More Stitches

 I bought a new hoop. It's tiny and it's oblong. It's been a big help with finishing up the mini quilt.

 I also found these little finger things at Joann's. They work great when the needle gets stuck.

 Also in the quilting section I found a Q Snap type quilting frame on clearance. I love my big wood hoops but I couldn't pass this up for the price.

I am thinking that I'll give it a go with this. It was one of the joint quilting projects Daddio and I worked on a few years ago. He made the Dresden plates and I appliqued them down and sashed it. After working on the mini quilts I've been itching for another hand quilting adventure. This ought to do it.

Meet the Spring Soap

 Easter is less than six weeks away so I had to have a flurry of soap making last week in order to have some for gifting. Meet Blackberry Sage. I've done this one before and it's a favorite of mine. It really smells like berries.

Another re-do is Whispering Mist. I'm not sure what mist smells like but I do like this fragrance a lot.

 This is a Bramble Berry scent sample. It's Key Lime Tart and it smells so delicious. I love it so much I made  a batch of foot fizzies with it so I could start enjoying that scent right away.

Freshly Zested Lemon is also yummy. I really want to eat this one. I love lemon meringue pie and it smells just like one. I made some lotion bars with this fragrance and they smell amazing too.

 This is an Oatmeal, Milk and Honey re-do. It's my favorite for gifting. Everyone likes it. It's mild and the colloidal oatmeal makes it very gentle. All the milks I add (goat, yogurt and coconut) along with the honey make it super creamy.

Meet Night Blooming Gardenia. I had to fight with this one. I knew it was a difficult scent to work with so I should have made it all one color but I was out of white. I had forgotten to order it with my last delivery. Boo me. I had to wing it with gray, gold and dark green.

 Also, in the "I should have left well enough alone" category, I tried out two fragrance samples that I am not too fond of. This is Tequila Sunrise which smells just like plain old orange juice to me.

This is Spring Rain which smells an awful lot like laundry detergent. Oh, well. They will make great hand soap for the kitchen. I go though lots of hand soap around here.

 Finally, I used up every bit of oils and fancy butters on these last two concoctions. This is Cappucino. I haven't made a coffee soap in a while and miss having a really scrubby option. Sometime you just need a good scrubbing.

This is a simple Clay and Honey loaf that combines every color of natural clay I have. I love the feel of soothing clay on bug bites. It won't be long before mosquito season now so I'd might as well get prepared for the all too familiar itch.

This is a Thing?

I thought I knew everything about Chesapeake Bay culture until I saw this in the Bay Weekly. Apparently it's been a tradition in Annapolis to build a community bonfire on St Patrick's Day weekend to burn your winter socks as a part of a spring ritual.

They'd have to pry them off my dead, cold feet first......

The Luck of the Irish

 Got the potatoes.

 And the cabbage. Still need the carrots. They were out of them today but promise a shipment tomorrow. Who runs out of carrots?

 The Mister brought a corned beef home. I don't eat it but I do like the way it makes the house smell all day.

 I have what I need for soda bread. I did a trial run last week and it was good.

 My March apron has been in use all month. It's one of my favorites.

 The Irish doodads are on the wreath but the wind has not been kind to them.

 I even have a new little green tea pot. I wish I had remembered to buy some Irish Breakfast tea.

I am not at all Irish but I'm still lucky today because all that work I put into the crazy cowl was not in vain. It works. It even looks better if I pull it up over my head so you can see the color work. Squeeee.....

Have a happy St. Patrick's Day.
     🍀
“Sláinte!

Knit Not

 Uh, oh....that ball of yarn is getting too small, too fast. That's a problem.

 I had to stop making increase repeats so that I don't run out. I am on the body section now. I am going to have to cut that short too so I can start decreasing and get this thing over with. It's making me nervous. Yarn chicken is scary business.

 I do have my leftover skein as a back up insurance plan. Good thing.

I am also the last row of ribbing on the crazy cowl. I have been doing one round a night. It's all my brain can take of it at this point. That's a lot of stitches around that thing and this terrible weather has given me a headache that won't go away.

I am starting to wonder if it's is going to work at all.  It's awfully wide and short. I am not sure how much neck wrapping it will be good for but we shall soon see. If this weather holds up, I'll be wearing it tomorrow.

March Madness

 We got only a glancing blow from the big blizzard.

It wasn't actually a snow storm or an ice storm. It was something in between.

We had snow showers and then freezing rain on and off all day. It was weird, even for here.

The ice blowing off the trees and hitting the roof all day was the worst part. It sounded like breaking glass.

I kept my mind off the mayhem happening outside by doing some hand quilting on the spring mini quilt.

Seeing it was Pi Day I also destroyed the kitchen making a couple of mini apple pies.

All in all it was still a pretty miserable 24 hours of cold, wet and wind. It didn't seem to faze the flowers though. Let's just hope it was winter's last gasp. I'm certainly over it.

The Snowy Version

 Kathy B asked a lot of questions that I could relate to yesterday. First it was about socks. Yes. It's cold. Yes. I have on two pairs. One sockweight, one handspun. I haven't had to do this all winter but here we are in March....go figure. That's my latest boo boo on my shin. I fell off the chair that I use to check the curing soap. Ouch.

 I am also wearing my thrummed mittens to walk the dogs for the first time all winter.

 They are stuffed with fleece and so warm....you can't do better.

 I've also got on my lined hat and my heaviest and longest cowl to wrap all around my neck. I also have on a down vest and my heavy LL Bean coat over top of sweat clothes with long johns underneath. For real. March cold is the worst. It's that wind.

 This was Monday. We are waiting for that big storm they keep promising us. Are those snow clouds creeping over the horizon? I think not.  I bet the whole thing is a bust. It usually is.