I Know, Pattie...It's been almost a month!

I don't know what has been the problem, but it has been really difficult to blog the past couple of weeks. I think perhaps the loss of Vic bothered me more than I thought it would. It seems kind of strange when I think about it. We see the Rangers perhaps once a year..if we make it to the reunion that year. But they become almost family..almost instantly. Each has his/her own personality and each is quite different. But each still manages to hang onto a tiny piece of your heart. Anyway...

I am always happy to see the redbud tree in the backyard bloom. Spring is around the corner! We had some really lovely weather for a while, but the last few days have been cold and wet with the night temps in the mid to lower 30s. When I spoke to daughter Paula a couple of days ago she said it had begun to snow...wow... She lives just north of us a couple of hours. But then, a person soon learns that no matter how warm and sunny the weather turns this time of year....ya just don't plant flowers, seeds ..anything until after Easter. It has been known to snow and freeze on Easter Sunday.

I have finished this pair of socks. Now DH has 2 pair of sleep socks that he can switch off...and perhaps keep from wearing out so fast! ;o)

I am knitting another pair just like these that will fit me. They do come in handy on those cold nights when nothing I do seems to get my feet warm. Some of those rice bags to heat in the microwave and put at the foot of the bed as feet warmers are definitely on the "to do" list...

Hannah's quilt is finally ready for the quilting. Because of the embroidery I will have to quilt it by hand I think. My brain will not come up with anything that would look good on the machine...but then perhaps I just have not had enough experience with that..lol
It's funny... there are several quilting groups here in town, but nowhere can I find a quilting foot for my sewing machine. Not at Wal Mart, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby... nowhere. Now I wonder why that is?

Here's a picture of another of the crazy quilts that were on display at the Red River Museum. What a treat that display was! These displays are changed about every six (6) months. I'm not sure if this display been changed or not, but if you are in the area it never hurts to stop by and see.....

Red River Historical Museum

301 S. Walnut Street

Sherman, TX

You will be pleasantly surprised!

Darn Socks!

DH came with his socks hanging from his hand asking "Can you fix this?"



These are the socks that I knitted a few months ago and it seems I should have done an afterthought heel so I could just take it off and put a new one on...not that I have a clue how to knit an afterthought heel... I can nalbind one, but not knit...



After a bit of time on the net searching for anything to do with darning, I came up with one that says to use a light bulb if you don't have a darning egg. Wow...who would've thought...











Then I found an actual video showing a person darning a sock... who could ask for more? So I followed what the video said and tried to copy her as much as possible. No one was more surprised than me when I actually worked. There are a couple of other places that are showing some wear on the socks, so I guess I had best get ready to make another pair.

I think I will find one of those egg shaped things at Hobby Lobby and see if I can smooth it down to be a darning egg....

Lots of Socks, Tarim Stitch & Lucet

Ask me if I'm tickled that my Larry Schmitt's Lots of Socks book arrived?... It has instructions for 10 different nalbinding stitches and patterns for about 5 different nalbound socks. It also says that while naalbinding is a correct usage and spelling for this craft, an effort has been made to standardize the name using nalbinding with the pronounciation as nall-bin-ding using a short i .

It was surprising to learn that most nalbound socks in the early centuries and even up until the mid 19th century were made with a mixture of wool and goat hair.. the goat hair was added to help wick the moisture away from the feet.. with the side of the sock facing the foot brushed to smooth the goat hairs and bring them to the top. It seems that some very early Scandinavians were surprised to find that when they took their shoes off the skotalinger, or toe cap (nalbound shoe liner with a toe cap), was frozen to the bottom of the shoe. The toe cap was worn over the socks as an extra insulation for the toes and bottom of the feet.

Over the last day or so I have been trying some of the stitches and find that all but one are not that difficult to do. The last stitch, Omani, is complicated enough that I will have to study it in the full light of day with no tv...lol The Tarim Stitch looks just like the knit stitch. The better thing about this stitch is that it doesn't roll in from the sides like regular knit stockinette stitch.. and is much more durable. I really like this stitch and am in the process of trying to figure out if I have enough yarn yet to make something really big out of it. Or it may be that all the kids and grandkids will get another neck scarf for Christmas....lol (I offered to make Son #2 a pair of socks out of my hand spun pink/rose merino yarn...can you believe he politely refused!)...lol

I finished a nalbound bag the other... handspun orange Corriedale. I need to put cordage through the top so decided that I wanted to try a Lucet instead of the usual twisted cord. Here is my "Lucet". A wooden one will be quite easy to make, but I wanted to see if I could do it (duh...easy peasy) and also to see if I would like the square cord that it makes. It's great. I just drew off my approximation of a lucet onto heavy cardboard and used a combination of knife and scissors to cut it out...covered all areas that the thread would come in contact with, pushed a hole in the center and voila'. It goes very quickly and you can use everything from embroidery thread to big yarn. The only thing is that the finished cord must be of a size to fit through the hole in the center. Therefore...aha...perhaps it would be good to have more than one size...hmmm

Getting back in the swing of things....

...after all the holidays. There's a lot to show and tell..grin

Our son and his wife that live in Michigan had to cancel their trip home for the holidays due to weather. But this beauty came in the mail...wow! As dyed in the wool DIYers, we all oohd and awwd over this one. It's a glass tile with a hole drilled in it (I'm told this was the hardest part) and a string of tiny Christmas lights placed inside. The bow is hand made by Loretta... what a talent! Love the soft glow of colored light it makes when turned on in a dark room...

And talk about wonderful! These hand knitted socks made by DDL Tomomi are toasty! I really like the pattern and have to wonder how she keeps the pattern straight..lol As I am just now learning to knit socks, the good old stockinette stitch is as adventurous as I want to get..grin

There is more to say and show...but will wait until tomorrow and continue on......

Crocheted Footies & 'Possums

It's cold again..ughh Last night I couldn't get my feet warm, so I crocheted me some footies from some left over Wool Ease yarn. The basic pattern is actually a sock pattern and I just left off the top of the sock. I didn't add any embellishment because I wanted to be able to slip on my house slippers when we go onto the back porch. They are quite warm, but I do want to learn to knit socks soon. I have put off buying the knitting needles necessary for socks... if I get them I will be obsessed with learning how and I have enough projects going ... and the stitching classes will begin within the week.

I had to laugh when I popped over to Sharon's blog. What does she have up but a pic of a possum. And what a cutie pie. He looks almost nothing like the one we are trying to bribe into staying in our back yard. We think ours has moved in under the shop and comes out every night to feed on the seeds the birds drop every day. Ours in America are solitary little guys and everything we have read says they don't stay long in any one place. I think this one is an immature youngster, so he will probably move on as he reaches maturity. This picture is not the one we are trying to bribe...grin This one was around last summer and didn't seem to mind having his photo taken at all.