More Snow ... Lots of Bird Photos

The snow from the other day melted away pretty quickly, but yesterday it started snowing at about 5 a.m. & continued pretty much the entire day & into the night.  A light snowfall most of the time, but quite a few periods of those big, fat, fluffy flakes I love so much.  We've been feeding the birds here since winter arrived & yesterday I got some pretty good photos of some of them ... along with some squirrel photos!  Did I ever mention that when I was in middle school, my little cousin couldn't say my name?  Instead of it coming out as "Shirlee," it came out as "squirrelly."  The family had a field day with that   : )

Here are some cardinals, male & female.

I love how I was able to capture two of them at the same time   : )

Here is a female, a mystery bird, & a mourning dove sharing their meal.

I like how this female cardinal is sandwiched by two mourning doves   : )

Mourning doves are so cute!

Here is a mourning dove all puffed up against the cold.

One of our regular squirrels.  

It might be a little difficult to see but this is a black squirrel   : )

I hope you enjoyed visiting with our feathered & furry friends   : )

Happy Dance, Happy Dance!!!

What a delight to wake up this morning, open the blinds & be surprised with an unexpected Kentucky snowfall!!!  I put on my shoes, grabbed my camera & stood on the front porch to take this photo   : )

I then went into the yard to take a snap of the fairy lights on the snow covered bushes.  No Prozac needed today ... lol!!!

Wishing You A Very Merry Christmas!!!

Health issues & other issues are eating away at me, but I wanted to drop by to wish you all a very Merry Christmas & a happy & healthy new year!  I keep hoping my blogging mojo will return.  Perhaps in the new year.

 

Brief Update ... I Hope

October 9, 2016

It's been "one of those days" for more than a few days, & Blogger has been acting up on my end.  Still, amidst all the frustration I did get a few projects finished!  First of all I finished my Blue Christmas socks for the Hisser Sisters Christmas Socks KAL.  I'm very happy with how they turned out   : )   Claire is still working on her socks but hasn't far to go.  She should be finished with them sometime this week.

I also finished two unfinished objects that had been languishing on my needles since the summer of 2015!  Both are Yowza Weight It Shawls designed by Susan B. Anderson, & both are made using Miss Babs Yowza Whatta Skein yarn.  I haven't blocked either of them yet, but here they are.

Yowza Weight It Shawl 3

Colorway:  Berlin

Yowza Weight It Shawl

Colorway:  Nori 

I am currently working on finishing another UFO, a pair of socks I started back in March.  Hopefully you will get to see a photo of those next week   : )

I'm sorry to say that's it for this post.  I want to get this post saved & published before Blogger cuts me off again.  

Three More Months Until Christmas, Hisser Sisters Christmas Socks KAL, and A Finish

September 25, 2016

I will begin by telling you about the second installment of the Hisser Sisters Christmas Socks KAL. As I noted last month, Claire & I decided that we would cast on a pair of Christmas socks on the 24th of each month before Christmas.  This month I am pairing my yarn choice with a fun project bag made by Kathy Norman who has an Etsy shop called QuiltKnitCraft.  Kathy is an accomplished seamstress with an eye for color & fabric choice.  She is also one of the nicest sellers in the Etsy community.  This New York City at Christmastime project bag caught my eye right away.  John & I enjoyed our visit to NYC a couple years ago & have talked about one day returning during the holidays.  The fabric print of this bag can take me there all year   : )

I took this photo yesterday after having wound my yarn choice into a ball & knitting the cuff.  My yarn choice is by Brew City Yarns, a knitting shop located in ... where else? ... Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The name of this colorway is Blue Christmas.  There's a bit of stellina blended in the yarn to make it sparkle.  You can see a few sparkles in the first photo below.

Thus far I am pleased with the feel of this yarn & the way it is knitting up   : )

Claire's yarn choice is the Christmas Special offered by West Yorkshire Spinners, a UK yarn company  The photo below is taken from their website.  The colorway on the left is Holly Berry, & the one on the right is Cherry Drop.

A photo of Claire's first HSCS KAL socks was featured in last week's post.  Here is a photo of my finished pair.

You may remember that in last week's post I indicated that I had knit the heel flap of the second sock eleven times.  My OCD paid off ... lol!  You can be sure that I will never start a striped pair of socks willy-nilly again   : )   The yarn is Opal, a German yarn that knits beautifully & wears like iron.  This colorway is from their Klangwelten series & is called Popmusik.  They didn't design it to be a Christmas yarn, but it is definitely Christmasy   : )

This past week brought us a very happy event ... the arrival of Fall!  I look forward to the cooler temperatures, the crispness in the air, the beautiful colors painted on the leaves, & that certain scent that only Fall can bring.  Fall is my next-to-favorite season   : )

I will leave you today with a song sung by country legend Ernest Tubb.  It not only ties in with my Christmas yarn choice, but this particular recording of it holds fond memories for me of Christmases when I was growing up.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do   : )

Hisser Sisters CAL / KAL - End of ... What Week Is This Now??? And Other Stuff

September 18, 2016

The first official Hisser Sisters CAL ended on schedule!  Claire & I put down our crochet hooks on September 7th.  Here is my finished blanket, as yet unblocked ...

& here is Claire's!

We both enjoyed our first CAL immensely & look forward to starting the second one!  That will be next month, so stay tuned   : )

As for our first official Hisser Sisters Christmas Socks KAL, Claire, aka "Speedy," finished her socks in a couple of hours I think!  She is an extremely fast knitter!  These socks are a surprise Christmas gift for her daughter.  Aren't they pretty?

As for my socks, I've had some problems.  Much as I tried to convince myself otherwise, I really disliked how my first choice of yarn was forming big blobs of white on just one side of the sock.

I finally frogged it & started another pair using a different yarn.  However, in my eagerness to get them started, I unfortunately began knitting the first sock without planning ahead for the second.  As I had chosen self-striping yarn, this was a serious mistake.  Some people don't mind socks where the striping sequence doesn't match.  I envy them.  Being the poster child for OCD, mine must match.  I started the second sock three times before finally feeling it would knit the same as the first, but I discovered that something was drastically wrong when I got to the heel.  I had to break the yarn & wind off some of the skein in order to try to make things match.  To make a long story short, I ended up knitting the heel eleven times before I finally got it pretty well right.  Fingers crossed the rest of the sock will at least give the appearance of matching the first!  The deadline to finish these socks is Friday, September 23rd.  I think I will meet the deadline.  I have to!!!  The second official Hisser Sisters Christmas Socks KAL begins on September 24th!!!

While dealing with the aftermath of my not well planned out Christmas socks start, I decided to finish a pair of plain vanilla socks that had been languishing on my needles since early April!  They are made with Opal yarn in the Apple Bobbing colorway.  I'm not sure why they chose that name for a pair of green & purple socks, but here they are.  The sunshine is making the colors look faded out I'm afraid, but they are a lovely bright colored pair of socks   : )

This past week I spent a lot of time inventorying my yarn stash.  You don't even want to know!!!  Let's just say I'll be destashing quite a bit in the near future ... lol!!!

Fall is kinda-sorta starting to make an appearance here in northern Kentucky.  You can see a wee bit of color on a few of the trees, & the temperatures are hovering in the high 70s/low 80s now.  I am, as always, looking forward to when it starts to snow   : )  

Hisser Sisters CAL . . . End of Week Four

August 28,, 2016

Our blankets are getting near the end!  Here is mine ...

... & here is Claire's.

As written in a previous blog post, we are not intending to make them as long as the designer has instructed because we are not wanting bed size blankets, just throws to keep us warm while we sit in a comfy chair watching a movie (a 30s or 40s movie for me, a James Bond movie for Claire), sipping a nice hot drink (tea for me, coffee for Claire), or knitting/crocheting a new project.  I'm thinking we maybe have no more than a week of adding rows, then we can start adding the borders & sewing in the ends.