Wednesday, February 26, 2014

More Socks. Sort Of

Last week when my hand started giving me trouble I did some spinning. I'm so glad I did because I'm spinning for socks. And it's a gradient yarn for socks. 


I got one skein done.  I'm so anxious to see how it's going to look when I knit it. So anxious that I plan on spinning the second skein this weekend. 


I am going to do a toe up sock, which I haven't attempted yet. I figured I could get the most yardage out of it that way. I also have a sweater to finish, another project that needs ends woven in, a cowl pattern that's been swimming in my head and too few hours. My house doesn't need cleaning right?  

Yarn Along

I can't bear to show you the sweater progress in fear that you'll die of boredom. I have been knitting on a few things recently since I decided that the sweater was not going to be finished by the end of the Ravellenics.

One is a secret project so I can't reveal it yet. 

Then there's always a sock. 


I have had this on the needles since I don't know when.  I'm not thrilled with the yarn  - it's not as soft as I thought it might be but I'm loving the stripes. 


So it gets some love here and there.

I'm still "reading" Divergent on audiobook hoping I can finish before the movie comes out in a few weeks. 

Joining Ginny.  

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

10 On Tuesday

Carole switched things up a bit and asked us to write 10 sentences that start with the word "I feel".

So lets go:

1.  I feel sorta sad that the Olympics are over.
2.  I feel ready to catch up on all the regular TV shows I missed that are on my DVR though.
3.  I feel hopeful that I can catch up on some knitting now that my hands are feeling better (thank you Tracy - that Blue Emu worked wonders too).
4.  I feel energized after that burst of warm weather over the past weekend.  Sitting outside in the sun felt wonderful while I knit.

5.  I feel relieved that February is coming to an end.  I have no problems saying Good Bye to the last full month of winter this year.
6.  I feel excited about March being closer - I looked at my calendar and we have a lot of stuff going on this coming month.
7.  I feel frustrated because my To Do list is longer than the hours in my day lately.
8.  I feel a bit more educated on using my camera.  I spent some time over the weekend playing with different settings and the way they affect the photos.
9.  I feel overwhelmed at the office.  Lots of projects are hitting at once which means I'll be spending some long hours getting them done.
10.  I feel like taking some vacation time to catch up on things, and especially to view some Craftsy Classes that I still haven't watched yet.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Weekending

It was a beautiful weekend!  I got out and enjoyed the warm weather (well, warm for February).  I played with my camera a bit and went to the beach.


Of course by the time I got there the wind was blowing.



In the midst of taking pictures I turned and noticed this.


That didn't look good at all.  I went across the bridge to see what it was.


The good news is that everyone got out OK.  Their pets sadly did not.  The young family lost everything. Neighbors have been buying little items for them such as toothbrushes and such.  Very scary how quickly life can change.

Definitely not the pictures I had in mind when I took my camera out.

Definitely puts life in perspective. 

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Where The Yarn Goes

So I have a stash.  It's huge by some people's standards but small by others.  I personally don't think it's too bad.  The only thing I feel bad about is that I have about 2 rubbermaid containers filled with yarn I may or may not ever use.  This was the yarn that I bought when I first started knitting.  Mostly acrylic.  Some of it novelty.  I can't bear to part with it.  One day I might.  But for now it's sitting in the corner out of the way in the spare room.  Then there is the hand spun.  That is in another rather large container.  And I am working my way through that.  And then there is what I refer to as "the current stash".


This cabinet (a legal bookcase is what the label said) is about 27 years old. It was one of the first items we bought for our first house. It's been storing books and miscellaneous things for years. But I had a better use for it. 


The basket holds my ball winder, swift and other miscellaneous items. The top shelf has some sock yarn and other yarn that's ready for some future projects. 


The second holds some hand spun. Most of it I don't know what I will use it for. Simply looking at it makes me happy.  And there is some other yarn for future projects. 


The third shelf has my project bags all ready to go. Only 3 of them have projects in them. The rest are empty. 


And this shelf has my fiber stash. It's hard to appreciate with the plastic bags but trust me - its beautiful. 

So that's where I have a good portion of my fibery goodness. How do you store yours? 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Yarn Along

Well - it goes something like this.  I have been knitting like the wind on my Olympic Sweater.  My plan was to be finished with the body and working on the sleeves by now.  I have 4 inches left to go on the body.  But the project has come to a halt.

My hands are killing me.  Throbbing in the middle of  the night killing me.  So this coach made a decision. The project is on hold.  I'm not knitting.  Anything.

Do you hear that?  I am not knitting anything.

At first I thought I would go crazy.  What am I going to do?  Tonight is my Spinning Night with the girls where I was planning on getting a solid 2 hours of knitting done.  But that's OK.


I could spin, since it's a spinning group right?


I'm thinking the movement should not bother my left hand too much since I do most of the work with my right hand.  And I would really like get this fiber spun up for socks.


So the word for this week is improvise.  And if this doesn't work, trust me - I have more things to do!

Join Ginny to see what those who can actually knit are doing.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

10 On Tuesday


It's been all Olympics all the time over at our house. I know all the channels that they are televised on, I have the app on my phone, I have the channels on my Sirius radio set. We are kinda hooked. So here's my 10 Thoughts on The Olympics:

1. I loved watching the Russian figure skating pair skate their final routine. They just have such a connection - you can see how they look at each other. 
2. I enjoyed watching the little 15 year old figure skater from Russia even more. Man is that little girl flexible!
3. We were traveling up to NH on Saturday morning while the men's USA hockey team was playing Russia. We were listening to it on the radio. Anybody looking in our car must have thought we were nuts by all the hand waving and yelling going on. 
4. The Jamaican bobsled team. Ya gotta give them props for coming. And for their fund raising efforts!
5. I could have smacked the reporter who interviewed Bode Miller after his win on Sunday night. I swear she was purposely trying to make him cry. 
6. I find it odd that in the Ice Dancing that team USA and team Canada have the same coach. Conflict of interest?  Both teams did amazing last night so she obviously knows her stuff. 
7. Snowboard Cross - my new favorite event!  I love it. 
8. My Olympic Knitting is moving right along. I'm not sure if it will be done by closing ceremonies but I am giving it a good try!
9. How great was it when Noelle Pikus-Pace jumped into the stands to be with her husband and kids after her luge run? It was a real tear jerker!
10. What am I going to watch next week?

Join us over at Carole's for the fun!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

About Valentines Day

I have a confession.  I don't like Valentines Day.  It's not that I don't like it, but it was just never one of those holidays that I really celebrated.  I really didn't have boyfriends in high school so I never really celebrated when I was a kid. Sure my mom got us candy, but it wasn't the same thing.  It was just another day to me and most of my friends.

Fast forward to when I started dating my husband at 19.  Valentines Day came around and he was sent to Miami for a boat show.  We celebrated when he came back but the actual day came and went without much fuss.  The boat show came every year after that and Valentines Day got celebrated (or not) at some point.  It just never meant that much to me.  Maybe it's because my husband brings me flowers often, always has a card for me for every occasion and basically lets me buy whatever I want no matter what the cost.

Well hubby no longer has to go to the boat show for his job anymore so he is actually home for Valentines Day.  He asked me what I wanted to do but to be honest I will be happiest staying home and making dinner. I stole Carole's idea of making Cream Puffs for my sweethearts (Nicole will be working but she can enjoy when she gets home late that night).


We have some fun planned for the weekend that I'm real excited about.  Have a great weekend everyone.   And Happy Valentines Day.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Cedar Leaf

It's done.


It was fun and I will definitely do another one.

I love how it hugs my neck.  And if anybody else was home I could show you that.


I haven't mastered the automatic timer on my camera.


So Mr. Chair will have to help me out.


Judy's yarn is so soft and beautiful.

I'm trying hard not to buy more. Thank goodness I have my Olympic Project to focus on.

For now.

Yarn Along

So let's talk about the Olympics.

The Knitting Olympics.  Otherwise known as the Ravellenic Games.  I have participated in these games for years. The Yarn Harlot started the tradition years ago and Ravelry continued it.  For my project I decided on Hiro in the pullover version.  And I wanted to use my handspun.  So I pulled together these colors.


And we are moving right along.


It's kinda cool how handspun self stripes itself sometimes isn't it?


I will be playing Yarn Chicken with this project for sure.  At least with the blue/green.  I think I will have enough  but it's going to be close.  Real close.  So close that I may alter the pattern a bit.

But living on the edge is the Olympic spirit, isn't it?

Joining Ginny!

Monday, February 10, 2014

10 on Tuesday

This was a difficult one. Red is not one of my favorite colors. When it comes to food apparently I do like it though! And I had to include the picture of the little red school house I took last week. Just because.


1. Cinnamon flavored anything. Except schnapps. There's an ugly story about that from when I was 19. We will talk about that another time. 
2. My Red Apple Wreath Yankee Candle. 
3. My Beats ear buds. I procrastinated about spending the $ on them and I'm so glad I did it. 
4. Sangria. Yummmm
5. Lobster. No explanation needed. 
6. Passion tea from Starbucks. With 3 Splendas please. 
7. Apples. Especially fresh picked ones. 
8. Roses. I love the deep red color especially right after they open. So beautiful. 
9. My secret naughty addiction - a can of Coca Cola. I know. It's awful for your health. I have cut down. A lot. 
10. Red velvet cake. Particularly from the Cheesecake Factory.

Come on and join us over at Caroles!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Weekending


I moved the dial on my new camera off of Auto and over to Manual and found some online tutorials to actually understand the basics.  I never knew how many different pictures of my phone I could take just by simply changing a couple of settings on the camera.

We watched the Olympics.  And I Love It

There is lots of knitting.  While watching those Olympics

Some work things had to be attended to (happy boat show season)

Tried some new recipes

Made some plans for a little get away weekend very soon

And lots of just "being"

How was your weekend?

Friday, February 7, 2014

Lets Bake Some Bread

On Tuesday I spoke about a new bread recipe I was trying.  Now my version of baking bread is throwing 5 ingredients into the bread machine, pressing the button, and coming back 3 hours later. Yes you do get great tasting bread, but I wanted Artisan bread with a crunchy crust.  This recipe I heard about while watching Emily's podcast seemed too good to be true.  You basically mixed the ingredients together and let it sit for the day.
I came home after work to find it doubled in size.  I shaped it into a ball with some more flour, let it sit for 30 minutes while the dutch oven preheated.
They recommended putting some parchment paper along the bottom so it would be easier to lift out when it was done.

30 minutes later....
It was delicious!  And seriously - it was THAT easy.  The crust was nice and crispy and the inside nice and chewy.

You can bet we will be making more this weekend.  Speaking of the weekend go and enjoy yours!


Thursday, February 6, 2014

Let's Dye Some Yarn

Years ago I did a lot of yarn and fiber dying. I did so much I ended up selling a lot of what I did. I had some requests recently so I got my old stuff out and just played around over the weekend. 
It was all technical and stuff. Exact measurements and all that formula sorta thing. 

Yeah right!  I dug out some Easter Egg dye from last year and mixed them up. I started with a bit of green and purple. Then put it on the stove. 
The stove wasn't really necessary because the yarn soaked up the dye immediately. I soaked the yarn in vinegar for about 30 minutes before I dyed it to mordant it. 
The green looked a bit too bright so I over dyed it with some blue. It was great seeing the color change. I added a bit of color here and there and ended up with this.
I left it outside for only a little while before the rain started so I brought it back in to hang by the fire.
I want to knit another Color Affection and refuse to buy any more yarn to knit it. So I'll see what else I dye to go along with it.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Yarn Along

It's yet another Wednesday and that makes it a day for talking about some knitting.  And occasionally a bit of reading.  So what's on the needles?
It's Ingot.  What a fun little pattern.  I wanted to cast on something new for the Superbowl but it couldn't be anything substantial since my Knitting Olympic project would be taking up most of my time later this week.  I bought the yarn around Christmas when I was knitting all the pleated ballet flats because I just love Mad Tosh.
Look at the blues and greens!  I am hoping to get this done before Friday so I can actually wear it.
I'm reading A Dyers Garden by Rita Buchanan to help me make some plans for my little project.

What's new in your fiber world?  Do share over at Ginny's.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

10 On Tuesday

This is a fun one!  10 "I AM" statements....

1.  I am in love with dying yarn again.  There will be lots more on this later on
2.  I am wondering where and when I am planting my natural dye garden.  I have the seeds but I have to figure out where I am putting them while I start them inside.
3. I am watching Gone With The Wind. I have never seen it in its entirety. I watch about an hour a day before I go to bed. 
4. I am getting excited for our vacation. It's our 25th anniversary this year and we are making all the final plans now. 
5. I am loving the project I cast on this weekend. 
6. I am in need of casting on a different project for a birthday present that needs to be done in a couple or weeks. 
7. I am trying a new bread recipe tonight for dinner. I left the dough sitting on the counter to rise. Let's hope the cat didn't find it. 
8. I am behind on watching my podcasts. 
9. I am participating in the blogger swap and I'm excited. I haven't done one of these in years. 
10. I am not complaining about the snow. Thought I was, didn't ya?

Join Carole!

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Weekending

Peace and Creativity surrounded my weekend.

-we celebrated my dads birthday (a couple of times in fact)
-Cedar Leaf is complete and needs a good blocking
-swatching for my Ravellenic project is complete and worked on the first try
-I got out in the warmer weather to take some photos
-I also got wet muddy feet while doing same (reminding me that mud season will be here shortly)
-I broke out the dyepots and did some experimenting
-I got some markers and did some experimenting in meditative art
-my stash has been gone through and put in a pretty new cabinet (old cabinet, new place for it)
-I read a bit (audio book)
-a new project was cast on
-a project never took off (recycling yarn from a sweater which I showed you Friday. The yarn was too weak to reuse)
-not much TV was watched and peace was wonderful
-but of course football was watched

How was your weekend?

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