Home Stretch

I have 8 hours and 40 minutes left at my very crappy job, I will then take a lovely week off to sew and have dental work done and then go to my new and improved job. In the mean time I have been determined to make a sweater in my last 3 weeks here. I have a lot of down time in between patients and have found knitting to be an ideal past time. This here is the Whisper Cardigan from interweave knits. I have had to make some changes because apparently I have overly long arms- I had to add about 40 rows so that it hit me below the elbow and I am adding a few inches to the back too- but I am two inches away from being done. And At least I can say I got something other then a paycheck out of my crappy job.

Thanks to the Great Molly

Many years ago my mother gave me this very cool William Sonoma Daisy cake pan. It has these lovely cut outs that are suppose to leave the impressions of a daisy in your cake.



It comes with a yummy recipe for a lemon cake and recommends that you grease the pan well...unfortunately I have never managed to make it work without completely. Although the cake is always yummy it is extremely hard to get it out of the pan no matter how much shortening and flour you use, it is also a real pain to clean afterwords.

I recently decided to give it one more try, I even bought a new tub of shortening and spent a sold 30 minutes getting it into ever crease, only to have the same problem. I was very discouraged and really ready to chuck the whole idea when my friend Molly recommended that I try making bread in it instead of cake. Her reasoning was that the bread would rise and basically just use the pan as a base.
So I pulled out my favorite biscuit recipe with the feeling that they have enough butter that sticking should be a big issue (mind you I still sprayed it with baking spay) and it worked! even though I am never quite sure what I think about the craft/baking blog merge in general I am so excited that this pan has found new life I had to share it. I am going to try a whole loaf next.

My Flock

It should really be no surprise to anyone that I have a love of sheep somewhere along the way I seemed to start collecting my own flock at various sheep and wools and fairs. Here they are

Sheep and Wool

here is my bounty from sheep and wool this year:


Now I know what you all are thinking does that girl really need more yarn? The answer is clearly no followed by a big old yes!
My guy and I spent a lovely weekend upstate with friends and sheep and wool. I am feeling proud I didn't bring a border collie home.
Yes that is a swift you see in the middle. I have one, of course, but it is not New York apartment size friendly and I fear concussion every time I take it out. This one is compact and cute and folds up quite nicely.
I also bought some of my favorite wool in the world (left/center) from mostly merino in Vermont. It has a lovely loft and is simply a joy to knit with.
The big mass of wool on the right side is from a lovely woman in Maine that does sea dyeing and will become my new hubby's sweater. He is very excited because until now I have refused to make him a sweater because of the sweater curse.
Never heard of the sweater curse before? Well this is told to all young girls learning to knit, and hopefully now young boys too. The curse said in hushed tones is simple: never make a sweater for a man unless you are married to him, otherwise you will break up with him before it is finished and never meet another man with the same measurements again. This has been repeated to me so often that I have to take it as true. And so one month after the wedding I had a very excited guy heading to sheep and wool with me knowing that a sweater could finally be made.

My Hip Groom

Well the pictures came last night just in time for our one month-iversary. Here is my very hip groom decked out in a custom made shirt that is green cotton with orange embroidery that our fabulous friend scott got us as a wedding gift. He wore the jacket through the ceremony and then sported the shirt the rest of the evening.
The flower is made by Emily Grace whose shop you can see on etsy here. It is actually meant to be a hair clip but it matched his shirt so well that we added it to the outfit. It is handmade of fused plastic and sewn to a wire frame. To put it simply it rocks. I love her work, she has moved from upcycling things to pieces of art.

Boogie Shoes in Action

I am still waiting on the official photo's but thought you might all like to see my boogie shoes in action

Subway Knitting

A little knitting moment for you all.
Last week I was riding the train home and working on a sweater in the round. I was exhausted and had a bit of a headache so I guess I closed my eyes but I was awake. At some point I went to change the song on my ipod and the guy sitting next to me freaked out. Apparently I had my eyes closed for 7 stops but had kept knitting. He was convinced I was knitting in my sleep until I opened my eyes to change my ipod.