Nellie's last Chat 'N Sew meeting

Nellie's last meeting was this past Monday(June 22). I wanted to add a picture from that meeting.

One of the other ladies, Rita, made this thoughtful gift for Nellie. She let her unwrap it, and examine it for awhile before offering up this info on it:

It is of the softest fake fur. Rita made a robe out of it for her son, 35 years ago! (So it is well aged.) And no, it isn't a strange looking hat like was Nellie's first guess. It is a mitt for her ICE SCRAPER. "Because, honey - you are gonna need one of those up there!" You just slip your ice scraper handle through that hole, and your hand will stay dry and warm this winter! Modeled after ones she has seen in catalogs. ;)

To which Nellie informed us all, she has already requested NO SNOW in Connecticut this winter! Let's see how well that works! ;)

Goodbye Nellie

These are a few of the ladies that I have been crafting/knitting with since soon after we moved here, almost 5 years ago. During "season" (Oct./Nov. - Apr./May) we have 20 something ladies attending (now at a church), but summers drop to anywhere between 3-10 of us.

When we got settled into our rental in late 2004, I found a listing under the community section in the local paper for a group called "Chat N Sew", in a nearby town called Englewood. The phone number listed was for Nellie, one of the original members of the group from 20 some odd years ago. She gave me directions to the library where they met every Monday, and made me feel like I was really welcome to come. I thought the 15 mile drive to Englewood would keep us from going every Monday, maybe every other week. But the lovely ladies at "Chat N Sew" took us in as part of their family, and Amber and I have been there almost every Monday since. (DD got a roomful of instant "Grandma's).

Well, after having a heart attack last year, Nellie decided to move back to Connecticut this year to be closer to her kids. This was her "going away party" last month. We met at her condo's club house for our regular Monday meeting, then a potluck lunch, plus we were invited to bring our suits and go swimming after. We all got a big kick out of Nellie's swim suit cover up.

She is a very interesting lady, with a lot of stories to tell, and a great personality, and she will be missed - dearly.

This is so cool, I have got to make one!

DD and I spotted this a few weeks ago, and I love it!

I have been talking with DH about re-doing the counters in our pop up camper in a similar manner, only minus the pictures. But I think I like the black and white pictures and the newspaper clippings they put in this too.

It's a plywood base with sand spread over it all. Small shells, flat shells (like sand dollars and star fish) and some cut conch shells. All scattered between black and white photo's and newspaper clippings. Then Lacquer is poured on about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. Those are napkins to the left, sort of a 3D effect.

The blue is the border around the table, and the lacquer is even across the whole table with it.

Don't you just love it?!?!

Woo-Hoo! My Pineapple is getting big!

It's about 6 inches now! I bought the plant in the back with fruit on it, but soon after I planted it (last year) one of our resident critters took a huge bite out of the fruit and left it. Don't think he liked it as much as he thought he would. We picked it up and planted it next to the original plant, and that its the one that is fruiting now. Hopefully they leave it alone this time, and I get to eat it! :) Keeping my fingers crossed!

These are two of the ladies, my new friends, from my Tuesday night crafting at B.A.M. group (Forward Tinkers), Helen and Donna. Helen and Donna also go to another weekly group, The Linus Project (blankets for kids). Donna has a little issue. She has a hole in her lip. Almost every time we meet, she spills something on her shirt. (Often enough that she bought me replacements for my TIDE stick) She has often said that she needed to make herself a bib.

Well, last week Helen made Donna a gift. It's a bib with PEANUTS (get it? Linus?) material. Isn't it just too cute! I got Donna to model it for me during our meeting. We have a lot of laughs at our meetings. :)

Whew! Done!

So glad to finish moving those old blog posts over here from Yahoo 360*. :p

I didn't want to lose them in cyberspace, they represent a big portion of my life the last few years (and it was my first attempt at blogging). But I didn't want to continue with Yahoo's new plan to replace 360*.

So... thanks to my old friends from 360* for bearing with the "repeat blog posts" that they've seen before, and to new readers: "Don't expect me to post that many times in the next year, let alone 1 month!" (JK) ;)

Entry for June 17, 2009

Goodbye 360*!

I am sad that they couldn't find a way for it to continue, as the same 360 we have grown to love. But . . . . such is life.
I hope my 360* friends will stay connected to me at my other addy:
http://knitwithtammy.blogspot.com/
I spent the last month transfering all my old posts over there, and I am now on to new things. For those of you who don't connect with me over there, I will miss hearing from you.
360* has been a big part of my life the past 4 years ( being my first blog), and so have all of you. I've enjoyed "getting to know" all of you.
Take Care!
Tammy/pazzagatto

Entry for March 08, 2009



Been working on a couple of things, this afghan for my niece for one. A shawl for myself is another, will try to get a pic of that up soon.

The afghan is close to being finished (this is an older picture), just a couple more stripes to finish and then have to crochet and attach the stars.

It's going to be awesome, if I do say so myself.

October 16, 2008

Update on Study Group



One of the ladies blended and spun up all her dyed roving to make her color wheel, including the shading and toning with the white and black blended in.

I think this is so cool! What a clever idea! She said she used EZ's Pi Are Squared pattern.

August 6, 2008

My part of a study group on color



Some of the members from my Spinning Guild decided to pursue a Master Spinning Certificate. The number of participants grew, and it changed to just completing the requirements but not pursuing the certificate. (Don't ask me why, I'm still confused on that point)

Anyhow, we purchased three pounds of roving apiece, and proceeded to start dying- leaving one pound plain. Each person taking on one of three primary colors (mine was red). Then the idea is to split the colors between the 7 members, so each of us can blend with cards to get our own color wheel. (seventh member dyes black for tones - to be blended later)

This is a picture from my dye day with my friend Laura, we decided to dye together - more fun that way. Have pics of the dividing day too, but only know how to add one at a time on 360. Will do a blog and add a few pics on blogger later.

July 30, 2008

Vacation Souveniers :)



Some people bring home knick - nacks, some post cards. I usually get a shot glass, and FIBER!

I don't have a picture of the shot glass, but I do have one of the fiber love. Rovings to spin ,cottons for washcloths and sock yarns to knit .

What more could a girl want?

July 29, 2008

Matching Tattoos



Little sister and I got matching tattoos while I was back home this time. Lotus flowers, with the chinese symbol for sisters underneath.

She has a friend that does tats, and he did them for us for free.

May 27, 2008

Memorial Day BBQ




Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend.

It was a beautiful weekend here; no rain, lots of sunshine and low humidity.

We had a BBQ with DD's boyfriend's family yesterday. It was a great day! Good food, good company and a nice view. (we spent the day at DH's parents new house - they just purchased it last month, but haven't moved down from Michigan yet. So we fish in the canal off their pier, and play in their pool - to help keep the bacteria down ofcourse! )

We chose to wait until next weekend to go camping, because all the state parks in this area were fully booked already. (and I didn't want to spend twice as much at an RV park) We haven't been since November, so it should be fun.

hhhmmmmmmmm . . . . what knitting to bring? (Besides the carousel sock, Bobbi)

May 13, 2008

Spiffin' up the back yard . . .



We put up a gazebo (from Home Depot) yesterday. When we got it finished we knew it was time to landscape the back yard - who wants to sit around in a gazebo and stare at an ugly yard? We landscaped the front over the last two years, now it was time to get to the back.

We picked up 4 Areca Palms for shade; four more Hibiscus, two of one kind - one hot pink and one peach, plus two of a different kind that haven't bloomed yet - mystery flowers! - (we have eight others put in by the builder - four with red flowers and variegated leaves in the front yard, and four with solid green leaves on the side of the house around the water softener - think they were orange flowers); Portulaca in red, orange and yellow to add some color under the palms; and a Meyers lemon tree for a pot on my porch, it's all of 1 foot tall right now. I am going to get three more desert roses (have one in the front yard) to put between the hibiscus.

I am pretty happy with it all.

We already had three rose bushes (in the back corner, around the well); and four oak trees. But that was the extent of our backyard landscaping.

We are going to add small rocks or crushed sea shells in front of the slab to put the lounge chairs on.

May 7, 2008

My Discount Store Haul . . . .




After reading (on Ravelry) of someone's great find at Big Lots a few weeks ago, I decided to give our local BL a looksee.


Well, this is what I came home with - all for $1 or $1.50 a skein! Good thing I controlled myself! Some Lionbrand yarns, and some never heard of brands.


I came home with:

7 skeins of LB Chenille Thick n Quick

2 skeins of LB Boucle

2 skeins of LB Fancy Fur

2 skeins of LB Suede

2 skeins of a turquoise eyelash

6 skeins of a blue acrylic

12 skeins of varigated wool - 6 each of two colorways


The blue acrylic and the Thick n Quick are both for the Comfort Shawl Ministry at my church. The others are for personal stash enhancement.

Woo Hoo - quite a haul!