Monday Midnight Making It...Speedy Yarn Crawl

 Not quite 'Midnight', but it felt like it by the time I got home from a 'Monday Meet Up' with a 'Yarn/Makin'It4Her' customer.  With Monday as my 'Day Off' from the shop, I don't often go there except by appointment.  It was a late appointment that ran overtime, but with more yarn sales and more 'Makin'It4Her' projects.  That's what happens when the first batch of 'Made4Her' pieces are so loved she wants one in every color available.

Thank goodness for sticky notes and a little time before bedtime to get started while fresh on my mind.  That sounds like a good line for a country song....right?  At any rate, there were sticky notes pinned on every skein of a locally raised Alpaca yarn.  That's right, raised right here in San Angelo, Texas and milled elsewhere. 

I've expanded my Yarn Inventory to include not only the Mill Skeins of Alpaca, but also Roving ready to spin.  Oh my, but this natural fiber is a dream to spin, easy to knit and crochet, and it's selling.  It was not my intent to take on the 'Makin'It' for customers, but when it helps make the sell, it's a win-win deal....as long as it can be crocheted...that makes it a Speedy Yarn Crawl.

WordlessWed...Golden Nuggets...

...On My Desk

Malabrigo Monday...It's A Yarn

      It's not a Monday thing unless you are rounding Malabrigo Point Lighthouse on a Monday during monsoon season.  Only then is the Spanish word malabrigo a Monday thing which means 'bad shelter.  When speaking 'Knit-ish...yarn knitting talk...you'll hear a variety of exclamations about Malabrigo yarns gorgeous colors and super softness.  Coveted by knitters and crocheters around the world, this sumptuous yarn is made in Uruguay.

     Here's a bit of 'Knit-ish' specifics about Malabrigo:

- Fiber:  100% Superwash Merino Wool 

- US Needle to use:  size 4 to 6

- Weight:  DK (21-24 stitches/4 inches

Here's my reactions to the specifics:

-Wash Wool?  Yikes!  Okay to hand wash very carefully!

- Size 4 to 6 needles!!  Like toothpicks for this 10 to 17 size knitter!

-Weight  DK...Yikes again!!!  Like 'frog hair' for this chunky yarn knitter!!!

 

So why am I reaching way out of my knitting comfort zone?

To make Miss Grace's Knitted Shawl.

The pattern is a 16 page booklet plus 3 copied pages to mark your place as you knit.  It is also my first knitting in what is called a 'short row' pattern.  I don't know what that is...yet...next lesson after I finish knitting through 'ridge row #39'.  To make it more of a challenge than it already is, I'm doing it twice.  It's an 'OverDoSue' thingy...ya know!!!

By the 'Grace of Miss Grace's Pattern' I hope my Malabrigo experience stays with yarn and not a Lighthouse!  

I'm pretty safe...Texas is not known to have a monsoon season!
Miss Grace Knitted Shawl-Free Pattern on Ravelry 

WordlessWed...I Heart Knitting

Making It Monday~Scraps and Leftovers

      Scrap baskets line shelves, stack under tables, and are a source of frustration and inspiration.  On days of frustration...I look at the stacks and shelves as unorganized clutter and a never ending waste of time that I should 'Let Go'.  On days of inspiration...I'm so glad my 'Let It Go' days passed and look at the shelves and stacks as a treasure trove of creative and relaxing stitching.
     That's what I did for a few hours yesterday.  I think I'll do more today while I'm inspired to use up fabric strips, rick rack, misc. trim and ribbon.  Do you think I'll make much of a dent in the shelves and stacks?

    
It may not be quite right to call my collection of vintage linens, crocheted doilies, beads and buttons as 'Leftovers', but in some ways it fits.  After all, they are left over from another era and previous projects.
     They also fall into the sources of 'frustration and inspiration'.  Again, they line shelves, fill bags and boxes and take up space while waiting for an 'Inspiration Day'.  That occurred for a few days last month.
     My work table was a clutter of hoops, frames, doilies, beads, fabrics, threads, needles and notions.  From that clutter came several pieces of old to renewed vintage works for Valentines Day.
     With Valentines Day falling on Friday this year, these Vintage Valentines may be there for awhile as February Saturdays are bigger traffic days.   That's okay with me...I'll get to enjoy them longer.

   Happy Vintage Valentines Day!!!

 

Through Her Eyes Thursday~Colonial 5xGGrandmother

Through Her Eyes Thursday - Stories of Women In My Family Tree.

 

 

     Without the Album of my fraternal great grandmother my family tree's female branches, twigs, and roots would not be known to my generation or the  generations to come.

     I inherited the 1900's Album with photos and memorabilia that offered little to no clues of who they were.  So, began years of photo detective work, ancestry research and piecing together a family history that dates back to Colonial America and a 5th Great Grandmother who defied the British Torries.

     So, as this is the beginning post for 'Through Her Eyes Thursday' I will begin with her story.
     A five times Great Grandmother is a wonderous discovery in anyone's ancestorial research, especially when you are rewarded with names, dates and a story of her achievements that has been passed down for generations.  Just knowing her name as the Mother of my Direct Descendent was in itself a satisfying genealogy bit of information.  It is after all, quite a challenge tracing the women in one's family tree, due to the traditional practice of women assuming their husbands surname.
     In Virginia, when my 5xGreat Grandmother married on May 1, 1747, marriage was performed by ministers of the Church of England.  Ministers were required by law to file marriage certificates with governing offices, however,  the laws were rarely enforced, resulting in many incomplete or nonexistent certificates.
     Although women were treated as second-class citizens during the 1700's, their roles as women and mothers during the American Revolution gave rise to The Articles of Confederation and the important part they played in support of Republican Motherhood.  She encouraged her sons and husband to be soldiers, she boycotted particular goods and supported the causes of the Revolution by speaking out at home and in public.

My 5xGreat Grandmother Mary Polly Rowe Pittman was an

American Revolutionary Wife, Mother and Patriot.

Husband John I. Pittman

December 1776...4th Artillery Regiment of South Carolina

~In 1778 John Pittman was reported in the South Carolina Militia as a Ships Master. *Georgia Revolutionary War Soldiers Graves by Arnold and Burnham, 1993 pg 576. Other Documentation: The Roster of South Carolina Patriots In The American Revolution.

~ John Pittman is also listed with the Rebels who kept watch on the Savannah River Crossings. On the Muster Roll of Capt. Ephraim Mitchell’s Company of the South Carolina Continental Regiment of Artillery Encampment at the Two Sisters Ferry.

~Sons of John Pittman and Mary Polly Rowe Pittman
 Served in the Revolutionary War:

*John Ichabod Pittman

Buckner Pittman

James Greene Pittman

Phillip Pittman

Timothy Pittman

The Torries Raid on John Pittman Homestead

While John and his sons were away fighting in the American Revolution the Torries raided their home on Kiokee Creek, Georgia.    The house was ransacked and Mary Polly was thrown off the porch while trying to defend her home. She suffered a broken hip which left her crippled for the rest of her life.

Her achievements will linger for generations....

WordlessWed...Dream Works

Side Hustle Jobs and Mondays

     Falling behind or getting head.  Two places of which I am well versed, and should probably be a better title for this post since I'm already behind my rule of putting up a blog post on the 1st day of the month.
     Time for a blogging rule change....not written/typed in stone...subject to getting ahead and for sure falling behind.  It does have to do with Side Hustle Jobs and Mondays.
      I've retired more times than I can count.  Officially on all Senior Citizen forms and other declarations of work status the Retired box is checked.  There is no box for 'Side Hustle Job', and that is probably a good thing as I would have a hard time describing what I do as a Side Hustler.  I will defer to 'Google'.
      A couple of things Google says about 'Side Hustle Jobs' that might surprise you.  One, it is an expression first used in 1950 and became popular during and after the last recession when traditional jobs disappeared and enterprising people had to make ends meet.
      Two, how many jobs are considered  'Side Hustle Job's' today.  Here are a few:  Sell items on Ebay or Craigslist, recyle used smartphones, drive for Uber of Lyft, rent your spare room on Airbnb, manage a social media small business, etc. etc. etc..
      Can you just imagine this list in a 1950 setting!  My truck driver Dad would have said, "What's an Uber"?  If we would have had a spare room, my Mom already had it filled with a relative that needed more than an airy bed and breakfast.

So, back to 2020 and the Side Hustle list.  Well sorta!  Not a single mention of a former Chicken Farm turned into an Art Center/Community.  Leave it to me to fall back to the 1960 era to find my perfect Side Hustle job as a Fiber Arts Studio Artist and Office/Media Assistant at the Gallery and Art Center Complex.

 Now about Mondays!  It's my day off from hustling on the side, and the one day I have time to...hopefully...blog.  Oh, yeah, I'm off on Sunday, too.  Another day I could blog, but am instigating another new rule...spend more time with family, take day trips, shoot more photos with my NEW...not recycled...SMARTphone.   Like this one from yesterday...February 2nd...on a day trip to the Hill Country. 

Notice it does not have thing a to do with the Super Bowl!