Light Up the Town

 

We have an annual street festival to light up this bad boy. While we were hanging around waiting for the countdown to begin we took a stroll around town and I noticed.....

....that this shabby little beach town had a lot in common with Stars Hollow. If you're not a Gilmore Girls fan you won't understand a word of what I'm about to say. My apologies. If you are, this will look familiar. We have a town gazebo where all the romantic stuff takes place just like they do in the series. You might recall that we had a wedding at this one just a few weeks ago. 

The town dance studio is right across the street. It's not Miss Patty's but when Daughter danced here it was Miss Abigal's School of Dance. I suppose Miss Abigal retired. Like Miss Patty, she was quite the character. I suppose most dance instructors are.

We don't have Luke's but we have a little sandwich shop where all the locals hang out. We get coffee and a muffin there almost daily. Pup is very fond of the pumpkin muffins and I'm very fond of the cute dude with the man bun behind the counter.

Around the corner we don't have the Dragonfly, we have what used to be the Westlawn Inn. The main building is now a very bougie restaurant and the inn part is in the big, old Victorian addition around on the side. 

We've also got a pier that's perfect for shoving badly behaved boyfriends off of. It lit up very nicely this year. It isn't always so. Some years they skip it. This year they added candy canes.

And....the night started out with a light rain but for the tiniest moment we got flakes. You can just see a few of them on Pup's stroller before they all melted away. Then the winds picked up and it was COLD. As soon as that tree was lit we took off for home where Thanksgiving leftovers and a hot bath awaited. I was in bed by 7.

Good Times

 

There was cookie making and breakfast with the big Grands.

Stockings were knit on the way there and back.

I wrecked my kitchen making dinner. The dishes are most likely still soaking in the sink.

The annual Santa puzzle was started.

But most importantly The Man himself came to town. Happy Almost Christmas!

Gobble, Gobble

 

Old Tom didn't get finished this year but I made a lot of progress on him. I've got no problem packing him away now because I know it will make me happy to see him again next November. He's like family, you know, the ones you only see on holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving to my USA friends. Wishing you a day of peace and love with a big helping of stuffing. I live for the stuffing. 

Wednesday WIPs

 

The Static Lasagna Cat socks are done. As much as I love them, they went into the gift box. I've been taking stock of my sock drawer this week and I don't need anymore. Ever. 

That doesn't stop me from making them. I wound up this ball of Regia into two so I can do the magic matchy matchy thing with them. It's another Arne and Carlos colorway but it doesn't have a name, just a number. 

Speaking of Arne and Carlos, my do-over 2023 KAL stocking is finished minus the afterthought heel. This old dog will have to sit down and concentrate in order to pull off that new trick and I'm not feeling it right now. I did print out their 2024 KAL stocking pattern. It's free on the blog until the 1st. The theme this year is bells and I LOVE it. I can't wait to get it started.

And....I finished another pattern section on Bon Amie. I've got another 4 or 5 inches before I'll be at the shoulder. I'm looking forward to the sleeves. As fun as this has been to work on, that's a lot of stitches to get through in one round.

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

Woo hoo....Gobble Gob is finished. I was feeling pretty meh about this one but now that all the doo dads are stitched, I like it. 

I finished two more Patchwork of the crosses blocks and got a shipment of needles that I hope will work with all this hand stitching. Right now my hands hurt. I think I overdid it with the afternoon movie marathons. 

Dear Jane is covered and the foundation is being worked on but I think I need to give my hands a few days rest before I start the applique. My thumbs in particular are killing me.

Sitting and Stitching

 

When Pup was full of stitches from her surgery I had to sit on the floor to keep an eye on her. I filled up my sewing basket and we sat and watched Halloween movies every afternoon. I enjoyed that time so I thought I'd do it again minus the stitches, of course and instead of scary movies we've been watching Christmas movies. 

I don't mean It's a Wonderful Life caliber films, I mean cheesy holiday rom-coms on Netflix. Once you watch one, the algorithm keeps sending you more. I had no idea there were so many.  So far I've watched:

Meet Me Next Christmas: 🎄🎄🎄🎄/5

Christmas As Usual: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

Merry Gentlemen: 🎄🎄🎄

Hot Frosty: 🎄🎄🎄

My Dad's Christmas Date: 🎄🎄

Christmas on Notting Hill: 🎄🎄

Haul Out the Holly: 🎄🎄

I don't need to write a review of any of them because it's pretty much the same plot. Boy meets girl with snow, twinkling lights and eggnog. I usually hate these types of movies but having them on as noise while I do some paper piecing before dinner hasn't been all bad. 

Block total: 17/25

Patchwork of the Crosses Pattern: 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄/5

Counting Down

 

I haven't been able to keep The Mister in puzzles. He has them done in a week. I've bought him some new ones.

I've dug some old ones out of the closet.

He's got a week until I'll let him get our Christmas puzzles out but I did let him start one of dad's that I still have here.

On December 1st he can start this advent calendar puzzle I just bought him. We've never done one like this before so it should be interesting. As long as it keeps him busy, it was worth the money. I've got things that need to be done in a timely manner.

I'm trying to assemble four cards a day. That's about all the time I get before something goes haywire around here. If it's not one catastrophe it's another that needs my attention. This week it's been The Mister's Chromebook. The charging cord broke and you'd think the world was coming to an end. A new one should be here today but trying to teach him to use an old Dell laptop we have around here in the meantime has NOT been much fun. 

Scrappy

 

I just noticed that I have a theme going on in the sewing room. Everything is made up of bits and pieces. My crazy quilt is using up all that Kaffe Fassett I have laying about and none of it works particularly well with each other but I don't care. 

All my leftover ugly charm square rejects are getting used up with these itty bitty squares of my Color Wash Quilt. I've got a big pile of these little things now and need to start sorting them by color and turning them into blocks as soon as I figure out how.

Ditto for this scrappy zig zag I just started last week. I'm using up every bit of everything I've got in the bins on it and that's not like me at all. I usually get a fabric collection or a kit to complete things because I'm no good at picking out colors but it's wild times back in the sewing room right now. Quilting really has become my therapy. 

And...The Mister wanted to share his Mastermind score from last night. 101. Can you believe it? He beat me by 40 points. I'll never hear the end of it. 

Lights Out

 

Someone was very unhappy that dinner wasn't being served at its usual time but we had no electricity for several hours yesterday.

Because of a high wind alert we slept in the lower level the night before and had everything prepared for an outage that never came until around 4 the following day. My little battery operated radio kept me entertained but didn't do much for Pup's rumbling tummy. 

Somehow in all this fun I managed to twist my knee going up and down the stairs and hit my shin on a big flowerpot on the deck. It was a day filled with silly ouchies for me. The good news is that in the chilly night, The Mister needed something warm to wrap up in and finally used The Big Ugly Quilt I made him last year when he had all his surgeries. It's been sitting here looking all forgotten and forlorn and it did my heart good to see him wrapped up in it yesterday morning. 

Tying One On

 

Before we left for Detroit last week, I had finished all the threading for that towel I'm working on. 

This week I got to spend some time with it and of course, completely goofed it up. Since I had all the cones still sitting here I decided to go with the plaid but I read the directions wrong and started towel one when I really wanted towel three so at this point I'm just making it up as I go along to get something plaid-like. 

What surprised me was the emerging design. It's a very simple treadling pattern but what's coming from it is pretty darn fancy. This draft is from Handwoven and it's the Gift Exchange Towels by Pat Bullen.  You can get the kit from Cotton Clouds. You can make three different towels from one warp but I'm only making one since the amount of towels I already have here is ridiculous. The Mister just rolls his eyes when he notices I am working on another. 

Wednesday WIPs

 

None of my WIPs are very interesting this week so how about taking a look at the fall sweaters I have in my bathtub getting their annual soak. They've been cooped up all summer and it's time to get them out, sort of. It's been in the 70's here again this week. Boooo....not exactly sweater weather yet but I'll be ready if it ever gets here. 

The orange one is White Pine by Amy Christoffers. Once upon a time it was my Rhinebeck sweater. The green one is Mosi by Helene Magnusson. It was inspired by Daughter's trip to Iceland. The last one is Festive Doodle by Caitlin Hunter. This was a pandemic KAL that had me scrambling for yarn at a time when everyone and their brother was knitting. 

We could really see the difference in the trees as we went north last week but in spite of the warm temps down here it is still very much fall. I always look forward to when the Beech trees turn every year because they burst into golden flame and give everything a glow. I'm not rushing winter, but it would be nice to get to put on one of those sweaters before it's time to get out the coats. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 

I could have had this finished if I had remembered to pack it on our trip. It's small so it would have been a good on the road project but I forgot it. I only have four more flowers and the rest of the border to go so I'm pretty sure it will be done before it's time to bring out my December projects. 

I did remember to pack a little bag with enough pieces to finish these two Patchwork of the Crosses blocks. Paper piecing is a good travel project if you get everything cut out before hand. 

Speaking of paper piecing, here's what Dear Jane looks like right now. Since I am halfway through Row D I had to get out another packet of pieces and sort them out for the rest of the row. They come in a big jumble and you have to use the book to figure out what goes where. The next one is on the book on the right and it looks like a real pain. I've got it sitting here staring at me but I'm going to have to be in the right frame of mind to get it started. 

Ooops...I Did It Again

 

The one project that had to go along with me to Detroit was the KAL stocking. I was trying to keep up with Arne and Carlos and was doing just fine until.....disaster struck AGAIN.

I was sitting in the hotel watching their daily video and listening to them chatter about the after thought heel when I realized in horror that I was knitting mine upside down which means I had put the heel where it should be on a TOE UP SOCK and NOT where it should be on a cuff down. Arghhhhh.......rip, rip, rip. Three more days of work down the drain.

At least Pup was very agreeable on the 10 hour ride home watching me furiously get caught back up once AGAIN. This is what I get for rushing the season, I suppose. Christmas knitting shouldn't be happening in November at least not for me. 

And speaking of rushing the season, look what The Mister came home with yesterday. 

It all showed up pretty early this year. 

Even the big town tree is up.