Sewing, sewing, sewing

The sewing machine has been humming...

A party dress has been made for 1st DGD's American Girl doll, McKenna.

And what party dress is complete without pretty party shoes too!

And everyone needs to relax in their jeans once in awhile.

And even jeans outfits need a change of pace...so here's a t shirt.

And a pair of sneaks to go with.

It's cold here now, but summer will come again and then you need a sun dress.

2nd DGD has a Bitty Baby American Girl doll and she has lots of clothes already but no party dress and so Gramma had to fix that!

And Bitty Baby also needed some warm clothes for this winter.

Amoungst all this sewing has been a little knitting.  This pair of mittens might get done for 2nd DDIL.

But there isn't a prayer that these for 2nd DS will be done by Christmas Eve.  He's had to wait for gifts before and this probably won't be the last time either...poor guy!

My opinion...

On Thursday evening, DH and I attended our precious grandchildren's school Christmas program.  Our grandson is in Kindergarten and our granddaughter is in 2nd grade.  It was so much fun to see them perform.  They were exuberant and joyful and full of promise.  Little people so full of life and excited for every experience. 

Just the same, I'm sure, as the children in Newtown, Connecticut that attended Sandy Hook Elementary School.  What a heartbreaking loss to those families.  And to our country.  What does it say about us?

But more importantly, what can we do about it?  Personally, I don't think gun control is the answer.  There are so many guns out there that there is no way to get them all.  And the people that would surrender their guns are the law abiding people that wouldn't have used them in such a way in the first place.

What we need is acceptance of and no stigma attached to mental illness.  Mental illness needs to be treated and thought of the same way as cancer or any other debilitating disease.  It needs to be more thoroughly studied and researched and find ways to treat the people who suffer from it.  Because clearly, someone who can go into a school and murder little children must have had a mental illness.

This probably sounds like an overly simplistic approach but we need to start somewhere.  Obviously, our children's lives are at stake.

Daniel James

Thirty six years ago today a baby was born 3 months prematurely.  He was 1 lb. 9 oz and had a headful of dark hair.  At that time there was nothing to be done and he only lived for about an hour.  But he has my heart and he always will.  I'll see you again someday my sweet Daniel.

Winter on the Prairie

I've shown you views of the country in the summer.

 

 

But...



                                                                  

I thought maybe you'd like to see the same field in the winter.

There has been knitting going on...

After approximately a year I finally finished this honking big hat for 1st DS. It was in hibernation for a big chunk of that time tho...  All the details are here on Ravelry.

It's going to be a Christmas gift but before I started this project I asked him if he would like/use it.  Cuz I sure wasn't going to do all this planning and knitting to have it sit on a shelf!

He suggested the 2 different sides so that it could have many different looks.

And I was very happy to have the plain side to knit after the other one was so busy.

But it made for an interesting hat and kept the knitting interesting too. 

I kinda love stranded knitting almost as much as knitting lace.

This got finished too.  Or maybe I've already posted about this.  My memory is "this long" these days.  Anyway, bear with me if you've already heard about it.  It's a Christmas gift for 1st DGD who is 7.

 



 

And here is how far I am on the stranded mittens.  Almost done with the 1st lining.  And that flies along pretty quickly.  Will be starting another pair ASAP!  The grey, tan and blue yarn is washed and waiting. 

 

Just a word of advice...if you do stranded knitting with Blue Sky Alpaca Melange be sure to wash it first.  It bleeds like crazy.  Both colors I've used has LOTS of extra dye.  

 

 

1st mitten of many...

Well...

it's a start at least...

3 pairs of stranded mittens and a hat besides??

I had a phone call over the weekend.  It was my sister.  She was telling  asking me to knit her a pair of stranded mittens like I made myself last winter.

I stuttered and stammered and finally said that I had promised 2 pairs of those mittens and a lined stranded hat, like this one, to sons and DILs. 

She said it'd be ok.  She didn't expect them until January.  What?  What did she say?  What?

Besides that, I've got these beauties I'm working on.  And right now I'm in love and won't be distracted by anything else.

This is Henslowe.  Such simple knitting but the construction is what is blowing me away.

See the bit of yarn by the lace?  That is where the shawl started.  Yup.  With 1 stitch. 

The garter is knit first.  Then it is bound off, all except 1 stitch.  You then turn the piece and pick up stitches along the other edge and proceed to knit the lace.

After that is done there is a knitted on picot edge.  Can't wait to get there.  It's so pretty and I'm thinking of putting beads on the picot.

And also on the needles is this cutie. 

 

It's gonna be for 1st DGD. She's 7 and already a fashion-ista. Pink and purple are her colors. Just like this gramma!

 

I'm gonna knit on it until the yarn is gone.  I hope she loves it.

 

So getting back to the stranded mitten dilemma.  I succumbed and ordered the yarn for my sister's mittens per the colors she requested.

 

Do you think I can get 2 pairs of mittens and lined stranded hat finished by Christmas...whose yarn has to be washed first, BTW, because of bleeding...and then get another pair for my sister done sometime before winter is done? 

 

Because, you know, I'm totally going to ignore her January deadline.  I love her but really, I'll be pickled and never want to touch stranded knitting again.

 

I think I know the answer to my question.  (That I'm oh so very delusional.)  But could you all weigh in too? 

 

 

 



My laundry room needs a window.

In our new house, the laundry room is in the middle of the house.  Because of that, it has no window. There will be white cabinets and light colored walls but that can only do so much. It's gonna need good lighting because I'm going to sew in there too.

If it could be a little fun that wouldn't hurt any either.

And so, I hatched a plan.

It will have a window.

A faux window.

 

This is it.  I saw it in the window of an antique store in Grand Forks and instantly fell in love.

It's just the colors that I was hoping for.  Bright.  Pretty.  Cheerful.

The glass looks like it's been in freezing rain.  I love the look.

Here's the plan....

The window will be set into the wall so it looks like any other window and trimmed out the same too. 

It will be lit from behind with lights to be suggested by the electrician.  The contractor says it could be put on hinges so that the light bulbs can be changed easily.

Because the glass is transparent DH suggested that a sheet of frosted plexiglass be attached to the back of the window to hide the wires and the light fixture.

I have yet to show my plan to the electrician but the contractor is on board and I actually think he's kinda excited by it.

Claus approves.

 

 

And so does Teddy.

A little more corn harvest video

This is the video I shot of the combine working in the field. It should have been viewed first but Blogger was giving me real issues that day. Better late than never?

 

 

I hope everyone enjoyed these videos as much as I and DH did making them.

 

And stay tuned...

 

I made a couple fun and interesting purchases last week and over the weekend.  I'll get them on here quite soon!

Corn Harvest Videos

Today I got a text from 2nd DDIL. She is a 1st grade teacher and in the text she was telling that she is currently teaching her class about where food comes from. And so, since it's a beautiful day here and the last day of corn harvest, I volunteered to take some video of corn harvest for her class.

If you don't mind being talked to like a 1st grader, here are the videos I made.

I used my camera to video and had never done it before and so I didn't realize that I couldn't turn it and so consequently poor DH came out sideways.  All I can say is tip your head to the left!

I love watching the hopper fill.  And because of the size of each corn kernal, it fills up so quickly.  A farmer's dream come true!

 

 

Long time readers have seen this as a still shot but now it's in motion!

 

 

And the last video...

 

 



 

 

And so there you have it.  Corn harvest for 1st graders! 

 

I have a longer video of the combine actually going in the field but it was enough of a struggle to get Blogger to let me put these on here.  If anyone is interested I'll get the longer one on here one day soon.

It's a little bitty bunny

A week ago Friday evening we were invited to a birthday party for a 1 year old boy.

The party was the next evening. 

Well, as most of you know, we live in a tiny town with minimal shopping.  Certainly no gifts for a 1 year old.  And I wasn't really in the mood to drive 60 miles for a gift.  And so the next best thing...

Get out the yarn and find a crochet hook!

And a little bunny was born. 

He was fairly quick to do.  I started him at about 10 a.m. at our Saturday morning Knit & Purl at the local library. 

I started really disliking him at around 3 p.m. though.  Those ears and arms were quite annoying.

But...

look at that cute tail!  It's what kept me going and I finished him at about 4:30 p.m.  In plenty of time to get him into a gift bag for the little guy...

I think he turned out kinda sweet.  But the toys that had flashing colored lights and played music were the hit of the night for the birthday boy.  

That was as expected.

Details here on Ravlery. 

Winter Wonderland

Look what we woke up to this morning!

 

 

And for good measure the power was off for awhile during the night.

 

 

Let the fun begin!

Prayer

I'm a believer in the power of prayer.  I've seen what it can accomplish.  It is truly amazing and inspiring.

But as much as I believe, sometimes I don't remember.  Or I think I don't have the time.  I needed something to get me focused and on track.

Now I'm not a Catholic or Anglican (two churches that have structured prayer beads) but the idea of beads for prayer is an attraction for me.  So with the help of the internet I did a little searching to see if there were prayer beads in my church (Lutheran) too.  And I found just that.

Not structured but free style prayer beads that you can create yourself and assign their own prayer or meaning to each bead as fits your wants and needs.

Just what I needed.

And this is what I made.  

I got out our hymnal and found prayers that have meaning for me and then I went shopping for beads.  What I bought was mainly for feel, not appearance, because I hope to memorize all the prayers and be able to do this by feel alone.

 

Each bead has a prayer or person associated with it.

 

 

 

And so, if I have told you that I'll pray for you, you are one of these purple beads.

 

 

 

   

 

The Sweetest Sound (in canning season)

A trip to the Farmer's Market yielded several bunches of beets.

And my plan to can Beet Pickles was set into motion.

Boil the whole beets and then put them in cold water and the skins will slip off easily.

Then slice them and boil again in the pickling syrup.

Put into jars and tighten down the lids.

And wait for the sweetest sound in canning...

Ping.

Ping.

Ping, ping, ping!

Stress Relief

It was a long day today and tomorrow is going to be stressful.

Thanks to Karen I had just what I needed....

a skein of beautiful yarn to wind.

Thank you, Karen. It was just what I needed.

It'll be our new home.

I've decided to share what is going on in our lives. It started in July. Right after the 4th.

We are building a house!

I think I have taken over 200 pictures already and so this is just a teeny tiny peek at them but here goes.

It might have been July but the weather seemed more like spring. But a little misty rain didn't detour the big equipment doing the job of digging the basement.

And we have a hole in the ground! Even that was exciting.

I'm not showing each and every step because this could take all day but this is the footings.

The basement floor is going to be heated and these are the hoses needed for that. Cool looking, hunh?

And they pour the cement right over the top of the hoses. I sure hope none of them ever break!

And we saw this cool contraption several times over the course of getting all the cement poured. It is called a pumper truck. The cement truck backs up to it, unloads into it and then the cement is pumped to exactly where it is needed.

Here is a shot of the foundation being poured. The guy in the yellow green shirt is controlling the pumper truck with a contol box that hangs from his waist. It was extremely fun watching the process.

The pumper truck was here many times and each one was a hoot.

And here he is again. This was the last time...for now. I'm thinking he'll be back again when the patio and sidewalk gets done next summer.

And here are the steps into the basement. Come on down and take a look around.

The bedrooms and mechanical rooms are over here.

And this is big open space could be anything from a family room to wherever our imagination leads us.

We hadn't planned on doing anything with the basement. Just using it for storage. But....after seeing how it turned out, I'm thinking something will be done with it eventually.

So this is the 1st installment on our house building project. I'll be posting again, on occasion.