I finished all of my fish last week, but when we laid out the blanket on the floor boy and I agreed that it was too small. "Too small to serve any purpose" according to boy. So upon my return from sunny Fla. I promptly (as in within 10 minutes of my arrival) visited my LYS and purchased more Rowan All Seasons Cotton. Right now the plan is to make it 4 fish wide by 9 fish high. Bring on the fishies.
While seaming the green sweater and still super excited by its potential I discovered the best knitting tool ever. Hold Everything Clips:
They are perfect for holding pieces together while seaming. They are perfectly smooth so nothing will snag and they hold the pieces really well. Hold Everything Clips rock (they rock in the kitchen too). Available at Bed Bath & Beyond for $2.99.
Here's a photo of the green sweater.
1. The sleeves are from a different dye lot, boy likes the variation at the cap, I don't.
2. V-neck is super deep, eeuh I can deal (boy does not like).
3. I'm tall and it's too short. I really don't know how this happened because I measured many times, but it did and I'm not happy.
Overall, I'm disappointed.
I finished the green v-neck sweater using Rowan's Calmer. I'm not that in love with it. I just don't think sweaters are my thing, I'm too picky. Darn.
Yesterday the white bobbi bear was a headless WIP, today he's a finished bear, head, ears, nose, eyes, and all. It's amazing how motivating a reality check can be...or am I just procrastinating from writing the memo that's due on Monday? Hard to tell.
There's nothing like a good reality check every now and then. So, here it is, a photo of those WIP's that actually warrant attention (i.e. those that aren't in the frog box - don't worry the froggers are living out their last few months in a pretty box; they're happy). It's rather embarrassing to have so many projects that are a few hours from completion. But to be honest this really doesn't look excessive to me.
Starting from that small white thing in the upper left we have:
White Bunny (sans ears)
Felted Flamingo
White Bobbi Bear
Ribbon Tape Cardigan
Fish Blanket
Gray Top-Down Wrap Sweater (I may move this to frog box)
White Bear
Clapotis (may join the wrap sweater)
Blue Socks with an Afterthought Heel
Red Alpaca Braided Scarf
Green Calmer V-Neck
Blossom (in the center)
Last month's reality check was when I organized my stash and didn't have enough room on a queen sized bed to fit it all. Now that was excessive...to anyone. I didn't take a picture so I may need to organize it again and have a visual reminder that yarn doesn't grow on trees, it grows in my closet...and dresser...and cedar chest...and under the bed...
I stayed up late last night adding the picot edging to the rectangle shawl. I am so pleased with it! I used a Blue Sky Alpaca pattern and 100% baby alpaca worsted weight. I love it. I love wearing shawls, I'm obsessed. Notice the snow in the background...there's still snow on the ground and we're supposed to get more tomorrow!
If anyone knows the widget or html code to enable the "comments" link on the main page in blogger please let me know. I've tried all of the settings and can't get it to work on the main page, only in individual posts. thanks!
I woke up to this:
Early yesterday morning there wasn't a speck of snow, late yesteday morning I ran on fairly clear pavement while it was starting to snow. Last night I drove home in about 4" of snow. I did not expect to wake up to find snow up to the seat of the bench (center of photo). After numerous buzzing and beeping episodes of freezers, microwaves and surge protectors throughout the night the power finally went out this morning and the generator kicked in. You really have to be kidding me, it's April 5th!
The first fish came out quite well. I'm not sure what colors I'm going to use. I was going to use Rowan's All Seasons Cotton in pink & tan but I've never seen a pink fish before. I think I need more ocean-y colors, although I've never really seen a blue fish before either. I'm lying, I have. I've probably seen pink too. Oh the indecision. Am I just looking for an excuse to buy more yarn? I just spent the gift certificate my brother gave me for xmas, how can I justify buying more yarn?
Update:
I've started fish #2 and reversed the pattern so I can knit the fish together to form "fish strips."
Here's a pic:
I've found a new project! Yes, I know I have a bunch of unfinished projects but this one is cool. It's a fish blanket, here is a photo and here is another. I spent hours figuring out the pattern today from looking at the photo of the finished blanket before stumbling upon the first link. Even though I think this would be an excellent stash project I think I want to do it in two colors - I'm just not sure which ones. Off to start my first fish!
It was a productive weekend. I finished paper #2 of 5 by mid-afternoon on Sunday. Then I cleaned. I moved every piece of furniture in my bedroom to clean up every last bit of dust from every surface. Now I have my desk where I can look out both windows while I continue the month of marathon paper writing.
I also baked a key lime pie using fresh key limes. If you're not familiar, key limes are only about 1" in diameter. It took nearly an hour to squeeze enough for the pie, but the results were worth it.
Key Lime Pie
1 cup of key lime juice (either from fresh key limes or from a jar "Nellie's" key lime juice is the best)
2 cans of fat-free sweetened condensed milk
8 egg yolks
1 9" graham cracker pie crust
1 extra graham cracker crushed and a ramekin
Mix the yolks and milk together, add juice until well blended. Pour into pie crust so it is almost over flowing. There will be some filling left-over so spread the crushed graham cracker on the bottom of a greased ramekin, spray with Pam and fill with remaining filling. Bake at the same time at 350 for approximately 25 minutes (20 for the ramekin) until the center is set. Chill & serve w/ fresh whipped cream.
I am in love....Smitten Kitchen is my new favorite blog. But Don't worry Not Martha, there is room at the top for two favorites!
I love Spring. It's warmish and sunny and daylight savings time is the BEST. Even though it's only 44 here, and it's 84 in sunny Florida I'm still enjoying the warmish weather. This morning I ordered a new navy polka-dot bathing suit from J.Crew; this is the top and this is the bottom. The bottoms are back-ordered, but I really hope they arrive before April 19th so I can wear it during my reading-week Florida trip.
On the knitting front, the rectangle shawl is almost done. When I finish this last skein I will be ready to add the picot edge. I'm also close to finishing the green calmer sweater. It's been a WIP for almost a year now, but as I get closer to the sleeve cap shaping I'm getting more anxious to finish it. Photos to come soon.
Last night I made Thai Green Curry for dinner using Thai Kitchen's green curry paste. I made it with chicken this time, and thought it was just as tasty as when I make it with tofu. The key is to add lots of peas and serve it very hot over fresh spinach instead of rice. Mmmm so tasty.
Thai Green Curry
1 can of lite coconut milk
2T green curry paste
cook above for 5 mins on medium heat
2T fish sauce
2T brown sugar
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 thinly sliced chicken breasts (or lite firm tofu)
1+ cup of peas
bamboo shoots
sliced water chestnuts
add all of the above plus 1/2 of the bag of spinach and simmer for 10 mins
bag o' baby spinach
Serve over remaining baby spinach or brown rice. Tasty!
You can add more veggies the next day to make another meal. It also freezes very well.
Some good came out of my cancelled flight. The airline gave me a taxi voucher to use for a ride "home." However, because home is aprox. 130 miles from the airport I stayed near the airport Wednesday night. Thursday morning I gave my cab driver the round-trip voucher for a 260 mile trip. Apparently it was quite a bonus, he was pleased, I am pleased.
I went on a pattern spree at The Knitting Experience this past weekend. I intended to purchase only one pattern - Blue Sky Alpaca's Rectangle Shawl. But, I also left with the Baby Bobbi Bear pattern, an eyelet baby blanket pattern and two Louise Harding books: Gathering Roses and Winter Muse Classic.
I started the very mundane rectangle shawl and I love it. I'm using a light worsted 100% alpaca so it is going to be a bit larger than the pattern. I hope I don't lose interest before I get to the end. I'm excited to frog my red inside-out sweater from last Fall's Knit Scene and make the Ginger cardigan instead. I'm also looking forward to the Violette, but I am short a few skeins.
Next week is a project filled week....if I can ever get to my destination. Second time in one month to have a flight cancelled and not rescheduled for at least a day.
