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!

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.

quick update

before we run to the grocery store (what fun)

I frogged the chicken rice-a-roni scarf... looked through the stash and decided on the retro colorway of Paton's merino. It will definitely provide a different look than I was really looking for, but the colors are nice and the beige matches dad's hat from last year almost perfectly. It's not quite as soft either... I just wasn't ready for the agony of hand dyed yarn again... (not that there isn't enough in my stash) I cast on for that on Friday. Knit through DD's gymnastics class yesterday.

This morning I cast on for the show your colors shawl by Spunky Eclectic. DH bought my wheel from her... love her colorways.. anyway this is in the berries in the snow colorway I dyed about a month and a half ago... Hope mom likes it!

I also finished the first hunter's mitten and started the second on Thursday. No pictures of that yet though.

And Monday night in the shadow of disgust for the miscolored scarf, I cast on the Binary Hat for my dear nephew. His favorite team is the Philadelphia Flyers and his high school colors were black and orange, but the piece de resistance is that he works for Best Buy in the Geek Squad and their colors are..... black, orange and white... hence:

Pattern: The Binary Hat
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride
Colors: Ebony and Harvest
Needle: US 8
I love that it knit up so quickly. I was finished Tuesday evening and that was with working a full day on Tuesday. It says his name in binary language reading from the top down. I'm not sure that he's geeky enough to notice though. Maybe I'll enclose a note with the gift!

I'm in the midst of plying Targhee.... finished the second bobbin this morning. Pictures later.

We settled our contract. Both sides agreed now to wait for the signing until it's really finalized. There are some issues that I won't disclose, but let's say it could be sticky!

Getting ready for Halloween with the kids.. this next weekend will be CRAZY... to say the least. Trick or treating, parties and parades... yikes!

gotta go DD is getting restless

mismatched colorways

And I bought it all at the same time from 100purewool.. oh bother! (in my best Winnie the Pooh voice) Now what to do.. guess dad's scarf is going to the frog pond... I think I'll let it rest and start on one of the other gifts. I can use it but alternate skeins every other row... but it just fires me up... I love the pattern, but it's not fun to frog and this wool is sticky if that makes any sense. Here is another shot, just to give you an idea of how much was finished... shed a tear for me please. if I wasn't feeling so overwhelmed with things to make, it wouldn't bother me at all... but gosh I have a pile to do and no time to get it done.



On a happier note, this arrived last week. It's all washed up and ready to comb/card. Just need to find some time. It's incredibly soft and shiny..... Purebred Finn hoggett fleece... mmm mmmm

And a shot of just one lock. Not the best background, but it gives an idea of the crimp.

I am almost finished spinning the second bobbin of the Targhee cross.... so so I'll be plying :-) Then I'll post a picture of that.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to spin dog hair this weekend. It was from a long haired Shepherd. It was going OK, I thought, but the it all went to h**l and back... maybe another day. I should read more about it anyway.

I've got tons to do for school... the school board votes on our proposed contract tomorrow night and to say I'm nervous about the outcome doesn't cover it. The last thing I want is the S word.... That could stink big time!

well.... off to do uncrafty things... and bake some more banana muffins... that will be the highlight of my morning tmrw (eating them of course)

happy crafting

catchin' up

Lest anyone think I've been up to nothing (or no good) I thought I'd post some pics of WIPs


The recent Lizard Ridge block in color 148 lot A

I was up in the air about what scarf to make my pop for Chrismtas this year. At first I thought something with a cable to match the hat I made him last year, but I don't have enough of that particular colorway so I opted for something that would compliment instead. It came down to a choice between Grumperina's Shifting Sands scarf and the My So Called Scarf. The latter won out (it fits wiith the 100purewool that I wanted to use better) I really love this pattern, it's a brainless knit. I was going to use chocolate fantasia, but opted for aquisgran instead. This stitch pattern really uses the varigation to it's advantage. I think it would make a great dishcloth pattern too :-) At any rate, I wanted something cozy and soft for him. He's so sensitive to wool. (If you don't recall, I lined knitty's coronet with fleece for him last Christmas)

i did some spinning last night as well. I'd like to finish the Targhee, but the entire fleece isn't ready (still flicking and carding to go) I have 2 or 3 more fleeces to wash (let's not talk about how many need to be carded. And I just 'won' 1 pound of white BFL top off ebay. I'm going to start dyeing the top that I have before I spin it to see if I can make a more interesting yarn. I've been loving what jared has been spinning with roving (check out 8.24.07 entry) from spunky eclectic.

In yarn acquisition show offs Both of these are from ebay:
4 skeins of malabrigo in an olive green color. I see some manly gifts from this... maybe has, mittens and a scarf?

And 3 skeins of Noro, one of which I'll use for Lizard Ridge and the other two????

Slowly but surely, the stash is being put up on ravelry.. it's almost sinful... OK it is sinful. I've started to queue projects, my books are up and my FOs are getting there. Hopefully before too long I'll be caught up so I can play (and knit) more!