A Hard Week

Early this past week, we unexpectedly lost my husband's younger brother.  As you know, when this kind of thing happens, there is difficulty processing the event, and we stumble while trying to overcome the pure shock of it all.

This younger brother was my husband's last remaining sibling.  Although he was several inches taller and quite a few pounds heavier, he was always his little brother . . . a somewhat ridiculous statement when you saw them side by side.

As we family members connect and reminisce, there has been love, laughter and lots of happy memories directed at the man we just lost.  Lots of good stories have been shared which seem to have helped with the healing.

He was a good husband, father, grandfather and friend to a great many.  He perfected the art of putting the positive spin on most everything in life.  He laughed a lot, often at himself, and as my husband said, because of his kindness, generosity and natural outgoing friendliness, he never knew anyone who disliked him.

"Our family is getting so small," our daughter said quietly and sadly a day or so ago.  Yes, and now her uncle's passing has left a big hole in it.

Mother Nature Says, "Take That!"

Ha!  Methinks I may have been too vocal about

our "spring time" temperatures 

in my blog post yesterday.

Last night's low?  Three degrees.

Okay.  That's more like our typical 

January thermometer readings.

High for today?  

Eleven degrees.

Tomorrow?

High of twenty-six degrees

with a 70% chance of snow.

Yay, yay, yay!

Need rain?  Sunshine?

Want snow?  Higher temps?

Just give me a call.

 Apparently I can summon up 

whatever you want just by being cranky.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Just to add to our already strange winter weather, we are now experiencing a genuine January thaw.

This caricature would be applicable today . . . except for the fact that we haven't had enough snow to construct a single snowman yet this winter season.

While those of you on the East Coast have already had or are bracing for a significant snowfall, the piddling little amount we've had on the ground continues to melt away.

Overnight temperatures were above freezing (again) and my poor garden beds are once again bare and shivering in the extreme dampness.  We humans almost have to put on more clothing to go out in this weather in order to be comfortable than we did when the temp was below zero.  It's that darn dampness that gets ya.

On the positive side, we've not been going through much of our wood supply in the last couple of weeks, and if this snowless winter continues we may have an early spring for getting a jump start on the garden.

Plans for today are to put in some more time on the never-ending sorting/cleaning/organizing job in the unheated loft/attic.  And I must be honest and admit it does feel better working up there in 35 degree weather than when it was below zero.  Still with jackets, hats and gloves on, of course.

Happy weekend to all of you!

We're Kinda Wild and Crazy

Here's a visual of the raucous night life at our house these winter evenings.

Papa Pea is totally involved in reading, research and going through old files.

I'm immersed in yarns, needles, crochet hooks and back issues of quilting magazines that were thrown in a stack unread all last summer.

There's always an open fire in the wood stove.

Sometimes the radio is tuned to our Minnesota Public Radio station.  Occasionally a bottle of beer or glass of wine will be present, but the jaw cracking yawns never fail to start occurring around 8:30 p.m.  After that it's a struggle to remain upright for more than an hour or so.

Good thing we don't have neighbors close enough to be disturbed by the unbridled revelry, eh?

Why Did I Stop?

There was a time when my calendar was full of notations of peoples' birthdays and anniversaries.  Each month I'd send out at least three, if not several more, cards commemorating these special occasions.

And then I stopped.

Why?

Up until the last few years of her life, my mom made a practice of keeping track of birthdays and anniversaries of everyone in our very large extended family plus those of many people she knew.  She wrote out cards and mailed them so they would arrive on each person's special day.  The birthday cards for little people always contained a two dollar bill, back in the days when there were two dollar bills.  I can remember often hearing how much those cards meant to the recipients.  Even to the big people whose cards didn't contain any money!

In my defense, I think I started slacking off on this practice when cards became so darn expensive.  Not much of an excuse when you think of it.

I could have switched to using a piece of paper folded in half with the proper greeting written on the outside and a little note inside.  That would have served the same purpose.  It's the thought that counts, right?

Even now for the people I do send greetings to, it's almost always via e-mail rather than through the U.S. Mail.  But that's just not the same, is it?  Who saves an e-mail in a special box in their bottom drawer the way you would a card or handwritten note?

Note to self:  It's time to re-start this custom of remembering and thinking of folks on special occasions, Mama Pea.  Stop being lazy or falsely blaming it on a small expense.

No, I don't think I'll go back to stalking the card racks in the store, but I am going to start writing little notes so people will know I'm thinking of them.

We are all such a scattered group of family members and friends.  The mobility of our society has put sometimes hundreds, if not thousands, of miles between us and the people we care about.  Keeping a connection strong by the act of taking time to communicate the old-fashioned way on special occasions, using the mail service (or snail mail as we all refer to it now) is something I want to make a real effort to start again.

I know I certainly get a special feeling when I retrieve mail from our mailbox and find an envelope addressed to me with a return address of someone I care for.

Yep, time to fill in those names and dates on the calendar again, put pen to paper, perhaps even make a hokey handmade card, and let people know I'm thinking of them.

Make Sure Brain Is In Gear . . .

. . . before operating heavy machinery.

Or washing machines.

Went to start my third load of laundry this morning, 

poured in the homemade liquid laundry soap 

my dear daughter

keeps me supplied with.

And then noticed 

I had poured the soap right on top 

of the last finished load in the washer 

which I had failed to remove.

Sigh.

Well, that batch of light colored clothes

will be clean this week!

Crocheted Rug with Heavy Rug Yarn Tutorial

A few of you have expressed an interest in knowing how I make the rectangular rugs I've been crocheting with heavy rug yarn.  I first made a few of these rugs about 25-30 years ago and although they are a little worse for wear, I still have them and use them on our enclosed entry porch.  A year or so ago when I decided it was time to make some new ones, I was disappointed to discover the yarn I had used, Aunt Lydia's Rug Yarn, was no long being manufactured.

At my clever husband's suggestion, I found the yarn being offered on eBay by folks who had acquired it through estate sales, auctions, etc.  Being patient and waiting until I could get what I thought was a fair price for colors I wanted, I've now collected a good supply of it and am back in the rug making business.  (Just for our own use, that is.)

So let's get started.  The rectangular rugs I've been making are approximate 2' x 3' but, obviously, you can make whatever size you wish.  I work with two strands of yarn together, using a Size K crochet hook.  The rows are worked from right to left and you can make your rug all one color or change the colors as you wish.

Disclaimer:  I am definitely not an expert when it comes to crocheting so my directions may leave something to be desired!

Start by taking two strands of yarn, make a slip knot on your hook and start making the foundation row.

For the 2' width of the rug, I chain 50 stitches.  (Make these chains for the foundation row on the loose side.)  The wider the desired rug size, the more stitches you would chain, the more narrow the fewer.  When you have your 50 chains, chain 2 more which will be the start of the next row. 

Working to your left across the row of chain stitches, you are now going to do a single crochet into each of the loops of your foundation row.  With the foundation chain on your left, insert the hook in the first chain stitch after the stitch your 2 chains come out of.  Pencil in picture is indicating where I inserted my hook and made my first single crochet. 

Make a single crochet in each of the chain stitches of the foundation row until you get to the last stitch which looks a little different, more like a "bump."  (The last stitch in each row will look like this.)  In the above picture I've made a single crochet in the last "regular" looking stitch.  The very last single crochet you want to make at the end of the row will be in that "bump" stitch you see indicated by the pencil.

Go into that "bump" stitch from the bottom up and do a single crochet in it just as you have done in the top of each stitch across the whole foundation row.   (I'll admit getting "into" this first "bump" stitch is hard.  Following ones will be easier.)

Next, chain 2 which will actually count as the first single crochet stitch on your new row, but for the time being, let's just say you are at the end of your foundation row.  

Now let's fast forward to when I was more than halfway through the rug.  All the rows after doing the 2 chain stitches at the end of the foundation row are the same.  So the pictures now take up at those same 2 chain stitches you just did at the end of your foundation row, but farther along on the rug.  (Compare the picture above and the one below.  There is more rug underneath the row shown below, but the rows will be worked just the same.)

You've made 2 chain stitches at the end of a row. 

Turn your work around (rug will be on your left) to start a new row.  Once again, insert the hook in the first stitch after the stitch your 2 chains come out of.  (Indicated by pencil.)  That will be your second single crochet. Remember your chain 2 before you turned your work counts as the first stitch -- of the 50 -- that goes across the row. 

On each row you do you continue making a single crochet into each stitch . . . 

. . . including the "bump" stitch at the end of every row.  In the above picture, my left index finger is touching the "bump" stitch and four regular stitches.  My hook is five regular stitches away from doing the "bump" stitch.

Go into the little "bump" stitch from the bottom up and do a single crochet in it just as you have done in the top of each stitch across the whole row.  You are now at the end of another row.

Chain 2, turn your work and keep going back and forth across the 50 stitches until the rug is the length you want it to be.

Periodically, take the time to count the stitches in your row to make sure you haven't accidentally increased or decreased any stitches.  This will insure the sides of your rug remain a straight line from start to finish.

When you complete the last row of your rug, your last stitch will be in that last "bump" stitch.  To end the rug, don't make the last stitch a single crochet, but rather a simple chain stitch as shown in the picture above.

Cut your yarns and pull them through the last chain stitch to knot it off.

Now you have the task of weaving in all the tail ends of yarn that appeared where you joined a new color or ran out of one of the strands of yarn you were using.

I always add a fringe to both narrow ends of my rugs, but it's your choice as to whether to do that or not.

Actually taking yarn and hook in hand and crocheting the rug will make it much clearer and simpler than these instructions might make it seem.

If you wanted to make a much smaller sample before starting on a rug, you could use the same technique to crochet a hot pad to use under a casserole dish, for instance.

Hope this tutorial is enough to start you on your way to making some rugs that will last you thirty years!