Lots and lots of stuff

Well, the holidays are over, and while our celebration was very low key, we all had a wonderful time eating, drinking, and just hanging out.

Since I will be student teaching soon and I had to quit my job (not to mention what a mess the auto industry is in), gift giving was kept to a minimum. Money will be very tight for the next 11 weeks, but it is all worth it. When I am done student teaching, I will get myself back on the sub list.

Last semester was very stressful. I really didn't finish much knitting (I started tons of things, but didn't finish them). It was hard on the mind, body, and spirit to work full time and take 10 credit hours (note to school: this program is too intense for people who work, and shouldn't be advertised as a good idea for people with jobs).

I have been doing some pretty hard core relaxing the past few days. I haven't even gotten out of my PJs most days. I hope that your holiday has been as restful.

A little sockie gift:



Happy Knitting!

Oh yeah! Radical Knitting!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Snow

Well, winter is here. A bit early, but it seems that it is here to stay. This is actually our third snow storm. We did have school today (which was something of surprise).

I'll share knitting soon. I promise.

Happy knitting!

Oh, DUH! I have a blog.......

I know. Bad blogger. Bad.

School has been taking up so much of my time, I don't know if I am coming or going most days. Happily, the crazy semester of full time work and 3/4 school is almost over. I student teach in January, which means full time work with no pay!

To make up for my lack of blog presence, I give you a short video treat from the ladies of Mason Dixon Knitting. Enjoy!



Happy knitting!

I seriously need to get a life

Your result for The Princess Bride trivia Test...

S. Morgenstern

Congatulations. Princess Bride triva is a prestigious line of work, with a long and glorious tradition. You have gone beyond mere fandom to true dedication. It is more than a movie to you, its a way of life. You have considered taking up fencing and/or piracy. You have probably accosted numerous bookstore owners in search of the ever elusive ‘original’ version. Welcome, friend, to the Princess Bride elite.

Hey, Kool-aid

It has been a busy time for me. Going to school full time and working full time takes a toll on a person. I wanted to something fiber-y this weekend, so I did some kool-aid dying. This batch was a "practice" batch. I used a left over bit of fisherman's wool. I think it is very pretty, and really easy.

Soft, pretty colors

I used yellow, blue, and pink. I would have like to see more bleeding between the colors to add some pretty purple and green. I am really pleased. Now, I am just waiting for it to dry so I can make some pretty mittens.

I will try and post more often. School is just keeping me very busy. Most days I come home too tired to think. It is worth, but very hard.

Happy knitting!

I haven't done anything nerdy in a while

It doesn't get much nerdier than this, but I like it.

Your result for The Harry Potter Husband Test...

Mrs. Bill Weasley

You like guys who are cool. And not cool in that fake, dicky way, but actually cool. He's so cool that they couldn't find any actor to adequately portray him, so they decided to just leave him out of the movies rather than risk not doing justice to his coolness. He's like the Chuck Norris of Harry Potter: plain freaking awesome. When Voldemort says "You-Know-Who", he's talking about Bill Weasley.

(Fanarty by The Starhorse http://the-starhorse.deviantart.com/ Used with permission.)

Take The Harry Potter Husband Test at HelloQuizzy

Randomness

I have started back to both work and school. Three days a week, I have 14 hour days. It has been hectic. It is sort of a pain in the ass to work, go to school, and keep up with housework. Most days, it looks like some crazy indoor tornado blew through the house. I wish I could sleep more.

I am not getting to spend as much time in my new room as I would like. I am not spending as much time in my house as I would like!

Cool vintage wall hanging

I thought it would be perfect for a "knitting" room.

Happy Knitting!

Look at what I got!

I wanted to title this post either "A Room of Her Own" or "A Room With a View," but I couldn't figure out which literary title to use. Naturally, when faced with a difficult choice, I dump both choices and choose something totally lame.

Now to the heart of the matter. Michelle has moved out, and Tony has moved into her room. That leaves a small, but cozy, bedroom without a purpose in my house. Knitting/sewing room for me!

My stash
My ugly, but comfy, chair with good lighting

A cute built in shelf

My sewing table (the leaf lifts for a huge work surface)

My window with a great view of my overgrown backyard.

There is still a lot of moving to do. I need to set up my TV and all my British drama DVDs that my family hates. I have an old kitchen table that will go in front of the window to give me another work surface for blocking, cutting, or doing homework. However, I have my own room, and I am very happy with it.

I have already done a good deal of knitting and reading up there. My cat thinks I clean the room up for her entertainment. We'll just let her think that. She enjoys the big window and the comfy chair. Not to mention all the yarn to play with.

Hope I didn't make you all too jealous.

Happy Knitting!

WTF?

View more awesome pictures at fukung.net

Just Checking In

I have a whole week off. No books to read, no classes to attend, and a week until work starts. It has been grand so far.

I am participating in the Summer Trials of the Knitting Olympics on Ravelry. I am doing Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl. I hope to have progress to report soon.

The big news is that I finally have a room of my own. It will be my fiber arts studio/study. I still have work to do, but it is really starting to get cozy up there. The cat loves it.

I'll post pics very soon.

Happy Knitting!

Molly's Country Corn Bread

I love corn bread. I could eat it everyday. You all may remember that I bought a bag of stone ground corn when at Spring Mill State Park, and you may also remember that I purchased some homemade butter in Amish country not to long ago. I decided to mix my two old-fashion purchases together into a wonderful treat. Oh my, so very yum oh.



Recipe

1 C stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 C unbleached white flour
1/2 C sugar (I just used white, but brown or a mix of brown and white would be nice too)
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
2 T shortening
1 egg
3/4 C milk

Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Cut in shortening until the mixture looks like tiny peas. Make a well in the mixture and add the egg and milk to the well. Slowly fold together and mix until all the dry bits are wet (no longer). Back in a large cast iron skillet in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.

Happy knitting (and eating)!

The Most Romantic Thing Sly has EVER Done!

Sly and I went away for our anniversary. We didn't take the RV because we thought it would be nice to not be home and we didn't want to worry about a thing. It was a low key weekend, but that is what we wanted.

Now Sly has never been a romantic guy. He doesn't understand it, and actually thinks that romantic gestures are a bit silly. I love him dearly, but I had given up romance years ago. So, when the waiter at the restaurant in the hotel we stayed at brought out an anniversary cake. I was deeply confused. Not to mention a package of my favorite chocolates. I look over and Sly is sitting there barely able to contain himself. It seems that the big dope bought the cake and candy, AND arranged for the hotel to bring it out after dinner. All without my knowledge, and all by himself. So, I think we should all congratulate Sly for a job well done!

Happy Knitting!

Happy Anniversary Sly!

Sock update

I have been preparing for the Knitting Olympics Summer Trials by finishing up all my WIPs. I started with the socks because they are the easiest things for me to finish quickly.

I finally finished my Monkey socks. I was very proud of them, and I thought they were the loveliest socks I ever made. Then I gave them to my DD.


Part of my on-going sox experiment. I will have to do a very detailed post about this when I am finished. For now, the details are on my Ravelry page.

More experimental soxs.

And another

Right now, the experimental soxs are on hold. The first reason, I am just board with the same basic pattern, same yarn, and same needle size. Secondly, these really are a cold weather sock. I am pleased that I will have plenty of (hopefully) hard wearing socks this winter. When I start student teaching in January, my knitting endeavors may slow to a trickle.

I am working on several sweaters in the weeks before the Summer Trials. I hope to at least finish the one I am working on in Rowan Summer Tweed. A silk and cotton sweater will be very useful this fall. It is also purple and black. We all know how much it lurve purple and black.

Happy Knitting!

Hanging with the Amish

Not far from my house is a large Amish community. Naturally, the local area has made a bit of a tourist industry around them. I like to visit a few times a year. The restaurants are good, and I can get some pretty awesome food to take home.


There are two main tourist hubs near the Amish community. One is Das Dutchman Essenhaus, which has a really good country restaurant. We had lunch there, and poked around in their shops and bakery.

I did get some Amish noodles and powdered beef and chicken soup base used in the restaurant.


The Cabin was supposed to be a "Christmas Shop," but I swear, there were only three small trees in the whole place. It is a very cute building though.

We decided to drive through Granger before going to our next Amish stop. There is a small yarn store there, but dang it all, it was closed.

After being disappointed in Granger, we made it to Amish Acres. We didn't do the house tour, or eat in the restaurant this time, but there is a collection of shops that I like to visit. In addition to the useal touristy stuff, there is a lovely bakery and a really nice meat and cheese shop.

Yes, we bought meat, cheese, and homemade butter! I think I am going to have to make some totally amazing macaroni and cheese this week.

An apple butter pot

Supposedly, they make cider here, but I have never seen them do it. I have never even seen cider for sale at Amish Acres. It is a cool looking building though.

Just a kitty sleeping on a chair. I thought he was cute.

The food I bought. Yummm

I'll have to share some of my adventures in cooking with some of these ingredients. It was a great drive, and Sly and I are enjoying our cherry strudel with coffee right now. MMMmm!

Happy Knitting!

Spring MIll State Park

Yeah, a summer camping trip. I have been to this park before, but it is actually one of my favorite places to camp. This is a photo heavy post. Enjoy!

I took loads of pictures of flowers. The last time I was at this campground, it was fall. I just loved all the splashes of color.


Spring Mill has a Pioneer Village. Many of the buildings are original structures still in the place where they were built. Some have been recreated, and some moved, but much of the village seems to have remained tucked away in the woods undisturbed for many years. There are several homes and businesses filled with antiques and crafts people. Sly loves a good blacksmith shop, and I go looking for fiber. I found lots of fiber goodness.

Lots of spinning wheels

This is just my attempt at an arty, back lit photo.

We only had one minor mishap. Look closely. We lost the cover to the AC during the drive. I have no idea where.

No photo post of a camping trip would be compleate without Buddy, so I give you Buddy.

I know it looks like Buddy wants to play cards, but actually, there was a thunder storm. He climbed up in the chair because he was scared.

Buddy relaxing in the sun

Happy Knitting!

BSJ

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket
Yarn: Thank Ewe superwash merino
Needles: size 5

Totally love this pattern. It is quick and easy. Since it is in garter stitch, it is fully reverseable, and because of the infinite stretch of garter stitch, the sweater will be able to fit baby for a long time.

The sweater is knit flat, and when you are done, it looks like nothing at all. There is a bit of origami magic to make this sweater work. I thought I would share a video that I made on how to fold it to make the sweater.




Happy knitting!

Laundry Soap Success!

I have been tinkering with a cheaper, eco-friendly laundry detergent alternative. At first, I just tried cutting a regular power detergent with baking soda, borax, and washing soda. My concoction worked reasonably well, but I wanted to get away from detergent.

After much trial and error, I have something that works really well.

I use Fels Naptha soap as the base for this recipe. this is normally found on the laundry aisle and is wrapped like a regular bar of soap. Fels Naptha is for laundry, never use it to bathe. It has been made for over 100 years, and it gets out all sorts of stains.

1 bar of Fels Naptha, grated (should yield 3 cups of flakes)
2 cups baking soda
1.5 cups washing soda
1.5 cups of borax

Pour into air tight container and mix.

I use 1/2 a cup for a load of laundry in cold water with about 10 minutes of agitation.

If there are really bad stains, use a little of the plain soap to pre-treat. The stain will be gone. I don't use fabric softener in the summer because I use the clothesline.

This mixture is cheep, and it cleaned some of DH's hardest to clean old tee shirts. I mean clean so that DH noticed!

There isn't much of a "recipie" but I normally mix 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water in a spray bottle with some essential oil to clean pretty much everything else in my home. Tough messes will get scrubbed with a little baking soda, and the sprayed with the vinegar and water.

My Homework

I know I haven't been posting much. I have been busy with school, work, and life in general. However, I did a fun project for school today, and I thought I would share.

School Blog

I had to create a new blog for school. If any of you have wondered where I have gone, I can be found here.

Nerdy goodness

Yeah, we all know what an uber-nerd I am am. It is pretty impressive the amount of effort that went into this video.



Just because I love this line.

Happy Knitting!

Bab blogger bad

I know it has been a few weeks. We had some computer problems. Nothing interesting. I can't find my camera to take pics. Knitterly things are moving along, slowly. I'll try and be a better blogger.

Happy Knitting!

What I did on my spring break

I was sitting in front of the guy with the sign. There were so many great moments at today's event, but the biggest cheers were when she said she would end NCLB!

I have been knitting, but I haven't been finishing my knitting. I wanted to take a picture of the sock I have been working on a la the Harlot, but I stood in the freezing cold for 2 hours. I couldn't knit.

Happy Knititng!

In Honor of Earth Hour

Today, at 8 pm is Earth Hour. For that hour, millions of people all over the world will be turning off the lights, TVs, radios, and all other non-essential appliances. I encourage all of you to support this effort.

With that in mind, I am sharing some of my favorite "green" tips.

Cleaning products fill landfills with TONS of plastic, fill the home with toxic chemicals, and are very expensive. Homemade, non-toxic home cleaning products are easy to make, cheap, and very green. I encourage you to try a few.

Consider changing over all your light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs. I have actually noticed a significant reduction in my electric bill. If everyone switched to these bulbs, the energy savings for the world would be huge. It is a small thing that we all can do.

Clothesline.

Market bags, either knit or purchased at your favorite store. Saves a recourse, and keeps trash out of the landfill.

Ed Bagley Jr. is the guru of all things green. Check out some of his suggestions.

Happy Knitting!

What Do Teachers Make?

I have no words to tell you what watching this has meant to me. I wish I wrote this. I hope to live up to it.




Happy Knitting!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I thought I would share an interesting knitting link because we are all Irish today.

Happy Birthday Tony

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Snow days sound fun in theory. No school, yeah! Problem: you are stuck in the house with a bunch of other people who would rather be someplace else.

You know it is bad when your hometown makes CNN for the ridiculous snowfall amounts (and the weather Channel, and MSMBC, and Fox News).

If you ever wanted to know what 16 inches of snow looks like, I offer you this picture of my truck. Not only do I have a foot of snow around the bottom of the truck, there is a foot of snow ON my truck. Not to mention the bed has a 2 foot high snow drift in the back. You should see the street side. The snow plow just piled the snow up over there. I think it is at least 4 feet high.

The nice thing about working in a school, I don't have to work on days like this. The bad thing is all the crap I have to finish YESTERDAY because it is the end of the grading period.

Now, if someone could just find my car, I would dig it out.

Happy knitting!

Only $2.99

How to Darn Socks

My good friend Jen over at Piddleloop.com sent me a link to the most wonderful video demonstration of sock darning. Since I am preoccupied with knitting, repairing, and mending socks, I thought I would pass the video on to all my dear readers.

A study of socks

I have been conducting a bit of a sock experiment. In addition to repairing and darning socks, I thought it was about time I systematically find out what styles of heels, ribs, ect. that I like in socks.

I wanted a very "scientific" experiment, so I am using the same size needle (some will be done on DPNs and others Circs. I wanted to test out both for speed and finished socks) and the same yarn for each pair of socks (Knitpicks Memories was discontinued last year, I bought tons in various colors). The first pair I made was a rather boring sock with 2x2 rib and a traditional sturdy heel.

These were done on 5 DPNs. I hadn't used DPNs in a while, and it was a comfort to get back to this style of knitting. I have the Knitpicks DPN set, and these needles are lovely. I used to snap wood and bend metal, but the Knitpicks needles are a pleasure to work with.

Some notes on the actual sock. I find 2x2 more functional than attractive or necessary. So, I will be knitting several different tops on the socks. 2x2 is nice, but limited and not so attractive.

Next, the traditional study heel. Elizabeth Zimmermann said that this is a poor stitch for heels. It is strong, but it savagely pulls the heel in. This pulling creates stress on the sock and leads to the dreaded hole.

For the next sock, I did a 1x1 twisted rib (the knits are done in the back). This a pretty rib, and it is not only stretchy, but elastic as well. It wants to pull back into its original shape. I like this, so this rib will be a "keeper."

I did the eye of the partridge heel on this sock. I noticed right away that this type of heel is as strong as the sturdy heel, but it pulls in less. It is also pretty. So, another fine option for an attractive and study sock.

Last, I have decided to take out all my short row heels and repair them with "toe" heels. Basically, after the sock is done, rip out half a round, pick up the stitches and knit a toe. Short row heels will not be a part of my sock experiment since all I have ever made developed HUGE holes.

I will be doing some real darning this weekend. Thanks to Jen for the video of how to darn!

I will keep you posted on the sock experiment.

Happy Knitting!

Happy Birthday Michelle

A Plea for Help

Some one out there must know a good book or a web site with information (understandable information) about darning socks. I am desperate for help!

On a related note, I will never again knit a short row heel! I have socks that I knit the traditional way (they are wonkie because they are my first pairs) over five years ago that I wear all the time. However, I have THREE pairs of really nice socks that are less than two years old with friggin' GINORMOUS holes in the short row heel. GRRRRRR

Any assistance will be graciously appreciated.

There will be WIP photos as soon as I weave in all the end of the sweater I have been pretending to work on for three or four years.

Happy Knitting!

Yes, I do still knit

Pattern: Watch cap from Knitting Without Tears
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky
Needles: 13

Easy, fun, and a good basic cap. What more could you want in a pattern?


Pattern: Sparkle Hat from Stitch n Bitch
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky
Needle: 11 (I think)

You want more in a hat? Sparkles are more in a hat. Sly hates it. I am going to wear it whenever I hang out with him.

Happy Knitting!