Monday, March 30, 2009

cookbook posts a'comin'

i used to have a pretty active website, back in the day. and part of the website was a little cookbook that started mostly as a way for me to keep track of recipes I had scribbled on pieces of paper--family stuff and things from all over the place that i didn't want to lose. i was making one such thing this weekend, it it ocurred to me that i should share these, as they are already written up and all...

so--these are on the way. look for #1 of them tomorrow. the rest i'll post as i make them again so i have pictures to go with them. :)

Friday, March 20, 2009

believe it or not...

i've been knitting!

kylie's baby blanket
yesterday at lunchtime, i sat outside in the lovely weather and wove in the ends on the blanket i knitted at warp speed for my friend kylie, whose baby boy is due in just over a month. this is a tried and true pattern for me, and one many babies love above all other blankets. plus it's affordable, machine washable and dryable (driable?), soft as clouds, and quick to knit. it's a simple 4x5 basketweave with garter edges. this one's 5 skeins of paton's melody in le grande bleu, knitted on size 15 addi turbos. knitted in less than 2 weeks, which for me, is nothing short of a miracle.

butterfly hat, FO
i also finished (and mailed!) the butterfly hat (free pattern on ravelry) for my friend amy in oregon, where she promises me it is still cold enough to wear it. i confessed to her that i actually wore it myself last weekend for emily and my walk on the beach in the freezing wind. it was a tad harder to mail after that--i may make one of thse for myself. this is knitted in malabrigo (the BEST hat yarn) in the velvet grapes colorway on size 8 something or others... anyway, totally fun to knit, and i love the result.

mabel, CO
i've also been having a bit of a delusional cast-on problem lately. i keep starting projects with this kind of field of dreams mentality of "if i cast it on, somehow it will get knitted." this is the mable dress from erika knight's book, simple knits for cherished babies, that i have wanted to make for years. however, i have never before known anyone having a baby girl at the right time of year for it. now i do, but odds of me being able to get it finished in time? well, we'll just see. if i don't make it in time for boo, then some baby sometime in the future is going to get a lovely little classic dress knitted from jaeger sienna in the creatively named colorway, 404. i will refer to it as lilac. so far, it's slow going, but lovely.

kieran's hoodie, WIP
and since mable isn't knitting itself up at warp speed, i needed a faster back-up project. thus this hooded tunic i am making for kieran. this is a pattern from knitting pure and simple that i have made before from noro silk garden--that one is one of my favorite finished objects of all time. this one is a dark grey (darker than the picture looks) wool, silk, and viscose blend called mas acero from brooks farm, which i bought at SAFF in 2007 specifically to make into a hoodie for my then-unborn baby. i was going great guns on this until i realized i might be having a weird gauge issue. i need to address that--there may have to be frogging and redoing on different needles--we'll see... so far, i am happy with the fabric, but i dislike how the yarn gives me corpse-colored fingers when i knit with it. this will get a vinegar soak before i wash it when it's done.

be sweet magic ball, lemonade
and as if that's not enough (and it's definitely not--who are we kidding?) i've started buying a new yarn here and there in spite of the fact i have enough yarn to last me a good 3 years of constant knitting. at the beach this past weekend, i picked up this lovely skein of be sweet magic ball in the lemonade colorway. nevermind that my pasty white face has no business anywhere near these colors--i want to knit a ruffle out of this. i almost HAVE to. my friend kerstin's fabulous suggestion was to make a skirt and put this around the bottom as a thin ruffle--i REALLY want to do that! now i just need to learn to sew...

i also bought yarn to make some chickens, but we'll get to that later. :)

Thursday, March 19, 2009

6 or 7 years

6 years ago today, the hippie moved in with me. he's still awesome, and i still like him pretty well. we're not really doing much this year to commemorate, but he sent me some beautiful flowers at work--excellent surprise! the view from my desk right now is perfectly lovely. :)

pink daisy

love you, hippie!

in other news, it's also his mama's birthday, so we must include a happy birthday shout out to denise! :)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

quickie

this past weekend, my friend emily and i snuck away for a little overnight jaunt to the beach to hang out, knit, eat, visit a fabulous yarn store, and walk on the beach. it was refreshing and awesome, and we got a bit of a break in that the weather turned out to just be cold instead of cold and rainy. here are some photos from our walk to make you jealous:

underneath

winter sun

swing

texture

bit of blue

the rest are here.

ps--stayed in the seahawk motor lodge. it was all good till my bed was full of sand. ew. next time, we're trying the atlantis. it's been recommended, and the sign alone makes me want to stay there.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

open house at the celebrity dairy

farm house

k hanging with amy

chickens

baby face

my boys

farm girl

kieran and a chicken
a couple of weeks ago, we went with friends to the bi-annual open house at the celebrity dairy, which is a working goat farm and B&B in siler city, nc. they sell cheese and eggs, and many of our local shops and restaurants feature their products. it was one of those absolutely gorgeous warm sunny days we sometimes get in the late winter here in north carolina--one of the many reasons i love living here. i've made a pact with myself to start searching out and taking advantage of some of the many free, cool, and interesting things my area has to offer, and to get kieran outside to see his world as much as possible this year. (thanks to betsy for letting us know about thisone!)

we met up for brunch, then headed to the dairy with jenn and harry and betsy and all the girls. there, we hooked up with amy and kelly and baby sage. we spent the afternoon tromping around the farm (in the mud!), checking out baby goats, pigs, one bright blue peacock, and about 700 chickens. gabriella chased chickens for two solid hours and then cried when we left because she couldn't bring one home with her--she is a born farm girl. even kieran got to get his little paws on one of them, which utterly delighted him, of couse. afterwards, kelly and amy spontaneously came back to our house to grill out and eat goat cheese (not me--because ew--but everyone else did), and we threw the boys into the tub so that the babies would have that clean baby smell and be a little less farm-ish. all in all, a fabulous, wonderful day.

the complete set of pictures is here.