Monday, June 27, 2011

A Summertime Pie..............

My husband's mouth has been watering for a fresh berry pie.  So yesterday, I surprised him with this one.  I mixed blueberries and blackberries and what a delightful combination they made.

Here's just before going into the oven............

Here's just coming out of the oven.............

And here's just before going into his mouth!!!

I had some leftover yarn and pieced together enough to make this sock on Zak yesterday.  His first sock!!  I have to admit tho, I chickened out and didn't use his ribber.  I added that on by hand last night while watching a movie.


A new machine is always a bit intimidating and I really didn't have the time until yesterday to really sit down and play with him.  He did so remarkably well and I was pleased beyond belief.

Since Doris holds 72 needles, I've decided to use the finer sock yarns on her and Zak's cam holds 64 needles, so the yarns that are slightly thicker will work much better on him.

I told my husband that my next goal will be to have a machine that will do 52 (or maybe it's 54) stitches and then I can make socks out of worsted.  Doris has a cam for that, but it's really a "pain" to switch out the cams and it's much easier (although more expensive!) to have a machine all ready set up to do the various weights.  Maybe in 2 years I'll get another machine.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Knitting Essentials............

I love these plastic compartment cases. The lid to my old one finally broke, so away I went to the fishing/tackle section of Kmart.


I found these for $4.13. You can place the dividers anywhere you want to accomodate different lengths of your supplies. I decided to put all my double pointed needles in here so that they'd be easier to find when I need them.

Now I really must start a new project. I just mailed the last of the socks off (120 total!!) and am still waiting on yarn to complete the design proposal that is half way done. Why is it when you desperately need the yarn, it gets lost in the mail? What is that about? So, I emailed the company and said that I'd call them once I checked my mail box one more time. Of course the yarn wasn't there, so I called from my car and explained everything to the very nice lady who told me that she'd immediately mail out a new order. When I got home and checked my email, there was yet another note from yet a different person at this company who said she just mailed me out a new order.

That adds up to 3 orders of the same thing if my math is right! Oh dear, guess I'll just have to let it play out and see what happens. With my luck, they'll all get lost in the mail!

Think I'll go start a hat.............

Friday, June 24, 2011

The Pahnamid Project..............


The public outcry was loud and clear to our local leaders. And they listened and so did the Terra-Gen company. Terra-Gen withdrew their application for the re-zoning of our mountains for the Pahnamid Project.

It's a good day. No, it's a GREAT day!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Arky Arky Creations Yarn Shop


Years ago (I mean really years ago), I owned a little yarn shop in Bakersfield called Arky Arky Creations. We all had some wonderful times there and I will always treasure the memories.

The shop didn't look anything like this photo, but my hubby painted me this and named the little shop after Arky Arky. It looks to me like a little place that you'd find in Paris.

There's days when I find myself looking at empty business locations and think to myself that we could open another shop in Tehachapi. Then reality sets in and I realize that I'm much happier working out of my home, making socks and designing new patterns. Guess there will always be that tug of war, tho.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Save Our Tehachapi Mountains


I've shown you some of the photos of the huge wind turbines that they've put on our hillsides to our east. And now we've heard that they will try to put 137 of them on our beloved Tehachapi Mountains. I won't go into all the details about the landowner up there, but basically he's trying to get the area rezoned. Ultimately, it will come down to a vote by the county supervisors, unless all the preliminary studies indicate it's a no-go early on.

The City of Tehachapi has taken a stand of "No" for this project, but unfortunately these mountains are not within the city limits.

Some would ask me, "you have a wind turbine on your property, don't you?" The answer is yes, but it's all of 33 feet tall with each blade measuring approximately 3 feet long. Not even visible from town. The turbines that they want to install in our mountains are 500 feet tall with 3 blades and each blade is the length of a football field. They can be seen for miles and miles away.

They've installed 3 towers near the top already to start environmental studies and two have already blown down. That's a good sign! These mountains have extreme weather in them during the winter and when the winds come from the south, they come up over them and down slope with sometimes hurricane force winds.

Our only chance to fight this now is to go line by line with each issue - such as endangered species, wildlife and plant environments, watershed, etc. None of us moved up here to see this happen and our land values will plummet. Nor will we receive any of the power created by this project. It's all going to Los Angeles, we'll just get the eyesores! One well known company has already invested 55 million dollars!

We just had our first meeting and now we hope to get better organized to stop such a project from destroying the beauty of our mountains. I'll keep you all updated as things develop.

You can do a search under "Pahnamid" to read more about this.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day to the Men in Our Lives...............


Today is the day that we tell the men in our lives just how special they are. My hubby is one terrific man and we all love him dearly. Happy Father's Day honey! Now can you help me with the morning dishes?

Friday, June 17, 2011

Did You Hear the News?

Sorry that there's no photo today, but I wanted to share the news that I just heard.  The Principles of Knitting will be released this fall and you can pre-order it on Amazon.com right now for $28.93.  How exciting is that!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

A Great Find..............


What is it about a good garage sale? I've recently discovered how much fun they can be, especially ones that are out in the country. That's where the really old and good stuff can be found. The ones in town usually have all the plastic junk!

Saturday we stopped by one at a local church. I always head for the pile of craft books if they have any. Sure enough, I spotted some cross stitch books and started going through them. Buried within was this "Learn How Book". I couldn't believe my eyes. I had this when I first learned to knit. I loved that book! Except for a slight center crease, it was in super condition. What a find, huh? Oh, the memories that it brought back.

Years ago (you won't believe this), I went to a used book sale and they had a large table of craft books. There, leaning up against the wall was "The Principles of Knitting" for $4.00! Yep, $4.00. You just never know what you'll find out there.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A Drive in the Tehachapi Countryside................


Our nice weather has finally arrived so we decided to take a drive yesterday.


There are many small farms and ranches scattered everywhere and in a few months there will be fruits and veggies for sale along the roads.


I think that old barns are everyones favorite. Don't you?


We even got this horse to pose in the picture!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Sock Yarn Giveaway


How about we do a tiny giveaway? Just leave a comment on this post between now and June 30th and on July 1st, I'll randomly draw one name to win this skein of Schoeller + Stahl's Fortissima Colori sock yarn in color 11. This color is filled with the vibrant colors of the Grand Canyon and works up wonderfully into socks. Good luck and we'll see who wins on July 1st.


Our Sunday was gorgeous here in the Tehachapi Mountains. I felt like I was looking at New Mexico skies.


Our local weatherman is promising warmer days now and today is supposed to be our last coolish day. Could it really be? Is our wintery weather finally over? Our we going to jump right into summer with no spring? I have to wonder because the pellet stove is on as I write this!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

A Quiet Day at Home



It was windy and cold again today, so I decided to stay inside and get some fun things done. Like making cookies..............



cranking out more socks..............



closing lots of toes with the famous kitchener stitch...............



and listing a bag of Cascade worsted weight yarn on my Etsy site.

I also worked on my design proposal, but unfortunately, I can't show you any pictures of it yet. Cross your fingers that the designs all turn out and that we can get them sold!