Done and Done

Finally.  Finished the Shetland Lace Shawl #2 in record time to participate in Fiber Arts Friday blog-along.

Pictures are not great, but the shawl itself is different in that it is made from 100% organic linen from Quince & Co..  It softened up after soaking and blocking, although it was not blocked to points since I will wear it around my neck and those points would not show anyway. So why bother? is the motto of the day.

Here is the model wearing this shawl found in Allen and Budd's Wrap Style, but made in  wool.

Evelyn Clark's ebook looks interesting.  She has this pattern and others at that link.

Go here to see other finished objects this week.

PS: Son in law Jack took this picture yesterday.  Awesome, and not in the sense that kids say it today.  Jack captured God's presence right there in York, South Carolina after a spring rain storm.

Waiting

After six weeks of waiting, I called Knit Picks today to check on a back order of Swish yarn this morning. Their back order was due on May 15, but I had not received an email notifying me it was in stock. Going back to March, while knitting up the Delancey Cardigan, I was just five rows short of completion on the button band when the last of the yarn was used up.  So I immediately went online to order another skein, only to learn it was on back order.  The sweater was begun in January, was knitted through March, and now likely will not be completed until June.  It is like an albatross on my back, but the end seems to be in sight now.

Progress on the Shetland Lace Shawl: have finished the body of the shawl and am on to the edging!  I have joined these groups on Ravelry, all favorites since my trip to Shetland: Shetland Textile Museum, Jamieson & Smith Lovers and the Shetland Guild... This is my second Shetland Lace Shawl and it knits up beautifully.

This will continue to be my work in progress tomorrow, Wednesday.  Lots of people are joining in, and it is always fun to see what others are doing.  THIS is the link.

Back to Shetland.  Remember Ann Cleeves, the author I have talked about before on this post?  Am now reading her latest in the Shetland series, Dead Water.  The main character, Detective Perez, has a White Wife beer, brewed on Unst at the Valhalla Brewery.  It made me smile to know I had also imbibed of that brand of beer while learning the story of the mysterious slaying of the woman for whom the beer was named. Love that beer!  Love Cleeves!

Spring means a new haircut! I was going for the Dame Judi Dench look, but still need the hair to go white.

The Judi look:

The Nancy look:

How is your spring going?

More Flowers on Fencing

Now we have both the east and the west back yard fences painted with flowers, just in case the seedlings do not prove viable and flowers won't grow according to plan.

Above is the east side yard fencing, under a much pruned lilac.  We have had that lilac many years, and it really needed branches culled, especially around its base.  Out came the clippers, then the saw, and finally the chain saw.  The lilac was denuded, making the fence bare.  A bit of decoration was in order, so this time I added a spider and a cobweb to some echinacea flower leaves and petals.  The bee was cautioned about the spider web across the way.

Knitting

The Vogue Shawl was completely taken apart and the linen yarn rewound.  It just did not seem to be working, plus I found a huge mistake I had knitted into the pattern way back when. Thoroughly unsatisfactory, so it was dismantled in short order.

The organic linen was re-purposed into the start of another Shetland Lace Shawl, and the linen fiber is behaving much better with this pattern.  So far, I am about 10 percent through it, with mistakes at a minimum.  The first Shetland shawl turned out well, so fingers are crossed that this one will come up to muster.

Gardening

Blue iris were added to the back, thanks to a friend's pruning hers back.

Columbines are blooming.  This week has been very cool and the night temperatures are still going down into the 40's, so I have not yet put out the seedlings.  But I purchased one dozen geraniums and planted them this week. Several years ago I was getting three dozen geraniums for patio pots, but am cutting down this year. Those yellow iris are doing their duty and continuing with profuse blooms.  The amaryllis have been put out, a new black-eyed susan root and day lily roots have been planted, and the husband planted a lettuce variety, cilantro, corn, tomatoes and cucumbers, along with zucchini.  The basil that was planted last week, along with a rosemary plant, are perking up, and the cilantro is 1/2 inch in height.  We added a garden bench to sit under a Japanese maple tree for ornamental purposes.  We planted this tree about eight trees ago and placed the ashes of our sweet black dog, Grace, under this tree, beneath a statue of St. Frances.

This area is now called a "bethel," thanks to learning a new word from Zana this week on Words With Friends.

Cooking & Domestic Duties

New recipes this week include a flour less chocolate cake, similar to this one. This is for Mother's Day brunch, so will get busy on it in  a few hours.  Except the recipe I am using (again, thanks to Natalie) calls for baking it in a 7" spring form pan in a crock pot sans water in the bottom. Also, Natalie insists that the cacao percentage be over 60%, as good old Hershey's just will not do for this decadent dessert.  A raspberry sauce goes atop.  It keeps in the fridge for two weeks, so the left overs will be good on ice cream.

We have clean windows as of yesterday, as our friendly young men who run "First Impressions" did a great job of getting the dust and dirt off the insides and outsides.  The cleaning of windows necessitated the taking down of the accordian pleated cellular blinds, two that were broken and needed replacement.  After 16 years in this house, one of those blinds has been repaired twice, but enough is enough.  This time Home Depot will be my default seller, and I'll get vertical wooden blinds instead of the cellular type.

TV

Powering through Vera, almost through Season II.  Love this British detective series!  Ann Cleeves wrote this series, and since I have read all her books save the most recent one on my Kindle, it is no wonder this is a favorite.

This/that

We got a new car this week, a Honda Civic with all the goodies on new cars. It is silver in color and I love it.  My husband purchased a 2013 Honda Sport Fit and really likes his, so now two little Hondas share garage space.  I don't drive out of town very much, but the Civic handles the highway well and has plenty of zoom.

My next travel will be to Barcelona, Spain in October for a Scrabble transatlantic cruise directed by friends Barbara and Larry.  Remember when Barbara celebrated her 30th year of directing play a few months ago?

That's my update.  Tell me yours!

Four & Twenty Blackbirds

... baked in a pie

So goes the nursery rhyme.  Political satire?  Recruitment song for pirating?  Or just a nursery rhyme?  Any way you look at it, we all know the lyrics (or at least some of the lyrics).

Here is a pie bird, wrangled from a friend.

Ceramic pie bird, hollow from top to bottom to allow steam to escape

Pie bird filling, from this recipe by Tracy in Australia.  When I looked at the ingredients listed, she calls for one red capsicum.  Yes, indeed, she means one red pepper.

Chicken cooked in a pie shell, complete with pie bird for venting steam.

Pretty tasty, almost as good as a Marie Calendar chicken pot pie, but with far fewer calories. Pie birds make a great gift for the culinary inclined; mine is named Natalie and sits on the kitchen window shelf when not in a pie.

PS: remove it prior to cutting your pie.

Concentration

Concentration, or absenting myself from felicity (in Jean's words) while I start another round and adding an additional center panel to the Vogue lace shawl. That is what is needed: concentration.

The yarn is 100% organic linen from Quince & Co.  It feels fairly rough, being linen, and is smaller in circumference than I had envisioned, so the shawl will be smaller than the picture of the finished project shown on the published project sheet.  I am using a size larger needle to accommodate this difference in yarn size and hoping the yarn will soften after washing.  It is a bit like knitting with kite string at present.

If you are wondering what "organic linen" actually means, look here for an intense written presentation.  My take on what the organic blog says can be narrowed down to:

• Lowest practical ecological impact
• Fair Trade guidelines

That being said, on with knitting.  The Chart II repeat (middle) is now in process; it begins on row 49 and is repeated 15 times prior to adding the wings. I had difficulty in reading the chart, as it is different on the right and wrong sides, naturally, so I made a flip chart with index cards which made the changing charts easier to follow.  However, it took about 150 cards to make the chart. This is definitely my Magnum Opus of knitting.  And it may be the  last, God willing that I live long enough to finish the knit.

The center is beginning to look like hearts, and I wonder if this is because of the yarn.  Liking it thus far, but it requires concentration and cannot be successfully knit with the husband in the room providing side notes or asking questions, adding to the ambient noise of tv commentary.  However, it can be happily knit on while sitting alone and having an episode of "Pride and  Prejudice"spicing up the airwaves.  The husband will retreat to his den with the dogs when he hears Colin Firth.

It is cold here today, and I had to bring in all my seedlings last night because of the frost warnings.  Three more days of in and out with these little guys, and then the zinnias and cosmos

will be almost ready to go into their new raised bed.  More later on that project.  Three pots of marigolds are in the garage, and more pots of herbs are up by the back door that will have to go out again in the sun by 10 AM when the frost warning is lifted.  Three more days of this and then we should be free of frost.  One wonders at the efficacy of all this attention to planting when the local grocer provides plants already blooming.

Lastly, one new addition to the front porch: an urn with columbine and marigolds, reminding me of college colors:

Flowers on Fence

Looking through Pinterest and images on Wooden Fence Decorating provided imaginative mental fodder for painting flowers on our wooden fence.  It is rough cedar and does not provide a smooth painting surface. But it needed a bit of refreshing, to say the least.

A "Before Makeup" picture of our woebegone fence corner:

I would show a couple of neat ideas and pictures that others on various sites have shown that were pretty darn cute, but what with people now suing for damages by using others' photos, I'm leery to do so.  (See this story by Roni Loren about her lawsuit resulting in her having to pay thousands of dollars by using a Google image.  She talks also about "Fair Use" and copyright validation, and is well worth the read.)

So now I am not using pictures found on the internet, but will provide links in the future.

Back to the fence.

Acrylic paints in tube form and two cans of acrylic green spray paint were used. The husband snapped this photo of me working on some leaves.

Here is our NEW fence face.

This is on Pinterest at this link. You can see ideas of exterior art by typing in the search words "OUTDOOR ART" or "FENCE ART" on Pinterest and catch many pieces of outside decoration.

A Spring Post

Noticing that time between posts is beginning to stretch out, I decided it was time to catch up with spring happenings here at the Urban Renewal Place, also known as the Center of the Universe.

There are Parties to attend:

More zinnia, marigold and cosmos seeds to be planted

Daffodils to enjoy 

Native wildflowers are starting to perk up after a long winter (columbines)

Lots of iris are blooming

And a fun wedding party attended on a beautiful April 12 Saturday:

 This is Verda, the bride, dancing with a guest; doesn't she look happy?

 Tables decorated with wildflowers and seed packets for favors, with burlap table cloths, a catered Mexican dinner, a three piece band, with denim being the dress of the day...fun!

Verda in her cute dress

Wedding cake with wildflowers atop

And Easter is less than a week away.  More to come!

Knotty Little Problem

Not really a problem so much as a frustration.  The arm stripes on the Delancey Cardigan do not match with one another. Likely the reason is that I was distracted and did an enormous number of short rows, about 20 too many, on the right sleeve.  But since the left sleeve is coming along nicely, I have canoodled over the problem enough to realize that I can simple cut a thread on the right sleeve cap after the appropriate number of short rows, create a provisional cast on, unravel enough grey to match the left side, and then when it counts/looks more or less right, graft that left sleeve together again. And toss that extra yarn.  Maybe.

For today, a completed pair of Teeny Tiny Mary Janes, courtesy of Knitsofacto.

Linking with Fiber Arts Friday.


Next week the husband will make bread (his blog is here and his bread recipes are here and here).  He has a bread with pumpkin added in that he wrote about here.  Gene has a great recipe for pita bread here.  He has Ciabatta Bread written out also!  His recipes (truly his own) are a blog post in themselves, but go take a look at his Grand Life Food & Cooking.

I'll stir up a crock pot of taco soup for our Lutheran Church and its weekly Lenten soup lunches after noon services and we will contribute bread and soup for the communicants.

The taco soup I like not only has the traditional tomatoes, beef, hominy, several beans, etc. but also adds some Ranch Dressing (dry) and lots of spices.  Maybe too spicy for the older crowd?   There are usually about 30 people who stay for lunch after the noon service, mostly retired codgers like ourselves.  (Last week we did have a few kids and parents there as well, probably because is was Spring Break for the school district.)

The wind has been blowing mightily and the leaves are everywhere.  Here is one last look at our back area from the porch.  I'll try my hand at painting a picture of the bare tree trunks with light and shadows.

Looking forward to next week's art show over the weekend at

PALISADE ART LOVERS  

34th ANNUAL PEACH  BLOSSOM ART SHOW

April 10th-13th, 2014

George Callison will be the main judge.

What is on your agenda?

Show Off Your Marigolds

Happy, insect repellent, glorious marigolds !

A native of Mexico, marigolds have been grown in gardens throughout the world for hundreds of years. Today, they are one of the most popular bedding plants in the United States. Marigolds are easy to grow, bloom reliably all summer, and have few insect and disease problems. The marigold’s only shortcoming (for some people) is its pungent aroma. There are numerous marigold varieties available to home gardeners. Many of the commonly grown marigolds are varieties of African and French marigolds.  (source)

source

Exploding a myth:

While marigolds are seldom bothered by insects and diseases, they are not problem free. Spider mites can devastate marigolds in hot, dry weather. Grasshoppers can also cause considerable damage. Aster yellows is an occasionally disease problem. In a related matter, some gardeners plant marigolds in their vegetable gardens to repel harmful insects. While the marigolds are an attractive addition to the garden, research studies have concluded they aren’t effective in reducing insect damage on vegetable crops.

source

dried marigolds for sale here

My contribution to Inspiration Avenue this week is a painted marigold:

Oils, 11" x 14" copyright McCarroll

What is in your marigold world this week?  Come and join in the fun and show us YOUR marigolds, be they plastic or ceramic, or even REAL from your garden!  Go over to Inspiration Avenue and show us your marigolds!

A Pause in Lent: Mercy

Excerpted from A Cry for Mercy:

O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also with great expectations. I hoped for a great breakthrough, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart; I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul. But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning. Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness before they could see your light. Let me be thankful for your gentle way. I know you are at work. I know you will not leave me alone. I know you are quickening me for Easter - but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament. 

I pray that these last three weeks, in which you invite me to enter more fully into the mystery of your passion, will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way that you create for me and to accept the cross that you give to me. Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own desire. You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you. 

Be with me tomorrow and in the days to come, and let me experience your gentle presence. Amen.

Excerpt from A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee, Copyright © 1981 Henri J.M. Nouwen. Published by Doubleday.

Linking with A Pause in Lent

Mary Janes for Baby, Shortbread

Knitting:

Annie at Knitsofacto, knitter extraordinaire, published a complimentary pattern for baby Mary Jane booties found here (not for sale).  They were so cute that it spurred me on to knit some.

Only one completed thus far.  Linking up with Small Things

and also linking with Tami at Works in Progress Wednesday.

Painting:

Almost finished with this for sale at the Palisade Art Lover's Show in April:

Oils, 11" x 14"

Cooking/Baking:

Here is an old favorite recipe from Natalie that I'll be making soon, adding culinary lavender for spring flavor:

Scottish Shortbread Cookies

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, unsifted

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, cut in chunks

(lavender, chopped finely, about 2 Tbsp, optional)

With your hands, work mixture until it is very crumbly and no large particles remain,; then press mixture into a firm lump with your hands.  Place dough (it is crumbly) in an 8 or 9 inch layer cake pan with removable bottom and press out firmly, evenly.  Impress edge of the dough with the tines of a fork and prick surface evenly.  Bake at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes or until a pale golden brown.  Remove from oven and while warm, cut with a sharp knife into wedges and sprinkle with about 1 Tbsp. sugar.  Let cool, then remove pan rim and transfer cookies to a serving tray or airtight container.  Keep at room temperature as long as a week; freeze for longer storage.  Makes 8 to 12 cookies.

The picture above is of two ladies knitting at the Shetland Scalloway Museum.  I took it last summer while at the coffee shop museum.  They meet weekly and knit, chat and share SCOTCH SHORTBREAD (note the plastic container between them that holds their treats).  I just loved that they brought their own cookies to the museum while they worked and chatted with me. Their brogues were very thick, and I had to ask them to repeat their words several times.  And yes, they did give me permission to take their picture for blogging purposes. These two ladies were amazed that there picture appeared immediately on the iPad!  Neither had seen an iPad before.

Read this Month and maybe back into February:

Hidden, by Catherine McKenzie (excellent!)

Best Kept Secret, by Jeffrey Archer (The Clifton Chronicles) a keeper

The Way of Perfection by Saint Teresa of Avila (written in the 1500's, and I just could not understand most of what she had to say about Purgatory, but I was determined to read it for the Lenten Season.)  Read it only if you dare.

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch (loved this 2008 Agatha Award Nominee Book; Inspector Exeter of Scotland Yard at the turn of the century kept me interested; will be reading more by Charles Finch)

A Time to Kill (only 20% through this), by John Grisham.  Lots of courtroom drama

Sycamore Row by John Grisham (the husband said to read A Time To Kill if I liked this one, which I did)

What are you up to?