Still Here

Well of course I am working on socks, this pair is for the oldest for Christmas.   The youngest is in his last year of high school.  Everyone in the middle are doing well also.  I am blessed.  My husband came home with a bean pot and warmer that belonged to his mother.

And an enameled cast iron dish he calls the macaroni dish.

This pot followed me home one day.

And I bought a clay bread baker from a potter in New Orleans.  Definitely a weakness as I have three of the damn things from different potters.

Most of the Sawtooth Oaks my husband started last year are between 1 to 2 feet tall.  

This lemon tree is a dwarf that I bought my mother-in-law many years ago.  We planted it here and there are 15 lemons on it now.  

I will have more news in the upcoming months.   A lot will have to do with planting.  I bought this book not too long ago and when it arrived I thought it couldn't be very helpful since it was pretty thin, but it is a good book for someone starting out.

The weather went from hot drought to wet, freezing cold very quick!   I will post again soon and I hope this finds you well.

Keeping Busy

Simplicity 8423 View A.  I made this in a very thin knit material that I probably will not use again.  At least I am putting the new machine to use.

I finally tried out my new Amish Swift.  Gift from my mother from Amazon.  I wound three balls of sock yarn and I tried to use the Nostepinne but I may have to use a thicker yarn to get the hang of it.  A swift sure did make ball winding a lot easier!

Another Month Gone By

It's been busy here. College students are home and I am just trying to keep track of who is working where and what camp starts and ends.  School starts for the high school child in a few short weeks and the others will be back at college.  Busy finishing things up and starting new projects.  An update on the home made vanilla extract:

Before picture:

After one month:

This will be wonderful come December.

Finished up another pair of socks:

They faded quickly in just one wash.  Luckily these were not a gift. 

My patio chairs are giving out so I made two seat bottoms.  Not too bad, I will replace them as needed:

We finally got a large amount of needed rain yesterday.  My garden is happy. 

Finishing Up Projects and New Links

Rainy cold weekend here in the south not much to do except finish up some things that have been laying around.  We actually had snow here this winter. First was socks, of course!

Very colorful, this pair is for me. 😄 

I know they all look the same just different colors, I use a basic pattern and really just need them to be functional.

There has been a two ingredient bagel recipe floating around the Internet so I figured I would give it a shot.

I used the recipe from Mess for Less.  I just used self rising flour and they are not over done, the color is from using an egg yolk wash instead of an egg white wash.  They are a little tangy from the yogurt and are less calories so win/win!  I baked for half an hour because I made them higher rather than wider, easier to cut.

For one of my more geekier hobbies, I spray painted an old cardboard display for an ink stand.   My boss owns a few businesses, one of which is a boutique store, with trendy clothing and items.  So on the rare occasion I have to work in the boutique, to keep my skin from crawling I try to see if there is something I can apply to my life.  It helps the time pass.  I took this from the discard pile.

Ink stand!  Not as it is,  just a few coats of spray paint.

With ink:

Not too bad. 

Also, I wanted to share a couple of links to where I have been hanging out.  You should check out

A Woodsman's Remedies, and Go Apocalypse great content, hope to see you there!

Socks for Christmas

Hot off the needles, a pair of socks for my oldest.  I have a second pair in the works for him.  He doesn't read my blog so no worries.  I have made quite a few pairs for my husband, he calls them his lucky socks and wears them whenever he rides his motorcycle.  It's always good to learn a new skill and this one has taken me a while.  They actually look like socks now and not a tube with a heel.  It is finally cooling down here enough to wear them.

Needle in the Eye

Once when someone asked me if I knit, my response was I would rather stick a needle in my eye.  Well, I will have to retract that.  I have been crocheting many years, and have finally picked up needles.  Last year there was the Dr. Who scarf:

This had taken me quite a long time so I swore no more needles. I had also purchased a book on making socks that is collecting dust.  But then I picked up a booklet that teaches how to make socks.  I had to rip them out five times.  The last try I said the hell with it, I am knitting through no matter what and if they are funky, so what!  

They are a little wonky but usable and I did learn to make socks.  I also learned that a pattern that teaches how to knit socks really shouldn't have errors in it.   Right now I am working on a hat.

It is called the Nice and Knit Beanie.  Since it is just a hat and knitted in worsted it should work up quicker than the socks.  This has made me more confident to try the socks in this book:

Socks From The Toe Up by Wendy Knits.  This is the book that has been gathering dust.  My husband joked that it is a good thing that we didn't have to rely on my sock knitting to have socks because they would all have to share one sock and jump around on one foot by the time I made one pair.  Guess who isn't getting socks???