What??

I got nothing to talk about knitting wise.

Timeless Pullover knit with Aloft from Knit Picks

I'm still working on the Timeless Pullover knit with two stands of mohair held together.  I think ten years from know I will still be knitting the body of this thing.  I don't understand.  The yoke knit up so fast and the fabric grew in length quickly.  I expected that the body would fly off the needles once I'd removed the sleeve stitches.  But that's not the case.  Not the case at all.  I knit and I knit and I knit and I knit some more.... and I swear, I think the fabric is getting shorter rather than longer.  Maybe it's the fact that I'm knitting mohair in 89% humid, 100+ degree weather.  

What is wrong with me??

I'll tell you what's not wrong with me - my vitamin B12, D and cholesterol.  Well, okay, my cholesterol is still terrible but it's no where near as terrible as it was eight weeks ago.  

What's still not okay is my A1C, or blood sugar.  It didn't budge.  And I do not understand that at all.  Not at all!  I haven't even been worrying about my cholesterol.  I've been focusing on my blood sugar and eating healthier, lower sugar/carb foods.  I haven't had a potato in two months and I've only had rice once or twice.  I've learned to almost enjoy wheat bread.  I've even cut out dessert.  But that ^^$%#% blood sugar has not reacted one single bit.  It's still sitting there at the exact same number it was eight weeks ago.  And eight weeks ago, I'd had breakfast and was chewing sugary gum when they drew my blood.  This time around, I'd been fasting for 14 hours.  Argh!

It's okay though.  They've now doubled my medication.  By the time I take all those pills, I won't have room for any food in my tummy.

Oh, and you know what else?  Okay, this is getting kind of personal but...  I haven't shaved my legs in six plus months.  And a few months ago it dawned on me that if I didn't need to shave my legs anymore, maybe I didn't need to shave my armpits either.  So I stopped that too.  But suddenly, my legs are looking ape-like.  Like, over night, I grew an inch of leg hair.  I don't even own a razor anymore.  Good Lord!  Apparently, now that my vitamin B levels are back up where they are supposed to be, I'm not only growing fingernails (Yay!!) but also leg hair. Argh!

Health rant over.  Back to knitting...

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends on social media. Until next time, Happy Knitting!

Three on Thursday - Adult Popsicles

This past Sunday's post where I shared a recipe for gin and tonic popsicles was a hit with many of you.  But a few of you commented that you'd prefer boozy chocolate popsicles.  

So...

Fudgesicles from pudgefactor.com

These fudgesicles are made with Godiva liqueur but there are suggestions for substituting kahula, burbon, rum, or......Well, there's lots of options.  There's even a non alcoholic version.

Boozy Chocolate and Coffee Popsicles from kitchenstories.com

These popsicles are made with Baileys for the chocolate and coffee lovers.  Honestly, I don't think there's anything in this world that would be better than a Baileys popsicle!

Boozy Nutella Popsicles from foodfanatic.com

Or, how about these?  I'm not a huge Nutella fan, I mean, it's okay, but I don't go crazy for it like lots of people do.  But Nutella and bourbon, frozen on a stick?  Oh yeah!  The recipe is here.

You're welcome.

Hope you'll join me for today's Three on Thursday gathering.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends on social media. Until next time, Happy Stitching!

TNT

Look at me - two Tiny Needle Tuesday's in a row!

I finished the beach chair cross stitch, although I've been informed it's not a beach chair.  It's an Adirondack chair.  Perhaps it is, formally, but when you paint them fun colors and put them on the screened porch or dock, they become beach chairs.

My question for you is, is that frame too big?  I think it might be, which is a shame because I planned to cross stitch three chairs in various colors and I just happen to have three of those frames.  Sadly, I think a smaller hoop would look better.  What do you think?

Can I even call an embroidery hoop a frame?

For posterity and in case I ever want to recreate this chair, I used three strands of DMC floss #3843 and #3846 on 14-count fabric.

On a totally different and fun note, I typed this last night.  And there's a ^%^$^%#$%#^ tree frog somewhere in my room croaking his fool head off!  

How do these things always happen to me?

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends on social media. Until next time, Happy Stitching!

Sunday Supper - Gin and Tonic Lollies

Yeah, it really is too hot to eat.  

Gin and tonic lollies from bbcgoodfood.com

We are all adults here; I think we just may drink our dinner tonight.  Actually, they are frozen so we will have to chew.  Or at least bite.  That classifies these as a meal, not a drink.  Besides, there's cucumber in there.  We're just having salad!  Frozen boozy salad on a stick!  Yeah, that's my kind of hot July meal!

Oh, I guess you'd like the link.  Gin and Tonic Lollies can be found here.

Enjoy!

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On the Needles

Timeless Pullover

I'm still plugging away at Timeless and will probably still be knitting on it this time next month.  I knit and I knit and I knit and I knit some more... and it seems I make no progress what so ever.  And that's weird because with the two strands of mohair held together, I'm getting gauge at five stitches to the inch.  I think it just feels like it's taking forever because I can't read while I knit all this stockinette. Well, I can, but I find myself only grabbing one strand too frequently to bother.  

Despite not being able to read while I knit, it's still a fun project.  The yarn is just so light and soft and it hasn't shed all over my clothes a single time.  

And, the sweater fits!  Actually, it might be a little bit too big.  I was in between sizes so I opted for the larger size because I'm not into body hugging clothes these days.  

And for those of you interested in the tank....  I have a new addition.  Meet Herman.  He's a Mystery Albino snail and he is going to help me with my algae problem.  Apparently I can't count.  I had the timer for my lights set on 10 hours, not 8.  Oops!  A big, giant oops actually.  Everything was okay until I got Viviane, the second female Emperor Tetra.  She came from a shop that specializes in plants rather than fish and her tank wasn't the cleanest.  Two days later, Bam!  I had a Massive algae problem.  I'm blaming Viviane's water but I know my light timer miscalculation may have been the cause.  Anyway, I've been fighting algae ever since and hopefully Herman is going to help.

Now, if I can just resist the urge to get Herman a girlfriend....

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends on social media. Until next time, Happy Knitting!

Three on Thursday - Still only July?

Well, I'm still suffering from fall fever.  On top of wanting to wear jeans and flannel and sit around the fire pit sipping hot spiced tea, I'm also starting to crave candy corn.  I may not survive August at this point.

The fall fever may send me completely over the edge, but at least I can knit fall things while I wait for cooler weather.  Today's Three on Thursday is three mitten patterns.

Kindling Mitts by Helen Stewart

First of all, I love fingerless mitts.  Second of all, I Love cabled fingerless mitts.  And third, I LOVE the yarn used in that photo.  It just looks so soft and warm and I adore the tiny flecks of color.  These mitts are Kindling Mitts by Helen Stewart.  I've been on a Helen Stewart pattern kick lately.  I discovered her designs last month and Wow!  She's got so many wonderful designs.

Mittens Nomen by Dela Hausmann

I'm fascinated by how different the pattern in these Nomen mittens looks depending on the colors used.  I'm also obsessed with the color scheme on the left.  Oh, and this pattern is free on Ravelry.

Mittens that Never Forget by Elizabeth Lubowitz

I just love the elephants on these mittens.  Besides being adorable, they remind me of Hayden.  Her room is decorated with elephants.  I wonder if I knit a pair for her now, could I keep up with them until she was a teen and big enough to wear them?

Hope you'll join me over at Carole's for Three on Thursday.

TNT

Finally!

A tiny little beach chair cross stitch

I finally get to have a TNT (Tiny Needle Tuesday) post!

Doesn't look like much yet plus I forgot to take photos for today's post until late last night so the lighting is horrible.  Even more horrible than normal!  Some of the bad lighting might be karma coming to get me.  I'm feeling a little bit guilty about the pattern.  

I'm not even sure what magazine I saw it in, but it was one of those 'Ladies' magazines about decorating, cooking and  old age face creams.  Anyway... In one of the photos of a beach house, there was a simple little cross stitched beach chair hanging on the wall.  I thought it was adorable and that it would be so cute to have a set of them in different colors... So I ripped the page out of the magazine, scanned it into the computer, enlarged it and hand copied the pattern onto graph paper.

And twenty minutes after I sat down to start stitching, Hayden came to visit so I didn't get very far.  But that's okay.  I have a few stitches done.  It counts as a TNT!

Timeless Pullover knit with Aloft, a mohair and silk blend

The Timeless pullover is coming along, slowly, but surely.  Actually, I'm astounded at how much progress I've made considering the sweater is knit with mohair, it's July in Virginia, and we've had a week of 95+ degree days with 'feels like' temperatures exceeding 105 degrees.  

Timeless is obviously way too big for my mannequin, but that's a good thing.  I am also much bigger than my mannequin.  I haven't had the nerve to try the sweater on yet.  Did I mention that it's been 95+ degrees with 'feels like' temperatures exceeding 105?  Yeah, I'm sticking with the "I can block that out" theory until it cools off.  Cools way, way off!

Sunday Supper - Cheddar Broccoli Salad

It's just too hot to eat.  Okay, it's never too hot to eat, but it's definitely too hot to cook.

Cheddar Broccoli Salad from tasteofhome.com

Cheddar broccoli salad to the rescue.  Okay, you do have to cook the bacon and I steam my broccoli just a tiny bit in the microwave but there's no oven involved.  Despite having to cook the bacon, this is a very doable dish on a hotter than Hades day in July.

Enjoy!

Timeless

Can you believe - we had nice enough weather the other day that I was able to sit outside on the deck and knit on my mohair Timeless sweater.  In July!  How crazy is that?

Timeless Pullover

I've got two rows to go before separating the sleeves from the body.

As exciting as that is, it's not the important news.

The view from the screened porch

The important news is that my sister and I spent yesterday at our cousin's house.  On the river.  It was fabulous!

Believe it or not, it was my first full day away from my mother-in-law since moving in with her on November 1st.  That's a looooong time to go without a full breakfast-through-dinner day off.  

It was the first time I'd visited my cousin and his wife at their river house but it won't be the last.  I know where they live now.  What a gorgeous old house they have, what a gorgeous view they have, and what a gorgeous day we picked to visit.

The shore was covered in muscles that had washed up for unknown reasons.

My sister had gotten a new car the day before so she had a good time driving us to the river.  Once there, we had a fun "ladies' lunch" that, thankfully, did not involve take-out pizza or sub sandwiches.  Besides the fabulous food and the wonderful company, what made it so fun was that the table was set with old family silver and china.  

What's so special about eating off old family china?  Well, if I understand how it works correctly, my cousin is both my first and second cousin.  My mother's brother married my dad's first cousin.  And the cousin we were visiting is a product of that marriage.  What it all boils down to is that all the 'stuff' from from multiple generations of two family lines got split between my sister and I and my two cousins.  There is a Lot of family history there.  And my cousin's wife is into genealogy and relationships as well as history, so she's full of stories of where things came from and the stories behind the items.  

Wow!  That was a long winded way to say we had a really nice lunch.  

And then we hit the water.  There is something so incredibly special about swimming in salt water river water.  And we had gorgeous, perfect weather.  I didn't want to leave.

Three on Thursday - Hayden

I'm taking the easy way out for today's Three on Thursday.

Three recent photos of Hayden:

Have you ever seen anything any cuter?  I just can't get over those big, blue eyes.  I'm so happy she seems to be keeping them.  I'm also very surprised because her dad comes from a long line of dark brown eyes.

Hayden with her Great Grandma.

Hayden may love her mama but she's definitely Daddy's Girl!

Hope you'll join me today for Three on Thursday.

Not Reyna

Not Reyna

Well, I'm going to have to rename this shawl Not Reyna.  I got a little carried away with the previous lace/mesh section and continued to knit mesh instead of switching back to garter.  Rather than pull it out, I'm claiming artistic license and making my own garter/lace mesh stripe pattern.

Besides the fact that I think you are looking at the back side of the shawl in that photo, I wish the yarn's true color showed up better.  It is The prettiest greeny-blue I have ever seen in real life but no matter how much editing I do to the photo, I can't seem to get the color right.  And of course, it's way too dark to retake the photo now.

I feel like I haven't spent any time knitting recently but Not Reyna is a tad bit past half way complete and my Timeless sweater is coming along too.  

I'm pretty excited about Timeless.  I'm past the second pearl row and knitting with (1) mohair in Virginia in July and (2) two strands of mohair held together is much easier than I expected.  And yes, I did mean "pearl" not "purl."  The sweater has bands around the  yoke that are supposed to represent strands of pearls.  You know, it's a timeless, classic sweater and if you're wearing a timeless, classic sweater, you must also wear your pearls.  Or is that just a southern girl thing?

On the needles

Not much knitting happening these days.  I've gotten a few rows completed on my Timeless sweater, I've made it to the second lace section of the Lagoon Reyna and I picked Rambling Rows back up to work on while I read my, cough, cough, week's worth of email.  Good grief!  How did I manage to not open my email for an entire week?

Anyway, not much knitting happening these days.  The pool gets in the way.  I need to figure out how to knit while I float.

I'm glad I wasn't floating yesterday because this happened.

Hayden's reaction to the rain was priceless.

Three on Thursday - Is if fall yet?

Now that the 4th of July is in the wind, I have fall fever.  No, I don't want the weather to turn cold so that I have to stop floating in the pool but... I could really go for jeans, a flannel shirt, a fire in the fire pit and some hot spiced tea.

Between my fall fever and Virginia's July heat and humidity, I need to be knitting small, tiny things.  Things that don't lay in my lap.  Things that never even touch my lap.  And so, for today's Three on Thursday, three hat patterns.

Halloween Knit Hat by Holly G. Hats

A hat for Halloween!  What could be better for fall fever knitting in July?  It could also be a good stash buster project, although I don't think I have an appropriate purple or green in my stash.  Perhaps I need to go yarn shopping.

1898 Hat by Kristine Byrnes

I may have mentioned this one before.  I've downloaded the pattern multiple times but for some reason, I've never knit it.  It looks fairly simple, easy and quick to knit, all things right up my alley.

Do any of  you have to use a radio for work?  It's been ten months since I left my job, but the instant I saw that dude's radio, I could feel my finger flexing as if to push the talk button and my old radio call sign popped into my head.  Gosh, habits are hard to break!

Ombre Hat by Emily Dormier

I've been wanting to knit an Ombre Hat for a while.  I think this would be a great stash buster project and I am all about stash busting these days!

I hope you enjoy these free hat patterns and that you'll join me for Three on Thursday.

On and off the needles

Let's go backwards in time.

Timeless Pullover knit with Aloft

 Apparently, I'm a masochist.  Why else would I have started knitting a mohair sweater in July in Virginia?  This sweater will definitely be an indoor-only project. Granted, I've only knit on it during one sitting but the mohair wasn't bad at all.  It always amazes me how thick and squishy mohair knits up.  For once, I'm using the yarn the pattern calls for - Aloft from Knit Picks.  It's a mohair & silk blend and the color is Iceberg.

I finished the Palette sampler sweater.  That is, I finished the knitting.  The underarms still need to be sewn up and I haven't woven in any of the ends yet. 

The sweater fits great and I love the ribbing on the entire forearm, but I'm not so sure about how the sleeves balloon out above the ribbing.  If I ever make another with this style, I will decrease at a much faster rate before starting the ribbing.  I'm still not sure how I feel about the colors/stripes.  I love the colors individually but... I can't help but feel like I'm going to look like an overweight orange zebra when I wear it.  

A turtle crawled out of the swamp to join our 4th of July gathering.

To give you an idea of his size, because I know you are intensely interested, that's a trenta Starbucks cup for size reference.

Miss Hayden came over for 4th of July and enjoyed skinny dipping.  We know she likes swimming on top of the water but it's debatable whether she enjoyed swimming under it.

Because we have THE best daughter in the world and said daughter likes to cook, Mike and I were free to spend the morning of the 4th floating together.  Neither of us are very touchy-feely and we rarely hold hands.  I'm not really sure how he feels about it but for me, after about 3 minutes you better let go of my hand or you're going to get punched.  It makes me feel like I'm hand cuffed or something.  But, we kept bumping into each other and I laughingly suggested we hold hands so we'd move in unison... and we spent the next two hours holding hands in the pool.  It was really nice, except for the fact Mike hadn't put on sunscreen and now he's glowing so red you can see him from outer space.

And no, Covid has not been kind to my bangs.

But despite Mike's sunburn and my wild woman bangs, we had a great Independence Day.  Hope yours was happy too!

Almost a sleeve

I was so hoping to have my Palette sampler sweater completed by today but alas....

That photo was taken yesterday so there is a very, very slim chance that by the time you read this, it may actually be finished but I would not bet money on.  In fact, I wouldn't even bet a peanut on it.

I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th tomorrow!

Three on Thursday - Independence Day

Can you believe it's July already?  Despite the covid limitations, time is flying by, seemingly at the speed of light.  For us Americans, this Saturday is Independence Day and since our country is so torn right now, I thought we could all use a little patriotism.  And okay, okay.  I haven't knit more than ten stitches on any OTN project I have since the last time I showed them to you so I'm taking the easy way out.

Three American flag inspired things you could knit:

American Flag Turtle by Nicola Riley

It just wouldn't be Independence Day without a red, white and blue turtle!  This guy is just so cute I had to include him.  Maybe I'll have to knit one for Hayden before next year.

American Flag Pillow by Ladyship Designs

I really like this simple pillow and am thinking seriously about knitting a few for the porch glider.   And, assuming the back is just red and white stripes, I could turn it around and use it for Christmas or even Valentines.  Not that I'll be doing a lot of porch sitting in December or February, but I do love a good Christmas pillow.

American Flag Dishcloth by Aunt Susan

This American flag dishcloth would be a little quicker to knit. You could actually complete this project before Saturday. This would also make a nice donation gift for our military or veterans.

Hope you'll join me for Three on Thursday and have a wonderful weekend whether you're American or not.