Happy Easter! Plus Scoring Vintage Stuff & Some Age-Related Things

It's hard to believe that it's been almost a month since I blogged. A bunch of things have happened and Spring blew in the window during that time. My 57th (WHOOO!) birthday is upon me. I was born on the date that the Titanic struck the iceberg--go figure.

About three weeks ago I'd had enough of the frozen tundra and we took a Saturday trip to Renningers farmers market/flea market. It was a warmer, but blustery, pouring rain day from haites but we braved it anyway and lots of folks had taken their refuge there. I visited the "vintage booth lady" and the "fabric lady" and I garnered glass "feet" for my metal bed frame and three little tole trays (2 green, one red) and a lovely 50s-60s deep buttery yellow luncheon cloth with black/gold (actual metallic paint) butterflies and black/white dogwood on it and I had my usual pulled pork sandwich.

It always pays to talk to your vendor because I went to the first booth for the glass feet (used to stop furniture from "sliding") and she said she was out of them, but I bought the tole trays there. At the fabric booth I fell in love with the luncheon cloth, but couldn't say exactly what I'd come for. Then I explained I had wanted some glass feet and her eyes lit up...she had the smallish ones that I needed at 75 cents each!

I have posted two shots of the tablecloth and and additional shot of all three trays...the color is garish since these were taken with my phone...the colors are more muted in person and the greens are different, one minty and one olive-y. The brightly colored shot is of my "new" Vera daffodil sheets, appropriate for spring. They are percale and yummy to lay on, plus the print will perk you up! I suddenly love yellow and it's a long walk but not a mystery as to how I got there from greens, blues, and rose! I'll explain one day.

I have been neglecting the blog because I was having that all important "old-age" medical testing and although I intended to keep it quiet, the "cat-bag" was opened and I will just say that my first ever mamogram revealed an issue and I had to go back three times.

So I guess that I am fortunate that one of the doctors at my clinic pushed me to get it done because I was over 50! I had just had a physical three weeks ago and my organ functions and blood work were usual--very good overall but slightly high in the cholesteral area. Yep I always shock'em, because if you know me, I am short but not a tiny gal. However, there are big girls on the English side of my Mom's family--the Smith's on her paternal grandmother's side...so it seems to be more of an inherent tendency and can only be controlled ( abit) with lots of exercise and really watching that diet, and I tend to fall off that country wagon at times!

The Slovak, Austrian and German (my Mom's dad was German and English) folks I am decsended from all seemed to be of slim to average proportions...but I also think that some of this is related to readily available food sources and some genetic makeups that don't adapt well to getting hit with more food, less exercise AND the stress of modern life.

Anyway, all that I can say is...get the tests if you are supposed to. They have been after me for a while and but I was afraid of the big mamo machine...and now I have had to use it four times, anyway....!

Say a prayer for me and enjoy this beautiful Easter day...remember what it means.

More talk later,

Valerie ; )

Scary Places to Knit & Boy Could I Use a Sauna...

I never watch Grey's Anatomy reruns but I was channel surfing and I stopped because there was knitting going on.

Patrick Dempsey: "You're knitting in a bar."

Chick: " I'm making a sweater."

Bartender: "You can't knit in a bar, you're scaring the customers!"

It made me think about taking classes this fall. I was almost afraid to take knitting needles with me. Would they be banned? When classes were just about over, I took my sustainable hardwoods with me. Only good to do battle with vampires!

Recently I read a piece and the author stated that knitting began about seven hundred years ago. My understanding is that archeologists have found linen socks knitted in Egypt that go back several thousand years. Also, I once found a picture of a sweater dug up somewhere in France that was dated to arounf 700 A.D.! I have read some fairly recent publications that state that sweaters "as we know them" did not exist until the late part of the nineteenth century; again, seamen wore sweaters long before they became a fashion statement. Since this textile form existed in many societies in slightly different forms, I think it will be hard to say where it actually began. Wouldn't it be fascinating to know the exact moment when someone said " we'll tie knots in this and make a garment"?

I haven't been posting because my neck and shouldrs have "tightened" up; I'm guessing it has to do with the weather changes...

More talk later...!

Woke Up to Visions (c) of Italy-Southern Style...! Vintage Patterns...

I was up very early and could not sleep. When I finally started dozing, I had on the Public Broadcasting Station and they we showing a video that I had seen before...although I never knew what it was called. It is Visions (c) of Italy-Southern Style, which is sold as part of a two DVD set and can be bought with Visions (c) of Sicily. Breathtaking!

I have wanted to visit Tuscany and the Amalfi coast for many years and a while ago I realized that my fascination likely relates to almost two years spent in the Azores Islands as a child. I understand that although the political climate has changed (Portugal, the parent country, was Socialist for more than thirty years) and financially things are much better, the Islands are still a quiet destination for vacationers and little has changed in the more than fifty years since we lived there.

I recall picking fresh peas from our house-helper's garden at their cottage by the beach (one bedroom with a large dining-living area and a lean-to kitchen) and speaking in Portugese to the peddlers, bullfights (the Portugese do not kill the bulls), festivals, puppies, beef roasts on a spit, riding around the island and stopping at a bar and getting chocolate shaped like closed parasols with a plastic covering printed like lace and foil underneath and a plastic handle sticking out. Chocolate is a BIG deal over there! I remember more often we got long dark bars of it in different shades of bright foil.

I will finish this post when I have more thoughts...anyway, the Visions (C) series is nice to relax or sleep to...according to the folks at PBS I'm not alone in doing that!

By the way I scored about five jumper patterns and two blouse patterns on line very inexpensively...gotta love Ebay and Etsy! Spring clothes are coming...hopefully my sewing machine is okay or I will need to borrow one. Someone was mean to mine!

Talk more later...

Valerie

After Days...My Mind on The Down-Low

I was going to title this submission " After Days of Overstimulation..." but it sounded so wierd!

My mind has been going 100 miles per hour and I have been designing a spring wardrobe in my head (SEWN, of course!) AND house projects all the while trying to give away, donate and declutter for SPRING-I do believe it is coming!

This is typical of me, especially when I have been cooped up too long with bad weather and without somewhere to go on a daily basis. This is the personality trait that makes me a dynamo in the workplace. I am a creature of order, after all!

I am getting all sorts of creative ideas but I feel downed from all of the snow, etc. I did add a new blog to follow--check them out: "Young House Love" which is a site that a young couple with a new bungalow put up. They share their crafty ideas and such. The submission I ran into shows their conversions of a worn mid-century modern dresser into a shaker-look dresser in their new nursery. They made it "funner" by adding colorful papers to the inner drawers (Modge-Pogge-d in) as they just over-stained the outside and painted the top white. If a pad was added it would double as a dressing table!
By the way, the pic is of my grandkid #1.

I will talk later since someone needs the PC now...

Valerie

Some VERY Bad Things & PCs That are Ded and Dedder

Okay. So it seems the "web problems" that I was having were because I either: picked up a virus while surfing the web OR because I attempted to shut down malware/virus and it had started downloading (according to my bro, who is my resident web-tech).

Fortunately, other than my now dedder (deader) PC...well, it's dying, we have another PC that's pretty old,the ded one (dead). The issue with the dedder one is that it is nearly impossible to download anything but small files (he managed to save my word-related files) and my music, which I've had for years, is now GONE. He is now trying to figure out how he will clean of the hard drive to reload it and says possibly the drive, and old one he'd given me, is damaged as well. (UPDATE: 3/4/2010: the "saved files" are damaged, too!)

I haven't been knitting for two days as I am preoccupied with other things and right now I am in Regency Mode. Yesterday I watched the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen's heroines always have such complicated un-love lives...they don't know how the hero feels, they aren't sure whom they want, or they have more than one failed liason, or more than one of them has a scandal, and there are always busybodies in the pot. I just love the scene where Elinor Dashwood's skanky sister-in-law physically attacks Lucy Steele when she realizes that the monetarily poor girl has been secretly engaged to her brother Edward Ferrars for five years! Feathers actually fly!

I personally would like to attend a Jane Austen week at least once. I am confident that I can save a bundle by making my own clothes as I used to do a lot of sewing. I am just less patient than I used to be. Plus I have a 20-yard bolt of brown polyester grosgrain fabric bought for $1.00 a yard that is waiting for a life as something else!

Here is a good Regency costume/pattern link: http://www.lostcoasthistpatterns.com/seandseregop.html

More talk later!

Valerie

A-drift AT My Door and a Cold-Day Casserole

Got up this morning to more of the white, wet, stuff and when I wanted to open the door on the grocer's porch (an old-fashioned contrivance from a time when a delivery boy would actually bring your groceries TO you) the space between the back door and the storm door (both 110 years old) had 18 inches of snow blown between them. I scooped it out with a plastic Santa Claus cookie platter and forced the door open. Welcome to a glittery wet mess!

The wind was the worst of it last night and the kitty, Miss Americanna , was very content to sleep in my front bedroom on the corduroy quilt and suck up all the warmth (supplemental heat) while the wind howed and whistled between the houses. There was an occasional bang just for sheer relief!

I don't have today's pictures but as soon as I get some I will post them here. Meanwhile I made a favorite cold-day treat, Pierogie Casserole. This version uses a red cheese and marinara sauce with mild cheddar cheese and some green and yellow wax beans. This is not to be confused with wonderfully nutritious food because there are two starches, the pasta and the potatoes and the pierogies are commercially bought, but it's very yummy. You can add 1/2 pound of lean ground beef pre-cooked OR vegetarian crumbles if you wish, layered between the pierogies.

Need: Two boxes of pierogies. I prefer Mrs T's sour cream, potato and chives. An 8 ounce bag of grated mild cheddar cheese. A jar of sauce-I use a cheese blend flavor. 1 and 1/2 cups of frozen mixed green and yellow wax beans...I boil these with the pierogies for 8 minutes and drain. In the proper size of greased (use margarine)casserole dish, layer pierogies, 1/2 of the beans, 1/2 of the sauce and then 1/2 of the cheese. Shake a small amount (1/4 tsp.) over each layer as you go. Bake at about 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. Do not let get too brown. I try to serve the pierogies whole and this size will feed about six people, so half a recipe will feed about three people. It is good with a salad on the side and we sometimes use cheese ravioli instead. It is best to use italian grated cheeses then!

This is a very-stick to the ribs meal and isn't something that I make every week! We also make a white sauce version that I will share on another day!

Talk more later!

Deal With It, It's Called Cinema...The Austen of It All..Critique on A Critique of 90's Dressing...and "Greencard"

*By the way, the Andie MacDowell photo is credited to Touchstone Pictures.

(This is the moment when Georges tells her he must think of a good reason to say why he's in love with her!)

Bronte: " It can't be that hard to think of a reason!"

Georges:" Ah, I begin to hear music again! That's It."

Yesterday I was perusing the 'net because I was having sooo many problems with Firefox and I came across a column by Hadley Freeman of the Guardian in the U.K. , dated September 2009. The reader was questioning why fashion was so bad in the 1990s quoting that she found her self watching "Green Card" which debuted in 1990 and starred Andie MacDowell and Gerard Depardieu, along with Bebe Neuwirth. It is hard to realize this movie is now twenty years old!

Personally I love this movie. Although Andie had a few rough scenes, particularly the one where she is denoucing George for touching her things (which sounds like a irate but well-memorized tirade since she doesn't manage to convey her hurt). For the most part this ensemble piece was well portrayed.

I am a Depardieu fan, enough said, and I think Bebe Neuwirth is a genius as her bohemian actress best friend. The lovely Lois Smith plays her mother and a wonderful Conrad McLaren played her Dad, a novelist who named all six of his children after famous authors, including Bronte and Austen. Not to mention the wonderful "Miss Bird", a tiny terrorist who harrasses everyone into conformity with her black umbrella.

The particular outfit that was questioned was the loose, khaki-green jumper that Ande wears to Central Park on Sunday afternoon. There were actually two jumpers of this color worn in the movie: a dropped-waist number when the immigration agents first visit, and then the button-front job. Hmmn, a trend here? Actually pretty cutting edge in 1990, these jumpers are a reflection of the character's personality, not a fashion statement of the times. Ms. Freeman responded that there was "no taste" in the '90s but I think she missed a major point, which is craft service and character dressing-a big part of cinematography.

Bronte is supposed to be a late-thirty-ish master gardener who has a high-profile job with the New York City Parks Department, hence the funds to purchase a one-bedroom roof-top flat with an art-deco garden and a terrace in a charming old New York building. She has no television, listens to classical music and own scads of belongings that are vintage..."Shabby Chic" but in dark woods instead of white, but still lots of pastels. She owns one thing that is brand-new: an Ikea lamp.

All of this sets the stage for her self-controlled life. She's had plenty of chances, but never married. She has a long-time boyfriend who never gets invited in. A few years ago I happened upon an interview with MacDowell in which she said that Bronte was "fat" and "didn't care about her looks". Well, I disagree. Looking at the character motive, I would say that Bronte is very self-conscious. She is a determined vegetarian, doesn't drink caffeine or eat fat, and no one could ever think a character that McDowell played was fat! Jules and I were aghast at that remark.

So the looser, garden-toned clothes that she was put into reflect the organic gardener in her character and I will input that about this time the books of Jane Austen had a resurgeance in popularity since period movies were en vogue (E. M. Forster's Room with A View, Howard's End, the Austen books, etc.). I am including a cropped shot from a Jane Austen Convention so that the styles from that period are notable.

Most women had at least one of these dresses in the mid-to-late '90s: an empire- waisted concoction made of tiny checked or floral polyester that were near ankle length. Some had the vest, which also was a hallmark of the Regency Era (1795-1830 roughly). It would have looked funny to wear the Spencer, a jacket with long sleeves that barely covered the bossom, or a basket bonnet, so the fashions of the 90s included floppy straw sun hats and camp shirts, worn with flats.

If you look back on sewing-pattern fashion you will find variations on the Regency jumpers and blouses. A lot of women, including myself at times, wear this look because it is comfortable, even in the heat! I found it funny that the notion that they were discussing is a movie, not real life, totally escaped the writer. Most of the other clothing in that movie appears to be normal, even classic. As a foil to Bronte's gardener outfits Depardieu's character, Georges, wore only black or black/white throughout the film, except for one scene when they were taking photos and he was in farmer jeans (so apropos and just about the time Bronte was warming up to him).

Well, I need a second cup of java now! I tend to not want to criticize just for the sake of doing it, but intellectualizing CAN BE FUN!

Oh, and if you've never seen it...do. I didn't see it until it was on television!

More talk LATER! For fun "Austen" reading see the LINK BELOW-

NEW book, an Austen Parody: " Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,books/products_id,7847/title,Pride-and-Prejudice-and-Zombies/

Piecework Magazine's Historical Knitting Issue, Glass Lamp Parts & Saying Goodbye to Pain Holistically...

I am going to talk about Piecework Magazine' s Historical Knitting Issue, finally! I received a copy and it has several great articles, including a wonderful story on a Latvian Mitten artist and a woman who survived the Polish Ghetto during WWII because of her knitting skills. You will be surprised to learn what she and her friends received as payment for a finished garment!

Also, there are some additional articles on a mitten found in England during an excavation plus a knit stocking found from the same time period, plus patterns to re-create them! Looking over my inital free copy I was reminded of moving into my Grammy's house after she passed away in 1965.

My mother let me have all of the 1920s-1930s Family Circle Magazines (pristine condition, 10 or 15 cents an issue) that we found in boxes in the basement; knitting needles and yarn (mulberry and kelly, unraveled), a tatting shuttle and rug braiding cones that I found. I had started knitting four years before so this really fueled my textile obsession. By the time I was fourteen I was sewing my clothes and picking apart old clothes to make new ones.

I came up with some doozies...a poet's blouse that I died forrest green worn with alternately a cream or orchid dirndl skirt with a fringed tie belt, made from someone's old coctail dresses; a plaid mini skirt worn with black tights and a cossack wrap shirt that I made from an old cranberry paisley shirt of my dad's, short-puffed-sleeved red, blue, green and white plaid shirt made of shorts canvas worn with jeans, a pair of "hot pants" (yes!) made of grey and yellow ticking fabric, with a shoulder strap design that made me look like I belonged in the Alps; a long Hindu-paisley gown (Vogue pattern) made of some cotton upolstry fabric that used up most of my babysitting money which I wore on a school trip to New Hope, PA, and much more.

I wanted to go to art school and was accepted, but it didn't happen. So I make natural stone jewelry when I have the money and/or the time and I am constantly painting up furniture, etc. Today and yesterday I have been cleaning lamp parts from glass lamps bought cheap on Ebay or in thrift shops years ago (seven??? According to the paper it was wrapped in.).

A little dish soap (plain Palmolive) and 1/3 cup of white vinegar in warm water makes them shine! I know that Rachel Ashwell preferes amonia but this works great too...just see the pic and decide which looks cleaned! Next week I will buy new workings, fairly inexpensive on a site that I found, grandbrass.com, and new cords (Home Depot) are always a must (safety AND looks), and at least eight feet long. The ones that I picked are silver-y so I am replacing the grungy metal or plastic parts with nickel-plate (the chrome IS expensive).

So much for the fun stuff. For four days last week I was suffering from stomach issues. Some of it is hereditary and some is age, the rest is eating the BAD stuff. I was so bad the other night and then I finally realized that I wasn't using my holistic techniques to help my issues. I would never promise complete relief, but I can control the severity...I used to use biofeedback (I found this out later) methods to handle TMJ fifteen years ago...it was pretty much ruining my quality of life then until I decided I'd had enough!

So the last two evenings I've gone up stairs and put on music (the dollar-store relaxtion cds work fine) and done what is know as Reiki or Chakra Healing. The first night I fell asleep halfway through but woke up feeling much better and I had some energy. Last night I got through the meditation while listening to Paint The Sky With Stars (Enya) and felt 75% better, with no more pain and more energy. It did help that I also increased my water intake (very important). Studying nutrition you will find out how important it is! I also: cut back on my coffee intake and stopped eating crapola. So I am on the mend and I must remember to treat my body well! Everyone has something (I hope) that works for them...this works for me and even gets rid of my unusual migrane headaches! I just wanted to share the thoughts...

More talk later!

Sunday AM Brunch Recipes

The cup in the picture was a Christmas gift from my sister Michele about four years ago and used to alternate with my poinsetta mug at my desk when I worked in a busy office. All that I had was my mug and a picture of my grand daughter! This was Saturday am and I had applebutter with cream cheese on rye bread (my Grammy's favorite) on my favorite green plate.


Sunday morning brunch was so yummy...an italian 4-cheese fritatta and breakfast apple cake. Both of these are much easier that they sound. The fritatta is made with eggs, cheese, and leftover pasta and/or vegetables so there is no chopping! The cake I devised because my daughter came home very late from work the night before with a craving for it.

The next morning I wasn't feeling so great (stomach issues) so I decided to improvise! I usually cook breakfast on Sunday mornig since we are all at home. The fritatta I'd made before with some success.

Fritatta:
It's easy. You need a 10 inch skillet...although two would make it easier. Take leftover pasta (spoon sized) and vegetables and mix with five beaten eggs. About 1 cup of pasta is all you need...I used 1 1/2 cups this time. I also took 1 cup of frozen spinach and defrosted it and added it in because I was short on vegetables. Left over, de-seeded tomatoes are great too, as well as unsalted tomato chunks from a can! Add one cup of shredded italian four cheese blend (or your choice) and season to taste. I add pepper, garlic powder, marjoram, and sage...just a dash of each. Mix the cheese and seasonings in well. Fresh herbs from the garden are wonderful in season.

Heat up your skillet really well, on low. I use either an iron or a non-stick but I add 1/3 cup of oil to the pan and work it up the sides a bit. Make sure to let it heat a bit or your food will stick.

Turn the ingredients into your pan and spread it out but don't press it down. Let it cook about three minutes but check the underside and once it is golden brown and the ingredients are partially cooked, it is time to flip it over! For this you need either another skillet or a large flat plate, in which case you will be flipping it twice.
Before the contents go back into your original pan, I suggest adding another 1/3 cup of oil. If you are using an additional pan just oil it as you did the first one. Line up your pans or pan and plate and using a towel or potholders, flip! This is that so both sides are browned. This is an additional two to four minutes on this side. It should be firm.

Let sit about five minutes and depending on the type of pan, you can cut and serve, or turn onto a plate to do it. This makes enough for four to six people depending on the size of the wedges.

My Apple Breakfast Cake:

Assemble: White cake mix, water, small bag of walnut pieces, ground cinnamon, 2 eggs, ½ cup margarine. Luck Leaf Apple Pie Filling (no spiced fillings) and brown sugar (small amount). I skipped the oil buy mistake and the cake was fine. Add the 1/3 cup of oil back in or add 1/3 cup plain applesause if you would like a moister cake, although this is fine and not dry.

Mix the cake. I use 2 whole eggs instead of the required egg whites. Use an 8x8 or 8x9 pan. Melt most of the margarine in the bottom of the pan (don't brown it) while preheating the oven. Remove, let sit while mixing the cake. Grease side of pan with margarine, then dust pan bottom with ground cinnamon(over melted margarine) and then with 2-3 tablespoons brown sugar.

Now cover pan bottom with one layer of chopped walnuts. Now take 12-16 apple slices from the filling and place in rows horizontally across the pan bottom. Fold rest of filling into the cake mix. Then fold batter gently into pan. The 8x8 will be very full but this is ok. Bake at 350 degrees until top is golden brown, making sure that a fork or toothpick comes out mostly clean.Make sure that you scoop up the topping (on the bottom of the pan) when you serve this. It is not overly sweet and is breakfast, brunch, or tea-worthy!

This was a big hit, and it is GONE! If you need a bigger cake double your ingredients and use a 9X13 pan.

More Talk Later!

MUD, and Talking to the Grandkids is Like Having an Adult Conversation

So, Miss H declined breakfast at home yesterday...I suppose she thought she'd get something yummy here. She had half a Pop-tart and when I told her that I had a bagel with cream cheese and apple butter she informed me that she "loves bagels and cream cheese". Let me give a little perspective on these conversations because she was six before Christmas and her brother is newly three.

Looking into the small container of whipped cream cheese she informed me that it didn't look like I had too much left. I reminded her of our favorite diner treat, as of October-a grilled sticky bun-and she hinted (not too mildly) that she would like to try the lunch there!

Her brother, Master B, checked out the big mirror hanging inside the door and asked me why I put it there. I explained that sometimes people who are tall enough like to check their looks coming in or leaving. He accepted that. Is this his way of questioning my need to decorate?

Saturday night Miss H informed me at dinner that she was concerned about tornados because they "happen a lot". I assured her that they are uncommon in this part of the country but I was not aware that she had written a report on them for school! Hence the BIG worries about tornados.

The cat saw them come in and wisely took off, much like a tornado, and spent the rest of the day upstairs hiding. she came down in the evening and gave Ed and the couch a good sniffing (no doubt making sure that he smelled normal-for him) finally assured that the kids were gone! Also she was freaked out by my previous cleaning rampage, so I saw little of her today...

I mopped most of the porch four or five times yesterday with vinegar water. I was sooo sick of mud being tracked in on the wood floors! And it's still a little muddy and it's snowing...AGAIN!

Talk later!

Food Advice from the Croc, Purple Haze, and a very Beatle-y Afternoon

So I am up at 3 am and eating crapola. it's hormonal, I am sure. I have been off my healthy routine for days. I had my two grandkids today and gave up any idea of a healthier lunch for them, except the globe grapes! We had chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and Beefaroni with shells and meatballs since they couldn't decide (I bought everything but the grapes especially for them)! I promised to show Miss H where the grapes came from (Peru) and forgot so I must send a link to her Dad.

Sitting here I started thinking about when I was in my very early twenties and I worked in a garment factory. I had two friends and we would routinely dine at my apartment on chocolate Pop-tarts, a round of gouda cheese, and coffee. As Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) says: "It tastes like s#%t but you can live on it"!

Sunday Ed and I went to Mickey D's (shocker!) because I'd been cleaning all day and I didn't want to mess up the kitchen and we had to go to the store plus we were all hungry. He really hates the drive through so he went in. It was just after dusk.

Looking up at the sky I realized that it was a very unusual shade of purple-eggplant- and the cloud cover was violet! By the time Ed got back the sky was mostly cloudy and I could not begin to explain what I'd seen. I had my cell phone but it never captures the finer stuff.

I suppose it was just one of those situations...you are in the moment and it has an effect on you and it is meant just for you. This sounded so much better in my head! The picture is not it, it's freeware and what I saw was a very deep color. Mesmerizing!

The kids wanted to do "crazy dancing" and I decided to go to Youtube for some music and discovered that there is a TON of Beatle music on there. I t took me back as there are many songs that I know by heart and loved. Plus Miss H plays "The Beatles" with her Dad, so the afternoon that I expected to spend knitting dissolved into a music search...which was okay.

I am tired now but it was fun...

Talk Later!

A Nice Lunch and a Big Fall...

I hit the Salvation Army shop looking for matching lamps today...got no lamps but found a very unusual bathsheet done in a 60s-70s 2-D terry in white and gold, made to look like a field of white flowers..one side had an oval with roses woven in it. Will it be a chair pillow or bedpillows?

Headed over to the bookshop and had a quiet deli lunch in the attrium, then home. The sun was blinding but the crosswalks were slushy on the cobblestones. At home I hit the ice on the sidewalk just right and I was rewarded with an ungraceful fall on my face! I hurt my right knee and was shook up, but I think I may have fixed a pinched nerve in my left shoulder...although I don't recommend this method.

I couldn't hit my favorite haunts there because of a late start but lunch was nice...and quiet. I discovered a book of poems, Ode to Orpheus, by Rainer Maria Rilke and found a copy on Half.com for 1/3 of the price...so I now have a new poet to read...

Talk Later!

Storm Number Three and the Lorelai Fingerless Mitt

We have BIG snow this morning and there is more coming in blizzard fashion between 1 and 4 pm! I am posting a pic of the snow this morning plus a pic of the fingerless mitt that I promised in my first post. It has a sewn-in thumb piece and stockingnette openings so you can uncover the fingers or cover them, as you wish. I named it the Lorelai after the "Gilmore Girls" character...
It is not all basketwave design...there is a purled "band" in the middle...eventually a scarflet and some type of hat will be added. The cuff extends 3 inches above my wrist so these are warm! It is designed so neither mitt is right or left, you just put them on and go! I have more crafting time right now than I normally do. Later...!

Stay Warm! More Snow Coming...***

As I started the front left side of Miss H's cardigan I ran into trouble. I thought I understood the command "SL" but got very confused and started THREE times before I got it. I had to look up what "SL purl wise" meant. What that stitch does is create a lovely channel that runs along the front edge of the sweater where the zipper will be sewn to the inside edge. See the pics! i need a camera, these are from my phone...the color is not the best...

Wow! The media is going crazy over the impending white stuff. I remember living in Ohio in the 60s. We would get drifts that would cause school to be canceled and our garages would be drifted shut. And the winter of 93-94 when we were slammed every week with snow and an ice storm almost every weekend! I read the entire Anne of Green Gables series that winter and taught my self to quilt (pillow fronts).

Well, it will be interesting...everyone stay safe and warm! the scenic pic is the day AFTER the last snowstorm. I am not crazy about the picture layout and i am trying to fix it...

A Blizzard Happened! Knit time...

We had a BIG snowfall here, with the ususal stuff: folks who go out when they don't need to, festival pushed back, etc. The skiers are in heaven! We are in the heart of a giant valley here, surrounded by mountains with lots of trees in Pennsylvania. "Penn's Woods"...how apropriate...Since 1996 we haven't had more than a few snowstorms a year, being protected by the mountains so we are due! We've had lots of the white stuff this year!

We actually live less than two blocks from the mountain now, as I can tell when a storm comes! It sounds like our slate roof will fly off and our lady cat, Merry, hides.

I spent part of the early morning Saturday working on my spunky (6 year-old Spiderman fan) grand daughter's sweater, a cardigan that gets a hand-sewn-in zipper in Red Heart's Pink Camo Multi (pics to follow). I like children's sweater because they knit up sooo quickly! The sweater is from Knitsimple magazine's Fall 2009 issue, the girl's sweater with the split "bows" on the front of it.

I call this blog " A Little Knit of This and That" since I always have projects going (when I am not stitching on canvas instead). My mind is always going in 10 directions and I wish I could slow that down...once I convert the middle upstairs room to a computer space I am going to hang my "projects" up and give them table space! My last "little" project was a LONG fingerless mitt designed in a basketweave knit, with a division. The plan is to make a matching scarf, etc. It was done in a Livingquarters Fall Multi that I picked up at Walmart a few years ago (their brand).

The colors are jade and a sort of plum, very pretty. I haven't mastered double pointed needles yet, so this was knitted in one piece and I developed a thumb piece that is whip-stiched on. It is called the "Lorelai" after the "Gilmore Girls" character, since it is soooo colorful! It covers the wrist and goes up about 3 inches of the forearm on me and I have a habit of using stockingnette stich to create the "rollable" edges on both ends. This allows you to roll the front edge up to uncover the fingers, or roll it down for more coverage.