Catching Up.....

On Saturday we took time off from packing up the cupboards in our kitchen for a quick drive into the foothills. We've had several clear and crisp days in a row, and the mountains were beautiful. How'd you like this view from your backyard?

We drove as far as Darrington and then headed home, taking one last shot of the scenery behind us.

I got a good chuckle of this photo from Jill. Apparently in the Midwest, the art of shoveling is taught early! Good work, Daniel!

Finished up one mystery sock and am heading up the toe of #2. (I did remember the cast-on luckily.) It fits!

I also made a cowl, using a pattern link Janet's website and a second pair of rainbow socks, knee-highs, this time. As you can see sock#2 is bigger than sock one for some mysterious reason.


At the moment on the sewing front, I am trying to make a quilt "sandwich" on the Tutu quilt, but it's fighting me, and while I should get out my sampler, I'm heading out for lunch with a friend. Oh well. Catch you later!

On to the Cuff and a Little Stitching... Finally!

We still have some reminders of Christmas at our house. This lovely planter arrived at the end of November all ready to grow. It's been blooming constantly since December when the "Stars of Bethlehem" popped open. (That little flower was our troop crest in Junior Girl Scouts years ago. How did Janet know this?) Just when we thought the plants were all done, one last amaryllis appeared with a blossom in time for Valentine's Day! How fun is that? Many thanks to Mike and Janet for such a long-lasting and beautiful gift!

My Christmas Sampler serves as a reminder, along with the Advent scarf, that some holiday projects remain uncompleted. This week I did do a little stitching as promised on the reindeer. Now I'm wondering why I started with the end of the alphabet?

Starting from the end gets to be a habit, I think. Anyhow, the mystery sock began with the toe, a skill I wanted to learn. The last clue, the cuff, was posted yesterday. Another 17 rows and this sock WILL BE DONE! Then the challenge remains, sock #2. Will I remember the magic cast-on? Time will tell!

But wait you say, "Isn't anything new happening?" Well, yes, the cupboards arrive next Friday, and the old ones are slowly being emptied. We are even getting rid of a few things. Shocking, isn't it? And on our walks we are noticing that the moles think spring is coming. Destructive little buggers, aren't they? We are SO glad this isn't in our yard.....yet.

A Bit of Stitching/Knitting, a Skeleton, SNOW and a Recipe

Last week was pretty crazy. We are getting ready to update our kitchen and spent quite a bit of time trying to decide exactly what we wanted to do before ordering the new cupboards. That left little time for blogging or stitching. I did, however, make a little progress on my mystery sock. Actually I have finished clue 3 which includes the gussets, but this photo only shows clue 2. This pattern requires some concentration, and I ended up doing some ripping on the third clue because I hadn't read the row numbers correctly.

Certain felines were somewhat interested in my progress on clue #3. Too bad they couldn't give me any advice! Their catnaps take precedence over absolutely everything.

Even though we were busy, we managed to keep up with our walking. One afternoon we noticed something quite intriguing near the sidewalk under the pines: leaf skeletons! Neither of us had seen anything like this before and later brought some more home to put in a vase. We think they are rhododendron leaves.

While we were merrily taking our walks in the sunshine, DD#1 and family were experiencing the great Chicago blizzard, and DS was feeling quite good for barely missing it. (He returned home from David's birthday weekend late Sunday.)
Check out the neighbor's garage door!
Hours and much shoveling later, the same driveway looked like this:

Last night I finally picked up my Christmas SAL, having put it away in November to concentrate on the holidays. At that time, it looked like this:

Here's the promised recipe for those of you who were interested. It freezes well, too! As for me, I'm off to work on letter "R," that reindeer.

Cranberry Nut Bread (I used gluten free flour and dairy-free margerine.)

1 cu. coarsely ground cranberries (Mix with ¼ cu sugar and set aside.)

Sift together:
1 cu. sugar
3 cu. flour
4 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 T. grated orange rind

Blend in:
1 cu. milk
3 T. melted butter
1 egg, slightly beaten
½ cu. chopped nuts

Fold in sweetened cranberries and pour into large greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Cool and remove from pan.

(Will make 3 small loaf pans but you have to adjust the cooking time.)

Quilts, Socks and Such

Last fall one of the local quilt guilds had a show where one of our group's joint projects was displayed. This past week a friend sent me a photo to share; each of us made a dress (mine is the one on the top right), and then two others put it together and quilted it. The quilt was donated to the local Ronald McDonald house.

Lots of vendors were also at the show, and I found a kit from one of my favorites: Hummerdog Quilts. Her kits, in addition to being accurately precut, are always cute and beautifully packaged as well. One of 15, this little widget was correctly identified as a tutu, first by Susan and then a few others.

One tutu will be attached to each leotard after the quilt is quilted. The top, which has a total of 6 rows, is all ready to be "sandwiched," and only 4 more tutus need finishing. I am aiming to have it finished to take along on our next trip to Chicago. (There are two other quilts that need to be finished before then also!)

One of my goals has been to learn how to knit a sock from the toe up, so when I saw this mystery project at the Knitters Brewing Company, I joined. To my delight, I finally figured out how to do "Judy's Magic Cast-on" after a few false starts and finished the first clue. Hopefully, I'll be able to remember for sock #2!

The other item that was completed this week was a pair of socks for David. He requested a pair of wool socks a few weeks ago, and when asked for a color, replied, "Rainbow". Luckily I had some Crystal Palace Mini Mocha in that very color. The two don't quite match, but I don't think he'll mind.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the cranberry bread turned out great. I used my regular recipe plus Gluten Free flour from Jules Gluten Free as well as some non-dairy "butter". Maybe I'll include the recipe on my next post; it's one I've had so long that I don't remember its origin.

Oh, the Weather Outside Is Dreary.......

On Tuesday evening we had our "snow event" which had been predicted for more than a week. According to the forecast, the snow was to begin during the rush hour; thus, on our way home from volunteering at the hospital that afternoon, we saw buses decked out in chains but NO snow. No snow, that is until about 7:45 PM, when I glanced outside to see lots of fluffy flakes, falling hard. In no time at all, the view from our front door looked like this:

And outside looking in, like this:

Dick thought our neigbor's house looked especially pretty. However, during the night, the temperature began to rise, and rain began falling so that by morning, all that was left was a mere trace and a few strangely parked cars that had been abandoned during the height of the snowfall. Today the thermometer reads 55 degrees!

In case you're wondering whether I've abandoned my stitching and knitting, I haven't. I've been taking stock of bags of UFOs and trying to decide which one should be finished first. I also joined the Mystery 220 group and am for the moment caught up...at least till Saturday when clue #3 will be posted. Mocha is quite curious as to what this will be. I think I know....we'll see.

Another project I started before Christmas and had hoped to finish. Life got in the way, and I spent about a week like this: (Mocha and Ginger liked the new routine!)

Fortunately, I am fine now and back making 15 of these these little widgets:

Can you guess what they are? They are to be attached to something I'm making for a certain little gal who loves pink and knows how to defend her territory. Doesn't she look like she's saying, "Hands off!"

Maybe in the next post I'll reveal what these are. Meanwhile I'm going to go make some cranberry bread. I am trying to relearn how to bake gluten and dairy free, a real challenge. (Oh, and in case you are curious, that strange looking flower in my header is witch hazel. Every January it begins to bloom, and it's right on schedule.) Happy January!

Mountain Magic

Late Monday afternoon, at the spur of the moment, we jumped into the car and headed to Snoqualmie Pass which is about 25 miles east on I-90. That's the same I-90 that ends around Boston! We were surprised at the amount of snow because there is no snow at our house at all.

Even more surprising were the pink snow-capped peaks, thanks to the setting sun.

We had heard about "pink snow" connected with Mount Rainier but had never seen it ourselves. How fun and how magical!

Here's a plane taking off, we hope to somewhere warm. Wouldn't it be great to capture these colors in yarn or fabric?

In no time at all the pink had faded into a dusty blue, and it was time to head home. For me it was yet another reminder to take joy in the moment. These beautiful minutes are all too fleeting and can escape entirely unnoticed! Carpe diem!

Cheerio says, "Happy New Year!"

Since we don't have cardinals here and love them, I decided to create one using the Penguin pattern. (Next up, maybe a bluebird, robin, or since I have left over penguin-yarn a crow?)

Today I've been playing with my new toy! Instead of this,

I can now do this.

Oh my, what fun! I did 5 skeins of yarn this afternoon in no time at all. Dick loves my toy also as he did NOT enjoy holding the yarn and DOES like to use that chair....that is if Ginger doesn't get there first.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! May this year that began with 1/1/11 be filled with wonder and joy for you and your families!