Spooky Day

Can you spot the ghost in the haunted mirror?

Wonder if anyone is home?

Yes, it is the night when the veil between the worlds is thin enough for the spirits to wander!!!! A wonderful holiday!!!!!

Trying to Prepare for Winter

The leaves seem to collect in the low areas of the garden

Winter came knocking the other night with howling cold winds. And even though I was snuggled up under a quilt on the couch, I realized that I needed to prepare knit wise for what looks like it may be a cold winter. It is embarrassing to admit as a knitter but I honestly have one pair of fingerless gloves and no cowls. I have knit them for everyone else but not for myself. So I decided that I need to knit several for myself. Living in an old house, I need things to help keep me warm. Oh, I have plenty of quilts, hats, scarves and such but every little bit helps.

The yarn colors remind me of summer berries

So I have cast one two cowls for myself. And I will not give these two cowls away either. The first one is some rescued yarn from P’s stash. It is some Yarn Chef in a colorway that reminds me of summer berries. The pattern is a variation of the Stacked Eyelets Cowl pattern I found over on Ravelry. I decided that instead of purling a row before and after the knit two together rows, I will just knit them instead. I am liking the way the cowl is turning out.

The second one is a feather and fan cowl. Actually I am using the Old Shale Smoke Ring pattern I also found on Ravelry. The yarn is DragonFly Fiber sock yarn in Bougainvillea. This color is Kate’s signature color and is a little bit bright for most people. I am working on this one like crazy since I want to have it to wear next weekend at Stitches East. I am working in the booth for Gryphon and Kate. It would be nice to have this done and be able to wear it. I am loving the color and I shouldn’t have any problem standing out in the crowd with this cowl.

Bad Internet

My internet connection has been giving me fits the past few days so I haven’t been able to really get online. I can get online since it is DSL but let’s just say that 98% of the time, the connection speed is so slow that everything times out. And according to my internet provider the problem is on my end. Yet nothing has changed on my end. When I talked to tech support yesterday, I was told that my modem and router were bad. Let’s just say the conversation went downhill from there. The modem, router, and filters are all fairly new since they were just replaced within the last few months. Today, the problem is resolved. Funny how it was all on my end! Every time I have a problem, I seem to notice the phone company’s trucks out working on the lines right down the street. Makes you wonder…..

Te weekend wasn’t spend as I had planned sewing, knitting, and cleaning. Instead, I got to spend all day Saturday out in the pouring rain shopping. I normally live in jeans but I needed a dress for Sunday. And I figured that if I was going to be out in the rain, I had might as well get all of my shopping done. I did find a nice black dress at Ross of all places. I can live with the nap of the stretchy velvet going the wrong way for the price. I think I may start sewing cloths again so I don’t have to deal with things like this though. I did manage to get a little bit of knitting down Saturday evening but I can’t show it off yet. It was just mailed out today to some one as a Halloween surprise.

The reason I needed the dress for Sunday was that I had to attend a memorial service for a family friend’s daughter who died on Thursday. The friends’ daughter was severely handicapped from birth; she lived much longer than anyone ever thought she would. Since August she has been picking up respiratory infections left and right. Everytime she would end up at Children’s Hospital in Washington DC. Her mother was the one who made the decision that she would not be placed on any life support this time since it would not improve her quality of life. Talking with the mother, she said that she had to think about what was best for everyone in the family including her daughter. There are some members of the extended family upset with the mother but she said that in her heart she knows she made the right decision and that her daughter is no longer in pain.

While it was a sad occasion, you could see the relief on the mother’s face. The pressures and stress this family has been under for the last seven years will be slow to leave and I am hoping that the family structure survives. You never realize how much pressure and strain are placed on a family from caring for a severely disabled child.

And if I owe anyone an email, please give me a little bit of time. I have to answer my work emails first before tackling the personal email box.

Play of light and dark on autumn leaves

Vote Early and Vote Often

Finally an election that you can vote in every day!!! I listen to a wide variety of podcasts and my all time favorite is Katia & KylieMac podcast V.O. (version originale or original version for those who don’t speak French.) The combination of the Aussie Lass and Ms. Mac along with the regular cast of expats and the occasional Frenchman or two is hilarious!!! If you have never listened to this podcast, you have to check it out. Who can resist the expat list of characters such as Kim, Vivi, and Frog. Okay, Frog is a Frenchman but he is an expat in his own country according to the ladies of K&K. And Frog, your blog is down.

K&K is up for two awards in the Podcast Awards. The original K&K V.O. is up for an award in the general category. And K&K Tourist Tips is up for an award in travel category. The nice thing about this “election” is that you can vote every day starting today!!! Finally an election that is fair and we can all vote multiple times. So go on over and cast your vote for my favorite podcast. And check out K&K V.O., K&K Tourist Tips, and K&K Learn French at the same time. You will like you have gone to Paris for a while.

And after listening once, I am sure you will be hooked. I was. I am getting ready for the celebration for Episode 200. I just wish I could fly over to Paris for the event. But I am knitting for the event instead. Ms. Mac had better wear what I am making her is all that I have to say!!!

And dentist update. I survived the root canal. My mouth is very sensitive today and my throat is sore. But the specialist was fantastic and understood my fears. I still have to get the crown put on but that is not for a few weeks yet. The tooth has to heal up some more. I wish the guy I saw yesterday did general dentistry because I would go to home even though my regular dentist is good about my phobia.

Altered Gold

The colors of fall slightly twisted

Instead of working on socks like I should, I have been knitting cowls again. I finished the first cowl out of the Terra yarn from P. It was washed and is currently drying on top of my dryer. I am sending to a friend as a surprise gift so I can’t say anything more about it since she does read the blog. But it is called the Logwood Sherbrooke. Once it is dry, I will take a photo of this cowl.

Details of the gift cowl

I also started a new one. Sarah had gifted me two skeins of Plymouth Happy Feet in red. I started a Gloria Cowl using this yarn that will also be a gift for some one. The yarn is really nice and the pattern is super easy so hopefully this cowl will knit up fast as well. I am planning on knitting up at least two more cowls using this pattern as a way to reduce the sock stash.

The beginnings of a new cowl

And P thinks it funny that I am going to knit up cowls to reduce the sock stash. I think some one may be getting some of her destashed sock yarn back as cowls. I need to check and see if I kept that orange sock yarn or gave it to my niece….. P needs that yarn back just knitted up.

And starting Thursday, I will begin encouraging everyone to go and vote every day for one of my favorite podcasts. If you want the details before Thursday, you will have to click on over to Ms. Mac’s site for the info. Finally an election where you can vote several times and like the winners.

Seen in my neighbor's front yard

And today’s post is early because I get to go to the orthopedist’s office to see how much longer I have to wear the brace. The ankle only hurts first thing in the morning or if I do something stupid. Of course, the afternoon will not be spent as happily. I get to go back to the dentist to have the problem that was found last week fixed. I have to have a root canal and let’s just say, I will be taking my Valium tonight and tomorrow before the appointment. Because of my phobia, my dentist is sending me off to see the specialist. Wonder what he will say if I bite him?

Cold Out

Tiny mushrooms

I woke up this morning to discover that the temperature at 7 am was 28 degrees F. I do not want to even convert it to celsius since it will be even colder. (Okay -2 isn’t that bad.) There was a heavy frost on the grass but I didn’t pull out the camera to photograph it. I want to be in denial that winter is coming fast. I like fall. The colors by Mother Nature are fantastic and the temperature is generally nice. I like it when the evenings are cool enough that you want to pull a quilt over your lap while you read or watch tv.

I actually have been working on sewing on bindings on quilts this weekend. The one I started Friday evening is almost done. I have one short side left to hand sew and it should be done tonight. I did not pick the small ones that need binding sewn on instead I went for the bigger ones. I want to reduce the pile of larger quilts since they are nice to snuggle under when the weather gets cold. The that I am hoping to finish tonight is a gift for a friend and I would like to get it in the mail before the end of the week since it has a long trip to its new home. I have one other larger one that is also a gift that may be the next one up for finishing but I will decide that when I look at the pile.

I received 3 boxes of yarn on Friday from P but I failed to take photos of them. She has started tackling cleaning out her yarn closet. I took all of the cotton yarns and put them into one rather large box for my SIL. She doesn’t knit or crochet wool. There were a few skeins of wool in the box though. My niece is a yarn snob. I deny any and all knowledge of how she became a yarn snob. But if I feed her stash every once and awhile, she doesn’t ask for yarn out of my stash. A second box ended up at my knit group meeting Saturday afternoon. Everyone loved going through the box. A very small box was filled with yarn that for for me. Mostly hand spuns and some yarn that I have been wanting to try. Two skeins of the new yarn are already used up. Well almost used up. I cast on for another cowl using The Fibre Company’s Terra yarn and the cowl is almost finished. This is a yarn that I have been wanting to try but I can’t find it locally. I like the yarn and may end up with more if it in my stash soon. This cowl will be a gift for a friend. I would send it back to P but she is allergic to alpaca and the yarn has alpaca in it. I have yarn for another cowl lined up already from the small amount that I kept. There will be photos as soon as everything is finished.

The leaves are cascading down the rocks

Proof of …

A different piece of lace knitting

Yes, there is actually knitting going on. In addition to trying to finish up some sock UFOs, I am knitting lace. Actually, I am knitting two lace projects at the same time. Luckily for me, they are the same pattern just two different yarns. The pattern is Gale from Anne Hanson of Knitspot. And the yarns are totally different. The first one that was cast on is a true lace weight. I love Kate from Dragonfly Fibers’s color ways. Let’s just say that she and I both like bright colors. The color way that I am using for the first shawl is Kate’s signature color way bougainviella. And yes, it is as bright as it sounds. I like the little tiny bands of color that are appearing the shawl.

The second one that I am knitting is the same exact pattern except that it is in a different yarn. I went in to the LYS looking for something to knit Boing out of when I saw the yarn I ended up buying, I knew it had to be Gale again. The colors just dictated that it had to be Gale. What I have a problem with though is that the manufacturer insists on calling the yarn a lace eight. It is not a lace weight, it is a fingering weight. The yarn is Ella Rae lace merino. The yarn is nice and squishy though. And the funny thing is that I am knitting both shawls on US size 4s. But they feel totally different.

Proof that there is actually knitting going on

I am going through photos this weekend looking for fiber related ones. I need to get them printed out and made into cards. I am helping Gryphon and Kate at Stitches and Gryphon is kindly letting me put my note cards up for sale in her booth.

Play of light and dark on autumn leaves

A golden bokeh moment

Helpful Hints

Not much to report today since I am going to visit a place I hate. I have to go to the dentist’s office here very shortly. If anyone thought I had a phobia about zippers, it has nothing to my extreme fear of dentists. I actually have to take a tranquilizer before going there. And that is just to have my teeth cleaned!!! But I think I have lost a filling so I have to go. My iPod is charged and I will try to listen to the latest Katia & KylieMac episode since K&K cures all that ails you. It is true, Vivi was cured of a headache by listening to an episode.

So while I hope for a not too painful visit, I will post a link on how to save money grocery shopping in these painful times. I saw this link over on a cooking blog I read.

Busy Knitting

I am busy knitting. Well knitting and editing photos. Even without walking too much on Saturday, I still managed to shot almost 500 images. I am busy going through the images and editing the keepers. If my ankle had been healed enough to allow me to climb some of the paths I like, I would have had even more shots. But I played it safe and stayed off the rougher paths. So while I am editing and knitting, enjoy a few of the shots from fall in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania.

The colors of sunrise in the mountains are always worth it

Folklore says these guys can predict the weather

Some of the colors of fall

Fear of Zippers

The bag made by Sarah

Strange title but I am honestly afraid of trying to sew a zipper into a project. I have long admired the box bags that I have seen on Etsy. I have even found tutorials on how to make them. But I have this fear of putting in zippers on sewn items. It probably has something to do with the home ec class I was required to take in seventh grade.

I have been admiring the beautiful ones made by Sarah. She keeps telling me that there is nothing to putting in the zippers. Maybe I will try it now. About a month ago, I sent Sarah the leftovers from some mini quilts that I had done for a Flickr swap. And as a thank you for sending her the scraps, she made me a box bag. Yes, I sent her scraps and she sent me a knitting bag!!

Not only was the bag cute in and of itself, she sent it filled with some really nice goodies. Of course, some of the goodies didn’t last long enough to be photographed. I had the bag with me last night when I had to pick up my niece from volleyball practice. My niece likes to see what I have in my knitting bag and she immediately focused on the new bag. She was kind of cute when she opened the bag to see what was inside it. She was trying to divide everything inside the bag into two piles! There were several herbal tea bags along with some Toblerone. The tea bags were neatly divided into two piles. The chocolate was all in one pile which she was trying to claim. Now I don’t mind sharing the tea and chocolate with her but I had to draw the line at her next division of the spoils. She was trying to claim a skein of the sock yarn for her own stash!!! The sock yarn is actually a color that I love but don’t really have in the stash – red.

A few of the treats fund inside the bag

The settlement was that she got to keep all of the tea bags and I got two of the chocolate bars. She had no interest in the biscotti so I was allowed to keep it. I reminded her that she had just gotten a new skein of yarn for her stash from me last week. Yes, I do feed her stash occasionally since it stops her from wanting to steal um borrow from my stash.

I really love this bag that Sarah made me. I will have to find some zippers first. I have plenty of fabric on hand. And my little yarnista in the making has a birthday coming up. Thank you Sarah for making me push past this hurtle.