Sad news

lots of knitting, lots of reading

I have been doing a lot of knitting since I posted last... so much that I do not even have pictures of everything.




This is the designer's picture of the mystery mittens I knit for DD2; mine were in green and grey. They turned out nice, but I have not seen DD2 wearing them yet.

Another friend's daughter is having a baby, so I knit a baby blanket:



Again, this is the designer's picture, I knit it in a soft white, to go with her nursery design. It turned out very nice and snuggly.



I finished these mittens for a friend (the pattern does not fit me; there are 3 more in the kit, so let me know)!



I started an advent mitten garland. This is the first one, with a playing card so you can see how big it is.




I knit a reversible neck warmer in brioche stitch. That was a very steep learning curve. I think I started it over 5 or 6 times before I found the YouTube tutorial. I like how it turned out, but I would like to do it in more subtle colors; I just have to find the right yarn.



I am currently knitting a lace shawl. Check out how tiny that ball of thread is! I have been worried since I started this that I will not have enough yarn, but it is so fine it goes a long way. Once it is blocked I will show how it turned out.

My next project will be Fox Paws:



Again, this is the designer's picture. I will be doing it in 2 shades of brown, turquoise, blue, and green. The scarf I have been wearing is starting to wear out, so I need a new one.

The 3 current/future projects are all from stash! It pays to organize your stuff, so you know what you have!

For reading I have been going through the Outlander series (again!), quite a bit of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, I am reading the James Benn series about Billy Boyle, a trouble shooter for Eisenhower during WWII; and the occasional romance.

DD2 bought the house next door, so she, P & C have moved there... I have to work on reorganizing my sewing room, and setting up their room for a guest bedroom! The new house is very cute!

Wedding Day

I tried to post this yesterday from my tablet, and was not successful. I don't turn on my computer every day any more, which is one of the reasons posting has been so sporadic. I will try to catch up on the activities this summer.


DD1 got married!  It was a small wedding with just close friends and immediate family, and it was lovely. She got many complements on the dress from Macy's even from a total stranger walking past on the sidewalk when we were packing up!



This is my mom, my sister, and me. This is the dress I bought at Marshall Fields Macy's this spring.



My dad married them in the patio of the restaurant.



Don't C and P look great! C didn't think the wedding would be legal if DD1 didn't have a flower girl, and she was ready and willing to take that responsibility. C was rather upset when she found out there was not going to be a flower girl... so DD1 took care of her and made her the ring bearer, and also gave her the responsibility for a reading, along with her mama and the groom's sister.



Here's my siblings. They clean up nice, don't they! Brother Ric, Sister Joy, Sister Val, and BIL Steve.



DD1 had a vision for the tables, and spent a lot of time getting them ready. The little birch branch planters were favors for everyone. The burlap table runners were fringed and had a satin ribbon insertion made by yours truly, and her mother-in-law, who is a florist, put the flower arrangements together.



The food was so good! It was the major entertainment, which makes sense when you realize most of the guests work in very nice restaurants. This was the sweets table, with such a nice selection of goodies that not very many people even got wedding cake.



We are so happy for them, and wish them many, many wonderful years together!



There are more pictures on my flickr site, if you are interested.

All of March in one

My temari spent the months of February and March hanging out at the library. It was difficult to get pictures of them on display; I either caught the reflection of the skylights, or of the florescent lights.



I got many lovely comments, and I will be teaching a beginning temari class there towards the end of the month.



C and I finished a blanket for her teacher's new baby. Today being the first day back after spring break, C reports that baby Evelyn was born on Wednesday and is doing well.



DD1 set a wedding date! We spent a Saturday at Macy's shopping for dresses (successfully!) and then had lunch at the Walnut Room. (The dresses will be unveiled at the proper time.) The girls' grandma always talked about eating at the Walnut Room at Christmas when she was growing up, but we had never been there. DD1's face lit up when I suggested it, so we went, and had a lovely time.



The room is elegant, with a very retro feel. The food was wonderful, the service was fine.



I applied for a job, and have an interview later this week.

I have finished a couple more things that I still have to get pictures of, but other than that, I think you are up to date!

Christmas presents

I can tell I have been remiss in my blogging since I haven't even shown you the Christmas presents I made. I put together about a dozen of these baubles. They each have a teeny tiny mari in the center.







I had so much fun picking out colors!

They are very like a c10 temari; dodecahedron geometry. They use "Tila," peanut, drop and seed beads. After the first bauble I haven't had to look at the pattern again. They are very logical to put together.

I also finished the Citron Grande shawl for my mom in chambray/denim color.



I used some of my binary stitch markers to mark the increase spots, so I didn't have to count (and count and count) my stitches; plus it turned out a lot more even than mine. I did run short of yarn, and had to stop after 9 pattern repeats instead of 10. I love how it turned out though. Now I just have to get it to my mom... can someone stop the snow?

Trying to Stay Warm

It has been so cold here this January that the schools have cancelled 4 days, not for snow, but for cold! So I have been working on keeping people warm.

In December I was distressed to discover that C did not have anything to cover her cold fingers! I found a free pattern on Ravelry for 2 needle mittens with pretty cabled cuffs; C and I perused the stash and decided on a pretty sparkly yarn, and I started knitting the smallest size of the pattern, that said it was for children to adults. There was no size or gauge information in the pattern, so I was flying by the seat of my pants, and the first mitten turned out big enough for me!

So I started over. I had C trace her hand on a piece of paper so I could check my progress, even while she was at school. I removed 1 or 2 repeats of the cuff pattern, several inches of length, and at least 4 stitches in the thumb and ended up with this:

 

 They are still not any too small. I went ahead and finished the 2nd mitten in the larger size, and put them aside; when C & P's Meme came to drop them off (She has been living in Florida) I was able to give them to her.

 I made these some time ago, I don't remember if I showed them before or not:

 

 I had finished the knitting a couple of months ago, but I had never sewn in the ends, with stranded mittens there are usually quite a few ends, and they got shuffled to the bottom of the pile. I felt awful this morning when DD2 was leaving for work, and looking for something to cover her fingers (it was below 0, she did need something) and the mittens were not ready, so today, I took advantage of my knitting time and sewed in the ends. I think they turned out so pretty!

 In January I have been participating in a mystery KAL (knit-a-long) in my "I make mittens" ravelry group. We got the first clue on January 1, and the 7th and final clue last Saturday, and I finished them today! They are by the same designer as the mittens above; which is why I knew I would like the pattern without seeing it ahead of time.

 

 They were inspired by the book "The Secret Garden" and were a lot of fun to knit. Quite a few people on the group site took pictures of their mittens with their pets, so I decided to join in as well.

 

 (I got Danny and Jake to cooperate by holding treats in my hand. I don't even think they noticed the mittens.)

 I also made a warm beanie for DFSIL for Christmas, but it left the premises before I got a picture, with a request for more. I also have a request from C for a pair of slippers, and a scarf, mitten, and hat set for an indoor snowman, so as you can see, I'm behind.

 I better get knitting!

Try to catch up

Hi! We are still here... I have a few items to share since I've been gone. The break was not for any specific reason, just that I got out of the habit... not good!

One of the big things we did this fall was P's science project.


 Here's the scientist. You can see that we already had the Christmas decorations up. His thesis was that more dense woods would burn slower and make a better fire. We got to burn stuff!


 P did say that next time he wanted to pick something he could do inside! It did get very cold by the end of the 3 experiments. We sat inside and monitored the fire through the window by the end, it was almost freezing.

If you are wondering, the woods were Pine, Oak, Pinion, and Birch. Oak was the final winner.


 We are so proud of the work P put into this. His school had a very good system of requiring the intermediate steps along the way, so there was no last minute panic. He got 97 out of 100 on the report!

After the report, he had to prepare a Power Point presentation (in sixth grade?). There too, we worked at it a little at a time, making one slide each evening. By the end he was doing all the steps by himself, except for asking how to make the slides fade one into the next. He got an A on the presentation! And he was only one of 4 who was asked to enter his project into the Science Fair, with a chance to go on an extra field trip. Unfortunately, he is not available on the day of the fair, so he cannot enter, but he was considering it, which I found amusing. He was quite worried that his original paper not go over 2 pages, because anything over 3 pages was going to be considered for the fair.

We are so proud of him, he is doing so great in school!

Memorable Sunday

Yesterday was a memorable day, so I thought I would write about it.

We woke up with thunder storms (This IS November... thunder storms are not usual). Danny-dog did not like them and tried to climb into bed (and was rejected) but this was just the beginning of the weather.

Church was good. The sermon was about Sampson, and how to not be like him.

P had Youth Group after church, so we went to the nearby Culvers for dinner. When we got there, the tornado warning sirens were sounding, but the sky didn't look too bad, so we went in. While we were eating the weather news was on. The Bears game at Soldier Field was suspended and all the players and fans were moved into sheltered areas. It was organized and orderly, they did a very good job. I understand the fans continued the party while the storm went on.

Back at Culvers the sky got darker and the wind got stronger. One of the managers announced that since there was a tornado warning no one would be allowed to leave, and they moved everyone away from the windows. They also mentioned there was a room in the back where we could go if it got really bad. DH and I were not really too upset, but C was getting a little worried; her hands were shaking! It did feel safer to sit on my or grandpa's knee with our arms around her. so we did that. We did talk to the people at church as well, and found out they were continuing their meeting in the basement, and so were also safe.

At one point the wind and the rain were so strong we couldn't see across the expressway. There was a lot of rain. When it let up we slipped out and drove the mile back to church. By now there was a blue spot in the sky, so we were feeling much more comfortable. We waited at church with another couple whose son was also in Youth Group. There is a "living room" area in the basement with very comfortable furniture where we waited, and we couldn't hear any weather at all. In fact, it was so calm that C started to get bored, and wanted to join the fun with the other kids. (Earlier she had been in line for lunch with them--before we left for Culvers.)

When we got home, our alley was blocked off with a fire truck because of a downed electric line! It was no surprise to find out that we had no electricity at home. Because of the power line trucks came to work on it quickly; unfortunately the fix wasn't quite so quick.

We spent the time finishing the reading of The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis. It is the last of the Narnia Chronicles, and we had been reading it, on and off, for quite a while. We had to use a flashlight to finish reading. We walked down to supervise the repairs several times, and were encouraged that each time we went down there there were more trucks, except at one point the parade of repair vehicles went down the street and there was no one in the alley! (Shortly afterwards they were back, so it must have been a supper break.)

The lights came back on, and we were settling in for a comfortable evening, but 1/2 hour later they went off again! We ordered pizza after finding a place that was open. They said it would be an hour wait, but we didn't want to open the fridge more than we had to, so we placed the order. After an hour and 15 minutes DD1 checked the website and we were shocked to see "Closed Because of Weather"! It said the same thing on the phone answering machine. By now I was getting a little hungry, and a little crabby too. We decided to go out and find some food. We had to make a detour to get around the repair trucks. We tried to duck through the alley, but there were still lines down there too, so we backed out of the alley and went around.

We found an open Subway store, and picked up some food and came home, just to find the pizza delivery car in our parking spot! So we had a choice of suppers. I ate some pizza stuffers (too salty) and my cookie from Subway, and I have a sandwich for today. I felt much better afterwards.

For the rest of the evening we mostly read; DH still had power in his iPod, so he was listening to music. I had a paperback book that had been languishing next to my bed for some time.

At bed time the power was still not back on, so DH had to go to bed without his C-PAP machine. He woke up gasping for breath... and was extremely happy when the power came back on after 1 AM and he could relax with his mask on. I made a circuit to make sure most things were turned off (had to adjust the light that was on a timer, and turn one or 2 things off, including the TV) and we are back to normal!

It just takes one day like that to be so thankful for electricity, and all the things it does in our lives.

Family Turkey Craft

Last week C came flying home with a large piece of paper with a pattern for a turkey. It was for the whole family to work on together, and she knew I would love helping her with it.



I went shopping in my craft room, and we came up with a whole bunch of stuff. We used 6 different fabrics for the tail feathers. C stuffed all of them.



The wattle is on foam-core; and is kind of cool. It is white glue with salt encrusted in it, and then water color soaked into it. C painted it orange and then red, and it turned out great.



C got a rubber band loom for her birthday to make bracelets, and that gave us the idea for the feet: rubber bands around pipe cleaners.



We made the base for the whole bird out of foam-core as well, and painted the edges and the background so the white wouldn't show through. C did the painting.



The beak is made from a pistachio nut shell, the wings are made with real feathers, and--crisis adverted--we found a googly eye in the button jar. We tried a bead, and we were talking sequins, but the googly eye fit the bill.



We are very pleased.



We hope the teacher likes it as well.

October knitting and Halloween

I did get a little knitting done in the last month or so. These mittens were a KAL (knit-a-long) on the "I knit mittens" Ravelry group for July. DD2 likes them and they fit her, so they are hers. I didn't start them until the end of the month, after I had seen the finished product; I tend not to like mystery projects.



C was Dorothy for Halloween. (She did have ruby slippers, but didn't have them on for this shot. She also had Toto in a basket.)

 

Everyone greeted her as Dorothy; she was really cute. P did have a Minecraft Creeper head, which he did like; but since it was almost raining, and his "head" was cardboard he decided to stay home and help hand out the candy.

Half September, most of October

Due to overwhelming requests from my fans (thanks mom!) I am back.

I finished reading the Gabaldon books about 3 weeks ago, but I had given myself permission to take a break until Halloween, so I took it. The problem with that is is that now I am even more out of the habit of blogging.

I really enjoyed reading the whole series of books in one stretch; I did see some things differently, but I am still hating the cliffhangers. When I was done I had to "cleanse the palate" by reading something else. Every morning when I got I would still wonder what Claire and Jamie were doing...

We had a guest in the back yard for about a week:



He lived there for so long that we named him! He is Peter, because Peter Parker had a real relationship with spiders. His web was amazing. It went from waist-height on the fence in the back yard up to the canopy over the back door, and the electric lines from the house next door. The web was repaired every day for that week, and the spider was either on the web, or hiding in a curled up leaf that had attached itself to the web. We checked it every day, and C would announce that she was going to run screaming past it every time she went out the back door.

I did a couple of handwork things while I was gone. In September my guild collected baby bibs for charity. I made a cute one:



C had her birthday in October, and we went to the zoo. Here she is at the wolf exhibit:



DH, DD1 and C hanging out with a polar bear.



 We brought our own picnic, for a change. I was going to post the pictures of that, but I don't think my family will speak to me if I do. This is a picture of the peacock that was trying to share our meal:



Here's a picture of C, P, DD2, and DD1 looking at the bald eagle.



Tomorrow is a family reunion in Michigan, and we are going to try to recreate a picture from our youth; it should be fun!

Jury Duty

It's like a whole day of detention, with a visit to the principal's office at the end.

I was interviewed to be on the jury for a murder trial, with a list of 25 witnesses. It would have taken forever! I was excused.

Reading

I can't believe how long it is since I posted... yikes!

I have been reading. One of my favorite authors (Diana Gabaldon) is coming out with a new book next April to coincide with the debut of the TV show based on the book (!?) She is hosting a read-along of the previous 7 books in the series so everyone will be up to date when the new book becomes available. We are supposed to read one book a month until My Own Heart's Blood comes out. That sounded like a very good idea, except that in the 3 weeks since I started reading, I have read Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and half of Voyager. At this rate, I will finish the 7 books by Halloween.

See you then!

Stitches Midwest

I have been waiting for Moonsilk Stitches to post her pictures from last Friday, so I could piggy-back off her post here. We had a lot of fun, and I got some very nice stash. I shopped differently this time. I took a list of projects I was interested in making, and searched for yarn to make them with.

The biggest success was this:



This is for a sweater with sort of a tuxedo front and shirt-tails, with 3/4 sleeves. It is from Knitty.com, and you can see it here. I think it will look wonderful in turquoise.

I also bought this:



This is for another shawl:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/queen-annes-lace-5

It is a "Queen Anne's Lace" shawl. I think queen anne's lace is beautiful, and I enjoy it every year during the summer. The cone is 1/2 lb of wool/silk mix, and will have plenty for this shawl.

The last yarn I bought is this:




It is cobweb weight! I plan to make a cowl.

I also bought a set of 40 inch size 1 carbon fiber knitting needles. I like bamboo needles, but needles that small feel very breakable, hopefully the carbon fiber will be more durable. I will let you know how I like them.

We had a wonderful time, even through we were exhausted by the time we were done shopping. We managed to make it through the whole market though, which we felt was quite an achievement.

It is never a lot of fun to ride home during rush hour though. Next time we will try to get an earlier start.

Fibery goodness

I have been working on a new project... it is going to take a long time:

 (please forgive the shadow from the railing)

This is the first of 4 panels for the world, plus I have matching yarn to make a map of the US.

I bought the yarn for this afghan more than a year ago, and it has been sitting in my workroom since then, waiting for me to get the courage to try intarsia knitting. My mom knit a cardigan for my dad many, many years ago, with a golfer on the back in intarsia, and I was awed at the time. That type of knitting seemed to me to be the pinnacle of knitting perfection, and of course, I would never be able to reach that level. It has taken me more than 50 years to try!

I am enjoying the knitting, even with having to stop every couple of rows to untangle my yarn. I am using a Cascade simple spun wool, so the yarn is quite fragile; if I pull on it too hard it breaks. The only problem is, I didn't think it would take this long. I am already thinking longingly of some of the other projects I have lined up... but I will at least finish this panel before I start something else (big).

This doesn't count:



It took me an afternoon; it is a 4 inch teddy bear that I think is simple enough for the new knitters in the class I am teaching. They got all excited when they saw it, and 2 of the 4 cast on right away. We will see on Wednesday how they did.

Sunday: Family time

After our busy Saturday, we had a restful Sunday, with the family together. We went to church, then lunch at Culver's.

Here are DD1, P, and DD2.



Here are C and F-DSIL.



Here are my mom & dad... mom isn't too happy I am taking the picture.



Here are DH and I.



After lunch mom & dad left for Michigan, and the rest of us went home and spent the afternoon enjoying the porch together. There was a walk, with puppies, some skate board, some knitting, a nice fire in the chiminea, some napping, and general relaxation.

It was a wonderful day!

Senza

We wanted my folks to experience the restaurant where their future grandson-in-law works, so we went to Senza. It was also my dad's birthday, so that was a very special treat too.

The minute we walked through the door they greeted us like long lost friends, and said happy birthday to my dad. Everyone was very welcoming, and they even gave me a hook to hang my purse from the table! The decor was updated since the last time we were there. They have walnut tables now, instead of the white plastic picnic tables, and a couple more of them. DD1 did the redesign, and it is very elegant now.

We had water, with a choice of still or sparkling. I can't remember ever having that choice before, but I chose still. Mom and dad had the wine, a different wine for each entree, chosen specifically to match the flavors.

My pictures are not the best. I didn't use my flash, so the colors don't pop, but the food was as beautiful as it was good. The description under the pictures is from the menu.

We had the 5 course meal. Between all of us we tried most of the items on the menu. We started with the amuse:


Amuse: hamachi, yuzu kosho, sweet soy. dashi

It was a bite of fish, and a swallow of cucumber ginger soda. The flower is a squash flower, and is edible too, but none of us ate ours. (This is a serving for 2 people.) It was good, and a good introduction to the rest of the meal. My mom's face after she tasted it was so funny... she was trying to figure out what the tastes were.

The next course was scallops for two of us, and petite greens for the other two:


scallop: fava, blueberry, onion caramel, oxalis


petite greens: crab, young coconut, peach, macadamia

The scallops were delicious. The caramelized onions were so good, the blueberries gave just a touch of sweetness. I used to eat oxalis in our yard when I was a kid; I always liked the flavor. Mom & dad had the greens. They had a little trouble eating it (it was hard to get a forkful in your mouth) but they said it was really good. Those are peaches, sliced so thin you could almost see through them.

The service made everything even more special. It was so fun anticipating the next course by what utensils were provided, all carried on trays cushioned with napkins.

This is the soup:


They bring it out with just the extra flavors and pour the soup into the bowl at the table:


vidalia onion: duck prosciutto, truffle, bianco sottobosco, corn

The pumpernickel was the crouton, the little white "blob" was ice cream (!), and the green is petite scallions. I think this was my favorite dish. It was delicious! The soup was sweet onion, and the other pieces just added so much interest and flavor.

My dad and I had the ribeye, and DH and mom had the agnolotti. This was the main course. It was served on such a large plate that it looked like not very much food, but there was plenty.


ribeye: cherry, black garlic, morel, mustard


agnolotti: maitake, juneberry, kumquat, thyme

The ribeye was so good! The meat was tender, and the cherries were the crowning touch. There was a little tiny cracker, and the mushroom (!).

The agnolotti is ravioli with mushroom, the kumquat added such a distinct flavor.

There was an extra course that we were not expecting at all. It is a cheese course. It was melt in your mouth good! Since it wasn't on the menu, I will have to depend on my memory. The cheese was served like whipped cream. It was almost the consistency of pudding, but still with a very strong cheese flavor. The eclair was stuffed with pureed raisin. Just wow!



For the final course three of us had the chocolate, and DH had the oatmeal. They brought dad's plate with a candle burning! (but they did not sing to him).


chocolate: coconut, banana, raspberry, pumpkin seed


oatmeal: pine nut, cherry, dreamsicle, apricot

The chocolate was simply delicious. It had just a touch of chili in it... I could feel it in my mouth afterwards, but it didn't make it hot. The coconut was just a mouthful of ice cream and there were a couple of little pieces of cake. DH had the oatmeal, and really liked that too. It had a contrast in textures, flavors, and colors.

Some of the combinations on the menu make you wonder how someone could even think of putting them on the same plate, but they all work so well! After the first bite my mom and dad stopped trying to analyze everything and just enjoyed. They raved about the meal all the way home. We were not blown away quite as much as last time, because we expected a out-of-this-world meal, and we certainly got it.

The restaurant is doing well, and the reviews have been excellent. I also highly recommend it. By the way, all the food is gluten free! But that is just an added benefit. You wouldn't know it by any of the tastes or even textures of the bread.

We got invited to return soon, and we certainly hope to.