why i think my sister is cooler than the easter bunny (in 19 words or less)

who else but my sister would ship a box full of jelly beans (my favorite) from nyc to texas?

happy spring!

work/life/knitting balance

ok so i joined the club of all of you do-it-all’ers.

only i can’t seem to do it all. two weeks ago i started my career again and am learning again how to manage the work/life balance…. but to all of you who do it~ how do you manage to knit?!

i don’t even come home to hungry children & soccer practice and i still cant find the time.

but to make my day, my week, my month.. i got love from a dear friend supporting my decision to come out of retirement…

and i will make the time to knit something for her.

she is the best.

i love you leigh.

a birthday dilemma

i am not a fan of variegated wool.

i fell in love with this color combination, a light pale blue color with a warm purple…. yummy.

my friend asked me for a scarf for her 40th birthday.

great.

sadly i don’t know how to work with variegated wool. self-stripping yarn creates an unusual problem. the problem for me is because of the multi colors; you can’t knit in lace or pattern because you loose the detail with the multi coloring.

i chose a fairly simple pattern:

forsa scarf from noro: cornelia tuttle hamilton book 2

the goods:

5 skeins queensland collection bengali
needles US 9 (long.. as c/o of 302 sts)

in the end i love the scarf.

happy b-day LP.

to “who-o-o”

i am off to the post office this morning with my package….

isn’t the owl cute?

you can get the pattern here

a gift for a special small person.

a small person who was enormously kind gave me a photo which i have to say looks really good framed and hanging on my wall.

i love it.

a little birdie told me that her favorite colors are bright blue and bright green (lucky me that i have that wonderful green yarn from gavin’s cardigan still around the house.)

heck who knew i can still fake crochet.... i only own two crochet needles which cant come close to being the required size for the yarn but in this recession resources are hard to come by, right?

the flower was a simple crochet flower inspired by boutique pink designs. i knit the stamens and a knit the bobble in the center based on patterns from nicky epstein's knitted flowers..

you should check out boutique pink designs work on etsy.

to attach the pin i glued a bit of felt on the back to hold the pin onto the wool (and glued a bit-o-my fingers as well).

i like it... (my fingers don't)

the goods:

1) araucania nature wool chunky (gold)
2) colourmart 100% extra fine merino (aka. gavins green yarn)
3) sirdar snuggly dk (teal bright blue)

a special thank you to:
the small object for the wooden gift tag idea
robinhill for the leaf pattern

i made the leaves from robinhill's pattern but left them out. they seemed to take away from the flower pattern.

enjoy my little friend.

be smart.

be creative

& love life.

i hope you like it.

* atom art bowl in red from anthropologie

a strange fruit.

before we moved to texas , i had never heard of a loquat tree.

now i have not one, not two but three of these enormous fruit bearing monsters.

our neighbors had told us they make good jam…. but being a girl on a mission i scoured the internet and found this kinda cool sounding tasty dessert: loquat crunch. personally i am a big fan of the wonderful world of the dessert crumbles from rhubarb to apple… but loquat?


so today i stewed loquats.
i made crumble.
i baked.

….and it did not end there….along these same lines i am ashamed to say i also baked ginger cookies.

i know… but i am craving sweets (my comfort food), stuck at home waiting for ups & also doing a bit of knitting ;-)

happy wednesday everyone!

*authors note: no humans were harmed in the tasting of these recipes

my ball winder & me

ever spend two or three evenings winding lace weight yarn into a ball?

i have.

something i plan never to do again.


the true advantage of these simple plastic gadgets (beyond saving wasted time on balling hank yarn) is the ease of which it winds the yarn into a loose center pull ball that allows you to knit without yanking the yarn repeatedly tuning the skein into a flopping fish out of the water jumping around pretending to be a chew toy for your dog.

possibly the best money i have ever spent.

pimpin’ my ride

xm… meet my mini cooper

mini cooper meet xm….
~at last~

you see this has been a long time coming. when i bought this little bundle of joy my configurations came out all wrong. somehow you can’t custom order a cooper with more than three of the following:

satellite radio
satellite navigation
blue tooth adapter
aux. jack for i-pod

i bailed on the sat radio but that is all fixed now. this q-t comes with a remote control (?) honestly i think i can reach from the drivers seat to groceries in the boot. i don’t really think the remote is key however should i like to change the channel from my kitchen~ i know it is possible.

wheee...... off for a drive............