$%^&* Blogger

Blogger has just changed the format for writing and for putting pictures in a blog and I can't figure it out, hence the title.  Now my blog is upside down, sort of.  What I intended to do was show---first---some sights from the light show at Atlanta Botanical Gardens (really, really pretty and a nice thing to go see on a not-freezing evening) and then I wanted to add some photos of a house in the Atlanta area that has gone...I'm not sure where...in terms of decorating.  It was fun to walk around and see all the inflatables.  There was also a table with addressed envelopes for an Atlanta-area charity---nice touch.

If you are in the Atlanta area over Christmas, go see the lights at Atlanta Botanical, and don't miss the most amazing lights EVER in the conservatory.  Magic, I tell you.  Magic!

Merry Christmas!

Gather these ingredients (but if you can find something other than butter-flavored pretzels-yuk-buy them instead):

Thanks to fellow knitters Sally and Deanna, I have learned how to make some very yummy candies and here is the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place a kiss on each pretzel. Some kisses aren't perfectly shaped; eat those. Put the tray in the oven for four minutes. Take it out and squish one m and m (lettered side down) on each kiss. Let them cool (or not) before you eat them.





Easy, easy, easy!

A Better Picture of Fetching

More Fetching

Not in the sense that something is more fetching than something else.

In the sense that this is maybe the fifth or sixth pair of Fetching that I have made. These are either for me or for a gift---haven't decided yet. I kind of like them!

What Is It?

That's what my husband said when I showed him this completed Assemblage Seven Circle....scarf? necklace? I don't know either, but it was easy to knit. It's made from katia Gatsby yarn. It's not a natural fiber, unless viscose is a natural fiber. It also has nylon and polyester, neither of them knitters' favorite fibers.

But it's SHINY and SPARKLY and I do loves me some sparkle! (even if it's a bit scratchy)

We Have A Christmas Tree!!!

We haven't had one in years because we usually go to Austin for Christmas. When my older daughter had two children, she and her family came here. But now she has four and travelling with four at Christmas time is not something I would ask her to do. Someone is usually ill at some point over the holidays and four children, even my wonderful grandchildren, can FIGHT and ARGUE when confined too long in the car. I would hate to find out that my daughter and s-i-l had left one or more of them at a rest stop somewhere between here and Austin.

The second, and more important reason we didn't have a tree last year and almost didn't this year is BAXTER.

But I came across this table top tree when I was out today and couldn't resist. It was only $19.99, including the stand, but it became a bit more expensive after I bought ornaments that won't break my heart if Baxter gets/destroys them.

So far, his only interest is in drinking the water in the stand. I'm not counting on that to last.

(Oh, if anyone is looking for another of these really fancy tree skirts, you can find one in the kitchen towel section of Target. No expense spared here.)

Fifth and Final

This is the last hat I am making, at least for now, from the same yarn (Cascade Quatro, color #9433) and the same pattern(Meret-free on Ravelry). I cannot get the color to look like the actual color, no matter how much I play with it in iPhoto. And the lace doesn't show up well. I'm an amateur photographer, in case you couldn't tell.

The pattern is so easy that it's ideal for someone who wants to learn lace knitting. And it is SO easy that after the first couple of rows, I didn't need to look at the pattern any more.

But after five of these, plus one hat without lace for my grandson, enough is enough. Time to move on.

Late to the Party

That's Baxter! He was supposed to have discovered the joys of playing with toilet paper (bathroom tissue, for the more refined) at least a year ago. But to my relief, he didn't.

Well, now at a little over a year and a half old, he has discovered it.

*Swerts!

* Swearword created by older daughter when she used a word she heard her father use when he discovered he had a flat tire. He told her she couldn't say that, and she asked if she could say "swerts." He said---sure!

Snow!?

Well, it is December, but my roses are still blooming.

OK

I get that Mori is a travel-related store. I get that this is a Christmas catalog. I get that the people who run Mori want people to shop for gifts.
But just who would consider this device.... this thing.... a gift?
I didn't know such a thing existed. I'm sure there are uses for it somewhere.

But a Christmas gift?

No thanks.

Poor Shaun

He wants to wear Lily's leg-warmers
but he has no legs.

There's An App for That???

This is my daughter. She took this photo with her iPhone (or a friend did) and used the app called Aging Booth to see what she would look like when she is older.

She said she was supposed to look bad in her "before" picture, and really, she is pretty.

But this is what she is supposed to look like when she is older---I don't know how much older, but I think I will not download this app.

So there's an app for this. But why???

(And S, why did you do this?)

The Truth Hurts

A friend recently told me that Martin Clunes, who stars in Doc Martin, has a new project coming out. I told her that I can't see him as anyone other than Doc Martin.

(Have I mentioned that I love that series?)
But just as I can't imagine Martin Clunes playing anyone other than Doc Martin, I also can't see David Suchet as anyone other than Hercule Poirot. He is Hercule Poirot. I don't much like reading the Poirot stories, written by Agatha Christie, but I really enjoy the television series.

I wondered if David Suchet is still alive. Doesn't he look OLD??? Also, I apparently confused the era in the series for the era the series was filmed---which turns out to be surprisingly recently (1989-2010).

So not only is this elderly man still alive, he is a year older than I am.

So now I'm elderly????

Oh dear.

And the Voting Age is?

Texas, you have a lot to answer for.

Oh yeah. And what is Election Day again?

Sewing

Today I had to sew some buttons on a jacket before they completely fell off. I couldn't get the needle through the fabric and had to find a thimble. Turns out I don't have a normal thimble. I only have this one, bought in Mexico. It's silver and turquoise and really pretty and needs polishing. I didn't think about it at first because it is usually with this beauty with her thimble. I named her Woman Wearing Thimble Under Glass. I'm really clever like that.
Here she is not under glass.
Anyway, my decorative thimble worked as it should, and my jacket's buttons are securely re-attached.

But to read a really en-GROSS-ing story about sewing, check out Murr Brewster's post about her sewing adventure.

Blechhhhh......

(Can I cheat or what!!! Two posts in a row linking to someone else's writing.)

Now This

is a Knit Night.

But I think I'll stick with mine.

Happy Turkey Day!

Ooops.

OK. Now---Happy Turkey Day!
(Poor turkey....)

HELP!

All of these girls know how to wear scarves. I'm a knitter. I have the scarves; I don't have a clue. I fumble, I tie knots, I drape, I loop. Nothing comes out right.

Even in summer, with jeans and a t-shirt, a scarf, perfectly styled.These four girls know what they're doing.
Uh, NO.

Honestly, even a guy knows what he's doing.
Wait---is that David Beckham? OK, so maybe it's his stylist who knows what she is doing. I don't have a stylist.

So what's a knitter to do?

While I figure this out....and stop knitting scarves...... if you see someone who isn't Bea Arthur but who looks like this, it might be me.

And if you see someone who is not wearing these shoes but who looks like this, it might be me.
Or someone who is not so thin but who looks like this, it might be me.
So many scarves. So little sense of style.

Lotions and Potions

Or Why I'm Glad That I Don't Have Hemorrhoids

Look at all this stuff!

I am supposed to use all of it to maintain my youthful beauty or to treat a problem.

There's moisturizer, two kinds, one with SPF 15 to ward off any more skin cancers.

Aldara, to treat the skin cancers I already have.

Some stuff from Bobbi Brown to make me appear less old.

Some Retin-A related cream from the dermatologist to exfoliate any cells that might be thinking of becoming skin cancers.

Some 12% acid AmLactin to treat actinic keratoses I inherited from one of my parents. (Thanks for that.)

Some skin-bleaching cream that, if you saw my hands, you'd know I never remember to use. I prefer to think that the brown patches are just patches of permanent tan from my years in Florida. Also? I can't find it.

Korres Guava lip butter.

And Voltaren to treat the swelling remaining from my knee surgery in August.

I'm old. I get confused. What goes where? And while I've heard that models use Preparation H for under-eye swelling, I thinks it's a good thing that I don't have to put that particular lotion in my inventory. Who knows what could happen?

One Brooklyn Tweed Project Finished/Another to Begin

This is the Juneberry Triangle, designed by Jared Flood, and knit from Shelter, Wool Socks color yarn. I thought I would NEVER finish it. It is the most difficult, intricate project I have ever made.
The bobbles don't really show well, but there are bobbles. I guarantee, there ARE bobbles. I won't be making those again any time soon. They aren't difficult; they are, for some reason, annoying. Or I'm too impatient with them.

This is BT's newest yarn, Loft, color Camper. It is made from the same wools and with the same process as Shelter, but it is fingering weight. So I'm off to make another lace project called Pei, designed by Michele Wang, and while it is lace, it is much, much easier lace than the lace in the Juneberry.
I need a break.

The Crazy Cat Lady?

Yarn Bombing Gone

strange...

Seventeen Evergreen - Polarity Song from Lucky Number Music on Vimeo.

Blocking

With a little help from Baxter, again. He waded around in the bathtub while the shawl soaked and then tried to roll around on the wet shawl as I stretched it out. I evicted him from the room.

This is---FINALLY---the Juneberry Triangle, designed by Jared Flood, and made from his Shelter Yarn, wool socks color. He wrote an entire blog post about how the yarn is spun and all I understand is that is is a process that keeps the yarn very light. This shawl is light as air even though it's worsted weight wool. It is the most complicated knitting I have ever done; it had five...count them...FIVE charts. And no safety rows---like purl all wrong side rows. Nope. Every row had a pattern. But I do think it's pretty and even though there are probably mistakes in it, and maybe a zig where there should be a zag, I think I love it.

I'll know more when it's dry and I can actually put it on.

I had better love it....

Serendipity

Again.

This time with mawatas. We bought them months and months ago to make silk mittens with. The Yarn Harlot had written about doing this, and we figured, with no good reason, that if she could do it, so could we.

Using this silk as yarn involves pulling these unbelievably thin mawatas, or silk hankies, out and sort of twisting the fiber a bit until the thickness is right for the intended project.

Isn't it pretty?

L and Sallyknit, while we were all in Asheville for SAFF this weekend, tried to turn one of the hankies into yarn. They succeeded, but only in getting what could more accurately be described as thread. They also tried to knit what they pulled into the ribbing for mittens, but that was not successful either. The mittens would have been very teeny-tiny.

On our way home from Asheville, we somehow turned off the road onto the wrong exit road, and ended up sort of ....not lost really...but sort of dislocated. Suddenly Sallyknit yelled, and I do mean yelled, "Yarn!" We stopped on a dime and this is what we saw:
A beautiful yarn shop in Hendersonville, NC. Not only is the shop as perfect inside as it is outside, the owner is a specialist in dyeing fibers, and especially SILK fiber!!! We mentioned our failure with our silk hankies, and she took us to the back of her shop where she was knitting a scarf from a hankie she had dyed herself. The scarf was beautiful.

The owner gave us a little demonstration on pulling silk from the hankie---and no kidding---we can do this! We decided to make scarves instead of mittens---we don't much wear mittens in Georgia, but a silk scarf? We can wear that all year long.

Serendipity. It's a wonderful thing!