Photo Dump: Summer of 2016

It's been a full summer, most of it a big haze.

The beginning of August, I started hooking the Cap It Off Topper. I started it the first day of the Olympics and had hope to finish by the conclusion. Here it is 9/16/16, and I am still not finished with it, as I am still working through rotator cuff and golfer's *ahem* HOOKERS elbow and it's slowed my crochet down considerably.  Additionally, I am not sure I have enough yarn to finish as is, but have a another purple which I might use to do the edging on the bottom as well as the sleeves. I have to take the remaining yarn, weigh it, and then attempt to wind it into two balls of equal weight, so then I'll work what I can of the sleeves in that, equally, and then switch to the "emergency" purple yarn to finish off.  I will wear this for a while and then give to a friend, as is my norm. But WHICH friend is the real question.

 

The end of August found me in Vermont, land of Green Mountains and dairy farms and bliss, if you ask me! And while we were there, it was fortuitous, as the Champlain Valley Fair happened to be happening at the same time, and in the absence of something else to do, we went there for an afternoon, and planned on eating "festival food" for our lunch.

If you are in or near Vermont and you ever see the Waffle King, I seriously recommend grabbing something from this vendor. They serve several different options of food in a waffle BOWL. The Maharajah had the Coconut Curry Bowl, and we were fairly impressed with that. Tasty stuff.

The Maharajah took me through the 4H area where the sheep were, and while that DOES have its appeal with me, and in the absence of any friends therein, what I gravitated to were the piggies. My fave. I have such admiration for them, both, as living creatures, as well as a source of tasty food.

Given I make this trek to the Green Mountain State every other year, I try to pop in at local yarn establishments. And while Nido in Burlington is a very nice boutique, the store that is my true love is the Northeast Fiber Arts Center in nearby Williston. It touts itself as a "candy store" for fiber enthusiasts, and well, THEY ARE TELLING THE TRUTH. 

They have an assortment of big name yarns you can find pretty much everywhere, as well as some local fiber, and locally dyed yarns too. Yarns in all manner of weights and colors and fiber combinations. Felting kits put together by the owner's niece. If you knit, crochet, weave, wet or needle felt, there truly is something here for you. It's glorious. The real shame for me as a consumer is, this shop is not near me. So I do my part, and visit when I am in the vicinity.

And since my crocheting has been slowed down considerably, I've been continuing the GREAT ORGANIZATION PROJECT which I started in 2012. I am forever in a state of continual purging out things that I don't need or don't see myself using anytime soon. And I have a happy recipient and friend to whom to bestow all my crafty goodness.

In addition to the organizing project, part of that also is FINISHING projects which have been languishing too long. I finally worked in the ends, and starched and blocked this blue doily, with the intended recipient being the mom of my friend Rengin. Here the blue doily is displayed next to/on top of, the doily Rengin's mom made for me. Be sure to check out Rengin's blog. Not only is she very artistic, as she paints and does Turkish lace known as Oya, she also has been sharing details of her travels to Norway!

And lastly, this is the next project, I think I will work on. Well, this project as well as putting the finishing touches on my DIY duvet I made (using two top sheets from sheet sets I bought last year). But before I do that, I have to get over my fear of changing out the foot on my sewing machine for the special foot for making buttonholes. VERY EXCITING!!! So much to do!

I have had this insulated cooler bag since 2011 when I had my gastric bypass. And it has served me very well in these past five years, but the cheap plastic lining is difficult to keep clean, and in the area of the pocket in the first photo, you can see how it's actually ripped away.  So I need to retrofit a new lining for it, as well as a new pocket, and figure out how to stitch everything together, and I've decided to stitch a new lining out of black quilted fabric I bought, and then figure out how to do button holes, and actually stitch buttons into the shell of the bag itself, so the lining can then be taken out and popped into the washer for a good thorough cleaning. And a new pocket is in order, using a cheerful contrast fabric.  And maybe I'll trick out the bag further with more customizations to be determined later.

But before I do anything else, I have to format this blog post, click publish, then continue making the remainder of my phone calls for the day.  

I woke up feeling more than a bit under the weather and took a sick day so I could recover a bit, and of course, I can't be home and NOT putter. So I had roughly seven phone calls to make. The first one was to schedule a consultation with a new pain doctor, and the moment I hung up the phone with them, my cell phone rang with a reminder call from my dentist (about tomorrow's cleaning at 8 a.m. UGH), and I asked if they had any last minute cancellations for today, and they said yes, at TEN. So I quickly showered, got out of the house, had my cleaning, got myself some lunch, REALLY USED A LOT OF FORTITUDE NOT TO DO ANYTHING ELSE EXCEPT GET HOME, and here I am. And one of my puttering putters involves a Windsor chair that needs some TLC, so perhaps before I make any other phone calls, my next call will be to the nearest wood worker, to see if I can pop over there and drop off the chair today. Let's see if I am lucky and it works out. I'd love it if this chair were functional, but right now it is nothing more than a brittle, antique, object d'art, which is taking up precious space in my home. 

ETA: I just called the woodworking place just NOW, and they are available. SYNERGY! ON MY WAY! GETTIN' SHIT DONE LIKE A BOSS!