HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Felt froggy last night and painted my nails purple for Halloween !  I'm getting more used to them today - I am so conservative with nail color it was a SHOCK and I almost took it right off again.  Just wanted to do something fun, different and out of the ordinary.  Why would I even have OPI Iris I Was Skinny you say?  Well it was something I got free from Sephora as a frequent buyer gift so there !  That explains my witchy nail color completely.

Since we are rocking out with Heart on Friday night I thought my purple nail polish would fit right in with that crowd LOL.

It's hard to be festive when there is so much destruction and devastation in the north.  My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the storm.

Just wanted to send a little Halloween BOO to you !  Enjoy - eat lots of candy

SCARING CROWS? NOT !

Happy Halloween friends !  This will be the last post I will be able to get in before October is poof - gone.  I just returned from a rug hooking retreat on St Simons Island Ga with our local rug guild.  We had about 18 in attendance and had a great time.  I brought 2 rugs, several knitting projects and even a bag of stitching projects but I was having such a good time with this fellow I devoted all my time to him.

Long time followers of my blog have probably seen this guy before.  Sad to say I only work on him for several months a year in the late summer and fall then he gets rolled up and put in the red cupboard until the next year.  I am really excited about the progress I made on him - I completed 3 partial pumpkins, 2 complete pumpkins and started the final pumpkin.  I completed 1 partial leaf - completed 2 large leaves and started another.  This rug is finished as far as the color planning goes which has all been my own.  This is a Bev Conway canvas and almost all the wool came from Bev.  I did a weekend workshop with her in St Augustine a number of years ago but she had a large class with 4 people who had never picked up a hook before so I was basically on my own for wool selection and placement.  I had picked up a ton of wool from her so I really had lovely choices.  I am so pleased with how it is coming out.  This is not a small rug - it is about 30 X 30 and is hooked in a 6 cut for those hooking fans out there. The fence at the bottom will be ho hum so I will try to get him finished up - truly I will.

We had magnificient sunsets all weekend at Epworth by the Sea retreat center.  It was mostly a gray blustery weekend with Sandy brushing the south Ga coastline but not a drop of rain which we appreciated.  I really feel for those people in the NE and even for miles inland who will be affected by this monster storm.  I'm just thankful we were spared this one.

the following night - the sunset was even more dramatic - my IPhone and poor skills just does no justice to how gorgeous and unusual this sunset appeared to be.

This is the view from our hooking room - which overlooks the marsh and the intercoastal waterway.  That chapel is just to the left in this shot.  This is the sight of the Hamilton plantation.  they grew Sea Island cotton.  Much history about the island can be found by just googling St Simons Island.

We made a trip to the LNS and yes I did my part to influx the local economy.  I have not taken any photos of the yarn stash yet so that will be blog fodder for another post.

I see that I have finally tipped the 100 mark on blog followers - YEAH ! Welcome to all my new friends who joined me.  I will be putting together a giveaway in the near future to celebrate my 100 follower mark.

Many thanks for visiting my blog - for leaving your comments - I read every one and appreciate the time you take to visit and to comment.  Comments are important to bloggers - it lets them know people are visiting and reading.

Hope all my friends in the path of Sandy will be spared any damage to their homes. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone.

AUTUMN DAYBREAK

The title of this post is really referring to two different subjects.

First - HALLELUJAH - I finished Daybreak.  This was supposed to be finished in August as the last of the 3 Camp Loopy projects with online shop The Loopy Ewe.  I've given those links in previous posts so I won't be redundant.  Anyway - I didn't finish on time - didn't get my prize for finishing all 3 projects on time so I just lost interest in finishing this shawl.  Now it's time for the 4th Quarter Challenge project and I just wanted Daybreak off my needles so I could move on with a clear conscious.  It was a pleasant project to knit - no problem there - it's just that the joy and thrill of the chase had left me so finishing was just an obligation.

This photo is pre-blocking - It is also not black like it looks - see the close up photo for a more realistic look at the color.

The edge and the stripe is called sable and it is a brownish gray color - the top color is perfectly plum and  it is beautiful.  The yarn was Fiberphile MCN fingering.  For all the non-knitters - the MCN means merino/cashmere/nylon.  The blends with cashmere are my very favorite.  I can't hardly say the word CAAAAASHMERE without remembering that hilarious Seinfeld episode involving the cashmere sweater that was purchased for a great price because it had a spot on it.  Anyway - who doesn't love caaaaashmere.

Next up is my long neglected Autumn House by Melissa Shirley Designs.  I went great guns on this design - doing tons of research into stitches and made up my own stitch guide.  I was so very pleased with how the fields came out.  I agonized over what and how to stitch those wheat sheaves/stacks/bundles thingys.  You see I've never seen wheat after harvest and of course now days there is no bundling, tying and drying like they did in the old days or the days prior to mechanized farm harvesting.  So I had no clue what they really looked like - anyway - I got about half way thru those wheat things and I just put this project away.  I mean AWAY away - it has not seen the light of day for at least a year or more.  Last month I went to a fun "girls night out" at a not-so-local needlepoint shop with DF Kris and I needed something to work on.  EGADS - it took me a week of studying this piece - just staring at it to first figure out what stitch I was using for those wheat things and then to decide if I really wanted to jump back into the field with it. 

Well - jump I did and I promised myself I would not put it down again till it is finished.  So I finished those hateful wheat things and started on the dirt below the fence.  Here is a close up of the fence - I'm not sold on this stitch which is just a simple brick done both horizontally and vertically to give the illusion of the wood planks having grain.  Anyway - it looks pretty good in person so I decided to leave it and press onward - The canvas is so busy - I don't really want the fence to be the star anyway but I also didn't feel I wanted simple basketweave for the fence.  I am still pondering what to do with the sky.  I ordered Gloriana Florimell a long time ago (maybe 18 mos to be exact) for the sky - I do want a basically black sky so I am happy with my color choice however I am wrestling with whether to do basketweave on the sky or some simple horizontal type stitch.  I am also toying with the idea of putting tiny beads for the stars.  I've never been a big beader but that is all the rage in needlepoint these days and I took a recent class (see last post on Candy Claus) and there was some beading involved.  So I got reacquainted with beading and now I feel empowered to do more beading.  I am going to put a few in before the final decision to bead or just do tiny X stitches with krenik.

Another poor neglected project is Saroyan - I picked it up after finishing Daybreak and decided it would be a fairly quick finish since it is done with Malabrigo Rios a worsted weight wool.  So after a few nights - I am about at the halfway mark.  The pattern is a 14 row repeat - simple if you keep accurate track of the rows.  This is not an accurate representation of the colorway.

This however is  - isn't it lovely - I've never been much of a blue/purple person but it seems like I have been on a purple binge lately and everything that I look at is purple.  Nothing wrong with purple - in some cases it is a very cheerful color - mixed with my favorite yellow/green it is smashing color.  See the fun leaf border - I just love how the pattern creates a vein in the leaf.  Plus it is a free pattern on Ravelry for all you knitters out there.

LOVE LOVE my pottery pumpkin I got while on vacation last month in the Smokie mountains.  We dropped a load of $$ this year in the Old Mill Pottery .  Last year I bought some soup bowls with handles and I wanted at least 1 or 2 more.  My mom wanted some too - they are awesome and each one a little different.  Last year I saw these awesome pumpkins scattered around the store - the clerk said every year they sell out as they only make a certain number for the fall season.  I could not resist this handsome fellow - It is heavy because it is solid not hollow.

Here is a good view of the stem and also the dried corn I put with it on my tablescape.  I wanted to find something else to throw on this pewter tray - however I have not run across anything I liked yet. 

I finally felt like putting out my fall things last weekend.  I usually start in September but when it is in the 90's around here - it doesn't remind me much of fall.  We have finally broke into the 60's in the mornings and a few mornings it was foggy, damp and very fallish looking so it's time! 

I hope you are all feeling very fallish and are enjoying working on fall projects.  I am a "stitch in the season" type of person.  I work on fall things in the fall and christmas things in December.  It just helps me get in the  mood for said season - so enjoy what you do when you do it !  Thanks for dropping by my blog - hope you will leave me a comment - I love hearing from you all.