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Friday, March 30, 2012

A bit of Thick and Thin, and Card Making Day

I found some BFL fiber purchased at Madrona and practiced some thick and thick on my Serenity. It went a little better this time with some actual thick and thin areas. I tried plying it with some sparkly mystery stuff. I'll have to read up on that part again. Anyway, here it is washed and dried. Now what do I do with it? There isn't much of it, but it was fun to make.



Blogless Melody, my card-making buddy had me over for a day of eating and creating. It is always so much fun to share ideas and supplies!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Baby Nora's Quilt

Baby Nora's Quilt  by acornbud
Baby Nora's Quilt , a photo by acornbud on Flickr.

Finally done! Paper-pieced dolls, in cheater attic windows. Machine pieced and quilted.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Alpaca and Noro Aya Shoulder Cozy


Pattern: Shoulder Cozy by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas
Yarn: 2 skeins Noro Aya, colorway 12, Cascade Alpaca Lace, pink.
Needles: Size 3
Mods: I fear mohair for a couple of reasons...I find it itchy and knitting it can drive me nuts, or I should say frogging it. I really do like how mohair looks and remember being very jealous of a girl's sweater in HS, as it was all fluffy and wonderful in it's over sized splendor...but then I digress. I still had 5 skeins of the Noro Aya left in this pink colorway. I don't know what I was I thinking when I bought that bag. Mixed with the more saturated pink I really ended up loving the colors so I made another one for my sister who is modeling hers. I C0 120 stitches for mine and 100 stitches for hers and followed the instructions for the smaller size as we are not tall. The yarn combo is very soft and snuggly.

This is a very fast and easy knit! I love the results. The pattern has really caught on at Aloha Yarns, and I love the different combinations of yarns and colors people come up with for this practical pattern. It is perfect for those chilly mornings.

Friday, March 09, 2012

Things to Do on a Dreary Day

My island was hit by a couple of tropical storms over the the last week with thunder, lighting, rain and more rain, and even a bit of hail. The clouds hid the full moon yesterday morning but I could see it glowing up in the sky. This morning was dark so I cancelled by trip to the mall and hung out at home. So what's a girl to do?

I managed to cook a meal. Yay. The Landcaster is always thrilled to have real food around and spaghetti is his favorite. When we were younger I would make it from scratch. It turns out the boy and his father preferred the bottled stuff. The YellowCheeseDuck (no.1 son) did not eat anything red. As I had no bottled stuff and had nixed going out to brave the world today, I had to make if sort of from scratch. I ran the diced tomatoes through the blender as the Landcaster abhors chunky spaghetti sauce and will pick out visible onions. If he can't see them, he eats them. I'm that way with eggs...can't stand the wiggle yellow stuff, but will scarf a fritatta down just like that.

It was cold here in Paradise where 68 deg is frigid. I broke out my hand knit socks and wore my flannel shirt. When I whined about not having any heat a friend suggested the oven, so I decided to bake. Bread? A delicious dessert? Then the practical me decided to destash some of the things laying around the cupboard...a box of unsweetened chocolate from way before Christmas, a cake mix, and a ton of powdered sugar I had acquired. In a fit of laziness I baked a 13x9 cake when I really wanted cupcakes. The frosting came out a bit weird as I set the microwave for 3.5 min instead of 35 seconds. Lucky me I caught it while it was liquid but still in the bowl. Anyway, the frosting tastes good, how can so much sugar NOT taste good, but the consistency is strange. I cut out the cake with my biscuit cutter and made it into a cupcake.
Cute, but still just a boxed cake.

My best project of the day was this FO.
Pattern: Paris Mill by Corrina Ferguson from PicnicKnits
Yarn: Madelinetosh Pashmina, color Mare. I used one skein plus a few yards of another.
Needle: size 8
Mods: The pattern calls for fingering yarn and size 6 needles. Pashmina is sportweight so I went up on the needle size. I did 6 pattern repeats instead of 5. I weighed the yarn at the halfway point and had 60% left, but still ran out. Strange. Guess my math skills are deteriorating.
Comments: The yarn is beyond scrumptious. I loved knitting this side to side shawl and hardly put it down. It has charts that I didn't use. I did not memorize the pattern, but looked at the text while knitting the pattern. It has a nice purl row to coast in . I so love this in a shawl pattern.

I feel very fortunate to have this day off and not have to go out in the bad weather. I managed a few of those pesky little things that had to be done...a bit of laundry, some credentials faxed, etc, but no spinning and no exercise today.
But of course, tomorrow is another day.