Yarn, a Magazine and Pasta for Dinner

Yarn-after a harsh teeth cleaning at my dentist today
I was feeling the need for some crafty therapy. I popped next door to one of my favorite yarn shops to have a look around.


My daughter Grace goes to this shop every Saturday morning to work on her knitting skills and visit with other girls her age who like to knit. Last Saturday I had to stay home and work. I missed my weekly yarn interaction. Today was the day. In my weakened post-dental state I purchased one magazine and

one skein of yarn called Rowan Chunky Cherry. As we were given a glimpse of Spring to come only to have it snatched back into winter weather today I was feeling the need for some summer sunshine coloring. I think the idea of rich Cherry does the trick don't you?
It might look something like this knitted up. I really don't have any plans for it..but am thinking. What do you think?

Pasta Dinner-
Bunny provided us with the recipe and pictures from her dinner. Well it just so happened that I had those ingredients sitting right in my refrigerator. I also had no plans for dinner so viola...I reran Bunny's dinner for mine. Well..really David cooked it. He came in and asked, "so what are you making me for dinner?" yupp..very cheeky given my normal women's lib attitude towards cooking for my man. Instead of my usual..bite me response I said...well I haven't started it yet cause I'm working but I know what we are having...and then directed him to Bunny's post.

He did a little fiddling with the recipe. We didn't have as much spinach as her recipe called for and we happened to have some herb butter in the fridge and a shallot laying around. We also had half a block of cream cheese. so...our dinner was:

10 slices of American style Pepper bacon cooked crispy.
4oz of cream cheese
6 cups or so of cooked rotini pasta (what we had laying in the cupboard)
one shallot
150 grams fresh spinach
1 1/2 small onions both the shallot were chopped and cooked until translucent in 2 T of herb butter (just salted butter with garlic, sage, parsley, basil, oregano and chives whipped into it and left in the fridge to be used as we like).
grated parm. cheese when served.

so melt the butter, cook the onions while waiting for water to boil. Broil the bacon at the same time in the oven. Dump the dry pasta into the boiling water. Chop the spinach, throw it in with the onions and cheese just as the pasta is almost done. Dump the pasta into the cheesy sauce quickly and add a bit more oregano. serve on lunch or small sized plates followed by a quick grating of parm. cheese. Yum and there are loads of leftovers to rerun tomorrow.

Mobias Cowl-Pattern Included

For Christmas my husband bought me a spinning wheel and a friend provided two tops of a variegated wool. My first bit of spinning on this wool came out a grayish blue color (the color of The Pacific Ocean off Oregon in the Winter). In my unskilled spinning the yarn was very uneven in thickness but I kind of like that about the cowl. I am sure I will never be able to spin quite the same way again.



long and looped on your shoulders can be an accent for any blouse or over a coat.


Just double the cowl around your neck and it is a warm and cozy tight cowl.


down on your shoulders and it becomes a shawl.


I cast on 32 stitches and knitted until I ran out of yarn. the pattern was Stripe 1: knit then perl, knit, perl, knit. Stripe 2: knit, perl, knit, perl, knit. Stripe 3: knit, perl, knit, perl, knit repeat sets 2 and 3 until you have 45 stripes (or your cowl is as long as you want it)

Finish: Knit one perl one last row and then twist the piece so that It forms a Mobias strip. Knit through both the last and current row and the beginning row (just poke the needle through both as if knitting two together) then cast of each newly formed stitch. This creates a small joined ridge but it is very hard to find on the finished cowl and saves having to do any follow up stitching with a darning needle.



The length I ended up with was 45 stripes (5 rows in each) or 225 rows. I think good hunk of chunky yarn would work much the same as my hand spun did.

Knitting and Spinning, Spinning and Knitting

The fingerless gloves before I threaded the hangy down ends to the inside. I know one pair arrived but have not heard whether the other two have made it to their destinations yet. I am working on a pattern for you.



David bought me a spinning wheel for Christmas. It is fun! I have already spun two tops (looks like unspun but clean and dyed wool). I then knitted the home-made yarn into a large chunky cowl.