The UPS just delivered my new . . . disappointment.

I ordered an Ultimate Sweater Machine -- Deluxe! It is something that I have wanted to play with for years and I never bought one because I was scared of spending the money. (Which is kind of silly because it was a lot cheaper than the sewing machine I bought without a blink of my eye.) I waited with my heart all a-flutter and UPS finally dropped it off this afternoon.

Since I spent most of last Saturday afternoon watching all the on-line videos that I could find -- including the ones by Bond-America, the manufacturer, on how to set up and use the machine.  I opened the box and started to dig out all the pieces -- and of course, the center needle bed is broken. Just a small nick out of it, but it is broken on the ridge where the knitting carriage rides.

I shot an e-mail off to the manufacturer with a photo of the piece that was broken in hopes that they will send me a replacement part without a fuss.

So in consolation, I am pan frying up a couple a pork chops for the DH and me. I just dusted them with some salt and my homemade dry rub spice mix. It's a secret, so don't tell anyone what I put in it:

2 parts Ground Cumin
2 parts Black Pepper
1 part Ground Ginger
1 part Ground Turmeric
1 part Ground Mustard
1 part Ground Garlic
2 parts Cayenne

I use extra virgin olive oil for the beautiful flavor.

Is OCD really bad?

I am always like this. I start something new and I become obsessed.

I was talking with a colleague at work today and I could not concentrate on what she was saying because I was so busy examining the pattern of her knitted jacket. I finally had to reach out and touch it. Thankfully, she was not all weirded out over it. It was really stunning. I wish I had taken a picture of it.

She told me that she loved it because she loves the look of knit but is allergic to wool and this was actually a very, very fine black and white ribbon. It had the appearance of tweed and was styled in a squared off bolero style with a single button clasp at the throat. Gorgeous.

Used Books

Why buy a new book, when used ones are just as informational?

As the DH always says, "Mail delivery is the highlight of my day!" It definitely was for me today. I received a used knitting book that I ordered on Amazon last week. Since I am interested in experimenting with two strand color knitting (i.e. Fair Isle), I ordered a book I saw called Mostly Mittens by Charlene Schurch.  To tell you the truth, it was the colors on the mitten featured on the front cover of the book that attracted me! Yummy!  There are 36 beautiful mitten patterns included as well as 2 hat and 2 sock patterns. I know that I will be able to get at least one pair made from this book. If I can find the time! The mitten shown on the back cover is equally as yummy as the front. The hardest thing will be determining which of the patterns I end up choosing.

Then there comes choosing yarn and colors. For my first pair, I will probably stick to the suggested fingering weight 100% wool yarn. It is unlikely that I will find many of the actual colors, given that the book was © 1998. But I know that at least some of the yarns used such as Brown Sheep Company's Nature Spun and Nordic Fiber Arts' Rauma Finnullgarn are still produced.

This is obviously not Fair Isle knitting, but a style of knitting done by the Komi People of Russia. According to the book, the Komi People are a reindeer-herding people who are found in northern Russia just south of the Arctic Circle (where sweater weather never ends). The women knitted the colorful mittens and knee high socks that were worn by both the men and women.  As you can see by the cover pictures, the patterns are geometric, centered around a diagonal shape. Each village had it's own variation of the diagonal pattern and a Komi would know where someone else was from based on the design of their clothing.

All in all, this book is a lovely find and I am defiantly looking forward to digging in.

Speaking of color, there are certain color combinations that I really love: olive green and orange-red (think martini olive); chocolate and hot pink; light lime green and a bright pink; and a clear red wine and grape purple. But please don't limit me to those combinations as I could change my mind tomorrow.

Hope Springs Eternal

Since I am currently dealing with a bum foot (Plantars Fasciitis), on days that I have physical therapy, I have been given permission to work from home as opposed to commuting into the city for a half day in the office. Today is my first time working from home and at the moment I am at lunch. After making the DH a fried egg sandwich, I will be diving into my knitting. One of the 10 year old projects that I found "gathering dust" in a drawer is this chocolate brown afghan.

The color in this picture is rather washed out, but the light picks up the cable pattern nicely.

I started this because I wanted to work something with cables in it.  This easy pattern, designed by Lois S. Young, was inspired by patterns on English Guernsey sweaters worn by fishermen. "Guy's Guernsey Afghan" was published in Quick Knitted Afghans by House of White Birches. My hope is that even though I have made several mistakes mentioned in a previous posting, it will still turn out OK. Of course since I started it 10 years ago, I wasn't as excited about it as when I started it, so ripping out the rows I struggled with was not a priority.

Speaking of the bum foot, I have signed up for a marathon in September. If I am out of the walking boot and done with physical therapy by Mid-May, I will have 4 months to finish training.

Hope springs eternal, even on a cold Chicago March day. What fun to see the first "peeking" of the year. My tulip plantings of 3 years ago are only partially intact as a result of hungry deer that got many of them a couple of years ago.

Chicken Soup and Knitting

There is nothing like a cold spring day in Chicago to make staying inside preferable to being outside. So this afternoon, upon returning from Church, I started a pot of Chicken Soup. In cold weather months, I make chicken soup a couple of weekends each month. I don't have any recipe for the soup, I just make it.

The "recipe" was inspired by my best childhood friend's mom's soup. Mary made soup every Sunday for her family and as Roseanne's best friend, I occasionally benefited. Some of my best memories are of the smell of Mary's cooking. While her soup was pretty much the same every weekend, I have tended to mix it up a little. I use what I have on hand.

Starting with a large pot of water 6 - 8 quarts and one large 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. I cut up any number of the following vegetables:

onion
celery
potato
carrot
green or red bell pepper
cabbage
garlic
parsnips

The amount really depends on what I have and how big a pot I have clean.  I then add a handful of salt (a couple of tablespoons), some black pepper, flaked dried basil, flaked dried thyme, flaked dried oregano, rosemary, and 2 bay leaf.

I add chicken -- bone in and skin on. Remember it is the bone and chicken fat that makes the soup really good. I have used just dark meat, just while meat or a mix with good results. Bring to boiling and then simmer over low heat until meat falls off bones and the stock is reduced to about 1/2 to 2/3 of the original amount.

Mmmmmmmmmm!

After the soup got on the stove, I spent the afternoon starting a knitting project. OK, I know that I have unfinished projects that I should work on, but the lure of this one was just too good to pass up. It is a free pattern that I got at Ravelry designed by Cindy Craft. It is a Fair Isle pattern called Running Horse Hat. If you don't have an log on to Ravelry, it is well worth the effort to sign up.

After 7 rows.

Not much of a start but I will post more pictures when I have them.

Day One

I like doing things with my hands. In fact, when I don't have anything to do with my hands, my hands are likely to get the rest of me in trouble -- usually by grabbing food out of the refrigerator and adding to my waistline.

Over the years, I have indulged my need to do something with my hands by learning different needle crafts. I have made my own clothes and clothes for my children when they were little. I have learned to knit, crochet, tat, quilt, embroider, cross stitch, needle point, rug hooking . . . pretty much anything that requires any type of yarn or thread.

I have been in a 10 year love affair with quilting. However, of late I have been meeting with an old friend of mine -- knitting. I found a couple of projects which I started 10 years ago and were relegated to a drawer. Pulling them out and starting them again has been interesting. One of them, a cabled afghan in a chocolate brown worsted weight yarn was a particular challenge since I could not find the pattern. I struggled through 12 rows, made a number of errors and then miraculously found the pattern when looking for my double pointed needles. I then came across an article that mentioned adding lifelines to your work. I had no idea what that was so I then googled "knitting lifeline" and found this video on adding lifelines to your knitting. Of course, now I need to buy those interchangeable knitting needles. 

I love Google and YouTube! I wish they had already been invented when I was learning how to do some of the needle arts that I do. It might have made learning all of these things so much easier. The biggest problem with Google and YouTube is that if you are typing in the word "knitting" they know that you are interested in knitting and every add for knitting suddenly appears. It is hard not to go shopping.

I have made a lot of quilts for co-workers who have had babies. It seems as if I have a job where everyone I work with is getting married and having babies. Perhaps that is why I am a little tired of quilting and am looking at knitting -- it started feeling like a chore to quilt because I was always under a deadline.

Attached are some photos of the latest quilts that I have done. 

Dancing Bears, 2009

This quilt was an experiment with all the different decorative stitching on my Bernina sewing machine.

This quilt was for a baby boy. Ya think?

I named this quilt "Butterfly Kisses" as the focus fabric has a floral design with butterflies in it.