The Face of Summer

It was Christmas that snowed me under, and left me without a thought of my own.  I was burned out on everything and went into survival mode.  No creative juices flowed, no real time even to wonder why.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep this blog going, but I am going to give it another chance and see how it goes.  So, hang with me and we will do this together. 

It was Dish Rag Tag that modivated me to start a blog and step out into the world of the internet via knitting.  What a community it is and growing all the time.  I feel a bit overwhelmed by the speed of it and all the “new” that is added on a daily basis.  And so, it is Dish Rag Tag: the sequel that has me back here again trying to get on track and learn a few more tricks, and share the journey.

How did it get to be so close to Christmas……but, I’m just not ready to do this.  Oh, Dear!   I guess that was a thought Mary might have had as she prepared to take a donkey ride at 9 months pregnant.  The birth happened anyway, whether she was prepared or not….and so it is with us also.  Expectations and dreams of the perfect Christmas will be set aside, and the simple and meaningful will take its place.  Mary was with the one she loved most.  It was quiet and peaceful.  The animals I am sure gave them warmth and company.  Hoping yours do also.  What is done will have to be just right.  Mary’s plans of having her baby in a familiar place with the things she had prepared had to be put aside.  What she had with her would have to do.  Food this year will be simple, and the gifts will be more meaningful because there are fewer of them.  

I decided that there must have been mice hiding in and around the straw and hay that fed the animals in the place where Baby Jesus slept.  So, there are a few mice hiding in the Christmas tree with its many straw ornaments.  The Gkids have not found them yet, but talking about how it might have been will help make Jesus’ birth more real.  

There is still time to get a few things done, but I will keep Mary in mind, and not stress.  It all turned out just fine.  Mary’s newborn Son came into this world of ours with all He needed.  The gift of Jesus alone is all we really need.  I guess I am ready after all!   Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you!  Sip some tea and enjoy the ones you love.

 The MasonDixon Girls of www.masondixonknitting.com keep me intertained quite often, and every once in awhile there is a gem on their blog that just makes my day.  And so, it happened one day, when the sunflower dishrag made its appearance.  I am just nuts over sunflowers, and this pattern just had to be a part of my ever growing collection of dishrags.  The best part was that it was a part of a dishrag calandar, www.knittingcalendar.blogspot.com,  that can be downloaded with each month of the year having two dishrags to knit.  The calendar comes complete with instructions for making each dishrag.

Little did I know, that I would play a very small but important part of this very calendar.  In the wee hours of the night, I downloaded my copy of the calendar on cardstock and after some sleep , got busy on the dishrag.  Determination mixed with excitement motivated me, but three trial runs later I knew something was wrong.  There was a little mix-up in the pattern, and once I figured it out, it was an easy knit.  I  had received an e-mail from Kay about testing out the pattern earlier, and so I shoot off a quick e-mail back with “the fix”, and all is now well with this pattern. 

In Kay’s comments about her dishrag, she said that it had not touched a drop of water.  I feel the same about mine.  It is a bit of folkart that may hang on the wall instead of shrinking in the wash cycle.  It will never mop up spilt apple juice, or a glob of strawberry jam that has slipped off the knife while making PB&J sandwiches. It will never grace the hot handle of a pot or lid, or be a coaster for a drippy mug of coffee.  It will never be held under a cold bowl of ice cream.  It will never clean the fingers of the 2yr. old after an attempt at cracking an egg, or scrub the top of the table where the playdough has been……OH No,…..this baby is ART!

Back in October, I decided to apply for the International Scarf Exchange 5 to see if I would get an invitation to participate.  I was hungry for a new challenge after the Dishrag Tag, and thought it would be fun to do it with a few of my team mates from the Tag.  I got the invitation, and so did Laurie and Cathy-Cate.  There are 200 who are allowed to particpate in this event and we were all first timers.  This is how it works.  You fill out a questionairre about yourself with preferences for a scarf such as color and choice of yarn type, and also a style of scarf ( lace, geometric, long, or asymetric ).  There is a hostess who is assigned to a group of us, and that hostess plans the exchanges, e-mails you, and makes sure you get your scarf mailed before the deadline.  Each person has a Pal to knit a scarf for, and each person has a secret Pal that is knitting a scarf for them.  The exchanges are always in a different country from where the person lives.  I live in the US, and my Pal is in the Netherlands..Hi, Sarah-Katherine!  I have a secret Pal that is knitting a scarf for me, (Hi! Secret Knitter) and as of yet, I don’t know where she lives or very much about her at all except that she is somewhere in the world trying to finish and mail off the scarf before the Dec. 1 deadline.  The magic happens when the scarf is sent with goodies to its intented home and the person it was intended for receives it and all the treats that were sent as well.  That happened for me this week and what fun it was for Sarah-Katherine to get her box only 4 working days after I sent it….amazing!  The floral cutting and glueing on the front of the box were meant to keep the package from getting lost or ignored. I guess that worked and then some.

The box was sent on Friday, and received in the Netherland on Wednesday of the next week.  We both were in shock over the speed of its arrival……and delighted!  I have never received an e-mail with so many explanation points.  She was definately excited.  Sarah-Katherine got her craving satisfied for the time being for chocolate & peanut butter in the form of peanut butter M&Ms, and peanut butter filled Hershey kisses.  She also got the snack pack of Jif peanut butter par her request.  I think she likes peanut butter.  There were other personal goodies, and of course the scarf.

Trial Run #1

The scarf started out as a trial run on the pattern and the gauge.  Like all trial runs, you learn a lot about the pattern and how it looks, feels to knit and if this is the “one”.  In this case it was NOT the one.  The gauge on 8’s was way to big, and I wasn’t sure about the varigated yarn with the pattern.  This swach got frogged right after I took this picture.

Trial Run #2

The next try was the same pattern with a smaller needle (perfect), and the hand dyed red looked good.  It would have worked for a casual look with jeans, but that was not what I was after in a style.  I was looking for something more refined, but not too dressy.  The yarn choice ended up being a wool/soy combo from Paton in a royal blue with the pattern coming from the Holiday Gifts issue of Interweave Knit magazine, called Quiviuk Webs Tam and Scarf.  It was so fun to knit, my first time reading charts and there were four of them for this pattern.  It ended up being 70+ inches long and 5 1/2 “wide.  The yarn was shiny and a bit fuzzy and very soft to the touch.  I am so glad you like it SK. :0) 

The Real Deal…The “One”!

 The best part for me has been to finally reveal who I am and be able to be more open in our conversations.  It has been pure JOY to get to know this amazing person that lives half a world away, but shares so much in common with me and my family.  It has been extra fabulishious as SK would say.   So what started out as a scarf exchange, has developed into a full blown exchange of ideas, hopes, dreams, everyday happenings, and truly a desire to care about and support each other.  Our friendship has just begun!

YOU JUST GOTTA LOV’IT.  

If you are a collector of anything, you have the “gathering gene”.  If you are a women and a collector, well, you “gather” a lot and this will reflect in your off-spring!  I am one of those, and the off-spring of the off-spring hatched a plan.  The Oct. 26th issue of  All You magazine hit the house with a cover filled with monster faced cupcakes.  It was my duty and job to hunt down and gather all necessary candy, cereal, fruit roll, chocolate chips, marshmellows, food coloring, and the all important decorating tips, to recreate the monsters on the cover and in the inside article.  The nine year old Gboy had spoken.

This process went on for a few weeks and resulted in some fun finds.  Wilton has the silcone cupcake bakers with legs in four different colors.  I had not used a silcone mold for baking before and was surprised how great they worked.  Perfect monster fair.  The Wilton cupcake decorating kit was also helpful, and came with a long tip for inserting filling into your cupcake (later for that one).  We struck gold when the local grocery store gave you the decorating kit if you bought the silcone molds.  We were on a roll!  The next challenge was the cereal.   In the end, we decided to buy the small variety boxes in order to get the different kinds we needed without having to have lots of leftover cereal.  The candy was the easiest part, but much discussion went on before hand about just what kind would make the best eyes, for instance.  Since Gboy#1 is a collector, this process was just as exciting as making them. 

Well, the night finally arrived for “the baking” and ” the making”.  The result was quite amazing.  The cover picture ended up being a mere starting point for the decorating mini-chefs.  The adults got involved, and all in all, it was a great gathering of artistic handiwork. 

I love it when a plan comes together!   

 For most avid knitters and craft people in general, their chosen passion is squished in between the everyday of life.  It is always on our minds, and more often than not, we orchestrate our day around those times when we know we can steal some time and get “away” through that which we L-O-V-E to do.  Errands and even food shopping always include a side trip to the LYS or craft store.  If you are food shopping, there is the magazine rack that can be fruitful for ideas and projects.  It becomes part of the food budget….how devine.  Supermarkets should carry Noro, what a killing they would make!  And so it is with me,  I fit knitting into the everyday frenzy of a very busy household with many balls being juggled in the air at any given moment.  Sometimes I do great with it, and other times I am so desparate to have time to knit that I have been known to take my knitting into the “ladies room” and shut the door for 5 minutes.  After all, it is cozy and quiet, and has a fairly decent seat….for 5 minutes anyway.  The projects I attempt under all this busyness are rather small.  Anything long term might never see the light of day, and find itself buried under the bed keeping company with the dust bunnies that live under there.  It feels good to get a project to its end and see something finished, unlike the dishes that keep finding their way from the cupboard back into the sink.

As you know,at times this blog is a tribute to the ladies of Quakertown Quilts in Friendswood, Texas that were willing to put it out there and learn to knit.  Their final project was to knit a bear for the Mother Bear Project.  This was no small feat!  It has taken many months to get all the smily faced bears finished.  The face being the hardest part for many, including myself.  Each bear has its own unique qualities and quirks, and for sure, no two are alike.  The best part of all is that each bear spent a lot of time with its maker and will be sent off to some place of need in Africa with lots of love to share.  With great delight I placed each bear in the box, 18 total.  It is now ready to send, and a project started is now finished. 

The information for making these bears can be found on the website above, or found in Knitting for Peace by Betty Christiansen.  I have this book and recommend it for gift giving for the holidays ahead.  It has some amazing stories and patterns, and certainly enough ways to give of your talents to meet many different tastes.  And giving back really does get you in the “mood” for the holidays, unlike the overwhelming row upon row of lights and ornaments, blow ups, greenery, and glittery blinking blarring bobbles and bows in every corner of every store. 

Good bye sweet Bears……go make a friend and share a hug or two with a small  someone who really REALLY needs you!

 Laurie, our Dishrag Team Captain, knew I liked green and that is why she knit me a varigated green dishrag for our reverse swap.  Many of us did this for the person who knit us a dishrag in the TAG relay.  We also got to add other goodies to the box that we thought would be fitting for that person.  So that is why I got green stitch markers that remind me of sea glass, and a BIG bag of peanut M&Ms.  The yarn is especially wonderful because you can dye it any color you so desire…..my favorite dye for yarn right now is Kool-aid (maybe lemon-lime with blue rasperry).   I haven’t knit with this particular kind of yarn for socks before, so I am delighted to get the opportunity.  THANK YOU, LAURIE for the wonderful box (just like a Christmas sock in a box)!

The color green seems to make its way into every corner of my life.  It is in the garden of course, in my knitting and sewing, in my dressing and jewlery, but most of all in my decorating.  I grew up in a green house on the inside.  Ivy dishes and ivy wallpaper with green walls…..a decor that stayed in that house forever.   I like to mix my green with reds and a touch of blue here and there, and that also hasn’t changed much over the years.  The intensity has but the basic colors have not…..just like me.  I use to be more shy and quite, and now I am more outgoing and …..should I say it…..LOUD!  Ouch!  I really do love to laugh out loud now than ever before!  That is the beauty of getting older and just being more secure as a person.

Since I am very creatively busy, I think the green around me that I can see grounds my ever increasing desire for creative expression.  Here are some walls that I look at every day, and love to feast my eyes upon for affirmation that yes, this is indeed my home.

I hope there are places in your home that speak of who you are and what you love.  I love dishes and miniture tea sets, sunflowers and things that say,”There are children around this house”.  My oldest Gboy made the pretzel house done over a small milk carton……I’m not sure he will ever get it back….I adore it!

A Finished Project off the needles… 

I am presently in decorating (sewing) mode….finished some valances in the bedroom and an upholstered-type top for the upright piano, and I am now onto the piano seat…pics to come….stay tuned……

In this family, we know our JellyBellys.  This is a blue bag of JellyBellys, and having NO previous knowledge of the characteristics of a Harry Potter item, was unaware of what I was about to experience.  Innocently enough I popped three of these colorful beans in my mouth and began to chew.  OH…MY!  I ran to the sink in the kitchen from the living room, my stomach lurching and the taste in my mouth getting more intense by the millisecond.  I couldn’t imagine a more discusting taste.   WHAT ARE THE FLAVORS IN THAT BAG.     It all became perfectly clear as I read the label (should have done that before the tasting began).  In alphabetical order the following flavors are:  Black Pepper, Blueberry, Booger, Buttered popcorn, Dirt, Earthworm, Earwax, Grape Jelly, Grass, Pickle, Lemon Drop, Sardine, Sizzling Cinnamon, Soap, Sausage, Rotten Egg, Toasted Marshmellow,  Tutti-Fruitti, Very Cherry, and last but by no means least, VOMMIT.  I am wondering just what three I mixed together………Oh! the thought of it!!

JellyBellys are a game at our house.  We all sit around the table, each person getting a small handful (around ten) of JBs, and the tasting begins.  It is required that you examine your JB and note color, then it’s chewed and swallowed before announcing the flavor you think it is. The flavor chart is consulted and we move on to the next person.  Eight yr. olds love this game!  A minor version of Fear Factor.  We also like making up our own “recipes” by combining flavors.  The Bertie Botts every flavor Beans takes this game playing to a whole new level.

After the initial shock wore off, here are some of the combinations we came up with from the Bertie Botts batch of beans:

       Sausage, Rotten Egg, & Grape Jelly…….Harry Potter Breakfast Flavor

       Booger, Soap, Vommit, & Lemon Drop……The common Cold Flavor

       Earthworm, Grass, & Dirt………Garden Flavor

       Pickle, Toasted Marshmellow, & Tutti-Fruitti……….Pregnant Flavor

       Sizzling Cinnamon, Black Pepper, & Sardine…..Blackened Fish Flavor

       Vommit, Sausage, & Rotten Egg……..Morning Sickness Flavor  (The worst !)

       Booger, Grass & Dirt……2 yr old Flavor…could be 8yr old Flavor too.

       None of these combos have been ingested..or maybe they have, come to think of it.

Come PLAY along.    Send me a comment with your flavor combo.    I will post the best of the bunch.

By the way, the folks at JellyBelly in California are sending out a box of 50 flavors to my household.  I mentioned to them via phone how sick we all got last night playing  Fear Factor style with the Bertie Botts batch of JBs.  Some of us were too queasy to eat Birthday cake.  The 8 yr old, turned 9, hated the Booger flavor which was saying something when he eats his own on occasion.  I wouldn’t recommend ANY small child eating any of the flavors except the fruit ones.  These are INTENCE flavors.  The Black Pepper is like eating a solid teaspoon of pepper, and the Soap is like eating REAL SOAP.

Christmas sock on needles, just turned the heel, heading into the home stretch.

The International Scarf Exchange 5 is still accepting applications.  Head on over to www.ise5.com and sign up fast.  Hope to see you there………..and watch what you eat, ya just never know…….

The box came today in all its crumpled glory. The mail carrier was a little embarrased to be handing it off, and I am sure she was wondering what all the fuss was about as I was greedly trying to get it out of her hands.  It didn’t look too exciting to her……,” but its the BOX!!!” I told her beaming.

Well, who had time to explain…..I had knitting to be done, and goodies to discover. 

I waited, oh….maybe 5 seconds, then with scissors in hand I carefully performed box surgery.  So much tape was holding it together.  I got it back into a cube shape, briefly looked at all the great things Marie sent,  grabbed a cotton skein and got busy casting on.   Five minutes shy of two hours the dishcloth was finished.  The fastest I have ever knit.  I had my husband let me know the time in 15 minute increments.  It helped keep the pace. 

After entering information online and a very brief message to the team, it was time to fill the box with yarn and goodies for Emily.  Postcards from every state the box went, the required two skeins of cotton, sweet treats and assorted momentoes, and of course the dishrag.  I layed the “Read ME” sheet on the very top and taped her up..(the box is a She).  The label got printed and just as I am taping it on, I started to get very teary…….didn’t see that coming.  Being last to send the box meant that it was almost over and I will miss the adventure of it all.

With my husband insisting on doing the driving (the thought of an emotional,excited,tired-from-knitting,hasn’t-had-lunch wife on the road scared him….oh,why?), we made our swift way to the post office and handed our box off once again to travel another distance.  Only this time it was going home to Emily.  The sweet USPS clerk weighed in the box.

 It was after we got home that I could really enjoy looking at all the fun goodies that Marie sent, and how sweet the dishrag looked.  All of it was great, Marie, Thank You so very much.  And Thank You Emily for all the hard work to keep this afloat for all to enjoy, and enjoy we did!

The pink and grey petal design went in the box to Alabama knitted from the yarn Marie sent in the box, and I get the square dishrag in one of my very favorite colorways! 

There are greetings and congratulations galore at the party over at www.yarnmiracle.com right now since just today we found out who won second,  third , and  fourth place in the TAG.  Come join the fun!

As of yesterday morning, I have been TAGGED by my team member Marie in Alabama. I am the last leg of the Dishrag Tag relay race from all over the US, and it is my job to “bring it home”. Being last has its advantages, (lots of time to practice your chosen dishrag for gauge and speed, and its disadvantages (like wearing a path in the carpet from pacing). Even the dog is weary. We knitters can really crank out a dishrag in record time if necessary, but it has been the USPS that has caused us to ponder our patience quota. Where normally I would have a lot of patience, in a race for time…well,…let’s just say we are all wondering what priority mail REALLY means. By the way, we do have a winning team, HIP-KNIT-TIZED, our first team to hit Emily’s mail box in Alabama and claim Dishrag Glory. ****Congratulations**** There are two more teams waiting to claim second and third place with individual contests still to be determined. The home of Dishrag Tag, www.YarnMiracle.com is just confetti-filled with good wishes. Amazingly enough, after two months of planning and playing, we still have not had enough……..so, if you find yourself still longing for more or just want to join in the fun, check this out and enter..LIKE FAST!!!! It ends tomorrow, Sept. 7th at 12:00 CST. SO GO NOW, ALREADY, to ” Knitted GIVE-A-WAY Contest ll” at www.teatimerambings.blogspot.com and enter to win 5 knitted dishcloths in various colors and patterns. You can enter whether you have a blog or not, and while you are there leave a nice comment or two which is always appreciated by us bloggers.

Busy hands make waiting tolerable, and that’s where the mind can ponder a few side projects…only a few. Project number uno….the dining room drapes. I have had the fabric for a time, but the design was cooking in my brain. This weekend the design came together like gorgonzola cheese,thinly sliced pear, and spring greens lightly tossed with raspberry vinaigrette dressing. It flowed off the sewing machine and on to the wall, and is now a feast for the eye. They frame the folage out the window, especially the last of this summer’s sunflowers. Just Delicious! Fresh on the needles is project two, a Christmas stocking from a new book out featuring Plymouth yarn. The spiral bound jem, “Knit Noel” by Bobbie Matela, features over 30 enticing projects. I wanted to do them all. The stocking has a ribbing of tiny, easy to do, cables. I am working on the holly leaf band that runs around the top, and I am hot to get to the dot stitch leg portion.

About the mail???….it has come and gone,……no box today. All that food talk has just reminded me, did I have lunch yet? I think not. Off to scope out the selection of green and red food in the frig, which seems to be the color theme of this blog today. Ta-ta for now.