photo snagged from the fearless leader, Tina
Wrap-up post on Monday!
Aug 052010
Since I forgot my pattern for knit night last night and Sharon let me borrow her ipod touch, we downloaded plants versus zombies.
Then Lisa pulls this out:
pea shooter
She’s going to write up the pattern, and the snow pea is next. Hopefully she’ll do a whole line of patterns! She’s currently contemplating the Wall-nut’s texture.
Jul 202010
Trying to remember these ten on tuesday things!
The topic for 7/20 is 10 Things to Bring on a Camping Trip.
But I don’t do camping. I hate being outside, I hate bugs, I hate sleeping in a tent.
So how about 10 things I’d rather be doing instead of Camping?
- Sleeping at home in my own bed with my kitty.
- Knitting in my house.
- Spinning in my house.
- Cooking in my house.
- Using the facilities in my house.
- Being in my house.
- Having a few panes of glass between me and icky bugs.
- Washing my hands with soap and water at an actual sink.
- Baking cupcakes.
- Anything other than camping.
The latest shipment for the Pigeonroof studios fiber club arrived yesterday so here’s a pic of the lovely superwash merino roving from Krista in the Squall:
And I’ll leave you with a shot of the thunderhead that was building when I left the gym last night:
Jul 182010
Yes yes yes. I finished the shawl test knit. I have successfully not killed my tomato plant. I spun more floof for the tour de fleece. Now for the details!
The shawl is designed by Heather, a.k.a. digitalnabi on ravelry and plurk, and I just love it. I used wollmeise in the Granatapfel colorway (translates to pomegranate). Here are some blocking shots:
lace detail:
Which I believe I blocked wrong so that will have to be re-blocked!
And of course my blocking assistant:
Heather says she hopes to have this pattern available in August. I think it may just be the new ishbel! If you are jonesing for a new pattern, I recommend checking out the criminal sock series over at CraftyDetour – Heather is designing a series of sock patterns and I’ve been test knitting for her and they are just amazing.
In other news…
The tomato plant my dad got me has yielded its first tomato:
And let me tell you, it was delicious on my cracked black pepper burger tonight.
The next one should be ready to go in a day or so:
And there are more waiting to ripen:
JC has been sending me photos of the rabbits at the train station – there are more than 5 that live on the to trenton side of the tracks so on our way to see Inception last night we stopped by so I could see them. Only two were out and they will let you get rather close to them and they do not flinch at all when the high speed amtrak trains fly by a few feet away:
Just look at that little cotton fluff!
Speaking of animals, we have had an issue with birds trying to build a nest above our front door and our crazy neighbor upstairs having animal control on speed dial. But that’s neither here nor there, so here’s a photo of baby birds!
I’ve been keeping busy with dyeing fiber in the evenings. Here’s the latest from the dyepot, all Falkland roving :
Gallery on High colorway-
Kiwi -
Contusion -
And as far as spinning goes, I finished plying up 4.3 oz of superwash merino in the Forest colorway from Pigeonroof Studios today:
But now I best get back to my lime vodka tonic and my other test knitting project!
Jul 162010
Almost a month again. Sheesh. I haven’t been purposely ignoring the blog, honest, just running around like a maniac.
First, I got to meet my new niece, Marisa. She took a nap on my chest while we were visiting for nephew #4′s birthday:
Marisa takes a nap
I finished my cousin’s shawl and my own shawl. Erika’s shower was on 7/10 and she really enjoyed herself. I got to spend most of the day with her which is nice since she lives in Pittsburgh and we don’t see each other very often.
Pattern: Haruni (ravelry link – it’s a free pdf download!)
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% superwash merino in Frühling
Cast on: 6/20/2010
Cast off: 7/2/2010
haruni in eye searing acid green wollmeise
and my lovely blocking assistant:
my ever helpful blocking assistant
I’ve also been busy doing some test knitting for Heather (over at Crafty Detour and for her personal designs, at digitalnabi) which has involved another sock pattern and a shawlette pattern. I’m now completely addicted to lace, thanks to Haruni and the new shawlette which I believe is being called Strawberry.
And since it’s July and the tour de france is going on, we spinners have the tour de fleece at the same time! Here’s what I’ve managed to spin up since the start:
135 yards, navajo plied superwash merino in the Cheshire cat colorway
230 yards of 2 ply superwash merino from Pigeonroof Studios in the exit song colorway – this was a club shipment from Krista’s regular fiber club.
And finally,
225 yards of 2 ply Falkland that I dyed, the colorway name is Professor Von Buren (JC came up with it, don’t ask).
I’m trying to get better with measuring the yardage I’ve been ending up with. So far so good. On the wheel currently is more superwash merino from PigeonRoof, I’m trying to spin down my stash!
I’m almost done the singles and hope to finish this up by the end of this weekend if I don’t completely get sucked into my test knitting which has been the case lately.
More tomorrow!
Jun 202010
Really, how does a whole month go by? Wow. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
1. Knitting my cousin’s wedding shawl, which came off of the needles yesterday
Erika's shawl - purity from Roman 43
Lace detail
I dropped 3 stitches on the final row of the edging and had to figure out how to pick them back up and somehow managed it. If I wasn’t a Knitter with a capital K before this, I most certainly am now.
2. Knitting a baby sweater for my niece, Marisa who joined us on June 5th.
handspun boheme for Marisa
The pattern is Boheme (ravelry link) and it was a quick knit, done in 3 days. I love knitting with handspun, I love the accidental striping that happens. I see more of these in my future, they are a great way to use up smaller hanks of handspun!
3. I’ve been dyeing fiber like it is going out of style. Sharon and I are trying to get an etsy shop up and running and I’ll post as soon as we get everything in order 
But here’s a teaser of some of the Falkland roving I dyed:
falkland sampler
I think I may just be addicted.
bagged up and ready to go
4. Finished two pairs of socks:
Zen toe-ups which took me over a year to finish because I hate the yarn (trekking xxl – a sin I know!).
zen toe-ups
and a pair of toe up monkey socks using yarn from my friend Debbie:
toe up popcicle monkeys
5. Some spinning has occurred but not much since I was focusing on Erika’s shawl.
Pigeonroof studios SW merino in Emperor
6. And a ton of test knitting for the girls over at Crafty Detour. The next sock in the series looks awesome and I can’t wait until they launch their CSI series
Skinny Bugga! in Beyer's Jewel Scarab
I’ll be knitting this pattern using skinny bugga! for the first time. I can’t wait to see how it knits up and how the sock turns out. So far all of Heather’s patters have been lovely!
Hopefully I’ll be back in a few days with more to blog about!
May 252010
I’d say probably about 5 or 6 nights a week I cook dinner. We have weekly staples, like tacos, but I’ve been trying to find new recipes to try so that we can round out the food schedule a little more.
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with oven baked breaded chicken. I found this recipe out of the Cook’s Illustrated Best Light Recipe cookbook. I highly recommend ANY of the Cook’s Illustrated cookbooks, I have several! But here’s how the chicken comes out:
crispy breaded oven baked chicken
I’ve been making this once a week lately. It’s delicious and I even prefer it to my mom’s chicken cutlets (shh don’t tell her). I love the panko crust. mmm. Infact, we’re having it on Thursday!
Last week I made a batch of the black bean soup that I’ve posted about before on my blog. Another cookbook I can definitely recommend is Food to Live By from the Earthbound Organic Farm. But here’s a few photos of the black bean soup:
sauteing vegetables for soup
I love this soup with some fresh goat cheese and some tortilla chips:
black bean soup with goat cheese
oh yes, goat cheese.
mmm goat cheese
I have to make a batch of gnocchi soon so I’ll probably put up a post about that whole process. And now that I’ve written this? I’m starving.
May 242010
Oops. Sorry for the radio silence. How about some nice spinning FOs?
First up the BFL that I purchased at Llama Llama Knit during my trip to SF. This is the Lucky Break colorway from PigeonRoofStudios:
Lucky Break BFL from pigeonroof studios
Next up is the singles and the finished yarn from some of the fiber I posted about last week gah two weeks ago:
fruity oat bar corriedale singles from christina marie potter
I waffled a bit on what to do with these singles and ended up doing a nice navajo-ply:
fruity oat bar navajo-plyed finished yarn
I love it. So soft and squishy.
Also coming off the ladybug recently:
Octopus's Garden Superwash Merino from The Woolen Rabbit
and I’m trying to work through the Pigeonroof studios fiber club shipments:
Pigeonroof Studios Falkland in "Dapple"
The above is my first attempt at a single yarn. I like it but have no idea what I’ll knit with it, or the yardage. I really need to start measuring the yardage as I’m getting these ready for a soak and thwack.
Currently on the wheel is some lovely superwash merino again from Pigeonroof studios (I may have a bit of a problem) in the Emperor colorway:
Pigeonroof Studios SW Merino in Emperor
I finished the singles up last night and will probably ply it later on this week. The singles were coming in around 34 WPI so I’m curious as to what weight it will end up being.
Anyhoo, more tomorrow, I think about food instead of the yarn and fiber stuff. I’ll leave yinz with a kitty belleh photo:
mmm belleh
May 132010
And yes, this re-mix from Flo-Rida gets stuck in my head thanks to my Thursday night Zumba class.
Let’s do a spinning recap! First up, the last braid of fiber that I got at MDS&W that went home with Sharon accidentally,
"Pure Luxury" from Frabjous Fibers
Cashmere, Silk and Merino. MMMM. Can’t remember the colorway, but yes, it’s another blue/purple/green mix which was apparently the theme for the day.
Next up, some etsy shopping. These two braids are from Christina Marie Potter (and they were purchased because JessaLu posted her new stash and yeah well, I’m weak):
100% Superwash Merino in Cheshire Cat
Firefly Inspired Fruity Oaty Bar Corriedale
And What I’ve been spinning:
1. Some merino/bamboo from Fiber Optic that I purchased at Rhinebeck 2009
merino/bamboo singles
that I navajo plied:
Navajo Plied merino/bamboo
2. Some batts from Pigeon Roof Studios in the Victorian colorway. These were a blend of Merino, Shetland, Silk, and firestar:
Victorian
And some yarn stash enhancement:
Wollmeise 100% superwash in Frühling
I actually obtained a skein of Frosch but traded with Sharon for this Frühling because it’s more like what I wanted for Haruni. I really need to get moving on my cousin’s shawl so I can start mine!
And knitting wise, I’ve been doing some investigating for the girls over at Crafty Detour and here’s some progress:
picot edge
but that’s all I can share of my investigation so far.
This weekend we are staying put so I hope to get some MAJOR progress on my cousin’s shawl accomplished. I gave my self the goal of May 22 to be at the beginning of the first ruffle (there are two!) so I need to get a move on!
And a Mom-Mom update. The surgery went well, they still believe they got rid of the cancer. She met with her oncologist (the same that my MIL had) and discussed treatment options. They removed 7 lymph nodes (this is an updated version from Dr. Swab) and two of those were clear. Mom-Mom will start a pill form of radiation and will not be undergoing chemotherapy because hell she’s 82! So your good thoughts, prayers, ju-jus, vibes, etc are all still appreciated She was doing well on Saturday when we went to visit her (3 days post mastectomy) and we hope that she continues to be as feisty as ever.
May 072010
So this past Wednesday (May 5, 2010) was the Marvel Employee Friends and Family premiere of Iron Man 2. When these premieres happen, I have to leave work early to head up to NYC to meet up with the boy! Hooray!
This time wasn’t as much fun. The night before, the lock to our front door started malfunctioning. We have a touch pad smart lock which is wonderful because we never need a key to the front door. This is also a major pain in the ass because we DON’T HAVE a key to the front door. The lock decided to start beeping constantly, much like a smoke detector does when it goes off, because something was wrong. I almost missed the movie premiere waiting for our landlord to come over and help us fix the lock or replace it. He managed to get it to quiet down so that I was able to get to the premiere! Yay.
iron man 2 screening ticket
I love going to the Ziegfeld Theater for these premieres. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the movie. It is not as bombastic as the first one but it does set the stage for the Avengers movie that is due out in 2012. It also sets the stage for the Thor movie coming out next year. Cannot wait. RDJ was awesome as usual and Gwyneth just does an amazing job as Pepper Potts.
So we get home from the premiere around 2 a.m. on Thursday. Lock has started beeping again. I am furious. We remove the batteries and go to bed. I take the boy to the train the next morning and we just shut the front door and can’t lock it. Great. Makes me feel super secure. I finally get the bright idea to clean off the connector springs, an example of which is below thanks to my TI-89 graphing calculator:
connector springs?
I cleaned the springs off with some rubbing alcohol and amazingly, that fixed the problem. So we can come and go as we please and have our apartment secured! Yay!
I’ve finished some spinning (had to make some room after recent fiber stash expansion) and hope to get some more plying done this weekend. I’m also gearing up for another Yarnissima test knit and am working with Heather on some sock test knitting. So hopefully on Monday, I’ll have some spinning FOs to talk about! Have a great weekend!
