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I managed to post at least once every day for the entire month of November for the NaBloPoMo otherwise known as the National Blog Posting Month. I know. You're probably thinking that the world would have been a better place if I had skipped a few days rather than leave you with some of my less knitworthy posts. But I made it. Whew! How did you do?
As I mentioned, I flew home to Sioux City, Iowa this week to visit my family. I packed my Knitting Central Sock Club socks from last month (the second pair of Danni's Cables, Cables Everywhere). I also took some yarn and was knitting on the plane, in the car and even in the beauty salon.
Remember how I mentioned that I am trying to knit things and donate things to the Jackson Recovery Center? I especially want to donate to the Women and Children's Center, Marienne Manor and the Adolescent Center. When I was home I visited the first two facilities and was impressed by how amazingly well they're run and what a superb and touching job everyone does at helping people get back on their feet. Of course, I then ask myself, I'm impressed, but not surprised. I knew the JRC team was top notch. As many of you already know, my mother was Marienne Jackson and purple was her favorite color. Somehow I want to tie knitting, Jackson Recovery Center and some good charity knitting together.
James knew about my desire to launch a knitting project and charity fundraiser for Jackson Recovery Center. He brought me a lovely skein of worsted weight New Zealand wool from Manukau Yarns called Charisma. It's a lovely shade of everything purply all rolled into one gorgeous ball. He thought it would make a great scarf in honor of my Mother. He was right. I decided to knit a fun and easy mistake rib scarf and it's turning out beautifully. I will probably gift it to someone at Marienne Manor.
What can I say? She's a cutie. That's for sure.
She's starting to become such a ham for the camera. I'm flying home from a few days in Iowa, so I'll have a lot to share with you on Friday. I hope you had a great week. I sure did.
My dear friend Elizabeth of The Felted Garden saw my post about the charity auction for the Jackson Recovery Center and quickly offered so many of her gorgeous hand-felted scarves for the auction. Aren't they beautiful?
I can't thank you enough! These are sure to be a huge hit and raise lots of money for a great cause. Thanks so much.
It's a cold, rainy, dreary day in Connecticut but it just became a whole lot sunnier because my latest installment for the Knitting Central Sock Club arrived in the mail today. I'm so excited. It's an original design by fab teacher/designer Lynn Wilson and made with Sheep Shop Yarn Company silk wool blend yarn. The socks are called Cables & Ribs Ladies' Bed Socks. As if the pattern and yarn weren't special enough, Cynthia included a list of the Knitting Central Goddesses' favorite sock books. There is also a cute little stack of Creative Paper Works post-it notes to keep track of your place on a pattern. Thanks for the great gifts Cynthia! Thanks for the amazing pattern Lynn!
If you're a member of the Knitting Central Sock Club, what color is your sock yarn? Mine is a solar orange explosion. In case you were wondering what I think about orange on my feet, look at Wilma and the family Crocs in the mudroom.
Somebody's ready to go for a walk. But first I think I need to swing by Knitting Central and pick up some US Size 4 dpns so I can get cracking. What joy! What bliss! What will they think of next?
I'm a huge Jane Austen fan. I didn't come into this until a few years ago. In fact, I didn't get it for a long while. When I first read the book, the only thing I took away from the book was this thought "All they do is walk?!". Now I could watch my Jane Austen DVDs over and over and over again. I have both the Colin Firth BBC DVD and the Keira Knightly DVD. I like them both. They each have redeeming qualities. I've also recently purchased The Annotated Pride and Prejudice. But this morning I saw something on Deb's blog that I realized was missing in my life.
Go check it out here.
Did you check it out?
OK. If you did, 'fess up. Did you purchase one for yourself?
It's a cold rainy morning and BF needed a ride to the train station. It's only 5:45 a.m. and I have a chill so I grabbed my Adrienne Vittadini K2, P2 ribbed scarf from about 2 years ago en route to the train station and snapped this sleepy-eyed pre-dawn photo
P.S OK - You didn't really want to see a picture of me - so here's a re-take of just the scarf. It definitely did the trick to cut the chill.
I think I hear my coffee calling me.
Isn't that about the worst quote ever from a classic movie? I watched two movies today while making minimal progress on my Sublime Pixie jacket. The first, of course was Love Story. The second was the sequel, Oliver's Story. I enjoyed both movies, especially since I'm a Ryan O'Neal fan and I had never seen either movie.
You'd think that knitting during two movies would allow time for a great deal of progress, right? It seems that I'm working on the hood at a snail's pace. I only managed to knit the section on the right during these movies.
I'm not happy with the first half. Upon closer examination, something looks wrong. I don't know what, but it's bothering me enough that I'm considering ripping it out.
I first saw this cute adorable knitting item with one of my knitting buddies. I think it may have been Karen or Joanna. After I taught James the Magic Loop method for socks and knit up my own miniature sock, I decided I should try to find the source for this adorable knitting must have item. Do you already have one?
I got my Keychain Sock Blocker Sock from The Bellwether. It's a clever idea and a very cute way to show off your fab leftover sock yarn. Everyone will know you're a knitting aficionado with this keychain. I'm just glad that my miniature sock happened to fit on the sock blocker!
Here's a picture of my neighbor's brilliant red tree. I voted it the best tree in town. It peaked on Thanksgiving.
I managed to knit 5 more rows on my red Cables, Cables Everywhere socks. Progress, yes. But not enough to show. I hope you had a great day. I made my Chicken Dumpling Soup - but used the turkey bones to make my own homemade soup stock. Yum. I just love Thanksgiving leftovers.
Note: Here's the link my Chicken Dumpling Soup. Just substitute turkey stock and meat for the chicken stock and meat.
I put together a small gift basket of yarn for a fundraiser auction to benefit the Jackson Recovery Center
I'm trying to find some patterns for the pink baby yarn, the Knit Picks sock yarn and the 8 skeins of wool to add to the mix. I might just put everything in a knitting bag to really make it productive.
What would you suggest to make this a huge hit?
I got another fibre cartoon for my birthday. It finally arrived.
To see a better picture of it - click here. I bought the matching t-shirt, too. See how knitting can come in handy if you ever find yourself face-to-face with a dinosaur?
I blocked the back, front(s) and sleeves for Sublime this morning. I am working on the hood, but since I've never knit a hood before I am being very careful to pay special attention to the directions. Hopefully this week amidst the Thanksgiving preparations and busy-ness, I will be able to finish the two pieces for the hood.
I re-read the directions for Sublime and studied the picture in the patternbook again and noticed that there is NO edging on the bottom of the sweater. It has a simple rolled edge stockinette intended to curl. It's not my favorite style for a sweater, but since I want to ship this baby sweater off before the holidays so it can be worn in the winter - I'm just going to go with it.
I also have to sing the praises of my little Canon Elph camera. It magically erases all the unevenness in my knitting. Isn't that amazing? Look. Here's a close-up
Now if I could just get one to erase wrinkles, laugh lines and sun spots. Let me know if you find one.
I worked my six-hour volunteer shift at the Westport Young Woman's League Creative Arts Festival held at Staples High School today. I haven't spent a day on my feet in awhile. I had a great time helping out. Of course I made many wonderful purchases. My favorite one is this piece of artwork made out of a quilt.
Put on your big girl panties and deal with it.
I can't stop laughing. It's now hanging in my laundry room. Very few people will ever see it when they come to my house - but it makes me smile. Hehehehe. Do you have art hanging in your laundry room?
This past week I spent most of my knitting time with James working on the leg of the 2nd sock for the Knitting Central Sock Club socks. I found this easier to knit while chatting than the Sublime Pixie Jacket (which requires focus to detail). I'm making a red pair of Danni's Cables, Cables Everywhere and I'm loving them to pieces.
I can tell already that this is going to be a favorite pair of socks. They'll probably get a lot of wear during the holiday season this year. In January 2008 you'll be able to get the pattern from Danni.
James took the 8:57 a.m. train into the city with Angel and Erik this morning. He's off to Queer Joe's for the weekend and I know that Joe has a great yarn crawl planned.
Here we are. I'm wearing a Vogue Knitting sweater from 1987 or 1988. Yes - it's slightly felted, shrunk AND outgrown but I had to wear it just the same. It was a fabulous few days with James. Joe - you're going to enjoy our Kiwi friend. Have fun James and Bon Voyage. We'll see you someday soon in New Zealand.
James and I spent some quiet knitting time in the afternoon. I had a few DVDs that we watched - one was the Philosopher's Wool Two Handed Fair Isle knitting and the other was Lucy Neatby's Sock Techniques DVD. Both were very informative (although I confess I dozed off during the first). I was inspired to give James a quick tutorial on the Magic Loop method. So I grabbed two pairs of Turbo Addis in a 40" long US size 2 and some remnant sock yarn. We each cast on 24 sts and away we knit.
James was a natural at it. In just this small sample, he had perfectly mastered the technique. I continued on until I had an entire miniature sock shown next to a quarter to give you an idea of its size.
This could start a whole Miniature Christmas Stocking craze! Wait. I just remembered that really long list of UFOs and WIPs. Drat.
The talented ladies of SNL came over last night to meet James. We had a fantastic time eating, drinking, knitting and telling tall tales.
Regina, Lindsay, Susan, Betsy, Jennifer and James are ready to sit down to a delicious fall dinner
My dear friends Angel and Erik regaled us with funny tales from their stay in Tanzania. Look! There's a rare shot of BF, well, at least his right hand.
After dinner we had a scrumptious homemade apple cranberry pie made by Susan's daughter. We also had a bit of show and tell. It wouldn't be Saturday kNit Live if we didn't have a bit of sharing.
Betsy had her amazing mystery stole in this lovely blue. We all admired her work. She's such a fast knitter and her lace work is divine!
Betsy actually had not one, but two (yes 2) amazing mystery stoles. Here's the white one she's nearly finished knitting. The picture doesn't do this stole justice. It's just breath taking!
The oohing and aahing continued to a near-state of drooling when I asked James to share his Kaffe Fassett Persian Poppies Wrap. We were all duly impressed. Someone even commented how we'd never seen anyone knit such a beautiful wrap with such lovely mohair, angora and boucle mixes.
It was easily one of the best SNLs ever. Thanks everyone for coming out on a weeknight to get together.
I took James around to some lovely places in my very own Westport, Connecticut. The first place I took him this morning (after the grocery store for a stock of Kool-Aid which was to dye for) was my felting friend's Felted Garden.
Elizabeth lives in one of my favorite homes in Westport. It's on the national historic register and played a part in the revolutionary war. It was actually an Inn during those times. I'm absolutely certain that felting and knitting have been going on in this house for centuries! Elizabeth continues the fibre tradition with her beautiful felted scarves, wraps and throws. She was busy getting ready for 3 shows in the next 5 days, so we didn't stay long. Just enough to see her fantastic fibres.
Elizabeth showed James some of her scarves. Here they're discussing a specific felting technique. I particularly liked this white leafy scarf. Rachael - this pose is for you!
Elizabeth showed us her creative laboratory
James quickly pointed out this lovely teensy bin of UFOs. If only we could be so lucky to have such a manageable sized UFO stash.
It was a wonderful visit into Elizabeth's Felted Garden. If you'd like to take a tour yourself, you can get a virtual tour by visiting Elizabeth's website here.
James was in England for the sole purpose of attending a Kaffe Fassett workshop. Lucky dog! I did say that with a wee bit of envy in my voice, now, didn't I? I learned so much from James' telling of the workshop. First and foremost, KF's name rhymes with Waif Facet. It's Kaffe - like waif - not like taffy. I feel so much better now being in the know. The best thing to see was James' Persian Poppy wrap.
Wow! I can't tell you how luxurious this is with it's mohair mixture of fibres. James' knitting with color is absolutely flawless. I'm not even a mohair fan, but this is to die for!
James also came bearing gifts. I got a personally autographed copy of the newest Kaffe Fassett book
with a personal inscription to Moi.
Wow! I am not worthy. I am so thrilled. I really must work on perfecting my color work techniques. I am having a blast enjoying my Kaffe Fassett workshop vicariously through James. It's almost as good as being there.
James has been my virtual friend for nearly 4 years. I met him on the very first day he started his Typepad blog. I happened to be logging onto my Typepad account and saw the name of his blog - Fibre Alive - pop up in the "recently updated" section and thought to myself "Self, that sounds like a fascinating blog if ever I heard one." So I hopped on over and said hello. James tells me I was the very first person to comment on his blog. A friendship between a Kiwi and a Nutmeg was formed. James arrived late Tuesday night from New Zealand (via England, Ireland and Germany) and our virtual friendship became a real one.
This morning, we hopped a train from Westport into the city. Of course, we each knit socks the entire ride. I even equipped James with the necessary Go Knits pouch in green (his favorite color).
When we got to Grand Central, we took the obligatory picture by the information booth before heading to the whispering wall in front of the Oyster Bar.
Then we took the subway downtown and saw the base of the American Way... the New York Stock Exchange.
We walked to Ground Zero and spent some silent time there followed by a walk down to Battery Park to gaze at Liberty. This was followed by an obligatory New York City street vendor hot dog -- otherwise known as a Dirty Water Dog. Yum!
After our quick bite, we took a taxi ride (James - DON'T LOOK!) to the front door of the lovely Purl in Soho. Purl is a lovely store and is everything a knitting store in a huge metropolitan area ought to be. It's small and packed beyond the safety limits with people elbowing to get to their bit of Koigu or cashmere first. The yarn is expertly displayed from floor to ceiling (literally). There are nothing but natural exquisite fibers and a friendly helpful staff. It is small. There is hardly any room to move about the store. But it is a must-see stop on your NYC yarn crawl. After that, we had grabbed a quick bite to eat at Le Pain Cotidien. Re-energized with some substenance, we walked past NYU and Washington Square Park before hailing another taxi to deposit us at in the garment district as we found our way to Habu Textiles. If you've never been to a wholesale store in the garment district, you need to be prepared. This is not a normal shop. They are focused on the wholesale buyer, but lucky for us, also sell retail. This is their display. Lantern Moon baskets in the center of the room with samples of yarn in interesting Japanese fibers - soy, silk, raffia, cashmere, wool, steel, and the list goes on and on.
It was an experience and I bought some nice soy and even 2 grab bags. Here is a close-up of the baskets of yarn. Ooooh.
After Habu, we took a taxi to Central Park with the intention of going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Time somehow slipped away from us and we didn't really have enough time to do any of the Met justice, so we opted to stroll through Central Park and see John Lennon's memorial at Strawberry Fields. We ended our Manhattan day with a rickshaw ride back to Grand Central.
We went downstairs in the food court at Grand Central and made a beeline for The Little Pie Company for a chocolate walnut brownie and a coffee to rest before our train and a chocolate cake to take home before we met BF, Angel and Erik for our ride home. It was a great day.
James just arrived from his UK trip. He picked up this adorable chocolate bar with a sheep on it.
No pictures of us tonight. James is jetlagged and I'm a bit tired myself. Tomorrow we start on our yarn crawl in Connecticut. Thursday we'll be heading to NYC to visit Purl and Habu. What other spots should I take my Kiwi friend on his first visit to the US?
I took Primogeniture and the Boy Scouts on a campout in the Berkshires this weekend. We pitched our tents on a farm and this was the view from our campsite.
If you were in the Rhinebeck area this weekend you know it was cold. With temperatures like these, it was time to show off the handknit gear.
I'm not kidding. That was the temperature when I started my car in the morning. Brrr. Good thing we had the proper gear for cold weather camping.
I kept my head warm by wearing my head band handknit by fellow blogger, knitter and scout leader Jane. In these chilly temperatures it was the perfect thing to wear under my Koigu handknit cap.
Then I covered it up and was nice and toasty warm with my double layer of head gear.
Yes. I'm already thinking about some sort of Fair Isle handknit hat with our Boy Scout Troop logo knit into the pattern. Since my list of WIPs and UFOs is so large, I think I'd better keep to the current list for now. Perhaps later. I'm sure the entire Troop would like to wear handknit hats made by their beloved Scoutmaster, don't you think? I did manage to keep my tootsies warm by wearing my hand knit socks.
I tried to knit some socks on this campout, but I brought a lace pattern that required my full attention, so my attempt to knit only resulted in the need to rip out further back than before the campout. I guess you might call it negative knitting progress.
We all had a great time on this fun campout and ate really well. We grilled London Broil, baked sliced sweet potatoes in tin foil, cooked some broccoli and finished it up with apple pie tortillas.
Here's the London Broil - cooked to perfection!
And here's a picture of the apple pie tortilla ready to be baked on the grill.
Just place one large tortilla on a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Add a pat of butter. Slice up one apple. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Wrap the tortilla like a burrito and then seal it in the foil. Wrap the entire foiled apple pie tortilla in a second layer of foil and place on the BBQ grill. Heat until the apples are tender. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Camping never tasted so good.
Our friends Adam and Erika have so many wonderful recipes in their families. I love to sample people's homemade favorite family recipes. I was thrilled last year when I went to their wedding in England to see that Adam had asked his mother to make her famous Nusskuchen as the wedding cakes. She, of course, obliged. I fell in love with her apple, hazelnut, chocolate cake. It is simply one of the most delicious cakes I've ever tried.
I recently begged Adam for the family recipe. He confessed that it doesn't work in the U.S. The flour just isn't the same. I've had this problem with recipes before, so I mentioned that Softasilk flour is often the solution. So he sent me the recipe and I gave it a try. NOPE. It's not the solution. The recipe calls for only 1/2 cup of self rising flour (which Softasilk is NOT). Of course, I added 1 teaspoon of baking powder, hoping it would do the trick. Still no luck. I felt that I needed more leavening agents in this recipe and also a double batch to make it big enough to get the full effect. What are your thoughts? Has anyone else had problems with the London-New York baking conversion of self-rising flour? What would you recommend? Once I get the solution, I will likely share my version of this scrumptious cake. I hope you'll all want to serve it at your family affairs.
All this cooking and no eating has tuckered poor Wilma out. She was underfoot the whole time we were cooking and baking, just hoping for some scraps. No luck. But she was so darned cute sleeping it off that I had to share this picture with you.
Angel and Erik are staying with us for a bit and recently treated us to a wonderful dinner. Well, actually, the appetizers were so delicious, that we never got past them to start the main course. We went straight from appetizers to dessert. I'm not sure a nutritionist would approve, but it just seemed the right thing to do given the overindulgence of Angel's amazing parsnip potato latkes. Yum.
The recipe can be found here. We served them with sour cream and homemade applesauce. When the homemade applesauce ran out, we got out some store bought applesauce (shown here). It just wasn't the same, so we tried some homemade apple butter. It was delicious indeed. Well worth foregoing the rest of the dinner to indulge ourselves in these scrumptious latkes with the parnip twist. If you make them, tell me what you think.
BF and I went to the Post Office today and I discovered that they are honoring knitters with year's holiday stamps. Have you seen them yet?
Run out and get your Holiday Knits stamps today. Or, if you prefer, you can order your stamps online by clicking on the USPS site. Happy knitting.
Wilma just wanted to show up for a little bit of puppy love. Awww. She weighed in at 45 pounds this week - which is very small for an English Bulldog. Don't let her slight size fool you, though. She's 100% bulldog.
I was at the gym with Jillian yesterday talking about all my WIPs, UFOs and pre-staged knitting projects. She quickly asked me "What about the lace for the Huppah?" Yikes! I had completely forgotten about that one. Oops. I had better get a move on. Less than sixteen weeks until the big day. Time to make the vision a reality.
Over the past five days, I've been very busy working on the Sublime Pixie Jacket. It's so much fun to knit this adorable baby sweater. The only drawback is I have 2 skeins that are riddled with knots!
WARNING - RANTING AHEAD! I used one skein for both sleeves and I had FIVE knots in ONE skein of Sublime!!! I get so upset when I pay good money for yarn, only to find that there is no quality control on the part of the yarn maker. What can we do? Despite the fact that I love the softness of this Sublime yarn, I doubt I will buy it again. I will hold my own personal boycott of Sublime. I'm very sorry to say that. I try very hard to do my part - supporting my LYS, supporting local fibre artists, promoting great products and finds; but I expect not to be cheated on the other end. Am I wrong?
I got an email from Farley with all sorts of great news about the success of the knit-a-thon. Rather than recap what she said, I'll just give you her note:
I am very pleased to announce that the FIRST ANNUAL PINE STREET INN KNIT-A-THON AND PLEDGE DRIVE was an amazing success! Whether you knitted, made a yarn donation, gave a financial contribution or helped assemble at the event your participation made the day a great one and we thank you! YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED TO KNOW: 
63 people attended the event.Between 75-100 people knitted squares.Sixteen blankets were assembled and we have enough squares to make many more. We raised $16,000 to support 
Thank you all for your support, creativity and very generous spirit!
Very best regards,
Farley
P.S. if you would like to see pictures of the day please see below.... CLICK HERE
My Prayer Shawl knitting group at Assumption Parish has talked about knitting mittens for children in the area. I decided to buy some books on the subject. I went to Knitting Central yesterday and found Robin Hansen's Knit Mittens!
There are some wonderful patterns in here and I hope to make the best mittens ever to gift to some special recipients. I keep thinking about what Norma said - which I'll paraphrase to this - "When you knit something for charity, knit it as if you were making it for yourself or for your own child/grandchild. Think quality not quantity." I like that philosophy. It's similar to what I tell the boys when we clean up their old clothes and toys for charity. "Would you like to receive this broken toy?" or "Would you wear this shirt with a hole or stain in it?" This generally makes the boys sheepishly go back and pick good quality items that they simply aren't wearing or playing with. I think everyone deserves something beautiful and made especially for them. I also believe that all that positive energy can be passed on to the recipient through a lovely handmade item. I'm certain that this book will help all of us make handknit items to be cherished.
I spoke too soon earlier. I decided to clean up my Knit Nook after taking inventory of my WIPs and UFOs and quickly realized I have many more than I first realized. Below are some additional WIPs and UFOs.
Projects-That-Have-Been-Put-In-Storage-Bins
Projects-That-I-Bought-The-Yarn-For-But-Can't-Even-Consider-Starting-Until-I-Finish-Other-Projects
Here's a picture with the Morehouse Farm lot and the Red Cashmerino for the sampler blanket.
Here's a picture of the three skeins of Qiviuk (which by the way is a great word to know for Scrabble or Royalty since there is no "Qu" in this word). I can't even begin to thinkof what I'd like to knit with this. It's so luxurious and I purchased it in a moment of self-indulgence. The lovely dish belonged to my Grandmother Lois and holds a special place in my Knit Nook. It makes me happy just looking at it.
But back to the list. I think that this daunting list is the main reason I'm trying to knit my current WIPs so quickly. I'd really like to get some of the list completed so I can start a new project. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit.
Now back to our regularly scheduled knitting. I got sidetracked with Farley's Knit-a-thon and my fantastic fibre friends. Now that I'm done with that knit-a-thon project, I can return to my regularly scheduled knitting projects. The problem is - I have way too many WIPs. I've notice many of you in blogdom taking a personal inventory of your projects in their various stages of progress. I've done the same. I think I even forgot to list some of them. These are the ones that are still on my mind:
Projects-On-The-Go
