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.)

happy valentines day

for the little people in my life for valentines day. (and my very own extra special person)

when finished i took the eyes off. ever read neil gaiman’s coraline? they looked like the scary creepy rats.

off with their eyes!

i ended up placing them in wooden mini panibois molds and adding happy words before sending.

the designer is anna and her website is mochimochi land. what a great pattern. i really love this designer.

the goods:

wool-ease thick & quick (1 skein each): grass, sky blue & raspberry

size 11 needles

stuffing

entrelac....

sounds like the name of a sinister cat.

this is my first attempt at this entrelac thing and some of my thoughts along the way:

i had to keep this pattern in front of me from the beginning to the end. there was no row counting or keeping track of stitches. just full on concentration. (thank goodness she will only become a headband for my sister for if she were a scarf i think my head might explode. )

because of the nature of the beast, it is hard to put her down… you sort of never get to a stopping point as she never really looks right while you are knitting her.

at the end of it all i became pretty darn good at muttering a few choice curse words, m1 & picking up stitches.

the goods:
advil extra strength gel caps
left over gavin’s green colourmart 100% extra fine merino.
us size 6 double pointed needles
us size 6 straight bamboos needles
pattern (free): quant by star athena (named after mary quant the british fashion designer)

what i learned at dunkin donuts today....

in a town of 2 million people there is only one dunkin donuts.

i had to drive 28 miles to get there.

the servers there are much friendlier than any dunkin donuts i have been to in boston.

the servers ask if you want cream or sugar in your coffee rather than assuming everyone must, therefore finding it easier to have the customer request to have one or both omitted.

while sitting there i noted that anthony took his cream cheese and divided it onto each slice of the bagel before eating to ensure even distribution.

i tore into mine and spread the cream cheese on the bits as i ate it. when i ran out of cream cheese i left the rest of the bagel.

i truly, in every avenue of my life cannot finish anything i start.

sadly, that includes your birthday present meredith.

happy birthday my friend.

i could never live in boston terrier

it got down to near freezing last night. i have never met a dog who so dislikes the cold as much as opal does.

in truth she resents us for it.

(....and not because of the silly pink winter coat.) she truly resents us for the cold weather.