The Learning Curve

I'm still learning what the iPhone app can do for this blog. It's great that it is with me at almost all times, so when I think of something, I can just write a paragraph. I can take phone pictures and insert them. They come out bigger than what I was using and I cannot resize them, not so good. I cannot add links from the phone, but if I work on the PC, I can add the links later. I did that with the Tomato Tart yesterday.

Last night, I finished the last of this year's Christmas stockings. I knit a total of 7, 5 for a customer, and 2 for the family. These 2 are #29 and #30 in the series. It doesn't seem like the family is that large, but we never see everyone at once. Ryan is my granddaughter's husband, First you have 2 kids together, then you get married. I should have done this one last year. Cyrus is my newest great grandson.

Thinking about creativity, I'm sitting here wearing clothes that I made: a wool lined skirt, a blouse and a lace shawl. Waiting in the kitchen for consumption later today is a pumpkin scone, a tomato tart, Asiago cheese bread, pumpkin cookies, and baked oatmeal. The scone is for breakfast with eggs. The tart, bread and cookies are for lunch at work, and the oatmeal is for a late after noon snack. The breads and oatmeal came from the freezer and were made within the last month. The freezer is my friend now that I live alone. I'm thinking of making split pea soup this weekend.

Trying the iPhone

Tonight is knitting night at the Bottle House. I'm looking forward to trying one of their Christmas brews if there is any left. They only make a limited quantity of each. Other beers are made in larger quantities.

I finally have a picture of my blue sweater. It seems longer than planned, but I haven't tried it on. I planned for it to hit at my high hip, but it seems to be a full length cardigan.The dress form is petite, so it's not that long. I may shorten it after I see how long the sleeves will be.

I was abler to taste the Balthazar's Gift beer. It seems to have some spices in it. I also had a glass of oatmeal ale. I tasted brown sugar in that one. Not many knitters, but a good night at the brewery.

Inherited

One drill/driver with dead rechargeable batteries. It was my husband's. After internet research, and e-mailing the company(Ridgid), I went to the Home Depot service department. The sent me to Hardware, where a nice young man tested the charger and batteries, and swapped out a dead battery for a new one. Retail price of the new battery is $69.95. I still may pay that to replace the second battery, but not today.

Yesterday, I tried to post about the tomatoes which are still abundant, although now ripening int he house. I must not have saved it on the phone. The PC version has an automatic save feature. Anyway, I have 2 gallon bags of tomatoes in the fridge which need to attended to. Some will be chopped and frozen, but I'm looking for ambition to make tomato tarts in my new pan. The mini pie/tart pan will make individual servings. Photos if I get to it today!

I used the Ziplock bowl to cut the crust the right size, and as you see the tarts fit nicely. They will be great for lunch.

Checked out The Bottle House on Facebook. The Balthazar's Gift Ale is spiced with spiced orange and coriander.

So Many Blog Posts....

....have been written in my head. so few (none) have made it into the computer.

What have I knit since i last posted? A pair of socks for my Granddaughter Luci. I bought the red yarn at my knitting guild swap sale. It is Schaeffer Anna, which I had never tried before. It is not my favorite yarn. The patter was another mystery sock, being released in four parts, a week apart. It was the September mystery, and Luci's birthday is October 30, so I had plenty of time.

 My guild is hosting A knitter's Fantasy next April, and chose Wingspan as a guild project. Mine is knit from Crystal Palace Mini Mochi that  I originally bought for socks. I don't like knitting this at a small gauge, so it became a scarf.

Another guild project is children's scarves and other warm things for charity. I have knit 2 scarves so far. One I may have shown, using squares of garter stitch. This started with bulky yarn and continued with 2 strands of worsted or what ever, using small odd balls of yarn. Black was used consistently throughout.

The second scarf was made of long strips of ribbing, sewn together with bobbles. The pattern is in Pam Allen's  Scarf Style book. Again, I used small odd balls of yarn. I haven't made much of a dent yet, but I'm trying.

 The scarf I'm knitting now uses tapestry yarn. Lots of 1 yard pieces spit spliced together. Most of this is left over from embroidery projects I have done. a little of it was inherited from my mother. It's time it was used up or thrown out, or some of each.

Once upon a time, as recently as last year, I had a vest  from Sally Melville's Purl Book. As I lost weight, the vest became too large. I loved the yarn, but the yarn/pattern combination was not a good enough mix to be worth repeating in a smaller size. One Sunday I went to church and saw a cute sweater that I thought would work. It was the February Lady Sweater. I have finished the body and started the sleeves. They will end somewhere around my elbow. I'm not sure exactly where.

I started the sleeves by measuring the two pieces of knitting remaining from the vest. They are about the same in square inches. I'm using the smaller one first. and think that I can knit 9" of sleeve before the garter stitch band at the end. The buttons are crocheted and were used on the vest. The yarn is Berocco Cotton Twist., bought specifically for the vest.

I knit some face cloths for daughter Jen's birthday at her request. I have a few more that I would like to knit for gifts for more people.

Much of my time has been used designing a mystery sock for the Solid socks group on Ravelry. Part I goes live on December 1st. I am working on the second sock, test knitting/tweaking the pattern as I go. The yarn on this project is Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn.

I also have been knitting family Christmas Stockings. The first one is finished. This is #29 in the line of family stockings. Two recipients are no longer with the family and I may reuse their designs at some point. I have a basic Christmas Stocking pattern and each stocking is different. I have a number of them shown on the Ravelry pattern page. Like members of the family each one is different, but bears a family resemblance.

I've been quite busy at work, which is good. I need customers in order to stay in business.

Frustration

Last night was knitting night at the Bottle House. About 20 knitters showed up. I was working on my last Christmas stocking for my customer. The first problem was that I started knitting the foot with green yarn instead of red. Okay retreat and try again. They I noticed that I had embroidered the date upside down.  What should have been '89 was 68,. It took a long time to undo the embroidery and restitch. I almost got it correct., but tonight I noticed that not only was the 9 too narrow, my friend noticed that it was not placed correctly. Try again! I did finally finish the stocking and used the new pompom makers I picked up earlier in the day. They are Clover brand and I think I like them, I still need a photo of all the stockings, but will do it in daylight.

My local library yielded  a disc of Paul Hindmith Kammermusick, I heard No. 1(for small orchestra) Saturday night and loved it., so I put in a reserve for the disc. I put the whole 2 discs on my iPhone. I own Berlioz Symphonie Fatastique and will put that on the phone also.


I spent a couple of hours at work today (on my day off), doing things like gluing the hem on a pair of leather pants. I had to buy more glue, which is why I also bought the pompom makers. It's been a long time since I had so much work at once. I guess the famine is over.

Busy Weekend

Saturday
I made pumpkin pie flavored overnight oatmeal, and froze the rest of the pumpkin. I worked all day. Very productive. I finally have work to do for customers. Most of September has been very slow.

In the evening I went to a Cleveland Orchestra concert with my son. We heard a Hindemith piece, a beautiful Strauss oboe concerto and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. I liked all pieces enough that I tried to reserve the first two from the library to hear again. I own the Berlioz one, but hadn't listened for a while. It will get much play time this week.

Sunday
Pumpkin pie oatmeal for breakfast. I'm not sure if I really like it. It's all right, but may not be worth doing again. I did usual church and gym and went to watch grandson play soccer  in the afternoon. Then I came home and played in the kitchen. I've been cleaning out the freezer of unlabeled mysteries. a turkey carcass turned into turkey broth. I found some chicken and turkey, as well as two containers of soup. One is the lentil soup I enjoyed last week. I need to find the recipe. The other is Senate bean soup, which I think is in Joy of Cooking. Dinner was chicken and dumplings. Very tasty.

Another scarf finished

Thursday
Planting happened. I moved a number of plants before my sister arrived. She brought 7 hostas from her yard. I had some dusty-miller/ plants that made a nice border last year. They didn't die over the winter, and this year they grew and grew. looking on Google, I still don't know if they are annuals or perennials. Last winter was mild. They might die off this year. At any rate I want to plant something else in that border next year. I'm thinking a combination of flowers and lettuce.

Friday
Busy day at work, finally! It's been so slow that it'll be hard to pay bills. I'm afraid to look at the bank account. today I had a couple of alterations jobs quick quick, because of the Jewish holidays. Easy hems as waist adjustments, and same day money. It works for me!

I finished a charity scarf made from off bits of yarn. there is a lot of Wool Ease in it, as well as some mystery yarns. I started with a chunky yarn and 20 sts. I doubled most of the rest of the yarns. Each square is 20 ridges, and is offset by 10 sts.

Tonight I cooked up the rest of my green beans and turned them into my favorite green bean salad. I found this salad in the heat of the summer when a neighbor gave me some fresh green beans. It  has lettuce and feta cheese. Dressing is olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and orange juice. Fennel seeds and dried cranberries are added. YUM!