Another rainy Saturday

There is no Saturday Sky picture as it is, once again, gray and raining. We seem to be in a weather pattern that has 1 or 2 nice days, followed by a whole bunch of wet. It would be a really bad idea to stray from any paved or graveled area as you'll definitely get very muddy and possibly stuck.

Gypsy is contributing to the generally poor housekeeping around here by tracking in much muck (and whatever else attaches itself to her). The pic is from one of her cleaner days.

I spent part of today putting some finishing touches on DD's Halloween costume. She makes quite the fetching pirate. I hope I can manage to get a picture of her in it.

The rest of the day was spent on my "homework": Cleaning up the sock machine before it gets repaired. Well, after much scrubbing, wire-wheeling, buffing and oiling, the pieces look pretty good. Let me tell you this, there are many, many pieces to this thing. In addition the machine itself, there were accessories with it, like a spool winder, a ribber, most of a swift, tools, weights and bits that you use to start a sock and do the heel. I even cleaned up the old needles that were with it. New ones are available, but I'm just frugal enough to want to make the effort.

I did finish my first little skein of silk the other day. One of the things I learned was to never ever ply silk from both ends of the ball. It will be much better for your sanity to make the effort to put it on two bobbins, then ply it.

Is there any knitting getting done? Well yes, but the only finished item escaped without it's picture being taken. It was a wee little hat for a newborn. One of DD's friends has just become an aunt.

Saturday at Rhinebeck

Wow. I was completely unprepared for how big and how many people would be at Rhinebeck! You could not ask for a nicer day: sunny, the trees at peak color and just cool enough to wear a sweater. There were so many choices of fibers, raw, processed, natural, dyed, in batts and in rovings. There were thousands (maybe millions) of choices of yarns of everything from laceweights to super bulkys in every color combination imaginable. When you weren't looking at fibery wonders in the booths, you could watch people. It seemed like almost everyone was wearing something knitted. It was serious eye candy!

I played and participated in Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo. I didn't manage to check off everyone on my card (or even get a bingo), but I did find Beverly, Cynthia, Spider, Katy, Dana, Beth, Stacey, Cathy, Iris, Dawn, Deb, Sorka and, of course, Stitchy. I also ran into Amy, Juno and Stephanie. It was truly delightful to meet fellow bloggers, not to mention completely overwhelming at how many of us were there.

As far as stash enhancement goes, I was quite restrained. There is a ball of Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch in an appealing blue and red colorway, because, after all, I must get sock yarn whereever I go. A ball of fabulous looking (and feeling) laceweight from Skaska Designs. Galina cashed me out; I felt like I had met royalty! Last, but not least, 1 pound of CVM. It's washed and only needs a bit of flicking to be ready to spin. Want a closer look? Here you go.

Today brought two new additions to our household: a mom and baby chinchillas. DD adopted them from the local humane society today. Bubba is checking them out and they really don't seem too concerned at all. The mom is the largest chinchilla I've ever seen. It's a real shame chinchilla fur is short because they are one of the softest critters you can cuddle.

Rhinebeck, Here We Come!

Awhile ago, our spinning guild (GVHG) chartered a bus for a bunch of us to go to Rhinebeck this year. I had wanted to go there for quite a few years because it sounded like a great festival. I do have a largish stash, so my main reason to go this year was for fun and to try and meet up with other bloggers. Coincidently, Stitchy came up with the marvelous idea of Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo.

As I was gently reminded earlier today, I needed to put up a picture of myself. I really dislike having my picture taken, but here it is anyway. I plan on wearing my Olympic sweater unless it's raining. In that case, there will be a white anorak over the top of it. If warm, a white tshirt. In either case, I'll put a Bingo Square button on each shoulder. My hair, thankfully, doesn't show up well in the picture. It's dark brown, fairly long and quite frizzy; pretty much out of control; I usually put it up with one of those big claw clips.

Have fun everyone!

Belated Saturday Sky

I actually did take a picture of the sky on Saturday. Obviously, it didn't get posted until now. I spent Saturday at a friend's house. She has put together a group of sock machine knitters. This was quite convenient as DH had brought home a sock machine from an auction earlier this year. One of the other members is an absolute whiz at repairing them. He looked over my Auto-Knitter and declared it to be in very good shape and only needs one part fixed. My homework is to clean up all the parts and to try to put it back together myself.

I have been knitting some, but have gotten distracted by putting together this wallhanging. I've wanted something much more fall-like for above the woodstove for quite awhile. Bubba was my fairly constant "helper" with this project.

Now that it's definitely fall, the days are shorter and there's a chill in the air, it's feeling like spinning and knitting weather. I believe that it's time to do a bit of stash diving and see what appeals to me.

In the meantime, I dug out my fake pumpkin. As much as I enjoy carving out a real pumpkin (and that great pumpkin/candle smell), this one is much easier!

Friday the 13th

There was about 3 inches of snow on the ground this morning; however, our neighbors to the west (like Buffalo, NY) got almost 2 feet of snow. Let's all send them good thoughts that the snow will melt off quickly and that the electric comes back on even quicker. It's just not fun to have no electric for an extended amount of time when it's chilly out.

To give some scale to this area, it takes us approximately 1 hour to drive from here to Buffalo. In that fairly short distance, you can go from bright blue skies to raging blizzard and back again many times during that trip. Who gets clobbered with squalls is mainly dependant on wind direction and how warm the lake water is. Lake effect is like that. I imagine if you're not used to it that it could be a bit disconcerting.

Gypsy likes snow almost as much as she likes a big pile of leaves. She came in this morning with big snowballs stuck to her legs. I missed the picture with her face almost completely covered in snow.

WTF?

One of the ways we deal with our weather around here is by saying (and actually meaning it), "If you don't like it, wait 5 minutes and it'll change."

Sometimes it takes a little bit longer than that. Yesterday, we were comfortable in shorts. Today we have this. No, those aren't extra dirty windows, that's wind-driven snow. It's not accumulating at all, which is good since I have yet to get out things like winter coats, hats, mittens and shovels.


The other day when we were out and about, we found a door with various signage on it. Just what does this mean? Let's face it, this is not one of our finer moments!

OK, now that snow is starting to stick around. As you can see, the last of the peppers are "iced" with a coating of snow. It's looking like I might just have to dig out some winter gear after all. Now where did I stash that stuff last May?

A Very Blue Saturday Sky

Today was one of those picture-perfect fall days. There wasn't a cloud in the sky (really, I'm not making this up) and about 65 F. Gypsy and I went for a walk in the park, because, really, what else should you do when it's that nice out?

For absolutely gorgeous, it's hard to beat a sugar maple in the the fall.

We are really lucky to have a park like this nearby. Some of it is wide open cut grass and there are some nice pavilions. Best of all are the miles of trails through fields, woods and even swamps.

These bushes have lots of little white berries on them. Normally, the leaves are a very dark red in autumn. I have no idea what they're called, but they're everywhere.

Even fluffy milkweed looks cool. These were still on the plant, but there were some on the trail that looked like little angora bunnies sunning themselves.

And last, but not least, a single leaf on a bed of moss in the woods.

Random Wednesday

This Wednesday is particularly random as I've been having trouble sleeping, so bear with me. I found this little guy outside the other day. Praying Mantis' are just so cool; they have no concept of what size they really are.


Gypsy is her usual charming self. She chose to decorate herself with a flower. Actually, it just got stuck on her fur. It's just amazing what that dog can drag in on herself. Autumn is one her favorite times of year. She just loves to find a great big pile of leaves and burrow in it.

I found this quiz the other day:

You Are Half Baked Ice Cream

In reality, you're just a quarter baked

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

That sounds about right.

Another Saturday

It's Saturday and, again, I have no sky picture. There's really getting to be a trend here: nice during the week and rainy and gray on the weekends. How about one from a few years ago?

Since it was cool and windy, I made another batch of apple butter today. I thought I was done with the canning thing, but then DD said, how about applesauce? I allowed as how she was more than welcome to drag the ladder out, climb it, and pick more apples. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I'm done with canning for the season.

More from the Jelly Factory

The canning frenzy continues with today's contributions of 3 pints of peach jam and 8 pints of apple butter. I have run out of jelly jars, so have moved on to pint jars. This bail-top one is just for the left-overs.

Apple butter takes a long, long time to make. If you want to make some, plan on the whole day. The good part is that much of that time is while it's cooking down in the oven.

Knitting has not been completely absent. I've been working away on the Sunburst Sling Bag. The yarn is from Steam Valley Fiber. As soon as I saw the pattern, I thought that it would look very cool if felted, so I'm knitting it on larger needles and plan doing just that.

It's Saturday and Raining Again

I did think of taking a Saturday Sky picture, but gray is just not that interesting, except when it appears on a hedgehog. This is Chester and he likes to knit also.

Remember that red lamp that came to an untimely end a few weeks ago? Well, now it's blue. DH is quite handy and had conveniently come home from an auction with this vase that happened to be pretty darn close to a perfect fit. I like it just as much as the red one.

It's been pretty busy here in the jelly factory. 16 pints, 11 jelly jars of grape; 3 pints, 8 jelly jars of mulled cider. You would think that would be enough, but there have been requests for peach jam and apple butter. I've never made apple butter before, but have found some recipes for making it in the oven, which should be less likely to burn.

I found these socks in a dollar store today. I don't believe that he thinks there is anything happy about the holidays!

Autumn Harvest

Yep, it's beginning to feel much more fall-like around here. We often get many rainy days in the fall, but I think there's been a bit much when you get fungi like this on the top of a hill. The single one is close to 8 inches across.

The good news is that I actually have apples on one of my apple trees. I have six of them; they have been in the ground for close to 10 years and this is the first time there have been apples. It's been so long that I forget what variety they are, but I think these are one of the disease-resistant MacIntosh types. I'm beside myself with excitement. It looks like there are enough on one of the trees to make apple butter.

We've also had grapevines planted for quite a few years. I am quite remiss when it comes to pruning them properly, but they forgive me regularly. I also often forget about them completely and don't get the grapes picked at all. There is currently quite the bumper crop of grapes, but there is a large pest invading them. I had assumed that bunnies had been eating the lower clusters.

Yes, I know that grapes/raisins are bad for your dog, but Gypsy doesn't seem to eat enough to cause a problem. I'll pick those first and get some grape jelly put up.

Saturday Sky at Fingerlakes Fiber Fest

Spending the entire weekend, including Saturday night, at our Fingerlakes Fiber Fest is definitely in my top 10 really good ways to spend a weekend. Maybe even in the top 5. The weather was cooperative for the weekend, although it had rained lots the week before, so there was much muck to be found. This is the sun setting on Saturday evening over one of the barns. There are 2 barns and 3 buildings of fibery goodness. I am a bad blogger as I really didn't take any pictures to speak of the entire weekend.

Saturday night after the gates close is great fun. There's a pot-luck for those staying on the grounds and a spin-in until whenever.

My stash enhancement was minor. For some reason, silk keeps attaching itself to me this summer/fall. I have stopped putting it off and finally spun some. I like it, a lot. It feels completely different than anything else. I suppose I'll keep it as "pet yarn" for awhile until it's project comes along. The green/blue was such a good deal that it jumped into my bag, then I found the nifty purse pattern. It doesn't call for the bag to be felted, but I think I'll just knit it up on bigger needles and go for it!

My, how time flies...

I now have an idea of what retirees mean when they say they don't know what day it is. One day does just run into the other when you're not going to work every day. I decided that it would be a really good plan to just take September off and enjoy not going to work. There is a possibility (however slight) that a job opportunity could come up with my old employer, so I want to stay unattached enough to consider it. Well, enough of that, on to more interesting topics...

Since I posted last month about some of my unfinished projects, I've been busy completing almost all of them. I have finished all of these: the travelling socks, the trekking socks, setting the spun yarn, put the zipper in a small bag, lined a larger one, sewn up a sheep pillow and have redeemed a felting issue.

The felting "issue" was the result of not making a swatch and felting it to see what the different felting rates were on the yarns I used for this bag. Live and learn. To solve the obviously way too small pockets, I knitted up some inserts, cut the pockets and sewed them in. It looks pretty silly, doesn't it? After running through the washer 3 times, the inserts had felted almost as much as they were going to, but were now a bit too big, of course. No picture of that and there is no excuse as the camera is on the table next to me. I cut a couple of darts and sewed the cut edges together. This is just out of the washer, so still needs a bit of shaping, brushing and a bit of steaming to encourage that pocket to lie down and say uncle.

Not only that, but I've done one of those incredibly cute felted hedgehogs, a pair of felted sllippers and knitted a moebius scarf. No pictures of these right now as they were sent off to Fingerlakes Fiber Festival's Fleece, Skein & Garment Competition. This year, I helped out with the judging. This was lots of fun and I know how everyone did (and I'm not telling).

Speaking of the Fiber Fest, and this is a shameless plug: If you're anywhere in the area of Hemlock, NY (south of Rochester, NY), you really want to take some time this weekend, September 16 & 17th to come join us. We have a really nice festival with both local vendors and out-of-state vendors with a great variety of fibers, yarns, critters and more.

I'll be there all weekend, including Saturday night. We have some space right on the grounds that we dedicate to camping for vendors and guild members. I've done this before and it's just fabulous to spend the entire weekend with a bunch of likable and like-minded fiber nuts.

Saturday Sky

Ernesto came to visit today, so Saturday Sky is not much to look at. I am really glad that all we get from hurricanes is the occasional very rainy day. Today, we had the added bonus of the electric going off for about 3 hours or so. We took it as a hint that it was nap time.

I spent the day finishing up the dredging project in the sewing room. Now it looks more like this. How 'bout that? There was a table under all that stuff.

I found this bookend lurking in there. I have come across it before and it makes me laugh every time. Years ago, my daughter accidently broke it and carefully mended it with duct tape. Note that she even managed to tape it on the inside. I have never been able to even get the slightest bit annoyed about it; like I said, it makes me laugh every time.


I even got to the desk itself. Note the large pile of paperwork to the left. I'm pretty sure that I have run out of excuses to take care of that now that the desk is organized and the electric is back on. Wait a minute, no I haven't...I've done enough work today, it's time to get some knitting done.