Eat Your Veggies

 

Even though it was still windy and bitter cold yesterday we had to get out. 

We had the beach to ourselves. Not a soul in sight.  At least it wasn't iced over. Not yet anyway.

I needed to wear Pup out so I could get the little Eat Your Veggies quilt finished. I set the ironing board up in the living room, put her on the couch and sewed all that binding down while she napped. I didn't over quilt this one. I just stitched in the ditch and left it a bit fluffy. I hope that wasn't a mistake and it holds together. 

We haven't seen the latest little Grand this is intended for yet. We are waiting for our NIOSH approved K95 masks to show up from the N95Project. Our rapid tests arrived yesterday. To top it all off we've been in isolation for 9 days. We're not taking any chances and will be ready when Daughter gives us the okay to visit. 

TNT

 

I am so close to finishing this now. I spent yesterday stitching on all those teeny tiny leaves. What a slog. All I have left now is the name and the date. 

I am very anxious to get this done mainly because it's been living on my soap table for months and I really need to make soap. I keep getting asked for soap and I just don't have any. I need to get this packed off and take stock of what I have to make soap. By the looks of my supply shelves it's pretty sad. 

I also got the alphabet started on the bookmark. I didn't spend too much time with it because.....

....I also need to get this baby quilt done. I've got some exciting plans for my next project but I can't get to it until this is gifted. I'm on the piano keys part now and it's moving pretty quickly. I should be binding it off this week-unless life gets in the way. 

 

Izzy

 

It was even colder yesterday and Izzy dumped a bit of snow on us in the afternoon before it all turned to ice. Just when we thought it was all over we had to sit in the lower level until 11:30 after we got a severe thunderstorm warning with high wind gusts. It all ended with heavy rain so it's a real mess out there today.

I curled up on the couch all day with Pup again and did more knitting. I finished mini sweater number 4. Number 5 is supposed to be blue and yellow. I am still getting ridiculously excited when I cast on a new one so that's a good thing. 

How am I getting anything done with Pup nearby? This is how. The only good dog is a sleeping dog.  I guess the cold and snow have worn her out-even though she's hardly had a paw outside in days. 

Round Robin

 

It was a good day for having a lap full of wool. It never got out of the 20's.

I lined up all of my project baskets once again and spent the day taking turns putting a row here and a row there on them. I cast on that second Regia sock. Its mate is in my travel bag. I needed some color. My other projects are boring. 

I got close to finishing the latest little advent sweater. The 24 rounds for turtleneck is always a slog. It takes me a couple of days at least. 

I've got a bad case of startitis so in between knitting sessions I went looking for ideas on what to do with this DK weight yarn. I bought it for the little sweaters but it was too pricey and too nice for them. I haven't come up with anything yet but I'll keep looking. 

Not So Crafty

 

This has become the most boring blog. The other night I even forgot to make a post. I've got nothing much to say these days. One reason is...Pup. We've been stuck in from bad weather and she's full of energy and she hates it when I sit down and knit-or do anything else for that matter. She stands there and tries to stare me down and if that doesn't work she starts barking at me. 

It doesn't even help to pick her up and put her on the ottoman next to my rocker. Look at that pitiful face. 

She did let me sit and stitch a bit on this later in the afternoon after a walk. It's about all I could handle. One color and a couple of simple of shapes on a small frame. 

The other reason I can't get anything done is The Mister. He's been on a week long rampage over the stove AND now the leaking tub faucet in the downstairs bathroom. I spent all morning researching how to replace the cartridge. We even called Moen to see which one we should use for a vintage 1983 (!) faucet. Honestly, the whole bathroom needs replacing but that's a fight for another day. Believe it or not Moen is giving us a call back on the matter NEXT FRIDAY at 9:30. We can't even get a leaky tub fixed. Is it us or is everything just nuts? 

Thinking Pink

 

I was in the sewing room working on the little quilt for the new Grand when I got a text from Daughter saying that her friend, the one that just threw Daughter her shower, has Covid, poor thing. She's also expecting so it's very worrisome. 

Three years ago Daughter and I threw her a shower for her now 3 year old little boy. I made her this little quilt for him. She's expecting a little girl in March so I had been toying with the idea of making something pretty in pink. Daughter is throwing her a sprinkle next month-Covid permitting.

I wasted a whole afternoon scouring every fabric site I know looking at charm packs and yardage and came up empty handed. How could it be so hard to find a pink fabric collection that is suitable for a baby quilt? I had no luck at all so that whole idea is on the back burner. I'm gonna keep on looking but I'm running out of time. 

Phase 2

 

For those of you keeping up with the big kitchen adventure, here's an update. We thought we were going on to the floor phase today so we packed up and moved all the stuff out of the living room so we could use it for a staging area. My poor downstairs craft room is piled high.

This is the pile that we hopefully will rid ourselves of soon. It's the flooring pile that's been sitting in the downstairs all this time. We have the laminate flooring and all the tile we are supposed to put down in front of the door and on the landings. Boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff. I'll be glad when that's all used up and gone.

I was supposed to be chipping up the last little section of the old tile today only now we are in a state of limbo AGAIN because..............of the oven. I decided to do one last burn off at 400 degrees yesterday and after about 15 minutes the house filled up with those thick acrid fumes AGAIN. The day the technician came to change the fan he only turned it on for about 10 minutes at 350 and it seemed good to go. I was elated. BIG mistake. No one bakes for 10 minutes. The Mister spent the day screaming at the Frigidaire people who at this point really don't care and expect us just to live with it. The only solution seems to be is to take the loss and just have it hauled away and buy a new one. Sigh....

All that drama pretty much ruined the kitchen mojo so we took the rest of the afternoon off and went outside to get out of the fumes. It was the nicest day we've had in a long while. We got to see seagulls ice skating on the frozen creek down at the marina. 

The ice is very thin. It was in the 50's and sunny and it felt so good to get out. We even watched some crab boats unloading.  Kitchen smitchen. We'll figure it out.