I've Been Away

 Okay, not technically away. I've been away from blogging.  Life has been different around my house.

My daughter and her husband and my two grandkids have come to stay here. They've been here since the weekend after Thanksgiving. Our little house of two newly retired people has become crazy/loud/busy/messy/fun/amazing these past few weeks.

Backstory: My daughter followed my son in law to England when he got a job there like 7 years ago. They married and had my first grandchild in the UK. Then his job brought him to Southern California 3 years ago, and they had their second daughter. He's a lead artist in the gaming industry.  His studio shut down in the beginning of 2020, so he took an East coast job and that leads us to now.  They are actively looking for a house, but until then, crazy chaos filled with love is what we are having in this house. 

I'll try to come back more often, now that we are all settling in to this new quarantined craziness. 

And for this post, I'll pop in later today for a knitting update.

Continuing....

Here's some knitting:

First off, I finished this cowl. Reggie is just dying to lie on it and soak up its comfy vibes. Pattern is Over the River.

This little munchkin wanted a scarf. She told me her favorite color is "pink sparkly", so that's what I used. 

And her sister reaped the benefits of left-over yarn.

I was listening to knitting podcasts, and Needles At The Ready is one of my favorites. They mentioned this hat pattern, which they knit for  the kids in their family. It's called Barley from Tin Can Knits. It comes in a lot of sizes from baby to adult, and is a quick knit.

The other day, I decided to do some Christmas knitting. And by Christmas knitting, I mean knitting for next Christmas. Clearly, I missed the boat on doing it this year. So, I've been knitting up some little stocking ornaments. I'll keep this up until I have a ton of them and then figure out if I want to make garlands, or just a loop for hanging individually. No pattern, I just downsized a basic vanilla sock with a longer cuff(about 3 1/2 inches cuff to heel).

See you soon!

Little Santa Mug Revealed

 Here's a film (hopefully) of the little mug reveal.

Sunday Santa Hide and Seek

 I put out my Santa mugs every year. I've been collecting them for over 30 years. It started with one mug, given to me by my mother's best friend. She gave me and my first husband some of her old decorations for our first Christmas. We had little money, and they were a joy to have in our little apartment.

From there, I found some in second-hand a shop in Rehoboth one year. Since then I've found them in antique shops, a lot from Ebay, and from stores and websites. Some newly made ones are sprinkled in with the vintage ones, but most are from the 60's. A big company who manufactured these in Japan was called Holt Howard. Many have the Japan stamp, and a few still have the HH label. 

Probably my favorite one is the size of a blueberry. I found it at the Sea Shell Shop (say that 10 times fast!) in Ocean City, MD. Every year I ask people to try and find it among the mug crowd. This year, the husband hid it (in plain sight). Can you find it?

You'll probably have to zoom in a little, but he's in there! Tomorrow, I'll reveal where he is. I hope that you decide to put out something festive to cheer up your home. 

Saturday

 Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. I hope that you all stayed safe. We had my son here, but we were blessed with weather in the low 70's and we ate outside at a distance. I made all the trimmings. This year, I kept the turkey simple. I usually use Martha Stewart's "Turkey 101" recipe, which is foolproof. This year, I tried Pioneer woman's turkey recipe. You just cook it on a lower temp for hours, then rub it with minced rosemary(fresh cut from the garden!) orange peel and a stick of butter and turn the heat up. It was SO good! It made the best gravy.

My daughter and family are in town, awaiting their Covid test results before moving in with us for a while. They moved from California by a slow trek in their car. They're staying in a hotel until the tests prove negative, just as a precaution.

Here's a belated home treasure. In the process of clearing out some stuff under the guest room bed, I found a small box of old family tin types and this old Christmas card of sorts. The people who are mentioned in it are long gone. I thought that it was so sweet.

Unopened, this little book is only 4 inches by 3 inches. So it's very hard to determine if the little painting is an original or a print. It looks to me to be original watercolor.

I believe that Carrie was my great great grandmother. But there may be other Carries in my family. I will have to investigate that one. I have plenty of family records to look through to determine that one.

Have a good weekend, and stay safe!

Home Treasure Friday

 Last week's HTF treasure was the little grasshopper that I found at my Dad's house.  Since then, I did a bit of research, and found out that it's most likely German made. There's a region in Germany in the Ore Mountains called Erzgebirge. They are famous for their little wooden figurines just like my grasshopper. He was most likely part of a musical group of critters.

So on a whim, I went on Ebay and found him a companion to play along. 

This little frog with his trumpet now completes a duo of musical critters! He was around $5.00 and I knew that he had to come live with me.

Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday

 Today, I took down the last of the plants that felt the effects of the low temps that we had last night. Before doing so, I cut the last of the flowers.

I finished my Burrard Inlet Sweater, and it fits perfectly.

I went deep diving into my yarn stash, and found a project that I don't even remember buying. The pattern came out in 2016, so I know that I bought it at some festival within the last 4 years. Probably the Alpaca Festival, held in November at a fairgrounds in Maryland. Anyway, the yarn was in a beautiful purple toule drawstring bag with a business card that had a place to download the pattern and a coupon code to buy it for free! The yarn is a silk blend, and is so soft.

So, off I go on this one:

It's a color work cowl that's knit in a tube. Then you join the ends when you're done. The contrasting yarn has beautiful color changes, but it has very little spin! Like knitting fiber roving, almost. And it keeps breaking while I'm knitting it, because there's no spin (hence, no strength). But I'm tenacious and will knit to the end. 

See? Very little twist to this yarn!

Tomorrow is Home Treasure Friday. Feel free to join in if you'd like. Either way, I'll be posting a new(to me) treasure tomorrow!

Updates and a Friday Home Treasure

 Can't believe it's been a week since I've posted. There's been lots of activity around here. 

Remember this?

It now looks like this:

A welcome change. The top will have a fence, because we don't need anyone "dropping in"in the dark! Not to mention the soon to be local grandchildren.

Another update:

The Burrard Inlet sweater is coming along. The sleeves will be started tonight, most likely. As you can see, the purple skeins aren't the exact same color. The one in the middle is a tone lighter. It's evident in this picture, but in most light it's almost impossible to tell. I didn't even notice it until this picture. I'm hoping that once it's all done, it won't be an issue.

Finally, a little Friday home treasure. When I helped my father move out of his house (the same house to which they brought me home from the hospital as a newborn) we went through drawers and drawers of stuff. This little guy was in a desk drawer, hiding under a bunch of old pencils with dried up erasers and rulers and paper clips. I didn't know his origin, but I took him home. He makes me smile. He's only 2 1/2 inches tall, and plays his horn solo. I wonder sometimes if he was once a member of a bigger grasshopper band that's long gone. 

Enjoy your weekend! 

Friday Home Treasure

 Today's treasure was my parent's. Most of my old treasures are from my family, and I have remembered them existing most of my life. 

This is a little Japanese carved frog that fits in the palm of my hand. I did a little research (Translation: I put "Japanese wood frog" in the search option on Ebay.com) and found out that it's made from Cryptomeria wood. It is amazingly light, kind of like balsam wood. Cryptomera is a Japanese cedar. 

Have a great weekend! I will soon give you an update on the side yard transformation. There's a flurry of activity out there presently.

Thursday

 There's some sort of weird pattern in today's activities. I was knee deep in German short rows and Asian short ribs.

First, I'm on the body of the yoke sweater now, and I'm about to do some German short row shaping. I've watched 3 different YouTube videos to be sure that I have it mastered. I have done short row wrap and turns many times, but German short rows are kind of new to me.

Second, I used my Instant Pot today. I'm late to the IP party. I bought one about a year ago on sale for about half price in a kitchen store in the mall. I was a bit scared of it for a while. Then, I spoke to some friends and decided to try. I use it maybe 2 or 3 times a month. A friend gave me a really good book that has step-by-step recipes.

So, I made the Asian short ribs.

They were good. The sauce was super strong, and you didn't need much. I served them over rice and totally forgot to steam the broccoli. Ah well, it will have to go with the leftovers tomorrow.

There will be side yard updates soon. Stay safe, readers. 

Wednesday

 I saw this on Facebook, and had to laugh. We could all use the humor right now...

I started another sweater. The Burrand Inlet sweater (on Ravelry) is a top down sweater pattern with a yoke. I had bought some yarn the other day on the sale rack at the yarn shop, specifically for this pattern. The yarn is 75% cotton and 25% merino. They had several colors on the sale rack. A very good price for a yarn that I wouldn't normally be drawn to. 

The purple is the main color. The gray is the contrasting color.

The pink slash means 30% off. A good deal!

I really like color work pattern. 

In other news, this mess on the side of the house outside the kitchen is going to change very shortly. Up against the wall, there used to be a raised bed built up with metal walls. It was put in by the previous owners over 30 years ago. The husband pulled it out and got rid of the extra dirt. Big changes coming! Stay tuned.

You can see where the dirt was by the change in color of the stucco. See you soon with progress.

Monday

 It's so windy in Maryland today! My hibiscus, which is on its last legs before winter sets in, has blown over multiple times today. I keep rearranging it, but the wind is just so strong.

The wind brought down an army of pinecones in the yard. Reggie loves to dismantle them. The sap on them is not good for dogs, so we tossed a bunch over the fence into the unfenced part of the yard.  Reggie managed to find another one that fell after we finished. I think it's going to be a never ending job today.

Yup. He knows that he's misbehaving...

In knitting news, I finished the cowl. It's soaking right now and will be blocked soon. It is quite narrow. Kind of like a loose turtleneck. Good for windy days like today, but I'll stretch it a bit in blocking. Here it is with a lovely spectrum coming through my Dad's prism in the window.

The colors in this yarn....I love it.

Have a good day, readers! Tomorrow is the "big day"! I will not miss the barrage of political ads on TV from both sides. If you haven't already, get out there and vote!

Home Treasure Friday

 Today's home treasure was owned by my father. I inherited it when he died about four years ago. I also inherited his roll-top desk that was his grandfather's. I have no idea where or when he got this monkey, but it has always been in my memory. Growing up, it sat on a shelf in the living room. Today, he sits on a shelf in the bookshelf portion of the roll-top along with some of my father's books. He looks pensive as he smokes his pipe. Much like I remember my father, a former academic who smoke a pipe up until the late 70's. He died at the age of 92, and had an amazing life. I mostly miss his dry humor and the way he would always end our phone conversations with, "Ok, kid". 

He was a much more distinguished primate than his little keepsake.

Thursday

I went somewhere yesterday with a friend in my "Covid pod". In other words, she's someone who I trust lives as I do and is not a risk. We get together now and then. So yesterday, we went to our local yarn store.

We were the only customers. Their rules are only 4 customers in the store at one time (not a problem in this case) and you have to make a bee-line to back of the store and wash your hands as soon as you arrive. And of course, you must wear a mask.

I bought some Malibrigo Rios worsted weight to make a cowl. It felt so foreign to go into a yarn store and buy yarn, yet it felt wonderful! It's been way too long.

It's a bit darker in real life, but you get the idea.

Here's the cowl that I'm going to knit with it...

It's mosaic, of course. My go to technique these days.

Tonight, I made the best meal that I've made in a long time. I found a recipe for roasted veggies and chicken thighs. I cook and eat a lot of chicken breasts. This was such a nice break from the norm. The recipe was amazing. It had bacon and apples and sage and thyme and rosemary...So good!! All the veggies caramelized and were out of this world. Here it is...

Autumn Chicken Dinner

Hope you have a good evening. Tomorrow is Home Treasure Friday!