F.O

My new bag, the pattern is my own, I kinda just made it up as I went along. I knit it with 3 skeins of Noro, hand felted it and then lined it and added a pocket inside. I added a braided cable so that the endless rows of stockinette would not make my head explode.
I bought the straps in California from this company (I'll add the link later, can't find it at the moment), I really like them and they are far better than the i cord handles that I have made in the past.

This is Norberta II, I made in Cascades alpaca/wool blend. She is really soft and I hope the wee person to whom she now belongs enjoys her.

Last day for my blog contest, there are lots of great links in the comments to all sorts of great patterns. I will announce a winner early next week, I have a busy 3 days ahead of me and definitely won't get to it. Have a good weekend, I know I will.

CSI - Lanark County

It was a sunny Wednesday morning when the tragedy was discovered

A newly bloomed tulip was viciously decapitated by an unknown assailant

and left on the sidewalk for all the other tulips to see

The neighbours were interviewed but no one saw anything

The usual suspects were sought out and questioned about their where abouts at the time of the incident

these two had a realistic alibi given that they are already behind bars

and this one was sleeping and had a witness to corroborate her story

One small black cat is still at large, she is considered armed (with claws) and dangerous. If spotted please notify the authorities as she needs to be questioned in the case of the decapitated tulip

prizes anyone

I can't believe that I have been blogging for 3 years, amazing how time flies. In honor of this momentous occasion I though I would give away some loot..., Canadian loot at that.

Prize number 1,
Yes my friends you can have one of these very lovely Fleece Artist sock kits (picture stolen from here , thanks for sharing), I got one at my LYS, sorry you don't have any vote on the color as I just picked up what they had last time that they had them. It will be a surprise.

Prize number 2, a skien of Fleece artist sock yarn (sorry no picture), again the the color will be surprise.

To enter the contest all you have to do is leave a comment telling me what your favourite free online knitting pattern is. I am always looking for inspiration and I thought this would be a good way to generate a list. It needs to be a free pattern and if you have the link feel free to throw it in. Contest is open to all, 2 winners will be chosen randomly from all who enter and if you win I will mail off your yarn with a few other little treats as soon as can get it all organised.

You can leave your comments here until May 15, that's 1 week from now. I will draw from the entries on May 16.

FYI, not knitting related at all but I have started a 2nd blog to put some of my gluten free recipes on, you can find it here.

Roasted Potato Salad

There is something about warm weather that makes me want to eat potato salad, I am not sure why I always feel so drawn to it but I do. I am often on the look out for new ideas, ways to make those potatoes sing with flavour. Last week I was inspired by a few other recipes and after a little trial and error I came up with this, enjoy.

3 pounds of 2 different types of potatoes, (I used red and yellow) cut into wedges about 1 inch in length. I leave the peels on but without would work as well.
2 large sweet peppers (red, yellow or orange) cut each pepper into 6 or 8 long slices for roasting
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces.
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
24 Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

Dressing

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 large clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon of each of the following oregano, basil and rosemary ( I use dried)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 425 f. Add the olive oil to the bottom of a roasting pan large enough for the potatoes and peppers. Heat the oil for 5 minutes, remove pan from oven and add the wedged potatoes, mix well to coat the potatoes in the worm oil. Arrange potatoes so that they occupy 2/3 of the pan, add the cut peppers in the empty space. I find that keeping the potatoes and peppers separate works best. Place the pan in to the oven. Cook for 10 minutes, remove pan, mix the potatoes well and turn the peppers, return pan to oven to cook for another 10 minutes. Then remove the pan and repeat the process. The potatoes should be cooked after about 30 minutes, transfer them from the pan into a bowl and put the peppers back in the oven for another 10 minutes. You want the roasted peppers to be soft enough that you can peel the skins off, in my oven this takes about 40 minutes total.

While the peppers and potatoes are roasting cook the green beans. Add the cut green beans to a pot of boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes or until they tender, rinse them immediately with cold water to stop them from becoming over cooked. Drain and place onto a clean towel, pat dry. Add the sliced onion, chopped olives and cooked beans to the bowl with the potato wedges.

Remove the peppers from the oven, allow them to cool until they can be handled easily. When they are cool the skins should peel away easily ( use a small knife if they don't come away). Peel all the pepper pieces and discard the skins. Chop the peeled pepper pieces into bite size chunks and add them to the bowl.

Make the dressing. In a blender combine the garlic, spices, oil and vinegar, blend until the garlic is minced and the dressing is well mixed, about 1 minute.

Add the dressing to the salad and mix well. This salad is best if made ahead and allowed to to sit at room temperature for 2 or 3 hours. If made the day before remove it from the fridge early enough to allow the salad time to come to room temp. before serving

Great for barbeque's and summer potlucks.

FYI - I experimented with roasting the potatoes and peppers on the barbeque, it worked quiet well but in the end took about the same amount of time as in the oven

Teaching moments

So I taught all week in the same inner-city school that I often work in. All the same things went on, I was pinched, kicked, hit and shouted at by angry, unhappy small people who really deserve better than there lives are giving them at this point. It was a long week and I am exhausted but as I supervised recess today I had to laugh, a small waif of a kid came running toward at full speed and behind her was a much larger child from her class (grade 1) not running nearly as fast screaming across the school yard "Come here so I can kick your ass!" Luckily the smaller kid ran a lot faster than the big one and she ran straight into my arms. Once I regained my composure (stopped laughing my face off) I dealt with the situation and took the class inside. As soon as the final bell rang I happily ran through the school sharing the brillant line with all the other staff, it was a much need laugh after a very long day.

Since some of you come here looking for knitting content, there is some but I am to tired to share it today... it will come soon.

It's all here now

It's my Mom's birthday, Happy Birthday to a fabulous woman who loves me even though after 30 years I still mix up the actual day of her birthday, I blame in on the fact that I had lots of friends who have April birthdays as a kid... I did get most of her present in the mail in time this year though if that counts for anything.

I have finished P's felted clogs from the Fibre Trends pattern, yes they are that big his feet are size 13. He is never, ever getting socks from me.
I got treats in the mail from Ms. Stitch-dom as she is celebrating her blogiversary, I got this great fleece artist roving and this scarf book.
I finished Clapotis, it is not the same size as the pattern but I am really happy with it. It is knit with some handspun silk from Blue Mountain Spinnery (no website). I have also begun knitting a baby kimono as well as a few other baby gifts but their parents read my blog so there are not going to be any photos until they have been gifted.
Winter has finally left and now the all the flowers in my front garden have a chance to actually survive, unless we get some more random snow but I think we are finally safe.

And the best part of spring is sheets on the line, yippee for sun and wind.

funny

Happy Belated Easter - We were in a restaurant on Sunday morning for brunch and the family at the table across from us was just finishing when mom mentioned that she needed to visit the washroom, Dad asks Mom to go quickly as he would like to get home for something and the young son shouts out as she walks away, "run like your a pregnant woman" to which the whole restaurant responds to by laughing hysterically. It was a good moment especially since the restaurant was packed since it was Easter.

P and I spent the majority of the weekend trying to get some of our many reno projects finished. We are getting close to finally being finished and aside from needing tons of paint, varnish and refinished floors we are almost there. I am excited to be in the home stretch. I also finally tiled our kitchen backsplash with tiles that our friends painted at our wedding reception, photos will follow another post.

I finished Clapotis and am happy with the end result, it is more square than the original pattern asked for but I was running out of silk, I actually only had about 2 inches left as I cast off the last stitch. It's soft and lovely to wear. I also finished P's Fiber Trends felted clogs, they are huge as he has huge feet but they look good. You will have to trust me one the knitting as there are no photos of those things either.

I am off to paint closets, the fun never ends around here.

PS 3 year blogversery contest coming soon... with some good treats to be had

really....

Yes really, the best and most original search term that has ever lead someone to my blog is "she taped her mouth shut" it leads you to this page. I think what is the most humorous about the whole thing is that the person actually clicked through to the page and has been back since, so whoever you are, welcome to my world. It is for the search engines stats that I love Statcounter, I also like to follow the referring links sometimes because I find out about people who have linked to me that I didn't even know about.

It's another rainy day here in Ontario, sadly the rain is supposed to turn to snow tomorrow, I have my fingers crossed that it won't happen because I just uncovered all the lovely green shoots from my bulbs thinking that it was safe, nothing like snow for Easter.

Now as promised here are the very overdue photos leftover from my trip to CA . Here is R's Rainbow sweater, it's knit with Lang Tissa (dk weight cotton that I can't find for sale online but I didn't look very hard) and the pattern was sort of made up as I went along. I used a pattern to get the sizing and measurements and thought that I would us it for more but since I didn't get gauge, wanted to knit is the round (the pattern was flat and seamed) and stripped the whole thing the pattern became a very, very general guideline. I am going to knit it again and tweak the sleeves a bit,

you can't see it here but there are some issues with the reductions on the sleeves as I picked up stitches and knit the sleeves in the round. The decreases haunted me as I tried to make the 2nd sleeve match the first which had funky decreases to begin with. Overall I am thrilled with how it turned out and the fact that I got the wool on clearance and have enough to make 2 more is a bonus.

Hopefully I will write up the pattern and share it with the world but I can't promise anything soon as I have a few million things on the go.

And because every now and then the photo gods smile upon me and I get a fabulous picture or 2 here are some more. These were both taken at from the Gondola at Heavenly, Lake Tahoe. When I was in CA we went up for the weekend, Tahoe was interesting, I didn't find any fibre but the warm weather and the snow was an interesting pair.

and I got to play with these 2, (always fun) while their folks ran away to ski for the morning. We went up the mountain in the gondola and the kids thought it was great but G was not interested in having his picture taken, peek a boo is much more fun.

Alright I am off to knit, I am working on a Clapotis in some fabulous silk that I got at Stiches West, I am about 4 decreases from being finished and I want to get it finished before it is to warm to wear it.

sad, sad

I was trying to some pics of R's rainbow sweater but my dial up connection dislikes blogger and for some reason Hello seems to not work with the new blogger... I guess the actual post will ahve to wait until I am near high speed, tragic I know.

My pirate* can pick locks

So, after a few long months P is completely back on his feet and is healthy as a horse once again. He has recently rented his own office space here in our end of of he world and hung out his own shingle. We spent part of last week setting up the new office and when we arrived with the new keys in hand to hang pictures and such we discovered that we had been given the wrong key and thus were standing in the waiting room - locked out. So what does P do, he whips a credit card out of his wallet and inserts into the door and pops the lock - I was impressed, I am not sure if I want to know where and why he learned such tricks but they do on occasion come in handy. We did hang the pictures and now we have the correct keys so that no more credit cards need be harmed.

In other news, well there really is no other news. I've spent some time with a variety of lovely ladies ( this one shared her ball winder with me - thanks again) over the last week, but really I have nothing exciting to tell you - maybe one of their blogs will prove to be a little more interesting. I am supply teaching/looking for a job as usual and enjoying the fact that the little snow that we had has almost all melted and even though it is after 7 pm it is still light out.

I am knitting, but I have no pictures so I can't even entertain you with that. But oh, I can point you in the direction of an amazing gluten free pizza crust -it was perhaps the best gf pizza I have ever made and it even tastes good cold (which is really hard with gf things). I doubled it and made us 2 lovely pizzas on Saturday. I also purchased this breadmaker while I was in CA as it has a gluten free setting and I am impressed. Other gf bloggers had talked about it and I am glad I brought it home - it makes gf bread an easier process.

* You have to meet P and buy him a beer to get the (true) pirate story out of him but as others have said before - it is a good one and I am impressed that his pirate abilities extend beyond just ships.

FO's and snow

Okay really fast as dinner is almost on the table and won't be unless I put it there before it burns




















Felted Slippers from the Fiber Trends pattern - they turned out to be exactly the same size even though they don't appear to be in photo. I knit them with Lopi and some mystery wool from my stash (Lamb's Pride I think)




















A blackberry stitch scarf knit in Noro, that I blocked very poorly and in to much of a hurry




















The stripes of R's fabulous sweater that is now finished and living in CA - there will be a better pic later
















Miss R in the snow, there was not to much snow left at Tahoe but we did manage to play in the little bits of it that we could find. G was not so sure about touching the stuff but he was happy enough to sit and watch us try to make a snowman. I have some other great Tahoe pictures but they will have to wait for another day.

too much

I have too much stuff - yes me. I have in CA for 2 weeks and I am afraid that I have more than I can fit in the bags I brought, even though I thought ahead and brought and extra one. So when all else fails break our the rubbermaid! It is small enough to take on the plane but sadly not big enough














for all this wool! This is some of my stash form stitches West and a few other stops along the way and there is no way that this is going to fit in the this box. My sister had a good laugh watching me trying to get it all in



















I figure with a little duct tape we should be fine, the lid kinda fits and considering there is a breadmaker, cushions for my dinning room chairs ( they are insanely expensive in Canada) and a few balls of wool stuffed in for good measure.














Okay so what is the wool you ask... there is an abundance from Webs (Valley Yarns Berkshire) to make a fabulous sweater for myself, some Socks that Rock cotton candy (2 skeins) and some amazing silk to make a shawl (2 skeins) from Blue Moon Spinnery















I have also got some more knit picks needles (I'm addicted to my options set and wanted the smaller ones as well) and bug finger puppet pattern book that was on clearance. Along with Knitting Vintage Socks, slipper bottoms from Fiber Trends, mobile knitting bag from Know Knits and last but not least this years sticker from the STR club - my sister joined and is sharing with me because she is fabulous. I know that some Canadians are still waiting for their box so I won't post a picture of what I got just yet but I love the pattern.















There are more pictures and all the lionks to put in but my Internet connection is not very good and I figure I better post this before I lose it all together.

PS I am currently at Lake Tahoe - yes I came to CA and drove 3 hours to get to some snow, seems crazy but my family really wanted to ski and since they had a built in sitter it seemed like a fabulous plan. I'll be back inthe Bay area tomorrow and home in the great white north on Tuesday

Random thoughts

I made it to CA in one piece but it was a long trip. I got stuck in last Saturdays - lets shut down the Chicago airport storm - I made it out through Washington and got the last seat on a plane to SF, it was a long middle of the night flight but I made it.

On Sunday we made the trek (with cute kidlets) to Stitches West - YIPEE! I enhanced my stash with some socks that rock, a sweater kit from Webs and some fantastic silk. There will be pictures as soon as I get that organised.

I have also done a little shopping this week, me and my friend Target hung out as well as a visit to Stash and Article Pract. I was impressed with the vast selection in both stores, however the staff ( one nasty lady in particular) at Article Pract left something to be desired. Why is it that staff insist on shouting at you instead of just pointing out that they would prefer you not look at that particular book collection. I tried to find and email address so I could let the owner of the store know what happened and I how I felt but their website has no email addy. It's sad because I think that a fabulous store like that does not deserve to have a bad rep because it's staff are nasty. I was a little comforted by the fact that there are some other folks in the Bay Area who feel the same way.

okay, enough ranting - I have pics on my camera to post and need to take some of all the new fibre as well as the secret knitting that is not secret anymore. I am knitting a rainbow stripped sweater for my niece, I am on the 2nd sleeve and hopefully will get it finished in the next few days along with the sock that only needs about 10 more rows of ribbing.


PS Louise - got sock yarn, 2 skiens and tell Sarah I got her patterns as well, chocolate to follow soon.

sun...

Well it's not sunny here but I am on my way to some sun this afternoon. I have planned a rather last minute trip to go see my sister in California for 2 weeks. I leave this afternoon. Between now and when I go I have about 50 things to do do and sadly a proper blog post is not on the list anywhere so this will have to do for now.

I worked all week, we painted the office and last night I taught my last knitting class. The purses are not quiet finished but they just need straps and another kind knitter has volunteered to do that with the girls next week. We also pulled a few moms in and I think that they are hooked as well. Not much knitting has been done but there are felted slippers and scarf photos that will be taken as soon as the sun is up here ( I'll post them from CA). I am off to pack and run errands before I go to the airport where my 8 hours of knitting time will commence.

Ice

I was going to go on and on about Winterlude ( as it was something good to write about) but someone beat me to it and rather than say everything she said - you can just go read her post. P and I went and did the touristy thing on Sunday afternoon, we didn't skate but we did enjoy the ice carving. As you can see we have plenty of ice at my house.

Some of it runs the length of my house ( it's hard to see but it is ice on white siding so it was hard to photograph)


Aside from taking pictures of ice I am knitting this, this, a version of this and these and spending the rest of my time thinking about painting rooms in my constantly under reno house and looking for work, something other than supply teaching that is. I am doing that too but not enjoying it and wishing I didn't have to do it at all.

Speaking of things I like to do I have been teaching knitting some kids and their parents at a local bookstore, it's going well. I have also been enjoying some adult knitting company here, here and here, it is not on the website but the next one is the 21st from 7-9ish

nothing to say

It's -39 here with the windchill today, I'd rather be on this beach in South Korea, actually I would rather be on a beach anywhere where the temp. would rise above zero on a daily basis. I don't mind winter but when your damp hair freezes after only 20 seconds outside you know that it is cold.

It's been quiet here in my world lately and thus lack of posts, there is nothing to exciting to say. I am sitting at Bridgehead with this lovely blogger, she's knitting, I'm typing. She is headed to the other side of the world on Sunday and we thought we should see one another before she left. We went here for dinner, it was fabulous.

hmmm what else... there is some secret knitting going on, so I won't say anything about that. I have started a new shawl (specs later) and also have the last few rows on my "berry scarf" in Noro and a sock on the go - along with P's never ending sweater, it will get finished eventually but there is a lot of him and therefore a lot of sweater as well.

I've been teaching more these last few weeks thus have been busy. I still wish that I had something full time but since the chances of getting a classroom in the Ottawa Valley are slim to none I guess I should just be happy that people are calling me to supply teach at all because I know some people who have given up and are working at *Star*bucks.

I made some AMAZING brownies this weekend, you can find the recipe here. If you have a chance look around her blog, her recipes are amazing. We have tried a number of them and are always impressed with the results. The gluten free part is bonus!

See look a whole post and really I haven't said anything at all.

see there are stitches here too

Another Marley hat from Itty Bitty Hats, this time knit in Lang-Tissa for a much smaller head, it’s about to be gifted to a little person who will arrive soon



A bunny to keep the newly mended Norberta company on her trip across the continent, she is a Jane Doe Bunny at the moment but I am sure that situation will change when she arrives at her destination. She is from this Fiber Trends Pattern and knit in Patons classic Merino and some red wool that I had in my stash. Sadly the red did not felt as well as the Patons but these things happen. Her scarf is knit from a little single left over handspun from this project.



A cabled hat that is happily resting on my head at the moment, I am rather in love. I knit it from this pattern and used Stampato – Extra in colour 8007. It too was from my stash but in a panicked moment I bought a second ball thinking that I wouldn’t have enough – I had enough and thus will probably knit another one or something similar. I am all about cables right now.

And another scarf… this one is Noro Silk Garden in a pattern that I made up and will share with the rest of you once it is blocked and I decided that I like it. It reminds me of berries and I owed one persona scarf from Christmas, everyone else got one and she got a candle as I ran out of time!

I got a few knitting books over the holidays and I am rather enthralled with them. I have been all about designing knitwear lately and thus I wanted some stitch pattern books to inspire me. I got Knitting Stitches by Mary Webb, it is one of little thick dictionary like books with good learn to knit instructions and then pages and pages of types of stitches, ribs, lace and cables. It has good charts and pictures and most of the instructions are reasonably clear.

I have another great book that I wanted to tell you all about but I can't find it online and the name of it escapes me at the moment... oh well that one can go in the next post with the spinning from yesterday.

FYI - blogger is pissy today I had this all set up and such and then posted it and now of the pictures came through from Picasa. Sooo I had to do it all again and now the pics aren't all cropped and such becuase my hour of interent time is about to run out... annoying!

alright

My stitches ( noro scarf and shawl) and my girls spent 2 days in the hospital with P and we are all home now. Yipee! P is on the mend, there were a few hours yesterday where we waited to make sure that everything was working as it should and low and behold it does.

I won't even begin to spout about our healthcare system because I think that if I start I might just never be able to stop. I never realised how broken it is until I was on the inside waiting for services.

That be said I am going to enjoy a realxing day at home, because it is COLD outside, (so cold that it makes my eyes water when the wind blows) and take some time to take some knitting photos and put up a real post. Happy Saturday.

News

At approximately 18 hundred hours on Thursday January 11, 2007 Norberta the dragon was viciously attacked by 100 lb doberman cross, Norberta suffered major damage to her mouth, belly and ears. The doberman cross walked away unharmed. Norberta is currently undergoing reconstructive surgery and will be ready to mail soon. There are no photos available at this time due to the graphic nature of the incident.

In other news...

While recently sitting in a hospital waiting room a knitter discovered that she was out of knitting projects, the knitter had not anticipated spending an entire day in the hospital waiting rooms - so she did what any stressed knitter would, she knit 10 rows and then frogged them in order that she might knit them again to keep her hands busy while she waited. The knitter has learned here lesson and will not be caught without an appropriate amount of fiber again - an emergency sock kit has been places in her car in case such an emergency should arise again.

Said knitter has a number of projects on the go including a shawl, a sweater, socks, and a cabled hat. Multiple projects will accompany the knitter to the hospital this coming Thursday when the knitter's husband has surgery ( nothing major but life will be better after). The knitter will return next week with book reviews, photos and progress notes

it happened

I knew this would happen eventually

They managed to get it out of the bedroom before they started unwinding it

and wrapped it through the laundry that was in the basket - I was not impressed

After I got it all wound up Kieran decided that she wanted it back - I think not. Today she broke the full length mirror on my dresser, she is not a popular cat this week

I have been knitting this holiday season. P and I have both been sticking close to home and that means I have had lots of knitting time. Meet Norberta without her wings - (C. does she need wings or will G. like her just the way she is). I knit her in Acrylic something - yes I said acrylic, I liked th colour better and I figured that a one year old wouldn't know the difference.

I bought Itty Bitty Hats on boxing day at Chapters and started knitting. This is the Marley Hat with a few modifications knit it Mission falls 1824 cotton and cotton tots by bernat/patons - someone like that

This P's new scarf - It's from Scarf Style, the pattern name escapes me at the moment but it is by Teva Durham knit with Nashua Creative Focus Chunky in Nickel

Another hat from Itty Bitty Hats - this is a much modified pattern knit with patons Chunky tweed. I changed the decreases to modify the top and

instead of a pom pom I used an i-cord and tassel - but you can't see it

Yesterday's amazing sunset that I just has to share with the world and last but not least

This little tiny guy is a year old today, amazing how time flies.

look at how big he has gotten
Happy Birthday Hatch