WAY Far Behind

We've been up to a LOT and I haven't been chronicling it here like I probably should. So today's post is a lot of pics, each with a caption or a little blurb per group. Hopefully if I'm caught up, I won't feel overwhelmed at the thought of writing in my blog. LOL

We'll start with some B's Eye View photography. Betsy LOVES to take pics of our aquarium, for some reason. And even though there are like 15 fish in it, she always snaps a pic of this Kissing Gourami. Also in the mornings when it's asleep down behind something, she worries if it's dead.












We've had some really nice weather, in the 80s during the day and 60s at night. So of course nice weather and Friday night equal "Can we put up a tent & sleep in it?" I told the kids yeah, sure... so Diantha, Veronica, and Amy from next door took like an hour setting this up, played in it about another half an hour, and then the winds kicked up and there were storm warnings issued.

[Here on the Right are Diantha, 3 yo Beverly ("Betsy") and my beautiful and handsome 9yo son, Josiah.] Down came the tent & in came the kids. Who knew?

Below, I also caught a good front & back shot of Princess Beverly (with leaves caught in the back of her skirt, LOL).




We took the tank off the 650 and painted it metallic gunmetal gray. Here is the tank. Also the bike, reassembled.

I am going to paint green-into-silver-into-purple ghost flames on it & clear coat it yet.

We also painted my son's Icon helmet, which we were blessed to find pawned for 1/3 the retail price. It was flat black but now it's AWESOME. It actually took me a minute or two to figure out how he got the helmet to look bigger than a bathtub. See if you get it. LOL

So Diantha, Des and I were in the TwitKAL (Twitter Knit-a-long).

A bunch of Twitter knitters voted on 5 different categories of patterns (shawl, shrug, hat, gloves, sweater) and then voted again on the top winner from each category.

The winner was the Traveling Woman shawl from Ravelry. I blogged my finished shawl already, here.

This is Diantha's, which was knitted in Jojoland Melody superwash merino wool sock yarn on size 7 needles. Beautiful!

Almost Wordless Wednesday - Building a Tomb

This weekend our church is having a big drama production. For the little kids, they're having a "Mystery Weekend." The kids will go to different stations in our Satellite sanctuary and get "clues" to what happened on Easter.

Today Des, Diantha and I went up to the church and spent the afternoon building a tomb.

Here are some pre-blocking pics of my TwitKal (Twitter Knit-a-Long) shawl. It's knitted of Merino/Bamboo handspun & has 48 hanging jewels. It will be about 6 ft. wide when blocked.

Oh and I got a new motorcycle today, a GS650 Suzuki. Which I very kindly let 18yos Artemas pose on for the pic. :D

Wordless Wednesday - Not Fiber-Obsessed? Me?

Not that I'm fiber-obsessed or anything. Noooo. But I thought I'd share some of my Etsy favorites at the moment.

A Wordy Apology to My Readers

I lost a set of twins on Oct. 29; 8 days later was our biggest craft show of the year, in the busiest mall in Knoxville. Needless to say less than 4 days of recovery time, and then had to get ready for the show. And then, oh, we’re 3 weeks from Black Friday with 5 shops in the family to prepare.

Meanwhile one of my kids has a birthday. Parents came from Ohio do to Thanksgiving a week early (2xtra people in a 1450 sq. ft. house that already has 8 ppl living in it, LOL), then we did Thanksgiving again with my dd#1’s inlaws. Then get ready for Christmas with 7 kids, a SIL and 2 grandkids.

The 14th of Dec. they thought my dh’s 93-year-old mother was dying in NJ (a 12-hour drive) so he needed to go there… 5 kids in the car, drive 12 hours up, see mother, stay one day, drive back. Good part was we got to walk around Philly, take some pics and have a cheesesteak, LOL!

Day after Christmas my parents came from Ohio again on their way to FL for the winter, and I went with DS#1 to sign a lease on an apartment for him.

The 28th of Dec. my dh was in surgery for a double hernia when I got the call his mom had died. So we did Christmas with my parents the next day and on the 30th hit the road for NJ again, drove 12 hours and got there in time for the viewing. Funeral next day, drive home on New Years Day. We were home only 48 hours (during which said 21yos complained that I couldn’t help him move because it was SO much more important to get ready for Di’s modeling convention) before my DD#2 Diantha and I had to leave and drive almost 12 hours to FL for a modeling convention for her, and got back the 12th.

In the 12 days since I've been back, we've made 2 trips down to Dalton, GA... once to find carpet, the other to pick it up. On the first trip our car broke down. Blew a pvc valve to the heater hoses and lost all the cooling fluid out of the system. A half-mile walk to the repair place with 4 of the 5 kids (B and her daddy rode in the tow truck), 3 hours wait which included walking to a sandwich place in the rain and back, and we were back on the road.

Oh also in those 12 days, in moving furniture to help my son get the rest of his things moved out, we found mold in one of the walls of the girls' bedroom from a roof leak. We've had to quickie-paint and move both big girls into the formerly oldest son's bedroom, the size of a postage stamp, along with their queen-size bed, so that we can repair the other bedroom. Which is going to entail tearing an outside wall off the house to replace molded sheathing inside the wall, and replacing some of the wood supporting the roof.

Our Etsy shops are barely staying above water, but who has had the time or opportunity to produce new listings?

I truly feel like I’m being swept along by a spring-thaw torrent and that my feet can’t touch the bottom, haven’t touched the bottom for 3 months. I think only having my knitting to do once in a while, calms me and is keeping me sane. So I am sorry I am so behind on the blogging, and will try to keep up (now that we're HOME, LOL)!

Crunch Time

I added a new hastag today to some of my posts on twitter (feel free to follow me, LOL): #imaystayupallnighttilChristmas. Yes, folks, for us knitters, quilters, crochet-ers, and crafters of paper, scissors, glue, ribbon, and button types, it is Crunch Time.

This is the time of the year we realize that we have more hours of crafting left than there are hours left in the year, let alone 6 days short of the year.

Today we had to make a little road trip to Sweetwater to deliver one of our roosters to a lady there for her mini-farm. Did I forget to take one of my diverse knitting-for-Christmas projects? You bet, I sure did. I took the passive riding-in-the-car time to pull out half a sock Diantha has knitted that was too big around, cast it back on, and knit the toe cup. But still, not what I needed to work on.

And of course, some of the gifts have to be mailed, which means finish them this week, or die of embarrassment. So I thought I would go public with my need-to-do list, sharing my potential humiliation with the world at large and provoking sympathic head-shakes from everyone out there who is in the same boat.

One of the projects I can't post, because 1) it isn't even started, 2) it's for one of my kids who is nosy and reads my blog (WHY did I teach them to read anyway??) 3) I have to get rid of said kid for a night or two or weekend sometime between now and Christmas to do it, and 4) it's really supposed to be a surprise, though keeping a secret in this family is nothing short of a miracle.

Here are the rest:
Nice warm slippers for my niece. My sister's family is in Ohio this winter, after having lived nearly 20 yrs. in FL and 2 years in TN. It's COLD in Ohio, so I am making slippers, mittens, and a matching beanie for the little niece. So far, pictured here on the left, a slipper...


The Show Me The Money Scarf. No tellin' who this one is for (on the right). It is a batt of hand dyed Merino wool I bought from Jazzturtle, that has shredded money carded into it. I spun it up into a chunky yarn and I'm doing this scarf with a braided cable and garter stitch borders. Might post the pattern later.

The needles shown are like the So Big They're Obscene needles available in Artemas' GotWood4You Shop at Etsy, but these are made from Eastern Hemlock Spruce. I am actually not knitting the entire scarf on them, just testing them for a few rows to make sure the burrs are all out of them so I can send them as a gift to a knitter friend of mine.

Flamin' Phoenix Betsy Bootees are a quickie that I've had to throw in the mix, because my 2yo informed me a couple days ago that her feet were cold, because her slippers are now too tight. So I should knit her some new ones. This is just acrylic Red Fart but it's toddler-loud. I did an eye-of-partridge heel just for fun. As of right now I am doing the Kitchener Stitch toe on the first one.

The same yarn is going into a hat like this (on the right) for Des' best friend Bethany's daughter Lily, who needs a beanie with a HUGE pom-pom. So that is also on the list, even though I haven't cast it on yet. Fortunately toddler beanies are fast, even if the toddler has a big head.

Last on the Christmas Knitting list is this sorry start on a fur-bordered, cabled beanie for Bethany's other daughter Summer. She is 9 so naturally she likes purple and pink. I hope she will like her nice warm beanie too.

~:0) ~:0) ~:0) ~:0)

In the midst of all this I am working on a selfish project. I got two beautiful skeins of Aussi Wool worsted yarn through a swap from Mystery Swappers Group at Ravelry. I saw this Circular Shrug and wanted to make one. Last week I found the greatest, real suede, purple Ho boots ever, and knew I needed to wear them to dh's company Christmas party. (Go on, tell me how wonderful they are!)

So 2 days before the party, I started the Circular Shrug. Yes, 2 days. Only I decided that instead of knitting ribbing, body, ribbing, and seaming the ribbing, I would take another knitter's modification advice and do a provisional cast-on, knit the body, joint the working stitches and the live provisional stitches, and knit the 5" of ribbing for the shawl collar, in the round. And THEN I decided to knit the body in a lace, of my own devising.

Sad to say I only got about 2/3 of the back done. About half-way through the back, the morning of the party, I had to join the 2nd ball of yarn on and realized I wouldn't have enough yarn to do the ribbing at all. And sadly, the company website doesn't list this yarn anymore. So what I did really was lose 2 days of intense knitting on my must-do-s for 2 days of ribbing on an I-can't-do. The partner I had in the Mystery swap says that yarn is still available where she lives and she will kindly rescue me and send me another skein. So I will have a beautiful purple shrug, just not now.

Now back to my regularly-scheduled knitfest. #imaystayupallnighttilChristmas

Misc. Stuff From Being Behind in Blogging

Last year I spun up some misc. wool in red and green, plied it with red fun fur, spun in some plastic candies, and laid it aside wondering what to do with it.

This year, Des wanted us to card some green and red merino for her with some white angelina nylon sparkle. She spun it up into a self-striping yarn and hated it.

She gave it to me, Diantha and I knitted it up into this wild and funny scarf, listed it in my HeartFeltFun Boutique, and it sold in 3 days.

Funny how life works sometimes.

Des knitted these Eliza Doolittle type gloves out of the same sock yarn she had hand dyed and knit my piebald (now blue and purple) socks. Then she overdyed them and came up with this lovely maroon shade. Very pretty.

We've been pretty busy, trying to fill orders for Christmas. Artemas got featured on Springtree Road's blog with his knitting needles and sold 6 sets of them last week. You should go to her Etsy shop and check out her handspun yarns. Gorgeous!

Richard's soaps are selling almost as fast as we can make replacement batches. His shop has some nice, small gift sets in it, so stop by and see him sometime! Handmade soaps make great tips for teachers, hairdressers, or anyone who has served you exceptionally during the year. Great stocking stuffers too!
We did Thanksgiving early, because my parents were down from Ohio the weekend before. So I cooked a meal fit for a king, including the best from-scratch gravy you ever tasted, and homemade pies. No, folks, I do not buy pie crusts. My kids say store-bought crusts are an abomination. Are these beautiful or what?

For actual Thanksgiving day, we went up to Greeneville, TN to be with our SIL Tony's dad's family. We all had a great time, ate, did some shooting out in the field (very cold & windy though), and had a safe trip up and back. They are terrific folks to be "related" to.

A couple days later, we went up to Des' house. The ham she baked for Thanksgiving had disappeared up in Greeneville like Houdini, so she made a turkey, just to have leftovers.

We helped her wreck it in true large-family style.

And I cut my hand doing the dishes. No alcohol was involved in this incident, despite the Pure White Trash shirt that looks like a Pabst Blue Ribbon label.

Hot Chicks and a Trip to the Park

Wow, our chickens from last Spring are HUGE. They are kind of crowded in the coop we have, and I think there is at least ONE rooster. Oldest DS says so, because his room is near the coop and he says there is some crowing going on out there.

In 2 weeks, the kids will each take 3 of their nicest hens to the 4-H Fall Show and Sale. They have to donate the chickens to the auction, but they get $20 each for entering it.

I went to the feed store Saturday for feed for them. I am a sucker for little peeping things. The chicks shown here are Blue-Laced Red Wyandottes. They are a rare breed, which comes in two colorways, both of which are called Red (a mystery to me). The little chick that looks a like a chipmunk will be the darker color, the pale chick will be the lighter color.

Next to and below are some pics of adults and the plumage. You can plainly see that the edge of each feather is outlined in a cool blue color. The body of the feather is either dark red or a cream color.

Monday (oh was it only yesterday?) Richard and I had a date in the morning. We went out a couple places and had breakfast. When we got home, the older kids and I went walking and to take a jack to Allen, who got a flat tire. Richard and the younger kids stayed home and built about a 10 ft. square chicken run on the side of the coop. We can't let the chickens totally free-range because our lot isn't fenced. But the girls seem to like their new "freedom," and it will relieve their crowding a little, until we thin them out.

Des called and asked if we would like a trip to a local park. She and another friend and Des' two kids and Tara's three (a son, Riley, Jeremiah's age [4], a daughter Micah the same age as Hannah [18m], and a 5 month old baby Savannah) were there playing when we got there. This is Hannah, who managed to face-dive off the slide, and Micah, who has wonderful Queen Elizabeth the First hair.

Diantha is holding Savannah, whom they call Banana, and who looks JUST like her daddy. Des says Banana is so cute it could "almost" convince her to have another kid. But not yet.

Veronica peered out at the world through the eyes of a Knight...

And Josiah did too... with the company of Fair Damsel Beverly of Ross.

Beverly, who has been a bouncer since we watched both her little feet kick out repeatedly at the same time, in her 12-week Ultrasound, took an opportunity to bounce in the sand, in the shade.

After the park, we left off the kids at Des with about a TON of fish sticks and fries in the oven, and went to visit with our small group from church. After that and driving back 15 miles to get the kids, and driving home 30 miles from Des' house, we were tired. But it was a nice end to a nice day.

Today I have been a total stupid head. I didn't get my primary objective accomplished for the day. In fact there was a project I wanted to tackle that I didn't even start. Beverly was feverish with a runny nose, and I am feeling about the same, so that didn't help.

But I got a recycled yarn done, called Sonoma Harvest, which is available in my My7kids etsy shop, here. And I dyed some fiber for Diantha to use in her shop, the wrong color, and immediately misplaced the rest of that ONE color of dye we needed. [sigh] Maybe tomorrow. Helped Artemas with some new items for his Got Wood 4 You shop, did 4 loads of laundry, and made a good Lentil Stew for supper (recipe in previous post, here). Diantha doesn't look mad about the fiber. Isn't she gorgeous?

Over the weekend I cast on a little baby beanie for a friend of mine's new grandbaby girl. I was gonna do a K2P2 rib and then a diamond pattern in K and P stitches. Cast on 68 st, no problem. Knitted my first round, didn't have enough stitches. Picked out 1st round, cast on 2 more st, knitted a round, had one stitch too many. ARRggh! I figured, just knit it together with something, won't even show on the 1st round. Knitted 2nd round, found out that I had done a K1P2 at one point early in the 1st round, that's why I had one extra stitch. Picked out round 2 and most of round 1, stopping occasionally to mutter under my breath.

When I got to the pattern, I became a total knitting nah-nah. AND, I broke one of my vintage nylon knitting needles in the process. I have picked out as much of this hat as I have knitted. I am finally down to the bind-off, and so glad. Here is a pic of the Pretty Diamond Baby Hat from hell.

One last pic to leave you with. Des took this when she was down on Sunday. Josiah and B were playing in the fallen tree that serves as Artemas' source of wood for his shop. Beverly doesn't seem too bee too concerned by what appears to be (just off-camera) a swinging metal something in her brother's hand. But she's young yet. And nobody ended up bleeding... so probably it was a good day.

Stuff That Has Happened Recently

Another Big Box store anomaly. Our local big box store/indoor walk-for-your-health club is remodeling. I mean big time, confuse-the-customers, move-the-whole-store-twice remodling. They finally have the new pharmacy in, and the BP machine in a little nook. The machine is separated from the pick-up window by a half-wall topped with glass, which they have obliterated with ad signs in English and of course Spanish. Someone set their Dr. Pepper and hoodie up on the little ledge, probably while they took their blood pressure. For reasons of my own, I am taking my BP each day while we walk. The first day, we didn't think a thing of it.

On Day 2, we took a picture. Today was Day 3, and we took another pic. Shall we take a pic every day until some diligent employee notices the Lone Hoodie and removes it? Hmmm?

B has been at it again with the camera. Her favorite subject matters seem to be Mommy and Daddy, probably because what she looks at and whom she deals with mostly are, um, Mommy and Daddy. So firts thing in the morning Saturday, she snapped pics of the two of us. Thanks, B.

I have a tattle-tale pic of myself to share with the world. The other day as I went around the house doing this, that, something else, I kept having to put on reading glasses. I only wear a +1.00 but still, need them sometimes. I kept getting aggravated, because every time I needed a pair, I couldn't find them and had to go hunt up another pair. I sat down at the table to put on some glasses to look at something, and Diantha said, "Um, Mom... Why are you putting your blue glasses on your face when you have two other pairs on your head?" What is the answer to that? As Grandpa said to the kid in The Princess Bride, "You're very smart... now shut up!"

Artemas has been playing with more pearwood in the front yard. I have a really good stainless-steel hone to sharpen our really good chef-quality knives, but several years ago the oak handle and stop cracked. So Artemas took a piece of pear branch for a handle and a round of a larger branch for a stop, sanded them fine, water-base urethaned them, and mounted them on the hone. I love it. The odd shape fits the palm of the hand perfectly. Bravo, Artemas!

I finished the BumbleBee-nie I was knitting for a toddler boy. I really like the way it turned out. I had what I thought was a really good pic of the crown, but these dress-dummy heads are so WEIRD. Instead of being kind of round like a head, they are narrow from side to side and then really LONG from forehead to crown. The shape of them really distorts anything one puts on them. So the pic of the crown of the hat looked all misshapen, and when I tried to correct it in my photoshop program, it just got worse. So, one view is all you get.

We went to Gatlinburg for part of today, to visit with my parents who are in a time-share there. We really only live about 50 miles from there, so don't ask me why it always takes so DANG long to get there. By now, I am exhausted. So I will try to write some more tomorrow, about the Left slipper-sock to go with the BumbleBee-nie and about our day trip!