yarn for the go bag

Freshly wound yarn for the go bag for the next week.   I have been knitting like a mad woman to finish  dolls clothes for Christmas and two sweaters for nieces.  One was done and I gave it to her Thanksgiving time.  I just finished the other and can now start something for me!!  My yarn from Ireland. I told my nieces, the two who went to Ireland with us that if they bought the yarn I would knit them each a sweater but they missed the upstairs floor in the one shop that had the packages of yarn in every color.  The other tourist shops had odd bits of yarn and never enough of the color they wanted.  They are both at the age of enjoying the power surges so an Aran weight sweater would be peeled of at regular intervals. The offer was still on when we returned so I suggested Berocco remix light for a nice 3 season sweater they both chose yellow just like mine.  My fingers are just itching to get started but I need to finish one more little dance wrap.  --Ann--

For the Dollie’s

I have been knitting like crazy more doll clothes for the little girls.  The pink and turquoise match their sweaters click. I got doll clothes for my Dollie’s for Christmas when I was little. My mom sewed them and many matched the clothes she sewed for me. I still have them but really didn’t feel like finding the box they are in and then I would have noticed they are probably wrinkled and would have needed washing and ironing and well one thing is going to lead to another…..I had such a wonderful childhood I only had two dolls. 

Merry Christmas

Ann

Santa‘s elf has been busy

 This elf has been busy………..just one more ballet wrap to knit and a giraffe tail……these were a challenge to knit mostly because knitting instructions are not standardized and the designer wrote a book with patterns for 12 animals the designer knew exactly how to assemble and finish the animals but did not explain it thoroughly enough for me, a few more pictures would have been nice.  Everything was knit flat and seamed if I had read the instructions more thoroughly I never would have purchased the book.  When I did go through the instructions line by line I decided I could knit most everything in the round thanks to what I learned from the bears and dolls I knit a couple years ago. They did turn out really cute!! Seven more sleeps before we meet the little girls.

Merry Christmas Ann

Cookie crumbles

 

Baking with the little girls today, sugar stamp cookies. They did a fantastic job rolling the dough into balls. The last time we made them they rolled the dough into snakes. Then they smashed the balls with the cookie stamps. And gramma cleaned up the floor again. However there were fewer crumbs than the biscotti I made earlier in the week  the crumbs will be good on ice cream. —Ann—

Preparations

“That was fun to play with the little girls last week.”                                                                                     “I wish they could have stayed longer.”                                                                                                     “Me too I was bored sitting on the bookshelf.”                                                                                               “ This will be cozy and warm while we hibernate”                                                                                 “Who can sleep with all these lights?”                                                                                                             “ I like the lights.”                                                                                                                                                   “ I can’t sleep can you move your knee out of my back?”                                                                               “ Hush it’s only for a month maybe she will read the story about the baby born in a manger. That’s what it’s all about remember?”                                                                                                                         “What about that other guy I mean other guys who took over the bookshelves.”                                       “He’s part of Christmas too but it all started with the baby in the manger”.       

Preparations for Advent:  hope, peace, love and joy —Ann—

December!!

 December is here!! The Thanksgiving turkey is gone.  The Christmas tree is up………time to make my list……..Ann

It started

 

The snow strayed like sifted sugar the snowflakes are getting bigger and more are falling but they are all just falling I could spend the rest of the day gazing out the window with a cuppa something hot……. Kids are coming today there is much to do…….

Happy Thanksgiving and hope the weather doesn’t hinder your plans. —Ann—

Rainy day and sewing

 

Playing with blocks on a rainy day in the sewing room.  So glad it isn’t snowing!! —Ann—

Sewing yesterday!

I sewed yesterday for the first time since………it’s been a while……..first I cleaned and oiled my machine then the hum and the purrrrrrr….just sewing 3 1/2 inch half square triangles for about an hour then I went for a walk. The wind wasn’t blowing the leaves weren’t falling they were just laying there and so many colors. —Ann—

Reading list #4

1. The Harp and the Rose by Jean Grainger book 3 of the Queenstown series
2. Roaring Liberty by Jean Grainger book 4 of the Queenstown series
3. The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny for book club murder mystery 
4. Book of Ages  The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin  by Jill Lepore biography and letters written by Jane Franklin to her brother Benjamin Franklin. Some letters were just cheery letters from home, others were her viewpoints on the revolutionary war and society or social issues of the time. The author made a point of how boring history can be to read depending on the viewpoint of the writer, she also went on to say that historical fiction can give the reader more insight into how people actually lived in a particular place and time a more realistic history.
5. Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen a more appropriate title might be the Lies I Read in History Books.  The author tells how publishers have sanitized, sugar coated and whitewashed American history so as not to offend anyone and age appropriateness for the students.  It was a tough book to read because it did tell how Columbus actually treated the natives and how the new comers brought disease which wiped out whole tribes, and that all presidents before Lincoln had been slave owners. The book also went on to say how similar history textbooks are from one publisher to another and how history is rewritten from one decade to the next because of how attitudes of the public have changed.
6. The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt nonfiction about the women who worked for Walt Disney in the early years of animation to present day. I want to watch Snow White, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Dumbo again. And all the others too. The women didn’t get the recognition they deserved. The technology of the feature length animations was groundbreaking at the time. Fantasia was the first surround sound movie. 
7. A Time for Mercy  by John Grisham for book club lots of details about lawyers preparing their defense and tricks to dsitract the prosecutor.  Very interesting but also long I needed a break from it after every few chapters. 
8. The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams just for fun I needed a cozy mystery after four very serious books.
9. Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay contemporary story about two sisters one a chef and the other dealing with cancer with lots of references to Jane Austen books because she was their mother’s favorite author. 
10. The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict story takes place in England in 1930’s. Characters were real people, six sisters, a couple were fascinated by fascism and communism. A new perspective for me about what was happening in Europe leading up to WW2. 
11. The Evolution of Annabel Craig by Lisa Grunwald fiction but based on real people and events of 1925 when teaching evolution and creation as learned in the Bible went to court in Dayton, Tennessee. Annabel Craig is 23 years old, married to a lawyer and a self taught photographer who sits in on the trial taking photos. Very good. 
12. Desolation Mountain by William Kent Krueger #17 of the series another thriller. 
13. The Devil’s Bed by William Kent Krueger one of his earlier books, a political thriller.
14. The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay for book club we read this a couple years ago and everyone had forgotten the characters and plot.  The only thing I remembered was the head of staff at the Braithwaite House in Bath, England grew up in the house.  None of us at book club were fans of Jane Austen and hadn't read any of her books since high school.
15. Pride and Predjudice by Jane Austen I tried reading it but only got 1/3 through it.  I don't understand the infatuation with her books.  There just isn't any action in the plot especially after reading William Kent Krueger books.

My no time to sew summer has turned into a no sew fall but these lovely summer like days I have spent on the deck reading or walking instead of downstairs in the sewing room. Time in the sewing room will come when fall turns to winter.  We haven't had rain here since August the weatherman was predicting a drab autumn because it is dry but mother nature had other ideas. This is the prettiest autumn ever and the leaves are still hanging tight. Some maples are a brilliant red others are red, orange, copper, yellow, gold and green all at once.  The colors are in layers with green closest to the trunk. Everyday they are a little more orange and red and someday soon the wind will blow from the north and bring a hard hard frost and all the trees will disrobe until spring and then I will cozy up with a book and a quilt or go to my sewing room. --Ann--

Small screen

 

Last week I posted about missing the big stuff because I’m looking at the small screen. Sometimes you need to look at the small screen to see the big sky with the northern lights. It looked like an ordinary dark night on the prairie but DD sent a couple pics from Aberdeen, SD ninety miles away of the northern lights so I went out to look too, all I saw was whites streaks in the northern sky, shimmer it’s called but with the camera in my phone I shot some color. The white foreground is from the neighbors exterior lights which they never turn off!—Ann—

Posing together

That’s as good as it gets for them posing together.  Now we just need October weather to arrive so they can wear their new sweaters. Miss M was really not unhappy here it was just the picture that wasn’t a blur, she can change expressions so fast.  Miss O was also captured in a brief pause in the fading evening light.  Cooler days are coming and I knit hugs into every stitch.  —Ann—

 

Just life

A perfect morning coffee on the deck, a cozy sweater, a sunny clear morning and almost no wind and knitting on my lap. Pheasants were crowing. Robins were gathered to discuss their departure date and flight plan.  Then my coffee was gone and I was sad so I went for a walk. Walking releases endorphins which makes you happy. Later I went outside again to read. I watched a flock of pelicans fly over in a perfect V formation where was my phone to take a picture?!? They turned and came back I grabbed my phone from inside quick to get a picture. I couldn’t find them in the frame. The pelicans were changing position in a very organized manner. How much do we miss because we are looking at the little screen instead of the big one?? —Ann—
 

Sweaters

 

I’m working on sweaters for the little girls. The yarn did not come from Ireland, I love knitting wool but this Berroco Remix Light is more practical for little girls.  It’s machine wash and dry!! Madeline is always a card in front of the camera. Olivia was not interested that day.  The pattern is Harvester by Elyssa Samatha Taylor, super easy front and back are the same no shoulder shaping so they won’t ever put it on backwards. And I just knit stockinette instead of garter stitch in the sleeves. Ann

Do overs

This post is old news.........I have been working on this sweater off and on all summer. I finished the first sleeve a few days ago then on to the second……everything was going smoothly I was on a roll a veritable knitting machine until I laid the second sleeve on top of the first, it was a few rows short. Do I knit a few extra rows to even them up, no, I tried it on, the second sleeve was tighter than the first.  Thinking back I could feel the caffeine in my fingers the day I knit 12 of the 4 row decrease repeats. So I ripped back and started over, I was knitting noticeably looser like I drank 2 glasses of wine but I didn’t then I noticed a mistake so I needed to rip a few rows. I laid sleeve 2 on top of sleeve one again to compare, without the needles in the sleeve the comparison was more accurate. Sleeve two was over an inch wider then sleeve one! Rip again and put my big girl panties on and do it right this time.  Knit firm but not tight. Well I ripped two more times—those do overs only involved a few knitted rows but still picking up 98 stitches but for someone who is numerically challenged…….I think I’ve got it now.  The yarn is a fingering Wool Addicts by Lang called Footprints it is 45% cotton, 42% wool and 13% nylon. It says superwash but my swatch shrank some. The pattern is Autumn Square by Hinterm Stein.  It has a little design detail, a square knit into the center of the garter stitch section in the upper bodice but each time I have gotten carried away with the simplicity of just knitting back and forth and missed the cue for starting the stockinette stitch for the square.  I like it without the square on my chest. Can't wait for cooler days to wear it. I did wear this sweater several days in Ireland.  --Ann--

Aran sweaters and yarn

 

We were on a tour so we went to lots of souvenier shops and just about all of  them were selling Aran sweaters many were machine knit I don't know if the machines in the top two pictures are knitting machines or what but what caught my eye was all the colors of yarn. Years ago Aran sweaters were either the natural cream or brown or dark gray now they area available in all colors.  I wish I had taken a picture of the many colored sweaters.  The kids sweaters were so much fun but all too small for my little granddaughters and I want the fun of knitting for them.  The sweater on the stand was hand knit as were all the sweaters behind the shoulder in that picture.  The shop at Blarney sold packages of yarn and I'm so glad I bought a package there because all the other shops sold odd balls and skeins, all of it Aran weight and seldom enough of one color to knit a sweater.  I will have 3 or 4 extra skeins. This is the same yarn that I knit last (click) winter but with a different label they even had the exact same color.  A pullover or a cardigan??  --Ann--

Ireland

 It’s been 6 weeks ago that we went on a tour to Ireland. The we was me and hubby, son, hubbie's two nieces with their hubbies and son.  The tour started in Dublin, hubby, son and I were a day late getting there because weather canceled our flight actually it was because weather backed up flights and our flight crew would have been on overtime and airline would have to pay a big fine. We rescheduled our flights drove home then back to the airport bright and early the next morning.  The trip was great after we got there. We spent a few hours at Glendalough which is like a national park with two lakes, trails to hike and the round tower and chapel ruins. There are ruins of stone churches and houses everywhere. We went to St. Patrick's Rock, Cashel dating back to 12th and 13th centuries. Blarney Castle was another stop once you start up the stone spiral stairs there is no turning back (absolutely no room to turn around) son got in position to kiss the Blarney stone, I did not.  I told the guide his grandmother kissed it in 1952 and they didn't have thick rubber mats to lay on then or a spray bottle of disinfectant.  Son didn't get backwards far enough to kiss the stone and didn't feel gipped.  Blarney Castle had information boards that explained the rooms and castle life.  There were also beautiful botanical gardens.  The scenery was beautiful and so green.  We toured the Ring of Kerry which is a scenic loop around a peninsula on the western coast and saw the Cliffs of Moher on a sunny day and the Burren then the clouds came in again.  The joke in Ireland is we had summer last Tuesday between 1 and 3. We had more nice weather than rainy.  --Ann--

Herbal tea in the morning

 

Herbal tea in the morning just doesn’t get me going like a good cup of black coffee.  How could I make such a rookie mistake!?!?!

I’m not going to rip. Those will be my sheep in the mist in a glen in Ireland.

Enjoying my cup of coffee before I go back to the sewing machine.  Ann

It’s a little ditty pouch for recharger cords or knitting markers or little things you don’t want to loose in your purse like a nail clipper or dental floss.

Labor Day record

 

Reading weeks on my kindle since July 22, 2018

And reading days since Dec 8, 2021

And the streak continues……..Ann……