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!! :)