woolythyme

Hygga anyone?....

How incredibly, ludicrously, insane...two blog sites this weekend (here and here (Nov. 2 post), three if you count this rabbit hole I fell into, all talking about a word/idea/concept I'd never before heard of----yet had spent the entire weekending (let's face it...most of my adult life) striving for.  (How's that for 'ending' a sentence with TWO prepositions?  Pretty special, huh?)

I've been calling it 'nesting' or 'cozying' my space...but it's more than that. So much more.  Who knew?  It's hygga.

According to that last rabbit hole (which includes a wonderful short video)...

'In essence, hygge means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people. The warm glow of candlelight is hygge. Friends and family – that’s hygge too. There's nothing more hygge than sitting round a table, discussing the big and small things in life. Perhaps hygge explains why the Danes are the happiest people in the world?'

So, my weekend?

:: Outdoor vacationing houseplants found new indoor homes.

:: Furniture was rearranged.

:: A wee bit of shopping in small, local boutiques.

:: Friends and family met.  

::Yarn wound.

::Knitting, knitting, knitting, knitting, knitting, knitting.  (yes, I really DID cast on 6 new projects this week-----and finished 0 WIP.)

::Spent time with another best friend.

:: Baked (and ate) and made the house smell wonderful.  Nothing better than the smell of baking gingerbread.

And..

:: cooked.

In my world, brussel sprouts count as hygga, too.

 

 

hot, hot, hot weekending....

 

 

It was hot.  Midsummer, dog-days-of-summer kind of hot, and humid, and did I say, HOT?  Have I ever told you how much I hate summer?  Yeah, I thought so.  I really, really hate it.  I water the plants just after daybreak, and wish them well the rest of the day.  

I had been gone three days this week (speaking at a conference for Living Waters for the World), and Freddy was particularly clingy when I got back, so I decided the two of us would venture out to the farmers market in spite of the miserable weather.

Juggling purse, dogleash (with a wiggly, friend-seeking, wandering pup at one end), grocery bag (quickly got the eggs and blueberries I wanted), and impulse-purchased-hanging basket (just so I'd have more to take care of in the heat)....we didn't stay long. I'm feeling badly that I didn't visit much with some friends I saw there.  (Hi, Phyllis!  Hi, Martha and Marcie!) It was simply too hot.

It was worth the trip...these berries were the best of the season!  

 

There was knitting this weekend.  (Duh.  There is always knitting!) Two socks, two vests, and a shawl.  I took them all with me to the conference, I suppose so none of them would feel left out. In reality, the mindless knitting on the shawl was the only knitting I did.

While away, I popped into a r-e-a-l bookstore (one of my favorite activities next to knitting) and came away with a cartload of goodies.

This was my favorite.  I've already read it cover-to-cover twice (there are a boatload of pictures) and Freddy and I have been rearranging, reorganizing, fluffing, and playing house all weekend.  Hubby is away....teaching for Living Waters (it's been a rather busy Living Waters week for us)...so we're taking advantage of his absence and tearing the house apart.

I should have taken before pics...you just get the after ones...

I traded out my Thanksgiving Johnston transferware dishes (about time!) for some pewter plates that were scattered all over the house.  (eep!  I discovered I sort of had a collection I didn't know I owned.)

Next...the magazine table got cleaned up a bit...

and the flower frogs that were there...actually, they were here, there, and everywhere in the living room, were corralled onto the top of the bookcases.

The other side has almost this many.  Sheesh.  That collection is bigger than I thought, too.

Reordered the coffee table, redid the bookshelves, traded out tables and removed one...and Freddy supervised the whole thing.

 

Mainly, from the air conditioning vent.

His momma didn't raise no fool.

catching up....

I know.  I know.  This space has once again been sort of neglected.  (sorry.)  So, it's time to catch up.  

The week....

::a visit with our son and family....we dragged daughter and her boys with us, so all the grands were together; we were only missing SIL who had to work.  We celebrated 3 birthdays, saw three grands' basketball games, went out to dinner, and managed to watch the Xavier game.  Then we white knuckled it the 5 hours---that turned into 6 1/2---home in a blizzard.  Gone less than 48 hours.  Phew.  That was fun.  (I think.)

::an antiquing trip to Nashville with a friend.  'The Plan' was to find a corner cupboard for our new renovated space...maybe a table...maybe a big vintage 'teaching poster' for one of the walls....some rugs.  I bought a hooked rug (on a stretcher, so it can be hung...but it says 'Welcome' and that really isn't appropriate for hanging on a bedroom wall, now, is it??!!!?), a teeny British metal wheel barrow, a cutting board, and a turkey cookie cutter.  So much for 'the plan'.  Nothing ended up in the new space.  It was a fun trip.

::Empty Bowl project lunch with a friend and about a million other people because it was a beautiful 70+ degree day.  (Yes, that's my bowl in the photo.)

::cleaned out the greenhouse, two closets, the basement, and the front porch (it was a pretty day, remember?)....moved an old zinc-topped table to the new space (where the corner cupboard was supposed to be) and saved us between $2500-$3500 (the prices I saw on a couple cupboards that wouldn't hold the TV anyway).  Hubby has NO idea what a deal I can be....but I'm reminding him daily.

:: read When Breath Becomes Air.  If you only read one book this year, this should be the one.  

::and then the knitting...little croft pincushion---done.  Basic socks----done.  (the black yarn bled all over myself through the whole project.  Blech.)  Started Snowfling mitts...love the Tanis fiber yarn soooooo much!  (this was a kit)

How could I have failed to put Miss Bunny in Ravelry?  (The blog is not the only space that's been neglected.) Julie Williams' patterns are meticulously written, with lots of photos...no detail is overlooked.  I think this one was about 14 pages long.  Lots and lots of finishing work, but if you do what she says, your results will be worth the effort.  And these little toys do take some effort.  I've only made one other, but he turned out just as cute as this one.  I'm thinking that this will be my go-to baby gift...Miss Bunny with a Beatrix Potter book for a girl, and the elephant with a Babar book for a boy.  A Plan.  

I'm full of 'Plans' this week...

After finishing the socks, the little croft, and the bunny---more yarn was added to the 'leftover fingering weight' yarn bag, so decided to start another (drum roll, please....)

Mitered square blanket...this will be #4.  It's a Plan.  

You've seen how some of the plans around here work out.

I'm not holding my breath. 

Clue 2 arrived Friday, and I've added about 8 rows.

 

Finally, divided for hubby's sweater's sleeves....and about 8 rows have been knit since (thanks to Jay-bob's back-to-back basketball games).

Otherwise, for the past week...I've been distracted.  And antsy.  And excited. And overall, pretty hard to live with.

A dream---in the making for the past six or seven years---is close to becoming real.

 

It started like this...

When our house was built in 1923, the owners also built this little house in the backyard for their cook, Molly Gipson.  Over the years and several owners, the space became storage, a lean-to shed was added, and it somewhat deteriorated.  When we bought the property in 1998, we thought it would make a perfect 'guest house' for our son and his wife when they visited.  We renovated it (in spite of the fact that one contractor we talk with said he'd tear it down and put up a doublewide.  We didn't use him.) And it was perfect.  A bedroom, a sitting room, and a bath.  Then...along came baby #1, and #2, and #3, and by the time #4 and #5 arrived it was a real challenge sleeping 7 people (granted 5 were small people) in that space.  

The main house is a little bungalow...one bedroom...one bathroom.  I love living small.  I love my large extended family and I wanted them to feel loved when they come to visit.  And we love when friends visit.  Do we add on to the main house?  I wanted the guest space, but I didn't want to live among all kinds of room I didn't use every day.  I was having this same old dilemma conversation with my daughter before one of her brother's visits--about 3 years ago.  Her solution: maybe you could clean out the lean-to and throw a couple more beds in there.  

It turned out to sort of actually BE the solution (I hope. It remains to be seen)!  No, the lean-to's roof leaked; by now that little air conditioning/heating wall unit had been repaired for the last time---every time the temps fell below freezing we worried about the pipes freezing (they froze three times, burst once). The little house was in desperate need of painting, too.  We had hardy-boarded the main house.  It was time to do the little house.  And we had to do something soon or we were going to end up with that double-wide after all. 

So in September...

the lean-to got ripped off..

 

(oops...they broke the main waterline which we discovered was original to the house.  Phew.  Was THAT an accident waiting to happen, or what?  Little setback while we repaired that!!!)

Lucky us.  We had our very own porta-potty for a couple months.

Oh, look...the little house is no longer little.  We added a new entrance, a new sitting room, and a -----BUNK ROOM!!!!  It now will sleep 7 comfortably...will have an attached garage (our main house has no garage, one of the things I was happiest with because we couldn't accumulated all kinds of 'stuff'). While things were so torn up in the backyard, hubby decided he really did want a basketball/shooting pad after all.

So we now look like this...

(Ignore the lack of landscaping---that won't happen any time soon.)  Tomorrow, the floor will be laid, next week the light fixtures will be installed (which prompted me to change out a couple fixtures in the main house that I've hated for the past 18 years--you know, after a while you sort of don't seen some things anymore?) The plumber is supposed to hook up the sink...which will be installed with a little refrig under the counter.  I've rounded up all kinds of furniture (from our living space) to furnish the new space.  I've reorganized.  I've rearranged.  (I've cleaned better than I've cleaned for years.) I've plotted and planned.

And I've knit very little. 

 

And I don't even care.

f-a-l-l-i-n-g down a rabbit hole....

I was catching up with Tien (an enabler extraordinaire) when she mentioned the third fringeassociation hat knitalong.  Hey.  I downloaded that pattern.  (hmmmmm.  it's around here somewhere.)

Found it.  Worsted. (eeewww) I haven't been in the worsted 'suitcase' in a long time.  What a mess. (that's probably why.) Finally found a skein of something, but I fought a bagillion partial skeins that had wound themselves into a big globby mess.  Half skeins, quarter skeins, bitty-bit skeins...all jumbled together.  (hee hee....idea!)  Called my friend who is making a mitered square worsted weight blanket and she was thrilled to take my debris.  (I didn't tell her they were mostly grey, beige, and black.)  

A giant shopping bag full---delivered---made a whole lot of room in the suitcase.  Plenty of room now for the worsted/aran/bulky from the knitting closet.  Yep.  Cleaned off a couple shelves.

What are those knitting books doing, living with the gardening books? Moved them to the empty shelves.  Better. 

Might as well clean out the whole bookcase, now that the knitting books relocated. (there's that cookbook I've been looking for!)

 

And then I moved to the kitchen....

and cleaned counters, rearranged drawers (I only have 2), created space for some things that still needed a home after the scary-basement flood, and hauled a few things to the attic (because a tiny shelf and a chair from the kitchen landed in the craft room, which, of course, meant that THAT room got tossed, too) 

All because I decided to knit this.

Really quick knit.  (one baseball game quick)

Hermaness by Gudrun Johnson, a free pattern she supplied for the Fingeassociation knitalong.  

Black Friday backlash....the weekend

:: making cookies with my daughter  (you cannot substitute cocoa mix for cocoa powder....hee hee.  Guess how we know?)  This was round #2 of our favorite chocolate cookie recipe

 

 

 

:: decking the halls...

(with a helper)

 

:: and, knitting....of course.

 

with a helper who really wasn't a help.

 

Did anyone else manage to avoid the crazy Black Friday shopping frenzy?  Or do you thrive in that madhouse atmosphere?

 

Decking the halls...fini!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After supervising all this madness...

 

I desperately needed a nap.

(I put my Christmas collar on first.)

spinning.... (my wheels, not fiber)

Nice, quiet (but fairly busy) weekend....with absolutely NOTHING to show for it.

 

:: a friend told me about some antique 'cubby holes' she saw last week.  I've been looking for something like this for years....these were metal, and while I had had a nice painted wooden one (with lovely patina!) in my dreams, I thought metal could work.  The shop was 45 minutes away, so I called, got dimensions, price, and spent a couple hours 're-arranging' furniture to make this work.  (where there is a will there is a way!!!)  Yes, I even sort of dreamed about it.  Got up early, picked up Miss V who is such a good sport and was ready for a road trip...and off we went.  All it took was one look....no go.  Not even close.  I'll have to keep looking.  Before coming home, we ducked into the yarn shop there....I. bought. nothing.

 

::  still sort of in a rearranging mood, I fluffed a little here, cleaned up a little there and ended up with an empty tote that I thought would look great filled with buckeyes (conkers/ horsechestnuts)....so off I went in search.

 

 

.

 

found some other cool stuff...(found more knitted acorns!), but no buckeyes.  (I have a couple more leads...maybe today!)

 

:: reminder to self....stay away from Ravelry when I don't want to watch hours slip by

 

 

:: this only looks like a new project.  It really isn't.  It was an experiment.  I don't crochet.  Well, I sort of crochet, but don't read directions well (you know, when they say...connect the round---connect to WHAT?  and trc but leave a loop on the needle and do something or other?????  huh?)  Anyway, I love (LOVE) this afghan pattern and have even more dk wt leftovers than fingering wt, so I was just trying this out.  I think those things might block into squares---or be forced into something square-like if I sewed them together.  I might have to make a few more.  This is not a new project.  (This is NOT a new project.)

 

:: and then, there was the 'yarn closet'.   Being in a cleaning/rearranging mood doesn't happen just all the time, so I thought I would tackle the worst place in the whole house.  (Even worse than the scary basement!)

 

 

?????????????!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

.

 

solved THAT problem!

 

October.....

 

inside...

.

.

.

.

and out!!

.

.

weekending.....

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I spent the weekend roaming from room to room

:: wondering how I managed to get a whole bookshelf worth of books from the kitchen on to the living room bookshelves (might have had something to do with the pile of purged magazines awaiting the next recycling run)

::  relocating a collection of old wooden apples

:: getting used to the new kitchen color

:: spending time with Fred in our favorite chair (it's a chair and a half---I usually have the 'chair', he has the 'half'; he seems to have managed to hog the whole thing most of the weekend)

:: wondering what went in the empty space on the bathroom wall ????

:: taking an extra peek at the door lintels that are dust-free  (do you have any idea how much dust accumulates in 15 years!!!  Little Miss Susie Homemaker I'm obviously NOT)

:: loving the patched corner of the hallway (yes, that IS a collection of slugs...thank you, Jody!!!)

:: finding a new place for some plants

.

Now that the painting spree is over, it was so worth it.  (One of the great advantages of growing old is the fact that we most likely will never have to do this again!!!)  Every room went back together slightly differently; this 1000+ square foot space looks sort of fresh and new and the spring cleaning (for this decade) is done!

.

There was time left over for the fun stuff...

:: filling the cookie jar (chocolate chip, is there really any other kind?)

:: a little girlfriend time with my best friend (#1 daughter)--and scored an Eileen Fisher skirt (new with tags!) for $15 at the  thrift shop.

:: wrapping birthday presents (#1 son turns 40! next week; I'm not sure how that happened;  his daughter --our first grand--will be 10 just 3 days later.  C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E good times, come on!!!)

:: 'refrigerator soup' inspired by this recipe from whole foods (only I added a potato and sour cream which probably made this healthy soup not-so-healthy after all, but it sure was tasty!)

:: finished this that had been waiting to be seamed since 1999.

and, of course.......

there was time for knitting!  and even a little...

 unknitting.  

Alga. (may you rest in peace)  Didn't like that stripey thing the yarn did, didn't like the fact that the sleeves were slightly darker than the rest (although it was all the 'same' color), and really wasn't all that thrilled with the final fit-look.  Three strikes---pretty easy to frog it.