Black Raspberries

Today I had a fun day. It is one of those days, that you may think to yourself, "Joanne you are nuts! Fun? It is 97F outside and you are wearing jeans, knee high PVC boots and a long sleeve shirt. Why on earth would you do that to yourself?" Well, cause the wild black berries are in season. So are the thorns, chiggers, snakes etc.........

Near the end of my morning walk, Athena came by driving by in her John Deere Gater and asked if I wanted to go check the berries and see if they were ripe enough to pick. We found a bunch that were ripe, so decided it would be worth it to start our picking. Besides, it was a little cloudy and as you know, clouds will hide the TX sun.

So we drove home and changed into the outfit I described and off we went to the fields on the edge of our neighborhood. We were manned with bug spray, buckets, water, clippers and gloves. We fought the stickers and thorns to harvest the wonderful berries. Since we had both taken clippers, we clipped back any branches that got in the way of our harvest. It did get pretty hot, and quickly too, once the sun came up over the trees and the clouds blew off somewhere, so we called it a day and came home.

I had enough berries to make this wonderful pie. :)

I used a new(to me) pie crust recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. It actually uses part butter in the crust. Then I used the berry pie recipe that I found in there.

For those that love knitting and felting. The pie is sitting on a knitted and felted potholder, that was an experiment years ago, that I thought flopped. It was too long, but actually has been the best hot pad ever!

I am just waiting for the vanilla ice cream to make it home and we will slice into that pie.

Acton is Finished!

This past Saturday, we had a SHOW-N-TELL day at the UPS Store. It was a lot of fun. I set up a table of my for-sale items so that people could see what I do. Other mailbox customers in the store were able to come by and see what I had. It was our first one and we will try it again, to see if we can get more traffic. Several of my spinning friends attended, and set up tables with their for-sale items and then some other friends came and spun with me. We had a great time and as the sun came over the building and it became hot out, we packed up and left.

You can see my table in the top picture and my Ashford Traveller. I was spinning bamboo on Saturday, that I sell. It is a wonderful blue color. Hanging on the front of my table are some finished objects that I have listed on etsy. Then on the back of the table are kits for handknitting my patterns. The kits include a pattern that I wrote and the yarn to make it. Some of the yarn is handspun and some of it is Ashford Tekapo yarn.

The second picture is Acton. It is a Berroco pattern. I did find a couple of

errors in the pattern, but all in all I think the cardigan came out cute!

It is an adult size 34, cropped cardigan. Just right for summer to cover a tank top or spaghetti strap top, if you need a cover up for air conditioning.

You can see this top at Delightful Hands in Celina, TX, after Tuesday this week. Sherry carries the pattern and the yarn for the project too.

Delightful Hands

There is a great yarn shop in Celina TX. The name is Delightful Hands and the owner is Sherry. Besides having yarn Delightful Hands has a great selection of scrapbooking supplies, with lot of tables to work on your scrapbooks. They also carry several of my patterns for sale.

Last week, when I was at the shop knitting, I agreed to knit some samples for the shop. The first project that I have knitted is the Topsy Turvey Shawl. I used a Berroco yarn for it. AND, yes, that is me modeling the finished shawl.

The wall behind me used to be BROWN. It is absolutely gorgeous now, thanks to Jeff my hubby. He is still working on the toe moulding and don't even look at the carpet. That is another story. :)

Here is the back of the shawl.

This is Acton. Acton is a Berroco pattern using their Love It yarn. You are seeing the finished back and the fronts which are partly done. The fronts are now done and I am working on the sleeves. I will post a finished picture when it is done.

You will be able to see these items in person if you visit Delightful Hands in Celina TX, in a week or so.

Diamond Shawl

Here is my latest knitting pattern!

This shawl was so much fun to design and make. It actually isn't living with me anymore, I did make it as a gift for Cathy, my SIL. Yes, she is the wonderfully talented person who painted my spinning wheel. She had a special # birthday a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to do something special for her.

The pattern is about 75% done. I am still in the final editing stage of it.
I used Garnstudio's Silke-Tweed yarn for this shawl. It is a sport weight yarn and is 52% silk and 48% lambswool. The yarn is wonderful and oh, so soft.

The Girls' Recital

I really enjoy being a Gramma! When our girls were younger and in dance, I was the backstage Mom almost every year, if not every year. I watched them dance from the side. I was able to see them, but I didn't realize what I missed, by not getting to watch from the audience. Five years ago, I watched my first recital from the front. It was Nicole's first recital and Gramma's aren't usually asked to be stage Mom's. :) Then a couple of years ago, Rebekah started dancing again and now I get to see her from the audience too. OH, NO, what if they find out, my daughter is dancing. Will I have to pull backstage Mom duty again. Aaack! Heehee.

Nicole in white in one of her dances.

Claire on the left in her pink and green tutu.
Young dancers are usually looking off to the side to see their teacher's directions.

Nicole holding her 5 year trophy! Congratulations Nicole!

Claire after the recital, with her yellow rose and new pink purse.

As always, we enjoyed the recital and watching them perform after a long year of practice.

A job well done girls!

Painting, again.

One thing about purchasing a fixer-upper home, is you are always busy fixing and upping it. This is the before picture of our hallway, upstairs. If you look closely, you will see in the background a giant gray pail, yep it is paint. We new we would need a lot. You see, the previous owners painted the front hallway BROWN. I am sorry, but for me, milk chocolate brown is not my idea for a hall. It is the same color as the outside of the house. I figure they had some paint left over from painting the outside, meters, windows, bug nests and all, and said, "Oh, let's paint the hallway with it!" So, they did. It takes a good three coats to cover this brown. We have progressed and have the three coats on and we are now ready to start the trim. When it is all done, I will post a finished picture.

On the knitting front. Some of my patterns come out of frustrations that I am having. This one, that is newly finished, is one of those. It is probably the craziest one, I have ever done, but I really like it. It is a duster! The idea came to me while I was dusting at our UPS Store. It is really a great duster, too. I had to show it. The pattern will be for sale in the next couple of weeks, in my etsy shop.