New house. New scarf.

 We are moved in!  I can't say that everything is finished and put away in it's place, but everything is in the house.  More importantly, we are moved out of our old apartment and we never have to go back there again.  I can't tell you how wonderful it is to finally have a real home and to know we don't ever have to move again.  My favorite part of the house is the washer and dryer!  I never thought I'd be so excited to do laundry!  We really enjoy our deck too.  It has two levels and faces west which is perfect for breakfast in the shade.  We are discovering all the plants and prior garden plans of the house.  These are shrub roses from the front garden.  There are tiger lilies and poppies coming up in the back too. 

The Ramsey county fair is next week and I finally finished another Wingspan scarf.  This colorway is called "canyon clay" and is for my sister's birthday this month but I will give it to her after the fair.

I just love the color changes of this yarn and I think my sister will too because she loves red.  I knit 13 scallops on this one and was quite pleased with it.  We have had our new dog for 3 weeks now had much joy and frustration with her.  We are almost getting to the point where we can trust her unsupervised in the house but it was really touch and go for a while.  We actually considered taking her back to the humane society and just agonized over it but she is doing much better.  I didn't think I'd ever be able to knit again because we had to watch her every second.

And of course as I was taking these pictures, someone else trotted up and decided she should lay down on it.  I kind of knew she was going to do that because dogs like to lay on the choicest areas of the floor.  What a nerd.  We'll just say the dog is in the picture for scale.

One last photo

 I am very  happy to say that we are MOVING!  I can not wait to be done!  It has been a slow but steady process between shifts and Dave's handy sister and brother in law have been so generous with their time.  The next time I post pictures, it will be from the deck of our house.

 I wanted to knit another Shedir hat with a sold color yarn and larger needles.  I was quite pleased with it even though it was a pain in the butt to knit.

Oh, and we got a dog.  WE GOT A DOG!  What were we thinking?!?  We are already living like refugees as we move and we thought it would be a good idea to get a dog that needs close supervision!  She is a beautiful 7 month old terrier mix and very well mannered but she is still a bit of a puppy and needs to be watched closely.  I feel sorry for her too though because her first 4 days with us were spent in this apartment and she probably has no idea what is going on.  We kind of accidentally got her because we went to the Humane Society on Wednesday "just to look" and ended up bringing her home.  We named her Lopi.  Dave was the one to suggest a yarn related name.  Have I mentioned lately that I love him?

I hate pink!

 I hate pink but once again for Brenda, I was willing to make an exception.  Here are two more chemo caps I finished for her this week.  This first one is Shedir (scroll to page 3).  It was a surprise pattern from Knitty that I've had for some time and always wanted to try.  It is written as a bona fide chemo cap and is therefore very close-fitting so I've never attempted it.  As pleased as I was with the final object, I have to say this was a real PIA!  Every other row had close frequent cable stitches so it was kind of slow going.  I added one more repeat of the cable segment because I was concerned it would be too short.  I'm sure glad I did!  I also wish I had used a solid color yarn because the cables get a little lost in the bands of color.  This is Lion Brand Sock Ease yarn with aloe in it.  I have knit several pairs of socks out of this yarn and didn't think the bits of color would be this prevalent. 

This pattern is The Amanda Hat and I used Lion Brand Organic Cotton .  I  know Brenda wanted vibrant colors but I wanted to make at least one that was cotton.  The light wasn't very good when we took these pictures but the colors are green, purple and pink.  It reminded me of pale rainbow sherbet.  I used 2 sizes smaller needles and omitted a few rows because I wanted it to be more close-fitting and to just cover the ears.  I wanted it to look like a chemo cap and not a stocking cap.  Dave's mother went through chemo last summer and her hair only thinned a little.  She was concerned about attending our wedding after going through chemo and was prepared with an expensive wig and head coverings that she never used.  She had remarked now that I've done all this work knitting, Brenda won't lose her hair!  If she doesn't, I've done my part!  I'm rooting for you Brenda!  Love you!

Caps for Brenda

 My dear friend Brenda starts her chemotherapy towards the end of the month and she asked me to make a few caps for her.  She wanted "vibrant colors".  Normally I am very anti-acrylic when it comes to yarn but for Brenda, I was willing to make an exception.  I went to Joann's to just see what they had and really liked this one for the glitz of metallic and the colors.  I used size 11 needles and cast on 56 stitches and just knit a plain stockinette hat.  We went fishing the day before yesterday and I was able to cast on and finish it in that one sitting.

 This one is another acrylic blend but it reminded me a lot of Noro Kureyon.  I worry that the acrylic will make her sweat and her skin won't be able to breathe but maybe the eyelets in the pattern will make it a little air conditioned.  Of course I tried them on with a full head of hair and maybe not having any hair will make a difference too.

 I used this pattern and my favorite part was where she posed with her hat like this and said she loved the top spiral of the hat and it made her want to "bow to strangers just so they can see the top of her head."   I have yarn for a couple more so I'd better keep busy.

Reno

 Dave and I went to Reno over the weekend for his bowling tournament.  April 18th usually has halfway decent weather 'round these parts but not this year.  We drove to the airport in blizzard conditions.  I was wearing my Keen sandal shoes with socks and had to walk through slush getting to and from the car.  They are my all-weather travel shoes because I wear them alone when warm and with socks if chilly.  I learned they are not winter shoes.

 I had never flown in winter conditions and was a little nervous watching them de-ice the planes!  Sitting in the airport and looking out the windows, all you could see was WHITE.  Because of the weather, everything was delayed or canceled.  We  made it to Denver but missed our connecting flight to Reno.  Southwest then flew us to San Diego and we spent the night in the airport to catch the 0620 flight to Las Vegas with a connecting flight to Reno.  Laying low in the airport wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't JACK HAMMER ALL NIGHT.  We didn't have a good first day of vacation.

 We enjoyed some great views of the mountains as we flew on to Reno.  We never found out if this was Lake Tahoe or not.

 Here is a shot of the National Bowling Stadium where Dave bowled 9 games.  The team met at 1900 on Saturday for the first 3 games and again at 0700 on Sunday for the last 6.  I brought my knitting and got through 2/3 of a sock while watching all that.

 Speaking of knitting...I ventured out to Jimmy Beans Wool while Dave did a little gambling at the casino.  I rode the hotel shuttle to the airport and then took a taxi to the store.  I'd seen Jimmy Beans ads in my knitting magazines and was quite excited to go!  It was 3 miles from the airport in kind of a funny business park location but well worth the trip.

 They had a great selection of yarns and kits as well as fabric and a small selection of beads.  This store does a lot of mail order business too.  Since I didn't have Dave along with me, I got to take my time and wander around looking at everything while making my choices.

I got some Koigu PPP for a baby sweater and some socks, some Lorna's Laces worsted for a baby jacket, some coordinating Shibui, some Madelinetosh for socks, some superwash Malabrigo for a shawlette pattern from the store and a ball of Painted Desert sock yarn.

 I have to say there really isn't a lot to DO in Reno in the downtown area.  It is all hotel/casinos and motels.  The big hotel/casinos had some shops in them but there isn't really any shopping downtown or even souvenirs.  We saw a few liquor stores with souvenirs but I wasn't interested in shot glasses or ashtrays.  I liked all the vintage signs but you could walk around and see them all in an afternoon.  I think we saw more shops/restaurants/eateries that were closed up or for lease.  I don't know if the downtown is drying up or maybe it was still a little too early in the season.  We rode the Sierra Spirit bus up to the University to the Historical Society to learn a little about the area.  You would have thought we were local celebrities because they were just thrilled that a couple from Minnesota wanted to come to their museum.  They didn't even charge us admission!  Reno is 220,000ish people and the rest of the non-downtown city that we saw was just a normal city.  Downtown is great if all you want to do is bowl or drink or gamble.

Downtown was OK during the day, but at night the drunks and panhandlers were out and you had to be mindful of where you were walking.  I took so many pictures of the signs during the day but didn't get too many of them lit up at night because I just didn't like being out on the street after dark.

 Saw lots of police but only one Sheriff's Department vehicle.  Sadly we didn't see Lt. Dangle.  I watched a lot of Reno 911! prior to the trip.  That show is a guilty pleasure of mine!

On Sunday after bowling, we walked down Sierra Street to the Reno Bead Shop.  I got some turquoise and some size 8/0 seed beads for knitting.  I also picked up some corral beads and some size 11/0 seed beads.  I just loved the mint green ones.  They remind me of jadeite bowls.  We checked out the river walk and enjoyed the 78 degree weather while out walking.

It was an OK trip.  Even though it wasn't targeted for me, I still got to do the 2 things I wanted to do while on a bowling field trip.  Our flight home was uneventful but we landed in Minneapolis in the middle of a winter storm warning and came home to THIS!  Enough already Mother Nature!

Time me

 The census on my floor was really down all week so I enjoyed a few days on call and cranked out a new bead knitted purse.  I have quite a few BagLady purse frames I snapped up on clearance years ago.

 These beads started life as a curtain tieback I purchased on clearance at Walmart about a thousand years ago.  It was a Trading Spaces decorating accessory and they were strung onto wire and the wire braided.  I would never have used it as a tieback but just loved the colors so I pulled the wire out and strung the beads onto nylon thread to be used for bead knitting.

I know I've mentioned before that transferring the beads from the nylon thread to the perle cotton is the worst part.  You tie a knot in the nylon and tighten it around the end of your perle cotton and then slide the beads onto the thread.  If the beads are on the smaller side, you hit some tight ones every now and then and you get stuck or the thread can snap.  I've even cut my hands on the nylon from pulling.  It is worse than any nasty paper cut I've ever had.  The end of the perle cotton also becomes worn and frayed from all the sliding and needs to be trimmed as you go.  Here is my little dish of snipped nylon and perle cotton thread and beads that didn't make the cut.

I bought some gold satiny fabric, probably acetate, years ago at a garage sale for a quarter and actually liked the darker wrong side better for this project.  I traced around the finished knitted piece and cut this fabric out about 1/2" wider on all sides.  I  machine stitched up the sides, turned under the edges and pinned it to the knitting after it was sewn to the purse frame.

The lining was hand stitched to the knitting and was probably the fussiest part of the whole ordeal.  This would have worked much better with a curved/upholstery needle and I could have sworn I had a few but do you think I could find them?  I'll have to keep my eye open for some.

You can't really see the design of the purse but the increases look like petals.  I wish there was more contrast between the background thread and the beads but if I used a darker color, the greens would be lost.  I am pleased with how it turned out and I still can't believe I cranked it out in less than a week!  I still have plenty of the bead mixture left over.

Beaded Wrist Warmers

 I have felt the need to do some bead knitting in the form of beaded wrist warmers.  Lord knows I have lots of beads but I don't have an abundant supply of of solid colored fingering weight yarn.  I recently discovered an excellent yarn shop near me that I can drive to by myself (!!!) and I picked up a few skeins of appropriately colored yarn.  This is M & K Alpaca Silk which was soft and wonderful to work with.

Now for the beads.  These are some size 9 Martha Blue colored seed beads I bought from an embroidery/yarn shop in Thirsk, England.  Mom and I were in town visiting James Herriot's surgery and this was a lovely little souvenir.  The most tedious part of bead knitting is stringing your beads on nylon thread and then transferring them onto your knitting yarn.  Size 9 beads work perfectly with fingering weight yarn but that size can be hard to find.  Gutermann beads are size 9 and sometimes sold in racks in quilt shops or fabric stores.

Using size 0 needles, I cast on 50 stitches and used this charted pattern for the design.  I used a provisional cast on, undid it at the end, and used a three needle bind off to join the edges.  My nieces were quite interested in these so I might be making more for some birthdays later in the year.

Easter Babies

 My nephew Trevor and his wife Courtney are expecting a baby in July and will be visiting this weekend so I have been rushing all week trying to get some baby crafting done for them.  I am a firm advocate for baby girls because I don't care for the color pink and there is no law that says you have to make pink things for them.  I got this cute teal flannel for 60% off at Joann's and edged it with fuchsia blanket binding.  Fuchsia in small amounts can be stunning.

I have had a tutorial for this diaper pouch for some time and have wanted to try it out.  I used linen purchased on sale and some whale total-impulse-buy cotton from Joann's.  I was standing at the cutting table getting something else and saw those whales in the pile to be put back and just had to get some because they were so cute!  This was the first time I'd ever sewn with real linen.  I love the look of it but it wasn't fun to work with.  Maybe that will get easier with experience.  I absolutely hate cutting out fabric because I am impatient and as long as I was taking the trouble to make one, I made three.  One will go to my nephew and his wife, another will go to my sister, and the third will go to my husband's niece Becky. 

Here is another knit dress for size 0-6 months knit with my stash of bargain Woodlands yarn from Micheals.  As much as I love this yarn, I think I'm going to start cutting and discarding the big stripes of salmon colored sections because I don't like them next to the other 'jewel tones'.  I'm knitting a matching pair of booties that I can work on tonight and finish up in the car/hotel tomorrow.

This weekend we are getting together for Easter, my nieces birthday and *sigh* my birthday so last night I baked a triple batch of the compulsory frosted sugar cookies.  My little nephew really likes these and when he says "cookie" it sounds more like "dookie".  :)  My big nephews like them too and I made extra to send home with them.  I made a container to take to work with me tonight and they just phoned and put me on call.  More cookies to share with family!  These are the last frosted sugar cookies until October because the frosting doesn't behave once there is any humidity in the air.  I made mostly eggs because they're easier and faster to frost but I made a bunny for each of the nieces and nephews.

Shop til you Drop!

My dear friends Melissa and Brenda came up from Iowa this weekend and we all stayed in a hotel near the Mall of America.   It was Girls' Weekend and we had a blast!  It officially started with dinner at Red Lobster followed by shopping at IKEA.  We gabbed in our hotel room til all hours Friday night and got up early Saturday morning.  By 10 AM we were cruising the mall and shopped our carefully planned list of stores until about 2 PM.  We lunched at Cracker Barrel and then hit the Burnsville Mall.  By that time we were just dead but revived ourselves in the hotel pool and had a quiet evening crafting in our room, painting our toenails and grazing for supper on all the great snacky foods we'd brought.  I hadn't seen those two since the wedding but this kind of weekend was long overdue!  We had such a great time and I am sure we'll do this again.  I just hope that in the coming years, I will be able to drive them to the different quirky stores and attractions in the city.

 I knit each of them a Wingspan scarf out of Loops and Threads Woodland yarn that I got on clearance at Michael's.  I just fell in love with this yarn because it was on clearance but also because it reminds me of Kauni yarn the way it slowly changes color.  It has a much softer hand that Kauni which feels coarser and itchier.  I literally bought bags and bags of the stuff.  This is a a jewel tones colorway that looked like Brenda.

 This is the more neutral palette I used for Melissa.  Years ago I knit a taupe ruffle scarf for her after she mentioned she'd had one years before and loved it but lost it somewhere.  This colorway reminded me of that scarf.  The pattern calls for 8 scallops but I made these a little longer with 11.  In all honesty, I think this would be better even longer and next time would do maybe 13 or 15 scallops.

These photos were taken on the bed of our hotel room because I raced all week to finish them in time for the weekend and literally wove the ends in that evening in the room.  Here is a close up of the color changes.  I've already started another one with a different colorway just to see what it is going to look like!

i like sprinkles

I mean I REALLY like sprinkles.  Dave and I didn't really get a chance to do anything for Valentine's Day because I was back and forth to my sister's and parents' homes following Mom's surgery.  I baked the compulsory frosted sugar cookies for the holiday and discovered I had (count them) 5 varieties of Valentine sprinkles in my baking cupboard.  I never formally brought any to work because I didn't have time to bake more, but I stored them in the backseat of my car as we don't own a chest freezer.  We'd had a particular hairy night at work and we all ended up staying a little late, so I did go and get some from the car to share with my co-workers.  As far as Valentines go, I bought Dave a 2 bushel plastic clothes basket because he carries the laundry back from the laundry room for me and he hates my woven rush basket.  Am I romantic or what?  Happy Late Valentines Day.

Alpaca Socks

I tell ya, if you want to get a lot of knitting done, get yourself a nasty sinus cold.  I can't believe how  much knitting I got done this week.  The only trouble is, that is about ALL I did.  These are some alpaca blend socks I started knitting last year after we had just moved in and while I was still in orientation for my job.  I wasn't driving here yet so I would bring this to work on while I waited for Dave to come and collect me at the end of the day.  Those were exhausting stressful days in a new state and city and new job and knitting helped to calm my nerves.  I was glad to finish these and get them off the needles.  I bought this yarn at Prairie Yarns in Fargo but the label is long gone.  These were knit on size 1 needles with 76 stitches per row.

 My new niece Becky asked if I would do some knitting for her and I was only too happy to oblige.  She sent me a picture of a baby hat she wanted to give to her sister in law and baby niece.  Normally I would find some suitable yarn in my stash for small projects but I hate pink and have no pink yarn in this house.  She was going to shop online for yarn and send it to me.  I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure what she was going to send me, but when the package arrived, I was thrilled and relieved to find 2 skeins of Cascade 220!  I used a basic hat pattern from 60 Quick Baby Knits and improvised the bow.

There was so much yarn left over that I also knit a pair of Leaf Lace Booties from the same pattern book.  I cranked these things out while sick on the couch the last 2 days.  That background fabric is my cut of linen that I got on sale at Joann's.  I have a few things in mind I'd like to sew if I ever get the machine set up again.

Dress for Leah

 Last week I went to Michael's to see what I could see.  I much prefer Joann's when it comes to craft supplies because they have fabric and Michael's does not.  Both stores have basically the same assortment of yarns and knitting tools but Joann's has a far superior selection of knitting books.  Anyhoo, I was in Michael's and stumbled across a store exclusive line of fingering weight wool yarn that was on clearance...so I bought a few bags full of it.  It is a soft slowly self-striping yarn that reminded me of Kauni.

 I had been looking for something to knit this baby dress and got started right away.  I tweaked the pattern just a little by using size 4 needles and fingering weight yarn instead of worsted but I wonder if there were issues with translation that led to those errors.  I just loved that this was knit in one piece and there was no seaming!

The dress is begun knitting flat back and forth to create the neck opening and then joined in the round for the yoke and body.  The shoulders and sleeves are created with mitered increases to form angles.  The upper edges of the arms are bound off and the underarms cast back on to shape the body.  What a wonderful pattern.  I wanted to use some of Maynerd's buttons but I didn't have 2 matching in a coordinating color.  I was very happy with these gray vintage-looking buttons from my stash.

I finished the dress on Saturday and worked on a different project yesterday during the Super bowl.  I'm doing some knitting for my new niece and I'll post those pictures later.  I DID have to share pictures of (some) of our Super Bowl food!  We are just terrible when we are home together--almost like alcoholics encouraging each other.  So long story short, we majorly cheated on our diet while the game was on.  We'd picked up a jar of Cheez Whiz on Saturday expressly for soft pretzels.  Here are the pretzels rolled out and shaped and brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with coarse salt.

Here they are fresh out of the oven brushed with butter.  I hadn't made these in a while and for good reason.  They are so good but not so good for you.  I used to bring these as treats on my Sunday to work when I used to work at the nursing home years ago.  Now it is time to get back on that dieting horse. 

Cold Snap

It has been a bit cold here in Minnesota of late.  Dave picked me up from work this morning and the bank sign said -11.  Our efficiency apartment has heated pipe radiator-type heating and we use 2 small space heaters to zone heat the living room and bedroom.  Our balcony door has been frozen for days and here is a skanky up close picture of the frosted/iced over door frame.  COLD.

We took a small break from our diet to enjoy some cold weather comfort food.  It had warmed up to -2 this afternoon (heat wave!) while we were out and about and we picked up two 28 oz. cans of whole canned tomatoes for roasted tomato soup.  I first saw this recipe years ago on America's Test Kitchen and took detailed notes to make it again.  It is the most velvety tomato soup you've ever tasted and I now add 1/4 tsp or so of red pepper flakes when cooking the onions to add a little more heat to the dish.  Nothing comforts you on a butt cold day like a piping hot bowl of soup.  We made Jarlsberg grilled cheese sandwiches to go with them.  The best thing about this soup is that you roast the tomatoes in a 450 degree oven so the kitchen and house is warmed up while you cook.  Bring it on Mother Nature.