Hey Cupcake

We are having a gala w/ our symphony concert tonight and the members were asked to bring some "sweet treats." Since I love baking mini cupcakes I'm totally in! I haven't gotten to experiment enough w/ icing, so I went to town making little music notes on each one! I had leftover lemon butter cream from the last time I baked cupcakes, so I whipped up some chocolate icing to frost them w/ then put the notes on that. I just hope they are small enough that you don't get a weird taste of lemon w/ the chocolate. But if they do, oh well! I'm sure people will love them since they're completely adorable :)

My cupcake book also has a recipe for making rolled fondant and petal past. In the future I need to test those for really making sugar toppings. They require liquid gelatin, though, which my little grocery store down the street almost definitely doesn't have! I did find that my new tea strainer doubles really well as a sifter. I've been trying to find ways of not using a sifter since I neither have one nor a place to put one if I got one... The tea strainer method is a bit slow, but gets the job done! It's not like I'm making mini cupcakes for an army anyway.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sleigh ride

Flowers & Wine

Almost Valentines Day!

I wanted to make a dress for going out on Valentine's Day w/ Drew :)
Here it is:



Pattern: New Look 6865
View: E
Size: 12
Mods: none
I really wanted to make a gathered neck, puffy raglan sleeve, sack dress and it took a little while to find this pattern. Glad I did! Despite it being completely shapeless it's exactly what I wanted :) Now I just need to get a nice big black belt. I'll wear it with my nice black knee high boots and tights.
We are going on a sleigh ride and out to dinner, so I just hope I don't get too cold!

I may die of Foot-in-Mouth Disease, but I hope not.

Sometimes when I'm reading blogs and talking to people I start thinking that they are snarky and sarcastic all the time. And when I'm reading things or talking to them it's all really funny, so then I think it's totally ok to be like that all the time. The truth is very likely that they are not like that all the time, but only in the moments that I happen to commit to memory. This leads me to my next point. I should not use examples of various moments created by many different people strung together to create an acceptable attitude for myself.
Note to self: less snark, more romance, lightheartedness, and a grasp on reality.

Ok, that said (necessary or not), it has little to do with knitting. Sorry! And I have no new pictures.
Good news. I'm in the middle of Odessa and it's SOOO much better for that yarn than the Pi thing was! Pi would probably work really well in a solid wool which is decidedly not what I'm knitting with at the moment. I hope to finish the hat over the weekend or on Monday in order to get it on its way to the recipient. I'm not going to hand deliver it or even mail it. I'm going to send it with our Symphony manager since she goes for visits regularly.

Chemo Hats

Mikael's hat is done and looks as good as purple and gold can. I think he'll love it. I really like how the brim folds up and stays - we can thank the cotton for that. Might have to have Kris dye some more and make one for myself :) Wonder if she can handle crimson and gray?
Mom is going to give Mikael's mom the hat whenever she sees her next, but she's not sure when that will be. So hopefully soon I'll be able to report what he thinks.

I received the yarn for Sarah's hat. I was really hoping that it would be more tropical looking, but it's not quite what I had hoped; beautiful yes, just not what I'd hoped.
I started knitting the Pi Chemo Cap from Elann for this, but the cotton/bamboo blend shows all of the increases too distinctly; even with the busy yarn the increases still looked awful. Plus the construction was too weird for me. I like to gradually increase the crown of a hat to create a pattern or make them hard to see. Anyway, I'm now using Odessa by Grumperina. (You can find it on Ravelry, but it used to be on MagKnits and that doesn't exist anymore)

Winter is still here

How to tell if your skin is dry:
flaky skin
brittle nails
cracking lips
Excema
Kinda sounds like side effects of drugs advertised on TV! I only know they're not since I'm not taking any of them...

Causes:
dry winter air
heaters recirculating said dry air

Solutions:
drink lots of water
lotion
boil water or use a humidifier
become a Snowbird and move temporarily to Florida

It's been cold and dry and almost without snow for all of January. It's getting old! Someday it will be June!

Sunday Crafternoon

I busted out the sewing machine yesterday. Finally! I made that needle case and I love it! It fits all of my needles perfectly and has just the right number of pockets for different sizes. The top pockets are too close to the top for needles, so they can hold other notions. I didn't end up using the brown floral, but I'm totally in love with the green and white and the birds! THE BIRDS!


I just started the Husky hat for Mikael. Kris did an awesome job dying and it is going to work perfectly for the pattern. I'm just doing a basic hat pattern from My Knitter's Handy Guide to Patterns. The colors seem to be stacking alternately with almost no pooling or overlap of the same color - maybe less than 5 stitches at a time.

If these pictures are terrible, I'm sorry. The sun is out and it's been in hiding for the last EON, so I had to acknowledge it.

Booya!

Fabric!! And it's adorable. Not sure what I'm going to do w/ the owls yet, but I had to have it :)

And I'm going to use this floral to make the needle case. I'm going to try and incorporate the other florals in, too, but I'm not sure yet how it's all going to come together.

Since I am home during daylight, I have this for you, too!

I haven't gotten the hat yarns yet. I expect the yarn to come from Kris tomorrow and the Etsy yarn to come early next week. They should be quick to knit and hopefully ready by next weekend or early the following week.

I suck at not buying yarn...

But I have an excuse this time!
Apparently I should never have said that not buying yarn would be really easy because I have a ton already. I do have more than enough, that much is true. What I don't have is enough amazing soft yarn and in the right colors for people I know being diagnosed with Leukemia. At the moment there are 2 and they are both in high school. The only way I can say a big "FU" to this horrible thing is to knit hats for chilly heads. I know about the chilly head part, but I can't relate on any level the trials associated with chemo therapy.
One of the symphony members I used to play with is one of these affected kids. She had quite possibly the worst Christmas last year - she caught a cold or something otherwise very mild and due to having no immune system it nearly killed her. She is doing better now and has taken a few steps across her room at Children's Hospital in Seattle, but this is nearly a month later. I don't know her very well and I don't want to seem like some sympathetic outsider, but I think she will appreciate it.
I bought this for her. The symphony manager told me she says her favorite colors are "Hawaiian colors." I'm pretty sure I like those, too, so I'm just hoping that our idea of Hawaiian colors are similar :)
Now I am thinking of how to say nice things to her w/o sounding sappy and lame while still being heartfelt and sincere. I suppose, though, if she can face chemo thereapy and mutant colds, I can at least find a way to say "good luck!"

No Buy Week

This week I'm not going to buy things I don't need. I certainly don't need any yarn*! That should be easy not to buy. I'm also trying not to buy things like shoes, different pilates videos, books, etc.
I've been working on lots of things.
Amused is approaching done and approaching a decision of whether I will keep it or rip it out and make something different. The neck looks way too big and I don't think I'll wear a blue potato sack very often.

My bus socks are doing well! I started on size 1.5's, but decided they were too tight on needles that small, so started over on 2's. I'm not sure yet if the foot will be on 1.5's or 2's - 1.5's make it dense, but 2's might make it too loose.

As soon as I'm done w/ these 2 projects I want to work on something that I don't rip out!!

*Ok, so this isn't entirely true. Kris is sending me yarn for a special hat project for my mom's friend's son who was diagnosed w/ Leukemia.

Just a Note

I have been dreaming about having a good needle roll lately. Mostly for circs, but would be nice for regular straights, too. Then I found this tutorial! I know I have enough fabric to make it, but none of it is exactly what I want and none of it really goes together (well unless I want to incorporate flannel, which I don't really). I have this cute pink floral on brown background that I fell in love w/ in the JoAnn's remnant bin a long time ago; this is its calling.

And I have a pink w/ brown sort of damask pattern on it that I will use as the bias tape.

The problem is that I don't think I have enough of the pink floral... I just measured and I definitely do NOT have enough! In fact I have about 12% of what I need. Hm. I really want to get this going because I miss my sewing machine! Maybe next week I can go to the fabric store.

Holy Promptness, Batman!

The furniture guys said they would be here around 4:15. Not being used to service providers having any sense of time or people's schedules I expected them to be here at something more like 4:59. By 4:20 this had not only made it out of the truck, but also up a very narrow flight of stairs, through a narrow door way, and into my living room:

Now my apartment is full of furniture!

The second color shows the color a little better. For a good reference - it's about the color of a manila file folder.
YAY!!

Sleeves!

My little blob now has a couple of wing-a-lings! See?

In the future we will call them "sleeves."
Here, I've helped you find them since I know it's hard.

I also shaved my legs today, made dinner and made lunch for tomorrow. Please ignore that my apartment still looks like a war zone. It's snowing outside, distract yourselves with that. If it's not snowing where you are, please come visit me :)

Baked Potatoes & Bagel Sandwiches

... and Christmas and knitting. Since I got home from my parents' house for Christmas I've been trying to avoid grocery shopping and realized that I've got bagels and potatoes, so I'm eating those before going to the store. Though I will need some laundry money soon...
Christmas was a great time being virtually snowed in with the family and getting to see a couple of really good old friends. I received many amazing gifts from family such as a Victoria's Secret robe from the brother & SIL which I practically refuse to take off. Damn working AT work. If I worked from home I would live in this thing. But then again if I worked from home I would never work. Ok, moving on. Grandpa sent up a scale model of the table he's building for me! It's 1/4 scale, so will be a big, beefy, craftsman-esque table when done. See, pictures with some items for size.


My parents gave me a really pretty cake stand. My mom said she bought it last year, but since I was sharing a duplex and had a tiny kitchen that I hated cooking in she saved it for this year. Of course now I have no place to put it because my kitchen is considerably smaller... Ah well, it's beautiful!

My cousin Tessa gave me some nice bathroom things and a couple of stuffies that I believe her sister, Rachel, made. One is an owl and the other is a racoon. I may have requested them... :)

In other news I did not get to see Kate or Kerry while home due to psycho snow. I DID get to see my 2 best friends from many years earlier. Kayte and I realized that we've never gone out together when we've even been able to DRIVE, let alone drink! So we took care of both Saturday night. Then Sunday I went to lunch w/ Kris and we discovered that we're both crazy fanatical knitters. I am still in shock over it, but she said it correctly when she said we were meant to be soulmates. It couldn't be more true! Yay. Mostly I'm glad to know that my old besties are still there and despite a few years of not seeing each other we still have plenty in common. :)

I've been knitting on Amused. Kate put me up to it and she's nearly done! Mine currently looks like a blob w/ some cables. It's nice to work on something w/ big needles. I'm also bus knitting the waffle socks. One is done and due to the magic and bendiness of wire coat hangers it does not look like a blob.

I <3 Winter!

It snowed finally! It started just over a week ago and is snowing steadily right now. After unburying my car and driving a bit yesterday and today, it's now buried again! It's also been extremely cold - the predicted low for tonight is 11°, but last week that was practically a heat wave! Nights were in the single digits and days not above 20°. In light of cold and snow I've had nothing to do but knit :)
The Christmas knitting is all done except for something for Drew.
I'll talk about those things later...
I just finished the button band for the purple sweater and the collar is up for tonight or tomorrow depending on how I feel. My wrists and elbows are a little tired from feverish knitting for the last several hours! I knit solid while watching Doctor Zhivago with only 1 bathroom break and intermission when I made hot chocolate. It was good and I was surprised I sat through it all as I often get bored in 2 hour movies, let alone one over 3 hours! Anyway I don't know that I paid close enough attention to fully understand it, but knitting happened and that's important, too.
I'm hoping to finalize Christmas shopping tomorrow; hopefully my car won't be frozen! I at least need to drive it Monday morning so I can take it in for a few last repairs.
Currently on the Needles:
German Waffle Socks

Pop Up Mittens

The Purple Sweater

Up Next:
Amused
First Dying Experiment
Kate and I plan to do Amused as a KAL. She bought us the supplies for dying for my birthday, so I'm excited to do that! We will spend at least a full day together after Christmas knitting and making our own yarn :)

Quick Post

Can I post in 15 minutes? Taking pictures and all?
Lately I've been knitting quite a bit, but have been fickle; work on this for 2 days, that for 5 days, and oh ya! pick up that sweater that's been laying around...
I started some Cashmere mitts recently which I can't reach at the moment so there are no pictures. I'm using Ann Budd's Handy Guide to Knitting patterns and melding the gloves w/ the mittens to make convertible mitts. The fingers inside are all 11 rows tall and knit in 1x1 rib on a size larger needle than the rest of the mitt (mitt on 2's, fingers on 3's). I improvised the 1x1 thing and I'm not sure it was necessary or even a good idea, but it's done on both and I'm not turning back. I also added the mitten top too high on the back of the hand. At this point there are sort of 2 camps - 1. meh! this was an experiment and they are totally wearable, be proud of your accomplishment and learn from it; 2. this is really really nice yarn and you know you can do better. Start over maybe from the other end of the ball so you don't have extra yarn tails to weave in in obscure places. I think I'm going to let them age a bit and decide which camp is best. Now that I've gotten them written down, though, I must admit I'm leaning toward #2.
After getting most of the way through the mitts my mom and I did some post-Thanksgiving shopping and I got a Hiya Hiya size 1US 9" circ. I thought, "those look almost evil!" followed almost immediately by, "I HAVE to try them and find out. I'm using mystery yarn that my friend bought for me in Germany. There is potential that it is some line from Opal or that it is something very similar. Nevertheless since the needles are like slippery toothpicks glued to each other I opted for a simple pattern - waffle rib from Vogue Stitchionary I. I'm about 75% done with the heel now, but would be done if I'd just started w/ the short row heel. I don't especially like short row heels, so I try to avoid them, but when I tried to work a heel flap... well... slippery toothpicks.



Finally on the knitting front: I picked up the 178 stitches for the wasteband of the purple sideways sweater! I've never had issues w/ picking up stiches before. But then I don't think I've picked up 178 stitches along the side of lace before either. That may have been more painful than knitting the entire sweater twice. And now those 178 stitches of 80/20 Cotton/Merino want to slide right off of the aluminum needles they're on making it very difficult to knit them. Oh, I am so close to victory on this thing, I can taste it!! I just want to finish it. Grrr to you aluminum needles. If you weren't called "Diana" I wouldn't even keep you!
Awe. I love you, too sweater.

Dang. 30 minutes.

Um, YUM!

Yes, this is more not-knitting. But it's delicious and worth showing off!

Crust:
2 crust for 10" pan from Betty Crocker's Old Fashioned Desserts book. I'm not one of those people that "uses their great great grandmother's recipe that she almost lost on the boat ride from Yorkshire." Instead I use whatever - sometimes I get it from one of my cookbooks, sometimes I get it from the internet. This one uses Crisco, but I've used butter before, too. I don't really have a preference (yet?) or a favorite recipe. I haven't even ruled any out as bad ones. So there.
Filling:
Apple Pie from the Betty Crocker Best Loved Recipes cookbook. Generally one would use tart apples like Granny Smiths, but all I had were Galas (or Fugis?) which are really sweet. So I burried them in sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. They aren't as crisp, but I can say that they don't taste bad.

It's getting all foggy and they say it will most likely rain tomorrow afternoon. Cross your fingers that it turns to snow very soon! Then I'll have a really good excuse to run the oven all the time :)

Hyku: Natural Light

O! Natural light*
I saw you in sunny CA
But now I am home.
*I just realized that you might mistake this for the beer... I'm talking about natural SUN light.

I was in San Diego over the weekend visiting my brother & sister-in-law. We had a blast and it was all perfect. Here is the trip:
This is Paradise. It says she might bite... she definitely bites.

Shout House w/ Laurel - dueling piano bar. It was hilarious, everyone needs to go!

Breaker Beach on Coronado Amphibious Base.

Sandpipers at the beach. They are so fun to watch!

We went on a ghost tour.

Mik looking for ghosts on the Spirit of India.

Is there a ghost man, other woman, child, baby, etc in the picture? I didn't think so...

Is Kate Morgan here? We tried to find the famed ghost of the Del Coronado Hotel, but all that was around was the most beautiful place to stay I've ever been.

Mik looking for orbs. Or is that dust?

Got to hang out w/ the youngest Brandon.

Brandons on swings. Go figure.

Ocean Beach (OB to the locals) was stormy, but pretty!


There are seagulls there, too

There are cactus and palm trees all over


My knitting from the weekend is on Ravelry. I've been internetting way too long to post any of that here now.