Death by Ice Cream

I came home from work with a mental checklist of what needed to be completed tonight.

Dishes - check
Feed myself - check
Make lunch for tomorrow - check
Knit - not checked yet

I got sidetracked. Really sidetracked. You could say that I planned my deviation from my checklist. I was the one, after all, who put the ice cream maker bucket in the freezer this weekend. I was the one who bought the heavy cream.

I really wanted ice cream. I was in my gnome leggings, glasses on, hair in a bun. There was not a chance I was getting back in my car for ice cream. Homemade ice cream isn't ready in a day so why bother?

And then I pulled out the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Recipe book my sister got me with my first ice cream maker. And a light shone down right on the French Vanilla recipe (technically, it was the sun through my skylight but I'll believe otherwise for now). I had all the ingredients and I still had my bottle of Mexican vanilla from....wait for it, my trip to Mexico.  Serendipity!

The only thing that worries me with the B&J's recipes is their penchant for using raw eggs.  I mean, I drink egg nog with the best of them but it's pasteurized so I usually don't worry. My family made homemade egg nog one year, with about a dozen raw eggs and lots of bourbon. But ALL of us were too scared to drink it so we gave it to one of dad's friends. He didn't die.

I went ahead and whipped 2 eggs into a "light and fluffy" state of mind all the while getting an arm cramp. I'm in IT, I don't really do this type of physical work. Next up was sugar...beautiful sugar. A couple teaspoons of the gorgeous Mexican vanilla came next. Vanilla has fooled me in the past, with that unbelievable aroma and horrific taste. Yes, I tasted vanilla as a child (and as an adult. Don't judge me). I added in my cream and almond milk and completed the mix.

Into the ice cream maker we go. I stared at it swirling around for a bit then went to read the paper until the timer dinged. That was a terribly long 20 minutes. Now, homemade ice cream does not immediately set up. It's kind of a loose soft serve. But if you are lucky, the mixture that is still clinging to the sides of the frozen bucket form a layer of real, frozen ice cream.

And this is the best ice cream I've tasted in a long time.

Will the raw eggs kill me? I hope not, but if it does, I shall die happy.

The oldest yarn

So back in 2008, my mom and I took some knitting lessons from Susan at the Trading Post in Pendleton. She did a great job at teaching me the basics and instilling a love of creating in me. We had to stop because my dad was in the end stages of Parkinson's Disease but I learned enough to keep going.

Before we left, I said I wanted to learn how to make socks, so I bought a skein of sock yarn from her. That skein has been in my stash since then. Socks were intimidating so I didn't even try them until much later. This first skein of sock yarn was brash, bold, and what-was-I-thinking? I finally got it out.

And then got stuck with my back problems that kept me from finishing sock #2. Dammit.

What my staycation this week gave me was the motivation to finish this pair of socks. Action breeds motivation, at least, so once I picked it up to start again, I just kept going.

It's a million degrees in the shade here but, hey, I have a new pair of crazy color wool socks for winter.

Click to embiggen

The pattern is Vanilla Latte. Hindsight, an afterthought heel would have been better to avoid the striping but I still like them.

I have to go on a short trip for work and was pondering what I could take to knit on the plane and in the hotel room in the evening. I decided to cast on a new pair of socks from yarn that was already wound. I remember I started a baby cardigan with it but decided not to use it. No label but I remember it was from the Golden Skein yarn club. 

It feels kinda good to be back(ish). :)

Depression Sucks

Little did I know when I wrote my last post in February 2017 that I only had about 4 months of not being in horrible pain left. In May 2017, what I thought was a random bout of sciatica turned out to very much not to be.

The last 14 months have greatly sucked and every piece of motivation I could muster up went to just getting up and going to work. There's been no crafting, barely any reading, barely anything that looks like a life, actually. The pain in my back and leg has been unrelenting, making sitting just torture. I probably could have knit while laying down, but I honestly just didn't care.

My spine is covered ( just "impressive" says the neurosurgeon) in Tarlov Cysts. It took 3 lumbar epidurals that didn't work to get me to a neurosurgeon who, thankfully, had heard of Tarlov cysts. He ordered an SI joint injection (which pretty much made me come off the table - yowch) to determine that, basically, the cysts that cover my sacrum have eroded the SI joint, which is supposed to be immovable - the shock absorber of your body - and mine is moving. Walking is painful, sitting is painful, and at my worst, laying down was painful. Since my commute to work is about 45 minutes each way, work was all I could do. Which I had to do because I need the insurance to handle all of this shit.

Now I'm with a chiropractor/PT for 20 sessions (per insurance) to jump through hoops to get SI joint fusion surgery. I've had Ulcerative Colitis so bad I had to have a permanent Ileostomy. Hypothyroidism. Asthma. Basal Cell Carcinoma. Dislocated hip. And this, my friends, has been my worst period of health problems ever. Chronic pain, day in, day out. The depression that I had under control is completely out of control. Because I can't do the things I used to love to do anymore.

Work has dumped an amazing amount of new responsibilities on me and life has gotten so overwhelming that, well, I just need to write.

I know this is supposed to be a knitting, fun, blog. It will get back to that, I swear. But I have to dump my demons out somewhere. It might as well be into the void.

On a side note, I'm on staycation from work and I have gotten back to knitting a bit. Pumped full of Tylenol and with new Flector patches and ice packs, I can sit for longer than 20 minutes! :)

Not Fading Away....

I cannot believe it's been almost a year since I last posted. My book blog has been busier because I've been reading more than crafting, thanks to wrist pains.

I'm coming back.

Hang in there!

Book Review: Faux Taxidermy Knits by Louise Walker

I bought this book on my own - no one asked me to review it :)


I haven't knit anything out of this book yet but I have many patterns marked. This book is too adorable for words but I'll try to form the words to do a review because, well, the review would be weird without words.

I found out about Louise Walker through her Etsy shop because I was looking for taxidermied animals. Fake ones, for my office at work, as I'm wont to do. I still plan on buying one of the kits because they come with everything you need, including the backing. I'm leaning towards the T-Rex head, personally. But check out her shop for kits and patterns, every one more awesome than the last.

Her book came out in 2014 and includes 2 sections: Wearables and Habitat. We have 15 patterns, ranging from basic knitting level to advanced. The basic patterns are just as entertaining and intriguing as the advanced and intermediate patterns. Take a run through the patterns on Ravelry here.

I'm going to run through my absolute favorites that I plan on casting on soon:

The fox stole, which is also the cover photo, is a must have for me. I love my scarves but the thought of wearing this foxy fox around my neck in the winter makes me very happy! It's an intermediate pattern with quite a bit of sewing (the body, ears, legs, tail are all separate pieces) but I'm quite ok with that.

The Polar Bear Paw Mittens are a must for the cold Midwestern winters (with this winter being the exception to that...weird weather). These are 2 color mittens with afterthought thumbs.

The Mink Wrap is another awesome scarflike wrap made to look like the fancy pants mink stoles. Made with 3 different colors you are basically knitting 2 minks and putting them together with a hook and eye closure. Very high society!

We move on to the Habitat patterns. Naturally I want the moose head and will most likely buy the kit to get the backing and such. My wall is begging for this guy. Yours probably is too. Even without the kit, the book gives pretty detailed finishing instructions on how to get your moose properly put together and mounted.

My kitchen is begging for some pheasants! Knit with super bulky yarn and being a beginner level pattern, I should be able to get a nice line of pheasants knit up quickly

The Bear Coasters are also on the list. They look like tiny bearskin rugs for your mug. Love them!

While I don't plan on knitting this one, the one advanced pattern in the book is impressive. The Tiger Rug. This is rug-sized for your floor and is really well done. Magnificent beast!

All in all, this book is well done with beautiful photographs, detailed patterns and lots of instructions. Love animals! But knit them, don't hurt them.

Purchase from Amazon

Selfish? Or just really thoughtful to yourself....

February really got away from me! I finally got some down time this weekend where I could just knit, read and watch movies. Be a vegetable. And it's been lovely.

 I had wanted to write up some goals for this year but I guess my first goal should be to get motivation to write my goals. Regardless, I believe this year will be a stay at home year working on my house and myself. I only have 2 trips planned: a weekend in NYC and a week in San Francisco. Just two? We might throw in a trip to Chicago as well, since it is so close :) Next year, though, my friend and I are talking about a cruise to Italy and Greece and I'm all over that one. That makes my mantra this year "Do you need that? Or can that money go to Italy?". See where this is going? YARN DIET.

I started myself on a selfish kick as well. Which leads me to ponder why knitting is called selfish when you knit for yourself but no other hobby is called selfish. Is there selfish crochet? Selfish crossstitch? Selfish woodworking? I don't think so. In fact, in Buddhism there is a saying

This is the truth. You cannot care for others if you don't care for yourself. So instead of selfish knitting, I'm going to engage in zen knitting.

I'm kicking off my zen knitting with Yarngasm's Box O'Sox KAL. Kristin organized this to be selfish knitting so, at the end of year, we, for ourselves, are the proud owners of 12 new pairs of handknit socks.

On The Needles

I started a pair of vanilla socks just because the yarn I had bought (yarn diet? what?) was so beautiful laying there in the skein. I need to see what it could do. I found a group on Facebook called Addicted To Sock Knitting and have been using that as inspiration. Witch Candy Yarns posted some photos about her shop update and her yarn was amazing. I ran right over and purchased Indian Bead Belt. It's sparkly and gorgeous

I know how many WIPs I had but I'm tearing through these socks so it's ok :)

I also started back on my Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West. That was a WIP from a while ago but it has been languishing. It's an easy knit and I usually work on that while watching movies.

Off The Needles

The narwhals are done!

I really wanted to make narwhals for my niece and nephew once I saw the pattern. Rebecca Danger has the cutest toys and they are pretty easy to make. I'm really happy with how these turned out although as soon as the kids got them, they started poking everyone with the tusk :)

The kids picked their favorite colors and those are some fine looking narwhals!


With the Spring-like weather coming in, I think my mood will approve and creativity will come out. It's not been a bad winter here in Indiana but Winter tends to bring me down. I can't wait to fling open the windows and welcome in Spring!

Until next time....

WIP it. WIP it good.

As part of my new year 2016, I decided to go through ALL of my Works In Progress and either frog them or finish them. Some of these things have been on the needles for years!!

I only ended up frogging one item, but the yarn is a gorgeous Malabrigo in chocolate brown and bright blue so I think that will just end up being another project really soon.

So here's what I have to finish this year:

My Viajante

Martina Behm is a talented designer. I've already made her Hitchhiker and Trillian and started tackling  the Viajante. Whew. This is made from lace yarn and I think it's going to take forever. It looks like I ended right at the point where I need to join so I'll at least keep it out so I can keep it moving. It will be pretty when it's done since it's in Gnomeacres Gnomey Night (inspiration: Starry Nights by Van Gogh) and it has sparkles!

Blanket

That's all I can say about this :) It's a present for someone who may or may not read the blog

Socks

Rose City Rollers pattern and that's all I can say about this as well :)


Love Bites Sweater

From the Vampire Knits book, I chose the Love Bites sweater because I realized I had an awful lot of grey Berroco Vintage yarn and I wanted a simple sweater to start with. It's casted on and has several rounds already worked. Technically a guys sweater, I am knitting the smallest size. It does call for dropping stitches but I think I'm going to try something different. In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, she had a sweater that had random purl stitches all over the body. I like it and am going to try that with this one.

Best picture I could find

Sparkley Gradient Shawlette

I've already made one of these shawlettes in a rainbow gradient and love it. I got this yarn as part of the Sunnydale (again - Buffy) yarn club from Dizzy Color and it's so pretty. I'm already through the green and have hit the blue. Easy pattern to memorize.

Boneyard Shawl

A Stephen West design, I'm diligently working through this. It will be an awesomely large shawl to wrap around myself in the office. Still on skein one of two of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in the Minestrone colorway.

Exploration Station

Another Stephen West design, this was a mystery knit-a-long but I got diverted. Still going to finish it! I really like the bright colors I picked but, now that I know what the finished design looks like, I'm thinking some neutral colors would look good too.

BRIGHT!

Iced

My first cardigan. I left it at the entire body completed with one sleeve done. What? Just a sleeve and a yoke to finish. But when I pulled it out to look at .... eh, I need to rip out the bind off of the body and lengthen it. Maybe that's why it just languished. Still will be a very very cozy cardigan and it will get finished.


Hermione Socks

First sock leg is still on the needles. I know the yarn came from the Tempted yarn club but I don't have the label anymore. Still working up very pretty and I just need to knuckle down and get them done!


I Flunked The Written

Buffy again! This is a pattern that came with the Sunnydale yarn club. Very pretty and I'm using one of their yarns, O Soave Fanciulla. Dizzy Color does an amazing job at taking inspiration and making a beautiful yarn. This will get done as well!

O Soave Fanciulla

I found some projects I inherited from a friend who passed away. Unfortunately, there are no patterns with the projects or even labels for the yarn, so I will be frogging those and re-vamping the yarn for another use.

The next post will be what I'm planning with new yarn (what? yes, new yarn because I'm an idiot). But I really need to get some of these off the needles!!!