Snow in Southern Indiana

On Thursday last week, it was 60 degrees. On Friday, we had 7 inches of snow. In southern Indiana usually the snow melts before another snow falls. Not this time! Last night we got another two inches.

I'm going to have to find the bird feeding tube. The poor things can't find the seed on the tree stump any more.

And I thought I was in the land of easy winters. Shows you what I know...

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz

P.S. Here's the weather lore for predicting snowfall borrowed from http://www.naturealmanac.com/archive/predicting_winter/predicting_winter.html

Snow

There are three infallible methods of predicting snowfall for the coming year so take your pick:

1) Count the number of foggy mornings in August. This number will be the same as the number of snowfalls for the following winter, or if you're not a morning person... (Most of the days in August had fog this year. So somewhere around 25-30 snows.)

2) Count the number of days from the first snowfall until Christmas. This number will also give the correct number of snowfalls to expect, or... (Our first snow fell on November 12th. 43 snows?)

3) Count the number of days from the first snowfall of the season to the preceding New Moon. This, too, will tell you what the coming winter will bring. (First snow on November 12th. New moon on November 3rd. 9 snowfalls?)

A fact well-known to our ancestors but hardly ever taught today is that when snow lies in drifts in the shade and refuses to melt, these drifts become "snow breeders" which attract more snow. Also, if the sun shines while snow is falling, expect more snow very soon. If your dog howls at the moon it signifies an early snow. And remember, a white Christmas means a green Easter (and vice versa). This is an excellent way to gauge the length of winter since it gives you an idea of what to expect several months in advance.

I know the weather lore and keep track of the fogs in August, but this year I can't come up with a good guess. The lore doesn't match itself - which it usually does. So here goes nothing...

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi Linz

P.S. It's mid-April and I noted all the snows on the calendar. Our snows started on November 12 - which is pretty early for southern Indiana - and continued into March. It isn't out of the realm of possibility that we could get another snow, but the odds are bad. So the total for this year, everything from a trace to several inches, was 26 snowfalls. That best matches the fogs in August prediction.

Tackling Tunisian Crochet

I've tried Tunisian crochet in the past and obviously missed a step or two, because the results were unlovely.

I found a couple different sizes of afghan hooks and messed with it until I found something I was satisfied with.

Here's a largish lap robe that finally came up to my standards.

 

 

Since I sewed the strips together with a row of single crochet I decided to make a ridge on the border as well to give the finished piece a more unified look.

 

 

I first worked a row of double crochet around the sides and then I did a row of single crochet as front post stitches.

 

 

It's warm. Each row came out with the right number of stitches. I'll do something fancier the next time I try this kind of crochet.

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi Linz

 

Angela 2013

Angela comes but once a year and always at Thanksgiving. Abby LOVES our girl.

 

We decided not to shop together on Friday, but that may have been because Angela went out Thanksgiving evening and hit all the sales until about 4 in the morning. lol

 

She set up my Christmas tree and decorations. Our time together was all too short.

 

 

Thanks for visiting with me.

 

Kathi

 

 

 

Craft Fair

I spent the last week in a wild flurry of knitting and crocheting. Les secured a table for me at a craft fair at the local American Legion.

Here's what my table looked like at the fair.

 

 

I also had a rack full of the woven belts and some knitted scarves that I worked up earlier in the fall.

 

 

 

What I sold was a couple of small things, several frilly scarves which are popular now days, and one belt. I spent a good part of the day showing people how to make the things I had on the table. Translated, that means I am still more of a teacher than a salesperson.

 

I also took a special order for an afghan done in neutral colors. I like color. It appears that I am in the minority on that score. Most other people want their handcrafts to blend in with their décor. (Muttering under my breath about the lack of creativity...)

 

Anyway, hospice will be the winner on this occasion as I will donate the unsold lap robes and shawls to them. After the holidays, I don't know what I will do with all of the belts. I could sew them all together and make a very warm blanket, but the abundance of patterns and colors in THAT creation might challenge even my capacities.

 

Thanks for visiting with me.

 

Kathi Linz



 

Stormy Sunday

One week ago, we had a nasty storm. I, of course, was outside taking pictures. No, I'm not a storm chaser, but I do love watching the way weather works.  Here are some of the photos I took:

It was a wild afternoon. The sirens sounded twice for tornado touchdowns in the county. Nothing came near us, but a lot of trees lost branches.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi Linz

Season Changes

The season is turning. It changes more slowly here than it did when we lived in New Hampshire. There the trees changes in layers moving down the mountains and the brilliance happened almost all at once.

Here the trees change at different times. We can have green trees next to bare trees well into November. I took my camera for a walk a couple of days ago. This is all within a block of my house.

WOW!!

Today it is raining, slow and steady. That isn't enough to keep me in the house. Many of the leaves have fallen in the last day or so, so I took my camera for another walk.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Oktoberfest and John

Oktoberfest and my brother come at the same time every year. We walk for miles and eat sirloin tips with garlic mashed potatoes and kettle corn.

This year I walked to work on Monday morning. That morning, the library was at the corner of Second and Walnut. By lunchtime, I was working at Zweite und Walnuss Strassen.

John and Abby have this love/hate thing going on. Abby was abused as a puppy - apparently by a tall smoking man. When we got her, she had the remnants of a cigarette burn under her chin.

Anyway, she is getting better about having John visit, but she still barks like a mad thing when he first arrives. It doesn't take long, however, before we can take pictures like this. (Note that he comes down to her level.)

She goes to the window and looks for him when I say his name, so I know she doesn't really dislike him. It's good when things go right like that. lol

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Time to Crochet

I spent my summer working on inkle weaving and mesh weaving. Now the cooler weather is staring us in the face, it's time to consider making prayer shawls and lap robes for hospice.

Here are my first three for the year:

 

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi Linz

 

 

Still Weaving

Woven granny squares

Start of a variegated prayer shawl

To see what else I'm doing and for information on weaving on utility mesh, please go to http://meshweaver7.blogspot.com/

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi

Buddy Has Gone to See Chelsea

Our last golden retriever, Buddy, has moved to dog heaven.  It was a very sudden departure. He played ball until about an hour before he went critical.

Good luck finding a vet who will help you out at 10 o'clock on a Sunday evening, but Dr. Rennecamp from St. Francis's Animal Hospital came to the house and let Buddy go to his rest in peace.

Abby is sad, but doing much better than we thought she would. Hopefully, she will make the adjustment to being an only dog.

What this means for me is probably healthier habits. When you have two dogs, they exercise each other. When you have one dog, you have to exercise with that dog. Abby and I have gone for walks each day since the old boy went. I'm already starting to lose some weight. Who knows, this might be a blessing for us both.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Mother and her Great-Grandchildren

This doesn't happen often as Mother and her great-grandchildren live hundreds of miles apart. It makes my heart warm to see Mother get the opportunity to spend time with the little ones.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Progress on My Projects

I finished the lilac striped afghan and have started on a plaid lap robe.

 

I've almost finished weaving the pattern across the lap robe. Next I have to weave up and down to form the plaid pattern.

 

I'll post more tomorrow or over the weekend.

 

Thanks for visiting with me,

 

Kathi Linz

 

My Current Project

After I finished the baby blanket, I tried an experimental pattern which failed miserably. I only had to spend about an hour on that one to find out it wasn't going to work.

So I started on something that requires nothing but straight lines and some counting to get the lines in the right place.

Here's where I am so far on that blanket.

 

This blanket is a bit over 6 feet long, so you are only seeing part of the work.

 

I'm agonizing over whether I should submit this to a traditional publisher or write up another ebook. My dilemma is that many ereaders don't have the capacity to display color photos.  My other issue is that, while I know there are other people doing this craft, only one has posted the old patterns which she distributes when someone asks, and a convent that sells the finished afghans out of their gift shop.

 

This begs the question of just how technologically savvy are the people who do this. Should I assume they have ereaders at all, or am I better off trying to sell hard copy books and figure a lot of copies will go to libraries?

 

I'd be happy to hear any opinions.

 

Thanks for visiting with me.

 

Kathi

 

Finished the Woven Blanket

Only took a week to weave this baby blanket. I have another commissioned project and then I can work on ebooks for this yarn art.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi Linz

Reviving a Vintage Yarn Craft

Mesh Weaving!!

I want to bring it back. It's fun, it's easy. It doesn't involve knitting or crocheting, but it does involve yarn.

You know me and yarn.  We're best buds.

So here's something that was popular in the '70's but has since died down until only the 60-somethings remember. I hope to change that.

Behold!

There are better pictures to come. Right now, I'm getting myself back into the swing of this and sort of making up the rules as I go.

There used to be a couple of companies that put out mesh weaving kits. You got a length of mesh, some yarn, a weaving needle and instructions. Sometimes the instructions required an interpreter. Those companies destroyed their files. We now have fond memories and old directions.

I started a blog and hope to publish the instructions and tutorials in some format or other. I am also making up patterns as I go.

Lots of fun!  See you sometime or other. You can also check on my progress at http://meshweaver7.blogspot.com

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi Linz
 

Been Busy

I apologize for staying away so long. Here's my news.

I've put up enough pickles for the next year or so. I made several prayer shawls for people who were at death's door or going into surgery. I also crocheted a big blanket for a wedding that's coming up.  In between those, I started an etsy.com shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/AvidYarnArtist?ref=shop_sugg Virtually everything in the shop was made or written up in the last month and a half.



This pattern is time consuming and a true stash buster. The wedding afghan looks like this except the edges are light green.

I finished writing and posted the Kindle edition of the Homemade Dog Food book:
http://www.amazon.com/Homemade-Dog-Food-Variations-ebook/dp/B00EJSOAHS/ref=sr_1_10?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1376582807&sr=1-10&keywords=homemade+dog+foodonce

I have also studied and started again on a vintage craft that we used to do back in the '70's. There is virtually nothing about this craft - no instructions, no patterns, no photos of this anywhere on the web. I've found out that the companies that used to sell kits of this craft have destroyed their files. Only the die-hard sixty-something crafters even remember this type of yarn art.

My plan is to blog, write ebooks, and post video instructions. I have the blog set up so far. http://meshweaver7.blogspot.com/

More to come, but please be understanding if my personal page isn't the thing I spend the most time writing.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

 

My Shop Is Open for Business

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AvidYarnArtist

Here's the link to my shop. So far I've only listed a few of my inkle woven belts. I have many more to list and many ideas of more projects and patterns to post on the shop.

Please click on the link and see what I've been doing with my "spare time".

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi Linz

Selling My Crafts

I'm about to start selling my weaving, crocheting, and crochet patterns on etsy.com. I've started setting up my "store" but haven't listed anything yet. Hopefully, I'll do the photographing and posting in the next couple of days. At the moment, I have 53 inkle woven bands ready to sell. I'm trying to figure out the best way to photograph my work so people will want to buy it.

When I start posting my handiwork, I'll post the web address for you to see what I've been up to lately. I'm allowed to change the name of the store until I start listing items. I think I've changed it 4 times so far. At the moment, I'm calling it AvidYarnArtist. For now, here is a picture of one of the bands.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Planting Trees

In April, Les and I checked out blue spruce trees to plant in the yard on the east side of the house. We discovered how many types of blue spruce there are and how much psace they eventually take up. We didn't buy any that day.

A few days later, Les attended a health(?) fair in our town and somehow ended up with a baby flowering dogwood tree. I planted it in the spot previously set aside for the spruce. It was a cold spring and the little tree stayed dormant for so long that I thought it might not grow.

Well, it finally came to life.

Now if you know me, you know that I may set an idea aside for a while, but usually it will come up again until I finally do something about it. 

I was shopping for birdseed to put out on the old tree stump in the front yard, when I spied some really nice blue spruces in from of the local farm store. I checked them out and the needles were soft and properly colored, so I bought one.

Planted it in the far back yard and put in four tomatoes not too far away.

I was pretty happy about where it was planted until my neighbor poionted out that he had to chop down a tree he planted only two years ago because it was under some wires.  I went out and looked up from the spruce and - sure enough - there were wires not more than 15 feet up. Well, that would limit the life of the tree!

So the next morning, I moved it over about 3 feet to the left of where it is in the picture.

It still bothered me that the wires would be too close. Also, if my tomatoes do well behind the fence this year, I might make the garden a little bigger next year and the tree would start to compete with my garden.

So, the next day, I dug a new hole in the east side yard in part of what used to be my old garden. There are no wires overhead and the worst that could happen to this tree is that it will have to have some lower branches trimmed if it gets out to the neighbor's driveway or our sidewalk. Our porch will eventually be a little more shaded and it's closer to water until it establishes itself.

Yesterday, I promised myself and the little tree that I wouldn't be moving it again anytime soon. lol

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi



Inkle Weaving

Now that crochet season is past, I'm mostly trying to keep up with the yard. But in between mowings and weedings, I'm making some bands and sashes on the inkle loom my brother made for me.

Here are a couple of pictures to illustrate:

I haven't figured out how to do the fancy patterns yet, but even the simple ones have an infinity variety of color variations.

I'll post pictures of some of my recent work in my next blog post. I'm thinking of selling some of them at the 4th Saturday Farmers' Market when crafters are welcome to set up a table.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

And Then a Deep Breath

I finished and mailed Trinity's round afghan. Here it is:

After that, I promised a coworker an afghan for a wedding present. I had in mind that I could finish it by the end of April for the wedding. If you aren't laughing out loud by now, you don't know that I can't do a project slowly or leave one undone once I promise it. So - one week later - here's that one:

Phew!! Finished!! Now all I need to do is not to promise anyone that I'll make another afghan for a while.  After all, I have some writing to do besides mowing the lawn and spring cleaning.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi



Two for the Second Generation

Titus's big-boy blanket is finished. It took just over a week and is about 7 feet across. I made him a sunset to sleep under. He should be able to use it until he's a man grown - no matter how tall he gets.

I have one more section to finish on Trinity's blanket and the edge around. Then I can send them on to my baby sister's grandchildren. (Wow! That makes me feel old!)

In January of 1974, I made a round afghan for myself. It's still my favorite one - and believe me, I've made many. This is what it looks like after 40 years.

I'm obviously not going to use exactly the same colors for Trinity, but this is the same pattern. She'll be able to use it until she's old - barring any unforeseen problems or dog teeth.

Photo to come in the next couple of days.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Finished with Prayer Shawls - for Now

Here are those last few lap robes for hospice.  We had about three extra weeks and I couldn't resist cranking out a few more before they went to hospice.

33 and 34

I made another after these two and didn't take the picture. Les said 34 was the number for endurance, but 35 was the number for hope. I had to make that last one.

A couple of ladies and I volunteered to lay out all of the blankets for the Sunday service. We had over 350 to lay out on the stage, the piano...everywhere except the where pastor walks and the musicians stand. We hung some "from the ceiling" sort of. Here are the pictures of that.

One of our ladies made over 200 no-sew, tie-the-knots baby blankets by herself. Wow!

Next - big-girl and big-boy afghans for my great-niece and -nephew.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi