Cherries at Dusk

This may be my new favourite yarn.

Fiber details : 'Dusk' batt, Romney and Corriedale blend

Vendor : Dark Horse Farm(?) at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival 2006

Notes : I spun this about 12 tpi and plied it at about 8 tpi. It has a lot of bounce from the Corriedale and came off the niddy noddy with just about the right amount of twist in the skein. This should end up as a nicely balanced yarn once it is dry. I wish I had enough for a sweater but this was the last bag in the booth. Time to hunt-up some contact information.

Dusk

A gorgeous batt from Oregon Flock and Fiber 2006 that is quickly becoming a beautiful yarn. I took advantage of our brief glimpse of sunshine earlier this week and snapped a picture. The subtle variation of colours is delightful and it truly captures dusk at springtime in my neighbourhood. The pinks of the cherry blossoms and hyacinths and the moodiness of the sky, trees and mountains.

Gnomed

Friends visiting friends cause the best kind of trouble.




I hope the neighbours like the new lawn art, I'm quite fond of it.

Flame Socks v.2

Project specs : Flame Socks v.2

Pattern : Top down almost-standard sock

Yarn : Elann Puzzle Collection Color 714 & (very old) Kroy 4-ply 54042

Needles : 2.5mm regia dpns

Wierd sock fitting notes : 72 sts cast-on for leg. Standard 1x1 ribbing for the top, 5x1 ribbing for the leg. I transitioned to stockinette for the last inch before the heel flap. The heel flap is a non-standard 48 rows long. I picked up 24 sts on each side of the heel flap after turning the heel and decreased down to 64 stitches. The toe is decreased on alternating rows down to 32 stitches.

Sitting and Knitting and Winding

There was a lot of sitting in the car and knitting last weekend. Vancouver - Grand Forks - Trail - Grandforks - Vancouver, Vancouver - Seattle - Vancouver looks like this.

A Little Sit-ster from The Natural Knitter for Tricia.


Joanne's new hat design using Jessica's hand-spun. The details are blurry but this photo does capture the transition from dark purple at the crown to purpley-blue at the brim. It's a very subtle change and I love the way it looks.


No pictures yet, but Flame Socks v.2 are finished and I made some good progress on the Garden Path Shawl.

The trip to Seattle was for the first fair-isle
winding party. I still have 24 skeins to split up and wind (25 bobbins/skein) and I think Denise's present will come in handy. Surely I will be able to achieve a sense of Zen as I meditatively wind yarn and contemplate my potato.

Maybe Menu

Monday night : Chicken Creole (recipe to follow as it is super-easy and tasty)
Tuesday night : The infamous Spinach pie
Wednesday night : West African peanut soup
Thursday night : I am going to go look for some fresh halibut.
Friday night : I'm finally going to re-test that recipe for Chicken Thighs with Balsamic Orange Sauce served with Couscous & Roasted Vegetables for Denise
Saturday and Sunday are anybody's guess right now but I'll probably aim for some more Seafood and maybe some Lamb and Potatoes.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Creole adapted from Cook Great Food by the Dietitians of Canada.

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
19 oz crushed tomatoes or tomato puree
5 oz tomato paste
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp chopped garlic (or two cloves)
1 tsp hot sauce
(Sometimes I cheat and just use the Vietnamese chili garlic sauce - about 1 tablespoon)
1/2 cup chopped onion
Place all of the above ingredients in a large slow cooker and cook on low for 4-5 hours or high for 2-2.5 hours.

Turn it to high (if you were cooking on low) and add the following ingredients and cook for 20-25 minutes.

2 cups chopped pepper (I normally go for yellow or green for the color contrast)
8 oz spicy smoked sausage, sliced (If possible I get half and half of mild and spicy Skremska but any smoked sausage will do. If it is not spicy, I just add more hot sauce).

I also added broccoli the last time around and it didn't seem to hurt it at all. I normally serve over rice. A quick easy meal, especially if you have a rice-cooker as well.

There are some Flame sock (v.2) pictures forthcoming as well as a new hat.

A good day.

The sun is shining, I'm a year older and I have my health, happiness and presents from the mail.


I am a lucky girl. My Swap Softly goodies were devoured by me and I think Max is working on his snack. This came all the way from Cambridge, UK. Max is soft, cuddly and has great fangs. His M. Sendak Wild Things colour scheme and curlicues are just what the mood doctor ordered.

The second Spin to Knit skein is already on my needles. Many thanks to Jessica for the yarn and Joanne for the hat pattern.

Naughty Knitting

I've been a bad, bad knitter. I should be working on Pebbles, my March UFO pick of the long abandoned Garden Path Shawl or the beautiful Campanula socks.


Instead my schedule and lack of brainpower have me working on far less complicated projects. Here we have the Flame's next pair of socks (blue/green/grey/white, I am at the heel flap of sock 2), my finished Vintage Socka Socks, new socks for me (Regia Spirit in blue) and an Odessa hat in grey.

Project Specs : Vintage Socka Socks - mish-mash pattern from various sources. I use Priscilla Gibson-Robert's toe-up start and Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's toe-up turned heel. Everything else is my fault entirely.

Yarn : Fortissima Socka Colori, I lost the ball band a long time ago, but perusal of on-line colour cards has me believe that the current 2414 would be a good match.

Needles : 2.25mm dpns (Aeros, maybe?)

Started : so very, very long ago, I picked these up as my January UFO Resurrection project
Finished : end of February 2007

Notes : 67 stitches in the foot, 68 for the leg. Washed and dried, these have the thickest, softest hand of any socks so far. Better even than my Conwy socks out of Socka 2434 on 2.5mm needles. I think I have mastered my perfect sock.


That hasn't been all of the Nau(gh)tie knitting I've been doing, here's my Swap Softly creation hiding in the wild. I'm really pleased with how he turned out. My tentacles look as if they are growing out of the knitting organically.

I picked up two stitches for the bottom of the i-cord. Each stitch was picked up so that they were off-set from the original stockinette by half a stitch (so I picked up into the left half of a stitch and the right half of the stitch to the left of it simultaneously).


Once I have both stitches on my double-pointed needle, I take a second needle and pick up into the centre stitch 1 row above the two stitches I have just picked up. I place the loop onto my original dpn and start working my i-cord.



Project specs : Nautie from Knitty

Yarn : KP Wool of the Andes in Fern and Marks and Kattens' Dream in pale blue (nothing like soft, fuzzy tentacles)

Needles : 3.5mm Brittany Birch dpns

Started : March 2, 2007
Finished : March 19, 2007

I knit the face onto the body as it seemed easier to continue stuffing as I went. It worked out very well as the pick-up made for a very definite turned edge.

Mitten mania and Glove love

Terri's wonderful project has gone to print and I can finally show you the gloves I was knitting last fall. When she asked for test/sample knitters I couldn't resist. I'll bet you wouldn't have been able to resist either.


I can't wait to see the other patterns I may be knitting selbuvotter all summer.