A Riddle

Old colour boring
Exciting new colour shade
Caramel rocks hard


Explanation tomorrow.....

Random Wednesday

Any one else tired of the freaking snow? But I digress....

Today the hubby made dinner. By made, I mean he pulled the frozen hamburgers out of the freezer and put the oil on for the fries. Then he cooked the bacon for the hamburgers. Naturally the bacon took a lot less time than the burgers and oil.

So he wrapped up the bacon in a papertowel to drain while the oil heated up.

Except that he had turned the wrong burner on the stove on and was heating nothing. Which he realized just before putting the fries in. He swore and turned on the correct burner.

While all this was going on, I saw Raven run by with something in his mouth. Since it didn't look like any of his usual toys AND since he seemed kind of furtive, I chased him down and took it away from him. About a third of a piece of bacon. Hubby had cooked up two pieces of bacon. The sneaky bugger jumped up on the counter and took off with 'em both! We still haven't found the other piece of bacon (as if !) OR the paper towel.....

And here is a picture I took in Arona, Italy last spring. As a sign that spring will come. Eventually. When it feels like it. In it's own sweet time.

Ciao

Puzzles Solved

A couple of people asked to see the purse hook in action. Your wish is my command.

In other happenings around the house, I took Raven to the vet today to see if there was a reason why he was "scooting" his butt across the carpet. Gross eh? Turns out he's got nothing wrong. He's just weird. Or possibly has a little irritation of his anal glands, but there's nothing that can be done as they are empty-as they should be. On the up side, he weighs pretty much the same as when we got him. We've been feeding him almost double what the vet initially suggested as Raven was always hungry on the recommended quantity. Clearly it wasn't enough. Or else he would be heavier! It's also possible that this explains why he's not fat:

Ciao

Exercises in Photography

I thought I would give you an update on the Leaf Tank. I'm still liking the knit. It goes fairly fast. It would go faster, but my elbow imposes outside limits on how much I can do at any one time. Sigh.

For entertainment value, I present the pictures I took in various lighting conditions.

Picture 1. Flash photography.

Picture 2. Filtered (through a curtain) natural light.

Picture 3. Natural light, no curtain. Picture 4. Unfiltered natural light and flash.

I think I like the fourth one the best. You can see the details and some shine in the yarn. Pictures 2&3 just look washed out. Picture 1 is a black blob.

So today's lesson, kids, is use more than 1 lighting source, if you can.

Oh, and the Leaf tank is about half done.

ciao

Not Much

That's what's going on. If you don't include, clients who cancel work and a cat who is scooting his butt across the floor. Sigh.

I'm working on getting other clients to fill in the gap. The joy of small-business ownership.

The cat is going to the vet on Tuesday. I think it's a gland problem. How totally gross. Worth paying someone else to fix. That's for sure!

I bought new dishes. Yeah, exciting huh? Nope, exciting was having a plate from my former set explode in the microwave. More than once. Even though it was "microwave-safe". I gave up and bought a set of Corelle dishes. Supposedly unbreakable. We shall see....

And now a picture from my trip to Italy last spring. (as a reward or something for wading through my maunderings)

Can't you just see yourself just sitting on this balcony and knitting in the sunshine?

Ciao

No Resistance

I went to my LYS to pick up this:

And somehow this followed me home:
I am such a bag ho.

I Got Lucky!

I won a prize in the contest Bella Knitting did. A purse hook! I've wanted one for a while. Since my purse is a fabric one. Actually a felted one I knit up myself, I don't want to put it on the icky floor where it will absorb salt and slush and melted icky snow!

Included as a little bonus was a beaded keychain in the shape of a purse. Very cute! As you can see, Raven approves.
Thanks ladies!

Experimental Experience

Yesterday I promised you a review of the Tortilla Pie.

It was pretty easy to put together. When it came out of the oven it looked like this:

So far so good. Next operation to occur was to remove the springform pan:

That went well also. I cut it up and put it onto plates (which I didn't take pictures of).

Now for the real test...how does it taste?

Honestly? A little bland. It had a spicy bite to it (how could it not with the jalapeno), but overall the flavour was very..bland. It was edible, so it wans't a complete flop, but it was missing something. I tried putting sour cream on it. I tried salsa. I tried both. Still bland. As I was eating it all I could think was,"This is missing something." But I am unable to think of what.

So, not a complete failure, but not a resounding success either. I don't think I'm going to be making it again. Oh well, onto the next experiment....falafels! Idea courtesy of Bezzie.

But not for a couple of days. I have to work tomorrow and then I'll have to do groceries to pick up the fixins.

Random Sunday

I know, it should be random wednesday...so sue me.

Hmmm, is it just me or do these look a little, ummm, phallic?



And I love this wrap top. It is abso-freaking-lutely lovely.



Last, I am going to try a new recipe. It can be difficult to find a recipe that both my hubby and I agree on. But I found one at YoYo knits! Black bean tortilla pie. Tomorrow is experimental day. I'll let y'all know how it goes...

Edit: Simple Knits is having a contest! Know a pattern that takes 1-285 yards of yarn? go over there and let her have it!

And since there should be a picture to reward you for reading my randomness this far....

Raven having dinner. Please note the handknit dishtowel to the right. Since this IS a knitting blog. Also note the childlock on the cupboard to the top, left. No, I don't have children. Raven kept opening the cupboard and taking out my dishgloves to play with. Which rendered them useless as that poked bajillions of tiny holes in them.......

Ciao

Black Blob Continues

I dug my way out of the snowpile yesterday morning at 6am and got to work for 8am.

Got home and worked for a bit on my Leaf Tank. Then my tennis elbow started to act up, so I stopped. So the Leaf Tank continues, albeit slowly..

Yup, a black blob!

Look, a slightly better picture of the black blob!

Yeah, I know. But that's the best I can manage for now. I promise, when I eventually get to the fo pics I will do better. Somehow....

Spring would make it easier to take pictures. Please?

Ciao

Haiku-ism

Snow fall on the road

Plow thrusts snow into driveway

Tears stream down my face

Ennui

What happens when a knitter gets the ennui?

This:

With the help of computer technology, gets turned into this:

Ciao

A Self Portrait of Progress

In other words, trying to take a progress picture of my leaf tank by myself....One advantage to this type of construction is that I can try it on during the making of it without even having to take it off the needles. I wanted to see how it fits, as some of the comments I have seen on Ravelry suggest that the fit on this is small. So I went up to a 40" size as opposed to the 37" I would have made otherwise. So far, this seems like a good idea.

I took some pics, so you could see what I have managed so far. Taking pictures of black yarn is quite difficult.

Attempt number 1:

That black shadow around my hips is the knitting. Yeah. Right.

Attempt 2 was a bit better. At least, you can see where the knitting is and how the fit is:

I also attempted to get a picture of the join. Attempt number....umm, umpity billion:

AND number umpity billion plus one:Not the most professional of pictures, but I hope you can kind of see how it is going.

I think the fit is good so far and I am rather pleased with how nice the join is. I was afraid I would get puckering. So far, no puckering. Hopefully, as the top gets longer, the weight of it will pull out any puckering it may be inclined to do.

Ciao

Here We Go.

For those of you who were dying of curiousity...it appears I got the join right on the second try. I think I figured out why I did the join wrong. I was trying to join like a typical knit in the round project. But it's not in the round. It's in the spiral. Which was just far enough off to mess me up.

However, I have recovered from that little stumble and will continue on. Hopefully soon there will be progress pics that look a little more tank-top-like and less blob-like.

Ciao

Do the Twist! Wait....

I was knitting along on my Leaf tank top and finally got to the point where the directions say to join the body. All excited and stuff, I joined the body and knit some rows. After a few rows I stopped to admire my work and thought,"Hmmm, shouldn't the leaves be on the top edge? Ah, it's just the weird geometry of the top." And I kept knitting.

A little while later I stopped again and thought,"I think it looks funny.... nah, it's just the weird geometry".

Finally, quite a while later I looked at it and thought,"Nope, that's just wrong." I pulled out the book and compared the picture with what I actually had. Not only had I attached the wrong side, somehow I twisted it when I joined it for knitting in the round.

I frogged it and have joined it correctly this time. I hope. Pictures tomorrow when there is some daylight. Black yarn at night makes for difficult picture taking.

ciao

Snowstorms

Today I woke up to a snowstorm. The day cleared up somewhat in the middle of the day and now it's snowing agin. Perfect knitting weather.

Except I'm not knitting. Chris did one of those meme things where you quote line 63 or some such from whatever you are currently reading. And the line she quoted was too freaking funny. So, of course, I had to get the book.

Now, I am familiar with the author, I have read other books she wrote and enjoyed them.
Just as I am enjoying this one. Which I have almost completely powered through in one day.

In case you are curious, it's Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff.

Okay, I'm running away to read some more.
Ciao

I Can't Believe it Took So Long!

They're done! They're done! They're not perfect, but they are DONE. Stick a fork in them done. Done like dinner done.

My Campanula lace socks are done! I am so happy. They are the most complicated lace I have ever done. They are sooo pretty. The yarn is so squishy-soft-wonderful. The blue. Swoon. It's a lovely blue.

They are not perfect. But I don't care. Me luvs socks.

The socks are the cat's meow. Which reminds me. Chris, this is for you:

Purple cat's meow pyjamas. Are they not adorable?

I'm off to turn a new leaf.

Ciao

Leafing Out

I have knitting! I have knitting! Betcha thought I didn't do that anymore, huh? I started the Leaf Tank.

Looks like an amorphous black blob, doesn't it? Here's a clos-up of one of the bumpy bits that stick out the side there:

It's a leaf! I know, shocking, who would have thought...

This pattern calls for knitting flat for a bit before you join it up and knit in a spiral. The flat piece was curling something fierce, so I did a quick dip-and-block to see how it looks. I quite like it. Now to wait for the thing to dry so I can keep knitting on it.

I'm gonna go blow on it and see if I can speed that up a bit.

Ciao

Darn, Darn,Darn!

A co-worker at one of my job-sites knows that I knit. She asked me if I knew how to darn socks. Her grandma (I think she said) had knit her socks many years ago and the heel has worn through. Could I fix it?

I came clean and admitted to never having darned a sock, but that I would be willing to try. I'm always up for a challenge. How hard can it be? Ummm, yeah....

The hole is on the bottom of the heel. About the size of a Twonie (for the Canadians) or a silver dollar (for the Americans) the rest of the nationalities will have to use imagination as I have no handy reference for size in other countries....

I did some googling and found a website (which I naturally forgot to bookmark) that suggested using thread to create a faux-frame to work from.

A couple of problems came up. The first was that the thread doesn't stay nice and flat and the tension on it kept loosening, which made the job harder. Then the thread snapped! Clearly, not going to work. Plan B. Use waste yarn (the red) to create a frame. That worked better. However, in my enthusiasm, I grabbed some sock yarn to do the darning with. Since the sock is knit out of what appears to be dk yarn, the sock yarn for darning is just making a mess. I'm pretty sure I have some leftover dk yarn, which may even be yellow (although not the exact yellow) leftover from a shawl I made a couple of years back. So I will have to dig to the bottom of the stash and see if memory is correct. Or if it is just playing games with me....

That will have to be a future blog post. In the meantime, I cast on for the Leaf Tank. I have what appears to be enough Debbie Bliss Stella for this. I made a swatch and got stitch gauge, but my row gauge is a bit loose. I got 18 stitches (yay!) and 24 rows (boo! I should have had 26) in 4 inches. But, the pattern doesn't really reference rows, just inches, so it should be okay. I will just knit for 4 inches or whatever, as asked. No pictures of this, though. It is black yarn and the sun has gone down. So all the pictures were singularly unprepossessing.

Not that the sun ever really came out. The day started with lots of snow, then switched to freezing rain, and now snow again. Fortunately, we went out last night to get groceries and supplies (beer and prosecco if you were wondering) so I didn't have to leave the house.

Time for dinner and wine.

Ciao