Dog Heavy Post

We had a lovely Christmas at my parents. The doggies were decked out in seasonal bandannas awaiting my husband's cinnamon buns.


I don't know what got into Penny but she was unusually snuggly. Archie is often afraid of her but he tolerated a few minutes of cuddling before her bark scared him off.


By the end of the evening Penny had moved on to snuggling with Harry. These two crack me up, what an odd couple to watch play. We've come to the conclusion they have a love-hate relationship. They love to play and cuddle but, and if you are a Jeff Dunham fan you will understand, sometimes Penny is in an "I keel you!" mood.

This was the seen as we were packing up to leave, I totally understood.

Yesterday we watched as the neighbor's tree fell on the power line in the wind. What's a girl to do with no power? Go use the Woolworks gift card her husband got and check email at the Victoria Station Cafe! The yarn was for me, the coffee for my husband. He needed to check in with work after acting as my personal shopping cart. They were having a sale so I came home with two skeins of Malabrigio in Pearl for a just enough ruffles scarf, one skein of J. Knits sock yarn in Massachusetts for some cable heart socks, and two skeins of a wonderful merino and silk yarn for the instant glamour hat from Custom Knits. My mom got me this book for Christmas and I like it so far. The customization tips are great and I like the idea of afterthought sleeves. I'm using some leftover white Zarina and kidsilk haze held together but I'm just not sure I like it yet. It isn't as sparkly or marbled as I would have liked. We'll see how it goes.


I also started Selbu Modern in some Rowan 4ply soft from WEBS. This is one of my favorite yarns for colorwork. I seem to be on a bit of a colorwork kick, and a hat kick. I lost my Trinity stitch hat but nothing seems to be taking it's place. I may just have to make another.


Well, the snow is really picking up here now. I'm so glad the Internet starting working this morning so my husband could work from home. I'm off this week and the company is nice. That and now I have all the patterns and recipes I need :) Next time, I'll try to wrap up all the gifts I made this year.

Hey Mother Nature

What the heck. I thought we had an understanding. You snowed over the weekend while I could stay home and the skies were clear by Monday morning. But then you had to go and make it 8 degrees and freeze everything including my windshield washer fluid. Mother nature my road is still not cleared and someone just went into a tree. Now the town has something to do with this but come on, let it melt enough to drive. Four treacherous, icy drives to get to and from work is not cool, I don't appreciate this. I am exhausted and have a giant crack across my windshield. Please plan your weather patterns more carefully in the future. Itty Bitty Bear is watching you.

Happy Holidays and safe drives to all!

Block Party

Christmas knitting is done and everything that needed a bath is drying out. Phew, done early for once! Now can I manage to give it all away... I would like to thank mother nature for holding off on the snow until I got home Friday and keeping me inside to knit all weekend. I now have some cool winter accessories.

Pattern: Plum Blossom Mittens by Kristin Hipsky
Yarn: Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky
Needles: US 10.5

I fell in love with this pattern the minute I saw it in the WEBS catalog and I've finally gotten around to making it with some leftover Berkshire Bulky I had in the stash. I picked up the off-white color on my last trip to WEBS just for these. This is such a cool, easy pattern. I have made two pairs and the hat since Friday. They really go fast. After the mittens I had so much yarn leftover that I made hats, the one you see above and a slightly different one Ill show later. This really is one of my favorite yarns, it is soft and thick and makes a nice warm hat. The mittens are shedding a bit after cleaning up the massive amount of snow outside so I think they will be for times when I'm not doing too many activities outside. Actually, maybe if you felted them a bit they would be pretty nice... Anyway I highly recommend this pattern. I'm very happy with the way the hat came out too. My first successful pattern adaptation! This will serve me well until I replace my beloved trinity stitch hat I lost a couple of weeks ago :( It was my favorite but at least it is quick and I have another skein of the same yarn. I still miss it though. Well, the lights are flickering so I better post this in case the power goes out.

FO: Danica

Pattern: Danica by Jesse Loesberg Knitty Winter 2005
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden color 226 3 skeins
Needles: Knitpicks Options US8

I really didn't mean to be away for so long, a had a bad reaction to a tetanus shot and work has been insane. Working from 6:30am to 9:30pm and returning at 7:30am on a Saturday wiped me out. I have the week between Christmas and New Years off and I'm just trying to get there.

Enough of my complaining, on to the knitting. I finished Danica over the Thanksgiving weekend. I am so smitten with this scarf, it may just be my most favorite knit. The pattern was fun and easy to follow once you get the hang of it, and it is so thick and warm. Noro is made for this pattern, the color changes are great and the bright turquoise bits that appear sporadically are really cool.
This is a great way to try entrelac and Noro, I highly recommend it. I did not block it because I like the puffiness of the squares and wanted to wear it. My trips to WEBS was great but I am too embarrassed to show you how much came home with me. It will come out here in small bits over time I'm sure. Well, its late and my one day weekend is over. Hopefully this week will allow more blogging time. I am nearing the end of holiday knitting a bit early and have much to show.

Mmmmmm Cheeeeese

I don't think I've mentioned that I like to bake. We had a great dinner this weekend and I had to share, it would make a good appetizer and I can come back to the blog to remember what I did. This goes much faster than you would think.

Baked Camembert and Mushrooms en Croute


Heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add some thinly sliced onions and saute until soft. Add ~4oz sliced mushrooms, I used white button since that is what we had, and saute until the mushrooms have given off most of their water. Toss in 1 finely chopped clove of garlic and some sherry and continue to saute until the liquid is gone. I stopped short of really caramelizing the onions but I'm sure it would be good either way. Season with a little salt and pepper if needed and set aside. Roll out a sheet of puff pastry and cut a circle big enough to enclose the Camembert. I scraped the rind off the top of the wheel just to give the filling a place to sit and not spill over when assembling but that is a matter of preference. Top the wheel with the mushroom mixture and enclose in the pastry, folds on the bottom. Trim excess, spread with nutella and bake later :) I baked the wheel at 350 for about 25 minutes, until the pastry is lightly browned. Serve with slices of this bread. We didn't wait too long to dig in so the cheese was pretty runny, but that makes if very spreadable.

For dessert I suggest the nutella scraps and some cranberry dark chocolate chip cookies based on this recipe. Food is good :)

I don't know what got into me (FO: CoCo)

It started because I wanted a simple hat, and I wanted to use some leftover Berkshire Bulky that matched my coat. I've never been a huge fan of garter stitch but when I saw CoCo I had the "I have to make that now" urge. I don't know, maybe I have a thing for big ears

Pattern: CoCo by Chloe Sparkle
Yarn: Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky 1 skein in Olive
Needles: Knitpick Options US 10

I took of knitting and in a couple of hours had a new hat. It is ridiculously simple and I think pretty cute. Unfortunately I think it makes me look a little....stupid, for lack of a better word. I'm not sure I can leave the house with it on which is a shame because I love the yarn. So soft and warm. My husband says nothing but he is looking at me a little weirdly. Oh well, they can't all be winners. I think Penny is tired of me exploiting her cuteness on the blog, she says to knock it off with the pictures and knit another hat.

FO:Gathered Scarf

Pattern: Gathered scarf by Maryse Roudier
Yarn: Bristol Yarn Gallery Buckingham ~1.5 skeins
Needle: Susan Bates US2 DPNS and Clover Bamboo US7 DPNS

Work has been hectic the past couple of weeks but my lack of ability to focus on anything complicated resulted in finishing my gathered scarf. I love everything about this scarf. The pattern is simple, the yarn is both soft and easy to work with and the look is really cute. I didn't block this because I like the puffiness and the way is curls so you can't see the wrong side. It took awhile but this has become my favorite scarf, I've worn it everyday since I cast off.

I may have mentioned here that I don't particularly like knitting scarves and that has been the case for awhile. I'm pretty much eating my words now, I don't know what has come over me but as soon as I finished this scarf I had the urge to start another. I think it may be that I like to have one simple project that I can pick up at any point and knit a few rows without following a chart. So this week I stopped in to Woolworks which is always a good time. We had a good laugh when my total came up as 48,000.00. I assure you I didn't have that much in my hands :) I've always liked that store and I plan to make that my first stop for yarn even more so next year. I don't order too much off the Internet but while this year has been the year to try many new yarns next year will be more shopping locally. Anyway, I've jumped on the bandwagon and scummed to my inexplicable urge to knit the Noro Striped Scarf. I liked this when I saw Brooklyn Tweed's last year but I didn't have the scarf itch at that time. After scouring Ravelry I decided to go with Plymouth Boku. This is a nice, inexpensive yarn with pretty colors. I'm just not sure I like the way the colors are striping, I 'm not sure if I will continue on or start over.

It had just gone on sale for 25% off that afternoon so I really lucked out, which kind of gave me an excuse to try Noro Silk Garden. This is another reason Ravelry is both cool and evil. I never liked Danica when it came out but while researching self striping yarns I came across some versions with Noro and I fell in love. Entrelac is really cool and I love watching the colors come out. I'm totally smitten with this scarf and it is just the right simple project to take on our Thanksgiving trip next week.


Adding to the scarf craziness is this out of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I'm loving the look and feel of this yarn, I can understand why people talk it up so much. This requires chart reading but is pretty easy once you understand the pattern.


I did restrain myself and not buy yarn for Cosmicpluto's just enough ruffles scarf but I suspect I will break down eventually. Of the three scarves above one is a gift, one is for me and the other...I'm not telling. Bwa hahahaha. This below is definitely a gift, do you know what I am :)


Well, that was a pretty big update, I'm off to knit some more and make my WEBS list for our stop on Wednesday! I'm excited, my birthday gift certificate has been taunting me for over a month and I do love going to my other favorite yarn store.