Yummmmmy!

Dinner was delicious! It was so hard to choose an entrée with so many yummy choices, but I eventually decided on Chicken Farcito; chicken stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella, sautéed with mushrooms in a sherry wine sauce...delicioso! A couple of gin & tonics, and dessert (it would have been a cannoli, but then they brought out the dessert tray overflowing with the most amazing cakes and pastries!) was a chocolate & vanilla mousse cake... Yes treadmill, I'll be there in a minute! LOL Donna, I shared the mousse with you, I hope you weren't too disappointed that it wasn't a cannoli!

I could only eat half of my dinner, so the rest is waiting downstairs to be my lunch... heaven continued! :)

Busy day today; I just showered and dressed for a trip to the supermarket to get what I need to make my famed corn chowder for the party tomorrow...and then a run to the post office, and a quick stop at CVS. I don't think there's time for knitting today, but I'll do my best to get an hour in if I can!

Have a wunnerful day!

Today is...

...my birthday! (Shhhh, tell no one!)

I'm going to dinner tonight to an Italian restaurant that I hear is just wonderful, and it will be my first time there. Happy me! Saturday will be the family party, with everyone here. ...and chocolate cake! Yes, this of course means more time on the treadmill! ;) I've been very good so far, missing just one day since Donna unknowingly inspired me to get back on it! :)

Still working on the "Blueberry" scarf, making slow but steady progress -- Photos to follow when it's done... which I hope is soon! It's lovely, but I'm a bit tired of plain st st. :(

A bientôt!

Another Rainy Day

...and so a perfect day to organize my yarn stash! It's been growing by leaps and bounds since I started knitting, and I think I have enough yarn to qualify me as my very own LYS! It started out reasonably enough with two plastic bins for yarn storage, but that's now woefully inadequate. I've been browsing through IKEA's online store for a better solution, and have several ideas to turn 'mon petit bureau' into a well-organized, de-cluttered marvel! :D My poor little office, home to my webdesign business, my yarn warehouse, sewing central, art studio, genealogy file room, as well as the 'nursery' for my two darling Himalayan cat brothers! Oh, but I need so very much to get organized!

I think a trip to IKEA this coming weekend is very much in order!

On the knitting front, I only had a few hours to spare during a very busy weekend so haven't made as much progress on the chenille scarf as I'd hoped. Hopefully there'll be time for it later today after the house is in order. Optimistic me! :D

The Pats won yesterday!!

Where's Winter?

The weather here in New England is more like spring than winter. Most people, I'm sure, are thrilled at the lack of snow, and frost on the windowpanes, but this unseasonal warmth has me feeling unsettled and uncomfortable. Winter is my favorite season, and snow is one of my favorite things, so I'm saddened at finding a ladybug (a ladybug!! ..in January!!), tracking a slow progress across my window. The grass is an unseasonal green; and if it weren't for the bare trees I'd swear it was late May!

I think that Northerners, who have lived all of our lives in a climate that feels all the extremes of each season, have an internal thermostat which must be utterly thrown off-kilter without regular snowstorms and wintry Canadian blasts, the norm at this time of year.

I have yet to wear a coat. Each trip outside is in a sweater and jeans; my gloves and scarves haven't been worn since last winter!

I can only hope for snow... a few feet of it would be nice! ...and soon!

Blueberry Chenille

Having finished the needle case and a few other things - plus swatching several stitches from "The Knitter's Bible" yesterday, today has been devoted to working on the chenille scarf that I started before Christmas craziness slowed down my work on it.

I've added 4 inches to it so far today and still have several hours more to work on it before dinnertime. :)

Here's what I have:



I just realized how colorful this is compared to all the neutrals and pastels that I seem to always gravitate to ...It makes for a nice change!

No pattern, just a simple stockinette st scarf, with garter stitch borders to give it a firmer edging. The yarn is Blue Heron Chunky Rayon Chenille, colorway Blueberry: glorious shades of purples, deep blues, magenta, and a touch of aqua. I'm working it with US size 4 straight needles. Long way to go, but it must be completed with enough time to arrive in France for a birthday at the end of January, so I think I'll be sticking to this without other project diversions until it's finished!

Now if I can only get rid of the song in my head:
I found my thrill,
               With blueberry chenille...

Ha! I'm such a goof!

Heart Be Still!

When I saw the box on my doorstep yesterday afternoon I was so excited! I expected that it was The Knitter's Bible that my blogging friend, Donna, had recommended. My slight disappointment when it turned out to be another book, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, an historical fiction, showed me just how much knitting has become a happy passion for me. Before, any history-related book would have me dancing in the street when it arrived! lol

But I knew that I didn't have too much longer to wait. I have been tracking my books like an over-eager hawk since they were ordered, the three in this post, as well as The Knitter's Bible. Delivery was imminent for the latter, and the other three weren't expected until somewhere between January 6th and the 11th, so I was THRILLED to find, not one, but TWO boxes on the doorstep this afternoon. Yes, all FOUR books!!! *faints*

Donna, just thumbing through The Knitter's Bible I can see that this is exactly what I needed, to show me the how-to for numerous stitches and the answers to so many questions! I can't thank you enough for pointing me to it, I'd give you a huge hug if I could! :D

The other three look fabulous too...and though I'd just made myself a cup of tea and settled myself in for a few uninterrupted hours of reading about Marie Antoinette, I'm now heading to my yarn stash to grab something colorful and play with some swatching!!

I love days like this! Now all I need is a ton of snow falling outside my window...

..and yes Donna, I treadmilled for a half hour this morning! Yay us! :)

Needle Case... Finished!

The needle case is FINISHED! I decided to follow the McCall's pattern pretty much as it was, though I did shorten the length by about 3" to better accommodate my 9" bamboo needles. Finished size: 5½" x 13", closed; fully opened: 15" x 18".



The body of the case is done with a golden brown Dupioni silk, the front contrasting band and ties, along with the inner pocket is a multi-hued brocade. It's lined with a lightweight fleece to give it body and greater protection for the needles.



The only difficulty was the infernal unraveling of the silk edges and the brocade as well (pesky fabrics)!, which I solved by overcasting all edges after stitching the outer seams...Overall, I'm very pleased with the result, and future ones will be of my own patterning to include pockets for circulars and such...



It's such a great feeling to complete a project!! :)

EDIT: I had originally used one tie with a dot of velcro to close but didn't like the asymmetrical look of it, so I made another tie and closed with a simple knot. Much better!