Early August happenings...

I took a moment to go through my phone pics to see what I've been up to lately... 

;)

Part of the basil patch was harvested to make some Pesto.  Paul, Cassie and myself are quite fond of Pesto... on crackers, on toast, on pizza.  When planting in the spring, I elected to plant an entire package of seed.  Heehehehe.... I don't think we need to do THAT again!  We literally have basil growing out of our ears.  Some friends were invited over to help manage the basil;  we still have LOTS left over.

Excitement in the mail!!!!!  KatieZ contacted me earlier about some cotton yarn she had in excess and wondered if I was interested in working out a deal.
?!?!?!!   Ah--yah!  Candance and I were both excited to tear into the box of goodies!

And later that day, while the girls swam, I elected to finish crocheting up some Crochet-top kitchen towels.

Also on the mail-front....
Cassie gandered out to the mailbox one day...

... to be followed home by her posse!

Some shifting of chicken houses needed attention due to the newest (and FINAL) hatchlings of the season.

Big Mama with our 22 youngest hatchlings (first week of August).  She is protecting them nicely in the ground brooder, which was NOT the original plan, BTW!
Nope, nope.  Originally, we were going to have her start brooding them in the house-brooder.
But..... it seems that another Mama was interested in even MORE chickens on the Skattebo ranch!



*forehead slap!*
Yes folks---there is a chance to have another dozen or so chicks on the property in another week or so!  And, I KNEW there was a reason for the dwindle in egg production in the upper coops!

Anyway, yah, so the house-shifting started!
We started by kicking Carlos (rooster) out of the 'new' coop in order to allow the 27 oldest chicks of the season to have safe access to their permanent housing.  Together with two other year-old hens, they are now housed.  (29 birds there).
Carlos and two other older hens departed the 'new' coop together and are now mingling quite nicely with our main rooster, Steve, and his posse of 9 hens.  So...., what is that?.....another 13 birds.  (42 so far).
Then, the 14 'teenager' that had been in the ground brooder were moved into the temporary housing that the older chicks HAD been in.  (we're up to.... 56).
At that point, we were able to move Big Mama and her 22 chickies into the ground brooder (78 now; I already counted Mama as one that belonged to Steve).
So... I THINK I've taken care of counting everyone..... add to that another dozen or so that the newest Mama will hatch.... Yah.  About 90 birds.  That's fun, right?!?!!?

Oh yah... one other little minor happening in early August...

I turned 40.  

Away from home vacation time...

I'm not quite sure how I can actually think it's okay to be away from home for 10 days now that things are starting to reach harvest stage in the garden, but... that's what I'm doing.

And I have plenty of take-along projects to keep me busy during my vacation...

The purse was first on my list over the weekend while at the farm with in-laws.  Originally, I planned to only use a black Red Heart Shimmer yarn, but shortly after arriving, MIL pulled out a bag of different yarns she wanted to give to me and the girls.  This fuzzy green Moda-Dea Tutu yarn was too stinkin' cute not to use!!!!  So, I doubled up the Shimmer and Tutu yarns for the purse (instead of the suggested bulky weight), and it is simply adorable!   Love it!  Now, to decide whether or not to line it :)

The girls took their choices of yarn from the bag, BUT I got total dibs on this light 3-ply weighted "peaches and cream" lot!  There are no labels;  MIL really doesn't remember where she had received it from either, but I figured it'd be perfect for a little baby afghan!

I pulled out the book of 500 crochet stitches and gave Cassie the task of narrowing my 50 selections down to ONE.  LOL.  She chose stitch #482;  such a cute and simple pattern!

So now, I am at my mom's house for the rest of the week.  My sister, Jen, came to visit with me and the girls as well, plus Gma invited the other two cousins (my brother's kiddos) for the week;  and we don't have a whole lot of much on the agenda other than relaxing, visiting, and letting the girls play with their cousins.

Well......I DO have one little task on the agenda for either today or tomorrow!  I finally stuck my two $50 Hancock Fabrics gift cards into my card wallet (from last summer!) and will most likely bust through (at least) one of them while bringing home some new yarn and/or fabric.  

Other than that...... just a lot of relaxing.  And crocheting :)

Happy Tuesday!

{{Oh yeah, I suppose I could share...}}

Yesterday was 38 for me.  I finally have the reached the stage where I have the energy of two 19 year olds!  LOL.  Just another day around these parts :)

What a difference 16 days can make & yarn help!

My sister asked me what time I woke up.  

5:00AM everyday (almost) for the past three weeks.  I wake up to the alarm in order to wake up Cassie for her 6AM strawberry picking job.  I'm usually arriving back home by 6:10 to start my day.  Blogging, reading email and crocheting have been my early morning hours routine.  Love it!

And.....

It's a GORGEOUS morning out there today!  The heat has broken even more than yesterday.  So, for those of you on the East coast.....relief is coming!  62 degrees at the 5AM alarm.  The sun crested our neck of the woods around 5:45.... and I had a perfect opportunity for taking updated pictures of the garden that we all worked so diligently on yesterday.  Despite the HOT temps this past week, the rain we received a week ago, combined with the warm temps..... wonders for everything in the garden!

Garden (left) - July 4

Garden (left) - July 20

Garden (right) - July 4

Garden (right) - July 20

Paul, Caitlyn, Candace and myself spent the morning hours yesterday cleaning up everything in the garden.  In addition to the plants, the weeds also took off during this past week!

Inspired by Cassie's strawberry-picking method of pay, Paul and I came up with some "work incentive" for the other two as well.  For each row of corn they weed, they would receive $1.00.  We really aren't choosing to do so based on bribery.  There are parents who give out allowances;  we don't.  I don't think we'll ever start, either.  However, we are very open to 'paying per duty' -- and for the girls to learn a work ethic and to realize they can't simply get paid for doing nothing.  OR for doing a poor job.  Now, sure..sure..sure.  There's the argument that they will only be completing jobs with the sole purpose of earning money.  Well... is that really a bad thing?

For instance, Candace was a GO-GETTER yesterday, outweeding Caitlyn 2-to-1.  She completed 4 rows where Caitlyn only did 2.  Candace weeded her rows clean, where Caitlyn needed to go back and reweed some areas of hers.  Sure, there were tears by Caitlyn....and she may hate weeding forever because of this.  BUT, when the dough was dished out to the girls later in the afternoon, I kinda wonder if Caitlyn regretted not doing a better job, seeing Candace earning more than her.

Anyway... I know there are PROs and CONs about paying kids for working in a garden that they themselves will reap the food benefits from... but.  I'm hoping they learn the PROs of getting paid :)

And in the end, all but 3 rows of corn were weeded.  Works for me.

And they were all smiles when they could pick some early peapods...

and raspberries.

Enjoying her raspberries, Candace couldn't believe the size of some of our tomato plants already!  Almost as tall as her.  And they are growing beautifully!  All 18 in the main garden have oodles of blossoms and many tomatoes growing already.  The 14 in the upper garden are also in full bloom, but no tomatoes yet.

Sadly, we also had some bad news when walking around inspecting everything over.  The potato bugs have swarmed in in droves.  Six plants were completely infested; so infested that it would have taken oooodles of time to pick all of them off.  Therefore, Paul said to just leave them and that he would spray them once the wind was calmer.  Neither of us are big on spraying pesticides or herbicides, but he picked up an organic pesticide specific for potato bugs and we are hoping it'll do the trick.  Note: The weather calmed down nicely by 8:00 PM after our full day of garden and boating; the plants have been sprayed.

Going back to the raspberries for a moment..... OMGoodness!  The three rows we transplanted two years ago are LOADED with berries this year!!!  The four rows that were transplanted last year have some berries, but NOTHING like this.  We picked our handfuls of ripe berries.  I predict in this next week, full-swing berry picking will get underway.

Our Wisconsin grasshoppers must be in full reproduction phase too, because they were jumping all over the place in the raspberries.  I couldn't resist taking a picture, all the while thinking of Judy in TX and her monster grasshoppers!  Golly gee!  I don't know what I would do if I came across a grasshopper the size of the ones down by her.  This lil' guy pictured here could easily fit on a dime.

Other good news!  A few of Paul's tree grafts have budded nicely :)  He took a class on tree grafting earlier this spring, and as part of the class fee, students were give some rootstock and ..umm.... well, the tree-branchy-thingies that you graft onto the rootstock (I can't recall the technical term).  Four different apple tree varieties have successfully been grafted.  Yay.  It was an exciting moment to find this good fortune.

By noon, we were hanging up our garden tools for the day.  I. Was. Poooooped.  WAY more pooped than I had been in a long time.  Maybe these 11PM bedtimes and 5AM mornings finally caught up with me.  I certainly give credit to Cassie for working her long hours in the sun day-to-day!  6AM to noon most days, with some days going until 1 or 2PM in the afternoon;  all depending on how quickly the pickers reach the daily quart goal established by the owner.

By midafternoon, the girls were getting antsy and wanted to go boating.  Goofball Caitlyn here used her creativity and problem-solving skills to create some scuba gear.  She never did end up trying it out in the water.  I think she simply forgot once they all started jumping off the platform into the water, doing different twists, flips and turns.

And me...?  I crocheted.  And Paul read a magazine.

I have added the dark teal to the project.  And a silly story to tell...

This will be my first project where I'm reading off a pattern;  the other projects I've done were all created from watching videos on YouTube.

The pattern calls for making "bobbles" - little puffs of yarn.  Cute lil' things.  BUT, shortly after starting the bobble row, I started making the "err...ummm...is this right?" face.  I wasn't seeing any cute lil' puffs of yarn! :\

But I persevered...and when I went to turn the project for the next row of simple single crochets....

I saw the bobbles!!!  I didn't realize they were going to be on the other "right" side of the project and that I working on the "back" side.  Ha.  Learning loads of new stuff with this project.  This pattern is having me front and back post double-crochet, create bobbles, and to do a criss-cross as well.

HOWEVER.  This yarn....grrrr!  I certainly LOVE how easy it is to see all of my stitches, BUT, I'm not smiling very much on the bobble rows.  Having to pull through 7 loops, doing the best I can to keep the yarn loops loose...  it's just not happening all that easily.  It's not as 'flexible' as the Simply Soft by Caron I used on Slanted Shells.  And no where NEAR as soft.  Therefore, I'm changing the pattern from here on out.  No more bobbles until I get to the other side; I do like to keep some form of symmetry.   I really don't know if Candace will like snuggling with it as much as Slanted Shells if it stays this 'coarse.'   OH, and BTW, she stole Slanted Shells again to sleep with last night.  LOL.  Caitlyn has already called dibs on it for tonight.
So yeah.... knowing that this afghan may not be as soft, I am making a design call to remove the frustrations in order to keep my sanity.  I'm sure I'll try bobbles again... just not with this yarn.

Being so new to yarn, can any of you assure me that the Red Heart super saver worsted yarns will get softer over time?  After washing maybe?

Happy Saturday!

Slanted Shells - completed [Crochet]

Slanted Shells (51" x 64")

A new appreciation for crocheters was eminent!! My first finish is nothing fancy, but the time investment is jaw-dropping; roughly 50 hours (and 2640 yards of yarns) -- some 'simple' quilts I've made this size in the past can be completed in a small fraction of that time!  However, when a new obsession strikes, I guess time really becomes meaningless. 

I thought a LOT during this process about the crocheted afghan I sold at a garage sale all those years ago for $1.00, and am simply shaking my head.  The lady who purchased it did the best she could to get me to understand how meaningful that afghan should be, but .... the appreciation didn't exist.  And I would confidently say that afghan was queen size.  :\

So, I move forward in my new craft, excited about the possibilities!   During most of those 50 hours, I had YouTube crochet videos playing in the background.  Lordy, oh Lordy!  My break from quilting will continue;  I'm simply feeling burnt out and disinterested right now.  Please forgive me.  Quilting is still my first love, but crochet currently is a very close second. And I want to learn and play more :)

The details for Slanted Shells

Pattern/Design:  Slanted Shells

Yarn:  Caron Simply Soft : 6 x Bone (315 yd/ea) 3 x Woodland Heather (250 yd/ea).  (Found at 

Walmart for $2.97ea) = TOTAL: ~2640 yards

Time:  Roughly 50 hours

Size: 51" x 64"

Hook:  Size I/9;  5.5mm

Happy Day everyone :)

Slanted Shells - almost half way

Paul asked me today if I had a vision in my mind as to what the finished project looked like.

Ummmmmm....sorta.  I'm just kinda going with the flow.  I was thinking of doing some symmetry, but ... while driving to Walmart this morning to pick up some more yarn, I saw more 'bone' than 'woodland heather' in my latest vision.  So, I've switched back to bone and will crochet up oooodles of rows now towards the top.  

I have spent some hours in the garden and some time with our animals over the past couple of days.  The temperatures are starting to climb, as well as the humidity this week.  My garden has taken OFF this past week!  Holy moly!  But I have definitely also spent more than my share of time in my glider with my project.  More often than not, I have some sort of youtube crocheting video in the background;  it truly is amazing what you can learn with youtube;  it CAN be productive! :D

Happy Monday

Thoughts...and appreciation!

As I'm sitting here, crocheting away on this new Cluster-V stitch I learned this morning, I definitely find myself having a new appreciation for the maker(s) all the crochet projects that have come and gone in my life.  And having a faint memory of one that I SADLY, SADLY regret selling now!  It was massive!  And heavy!  And I have to believe it was hand-made by one of my relatives (??????)

Maybe my mother can give me some information;  I recall having it on the back of an old rocking chair at our old house.  I also have no recollection where the rocking chair came from either.  Gosh!  Such bad memory!  A tiny little voice is nagging me with "Grandma Laessig" (my mom's mother).  I wonder if she crocheted.

It was big!  And back when I had my first garage sale---I was on a "clean it out!" rampage, so it found itself on the selling table, with the price tag of $1.00!  

It's nagging me, because I clearly remember the lady it was sold to.  She asked me at least three times if I was sure I wanted to sell it; that it certainly was handmade, and then insisting that I needed to put more than $1.00 on it.  

I have a feeling she walked away with an AMAZING deal that day.

**sigh**

So, a new appreciation is found.  Knowing now how much time and effort was put into that afghan, .... and how I want to make one just as big.    

And then I look at my hands.  I'm 37 and my hands remind me of my mother "back in the day."  I recall times in my past when I would notice the popped veins in my mother's hands, thinking I wish I had that feature.  LOL.  Goodness.   Truly, time simply passes us by.

In actuality, the real purpose of this picture was to show you my painted nails;  I don't have paint on my nails very often!  Not with all the gardening I do that eventually scrapes away at it all.  BUT, I have enjoyed my morning of crocheting (and even typing right now) because it just feels ..... different.... and more feminine....having the paint on the nails.  

Waiting patiently for a phone call from Cassie saying she's done with strawberry picking for the day.  I'm so tempted to go shopping for some more yarn and new/different-sized crochet hooks.  

However, first.  More practice.  Practice.  Practice.

Crochet this, crochet that. Crochet, crochet, crochet...

My quilting room remains untouched as I have continued my YouTube crochet ventures...

Dishcloths and such have been made, all the while practicing for consistent stitches... 

{Dishcloth patterns}

The crochet rugs have continued...

The initial DC woven rug has made progress too;  I need more yarn though to reach its final size...

And now... a new design is being learned:  Cluster V pattern.  I have NO idea what this will lead to.  I'm simply playing and still having fun with this new craft :)

Today marks year 15 for Paul and myself. 

Time really does fly.

Ummm.... a new addict to crochet ??? Despite rug frustrations!!!

Let me start by saying that I AM NOT a crocheter.

Prior to about 30 hours ago, anyway.....

Alright, I had DABBLED a little bit with a simple single crochet stitch in order to attempt to crochet a rag rug.  With some newly found confidence after my practice with Caitlyn the other day, I was ready to start my newly "energized with motivation" attempt at another crocheted rug....

ALRIGHT YOU CROCHETERS!!!!!! WHY WHY WHY can't I figure out this stupid thing???  I followed a tutorial that said to single-crochet (sc) into the same stitch twice in order to increase the size; and this tutorial also warned/suggested that if I start a 'round' with 1sc per stitch, to continue that round with 1sc per stitch.   Likewise, if I started a 'round' with 1sc TWICE per stitch, to continue that round with TWO sc per stitch.  But me thinks......that increases it TOO much?  Right?  Hence, the ruffling....

Another tutorial suggested (once increasing was needed) to sc once into one stitch, and then sc twice into the next stitch, and so on.....alternating between 1 and 2 sc per stitch.  Which I started to do in the blue section to try to "fix" the waviness that began in the white.

Um..........

yeah.  

Kathy?!?!?!?!?!!  Any advice?   Anyone else????  

So, while I put that aside with a bit of frustration, I thought.......Why not work on actually UNDERSTANDING crochet before picking up the rug again!??!!?!?!?

O

M

Goodness.

It's SOOOOOOO much fun learning something new!  AND, what's even more exciting is coming up with "rules" and "designs" on your own.  Now, bear with me and BE KIND!  For those of you master-crocheters out there....looking at this, you might say "ummm, mistake" or "ummm, easily done."

BUT, the quick story behind this was........

I started by simply sc a couple of rounds, following the sc1 per stitch for one round, and then sc1 twice per stitch for the next round.  AND THEN, I recalled the double-crochet (dc) steps from an earlier tutorial in the day (I was in the truck, on the road up to the farm when this doily-thingy was made---TOTAL play!).... so I did a round of dc.  And THEN...I wondered......."hm.  what would happen if I chain-stitch a bit, and then skip some stitches...."

LIGHTBULB!  THIS is how all of those doily loopy-things are made!  

So, um....

there was gardening done this morning....

but NO quilting is on the agenda anytime soon.  

WHY?  

Because I found THIS TUTORIAL just a bit ago -- Crochet a woven rug.  Dude!  I'm PUMPED!

Of COURSE, I'll start small though!  We need a few more potholder/trivets anyway!

Patience with me.  My quilting will return!  Have no fear.
Until then....I reallllly want to see truly how easy this woven rug can be done.

Kathy--really though.  If you (or anyone else) has advice/suggestions on the rag rug.....I'd LOVE to hear it.

Happy Wednesday!

Feeling lazy

I feel lazy; I know I've done a good share of tasks over the past 24 hours....but I just feel lazy.  I think it's because I never got around to actually quilting up Wafer Cookies yesterday, nor do I feel like standing behind a quilt machine right now for some quilting.  I feel like sitting.  With my feet up.

Candace, my model

I finished up the double-knit scarf yesterday morning using Caitlyn's Knitting Loom.  I didn't really keep track, but I would have to estimate I spent 10-15 hours total on it and used two ... ummm.... "things" .... of yarn.  Not being a yarn user, I don't know the actual name of a "package" of yarn.....

Google to the rescue.....

A SKEIN of yarn.  Well....there ya have it.  I used two SKEINs of yarn;  a dark brown and a dark blue/navy/purple/brown mix.  I can see doing another project.  It's kinda fun doing something new (and easy!)

Lazy Sunday, Part 3 was also ALMOST finished up!  All purple bricks and white squares cut;  all 156 "diagonals" sewn (and double-sewn for bonus HSTs), and SOME of them cut and pressed.

The bonus HSTs were even pressed as I went along.   The part is ALMOST finished;  another good hour of cutting apart the double-sewn seams and pressing should do it.

Ummmm, I'm trying to remember how I got sidetracked away from my sewing room yesterday......

....

.......

Gosh!  I'm getting old!

I don't remember how, but SOMEHOW, I got sidetracked... and ended up outside on the lawn mower.  

LOL

I spent a couple of hours mowing and "raking" with the yard sweeper behind the mower.  

Which then lead me to weeding Paul's newly planted berry bushes....

Then lead to mulching the bushes and the 'rescued' tomato plants.

Then lead to hoeing 45 hills of the white potato patch

Then lead to

OH!!!!!! I REMEMBER NOW!  I hauled up some jars of green beans for lunch yesterday;  we had three jars left from the 2011 batch (buried behind the 2012 jars).  I warmed them up in the microwave.......ehhhhh.  They didn't taste that great (it may just have been in my mind) .  SO, I  dumped them into a bucket, along with some overly ripe grapes, and took them out the pigs after lunch. 

Which then lead to emptying the compost bucket...... which then lead to the lawn mower!  LOL

 So, when all the outside work was said and done, it was 8PM and time to relax.  

There was NO quilting on Wafer Cookies like I had hoped, but.... that's okay.

I grabbed up the Knitting Knobby again while watching some marathon episodes of Snapped.  Until MIDNIGHT!!!!  Good golly!  That cup of coffee at 8PM probably wasn't the best idea.

But I made some progress.  All of the outer rings (the speckly brown/tan yarn) were knitted (icorded) last night.

The rug looks a little bigger when Candace's feet are on it, though :)

Some of you were asking about the Knitting Knobby.  I use a very simple, plastic yellow one;  I think it was from my mom to one/all of the girls;  and I snagged it up since it wasn't getting used.  

A google search lead me to a picture of one that is what I used as a kid;  I had the "mushroom" headed one;  it always reminded me of the Smurfs' houses!

My google search also shared other names used for this tool:  Toy Knitter and Spool Knitter.

Regardless of what name is used;  it's an EASY way to introduce a child to a crafty project.  

And today so far.....

it's been another morning of good sewing ambitions, but filled with garden distractions instead;  and a 2 hour detour to the local strawberry patch to pick 2 buckets of berries.  Our timing was perfect too;  Cassie was almost finished with her assigned rows as we were finishing our picking.  

And now....

I feel like being lazy! :)

Caitlyn took a crochet class during her first Summer School session, and she wanted to desperately show me how to crochet.  Since Kathy posted her progress on her crochet rug for yesterday's Slow-Stitch Sunday, I thought a refresher on crocheting would be a good way to spend some downtime after lunch.  So, with Youtube in the background, and Caitlyn next to me, we both grabbed a crochet hook, some yarn... and crocheted away.

This is mine.  Practicing an oval shape to get ready for a new rug (see a post on a former rug).  Caitlyn crocheted a massively long chain-stitch.  The right side of this lil project turned out good....but not so sure what happened on the left.  I think I lost count of my stitches right off the bat in my 2nd round, and I haven't quite been able to "fill it in" yet.  

BUT.  With this refresher, I think I'm ready to grab some fabrics and give my go at a rag rug again :)

Have I said I'm feeling lazy!??!