Friday Fluff

 

I finished the last bobbin of the California Red that was left undyed this week. That's Trinidad and she's the California Red. I picked up her fleece at the last MDSW I attended which seems like ages ago.

It's not the softest of fleece.

I've got 270 grams of it now so I'm not sure what it will become. 

I'll have plenty of options once I spin my way through all those little batts I just divided into nests. I also have a HUGE bin of her fleece that I still need to turn into batts. I'm really looking forward to some cool weather so I can get out all my carding toys and spend the day outside cranking away. 

Random Thursday Chatter

 

For those of you waiting for fall, it came in a box for me yesterday. 

I had to order some batting and more white material for the Sunflower quilt's last outside border from Connecting Threads and when I saw those two Halloween fabrics that were on clearance I  knew they would make a perfect October apron. Sadly, many of my holiday aprons did not make it through the Big Itch. They were so ratty and worn I tossed most of them in hopes of making new ones. As for the white material, it's not a perfect match for the kit fabric but it'll do. 

Wasn't I just complaining about how much sock yarn I have? Well, this showed up yesterday too. Hot Yarns is my new favorite online yarn shop because they have all the cool stuff the vloggers on the other side of the pond have. I saw this on The Happy Knitting Podcast on YouTube and had to have it. Of course, it's not the exact colorway I wanted (I wanted the colorway she was knitting for her husband) but it'll do until that one comes back in stock.

And finally....it's still hot as blazes here but I'm still making cake-in the crock pot. I'm the queen of crock pot baking thanks to my dire oven situation. After two years of not having an oven I have to say I don't really miss it. I found this simple online recipe for Skinny Slow Cooker Apple Cake and have used it all summer with all kinds of ugly fruit that comes with my grocery pick up order. It's a really good little cake and even better... it doesn't heat up the kitchen. 

Too Hot to Walkabout Wednesday

 

It was too darn hot to walk anywhere yesterday but on Monday we went back out to Lowe's to get the trim for the hallway. The door measuring guys came out last week and now we have to wait until the end of the month for them to get back to put in the doors so we are going to tackle the hall instead of the tile. They said it would be better to tile after they finished the door which makes sense. 

The best part of that long and boring trip was that I ORDERED MY NEW REFRIGERATOR. Long before we started tearing out the old kitchen I had wanted a new one. My old one is too small. I have to take everything out of the freezer whenever I want to find something and I am so over it. Of course, like everything it won't be here for a while-at least a couple of weeks but it's on its way which is half the battle. The Mister fought me long and hard on this because the old fridge works fine. I just hate it. 

In spite of there being a heat advisory yesterday, The Mister went out to play golf so I had the day to myself. We had no cable or internet for most of the day so I managed to get a lot done. I have half of the binding finished on the baby quilt. 

 

I got half of the warp wound for the Winter Lichen towels. 

I lost the whole afternoon fiddling with the Christmas card design with some new paper I got in the mail. 

I really liked the black and white print paper on the original kitty card I made but can't find that paper anywhere anymore. I did find a stamp that looks like it but as you can see getting a nice crisp imprint is near impossible so I'll just keep playing with different papers until I find one I like. 

And........I thought I would share this photo that Daughter sent me from her birthday lunch. SIL took her to Chef Jose Andre's new restaurant called Spanish Diner which she loved and afterwards they discovered the Laduree nearby which sells these amazing looking macarons. I've only had them once before from another shop in Georgetown so I know how good they are even if they are just too darn pretty to eat. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

I stitched an alligator, some boots and a car this week on the baby sampler. I've got some border letters to do and a simple edging and that will be it. 

All the machine quilting is finished on the baby quilt so it's on to the binding this week. 

I've got two more Dear Jane blocks finished and two more halfway done. I made three more hexies.

And.......it's Daughter's birthday today. 1983. I have no idea how we all got so old but we did-and it happened fast.

Have Yarn, Will Travel

 

Almost seven months of doing nothing but dealing with catastrophes has taken a toll on me. All that work I did to lose those pounds during the pandemic have crept back and then some. Now that life has returned to normal I've started eating better and knit walking everyday again to 40's dance music for 30 minutes. No more pity party excuses for junk food and laying about. The party is over. 

It's not really a hardship. I love knit walking and just look at this yarn. It's Opal in some tropical colorway that is supposed to remind you of parrots but I think it's got a Halloween vibe. 

I can't really knit walk and do stranded colorwork.....or can I? I never really tried it. Maybe I should. I've got Number 11 in the basket ready to be cast on because............

......Bitty Spruce is finally finished. It was a fun and fast knit with NO finishing. It's in the gift box now waiting for a fall arrival. 

And......speaking of that new arrival, the daddy to be is having a birthday today. 1979. It seems like it was just yesterday that he was the new arrival.

Wild Thing

 

In case you were wondering what ever happened to Boris that black vulture that used to camp out on my deck-she's still here. In fact, she brought me two babies this week. Last year she brought me one and this year she's got two to care for. 

She's teaching her babies how to scavenge for food so she's pretty insistent at meal time. She's learned to go up on the skylight and tap on the glass to get my attention. I toss a plate of food scraps out to them and then off they fly. The babies are not great fliers yet. They've fallen off the roof more than once when they try to land on the gutters. 

As if that wasn't enough, I've also got Yertle the Turtle showing up for a meal on a regular basis. I noticed our Prime delivery guy standing on the porch for the longest time the other day. He was watching Yertle tackle some leftover kitty food. I have no idea how it manages to get up onto the front landing but it does. I've also seen it fight the vultures for that food. The same vultures that chased a large fox into the woods are terrified of a little turtle and keep their distance until he waddles away from the food. I'd love to know the story behind that level of respect. 

Yappy Holidays

 

This year's Christmas Card stamps and dies are finally here. They are from Mama Elephant and it's the Oh, Puppy Tree collection. 

Every year I look for a card that represents the kind of year we've had. This was the year of the dog. First it was allergies (we thought), then it was mites, then it was a dislocated hip and then it was surgery and a long recovery. It's been a real dog of a year so when I saw the puppy tree I knew it was the one. 

I had a good time on a 95 degree day in the cool downstairs craft room coloring and cutting a pile of pups.

I've got some tweeking to do but I'm liking it so far. 

It might look familiar because in 2018 I made one like it only with kitties to send to kitty crazy Daughter. 

So...I guess I'm going to be spending the rest of the summer making a pile of puppies. I can't even imagine a real pile of pups. Just dealing with one very spoiled pup is enough for me. 

Friday Fluff

 

The plying of the California Red was going fine until something strange started happening to the wheel. I think I need to change the string I'm using for a drive band. At least I hope it's something that simple.

The pretty Mardi Gras BFL has been a lot of fun to work with. I put on some Zydeco music and have at it for a few minutes every day. It's a great mood enhancer. 

The spindles have been getting plenty of attention. The red got another wind off this week and I'm having a competition with the support spindle to see how much I can get on there. I have never had so much wound on it before but since it's still doing its thing I'll just keep adding more until it doesn't.

There is most definitely a steep learning curve with the little takli. It wants to unwind more than it wants to wind. I finished one puni and still feel like I'm doing something wrong. I need to go watch a few more videos so hopefully I can get a clue. If not, I bought a very expensive but pretty little box.

And....I am at the top of the second thrummed mitten. I should be closing it up this weekend and getting those thumbs on. I do them both at the same time so I don't have to think too much. Thumbs are hard. 

Two for the Road

 

We had to take the long drive to Lowe's to order the new door and the only travel knitting I had ready to go was the two-on-one-needle socks which was not ideal for a car ride but worked out better than I thought. I got to use my new big sheep sock bag which I bought when I was all into that two on one needle thing but never got a chance to use it. 

Ordering the new door was pretty painless. 

The guy behind the desk seemed to know his stuff and as a bonus-he was masked. Most of the folks were masked which was a relief. I'm really not up to catching Covid when we have so much to do. Now we wait. We are having it installed so the measuring guy will have to come out to help us figure out the new door and storm door sizes before we can put the order in. 

In other sock news, I have finished the latest Lofotens and they are tucked away in the gift box which is still full of last year's socks since I never got the opportunity over the winter to give any of them away. Now I get the fun of digging in the giant sock yarn bin and deciding what comes next. Oh, joy.

Walkabout Wednesday

 

It's too darn hot to get out much around here this time of year but the other day we had a small break from the 90's so off we went. You've seen this view many times but something new showed up recently...

We got a little sign that tells all about the origins of the Bay. My family has been coming here for generations to vacation. We would make that long drive many times each summer. Now I live here. Even after 30 years it seems surreal. I still remember the tingle of excitement I would get as a kid when our car would come to the spot on the road where you can first see the water. I live a block away from that spot now and I still get tingles from that view.

It's stinky and dirty now and I would never swim in it anymore but I still love it. There are so many good memories of aunts and uncles and cousins all long gone riding the little waves on inner tubes and cheap dime store rafts. Food has never tasted as good as it did on a blanket on the sand. It was always fried chicken and mom's famous potato salad. She would make it the night before and that's how we knew we were going to the beach. 

This is actually not the beach of my childhood. We didn't have a fancy boardwalk lined with rows and rows of spectacular blooms. 

I wish I could show you all of the amazing things they plant here every spring. It's like walking through a flower show. Every bed has something different to look at. 

These pots amaze me. There are so many of them and each one is prettier than the next. The Mister has been hemming and hawing about moving away and I get it....the house and yard are too much for us old folks but every time I think about leaving this place I'm sad.

Everywhere I look there is a memory I don't want to leave behind. That's my mom in a wash bucket on the lawn of a beach house my grandparents owned here. That's me at two  different ages in the water. A beach baby I'm not but I sure like to look at the water from the shore. 

And....here's our version of a chip wagon. I read the article Valerie posted yesterday because I love a good bag of french fries. Not being a meat eater it's usually the only thing on the menu I do eat anywhere we go so I am a bit of a connoisseur. This little wagon started out by just selling french fries on the street across from the boardwalk and as you can see has branched out over the years with funnel cakes and snow cones. He does a good business when he is open which is rarely anymore. I took this yesterday at lunchtime on a hot summer day with a beach full of folks. Go figure. 

BUT I can tell you as someone who has eaten french fries from here to Mexico and from here to Quebec City, no one and I mean NO ONE has better fries than Thrasher's on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland. NO ONE. Son sent me this photo from that holy spot where he vacationed with the Grands last month. He knows a good fry and now he's passing on the knowledge of that crispy, golden goodness to the next generation. I taught him well.