Projects done this summer

Some knitting, not too much crocheting and some drawing (doodling)

Perhaps continuing

With knitting, since I have so many projects waiting for finishing.

Exciting Yarn Day

So, it was finally DK Frolic here in our city.
My friend Kathleen picked me up in the morning, and
Another friend had picked another of my friends, Sherri up, and we met at the
Japanese Cultural Center.

It was a bit cool in the morning, so cool that I gave up and wore my
knitted jacket.

Once we got in, it was walking and checking the vendors` booths and
all the good stuff they had brought in to sell.

I fell in love this yarn:

It will take some time before I figure out what to use it for.  Probably a shawl, a big one, since

there is quite a bit of yardage in each hank.  

The Yarn is Breathless Lace, from Shalimar Yarns.

75% Merino, 15% Cashmere, 10% Silk

I also bought a fabric bag that has cat designs on it, and a small cat pin for my 

key ring (it`s tiny, though, but I think it will do)

After we had walked around enough, and bought what we had seen and wanted,  we headed 

for Olde Yorke Fish and Chips for

Halibut and French Fries, Cole Slaw and Tartar Sauce.  Oh, my it was yummy.

The coffee was good too, I had two refills and no extra charge.  

Well, then it was time to decide if we would go to another yarn place, this time

to see what is on sale in a yarn store not too, too far away from 

the restaurant.  Off we went to Sew and Knit Store.

I decided to get some sock yarn to make gifts, as I don`t wear hand knitted socks

too often. I do like knitting them though, and I would say that 90% of the socks

I have made, have been given as gifts.  It`s a pleasure for me.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday Morning, Noon and Afternoon  with

good friends.  

It was time to come home, time to take a nap, time to take another nap, and

organize the thoughts of what has to be done next.

Friday off work

It's a sunny looking day, and the wind is hugging the trees.
I am off work today, needed some time to think about things, and finish off
the FreeForm crochet project for the Annual Challenge for International Freeform Fiberart Guild.

We now have two cats, Merlin, who came first, and then Missy, who arrived February 14th this year.

This one is Missy, the wicked one.  Merlin looks on, I love that picture, actually both of these.  The personality of both shows well in these pictures.

I also made two hats,

 We had a weird winter, long and cold, lots of snow and it kept the spring waiting.  But now it looks like we have warmer weather around us, at least in our area.
This snow came on the 15th of April this year (2014).

I had also made a doll for a baby who was born late 2013.  There is no pattern for this doll, I am sorry.

It's done with stash yarns, and using my imagination and creative fluids.

This Shawl is for me, I think it's one of my favourites.  I used Koigu yarns, and the pattern is from here.

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/picarapirk/dispersion

I have always been crazy about Karelian pies. I decided to try my skills on them, and they

looked like this before going into the oven.  I tried, well, I think next time I have the urge to eat a pie,

I will buy them, if I can catch them in a Finnish bakery here.  

Don't they look as homemade Karelian Pies?  They were not too bad, but I had made a few baking
mistakes, and that is the reason they were not those yummy ones I have eaten before.

There will be more posts in the future, as I might have more time to finish some knit and crochet projects.

Rye Bread story continues

I made the bread last weekend, and it was not bad at all.  The taste was better the next day.

Today I decided to make some more, since I have only some small pieces left.

Found a nice recipe in this blog, She has explained the method very clearly, even I can understand
and follow it.  The recipe is in Finnish, though, but my translation skills are not developed enough to do it here.

BTW, here is a picture of my test bread:

And then I made more after the test ones.  I still have two small ones in the freezer for lunch tomorrow.

And here is our beautiful Merlin

Back to knitting, Chau!

Rye Bread

I decided to tell you about my favorite foods, from way back when.  When = when in Finland.
First thing I must have is rye bread and home-made cheese, with butter milk.  Yes, I am slightly
strange, but that's me.  Fortunately you can now buy that cheese in the grocery stores over there,
and I don't even warm it up, I eat it while the wrapping is on...yes, I open it little bit first.

The bread has to be the one with a hole in the middle, that's the best.  Well, at least on top of the list.  Buttermilk?  It's much better than what I can buy here.  Maybe the process is different, who knows, but it tastes so good, I could drink one liter just like that, with bread and cheese.

A cousin of mine told me about making rye bread without the root, and of course I was immediately interested.  I found the place and here it is (in Finnish, though, but the translation is
pretty good).
There is also a Pulled Pork recipe, which looks delicious.  I might try that one, too, one of these
days.

I also found some "homemade" - like cheese, Spanish fresh cheese, and also some other, but forgot the name of it.  Also, in some Italian grocery stores you can find Fesh Cheese, but I prefer the Spanish one.

I took a picture of the rye bread dough, with my phone camera.

I tell you about my knitting.  I made a cowl for myself, which I will not wear unless the temperature outside is -20 or colder. The cowl, though is quite pretty, so I might use
it for five minutes in a warmer weather, just to show off.

I've also made some snowflakes.  They are not your normal flakes, mine have colours.

After the snowflakes, I went back to my attempt to make a wide wrap with cables.  Not sure if

    I finish it before the spring (it's for winter), but I will try.

Doodling done, finally, it's been a while. 

And then the test bread.  The dough is still
rising, but I could not wait for to taste.  Not bad
at all.

Keep going Girl!

First some whining,

back pain for over a week.  Have done too much lifting things, as in bags of yarn, boxes of yarn,
just yarn. Let me explain, I have a stash room (second bedroom) full of stuff, mostly yarn, in boxes, plastic tubs, and bags.  Decided to organize *organize*,  me?  Good grief!
Well, I did some, and now the back is screaming. Tylenol 3 snubbed, Arthritis Tylenol laughed, standing and leaning against the table helped after half an hour.  Sleep is great, no problem.

Should I just sleep?  NO, I must check the e-mail, check the Facebook, oh, and go to work.  Work
might have something to do with some pain to a degree.  Sitting all day, working on a keyboard, trying to get the correct information into the record archives, inside the data files.  That's hard work, and will cause discomfort sometimes.  However, I do love my work, and have always enjoyed going to the office.  Occasional getting up to go and fetch coffee or lunch, or water,
is a good thing.

Oh, I was not going to talk about work.  Back to whining.  No cork needed, since my whining has nothing to do with wine.

This is my solution for the problem, Aleve, which may cause tummy pains, but which is worse?

I realized something this morning, why is my back not in pain when I am in bed?  I have a padding with magnetic buttons inside.  Well, yeaah, sure.  This morning I took one Aleve, found another of those paddings in the linen closet.  Put it on my chair and what, I am practically pain free, unless I get up.  Is it Aleve or the padding with magnets?  Don't know, but I am going sit here all day, even
if I don't have the witch powers to move things around with the wiggle of my nose (I can't do it anyway, even if I was a witch, which I might have been in my previous life, which is another story).

On the reality side (whining isn't my daily topic):

What's up?  The Knitting goddess has been my friend for a good part of my weekly events.
There is a shawl, a scarf, a jacket, a freeform thing, another shawl, something that I don't even
know what, hats, and socks, but I am very organized (another "good grief).  Organizing is not a word I use lightly.

These are Hedwig socks (referring to Hedwig, Harry Potter's owl)  for my step-daughter-in-law.
I was going to add eyes and a nose but decided it was too much work.  :-)

Some baby stuff, little jackets and two blankets

Hat that will go to charity

This hat was meant for a friend, but it came out too small.  The brim is very loose, too. I have fix it, and then this one goes to charity, as well as

the baby hat here:

 I love this shawl, the yarn is size 10 crochet thread, Katie Jaipur, and the colors are amazing.

I have put this shawl aside for a few days, since I was busy with the hats and other things.

A scarf for my niece in Argentina:

The yarn, Patons Grace.

Forgot what this was going to be:

 

 And this is a Seraphina Shawl start, which might never see another stitch done:

 Crocheted this Edelweiss shawl in less than a week.  It will probably end up in charity section.

Guess who this is!  Merlin, of course, isn't he adorable?

Baby surprise Jacket.  Pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman, the knit master.

baby jacket in apple green cotton yarn, somewhere there is a pattern, but where?  Here!

Crochet bolero for my grandaughter in Argentina

a

And finally, some of the plastic tubs that have swallowed some yarn.  These and some others are going in the stash room, if I can find a space for them.  (wiping tears here)

 

There has been some serious cabbage cooking too, in my kitchen.  Cabbage soup, Cabbage rolls, 

Cabbage casserole, and last night a soup with chicken broth, cabbage, ground chicken, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, red onion, and some celery, that was in the back of the fridge, still good, surprise.

I have lunches for two or three weeks now.  Of course it's possible I will have something else, too, since I am already getting somewhat tired with cabbage.   

I don't really have recipes for my cabbage dishes, I've used my imagination, and googled a few tricks and so on.  I am a freestyle cook.

I am also reading a lot these days, Currently P. J. Parrish's Louis Kincaid series.

Of course some others, but these books are my latest fancy.

The first book "Dark of the Moon" came from library as it's not available for Kindle.

Have started it but not even half way thru, yet.

Came across with this post in FaceBook, and thought it was good

http://sinivalakosinsilimin.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/kiiress-duunis-tois-busy-working-work.html

Decided that this was enough for one post.  Have to go and see if my mess will disappear at least a little bit.  

Insanity Strikes Again

I must be in a really deep slump.  I've started 4 or 5 Seraphina shawls this week, and having hard time with the yarn selection that would strike my interest.

Just to let you know, I have made at least 6 or 7 of those shawls already, all for gifts.

The only yarn that I have enough is Bernats Handicrafter crochet acrylic, in aqua color.  Which is kind of

growing into my liking department.  Not frogging a dark green that I started first. Then I started another one with  malabrigo yarn  which  can stay put since  I really don't like the color, (what in the world made me buy that one???) it also it would be a shame to do all the work and not get a big enough shawl,(I have only two hanks of it) or  trying to add some other color or hopefully similar color, but that would mean buying more yarn and I am definitely not in the mood for spending my coins on yarn (until the DKC Frolic at the end of this month)  I'll buy a coffee at Tims instead for now.

So, what else did I find in my rut?  One of the threads that I tried to combine with a light yellow thread pleased 

me to no end, and I decided to use it for another start of the spider web shawl.  

I was too lazy to go and look for the book I got at Nina's, knowing well enough that the pattern is there.

Instead I surfed  the web,  Ravelry and some close-by magazines, close enough not to get up from my 

chair. Merlin, the cat, would have been annoyed, as he was sleeping on his favorite place, on top of my expensive leather tote. How can I tell him no, when he looks so cute sleeping, all curled up to a nice black and white ball.

I found one pattern in one of the magazines I had bought in Argentina.  Instead of a square thingy for the web it had a pineapple design between the squares that were semi solid.  This was not too exciting for me, however. I didn't like the way the edges were done and furthermore, the chart was not for the whole thing, only 

part of it, and once I finished what was on the chart, I got totally confused how to continue.  Frog pond

helloo.  

Surfing again and found this one

http://cynscorner.blogspot.ca/2007/01/yellow-shawlshrugscarf-crochet.html

This is what I did so far
(added on April 19th, 2013)

no pattern though but a picture, which was so small that I haphazardly guessed how it was done.  Of course, 

when I got to the row where I should have started the second set of spider webs, it didn't make any sense, in my very un-logical mind.  (that is not a real word, I don't like the word illogical because it sounds like illegal).

I sat in the bus this morning and crocheted, happily, because I really liked the way this lady had done her

shawl.  I must have had a brain cramp, since I didn't think of making the picture larger.  ( I did that at work, and

it was clear that I had swayed away from the real thing and had done my own design.)

Sht happens. Still in the bus,  I frogged the creation almost to the beginning, put it in my bag and started reading my semi-fun book of senior citizens in a tour in Ireland.  Mind you, I only have the preview, if I like it enough, I must buy the rest of it.  I read the first book in the series, and it was not too bad.  Totally different from the detective thrillers that I have been reading lately.  I like those, but sometimes a person needs a break from
routine, doesn't she?  Oh, the book at the bus, Maddy Hunter:  Top O' The Mournin'.  I had read Alpine for You and also have lined-up Norway To Hide.  The first half of the first book (Alpine) was making me wonder why
I bought the book, but then, stubborn as I am, kept reading, and slowly started liking the story.  Some books are
not in my immediate  reaction to like section.  

At work I checked my files, and found the "real" pattern, the one in Katia magazine that I had bought at Creative Yarns.

I had scanned the chart for my OWN use. (if anyone wants a copy, talk to Nina, please, I ain't giving my copy to anyone.

My day was starting to look pretty good. I came in about an hour early, so I could tell about my insane events that eventually clear up with a project that will make me happy, until the next interesting project comes along.

I will keep my hook and thread close-by at lunch, and hope that nobody starts chatting with me, I want to be alone in my little crochet world.