Welp, it’s October. 2019 has escalated quickly. October is probably my second favorite month because of Indian summer and Halloween. You can keep your day-after-Christmas sales; I love the day-after-Halloween sales: cheap skulls and lots of candy. This week I worked on Nita, wrote a proposal for Alice, made an appointment to get my stitches out (after contemplating doing it myself and decided that would be bad although it would have made for an awesome Working Wednesday brag), and made a really great pork chop with cartelized onion and noodles dish. The vet suggested Veronica should be wearing a tight T-shirt so we scored one for three bucks on markdown at Petsmart, and I thought about crocheting for her; then I realized she’d just garbage it up and bought more cheapos on Amazon. If I get my act together, I’ll do a Moment of Dog post so you can see Veronica in her new pink shirt. It says “Miss Understood” on the back. Hey, it was three bucks. There was a hoodie that said “K Bye”, but it was nineteen bucks and I’d already dropped over $800 on her at the vet’s so we went with Miss Understood.
What did you work on this week?
I folded laundry. Then folded some more. Then had my husband bring up more laundry from the basement and folded that. My kids aren’t sure where to go looking for their clean clothes right now – they’re used to digging clean clothes out of the laundry baskets…
Sadly, I need to start doing laundry tonight as it’s piled up again.
Death, taxes… and laundry?
Since last Wednesday I quilted and bound the quilt destined for the State Fair. It is one of those 60 mph quilts – looks great from a distance, just don’t be too picky close up. I’m happy with it. I quilted it free-hand.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3AlJY3BqaD/
Also in that set is an “after” picture of my dining room table. My husband had texted me with a picture of the end result of his errand (pumpkin and mums for his mum), and I texted back with my “end of task” picture. He was pretty impressed (as I still am).
This week, I’ve been (mostly) blithely ignoring work while on vacation with my sister. We drove over to Replacements and scored some pieces of her china that were 50% off. At home, we’ve been going through the stuff that I lugged over from my parents’ place five years ago. I’ve got a nice stack of table fabric-wear – napkins, tablecloths, placemats, random doilies that are going. The rest are neatly stacked in the dresser with room to spare. I’ll put these in the yard sale at the end of the month, but I seriously doubt anyone will want an ugly mustard orange round tablecloth with tassels. It might be Goodwill bound.
In between times, I’ve been crocheting my fingers off on the Trio blanket. I’ve got a week left to get it done.
ugly mustard orange round tablecloth with tassels
Says “Halloween costume” to me. Maybe have the yard sale earlier? Or Goodwill it soon.
It says “Dye me” to me. Unless it’s plastic. Then it says “Trash me.”
Turns out there is a matching green one. A faded evergreen that once was pretty, but has been washed frequently.
Neighborhood yardsale is scheduled for Oct 26 . If someone were crafty, they could do something with it by Halloween!
I’m making more janky DIY percussion accessories! I previously made a soup can shaker using rice as the filler, but it’s entirely too quiet. This time around, I’m using a combination of dried chickpeas/mung bean/pearl barley, whatever gets the timbre I want. Also, the brand of soup can I’m using this time has deeper ridges, so I’m wrapping ball chain around the outside, so that rubbing the chain up and down the can gives you a cabasa-like sound.
Update:
Do NOT used dried chickpeas for a shaker filler. They are entirely too large, so the sound against the soup can wasn’t good. The filler ended up being mostly barley, with some mung beans, and just a few remaining chickpeas to make a lower pitch. The filler is less than half of the volume of the can, closer to a third.
This means that I now have a pound of dried chickpeas to consume. Soup, curry, hummus, what else? (I don’t like salad.)
As for the cabasa-emulator, I found that wrapping the ball chain around the can didn’t produce a good sound. Instead, wrapping the chain around my hand, and rubbing that against the can ridges worked. However, we wouldn’t be using the cabasa all through the piece, so the player can’t just have chain on their hand all of the time. So I wrapped the chain around a piece of cardboard, so the player can pick that up at their convenience and rub it against the can. It produced a slightly different sound from the chain the on the hand, though, a slightly more echo-y sound. Maybe because the hand could curve around the can, and the flesh would muffle the lower pitches? Ah, well, it’s still close enough in sound, and since it’s just cardboard, I can put a fold in it to make more contact.
Black-eyed peas are what my mother used for such shakers when I was a preschooler. Smaller than chickpeas, louder than rice.
I use chickpeas occasionally in place of whole hominy kernels when I am making pozole. It’s not quite the same but close enough. I also use regular ground corn meal for the masa harina. Also chickpeas cook really fast in the Instant pot. I then make a huge batch of hummus and freeze it in one cup batches. It freezes really well.
Pictures of pozole look quite appealing. Thanks for the suggestion!
Once you’ve cooked chickpeas you can toss them in a little oil and oven-roast them and they turn into a nice snack. Crunchy on the outside, crunchy or chewy on the inside depending on how long you roast them. Any spices. I like it best with the biggest chickpeas.
Oooh, that’s a good one! Thanks!
I am very close to the end of the dehoard. I literally have to price and put some comics up for sale. This is weird because it was always a wall between what I wanted and what I was able to do. It’s good that I know that I could backslide just to self-sabotage, I’m working on that with meditation.
Some meh pics on my Insta. But I know I worked ridiculously hard.
I finished knitting a cowl (blogged here: https://knitigatingcircumstances.com/2019/09/28/sunset-mesa-cowl/). Then I picked up hundreds of stitches for the front and neck ribbing on a cardigan, knit the ribbing on US2 needles (little tiny ones), decided that it wasn’t right, ripped it out, picked up hundreds of stitches and knit the ribbing again (K1 P1 ribbing on size 2 needles), decided it still wasn’t right, went into denial and cast on a whole new project to avoid the process of ripping it out again. That is in addition to house guests last weekend, house guests tomorrow, physio for my broken ankle, and trying to get my head around the fact that I am flying to South Africa on business next week.
I love the pattern and the colours, even though the yarn isn’t what you wanted, it is lovely. Would love to knit but sadly never did much. Probably my love for colours and texture draws me to the wool. I will have to cajole my friend, Jilly to teach me.
Love reading your blog. Your knitting is amazing.
Crochet is easier. Just saying.
Agreed.
Why do you think crochet is easier? My great-grandmother taught me to crochet when I was young, but I didn’t keep it up. I am a knitter, now, and the few times I have had to crochet parts of projects, my wrists and hands have ended up hurting. So what am I doing wrong?
Jilly says she crochets too. Bonus: one teacher, two skills. Jilly and Tiff are crocheting squares for blankets Friday mornings for teen drop in center. Easy right.
Probably nothing. My grandma taught me to crochet, too, when I was six, which is why I think it’s easier. My mother tried to teach me to knit several times and I could never get the hang of it; too fussy. Plus crochet is a lot faster.
But in the end, I think it’s just what works for you.
I embroider — my aunt taught me when I was eight — and I never got the hang of knitting. My mother tried to teach me, but she’d been taught by a leftie (and after a light case of polio when she was eight, she was somewhat ambidextrous) and I’m very decidedly right-handed, so that was a washout.
I’ve been doing both knitting for about 50 years (!!?!!). My paternal grandmother taught me to crochet when I was about 13 or 14, and I taught myself how to knit (because neither of my grandmothers nor my mother knew how) sometime later.
I only realized that I was already a decent knitter by the time I was 16 because I was 16 when my sister was born and during my mother’s pregnancy, I knit 4 lace baby dresses. (It should be said that this was before the baby’s gender was identified before birth — if she’d be a he, the dresses still would have been worn, haha.)
While I like both crocheting and knitting, and can do both well and in complex projects, knitting’s my number 1 fave by far. Especially (fine) lace, Aran and color work — although, depending on my mood and energy I’ll sometimes pick something knitted in the round with stockingette. In August I spent 9 days in Iceland on a knitting and hiking tour (was a BLAST) and did steeking for the first time, so gonna try a cardigan by knitting in the round then steeking (cutting open!) to put in either a zipper or a button placket.
Also do tatting and bobbin lace, but knitting is at the top of my list.
(Jenny, just FWIW, I don’t find knitting any harder than crocheting — but maybe it’s because I’ve been doing it so long. That being said, my very first knitting project, the one I learned on, was an Aran cardigan with about 6 different kinds of cables and textures… so maybe I was just a natural?) 😁
Well, duh, first line should have read “both knitting and crocheting”… 🤬
You must have been a natural.
I’ve always found the idea of stepping terrifying–thank god there’s no equivalent in crochet–because cutting into a woven fabric? ARGH.
Words out of my mouth, Crusie!
Knitting is _faster_ if you’re making a large area of solid, not lacy, but crochet is easier. Crochet hats, especially.
As I look back over the week, I did nothing. Just the day-to-day stuff on autopilot. Took out trash. Washed dishes. Cooked. Ate. The dotter and I didn’t get to do therapy this weekend. All my shopping was solitary. I don’t dine out alone.
The most memorable thing all week was reading the Alice Proposal, so thank you for that.
Getting ready for the annual (yeah! annual after the medical adventures we have had over the last two years) trip to Africa.
This year we are starting in Kenya, where I have not yet been, but my husband has been two (or is it three?) times, while I stayed home waiting for grandchild and dealing with medical fun and games. After five days we will fly to Dar es Salaam to meet up with a friend and then fly the next day to Kigoma Tanzania which is the region where we spend most of our time.
Time will be spent at two Bible Colleges working on their computer labs, and in Tanzania, visiting various Anglican churches and ALSO meeting our World Vision Child, who, it turns out, lives very close (by standards of travel in Tanzania) to where we stay.
In the mean time: sorting through all the THINGS I need to bring, including gifts for World Vision Child and family. Also trying to get work into a state that I can leave it for almost three weeks – THAT’S just about impossible, but I’ll do the best that I can…I can sleep on the plane…in theory at least!
I did a bunch of drawings in preparation for laying out a painting. Now if my guy just gets finished rebuilding the window for my mini studio, I am all set to go.
In preparation for fall, I changed the coverlet on the bed and stored the cushions for the outdoor chairs away (the chairs are just fine without cushions). I covered the compressor for the air conditioner so it doesn’t get packed with leaves when they fall. We cleaned the gas fireplace in the sun room and turned on the pilot light. Now to fold and put away the deck umbrella and I am done for the year. Well except for cleaning, cooking and laundry. There is always laundry.
Usual work, work, work with fun birthday party for youngest gd. Read quite a bit, Sayers and now Allingham.
Going to wrestle the patio furniture to usual spot for the winter, take the cushions to storage at the shop, roll up the outdoor carpet and done. Hoping to get out in the garden and put it to bed too. Going to buy bulbs for the planters too.
Bought soft fake fur material for the granddaughters. They want to be Ewoks for hallowe’en. They discovered Star Wars movies this year. Their dad and uncle were Ewoks at 2 and 4. Found the old MCCalls pattern on line. Seven times the price from the original cost in the 70s. Ouch, but, it is all worth it to see the joy on their faces.
They’d probably love the Ewok cartoons, I remember watching it after school
Last week I was stymied by the kerfunkl in my kindle. The keyboard kept flashing when trying to type. I thought it would sort itself out. No such luck. With zero tech skills I tried to find a trouble shooting mention in the menu. So, before calling Amazon I got to the power off screen and gave that a go. And it worked. Argh!
Earlier this summer my grandson fell off his hover board (gift from other grandparents) and ended up in the ER with 8 staples to the back of his head (he’s ok). The nurse as they were leaving the hospital gave his mother a mini staple remover. This must be the new norm. She took him to the doctor’s office for the honors.
This week we went to see Elton John which was a fabulous concert.
We also tried to figure out what we are going to as far a buying a business or TB finding some other kind of job. The kennel we were looking at is on the edge of bringing in enough money but we aren’t sure if it will work. The owner has 2 employees and we aren’t keen on getting rid of people but what the owner was taking as a salary isn’t enough for us since we would have 2 mortgages until this house sells. ARGH! It doesn’t look like we won the lottery last night either.
The library in town is looking for a new manager so I applied for that. It’s not full time but it would be something steadier than what I’m doing now and I could do that job as well.
It’s been a lot of information gathering and looking and thinking and stress. The one upside of all of this is when Paul talked to his cardiologist’s booking clerk and told her we might be moving she was able to shift some people around and get him in for his MRI and appointment with his cardiologist early. He had to take time off work for it but it will be worth it.
I spent time laying out pieces of my handing piecing project. It’s quite the puzzle. The quilt pattern is called Ballet by Willyne Hammerstein. I had printed and kitted up the parts for the pieces on the dining room table in Feb. and I finished the last one of the 24 last week while on vacation.
Link of the puzzle with pieces on dining room table: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3A9KQjAbo7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Link to it with all the pieces laid out but likely to be tweaked a bit: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3BKS5NAnCu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Saturday I hope to work on printing out more shapes after figuring out which fabrics I’m going to use.
In case you’re curious, I print the shapes for the parts on the back of the fabric from an adobe file that I purchased from Inklingo.com. The fabric is ironed to freezer paper so it is capable of going through an inkjet printer.
WOW.
Amazing! Beautiful, too.
That is GORGEOUS!
That’s amazing! I love it!!
That’s amazing!
Thanks everyone! I have been working on it for three or four years. I take it with me to work on outside my house, which is why it is hand pieced. I figure another year or 2 and I might have the top done. Then I still need to quilt it. Expect more pictures eventually. 😊
Gorgeous!
My brain would overheat and catch fire. Wow!
Like Gary, I was on autopilot all morning-cleaned the bathroom and submitted applications for some volunteer work I’m contemplating.
Later this afternoon, I must come off auto to attend a couple fo board meetings.
Tommorrow only extra thing is a haircut.
I got a new work tool! It’s draw.io, an… extension of add-on or something for Google stuff like Google docs. It’s like the program Jenny uses to graph/draw her plots! I’m graphing work processes. I made a hell of a messy one, and am now taking that and seeing how i can simplify the ridiculousness of it. Got so distracted I stayed an hour late at work playing with it! Happyhappyhappy
Between my sister’s surgery, Rosh Hashannah and 3/4 of the washing machines at my building being broken, it doesn’t fell like I got much accomplished this week. But I did manage to finish the washing and pickup my library books, so at least I now have a little momentum built up.
My designs for the garden and allotment finally started to gel this lunchtime – hope to be drawing up lists of plants to order next. Still no sign of any paid work, which isn’t good. More chasing tomorrow.
Stitches? When did you get stitches? I knew going back to work was going to be problematic. I’m totally out of touch with Argh!
Taking out the garbage two weeks ago. It’s fine, no worries, you didn’t miss anything.
I’m working on a fiction proposal (it’s not about hell, but still is hell).
Trying to deal with letting go of the foster kittens. Also hell.
And ripping out most of the garden before the first major frost hits this Friday night. What the hell, it’s October.
I feel your pain. The temperature dropped a good 25 degrees F today and is due for another deep dive next week. I know where my down comforter is, but I don’t know how many of my cold weather clothes I have eaten my way out of.
I am not ready for winter! The gas company has lowered my monthly budget amount a little this year, but I can’t believe they are still charging me over forty dollars a month just for cooking gas. I hope I can go another month before I have to turn on the heat.
I worked at work. I am going to spend all week mailing out shit.
I got called on to train people, which turned into my having to explain that I really really really really really do not have the time to fix 1100 (no joke) broken records, at all, whatsoever now. I am juggling 2 jobs, but one of them I do all by myself with no help because everyone else is also drowning harder than I am, and I cannot do the second job any more. The second job is supposed to be transferring over to my old team of jerks anyway, they still have more people than I do, I think they need to start doing it. I could handle that workload too back in the day, but what with all of it being BROKEN BROKEN BROKEN FOR YEARS AND EVEN WORSE THIS TIME, I can’t any more. I do not have the time. Job 1 eats all of my time from June to December now and if Job 2 is so broken, I can’t.
I also spent over an hour (a lot of it after work ended) ranting to the 2nd in command in our office about all of the above.
Writing an 800-word profile of a philanthropist. Scheduling market research calls with 18 participants and conducting the first interview. Writing a couple emails, LinkedIn and Twitter posts, and website copy about a new temperature control for restaurant walk-in coolers that would have changed the climax of Fast Women. Participating in three conference calls, during one of which I said only “Excellent.”
And that’s just since yesterday morning.
I’m learning how to knit! I’ve wanted to learn for a while, and our town’s senior center started a project to make mini octopuses and krakens for newborns in the local NICU. They offered to teach newbies, so I grabbed my 12yo (who spent a week there as a newborn herself) and got some needles and some yarn.
The cephalopods are well beyond me – I can cast on and manage a basic stitch. It’s only been a week, though, and I’m really enjoying myself. My rows are much straighter and I’m not dropping nearly as many stitches.
They’re meeting once a month, and next time they’ll teach us crochet.
I always feel like a slacker when I read the Working Wednesday post.The best I can usually offer is mowing patterns in my lawn. I don’t normally feel creative, (especially looking at beautiful quilts, crocheting and writing). This week though… I took the stitches out of my leg. Yeah. Thank you for throwing me a line.
I’m going to the doctor here shortly to get mine taken out. Because I am a coward about pain.
Tuesday I had my second surgery in six weeks, this one to reconstruct my left thumb, which has been locked up by arthritis for over a year. (It was originally scheduled for March, except that my insurance company, in all its infinite wisdom, denied the pain meds I’d been on for four years. I wasn’t gonna do the surgery if I wasn’t sure I’d be able to control the post-op pain.) It went well, thank God, so my work this week is healing.
I just realized that now every limb has had at least one surgery, legs have had two each. Um, can I be done with that now, please?! Bad genetics stink, I got arthritis genes from both parents.
Yesterday I worked at work. Today, I had planned to do nothing but rest, but I couldn’t bear to waste the lovely drying weather that goes with droughts and burn bans, so I opened a bag of stuff I had moved from my parents’ house untouched through three moves, and washed all the linens and odds and ends in that bag. I found the pillowcase with my great-grandmother’s tatting trim, among several family embroidered items. I bleached a lot of linen and cotton damask napkins that my mother had put away to deal with later (she died twenty years ago) and they ALL came clean. Some of them had holes, and will become cleaning cloths, but the others I will add to my “use these linens up before I die” collection.
Now I will go iron some of them, like the large-check yellow gingham bridge-table cloths with the white napkins trimmed with pieces of gingham that one of my mother’s relatives made and used and then passed on to us. Her family had a talent for giving her table cloths that weren’t the right size for any table we had. I’m going to try putting both these cloths on the dining table overlapping like an eight-pointed star when my goddaughter comes to visit after Thanksgiving.
I have a new plan. I’m going to start planning creative things to do (probably knitting) and maybe buy the stuff, but not start the work until my giant work project is over next June. It will give me something to look forward to.
Also I mail ordered over 200 bulbs and those have to go in the ground soon
Do small projects. Like a 4″ afghan square. Those little suckers mount up, and by June 1 you’d have over 200 of them.