- April 12, 2025
- 5 Comments
Recently I decided to join a Mystery KAL, a first for me. The KAL comes from Imagined Landscapes who designs gnomes and only gnomes. She has designed dozens and they are all so cute. For the KAL she presents two clues a week, then we the knitters knit the little bits and pieces and try to guess what each piece is going to be. It's been fun and will take about one month to complete, but in the meantime I decided to knit an easy gnome and that is Gnathan, above. He's so fat and sweet. He'll sit here for now so I can admire him, but in a little bit he'll go to live with the other Christmas ornaments and come back out at Christmastime. Also, at the end of the post are some important recommendations.
- April 09, 2025
- 10 Comments
Welcome! Today I have a little bit of knitting and a little bit of gardening to share. Here is my most recent FO, a sweet little scarf that was just as fun to knit and it is to wear. I finished this in time to take to Carmel for a quick weekend trip with the girls. The weatherman says it will be a little chilly and it will be nice to have something fun to wrap around my neck. The pattern is knit sideways, the long way, and is shaped with short rows and could not be easier or cuter.
- March 28, 2025
- 5 Comments
Thank you for hopping on over! I have a spring inspired dinner party to share today and some gardeny stuff at the end. It was our turn for the monthly Second Friday Friends Group. My menu was inspired by what would be good and easy and springish to serve a group of 12. My colors were inspired by the green hellebores and yellow cymbidiums from the garden. I had this table for six in the dining room and another table for six in the kitchen and cannot believe I did not get pictures of that table, but it was just as pretty! I made beef stroganoff and the other partiers brought an appetizer of mini quiches, a first course of beet salad, the noodles for the stroganoff and chocolate lava cake for dessert. We were quite spoiled, especially yours truly, the hostess, as all I had to do was make the stroganoff and set the tables. Party day felt like I had a bit too much free time on my hands!
The party favors were shortbread cookies from this recipe tied with string and adorned with a little wooden chickie. In case you cannot tell (and not everyone could tell) the wee chick is cracking out of its eggshell that is sitting in the grass. He still has a little bit of cracked egg shell on his head and a felt triangle for a beak. My friends still have small grandchildren so these are passed on to the appropriate littles.
All of the seeds have been started and we've begun to prepare the raised beds. There are a few seeds I'll plant directly in the soil such as the sunflowers and green beans, probably in April. It won't be long now before we begin the garden chores in earnest!
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| Found on the side of the road! This cool Ikea table and 6 folding chairs! FREE! I was able to struggle it into my car by myself. I had to conjure up some super human strength and activate puzzle skills I didn't know I had to get it all to fit into my not so big SUV, but done! It will be nice to have an extra table during garden party season. |
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| This winter we bought two new rose arches for the garden but had to cut back the climbing roses and bend them back drastically so we could dig out the old arbors and install the new ones. I have a feeling it will affect the climbing roses this year but we should be back to normal next year. |
That's it for today. I hope you have a lovely weekend and week ahead! Knitting content soon!
I hope you enjoyed my post and found it helpful and will consider becoming a subscriber to the Knitionary blog. If yes, please click here. I won't sell your email so no need to worry about that sort of thing. I honestly wouldn't know how to do that if I did. I try to send out one post a week, usually about knitting but also about my other loves--gardening, crafts and entertaining. Sometimes I use affiliate links in my posts to help offset the costs of running a blog. If you click on an affiliate link and purchase an item, I may earn a little money. If you purchase the item using my affiliate link or not, the price will be the same. Purchasing from my affiliate links adds no cost to you but could put a little money in my pocket. Thank you for supporting the blog. If you'd like to make a comment, please scroll down. I reply to each comment and that response will appear directly below your comment. If you would like a personal reply, please know that I use the Blogger platform and they do not give me your contact information when you comment. If you would like a personal reply, you can contact me using the contact form on the right side at the very end of my website.
- March 22, 2025
- 0 Comments
First off--I love this, even though the entire time I was knitting it I was fretting over the color and the style. I wondered if I could pull this crazy thing off, but turns out that now that it's done, it's really not crazy at all. It's super easy to wear and feels more like a wrap then a cardigan, and the color is not terrifying but FUN, even if it's totally out of my usual comfort zone. I'm glad I went for it. I tried it on for my girlfriends last night and everyone loved it. We put it next to everyone's face and about half of us could wear this color and the other half could not. Color is funny and I honestly don't know much about it.
- March 15, 2025
- 3 Comments
Welcome California spring! We always gets a head start with February and March being our early spring months. The roses are leafing out. The camellias are blooming. The narcissi and daffodils are also in bloom. The flowering magnolia is magnificent and we are even getting some spring rains. Hallelujah. I took my cue from nature and started the earlier seeds last month. Next week I'll start the zinnias. Soon my husband will order the soil amendments and then the garden work will officially begin. The best time of the year!
- March 13, 2025
- 8 Comments
I have a new warm and cozy sweater in my wardrobe and I loved the yarn so much I ordered two more sweaters worth. It's on sale! Half price! Read all about it......
- March 05, 2025
- 2 Comments
Today I have knitting, not cleaning, to share. I have been sick and so cleaning has been pushed aside, but between naps I was knitting. I felt pretty low for a while but since I'm feeling so much better, I went out to lunch yesterday with the birthday girls and wore my new sweater. It was a sunny day and this sunny color was perfect for the occasion. Can you see that the fabric has a fluffiness to it? It's so cozy and fluffy, and you may not believe it, but it's cotton!
- February 22, 2025
- 11 Comments
My challenge this week was to not only throughly clean the hallway, the living room and dining room but also to make some sense of the contents of the living room cupboards, all nine of them. This is how I came to be on my hands and knees all week and also emptied out numerous buckets of dirty water. It will never cease to amaze me how dirt can find its way into closed cupboards. Okie dokie. Should we have a look-see into the cupboards and see the work that has been done?
- February 10, 2025
- 8 Comments
Hello! I'm so glad you're here again today to see my knitting room, which is really a second guest room. We only need two guest rooms a few times a year so the rest of the year this is my knitting room; a much more practical use of space. The sofa makes out into a bed and I keep the closet half empty so guests have room for their things. But the rest of it is for knitting. I often sit in here and knit when the other TV has shoot-em-up movies on. This TV can only play Jane Austin type movies and Fruity Knitting episodes. No shoot-em-ups ever! Please read on as I have a few organization and declutter tips to share.
- February 04, 2025
- 7 Comments
I know that the title of this post has most likely caused anxiety to well up in that big, soft crafter’s heart of yours. Perhaps you’re looking at a mountain of hobby supplies collected over decades and maybe you don't use much of it. That's if you could even find what you were looking for. And I'll just bet it's overwhelming and who could blame you for feeling that way? Not me. I’ve been in that same place. When you take the time to get your hobby space in a good place, you can use the space more efficiently and you'll have more time to be creative. It doesn't matter if your hobby space is a single drawer or a closet or an entire room, if it's jumbled, it's not serving you. And anything that is separating us from being our beautifully creative, free spirited selves needs to be identified and given the heave ho. Shall we get started?
- February 03, 2025
- 7 Comments
I've always wondered why I didn't make knitting a white cable sweater a higher priority in my long knitting career. I guess I was looking for the perfect pattern. Then I found it and this is it!
- January 31, 2025
- 7 Comments
How do you like the gentle pace of our deep clean? One room per week! Little by little our house will sparkle. This easy going pace works for me because I can work hard for short bursts of time and then walk away with no guilt. I promise myself that I will come back and finish, I'll be thorough, and the room will be finished in a week. This gives me plenty of time to finish without having it overtake my life or poop me out, but no way can I procrastinate. I know from experience that trying to do it all at once is not only impractical, but impossible. This week the master bath is on the agenda and I attack this room just like any other room so let's begin!
This is Clean Along post #3. You can find Clean Along #1 here where we begin our big 2025 deep clean challenge in the bedroom and Clean Along #2 here where we tackle the closets.
- January 27, 2025
- 3 Comments
I have a quick post to alert all quilt lovers of the cutest sweater pattern for you to knit!
I loved making it and love wearing it. Details below :)
- January 25, 2025
- 5 Comments
This week we'll tackle the deep cleaning of the main bedroom closets and drawers. It's a biggie, but we have all week! Let's begin by admitting that it's a heck of a lot easier to deep clean when you have less stuff. It's also true that the reasons for having less stuff are many, and for me, having less means I can more easily keep my house clean and tidy and I love that. If you feel like you have too much stuff and you suspect it's why you can't keep a tidy house, don't worry, I have some tips that can help you declutter as you clean, and organize at the end, so let's get to it!
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| Image from Fine Art America |
- January 20, 2025
- 2 Comments
Wasn't it me who had vowed to never knit another blanket? I think so, but then here I am gathering yarn and casting on with stars in my eyes. Pictured here are my project leftovers from the last time I gathered leftovers a year (or was it two years?) ago. That's when I thought I had made my last blanket and professed to donate my leftovers. I've changed my mind!
- January 17, 2025
- 11 Comments
Should we deep clean together? My past cleaning and organizing posts have always been popular, so why the heck not? If you join me in this deep cleaning challenge, we'll take it slowly and most importantly we'll be thorough. We'll get to those hard to reach and neglected areas. We will also declutter along the way. We won't be marathon cleaning in the traditional sense, but rather work only an hour a day, but on some days we'll work for several hours if time allows, and we'll take days off because we want to avoid burn out. Depending on the size of your home, the time you can allow, and whether or not you have to declutter, I imagine we'll be in this for one, two or three months. I'll be here on Mondays through March to cheer you along. So there I've said it. I'm making a commitment to myself and to you that I'll be here every Monday and I hope you'll join me. We're on our way to creating a more beautiful and pleasant living environment thus lowering stress, reducing allergies, and positively impacting our self esteem and sense of control.
- January 13, 2025
- 7 Comments
Hello and Happy New Year! Today is a quiet day and this afternoon after I'm done here I'm going to head to my knitting room for a few hours of knitting bliss before I start dinner. I've got lots to share today--knitting, books, crafts and cooking, so come on in!
- January 06, 2025
- 6 Comments
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