{Yarn Along} Mildred

Yarning along while on the road. We're rounding the end of our trip now and currently in Council Bluffs, Iowa, visiting my grandfather.
My knitting over the last day has proven to be...ugly. I just wanted something simple and mindless that doesnt take up too much space in the car, so I cast on a wash cloth. (Or as you would say here in the midwest... a "worsh" cloth.)
What can i say? Its brown. Its round, it has no rhyme or reason, no bells, no whistles. If she had a name it might be Mildred, and she might be a bit grouchy because her support stockings are too tight. And When you visit her home, her only snacks to offer are grapefruit juice, old saltines and banana flavoured hard candies that are all sort if stuck together in one unpromising wad, in the bottom of an old watkins cough drop tin.
Yes, Its safe to say that knitting Mildred right now is purely about the process, and has very little to do with the actual project. If not, she would have been frogged by now.
My reading has mostly been limited to some recipes, a few magazines weve picked up on the way and the orschelns catalogue. (Which is actually more excting than it sounds.)
Also, a few of Lottes books that have been read more during these last few days than i can count. Dr. Seuss, anyone?

Binding off, 

Corra

P.S... check out the yarn bombing I found at the old market in omaha, Nebraska!

Far Away Home {weekending}

Blogging from my phone for the first time. Eeek!

the weekend started off with the annual town wide yard sale

so many temptations

but with the constant reminder that it will have to be lugged or mailed back to Ontario

so instead of thrifted treasures i opted for a better kind...browsing through Grandma's very full recipe box, which didn't disappoint

and led to laughter over some of the notes

and maybe a impromptu, wee runza fest with my aunt in my Poppie's tiny, but well loved kitchen

Grandma dozed in the next room, and although she's fading quickly and most of her memory has long gone, i couldn't help but wonder what she would think of our laughing about some of her notes

surrounded by her beautiful paintings, i was flooded with memories of her showing me different brush techniques as a little girl

she always had turquoise rings on her long and tan fingers

 I can still remember the distinct paint smell of her little art studio that my Poppie built for her on the side of their house.

and how she would let me  carefully wash her real, sable brushes when I visited.

i remember thinking that i was pretty big business-being trusted to wash them

I missed her so much when we would have to leave that i would cry and beg to stay "just one more day".

living far away from family for so much of the year was so emotionally difficult, and it still is

its the pits

and now my kids do the begging

and i have to be the voice of reason

which is darn near impossible for someone who is already homesick for Kansas.

Dorothy wasn't kidding around when she said "there's no place like home."

{Yarn Along}

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? 

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind during these last few weeks. The kids and I are packing up to take a road trip back to Kansas to visit my family, and I'm still dealing with preserving the last of my tomatoes. There are still quite a few green one's out on the vines, and im not sure what will become of them. (Unless I fry them, of course!)
The boys keep reminding me that our tomato abundance is my own darn fault, as I'm the one who chose to plant 26 plants. But they also keep merrily eating them, so I don't think we'll have any problems using them all up. This morning, I found Lotte sitting in the dirt (in her birthday suit, of course) chowing down on the black russians. (and some grass, I think.) Like I said, I don't think we'll have too many.

Before we head out on our trip, I wanted to get one of my 'on the road' knitting projects started. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to run into any problems that I might need to google-help my way out of, because my internet access will be heavily limited on the road, and possibly where we'll be staying.

It's incredible how much help the internet is now-I don't think i'd have ever have learned how to knit in the round had it not been for the knit picks and knit witch videos on youtube!
I don't want to run into any fancy/different stitch maneuvering on the road and not have the resources to figure it out.

 I AM bringing some extra yarn and needles for some washcloths and baby hats should this problem occur. You know, so I don't go mad or anything. And luckily, our route is littered with hobby lobbies should any true emergency occur.

I'm working on some sweaters for my nieces and nephews, and decided on making the "gramps" sweater for two of the boys. I love the design, and think they'll be great for autumn. 

And of course i'm always in favour of anything that will make baby boys look like little grumpy old men.
I picked out a brown/grey tweed for the tiniest. My sister wanted washable/dryable, so this stuff is completely acrylic, (Lion's brand Vanna's Choice) but I actually don't mind working with it, it feels much closer to real wool than a lot of other acrylics!
I didn't like the way the pattern worked the raglan increases for the arms (KLL, KRL). I tried it but after a few rows decided to rip back and do Elizabeth Zimmerman's M1 L and M1 R instead, and now it's trucking along nicely; I'm just about ready to start on the body.

My reading these last few weeks has been limited to whatever the boys are using for school work. We schooled through the summer, but have some exciting new books for Autumn that we've just cracked into.

and I'm pretty sure that the boys would tell you that the "speller" isn't one of them.
Binding Off,

Corrabelle

P.S I'll be posting about a fun giveaway later this week, stay tuned!