Posted in Instagram, Ravelry knit projects

River of Dreams

Posted on by kymhretz

Don’t talk to me until I’ve had coffee

The first thing I do in the morning is let out the chickens and clean the coop. Then coffee. Always coffee. River of Dreams is perfect to knit while my brain is absorbing caffeine from the coffee to wake up. Usually, I have Instagram stories playing. I knit about 10-12 rows a day. true too, is i move a little slow in the mornings. So now you can understand why it’s taking so long to finish.

You will remember from previous posts, the pattern River Of Dreams by Lauren Rene, was written in conjunction with the anniversary of LYS Flying Needles. I love that this shawl has a playful mix of colorful stripes throughout. The yarn I’m using was a kit from the shop created for this shawl. It also included an exclusive color, River Of Dreams, there are five colors in all. I’d say I’m about 75% done with my shawl.

Some changes I incorporated

I decided to work a garter stitch border rather just Stockinette as the pattern is written. I knit 10 rows of Garter giving me 5 ridges, then 5 stitches of Garter on each end. It’s my preference that the edges to lay flat. Which is why I went with the garter stitch border.

Continue reading “River of Dreams” →
Posted in Ravelry knit projects, Shopping, Williamsburg, VA

Wool Sweaters

Posted on by kymhretz

I haven’t knit myself a sweater since 2017. I felt this needed to be remedied. So I joined the Olive Knits January Gansey Sweater knit along.

JanGan2_sm_medium2
Photo credit to OliveKnits, Marie Greene from Ravelry

The January Gansey Sweater is a pattern written by Olive Knits. There is a KAL group on Facebook and on Ravelry where people are sharing and asking questions. There also are weekly videos discussing the technical aspects of this sweater hosted by Marie Greene of OliveKnits. as luck would have it there happen to be a few other people besides myself making this sweater at the LYS, Flying Needles. I’ve chosen to knit mine with Berroco Ultra Wool DK in a pretty moss green color. I’m using the color #83118 in the dye lot of 7C4778. I’m modifying where I start the cables to what I feel will suit my charming Apple Shape a bit better, but otherwise will be following the pattern.

I chose this specific knit along because it included a technique I always wanted to try, underarm gussets. I would not be surprised if you just read that last sentence and it didn’t even sound like a real thing. Underarm Gusset, indeed. I assure you, all the non-knitters and knitters alike, that it is indeed real and it’s a very old and useful technique.

A Gansey or Guernsey Sweater is a traditional woolen knit sweater often worn my fisherman. Now, I’m not a fisherman, but I will be wearing this sweater. And, I do enjoy learning about historical clothing, especially when it also incorporates knitting.

IMG_8952

As I was working along on my sweater it occurred to me it might be a good time to also go ahead and strip off the lavender flowers from the bouquet I bought at the Williamsburg Farmers Market this fall and make new sachets. While doing this I took this opportunity to add a couple drops of Lavender essential oil to some of the older lavender sachets I had made in the past. I now have freshly protected drawers in which I can store my sweater once I finish it.

I have six or so sweaters I’ve knit and a dresser full of other things knit. Mostly I knit with wool so protection against moths is really important.

So for the next week, I expect I’ll be plugging along on the stockinette body of my January Gansey Sweater. This will have the added bonus of making the fussy cabled section to be minimal. Allowing me to focus on my two oldest sons, Charlie and Ricky,  while they are here for a visit. They will be here this coming weekend. I am very much looking forward to seeing them.

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I will be starting the cables a few inches before the underarm gusset. I expect both these things will require my undivided attention. And in truth, I really want to give my boys my undivided attention, too. So I may have to set the sweater aside when I get to this point. Good thing I have several other projects I can knit as a back-up. You can never be too prepared.

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Wool Sweaters #protectwool #woolprotection #lavender #lavendersachets "lavenderesstionaloil

Happy knitting.

Posted in Shopping

Some ways I save Money

Posted on by kymhretz

I have broken down some of the ways I save money into sections. I take advantage of apps, store programs, and loyalty cards to name a few.

The biggest way I save has to do with Harris Teeter. Harris Teeter and Kroger are the same company so it’s possible Kroger has similar deals, but we don’t have a Kroger, so you have to check if that’s the store local to you. When you make a purchase using your loyalty card at Harris Teeter they give you fuel points, as well as their VIC loyalty card sales. One point for every dollar you spend, but if you buy gift certificates you get TWO points for every dollar.

We do grocery shop there but I definitely take advantage of that GC deal. I buy GC for restaurants, all sorts of stores, including Harris Teeter and even Amazon. We almost always have enough points to get the maximum of $1 off of our gas purchases. That’s for both my car, Chuck’s car, and even the lawnmower for $1 off per gallon of gas all the time.

Allow me to point out that many of the GCs, especially with Amazon, I then use Ebates for the actual shopping, getting the cash pack for that. I then upload my receipts for Points on Receipt Pal. Then I use the Ibotta App for individual items I purchase to get the coupon refund. Remember, many of my purchases were made with the GCs I bought at Harris Teeter earning those fuel points.

One the ways to save money is with Ebates. Anytime I do online shopping I try to do so through Ebates. You simply log into Ebates and then either search for the store you want in the search bar or look through all the store icons. There’s even a way you can save by shopping in physical stores by linking your credit card. I’ve done this at Plow and Hearth just this past month, I got 12% cash back on that purchase. If you sign up via my link you get $10 and so do I! This is my most used app for how I save money.

Ebates Link

Another great way I save money is with the Receipt Pal app. You take pictures of all your receipts, upload them and you collect points. Then you can convert points into gift cards. I usually convert them into Amazon gift cards. Then I go to Amazon through Ebates and earn cash back!

Receipt Pal App

I use the Ibotta app as a way to save money with their electronic coupons. Choose your store, go through the list of items with “coupons” and check the things you will buy, make your purchases, and take a picture of your receipt. That’s it. You can even link loyalty cards for a quicker process from some stores. They often run specials for people giving and using referral codes so use my link below, please.

Ibotta App. Referral link.

Now let’s talk about Amazon. We belong to Amazon as a Prime Member so we get free shipping and many other perks. [There is a yearly fee for Prime.] But the biggest advantage, if you ask me, is their Subscribe and Save. If you use this and have at least 5 things each month, regardless of how much or what the items are, you save an extra 5% off the already discounted subscriber price. I use this for all kinds of things and I change it around each month as my needs change. I usually use it for things like dishwasher detergent, dog and chicken food, coffee, and Frontline flea and tick for the dogs. You get reminders to edit your cart before it ships, you don’t payuntil it ships and I have it set up to use those GCs before a credit card. And it is delivered right to your door.

Amazon

Another way I save is with Grove Collaborative. This company is a subscription type shipment that I can change monthly as my needs change or even skip shipments as often as I like. They carry brands that have fewer toxic ingredients and more natural alternatives from cleaning to paper products or anywhere in between.

The products are sold at a discount from 7-40% off. And, Grove also offers price matching! SO check around for the best price and just let them know. They have free shipping with a VIP membership that has a $19.99 annual membership fee and VIP’s get free products throughout the year so it’s well worth it. You don’t actually have any minimum amount or obligation to purchase anything at any time. I use many of their cleaning and body products.

If you sign up with my link below you will get whatever the special is, right now it is a free 5 piece cleaning kit and I get $10! Plus you can shop them via Ebates for $2 cash back. Like Amazon, your orders are delivered right to your door. Plus, staying out of the store is another way I save money.

Grove Collaborative

How do I pay for all these things? With my Capital One Venture card. Including the purchase of the gift certificates. I earn points for all my purchases using this card. I can then use the points for things like airfare, hotel stays, rental cars, and restaurant purchases. It is, however, imperative that you pay it off every month. If you don’t pay it off every month all the above things are useless.

This post contain affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

What other ways do you save? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

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Happy saving.

The curse of the Place Hold button

I regularly look at my local library for books. Via the Libby App, I also use two other library systems I’m not local to, but use with my Kindle.

Sometimes I find the books I’m looking for aren’t available. This usually means that they have been checked out. But you almost always have the option to place a hold, then when it comes in, the app automatically checks the book out and emails you.

This week I hit the jackpot. I guess. Three books I previously requested all became available. And, were auto-checked out to me. Yay. Except I had just checked out a book! Now I have four books to read in three weeks. This is the curse of the place hold button. Better step up my reading game.

The books I have checked out are;

Tell me. Am I the only one this happens to?

Posted in Chickens, Family, traveling

Chicken Fever

Posted on by kymhretz

Over the Holiday break, my mom drove down and brought my nephew, Anthony, with her. It was an extra treat for me to have both of them. Anthony is a sweet, creative, gentle boy with too much energy to be confined inside.

The first morning they were here I got up and went to let out the chickens as normal around 7am. Just as I was walking to the coop Anthony came barreling out the door with a long sleeve shirt in hand and one shoe still not on. He desperately wanted to go see the chickens with me! I said I would wait until he was properly clothed. Makes me laugh even now.

Dressed now, we headed up the hill. I let the chickens out of the coop and after they all ran out I teased him he would have to clean up the chicken poo. He, of course, was not interested in that. He only had eyes for the chickens, I’d say he had already caught the Chicken Fever after only one night here.

We had really nice weather, most of the day’s mom and Anthony were here it was in the upper 50’s and low 60’s. This was so nice because we spent a good amount of time outside. Which, of course, meant lots of time with chickens. He got up the nerve to pick up one of the chickens and he snagged Agnes! She is an Ameraucana and is very sweet and gentle.

I know the picture quality stinks but I snapped this from far away and had to zoom in

After just a few days he was very comfortable with the chickens. He gave them snacks every day. He even hunted the dirt for worms to give them. No doubt he would be a great Chicken Keeper. Katie? Andy? What do you think? Can he come to live here and take care of the chickens? I’m sure he wouldn’t even mind cleaning up the poo! He loved collecting all the eggs and was very excited about the blue ones. He asked if he could take home some eggs for mom and dad. He also ate eggs almost every day while here. He knew exactly which chicken gifted the egg he was eating. I’m sure that makes them taste better.

Anthony with Dottie, the White Leghorn.

As I’m writing this I’m watching the chickens via a closed circuit camera. I’m doing this because I’m trying to determine which one of my True Blues are laying. Currently, Louise, the chicken that was broody last fall and then molted, is in a nesting box. I really thought the blue egg layer was Kittie as she did not molt. Having said that subconsciously I must have thought really it was Louise because that is who I marked as laying in my chart as well as writing her name on the eggs.

A bit of egg-laying background. As the days get shorter chickens lay fewer eggs and some stop laying all together. The end of November we saw a definite decline in egg laying in our hen house. You know, just as Chuck starts doing extra baking of cookies, cakes, and bread. Hens do not lay eggs in the dark, so with the shorter days leading up to the Winter Solstice, this is normal for egg-laying. Now that we are on the other side of the solstice the days are beginning to get longer and therefore more eggs begin to be laid.

The nesting boxes have been like Grand Central Station today. So far I have an egg from Agnes, Ida, and Coco. Louise is still sitting in a box, she has been in and out for the last hour or so. She has been in four different boxes. I guess she is trying to get inspired. Perhaps Kittie has been the layer, and now with Lou, maybe I’ll get two True Blue eggs today. Yesterday I collected my first Cuckoo Maran egg from Gertrude since November!

I’ll keep watching while I do my chores. I hope today is another 5 egg day. We have had three of those this week. For the last month, we’ve been averaging 2 eggs a day. I actually had to buy a couple dozen eggs. With the longer days it will make for busier chickens.

Come for a visit and see if you catch the Chicken Fever, too! We will see how contagious it is with my brother-in-law, Pete, and his family here this weekend. Then the following weekend my oldest two boys, Charlie and Ricky, arrive from Michigan. Also, Charlie’s girlfriend, Agatha, is coming with them. Charlie said she wants to learn to knit, I can definitely help with that, and I think she is the most likely to catch Chicken Fever. I’m looking forward to these visits!

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Chicken Fever #chickens #backyardchickens #fresheggs #eggs #chickendustbath #Chickens

Happy knitting and happy egg collecting.

Short and Sweet

I’m not really the type to set New Year’s resolutions. I always want to be working on bettering myself and our quality of life. I know I need to do things like exercise more, eat healthily and be more patient, always.

So rather than specifically have a resolution here are the things I want to focus on;

  • make the most of our acre and grow food, and actually eat it
  • shop local
  • focus on getting chemicals and toxins out of my life, that means you too, diet Pepsi
  • find my people, I’ve been a hermit this past year
  • blo more

In a nutshell, we are already planning what we want to grow, will refocus on shopping places like the local farmers market and the newly opened Earth Fare, clean up our eating with help from the previous two, and put myself out more in the knitting world and visit my family.

Short and sweet with the intent of accountability. Next time I’ll tell you a bit about my nephew’s visit with my mom. Anthony, too, is a huge fan of our chickens.

Until then I’m off to measure my gauge swatches on my January Gansey for the knit along I joined.

Happy Knitting, gardening, cooking or whatever brings you joy.

Posted in Christmas, Holidays, knitting, Ravelry knit projects, yarn

Bountiful Snowflakes

Posted on by kymhretz

We had our first snow of the season last Sunday. It didn’t begin to stick until we had a few inches. So even though we had about four inches it was rather sparse on the ground. It was still beautiful.

The previous day Chuck had trimmed some holly bushes and I used the trimmings to add into the pots and window boxes to bring some Christmas cheer to the curb appeal of our house.  

I knew I wanted to add some pine branches in and I considered picking some up when we were at Sam’s Club but I really didn’t want to pay for them. We have many Pine trees in the neighborhood and I thought I might ask one of the neighbors if I could trim some branches from theirs. As luck would have it, with the weight of the snow there were several downed branches from pine trees laying around on the sides of the road. Tim and I stopped and pick up several of the smaller ones. I popped them in the pots with the Hollys and I love how they look.


Let’s talk about a different type of snowflakes. Crocheted snowflakes! I purchased some of these charming snowflakes in the past at craft fairs in New Mexico. I previously hung them, with my particularly tall daughter’s help, from the sky light over our kitchen island. In our new house I needed a new way to display them. I decided to hang them from the window valance in our main living room. it has a large picture window and looks over our backyard. I had the perfect amount for that window. I hung them with command hooks and fishing line. They are so enchanting here. I really wanted to hang them from all our windows! But I didn’t have a source to purchase them here in Virgina.

Now you must understand that I don’t really crochet.I’m really just a knitter. In fact I thought I was rather terrible at crochet. But I started researching for some patterns. I thought if I could fund some simple ones at least I’d give it ago. I came across this book on Ravelry, 100 Snowflakes. I was able to find it for purchase on Amazon and immediately ordered it.

Much to my surprise its very well written. It has written patterns as well as charted patterns for each snowflake. There pictured steps of each crochet stitch in the beginning of the book for quick reference. The snowflakes are grouped by Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. I began with Snowflake #1 and have currently worked through Snowflake #48. I’m proud to say my crochet skills have grown as I’ve moved through the book. I’m using Aunt Lydia’s #10 crochet thread and a size US 6 crochet hook.

This was an earlier one and I missed three of the loops in the final round.

In order for the snowflakes to really shine they need to be blocked with starch. Starch is surprisingly hard to find now a days. I looked at both Target and Walmart. There was spray starch but I needed the liquid kind so I could soak each snowflake and then pin it out. Amazon to the rescue. I ended up ordering Aleene’s Starch from Amazon. This is the exact starch suggested in the book. 

Today I started blocking the snowflakes. It’s going to take a few rounds as I don’t have enough T-pins. I used some push pins put that doesn’t work as well since I can’t see the finer details because the pins take up more the visual space.

It’s been fun and I want to make all 100! I’m not sure that will happen before this Christmas because I just purchased a Snowman pattern by Susan B. Anderson that I really would like to work on. 

Very exciting! 

Happy Knitting! Or Crocheting as the case may be. 

Posted in Homesteading, Youtube

Broody and other Chicken things

Posted on by kymhretz

What came first, the egg or the chicken? In our case it was the chicken. We have ten of the twelve we originally started with. Shortly said, we had one chicken that developed a cross beak and she was unable to eat enough to sustain life and she went to chicken Heaven. Bea was very friendly and sweet as could be. You can see a short video of her looking for me on Instagram here.

This is Bea, her beak is obliviously crossed here. She was born normal but as she aged it became worse and worse. 

 Then there is Frida. Frida was one of two straight run Polish Crested Chickens we purchased. These were the only straight runs we bought, all others were sexed and determined to be pullets or female. They were an, OMG! they’re so cute, impulse buy. We knew we had a chance of having one and possibly two roosters. But I was optimistic and named one Frida and the other Ester.

And, yes, I’ve been told Ester should have an H and it’s spelled ESTHER. Having said that, I don’t care, I have spent my life spelling my name (and the names of our kids) so why not give sweet, little, Ester her own spelling, too?

Anyway, I’m telling you about Frida. Frida turned out to be Fred. When I told this to my son, Rick, he asked why I needed to change the name just because the chicken was now known to be a boy? He was right, damn it! Gender equality and self identifying for everyone and I kept referring to him as “her” anyway. SO, Frida the Rooster was hence forth known as the Drag Queen Rooster, Frida!

If you want to see hime crowing click this link

You might note- Frida as some Purple feathers. Well, Frida is all black except for the feathers on the very back of her head, those are white. When the hens weren’t pulling every damn one of the white feathers out! I swear. She looked like a Friar, no pun intended. So I kept spraying the white feathers with a thing called Blue Coat which is an antiseptic for animals. The spray dyes the skin blue and as it happens, white feathers purple. 

As we moved further into the summer and the chickens were all reaching maturity, eggs were getting laid and Frida was getting frisky. The more Frida matured, the more aggressive she became. That in itself isn’t a bad thing. She protected her flock. Frida gave Cali (one of our dogs) a lesson in messing with chickens 101 and as a result she now has a very healthy respect for chicken personal space. Eventually Frida decided she didn’t like me collecting eggs and started kicking dirt and jumping at me. This continued to progress and I researched how to handle it. In spite of my efforts she became very agressive and even drew some blood from me. It seemed she was destined to go live on a farm somewhere.  

So Chuck listed Frida on the Williamsburg Trash and Treasure FB Group and someone called and said he would like Frida, he was hoping to cross breed with his hens and see what interesting mixes a Polish Crested would bring to his farm. Off Frida went. And peace reigned in the run again.

That’s how we ended up here, months later with a Broody Hen and no fertilized eggs for her to hatch. Instead she has been spending the better part of two months sitting in nesting boxes whether they actually had any eggs or not. She has long since stopped laying herself, which is too bad because she lays pretty blue eggs. She is one of two True Blue Whitings we have and her name is Louise. She is a pretty yellow and golden brown and very sweet. I removed her from the nesting box several times each day and at night to put her on a roost. She never stays out long. 

Today. Today I took drastic measures. It’s a brisk 55 degrees and sunny. After spending lots of time debating on different ideas I decided to take the plunge, well for Louise to take the plunge actually. It is recommended to but a broody chicken in cold water with the thought that this will lower their body temperature (which is elevated when the go Broody.) I put her in a big bucket of cold water and held her there for 4 minutes. At first she was very unhappy but quickly relaxed and waited it out. Once I released her she ran off and spent quite a long time preening herself and fluffing all her feathers as they dried.

I also decided to “lock” her out of the chicken run all day in hopes the colder day would aid in the cooling of her temperature. Since the gate is shut I have had to play gate keeper to the hens in order for the other hens to have access to the nesting boxes, since they are still laying. I haves pent the better part of the day outside or looking out windows to see who is trying to get in the run. And unfortunately Lou has been up there more than I had hoped. I keep chasing her off and she goes but reluctantly.

Maybe I should have kept my Attack Drag Queen Rooster and let her hatch some. Maybe next time I’ll ask Stephanie to purchase some fertilized eggs from her friend on my behalf.

Today is the first sunny day after rain on and off for the last few so the chickens have found a nice sunny, dry spot to take a dust bath. Click this link to watch a couple minute video. If you haven’t seen chickens dust bathing they look rather strange. I find it entertaining and I’m sure you will, too.

Happy days, Happy chickens. 

Update- It worked! Louise is no longer broody!!!

Posted in Ravelry knit projects

Begin again when you End

Posted on by kymhretz

If you give a mouse a cookie and all, then if you finish a shawl, you will probably begin a shawl. At least that is what I did. 

I just finished the Maighdeann-ròin, the Seal Maiden, by Nat Raewulf.  I made my with three colors, one was a lovely salmon pink tonal and the other two both had this color but one was mostly grey with speckles and the other pink, white and black. I typically am a matchy-match girl when it comes to colors so throwing in the mostly grey skein was a bit out of my comfort zone. I should clarify it’s not that it doesn’t match exactly……More that it evokes a different feeling. I’m not really explaining it right. I typically would have chosen a tonal in another solid color. Perhaps it that I would never have put the grey with the black together. I was really drawn into that grey one with how the yellow pops against the pink.

And here’s the thing. Now that the shawl is finished I actually really like the grey one better than the black, pink and white skein. So now the odd one out feels like its no longer the  grey but instead the black. Funny how that happens.  

Overall, I really like the finished shawl. I like the way the long tails curly-cue. I so wish I add made the picot edge more pronounced, it seems to need a more substantial defining edge. I used the backwards edge cast on and it wasn’t a good choice. I may go back and remove this and redo it but in reality of taking time to do this I probably will not.  

I said you finished a shawl, and this was the one, you also will start a shawl. 

That is this one. It is The River of Dreams by Lauren Rene. This shawl was specially designed for the LYS store, The Flying Needles, anniversary. I also got a special color way dyed yarn made just for this shop. The shawl uses 5 colors. Mine starts with a darker blue-turquoise working through to lighter and lighter turquoise to mostly white. I thought the blues was a nice choice for a shawl with river in the name.

The shawl is a big rectangle with a panel of lace and faux cables. I haven’t made a rectangle shawl in awhile so it will be nice for tv watching as there wont’t be any changes in stitch count. 

I haven’t shown you a competed picture go my Magic Stripes scarf finished so I’m popping one here.

I’m off to knit while we watch some Netflix.

Happy knitting. 

Posted in Uncategorized

Trunk-or-Treat

Posted on by kymhretz

We live in a very social neighborhood. There’s always something going on. This month was the Trunk-or-Treat and we decided to give it ago as I mentioned earlier. I did the Witch’s Apothecary. I’ve set up my this before as part of our Halloween decorations.

a snippet of last years Apothecary

For Apothecary supplies I use a lot of things we already have in the house. Such as my collection of fossils and Max’s shark jaw he was given when he was a kid from my uncle Jim. I also use the cotton bolls we grew and harvested one year as “Bunny Tails” and assorted other things like this. 

This is the one I set up at Trunk-or-Treat

I was surprised how interested the kids were. I guess because it was rather interactive and some of the things were real, and I let them touch whatever they wanted. The bird’s nest was from the Robin that built it and raised a brood in one of the hanging baskets on the front porch. The nest was popular as was the shark jaw. The kids also really liked the Spell Book I made last year or the year before. I had a young girl, maybe ten years old that was also dressed as a witch, spend much of the time at our car. She was extremely interested my book, she must have looked through it 6 times.  

Chuck made Carrot Cake Cookies that went over really well, too. And my candy packages were well received I think. I was really glad the kids and adults alike were interested in hearing about the Devil’s Claw seed pods collected in the desert in New Mexico and the  Petoskey Stones I had, which were collected in Michigan. 

I was surprised there were only about twenty cars participating. I guess with all the kids in the neighborhood I thought there would be more. I gave out maybe 50 packs of candy, but I know a few kids came by for an extra one. But in general all the kids were great and most were honest and said that I’d already given them one when they came around again. And many did come around again as their friends arrived. 

It was a fun night and to my surprise there was a contest for Best Trunk. The kids vote for their favorite. And even more surprising- We WON! I call that a bonus. They gave me a cute trophy that now I can add to our Halloween decorations. 

I’m not sure if we were to go again next year what I would do. It seems people change their themes each year and I’ve only done the witch theme for so long. I have about 11 months to decide.

Until then I’ll have our house lights on Wednesday and see how many trick-or-treaters we get at our actual house. 

And I’ll be the one dressed as a witch. 

Happy Halloween.