Fiber Magic

New Year, New Projects

Sometimes the very best thing to do with a winter Saturday with crummy weather en route (although it's sunny & clear & lovely right this minute) is to bake a loaf of bread (whole wheat is today's feature), put on a pot of soup, & pull out a stack of old movies & sit down with a new knitting project.

The project is Gale, a wonderful big long stole designed by Anne Hanson.  I received the pattern in a lovely lace themed swap package last November. I'm using  a yarn from stash by Jojoland, called Melody (fingering weight).  I'm really enjoying the project so far.  2 repeats shown.

 

Time to brew a pot of tea & go sit & knit some more. 

A great big welcome to 2009

2008 was a really rough year for may people & many reasons.  It is my sincere hope that 2009 is much, much better.

Resolutions.  Every year I say it's silly to make them because everyone breaks them.  You should only commit to changes  you actually have the control to make, so why not just do them?  I'm looking at this as sort of a guidance list of things to strive for, but I'm not going to make myself nuts.  There are enough things in this world to drive oneself nuts with that these resolutions are not going to the top of that list.  So the whole resolutions thing is kind of laid back, but well intentioned.

"Resolutions"

1. I resolve to enjoy my stash much more.  Those lovely "special " yarns that have been put away in a cabinet because they were too nice to use or other such silly reasons are coming out to play.  Knitting & crochet began as inherently practical craft forms to keep people warm & clothed. If a yarn is gorgeous, it can be gorgeous in something practical & useful.  It won't work for all of them, but for some & it's a start.  This is not a yarn diet per se, but if I'm using lovely things I already own, I won't be tempted or feel the need for other shopping now will I?

Proof of concept is this new tea cozy.  Since the red holiday cozy went away to await next December, I made this one on New Years Eve from a skein of recycled Sari yarn.  Hand spun in Nepal by a woman's co-op from Sari bits, each skein is unique and interesting.  Silk is a great warm insulator & it looks good with my favorite navy pot.  Design is very loosely based on the Kureyon Cozy at Knitty.com.  All I can say is I like it.  Leftovers from the skein made 2 pieces that will turn into a little purse for a future gift or art show stock.

2.  I'm going to try to do better about keeping up my blog & my Ravelry page.  I'll give it my best  shot, but will not agonize over this.

3.  I resolve to give my career the best shot I can.  I will keep sending out resumes to find a nice stable little "day job" where I get to use my brain, my computer skills, & hopefully make some boss' life easier by providing exemplary support.  I will stop beating myself up for not finding this position yet in a state with darned near 10% unemployment.  I can only do what I can do.  I will hope for the future & try to be positive about this process.  In the meantime, I'll give my best effort to designing thngs people want to knit or crochet. 

I think that about sums it up for resolutions.  I'm going to go make a pot of tea & sit down for a good knit on some socks I'm designing.

Holidazed roundup

Okay so one of my resolutions is that I will A) catch up the blog & B) try harder to keep it that way.

In the interest of doing so & at least keeping all resolutions for a week or so (about average) I give you this post.

On Winter Solstice I hosted a cookie baking party for some of my knitting friends.  We had fun, we made some cookies, we knitted & we hid out from holiday stressors (which was kind of the main point).  Oh & we made a lovely box of goodies for my son Paul who is away in the Air Force.

Smudge tried to assist, mostly by taking everyone's chair as soon as they stood up. 

We attended several parties, as most folks do & stayed home with some big snow.  First time in ages that I remember getting a foot of snow before Christmas....all at once.  Good fun, just ask the kitties who were demanding back yard access:

 

There was classified holiday pressie knitting......some of which I actually remembered to photograph, but not all.  Let's just say that the 2 newish Moms that got sweaters for their babies to go with the squirrels, were delighted to learn I'd chosen machine washable yarn.....they promise future pics of the boys wearing them.

 

The squirrel on the left end sports a mohawk & goatee, as does the father of the baby that received it.  This was taken before they had their eyes & noses embroidered on (in case you were wondering.

For Christmas day, things were a little weird for me.  It was the first time in 23 years that I had a Christmas without my darling son.  I'll get used to it, kids grow up & things change.  For this time though, we had a friend over for dinner.  She made me take this photo & promise to blog about it.  She said it was prettier than the one on the magazine:

 

I don't know that I agree with her on that last part, but it was darned tasty.  Modified to be vegan by switching out the butter for Smart Balance.  recipe is available  here at BBC Good Food magazine

After that we did Christmas at Bill's Mom's House.  Here's little William with his Dad & a bad shot of his sweater, but with his squirrel there on Dad's lap:    

I think that catches things up to New Years which will be covered in the next post. 

the Holidaze continue

Well the massive goodie production has continued.  Yesterday a massive box went out to my son Paul's Air Force Base.  The whole box was edibles except for a small photo album with pictures from events Paul had missed (plus all the pics from our Virginia trip to see him) and a pair of Maine Morning Mitts in black.

Walnut vanilla caramels:

 Of course more marshmallows - more vanilla & peppermint, plus lemon & the wonderful new flavor - mocha.  The mocha ones had coffee extract & were supposed to have grated chocolate speckles, but the chocolate melted & it turned into this wonderful mocha flavor.  

The Lance the cat update - Paul's cat Lance who is living here as my foster child while Paul is away is finally settling in well.  As an only child cat, he'd never really grasped the concept of play, especially playing with friends.  He's finally learning how to play with another cat.  He's started playing tag & chase with Cupcake.  Lance has also established his personal boundaries & it appears he's claimed a lair of his own......the top of my clothes dryer, on the yellow towel.  If anything laundry wise gets put on the yellow towel....like other towels on their way to the closet perhaps...they get removed to the floor. He will spend hours napping on this towel.  It is now Lance's towel.  We shall all respect the power of the yellow towel & never diss the yellow towel.

 

Knitting you say?  Isn't this blog supposed to be about yarny & fibery things?  Well it is the holidays, which means that most of the knitting & crochet are gifty things which require a high security clearance & cannot be photographed.  This said, I have one small knitty thing to share - a tea cosy for my favorite pot, all dressed up for the holidays.  Having turned the heat way down to save energy, I got tired of cold tea.

 

The pattern is called Tea Mitten & is available on Ravelry.  I made a couple of changes (oh right like you never change a pattern).  Instead of DK I used worsted, but still on the size 4 needles, so it turned out a teeny bit bigger.  I also closed the bottom with a few rounds of crochet.  The ribbon is just tied on for the holidays.  I used 3 cool old shell shank buttons for the closure by the handle.  I do love old worn shell buttons.  Oh the yarn is Brown Sheep's wool/mohair blend.

So that's about it for today.  Lots of cleaning & organizing going on as I will be hosting a Knitters Cookie Baking Bash on Sunday.  Pics & a posting following that I'm sure.

Holidaze

Well, it's the holiday season, so lots of non standard cooking is in progress.  Here's some made from scratch marshmallows......already scarfed at a family function.  I need to make more this week since I promised to bring some to knit group.

 

These are peppermint & vanilla.  One of the flavors I plan to try this week will combine coffee extract & shaved dark chocolate.  How could this possibly be bad?

I've also started work on the annual caramel binge.  Right after I finish this post, I get to go reduce a whole roll of wax paper to 5" squares.  Thank god for a paper cutter!

Next Sunday will be a serious cookie binge day.  All my knitting pals are coming over to bake cookies.  We'll be packing a goodie box for my son Paul & his Air Force buddies so I can Fed Ex it on Monday.

Not everyone is working hard on holiday things though.  Isn't it a shame it's so hard for her to get comfortable?  This is Smudge in one of the living room quilts.    

Oh, it's Smudge's turn to be featured on the annual label of flavored vodka/liqueur that I make at this time of year.  Given that her shape reminded us of the ballerina Hippos from Fantasia,  this is what Bill did for the label:

Previous years have featured Seamus juggling lemons & Cupcake slipping on cranberries (like marbles). 

Visit to see my son Paul

We came back this week from visiting my sone Paul at his Air Force base in Virginia.  The trip was sort of a little family vacation prior to sending Paul off to advanced training & then to Afghanistan.  I won't get to see him again until he returns from Afghanistan.

In the tradition of our family vacations, there are always trips to museums, both science & history related.  Here is Paul with Bill at Colonial Williamsburg - messing with some kind of period toy.

 

I have no pics of Paul in his uniform - he said he took leave to see us, so he didn't have to wear it.

Here's a pic of Paul & I  at Williamsburg - it poured down rain most of the day.  I'm wearing the shawl that I pulled off the blocking wires just before we left on this trip.

This was a really neat place & I'd like to come back & visit it more thoroughly when the weather is better. 

Neat yarn store near here the Knitting Sisters.  I got a lovely skein of Prism lace wool in a colorway called Thunderclap - purple, green & teal together (how could this be a bad thing) 

Later in the evening we met up with some of his friends & went out to his favorite sushi place.

Next day we went to Virginia Beach for a little while - terribly windy like a sandstorm.  I did get to see the ocean though, & walk to close to the surf so it got me wet to the knees.

I'm told this is the statue that all the Navy Seals come have their picture taken with.

On Sunday we spent  the day at the National Mariners Museum from open to close.  They have a huge exhibit on the USS Monitor where this was taken:

Part of the exhibit is a life size model of the Monitor.  This is the turret of the ship.  It was astonishingly small for how important it was in the Civil War.

This was taken outside the Mariners Museum before it opened.  Bill was bouncing off the walls for the doors to open so I'm kind of amazed the picture turned out & isn't blurry!

I miss my son terribly already & he isn't even overseas yet.  I hope he stays safe over there.  As I write this, the news is talking about how things are heating up again.

We have a new member of the house.  Paul's cat Lance.  For some reason, the landlord would not let an unemployed housecat keep the lease on the apartment.  It's his 5th full day in the house with our other cats.  he has yet to make any friends, or say anything other than hssssss to them & he's started trying to climb things.  Oh & he has evidently never heard the words NO or BAD KITTY as he has no concept of their meaning.  As I understand it, this is his 4th home is 6 months (Paul got him from a friend 3-4 months ago) so I guess I'll cut him some slack.  He is a cute little thing.

Oh - trip knitting - I worked on 2 little hoodies that will be holiday pressies for the 2 baby nephews William & Ethan.  Nice small projects for in the car.

Leafy Goodness

To start things off, here are some new leaves actively growing.  These are my paperwhites.  I love paperwhites (okay any kind of indoor forcing bulb really).  They'll grow in this vase with just the water I add to the rocks until the leaves are about 18" tall, then they sprout a stem that have what look like lttle tiny daffodil flowers.  They smell wonderful & last for ages. 

 

Next pic is of one of my current projects, a sweater vest.  It's cool & done with diagonal lines of stitiching.  Yarn is hand dyed baby loop mohair from Cherry Tree Hill.  I think this is one of their "potluck" colors so I'll be totally unique.     Here's the detail shot - gosh this yarn is soft!

Now, back to leafy goodness & leafy humor.  This morning, DH spent about 2 hours blowing fallen leaves into piles & then moving them into the street where the giant vacumn truck (the suckolux monster, as named by my cats)  will suck them up & take them to be composted.

 

Shortly after he did all this, the wind came up & the rain came down.  All the leaves stayed in their street pile, but look what the front tree did: 

You cannot even tell he did all that work this morning!  It will have to be done again before the suckolux monster comes on Tuesday!  Heck, you can't even tell that the roof of the house is dark green.

Don't Anybody Forget to Vote!

We just got back from voting.  I have never seen lines like this in my little town.  We got there (walked) about 6:50 & they'd already started doing the registry IDchecking thing so that voting could actually start right at 7. 

There were about 50 people in front of us & the line started building big time.  I was #68 to have mine go through the optical scanner.  By the time we left, the line was out the door & down the sidewalk almost to the street (& this building is set a good ways back from the street I might add). 

Best Part:  I saw lots of families that brought the kids so they could see how important voting is.  I took pics for the family behind us for their scrapbook - Mom & giant tall Dad scrunched down with the 4 yr old holding a giant yellow sample ballot almost as long as he is tall.  So cool!

I cast on a handwarmer when we first got in line & had almost 2 inches done by the time our turn came.  Hubster had to wait for an open machine so I finished first & hung out in one of the courtroom seats knitting while he voted.

Then we walked home.  We decide not to drive to Starbucks for free election day coffee.  I wish we had a Ben & Jerry's nearby - there's an election day freebie I could celebrate.

Not a half bad day

On the knitting front, I finished Bill's set of Maine Morning Mitts (see previous post) and they have apparently passed inspection from Seamus....yes he is sucking on Bill's thumb....verrrry long story, but it boils down to "of course he sucks our thumbs, it's not like he has any of his own".  Poor boy was a rescue who lost his mom way too early.  He's one of the nicest cats I've ever shared a home with.

 

He did not however appreciate the flash.  Here's what happened next. 

Other good things today - I got all the fall bulbs in the ground.  Next June I will have about 25 giant purple alliums blooming across the front of my house.  And a patch of purple tulips & 2 patches of fabulous daffs in the back yard.

All finished just before the skies clouded up & the temp dropped.

Now I can get back to knitting on my swap partner's mobius cowl & the eternal baby blanket. Let's face it I had to make those red mitts immediately - the man was living in the home of a knitter & saying he had cold hands.  We cannot have that now can we.  I'll cast on a matching hat for him that I can knit on in line for voting Tuesday - the eternal blankie is too big & the mobius requires a certain level of attention not permitted while standing possibly in the dark waiting for the line to move.  Those mitts really are a satisfying little project - I started them yesterday afternoon & finished the second one this morning.

Projects of all types progressing

Look that partial stole is now almost a full stole.  It would be a full stole & blocked & wearable now if it were not for the terrible fact that I am in fact (hanging head in shame)... grafting challenged.  So rather than screw it up ....again, I will patiently wait until next Wednesday evening when my friend Mary can supervise me Teach me, yeah that's it.

Sometimes, no matter how much knitting you have to work on, you just have to drop it all for an instant gratification project such as these Maine Morning Mitts .  I had to have them immediately because I received a skein of yarn Knitpicks Shamrock that is a fabulous match for my favorite cloak.  Since I plan to wear this cloak on Tuesday to go vote very early in the morning, I thought it would be good to have warm hands.  

   

The funny part was that the Hubster asked for a pair after he tried mine on.  I promised to make them as soon as I finish a scarf project for my swap partner that is also on the needles.

And now, it being Fall, & Lowes having flower bulbs for half price, I am off to another beloved project - playing in the dirt in my garden.  2 packs of daffs, a "purple passions" mixed tulip collection & a big bunch of Allium bulbs that I dug up from the old house all need to be planted.