Plum Stitches

hhmmmm

Seems that I've lost my crafting steam.  Like I said the other day, my knitting projects and sewing projects are collecting dust!  I suppose this is something I go through every six months or so.  Hopefully, I'll regain my steam after a trip to a sunny destination that's coming up.  More on that later...

I came down last month with this sinus/head cold thing that just will not go away.  I broke down over the weekend and bought a 'Netti Pot' after a few friends suggested trying one.  Anyone else out there used one of these?  Jim tried it out, I tried it out, my mother tried it out, but my step-father wouldn't bit on this one.

I think it worked pretty well.  Weird sensation, like swimming in the ocean, kind of.  From my short experience with it, the trick is finding the right amount of salt to use.  You mix up a saline solution, which goes in the pot and then gets poured into your nasal passage.  Gross.  Too much detail.  I know, I know.

For any of you out there living in the U.S., I discovered this site a month or so ago - Catalog Choice
It's a free service that let's you opt-out of catalogs, which we seem to get a ridiculous amount of, I certainly like to browse, but after awhile it becomes such a nuisance!  I'm not sure that it actually works, but I have been diligently entering catalogs and customer numbers into my profile.

Check out these super cute pieces that all of you in the blog world have been working on:

• Celia's, gorgeous little red caplet.  (I know I keep saying this, but I REALLY do want to learn to crochet!)
• These gorgeous February Sweaters from pepperknit and earthchickknits.  Mine still sits in the WIP pile, which hopefully some day I'll finish.
• Purl is selling an Ondori pattern book, of course it's written in Japanese, but it does save a trip to the Japanese Book store or trying to interpret the Japanese Amazon site to order a pattern book.
• And...how sweet is this little sweater from My Little Loves

That's it for me today...who knows maybe I'll pick up my knitting needles this afternoon??

surfing

My creative juices have been a little stale for the past week - my knitting has been sitting in a pile near the couch, and the sewing I was hoping to do is collecting dust upstairs!  We haven't been feeling so great in our house for the past week, but hopefully that's passing.

Chloe came down with a stomach bug on Friday night - is there anything worse than a two year-old throwing up?  I did managed to teach her to 'try' to get to the toilet, which I think she started to get.  Anyway, we were supposed to go and see Dan Zanes in Princeton (about an hour's drive south) with some friends yesterday morning.  All seemed to be good and just as we were parking and about to make the mad dash to the theater where he was playing, Chloe threw up everywhere in our car.  Instead of seeing the show we turned around and headed home.  Luckily, it seems to have passed, but we missed Dan Zanes!  Oh well, next time.

I a little window shopping at JCrew, once again.  Check these our, both I think are made from the Liberty of London fabric and would be really easy to make.  The pictures don't necessarily do them justice, but the were really cool in the store.

And, check this out from the latest issue of Cookie magazine - I thought it was such a cute idea!  Of course, then you need to find the doll furniture, I do like the mish-mash of furniture that they've used.  I also like the furniture from Plan Toys.

cookies!

Good thing our kitchen is on the ground floor and we spend most of the day upstairs, otherwise these cookies would be gone too quickly.  Without the icing on top, they don't taste like much, but once iced they're hard to resist.  I used the rolled sugar cookie recipe from Joy of Cooking, and the icing is simply confectioner's sugar with a bit of water and food coloring.

Chloe was a terrific assistant with decorating the cookies, until she discovered that she could eat them.

These were the first things to be baked in our new oven.  It's so clean - hopefully we can keep it that way!

Random question - does anyone know the best kind of birdseed to buy that doesn't attract those pesky squirrels?

happy valentines day!

Nah, I don't have fancy hearts to share today, unfortunately.  I did have big plans to make heart shaped sugar cookies and decorate them Chloe, but I haven't got to it, yet.  There is still time left in the day though.

We had a wonderful snowstorm two days ago that was short-lived before it turned to sleet and freezing rain - yuck.  I managed to quickly get Chloe dressed in her outdoor gear, and pull out the sled that had yet to be used.  Sadie dragged her for a big, with a little help from me.  It was really pretty, fluffy dry snow.  Note that the hat is now, almost officially, too small:-(.

 

Some quick knitting from yesterday. 

Pattern:  Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac;  Ganomy Hat

Yarn:  Almost one skein of Rowan Polar in cream. 
Needles:  10 1/2 circular, using magic loop method
Notes: I loved knitting this hat, although I'm still torn on how it looks on me.  I just love the way the increases/decreases add to the texture and design of the hat.  I'm not skilled enough to take a picture of myself in the hat, but maybe this weekend I'll get Jim to take one...

the former giants have shrunk considerably

Hard to imagine they used to look like this. 

Pattern:  Fiber Trends, Felt Ballerina Slippers;  Felt It!  Four-in-One Brooch (flower pattern)
Yarn:  Patons Classic Merino, misc. scraps for flowers
Needles:  Size 10/12 circular
Size:  Child's Medium
Notes:   I have a few finishing touches to complete these, but thought I would share.  They're much too big for Chloe, but I'm sure they'll fit her at some point.  I'd like to make them again, I did find it a little difficult to maintain the consistency in the sizing with everything doubled, although that is part of the charm of something handmade - it's not 'perfect.'

As for our stove, well, we decided to replace it.  After the service people came with the estimate to fix it we decided it was just better to get a new one, as we had been planning on replacing it anyway.  Plus, the one we bought has a double over.  It's not a wall oven, but there are two of them!

Over the weekend we went with some friends from the neighborhood to see a Kidrockers show at the Living Room on the Lower East Side.  Basically, normal bands that you would see late at night at a bar play a set in the early afternoon for the little ones.  It was lots of fun - Chloe loved Langhorne Slim and the War Eagles (they have a song on the Waitress soundtrack).

waiting

A few weeks ago our stove kicked it.  The range still works, but the stove is kaput.  We seem to be slowly replacing every appliance in our kitchen, even though they're all relatively young - the stove was the last hold-out.  I suppose if we think about it, replacing the refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher before we start renovating actually saves us money because the cost is spread over several years (or so I'm trying to convince myself).  So, my long story ends with Sears coming to fix our stove and the window for repair that they gave me is 8am - 5pm, nine hours!!  I called this morning to see if they could give me more specifics, but nope, that's the time frame.  Hopefully, they show up and can fix the stove - I've been dreaming of making and decorating heart cookies with Chloe.

It was a balmy 65 degrees here yesterday, which has me thinking of spring, although I'm still holding out for a BIG snow storm, like 20 inches.  I shouldn't hold my breath for that one.  I just love this catalog, White Flower Farm, in CT.  Every year I say I'm going to go up and visit when the spring catalog arrives.  I've never actually ordered anything from it, but I like to look through it, repeatedly.  If you're resourceful, you can check out their pre-planned gardens and create your own. 

Onto, a current knitting project, for Chloe.

Pattern: Knitting Pure & Simple, Little Girl's Sundress or Jumper
Size:  2
Yarn:  Koigu, of course!  A splurge for sure, but I couldn't resist - can't seem to get enough of this yarn
Needles: Size 8 and Size 6 circular needles
Notes:  This is a quick knit, with lots of variations you can make to the pattern.  I  like the fact that you can make it a bit longer, to wear as a dress and then as the child gets a little older as a jumper.  There were some great ideas for variations on Ravelry too.

I also just pulled out a few of my Japanese pattern books to retrace a few of the patterns in larger sizes.  Hopefully I'll have something to show in the next few days.

make my day

As I mentioned this other day, Sue nominated me for the You Make My Day Award, which made my day.  For those of you not familiar with the award,  here's a little blurb about it:

Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.

So, here's my list of the people that make my day:

Sue
An incredibly talented knitter and generous gift giver.  She knits beautiful garments for her children and many, many others.  Sue inspires me everyday to become a more proficient and creative knitter!

Thea
The mother of two gorgeous girls, Thea knits beautiful pieces, along with providing her readers with a cocktail recipe or too.  What could be better than that?

Kim 
One of the very talented knitters from my SNB group.  Kim is an amazing knitter that whips up lovely garments for friends, family, co-workers and herself.

Alice & Grace
Two talented sisters that create beautiful knitted items, along with many other crafty creations.  The photos of their creations are gorgeous. 

The Purl Bee
Inspiring projects that encompass knittng, crocheting, sewing and much more.

Tree Hugger
I absolutely adore the name of this site that strives to  be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information.

Zimmermania 
This covers many, many people, who share a passion for Elizabeth Zimmerman. What I love most about this site is the variety of skills and experience that all of the contributors bring their posts, along with the support the site promotes.

Tyler 
My dear friend that died unexpectedly in a ski accident last week.  Tyler was the founder of Green Mountain Engineering and was doing many impressive things in the effort to utilize sustainable energy to leave the planet a better place for generations to come.  He would have been a great blogger!

Thanks for all the supportive comments about my friends' death last week.  I haven't e-mailed any of you back because I seem to lack anything to say other than thank you for your thoughts.  I really appreciate all of them. 

We drove to Vermont for the memorial service this past weekend.  I felt so much better about everything after this weekend, from being around friends and recounting endless funny stories about Tyler.  It made it all less painful.  I suppose I never thought that it would be therapeutic, but it truly was.

As for a some creative things...

Pattern:  Head Huggers, from Ann Norling
Size:  Adult Large, I made this for Jim, but I have a feeling it will be too small :-(
Yarn:  Rowan, Cashsoft Aran, 2 skeins
Needles:  Size 6 needles
Notes:  I did add an extra ten stitches to the largest size, and added an extra inch to its length.

And the beginning of Daphne's Baby Cape from Knit2Together.  Phew, this garter stitch is monotonous, but the finished garment is just so darn cute I couldn't resist!

Just one more picture of Chloe attempting to 'knit.'