lifestyle | I live on a farm ...

It’s beginning to feel a lot like … autumn

August 21, 2014 at 3:19 pm | Posted in country life, family, flowers, inspiration, knitting, Lace Shawl Knitting, Life, love, summer, Vintage, women | 2 Comments
Tags: farm life, knitting, lifestyle, love, Upstate New York, women

August, so far, has felt much more like early autumn than end of summer. We have hardly used any air conditioning this summer because it has been so very cool even during the day.

We have been going out to Point Breeze by Lake Ontario weekly to enjoy free outdoor concerts in a beautiful park out that way. I most always take some knitting with me, we run into many friends and neighbors, and everyone has a delightful and relaxing time of it.

This week it was so chilly at the concert I was able to wear a light weight wool sweater and one of my new shawls (one I knit mostly while relaxing at the other concerts, pictured here in the second photo down) and I still had to pull a blanket up over my lap to stay warm.

The early chill inspires even more knitting, and these days I am very hooked on knitting shawls and coming up with ideas for more and more of them.

If you didn’t already see it, I published a pattern for one of the shawls a couple of weeks ago. This week I have published a second shawl pattern, one I had promised earlier in the summer (the one pictured in the next paragraph and also in an earlier post.

This new pattern is presented in charted format, not written directions. I do plan to create written directions as well, but that takes a bit longer. I also have in the works a tutorial on how to knit a top-down triangular shawl from a chart because what I have found is that, once you understand how to doit, it is actually much easier than following text directions. So, I would like to teach any of my readers who are not yet familiar with following charts in general and how to knit a top-down triangular shawl specifically, how to do both.

Well, summer beckons … and today it does feel a bit more like summer. We have an adventure to get on with, so I will “talk” to you soon.

Have a beautiful day.

~ firefly

Oh, P.S. The newest pattern is available in my Etsy store and in my Ravelry pattern shop. Get 30% off at either store with this coupon code: GRATITUDE now through Saturday Aug 23rd.

New Knitting Pattern … How Cute is That?

September 7, 2011 at 8:03 pm | Posted in art, baby, country life, faith, family, gifts, knitting, knitting for babies, Life, love, marriage, shopping, socks, travel, Vintage, women, yarn | 3 Comments
Tags: art, children, family, friends, friendship, home, inspiration, knitting, lifestyle, love, personal, relationships, women
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Remember I told you all that my son made a custom Subway Roll Sign style print for me for my birthday back in early August? And, I was going to take a photo of it to share with you all, but I had second thoughts about posting that particular one on the Internet. It has some personally identifying landmarks from my life on it, and I don’t feel comfortable broadcasting that out to the universe. Please forgive me, it is not anything personal.

However, I did want to share this photo with you of a custom sign he did, because I think his custom signs are such a unique gift idea. They are totally cool looking, very unique … and a wonderful way to commemorate all kinds of things: weddings, anniversaries, births, birthdays, retirement, graduation, concerts you’ve attended, places you’ve traveled to, neighborhoods where you’ve lived, milestones in your life.

The one he did for me has my childhood neighborhood, the places I was living when he and his sister were born, our favorite home we lived in back in California (the three of us together), and now my new home on the farm in New York. It tells a story about some of the most important moments and times of my life and because of that, I love looking at it hanging on the wall in our dining room, loving the fact that it conjures up those moments of pleasure and happiness. He printed it on watercolor paper, and in the bottom right hand corner there is a little tiny line stating the print is “1 of 1” … I love that he thought of that finishing touch!

This photo here is a sign he made for some dear friends of theirs as a gift on their wedding day. I love it, it is so thoughtful and must be a delight to them. I also love how he added “Est. May 27th, 2011” near the bottom — what a great way to mention the date of their marriage. Check out his full line of prints (he has some awesome new stuff) and contact him via his blog here: Flying Junction.

Now, for my knitting pattern. I have finally finished my granddaughter’s slouchy socks. Not only are the socks don, I have actually managed to write and publish the pattern on Etsy, my website, Ravelry … and I made a version of it for Kindle. Phew, there are many steps to complete when one sets out to be an online publisher of knitting patterns.

And, I have to be honest with you here … I don’t know which is cuter … the socks I made for my granddaughter, or the photograph I shot of her wearing them. Is it just me, or is that a totally cute photograph? I can hardly stand it, it’s so cute to me.

Now I have started making her an adorable little knitted shirt using eyelash yarn — it was a whim of an idea, and now that she is no longer ripping my knitting needles out of projects, I am on a little bit of a roll. Hopefully I can maintain it!

Well, now my back is sore from being on my laptop all day. I am going to take a great, and hope you have a great week!

~firefly

Insomnia leads to a lonely game of Scrabble

September 5, 2011 at 9:27 am | Posted in art, country life, faith, family, gifts, Holidays, Life, love, shopping, women | Leave a comment
Tags: art, country living, culture, faith, family, friends, home, inspiration, Life, lifestyle, personal, thoughts, women

I couldn’t sleep … so I came downstairs to do some work. I used to suffer from insomnia as a child and teenager, and the thing I found most troubling about it was a terrible sense of loneliness I would get. My insomnia started when I was probably eight or nine years old, and continued until I was in my early twenties. What changed? My children were born, and I got to where I could fall asleep standing up if I had to … anything to get a few minutes sleep here or there.

I rarely have insomnia now, and when it does strike I don’t get that terrible sense of loneliness about it that I did as a child — unless I have worries. And, insomnia now is only a one-night-stand rather than night, after night, after night, after endless streams of nights (that’s how it used to be).

Insomnia got hold of me at about 3:30 this morning, so I came downstairs to do some work and listen to The Duke (my son’s English Bull Dog) snore. One thing led to another, and I found myself on Etsy making a Treasury. This one got rolling when I saw my friend Beverly (TeaTimeandRoses) has her Etsy shop full of pretty gift tags again. Seeing various words on her images got me started playing a game of Scrabble … by myself, alone, in the dark, on Etsy, at 3:30 in the morning.

~firefly