Leo’s Mane Sew Along

Sunday 26 September 2021

Slow Sunday Stitching

 My only slow stitching is the knitting I’m doing on the scarf using up my leftover fingering weight yarns. It now measures about 35 inches long. The pattern calls for the finished scarf to be 90 inches long, so I’ve a ways to go yet. My husband has expressed an interest in this scarf so it will go to him when done. That will also dictate further colour choices. I’ll avoid obvious pinks since he isn’t fond of those. Some of the yarns did a fun self swirl type colour pooling pattern. I have more of those that I can try to evenly dive down the length of the scarf.

I finished a quilt this past week. There has been a break in the rain and the wind so I was able to get out and get a few pictures. Here’s the finished quilt. And here’s a close up of a corner showing the diagonally printed striped binding. I still have all kinds of diagonally striped fabrics in my stash, enough to finish the rest of the quilts that are hanging around here needing finishing.

Some friends and I are doing a UFO challenge starting in October. I hope it gives some incentive to get some things finished that have been hanging around for a long time now. 

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.











Sunday 19 September 2021

Slow Sunday Stitching

 All my slow stitching time is continuing to be taken up with knitting. I finished the last of the socks I wanted to do for Christmas gifts. I was unsure about this red yarn when I started, but they turned out really well. I’m quite happy with the way they match.

After those were done I pulled out a small blanket that I started a number of years ago that only needed about 6 inches knitted to finish it. It has a really fun technique that took advantage of some hand dyed yarns and some of them ended up with some fun colour pooling. It’s all sewn together and the ends woven in. It’s perfect for keeping my feet warm.

After that I dug in my bins of sock yarn and pulled out all kinds of leftovers from various sock and sweater knitting projects. This is going to be a very long tube scarf. It’s just beginning. It will show off some of the self striping and patterning yarns I have left as well. It’s from this pattern called Alliteration and it is a free Ravelry download. It is a very basic and mindless knit, perfect for keeping my hands busy in the car or while watching some Miss Marple mysteries.

I’m linking up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.





Sunday 12 September 2021

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I am continuing with my sock knitting marathon, determined to get them done before I pick up anything else. This is the last pair that I want to do for Christmas gifts and it should be done this week, as long as I don’t get side tracked. When I first started on this pair of socks the pattern in the yarn wasn’t very evident. It was only when I got down to the heal of the first sock that I could see that there was a definite pattern/striping effect. Finding the matching starting point for the second sock was a bit of a challenge and involved pulling quite a lot of yarn out to find the right spot. I hope I have enough left to finish or I’ll end up having to splice in the stuff I pulled out.

There isn’t a whole lot else happening in our little world right now. It’s a gorgeous day, so there may be a walk happening. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.



Thursday 9 September 2021

Muskoka Living


 I’m going to try and do some posts about our new life up here in the gorgeous Muskoka region of Ontario. I’d like to think I could do weekly posts about it but I’m not sure that is realistic. Nor do I think I’ll have all that much to share that is interesting weekly, but we’ll see where it goes. Now that our grand daughter Abbie is in school that gives me time to do a few things that I’ve been researching lately, but didn’t have the time to try. One of them is making soap. I’ve been watching youtube videos and reading up on it since before we moved, but obviously didn’t have the time or storage space to do it. I have ordered some supplies for it so as soon as I get them.... there is a supplier right here in Huntsville.... I’ll get some made and talk about how it went.

I tried doing my own yogurt in my instant pot last week. It worked and tasted good, but it was a bit runny, so that is on my to do list for today to try again, along with some organizing that is ongoing in our little space.
When we first moved up here at the end of May I took advantage of the southern facing porch and lawn area to do some planting. I kept it small and inexpensive for this year knowing that there was going to be a new roof going on at some point. All of it, except for the tomatoes were started from seed. I tried using grow bags which seem to have worked quite well. We have quite a good crop of tomatoes, five bags which all look like this. I hope there is enough time left in the growing season for them to ripen up. If not, I’ve found a recipe for green tomato salsa. There are some annuals giving us lots of colour, cosmos and zinnias and a few sunflowers. There is also a pot of calendulas. In my research about soaps I found out that calendula flowers can be used to give a mild and soothing bar of body soap, so I will be using some of these flowers for that. I did up a couple of pots of perennials from seed as well, some gallardia and some shasta daisies. I wanted to do some rudbeckia, but the instructions said it would do best if the seeds were chilled for a time first, so I will leave those for this winter/spring. There is a lovely area right here that would make a great perennial garden although it badly needs weeding and digging. However it is directly under where shingles will be falling when the roof is done so it will have to wait until after that. I might put the gallardia and the daisies into the ground in a temporary spot and move them into this area come spring.

Indoors we are quite cosy. We have a great supply of firewood to keep us warm using our very efficient wood stove. That stack of wood is three deep in front of that wall. It’s right outside our door. Yes, there is central heating, but nothing beats a wood fire for being warm during what may be very long winters. Scott has his comfy recliner beside his painting station and I have mine beside some shelves that will eventually hold all my crafting/knitting/stitching supplies.

 Both of us have a great view looking out the big sliding glass doors. There is a tree down by the road that is just beginning to turn colour. That’s all for now.



Sunday 5 September 2021

Slow Sunday Stitching

 My cross stitching continues to be set aside while I indulge in a sock knitting binge. I have completed two more pairs of socks since my last post. The pair using the yarn that Gail gave me for my birthday is done. And then I decided that while I was on a sock knitting roll I’d continue with some for Christmas gifts. I have a blue pair done and have started on a red pair. After knitting all those fingering weight sweaters in the last few years, socks now go really quickly. The blue pair were done in a week. It helps that I always use the same pattern and have it mostly memorized. The only time I have to consult the pattern now is for turning the heel. We went on a day trip to North Bay on Thursday which gave me knitting time in the car. And that feels so strange, to say that North Bay is a day trip. It’s only an hour away from where we now are.

I am planning on getting back into a little bit of quilting this month..... how did it get to be September so fast, by the way? Anyhow, I have made up a list of quilting UFO’s that I want to make progress on. I did a list of ten. While on a FaceTime call the other night with Gail, I asked her to pick a number between 1-10. She picked number 7 which is my Flower Boxes quilt. It needs to be trimmed and bound. I started this sometime in the spring of 2020 and finished the quilting of it on my long arm in June of 2020 before I sold the long arm. Since then it has sat waiting for me to have time to finish it. Our grand daughter starts school this week, so blocks of time have now become available. This coming week I’ll get a large table set up so I can lay it out and trim it. After that making the binding and sewing it on is easy.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.