thank you all

we were supposed to go to some dear friends house for thanksgiving supper with 40+ of their closest friends and a tour of their vineyard. but last night i discovered nothing i ate stayed with me and i couldn't seem to get warm. and though this morning i was up and ready to go, i really didn't feel much better, so my sweet friend and i slept the afternoon away.

coming from a family of non-meat eaters, we had pasta with homemade marinara sauce and steamed cauliflower for supper along with peppermint ice cream and low fat pumpkin custard for desert. my cute husband and i then watched casino royale, with the guitar strumming son and room cleaning daughter wandering in and out.

it was a wonderful day. though the boys were a bit bored, we all cracked jokes, watched tv, took care of each other, ribbed and teased each other and generally had fun.

it is a lot to be thankful for and i am very grateful. so thank you for stopping by to visit. may you be well.

so close

i have been working on the flying v scarf out of exquisite little knits since last christmas season. it was a last minute knit for the department christmas gathering. and i have to admit, for the most part it has been at the bottom of the knitting pile. but i recently dug it out and have been taking it with me everywhere so i could knit it whenever i got the chance with the hope of finishing it before this christmas season.

i was so close to finishing it that i started to get worried. worried? yes, because the more i knit, the wider the scarf got. i thought my tension had changed; i thought i had loosened it dramatically. until i had the thought of counting my stitches. the last 15 rows of the scarf pattern depend on having a certain number of stitches. so i counted the stitches. and found instead of the 32 stitches i was supposed to have i had 46 stitches. this is why the scarf was wider. my tension was fine.

so i frogged...and frogged...and frogged until i reached the needed 32 stitches which resulted in the scarf looking like this:

it seems i forgot to do the middle SKP stitch on a regular basis. which meant i had an extra stitch on a regular basis. which, in turn made the scarf wider on a regular basis.

so i will start from here and knit it all again, in hopes that i can finish it sometime soon and be comforted by the fact that at least there will be fewer stitches to knit!

a nearly perfect weekend

so i have been alone this weekend. the big guy is at school and my cute husband and sweet friend are at a ymca conference for three days. i had the whole weekend to myself.

and i nearly did all the things i wanted to. i got some material to make more knitting project bags; i picked out new lip colors; i bought a waffle iron; i stopped by the LYS for the first time in weeks; i made myself turkey meatloaf; i knitted; i slept in; i made buckwheat waffles; i cleaned the house a bit and did a bit of laundry; i took a long walk; took pictures of my stash for ravelry and baked bread. and believe it or not, the list of things i did not get to is longer than those i did. but that's ok. i did whatever i wanted to and did not feel pressure to do more.

and i got to bake one of my favorite breads, pioneer bread. it was a baking staple when i was single. the recipe calls for cornmeal but i would substitute millet. since there wasn't millet flour, i would buy millet in bulk and grind it up in a spare coffee grinder in order to bake with it. maybe it was the name, maybe it was the fact i had to grind up the millet to make the flour, but the bread always reminded me of something ma ingalls would do. so i always appreciated baking day.

but this time i got to use the new bread pan. which is cool, but may be to small! who knew my bread loaves were hefty size?! so the bottom of the loaf did not brown like the rest of the bread(s). the recipe also has eggs in it which makes the bread very soft. the first few slices were quite wiggly. it may have been because it was hot out of the oven! but it is very good. and it made a mean turkey meatloaf sandwich!

i had to do it...

my first knitting book was cheryl oberle's, folk shawls. this book offered 25 shawl patterns gathered from around the world. shawls being of various difficulty knit from an array of yarns. the one that caught my eye for a first knitting project was the garter stitch prairie shawl. it was simple, something i would use and ma ingalls would think it practical. the pattern was as the name implies, garter stitch with a yarn over border. at the time, the most challenging stitch for me was the KFB.

but it was the book and the project that started me knitting. i would look through all the beautiful shawls, struggling with deciphering the various stitch patterns, keeping a list of which shawls to knit some day. though i still want to knit half of the book, my ideal was the bird’s nest shawl from the himalayas. this is a 80”x20” shawl with a relatively (now) easy lace pattern. the pattern calls for the shawl to be knit out of pure cashmere…yarn held double while knitted. lust as i may, buying 2,267 yards of pure cashmere is not in my budget.

a few weeks ago i received an email from knit picks announcing a yarn sale. and though i had secretly vowed not to buy any more yarn until the beginning of the year, i thought i would just look. but there it was...as i was perusing the alpaca cloud, one of the suggested patterns for this yarn was the bird's nest shawl. i audibly gasped. for a fraction of the price, yarn for a bird's nest shawl could be mine. and, because of the secret vow, i thought about it for a couple of days before actually purchasing it.

the yarn came a couple of days ago. i chose the moss heather color. and it is really lovely. both my cute husband and sweet friend said, oh, yarn came for you today...as if you need more. but i don't care what they think. i can knit a bird's nest shawl.

the holes change shapes

today is dia de los muertos, or day of the dead. 14 years ago, while vacationing with my sister, my cute husband called to tell us our father had died. the bottom fell out. pop and my sister were very close so for her not to be with him when he died was awful for her. but we got through it. my boss back then, who had lost quite a few family members in a short period of time, told me that sometimes the black holes would be very small and i could maneuver around them and sometimes the black holes would swallow me up. and i feel that way to this day.

and so on this dia de los muertos, i light a candle for my pop in hope that he sees its light and knows that i miss him.

yay! another one!

i have been concentrating on knitting the pashmina cowl from last minute knitted gifts for the last few weeks. it is a rather simple knit, garter stitch in the round for 12.5 inches. it has been traveling with me everywhere i go in a little pouch so i can knit a few rows whenever i get the chance.

i kept thinking i had a way to go but, while at work the other day, i pulled it out to do a quick ruler measure just to see how long it was. lo and behold it measured 12+ inches. when at home that night i remeasured it. it was 13 inches long, a half inch longer than it was supposed to be, which was fine by me since i had no plans to unknit it. so i finished it up and voila! ce fini!

of course, i did not make it out of pashmina, i used ry cashsoft dk in the donkey colorway, #517, and it is really soft. this yarn is 10% cashmere along with merino wool and some microfibre. i started it on the plane to nyc in april and it is so soft it melted into a tangled mess in it's pouch. i spent close to a half hour trying to untangle it. our hotel room looked like a spider web gone awry. i ended up having to cut the yarn and roll it into smaller balls. i think it took about a ball and a half to make the cowl.

but it is finished just in time. the mornings are getting cooler and i love having something warm around my neck. the cowl can be worn at its full 12.5 length or folded in half. though i like to wear it unfolded, i discovered it folds into odd shapes when worn like that. if i fold it in half, it holds its shape better. probably because the yarn is so soft it needs some heft. and did i tell you it is warm, soft and snuggly?

if i were to make this again, i would make it about an inch shorter than it calls for. and though i would like it to be smidge tighter around the neck, if it were, it would not fit over the head. but i like it. and so does my neck.

it was a dark and spooky night...

and it is. the wind is blowing; the fog is creeping in; there is a hint of mist in the air; but it is not stopping anyone from getting dressed in their current fantasy and walking the streets! it is always fun to see. my sweet friend was delighted she was able to wear a pink tu-tu and angel wings to school today. and that's what it is all about!

hope you are having fun! happy halloween.

when birnam wood comes to dunsinane

my sweet friend has been performing in her high school musical the past two weekends. they are performing into the woods, a wonderful but very subtle and smart musical. as refreshment co-chair and makeup help, i have also been to all of the performances as well as the dress rehearsals and there are still things about the play that surprise me. that sondheim is layered!

but i digress. as refreshment co-chair, my main concern is, "are there enough treats to sell?" to that end, i knew we were a little light on treats tonight so offered these: the cupcake version of into the woods. though the design made perfect sense to me, i found myself explaining the squiggly line was the outline of a tree with green sprinkles for the leaves and multi-colored flakes for the trunk. sigh. though the cupcakes may not have been understood, at least they sold out!

in honor of orange

finally some FO's. i was beginning to think i was in a circle of hell where there was only endless knitting, no finished projects.

the dish cloth is in honor of halloween. out of sugar 'n cream orange on size 7 crystal palace needles. there is a jack o' lantern image that is difficult to see in this picture. coupled with the fact that it is not as cute as i expected. but it will still be a fine dish cloth.

the scarf is a christmas present for a friend who loves orange. this is the misti alpaca chunky, ribs and ruffles scarf in the copper melange colorway. the pattern is free on their site and is a one hank project. i used size 15 needles instead of the 17 called for. the pattern seemed more defined with the 15's. and can i tell you how much i love this yarn. it is so soft and cuddly. delightful to work with. though it may not show, the colorway is a bit heathered so there are various tones to it. and, if one were to devote some serious knitting time, this scarf could be made over a weekend, if not a day. my original thought was to make this up for a couple of friends as christmas presents. then i thought i should really knit from my stash; but now that the scarf is done, i am once again drawn towards using this yarn. time will tell.

on the bread baking front, last sunday's bread was once again courtesy of the tassajara bread book, but i added one of my favorite flours, buckwheat. only a cup of it and the white whole wheat, for fear my sweet friend wouldn't eat it (and she won't) but i love it. didn't have poppy seeds for the top (thought i did), maybe next time.

plus i just received the new bread pan and package of yeast i ordered from king arthur flour. the pan is chicago metallic and supposed to be professional weight like real bakers use. so i will see how it does this sunday and keep you posted.

trick or treat

both the big guy and my sweet friend were/are involved in their high school music program. the big guy was friends/acquaintances with most of these folks for five or six years, some all of his school life; they went to australia, new orleans and new york together as well as rehearsing for seven musicals together (the big guy opted out of the eighth). the kids all know one another, the parents all know one another and the kids and parents all know one anther's kids and parents.

so this evening, one of the moms had us over to make halloween treat boxes to send to our college kids. there were about 18 moms representing 25+ former music kids now in college. each mom was to bring enough of something to put in each kids box, along with a card for their college kid that everyone would sign. i knew it was going to be fun, because this group is fun, but i didn't realize how sweet it would be.

the dining room table was overflowing with treats to stuff into boxes while the living room coffee and end tables were full of card signing mom's. everyone made sure they signed all the cards, even the really former students we may not have known. everyone made sure they caught up with one another and shared stories of how our kids were doing their first few months of college. everyone made sure we checked in with each other to see how we were doing without our kid! it was a truly delightful evening.

i have always believed it takes a village to raise a child, and i am so very grateful for this one.

i got it today!

i would like to take a walk and i have to make three more headdresses for the spirits in my sweet friends musical that opens this weekend, but i just got my invite to ravelry and i am having such a hard time staying away! i need some tea!

i need another bread pan...

little did i know that tuesday was world bread day. the sole pupose being to bake some bread. so i offer my simple little post:

sunday bread came from one of my all time favorite bread books, the tassajara bread book. though these loaves were courtesy of the revised and updated version, the original tassajara bread book introduced me to the vast world of bread baking beyond betty crocker. it introduced me to my first sponge and sourdough; it helped me continue my experimentation with various grain(s); and it taught me how to braid six strands of bread dough. i am forever grateful to this simple bread book.


and my sweet friend is grateful i am making white bread. though the majority of the bread is white flour, i have always put a couple of cups of king arthur's white whole wheat into my bread, just to give it a bit of heft and to make myself feel the kids were getting a bit of whole wheat without all the "but i hate whole wheat bread" discussions. i do risk a "MOM!" by putting sesame seeds on top though.


and lest you think this is turning into a food blog, i have been knitting. but i seem to have so many WIP's nothing is getting finished. coupled with the fact that since doing the vvs swap, the number of blogs i read has expanded! i spent this afternoon doing a bit of reading until i came across the breast cancer awareness month dishcloth pattern by vyvyan from knitting in a happy camper. it made me run to my sugar 'n cream stash to make sure i had enough yarn to knit this "reminder" for as many of my women friends as i could. it is a bit quirky and i truly don't mean to offend, but click on over to see if you would like to "remind" someone you know to stay healthy. take care.

pure simplicity...

many, many years ago, when i still lived with my parents, i baked...a lot. every sunday i would bake a pie. the house favorite was lemon meringue since my father and uncle henry, who lived next door, loved lemon meringue pie.

i also baked bread. which was difficult since this was the era when baking bread was considered buying those pre-packaged bread loaves in the freezer section and the only cookbooks available were those all encompassing cookbooks like settlement or better homes and gardens, etc. until, one christmas, a dear friend gave this book to me. it changed my life. there were actual bread recipes in it, multi grained ones! i was very thankful and excited.

though i was into rye and pumpernickel and oats, the fam could only tolerate white or whole wheat. so, as you can see, the honey whole wheat bread got made A LOT. it was simple, it was good and it made two loaves at a time.

i took the book to college with me and proceeded to make weekly bread for my various roommates. it survived my introduction to the tassajara bread book (first edition, where all the recipes made four loaves of bread at a time; way to much to eat in a week). but it had a difficult time surviving my seduction by sourdough, biga or sponge based breads. and when the kids came along, the big guy was only willing to eat sourdough type breads, so that is what i baked.

but today, while wandering thorough the local hardware store, i came across these.

which reminded me of how a friend of mine used something similar to sprinkle flour onto her work surface while making pizza dough, which got me thinking about making bread; which got me thinking about how i couldn't make bread because i would only get half way through a sourdough, biga or sponge recipe today.

until i remembered the honey whole wheat recipe. my sweet friend eats whole wheat bread with her turkey sandwiches (though she wasn't fond of the sesame seeds). my cute husband will eat any home made bread, and i need something for lunch. plus i got to use the new "salt" shaker that is filled with flour to sprinkle my work surface with. quite the lovely evening.

recognizing right from wrong

i have been knitting the leg of my cute husband's sock for quite some time now. so i was pretty excited when i took the measurement that told me it was time for the heel turn.

off i knit, feeling comfortable with the measurement and having no problems with the pattern, when, eleven rows into it, i realized, the purl side of the heel turn was on the knit side of the sock! and vice versa. isn't it supposed to be knit side of the heel turn on knit side of the sock...and vice versa? yes, i believe so. so what the heck happened? am i sure about this? let me look at this again. check it again!

and so i did. and i was pretty sure my assumption was correct, but not exactly sure where i went wrong.

so i started to unknit. and unknit. and unknit. i won't even discuss the transition on my cp circular needles and how i am feeling about them right now. let's suffice it to say these may be the only socks these needles will ever knit!

after much yarn tussling, i got back to where the heel turn started and read the instructions again...co 88 stitches - ok; work in k2p2 rib - did that; knit leg to length desired - did that; starting with ws row, TURN work before first row - did that...didn't i? i mean, i uhhh, used a different needle. but...let's re look at the... ummmm, ..... OH! that's what the directions meant! no! no, in fact i didn't, i didn't turn the work. oh nuts! ok, so let me turn the work and give it another try.

and off i knit, take two. and this time it all works. the knit side of the heel turn is on the knit side of the sock...and vice versa. and it looks soooo much nicer. and my camera isn't embarrassed to take the picture. and i am thankful i caught this mistake on row 11 and not row 44!

by the skin of my chinny chin chin

so the good ladies over at the bag lady and the pro are having a dishcloth contest. being a recently converted dishcloth knitter i thought i would give it a whirl so here goes...

1. the dishcloth:

2. i used bryspun straight needles, size 8, knitting english style.

6. though it was hard for me to see the pattern with the colorway i chose, and it did not seem to match the cloth posted, when finished it was fine. and not only did i like it but my sweet friend thought it was really nice too.

it reminds me of stacked blocks that mirror each other so my naming suggestion is the mirrored blocks cloth.

thanks, ladies. this was fun!

yes, it is geeky

so we took big guy to college today. some dear friends lent us their humongous suv which fit all of his belongings being taken plus the family of four. though i am not an suv lover, i appreciated being able to fit everything into their one car instead of us having to drive our two cars.

the big guy's room isn't bad. and his roommate seems like a really nice guy. the boys were able to configure all of their room furniture and their belongings into an acceptable to them floor plan. the roommate brought a refrigerator and the big guy brought a rice cooker and gobs of rice, each being excited about what the other brought. plus they like the same bands and music. so hopefully it will all work. i mean, how can you miss when school is nestled on the side of a mountain among redwoods trees, yet overlooks the ocean? not a bad setting. and things seem off to a positive start.

but it is already quieter around the house. i don't think it will really sink in until mid-week when i realize we are not being two ships passing in the night, but he truly doesn't live here anymore. it's a challenge to let go. but a joy to see him take wing. all a mother can do is offer some pac man cloths. and i am such a geek, they are in the school colors.

it's been a bit

if someone had told me 24 years ago that i would be married to a wonderful man, have two amazing children, two cars, a mortgage and a big, smelly dog i would have laughed, gob smacked by the thought of being in such a relationship.

but here i sit, a lot older, wiser and thicker around the middle, but amazed at the adventure the last 24 years have given me.

and though it caught me by surprise, i wouldn't trade any of it for the world!

so i went a bit overboard

this is what i have collected since the beginning of the month.

both joann's fabrics and michael's crafts had sales on sugar and cream and i just couldn't help myself. some of these were $1 a ball. how could i pass that up?! the "twist" pattern balls are for christmas gifts. i am trying to arc a connection between a washcloth/bath basket and a 1 skein chunky misti alpaca scarf. but haven't quite gotten them connected yet.

the darker solids were for a christmas gift for the big guy. about a year ago knitty.com had this great set of back to school washcloths that had 6 cloths/days of study and 1 cloth/day of party. i thought this would be a great thing for the big guy since he is off to college in 8 days (yes, part of me is in denial and part of me is sobbing). but that was before tea and cakes posted the pac man washcloth. how cool is that?! so i have some decisions to make. but by the size of this loot, i could make them all...for everybody!

i just got back!

from toronto! boy was it nice!

came home friday evening to find i had received my vvs package from secret swap buddy, andrea! what a treat. the first thing i spied was the box of maple leaf maple sugar candies which are my absolute favorite. and which i can only find during the holidays! then there is the sweet little canadian moose and toronto postcards. and then two absolutely beautiful hanks of canadian yarn!

one is a hank of fleece artist, basic merino sock yarn in this beautiful bluepurplebrown and everything in between colorway; really nice. this is the first sock yarn for me and i am very excited. plus it came from nova scotia!

the second is a lace weight, hand dyed hank of hand maiden sea silk yarn. this is a 70% silk and 30% seacell which is from sea weed (my sweet friend refused to touch it after that; lucky for me!). and it is this amazing colorway! i can't wait to use it! i am already hunting for shawl, shawlette patterns.

the pictures really don't do these two beautiful hanks of yarn justice.

thanks for a great trip to toronto, andrea! hope to see you soon!

i bit...

i am #30,332 with 18,844 ahead of me. i guess time will tell.