Ravelry Party

The Spinsters took a road trip Thursday night, all the way down to Burbank, for the second annual Ravelry Party at Unwind.

Edie, Rich, Ginny and me, with my arms full of enough
Manos del Uruguay Silk & Wool yarn for Ginny to make me a sweater!

The event was sold out and the shop was packed to the hilt with yarnies, all wanting their pictures taken with the Ravelmeisters, Casey, Jess and Mary-Heather. And who were we to buck the trend?
Party-ers got a discount on Manos yarn, among other things, so I broke my self-imposed yarn diet to buy enough to make a knit sweater. Hey, it was on sale; how could I say no??

The party lasted until 10 but we called it quits at 9; I'd been on the road since 9:30 that morning, driving to Long Beach for my (wonderful) 'Intentional Patterning' class with Laura Bryant of Prism Yarn and then up to Burbank in rush hour traffic. The patterning class was worth it though - lots of ideas for future projects.

Bowling

I bought Leia a toy bowling set for Christmas and I'm not sure who had more fun with it today, us or Leia. She quickly picked up on the fact that it was OK to knock the pins down. It's the way she was doing it that cracked us up. Meet Leia - the human bowling ball. She'd set up a pin or two (or we'd sneak behind her and set them all up), put the ball in her mouth, mow down all the pins, and then applaud. We were in stitches. The only one not amused was poor Lily. She heads for the hills whenever Leia or Payton* show up (Payton, 18 months, is the daughter of Gary's girlfriend, Samantha). Lily wanted to get to me but Leia was between us, so she hid under the couch, trying to sneak past when Leia wasn't looking. I love that you can see her six toes in the top photo.

*Teaching Payton to weave. Whenever a camera points her way, Payton spontaneously says "cheese". So cute!

Year of the Shawl - FO #1

Finished the first of the ten shawls I'm committed to making this year. This is Seraphina's Shawl, done in Fearless Fibers Alpaca and Wool DK (color: Pumpkin Spice) that's been in my stash for awhile now, awaiting just the right project. Love how it looks and feels. Still planning to wear this to TNNA this week, just can't decide whether to wear it Thursday to class and the Ravelry party or on Sunday to class and when I work in the spinning/weaving booth on the TNNA floor. Decisions, decisions . . . .

This is Leia's 'not again, grandma' look.

I also finished the Tunisian shawl that I designed (pattern coming soon.) This is Misti Alpaca's Baby Alpaca Grande in 'Eggplant', done with a size "N/9mm" Tunisian hook that Dick made for me. This shawl won't count towards my total for the 10 Shawls in 2010 group; I was working on it before the official 'start' date. I love how soft and squishy this feels. I wanted a simple, warm shawl that had enough detail work to make it interesting - both to look at and to make - and that's exactly what this is. And even better - both shawls were made with yarn I already had in my stash. Hooray for stash busting!

Year of the Shawl

I don't especially like setting 'resolutions' at the start of the new year - most seem doomed to failure - but I do like having project goals. About a week ago, I spotted a Ravelry group that looks perfect for me - knit or crochet (or Tunisian) 10 shawls in 2010. I love both making and wearing shawls and I'm annoyed with myself for not having finished more of them this year, so I joined up.

I'm also in the sub-group that plans to make 5 of the shawls with stash yarn - I'm hoping for more like 8 done with stash - since another of my goals is to decrease the amount of yarn I've accumulated. (Yes, I know I'll just buy more . . . . but I'll at least have some room to store it!)

This one won't count for the group since I 'hooked on' before January 1, but I'm in love with this. I pictured a warm, simple, batwing (extra long 'arms') Tunisian shawl made with yarn already in my stash - and that's exactly what I got. I'll write up the pattern as soon as I finish the last 4-5 rows. I can't wait to wear this before it goes into the shop as a class sample. (Class info here; scroll down to Tunisian Shawl.)
The first 'real' shawl is also my first 'frog' for the year. I started a Seraphina's Shawl with my handspun but didn't like the texture or the look, so I ripppppppppppped it. Started again with some in-stash Fearless Fibers Alpaca and Wool DK in 'Pumpkin Spice' and I like it much better. I want to have this done by Thursday night so I can wear it to the Ravelry party after my class at TNNA. Which means I need to get cracking on this.

Ho, Ho, Ho

My Christmas present arrived today. A new screaming-fast Dell computer with 23" HD monitor, Windows 7, and wireless mouse and keyboard. Can't wait to get all my files and programs transferred so I can play!

#5

Ornament #5 is done and gifted. I'm still enjoying these patterns - never thought I'd take up thread crochet again but these have been a lot of fun. Still planning to make a set for us to keep, after I finish the last two gifts.

Christmas

Another great Christmas is in the memory books, after lots of food, presents, laughter and best of all - togetherness.

PopPop and Leia

Naia and Miles

Playing 'airplane'

Gary and Samantha

Paul and Marie

Almost overwhelmed by all the presents. Almost.

Leia learned to open presents. This ball was her second favorite gift.

Can you guess what her very favorite toy was?

Miles loved his Razr big wheel.

Chris and Naia

We loved having family around us all day.

Excitement carried Leia through most of the day but she finally had had enough.

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The tree is decorated and so are the presents

Our outdoor decorations - a light-tree

Paul and Marie(looking shorter than usual) waiting for Helicopter Santa

Gifted FO

I finished this one Sunday night and gifted it Monday night. The recipient seemed pleased with it, which pleased me. This is my Fisherman's Fan scarf pattern using Noro Silk Garden that's been in my stash for 5 or 6 years. I bought it on Ebay and hung on to it both because I loved the colors (especially the orange) and because the labels were in Japanese. (Noro yarn is from Japan but the American-market labels are in English.) Glad I finally found the perfect project for this special yarn.

Sisters

Naia, happily working a floor puzzle
Leia, deciding that Naia needs "help"Naia, trying to persuade Leia to not "help"Naia and Leia, sisters and pals

Christmas Baking

Today was the start of Christmas baking season. I finished the first batch of zucchini bread - a big family favorite since my MIL gave me the recipe years ago - and tonight I plan to make peanut butter fudge - another family fav made from my mother's recipe.

I love traditional holiday foods and recipes, and occasionally - not often - I'll find a new one that just has to be added. Like these 'cheater' cinnamon rolls. Not sure where I got this recipe but I'll be making these often - Dick and I ate the entire batch this afternoon. So easy, so tasty, so gone.

Cinnamon Rolls
8-oz. package refrigerated crescent rolls
2 T margarine, softened
1/2 t cinnamon (I plan to add more next time)
2 T raisins (I left these out; hubby's not a raisin fan)
3/4 c powdered sugar
3-4 T milk (I substituted water - and a lot less than called for)

Unroll dough into one large rectangle; seal all perforations. Spread margarine evenly over dough. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over dough. Sprinkle raisins over sugar and cinnamon.

Roll up jelly-roll style, starting from the longest side. Slice into 22 pieces. Place slices on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (my rolls were almost burnt after 17 minutes.)

Combine powdered sugar and milk (or water); drizzle over warm rolls. Enjoy!

Christmas FO's

Want to see what I've been working on, almost exclusively, for the last 18 days? After today's gift exchange with my fiber buddies I can finally post these super secret projects.

It's been a long time since I've done any thread crochet - working with such tiny hooks makes my hands ache - but these ornaments were too pretty to pass up. They are done with Size 10 cotton thread, a 1.75mm hook and the patterns in 'Scented Ornaments to Crochet' by Anne Halliday (Ravelry link). The center is a fabric bag stuffed with batting since I elected to make them unscented. Each ornament is approx. 4.25" in diameter and the front/back are identical. There are six patterns in the book and I'm working my way through all of them. And even though my hands do hurt, I'm loving these ornaments and the intricacies of threadwork.

The ornaments were actually my back-up plan in case my original idea flopped on the loom; I'm thrilled that that didn't happen. These are the overshot potholders from the May/June 2005 edition of Handwoven. All six were done on the same warp but I changed the treadling for the second in each color, giving them a different pattern. The potholders with the "X" in each corner (right side below) are treadled 'Star' fashion. You can see a diagonal line running between the top and bottom corners.
The other pattern - more rounded, without diagonal lines connecting the elements - is "Rose" fashion. I love that something as easy as changing the order in which you raise the shafts can give such different results. These were all woven with off-white 8/4 cotton as warp and pattern weft and Lily Sugar & Cream worsted cotton - good old kitchen cotton from Michael's - is the supplemental weft. I need to make a few more of these - at least one set for me - but I goofed when I took these off the loom. The idea was to cut these off and then tie on a new warp to save having to re-thread the heddles (the most time consuming part and the part most prone to error.)

Unfortunately, I forgot to release the tension before I cut the warp threads. Did you know that threads under tension can spring all the way across the loom, coming out of not only the reed but the heddles too? Not funny - and a definite rookie mistake. One I won't be making again, thank you very much.