Wednesday WIPs

 

Ta da..I've got another Halloween finish. I put all my sock knitting energy into these beauties to make sure they were done by the end of the month. They are Wandering Cat's sock yarn in the Trick or Treat colorway. No one did stripes better imho.

My other Halloween socks are on the back burner because I needed to get going on the toddler socks one of the Grands asked for. It's my second try at getting something to fit.

I've also got some mileage on the Paradise Static socks that were "accidentally" cast on a few weeks ago. These somehow ended up on my nightstand so every night I knit a few rows before bed. It does add up without even trying.

And...look at what just arrived. I couldn't resist anything in the Life of a Showgirl colorway. I hope to make it a Musselburgh but not until I get some of these socks off the needles. I'm not the only one here, it seems, who was recently tempted by a Taylor Swift colorway. I know one of you has just added some very pretty Opalite yarn to your stash. 

Oh, and I should also mention that somehow these two managed to show up at my front door. I heard on their podcast that they started their own yarn company in Transylvania and when I clicked on the link they were only $15 a skein so....they had to be had, right?

TNT: Halloween Edition

 

Done, done, done. Now it can join....

....my two other Halloween finishes from years past. Hopefully I can turn them all into something I can display by next year. 

For the rest of the month, I'll be concentrating on Matter's House. It has a new deer and squirrel this week. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of November.

Thwarted

 

I woke up yesterday excited to finish up my last few batches of soap only to discover that I didn't have enough lye. I had the urge to make something, so I baked.

Apple cake and pumpkin bread. The house didn't smell like my latest soap creation but it did smell good. The new lye should be here tomorrow. 

Boo Bash

 

Yesterday was a long day. It started off bright and early at the Farmer's Market. It's the last of the season I'm sad to say. I certainly took advantage of it this year. 

Then it was off to the town Boo Bash. First it was the dog's turn to parade, then it was the kiddies competing for prizes. 

The line for the costume competition was long. 

Pup won't participate. She likes to sit on a bench and snoopervise. 

There's also a town competition for businesses. Some of them really do it up. This is the beer garden that should win every year imho but never does. 

Family Fun Night was a bust. We got all costumed up but the line to get in was literally around the block so we skipped it and watched Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice on the beach instead. Since everyone in town must have been down at the field waiting in line, we had the place pretty much to ourselves.

Never a Dull Moment

 

Pup had a good time yesterday. We had a grocery pick up across town so she got a nice walk in the park and then a visit to Pet Smart. The whole time I was looking for cat food that didn't contain fish for our kitty that's on thyroid medicine, she combed the floors looking for food that might have been dropped. She's been successful at this more than once. 

She got chicken nuggets for her birthday lunch and then we shared that Halloween sprinkle donut on the bottom right. She gets the side that isn't very sweet and I get the rest.

On the way home we noticed the city was busy putting the Christmas lights on the trees along the main road. This morning we are off to the Farmer's Market, then it's on to the dog costume parade at noon, the kiddie parade at 2, the Family Fun night at the ball field at 6 and finally a showing of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice on the beach. As I said, it's never a dull moment around here. 

As for soap, Honey crisp is out of the mold. The colors are meh, but it still smells divine. I'm taking a break from soap today but I'll be back to work tomorrow while The Mister is in front of the TV. I've got three more batches to make and that will bring Soap Week(s) to an end.

Enchanted

 

Meet Enchanted. It used to be Oudh but since it turned out so pretty and sparkly it's being rebranded as Enchanted. 

Yesterday's pour was Honeycrisp. It's a blend of fragrances and it smelled so good that I had the urge to go put an apple cake in the oven. That crimson mica turned a bit brown. It wasn't the red I was hoping for but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that it works out as well as Enchanted did.

Sometime in between all the soap making (which takes up a huge chunk of time every day) I managed to get Taylor Barbie dolled up in her Halloween/Showgirl outfit. Sewing that sequined material was not fun so it's just a simple tube with a Velcro closure. The fun part was the tulle bustle in the back. I've got lots of this material leftover so this adventure is far from over. 

And...today is Pup's birthday. It seems like just yesterday that I was introducing her here with weekly Pupdates and now she is twelve. How is that even possible?

Soap Tales

 

Do you see yellow? I don't. I guess my search for a decent yellow colorant continues. Lemon once again looks dismal but smells great. 

The Sea Salt soap is interesting. I really like this fragrance. I hope it sticks around. So many of them don't.

Yesterday's soap adventure was disappointing. The scent is Oudh and it's very exotic and earthy but for some reason I went with these colors which don't say either of these things to me. 

I didn't order any new mica colors when I ordered my soap supplies and I'm down to very few choices. 

To make up for my lack of imagination, I hit it with glitter. A lot of cosmetic glitter. The whole room was sparkling. 

Wednesday WIPs

 

Ooops. I did it again. I do not plan to do this but it always seems to work out that all my heels have to be turned at once. It's not like I knit the exact same amount on each sock every day but they always seem to end up in the same place at the same time. 

Before I took the weekend off for the vaccines, I turned the heel on the second Cozy Quilt sock. It's the short row heel from the pattern and I'm shocked that I pulled it off again. Short rows are not my thing. It's not perfect but it's a heel. 

In soap news, I don't have a big reveal for the Lemon soap yet because it's still a bit sticky. I'll cut it tomorrow. 

While I am waiting on the Lemon, I made this mess. It's a fragrance called Sea Salt and I used all of my natural earth clays instead of mica as a colorant. 

All that clay really thickens up the batter so it's a plop instead of a pour into the mold. Cutting this one will be very interesting.

TNT: Getting Close

 

I didn't get the Halloween sampler finished this weekend as I'd hoped but I got closer. The only thing I really did was lay on the couch, feel sorry for myself and eat pizza. 

I did pick up the needlepoint project for a few minutes on Sunday just to say I did something worthwhile. This was more my speed than the cross stitch because as bad as I felt, I doubt I could have counted very accurately. 

I wrestled with Dear Jane for a few minutes yesterday. It looks like measurement-wise that it's going to work out but I have to tame those points before I start appliqueing. The bits under the clips are rather unruly at the moment. Happily, I'm finally pretty much back to normal-minus the big bruise I have on my arm. I swear that girl hit me with a whale harpoon-twice. I've never had the shots hurt so badly. Usually I can't feel them at all. 

I also had soap that had to be made yesterday. This is lemon. I tried a new yellow mica since none of the ones I have here ever look right. No drama with the soap batter, thank goodness but I did manage to spill some of that yellow all over the table. I'm usually pretty cautious when I'm working so I'm going to blame my clumsiness on the vaccines. Everything else always is. 

On the Town

 

I rarely go shopping anymore but on Friday I ran through all the shops that a neighboring town center had after getting my Covid/flu jab. I have about 4 hours after the shot before I go down for the count so I made the most of my time. The Mister said it was the fastest he's seen me move in a long while. First it was our teeny tiny Walmart. Look at this floss section. Pathetic.

Ditto for the fabric section. The selection was awful. There used to be a nice craft section here. No more. 

I did find a Barbie that I didn't have for my collection. Are you seeing this Lucy? She was a pricey one but I had cashed in my retirement fund that morning and I was desperate to spend some of it on something ridiculous and I was running out of shops and time. 

We ran through our teeny tiny Marshall's and I found the whistling teapot I had been looking for. I need this. I have a bad habit of boiling water and walking away. I do have an electric kettle but it's on the other side of the kitchen and sometimes I'm just too lazy or busy to go over there. 

Then it was on to Harris Teeter which is a store I never shop at. The Mister wanted ice cream and I picked up some yogurt for my weekend that was spent on the couch feeling miserable. The shots always do that to me but I'm happy to report that this time around it wasn't too awful. I was a bit flu-ish and had a terrible headache but I wasn't completely down and out. I even took a little walk Saturday morning but mostly binged Netflix in between naps all weekend.

I wasn't sick enough that our newly filled bowl of Halloween candy wasn't tempting. We never get trick or treaters anymore so you know where this is going. Diet starts up again on November first. 

Last Gasp

 

I never have any color in my yard all summer but right now everything seems to be in bloom. My azalea has decided to wake up. It's one of those Ever Blooming varieties but it's been more like Never Blooming since I planted it two years ago.

My mini rose is covered in little yellow blooms. 

My poor spindly standard size rose put out one strange little bloom on the very tippy top. I thought it was dead but it seems it's not. Not yet anyway. The deer are trying their hardest to kill it. 

And then there are the asters. They have exploded everywhere. I yanked most of them up in the spring hoping to curtail their garden takeover but it just seemed to make them stronger. I hate them all year but I have to say, when they do flower all at once, they are spectacular. 

Red Maple

 

Yesterday was Red Maple day. The more soap I make, the more adventurous I become. 

That's not always a good thing but this time I think it worked out. Red Maple not only has some interesting color work going on, it's even got a few puffs of gold mica on top. 

For a while, my loaves were stacking up in the soap room waiting to be cut. That's Blackberry on the right before it was cut into bars. 

Ta da...Red Maple is pretty darn fancy. It smells good too. Not like maple syrup or even a maple tree. I'm not sure where the name comes from but it's become a favorite of mine.