August 2020 Chatter

[Char]

Happy August everyone! I know we have a lot of gardeners - I look forward to drooling over everyone’s homemade goodies.

Here we gather community-wide to chat about anything from arigomi to zebras. Tell us how you are doing and what you are up to! :-)

If you have a birthday coming up, let me know - I would love to send you a birthday crown!!! :-)

[Char]

My socks in progress were found - yay!!!! :-)

logical place I suppose - in my sock drawer!

[Char]

KnitsWithHorses - I am glad I am not alone. Lol

[FreedomLover]

I can also relate. 😁

[pinesprairie]

Lol Where else?

[lovestostitch]

It's hard for me to get much knitting done these days as I'm so busy weeding, picking and processing. Today I worked on pruning and taming my tomato jungle and then picking.

This is today's pickings:



Now it's time to process. The tomatoes will be canned as plain, diced tomatoes. The green beans will be blanched and frozen. The beets will become pickled beets and will be canned. The cucumbers will become pickles - some canned and some refrigerator pickles. The zucchini we are eating every day and sharing with friends.

[Kathy7661]

Your hard work is paying off! Nice crop!!

[KnitsWithHorses]

Very nice! I was just telling my daughter than when we get out garden put in here, we HAVE to do some beets. I LOVE pickled beets.... And everything else you mentioned! (I'm a vegetarian) . 😁. I can't wait till most of our food is coming from our garden for at least part of the year. I'm planning to do some canning too but I haven't done that since I was a kid! Gonna be a learning curve for sure.

[FreedomLover]

You're going to have some beautiful jars of food waiting for you in the off season.

[Snoogins]

Has anyone seen this knitted COVID quilt starting up in Canada? I would love to do something like this in the US and see other countries do it too! Does anyone have knowledge about entering items to museums?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...eid=57c0a4ecc7

[Char]

shrikewoman May be able to help you with the museum thing....

That is one HUGE blanket?!?!

[shrikewoman]

I don't actually know all the much about entering things in museums... I have done that exactly once in my life, for a "Crafting Conservative" exhibit put together by Hinda Mandell for the Fuller Craft Museum, to balance out the more Liberal exhibits that are normally put on. Her website is here: http://www.omghinda.com/ and she does a lot of yarn bombing and things like that, so it's a good place for ideas.

[Snoogins]

Ooo thank you ladies! I will check that link out shrikewoman.

[TexasPurl]

Sunday Morning Question...

Have you ever lost your knit/crochet MOJO and how did you get it back?

[Mekone]

Oh yes, still working to recover my crojo and spinning mojo. I've been told that it will return with time and it's OK to pick up a hook and work on something even if I'm not actually feeling the love. That's where I'm at now, but it's getting a little easier again to find joy in spinning and crochet.

[sheiskanen]

I suffer from occasional depression, when I hardly get out of bed - what helps me to get back on the game is encouraging comments - here and chatting with an enthusiastic knitting friend - knitting gives me a sense of accomplishment and helps me stay in a positive state of mind

[Char]

sheiskanen I am so glad our group is uplifting, and a place you can find peace and encouragement.

If you (or anyone) ever need to reach out to someone, you can PM me and we’ll figure out a way to talk.

[Natalia]

On Monday I entered knitting challenge. The aim is to knit 4 baby garment (2 big ones like sweater/cardigan, and 2 small like hat/sock).

Here's my plans:
1. Hoodie with zip
2. Hat and mittens
3. West
4. Sweater with fair isle
The last one is the most challenging as I've never done it before. Going to start it today/tomorrow.
And here's the results of intensive knitting.

[Char]

These are going to be so beautiful. I am glad you are keeping us updated!!!

[Natalia]

Snoogins I need to finish by end of this week. Actually I have already finished hat, mittens and hoodie. Still halfway through the west and just cast on a sweater.

[Natalia]

Kathy7661, Char Thank you!

[Snoogins]

Any gamers in here? I am an OG Sims player, just got the Nifty Knitting stuff pack for TS4. Anyone played it? Thoughts? Im on the fence! Knitting is cool to me, but for it to be trendy feels a little weird! Especially when they put things like Frogging and the sweater curse out there. Our secrets revealed! 🤣 Nonetheless, I got to Level 3 Knitter in like 20 minutes. My Sim was starving, had to pee, but was still in the rocking chair knitting away. Accurate!

[FreedomLover]

That's hysterical!

[Char]

Oh my - this is scary on so many levels. lol
Is Boris on there with his funny socks? I keep wondering if his socks were hand knit by someone

[FreedomLover]

I told my husband about knitting being available in this game and that the sweater curse is part of it. He'd never heard of that before. I knit him a new coaster and when I put it under his iced tea he asked what that foretold about the future of our relationship.

[FreedomLover]

My husband and I just started watching Game of Thrones today. I'm also weaving so I can easily look away when I need to.

[Kathy7661]

Lol, that would be me too! 😊

[KnitsWithHorses]

I loved the books, though they were pretty... Intense. But I tried a couple of episodes of the show and it was just too explicit for me. Really well done as far as acting, production values etc but... I just don't need to actually see some things, ya know?

[FreedomLover]

It's definitely quite graphic, but that's the advantage of crafting at the same time, my eyes can be elsewhere. DH likes ancient and medieval times so I've done this through Vikings, Rome, Arthurian lore, etc. and he skips over some scenes.

[FreedomLover]

Isaias is said to have been "an exercise rather than an event" for the state of Florida (thank goodness!) with 75 mph winds, will skirt Georgia with 65 mph winds and is expected to come on shore here tonight with 60 mph winds. The media is calling this "strengthening" and my phone shrieked at 5:15 this morning with this. I am so irritated. 😡 This is not a hurricane.

[FreedomLover]

Thanks, I think this one is more media hype than anything else.

[Char]

You would think the notice could have been better timed for sure. Stay safe and dry.

[FreedomLover]

Right? We're not worried, this isn't much of a storm, they're just trying to make it into one. Friends who live on the east coast of Florida didn't even get rain.

[knitter131]

I completed a couple of things to start off the week. The scarf is garter stitch with a slip stitch selvage, using Lion Brand Shawl in a Ball. The socks are basic 2x2 rib, toe up with FLK heel, using CoBaSi fingering weight yarn. Unfortunately I cannot wear them. Even after washing, then soaking in fabric softener, they feel like straw on my feet. I have a friend who will enjoy them 😊

[Kathy7661]

Colors are great!

[pinesprairie]

I really like the colors in the scarf, it's just fun. It's too bad about the yarn, I like those plain Janes quite a bit.

[knitter131]

Thanks, everyone ☺

[Char]

Hello my lovelies. I hope you are well. I needed some "happy" so here I am. You do not disappoint.

The State Gateway budget system has ghosts. I'm about to give up and try again in a couple weeks. Grrrr.

Ok - back to happy thoughts!

How are you guys doing?

[Char]

Yah - I spent the past couple hours at the sewing machine.

[pinesprairie]

I've been outside most of the day, just getting in now. Hopefully you've found your happy thoughts, had some chocolate and had a few minutes to sit for a break. You deserve it for sewing!

[Char]

pinesprairie - no chocolate ... yet, but some bailey’s made it into my cup. LOL. My sewing ... well, I’m just doing a zig zag around a large bag of “scraps” that I picked up yesterday. I think there may be ..... well, a lot and I’m not done yet.

[FreedomLover]

This is what radar says is happening here right now:




And here's the view out my front door:

[DJM]

FreedomLover so glad to hear all is safe. The gloom and doom they project with the weather is unbelievable.

[FreedomLover]

That was certainly true in this case. It makes me think of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgm3_jzcNm4

[DJM]

Lol!!

[Char]

My husband just asked me how things were going in fiber-space.

I think he heard my eyes roll. 🙄🙄🙄😂😂😂

[FreedomLover]

How funny!

[rkennell]

Verrry funny. Love it!

[Woolfan]

LOL!! 😄 That is adorable!

[Char]

You guys are showing pictures of your lovely crops, I thought I would share mine.

These are beautiful grape tomatoes. They appear perfectly ripe.



ok - you can laugh now 😂. But I bet they’ll be delightful this afternoon with some cottage cheese for lunch.

[pinesprairie]

Char, my cherry tomatoes look just like yours. We have 8 sitting on the windowsill just to ripen a bit more.

DJM, I've not heard of cottage cheese and apple butter. I'm trying it tomorrow. We also have a local orchard that makes apple butter, I especially like the sugar-free version.

[Char]

lovestostitch - we do have a few green tomatoes. Our beefsteak don’t seem to be producing though. Maybe it will now that it is a bit cooler.

I think critters are eating our baby cukes though. Sigh.

[pinesprairie]

Char Those darn critters! They eat everything. I'm sorry too because you work so hard and then poof! it's all gone, especially when they're hungry.

[Char]

Good evening all. I spent most of my day (aside from one client call) working on washing, organizing, and methodically folding fabric. All of my yardage is getting folded similar to a bolt then folded in half. The smaller portions of yards are getting folded into consistent-ish squares. The patches are getting organized by size. I think my mask making will go much better when I am better organized. :-)

Otherwise, my brother is running for State Rep in Michigan. We’ve all been on pins and needles waiting for the results.

Hope you all had a wonderful day! Stay safe!!!

[pinesprairie]

You really are a saint and I do agree, things go better when organized. I'm watching MI right along with you!

[DJM]

Awesome that you are so organized. Sending warm wishes to your brother and your family.

[FreedomLover]

Good luck to him!