For the most part, I've managed to stay on the yarn diet. Sock yarn of course doesn't count and I allowed the yarn for a charity project. Two projects helped reduce the stash of organic cotton left over from other projects.
Pattern: Little Bee Capelette by Yumiko Sakurai Yarn: Pakucho and Bernat Organic cotton, worsted weight Needles: Size 6 and 8 Mods: none I have not seen the only baby in our family for awhile since she is in Minnesota. I hope it is wearable.
Netbook Sock
Yarn: Pakucho cotton Needles: 16 in size 8 circular Pattern: CO 66 stitches. Join to knit in the round. Place a marker. K1P1 ribbing for 8 rows. (I used two colors since I had a scrap to use up) Row 1: k12, P2, k5, p2, knit to end. Cable row: K12, P2, place 3 stitches on cable needle, hold in front, K2 from left needle and knit 3 off cable needle. Repeat row 1 5 times, then knit a cable row. Continue until 10 cables are made. Repeat row 1, 2 times. Turn inside out. Do a 3 needle bind-off. Sew in ends.
My netbook is 9x7 inches. The sock is 9x10 inches.
I'm on Maui this week for a conference. It's pretty darn nice here! Molokini and Molokai are just out the corridor window.
My yahoo mail account was hacked. I can't really tell who all got spammed as some were blocked by servers. I'm sorry if any of you got the spam from me. Yahoo advised me to scan for spy ware and viruses, and I found none on my system. They also advised me to change all my passwords. Always good advice but I've neglected to do this for some time now. So now it's done.
My niece recently used her debit card online for a donation, and had a couple thousands of dollars charged to her account from some place in another state. This hits very close to home.
My son showed me how to set a master password for my Browser, Firefox. So I'm doing that, too. A wake up call indeed.
The doll patches were paper-pieced quite awhile back, like maybe more then a decade! I added some fabric to make the patch square and to complete the 9 patch. With the borders it's a 46 inch square so far. The attic window is the fast patch method (cheater method).
I know a quilt is not a quilt until it's quilted and I'm determined I will not wait another decade to do it while I contemplate backing and quilting method.
I got a little surprise today out in the patio. This orchid bloom is quite tiny, about one inch in diameter, and actually a bunch of blooms that have the appearance of one big flower. The plant was in survival mode growing in some moss which got moved to a pile of gravel in a cement pot. Lucky for me many varieties of orchid can survive without much attention.
In addition to the yarn diet, I'm trying to not buy sugar. This isn't saying much as I had a big stash. I'm out of granulated and brown sugar, but still have powdered sugar and the brown sugar crystals, not to mention the honey, maple syrup and maple sugar.
I found the oatmeal sugar cookie recipe surfing. Adding oatmeal just seemed to be "healthier", lol. It also made it a bit harder to cut out. I think next time I will grind the oatmeal a bit. The great thing about this recipe is that there is no creaming of butter and sugar, or chilling of dough. It was quite easy to roll out. I substituted 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar for the granulated sugar.
I used my handy dandy RM Make Your Own Cookie Cutter Kit to make the Totoro cutters, starting with Jennifer's tutorial on how to create a coloring book style image from a photo.
I like baking but I'm no Martha when it comes to decorating. I still they came out cute with the simplistic chocolate chip eyes and sugar crystal tummies.
Wouldn't you know it. While I was baking these, the docs office called and said I'm due for blood work. I could swear those kind of things were for patients, not for doctors. Do I just bite the bullet and go in tomorrow? Or do I procrastinate some more? In my case it's true, doctors make the worst patients.
I can tell it's almost summer as the pikake and gardenias are blooming like crazy.
The plover are all gone, but the Fairy tern are coming up the river. They are beautiful acrobatic fliers. They lay one egg without building a nest. Although they are sea birds and eat the little fish that have hatched along the shore, they still fly up our valley to raise the chick in the trees.
The litchi tree across the stream had a lot of fruit. None of it was picked so the fruit eating birds have had their fill.
My mom has been trained by a lovely red cardinal couple to feed them shelled sunflower seeds on command. They chirp and whistle and she comes a-running. It's pretty funny, really. When I daddy watch, they chirp at me too, and darn if I'm not trained now, too! (Kiko, the cat, is sure interested in them too!)
I finally finished a couple knits!
Pattern: One Row Scarf, by the Yarn Harlot Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, in a nice cranberry red (the photo does not do the colorway justice) Needles: size 9 Mods: I cast on 36 stitches, including two for the end stitches. Comments: 4 skeins ended up being 64 inches long and 5.5 inches wide, unblocked. The yarn is a real please to knit with and feels very plush against the skin. I've read it is quite fragile, but it held up well while knitting. This one is for the Red Scarf Project. I'm a little concerned that it is not an easy care fabric. I love the color!
Pattern: Topsy Turvey doll Bernat has another version of it. Mods: I was thinking about a project for Ponyo. She has two forms, a goldfish and a little girl. I ended up not having enough yarn so Sonja was born. I used some of Opal's hand spun left over from a project and I really like the color of her hair. She's sitting on one of this years 3 pineapples.
The summer project of weeding the patio and transplanting the pot-bound plants has stalled about 3/4 of the way through. The weather dried up making the weeds hard to get out. Then, I was sidetracked by the aphids attacking my Rangpur lime and bay laurel. I love the Rangpur lime I grew up with. It made the best tabbouleh, imo. The nursery I got it from grows the lime for rook stock and I've nursed the plant along in a pot. It finally got planted in the yard but it still hasn't taking off. It's fighting for root room with the privet, grass and Asparagus densiflorus One thing I've discovered, is that staring at the tree twice a day does not make it grow faster. I will have to ask Totoro to help!
The last of my card play days with blogless Melody was all about cupcakes. She brought her Sizzix cupcake die.
Melody will be returning to Camano Island until November, so no more card buddy. It was so much fun having a partner in crime!
In the meantime, I am organizing the sewing room in hopes of getting my sewing mojo back. If anyone sees my sewing mojo, please send it back. The fabric stash is waiting!!!
Yes, I have the acorn cakelet pan. It's lovely to have friends and family who have fed my acorn obsession with acorn gifts including the Pan.
These little cakelets are Hawaiian style cornbread. The cornbread I grew up with was either the Jiffy kind or a sweeter, Bisquick, variety, like the recipe from the first volume of the Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin cookbook. Unlike the cornbread served with beans I discovered in Kentucky, the cornbread is sweet and cake-like, and makes wonderful muffins served for breakfast with jam and more butter.
On the needles, the acorn socks are stalling. I think they are looking too large. I love the way the acorns pop out of the pattern.
I felt like knitting a bit of lace and only had one ball of the yarn. The yarn was a lovely knitting experience! I wish had more to make a whole cardigan with.
I won a lovely pink wash cloth and sweet lavender soap from Rachel. Thank you!
How she finds time to have contests and do all that she does is always amazing to me. While I'd be pulling my hair out trying to keep up she manages to maintain an eye-catching blog and an Etsy store, can her own fruits and vegies, keep the diva in style and complete many FO's, all the while keeping her wits and humor about her. Very inspiring!
My Stampin' Up order came in today. I had a 20% off coupon! Yay! I tried out the texture plate on the green portion and my new (second hand) corner punch. I wish there was an acorn texture plate.
My one knitting WIP is a capelet based on a 1993 pattern by Lois Young. I was gifted a skein of Knitpicks Shadow, colorway sunset, ages ago. The pattern is a cardigan knit top down and oversized like in the day, so I thought I would try knitting the yoke and then just keep going until I got a capelet. The yarn is very nice and I wish I had enough to make a cardigan of some sort.
A Texas cousin is in town with his daughter. One should not wait 59 years to meet a first cousin if at all possible. I really enjoyed catching up with another branch of the tree and hearing new stories about players in my life. His mother and my mother were the youngest in the family and their childhood was unconventional and hard.
A job opportunity came up, but I decided I'm much to busy to commit to a regular schedule even though paychecks are very nice. The Landcaster has saved me $20/year by having me turn off my coffee pot after the morning fix. How did I get such a smart kid? I better pull in the belt and go on a paper/punches/Sizzix die diet. Like sock yarn, glue dots and ink pads don't count. (I don't know if that is written, but I'm just saying)
Blogless Melody got me started on the whole stamping, card-making thing by organizing 3 card making sessions, starting with quilted cards for Valentine's Day. Baby sister Rita enabled me further by gifting me some Fiskars scallop and flower punches. Then I "won" two silent auctions for The Bead Gallery's charity auction which was a Sizzix embossing machine and kit and a Stampin' Up coupon for 20% off. Then another blogless friend destashed some lovely paper, punches and brads at prices that I couldn't pass up.
There are so many wonderful tutorials on you tube on how to make paper flowers and pop cards, as well as how to use the Sizzix.
The bottom line is, I needed another hobby like I needed a hole in my head! My yarn, fabric, and bead/wire stashes now have to make room for punches, inks, papers, glue dots and Sizzix attachments!
My mom is threatening to have me star on the hoarding show.
I love making paper flowers! It beats working any day:)
This recipe was given to my mom by Ruth Y. Brown rice krispies are really good. My sister makes her own marshmallows. I think some mini chocolate chips or mini m&ms would be really yummy.
Spread oats and sesame seeds on baking pan. Toast 5-10 minutes in 300-degree oven.
In heavy pot over medium heat, melt marshmallows, butter and peanut butter together until marshmallows are all melted.
Mix rest of fruits, nuts and rice krispies together. Stir in marshmallow mixture. Mix and press into jellyroll pan. Using plastic wrap to press it down, or rolling over the plastic wrap with a rolling pin helps to flatten it out. Cut into squares and wrap each in a small square of waxed paper.
Pattern: Drop stitch pattern from Barbara Walker's book. This pattern has been written up as a scarf on Ravelry by Wohemel. For my version, I CO 40 stitches and included two end stitches. Yarn: Plymouth Baby Alpaca worsted Needles: Size 8
I used 3 balls and ended up with 51 inches, not enough for a red scarf project scarf.
Pattern: Creature Comforts Cardi by Madelinetosh Yarn: Plymouth Jeanee. Needles size 7 and 8 as pattern calls for. Comments: The oak leaf starts with creating 7 stitches in on, and it left a rather large hole. The Jeanee, being cotton and acrylic stretches them out quite a bit. My sister is modeling the cardi which is actually a shrug. I'm not sure why but on me the cardi doesn't sit straight and I'm sure why. I'm not going to count stitches to find out why. Maybe it has something to do with the way I sewed the side seams. I washed it on gentle and threw it in the dryer. Aah, the beauty of easy care yarn.
It's definitely looking more like summer here already...the plover and turnstones have flown away to Alaska, the litchee and mango trees are loaded and the shores are full of schools of baby aholehole and such. The whales have also gone. The vog has alternated with trade winds. There is little rain even here in Nuuanu. I may have to start watering some plants.
This is my first project from fabric dyed in Shibori Class. This piece is the itajime technique. The screaming pink Kona cotton was fan folded and clamped, then indigo dyed. This is a synthetic indigo dye.
I kind of suspected this yarn would be more red-orange then is comfortable for me, but it was baby alpaca and I was in the market for red yarn. I have since found out that scarves for the Red Scarf project do not have to be red. Duh. My whole dyeing adventure began with a desire to tone this colorway down...going more toward the rust side. Since I was very happy with my Koigu experiment with Wilton cake dye, I started by dying the yarn red. Well big surprise, lol, it turned red. I imagined that it was toned down and little, but the visiting niece and sister brought me back to reality. It was still screaming red and just a touch less orange. Having only blue left I added just a smidgen to the dye bath, and squirted some around. I was terrified it would all be totally purple or even worse, felted. So I'm stopping here. It still screams a bit but is more to my liking.
My sister is town and baked this thing of beauty. My neighborhood natural food market with the wonderful shredded coconut closed:( so we are trying this other stuff from Down to Earth.
Pattern: Koigu One Mitts by botgirl. Free! Yarn: Koigu, red/orange colorway, over dyed with Wilton's blue food dye. Needles: Size 1 DPNs Mods: none Comments: This is a great, fast easy knit which makes a lovely pair of fingerless mitts for a women.
I took a day trip to Paia, Maui to check on my dad's property with my BIL and niece. While we were walking up Baldwin Ave, a couple of my knitting buddies, blogless Dayna and Barbara, flagged me down. What a small world! They were visiting relatives in upcountry Maui. This is the wonderful Maui Yarn they gave me for my birthday last month. It's is very squishy and soft! The chocolate bar did not last long enough for a picture:) Thanks, ladies!
