CATCH UP

Humulus

Sleeves yet to be knitted

Marcel

Second sleeve started

Vanilla Sock

Hyphen

Waiting on buttons ordered weeks ago

Quilt-Civil War Tribute

It has been awhile since I have posted, having no reason for not posting over the last month but perhaps laziness. 

November was spent at home doing a lot of knitting, quilting and binge watching of series, The Queen, A Place Called Home, The Spanish Queen, and The Queen's Gamit, Knitting Podcasts, with some long walks thrown in and only the necessary housekeeping. Staying in 99% of my time has a surreal effect on me, mornings running into evenings, then bed, only to do exactly the same the next day, ( I still have the same quarter tank of gas in my car that I had starting November 1.)  Yesterday, I did run to the library to return books in the outside return box, our libraries are closed again, having only curb side pick up available. Then I decided to pop into my LYS to quickly pick up a few more colors of Rauma yarn for a color work sweater I have in mind to knit. I was greatly disappointed that a couple came in and had their mask on only over their mouths, and the women kept siding up next to me to see what I had in my hands, all the while TALKING!  I kept moving further away from her, and she looked at me as if I was being the rude offensive one. I quickly paid and exited the shop, wondering, am I going to regret, (with my life), the purchase of yarn. I am constantly perplexed that people continue to fight wearing masks correctly or at all, what is the problem? After Yesterday, December looks to be more of November and the same quarter tank of gas in my car!

New to me Knitting Podcasts:

Stitching in Sweden

Knitting by the Sea

Knitting Traditions

Inspiration over at Kat and Giny

THOUGHT I WAS DONE....

Glorious SNOW came in and over 14 inches! It was cold, below zero cold and as 2020 would have it, our furnace was not working! We spent 36 under quilts with winter jackets on until the heating guy could get to us. Warm now!

I thought I was done 'putting up food' for winter but then this beautiful Hubbard pumpkin was on my counter. Hubbard pumpkins are BIG and make the best pumpkin pies, bar none! 

This smoke cloud was over the city for several days before the snow began to fall on Saturday night! 

So much destruction! 

Fall here in Northern Colorado has been a real trial. Few days spent out on trail walks, (or any walks), fall colors not seen, no Indian summer days experience, no savoring the last days before winter hibernation. 

Again, 2020, I am looking forward to seeing you in the rear view mirror!

CHICKENS and KNITTING

 

The week of October 19th thus far has been a slow week for me. 

We voted on Tuesday and have been checking on my ballot twice a day to see where it is in the system, no word that they have received it yet. I dropped it in the 'drop box' at the county building! As with many voters, I am anxious for this 'trump era' to end and get back to solving real problems that America has to address and now! 

Knitting: Marcel

 I am working up the right side of the cardigan. I know that once the body is done, I will be on sleeve island for awhile...ugh. 

Reading: In the Bleak of Winter

I started this book last year but never finished it and I don't know why, it has certainly grabbed my attention  reading it this time. 

Making: Ricotta Cheese

I loosely follow this recipe, using vinegar (not lemon juice), and more like 5-8 TBS. I use enough vinegar to get milk to curdle to cheese. Homemade ricotta is so much better than store bought, cheaper and you can freeze it.

Pictures of my daughters chickens and the littles carved pumpkins. 

Joining

Unraveled Wednesday with Kat

MONDAY, MONDAY

Monday, Monday…..

One finish knit, a pair of socks for Gus, Rainbow Socks as he calls them, ( they look funny in pic. but fit him and they make him happy).  I used left over yarn and I still have left over yarn!  Yarn, I believe like fabric scraps, reproduce in the bag. I try to use ‘left overs’ up and always end up with more ‘left overs’. Pondering this phenomenon is like pondering the Chicken and egg question, just put the scraps in a bag and walk away!

Second on the needles- is a pair of socks for my son who wears a 12-13 shoe..what am I thinking, except that he is knit worthy and I love him dearly.

Third, a sweater, Marcel for my husband. He picked out the yarn color from Harrisville Yarns. This yarn is lovely to knit with, feels like ‘real’ wool, a little sticky but not scratchy. The colors available from Harrisville are yummy. 

While I have been knitting, I have been watching:

Podcasts:

Stitched in Sweden- excellent. Covers both knitting and garment sewing.

Knitting By The Sea- excellent

Movies:

Chicago 7- very good with many parallels to politics we are seeing in 2020.

Chicago 7 is about the trial of 7 defendants vs the US government  and their right to engage in peaceful protest. The protest is during the 1968 Democratic National Convention that turned into a riot, in Grant Park, in front of the Conrad Hilton, where then Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey and the entire DNC Headquarters were located. 

Crazy thing, I was there! Not a protester, but in the Conrad Hilton at the DNC headquarters. My Dad thought it would be great for his children to watch history in the making. Took us all down to the Hilton, where we met Mr. Humphrey, ( I sat on his lap…weird), and several other DNC mucky mucks. We were up on the roof of the Hilton watching the protest, very peaceful, when to our horror all hell broke out. I remember it being difficult to get out of the city and being very frighten that we were going to be hurt. It was one of the few times I ever saw my mother truly scared. Dad got us out of the city by driving down more alleys, zigzagging our way through the loop. It was a history lesson I have never forgotten.

Remember 

VOTE

 

FIRE WEEK

above picture was taken over a week ago, last semi-smoke  free day for the next eight days.

Wednesday, Oct.15th. Cameron Peak fire exploded and moved quickly burning through 15 miles in a day. We had winds sustained in the mid-thirties and gusts 70+ MPH. 

Days like Wednesday are filled with anxiety. Friends up in Foothills that own homes, will those homes be there when this is all over? Nothing to do but wait and try to keep busy. I made beef bone broth, the broth I simmered for about 36 hours and then pressured canned my golden broth. It has been years since I have bought any bone broth, homemade is so much better with a real deep earthy taste. Also, it's a great way to use up dead end veggies. (that I throw in the freezer), and all the bones from meat we eat. Use it up or do without! 

Kids are playing in their new Halloween outfits! Since we will not be trick-or-treating this year, thought it would be fun to start a little celebration early this year. 

STAYING IN

Hyphen Sweater/Rios, Lettuce

Last week again due to COVID, ( numbers rising, we are now in 'high risk' ) and all the smoke from the fires, I stayed inside. It was a busy week though, I had some really good books-

The Winthrop Women

This House of Sky

Along with good reading came another Hyphen sweater ( Rauma Yarn) cast on from the stash.

The Lettuce, Rios Hyphen sweater was finished 2 weeks ago. Guess I am in a little kids sweater mood. They are fast and satisfying to be sure.

I had a rather large order arrive from Isee Fabrics and dove right into sewing up little sweat pants using Oliver & S pattern. I LOVE, LOVE this fabric, organic and naturally dyed! And it is very reasonable priced! My order was large but as soon as I sew it up, I am ordering more!!! 

  Cold weather, I am sure is on the horizon and with restrictions in place, COVID, I am determined to make these cold days ahead profitable to my mental health. 

Sewing, knitting,  quilting, rug hooking and perhaps a little spinning? Reading for sure and lots of audio books. 

OUT and ABOUT

eagle spotted by river

helicopter flying in to fill up with water to drop on fire

 helicopter flying to fire with bucket of water

We went out for a little hike on Saturday and had I realized how smokey it was, we would have stayed home.  But, the kids really wanted to go and so we did. We hiked about 2 miles or more and the kids did great, very few people on the trail which was a welcome situation. On the way back the helicopters were coming in one after another to fill their buckets with water, then fly back up to the fire to drop their load. 

This was an extra treat for  us all of to watch, they have about 4-5 helicopters flying all day everyday and over 900 fire fighters working up on the Cameron Peak Fire. To complicate things, the Mullen fire that started in the Medicine Bow Range has crossed into Colorado, ( burned over 120K+ acres). Beginning to wonder if these two fires are going to run into each other, not sure if that is good or bad.

OLD POST-PUBLISHED TODAY

 

I started writing this post the Friday RBG died and  the following week I was just too depressed to even post anything! I retreated to the basement and binged watch Shitt's Creek, I needed some humor as sick as some of Shitt's Creek humor is/was. I also knitted another sweater for B, (not shown here, next post.)

A week ago Monday, I got out for a long walk and started feeling better. Caitlin and I made approx. 42 pints of applesauce in the afternoon and life had kept rolling along for the rest of the week.

Friday was quiet, thanks to trump's COVID positive test...he wasn't tweeting! A much needed day of relaxing from that baboon's non-stop ugly tweets. I think all of America was thankful for the quiet autumn day!

Nov.3rd is just around the corner and this nightmare will hopefully end.

VOTE....please.

HELLO EARLY FALL

The weather is changing over to FALL, and a very welcome site! 

Nights are cool and the day temps this week will climb to high 80's but then a steady decrease in temps. This is very helpful for the Cameron Peak Fire, steady decrease in temps. Still little containment on the fire but so much work has been done in the past week. Thank you fire fighters for all your work! 

Knitting: not much done in the last week, quilting has taken center stage.

I have several quilts that are close to being done and really need to focus my attention on these quilts and get them completed. I set up my big quilting frame and loaded the Amish Quilt on, this quilt has been in the hand quilting stage for years and only the borders are left. I had forgotten how much easier it is to hand quilt on this frame. Nothing to gather, its all right there, ready to sit down to for a few stitches or an hour of stitching. This quilt will be finished by Christmas this year, (I hope). 

I have started the BOM quilt designed by DiFord, Sutton Grange, who sadly passed away late spring of 2020.

The fabrics sing to my heart,  a mix of appliqué and machine piecing with an overload of color and prints. A year long BOM quilt, perfect for COVID isolation going into the fall and continuing through 2021. 

Not a book read or started the past week, but plenty of books stacking up on my table to be read. 

The weekend was a mixture of calmness, quilting, and movie watching. 

 

Saying goodbye to late Summer and hello to early Fall.

EARTH, WIND and FIRE

Hmmm.....my fire  and ash snowing pictures will not load to blogger, hmmm.

Labor Day Weekend here on the Front Range was long, hot, smoke fill, ash snowing, sun blocked out dark and well---just very concerning. Monday morning opening the drapes, the outside looked apocalyptic, not a bird in the sky and nor a chirp could be heard, so quiet and orangie dark! With city lights on all through the day and temps in town hung out at 60 degrees, while all around us it was 93 degrees. This is what being under a smoke plume from a major forrest fire is like. Friday night, the fire started expanding but still not out of control, with the hot, dry , windy conditions by Monday morning the fire exploded and took a ten mile run on all three sides, roaring down the canyon (east), bursting into Rocky Mountain National Park (south), and threatening the Red Feathers area (north). Alerts were beeping every 5-30 minutes to evacuate these area "now" and the Voluntary Evacuation lines being widely extended. A cold front was pushing in with winds 50 miles/hour pushing this fire, which has so much beetle kill timber for fuel to burn. By midnight the temps were really dropping and it started to rain lightly thru the night, around 5 am snow was falling.....thank you Jesus! It snowed on and off all day and will continue til late morning Wednesday, with temps staying cold, 29Deg tonight. This is much needed time for the fire fighters to regroup, bring in more resources and get lines around this monster and go on the offense. { rest assured, Fort Collins is in NO danger}, this fire is in the high country/foot hills, however their are several thousand homes in these areas that are being threaten, 100+K acres is approx. 102 sq. miles that has burned. Thankfully no life has been lost.  This week the temps will slowly climb into the high 80's, with drying conditions. Praying for fire containment and early snows to come into the Northern Front Range.

Sunday, I did manage to finish 2 dresses for the kids but no knitting done this past week. After Monday and the apocalyptic atmosphere,  by Tuesday I was exhausted. Soup was made and that was it!

Oh 2020 I am ready to see you in the rear view mirror.

Linking up with Kat and Unraveled Wednesday

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Out and about.

Bird Bingo

Love a little boy who can put on his own pants! Inside out and backwards!

Smoke  from Cameron Fire, Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park.

Thanks Julie for photo, My Sister Knits.

Sunrise Sunday

Smoke cloud over house

Our weekend was full, with the littles for a sleep over on Friday. This is the kids favorite day and they know what Friday means...."Sleep Over at Mimi's house". We eat dinner, (and a not very healthy one at that), then it's bath time, popcorn (their favorite), a movie and the grand finale; "sleep over".  Pretty simple stuff makes a 2 and 4 year old happy. Saturday, out for a walk, (before the smoke moves in), and Gus mastered the balance bike. Bird Bingo was a BIG hit as well.

By Saturday afternoon the smoke from the Cameron Fire was covering Northern Colorado. Window closed and the air turned on, it was also 100 degrees outside. Yes, I am soo over these high temps and the smoke clouds covering us are also dropping lots of ashes. I have had a sinus headache all weekend. But, the BEST news, SNOW! Yes, I will be like a little kid this afternoon with my nose glued to the window waiting for a 60 degree temperature drop, and the.....glorious snow! Oh, how we need this, 1) it will help the fire that now has crossed into Rocky Mountain National Park on the NW side and has moved further down the canyon, 2) we need a break in these ridiculous high temps. Besides isolating from people with COVID, lately I feel like a mole hiding in my basement from heat and smoke! Tuesday morning I will be outside with woolens and boots on, looking up and being grateful for cold-wet snow! 

While holding up in the basement on Sunday, I started this twilling dress for Betty. Today the buttons will go on, after I watch a You Tube tutorial on using Bernia button system. Buttons are my nightmare in the garment making adventure, I just cannot seem to master this much needed technique. Any help would be appreciated.