Wednesday jabber...

We are constantly being "visited" by these critters.

While I think they are kinda cute, and certainly delicious, in the summer my eat the stuff I want to eat! These days they are gathering by the wood pile which also has the apple tree branches that were broken off during our big storm. I think they appreciate the fact that they are handy and in one pile for them to chomp on!

My husband opened up a window in the kitchen that was dry walled over. Most of the time I look out and see deer legs going by since it is at ground level. Just now while typing this I looked up and there one was. Yes I tried to get a picture but only got its butt. Next time maybe. It will happen.

A couple days ago I posted my first pattern to Ravelry for sale. I am so excited about this. #2 is ready to go, I am just waiting a couple days because I guess that's what I think I should do. I had two sales the first hour it was on! The sale part for me isn't that much what its about. This is my pattern, and my design, and I wanted it out there, period. If I make a couple bucks so be it. Ill just be spending it on more patterns.

I crocheted these earwarmers for 4-wheeling.

It is a simple pattern from one of those 101 one skein crochet books. I however added a woven square to the inside and before stitching all four sides down shoved in some unspun merino roving. They are comfy to wear and definitely keep our ears warm. My husband requested more for family gifts!

Happy Wednesday!

On a wonderful day like today.........

This weekend the weather here in the Hills is beautiful. The snow is NOT gone but getting there.

Yesterday we got all the damage to our trees and bushes cleaned up and stowed behind our outside fireplace. We got our dormer painted, re-did the deck railings, painted some trim and door casings.

Sitting down last night to knit was a relief after up and going all day. I am kind of surprised I slept horrible last night with being outside so much.

Today is going to be a repeat of yesterday weather wise. Snow and freezing rain is predicted tonight late and into tomorrow.

On our list of things to do is switch ovens with one at the Brewery. Ours quit in the house. Tomorrow I want to bake a big pumpkin that has been staring at me. It will be used for Beer and bread.

I am hoping our local store has kale since I am going to make the Zupa soup recipe that floated around facebook recently. Perfect for an icky day!

I hope everyone (all 4 or 5 of you)is having a wonderful weekend.

Winter early!

Here is some of our wintery dump! It has been melting pretty fast.

While I realize that these do not properly reflect the 5' dumpola. Trust me we had it! No power for 57 hours. Cooking on the campstove. Kerosene lights. Generator running now and then.

About to loose my......

..nevermind.

Since my computer died I miss networking like I usually do.

Moderating a Ravelry group from my phone isnt easy but doable. Forget posting pictures. Blogging, aint happening. I am using a wee sized computer right now that is slower than a 7 year....well you know.

The good news is we bought a new laptop. My husband is one of the furloughed peeps so has set it up and is using it mostly. While it is currently a shared devise, and offered TONS, I am still pissy about loosing my previous laptop and with such a void lately it makes me grumpy. The internet here is my hotspot on my phone so i am being careful with my usage as well.

We have tons of snow here at the Cottage. Over five feet. It has melted a lot but we are expecing more tonight. We have been setting up the new house. I will call it the "New House" even though it is over 100 years old. I love it up here and hope our other house sells by Christmas. It has had showings,,,and we wait.

I am trying to test a pattern for another Raveler that was really messed up. I am basically rewriting it for her and the BIG page in question the dog ate...seriously! No clue where it went and the pages i have the corners are missing..lol So I set up a printer to "reprint" it..no cable included. So I am still looking for that..

Enough for now. Pictures eventually of our snow and assorted projects.

Its Tuesday....

So yesterday I taught the toothbrush rug technique to my weaving group. It went really well. Everyone left with the beginning of a circle, and was having great lucking working in the round. If it would have been a Kindergarden class only one person would have "moved her stick" and possibly been sent to the time out chair. Some people.....

My slipper test is over and done with. I need to borrow my husbands computer to make a few small changes then it goes live. I am pleased with my testers except for one no show after volunteering. Dont these people know that I can see that they are still on Ravelry, and posting to other groups..whatever!

Friday I get to baby sit my grandbabies. I am going to get sidewalk chalk and facepaints. Also colors and coloring books. They are two...but we are going to rock it! When my son comes home every inch of their skin that is showing will be painted! Bahahah. Since I feel like I need a new knitting bag maybe I can get them to put hand prints on it for me!

I am currently doing a slipper test. Not mine, but a favorite designer of mine. It is felted and I love how it is turning out. Next I am testing a hat for a new to me designer. Ill post pictures when I am done.

The past two weekend we have brewed some of our favorite beer that we will host in our brewery. What fun to finally get everything set up at the new house and be able to brew our favorites and design new recipes.

Happy Tuesday to all!

Lots of Little things...

I was at the Cottage most of the week. I got so much done.

I got my whole craft room set up. This was NO small project. I painted the stairs going up to it. We may eventually carpet them but for now they look great. I got the brewing equipment set up in the "blue room", plus the bed made in there. I went to a knitting group. I started another rug. I warped my Rigid Heddle loom. I set up my 29 gallon fish tank. The old china hutch is ready for the poly. To end it we made beer today.

We almost said the heck with it and just stayed up there but I have apointments in Rapid this week. It was kinda hard to leave.

A funny thing happened to me the other day....

So I post my test pattern to a group of 9200 individuals..and my computer dies...no rebooting in the world would help. The black screen of death! I have nothing since in our packing up and moving I cannot find my external hard drive...FREAKOUT MODE. I remembered I emailed the pattern to a friend, and only made a couple changes after that. She sent it back, I forwarded it from my phone to my husbands comnputer and he has the software to edit a pdf...he saved my...ok you know what he saved!

I now am borrowing my sons little computer-tiny-and loving using it. For a few days I was running the test from my phone!

BTW, the test is going well, it filled up that day with the number of testers I requested. Very minimal comments for editing so far. My initial plan was to have my hat retested since I have made changes on that as well, but unless I can find the hard drive I will have to retype and format the whole thing. At least I have a paper copy!

I dont even want to think about the Christmas Addys I have lost, and no I dont have a copy of those.

Life goes on,,,I freaked out briefly. My husband made me an icecream cone! haha Plus I feel great from my allergy shots, and physical therapy.

Wishing everyone, all 3 or 4 of you reading this:)....A fabulious weekend!

I did it!!

I have just posted my slipper test to the "Testing Pool" on Ravelry. OMG!

It feels soooooo good..........

It feels so good to be home.

We had a great time in ND. There was tons going on with Steve's work. We found our "dream" brewery setup, then attended the "Testicle Festival" in Menoken, ND...Yes you read that right.

Our friends were the band that played Sunday night. It truly is "word of mouth" that's for sure. By then it really cooled off making dry camping fun!

I crafted a lot while my husband was at his meeting. I finished my toothbrush rug, my slipper pattern for testing, then found another freebie online that I just had to make.

This is the freebie Ribbed Slippers on Ravelry I found. They are very comfy on your feet!

Here are the ones I am trying to get brave enough to have tested!

My hat pattern will go live soon...yes another "brave" thing.

I am excited to go up to "The Cottage" this weekend, and plan to spend the week up there setting up my craft room!

Here I go again...........

Well, I am home to house #1. I guess our open house went well considering it was almost 100 outside.

This afternoon we leave for North Dakota with the motorhome. Steve has a business trip and I am going with. Doggies also!

My projects are all packed, and I think I am close to being ready to start loading. I feel like I have hit the floor running this go around! I am hoping to finalize a few of my wip so I can have another pattern tested. While it is fun to write them up, knowing they are yours. It is kind of scary to share them with everyone.

This past weekend was amazing. My daughter and I did a road trip East River to pick up her new puppy. We got to spend a couple days with our amazing friends. They really rolled out the red carpet for us! I got to go on a combine ride! They were harvesting wheat which I am fortunate to receive for my beer. When they said they could get me a truck load I am thinking pickup sized...um NO. Semi!! Wowzer!!

After getting back home it was up to Lead to join Steve for Kool Deadwood Nights. Live music in the streets, beer, and a parade of classic cars. I love living here!

It's the little things.......

Its the little things that make my day.

I usually am the first one on board for trying something "new". But really I should be saying "old".

The toothbrush rug I am making came around in the 30's, and my newest adventure will be in whittling crochet hooks. I LOVE the look of the ones you can see online that are carved out of a natural twig. I have visions of several in a jar to use and for décor. For once I need no supplies for this little challenge. Well I might need some snug fitting gloves to protect my hands since I tend to be a bit of a clutz.

So in "thinking" I started to contemplate the different ways that people hold their hooks. I hold mine the knife way, then there is the fork hold. So I figure if I get good at it and make a bazillion of these and of course sell them all, I need to be mindful about the different holds......Yes I am over thinking this! I am good at over thinking things!

For fun I have challenged myself to crochet something small with the fork grip. First off, find a video that shows the "other way". Do you know that most of the online videos are done with the knife hold, but I finally found what I was looking for. Yesterday I crocheted a tawashi little scrubbie with the fork hold. I kind of enjoyed it but I feel more stress on my wrist from the extra movement I need to do with my yarn overs. Maybe I am doing it wrong. I can tell that it does make a difference on how you hold your yarn in the left hand. Anyways, this little challenge is definitely winnable, and I have started my second tawashi. Ill post pictures of what the heck im talking about later.

Tomorrow I am going on a road trip with my daughter to pick up her puppy. She's 5 months old, and we both cant wait to meet her! The trip should make for some good laughs, and visiting. I will take my crochet dishrags to work on. I will probably gift them to the wonderful friend who we are getting the puppy from.

Early wishes for a great weekend! Linda

Filling in the blanks..........

So our kids have all moved out. Actually this happened a couple months ago. This house is too big for us now. In July we put it on the market, and will be moving to the Cottage. The Cottage is much smaller so we have been downsizing a ton. We WILL fit or I will take more to Goodwill.

The Cottage is located where our Brewery will be-another WIP. We love it up there and are excited for it to be our permanent home.

My husband applied for a Job up there also so you never know what could happen these days. As always, we have so much to be excited about and thankful for.

I mentioned on facebook that its almost been a year since my twins returned from Afghanistan. This year surely went a lot faster than the year they were gone. That was the longest year of my life!

On facebook I do not talk crafts-with the exception of comments on a couple groups I have joined. Here it is all about whatever I want, since not many read this-if any ;) I shall ramble about whatever I feel like. So far I am doing pretty good at that right?

Here are the slippers I am working on. It is my pattern inspired by a picture of slippers in a Japanese book. They came together nicely, and was probably one of the easiest ones I have written up. I will have it tested on Ravelry, but have not decided if it will be free or not. They are comfy and fast to make. I have another pair almost done-retesting the pattern myself before I share.

Felted Huggers

I really enjoyed writing this pattern. The idea for this came from an old free online pattern with a bazillion boo boos. Too many people on my group were getting frustrated with it so I had to do something fast. While it "has" been tested, please let me know if you find something that is out of sorts. No this is not the one I just finished today writing up!

This pattern is free from Ravelry. Just do a pattern search for "Felted Huggers".

Here is my Rug.......

Toothbrush rug. Just something different that I am enjoying! I have my size 8 foot in the picture simply for perspective.

Im BAAAAaaaaaack!

Not only have I been gone for awhile, but it took me forever to remember my password!!

I "think" I need a place to just write stuff...anything really. While I manage two facebook accounts now, and moderate a 700+ Ravelry group, I need a place that is just me, and nothing else.

I always have so many things that I want to mention, but ill just start with something I am enjoying right now. That way I have other things to write about. Don't worry if you knew me you KNOW I NEVER run out of things to say!

Currently my cool, and very different project is a toothbrush rug. No I am not using an actual toothbrush but back in the 30's they modified a spent brush into a needle and recycled rags. My rug is out of flannel strips and is just going to be a small one to go by my bed. I will take a picture today and see if I can remember how to put it on here!

More to write about later....

House #1 is for sale
House #2, aka "The Cottage"-forever home
Brewery is coming along
Kids moved out-hence house for sale
Writing another slipper pattern
Boxes everywhere!

Its March..........2013

I have not blogged in forever. While I really do enjoy posting here, life has been very fast paced.

Recapping back to September...

My twins returned safely from Afghanistan. Christmas was wonderful with everyone home, and my inlaws visiting. I am a grandma! Twin boys!!

Currently we are in Oregon helping out Steves parents. His Mom is having some trouble, and at 89 everything is taken as "serious". But finally it is going well.

It is so green here compared to home. My sinuses are loving the rain!

I have a new pattern to share here. I have to figure out the ins and outs of posting here again.

Happy Spring!