Throwback Thursday

Thought I would stick my head back in the door 😉

My grandmother – practically everyone called her Muttie – was a huge part of my life growing up. She’s the one who taught me to knit, probably in self defense to keep me occupied, and though I don’t recall seeing her knit very much, she did a lot of crafts, including weaving. I still have her small 2-harness loom. She also taught me to cook, and I continue to learn new things in that field. Tomorrow would have been her 122nd birthday.

Muttie with Mom & Aunt Peg (ca. 1926)

Advertisement

I wish you all …

a very merry Christmas (or holiday of your choice) and best wishes for a great New Year!

Catching up is hard to do!

The Knitting Camp trip was great as always. In addition to all the usual wonderfulness, after some years of blog and email virtual visiting, Angie and I were able to arrange a real meet-up in Cedarburg WI for lunch at Cream & Crepes (yum!) and some visiting after lunch. Fingers crossed that we can do it again! 🙂

Meet-up in Cedarburg.

A friend at Camp had made the Scallops & Ribs top (Knitter’s K110) and brought it for Show & Tell, so of course she was also part of my Show & Tell. I love her choice of color!

Natascha’s Scallops & Ribs.

I had a wonderful time, but of course the downside of trips is catching up when you get home. The garden (especially the beans!) kept growing while I was gone, and I’ve frozen quite a few beans to be enjoyed next winter. They’re still coming in at a pretty good rate, and the little French fillet beans (Calima) are definitely on the do-again list, in fact, probably more of them and a bit less of some of the other varieties.

Except for a very few here & there, we’re still waiting for the tomatoes, but the squash and cucumbers are coming in at a manageable pace.

My new rose bush had a tiny, but nice surprise for me – I wanted red, and this is a lovely red.

Prairie Clogger (Griffin Buck rose).

If anyone’s looking for me, I’ll probably either be in the garden, or in the kitchen dealing with the veggies 😉

Goin’ Knitting

Time for Knitting Camp – can’t wait to see everyone 🙂

Meanwhile …

There’s another shawl pattern, Ripples on the Shore, up on Ravelry. The sample used Crazy Zauberball; I had to keep going just to see what the colors were going to do next 😉

Ripples on the Shore

These 2 geraniums were very small when I got them – they’re starting to fill the larger pots quite nicely!

The beans have really taken off; I picked the first ones on Wednesday, then even more yesterday, and we had the first ones (just plain with a little salt & butter – yum!!!) for dinner last night. At the rate they’re going, I’ll be putting lots in the freezer, which will be lovely next winter! I’m still waiting for the wax beans to be ready, but some are starting to show color.

No ripe tomatoes yet, but there are quite a few green ones out there. I imagine the trick will be to get them before the squirrels do. The now huge volunteer squash plant in the compost looks like it’s likely to be a butternut, so it will be a while before any of them are ripe, but it’s really spreading … and I thought the dill almost looked like little yellow bursts of fireworks 🙂

Off & running …

or at least sort of 😉 This weekend is the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nearest town, and I’ll be KIPing (in costume) at the Courthouse both Saturday and Sunday. I’ve packed a variety of projects – a lace edging, facecloth, sock and a mitten. I’ll try to get some photos.

All the yarns in the basket have been worked up, and they were all lovely. Here are a couple of the yarn doodlings

Panda Silk

Sweet Georgia Cashsilk

Yesterday I was looking for some straight needles (well-hidden as they so rarely get used!); Look what I found while digging in a box of old knitting stuff – wow!!!The shaded sweater actually caught my eye first, but the 2nd one is also an Elizabeth Zimmermann design, though in 1960, Woman’s Day obviously wasn’t into giving designers credit. Mom must have ordered the booklet, and also saved the pictures from the magazine. There are more goodies in the box that I need to investigate later.

Found this in the yard this afternoon (right before it was mowed) – there was 1 small clump/plant that was mostly 5-leafed ones, though I never saw one quite like this before. And this was the first thing I saw when I went out on the deck yesterday morning – big surprise! I’d prefer it stay off the deck, but I’m happy to have it doing rodent patrol in the yard.

Black rat snake; usually just called a black snake

Guess I need to quit procrastinating and finish packing!

Yarn, garden and other bits

I received some interesting yarns to doodle with,

Seeds are coming up in the garden …

Roma Italian beans.

Squash.

and the planters are looking good

In a moment of possible insanity, I said I’d participate in the 250th anniversary celebration for our county seat, which meant digging out a craft show wardrobe that hasn’t been used in forever. We won’t discuss the fact that some alterations are needed, but if I do say so, I’m still rather proud of some of the trim details I did so many years ago!

Craft show clothes

Apron pocket detail.

Apron lace (yes, it needs to be ironed)

April showers …

in this case, can cause problems! Starting way too early this morning with a wake-up call from Toby because it was storming (time for his Thundershirt and Rescue Remedy!), it kept raining most of the day (almost 4″ in the gauge), and a pond that’s nearly overflowing. We’re usually lucky to have a foot or 2 in it!

At times like this, we’re very happy to be 200-300 ft higher than the highway, because the creek running next to it went over the road in at least a couple of places (pictures on Facebook), and it was even worse in a number of areas around the St. Louis region.

While I was over by the pond, I sneaked a peek into the bluebird house, and saw what looked like a blue tail sticking up on the left, but didn’t want to disturb her, so it’s not a very good photo. 

Meanwhile things are blooming, and I saw the first hummer of the season this morning, though only briefly.

Serviceberry (top); flowering quince (left); lilac (right).

I tried a recipe from Essential Pepin today; Red Snapper with Leeks, Mushrooms & Shallots – with a few substitutions, that is. The recipe said it was suitable for any firm-fleshed fish and I had a piece of flounder, green onions, dried shiitake mushrooms and 1 red sweet Italian pepper, so I sliced, diced and seasoned a bit, simmered everything but the fish in a cup of white wine, then put the fish on top of the sauce, simmered until the fish was just done, and the recipe’s definitely a keeper! Talk about getting out of one’s comfort zone! Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t crochet very much – my skills there are pretty minimal, but a friend asked for help with his Mom’s treasured afghan. She’s in a nursing home, and the afghan had been sent through the big washer. Unfortunately, some of the yarn in it was wool and didn’t tolerate that at all well.

Granny square: before.

It would be nice if it were possible to insert rows/rounds into crochet like you can with knitting, but as far as I can find out, crochet doesn’t work that way, so I ended up taking the square out, adding 2 rounds with new yarn, then recycling the original yarn for the last 2 rounds. She was very thrifty with her ends, so it wasn’t easy 😉 Hope I don’t need to do it again!

Granny square: after