New Christmas Hat

My new Christmas Hat!  Saw something like it on Ravelry.com and got inspired last night so I got out the graph paper and the rest is history.  That's what I do most times...change what I see out there to what I see inside my head.  Now comes the hard part...go back to the graph paper and change the chart to reflect what I actually did and write the whole thing up so I can do it again!  I also got another scalloped edge hat done except for the embroidery...the hat is white and the trim will be red flower buds with forest green leaves.  That should take about an hour to finish.  Got it finished! In fact, it went faster than I had thought it would.  I think I've finally got the hang of the embroidery...I hope.

If I do another one of these Tree on the Car hats I'll have 6 in my stock bag for the shop.  Got until Monday...should be no trouble.  I hope!

Knitting, Dancing and Cleaning the Water Filter

        Yesterday I started knitting to replace the 2 hats that sold this weekend (and that's all that I sold over Black Friday and Shop Local Saturday).  This is the baby Flower Hat done in Red Heart Silver with a red rose that I finished yesterday.   I also got one of the

new scalloped edge baby hats, done in Red Heart Turqua with purple embroidered flower buds, finished last night. Today I did another red rose and put it on a Red Heart denim Hat.  Tonight I'd like to do a

scalloped edge hat but I haven't picked the color yet.  

    It was easy to knit this morning.  PBS was rerunning an Andre Rieu show from last night and his music is easy to knit to.  In fact, I tried to get Fanny to dance around the room with me, but she ran into the other room to hide when I began waltzing around.  After Rieu they had a guy, Max Raabe, singing songs from the 1920 and 30's in German and English.  Let's just say it was different and let it go at that.  I took that as an opportunity to go and take a shower. 

    I've decided to redo my entire hat display and put in new hats next week when I work.  The ones that have been there longer than a month will be donated to the library in Herkimer and put on their donation fence (those who need something are encouraged to take their pick from what's hanging there).  I think I have a scarf that I may donate, too.
   In the meantime, when Fanny ran into the other room to get out of dancing with me, she sat next to the computer and kept her eye on Jeff who was cleaning the Berkey filters.  He has to do that about once a month and we replace the

filters every 6 months or so, depending on how much rain we've gotten (more rain means a higher water table and longer filter life.)  He tried to teach me how to clean them once but I couldn't do it as well as he does so it's still his job. (My mama didn't raise a fool.)

   From her chair, Fanny has a good line of sight to what's happening at the kitchen table, counters and stove and if she turns her head, outside in the back yard.  She's not too happy when I make her move so I can hang up
hats or sweaters to photograph them.  She demands a dog treat in payment for the use of the back of her throne/chair.  Sometimes I wonder who's the Alpha Bitch in this pack.

Knitting, Dancing and Cleaning the Water Filter

 

Shop Locally This Saturday

   Fanny and I took a quick trip to the shop this morning to fill in the holes in the hat display.  I took down this new baby hat...found the free pattern on Facebook and just changed the trim a little.  It ended up taking almost as long to do the embroidery as it did to knit it!  But it did come out cute, didn't it?  I took 3 flower hats and 1 penguin hat, too.  I was kind of surprised to find 2 penguin hats down there...I've been restocking 1 hat at a time and I guess I lost track.  Hope all the hats sell this weekend!  I also brought 2 lacy ladies scarves and a pin-stripe hoodie. There was only 1 baseball hat left...which surprised me...but I'm not going to make any more this year!  I brought home the last 2 pumpkin hats and they'll start the stash for next year.  Oh, I left the baby mittens...a special order...for the customer to pick up this weekend.  Saturday is Shop Local Saturday and it usually teams up well with Black Friday to make a nice beginning to the Holiday season in the shop. 
   I guess now I don't have any excuse not to clean house or work on Jeff's socks.  Especially after he came home with Dasher, a Christmas Reindeer, for me.  Fanny was jealous and had to check out the 

stuffed animal before deciding if it could stay.  I don't trust her so it will go up where she can't jump to reach it!

  

A Penguin Hat Modeled

Here's my cousin Jo's son's granddaughter wearing one of my penguin hats.

What I've Been Up To

    I've tried to stay busy this week while waiting to see the orthopedist on Wednesday.  I thought I'd stay off my ankle as much as I could get away with and just knit.  I made a penguin hat and a flower hat and a lacey scarf.  Then I cleaned out my Swap Box and found some yarn that I had received in swaps with other knitters.  One was a hank of baby alpaca and silk that might make a nice man's scarf so I took the time to wind it into a ball, another was a hank of deep blue merino that I started to wind up but it's really fine...almost fingering...and I gave up about half way thru!  I also found 2 skeins of lime green bamboo that would make a nice spring scarf.  Anyway, nothing inspired me so all the yarn went into a bag and back into the box.

   Last week I got a phone call from a woman who wanted to order a pair of baby mittens.  I looked at Walmart for the yarn and found nothing that I liked and then checked JoAnn Fabric's on line.  On Nov. 7th, I found something I liked online but it wasn't available in the store so I had to order it.  I've been tracking it since Nov. 11 when it was shipped and was told it would be delivered Nov. 21st! Here's the trip my little ball of yarn took after arriving at FedEx in Perrysburg Ohio on Nov 11 at 11am. It spent the weekend there, not leaving until Tues 11/15 at 11am when it was shipped to Martinsburg, WV, arriving Wed., 11/16 at 2am and leaving at 4:30am for Windsor CT.  It arrived in Windsor at 8am and at 10:30am it was transferred to USPS.  It was shipped to Herkimer at 5:30am today.  It should be delivered to me tomorrow or Saturday.  Just for the record, Perrysburg, Ohio is 557 miles west of Herkimer and the trip should take 8 hr., 27mins.  I guess that the crazy trip...and 4 day vacation in Perrysburg... justifies the amount of money they charge for shipping.  I just wish it would get here!

It was delivered this morning (Fri., 11/18.).  If only it could talk!!  What a trip it had! And here it is knit up into thumbless mittens for a 1 year old. I am suppose to take them to the shop tomorrow but
we are suppose to have a winter storm with INCHES of snow!  We'll see when they actually get delivered!!

    My appointment with the orthopedist, Paul Kiawitter, was yesterday afternoon and it was short and sweet.  He said my ankle looks better in person than it does on an X-ray.  He thinks my problem is arthritis...probably aggravated by the 'junk' that was used to hold my tib and fib together 7 years ago.  He also thinks it may be time to remove the 'junk'.  Anyway, that's not his decision, so he's referring me to another orthopedist at Bassett.  I got the 'first available' appointment with Briana Calore, orthopedic surgeon, on January 6th in Cooperstown.  Since I can't...can I?...go on staying off my ankle as much as I have, she may have a different opinion than he had.  We just have to wait and see.  Anyway, I will delay my annual 'pick up my unsold stock' trip and combine it with a trip to see Dr. Calore in January.  In the meantime, my house will not be the cleanest...but it never is...but the coffeepot will be on, the woodfire will be warm the TV room and anyone who stops by will be welcomed...as long as you don't complain about the condition of the house!

A Busy Weekend

   I had a pretty good week...sales-wise...in the shop this week.  I sold 2 sweaters and a couple of hats.  Of course, that means I had to restock...or at least, knit them and have some one else take them to the shop for me.  So I made 2 'Flowers and Lace' sweaters...since those were the style that had sold and remembered that Steve was working on Monday (tomorrow) so they had a ride.  This is a size 2 done in Red Hearts Silver with raspberry trim.  I  

had thought of trimming it in purple but it looked too dark.  However, I didn't have any buttons so Saturday I went to Walmart to see what I could find.  I got so involved with choosing buttons for my flower pins that I forgot to look for raspberry buttons!  That meant I had to go back this morning and get them...which turned out to be OK since I had to get

cuphooks to put on my pin display so it could be hung up.  This sweater is a size 1 done in Red Hearts Turqua with pink trim.  I also managed to get 1 penguin hat finished but that was a struggle.  I was having a real hard time working on black. Even used the headlamp Jeff gave me!
   I spent most of yesterday working on my pins.  Knitting the flowers was the easy part!  The rolled roses knit up quickly and the other flower got easier each time I made one.  Each

flower got 2 knit leaves and once they were all sewed together, a felt backing had to
be sewn on before the
pinback got sewed on.
The display board itself took longer than I
thought because I forgot

you had to be careful working with a hot glue gun.  Made a mess of my counter...leaving a trail of glue!  Luckily it peeled off once it cooled off.  There's no 'shelf room' in the shop for this display so I put cup hooks on the top and that should hold it.  (Actually, it's an 8"x10" stretched canvas and all I did was pad it and cover it with black fabric.)  I think they will make nice stocking stuffers and the pins can be worn with scarves, shawls or on a lapel.  Even Jeff complimented me on them!

   I think Fanny was registering a complaint that I had spent too much time on my knitting and ignored her this weekend in this photo. 

The Dog in the Backseat

     I'm sure many people wonder why there is usually
a dog in the backseat of my car when you see me driving around town.  It's not because she is too big to sit in my lap or fit in my purse because anyone can see that she definitely is.  She rarely calls 'shotgun' or wants to sits up front.  We have to have gone thru the drive-thru at Burger King (she loves their chicken nuggets) for Fanny to sit next to me in the front seat.  Jeff says it's because she doesn't care to be thrown against the dashboard when I hit the brakes unexpectedly.  I think she enjoys having both side windows to look out of and the full bench seat to stretch out on.  When we go to the bank she sits up and looks out the window at the teller...expecting a treat?  Most times they give her one, too.  But why don't I just leave her home, you might ask.  She is a dog, after all.  Well, she is a very timid dog.  She rarely barks...except at Jeff...and is frightened of new experiences and people.  Leaving her alone at home, even for a few minutes, can have interesting results.
   Yesterday while I was working at the shop in Cooperstown, Jeff had to leave Fanny home while he went for an eye appointment.  He thought he was a couple of steps ahead of her...he put the wastepaper basket in the bathroom sink, the kitchen garbage pail on the porch and the bread bags in the  middle of the table.  That just slowed her down.  He found both bags of bread on his bed...the pumpernickel looked like she had bounced it off the hall walls!  But neither bag had been torn opened.  I found out why when I found the empty Oreo package on my bed...it had been under the bread on the table.  She also

uncovered and ate the frosted cake that was on the table.  It's a wonder she didn't pull the Pyrex cake dish off the table! I guess food calms her fears and we're lucky that chocolate doesn't make her sick.
     

   Fanny stuck her head out the door when I drove into the driveway but wouldn't come outside until Jeff pushed her.  She was glad to see it was me...or realized that I had stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken and picked up supper...but hid under the table while Jeff pointed out her misdemeanors.  Fanny was not too happy that there wasn't any chicken nuggets for her!  I mashed up the last 2 meatballs from Sunday's spaghetti and meatball supper and mixed it with her dog food and some watered down spaghetti sauce.  It never fails to amaze me how she can clean all the sauce or gravy off the nuggets and spit them back into her dish.  Eventually she ate it all and paid me back by repeatedly emptying her water dish and demanding to be let outside.  She also let off a couple of 'air bombs' that brought tears to my eyes.  We were all still up at 3am!  Now she's the only one who is still asleep.

But what I don't understand:  we can leave her in the car with a boot full of groceries and she doesn't touch them!  Today after voting, I bought a banana bread at the bake sale and left it on the front dashboard while we went out for lunch and grocery shopping.  Again, she didn't touch it.  But if I sliced that banana bread and leave it on the table it becomes fair game????

knitter's slang

Hello November!