Left Overs

The big trick before leaving on any trip is to make sure one is not leaving behind produce that will go bad. Yesterday Little Bug and I made Soup using up the rest of our fresh produce and throwing some canned beans and tomatoes for extra yum. I'm going to freeze what we don't eat tonight. To use up the last of the apple sauce we made yet some more apple sauce muffins. Daddy sized this time, we're bringing theses babbies with us. Then lastly to use up the last of the tangerines and yogurt we made yummy smoothies. I added some frozen strawberries for coldness and flavor and some flax seeds for nutrition.








I have nearly finished the shawl just a few more rows, the bind off and blocking. I'm hoping to block it tonight so it can dry in peace without a kid of cat getting at it while we are gone.

Have a Merry Christmas Day whether you celebrate it or not you can still try to have a good day. See you next year!

That's A Cabaret Old Plum!

Ha ha ha..... Because it's the Cabaret Raglan.... And it's Purple...... It Is funny!!!

Anyway. Cabaret Raglan from Best of Interweave Knits. I used Peace Fleece; mmmmm Peace Fleece.... Knit on 6 & 8 needles. I did some decreasing at the waist and then increased back up to the right stitches so it wouldn't be quite so big and baggy on me. Don't like the big and baggy thing, it's just not me. Anyway. I like it, I really Like it! A sort-of-closer look at the front and all of it's neatoness. Woo Me I knit a sweater I can wear in public! Woo!

That's really all the news. Well just two sets of socks and I started another Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. This time in Plymouth Shire Silk. A kind of like raw tweedy silk. I'm Want to have it done in time to wear when the Hubbo and I see Wicked. But I can't bring it with me for our Holiday trip to visit the in-laws in VT. Well I guess I Could bring it with me but I'd never get to knit on it. I'll be lucky if I get to knit on the basic tube socks I'm making for the bug. These trips aren't exactly relaxing.

Beyond Holiday Knitting

Now that I am done with the Holiday Knitting it is time to catch up on all the things I haven't been doing. You know, cleaning. But not just cleaning!Cookies! I love making Holiday Cookies. I get to make cookies and then give them away so I can't eat them! Orange and Chocolate yummie little treats for Mr. Gnome's co-workers.

The Little Bug has been enjoying the snow. She and Mr. Gnome made this yesterday. It's a snowman turned castle, or something. The Bug likes to climb on it.

The Cabaret Raglan is in the midst of being sewn up. Should have a picture Very soon!

And I say HA!

I say Ha to Holiday Knitting. For I am Finished!

I give you my SIL's Mitten.
Now that they are done I can say they fit and work and do everything they should and I still am not all the happy. Still can't say why either. Ah well it's all behind me now.

Remember that sweater I was making for myself? The sweater that was supposed to be such a good sweater and I was going to do such a great job and all that other things that bind one to failure. Well I'm working on it again. The back, front and one sleeve are finished. The second sleeve is well on it's way. I've been using Peace Fleece and really like it. However, yesterday and I was winding the last two skeins this happened.

That is one skein. Not knotted just ends. It actually works for where I am in the sweater one sleeve and little bits and all. But how annoying if this had been my first skein! I can't actually fit an entire Peace Fleece skein on my ball winder it just is too big! Oh the squishyness of the yarn!

And before I forget again the way previously promised "Orange" hat for Little Bug.

Patter is the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat. I used two colors of Plymouth Encore Chunky held together. Knit up on size 10s made it smaller and it fits the bug quite nicely. I'm quite proud of how the cables turned out. I hadn't done cabling before the Cabaret sweater, which only kind of uses a cable needle. Then the mittens were kind of weird. But I like how the hat looks.

Done!

The last two dishcloths are finished! Special picture on the tree. I have made 21 of these dishcloths and am quite surprised how I am still not bored with the pattern. More bored with making dishcloths and wanting to work on my sweater and things. The green one was the last one I made. Being the 21st you'd think it would have been a breeze no problems. Right? Wrong. I seriously messed up that one more than any of the 20 before it. Ah well. You really can't tell unless you look very careful and if you are looking very carefully at a dishcloth then I can't help you. Here they are all rolled up and ready to go.

Now this is not the end of my Holiday knitting I'm afraid. I've been working on some convertible mittens for my SIL. They started out slow and have only recently taken off. I had to rip back the first one three times. Amazing how much faster the second mitten can go. That middle is beading within a cable which could be neat but I don't know. And that is about how I feel about this pattern. I just don't know. I don't really like it. But I can't tell you why. Ok the ripping it back three times didn't exactly leave me with warm feelings but that's not all of it. Something isn't right about the pattern part for the mitten flap on the right mitten. I like the yarn Louet Gems sport weight. It's soft and not at all splitty. But I just don't know, not feeling the love. Anyway they are almost done.

On a personal note I have a cold and no voice. You try playing Charades with a 2.5yr.old!

Mix

We had a Wintry Mix last night and it sounds like it has started up again.

To Mix things up a bit I bring you 6 dishcloths.

This means I only have 2 more to do!!!! Wooo! That green one in the corner I knit most of that at a play date. It was a bit of a surprise, I was going along knitting and talking and suddenly I had most of a dishcloth. The crazy one next to it is actually in two different colors kind of hard to tell though.

And last my Bread Mixer (well Machine but I have a theme going here) fell off the counter while making the dough for the bread in the last post.

Amazingly it still seems to work. I made pizza dough in it yesterday and it did just fine. Sounded like it wanted to die but made good dough. This is the second bread machine I have bought wicked cheap at a yard sale. There are no yard sales this time of year. This thing has to get me through the winter.

Happy Fourth night of Chanukah!

Signs of Domesticity

Is that a word?

Little Bug and I made a door for her kitchen.

Then she did some cooking.

Then I did some cooking.

I've been saving the ends and peels of veggies then freezing them. Now I am making broth with stuff I'd usually just throw away. Grand. Since the stove top has to be on for an hour or so I thought this would be a good time to make bread. Nice and warm for the rising. Oatmeal Seed Bread from this book. Sounds good, we shall see.

My Size Effins

Apple Sauce-Oat Bran Mini Muffins, or Effins as the Bug says. A new recipe from a new book, Veganomicon. Mmmmmm....

I got half way through #14 on the dishcloths and started thinking Yeay the middle this is the half way point and I'm not feeling any burn out. Yeah, I know, worst thing I could say to myself. So what do I do? I knit a hat.

ugh, check out that nose, Someone is celebrating Chanukah this week...
This is a Monster Hat from Insubordiknit, the final installment in her yarn club. I found it neat that the first was like outer space all black with planets, the second was like the morning sky all oranges and yellow, and this one is a lovely sky blue.
When I cast on for this hat Little Bug and I were .... discussing... who would get the hat. Never mind that I can cast on for a hat and it doesn't really matter if I'm making it for myself or my 2.5yr old. She has a big head. It is such a soft cozy yarn. And honestly more my color than the Bug's. This is where I won her over. She just isn't that into blue. She told me she wants an Orange Hat. Stay tuned next time for an "Orange" Hat. (Quotations to be explained.) Oh the back of MY hat. I put the eye more to the back so it could be my motherly eye in the back of my head.



I did get through that 14th dischloth and a fifteenth too (Five more to go!!!!!). Just haven't taken pictures of the latest four. I never intended to only picture four at a time, it's just worked out that way. Also, due to the obnoxiously early celebration of Chanukah this year there will not be an group picture of all the dishcloths. So bummed about this. Six are already packaged up and will go in the mail tomorrow.