Winter

Winter

Saturday, February 18, 2023

Odds and Ends


 My goodness, I have been away for so long. I have a fixed computer now. I withstood, the buying a new computer temptation. I have been gone so long that Google forgot me and I had to figure out how to sign in again, plus try to remember how to access my pictures since they are now living in the cloud. Here is something I learned. When people talk about things being in the "cloud." I thought that all of those satellites was where our data went and was stored. I know, but it says, cloud right? My youngest son is taking classes to be able to work on cloud storage. I thought of course, it was in the sky. Nope, there are these huge places full of computers, on the ground that is where all of our stuff is stored.  I felt very sheepish. 

We are in the midst of winter here. After that long hot summer from last year, I am very happy,

prolonging the inevitable. I have been hooking a bit. I finished Hearts by Cammie Bruce.


 I was canning beets one morning. As I peeled the beets, I thought, these are so purple I wonder what kind of color I would get? So I put the skins in water and boiled them for awhile until I thought I got enough color and then treated it like I would commercial dyes. So the pretty pink color is what came out. I just loved the color, and I couldn't wait to hook it. The red though is what I had in my wool box. 

I might try to do a little more natural dyes this year. I have always wanted to dye wool that way. Here is a picture of my current rug. We are planning our trip this year and taking our travel trailer to see our kids and grandkids. I wanted a long rug in the trailer. I had this from when I first started hooking. It is Polly Minick. Its one of the first rugs I ever drew out. Its taken me so long to do that those squares and yesterday I finally got started on the background.

Its a very long rug. It doesn't look that long in the picture, but it is. So its fun to do chickens again. Of all of the things I miss since we moved, its my chickens. 

I had to make of course, some little heart things for Valentines Day. There is just something nice about hand sewing and stuffing pin keeps. 


This is an old picture, but I did plant lilacs here, they are just not close to budding yet. We were in the book of Hosea at Bible Study. Long ago, when I wanted more than anything to be a rug hooker. There was no way I had the money to get set up. (We had 4 kids in college and a downturn in the economy.)

Rug hooking was not an option. One morning I was walking and in my mind I was thinking about all of the ways I could by hook or by crook get what I wanted. I happened to be listening to Hosea on headphone when this verse came up about Gomer. If you remember she was the prostitute married to Hosea. "She said, I will go after my lovers that give me my food and my water, and my wool and my flax..." I stopped in mid stride. I thought, no way does it say that! I ran it back and listened to it again.

Sure enough, it said that. I stopped right there went in to the house and looked it up in my Bible. Hosea 2:5. I realized how indeed how much I was like Gomer and wanting my wool and wool cutters that bad. I told this in my Bible Study one morning, I said, " I am a hooker...A rug hooker. They don't know me very well and I wish I had a camera to take a picture of all of the shocked faces. It was great! 

At that moment in time. I told the Lord, I won't be like Gomer, I will only be a rug hooker if you want me to be one. I shut that desire down in my mind and I just focused on counted cross stitch because at the time, embroidery thread was 23 cents a skein. A few months later, Jacque, from Doodles of my Mind came to the rescue. There is a whole lot more on this particular blog post. She sent me a box of everything and got me all set up. Now when I am at Bible Study, ladies walk by and whisper out of the corner of their mouths, " Hey there hooker, working on any rugs." I even have a lady who wants to come learn how. Its so weird that in California, people just don't know what it is, unless you find someone who's Mom or grandmother hooked rugs. 

So needless to say, every time I pick up my hook, use my wool cutter or start a new rug. I am so thankful that I get to do what I love. Nothing calms my heart and my spirit like hooking rugs. 

I hope that you have all been well and you have all been in my thoughts. Its so nice to have a working computer. I just can't write a blog on my phone. I do not want a laptop either. Though I am really having to jump through hoops now to find pictures. To get the pictures off my phone and from the cloud. I have been gone so long, I even had to jump through hoops to get back to my blog and not sign into your blogs as anonymous. 

Happy Febuary.

~Kim~



 

 “Probably more pests can be controlled in an armchair in front of a February fire with a garden notebook and a seed catalog that can ever be knocked out in hand-to-hand combat in the garden.”  ― Neely Turner


 



 


 

8 comments:

Saundra said...

Very good read! We all get the same response from folks even if not in a bible study group. Your beet dying project produced nice colors and love how you hooked Cammie's Hearts.
I recognize Polly's "My Three Sons" designs and I've never hooked it tho I drew many patterns for her when she held classes.

Angela said...

So glad you are back! Such a lovely story of God's answer to your heart's desire. The Valentine rug is adorable! I didn't know the cloud wasn't up there somewhere either!

TheCrankyCrow said...

Oh...so, so, good to see a post from you my friend! I'm glad you got your pc repaired and found your way back to us. I would have to completely give up blogging if I didn't have my pc. I can post from my ipad, but don't like to and it is much more difficult. And, there are certain blogs I cannot comment on at all (not even anonymously) unless I am on my pc. So weird. Love your sweet little heart mat and tucks. This is the first year in a very long time that I did not create anything - not even from paper - for Valentine's. My heart wasn't in it I guess...no pun intended. And you have a great start on the chicken rug. I finally finished hooking my Santa...and started a new rug at the workshop I attended but have set it aside. I am just not happy with it. I do have two rugs to bind now (well, actually 3...but I'm trying to forget about the Beast) so I will probably attempt that. Still in my funk. The photos of of plants and trees and blooms are so very welcome. We've had some days in the 30's and the snow has melted a lot...but the ground is, nonetheless, still fully covered in white stuff. January and February are the most difficult months for me. Hope you are having a great weekend. ~Robin~

Kessie said...

I love this blog post! I love that they pass you in the halls and call you a hooker. :-D I finished reading Freckles to myself today and now I'm charging into Girl of the Limberlost. I'll bet I like it now that I'm an adult.

Gretchen Joanna said...

It was great to hear your story of the Lord giving you rug-hooking <3

I have so much stuff in the cloud, whatever that might mean... It might as well be on Planet Mars, for how inaccessible it seems to be.

Rugs and Pugs said...

So happy to hear from you!
Your beet dyeing produced great results and I love that rug of Cammie's (yours, btw, is amazing!)...but I love so many of her patterns.
Chicken rug is looking good. How big is it? Inquiring minds want to know...lol.
Happy your computer issues have been resolved. Sometimes I HATE technology.

acorn hollow said...

So wonderful to see you back to blogging! A lot a people do not know what rug hooking is here either. I sometimes take it to work to work on the binding. They are all so interested.
I am so low tec I do not use the cloud and I do have a new computer but I haven't gotten use to it yet.
Keep posting
Cathy

Bonnie K said...

I so enjoy your blog. I'm afraid I have given up on computers. It so irritates me that they become obsolete so quickly. I now use my phone and one can tell by the lack of quality in my photos. Drat. I am so impressed by your hooking skills. I am afraid I am not patient enough. I did one when I was a kid and it took FOREVER. You are my hero.