Lynn Carson Harris

Unraveling the Mystery

Things were going great. Really. I had been working on A's sock for our next pair in the "Two Make a Pair" project.  The yarn she chose was Wild Cherry by Cherry Tree Hill.  I was enjoying knitting with this wonderful fingering weight merino yarn and my brand new 5 inch bamboo double point needles that I am SURE will make sock knitting go even faster.  Yesterday, after turning the heel and starting the gusset, I realized that I had forgotten to add the wooly nylon when knitting the heel.  I sat and pulled it out and then reknit the heel flap.  When it was time to pick up M from track practice I put the whole project in my bag and headed to the van.  I pulled up to the front of the school and did not see M waiting, so, I thought I would continue knitting on the sock.  I reached into the bag but the sock was not there.  I saw that the yarn end was going behind me in the seat.  Funny, it didn't feel like I was sitting on the sock.  I followed the yarn behind me and - out the car door.  How embarrassing! I must have driven all the way to town with a half knit sock hanging out my door.  I opened the door so that I could quickly pull the sock in and start knitting before anyone I know noticed my error.  Well, I opened the door, got out, and followed the yarn halfway across the parking lot to find that it just ended. No sock.

My first thought was of A; this was her sock and her gorgeous yarn. I did not have enough left in the bag to knit her another whole sock.  My second thought was my new needles.  They must be tiny splinters in a mess of dirty cherry color yarn that at one time looked like part of a sock.  I jumped back in the car to retrace my path.  M would just have to wait.  Maybe I could save the sock before it was run over.  Maybe the sock wasn't in too bad of shape.  I drove slowly looking for a pinkish red blob on the road.  I saw a dead squirrel but not the missing sock. 

I drove all the way home. No sock.  I wondered if someone had picked it up.  Maybe even someone I knew.  Maybe they would return it to me.  I could handle the embarrassment if I had the sock back!

I walked up to house and there it was in a puddle on the porch.  The extra yarn that I had pulled out earlier had gotten closed in the door.  Still, I had driven all the way to town with a long tail of yarn flapping behind me.  What a sight.  I went back to get M but he was waiting so I didn't even get to knit!

To Grandma's House

P and her dad are on a trip to Grandma's house.

She was very excited when she left.  She had one of her blankies and one of the "Esthers" in the truck.  Esther was going to look out the window.  I am not sure how long that lasted. 

B said she has been asking where the chickens are!  I guess he could have taken them in the back of the truck;  too bad we didn't think of that.  I have to admit, they are missing her too.  They are not getting nearly as much cracked corn each day.

They took the laptop with them so I will be reporting from the library.  We shall see how that goes this week.

Blast from the Past

I have been wanting to share my first quilt.

I don't want to share it because it is anything spectacular; quite the opposite, actually.  I want to share it because of it's simplicity. Simple 4 and a half inch squares.  I like it not for its aesthetic beauty but for the memories it holds for me.  I remember tracing around a cardboard template with a ball point pen and cutting out the squares with my scissors.  I love that there is no doubt when these fabrics were collected.  I would sit on the couch and pin the squares together with pins every quarter to half inch.  I can't believe I pinned them!  This quilt was finished in 1976.
It is made from fabrics left from clothes that my sisters and I made for ourselves and some made by our mother.

There are even a couple of fabrics from my friend P in our 4-H club.

My oldest sister made a dress out of that kelly green and a pinafore out of the castles in the sky fabric.  I could not wait until she had outgrown that set and I could wear it! I had to make sure that the two fabrics were together in the quilt.

I look at these fabrics now and can't imagine any middle schooler today wearing anything made out of these.

All three of us had dresses and matching shorts out of this "little bird" fabric.

It wouldn't have been the 1970s without the mushrooms.
 
Does anyone else remember a fabric called kettle cloth?  That linen look polyester that came in sooooo many colors.  It would never wear out.  This whole quilt is backed in beige kettle cloth.

Can't you picture it- on my bed in my basement room with the kelly green built in desk and shelves and green and white paneling.  The gold shag carpet pulled it all together, I think.  Yep. It was the 70s.

I don't use it anymore because all that polyester makes me sweat. But, it is fun to get it out and look at it every once in a while.

Good News Winner

M put his calculator to work and crunched the numbers. 19 was the official random number generated- the winner of the Good News Giveaway is Denice.

Congratulations!

Tiny Quilt

Crazy woman that I am, I joined the mini quilt swap group on flickr.  The idea for this group is to use some of the leftover blocks from other quilts and make tiny quilts from them.

A year or two ago, I was in a quilt workshop where we brought "parts" and fabrics and tried to put them together in one quilt.  I was inspired by a picture of a wonderful antique quilt that had a very spontaneous style to it.  The method did not work for me.  My hope for a beautiful spontaneous quilt ended up in a mess that was folded up when I got home. Over time it became buried under other projects and piles of fabric.  While looking for some leftover blocks for this swap, I came across it again.  After looking at it, I decided that I liked the parts better than the whole and took a corner out of it for my mini quilt.  I will continue to "free" other parts of this quilt. They just don't look happy together here.

I quilted it with variegated thread and squared it up and  moved on to other tasks like fixing dinner, reading stories, or gardening.
When I was ready to put on the binding last night, I couldn't find it. 
Bother. 
I never can remember where I put things.  Last night, when I was getting ready to go to bed, I saw this in the doll cradle.  Notice that it has no binding.

P's little dolls must know that one must have at least 10 quilts before one gets married.
This quilt is 8.75 x 9.25 inches. (The quilt really is rectangular; the photo makes it look a bit wonky.)

Tomorrow this quilt will be on its way to Nebraska, not quite as far as the other doll quilt which went to Finland.

Forget Me Not

Every year I get some forget-me-nots. Sometimes I try plants and sometimes seeds.  I haven't been able to get them to grow for years.

I used to have them growing all over my iris bed and spreading everywhere else.  They filled in blank spaces and kept the weeds down.

When my father-in-law would visit, he always worked on projects of some sort. When we first moved here he helped us put in flower beds around the yard and worked on many of our house and barn renovation projects.  If we were at work while he was visiting, he would keep himself busy with projects until we returned.  He liked to be helpful.  One day I came home to find that he had cut the old electric wire to the barn with my kitchen paring knife.  Another day, I found he had weeded in my iris bed-- and pulled out everything that was not iris.  I have not been able to grow the forget-me-nots since!  I learned to leave a list for him. 

I also fussed at him for using my good scissors on whatever project he was working on.  I started hiding them.  One year when he came, he brought about a dozen pair of scissors and instructed me to leave them all over the house so that he could find a pair when he needed them. 

He had alzheimers but I think we didn't really know then. 

So, every year I try to get the forget-me-nots to grow again.  I chuckle to myself each spring when I plant them.  I feel that the two of us are having a little battle over them and this is his way of making me not forget.  Not that I would.  It makes me smile each spring when I plant them.

I don't have much hope for these flowers.  Yesterday I caught the chickens nibbling them while they were in the wagon.

Plant Sale

Today was the Chelsea Garden Club's annual plant sale.  I try to get to this sale every year.  I like that the plants are all taken from local gardens so they will not have "culture shock" when I plant them in my gardens.  By supporting the local Garden Club I get beautiful flowers and plants for my yard and beautiful gardens in town.  There is also the added bonus of visiting with friends while I shop and knowing which gardens my plants originally grew in.

I got a few plants for our white garden- white daylilly, a few ferns, some white astilbe,  sweet woodruff,  silver edge ivy,  and jack in the pulpits.

The  plants for the white garden are in the ground.  But, I had to deal with the "gardening creep" phenomenon.  This is when one simple gardening task leads to many others.  Those star-of-bethlehem bulbs that have multiplied to bunches so thick that they won't even bloom had to be divided and planted around the white tulips.  The iris that had grown so close to the chicken barn that the leaves are growing up behind the siding had to be moved too.  Actually, that one was on my list for several years.  Then, I noticed that the tree by the herb garden has grown so much that the area is not as sunny as it used to be so I moved the lovage and sage from the shade to the sunny side of the garden.  I also weeded lots around the yard.  It was such a beautiful day that I stayed out working all morning and afternoon.
I still have a bunch of plants to put in the other gardens in the yard.  I should have done it today.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain.

Good News Giveaway!

We have been using a dial up connection here to get to the internet.  It has been very slow and frustrating.  We frequently get disconnected.

It takes so long to upload pictures that I want to scream.

We searched for other options. 

Cable is not available here and we did not want to buy a satellite dish.  We tried the wireless phone connection but it was expensive and we only got "one bar" reception.

Now, we are celebrating because we have DSL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We are speeding along now!  We can even talk on the phone while being online! Woohoo.

As part of our celebration, I will be giving away the six note cards pictured here.  Just leave a comment on this post and I will choose a random winner.  The contest will close at 9:pm on Tuesday, May 20.

It's a Perfectly Cromulent Word

I love words that kids make up to fit a particular thing or situation.  Yesterday, as P was playing with her "easy blocks" she was also giving a running dialog.  I heard her say that her blocks were "betwards" my spinning wheel.  Betwards- that would be her new word for between her and something else.

When my nephew was little he coined the word "smurgled" to describe the clean laundry that has not yet been folded. 

What fun words have you learned from the little people in your life?

The "Doll" Quilt

P and I did some sewing yesterday and got her big girl quilt top finished.   

She calls it her "doll" quilt and is now talking about having the quilt in her room.  I think it will help her make the transition to the big bed. 

Maybe I can have it quilted and finished by her third birthday.