Felted Pet Bed

The Pet Bed I finished knitting quite a while ago is finally felted.  Actually, the felting part was done a couple of weeks ago but I only got around to taking pictures today!

It got a LOT smaller – this is what it looked like before it was felted:

Pet Bed Unfelted

Here is how it turned out:

Felted Pet Bed

The sides got very short when felted and it is a much smaller circle.  The fabric turned out to be thick and cushy – the Knit Picks Bulky Wool of the Andes felted nicely. 

This was knitted using a circle made of 9 segments, increased every other row.  It seemed flat on the bottom before it was felted but after felting it was very difficult to get the bottom to lie flat.  One part of it would always bunch up, it seemed like it was one segment too big.  I really had to stretch and pull this when it was wet to get it to lie flat.

This is the second Pet Bed I’ve knitted.  The first one was knitted using a circle made of 10 segments, it was never felted because my dog likes it just the way it is.  However, it doesn’t even like to lie totally flat on the floor without being felted, it would probably really bunch up if felted.  Next time I knit one of these, I’ll start with a circle made of 8 segments and see how that works.  Also, I’ll make it much larger around and a taller on the sides.

A Bit Too Small

Even though this is too small for my dog, Gidget (a Cairn Terrier), to really stretch out and get comfy - she seems to like it.  It would be just the right size for a cat.

You can click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

Pumpkin Pie Disaster

We spent Thanksgiving at Darrin and Maura’s home – technically, they are dear friends but actually they are much, much more like family.  They are more like our grown children than plain old friends and their children are our grandchildren.  Being a part of their extended family is one of the things for which we are very thankful not only on Thanksgiving but every day.

My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner was to make enough dessert for a large, extended family gathering.  So, I decided to make four pumpkin pies (as many as fit in my oven).  Usually my pies turn out well, I always make my own pastry and don’t have any problems with that turning out the way it should.   These four pies just didn’t turn out well at all – not because of the pastry but because I put more than twice as much sugar in the pumpkin mixture as the recipe called for.

Pumpkin Pie Failure

It was late on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving and I was trying to be quick about making the pies.  I didn’t bother to put my reading glasses on and thought the recipe said each pie needed 1 3/4 cup of sugar so I multiplied that by 4 and put 7 cups of sugar in for the 4 pies.  They should have finished baking in an hour but it took 2 1/2 hours for them to get firm.  By that time, I knew something was wrong – not just the long baking time but the smell was dreadful.  Instead of that wonderful pumpkin pie smell wafting from the oven there was a sickeningly sweet, burnt sugar smell filling the house.   A sticky sugar syrup was bubbling out of the pies and all over my oven, when I took the pies out of the oven the syrup was at the hard crack stage making long crispy strings as I lifted them out and put them on the counter.  It was a mess.  Anyway, I looked at the recipe again to see what on earth might have gone wrong (with glasses on) and saw that each pie only needed 3/4 cup of sugar!  For the 4 pies, I should have only used 3 cups of sugar and I used 7!

No one tasted these pies but I bet they tasted really awful.  They certainly smelled awful.  I put them out in the garage before I went to bed so they would quit stinking up the house and they were thrown out Thanksgiving morning.

Coconut Cranberry Bars

Thanksgiving morning, I baked Coconut Cranberry Bars to bring for dessert.  Luckily, I had all the ingredients they needed and they were quick and easy to make.  I had seen the recipe on the Land O’Lakes site several days earlier.  They turned out nicely and tasted great. 

Thanksgiving Dessert

Here is a link to the recipe:

Coconut Cranberry Bars

They turned out so well and people seemed to like them so much that I made them again to take to my Knitting Night on Tuesday.  Everyone there seemed to like them, too – at least they ate them and even asked for the recipe!

Coconut Cranberry Bars For Knitting Night

The Land O’Lakes site has many good recipes, they are easy to find and the pages don’t have any pop-ups or weird ads.  I’ve had good luck with any of the recipes I’ve tried from their recipe collection.

To see more pictures from Thanksgiving, here is a link to a set of pictures on Flickr:

Thanksgiving 2009

You can click on any of the pictures in this post to see a larger version.

Lego Mania

My blog has been neglected for a bit – seems like life gets so busy as the holiday season starts up, I can’t believe it will be Thanksgiving in four days.  It seemed like Halloween was just a couple of day ago.  Sometimes, it seems like the older I get the less I enjoy the holidays – I feel kind of like a Grinch this year.  It makes me sad to see Christmas decorations going up in stores the minute Halloween is over.  Oh well, that’s the way it is.

Building Brothers

Our two grandsons have really been into playing with Lego Blocks this past couple of weeks.  Whenever they come over after school it is the first thing they want to do.

Busy Building

It is really refreshing when kids want to play something besides video games.  They do enjoy Nintendo and Playstation, too – but the past few weeks they have been having Lego Mania.  You can see in the above picture I still haven’t put away the two Halloween Candles on the fireplace – I think they’re cute and haven’t gotten into Thanksgiving mode yet even though it’s just days away!

Whistle While You Work

Just listening to them while they build and play is fun.  You can see how their minds are working and what sort of things they have going on in their imaginations.  Both of the boys are so different – they invent and act out stories about totally different things.  Darrin was whistling to himself while he was building.

Lego Mania

Actually, I really enjoy playing with Legos myself!  It is almost like knitting – making something block by block instead of stitch by stitch.  I built myself a really cool Lego house with a garden and everything.

You can click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

This, That and The Other

This blog post is kind of a mixed bag - definitely a reflection of how life has been lately!

I started on a quick. new knitting project – a hat for my husband.  It is based on a childrens’ hat pattern – Ear Cozy Hat by Fiber Trends - I redid the math to make the hat in a large adult size.  I’ve made this pattern numerous times in the small sizes.  It is really nice because it covers the ears and keeps them warm – however, the ear flaps are much nicer than most ear flap hats because they are made with short rows and don’t hang down strangely and they don’t need ties to keep them in place.

Jack Hat Beginning

The wool is lovely, Karabella Aurora Melange - it is so soft yet bouncy feeling and is 100% extrafine Merino Wool that is machine washable, always a plus for a hat.

In other knitting news, I finished up the Pet Bed I was knitting with Knit Picks bulky, hand dyed Wool of The Andes in the Island Breeze colorway.  It took three skeins.  Now, I need to felt it and see how it looks.  I’m hoping the fabric gets a lot thicker and the sides will stand up on their own.

Pet Bed Unfelted

This is the second Pet Bed I’ve knitted – the first one never ended up being felted because my dog, Gidget, likes it just the way it is.  She spends a lot of time sleeping on it and hates me to pick it up off the floor. There’s a picture of that in this post:  She Likes It .  For the first Pet Bed, I used a felted bowl pattern and just made it bigger.  I wasn’t totally happy with the how the bottom turned out, so, for this bed I came up with my own pattern that has 9 segments to form the circular bottom.  It seems to lie nice and flat.  After I felt it and see if it turns out well, I’ll write up the pattern and make it available on this blog.

Yesterday, I baked some Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins, they are based on a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins that Mary Jo baked recently for our knitting night.  I altered them a bit to make them more cake-like by adding less oil, one more egg, more flour, more cinnamon, a bit of nutmeg and a bit of milk.  They turned out well – not very sweet but very good.

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Finally, I wanted to share this picture of our two grandsons having an after school snack and playing Nintendo DS – they bicker so much that it was wonderful to see them cooperating with each other!  You can see how much they really do love each other even though they tend to bicker over everything.

Brothers Cooperating

You can click on any of the pictures in this post to see a larger view.

Halloween 2009

This is another post I’ve been meaning to do all week and haven’t gotten it done because I took too many pictures and couldn’t decide which ones to edit and use.  I get snap happy with my cameras and never know when to stop!

Halloween seemed like a two day holiday this year – on Friday, Oct. 30th, the elementray school our grandchildren attend had their Halloween celebrations.  Kindergarten through Second Grade went on a parade around our tiny town and got treats from the businesses and post office.

Nephi (Optimus Prime) in the Halloween Parade

Third through Fifth Grade had a costume exhibition – some of the kids had fantastic costumes.  Afterwards, all the classes had Halloween parties.

Darrin the Mummy

Then on Saturday it was time for trick or treating.  We usually have around 100 trick or treaters come to our house – this year I thought there might be a lot more than usual because the weather was so nice and it was on the weekend.  However, there were only 47 trick or treaters this year.  Perhaps the nice weather and weekend combined made families decide to head somewhere else on Saturday.

Optimus Prime and the Mummy

Our grandkids wore the same costumes they wore at school and ended their trick or treating at our house so they could help give out treats – they really enjoy doing that.

Darrin giving out treats.

Along with fewer than usual trick or treaters this year, they started coming later that usual as well.  Our first trick or treater didn’t come till 7pm!  They usually start shortly after 5pm. 

Nephi giving out treats.

It ended up being a fun and Happy Halloween! 

Toothless and Happy on Halloween!

If you would like to see more pictures from Halloween, here is a link for a set of Halloween pictures on Flickr:

Halloween 2009

You can click on any of the pictures in this post for a larger view.

Shania, Larissa and Friends

Taos Wool Festival – October 2009

Finally, over three weeks since the event, I’m writing this post about the Taos Wool Festival!  I took so many pictures, it took forever to go through them and decide which ones to use.

Taos Wool Festival - October 2009

The Wool Festival seemed a bit bigger and busier than last year, it seemed like there were more booths around the sides and more in the middle area, too. Of course, last year it was rainy and cool for the Wool Festival and this year the weather was gorgeous – sunny but not hot and just a hint of a breeze.  The Ravelry Meetup was in the center area of the festival, there were quite a few people there – Mary Heather from Ravelry was there and I recognized a few others from the Ravelry Meetup in Santa Fe in September.  The highlight of the Ravelry Meetup was meeting Stephanie Japel and Paula from the on-line class with Stephanie for the Fitted Raglan Shawl.  You can read more about that in this post - Finished With Mirth . 

Ravelry Meetup at the Wool Festival in Taos

It is always fun to look at the various fiber producing animals – alpacas, llamas, sheep and goats.  Some of the goats are so tiny and cute. 

Very Soft Bunny

This year there were also a lot of rabbits shown at the festival.  Some of them were so soft, it was a treat to stroke them.  Some of the rabbits looked like little, furry dogs.

Fuzzy Bunny

There were many booths selling yarn – lots and lots of yarn in millions of yummy colors! 

Beautiful Colors

 It was really wonderful to see all this beautiful wool.  It looks like a cheerful yarn rainbow.

More Yarn

All this yarn for sale was just the tip of the iceberg.  There were also many booths selling fleeces and roving for spinning and spinning equipment as well.

Even More Yarn

There were also booths selling finished goods made with wool – rugs, hats and many other unique things.

Unique Things

Some of the booths I enjoyed from previous years were back – I love the knitted animals that are for sale in this booth.  The patterns are available, too.

Knitted Animals

Lots of interesting people were there, too.  It was fun just to sit down and watch.

Spinning Lady

One of the nicest things was meeting up with three young women from our La Jara Knitting Group and looking around the festival with them! 

Nicole, Joanna and Mary Jo at the Wool Festival

 Afterwards we went out to a late lunch and had a fun time looking around Taos.

Joanna, Mary Jo and Nicole at the Taos Plaza

My husband managed to maintain his patience while walking around the festival – he was even gracious enough to carry my lime green Namaste knitting bag for a while without getting (overly) embarrassed!

My husband with my Namaste bag and our dog.

All in all, it was a very fun day.  It would have been EASY to spend a lot of money on all that beautiful yarn but I managed to restrain myself and only bought three skeins – one worsted weight, one DK weight and one sock/fingering weight.

Purchased at the Taos Wool Festival

You can click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

Busy Birdfeeder on a Snowy Day

It snowed a LOT here on Wednesday (October 21, 2009), that didn’t stop the birds from coming to visit the birdfeeder in our back yard though.  In fact, it seemed like there were more birds than usual.

Lots of birds at the feeder despite the snow.

Along with the usual House Finches there was one bird that was a similar size and had a similar beak to the finches but had yellow markings instead of red.

Is the bird with yellow markings a Goldfinch?

I’m not sure what it is – it really doesn’t look like a Goldfinch.  I’ll have to look it up in the bird book.

House Finches and one mystery bird with yellow markings.

The birds were bickering with each other over the last seeds in the feeder.  We fill this feeder with black oil sunflower seeds every single day and they eat the whole thing before noon.  House Finches are the most common birds at our feeder but there are a few other types once in a while.  A group of five Ring Necked Doves hangs out under the feeder eating the seeds that get dropped.  Every once in a while, Brewer’s Blackbirds hang out underneath, too.

Bickering Birds

Our front and back yard looked like a winter wonderland in the morning.

Snow in the back yard.

It kept snowing all day!  The snow built up to 8 inches deep towards the end of the day.

Snow in the front yard.

 You can click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

Carrot Ginger Cookies and a New Knitting Project

Carrot Ginger Cookies

These Carrot Ginger Cookies I made today turned out very well. They have lots of finely grated carrots in them along with freshly grated ginger. They are very light and delicate tasting – the fresh ginger gives them such a nice flavor. Even though they have LOTS of carrots in them – they really don’t taste like carrots. I think they will go very nicely with a cup of tea.

I rolled the balls of dough in coarse Demerara sugar before baking – next time, I will use a finer sugar. The crunchy, strong taste of the Demerara sugar kind of overpowered the cookie.

Carrot Ginger Cookies

1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
1 egg + 1 egg white (if you double recipe, just use three eggs)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup finely grated carrot (about 3 normal sized carrots)
1 1/2 tsp. freshly grated ginger root (about 1 small root)
3 cups flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Stir in the carrots and ginger until well blended. Mix the cream of tartar, soda and salt with the flour. Stir in the flour a cup or so at a time and mix well.

Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. If desired, roll balls in sugar before placing on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 – 14 minutes until slightly browned and top springs back if touched.

The dough is quite soft, it might help to refrigerate it before rolling into balls. I usually make a double recipe (or even triple) of cookie dough and only bake one or two pans and then put the rest of the dough in the fridge in a tightly sealed container or bag. That way, you can bake a pan or two every day or so and always have fresh cookies on hand.

*****

In other news – I didn’t have to report for Jury Duty today (Friday)! It was such a relief – I was dreading it so much. I had called the phone number on the summons earlier in the day on Thursday and then again around 4pm to check on the status of the trial and the recorded message said the trial was still scheduled. So, I had started getting everything ready for the next day – clothes, charge cell phone, get purse packed up with the needed stuff, etc. For a couple of days, I had been trying to think of a small knitting project to bring along in the hopes I might knit to fill in the tedious hours of jury selection – finally decided to make the Shetland Shopper Market Bag. My friend, Emmy, knitted this bag and it turned out very well. So, I cast on for the bag with Adara (cotton/linen blend) from Elann and was happily knitting away on it when my husband came home from work.

He asked if I had called to check on the status of the trial, I told him I had and that it had not been cancelled. So, he called the number to check again and it WAS cancelled! I was in disbelief, it must have been cancelled at the last minute. I even called the number myself to make sure it really had been cancelled! What a relief – it seems like when you get all ready and prepared for something, then it never happens.

So, I shall think of the Shetland Shopper as my lucky knitting project!

Shetland Shopper Market Bag - Beginning

I felt so happy and relieved today that I decided to bake the Carrot Ginger Cookies, had been meaning to try them for a while. It was originally a recipe for Bunny Carrot Cookies that I modified quite a bit.

You can click on the pictures for a larger view.

She Likes It

Well, I finished knitting the pet bed for my little Cairn Terrier, Gidget.  The pattern was for a felted bowl, I used a bulky wool yarn and worked more increase rounds to make it bigger.

Gidget's Knitted Bed

Guess what?!?  She likes it………just the way it is!  It doesn’t even have the ends woven in yet and hasn’t been felted.   As soon as I finished binding off, I set it down on the floor to see how big it looked.  Gidget came right over and sniffed it and then stretched out next to it and put her head on it to see if she was going to get in trouble.  When she didn’t get in trouble for putting her head on it she proceeded to put her whole self on it! 

She really does seem to like it just the way it is- I’ve picked it off the floor several times when she’s gone outside to potty and the minute she comes in she looks for it and I have to put it down again.  I do need to get the ends woven in but, now, I don’t know whether I should try to felt it or not.  She has already put a couple of snags in it with her claws so I’m thinking that perhaps I will just felt it a bit – just enough to get the wool fibers sticking together so they won’t snag.

I think I’d like it better if it was felted very firmly - it wouldn’t look so floppy and messy when it’s on the floor.  Hmm, I just wonder which way it will end up in the end???

This week I have been so unfocused.  I wanted to get a post done with lots of pictures of the Taos Wool Festival but I took so many pictures I can’t even decide which ones I want to edit and put in a post.  On Friday, I have a summons to Jury Duty and I’m really not looking forward to that.  I’ve reported for Jury Duty several times and it involves many hours of sitting around while people are interviewed and a jury is selected.  Today, I tried to think of a simple, small knitting project I could start and then bring in a little bag in my purse to work on – I’m not even sure if you are allowed to knit.  I could see where it wouldn’t be a good thing during a trial but it shouldn’t hurt to knit during all that endless interviewing of prospective jurors.  Time will tell.

You can click on the picture for a larger view.

Finished With Mirth

The title sounds like I’m finished with being happy – but, actually, I’m very happy that I’m finished with my Mirth Fitted Raglan Shawl!!  In this previous post – On-Line Knitting Class – I talked about taking the on-line class given by Stefanie Japel for the Mirth Shawl she designed.  The class lasted for three weeks and I managed to get the shawl all finished during that three weeks.  It was really a good class, Stefanie is an inspiring teacher and I learned a LOT about knitting lace from charts.  I really like how the shawl turned out.

Completed Mirth Shawl

There was one minor glitch that almost made me unable to get the shawl finished during the three weeks of the class.  I ran out of yarn and had to order another skein.  Instead of sending worsted weight, the store sent me DK weight in the same colorway – so, I had to call and ask them to resend the worsted weight.  That meant there were four days with no knitting on the shawl – when the correct yarn arrived I really had to do some power knitting to get finished before the class was over.  It wouldn’t have been a big deal if I hadn’t finished within the time frame of the class but it was one of those things I’d promised myself I’d do.  Usually, I’m such a procrastinator that I never finish anything on time.  With this shawl, I made a concentrated effort to keep up with the class and finish on time.  I’m so glad I did!

One nice thing about waiting for the yarn to arrive – I received my ball winder from Knit Picks and got to wind up the last skein with a ball winder!  The Knit Picks ball winder is nice – it is just like the Royal Ball Winder (checked them out in two yarn stores) except less expensive.

Ball Winder from Knit Picks

The most exciting part of the Mirth Shawl Class was meeting Stefanie Japel at the Taos Wool Festival!  We had a Shawl Class Reunion type thing during the Ravelry Meetup on Saturday at the Taos Wool Festival – it was great meeting Stefanie and her family and Paula, who also took the class and with whom I had a lot of fun chatting on-line during the class!  Here is a picture of Mary-Heather from Ravelry, Stefanie, Me and Paula.

Mary-Heather,Stefanie Japel, Me, Paula

You can click on any picture for a larger version.  Hopefully, in a few days I’ll write more about the Taos Wool Festival.  It was really fun and busy this year.

Autumn Colors

On Saturday (Sept. 26, 2009) my husband and I decided to go for a drive and check out the autumn colors.  He insisted this would be the prime weekend for color.  Well, we did see a lot of lovely autumnal color but there were still many aspen that hadn’t even started to change color – I think it will be another two weeks before it really hits the peak time for the most vivid color show.

Autumn Colors in Conejos Canyon

We had been going to drive over Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs but got started too late so had to do a shorter drive.  We drove from our home in La Jara to Chama, NM over Cumbres/La Managa Pass – the color on the Antonito (east) side of the pass was really pretty, very vivid.  The trees on the Chama (west) side of Cumbres/La Manga Pass had barely started to change color.  Sometimes, the fall color on that side of the pass is really striking – it probably will be gorgeous there in two weeks.

Autumn Colors Near Horca

After stopping in Chama for a bit, we continued on to Tierra Amarilla and then turned there to go over the Los Brazos Mountains to Tres Piedras.  For some reason, a lot of  the aspen trees in those mountains are dying – there are large areas of trees that are just standing sticks with no leaves at all.  We read an article in the Taos paper about it the next day – it’s called SAD, Sudden Aspen Death, and no one is sure what causes it.  I hope someone finds out soon so it doesn’t spread.

Autumn Colors Near Horca

Even the trees that weren’t dead didn’t have much color, their leaves were smaller and less abundant and were just kind of curling up and turning brown instead of becoming a nice bright, golden yellow color.  The scrub oak along that road was changing to a  bright red which was pretty.

Autumn Colors Near Cumbres Pass

By the time we arrived in Tres Piedras is was dusk but there was still some lovely color to see as we drove on to Taos for dinner and a bit of grocery shopping!  As the sun was setting, the whole sky was the most striking, vibrant shade of orange – everything was bathed in this wonderful orange glow.  I tried to capture it with a picture but somehow the camera just wouldn’t pick up the orange glow that was everywhere.  There had been a lot of haze (probably from a distant forest fire)  in the air all day which most likely caused the orange glow as the sun set.

Autumn Colors In Los Brazos Mountains

You can click on any of the pictures in this post for a larger version.  Most of them were taken through the windshield of the car as it was driving down the road, I could have gotten better ones if we had stopped and I’d used my big camera but, sometimes, it’s just fun to take pictures on the fly.

Even though the colors weren’t really at their peak, it was a beautiful and relaxing drive.  I got a lot of knitting done, too – worked on the felted cat bed while we were driving.  We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of this world, I’m so grateful that we do.

Creepy Crawly Creatures

For the past three weeks, I’ve been catching one of these Sun Spiders or Wind Scorpions each week.  It is always late at night when I’ve been sitting up knitting and watching TV.  Two of them were on the family room floor (one very close to my foot!) and one was crawling up the wall near my knitting chair.

Wind Scorpion, Sun Spider

Ever since we’ve moved into this house, 25 years ago, there have been one or two of these creepy “bugs”, usually always in June.  This year there were a couple earlier in June and then three in late August and September.  This is the first time they have been around this time of year.  For every one I see, there are probably quite a few more that I don’t see, too.

Every time I see one crawling on the floor or up the wall it gives me the creeps – they look so nasty.  They are nasty, too.  They even eat each other.  When I caught the first one, I put it in a big jar because I wanted to figure out a way to take a picture of it.  A few days later, I caught the second one and  put it in the jar with the first one – the second one, which was bigger, promptly ate the first one.  Then, when I caught the third one, I put it in the jar with the second one and before I could even find another jar to separate them – the third one (which was even bigger) ate the second one!

Wind Scorpion, Sun Spider

I finally figured out a way to photograph the “bug” using a cutting board with a well around the edge which I filled with water.  These creatures hate water and it wouldn’t cross the water to crawl off the cutting board – so I could finally get some close-up pictures of the third one.  It is still living in the jar – it ate some ants and seems to be doing just fine.  I don’t know whether to let it go outside or just flush it down the toilet.

These things look like spiders and they are related to spiders –  they are Solifugae which is an order of Arachnida but a different order than the one to which spiders belong.  Here is an article about them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae

There are lots of urban legends about Solifugae which are all untrue.  Only one species has any venom and usually Solifugae don’t  attack anything larger than themselves.  They grow very large in some parts of the world and even eat things like lizards.  The ones I’ve caught in my house are all around 1.25 inches long.

What I think is strange, we’ve been getting a few of these things in our house every year for 25 years and none of our neighbors (that we have asked)  have caught any in their homes.  That really makes me wonder if there is a colony of them that lives under our house or something.  Perhaps next year we should put off a bug bomb under the house in the spring.  We don’t get a lot of insects in our house, just a few spiders and a few ants – and these yucky things.

Anyway, it has gotten a lot colder now – the first few flakes of snow fell yesterday – so, I think there won’t be anymore of the creepy creatures this year.  I hope so anyway!

You can click on the pictures for a larger view.

On-Line Knitting Class

Mirth Fitted Raglan Shawl by Stefanie Japel

On September 7, 2009, I started the on-line knitting class taught by Stefanie Japel for the Mirth Fitted Raglan Shawl which she designed. It is the first time I’ve taken any sort of on-line class, or any sort of knitting class. Mostly, I wanted to take the class to learn how to knit a charted design. I’m almost ashamed to admit, that in my over 40 years of knitting – I’ve never knit a charted design and have always felt kind of intimidated by knitting charts, they look so complex and hard to understand. I’ve knitted lace before but have always followed the written out row by row kind of instructions. So, when I found out about the class I hurried to sign up as the main emphasis of the class is learning how to understand charts and knit from charts.

Stefanie is teaching the class through her Ning website:

Stefanie Japel’s Knitting Studio

So far, the class has been even better than I expected! Stefanie has uploaded so many detailed videos to watch about every aspect knitting this shawl. She explains every line of each chart and shows clearly, in a video, how to knit it. There are forums and live chat where you can get together to talk about your progress and any problems you are having. It is really a wonderful learning experience – I think even better than a live class. The reason I think it is even better than a live class is because you can do it at your own pace, you can watch the video on how to knit a row of the chart and then do it yourself. If you have some problems, you can watch the video again. If you need help, you can ask in chat or in the forum. A live knitting class might last a few hours and you could forget a lot of stuff before you ever started on a certain part of the design. With this video class, you will be able to finish the whole shawl in the three weeks the class runs.

In the first week of the class, I’ve finished knitting Lace Chart 1 and am ready to start on Lace Chart 2 for the second week of class. I’ve learned so much about knitting from a chart – it’s fun, it’s logical and it’s much easier to understand than the written out instructions for lace!  Stefanie is a totally charming teacher who explains things so clearly that it is easy to understand.  Hopefully, she will teach more on-line classes soon, this one is really an enjoyable learning experience.

Here are some pictures of my progress, you can click on any of them for a larger view:

Lorna's Laces Green Line Worsted - Fresh

This is the yarn I used, Lorna’s Laces Green Line Worsted.  It is very nice to work with.  I love the colorway which is called Fresh but think the lace pattern would have shown up better in a solid color.

Starting The Shawl

At the start of the shawl, there is a very clever cast on to make the top look great.

3 Repeats of Chart 1

Here is the shawl after three repeats of Lace Chart 1.  The multi color yarn does hide the lace pattern a bit but it also hides the couple of mistakes I’ve made!

5 Repeats of Chart 1 - Ready to Start Chart 2

The shawl now has five repeats of Lace Chart 1 completed and I’m ready to start with Lace Chart 2.  It is getting very large – it’s on a 47 inch needle and starting to get a bit cramped.

Can’t wait to see how the new lace pattern from Chart 2 will turn out!

Ravelry Meetup In Santa Fe

Ravelry held a Meetup in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Oodles Yarn and Bead Gallery on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009 and I got to go!  We don’t live really close to Santa Fe – a little over a two hour drive - but my husband said he didn’t mind driving down so I could attend the Meetup and get some shopping done in Santa Fe, as well.  So, we went!  Well, he didn’t attend the Meetup, he hung around Borders Bookstore while I was there.

For those of you who don’t know what Ravelry is – it’s an on-line community for knitters, crochet people, spinners and weavers.

It was so nice meeting Mary Heather and many other Ravelers and putting faces to user names.  There were lots of people there – well over 20.  Everyone had fun visiting, knitting and shopping at Oodles Yarn and Bead Gallery.  It is a very nice Yarn Shop – lots and lots of yarns and cozy areas to sit and knit.  Even though we’ve been in Santa Fe many times, I had never been in this shop before.  It is a narrow but very long store and they have an amazing amount of yarn.

I’m so glad my husband didn’t mind driving down so I could attend the Meetup – it was very enjoyable!

Here are some pictures of the Meetup – you can click on any of them for a larger view.

Mary Heather visited with everyone.

Long, narrow yarn shop.

Having fun.

Everyone enjoyed shopping.

Cozy space to knit.

Afterwards, we got some shopping done at a nice grocery store called Sunflower Farmer’s Market – kind of like Whole Foods but more reasonably priced and so many things available in bulk and very fresh produce.  We shall go back there next time we are in Santa Fe.

We also ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Pranza.  The soup was amazing – you could taste every individual flavor – spinach, cheese and cauliflower. 

Dinner at Pranza's

All in all, we had a very fun Saturday road trip to Santa Fe!

Roasted Green Chili

It is the time of year for roasting green chillies, they are very popular in this part of the country (southern Colorado and northern New Mexico).  Every little grocery store has a chili roaster outside and there are people who just set up chili roasting equipment alongside the road to sell the roasted green chili, the local farmer’s markets usually sell them as well.  The smell is wonderful, it is so evocative of the southwest. 

It is amazing how much the chilies shrink after they are roasted – what starts out as a huge burlap bag filled with fresh green chilies comes out of the roaster and fits into a much smaller plastic bag for you to take home.

Just out of the roaster.

My husband helped me get our batch ready to freeze.  We set them out on paper towels to drain – after roasting, they build up a lot of fluid in the plastic bag they were placed in right out of the roaster.  Then we put 5 or 6 chilies in quart size freezer bags.  I rolled these down tightly and sealed the bag and then placed them in another quart bag and rolled that down tightly as well before placing in the freezer.

Preparing chilies for freezing.

They thaw quickly when you want to use the frozen chilies.  After thawing, you clean the chili and then chop it up to use on just about anything!  Roasted green chili tastes good with so many things – it is great on top of any sort of meat (kind of like mushrooms on a steak), it tastes wonderful in omelets or scrambled eggs, you can put it in any sort of soup or stew.  It’s also a very tasty topping for burgers or sandwiches of any sort.  Of course, it makes fabulous green chili!  We use a LOT of green chili!

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

The Reversible Herringbone Scarf – A Small Knitting Dream Come True!

Reversible Herringbone Scarf

Knitting has been a part of my life for a very long time – over 45 years.  For a long while now, I’ve wished I could publish some of my own original knitting patterns.  Well, that dream has come true!  My very first published knitting pattern – the Reversible Herringbone Scarf is available to download on the top right of this blog.   If you click on the small picture on the top right or the larger picture in this post a PDF document of the pattern will open in a new window.

This pattern was submitted to Ravelry and I’ve been accepted as a designer there!  It isl so exciting that after all these years this small knitting dream is coming true!

If you are a knitter, you’ve probably heard of Ravelry.  If you haven’t, it is a wonderful on-line community for knitters, crochet people, spinners and even weavers.   If you like any kind of fiber arts and don’t belong to Ravelry - JOIN – it’s free!   My user name is: Sammie

This is a very versatile scarf pattern – it can be made in many widths and is a suitable pattern stitch for men, women or children.  It can be made in any weight of yarn as well.  The most important thing, to me, in a scarf pattern – is for the scarf to look good on both sides – this scarf looks the same on both sides.  Also, it is super simple to knit – the instructions are very detailed without lots of abbreviations.  It works best in a plain color so the stitch pattern is visible and a soft yarn which would feel nice around your neck.

Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread

Recently, I purchased two Nordicware Shortbread pans.  They are very nice heavy pans made of cast aluminum.  For some strange reason, I have this “thing”  (not enough of a “thing” to really be a fetish) for pans and kitchen equipment – I love to get kitchen stuff and then end up not using a lot of it.

Shortbread Pans

So, I decided to make some Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread to try out the new pans – before they just became some more dust collecting clutter in my kitchen.

Pressing Shortbread Dough In Pans

This is the recipe I  used:

Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread

1 Pound of Butter – Softened (Two Sticks – be sure to use Real Butter NOT margarine)

1 Cup of Powdered Sugar (Sometimes called Confectioner’s or Icing Sugar)

2 Cups of Flour

2 Heaping Tablespoons Freshly Grated Lemon Rind or Zest (You can use even more if you’d like)

2 Tablespoons Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

1 Heaping Tablespoon Poppy Seeds

(One large lemon should be enough – grate the skin and then squeeze it)

Microplane Grater/Zester

In preparation, grate the zest (skin) on the lemon, I love to use my Microplane Grater/Zester for this – it makes short work of making mountains of lemon zest!  After grating the skin cut the lemon in half and squeeze out the juice.

Cream the butter and powdered sugar together in a large bowl.  Add the lemon zest and juice and the poppyseeds.  Start mixing in the flour a bit at a time.  I usually just use my hands to knead the flour in.  Keep kneading until you get a nice smooth dough.

Press the dough evenly into the shortbread pan – or, into a 9 inch square or round cake pan or pie pan.  If you aren’t using a shortbread pan, you can sprinkle some granulated or coarse sugar on the top before baking.

Put into a preheated 300 degrees F oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until slightly browned around the edges.

Out of the Oven

If using shortbread pans let the pans cool 5 minutes or so before removing the shortbread.  To remove, put a cutting board over the pan – hold the cutting board and pan together and turn them upside down quickly. Set them down on the counter and lift the pan off the shortbread – it should come right off. Shortbread has so much butter that is never sticks.  Cut along the lines left from the pan with a sharp knife while still warm – it will crumble if you wait till it is totally cool to cut it.  If you are using 9 inch square or round pan – let the pan cool a few minutes than cut the shortbread into pieces with a sharp knife, then when the shortbread is cool recut along the same lines and remove from the pan.  It will crumble if you wait until it is completely cool to cut it.  Round pans look nice cut into wedges.

Shortbread from Snowflake Pan

Shortbread from darker Pan

As you can see from the pictures – I made a double recipe.  This Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread is really good – it is tender and has a wonderful lemon flavor with that nutty taste of poppy seeds!  It stores well in a tin or plastic container with a lid that seals tightly. Put some parchment or wax paper in the container before storing the shortbread – plain white paper towel works, too. 

Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread

Enjoy your Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread!

This recipe shouldn’t need any adjustment for altitude.  I live and bake at a high altitude (7,605 feet) and it turned out perfectly.  Since shortbread has no levening - baking it at a lower altitude shouldn’t make much difference.  The baking time might be less at a lower altitude.  It took 35 minutes to bake this.

Farmer’s Market

Well, it’s been ages since I’ve blogged.  It’s hard to say why, I often think about it but then never get around to actually doing it – kind of the story of my life.  Actually, I have been busy but not so busy that I couldn’t do a blog post once in awhile.  Hopefully, this post will prime the blogging pump.

Damp Farmer's Market

Ana - She Knit the Sweater She's Wearing!

Anyway, my husband came home from work a bit early today so we could go to the La Jara Farmer’s Market, it is on Friday afternoons and starts at 3pm and ends around 6 or 7 pm or when it starts to rain – as it usually seems to do on Friday afternoons just because of the Market (it seems that way).  It had been a damp sort of day and there weren’t a lot of vendors.  However, there was some very nice looking produce at very good prices – I got some squash and some nectarines.  We saw quite a few people we know and had fun talking with them.  There were lots of interesting people from old farmers to Amish folks.  My knitting friend, Ana, was there – she had a booth and was selling some of her hand knit items.  There was a very good guitar player, too - a bit loud, but very good. 

Yellow Carrots

Fresh Onions

 

Since I am NOT a morning person, I really like the La Jara Farmer’s Market being on Friday afternoons instead of on Saturday morning like most Farmer’s Markets.  Otherwise, I might miss seeing interesting people like these!

Melon Seller

  

Checking Peaches

It was drizzling while we were walking around the market.  Shortly after we left and returned home, it started raining quite hard. 

Knitting With Friends

Every other Wednesday evening, a group of us from our tiny town get together at each other’s homes to knit, drink tea and chat. It is very low key and very relaxing and enjoyable. Most of the people who participate are very young – in their 20’s, except me!  Even though I’m more than old enough to be the mother of all the others – it is easy to be friends.

Busy Hands, Happy Hearts

I really like this picture – you can see everyone’s hands, busy with their current project.  You can click on the picture to view it at Flickr where a much larger version is available.

Although I’ve been knitting for almost 48 years, this is the first time I’ve been able to get together on a regular basis with other knitters. It’s wonderful!  These young people are a breath of fresh air in life – it’s refreshing and energizing just to be around them.

Even though we live in a very small town of about 725 people – we met through the internet! We ran into each other through Ravelry and Flickr. That is especially strange when you consider that four of the young people in this photo live in a house on the same street as me – just 3 houses down the street!