today

While surfing and reading recently, I came across a blog where a woman had summarized her day and thought I could do something similar. I can’t now remember the headings that she used or what the blog was called, but this is what I came up with.

Outside my window: It’s snowing. The dog and the kids have been outside and there are tracks of varying sizes winding around the house and down to the barn. It’s also a little warmer today and the snow is good and sticky, as you can see by the snowman. At some point tonight I will have to go out and retrieve my scarf. The cat sits intently at the window (when he isn’t napping) hoping to catch another glimpse of the bunny that likes to take shelter at the side of the house.

In the kitchen: There is a chocolate chip cake baking in the oven and a roast to go in the oven later for dinner tonight. The grandparents are all coming for dinner and to see how we are settling into the house.

We are working on: I have unpacked my knitting again and am working on another pair of socks, using this super simple sock pattern, but I have added my own little design to the top. The girls have been in the workshop and have built some horse stalls for the small squeaky kid’s toy horses. The dad has fixed my footstool. The cat is napping.

I am reading: Eva Luna by Isabel Allende. I’ve had it sitting at work for a while and just started reading it again during lunch breaks. I had forgotten how much I enjoy her writing. I am also waiting my turn to read the new Harlan Coban book that the dad is working on right now and I keep looking at the William Dam seed catalogue that I have been waiting for a chance to read through.

Around the house: I am working my way up to vacuuming the main floor, I’ve done some laundry, cleaned the kitchen and am working on convincing the dad that he needs to clean the litter box. I’m having minimal success with the last item.

Quote for today: “Start off slowly and taper off.” I used to think a friend from highschool came up with that one until I saw an embroidered pillow with that same quote. I had that pillow sitting on my chesterfield for years.

One of my favorite things: Right now, the fuzzy fake fur blanket that my in-laws gave me for Christmas; it’s currently wrapped around my legs.

Plans for the week: Hockey practice, a new recipe to try, library books to return, piano practising to supervise, friends coming for dinner next weekend, horses to care for and at some point I should unpack and organize the sewing room, but I still haven’t been inspired to do anything but keep the door to the room firmly shut. And of course there is work. I’m trying to convince the dad that I should quit work and be a homemaker. Since I am the only one with a pension and benefits that pipe dream will likely never happen. But feel free to leave him a comment about how nice it would be to have one parent at home..

a quick and simple pattern for a dishcloth

My kids have a running countdown to Christmas posted on the whiteboard on our fridge. It’s been a daily reminder of how far behind I am this year. But I’m getting there. Friday night we did all of our Christmas shopping and today we hope to tackle the rest of the fudge and cookie making.

We don’t have a single Christmas light or decoration up yet, but we are in the middle of a bathroom renovation and everything has been covered in drywall dust. Does drawing snowflakes in the dust count? I’m waiting for the work to be finished before we put up the tree. Though I suppose a coating of drywall dust might look like a light coating of snow. It could be the closest thing to snow that we have before Christmas again this year.

I finished a few quick dish cloths/face cloths for gifts for the girl’s teachers. Wrapped up with a bar of local handmade lavender, lime and mint goats milk soap, they make a cute and quick to make present.

There are a lot of patterns to be found on the internet for this cloth. This is the way that I make it.

Quick and Basic (Yarn Over) Dishcloth

Printable Version

Materials

• cotton dishcloth yarn
• 5.5 mm needles (U.S. size 9)

Instructions

Cast on 4 stitches

First row: Knit 4

Next row (increasing row): Knit 2, yarn over, knit across the row. Repeat this row until you have 45 stitches on the needle.

Next row (decreasing row):Knit 1, Knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit to the end of the row. Repeat Row 3 until there are 4 stitches remaining.

Cast off using the stretchy cast off stitch (knit together the first two stitches on the left needle through the back of the loop. Slip the new stitch on the right needle back to the left needle. Repeat 1 and 2 until all stitches are bound off.).

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday

DIY stitch markers for knitting

I’ve been home from work for a couple of days, resting and icing my leg after a particularly stupid and clumsy fall in the barn led to a sprain. The doctor asked if I knew why I fell. I don’t know. I’m clumsy. It’s been a lifelong thing.

Anyway, there hasn’t been much to do, so I’ve knit and slept. Tomorrow I will probably be back to work because the pain seems to be mostly gone unless I do something stupid like try to bend my knee. You don’t realize how often you bend your leg until it hurts to do it. I’ll have to get the kids to help me with my socks in the morning, but after that I should be good to go.

Back to the knitting. I am working on another pair of socks, which require stitch markers to mark where the decreases need to happen. I have been using the tiny little plastic O’s, but they are an immense pain in the behind knee when you drop one and need to crawl around looking for it (not gonna happen). I saw something like these on-line on a knitting site once and had all of the necessary parts on hand, so I made myself a bunch of them. In socks, there are two kinds of decreases, the K2TOG (knit 2 together) and SSK (slip slip knit) – and at the toe, you need to have 4 markers to mark these decreases. So, in order not to overtax my brain looking back and forth at the pattern every row, I made two each of these marker. I made some generic beaded ones too, for other projects, but the 2 sets of KTOG and SSK are great at keeping the socks on track.

Everything you need should be easy to find at the dollar store or a craft store. You just need some metal links (or large jump rings), some metal head pins (or you can use jewelry wire and place a crimping bead on the ends), pliers and some beads. The first couple that I made I just folded over the top of the pin once the beads were in place and crimped it in place over the jump ring. The last few I made I got a little more comfortable with it and tried wrapping the wire at the ends. Here is a good instructional video that I found about making a wire wrapped loop.

And now I will go back to my knitting and my bag of frozen peas.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, Mind Body and Sole, White Wolf Summit Farmgirl