Licensed2Knit

Seriously….?   Qiviut sock yarn?  Oh my <faint>   Wow!  This is incredible news right?  Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think so…qiviut sock yarn!!!  Oh my!  <faint>   Wow!  I just looked at the price!   $88.00 per skein!    You can get some here.  Just make sure to save me some.

I would love to have some qiviut sock yarn of course it’s not 100% qiviut it’s a blend but still… I think this would make the most luxurious pair of socks ever…ever!!!!!  I just had to share this.  Back to what you are doing.

Hello 2013!  I greet you with a big smile.

The new year brings a sense of renewal for me…much like spring.   I resolve to do things.   I have no hard and fast rules for 2013 except that I plan to spend my energies on people, projects, and endeavors that I love.   This includes you my blog…I love you and I do not leave myself enough time to nurture you properly.  Things change…so here we go…

I begin today with something I have always meant to do….a book review.  I am inspired by a cookbook that I must return to the library this week The Official SEC Tailgating Cookbook by Southern Living.  I must preface by saying…for all intents and purposes…I am a Big Ten girl.  I wasn’t always a Big Ten girl, I began life as a PAC-12 girl then after relocating to the Midwest I became a Big Ten girl.  So I find it interesting that…the SEC  has a lot going on, as far as good food goes and football and I have never ever lived there…ever.  I love Southern Living and I have never met a Southern Living cookbook that I didn’t like.  The editors at Southern Living really know how to pick and tweet a recipe.  My “go to” recipes are usually found within the pages of a Southern Living Magazine or cookbook.  Checking out this particular book in the final throes of football season really has my taste buds tingling.  This book makes my mouth water.

Rarely do I make the time to read a cookbook much less try out more than one or two recipes.  I read this book from cover to cover and learned many interesting facts and traditions about all 14 SEC member schools.  As I drooled my way through this cookbook I noticed that there is a picture of every recipe which is a deal breaker for me when it comes to deciding whether buy into the recipes or not.    I mean, why would I want to make a recipe if they refuse to even show me a picture of the final product.  Also…this cookbook is packed full of recipes for all my favorite cooking times of the year….all of them.  This isn’t a warm or cool weather cookbook, it’s both!  I love the great number of recipes that are for foods to share.  My co-workers will attest to my readiness to bring in tasty food to share at the drop of a hat.  They are also my usual Guinea Pigs for trying out new recipes and they do so without complaint.

I love how the book is so well-laid out too.  It begins with grilling tips and food safety…a must if you are truly tailgating.  The food fun starts in chapter 2 with breakfast items…a great chapter since breakfast continues to be my favorite meal of the day.  Chapter 3 – beverages hot and cold!  The baristas at Starbucks may just see a bit less of me if I end up purchasing this book.  It’s already in my Amazon cart as I type.

Crunch Time – a football term and the title of chapter 4 which includes appetizers and the like, mouth watering is all I am going to say!

You will get “bowled-over” by chapter 5 which is the chili and stew section followed by it’s perfect accompaniment the sandwich found in many incarnations in chapter 6.  Rounding out the final chapters 7 and 8 are Sideline Favorites and The Sugar Bowl which as you can guess from the very appropriate football reference names are the side dishes and sweets chapters.

Should you buy this book?  Depends….do you like to cook?  Do you like really tasty food?  This is real food…not fancy, just delicious and very duplicatable.  The techniques are not difficult and the ingredients are not hard to acquire so…if you can answer either of those questions with an affirmative then I would recommend that you first check it out at the library and then when you taste just how yummy the food is that you create then…YES… I recommend you purchase it as I am planning to do.

Warmly greeting 2013 with homemade cinnamon rolls.

Happy Eating!

Hi there, it’s been a while but I’ve been busy.  I do want to share my Vogue Knitting Live – Chicago experience with you.  I loved it!  I took the train with fellow knitting friend Celeste.  Purchased items at the first two booths I saw and then asked it Celeste would hold onto my VISA card for me.  It turns out that I really just needed those items and became very discriminating after that.   I bought a skein of gradient wool from natural to black at Tess Designer yarns…very pretty and some silk ribbon and beads from that second booth to knit some jewelry.  I have been on a jewelry making kick lately so that still totally makes sense to me.  I saw some kntting celebs like Amy Detjen, Vicki Howell, Melissa Leapman, Debbie Stoller,  Cirilia Rose, and Debbie Macomber but only hugged one of them…Amy…though I did have a nice conversation with Debbie Macomber.   Besides my children’s duties…I assist with planning and organizing knitting related programs at the library where I work.  We had been discussing collection tie-ins for an upcoming event and thought that an author visit or Skype would really be fun for this spring.  So I mentioned the project, Friendship Shawls, and the idea we had to Debbie and she was in to it.  I was given a card to contact her publicist so… fingers crossed…we’ll see what happens.

Someone new that I met was Steven Be  from Minneapolis, I loved his booth and enthusiasm.  I was a bit worried about his choice of using 35 mm film to knit his sweater.  I didn’t want the man to go up in flames and all but he told me to look at his hair…he claimed to have so much product in his hair that any fire would have to ignite there so the sweater threat was minor in comparison.  I bought the Bee Sweet Bubble Ball from him and a couple of other skeins to knit their Soft and Sensuous Scarf.   I wish I could remember all the ways that the designer showed me how to wear it but I am hopeful I can figure it out.

Steven Be

I also purchased a bracelet/necklace called such because it can be worn as either and a matching pair of earrings.  The fine folks at Bijou Basin got me again and I bought a skein of the purple Seraphim angora to stash for another scarf.  I still haven’t finished knitting the gray one that bought at Midwest Stitches…Christmas knitting must come first.

I finally was able to connect with gal pals Jodee and Laura before making a mad dash back to the train so Celeste and I could see our respective husbands that night.  We almost didn’t make it to the train in time because of that Critical Mass bike protest but we did and a good time was had by all.  My only hope is that next year all vendors will be on one floor, other than that I thought the Palmer House was quite lovely.

I was shopping at Target for more tights when I ventured back to see the Christmas stuff that they put out when I saw some holiday bathroom accessories that almost made me topple over.  Look at this cute tumbler, now Dee’s favorite new vase.

Cabled Vase

I love this extra hour we have this morning…I am getting so much done!  Especially since I have to work today so I better go …besides a freshly baked chocolate croissant is calling my name so until next time…Happy Knitting!

So many things about autumn excite me….cooler weather….football….fall color…and going to Wisconsin.  I have been lucky enough to attend Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp for 4 out of the last 5 years.   I am really hoping to continue this trend until the end of time.  If you have never been, I feel for you, really I do.  It’s the best time a knitter can have especially if you like Scandinavian knitting and rustic wool.

Here’s a picture of Meg and I…yes…Meg Swansen and I….are you jealous yet?  Don’t be because she would love you too if you met her.  Isn’t she the most gorgeous woman you have ever laid eyes on?!

Me and Meg

Camp begins on a Thursday evening and ends at lunchtime on Sunday.  I drove up with pals Jodee and Laura.   We hit a few yarn shops on the way up which made for a very fun trip.  I simply loved a shop called The Dragonfly Yarn Shop in Janesville, WI.  I bought some knitting trinkets as gifts as well as a few items from her sale bin.  I grabbed two skeins of Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky one in grey and one brown, a ball of Zitron Trekking 6 in orange and yellows, a pewter mitten pin, and a couple of magazines.  After checking out the IK Holiday Knitting Issue I decided to knit this cowl with the Chunky Alpaca.  I have always wanted to knit some owl cables and I think the button eye closure is quite clever.  I will probably keep one and gift one.

Next stop was Lakeside Fibers and then Sow’s Ear where I didn’t find a single thing to buy at either one.   We stopped for lunch at a French bakery named La Baguette that I will be dreaming about until the next time I go up there.  I had a tuna sandwich on their ciabatta bread and the bread was so fresh and melt in your mouth that I was thankful to be sitting down….it’s that good!

When we made it to camp about 4ish with no thanks to Susan my GPS who can be quite insane at times…and we met up with Desiree who gifted me a sparkly microphone necklace that I wore all weekend.    Dinner was at the Holiday Inn that night and then I showed Jodee and Desiree how to make those beaded wrap bracelets.

The following morning we began our day with a hearty breakfast at Meg’s sister’s place The Kitchen Table.  Their food is amazing, Lloie makes the bread fresh daily and it makes the best wheat toast I have ever tasted.  Apparently I have a real weakness for bread…hmmmm.  The Kitchen Table is only open for breakfast and lunch Monday-Saturday so we simply had to eat there on the following morning as well where I tasted her oat pancakes.  I already have the recipe book from a previous year so I am totally making those soon.

We made a trip to the dairy for some cheese hoarding and saw some calves and pups on the farm.  I also loved the antique milk bottle display.

Next stop was Janet’s Yarn Shop.  I always stop in for some embroidered flour sack towels.  They are so well made and fun.  Using them each day makes me smile and remember my trip plus they make great gifts too!  Janet’s had a team colors yarn table that made me smile and snap a shot.  Too bad it’s Red Heart!

I splurged when we went to the Schoolhouse Press Warehouse.  I grabbed a copy of Designs And Patterns From Muhu Island, A Needlework Tradition From Estonia, some metal buttons, and two skeins of Ultra Alpaca in complimenting shades of purple for long arm warmers.  As swag this year the lovely ladies of Schoolhouse Press gave everyone a copy of Meg and Amy’s new book Knitting With Two Colors.  It’s fast becoming one of my favorite and most useful knitting books ever.  I was happy to see the Burt Reynolds mask again at the warehouse.

Burt Reynolds Mask

Sadly…I didn’t complete the camp project at camp this year like I had wanted.  I was having major brain sensory overload issues and settled down into it too late in the game.  Next year….

I have to go…I am roasting a turkey breast for dinner tonight….

So there you have it, a taste of my wonderful weekend in Wisconsin.  I’ll leave you with a picture of some new friends that we passed along the way.

Buffalo!

This was a very productive weekend.  I blocked three finished objects, two of them are mine to keep and one is for gifting this holiday season.   Let’s start with the oldest.  I began this smoke ring way back in 2007 maybe?   It’s knit from qiviut that my old B&N  knitting buddies gifted me for one of my birthdays.   I am not sure why I ever stopped working on it because it’s gorgeous!   I finished it as part of the Ravellenic Games this year.  Very easy to knit, if you like lace knitting with patterning on every row.

HeartStrings Flared Lace Smoke Ring

Item number two is the Flower Basket Shawl that I started in May 2012 to wear to a wedding in St. Louis, MO.   I was no where near completion the day of the wedding but it seriously didn’t matter since it was well over 100 degrees in St. Louis and I wanted to wear no clothing at all much less a silk and wool shawl.  It’s finished now and ready to wear this fall.  I love it.  It’s made from Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in Olive.  This is the second FBS I’ve made in this yarn… in this shade.  The first one I made was a Christmas gift for my mom using only 2 skeins and I loved the feel and the color so very much so I ordered more yarn.  I wanted something I could really wrap up in…plus I loved the shade so much that I hoarded 5 skeins because the color was being discontinued.  Four skeins would have been plenty for my lovely shawl, I used just slightly over that.  I am so very happy with how it turned out.

Flower Basket Shawl in Silky Wool

Lastly, I have yet another Flower Basket Shawl to share with you.  Yes, it seems that I am slightly obsessed with this pattern…but I think that Evelyn Clark writes the best, most intuitive lace shawl patterns out there.  She really does…since she is a genius.  I have knit a number of her designs so I know what I am talking about.   This shawl is knit from a discontinued yarn that I bought at Midwest Stitches a couple of years ago….Sheep Shop 3.   Now that I have knit with this yarn I am sad that it is gone!  But I shall not despair too long since I have 3 more skeins in my stash…no big surprise there…huh?!    This shawl gave me a bit of a problem.  I wanted to make it as large as humanly possible so I researched the yarn and pattern on Ravelry and most ladies said they got 8 repeats.  So I knit 8 repeats and cast off…but I saw the remaining yarn and then I weighed it and saw there were 24 grams leftover!   A week went by and I still had not blocked the shawl as I tossed the thought of attempting another repeat.  In the end… I could not live with myself unless I tried so…I frogged back and knit one final repeat.  I can honestly say that I am happy with the finished shawl and will be proud to gift it in December.

Flower basket Shawl in Sheep Shop 3

So that is what I’ve been up to.  I have another Christmas project already on my needles.  It’s a cowl in purple for my MIL out of a feather and fan pattern, should be done in less than a week.  I am also preparing to head up to Wisconsin for Meg Swansen’s Two-Color knitting workshop.  This year I vow to finish the camp project at camp!  I have to admit though…that I have attended this workshop once before so I have the beginnings of a cute teddy bear sweater with steeks.  I actually only have the ribbing done…and that is the recommended homework so I technically do not have a head start…either way this sweater will be completed and posted for all of you to see and marvel at it’s cuteness when I return.  Happy knitting!

I have begun to think about Christmas knitting.  I took a peek at my Ravelry queue and my yarn closet.  My yarn closet is one of the places I stash my yarn…there are other places but this is where the “special” yarns reside.  I’ve discovered some lovely yarn treasures in there so why do I forget these lovelies when I am out and about engaging in yarn acquisitions?  I have no clue but it’s a great thing that my husband does not read my blog when I admit to failings such as this.   I really do have a recent and serious addiction to holiday hues yarns.   I hope everyone is ready for gifts reds and greens this holiday season….just kidding…those are all reserved for me….just kidding…maybe…I can’t decide?!

The gift projects I have in mind are a lace scarf, a lace shawl, a cowl, a pair of socks, another shawl, fingerless mitts, a scarf, and a pair of slippers.  So far that is eight smallish projects but very doable.  I am pretty sure that means no knitting for me though…whatever!  I prefer to gift handmade items, it makes me happy.  So what is my plan of attack?  Good question.  I have to decide where to start.  Maybe I should start with the projects that excite me most.  Just knit stuff and decide whom to gift it to at a later date.   Well I have a nook in a closet upstairs that is full of that kind of stuff, so maybe this is not a good plan.  I should probably match up the knits to people then cast on. Yes, this sounds like a smarter way to go about it.  Sure bets first then…everything else.  I wish there were more hat wearers in my gifting circle because I love knitting hats!!!!  Maybe I should slip in a couple of new hats for my boys.

I am very happy to say that I finished both of my Ravellenic events so I’ll leave you with a glamor shot of my HeartStrings Flared Lace Smoke Ring.  Which I am pretty sure I started in 2004 but I have August 2007 listed in my project notes.

HeartStrings Flared Lace Smoke Ring

I went home to California to visit my folks, brothers, and childhood friends.   I had a great time visiting with everyone.  Although I did visit a yarn shop in Solvang…guess who did not but any yarn at all?!!!   Yep that would be me!   I seriously remedied that situation at Midwest Stitches yesterday

Kathryn Alexander – Big Peaks Hat Kit

Valley Yarns – Charlemont Kettle Dye in Burgundy

Madeline Tosh – Tosh Merino Light Limited Edition in Spectrum

Madeline Tosh – Tosh Vintage in Spectrum 3 skeins

Valley Yarns – Huntington in Grey

Bijou Spun – Seraphim in Gray

Socks That Rock – Medium Weight in Holidazzle

I also bought a crochet book that is a gift and a Lamb Chop puppet to use at work when I do Lapsit programs.  Okay so what should I not have bought?  I probably should not have bought the two skeins of the Tosh Merino Light and the three skeins of Tosh Vintage.  I didn’t need them but I was so smitten with the colorway Spectrum.  I also should not have bought the Socks That Rock Holidazzle since I discovered upon returning home that I do indeed have a perchance for stashing special Christmas colorway dyed yarns.  Oops!!!!  No matter…they are all slightly different from one another but seriously…I must cry UNCLE! and stop!  I love the Seraphim…the saleswoman totally saw my coming when she suggested this one.  Please!…..a one skein pattern for a lacy cowl in an angora yarn…yeah…I was not leaving without that one…all of the ladies in my entourage were also sucker punched into getting a skein as well.  I believe the correct phrase is “resistance is futile.”

I sort of needed to buy the Kathryn Alexander kit…I have been obsessing over her hat kits for about 5 years or so…when I had seen them at the first annual Midwest Folk & Fiber Fest.  I have been itching to get my hands on one ever since.  I will knit this hat!

The three skeins of Huntington are to knit a pair of socks for my wonderful husband for Christmas.  He appreciates warm feet!  This fall is filled with fiber acquisition shoppertunities.  There is Vogue Knitting Live that is finally coming to Chicago.  Wisconsin’s Sheep and Fiber Fest which I haven’t been to in years and I kind of want to go…I mean…it’s in Wisconsin!  And there is my upcoming pilgrimage to Meg’s Fall Knitting Retreat.  Hey!  I think that there is a vacancy for that one…does anyone want to join in the fun?  If so, contact the fine folks at SchoolHouse Press.

I’ll post some California stuff at a later date perhaps…until then…Happy Knitting!

So Ravellenics 2012 starts tomorrow and I think I’ll be ready and waiting at the starting line.  I am competing in the Hatdash by knitting the Super Cupcake hat and I am competing in the Event WIP since I started my Smoke Ring ages ago and have never finished it.  I am hopeful that I will be victorious this year.  I entered the smoke ring in the last Ravelympics in the same category but I didn’t finish.  I have no clue why I do not make the time to finish this beauty….it’s made from qiviut for heavens sake!!!

I will also be striving to finish my Flower Basket Shawl which I started in May but I can’t enter it in the competition due to the quidelines set forth by the Ravellenics committee.  So I am going to a personal best record on this one.

I plan to accomplish all of this while on vacation in California so keeping my mind on the game is going to be very challenging.  Wish me luck!

Hopefully upon return from California I will have many pictures to post!

I just thought I would pop in and post a picture of my wrap bracelet.   This little beauty has quickly become one of my favorite things.