Latke Experiment

Since Katie has moved in, we have been planning dinners with what is in the fridge.  Since we had some carrots and parsnips from the CSA, I searched for some kind of recipe.  I found a Carrot and Parsnip Latke recipe which looked simple.  Katie decided to take the challenge and make the latkes after I had grated the carrots and parsnips in the handy food processor.  We used a flat pan and spray oil instead of the deep frying (no peanut oil in the house) and it was so labor intensive that she decided to just make one big latke.  Here is the flipped latke in the pan.

It was really pretty but was missing on flavor and was kind of dry.  We had half of it left over and will try to make some kind of leftovers for it.


To be paired with this, I grilled two game hens butterflied on the grill with this bbq sauce.  It was tasty but I think the hens should have been marinated instead of just brushed.

Gloom and Doom

So we have been experiencing the June gloom over the past few days - no sun at all to be seen!  It has made our household a little crazy to say the least.


Pepper decided that she was going to attempt to eat a pound of butter, wrappers and all before I rescued the left overs.  Instead of just taking one, she finished eating one stick including the foil wrap and chewing at least half of the rest of the sticks.  It is a bit disconcerting to smell butter following you all around the house.  She seems to be excreting the butter through her fur.


Bailey on the other hand decided that he needed to try to eat some grass - the fake kind!  Here is the damage to the poor lawn.

It is a good thing that I have a spare piece.  I will now need to call in the company that installed it and have them make some kind of repair....


I have been tempted to hibernate and just stay in bed - it has been hard to sit at my computer working all day.  It is a good thing that I have a daylight lamp at my desk or all would be lost.  I can't imagine living in any place where the sun does not shine all the time!

Ah! This is the Life.

Angie was in town this past weekend for a water polo tournament.  We spent time eating, shopping, and relaxing in the hammock.  It was the perfect relaxing weekend (not counting the water polo).

I Need a Pincushion

When I got the wild hare to really start sewing, I still had my stuffed tomato pincushion that was so yesterday.  Val gave me one of those magnetic bowl things that isn't really cutting it for me since I keep getting stabbed.


So I went in search of a solution in my cabinets.  Lo and behold, I discovered a cross stitch kit hiding out.  I think it will make a great pincushion!

All I have to do now is cross stitch it and viola - a new pincushion.

Fondle This! for May

I received May's offering which included 4 oz of blue face leicester/silk in the answan's biscotti colorway which is a mix of ecru, plum and purple.  The project pattern is the Symphony V Mobius shawl from Heartstrings.


The fiber is to be spun into a 45-50 wpi single and then plied to a lace weight yarn.  The pattern states that it needs about 345 yards of lace wight or light fingering weight yarn.


Started spinning this fiber up after separating the ball into approximately equal piles.  Using my Schacht Matchless spinning wheel with the smaller of the two medium whorls, I was able to spin about a 40 wpi single.  It is pretty easy to spin with some silk clumps along the way.

Cashmere Fetching

I bought this ball of orphan yarn while at Lambspun in the little sale room.  It is Kashmir from Trendsetter Yarns.  It consists of 65% cashmere and 35% silk in a lovely green color.  The regular price was $23.25 and it was on sale for $12.95.

For the 110 yards in the little skein, I was able to find the Fetching pattern from Knitty.com.

I was able to start and finish this pair in two days especially since I had to participate in a conference call for work for over 4 hours.  It was a fast knit and it was much faster the second time around since I had first knit it in a wool a while back.

So my cold sheep project progress.....started with 108,649 yards on May 11.  Incoming yards - 3,577 (fell off the sheep in Colorado).  Outgoing yards - 742 (baby hat, linen Josie vest, and cashmere fetching).  Ending yardage - 111,484.

CSA Offering This Week

Avocado; Beets, Red; Carrot; Cherries; Kale; Lemons; Lettuce; Onions, Green/Purple; Oranges; Potatoes; Strawberries; and Zucchini

I was a little late to the meet up and found that someone left a batch of beets from their box so I scooped them up for double the beets - yum!

Seduced by Tea Leaves

When I was in My Sister Knits, I saw a sweater artistically displayed on a branch in the stairwell that just called my name as I walked by.  The color was exactly my favorite shades and I think because of the way it was displayed, it said "buy me!"


When I got back downstairs and found out that it was made from Tosh Vintage from madelinetosh.com, I was thrown for a loop.  I had just recently seen tables of madelinetosh.com yarn at the DFW Fiberfest and walked right by.  The color I bought is called Cove and it is a superwash merino which is machine washable cold with air drying.

The pattern is the Tea Leaves Cardigan and the yarn store didn't even have the pattern.  I had to go home and buy it online.  So I wound one skein of the yarn and knitted a test swatch and found that I needed to go down a couple of needle sizes.  I ended up using US 4 and 5 instead of the US 6 and 7.  I also employed my addi interchangeable needles and my new yarn bowl that I got at Lambspun.

The interchangeable needles made it really easy to switch needles sizes as called for by the pattern.  I'm through the first skein of yarn and am loving the pattern and the color changes.

I'm a Quilter!

So when we came back from Colorado, Val and I got together to work on sewing. I ended up going through my cabinets for some fabric that had been stored to make project bags and came up with a few yards.


Off to Val's and she had a beginning quilter book to use as a guide.  It is funny that the trap door to most of my crafts has been making projects for my Precious Princess Pepperoni.  She likes to be on comfy beds and I figured that I could make my first quilt for her.  Val taught me how to measure and cut fabric, steam with her awesome iron, and sew the pieces together.


I assembled my first quilt top and did a damn fine job if I do say so myself.

I then went home and started the second quilt in the book.  It went much faster since I was down to a routine.  I made some measuring errors and had to un-sew some of the pieces.  This one is a little larger and will be assigned to Mr. Bailey Boy named for Baileys and Cream.

The next day, I went to Beverly's Fabrics and bought a few other pieces to finish the third quilt in the book.  I think that this one will go to Tony and April's new baby since it has the whole swim theme going for it.

I also completed the small kit that I had purchased at Joann's in Ft. Collins when I went out shopping with Susie.

Val and I are going to be meeting with a quilter who will actually quilt the top and the bottom with some filler in between.

Billy Goat Gruff

While in Colorado, we ran over to visit Nancy and the goat that lives across the street.  Rumor had it that this was the original Billy Goat Gruff from the fairy tale and a sight to behold.


Here is Geronimo.  His is a sad tale where his mate died during child birth and he is now alone in the world and living in a small pen.  He may go to a new home.

While there, Val also made friends with the horse who lived on the premises as well.

It's All About the Sewing...

One of the main reasons for going to Colorado for Val was for the sewing mania.  She wanted to show me Susie's great sewing room and work on her quilting projects.  Here are some pictures of the sewing room.

Val even has a spare sewing machine that lives in Colorado.  She worked diligently on her two quilts and here is one laid out on the floor for patching.  Gritz likes the quilt to be as well.

I spent most of my time knitting.  Here is Annie with me on the bed where I was able to finish my Linen Wrap Around Vest.

Susie did teach me how to sew and she and I made a couple of project bags.  The smaller one was a test which Susie did most of the work and the larger one is lined on the inside and I sewed most of it up.  It did take some thinking to make sure the the right sides were together.  No unsewing for me as yet.

While we were there, we also stopped in two quilting stores, the Quilters Stash and the Little Wool Shoppe.  I saw a great pattern in the Quilters Stash but resisted purchasing the kit.  The Little Wool Shoppe was having a great sale and I ended up getting some fabric called Barnyard Buddies to make a small quilt.  I saw these squares on a bag that Susie had made and I just loved the pattern.

Ft. Collins Yarn Crawl

While in Colorado, I was able to do a yarn crawl.  The first place we went to was the Stitchin' Den in Estes Park, then to Lambspun and the Back Porch for lunch, and on to My Sister Knits, and finally to Your Daily Fiber.


Every shop had lovely things.  The Lambspun was an awesome shop in a small house next to a golf course.  It is the setting for Maggie Sefton's knitting mysteries and she is there at the Tuesday knit group.  We had lunch at the cafe and was able to get a discount off our meal for buying yarn.  How great is that?  They had all these rooms dedicated to knitting, spinning, and weaving with all the requisite supplies.

Here is what you see when you walk in the door.

This is the loom set up in the next room over.

Stacie, Val and I in the comfy chair reading about felting.

Then it was off to My Sister Knits where the shop is in a carriage house in the back of the main house on a lovely tree lined street with a green space in the center.

Knitting for a giant?

Susie, Val, Sara, me, Stacie, and Stacia

The last place we stopped was Your Daily Fiber and we had to go twice since it was closed the first time.  They highlight local grown fibers and unique yarns.  I purchased some possum yarn which had been knit into a scrumptiously soft scarf.  They also displayed all of Galina's Orenburg Lace Shawls there.

Of course, I totally fell off the sheep, in fact it probably kicked my butt on the way off as well.  I purchased some lovely yarns, patterns, notions, and another yarn bowl.  Well I better climb back on that sheep now!

Fraud Alert!

I received a fraud alert from my credit card company Capital One this morning.  It seems that someone had compromised my credit card by making charges at Walmart and some other online recurring charge and used a different expiration date.  I have to hand it to the fraud section in that they caught it right away and notified me immediately.  My account has now been cancelled and they will be issuing a new card within 3 to 5 days.  Why do people suck?

Mishawaka

The might Poudre river.

One excursion from Windsor was to Mishawaka which is infamous for its' concerts. We stopped by to see the raging Poudre river. Here are Val, Susie and I with Nick taking the photo.


We saw lots of rafters and some tubers without any gear.  During the week we were in Colorado, there was a news story about a guy who went missing on the Poudre while in an inner tube.  He still had not been found when we left.

Estes Park

One of the excursion we undertook was to Estes Park which is at about 7,000 feet. It was a beautiful day and our group consisted of Nick, Susie, Sara, Val, Terri, Larry, and their dogs.  Here is Sara next to the stream next to the parking lot when we arrived.

We shopped, ate, and had a good time.  Val found a cool pair of Teva sandals and I bought a cool bag at a fly fishing store.  The bag is from Lily Pond and the company was started by the same guy that use to own Case Logic.  We had lunch outdoors and on the way out we stopped by the Stanley (where Steven King stayed while writing the Shining).  It is suppose to be haunted but we did not enter.  Outside the Stanley in the grassy area, the elk were munching on the turf.

We also stopped at the local yarn store where I bought some cool silver colored clasps and Sara fed the pet trout.  We also had to drop by and get some truffles for the ride home.

Alas the winding drive and the altitude got the best of me and not in a good way.  I had to make a pit stop and then spent the rest of the drive home laid out in the back cargo area of the car where the dogs usually hang out.

Three Dog Night

On my recent stay in Windsor Colorado, I made new dog friends. This is Annie who really resembles my Precious Princess Pepperoni that I had to have daily cuddles.  She is bigger than my girl, but just as sweet and we were great friends.

There were also Gritz (aka Grizzly Bear) and Bonnie who is only your best friend when you had food.  She is an OCD girl while that boy was just a lover.
Here is Gritz's favorite place and pose.

Bonnie surveying her domain.

Annie in her guard duty bed out on the back porch.