Christmas 2010

Just a few holiday photos.

Yes, I can (barely) play my pipes wearing my Fetching Fingerless Mitts.  Shortly after this photo was taken I lost one of the mitts.  That is so rare for me.  I have mittens that are over 25 years old and the pair is still intact.  Sigh.  I'm still hopeful the Prodigal Mitten will return.

Beatuiful morning sky on a very cold December morning, just a few days before Christmas.

On Christmas Eve 9 turkeys paraded across my parents' property.

Dad and Torben enjoyed playing with the flight simulator.

Mom and Stacy in the kitchen on Christmas Eve.

Emily and Nils arrived in time for all of us to eat dinner and then open gifts.

Nils showed Dad the book on National Parks that Pete gave him for Christmas.

My boys and Stacy.





Episode 26 of Knitting Pipeline is Winter Solstice

Listen here or find all episodes on the Flash Player on this page.

Show notes are found at Knitting Pipeline, the podcast blog.  Be sure to check out the holiday greeting from The Dutch Pipes and Drums.

Episode 25 of Knitting Pipeline is about Wristers and Muffatees

Listen Here or use the Flash Player in the side bar.

Please visit the show blog Knitting Pipeline for show notes.

Episode 24 of Knitting Pipeline has more about Shawls!

Listen here or find all episodes on Flash Player.

The show notes can be found on the show blog, Knitting Pipeline.

Be sure to enter your name in the drawing from Quince & Co. by leaving a comment on the show blog!

These are the deer that were walking through the woods before we got snow.  I talked about them on Episode 23.

We have since had 6 inches of snow so it looks a lot different out there now.



There are deer in this photo.  Can you find them?  Their coloring is the perfect camouflage for the fall woods.



Episode 23 of Knitting Pipeline is Shawl Style

Listen here or use Flash Player for all episodes.

The show notes can be found on the show blog http://www.knittingpipeline.blogspot.com/.

There is a giveaway this month from Quince & Co.  Leave a comment on the show blog to enter.  The prize is a scarf pattern from their site and the yarn to knit it!

Thanksgiving Friday

On Thanksgiving Friday Pete, our youngest son, cooked a Thai meal for 11 of us.  He had plenty of help in the kitchen. Mom and Gayle did a lot of prep work and several other family members pitched in as sous chefs.

Chef Pete cutting carrots.

Table set for 11.

Matt is cutting red peppers.

The football game goes on.

Pete with the skillet of stir fry which contained chicken, rice noodles, coconut milk, and the vegetables.

Avocado quinoa side.

Eating the quinoa appetizer.

A kiss from Mormor.

I have a feeling this Thai meal could become a new Thanksgiving tradition.

Thanksgiving 2010

I went for a a whole day without knitting.  It was tough but I did it.  And it is 10 AM today (Friday) and I haven't knitted yet.  I'm proud of me. ;)

All the photos are from Thanksgiving Day at my sister's home.

I baked two deep dish apple pies.  Apple is my favorite.  I use a lot of cinnamon.

I like to decorate the top crust.  This makes me happy.



Pete, Andy, and Eric enjoy the snow on the deck.




Pete wore the sweater I made for him last Christmas.  Isn't it a perfect fit for my fine son?




My brother-in-law made bread pudding that had loads of butter and other healthful ingredients, including brandy in the sauce.



Bob is telling a story to Mom and Dad.

Dad, Mom and Bob relaxing after our meal.

Gathering in the kitchen.

Now today we're at my parents' home.  My sister and my nephew's girlfriend are making gift tags with a machine.  My brother and my dad are playing a flight simulator game.  Mom is bustling around the house.  Bob is upstairs doing school work.  The rest of the menfolk are out on the annual clay pigeon shoot.  And I'm about to get out my knitting.

A New Wool to Love

The Winter Interweave Knits featured an article on a new yarn company, Quince & Co.  Within an hour 1/2 hour of reading the article I had place my first order.  Easily influenced?  Not me! I placed the order on Thursday afternoon.  It shipped on Friday and I received it on Monday.  Pretty quick service, I'd say. 

The fact that their yarn lines are named after birds might have swayed me.  The fact that the beautiful colors are inspired by nature might have swayed me also.  The cost is very reasonable, especially when you consider that this wool is spun in the U.S. from U.S. sheep.  The Lark skeins (sport weight) that I purchased were $5.95 for a 50 g ball/181 yds.  I'll be talking about this wool in an upcoming podcast.  There are 3 skeins of Snap Pea in my stash now.  Actually, not in my stash because I have already started knitting with it. 

From left:  Carrie's Yellow, Storm, Nasturtium, Glacier, Bird's Egg, and Snap Pea.



And yes, it feels just as soft and squishy as it looks.



The package arrived with the wool wrapped in tissue paper and sealed with a "Q" sticker.  There was a lovely postcard with a personal "Thank you" written on it. 

Episode 21 of Knitting Pipeline...Review of Westknits Book One, Hap Blanket and more

Listen here or click on Flash Player.

Show notes at http://www.knittingpipeline.blogspot.com/

In and Around Our Town



The Library of Congress brought a traveling exhibit of reproductions of documents.  My favorite part was the truck, looking so official in our Five Points Parking lot.  The exhibit was good too.



I would gasp if I saw this truck traveling along a road. 

Two young musicians, Sid and Marc, stayed with us when the Heartland Festival Orchestra played at Five Points.



Bronwyn, Charr, Sarah, and I met at The Blend for a Knitting Morning.  It was our first time to meet Ravelry friend, Bronwyn.




Bronwyn shared her shawl, Lazy Katy, which is beautiful and fascinating with its unusual shape.



Episode 20 Garter Stitch, Anyone?

Show notes are on the show blog.   Download by clicking on the episode title or listen from the Flash Player.

Topics in this Episode

• Find out the latest about the turkeys Franklin, Knit, and Purl.
• A knitting tip for nupps
• My finished shawl Flourish by Rose Beck
• I ask for suggestions for garter stitch patterns.
• More on Continental knitting and English Knitting methods

...and more, of course. 

Flourish by Rose Beck.  A very fun and easy pattern!

Episode 18 A Long Letter from Elizabeth Zimmermann

Click on the Flash Player at right or download the episode here.  Show notes can be found at http://www.knittingpipeline.blogspot.com/.  Be sure to check out more photos of the actual letter and the dried spaghetti.  I should have called this episode, "On Top of Spaghetti".  ;)

A New Food Find

I visited a new grocery store in Peoria on Friday, Fresh Market.  They have Danish butter!  Of course, I bought some. The packaging is familiar and makes me happy.  Not only that, but the address is Viby, where my Tante Greta and Onkel Orla lived.  Good memories.

They also carry PG Tips Tea, so I guess I'll be making trips to this store periodically.

Kudos to the New Knitters!

Emily, Cecilia, and Lauren sent photos of their Tooley Owls (pattern by Amanda Berry) that were completed after our Knitting Boot Camp over Labor Day Weekend.  I'm so proud of their handiwork.



Three little Tooley's all in a row.



Now a collective "Awwwwwwwwwwwww..."

One little Tooley sitting in a tree

and then his brothers come and they are three!

Two Culinary Flops

I made two new recipes this week, both of which were total disasters.  The first was the Pillsbury Bake-off Winner, which is supposed to be simple.  The slices of cookie dough (the kind you buy in a tube...I know!) were to be placed in mini-muffin pans and baked.  The little tarts were dipped in chocolate, nuts, and filled with ice-cream.  Sounds good, eh?  Well, it was only as I was ready to pop the cookie dough in the pan that I realized I needed the mini-muffin pans, which I do not have.  So I tried the regular size. It didn't work.  The garbage can had a nice dessert.

Last night I wanted to make pumpkin pancakes.  Bob wasn't going to be home until 9 PM and I thought pancakes would make a nice light dinner for me.  After looking around on the internet I found two reasonable sounding recipes, one very simple and one more complicated.  I printed out both and chose the simple one.  Never in my life have I made pancakes that were completely inedible, so this was a first.  I tried to eat one but it was bland and had a weird texture.  I added spices to the batter and made a few more but that didn't improve them one bit.  The good news was that the little bit I ate killed my appetite for the rest of the evening.

Does anyone know of a good pumpkin pancake recipe?

Cedar Leaf Shawlette

The Cedar Leaf Shawlette:  finished a few days late for my daughter-in-law's birthday but hopefully in time for her to take on their trip to Spain in a few days. I blocked it and sent it off after taking some quick photos. I wish I could take photos of her modeling it.

I'll be talking about the Cedar Leaf Shawlette by Alana Dakos (pattern gifted to me by one of my wonderful podcast listeners) on the next episode of Knitting Pipeline.

The pattern calls for DK weight but I used fingering weight/sock yarn from The Woolen Rabbit. The color is called Chimney Sweep. I love this color. It is a deep gray semi-solid with blue overtones. Fortunately, I have one whole skein plus a bit of the second leftover for a future project.

Episode 14 The Stealth Approach to Socks

Show notes for the Knitting Pipeline Podcast  can be found on the show blog http://www.knittingpipeline.blogspot.com/.

Since tweaking my blog design the Followers are not showing up.  I cannot figure this out.  If you are a blogger on Blogspot and have any hints, please let me know.

I am going to set a schedule for myself to update this blog more regularly, even if it is just a short post.  I thought by now I would be a lot more efficient in producing the weekly podcast but it still takes me many hours to get the notes done, record, edit, upload, and write blog posts.  I should probably just have one blog but I am still attached to this one and will use it for knitting and some more personal writings.

I am still going to mention here when a new episode is up.  I added a flash player in the side bar.  If you click in the lower left corner there is a menu.  All the episodes are available here so you can listen without an external listening device.

In this podcast I talk about the finished project, Hurdy Gurdy Cardigan by Lynda Gemmell.  Notes on my Ravelry page.  I bought the kit at Stitches.  The colors spoke to me and I had to knit it even though I don't really have an intended wearer.  Actually,  I am planning on sending the little sweater to Botswana where I am sure it will be worn a lot and passed along.  This makes me very happy. 

Modifications:

• Ribbed button band instead of garter stitch band
• Shorter sleeves than pattern recommended
• My little extra touch are the buttons, both lavender and lime green, alternating.

Episode 13 Elizabeth Writes from the Airport

Listen here or download on iTunes.

Show notes can be found here at http://www.knittingpipeline.blogspot.com/.

In this episode I talk about my finished Merope Shawl by Rosemary Hill, muse on the delight of good peaches, and read a letter by Elizabeth Zimmermann that was written to me on October 4, 1979.

Also, at the end of the podcast is a performance by the Dutch Pipes and Drums.

Enjoy!