Birthday

I celebrated a big birthday recently.  It felt good to celebrate, too--I made it!  Jim and I celebrated with a nice supper and then birthday cake.  On Sunday Ben and Jim had an open house for me.  It was so nice to visit with friends and neighbors--and another delicious birthday cake!  I got a Fitbit from Ben and a 15-inch Cricket Loom with a stand from Jim.  I did a small weaving and will warp the loom today.  Photos to come...

Cricket Loom--just going on another path down the rabbit hole.

Jim had me wear the baseball shirt Ben and I had made for him in April.  The decorations were inside and outside the house. 

It also feels good to finish class samples.  The first is a child sized double knit ear flap hat in Pure Wool Worsted by Rowan and Liberty Wool by Cascade.  The pattern is sized for newborn to adult XL, and proceeds from the pattern go to charity.  The P Chullo hat is a free pattern with alphabet charts for the body and ear flaps.  One can fit a message into the 168-stitches around the body of the hat.  The original pattern calls for ten colors, and I am working the sample in five colors.  I made it through the first row of my message--fingers crossed that I stay on track!  Above the message there is a chart for a gryphon and a fox and the crown has waves and a snake, which I will change to a sheep.

One hat.

Another hat--two in one!

The FO (finished object) for the week is L'Enveloppe by Sally Melville.  I am teaching a class, which started out as a one to one and grew to include two other instructors and another student.  It is a project that is not difficult to knit, quick to knit, and looks wonderful on every body type.  Deciphering the pattern can be a challenge.  I made some notes on my Ravelry project page and Sally has a thread for L'Enveloppe help on her Ravelry group page.  We all agree that there will be more L'Enveloppes in our wardrobe!  The weather has turned cool and this will be a good week to  wear it.

Noro Yutzen yarn was the perfect choice.

A shape folded in half, one short seam is sewed on the long side to make a sleeve.

On the other side of the sleeve, stitches are picked up and then the side is knit with short rows.

Another fun project is Wavelength, a scarf that reminds me of giant rickrack.  I am working this in Anzula Dreamy, 75% Superwash Merino, 15% Cashmere, 10% Silk--a dreamy yarn!  The colors are brown (Sexy) and yellow-green (Temperance).  

Start with one chevron and then keep adding one chevron to each end.  The contrast
colors show off the texture nicely.

Let it snow...

...might as well snow.  The winters we have experienced over the last two years are what I expected when we moved here in 1999.  We got about 5-inches through the night and this morning.  Right now it is sunny and 17-degrees, which is much warmer than it has been lately!

Knitting

Currently I am working on Dacite, designed by Carol Feller.  I tried on the trunk show sample at the shop and fell in love with the simple design and lovely fit of the cardigan.  The sample was worked in Soft Donegal Tweed--in moss green--LOVE!  The sample for the shop is in HiKoo Kenzie, colorway, Pavlova.  The color happens to be the color of the iconic Tooth of Time peak at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.  It is an igneous intrusion of dacite porphyry.  I hope we climb it on our trek this summer!

That aside, the sweater is coming along nicely.  The garter stitch collar has short rows in the back.  The fronts are garter stitch and raglan sleeves and back are stockinette stitch.  I am just about finished with the raglan increases and will work the body soon.  The built-in I-cord on the front edges is a nice finish.

Dacite collar and raglan shaping.

 Spinning

Some handspun Shetland plied with the rest of my silk noil thread from Wollenworks.

I had some silk noil thread left from  Woolenworks (where I learned to spin).  I spun the single on my Moosie, Bullwinkle, and then plied it with the thread ending up with 1.2 ounces/72 yards of sport weight yarn.  Not a lot, but maybe I can add it to something else.  

Chocolate Cake

On Tuesday evening we had a meeting for Grey Wolf.  Ben was waiting for us and we took a quick trip to Mort's Delicatessen for supper.  I had the toasted cheese with chips (crisps) and Jim ordered me a piece of the chocolate cake to take home.  I called it six layers of chocolate awesome and it took a couple of days to finish.  This morning I confess it was my breakfast and it was delicious!

Mmmm...Mort's!

Snow

The first two photos are of the blowing snow early in the week.  (I was stopped and not driving when I took the photos!)  The sunset was just beautiful on the way to our meeting.  

We had more snow overnight and this morning.  The sun was trying hard to shine through the clouds.

Wednesday

Today's my day to get stuff done around the house. It's one day when I don't have to be anyplace other than bell practice later today. It's still pretty dreary outside, but I like days like this. Even though it's warmer, I may start up a little fire in the fireplace when I'm done with work.

The Montauk is progressing, I have the back done. I got sidetracked by some lovely Araucania Ulmo in a pink and orange colorway for a Shape It Scarf, but Sally Melville. My students in the 2-4 Sunday class started making the scarf from one skein of the yarn before Christmas and things took off from there. The colors are wonderful and the drape is perfect for year round wear.
Seamus made his debut last week and everyone was quite taken with him. I bought some stuff to make Valentines for friends and have to post them today. The antique Valentines are part of my collection.
Jim is taking Angelika and I out to lunch in St. Paul on Saturday and then we'll explore the shops in the tunnels. Sounds like fun! Angelika made an almond cake the other day. Oh my, is it good!
I got a lot accomplished today. I made some Valentines and then addressed some others and made up a box for Ben. He's on taper, so I sent him some Altoids. I have some mending to do and then it'll be time for bell practice.

Seeing red in the immediate future

While I wait for the skein of green (the gals at the shop ordered one for me), it looks as though I'll pick up the red cardigan for a while. I've been reading over the pattern again to wrap my brain around the construction and the mistake in the center back cable. I know it's two stitches off. This book has no charts, just written instructions, which I don't really like. Interesting sweaters, but don't pay full price for the book. I purchased a used copy years ago.
The collar on the Lopi cardigan is bound off and looks nice--I don't think I'll frog that. However, I may rework the cuffs by putting the stitches on double-points and doing a snip-snip with scissors. We'll see...
I have lots of flowers around, and I'll keep a few Easter-y things up until the weekend. There's a little cake left. It's really good. The recipe was from an old Betty Crocker cookbook I no longer have. It was called the Bonnie Butter Cake with French Silk Frosting (three layers of yellow cake frosted with chocolate!). It's got 2/3 cup butter in the cake and 2/3 cup butter in the chocolate frosting. It's Jim and Ben's favorite and Jim's always called it the Debbie Butter Cake.

Frohe Ostern! Happy Easter!

We have more snow. Could be worse, the snow could be black and icky. It's actually very pretty. I did wear my outfit and my long, heavy coat, so I'm stylin' today.

We're fixing the Honeybaked goodies, and then after lunch we'll take the cake over to Mom's and have dessert. Speaking of the cake--It worked! I was able to fit the front half of the sheep into the pan. There was a bit of surgery involved with the nose and ears, but it's cute and I know it'll taste good. I used my favorite butter cake recipe and made buttercream icing. A touch of food coloring for the sky, and a bit in the coconut for the grass, a few M&Ms--looks yummy.

I'm working on the collar of the cardigan and checking my skein. Looks iffy, but I'll soldier on and hope that there's enough.

Enjoy the day!

Easter snow

Nothing says Spring like a fresh coat of snow! I WILL wear the outfit I planned tomorrow! I may have to wear my heavy coat, though.
As you can see, the body and sleeves are now joined. Naturally I don't like it--not the pattern, just the Lopi looks awful until it's blocked. I'll worry about that after I add the collar and bands. I'm sweating that because I'll probably have just enough of the with none to spare--I HOPE!
I'm baking a cake today to take over to Mom's tomorrow. I'll use half the lamb mold and make a sheet cake to put it on for a baaa-relief effect (PUN INTENDED!!). That's the plan, anyway.
Once I finish the cardigan, then I'll move on to the red cardigan. Then I'll start the one from Swallowtails. I've been sooo good about not buying any new yarn lately. It feels good to get projects finished that've been in the works for so long.