Chat – Page 16 – Thimbleanna

Happy Friday!

35 Comments / March 8, 2013 June 22, 2013 / Chat

Hello Invisible Peeps! Just popping in for a quick check-in. It’s been a busy, not-productive-crafty-wise week here. I had a trip for work, earlier in the week. I flew home from Washington/Reagan on Wednesday afternoon (you know, the day when the snowquester was supposed to hit). Check out this picture of the airplane departure board that I posted on Instagram:

How lucky was that? My flight was one of the very few in the whole airport that wasn’t cancelled. I felt like I should run out and buy a lottery ticket. And to add to my luck, look what I found when I got home! SNOW!!!!

Finally! We’ve had such a snow-worthless winter this year. I guess it’s better late than never. I took this picture early this morning just as the sun was coming up. It’s my Friday off, but I ran into work for a 5:30 a.m. workout with this awesome trainer that we have in our teeny-tiny fitness center. Only two of us showed up that early but it was SO worth not sleeping in. Especially when you consider that I stopped at Starbucks on the way home and undid all the calories I burned. YayMe!!!

So, now, I’m going to work on the yoyos for a little while this morning and watch and old movie or two. I’ve sewn a few yoyos down this week. Yoyos: 824, Me: 44. At this rate, I’ll be done by 2019! (Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, you’ll notice a few pins in there. I’m thinking I might stop using the basting gun to hold the yoyos to the quilt — I’m worried that it’s going to make holes in the quilt back.)

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Darn It!

42 Comments / February 20, 2013 June 22, 2013 / Chat, Sewing

Darn it — my sock got a hole in it, so I had to darn it.

{Sorry, you may groan now.}

After 7 or 8 years of knitting socks they’ve finally started to get holes in them. I don’t waste my time darning store-bought socks because they’re so inexpensive to replace, but hand-knit socks are expensive and take a lot of time to knit — therefore well worth the five minutes it takes to fix them.

So, while I was fixing the hole, I thought I’d show you how I do it. I can’t even remember how I learned how to darn socks and I’m by no means an expert. I don’t even know if it’s the right way, but it works for me.

You need a sock with a hole, matching yarn (or not, your preference), a needle, scissors, and a darning egg. (You can use a lightbulb. Make that an incandescent lightbulb — those goofy corkscrew lightbulbs probably won’t work.)

I thread the needle with a reeeeeeeally long piece of yarn and then I stitch a circle around the outside of the hole. Can you see it in picture below? I don’t knot the end of the yarn — I leave a tail hanging out to weave in later.

Then I stitch fairly close parallel lines back and forth until I’ve gone all the way across the circle. I make sure that each line starts and ends outside of the original circle that I stitched. My lines aren’t neat and tidy but I’m not entering them in a contest, so I don’t care.

After the base threads are laid down, I start at one end and weave perpendicular lines. Over and under every other stitch, just like we did with our little weaving projects in elementary school. When I have the needle all the way across for each line, I squish a little on the lines that have already been woven. This helps to pack the yarn in a little.

When the circle is filled in, I weave in the ends of the yarn. Then I go back and weave in the tail that was left when I started weaving. There’s nothing attractive about my little patch, but it will extend the life of my socks for a little while longer.

If you want more info about darning, a quick google search will turn up lots of resources. There are even different patterns that you can follow so that your patch will look much prettier than mine!

Happy Darning!
XOXO,
Anna

Dear Julian,

32 Comments / February 18, 2013 June 22, 2013 / Chat

Thank you for another splendid season of our favorite show.

But seriously. What were you thinking?

I do hope you didn’t shoot your ratings in the foot. I don’t really see how you’ll recover, but I know you’ll try. You could start by sending Cora to see Dr. Clarkson. I fear she may stroke out from all those simpering side-long glances.

Very Truly Yours,
Anna

Happy Valentine’s Day!

26 Comments / February 14, 2013 June 22, 2013 / Chat

Well, it’s almost over, but Happy Valentine’s Day anyway. I’m popping in to wish you cookies and milk!

And while I’m here I have three little tidbits for you. ‘Cause I LUV ya!

You probably already know this, but, you know those annoying word verification things at the end of some blog posts if you want to leave a comment? And you sit there squinting, trying to figure out the numbers in the picture that appears on half of the puzzle? Did you know that the blogger software can’t read the numbers in that picture to know if you typed the correct number in there? You can type anything you want for the numbers in the picture and the software will take it. Unfortunately, you still have to type in the correct letters for the other half of the puzzle. The picture below shows an example of an answer that will work, so save yourself some time in your comment leaving and try the little shortcut!

Here’s a cute little dog video. Keep an eye on the two dogs on the right when the video starts. And if you’re doing something you want to keep secret, make sure your dog’s not in the room — he’ll tell on you!

And, in light of the day of love, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s a super fun marriage proposal. Try not to cry.

Have a good weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

New Books

23 Comments / January 29, 2013 June 22, 2013 / Books, Chat

Well, did you all have a good weekend? Ours was dreary weather-wise, but it was a good, productive weekend. I achieved 4 out of 5 of my goals for the weekend. I managed to knit a bit (project will be finished tonight); I finished the binding on the quilt (pictures coming if we ever see sunlight again); and I played Hand and Foot with MeMum. I didn’t get my fabric pre-shrunk, but that little failure was totally eclipsed by the fact that we got the master bedroom closet all cleaned out. WooHoo — that was a BIG job!

I also had a little fun looking through some of my Christmas books. (Long-time readers might recall that I usually receive and Amazon gift certificate for Christmas and I always save it for a middle of winter pick-me-up.)

I usually try to mix-up the choices with cookbooks and craftybooks and this year I had an even split. The quilt books aren’t anything new (Some Kind of Wonderful and Remembering Adelia ), but I think I’ll enjoy them — they both have quilts in them that I would love to make.

It’s always hard to purchase a cookbook over the internet, so I guess my expectations are never terribly high. Lots of sites have been raving about Smitten Kitchen and I love her blog, so I put it in my basket. Sadly, I’m a bit disappointed. There are probably only a handful or two of the recipes that I will want to try. I will say though, that those recipes look REALLY good LOL!

I purchased Vintage Cakes after reading a few good reviews. I don’t have any of Jane Brocket’s other books and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. There are lots of recipes in here that I want to try. I’ve already tried the Welsh Cakes. I made them one afternoon for BigDaddy. His ancestors were Welsh miners (it’s said that the miners used to take these little cakes into the mines in their pockets) so I thought he might like them with a bit of tea. It almost made us feel like we were back in Wales — they were Yummy! (As you can see I was very heavy handed with the sugar — we both have big sweet tooths!)

Based on my other book selections, Amazon recommended Pure Vanilla to me. TheManoftheHouse loves most anything vanilla, so I sort of purchased this book for him. It looks like a really good book – there are a bunch of recipes that I want to try (Twinkie Bundt Cake, Vanilla Bean Dutch Baby, White Hot Fudge, Frosted Vanilla Almonds, and Vanilla Creme Cookie Sandwiches just to scratch the surface.)

And, last but not least, we have Handknit Holidays. This book is now out of print, but obviously, you can still get it. I remember looking at it several years ago but nothing in it snapped my socks (as Ms. Farmhouse would say) so I didn’t buy it. In December, the newsletter from one of our local yarn shops arrived and it had this cute picture of Christmas stockings in it.

The stocking in the book looks nothing like these cute socks! Anyway, this picture made me order the book. Someday I’d like to make them — I think they would be fairly quick and easy.

So, a pretty good book haul for this year, don’t you think? Now, I’m off to finish that knitting project!
XOXO,
Anna