The Foodie Knitter

Snow Day!

2008-12-19T08:56:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a snow day. We've had over 12 inches in the last 4 days and I really just don't want to drive it again. I had a vacation day saved, so I'm lounging at home today, warm, safe, doing chores that have been ignored recently. And goofing off a bit:) I have been knitting, just no pictures recently because it's been so gray. Onto snow day pictures!

Yesterday morning:

This morning:

(and I couldn't get the ruler all the way to the ground, too deep)

And this crazy little rose was trying to bloom last week:

Enjoy! Stay warm, dry & safe!

Long lost post...

2008-10-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

It's been so long! This last month has just zoomed by in a blur. I spend my weekdays forcing myself through my workday, then coming home, cooking, relaxing with my husband, and going to bed to wake up and do it all over again. When I finally get to the weekend, I'm thrilled and all I really want to do is catch up.

But I have been knitting, and crocheting, and finishing projects, and a little bit of spinning. I have two finished projects to show you, but no spinning photos recently. I hope to get you spinning photos next week along with some of the beautiful fall scenes we've been having recently.

I finally finished an afghan I've been working on for nearly a year. It's crocheted on a P hook with a double strand of Simply Soft. It's heavy and warm and soft and lovely. And it's huge. I don't have any full pictures of it because I haven't figured out how to get a good photo of this spread out.

And I finished the handspun scarf. It's so soft and it turned out beautifully. I have enough yarn left over to do some handwarmers to match, I think.

Sorry I've been MIA

2008-09-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

But I've been knitting and spinning and it's been a bit gray for pictures. I finished up the BFL from the last post. It's luscious. The scarf is sitting at about 4 feet long right now. I'm going to go to 5 feet then see if I have enough fiber left for a pair of hand warmers.

And once that was off my wheel, I started this:

Bamboo/Merino blend. Kettle dyed by a little dyer down in Eugene, Or. I've since lost her card... I know it's around here somewhere but I can't find it. This is just about worsted. It's knitting to 4.5 sts/inch and it wants to be a little sweater. I bought just over half a pound, so I should have enough for a cropped sweater or something like that. And I have a partially finished February Lady Sweater to show you. Body done, just working on the sleeves. And once that's off my needles, I HAVE to figure out what is wrong with the sleeves on S's sweater so that I can finish that project that's been taking up needles for nearly a year. So I'm busy in fiber and I'm coping at work, even though I'm still bored and feeling frustrated. We've been busy lately, weekends have been quite full. Which is why I've been MIA. I'm hoping the tomatoes will finish ripening before we freeze. It got down in the lower 40's last night and my heater actually ran for the first time this morning. So I'm worried that they won't ripen any further. The bushes are still COVERED, but it hasn't been warm enough or sunny enough to finish them off. The rest of the garden has been a bit of a dud. My squash never started to produce. Lots of flowers, but no squash. Cucumbers put off a couple really nasty looking guys before dying off. Eggplants & tomatoes did really well though. But I'm off to work, so I'll get pictures of the scarf & sweater as soon as the light cooperates.

I think I'm in love

2008-08-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Need I say more?
Ok... If you really need more, it's my own handspun, BFL from my secret pal, about halfway spun up, at 150ish yards right now. On my new Ashford. I think I'm in love. I love the colors, the pattern, it's just fantastic. And I can spin so much finer now. Ravelry Link for those who want it. Enjoy.

Meet my new toy...

2008-08-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

This is my new wheel. It's my biggest birthday present, and by far my most used so far. I've been using it even more than the new mixer. But that may just be because it is so very hot. She's a beautiful used Ashford Traveler that I got for just about half off the normal retail price at my favorite LYS on the coast, Nestucca Bay Yarns. I love this shop! And the wheel qualified me for my bonus free merchandise, so I ended up with two skeins of delightful Malabrigio in lovely greens. No pictures of that. It kinda got forgotten in the process of playing with the new wheel.

I'm working with the BFL that my summer secret pal sent me and I'm in love. It's coming out very fine, just under fingering weight singles. Maybe a heavy lace weight single? I know it's going to be 2-3 ply and will be used for yummy house socks. This wheel spins like a dream.

I was going to try out a Fricke at Woodland Woolworks on the way home from the coast, but... I stopped at the LYS after receiving all my birthday booty and this little girl was sitting in a corner with a price tag that I just couldn't miss. So I sat and spun. And I was immediately spinning more even, finer yarn than I'd ever done before. Instant love. I didn't want to try another wheel, I wanted to bring this one home. And my birthday booty nearly paid for it.

So she came home with me. And I've been spinning at every opportunity every since. Which is why there wasn't a normal blog post recently. I've been too busy with the yarn. Isn't it pretty? So addicting...

Knitty Summer Love 2008!

2008-07-20T13:11:00.001-07:00

Yay! My summer love package got here yesterday, and am I ever spoiled!
I don't know why some of these picture are aligned right and some aren't, but they all were before I uploaded them and now I can't get them to upload correctly... Just tilt your heads and I'll try to figure out what's wrong later.
Overall, we have... Pretty Noro, needles, and pattern for a tea cozy. Maple tea. A wonderful hand-knit bag by Midnight Farm, book and CD contained within (she burned the CD just for me!). Pretty pretty BFL fiber in berry colors. Lots and lots of touristy information about Yellowstone & the Northwest Territories (I so want to come visit you now. And my husband is convinced he's found his version of heaven on earth). And a very cute Pinocchio tape measure.

Pretty Pretty Noro. My tea pot will be so happy this winter. And so spoiled!

Mmmmm... I love tea. And this smells so very good. I'm excited to try it. But it's 92 out right now, and the only tea I'm drinking is iced. But I'm taking a few bags to the coast with me for our trip at the end of the month, where it's plenty cold for a nice cup of hot tea.

Mmmmmmmmmmm... There are no words for this fiber. I'm beyond excited to start spinning it. But I need to get the green from the previous post off my wheel first. And then I have to figure out what this wants to become. Something nice and thin to make the most of it.
And so cute! His nose pulls out to reveal the tape measure.

So thank you, Midnight Farm. I love it!

In which there's sewing...

2008-07-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

My birthday is in a couple of weeks. Over the 4th of July sale, the DH decided to purchase the nice, shiny new kitchen aid that I've been drooling over. And he got a really amazing price. So I've been baking like crazy recently. (and with the outside temperatures, that's not necessarily a good thing)

But apparently that wasn't enough. We went to a thrift store yesterday in search of exercise equipment. This particular store usually has a great selection of lightly used stair steppers and such. And with us both sitting at a desk all day, it was sounding like a good idea to have something in the house to increase our physical activity. Well, yesterday they only had a few very sad looking nordik tracks and some rather ancient exercise bikes. No love for us there. But, of course, I had to check out the crafty section before leaving. Every once and a while, they have some really nice wool or fabric there. No wool, no nice fabric (some very 80's hot pink sweat suite material, though...) but this little baby was peaking out from under one of the tables:
It's BRAND NEW. The sticky things that cover the LCD screen hadn't even been removed. Had everything except the manual with it, which was easily attainable through the Brother website.

I bought my first machine in college. I was sewing like crazy for our wedding favors and for my veil, and anything else that I found for the wedding that needed to be taken care of. So for about 3 months, my $60 Singer got a hard work out. And then, mysteriously, the bobbin started snagging. It wouldn't pull smoothly. Nothing had been touched with the tension, I wasn't doing anything different. It just stopped sewing smoothly. And got very loud. So I put it away for about a year, between finding knitting again and getting married, and moving, and all that jazz, I just didn't think about sewing. It stayed in the back of my closet, happily silent. When we moved last spring, we were faced with some very oddly sized windows. And I had to pull the sad little machine out and make it work for a living again. I messed with the tension, and got a semi-smooth straight stitch out of it. But it was still very loud. But I got 3 out of 5 curtains completed before I couldn't take it anymore. When I saw this little gem in the store, at about 25% of it's original purchase price, I couldn't pass it up. It may not be a top-of-the-line brand. But it sews well. Very well. And it's so very quiet.

And my front door finally has a curtain:
Now I just need to finish up the Last Curtain for our bedroom windows. And the quilt that I don't have nearly enough fabric to complete the top...

Handspun!

2008-07-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

I'm alive. Everyone's ok. We're tired. We're overwhelmed. We're frustrated. But we're alive and surviving. I have lots of posts for you today. The first is my most recent handspun!

First up, 100% mohair. This was a blast to spin. It gets so nice and fluffy. And the colors are really pretty. This went to my downstream summer love secret pal.

And second is some wool. I'm not sure what breed. I got this gorgeous batt in a swap and it just said wool. About dk weight, plied with a rainbow colored rayon sewing thread. I'm at about 150 yards so far and have about 1/3 of the batt left to spin up. Should end up just over 200 yards total, maybe slightly more. I'm hoping to do a baby jacket out of this, might end up doing some contrast trim to stretch it. No, we're not having a baby. But with the way that my friends seem to be reproducing, it seems smart to keep a few things going just to make sure that my gift giving is covered. And we will, eventually, be having one. We just have to figure out where we're moving & how to afford the move first. Then we'll get to the happily ever after, one big family, part.

It's already July 1!

2008-07-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure where the last few months have gone, but they've just rushed by! They are just a blur of hotter and hotter days, learning a new job, sending out applications for more enjoyable jobs, spinning up a storm, and watching the weeds try to take over the world.

2 weeks ago I got a haircut, and I'm just now getting around to sharing. I love it. I think this is one of my favorite cuts that I've gotten in a while.

And while out walking Mill Creek after getting it cut, we found these HUGE dandelions. These things are massive!

But aren't they pretty? I have spinning to share with you, a really pretty mohair that I spun up this weekend. I'm starting to get a stockpile of hand spun around. I'm thinking about putting it up on Etsy... But I'm still not all that confident in my skills. Most of the hanks have at least one join in them where the yarn broke in the plying process, and I don't think I'm comfortable listing them that way. On the other hand, I'm never going to make my way through using all this fiber! I just can't decide if I feel "good enough" to sell it or not.

More pictures later this week, fiber ones next time!

It's a mental health day...

2008-06-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

And I've been spinning. I couldn't face work today. I can't really explain it. But every time that I tried to get ready, I started crying. Eventually, I decided it was time to just let myself off the hook for the day. It's been a long couple of days. And I hardly slept last night. So after contacting work, I went back to bed. Slept for 3 more hours. And felt half way to human.

And so I finished up this yarn. And I started a shawl. And I'm just picking up the hook to work on my skirt. And I have an entire box full of fluff waiting for me to spin up.

Isn't this stuff gorgeous? It's about 150 yards, dk-worsted, 80% wool, 20% Tussah Silk. And it's yummy.

This last picture is the most color accurate. I tweaked settings in photoshop to try and get a really close match on these pictures, and I'd say this one got pretty close. So now I'm going to go veg out on sappy tv shows and work on this skirt. I'm hoping tomorrow goes a little better.

I promised pictures!

2008-06-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm delivering.
First up, A pair of Tofutsies Socks. I love this yarn. The socks end up so lightweight, perfect for year round wear. These aren't colors that normally grab me, but they reminded me of a sunset. And I can be a little daring on my feet! Colors in my shoes don't necessarily need to look great next to my face, so I use my sock yarn to branch out, color wise.
One sock done. I'm not sure exactly what I did for the heel. I know how to duplicate it for the other heel, but it's not a heel that I've done before. I think I unvented something here, a box heel maybe? It's quite narrow and fits really well on my foot. It just looks and fits differently than any other heel that I've done and I really thought I was doing it exactly like I normally do...
Close up of the colors, isn't it pretty? I'm not a pink girl. And I'm not big on yellow. And the only orange I like is in the peach to deep russet shades. But the way it's blended in these socks, it just screams summer time. And since it's JUNE and we just now started getting above 70 degrees on a somewhat normal basis, I need a little bit of summer time.
My first squash blossom of the year! I don't actually remember what kind of squash this one is. I have Anna Swartz, Australian butter and Guatemalan blue out there.
And the roses are fully testifying to the fact that even though spring was dreadfully short, summer is finally trying to come. They are in full bloom. Our house is surrounded by color right now. And I'm a busy little gardener trying to keep up with keeping them trimmed back so that they don't get nasty looking.
I'm making a big bread salad for dinner tonight. And an Italian bean salad with flat bread for lunches this week. So if the salad turns out, you may be seeing some pics & recipes up later today.

In the job front, no news back about the interview. It went ok. Very nice woman who interviewed me, odd interview though. No longer than 5 minutes. After talking over they pay & position with the husbeast, we've decided that if it is offered, I'm going to refuse. It's closer to home, and a little bit better position, but it's less money. And Something about this job just doesn't feel right. I have two applications out, in particular, that I'm very excited about and I want to find out about those. I've got a job for now, it's not the best, but it pays well and I'm learning new things every day. I'm not going to settle this time around. I want a job that can turn into a career. And this position just wasn't it. So I'll keep looking. I know the right job is out there, and I'm hoping those 2 positions call me back, SOON!

I'm ok...

2008-06-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

I'm still here. Doing better. My job is just very emotionally taxing and at the end of the day all I want to do is whine and complain and I don't want this blog to be about that. I am knitting. I have most of a new sock done. Hopefully pictures tomorrow or this weekend. But we've had pretty gray weather up till this afternoon, so couldn't take pictures.

In other news, I have an interview tomorrow (thursday) for a job that I don't even remember applying for. But it's with a very nice company, so much closer to home, and it's more in the general realm of what I'm looking to do with my life. So I've taken the morning off and I get to go interview. Now I just have to figure out what to wear... And do something with my hair that so badly needs to be cut that it's slightly sad.

Ok. I promise. Next post - Pictures!

No pictures today...

2008-05-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

Today it's just me, talking, trying to figure out how it all is supposed to fit together.

Sometimes, things happen and we can't figure out why. And you think you've just about worked through them, just about made it ok in your head. And then, out of no where, you're slammed right back into the situation and you feel like crawling up in a little ball and crying because it hurts nearly as much as it did the first day... week... or month. It's been over two years. And yet today it hurts as much as it did those first few weeks. All because yesterday someone poked the scab and it was all I could do to make it through the rest of the day.

I graduated in a class of 8 students. We'd all been together for 2 years, doing everything together. We had our little 2 and 3's within the group who were closer than others, but we all looked out for each other. We all went on class trips together, had classes together, most of us went to the same college for the first year. And then we all started drifting apart. Our parents would keep us up to date on the ones who were far away. And we always said, this will be the year that we get everyone back together. 3 of us are married now. We have 2 college graduates, and 1 or 2 graduate this year. And 2 years ago one of us committed suicide. It was March 31, we got the call April 1st. We all thought it was some demented April fools day joke and we spent the day calling each other, trying to figure out if it was true. Within the week, all but 2 of us were back together in our little church beside the school. Trying to figure out how we'd let him get so lost. And we talked and remembered and laughed and cried. And then we moved on. We kept living our lives because that's what you do. And sometimes a song would come on the radio and I'd be floored, immediately crying and hurting again. But it's faded with time. I thought I was ok. I really did.

Yesterday I had a customer call in who's son had tried to commit suicide a month ago. And the pain in her voice... It was like being told again that he is gone. And all I want to do today is curl up in bed and cry and remember him. But I can't. I have to pull it together and go to work. Because it's been over 2 years and I should be ok by now. A part of me still wants to believe that it's a really elaborate joke. But I know it's not. And that really completely sucks. I don't understand. I don't know if I ever will.

But I hope our love gets through to him, in some way. Because we all miss him... So much. And today it's just a little harder than most to put him away.

It's spring

2008-05-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

And I'm sick. I spent all day friday coughing. About half of yesterday coughing. I've only coughed a couple of times today, but that's because I don't think my abs have enough strength left to make me cough. As long as I sit still and don't talk to laugh or move, I don't cough. Unfortunatly, my job is talking all day long (hence, I took Friday off). And the house kind of looks like it hasn't been cleaned in a month (even though I did it last weekend). And there's very little food in the house. And the bathtub appears to be a science experiment on different kinds of soap scum (we ran out of daily shower cleaner 3 weeks ago and I can't seem to remember to refill it). But the cleaners make me cough on a good day... I may have to make the husband clean that today. I said I would definitely take care of it this weekend, but I'm pretty sure I physically can't.

The pretty pictures are so that this post isn't all whine. I hate not feeling well. I normally only get sick once or twice a year and this is the second time in 6 weeks that I've felt like a train wreck. I know my immune system will get used to the recycled air eventually, but for the time being, I'm picking up everything that goes through the building. And it kinda sucks. It's gorgeous outside and I wanted to enjoy it, to get the irrigation laid in my garden, air out the house, clean, cook, bake. Instead, I'm staring at my computer screen, wishing I could breathe without feeling like I need to cough. But it is spring. Completely and totally spring. Everything is in bloom and it's beautiful. It's finally warming up. I need to switch out the closet next weekend or the weekend after. It's just plain wonderful out (if you ignore the wind).

So I'm going to stop complaining, pull myself together enough to get to Andy's Market, and leave you with the pretty pictures. I have been knitting a bit again. I'll report back on that when I feel a little more alive and a little less like a walking cough.

I am SOOO Nervous...

2008-04-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

I start doing my job, for real, today. The last 4 weeks have been training. Lots and lots of classroom training. And I go live today. And I'm so nervous. There is so much to remember, so many steps we need to do, so many things we need to say. I know the stuff in my head. It's just that we haven't had any practical application of it, just simulations, and today we go live, with real customers. I'm freaking out just a little. I am absolutely THRILLED to not be getting up at 3:30 am anymore, though. Getting up when it's light out is a fabulous change. I'm not excited about loosing all that afternoon free time that I had, but I think the sleeping till it's light out makes up for it.

No real news on the knitting front. I'm just really burned out. And I've lost the driving need to keep my hands busy. Once I settle into a routine at work, I will probably do more again. But right now, I've gotten about 5 inches of Clapotis and about 10 rows on a dishcloth in the last 4 weeks. I've cleaned my house. I've cooked a lot. I've learned a whole new job completely unlike anything that I've ever done before. I've spun up about 2 oz of fiber. I've met a lot of new people and found a few new friends. But the knitting just isn't happening. I'm still on Ravelry and Knitty too many hours each day. I love looking, planning, imagining. But when I sit down and pick up the needles, I just don't feel the calm settle over me anymore. I knit so much at my last job, several hours a day. I lived and breathed fiber and yarn and knitting and crocheting. And most days I really enjoyed it. But without that driving need to keep on top of things in the fiber art world, I've stepped back to more of an observing role. I want to feel driven to pick up my needles or hook and create something. I miss the calm, brainless, relaxing rhythm of it. But it's just not coming right now. We all need a break sometimes, right?

Anyway, I'm just a couple weeks out from my Blogiversary, so I'm thinking of doing a contest. I'll update you on it when it's closer. It's the end of May, the 28th. So be looking for a give-away that week!

Signs of Spring

2008-04-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

Lilacs are budding

Roses are leafing out...

And I just brushed a pile of hair out of the dog that is as large as a soccer ball. And that was with her normal brush, not the Furminator. I try to do the normal to get all the loose hair then go over her again with the Furminator to get the rest of it. Usually, I get a baseball size off of her with each. I'm almost scared to go over her with the other brush now! She is really and truly in the midst of blowing her coat. We've had her just over a year. She was at the end of her spring shed when we got her. Immediately had to buy a Furminator to deal with the hair. Normal brushing kept her up till her fall shed. Then it was Furminator time again. Winter was easy, brushing once every week or two. Now we're back to twice daily brushings. Ugh...

Sorry for the so long without posting. I'm halfway through training for the new job then I get a much more pleasant schedule. I'm currently at 5am - 1:30pm. Which means I'm awake by 3:45am. And in bed by 7pm. I'm constantly exhausted. But only one more week then I'll be at 9am - 5:30pm. There's not a lot of knitting going on. I'm pretty burned out. I'm working on a springy Clapotis that I'm about half done with. I started another pair of Jaywalkers but lost my momentum. I have 2 or 3 panels on my skirt done, out of 8. The afghan has 2 more strips to go. The Endpaper Mitts have .5 to go. And I just don't have enough creative juice left to do them. So I've got a reversible dishcloth in my purse for mindless work and I'm just waiting for enough energy to continue with the other pieces. Hopefully once I'm off this dreadful schedule I'll be able to start again.

PATTERN! Sassenach Stockings

2008-03-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

Sassenach Stockings
By Jessica Palmer

Sassenach Stockings

Materials:

150 - 200 grams Fingering Weight Yarn
US 1 / 47” Circular needle or size needed to obtain gauge
Finishing Needle
¼ inch elastic, 3 feet or so will be more than enough
1/8 or ¼ inch ribbon for the faux garter

Gauge: 36 sts over 4 inches in Stockinette Stitch; row gauge doesn’t matter much for this pattern.

Notes: These stockings are worked two at a time; toe up, with the magic loop technique. Directions will be given for one stocking, duplicate each set of directions for the second stocking. You may either work from both ends of one ball or from 2 separate balls, just remember to switch yarns each time you switch stockings!

Directions:

1. Cast on 12 stitches for each stocking, using a different strand of yarn for each stocking. Backwards loop cast on recommended.

2. Knit 11. Drop the slip knot off your needle without knitting it. (11 sts for each stocking)

3. Pick up and knit 11 stitches from the underside of your cast on. These should be situated opposite of the first 11 stitches on your needle to form the underside of the toe. You should now be set up in the traditional magic loop stations, two sets of 11 on the front half waiting to be knit and two sets of eleven on the back half. (22 sts for each stocking)

4. Begin toe increases:

Round 1: *K1, M1, knit to one stitch before end of each stocking half, M1, K1* Repeat for each half of each stocking

Round 2: Knit all stitches

5. Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until there are enough stitches to fit snuggly around your foot (7.5 inch foot: 60; 8 inch foot: 64; 8.5 inch foot: 68; 9 inch foot: 72 stitches). Since the number has to be a multiple of 4 to work in the pattern, and you need an odd number on each needle, one needle will have one extra set of increases. These extra 2 stitches will be added to the bottom of your foot, so the set up of stitches on your needles should be: (Size: top & bottom) 7.5: 29 & 31; 8: 31 & 33; 8.5: 33 & 35; 9: 35 & 37

6. When desired number of stitches has been reached, knit evenly until toe measures approximately 2 inches, or just to base of toes.

7. Begin instep pattern:

1. K6 (7, 8, 9), p1, k15, p1, k6 (7, 8, 9).

2. k5 (6, 7, 8), p1, k1, p1, k13, p1, k1, p1, k5 (6, 7, 8).

8. At the same time begin working padding on the foot:

1. *slip 1, k1* across bottom of foot

2. knit all stitches

3. *k1, slip 1* across bottom of foot

4. knit all stitches

9. Work in pattern for instep and bottom of foot until foot pad is long enough to cover the ball of your foot, approx 2 inches.

10. Continue instep pattern, and knit all stitches on the second needle until sock measures 1.5 – 2 inches shorter than desired length of foot.

11. Work your favorite toe-up heel. I like the short row heel, but many people like toe-up heel flaps. You will need to start the heel flap heel at 4 inches before desired foot length. For some easy tutorials on short row heels, check out these links:

http://misocrafty.squarespace.com/journal/2006/9/21/short-row-heel-tutorial.html

http://www.cosmicpluto.com/blog/?p=585

http://www.thedietdiary.com/blog/lucia/554 (this is a great one if you’ve never done short row heels before)

12. Keeping shin section in original pattern, work ½ inch plain over calf stitches, then begin working chart as follows:

NOTE - there is a plain row in between charted rows that is not reflected in the line numbers on the chart!

1. K6 (7, 8, 9), p1, k1, p1, work chart, p1, k1, p1, k6 (7, 8, 9)

2. K5 (6, 7, 8), p1, k1, p1, knit the knits and purl the purls, p1, k1, p1, k5 (6, 7, 8)

14. Continue to work even until are 2 – 2.5 inches below the largest part of your calf.

15. Now you’ll have to do a little math – not much, but a little. I’ll break it down as much as I can for you.

1. Measure the circumference of your calf at it’s largest point (in inches): C=___

2. C*0.9=____= i (inches for calf)

3. i * 9(gauge)=____=S (total stitches needed for calf)

4. Once you have S, round to the nearest multiple of 4 and begin calf increases.

16. Work increases as follows:

Needle 1: k1, m1, work in pattern until 1 stitch remains, m1, k1

Needle 2: k1, m1, work in pattern until 1 stitch remains, m1, k1

Work 1 round even.

17. Continue increasing until you have S stitches total. Then work even, in pattern, for each round until you are ½ inch from the desired length.

18. Knit ½ inch without any patterning. Next round: *k2tog, yo* Knit another ½ inch.

19. Do not cast off! Sew the live stitches down, one at a time, folding at the k2tog, yo row, to form a picot hem.

20. Weave in your ends. Cut the elastic long enough to fit snugly, without stretching too much, around your leg, just below the knee. Thread through your elastic and ribbons through the picot hem, leaving the ribbon ends hanging out one of the YO holes so that you can tie in a bow. Make sure to sew the ends of the elastic together before letting it escape into the hem! I just used a quick overhand stitch to secure the ends, overlapping them about ½ an inch and stitching the overlapping ends together.

3 Years ago today...

2008-03-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

I married my best friend.

You make me smile and laugh.

And I can not imagine life without you.I love you.

On homebuying and Mortgages

2008-03-15T21:48:00.000-07:00

There are so many options out there when you start to think about buying a house. We are in the beginning planning stages of purchasing our first home. And as we are in our mid-twenties and not independently wealthy, we will need a Mortgage in order to purchase said home. With the market the way it is right now, I'm not sure we'd be approved. We're working on paying down debt, improving our credit score, and saving a little bit of money. Luckily, there are lots of options out there for financing your first home, especially once you have a great credit score. Many sites are available to help with understanding the differences between mortgage types and options. It's so nice to have all that information at our finger tips!

*sponsored post*

Ok, An update and KNITTING content!

2008-03-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

First off, Knitting stuff. Life update will be at the end so that those of you who don't want to know, or don't care, don't have to read it.

Biggest fun project just for me this week? Endpaper Mitts! I've never done a full project in fair isle before. I've swatched it, played around with it, but never jumped in and done it. Now I'm wondering why I waited so long. This pattern is beautifully written, and the charts become fairly instinctive. I'm about half way up the thumb increase chart. And I'm loving loving loving the rhythm of two handed color work. This project is so relaxing and rewarding to work on. The cream is an alpaca silk blend. The blue multi color is Trekking Pro-Natura, their bamboo/wool blend. They are working together really nicely and I love the subtle striping I'm getting with the Trekking. I'm not sure you can see it in the photo, but it's really pretty.

Next up, Lillie's sweater. This doesn't fit very well, but it serves it's purpose. We have a no-pull harness for her that's not designed very well. But we're broke, so no new harness until we can afford it. We have a halti that we love for walks around a lot of other people, but for more relaxed walks, we tend to just let her run on her extendable leash or off leash if there's no one else around. Well, we'd been loosing track of her off leash. She's able to blend right in to the shadows underneath the trees and we have to call her and try to coax her back when we can't see her. Hence, the neon green sweater. Also, this stops the rubbing of the harness. So it serves two purposes, when she's off leash, we can keep track of her. When she's on leash, she's not getting rubbed raw by the poorly designed harness.

Lastly... My news. I've been struggling with this for nearly a year. But finally decided to just bite the bullet and get it done.

I put in my two week notice at work on Friday and I start my new job on the 24th of March. I'm not going to go into all my reasonings, but the biggest reason is that I never intended to stay this long.

I didn't want to work retail again when I took this position. I took it to pay the bills until I found something else, something not retail.

And then I fell in love with the shop, with my customers. And I couldn't walk away when it was time. But it's been time to let it go for over a year. So I made it a priority this winter to find something else. And I did.

I went through a whorl wind of an application process last week. It was less than 30 hours between turning in the application and being offered the job. And I gave notice on Friday.

I'm still struggling with leaving my customers. With leaving the shop. I feel guilty for walking away from it.

But I made a decision to do what was best for my family. We want to buy a house. We want to have children. I desperately want to finish my degree. But we can't move forward until we pay off our debts and have a stable, predictable income. And so that's what I chose. I am getting excited about the change. I'm so ready to be out of retail that it's not even funny. And at the end of the day, I'm ready to move forward. I'm so excited about our future. So excited to see what kind of doors this is going to open up for us. I'm not revealing where I'm going. There will only be a few people who know. But it's not retail! It's not my dream job. But it's a good stepping stone.

2008-02-26T09:50:00.000-08:00

I've been blog absent for about 2 weeks. And I have a lot to share with you all. But I can't yet. I think I can do a big update this weekend. But I have a lot of changes going on right now. A lot of stuff up in the air. And I'm not sure yet when it all will settle. But it should be by next week. I'm fairly stressed, a little confused, a little excited, and a lot exhausted of it all. Very ready for everything to settle down into a somewhat normal schedule.

Christopher's Angels

2008-02-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

My January project has been one of my more challenging projects. Not because it was difficult, not because the techniques were advanced, only because I was dealing with the little tiny pieces intended for preemies. Christopher's Angels has been one of my main focuses this last month. I've done so much knitting for myself over the years. I do give things away to family, but I'd never gotten into the charity knitting scene. It was something I wanted to do, but couldn't figure out how to choose between all the great causes out there. Then one of the ladies on a the KnittyBoard goes through an event that no woman should ever have to endure. When the board members came together to knit preemie clothes to donate in memory of her son, I knew what I needed to work on. I started January first and whenever I had a chance, I crocheted or knit up a little piece to add to the package. The items need to reach the UK by the first of March, so I finished up my last hat today and I'll be sticking it in the mail tomorrow. I'll continue making these pieces, now that I've been exposed to the experience. If they don't send anymore to her hospital, I'll be sending them up to the NICU in Spokane, or possibly talking to one of our local hospitals to see if they have a need. They don't have the ability to deal with the itty-bitty one's here, so I'm not sure how many of these items they go through. So, Christopher William, you will be remembered. Because your mommy loved you so much and because we think your mommy is just amazing. We only wish we'd had a chance to get to know you. I hope these items will help heal the pain of the families that they are destined for.

FO: Koolhaas Hat

2008-02-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

Not the quickest knit, but fun! All those cables!
Total time - about 4 days of knitting.
Yarn - Rialto Aran by Debbie Bliss
Needles - US 6 for ribbing, US 8 for main
No real mods, did the women's size. Great pattern, a little unclear about how to change the marker around on row 8, but once I figured it out, it went just fine.

Ribbing, Ribbing, Ribbing

2008-02-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

Everywhere I look is ribbing! It's actually fairly fun though. Finished the 1 X 1 in the round, have about an inch to do before finishing the 4 X 2 for the back. Will probably have the main body done by the end of Monday and be able to start the arms. I think I'm going to try to pick up stitches around the arm hole and knit down. I've done this once before with drop sleeves and it worked really nicely.
This is The Fog Sweater by Tiennie. It has so many sizes, and being all rib, it will fit a great variety of people. The smallest size may even fit me. If not, it would be really easy to size down one more size. After making this one, I really want one for myself. It's so squishy! This is the Ebony color way in Cascade Eco-Wool. Second or third time I've worked with this yarn, and I always love it. It still smells of sheep! It does really dry out my hands to work with though. I can't wait to see this one done!

Knitter's Black Hole (or the sweater that never ends)

2008-01-30T11:06:00.000-08:00

I've hit a knitter's black hole on DH's sweater. I'm at 15.5 inches of body, I need 16. I've been at 15.5 the last upteen time's I've measured. I swear it feels like I've done 50 rounds since then. But I'm still at 15.5. I'm always amazed at my ability to forget this portion of sweater knitting. It happens on every sweater body that I've done. Sleeves usually don't drop into the black hole, there's lots of increases or decreases to keep things moving along. But bodies? Especially big square bodies for a certain boy? Those stretch onto never never land. And the main stitch pattern? It's 1 X 1 rib. I must love this guy a lot. I love how it's turning out. The pattern is so squishy and soft, I keep threatening that I'm going to keep it for myself. It's a really well written pattern so far, easy to follow and adapt for different gauges. But it's hit the black hole and I'm not sure it will ever come out. 15.5 is haunting my daydreams. But I better get back to it. Unfortunatly, it won't knit itself in my absense. I'm just so ready to get to the break for the sleeves and start the 4 X 2 rib on the chest. It'll be a great break from this!

Stocking update - pattern almost done, chart is inserted, adobe downloaded to convert to PDF. Now all I need is to insert pictures and reword a couple unclear sections. Look for it within the next 2 weeks. I'm planning to offer it as a free PDF download here.

Cheap Glasses

2008-01-29T19:49:00.000-08:00

For a while yet, people around the Knittyboard have been singing the praises of Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case! They have some of the cutest glasses, and amazing prices!I think the frames above are so cute, I'd love them in black or pewter coloring. Of course, the threads starting coming up about a month after I paid several hundred for my new frames & lenses. I definitely have plans to order my next pair from Zenni Optical though. I've heard their customer service is fantastic and the glasses arrive quickly. I love it when I can find a great price on something like this! My prescription changes so frequently that even just changing the lenses can get pretty spendy!

*sponsored post*

Blogstalk: Favorite Color(s)

2008-01-25T09:02:00.001-08:00

These pictures are probably the best representation I can find for my favorite colors. I love rich, deep colors, jewel tones. Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, Emerald Green, Royal Purple. These are the colors I wear the most, and the colors I use the most. I also use/wear a lot of natural tones, tans, chocolate browns, creams, charcoal gray.

Ready for Spring...

2008-01-25T08:55:00.000-08:00

It's cold. Very very cold. I'm so ready for this cold spell to break. It hasn't gotten above 25 F all week, our nightly lows have been in the single digits. See my weather girl over there? She hasn't been able to take off her parka in over a week. It's so cold that the INSIDE of my windows is frosted over. I dropped a magazine behind the couch last night and went to pick it up this morning. It is frozen to the window behind the couch. I can't get it off. Even Lillie is cold. She's been very snuggly and curled up in her bed.

I'm so ready for Spring. The icy roads are getting really annoying, mainly because people are determined to either drive extremely slowly (10 - 15 mph) or to drive extremely stupid (turning in front of me and nearly hitting a pedestrian that I was allowing to cross). I'm ready for it to all go back to normal. I love the snow, but not when the snow has a half inch of ice over it.

Ok. I'll stop complaining now and return you to your regularly scheduled blog feeds.

Massage?

2008-01-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

I love a good massage. But it is so expensive! If I got a massage as often as I wanted to, I'd forever be in debt. We've tried out massage chairs at various different places, but they never feel like the real thing. Today I read about new Massage Chairs and they sound pretty nice. They aren't cheap in any way, but if you want a massage in the comfort of your own home, these look like the way to go. They are called Human Touch massage chairs and they are supposed to feel just like a professional massage. The chairs can go at several different angles and have a variety of features to give you a custom massage every time. Once we get a larger house, I'm going to have to look up Human Touch Massage Chairs again. Maybe the prices will come down by then!

*sponsored post*

New Haircut

2008-01-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

Got my hair cut on Saturday. I'm not completely sure that I like it yet. I only get it cut about twice a year, so I really should pay a little more to get haircuts I love, but I always end up deciding at the last minute that I want to get it cut and having to go to one of the cheapo places that accepts walk-ins. It's pretty cute from the front, I'm just not positive I like how short the layers get in the back. You can't really tell how short they get here, but the shortest layer in the back is only a few inches long. Makes it hard to straighten it enough so it doesn't stick up.

And no one's mentioned it yet. I cut off 6 inches of hair and no one notices or mentions it. Makes me wonder if it's just an awful cut and no one knows how to tell me or if I'm just that easy to overlook normally. But DH likes it. And I'm learning to like it. So I guess that's what really matters.

In knitting news, I've started a sweater for the doggie to wear when we go up into the snow. And today I'm starting a sweater for DH. So pictures and details of that to come.

FO: Diagonal Knot Scarf

2008-01-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

It's done!
Stats:
US 11 needles
Hand spun, about a bulky weight
70% Merino, 30% Tussah Silk, Plied with 100% silk threaded with glass beads
Diagonal Knot Scarf Pattern
Mods: 13 Stitches wide

This turned out beautifully. I haven't blocked it yet because I was too excited to wear it. I'm going to spin up the rest of the roving to make Nautilus as a matching hat.

The yarn, she's done!

2008-01-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

Final stats:

116 yards, base roving was 70 % merino, 30% silk, 2 ply, with a ply of 100% silk sewing thread that was strung with glass size 6 seed beads. I love it. I'm going to be using it to knit The Diagonal Knot Scarf on size 11 needles, over 13 sts. It will be thin and probably not terribly long, but it will be so pretty and soft. I love how this ended up.

Apparently I'm not as indecisive as I thought...

2008-01-09T20:45:00.001-08:00

88% Barack Obama
87% Hillary Clinton
86% John Edwards
85% Chris Dodd
83% Bill Richardson
79% Joe Biden
67% Mike Gravel
66% Dennis Kucinich
59% Rudy Giuliani
55% John McCain
41% Mitt Romney
38% Mike Huckabee
30% Tom Tancredo
27% Fred Thompson
23% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

I have no idea which way I'm voting, but apparently I'm a little clearer on where I stand than I thought I was. I was mildly surprised to see the results. I need to research, research, research before the election comes up.

New Year, New Technique

2008-01-06T20:03:00.001-08:00

I'm learning to spin beads into my yarn. You can barely see them in there, but they are the little clear flecks. Only one is really in focus, but one or two more are slightly out of focus at the bottom of the picture. I'm spacing them about ever 12 - 18 inches. I am absolutely loving how this yarn is coming out! This is one of my favorite things that I've worked on. The roving is 70% Merino, 30% Tussah silk, color way Seamist, through Woodland Woolworks. I got a luxurious 8 oz of this stuff! I spun up 2 bobbins, probably about 2/3's of the fiber, so work the beads into. The beads are strung on a chocolate brown 100% silk sewing thread. They are size 10 seed beads. The yarn has a gorgeous texture and is a dream to spin. Love! Depending on how much I get, I think this is going to be a really airy, drapey scarf. Big needles, US 10 or 10.5 and just a little bit of openwork. Something really simple. I'll show you more pictures when this one is done.

In knitting news, I finished my Oblique sweater. It's fantastic! This was such a fun pattern to knit and went relatively quickly, when I was focused on knitting it. The back took about a week, each sleeve probably took 3 days of knitting and each front took 2 - 3 days of knitting. So I could have finished this within 3 weeks. But instead, I ADD knit it and was distracted by 2 pairs of socks, a baby hat, a baby sweater, a crocheted afghan, a knit baby afghan, and 2 shawls. And only 2 of those previous items are actually finished. Oy. I need someone to control me. I need to do a great big update on knitting, but the weather hasn't been cooperating. See: http://www.union-bulletin.com/local_news/
We came through the storm just fine. Lost power for 25 or 26 hours, and lost our car port roof and my greenhouse. But no major damage. Many, many people were not so lucky. It's devastating to drive down the streets in the older parts of town. There are 200 year old trees there that came toppling down with these winds and they did an impressive amount of damage. I've heard reports that individuals with weather stations on their houses clocked wind gusts up to 85 MPH, but the official report is 78 MPH. Of course, that 78 MPH gust took out the power to the official weather station, so we don't know if it got any worse. All in all, Friday was a pretty rough day for many in my county. There are still a few areas without power, but most are back up now.

Anyway, once it clears up and life settles down a bit (hopefully this week) I will be taking many pictures to share. Lots in progress to update you on! And the super secret sock pattern is about half way done. I'm at the directions for the heel now and... Well... I know what type of heel I used, but I don't really know how to write it out so it makes sense. So we'll see what I come up with. I'll figure it out sooner or later!

Have a great night, all!

BlogStalk: Fave invention of the 20th Century

2007-12-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

When I saw this topic come up, my mind immediately went to cell phones and digital cameras. I use them every day and they are an intrinsic part of my life, but I would adapt to life without them. Humans are amazing in their ability to adapt to their situations. So I know I could live without cell phones and digital cameras.

Wanna know what I've decided I can't live without?

My old kitchen aid stand mixer. It was my Christmas present from the husband and I've only used it once. But I made a double batch of bread last night in 20 minutes (it's rising slowly in the fridge all day). That batch of bread normally takes me about 40 minutes to knead by hand, not to mention the time for shaping and mixing and trying to get it the right consistency. It's a K5A, so it doesn't have the same speed control as the newer ones, and it doesn't have the hokey plastic gear casing that the newer ones do. It's pure metal and weighs in at 31 pounds! And I'm in love. I don't think we'll be buying bread anymore. This is just way too easy and fun. I think I'm in love.

The other thing I'm very thankful for? Pain meds. I'm not entirely sure what I did to my back, but I aggravated a many year old back injury in the last few days and I can't hardly move. It's very difficult to dress when you can barely reach your feet without crying. So I'm popping pills every 4 - 5 hours and hoping it loosens up in the next couple of days. I may be spending all weekend in bed, though it was amazingly sore and stiff when I got up this morning, 10 times worse than when I went to bed. It's nearly as painful as when I first injured it, normally my flair ups are at about half the original pain. I think I really messed it up this time around. So if it's not remarkably better by Monday, I'm headed to the walk-in clinic to see if I can get the big girl drugs. For now, It's naproxen sodium, very careful bending, and homemade bread.

And we're back!

2007-12-26T09:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas vacation went really well. I started a new knitting project, which we'll discuss after I take pictures! We had a lovely time visiting our families and made a bit of progress on the moving front. Looks like we're looking at 6-12 months here and then begin the annoying process of relocating. It gets harder to leave every time. We really miss our families. But I'll do a big post later tonight, Just wanted to say that I'm back!

Traveling?

2007-12-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Hotel Reservations is the new reservation site on the web. They have hotels, flights, vacation rentals, and car rentals. Everything you need to get from point A to point B and save money doing it! You can book online or over the phone and they even have group discount rates. Looks like the simplest way to save money while booking for a large group. They guarantee that their prices are the lowest on the net. If you have a destination in mind, you can narrow your search by dates, times, and locations. If you just want to set off on a driving destination, tell them how much time you want to spend in the car and where you're starting from, and they'll give you a selection of destinations, with estimated travel times and cost of hotels. They may not be as large as some of the other hotel discount sites, but they do have wonderful prices and seem to be really easy to navigate. Next time we travel, we'll be checking out Hotel Reservations first!

*this is a sponsored post*

Done!

2007-12-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

I just finished the last exam of my Landscape Design Program. It was a 12-18 month home study program to give you the basics of landscape design, to understand the theories behind it, understand design principles, etc. Not a lot of the art/design aspect, but a lot of the business end of things. Which is what I wanted. And I'm done. One more payment to go, and I get the little piece of paper saying that I finally finished something. Now I have to find something new. I need to look into finishing my AS or BA online, don't have time or money to do a real classroom route right now. But I could finish the management degree online. It feels good to be done with something!

Winter is Officially Here

2007-12-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

For so many people, winter is viewed as a time of rebuilding. They see the plants go dormant, the snow come down and blanket the plants as a protective covering, the shorter days, and they see life rebuilding and repairing itself in preparation for spring.
Myself, I see winter as a time of breaking. It's been this way for years for me. If I'm going to struggle and fight with something, I more than likely will be dealing with it in the winter. Being cooped up more, dealing with the shorter days, looking at the barren landscape. It all causes me to re-evaluate where I stand and to attempt to change the things bothering me. So often, this is the time that my fears and feelings of inadequacy come back to me. And it's the time of year that I feel like something inside of me is breaking. Not breaking to the point of no return, but breaking so that I can be rebuilt.

Yesterday was our pastor's final sermon before moving. He spoke about fear, about stepping out into the unknown. And as he spoke, I began to see the last few weeks for what they were. My own fight against the season of breaking. I fight it every year. I try to push through it by keeping myself busy. Believing that if I ignore it, I won't have to do it again. This year, it snuck up on me a little bit. I didn't prepare for it, I didn't see it coming. So when it came, I was knocked off my feet by it a little. Little by little, the restlessness moved back in and I started floundering.

I don't know how long it will take me to work through this. So today I decided I had to deal with it. I baked and cooked, did laundry, went through my knitting projects to reorganize them, and molded soap for Christmas. I feel hollow tonight. I can feel the breaking. I know where it's centered and I know I need to stop fighting it. But some days? Some days I just want to escape back to summer. This isn't easy. It's emotionally exhausting.

Ravelry is very good

2007-12-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

Especially on the day the new http://www.knitty.com/ comes out. Why? Because it tells me I already have 6 items on the needles. Granted, I don't remember where one of them is in the mess I call home, but I have 6 in the works. None is above 60% completed right now. I can not, can not, can not cast on for a new project. But I so want to... So very very much.

I want to make a shrug for my doggie. She won't like it one bit, I don't think, but I just need to see her in it. Doesn't matter that she's 50 lbs and way above the sizes in the pattern, I just think she needs one.

And I love the socks. All the socks. I have lots of sock yarn too. But my socks in progress are the project I can't find. And I've loaned out my cable needle for them and haven't gotten it back yet. So do they really count? I just finished a pair of socks last night, of my own design, super secret project. I haven't decided yet how I'm publishing the design. Probably a free PDF linked through here and Ravelry. We'll see. May just decide to submit it someplace, which is why it's super secret right now. So I'm sockless at the moment. Does that mean I can cast on? No. It means I get my tush in gear and find the missing sock.

But the real project that's got me befuddled and wishing I could just cast it all aside? It's Jeanie. I'm in love with everything about this project. I am in a state of cable lust right now. Almost all my projects OTN are either cabled or lace and *sigh* I feel like I must have this shawl. I don't even like knitting rectangular stoles. Not at all. They bore me after about 10 inches. So Why, oh Why, does this project torment me so? It's all I can do not to buy yarn for it. I think it would be amazing out of the Habu 1/6 roving and we have a hank here at work that's just plain perfect. Almost exactly the yardage needed. But I can't... I really can't...

Well... Maybe I can. It will take a week to finish drying if I dye it tonight and if I wait till this weekend to dye it, it will take all next week to dry. That means that I have 2 weeks to get a couple things off the needles and cast on for this project. The baby hat will take another hour or two to finish. The rest? I'm not sure. Maybe I'll use this project as a reward for writing up the pattern for the previously mentioned socks. I'm such and ADD knitter. There must me something in the air, because I've noticed a lot of us have caught castonitis lately. But isn't it lovely?

Pretty Snow

2007-11-30T08:51:00.001-08:00

IMG_1963
Originally uploaded by His_Mrs

It's snowing again this morning. It's so very pretty. We have around an inch of accumulation. Click over to my flickr to see more pictures.

Lots of snow...

2007-11-29T08:11:00.000-08:00

Too bad I'm too old for a snow day. We've got at least half an inch of snow on the ground this morning and it's still coming down, pretty heavy too. It's sooooo pretty. I love the first good snow of the year. It doesn't usually come this early, but I'm not going to complain. I don't think I remember it snowing before Christmas at all since I moved here 5 years ago. And this is still November! I'll try to get pictures later. I woke up to all this lovely blue light streaming through the window and it was completely silent out. I love that about snow. It's completely quiet. So peaceful and beautiful. Snow makes me happy. It's my favorite part of winter. I hope we still get snow when we move.

In other news, knitting is coming along slowly. I need to take photos and update ravelry, which means I'll be updating here as well.

Yanked from someone...

2007-11-27T20:02:00.001-08:00

Lets101 - Online Dating

BlogStalk: Breakfast

2007-11-25T14:29:00.001-08:00

Steel Cut oatmeal, made with rice milk, molasses, brown sugar, and several spices. Yummy. I usually make a big pot on Sunday and then dish it up into single servings for the week ahead. It usually only ends up lasting 2 days though. I roughly follow Alton Brown's recipe, it's available on the Food Network Website, but I make it healthier, using rice milk instead of cream and molasses & brown sugar. Very Yummy and filling!

BlogStalk: Thanksgiving Edition

2007-11-25T14:22:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving, it was myself, my husband, and a friend who couldn't make it to see his family for the holiday. Since no one should be alone for their first holiday without family, we made him come over. The husband played video games with him and I cooked. A lot.

We had duck:

The first time I've ever cooked a duck, first time I've ever tasted duck. It tasted just like the dark meat of the turkey to me, but then again, I only had 2 bites. The husband says it was quite good. Next year, it's vegetarian meatballs or loaf. No more poultry in this kitchen!

Sides #1:

Salad, salad dressing, and the roast tofu, that was cold by this time, but I didn't know that.

Sides #2:

Cranberry Sauce, From scratch!, dressing, green beans with lots of garlic, roast garlic mashed potatoes, and turkey gravy. The bread isn't pictured because it was a minor disaster and I didn't feel like showing you it's issues.

Garage Flooring

2007-11-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

What does your garage floor look like? Is it beat up, dingy, oil stained, cracked? Or are you one of the lucky few who have taken the time to cover up the nasty concrete with something more appealing?
We don't have a garage anymore, but the garage in our old place was nasty. Someone had used it to spray paint car parts without putting down drop cloths. My old car leaked oil and radiator fluid. Despite my husband's efforts, it never came clean. The entire time that we lived there, my husband talked about how nice it would be to be able to cover the floor in some way.
When we move again, he's dictated that we will have a garage. And that garage will have some kind of garage flooring. This site has more options for covering up concrete than I've seen anywhere else! They have enough colors to go with any theme that you might have going on in your garage. Take a look!

Pumpkin Biscotti

2007-11-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Biscotti

5 cups White Flour
1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup pumpkin purée
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 Preheat oven to 350 F.

2 In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients, including the spices. In a second bowl, mix the wet ingredients together until well combined. Mix the wet into the dry until well blended. Add chocolate chips or chopped chocolate and kneed until well combined. It should feel like a stiff biscuit dough. Chill for 30 minutes. Shape into 3 logs and place on a large baking sheet. I use silicon mats to bake them on.

3 Bake for 22-30 minutes, until the center is firm to the touch.

4 Let biscotti cool for 15 minutes and then using a serrated knife cut into 1 inch wide pieces. Turn the oven to 300 F and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. Cool completely. I like to cool them in the oven so that they harden up nicely. Store in an air-tight container.

Pina Collada Power Bread

2007-11-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

This bread is so good, and healthy! Very low fat, high in grains. And yummy to boot!

Pina Collada Power Bread (12 servings)

Ingredients:

16 oz Yogurt - pineapple, pina collada, or coconut work best, but plain or vanilla would work as well. You may need additional sugar if you use plain, brown sugar would work best
1 small can (5 or 6 oz I think) Pineapple bits, drained, reserving liquid
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Coconut Extract
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups Rolled Oatmeal
1/4 cup Flax Seeds
1/4 cup Wheat Germ - toasted is best, but plain works as well, honey toasted would be lovely
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Shredded Coconut

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 F and grease a 9 X 9 square pan.
In a food processor, pulse oatmeal until a coarse meal is formed. Add flax and wheat germ and pulse until combined. Add flour and pulse until combined. I do all this on the medium speed setting in the food processor.
Dump in the baking soda and the yogurt and pulse until combined. Stir in the pineapple bits, drained, 1/2 cup coconut shreds, vanilla, and coconut extract. Stir until just combined. If the mixture is too thick, add in the pineapple juice a bit at a time until the batter resembles muffin dough.
Pour dough into the square pan and smooth. Sprinkle remaining coconut over top of dough and gently press to adhere it to the top. This will toast as it bakes and let off such a yummy smell and taste.
Bake for 35-45 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Pay Day Loans

2007-11-06T19:43:00.000-08:00

In general, I am not a fan of Pay Day Loans. I've heard of so many instances where people have gotten themselves into huge financial messes with them. But sometimes the situation just calls for some emergency money.

Faxless Payday Loans as well as cash advances are just 3 clicks away. Pay Day Loan Quotes has a calculator right on their front page, so that you can get an accurate picture of how much you will need to repay on your short term loan. Their lenders get back to you quickly and the money can be transfered into your account within 24 hours. There are several time lines and repayment options offered. It seems like a very simple website to navigate and all the information you need is presented in an easy to understand format.

I hope this is a service that we never have to use, but it's great to know that there are easy websites out there if something urgent comes up.

2 More FO's.

2007-11-06T19:34:00.001-08:00

Cherie Amour from the newest knitty. I made this out of a double strand of Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool, Evergreen. Ravelry Link
A few mods here:

- Shortened bottom lace section by one
repeat, shortened ribbing by 3 rows,
increased upper lace section by one
repeat before splitting for
neckline. This made the ribbing fall
under the bust line instead of
creeping up.

- No ribbing at the end of sleeves.
This eleminates the belling out in
the original pattern. I just ended
with a WS row and then cast off.

- Sleeves done from top down. Picked
up stitches around arm hole and
worked down from there, decreasing
2 stitches (one on each side) just past the
elbow.

- I ended up seaming about 2 inches of
the v-neck together to help the
shoulders stay up. At full open, the
shoulders kept slipping off. This
helped to pull them in enough to
stay up.

2X2 Rib hat, no pattern. Made out of Baby Alpaca Brush by Plymouth. DH stole my main winter hat last weekend and I had to figure something out to keep my ears warm! This was an incredibly fast solution. One day, maybe 4 hours total start to finish.

Photo Dump - Knitting Content!

2007-10-29T19:36:00.001-07:00

Small horse for my aunt. Will be sending this off this week. Made out of Eco-Wool. Ravelry Page.

Slippers for my grandma for Christmas. FiberTrends pattern. Ravelry Page.

Tweed Fetching. Made out of DB Donagal Luxury Tweed. Ravelry Page.

Shop display wrap. My own pattern. Silk Rhapsody & Silk Mohair Glitter by ArtYarns. No ravelry link at this time.

Enjoy :D

BlogStalk: 3 I love, 3 I hate

2007-10-25T08:55:00.001-07:00

I love fall. I love everything about this season. The colors, the smells, the weather, the leaves, warm drinks, hand knits. All of it. It is my favorite season.

I love the beach. And the ocean. I love the sound. I love how calm it makes me. I miss it a lot up here. It's really quiet here compared to the coast.

I love nature. And photographing nature. It's pretty amazing what you can capture on a little screen if you try hard enough.

As for my hates, no pictures. I use the word hate a lot, but when I sit down and think about it, they're all more pet-peeves that true hate.
1. I can't stand people without common sense. I have no patience for them. If you're stupid enough to get yourself into the situation, there's probably not a lot I can do for you so don't ask.
2. I hate ants. One of the main reasons we moved was because of the ants in the foundation of our old duplex. It was nasty and disturbing. I think this is one of my only true "hates"
3. The other is earwigs. I have an intense, irrational fear of them stemming back to my insane mother who thought that shaping her children with fear was a good plan. Therefore, hate, loathe, and am terrified of earwigs.
4. Since that kind of goes with 3, I'm going to give you a bonus. I can't stand ironing. See my post from last Friday. Hate, Hate, Hate ironing. It makes my back and knees hurt, it makes the house smell like warm, moist cotton, and it's beyond boring. Oh yeah, and the humidity makes my hair frizz.

ChatterJam.com

2007-10-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

Do you always have to be the first to know about a new product or service? Are you generally the first person you know to try something new? Have you ever heard of Word of Mouth Marketing?

ChatterJam.com is the new WOM marketing company on the block! They are focused on promoting brand new products and services throughout the Christian community. As a ChatterJam.com member, you get exclusive rights to free samples, trial offers of new services, and a large variety of networking tools. All they ask in return is that you generate positive buzz about the products or services that you are sampling. It is a great opportunity to be the first to know about all the hot new products coming out! There is no limit on the number of people who can join, so check out this great new opportunity today!

Christmas is right around the corner...

2007-10-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

And if you're anything like me, you're starting to plan out gifts. I've been working on the knitting I'm doing for about a month, but I have a lot of family! I can't knit for everyone. And I'm always looking for little things to add to their gifts, knit or not. The only problem is trying to buy these gifts and still pay bills. Coupons can definitely help with that!

Coupon Chief has one of the largest selections of vendor coupons that I've seen! They have a great selection of Home Depot deals. My husband is addicted to this store! If I decide to buy him a new tool for Christmas, the free shipping or online clearance center could help me afford something really nice for him.

I'm always nervous about buying my MIL presents, but I know candles will always be a hit! I've never seenThe Candle Bay before, The Candle Bay deals are so great that I will need to look at it! I think I'd be able to find little gifts to fill out my packages here.

So as your planning out your holiday shopping, check out Coupon Chief and see if you can find a great deal to help save some money this season!

Long Week...

2007-10-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

Ugh, It's been a loooong week. DH has been in TX all week for training and I've had to take care of the house and the dog all on my own. Combine that with my boss having a breakdown and only making it in one day so far this week and you've got one doozy of an overwhelming week. But DH is back tomorrow and that means I get to breathe again. And relax. And sleep. But before he gets home, I've got a buttload of work to do! Italics means it's done! Italics are good:D
Look at that! I finished everything but the tomatoes and ironing!

I need to unload and reload the dishwasher. Not sure if it will need to be run or not. Quite possibly.
I need to wash the dog and then clean the tub. And probably most of the bathroom.
I need to clean the rest of the junk out of the kitchen and off the counters.
I need to put away the laundry that I did last weekend.
I need to wash sheets and towels.
I need to iron from the last month's laundry. (I HATE to iron. HATE, Loathe, despise, get the picture?)
I need to do something with the 5 pound of apples spread throughout my kitchen before they go bad.
Ditto for the 3 pounds of green tomatoes.
I need to put together a menu and shopping list for the next 2 weeks.
I need to make the nutball dough for Saturday dinner so that it can chill overnight. (meatballs, but walnut based instead of meat based)
I need to sleep. A lot. I haven't slept well by myself this week. I'm just not used to it and it's been cold.
I need to take out all the trash in the house because when 1 can got full this week, I just started using another and now 2 out of the 3 are full and they need to go out to the big can because I can't let him know what kind of slob I am when he's not home.

I am two weeks behind on blogstalker and just can't seem to motivate myself to catch up. I have my pictures all taken and edited for my 3 things post. I just can't make myself write it up. And I don't have my pictures for the statue post because the camera is in TX with the husband.

And work sucks. I don't want to go in to why. But I'm completely overwhelmed and frustrated with my job. I want to like it. I do most of the time. But this week has just been too much. Too much. Thank goodness it's Friday.

sm00bs!

2007-10-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Sm00bs over at livejournal is the one who turned me on to the PayPerPost system. It's been really interesting to read all of her paid posts and learn about different sites. Here's an example of her work: http://sm00bs.livejournal.com/223238.html
Her posts are always concise and clear. She seems to really get a handle of what the advertiser is looking for and to put a great spin on it. I met her when she was pregnant with her daughter through a Secret Pal Exchange. It's been so much fun to watch her daughter grow up and to see her finding different ways to bring in money while still being able to stay home with her daughter. I hope that I will be able to do the same once we have children.

*This is a sponsered post by PayPerPost*

BlogStalking, Week3: From here to there

2007-10-11T08:34:00.001-07:00

I'm way behind on this blogstalking thing. I'm hoping to get caught up within the next week. So here is my week three. For the most part, when I need to get somewhere, I go in my '02 Ford ranger. I love love love this car. We got it with just over 11,000 miles on it about a year and a half ago. We paid too much money for it, but it's a great truck. See:
Excuse the dust. I badly need to clean the interior of my truck. The outside looks pretty great right now. It's been raining off and on and that washes all the dust off and makes it nice and pretty.
More lip stuff in my truck. I really do think that I have a problem with this.
Think anyone could tell that I have a dog? There's a leash or two in there, a halti, and a water bottle and bowl. Oh yes, and my fantastic air freshner that smells like sandlewood. Yummy.

Week four will be up by the weekend and hopefully Next week will bring week 5. Or even this weekend. It's been... strange... around here. DH is out of town on a training trip all next week. It's the first time we've been apart overnight and I'm not looking forward to it at all. I think it will be nice to be able to clean without him critiquing how I do it. And to be able to go to bed whenever I want to (our house is under 600 sq feet, so sleeping while he's still up isn't much of an option). But I think the novelty will be gone by Tuesday and I'll start getting lonely. Very lonely.

Car Guy Garage

2007-10-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

I've stumbled upon a website that my husband has fallen in lust with! CarGuyGarage is The Place to buy gifts for him . I pointed out these lifts to my DH about 5 minutes ago and he's still obsessing over them. Unfortunately, we don't have a garage right now. He's been looking at car storage sheds around town and he says that these are the best prices he's seen. We can't get it right now, but if we could, this would make a perfect Christmas gift for him. I'm going to have to browse through the site a little more closer to Christmas to see what I can find him. And they have an email coupon list! So if you sign up with them, they'll periodically send you coupons and exclusive sales. He's like a kid in a candy shop!

*This is a sponsored post by PayPerPost*

The big red thing that we will not speak of after today...

2007-10-07T16:02:00.000-07:00

So I promised you pictures and content about the red thing that threatened my sanity last week. This is what the cursed red yarn turned into:
My boss loves it. She absolutely loves it. So I guess that this story ends well. I'm still mad at the yarn. And at the pattern designer. I went back to double check the pattern requirements. I would have been about 300 yards short of the total yardage for the pattern. But here were my mods: No collar, no belt, 5 inches less on body length, 2 inches less on each sleeve. That should have eliminated at least 300 yards, But no. Instead, I bought an extra hank of yarn that I will probably never use. But I already split it into two balls and used half of one of them, so no returning it. Pooh. All well. I never have to work with it again. That's my consolation prize.

But I promised you a picture. So I gave it to you. Enjoy.

PayPerPost Introduction

2007-10-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

After seeing a friend of mine over on LiveJournal posting numerous posts about payperpost, I’ve decided to follow in her footsteps. PayPerPost is a blog advertising company that pays us to review various websites and help spread the word.

I'm learning about so many new companies by looking at all the opportunities I have through this site. I'm excited to get to share some of them with you.

Mainly, I'm doing this because we are desperately trying to pay off debt right now and this seemed like another way to add to our income that didn’t require selling our souls to an MLM. It is a great alternative to a second job. I’m at the computer anyway; why not make some money off of it? This means you guys will be seeing more posts! They ask that we keep the blogs at least 50% regular blog content – aka: not ads. So that means more pictures, more recipes, more life questions, and more general chatter from me!

I’m really hoping this turns out to be helpful to our finances. Our goal is to be able to get through the holidays with less debt, not more. So initially, my earnings will be going towards Christmas presents and towards our travel fund. Once the holidays are over, all my earnings are being dumped into our debt. If I want to go to school fall of ’09, we need to be out of this ridiculous credit card debt. September knocked us back some, DH’s car had some serious issues and it was the tail end of my summer paychecks at part time. Now that I’m back up at full time, I’m really hoping it will get easier. I understand that ad content may drive some readers away. I’m not happy about that, but I’m ok with it. I blog about knitting and food because I love it and I’ll keep writing about what I love. But we absolutely must have some more money coming in from somewhere and this is the perfect fit for right now.

It's COLD!

2007-10-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

It is so cold out today. My outside thermostat says that it's 42, but I could see my breath when I took the dog out, so I'm kinda inclined not to believe it. I'm all wrapped up in my PNW shawl and am realizing how warm a shawl can keep you. So what do I do? Go stash diving to find another yarn to make a new shawl for this winter. I came up with a full pound of Weaver's Wool by Mountain Colors and the Shoalwater Shawl pattern by Fibertrends. I did this pattern once before and loved working on it, but I cut out too many repeats (to save yarn of course) and it turned out too small for daily use. So this time, I have a full 1400+ yards of yarn to play with, so I can make it as large as I want to. I think I'm going to do it in stockinette instead of garter, though. I liked doing it in garter, but I think I'll like the way it looks a little more in stockinette. And I'm going to do it a little more dense than the last one, light worsted on size 9's instead of 11's. I want this baby to be warm and snuggly for this winter. It's feeling like it's going to be a doozy of a cold one.
Our heater just kicked in, so while I'm defrosting before heading to work, I'll give you a WIP update!

Finished:

Felted slippers (Christmas present) I've neglected to blog about these, post coming after I felt them.
Stuffed Horse (Christmas Present) Also unblogged, pictures to come
Jaywalkers in Tofutsies, I have to re-do the toe section on one, but they are essentially done
The evil crocheted red thing that we spoke of last time. Pictures to come.

What I'm working on:

A warm, chunky sweater out of Elann's Peruvian Highland Chunky. I just have the neck to finish and one arm to go. I'll probably finish the neck this weekend and the arm next weekend. If all goes according to plan, that is.
DH's sweater out of cotton fleece. This sweater was a disaster the first time around, so I'm hoping the second time goes more smoothly. I'm just about 2 inches into a top-down raglan that I'm designing for him.
Worsted weight Jaywalkers, Christmas Present. I turned the first heel yesterday. These are my new travel project and are going so QUICK!
And now, the Shoalwater Shawl. Yummy, warm, soft, woolly goodness to be cast on today.
A felted cat as a work display. I have the two back legs to do and the tail, but I've stalled out on this. It's just painful to work on. The faux fur just makes things sticky and not stretchy and a little miserable. As long as I finish before Halloween, I should be ok.

Wow, 5 projects including my work related project. I'm doing good! Of course, most of what I've started recently wasn't even in the ravelry queue, it's just stuff that strikes me and I cast on for. Such is my life as an ADD knitter!

Cursed Yarn

2007-09-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had cursed yarn? That yarn that just WILL NOT be made into a project, no matter how much you try to force it into a mold? I have been struggling with one of these yarns for almost a year and I think I'm at the point where I just can't look at it anymore. I don't even want to deal with frogging back the latest attempt. I just don't want to touch or look at this yarn anymore. It may just turn me off of Cascade 220 all together.

It all started innocently enough. My husband let me get the Rogue pattern after much waiting. I downloaded the pattern, printed it out, and started plotting. My Rogue wanted to be red. A deep, rich, crimson red. We had the perfect 220 color at the store and I thought it would make a fantastic Rogue. I knew I'd have to knit it a little looser than I like to knit my sweaters, but with all that cable work, looser is better, right? With this 220, the answer is WRONG. Looser means pills. As your knitting with the yarn. The finished part of the sweater was pilling as it sat on my lap and I worked on the remainder of the sweater. Shortly before dividing for the arm holes, I decided that this would not work. I couldn't wear a sweater that pilled this much. Rogue deserved better.

So I frogged nearly a month of work. I frogged my beautiful cables that I'd agonized over. I frogged the pocket that drove me nuts, trying to get it to seamlessly attach the way the pattern asked me to. I frogged it all. And the yarn sat in my stash for the next 6 months contemplating it's indiscretions.

I thought time was all it needed. I pulled it out from time to time to see if it was ready to be recreated. It stubbornly refused to tell me what it wanted to be. It didn't want to be felted (except into cat toys for my downstream SP), it didn't want to be a knit sweater, it didn't want to be a bag, it didn't want to be a hat, scarf or mittens. It wanted to be obnoxious, beautiful, and impossible to use.

3 weeks ago I found a crocheted trench coat pattern that I knew it could become. I powered through the back and the first front. It was cooperating! It could become this jacket.

I started on the second panel knowing I was going to be close on yarn. Very close. As written, I would be about 200 yards short of the pattern's required yarn. But the next size up was 3 inches larger in the chest and called for the same number of balls. And I was doing so many mods to cut down on yarn: I shortened it by 5 inches in length, wasn't going to do the stand-up collar or the belt, and my sleeves were going to be at least 2 inches shorter. I thought I would be ok. So into the second panel I go. The increases and decreases for waist shaping are giving me a few issues on this panel, but I figure it out and soldier through.

I end my panel with one remaining ball in the existing dyelot. 1 ball and 2 sleeves. Each front panel took about 1.5 balls. The back took about 3 balls. I was in deep doo for the sleeves. So I checked the store for the same dyelot - no go (the yarn was a year old, I wasn't expecting much). I put out my plea on various message boards. Not a nibble. So I decided that I'd be resourceful and make the new dyelot work.

Split the last ball of original and the ball of new dyelot and started the first sleeve with half a ball of the new. When it was getting low I slowly faded into the old dyelot so the sleeve would match at the seam. Problem #1: the new dyelot was considerably denser than the old. The gauge was the same, but the density of the fabric was considerably different. I decided to push forward anyway, I just wanted this thing DONE!

I was still very close on yarn, but now the sleeve cap shaping was looking... Odd... Short... Just not right. I normally do my sweaters in the round, either top down or bottom up, with raglan sleeves and wasn't quite sure if it was looking normal or not, since I have little to no experience in this area. So I took my sleeve, and I took my assembled back & front (joined only at the shoulder to make seaming the sleeves easier) and I laid them out in the way I assumed they went together.

Well that looked even more odd. So I waited for my crochet-guru boss to come in. I tell her the yarn is cursed and ask if she knows what's wrong with my sleeve cap.With the way she's looking at it, I know something is majorly screwy with it! She's trying not to laugh and manipulating the sleeve and sweater, trying to see how they'll go together. At this point, it's either laugh or cry, so I start laughing.

"Think we should have a long vest for display this winter?" I ask. She laughs, says that's a great idea and pulls out some faux fur to trim it with.

So now, what do I do to punish the sleeve? It needs an appropriate funeral so that I don't have to work with this yarn again! I'll put pictures up this weekend of the "vest." The fur turned out pretty cute, not something I normally do, but cute. Very much in my boss' style.

BlogStalking, Week 2: Purse Guts!

2007-09-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna start off by saying that ya'all's comments on my previous post make me all warm and fuzzy. Thanks everyone! Just to answer a few questions, my dog is a Border Collie Mix, we're not sure with what but the suspicions are corgi and lab. The "bread" was biscotti for my downstream SP, orange chocolate biscotti. It was very yum. Thanks again for all the comments. I've tried to get around to each of you, but I'm sure I missed some of you. So I'm thanking you here!

Onto this week:
I don't really carry a purse. Usually, I carry an oversize bag with at least one project in it and enough stuff to get me though a boring day at work. I work at an LYS, so I tend to carry my full arsenol of crochet hooks and notions with me at all times. So, onto the pictures!

This is the overview of my bag, this week. I have many many bags. Too many. But this cheapo walmrt bag is one of my favorites. It has lots of pockets, but is big enough to hold everything! Including a sweater WIP if needed.

So, pocket #1 contains:
Crochet Hooks
Jaywalker #1
An oatmeal cookie (mid-afternoon snack, see previous recipe. Yum)

Pocket #2 Contains:
Notions
Sunglass Clip (but I'm not even wearing glasses today)
Lots of anti-cold supplements
Lip Stuff

Pocket #3 Contains:
Jawalker #2
Measuring Tape

Pocket #4 Contains:
Lots more lip stuff
Tide To Go Stick
Mints
Dental Appointment reminder card (For APRIL!)
Bug bite stick (because if there is a bug around, I will be bit)

And the big inside pocket:
Water Bottle
Wallet
Flash light
More mints
Book
Patterns
Hand lotion
Leatherman
More lip stuff
Eye drops

There you have it. My bag guts. This is a fairly tame day. I just switched over to this bag on Sunday. I try to change bags about every other week to keep the clutter down.

And guys, I think I officially have a lip stuff problem. I have that many in my bag and I still have another one in my pocket. Is there a support group for this kind of thing?

Thank You, SP!

2007-09-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

I got my fantastic last SP package this last week. It was extremely fiber-liscious. And the reveal: My SP was Regmo! Thank you so much, hun! Your packages were amazing!
From top to bottom, we have:
Misti Alpaca Worsted, color #2030, a really pretty plum
Mirasol's Miski, 100% BABY LLAMA!!!, color #103, a lovely light purple
Mirasol's Sulka, Merino, Alpaca, & Silk, color #203, a deep wine color

These yarns are so yummy. I love the colors. I love the textures. This package was so fantastic to open. It is all so soft! Thank you, Regmo! I loved being spoiled by you!

Brrrr...

2007-09-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

It's so cold! We've suddenly fallen into autumn, with no more warning than we went into spring. It was 47 outside and 64 inside this morning when I woke up. Talk about not wanting to get up! We're determined not to run the heater until the end of the month, so it may be time to pull up the space heaters. We've had the AC off since about the last week or two of August, so we're really trying to leave the heater off. The energy bill will reward us. Also, we're going to need to refill the oil before running the heater too much, and we really can't afford that at the moment. Hopefully next month, we can afford to refill the oil.
The forecast for this weekend says highs in the upper 70's, so I guess it's not time to put away summer clothes all together, but it is definitely time to pull out the sweaters and hand knit socks. I realized this morning that I need more pairs of socks! The last pair of Tofutsies that I finished are on display at the shop, so I can't wear them. One Jaywalker is done and I'm a little over 2 inches into the other one, I just need to focus my energies at it. I've stalled out on the lacy airy wrap sweater from fitted knits. It was all going swimmingly until I picked up the sleeve stitches. Now I'm about 3 rows down the sleeve and I don't like the join under the arm. It's got a lot of holes surrounding tight stiches. So I have to decide whether or not that will block out or if I want to rip it back and figure out how to make it go away. So it's on hold until I can deal with it. The crocheted jacket in the last post is coming along. I'm over halfway up the second front. Only problem is that I only have one more ball of yarn and two sleeves left to go. And the dye lot is over a year old. So I have to figure out how to incorporate a new dye lot into the old without it looking like I fudged it. I have an idea. I just don't want to execute it right now.
SO what did I do? I stared a new project. I'm making a little stuffed horse for my aunt for Christmas and I've promised Michelle to make up a new "shop cat." The horse only has 2 legs left, then I'll start the cat. Hopefully those fast projects will help me pull through on these others. And I must finish the 2 pairs of socks OTN.

BlogStalk, Week 1: Who Am I?

2007-09-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

I Am:

A Wife
A Doggie Mom

A Knitter

A Spinner

A Dyer

A Crocheter

A Native Oregonian Transplanted in E Washington

A lover of nature

A Food Enthusiast, amateur cook, amateur baker

A Gardener & Plant Lover

Attempting to learn the intricate art of photography

I'm a 23 year old who's only beginning to find herself. I love to make lists and plans, but rarely do I follow through with them. Right now, my big goals are to pay off our debt, go back to school fall of 2009 and to buy a house. My big dream is to own my own nursery specializing in regional plants and flowers and to teach people how to respect the area that they live in by working within the local eco-system.

I want to grow into the woman that I see in my mind. She is a wife, a mother, a business owner, a boss, a friend. She is confident and self-aware. She has dirt under her nails and wakes up each morning ready to go live her dream. She is well respected and loved by those around her. She has made a difference in her community. She is powerful enough to take control of her life but wise enough to guide it down the right path.

I have a long journey ahead of me. But I think I'm finally on the right path.

Oatmeal Cookies

2007-09-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

So... I have no photos of knitting because life is crazy. I'm back to full time at work so my mornings aren't my own any more. That means no early morning time for photos and blogging. And since we're FINALLY coming into fall (though you wouldn't know it from the daytime highs), the evenings are too shady to get good pictures.

So since I have no photos or interesting knitting stories, because my life is work for the next 6-8 months, you get my cookie recipe! I make these as snacks in the afternoon. Occasionally Steven will eat them for breakfast. They are incredibly filling. A little high in sugar to be "health food," but fairly healthy outside of that.

Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1.5 cups Brown Sugar (I usually use 1 cup brown and 1/2 cup white, you could also trade out that half a cup with molasses to add some iron to the cookies, or maple syrup, or honey, or... well, you get the idea!)
2 1/2 cups Oatmeal (not quick, just rolled)
4 cups Flour (I use 3 whole wheat and 1 AP white)
1 Tbs Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1-3 Tbs Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 cup Canola Oil
3 eggs or equivalent egg substitute
1/2 cup applesauce
1-2 cups assorted dried fruit and nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Mix the dry ingredients, minus the fruit and nuts, until well blended. Stir in the wet ingredients then fold in the fruit and nuts.
Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, measure out the cookies and flatten onto a baking sheet. These cookies won't spread much in the oven, so flatten to about 1/2 inch thick.
Bake 10 - 12 minutes, until set.
Let cool 5 minutes on the sheets then transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storing.
These cookies keep about a week on the counter, sealed tightly. But they freeze beautifully! I tend to keep them individually packaged in the freezer for when I need them. They thaw in about 2 hours on the counter.

Wheelin' Walla Walla Weekend!

2007-09-09T12:14:00.001-07:00

We've had a great weekend so far, and it's set to be even busier. We did the car show yesterday and will be going to a pooch pool party today. Along with normal weekend cleaning and cooking and shopping, it's been busy! Head over to my flickr account by clicking the above photo for more car show photos. Pool party photos will come later. Not much knitting to speak of right now. I will update that info tomorrow or the next day. Off to go grocery shopping!

FO: My So Called Scarf

2007-09-04T08:33:00.001-07:00

It's Done!

Stats:
"My So Called Scarf"
1 Skein Manos Del Urugay, color #109
2 weeks, give or take

I love this scarf! The yarn is yummy. And the colors are so perfect!

Jaywalker #1 is done!

2007-08-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yippee, 1 down, 1 to go. I made sure to take really clear notes so the second one turns out perfect. The toe is a little tight, I'm going to try blocking it first and may end up ripping back and adding a few rows. I'm not sure yet. But I looove them. This is such a fun pattern!

I have created a salsa I could eat with a spoon...

2007-08-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

And yes, the girl who hates tomatoes really did type that! This stuff is so yummy. Even fresh out of the food processor, it's amazing. I think I've found tomato love...

Roasted Salsa

Ingredients:

2 lbs tomatoes - I used fresh early girl and yellow plum from the garden, about 6 early girls and a handful or two of the plums. I'm guessing it's around 2 lbs.
4 cloves garlic, skin on
1 medium sweet onion, roughly chopped
5 chipotle chilies in sauce - adjust up or down for your own heat level
juice of 2 limes - add another if your limes are small, hard, or you really like lime
Salt to taste
Cilantro to taste - I didn't have any, so mine is without, but it would be great with

Directions:

Under a high broiler, broil the tomatoes and garlic in a lightly oiled glass pan. This took about 20 minutes in my oven, just broil until the skin is turning dark and crispy.
In a food processor, combine the chilies, lime juice, onion, and roasted veggies. Take off the garlic skins before adding. I also squeezed out about half of the seeds & juice in my tomatoes. It still made a pretty loose salsa, so if you like chunkier, squeeze out even more juice. Pulse to combine. If adding cilantro, add after the tomatoes and onions start to break down. Taste & add salt accordingly. Store bought tomatoes might also need some sugar added, though the broiling should bring out the natural sugars quite nicely.
Let cool and enjoy! You can use this hot, but the cooling time will bring the flavors together nicely.

I got a package, I got a package!

2007-08-23T19:02:00.001-07:00

Thank you, Vicious Circle! Thank you! It is just amazing... So much fun baking things to play with. Tea, spices, specialty chocolates, yarn, and cooking gadgets!
So Cute! Such Cute little cutters!
And a tea bee infuser! I've never seen anything this fun for tea!
And yummy, yummy alpaca is luscious colors.
You do know my weaknesses, Circle. Food, tea, yarn. This package was just intoxicating. I can't stop sticking my nose into the different spices. Thank you again!

FO: Tofutsies Socks

2007-08-21T10:27:00.001-07:00

Basic Toe-Up socks, a blend of a few different patterns that I use, with toe-up sock flap, size US1 needles. I love this yarn! Love it! It works up so light and soft. It doesn't stretch too much and the cast on is a little splitty. But once past the first row or two, it is so nice to work with. And it comes in such fun colors! I love it so much that I started a pair of Jaywalkers out of another color:

The green is pooling a lot, not sure why. None of the other colors are pooling, but the green is. I've figured out that if I play with my gauge a little (one or two tight rows, followed by a few looser rows) helps to cut down on the pooling. Because I have midget feet, I'm sizing them down. I cast on 68 and took 2 stitches out of each repeat. I'm still not sure they'll be tight enough around the foot, but I can tighten them up a little in the gusset if that becomes a problem.

It Rained!

2007-08-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

Or, I should say, It's Raining! We haven't had rain in MONTHS. But it's raining today. And it's only 59 degrees outside. I feel right at home. It's cold, gray, and wet. At least this will make me do inside work. I have about a metric ton of laundry to do and about 3 hours of ironing to do. I have 2 pairs of pants to shorten and Steven is bugging me to finally finish seaming the last curtain for our bedroom. Yet all I want to do is sit around and knit and wear warm clothes. Because it's raining for the first time in MONTHS (literally, I'm not kidding here. It was May or June the last time I saw it rain). Oh yes, and I have to go grocery shopping. Yuck.

I did finish My So Called Scarf though. I only used one ball and I'll turn the second one into a hat, in all likelihood. Or maybe a second scarf for a Christmas present. Or maybe I'll incorporate it into a felted bag. We'll see. But I liked the length on it with one ball. So it needs to be blocked and then photoed. I'll try to get you pictures later this week.

Guess what I did this weekend?

2007-08-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

We went camping! Here:
It was so pretty! There had been bear sightings though, so I got all freaked out and didn't sleep well. But overall, it was a blast. We got one of the last sites in the campground and set up our tent for the very first time since we got it. It was a wedding present - so 2.5 years later we finally got to use it! We had a great time.

I still haven't taken knitting pictures. I love how the ballet tank turned out. Coachella, I'm not so fond of. I'm not sure what happened with my gauge, but she's not fitting. I can't seem to get the fabric to collapse down and relax like it did in my swatch. I am going to do a last ditch attempt to fix it by tossing it in the machine, but then it'll be sent to my ridiculously skinny relatives in Cali if it still doesn't fit.

I have started the Airy blah blah wrap sweater from Fitted Knits. (I don't remember the whole name, it's very long). I'm doing it out of the Habu lace weight that I hand-dyed a while ago. The colors are a little too pastel for me, so I'll be over dying it when it's done. I'm loving it so far though. I started it on Friday and I'm almost through the body already. It's a great, fast, knit. I'm making a few mods on it so I'll write those up when I post it.

Oh yes, the class. It went ok. 3 girls and 1 boy showed up. They were all 8-9 and LOUD. The boy was very very loud. The boy and one girl caught on quite quickly. The other two are struggling a lot and didn't want to be shown the correct way to do things. So we'll see how they end up doing. They were utterly exhausting and tomorrow I am teaching from noon straight through to 3. One adult intermediate followed by the kids. And then Thursday is the kids again. And Friday is the day that all the classes are done. Freedom.
No big plans for the upcoming weekend, just relaxing, cleaning, and cooking. Joy.

It's been a bad morning...

2007-08-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

But it didn't start out that way. I woke up early, and well rested. Ate breakfast, took a landscape design test, played with the dog, made a dent in the mess on my desk, put together my next downstream SP package, re-sized and uploaded a bunch of pictures (for a post to come sometime soon about this weekend). I was being productive.
Then I got in my car. And took nearly 5 minutes to turn out onto the main road to work. And got stuck behind someone going 25 in a 35 with no passing zone. And almost got hit by speeding cars on 3 our of the 4 crosswalks I take during my 4 block walk to work, even though I HAD THE RIGHT OF WAY. And learned that I have to teach 5 little girls how to knit because the normal teacher is terribly sick. And I'm hungry. And I'm cramping. And I just want to go back to bed and start this day over. I don't like teaching kids classes of more than 2 or 3. It's exhausting and overwhelming. They are fun and sweet - most of the time - but it wears me out. And I'll be teaching back to back and kind of overlapping classes tomorrow. I can't wait for this week to be over. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Must go work now. Wish me luck...

I got new Shooooooes!

2007-08-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Aren't they pretty? I used some of my birthday money to get these for myself. And they just got here yesterday. I love them, so far. I wore them all evening yesterday (except for playing with the dog) and I put them on first thing this morning. They are the Pirouette 2 by Earth Shoes. They have this fancy insole that shapes itself to your foot to provide maximum support. They are just yummy. I got them from Planet Shoes, who had fantastic service and free shipping! Yippee! They will be great for showing off knit socks this fall. For now, they are great without socks.

August 7, 2007 Project list!

2007-08-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

1. Oasis Tank - based off of the Ballet Tank from MagKnits, Done! Blocking tonight, pictures later this week.
2. Mountain Colors Socks - no new progress to report
3. Tofutsies Socks - #2 ready to turn heel.
4. MountainColors Jacket - No new progress.
5. Coachella: Done! Blocking tonight, pictures later this week.

6. My So Called Scarf: Nearly one skein in. So almost half done. Such a fun project!

So what is that? Only 3 or 4 real projects on the needles plus one or two examples for work? That's nothing! Apparently I need to get started on Christmas knitting. Boo.

(See that space up there between 5 and 6? Yeah... Blogger and I are having issues. Pretend it's not there.)

What I did on my summer vacation...

2007-08-06T10:39:00.001-07:00

It obviously wasn't much knitting! This is "My So Called Scarf" done in Manos Del Uruguay, color #109 I believe. The tags are around here somewhere but I can't find them at the moment. I bought the yarn in a fantastic little shop called Nestuca Bay Yarns. I had shopped there when it was Dharma Yarns, but they never had a very good selection. But the new owner has really upgraded the selection. There's so much more than previously. And I had my first run-in with Manos. I stood in front of the display in utter bliss. It took me nearly 20 minutes to pick a color - there was just too too much to choose from. I also picked up a little something for my downline SP9 while there!

After the yarn store, I met up with my aunt and cousin at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I hadn't been in at least a year and it had been much longer for them. We had so much fun! It's always been one of my favorite aquariums. I also picked up a few things for my pal here. There are lots of pictures of OCA on my flickr page (Click the scarf picture to go there). I also got to meet a fellow knittyhead while down south. I took a brief detour down to her sweet shop (SR Fudge & Stuff) and picked up some AMAZING brownies. They were so very good.

We celebrated my birthday at least 3 times, with two different cakes. I got sunburned. The beach was hot and muggy on Saturday, which was so strange. It was always so cold when I lived there! We drove back, stopping at Woodland Woolworks - where I spent all together too much money (fiber pictures will be up later this week). We also stopped at Multnomah Falls on the way back.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. Coming back to reality has really sucked. It's the first time that I've ever wished that I could stay longer. Normally I'm drained and sick of the coast by the second day, but this trip went so very well that I wanted to stay longer.

But it had to come to an end, so I'm back here in the desert wondering when we'll be able to move. We looked at an area to move to on our way back up here. This next year may be really interesting... We keep saying we're going to move, but it might actually happen this time. I don't think I can spend another summer here. It's too bloody hot.

Yummy Dinner :D

2007-08-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

No pictures, but just had to share. While we were on the coast, we didn't get a chance to have any chowder. Steven doesn't like clams and the like, so he hasn't even tried clam chowder (in spite of growing up just minutes from Mo's!) and I always, always get sand in my mouth when eating clam chowder, so we both avoided it this trip. But watching my family eat it and listening to them talk about eating it made me crave a really good seafood chowder, sand free! I don't normally cook any meat at all in our house, not even seafood. But I do occasionally make an exception for really good fish. We recently, within the last year, got a wonderful fishmonger in town, one who flies in fish from all over and it's all super fresh. Today he had some wild Coho Salmon, never frozen. It looked perfect. So I just had to indulge my craving for a wonderful seafood chowder. Here's what I came up with!

Salmon Chowder

Ingredients:

1 lb, give or take, of very fresh fish, we used Coho Salmon, cubed
3-4 Large potatoes, cubed
2 Medium Carrots, diced
1 Large sweet onion, diced
2-3 Stalks Celery, diced
1 box (32 oz) stock, I used chicken
1 Pint Half & Half, Whipping Cream, or whole milk
3 Bay Leaves
1/4 tsp Dill (add more if you like dill, I don't really)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or smoked paprika, depending on your heat preference
1 tsp Seasoned Salt
1 Can Creamed Corn (use fresh, frozen or canned corn if you don't want it as sweet)

Directions:

After dicing all the ingredients, saute the onions in butter or olive oil until translucent. Add the vegetables, spices, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until potatoes are soft. Remove the bay leaves at this point.
If you like really thick chowder, lightly puree the soup at this point with a hand blender. Leave some chunks, just break up the potatoes enough to thicken the soup.
Keep the chowder at a simmer and add the fish. Simmer until the fish flakes easily.
Add the dairy and the corn. Simmer until heated through.
Serve with warm, crusty bread or in a bread bowl.

I'm still alive...

2007-08-04T12:12:00.001-07:00

I had a grand trip. Back to reality now. Vacation photos up on Flickr. I'll make a real update as soon as I get some fiber pictures. Did a lot of yarn shopping. Spent way too much money. Had a blast. Best trip to the coast that we've had.

Recipes!

2007-07-22T17:02:00.000-07:00

All righty. I promised you recipes, but I don't have any pictures. So you'll just have to trust me when I say that these look as pretty as they sound.

Raspberry Tea Bread

Ingredients:

3 Cups AP Flour
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
2 Cups Sugar (I do half/half white & brown)
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs or 1 cup egg substitute
2 cups Milk (I use vanilla soy or rice)
1/4 Cup Canola Oil
1/4 Cup Applesauce (or all applesauce, no oil)
3 pints Raspberries or 2 cups frozen raspberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a bunt pan or 2 loaf pans
Sift together all dry ingredients, making sure they are well mixed, into a large mixing bowl.
In separate bowl mix eggs, milk, oil, and applesauce.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir just until it's mixed. Quickly fold in raspberries, being careful not to destroy the berries as you mix them in.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, or until set in center.
Cool in pan

Blueberry Lemon Tea Bread

Ingredients:

3 Cups AP Flour
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 Cups Sugar (I do half and half white & brown)
1 1/2 Tbs Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
Zest of 2 lemons
2 Eggs or 1/2 cup egg substitute
2 Cups Milk (I use vanilla rice or soy)
1/4 Cup Canola Oil
1/4 Cup Applesauce
Juice of 2 lemons
2 - 3 pints Blueberries, or 2 cups frozen blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a bunt pan or 2 loaf pans
Sift together all dry ingredients, making sure they are well mixed, into a large mixing bowl.
In separate bowl mix eggs, milk, oil, and applesauce.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir just until it's mixed. Quickly fold in blueberries, being careful not to destroy the berries as you mix them in.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, or until set in center.
Cool in pan

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

2 Cups Sugar (I do half white & half brown)
3 Eggs or 3/4 cup egg substitute
3 Cups AP Flour
3 Cups grated zucchini
1/4 Cup oil
3/4 Cup Applesauce
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 Tbs Cinnamon
1 Tbs Vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 and oil 2 loaf pans
In large bowl, mix all ingredients until well blended. I start by adding in all the wet ingredients, then sifting in the dry. I find it comes together better if they dry are sifted before mixing.
Pour into prepared pans and bake 60 minutes, or until set in the middle.
Cool 10 minutes in pan, remove from pan, finish cooling on a cooling rack.

Note: Since these recipes are so low fat, they will mold more quickly than a normal quick bread. Once they cool, I divide them into individual servings and then freeze them. The zucchini bread is fantastic defrosted in the toaster. The tea breads will defrost in just an hour or so on the counter.

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients:

3 Cups Vanilla or Chocolate Soy milk
1/3 Cup Cornstarch
1/3 - 1/2 Cup Sugar of your choice, powdered works really well but white or brown will work as well. Adjust this based on how sweet you like your pudding and how sweet your milk is.
1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder (omit if using chocolate soy milk)
1/4 tsp Salt
Pinch of Cayenne pepper
1/2 Cup chopped, good quality, chocolate (I use dark, but semi-sweet is good as well)

Directions:

In medium saucepan over medium to low heat, whisk together first 4 ingredients. Continue whisking until mixture thickens, about 5 - 10 minutes.
Once mixture is as thick as you'd like (it will thicken slightly once cooled), remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients.
Transfer to serving containers and refrigerate until cool.

The weekend's almost over... Booooo!

2007-07-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

I'm sad the weekend's almost over! We've actually had a really great weekend, and this is a short week since we head down to the coast Friday morning, but I still don't want to go back to work this week. Our weather has finally gotten more mild and so it's much harder to be trapped inside for the duration of the work day. Since I go into work later, I can still do things in the morning, but it would be more fun if I didn't have to work.

So, our weekend! We went out to Bennington Lake yesterday. Lillie chased frogs and we walked along the ridge path. We met a unicycle rider with 6 little tiny dogs, none on leashes! It was a really nice trip and the lake is so pretty this time of year. It's also really nice in the winter, it completely freezes over and becomes much less populated.

I also did a lot of spinning. My SP fiber is already all gone. It was a blast to spin. It's about 48 yards and slightly thick-thin, worsted to bulky. Also pictured, baby alpaca handspun. Dk-Worsted, not too thick thin, but it does have a few thicker spots. Fiber was dyed by me.

See more weekend pictures on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8977774@N04/

I've also been working in the garden a lot this weekend. So I'll probably have garden pictures for you tomorrow. Later this evening, quick bread recipes!

It's here, It's here!

2007-07-19T18:39:00.001-07:00

Yippee! We have - a really cute kittie card, a few batts of fiber from Loop on etsy, hand made mits, and the Vogue Stitchionary3. The fiber is so so pretty. I love the colors! And spinning from batts is great. They look like a fantastic combo of fibers! I found my last empty bobbin and will start in on this tonight. The mits fit perfectly! How'd you know I had miniature hands? Normal gloves never fit me! I love the Vogue book! They are such fun stitchionaries.

So thank you thank you thank you! I love it all!

Updated Project list!

2007-07-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

Oasis Tank - based off of the Ballet Tank from MagKnits, Will be finished by Saturday
Mountain Colors Socks - no new progress to report
Tofutsies Socks - no new progress, but will be taking them to work to get #2 started.
Mountain Colors Jacket - Ugh. Just Ugh. Must make an effort to find the pattern with all my notes on it.
Cotton Fleece Baby Sweater - Done! See previous post
Cotton Fleece Sweater for DH - Frogged :-( I now have an updated gauge for it though. I need to get all of DH's measurements again to make it work this time.
Furry Black Steering Wheel Cover - Frogged!
MS3 - No new progress, so it is being put in a safe place, with pattern notes, beads, etc. I will come back to this sometime in the future when my lace block is over. I have too many shawls for gifts that must be done before I can focus on this.

So by this weekend, I will have 2 projects finished, 2 frogged, and one abandoned for the foreseeable future. Which will leave me with 3 on the needles, one to be re-worked and Coachella to cast on for. Can you tell I'm excited about this project? It's just so sexy and sleek looking. And it looks fast. I need a fast project!

Baby Sweater FO!

2007-07-19T10:13:00.001-07:00

It's finished! This is the EZ Baby sweater from the newest Vogue Knitting. It's kind of a confusing pattern, but I just did what looked right at the points where I had no idea what she wanted me to do, and I'd say it turned out pretty well. It's done in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (Yum. One of my favorite summer yarns) on size US 7 needles. It took about 2 weeks but then I put off finishing the edging, so that ended up putting me into week 3. I just found out that one of my friends is having a baby so once she finds out boy or girl, I'll be fancy-ing this up, adding gender appropriate buttons, finishing the edging on the sleeves, and doing some embroidery if it's a girl. Very cute, easy, quick knit. Using the correct gauge yarn and not doing i-cord trim, you could easily get through this in a week. Just a quick crocheted edge would work nicely in place of the i-cord. I didn't like how un-finished the garter stitch edges looked, so I feel that it needs some kind of edging.

The Oasis Ballet Cami will probably be finished today or tomorrow. I have a few more rows on the back straps, then just need to shape the front, seam the shoulders, crochet the edging, and block. Yippee! Which will give me 2 FO's off my list and I can start Coachella!

I've been told that I have a SP9 package on the way, I'm expecting it today or tomorrow, and I'm so excited! I love seeing all the creative ideas people come up with to put these packages together. I have so much fun shopping for my down line, but sometimes I run out of cute ideas to make it more than just a box of yarn or fiber, so I love seeing what others come up with.

As far as baking and food goes, I promise I'll be doing recipes soon. I have three different quick breads to share with you, I just haven't taken photos. So I think I'll be typing up the recipes without photos and sharing photos the next time I make them up.

I woke up an extra hour early today and am trying to avoid cleaning the kitchen with my spare time, can you tell?

Some progress...

2007-07-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

I finished all the edging and the last sleeve on the baby sweater! So that is officially off the needles. I will add the final bits and pieces once I figure out who it's going to. It needs buttons and just a bit of trim on the sleeves.

MS3 has been put away for the time being. It is in a little zip lock baggie with all it's necessary bits and parts. I have made no progress on it in 2 whole weeks and after finishing the shawl, I just can't do lace right now. I'm going to keep downloading the clues and saving them, but I'll probably not pick it up again until this winter, sometime after Christmas. I have a worsted weight shawl I'm planning for a gift, and I think that's going to fill my lace urge for the next several months. It will be started once the weather cools down and the summer stuff is off my needles. I'll probably buy the yarn for it during our anniversary sale at work, or maybe get brave enough to spin it. I'm making a stop at Woodland Woolworks during our vacation this month, so I'll be on the lookout for fiber that might be appropriate for the new shawl.

I need to finish frogging Steven's sweater. It's sitting on my couch partially frogged because I need to double check my gauge before re-vamping the sweater.

And that means I will be casting on for Coachella next week. I'm going to power on with the oasis tank this week and hopefully get most of the way through that. My tofutsies socks will become a pair during vacation, or at least the second will get some progress. The Bearfoot socks are going to have to wait, that pattern takes too much concentration for hot weather knitting.

So the goals for finishing by mid august:

Coachella
Oasis Tank
Tofuties Socks

Not too bad of a list. I also need to organize the stash and see what in there I can use for Christmas Gifts. Once that short list is done, most of my knitting will revolve around planning for Christmas and re-working Steven's sweater. I will also need to figure out where I am in the Drops pattern so that I can get that off the needles.

Picture Dump!

2007-07-15T19:03:00.001-07:00

It's been a hot, busy weekend, but I have lots of pictures for you!

This is the same view from the garden I've had before, at least I think it's the same angle. I can't believe how much this is growing up!

Squash!!

We have, acorn, crookneck, and zucchini, with a single little cucumber plant.

Peppers!!

Tomatoes!

Lots of tomatoes!

And, lastly, Corn!

So, as you can see, this is keeping us busy. I made 2 loaves of zucchini bread, one batch of muffins, and a big pan of brownies this weekend. I have a batch of blueberry bread and a batch of raspberry bread to go. I may just freeze the berries instead, and wait on the baking until it cools down some.

Even though it's been freakishly hot, we went out to South Fork Park yesterday and hiked a few miles with the dog.

It's so pretty out there, even though it was near 100.

Lillie discovered her love of water and spent much time chasing waves. She didn't get in and swim, but she waded well up to her tummy and seemed to love it. Probably why she had so much more energy than Steven and I, she got to cool down in the water!

Lastly, I'll leave you with some cute pictures of my favorite beings!

No knitting news. I swatched for a new project, Coachella from the lates Knitty. I picked a pretty rayon ribbon that I believe has been discontinued by Skacel. It's called Hillary and it's a deep burgandy color. Haven't measured gauge yet, but hoping it will work. Won't be starting it though, until the baby sweater is done. So, later this week or early next week probably.
Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

I discovered something today...

2007-07-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have a problem. It's called caston-itis. Or better known as start-itis. I love, love, love the thrill of starting a new project. I love doing the math and figuring out how to modify the gauge to fit my yarn. I love fondling the yarn and searching for the perfect project. I love finding the perfect project then searching for the perfect yarn. I love the little tricks and tips to make the project my own. I almost never follow a pattern word for word, I always tweak something. I think the PNW shawl below is the closest I've ever come to following a pattern word for word, and even then I played with yarn and gauge to get a tighter, smaller shawl and didn't do the attached i-cord edging along the top edge.

I just love starting projects. Once I'm a week or two into them, I fade. It's no longer new, exciting, challenging. Now it's just knitting, following my notes or the basic guidelines of the pattern.

Don't get me wrong, I love knitting. I love how it relaxes me and how I can just let my mind drift and work through other issues. But the thrill of the new just isn't there anymore once I'm a week or so into the pattern.

So I cast on for something new. I plan and do the math and make the notes and the changes and tweak and perfect and I work on that for a few weeks. Up until the previous project calls to me or something else throws itself into my path.

And this, my friends, is why I have so many projects going and why I can NOT cast on for another until some are finished.
I have:

Oasis Tank - based off of the Ballet Tank from MagKnits, 6+ inches done. I'm halfway through the waist shaping and interest is fading quickly
Mountain Colors Socks - My own pattern. Toe up, with staggered cables. Pretty yarn, Fun pattern. Halfway through the foot of the first sock, need to figure out which heel to do and pick this one up again. Should be good to go once I figure out the heel. Then I have to remember what I've done thus far to make a #2.
Tofutsies Socks - Own pattern, Toe up. One down, one to go. This I'll cast on for and make it my project for the Oregon Trip.
Mountain Colors Jacket - Based on a Drops Design pattern. I have one front and most of the back done. My gauge is different, and if I remember right, I'm in between two sizes and making adjustments on the fly. This one got put away months ago, so I hope my notes are good enough to get me going when I pick it back up. Problem here - Most confusing pattern ever written. Having to translate it into proper knitting directions as I go as well as gauge and size changes. Oh yes, and not sure I have enough yarn. Gorgeous sweater. Must finish. Too hot to work with double stranded yarn!
Cotton Fleece Baby Sweater - Almost done. EZ pattern from Summer Vogue Knitting. Just finishing the i-cord trim. Boring, boring, boring. Quick knit, but the trim made me put it down. And doing the trim hurts my hands because of the angle I must hold the needles to make it work. And I don't know who it's for yet. The pattern was just so cute that I had to make it.
Cotton Fleece Sweater for DH - Ugh. In the process of frogging. Despite gauge being spot on and multiple measurements and recalculations, This just is too big. It looked ridiculous when he tried it on. So I will be reworking the pattern, again. And measuring, again. But it's a whole lot of black stockinette and I'm sick of it. It's also going to wait for cooler weather, I think.
Furry Black Steering Wheel Cover - Yarn is a pain to knit with. Bored. Dislike novelties. Will probably be frogged and the yarn put to better uses.
MS3 - I'm almost through the 1st clue. Great so far. I just don't have much time to work on it because it's my at home project. Also, I can only do 4 rows or so before the tiny yarn starts to drive me crazy.

So I guess I'm just at 8. I had been at 10. But I finished the PNW shawl, and I finished a small something for my down line SP9. Oh, I do have baby socks going for a display at work, but those will be done in a day or two.

And all I can think is about the red Cascade 220 in my stash and how fantastic it will be for a snuggly fall sweater. So I look at pattern, plan, swatch, and tell myself that it won't be cast on until something is done. I will finish the baby sweater first. And I need to finish the tank before it cools off. I have a few months before that happens, But I'd like to wear it some!

So, If you see me reaching for a fresh pair of needles and yarn, please, stop me. Wave my list at me and say "See, you promised the whole knitting community that you wouldn't cast on. What do you think you're doing?!?"

Doesn't help that I have two yarn shop stops planned into our trip to the coast, and I'm contemplating a third. Bad, Bad me.

But it feels so good to start something fresh...

Pacific Northwest Shawl!

2007-07-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

It's complete! I'm so happy & excited!
Specs:
Pattern: Pacific Northwest Shawl, distributed by Fiber Trends
Yarn: Drops Alpaca, fingering weight, color #6834, 4-ish skeins
Needles: US 4 Addi Turbo circulars for the body, Lantern Moon blonde wood DPN's for the edging
Size: 63 or so inches across the top and about 33 inches deep, much smaller than the original, which is what I was going for. I'm way too small of a person to have a 7 foot wide shawl that's close to 5 feet deep! I'm only 5 ft 1 in tall!

More photos up on my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8977774@N04/sets/72157600765022833/

The Zucchini Has Arrived

2007-06-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

These two zucchinis were the first to be harvested. One yielded 3 cups of densely packed zucchini shreds that are currently residing in two zucchini bread loaves in my kitchen. They smell amazing but are just too hot to cut yet. I'm excited to try it. Unfortunately, my Flickr is at it's max upload for the month of June, so no recipe & pics until July, unless I decide to fuss around with my photobucket account. These zucchini plants are overachievers. I swear, these two that I picked are around 2 lbs a piece. They're huge! And Now one is bread. The other will become dinner sometime this week. I'm thinking about trying a zucchini Parmesan using a baked eggplant parm recipe. The texture of this first one was really close to an eggplant, so I think it will work.

In knitting news, I'm almost done with a baby sweater. So pictures of that to come soon. And Steven's black sweater of doom has only 1.5 arms to go and a few small finishing details before it is done. The edging of doom on the PNW shawl is still in progress. I believe I've finished 18 or so out of the 31 edging repeats, so the hope is to finish these three projects by the end of July. We'll see how that goes!

End of July plans have been finalized! We'll be on the Oregon Coast for the last weekend. A whole 5 days off work! It'll be the closest thing to a vacation we've taken since our honeymoon. I'm pretty darned excited. It should be fantastic. Several of my relatives from Cali are coming up that weekend and my birthday is the 31st, so it should be lotsa fun!

Knittyboard SP9!

2007-06-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

I've made a connection with my upline and with my downline! I'm so excited.
I really need to make more friends in my own town, but virtual friends are so much easier. All my college friends have left for the summer and most graduated this year. I think only 1 or 2 are coming back next year. Guess that's my pennance for choosing to live here instead of moving when we stopped classes.
But the heat (!!) is great for the garden. Those pictures down there are sooo outdated now. I have zucchini as thick as my arm growing, and it's no where near ripe yet. The cucumbers are putting out all kind of runners and I have a few very baby cukes on there. Several green tomatoes are up and starting to plump. Lots and lots of baby summer squash. And the acorn squash is sending out lots of runners. The corn is getting too dense to see through and is around 3 feet tall now. I'll try to get more pictures up later this week!
But for now, it's back to work for me. UPS just brought me yarn to label. KFI, so it'll be more Noro and Debbie Bliss. Yummy.

I think I have a problem...

2007-06-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

You see, it all began innocently enough. I was so excited that Steven had a porch with lots of sun that I planted 2 tomato plants. Two small plants in their own little pots all alone on his deck. I think I put some flowers out there as well. And it was great. They were cherry tomatoes and growing those tomatoes was the most rewarding thing that I did that summer (besides becoming engaged and living on my own for the first time. But the tomatoes were a part of all these things). The problem was, I don't like to eat tomatoes. I like to cook with them, making sauce and such, but I will not eat them raw. And... Well... My sauce skillz are sadly lacking. But I was hooked on this magic of growing tomatoes. I put this little 4 inch seedling in the ground and watered and watered and watered and before I knew it, these tomatoes were falling off the plant. It was fantastic!

Fast forward to the following year. We had a fairly large back yard and, encouraged by my success of the previous year, I set about duplicating the process. Only this time, I got over-zealous. I planted lettuce. Ohhh boy, was that a mistake! My yard, unknowingly to me, had become earwig heaven when I put in those little lettuce plants. And the one thing that makes me scream like a little girl is the sight of earwigs. I can not stand these little bugs, mostly because my mom had this theory about teaching her kids fear and chose earwigs as one of her big selling points. I used to litterally wake up screaming from nightmares that involved earwigs, thanks to her influence. So, the lettuce crop was a complete bust. But my two little tomato plants florished and did even better than the year previous. And this year I got smart. I only roasted the tomatoes and the pureed them and froze the puree. This way, I could add that homemade tomato paste to any recipe calling for tomato paste in a can, and voila! Sauce that didn't suck!

Now, our story jumps forward one more year. I had learned from my last two years not to plant leafy things that grow close to the ground, but that I was the tomato queen. I also had become a guinea pig mom and those little guys were complete suckers for raw tomatoes. So, I thought, "Great! A Willing audience! I can UPGRADE my plot!" And so I went about building a small raised bed, filled with the best wal-mart soil I could afford. I staked out the plots and in went 3 tomato plants - by this time I'd upgraded to romas - and I got brave and tried out cucumbers and acorn squash. And that wal-mart soil worked it's wonders, along with lots of water and the hot, E WA sun. I had tomato plants so large that they pulled their cages out of the ground. And The cucumbers and acorn squash stretched halfway across our lawn. I found joy in refridgerator pickles and the squash went in a cool, dark place to await stuffing and roasting. And once more, I made roasted tomato puree. But I had many more tomatoes than I could puree. And guinea pigs are fairly small animals. They could only eat one or two a day. So I started giving away tomatoes. I brought them to work, I gave them to friends, I had tomatoes coming out my ears! And this is the girl, remember, who HATES raw tomatoes...

And so we arrive at this year. We are in a real house this year, on a huge lot that had a great flat area that we tilled for a vegetable patch. And you'd think I would have learned my lesson over last year, right? 2 tomato plants, great, 3 are too many, more than that is insanity. And since we no longer have the piggies, but have a dog, I needed to cut back even more, right?

Now what makes you think I had that kind of sense? Oh no, Not me! I put in 5 (that's right, FIVE) different varieties of tomatoes. As well as my very successful cucumbers (twice as many plants, of course) and acorn squash (ditto) and added corn and bell peppers. Now really, I had to give away half my produce from last year so it wouldn't rot, so what came over me? All I can say is that it was a sunny day, the plot was sitting there empty, and I started placing stakes to mark out plots. And it all went downhill from there. By the time I got to the store, I had so many grand plans that the checker didn't know what hit her when I came buy in my bulging cart. I also added a couple of herb pots this year to our front porch.

I really really am crazy. I am the crazy plant lady who works in a yarn shop all day and is so eager for sun that I go a little crazy when let loose in a garden center. And this year I have to weed. Boo. But it sure is going to be fun!

Lemon Filled, Vanilla Birthday Cupcakes

2007-05-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

Steven's birthday is this coming Thursday, and since I have a 3 day weekend, I decided to make him cupcakes instead of a cake! This is one of the bigger projects I've attempted for his birthday, but it's the first to come out RIGHT! Perfectly right!
So, Onto the pictures and the recipes!

Yellow Cake:
Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 box Dry Pudding Mix (Not cook and serve, but instant. I use Vanilla)
3 Tbs Oil (I use Canola, but any vegetable oil will work)
1 Cup Milk (I use low fat soy, any low/non fat milk will work)
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
6 Egg Whites (Or 3 eggs, or appropriate egg substitute)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking dish - either cupcake tins or 2 - 9" round pans, greased & floured.
Sift together dry ingredients. You can store this dry mix in a sealed container for several weeks. These dry ingredients are equivalent to 1 box of cake mix.
Beat egg whites until light & fluffy. Mix into the remaining ingredients and beat for 1 minute. Add to dry ingredients and beat for 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl several times during mixing.
Pour into prepared pans. I use 1/4 cup per cupcake or you can split it between your 2 round pans.
Bake. For cupcakes, 15 - 20 minutes. For rounds, 30 - 40 minutes.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack until completely cool.

Next, We make the Lemon Pudding Filling! Of course, you can use lemon pudding from a box, but this is much yummier!

Lemon Pudding (vegan)

Ingredients:

6 Tbs Cornstarch
2 Lemons - Zest of
1 Pinch Salt
1 Cup Sugar
1 Liter Soy Milk (4 1/4 cups)
2 Lemons - Juice of

Directions:

In a large pot, mix the cornstarch, lemon zest, salt, and sugar.
Mix in enough soy milk to form a smooth paste.
Slowly mix in the remaining soy milk, stirring constantly to keep it smooth.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. This takes about 10 - 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. You can add more or less depending on how lemon-y you like it.
Strain to remove any lumps you may have missed. This step is optional, but makes for a smoother pudding.
Chill for at least 2 hours.

Next, we fill the cupcakes. All I did for this was take a piping bag and a large star tip. Fill the piping bag with the pudding. Stab your star tip into the center of the cupcake and wiggle around to make a small well. Fill with pudding until cupcake starts to bulge. Repeat on all remaining cupcakes.

Now, for the frosting! This frosting tastes a lot like marshmallow fluff and has about the same consistency. It is a little messy to make, but has endless possibilities for adapting for different flavors. Just substitute out the vanilla for a flavoring of your choice. Peppermint or coconut works well.

7 - Minute Frosting

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/3 Cup Cold Water
2 Egg Whites
2 tsp Honey
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

In the top of a double boiler, combine all ingredients except vanilla. Beat on low for 30 seconds.
Place onto bottom of double boiler, over boiling water. Cook, beating constantly on high, for approx 7 minutes. Frosting should form stiff peaks.
Remove from heat, add vanilla. Beat 2 - 3 more minutes until frosting is stiff enough to spread.

Frost your cake or cupcakes. I used a small star tip for mine. Then garnish as you feel is appropriate. Steven absolutely loves strawberries, so I cut up some strawberries for his garnish. This took most of the day to make, but he loves them!