Weekend Update...

I had a nice weekend snowed in with my parents! We stayed warm near the kitchen making lefse and drinking hot cider. I love my parents' deck for cooling things off in a hurry!
Melissa and I went to the big going out of business sale at a local quilt shop. Everything was 20% off and they were actually selling all the shelving and decorations and displays, etc. I nabbed 2 of these asparagus crates for $5 each and I just love them! They also sell roving by the yard for needle felting projects but I use it for spinning and chose a few yards of several colors and a lot of ivory for dyeing. Melissa picked up a pieced and quilted runner/wall hanging for $5!

We also made another batch of photo ornaments for Christmas gifts. These get better every time we work on them! And now we're really getting low on lids! It's a good thing we had pasta with sauce from a jar...

These are the lace scarves I knit for my girlfriend gifts this year. My favorites are the beige and grey ones. That is Rowan tapestry yarn made from merino wool and soybean fiber! They are so soft and shiny and I bought several skeins of it. These scarves are only 18" or so long and you pull one lace panel through the "keyhole" and wear it like an ascot. I just love this pattern I found on Earthfaire. I have to say I am a fan of theirs now because they have bead knitting supplies and patterns as well as gifts and things for knitters! :)

before and after!

Melissa and I had a long overdue Crafty Fun Night! After cancelling or getting busy at the last minute I don't know how many times, we each finally got some pictures printed and got together. We ordered delivery from Hunan, loaded up the dvd player with Christmas specials, and pounded in eye hooks while we waited. After supper, we sat at that table for hours bent squinting over our work. It was actually quite hard to decide what to do with each of them because we really had lots and lots of materials to play around with.

I am so pleased with the way they all turned out! And it is always so fun to see Melissa so excited! I felt so bad she had to leave them here at the end of the night so they could dry. She is probably dying to just go and look at them because while typing this, I've probably gotten up about 4 times already to go look! They are just stunning. Melissa agrees with me that even though the resin is transparent, it adds so much of something that you can't quite explain. You have to see them to understand. I hope they are dry by tomorrow night so I can bring hers to her at work! We both agreed that we will be making these not only yearly, but year round because they are so awesome! Now what to string them with?

Erika Knight Bootees...

I hit the big sale at Jo-Ann Fabrics the other day and picked up a copy of Simply Knitting and got a free 2009 Pattern Calendar with it! It is a British and rather expensive but lovely magazine so I grab it whenever I see it--once even at a tuck shop in Denmark! I immediately set to work on these bootees from the calender pattern with some leftover Rowan Tapestry and had just enough. I had these buttons from the antique store and the color changes really cooperated with me as far as halfway matching! These will go to my friend and co-worker Rachel who is due in February with a baby boy!

And these will be the centerpiece of tomorrow's crafty fun night... More on that later!

more of the same...

Nothing much new to report around here. Still plugging away at Christmas knitting here and there. Have done LOTS and LOTS of baking. We did have our extended family Christmas today where we had an ornament exchange. I had intended to make a "Maynerd" ornament for every cousin and household, but I had trouble finding the right picture of him. I was able to make just one in time for the exchange. We all saw each other recently at our cousin's wedding, but it was nice to all be together and actually have time to visit.

Here is the "Maynerd" ornament and a rabbit ornament for my sister. I realized after I'd poured Maynerd that I would have some resin left over. I'd been saving this Brier Rabbit Molasses jar lid for a small project for some time because there is a picture of a winking rabbit in a suit on the lid and the entire thing is about the diameter of a quarter. I left this lid unpainted, punched in my eye hook, threw in some beads left over from a bead knitted purse I made for her years ago and this rabbit charm that I've always wondered what I'd do with. I've been frustrated with this project in that it is kind of a chore to round up digital pictures and get prints made, but now I'm really thinking about simple collage ornaments. Hmmmmm...

Just do it!

Kauni preview...

I just couldn't help it. Last night I lucked out with a surprise flex, so I sat in my chair and really tried to stay on task with some Christmas Knitting...and instead wound up a new ball of yarn and began a project! This is from my favorite yarn shop in Denmark. The shopkeeper had designed an awesome felted purse with this yarn and actually gave us a copy of her uncopyrighted pattern! I'm sure this will only get knitted on here and there, but I get such terrible Startitis. This yarn is very clingy and grippy, kind of like Shetland yarn. And don't let that that picture fool you, that is a HUGE ball of yarn--over 600 yards! I have enough yarn for 2 purses in 2 different colorways, but one will have to use scraps of the other so I need to see how this pattern turns out for finishing the second. I've only knit 9 rows so far, but I keep looking ahead at my yarn because the colors change soooooooo subtly.

Brenda's bridal purse

Oh how I love finished projects! This is Brenda's bridal purse-hot off my needles and newly sewn into it's frame. If I was smart I would have included something in the photo for scale. This purse was quite a bit smaller than the purses I knit for Melissa and Anna because the frame was slightly smaller and curved. I knit this on size US 00 needles with size 8 Perle cotton thread and size 10/0 seed beads purchased at my local Hobby Lobby. The beading design on this purse is alternating rows of diamond shaped and was pretty mindless--my kind of design! Brenda's Big Day will be here before we know it! Now I have to go and start work on the garter!

I have the very BEST friend in the entire known universe!

Last night was the worst night in living memory at work. Of course I'm BRIMMING with pride as far as how we work together as a team when the ca ca interfaces with the fan, but it is mentally and emotionally draining when bad things happen. I called my best friend and coworker when I got home and she was on her way home for a visit to her Folks, but she first stopped by and TOTALLY surprised and CHEERED ME UP with these absolutely GORGEOUS flowers! I am going to bring them along with me to our Griswold Family Field Trip just so we can all enjoy them! I sent the scraps of Brenda's dessert puff pastry dough and a platter of sugar cookies home with her to enjoy with her family. As crappy as work can be at times, I have to remind myself that it can always be WORSE and I constantly thank my lucky stars that I'm as privileged as I am to work with the greatest, most knowledgeable, helpful, and DEDICATED crew on God's green earth!

I hate frosting cookies!

I'm glad I got that off my chest. I baked a triple batch of these dastardly things last night and wound up with 8 or 9 dozen cookies. Once again I feel as though I've lost control. I NEVER think we will have enough! I plan on taking these to work a little at a time, and I will mail some and hand deliver some to friends as well as taking a big container-full to our Griswold Family Field Trip this weekend. I have no doubt that they will get eaten. Frosting the cookies is always, as my mother would say, "a truly hateful job."

For once I'm on the ball! Take note!!

Holy cow! For once I'm ahead of my holiday crunch as far as getting gifts/projects underway! I bought the book Alternacrafts last year while on a field trip with Melissa. Normally I would not BUY a craft book unless it was something REALLY special. This is a lovely book with lots of GREEN but also what I would consider to be ho-hum crafts, but I was so STRUCK by the chapter on resin encased photo necklaces/magnets that I bought it! I have been saving all kinds of jar and bottle lids for months and I'd already bought the liquid resin and hardener and finally worked up the courage to try a project. I am beyond thrilled with the results! I have been saving the metal lids of my Starbucks Frappaccino drinks and I have a circle template and cut up the wallet photos of my dear friend Deedee and her new brood and made Christmas ornaments out of them! I haven't even decided on the string for them yet, but I couldn't wait to post pics of them! I'm even going to take these over to her house to totally spoil Christmas just so I can show them to her! What a wonderful way to archive photos and trinkets and what not! They are little 3D collages and I think the kids will be able to help with them as far as archiving pics of their late mother as long as we all wear gloves and work in a well ventilated area! They are such user friendly little projects! I was laughing to myself as I was pouring the resin that I was "encasing them in Carbonite," as they'd say in The Empire Strikes Back! :) My brilliant sister has devised a Christmas ornament exchange in November, and forget the exchange, I think I'd like to make an ornament of my beloved Late Grandpa Maynerd for each household (and by that I mean each cousin AND their respective set of parents) but that all hinges on the perfect photo of Grandpa. I painted over each lid with an "antique bronze" paint and used and awl and hammer to set in the eye hook before I poured the resin and it doesn't affect plastic or what not, so Mom had a good suggestion to even use the rectangular lids of mayonaisse jars for this project. Oh the possibilities! :D I would like to make a set for my dear friend Lin and her newly adopted Ukrainian boys too! What a great project!

I also threw together some Christmas potpourri. I bought these little Christmas tree shaped tin jello molds at a garage sale years ago and they've been sitting in my cupboard ever since. I tried making soap in them last year and had to BEAT them on the floor to get the soap out so that was way too much work! I had the great idea to instead fill them with spicy holiday potpourri for Urban Family Christmas this year! I went to The Good Food Store up in Rochester and bought bulk bayberries, whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, whole nutmeg, and anise stars. I cracked but did not split the nutmeg to release the scent and mixed them all together before filling these tins. Then I wrapped them in baggies and tied them with jute twine and twisted these darling holly ties from a garage sale around them. They smell LOVELY and technically could be used for mulling spices because they are all food-grade spices! I will have enough for everyone in Urban Family and for my dear friends from my hospital floor! :) What a great way to de-stash the project room!

Brenda's Just Deserts

Brenda had her bridal shower this weekend and asked me to make and bring a dessert. I wanted to make something really special for her and finally decided on puff pastry vol-au-vent with lemon custard filling and topped with sweated, sugared strawberries. I don't own a vol-au-vent cutter, so these are technically bouchee pastries, but vol-au-vent sounded cooler. I was very pleased with the way these turned out. I stayed up literally all night making the pastry dough fresh and and from scratch; formed, baked and cooled the shells. The lemon custard was actually a second attempt after a scrapped vanilla cream custard version. This filling was much simpler and not nearly as fussy and included egg yolks, butter, and fresh lemon juice. The tartness of the lemon was perfect with the sugared strawberry. I used a pastry bag to fill them and actually assembled them at the party, hurried and in a corner, but I was pleased with how pretty they were! They were a hit and well worth the effort. In the future, these would be a snap to make if you have some frozen puff pastry and fresh lemons on hand.

Seasonal (sweat)Shop

Here is part of the new Fall Line of seasonal scrubs. I cut out quite a few scrubs the other day and sewed these 3 so they could be worn ASAP. I made pretty good time on the leaf and Halloween tops, but that star one was a bit of a bother. It was a 2 yard piece of un-labeled cut fabric that we found in her new house and is very pretty. We literally unearthed it in a cupboard and therefore weren't sure of the fiber content, but it has stars that are some sort of plastic or vinyl that are applied and not printed on the fabric. I laid it out on the ironing board and began folding and pressing...only to MELT the stars with the first contact of the iron! I wasn't sure whether I should abandon the project or proceed. In the end I successfully made a scrub out of it, but I had to press all the seams and folds somewhat blindly by laying another piece of fabric between the fabric and the iron! I am very pleased with the finished shirt and it survived it's initial laundering/drying in a medium heat dryer. Oh how festive our floor will be this week! :)

Sock Blockers!

I have always wanted wooden sock blockers but they are always so exorbitantly priced when you find them in antique shops. My parents and I stayed with my sister and her husband in August so that we could wander through Gold Rush Days at their fairgrounds. Mom and I each got a pair of wooden sock blockers for $10! We were thrilled! This vendor also had a single pair of stocking blockers, so we split the pair and each got one for $8 as I recall. They were in pretty good shape, but I did scrub them down in my tub once we got them here, and then Mom took them home and sanded them. I just got mine back this weekend and will sometime soon rub them down with a beeswax wood finish I have. And of course I had to try some of my knitting on them! We were even at a yarn shop that weekend and saw a brand new, single and plastic sock blocker from Fibertrends for $24.95, so I am very happy with these. Very seldom do I ever block socks, but I've just always wanted some wooden blockers. Maybe if I ever have some semblance of a sewing room some day, I'll hang them up on the wall!

While I was home I had to get out the Elizabethan hose I knit for my mother--just so I could try them out on the blocker! I knit these several years ago when I was just learning to spin. My mother sews reproduction clothing and costumes and has a few Elizabethan gowns. She had found an article about knit silk hose and remarked that under all her hoop skirts and petticoats, her legs got quite cold when she wore her costume. I ordered some tussah silk roving from EBay for $28.00/pound and started spinning sock weight singles on my drop spindle so as to be authentic. I measured every aspect of Mom's leg/foot, knit a swatch, did some math, and worked out a pattern for these and began knitting. I even tried to include some "clocks" on the ankles like the article discussed. This was quite an ambitious knitting project for me at the time, and I've saved my sketches and notes I kept as I was working on them, but I don't know that I could make another pair from that alone! I'm still very proud of them every time I see them though!

Hat for Avery

We are having a birthday weekend for my little niece and I wanted to knit her this hat. It was knit from Lamb's Pride worsted yarn on size US 6 dpn's....and it was a bit small! I have plenty of yarn so I'll just try again and give this to Deedee's nephew. This is such a cute pattern! The bunnies have little bobble tails and the "tassels" are in fact carrots! Back to my chair...

finito

These are my cousin's finished Perdita cuffs made with beads cut from Grandma's wedding crown. I found some variegated DMC size 8 pearl cotton thread that was pretty close to her wedding colors. I doubt these will ever be worn by any of the recipients, but it is a nice way for each of us to keep a bit of Grandma with us.


This is actually something that my mother knitted. She gave me a lovely tea cosy pattern book for Christmas and knit me an aran tea cosy in some lovely oatmeal worsted yarn. Not having my tea pot there, she couldn't seam the sides around the spout and handle. I finally assembled it last week and had to pose it with my latest tea score from Rochester. That box of PG Tips is the size of a cereal box and cost $18.99! I was so excited to get it though because that is the biggest box of the stuff I've ever seen! I'm excited to try this loose Tetley tea as well. I drink Tetley's every night at work with their string less bags. The weather is cooling down so it is very nice to have a cuppa nearby.

Anna don't look!

My cousin is getting married on September 6th and I wanted to make her a bridal purse to hang over her wrist as she walks down the aisle. My aunt told me the dress was an "oyster shell" color and I found this lovely, subtly variegated white and pale grey size 8 pearl cotton thread. I knit this on US size 0 needles with size 9/0 Gutermann beads. I surfed around a little looking for pictures of bead knitting until I found something I liked and started there and didn't use any sort of formal pattern. I only had to rip out and start over once at the very beginning because it was a little too wide for the frame. The bag shape is widened simply by regularly sliding a larger number of beads in the middle and a smaller number towards the ends. The entire purse is knit in one long strip, sewn into the frame, and then the sides are sewn together. It was a very free form and forgiving little project. I wanted to knit this for the Knitting Olympics this year and I DID finish knitting and cast off on the 22nd before the torch went out for these Games, but I had a late start. I could not find any size 9/0 beads in this town to work with that thread and I was getting a little nervous! I knit this in exactly one week! Originally I had planned to line it, but I kind of like how the light shines through those rows of beads. With bead knitting, you slide beads on the WRONG side of the work as well as the right side, so those beaded "pleats" are actually gaps in the knitting that are help open with the beads.

Sparky Fur

I have wedding knitting I really should be working on, but instead I have been playing with dog hair! Our family dog had his first hair cut this week and I asked them to save the fur for spinning. He is a beagle/poodle mix so the hair was quite short. I had about 2 ounces or so and carded it all out and tried to spin it...with no luck. Since the staple is so short, I had to really WAD it up to catch the twist because you just plain can't draft it. It would get very thick and thin in places which is fine, but I had trouble getting it to feed through the orifice or it would get hung up on the hooks. Oh well. I tried. I had been laughing about it and hoping I'd be able to knit him a sweater with yarn spun from his own fur! Maybe I can use it for needle felting. Or...I could do what any SANE person would do--throw it away! ;)

Oh, and here is a before and after picture of Sparky the Donor Dog! :) Isn't he a cute little guy?

County Fair

Mom and I did really well at the fair in Britt and Mason City. I entered a pair of those Perdita cuffs, a felted purse, a temari ball, and Deedee's zig zag mittens. In Britt I got a grand champion on the cuffs (I sewed the buttons on just prior to dropping them off and noticed that I had TOTALLY left out a row of beads! I guess the judge didn't notice or didn't care!), a reserve grand champion on the temari ball, and blues on the purse and mittens. My mother entered a hardanger liturgical stole she'd embroidered for our church and got the grand champion overall best in show! She won it last year too with a hardanger baptismal gown! :) I was very proud of her! I even told her as we were dropping our items off that I was just sure she'd win it again! In Mason City, I got blues on everything but won a special "Judge's Choice" award on the mittens. And of course you win $1.50 for each blue ribbon! Mom entered her baptism dress and got a blue as well. Now we're already thinking about what to enter next year!

Merino Wool

I went to demonstrate spinning at the local pioneer museum at their annual pork feed day. I had a lot of people stop and ask questions, etc. My sister came down for the afternoon and we had a little birthday party for her at the Dairy Queen. Mom was quite taken with the merino wool singles I was spinning and remarked how nicely that yarn would knit up for a pair of socks and how much did I want for it? So I spun up 2 spools worth and plied them together and got about 226 yards of this lovely heathery dark purple-y (I like your sweater! It's very purple-y! ;) yarn and gave it to her for an early birthday present. I will spin up and ply another 100 or so yards so she has enough for a pair of socks. It is a lovely blend of black merino wool with red and blue blended throughout.

WIP--Holly Leg Warmers

I know. I've started another project. Another project to sit on the pile with all the others and be picked up and knit on here and there. But isn't it pretty?! These are legwarmers (being knit in JULY no less!) from the fabulous book Handknit Holidays. They were supposed to be knit from a DK weight yarn, and instead I'm using some Summit Hill worsted that I found in Rochester. I was just sweating it and thinking they would be way too wide and tall for the pattern, but they are coming along very nicely. This has been some nice fairisle practice. I made good time on this first one and really may as well have knit the back panel of a sweater! Knitting back and forth, stranding and changing colors, fooling around with tension and following the chart backwards while purling, etc. has really made me appreciate the rationale behind the dreaded steek! I didn't say I'm looking forward to them, but I can certainly see why you'd want to do that. I like looking at the wrong side almost as much as the right side! :)

Happy 4th Of July!

Here is a picture of my most recent socks and my blindingly white legs! They are knit from Trekking sock yarn on size 2 dpn's and I finished them on my trip. My grandma and uncle from Fargo were at my parents' home visiting, and Grandma and I spent the afternoon chopping and freezing young rhubarb! While I was out in the garden cutting stalks, I couldn't help but think how nice my socks would look next to those pinks and greens! Grandma and Doug will go on to visit my brother's home where my sister will join them, and then they will ride the train home. We don't get to see them nearly enough but it was so nice to be together and visit. There is nothing so precious as working side by side in a kitchen next to your Grandmother! We had a beautiful day, we enjoyed wonderful food (including fresh corn on the cob!) and even better company--we couldn't have planned it any better! Nothing is more fitting than rhubarb on an Iowa July day!

And of course, THANK YOU to all our men and women in the Armed Forces today! We think of you ESPECIALLY today!

Did I NEED this stuff?

No. Could I LIVE without it? CERTAINLY NOT! ;)





Here are some pictures of the PLUNDER I bought on my last trip for those of you not lucky enough to enjoy a Trunk Show in my living room! I always try to get things for my kitchen because I spend a lot of time in there, and because that way I will USE my souvenirs. I picked up some hard to come by and local ingredients such as gelatin leaves, vanilla sugar, Speculaa spices, and Dutch Process cocoa (from Holland no less!). I found some lovely mini blanc mange pudding molds as well as wooden and tin Speculaa molds. Since we were in Cheese Country, I acquired cheese shavers and shredders for myself and gifts for everyone. And of course I could not come home without looking for tea strainers (note both Delft and steel). My kitchen favorites have to be the Delft sugar caster and the steel egg piercer!


Anyone who has been in this apartment knows that I am a slave to trinkets, bags, and blank books! I happily found a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank in Norwegian, a melamine tiffin, another wax seal, magnets, Romanov bookplates, dreidels, knitting needles, a rosary, Christmas ornaments, and stickers--just to name a few things. Now I just have to find homes for them within my abode!

And my FAVORITE thing to shop for...RAW MATERIALS! Holland had all kinds of "souvenirs" because they are known for tulips, wooden clogs, windmills, etc. whereas Denmark did not have typical "souvenirs". I bought all kinds of nic nac paddywhacks in Holland, but I bought YARN in Denmark! I did find some lovely trims and linen thread in Holland, a meter of this 60" wide fabric, as well as my first Knitting Nellie, but I found 3 more Nellies in Denmark! My favorite had to be the 3 skeins of Kauni yarn! I don't know if it is officially a "space dyed" yarn, but unlike regular variegated yarn (where it knits up a mottled color combination) this yarn has long stretches of color that blend into one another! You can kind of see the inside of the middle ball! It has vivid rainbow colors in sequence, so just imagine how a scarf or a shawl would knit up! I bought 2 more balls of a soft purple/blue/green blend for a purse. We saw the example in that yarn shop. The pattern was an original design of the owner and not available for sale, but after we visited with her and shopped, she surprised and delighted me by GIVING me a copy of the pattern! My mother has already threatened to steal both the yarn and pattern and begin work on it! We'll SEE about THAT! ;)

Baby Knitting

These are a two of the baby hats I knit for pregnant co-workers! Once again the star cap from Baby's Lace Set in Homespun Handknit. I love this pattern! I used the remnants of socks I knit last year in Lerwick to make the purple cap and the blue one was knit with homespun merino/tencel fingering weight yarn. I finished a pair of socks on the plane home and used the leftovers to knit a third, but I finished it at work and happened to be working WITH the recipient that night, so no picture of that one. These caps are a nice way to use up sock scraps and they knit up relatively quickly.

Time me!

This is some fabulous roving I bought at the at Stof2000 in Copenhagen. We found it on our way back from the Arbeids Museet. It had beads, threads, buttons in tubes, zippers, and various specialty fabrics on rolls--I didn't see any cottons or blends on actual bolts. We are so spoiled by JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobbies because everything is right there, but you pay the price with stock that does not rotate much and does not specialize. It is still interesting to look around and to see what people buy and you think about what kind of home sewing this culture does. A lot of the fabric was very pretty, but it was a color combination or a design that was just odd and you just wonder what they would DO with it! I didn't see any quilt shops in Denmark but there are some FABULOUS ones in Holland.

This store had a few stray skeins of acrylic yarn, and next to it a basket of 15g merino wool balls of roving! It was intended for needle felting, but I was pretty sure I would not have another opportunity on this trip to get any fiber so I bought 2 balls of 5 different colors for spinning! I couldn't wait to play with it when I got home! My suitcase was still in the living room and I was spinning this into a heavy worsted thick and thin variegated two ply yarn!
I was VERY pleased with how it turned out! I knit myself a Maltese Fisherman's Helmet like the one I'd made for Deedee, and I had JUST enough yarn! I hadn't spun on the wheel for a while and I and already thinking of de-stashing some fiber! This has to be a record for the quickest I've used up a bit of newly acquired stash!

Field Trip!

Mom and I just got back from a trip to Holland and Denmark! We spent one week in Amsterdam and another in Copenhagen! Of course we didn't get to see or do everything that we wanted, but I would gladly return to either city. We had a great time visiting museums, chapels, towers, markets, monuments, etc. There were also plenty of knitting points of interest! Here are just a few pictures for the time being!



We saw the Rembrandts and Vermeers and Van Goghs in Amsterdam, including a recently discovered early painting "Rembrandt Laughing" that will soon be returned to a private collection. We traveled to outlying areas in the Copenhagen area to see Roskilde Cathedral, the Vikingship Museum, and Karen Blixen's home.

I parted with a lot of money in the yarn shops, fabric stores, haberdasheries, department and grocery stores and BankRot-caliber stores found along the way! These are the prized souvenirs I seek out for myself! I'll post pictures of my plunder later!

One of my favorite discoveries from this trip was this collection of knitting spools we saw in a window on our way to The Houseboat Museum. I remember making these with old wooden thread spools and larger versions with pencils and oatmeal canisters. We call them a Knitting Nellie and I know in Norway they are called Strikke Lise, but I found a Strick Liesl in Holland and a Stricke Sussel in Denmark!

We got to see The Little Mermaid on the waterfront. I had seen pictures of her since I was a little girl, so it was neat to see her up close. You'd never guess from this picture that there were about 5 tour buses worth of people clambering around on the rocks next to me!

We also went to Kronborg Castle, better known as Hamlet's Castle, in Helsingor. We traipsed through the apartments, chapel, and finally the casemates where we met Holger the Dane! Legend has it that if Denmark is ever threatened, he will rise from his slumber and defend the nation. And all through Denmark, jeg snakket norsk med alle jeg traff--og de SVARTE meg pa Dansk! That was SO rewarding to me! I haven't been able to interact like that since I was last in Norway in 2001. Jeg elsker meg i Skandisk land!