Working on WIPs

 Hi all -

It's been a busy and exciting couple of weeks! The biggest thing that happened is that my neighbor's house burned down last Tuesday. It was discovered by another neighbor who saw smoke when he drove by in the morning. It was one of those things where he didn't notice it at first, but his subconscious alerted him and he turned around and went back. It was really scary because nobody knew if there was anybody in the house and we are in the forest so there's always the chance of a forest fire. The guy went home to call 911 then went back and broke a window to see if he could warn anyone inside, but he couldn't get in. This house was just bought by a young couple a couple of weeks ago. They had been working on the floors and my other neighbor thought she had seen the guy there the night before and there was a car in the driveway so we were really afraid that he was in there. Some neighbors had the couple's cell phone numbers and were trying to call them, but didn't get an answer. The fire had already gotten into the attic and it was too hot for the firemen to open. the bedroom door to check for anyone. After an hour or so, one of the couple answered the phone and let us know that they were okay. They hadn't heard about the fire, but were coming up now. It was really sad because, with the attic catching fire, the entire house was a loss! But on the lucky side, nobody got hurt, they had only brought a few of their things up (unluckily, part of that was family memorabilia) and the fire didn't spread. The emergency response was amazing! There were trucks here from 7 or 8 different fire departments. Along with police, medical and the Red Cross. They did an amazing job keeping things contained! I didn't watch the whole thing, but stuck around home so I could get the dog and cat out if the fire spread. My neighbor said it was incredible when the windows broke from the heat and the fire spewed out! I could hear the fire crackling from my deck for several hours in the afternoon. Even though the house that burned is on property that backs onto the back part of my side yard, our yards are large enough (1-acre lots, I have 2 lots) and the terrain is rough enough that I didn't have a good view of the house from my house so I couldn't see much without heading over there. We walk by there every morning on our daily walk and it's really sad to see the small pile of rubble that remains! The fire chief said that they are still investigating the cause, but they think it was either from a pile of rags from working on the floors or something electrical. So sad for this young couple!

The other fun we've been having is a normal part of living up here. We have a couple of moose living in the trees near the trailhead of our daily walk so I've been working on getting Grace used to them. Moose will sometimes attack dogs so she has to learn to leave the moose alone. Luckily, this pair (a mother and an older "baby") are tolerant. On our first encounter, Grace went running towards them barking her head off. Luckily she came fairly quickly when she was called and I leashed her and we left. Then I started keeping her leashed as we went by that area and treating her when she ignored them. We've since been able to walk by with her off leash and me shoving treats in her mouth, so that's great! Today we had a little set back. It was very windy which had Grace overexcited. I expected the moose to be further in the trees to get more protection from the wind, but they were in their usual place. She went running in to them, but didn't bark. I called her and she came back pretty quickly, but they started walking towards us so I had to leash her and go back home. Discretion is the better part of valor, as they say! I could just leash her through that part of the trail to be pretty safe from these moose, but we get a lot of moose up here and we could encounter them anywhere, so I really need to get her to not react to them to be safe in the long term. That's why I'm taking chances with these moose, in case you were wondering about that.

The other thing that's been keeping me busy is getting ready for Christmas. I've been wrapping everything and listing everything that I have so I don't accidentally skimp on anyone. I've also ordered gifts for all of the family pets (we're up to 5 dogs other than mine and one family has I don't know how many cats, so there's a lot). I have the main presents finished and wrapped for everyone and am just adding in small things where needed. I might have to make some more shopping bags, but otherwise I think I'm done making things.

Since I've had a little extra time, I've picked up some WIPs (Works In Progress) to work on. First, I picked up my Juno Throw again. This is the Jimmy Beans Wool 2023 Blanket Club project, where I receive a new skein of yarn and bit of the pattern each month and will have a finished blanket at the end of the year. I had kept up with the club through August, but then got behind in September when we got a skein of yarn that I didn't think would look right with the rest of the yarn in the blanket. I was trying to decide if I would use this yarn or replace it with some other yarn. Since I was now behind by 3 months, I decided to just move ahead with this yarn and catch back up. Here is the blanket through the November installment:

Juno Throw through November

It's hard to see in a picture from this far back, but the September yarn crochets up to look blotchy. It's not my favorite, but it's not terrible either. Here are the close-ups of each month's section:

Juno Throw - September

Juno Throw - October

Juno Throw - November

I can't wait to get the December installment and finish this blanket up! It's really heavy and will be nice to use when watching TV on the couch on those cold winter nights!

I also pulled out one of my old Lola's Choice projects. Lola's Choice is the bimonthly club from Laura Nelkin, one of my favorite designers. This project is called Engaged and is a knitted kerchief with a beaded ring. I had gotten about half of the kerchief finished before, then noticed that I had dropped a couple of stitches. The stiffness of the yarn and the lace pattern were going to make it difficult to pick those stitches back up, so I put it aside to decide what I wanted to do. I picked it back up and decided to unravel it and start over again. I put in lifelines while I knit it this time, but didn't have any problems so didn't have to use them. I finished the kerchief:

Engaged

I still have to start on the beaded ring. This is one of the fun things about the Lola's Choice kits -- she included a lot of fun stuff to learn. In this case, I'll learn odd-count flat stitch peyote for the ring. There are also a couple of options for how to place the different color beads or I can design my own bead placement. I haven't started that part yet.....

I also picked up a crochet cowl that I was making for my sister. It's the Hannah's Starlight Cowl designed by Joy Clements:

Hannah's Starlight Cowl

I don't remember why I put this aside. I think I just got busy with other stuff and forgot about it. But now I've picked it up again and it is finished. I think it turned out really cute and I like the size of this. I think I'll be making more of these! This one was a bit hard to crochet because I picked a yarn that is 30% silk. It's really beautiful and soft, but silk doesn't stretch so it's a bit harder on the hands when crocheting. I'd like to make one of these from a pure wool yarn to see how that feels.

Finally, I picked up my Arabica Cowl designed by Ann Wicker. This was a kit that I purchase a long time ago with the yarn and patterns for either a crocheted cowl or a knitted hat/cowl combination. I decided to make the crochet cowl to practice my new crochet skills. This cowl is crocheted flat, an embellishment is added and then the ends are sewn together in a circle. I had put this aside before because I was figuring out how to do the embellishments. They were a bit tedious to do with a lot of ends to weave in, but I think it really turned out nice:

Arabica Cowl

There's a lot of yarn left over, so I'll probably make the knitted hat with my leftovers. I really like the feel of the yarn and will be keeping these for myself.

That's all for now. I hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying celebrating the holidays!

Nancy