The Invasion

These mallard ducks cross my yard from the creek across the street, cross the adjacent street, and then go who knows where, but they stop traffic in the process. They're also pretty regular because they will go in the morning about the time I'm standing in my kitchen window drinking my pre-slumber glass of milk, and they come back around suppertime. This was a particularly big group of them on this day. You can always tell when they are there because their little webbed feet make surprisingly a lot of noise on the ground and especially in the fallen leaves. When my dog was still alive (may God rest his little doggie soul), he'd go nuts whining as he watched them traverse the yard. These truly awful pictures were taken through the screen of my kitchen window because I tried once to take it out while they were heading through and it scared them and they FLEW away!

Self Striping Socks

These are my sister's Christmas socks this year. I figured I could post a picture of them because she's already seen them on the needles and she DID pick out the yarn after all. I have a lot of yarn left over too. I threw the label away already (that is a bad habit of mine) so I can't tell you what brand it is or the yardage. I do remember it is 75% superwash wool and 25% polymide. I used a Stahl sock pattern with 60 stitches to fit a size 38/40 foot and knit these on size 3 double pointed needles. I am very pleased with the results and even started on my sister in law's Christmas socks tonight. I hope to get one more pair of socks finished before Socktober is finished! You might also note my hideously albino legs! Some people wear reflectors at night, but I find I do just fine wearing shorts!

Crafty Fun Party

Melissa came over for decorating eggs for Halloween. I know that sounds absolutely crazy, but there was a really cute project idea in Martha Stewart Living for decorated Halloween eggs. We made 2 jack'o'lantern ones, but the rest were mostly black ones with fall/Halloween things on them. I made a candy corn covered one that I was very pleased with, but it cracked while I was blowing it out. Summer stopped over towards the end of the evening and made a couple as well. Here is a bowl of our combined efforts. We turned the TV music channel on oldies and sat around the table working on these and had a great time.

This is a knit dishcloth from a pattern I found over at Bagatell in her archive. Here it is being blocked and I must admit i've never blocked a dishcloth before! But I suppose it doesn't have to be used as such. Hmmm. Anyways, it was pretty frumpy looking when I first cast off so I pinned it into shape and sprayed it a little. I have two other solid colors of cotton yarn for a few more of these. The compulsory knitted cotton dishcloth stocking stuffers are going to be much more exciting this year!

Winter Weather Free Sample

We got a dusting of snow on the 12th. I don't even know how much we got, but it was enough to cover the grass. It's hard to believe I was hanging scarves on this tree just two days before this was taken! And of course the snow is all gone now, but I was pretty excited I can tell you! I did of course almost bite it walking that day and I skidded in a parking lot with my car...so I guess I'm not 100% thrilled with all the little things that go along with snow and cold weather. Oh yeah, and my nostril hairs kept freezing together when I'd breathe in. That sucks too. But nevermind all that now, isn't it pretty?!?

Must. Keep. Knitting.

I recently did some more Niece Knitting. I finished this little sweater from a pattern found in the book Simple Knits For Cherished Babies. I used some DK-ish weight yarn that I've had for some time. It isn't exactly illegal to knit baby things in colors that are not pastels, but I still felt a bit funny doing it. It is finished in abalone shell buttons. I quite like this pattern and have made 3 or 4 of these.



I also chose this hat from the "Bouncing Baby Set" pattern found in the book Homespun, Handknit. It did use up all the yarn (I just this morning used up the remaining lengths to make the tassel and cords!). I fooled around with the gauge as much as I could, but it is still far too big for any baby to wear together with that sweater, unless that baby's body is wildly misproportionate! I will try it out on my older niece and if it is too small for her, I have a lovely baby cousin who might fit into it! I was sure to wave at everyone who drove by and saw a crazy woman putting a hat on a tree!


And yes, ok, I did some selfish knitting. I am all for being seasonal and my workscrubs AND my scarves shall reflect the time of year. The black scarf with the orange/yellow/red specks is Lion Brand "Fancy Fur" that is normally $6.00/ball for 89 or so yards, but I got it at Big Lots for $2.00/ball while I was up visiting my sister. SCORE! The blue (I'm thinking wintery/January) and the Fall (obviously) colorways were knit from the yarn I bought at the Mohair Goat Farm while I was up visiting my brother. I enjoy knitting scarves every now and again because they are pretty mindless and is a socially acceptable way to literally wrap yourself in yarn (rolling around in it tends to draw some funny looks). I also finished a sock but I won't take pictures of it until I finish its mate. I want to try to finish another full pair since it IS Socktober this month!

Garage Sale Enthusiasts Rioted Today...

This past weekend saw the "World's Largest Garage Sale" sponsored by the Cancer Society in the Twin Cities. I rode up with my parents and we met up with my sister and her husband for the festivities. We stayed overnight in a hotel with a pool (Yay!) and were up bright and early to wait in the line. We got to stand indoors while the line stretched clear around the building, and did I mention the sale was held in an empty, two story Macy's-ish department store in a mall? It is HUGE! The crowd was getting a little antsy as 10:00 approached and my Dad predicted the morning's headline in the newspaper! We all carried our own cell phones and SCATTERED once inside the door! I headed straight for the fabric section and found some nice trims, an Amish knitting board, some knitting needles, and this fabulous, colorful and obnoxious polyester fabric! It is just begging to be made into some tacky bags! I also came away with a really pretty tin with a picture of Queen Elizabeth II. I was washing it this morning and it was in fact a collectable biscuit tin from her coronation! So I think that is pretty neat! I'm sure I'll find something important to store in it!

Stupid Human Trick

Have you ever hypnotized a rabbit? My brother and sister and I used to raise 4-H rabbits and I don't know how we ever figured this out. It must involve nerve endings or something, but if you hold a rabbit with his feet against your chest and pet him at the base of his ears on the top of his head, he will lean back and just stiffen in your arms. You can then lay him onto his back on the ground and tuck his ears underneath his head and he will lie there like that until you nudge him over! It is the funniest thing! OR you can gently squeeze his mouth where his jaw joins and he will do that Cadbury Bunny chewing thing and you have a ventriloquist dummy! That was always fun too! We could always amuse ourselves as kids and loved playing with the rabbits in the house. Our poor mother, however, was allergic to rabbits and always knew if there was one in the house by the way her eyes would begin to itch and her uncontrollable sneezing. It wouldn't be long before Mother would appear in the doorway, rubbing her weeping eyes and shrieking, "Get that RABBIT out of here!" For the longest time we thought she was omnipotent, or at the very least psychic! This is my friend Summer's bunny and if memory serves me, it is a Dutch breed. My amateur eyes seem to think it has very good markings since Dutch rabbits can be a fussy breed to raise for shows. It is a very good tempered rabbit though and it was fun to be around one again.

Knitting Pilgrimage

My first stop was at Kristen's Knits in Rochester. I picked up 5 balls of worsted weight superwash wool for a pair of holiday legwarmers I'm dying to make. Yes, I said legwarmers. I also purchased two balls of olive drab/tan worsted superwash wool for helmet liners to send to our troops overseas via Operation Helmetliner. The final two balls of yarn are superwash self striping/patterning sock yarns. I started knitting a pair from one of the balls when I ran out of yarn at Melissa's knitting night the other day. I am really liking the way it's knitting up!
These three fabulous skeins came from Austin's Angora Goats and Mohair Farm. This is just the neatest little shop! They have locally produced handspun yarns, roving for spinning, mohair locks for crafting, goat hides, mohair socks and blankets and sweaters, fur lined slippers, Christmas ornaments, goat cheeses, goat milk soaps, goat sausages, etc. There is literally something for everyone in there. Some of the items are a bit spendy, but they are well worth it. You can also pet and feed some of the goats in the visitor pens. Whenever I visit my brother, we plan a trip to the goat farm. There are also plenty of Amish shopping opportunities and activities in the area.
We stopped at a Scandinavian gift shop along the way and I purchased these two books I have been coveting for some time. The Viking pattern book is almost a Nordic take on Aran patterns. There are charts and explanations of the different "cable" designs and what they represent. The Scandinavian knitting book is more of a chart sourcebook for colorwork. Also pictured are 4 bars of hand milled scented soaps that I bought from an Amish woman. I am a sucker for bars of soap and always try to pick up exotic ones in my travels. Soap Day is always a big day at my house when I pick out what new bar of soap will grace my shower. These were lavender and rosemary scented and made all my yarn smell lovely!
And last but not least, I successfully navigated myself to Charles City on my way home and stopped at The Knitting Korner on Highway 18. I hadn't been there in years and wasn't really expecting to find much of anything I needed other than maybe some Lopi. I found 10 balls of this Cascade Merino/Alpaca blend for a cabled sweater I've been eyeing for my older niece. This will be the most ambitious project I've yet undertaken, but the sweater size is still small enough where it isn't daunting. They also had light up knitting needles!!! I have seen these in my magazines but never thought I'd come across them here in the local area! Did I need them? No. Could I live without them? No. You can even knit with them in the dark although I've not yet tried to. And best of all, the very nice lady who ran the store rang up my items and the total came to over $70. I handed her my credit card and she told me that she didn't accept credit or debit cards. I told her I did not have my checkbook with me. This woman actually handed me the bag of merchandise and told me to "send her a check when I got home"!!!! Good faith is alive and well in northern Iowa! I sent the check off yesterday with a thank you card and a promise to bring my knitting friends along for a yarn field trip sometime soon! Plus, I know there is an ostrich farm nearby! Do I hear mutant Ukrainian eggs anyone?

Who You Gonna Call?!?

My niece and I made these "suckers" from white chocolate baking chips. The sucker sticks can be purchased at any craft aisle or store. We traced the outline of a large ghost cookie cutter onto heavy paper, laid a piece of wax paper over it and spread melted white chips into the shape of the ghost. Press in and cover your stick with more chocolate, add some mini chocolate chip eyes and a mouth, allow to harden, peel off the waxed paper, and Viola! The best part? You get to EAT any mistakes you make! Num num!

Lace Baby Cap

Soft little baby heads need something to cover them and keep out the cold! This cap was knit from yarn I spun and plied from the remainder of a Tussah silk roving I used for Mom's Elizabethan hose. I suppose it is a fingering weight yarn and I have plenty left to knit a pair of thumbless baby "mittens" to match. This pattern comes from the book "Homespun Handknit". The hat has a star knit into the lace which is begun at the top and center of the hat with the lace increases branching outwards. The sides are then knit in a straight lace and ended with a few rows of ribbing. And you can never see too much baby neck, now can you?

Field Trip!

This last weekend was my turn to stay with my brother and his family to help with the new baby. I started out north and west to do some shopping with my sister which included stops at two yarn shops and the international grocery store. We also stopped at the athletic center to visit my brother in law on the job as it was his birthday the following day. My route then turned eastward and it is such a pretty drive to get to my brother's neck of the woods! The fall colors were just starting to turn and it was lovely and cool weather. My niece and I took a little day trip to Austin's Angora Goats and Mohair Farm where I bought some fabulous yarn (more on that later) and just down the lane is an Amish farm where baskets, quilts, preserves, honey, soaps, cereals, etc. are sold via the honor system from a shed alongside the road. We also saw several Amish buggies just parked along the road with women selling items as well as roadside honor system stands selling gourds and squash. My niece and I did some baking together and of course the baby is the best entertainment of all! And did I mention that I drove up there all by myself with the aid of my trusty map AND didn't get lost NOR did I kill anyone? Way to go Katie! I even found my way home via an alternate route so I could stop at another yarn shop!

Stromboli

My good friend and coworker hosted a campfire/get-together/slumber party for our crew. It was kind of an informal potluck and we were planning on camping in tents in the backyard since this was likely to be our last warm weather for the year. We WERE able to enjoy the campfire...until the sky tore open like a gaping wound and pelted us with a thunderstorm and we moved the party indoors. My friend brought a crockpot full of potato soup along and I baked stromboli to go with it. I found this recipe years ago in a magazine and it was called, "Stromboli For A Crowd," which is false because I believe it could, in fact, feed a small army. The recipe called for frozen bread dough but I just make the dough from scratch. You need two loaves worth of dough (whichever you plan to use), roll out each loaf into an 18 x 12 inch rectangle, sprinkle with garlic powder and then top with sliced ham, mozzarella cheese and parsley. You don't want to pack it too full, but you want enough to munch on though too (this technique is known as the 'dump method'). You can use pastrami, pepperoni, prosciutto, etc. but I always just use sliced ham. You roll up the dough, crimp the edges, brush with an egg wash (I always beat together an egg and a tablespoon of water), make a few slashes for the steam to escape, and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or so. It's a good food to pack for a "little lunch" as we say in the midwest. Bring your thermos with coffee or some koolaid and you're set!

Isn't she beautiful?

My sewing machine isn't exactly new, but she still feels new to me because I'm still getting to know her. I sewed three new scrubs on Friday and am finally getting the hang of her. It took me a while to get used to having to change the stitch width every time I switched from a decorative or interlocking stitch back to the zig zag or straight stitch, but I think I'm catching on. And I think I will just name her Martha and be done with it because she IS a lovely shade of Martha Blue after all. I thought I had some more time to sew that baby blanket, but after this morning's arrival I got busy working on it. I am VERY pleased with the way it turned out and am really enjoying this sewing machine. I'm trying to decide if I want to put stickers all over her or leave her as she is. Hmmmmm. And boy do I have a lot of crap on my table?!

Look What Arrived Today!

Today was certainly a Red Letter Day! My new niece arrived early this morning and Mom and Dad and I drove over together to meet her. My sister and her husband met us there along with the baby's other siblings and we had a nice afternoon together. She is such a content little baby and she cooed like a dove all afternoon. We took so many pictures of her and with her and I felt bad every time the flash went off because she would furrow her brow! She is just so cute and so TINY! It's hard to believe we were all that small! I gave her my booties and now I need to knit on her little sweater so she can wear it for the cold weather that is just starting. Mom is done sewing the baptismal gown but I need to remind her that she needs to start sewing a Christmas stocking for her!

Baptismal Booties

My mother has made a BEE-yewtiful baptism dress for my niece on the way. Mom is a very talented and patient hardanger embroiderer and has made scores of beautiful things. She found a baptismal dress pattern and altered/charted some hardanger panels to sew into the skirt border, bodice, and bonnet and they are absolutely glorious! I will be sure and post pictures of it the next time I am home. I knit these little booties out of homespun silk left over from Mom's Elizabethan stockings. The cuffs are simple stockinette stitch and so they naturally roll, but I thought some trim sewed onto them would be pretty. I just hope they aren't too off-white in color so as not to go with the dress.

Knitting Night (official)

Tonight was the official Knitting Party Night and Melissa and Summer came for the festivities, as well as our friend Randi. And Zak showed up too, you know, to supervise. Well you can't have people over and not feed them and I haven't baked bread in a long time, so I baked two loaves of cheese bread. That is a yeasted dough with shredded cheddar cheese kneaded into it, allowed to rise and then baked. I especially like it toasted. I also baked a batch of kringlas and made little fall leaf souvenirs out of them. I only have a few slices of the bread left here because I gave it all away (I can't eat a lot of bread due to my baroque figure). The weather is FINALLY starting to feel like fall and I have every window in the house open. There is a lovely cool/cold breeze wafting through and it is especially pleasant to stand in the kitchen next to a warm oven!

Melissa is making so much progress in her knitting! She had some 30 stitches on her needles tonight instead of a beginner's 16 and she must have knit a good three inches on her new dishcloth! She is getting faster! She is also learning to recognize the twist of the stitches and how they should "look" and knowing when she has dropped a stitch, etc. We have a slumber party this weekend with all of the gals from work and I can't wait to see her progress then! We will be having a Knitter's Corner at the get together for anyone who wants to learn!

Look What Melissa Made!!!!

Melissa called me at 2300 two nights ago after being flexed home on call. We went to get some lunch together (it was coming up on lunchtime for us nocturnal shift workers) and stopped at the store to pick out some yarn and knitting needles. We sat on the couch together, practiced and practiced casting on and knitting in garter stitch, and she labored to produce this "coaster". That little square took almost 6 hours to knit, but I still say that is VERY good considering how awkward it is to first learn how to hold the needles and figure out where to hold your fingers so your stitches don't slide off the ends, and how to wrap the yarn and maneuver the needles through the loops, not to mention the propensity to knit very tightly when you first start. She gave me that coaster and some day, when she is bashing out socks and mittens and sweaters and what not, I will give that coaster back to her! Another knitter is born!

SweetPea!

It dawned on me that I have not yet made a baby blankie for my niece-in-the-making so I stopped off at the fabric store on Sunday to find something appropriate. I wouldn't have thought of green as a girly baby color, but I absolutely fell in love with this flannel print! I was also able to find some buttery yellow blanket binding and matching thread to finish it off. That perle cotton and the white beads are for a pair of lily of the valley lace wrist warmers/bracelets that I would like to knit. That pattern was in the summer issue of www.knitty.com I think I should make myself an adult sized baby blanket with satiny binding! I just love the way that feels against your cheek!

Pins and Needles

These are my lovely antique rolling pins. I thought I'd post a picture of them now that I have what could be considered a "collection". The top pin belonged to my grandpa's mother and was hand carved out of a branch from a tree on the family farm. When I started making lefse 2 or 3 years ago, Grandpa dug that pin out and gave it to me and I almost started crying because out of all the grandkids, he chose me to have that pin. The other two pins were recently purchased by my dad for $1 each at our community second hand store. The middle one is a hobnail pin and it and the handles are one solid piece of wood. The lower pin is used for rolling oats I believe. It is missing a handle on one side but has a large nail in it's place. The nail is etched and quite pretty really. All three are sitting on my fabulous babushka fabric! I love nesting dolls and I don't know what I will do with this fabric but I bought a LOT of it! I was thinking that I could keep the middle one under my bed for protection! Who needs a baseball bat when you have something like THAT in your house! ;)

Accessories!

I wanted to post pictures of all my wedding finery! That burgundy fabric is actually my bridesmaid's dress and it is GORGEOUS. The shoes had copper and burnt orange in the beadwork and wide heels for those of us foreign to high heels (think training wheels). She bought us butterfly hair clips and burnt orange butterfly necklaces as well as tiered gold earrings. We were a fashionable group!