crochet — Page 3

Waiting

January 23, 2016 at 8:16 am by Claudia

I have had two restless nights of sleep in a row. I’ve slept, it’s not a case of sleeplessness, but my goodness, the dreams, and the waking up and the going back to sleep and the waking up…

Yesterday, my last dream before I woke up was one in which Scout had run away and I didn’t know until I came home and lots of people were there but no one was looking for her. I couldn’t believe it. Then someone told me the Girl Scouts were out looking for her, and I screamed at them that I was the only one who would know where to look. Unsettling, to say the least.

This morning, more dreams that, after two cups of coffee, I can’t remember. But it seems like the last two, no, make that three, nights have been filled with dreams where everyone I’ve ever known has made an appearance.

Enough already.

1-23 colorstoryfilter

I call this Waiting for the Snow. I took it early this morning and posted it on Instagram, but then I played around with some filters on a new app I downloaded called A Color Story. I don’t usually do a lot with filters, but I must say it’s sort of fun. Of course, I can’t remember what filter I used, but it intensified everything in this shot.

I’ve been up since 5:30. It’s now almost 8 and the snow hasn’t started falling yet. But I could sure feel it in the air yesterday as I walked home from rehearsal. Even if I hadn’t been aware of the forecast, I would have known that snow was headed our way.

I’m not called for any work today. I’d head home, but I might be called tomorrow. So I have to stay put. I guess I’ll take a walk when it begins to snow, as long as it isn’t too windy.

1-23 kindle

I gave up on the Cara Black mystery – for a couple of reasons. I opened the book to find it had been damaged by some previous reader. The pages were warped, there were stains, and it was irritating. (The library had noted the damage on the inside cover.) And I also quickly realized that I didn’t want to jump ahead to the newest book in the series, in which the protagonist is now a single mother, without knowing how she got there. So, I put it down. I’ll return it to the library.

Out came the Kindle, where I immediately dug into the other Jane Casey I had downloaded, The Stranger You Know. After I finish this one, I believe I will be all caught up and ready for her newest, whenever that comes out.

Right now, they’re predicting 5-9 inches of snow for this area, with an additional 1-3 inches tonight, which isn’t great, but is certainly much, much less than other areas of the East Coast. It’s supposed to stop by tomorrow morning, so by the time I want to head home, it might be clear enough to make the trip. Might. Again…fingers crossed.

1-23 yarn

Yes, I’m back to crocheting, but slowly, because my hands get sore after having made so many scarves last November and December. This one is almost finished and will go in the Etsy shop. Three more have to be made that are special requests. And then I’m done. For a long time.

If you’re at all interested, keep your eyes peeled on the Etsy widget in my sidebar. This is the only scarf that I will list for general sale. (The colors are a bit darker than they appear to be in this photo. But not much; it’s a really lovely colorway.)

Stay safe. Stay warm.

Happy Saturday.

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At The Controls Of My Starship

December 9, 2015 at 9:55 am by Claudia

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on yesterday’s post. I read every comment (well, I always do) but this time, I found myself reading them more than once. It helps to know that others feel the same way, that the free-floating anxiety and worry and, in some cases, outrage that we feel is shared by others. We need to draw strength from each other. And we need to take action.

As I sit here, sprained ankle on a pillow on top of an ottoman, cup of coffee to my right, iPhone next to the coffee, Kindle next to the iPhone, camera just a bit beyond the Kindle, laptop on my lap, I laugh out loud at the image I have of my “Command Center.” Oh, and now we’ll add coffee cake to my left, because Don just brought in a piece for me.

Gone are the days of being laid up and only connected to the world via a landline and the television set.

I feel like I’m behind the controls on the Starship Enterprise.

12-9 roseville

12-9 roseville2

I’m sharing two more of my Roseville Pottery pieces with you today. (I have a couple more Roseville scores on their way to me in the mail.)

The green basket is in the Apple Blossom pattern. As you can see, I am sometimes quite willing to buy a damaged piece. The third curve from the left has been broken off and there is a hairline crack that travels downward from there. I saw this in a local antique shop, priced at $25.00. I hesitated because of the damage and Don said I should buy it anyway because “It’s been loved and used. Besides, cracks let the light in.” An homage to Leonard Cohen.

So I bought it, and I’m happy I did. It would be three times, maybe four times the price I paid if it was flawless. But it isn’t, so I adopted it and now it has a home at the cottage.

The smaller brown piece is in the Bushberry pattern. This is the very first piece of Roseville I ever purchased. I found it in San Diego. At the time, Roseville prices were through the roof, so this remained my one and only piece for several years. It was living in the kitchen china cabinet, but I just moved it to the den, where, when the other pieces arrive and I rearrange the den china cabinet, it will live with its Roseville brothers and sisters.

Or, it just might stay on this music cabinet. We’ll see.

There’s a new scarf in the shop.

12-9 scarf in pompidoublog

This is the Obsession Scarf in Pompidou. Gosh, it’s so hard to capture the colors. It makes me crazy. The link to the shop is here.

A couple of blog housekeeping items:

• For some reason the email version of my post went out very late in the day yesterday. It should go out between 11 am and 1 pm. I suppose it was a Feedburner glitch. I’ll do my best to keep an eye on that today.

• WordPress has just had an update and there’s a chance that my comment reply plugin might not work. Can you let me know if you receive my replies to your comments? If you aren’t – and you know I reply to every comment – I need to know that and find an alternative plugin.

Thank you!

Happy Wednesday.

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Recipes and a Scarf

November 29, 2015 at 9:10 am by Claudia

11-28 geranium

My geranium is still chugging along. I took this photo yesterday and there are even more flowers today.

The impatiens might not have fared as well, since I forgot to cover them last night and the temp was below freezing. I’ve been ambivalent about overwintering them this year, so maybe this was meant to be. The truth is, I’m having a hard time and certain tasks or ideas or plans have lost their appeal. They seem to take too much energy. I know that will change in time, but for now, that’s the way it is.

As promised, the biscuit recipe:

Cloud Biscuits

2 cups flour
1 tsp. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. salt (I usually cut this amount in half. If you like salty biscuits, have at it.)
½ cup butter
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup milk

Cut butter into dry ingredients, until well chopped. Stir egg into milk and into dry ingredients. Place on floured board and knead until blended. Flatten out (but not too flat) until smooth, cut with cookie/biscuit cutter and place on oiled cookie sheet. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes.

A couple of tips: Baking time will vary. In my oven, 12 minutes seems to do the trick. And don’t make the mistake of flattening out the dough too much. I usually leave it at least a half-inch in depth, if not more. If you flatten it too much, the cloud biscuits won’t be quite as big and fluffy.

The link for the Stuffed Portobello Mushroom recipe is here.

And if you google Deirdre Imus and Crabbiless Crab Cakes, you’ll probably find that recipe. The reason I didn’t share it here is simple. The recipe is in a book we purchased – The Imus Ranch: Cooking for Kids and Cowboys – that is full of the vegetarian recipes Imus uses at the Imus Ranch, a ranch that is devoted to children who have cancer. Since the proceeds from the book go to the Imus Ranch, I do not feel right about publishing the recipe on this blog. The link for the book is here.

There you go. This is a rare recipe post from yours truly, so make a note on your calendar. It doesn’t happen very often.

New in the shop:

11-29 etsyscarflakeblog

The Obsession Scarf in Lake. It’s tricky to photograph, but the variations in the shades of blue and aqua are very subtle.

11-29 etsylakescarf3blog

It’s very pretty and is 74 inches long.

Update: Sold! Thank you! I’m listing another scarf in Wildberries later today, so keep your eye on the shop!

Happy Sunday.

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Waiting

At The Controls Of My Starship

Recipes and a Scarf

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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