Pretty Poncho

      My sister requested a poncho.  So many of the poncho patterns out there look like big granny squares folded into triangles.  I wanted to do something different.  This pattern is sized as Women's XL, but the size is adjustable by adding or removing stitches from the beginning chain or by reducing hook size.  Here she is modeling the creation.

I made the poncho very long.  Some people prefer a shorter poncho.

The stitch is sort of a shell.  The poncho can be worn as a rectangle, the front edge going straight across, or as a triangle with the point centered in the front. 

     Here's the tutorial:

Pandemic Toilet Paper Shortages

      I didn't suffer during the early pandemic toilet paper shortages because I'm a paper products hoarder.  Whenever the giant, economy size package of TP or paper towels goes on sale, I buy it, whether I need it or not, and stack it up in the attic.  We're eight months into this Covid mess, and I still have two big packages of Scott Comfort Plus.  One of these days, I'm going to pull out the last roll.  I'm fairly certain that the toilet paper I will purchase at that point will not be on sale.

     While I find paying full price for something you use once and flush down the loo a little uncomfortable, I'm smart enough to realize that the occasional paper shortage does not justify the cost of installing  a bidet - not to mention that a bidet would not enhance the resale value of a home in Hainesport, NJ.  

     The other day, I was on my way to the garage with a pile of leftover fabric that I planned to use for rags, and I had an idea.  Why not cut up those rags and use them to wipe?  I figured I would toss them out after one use.  Then I saw this:  

         

  

     I decided that one can carry frugal a bit too far.  I'm certainly not going to sew toilet paper substitutes, and I'm not washing and drying them for reuse.  Why should I cut up that fabric?  Things haven't gotten that bad yet.  I will cheerfully pay the market price for my next case of bog roll.  

More Crochet - Shawls

       I've gotten carried away with shawls.  There are lots of patterns out there for pocket shawls.  This one though, is a Beverly Original.  The crossed double crochet stitch adds nice texture.  My sister thinks this shawl is just what she needs for running outside during cool mornings or evenings.  Sorry the picture is blurry.      

     This shawl is done in the virus stitch, so called because the shells multiply like a virus.  It is also known as the German shells stitch.  The simple picot edge finishes it off nicely.  You can find numerous virus stitch tutorials on YouTube.  

     This mesh shawl isn't for warmth.  It's for looks.  The YouTube tutorial is below the picture.  It's in Spanish, but that's not a big deal.  This shawl is really easy, so just adjust the video speed to .5 and follow along.  If you are distracted by the audio, hit the mute button.  The tutorial suggests adding tassels, but I left those off.       

Chal a crochet en punto red

(Crochet Shawl in Net Stitch)

Ant or Wasp?

     The latest new visitors in my back yard were (and I say "were" because all three of them are quite dead now) red, fuzzy insects, about 1/2 long, that were crawling through the grass at a pretty good clip.  I had never seen anything like them.  They sort of looked like huge ants, but I had never seen a bright red, fuzzy ant.  They could have been wasps, but they didn't have wings.  The first order of business was to annihilate them.  The next was to identify them.

     

     Say hello to Dasymutills occidentalis.  These bugs are commonly called red velvet ants or cow killer ants.  But they aren't ants.  They are a species of wasp.  The females are wingless and they pack an extremely painful sting.  The males have wings, but they don't have stingers.  Both females and males make a squeaking noise which they use to warn predators.  The three wasps that I repeated stomped didn't make a sound.

     Here's a bit more information from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasymutilla_occidentalis  

Do It Myself

     Thanks to YouTube, I'm calling myself a trained electrician.  Oh, all right.  I'm just an apprentice.  Oh, all right.  I removed and replaced a couple of exterior light fixtures.  That might seem insignificant to most do-it-yourselfers, but it's a big deal to me because I am afraid of electricity.  I still have awesome respect for 120V, 60 Hz alternating current, but after today's successful experience, I no longer cling to my unreasonable fear.
     I didn't take pictures during the repair because I had enough to do with staying balanced on the ladder and hanging onto the fixtures while I untwisted and re-twisted small parts and tried to keep from dropping my tools.
     It all started this past February when I noticed that one garage light was out.  A simple bulb change, I thought.  It turns out that the socket was broken.  It spun around and around, and I couldn't get the bulb out.  It was too cold to be outside fartin' around with light fixtures.  My phobia told me that I would burn the house down if I operated the garage lights, so I have not flipped the switch for four months.
     Four months of googling told me that sockets in fixtures can be replaced sometimes.  I decided that I wouldn't take that route.  Googling (and trips to Lowe's) also told me that most light fixtures are ugly, old things.  The one hanging from the siding for the last eleven years suited me better than anything more up-to-date.  When I found identical fixtures on the Home Depot website, I couldn't put off this repair any longer.  I ordered two new fixtures, knowing that the remaining original fixture would fail if I got cocky and replaced just the faulty one.

Here's how you change out fixtures:

1. Turn off the electricity.  I took a chance on flipping the breaker marked, "Front Porch/Foyer," and found that the circuit also included the front, exterior garage lights.  Off to a good start.

2.  Gather your tools - pliers, screw drivers, electrical tape, and caulk.  A small wrench for taking the exterior, decorative nuts off and on is easier than using pliers.   

3.  Unscrew the nuts on the outside of the fixture and pull it away from the wall.  In a perfect world, you can get your ladder up close enough to sit the fixture on the top of the ladder.  It's like having an extra set of hands.  Today, I had this perfect positioning.

4.  Pull the wiring out of the electrical box and unscrew the wire nuts (call them marettes if you really want to impress other amateurs).  At this point, I found loads of spider webs in the box, so I got an old paint brush and brushed out all the debris.  Take note of the wires.  The black wire carries the electricity to the fixture and is known as the hot wire.  The white wire is a neutral wire.  The bare wire is the ground wire which carries electricity back to the panel, then outside to a rod buried in the ground.  Sometimes a ground wire has green plastic insulation.  After taking apart all the connections, set your old fixture aside.

5.  Unscrew the nasty, old mounting bracket and replace it with the new bracket that you get with the new fixture.  Remember to level the bracket so your new fixture is level.  Now, set your new fixture on the top of the ladder.

6.  Re-attach the wires coming from the box to the matching wire coming from the new fixture - black to black, white to white, ground to ground.  I don't know if the order of attachment matters.  The instructions that came with my fixture said to attach the black wires first, so that is what I did.  You line up the black wires with their bare wire ends even, pop on a wire nut and twist it up tight.  Also, wrap electrical tape around the wire nut and wire ends.  This keeps out moisture and secures the join.  Next, I attached the white wires.   Last, I attached the copper ground wires.  Ground wires are screwed down under ground screws within the box and on the mounting bracket.  You'll see these screws because they have blue heads.  Wrap the ground wire under the screw heads and tighten down the screws before joining with the wire nuts.  Push all the wires neatly into the box.

7.  Lift the new fixture, line up the holes in the front plate of the fixture, and slide it on to the two mounting screws that protrude forward from the mounting bracket.  The mounting screws should protrude 1/4 inch on the outside of the fixture.  If they protrude more than 1/4 inch, you'll have to adjust them.  Screw on the mounting nuts so that they tightly hold the fixture to the wall.  If the fixture is not nice and tight, you will have to remove the fixture as many times as it takes to get the mounting screws in just the right position to hold the fixture to the wall properly.  This is probably the most difficult part of this repair.

8.  Run a bead of 100% silicon outdoor caulk across the top and 2/3 of the way down each side of the fixture base.  That will keep water from getting inside in just about all circumstances.  If water does get inside or if moisture accumulates, leaving the bottom uncaulked allows for drainage or evaporation.

New light ... same as the old light.

Working Lights on Both Sides

   

Girl's Crochet Poncho

     Ponchos were all the rage in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  They made a comeback in the 2000s.  After struggling through the "Pay Attention Shawl," a poncho seemed like an easy project.

I found a few of these in the yarn stash.  I thought, My, that looks like an exotic bird.

Darn tootin', it did.  That designer at Bernat® must have been inspired by the Rainbow Lorikeet, a bird that lives in the Australian rain forest.

 

I'm sending this colorful creation to the girl who lives down the street.  A little birdie told me it was her birthday. 

Change Is Good

     I haven't had a haircut since February.  I looked like this back then:

     I was lovin' my gray hair and longer tresses. After almost four months of hair neglect, I was itching for a new look.  I bought a box of the world's lightest ash blonde and went back to coloring.  Today, I got an illegal haircut. 

 

Nature Abounds

     First it was turtles; now it's rabbits.  Without all the cars squashing critters trying to cross the road, my back yard is overrun with wildlife.  Mardi alerted me to the bunnies.

Did Mardi want to play or eat a snack?  

I'm sure this little guy was frightened.  The bunny must have fallen into the crawl space access well.

I turned and found this one cowering in the corner of the foundation.

     I shooed one rabbit into a bucket and took it to the woods next to the house.  The other one was more energetic, and it leaped out of the bucket.  Mardi gave chase.  I managed to get ahead of Mardi and herd this cottontail to a place where it could squeeze through a gap under the fence.  From there it disappeared under some shrubs.
     A little later, I spied an adult rabbit on patrol.  It investigated under the shrubs and went into the woods.  Since I don't normally see rabbits out in plain sight during the middle of the day*, I'm assuming Mama was hunting her wayward offspring.

*What I learned about rabbits:  Rabbits are crepuscular creatures.  That means they are active at dawn and dusk and sleep most other hours of the day.  People think rabbits are nocturnal, but that is not the case. 

Eastern Box Turtle Hatchling

     There must be an Eastern Box Turtle nest close by.  On Saturday, I was walking through my high grass, hoping things would be dry enough for the lawn guys to cut the grass tomorrow.  I looked down and saw a tiny box turtle.  The little guy (girl?) was about 1 to 1.25 inches in diameter.  Since fresh out of the egg hatchlings are about the size of a quarter (.95 inches), this specimen must have been very young.
      While it's probably best to leave the natural order alone,  I foresaw a gruesome death in this reptile's future if it hung around my yard - or any of the neighbors' yards - or the road.  A little googling told me that hatchling turtles have a high mortality rate.  Most don't live past the first year.  Besides fatal encounters with humans (and their lawn equipment and cars), they are food for snakes, birds, and other animals.  If they don't dig deep enough into the ground for their first winter hibernation, they freeze and never see their second spring.
     I figured the best shot for this little one was to be relocated to the park, away from the parking lot and the trails, near water and soft earth.  So, that's where we went.

So Little
Remember those green turtles that were popular pets in the 1950s and 1960s?  They disappeared from the stores in 1975 by order of the FDA.  Just about all turtles carry salmonella.  Children, who love to touch small animals, then go about their business touching their faces and putting their fingers in their mouths, never having washed their grubby, little hands, were getting sick.  Box turtles, while healthy themselves, carry salmonella on their bodies.  I used a handy dog poop bag to grab this guy.  I deposited him in a crumb butler (which serves as an ash tray for visiting smokers) that sits outside on a table.      

I headed to the park.

Eastern Box Turtles have an average life expectancy of 50 years, but some can live to be 100 years old.  I hope I did the right thing by taking this turtle to the park.  Maybe it will still be there in the year 2100.  After sending a few more positive thoughts out into the universe, I went home and scrubbed thoroughly, up to my elbows.        

  

The Pay Attention Shawl

     I don't know if this shawl is the most difficult thing I ever crocheted, but I did have to pay attention.  Pay attention to row numbers.  Pay attention to stitch counts as the rows are worked.  Pay attention to the total count at the end of each row.  There was no TV watching during this one, so this shawl, called the Ana Lucia Shawl by the designer, was renamed the Pay Attention Shawl by Beverly.


     Here's the YouTube tutorial:

     You can get the written pattern here:  https://wilmade.com/ana-lucia-shawl/     

     My sister claimed this project, and she rejected the tassels.  She also liked the addition of the picot edging along the neck edge.  You gotta give the people what they want.

My Version of the Ana Lucia Shawl
I used Harbor by Fair Isle.  The Color is Platinum #66.  This is a fine #2 yarn, 50% cotton and 50% viscose from bamboo.  The label recommended using a K hook.  That seemed huge for this yarn weight, so I ignored the recommendation and used a G hook.  The strands tended to separate as I worked, so I didn't like that.  However, it feels nice, and it has a nice drape.  Instead of blocking, I held a steam iron over the finished piece and puffed shots of steam through it.  That flattened and separated the stitches.  It shaped up nicely.

The bottom edges have a pretty scallop.

The pattern directions left the neck edge unfinished.  The picot edging dresses things up.

Crescent Shaped Scarf

     Here's the latest item of Covid Crochet:

     The scarf turned out great.  It was easy to make.  After you get going, you can watch TV.  It's not a project that requires lots of counting and constant attention.  I used Red Heart Ombre - Sea Coral colorway.  The project  used one 10 ounce/482 yard jumbo skein plus a teensy bit more from a second skein.  I have plenty of skein #2 remaining if I want to make a matching hat.  I used a 6 mm/J hook.
     I used this YouTube tutorial by Fiber Spider:

 

Dispatches From Elsewhere

     Is anyone watching AMC's "Dispatches from Elsewhere?"  It's inspired me to call myself -

B to the ever to the ly

     Straight fire.  

To Paraphrase the Rolling Stones

     I hate to get my lazy backside out of bed.  That's the way it has always been.  I'm not a morning person; however, I am a breakfast person.  The best incentive for getting up in the morning is, knowing when you turn in the night before, that a yummy breakfast awaits you.  Lately, I've rediscovered bran flakes.  Bran flakes, fat free milk, and a sliced banana make me kick off the covers and run to the kitchen.
     Three weeks ago, I noticed that the box of bran flakes was getting low.  Two weeks ago, I planned to replenish my supply on my weekly shopping excursion.  Gol dang it, the cereal aisle was empty except for a few boxes of Lucky Charms.  Even a pandemic won't make me buy those.  There was an end cap of on-sale Cheerios, but I didn't crave Cheerios.  Like a frustrated zoo animal, I paced up and down the cereal aisle and the adjoining baking aisle.  No cake mixes, no muffin mixes, no flour.  Then I spied a box of low fat, heart smart Bisquick.  I have a zucchini quiche recipe that I love that calls for low fat Bisquick, and zucchini quiche is worth getting up for.  Problem solved.  This week, the bran flakes were back.  I was tempted to buy two boxes, but we mustn't hoard.

     So, you can't always get what you want, but if you are flexible, you'll get what you need, and you might like it even more.

Zucchini Quiche

3 cups grated zucchini, skin included
1 cup low fat (heart smart) Bisquick
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 tsp. each oregano and basil, dried
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder or 2 cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped
4 tbs. chopped fresh parsley or 4 tsp. dried parley
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup vegetable oil plus 1/4 water
4 large eggs 

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix.  Pour into a 9" pie plate sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake at 350° for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve and enjoy.  This warms up well in the microwave. 



     

Petite Shawl

     I saw a pattern for a small shawl.  The designer called it a Summer Shawl, I suppose because her choice of yarn was a cotton/acrylic mix and because the shawl is just big enough to keep the shoulders warm.  That's good when restaurants and other public spaces have the air conditioning cranked up high.  This little accessory would also make a nice winter scarf.  It's big enough to cover one's head and wrap around the neck.

The shawl is about 16" deep and 72" long.  The shawl section was easy, but the ruffled border was a pain in the neck.  It took FOREVER to finish.  I also, made a few mistakes.  A missing stitch here and there in the midst of all that ruffling was not noticeable, so I did not correct some of my boo-boos.  Young Beverly would have frogged (rip it, rip it, rip it) until it was perfect, but elderly Beverly is not so inclined. 

So, how does it look paired with a lousy, old long sleeved T-shirt that I have been wearing for two days? 

Fruit Flavored Sparkling Water

     I grew up in a household where the beverage served at every meal for both children and adults was milk.  So 1950s.  As we offspring started growing up and reaching our full adult bone mass, milk was phased out.  Iced tea, all year round, not just in the summer, became the regular drink.  When I moved out, I always had a pitcher of homemade iced tea in the fridge.  Somewhere along the way, I got lazy and switched to tap water.
     I still mainly drink tap water, but more and more, I find myself giving in to the temptation of those fancy, fruity flavored waters.  Shop Rite is always running specials, piling mountains of fizzy water twelve-packs at the entrance to the store.  Their exotic names belie the fact that they are only subtly flavored and barely sweetened.  Anything with zero calories can't taste that good.  Or can it?
     Dasani was my first.  I tried most of the flavors and settled on Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon as favorites.  I tried mixing some orange juice with the Blood Orange flavor thinking I could create a low calorie Orangina, but the result was bitter tasting.

 

 I remained true to Dasani until someone, offering me a bottle of what they thought was plain water, accidentally gave me a bottle of Poland Spring Sparkling Orange.  There was no going back to Dasani.

 

 Then came the coronavirus grocery shopping experience.  You can go to the store with a list, but be prepared to make substitutions.  During Week #1 of sheltering in place, I bought one of the three remaining loaves of rye bread from the specialty bakery because every other loaf, roll, bagel, muffin, and pita was gone.  I like rye bread, but you don't schmear it with strawberry preserves at breakfast time.  The water and soda aisles were stripped bare, and there were limits on how much one shopper could buy.  During Week #2, I found a pallet of AHA Sparkling at the end of the soda aisle.  It was even on sale.  I grabbed Orange-Grapefruit (delicious mixed with OJ) and Apple-Ginger (yummy mixed with apple juice).  During this third week's grocery run, I grabbed a case of Peach-Honey.  I mixed this flavor with some Kosher for Passover peach flavored sparkling grape juice.  Tasty.

   
The world of sparkling water just gets better and better.  I'm beginning to prefer this water to my usual wine.  Never thought I would see that day come.
     

     

Masks

     My first attempt at making masks was a failure.  The pleated, rectangular kind with string ties fit poorly and my hair tangled in the ties.  Then my neighbor emailed some pictures of masks that she made along with written directions and a video.  I washed and dried a bunch of 100% cotton fabric and made a batch of masks.

My selfies look ridiculous, with the goofy neck angles and the extended arms.  I have solved the problem by photographing myself in the mirror.  I liked the red mask.  I felt frisky instead of elderly when I put it on.  Then I remembered the Edgar Allen Poe story titled "The Mask of the Red Death."  Maybe red fabric was a poor choice.  I decided that only English majors would make the connection. 

Each person's noggin is unique.  I didn't want the mask to pull too hard on my ears, so I made the elastic on this first mask a half inch longer than directed.  It turned out that I should have cut it a half inch shorter than directed to get a perfect fit.  My subsequent masks were adjusted accordingly. 

In order to make Mask #1 wearable, I shortened the elastic by folding it in half and tacking it 1/2" from the end.  Perfect fit.

This brown fabric was the only one I had that was not girly.

I made nine masks - some for me and some to share.  Since I used scrap fabric and elastic that I had on hand, I spent $0 on this project.  Governor Murphy says we have to wear masks when we go to stores now.  I'm ready. 

 

Red, White, and Blue Afghan

     Each year, in time for Fourth of July delivery, the South Jersey Crochet Guild makes red, white, and blue afghans for veterans and  military families.  Guild members can't meet because of Covid-19 restrictions, but we continue to crochet in our virus free isolation.  I just finished my patriotic blanket.

There you have it.  The designer warned that the border might ripple. I did not follow her advice to use a smaller hook for making the border, so I have rippling down the long edges.  Washing and drying might rectify that.  

The afghan is worked in a simple V-stitch.  This project was easy to combine with binge watching HBO's "High Maintenance." 

     
     Here's a link to the directions: https://daisyfarmcrafts.com/crochet-modern-v-stitch-in-red-white-and-blue/      

More Hearts

     Paper hearts - quick, easy, and you can make an endless supply in no time.  Crocheted hearts take a bit longer, but they're worth it.  I got a few patterns from Pinterest and ravelry.com.  I made my hearts out of #3 red cotton thread.  Then I stiffened them with straight out of the bottle laundry starch.  Some people use white glue for stiffening crochet projects.  The old timey method for hardening crocheted pieces is to use 2 parts sugar dissolved in 1 part water. 

The starching process was messy.  I put some starch in an old plastic bowl and soaked a heart for a few seconds until it was saturated.  I wrung out the excess starch, then blotted the heart on an old towel.  The next step was to shape the heart on some layers of cardboard which I covered with plastic wrap.  Once the heart was shaped, I pinned it with stainless steel pins and let it dry.  After drying overnight, I removed the pins and checked to see if the hearts were stiff enough.  I thought they could use more starching, so I used an old paint brush to coat them with some more starch.  The next day, I added strings for hanging. 

     I sent these hearts to a friend who plans to hang them in her windows. 

The hearts have arrived.

Heartfelt Thanks

     I'm pretty sure you have already heard that introverts, couch potatoes, bookworms, and yes, crocheters love the coronavirus stay-at-home orders.  It's what they have been training for their whole lives is how the punchline goes.  While I love being "forced" to stay inside and craft, the regular options can get boring.  I watched a TV news segment last night which featured an arts and crafts activity - cutting out paper hearts and taping them to street facing windows, doors, and mail boxes.  It's a way to brighten up the neighborhood, and more importantly, it's a way to say thank you to delivery people, mail carriers, and others who have to work while most of us stay home.
     I didn't even have to draw my hearts.  I used my Print Artist program to print the hearts on card stock.  Then I cut them out.  I haven't done a window display yet, but I did this today:

I printed hearts on card stock and added a thank you,

One heart is taped next to the front door.  

Another heart is taped to the inside of the mailbox.

I just received an email from Hainesport Township directing us to bag all trash for pick up.  Loose trash left at the curb in cans could spread contagion to sanitation workers.  My bag of trash for tomorrow's collection bears a thank you note.

     

New York Botanical Garden - Orchid Show

     Orchids are pretty.  I had one once, and I killed it.  My friend informed me that her husband has a way with orchids, and she invited me to attend the display at the New York Botanical Garden.  Wow!  What a feast for the eyes it was.  After attending an informative class that was part of the show, I learned that orchids can also be a feast for the stomach.  Who knew?  Some are edible.  Enjoy the pictures.

While most orchids grow in tropical forests, some have adapted to semi-desert regions.  Here I am in the desert habitat.  Desert orchids are smaller and less colorful than their tropical cousins.

The conservatory was huge, and the display went on and on.  We went down these stairs and ...

... through this tunnel/light show to get to more orchids.

This is called the Dancing Lady Orchid.  Was this the inspiration for Belle's dress in "Beauty and the Beast?" 

These are Slipper Orchids.  We have lady's slippers or moccasin flowers growing wild in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.  They are North America's wild, native orchid.  I had one specimen growing in my woods, but building the house changed the habitat, and it died.

This is a moth orchid, named for the moth shaped petals.  I like the spots.

The conservatory covers a lot of ground.  I would like to return to the botanical garden in warm weather to see the outdoor seasonal displays.  Here's the website:
https://www.nybg.org/