I loved working with the yarn and loved the pattern, but my yarn was way over half gone before finishing the first mitten *sob* so I unraveled it. Who wants one mitten? I really need to learn to dye more roving at a time, and I am really working on this. I am hoping eventually to spin enough of one color to knit a pair of socks.

I have finished another challenge from my list of 5 top UFO's to finish, inspired by my friend Cindy. Here is number 2 crossed off the list, the Icelandic Lace Shawl I knit from all neutral shades of 100% wool. It was a monster to knit, boring with a CAPITAL B! By the end of it I was just working incessantly to finish the darn thing off. I don't recommend this pattern unless you can knit while you sleep. Give me charted lace any day! Which reminds me, I have signed up again this year for the Halloween Mystery Shawl designed by Goddess Knits, the one I made last year is my favorite shawl ever! Here is my Icelandic Shawl blocking on my design wall:
And the EXTREME CLOSE UP SHOT!
One more project off the needles since my last blog post is my Zombie Socks. This was a really enjoyable pattern. I felt so naughty every time I purposely dropped a stitch! The yarn used was my first hand-dyed sock yarn ever. This one:
You know, the one where I wanted to use ALL of my colors? Well it knit up just beautifully as a pair of Zombies:
And, of course, THE EXTREME CLOSE UP:

Now it is time to start concentrating on some Christmas projects, I don't know how many I will be able to share this year since some of the family now reads my blog. We shall see, until next time...

Presenting My New Living Room!

2008-08-12T16:01:00.012-04:00

The living room is finally functional! Furniture as been moved into it and the TV is mounted! We have purchased a new entertainment unit, bookcase, lamps and ceiling light. We still have a few things left that we would like to do to finalize it but there is no hurry. My purse can use the break!

As it turns out, the paint we put on the walls is nearly impossible to photograph. The color I chose (sumptuous silk) is a faux technique which employs 2 layers of paint, the topcoat being a metallic glaze. In most pictures it looks too coral, a few it looks too pink, and in a couple it even looks fuchsia. It is not. It is a rich dusty rose color and I love it.

I love the way the fireplace looks now. I am so glad I convinced Gary to paint over the dirty old sooty bricks. He scrubbed it first to try to clean it up, but it still looked like this:

Yuck! Not very pretty at all. But just look at it now! I always wanted a mantle for the fireplace so I could put a vase of flowers on it, and now I can! We have loaded it with pictures of the grandchildren for now.

Isn't that an astonishing before and after? Since the family portrait needs to be re-framed to fit our new decor, I have hung my grandmother's mirror over the fireplace for now. I really love it there, it just may stay!

And here are the flowers for the mantle! The wall color is pretty true in this picture. See that crown moulding? I painted every single one of those roses all the way around the room! No kidding! Want proof? Here you go!I used the wall color for the roses, and the ceiling color for the leaves, so it matches beautifully! I listened to a whole book on my iPod while painting those roses, and it was a long one, too! (It was The Potato Factory, by Bryce Courtenay, 23 hours and 22 minutes!)

The floor was a major pain in the you know where. This is what was beneath the carpet we installed in the early 80's, old pine board painted green in some spots and pink in others! (Should have left it, it matched the room...)

When Gary sat down to put the new cherry Pergo floor on, it was a crooked nightmare. He bought layers of (what's the word? luan?) wood and some floor leveler you kind of "dump" on, it was awful. He really stresses about things being level. Here he is working at it... you can tell he is thinking it is still not right. And here is a picture showing the floor all finished, level and all! With pre-haircut Kaylee in the princess chair. We stained the fireplace mantle cherry to match the floor. The chair was temporarily parked there while the TV was being mounted. (Walls are not that purply.)And mounting that TV on the wall, that was a job. Sure wish he had had someone other than me to hold that thing up for him! You can also see the new clock and the cherry A/V tower we put in. The surround sound speakers are mounted in the corners. And of course the walls are no way near that color.

Here is a picture of the ceiling before renovations. I can't believe those joint compounded ceilings were ever popular, looked like cottage cheese!

And here is a picture of the new light on the new ceiling. The roses carry on the theme started in the crown moulding. I got the light on eBay for a song. Aren't I the best shopper? It was just meant to be...

The Queen's loveseat has new lamps! I found the perfect gold lampshades with beads all around the edges, which give just the right Victorian feel. (At Lowe's!)

Here is the lamp spot-lighting our 4-generation portrait and a new poster I just put up. It declares "You are a rare bird." My son agrees that I am.

Since this husband of mine has not found a new loveseat to put in the bay window, we have hauled out our old recliners for now, and replaced the lampshade on the end table to match the other two lamps. I know they don't match the room, they are just temporary I swear. The new sheer curtains really brighten up the room also.

The most recent acquisition for the room is this cherry bookcase we found at Lowe's. The odd reflection on the wall is from the mirrored picture frame on the bookshelf, and it took us quite a while to figure that out. Duh.

So now all we want to do to finish off the room is to get a gas fireplace log to put inside the fireplace, hopefully one with a remote control, and to get the family portrait re-framed. It will then hang over the loveseat, the mirror is staying where it is!

I hope you enjoyed this trip around the living room! It was a hard spring being down 2 rooms, and just as I start to enjoy my newly spacious home, Gary announces, "So when shall we start the kitchen?" AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!

The New Vogue Knitting is Out!

2008-08-05T13:43:00.011-04:00

Contrary to popular belief, I don't hate Vogue Knitting magazine, it's just that the last issue was particularly bad. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite sweaters of all time came from the magazine, the Enchanted Forest sweater. When my daughter asked me what I would like for Mother's Day this year I said perhaps a subscription to Vogue Knitting, and she replied "Why, so you can make fun of it on your blog?" I laughed, but she gave me Spin-Off magazine instead. You'll never catch me making fun of that one!

When I saw the mittens on the cover of the Fall '08 issue, I fell in love. I was very excited to see smaller projects featured, especially mittens! I had the hardest time finding interesting mitten patterns last Christmas when I thought about making some as gifts. Everyplace you looked featured the trendy "fingerless gloves", (which I admit I knit myself 2 pairs,) but this year I am happy to see full coverage mittens back on the scene. In Maine, everyone needs a few pairs. My favorite pattern is on the cover:

They are the perfect pattern to showcase my fingering weight handspun and hand-dyed yarns! I have already joined the Druid Mittens knit-a-long on Ravelry! They are rich, intricate, and warm. Thanks to Jared Flood for this wonderful design.

Also I love the Let it Snow fair isle mittens, aren't they sensational in black and white? I might possibly get back into some 2 color knitting with these...

Then we have the yellow cabled mittens knit in Manos, I could use some of my early handspuns to make these! Rich with cables and quick to knit too...

Vogue also features a bag and slipper socks to knit. The bag is by Lucy Neatby and gorgeous, knit in only 3 colors. I am lusting for it. If the 2-color mittens don't drag me back into stranded knitting, this bag will!

The socks, however, require 3 balls of main color and 6 balls of contrasting color in Mission Falls 1824 Wool. I did a quick google and found the yarn online for $6.80 a ball, bringing the cost of the wool for this pair of socks to $61.20. That doesn't include the shipping costs either. Needless to say I won't be knitting these...

Also on my list of favorite patterns in this issue is this side to side lace cardigan. Unfortunately, the photography is inadequate to show off the rich detail in the lace design. How can you lure people into knitting one if they can't even see what the design is like? The front photo is so small I can't even make out whether it is lace or not...

Then we have this beauty. The model's face is highlighted perfectly. The placement of the model in the frame was perfection. The makeup is lovely. So is her jewelry. But the sweater, hmmm. I just can't for the life of me make out what the design is because it is totally in the shadows. Seems to be rich with cables, and if I squint really hard I get the impression that the ribbing is also rich with tiny cables. I'd never in a million years cast on for it without knowing what it looks like though. Would you? Too bad, I think it may be exceptional. I'll never know because the photographer was bewitched by her eyes only...
Look at this next pair of sweaters. The sweater on the left I would wear but I wouldn't knit it (yawn). The sweater on the right I would knit but I wouldn't wear it. The cabling is lovely, and upon closer examination, it is revealed to be knit from *gasp* Lion Brand Yarn? Are you kidding? Yarn from Wal-Mart in Vogue Knitting??? It is actually affordable and attractive! It probably costs less to knit than the socks above!

Okay, that's it for the wonderful patterns from this issue. But I can't leave you without showing you the truly awful ones too! Here is another monstrosity from Twinkle Knits. Boy talk about your quick knits! I checked out the instructions, and if you are knitting this for someone with a 30 inch bust (does anyone over the age of 8 really have a 30 inch bust?) you cast on 31 stitches. No kidding. I cast on more than that for a sock. For half of a sock in fact. And when could you possibly wear such a thing? The wool is thick enough to warm an Eskimo, but then the arms and neck are left bare. How very strange. This next pair makes me laugh. First of all, what happened to her hair? Did she ride to the shoot on the back of a speeding motorcycle traveling backwards? Hmm. And she is wearing so much mascara she can barely hold her eyes open from the weight of it. And look at the strange poses, is she identical twins or did they cut and paste her legs over each other? Or is Twin A trying to kick Twin B out of the picture? (Hey, this is my big chance at fame, get out of here, evil twin!)
And this one gets my vote for worst sweater in the magazine: TA-DA! Ms. Eyelashes (last issue it was Ms. Eyebrows, remember?) is modeling this strange conglomeration of delicate silk with a thick clunky cotton vest over it. And it is knit in a garter stitch pattern a child could knit. Is this high fashion or just bizarre? I can't figure it out...

Well, I will be back with another review when the next issue of Vogue hits the stands. I enjoy picking apart the rare mix of the unique and unusual, the beautiful and the just plain bad. And I'd love to hear what you thought of this review, leave a comment!

Why I Hate Direct TV...

2008-07-29T17:00:00.002-04:00

I've got to warn you that this is a very long and very angry post. If you don't like rants, then come back later for my next post, I promise it will be kinder and gentler.

Once upon a time I was a happy cable TV subscriber. Cable TV was clear, dependable and when the power went out, we lost the picture only when a line came down or a transformer blew out somewhere. We would call them, and they would say "We are working on it, we'll have it back up as soon as possible!" And they always did. Then I discovered Tivo when Oprah had her favorite things show one Christmas, and knew I had to have it. Tivo is smart system that not only finds and records all your favorite TV shows and movies, but will actually learn your likes and dislikes and keep a full memory load of everything it thinks you will like. And I usually do. I tell it I like Joan Crawford, within several days it has found me four movies starring Joan. I tell it I love the old show Twilight Zone, it brings me in some episodes of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Hour as a side dish. When I became obsessed with Hedy Lamarr, Tivo scoured the airwaves and found copies of Strange Woman, Samson and Delilah, and Tortilla Flat. Between Cable and my Tivo, I was happy TV viewer. I let the Tivo catch all my favorite shows (Simply Quilts and Boston Legal) and I watched them when it was convenient for me, not when they were "on". I always had a few great episodes waiting for me when I sat down to quilt.

But then the price of cable started to escalate, it seemed like every month for a while the bill just grew and grew, and the Tivo was another $12.95 a month. So we cut back on our package, cutting first Showtime, then Starz, The Movie Channel, Cinemax, and finally my beloved HBO. (Carnivale was the greatest TV show EVER!) Then I lost Simply Quilts when it changed from HGTV to the DIY channel, which was not part of the channel package we recieved from cable at that time. I became a sad TV viewer.

Every Saturday we get a bundle of trashy ads in the mailbox, and as I went to throw them out one lovely Saturday I happened to notice the ad for DirecTV which stated that it was less expensive than cable, free DVR with certain packages, free installation, and a channel lineup that included DIY. Since we had recently purchased a new flat screen HD TV we were especially interested in the HD programming the ad assured us DirecTV had, including more HD channels than cable or any other dish network. Plus, a big draw for me, my Mom in Florida had Direct TV and the DVR was a real Tivo. To further save money, the phone company was advertising "bundled savings" if you had their phone, internet, and Direct TV accounts together. So it SEEMED like a really good way to save money. So I asked my phone company to send a Direct TV representative to my house to set something up. I asked the nice lady at the phone company "You heard me say HD, right? I want to make sure I get an HD DVR..." "Yes," she replied, "I wrote it down." So we cancelled our cable service and waited (and waited) for our DirecTV appointment. I gave my daughter my Tivo box since we had cancelled that service also. The wait seemed like forever, but it was actually closer to 3 weeks.

So when the big day came in June 2006, I was pretty excited to get TV service back again. I could have hugged the nice man who came to set it up for us. That is, until I saw the DVR he brought in. It wasn't HD. And it wasn't Tivo. When I told him we had ordered an HD Tivo reciever, he looked at the order and said "No, you didn't. And these are the SD DVRs Direct TV is giving us to install now. We only install Tivos with HD." My heart fell. I blamed the lady at the phone company (yes I wrote it down...) "Well, I said, that is what we wanted. Not this one." He explained they were very busy right now and it would probably be a month before we could get another appointment. I could have cried. (Ok, I am really dependent on my TV. I admit it.) We talked to someone at Direct TV, and the serviceman made a few calls himself. Somewhere he found us an HD Tivo box, and he had time to go get it and come back and set it up. One problem. It was expensive. How expensive? Over $500. No kidding. So Gary and I talked. I was adamant I was having that Tivo. He thought the deal was nothing like the ad claimed. "But it's a Tivo, we shouldn't pass it up..." was my deciding argument. Out came the credit card.

So after a lot of finagling to set up a satellite dish on a pole on our neighbor's lawn, running cords and burying them under the driveway, and setting up the non-HD DVR in my studio space for catching Simply Quilts, we finally got to turn on the TV and witness the $500 miracle of HD TV. He showed me the HD channels. Nine of them, two of which were HBO and Showtime, which we had not signed up for. So seven, but 2 of those were ESPN, and we don't watch sports. So 5 of them. Mostly travel and nature shows, and a movie channel, playing mostly movies from the 70's, 80's and 90's, which we had, mostly, seen. Well I was beyond disappointed, until he explained to me that they (DirecTV) had a huge package of HD channels, including network channels, coming out by the end of that year, 2006. "And we will be able to get them on this DVR?" I asked. "Yes you will." He replied. No doubts in his mind. So I regretfully signed the papers saying he had satisfactorily installed the equipment and it was working properly, blissfully unaware of the teeny tiny fine print stating that I agreed to lease this equipment for 2 years.

Well the first week or so I enjoyed my armchair visits to Bali, Aruba, and Indo-China. I had to show everyone who came into the house what Bali looks like in HD. And I watched some old movies like Easy Rider for the umpteenth time, this time in HD. The rest of our shows we still watched in standard definition as we waited for the many "promised" channels to come. And what I learned about satellite TV is that when it rains, the picture is fuzzy. When it's couldy, the picture is snowy, and in a thunderstorm, it's non-existent. The HD channels become pixelated, turning the picture into a set of multicolor blocks of random color.

The DirecTV SD DVR I unfortunately had accepted and had it attached to my studio TV. From the beginning that "HR-15" as they call it was nothing but trouble. Every day when I turned on my TV to find something to watch while quilting, I would get nothing but gray. When I complained to DirecTV about it, they told me I had to simply press the red reset button, and it would come right back on. What it actually did was go through a 5 minute procedure starting with a "Starting up" screen cycling through many other annoying screens (particularly annoying is the "Almost There" screen, which lasts so long that you know it was no where even close when it came on...) ending with an "Acquiring Signal" which progresses slowly from 0% to 100%. Every single day.

I finally decided the box was just defective and called and told them so. I didn't think I should have to reset it every time I watched it, and a nice lady said she would send a new HR-15 out to me if I would just pay for the shipping. Why did I have to pay $20.95? I wasn't at fault. Their box was! But I paid it to get over the aggravation. And it might have been worth it if the new box had been in any way different from the first, but it wasn't. Same story. Same stupid red reset button. Same every day "Almost There!" screen. Bleah!!!!!!

I called one day complaining about the picture on the flat screen and was told to press the red reset button. Since I was looking at the living room TV with the Tivo unit, I told the lady there is no reset button on this unit. She was stumped. Then she asked me what the weather was like, I thought she was simply making conversation. I told her "Oh, it's raining a little here today..." I jumped a mile when she answered loudly "Well no wonder you don't have a clear signal!" Just because of a little drizzle? Can't they send a better signal than that? Heck, I can still hear perfectly fine when I use my cell phone in the rain, even if it is pouring.

So, the end of 2006 came and went. No new HD channels. I called and asked about them, I was told they were having some trouble with them and they woud be available by spring. Spring 2007 came and went, I called them and asked again, where are all these new HD channels, and I was told something I did not want to hear. I may not be able to get them on my precious Tivo DVR. And a new DirecTV HD DVR (non-Tivo) would be $229. Well I was livid. "But you promised!! Do you think I would have paid $500 for an HD DVR that only got 5 (or 7 if you count the sports) HD channels?" Repeatedly they told me in an aggravating monotone "We are sorry but there is nothing we can do about that." With all the trouble I had had with the Direct TV SD DVR, I certainly was not anxious to replace my Tivo with a second DirecTV DVR.

So we called a few more times to complain that we were unsatisfied with the DirecTV service and that we felt they owed us a new box since they had charged us so much for this one that never delivered the channels promised. One night Gary and I got a real smooth talker on the line, someone who seemed to understand our aggravation and offered friendly helpful advice. When he heard about my aggravation with the second HR-15 DVR, he said "You are probably destroying them by pressing the red button every day! Never press the red button." "But that is what the people on the DirecTV helpline told me to do!" I answered. He said never listen to anyone on the first line, you needed tech support with issues like that." Plus he said I should spend some time watching the DirecTV information channel, I could learn a lot about technical issues like that, plus I would learn many ways in which the direcTV DVR remotes were superior to the Tivo remotes (my other big complaint. Tivo has those wonderful circus peanut shaped remote controls that make my hands happy to hold them, and are the most user friendly remotes ever invented. They actually have green "Thumbs Up" and red "Thumbs Down" buttons, so that if you really like or dislike a show, you just press the appropriate button and Tivo knows one more thing about you! i.e., Casablanca=1 thumbs up, Dora the explorer=3 thumbs down.)

Anyway this real sweet talker told me he could let me have a new HD DVR for DirecTV's magic price of $20.95 if I agreed to extend my lease for 2 more years. I told him I would have to be crazy to do that because I had had so much trouble with the service so far! Absolutely not. And I was not aware of the original 2 year agreement until I had complained and threatened to cancel my service because of the HR-15 troubles. As far as I was concerned, I wanted cable back as soon as possible. I was tired of the aggravation. So Gary talked to Mr Sweet Talker for a while and got him to agree to send the new unit without an additional lease. And yes, stupidly, we paid the $20.95. Every single time you have a problem with anything at DirecTV, their answer is ALWAYS "Pay us more money" and maybe they can help you. So in August 2007 we got the new fancy DirecTV HR-20 HD DVR, with it's confusing non-user friendly remote control which does not in any way make my hand happy. Will you just look at those color coded buttons, they mean something different and totally unrelated on every screen you can pull up. And they never ever mean Thumbs Up= I like it, or Thumbs Down= I don't. Even if they are red and green (and blue and yellow too.)

But I did not send back my $500 Tivo, no way. I had it hooked up to my studio TV where it works day and night finding Bogart movies at the moment, also anything with the word "Frankenstein" anywhere in the title or description. And it can even find movies made in a certain year. 1942 is my current year of interest. I don't know why. They will have to pry my Tivo from my cold dead fingers I fear, long after it's become obsolete. (I might even run back into my burning home to rescue my Tivo...)

So after the new DirecTV HR-20 box was installed, they began charging us for 3 leased DVRs every month. Every time the bill came, we had to call and try to explain that we were only using 2 DVRs, the third one was replaced and they never took it back. And no we would not pay them $20.95 for a recovery box to send it back. In December they finally agreed to send me a free recovery kit after months of asking. And why were they even saying we had three leased recievers? Hadn't we paid $522 for the Tivo box? Didn't that make it ours? According to one lady at DirecTV, yes we owned it, and the $5.99 monthly lease fee was so they would allow us to watch what was on it... HUH?

Well, one day last week, Friday July 18 2008, we lost our signal. Completely. Nothing on either TV. So I called DirectTV, foolishly expecting them to help me. I have no idea why. I told them I had no signal. No picture. NO SERVICE. They were so helpful they offered to send a service technician to my home for $79.95. I have to say I didn't take that news well. I wanted to know why they expected me to pay that kind of money when I couldn't even see a picture on the TV. Knowing that my 2 year contract ended in June, I felt I had some pretty good cards in my hand if they wanted to keep me as a customer. I said I wouln't pay that. She had a counter offer. If I signed up for the maintenance package which costs $5.99 a month, she would send a tech out for only $19.95. I said no thank you, I pay DirecTV over a thousand dollars a year already. Wouldn't you think they would at least want me to see a picture so they could keep me as a customer? Hmmm, no. They wouldn't help me unless I agreed to give them more money. So I told them to disconnect my DirecTV service. She gleefully told me "Fine, but you will have to pay a HUGE early termination fee!" She really said "huge". I asked her "So you people will hold me to a service agreement even if I have no service??? You want me to just keep sending money every month even though I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING ON MY TV?" Side note... when arguing with a service representative of any company it is always a good idea to call them "you people" as many times as you can in the conversation. They get all wishy washy and super-duper helpful. NOT! So I hung up and went to check on the dates of the teeny tiny print contract. As I thought, it should have ended in June 2008.

So that evening I had Gary call DirecTV to find out more. He can keep his cool much better than I can in a phone conversation. You have to know him very well to understand that that tiny little rise in the pitch of his voice is actually anger. He asked when the contract ended. They gave us the date of August 2009. When he told them we had only signed a contract (without reading the teeny tiny print) for 2 years, and we did that unknowingly, the man told Gary it had been extended 2 years in August 2007, when we got the new DirecTV DVR so that we could see all those wonderful new HD channels. We had said on the phone that we did not agree to that, but Mr. Smooth Talker signed us up for it anyway. We told the DirecTV representative that, and he said "Oh it doesn't matter. They will hold you to it anyway. Nothing you can do. They will just take the money from your card on file."

So next Gary looked into arbitration. You have to pay DirectTV $145 to arbitrate your case if your problems with their service cannot be resolved informally. And after you pay them $145, their answer is final. You cannot take them to court for a trial by jury. Read this part of the contract: You and DIRECTV agree that any dispute arising under or relating to your agreements or service with DIRECTV, which cannot be resolved informally, will be resolved through binding arbitration as fully set forth in your DIRECTV Customer Agreement (a copy is sent with your first bill but may also be viewed at DIRECTV.com). Arbitration means you waive your right to a jury trial. Well why should they get to arbitrate it? Isn't that akin to allowing the fox to guard the henhouse? They have their butts covered coming and going.

When we called them again they were immediately rude and condescending to us. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where a Doctor wrote down on Elaine's chart that she was "cranky", and then she couldn't get a new Doctor because they would request her medical charts and didn't want her as a patient. I want to call again and ask DirectTV "Did someone write down on my chart that I am cranky? BECAUSE I AM NOT CRANKY!!!" You know I'm not cranky, right? I've just been treatly very unfairly...

In researching this matter online, I have found that there are hundreds if not thousands of people upset with Direct TV. Two websites with tons of similar complaints to mine are http://www.my3cents.com/ and http://www.pissedconsumer.com/ . Hundreds of cases where DirectTV stole hundreds of dollars from unsatisfied consumers' bank accounts. One family lost everything, TV and all, in a house fire, and DirecTV held them to their contract when they needed every last cent to buy new clothes and food. Apparently the contract says that they can charge you $470 for each HD DVR (we have 2 now since I kept the Tivo unit) and $240 for cancelling their HD service prior to your commitment. That would be almost $1200 for early cancellation, even though I never agreed to 2 more years. They have both our debit card on file (for paying our monthly bill) and our charge card (which we used once for the Tivo). So we are stuck, no matter how terrible the service from DirectTV is, EVEN IF YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE A PICTURE ON YOUR TV, we are being held to a contract that WE DIDN'T AGREED TO until August 2009.

Oh, and a side note for Mr. Smooth Talker? I watched the DirecTV information channel like you suggested. A very smooth Rob Lowe look-alike was the announcer, and he told me, and I quote: "WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, SIMPLY PRESS THE RED BUTTON!"

Direct TV sucks.

PS If you haven't already, check out my song of the week. I chose it especially to go with this post!

Mom is 75!

2008-07-10T11:15:00.000-04:00

This week marked my mother's 75th birthday! We had a big party for her and she didn't suspect a thing until we all shouted "Surprise!" Here is a picture of her birthday cake. We had a picture from her Army days over 50 years ago put on the cake and it came out just lovely!

Isn't that a beatiful WAC?

Here is a shot of her with 2 granddaughters at her sides and 2 sisters behind her. That is my daughter Josie on the right, and Jessica on the left.

Here is a shot of four sisters. From left to right, Mom (Clarice), 75; Norma, 81; Doris, 76 and Pearl, 79. I apologize profusely if I got any of their ages wrong. Also still living are 2 other sisters, Margie and Barbara, both in nursing homes now and unable to come to the party, and a brother Roger who also couldn't make it.

Gary and I took Ma and her significant other, Rudy, on a trip to Castle in the Clouds in New Hampshire last week as a birthday present. The Castle is actually a beautiful home built onto the side of a mountain. It was built in 1913 for Thomas Plant, a shoe magnate originally from Bath, Maine. It was called "Lucknow" by Tom and his wife Olive, but didn't prove to be that lucky for them. Mr. Plant lost all of his millions in the stock market crash and the home had to be sold. The home is now available for the public to tour at a small fee.

Here is a picture that I took of the front entrance.

Here we are in the back yard that overlooks the Lake Winnepasaukee region of New Hampshire. From left to right are me, Rudy and my mom.

After touring the Castle we sit outside the front entrance waiting for the trolley bus to pick us back up and take us to the parking lot.

Well I hope Mom enjoyed her 75th birthday as much as I did! Until we chat again........

Oops, I forgot to blog..............

2008-06-27T18:00:00.003-04:00

Sometimes weeks go by and I forget that I have a blog at all, and that I should be adding to it. I was really hoping my next post would be to show off the finished living room, or showing off a wonderful project I have knitted with my hand-dyed wool, but unfortunately, both of those posts will not appear for a while yet. We are getting closer to moving back into the living room though!

So to entertain you in the meantime I went surfing the web looking for some fun new knitting projects. I'm telling you, you won't believe some of the knits I have found this time! First of all, the "Goth girl" knitting website, http://theanticraft.com/ has dedicated an entire issue to none other than................... bacon. Yes, bacon. Knitted bacon, bacon ornaments, a bacon bookmark, bacon jewelry, an Ode to Bacon, a scarf called "Vegan Wrapped in Bacon", even a bacon tiara. But best of all, BACON FUDGE! Yum! I don't want to knit bacon though. I'm saving all of my brown yarns to knit this attractive laptop to head cozy. I'll really be able to forget the rest of the world as I cruise the net with this baby! Don't you just wonder what website she is checking out under there? "Mmmph, really Mom, I'm doing my homework! Spit, sputter..."
How about a baked chicken hat? I guess she ran out of golden brown yarn, this knitter used pink. Is it a knitted naked chicken hat? And can you say that 10 times fast? I could get some of that novelty "fur" yarn in pink and make this attractive pink bra with attached baby doll heads. But only if I can have the wig she is wearing too......... I love it!

Last time I showed you the red knitted car, well this time I have found a pink knitted motorcycle! Isn't it pretty?
And lastly I found a pattern for a knitted toolbelt. I am planning to knit this for all the handymen in my life: Gary, Richard, Jed and Rudy! Comes complete with knitted tools! I wonder if they get the job done?

Well until I get something more interesting to talk about, I hope you enjoyed this short list of projects. Just makes you wonder............... WTF?

If you haven't noticed the Song of the Week button on the sidebar, please check it out! This week's song is Skullcrusher Mountain by Jonathan Coulton, what a talented singer/songwriter he is!! I cannot get the song out of my head.........

I'm Dyeing to Tell You About My New Hobby...

2008-06-09T18:10:00.001-04:00

Well, to begin with, I love color, and when I shop for yarns and fabric I have trouble finding products I like because most designers are rather subtle in their use of color. Me, I like color and lots of it, no need to be shy about it. It was only natural I would find my way to a hobby like dyeing, so that I could color my own yarns and rovings. So I sent for a dyeing kit from Hello Yarn. Then I went to the Portland Fiber Gallery and bought tons of natural wool rovings, and ordered plain un-dyed sock yarn from KnitPicks. Well this is what I got, I spread it all out on my table and I cringed. Then I read the directions for mixing the dyes, looked at the mask supplied to prevent inhaling toxic dye particles, tried it on and fogged up my glasses immediately, cringed again, and packed it all back into the box. There it sat in my studio pantry for months. Lets face it, I was scared. With my asthma, dyeing is probably not the best hobby for me to take up. But I kept dreaming of yarns I would like to knit with in glorious handpainted yarns. Then one day my friend Cindy K-K offered up a challenge. Find 5 unfinished projects you would dearly love to finish and get to work on them. This dyeing project was on my list, plus the Sundial Quilt I have been working on for the past 3 years, which has become lost in the home renovation mess we are going through; a shawl I started to knit and found it to be the most boring thing in the world which I would rather poke needles in my eyes than work one row on; and a quilted tablecloth that I have been tripping over in my quilt frame for two years now. I have become blind to it, people can come into my studio and say "Oh, are you making a quilt?" I'll answer "What makes you think that?" This is it...

And the fifth unfinished project, I can't seem to remember for the life of me! So of the five projects I chose to get outside (the weather has finally warmed up!) with this dyeing kit and try it out.

I spent a day outside at the picnic table mixing the powdered dyes into a liquid form, made a terrible mess since I couldn't see a thing through the foggy glasses, then put it all back away again. It still seemed too scary to touch that pure white yarn with these dyes! What if I spill or mix truly ugly colors? As you can see, the set I purchased contained only red, blue, yellow and black. All colors you can dream up will be made from blends of those four. There should have been a thousand page manual supplied with the kit explaining you to make all of the colors possible, but no. They left me to flounder helplessly with experimentation.

Perhaps a week later I told myself you are just going to do it! There were three processes to choose from in the instructions, so I decided I would try all three and see which one I liked best.

The first step was to soak your yarn thoroughly. Here is some sock yarn soaking in the sink. I really didn't know what to do with the dyes. Since I was learning on an experimental basis, I first tried the crockpot dye method. I didn't want to spend the money for a new crockpot, so I bought some "crockpot liners" to keep the dyes away from my crock. I added the wet yarn, and attempted to make a dark blue by adding black dye to the blue, pouring most of the blue/black on one side, then pouring pure black on the top left. I let the bottom stay light in color, choosing not to stir the pot. It cooked for 3 hours then sat overnight to be rinsed the next morning. With the next skein I went nuts. I wrapped the skein into a super long one on my warping board so I could try all of the colors at once. I wanted to make a rainbow of color by blending one pure color into the next, having enough black at each end to give me a stained glass effect. I laid the yarn out onto a long sheet of plastic wrap, applied the dye one color at a time, blending as I went to make a sequence of black, red, violet, blue, blue-green, green, yellow-green, yellow, then reversed it back again. I wrapped up the plastic wrap like a great long shiny snake and coiled it into my steamer basket, then steamed it for 20 minutes. When I was done steaming, I was horrified to find the dye had leaked out into my steamer and would no longer be useful for cooking my vegetables. I marked on the steamer with a permanent marker "For dyeing only" and decided to shop for a new vegetable steamer later. The third method I tried was the ziplock bag in the microwave oven method. I used the plastic wrap and hand painting method as above, using only my red and yellow dyes, painting one into the other. Then I put the saran wrap coil into a ziplock bag (not fully zipped) and microwaved it for 3 minutes. I felt like a kid on the night before Christmas that night, so anxious to get up and rinse the skeins and see what I had produced.

After rinsing them I hung them over the clothesline to dry for the day. This is how the long "Rainbow" skein looked.

This is the finished crock pot skein, I loved how just a strand here and there stayed nearly white, it contrasts so well against the very dark blue. I am naming my colorways as I go, this one is Stormy Night. It is the result of my blue and black experiment.

This is a skein of handspun corriedale cross, the yellow and red microwaved sample. I called it Blood Orange. This is the crazy rainbow skein, I was a little disappointed with the final result after reskeining it. Perhaps a trifle gaudy? I named it "Hoodoo", and then I fell in love wth it. I immediately cast on a pair of Zombie Socks and I really like the way it is working up.

After the initial "rainbow" yarn experiment, I have been playing with only 2 dye colors at a time. It makes it much easier for me to see what the colors are capable of producing. This is a hank of roving dyed with blue and red.
Here is a skein of sock yarn that was the result of playing with my blue and yellow dyes. This is by far my favorite so far, I named it Mermaid's Tears. I just love it!
And a close-up to see the colors better...This roving was the result of working with yellow and black. The green does not photograph well at all, but it is the most luscious absinthe green! I was very surpised with the green, I thought I was working with brown until it dried. I think I will call it "Forest Glade".

The day I played with red and black I dyed up this roving and named it Dracula's Cloak.

...and then I spun it into this delicious sock yarn...

And this the the sock yarn I dyed the same way. I call it Burnt Lipstick.
I really wish I could take a better picture, none of these photos shows the true beauty of the colors. The yarn above is actually much redder.

I have now started working with 3 of my four dye colors at a time, and chosen the steamer method as the way to go. My first 3-color combination was red, blue and yellow, and here is the sock yarn I dyed. I called it Migrant Worker because it reminded me of the orange pickers in their denim jackets I saw in Florida, but Gary said that probably wasn't a good name. We decided to call it Orange Picker.

And here is a close-up.

On Saturday I visited the annual Fiber Frolic at the Windsor Fairgrounds. I came home with more dyes! I hadn't yet figured out out to make brown, so I bought Chestnut. Also some other colors to try. I bought some pure alpaca to spin and dye, and some bamboo/merino blend and a merino/silk blend that are already dyed. I had a great time looking at all the spinning wheels and seeing the sheep, goats, and alpacas.

Now I think I need to go buy some more plain white sock yarn...

Oh, and the ruined steamer? I went to buy a new one at Wal-Mart and couldn't find one, I tried Target also, no steamers. As a last resort I went to the Goodwill store and found a used one for $5! Were steamers just a fad? Don't people buy them anymore? I don't know but I love mine. How else would you steam asparagus? Hmmm...

Living Room Update

2008-05-21T16:05:00.000-04:00

So are you wondering how the living room is coming along? The last time I showed you pics it was completely gutted down to the lathes. The progress is rather slow because Gary only has a couple of days a week to work on it, and sometimes those days get used up by other things... life goes on. Today I will show you what has happened since my last post.

First, Gary and son Jed put sheetrock up. They put it on the walls and on the ceiling.

Here is Jed nailing sheetrock bits around the windows. It was rather clever use of bits and pieces they had cut off the big sheets, like making a patchwork quilt!

Being over 100 years old and extremely crooked, the walls had some very "interesting" spots to fill in! Like this one...
The ceiling was done last. They left a hole for the light fixture.
Next came the "mud" work. I wasn't worried about the gaping holes and crooked bits, because I was lucky to have the best mud men in Weeks Mills. Jed has done extensive work in this field. Here is the ceiling after mud:

And here is Gary working around the fireplace. See that big tangle of wires hanging out of the wall? Those are audio/video wires to go to the TV and the surround speakers. It was a challenge to work around them.
Here is the fireplace area after all the mudwork and the first coat of wall primer.

Remember that odd corner I showed you with the little triangular piece of sheetrock wedged in it? Well here is that corner now, you can't even tell there was a problem there. Don't my guys do good work?

Once the mudwork was done and was dry, it was time to do the ceiling. I had originally wanted an old-fashioned tin ceiling, but when I found out it would be a couple thousand dollars, I changed my mind. We then looked into a plastic look-alike ceiling tile, and it would have cost $800. For plastic! Can you believe it? Once again I have more dash than cash. So while wondering what to do with those bare walls, we looked at lots of wallpapers. When I found a paintable embossed tile-patterned wallpaper, I asked Gary, "Could you put wallpaper on the ceiling?" And he said yes! With a faux finish, perhaps we could make it look like copper patina! So here is Gary, wallpapering the ceiling.

The paper went up surprisingly easily. I was the helper on this job, and I have got to tell you, there was absolutely no cussin' and no throwing of the tools. So if you would like your ceiling papered, just give us a call! Will work for wool...

Then Gary painted the paper the green I found that looked most like copper patina. The he applied two glazes, the first one was bronze. Here you can see Gary applying dabs randomly,

And here he is burnishing the bronze glaze into the embossed crannies. Look at that hand fly!

Then he did the same with a buff glaze, to give it random lighter spots. It was nearly impossible to get a photo of the finished ceiling, but here is the best closeup I could get:

I really love it, it looks almost like the real thing! Next we are working on the walls and fireplace, I will try to update again soon.

I Have Been Knitting and Spinning My Heart Out!

2008-05-01T14:06:00.003-04:00

I have finished my Rolling Thunder beaded socks and I have them on!! I love the happy red and orange colors in this hand dyed yarn from PineStar Studios! And the merino wool yarn is so scrumptiously soft it is like wearing warm clouds on my feet!

Here is a detail of the frosted black glass beads I had to pre-thread on the yarn. I don't really like the pre-threading method, next time I will stick with my crochet hook method to apply beads. The pattern is from Knitty.com. I bought the most gorgeous hand painted Corriedale rovings to spin from the Portland Fiber and Weaving Gallery. Here are the yarns I spun from them: in the center is a skein of singles, on top is a large skein of 2-ply, and on the bottom is a small sample skein where I tried plying the single with a metallic sewing thread. The photo does not do justice to the vibrant colors.
The plain white Corriedale wool was my first handspun yarn in 10 years. It is pretty thick and thin, but hey, some people like it that way! It is a 2-ply yarn which I plan to hand dye myself when I get enough equipment. I have been dreaming of color combinations I would like to try.
Have you ever wondered what your name means? I did, so I took this quiz. Funny, my mother always said it meant "beloved". The quiz reveals all, it really means headstrong, rebellious, stubborn obsessive perfectionist! I'll bet she would have picked another name if she had known!

What Darlene Means

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.
You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.
People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.
You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.
Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

WTF?????? For Josie!

2008-04-19T16:06:00.000-04:00

Are you looking for a new project to knit? Well I am. I am looking for something completely different and I think I just may have found it. In fact, I have found a few!

I didn't quite have enough red yarn for this one, but if I did, I could knit myself a new car, like this lady did. I wonder if it is good on gas?

Smaller bits of red yarn, or perhaps some red scraps left from the knitted car, might be well used for making a devil doll:
I am pretty darn frugal, so I would save those last few inch-long red scraps to make a tassel for my next chicken hat. How about you?
And in case your yarn stash is lacking in the red department, and you find yourself with 45 skeins of bare white wool that you purchased from Knitpicks when you thought perhaps you would take up dyeing, I even have a project for you! How about using it to knit your man an eye-free, mixed-up pom pom crazy bunny suit? Will you just look at that pom pom placement??? Let me tell you, every man in MY life is getting one of these suits for Christmas!

(Scurrying off to cast on....)

Fiber Field Trip

2008-04-14T08:44:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday, April 12, I joined a lovely group of knitters and spinners that I met on Ravelry.com for our first "Fiber Field Trip". We all met at Maranacook Yarns in Readfield. Shop owner Gari has a wonderful selection of yarns, books, patterns, and best of all... SPINNING SUPPLIES! Since I recently got my spinning wheel out of storage and back together again, I was very delighted to see (and buy) some of her fibers. Also, once a month she has a meeting of spinners at her shop, to sit and spin and sometimes offers wine tastings! I really would love to go. Gari had a lovely selection of beverages and pastries arranged for our visit, she is a very gracious hostess. Here is a picture of Gari's shop taken from her website. I forgot to get my camera out I was so excited to meet the knitters.

After we were all done shopping, we followed each other to Sully's Tavern in Winthrop for lunch. Again, I was too excited to remember my camera, but luckily Karen (AuntieMame) shared the pics she took of us all around the table. Here we are going around the table, clockwise by RavelryID: Sparklepony, Jeaninmaine, JLynne, Greenchop in the pretty hat, who organized this group;

Greenchop and soxnut,

This time from right to left: Mizray, brokensnowpea and her boyfriend,

Here we have Storm (left) and her firefighter/spinner husband, and Gari the shop owner.

Left to right, Mizray checking out my Dracula's Bride shawl, and her guest Mary, then me, getting ready to show off my new handspun...
Unfortunately their is not a pic of AuntieMame as she was behind the camera... and a big thank you for getting these pics of us all! We enjoyed the Tavern very much, the meals were wonderful, the french fries handcut and the sandwiches delicious. The waitress was patient and attentive, and we were able to have a whole room to ourselves.

Next we all drove to Monmouth to the Friend's Folly Farm. Pogo, owner of Friend's Folly, raises angora goats. They are called Angora goats, but the fiber they produce is mohair. Angora fiber comes from Angora rabbits. It is very confusing I realize, but the reason they were both called Angora to begin with is that they were originally bred in the Angora region of Turkey. Today it is called Ankara. Anyway, I digress... Pogo also has her own spinnery in an outbuilding behind her home. This time I was smart enough to get my camera out. Here is a picture of the carding machine, loaded with fiber from both dark and white haired goats. This fiber has already been cleaned and "picked" for debris. The carder combs and straightens the hairs so that they are neatly arranged for spinning. You can see what the fiber looks like going in....

And here is what it looks like coming out! A neat little roving, ready to spin!

Here is Pogo, on the right, as she explains the process to us.

This is the spinning machine, which turns the carded roving into yarn. She got this wonderful old piece of equipment from a spinnery that went out of business some time ago. It can spin yarn with up to 8 plies (strands), perhaps you can see that it was making a 2-ply at the time of our visit.

Then we went out to see the goats! Here is a group of mothers and babies inside their shed. I apologize profusely but I didn't catch the name of the lady who showed us the goats and allowed us to pet them.

Here are some of the goats outside playing. You can see that most of our snow is gone at last (yippee!) and it wasn't that muddy, either. Luckily the rain that was predicted held off...

This is one hungry mama goat, and she did not want to share the hay. She would head-butt any trespassers to her food supply right out of the way.

And now, the obligatory gratuitous baby goat pics.... here is a brown baby...

Here is a mama goat with her white baby...

And here is a baby half brown and half white! We were told that the color they are born with does not necessarily predict the color they will have in their adulthood.

I had a wonderful day and came home with a bag of undyed corriedale cross wool, a bag of merino/silk dyed midnight blue, and of course a bag of "Friendz Blendz" mohair/wool dyed ocean blue with just a touch of bling. I started spinning the minute I got home!! I'll keep you posted on my progress.

My House Has Secrets.....

2008-03-29T12:56:00.000-04:00

Old homes are ripe for the picking when it comes to mining treasures from the past. One of the things that is the most fascinating to me is the demolition process and the surprises contained under the facade of the present day. They have been here all along, covered by dirt, time, and miles and miles of ugly wallpapers. We did not uncover a lot of new treasures under the horsehair plaster in our living room, if fact I can show you both small treasures with this photo:

An old fashioned fish hook and the tiny cover to a jar of Mentholatum. Will you look at the line on that fish hook? It appears to be a woven cotton cording made many years before the invention of nylon lines. I'll bet the trout heard that hook hit the water a mile away! I wonder how it ended up in the horsehair plaster? Do you suppose the plasterer (plasterman?) leaned over the bucket to stir it and didn't notice the fishhook fall from his pocket?

I am going to share other more interesting finds from a few years ago when we renovated the bathroom. We had to tear the floor out because moisture had rotted most of the floor boards. What we found beneath that floor still amazes me to this day.

Apparently they used any papers they had handy to line the layers between the floorboards and keep the cold air from seeping through. Our first find was this still beautiful postcard:

If you can't read the verse, this is what is says:

"Home to his nest the swift gray gull is winging

Through the still dusk I hear the sailors song.

Night to the weary rest from toil is bringing,

Wilt thou be long."

Here is the back of the card. I can't make out anything that it says, but the stamp looks like I could peel it off and use it again today, it wouldn't take my postcard far, would it?

The next small treasure was a ticket to the fair, dated 1896. It took you from Augusta Maine to the fair and back, but you had to pay your own admission. I wish I could see what they got to ride on, perhaps a horse drawn carriage led by 4 Belgian draft horses carrying 20 or more fairgoers? Or perhaps the Narrow Gauge railroad that passed this way many many years ago? I wonder...

You know how when you pay for your groceries the printed receipt has ads on the back? Well I guess that is a very old custom, as you can see on the back of the ticket was an ad for the East Side Drug Store. I wonder what he had to pay for that ad, a dime? The next small treasure is a recipe. My first thought was that it was cut out from the electric bill. Oops, I guess not. Homes were not wired for electricity until 1920 or later, I guess that explains why the rolls require a "brisk" oven. How many sticks of wood would you use to get your oven up to "brisk"? Four? Needless to say that explains why there is no oven temperature given. Closer examination reveals that it was most likely an insert from the "Magic Yeast" carton.

The best find of all was a nearly complete newspaper dated Monday, February 17, 1896. It was the local paper from Augusta Maine, the one I read all my years of growing up. But reading this paper was like reading the news from another planet! Here is an example of some of the BIG NEWS of the day:And the news in Hallowell is even more fascinating:I wasn't lucky enough to have a column labeled "Gossip" when I was growing up, but will you just look at the juicy bits from this column! I certainly am glad they found a way to can "short" lobsters without hindrance! And what do you suppose "hard sledding" is? Something like rough sailing? Oh, those contemptible Bath people!

And here is more gossip: The first bit could have been written this year. And the second bit? State officials need to take notice, what a clever way to reduce the population in our overcrowded jails! Here is an example of one of the columns contained therein: WELL, THIS IS A QUEER WORLD. Catchy title, don't you think? My favorite part of the paper has got to be the advertisements though. LOOK! Big news! A shipment of sauerkraut has arrived in the City of Augusta! Get out your party clothes Momma we're celebrating tonight! Look at the ad for chewing tobacco: It is the largest piece of GOOD tobacco ever sold for 10 cents! I wonder what the largest chunk of bad tobacco cost, a nickel? It kind of strikes a cocky pose, don't you think? This ad, hmmm. I woudn't comment on this with a ten foot pole. Just, well, hmmmn. These ads are good, but the best ads are the ones that let you see how far we have come in the field of medicine in the past 112 years.

There was a wonderful healer coming to town, one who made the blind see and the deaf hear. He cured cancer or there was no charge. Wow. They had a cure for worms in your children, this household remedy was over 44 years old in 1896, it must have been a big problem. YUCK! If your problem was not worms, then Johnson's Linament cured nearly everything else, AND, it was pleasant to take when dropped on sugar! (Same could be said of arsenic...)

There seemed to be another more rampant epidemic that year, though. Something that hit nearly every household, and half the newspaper ads had to be dedicated to solving this particular problem. Something that made the moustache of every man affacted droop to his chin and made the ladies cry. People, we are talking about MALE IMPOTENCE! But there were remedies galore: There was NEW LIFE: (It also cured insanity, lassitude and Night Losses. NIGHT LOSSES??????) There were Nerve Seeds for Weak Men! Complete with illustrations demonstrating moustache improvement in 1, 10, 20 and 40 days!
There was Lost Manhood:But the best cure of all has to be............. SEX-INE PILLS! (Today we call it Viagra...)

Will you just look at all those moustaches perking back up? What do you suppose made these guys so desirous of perky moustaches? Perhaps Mr. Wonderful Healer above needs a dose, what do you think?

And there were some products for the ladies too, like Belladonna Plaster...

Do you think this ad is terribly erotic or is it just me? Hmmn...

But I have saved the best "under the bathroom floor" find for last. This was an announcement from a local church concerning a certain club the Pastor was trying to round up some young girls to join. Here it is:

We have always gotten a good chuckle from this one.

Well, that ends my show of "Treasures From The Past" for today. I hope you enjoyed seeing them!

My Daughter Gets Married!

2008-03-27T13:31:00.000-04:00

On Saturday the 22 of March we went to see my daughter Josie marry a wonderful man named Richard! They had the loveliest ceremony. It was very small, only their parents and their children were invited. Here is a picture of the happy couple.

Here they are with their wedding cake, which was made by the groom's father. Isn't that impressive? It was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and was delicious! The cake followed a fabulous brunch cooked by the groom's mother Carleen which included quiche, oven fried potatoes, vegetarian bacon, smoked salmon, a massive fruit and melon platter, bagels and cream cheese and I made cinnamon rolls to bring. It was a wonderful feast.

During the ceremony they did a sand ritual where they took turns pouring colored sand into this jar as the officiator read about their lives blending together like the grains of sand, it was really lovely.

Here is a picture of the bride and groom with both sets of parents.

This is the new family: Richard's son Sam, Josie, Richard and Savannah.
After the brunch and toasts and gifts, the happy couple went to North Conway in New Hampshire where they stayed at a Victorian Spa for the weekend. Savannah came home with us, and on the way we took a detour to Bethel so she could see the largest snowman in the world. It is actually a Snow-woman, named Olympia. Don't Savannah and I look like tiny ants next to her?
Savannah stayed with us for Easter, and we had the chance to cook together and color Easter eggs. For dinner, we had another wonderful meal. Jessica, Kaylee, Rich, and Jed came over. Our menu included: Glazed ham, oven roasted potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, fresh steamed asparagus, honeyed baby carrots, creamed corn for Jed (the only vegetable he'll eat), rolls with butter, cranberry, pickles and lemon mousse pie with raspberries for dessert.

The Easter bunny left the girls far too much candy, but they had fun looking for it. I hope everyone had a holiday weekend as nice as mine was.

I'm Not Happy...

2008-03-17T14:56:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time there was a living room. It wasn't pretty, but it did have some pretty furniture. This is what is looked like, from the bay window toward the dining room.

I was very tired of the pimply stucco ceiling, and it was impossible to clean, or even to dust. And I hated the plain wood trim and decades-old wallpaper. So I asked for a new room. Now, our house is over a hundred years old. Gary has stripped most of the other rooms and put up sheetrock, but never this one. And so we begin. First, Gary took down the wall behind the fireplace. Then he started chipping that awful stucco off the ceiling.

Kaylee peeks in and says "Uh-oh, Grampy!" She can't imagine what I will say when I see the mess! As you can see, we took up the carpeting previously. I am hoping for a new laminate floor, maybe in a cherry color. As Gary works on the ceiling, our son Jed diligently removes a hundred years worth of wallpapers (the last 30 years of wallpaper were my choices, interesting to see what lies beneath them...) and then the horsehair plaster beneath. We found a fish hook in the wall. It looked hand made, big and scary and very very old.

Can you see the plaster dust in the air? We put a plastic tarp over the door to try to contain the dust, but it didn't help a lot... There is plaster dust EVERYWHERE in the whole house, just look!
Soon all the walls and the ceiling are stripped and this is what we have now. That fan? It is going. Buh-bye. I wish I could say goodbye to that ugly airvent too, but it is the only way we get any heat in our bedroom above. It is cold up there, even with layers of quilts.
Will you just look at that floor? It took them another day to sweep up the plaster and bag it to take to the dump, then we had to pay $75 for them to take it off our hands. Man, we could have used that money for sheetrock!

Gary took this one from up on the ladder. Paper and plaster and dust, oh my!

So now the living room furniture is in the dining room:

The dining room furniture is in the kitchen, and the old couch and big screen TV are in my quilting studio! I don't have room to move or even turn around. I keep telling Gary this is what we would feel like if we had a trailer in Florida for the winter, we are practicing!

The only way I have found to keep my sanity is to knit like a fiend. So May I present my finished project, THE DRACULA'S BRIDE SHAWL!!!

Here is a closer look:

And closer still:

Pattern designed by Goddess Knits, I used Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk yarn and size 4 bamboo needles. It took me 6 months to knit this shawl. I'd say it was worth it. I'm feeling happier now.

My Potatoes

2008-03-02T10:55:00.001-05:00

The following tidbit is brought to you for entertainment purposes only.

DISCLAIMER: No potatoes were harmed for the following photographs. HOWEVER, they were later chopped into little bits and put into stew for being troublesome and rather soft.

May I present to you:

Pablo Picasso PotatoOf course I paint with my brush in my mouth, for I have no hands, you see.

Pinnochio Potato

I swear I didn't tell a lie!

Peter Cottontail Potato

And what would you like for Easter, my pretty?

Wally Walrus Potato

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob goo goo goo goo joo!

I Do Believe, I Do Believe, I Do I Do I Do!

2008-03-01T16:15:00.000-05:00

I am reading the book "Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui" by Karen Kingston. I got this book because we have a lot of clutter and I would like to clean up a bit. I don't know what Feng Shui is. The book could have been called Clear Your Clutter with Mumbo Jumbo and I still would have gotten it, because I have clutter. I didn't really believe that Feng Shui would help us. When I read the chapter about putting up with broken or second rate appliances, this is what she said: "Things which need fixing are an energy drain. Every time you see the object which needs fixing, your energy level drops." And in another section: "Don't put up with giving yourself second best. When you nourish yourself by giving yourself the best you can, that signal goes out and will attract the best in other areas of your life too."

And then, in a most serendipitous turn of events, Gary did our taxes and found that the amount we would be getting back was exactly the price of the refrigerator we had seen and wanted to purchase. And so we did. We were quite the joke of the neighborhood when the Lowe's truck backed into our yard (Gary works at Home Depot), and two very nice men brought in the new fridge. And then they moved the 16 year old behemoth that served us well while raising our 6 children onto the front porch where we will put a for sale sign on it. Well now, let me tell you... After living with the broken ice-through the door fridge for about 2 years, (yes, we looked into repairing it, very expensive and parts are hard to locate for such an old fridge), getting my first few cubes through the door was almost cathartic. I felt a surge of energy flow through me that I had't felt in months. It was more than ice. It was my chi becoming unblocked. The energy flow had been returned to me and to my home.

Since the fridge arrived, I have had a severe case of finish-itis. Knitters can tell you about start-itis, so can quilters. It is where you just keep starting new projects and never getting anywhere with them. Something else is always newer and more interesting. But finish-itis? It is almost unheard of.

First I finished my Ice Queen scarf. See?

I made it from Karabella laceweight mohair yarn on size 5 needles. Here is a picture of me wearing it:

Can you see the glass beads sparkling here and there? And the ice crystals falling from the sky while I wear my Ice Queen scarf? Awesome!

Then, I finished my Dashing fingerless gloves. When I first heard about fingerless gloves, I thought it a ridiculous notion. Certainly nothing a Mainer could use, our fingers would freeze and fall off! I was wrong though, and I am finding them incredibly useful. No more hauling off the thick mittens to count change at a cash register, I can use my camera outside, and best of all, I can knit in a cold car! And as for the warmth, I find them adequate.
See how lovely?

Look at the detail of the lovely cables crossing my wrists.

I would show them both to you but I need one hand to hold the camera. ;>) I made these from a Rowan Merino/Silk blend yarn. I bought two balls, and used about 1 and a half. So guess what I did with the other half?

I used it to finish this project from H-E-double toothpicks:

Yes, the downtrodden mobius scarf! I was determined not to buy any more yarn to finish it and I didn't! And I think I can almost say that I frogged this piece more times than I knit it! I am SO HAPPY that this is finished and I can wear it before the winter is finished with us! Speaking of which, look what happened today...
Another Maine blizzard, unbelieveable! Gary was having trouble with his sciatica so he didn't go to work, we made a big fire in the cookstove and made corn chowder and oatmeal cookies. It was a pleasure wearing my silk gloves out to the woodshed. Who would have thought an $8 ball of wool could make me feel like a princess?

And one more FO (Finished Object):

My Firestarter socks!!! I love them so much I am going to show them to you again:
I am happy to say that I found no knots in the Noro sock yarn and they are softer after washing. I am wearing them now and my feet are delighted with them.

Gary has been affected by the new found energy too, he has replaced the broken handle on the recliner couch (now resting comfortably in my studio since being replaced by the Queen's loveseat) and repaired some broken picture frames. He was rather embarrassed though at the grocery store the other night when a lady he works with shouted out "Hey Gary! Was that a Lowe's truck I saw in your yard the other night?" He'll never live it down.

Anyway... Feng Shui. I do believe, I do believe, I do I do I do......

Here I Go Again....

2008-02-24T14:22:00.000-05:00

Will everybody just go to your windows right now and shout out "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore"? Don't make me shout alone...

I need a new refrigerator. This one has a broken icemaker and the entire back wall is cracked, allowing the cold to seep out of the inner chamber and into the casing, which means we are spending a lot of extra money on electricity. Plus, we purchased this one when we had a large family at home, and now it is just Gary and me. It is so big we are lucky if we can fill one shelf with our meager groceries for 2. So we have started looking around. Gary found one at a good price at Home Depot on sale, but it sold before we made our decision. It was on clearance you see. Then we went to Sears and were ready to buy a black one on clearance if our daughter who works there could sell it to us and make a nice commission. Well Sears said I had to buy it from a total stranger even though Sara was right there, she couldn't ring up the sale. So forget it! I didn't want another black one anyway, I really like the clean look of the stainless steel. So then we went to Lowe's to have a look around, and we found this one:

Isn't it pretty? And it is Energy Star rated, has a cool little turn about water spout for filtered water through the door, and many other nice features, not to mention the fact THAT IT IS $500 OFF because it is the last one of last year's model. Well, we never make a decision on the spot. We came home to think about it, taking our chance that someone else would grab it out from under us.

Well then the gas man came. He filled the propane tank for my little gas stove that heats my studio, and quietly slipped the bill inside the back door. IT WAS FOR $250 DOLLARS! They are charging $2.47 a gallon for it, and it is to heat only one room! For about one month! And I keep it at 65 degrees.

The next day Gary was in the shower when I saw the oil man pull into the driveway. The oil furnace heats the rest of the house. Well his bill was for $550!!!!!!! You should have seen me chasing him down my driveway screaming like a banshee "You better run! If I ever catch you near my tank again with your $3.50 a gallon oil you'll regret it! What the hell are you people thinking!!??"

Ok, so add the two bills together, and I have spent $800 to keep my house warm (66 degrees, not like I am really warm) for one month. Barack Obama says we need to insulate our homes better. HOW THE HELL CAN WE AFFORD TO DO THAT WHEN WE ARE SPENDING $800 A MONTH TO NOT FREEZE TO DEATH??? HUH? I wish he would tell me. The outside thermometer seems to be frozen at 8 degrees, I'm sick of giving every penny to the oil companies! Don't even get me started on the price of gasoline! Geez, there goes my refrigerator! So if you are as angry as I am, live in the frozen north and can't afford anything besides heat with your paycheck, go with me to the window right now and yell "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!" Louder, I can't hear you...

I Feel a Rant Coming On...

2008-02-18T15:19:00.001-05:00

Ok, I bought the new issue of Vogue Knitting, Winter 2007. See?

I am about to uncover a very alarming new trend here. Look at the picture to the right:

What do you see? Two models so undernourished they need to hold each other up before they collapse from starvation? Yeah, me too. What else?

Now look at this one. This is Ned. Ned the Piemaker from Pushing Daisies. Could it be? Is he the long lost twin of the model on the left? Maybe, except for the fact that she doesn't have enough strength to smile...

So I guess it must be true. Big eyebrows are back! But did they have to bring big sweaters with them? Back to the Vogue pic. Notice how the models are both awkwardly holding one shoulder up in the air? Are they trying to tell us someone forgot their shoulderpads? Hey, let's bring those back too! Happy 1985! I have long contended that the problem with Vogue Knitting is that they can't tell the difference between cutting edge and just plain scary. Allow me to prove my point.

As if the cover wasn't alarming enough, what about the knits in the magazine? I made a crocheted sweater very similar to this one,

style number 25, when I was in high school IN THE 1970's! I called it my "happy" coat. There was one difference though, I used prettier colors. And the tri-colored sweater on Ms. Eyebrows above? I had cast on for that one too, but never finished it. I was using Red Heart yarn in primary colors held together with a strand of black. It was hideous then, it is still hideous now, so why bring it back?

And how about this horror? I pity this model. Even though she is most likely as starved as the girls above, she looks positively nearly fed. And if a twig like her looks shapely in this sweater, can you imagine how a real person that eats food would look? It adds at least a good 20 pounds. Just what I'm looking for, YEAH BABY!

How about this one? I truly believe that they needed one more sweater for the magazine, and didn't have enough submissions. In a last minute crunch, they sent the gopher-guy out to find something to round out their winter collection, and when he found that all of the designer shops were closed, he ran into the Goodwill store and found this gem. Hey, and it was only $3.99, too!

Almost to the end of the issue. Don't look now but Ms. Eyebrows is back.

No, Vogue, I won't like it twice as much if you show it to me twice. She would look just as sweet with a brown paper grocery bag pulled down over her shoulders.

I was about to chuck the whole issue when this lovely model caught my eye. Wow, she has white hair, wrinkles, and she still won a place in the coveted Vogue magazine. But honestly, Vogue, did you really have to use her to perpetuate the myth that shawls are for grannies? You may as well have photographed her in a wheelchair at a nursing home, given your ugly stereotypic views of age. I would really have preferred to see her in the red grocery sack above. Now THAT would be cutting edge!

But I will hold on to this issue anyway, as there are also some lovely shawls from Cookie A. (who, by the way, is NOBODY'S Grandma!), Norah Gaughan and Annie Modesitt. Not to mention a whole article on knitting Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl. I just love shawls, it must be because my hair is white. Right Vogue?

Happy knitting with Vogue...

Florida Vacation Part 3

2008-02-16T15:10:00.000-05:00

Disney World's Animal Kingdom

On Thursday, February 7 we visited the Animal Kingdom. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the temperature was in the mid-seventies, a far cry from the temperatures at home at the time! We had a quick lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, BBQ Beef wraps with Mango Chutney, very delicious. We sat under the watchful eye of this elephant, peering over Mom's lovely gray hair. We had to make it snappy though, we had fast passes for the Jungle Safari ride! That was my favorite part of the whole Animal Kingdom.

Here we see a meerkat proudly ignoring my pleas for him to get up and sing "I like to move it move it". Oh wait, were those lemurs? Not sure, but I still wanted him to sing. He just kept thinking if he ignored me I would go away, and eventually I did. ***sigh***

Once again, I cannot resist the birds. How can they possibly be this beautiful and fly too? These are macaws, just lovely.

Will you just look at those rhino butts? I'm telling you, I think they may even be bigger than mine. These are white rhinos, they also have black rhinos there, but the names are totally misleading. All of them were gray.

Here is a baby gorilla. Isn't he the cutest thing?

Over here I have a zebra. The hills you see behind him are actually termite mounds. The elephants like to use them for scratching their backs, they are very hard and rough. And the termites don't seem to mind.

This antelope was totally into having his picture taken. Unlike the one behind him,, he even made sure I got his good side!

These must be the biggest bats in the world! I have seen my share of bats, but never anything like these. They were the size of footballs, and I am not exaggerating.

So who was it that decided the lion was the king of the jungle? I guess they hadn't yet met this Siberian Tiger. He certainly looks regal to me...

I was very disappointed that there weren't more rides at this park. But there is this one, Expedition Everest, which Savannah really wanted me to try. However when I got there and read all of the warnings I decided it would not be wise considering the whiplash injury I incurred many years ago on a roller coaster. So I missed out on the one good ride, maybe next time!

We ended our day at the Animal Kingdom with the show "Finding Nemo, The Musical". It was just wonderful! The songs and dances were great, the sets were colorful and elaborate, and the finale brought down the house in a cloud of bubbles. It was really fantastic.

Other fascinations I found at the park were the baobab trees, the giant carved tree that is the park's centerpiece, and the strangest tree I had ever seen; it appeared to us to be growing giant corndogs, hanging from ropelike threads! I wish someone could tell me what kind of a tree that was.

My Florida Vacation, Part 2

2008-02-04T18:40:00.001-05:00

Cypress Gardens

I am starting to believe that Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Florida may possibly be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The floral topiaries are placed serenely amid the backdrop of Spanish moss covered Cypress trees and Lake Eloise. The topiary selection is constantly changing, one day I visited and saw a male cardinal bird covered with small red flowers, on my next visit he had been joined by Mrs. Cardinal, who was composed of flowers that gave her the browner-red appearance of the female of the species. This peacock was at his perfection, I saw another one just being groomed to take his place with the tail sweeping behind.

This bunny appears to be getting ready for spring, Easter is just around the corner! (Maine winters hide that fact very well...) Don't you just love his little white vest?

Over here I see a ladybug and a swan.

And here is a giant snail. The topiary trail is my favorite part of the gardens. There are also miles of acreage known as the Botanical Gardens, where you can find a banyan tree, banana trees, bird of paradise plants, and many many wild birds and animals. I saw a wild alligator there last year!

My next favorite part of the park is the aviary. It is topped with rope netting to keep the many colorful species of birds from leaving the park. The birds fly all over in the aviary, some hiding in the background and some interacting playfully with passers-by.

This little cutie is Sophie. She has learned to say "Hi Sophie" if you stop and chat with her. She can also dance very well. She is a big hit at the park.

This white egret seemed eager to have his picture taken, he stood preening for me for several minutes. However, most of the other birds I tried to photograph came out as colorful blurs.

There is a small section of the park reserved for other animals, it is called "Nature's Way". Here we see two wallabies eating their lunch of sweet potatoes.

And this guy here is actually quite famous. He starred in "Tarzan of the Apes" alongside Johnny Weissmueller in the 1930s. He must be very, very old. He is a Nile Crocodile.

But what is Cypress Gardens Adventure Park most known for? Its' water skiing show, which was one of the first water skiing shows ever. Anywhere. They still have the stunt skiers doing jumps, flips, and human pyrimids, but now also have a skiboarding act, barefooting (water skiing with no skis) and hang gliders. And the clown show is absolutely hilarious.

There is also a 1940's musical show, which I just loved, (they do an amazing rendition of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy!); an ice skating show where talented skaters perform musical numbers ranging from Purple Haze to Hit the Road Jack; a comedy Pirate show that I missed and weekly performances by actual famous people on tour. They have had Willie Nelson, Three Dog Night, Creedence, and many more.

I was lucky. Juice Newton was this week's guest, I always loved her. I swear she hasn't aged a day, still belts out the "Queen of Hearts" like nobody's business!

And the rides? Oh yeah, there are rides. This is my favorite, the water rafts. They take you up real high then drop you down this curving wet chute. You twirl and splash your way back down and beg to go again! Even my Mom went on this one! Bye bye for now...

My Florida Vacation, Part 1

2008-02-03T18:45:00.000-05:00

Bok Sanctuary

We went to Florida for our vacation this year. We arrived on January 30, quite late. We spent a couple of days relaxing and getting acclimated to the warm weather, a big change for us! It has been very cold and snowy in the Northeast this winter, and I was ready for a change. It just so happened that my annual physical fell 2 days before vacation, and my bloodwork revealed a major vitamin D deficiency. The remedy? Lots of sunshine, so you could say my Florida trip was just what the Doctor ordered!

So on February second we visited Bok Sanctuary in Lake Wales, Florida. It was a beautiful day. We had a sandwich from the restaurant there, then joined a tour group and learned all about Edward Bok and the plants and birds living in the sanctuary. Edward Bok was a publisher, he was the editor of Ladies' Home Journal until 1919. But more than that, the left the world a more beautiful place because he was a true humanitarian.

We walked through the camellia gardens and learned about the differeent types of these lovely flowers. Some have very little fragrance, but are beautiful. The more fragrant ones were not as pretty. Some drop the petals as they die, and others drop the entire flowerheads! Walking a path strewn with these lovely flowers that have fallen felt like being at an outdoor wedding!

The sanctuary is on top of Iron Mountain, the highest spot in Florida. Being from New England, I had to laugh at that. I think we Mainers would have called it a molehill, not a mountain! But there were some lovely views to be had of the surrounding orange groves and other scenery.

Sitting proudly atop the mountain is Bok Tower, known as the "Singing Tower". It holds a 60 bell carillon, which is played every few hours daily by a man known as a "carillonneur". The bells range in size from 16 pounds to nearly 12 tons. I imagined Quasimodo the Hunchback jumping around up there pulling on massive ropes to play the music of the bells, but in actuality the bells are conrolled by handles arranged on a piano-like control.

This is one of the many "live oaks" covered in Spanish moss at the sanctuary. I kept wondering are they "live" oaks as opposed to dead ones? No, it is a whole different type of tree than our Northern oaks with the familiar lobed leaves. These trees are actually evergreen trees, and the Spanish moss? We were told it is not from Spain, nor is it a moss. It is a type of air plant. The tourguide explained that the moss does not kill the trees, but my mother did not believe that for a minute.

There were beautiful flowers everywhere you look. Here we have a pretty azalea,

and here Mom is showing us a lovely gardenia.

Here is the fruit of a palm tree, is this dates? I don't know, I have never seen them growing before...

This is called the "Beauty Berry", and I agree, there were pretty darn beauteous. I believe the tour guide told us they are not edible though.

These are century plants. Did you know they make tequila from the mezcal this plant produces? It is also called agave.

We had a lovely day at the sanctuary, there was a wedding taking place while we were there. Isn't that a wonderful place to be married? I would like to visit again one day.

Actual Knitting Content

2008-01-25T13:14:00.002-05:00

I have finished my Christmas socks, much too late for Christmas of course. And by next year they will probably be plum worn through, *sigh*.

I can't take a decent picture for the life of me, the colors in this picture are really washed out. The yarn is STR Grinchy in lightweight, the pattern is Jeweled Steps from the New Pathways for Sock Knitters book by Cat Bordhi. Well, they are nice and cozy, but didn't the colors pool in a very odd way? That one big chunk of olive on the left foot just enchants me. Am I the only knitter who loves it when the colors in hand painted yarn started to pool? Every single row around I find myself pleased as punch when the same color piles up on itself, and disheartened when it stops.

I have also finished a pair of Fetchings fingerless gloves in a wonderful Cashmere/Silk blend. I poo-pooed at the idea of fingerless gloves in a state as cold as Maine, but I have found them to be indispensable for keeping warm INSIDE this freezing house... And surprisingly, I have worn them several times while driving and found that once the car warms up they really are enough. I love them so much that I have started a pair of Dashings (longer fingerless gloves) in Black Merino/Silk by Rowan yarns. One done, one to go!

The moebious scarf is still being punished, standing in the corner until it promises to be a good project. Still waiting. I have also started an Ice Queen head covering, from the cover of this month's Knitty, in a lace weight mohair. I think I will love it....

The Noro socks are really small, I am turning the heel anyway to see if I can get it onto my foot afterwards. I think it would be my first sock with negative ease, we will see. These are the Firestarter pattern.

Gary and I are leaving next Wednesday for our annual trip to Florida. I absolutely cannot wait to warm up. I am hoping to be able to blog from there, and show our vacation pics before coming home. We will see if that works out! And now, back to heel turning...

The Soundtrack of My Life...

2008-01-23T15:38:00.000-05:00

was written by the Wiggles. They haunt my dreams, my nightmares, my every waking moment. It started about 3 or 4 years ago when I used to watch my granddaughter Savannah 2 days a week. Even as a 1 year old, she came alive when the Wiggles sang to her. I believe the first song she could sing with me was "Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy". We learned all the songs together and sang them with gusto. She's five now, in daycare, I don't see her as often. But now I have granddaughter Kaylee 2 or 3 days a week and she loves them too. We watch them and dance and sing along at our very own Wiggly Parties.

My obsession then progressed to the lesser known of the Wiggle songs, such as "Havenu Shalom Alechem", "Di Diddy Di Dum" and "Hoop De Doo", finding myself humming them while folding laundry and doing dishes. Then I began spending all my time backing up the Tivo repeatedly to learn all the words to "Move Your Arms Like Henry" in Mandarin Chinese or Monkey Dance in Spanish with the Mariachi Wiggles... I kept wondering if I am the only woman in my age group with this obsession... yikes what is wrong with me...

Now I can't put my coat on to go outside without singing "I'm gonna make a racket till I get to wear the jacket!" And I can't cook without singing "I've baked your favorite chocolate cake, I put it in the oven and I watched it bake, I didn't forget, I didn't forget, it's your birthday today!"

My husband is a little jealous about my particular fascination with blue-shirted Anthony Wiggle, but the longer I watch, the better red-shirted Murray is starting to look, I don't know why.

Well Kaylee came over yesterday. I said "Shall we watch the Wiggles?" with a hopeful look on my face. She said "No Grammy. I want to watch Dora." DORA????!!!!! I whined, I moaned, I cried my best fake tears, but she was adamant. No Wiggles for Grammie. Well I showed her. I refused to sing "I'm the Map" with her!

I wonder if Baby Heustyn will like the Wiggles?

I Must Be An Idiot....

2008-01-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

that's all there is to it. My projects have to be so extremely complicated to even hold my interest that I am driving myself crazy. Cat Bordhi (the mad scientist of knitting) has figured out a way to cast on stitches to a circular needle in a way that allows you to knit both ends of your scarf at the same time. Yes, she is a true genius. And this concept even makes sense to her in some perverted way. Now when I heard about the moebius cast on I just shook my head and walked slowly away. But I didn't forget about it. Then I started checking Ravelry for examples to see if real people had actually done it. Some had. One crazy person said she had made two of them. I checked blogs. Even the Yarn Harlot blogged that she needed help to learn this cast on! I watched Knitty Gritty and saw Cat demonstrate this cast on. She said something about hummingbirds as her hands flitted this way and that grabbing yarn from over, under and even from Timbuktu. Ok, I was hooked.

I found the most delicious skein of cashmere yarn in a tart apple green and grabbed my needles armed with the printed directions (no pictures) from the DIY website. I read them. I reread them. My hands stayed still. No wild hummingbird flitting actions were coming from them. No stitches jumped onto the needles going both ways at once. I was stumped.

Why hadn't I Tivo-ed that episode so I could slo-mo it and copy her? I don't know. Because I am an idiot most likely. Or because I need to seriously complicate my life more than I can ever imagine, I just don't know. I could have gone out and purchased a book on Magical Knitting to have this explained to me step by step, but no. I had already spent $15.95 for the needles and $18 for 110 yards of cashmere, plus tax, bringing the cost of the scarf to $35 already. I couldn't afford the book.

So I spent hours scouring the Internet for pics from anyone who had succeeded making this magic, and finally found some help. Once I got going, you should have seen me! My hands flitted just like the magical knitter herself! And it worked! I started knitting away and began to see my moebius scarf being knitted from both ends at the same time! It went really quickly too once I got going. I finished the inner stitches and got to the lovely lace border when the end of the ball of cashmere slipped through my fingers with 4 more rows to go. Oh, Man! I really wanted to wear this thing right off, not rip back. But rip back I did, to the main body of stitches, and un-knitted 4 rows from the main pattern. We knitters call this "tinking". Get it? It is knitting backwards. Stitch by stitch, row by row, I watched my mobious scarf un-grow. I removed 4 rows from the body. I wanted the full lace edging, and was willing to forego some of the length from the body.

Next night I was back to knitting, hoping to finish it this time. I really want my magical moebius scarf! So I got back to the lace edging, speeding right along as this was my second time to knit the pattern, with 2 rows left to go, when the end of the ball slipped through my fingers again! What is wrong with my math? I had four rows left the first time, I de-knit 4 rows, and it is gone again with 2 rows left???? AAARRRGGGHHH! I tossed it from my lap in disgust and fumed the rest of the night. Gary said "I think you need more yarn." YA THINK???????????? I reminded him it was $18 a ball, on sale! Regularly much more.

Next day I picked it up and started tinking again. I am not going back to the body of stitches again, this time I am fiddling with the lace border. I can cut out one repeat of the lace eyelets, a 2 row repeat. That should be perfect. I sit and tink wondering what exactly was wrong with my original math. Minus one repeat of the eyelets, I put it aside to finish as my evening's knitting. So last night I picked it up and knitted all the rows left of the lace edging and begin casting off my magical moebius scarf. Half way around the end slips through my fingers AGAIN! I kid you not. This time I not only throw it across the room, I follow it and jump up and down on it swearing like a sailor. It is still sitting there. I am not sure what to do next.

I just keep trying to understand, is this ball of yarn playing with me? Shrinking itself down in yardage to watch my reaction? Or am I really the worst mathematician in the world? I want my scarf, I don't want to spend another $18 (if I did, it would be a $53 scarf!) so what do I do now?? Any suggestions?

Here is a link to see what my scarf should look like: http://www.colorsongyarn.com/cowl_capelet_scarf/cashmere_moebius_cowl.htm

but this is what it does look like:

Getting comfortable...

2008-01-05T15:41:00.000-05:00

with the new furniture. Here is the Queen's throne....

And below is the King of the house feeling a bit uncomfortable with the Queen's loveseat. We have covered an old coffee table with a throw for him to put his feet up for now.

There were a few details I neglected to mention in my story yesterday. When this beastly huge loveseat was brought into the house, doors had to be remved from their casings. Casings had to be removed. At 9:00 at night. And the outdoor temperature at the time was..... -10 degrees! The house is still pretty cold, and when we got up this morning the pipes in the shower had frozen and the King spent his morning underneath the bathroom on a dirt floor thawing pipes with my hairdryer. This is certainly a challenging winter.

I Fell in Love Yesterday....

2008-01-04T15:36:00.000-05:00

With a loveseat. I wasn't expecting it. It came right out of the blue. I was shopping in the furniture salvage store when it met my eyes from across the crowded room. I had a hot flash. My heart was beating wildly. I dropped my purse and left my shopping cart. I almost ran across the store to meet it's waiting cushions. There it was, the Queen's loveseat. And I sat down upon it in my voluminous winter coat and and promptly announced to my sweet enduring husband that it would be coming home with us.

Well, he sat down beside me and wiggled his bottom back and forth, stretched out his incredibly long legs and pushed back against the firm cushion. I could tell from the look on his face that he hated it. I said, "I have to have it, I love it so much." And he said "It is not at all comfortable." And I knew I was in for trouble.

Which would it be, the husband or the loveseat? I love them both with all my heart. I cannot bear to be without either of them. But what is a loveseat if the love of your life hates it? Does it become a "hateseat"? And can he ever learn to love it?

The negotiations were wicked. They included long periods of silence followed by bursts of reasoning for or against it. He wants comfort. I want beauty. Can they both survive in the same room? Can the Queen's loveseat reside in the same room with an overstuffed comfortable monstosity or will she pull up her gartered hosiery and quietly tiptoe out of the room?

He was desperate to make his point. Even told a story about how uncomfortable he was as a little boy in his mother's elegant living room which he was not allowed to play in. He sees the loveseat as "untouchable" furniture.

The compromise goes like this. I will pay for the loveseat out of my own pocket money. When he finds his perfect loveseat, that one is coming home too. Monstrosity or not. The queen's loveseat will have to accept that. After all, the king lives here too!

Oh, and that companion chair that followed the loveseat home? I have no idea how that happened to jump into the back of the truck and follow us home. I swear.

And here she is in all of her gilded glory:

With special thanks to son Jed who came over to help unload her and only made the comment: "You have very unique taste, Mom." I love you!

It happened like this....

2008-01-02T13:43:00.000-05:00

First we had a snowstorm. Now this is normal in our neck of the woods, it happens every year. Several times a year in fact. Not surprising at all. As you can see, we got a good amount, between 6 to 8 inches I would estimate. Not surprising at all.

Well, a few days later it snowed again. This is still normal, as I said, it happens every year, not surprising, not alarming, but really not that welcome either. We already had snow. What use did we have for more? Now we had at least a foot, maybe more.

Now this is when it begins to get interesting. Normally, we have a snowstorm, then a few days later we get a thaw, some of it melts, driveways get cleared, roadsides look dirty and unappealing. But this hasn't happened yet, and then, we get a third snowstorm!!! Will you look at that? Where are the benches to sit at the picnic table? Gone! This is really getting interesting...

And now, may I present to you the results of snowstorm number four without a good melt yet:

You can barely see a picnic table at all! All we need is one more good snow and the table will be gone! Do you think we will make it? I'm really hoping so now, I am having fun documenting the disappearance of backyard picnics forever!

A Wonderful Christmas....

2007-12-30T11:31:00.001-05:00

And a good time was had by all! Here we see Kaylee comtemplating what Uncle Jed might be about to open. Have you ever heard of a little boy who did not want to open his presents? Well that was Colby this year, 3 years old and he was content to play with his matchbox cars in the corner while everyone else opened gifts. He certainly doesn't take after his father, in the midst of the presents above ...

I have my first skein of Noro Sock yarn!!! What an amazing vortex of colorful wonderfulness!!!

Now if only I could finish this pair of Grinchy Christmas socks that Rock that did not get finished in time to wear on Christmas... I am attempting to turn the heel of a toe up sock. Cat Bordhi, what are you trying to tell me in those strange diagrams? I am not helping myself understand at all by Magic looping socks explained on DPNs or 2 circulars, now am I? And can I please get back to knitting my Dracula's bride shawl now? I have finished and presented all mittens hats and socks meant to be gifts. There are many new Mystery Shawls waiting to be knit in January so I'd better get busy!

I Finished the Quilt!

2007-12-15T09:44:00.001-05:00

I have been working night and day and I have finally finished the quilt for Savannah for Christmas. Now I am writing a book of I Spy poems to go with the quilt, here is a sample poem:

I spy a kiwi, some eggs and some cherries,
An ice cream sundae and fresh strawberries!
A blue plate special, a birthday cake,
Some peanuts, some pickles and
A roast beef to bake!

I spy a wish list, flamingos, and holly,
A tiny pink dress to fit a paper dolly.
I spy el Apache and a big red tepee
A man driving a car,
Oh where can he be?

It took quite a while to do all the quilting, which I did as zigzags all the way down each diagonal pink stripe. I hope this picture will show what I mean...

I am having so much fun with this project! I am hoping that she will have her mom read her a poem each night at bedtime and she can look for the items as she drifts off to sleep.

Here is a picture of the label I put on the back in the lower right hand corner.

I have also finished a knitted hat for granddaughter Kaylee, the pattern is the Shining Star Hat by Kate Gilbert. I used Bamboozle yarn, which has a high percentage of bamboo fiber in the yarn. I didn't really like working with it because of the stretch, which created constant tensioning problems. Also the holes tended to close up and hide the pretty star pattern unless you stretch the hat right out, here I have it stretched over a coffee can. I think her little head will be big enough to showcase the pattern well.

Back to writing poems...

Santa's Workshop...

2007-12-08T18:41:00.000-05:00

I have spent the last two days making placemats! This Route 66 set is going to our oldest daughter in Arizona. The fabric is perfect, her husband worked in Kingman, which is mentioned on the top placemat! They have two children, so this is a set of four.

The second set is for daughter Sara and her family. She has four children, so this is a set of six. It took FOREVER to miter all of those corners!!!!! She loves anything froggy, so I hope she likes these.

The third set is for daughter Josie and family. Her Richard is a bit of a gourmet cook, and the first meal he ever cooked for her was pasta, so I thought this might be appropriate... These are a set of three. I still have more kids but this is enough placemats for one year, maybe next year!!

I also finished off another pair of mittens, this pair for grandson Colby. I put his initials on them so they will be easy to spot at daycare! Boy have I been productive today. Now I have to get back to quilting the quilt, it is a race to Christmas!!

Snow Day!

2007-12-05T09:02:00.000-05:00

We had a mini-blizzard yesterday, it sure made it feel more like Christmas. Gary helped me to learn to use a snow-blower, and I did a couple of rows up and down the driveway. I haven't learned to start it yet though, so I have a way to go before he can come home from work to find a cleared driveway!

My granddaughter spent the day learning to snowboard up and down the streets of her small town. My daughter took a video and put it on YouTube! Now let's see if I can insert a clip....

Wow have I impressed myself now! Is there nothing I can't do? Lol! And it only took me two days to figure this out. Anyway this is granddaughter Savannah, the future recipient of the quilt I am working on which you have seen in a previous post.

Have a marvelous snow filled day!

I am working steadily on Christmas gifts

2007-11-29T12:13:00.000-05:00

This is a pair of mittens for grandson Vincent. I embroidered his initials on them so he will know they are his if they end up in the lost and found at school. It is hard to keep track of your mittens when you are in kindergarten!

Next to knit a pair for Colby, the next smaller size in Red with Blue trim. I know I won't get mittens done for all of them, but maybe a few!

Happy Thanksgiving...

2007-11-24T10:46:00.001-05:00

Boobie rolls were the big hit at our Thanksgiving table this year. They were made by Josie's Richard, because she was sad when I said I wouldn't have time to make them. I never could have made them like this! Aren't they wild?

Why do we call him Josie's Richard? Because daughter Jessica also has a life partner named Richard. Our other two daughters live with Bobs, so we call them Lisa's Bob and Sara's Bob. Further complicated by the fact that Sara's ex-husband's name is Bob, whom we refer to as Sara's old Bob. Son Jed lives with a Jessica , so we call her Jessica Rose as opposed to just Jessica, who would be his twin sister. Boy do we need more names in this family! And don't even get me started on Davids....

The meal was lovely; Turkey, stuffing, roasted garlic smashed red potatoes, sweet potato with streusel topping, oven-roasted herbed turnip and carrots, pumpkin bread, homemade cranberry sauce, broccoli slaw, carrots/peas/corn, lemon meringue, pumpkin, Dutch apple, chocolate cream and Boston cream pies. I can't eat again for a week. I swear.

I hope everyone had a day as nice as mine.

A Finished Project!

2007-11-20T16:26:00.001-05:00

These socks are for my daughter Jessica for Christmas. They are the Flow Motion socks from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock book. I really hate the way the tops flare out away from the leg. I was not happy with the pattern either because it was riddled with errors. First off, they never said to double strand the yarn, which was obvious from the picture and the needle size. The chart had an error, and the heel turn directions were SO messed up. Now how on earth can a major company like Vogue call something the "Ultimate" sock book when it is full of errors? The other pattern I started to make also had errors and I gave up in disgust. I understand that all of these patterns have been published previously in Vogue Knitting magazine, and they were chosen to be in the "Ultimate" sock book. So didn't anyone knit them when they were published in the magazine? Couldn't they find the errors from the test knitters and the knitters who bought the magazines? Then why could they not fix these patterns before publishing the "Ultimate" sock book? The Vogue Knitting website has been down ever since the book came out. I think they must be hiding their heads in shame!!!! End of rant. Sorry. The socks will be warm, but I will never knit socks double stranded again. I had to buy a second ball of yarn (which makes these almost a $36 pair of socks) and I don't even know if they will fit inside her shoes. Anyway they finished.

I've Been working on a Quilt!

2007-11-20T16:01:00.000-05:00

Every year I make someone in the family a quilt for Christmas. No one ever knows ahead of time who will get it. This year I have been working on a quilt for granddaughter Savannah, 5, now in a big girl bed so that baby quilt has got to go! It is an "I Spy" style quilt, which will come with a written list of things to look for as she drops off to sleep. The pattern comes from the book "Picture Play Quilts" by Ami Simms.
I sure hope Savannah enjoys it. Here are some close ups showing the photo transfers I have added. This close up shows Savannah swimming on our vacation in Florida this year. The dolphin beside her and the flamingoes beneath her are to remind her of our day at Sea World. We really had a great time. Also there is a picture of her giving Shamu a big hug. Below is a picture of the flowers she picked in my Mom's dooryard.

Obviously the blocks are not sewn together here yet, they are just arranged on my design wall. The back of the quilt will be 12 inch blocks of assorted fabrics I am trying to use up. I just can't afford to buy more fabric right now, and I have so much to use!

Well back to chain myself to the sewing machine.

A VISIT WITH KAYLEE

2007-11-10T16:54:00.000-05:00

I had my dear sweet 2 year old granddaughter Kaylee overnight last night. That is always an experience! Here she is dancing to her favorite song, "Gone Gone Gone" by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. As soon as the song is over, she shouts "More Gone Gone Gone Grammy!! More Gone Gone Gone!" Cutest thing ever.

So I go into the bedroom where she was sleeping this morning because I thought I heard her stirring, and there she is sitting cross legged in her bed stark naked. She had removed her blanket sleeper AND HER DIAPER and when she looked up and saw me she quietly said "Oh no." I couldn't stop laughing. And I was sincerely thankful that her diaper was only wet. This time.

Well later I was emptying out my knitting bag when she spotted the row counter necklace I had made, and asked to put it on. Who can resist that little face. She even said pease. So I let her try it on, and she pulled on it so she could see the beads near her face and the thread snapped. Beads went flying EVERYWHERE! Her little mouth popped open, she looked at me accusingly, and said, "Grammy!! You broke it!!!" I broke it? How cute is that. She got down on her little hands and knees with my husband and I all scrambling around picking up what seemed like thousands of little beads. Well she had to go home after lunch, but lucky me, tomorrow my oldest granddaughter Ashleigh is coming to visit. The joy never ends.

WTF? DAY!

2007-11-06T14:45:00.000-05:00

Tuesday are hereby chosen to be my official WTF? days. Here is today's:

Just in case your doggie happens to have 4 broken legs! Seriously. WTF? Look at this poor dog's face, he is SOO thinking "WTF???"

I WANT A BLOG!

2007-11-06T14:12:00.000-05:00

I want a blog. I don't know why, but all the cool kids have one. I drool over other knitter's yarns and projects, and I want to show you mine too. Will anyone read it? I don't know. Probably my kids will come to my page and shake their heads in shame and say to each other "Can you believe Mom actually thinks people are interested in her knitting? Maybe we should have her evaluated..." They, of course, have never heard of the Yarn Harlot. Or Grumperina. Or Crazy Aunt Purl. Not that I think I could ever be one of them, (well maybe I do, in my wildest dreams, but I will never admit it. Well maybe if you shove my 000 double points under my fingernails. Maybe.)

What's on my needles? Way too much. I have come up with the great wonderful ingenious idea to rotate my projects in this manner.

Work 1 row of my Halloween Mystery Shawl. Ok, the mystery is over, we can call it my "Dracula's Bride" shawl.

Work on Christmas baby sweater for 10 minutes. My pea brain can't take more than that much stockinette stitch at a time.

Work another row of Dracula's Bride.

Work on Gary's Home Depot socks for 10 mintes.

Dracula's Bride.

Work on Christmas mittens for 10 minutes.

Dracula

Work on Icelandic Shawl for 1 row. Why did I ever start that damn thing? Oops, can I say that in a blog? Do I need an explicit tag now? How do I get one?

Drac

Work on Christmas socks for 10 minutes.

You see where I am going with this? I admit it, I am obsessed with lace knitting. I know I don't look good in shawls, that's not the point. But when I finish my DB shawl and can post pics of the finished blocked shawl you will all know just how cool I really am. Really, kids. (You can stop laughing now. )