Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Sh*ttin' In Buckets

I love watching Travis and Jonathan, also known as Red State Update on YouTube, yup, I love redneck humor. This one hits pretty close to home for us, so... are they making fun of PB and I? LOL!

Warning, adult redneck language and toilet humor, if you are easily offended, don't fuss at me if you go ahead and press the play button.



Speaking of buttons, I can't believe how hard it has been to find buttons around here, I am looking specifically for large, flat buttons to use on a mp3 case that I'm knitting, that's all I need to finish this case/carrier.

I thought I could go to the local (that's relative BTW) Alco store last week, they have a nice sewing section, they sell fabric by the yard and lots of sewing paraphernalia, I fully expected to find buttons for sale there. Well, it wasn't to be, the funny thing is the looks I received when I asked if they sold buttons, you'd think I was asking for something foreign.

Today, I went to town, the thrift store had all their clothes on sale, 25¢ each! I figured I could find some clothes with good buttons there, I didn't mind paying a quarter for a piece of clothing that I didn't intend to wear. I found 3 items with the size and color of buttons for what I wanted to do, though I really hate tossing out perfectly good clothes after ripping the buttons off of them, I'll probably keep them around for something, might make something else out of them, a pillow, or use it for patching clothes, that should appease my inner frug for now.

I couldn't believe how busy the thrift store was, on a Wednesday in the middle of the day, it was the only place in town with a lot of cars parked in front, we had to park out back. One guy in the store purchased $15 worth of clothes, he had a huge pile of clothes, you do the math! LOL.

I ripped the buttons off of 2 of the 3 items of clothing I purchased, the third thing is a cute denim skirt, I think it may fit me, so for now, I'll hold off on that one. I'll post pictures of my finished knitting projects soon, I promise.


All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Lot's O' Stuff

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, wishing everyone a safe and happy and prosperous New Year! Now with that done, here's an update on things. Last Monday, I did something I haven't done in a coon's age, (and just how long IS a coon's age I wonder...), anyhow I went to the big, big town, about 3 hours away, with a friend. My friend had a doctor's appointment about an elbow injury and didn't know if she would be able to drive home, so I went as a potential surrogate driver. Turns out that they didn't do anything on this trip, just x-ray'd her arm and told her she had bone spurs, her choice is to have surgery or live with it, she has to think about it and decide what she wants to do. Before we went to the doctor, we hit Pizza Hut, did the buffet, it's been so long since I've eaten pizza that I didn't make. Mind you, I make a pretty mean pizza, but getting to eat pizza from a restaurant is a major treat for me. I ate until I was absolutely stuffed.

After the doctor visit we went to Wally World, a super one, haven't been to one of those in a long time, I couldn't find anything! Oh I could see the signs everywhere for this and that, but I still walked around almost in a daze, all the people, all the cars (in the parking lot), it was almost too much for me to deal with, though I will say that for the most part I didn't run into any majorly misbehaving children. The adults were a different story, at least when I was in line, this goth-looking girl/woman was standing behind me, about 6 inches from me, I could see her out of my peripheral vision, she never actually touched me, but I could almost feel her breathing. Every step I took, she mirrored me. Eventually I started playing with her, I would move my cart a couple of inches and step up the tiniest step I could, she would step the same. Maybe she was trying to make me feel uncomfortable enough to find a different line, didn't work though, I finally stepped from between the baskets so that she would have to make some major moves to stand that close to me, problem solved.


While at the store, I decided to buy a comal, this is a flat, cast iron pan mainly used for cooking tortillas and doing things like pancakes, grilled cheese and such. This is something we eat several times a week, I have wanted a comal for a long time, so I took advantage of the situation and purchased one. This particular one is made by Lodge Logic, it's also pre-seasoned, this is important as seasoning a new cast iron pan takes a lot of time, effort, work and in my case, propane. Not to say it's not worth it in the end, but not something I relish doing, so the pre-seasoned pan is a major bonus for me. Of course it worked perfectly, I rinsed it with hot water, placed it on the burner and rubbed it with a light layer of Crisco, the first tortilla tried to stick, after that one, it worked like a charm. We ate tortillas, refried beans with a little cheese, hot sauce and sour cream, it was a good dinner.

I made my tortillas a little different this time, on occasion I add yeast, it makes a slightly puffier tortilla, depending on how long I allow it to rise. It also adds a yeasty flavor (which I really like), I just have to remember to proof the yeast before adding it to the flour, there isn't enough moisture in the dough for the yeast to really dissolve and develop if it's put in dry. This time I did it, but I didn't allow the dough to really rise very much, we were hungry and wanted to eat soon. The last two tortillas I rolled out, they had had more time to rise and develop some extra flavor, I made this thicker than all the rest, made it more like a flat bread than a tortilla, those were for me, LOL!


I also purchased more yarn, I have really gotten into this loom knitting thing, even though I have only made 2 hats to date, the hats turned out great and I want to make more. My MIL sent yarn for Christmas, she did a great job picking out the colors and yarns I like, but like any yarn addict, you can never have too much yarn, so I purchased more yarn, another set of knitting looms, Knifty Knitter Long Loom Set w/Hook &; Yarn Needle, 4/Pkg. and a pattern book called  More Knitting Wheel Fashions. The yarn that works best with the knitting loom is the thicker yarns, referred to as chunky, it's possible to use thinner yarns if you double or triple up on the yarn, (use 2 or 3 strands instead of 1).

My new favorite yarn is called bouclé yarn (pronounced boo-clay), it's a curly, fuzzy yarn, not necessarily thick, I use 2 strands instead of 1, that's what I used to make our hats. I'll post pictures of my hats and any other items I make soon. I am working on a new hat, just like the first 2 hats I made, this one will be for Bob, the only difference is the color, the first hats were made from a variegated bouclé in greens and other earth tones. This one is made from bouclé but in a charcoal gray color. Once I have that one completed, I'll make another for myself but with a little different look, yeah I know, pictures! I'm charging my camera as I write, it was dead or I would have pictures already.

It's been pretty cold, had wood fires every night, can't take the chance of breaking the water pump again. We have also had some big winds, as big (if not bigger) than how it was the first year we arrived here. It's been pounding everything, last night I had a hard time sleeping because of it, about the time I would be almost asleep, another gust would blast us, shake & rattle everything and wake me up. Once I heard something heavy fall over, it turned out to be a door that is propped up outside, I'm happy it wasn't part of the roof or worse, one of the solar panels.

Speaking of solar panels, for the last couple of weeks, we have had more cloudy or mostly cloudy days than sunny ones, it's made things a bit spare around here electric wise, we have enough of a system that if the batteries are full, we can go a day or two without sun, after that we have to really have to be careful about how much power we use for things besides lights. Having 1.5 watt LED lights really make a difference though, we can run them with little concern about how much they are drawing. (Thanks K!, You know who you are!).

I know this is a long post so I'll cut it off here, hope everyone has a safe and prosperous New Year! Oh it just started snowing with sleet mixed in, after such a sunny start to the day, oh boy, this is going to be an interesting rest of the day and night!








All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!