Step Into My Thimble

Lookie! It’s a sleeve attached to a sweater. (Yes, I know there’s only one so far. But it’s progress.) This is the cardigan from “Hip to Knit” that I revised for the more chunky handspun yarn I bought on Ebay. See the cable down the front, and the super-homemade variegation?

I would have done sleeve #2 last night, because it’s all knitted and ready to go, but I spent the whole evening rearranging all the furniture in our apartment. And mopping behind the pieces that hadn’t been moved in about two years. It was a big job, but hey, we had to make room for our new desk. It’s so exciting to suddenly have six new drawers in which to hide all kinds of clutter! Our parents gave us money for the holidays not last year, but the year before, and it took us this long to find one we really liked. Yeah!

Note to all Secret Pal 2 participants: October 31 is the end of our little program. That means you’ll get to reveal your identity to your pal. You can do this in any number of ways–there is no rule for this. So be creative! But above all, please make sure that you actually do fess up who you are, otherwise I’m going to do it for you. If you haven’t heard who your pal is by about November 10, write me.

Note to my own Secret Pal 2: You are crazy! I can’t believe you’re still sending me something else. I really thought that last package was the ultimate gift. And I have no idea who you are, other than that your return address was Beverly, Mass. But I have known Pals who send things from other than their home town, so I have NO IDEA. But whoever you are you have some serious good karma coming your way!

One more thing: I’m going to be in Des Moines the next few days for the Midwest Archives Conference. (Check out that restaurants link! I’ll be back on Sunday…with a full tummy no doubt.)

The Richmond, Illinois, area is a weird little conglomeration of antique stores and biker hangouts. And there’s chocolate.

In one of the antique stores, I found a big pile of vintage craft magazines. Most of them were ca. 1960s and for really chunky acrylic stuff, or fake flower arrangements, or weird peacock wall hangings made out of bent metal scraps. But there were a few I had to buy…

From the Workbasket issue I liked a few baby garments. The rest are crocheted cozies to fit certain sizes of casserole dishes. Jack Frost has a bunch of great sock patterns in it, all on two needles.

In Little Fashion Folio, we do find many wonderful, distinctly 1950s styles, with wonderful, distinct names. I don’t have any of the women’s to show you, but for men, how about Ruggles? Could you see any guy you know wearing something that snug today? Or Gaylord? I’m sure for tennis it was very comfortable made out of that Orlon yarn. And for the boys, there’s Skeet.

I believe the issue of McCall’s Needlework and Crafts is the original source of those godforsaken ski masks that you no doubt have seen elsewhere online. There are other lovelies in the same skiing vein, such as this foxy number. And how about the elite look of detachment on this crocheted suit-wearing lady? Divine!

Anyway, along with the magazines came a lovely knitting bag, just like the one my mom used to have that we ruined years ago. (She quit knitting in 1964, so it was just for our play area anyway.)

Click me to see an upright picture

And finally, I finished Jenny’s hat, all except for the pom pom. That will be tonight.

Happy Monday!

This is for the father-in-law, AKA Tricky Dick, AKA Formula One Dick, AKA The Fabricator. He’s a lovable old goat. And he never gets spared the joshing by his two sons. Now that I’m in the family I get to do it too.

This is Plymouth Encore, and the pattern is from Fiber Trends. I made the 4-cup teapot size. It fits my little Fiestaware pot nicely; I hope the same will be true for Tricky Dick’s. But we won’t find out until Christmas!

Tricky Dick and Rodney’s mom are coming to take us away to Wisconsin this morning. I hope the rain clears up a little so we can enjoy the fall colors. There will be antique shopping, and there will be chocolate shopping.

I am having a case of start-itis as they say. Right now I’m making that big old purple cardigan for myself, a tea cozy for my father-in-law, a scarf for my mom, and some socks. I can’t seem to get any of those finished. But I will! I have to! This weekend something will get done, it’s my goal. It will probably be something else not even on that list…a hat for my friend Jenny. The fastest and easiest of all the above.

Last night we made butternut squash stuffed with sausage and apples. In theory very tasty, but I couldn’t get used to the ground beef sausage. I’m not much of a red meat eater and sometimes I let myself think too much about it…it doesn’t help that I just read Fast Food Nation. Next time I make it I will use ground turkey which probably results from the same evil meat production system but is still more edible by me. Rodney liked the squash, at least.

The in-laws are coming here this weekend. I still haven’t decided if I will make it to KIP or not. Ask me around 5:00…

A really fun and easy project I learned from my mom when she was my Brownie Troop leader is preserving fall leaves.

At least in the upper midwest, the leaves usually turn colors way before Thanksgiving rolls around. But it is nice to decorate your table with colorful leaves that A. are not fake and B. will last for a long time. Hence, the preservation project!

1. You need an old pot–a double-boiler if you can find one–and a block of paraffin wax. The wax is usually in the supermarket aisle next to canning supplies, and craft stores sell it with candlemaking supplies too. I got my aluminum pot at the thrift store for $0.75, and the wax was $1.29.

2. You need leaves. Take a little bag with handles, and your kid/dog/lover/grandma/etc. out for a walk some lovely fall day to collect the leaves. Get lots because they are free and sometimes they tear or crush so extras will come in handy.

3. Melt the wax over very low heat on your stovetop. The wax package will probably say to only do it in a double-boiler because it’s very flammable, but what can I say, I’m crazy. I just watched it really carefully and as soon as the whole thing was melted I turned off the heat.

Then dip each leaf in one at a time, only for as long as it takes to coat it with wax. You don’t want to leave it in too long, because more layers of wax obscure the colors of the leaves. Due to my craziness, I just hold the leaves by their stems, but if you’re concerned about little fingers getting burned, you could use tweezers to hold the stems. I think it’s a good idea to drip off as much of the wax as you can before removing from the pot.

4. Place dipped leaves on a sheet of wax paper to dry. Or if you are like me and too lazy to dig it out of the pantry, some old newspaper. Anything but wax paper will probably stick to the leaves, so that’s why it’s a good reason to drip off any extra wax before laying down to dry.

5. When they’re all dry, you can arrange them on the table with your Cornucopia of Fall Delights (Indian corn, tiny pumpkins and squash, acorns, the Sunday roast, etc.) and voila! This display will be with you all the way through the fall.

Our excuse for a Sunday roast

NOTE: You really should use a double-boiler to do this, because wax is unpredictably flammable. Please be careful.