can't see the forest through the... house plants..?

dont knit with acrylic

but doesn't it look snugly next to a bunny?

*free pattern can be found here.

bob the dog

bob is the official mascot of ravelry.

bob has become such an icon over the few years ravelry has been in existence that fellow members have dubbed april 11th (the day in 2005 that ravelry was created) "bobmas" day.

i am sure i am not the only raveler who has fallen in love with the first few seconds of the video put together celebrating "bobmas" day by the website creators posted on "bobmas eve".


Happy Bobmas! from Ravelry on Vimeo.


it was only yesterday that i noticed my boston fall asleep while having a good go on her chew toy...

had she done it before and i had not noticed?....

or is miss opal spending time peering over my shoulder while i spend endless hours on the ravelry website?...

does she have interest in knitting?
.... or maybe bob?

what is going on with my favorite food blogger, i need to knit & happy fiesta friday

my blogging idol last posted on march 4th. i understand that these personal sounding boards that we devote to much time and energy into are not a priority, however i miss reading about her devotion to all things edible.

that being said today is fiesta friday so “c'est la vie” to the rest of the united states~ us san antonians get this day off to party. or, in my case…. i get to knit (at last).

in my desperation... argh!!!!!

i looked everywhere for the cotton ease the pattern called for and could not find it.

i am way to impatient… i should have held out for cotton but i needed a knit-fix & i have a day off.

soon miss ella will have a summer dress. it may be acrylic~ but it will go in the washing machine and dryer without fear.

... and i will have succeeded in fulfilling my need to knit something worth devoting my time and energy into another useless post for my personal sounding board.

i heart birthdays

i cleaned out my craft room.

i am now able to make my way from the door over the four feet of floor space (recently having been used as temporary junk space) to my sewing machine. the machine had been drawing me to it for a while now~ only i was put off (completely) by the thought of going through boxes, bills, bags of yarn, more bags of yarn and of course the dreaded graveyard of projects less loved and unfinished.

wait, i have a window in this room?

a friend’s birthday really served as my motivation. she really hates her birthday & i think birthdays are fun… but sadly i am forever sending her late gifts. this year i was a bit better (by degrees of lateness) and got her gift off to her at least the week of her birthday.

last year i sent her something bright and cheerful, knowing she loves only black in a conservative non-color committal way. black is always a safe bet for her so this year i chose black.

the pattern though has the somewhat bright and cheerful name that fulfills my need to convert her (in the most subtle way)…

pattern:
buttercup bag by made by rae

i love groovy bloggers with free patterns.
and what a neat little pattern.
thank you rae.

i hope you like it leigh.
happy birthday my friend.

happy easter

these are not dorothy's ruby slippers

.... so i turn a little bit texan today. because anthony had his citizenship interview we each bought a pair of… yes, cowboy boots.

when in texas…

our choice~ texas hand made boots from lucchese. our company while we were shopping~ joe pantoliano (ralph on the sopranos)

thoughts~ just finished a no-blister 3 mile trek to our pub. i give them a big hearty yeahaw.

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............

a little bit of kindness

a bit of kindness came my way in the form of a nomination by the talented knitters & bloggers lupie & kay.skay.790 for the kreativ blogger award. what a nice way to complement fellow bloggers.

i am passing the kindness on…

here are the rules for the nominees:
1. copy the award to your site.
2. link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. nominate 8 other bloggers.
4. link to those on your blog.
5. leave a message on the blogs you nominated.

1. sunday night dinner
2. domie's mom
3. lunaticraft
4. chronic ennui
5. no knit sherlock!
6. fran
7. beelzebub
8. purple is a fruit
8. tracey
8. and of course… knitting with my mother’s hands & kay.skay.790


thank you to all you fantastic crafty people for giving me inspiration… i think i could use it today. this is my short-lived sock class project from saturday night’s san antonio fiber junkies get together. she was to be maisie socks made of 2 balls of rowan calmer. sadly the two socks on one needle was not working for me and then after mistake and mistake .. and so on.

maybe another time….

hopelessly over committed

still behind on every project i have started, i put those aside (maybe never to be picked up again)… to start a gift.

(pat myself on the back) it is finished. (slap my hand with a wooden ruler) it is late.

friends should not give friends late birthday presents. sigh.

here it is: completed!
source: debbie bliss knitting magazine spring/summer 2009 (yes this is another recycled pattern only this one was published in 2006… not 1995)
yarn: i love this cotton in brown one skein

i made both the moss stitch and the lace pattern with moss stitch. after completing the moss stitch version with us size 9 needles i went down to the 8s so the detail of the lace would show better on the second one.

note: my hangers measured in between the two sizes in her pattern so i went with the small and it turned out fine.

i have never used this yarn before and i bought it because it was an exact color match for the fabric. i was amazed how soft and lofty it knits up.

btw~ while everything else is on the back burner i have been invited to a sock class this weekend….. another commitment (oh my)

why i heart valentines day..

first of all. ella and connor are the best.

vosges:
vday (the aztec collection)
bombalinas (naga mango)
organic peanut butter bonbons
caramel toffee
& my favorite... caramel marshmallows. ... which we made, xoxox.
i am happy because of the two of you :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i love to take pictures. it is a gene i inherited from my father.

but one my husband encourages.

i am now the proud owner of a canon eos 50d.

this is opal. looking at the vosges package.. taken with my new canon eos 50d.




i heart valentines day....

no frills attached

ok... so i have gone back and forth with the san antonio scarf....

i knit it on the plane when anthony and i had decided to move here. it was one of the most annoying and frustrating patterns that i have completed. (and the fact i have completed it shows my devotion to it).

however i never wore it. a few years later i added a ruffle to it....
and...
i never wore it.

it is my san antonio scarf. it should be worn here.. at least once...
on top of that, it is the only scarf i have knit for myself~ how can i be so critical?

in case i neglected the details on previous posts:
pattern~

daisy scarf by amanda crawford
3 skeins rowan kid classic in battle #845
needle us #8
& of course.. a lot of uncertainty

oh gloomy day

i like to knit. i am impatient.

...so when the new debbie bliss spring/summer 2009 was due to hit the shelves of my local book store i was there. and the next day... and the following 4 more days until yes! it was sitting there~ mine for the purchasing.

now i don't begrudge designers when they submit one of their new patterns in a well known knitting magazine in support of their new pattern line. but what i don't really understand is why vogue has chosen a designer (and she is absolutely fabulous) to publish a magazine devoted to her alone and publish her patterns from 1995!

ouch. that is not new. should style not evolve?

well in this case my gloomy buddy for the day was created. he is 9o% sirdar country style dk (grey), 9% crystal palace yarns merino frappe (red) & 1% patons silk bamboo (black).

i like him and i think he will be happy to keep mr. g's room company until he returns.

today i feel orange

anthony's fantastic butternut squash soup recipe:






1. one butternut squash peeled & cubed (use gloves!)
2. chicken stock or boullion cube (let's make it easy)
3. habanero pepper
~~~~

boil cubed butternut squash in water (enough to cover)
add a cup of stock or boullion cube and whole un-cut habanero pepper.
cook until soft and blend.
(without pepper.. well, unless you are insane.)