Saturday

It was a busy but nice day. Grandpa & Grandma Linda came over because David & I were supposed to go to Scottsdale but it did not work out so, mostly, we just hung out in the morning.

Simon got the hang of riding Hannah's scooter.

He watered the plants in the front yard.
And Grandpa helped Hannah try to get the hang of roller blades sent by her cousins in Minnesota. She is out front now and doing a pretty good job. Falling a lot but somehow, it is easier to fall and get right back up when you are young.
David & I went out for lunch at Cyclo while Grandpa & Grandma took the kids to McDonalds then we went to look at a new couch/sectional with recliners built into it. We found a nice one but have to figure out if the colors match what we have going on in our living room.

We also go David a Grill Gazebo at Sam's Club. It is crazy that they don't take any credit card but Sam's Club and Discover so we had to go to Wal-Mart & buy a gift card and then go back and spend it at Sam's. Crazy but our way of using our airline mileage card for a big purchase.

I got a wee bit volunteered to make a baby gift this weekend. So, I am knitting the Baby Kimono from Interweave Knits. I am using Wildflower DK Cotton in pink I traded with Heather for some sheep stitch markers. I am about 2/3 of the way done.

Feta Cheese Buns Recipe

Cheese Buns (Housekeeping Buns)

½ c butter
¾ c milk
1 pkg. active dry yeast
3 ¼ c. unsifted all purpose flour
1 T sugar
¼ tsp. salt
3 eggs
½ lb. feta cheese, crumbled

I used my bread machine.

1. Heat 6 T of the butter and milk in a saucepan until butter melts; cool to lukewarm.

2. Pour butter milk mixture into bread machine and then add flour, yeast, sugar, salt and eggs.

3. Set for dough cycle.

4. After dough cycle is finished, let rest 10 minutes and then cut into 16 even pieces.

5. Roll out pieces into 6 inch circles, place 1 T of feta cheese in the middle and then pull up opposite sides of the circle and crimp together.

6. Place sealed side down on greased cookie sheet to rise until doubled (about 30 minutes).

7. With wooden skewer or toothpick, prick each bun several times; melt remaining butter and brush over tops of buns.

8. Bake in 375o F oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 16 buns
Source: Food & Fun for Family & Friends Cookbook, Epiphany Lutheran Church

Ok, I cracked.....

to the pressure of this black lace weight on ebay.

But I got 3,200 yards for $11.65 shipped to me from the Ukraine.

It is 100 grams at approximately 1,600 yards per ball. Um, that's a lot of lace knitting. Now, I just gotta knit FASTER!

This yarn will be all ready for me to make the Candle Flame Shawl when it arrives!

USPS & Buns

I got this first scrap of a postcard on Tuesday. It was hidden in with the rest of the mail and I almost missed it. It is from a recent rebate for our new computer. I hoped that the rest of it would maybe show up later in the week.
Amazingly, it did on Wednesday in this plastic bag explaining that it got ripped in the mail. Thankfully, both pieces had my name & address on them so they were able to deliver them to me. Now I can read about WHAT I have to submit to the rebate people.
I also made some rolls last night. They are called Cheese Rolls/Housekeeping Buns a la Italy. They are a buttermilk (milk & butter melted together) dough that is very soft & then filled with a tablespoon of feta cheese. We ate quite few last night for dinner.
David asked if I made them again if I would make some WITHOUT the cheese because they were such a good roll and he thought they'd be yummy with honey. I must admit, I am inclined to agree!

Candle Flame Stole

About 18 months ago, I knit A LOT of a the Candle Flame Shawl but just wasn't loving it so......I ripped it all out.

I loved the stitch pattern itself but in order to get a wide enough shawl, I would have had a very long point on the shawl. Plus, in the bulky yarn, it would have been way too HOT in Arizona, EVER.

The whole time I was knitting that shawl, I thought, I should really sit down and figure out how I can knit this shawl as a rectangular shawl. Of course, I never did.

However, when I got my Knitpicks Catalog yesterday, I saw that they had someone do it for me!

Yahoo! Don't you just love that yarn color too?

I am going to resist buy that yarn, for the moment, but I suspect I will do so in the not so distant future. I have to finish up some other projects and get through some more yarn before I buy more lace weight.

Um, wouldn't that be a really nice dressy shawl in a black??? OOOHHH....I have lace weight black, but I don't think I have enough. Drat!

Knit Bloggers Cookbook

Is over here from Elizabeth.

Lots of yummy recipes.

Tuesday Happenings

Hannah's class has some high school buddies on the Chandler High Girl's Softball team and yesterday they got to meet them at a game. This is Hannah's buddy, Tori. Hannah was nice enough to let her brother come with her onto the field.
I have started a new shawl/blanket out of this cone of yarn I got on ebay.
It is green/turquoise lace weighty yarn. However, you couldn't really knit lace with it because it is slubby and would not show the lace pattern very well. I have a lot of it so I am going to have to get creative with the rest of the cone!
So, I am holding two strands together and knitting the Pinwheel Blanket. It is a nice change from the fancy lace knitting I have been doing for the past 2.5 weeks.
All knitting with a few yarn overs every now and again.

I am so over Tom Cruise

Since the whole couch jumping and Svengali Scientology thing he's got going, I just can't stand the guy. I keep thinking one day that young gal is going to wake up and wonder WTF she has done?

(Of course, as my family and friends will attest, I have had some real winner boyfriends myself so, theoretically, I shouldn't be throwing stones.)

Was he always this arrogant? I mean, over the top arrogant?

I don't think I could even watch him in Top Gun and not want to hurl.

So, I about spit out my water because I was laughing so hard when I read this over at Go Fug Yourself. I really love the last comment by Phillip Seymour Hoffman that he is batshit crazy.

As they say, many a true word spoken in jest.

Sunday Stuff

I was in the house doing laundry and Sunday and David asked me to come out and see what Hannah & Simon were doing. This is the carnage on the driveway.

The getting ready to show.....

Bums up to me. All wet and proud of it! Ah, the be a child again. Thankfully, Hannah had the foresight to take off her good tennis shoes before playing in the water.
A final shot of the shawl. It fits its new owner perfectly. As you can see in the sunlight, it is definitely more dark mauve/brownish with green than the aspired to black. It sure does match the beads well! ;)

Contest Winner

The winner of Loop D Loop is Megan of knitbrarian.typepad.com.

There were quite a few right answers and I had David draw a number from the right answers.

The answer: It shows that there is a fire hydrant near by. Usually, parallel to it in one direction. You can just see the yellow hydrant at the right of the photo.
Thank you all for playing.

Lace Leaf Shawl is Dyed & Blocked

Here is the before color:
And the after photo! I used 2 packages of black Dylon cold water dye. I let it soak for about 1.5 hours and it did dye pretty darned well.
However, it is not really black. It is a dark, dark mauve/purple black. The red & pink dyed pretty well but the yellow, as you can see in the middle below, is still just a wee bit lighter than the rest.
Ironically, the color matches very well with the irridescent beads I used on the edging. The pattern came out very well and the size will be perfect. Not too small and not too big.
A close up of the edging.

A Project Spectrum Walk Down Our Street

I took a walk down our street yesterday afternoon and looked at it with "Project Spectrum" eyes.

This is what I saw:

Yellow wildflowers.
Red/Orange Lantana
Honeysuckle
Ocotillo Cactus
No idea...but pretty flowers that were part of a plant that looked like a desert grass.
Hibiscus
Another version of the "grass" flower.
Orange & Hot Pink Lantana
Barrel cactus
Wow, that is a lot of beautiful colors on my street alone! Thanks Lolly for thinking up this project! I see colors of the month in so many things.

Friday Finished Objects

Um, remind you of anything? Oh yeah, they are a set of tit bits. The yarn is Wildflower DK. I like it MUCH better than the Dale Stork. Don't get me wrong, I love Stork as a yarn, just like the thicker weight of this yarn. It gives the girls a little more perk.
Finished casting off the Lace Leaf Shawl during lunch. I had to employ one of Margene's First Rule of Knitting. It was 9:05 pm when I started to cast off last night. I thought I could do it but about 10 stitches into it, I realized it was time to go to bed and try today. I think it will block to just the right size after I dye it.
This is my first foray into adding beads to a knitted item. You can see them below...the black little dots embedded in the bright color. I originally worried that they would be too heavy for the shawl but since they are knitted in and attached securely, they don't seem to add much weight at all. It certainly will idiot proof (theoretically) the pinning of the points.
I am hoping to get to Joann's tomorrow and pick up some Dylon dye in black. Probably two packets since I have enough yarn to make another shawl in this color. I estimate the shawl took about 850 yards of lace weight yarn and was knit on size 5 addi turbos.

Missing Sidebar

Editor's note: Thanks Heather, you nailed it when you said the comic I posted was too wide. I deleted the comic and voila!

Thank you so much!

It is really missing but it is WWWWWAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY down at the bottom.

Anyone know what I screwed up in the template or blogger options to send it south?????

Thank you for any help you can give.

Blog Anniversary Contest

In honor of 1 year of blogging, I am having a contest for Teva Durham's book, Loop-d-Loop.
So, now for the contest.

What is the significance of the BLUE reflector in the middle of the street?

Please email answers/guesses to sbridger3 at cox dot net by midnight on Saturday. Don't forget to include your blog address and please put contest in the subject line.

Winner will be chosen at random if no one guesses the purpose of the blue reflector.

Random Tuesday Stuff

My husband wonders why Simon always has scrapes, bumps and bruises on his head, knees, arms & legs. Um, could it be because the kid thinks he Spider Man and can climb anything???

He wants to talk to the boys next door so he just climbed up and is having a conversation with them and not worried at all about falling into the rocks or scraping his head on the concrete wall.

Hannah took the bus this morning. She was all into getting herself ready (in 10 minutes flat!) and walking down the street and across the main drag to get to the bus stop. I walked down to check on her but I know that I have to give her the responsibility and independence to make choices for herself. Um, I did see the 6th grade neighbor boy on my way back to the house and asked him to keep an eye on her. Ok, bad Mom but I worry about my INDEPENDENT 7 year old who wants to be 17 instead of 7.

Here is Bernice in her crocheted sweater. It is really pretty in person! Believe me, that was a lot of work because it was tiny yarn on a very small hook!

I have just figured out that I can request really great knitting books through inter-library loan! I have requested Mason-Dixon Knitting (I looked at Michelle's copy last night), Wendy Knits & the new Yarn Harlot book. I can't wait!!!!!

I seem to have too many knitting books that I don't LOVE once I get them so, I am going to test drive them through the library!

Ponchos.....

I knit this poncho two years ago for Hannah and up until 2 weeks ago, she had only worn it 5 times. I did try and give it away about a month ago but she did not want to let go of it.

However, in a bow to peer pressure, she now wears it because her best friend Kathlyn wears a poncho too!

Of course, it does look like it will fit another year or two.

I started the edging on my shawl but when I got about 150 stitches into it, I realize that I need to knit another repeat so the edging pattern will fit. I am basing my sizing on the top edge and I think it will work out pretty well because I want to the top to be pretty wide but I don't want it to be too long because the recipient is not that tall and I don't want it dragging on the ground.

Places I've Knit: Redux

I found Kat's Contest through Celia's Blog.

1. Kirkenes, Norway (It was a very cold part of 10 months in Norway)
2. Train in London
3. On a beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
4. Intermission at a Moody Blues Concert (Hubby was mortified but hey, we were just sitting there doing NOTHING.)
5. Many O' College Graduation Ceremony (ok, two: My brother Matthew's and my Mom's)

A few more:

6. Sitting on the terrace of a church atop Monserrate overlooking and standing in line to get into the Gold Museum in Bogota, Columbia.
7. "Hotel" room in Novosibirsk, Russia.
8. Stitch N Bitch at Coffee Rush every Tuesday! ;)
9. Hannah's school assembly, while waiting for her conferences to start, while waiting to pick her up.
10. The post office while waiting in line.

The list could go on forever. Maybe the list would be shorter where I DIDN'T knit!

Hmm.....I have been knitting for almost 20 years (since the fall of 1987) while living in Norway and my knitting has been with me most of that time. I knit in college, grad school, and "real life" since moving out the Phoenix in 1995. My knitting gets me through the day some days and mellows me no end.

I remember when LYS were rare beasts before the "huge" knitting boon the last few years and I used to order my yarn from a lady in Fargo, ND who would ship me the yarn with a bill inside and trust me to send her the check. I used to buy from her when I lived in Fargo so she knew me but still, what a huge amount of trust. Ah, the old Midwest thing!

Ok, enough waxing nostalgic for one day.

Easter Weekend

Hannah & Simon started Saturday morning by making a fort in the bunk beds. I thought it was pretty good considering how tall the bed is vs. how short they are!

We dyed eggs...which took all of 5 minutes with two little ones that have no patience.

Simon got the orange color!

Our finished eggs.
Sunday morning started WAY too early. The kids got up at 5:57 am. (Today they get up at 6:30 am, what is up with that??). The found their baskets and the eggs around the house and Simon ate a lot of his candy! We went to Easter breakfast at church and got a ride from the parking lot in a golf cart.
After breakfast tehy had an egg hunt in the front lawn.
They got a lot of eggs with fun stickers and things in them to play with during the sermon!
Outside the house in our Easter best before the kids went looking for the eggs Grandpa & Grandma hid around the house with MORE candy and MONEY????!!!
We had a nice leg of lamb from Trader Joe's with David's roasted potatoes.

I am still knitting on the Lace Leaves shawl. I realized I was counting the repeats wrong because there were 3 BEFORE I got to the true repeat section and I should be pretty close to the sizes although I am going to still use the top edge length, pre-blocked, to determine when I start the edging because the yarn I am using is so fine.

Project Spectrum & a Trip to Lee Lee's

Since I decided to jump on the project spectrum band wagon, I see the colors all around me.

Here is a very messy, but pretty yellow tree.

Another tree with some pretty flowers in the library parking lot.

And the ever present lantana.

We went to Yen Mi for dinner with Dad & Linda. It is a restaurant within Lee Lee's Market in Chandler. It is an Oriental market the size of a mainstream supermarket. The fish & meat section always amaze me and last night was not different. The red canopy you see above shows you the length of the meat section (it covers 80% of the back of the store) and the huge crowd is in front of the fish mongers on a Friday night.
The kids, especially Simon, love to see the fish tanks. By tomorrow night, these tanks will be pretty sparsely populated. The have bass, lobsters and Dungeness Crabs, to name a few things in the tank.
There always seems to be one bird flying around in the store. They come in through the front doors which are almost always open. We heard chirping, louder than normal, and I told David that there was a bird in, as usual. But, when we looked up, we saw furry birds and realized that there were two babies up in the rafters.
I rarely get to the adult beverage section of Lee Lee's. David usually runs over and gets his sake and as we are coming out of the restaurant and we head right to the veggie section.

As we got close, I saw this wine. I had to take a picture because the brand name was so fun.
This is the cold sake section. HUGE! I knew there were a lot of sake's in the world but did not realize there were quite so many as those represented here.
A trip through Lee Lee's is always an adventure and last night was no different!