I Love Fall

And this is a perfect fall project - simple, zen, round and round stockinette bliss that allows you to stare out the window at the leaves changing color while enjoying the silence of the new school year.

I've used Cascade Eco Wool before and loved it and this was no different - it's "sheepy" but not so rustic that it isn't pleasant for the hands while knitting - and when blocked it's just warm and cozy and perfect for fall.

Now why I didn't lengthen the arms a bit, I don't know - fall can be chilly - I guess I'll have to dive into the stash and whip up some arm warmers!

The Happiest Sock On Earth

We got back Monday night from a quick SoCal trip. Enjoyed Disneyland for 3 days then down to La Jolla for my cousin's wedding. It was a pretty relaxed trip considering it involved an amusement park. The kids loved it and it was a nice end of summer treat.

Had knitting on hand of course, and this sock got to meet several of the Disney characters.


I feel like this week is the official beginning of the school year and it's time to get my game head on. It's a whole new world for me this year with all 3 kids in full time school. I have no more excuses for not getting things done. So I'd better go now before my 6 hours are sucked away by the computer!

Close - knit.

Grandpa left us in May at the age of 97. His wish was to go back to the small mining town where he lived as a child, so we spent last Saturday with family remembering Dad/Grandpa/Great-Grandpa at a beautiful lake near his hometown.


Also spent some time in the museum getting a glimpse of what life was like way back when.


We found a few pictures of Grandpa's older brother - one in a band playing the xylophone and a couple others of him leading marching band - fascinating.

I am especially glad that my kids could see this piece of their family history and share it with their grandparents and cousins.

I couldn't help sneakily snapping these shots in the museum as well - history knitted into these pieces - history tangled and unclear.




The mysterious past - we unravel and try to understand what it may have been like. We find our own meaning and connection as we knit that past into our own story.

Something Worked!

Not a knitted creation but I just had to share!

It's been a bit of an ordeal trying to figure out how to make things for my youngest son to eat. For about the last 8 months we've been trying to adhere to a diet that eliminates (for the most part) everything he enjoys due to food intolerance issues.
Dairy, wheat, gluten, eggs, citrus - the poor kid!

In any case, I have done lots more cooking from scratch than I have ever done before in my life being the lazy, take-out kind of girl that I am. There have been a few successful creations that are "Drew-safe" and acceptable to the rest of the family. There have been far more unsuccessful creations - mushy pancakes, dense like a paper weight scones, adzuki bean ice-cream, mustard green smoothies...Needless to say I have ended up eating lots of interesting things that everyone else (not so) politely declined.

But this is my greatest gluten, egg, dairy free creation to date. A trip to the local farmer's market scored us lots of yummy, fresh, green goodness including these substantial fellows


And though I am happy to eat zucchini raw or grilled or lightly sauteed with onions, there are others in the household who would rather eat a plastic bag than deal with this mild-mannered squash in it's most natural preparations. So of course we move on to the zucchini bread.

So out came the food processor, in went the zucchini and out came oodles of grated goodness. (3 cups for the bread, 2 large tupperwarefuls in the fridge, and a bag in the freezer).

The bread looks and tastes wonderful, and I'm just happy that my youngest can enjoy this along with the other kids instead of having to eat his "special" treats while they dig in to their own yummies.

Here's the recipe - mainly for me to be able to look back and see what I did, because that is another problem I've had - not writing down the recipes for the few successful experiments in the kitchen! Feel free to try it out, but remember this is a KNITTING blog - I am no culinary expert and will take credit for only my own FAILS in the kitchen!

Gluten, Egg, Dairy free Zucchini Bread

2 cups rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 tsp. each - salt, baking soda, baking powder
3/4 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsps. ground cinnamon

1 cup vegetable oil (you could probably do 3/4 cup and be fine)
2 cups white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. ground flax mixed with 6 Tbsp. of water (acts like eggs)
1/4 cup apple butter (because I had it in the house - applesauce would be fine)
2-3 cups grated zucchini


Directions:
1. Grease 1 Bundt pan (or 2 loaf pans) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat flax mixture, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Pour batter into bundt pan.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and cool completely.



At long last we have a winner!

Blankie

Niece in October.
She gets this bright little thing.

Yarn: Berroco Comfort (Acrylic, nylon blend = squishy soft and easy care)
My own pattern
Size 9 needles

Another Reason to Love Knitted Socks

All those crazy colors you would never don on more highly visible areas of your body are completely acceptable when on your feet - and a sneaky little bit of fun when you slip off your shoes and admire them throughout the day!

Nice and stretchy with the Cascade Fixation yarn.
Toe up using Magic Loop. 44 sts

Summer Stash Survey

Purchase of this




Prompted this



Which became this



And that's just the one cabinet - now to the closet!

- oy -

The monsters made me do it.

Those monsters taught me Judy's Magic Cast on and that was the end of it - I could no longer simply look at hand knit socks with admiration - I had to partake.

I tried out knitting a pair of toe up socks from Wendy Johnson's Socks From the Toe Up
and had success and now am completely sock smitten. This book is phenomenal for getting a handle on basic toe-up construction. Several different toe and heel options are clearly explained so the knitter can pick and choose what she likes. (And I'm all about the choices and messing about with perfectly well written patterns. I think I've followed maybe 2 patterns word for word, stitch for stitch, without amendment in my 6 year knitting life.) The whole toe - up thing, like knitting sweaters top down, is just more intuitive for me. For some reason these methods trick my brain into thinking I am going faster. Knowing that when I'm done knitting there is no seaming waiting for me helps keep me going.

I even finished a pair of Cuff-down socks that I started 3 years ago. (See this post) The monsters also taught me that grafting is not such a scary endeavor, so the small amount of Kitchener Stitch at the toe of a cuff-down sock is no longer my enemy. (Though I will still choose toe-up more often!)



I love that there is always something new to learn in knitting. When I first started I would never have dreamed there were myriad ways to cast on, turn a heel, shape a shoulder, incorporate a multicolored flying monkey motif in the center of your sweater, and all the rest.

Call me simple-minded, but this endless looping of string never ceases to fascinate me and I am so glad for my entanglement.

Monster Madness!

MORE!!!!

A monster family for my nephew's 2nd birthday. He's expecting a little sister in a few months - hence the teeny monster!

Daphne and Delilah pattern by dangercrafts

M O N S T A S !

"Monster Chunks"

Gifted these to my 3 monstas for Summer Solstice - they are having fun naming them and assigning super powers to each. Plans are in the works for building homes and making a "playing card" for each of them as well. Yeah for simple summer fun!

Stuff

This could be my summer of Stuffed Toys.

Baby Bobbi Bear
Yarn: Berocco Vintage
Size 5 needles

Too much cuteness - but alas, he'll be off to San Francisco soon to make a home with a good friend's new baby girl.
Need to cast on another soon to lessen the sting of his departure!

Welcome Summer Vacation!

This little guy accompanied me to pick up Oldest Son and Daughter from their last day of school!
Then went to the school principal as a thank you for the year!


DangerCraft's baby monster from the Daphne and Delilah set.

Remember What You Learned in Kindergarten

Short sleeve (where is?) summer cardigan

Berocco Comfort +
Size 7 needles +
Lady Kina pattern =
Cute summer swing vest.





Now bring on the Summer!

Pink Scarf

Dropped it off at my LYS yesterday to be donated to a local hospital for their "Project Pink Scarf"
for breast cancer patients.



~For my Anta, who has been gone 11 years yet remains such a memorable presence in my heart.
~For my knitting friend who beat it and is going strong.
~For my mother and sisters and dear friends who I pray will never have to deal with it.

Almost There

I ran up the stairs ~
Just a slight smidgen of pain ~
Dancing legs return ~




(These have nothing to do with dancing or pulling of hamstrings but are cute and fast and a great way to use up cotton stash yarn for useful re-usable pot or face scrubbers - also great indoor mini frisbes - WHEEEE! TRIBBLES!)

Technicolor Dream Shawl

A bit of Springtime color to hopefully coax the sun out sometime soon!


Sunday Market Shawl
Yarn: Noro Taiyo

Exercising the knitting muscles

Day 9 of absolutely no vigorous exercise and I am starting to go batty.

I was busily exercising my stupidity muscles last Monday - dancing around my house with the music turned up nice and loud, no kids around, feeling oh so free and awesome - when I decided I was so funky and cool of a dancer that I was going to throw in the splits at the perfect moment in the music and - AAAAAARRRRGHHHHH!
What was that?
What just went pop?

I sat stunned for a few moments as pain shot through my right gluteus and hamstring.
Did I really just do that? Am I really Andy Bernard from The Office?

I sat and tried to stretch gently. I then proceeded to dance (more gingerly) for another hour, determined for it not to be anything, but here I am 9 days later, still with a major pain in the butt - literally. I know I just need to rest it, but oh how I need to get moving again, for my body and my SANITY (endorphins you know).

No vigorous exercise, but definitely more knitting, and purchasing of knitting related items.

Last weekend was the annual LYS(local yarn store) tour in our area and some friends and I did a little yarn crawl. We got to maybe 7 of the 25 stores participating in the tour and had lots of fun chatting in the car, feeling yarn, collecting free patterns, being silly girls, eating yummy things (though at lunch there was a hair in my salad - I sent it back and it returned with a teeny gnat on a piece of cheese - I couldn't bear to have them throw away another meal, but I showed the server because I thought it was just too funny, wiped the bug off and ate the salad).

Good times despite having to shift and re-shift my aching bottom while driving - don't know why I agreed to be the driver. Driving all day and strolling all the LYS's had to be as good exercise as running 8 miles or a good weight training session right?

Anyway, these are the treasures I scored on our little jaunt.







(Just noticed those first two colors I chose look rather muscle
tissue-ish...interesting...maybe my subconscious trying to help me knit my muscles back together?...hmmm...)

Yay for cheap labor!

He's been plenty old enough for a while now -
I've just been nervous about the blades and motors and all that.
It gave him a great sense of accomplishment though.
Now to come up with a few more tasks to hand off since I am suddenly the mother of a
Big Boy...

Gift

All of those still baby faces of kindergartners singing their lungs out for us moms.

Paper flower with his picture cheesing at me from the middle.

Another handmade plate to add to our priceless collection.

Being served a homemade muffin and fruit by the most handsome little 5 year old server ever.

Favorite recipes compiled into a whole book of "Tasty Treats". His is
"Special Brownies":
1 scoop of cocoa powder, some black beans, no eggs.
Blend it all together and bake it for a little while...
(there is more to it to make it actually edible;)

My last kindergartner sitting on my lap, arms slung around me singing "hug a friend's neck hug a neck next to 'ya, hug a friend's neck and sing lala..." while I tip my tears back into my eyes and try to remain composed.

To hold all this sweetness.
To swallow him right up and keep him safe forever.
To teach him confidence and trust and love and let him go.

The dilemma of the mother's heart - the joy-filled ache - the gift.