Crafting with a Mystery

By now you know that I love reading almost as much as crafting and gardening. I'm always mentioning my favourite garden mystery books.

I also have many favourite mystery books with a crafting setting.

Mary Kruger writes knitting mysteries. Ari Evans owns a wool store called Ariadne's Web and the first book in the series is titled Died in the Wool. I'm presently reading the second book in this series.

If you are a scrapbooker there are some books by Laura Childs that you might be interested in reading. Scrapbooking is one craft that I do not do, but it doesn't stop me from reading the books.

Monica Ferris has several books all centered around embroidery,crewel work and needlework. The main character in these books is Betsy Devonshire who owns Crewel World who is always unravelling a crime.

A series of books I haven't read yet, but have on my reading list, are knitting mysteries by Maggie Sefton. The setting is in Colorada, USA and the main character is Kelly Flynn and others in the knitting group.

If you know of another series of crafting mysteries, please let me know. I'm always on the lookout for a good mystery to read.

Previously posted: sew a book jacket magnetic bookmarkers

Wormwood

When the weather doesn't allow me to garden another thing I love to do is read, especially garden mystery books. In one of my previous posts I talked about some of my favourite garden mystery authors.

Susan Wittig Albert is one of my all time favourites. The character China Bayles, (a former lawyer) manages the Thyme and Seasons herb shop, a catering business, and a tea room is always in the midst of a mystery. The first book in the series is titled Thyme of Death. Another book in this series is about to be released

Wormwood is the title of the seventeenth book in the series and will be released in April 2009. You can get a sneak peek at the first chapter by clicking on the link. I know as soon as I read the first chapter I'll want to read the rest of it.

Susan is a nationally-recognized speaker on the history and lore of herbs. In addition to the China Bayles books, Albert writes a historical/fantasy series featuring Beatrix Potter as a sleuth. She and her husband, Bill Albert, have collaborated on a series of Victorian /Edwardian mysteries, under the pen name of Robin Paige. Albert has also written over sixty young adult novels and several non-fiction books.

Susan is also a gardener and a blogger and you can stay up to date on what's happening in her garden by reading her blog, Lifescapes.

Wormwood belongs to the genus Artemisia, a group consisting of 180 species. Artemisia is so soft to the touch and I have a few clumps of it growing in my garden. I love the lighter shade of green for the leaves.

Be sure to be on the lookout for Wormwood - both the book and the plant.


Labels: herbs, books,

Stash Busting

It's time for some stash busting.

This is just one container of odds and ends of yarn that I have in my craft closet. This one is full of baby yarns. There really isn't enough of one colour to complete a whole project. And you know what it is like when you go to try and match colours, especially whites. It's almost impossible, especially when the yarn was purchased awhile ago and the dye lot numbers have all changed. And don't let that blurb of "no dye lot" fool you. Unless you buy it all at once you can't really and truly match it up. I guess that is why my stash buckets get so full as I buy an extra ball of yarn when I start a project to be sure I have the right amount.

This stash busting project is turning into an afghan.

I started with a chain of 150. The pattern is simple.
Row 1- ch 3, dc into each stitch across row
Row 2 - chain 4 (forms first dc), *(skip next dc, dc into next stitch, ch 1,) repeat from * to end

I just started with one ball from the stash bucket and crocheted until it ran out and then changed to the next colour. In a way it will be like a memory afghan, as each colour will remind me of the original project I made. This will be a nice afghan for the van or for when my grandson comes to visit and he wants to snuggle up and have a nap.

Previously posted by Crafty Gardener
needles and hook holder

Labels: crochet, afghans

What row am I on?

Gardening is still a dream so to pass away the hours when it was too cold to be outside I've been knitting some baby items for a friend of my daughter.

I know that it is GBBD but nothing is blooming in my garden, except ice! The pattern I'm showing is a Tulip sweater pattern. Could I stretch the meaning of GBBD far enough that this might be acceptable?

I came up with another way of counting so that I know what row I'm on. It's very similar to the previous row counter I created except that the beads are threaded on using 2 strands of cord

Fold a piece of cord in half, tie to the top of a ring to hold in place. Thread one piece of the cord through the bead from the right and the other side through the bead from the left. Pull so bead moves to top and then add another bead. Continue till you have 9 beads on one side. Then you can do the other side.

With the first counter I also needed a little clothes pin to separate the beads. With this latest counter all you need to do is move the bead down and it automatically stays in place.

Looking at the knitting below you can see that I have completed row 22.

The pattern was called Tulip sweater from this website. I've had the pattern for ages and I'm quite sure I downloaded it in pdf form but now you have to purchase the pattern.
Below is the finished item. What a great pattern to knit, as it was done all in one piece from the neck down.

I also completed a baby hat using the same pattern that I did for my grandson's first hat.

I'm also working on a stash busting project.

Changeable Weather

We have had quite the week of changeable weather.

Temperatures rose to above zero on Tuesday and Wednesday. In fact they reached +7 Celsius in the afternoons - a mini heatwave for this time of the year. This caused a major melt down of the snow. There are even patches of grass and gardens showing through. Wednesday was a very foggy day from the rain on the cold snow. What a drive to and from work that day.

If you look at the windmill in the above photo you can see the snow has melted down almost to the ground. Have a look at the next photo, taken a few days prior to this, and compare how high the snow was. The mound in front is actually the log that holds a bird bath in the summer. The chimney stack is a holder for the gazing ball. Notice the difference in how much is showing in the two photos.

Along with the mild weather came rain, rain, rain. Which left puddles, puddles, puddles.
But now the temperature has dipped back down below zero and the ground is now ice, ice, ice! It will be tricky getting out to fill all the feeders later today.

This morning I got a good photo of the moon as it begins to vanish from the sky for awhile.

And then just after 7 am, just as the sun was coming up we had the most gorgeous red sky.
I just can't resist taking the sky photos.

Does this mean more bad weather heading our way for next week?

Maybe the sky was red for Valentine's Day.

I'm sure there will be more snow to cover up the ground and gardens once more. But hopefully not this weekend.

This starts a long weekend for us. The newly created Family Day (this is the second year for it) gives us an extra day off work on Monday.

Labels: sky, weather, winter,

Thursday Thoughts - Birds

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.

©Emily Dickenson

Labels: Thursday Thoughts, birds

The Hawk

The hawk is frequently seen gliding over the farm fields searching for food. On occasion it will come into the garden to try and catch a bird at one of the feeders.

Last week it swooped in to the back tree and perched on the branch and sat for quite a while surveying the garden. Luckily I had the camera set up by the back door and was able to snap a few shots of it through my lens before it spread its wings and gracefully swooped away back over the fields.


A little research tells me there are 19 species of raptors or birds of prey in Canada. This hawk belongs to the Accipiters - Sharp Shinned Hawks, Coopers Hawk and Northern Goshawk. I believe this one is a Coopers Hawk. This hawk lives in the bush and forest. They have short rounded wings and a slightly rounded tail with dark bands.

The back fields are covered in deep snow and perhaps the hawk is having a hard time finding food. The birds at the feeders look like easy prey to him.

My digital camera is my constant companion while I'm working in the garden, walking by the water, out and about on my travels or set up by the door on a wintery day.

Check out other bloggers that carry cameras all the time and snap photos of Camera Critters.

Labels: camera critters ; birds; Through My Lens

Temperature is Rising

The temperature is going up onto the plus side of the thermometer ... but only for a few days. This means some early morning fog, a bit of rain, and some snow melting.
To go from -15 Celsius to +5 Celsius will seem like a heat wave.

Last night I was on the deck trying out the sunset and night settings on my camera.

The almost full moon was clearly visible.

A passenger jet had just flown by and left a colourful vapour trail.

The sun was setting and sending glorious hues of red across the sky.

It reminded me of the saying "Red sky at night, sailor delight"
I'm sure the red sky was telling us that the temperature is going to improve for a few days. I know I'm looking forward to break from the freezing temperatures we have been having.

I wonder if the meteorologists look to the sky for their weather predictions?

For a fun way to predict the weather, have a look at my weather forecaster.

Labels: sky

Sew a book jacket

This book jacket makes a lovely gift to give to a friend or family member that loves to read.
This one will cover the standard size paperback book, but you can adjust and customize the size to fit any book.

It doesn't require a lot of fabric and would be a great project for using up some of your stash. You need 2 pieces of material measuring 23 cm. x 42 cm. That's about 9 inches x 16.5 inches for those of you that are non-metric. You will also need a piece of quilt batting the same size. If you didn't have quilt batting you could use an extra piece of material just to make it a bit more sturdy.

Lay the 2 pieces of fabric with the right sides together and add the batting to the top. Stich around all the edges but leave an opening about 4 cm. wide on one side. This is so you can turn it inside out.
To add a bookmarker ribbon, lay a piece of ribbon between the right sides of the fabric. (I forgot that picture). Be sure it only gets sown into one seam. You might need to tuck it up between the right sides so that it doesn't get sown twice.

The tricky part is to turn the book jacket inside out through the opening. This requires some careful poking, pushing and pulling.

Before turning be sure to trim off the corners. I forgot to do this while making this book jacket so had to poke each corner back through the opening and snip off the corner.

Snipping off the corners will make a much neater corner when the book jacket is turned in the right way.

Many sewers will skip this next step, which is pressing. I think it is a very important step as it will give you a much neater top stitched row. Once the book jacket is turned so that the right sides are showing press all edges carefully.

Do a row of top stitching all around the book jacket.

When you get to the neatly pressed opening you left, just top stitch right over the opening.

Lay the book jacket so that the inside is facing you. Fold each end over about 5.5 to 6 cm. and top stitch the top and bottom edges to form 2 pockets. This is where you will tuck the cover of the book.

Here is the finished item with the book tucked inside. The ribbon will be the bookmarker.
When closed it will look like the first picture in this series.

I love Karen's comment, that now judging a book by its cover has a whole new meaning.

You can download the instructions in pdf format. This one has all the images included.
If you want a pattern without the images, try this one.

Labels: books, sewing, favourite mysteries, reading accessories

2sDay Rabbits

Did you ever notice how lots of things come in 2's?

Pairs of shoes, pairs of socks, a pair of knitting needles, peanut butter & jam, bread & butter to mention just a few. And of course 2 critters in the garden.

It's 2sDay again and today I've captured 2 rabbits that visit the garden frequently. We don't usually see both of them together, but on this day they were both hopping around the snowy garden eating up the bird seed that falls from the feeders.

These rabbits actually live under my neighbours garden shed. From there it is a quick hop up a hill, through a wire fence and into our garden. They don't always come out in the daylight, but prefer the semi darkness. After a fresh snowfall we can see the tracks all over the garden.

I know a lot of people don't like rabbits in their garden but we enjoy seeing them.

Labels: 2sDay, garden critters

February is here

February is here ... the shortest month of the year. But I still have to work 4 full weeks. If it were up to me I'd skip right up to March. February always brings cold, snow, more snow, and ice rain in my part of the world.

February is merely as long as is needed to pass the time until March.
Dr. J. R. Stockton

February has the fun day set aside for groundhogs.

In my part of the world no self respecting, sensible groundhog would come out of a winter sleep at this time of the year. And even if it did, there is no way that groundhog would make it through all the snow to even see the light of day.
We had 15 cm. of snow early on the morning of January 30 and then another 15 cm. of snow in the evening of January 31. And that was dumped on top of goodness know how much other snow that is already on the ground.

Did I mention I was fed up with snow and winter?

I knew I had a photo of a groundhog and thanks to the search button on my computer it hunted through all my photo folders and found it for me. It was taken a couple of years ago in early May. The photo at the top of this post is of the same tree where the groundhog photo was taken.

I'm a little groundhog, it's my day.
Wake and stretch, go out and play.
Down in my burrow, down so deep,
Time to wake, from my long winter's sleep.
Grumble, grumble, scratch, scratch,
Grunt, grunt, yawn.
I'll eat my breakfast in your front lawn.
I'm a little groundhog, it's my day.
Wake up and stretch, go out and play.
unknown author

Last February I wrote my own poem for the month. I've also got a collection of other calendar thoughts. And for my weather predictions, I'll skip the groundhog, and rely on my own weather forecaster.

Labels: calendar thoughts