:-)

Well my rectangles are now cute little icons... just need to find out how to change the background color to match the grey sidebar.

I don't have time to type more right now, but I thought I'd add this:

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color Is Your Brain?

and it's one of my 2 favorite colors!

Winging it!

It's the last day of the Thanksgiving holiday vacation and what a rainy one it is!

Yesterday, on the way home from church I stopped to call Marilyn from Rocky Top Farm in Ottsville and we met for me to pick up Shasta's fleece. 7 pounds of white Romney/BFL/BL mix; 7 inch staple and micron count of 31, pretty nice :-) it's washing up nicely, but will take me a while to complete.

I also felted the squatty sidekick. It's really cute. Now to get the lining finished. I'm afraid the button I inteneded for it's use isn't large enough. I'll use one of the plastic funky ones instead.

I made yummo Squash soup for lunch. I devised the recipe as I went.


Peel and dice longneck (butternut) squash meat. Boil until soft. Mash until smooth.
Combine:

• 3 cups of mashed squash
  
• 1 cup vegetarian vegetable broth
  
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream
  
• 1 can creamed corn
  
• 1/2 cup thinly diced carrots (I cut baby ones)
  
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
  
• 1 tsp sea salt
  
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  
• dash of cinnamon
  

Stir everything and place over medium heat until carrots are tender and everything is heated through. Serve with crusty bread or pita chips.

You can vary it by adding other veggies or (potatoes would be great) and/or shredded cheese (yum) Have fun making it your own!

I also finally chose a stitch pattern for my neice's keyhole scarf. Appropriately it's Dec 25 from the 365 stitches a year perpetual calendar.... I'll be winging this as well. Could be my motto for the day!

What I've been up to.......

As you can see, I've been editing, pretty unsuccessfully, the sidebar for my WIPs. Please bear with me. I am wanting to use those cute little icons of objects instead of rectangular progress bars. Always have, but this week when adding something to my older progress bars, I inadvertantly changed some of the html. I'd fix it, but I don't know what I deleted... (oops) so, I've spent some time working on it, to no avail. At any rate, if anybody can help me out, I'd appreciate it. I have the little gifs of the cute icons in my photobucket account under the BlogItems folder.

On to other happier events. This afternoon all 5 of us went to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium rated G for general audiences and F for my father (meaning it's worthy of him seeing) It's a great movie but hit a little close to home as I'mdealing with my dad's seemingly fleeting time left with us. DS2, much to my husband's chagrin, is still not movie going ready yet... Shame too cuz I'm tired of missing all the fun kid movies. That was the first I had been to since the re-release of the Shaggy D.A. with Tim Allen.

In the morning, DD and I went to Joann's fabrics to search for fabric to reupholster the desk chair to the new to her This End Up bedroom furniture we've acquired from a purchase through craigslist. It's former owner was of the male gender and the upholstery on the seat and back of the chair is blue... won't do for a 7 (almost 8) year old with a soon to be pink room. So we bought these fabrics to cover the chair, make valences and some pillows for her bed.







I also bought some Christmas fabrics to wrap gifts in. I had read about tsutsumi or furoshiki on this great blog tip nut (you can get a daily newsletter if you don't want to miss a tip) I'm going to make my own reversible cloths and hopefully if the recipient won'tpay them ahead, I'll take the wrapping back and reuse it myself!





We also bought these cute buttons. At 50% off, I couldn't resist. I'll find a use for them I'm sure.





On the knitting front, I cast on Amanda's Squatty Sidekick after dinner on Thanksgiving and cast off just a bit ago. Here it is in it's pre-felted state. While at Joann's, I wanted to get fabric to line it. Of course I forgot to pick it out before I had all the previous fabric cut. The line for the cutting table was too long to get in it again, so I looked at the fat quarters and found these. The pattern is for the lining and the solid for a pocket in the lining. While we were looking at buttons, I found these for the purse.I bought some buttons for some fingerless mitts as well, but I'll save those to post with the mitts.

In the mail today came 7 skeins of Peace Fleece in soyuz apollo teal... I got it off ebay (oops.. slid off the wagon, sorry honey). Yesterday my folks decided after much discussion with myself and my siblings that their best choice of living accommodations would be Wood River. I'm very happy about that. I think it's a great choice.

Up for today, decorate the gingerbread houses make the marble magnets for the special area teachers and maybe clean up the yarn and get out the Christmas decorations??? Sound like enough to do? Well the kids are all awake, so I better feed them and get them busy doing something that keeps them away from their father.

Happy Turkey Day

hope they all were able to hide! (being a vegetarian...)

We're off to my Brother and SIL's house who has graciously taken over hosting this year since our dad just got out of the hospital yesterday from his surgery. We were afraid he might still be in and they live about 15 minutes from the hospital as opposed to us (who usually host Thanksgiving) who live about 100 minutes away...at any rate, it will be good to all be together again as I don't know how many more holidays we'll have with the rents.

Just wanted to post a picture of the balaclava that I made for DS2. Of course he refuses to wear it as such (which was the whole point of making it) but DS1 loves it so he is modeling for me. Actually it fits him a bit better than it does his younger brother and he wants it so it shall be his! I'll put more details in later with a better picture.

Here's another DW cloth I finished for the Christmas stack. Won't say who this is for in case they read this blog (doubtful but you never know) If you want the specifics on the DW cloth go to the sidebar and click on the Infamous Darrell Waltrip cloth link under 2007 FOs all the info will be under that picture. I can say that the one in today's photowas knit with Early American Ombre colorway of Sugar and Cream. I love the colors!

I have been spinning VERY sporadically.. perhaps I'll take some along with my knitting today.

have a blessed holiday and happy crafting

it's now a scarf

with the ends woven in and everything :-)
Pattern: My so called scarf by Stacey
Yarn: Paton's Classic Merino
Color: Retro
Amount: approximately 1.5 skeins
Needle: US 10.5 KPO

Finally this gift is done. This started out with the chicken rice-a-roni yarn from 100purewool but if you recall the skeins didn't match even though they were purchased at the same time (no dye lots with that yarn...kind of like manos) So into the frogpnd it went. I think these scarf looks more masculine, bu I'm not crazy about how the colors pooled.

3 gifts finished completely. 6 to go for the extended family and all those for our little (or not so little) family nucleus plus the teacher gifts.

We visited a very nice place today as a potential home for the rents. Woodriver Village. They strive to keep them living as indepentely as possible for as long as possible and the food is incredibly tasty. Still it makes me sad. Mom's eyes welled up when she thought of going through all their stuff to super downsize. It would be such an easier lifestyle for them though and peace of mind for us. We go see 2 more tmrw (well later today actually)


DS2 awoke again in the middle of the night to eat. I think there must be a growth spurt in progress.... he's been chowing down like crazy the past 2 days. Prolly didn't help that I was out of bed after waking up and remembering I promised DD I'd wash her uniform from today so she could wear it tmrw... She's so picky.. I wish there were stricter guidleines on acceptable attire for uniform, then there would be NO discussion.

Balaclava

just thought I'd post an in-progress photo of DS2's balaclava. It's based on the Jackyll and Hyde from Knitty.com so there's full face coverage with just 2 openings for the eyes. I don't think I'll add the embroidered skeleton face details. Hope it fits his little head. It's from 100purewool merino so it's really soft.
The color reminds me of denim. Wish I had enough to make a pullover for myself, but there are only 3 skeins... enough for this and a pair of mittens with long cuffs for the boy...

Dad gets his carotid fixed tmrw so it's in better shape for his bladder surgery next Tuesday... My heart goes out to that guy.... this isn't a fun part of his life.

I just realized that I didn't post pictures of the targhee cross that was plied... about 1300 yard in these 2 skeins
the dark in the yarn is grease that got on the yarn. Hoping that it washes out when I soak the yarn before I dye it. It's about 17 wpi so that puts it at a thin fingering weight or thick lace weight... I'm thinking socks.

DD's craftiness

I finally have a picture of DD's art work that was in the gallery at the Baum School of Art from her summer class. We need to get it matted and framed. I love it!









DD has a puppet project for school that is due this week. She had to read a book and choose a character to make a papertowel tube puppet of. She chose Amelia Bedelia.

I think because the book wasn't much of a challenge for her... At any rate, I taught her how to sew by hand, wet felt and needle felt. Not a bad accomplishment for a 7 year old. She doesn't like poking herself with the needle when she sews.. I should get her a thimble I guess. I admit to helping her out. I drew on the felt and she cut out the pieces then stitched them together. She wimped out though and used Barbie shoes... at least she's clever!

Here's a close-up of the face. The eyes are little googly ones, the nose is felted wool added to the face and the mouth is drawn on with a marker.

As for me, I cast on Knitty's Jackyll and Hyde for DS2. He has cold urticaria and I want to avoid the hives this winter. I may add the face with white yarn. I like it because it will cover all his skin if he needs it, or he can wear it just as a hat. I need to make him mittens as well... plus finish all the Christmas gifts... guess I shouldn't be blogging but better off knitting.

I was spinning last night. I have all but finished the Targhee that is flicked.. of course there's more to flick AND I washed another Targhee fleece last night, so it will never end. I have 2 more raw fleeces to wash, then the fibers will be in varying stages for spinning. Should keep me busy this winter!

I found a pattern for DH's vest from the
Best of Interweave Knits: Our favorite designs form the first 10 years. He likes it. Now to prepare the fiber: dark brown/black Finn.. it's so soft. I hope i spin it fairly.

THANKS Mom!

We had a family meeting today... my siblings and parents and I. While I was there, I knew that I was coming home with Dad's rock collection for DD to 'borrow' (She's really into rocks right now!) Mom had mentioned that she found some things for me to take along home.Talk about needles, stitch and cable holders!! I think my auntie Ree tried to teach me on the wooden ones when I was about DD's age. Her patience was much greater than mine and alas I didn't learn. She was a tight knitter and the cast on wouldn't move easily enough for my little hands so I gave up. If she could only see me now! She knit all my Barbie cloths (among sweaters, socks mittens, hats, blankets, ponchos etc) for us. Wish I still had them.... But that's a story for another time. At any rate, I ordered the Knits for Barbie book by Nicky Epstein to make some for DD. She's really excited about that!



There there were these. They're filled with sewing notions: buttons, bias tape, tape measure, pins, needles... you name it. Aren't they pretty little tins? I remember them from when I was a kid myself (and that's a L O O N G time ago).

I went upstairs to get the rock collection and found these in the closet.

I yelled down the steps to ask what it was for and she answered, "oh you can have that. I don't know what I bought it for" OK... thanks mom... this rocks. 24 oz of Flock's Faultless Yarns: Best in the World Knitting Worsted made of 100% all Virgin Wool. It sayw Flock's Faultless Yarns are made from the best of wools, evenly spun and perfect in twist. These yarns are unequalled for their softness, durability and richness of color. THey are made to stand the severest tests and most exacting criticism. IN purchasing yarn, always insist upon haveing FLOCK'S FAULTLESS YARNS. This label is a symbol of manufacturing perfection and painstaking care, your guarantee of absolute satisfaction. (thought pretty highly of themselves, no?)
At any rate 2 4oz skeins of each color: dusty rose, medium burgundy and dark burgundy. I think it will go in the freezer for a few days just to insure there are no buggies layin in it! It's pretty soft, not merino but not scratchy like shetland eiither. I wonder how old it is and from whence it came.

At the bottom of the bag were these three lonely skeins. I'll take them to school for our PSSA knitting project. They'll be great for squares for the blanket (or whatever we decide to knit for)

She also sent me home with little robes for the boys that were brought back from Japan for my 2 older brothers when they were little. Satiny purses for Mica and some stickers for the kids. How am I so lucky?

And the rock collection... well it ROCKS! and it came with a microscope science set that was my pops when he was a kid too.

I need sleep... After being up all night fixing the 750 grades and comments to be saved to where they should be rather than where I put them, I still drove about 90 minutes to my folks house and back. On the way back (in the dark) I discovered that both low beam headlights were not functioning... that was fun!

2 down

and too many more to go!

Finished another Christmas gift today during the Lehigh Valley NATS chapter meeting and master class.

Pattern: Tychus
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted
Colors: MC = Sandy Heather
CC = Blue Heirloom
Needle: US9 Boye straights

This is for my niece's husband. Hope it fits him. I think it's a bit big... but it should be really warm. I love the two colors together. The sandy heather is the same color that I made his scarf from last year. So at least they'll match!


Still didn't take a picture of all the yarn that is now in 2 huge hanks... hopefully soon. I have 750 music grades to do this weekend and a meeting with my siblings and parents about my parents' future living arrangements.

Dad goes in for surgery in a couple of weeks to remove some tumors in his bladder. Positive vibes and prayers would be appreciated.....

more later as I finish those gifts.

Happy crafting

trying plying, plying trying

I've plied over 700 yards of that Targhee cross. I'll post a picture next time. I'm still spinning the fleece... haven't even flicked all of it yet!

I cast on a hat for my neice's husbands Christmas gift today. It's Tychus from knitty.com. I hope he likes it. I'm making it as the pattern suggests with two strands.. boy it should be a warm hat OK BLogger won't let me put in a picture..I'll do it later

I've occasionally been working on the left mitten, my so called scarf and the shawl. I have to tell you a funny story about the scarf. I was leaving school last Friday with the scarf and the yarn in my jacket pocket. The yarn fell out unbeknownst to me and I kept walking (about 50 yards), crossed the street and got in the car (after putting DS2 in his seat etc) and noticed that there was a string of yarn out my door... I had to go back and fetch it because if I pulled it would just unwind from the ball AND it was stuck on a landscape tie. Of course as I'm running back to rescue the skein, two cars had to cross the road so I was frantically trying to gather all the yarn... what a mess. It took quite some time Saturday morning (after the rainy trick or treating and party) to clean it all up into usable form once more, only to find a knot, not far from where I had left off knitting... ARGH!!!!!!!

Here's the butterfly release finally... it's so fast you might miss it. The black spot in the sky that's flying aw