I have moved..and Made Changes.

I am pretty sure you few followers don't check this much anymore.  Goodness knows I haven't.  Things have changed quite a bit in the long while since I last posted here.  I moved house twice, quit my day jobs and opened a yarn store!! :)  It is great fun and There is a blog.  A blog I am posting regularly on now.  Go have a look and feel free to follow me.  If you knit or crochet there are patterns posted regularly.

Http://www.blacksheepatorenco.com and look at the woolshed page.

I have been doing a LOT of Etsy browsing.

Here are some of the Etsy stores I like: Perhaps Santa will read this post? I at least want to take note of the good places so I can find them again.

http://www.etsy.com/people/nicholasandfelice?ref=pr_profile

http://www.etsy.com/shop/hoolala?ref=seller_info

Long Time no Post..but We have been Doing

We have all been doing but not blogging about it. What follows is the laundry list with some pictures occasionally.

1. Grace continued knitting away on her scarf until she broke her wrist. She is now hampered for swimming, horseback riding and knitting. She can still draw and has used the time to design many dress and outfit designs in colored pencil.

2. The three of us spent July in Iceland (4 days) and then the UK. David had sabbatical for 8 weeks from his job and we had a wonderful time. So much so that none of us wanted to come home..for work or school!

3. All good things must come to an end and we have come home and gone back to work. The weather has been lovely here at home (it was quite cold in Iceland and the UK while we were there in comparison).

Lovely waterfall on the Golden Circle tour in Icelad.



We spent a weekend in Hereford with David's school friends at a rented house.

3. All good things must come to an end and we have come home and gone back to work. The weather has been lovely here at home (it was quite cold in Iceland and the UK while we were there in comparison).
4. While on vacation I started and completed a tank top in green cotton and bamboo yarn and am almost halfway finished with smock style sweater out of a lovely silvery gray linen yarn. It has a lovely but maddening cable pattern that I had done a lot of knitting and unknitting of.
Street knitting art in Reykjavik, Iceland. They are avid knitters. I bought the sweater in some of the photos. I visited a couple of shops and even got invited to a knitting guild meeting (we had to fly out on the day of the meeting :(.

5. DAvid spent his work free time focussing on stock trading (he did quite well) and reading the research on best weightless plans. He has been doing quite well with improved blood levels and 25 pounds weight loss.

Tea with Grace, David and Granny in Wales.
6. My adult daughters and one boyfriend did a wonderful job taking care of my raised beds while we were gone and I arrived home to full harvests of peas, green beans and fresh tasty TOMATOES!!!

7. After a troll through all of your blogs I am truly inspired to not let the crafting and gardening go stale...

One is Fun Two a Pain? My Creative Space

I week or so ago I finished up one of these very cute Red velvet cupcake wrist warmers for my daughter Grace. I made a few adjustments up at the elbow (a shorter top cuff as her arm just is not that long)

She is thrilled with this first one and anxious to receive the second. Only I am having a heck of a time getting on with the second one. The problem is the 168 stitch cast on. That much is OK for a sweater but a wrist warmer? sheesh. It is for the very lovely ruffle but one wrong move and those stitches come flying off my double pointed needles and then I am left all confused and the need to start over. The first glove took 3 tries to cast on before I managed to keep it going and with this second wrist warmer I am already on my second cast on.



I am scared to start another project as I do not think I will ever do a second one of these wrist warmers if I don't do so now. Grace had a haircut today and I took the 40 minutes wait to cast on. I am now ready to start knitting...wish me luck!

There are many creative Space posts over at Kootoyoo's place

Georgeous Gelato Recipe: My Creative Space

For my birthday my husband bought me a much desired SNO Whytner kitchen ice cream machine. No freezing of parts..just make my base, add flavors and pour it into the machine. I purchases a couple of gelato books and even played around with a few of the recipes. He made fancy ones that were frankly too rich and did not have that fresh summer taste that I have come to enjoy at my local shops.

The recipe:

1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 and 1/2 cups 2% milk
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons of good vanilla

on medium heat stir the mixture in a sauce pan until the sugar dissolves. continue to cook stirring occasionally until fine bubble appear around the edges of the pan. Remove form the heat and let sit (for cooling) for 30 minutes. Move the mixture to the refrigerator and cool for another hour to two hours.

This is your base. You can now experiment with any flavors you like. Tonight I added 1/2 cup of orange juice and 1/2 cup of sweetened shredded coconut right before pouring my mixture into my ice cream machine.

I am sure this would work equally well in an old fashioned ice cream machine, the kind where you freeze the bowl or even in a pan in the freezer with frequent visits to give the mixture a stir (see granita recipes for instructions).

I just had a small scoop and the ice cream was DELICIOUS! very fresh and Summer-like just when we are threatened with yet another snow storm!

If you give this a try let me know what flavors you add. I am thinking about apricots.

Barbershop Punk

A student of mine after class one night told me about this little film that was about her dad's little run in with Comcast (cable company) and the transfer of some historical barbershop quartet music. My student said that she thought I might be interested in seeing it as I was married to a computer engineer. She was right. Today we attended he documentary at our local International film festival. The film, called barbershop punk was very well done. David enjoyed it but wished he had heard more technical information. I liked it and thought it would have been ruined with more technical speak. Grace liked it but would have like less technical speak :) My guess is that means they nailed it!

If it comes to a cinema near you and you are at all interested in anything about the internet and how our content is controlled by our internet providers go see it!


xxxooo

My Creative Space: Grace

Spring is coming we hope:

Grace age 9 came home from school today and opened the door to the back patio just like it was summer today. The sun is sending mixed messages to us out here in the west. The sky is clear. the sun is out and green things are beginning poke up out of the ground. I suggested she go get the camera and go out to take some pictures. She did...and these are the result.
Sadly it is colder outside than it appears and she had to close it to keep the heater from kicking on over and over again. As she sat in a chair looking out through a large sliding glass door she said, "that one green tree in with all of those tall brown ones would make a great painting".



pop on over to Kootoyoo for more creative spaces