Helpful Tip

Finally tackling the dreaded finishing touches to my sweater, getting those shoulder seams whip stitched together so I can knit the collar. I've never liked picking up stitches at the neckline, always feeling that it is a guessing game to get the right number so stitches evenly distributed. It's been a long time since I've done this and thought to check a reference book I have on hand to see if I was doing it right (I wasn't). And that is where I found the helpful tip for distributing the stitches - use stitch markers to break up the neckline evenly! Almost a "duh" moment. I did some math and came up with a breakdown of 7 sections of 15 stitches each. I'd bought a packet of safety pin-like markers back when I was knitting socks, didn't even know they existed until they were used in a PBS knit & crochet show I'd started watching. They worked like a charm. Onward!

I'm having a hard time adapting my routine to the time change that brings darkness so early to the day. I am so used to walking between 4:30 and 5:00 or so when I know my mail will be waiting for me as I pass the mail locker on my way by, but now it is almost dark by 4:00, so an earlier walk it is and a second trip to the mail locker after dark. Any change in routine leaves me floundering for awhile and wanting to resist it but I'm trying to be more positive this time. For instance, I'm meeting different people walking their dogs at this earlier time. Still, I'm getting caught out by the switching around and not getting into the studio as I want. The day just magically disappears even faster it seems. How are you coping with the time change?

And do you have plans for Thanksgiving? If you are traveling, may it be safe and delay free. If you are hosting, may all conversation be light and loving, and all food comfort for the soul.

Oh Look!

I got another trinket bowl made, using up the last of the blue ark fabric and what was left of the pinks. But that raindrop fabric - it will go into many more bowls, it looks like. That strip you see is four double layers  that will take 3 swipes of the rotary cutter across its width. Many more long lengths for wrapping around clothesline. I'm not as happy with this one as the others, not liking my decision to just go as far as I could with the first inner pink which made that second round short, and wishing I'd had some blue, even if a different fabric, as accent around the top to balance the blue in the center.

And we got our first snow over the weekend - only a few inches that quickly melted off even the lawns, but more is due in tonight and tomorrow. Oddly enough, my deck garden doesn't seem to mind. Small excitement on the home front: a new refrigerator got delivered today. The old one was starting to make some disturbing clunks when the condenser shut down. As a renter, appliances are included so getting a new one doesn't cost me a thing. Ditto with new sets of blinds for the upstairs bedrooms. Those bedrooms facing west get the afternoon sun and the plastic clips holding the vertical blinds in place started snapping from deterioration. Now I have working blinds again and really appreciate having a great maintenance man to install them. In the meantime, I've noticed that the new refrigerator sounds slightly different when running, causing me to cock my head to figure out what that sound is. Shouldn't take long to get used to it though.

Woodworking Artist Extraordinaire

South of the Colorado - Basketweave turning by Charliewood Art

Goodness, the last few weeks have been full of distractions and diversions that can kept me from having much to share. I'm guessing hearing that I've gotten to some document shredding and filing, finished updating my various journals, received positive reports from my regular 6 month followups with my rheumatologist and dental hygienist and got my car serviced for winter aren't the sort of thing you come here for. I've also had some computer wars that I finally resolved today so hopefully am ready to get back into regularly scheduled blog reports. In the meantime, I ran across a woodworker whose artistic renditions either fool you into thinking you're looking at a woven basket or that puzzle you over how he did that. It's Rich Charlson, a Montana farmer who turns wood in his spare time. But don't think he's some amateur for he has been honing his craft for about thirty-five years and has many accolades to his name, Go check out his many bowls, crosses and even wall hangings at Charliwoodart.com.