Cupcake

Look what I found at Petco--a Hostess cupcake for dogs.  Lucy was very intent upon getting to the filling...um, squeaker.

I loved Hostess cupcakes as a child.  I believed in "saving the best for last".  I'd flip my cupcake over, eat the cake and filling.  Then I'd hold the frosting upside down in my hands and lick off any remaining cake.  Next I'd bend the frosting along the edges of the white swirls.  This resulted in two semi-circles of chocolate frosting, which I'd eat, and the prize of those white swirls on top of chocolate frosting...the best...and at last I'd eat that.  It was SO good!

I don't know when I last ate a Hostess cupcake.  It was many years ago.  The next chance I get, I'll eat a Hostess cupcake the very same way I did when my age could be measured in single digits.

Swatch

SP12 Question of the Week #8

What is your favorite supper for a hot summer evening?

Something cool and refreshing, something that doesn't heat up the kitchen, something not too heavy...but I am not sure I have an absolute favorite dish that fits these requirements.

However, I really enjoy this Sonoma Chicken Salad from Whole Foods. I've made it several times. The red grapes make it a bit different from the usual chicken salad. It's good with white wine or lemonade.

I'm making myself hungry thinking about it! Maybe I'll make it this weekend.

I have the best secret pal ever!

Seriously, I do.  Look at this cheerful package I found on my doorstep (minus the pinecones to disguise my address).  It's Monday--what a great thing to come home to and make the start of the work week a little less painful.   OK, a lot less painful.

I laid everything out on the patio table, but in order to photograph it all together I had to stand on a chair that rocks and I just wasn't getting a good picture.  So here are several pictures instead.
The little hand is a needle sizer!  Each of the holes is labeled 3.5 mm, etc.  Isn't that great? That's a box of black current candy.  The decoration says "welcome" in Finnish.  No, I don't speak it, but my pal provided the translation.
This beautiful blue sock yarn was dyed by my pal.  Hm, she's apparently both a knitter and a dyer.  This will make some lovely socks!
This is a towel with a dancing lady.  I wonder if there's a Finnish story behind it?  
Back to that blue yarn...my pal sent a pattern for some wavy socks.  They're really pretty.  It's in Finnish, but she also provided the link for the English translation.  When I finish knitting the socks, I can block them with this sock blocker.

Thank you, secret pal, for a great package and a fun ending to the start of the week!

SP12 Question of the Week #7

What is your favorite place to knit?
1. my family room
2. my mom's kitchen in Colorado (though she could use some chairs that are more comfortable)

What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?
I like a good movie on the big flat-screen TV in front of me, the dog at my feet (she's a good foot stool), and a cold drink on the table to my left. I can usually find all of this in my family room.

Dishcloth Exchange Package

I am a little late in posting and for that I apologize to Mary. She was my secret partner in the Keeping Cool in the Summer Dishcloth Exchange. Last Friday I received a fantastic package from her. I could not believe all the stuff she fit in the box!

Mary crocheted three dishcloths for me. One is a blue square with a pretty stitch pattern, one is in the shape of an angel, and one looks like a fish. They almost make me want to wash dishes! Actually I think the angel may become a fridge decoration because it's entirely too nice to use on my dirty dishes.

There's a grocery list pad with a picture of a dog, treats for my puppy, treats for my kitty, two bottles of great-smelling mandarin mango Bath & Body Works shower gel (my favorite), salt & pepper shakers that look like corn (so summery!), and some colorful, reusable ice cubes to keep my drinks cool and festive.

There is a skein of Fantasy Naturale cotton. I love this stuff but don't know where to get it locally. On my recent trip I saw it in one of the stores I visited. I thought long and hard about buying some, but I'd already spent so much money that I decided not to. Mary must have known because she sent it.

The other skein of yarn is hand-dyed by NH Knitting Mama. It's beautiful shades of purple. I think Mary is nudging me to make socks with it because she also included a book that will help me learn to knit socks. I accept the challenge! I'll soon be a sock-knitter! Here's a close-up of the yarny goodness.

Mary was an excellent partner. She kept in touch constantly, asked me lots of questions about my preferences, and put a lot of thought and care into this package. Thank you!

Clapotis -- finished!

Here it is, my finished Clapotis. I started this on an airplane to Colorado the Friday before Memorial Day (May 23). I finished on July 16. I love my finished shawl/wrap/whatever! (It’s way bigger than a scarf. In fact, it’s taller than I am.)

I don’t intend to block my Clapotis. I like how it looks right now.

I used Schaefer Yarns Laurel, a mercerized cotton, in the Empress Wu Zhao colorway. Each skein is fairly big, 8 oz. and 400 yards. I used one full skein and about half of another. The yarn was really easy to work with.

Dropping the stitches was the most fun part of knitting this. Imagine dropping stitches on purpose! I’ve dropped them accidentally, most recently on the blue Montego Bay scarf, and since the stitch unraveled several rows down, I had a horrible time getting back on track. But on the Clapotis you do this on purpose! It almost felt naughty.

Dropping stitches was fun, but first I was nervous. What if I’d gotten off and dropped the wrong stitch? I’d never recover. Luckily this never happened. After the first few, it became fairly obvious if I was dropping in the right place.

After I finished a repeat, I’d take a few moments to rest my fingers and unravel the dropped stitch all the way down. It was a reward for finishing another repeat. And each time I did it, my project looked more and more like a Clapotis.

I must say, this is a very popular project on Ravelry. Soon after I began mine, I found 6080 Clapoti on the projects page. Now I see there are 6725. That means 645 have been made since I first looked.

I love this thing! I intend to wear it every day, indoors and out, and eat a croissant!

Going Green -- BYOB

I participated in the Going Green swap on Ravelry. Yesterday I came home to find an awesome package from Knittingsheeple, AKA Amey. Look at this--a BYOB bag in great colors! I love it! Amey is an incredible woman. I've looked at the pattern, printed it out, decided someday I'll make one...if only the days were longer I'd get around to knitting everything I want to. While I'm contemplating, Amey knit it up and sent it to me! That's not all that was in the package.

Yarn: Lion Brand Nature's Choice organic cotton in the flavors, er, colors of pistachio and blueberry and a skein of Bernat Cot'n Corn in Summerfield. I don't know if it's on purpose or not, but that coordinates very nicely with the cotton.

Edible Treats: fair trade Numi tea in an assortment of flavors and yummy organic dark chocolate from Green & Black's.

Green Cleaning Product: Method wipes, lavender scent

Extra: fizzy bath bombs from Amey's home business

I love it! Thank you, Amey!

Big Stick

Lucy likes sticks. Preferrably big ones. If I'd let her bring sticks in the house to chew, I'd save so much money because I'd never have to buy dog toys again. Luckily I've got a lot of trees so sticks are plentiful in my yard. Outside, chewing on sticks--that's a good way to spend some time.

Happy Dogs on Thursday!

SP12 Question of the Week #6

What is your favorite type of project to take along on vacation?

I like to take something that is simple with an easy-to-memorize pattern. I don't want to have to think too hard or need a reference book to help me out. I just want to sit and knit something easy. On my latest vacation, I took (yet another) Montego Bay scarf I am making for my mom.

Tell us about a time that you packed too much knitting or were stranded without knitting.

My vacations tend to be fairly action-packed so I always take too much knitting. I think I spent only one evening knitting the Montego Bay scarf on my recent vacation.

I have been stranded without knitting when flights were late. Last Christmas my return flight was delayed several hours for reasons I don't recall. I was sitting in a big comfy leather chair by the fireplace in the Colorado Springs airport with lots of knitting time on my hands and no knitting. I had a project on needles but I was afraid of an airport screener determining my needles were prohibited. How could I save the project without the needles? I didn't have any sort of stitch holders with me. So the project was in my checked luggage. In addition being a knitter, I am a reader so I just read my book.

Last March I flew to Corpus Christi for business. I didn't take any knitting. The flight is less than an hour, I was just going to land, go to a meeting, and return to Houston earlier than if I'd worked a day in my office. Our return flight was delayed for "mechanical reasons". I had about 5 hours on my hands that could have been used for knitting. I managed to finish my book instead.

Project Fruit -- Peach

Yes, I know my yarn ball is much bigger than a peach, but it was the only round fruit that I had. I ate it after the photo shoot and it was delicious.

Since I last posted Clapotis pictures, I have made a lot of progress. I am in the decrease rows section right now. I think I'd done two repeats when these pictures were taken yesterday morning and now I've finished five. I've got only about 45 more rows to go!




I am loving this thing!

SP12 Package

Last Friday I came home from work to find a package waiting for me. It traveled all the way from Finland! I got so excited to open it that I not only sliced open the package with scissors, I also sliced open the fat part of my palm, just below my thumb. A bit of bleeding occured, but I made sure none got on my package. (And I am healed now.)

Clockwise from the upper left:

--folding scissors that I can put on my keychain
--sheep postcard (love his hairstyle!) with a nice note
--circular Addi needles, size 2.5 mm
--chocolate mud masque (looks good enough to eat, but it's for my skin)
--Finnish candy, licorice flavor
--yarn! It's mainly wool, hand-dyed, in a colorway my pal calls "American Candy".
Here's a closeup of the yarn.
I love this Secret Pal package! Thank you, pal!

Boersma's Knitting Basket

I was recently on vacation in Oregon. I ran across (truly in this case) a couple yarn stores. So of course I had to visit. And buy. Yes, in a recent post I said I had enough yarn and didn't intend to buy more, but said I was exempt from the rule if on vacation. I made that exception because I knew I'd be going on vacation soon.

After a day of wine-tasting in the Willamette Valley, we ended up in the town of McMinnville. The next morning we were running. I looked up and saw a yarn store called Boersma's Knitting Basket. After I showered and after the store opened, I went shopping. (My boyfriend sat on a bench outside a cafe next door and got hungry.)
The store was very well-stocked. I ended up with some goodies.
top: Dream in Color Classy, a worsted weight merino, Nightwatch colorway. I think this will become the Dream in Color shrug.

2nd: Mountain Colors Bearfoot, a wool/mohair/nylon blend in Mountain Tango Colorway. No specific plans for this yarn yet.

3rd: Classic Elite Provence, mercerized Egyptian cotton. I might try face cloths with this soft yarn.

bottom: Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic Color. I think this will eventually become a market bag.

Knit Purl

To visit Oregon I flew into and out of Portland but really didn't spend much time there. The day before our flight out, we got to Portland about midday. Boyfriend picked out a place to eat lunch and we went in search of it. As he was circling the block looking for a parking place, I looked out the window and saw Knit Purl. I told him I had to go back after lunch. So I did.

Knit Purl is quite possibly the most beautiful yarn store I have ever been in. Let's start with the front door. And the window displays.

The store has the clean, uncluttered feel of a boutique, yet it is packed with exquisite yarn. The yarn is arranged by weights, such as worsted or lace. There are also separate sections devoted to Habu, to Fibre Company, to Handmaiden. I've never seen so much Handmaiden in one place.

Needless to say, I purchased some souvenirs.

top left: Schaefer Yarns Laurel, mercerized cotton, in the Margaret Mead Colorway.

top right: Handmaiden Rumple, silk. I'll make the Bias Shawl, the pattern included with the yarn.

middle: Knit Purl, the Natural Collection, merino wool, dyed in Oregon with natural plant dyes.

bottom: Art Yarns Silk Rhapsody, silk and kid mohair. I think I'll make Diamonds and Pearls Shawl from The Knitter's Book of Yarn.

The boyfriend did not mind my shopping spree at Yarn Purl at all. In fact, he rather enjoyed it! We had lunch at a sidewalk table at a great restaurant. When we finished eating, I walked to the yarn store and he walked inside to the bar. He had a TV tuned to ESPN (and we hadn't seen TV for about three days), the Sunday paper, and beer. What more could he want?

And no, I did not make a pilgrimage to Oregon to buy yarn. I really went to enjoy the coast.

DOT -- Oregon

First, a cute but old picture of Lucy. This was taken on the day we got her, nearly a year ago. She was an adorable puppy.

I've been on vacation so I have no new puppy pictures or stories. Instead I'll just say that Oregon is a very dog-friendly state! My first hint was when I received the official Oregon state map. The welcome message is from both the governor and his dog Hershey. It's even got a pawprint at the end of it!

The coast is especially dog-friendly. I called a hotel in Pacific City and I was immediately asked if my pet was with me. I had to say no, but if she was she could have stayed in the hotel too. We walked across the street to the beach and saw so many dogs. They were playing in the dunes with their people, playing in the surf, taking walks. There was a cool pub with a big patio that had a sign saying dogs weren't allowed on the patio. So people hooked the leashes to the chairs and had the dog sit in the sand. That was perfectly fine.

Cannon Beach even had a brochure listing pet-friendly places. Many, many inns allowed dogs. A bunch of restaurants with decks allowed dogs to hang out while their owners were eating outside. Lots of the stores had signs saying dogs were welcome and water bowls were common outside shops. We hiked through the forest to an isolated beach. We saw some dogs having a great time retrieving sticks from the surf. Unforunately I haven't downloaded the pictures yet, but I do have some.

Back in Portland, the night before our flight, we stayed in a dog-friendly Residence Inn. It happened that we were there during a blues festival so we checked it out. We met a nice beagle and her mom there. The beagle was a retired contraband sniffer and apparently a blues fan.

If I ever go back to Oregon, I'll need to drive and take Lucy with me!

SP12 Question of the Week #5

1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation?
My absolute favorite place to go for vacation, any season of the year, is Colorado. It's where I'm from, where my family is, it's beautiful, the weather is great, and there's so many things to do outdoors.

2) Where is one place you’d like to go?
I just got back from Oregon. I tasted some wine in the Willamette Valley and spent time on the beautiful coast. It's fun to go somewhere I've never been. To answer the question, I'd like to go to Italy.

Market Bag

I'd been thinking of making a market bag. Then I saw a swap on Ravelry called Going Green. You were to make a market bag for your pal, include an eco-friendly cleaning product, some fair trade tea or coffee, and organic cotton. Sounded cool to me!

Though this was not a secret swap, I didn't want to post these pictures until my bagee (hi Jenny!) received her package. I think she should have received it by now.

Here's Jenny's market bag! I love the way it turned out. I will probably make more for myself.