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I really have to start blogging more than just once a month. I’d say it was my new year’s resolution, but, well, since it’s halfway thru January, and this is the first blog post of the year, I’d say I fail. I was never really good at making resolutions anyway. Ha!

So, you may know that this weekend is VK Live in NYC. I was lucky to get a volunteer position this year, as opposed to being just an attendee. I got to see the behind the scenes bits (lots of boxes and people running around like crazy), and lend a helping hand to my fellow knitters, AND enjoy the marketplace like a regular attendee. I even got to take a class this time around. I was not planning on taking a class, but scanned the list anyway, and just as I was about to give up, I saw a 1 hour weaving intensive. I was excited and I was not disappointed.

There was a little bit of history on weaving, and then we were sent to the looms to play. We covered plain weave, basket weave, twill and herringbone. I believe we were on Ashford looms (4 shaft table loom) and compared to my $10 garage sale find…holy cow. I could have done that all damn day. The one hour flew by and next thing you know, we were packing it up and I walked out of class with this.

My volunteer shift for the day was to be at the marketplace entrance and check to make sure people entering had badges and wristbands. And answer questions on where things were (mainly classrooms, fashion shows and most importantly, bathrooms). I got to see a whole lot of people walk by. And a whole lot of knit wear and knit wear designers. It was fantastic.

At several points in the day, I walked around the marketplace. I talked with Alasdair Post-Quinn about double knitting for a few minutes (I wanted to force him to mentor me…my double knitting is nowhere near as impressive as his is). I contemplated briefly a purchase of qiviut sock yarn ($90), but I managed to walk away from it. I did get a copy of Knitting with the Color Guys for being a volunteer, and Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably were signing today, so I got the book signed just before I headed out.

The entire time I was in the city, other than a bag I bought at Nine West (70% off!!), food and transportation, I spent no money. WHAT?! Not one bit of yarn has been added to my stash this weekend. I’m quite proud of myself. I’ve got WAY too much as it is.

I leave you with a picture of my sister’s cat Buddy…who looks like he may be a cousin of some other orange tabbys I know…(and if you want more VK Live photos, they are here)

This holiday season is very lean. But I still wanted to give those I loved a small gift. So I spent just a small amount of money for materials and headed to work.

But, before we take a look at Christmas presents, let me show you what I did last weekend.

The husband has a disco ball suit. I’m not even sure where he purchased it, but he wanted to turn it into a Santacon outfit. So I hand sewed fur trim around the lapels, the cuffs, and the bottom edging of the jacket. He was quite shiny, and quite a hit at Santacon I am told.

While he was out at Santacon, I used my free day to work on Christmas presents. I had marinated 2 different cuts of meat (brisket and london broil) for about 4 days and put them in the oven to make….homemade beef jerky! Now, I don’t eat the stuff, but I tasted it, and for someone that doesn’t eat jerky, it was pretty darn good.

I filled up 2 canning jars, each with a different cut of meat, and topped the jar with a bit of scrapbooking paper.

Those are for the men in my life. The women are getting a canning jar as well. One of these:

That is filled with homemade Vanilla Brown Sugar body scrub. I couldn’t find sunflower oil in my supermarket, so subbed safflower oil. It smells delish and I’m almost sad that there wasn’t enough for a jar for me!

To top off the little bags with the jars of goodies, I made two batches of peppermint bark and put them into festive bags.

I never realized how easy peppermint bark was to make! Some melted dark chocolate, a smidge of peppermint extract and crushed candy canes. The hubby may have called me Martha Stewart as I was filling up the gift bags with jars and bark bags. And after today’s cupcake making, I may have to agree with him.

We’re attending a surprise 40th birthday party tomorrow, and I was tasked to make cupcakes. I wanted something simple, and not chocolate. I settled upon cupcake 23 from here. Ok, not SO simple, but it was exactly what I was thinking of. And of course, I made minis.

I tasted a bit of the lemon filling on the center pieces that I cut out, along with a small dollop of frosting….this cupcake tastes like lemon meringue pie. The picky kid, who does not eat pie unless it is chocolate pudding pie, stated: “This makes me rethink my position on pie.” I say this is a winner.

Whatever holiday you celebrate this season, happy holidays, from my family to yours. <3

This year, I have much to be thankful for. Like, my health. I’m thankful that I did not do more damage to myself at the end of last year and that the fracture wasn’t one vertebrae lower. I am also thankful that Hurricane Irene didn’t do that much damage to my house or my neighborhood. I am mostly thankful that we had the money this year to fly my mother in law up from Florida to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Because she is in town, I wanted to have all of my family at the dinner table. My brother and sister and their significant others. My brother in law and his family. My mother & stepfather. The invites just kept going and I ended up with 18 at my table.

There were 2 turkeys, a ham and a crapload of sides. As we were clearing up the table and getting it ready for dessert to come out, my back crapped out on me. The pain put me in tears, and I knew that it was from all the prep for the day. I also knew that over the counter meds would not be sufficient. I feel bad that I didn’t get to spend time with some of my guests because I was hopped up on muscle relaxers and laying down. But I think they understood.

Today, the day after turkey day, I have slept, ate leftovers, read on my new Kindle Fire (my birthday present!), and well, started a new hobby. Because I needed a new one like I need a hole in my head.

I purchased this loom at a yard sale in the summer. I’ve been busy with Knit Picks projects, knitting of my own, and just life in general and haven’t had the time to sit down with instructions and play with it. But with a week off of work, and a clean house, family fed, no knit picks projects, and only a scarf for the husband on the needles (ok, 2 projects on hiatus as well), I thought this was the perfect time to play.

I warped the loom with some white yarn that I found in stash. It’s probably some yarn I bought to make for baby stuff. Not quite red heart, but close enough, and good for playing around with the loom.

The yarn on the shuttle is some leftover sock yarn. I know it’s different weights, which is probably a no-no, but for my practice piece, I’m ok with it. Next time, I’ll work on having the yarns the same weight.

My thoughts on weaving? So far, so good. The warping of the loom took a long time, and I didn’t quite get it at first, but now that it’s done, I might be able to do it a little quicker the next time. The passing the shuttle back and forth and the up/down shed is not as….relaxing/rhythmic as I had hoped, but maybe it just takes time. We’ll see. I still have another few days before going back to work.

A fairly last minute decision was made to go to Rhinebeck this year. My normal crew were planning on either a day trip or not going at all, so I was unsure. Then I talked to Nancy and we arranged for me to crash on a cot in her hotel room.

This trip up was fairly relaxed, as I had no plan of action in purchasing things, seeing things, or eating things, other than lamb chili and the chopstick knitting competition. Lamb chili was bought and eaten:

I placed fourth in the chopstick knitting competition:

I’m rather pleased with myself, and proud that I placed 2 higher than last year. Shall I aim for 2nd next year? Hahah!

I did purchase some yarn, only 3 skeins. 2 from Tess Designer Yarns (one Peruvian Dream, one Baby Alpaca & Silk), and one from Sanguine Gryphon (Little Traveller sock yarn). I also got a signed copy of the Yarn Harlot’s new book, and got to give her a cupcake.

I’ve got plans for the Tess yarn, as soon as I finish up the stuff I’m currently working on. Oh heck, who am I kidding? It’ll get started as soon as I am bored with what I’ve got on the needles, which will happen quite shortly!

Another great Rhinebeck trip under my belt. Already looking forward to next year, and possibly Maryland next year? Who knows!

PS Anyone in need of a Cables & Arans Harmony stitch book? I got one as a prize from chopstick knitting, and I thought that I didn’t have it, but, alas, I already do. Will send it off to anyone who’s interested….

Did you ever do stained glass as a kid? Ok, well not quite stained glass like church windows and such, but I remember doing something called stained glass as a kid. So, way back when Handknit Holidays came out and I saw the stained glass scarf, it reminded me of that time in my life when I did the stained glass craft. I immediately put that scarf in my rav queue, and there it sat. Forever. Until now.

I purchased yarn awhile back to make the scarf, and it’s sat on a shelf. I bought KP Chroma in Mix Tape and the solid brown. I liked the name Mix Tape, and thought that it would be suitable for the hubby. Well, the pink and teal color is not so….manly.

I’ve done about 3 feet so far, and I’m only about 1/2 way thru each of the balls of yarn. I have another ball of each, if I feel like I need more length when I’m done with the first balls.

Anyone headed to Rhinebeck this weekend? I’ll be there, even though I don’t have a 2011 Rhinebeck sweater. You’ll be able to catch me entering the chopstick knitting competition again on Saturday, at 3pm in Building E. If you see me, say hi!

The kid turns 11 tomorrow. I’m not sure how that happened. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he was 4? Sigh. Anyway, since his birthday is on a school day, we celebrated this weekend.

He was given a few choices on how to celebrate, and he finally decided upon a family trip to Six Flags Great Adventure. Now, I can’t ride the rides because of my back. But I was a trooper and held bags/hats/glasses while everyone else rode. To keep me occupied while I waited, I knit.

Heck yeah, I brought knitting! It was in a fabric project bag underneath some handknits for the evening in case anyone got cold. They didn’t search inside the project bag.

The kid had a blast, riding all the coasters except Kingda Ka, only because it was closed. We got home a little after midnight, and we were all exhausted. But I had to get up early to start my baking. We had family come over today for cake, and I needed to make cupcakes for him to take to school tomorrow. I made an angel food cake, used up some bananas while I had the oven on and made banana bread with chocolate chips, and red velvet cupcakes.

I forgot to get a picture of the cake. I made a fresh whipped cream to go with it, and some sliced strawberries (thanks to my brother for slicing them). The cake went SO quickly, there almost weren’t any crumbs left. I guess it was good! The banana bread also missed a photo shoot, but I was told that it was REALLY good. The cupcakes are done and frosted with “The best frosting I’ve ever had“, which hubby proclaims tastes almost like vanilla ice cream.

All in all today, I have used 16 eggs (4 whole, 12 egg whites), 5 3/4 cups of sugar, 6 cups of flour, and 2 1/2 cups of butter (1 cup of that was butter flavored shortening). I also made dinner (dumplings that I made and froze on Friday night), so I feel like I spent the last 12 hours in the kitchen/dining room on my feet. Ok, I did take 2 naps, but on the napping couch that’s in the dining room! But it’s all worth it for the smile on the kid’s face. He is the world to me.

Happy birthday, kid!

Oh my. I have no excuses on why the blog is dusty. I just haven’t felt the urge to blog. I have been knitting my fingers away though. And to celebrate the return of electricity after Irene hit, I baked cupcakes. Wanna see?

Mini lemon cupcakes with a lemon/lime buttercream frosting. I had to make 2 batches of frosting, which was ok, because the second batch included several teaspoons of Whipped Cream Vodka in it. You couldn’t taste the vodka, which was good and scary at the same time. I am particularly proud of these, since I just watched an episode of Top Chef Just Desserts and the professional cake maker said that lemon was one of THE hardest ingredients to work with to get a perfect taste. And these cupcakes were perfect.

I have been steadily working on Eadon (rav link) for a few weeks, having plenty of knitting time during my evacuation from my home during Hurricane Irene. Thankfully the only damage done was flooding in the crawlspace (heating/ac unit was damaged slightly, but should be covered by FEMA), and my garden was destroyed. I managed to save the carrots though, and I’m happy I did. They are kaleidoscope carrots, which are different colors, and I’m so happy I got to pull them and enjoy the fun colors. See?

Eadon was finished on Monday night, and is currently blocking.

Next is to finish the knitting, though I think I need to rip out and redo the fronts, of Hey Teach. I put it aside for Eadon, and it’s time to pick it back up. I also have a sock in progress, the second of the 2. I’m enjoying the knitting for me.

Also, if you aren’t already peeking at my photos on facebook and/or flickr, I’m doing Project 365, and you can see them here. I bailed the first time I tried this, after about a month. Maybe not even. I’ve hit the 100 day mark today, and I’m quite proud of that.

I’ve been up to my ears in secret KP knitting. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. I finished all the pieces and sewed and cut steeks. I’ve just got to do all the finishing now.

While I was waiting for the pieces to block/dry, I whipped up a baby quilt for a baby shower I’m going to next weekend. I still have to do the quilting bit and the binding, but that’s the easy part, right?

I may even start on a project for myself (!) while I wait for the pieces to dry. I purchased a sweater’s worth of Spud & Chloe Sweater Worsted back on KIP day with Bezzie and Chris, and was going to start on another Hey Teach, since my first one felted, even though it was knit in superwash wool. I’m thinking this will be a cute addition of color to when the temps go back to being cool. I’m not a fan of the heat, but really people, it IS summer….it’s SUPPOSED to be hot!!

July 1982. I am 7, sitting in my favorite oversized armchair at my grandparents house, with a new book from the library. A Babar book. The phone rings. My grandmother tells me it’s my mother. My mother has made what is probably the hardest phone call she has ever had to make. She has called to tell me that my father has died. They went to Canada for they honeymoon they never took and left us kids with the grandparents. They were fishing, and there was a problem with the boat. My dad went under to try to fix it and never surfaced. The 7 year old in me has never let go of the fact that Canada took my dad.

Fast forward almost 30 years. After the power of the internet and learning to knit and making friends with people all over the world, I thought maybe it was time to face the big, scary country just north of me. Coincidentally, the Purple Purl and Knitty were hosting another roundtable the day of my arrival, so the wonderful husband said we could leave a day early so I could make it.

We stayed on the Canada side of Niagara Falls.

We visited Toronto (about an hour and a half north of the Falls).

I got to go to a yarn tasting/Knitty roundtable and stalk see Amy Singer and Lynne again.

I even won a prize at the roundtable!

The trip was emotional at times, but I faced just a portion of the big, scary country to the north of me, and sometime in the future, I’d like to explore other parts of it. Canada, you’re not so scary anymore.

It took a long time to knit, and some time to put the pieces together, but the Rock Band blanket is done! I am SO happy with the way it turned out.

The panels were originally going to be 3 one way, 3 upside down, but as I started to sew them together (whipstitched…it was quicker than any other way I tried, and I tried about 6 different ways of seaming), I mistakenly sewed them together wrong. After my mini breakdown, hubby helped me figure out a new way of rearranging the panels to accommodate my little mistake instead of having to rip out the seam and redo it. And I think it looks better this way. I did 2 rounds of double crochet, one in each color, as the border. It is enough of a border to make it look finished, but not take away from the Rock Band symbols, which is what I wanted to be the “star”.

I can not wait to give it to the parents to be. There is a Rock Band night at a bar in the city on Monday nights and hubby and I will be giving it to them there.