Woolythyme

weekending....

It just didn't seem quite right to have snowmen all over the house when the temperatures climbed into the upper 60s...peaking at 70 last night on our way home from the community theatre.  70????  It's JANUARY.

 

so, the snowpeople (and accompanying snowflake stuff) all got snuggled tight in their basket bed for the rest of the year (that one snowman looks really sad...I KNOW---it's really too soon to get stuffed in the closet!--sorry), and out came....

 

the hearts and tulips. 

 

 

(anyone else do seasonal decorating?)  

 

after the seasonal 'fluffing' was done.... the rest of the weekend........

 

:: a road trip to watch the CandyMan play a couple basketball games in a university arena.  what a thrill for those little guys....it was a huge tournament with dozens of games all going on at the same time.  The thrill was somewhat tempered, though, by the fact that they lost both games.  At 9 years it's hard to understand that losing, but giving it your all, is really sort of a win.

 

:: between games,  #1 daughter and I went here...

and left inspired but without any new yarn.  (I didn't think I was far enough from home for it to count as a vacation souvenir!! --although I carried around some malabrigo sock and fondled it for awhile;  I really didn't want to break those new years resolutions suggestions before  month one  was even half over.)

 

:: lunch out with the grands

:: a return home car ride in a torrential downpour: thunder, lightning, flash floods, and a tornado watch---I was knitting.  All was good.

:: dinner out with friends

:: community theatre

:: a couple old movies (can you believe I had never seen Electric Horseman?  or Magnificent Obsession--oh, how silly the 'special effects' looked in that one!  I didn't even know we got this retromovie station...our TV is usually just on sports channels!)

 :: and finally, I was serenaded by........

 

 

stomp on his foot and he swivels, pops up and down, and 'sings'-- I'm Just a Love Machine.  (Oh, PapaGeek--you are such a romantic!!!)

weekending....

::  Lots of bulky knitting...

 

I'm not sure exactly why this was in the stash (of course, I know why---did you see the price on that??!) because I pretty much hate knitting on needles larger than a size US 4 or with yarn heavier than dk.  But there it was (actually 2 skeins!!  I must have had something in mind for it at purchase time other than grabbing a great deal), and it was perfect for these.  

I found myself with no competition for the television this weekend....and there was a Castle marathon going on---and before I knew it...

two pairs!  I guess that bulky yarn has something going for it after all.  A sweater out of bulky---and I look like the Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters; but fingerless mitts in bulky work for anyone, and I got the two pairs from the one skein (with almost nothing left over).  Stash busting--holiday gifts--hours of Castle....that was so much fun, I went out and BOUGHT another skein of chunky, and made

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the Hampstead wreath while listening to the latest Stephanie Plum, Notorious Nineteen.  It is exactly like all the other Stephanie Plum books (and I've read/listened to them all)--totally mindless, nothing whatsoever to redeem it stylistically, but I could wander around the house and let it keep running and not really miss more than a couple cars or vans getting blown up--and by the end of it, I had a wreath--and the stash had less in it than when the weekend began.

:: Lots of cookie making.

*Bourbon balls (a bit potent....little people were banned from tasting)

*cut out sugar cookies  (Darth Vadar with sprinkles all over his face?!)

*spritz cookies we couldn't get through the cookie press (I dumped my old press last year for a new and improved electric press---but we must have needed new batteries---and it was Black Friday---and we weren't going to ANY store THAT day for batteries) so we turned them into thumbprint cookies

*my mom's chocolate drop cookies.  

(First time ever.....more sprinkles ended up on the COOKIES than on the floor.  Major success.  Note the concentration on those faces....I obviously wasn't concentrating at all.)

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  They don't look the least bit like Christmas cookies, but we only make them at the holidays because they are so good we always eat waaaaaay too many and who needs all those calories?  Special treat.  Once a year.  (Well, we usually end up making three or four batches of them during the holidays, but we count that as ONE.)

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CHOCOLATE  DROP COOKIES

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup cocoa

2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup butter

1 tsp soda dissolved in 4-5 tbls hot water

Drop by the teaspoon and roll in granulated sugar.  Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.  The cookies should be puffy.

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YES.  They are that good.

red...

perfectly imperfect....

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joining liveandloveoutloud for the 'red' challenge and amanda at soulemama for a single moment.

weekending.....

 2 children + 2 spouses + 7 grandchildren = 1 perfect weekend

:: 3 little boys played baseball together

:: 4 little girls ran through the "scary" cat cave

:: painted pumpkins

:: yahtze, war, wii

:: what started out as a rainy day, ended up a great day at the pumpkin patch

:: hay ride

:: chased by cows

:: found the B-I-G-G-E-S-T pumpkins in the patch

:: bounced on blow-up bouncey things

:: had apple cider

:: celebrated a 2-year old's birthday

:: ate too much cake

:: loved on Freddy

:: found a grasshopper, a caterpiller, AND a snake on a walk

:: picked the last of everything in the garden

:: colored, quilted, knitted (grandSON), and puzzled

:: had a magic show

:: got lots of hugs

the house is a mess....I'm totally pooped....I've never been happier.

a good day.....

 

 

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Nothing was cut or painted that shouldn't have been.  It was a good day.

weekending.....

 

 

:: woke up Saturday morning to the first real autumn morning...the kind of morning where you can don a sweater and wooly socks and not be shedding them by 10 am.  I actually wore the sweater and socks ALL day.  (I ditched the scarf sometime mid-morning)  A little foresight, and I would have been quite happy with some fingerless mitts, too.  It was glorious.

'Someone' else needed his scarf---

it had grown to nearly 22 feet; it was time to stop collecting pieces and to deliver it.

It wasn't exactly a surprise 'bomb'; PapaGeek had spilled the beans at Rotary a couple weeks ago, so the director was kind of expecting it sometime....he and the President of the art guild loved it.  I think YAK did, too.

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:: then off to the little fall festival at our farmers market.  Some face painting and crafts for the little ones; the science guy was there blowing out the eyes, nose, and smile on a jack o' lantern (he nailed papaGeek--I think it was a mistake).  Homemade Jam (a bluegrass group) was 'jammin'; there were samples of fall food (the sweet potato chili was so yummy I had to buy a bunch of sweet potatoes --that marketing worked well), and of course, all the end of season garden goodies---some ready to cook, some already canned.  I love this time of year.  (I know, just about every post I've written since mid July has had something to do with how much I love fall and can't wait for it to be here......now I'm afraid it's not going to last nearly long enough...ugh, I must stop wishing/dreading the weather and just live in the moment!)

:: Miss V and I followed that with a quick road trip to our favorite little lunch spot (she's recovering from shoulder surgery and really NEEDED a road trip!) and found ourselves buying... 

 

 

yarn!!  I bought just this one ball; she bought four and can't even knit for weeks.  (Isn't that proof that yarn is a healing, comforting, soothing thing?  another reason to keep a healthy stash handy--the fondle factor counts for a lot)

:: reception Saturday night at the Yeiser for Christine Wuenschel and Denise Stewart-Sanabria's Confrontations and Observations.

Yak was still smiling!!!  

A very very special thanks to Valerie, Erin, Melissa, Genie, Leigh, Sandy, Adele, Vickie, Tien, Sophie, Tammy, and Cyntia for helping to make this scarf-thing happen!  

joining with amanda for weekending

weekending.....

 

:: the dragon boat races came to town this weekend; being a river town you would think there would be lots of activities around the water, but this just isn't the case (unless you count the polar bear dip New Years Day!)  This one was a fund raiser for our River Discovery Museum--the crowd topped a thousand by the end of the day.  The weather was stellar--just a nip of fall in the air, the teams enthusiastic, the comaraderie the best.  But, we could only stay a bit, because...

:: there was a double-header baseball game to attend. This fall season began kid-pitch baseball; it was painful--both literally and figuratively.  It was sunny (by mid afternoon almost too hot--we lost that fall 'nip'), I got to spend time with my daughter, and I had my knitting.  Those were the pluses.  Note:  the games were not included in the plus category--really not fun to watch.  (CandyMan hit two batters, but struck out the other 3 he faced; Jay-Bob hit one batter, and struck out his other batters; the rest of the 'pitching team' managed to walk in 13 runs; in both games, there were a mere 6 hits--from both teams--and only 2 made it out of the infield.  PAINFUL!!)

:: then it was off to the CandyMan's 9th birthday party at the skating rink--tearing around the skating floor in his baseball uniform (along with most of his team-mates); it was a rather crazy afternoon

:: an engagement party, some out of town Living Waters company--who arrived as acquaintances and left as friends!, an apple cake--that pretty much rounded out the weekend

This morning the 'nip' is back in the air;  color is sneaking into the foliage; the light even seems crisper.  A good day to spend rocking on the front porch.

Ta-Dah Tuesday.....catchin' up

 

 

a couple weeks ago I had some serious car knitting time, and I made the most of it.  The fingerless mitts are always a rather quick knit, and the wingspan was a real mindless knit that was almost!!!!! finished by the time we hit the driveway home.  PapaGeek has another new pair of socks but I'm thinking these will hide until Christmas and they will be a big surprise.  (Yes, he watched me knit them.  Yes, he tried them on.  But, I promise---he will have totally forgotten all about them by Christmas and they will be a big surprise!!!)

Fall will eventually get here.....so Jack be little joined the bowl of knitted acorns I did a while back.  (Couple of yards of leftover worsted---this was  QUICK quick quick!!)

And.... look what I found!  According to my Ravelry notes, I finished this May 25, 2010.  The end of May here might as well be mid-summer temperature wise, so I guess I totally understand why I stuffed this wooly wonder in the closet--unblocked and with no buttons.  I don't think I hated it.  Surely I didn't declare it too small or too scratchy without blocking it.  (I HAVE done that before.)  I think I love it.  I've knit too many things since I finished this.....I really don't even remember knitting it.  So this was like getting a new knit sweater------in 20 minutes (the time it took to find some buttons and sew them on!!!)

 

Must-have-cardigan (it sure did languish in limbo a long time to be named.....MUST HAVE!) knit with Paton's Classic Wool. 

Yarnalong and WIP Wednesday....

My knitting this week has been rather uninspiring...(unlike my book!!!!!!!), so let me get the knitting out of the way fast.  This is a socks-that-rock club pattern and yarn from some years ago---I've lost track.  It was too big for me--it fit #1 Daughter, but she has declared a moratorium on socks.  I really dislike afterthought heels; it's sportweight yarn which to me is just too heavy.  It went from sock to this......

in no time flat!  Yeah.  That project is done. Check.

I then proceeded to frog a vest I started sometime in the 90s--well, maybe not that long ago, but I don't even wear vests.  I don't know why I started it (cul-de-sac vest) except that it has an incredibly wonderful cable incorporated into it.  Surely, I can find some other way to use that cable.  Check off another WIP that is no more--and I retrieved two favorite stitch markers in the process.  That was definitely a win-win.

So--what is currently being worked on?  I could almost see the yarn trembling for fear that it was going to meet the demise of its neighbors in the closet as I pulled it out....

(those are just plain ole "vanilla socks"--co 64 st. and go--in unknown yarn that I love)....but THE BOOK!!!!  Oh, my--the book!!  Where to  start.  (Just about) everything about this book is perfectly done.  The styling and photography is outstanding.

There are pictures of the food, pictures of the craft projects being made and being used, pictures of the parties, and just plain beautiful pictures.  It's divided into "seasonal" parties (and something like the egg-dyeing spring party and the strawberry picking/jam making party have a specific "window of opportunity") but many of them could be used anytime of the year.  For each party you are given a list of materials you need and a timeline to get everything done.  Natural ingredients/natural materials are obviously used throughout--as the title indicates.  

But, while the title calls this a party book---please be assured it is so much more!  Sure, I would have given my eye-teeth for this kind of book 35 years ago when my kids were party age.  But now, as a grandma to 7 (under the age of 9) this book is a resource guide for all kinds of fun things to do at Grandma's.  (I guess, though, every day at Grandma's is supposed to be party-day, right???  )

And as a recipe book....YUM.  Natural ingredients presented very inventively; there are several I'm planning on making for my dinner club in May.  Lemon-vanilla pizzelles?  Sweet and savory strawberry and apricot tarts?  Grilled peach, blackberry, and granola pafaits with lemon-vanilla whipped cream?  These are seriously delicious sounding recipes!  As I was thumbing through the book, PapaGeek happened by at this page....

and was just about beside himself.....BREAKFAST for DINNER!!!!  (his favorite meal).

 

Join Ginny for yarnalong---and, she's a contributor to the book!!!  

(way up at the top I said the book was almost perfect.....I think they misspelled Ginny's name in the acknowledgements.  bummer. otherwise--perfect.)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

The Santas are all put away.  But "he" and all his little elf helpers were very good to us again this year!  Family pictures and picture calendars, notecards designed by budding artists (JayBob and the Candyman!),  donations in our name to some of our favorite charities (I actually got a share of Heifer International's knitting basket--is that perfect, or what???) and some amazingly funky wonderful antique-y tchotchkes.   Hope you all had a wonderful day as well.

But when Christmas day is over, I just have to put the Santas away.  He's been here, he's gone, and the Santa decorations just have to go, too.  The lights are OK, the greenery stays, and of course, the creches will be out until Epiphany, but Santa....sorry, big guy.  But, when Santa leaves..... Frosty and all his snowman friends appear!  This might be as close as we get to snow....so I'm counting it!