we deep fried a turkey

and yes- we are still alive to tell the tale

may peace and happiness be with you!!!

happy baby knitting

meet miss scarlett's feather and fan baby cardi.

this was really fun to knit.

the goods:

us needle 9

cascade yarns 220 wool.. in a wonderful christmas green (less than 220 yards)

pattern thanks to leigh foster can be found here

beside the obvious modification (yes i got rushed for time and did short sleeves).. i also turned the collar inward and tacked it in rather than outward. i really did not like the way mine looked showing the purl side.

i have to admit i had moments where i was sure this was going to be WAY too small but to be sure i went out to baby gap and bought a size newborn-03m onesie to check for size. once i washed the pieces and blocked them it turned out to be big enough (i think) and the feel of the yarn was softer than when knitting.

i hope little miss scarlett likes green!!!

la crème glacée napolitaine savon

thank you thank you thank you to the wonderfully talented soap goddess and fellow blogger debbie chialtas.

i bought her book soapylove (you can buy her book at amazon.com) and found myself ordering strawberry and rich dark chocolate scents (for soap!) on line and learned how to avoid all of my previous soap making disasters-- but the ideas!!!! after all of my excitement i decided on making as many of these wonderful neapolitan soap bars as i could.



i could just eat them.

i ordered the popsicle molds from amazon but all of the "professional" (aka. non local craft store) chemical colorants and scents came from debbie's line at bramble berry.

packaging was fun as well. i did the heated saran wrap treatment she describes in her book and then just bagged them with clear candy bags and added a bow.

for the cards i found this retro bath image from dreamstime designed by dust for a few dollars and printed them on 4x6 glossy photo paper.

happy thanksgiving everyone!

is it new year’s yet….?

well i have had another birthday. (usually one of my favorite days of the year) only so much has happened this week i blinked and all of the sudden even all of the leftover turkey was gone.

we even took the low road when it came to thanksgiving. a sort of ‘bird in a box’. many thanks to whole foods creative culinary team for providing our thanksgiving meal for our guests and keep us sane for the day.

it is saturday now and the olds have hit the road headed homeward. last night we all went downtown to the holiday river parade & lighting ceremony, a mere 5 in over 150,000 people who trekked to the san antonio riverwalk to see this over 20 year old parade. i don’t want to offend those who get up real early on thrusday and crowd the streets of new york for the traditional macy’s parade but this is definitely the way to go. after some champagne & dinner we get to sit with a warm cup of coffee on the edge of the river and get to see these river boats turned christmas float boats sail past us, …margarita anyone?

what a great day to have a birthday

on nov 24th in 1859 charles darwin publishes on the origin of species.

and today...why not buy an original?

"Rare Charles Darwin Book Found On Toilet Bookshelf"

thank you npr.

is it really november?

this time last year i was given the means to purchase a set of interchangeable circular knitting needles for my birthday. one year later i have found the perfect set.

i was price shopping (yeah- for a year)

playing with my new kit…. i note there is no comparison to my previous knitting experience with my old love of addi or my newer ka bamboo circs… it is as if anthony bourdain had just discovered they joys of drinking and smoking late in his career… i found these super pointy, light, interchangable needles with joining cables that feel soft and already broken in a new addiction.

my first project turns out to be a preemie cap the day after the needles arrive. the pattern can be found here.

yarn: lily sugar'n cream stripes in lime green

needle: us 6

mods:

i cast on 38 (not 35) stitches using us 6 throughout. the first 13 rows were all knit and then worked stockinette instead of the pattern’s ribbing at the beginning. i want the brim of the hat to be turned so i knit the hat about an 1/2 inch longer than the 3.5 to 4” the original pattern calls for using the medium preemie instructions.

finished using pattern… i knit to 4”

rs (k2, k2tog) repeat (29sts)

ws p

rs (k1,k2tog) repeat (20sts)

ws (p2tog) repeat (10sts)

rs (k2tog) repeat (5sts)

5 stitches left (icord to 4”)

note the tooth mark on the second to last of our satsumas. bad opal.

tired of being tired...

i had high hopes for this weekend~ my father in town, a few good meals, some chores and catching up on work.

alas, i feel tired and under the weather and decide it is best to stay at home and do as little as possible.

i have not picked up any knitting in a while. not out of coice, i have just been too busy. dad brought with him a few knitting books to tempt me and out of one of them i found my nephews christmas present... am i running out of knitting time already????

i also decided to give this tutorial a try. it gives instructions on making your own cookie cutters only the supplies are hard to come by and in the end i managed to come up with this. (ignore the copper tape seaming it together~ i am working on that part)


i could not find a sheet of copper that was hard enough to keep shape so i went with aluminum. i cut one inch strips (oh yes... if someone could tell me where to buy this i would be most grateful).

i am learning.

it will get better.

happy fall

you know you have good friends when... thank you our kind neighbors.
happy fall.

more orange

ok, so i need experience learning how to photograph while misquotes are dining on me and the humidity fogs the lens.

alas.. here is our gem. we lost one but have the potential of 5 it's first year.

our little satsuma tree bares fruit....

i heart orange

thank you colour mart.

thank you for all of these wonderful orange colors to choose from....

in my library

i dont know how i missed it. first published in november of 2008 ~ a stitch in time: v.1:vintage knitting & crochet patterns from 1920-1949 should have already been sitting on my bedside table giving me sweet dreams.

now i become aware of it's existence, oh joy!, only to find out it is out of print.

how can that be. it has not even been a year.

this was a book i had to have. it contains 60 of these retro original patterns with conversions for todays knitting terms and yarns. complete with pictures of both 'then and now'.

i found it. i overpaid. i had it shipped from england. it came. i want to call in sick this week. i don't want to leave it.

thank you jane waller and susan crawford.

welcome miss scarlett

these beautiful pond lillies are in bloom this week in our garden.. i think they must be for you. they are such a wonderful color and they only bloom at night (hey you were a midnight baby!)











here is your little gift.

i hope you like it.

be extraordinary~ just like your family.

color

24 piece crayola color pencil case.

this is a gift for a wonderful little girl i have yet to meet but i know she will grow up to be something extraordinary.

i’ll give you my attempt at a tutorial of what essentially was inspired by a gift from my leigh. it is my treasured knitting needle case.

supplies:
scraps of fabric.
1 yard ribbon
crayola color pencils

1) cut 1 piece each of contrasting fabric 20 by 10in for the lining and outer piece.

2) from the same fabric as the outer piece cut 1 piece 20 by 7 1/2in. this will be the inner pocket.

3) fold the top of the inner pocket fabric piece one inch downwards towards the wrong side of the fabric. top stitch at the fold.

4) pin the wrong side of the pocket to the right side of the inner lining where bottom pieces meet. turn. working on the wrong side of the inner lining mark ¾ spacings from end to end-starting ½ in from left side and ending 1/2 inch from right side.
following markings stitch from bottom to the pocket top. (twenty four mini pockets)

5) cut 1 yard of ribbon in half. pin ends to right side of the pocket with ribbon facing to the left.

6) place outer piece right sides facing to lining with pocket and ribbon (make sure the ribbon is centered) leaving a 2-inch hole for turning, stitch around the entire rectangle. turn. iron and top stitch around whole piece to finish.


may she draw, may she color and may she create.

an odd dog

miss opal has always been gender challenged. since we've had her we make it a point to buy her pink accessories (collar, lead etc).

she does not know she looks the least bit masculine nor does she know that she is really very overweight.

both became obstacles for me when i decided to knit her a sweater. of course i went out and bought beautiful bright pink wool. i picked my pattern- this simple lion brand “need for tweed” knit dog sweater.

besides the model is a boston too.

here is where the problems begin. the sweater is knit in two pieces, the top and the bottom. after knitting it i think it would be just as easy to knit it in the round and skip the dreadful seaming. i was pretty close to completing the top when the totally obvious was pointed out to me…. a plump round dog in a thick pink sweater is going to look something like a barnyard animal. (dare i say pig?)

oh my.

i ripped out a large enough amount to add a pattern- i was thinking stripes but the “what not to wear” tv series told me that stripes make you look wider than you are. so i opted for charlie brown zig zag in green and white.

so far so good

the top was completed and i was moving on to the bottom. the shape of the bottom piece is rather like a wine bottle. it is wide where the belly is and takes in decreases as you get closer to the neck.

i did my homework and worked out that miss opal had the body size of a medium dog and the neck size of an extra large dog. my final belly piece looked like a reversal of the original. but to my surprise it worked.

a few other mods.. i also added a ribbed collar so it would be easy to put on and take off and short sleeves because i thought it would look better.

i think she likes it.

happy hat

happy birthday my friend. i am so sorry it will be late.

i want you to go forward this fall with something to keep you warm.

you know.... if you don't like it.... i am sure it will make a suitable tea cozy.

details:

denny hat by martin storey

queensland collection bengali x 4 skeins

needle us 9 / 5.5 mm

alterations:

c/o 105 sts (instead of 103)~ you have a wonderful head full of thick curls.

... and i love you

been in a blog fog

sheeze i must be the queen of blog neglect.

i don’t really have an excuse.

for any of you longhorn fans out there i copied one of my husband’s bowties (i used a 16” neck) and sewed up 5 bowties for our bartenders at work for a texas exes dinner.

1 yard of fabric makes 5 ties.

so all of you hook'em horns fans... no excuses.

(what a hypocrite)

i am knitting a shawl

no…. not for my grandmother.

it was a self-discipline failure.

i found this single skein of undyed 100% superfine alpaca. sadly it was pricey~ but this is an 8oz skein of 665 yards of fluffy softness.


i could use it to brush up on my lace knitting skills before i tackle laced leaves cardi by carol feller?

humph. but why i don’t knit shawls and wraps is the enormous number of stitches to keep track of~ who needs to recount 3,000 stitches to confirm what row you are on or worse, what place you are in the lace pattern?

so i begin my first attempt. the only true inspired moment i have had was to choose a pattern that starts with a minimal amount of cast on stitches and increases to the nightmare number of stitches where i will no doubt loose track of where i am and give up on the project out of frustration.

pattern details:
seafoam shawl by sarah barbour

on another note… i hit 3 ½ miles of semi paved scenic footpaths up hill to knitting etc. yarn shop. (the iphone gps app really should have topography information)

worth the exercise, i take the bus back to town to admire my new stitch markers from the comfort of my hotel room with my feet up.

outdoor ithaca & thier civil war cemetery

i am in love~ or will be soon….

i am in ithaca and should be working on my ithaca laced leaves with the wonderful angora i bought from vancouver but i am so close to having completed my vancouver project.

here is the update:

to compensate for the fronts being too large, i decided to cast on 24 (not 34) stitches (ok so in terms of sizing i am playing with loosing 4 inches in the front!!!!)… well sadly i am not in need of the 4 inches…

i altered my increases so that when i came to shoulder shaping i ended up with same amount of stitches as i did working the back. it was a temporary plan but i stuck to it.

when i finished all of the pieces i found myself off to find a wool shop to purchase a similar color yarn. my savior of the day was homespun boutique~ a mere block away from the hotel. i couldn’t work with the cashmerino astrakhan for seaming….. very frustrating. then i needed to work out the whole crochet thing…?... nightmare.

at homespun i found an almost exact color match with ryc cashsoft dk (kingfisher)

seaming went much quicker with the cashsoft. once i did the single crochet around the outside i could not find where the loops were to pick up for crochet so i took it out and used the cashsoft dk & cashmerino held double for the crochet edging. whew. all done but the sleeve trim!

i had a try on… this yarn is wonderful.
i think i am in love.