It's been a long time comin' . . .

to quote Stephen Stills! Things got crazy at school. What can I say. This is not a good year to be a teacher--especially one with a lot of experience. We seem to be the cause of all of the problems facing this country--particularly if we belong to a union. Who knew? But I digress . . .

I've been off for a few days trying to organize all the tasks I have planned for the summer. I'm not taking any classes this summer. I needed a break. I have completed some projects so far:

First I finished DH's Colonial Shirt. This is made out of light weight linen.


Next, I finished Sylvar by Jordana Paige.


Details:
Pattern: Sylvar by Jordana Paige
Yarn: Miss Babs Yowza Watta Skein in Vlad's Red
Needles: Addi Turbo size 6
Modifications: I did raglan increases for the sizie 34 on the sleeve but stopped the increases on the body for the size 32. I also increased every 10 rows on the garter section of the sleeve to bell the sleeve slightly.

Over all, I'm pleased with this sweater. I forgot that superwash wools relax and stretch a bit. Next time I use superwash, I'll make a smaller size!

I loved that yarn so much that I got more at Sheep & Wool:

This is the Roasted Pumpkin colorway. This is being stashed for Wisteria. I have to figure out a different gauge for that one to make it smaller as the smallest tize in the pattern is 37! That will be a winter project!

I have finished a sun dress made from some wild vintage Hawaiian print I found at my Mom's! I'll post those photos when I take them!

I hit the pattern sales for the following patterns:

The cotton Jacquard fabric is from Joann's.






Another fun little sewing project:

This little pincushion was made for a swap. I may have to make more of these as they are fun to do!

That's really all I've been up to so far. I have plans for things to do around the house this summer so I will fill you in on that stuff later!

Kitty Cam: Samantha has discovered that my book bag makes a nice bed!

More on the way!

I wouldn't mind all this snow if MD had the manpower to keep up with it! Here are two pix from this morning. First the front porch (with is covered) after I shoveled 12 - 18 inches of snow off of it:

The snow on the ground is level with the porch which is 3 large steps up! It has melted a couple of inches because the snow stick is snowing a couple of inches!

Next is Big Green--our huge 1978 Mercury Marquis which sits at the back of the driveway. The raised deck is even with the snow.


One of my work colleagues posted this photo of our school:

The area to the left of the building is our parking lot--only you can't see it! Another storm is in the forecast starting tomorrow which is supposed to bring us 10 - 20 inches! Apparently it will bring blizzard conditions as well! Honestly I don't know why my school system doesn't just say that school will be closed the rest of the week. The neighborhoods aren't plowed yet! It's insane!

Meanwhile, I made it out to Trader Joe's to get more soy milk and cold cuts. I also picked up stuff to make broccoli cheese soup and managed to get another pound of espresso at Starbucks where the manager spotted me my venti latte for free!

We've held off on building fires during all this bad weather because we don't have a lot of wood left. There were a lot of power outages during the last storm on the weekend, many of which are still not fixed. We've been lucky but we figured we'd save the wood in case we lose power and need to heat our home with it. The wood burning stove insert in our fireplace puts out a lot of heat!

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Kitty Cam: Samantha discovered my duffle bag before I could put it away.

Busy weekend!

I've had a busy weekend! Friday, my friend Cat and I headed to the Burgh to see the kids. I had to bring Jeremy's car that we got him and pick up our station wagon so we decided to make a weekend of it. Friday morning we stopped at Joann's before heading out where I picked up some patterns on sale:



I figured I can make these from stash. I also got a vintage apron pattern and a purse pattern.

Then we headed out. We got to the burgh around 2:00 and ate at the Square Cafe where Ems is now working. It's a really nice place and the food was good! We headed off to check in to our hotel and picked up Ems when she got home. After stopping by Right by Nature to see Ems' roomate, we headed to the Warhol Museum to see the Shepard Fairey exhibit which was wonderful. Saturday, we went to Squirrel Hill and to Little's Shoes to look around. I was perfectly controlled and didn't buy anything there for a change. I did get some nice loose teas at the little tea shop on Forbes. We then went to the Carnegie museum to see the dinosaurs! It was a great exhibit! I'm sorry we didn't have more time to see more of the museum. We quickly went through the Polar Life exhibit and the Egyptian exhibit. News of the weather at home was making us a bit nervous as we were originally expecting about 2 inches of snow. When I checked the weather, they had increased the warning to 5 - 7 inches! We had a quick dinner at Mad Mex then headed out around 6:30.

The trip home was uneventful but we could see that snow had fallen once we got to Hagerstown. It was clearly worse in Howard County so we just took it slow. I was surprised that a couple of the bigger roads had not been plowed! We got home about 11:30 and Cat headed to her place. I was wound up from the trip so I ended up staying up quite late then sleeping in today.

I spent part of the day finding fabric online for my next big sewing project. It turns out that I have a formal to go to in March so I decided to make another gown. I wanted something elegant and I had a pattern on hand that met my needs.

This pattern is now out of print and I don't think that Vogue carried it for a long time. It took me a while to digest the instructions as they are really involved and hard to visualize. There are also a lot of pieces because it is assymetrical so most of the pieces are cut out in a single thickness of fabric. I only found one review on Pattern Review and it looked alright except that it had been made out of polyester which I don't think really works with this type of design. The folds in the drape don't lie flat with a synthetic and this type of garment really needs to be made of silk. I found a 30mm weight heavy silk crepe in bright red at Thai Silks and on Ebay and I've requested swatches. I will also have to order boning and figure out how I will bustle the train. I really love this gown.

Other news--I ordered some Icon Shoes! Those who know me know that I LOOOOVE Icon Shoes! They had a 50% off sale which included 50% off of sale items. I ended up with a make up bag and 2 pairs of sandals!



I'm thinking that I might get the purse to go with the "Yes We Can" shoes!

That's about all that's been going on. I'm plugging away at my red sweater and I've reached the end of the body up to the armholes. I now have to do the sleeves then join them and knit the yoke. I haven't gotten much done on that the last week because I had my winter concert and grades to do!

That's about it for now! Have a great week!

Kitty Cam: The tuxedo twins, Samantha and Harley, are spending some quality time together.

Rainy weekends are nice!

I'm not one who typically likes rain, but staying in on a rainy weekend can be very relaxing! Friday, there was no school and I was a lazy slob. I loved every minute of it! Other than running a couple of short errands, I just stayed home, did some knitting and vegged out! Yesterday, I did get out to knitting group and there was a total of 5 of us! Typically there are over a dozen. It was just nasty out. So my friend Cat and I did lunch at the Ram's Head then came to my house for lattes and more knitting. We hung out and watched Sicko, (which should be required watching for both the House of Representatives and the Senate) then Cat left.

Friday I did hit the Vogue patterns sale at Joanns and I got the following:




Turns out that I have about 5 yards of cream colored wool melton coating that a friend gave me a few years ago and it will be perfect for that coat!

I also got this pattern for my gown for the Patriot's Ball this winter:
I've seen this pattern dozens of times but it never really did much for me until I saw this:
I love the use of the menswear fabric for this! I'm thinking that a small red tartan plaid would look great. If I can't find one then I will do the houndstooth like in the photo. I am planning on knitting the black beaded Gaia shrug to wear with this. I posted that photo in my last post.

Meanwhile, I am still feverishly knitting the Vine Yoke and I am almost halfway done. I took it to Joann's with me to look for buttons but found nothing that appealed to me. Next will be the LYS to see if they have the Lantern Moon wood buttons which may do. I suspect that I will end up at G Street as I usually do. That is really the only place to find buttons when you need to see them in person. The yarn is such an odd color of brown--sort of grayish, pinkish brown--so most wood buttons just don't match. Antiqued pewter would work okay if I can find the right ones. The sweater is somewhat rustic looking so I feel that the buttons need to be a natural material like clay, wood, bone or shell. So that will be my next quest!

The rain is leaving us which is nice since rainy rush hour mornings always blow!

Kitty Cam: Samantha knows how to spend a chilly autumn day!

On the road again--almost!

Beantown tomorrow! I'll be leaving around 3:00 pm. DH thinks I'm nuts. He is one of those who wants to get up and leave around 7 am when traveling. Not me! I like to sleep in, make sure everything in the house is settled then leave without rushing! Plus, I've found that 3 pm is perfect because I can go the 420 miles without hitting any rush hour traffic! There's a lot to be said for that! I'll pack in the morning. As long as my laundry is done and I've done the grocery shopping then packing is easy. I stay in a suite so I bring food and such.

Anyway, I thought I'd catch you up on what's been going on. I've finished a few things and gotten some nice swap gifts. I finally finished my Musica Gloves. I had done the left one then put it aside. I finally finished the right one!


I'm really tickled with these! They will be great for school! I also started a new set of mitts. A secret pal had given me the yarn and the pattern. I'm almost finished with the first one. This pair of mitts has half fingers and I am up to that point. Once I finish it, I will begin another pair of gloves.

I also finished a silly little skirt. I pretty much kept to the pattern, but I added lining and topstitched little triangles on each pleat. I have another skirt and 4 summer dresses to make when I get back.


My secret pal sent me a gift certificate from Elann. I was so tickled because I had been eyeballing some yarn there. It was still there when I got the gift certificate. Nine balls of Tahki Sky organic cotton!

I also got my swap package from the Cuppa Tea Ravalry Group:
First my partner crochet a red tea towel and a tea towel that looks like a dress!

Next I got a box and a tin of tea, a felted bag kit, 2 balls of Patons Bamboo/Silk, handmade soap and a project bag card.


It's been a good week! I'll catch up on other stuff another time!

Kitty Cam: Samantha has had a hematoma on her little ear. We had scheduled surgery for it but the vet said the outcome would probably be the same if we let it heal on its own. Her ear was all puffed up, poor baby!

She will end up with a "cauliflower ear" which means that her ear will be bent and a bit crinkled. She still looks sweet with her little bent ear as you can see as she nestles in her new box!

Finally!

Snow! Real snow! Typical snow average in this area is about 12 inches over the winter. So far we had gotten 2 inches. That was it! I guess Mother Nature figured that she better get on the stick before winter ended. It looks like we've gotten about 6 inches. I'm happy to report that school was cancelled today. I'm also happy that the snow held off until last night as DH and I went downtown to the Caps game at 3:00 yesterday. We typically drive into DC on the weekends, but we were afraid that they would call a snow emergency which means that you cannot park on main roads. If you are parked on one and don't move your car, you get towed and a hefty fine. We drove to Greenbelt and took the metro in. Everyone on the train had Caps jerseys on which was nice. Unfortunately the game totally blew. The Caps are #2 in the Eastern Conference and #4 in the league. They got spanked royally, losing to Florida 6 - 2. Ouch! How can an ice hockey team from the deep south do that!!!

I haven't been up to too much these days. I have been working on my two projects a lot. My Chunky Cabled Tam is going to hibernate until I figure out what to do with it. Here it is in it's current state:


I love this hat on the cover of Knit 1. Mine looks a lot bigger. It is very bulky--two strands of Manos held together on size 11 needles. The pattern called for 3 skeins of Manos and I have run out of yarn! 4 skeins will amount to one expensive hat! When I try this on, the slouchy part of the hat literally hangs down to my shoulders. I think it is just too big. I'll have to take it to my stitch 'n bitch group on Wednesday to ask for advice. I don't know whether I should get another skein and finish it, or to frog back and do one less repeat of the cable to make the top smaller. That would also keep me from having to get another skein. So I've put the tam aside to finish the Opulent Raglan. I am now on the hip increases below the waist.

I love this sweater! It fits like a charm and the yarn is like butter on the skin! It is Bristol Yarn Gallery King George which is 45% merino, 45% alpaca, 10% cashmere. My row gauge is off though. I'm getting more rows per inch. I'm a little worried that this sweater will grown in length when it is blocked. Alpaca has a tendency to do that. Merino has good memory so I'm hoing it will balance out the alpaca. At any rate, I ended up ordering two more skeins of this yarn. I am on the 5th now and only have 3 left. I can see using at least one more on the body so the 8 I bought won't be enough. I hope to get this finished by the middle of March.

I ordered the yarn for Sylvi. According to the yardage, I will need 10 skeins of the yarn I chose. I ordered 11 but Webs only had 10 so I got what they had. I'll have to make sure that my swatch is accurate. I want to do some modifications which might require more yarn. The color I got is called Valentine and they have another red, so I may get some of that and do a dye job.

Cold weather makes me pull out the crock pot. We've had some good stuff from the slow cooker in the last few weeks. Our favorite so far has been Pepperoncini Beef.

Here's the recipe:

1 - boneless chuck roast (mine was 3.5 lbs.)
2 - 14 oz.cans low sodium beef broth
1 - 16 oz, jar pepperoncini
3 or 4 peeled garlic cloves

Make some cuts into the surface of the roast. Slice the garlic cloves and put the slices into the cuts in the beef. Place the beef in the crock pot and pour in the broth and the pepperoncini with the juice. Cook 6 - 8 hours on low. After cooking, pull out the beef and shred with 2 forks. I also pulled out the pepperoncini and removed the stems. Return the pepperoncini and beef to the crock. Serve on crusty rolls. Top with Provolone cheese and put under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

Here is the finished sandwich, served with Provolone and broiled on a Chiabatta roll with some spicy Chipotle mustard!

Good stuff!

Samantha has found her old toys! There is this particular toy that she loves and I can't find them any more. I've bought her a bunch of them over the years and they eventually get destroyed. We found 2 of them in the house. She is like a kid with a security blanket with these things.


She carries it around the house. I'll hear her meowing repeatedly and there she will be with the toy in her mouth. The other day, I noticed this:

Her toy was on the piano stool! Of course the next morning I saw this:

She basks in the sun every morning on the piano stool so I guess she needed her toy to keep her company!

I will leave you with photos of the snow, taken from inside the house!




Kitty Cam: Greg is a little more greedy with his toys. He collects a number of them and puts them in his favorite box.