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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

More January Projects

Pattern: Alveare by Wooly Wormhead
Yarn: Madelinetosh worsted, colorway Baltic
Needles: 6 and 7
Comments: This pattern is similar to the Noro hat and is easy and fast to knit. I used worsted weight with the same needles, making the medium and it fits well.

Handspun 2ply, wool and silk. It is quite soft and has a nice sheen. I only had enough to make a short cowl.
Pattern: Fields of Ranunculus.I used a size 10 needle and repeated the lacy rows 6 times.
Handspun, 2 ply, Dyed Cotswold-Romney mix purchased at SAFF. I was going for a bulky-worsted. The fiber was very curly and long and I realize now I could have prepped it some more instead of spinning in the short cuts and neps. No doubt this will be knit into a critter, or maybe a felted bowl. I do love the color and it was a fun experience to spin.
Stash Quilt Table Topper 2
Pattern Idea: Patchwork Heart and Disappearing Nine Patch I got brave enough to try out some free motion quilting in the borders and blocks. I definitely will need more practice.

I am quite inspired by Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project. She makes it look so easy.

Monday, January 16, 2012

More January Projects.

It's been grand having so many Mondays off. There is more time to craft and even cook some. Today chicken was on sale and since the sun forgot to come out, it seemed like some chicken soup was in order.

My attempt at spinning a cabled yarn was not too successful, but I'm trying again with the same 2plies and have knit a sock.



Pattern: Sock It To Me Plain Toe-up Sock, from Elan.com
Needles: Size 1
Mods: I was afraid I would run out of yarn, so I knit anklets. I don't like doing two at once, although I contemplated it. As it turns out I had plenty.
Comments: The heel fit me pretty well compared to some other toe-ups of done, but I wasn't successful in closing up the holes to my liking.










My card-making buddy and I got together for lunch and Valentine Day Cards. I tried a new recipe called Chipolte Tamale Pie. I used hamburger instead of ground turkey and cut the cumin back to 1 tsp. I also used black beans instead of pinto beans. Those little chipotle's are really hot! I will have to use only one if I do it again. Luckily blogless Melody is from the South West and the hotness did not phase her.









I finished my first practice quilt, a table topper. I used straight stitch in the ditch and a decorative quilting stitch. I used the multicolored Isacord thread which doesn't show up as well as embroidery thread because I have a lot of it. I also used a programmed serpentine stitch around the edge. The bright four-patch squares have been in my stash for at least 20 years! To think dresses in that fabric were popular during my high school years. Yikes!


The last project does not have instant results. I carved a narcissus bulb and it will take 20-28 days to bloom, that is if I follow all the directions and it does rot. It was interesting to find out these bulbs come from Fukien, China and take 5 years to mature. The trick is to get them to bloom on Chinese New Year, which will be on the 23rd of January this year, so I'm starting too late:(

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Starting Off Random


I got my Serenity out for some spinning. My son was thinking it had become just another decoration. The yarn I spun for Tour de Fleece came out lace weight but was a bit scratchy. I also had quite a bit of two ply lace weight left over from Hanami, so I attempted a cable yarn. It wasn't too successful. I don't think I put enough twist in for the two two-plies to cable together. I have over-dyed it a little blue since taking the picture. It's still quite a thin yarn.

Apparently even bananas are not safe from the advertising world. This was stuck to brother-in-laws banana. The scan code will get you ringtones.

Blogless Melody wore this T-shirt walking yesterday. It's a good reminder to put the would've, could've, should'ves behind and we all pledged to move forward and leave the past behind. It's a little easier as I don't think my memory is a good as it was before.


My mom at 87 has declared she is no longer making Ozoni for New Years. I just happen to love Ozoni and have a mochi machine so have taken up the task. Last year she said the same thing, but in the end did the broth. This year I made everything and it came our pretty good. There is always more mochi then we can eat, so I attempted a Kagami Mochi, Hawaiian style, with a ti leaf, Cutie Clementine and gardenia leaf.

The Nook was an impluse purchase as I passed Barnes and Noble on the way to exchange a shirt. A shopping center can be a dangerous place to visit around the holidays. While searching how to customize the screen saver, I discovered a community of folks who like to hack their Nook. No doubt they also hack their Kindles, phones, game consoles and anything hackable. I tried to think of a good reason for me to hack my Nook, other then just owning one, but the Nook touch has no audio and is black and white, and I bought it to store my knitting patterns and books for travel on it, which requires no hacking.

With my Christmas gift card, I got the book about Woody Crumbo off my wish list and 3 CDs (Sarah Jarocz Song up in Her Head and Follow me down, and Gillian Welch The Harrow and the Harvest).
I love Mr. Crumbo's spirt horse on the book cover.

Have a wonderful New Year!