A Turning Point?

In the weather that is. By this time of year we are all yelling, "Is it spring yet?". Over the past week or so there have been some warmer days, days warm enough to go for walks. And as you may know I love my walks and hate missing them all winter.

We've made it to the park a bit.

And walked down to lunch. Oh sweet walking and getting out. One of the best things about where we live is that was can walk to a bunch of playgrounds, the library, food, ballet class, and best of all the LYS. I miss this walking so much in the cold. Bring on the Spring!

Tastes of Summer

Last summer I froze some of the peaches and blueberries The Bug and I picked. I froze two peach cobblers worth. Measuring them out,cutting them up, and labeling the freezer bags.

Now in the cold of February I have a Peach and Blueberry Crisp. It's a very basic recipe just peaches and blueberries and some thickener with some pecans thrown on top.

I would also buy a bit more than I needed at the Farmer's Market and freeze what we didn't need. The other night I brought out some of the yellow squash and swiss chard and cooked them up in a bit of olive oil with some garlic. Tasty I was very pleased with how well the chard kept it's color even after being frozen, it actually stained some of the squash while they were cooking.

It was so nice to have these bits of color during the gray month of February.

Our Works In Progress

In response to Soule Mama's Post

Early Olympian

I finished my Olympic Challenge a few days ago. I guess it wasn't as much of a challenge as I thought it would be. It seems so long since I've really finished anything I guess finishing something seemed like a challenge all by itself.

I mean, yes, it is a shawlette, this is The Bug modeling it. On an adult it fits cutely just over the shoulders. I really like it and loved knitting with the alpaca. mmmmm alpaca..... The entire time I was knitting it I was thinking it would be great for the MIL. Sometimes this happens or I think this would be great for so-and-so in a different color or this would be great for whats-it but you know I love it too much so there. This was more the it would be great for the MIL and well now I have one less Holiday thing to think about. And it's only February!

Orchids

We went to the Orchid Show at the Botanical Garden this weekend. Lots of pretty delicate flowers.

Saw some very large Butterflies.

Found the Dinosaur.

When the Bug saw this one she proclaimed, "It looks like an old lady with a blanket on her lap. Or a beautiful princess wearing a big yellow dress". Have to love that imagination!

Improvements

I've been doing some improvements to some knitting stuff. First A Cardigan for Arwen. I'm not too much of a cardigan person. When I do where a cardigan I button or zip it up so it might as well be a pull over. It was hard that I couldn't button up Arwen. I wanted it to close but didn't want to put on buttons that might draw attention away from the lovely cables. I got some jacket hooks and have put them on the inside giving it a nice clean closure. So happy!!!!!

Then remember Januaries splotchy yarn? Well The Bug and I decided to cover up some of those splotches with some blue, Ice blue Lemonade to be exact. Gives it a little more interest and less white. Should be quite crazy when I knit it up.

One Singular Miten

Just in time for the snow to melt I finish the first mitten. It's not looking like these will be worn this winter. Ah well. Here's to cozy hands next winter!

Pictures was taken by the Bug. Photography is one of her new found hobbies. She has a lot of fun. So the mitten and yes there will be another one I am not going to fall for any one-mitten-itis! Ok the mitten. It's O-Wool done up on 0s and 1s like I said before Vespergyle is the pattern. A nice enough pattern though not for a beginner since the chart and instructions assume you know a bit about what you are doing. I only needed the chart for the first diamond or so then it is pretty easy to see what needed to happen next. I did one less set of diamonds before decreasing. I'm glad I did too it would have been silly long if I'd kept going, as is it fits great. The mitten in the picture has not been blocked this is my reason for the wonky look. Though you might notice the mistake. The mistake that will mark this as the left mitten ensuring said mistake to the palm side of the mitten. Hopefully I don't make a mistake on the same side of the next mitten or I'll have two left mittens.

I Love Soup

When I made this proclamation the Bug responded with, "I love fruit, but I especially love Bananas". Above is the Minestrone Soup from this months Vegetarian Times and Oatmeal Seed Bread from Whole Grain Breads by Machine or Hand. This bread was by hand. I've been having amazing luck doing my bread by hand lately. Hmmmm, Maybe I shouldn't have said that; afraid I've jinxed it now....

To Sleep

This has been what I see when I look down the past few evenings. So safe and secure in her sleep. Can you imagine sleeping this deeply? I'm afraid it's reserved just for kittens. It hasn't taken much training to get her to be a good knitter's cat. First rule for a knitters cat is don't attack the knitting. Attica loves sleeping in a lap so much. Tossing her off me a few times when she'd get chewey with the yarn or the needles taught her if you want lap no attacking the knitting. As you can see she's even learned to tolerate a pattern on her while she sleeps.

Valentine's Day Report

It was just the Bug and me yesterday on Valentines day. And it was snowing. If that doesn't scream, "Make cookies! And make them Chocolate!". I don't know what does.

These are Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. (It's a sample recipe too; wink wink)

It's Chocolate, it's Peanut Butter. Oh it's good!

The Ugly Orange Hat

Sorry but that's just what it is.

It's done. I finished it before the Olympics. I was hoping to finish my sweater too but when I went to sew it up it just wasn't working. I tried and tried to sew the sleeve to the body but there was now way it would fit. I tried for half an hour before finally looking at the pattern and realizing I should have done another repeat on the front and back of the sweater. yeay. Grand. So that too shall wait.

Opening Ceremony

While watching the Opening Ceremony last night I cast on for Andrea's Shawl. I always enjoy the Opening ceremony; live performance and all. This year was just as lovely.
I knit some ripped some and knit some more. Here's to another Knitting Olympics!

Mmmmm Donuts

Made these a few days ago. They're Vegan French Toast Donuts from a Vegetarian Times a few months back. The donut itself had cinnamon and nutmeg then put on the maple glaze and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Oh My Goodness they were so good! Thank goodness they only made five donuts. More would not have been safe for the waist line. A bunch of months ago I scored a donut tin at Goodwill. Not something I'd expected to find anywhere and wasn't really willing to pay full price for such a non-necessity. Needless to say I was very excited to find it at Goodwill for $3. Woo! And did I mention how good they were?

Icey Project

It's been pretty cold here; below freezing is pretty cold. I saw this project through Living Crafts on Facebook. It looked like something quick and funny we could do outside.

We used leaves and dried out flowers found in our neighborhood. Left it overnight and it froze into our lovely decoration.

It's hanging on the shady side of the house and it's been just around freezing. It should last a while or tell us when it's getting warmer.

February DAL

The February Dye Along theme was "February Stars", pretty much what does February mean to you because there are so many things that happen in February. I'm generally a bah hum bug Valentines Day sort of person. This February also marks ten years of Mr Gnome and I being a couple. And well we feel that ten years is nothing to bah hum bug. I was going for a red that gets really dark red in places. But well I'm just not that experienced so this is what i got. It does get darker in places just not as dark as I was hoping for. This picture is actually lighter than the real thing. We used 5 packets of Kool Aid Cherry (a kool aid link for Mr. Gnome since apparently the reason to have a blog is so you can link things) then sprinkled two packets of Blueberry Blast on top. You can just barley see some blue on the bottom. We are so having fun with this and can't wait for March. The other plus to the monthly DAL is that it adds yarn to the stash slowly. Yes, I have a big of undyed in the drawers, but you know that doesn't count towards stash, it's not ready to knit.

Clue 4

Finished Clue 4 last night and started on Clue 5. There is a cozy kitten under this bit of knitting. Clue 5 is in two pats, I think I'll post a Clue 5.5 whenever I get there. It's getting wide and the bead count is increasing so it's taking forever to get across a row. As in I did three rows last night. Two were just plain purl rows. Yeah forever. Like I said I like how shawls grow and the long rows don't really bother me. Just takes some planning. Like, I want to go to bed in half an hour, I can't start a new row. Thus I've also been knitting on the sweater. That's taking forever too. ah well.....at least I'm knitting.

hat hat hat

Remember that lovely hat I made the Bug back in the fall. It was so fun and looked so nice and was made well before the really cold weather struck so she'd have a nice hat for winter. Yeay, well, she lost it. I don't even know when I just know it's gone. sigh..... So now that we are into winter and cold wet stuff of various types are falling from the sky I'm making her another hat. A much simpler and I think a little uglier hat.

This is yarn I got at the Stitch N Pitch and I'm glad because if I'd paid for it I would not be happy. It's Allegro which is some wool blend, it's really loopy and thus really really splitty and looks kind of weird. But the Bug is big into orange right now so she's happy. When I asked her what kind of hat she wanted she said with ear flaps and ties that go down to her feet. Well I don't now about down to her feet; she does tend to trip just turning around. But maybe down to her waist. Now I just have the two balls and don't know far I'll get with them. So I am making this hat top down. Kind of like how you make socks toe up if you want to use all your yarn this way I can make those ties as long as possible or to her waist, whichever comes first.