Jil Eaton wasn't kidding when she said these were a quick knit. Even with the kids and housework and not feeling all that well yesterday, I was able to get the knitting finished on both bootees. I have to sew the sides of the tongues to the bootees, weave in ends and felt. Then, I'm finished!

Labels: Knitting

Well, I know I'm not bringing the christening cap to our guild meeting. I'm frogging away, as I realized I needed to fix something, and then decided to change how I was doing the beads. I'll start it again soon, when I'm not quite as demoralized.

I have replaced that project with some quick felted bootees for Amira, because she needs more footwear, and her other bootees don't fit her anymore. I will probably make a second pair to give to another friend at her baby shower and might even make the matching hat and add a lovely blue and white ribbon to the sun yellow yarn.

I have decided to make a strata and a cheese blintz casserole for the brunch. The blintz recipe is modified from The Jewish Holiday Cookbook by Gloria Greene:

Batter:
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose white flour, preferably unbleached
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Filling:
2 (7 1/2 - 8 oz) packages farmer cheese
1 (15-16 oz) container part-skim or regular ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
cinnamon sugar to sprinkle over top

Accompaniments:
sour cream
plain or vanilla yogurt
applesauce
fresh berries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13 X 9 inch baking dish.

In a blender or food processor (fitted with a steel blade) combine all batter ingredients. Process until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the container once or twice. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the batter, and pour it into the baking dish. Cook
for about 10 minutes, until set.

While the batter is cooking, combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl and blend well. When the baking dish is removed from the oven, spread the filling over the set batter
layer, smoothing the top.

Give the remaining batter a quick stir to re-suspend the ingredients. Very slowly pour the batter over the filling, making certain that all the filling is covered. Carefully carry the baking dish to the oven so the layers remain distinct.

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake 35-40 minutes until the top is puffed and set. Remove casserole from oven and let it rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting it into squares to serve. Serve with desired accompaniments.

I'll post the recipe for the strata soon. I wanted to make an apple cake, too, but I think I'll just make one for our coffee hour next weekend. This weekend I'm making chili to go over baked potatoes that someone else is bringing. I'll make the Bavarian Sugar cake for some other occasion, or just for us and we can eat it up on a Saturday morning.

Oh, just something I noticed again. Has anyone else noticed that blogger has a hard time reading the noon hour? Whenever I post around the noon hour, it tries to make my time stamp say that it is 1:--. It doesn't do this at any other time (though it may do it around midnight, but I haven't posted during that hour).

Labels: Knitting, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen

Last night we got to go see the movie Wings which was a silent film about WWI hometown pilots. It was the first and only silent film to receive an Oscar for Best Picture.

Our friends and neighbors, Barb & Raymond, hosted it at their home, the Wurlitzer Manor (which can be rented our for parties and such, as well as the two guest houses that can be rented and are on the property). They hired an organist to play the score of the film, which was wonderful. It was a grown up pizza party, and was a great event. I wore a pretty blue, long skirt with watercolor looking daisies on it, a fitted white, short-sleeved top with a v-neck and my Meadow Flowers shawl. I also brought along my Cross Your Heart Gansey and got a little bit done on the ribbing for the front.

I ended up having to leave early, as we were an hour later than we told our sitters and didn't realize it in time to call and ask for a curfew extension. That's something people don't tell you about having kids, that you get a curfew all over again and it's based on when the babysitter needs to get home.

On the recommendation of several knitters on the knitlist, I bought a pack of dental floss threaders to use as beading needles for my knitting. I will report on how well they work.

That's all for now folks!

Labels: Knitting

We have finalized our plans for our first meeting. We are meeting October 2 and 10:30 am, it is a potluck brunch. We are meeting to pray for our families, our church, our community, and nation. We are also going to have a sign up for who will be hosting each month for the rest of the year.

I'm trying to decide which project to bring, and what to bring to eat. I'm thinking the christening cap, because I haven't been doing much work on it lately. As for food, probably something savory, since people like to bring sweet things. I make a really good strata with red peppers, onions, bacon and egg bread. What are some good ideas for brunch food that people like? I might make something like a Bavarian sugar cake as well.

I haven't really gotten the poncho bug, but the one at this site might change my mind. I have some kid mohair in a gorgeous deep wine red and some cotton chenille in about the same color as well as some rayon/cotton twisted yarn in that shade. I'm thinking of putting them together and making a poncho out of them. I don't think I have enough of it to make one for me, but there is a young girl at our church, our priest's daughter, who is similar to my coloring and would look gorgeous in that red. I'll have to find out when her birthday is.

I have several unfinished objects and lots of ideas for next projects, so when I get one of my current projects done, I'll have to work on those. The hard part will be picking what to do next. I think I'll pick up a UFO to add to my 3 projects, so I always have one in progress to cut down on my UFO pile. So, that means 2 new projects and 1 UFO. I think I can handle that.

I doubt I'll be as productive this year or even next as I'd like, but I'm looking forward to regular time meeting with other women to work and pray and change our world.

Labels: Knitting

I have made some progress on Elijah's sweater. I finished the back on the flight Saturday. The ball of Glimmer was tangled up in my knitting bag and I just didn't have time to fix it while making sure the kids had a meal and the babysitters were settled, so I brought Little Boy Green.



This is the first time I've ever done a raglan shaping in pieces, so it looks kind of odd to me, but whatever.

I also took a couple pictures of the Cross Your Heart to show my progress there.



The color didn't really come out well, it is a cranberry red, and I am trying to figure out how to show the definition in the cables with our digital camera, but it is possessed. It has decided that if you don't use the auto flash, the picture is blurry. So, flash it is.



Anyway, here is a more detailed look at the yoke. I am really pleased with how this is knitting up, and I hope I'll have it finished before Madrona in February.

I finished one of my UFOs this weekend, so I got to move it to my FO list for the year. It, as well as my other 2004 FOs, are listed in the sidebar here. It is the only knit Christmas present I have done this year. If I finish Little Boy Green, that will be for Christmas, but I'm not knitting much for gifts this year.

I have arranged that my ofoto album will only carry the photos of projects from 2003 and before. I still have photos to put up, but that way, I can link directly to the image for the blog for all other pictures. I do have a few from 2004, but they are now listed with a link in my sidebar also.

Our church is starting a St. Martha's Guild for crafting and praying for our families, as well as doing some outreach in the church and community. I'm, really excited about this, as it makes me think of women's groups and guilds of times gone by when they sewed, quilted or did other needlework together and through that built a tight bond of community and friendship. Our first meeting is October 2.

I hope someone is actually reading this and possibly enjoying my ramblings. *grin*

Labels: Knitting

As you can see, I have photos up now. Hooray! I will be taking pictures of Elijah's sweater in progress, as well as mine, soon. I will also link my 2004 finished objects photos in the list.

Does anyone know if Addi will replace wonky needles? The nickel coating is coming off of one of my 20 inch 4 mm circulars and it's bugging me. This is the needle I'm using in Elijah's sweater and I don't want it to catch the yarn.

We will be taking some friends out on a flight to go to dinner tonight, and I am going to be sneaky and bring the christening cap with me to work on during the flight. They don't have to know for whom I am making it, it's on small enough needles and I can get some progress done while Rich flies.

If the clouds are too low or there is too much icing, we can't go, even IFR, so we'll go to a pottery painting place instead where I will paint a tea pot.

Labels: Knitting

One more thing. I was just reading on the knit list and someone posted about a knitting party. This sounds like so much fun! I want to have one.

So, in February, there is a fiber retreat in my town (it is listed in my knitting links). I was already talking to two women about getting together and knitting and chatting that weekend, maybe we can make it into a knitting party. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

Oh, thank you also to Susan who recommended Photobucket as well.

Labels: Knitting

Thank you to Colette who pointed me toward Photobucket. I will be transferring my knitting photos to their site, and keeping family stuff on ofoto.

I've made good progress on the back of Elijah's sweater, I was almost to the neck last night, but found a mistake I couldn't live with and the fudge I tried wasn't satisfactory, so I tinked back and corrected it and am now on my way forward again. This is my first attempt at using more than two colors in a row, and I love how it looks, but it's rather tedious to me. I'm glad this is a toddler sweater and only has one band of it rather than being all over. I'm hoping that by the time I finish the front and sleeves that it will be easier for me to do, so I can tackle things like this on a larger scale later.

I've noticed that it is pretty common for me to try out new techniques on small things, which is sensible, but not on purpose. The first time I did two handed stranding was for my friend Lisa's teacosy, it was small, quick and I was able to master the technique for later projects. Likewise this three color (and more) thing is on a two year old's sweater, so it isn't as frustrating, because even if I only do a couple rows at a time, that is still good progess on something this small. I think I pretty much took to texture, cables and lace right away, they make sense to me, so I just did whatever I felt like and had a great time. My next challenge is intarsia. I have technically started that, on a pair of jet plane socks for Rich, but I got annoyed and haven't touched them for almost a year.

Anyway, I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll have photos up. See you later!

Labels: Knitting

Okay, apparently it still isn't working, so I am looking for a new photo host. I do have webspace on my isp, but I need to download some ftp software, so that's the next step.

As for my knitting, I picked up Elijah's "Little Boy Blue" sweater, which is really a little boy green sweater, as I changed the color scheme entirely from the pattern. Instead of white, I have a black sweater, and instead of two shades of blue and a shade of purple, I have two shades of green and a shade of blue. Much more striking that way, and more importantly, less likely to be stained beyond repair. This is important when you have a two year old boy.

I have placed my Cross Your Heart Gansey front in the car for knitting while Rich drives or while I wait to pick up kids. This will work until I get to the yoke again, when it will become home knitting again.

I've decided that the Little Boy Blue is home knitting even though I could knit it elsewhere, because I have to carry around so many balls of yarn and follow a chart. I've also decided that I prefer using two colors in a row/round to using three or more. I'm glad I'm doing this, and I like how it looks, but I don't know how often I will do colorwork requiring three or four colors in one row again. It has been stretching my ability, though, and that is good.

The Christening Cap is my mindless knitting at Bible study and women's group, as I can do it without looking, there are no charts to follow, no cables to remember, no lace work. I was going to try to modify the beading so I'd actually knit the beads in, but I still haven't gotten a beading needle yet, so I'll probably stick with sewing them on as the pattern says. We'll see, bead knitting would keep it from being mindless knitting, as I'd have to follow the chart at that point, but sewing all those beads on is a pain that might keep me from finishing.

As soon as I can get the photo hosting thing settled, I'll post pictures of my progress.

Labels: Knitting

This is just a test post. I'm going to try to put in a photo of Amira smiling in her wonderful Origami Baby Kimono that I made for her.



Ta da! Did it work? I'm going to have to check. If you look really carefully, you can see Alexander peeking at the camera in the background.

Alright, it worked. Maybe I'm not as dumb as I think. I just didn't realize I could use html in the posts. :D

Well, it seems I am an inept blogger. :( I can't figure out how to post pictures here, and I want to make a blog page dedicated to free patterns I've designed and can't. *sigh*

I also can't make the help pages on blogger.com work, so I will have to find a kind soul to help me. If anyone is reading this and can help, please contact me. Thank you!

However, I have gotten some more links up, and I've posted new pictures on my FO album at ofoto (which is in the link list).

I will be posting a WIP list and UFO list soon.

Labels: Knitting

Hello and welcome to my new and improved knitting blog!

Since I get to write about whatever I want to here, I probably will throw in stuff about my family, church, friends, recipes, opinions, and so on.

My name is Ranee, I am a wife, married to Rich, and mother of four, Alexander, Dominic, Elijah and Amira. We live in Puget Sound, on an airport. I knit mostly for our family, but occasionally for good friends, too. I am most interested in traditional Arabic designs, vintage (1930s-1950s era) knitting and knitting for children. I am more a texture and cable person than a color person. I like lace, but I am not a lace maker primarily.

I'm terrible at keeping diaries, and I don't know how well I'll keep this up, but I'll try. I had one before, but something strange happened and it wouldn't let me edit it, so I deleted and started over.

Anyway, here I am. I am working on the Cross Your Heart Gansey from the Fall 2000 Knitters' Magazine. I am also making the Blue Boy Cabled Fair Isle sweater for DS#3, though I am doing it in black with shades of green instead of white with shades of blue. A friend is due in March, so I am working on a Beaded Christening Cap for her baby. Shhhh!

Another friend is also due next spring, and I'm trying to think of something equally fabulous to make for their baby. Especially since both of these families are friends with each other, and I don't want to play favorites.

I'll sign off now, and try to figure out how to put pictures and links up. Good bye!

Labels: Knitting