{Yarn Along} I can do this...I think!

The heel is turned (and there are owls on the heel flap!) and the gusset stitches are picked up. Decreases while maintaining the stitch pattern on the instep? I can do that part! 

See the chart in the lower left hand corner of the picture? That's the toe, and all of those dark black dots are purl stitches. I'm not so sure I want to do that...but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.




Drawing Conclusions by Dierdre Verne caught my attention because the heroine is a dumpster-diving freegan. When her twin brother, a scientist working for her father's genome company, is murdered, Cece is pulled into the investigation. This one is a little grittier than the other cozy mysteries I've been reading and I'm not sure If I was more unsettled by Cece's food sources or the genetic research her father is involved in.  I'm hoping that there are more books coming, because even though the mystery in this book came to a satisfying conclusion, there were a lot of plot elements I'd like read more about.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.


Disclosure - The publishers provided me with review copies. 

His and Hers

I found some of the cutest "his" and hers" embroidery patterns on Flickr....and then I found a whole board of them on Pinterest.  I don't know if this gal will make it into my finished quilt or not, but she was fun to stitch.

Someone Else's Fabric Selections

I stumbled across the Boho Patchwork Vintage Star pattern on Pinterest and thought it would be a great way to use the pre-cut squares that have been sitting on the edge of my sewing machine, waiting patiently for life to settle down a bit. 

My fabric is much more patient than I am....or maybe it's not. Those squares were nowhere to be found. But while I was looking for them, I found another bag of someone's leftovers. There were some wide strips that I cut into 4" squares -- and it all went together. That's one of the benefits of working with other people's leftover bits and pieces. I rarely make coordinated quilts, unless the fabric falls into my lap.

The top came out a little over 40" square and it's pinker in real life.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Weekly Stash Report

Teenage Daughter needed to stop at the thrift store, so I checked out the craft stuff. It's mostly habit -- while she's doing her thing, I circle past the children's books to look for old Nancy Drews and the craft stuff to look for hot iron transfers. Once in a while, I find something that needs to come home with me.

This week, I found a pair of Brittany Birch knitting needles for $1.98.  As soon as I picked them up, another woman materialized behind me and told me that those were really good needles and how lucky I was to find them. She's right. They're great needles. I've had some before, but I gave mine away because I almost never knit with straights. But I probably would have bought that pair to hand off to a new knitter because they are such nice needles. Way better, in my mind, than the scrapey metal ones that are everywhere...

I'm so glad that other woman was there to save me from myself. As soon as I put those needles down, they were in her hands.  It made me feel good to see how happy she was with her find -- and then to watch her talk herself out the bags and bags of ruffle yarn that were hanging there at eye level, looking all pretty and tempting. I've got a pretty good immunity to novelty yarns these days.

I've added a sweep through the toy aisle to look for K'Nex so that my boys can build some of the HUGE creations we've found online. I haven't found any yet, but I've only been looking for a couple of weeks. There were Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs, so I've got hope that eventually I might find some.

The rest of the week was busy. Too busy to even turn on my sewing machine.

Our owl friend hasn't returned. The boys have been checking that tree every night, just in case.

And I've finally found a pair of low heels that I can walk in without wobbling my knee. Yup, I filched them from Grandma's closet.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 0 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 34 yards
Net Added for 2014: 34 yards

Yarn Used this Week:   0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 1200 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Used for 2014: 1200 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Wide-Open World

I enjoy reading about parenting and travel, so Wide-Open World: How Volunteering Around the Globe Changed One Family's Lives Forever by John Marshall caught my attention. It's the story of a family who decided to embark upon a "year of service," volunteering their way around the globe.

Here's the book's description from Amazon:

John Marshall needed a change. His twenty-year marriage was falling apart, his seventeen-year-old son was about to leave home, and his fourteen-year-old daughter was lost in cyberspace. Desperate to get out of a rut and reconnect with his family, John dreamed of a trip around the world, a chance to leave behind, if only just for a while, routines and responsibilities. He didn’t have the money for resorts or luxury tours, but he did have an idea that would make traveling the globe more affordable and more meaningful than he’d ever imagined: The family would volunteer their time and energy to others in far-flung locales. 

Wide-Open World is the inspiring true story of the six months that changed the Marshall family forever. Once they’d made the pivotal decision to go, John and his wife, Traca, quit their jobs, pulled their kids out of school, and embarked on a journey that would take them far off the beaten path, and far out of their comfort zones.

Here is the totally engaging, bluntly honest chronicle of the Marshalls’ life-altering adventure from Central America to East Asia. It was no fairy tale. The trip offered little rest, even less relaxation, and virtually no certainty of what was to come. But it did give the Marshalls something far more valuable: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to conquer personal fears, strengthen family bonds, and find their true selves by helping those in need. In the end, as John discovered, he and his family did not change the world. It was the world that changed them.

John and his wife quit their jobs, pulled the kids out of school, and rented their house though a last minute Craigslist ad and set off with a partial itinerary.   Their journey fascinated me, but I couldn't understand some of their parenting decisions. Take kids who aren't  expected to do chores at home and suddenly expect them to earn their keep as volunteers working at a monkey sanctuary and teaching English? I'm not sure that was fair to the kids or the monkeys and students.

Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with an ARC. 

Let's Make Baby Quilts {2/6/15}

Have you seen the Ed Emberly inspired Elephant Parade Quilt Along over at Sew Fresh Quilts? She'll be posting a block at a time. I think they'd make great baby quilts.

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

A Vintage Fix

I hate it when vintage goodies get damaged on my watch. I'm a klutz so, despite my best efforts, it sometimes happens. That's why I'm happiest with my less-than-perfect vintage Pyrex. If my fingers slip in the sink, I haven't destroyed something valuable.

Sometimes I have little fingers helping me.  Fifteen or sixteen years ago, this little bell was taken apart by my toddler daughter. There's a long screw that threads down through the wooden handle and she'd untwisted it. It seemed like it should go back together, but I couldn't get it threaded properly.  Then I got upset (with the situation, not my child) and tucked it away in a safe place to deal with later.  I didn't want to ask Hubby for help, so it sat and sat until a few months ago, I finally handed it to him. "This came apart. Can you fix it for me?"  He looked at it for a second, couldn't fix it, and my heart sank. All that time I had it tucked away, I was sure that he'd fix it for me -- and then he couldn't? That just wasn't possible.

It's been sitting out, waiting for him to try again when he had more time. I took another look at it myself this week, tried to thread that stupid screw through that stupid hole...tried to shift the piece of wire that connects the clapper to the end of the screw...then wondered what would happen if I just took that wire off and put it back in place once I'd screwed the handle back on.

Worked like a charm! And it only took me a decade and a half to calm down enough to figure out the fix. Not one of my best examples of problem solving.

My efforts scratched the metal a bit, not that you can tell with the handle back in place. But at least I didn't try Super Glue. Did you see the news stories about King Tut's Mask? I just can't imagine how something like that happens (not the damage -- the hasty repair.) My parents took my sister and I to see the Treasures of Tutunkhamen exhibit when it was in Seattle years ago and I can still remember how awed I was by that mask shining in its case.

As for Hubby's repair skills, he's always saving things that I thought were beyond hope. I'm sure if I'd asked on a different day, he'd have taken apart that wire himself.  But I'm still kind of proud of myself for managing it.

I'm told that the bell was from Aunt Molly's days as a schoolteacher.

This post is linked to Thrifter Share, Ivy & Elephants, Knick of Time, Thriftasaurus,

{Yarn Along} Death and the Redheaded Woman

More self striping sock yarn -- 

And progress on the owl socks! Now that I've got the cuff ribbing done and have some landmarks to go by, it's much less nerve-wracking.

I absolutely loved Death and the Redheaded Woman by Loretta Ross.

As someone who appraises and prepares houses for auction, Wren Morgan has seen her share of fixer-uppers. But when she arrives at her newest project, Wren is unprepared to find something she can't easily fix—a naked, dead man.

Soon after her disturbing discovery, Wren meets Death Bogart, a private investigator and surety recovery agent who's looking for the famous missing jewels of the Campbell family. When it becomes clear that there are actually two sets of lost family jewels, Wren and Death team up to solve not only the mystery of the jewels, but also the naked man's murder. With their case growing more and more complex, though, will they be able to catch the killer and bring home the loot?

The mystery is all kinds  of fun -- who can resist missing jewels in an old house? -- but it's the characters of Wren and Death that kept me turning pages. These two are just so much fun! I hope there's a second book in the series coming soon.



Toured to Death by Hy Conrad is the first book in the Amy's Travel mystery series.  A  mystery-themed road rally turns deadly when the author of the mystery is found dead in his New York apartment. The pacing of this book threw me a bit. Halfway through, it felt like the plot was winding down. There are three mysteries here -- the fake murder that's part of the tour, the real murder that inspired the fake, and that one that claims a tour participant.


For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.


Disclosure - The publishers provided me with review copies. 

Thumps in the Night

Late last night, there was a thump from the direction of the dining room. In our ninety-five-year-old farmhouse full of children, I'm pretty good at identifying what I just heard was a kid, or  the cat, or the furnace or hot water heater or fridge compressor. Whatever the thump was, it was hitting the window from outside.

Outside. Not a guy with a hook. Not something I needed to deal with.

Every few minutes for the next hour, that thump repeated itself. I told myself it was a branch, even though I know darn well that there's no branch outside that window.  Picture us sitting there with the television muted, watching the dark window for the next sound.  Hubby finally saw something hit the window from outside (I was right!) and looked out the back door with his flashlight,

The  first time I went for the camera, a passing car spooked him before I got the SD card back in.  Three or four times, our little visitor took off and returned.  Teenage Daughter and I tried different cameras and lenses and settings. She's taken night pictures with her camera. I've been too busy learning how to take pictures of quilts to have researched how to take a picture of an owl by flashlight.

Then we broke out the bird books. Our little visitor was a Northern Saw-Whet Owl.  We've rarely seen owls in the wild before, and never in our own back yard.

86 Spool Blocks

I'm having fun with these blocks. They're easy to cut from 1 1/2" strips and quick to piece. I'm not loving all of my fabric choices, but I think once I get more fabrics mixed in it'll all work out.

If it doesn't, there's nothing that says I have to use all of the blocks I make!

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Weekly Stash Report

It wasn't a productive week. I finished another pair of socks and hiked with the family to the Witch's Castle in Forest Park.

And I brought home a whole bunch more stuff from Grandma's house -- thread, bits of lace, some gardening books for Hubby because he said he wanted them. Some towels that Grandpa didn't want, because with six people there are never ever enough towels. It's mostly useful stuff. I don't quite know what I'm going to do with the sewing gadgets, aside from finally researching some tutorials and learning hairpin lace, but it goes against my grain to throw things like that away.

A helpful friend who is happily de-cluttering her own house suggested that I choose one thing of my grandmother's to display and let everything else go. Um....thanks for the advice, but no. That's not the way my life works.

I have four children who all had relationships with their great-grandmother. I could set aside something for each of them, but at this point in their lives it would be a total guessing game.

If I'd used that strategy when my other grandma died, I would never have chosen the two things that I'd pick today if I had to pare things down -- the ugly tiki painting and the honey jar that has its lid glazed on. (For the record, the tiki painting isn't on display because my husband hates it and I don't love it enough to want it anywhere but in my sewing room. The honey jar lives on my kitchen windowsill and makes me smile every time I glance over at it.)

While emotions are still raw, I'm not making any lifelong choices where the heirlooms are concerned. The thread and towels could probably go, but we plan on using those.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 0 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 34 yards
Net Added for 2014: 34 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 1200 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Used for 2014: 1200 yards

If my boys were just a little bit younger...

You've heard me moan about the lack of cute things to sew for my boys. If it had come out just a few years earlier,  Sew and Play: Handmade Games for Kids would have been the perfect solution for our family!  Snakes...crabs...monsters....bugs.... These games would have been right up their alley!

There are boats and horses and stepping stones to spread across the rug and follow to the castle... Oh, and pancakes to to toss, avoiding the burnt one.

The projects range from very simple to what-am-I-thinking? (You know I'd be making the bugs and crabs!)  Each set of game pieces will work for several variations of the game, so you can go ahead and make it while your little ones are still too young for complex games and switch to the school-age set of rules later.

I'm tempted to make the pancake game for myself, but I think my son's speech therapist might get more use out of it. She's always looking for good games for little ones -- and in addition to being gender-neutral (not a bandwagon I've chosen to hop onto), these don't feature the latest cartoon characters so they've got that timeless quality to them.

Martingale provided me with an electronic ARC.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {1/30/15}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

In the Skein vs In the Sock

If you've been reading my blog for the past year or so, you'll know that I'm making a serious dent in my stash of self-striping sock yarns. I bought a bunch when I first fell in love with sock knitting, then decided I preferred solid yarns and textured knitting patterns... 

Then last year hit us and I realized that self-striping sock yarn was the perfect mindless stress-reducing knitting. A dozen pairs later, I went out and bought more of it....and there's still no end in sight. 

This is my third pair this year -- and it's only January 28th.  I want to knit something more fun, like those cabled owl socks I posted about yesterday, but those require a different kind of knitting time.

Yarn - Patons Jacquard Aqua

Once again, the yarn in the skein looked completely different from the yarn in the socks. It was on clearance, so I wouldn't have researched it in advance anyway, but I've found a neat trick on Ravelry. (This only works if you're signed in. I know that not everyone wants to join every site out there, but I hugely recommend Ravelry as a knitting resource.)

Search for the yarn by name -- in this case Patons Jacquards. Now scroll down a bit to Popular Colorways and find the one you're interested in.

Click on the projects link next to that color and you'll  see how that yarn behaved in everyone else's projects!  This is one of my favorite features, especially when I've got a yarn that's doing something I don't like or expect.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times. For more finishes, check out  Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, and Freedom Fridays.

The Milk Glass in the Hutch

For someone who never laid eyes on Pinterest, my grandma had a Pinterest perfect house with tablescapes and seasonal decorations and all kinds of interesting bric-a-brac. I wanted to take a picture of the milk glass because it's been in this hutch for as long as I can remember, through more houses than I can count.  Now that she's gone, I don't know how long the collection will remain together. 

When I was growing up, Grandma had envelopes on the bottom of furniture, indicating what was to go to who when she died. But she didn't keep any of that furniture until she died. There's the hutch...and the oak table, which as far as I know don't have envelopes.... I  could probably count one one hand the big pieces of furniture that I remember from my early childhood.

She'd buy great antiques, keep them for a little while, then sell those and find neater ones. I could probably learn a lesson from that. Not every piece of furniture has to stay in the family forever. (Just to be clear -- family pieces have stayed in the family. It was the auction and thrift store finds that were temporary.)

How about you? Do your vintage treasures just pass through the house? Or is it like our house where they're absorbed and never allowed to leave?

The Problem with Challenging Projects...

I'm sick of mindless stockinette and k2p2 ribbing. I wanted a challenge. But it's quite a jump from a project where the whole thing is in my head to this...

This sock has five charts -- the cuff, the leg, the heel flap, the toe transition, and the toe. Yikes! I'm two repeats into the cuff ribbing and already starting to wonder how much I want a cute pair of socks with owls on them. Two repeats through the cuff, I can finally see where the stitches are supposed to fall. That makes it easier.

But that mindless stockinette is starting to look fun after all.

Starvation Heights: A True Story of Murder and Malice in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest tells a sad true story. British Heiresses Dora and Claire Williamson were searching for their mostly imagined illnesses when they learned of the fasting cure practiced by Doctor Linda Hazzard. Locals called her sanitarium Starvation Heights  and many of her patients, especially those with money and no dependents, died as a result of her methods. Before Dora manages to send for help, her sister Claire has starved to death and Doctor Hazzard has taken control of their jewelry and bank accounts, having declared Dora incompetent and made herself the woman's guardian.

The actual story fascinated me -- how could two healthy, educated young women fall prey to something that crazy? -- but the second half of the book, which covers the trial, dragged on and on.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times.

Movie Night

Saturday night, Teenage Daughter and I rented a movie. It was one that we've both been wanting to see... and it was a definite reminder that when you pick a movie based on a neat title and poster image, sometimes you wind up watching Sharknado. 

As Above, So Below was worse. About twenty minutes in, my attention shifted from the movie to the embroidery and I sewed along to my daughter's disbelieving critique. 

 There were cultists, and a broken piano from one character's childhood, and a burning car....all in the catacombs beneath Paris.  Oh, and a magic rock that sometimes healed characters and sometimes didn't. (We read the Wikipedia article -- apparently the whole point of the movie was that they were looking for the philosopher's stone.)

I did get two new squares for the Garden Party quilt, and my daughter and I had fun picking the movie apart, so it wasn't a total loss.

Afraid of the Pretty Fabric

This fabric has spent years in my "too good to cut" pile. Now, the top may be headed for my "too good to quilt" pile.  Does anyone else have one of those? 

There's no real reason for me to be afraid to quilt this one. The top wasn't hard to put together. It's a utility quilt for my son. Given past experience, that means it'll be loved and abused and some wobbles in the free motion quilting will soon be the least of my concerns.

But the fabric is pretty. What is it that's so scary about pretty fabric? Except maybe the memory of what I paid for it....

This may be the year I seriously tackle my small stash of fabrics that are too special to cut into.

This post is linked to Patchwork Times and Monday Making.

Synchronizing the Planners

Teenage Daughter walked in on this project and asked if I was synchronizing my planners. Yup, that's it exactly.  Ever year, I copy the important stuff from my old planner into my new one. 

Except this year I'm copying from 2013 because I can't find the planner for 2014. I spent more time last year looking for that one than actually using it. But I didn't start many new UFOs, so it'll probably turn out just fine.

It'll turn up, and when it does I'll compare the lists and add whatever got left out.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 0 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 34 yards
Net Added for 2014: 34 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 800 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Added for 2014: 800 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {1/23/15}

Take a look at this little quilt that Deanna from Wedding Dress Blue linked up last week!  She used some existing half square triangles and combined them with a backing fabric she already had. Aren't baby quilts just the best way to use stuff up?

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.