Baking Bliss

This morning is a beautifully chilly rainy day which is perfect for baking.  I work night shifts the next 2 nights for my weekend and I always bake cookies to bring.  Saturday morning is fabulous for baking anyway because I turn on all the cooking shows on PBS.  Those are my Saturday morning cartoons.  And I just love my kitchen helper!  She likes to insert herself between me and the counter in this little corner just in case I drop something.  The Gophers play later today so she is now wearing her doggy football jersey and she'll sit with her dad for the game.  What did we do without her?

Anniversary Outing

Dave and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Saturday.  Good grief, where did this year go?!  Since the first anniversary is paper, we were planning a simple night out to a restaurant and the movies with a paper admission ticket.  Well Dave brought home the goods this year!  A guy he works with gave him tickets to the Wild hockey game because he had a wedding to attend and couldn't use them.  It was so nice for once to be actually ATTENDING something when normally I am fighting traffic and crowds trying to get to and from my hospital downtown. 

It is no secret that I am not a fan of organized sports but I had a really good time.  I do like hockey, but I sit and knit while Dave watches it on the TV.  I must have been paying attention to all his instruction though because I answered his quiz questions correctly during the game.  ("Now Winnipeg has what here?"  "An extra player?"  "Yes.  And what is that called?"  "A power play?"  "Power play is correct.")

There is something too about being in a large crowd of people as they react together.  You could feel the excitement of an attempted goal and the collective despair if we missed.  I was also impressed with how well they entertained the crowd during breaks with the music and the big screens and the kiss cam, etc.  And I loved that Nordy the mascot had hockey hair!

Garden Bounty

 My In-Laws have such green thumbs.  They kept me supplied with fabulous produce all summer long!  We are very lucky that our local farmers market is just a couple blocks away where we bought some potted herbs, bagels, eggplants and cilantro this summer, but everything else has come from Dave's parents.

 It seems every time I turned around, Marianne was bringing me cucumbers, zucchinis, tomatoes, carrots and peppers.  When you have produce like that, you have to put it in something and we really enjoyed pork maifun this summer.  I thinly sliced pork chops and marinated them in Chinese sweet barbecue and Dave was in charge of grilling it.  Then you stir fry up your veggies and some fried egg with maifun noodles.

So good.  This stuff doesn't last long around here.  We get about 2 servings and 2 sack lunches out of this.

They had 10 tomato plants this year that were taller than me!  I would go and pick tomatoes by the sackful and Marianne picked them by the clothes basketful and for every beautiful red tomato you'd pick, there were 5 more green ones on the vine.  They could literally feed an army with their tomatoes.

My sister gave me a canner and tool set at my bridal shower and I finally got a chance to play with it.  I am hooked on canning!  My dear friend Brenda always talked about how she loved it because each batch was a separate concoction and you could try all different variations on a theme.  Now I know what she meant!  I canned 4 dozen pints of salsas, tomato puree and tomato sauce.  I am just sorry I didn't start earlier in the summer and now I can't wait until next year.  We are going to try a little gardening here next year too.  We are not self sufficient by any means but finally having your own home somehow makes you want to homestead your yard and garden.  I love the idea that we'll be eating and cooking our own tomatoes all through the winter.  I can't wait!

What IS that you're blocking?!?

 My niece Annika has the same birthday as my husband.  She is currently very excited about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I have to admit, I didn't even realize they were popular again.  They have entire lines of action figures and toys and accessories and a new show on TV.  Boy am I out of it!  We asked her which one in particular she liked and what color he wore.  She favors Raphael and his color is red.  I perused Ravelry for TMNT patterns and found this combat scarf thing and whipped one up.  It is mostly stockinette stitch and so just rolled right up on itself and needed blocking, but it looked so funny on the board!

I used this pattern.  She put it right on when she opened it but she did say it itched.  I knit it out of Cascade 220 because that is all I had in the stash in the proper color.  I think it was the leftovers from the Gopher hats.  Hopefully she can actually play in it.

More Booties

 Lord knows there are plenty of babies around here or on their way so I've been kicking out a few more pairs of booties.  This pattern is so quick and easy from 60 Quick Baby Knits and the best part is they are knit with worsted weight yarn.  Who doesn't have a homeless stash of worsted sitting around?

These will go to my new niece Laina and were knit from the very last remaining yards of the Lornas Laces Sherpherd worsted.  I had enough to get to row 14 on each one and then finished them with some gray Patons Classic Wool.  I would have given them to Melissa but they only fit a 6 month old. 



 

These were knit from Malabrigo worsted and will go to cousin Christine.  These are Maynerd buttons again.

We've had a run on pins around here lately...

 My dear, dear friend Melissa is adopting a baby girl!  The child is actually a relative of hers and although I haven't actually spoken to her recently, it was supposed to be finalized yesterday or the day before.  She and Brenda and I are getting together towards the end of the month to have a belated 1 year birthday party for her.  Well of course that means hand knits so I produced this for her.  I tell ya, I am knitting the crap out of my Reno yarn because this was knit from the two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted (Midway) I got at Jimmy Beans Wool with the baby in mind.

This pattern is called Presto Chango and was the result of a design contest held by Jimmy Beans Wool.  That connection was total coincidence but how cool is that?  I was simply looking for a 12-24 month sweater pattern that took 450 yards or less.  This thing was so simple to knit too and only 2 seams to finish it.

 I think I spent more time sewing on buttons than I did seaming.  That is my kind of sweater!  I sure hope the baby likes it and gets plenty of use out of it.  The yarn is machine washable too so that makes it more "Mommy-friendly".  I've said it before, if there was anyone put on this earth to be a mother, it is Melissa and I couldn't be happier for her!

I used some shell buttons that I got years ago because I needed 14 and these were the most uniform that I had.  I have slowly used these for different things and I store them in a spice bottle I bought in a grocery store in Paris thousands of years ago while backpacking.  The herbs are long gone but I am a nerd/pack rat and love little containers.

These I am not sure will fit.  I had a terrible time finding booties for 12+ months.  This pattern went up to 9 months and I'd made a pair before and they seemed large.  I thought I'd do one better and knit them with needles 2 sizes larger than called for.  I guess we'll see.  She can always use them as pot scrubbers or fire starters if they don't fit!

Baby for Christine

My wonderful cousin Christine is pregnant with her first baby.  She and her husband Paul are expecting a girl in September.  I bought this Koigu at Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno because I loved the colors and thought I'd use it for a pair of socks.  It looked so nice next to the leftover gray from my last Sprinkle sweater so it became another Sprinkle instead.  I thought I'd made a mistake on the last one because the neck edge was slanted and the picture in the book had a straight edge.  This neck edge turned out slanted too.  My mom has had problems with errata in that same book so I am chalking it up to that.  The two buttons came from Grandpa Maynerd's button box.

 

Of course I knit my go-to baby items to go with it.  There was enough Koigu left over for some multicolored sockies and I used some Spud and Chloe to knit a star baby cap.

These I kind of came up with by accident.  I was looking for some appropriate leftover worsted in my stash for a different hat and booties.  I didn't really have enough scraps of anything but I have all kinds of white Patons Silk Bamboo.  It is so soft and perfect for baby items but I thought it would be kind of boring or would look too baptismal.  Then I remembered I have 3 different colors of leftover Rowan Kidsilk Haze that I didn't know what I was going to do with.  I stranded the two together to make this pair of booties and a Aviatrix bomber helmet.  The cap is finished with another Grandpa Maynerd button.

This is the raspberry bush in our backyard.  My dad had raspberry bushes when I was growing up but they were short, scrubby actual bushes and ours is more like a vine.  Every day we've picked the handful of ripe berries and saved them in the freezer for a rainy day.  I wanted to make jam if we got enough but I found this recipe...

These were fabulous!  I absolutely love this pastry!  I'm already thinking about it filled with apples or using it to top a chicken pot pie.  We are still getting plenty of berries every day but next time I make these, I'll strain out the seeds.  The recipe made twice as much filling as was needed so we're eating the remainder as refrigerator jam.  I just can't believe how tasty and simple the fruit filling is.

Sprinkle

I finished another Sprinkle sweater for my new baby niece Laina.  This was knit with some Koigu PPM for the body and Shibui for the cuffs/collar/border.  The yarn was purchased at Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno.  I don't think you can ever have too much Koigu laying around.  I really like this pattern...until it comes time to attach the sleeves and weave in all the ends and all the BLOCKING. 

As much as I love Koigu and their thousands of handpaint colorways, it seems I can never find a Koigu solid color that will coordinate nicely with a handpaint colorway.  I am very happy with this color combination but the Shibui fabric is a little limper than the Koigu fabric.

 What a lovely few days off I've had.  I finished this pair of socks out of yarn I bought a few years ago in Amsterdam at De Afstap.  I wound it forever ago and of course did not save the label but I know it is Regia.  I loved the colors and have wanted to get busy on these socks for some time.

 I started knitting these in the Minneapolis airport waiting out a blizzard on our way to Reno.  I will wait until fall to wear them.  Souvenir stash socks!

 I had time to play in the kitchen a little.  Here are some cider doughnuts I baked and dipped in sugar rather than the cider glaze.  They made a nice little breakfast treat but we went to the Ramsey County Fair later that day and didn't make very good dietary choices.  They were tasty choices to be sure, just not very healthy!

 We had supper at Dave's parents' house and I baked some lemon bread for dessert.  I'd been wanting to try out these little paperboard loaf pans I got on clearance at Joann Fabrics.  I love these things!  The recipe makes 2 standard bread loaf pans or 4 of these mini loaf pans.  We also gave one to Dave's sister and brother-in-law while they were here helping with shelves and gave one to our neighbors. 

I'd been meaning to make Lopi another dog bed for the living room and finally got around to it.  Dave stuffed it while I made the slip cover.  The fabric came from IKEA and reminded me of Marimekko.  Here she is napping on it.  She is so darned cute!

I finished some booties to post in my Etsy shop and someone was kind of curious when I was taking the pictures!  What a nerd!

Puppy and Poppies

A while back I bought some really cute, really busy fabric with camping woodland dogs on it.  I'd planned to make some obnoxious pajama lounge wear out of it but instead I made a dog bed for Lopi.  She seems to like it.  I need to make her another one for upstairs.

Here are some of the poppies that grow behind and on the south side of our house.  They are pink and frilly and look more like carnations than poppies.  I remember seeing pink poppies in York at the train station but they were growing on the actual railroad tracks so I thought they were pink because of pollution.  Apparently pink frilly poppies exist in nature.

I think they are almost prettier on the underside.

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!