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!

You never saw this woman...

I have a friend in the witness protection program who is therefore able to wear this hat in public. What a coincidence that she'd recently bought a striking orange ski coat! Actually it is just Deedee modeling her new ski gear, complete with dew-drop Unabomber-esque shades! I couldn't believe anyone would be PLEASED to receive this well crafted ;) yet HOMELY hat! I kept telling her, "Look more ASHAMED!" when I was taking the picture. I think I might try another one of these with my newly acquired local artisan yarn from K-town. I thoroughly enjoyed Elizabeth Zimmermann's commentary throughout this pattern. The last line reads, "Make the tassel of your dreams."

Frontier Hat

A gal on our floor is leaving us next month. She is the mother of one of 4 boys born in our last floor baby boom and I've always had the best intentions of knitting "coonskin" caps for them all. I knit this up for her little boy the other day since they are relocating and it would be my last chance to get his done. The other 3 will just have to wait a little while I guess. I used Patons Classic Merino Wool stranded together with different shades of Lion Brand Fun Fur and I am very pleased with the results! I used just over one ball of the light grey fun fur and maybe half a ball of the Patons, so I have plenty of yarn to make a few more of these! Every little boy needs one of these to wear when building a fort! Heck, I might want one of these for MYSELF!

Zig Zag Mittens!

My dear friend Deedee has had a pretty crappy year this year too, so I thought she could do with a pair of mittens too! She is my mentor, my friend, my confidante, etc. She is planning on finishing her BSN (she has WAY more strength than I do!) and then she plans on TRAVEL NURSING! I admire travel nurses. I am much more of a "comfort zone" nurse! Her plans include Colorado or California. Either place is a great place to make money. I have traveled this big ol' world, but I can not brag about traveling withIN the USA. When she gets established, I'll have to pick up a few extra shifts and I PROMISE I'll be CHEERFUL about it and actually EARN the money so I can go and VISIT her! She has been to Red Rocks more often than I can MENTION and that is number one on my list of destinations! :) Plus if she goes to Colorado, I can go and visit my Great Uncle Stuart and bake kringlas for him in PERSON rather than just mail them to him in a box! I love my friend Deedee and I love my friend Melissa and I am so thankful for them every day! I miss my Deedee at work though, as do a LOT of us! I like to think of it as Deedee blazing the trails for the rest of us! And I was lucky enough to be knitting on the second of these dizzying things earlier in the week, because when I peeked out of the window, there was a mere dusting of snow on the ground to take this picture!

Lin's Babies

I work with a woman who is right now in Ukraine in the midst of a lengthy adoption. She is adopting two 5-year old boys with Down's Syndrome and it is the most amazing thing to hear her talk about it. She learned of the boys through an online Down's support group and has said that as soon as she was aware of them, she just knew they were meant to be her sons. She has created a blog while they navigate the legal and adoption process and it is very interesting. I'd bought some flannel for blankies for them and made them last night while I was home on call. I will have to get some books to go with them--The Mitten comes to mind--or THIS version. It is a Ukrainian story, after all! :)

Thank You Easter Bunny! Bock! Bock!

Melissa so pleasantly surprised me this week! She gave me this darling little box filled with Easter goodies! She was recently in St. Louis and picked up BUNNY egg cups! Thank You! This box is going to be the new home for all my Melissa Haberdashery! I am always picking up odd beads or buttons or ribbon or yarn or SOMETHING because it will remind me of someone and I'll just know I'll make something with it for that person some day... I know. I'm sick. But in Melissa's case, I have a lot of butterflies! ;)

My family got together for Easter at my parents' home. Apparently there was an incident with my sister's dog involving chocolate coins and required an American Red Cross BLS "finger sweep"! Usually at any family gathering, someone just throws up, but this was much more original! Happy Easter!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I went home this weekend to visit my parents and to bake lefse and kringla orders. I was so busy that I didn't even BRING any knitting home! I've had this picture for some time and couldn't wait to post it today!

I spent most of my time developing new varicose veins by STANDING in the kitchen this weekend! In the end I baked and sold 32 dozen kringlas and 15 dozen pieces of lefse! I don't want to go near that oven for some time, and it will be even longer before I can look at a potato! Once again, my dad was good enough to deliver all my baking around town--and there was a LOT of it! I also baked and frosted a triple batch of frosted sugar cookies for St. Patrick's since I never got around to baking Obscene Conversation Heart frosted sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. I have a cheapie shamrock cookie cutter that has lots of compartments and angles that I'd been dreading frosting, but the stems kept breaking off when I tried cutting them out and they looked more like butterflies! I quickly scrapped that and just made large green hearts that would instead be "Kiss Me I'm Irish" cookies, but I also forgot to pack my festive St. Pat's Sprinkles, so now they're just goofy looking green frosted hearts! Oh well. They will taste just as good.

I also cooked a fake Irish Breakfast for my dad...for lunch. I didn't order any real Galtee back bacon or sausages or Shannon white/black breakfast puddings this year, but I did get some REAL (!!!) KerryGold Irish Butter and KerryGold Dubliner cheese at Hyvee via happy accident! :) That is extra thick bacon that you see, stewed tomatos, cold beans, fried eggs, fried mushrooms, and hashbrowns. I still don't have any Lyon's tea but PG Tips worked just as well. We enjoyed our breakfast/lunch. Note the festive Christmas table cloth on my mom's kitchen table! ;)

The other big highlight of my weekend was going out to a local farm to see their Jacob Sheep! My dad told me months ago that some local 4-H kids had some Jacob Sheep. I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to sheep breeds, but what I DO know I have gleaned from the pages of Spin-Off magazine and even I know that Jacob Sheep are known for their fiber. At that time I was thinking about calling and offering to buy a fleece when it came time to shear. Well then my mom had run into a family friend who was knitting a project knit from YARN that she'd gotten from this family! So Mother and I trekked out there to visit the sheep and I bought 4 skeins of 2 different shades of heathered grey from them! They raise the sheep and a man shears them every June and they send the fleeces to a mill to be picked, carded, and spun. I was SO INTERESTED to hear all this and they are going to call me when they have a new batch of yarn! They were also going to check with the mill if they can get some picked and carded batts for me to spin myself!

I had a fun but busy weekend and now I start another busy work week! A few girlfriends and I were going to go out for some green beer tonight, but any more our Urban Family is more like Ladies Aide because come 2100, we were all too tired to go anywhere or do anything! I hope everyone had a fun day though! Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Slainte! :)

Hat On!

I have been dragging my feet lately when it comes to getting done with DeeDee's dizzying patterned mittens and my Toni Jacket. My living room yarn trunk runneth over and is in my direct line of sight from my chair. I sit there and look at that yarn while I'm knitting and think about what all to do with that glorious fiber.

I used up my designer Colinette skeins of Point 5 and Graffitti to make this "Maltese Fisherman Hat". The pattern comes from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. She is a knitting icon but I have to say her patterns are a bit pithy! I had no trouble following this simple one, but in reading through some others that I'm interested in...I just don't know. She is so clever and witty and it is an utter delight to "read how she thinks", but I can see how her patterns could be intimidating. And let's not forget to mention that this yarn is absolutely HIDEOUS! I bought it because it was COLINETTE and on sale for 70% off, and that was really its only redeeming quality! It is a very cleverly shaped/fitted cap and it's delightfully soft and warm, but I think I will only wear it when in a different state/country where no one knows me or in a Nuclear Winter! If I had paid full price for the 2 skeins, this hat would have cost $44!

Not wanting to waste any of that precious Colinette, I took the runt of the Graffiti ball over to Brenda's last night for Knit Night/Early St. Patrick's Day and Melissa started and finished a baby hat for her new baby niece! I think she used US size 10.5 dpn's and cast on a total of 42 stitches. She was so pleased with it that she was going to send it to her sister in the mail! I'm trying to take mental inventory of The Stash for any more nice bulky-ish yarn.

And finally, I just love this yarn and I love this pattern! I surprise myself from time to time because I absolutely HATE the color pink, but I am just enamored of this yarn! I knit another baby bonnet from Last Minute Knitted Gifts with the remainder of that pink purse kit yarn. I had just enough! I was so pleased with that yarn that I ran out to Jo-Ann Fabrics yesterday and nabbed the absolute LAST kit. I will sit on that yarn for a bit but I know I can whip up a little girl's sweater and bonnet with it!

When I was a young Cone...

...on the planet Remulak... I got out my cone of cotton yarn and thought of that and had a good chuckle! I finished 2 more Farmer's Market bags this week while doing some mindless knitting. When I get a few more completed, I'll take a picture of them. This is a typical shot of me on a day off...woolly socks, cowboy pajama pants, ratty sweater, and normally some tea and/or yarn nearby...

Oscar Night

Melissa and I spent the day running around together. We went to visit The Supercolon at the hospital just to say we'd seen it. I have to laugh because we both walked out of there and remarked that it wasn't as big as we thought it'd be. We headed over to the mall and did a little shopping before going to see Atonement.

We painted eggs last night which means I had to do some MAJOR championship cleaning to prepare for that. I worked all this last week and this picture of my sink proves that I've been eating nothing but cereal. Oh how I love cool, soothing tones of blue...and then that awful RED spatula has to throw everything off. And yes I individually wash and dry all my eggs, don't you? These are a dozen jumbo sized eggs that I scrutinized for hairline cracks in the store. All the other customers must have thought I have OCD. I rinsed them in some vinegar and water before we began painting. We mixed up 7 new colors last night, including a yellow that actually shows up as yellow! We had take and bake pizza for supper and then enjoyed the Oscars while working.

I forgot to take a picture of Melissa's eggs before she left. I think we were both a little tired by the time we started painting so we only made a few each. I have all kinds of ideas I'd like to try with the new colors. We got rid of the glass jars and put each color in an empty plastic pop bottle which worked REALLY well. The box is still sitting out there on the table and I'm tempted to work on a few more...

Cousin Ella

First and foremost, Happy Valentine's Day! I went home during the week to visit my parents and to have my car repaired (FINALLY!). I was fiendishly working on this baby sweater...for no one in particular. This yarn started life as a felted purse kit and I've made a blue one of the same yarn, but I was so pleased and impressed with how soft and almost roving-like the yarn was. I had since bought this pink kit for a little girl I know, and I've made a number of baby sweaters from this pattern and couldn't help but think how well that yarn would work up. And I suppose the colors were festively appropriate! I like how the colors graduate but I must admit I was a bit nervous when I saw the red creeping out of my ball of yarn. I think the colors look ok though.

Meanwhile my mother mentioned she had some baby clothes and a baby book ready to be mailed to her cousin Freddy for their new baby girl and immediately I knew who would get the sweater! I wrote a card to Freddy and Shelly and told them about Ella's sweater and how to care for it. After I wrote it, I felt a bit sheepish because I'd written "Freddy" without even thinking! He will always be Freddy and not Fred to me because Fred is his dad. He is my mother's first cousin, so therefore my second cousin...and I don't know what that makes Baby Ella! I hope she likes her sweater.

I got to cook a little this weekend which is always fun. We enjoyed a corned beef brisket and New England boiled supper, and for Valentine's I got to fool around with my French lentils. I got them in Rochester and finally got to make French lentils in puff pastry. They were very good. I boiled them with bay leaf and then cooked them up with shallots/garlic/carrot/parsnip. I have a Thyme and Tarragon French lentil soup I'd like to try. I also made the compulsory caramel pots de creme for my mother :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made BUTTER!

I made real butter! As in REAL LIVE butter! I listen to the show "The Splendid Table" whenever I can, and a few months back they did a show all about butter and she posted a recipe on her website. Of course they stress the quality of your cream, ideally unpasteurized and right out of the cow. Unfortunately I can only get supermarket quality heavy whipping cream, in this case--a quart of Sam's Choice store brand.

The recipe says to mix on medium to high speed until it separates, but the guest chef that day said that he would mix it for at least 20 minutes on low for better results. Well I beat that cream on low for twenty minutes and I swear I made myself car sick staring at the bowl and watching the cream--it was so bad I had to go and lay down! I got back up, got the cream out of the fridge and beat it on med and then on to high for another 30 minutes. I thought it would be a quick and drastic change because I remember working at camp one summer and I was in charge of frosting the brunch cakes with freshly whipped cream. They always warned me never to step away from the Hobart because it could be over whipped and turn to butter...


It took a LONG TIME to get it to butter! On the left here we have nice fluffy, expanding cream. FINALLY on the right...it has gotten heavier and deflated and you can see the buttermilk separating in the bottom of the bowl. This is poured through a sieve and you mash the butter together as if you were making a snowball and you literally WRING buttermilk out of it! You can knead salt into it if you want to but I didn't for this first try. I am curious to see if it will taste anything like clotted cream. You'll get about a pound of butter and a little more than a pint of buttermilk.

The buttermilk was interesting. It reminded me more of coconut milk in it's appearance. It almost looks like skim milk because it is quite translucent. And it is watery--not like the thick, beige stuff we get at the store. Well now all I needed was something to EAT the butter on! I baked some Valentine banana bread loaves and I used the buttermilk in an oatmeal and buttermilk bread recipe! I will be packaging up my Valentines tonight :)

I have had this butter press for EVER and I've always wanted to use it! I will take this butter home to my parents this week! :) I should bake some kringlas to go with this butter...hmmmm.

Knit Your Bit!

I know that there are people who will say I am crazy or weird, but I think it is SO important to support our troops. I have always been enamored of the WWII civilian knitting cause. Had I been alive during WWII, I would have been first in line to knit socks, helmet liners and what not for our soldiers. I also try to chat online somewhat regularly to our troops in Iraq, even if it is just to tell them about our weather, the price of gas, or what I bought at the grocery store that day. I have been told by more troops that they enjoy just hearing about normal day to day activities here at home. Needless to say, I finished two pairs of socks to mail to a soldier and his room mate in Iraq. I made them measure their feet and everything. I promised them a pair of socks way back before Christmas and I'm truly sorry it took me this long to finish them but I had to finish my Christmas knitting first! I am still working on my Toni Jacket sweater as well as a few other charted items that require PAYING ATTENTION to the pattern, but socks are totally mindless so I bring them to work and knit on them for 20 minutes here or there during down time. I'm so self conscious about knitting for the troops that when my co-workers ask me who I'm making them for, I always fib and answer, "They're for my brother." Those poor boys are over there doing a job I know I wouldn't want to do. More importantly, they are doing a job I don't think I'd be CAPABLE of doing! God bless each and every one of them! I wrote a little note to go with each pair saying that these had been knit especially for them right here in Iowa with my own two hands. And I am sure there are people who would say, "Whoop-dee-doo, a pair of socks!" but I know they will be used and appreciated. I also thanked them for the chance to actually "Knit My Bit"! Enjoy your socks Allen and Roy!

Road trip...

I went with Brenda to St. Ansgar yesterday to shop for a wedding dress! I have to say I was very impressed with the bridal shop there! She had a productive day in that she found and ordered not only her dress, but her bridesmaids' dresses and can ALSO order yardage of matching material for her nieces' dresses! I didn't have to do much because there were at LEAST 87 people working in the shop that day and they were SO attentive! At times she had TWO gals in the fitting room with her helping her select and try gowns! While she was busy with her dresses, I had fun looking at all the gowns and surveying all the lace and beadwork! That shop gets nothing but top marks from me! We then trekked over to JoAnn Fabrics and she found patterns for the girls. And THEN...
...she drove me to Clear Lake to the Larson's Mercantile store which is sadly going out of business! :( A co-worker had told me about their 70% off Going-Out-Of-Business-Sale and did I mention that they stock Collinette yarn?!? We got there and the entire store was already being dismantled and everything was PICKED OVER! I literally RAN to the back of the store to the yarn area and there were only 2 skeins of Collinette left in ORANGE but I STILL grabbed them! I also snapped up 20 balls of a fabulous viscose/cotton/acrylic blend sock yarn in Glorious Technicolors and some size 17 dpn's and a pair of size 19 straight bamboo needles! SCORE! All in all, I got over $250 worth of knitting stash for $75! I swore I was going to take it home and just ROLL AROUND IN IT! Of course I was thrilled with my purchase, but I was sad to see that store close! I am sure you can't get Collinette within 150 miles of here! Every now and then on a day off, I'd trek over there to just "visit" the yarn and I'd always leave with a skein or two that I couldn't live without!

Halland Mittens

Last night I finished Melissa's mittens! :) This pattern came from Folk Mittens and is based on the logging jerseys of the Halland area of Sweden. They were knit from Lamb's Pride worsted on size 3 dpn's. I altered the cuffs to insert her initials and the year (they ARE legal because I finished the 2007 one while it was still 2007!). I am pleased with the way they turned out although I am not crazy about set in thumbs. I'd much rather knit around a gusset for thumbs. And just in time because it has been bitterly cold here and it snowed again last night. I will give these to her tonight! :)

Melissa held a Lia Sophia jewelery party at her home on Saturday night. She served a lovely lunch and had a lot of company! We all parted with a lot of money! Her sister also came with her new baby and I got to meet Aspen! This had been her first big road trip! I knit her a cap from the Star Lace Baby set found in Homespun Handknit. I started out with some homespun silk but after 3 hours realized it was going to be too small. I started over again with some Koigu left over from my niece's Kottou cardigan...only to RUN out just short of finishing! I 'edged' it in ribbing knit with more Koigu--left over from Lisa's Christmas socks a few years ago. I finished it AT the party and was able to get a picture of her in it, but at that point she was getting a little disgruntled and didn't want to sit still for long. She had had a big day! Melissa hosted a very nice party. She is now officially an established Lady Of The House!

Mmmmm.....butter

I made a 2 pound batch of puff pastry dough and baked pastry straws out of the ENTIRE batch to take to Melissa's house! I sing the praises of puff pastry all the time and I can't stress how it is WORTH the time and effort to produce from scratch! It really isn't LABOR intensive, just time consuming. It took me most of the day to make the dough and maybe an hour to roll, cut, and bake it. And I just marvel at the way it behaves every time I bake it! If you'll note above, the pastry straws look almost like wide egg noodles after they are rolled out and cut. But then they turn into...

...THIS! They puff up SO tall that they actually tip over when baked! I was going to fold in a layer of freshly grated parmesan cheese but I didn't have time. They are SO tasty and worth the trouble!

Yarn Boogers!

This is a pair of mittens I'm working on for my friend Melissa. It is knit on size 3 dpn's with worsted weight Lamb's Pride yarn. I love how fuzzies always collect onto one of the strands and just gets pushed along down through the skein as the work progresses. This booger is actually a shade of purple because the 2 colors of fuzzies blended together! Melissa has had a terrible year so I am commemorating it in these mittens with the hope of a better year. One cuff has "2007" knit into the design and this one has her initials. Incidentally, since I penciled in the design a bit differently than called for, the cuffs were also when I did the most SWEARING! These are turning out so well and they will keep her hands nice and warm! :) I met Melissa on our very first day of orientation when we started working at the hospital and I don't know what I did without her.