Wednesday, April 30, 2008

fits like a.... mitten!


so, remember the Not So Superbowl Hat? well, i came across a second ball of that yarn. I hadn't realized the NSSH only use a part of one single ball. i thought it used all of one and part of the second. This is good, because now i can make matching mittens for debra as well.

Tomorrow is the first day of May, so hat and mittens are not needed any more, but here is what i learned: mittens are great fun to make, and they don't take very long, and they only need one ball of yarn. yay! I really like this yarn,i might try to see if i can find some more on line.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

here is what i love about ravelry

It's sheer and utter and complete usefulness.

Sure, at first glance it's just a place for nerdy knitters to get together and act the part, but it's really a great tool for learning. The site admins have really made the site very intuitive and user friendly.

Since it's sort of a Bulletin Board, you can post back and forth on all sorts of topics. Who knew there were so many knitting Foo Fighters fans in the world? I so wish there were more sites set up this way- a sewing one in particular, but the possibilities really are endless.

but since it's also sort of like wiki, there's a lot of great actual info available. If you have a question, you can search the threads, or the techniques, or the patterns. This is key because there's no trawling through pages and pages of info you can't really use because the search hit on the word "the". There's a directory of useful places to shop. so say you need to find a particular yarn or needle, search the yarns or search the shops. There's a directory of people, so you can see where people are from, and what they knitted- you can ask them how they liked the project, the yarn et cetera.

my favorite thing about ravelry, is everything. I've really improved my knitting knowledge and skills in the few short months i've been a member. Rock On Casey, Jess; and Bob too!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Here is what i love:

Trail mix! not the yucky kind you get in packages, oh no. I make my own. I make it on sunday evenings, and it lasts through the week for lunches.

here's what i buy:
1 bag dried apricots
1 bag dried cherries
1 bag dried apples
(these are all available in the raisin section, or the produce dept of the grocery)

1 package of pecans
1 package of whole almonds
1 package of chocolate chips
(look in the baking aisle for these)

1 box of some sort of cereal that doesn't have too much taste, but does have substance- shredded wheat squares, or the like.

Here's what i do:
I use about 1/2 package of the dried fruits, a handful or two of the nuts and cereal, and a single handful of the chocolate chips. Now, to start, you should toast the nuts in the toaster, on the shortest cycle. just enough for them to get toasty and warm, not long enough to burn. When they come out, throw them in a metal 13x9x3 rectangle pan and toss the chips over them so the chips get melty, but keep their shape. set aside so the nuts and chips begin to get cool.

Set aside, and begin work on the fruits- chop the apricots roughly, so you sort of get three pieces from each one. same for the apples if needed. then, throw everything into the pan with the nuts and chips (that are sort of melty cool now) and toss around so the chocolate gets on somethings, and not on others. you really want the chocolate to be on the other stuff, but not so that its too hard to eat with your hands. Spread everything out in the rectangle pan and set aside to thoroughly cool. then scoop into snack size baggies- 1/3 to 1/2 cup serving size please! Viola! you have a whole week's worth of tasty trail mix.

you can mix it up any way you like- i tried cinnamon chips in there- not my favorite. I also sometimes use apple jacks for the cereal. other times i use cranberries instead of the cherries. I once used prunes because i could only find mixed dried fruit that day- hey are tasty, but, there are other.... benefits shall we say. You can put pretzel sticks in there too. I get roughly two mixes out of a single package of the fruit. The other stuff is really just pantry junk you probably already have on hand.

It's quite tasty, and according to these nutrition facts, while it might not top the list of great foods, it's not so bad for you that you'll feel too guilty.

try it, you'll like it!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Flight AEI 132 Hat!

so, I've managed to work out a pattern for the hat i knitted in time to keep my ears warm in ireland. Though we had spectacular weather, my ears are wimpy, and i like to keep them covered.

It's a pdf, and here is the snappy snap:

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

kimono jacket mania!

So i just recently began sewing clothing. i've made a couple of summertime skirts for myself, but clothing is still very intimidating. a cure for that? Children's clothing, YAY! As you have seen in my recent littlest googie posts, children's clothing is quick, usually easy, and it usually doesn't use too much fabric. Also, if you flub it up, you can start over with less remorse.

so here are my first forays into more complex clothing. kimono jackets!
This one is the very first. it's totally reversible, both because it's more useful that way, and because making it reversible allows me to have a much better looking product- i'm terrible at finishing.



This set also has some shoes made out of the scraps. These are so tiny though that they were not as fun to make. I suppose i should have made them by hand sewing, not using the machine.


Now, i also need to have a gift for my cousin's new baby. I hope she doesn't see this before the shower.
here is his kimono.


Boy fabrics and patterns are hard to find. Often times fabrics that are boyish are sort of ugly. but i think these are tremendously cute, and not in an overpowering drippy kind of way.

Monday, April 07, 2008

sign the petition?

I think it's pretty clear by now to which political party i belong. That said, i would like to take a tiny bit of your time to ask you to click this link: http://www.voteboth.com

I don't think many people will disagree (even republicans) that the country seems to be in a morass of uncertainty politically, economically, and yes even morally. I also don't think I'll be saying anything new if I propose that the current administration has done very little to get us out of the quagmire. Sometimes it even seems that they initiated it, or at the very least exacerbated it.

So I don't think I'll be saying anything controversial if I opine that change is needed. A combined democrat ticket would be both unbeatable as far as voting goes, but it could also be a very successful administration. They both have strengths that can be useful, and these individual strengths sort of jive and dovetail- where one might be too junior, the other has a bit more tenure in washington. Where one might be off putting, the other is smooth and approachable.

It really could be a dream ticket. Vote Both