So many hobbies!

FO #1

One UFO down!  I love how this top came out.  Quilting is next but I'll have to think on this one for a bit.  It would be best quilted free-motion but I stink at that and the funding isn't available to send it out, sad to say.  This was my attempt at using up scraps.  There are a lot more seams, as you can see, amongst the white background and I have to say, I rather like it that way.  It gives it more character.  I learned alot while sewing this one.  The first few had the tips cut off the roofs.  Oops.  But I figured that one out after a few.  This whole quilt was a lot of fun.  I tried not to have much of a plan in mind while sewing the houses.  I started adding windows by the end, partially because my cousins requested them.  My favorite house is the one in the lower right hand corner.

"Home again, home again, jiggety jig."

Well, I've been home a couple of hours and already, I've found 3 potatoes, 2 milk caps, a paper wad and a raffia ball under the 'fridge.  While it's good to be home with my kids, I'm also lonely and wish I was still at my sister's.  Still, when I'm done with this post, I'm going to pop in a movie and start assessing which UFOs I'm going to work on.

Christmas was great!  The only thing that would have made it better is if my niece had been there.  Laurel, however, is currently in Thailand.  She's been in S. Korea for the past year teaching English as a second language.  Her contract was up a week or two ago and now she's traveling with a girlfriend.  I believe from Thailand they travel to Nepal where she and Agata will live at a Buddhist monastery for a month teaching English to the young monks that live there.  I'm so proud of her I can hardly stand it.  There is no way, when I was her age, I would have had the courage to do what she's doing.  I can't wait to hear her stories and see her pictures.

My four-footed "nephew," Tuxedo, liked to hang out under the Christmas tree.  When he wasn't there, he spent a lot of time being held by me.  I am ridiculously fond of him.

This little girl has 4 names as given to her by the four two-footed members of her family.  My sister calls her Snookums or Snooky for short.  This is what I call her.  Compared to her brother, who you can bench press for a work-out, she's all fluff and not a lot of weight.  She's a very sweet little girl.

I've made some progress on my socks but they're too big and I'm still decided between ripping back (I HATE ripping!) and just knitting tighter from this point on.  I'm pretty sure ripping is going to win as I really don't want to have the fabric of my socks bunched around my toes.  That way leads to blisters.

With the exception of Thursday, I have the whole week off to work on UFO's.  I'm hoping to get three quilt tops done and to onion dye some yarn.  I'm feeling a little lonely, though, now that I'm back by myself again, and it's got me feeling a bit off.  I need to find an upbeat movie.  That'll cheer me up and get me in the mood to do crafty things.  If any of you are in southeast Michigan this week, you're welcome to pop by for a visit.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

A wee bit of spinning this evening.  This was one of the bats I made a couple of months ago.  Most of it is some lovely black alpaca with added sari silk.  I don't know what the white bits are.  The bag was unlabeled and I'd had it so long I'd forgotten what it was.

Tomorrow I head for my sister's in Pennsylvania.  I am surprisingly ready and will get to bed at a decent time.  It's an 8 hour drive (with stops) and I am well equiped for the journey with snacks and books on tape.  Now I just need to not miss 80-E's turn to the right.  I missed it last time and took the scenic route to my sister's.  I was very proud of myself that I didn't freak the heck out when I realized I wasn't even close to where I was supposed to be.  I seriously doubt I'll ever make that mistake again.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!  I hope you have a family-filled (if that's your thing), happy time.  I'll be back next Tuesday and I'll try and post then.  Take care.

I want my two dollars!*

I finally broke down and bought white miso paste to make my miso soup.  To make it more traditional, I also bought kelp to add to the soup.  It tasted fine but I think the yellow miso would have been much more flavorful.  I'm still searching for yellow miso.  Here's a shot of my mostly-yummy soup:

I also added shiitake mushrooms and tofu, just like in Japanese restaurants.  There were little bits of miso floating around so I don't think I disolved/mashed the miso quite enough. 

Sunday I exchanged gifts with my parents and opened the combined gift from both my sister and my grandparents.  When I blogged that I wanted one of these for Christmas, I honestly didn't believe I'd get one.  You know, it's like when you were 16 and you added a car to the Christmas list you gave your mom.  You didn't actually think you'd get a car.  Same thing here except this time it actually worked.  Behold:

The Stauch Petite.  Isn't it beautiful?!  I've even made my first bat, modeled here by the handsome Galen:

More carding will have to wait until after Christmas however.  Bummer.  I have a house to clean and a bit more baking to do before Friday.

I've been toying with the idea of finishing as many works-in-progress as possible.  I've got about 3 quilt tops to finish (the actual quilting will have to wait), some yarn to dye, and 4 or 5 bats to spin.  I guess you can say I'll be doing a Finish-a-thon.  Start the new year with the old year's projects done.  Join me?

 

*This will make sense if you've seen the movie "Better Off Dead."  It's hilarious.  Plus, it's an inside joke for my sister.

My Christmas prep is complete

Yesterday was the big baking day, now done.  I don't know why, but somehow 3 batches of cookies takes me all flippin' day.  I finished at about 10:00 at night.  Granted, I ran errands in the morning and went out to dinner with friends but still, 10:00?  But, they're done and now I can relax.  Naturally, I forgot to take pictures.  Sorry.

Today I drove to my parents' place and we exchanged gifts.  I'll save the picture of my main gift, from both my sister and my grandparents, until later this week.  After lunch, my dad and I worked on the chair I'm caning:

Now that I'm working on the oblique weaving, you can really see the classic look of a caned seat appear.  The chair came home with me along with some cane so I'll be working on finishing up the weaving, probably next week.  I have no idea where I'm going to put it.

Also finished this weekend were the temporary replacement stockings.  It took me three stockings and advice from a friend to get the cuffs right.  But, they're done and initialed and ready for filling.

The rest of this week, until I leave on Friday, I'll be cleaning my neglected house and kitchen.  I've kind of let it go and it really needs cleaning.  Joy. 

Random Thursday

Random thoughts for the day:

• the stockings are cut and awaiting assembly
• I hope they're big enough
• I have no idea how I'm going to put them together.  Hmm, must find tutorial...
• I'm getting 10 stitches to the inch on my socks with size 1.5 needles.  A tight knitter?  Who me?
• I found 3 potatoes, 2 paper wads, a milk ring and a piece of styrofoam under a bookcase
• The cats have been busy
• I hope I don't forget to bring the turkey with me to my sister's
• In lieu of having a holiday party, my department at work gave us gift cards.  Cool.
• I've had oatmeal with raspberries every night for dinner this week.  Is that weird?  It's really good oatmeal.  Honest.
• I found a small project bag on Etsy that I want.  I may get it for myself after Christmas.  Or, I might cave and get it earlier.  It's a toss up.
• I ordered this fabric in a fat quarter pack and it came today.  I'm thinking kid's quilt:
  

• How is it that it's just over a week until Christmas?  How the heck did that happen?
• Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays everyone.

New Socks!

Somehow I've gotten it into my head that I always need to have a pair of socks on the needles.  My last two socks-in-progress are finally finished so it's time to cast on for another pair.  The yarn is Superwash Merino from The Sanguine Gryphon and I'm in love with the colors.  As usual, I'm knitting two socks at once from the toe up using size 1.5 needles.

My sister's house in Pennsylvania flooded a few months ago.  In the overenthusiastic effort to clean the mud out of the basement, quite a few things were inadvertently thrown out.  Several of those things were the handmade Christmas stockings my sister had made.  We have to have stockings for Christmas and my sister doesn't have the time, so I'll be heading off to Joann tomorrow or Thursday for some fabric to make four quick and dirty temporary stockings.  Nothing fancy, just stockings to tide my sister over until she can replace the ones that were lost.  I've been given instructions to make the stockings BIG so lots can be fit inside.  Gotcha!  Four big stockings coming up.

Two weeks and counting

My presents are wrapped.  With the exception of some baking next Saturday, I am done with my Christmas preparations.  I haven't been ready this early for Christmas in years.  I have to say, it feels pretty good.  I even had time to do some sewing.  I made myself another pair of pillowcases:

They have a Christmas feel to them but not so much that I can't use them the rest of the year, too.  I'm tweaking the pattern as I go.  The piping I'm reducing to an inch and a half as opposed to the 2" piping you see above.  The smaller accent looks better.  I use Kona Muslin for the body of the case but I'm having a hard time finding it.  Joann no longer carries it and it's a little too expensive to buy it online and without a coupon.  I'm thinking buying a single flat sheet and then cutting it into the right size for the pillowcases would work better.   Now I just have to find a good source for flat sheets.

I also finally finished my house socks.  Cormo/silk handspun knitted on size 3 needles.  These will be nice and warm for the winter and my cold floors.  (Crap!  I just realized I didn't cast on for a new pair of socks.  I take the socks to work with me and knit during breaks and lunch.  The sock doesn't grow very quickly but it does grow.)

Does anyone know where I can find yellow Miso paste?  I don't know if Whole Foods was out or they just don't carry it but I'm craving Miso soup and I need yellow Miso for that.  Kroger doesn't carry it nor does Trader Joe's, as far as I can tell.  Mmm, Miso soup!  Oh, geez,I almost forgot, there's an Asian market just down the road.  They should carry it.  I hope.

Onion skins

According to my dyeing book, I need half the weight of the yarn in onion skins.  I have about 4 times that amount.  Apparently, it's fairly easy to collect enough skins when you raid the onion bin at the grocery store.  Now I have to find the time to do the dyeing.  That may not happen until after Christmas. This weekend is my spinning Guild's Holiday Party and I need to wrap presents, next weekend I do my holiday baking and, of course, the following weekend is Christmas.  How did the heck did it get here so fast?  

What are you plans for the weekend?  Are you making gifts for the holidays this year?

The Merino/silk is spun and plied.  It just occurred to me I haven't counted the yardage yet but it's about 4 ounces.  It should be plenty of the lace section of Andrea's Shawl and three stripes up the body.

The yarn is soft and squishy and I really hope I don't ruin it when I dye it.  I think I've collected enough onion skins to make the dye bath but I need to weigh the yarn and then weigh the collected skins.  Wish me luck.