Homeward Bound Scarf

Announcing a new lace scarf pattern. After much thought, I'm calling in Homeward Bound.

Bird wings soar over river and mountain lace motifs in this scarf to tell of the long flight home.

This simple lace scarf is knit from a single skein of fingering weight yarn (200 yards) on size 7 needles. Don't you love projects like this that use up those odd balls of yarn you have in your stash?

The scarf has no right or wrong side because it's in garter stitch (knit every row). This is a good project to tackle if you've never knit lace before. The blocked scarf is 6” x 60”. The pattern is five pages long and includes both written line-by-line instructions and a lace chart. (A stole version is now available. Look for Runes Stole in the sidebar.)

I used one skein of Jojoland Melody Superwash yarn for the sample. I love how the long colorways shade in this scarf.

The pattern is available in my Ravelry pattern store.

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

Construction continues

The patio room is up but not 100% finished. Here's what it looks like from the outside.

See the narrow boards at the top under the eaves? Those will be replaced with windows soon. They had to be special ordered to fit after the frame was up.

The next step is having an electrician come to wire up some outlets, a ceiling fan, etc. I'm waiting for a phone call as to when that will occur. Then Champion will come back to install those upper windows and fix the inside wall where they ripped the siding off the house. This is what it looks like right now. It can't be fixed until the electrician gets through poking holes in the wall. It will be covered with a white wall covering to match the rest of the room.

Once that's finished, we have to address the floor. Old rough, stained, concrete is not a nice surface for furniture. We've been debating our options. Carpet would be the cheapest option but not good for our allergies and hard to keep clean. A tile floor would be best if we can swing it. It will last a lot longer than concrete and be much easier to keep clean.

With our patio room having a south facing exposure, we will be able to take advantage of passive solar to help keep the room warm in the cold season. The lower winter sunlight will shine into the room and warm it up. We have a temperature sensor out there now that shows how much the temperature jumps when the sun is out. (Not much sun lately, but it has happened.) A tile floor in a mid to dark color would absorb more of the sunlight (heat) and radiate it back out at night to keep the room warmer during the colder months. The Hunter ceiling fan we're having installed in the room has a ceramic heater in it too. That will help add some extra heat in the winter.

Our kitties are enjoying exploring the new space. See the purple kitty hut in the corner? And a cozy rug to sit on and look out the new door. Plus a box and a folding chair serve as other viewing places. We're not moving any real furnishings out here until the floor goes in.

I'm so looking forward to being able to use this space for family gatherings, parties, and knitting/spinning frolics with friends. In the meantime, I have to be patient and wait until everything is finished.

Thursday morning I spotted our first snowflakes of the season. :( So far for the month of October, we have been below normal everyday. Not much different than the whole of 2009 for us. Our daytime temps recently have been in the 40's (she says incredulously)! They should be in the low 60s. I am so hoping that November turns out to be much warmer and includes a nice long Indian summer.

Here's a picture of a knitted scarf I finished last night. I posted it today for my test knitters to try out. I was thinking of calling it Starlight. Hmm, maybe Tilting Stars is a better name. What do you think?

Looks what's happening!

Champion started work on our patio room this morning! Yippee!

One of the walls is already starting to go up. This is so exciting!

I'm so happy that it wasn't raining today so they could start.

The downside is that someone has to be here while they work. They need access to electricity and since our outside circuit isn't working, that means I'm stuck at home while this is happening. It will be well worth being stuck at home for a few days to have the extra space. Woo-hoo!

As if this weren't enough, hubby decided to hire someone to finish some of the dry wall projects in our house. We're finally getting the doorway and pass through window in the kitchen finished and some holes closed up. These are leftovers from our kitchen remodeling project of 2003. LOL! I'm just happy that it's finally getting done. Once they put the final coat of plaster on the walls we'll be ready to paint. It will be so nice not to have holes in my walls and rough edges everywhere. :) (Now if I can only talk hubby into putting up my cabinet kickplates and getting a vent fan to put over my range. Hmm...

We're having late November weather here in northern Indiana. Our high temperatures this week are in the low 50's with night time temps dipping down to freezing. Brr! We harvested all the winter squash, peppers, tomatoes, and tender crops from the garden last week. We picked the few beans that were missed by the deer. There were only a few green beans and the rest we shelled because the seeds got so big. I cooked them up last night with some of our onions, chunks of our fresh potatoes, and a few strips of bacon for flavoring. Yum! They were delicious served with cornbread.

All that's left in the garden now are the cold tolerant crops like brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, and potatoes. Our temperatures are about 15 degrees below normal. If hubby's right, our November temps should be warmer than usual to make up for how cold it's been. I've gone from wearing capris and tank tops straight to jeans, long sleeves, and wool socks.

I finished a lace scarf over the weekend. Here's a picture of it. I'm working on enlarging it into a stole. The temporary name for it is Boxes. Don't you think it needs something much nicer than that? The design looks more like diamonds. Though after checking Ravelry's database, diamonds has been used a lot. If you have any ideas of what to call this design, post a comment(s) below. I do gift a free copy of the completed pattern to whoever suggests the name I give a pattern.

Wisteria shawl - a crochet pattern!

I've been in a crocheting mood recently. Here's one of the latest things I've created. It's a crocheted shawl worked from the neck down like lots of knitted triangle shawls. Increases are worked at the edges and the center back. The design reminds of trailing blossoms of wisteria in the spring time.

I used 3 balls of Knit Picks Palette (693 yards) and a size J hook to give it nice drape. Palette is a softly twisted 100% wool yarn that's rated as a fingering weight. It's great for crocheting! Three balls will only set you back about $6.00. That's a bargain for shawl yarn. I liked using it so much for this project that I immediately placed an order for more colors. :) The Huckleberry Heather colorway I used was a birthday gift from a friend. (Thanks, Jamie!)

I blocked my shawl to open up the lace. It grew from 60" wide to 68" wide after blocking and in length from 28" to 33" at the back point. If you don't block your shawl (or use a yarn that won't hold its shape after blocking), you will have to make the shawl larger to compensate for the size difference. If you choose to use thicker or thinner yarn for the shawl, use a hook several sizes larger than usual for that weight of yarn. Just remember, if you make any of these changes that you need to adjust the amount of yarn you need.

The 3 page pattern includes both written instructions and a computer drawn crochet chart.The pattern can be found in my Ravelry pattern store. Have fun!
 
For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

Fall and new developments

Our weather has been so screwy this year. It was cold most of the summer. Then the first day of fall hits and it's as warm as the first day of summer should have been. Go figure! Oh well, I'm enjoying the warm temps for as long as it lasts. It's been dry since the first of the month. The leaves are turning colors and starting to fall.

My forsythia bush is clearly confused. Do you see the yellow in the center of this picture? Those are flowers! It's not supposed to be blooming in September. It only blooms in the spring before the leaves come out.

Our tomatoes have been coming in like gangbusters. Here are some big yellow tomatoes I picked last week. These are either heirloom Pineapple Tomatoes or Big Rainbows---both are very sweet, and flavorful, low acid tomatoes. The ruler will give you an idea of how big these really are. Each of them must weigh at least a pound.

And some big news! We're having a four seasons room built by Champion! It's something hubby and I have wanted for a long time. Yesterday, they poured a foundation around our existing patio. Here's one of the workers pumping concrete into one part of the trench. Now to be patient until the walls and roof arrive and are installed. It should be done by the end of October. This will more than double the size of our family room and add some much needed living space to our home. I'm looking forward to sitting out there this winter watching it snow while I spin. Or inviting my knitting/spinning group over for a Fiber Frolic! The kitties aren't too happy about all changes right now but I think they'll be very happy to have all those windows to peer out this winter when it is too cold for them to go outside.

The Crystal Garden Shawl pattern

The Crystal Garden Shawl pattern is now available.

This pattern is for a triangle shawl knit from the neck down. It features a crystalline design that ends with a diamond triangle lace edging. The linear design of the lace changes as the shawl grows, mirroring the many facets of our personalities and how we change and grow throughout our lives.

The 15 page pattern includes both charted and line-by-line instructions. The blocked size of the shawl is 68” wide x 34” long. Laceweight yarn such as Knit Picks Shadow, Shimmer, Gloss lace, Bare laceweight or similar yarns are recommended for this project. You'll need about 1200 yards and size 4 (3.5 mm) knitting needles.

[BTW, that's Boo in the picture. He likes this shawl. He was purring and kneading it. LOL!]

This design is dedicated to my MIL, Mary Alice, who passed away from cancer in August 2007. A donation was made in her name to the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care for each pattern sold in 2009. Hospice provided invaluable help to our family and care for my MIL during the final months of her life. A check for $90 was sent to Hospice from introductory pattern sales. Thanks everyone for your donation!

For more information, visit my Ravelry pattern store to see all my available designs, current pricing information, and purchase pattern downloads.

That's when the lights went out....

I'm seriously considering investing in some solar panels! Seriously, our power goes out once or twice a year and it's never been due to the weather. People driving their vehicles into electric poles and knocking them down is usually what happens. Here's what occurred this time.

It rained on and off all day Friday (and most of last week too). Somewhere around 5 o'clock in the afternoon the lights blinked off and on. I breathed a sigh of relief. An hour later, they went out and stayed out. Crap! I called in the power outage to AEP. The operator I reached (shock! a real person!) claims I was the first to call in the problem. After what I've heard, I'm not so sure about that.

I went outside to see if anything was visible. Several neighbors were gathered by the street looking west. About half a block down there was a huge tree down across the road. It must have taken the power lines out. No storm, no wind, just light rain. What's up with that? (Though I don't know what's up with the fact that two large trees have fallen recently in this area during dry, windless conditions. Both happened as motorcycles passed by. One man was killed, the other just injured.)

Click picture to see the tree down from a local TV channel's website.

Hubby was working late. I called to let him know that the power was out. He wasn't coming home anytime soon because there were major computer problems at work that had to be fixed before classes started on Monday (today). Sigh...

Living out from the city, we have a well and septic system. When there is no power, there is no water. (Not even to flush the toilet.) My stomach was telling me it was past dinner time and there was nothing ready to eat. (I don't buy much in prepared foods due to allergies, preservatives, sodium content, etc. in it.) I had no water for cooking or cleaning up. Couldn't open the refrigerator (and risk having everything spoil if the power was out for too long). Couldn't get the car out of the garage to go somewhere to get something. (I can't reach the release you have to pull to be able to open the garage door when the power is out. It would not be safe to try this standing on a ladder.) I live several miles from the nearest grocery store or restaurant. Suffice it to say I was not a happy camper.

I lit some candles when it got dark. My cats were wondering what was going on. I started knitting a sock by candlelight more by feel than actually being able to see the stitches. (I had to fix a few stitches I split/dropped the next day.)

I was considering eating dry cornflakes by the time hubby finally made it home after 10 pm. He was starved too since he hadn't had time to eat either. We went out to get something to eat before everything closed up for the night. When we got back, I held a flashlight to light the front door while hubby unlocked it so we could go inside. (It really makes you appreciate having power when it's off for awhile.)

The power finally came back on a little after 1:00 am.

On Saturday, a neighbor south of me complained that his cable TV was out on Friday night. I didn't have anything sympathy for him. Another neighbor filled me in on what happened on Friday night. None of this information was aired on the local TV news. What follows sounds like a comedy routine. I'm not laughing.

1) The tree that fell had been reported to AEP and the county a year and a half ago that it was rotten and in danger of falling. Nothing was done. It fell and luckily no one was hurt.

2) The county police called in V.E.S.T to close the road and wasted no time getting out of the area.

3) The fire department came and stayed to make sure the electric line didn't start a fire.

4) The highway department arrived to clear the tree from the road. They waited for AEP to get the wires out of the tree before they would clear the tree away.

4) AEP wouldn't touch the wires because the wires were in the tree. It was the tree trimming company's job to remove the wires from the tree.

5) The Comcast cable guys were sitting and waiting for everyone else to get done so they could repair the cable. So was the phone company.

All these people and resources and it still took 8 hours to fix this....WOW!!

Yesterday, I received another interesting piece of the puzzle from my next door neighbor. Our power could have been on all Friday night. What???!!

AEP shut off all power about 6:30 pm to over 1500 people in the area. Why?

The last time there was a long power outage in my area, many people got tired of waiting for the power to come back on. (I can sympathize. It was during cold weather. All night with no heat makes you want heat, lights, and to try to save the contents of your refrigerator and freezer.) People bought generators and hooked them up incorrectly. Yikes! Twelve houses had to be totally rewired. As usual, everyone paid the price due to the actions of a few.

Please, if you are going to use a generator, get it hooked up correctly and safely by a professional. If you don't, when the power comes back on, it can back feed from the incorrectly hooked up generator through the power lines; kill any electric workers who are working on the lines; blow up the generator; fill your house with toxic fumes (if not set up outside); blow out the wiring in your house; or start a fire. None of these is something you want to have happen.