Last Saturday my niece and I took a coiled basket weaving class in nearby Etowah Tennessee. We signed up for it several weeks ago.
We took off early Saturday morning and decided to stop at a quilt shop on the way to the class. I had been to the shop several years ago and was happy to see that it was still there and owned by the same sweet family. Not only does this shop sell quilting supplies but also beautiful hand made quilts and other quilted items. They also do quilting classes.
I even bought a set of quilted placemats.
We continued on to the basket class. It was being held in the old Etowah Depot.
The basket class was a lot of fun. It lasted for about four hours. This is a beautiful old building and there is so much history within the walls. The woman who taught the class, Tonya, was just a true gem. She is so talented and teaches lots of classes locally and even travels to other states. She teaches a beaded bracelet class that I am interested in. There was a lunch break but we kept working through because we wanted to finish our baskets. The baskets we made were small. It was just to give us a lesson in making coiled baskets. I am going to put rings or earrings in mine. I have already bought the supplies for making another larger basket.
The instructor went from table to table helping us with our baskets. She was so awesome.
Most of the group after working on their baskets and some showing their finished baskets.
Some of the supplies for the class.
My basket. I can’t wait to try a bigger one.
Have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Happy Memorial Day!!!
I am joining Natalie The Explorer over at Weekend Coffee Share and wow you should see the beautiful flowers she has to show us. You can check out her post here
I was thinking about the month of March. It’s hard to believe it has ended for another year. March came in like the proverbial Lion. The weather was terrible the wind was so strong it blew our outside furniture all over the deck. We had tree limbs down and lost power one night for about six hours. We had a hail storm that left our deck littered with hail so thick it looked like snow. And then it, March, went out like a little meek lamb. Goodbye March. Until next year.
March was a full month of work and reading, knitting and crochet projects, dinners with family and then with some friends, I was the guest speaker at a hospitality training seminar, my husband retired and is loving it, I was able to visit with my niece who was in for a time from California, I visited a farm that grows tulips, my tulips are blooming and several of my orchids are blooming. So wow!!! Quite a month. I would expect no less I guess.
The Reduds are also blooming. At work we have several visitors who come in and ask “what are the beautiful purple trees that we see all along the roads.” I tell them they are actually Redbuds. Redbuds? but they’re purple, and then I show them the picture of a Redbud when it first blooms out and it is definitely a red bud.
See how red the first bloom actually is?
I passed a house that had this beautiful tree blooming and just had to get a picture.
And of course just like clock work we experienced Redbud Winter. The temperatures took a plunge last week which is always what happens when the Redbuds bloom. I truly believe in all the winters that we experience in East Tennessee. If you haven’t read my post explaining them you can read it here: The Five Winters of East Tennessee. Many people I work with, even my husband, poo poo this and don’t believe that the trees budding, and other signs have anything to do with the weather, but I firmly believe they do. My parents always believed this and so did early settlers, for them it was the only way they had of knowing when the last frost had occurred and it was safe to plant crops.
A few weeks ago I became obsessed with the crocheted Easter eggs that are all over the internet. I spent several hours watching a YouTube video while working stitch by stitch with a yarn, turns out was much too thick, to make one of these eggs. You crochet one side and then the other side separately and then slip a small plastic Easter egg inside and slip stitch the two sides together. My first one turned out so large, because of the thick yarn I was using, you could have put three Easter eggs inside of it. Back to my computer and YouTube I went. The second egg wound up on the floor because I got so frustrated, I may have actually yelled and stomped a little, with the yarn. I had picked a thinner cotton yarn. Wrong. The cotton just didn’t work. It kept splitting and it was still too thick. For round three I chose crochet thread, it is super fine. I am using a size 2.75 crochet needle. I finished it and I think I sort of like it. I would like to make a few more and hang them across my kitchen window.
The third attempt. I think I am better off sticking with the crochet thread. I hung this one in my window and would like a few more. Maybe I will get better with each one.
If you want to try one of these eggs, just put crocheted Easter egg inside your search bar and lots of them will come up.
So here we are in April. The weather has been so nice and soft. The trees are turning about a million shades of green. Flowers are blooming, and the pollen is going crazy!!! I guess you just have to take some of the bad with the good.
Hello and happy Monday. Things have been quiet over here, and cold. The weather has gone from 7 degrees F in the mornings to around 32 degrees. I guess that is an improvement. I have been staying in as much as possible except when I have to go out for work. I have had a lot of things going on lately that I have absolutely no control over, and that has left me a bit out of sorts and not wanting to communicate much. Thus the very long lags in my blog posting and blog reading. I imagine things will move on as they always do in their own good time.
I have finished some knitting projects. I finally finished the socks I was working on. But not before I had to unravel almost the entire second sock and start over I don’t know what happened but it was just “off”.
I finished the scarf I was working on and another I had started a while back.
I love these colors and didn’t realize they are very similar. The one on the bottom is a much chunkier yarn.
I started a slouchy hat. I am knitting this on size 2.5 needles and I am constantly dropping stitches. The yarn is silky and fine but I am loving it. If I could just get it finished.
I have to show you this backpack my nephew and his wife gave me for Christmas. I am carrying all of my knitting and crochet projects in it. Well most of them anyway.
Isn’t it pretty? My family and friends know if they give me anything with a cat on it I will love it.
My husband gave me this cat cross stitch for Christmas. I can’t wait to start it. It looks just like my Sadie.
In the last week or so the lake at our house has frozen completely over. It doesn’t happen a lot. The picture below I took yesterday. There has been some thawing you can see in places. But a lot of it is still frozen and even some snow still hanging around.
I listened to the best audio book. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. It is a mystery for sure and you just can’t help falling in love with Vera. I think I want to be her when I grow up.
So other than a lot of knitting, and staying in and trying to stay warm, not a lot going on over here.
Hello and happy Thursday. How has your week been so far?
I am backing up to last week. I did get the three extra days off last week. On Wednesday I took my sister to Knoxville to UT hospital to have a procedure done. We arrived early and got out before lunch so that all worked out great.
I will have to say, for most of my time off, I have been a knitting fiend. Well let me add crocheting to that as well. I worked on my nephew’s afghan, a pair of socks and another cap. I also googled how to make a daisy granny square and did a few of those. So as usual I was all over the page. I did spend one day cleaning my house and then another day cleaning my mother in laws house. This house now belongs to us so we are responsible for it. It needs some improvements so we will be working on it as we have the time.
Look at all of this. The yellow is the cap I am working on. The red and gray is the sock and you can see the trial granny square I did.
This is the daisy granny square. This was my first one. I have some different colors. I plan to make several and use them for a pillow. I used these colors just to experiment.
This little bag I use to put small knitting or crochet projects. I used it this time for the cap I am knitting. These are actually make-up bags but they fit so well into my purse and I can take my knitting anywhere. People are always curious when they see you knitting or crocheting and want to know what you are making. I am always happy to share and even teach them a stitch or two if they are game.
I finished an entire sock on Sunday. I started the second one, which is never as much fun, and I will wait until I have completed the pair to show you.
We haven’t done a lot of Christmas decorating around here. We actually ordered a new Christmas tree and it should be here tomorrow. We did put life sized Santa at his post in the upstairs window. Kitty Kitty loves him and she loves to stand beside him. Crazy kitty.
Outside view of Santa in the window. I love coming down our driveway and seeing him in the window.
On Monday I left work early and took my car to Knoxville back to the dealership to have that dark window tint removed. If you missed an earlier blog post where I bought a new car, the story is I didn’t realize how dark the tint on the windows actually was until I drove it at night. It took about three hours to remove the tint and they gave me a tiny loaner car to use. I did a little shopping to kill the time. I was so glad to be able to see through the windows. The tint on my new car was just too dark for me. It made me very nervous driving in our rural area at night.
This loaner car seemed very small to me luckily I only had it for a few hours.
Tuesday night at dusk we looked out the window and couldn’t believe this beautiful purple hue. The clouds cast a purple reflection onto the water. I have never seen the lake this color. It had been cloudy all day and at dusk just a tiny bit of light was trying to shine through. It was just beautiful.
I hope your week is going well and you are gearing up for a great weekend. I am off to work on some knitting. I don’t know what is wrong with me I just feel the need to knit or crochet. I better take advantage and get some projects finished before Christmas.
Southern Patches 