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.

And Yet My Hooks And Needles Go On

I posted previously about Ravelry's new policy in my last post .  What this has unleashed is amazing.  Prominent podcasters and enthusiasts are calling for proof!  Where do you buy your yarn from?  Whose patterns are you buying?  We have lists!  You don't like the new policy?  Well, that must be your white fragility showing or you must be a white supremacist!  Political segregation is all this is.  Call it what you like.  We won't go after you quiet conservatives as long as you stay quiet. If you are a gay man who calls for diversity, well, we will rip you apart over an instagram post calling for it and harass you until all social media is pulled. In a quote from a avid Ravelry user "This is how we fight back!".  SO on Ravelry, please celebrate your love of yarn but act as judge and jury against everyone else.  Exaggerating?  Gregory Patrick is a gay conservative.  He is known as Mad Man Knitting.  He was issued a threat.  This is his response:

Bravo!  Gregory is a nice southern gentleman, I wouldn't piss him off.  It's sad really.
As I stated in my last post, I read blogs, follow people and listen to podcasts that do not share my views.  I have for years.  Not everyone has to share my views, feel the way I do about issues nor vote the way I do.  The overall content has always been there for me to be a fan, the same way you may be reading this blog and do not agree with what I have to say.  After witnessing the yarn community turning into a police state,  I have quietly unsubscribed, unfollowed and unliked many pages, some of whom I followed for years. It has lightened my load and pinpointed my focus in my yarn crafts so I guess I should be grateful for that. The call for proof and receipts can be chalked up to money talks and bullshit walks.
Well, my money is walking and my bullshit will stay on my blog.

Just off the needles:

Made my husband his first pair of toe up socks.  He likes them.  It is coming time to weed out his drawer of starter socks that I have made.  The ones that look like a tube sock with a little bit of a heel.  He has been a good sport.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Ravelry's No Trump Policy

Ravelry's No Trump Policy   There is also a good article posted by The Federalist.  

Ravelry is a knit/crochet site with 8 million members.  I had been a member since 2008.  I get political on my blog from time to time and on my personal Facebook page.  I use my sewing, and other fiber art pursuits as a neutral place.  I listen to podcasts on these subjects and have had to unsubscribe to a few that have crossed the line.  I am an adult, I do not expect people to share  my point of view on things.  I politely listen and pay attention to the content that is relevant to me and move on.  
This new policy started with someone posting a pattern for a Trump 2020 cowl.  It's acceptable to buy a pink pussy hat pattern or a fuck Trump pattern.  If you are going to ban one political stance then ban all of them.  I was on several groups where this debate was getting heated.  Normally I am quiet but I posted this part of the Ravelry policy in the debates :  

• Do not weaponize this policy by entrapping people who do support the Trump administration into voicing their support.
• Similarly, antagonizing conservative members for their unstated positions is not acceptable.

I was called a racist by one group owner.  I just left the groups.  Ravelry adapted this policy from a RPG group.  Here is the thread.  They have no problem telling users if you don't like it, get the fuck out.

There has also been suggestions that admins go the extra mile and track member activity on other social media avenues to expel members.  This idea has not been entertained.  One popular response is to call people racists and the battle cry of  "this is how we fight back".  

It is sad, but hey, Ravelry is getting national attention. So my attention and money will go where I feel it needs to go.

Bread and Knitting

Work has been a little crazy so it has been a while since I last posted.  I have been playing around with sourdough starter and bread the last couple of weeks.  I used this book that I mentioned in my last post.

My first attempt was dense through my starter was fantastic.  I tweaked a recipe in the book and added a little my water than what was called for.  This was probably the best loaf I have made.

Baked in a covered cast iron dutch oven.  Beautiful.  The inside looks a little dense but it is actually very light.  I omitted the wheat the recipe called for and used a combination of all purpose and bread flour. Want to see the inside?

I have to say this is my best sourdough. This bread is a two day process without making the starter.

Keeping winter in mind, I knitted a pair of fingerless mitts for the pharmacy drive through.

Not too bad for a novice knitter.  This was a free pattern from tons Patons.

In July we became grandparents, so we will be traveling soon to meet our first granddaughter little Pj.

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.

Knitting Progress and Daily Life

We survived homecoming, the house was rolled twice.  We missed the deadline to register for  MS State open house for my high school junior but will book a private tour later on.  Other than that we are enjoying the cool weather and Cruising The Coast.  
I have been a knitting fool.  I started out with this basic beanie hat:

I have made more than one, some have already walked out the door.  This is the Nice and Knit Beanie.  This pattern is also available for free on the Ravelry website as well.  This will probably be my go to beanie pattern, simple enough for a beginner like me.  

My son wanted ear flaps on his so I found this pattern in a "learn to knit" box I have with various pattern cards:

I shorted the length of the seed stitch to make it a little more .... manly???   He likes it.

I cast on another sock.  I bought this book and extra long circular needle when I did not know how to knit and had no business buying it at the time but I dove in to Socks From The Toe Up by Wendy Knits:

I desperately needed help trying to cast on with a long circular needle so thankfully I found a YouTube video from someone who has the book and a long circular :  Judy's Magic Cast On.  

Not too bad so far!  

Knitting on tiny needles with thin yarn takes time.  I love to see the pattern emerge from self striping yarns.  I picked a basic pattern but may try something a little more difficult with the plain sock yarn I have.   I want to say this yarn is from Big City yarns but I lost the wrapper.  

Went food shopping and meat is on the rise again.   I went shopping two weeks ago and my spaghetti sauce was $.79 and now is $1.09.  This is just one example.  I am going to have to make sure I go once a month in the middle of the month from now on.  

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???

Getting a Little Nippy

It has been a little nippy down here on the coast.  It dips, gets warm, dips again, then it's winter at some point.  Leaves are dropping like crazy, we do not get the beautiful fall colors that neighbors to the north (or more north of us) have. 
We survived another homecoming week.  Our house was rolled three nights in a row and the last night someone had drawn male anatomy on the back window of my van.  Thankfully it was washable.  Unfortunately everyone heading out to church Sunday morning got a gander at my back van window as they drove by.  It was my daughter's first homecoming and middle son's second.  Boys are way cheaper than girls.  Everyone made it home safe and a good time was had by all.

I had a request for a crochet bird so here is my crochet bird:

He's a chunky thing, crochet in Lion Brand's Hometown USA yarn which I believe is a 6 in yarn weight so it is super chunky.  After stuffing him I'm sure he could cause injury if thrown hard enough lol.

I was browsing the Internet looking at scarves, I don't know why.  I stumbled across a site for Dr. Who scarves.  It seems that not only is there a cult following for Dr. Who but also a sub-cult if you will, of followers of the scarves worn.  I found the official BBC directions to knit or crochet the scarf, which let me to a group of Dr. Who scarf knitters, and decided to give a Dr. Who style scarf a shot.  I say style because I am not accurate on the colors and am doing a modified version of the scarf which will measure around 9ft instead of 12.....I think.  Knitting is the supreme act of patience for me.  I fly with a crochet hook but as time goes on, I am gaining speed with needles and haven't dropped a stitch yet.  It also helps that it is only knit stitch, here it is so far:

 

It's about a foot and a half long so far.

The crock pot has been getting a workout also.  I wanted to justify requesting a new crock pot and cookbooks for my birthday last year and one of the cookbooks I like came out with a part 2 and I wanted to cook more from the first one before I dive into the second. I will post more on this soon.