Bumpy Doink

Good Granny!

2011-10-28T19:59:00.025-05:00

Here's a fun link to some cute Granny Squares in 3D! There are videos to make each of them, but they are in German. The good thing is, if you watch what they are doing, you can figure it out.

There are some very unique blocks there. My favorite one is this:

Here is a cool tutorial for a caston and also a bindoff picot edge. Very cool!

Aim's knitting update:

I finished Klaralund about 2 weeks ago. It was a speedy and easy knit! I am very happy with it. In this photo it's unblocked, and I just pulled it on over a baggy t-shirt, but you get the idea, happy sherbet colors!

I started another blanket, based on this one on Ravelry, called the Rambling Rows Afghan. I have a bunch of beautiful variegated bulky wools to use in yummy colors!

Last weekend I got a lot done, in spite of being sick again. I am starting to think all the illnesses and fevers I have been having the past couple of years are due to dental problems. I think I need to have the tooth I had crowned last year pulled. Yikes.

Aim's outdoor update:

Miraculously, our weather here has been mild for so long, I was able to get the front yard raked of leaves, and the window frames painted before the first frost. Woot! Now the back yard's leaves will probably not be down for 2 more weeks. My rosebush in front is blooming away still.

I gathered all my green tomatoes last week, and they have been ripening slowly on my kitchen counter. I also brought in my rosemary potted plant for the winter, and just in time! That very night was our first hard frost. And the next morning the drive to work was amazingly beautiful. Frost on the ground, a thin layer of fog over the fields, and a gorgeous sun-dog in the sky.

I have continued to walk to work, but earlier this week I got extremely chilled when I misread how cold it was going to be on the way home. I had to sleep in a wool sweater with wool socks under a wool blanket with the heat turned up! It is hot apple cider weather now :)

Stay warm,

Aim

Happy Saturday!

2011-10-16T18:48:00.008-05:00

I made soap today! A second type of soap that was fun and fast.

These are for gift-giving this Christmas, along with others I made earlier this summer.

I walked my dog in the breezy sunny day, and raked the leaves out of my front yard again.

I put all the light-switch covers back on in the living room which I finished painting 2 days ago. I'm liking the new look very much!

I decluttered some areas of my home today, and also roamed the garden photographing late-blooming flowers. My Carefree Wonder roses are still blooming profusely! I have had roses on that bush as late as Thanksgiving, but this year I have not pruned it, so there are mostly rose-hips. I will pick them this winter I think, since they are high in Vitamin C. I have to find out how to process them....

I didn't get around to painting the outdoor woodwork--hopefully I can do that before this week is over, or it will be too late this year. And, I didn't warp my loom yet; that may be a winter project that has to wait.

Yesterday, I made mini donuts in my mini-donut maker. I'm not usually a big fan of goofy electric kitchen appliances, but this one is pretty fun! I froze some of them. Then, I baked Tirali, an Italian cookie also known as Lemon Knots for you Starbuck's fans. I only iced half of them and took them to church; I froze the other 3-1/2 dozen.

I am gearing up to watch the Chicago Bears whoop the Vikings tonight, with some knitting on my lap and a cocktail of some sort. Just my kind of evening :)

Soon winter will be here, and I don't think it'll be as hard as previous winters on me. At the risk of sounding mysterious, I'm being set free from a lot of psychological baggage, and I look forward to the cold weather.

Day 3 of Fall

2011-09-25T05:57:00.011-05:00

We got early fall weather in August, but it is really only the 3rd official day of the season. I love autumn!

Klaralund is about 50% finished, I am into the first sleeve and the whole body is finished in the round like I wanted. The yarn is Jojoland Rhythm, and I love the overall color palette of this.

I absolutely love the electric grill my brother gave me last year for Christmas! I turn it on and cook and then turn it off. No messing with propane tanks or charcoal briquets (I hate those things) or lighter fluid! What a great idea! I am enjoying grilled chicken, grilled vegies, grilled steaks, kebabs, pork chops, even tilapia...

Now the weather has turned cool, I'm still grilling, but my taste is changing to different fare: baked goods, beef stew, chili, crockpot goodies that cook all day while I'm at work! Heavier eating, heavier coats, and heavier socks are all in the near future....but hopefully not a heavier me, heh. I continue to lose weight: I have lost 19 lbs. Only 30 more to go!

I now share a recipe for Sauerkraut Salad my friend at work told me about, it is like a sweet and sour cole slaw that is fantastic with grilled meats. A yummy summer side-dish that is very easy and delicious. I never thought sauerkraut could be so good!

SAUERKRAUT SALAD (SWEET & SOUR COLE SLAW)

Boil 1 c sugar with 1/2 c vinegar until clear.

Pour over:
1 can sauerkraut
onion, chopped
green/red bell pepper
1 tsp celery seeds

Stir and refrigerate.

Happy knitting, eating, and walking in the fallen leaves.

Aim

It's Fall!

2011-09-05T12:39:00.022-05:00

Wow, turn the calendar page, and the weather magically obeys! It is frigid here today; given that 2 days ago it was 99degrees outside, today's 65 degrees has me bundled up shivering in a wool sweater. DS and I are crying about it today, because it feels so SHOCKING to our systems!

Fall used to be my favorite season, but I have to admit that the past several years it has been harder and harder to adjust to the temperatures dropping. I never used to think about it when I was younger--I'm beginning to feel like a geezer!

We had a lovely bon voyage party for DD, who is deploying to the Middle East later this month with her Reserves unit. We are sending her off with style!

So, because of the party yesterday, I actually have photos of my Shrugalicious that I finished a month ago:

Pay no attention to that belly roll--I'm workin' on it!

Too bad I didn't get any photos of the back of the shrug, it is lovely the way it drapes down with its circular hemline.

I have spent the day so far recuperating from the party =) Been surfing, and I found something really cool: needle felting to darn a sock! What a cool idea!

Been walkin' to work as often as I can--weather permitting. Don't know how long I'll remain at this job, I'm getting the sense now is the time to begin putting in efforts to relocate somewhere WARM! Anyway, I'm trying to make the most of living close enought to walk to work--I've lost 10 lbs since April when I started, and that is not doing any other aerobic exercise but the distance walking! Yay, 30 more to go....

Today's breakfast was chicken salad sandwich and an Italian sub with my hot coffee. Then lunch: a bowl of cheddar broccoli soup with an Italian sub (guess what I had leftover from yesterday's party!) I need to get outside in the sun, this cold air is making me crazy.

Hope to show some weaving results soon! And, today I plan on casting on Klaralund--I need wool to work on, and rather than pick up old hibernating projects, I want to start something new (and easy)!

Happy Autumn!

Aim

Summer Fare, continued

2011-08-14T03:40:00.000-05:00

I was discussing summer eating in a recent post, and the food fest continues :)

Check out this recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad, it sounds so easy, and there are no weird ingredients:

I might be making that dressing this weekend for a similar version! I really hate iceberg lettuce, but this recipe might make it palatable. I think I hate that lettuce because it was the only lettuce we ever had when I was growing up; I don't think there were other lettuces available at the grocery store back then, but if there were we never bought them. I love lettuce that is green (go figure), so all the wonderful lettuces available in today's stores are like candy to me. Boston Lettuce, Green Leaf or Red Leaf Lettuce, Spring Greens, Frisee, Mesclun, Baby Spinach--all yummy. (Not a big fan of arugula, that bitterness is disgusting). I think my all time favs though are the leaf lettuces I have grown in my garden, called Butter something, Salad Bowl, and Oak Leaf. I LOVE OAK LEAF lettuce, so sweet and fresh and easier than stink to grow. You walk out the door with your scissors and snip off at ground level the amount of leaves you want! So yummy!

I am interested in trying to grow lettuce in my basement this winter, really want to invest in the plant stands that have lights mounted on them, but it is a bit pricey for me currently. Plus, now I have kitties that might like to dig. So this is likely going on the back burner for another few years :)

I found another recipe, this for citrus vinaigrette(scroll down), which sounds like something I want to try on my summer salads--even with chicken.

While on the topic of salad, I had a great salad last night, I put leftover taco meat over tossed mixed lettuces salad, and topped it with taco sauce, shredded cheese, and crumbled taco chips. MMMMM.

Next food topic: cottage cheese! I recently rediscovered that and how yummy and filling it is, delicious with summer fruits!

Aim

Best Laid Plans

2011-08-11T17:32:00.018-05:00

Bear cub adoption

You can only do so much planning in this life. We were discussing this at work today; how these days you can only do so much about your investments, and there seems no hard/fast rule or safe way to do anything! I think that is true of life in general.

I love Dave Ramsey's take on this: stuff happens, and when you budget your money, you need to put something toward the 'stuff happens' category (i.e. emergency fund). There is only so much planning you can do b/c you can't see the future, but one thing is for certain: STUFF HAPPENS!

So, how do you deal with uncertainty? I do what I can with the knowledge I have, and give the rest to God. You could worry yourself sick trying to plan for everything, but you will NEVER know in advance what will happen. In that sense, faith in God is easy!

But even with that down-to-earth approach to faith, it is still so easy to get caught up in the what-ifs. Then the anxiety begins to build again in a subtle manner. I think that is why we are encouraged to begin each day anew with God; because if we don't, we will try to shoulder all the burdens ourselves and the worries of the day become too heavy when we do that. Give it to God, and rest in Him.

Blessings,
Aim

p.s. a great idea: online audiobible--I like to have Psalms playing in the background while I am surfing, or doing bills, etc.

Web photos and summer eating!

2011-08-07T10:27:00.051-05:00

I've always wanted to be a model. This is why:

I am yarnivorous today, can't get enough of Ravelry and my stash. I frogged back one whole sleeve of the Shrugalicious (see last post) in order to widen the garment across the back. No biggee, right? Usually, but guess what? I frogged from the wrong end. DUH!!!

So I had to be very creative in order to secure the DC stitches that were flying in the wind after I took out what I cut off. I think I did a decent job though, don't think you can really see the fix. Now it fits much better across the back, and doesn't dig into my armpits. I LOVE the way this garment is shaping up!

Here it is, one sleeve and the back....

Summer is all about cranking out lace, especially doilies. I guess I do that naturally, working with cottons in the summertime, but winter finds me working with wool. I just printed out this pattern and this one, and should be 2 doilies richer by the end of the month :)

A new hotpad I'm going to make is here. Doesn't look like much in that photo, but the versions on rav are multicolored and lovely, starfishesque. It might even work as a washcloth.

Today I eat yummy summer bounty: I have organic cherries and freshly picked Southern Michigan blueberries (thanks Claudia!)I am thinking about making this recipe--what do you think? I love ricotta cheese like that, and recipes that do not require turning on the oven are preferable this time of year.

In fact, here's my favorite microwave brownie recipe (it came with my first Tappan microwave circa 1986), great for summer snacking:

MICROWAVE BROWNIES

1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. nuts (or ground flaxseed meal, yum)

Melt butter in microwave 45-60 seconds. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla. Beat til creamy. Stir in dry ingredients. Fold in nuts; pour into 9" square baking pan; Nuke on high for 8-10 minutes, until top is dry & springy. Turn pan halfway through cooking if your microwave does not have a turntable. Cool & cut into squares. YUMMY AND FUDGY AND CAKEY!

Happy yarnings!
Aim

Summer's Best

2011-08-05T21:27:00.011-05:00

Latest movies:

Saw "Cowboys and Aliens" tonight with my son. What the---?! It was quite a different movie, but being the huge Harrison Ford fan that I am, I had to see it. It is worth seeing.

Last night, DS and I watched "300" on DVD. That movie was excellent, though the gore was akin to Braveheart, making me squirm in my seat. We had homemade pizza while we watched (funny, that).

A couple weeks ago I went with my brother to see "Larry Crowne" and it was a very cute movie, enjoyable and made you feel good.

In addition, I just polished off John Grisham's latest novel, am halfway through "The Painted Cave" by Jean Auel (I have waited 20 years for this sequel!), and waiting in the wings is "The Scent of Rain and Lightning".

No wonder I don't have time for knitting :D

My favorite seasonal stuff: sweet corn soon--I have to pop by the farmer's market tomorrow and get some. Also, tomatoes right off the vine: caprese salad with my homegrown basil is a meal in itself with chewy bread! Warm weather and sleeping with the windows open, now with a kitten in every windowsill (it does seem like that!) I love all the burgeoning gardens, and even my pathetic patch of poorly cared-for and late-planted tomatoes are going like wild!

Yay for summer and BLTs! Gotta go do my budget now (it's not a FAVORITE thing per se, but I am beginning to enjoy it).

Rock on!
Aim

p.s. did I mention that my all time favorite movie is "Babe"? There is no movie that tops that one, I'm sorry. It is the best and I have to watch it yearly :)

August Update

2011-08-04T19:55:00.009-05:00

Not much has been happening with yarn. Life has been happening, however.

I have found a wonderful supportive group of women that meet for Bible study one evening a week, and go out for food after evening church service on weekends. They are all range of ages, and all range of wisdom. I think their support and presence in my life is what I have been missing. God is good.

When I have time, I try to work on the Shrug-a-licious, but it is a bit snug and I think I need to unravel the second sleeve back to make it wider across the back. I am using yarn from Hobby Lobby for this, called Omega Sinfonia; it is 100% cotton and nice to work with.

Don't know why, but it seems like every time I start a sweater, it gets stopped because some part of it isn't working, then I put it down and it languishes for months--or even years. I have to get over that hurdle somehow, but right now my life is extremely full and finding yarn time is difficult.

Kitties are going in for surgery later this month, and I'm going to Stitches! Both things are a big yay, SOMEONE has started spraying around the house so that has to get FIXED soon!

One more Rav link: have you seen the new Matroyshka pattern? So cute! I still like that motif, so I may try to make a couple. That seems to be more up my alley lately, fast and fun.

Hope everyone is keeping cool this summer!
Aim

Garment Summer

2011-07-18T07:04:00.006-05:00

I have 2 new sweaters finished this past month!!! I made a Granny Cardigan only following the basic initial construction info, so it is an oversized boxy sweater. Cracks me up, and used tons of random balls of yarn....yay!

The other one I finished about a week ago, the Chevron Lace Cardigan with random ugly clown-barf wool I had on hand. I plan on overdying it with a brown, so it will not look like a pastel leopard!

I like how fast this one was to make, and pretty simple, I just need to dye and block it....

Kitties are growing big!
They are the light of my life lately, and make me laugh constantly! All you cat-lovers out there, I have forgotten how much fun kittens are!

Happy summer!

Life Has a Way

2011-06-26T12:03:00.035-05:00

Life has a way of changing your course unexpectedly. How easily we fall into a routine, and how surprised we are when something changes without warning!

We have kitties! My spring and summer has been taken up with caring for and adjusting to my new pets. They are now 13 weeks old, saw the vet for the first time yesterday. I guess they weren't 4 weeks old (like we thought) when DS and I rescued them from our nasty garage/shed--they were apparently 7 weeks old at that time. No wonder they were so stinking hungry when we got them, they'd been still surviving only on mom's milk, and possibly anything she might have hunted for them. Given that the only way out of the garage was through a broken window pane, I don't think they had been out yet.

Monkey is a super intense ninja-kitty, and does everything at 150% energy level.

He is larger than his brother and immediately developed the hang of shouldering Gibbs out of the food bowl when eating, and ate so fast he ballooned up his belly within a couple of days of rescue. He is slowly becoming okay with being petted, but only when he decides it is time (like when he is sleeping)! He is gray and short-haired and woolly, with a sloping nose profile.

Gibbs is sleek and black with longer hair and no undercoat, and an upturned tip of the nose. He has the biggest eyes I've ever seen in a cat. He is very sociable and lovable, the first to welcome being touched and petted. He is nowhere near as rowdy as his brother, and likes to lay stretched out in silly poses at rest. He loves the yarn in the bowl, kneads it and purrs.

In contrast, his wild brother loves to take a ball of yarn in his mouth and run into the bathroom with it, making mama retrieve her yarn from behind the stool again and again. Monkey is a naughty kitty :)

God sent me these gifts to help me deal with an extremely difficult time in my life. I can honestly say I have not laughed so much in the past 3 years as I have in the past 5 weeks!

Healing comes through unexpected pathways. I have not had a cat for 30 years. What a lovely blessing!

No knitting or crocheting going on these days. I am too busy keeping the house running. I did try my hand at soapmaking, and it was successful and quite fun! I should do some yarning today...but there are tomatoes to tie up, weeding to do, and laundry. Hmmmmmm.

Garden update: I never did plant my huge garden. It is enough this year to get the tomatoes in only 2 weeks ago! It is hard to plan big gardening jobs and carry them out when you are not sure if you will continue to live here. And we had the weirdest abnormal weather this spring that I never could get outside to plant.

I am snowballing my debt. So glad to be paying off lots of bills. Things will be getting very tight within the next 6 months, so I am really trying to get it off my plate by then. Wish me luck! Step one was to sell off the Mini Cooper--let me just say one thing:

NEVER BUY A MINI COOPER.

Don't even be tempted. They are the worst car on the planet. Rated 7 out of the 10 most unreliable used cars ever, by Consumer Reports. Mine was only 3 years old, and in the shop 6 times in the 9 months I owned it (luckily still on manufacturer's warranty so all repairs were covered). I sold it 3 months before the warranty was due to expire: no way I would continue paying top $$ for a luxury car that requires premium gas only, gets awful gas mileage (?20 mpg), and breaks down constantly! Instead, I now own a 7 year old Toyota, I put 2000 miles on it within the first 2 weeks and it has not been in the shop once! Gotta love a Toyota. I love that it is pared down, no bells and whistles, gets great gas mileage and I can use the cheapest gas out there. Can you say, R-E-L-I-A-B-L-E? It may be lacking in style, but what good is a cute car that doesn't go?!

I hope to get back to blogging and surfing blogs soon, but re-arranging my life has taken precedence. Thanks to all my supporters and readers for being so responsive when I WAS posting. I have great memories of that and hope to get back on the bandwagon soon :)

Dedicated Butt Scissors

2011-04-03T07:20:00.001-05:00

Guess.

Alright, I'll tell:
My GF and I were discussing how we have to intermittently chase our hairiest pets around and wipe their butts off and trim their butt fur because of their fur carrying lingering doody after potty-time. After all, you don't want doody all over the house and the furniture. We both noted that we have 'dedicated butt scissors' just for that very purpose and that those scissors are kept well away from normal daily activities. But that once, her mom used the scissors marked food to cut kitty's hair....At least it wasn't the other way around!

Okay, nuff said.

We had a nice crocheting and knitting time together over a glass of wine. She brought me a Yankee Candle called Cinnamon Toast--Oh, YUM! It smells wonderful. I'm gonna go light it right now....

Go Cubs!

2011-04-02T19:26:00.005-05:00

Okay, y'all have to see my family here, my s'prise nephew is 3 and interviews well, methinks! (at the end of the clip)

Cubs Opening Day Can Bring Unpredictable Weather: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Yay, Spring is REALLY here! Flower buds, baseball (not that I am a big fan, I admit), sunshine and more sunshine. Ahhhhhh. My camera is calling!

I am in search of this pattern booklet, I believe it was published in Australia....

Anybody have a clue where I can get this? I'd love a copy, and have been on the lookout for several years for it on Ebay without success. If anybody has a copy they'd like to sell me, please let me know!

The hunt goes on (that's half the fun!)

The Amateur Biologist Speaks

2011-03-06T07:26:00.039-06:00

ON MASS DIE-OFFS

I cannot believe that mass animal deaths in huge quantities are "common", as the officials quoted in these articles are stating (follow some of the linked articles within). What kind of dummies do we look like? And what happens if the human species begins to have an unexplained "mass die-off"? Will we say that too is 'not uncommon'?

I postulate this dying-trend may be related to the manipulation of the food-chain's genome. Genetically modified grains/vegetables/fruits that are being foisted upon the world by large corporations are bound to have some repercussions; whether it be vitamin deficiencies, or alterations of the very DNA of the higher organisms that eat them--You Are What You Eat. There have been documented cases of genetic plant modifications 'jumping species' and spreading like crazy into nearby wild species once they are released into our environment, threatening many species of insects. Will that not eventually affect organisms higher on the food chain?

Maybe something basic like cell-senescence is being changed in these species' DNA. We don't know everything--that is science's great pitfall. We know a little so we think we know it all. So let's play with the genome some more, and maybe we can open Pandora's Box.

Some may say that because of the age of information we inhabit, it only seems like a lot of mass animal death is happening, that we just didn't know it was happening before; it wasn't as readily compiled. Really? Millions of fish dying?! All at once, in a big swarm, and only within one species. In isolated random-seeming locations throughout the world, these massive death counts have been seen frequently in the last decade. Has this been documented so pervasively, in such numbers in the past? Call me a doubter, if you will.

Evolutionists may point to survival of the fittest as the cause. Then why only one flock of red-wing blackbirds, not the whole species, or multiple flocks within the same species throughout the land? Herd-kill seems too frequent lately, yet none of the investigators can find a cause based on known science! No viruses, no bacteria, no parasites or diseases, no toxins or signs of poisoning! Huh?! Were the fish and crabs scared to death by fireworks too? I wonder if any research is being conducted into the very genetics of the decimated flocks of birds or schools of fish?

Other expert theories mention cold-water stress on the fish/crabs as cause of death. What happened to the theory of global warming? Why would there be cold-water stress if the planet is actually becoming warmer? Which theory should we latch onto? (Which basically should serve to remind us, they are only theories.) And what about the dying coral in the world's oceans--another sign of 'cold-water stress' vs global warming?

MY OWN LITTLE PLOT OF EARTH

On the heels of that discourse, let's get back to our own gardens, our own yards, our own lifestyles that may be participating in the demise of our environment. Being attentive to our own actions, being purposeful in our lives can make a strong impact. We as Christians are called to be good stewards--this means all God has given us, not just $$$. I am planning a garden this year, and will be starting heirloom vegetable seeds soon to transplant when the time comes.

I found great instructions for how to make transplantable pots out of newspapers! I will definitely be making some of these, likely this week, in preparation for the seed-starting I have planned. How cheap, earth-friendly, and virtuous in a recycling sort of way! Let's go plant!

Here's my garden list for 2011 (ambitious, we'll see how much actually gets done):

Tomatoes: Hillbilly Potato Leaf, Long Tom, Black Sea Man, Rose, Ukranian Purple
Flowers:Empress of India Nasturtium, California Poppies, Grandpa Ott's Morning Glory, Painted Lady Sweet Peas, America Sweet Peas, Curiosity Nigella, Night-Scented Stock, Amado Coneflower
Herbs: Grandma Einck's Dill
Vegetables: Snack Face Pumpkins, Moon & Stars Watermelon, Red Peter Peppers, True Lemon Heirloom Cuke, Beer Friend Soybeans, Fingerling Potatoes

I have never planted more than peppers or tomatoes before, so I am really going to be jumping in with both feet!

To end this post: an amazing twig artwork display,

of branch-woven sculpture!

Addendum to post: Or, maybe the birds and fish dropped dead of something similar to the giant CO2 bubble that arose from a lake bed in Africa, and, because of its density, hugged the low ground, asphyxiating every mammal in its path! Maybe there is a correspondence in mass animal deaths along fault lines? Or, some other noxious fumes? Hmmm. You'd have to think they'd be researching things like: did the fish asphyxiate?

Obviously this is a puzzle I can't wait to see the answer to--hope I'm still alive when they figure it out, could be a long, long time!

Home-made and Cheap

2011-02-22T06:58:00.001-06:00

I AM LOVING THIS! Check out these "recipes" for home cleaning products....let's see I think I'll make soap first :)

I went to Ikea 3 weeks ago with DD, and bought a dedicated large spaghetti pot for soap making. When the weather warms, I will be doing this project outdoors, so as not to be using caustic chemicals (lye) in the kitchen. I need to also get a hotplate I can use outdoors....wonder where I can find one of those? I am looking to get a picnic table this summer also, and another yard swing...As if I'm made of money! Oh well, there's always something!

This year for christmas I am giving homemade soaps that I will make throughout the warmer weather. That is a do-ahead kind of project I'm thrilled about. And, I was thinking of knitting a washcloth for each bar I give. I have a million washcloths now, and I cannot knit any more for myself unless I wanna be Crazy Washcloth Lady (which I don't), so the next ones I make will be for gifts! I still have crap-loads of leftover cotton yarn to use up!

St Patty's Day is around the corner, I should make up some decor....Let me check on Ravelry and see what is there, I know I'd queued several shamrock designs in past years. I want to Irish up my house this year!

I am on a super-tight budget this month, after having to pay up front for the wisdom tooth to be pulled. Hope the insurance will reimburse me quickly. I love a challenge, though :)

If the weather behaves a bit, I may walk to work one day, and just plan on staying through lunch. I burn a bit o' gas going home each day for lunch, but I really can't stand staying there through my whole lunch hour if I don't have to. Soon, I may be biking (I know, I said that a couple years ago. This time the cost of gas may make me actually follow through)

Menu possibilities for this week: crock pot 15-bean soup, homemade chocolate chip cookies, cheese/sausage & crackers antipasti, penne pasta with homemade sauce (I made it already this week with huge chunks of meat), chicken spinach wraps, naan sandwiches with hummus.

Happy almost-Spring, y'all!

Aim, the impatient

Winter Reading

2011-02-21T03:00:00.000-06:00

DS brought me this beautiful bouquet of roses at work for Valentine's Day! Isn't he a sweetie?! I love my kids, they rock!

I have spent my looooooong winter reading this series of 12 novels:

I have enjoyed the whole series immensely! I like that these 12 novels have been reprinted in collections of 3 novels per volume, so that I only had to buy 4 books total. The best part of getting the books like this is that as soon as you finish one gripping book in the series, you can move on immediately to the next one without having to wait! I like that!

This has truly been the winter of reading for me! And I feel well-rested because of it! I am ready for spring, and lots of hard work in the garden!

Drum roll, because I said I'd show you the Aran Wrap Cardi, so here it is:

For knitting now, I am currently working on Shiri Mor's lace cardi from the Vogue Fall 2010 issue. I am really enjoying working on this, I love the yarn color, the feel (wool!), and the way it locks into place as it is blocked. I'm loving it! I hope to have this cardi finished by April, though there is no rush. I am just focused on it right now and enjoying the process, except when the charts make no sense. Arrrgggh!

I have begun to walk the doggie again, now that it is melting outside and there are clear patches and it is not dangerously cold! The pooch is happy about that, and I am too.

Wanna hear my large garden plans? Maybe next post.....! Spring is coming!!!!!!! Woot!

Aim

Lovin' the Links

2011-02-20T09:12:00.015-06:00

Can't wait til the earth looks like this around here again....

Been surfin' yesterday--nothin' else to do after having a wisdom tooth pulled! I've been not much good for anything else.

But wow, I found some great recipes I want to share! And great websites--did you know that Gooseberry Patch has a website, and also a blog?! SQUEEEEEE! I never knew this. I am enamored of their recipes and cookbooks, in fact I think I have 8 of them! They are my go-to cookbooks for great, well-tested recipes.. I am so excited, I printed out a couple of their dip recipes from the December 2010 archive, looks delish!

I like that they have downloadable artwork too on their site!

I found this interesting and simple microwave popcorn recipe! Whodathunk?! Make it plain and then add whatever you want! And on the same website, a really great idea for hot cocoa sticks to give as gifts! LOVE that one! And Rosemary Bread! And biscuit donuts!

And, I found a new fav Indian foods blog to love! I'll be watching this one! Must try her Naan bread, that TK blogged about! I plan on trying that recipe today.

Nutella recipes are always welcome--I just don't have enough daylight in 24 hours to make all these great recipes! Can't believe I missed World Nutella Day on Feb 5 (or was it 6th?)!

These links are not food, but the cutest crafts for the holidays! I know, I'm a bit behind, but there is always another Christmas lurking around the corner!Paper-craft wreath for the holidays. Great idea! And I'm really liking these natural Christmas ornaments--woodland themed and cheap! I also like the technique in this pinecone garland. That's different!

Oooooh, and look at the lovely reindeer penny rug made out of felt! This is too cute, I should make one for my table centerpiece for next christmas....

And I want to make these really sweet herb pots! I LOVE chalkboard paint! And, for next christmas, some great printable gift tags from gooseberry patch!

This morning's Chicago Tribune featured a local home that is passive-built, and it was very interesting reading. I'd love to learn more about green living and eventually adapt the changes that I can to my own homw, so I went on over to the Four Thick Walls blog to see what it's all about. This looks like something very very doable.

Spring fever is upon me, though we still have weeks of winter left. I can't help it, it was 60 degrees 3 days ago and I went out and planted some pink daffodil bulbs that had been chilling in my fridge since I bought them in January. The remaining winter temps should be enough to activate these puppies--can't wait. It was fun to get my fingers muddy, too! And 99% of our snowfall from the blizzard is already melted, I can seen green grass, green moss, and buds all over my star magnolia! The springtime countdown is on!

Here's hoping you all are enjoying good food and good family times this winter! I'm off to church, then to spend my Groupon at the local bookstore, woot!

ETA: the naan bread was very good, though my kitchen filled with smoke! Tends to do that every time I use a dry skillet!
Manana, pics of the Aran Wrap Cardi....

Aim

Digging Out

2011-02-02T13:02:00.014-06:00

See why I dream of moving to Hawaii? (p.s.-- there are 2 cars in this pic.)

Poor puppy can't find a place to pee....

I spent an hour getting to my car from the front door.

And yes, there is a car under there....

The drifts along the 6 foot privacy fence reach 5 feet outside the kitchen window.

The back yard is not so bad drift-wise.

Very thankful the power did not go out. DS said his girlfriend in Chicago walked down to the beach near her apt, and saw 20 foot waves and lightning over the lake during the blizzard! Wierd.

All the people across the street have minimal snow on their cars b/c the wind has been drifting snow toward their back doors instead of the front doors. Only their side of the street has been plowed also >:\

This is as far as I got. It's DS's turn to shovel next! Why didn't I think to park my car at the street end of the driveway?! Now we have to shovel the whole thing. And it needs to be done by tonight, with overnight temps expected to hit -5 to -15 F!

Interject some color:

Whoa! I was a bit iffy about this after I painted it--I wanted cottage green, and thought it was intensely minty instead. Yikes

Better with some floating shelves and my Yellowstone photos. I'm still not sure about leaving the wallpaper border up (it has been up for 15 + years, on a light pink room.) It's growing on me. The color is a nice change.

BTW, don't know if I've posted since I finished my Aran Wrap Cardi? Pics to come. I am loving this cardi like no other. Have worn it to work several times when the temps have been below zero, and I have gotten a lot of comments. I also love to wear it in the "green room" pictured above, as that room tends to be cooler than the rest of the house. It's like wearing a cozy wool blanket!

One WIP down....

2011-01-22T12:01:00.005-06:00

(Here's a post I'm publishing back-dated. It just never happened in January when I initially wrote it)

So. It took me a little over 2 years, but I have finished the Aran Wrap Cardi. Woot!!!

I wore it to work the past 2 days in the -8 degree F weather. It has been the best thing to cuddle up in--early this morning when I had a bit of a fever, and couldn't get rid of the chill, I put it on OVER my fleece bathrobe, and got in bed under the down comforter, with wool handmade socks on, and slept for another couple of hours. Deliciously warm, yes!

I am so happy to have finished that project, now I can devote my creative time to other WIPs! Right now am still working and almost done with the Noro sock-yarn kitchen curtain I have been making! Crazy color for a drab cold winter.

I am basing my new kitchen color on a vase that we received from Edible Arrangements; after all the wonderful fruit was used today in a lovely smoothie, it was washed and will accompany me to the paint store later. I really want that color in my home somewhere, just not sure how the living room gray that is planned will coordinate with that yellow-orange!? I really have to be careful here! I'm thinking just an accent wall under the cupboards when they get raised) will give enough of that happy color to the room. Since my kitchen-living-dining room is all one open area, I don't want to chop it up with colors that don't coordinate. Hmmmm

Well, my LYS closed. What a sad event for the social knitters in my area! Molly has moved on to have more time for her grandchildren, and who can blame her?! Too bad no buyer was found for the store, though. I am sure there will be lots of satellite knitting groups that form from this dissolution. There are other LYS around, but none with the warmth and acceptance of The Gifted Purl. Sigh.

I am proud I could wear my new sweater to the last night of her store--I bought the yarn from her as my first purchase in 2006!

One bonus about this awful cold snap--the sun has been shining full force. Thank you God! I needed to see the sun, it has been a lot of gray overcast and snowing days around here!

Plans for 2011, Plans for the Day

2011-01-08T10:08:00.036-06:00

Maui vignette

ON COOKING:
Ah, the weekend. It has been majorly cozy around here--snowed last night, just a little, and when I picked up milk on the way home, I got a broasted chicken too, ready to serve. That solved dinner easily. My doggie and I loved it :)

Earlier in the week I made a crockpot of split pea soup. It was bubbling along all day while I was at work. It was so piping hot after I walked my dog, I didn't even care that it was not pureed. It was fantastic and warmed me up well! That will be dinner today, too.

I want to try making these too, don't know why sauerkraut sounds so good to me these days, but I had bought a large jar of it at the store that has been sitting in my fridge without being used.

ON THINGS TO DO:
I have been looking on Ravelry, and saw I have 6 WIPs listed as incomplete. This next week I am going to seriously work on getting some of them finished. Two of them are completely done, but just need the loose ends sewn in! It'll be easy to get those off my list!

One that is very easy to finish is a destined for the frog-pile sweater. I finished the body a year ago then realized it is both too big, and the designed neckline overly large. Here I document it B4 I frog:

(someone on Rav made one with a reduced neckline by about 5 inches and it looks much better.) I just don't want to try this pattern again--I restarted about 4 times total. We're done. I can use that gorgeous silk yarn for something better. I love cardigans....

ON NEW SKILLS:
I also have a small pile of mending to do, including mending a pair of shoes! Do any of you have a favorite pair of shoes that have done this to you?!--I was wearing them at work in late August or September, and toward the end of the day, all of a sudden the sole was flapping when I walked! What the?! It has come unglued from the insole! I'm off to the hardware store to find a glue suitable to put that back together. Geez, I've never had to cobble before....

While at the store, I am going to look for citric acid and rennet. The latest issue of Hobby Farm Home has instructions for making your own mozzarella cheese, with good photos. I have always wanted to make my own cheese! If I can find those two ingredients, I should be on a roll!

The local community college always offers jewelry making classes which I want to take this winter. I usually try not to do anything extracurricular in the deep winter b/c I hate driving in the bad weather, but the college is only about 7 minutes from home, so I should take advantage of it!

And finally, the library is going to be starting a writer's group later this month. I have not forced myself to write since NaNoWriMo2009, but I really would like to get in the habit again. I think belonging to a local writer's group would be a good thing! I write fiction and poetry, but it has been a while!

ON COLOR:
I am going to be repainting my living room, at least one of the bathrooms, and my back room before spring. I have been attuned to color lately, and so here is a photo I snagged from this blog's post, that is from a Pottery Barn catalog:

I want one of my rooms that color, how gorgeous! I really love the black and white accents. Another paint I want to get a hold of is Rustoleum 'Heirloom White' that I saw on a blog where someone repainted an old piano bench. What a lovely color and easy if it is sprayed!! I could use that paint on a myriad of furnishings I want to change. And a third color I LOVE and that may become my next generation green living room is called 'Grazing Field' by Sherwin Williams (see painted dresser here). I am hunting for that color at the hardware store today....My living room has already been 3 different shades of green since we moved in 18 years ago, first a dark forest green, then sage green, then a very light pea green which I am heartily sick of now. If I paint it yet another green, my sofa slipcover and the other furnishings will continue to go with it, and I like that idea. Plus, I love green!

The other option I was thinking about was going with a nice gray or silver color in the living room, that would be very new for me. I love this pic on the Glam Lamb, that room rocks! That's the darkest gray I think I could do, but it is very calming, no?

ON GARDENING:
I have been looking at seed catalogs. I LOVE planning my garden. This year I am going to plant some of those hull-less seed-bearing pumpkins (Snack Jack, SnackFace, etc) to make roasted seeds out of. Yummy! I expect a large harvest of those. I may set up a new garden patch in the back yard to accomodate them--the creeping jenny has been taking over the grass anyway, so I might as well plow it under. Thinking about getting a couple of chickens too, but I have to look into the city rules for that first. (My doggie would love them!)

ON SURFING:
Check this out: cool idea to make a moroccan style lamp, what a great idea!
And, I love all the brackets for shelves that The Glam Lamb put together!

Happy Happy January to all my blog readers!

To Start the Year

2011-01-03T15:10:00.007-06:00

A stuffed hand-sewn holiday decoration I made 27 years ago!

To start the New Year right, here's a sweet video I just found on UnicornPoo:

I like that. How poetic. Being alone is something I love, and I'm not afraid of it. I hope that both my children have received that gift from us, the ability to be alone and be okay with it. I find I NEED it frequently for peace.

Alone, but not lonely.

Aim

Color Therapy

2011-01-02T12:07:00.022-06:00

New Year's Eve Memories....

I made some Italian Hot Chocolate today, after walking my doggie in the frigid wind-chill. Boy did I need it! It was creamy and good--I added brandy to mine, and warmed up even more :) I served it just like Lex did in the original recipe and it tasted wonderful!

Next I want to try Nutella Hot Chocolate! I never thought to use Nutella that way!

I have been working like a fiend since yesterday, on this:

I uncovered it in one of my WIPs bags. Guess I needed a little Noro color therapy! :) I always seem to need that this time of year!

Here's my favorite new holiday recipe: Oreo Truffles. Need I say more?! These are incredible, and take about 15 minutes to make!

OREO TRUFFLES

2/3 of a bag of oreo cookies, 35 cookies or so (35 cookies make 35 truffles)
8 oz cream cheese
Chocolate for dipping, white or dark

Pulverize the cookies in a food processor until they are uniformly fine crumbs. Throw in the brick of cheese and process until it forms a ball of chocolate dough. You don't even need to bring the cheese to room temp for this!

Next, use a tiny ice-cream scoop to form about 1 inch balls of the dough, and place each on wax paper on a cookie sheet. Freeze for about 5-7 minutes to firm them up even more.

Melt your dipping chocolate, dip each ball and put back onto the wax-paper lined tray, and put the tray back into the freezer to firm up another 5-7 minutes. Then let sit at room temp--these get better even a couple of days later! YUMMY!

(Only cream cheese could have made Oreos any better!)

While you are sitting around eating bonbons (!) you can play this cute online game called Scarygirl. What a hoot.

WIP countdown:
Tonight I finished a sleeve of the Aran Wrap Cardi while watching the Bears lose to Green Bay. Only 1 sleeve left to go! My goal is to wear this wool sweater in January, so I think that another week ought to do it--I'll take it to work and see what I can get done at lunch hours this week!

Happy knitting y'all!
Aim

Bring it on!

2011-01-01T07:24:00.034-06:00

I'm ready--are you?! Happy New Year!

I feel such a huge sense of relief that 2010 is over! Enough already. Now, in 2011, I feel like the world is my oyster (what a cliche--where'd that come from?!) But then, I always feel hopeful on January 1st....

How about New Year Resolutions? It's corny, but it is my tradition. I think it's a good time to consciously redirect your life. This year I want to:

act my faith

finish all current knitting WIPs (A list to come....)

declutter

take better care of myself

take time to do things I love

take control of my finances

update my house

get my career upgrades rolling--(I have plans, can't tell ya yet)....

No negatives there, I want 2011 to be as good a year as I can make it. There are many things I can't control, but my reaction to them will determine WHO. I. AM.

May the new year bring joy to you and yours!

Paranoidal Cyst

2010-12-29T00:25:00.013-06:00

Mah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaa! That's a phrase I actually came across in the hospital! Giggle--(translation = pilonidal cyst).

Anyway, that was the highlight of my workday. Pathetic, isn't it :D

I love this idea for a pocket garden! What a cool original thought! Especially appealing to me now that the sky, the ground and the roads are all the same color. The season of drab is upon me, and anything green is quite welcome!

Oh, for all the time in the world, to be able to sew such a beautiful shirred duvet cover. Drool. Shabby Chic and quite restful to look at. I love that something so beautifully textured could be on your bed. And, look how cheap she made that (compared to buying it at anthropologie!) I. Want. One.

Lex is a genius, I love her tutorial on how to make your own pleater board. Great idea for the seamstress!

Okay. Done for 2010. Bye, you sucky year. May 2011 bring good things for all of us!

Aim

Surfing again

2010-12-14T05:25:00.020-06:00

A wee bit of early morning surfin' yielded some really great finds:

For quilters, if you don't yet know of Paper Panache website, it is an amazing site with paper-piecing patterns that are available free for a limited time, after which they are sold by the designer. If you were lucky like me, and downloaded her paper-pieced nativity pattern while it was free several years ago, you feel truly lucky! While I haven't yet attempted making this pattern, I found a blog that is documenting all the work that goes into it! (link to Paper Piecing the Nativity.)

For the crocheters out there, here are some sites that show patterns for lacework: Fantasia di Crys, Edivana Crochet, You must use your own conscience to tell you whether it is acceptable to print and use these published works. If you are like me, just looking at them for the sheer inspiration is enough. I love eye-candy!

Or, look at SkyMagenta's blog where she made a crocheted pirate ship! Now that is fun!

I am indulging in surf-time, but it is time to get ready for work. Sigh. I am going to try to get some Christmas wrapping done this morning before I have to leave :)

Stay warm y'all!

Aim

Christmas Update

2010-12-10T18:00:00.013-06:00

You know you're used to winter when 32 degrees doesn't feel that cold to you. I guess that's the only thing that makes winter tolerable--it's all relative.

I am reading the LEFT BEHIND series, by Tim LaHaye. I never thought I'd read this series, it sounded 'hokey' to me even as a Christian, but I have to admit, I couldn't put the first book down! It's gripping. I should've known I'd enjoy reading these, as Frank Peretti's books absolutely stunned me when they came out! How I wish I could write like that...:)

Bills are hitting hard this season, after a surgery, college classes next semester for DS, and the holidays all making extra expenses. I think much of America is in the same boat. I have had to have my car towed twice since I bought it in September (grrr), but thankfully that is covered on mfr warranty through next year. I just hope this isn't a trend that will continue.

Not much time to knit lately, but I'm still a fan! And I am expecting some yarn-time later this winter! I look forward to more family togetherness the next couple of weeks, then some alone time!

I am so amazed at God's goodness, how he provides for and cares for his loved ones. If only everyone would love him back. I am inspired by the Amish and their daily PRACTICE of beliefs. It is too easy to say you believe, but not act it. I am concentrating on that, like the book of James tells us. I am confident my God hears my prayers, and I rest in Him. I wish you all the same peace through Christ!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Aim

p.s. I recently found out about a great online resource for bible study, that has concordance and word-study assistance for Greek and Hebrew key words!

Latest Lace

2010-11-23T05:14:00.012-06:00

I love fan lace edgings. I have spent a lot of time and effort collecting patterns for fan laces. And so, when I saw Piecework Magazine's latest issue with a recreated vintage version, I had to try it:

I love this pattern, but it is written out in a manner that makes it difficult to follow, and to pick it up again once you put it down. I simply cannot see being stuck to the magazine page the whole time I am making this. So I will be charting it in symbols--I think it will be worth it, I love the resulting lace!

gotta get ready for work. Sigh. Happy T-day everyone!

Aim

I LOVE THEM

2010-11-20T11:40:00.005-06:00

Hee hee, this is what I watched on Thursday morning getting ready for work, it's an edited version as they were waiting on that bridge for a LONG TIME:

I. LOVE. THESE. GUYS. Who wants to watch stuffy old dorks report the news when you can have WGN Morning News in Chicago?! You can watch them across the country too, on cable or satellite....I wouldn't miss this show! This and Bears football are the only things I watch.

WGN News. Keepin' it real.

S'mother Posts

2010-11-16T03:46:00.001-06:00

On the path at Yellowstone Nat'l Park,
or, my current state of mind

Green, peaceful, but scattered. Heh.

Get ready for a whirlwind of great ideas from other bloggers:

THE. COOLEST. REUSABLE. SHOPPING. BAG. EVAH. This is the best bag idea I've ever seen! What a great use for an old shirt and a nice recycling job!

And it's likely lead-free :b

This same blogger has a cool quick poncho sewing pattern to make with upscale knit fabric--great idea, again!

And, squeeeeeee! She has a couple of wire-hanger decorating ideas! I was just lamenting in my last post about the ugliness of wire coathangers....these hanger-makeovers are amazing.

I love the SewMamaSew blog, they list such great ideas that are put out there by other bloggers(like this child's chef hat pattern), and they have free book giveaways this month! This blog is great for crafters and foodies like me, heh.

Wow, look at all the free pdf labels and gift tags lollychops offers for download. Love the owls...

These storage containers would also be fun to customize! I love her checkbook cover tutorial, also. Really want to make one for myself that is unique.

Look at these felt gnome-home ornaments you could make! Too sweet!

I bought myself two wonderful bird vases from Three Potato Four in 2008. What a nice shop! I love their style. They're on my shopping sidebar....

Here's a Christmas wreath of fabrics that is not sewn, but glued (I would probably tack the flowers with stitches if I wanted it to last a number of seasons.)

Happy Crafting,
Cya--

.

I wanna do that...

2010-11-14T19:45:00.009-06:00

Mi coche.

My wanna-do list gets bigger whenever I surf my favorite blogs:

Making homemade soap is so compelling to me. I want to do that someday, especially this homemade laundry soap! I LOVE that idea--

though I have to admit, my favorite ever laundry soap is now sold at Super Target!! Woo hoooooooo!

This stuff actually gets my clothing clean, where Cheer no longer did, and it is cheap as heck! You use one tiny little scoop of this to each load, and one box of this at $8 or $11 (whatever it was) has now lasted me 3 months and I'm only halfway through it! I LOVE THIS STUFF so much that making my own laundry soap sounds like a cool thing to do once for the experience, but I plan to use this Watkins product 4-evah! It's all natural!

Back to the Wanna-Do List:
there's metal stamping!!! I just ordered my first set of metal stamps from Etsy and am so excited. My fav thing to [think about doing] is recycling old silverware. And there are some really cool examples of this on Etsy, I'm loving all of it. I bought old silverware at a garage sale once, and intended to make wind chimes of them--what could be better than wind chimes with words stamped on?! Such a great idea to stamp words....I'm loving the whole thing. Maybe I should take a jewelry making class at my local community college.....

I think these rockin' baby bibs from tee-shirts are a great idea! Squee!!! I would'a been the geekiest SAHM if this blogging world was available to me back then, heh! I guess I'll have to settle for being the geekiest working gramma someday...

Look at this lovely mosaic wall-art, made to copy a Pottery Barn item. What a gorgeous piece of art in the finished room!

And lastly, pretty lace tape. Great idea for gift wrapping, etc!

(Oh, look at the turkey placemats....)

Wish I had a million years of free time. Happy Crafty Holiday Season everyone!

Aim

Foody

2010-11-09T17:54:00.000-06:00

See the little crescent moon?!

I AM A FOODY! I LOVE to cook. Of course there are times when a quick casserole or fix-it-fast type recipe is needed. But I really like to cook good, healthy, unique food from scratch.

YUM! Here's a great-looking recipe for Creme Fraiche Ice Cream! And a different DIY version of Creme Fraiche. I have used CF a couple of times before and fell completely in love with it's richness. A dollop of that on top of a robust autumn pureed soup, and you will feel like royalty!

I was visiting one of my fav food blogs yesterday, and saw they are publishing a cookbook. I LOVE the trend wherein fantastic bloggers end up with a book contract, that is such fun! You go, Mennonite Girls!

I got the Pioneer Woman Cooks book when it came out, that is from one of my most favorite blogs....and several of the sewing and crafting blogs I have visited have recently published also. This is a great time for book publishing!

Now for some fun posts: love this next idea to salvage embroidered bits! I'm forever cutting off the embroidery from old pillowcases that are ruined, but I have stagnated on ideas to use them. This is great!

And here are instructions for the cutest crocheted clothes hangers.....looks like a fast project. What I never understood though, is why people choose to cover beautiful wood hangers with crochet....I want to cover the ugly wire or plastic hangers. I figure that the wire hangers you can squeeze into the overall shape of the wood ones, and just proceed with the directions as written. This is great for the free wire hangers you get from the dry-cleaners, but I'd really like to see someone dress up plastic hangers.

I have dressed up my own plastic hangers for years by salvaging old sheets/pillowcases embroidered bits, and creating a hanger 'slipcover':

These are good to keep the clothes from slipping off,

but they are kinda fussy to put the clothing on the hanger....maybe some buttons to keep them in place? Anyway....

Hope y'all had a lovely weekend.

To finish, here's a pic of my finished doily, I'm so happy it's done, but it has been done for about a month, and blocked for a few weeks. I'm just distracted from posting!

Aim

A crown, a surgery, a full moon...and Betty Neels

2010-10-22T22:10:00.024-05:00

A dental crown put in, a surgery, a full moon, a couple of Betty Neels novels, and that caps my week! Whew! I spent the day post-op on a lounge chair on my flagstone patio, knitting and reading Robin Cook's "The Cure." I used to love his books before my career in medicine...let's see if I still do! (But I do loves me some sweet, sweet Betty Neels)

I resumed working on a scarf that is a copycat Sea Lettuce Scarf (Rav link). I wanted to try to figure it out on my own, and so far I like it a lot. I hope-hope-hope I have enough yarn in that one ball of bamboo silk to make a decent length. Did I post this photo before? I started this scarf in July, then put it aside to work on doilies. Cranked on it at a recent conference for 4 days. It's about twice this long now....

I have been adjusting to cooking for one, though occasionally DS will eat what I make. Can you believe an Italian kid won't eat any form of pasta?! Even when it is wrapped around meat, and there's meat in the sauce! Sheesh. But I remember how I ate at 22!

I have been using my Vitamix again; very handy for the cooking-for-1 quandary I find myself in. I was just at the same conference where I bought mine last year, and watched their demos again and got inspired. I got a smaller blender container this time (again, the "for-1" theme) and I already lost 3 lbs drinking a smoothie a day since then!!! Smoothie flavor of the week: cherry-plum-banana. MMMMMMMM. Don't forget the yogurt and the flax-seed. With either OJ or water to help start it off, this tastes great, and doesn't need sweetening. (Sometimes I even use leftover coffee as a liquid base, just a bit, and it gives the fruit smoothie an earthy component. Yum)

This weekend is already beautiful and warm! Just went outside under the gorgeous full moon while my doggie tinkled. Late October in Chicago is not usually this balmy; I'm so happy it coincides nicely with a weekend! Though post-op I will likely not be doing too much yard work :( I still have so much left to do out there....Plenty to do inside though, and I could paint some of my bits & pieces of furniture (which would get me outside!) I have to go to the farmer's market and get some different fruits for my smoothies. I want to try making applesauce too, and apple-carrot juice is the bomb!

Or, I could just lay around in the sun and read :D

Happy Autumn, y'all and Happy Weekend!

Aim

ha ha ha haaaaa! For medical people!

2010-10-16T19:01:00.003-05:00

If you are not a medical worker, you will not get it:

Snicker. OMG. Sadly true.

Spent the last 4 days at conference, racking up the CMEs. Got to hang with old classmate and friend most of the time, catching up. Nice time away from work, but I am certainly ready to be done with the morning commute! Yikes, I don't miss that at all.

I finished a doily last weekend, but it has been a whirlwind October so far, and will continue that way, so photos and the next post will likely be in a couple weeks!
Happy Autumn everyone!

Aim

A Tribute to Beth

2010-09-20T19:56:00.000-05:00

One of our own knitters has passed tragically. At 42 years old, she collapsed suddenly with a pulmonary embolism and died. This loss of our friend is hard to accept--someone who was so young and full of life and love is suddenly gone.

I will miss her happy friendliness and calm demeanor. She was so creative, and constantly inspired me with her productivity!

Goodbye sweet knitter, you leave behind a lot of hearts that miss you already.

WhatEvah.Com

2010-09-18T17:45:00.016-05:00

Yum!

Lovin' the cheapness of real food! Timeconsuming, yes, but so good for you! And I love to learn ethnic cuisine....

Not much in the way of knitting or crochet going on here. I have been sick this week, and last week I was busy doing yard work. Gotta get it done while the cool weather lasts!

Interesting Podcasts: I have yet to hear one of these Amish Wisdom podcasts, but the author Suzanne Fischer is one of my favs. I read her book "Amish Peace, Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World" and it has made a change in my Christian walk. Fascinating reading about Amish ways and beliefs. I highly recommend it.

I'm loving my new car! I think I am going to rent the movie "The Italian Job," I heard it has a lot of stunt-driving with Mini-Coopers!!! I've never been excited about a car in my life until now!

It's rainy here, so cozy indoor housework is on. Think I will bake some cookies, and make sausage pasta for dinner, with some Chardonnay...I'll save the Indian food for another time!

MidLife Crisis Relief

2010-09-14T20:35:00.009-05:00

Heh.

I am so excited! G-bye Camry, I've loved you....

Ways to Save and Happy Bday!

2010-09-12T16:35:00.001-05:00

Lots of things to do...but I am happy to tell you what I'm up to: trying to trim the outflow of cash. Here are my thoughts:

Been shopping for a car, I promised DD I'd sell her my Camry. I am socking away some money for my "new car," but I'll have to get financing, it looks like. So much for getting out of debt! But on the bright side, the checkbook is balanced and budgeting is a WIP.

I may look for a new cellphone policy. Fifty dollars a month seems a bit much....

Gonna start using coupons when I shop, and surveying the ads before I go to the store. One of the girls I work with is the queen of this and inspires me to get back on track.

Knitting related savings: my goal is to make something from each knitting book I own. I have quite a few books, but that goal makes me happy. And reminds me to refrain from more shopping....

I am starting to use the public library more frequently, instead of popping into the bookstore. I don't need more stuff cluttering up my house.

As much as I've talked in the past about walking to work to save on gas, it hasn't yet happened. I love to come home at lunch for a nap or to sit on my patio, and I'd have to give that up if I walked. So that has yet to become a reality.

I need to find an antenna I can hook up to my TV; I only ever watch the local news in the AM while getting ready for work. Don't need to pay the satellite service for that! (Except it's football season and I do like the NFL! Go Bears!)

Not much to look at, but we just put in shelves. This closet has been without shelves or rod for 18 years, piles of crap on the floor of the closet. I can now happily store the stash there, woohoo! Cost of shelves: 11.81! They still need paint, but I'm just so happy to put stuff in there I don't care right now! I have bead curtains I got on clearance at Target a couple years ago for the door of the closet. I'll show ya when it's done!

I am going to propagate some plants from my garden too, so I don't have to buy more. I have lots of perennials that really should be divided if I want to keep them going. And I am setting up my cold-frame in another week, to start some salad greens for the fall. Looking forward to that kind of gardening!

Are you all doing anything new to save money? If I had time I'd try my own canning, and I'd love to make my own soap, but there's an initial outlay of $$ that I can't afford right now. Maybe for Christmas...

HAPPY BDAY TIMMY-TIMS!

Love, Mom

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

2010-09-05T07:46:00.017-05:00

So looking on the sunny side...the past week is over, in which I had a root canal and DH moved out. The weather is absolutely gorgeous right now, and I am a child of God, and His Love for me is all I need. The world does not stop turning for my personal crises, and "My God shall supply all your needs, according to His riches in glory." (Philippians 4:19) I am hanging all my hopes on His promises.

I had a really nice day yesterday, DD came over and we went to the farmer's market, bought some produce, came home and made a stir-fry. We didn't think about rice or noodles to eat it with until it was nearly done cooking, so we just made some couscous (5 minutes!) It was a great mix of potato, eggplant, yellow bell pepper, summer squash, cabbage, onion, garlic--all from the market. We sautee'd it in ghee. For flavor, cumin powder, tamari sauce, salt&pepper, and plum sauce. YUM! It tasted wonderful. Oh, and I was S.T.A.R.V.I.N.G so I nuked an ear of sweet corn in the microwave and nibbled on it while we cooked.

I Love to make corn-on-the-cob in the microwave, and, living in the heart of the midwest, we have the tastiest sweetcorn around! About 10 or 15 years ago, I stopped putting butter or salt/pepper on it, I just eat it plain now, it is so delicious on it's own! To make corn-on-the-cob in the microwave, you just peel back the husks but leave most of them attached at the bottom to the cob, take off the cornsilk, and fold the husks back over the cob. Then microwave it on high for 3-1/2 minutes, fold back the husks for a handle (which you have to wrap with a towel or papertowel due to how hot it is) and eat!

After DD left, DS mowed the entire property for me AND washed the dishes--what would I do without such great kids?! I had a bunch of errands to run, but also went to the library and found some really swell books:

Can't wait to crack into these! Kristin Omdahl is one of my fav designers....

Late afternoon I finally got around to my long-neglected garden. (This summer's awful heat had me hiding indoors 90% of the time. My garden had to fend for itself this year.) I prepped a weedy patch of lawn alongside our patio for a new flower bed, which was initially going to be small, but now the plans have expanded (!) Then I transplanted several of my beautiful peonies to that site, and used the Up Start transplant liquid with Vitamin B1 from Ortho to water them in. Hope they're not too stunned by the move!

After that, I was tired! I went inside and had a Madras cocktail, then took the pup for a long drawn out walk in the late evening sun. What a great day!!! I had also squeezed in time to start one of my novels from the library while laying in the nice warm sun in "the back 40."

I LOVE AUTUMN! I can feel it in the air, the trees are just beginning to turn some of their leaves, the geese are on the move overhead, and I can work in the garden without getting overcome by heat! Wooot!

Today, more planting is planned, but I am also going to church to see Michael W. Smith perform this morning. And I really want some time to work on doilies, so I'll probably set up in the sun to do so later.

Here's wishing everyone the life that God has in mind for you!

In Christ,

Such a Peaceful Morning

2010-08-29T08:47:00.035-05:00

Rock River Illinois, 6/10

It is such a peaceful morning. End of summer bugs singing, not much birdsong, a slight breeze randomly tinkling the windchimes outside my bedroom window. Perfect temperature. How could anything be wrong on a day like this?!

Latest WIP: my attempt at sealettuce, which I believe is a Lucy Neatby design (that I am trying to duplicate.)

I'm using Silk Bamboo yarn from Knitpicks, very very drapey, no body to it at all, but that makes the ruffles lovely and pendulous!

I also started Shiri Mor's lace cardi from the summer VK issue 2010. Yarn is Melody from yarntreehouse on Ebay, something I'd stashed several years ago. I'm hoping the FO looks wonderful b/c i'm not sure of the overall color of this yarn! I hope that the color shadings show up a bit for some interest w/o distracting from the lace pattern.

Hmmm, looks like a thong...painful even to contemplate! But rest assured, it is one of the triangles for the back of the sweater (after I blocked the crud out of it, I realized I had missed out on two repeats of the pattern, which several more rows. Duh, no wonder I didn't get gauge!!!) Sigh. Good thing I had the epiphany...I simply went ahead with the same needles and made the next triangle (which is identical), and it was to gauge. Woohoo!

I went through an intensive "principles to get out of debt" seminar at our church yesterday. I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey; have seen him speak in person, have read his book and started his "Seven Baby Steps" to get out of debt last year, but lost impetus. It's so easy to get distracted. This seminar reinforced good planning and budgeting principles. I am ready to get into this fully now, let's jump in the deep end!

There is a Ravelry Group called Gonna Be Debt Free, which is wonderful to use for a pep-talk when you need to be reminded of your goal. That's where I first heard of Dave's principles.

Did you know that the Bible has >2,400 scriptures related to money management?! And, I never knew that prior to the 1980s credit cards were not common! Now the average american household has 10 credit cards. Holy moly.

I'm tightening my belt, but I still have my magazine and book fix to conquer. I did good this time, I passed on the fall issue of Vogue Knitting--instead of just adding it to my collection, I decided that all my other queued projects will long forestall any possibility to knit the Vladimir Teriokhin sweater which was the only interesting piece in that issue. So, I treated myself to only 2 yarn magazines this time--good girl.

I need to whittle the grocery bill down too. Things cost so much, and I hate waste. I have been buying fruit all summer, and not eating it. (Don't know what the deal is with that. I just haven't wanted it once I get it home.) I need to adjust to one less mouth to feed around here and stop buying so much quantity. I shop once every 2 weeks....because I really can't stand going to the grocery, and can't see the benefit of going more often than that.

I like the idea of tee-shirt yarn, and loved the photo of this yarn from aqualight's Etsy shop:

There is a group on ravelry about t-shirt yarn. Polka Dot Pineapple has a cute tutorial about making it yourself. That's a cool idea for bathroom rugs, rag-rugs, etc...but I really love that black and white striped version!

Look at this clever way to make your own shawl-pin! What a great idea!

'Nuff recycling for one day. Happy Sunday everyone!

Al Finalmente!

2010-08-28T05:47:00.011-05:00

Looking Back at Yellowstone 2009

Oh, yeah! Another doily down, and a birdie doily at that! I am so happy to be done with this (as of 8/20/10)--I mean this in several ways. First, I love this doily and I love Ferosa Harald's designs. This doily was the thing I most wanted to make in this book. But, filet crochet is more boring than I can stand, so I'm really glad to be done!

This is 15 inches by 30 inches--Someone smack me if I ever say I'm going to make a filet crochet project ever again....

On the subject of birds--In my world, there has been some baby birdie drama. A nest right in front of our kitchen window caught our eye when a bright red cardinal was coming to feed his babies. So we got a close up view of them for 3-4 days. Man they are loud when they are hungry! Mom and dad have been run off their wings trying to keep them fed. I was going to try to get some pics or a video, but put it off for 2 days. Came home at lunch on 8/19 and peeked at them--business as usual. But when I looked 4 hours later they were no longer in the nest.

I had to look around, but saw both of them had left the nest. They were making so much noise!!! One was only a couple of twigs away from the nest and peeping for all he was worth! I think he was saying 'Wait for me!' because the other one had flitted to the other side of the tree. Mom was still flying in to feed them and encouraging them to fly....

At dusk I returned from walking the pup, and saw the mom fly under a neighboring bush--I peeked under there and one of the babies was sitting on the ground deep in the heart of the bush. Making as much noise as usual! I nearly went back outside to scoop him up and put him into the nest as it was getting dark. I hope the baby was able to find his wings!!! I'm looking forward to seeing the family of birdies around...

So, anyway, I finished the birdie mat in size 10 thread--it's freakin' huge!!! What the?! I am tempted to try this again (I know, I know, I'm asking to be smacked) using the extended double crochet stitch (scroll down) and smaller gauge thread. Am I nuts?! But my proportions are all stretched out as I obviously don't know the finesse required to get SQUARE FILET CROCHET! Never tried the EDC stitch, but it is supposed to make your work in filet more square....(see what the original doves doily looks like here)

I did not go to Stitches, in order to save money, but then popped into Hobby Lobby that same weekend to assuage my stash (heh) and bought a bunch of colors of "Happy Hands Lizbeth" size 20 cotton thread. I LOVE this stuff, and I only spent about $35 on it (a fraction of what I would have been tempted to spend at Stitches!!!!!)

I am already partway done with my next doily from a vintage Magic Crochet issue (#47), and it has little violets sprinkled around it. I am using the new size 20 thread, and a size 10 steel US hook--and magnifying glasses! The delicacy of the work is worth the effort, though.

The only bummer about this thread is that it only comes in 200 yard balls, but really, who is going to be making a huge project out of this tiny thread?!

Sooooo, fall is here, you can really feel it by the low altitude of the sun now when I get out of work. I've already worn my wool poncho to work some mornings! And, the geese are on the move overhead....

Was going to go to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, but upheaval in my life might prevent that. I guess that there is a season for everything...as King Solomon said. Maybe next year?!

Yesterday I went to a chain craft store after my haircut, and saw some Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Crochet Thread size 10. I made a mistake and touched this yarn in the store--which led me to bring it home!!! This stuff is lovely and soft, I'll bet it makes wonderful drapey lace projects! And it's cheap, comes in 300 yd balls in sweet colors.

Is stashing a form of getting ready for winter? It feels like it to me, I'm all snug in bad weather, working on my projects! If I just had a fireplace....

Happy Autumn, y'all!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

2010-08-14T07:41:00.026-05:00

Or stay. I don't care, cuz my house is on a hill, and I have lots of stash to dive into....

More diversions from my doily finale: home-made handtowels for the bathroom. I have a huge stash of leftover dishcloth cotton from my giant ripple bedspread, and I have been paring it down with new washcloths in the stitchpattern from last post. Then I realized, I have more washcloths than I need at this point! I am starting to run low on handtowels, though....

so Aim's Handtowel was born!

The pattern: chain 41, sc in 2nd chain and follow the stitchpattern across. When you come to the end chain, sc in it and turn your work so you can work the same stitches across the other side of the chains, as if you were going to work in the round for an oblong shape!

That gives a nice scalloped starting end. Unlike the washcloths, this will have straight edges, with scallops only on the 2 ends.

At the end of that row, start to work back and forth like usual for the washcloths, (i.e. NOT working in the round anymore) My finished towel has a total of 32 rows of scallops, giving a 19.5 inch x 12 inch towel. It used up 2 skeins exactly of Sugar 'N Cream washcloth cotton, with a size G crochet hook.

Important: remember to chain 3 at the beginning of each row, and do it very loosely so that the sides of the towel will not pucker!

Another washcloth, the last one prior to the towels:

So, though I may be temporarily finished making washcloths, I now turn my attention to handtowels. I hate buying things that I can make! Especially such thick and luxurious towels from my stash yarn, in happy vintage colors! There are several other towel patterns I'm going to try...

"Shopping in my basement" is the theme this year! Stitches is next weekend, a mere stone's throw from my home, but I am not going to go. I'd love to, but stashbuilding is all that will happen, and it's not in the budget. Similarly, this year I missed my fav Fiber Fest, which I have attended since the beginning. I'm cracking down on the spending. And, it feels good!

Happy stitching!

(p.s. that first pic is a gnome-butt fungus on the forest floor last spring! Peek-a-boo!)

Washcloth Factory

2010-08-08T19:13:00.007-05:00

This pattern is so much fun! Thanks Mary Anne for the idea to use that pattern! Here are my mods to make it just right for me:

G hook, worsted weight dishcloth cotton
Ch 31, sc in 2nd sc, *ch 2, 3 dc in same chain, sk 3 chains and sc in 4th, repeat from * across.

Row 2 is the same as the pattern, except after each sc, I ch2 instead of ch3--it draws in the holes a bit. However, at the beginning of every row it should be ch3 to give the selvage more ease & keep the edges from pulling in (this may just be due to the way that I crochet!)

I think I want to start knitting up some hand towels, I love the one Mary Anne made here.

Other than that, the filet crochet project c-r-a-w-l-s along.

Happy knitting and crochet!

"R" n Stuff

2010-08-07T09:48:00.021-05:00

Recycling. I love to find second uses for things. It's the way life used to be, before our wasteful age of wealth for the common man. And this video is a cool tutorial on crocheting with plastic grocery bags:

Isn't that cool? I love the cutting technique and looping the plastic together--that's a great way to make a continuous cord out of the plastic! It could make good totebags for shopping green, or if you didn't mind the look of it, maybe an entry rug just outside the back door to wipe your feet off before coming in! Don't they call this 'plarn'?

It probably seems random to y'all, these out-of-order ABC posts, but I wanted to share the cool videos and links I had saved in these old drafts. (I just don't have the interest anymore to do the whole alphabet!)

Soon I hope to have another lace FO--I was certainly cranking out more lace in June. I forgot how dang boring Filet Crochet is, but my Doves Doily is nearly finished so I'll share a picture when it's done.

I made an interim linen stitch washcloth, b/c I needed a break from the interminable filet work.

It turned out nice, but the one thing I can't seem to do with any slip-stitch article is MAKE IT LONG ENOUGH! I took it off the needles and suddenly it stretched to twice as wide as high...grrr. Must remember that any mosaic stitch or linen stitch article will stretch hugely width-wise. I still like it, my Sunrise,Sunset washcloth....

I made it in 2 colors of Ty Dy Cotton I had in my stash (631 & 289).

Fun colors, pretty texture, lovely drape, and no open holes~the perfect washcloth!

Here's the details: CO even number of stitches on needles 2 sizes bigger than yarn calls for (I did 50 stitches on sz 9 needles), then start pattern stitch.

Linen stitch Pattern:

K1, SLIP 1 WYIF, repeat across. Turn.
P1, SLIP 1 WYIB, repeat across. Turn.
Repeat these 2 rows across. (I actually slip the first stitch of the row to make a neat edge and pretend it was the first stitch as written; continue across with pattern)

NOTE: I do not like the way the CO edge looks, it's all loose at the edge and looks awful. (Plus I screwed up at the beginning of the pattern!) I'm thinking that BO and CO first row/last row should be done in K1P1 rib to keep it looking neat and snug...I'll have to try that with my next one.

Happy High Summer Knitting and Crocheting!

"L" is for

2010-07-31T09:19:00.004-05:00

Love. Have you seen the love in this lion video?! This is truly amazing (best have a box of tissues handy):

Did you cry? I did, and I do every time I watch that thrill of recognition where Christian runs to greet them after years of separation....

I am truly amazed that love can exist in the animal kingdom. We tend to think of animals as somehow lesser species, yet they are capable of so much!

As knitting goes, well, we all know that L is for Lace! And here is a great link to Eunny Jang's tutorial series Woo hoo, I've now broken the lace barrier, and am looking forward to my next project! I still have to pick up the Mananita project and finish it. And NOW I have such a better grasp of lace. Wheeeee!

And speaking of Lace Love, I love this great doily scarf Such a great idea, and a beautiful use for lace that would otherwise moulder in a drawer.

And...if you want to see some glorious and amazing crochet lace clothing, you should go to Antonina K's Flickr account and surf her designs. They are amazing! I am completely in love with this one (photo used with permission):

Whoa. That is some serious lace crochet! I'm floored.

Originally written 1/10/09...hope the linkies still work :)
(I think that is my favorite online video ever)

Some Old Posts

2010-07-23T02:23:00.021-05:00

Not a very exciting title, I know, but I have a ton of partially written posts from last 2-3 years. I'm taking the salient parts and distilling them down. So this might seem a bit random....

First, some of you may not yet have seen the cool video of EXTREME KNITTING by Rachel John, so here it is:

(Start it at the 5 minute mark to see the actual knitting)

Makes my size 50 needles look small!!!

Here's the best 'word of the day': omphaloskepsis. Ha ha haaaaaaaaa! Right. (Whodathunk there was a word for that?!)

S is for Seed saving! (Articles about this on that link.) I've never tried any of them to tell you the truth, but I've heard that saving tomato seeds involves rotting the fruit until it falls apart, then rinsing and drying the seeds. Sounds kinda messy, but what the heck? Worth a little dirty work to have the same yummy harvest the next year....

S is for Slipcover: check out this pattern to cover a run-of-the-mill plastic lawn chair! If you go to Ravelry you can see someone who is knitting cabled and lace and striped versions of this. I love it :)

Quilting is a fav pastime I used to indulge in a lot. I found a link to free block-of-the-month sites for people who like to quilt. I no longer do much quilting, but that may change again, who knows?!

And last but most random: BOTTLED WATER COOKING
For some reason, I just remembered all the uses to which I would put a bottle of carbonated water. I always used to keep a bottle of carbonated water on hand. These are some of our favorite recipes:

HOMEMADE SODA: My favorite use for sparkling water, when my kids were little, was to make our own homemade sodas for lunch. We would choose our favorite fruit juice, then mix it in a 2:1 ratio with sparkling water for a yummy fruit soda. No preservatives or colors, etc. Very healthy 'spritzer'.

AIM'S POP-ROCKS POTATOES: Here's a really fun recipe for people with children or grandchildren. This is something I came up with when we were living in a place where we would only drink bottled water. One time, I was making dinner, and realized we were getting low on the drinking water. I did not want to use the drinking water up for cooking if I could avoid it, so instead of regular water in the instant mashed potatoes, I substituted bottled sparkling water I had on hand.

The result was very interesting. My family and I were entertained by the sound of the snap, crackle, pop of the mashed potatoes all throughout dinner! They taste the same, but actually make noise on your plate! My kids and DH were highly amused by this invention :)

I tried making Jello with this sparkling water too, but it didn't make much difference in the end product (I know that they have a version of this recipe on the box nowadays).

Lace all Over

2010-07-18T16:35:00.014-05:00

New washcloths for us, thick and soft cotton, in granny-style! These are awesome, I love this pattern, they whip up in less than 2 hours each. I used dishcloth weight cottons from my stash and a size G hook. Only mods I made were on round 8: I made the two center clusters on each side in 2-hdc (instead of the 3-hdc clusters) to eliminate the bulk when it is "gathered" in rnd 9.

I have been busy making lace. Can't seem to stop lately :)

It is my stress release at this time of ongoing loss in my life. There are some amazing lace creations out there, so I'm inspired to spend every free moment crocheting, and it is a mindful process that I love.

This is a daffodil doily I messed up:

Of course, I don't care, that just makes it unique.

It was supposed to be a six-sided doily, with each flower having 6 petals, but somehow only one of my flowers had 6 petals, the rest had 5!!! I like how old-fashioned this appears.

I am madly working on Ferosah Harald's Turtle Doves doily in filet crochet. I am nearly 50% done.

Yesterday, I finally finished the tape-lace part of my first Bruges style doily, from Yoko Suzuki's Book "Laceworks". In case you don't know what Bruges crochet is, there are instructions here and here, and a cool video tutorial here! Somewhat challenging in my opinion, and next time I make a Bruges design, I'll start with a finished center and build the tape lace outside it. I'm thinking that might be easier.

I also made her Thistle design, which is finished and blocked:

Here is a pic of my patriotic doily blocked, I did promise that last post!

Happy 4th!

2010-07-04T20:13:00.025-05:00

Independence Day, my favorite!

I love this holiday, it has always meant family, swimming, cookouts and summer. My grampa's B-day was the 4th, but he passed last year...so in memory of him, I made this 4th of July Doily (it's unblocked in that photo). The pattern is from OrientalMom's crochet Holiday doily collection on Ebay.

Lace-mania: I have made a doily a week since my stay-cation in early June! Just before that, I made a pineapple lace curtain panel for my kitchen window--we just had the pear tree chopped down, so we really needed privacy and a bit of a screen for the brightness!

Next, I made a snowflake doily from one of my Japanese books:

Then, my own Shabby Chic! An Elizabeth Hiddleson design from book #6, quite the ordeal this one was:

I ran out of thread on the body of the doily, and since the thread was leftover from probably 10 years ago, I just looked for something in my stash of similar weight. But the color was off...

so I decided to overdye the doily before adding the flowers.

Not wanting to run to the store for dye, I used a concentrated coffee/tea mixture with vinegar for the mordant, then nuked it until it was steaming, and rinsed it until the water ran clear.

Before and After Dying

I blocked and dried it, then started making the flowers! Wheew, but quite happy with the results :)

I really like how the "dye" took differently to the different colors, it makes it look more "shabby"!

Last week I finished this daisy doily, from an old issue of Magic Crochet magazine. It was supposed to be a sunflower, but I don't have those colors, so I used what I had.

The stinking orange bled when it was put in hot water, but luckily I saw this right away and was able to rinse only the orange part until it ran clear. But if you look real close, you can see where it bled into the cream color (grrr).

After that episode, I tested the dark blue and red for my Independence Day Doily, and was very happy they were colorfast in hot water. I always wash my laces in hot water, and sometimes even throw them in the dryer. I like when they shrink up as much as they will...call me crazy!

Til next time!
Happy knitting and crocheting!

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February's Almost Over, Wahoo!!!

2010-02-20T07:47:00.055-06:00

Sorry. I couldn't help it. February is my least fav month, the winter just drags on and it seems like forever til spring! Here, it has been less sunny than usual, making it all the more disgusting. I hate it when the sky and the ground are the same color. Drab! I probably wouldn't survive with a ShabbyChic decor, all faded and white.

Which is likely why I go hogwild all winter for bright amazing colors.

This is a WIP, using up my acrylic yarn leftover from Flowers In The Grass. I'm following this pattern.

And my latest FO is this shawl I made from one skein of sockyarn called "Crazy Zauerball". I love the colors in this!

I wore it to work yesterday after steam blocking it with my iron. It's not big enough to tie on, so I pinned it with my abalone Yellowstone Buffalo pin.

It was just enough warmth on my shoulders at work.

Here is my next color project: a lovely crocheted version of the Lizard Ridge Pattern... Isn't that just gorgeous?! I'm thinking to use some of my sockyarn stash...

Well, to be honest, it hasn't been completely boring around here this February. Last week we had an earthquake!!! It registered 3.8; it was 4 AM and I was surfing on Ravelry! When the low-pitched rumbling started, at first I thought DS fell out of bed! But since it just kept going and the walls and floor were shaking, and the mirrors rattling, my brain finally figured it out:

"Did DS fall out of bed?"
-Well, no, unless he's still falling!
"It sounds like an ice-flow sliding off the roof" (like we had a few weeks ago)
-But it's still going
"It almost feels like the rumbling of a big truck going by"
-But it's still going!
"Maybe some building exploded in the distance?"
-It's still going!!
***lightbulb went on***
"Oh my God, it's an earthquake!"

Since I was online at the time, and I'm a geek, I googled earthquake and came up with the US Geological Survey website where the first thing I saw was a button to "report an incident."

Which I did. The quake had just finished! We live in an amazing age of rapid information, where you can report a natural 'disaster' to the world within seconds of its occurrence! Luckily, nothing in our area was damaged and no one was hurt.

Those of you who live in earthquake zones are probably laughing at me right now. But, I'm born and raised here in the Great Lakes and never felt an earthquake! That was nothing short of amazing, exciting, and scary! You don't think of this place as an earthquake zone, but we live right smack on the New Madrid Fault Line,so I guess we get them all the time.

The amateur geologist in me instantly became fascinated and I have been following links around the web to learn more about how earthquakes are recorded, etc. The focus of our earthquake was pinpointed to 9 miles away! Whoa!

The funniest thing of all is that my puppy slept through the whole thing. He who is terrified of fireworks and thunderstormes...It wasn't until DH, DS and I were milling around excitedly discussing earthquakes that Fizzy wandered into our midst wagging and smiling like, 'Hey guys, what are YOU doing up this early?' Ha ha haaaaaa. What a watchdog!!!

2010, Year of ?

2010-01-24T06:10:00.028-06:00

Well, 2009 was a very sad year here, starting and ending. The whole year was about loss, and I now look forward to the new year with hope. The new creation of springtime is right around the corner, dancing in the corners of my mind, teasing me. The anticipation has begun to build--I'm already thinking about those lovely warm days when I can sit on my patio and work with yarn, dig in the garden, throw the windows wide and let the fresh air in. I love the soft green haze of the trees leafing out, it is so ALIVE! And birdsong, especially the hoo-hoo bird...:)

Here's my new favorite blog: it's all about free vintage knit edgings! Oh, such lovely patterns she is sharing...

Now, how about some FOs. I finished "flowers in the grass", see:?

It was a gift for DD for Christmas 2009.

I used a Catherine Wheel Edging, which I wrote down somewhere--will have to dig it out and post it. Glad to say DD loved her blanket :)

Then, for DH's b-day in early January, I finished up the mitered squares blanket of self-striping yarns in aran and bulky weights. Here are pics:

I was unable to photograph the whole blankie, so here are the two halves, after blocking. I guess later I'll try to get a whole-cloth photo...

I had initially picked up stitches all the way around the blanket and knit lengthwise garterstitch for an edging, but it looked like puke after about 16 rounds, so I frogged it and learned a new technique from "Principles of Knitting"--how to knit on a sideways edging as I went. It was nice, I only had to pick up about 15 stitches along the edge of the blanket at a time, so I used my straight needles to do it. I like the results much better without the muddying of the stripes.

Here's to a new year filled with hope, health, and loveliness!

Year of Loss

2009-12-26T20:47:00.005-06:00

Our sweet dog Jelly Bean died today; lying by the Christmas tree, her doggy heart gave out. She lived a long life, and even had some Christmas ham yesterday.

We will miss her "I live for treats" attitude, her simple companionship. She used to follow us around while we worked on the garden, just happy to be outside in the sun, happy to be with us. We are glad she had one more Christmas in her.

May she roam in peace, in endless gardens of treats.

Summer Hiatus

2009-09-16T18:29:00.034-05:00

I'm BACK!

And, I have a few FOs to show off! Yay for productivity!!

Here is Aim's "granny" poncho:

This was from a free DROPS pattern here, meant for little girls. I started with an opening large enough for an adult (I chained 128--I think it was an "I" hook), then worked around and around til it was the size that I wanted, which was also when I ran out of yarn! Cool! I used RYC Cashsoft DK yarn ~9 balls. A fun stash project.

This poncho has been great for walking the dog in our early fall temperatures. So glad I made it!

Next, I made a Baktus out of Mint Chocolatini colorway sock yarn from Yarntini.

I love the way it looks with the bobbles, which I copied from a Raveler.

This scarf is a great way to use up one ball of sockyarn.

I also started and finished a Chanson en Crochet, a cute little shawl-ette that really keeps the chill off!

I made it in Brooks Farm Riata yarn, a nice mohair/wool/silk that worked out very nice. Because I only had one ball, I had to skip several rows of pattern, but you can't even tell. I already used it last Saturday morning when it was FREEZING out the morning of my garage sale. It really kept me warm enough, with a short sleeved tee underneath, until the fog cleared midmorning and the sun came out and then we were baking!

As the Nana Slippers go, I finished 1 and 7/8 of the pair, but ran out of yarn. Grrr, I have to find the calorimetry I made in that yarn and frog it (I don't like it anyway) and then I can finish the slipper. Very frustrated with that!

As usual, I've overextended myself to the point that I can't keep up. I have promised multiple great things from this blog, but have been unable to deliver. So sorry about that. I am thinking of taking blogging hiatus, but before I do I'd like to finish up some of the promises....like the tutorial I promised long ago (it's very minimal, but I DID promise!) and finish the nana slipper pattern. So I'm gonna try to do some of these things prior to signing off!

Recycling and Whip Up

2009-08-17T06:22:00.015-05:00

Pearl Geyser glows eerily in Yellowstone National Park.

I just found the coolest tutorial. It is non-knitting related, but still the best crafting/recycling post I've ever seen! It shows how to make fabric shades out of old cheezy miniblinds!! Go check it out at Little Green Notebook

I found that tutorial via whip-up, one of my fav blogs. I have not read any blogs in months, I feel bad about that. I have been knitting, working and spending my time on Ravelry. But this morning I decided to link to some of my chicas and see what they are up to. I have really been missing out!

(A big thank you to those who have been reading and commenting on my blog in spite of the small little world I've been living in the past couple of months!)

Anyway, here's an amazing website (in Portuguese) with gorgeous lace projects. You could spend hours scrolling her beautiful photos. I'm in love with that style of crochet lace, very reminiscent of Irish Lace, but updated with gorgeous colors! Sigh...
If I only had 300 years to make everything I want!

Finally, look at Anne's cute red & white theme she has going (love the polka dots too!)

Gotta run, or I'll be late for work.
Happy crocheting and knitting and recycling and sewing and crafting and cooking and...well, you get the picture.

Nana Memorial Slippers--a free vintage pattern

2009-08-16T05:05:00.016-05:00

My Goompa was known for his gardening and his poetry. He was very witty, and wrote humorous poems that always made you laugh. He was even published in the Saturday Evening Post!

My Nana was known for her hospitality, her knitting, ceramics, and sense of style. She wore wonderful outfits with matching chunky jewelry (it WAS the 1970s girls), and always looked just so. There is a photo of her with my grandfather in the 1920s, a stately teenager gorgeous in her ruffle-sleeved polka-dot dress with a cloche. What a stunner...

She always knit. In fact, she kept all 8 of her grandchildren (and her children and in-laws) in slippers and mittens and hats. Throughout my childhood she knit continuously. When we would visit she always pulled a box of mittens and slippers from under the bed, and let us choose our own. She also gave them as gifts each Christmas. We never once wore store-bought mittens or slippers until we were well into adulthood, when she was too ill to knit anymore.

(In addition, she supplied her church's annual holiday bazaar and various charities with those same knitted items EVERY YEAR. She was amazing.)

Sadly, during her lifetime I crocheted, sewed, and crafted, but I did not knit. I purchased "The Principles of Knitting" in about 1995 to help me learn more of knitting. But knitting never really caught on until 2002; Nana passed away in January 2003. She never saw my knit items.

Every single stitch I create now reminds me of her. I miss her, but what a legacy she left!

My point is this: My brother mentioned that he sure misses the slippers Nana used to make, and do I know how to make them because he'd love them for a Christmas gift?! (Also, he stated he is still wearing the last pair she gave--they have to be about 15 years old at this point!)

That comment made me go stash diving into my patterns. I thought I remembered seeing a hand-written sketchy pattern for slippers from my Nana's estate.

I dove in and pulled out this:

written in her own hand! (click for better view)

I cast on eagerly: if I'm gonna make these for gifts I'd best get started! And never a better time for "reminknitting" than when the loss of loved ones is so fresh.

I thought I'd share this timeless pattern for slippers, as I have scoured Ravelry without success looking for it:

NANA SLIPPERS

size US 4 knitting needles
4 ply worsted weight yarn

CO 3 STS
K1 ROW ACROSS
K1, INC 1 ST, THEN K ACROSS; REPEAT THIS ROW UNTIL 32 STITCHES ARE ON THE NEEDLE

NOW, INC IN EVERY STITCH--64 STS.

(You can change colors here if you like)
*K2 P2* REPEAT ACROSS. REPEAT THIS ROW FOR 5 INCHES

(change back to the first color here)
K2 TOG, REPEAT THIS ACROSS THE ROW--32 STS.
DEC IN 2ND STITCH UNTIL 3 STS LEFT. BO.

SEW UP TOE & VAMP.
SEW UP VAMP FOR HEEL.

(You will fold this oddly shaped square into a triangle with the garterstitch points together. Then sew from this point down one side completely. On the other side, you will only sew together the ribbing section for a heel!)

As much as I'm a yarn snob now, I grew up in these slippers knit in acrylic yarn. They lasted through many washings and really the only thing that ever ruined them (I remember) is snagging them on a loose nail on the flooring, which ripped a hole. A testimony to how long they can last is my brother wearing his 15 year-old pair!

I hope that my posting this pattern will lead to a whole bunch of people knitting these for loved ones this Christmas--I will try to "pdf" this at some point, and get it listed on Ravelry. And, I'll be back to update this post once I get a finished slipper to photograph!!!

Happy gift knitting everyone!

Good reads

2009-08-15T17:22:00.001-05:00

Mammoth Hot Springs, view of the town from the top of the hot springs formation. Our happy little cabin is tucked back in there!

I just read Maeve Binchy's latest book, "Heart and Soul". She writes such good stories about life in contemporary Ireland. I have read all her others as they came out, and always wait impatiently for the next one.

I just finished reading "Journal of a Trapper" by Osborne Russell, one of the original mountain men who traversed the Yellowstone area in the first half of the 19th century. It was sometimes tedious reading as he really kept a log of miles traveled each day and in what direction, but it is also interspersed with very lovely prose and accounts of the beauty of the wilderness, gripping Indian encounters, and tales of the trappers' life. A great book if you are interested in history, and at all familiar with the area of which he writes.

I remember always being fascinated with that particular group in American History class in High School, the mountain men were a very hardy bunch, and, though trapping and hunting in that era contributed to the plundering of the land (and near-extinction of some species), that lifestyle has always appealed to me in a romantic sort of way. Imagine working all day for yourself, in the company of only the wilderness, and you are only as well-off as your persistence and ingenuity make you.

Anyway, I remember being in the bookstores of Yellowstone national park and seeing quite a few titles about the historical figures of the area. So now I am on a quest to read as many of them as I can find. And I will start here, in the online bookstore of the Yellowstone Association. Each book usually gives plenty of references to others, too.

I really want to revisit that beautiful outdoor theater of the great wild West...

A Perfect Cloudless Day

2009-08-13T18:43:00.009-05:00

A perfect cloudless hot summer day. She gets home from work feeling run down; today is the first day of another summer virus. So she sets up a cushion on the patio lounge chair to relax in the late afternoon balm.

Her spouse brings in the mail; brings out to her a special letter. It is in her mother's handwriting, with her late Grandfather's return address. She opens it--it contains a card that says "I miss you" and inside is a check for her inheritance from his will.

She cries. She misses him so much. And while the grief threatens to overwhelm her, she looks up. Above her, in an otherwise cloudless sky, hovers an oddly shaped cloud. It fully captures her attention in the midst of her sorrow. As soon as she sees it, the cloud hesitates, and then begins to shrink slowly from sight. Wonder gradually displaces grief. Suddenly, she understands. He is here, attending her reciept of his gift. Making sure she remembers that he loves her.

The cloud does not blow along to the horizon like clouds do; it simply grows smaller and smaller until it dissipates directly above her. A sense of peace, and bittersweet sorrow, and gratitude for a lifetime of memories are all that remain.

Til I see you in Heaven, Goompa. My life with you was a precious gift. Thank you.

Love,
Amy

Something to Say

2009-08-07T00:21:00.050-05:00

Oh ho, ah ha ha haaa haaaaaaa! I HAD to post it, ha ha, it's just too too good.
Let's see how did that go? Oh yes: "vote for change." Ho ho. Ha ha.

Too bad the joke's on us. We're stuck with that for 4 YEARS.

Knitwise, I have been doing some serious Ravelresearch...to keep myself distracted from the sale of my family's lake house. Here are links to some of the coolest patterns I've found, I thought I'd share them with you:

The most exciting project I found was these seahorse mittens. Aren't these great?! I can't wait to make a pair!!! (Perfect for taking to Hawaii when I move, I'm sure I'll need mittens, heh.)

Another is this crochet bolero. I love the styling of this. Here is a white version, sans pop-ups, and another really cute hot pink version! How Spanish looking!

I'd love to make this flower illusion shawl/scarf! How cute is that?! Pattern's in German, but I think you could figure it out from the diagram...

Don't recall if I posted this link before: free Christmas Stocking patterns from Cascade yarns. These work up really beautiful, you should see the ones listed on Ravelry!

I also want to make this pair of picot ankle socks. Looks good to me because it is plain--no foo foo lace pattern to follow--and they look quick! Someone on rav said they had to put elastic into the cuff to make them fit right, though.

Happy Knitting!

Random

2009-08-02T00:10:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to be a more positive influence in the blogosphere. It's so easy to be negative, and I don't want to add that to the world at large. So after the maudlin post yesterday about poor me, here is something more upbeat.

I plan on making this sweater next, it's the Leaf Yoke Top from Knit1 S/S09 issue. I love this pattern, it looks to be a pleasurable knit.

But I have one question....why did Michael Jackson pose in this sweater?! Wierd.

I'll move on.

Random things you never wanted to know about me:

1) Pinecones that are shaped like turds freak me out.
2) I love a man in a uniform (with MANY exceptions, as the girls at work have pointed out!)
3) I NEED sunshine to keep me happy.

I'm goin' crazy in the midwest this year with the overcast 60s all the time. I'm really whiney about this, because it makes so much difference to my mood. The rare sunny days we get are during the work week and the weekends are ALL rainy, cold, and gray. If I wanted to live in Seattle, I would move there. Hawaii is looking mighty good right now. I can't take much more of this.

Back to knitting: here are some fun links. I LOVE RAVELRY!

Here is the pattern design blog for the Leaf Yoke Top in the photo above. I love Angela's design blog!

This is a normal looking doily, but the pansies around the edge look very realistic.

Pretty pretty fiber to spin....

Izumi's lovely knit blog--it's all in Japanese, but the photos speak for themselves.

Fun knitting blogs: A Sheep in Wool's Clothing She always has something interesting to say. And a blog from somewhere in scandinavia--I'm not sure where exactly, but she has neat felted slippers, spinning and garden photos going on. Felisis norwegian knit bloghas good location photos.

Another nice blog about spinning, knitting and weaving. I'm interested in learning weaving, have been for 25+ years, but I recently realized I don't have time for yet another hobby so for now I'll be happy with knit, spin, crochet, tat, scrapbook, sew, cook, garden, write, read, and Bible study. Yes, I have enough to do!

I saw someone's version of this lace top by Shiri, and now it's on my WIST list! So pretty!

Best new find: the Flower Power Elephant pattern for free through Ravelry. These rock!!!

Happy knitting.

Knitting will get me through

2009-08-01T08:51:00.016-05:00

Gull Lake Michigan, view from my Grampa's yard.

68 degrees out, and cloudy. That echoes my emotions. Mom just told me my Grampa's lakehouse sold. It closes in 3 days. I'm so sad about this, as are DD and my brothers.

I guess I was in denial that it would really sell, trying to put on a brave face that faked me out too. I'm so unhappy to lose something so meaningful to our family. I am trying to rally by knowing that it is LOVED by the people that bought it, so likely it won't be torn down and rebuilt as a nouveau mansion like so many of the other cottages along there. There will be children there again, playing in the lake, swimming and running in the sunshine. The love of that property will go on.

And we have a lifetime of memories and photos and videos and love. A reminder that all things are temporary, except God. And I have to tell myself it wouldn't be the same without my grandparents there, anyway. But it is so hard to let go of this.

So I turn to knitting. I am comfort-knitting right now, while the tears stain the wool in my hands. March Lady Sweater will always remind me of this trial. And hopefully it will get me through this.

Mission Control, We Have FOs!

2009-07-27T17:27:00.014-05:00

I spent Sunday finishing some WIPs, and that feels really good.

First of all, I made myself some sock-blockers and mitten-blockers for two dollars!

I bought laminated placemats at W*lm*rt for a buck each, then cut out a pattern shape from it, and added a punched hole at the top. Voila!

Now for the items I'm blocking on them. Here is a pic of my Bird in Hand mittens, blocking in the dish strainer:

I charted out a copy of the birdie that Natsuko (rav name) put into hers, and put it into my mitten palm also--very cute. I love these mittens, but to get gauge in my chosen worsted weight yarn, I had to use size 1 needles. That was a very tight knit, and hard on the hands. No wonder I put it down for 6 months!

The other project I finished was my Jaywalkers socks. My second pair of socks ever.

These have a wierd fit, that yarn is really stiff and has it's own mind. Not sure I'll make these again--I mean, I like the stitch pattern, but I prefer to work my socks toe-up. Plus, I need to tweak the stitch count because I have such a narrow foot. These look awful saggy on me. But glad to be done!

And, in other news, my March Lady Sweater is more than half done! This pattern rocks!! I finished the body of the sweater today, will be working sleeves next. So excited! And, even better: I might have enough yarn to finish it after all! AWESOME!

Here's a pic I took yesterday, with antler buttons I had on hand. I think they work well with this knit. Love that yarn....

I am gearing up to cast on for another new project, but I should really finish last years Summer Sampler Lace Shawl--I have 1/3 of the edging to do to complete it...

Sweater Lady

2009-07-23T03:12:00.014-05:00

Don't you just want to hug this guy?!

My February Lady Sweater (which I am dubbing March Lady Sweater) is coming along so fast I can hardly believe it! Sweater body is halfway done, and it's only been 4 days since I started!!! This is a really fast knit...in spite of stupid frogging incidents, like knitting in the round this morning, when the whole sweater has been knit back and forth! Can't believe I did that, but it WAS 4:30 in the morning and still dark out and my coffee hadn't kicked in yet. Heh. I knit in dangerous times.....

I am disappointed to see that I didn't buy enough yarn for this project. I only have 2 skeins left and will need at least one of them for the sweater body, and still have to knit both 3/4 length sleeves. Grrrrr, I hate that. And how many times have I done that?! (I still need to order more Cascade 220 Heather for my cabled wrap sweater that came to a halt last fall. Pretty soon they'll discontinue it and then I'll really be stuck!)

Swatching mystery linen project has stalled while I ENJOY the FLS knitting. Aaaaah, so nice to knit easy!

Happy Knitting!

What next?

2009-07-19T17:17:00.006-05:00

Yellowstone at Mammoth Hot Springs. Click to see how amazing up close!

Swatching lately for a s'prise project. I mentioned the linen yarn I bought (Euroflax sport). It already has incredible drape, and I'm still swatching! I plan on measuring the swatch before and after washing, to plan for any shrinkage. Looking forward to this project, but at times the planning and technicality are annoying. At times that lace chart makes me want to rip my hair out. That's when I need some easy knitting...

Enter the February Lady Sweater. I cast on this morning; I already love this sweater and I'm only on row 14!! The yarn I'm using is a wonderful caramel color purchased at the Midwest Folk and Fiber Festival yesterday.

I was thinking about NOT going to the fest this year, especially as I heard a bunch of people at Knit night grumbling about the first day of the fest. But I realized that they had grumbled about it every year, and I had LOVED it every year so far. I am very glad I went this year, too. Lots of fun vendors, and as much of it for spinners as for knitters. I had to bring home at least one bundle of fiber to spin--it'll be my first time spinning a blend (merino + soy). And best of all, I got to see alpacas in person and up close! I really thought they would be bigger, but are they ever cute!

The crowd is all talking, but if you listen closely, that "crying baby" sound you hear is the alpacas!! The dark one is 10 months old, the lighter is 3 yrs old. They are less than 6 feet tall--funny that they could look me in the eye. My pup woulda loved them.

I also got some pink mohair/silk/merino yarn to knit up a Lacy Kercheif Scarf with. Been eyeballing that pattern, and I was able to score the back issue of IK that the pattern is in at the festival! Woohoo! Lastly, I also purchased this book: Spin Control, by Amy King. This is going to help my spinning a lot! I knew as soon as I saw it that I needed it.

Oh, my final fiber fest memory for 2009--deep fried Twinkies! Yum! (I didn't have enough money left after yarn purchases to buy the BBQ pork sandwich I wanted, so I opted for that fried delicacy.) They even sold deep fried Reese's, Snickers, and pickles (done the pickles before, those rock too! Everything's better deep fried)

Other patterns I'm planning with all the knitterly ADD I can muster, include Baktus with some of my sock yarn stash. I'd love to drape that around my neck in cooler weather....And a pair of Double Diamond Socks. B/c, ya know, I'm such an advanced sock knitter. (ahem!)

I also want to make the Textured Shawl. Don't know when I'll get to that one, but I love how it looks so tailored and warm. Lots of surfing fun on Ravelry lately.

I need to go bake a cherry pie--see ya later!

Smile Today and Then Go Knit!

2009-07-11T13:33:00.019-05:00

Yeaaaaaaaah, baby!

I might as well post this pattern. Unless I do it today while it is fresh on my mind, it'll probably be more months before I get around to it!

Okay, don't laugh guys. I'm a beginning designer, and really only an intermediate knitter. My patterns reflect this.

This is my version of Grandmother's Favorite Washcloth. I wanted big picots on mine, so here goes:

CO one stitch.
K one, turn.
KFB, turn.
KFB, KFB, turn.
KFB, K2, KFB. (6 stitches)
K across for 2 rows.
KFB, KFB, YO, K across.
KFB, KFB, YO, K across.
BO the first 2 stitches (using up the first 3 stitches), K1, YO, K across.
BO the first 2 stitches (as above), K1, YO, K across.
Repeat these last 4 rows until the diagonal of piece is the size you want--I knit mine to 50 sts.
Then K2, YO, K across, turn.
Repeat last row.
KFB, KFB and slip the second stitch you made back onto the left-hand needle. Now, K2tog (the one you just slipped with the next one), YO, K2tog, then K across. Turn.
Repeat this row back in the other direction.
BO the first 2 stitches (using 3 stitches total), K1, YO, K2tog, K across. Turn.
Repeat this row.
Repeat the last 4 rows until you have 9 stitches left.
BO2 as nml on picot, then K2tog, YO, K2tog, K across. (6 stitches)
K1, K2tog, K2tog, K1. (4 stitches)
K across.
K1, K2tog, K1. (3 st)
K1, K2tog.
K2 tog.
BO last stitch.

And there you have it! Easy peasy, right? (p.s. please let me know if there are errors in the pattern cuz I'm still new to pattern writing)

I culled this from the stalled alphablogging "Letter K" post that has been sitting unfinished since April 21! But I'm not done with alphablogging, I just need to get my mojo back.

Other news: I baked me a pie. Blueberry, to be exact.

My top crust is homemade-looking, but this thing tasted divine. I make pies a lot, but this was the first time I used my new stoneware for it. It worked great, I didn't have to make a foil "tent" for the crust, it never came close to burning! YAY for less fuss!

I went to the Haeger Pottery Outlet near us several weeks ago--I'd forgotten this place is so close, and it has some really good buys. Since I didn't need any new lamps, vases, or plant pots, I couldn't resist this baking-stone type cookware. (I have a pizza stone we've been using for 10 years, that thing makes the best pizzas on the planet. I love it!)

Next up will be either a cobbler or lasagna in my new casserole dish! Yum.

Happy knitting, and watch the road for those notorious babies on skates!

Rockin' the Time Off

2009-07-05T09:31:00.022-05:00

Female and kid Bighorn Sheep, Yellowstone.

Ah, the luxury of three days off in a row! I'm feelin' good here.

I wasted the first day, laying around as I mentioned. Yesterday I opened up a can of Whoop Ass (Chili) and made cornbread b/c it has been COLD and rainy around here. Yeh, I know. In July.

I anticipate finishing the Simple Knitted Tee today! Woo hoo! Then that cotton sucka is going into the hottest washer setting and then the drier. After that pre-shrink, I will wet it again, and block it (that's if it looks like crap coming straight out of the drier. I think it will.)

I had some reflection time yesterday while knitting. Still dealing with my grandfather's death. His birthday was the 4th of July, so every year I will be reminded sweetly of him and my grandma, and their lovely influence on my life. I miss them...

I didn't let on, but last weekend I finally acquired some much-lusted-after Louet Euroflax in the Goldilocks colorway. I think I might cast on for a linen sweater next. I don't have a linen sweater, but I love the linen pants I've had forever, and the drape just keeps getting better with each washing. I have plenty of wool sweaters on the needles, but it's not wool-knitting weather, ya know? (At least mentally....)

While on the subject of linen, I remember seeing an article in Martha magazine (or maybe it was on her first show) about linen sheets. I am lusting after those, too. I can only imagine how crisp, soft and luxurious they are to sleep on--but it must be a high thread count. I hate sleeping on coarsely woven bedding.

I am nearly finished processing (uploading, cataloguing, captioning, organizing) all 4,000 or so photos of Yellowstone. Don't worry, I would not dream of boring you with all of them. The beauty of a digital camera is that the more photos I take, the more GOOD ONES I've captured. So I'll keep sharing some of THOSE. (I've probably ditched about 200 completely useless pics....)

Here is a photo of as close as I got to a black bear in Yellowstone

You can see the police car there--this was required to KEEP PEOPLE MOVING! It took us about 15 minutes to get past there, and by the time we could see what the fuss was about we were not allowed to stop. Grrrr. But look how cute they look (from a car!)

p.s. did I mention I love Yellowstone?

A Good Day for Reading

2009-07-04T16:18:00.004-05:00

Sedated doggies finally asleep (the older dog, JellyBean, got into the bathtub she was so scared by the neighborhood fireworks), crockpot going with pork shoulder and chick peas for tomorrow, a tummy full of "Whoop-Ass" Chili and fresh cornbread, cool air and a drizzly rain have all combined to make me very very drowsy =D

I was gonna curl up and knit on my leather chair, but first, I think I'll take me a nice nap. I started reading a new book "Tracking the Spirit of Yellowstone" by Orville E Bach, Jr. This is a memoir of a 31-year veteran ranger of the park, and I'm enjoying the inside look at life as a ranger. That was my first love in high school, I wanted to be a forest ranger, and to go to smoke-jumping school in Missoula MT. Obviously however, my life took a different course!

So, knitting will just have to take a back seat right now. Naps are higher on the priority list.

p.s. You didn't hear that from me.

Aim

Like clockwork

2009-07-04T08:46:00.000-05:00

Poor pups. My doggie is terrified of fireworks. Sigh, every year it's the same thing, I feel so bad for him.

In years past, my vet had me give him first Benadryl, then some doggie sedative, and now Xanax. He is inconsolable this time of year; now it is July 3rd again, and even 2 doses of the Xanax is not enough. So I had to refer back to this dosing of puppy benadryl, and give him some of that too. I hope he can relax soon! I stayed home from knitting to be with him but my presence only does so much.

And because he is such a FREAK about this stuff, our older dog is starting to act nervous about it too. Sigh.

I spent a marvelous lazy day reading, laying around, eating ice cream and processing my vacation videos and photos. Yay for time off! I have finished 2 books about Yellowstone: one is called "Death in Yellowstone" and chronicles deaths of all kinds in the national park. When you think about it, it has not been that long since that area was made a National Park (1872). That is really a short time, as history goes! It was fascinating to read about bear attacks, boiling hot springs, freezing to death, falling over cliffs, etc. In a strange sort of way. I've never read anything like that before!

The other book I finished today was called "37 days of Peril; Lost in Yellowstone" and is a true account by one of the first explorers of that area, who got separated from his party and whose horse ran away with all his tools, clothing, and supplies! This guy had to survive on thistle roots and keep warm during snowstorms by sleeping next to hot springs! Very interesting reading (from the comfort of my armchair with plenty of food and modern conveniences at my beck and call!)

I'm fascinated with the Mountain Men of American History, and have 2 more books to read about Yellowstone from their eyes. Should be fun =)

Have a happy holiday weekend, and enjoy your freedom--it is hard-earned.

Happy 4th!

2009-07-03T13:07:00.014-05:00

Bitterroot flower on the alpine prairie. These look divine and smell even better!

For those who have not seen Yellowstone and are contemplating a visit, here's one of the best videos I took of formations at Mammoth Hot Springs (p.s. that's the place to stay if you go there!)

Hope you'all don't mind I keep going on about Yellowstone. I've never seen anything so amazing in my life.

I got a haul at the library last night after work, lots of fun knitting books. More ideas and WISTs--my head's gonna bust I want to try so many things. It was an intense work week, and that was a nice end to it; also DH and I walked to our neighborhood restaurant for dinner, then rented the first Transformers movie (I'd never seen it. That rocked!)

We are still having the wierdest weather ever around here. You cannot plan hot-weather meals or cold-weather meals. I had to wear Meinstein to work the first day of July, b/c it had to be 40 degrees in the office. The maintenance guys can't keep up with the weather shifts--last week it was putrid hot and muggy around here. If the weather would just S T A B I L I Z E, for crying out loud....

My new WIST: have you all seen the gorgeous Cathedral Sweater that one of the Rainey Sisters knit recently?! OMG I aspire to knit that pattern. I'll have to get that book. Those Japanese sweaters are the bomb, I totally love them!

Am still plugging away on the knit tee. Kinda losing steam, but I have to finish it. I have way too many WIP and this needs to be done so I can wear it in the warm weather (whenever that comes!)

I'd like to go to knit night tonight, but my dog is deathly afraid of fireworks, so I'll either have to heavily sedate him and make sure someone stays home with him, or stay home myself...I thought about trying to bring him, but don't know if he'd behave in a yarn store. He's a bit bigger than most people are used to, so it's not the best option!

Yellowstone, the hat!

2009-06-30T17:26:00.020-05:00

Grazing elk at Wraith Falls Trail, Yellowstone.

Sigh. Happy memories. Everytime I see a picture, I feel like that's MY National Park!

So, I'm 3/4 done with the tee I cast on during the flight to Yellowstone.

I tried it on with help from people at my LYS and it looks like the size might fit. It is supposed to be loosefitting, but since my gauge is way off, I've been eyeballing it the whole way. Luckily the yarn is drapey! (Ty-Dye in Tropicale colorway)

Here is my Yellowstone Hat, homespun, handknit, and happily worn during windy snowstorms and icy rain while hiking! I'm loving the bobbles.

Of course, I had hat hair after wearing this: some of my photos show this. But hey, who wants to be perfectly coiffed in the wilderness?!

This shrug I finished at least 6 weeks ago! I just never got around to photographing it.

I've worn it to work a couple times when the morning is very cool, and it's been just enough.

I feel well-adjusted right now =D
There is nothing like a nice vacation to wash away your worries and put things back into their proper perspective!

KNIT ON!

Remembering is Half the Fun

2009-06-26T00:42:00.032-05:00

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, 7:24 PM. A DIY shot, to get some sense of scale (DH was busy with his own camera). Heh. ETA: That's the hat I knit on the flight out.

Butterflies in an alpine meadow, Yellowstone. This hike was a lovely, mid-morning crossing of a meadow alongside a babbling stream. Snow still capped some areas of the hills surrounding the hike. We were very protected in this basin...and there were tons of wildflowers to photograph.

Anybody know the identity of this flower? Is it a fritillary? I've never seen anything like it before! ETA: I've since found out it's called Prairie Smoke, Geum genus.

Make sure to turn your sound way up for this:

The silence is deafening. That was the culmination of the above-mentioned hike, one of many we made in the park. The ending was like dessert, a peaceful alpine lake complete with lily pads. Those were the first bugs we saw on the whole trip!

Some knitting links to keep my focus ;0)
Butterfly vintage doily to crochet.
A vintage potholder (very cute)
Kaleidoscope Hot pads (these look cool)
True vintage potholder! I've never tried this crochet technique, looks interesting.
Sarah London's Wooleater Blanket, gorgeous.
And her Hawaiian Flowers blankie. Awesome in her colors.

Happy Knit & Crochet everyone.

Back in the Saddle....

2009-06-24T22:22:00.027-05:00

Yep, that's me hugging a bear at the Mammoth Hot Springs Post Office in Yellowstone National Park. That's the only kind of bear I want to hug!

We had a marvelous vacation, it was everything a vacation should be. We returned as different people and are still feeling the glow of time away, centered around nature and the greatness our country has to offer!

We will be processing our photos for months! We each took lots of memory cards full =)

Yep, that's a coyote, who didn't seem too perturbed by a crowd of photographers as he trotted by! Whoa. (I like his dog-like smile!)

Another life-long dream has been met! (I'm kinda diggin' this trend!) I've wanted to see Yellowstone National Park since I was 7 years old--that's 40 years I waited!!!

I was very sedentary prior to our trip. Hiking for hours daily in the mountains was a nice forced workout, though I WAS looking over my shoulder for a bear the entire time! I have been continuing to exercise since we got home (I only took a break for 3 days of illness, and 2 days with the heat index at 105! I'm not goin' out there in that murk....)

I feel more healthy than ever. To beat the heat today, I made banana, peach, blueberry smoothies with ice, honey, and a splash of OJ. MMMMMMM

I got a ton of knitting done during the travel of our trip. I had spun up my fiber from Shell, remember this?

I really wanted a nice warm woolen hat for hiking in the mountains in springtime. I cast-on the night before our trip, so there would be less chance of airport security looking askance at my needles, and took a wooden crochet hook and plastic circs on the plane with me. I roughly followed a pattern in a LionBrand Hats book, even though my gauge was way off. I just really wanted bobbles along the folded up brim. I made up my own bobble pattern to make the yarn go as far as it could. I didn't have enough yarn to bobble all the way around, but since it is a subtle design addition, I left it partially un-bobbled, and wear that part at the back! (No pics yet, sorry!)

I finished it before we landed in Salt Lake City. So I cast on another project I packed: the simple tee from the current Knit Simple Magazine. I took along some Ty-Dye yarn. Again, I had only the needles at hand and my gauge was off, so I had to compensate. I got it about 3/4 finished by the end of the trip.

DH was laughing at me on the plane; they announced we were approaching SLC and I was starting to cast on another project. What's so funny about that?! I ended up being extremely glad I'd knit that wool hat; I needed to wear it much of the time, especially early in our week there, as it was snowing off and on and the wind was bitter. We had to buy gloves. But it got warmer as the week progressed.

Our first full day there we hiked in a beautiful alpine meadow for miles; when we finally got to the edge of the meadow and saw the trail continued around the base of some foothills, we prudently decided that we probably had done enough for our first day. We turned to go back, and saw the sky had become extremely dark and cloudy behind us!!!

A storm was blowing in over the Gallatin Mountains, and we were 2-3 miles from the car or ANY SHELTER at all!!! I was wearing Meinstein, that lovely green wool coat I knit--boy was I glad for it as the wind picked up. We hoofed it, but just before we got back to the car the heavens let loose with icy freezing rain! We were then stuck in the car with smelly wet wool drying in the back seat, but it was such a beautiful hike it was well worth getting wet! Did you ever smell bitterroot flowers blooming?! OMG it is such a divine scent--DH couldn't smell it, but I was captivated. Such a puny little flower on the open plain. I read that the Indians used to eat the flower's roots like a potato. Pics to come

So, I'm back. My ganglion cyst has been bothering me after all the knitting on the trip--I haven't knit at all in the 2 weeks since we've been back and it is now finally calming down. I have to smack that thing soon and burst it........(I'm too cowardly)

Looking forward to getting back into blogland again! I missed you all =)
Gardiner River from the bridge at Mammoth.

Aim

Temporarily Away

2009-06-04T19:05:00.004-05:00

Hello Luvs, I'm goin' on vacation and posting will be deferred for a bit. Sorry 'bout that! But I do have a tutorial (I promise!) and a pattern to post when I come back. Life is a bit busy right now....

Happy knitting!

Aim

Debt free--my plan

2009-05-25T15:00:00.001-05:00

Did some surfin' in the wee hours this morning--look what I found:

The most beautiful bathrobe in the whole world--look at the blue one, I am drooling over that! That print looks incredible made up into a homely old bathrobe....makes me want to get out my sewing machine and get to work!

The fabric pattern I found out is called Ava Rose by Tanya Whelan, and I guess it's carried by a lot of quilt shops, maybe even chain fabric stores.

At the one on-line shop I checked, it was out of stock...

I'd love to find some of that and make a new bathrobe! And pillowcases, and duvet covers and matching jammies, and those pink slippers from yesterday's post....So foo foo and cute!

OTOH, I have been reading Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace." Everything he says about going into debt makes so much sense. I am cracking down on my 'gotta have it now' mentality when it comes to books, knitting, fabrics, or anything that puts me into debt farther. So no more credit card purchases, I am putting the kabosh on that. I do well for a season, then fall back into old habits of using the cards.

I am being very vocal and open about this, because that will help me stick to my plan when the urge to purchase threatens to overtake me. Dave Ramsey will help, too! I love that he gives a Christian perspective on this.

In light of this decision of mine, here is one of the cutest craft ideas I've ever seen, a jewelry project I would be delighted to wear: a bracelet made of cut-up credit cards!!! How cool is that, not to mention symbolic?! I can see all sorts of fun versions coming out of my conquering credit card debt...like a victory charm bracelet that gets added to with each pay-off; you could even make cute stitch markers!

So, it's time to re-institute shopping in my basement. There are always gonna be new patterns I want to try, new yarns that look yummy, new books I want to read. But I'm content with what I have, and very thankful.

Change of subject: yesterday I finally planted the few annuals I do each spring:

I can't believe how happy it makes the place look (though it still needs mulching), and my new hanging basket of ivy geraniums just caps it off!

My gardening season has officially begun! Now I just have to get to my overgrown patio: violets have taken over the cracks in the flagstone and become an ecosystem all their own. Between that and the ostrich ferns, my patio is turning into a temperate jungle!

I'm happy the snow-in-summer is blooming right now, in spite of our strangely cool spring :) This photo was taken today, in a drizzly rain...

We are lucky we had two sunny days in a row that were in the 70s and 80s. Today, being cool and gloomy, was all about comfort food. Here's my hot lunch:

Hot noodles with peanut sauce, green onions, cucumber and avocado and sprinkled with chopped peanuts--cheap and easy! Followed by home-made chocolate pudding hot off the stove. Yeah, baby! DH fixed mac & cheese for himself--more comfort food.

Later tonight I'm gonna make hummus, and taboulleh, in the (probably vain) assumption that warm weather eating will be back this week. It's getting difficult to plan meals with this swinging weather pattern we seem stuck in, I never know until that day whether it's gonna be warm-weather food or comfort food for the cold...

Aside from Dave Ramsey's book, I'm also reading "The Botany of Desire" which is a group of garden essays from Michael Pollan. Fascinating studies in anthropology and culture's influence on horticulture, and the philosophy behind gardening. I am thoroughly enjoying this book! It's really unlike anything I've read before--do you know how nice it is to read something fresh and original?!

Here is a free purse pattern to sew, isn't it cute?! I have seen a number of versions sewn up on different blogs, and they are always sweet! I'd love to make that in a great floral, something which my fabric stash (relegated to the basement since the onset of knitting fever 3 years ago) likely has...I'll have to check.

Freshly inspired by this blog, too. She tells of the fully thrifted bed she has put together--gotta love that!

Free and cheap--that's my new catch-phrase. I want bargains, no more free-spending. I need to get the debt under control and live more simply. That's what it's all about. (Many of you already know all this--if so, just ignore this, I am just reinforcing myself here from Simple September!)

One last comment: remember I posted about BPA-producing water bottles, and that I wanted to get some of the stainless steel water bottles that are available? Well, I promptly moved on, and never purchased the water bottles. Until now:

My local Walgreens had these on sale at 3 for $10!!! Score! Undeniably, the lids are still plastic, but it's a huge step up from fully plastic containers that leach chemicals into your body! So excited to be making this healthful change....

Happy Memorial Day, peeps!

More Things to See

2009-05-24T05:28:00.031-05:00

And things to do...I am on a roll, trying to clean up my desktop of all the great links I've found in the past month or two. So here we go:

Some links for slippers:
dorm boots
old time slippers with paillettes (like Nana used to make)
Pink slippers such cuteness on this post!

Shawls:
Baktus (to knit of one skein sock yarn)

Butterflies:
preemie hat and booties--these are really cute
Drops cabled butterfly sweater
jessica tromp butterfly chart

Vintage:
gorgeous daisy lace bedspread to crochet
a great resource for repro Weldon's Crochet patterns from the 1800s! These are awesome

Math:
crocheting the hyperbolic plane

Fun blogs:
Ingrid-in-Sweden spinning, knitting, and freeform crochet projects
lots of knitting eye-candy at Karin's blog
the potholder swap blog!! Cool ideas
I like this because it tells how to make your own faux bois!
Life in a railway car! such a cool decorating blog!
Another knit blog...

Food:
peanut sesame noodles--yum, cheap and easy!
homemade pita bread--wow
Lauren's gardening and food blog
a bento blog

Wow, that's a lot of links! Sure to keep you surfing for a bit =)
Happy crafting/crocheting/knitting/spinning/sewing!

Stuck on K

2009-05-23T10:28:00.009-05:00

It's been some time, and I'm "busting at the seams" with cool links to share. I am still alphablogging, but currently stuck on K...

So, I thought I'd share some of the best links I've found recently:

One food link--these crispy black bean tacos inspired me to have a go at my own version, which was so simple and so hearty and so good I can't even tell you. Rustic food at its finest.

Something I spent 20 minutes making: a hyperbolic tawashi!

I took it to work for dishwashing there....now I need to make a couple in pretty colors for my own kitchen! This yarn looks like doodee in the photo :(

Here's a cute tawashi flower to crochet! It would be fun to have a pile of these for washing dishes with (I bet they'd be nice made in double-stranded dishcloth cotton), or to add to a bag.....

I really want to point people to the Horst Schulz African Adventure pattern, found here. There is a group on ravelry devoted to this amazing composition of color and scraps!!! This is truly one of the most stunning knit designs I've ever seen! In addition, Phazelia (on Ravelry) has made a bag out of these segments, and Phazelia's pattern is here. So beautiful! Sorry, but I don't have a pic to post, you have to go there to see this amazing creation...but I'm going to start on it soon!

Here is a cute granny square bag to crochet, it looks really cute worked up in the right colors!

Wanna see some more amazing color knitting? This is the coolest blog--it's in some scandinavian language (sorry, I can't tell which) but the photos more than make up for that. Her patchwork garments are gorgeous!

Here's a cute felted bag--I really like the look of the flower, and think I'll knit up a few to stick on my ugly-as-all-getout orange tweed bag I made of Cascade...maybe I can salvage it if I bury it in flowers.....

I like this pattern for mosaic garter stitch--I think it would make a nice washcloth pattern.

Another nice market bag--I might try to make one of these this holiday weekend. I'm looking at 3 looming days of TIME TO MYSELF!!!! No work, but lots of housework to catch up on, dog-grooming, shopping a bit, and FIBER STUFF and cookouts, lying in the sun, reading...

Here is a really cute shrug, made with the same pattern as the sweet pea shawl--and she calls it the Maui Shrug! I love this one

Free amigurumi patterns--I love this heart, it almost looks like a cartoon! It would be fun to make a big fat pillow with this pattern and my size U crochet hook!

This is a great gift idea, or stash-buster...a knit "soap sweater"!!! Good idea =)

Anyone looking for free vintage crochet patterns should look here: crochet treasuresLooks like a good resource if you don't have a pile of vintage mags of your own....

And finally, a crochet fan-lace that would make a lovely curtain, and it's free. I love how this lace looks....

Wish I had some other pics, but at least we can document some fun links, right?! Happy Crafting!

Losing the lake house

2009-05-20T00:44:00.036-05:00

I just spent the past weekend with my family, dismantling my grandfather's estate. Too surreal. It feels wrong somehow to paw through someone else's life this way. My poor mom and aunt, having to do all this...they have been working for a month now. Full time.

Two dumpsters later, two attics and a boathouse later, there is still so much stuff to be dealt with, it's incredible! I cannot stress HOW. MUCH. STUFF:

OMG my grandparents were definitely the product of their times (the depression). In their defense, I suppose it's easy to fill up a house you've lived in for 90 years, without a "move" to make you ditch the ballast...

The moral of the story? DON'T LEAVE IT ALL FOR YOUR KIDS TO DEAL WITH! Let go of things for their sake, before you have a boathouse full of cast-off lumber, metal pipe-fittings, receipts, bottle caps, stamps, craft supplies, garden implements, doors, windows, cast off furniture, and decades of squirrel nests and dung that are gonna cause grief to your loved-ones. (There wasn't even a boat in the boathouse!)

While it was fun to see the antiques buried away,

many of them are to be sold. But overall there is a sadness permeating everything--the lake house has been the seat of my family for 89 years. And it is now for sale. I'm too sad for words, as are my brothers. (Of course, it's not the same without nana and goompa, but I think we all thought it would go on forever.)

And so, the grief continues, as all grief does. It's an ongoing process, I know.

I need to recuperate, though I only helped out physically for one sad weekend. I have strep throat, too, with that perfect timing that only illness can make. Looking forward to Memorial Day Weekend.

p.s. I started a shrug last week on my giant needles that I will show you once I get back to it....

Big Bag

2009-05-12T00:09:00.001-05:00

I had the best Mother's Day. I started by putting together a bunch of yarns from my stash:

and using my size U crochet hook (that's 25mm) I chained 14 with all 8 strands of yarn. (only 7 are pictured here)

WIP, and next pic is what I had after 2 hours:

Aim's Big Crochet Chimera Bag

Here's my "pattern" --hope it's legible:

chain 14, dc into 3rd chain from hook and in each chain across. Repeat for 2-3 rows, then dc into the first 5 st of the row, chain 3, skip 2 dc and dc into the third dc and across (5 dc after the chain gap). Turn and dc in each dc, skip the first chain, dc in each of the next 2 chains and then in each dc across. You just made the handle. Turn and dc in all 12 stitches across.

Repeat this last row for the length you want the bag to be, from front around bottom and up the back of the bag. Then do as before to make the other handle: dc in first 5 dc, chain three and skip next 2 dc, then dc in the next 5 dc across. Turn and dc across all 12 stitches.

Now to make the side panels. For each: chain 4 from top corner, slip stitch to matching corner of other side (this bridge will attach the top edges), then sc down side of panel twice, turn and dc in each of the 4 chains across the bridge, then 2 sc into the other panel’s side, turn and dc in 4 chains across the bridge. Repeat this back and forth until you can dc in one chain, then slip stitch to bottom “panel”. Repeat this dc and slip stitch combo to seal the side panel to the bottom panel; sc into last side panel stitch and bind off. Repeat this paragraph for other side panel.

There you have it. You could call it the Mother's Day Bag, but because I ended up adding in every freaking blue yarn under the sun regardless of content (I ran out of the homespun indigo-dyed BFL, and the recycled nylon/ramie/silk/wool mix I started with) I am calling it the Chimera. It is truly a monster =)

So I had a productive day....then, DS gave me some chocolate. Yeah, baby!

And later, DH & I went to see the movie "Star Trek" and it was spectacular! I want to go see it again. It was that good. It's nearly my most fav movie of all time!!! ("Babe" still wins top honors--I love that pig!)

Here's a sneak peek at what is now on the hook:

Have a great week guys! Stash knit-down continues here....

Book View Monday

2009-05-11T00:23:00.004-05:00

Here's a peek at my newest get:

I just got this book free last night at knitting. (LYS has punch card for purchases, and you get a $25 gift certificate after X-amount of purchases.) Yay for gift certificates!

I am a big fan of Paula Levy designs. She makes the coolest counterpane patterns, and nature-inspired patterns (like the famous Fish Blanket!) There is one of her 1995 patterns reprinted in this book:

Tulips in the Sand counterpane pattern. Isn't that a cutie cabled tulip?! I could see this block knit up into blankies, jackets, scarves in a smaller gauge...Love it.

Then, there is this cool looking star blankie--I know, I know, there are a lot of free star blankie patterns available online, but I like the look of this....

The picture is knit up in Moda Dea Sassy Stripes...I think you can get that yarn at Hobby Lobby--it's probably acrylic. So pretty, though!

And this cute round pillow cover I'd like to make in white:

There are a lot of patterns for blankets and pillows in this book, and it is very inspiring to leaf through.

I also got some marked down yarn--2 balls of various things. It's a minimal acquisition, considering how much yarn I just cranked through with my two bigstitch rugs! So I'm feeling kinda happy right now. Fully sated on fiber, yep!

May you also have a great fiber week!

Granny, how do I love thee?

2009-05-10T01:05:00.007-05:00

Aim's patio awaiting spring clean-up; the violets are happy to dress it up!

I'm continuing my infatuation with the granny square. I was surfing around flickr at the granny along pool, and saw some amazing things. Two of them are from Cottage45, a cute blog, that gives instructions for them. Her creations are so cute, I feel I need to point everyone in that general direction!

First, I really love her English Cottage granny blanket. So lovely, and I like how the brown border looks like basketweave--like a lovely basket of blooms! I'm so starved for flowers by early spring....

And she gives directions for a Granny hexagon. Looks like Grandma's Flower Garden quilts from the 1930's...

There are some amazingly colorful grannies here at Attic24 (you have to scroll way down to see the post). I love her color choices--she used some Rowan DK Handknit Cotton and that yarn must come in some super yummy colors b/c I love her beautiful cushions and blankies....Like sherbet! Some other variation on the overflowing granny flowers decor seen here at Rosehip. Cute!

And a cool idea: on the new Bagsmith Crochet book cover is pictured a rug made with a central giant-sized granny square.

What a great idea!

Now, for my newest favorite granny pattern, it's free!! Isn't that the cutest motif ever? Kinda star/southwestern/flower looking. I think I'm gonna try that block with my size U crochet hook, what a great rug one of those blocks would be, huh?! There is a person on Ravelry, WarpSpeedLinda, who has made tons of blankies with this pattern, you should check out her page....

Happy spring crafting!
Aim

Friday's Feat

2009-05-09T09:19:00.021-05:00

Can you see the squirrel?

Dude, I made another rug. I started it in the morning before going to work, I worked on it for 10 minutes on my lunch hour, and then I took it to knitting Friday night and finished it in 2-1/2 hours.

We are going to be remodeling our bathroom, painting it a muted tan/taupe palette instead of the cottage blue it has been. And I had all these giant skeins of brown ombre dishcloth cottons I had purchased on sale at Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's. They were just sitting there on the shelf, begging to be used somehow. I love dishcloth cotton, but the prospect of knitting up ten million washcloths with all this yarn is somewhat daunting!

So I decided to put 8 skeins of them together with my new size U crochet hook, and voila! Instant cotton squishy thick bathroom rug! It only used up about 1/3 of each skein, so I have plenty left for matching washcloths! Wheeeeee.

Here's my "pattern":

AIM'S BATHMAT

with 8 strands worsted weight cotton, chain 25. Turn and sc into the second chain from hook, *sc across. Ch1, turn.*
Repeat the starred section for as many rows as you like. Mine was 24 rows long. Finished size is 22" x 25-1/2" pre-wash (it'll shrink when I wash and dry it in the hottest settings)

I got so many nice comments on it at knitting last night =) Makes me feel like I actually DID something. I feel so stuck-in-a-rut on all my other WIPs!!!

So if you're looking for a quick satisfying stashbusting kinda project, this one's good! Happy hooking ;D

Aim

Sunny Sunday

2009-05-03T00:40:00.014-05:00

See the hidden birdie legs?!

Here's a neat video for making Indian bread (rotis):

Isn't that cool? She makes it look so easy, I feel like I could just whip up some of those after watching her! I've made chapatis before but over a flame, and they were really floury. I like how these puff up so easily. I love Indian food, yummy! I was directed to this video via the Jugalbandi blog, one of my favs. I like Bee's sharp humor. And, it's vegetarian! Yum.

I'm not a strict vegetarian. But I love blogs that teach me better ways of eating.

How about a pattern to use the bigstitch needles?

Aim's Rug:

I decided yesterday to wing it, and started pulling out stash and throwing it all together for a rug. In about 4 hours (which includes picking out the yarns, doing a test-run for several rows that I ended up frogging, and restarting with the correct number of stitches) I had a nice cushy rug for my bathroom. It measures about 38x 25 inches, give or take an inch in either direction for stretchiness! Cuz I'm not blocking this sucka...

Cast on 24 stitches.
Slipping the first stitch of each round, K across in garter stitch, until the length desired. I used anywhere from 4-6 strands of yarn at any given time, adding in and taking out whenever the urge struck.

Mostly I wanted to use up my "Landscapes" acrylic/wool that I frogged my Martha poncho from. I used up 6 balls of that yarn, and also added in skeins of other acrylics. Here's the list of yarn I used:

6 balls Lion Brand Landscapes in "Pastel Meadow" colorway

1 skein of Lion Brand Chenille Thick & Quick Prints in "Rainbow Denim Print"

2 skeins (2.5 oz each) of Red Heart Super Saver Multicolor in "Candy" colorway

1/2 skein Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn in "Pink Camo Ombre"

1/2 skein Caron SS in "Baby Brights Ombre", and some "Soft Pink", "Off White", and "Lt Country Peach"

some Lion Brand Suede in Black

And some pics of all the different yarns used

They don't look like they'd go together, do they?! I'm really happy with the outcome.

I LOVE THESE NEEDLES!!!! You have to adjust how you knit with them, (in addition, I bought the 28" needles so they'd be long enough for blankets and such, but you have to sit in the middle of the sofa so the ends of the needles have a place to rest!) Hey, once you get it, you knit things up so fast it's incredible!!! I feel great, I just used up a bunch of stash, probably a total of about 11 skeins. Wahoooooooo! In 4 hours. Yeah!

I'd like to see other people's versions of this, I'm constantly searching on Ravelry for more inspsiration. I just joined the Big Stitch Knitting group, and hope to be inspired there! (And, for Mother's day I just ordered the size U crochet hook and the size 50 DPNs from Bagsmith, along with their books. Can't wait!) They are having a sale for Ravelry members with a %15 off by May 11--you should go check it out (coupon number is listed in the Big Stitch Knitting Group page).

I'm such an enabler....
;)

Knit on, you happy peeps!

P.S. this is edited to add two things:
1) I used size 50 needles for the rug.
2) The recipe for the Rotis is 1 c flour, 1 pinch salt, 1/2 c water; then later a trace of the oil as she shows in the video...I just made these and they were yummy!!! And fairly easy, too.

BLOGIVERSARY 2 !

2009-04-29T00:05:00.020-05:00

glitter-graphics.com

Another year of blogging! Doesn't seem possible I've been doing this for 2 years today! I'm still finding my voice, refining my posting style...each day I hope it improves.

Here's a big fat--

glitter-graphics.com

--to every visitor to my blog, I love my audience! And I'm so amazed, still, that anyone would want to read what I have to say. (Or come back for more!)

So how about a preview of things to come? I am working on a tutorial that will post soon. I plan on ramping it up a bit here with some fresh knitting, and a new pattern.

Hang on to your seats--here's to mo' bettah blogging!

From the Archives....

2009-04-25T11:13:00.051-05:00

It's a rainy day here, perfect for lounging and leafing through old mags...

So here is a photo review from my vintage needlework magazine collection. I'm posting them for general inspiration and some of them for laughs =)

(All of these images were taken from Workbasket Magazines from the 1970-71 issues. I will not be posting the patterns, but let the photos give you some great ideas!)

First, lets start with crochet :

Christmas cozies for a tumbler--aren't they kitschy?! They'd look great on a beer bottle too, heh.

Next are crocheted slipper socks--I've never crocheted socks before, but I'd like to try these specifically, I like the way they look. In some fun sock yarn...

More crochet (and this is the kicker):

LOVING the Granny Square Tie!!! Wonder if I could get DH to wear one to work--yeah, baby!

This vintage ad for a "big crochet" book cracks me up--everything old is new again! Funny that "quick" was the draw 38 years ago, just like it is now!

What a cute pineapple potholder, I want to make one of these!

Look at this hilarious chicken egg cozy--it looks more like a puppet! I would probably make this up in worsted weight yarn, super-sized for a kitchen-mitt!!!

Look at this ad from Herrschner's from 1971. It's kinda pretty--imagine making all those bobbles. (Imagine sitting on them...yikes!)

Lastly, a collection of crochet jewelry:
The most basic of crochet jewelry, I think anyone could do this w/o instructions!

Interesting bracelet.

Now for this, I'd need instructions...

Love the idea of a ring!

Here are some knits:

Nice bulky mittens.

One of the cutest bags I've ever seen!

I'm saving the best for last, chicas. I need to make this one because...
(drumroll, please)

...I really want to look like an ELF!

What the?!

Here's hoping you have a creative weekend!

Monday Morning Coffee

2009-04-20T05:51:00.022-05:00

How about a little book review? Grab a cuppa Joe--I have been book shopping, as usual, let me share them with you.

I am absolute trouble in a bookstore.

First, the book "Fiber Gathering".

This book attracted me for several reasons, one is that I can vicariously visit many fiber fests across the US by reading this. Another is that there are instructions for all different steps of fiber prep, such as skirting a fleece.

That's kinda cool for a dreaming-of-yarn-farming kind of gal. And a third reason is that there are cute patterns scattered throughout: look at this lovely Ruana

I'm having fun reading through this book. Maybe I'll get to visit one of those fiber fests soon!

Another book I got recently is all about reversible knitting.

Sitting down in the store, and leafing through this book, I thought "I have to get this." It is full of techniques for reversible knitting in all types of knits, such as colorwork, lace, cables, etc.

Did you know you could do this with completely different cable patterns?! I'm amazed...I was especially fond of the two scarf patterns shown here:

Can't wait to work at least one of these!

And I also popped for this book on colorwork.

It has sections on intarsia (which I will definitely refer to if I ever get around to doing intarsia), stranded techniques, color theory,

and even does a little study on the differences you get knitting with multicolored yarns in different weights and textures.

Do I look like I'm preparing for a long winter?! I guess I do...

I am cranking through the books these days, fiction and non. I just finished The Host by Stephenie Meyer--it was amazing as all her writing is, but so strange that it took me the first 100 pages of squirming and thinking I would not be able to keep reading before I finally became empathetic to the main character. Read it, guys, it's good.

Okay, I guess I can face the work week now =) Have to if I'm going to continue funding such a booklover's lifestyle!!!

Have a good week. (Edited for typos and such--I was in a hurry to post before leaving for work!)

Song of the Hoo Hoo Bird

2009-04-19T06:29:00.024-05:00

There is a bird in our neighborhood that I always forget about over the long winter months. This bird's distinction (in my mind) is his song. I don't even know what the bird looks like, but you can hear him in the distance in the wee hours of the morning. His song is 'hoo hoo' (like "you-who" in a sing-song voice) and it cracks me up. It's like he is trying to get my attention.

I love the Hoo Hoo Bird. It means that winter is over!

This morning is sweet soft weather, a drizzle that is more like a mist from the Garden of Eden. There is a riot of birdsong, Hoo Hoo Bird included, and the light is muted as well from the overcast. The ground is greening beautifully. Last night was the first night we slept with the windows open. Such a lovely thing to do. And to be awakened by the Hoo Hoo Bird rocks!! =D

It's spring, I'm loving my short hair, my puppy is healthy. I want to get gardening--I may try to get out there today if it doesn't rain any harder than it is now. I love to garden in the cool rain, it makes me feel so vital!

Have you all seen the kimono by Ropeknits on Ravelry? I love this pattern. Ya know, I love just a few too many patterns...like my favs list on Ravelry is about 6900 items long (some are duplicates, I just like everybody's work!!!) I'm so inspired by everyone else.

Or how about Sassymetrical? Cute idea, great name!
And, I'm thinking of knitting up a pair of Mother's Day Cotton Slippers Aren't they cute? Great idea, using cotton for slippers, that should feel so good on the tootsies!

Now, I just found a group on Ravelry for the giant-needle knitting! Remember I bought some size 50 needles from the Bagsmith--I have a burning need to make something with them. So I am now searching rav for the patterns to knit up with 3-5 strands of yarn held together...my girlfriend bought a book from the bagsmith. I might want to get that, too. Or at least from the library. Anyway, here is the link to the search for those patterns on Ravelry--check it out!

Oh, and if you're like me and get real tired of having to sign in to Lion Brand website, and want a quicker way to surf their patterns, here is the Lion Brand patterns page from ravelry. It is a bit easier than trying to browse their webpages.

Well now, the rain has gotten steadily heavier, and the sky more leaden. There is still a lot of bird activity out there, but inside, I feel like curling up with my bagsmith needles and going to town! I hope to have some pics for you soon, I have a lot of lingering projects that are ALMOST finished, but not yet.

--gotta go knit now. May the Hoo Hoo Bird sing in your backyard too!

The Good Stuff

2009-04-13T06:41:00.000-05:00

Oh, spring, spring!!! I'm so excited!!! Able to take puppies for walks, although our older dog now has heart failure. But she is doing remarkably well for her age of 14 years.

And even she positively gambols about when it gets warm out finally! The backyard grass is starting to green up finally. Hopefully we've seen the last of the snow--that last blizzard was amazing! And only 5 short days ago!!

I got outside to work in the garden for the first time on April 4, two days before this blizzard. I have 3 large clumps of Miscanthus sinensis that require cutting back to the ground each spring. I found out last year that putting this job off just makes it harder to do later in the season, as the new growth becomes mixed in with the old. Anyway, I feel good I got one of them hacked down! Two to go...

I'm gonna try not to do the weekend warrior thing this year--no more cutting down trees and hauling them around after being completely sedentary! Man, I really hurt my back doing that last autumn. I'm inspired to get moving, start yoga again, and slowly work up to my strength in the garden!

And while in the garden, I can reminisce about my grandfather's prowess as a gardener. He was amazing, and I count it a special blessing that we could help him in his garden as he aged. I'm so lucky to have known grandparents into my 40s--many people don't have that opportunity.

I also am thinking it really fun that DS is taking the same botany class with the same teacher that I did about 8-10 years ago! That was probably my most favorite class ever. Second only to the forestry class I took in high school.

Loving the apical meristem. Yeah.

J is for ?

2009-04-12T03:55:00.000-05:00

J is for Jean Greenhowe, that wonderful toy pattern designer! She has a free patterns page, and these cute chocolate-egg covers are one of them! I love her patterns, have purchased some on the internet, and I'd really like to knit her nativity set.

Alphabet blogging can be a challenge at times. Here is a good example: what the heck do you say about knitting that starts with a 'J'?!

So I have a couple of go-to research assets I use when I get stumped. I go on Ravelry and search groups that start with J, or patterns, or yarn names...that's a pretty up-to-date reference for what's out there.

And I peruse my "Principles of Knitting" by June Hemmens Hiatt. Unfortunately, this time, the only thing there is "joinery" which is a fancy way of lumping all methods of joining to a previous knit edge or joining 2 pieces together. Kinda un-inspiring, and really involves too many techniques to list in a blog post. So, onward to Ravelry!

But first, jackets. I think I mentioned previously that I love jackets! In addition to "A Jacket Called Horse", and Meinstein (aka 'My Einstein' Jacket for those who don't know), there are so many jackets I desire, I'd make them all if I could live to be 300 years old. I guess I'm just gonna have to be picky what I make =)

J is for Japanese knitting! I'm a big fan of Japanese patterns, I purchased a few books from YesAsia, and have yet to knit any of them. But I KNOW that if I only get around to knitting one of them, it will be the Acorn and Oak design called 'Herbstlied'. Even if I only knit a swatch of that pattern. Love it!

Here is a great blog to help knit Japanese patterns! This is for poor slobs like me who cannot read Japanese. You can find help with translations and the photos of WIPs and FOs are amazing. They have links to help you purchase the difficult to attain pattern books. (I know, I'm enabling you...)

Also, there is another blog called "Crossed in Translation" that highlights the Am Kamin sweater pattern published in a Japanese pattern book, and offers translation advice. This blog is no longer active that I can see, but has loads of great advice for some patterns.

There are also groups in Rav that are all about Japanese knitting!

There is a pattern that Barbara G Walker called Japanese feather & fan: Izzyknits made up a beautiful crescent shawl pattern in this lace, and it is available as a Ravelry download. See her blog about it here--very pretty!

There are links to Japanese Kanji charts at KodyMayKnits! She has charted a lot of the kanji symbols, such as the happiness symbol here.

Sunday Surf

2009-04-11T02:44:00.003-05:00

This is an edited post I started last weekend--hopefully it's not too random :)

Some crafty links:
homemade padded envelopes tutorial. These are cute and retro, depending on the papers you use. Great recycling idea!

I like this one a lot: gift bags made from an envelope! She even gives a pdf file to print out the "stamp" on it. So cute and really looks easy.

Some knitting scoops:
My new favorite blog is Flutterby Patch. This link takes you to a very sweet knitted daffodil pattern! She has some amazing free patterns, and the cutest blog I've ever seen! LOVE IT!

You should also head on over to Little Cotton Rabbits' page for the free tiny knit bunnies and bearsfor Easter. These are so cute! She never fails to amaze me with her bunny cuteness....

Another fat bunny pattern here is free.

This is really cool: a periodic table of knitting. What a great idea for science geeks like me! I love it!!!

Some cute sewing ideas:
Meet Me At Mike's has a list of cute Easter project links, for bunnies, eggs, baskets, etc. Cute stuff.

Allsorts has a great felt bunny pin to sew. Very sweet.

There are the sweetest little "Kimono Shoes" found at this site, along with many other fun sewing patterns, for things like reusable sandwich bags, a t-shirt shrug, laundry bags, wallets, photo albums, pincushions, and you-name-it. A great link list of how-tos.

Lastly, I like this post at Maya*made blog. I really like to do my own fabric stamping--I remember back in art class,(6th grade?!) when we did linoleum printing, that was so cool. I like the scarf she printed and made with her own stamp.

Back when DD was a baby, I cut a potato in half, then carved a heart on one side, and a cow on the other. I stamped an old bedsheet allover with these in various blues fabric paints, and then used the fabric in a quilt. (I still have the quilt, but some of those squares are shredded because tying it created huge holes!). I remember how engrossing that project was, and how it didn't matter that I had to do the painting on the floor of our tiny apartment kitchen! I was fascinated :)

Regarding the homemade dogfood I mentioned in my last post: I used a potroast, the potatoes and carrots, the broth, and added cooked rice and oatmeal, spread it onto baking sheets and baked for about 30 minutes total at 325 degrees, until it was golden brown. Because I did not add flour, it did not crisp into kibble or crackers, but was more like dog-burgers! So I kept it all chopped up in a bowl in the fridge and dished it out to them over the week mixed with Newman's Own dog kibble--they loved it!

Here are a couple dog kibble recipes I found online: from here, and here. I'd like to try again to make kibble or dog treats at least: I have another potroast leftover in the freezer (we just don't do leftovers much anymore).

Okay this has been a very rambling post, but I hope you've enjoyed some of the links :)

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Easter Lily

2009-04-09T20:56:00.011-05:00

Check out the male and female organs of this Easter Lily...kinda risque when you look up close =-O Nature is so spectacular!!

But look how shiny the petals are, so white against their green foliage! The scent is incredibly strong. I'm amazed that all of this is combined into one plant. So beautiful and so symbolic at Easter.

Here's another pic of my shawl in progress.

I just finished the Elephants chart from a Jade Starmore book I got from the library--isn't it cute?! I had fun picking out the colors too. This shawl will be something I wrap up in to hang around the house, so I'm picking crazy stuff that doesn't go together. I love it though.

I started 3 posts last Sunday, and did not finish any of them. I'm not too satisfied with them.

Something I have to tell you--I got myself a Vitamix for my B-day! Another item I've wanted for 20+ years, woohoo! I have been cranking out the vegie and fruit juices and smoothies, and even made my pups dog food from a leftover pot roast no one was going to eat. Smoothies are my dinner each night--hope I can lose some weight!

The best smoothie ever was one I made last night:
1 quart strawberries, hulled
2 bananas, peeled
8 oz vanilla yogurt
a snippet of wheat-grass (I usually go light on this stuff! It's not for flavor!!)
a 1-inch piece of ginger-root, peeled
ice (about 2-4 cups), use crushed ice if you don't have a Vitamix

Beat the crap out of this stuff in your blender or vitamix, until it is smooth, smooth, smooth. I love the ginger flavor with the banana and strawberry--quite literally the best smoothie ever. YUM!

Tonight's smoothie was 1/2 a pineapple, peeled + one tangerine, peeled + one banana + 1/2 tsp cinnamon + ice. Wasn't too sweet, but the spice added just the right touch.

So. It is almost Good Friday. I think I'll go and read about the Last Supper now. Have a blessed Easter everyone. Edited to add link to Vitamix.

Aim