Podcast of the Week - Down Cellar Studio Podcast

I listen to a frightening amount of podcasts, mostly crafty but also sciencey. I thought I would share my favorites with you each week!

Right now, I'm running through the back catalog of a fairly new knitting podcast. The Down Cellar Studio podcast with BostonJen. She does more than just knitting and one of my favorite features is the photography section. She really gives some good information on how to take photographs, of your crafts and other things.

She sews, crochets a bit and has a really great voice.

Lately she's been doing more contests, knit-a-longs and giveaways. Fun stuff! Plus, almost all the patterns she mentions? I go straight to Ravelry and queue. Enabler!

Here's her group on Ravelry, with a current knit-a-long!

Check her out!

Holidays are over - FOs!

Despite my funk of a few months ago, I did manage to get some projects finished for Christmas presents. Not everything I wanted but now I have presents to give people throughout 2013 - as I get them done :)

For some reason, the start of 2013 has made me excited about knitting again. And I know why. The projects I'm working on are for me. I love knitting for others and for charity projects but I think I neglected myself a bit.

First up:
Abundance Afghan for my sister. Made from 9 balls of Suri Dream Alpaca from Knitpicks.com in the (discontinued) colorway Sunkissed. Suri Dream is also discontinued but a nice bulky yarn that has a great halo would work.

I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of my friend's Trillian scarf. I'll try to get her to take a photo. It was made with yarn from Little Red Bicycle in the River Styx colorway. Here's what the yarn looked like.

 It did knit up well but I have to say, the feel of the yarn wasn't the best. I was making another scarf with Gnomeacres yarn and the difference in texture was pretty obvious.

Onward to the Hitchhiker scarf! Done with Gnomeacres fingering sock yarn in the colorway Hawkeye (yes, from The Avengers!). It turned out beautifully with a wonderful drape. This went to another friend for Christmas.

Gnomeacres is a favorite shop of mine now. I love her yarns - color and texture. I also completed a Hitchhiker for myself out of Gnomeacres worsted yarn in Sonic Screwdriver. Pictures soon!

As an added bonus, I got a request to knit some little gnomes. I said yes immediately because they were going to two special people who needed some gnominess (not a word, says spellcheck). I decided against little gnomes and went for bigger, cuddlier sizes.

Awesome, right? The pattern was easy and I ended up finding excellent beard type fabric at Jo-ann Fabrics. Although it shed a bit, but I used this goo on the back to keep it from fraying. I'm making one for my cube at work, to hide among the plants.

Next up, FO for me! A pink Ninja! I need to add weapons but she looks pretty awesome at work.  She was made with leftover Knitpicks yarn in a colorway that had no label. I think it was a spring bloom or something. And Lurleen from Rebecca Danger's monster book. Lurleen is heading to the 600 Monsters group to be handed out to some kids. Lurleen's yarn was a handpainted Cascade 220 yarn.

That's about it....wow. I'm amazed at how much I really did while I was off work for Christmas break. Onward to new things!

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.

*******************************************************************
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*

*******************************************************************

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.