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

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.

Art Makes Things Better

After my series of meetings yesterday my lovely oldest daughter took Grace and my grandson Grant to the zoo. That means for the second time this week I have a glorious few hours of alone time. During that time I did a bit of knitting (finishing up a baby sweater for a friend) and later (much later) in the evening after some chocolate therapy involving cookie baking. I free-handed a map of the world on my ginormous canvas. The really amazing bit (because I always start these things dubious as to whether I can pull it off) is that the map I sketched looks awesome! Sure the Saudi Arabian peninsula is a tad smoother than real life but hey...I'm all about impressionism. I just pulled a world map up on my computer pulled out a mechanical pencil and went to town.

This painting cannot sit around for more thinking as we are having another open house tomorrow and It is really too big to hang around tucked in behind the TV-I need to get it up on the wall :). When I get home from work today I am going to mix up a greeny-blue ocean and then paint the land masses a plain beige-y brown. The real goal is digging out money, tickets and stuff from our trips. David already has his tube ticket from London. I have 20 pesos from Mexico and I am sure there is some Germany stuff hanging about. Now the question is...do I wire? glue? pin? or use some-other way to fix the stuff on my art.

Now..time to stop thinking about art and start thinking about Pre Calculus...Or..is that art too? :)

xxxooo

Ages Without A Post

I have spent the last more than a month writing on my other blog but neglecting this one.

THE OFFICIAL EXCUSES:

My work ramped up I am now working more than full time at two different colleges teaching and writing grants (Three days a week). Two other days I babysit my 2 year old grandson who is a bundle of funny bones and mr. talky talk (all in a good and love him dearly kind of way). Starting last week i was added a worked task and now am up to 4 days a week. I used to have Friday's to myself for crafting but that is the new one claimed for work.

On top of all of the work I volunteered myself onto a neighborhood newspaper in and around July. That continues to take a bit of my time (but a fun bit).

Now we are looking at new places to live (with acreage) and will need to be packing up all of the extra clutter (I have a lot of crafty clutter) in preparation to put our house on the market.

THE STUFF I HAVE DONE

I have been working on a black sweater for most of August and September and it is finally coming to a finish. I have just the collar left to make and am thinking about swapping out the recommended rolled and knitted one for some crochet lace perhaps?

I washed and blocked two sweaters one worked really well the second..still sitting on the towel on the guest bedroom stretched and pulled. I am afraid to go look because I think I overly felted it. I threw it into the washer with just a hint of warmth in the water. You see I have lost quite a bit of weight since I made my pretty green wrap sweater and I was hoping that I could get it to tighten up just a tad. Well it did tighten but really the sleeves tightened and it got shorter. When I finally get up enough nerve to go in and look at it again I will snap a picture and let you know the state of things.

In August and September I did quite a bit of shopping. I have been slowly collected antique linens, patterns and knitting books in garage sales or antique malls. I even found a really nifty woven basket to carry small knitting projects around in. I will snap some pics soon and put them in.

The garden is finally bursting forth with vegetables. I have tomatoes on the vine (yellow, maroon, green and red). I have a small watermelon ready to pick. I have sad little corn stalks trying to produce cobs. There are potatoes, parsnips, beets, yams, green beans, squash and finally bushels of lemon cucumbers.

My Name is Tina and I Have a Project Problem

I had an excuse (David's work) to go down to a knitting shop that I rarely visit. David had an hour before a meeting that he had to attend and I acted as chauffeur as he was feeling a tad under the weather (you know..he 'had' to go but I thought he should have been tucked in bed). While we waited for the meeting to start I dragged the poor guy into the knitting store so I could have a little look around.

Ok...before you get all worried about David..they had a couch he sat on and wifi so he spent some web time in a comfortable place.

Grace and I had a little look around. I said I would not buy anything. Um..well...Grace saw this really cute sleeve thing with beads and ruffles that looks really easy to knit and then of course we needed to pick out just the right shade of yarn (red sock yarn)..then we found a button for her already completed sweater. and then I needed a bit of red yarn for a friends baby due at Christmas time (a boy and I am planning on a pair of socks and hat in red and a green cardigan). Then I found just the right shade of beige to start over on the lace skirt that I quit and frogged in frustration during the lace class (I vowed that I would make the thing and I am holding to that vow even if it takes years).

I will not name the sum of money spent but needless to say it was uncalled for as these projects fall in line at the end of many yet to be finished projects that wait for me to start and/or finish them. I need to put in some serious knitting time during our vacation next week to redeem my self.

Busy Busy

Things have been all action around here for the past couple of weeks. I will try and upload a few pictures tomorrow. The bottom line is we have been spending more time doing stuff than we have been documenting the doing. Here is a run down:

1. David mastered his quest for wonderful sour dough bread. It was very mellow and delicious but in order to keep it going I have to live with a living thing in my refrigerator that must be fed and watered every few days (sounds like a small pet minus the poo).



2. We have gone on several mid-distance bike rides. one 10 mile, one 8 mile and one 6 mile. We are planning on another this weekend.




3. The lace failure has paralyzed my knitting bug. I have only knitted 4 rows since mylast post and those were 'normal' knitting.

4. My job has been picking up. Three of my tutoring students came back from their summer holidays, It is midterm time and tests must be written and finally my third job has had some paperwork to edit. I also have random papers to write for upcoming presentations and such.

5. The garden is perking up. The peas finished and Grace and I replanted with beets, carrots and parsnips. The green beans are now on full (have to pick daily) and I am getting a bit of broccoli every couple of days. I am just a couple of days away from harvesting some brussel sprouts as well.

6. My house is breaking out in mess!! :)

argh.....Lace

I took a class on Sunday in order to learn how to knit lace. I can crochet lace I even learned once how to tat it....knitting it is soooooooooo frustrating right now. I started a skirt out of linen yarn (OK...maybe too big of a leap for a beginner)...It didn't work and has been frogged. I got out an some old leftover green wool and tried the same patterns as the skirt but for a much smaller scarf...I hate scarves....i just ripped it out because although I had something that resembled lace it was not done well...or even close to what the pattern showed. I started a tank top with the linen yarn but the ribbing stitch will take too long to get through before I hit any lace. This is counter-productive.


It feels like this (borrowed picture from knitnfrog.livejournal.com/)


So I don't know what to do now. I have a second follow-up class on Thursday. I need an easy fun lace pattern to make...I guess I need to trawl revelry. Do any of you have any ideas?

Knitters Abbreviations

From the Knitbot.com webpage

I bought a new pattern to make myself a thin black sweatet. The pattern: featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. The yarn is a fine black sock weight nylon yarn.

I didn't even get past the first row and had difficulty reading the pattern. Until now I have only made patterns from Knitting Pure and Simple. One thing I love about the Knitting Pure and Simple Patterns is that all of the abbreviations are explained on the pattern itself.

On the new Knitbot pattern I had to stop after the first row and come home to look up what m meant---mark...sheesh how is a poor new knitter to know that? and M1 means make one. Here is the glossary of terms. The cool part is on some of them there is even a linked video. After looking up those two simple code words I am off again and can knit during the weekly horseback riding lessons this afternoon.

Cool Kids Sleep-over Bag

I have been looking for ideas to make quick bags for kids to use. I think this one from Clotilde might just do the trick.

My Creative 'Spaces'

I am having a bit of a problem paying attention to one project at a time and even a bigger one in organizing my supplies for the habits. The other night I was tired of sitting in my usual 'creative space' This space often involves television, a laptop or a knitting project. Instead I moved myself to my sewing room and had a bit of a sort out and some sewing.



My machine came back from the 'spa' last week for its annual rejuvenation treatment. Honestly she rarely gets her spa treatment annually even though she is supposed to and the cost was dear enough to pay for several spa treatments for me!!



I discovered in my clean out that I have several unfinished projects (don't we all?) that need my attention. I have a tree skirt to update for a friend. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Each year I sew on another handprint for each of her children. Eventually they will be full grown and the skirt will be full.


In this stash of yarn (I think that is all I have squirreled away) There is a Christmas stocking that I need to start over on and then there is Grace's sweater that needs sleeves and a neckband.





There are also a variety of loose knitting needles and knitting stuff to find a home for. Perhaps I need to make a needle bag or two? or perhaps a pink ponytail holder and a gallon sized zip-lock bag (reused) will do?







I finished my little tidy and started something new with old-I found an old scrap from a practice monogram for my daughter Meghan in my drawer of laces and trims. I embroidered this when she was 18 (she is now 23). Adding some additional scraps from my stash I am fashioning her a make-up bag...if I finish it before I go off chasing another project.



It ain't pretty but it is MY Sewing Room..other pics of the room with captions.



Built in cupboards. They are a mess but store a lot of stashed fabric bits and books.


An open closet with three heirloom baby dresses from my grandmother and the lining from one of her dresses in the 40's. I am planning to hang them on the wall.


The sewing machine cabinet closes up into a wardrobe sized cupboard. I love it but never close it.


A messy corner. The hatboxes hold yarn, magazines and bits of fabric. The pile of clothes are old linens and silks earmarked for bag-making. The gray jacket is the jacket my husband wore at our wedding. I am having difficulty cutting it up. Does anyone have any good ideas to make use of it wisely?

I love having a room where my ironing board can stay up all of the time.


My cutting/work table was a library table from the public library in Pasco, Washington, USA. It is a beautiful piece of Oak furniture that they likely replaced with melamine. My grandmother had it as her cutting table and then my mother and now I have it. My daughter would like it for a desk (and I have promised it to her) but I just found a good place for it and I am having trouble letting go. At the end is my serger. It came unthreaded and I cannot figure out how to rethread it. My mother-in-law in far away Wales is the only person who ever manages to figure it out. I really need lessons I think.

These Creative Spaces are brought to you because of Kootoyoo the queen of creativity.