So many hobbies!

I should have made it bigger

It doesn't really look that orange.  It's more a paler salmon pink.

This is pretty much what I did Saturday.  That and watch home improvement shows on HGTV.  I've improved my lace-knitting skills enough that I can have the television on while I'm knitting.  That's a big step forward in my book.  I'm now on the long slog to finish the top of the shawl in the brown Merino/Polwarth yarn I spun.  I need to change to a shorter cable.  Now that I'm into the body of the shawl, I'm hoping it blocks out big enough.  I wrapped the border around myself while I was knitting it and it seemed plenty big enough at the time.  It may be that I should have done that extra set of repeats.  If it doesn't fit, that will still be okay.  I knit for the knitting, not necessarily for the finished product.

Today was mostly taken up by cooking.  Not a surprise.  That's become my usual Sunday activity:  grocery shopping first thing in the morning and cook most of the day.  And do lots of dishes.  Today's recipes were another stir-fry and black bean chili.  So far, my favorite recipe in the past month has been the simplest:  a can a black beans, drained and rinsed, mashed with salsa, heated, and eaten on a tortilla with cooked brown rice and avacado.  I could eat a couple of those in one sitting.  I'm good, though, and stick to just one.

Galen found a new cave for sleeping.

Busy

The weekend was busy but not with anything really blogable.  Saturday was a day of errands and picking up my new cable box.  Yes, after 5 years of being TV-free, I signed up for the least expensive cable option Comcast has.  I got tired of missing some of the shows I like on regular network TV.  As a result of getting cable, I had to rearrange my livingroom to put the TV on the wall where the cable jack is located.  The cats found this whole process rather bewildering.  I spent part of Saturday and Sunday blissfully watching watching the Food Network and FX.  When I wasn't cooking, that is.

Sunday was a day, again, of cooking.  I was at the grocery store at 7:00 am because I knew I had a day in the kitchen ahead of me.  I made mushroom stock for soup then used the stock to make mushroom soup, which was pretty good.  Did a lot of dishes.  For dinner, I  made a massive stir-fry with brocolli, carrots, green beans, red bell pepper, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots.  It was good but there wasn't quite enough sauce to wet the rice.  I should have doubled the sauce ingredients.  Next time.

The Andrea shawl is back at square one.  I decided that I don't like the onion dyed yarn I made and definitely don't like it with the brown of the shawl.  So that got frogged and I'm searching for the perfect yarn.  I've settled on this:

This is Cascade 220 "Salmon," purchased from The Loopy Ewe.  I searched Michaels and Joann and couldn't find the right color in a solid to go with the brown Merino/Polwarth I'm already using.  I think this one will go well with the brown.  I hope.

Andrea's edging

This is 75 repeats completing the edging for Andrea's Shawl.  The original pattern calls for 93 repeats but the yarn I'm using is a lot bigger so I went down one set of repeats.  I'm knitting a shawl, not a sail.  I started the edging Thursday morning and finished it Sunday morning.  I want so very badly to start on the lace portion of the shawl but I've only just started spinning the yarn.  Then, of course, I have to dye it.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to find my dyeing book so there's another delay.  Frustrating.

Did you survive Black Friday?  I'm happy to say I spent the entire day, with the exception of lunch with my sisters, at home and never set foot in a store.  I hate crowds.  I hate standing in line.  Most of my shopping will likely be from Amazon.  My preferred gifts, when possible, are art supplies and books.  My niece is getting art supplies and I bought them Thursday night at Michaels.  The Christmas shopping has begun!

Yup, I'm a crier

So, not only do I cry at the end of The Lord of the Rings, I also cry at the end of season 2 of Doctor Who.  I'm sniffling as I type.  Anyone who wants to travel through time and space with David Tennant, raise your hands.  Me!!

I've been searching for the perfect shawl pattern and I found a few that were close, but not quite there.  I've pretty much decided to knit Andrea's Shawl again.  This is the first one I knitted.  I enjoyed knitting it the first time so I'm looking forward to knitting it the second time.  Before I do, though, I need to spin up the yarn for the contrast color.  Has anyone bought the Merino/silk roving from Knitpicks?  I wonder how soft it feels.  I've got two produce bags of onion skins collected from the onion bin at the grocery store.  I think the produce guy though I was nuts for collecting them but I'm not afraid to be seen as a nut job for my art.  Besides, it would take ages to collect enough skins if I didn't get them that way.  Can't wait to try dyeing with them.  Something new!

Must go to bed now.  The TARDIS wore me out.

 

I broke my diet

I did really well for almost 6 months.  I didn't buy even a single ply of yarn that whole time.  Then I saw this shawl (Ravelry link) and my resolve was completely shot.  This is the next thing on my knitting project list: 

 

This is the variation has been knitted by a woman on Ravelry named Tesae.  It has more new things for me to learn, like nupps.  I have a problem, though.  I have two color combinations and I can't choose between the two.  Here's the first one:

 

And here's the second one:

 

(I know it's more or less a copy of what's already been done but I just love how it looks.)  I'm not a sports fan so the resemblence to any team colors are coincidence and frankly, I don't care.  I just like them.  So which combo should I choose? 

Blocking

 

Finally!  The neverending bind-off is finally finished and the ends are woven in.  The shawl got a bath and now it's drying on my new blocking matts with my new blocking pins and wires.  Actually, I've had the wires for a while but never had a chance to use them before now.  Not a bad job for my first blocking experience.  I think I need to tweak upward the right side, though... and shape the bottom point a little better.  I'm glad I bought the extra pins because I used all but two of them.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this; it's a little big for a neck wrap and too small for a shawl.  Doesn't really matter too much:  I made the shawl because I wanted to not because I needed one.

Now to bed...

The Endless Picot Bind-Off

 

I'm more than half-way done but this bind-off is taking F O R E V E R!  It took me a while to get the hang of it but now I'm a pro.  Rarely do I have the urge to to knit the same pattern twice but I've enjoyed this one so much I'm pretty sure I'll knit it again at some point.  Also, I'm absolutely in love with bottom-up shawls.  I found a handful I like on Ravelry but most shawls are designed top-down.  The rows on bottom-up shawls get shorter as you go until you're flying through the shawl at the end.  It's great.

I'm eager to get the shawl done and start working on quilts again.  I have two quilts that need bindings and two I'm still piecing.  It's great to have different hobbies to bounce between.  As soon as you get tired of one hobby, you can switch to the other.  Or in my case, I can switch between knitting, spinning and quilting. 

It's strawberry season and the beginning of the summer U-pick season.  One of my girlfriends and I are picking this Saturday.  The rest of the weekend I'll be making strawberry jam.  Yummm!  Strawberries are just the beginning.  After strawberries comes sweet and sour cherries, then blueberries, peaches, raspberries and finally apples.  Oh yeah, and around the first of July will be cucumbers for pickles.  I found a farm about half an hour from my house that sells U-pick cukes.  I haven't made pickles in YEARS so I'm looking forward to this.  I'm hoping one of the recipes I have will give me the sweet pickles you buy in the grocery store.  I adore sweet pickles.

I'm looking for some good blueberry recipes.  Anyone have a favorite blueberry cake recipe?  I've still got berries in the freezer and I need to use them up before the blueberry season starts.  Any help would be appreciated.

Tuesday

 

The garden in all its early glory.  I planted potatoes in every decent sized pot I had.  All 8 tomato plants went in as well.  I expect I'll be canning tomatoes late this summer.

 

The lace is done and I've started working my way up the body.

 

A detail shot of the lace.  This thing is going to be gorgeous when it's done.  Now, however, I have to pop next door and feel my neighbor's cat, Oliver.  Ollie is an only cat and he's not appreciated being alone so much. 

More applique

 

Another wizard and Socks on Fox from Dr. Seuss.  Remember that book? 

I had my annual mammogram today (yay, me!).  If you're of the age to have them, please do, it could save your life.

I started the lace section of the shawl but I'm stuck.  The pattern calls for a yarnover then a purl and I can't for the life of me figure out how to do that.  I'm blaming it on it being the end of the day and I'm tired.  I'm going to enlist a knitting girlfriend to show me how.  That's what's making this shawl so much fun for me:  all the new things I'm learning.  I've never done a bottom up shawl before, started with an edging, picked up stitches or done a YO before a purl.  Learning new things makes life fun for me and God knows I need some fun.  The pattern has both written instructions and a chart.  I'm much more comfortable with words so I'm using the written instructions for now.  Plus, this is true lace which means it has pattern on both right- and wrong-side rows (as opposed to just purling on the back side) and I really don't want to screw it up. 

I love short weeks.  Tomorrow's Friday already and I'm hoping to get some serious knitting in this weekend.  My sister and I have a quilt challenge planned and I need to get the shawl done before I can concentrate on quilting.  Something I need to do since I have 4 quilts in various stages of doneness and a quilt challenge in my future (as soon as the fabric come in).  Keeping busy is a good thing for me... it keeps me out of trouble.  LOL!

Just one more day?

 

We had a spin-in Saturday and I worked on this.  Our host was Barb and we spun in her back yard which is beautifully landscaped complete with stream and tiny waterfall.  It's one of those recirculating deals with a pump and the sound of running water was very nice.

 

I'm up to 55 repeats for the border.  Only 66 more to go.  I have to say I'm really enjoying knitting this shawl.  I don't have a lot of experience following a pattern and this one is just difficult enough to be interesting but not so much that it ceases to be fun.  It's a good mix for me.

I took a half day on Friday to do some gardening.  It seems like it's been raining forever and finally getting a nice day was a gift too good to waste.  So I came home a pulled weeds and cut down last year's clematis and cleaned up last year's dead flowers.  Then I went to Lowe's and got a few bags of compost for my veggie beds.  I added bag of compost to each potato box and got them ready to be planted.  Now if only I can find some fertilizer and phospate.  Potatoes, apparently, love phosphorous and potassium.  Last year I had lots of plant and not a lot of tater so definitely more phosphate this year.

Now, I'm hot, I'm tired and I really need a shower before I go to bed.  G'night all.