Monday, December 29, 2008

My Recent Obsession.

I bought myself this yarn mostly cause I liked the name of the colorway. Shallow? Me? Never. When the yarn arrived at my doorstep, I innocently opened it and what to my wondrous eyes did appear?(see what I did there?) This! Isn't it just lovely. Woe Cake is by Dizzy Blonde Designs and is part of her signature collection. Her regular line of yarn is all named after famous blondes. But I digress.

So I laid eyes upon this yarn. Then I touched it. I thought about how it reminded me of how KCMO looks towards the end of fall. You know the leaves are mostly shades from red to pink and the grass is kind of tan color? Just breezy and cold. Almost immediately a pattern came to mind of fingerless mitts with a open work leaves running down them. I was swamped under with obligations at the time. So I had to set it aside.

It was all well and good until it got cold...Then it wouldn't leave me alone. I dreamed about the pattern. I searched the web to see if anybody had made them. This yarn and the pattern were always on my mind. The obsession was not as bad as it was going to get.

Finally I was able to work up a swatch! From working the swatch to weaving the end~2 days. That's right. 2 days! I couldn't think about anything else. I barely fed Mini-me and the Dogglet. Sad, huh? Anyhoo! Here is the finished product. What do you think? Pretty? I think so. The best part is it used less than half of the skein. So I can have some footies from it! Hopefully, I will fall equally in love with the next colorway I get from her. 'Cuz there will be more. Oh yes, there will be more. I am going to get it test knitted by someone else. then I will publish!
UPDATE: The test knitting went really well! My Testers loved it and there was just a few things to adjust. So it is up for sale at $5.00 USD.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

YAY...Cookie Time!

Today we did my favorite family tradition, the women of my family get together and bake cookies. The oldest woman present is always head chef. Ever since I can remember we have done this. For the longest time it was Aughra as Head Baker, Mama-san and me. Before that my Great-Grandma was the Head of the Bakers. Mama-san, myself and Mini-me got together to bake today.

When I was little, we would spend 2 or 3 weekends baking. Starting before Thanksgiving to be able to get 10-12 dozen of 20 or so different types of cookies. Some were super simple and fast. Some where labor intensive and slow. We would have Aughra's spare bed covered with cookies. This was our big family gift. We would make gingerbread men for me to take to school for my class. We would have tins of cookies for every person we came in regular contact with during a month. The mail person, school bus driver, my Teacher, the neighbors , everyone. For the big gift, it would be a large tray of cookies to Aughra's work, Mama-san's work and for me to take to Papa-san's family.

As I got older we scaled back a bit. Finally Aughra got too sick to bake and now needs so much of Mama-san's time. We now just bake for ourselves. However, both Mama-san and Me speak wistfully of a time in the near future when we will bake like mad people again.

Usually we start earlier in the holiday season, so that we can bake for the One Good Meal,a local charity, bake sale also. This year it has been hard to get together. I was sick for about 2 months. During that time Aughra decided to announce that God had told her she could die now. Which understandably upset Mama-san. Sigh. SO we got a very late start this year.

What I love about this particular tradition is the sense of female companionship. This is our No-Boys-Allowed time. The chance to discuss life. The undivided female attention. (Mini-me was so excited this year to read a story to Mama-san. Showing off her newly acquired reading skills. Big words and everything.Very Cool.) The teaching of where this or that cookie recipe came from. The showing of how to fill the cookie divot with just enough jam. Or how tell if the cookies are done. The picking on each other when we mess up the cookie recipe we know by heart and have made a bazillion times. The laughter and joy we bring each other. The annoyance and pain. In all an exhausting wonderful time. YAY! Cookie time!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Updates!

I just updated some stuff on my blog. There is some new stuff to behold. One Of my Favorite people just opened her OLYS Little Freaks Yarn. Check out the link down in my yarn candy. Also I have added a link to my new ArtFire Shop. The shelves are a little sparse. I am still adding stuff to it. And have I mentioned how much Ravelry rocks recently? No? Well let me tell you Casey And Frecklegirl are awesome. They gave me linkys to my patterns. So now there are cool links to PDFs of my stuff.

December is super busy as you all know so that is all for now!