Now I know.

I'm feeling better. Being hyperactive most of the time I don't feel comfortable having to just sit and rest when there's so much work to be done around and outside the house. Now in particular, since the long dry and extremely hot weather seems to be finally over.
Suddenly I feel the urge to go out and walk around our property attracted by the the colours of a summer that refuses to give space to any other season.

Watch the autumn and winter fruits change their colour as they ripen.
Pears and persimmons,




grapefruits,apples,


the last prickly pears,

and the last tomatoes.

The conclusion of a vital cycle and the beginning of a new one.
And finally today the long desired rain.

My appointment with dermatologist went well. I'm still on antivirals and injections ( so painful!) and the convalescence will be long but I'll survive. ;)

Onto yarn related subjects.
Why do I find it so hard to throw away scraps? Is there a name for this syndrome?

I realize the possibilities are endless, I could make a big "magic ball", or maybe some domino squares, or some colourful granny squares. Or , better still, some cute little knitted or crocheted animals....any suggestions?

If only I had known.

Here I was, finally out of my summer apathy and ready to make the most of my renewed creativeness. First of all I planned to reorganize the house for the cold season which means mostly tidying up the wardrobes and the WIR in the main bedroom. Then I planned to make a tidy and comprehensive annotation of stash yarn and possible projects for each and every different type of wool, especially since I got this lovely lace weight just a few weeks ago on clearance: 50% of normal price: ( how could I resist?)


It seems that my plans will have to be postponed for the time being, but for as little as possible, because of a small inconvenience that suddenly appeared without warning:

I know what you must be thinking....YUK! That's exactly how I feel too. It's Herpes Zoster (shingles) on one of my legs. It's itchy, painful and uncomfortable. And I didn't even know such a thing existed until I decided to see a dermatologist for what I though were.....hear this.....mosquito bites!!
The man took but a glance at the red patch and started writing on his prescription pad with a concerned look on his face.
"You should have come here sooner.",he stated.
Sooner??, I thought.
" I assumed it was some kind of insect bite.", I answered.
" It's Herpes Zoster." he replied with a severe look.
"Oh, I had no idea!", I said, feeling like a real idiot.
".....mmmmm....", was his comment, and then went on for about twenty minutes explaining how the virus is the same that causes chicken-pox, that the rash will probably extend to a large part of my thigh and that the pain I was feeling was nothing compared to the Postherpetic Neuralgia that can last for many months, as the virus attacs the nerves.
".....mmmmmm.....", was MY comment!
Well, I walked out with a tablets-injections-ointment prescription, an appointment for next week, and a big headache.
So here I am now, paifully limping around the house feeling miserable and frustrated.
C'est la vie.....!

-to be continued..-

About Ravelry...

Is there anyone out there who is not waiting impatiently for the Ravelry invite?
I have just checked out my position on the long long list. I am n. 12865 (but....who's counting?!?). My little sister got her invite days ago and this has given me the opportunity to lurk around the Ravelry community. What a great place! In the meantime I've decided to concentrate on my WIPs as well as on my long neglected UFOs, giving priority to the former.

On the hook:

this is going to make all the ladies who like my "Pink and lacy summer shawl" happy. I have decided to write a pattern for it and the easiest way for me to do it without risks of silly errors is to crochet another one. I normally wouldn't make more than one shawl per pattern unless I wanted to give it away as a gift but in this case I have to make an exception. Wish me luck!

On the needles:

ahh....this is my secret project for this month (or next....who knows...) and I will not talk about it until I have decided what to do with it. My hope is to submit it somewhere and as you can see I have taken out paper and pencil. This is all I can tell you about it at this stage.
This is it for today. I don't want to be caught unprepared in case my Ravelry invite arrives so..
back to work!

This or that?

I'm in the middle of a dilemma. This is how it all started. Several weeks ago I was unpleasantly surprised discovering that I could not connect to my blog anymore. I tried and tried for days without any luck. Needless to say I was puzzled at first, then annoyed, finally I was plain angry. I'm talking about N&B, my first blog.The solution seemed inevitable: start a new blog somewhere else ,and I decided to sign up on Blogger. Since then I have been slowly transferring my old posts, including the photos (but not the comments because I'm not sure if that can be done), and I have copied and pasted almost 50% of all the posts....hard work!! Well, a few days ago my son talked me into changing provider for a more convenient and reliable one. I did, and guess what happened? I now can connect to my old blog without any problems whatsoever. Amazing. Now this is my dilemma: what do I do with two blogs ? I have this idea....keep them both. Yes, one for the "Needles", in other words knit, crochet, embroidery and anything related to those, and the other for the "Brushes" ( painting, glass decorating, etc...). This obviously means reorganizing archieves, links, and so on, but I believe it will be worth the trouble in the end. Oh well, life is never easy , right?

Errata on pattern.

Well , I knew it would happen.
My very first free crochet pattern had an error on the first row.
I have corrected it already. If you have printed the pattern this is how Row1 should read:

ROW 1:
dc in the fifth ch from hook, dc in the next ch, (=3dc)
ch 3, skp 3 ch, dc in the next 3 ch of f.c., ( 3 times),
* ch 7, skp 7 ch of f.c., dc in the next 3 ch, ch 7,
skp 7 ch of f.c.,dc in the next 3 ch of f.c.,
ch 3, skp 3 ch of f.c.,dc in the nxt 3 ch of f.c., ( 3 times)*
Repeat from * to * 4 more times.
Turn work.

A friend from Crochetville was nice enough to let me know. Thank you Sofia!

Here's the recipe I promised!

Zucchini quiche.

Ingredients:

zucchini 600 gr.
emmenthal cheese (or your favourite semi-mature cheese) 180 gr.
s.r. flour 100 gr.
cream 200 ml.
milk 5 tbsp.
eggs 3 large
salt
pepper
a good pinch of your favourite herb.

Grate the zucchini and the cheese.
Beat the eggs with the milk, salt, pepper and herb. ( I used fresh parsley)
Add the cream to the egg mixture.
Add the cheese and the flour to the zucchini in a large bowl, add egg mixture and mix with a spoon very well. Add a little more milk if it looks too dry.
Pour in a greased 11-12 in. (27-30 cm.) dish and bake in moderate oven for 45-55 min.
Serves 4-5