Back to Knitting Posts

Sorry to interrupt the flow of yarn-ish blogging yesterday but some things just really needed to be posted. Do not adjust your set. We now return to our regularly scheduled knit-blogging.




After supper last night I cast on Bib #3; today the I-cord ties will appear, not exactly magically, but it seems like a bit of a magic trick to make them.





I'm working to translate the Meathead Hat pattern from knitted flat to knit in the round. (I do love my DPNs!) So naturally I made the supreme sacrifice and bought some of this yarn in 2 shades of Bulky red to make myself a hat. It's purely experimental. I'm sure you understand.





One of the brooches I bought for $.99 at Goodwill yesterday found a home immediately. Remember the BIG Amazon Hat that I embellished with the giant floppy pompon? Well, I thought it still needed something. Turned out what it needed was a blue rhinestone brooch. Now it's done.


Durwood commented as he posed for me, "See? I am good for something when I'm home all the time." Yes, dear.


P.S. I forgot! I've done a bit more stealth knitting. See?

Happy Birthday to Mom & Me!

Since our birthdays are only a day apart we take each other to lunch to celebrate. This year I got to pick the restaurant so we went to HuHot. Mom was nervous about the food being too spicy but calmed right down when I told her Durwood had happily eaten there. We each filled our bowls and loved it. As you can see by the picture, she put on her rose-colored glasses and made the best of it.







After the meal Mom decided she wanted an 80th birthday dessert so she chose a small order of the Cheesecake Rangoons. Trust me, this IS the small order.






The waitress said that for your birthday you could get a free Molten Muffin so I said I'd have that since my birthday is on Monday. She looked a little doubtful but Mom assured her that was right and so my dessert was free.


After lunch we took a turn around the local Goodwill and scored some quality bargains. Happy Birthday to us!

Omnivore Meme

This is a list of 100 foods that every omnivore should eat sometime in their life. The idea is to bold the ones you've eaten.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding--I grew up eating blutwurst at my grandma's, that counts, right?
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp--I've played with them while diving in the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal but I've never eaten them as far as I know
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari--love it!
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese--ick
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O--eh
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat--on our honeymoon in Jamaica. YUM.
42. Whole insects--it wasn't intentional. I think that, even though that misses the point of the exercise, it should still count. (Yeah, what Ann said. We should get credit for swallowing a bug.)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu--I'll pass on the poison, thanks
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel--disgusting
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut--overrated. It's a doughnut.
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle--I even have a spaetzle maker! Me too!
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie--lemon is the best!
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky--Men's Pocky is the best!
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake--Texas Rattlesnake Chili made in my own kitchen

Not bad, 58 out of 100!

I Been Workin' On My Knitting...

...all the live long day... Okay, enough singing. I am consumed with stealth knitting ideas and can't keep my hands off of them. Here's some hints.

I finished Bib #1 and made Bib #2 too. Naturally, I'm determined to make Bibs #3 & 4 before Sept. 6th.

I need to quit my job, put a chiropractor or massage therapist on retainer, and just play with yarn and words. Anybody out there who's rich and wants to adopt a middle-aged woman with too many hobbies? Please comment and I'll get back to you!

Look! The Squirrels Planted Corn!

We've been feeding the squirrels field corn for about a year, trying to keep them out of the birdfeeders. This spring we noticed that they'd been doing a bit of gardening. The corn that sprouts in the lawn gets mowed but we kept the corn they planted in the garden. Look! We've got two ears on one stalk, tasselled out and everything! (Click to embiggen)



I'm standing right behind the cornstalk with the ears on it. I also thought you might enjoy seeing the proud Durwood, or as I like to call him this time of year, Tomato Boy. His diet consists almost entirely of homegrown tomatoes, salt, and Sunny Hill Farms sweet corn these days. And butter for the corn, of course.

Not Diving--Rats!

I planned to go diving today with our friends Kevin & Deb but she's got the flu so I have to stay home. Maybe I'll go to Artstreet to eat fried food and look at the art. Here's what I've been doing this week. Pictures taken with the new digital camera.

I finished the turquoise Market Bag. It's turquois-er in real life.






Durwood helped me ball up the BIG Grand Canyon and I was compelled to knit another pointy hat. As I worked on it I thought of my DIL's mom (no idea why) who takes "sparkle" lessons at Whistler so she looks prettier on the slopes. I've always loved that idea. If I skied I'd take sparkle lessons too, so this one's named for you, Holly. (I went to Goodwill to find the sparkly pin.) I give you...The Sparkle Hat!








I've been working on another stealth project. Here's a little piece of it.






And finally, I've been wracking my brain for something quick and easy I can knit to put in the traveling Mickey box for my writer friend who will be the proud grandmother of twin boys in mid-winter. Since there are only 2 weeks until we meet at The Clearing it needs to be really quick. Last night I had a brainstorm--mitered bibs. And I have the big ball of skein ends from my failed attempt to corner the crocheted dishcloth market last fall. Here's the first one (needing it's second tie). One I-cord coming up--right after lunch. I can probably have 4 finished in two weeks!

No Wonder My Arms & Hands Are Achy

I guess I've been busier than I thought with all this. Look at the FOs I have this week!







First, there's the embellishment of the Amazon Hat. I had another idea that didn't pan out, so a big lime pompon-ish thing with a bit of eyelash thrown in seemed just right.













Then Durwood and I balled up the lime BIG yarn. I had to make it into a hat and it just begged for a tassle made with the few yards of the Amazon I had left.






I wanted to felt Mom's Grocery Purse right away so that if it looked like something the dog yakked up I had time to make something else before her birthday on the 30th. It turned out okay and it doesn't even smell bad. Now I just have to decide if I want to line it or not.











And last Friday when I moved all my yarn into the basement I decided to cast on a pair of fingerless mitts to take to The Clearing to give to Laurel so those got done this week. BTW, they're made with Red Heart Soft Yarn instead of the Wool-Ease I'd originally blogged. I did that so they'd be machine washable & dryable for ease of care. So considerate (also that Red Heart was the first skein of black worsted weight I grabbed).


(Sorry about the quality of these photos. Our digital camera committed suicide last weekend and I'm reduced to using the 2mp one at the dive shop. I hope to do some camera shopping tomorrow.)

Revisiting an Old Addiction

No, no, not that! Fingerless mitts, that's what I'm talking about.

I moved all my yarn stuff downstairs on Friday when I realized that there was so much in the corner of the bedroom I couldn't open my dresser drawers. Oops. So while Durwood was off doing errands I hauled it down to the basement--and arranged it so it doesn't look like the mountain of yarn it really is. Clever me! But the downside of being all neat and organized is that I got a look at things that had, shall we say, fallen through the cracks. Desires were rekindled and queues reordered. Hmm, can you say startisis?

I cast on a pair of Forbidden Love mitts (scroll down) for my friend Laurel (I halved the number of rows between decrease rows [first 4 post-decrease sections] until I got to 33 stitches, then continued as written to make them easier to wear with long sleeves) and dug out some JoAnn's Marvel to crochet into a felted bag for Mom to carry in the grocery when she only wants to take her wallet--so she doesn't leave it in the boodle basket like she did last week and have to cancel all her credit cards and have a hissy fit with which I totally sympathize. I thought about using some other JoAnn's yarn (Fanatic, maybe? It's discontinued I'm sure because it's nowhere on the JoAnn's site) but the slubs, nobules, whatever kept getting caught and wouldn't go through the loop on the hook. I used an N hook and I was crocheting so tight it looked prefelted, so I ripped it out, twice, and finally crocheted it with a Q hook to get what I was looking for. For the mitts I used black Wool-Ease worsted and Lion Brand Fun Fur in Indigo which is a bit more periwinkle-like with sections of blue-violet and green-violet held together with the black for the 4 rib rows at the start. I think it looks very elegant with the black.

Crazy Hat and Pretty Color

You know, I don't think I'm part of the mainstream of knitting. Sometimes I think I haven't even dipped my toe in the mainstream. I bought more of that BIG yarn on eBay last week and I can't stop making hats of it. I lurve it! Next, a lime hat.



I've begun stealth knitting for you know that, um, well, that holiday in about 4 months. (I don't really want to say the Christmas word yet when the Halloween decorations are barely starting to crowd out the Back-to-School displays in Wal-mart. It's just too early.) So I'm only putting the color of the item on here. I will tell you that it's Lamb's Pride but that's it. No more hints, but isn't it bee-you-tea-full?

Instead of Felting...

I decided that since I have never had anything but bad luck with felting projects, I'd turn the Enormous Brown Hat into...


The Bat Hat (ta-da!) with the addition of a crocheted bat. It'll be Durwood's Christmas hat. Shhh, don't tell, it's a secret.

Garden Pictures with Knitting on the Side

I have to share my lilies with you. Smell-O-Vision would help because I can't describe how wonderful they smell. Like gardenias only better.





Then there's the watermelons. They started out like this:








Now one looks like this:


Pretty cool, huh? We hope it tastes good.





In knitting news I finished the Lake (lt. blue) Sudoku square and cast on the Snow (white) one. I bought some brown Bartlett Fisherman's Bulky to make another Meathead hat. It's enormous! Even big on the big-headed Durwood, and that's big. Psyche suggested felting it a bit. Maybe that'll be my afternoon project.

BIG!

Remember I bought that Lion Brand BIG (sadly discontinued) yarn last week? Well, I found a hat pattern I thought would be perfect to use it for, so last night I dug out my US 17 needles, the long ones, and made a Meathead Hat from this book. I had to reduce the number of stitches and the rows to accommodate the super-duper bulkiness of the yarn and I'm still figuring out what to use to sew up the back seam (I don't thing there's a needle with an eye big enough), but I like it. The thing that drew me, aside from the big yarn/big needles aspect, is that the author suggests using something special, like a fancy button or a peacock feather, to accent the hat. I like that idea a lot.

I'm also about halfway through the next Hula bag and the Lake Sudoku square. Yay me!

One Bag Down

I just want to say that I really did a number on my lower back last week and spent the weekend either in pain or in a Tylenol w/codeine fog. I don't recommend either. But I went to the chiro this morning, will go again on Wednesday, and probably will again on Friday, so things should look up soon. I'm not a good patient.

We had dinner guests Saturday so my weekend knitting time was consumed with cleaning and cooking. All went well, the turkey on the spit was delicious (yes it was, Durwood) and the tomato/fresh mozz/basil salads were lively and the first sweet corn of the season was to die for. Holly brought her frozen key lime pie for dessert. All I can say is, YUMMMMM. I almost forgot, we made planter's punch cocktails with watermelon, banana, maraschino cherries, OJ, ice and dark rum in the blender. Very popular and refreshing.

I did knit/crochet a bit. I finished the first Hula Market Bag and got more than halfway through another Sudoku square. I gave my SIL the first market bag I made (last year) on Saturday when I saw her at the Farmer's Market and she emailed me later Sat. morning to say someone asked her where she could buy one! That's a nice compliment.

Yarn Slut

Retail America had a 90% off coupon in today's paper. We went. Now my "mad money" pocket is nearly empty.

Last year when I learned (relearned) to knit I knew one of the things I wanted to knit was a hoodie for me. I found a free Lion Brand pattern for a Thick & Quick sweater with a collar and one for a hoodie with no sleeves. (Why would you knit a thick and warm sweater with a hood but no sleeves? Can someone tell me that?) I needed 13-15 skeins of yarn to knit my size and just couldn't justify the cost. But Retail America had a whole big shelf full of Lion Brand Thick & Quick in red and black variegated. I bought 15 skeins of that and 6 skeins of brown/rust/cranberry to make a sweater for Durwood (He deserves it; he's a very patient man.).

We roamed up and down the aisles just in case we had missed a treasure. Well, if we did we rectified the oversight. There was a pile of Great Grape BIG yarn and one skein each of Amazon and Grand Canyon BIG print. I figure that it'll make awesome wacky hats for next winter.

I have no self-control when it comes to yarn, even all-acrylic yarn. I'm so ashamed.

Brainstorm!

Durwood found an ad on the back page of the paper for Retail America and they had yarn for 70% off. 70%!! (Didn't I tell you he's a treasure?) We went and most of what they have is Lion Brand and a lot of "eyelash" but I did find this shelf full of Red Heart Hula which is a sport weight 100% acrylic yarn that's smooth and shiny and a lot like nylon twine. They had 7 different colors (you know I love colors) so I bought some thinking it'd make great crocheted market bags. Well, I must admit that at first I thought it'd make great knitted market bags but the yarn was a real pain to knit, so I dug out the Sugar'n Cream crochet pattern I'd used before and got to work. The first one's looking good. Not going to save the whole planet crocheting market bags but I can tidy up my little corner a bit.