Merry Christmas

For everyone far and near, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas!

May you be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph , the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the magi, and the peace of the Christ child.

And if there is sorrow in your life and you can't endure all the holiday razzle dazzle, I give you a snuggle from Teddy.

And I wish you Happy Tuesday and Happy Wednesday instead.

Acer...not such an ace.

I knit Acer quickly.

But quickly done doesn't necessarily mean happy.

 

In my opinion, it's too big.  Wearable but big.  Sleeves are too wide.  Body too big around.  Maybe too long.

Going in I knew the neckline tended to be big and open and I used 2 sizes smaller needles and did a cable cast-on.  That seemed to help tighten things up a bit.

The sleeves would have been several inches to long if I had followed the pattern.  The sleeve directions might have worked for smaller diameter sleeves but not on these honking huge ones.

I'll always love Peace Fleece yarn but this batch had more knots than I've ever seen before.  And an exceptional amount of vegetable material too.  I was a little surprised.  I do love the color though and actually the pictures are pretty accurate in that respect.

The buttons are LaMode and were purchased in a rush while DH waited in the car.  I love the buttons.  I think they look good with the color.  Just about the only thing I do like about this sweater.

I'll wear it.  It even fits over a sweatshirt so if I'm freezing it'll be the sweater I reach for.  I'm just afraid I won't do that reaching very often.

Yup. It's nippy.

That's the temperature now.

It was colder this morning.

And so, of course, I decided it was time to shovel the snow from the storm a couple days ago. 

Boots, hat, mittens, warm coat.  Oh yeah, maybe I should grab my cell phone.

Thank goodness I did.  I couldn't get back in the house.  All the doors are locked and the digital one apparently doesn't like the cold either.  It wouldn't unlock.

I was stuck outside.

The closest neighbor had just driven away.  DH and 1st and 3rd DSs were at a meeting in another town 20+ miles away.

So I called 1st DDIL and she came and rescued me.  Thank goodness I brought my phone outside or I would have been walking a few blocks against the wind.

Next time I'll bring my keys out with me and not trust the door with the digital locking system!

Finally finished and in the mail actually.

So.

Here they are.

Started over a year ago.

Intended for LAST year's Christmas.

I'm sure 2nd DS thought he'd never see them.

But they are done and in the mail.  I checked tracking and they are within a day or two of delivery.  So with a bit of luck he'll have them before Thanksgiving. 

Thank goodness!

And here is the start on the 4th pair of Northman mittens.  This pair is for my sister.  She demanded requested them by LAST January.  Yea.  She didn't get them.  Maybe this January.  If she's lucky.  Or I'm lucky.  One or the other.

Sorry about the horrid picture.  They are charcoal grey and off white.  Not that you can tell by this.

This is what I really want to be knitting on.  Acer is the pattern and Peace Fleece is the yarn.  I don't even have a Ravelry page for it yet. 

It is getting close to the body being finished and then just the sleeves.  And finding buttons that I'm happy with...

And just because, here's Teddy. 

Smile Teddy!  You're on candid camera!

Harvest is done but here are the pictures.

This is both soybean and corn harvest. Let's look at soybeans first.

Soybeans rows but also there was a pilot making marks in the sky.

I love the long views from up in the combine.  You can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles.

The picture was taken from inside the combine so there is a very odd reflection in the center of this.  Someone was burning something big that day because that is what the huge cloud looking thing is...smoke.  Makes for a cool looking sunset though.

And on another day, here is corn harvest.  Nothing is more fun that watching the corn come into the hopper.  It fills up so fast!  Especially compared to small grain harvest.

Here is me trying to get another action shot of the corn flying into the header.  It is rather violent.  Almost vicious.  I need to do a video sometime.

Another long shot down the rows.

Corn that goes on forever.

Look Ma!  No hands!  We have a GPS system that is used in the spring when the crop is planted that you can access during harvest so you can use the auto steer and harvest with no hands.  Good only for long straight areas but as you can see above there is plenty of that!

Another couple sunset pictures with odd reflections.

And it was dark as I was driving away and I couldn't resist trying for one more picture.  Here the combine is approaching the grain cart to unload on the go.

Crafty Saturday

Why have a plain old bulletin board....

 

 

when there is ribbon in the house and you have some time to spare? 

 

 

 

 



 

You could go with stripes but there is still ribbon left.  Let's see what else can be done.

 

 

So here it is already in use.  Yea.  I know.  It matches the violet.  I guess I ahh, kinda planned it that way...  Can you say ummm, what's the word...obsessive?

 

And now just for the fun of it, a couple pictures of Teddy.

 



Hey!  I'm sleeping here!

There's a vinegary smell in the air

A few weeks ago, I was at the Farmers Market and thinking about making beet pickles.  The people at the stand said if I came back 2 days later they would reserve for me either a 1/2 bushel or a full bushel of beets instead of buying several small bunches that day.

Assuming, (BTW, never assume.  It doesn't usually turn out.) that the beets would come with their tops on, I agreed to a 1/2 bushel of beets.  I gave them my name and my phone number.  No backing out now!!

Well, as it turns out, the beets came with their tops off.  Way more beets that way. 

If you have ever wondered what a 1/2 bushel of beets look like...here you go.

  

Yup.  A lot of beets.

 

 

I thought I was taking step by step pictures but I guess I didn't.  It probably wouldn't have been that interesting anyway.

 

 



I made a trip to the store and so did DH to get enough vinegar for the job.

Can you smell the beets, vinegar and spices? 

It's like a sauna in here!

So for future reference:  A 1/2 bushel of beets will make 14 pints and 5 quarts of pickles.  And take 3 trips to the store.  2 for vinegar and 1 for quart jars when you run out of pints.

They sure are pretty though...

And then maybe 2 weeks later, again at the Farmers Market, there are the last cucumbers of the season.  I've been trying to find a good Bread and Butter pickle in the store but haven't come across anything that is nearly as good as homemade.

I guess 2 weeks is long enough to have forgotten all the work involved and so I bought cucumbers, onions, green peppers.  And in the big box store right there, I got more pint jars.

Here we go again!

 

 

I was going to do step by step pictures again but didn't manage to this time either.  So here are the veggies sitting in salt for 3 hours.

 

 



And here is the finished product.  9 pints of Bread and Butter pickles.

Now we just have to wait a few weeks for them to get that good pickled flavor throughout.  They should be ready to start eating at Thanksgiving.

Yum!

Autumn

While reading everyone's posts about fall and leaves changing, I've been thinking about how much I like fall.

The air changes.  It's cooler and fresher.  And some mornings and nights there is a hint of winter in the air.  Crisp.  Like an apple.

The light is different too.  Summer is bright and almost harsh.  But fall is a softer light, more mellow.  And with harvest going on there is dust floating around that gives it a hazy appearance and makes for the most amazing colored harvest moon.

Fall is a time of cleaning out the gardens, canning the extra produce and generally battening down the hatches for the next season that is quickly approaching.

I haven't been in school for decades but I liked getting back to school in the fall.  I was a caboose child and in many ways an only child and starting back to school was a time filled with seeing friends again.  Basically I always enjoyed school...Literature especially but math was fun too until I got to high school.  I'm looking at you, theorems.

And so I like fall.  Or at least early fall.  I like fall until we get to the days like today.  Grey.  Raining.  Cold.  Windy. 

Yea.  Fall just lost it's appeal.

Actual knitting content

Yes.  I'm sticking with the blogging.*

Since the name of this blog is Marilyn Knits I thought I might need to prove it....

And so...ta da...here is the latest Iceling Sweater Set.  Ravelry link. 

Cardigan.  Size 6 months.

Mittens with a cord to keep the new mom & dad from losing them.  Infant size.

Iceling hat without the turn up band.  Baby size.

The baby's dad is a nephew on DH's side of the family.  The baby is a sweet little fellow.  Already wearing a Viking shirt to go with his Dad's for those football watching sessions.

In other knitting news, I just have to bind off the shawl mentioned in this post.  I'll be so very happy when it's done.  As it turns out, unless I fall completely in love after I block it, I don't really care all that much for this shawl.  To small and no lace.  I knew that going in but I was in denial and I'd struggled to find a pattern to start with so I was happy just to find anything that the yarn agreed to be. 

 *After visiting with a couple dear people that explained how search engines work, I decided to continue but just keep in mind everything and I mean everything that goes into a post goes on to the great big www.

Dilemma

I'm debating what to do with my blog.

I was messing around with G**gle one day and found pictures from my blog...just out there. 

I'm quite upset by that.  I really didn't think they'd just be public property.  And I don't know what to do about it.  I think I can keep the blog from being found by search engines but that totally shuts me off from the world. 

I just don't want my photos out there.

I kinda don't want to stop blogging either.  It's my way of having a little diary of what's going on.

Dilemma.

It may be dry...

but we have frogs!

I've been watering trees and flowers and that's where the froggies are hanging out.  I think it's a smart plan.  It's about dry as a desert everywhere else.

This guy froze in place and I was able to get a close up picture.  Wasn't that considerate?

And on another dry(ing) subject....dish drying to be exact.  This is the towel I embroidered for myself.  An cross stitching duckie.  Cute?  Yes?

Sorry about the wrinkles but I've been using it. 

Harvest 2013

Harvest has been going on for awhile now but I just went last evening for my first ride of the season.

I took a few pictures.

It's wheat.  And has a number for a name right now.  It's something that is being developed and so this is seed increase.  Next year it will have a name.  And the company that owns this seed usually names their wheat seed with Norwegian/Scandinavian names...so we'll see what they come up with this time.

3rd DS rents this land and the owner is a cattleman.  In the distance you can see a few of his hay bales that have been stacked and are waiting to be moved closer to his operation.

I've always wanted to get a picture of the motion of the reel and this is the best that I've ever done.

Actually I tried doing a video but it didn't turn out so hot.  Maybe another time I'll try again.

The weather has been cool the last couple days and the grain got tough when the sun started going down for the day and so they had to call it quits.  Of course you have to line up the equipment at the end of the day!

1st DS, 3DS and DH each own a combine.  That's what we call heavy metal!  ;)

This is a North Dakota harvest sunset.  Pretty.  Yes?