Oy! I'm really here....

Where o' where have I been? Actively hunkering down in the midst of chaos. Things have been unsettled and upset and just wrong lately, and I hate to say, even knitting hasn't given me respite. Nor cooking or baking. I guess you could say, I have been in a funk. Unfortunately, I still am, a bit. But I'm unhunkering (is that a word? Spellcheck says NO) and getting back to myself a little at a time. Baby steps, y'all.

I finished one Christmas present, washed and blocked and photographed, so it's *official*. But, alas, I can't show it yet since the recipient might be reading this. Casted on the next present and have been making ok headway. I made the most headway while watching The Walking Dead: Season 2 on netflix ('bout time!) until I got so caught up, yelling at my TV and all, that I realized......people.....I SET MY KNITTING DOWN and forgot about it. For real! Walking Dead....you are my new drug.

I'm trying to figure out my Christmas season. I think I'm doing homemade cards this year, of a sort. Just not sure what to do. I'm all wonky and out of sorts because I can hardly believe it's October and I can't pinpoint where my year went. I hate that.

Pinterest...I love that. In the act of unhunkering, I made ice cream. I'm sharing the recipes below because they both were divine. I do think that helped unfunk me as well.  Here's to keep on keeping on and getting back into life.

Olive Oil Vanilla Ice Cream

Servings: Makes 1 quart

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean split
• 2 large eggs plus 2 yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus more for garnish (optional)

Directions

Bring milk and vanilla bean to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan. Remove from heat and allow vanilla to steep in milk for 30 minutes. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into milk and return to a simmer over medium heat.

Meanwhile, place eggs in a medium bowl, and slowly add about 1/3 of the warm milk mixture, stirring constantly. Add remaining milk to eggs, then return entire egg-milk mixture to saucepan. Reduce heat to low and stir constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon until custard has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes. Be careful not to boil, or eggs will scramble. Remove from heat and pour hot mixture through a strainer into a large bowl. Allow to cool slightly, stirring occasionally. Add sweetened condensed milk and blend well. Cool completely; cover and refrigerate until cold, several hours or overnight.

Remove cover. Stir and add to ice cream machine. Process according to manufacturer's instructions. During the final 5 minutes of churning, slowly add olive oil. When finished, ice cream will be soft but ready to eat. For firmer ice cream, freeze for several hours before serving. If desired, serve with a drizzle of olive oil.

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/food/Olive-Oil-Vanilla-Ice-Cream#ixzz28l6m4O00


Blueberry Nutella Sorbet

http://www.gojee.com/food/recipes/blueberry-nutella-sorbet

Blueberry Nutella Sorbet
This recipe is adapted from Fields of Cake.
Ingredients

• 1/2 pint blueberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup Nutella
• 1/4 cup vodka

Directions
1. Bring blueberries, water, sugar and salt to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Next add cocoa and mix well.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in nutella and vodka.
4. Strain and refrigerate for a few hours, until completely cool.
5. Process in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Mailbox Adventures!

I  felt the desperate need to have a knitted gnome. No particular reason, but I just wanted a gnome. I searched online and found The Traveling Gnome pattern and it was free! (Check out the rest of her cute patterns!). I knit one...then another.....then another.  They became addictive and many people wanted one. So....since I need something in return ;) I devised a game. I was shocked how many people wanted a gnome AND wanted to play the game.

Lo and behold, the Photo Scavenger Hunt begins. One gnome is now in Africa, one is at a Star Wars celebration in Orlando, one went to Bristol and 2 more just got mailed to Chicago and Maryland.

Check out the photos here: http://mailboxadventures.tumblr.com/

I'm only knitting a few every few weeks to give the guys a chance to spread out into the world. I'm excited to see the creativity that my friends can show.

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I'm currently working on Christmas gifts, including a Hitchhiker scarf that is turning out beautifully. I'm also still working on chemo caps for IU Health's Cancer Center through my group, The Firewalker Project. I just got 12 chemo caps in the mail *happy dance*

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Newly discovered podcasts! I've been gearing more towards video podcasts at home. So much better than watching TV.

Knit Me Happy
SassyPantsKnitter


I like both of them a lot so far. More to come!

Knitting In The Sun: Book Review

I'm cheating a little with this book review because I haven't knit anything out of it yet. But I've been through it many many times and marked everything I want to knit. And it turns out, I want to knit a lot of things out of this book!

I picked this up at The Trading Post for Fiber Arts in Pendleton. We are severely lacking in LYS' in my little neck of the woods and Susan has a really well stocked shop on her alpaca farm. Complete with friendly LYS dog. :)  I picked up a skein of red yarn I needed to continue Adventure Gnomes and grabbed a skein of "homegrown" alpaca yarn along with this book.

Knitting in the Sun: 32 Project for Warm Weather by Kristi Porter met my conditions for buying a knitting pattern book. I must want to knit more than a few patterns before I buy a book. The patterns must be something I want for myself or as gifts. It probably helped that I just (as in the day before) got back from 10 days on the beach in Florida.

The Anacapa wrap (as seen on the cover) is beautiful! I've not done cables yet and this contains lots of them (with charts that are downloadable from a website). It's too pretty not to mark as a potential project.

The Silver Strand Ocean Waves wrap is also very pretty and does remind me of the ocean. It's lacy and very lightweight looking, perfect to wear in the air conditioning but doesn't look like it will smother you out in the heat.

The Cinnamon Bay Beach Bag blanket is brilliant and I wish I had had it at the beach. It's a circular blanket that, with I-cord, becomes a bag.

I'm on the fence about the Ludington Smocked tube top. Not because it's not pretty, because it is. But, honestly, I have never had the .... body....that could keep a tube top up. Sad to say, but true.

I did mark several of the short sleeve patterns and long sleeve patterns. But the next pattern that made me say "Ooooooh I want that." was the Coronado shawl collared cardigan. Oooh I want that. I live in cardigans, even through summer. I very rarely (if ever) just wear pullover type sweaters so any cardigan like this makes me happy.

The Cabrillo openwork skirt is SO frickin' cute. You do need to wear something under it because it's very open lace but it's just cute. Did I mention it's cute. *marking pattern*

The last pattern that I really want to make is the Vernazza Summer Sleep Set. It's a little jammie set with a cami and tap pants and I'm pretty sure I need this.

Ravelry  has quite a lot of these in their project list and they are quite pretty. I love browsing other knitters FOs for the projects I want to do.


Listening to/Watching Podcast: The Knitgirllls

Christmas in July!

It's always hard to think of Christmas when it's 100 degrees out (darn you, heat wave!!!) but I'm finally planning my Christmas knitting. Some of it is already in progress. It's just sitting here staring at me and mocking me.

I don't knit for many people for gifts, just the ones who are dearest to me and who I know appreciates handcrafted presents. So I made my list and was happy to note that I could use stash yarn for everything but 2 gifts. So for those 2 gifts....I went to Etsy!

The talent of handdyers on Etsy can't be underestimated....

For one present, I found this:

I needed fingering weight yarn and this was such a beautiful but understated colorway, perfect for my friend. I found this on Little Red Bicycle's shop and it's a nylon/superwash merino blend.

The next one is for a friend who is a bit more adventurous with color

It's called Hawkeye (from a line of colors based on the Avengers movie) from GnomeAcres. I had already purchased Sonic Screwdriver yarn and Black Widow yarn from GnomeAcres and LOVE them. Squishy yummy yarn!

There's a new baby coming as well (coworker! not me!) and I have some merino bits left in my stash to make some hats and booties. Looking at making some burp cloths too with my stash of cotton yarn.

I have knitting in the works for me as well but I'll post more on that later.


Currently listening to: Knit Knit Cafe podcast

Firewalkers

I have been seriously MIA and I apologize! Health problems, school and work changes have kept me occupied.

Let's start off with what has been keeping me busy knitting lately. I started The Firewalker Project a while back in order to make lap blankets for chemo patients and patients in the hospital having ostomy surgery. I choose those 2 groups because they are both near and dear to me. The goal was to get people to knit squares and I would sew them together in patchworky blankets. A friend who I met online and her roommate sent me oodles of squares. She really supported my project and helped me out. We met because we both had ostomies but she was dealing with colon cancer and chemo while my disease got caught in the nick of time, before it became cancer. She was funny, sarcastic, witty, intelligent and beautiful. And you'll notice that I'm using past tense to speak about her.....

Becca passed away in March at the age of 31. Since then, I've reconstructed The Firewalker Project to donate handknit and handcrocheted hats and prayer shawls. The first hospital of choice was the one Becca spent a lot of time in. Since then, I've been busy knitting shawls and caps in order to get the box of goodies ready to send. Friends have donated money for yarn and finished items to send as well. I appreciate everyone who has helped with this project.

Ro, Becca's roomie, and I decided to split off The Firewalker Project so there is a Chicago chapter and Ro is going to handle getting everything together for Becca's hospital. The version I started will now focus on IU Health's Cancer Center and Riley Hospital for Children. I made this decision because one of my best friend's just lost his sister to brain cancer and she went to IU Health. I grew up at Riley Hospital because of all my health problems and it makes sense to give back.

If you would like to donate caps and shawls to either project, please email me at bornlostcreations AT gmail DOT com.

Lace and Selfishness

I had decided to make a friend's daughter a pretty lace scarf for Christmas....but it turned out to be her birthday present in February. Ah well. It still turned out beautiful.

I really do like knitting lace and think I'm ready to tackle something bigger than a lace scarf. Darn, this means more browsing on Ravelry for patterns.

This scarf was a free pattern and is super simple. After a point, I didn't need the pattern in front of me anymore.  The yarn I got from Etsy and it's a handdyed bluish/purple and looks very pretty.

The Buddha models the scarf for me.

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I did finish my shrug and wore it out to an afternoon play. I quite like it but I'm thinking I need a pretty shawl pin to keep it closed (especially in the winter - spring will be ok opened). I don't have pictures because I'm a poor model but hopefully I'll get some done up soon.

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I always enjoy looking at knitting magazines and marking what I'd like to do. With the Interweave Knits Spring 2012 issue though, I can't get over 2 patterns and 1 isn't even a pattern, just a picture of the finished project. The first is on page 19 and is a Big Cable Front Vest by Mari Lynn Patrick. Her work is AMAZING - look at the #5 Marilyn Top in the link of her name.

Isn't this great!?!

Ok, then I found a pattern that is a little intimidating but I have to do because it blew my mind. Page 26 of the magazine is Erica Patberg's Cobble Hill Pullover. It's a sweater you can wear at least 4 different ways. I already know I'm doing this. I'm already searching for the right yarn.


I'm ready for some more selfish knitting....

Where I Pretend I'm An Artist... Again

God bless Groupon.com

Without this little service I would never had thought to take art classes. Honestly, the Wine and Canvas classes were more socially oriented than actual classes but I did have fun and I came out with 2 not-great-but-definitely-mine pieces of art, both of which are hanging in my house. When a Groupon came up for a 2 hour introductory art class from a Carmel art gallery (Anthony J Padgett Gallery) my friend and I jumped on it. Only $49 for the 2 of us. It's a deal you can't pass up. I think my friend is more determined than me to be able to paint, but I still figured I'd give it a try and see what happened.

Turns out the class we got was a watercolor class. Now, I've seen my old classmate's watercolors and I was questioning whether I could do this. Once we get to the gallery, we find out it's a small class....like 4 of us. I get excited because this means actual learnin'! (The Wine and Canvas classes hold about 40+ people). The teacher was an older gentleman, very nice and very talented. And did I mention nice?

He got all our little stations set up and Susan and I took a look at what we'd be painting. *Gulp* Doubts were consuming me and I was wishing that I had drank before I got there. The painting was a pretty scene of a river and trees and his version of it was gorgeous. Soooo...

The class lasted about 2 and a half hours and he really taught me something. He would sit at our tables and show us how to improve things and fix mistakes. He joked that my painting ended up quite pink but...I love pink. So I went with it. Mine was much softer than the others too, as I drew the initial outline with a light hand. I didn't want to see the big pencil outline on my painting (as the teacher advised). It was a nice feeling when he sat with me one final time and just showed me how to add grass and then said he didn't see any more need to change things. =D  <----- that was me.

So, here is my final painting. I still need to get a mat and frame because this one is definitely a keeper. And I found out that I really enjoyed watercolors much more than I did the W&C type of painting. Let's see where this one takes me.

a monster gets more monstery

A monster I made had a terrible run in with a new beagle puppy. By the looks of it, the monster lost. The monster was returned to me to try and repair and, I'll be honest here, I wasn't sure I could do it.

The front of the monster with savage damage from the beagle. Most of Monster's brains had leaked out and were in the shopping bag his body came to me in.

The back wasn't too terrible but still.....leaking brrrrrraiiiiiiiiiinnnnns.

Luckily, I save the excess yarn from each project (if there is any) and I had saved some from the Monster. Luckily because it was a handdyed yarn I bought off of Etsy and the seller didn't have that color anymore.

I finally decided to gather as much as the loose stitches as I could without deforming the monster too much. I wanted him to have the same shape. After I did that I still had gaping holes, so I used the excess yarn and made "band-aids" and then just stitched them on. Part of me wanted to be very careful and make it look seamless but the part of me that said "Make this more Frankenstein!!! MUWAHAHAHAHA" won out.

So now, Monster looks a lot more monstery then he did to begin with and his little owner is happy to be reunited with him. Apparently, Monster looks so good that the little owner's brother wants HIS monster to look like her monster. Here's hopng the beagle doesn't get another treat.

New Beginnings

2012. Can you believe it's a new year already? I'm fairly sure that I haven't finished with 2011 yet.

I managed to snag 2 weeks off work at the end of 2011 and I managed to be so frickin' lazy. Productive with knitting but still sitting and watching TV and movies, listening to podcasts and audiobooks and knitting. I felt really great when I returned to work. And naturally, that relaxed state disappeared pretty quick.

I worked on my cardigan on break, determined to get it done. I got about 10 more inches knit before I moved on to a slouchy hat. The cardigan WILL be done soon. It's next to my chair and now is my only knitting project. It's the Stockinette Stitch Shrug from Lion Brand (you might need to log in to see it) and it looked like a good starter project to making a real garment, as opposed to scarves and hats and things. It is pretty easy and the recycled cotton yard is just so squishy and soft. I'm going  to like wearing this when it's done.

I really wanted a slouchy hat, even bought the yarn for it over a year ago. Over break, I decided to make the hat, dammit! I found a good pattern on Ravelry and finished it within a few days. I love it! Now I need more!! And now my mom wants one. Of course, being winter in Indiana, I should be putting this to good use. But no, we've actually had unseasonably warm weather later. But no fear, the high is 20F on Thursday. I'm breaking out the hat.

To use up the rest of the yarn, I made a matching scarf. I found a Farrow Rib pattern and just made a color blocked scarf. It turned out quite nicely. The pattern I used was:

Size 8 needles
CO 25 stitches
Row 1: *K3 P1* repeat to last stitch, K1

Repeat row 1 ad nauseum then BO

I think the hat and scarf look nice together.

 The colors are pretty close in tone but I like it. I think the next set will be more bold though.

Besides my shrug, my next task is repairing one of the monsters I made. A puppy got hold of the girl monster and she's....well....wow. I managed to get the loose stitches caught and sewn up. She's been restuffed. But I'm no plastic surgeon so I'm using the leftover yarn to make "bandages" to cover up the gouges and scars. She lost an eye and part of her mouth so once I redo those, I'm hoping she'll be ok and the little girl will still like her. Poor monster.