sock knitting journal

I've been knitting awhile and over the years I've found it to be helpful to keep notes on the projects that I've made.  While I love the project feature on Ravelry  I also keep "hard copies" of my  knitting notes.  The socks notes are in a ribbon-bound book I made especially for them.  Each project has 1 page with notes on gauge, needles, etc. along with a piece of the yarn  & the yarn's label.  The rest of my knitting projects are just in a 3-ring binder.  Each project has 1 clear sleeve containing the pattern, notes, yarn sample & label.

ink doodle

This ink doodle was inspired by something similar that my sister had pinned to one of her Pinterest boards.  To draw this I just lightly traced a pair of scissors with pencil and then drew the lines in ink.

peanut butter cookies

peanut butter cookies

1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup agave syrup
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder

• Cream together butter, peanut butter, agave syrup and egg.
• Fold in flour and baking powder.
• Place batter into refrigerator for 1 hour.
• Roll batter into 1" balls and place on baking sheet.    Pressing down lightly flatten each ball with a fork, forming a criss-cross pattern.
• Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes or until cookies begin to brown.

spinning

  Today I spun some more of the llama/merino mix that I've been working on.  while it is going a little faster now it is still slow.  I'm beginning to think that it is so slow because of the lanolin in the fiber.  The lanolin makes it a bit sticky and a slows down my drafting.  Not sure if that is just because  I'm inexperienced at spinning greasy wool or if that is just how it is.  As a test I spun some nongreasy wool as thin as I've been spinning the llama/merino and it spun up much faster.  I was able to spin & Navajo ply 3/4 of an ounce of this fiber in about 1/2 the time it took me to spin 1/4 ounce of the llama/merino fiber.

Over the weekend my husband & I stopped at North Star Alpacas  in Ithaca, MI.  It was lovely visiting with Maple, the owner, and meeting all of the adorable alpacas.  I also now have some yummy North Star fiber that I am looking forward to spinning up.

more spinning

I did some research on the web and found a couple of tips for spinning a little faster.  One was to wind on in "x"s which did seem to speed things up.  Hopefully it won't slow things down (i.e. become a tangled mess) when I need to unwind the cop.   I now have 1/2 of my llama/merino spun into singles and should have the other have spun up by the end of the week.  I have plans for family activities this weekend so I may not get much spinning time in nor probably much computer time.  Most likely I won't post again until Tuesday.

another yarning day

Yep, it was another "yarning" day.  I started a pair of socks - gull wing (info about the pattern & yarn is on my project page on Ravelry) and spun some more of my llama/merino mix.  The spinning is progressing slowly but it is the finest weight I've spun yet so that is encouraging at least.

knitting

Today I finished up my currant socks in progress.  Love the feel of this yarn, the color not so much.  It looks a little too army fatigue for my taste.  Oh well, they will keep my feet warm & cozy just the same.

sketch

A continuous line doodle-sketch.  While this started out as a tree (surprise), I think it morphed into underwater flora.  

spinning

Spinning with my new toy - a True Creations drop spindle.  I love this spindle :)  The fiber is a llama/merino mix (from Paradise Llama) that I bought last Saturday while we were at the Michigan Fiber Festival.  

knitting

Finished the  Wrenna cardigan that I started on Friday.  This was a really quick & easy knit.  It just needs to be blocked and it will be good to go.  I am very glad to be finished with this - the yarn had been sitting in my stash way too long.

just create experience

I have way too much stuff and could stand to start including some more non tangible ways of creating.  Such as creating an experience, which is what I chose as my daily "project" today.  My husband & I started the day off at The Michigan Fiber Festival which we had never been to.  The weather was perfect , the animals adorable and I only left with a smallish bag of new treasures (some roving and a purdy new spindle).  On the way home we played a nice (even though I lost) round of putt-putt at a kitschy old-school putt-putt course, stopped at a local winery for some fruity wine and got some excellent ice cream at Mooville.  A good day of experiences :)

Bluefaced Leicester sheep eating  at The Michigan Fiber Festival

and then being herded

red sweater

Another knitting day.   What can I say - it is just getting to be that time of year.  This is the start of Wrenna cardigan from the book French Girl Knits by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes.

another knitting day

I wasn't planning on knitting much today but sometimes that is just what happens.

spinning

spun some more wool/mohair blend fiber

watercolor Michigan

A watercolor of Michigan.  I think I will have to try this again sometime using a pink/orange color scheme.  The blue/green colors I picked for this one makes it look too much like a topographical type map.

Origami windmill

My potted plant need some decor so I made it an Origami windmill.  It is secured with a cute ladybug push pin.

knitting

Today was a nice, quiet day of knitting.

gloves..almost finished

the start of another pair of socks

zucchini honey yogurt bread

A couple of small loaves of Zucchini Honey Yogurt Bread that I made following the recipe in 125 Best Quick Bread Recipes.  I followed the recipe as written except I baked the bread in 2 3"x6" loaf pans for 40 minutes instead of 1 9"x5" pan for 70 minutes.  Yum, this is the best use for those overgrown Zucchinis :)

spinning wool/mohair blend

One of the reasons I started spinning was to support local farmers.  The fiber I spun today was a wool/mohair blend from the  Happy Goat Lucky Ewe fiber farm in Mason.  I think after I 3-ply it it should end up being about a sport weight.  Which still not where I want to be for socks but its slowly getting there.

little chocolate box

This is a cute (and easy to make) little box I first saw on Pinterest.  The original posting is found on the "A Spoonful of Sugar" blog.  A link to a downloadable template can be found on their blog.

pink crochet flower

Today's project was a pink crochet flower made from super bulky weight yarn (Rowan Big Wool Fusion)

container garden

My yard has been screaming for some attention for awhile now, today I finally listened.  The worst spot was right along the side of the house.  I should have taken a before picture, but I didn't.  How it looks now is much, much better - really.  I removed all the dead plants (only the lavender survived the extremely hot weather we had in July) and, since it seems to like the spot, I planted some more lavender plants.  I also bought 1 yarrow (Achillea millefolium) to try out in the location.
After adding some mulch I got out some planters to make a container garden in the remaining space.  Being so late in the season I was only able to find tomato & pepper plants.  I also planted some vegetable seeds even though I know it is really late in the season to be trying to grow most vegetables from seed.  The seeds I decided to try are basil, yellow summer squash, bush beans and kohlrabi.

dp needle project holders

While I like knitting small projects on double point (dp) needles they have a tendency to fall off the needles when being stored.  Tonight I decided to make something to protect the needles and keep them in place.  To make these "dp needles project holders" I cut a slit lengthwise along two 7" long cardboard tube sections and then covered them with bookcloth.

knitting Sunday

 I've made some progress on my current projects.   I should be able to finish up the footies tomorrow.   I had hoped that they would have been finished by now.   I find that knitting cotton is really hard on my hands, I thought that this yarn with its blend of 75% cotton & 25% nylon would be better but it isn't.


The gloves are pretty close to being finished as well - just a few more fingers to go. 

whole wheat bread

My husband & I are back from our 20th wedding anniversary trip.  We took the train to Chicago and spent 3 days being total tourists.  Our itinerary included  the Field Museum, The Skydeck (in what is formerly known as the Sears Tower), the John Hancock Observatory, the Art Institute, the Shedd Aquarium, Navy Pier and  an architectural sight seeing boat tour along the Chicago River.

Today I made a  whole grain artisan free-form loaf following the instructions in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I am happy with how it tasted, however I tried to bake it on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking oil and it stuck to the sheet.  Next time I will bake it either on parchment paper or try adding some cornmeal to the cookie sheet before placing the loaf.