It's A Breeze

Introducing a  new pattern.  :)  This pattern is named "It's A Breeze."  I didn't have a title for this one and asked for title ideas. The idea came from my tester Liz, because she said, "It's A Breeze to knit, so you should name it that."  :)  I have posted some pictures of it, previously, but posted again, so all would know which project(pattern) is done.  The directions are written for fingering/sport and for worsted weight yarns. This pumpkin one is sport weight cotton yarn. 

The gray one is out of worsted weight wool.  Both of these scarves are for sale in my etsy shop. 

As of now, the pattern is available through Ravelry.  My Ravelry is TerrificFibers and you will find it there. I will get it into the etsy shop this week, but not today.

I had made one of the It's A Breeze's out of sock weight yarn and was wearing it. I loved it.  AND someone else liked it so much they bought it right off my neck.  LOL!  So, now I will be making another one for me. :)



This aqua scarf below was crocheted.  I had a lot of fun, changing up my mode of operation and going from knit to crochet.  :)

AND here is another Queen Anne's lace scarf.  I really do think these things are contagious, like potato chips.  You cannot make just one.  Sooo, pretty.

Well, I am off to do some more creating.

Homemade Rolls

Many years ago, The UPS Store guy would travel alot on business. One of his favorite places to go was the Amana area in Iowa.  They had a great restaurant there, or so I was told.  :)  I think he was right, too. One time he brought home a cookbook from their restaurant.  I love using many of the recipes in that cookbook. One of my favorite is this easy dinner roll recipe.  So, I thought I would share it with you.



This picture is of the rolls I made last week.

Quick Dinner Rolls

1 pkg dry yeast

3 Tbsp warm water

3 Tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

3 Tbsp melted shortening

1 cup warm water

3 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in 3 Tbsp water. Add rest of ingredients. Mix well and knead a few minutes; let rest for 15 - 20 minutes. Pinch off dough, shape, and place in a greased pan. Let rise for 30 minutes in a warm place. Bake at 350 F, until brown. Makes 9 - 12 rolls, depending on the size you make them.

Note:  I put my rolls on a cookie sheet, because I wanted them flatter. We used them for leftover turkey sandwiches that way. 

I hope you enjoy these rolls as much as we do!

Never a Dull Moment!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  We went to Anna's for dinner today. It was fun for all of us to be together for dinner. We are a very thankful family this year.  For one, we have a new son-in -law and for two, we have a new baby in the family. For three, God protected my husband(Jeff, The UPS Store guy), our employees and our customers, from certain harm.

On Monday, I called to warn The UPS Store guy about a heavy rain storm headed his way and I hear him say, "I can't worry about that right now, a customer just drove through the front window." I said, "Are you kidding or serious?"  You see, if you knew us personally, you would know that we love to laugh and have fun and tease each other.  Well, he was absolutely serious.  :\  However, no one was injured, a miracle!

Since I was at Anna's helping out, and he said that he had it under control, I waited until the next morning to go and see him.  Here is what I found. The green car is the culprit, that turned our UPS Store into an open air market store. If you look closely you will see that the window is gone from the front of the store, and so is the door. The UPS Store guy is standing where the door and windows were.

This picture, below, was taken right after the accident.  The car is still in the store.  I am glad that I saw The UPS Store guy, before I saw this picture!  Geez. She hit the copiers, the cards and card racks and we lost 2 counters/cabinets and some other things. All can and are being fixed and replaced.

The local fire department had to come and get the electricity turned off, so the car could be removed.  Seems she pulled some wires in with her from the signs on the window. The the brave firemen, turned on her car and backed it out.

This picture, below, is one I took on Tuesday, the day after.  The window/door man's tools are there. He has since replaced the door, but we are waiting on some windows.  You can see the broken copiers and the UPS Store guy waving in the background.  Yep, we were open for business. 



So, you see, I have a lot to be thankful to God for this year, and that is just in the last week. Some repairs are being done now and some will be done in January, after all the Christmas presents are shipped.

If you are curious, like me, I was told that she wasn't on her cell phone or texting on her phone. She thought she hit the brake, but the car revved and in she crashed.

He's Here! and some projects too.

What joy! A new little life has entered our family. Here he is with his beautiful and happy mom, our daughter. 

Here he is with his handsome and kind dad, our son-in-law.

Here he is with his beautiful and happy aunt, our older daughter.

What fun to have a new little baby around. We are all very excited and so are his cousins, gramma and grampa. Will get some pictures of his open eyes soon.  :)

On the project side. I have made another Queen Anne's Lace scarf.  These are so fun! When done you have a gorgeous piece of lace and it really isn't a hard pattern. Same 3 step repeat over and over. About 200 yards and a J size hook made this one. I used Snowflake yarn from Hobby Lobby.

Don't think I showed you this either. I made this shawl this summer on my trip with our older daughter to NY. I used my Take 2 shawl pattern and my handspun merino yarn to make it. The merino used is called Snapdragon and from Ashland Bay.

Queen Anne's lace and it is almost Baby Time!

I have shared a lot of what I have been knitting for our new grandson. Here is a sweater that I designed and knitted for him.  I used a very soft wool for this sweater and made it to fit, so that he will probably be able to wear it as a coat all through winter, until March.

My friend, Laurie, called me a couple of weeks ago and told me about a great scarf pattern that she found. Hmmm, crocheted, too. So, I looked it up and printed out the pattern, but didn't go much further than that.  It was and is very pretty, but I am test knitting several of my patterns right now and trying hard to finish them. 

Wednesday arrived and Laurie showed her scarves for show-n-tell and I was hooked!  (Pun intended)  :)

I came home and searched through my stash of yarns, and decided to use some handspun yarn for my Queen Anne's lace scarf.  I love this scarf.  Making it is so much fun, too.

I used every bit of the ball of yarn that I had. My scarf isn't a real long scarf, but it is a great length and I will wear this. AND more are in the works, too.  If you want to make this scarf, here is the link to the pattern.

My yarn was a bulky weight and I used a size K (US) crochet hook for it.

Time Flies!

Wow! It is November already!  It feels like I just posted about our extreme heat.  Fall has pretty much arrived in north Texas, thankfully. But, it is still fairly dry here and we still need rain.

A couple of weeks ago, I had our younger granddaughter over and we made some cut out cookies together.  I let her have a free hand at decorating the cookies, encouraging her artful self ,and we had some wonderful cookies to look at and to eat. It truly was a fun time!!! When I took her home, she was able to take half of the cookies home to share with her sister and parents. :)

I have two large plastic boxes filled with felted sweaters.  Felting sweater is habit forming. Once you start felting your thrift store finds and realizing the great fabric that you have, you want to go and get more and felt more. :)
If you have never felted a wool sweater, here is how I do it.  First, I have a top loading machine.
-I set it on the longest wash and hot water.  Set the level of water appropriate for the size load that you have.  If my sweater is all alone, I will put a t-shirt in with it. Be careful and put only similar colors together.
-Fill washer, with hot water and put in your normal amount of laundry soap.
-Check the sweater, about every 10 minutes, before the hot water drains.  If it isn't felted enough at the end of the wash cycle, reset the cycle and agitate again.
-When sweater is felted as you want it, let the washer finish rinsing and spinning.  I use a cold water rinse. Shocking the wool, with cold water helps it felt a bit more.
-When washer is finished, you can air dry your sweater, BUT I like to place it in the dryer for a short drying cycle. Make sure that you clean your dryer filter when done.
-After the sweater is dry, cut it apart at the seams, so that you now have fabric.
Hints: Use only wool or animal fiber sweaters. Cotton, or other plant fibers, and acrylic(man-made fibers) will NOT felt.  You do need to use only wool or other animal fibers; ex. cashmere, angora, mohair.

So, I cut up several co-ordinating sweaters and then sewed the squares together to make a scarf.  Then I used one of the sweaters and made some hand warmers.  I crocheted a lace edging on the hand warmers, and did a simple machine stitch around the scarf. The scarf is made from wool, cashmere and angora. The handwarmers are from a wool/angora sweater.  Soooo, very soft.

 The set is for sale in my etsy shop.

In July, I decided to write a new pattern. I thought that I would get it done quickly, but no.  I have knitted it several times and have had it tested.  After receiving the tester's notes, I decided to put some more work into the pattern.  I love that my tester is honest with me.  :)  Originally, the pattern was for fingering/sport weight cotton. Now I have been using wool sock weight yarn and wool worsted weight yarn. When this pattern is done, there will be many variations that will work .

This one is knitted from cotton sport-weight yarn.

This is the same scarf, stretched out lengthwise.

It, too, is for sale in my etsy shop.

This is Glass??

Wow, this is phenomenal.  I had to keep reminding myself that these items were glass. Especially near the end when he is reading his "book."  It is flexible!

Happy Cows.....

Make great milk......





This takes place in France. :)

A Big THANK YOU...

...To my spinning and fiber friends! I have been spinning with a group of wonderful spinners for years and years.  Some faces, in the group, have changed over the years while people move away and people move in, but the same "loving heart" has always been there in the group.

I was totally blown away today, when I arrived and found that they had decided to give me a Gramma shower.  :)  There is a money tree, so that I can purchase something for use in my home, when Tad and Anna bring the baby for a visit. Plus, there were other gifts!!  I feel so blessed right now, that I wanted to share the items with you.

There is a handmade quilt, a pair of handknitted booties, two crocheted hats, a hooded towel and some socks, and a handmade Gramma brag book. 

New Pattern!

This pattern is my newest one. I have listed it on etsy and just listed it on Ravelry. There are 3 different looks to this scarf, depending on the cast on method you choose. That is described in the pattern directions.

I have used sport weight cotton yarn for this scarf, but I have seen it done in wool yarn and it looks beautiful in that yarn too.

The scarf is a long one and narrow scarf.

Adds to any outfit, whether it be jeans or something a little more formal.

Hope you like it. :)

You are going to love this!

Don't you just love these? 

Inspiration

For years, I have been meeting once a week with a group of women. The group has changed over the years. People move in and people move out.  Even the meeting place has changed, many times. But, the group has survived.

We usually spin, knit, or crochet during our meetings, but at home other projects are worked on as well. Here are some of the projects from a couple of our recent show-n-tells.

Below, Liz knit this gorgeous shawl, as part of a Knit-A-Long on Ravelry, with Stephen West. Liz's yarn is from her stash of handspun yarns. She does her own dying and her own spinning for her yarn.

Then we have Marlene's quilt. Isn't it gorgeous?? Marlene is a master at many different fiber arts and her work is always stunning.

This is Marlene's traditionally hooked rug. It is not latch hook or punch hook, those are different techniques. For this technique you use 1/4 inch strips of wool fabric and a tool that looks like  a fat handled crochet hook. You hold the strip below your rug base fabric and pull loops of your strip through the fabric with your tool. The finished size of this rug(wall hanging) is about 18 or 20 inch square, I think.

Laurie the wonderful crocheter extraordinaire, made this great shawl using cotton yarn and a Doris Chan pattern named the All Shawl. Laurie did make a couple of custom changes and it looks fabulous.

Then last, is my show-n- tell. I designed and knitted this shawl from sock weight yarn. It started at the top neck and worked to the bottom. It was a lot of fun to knit, because I changed the stitch patterns frequently adding to the interest of the knitting. I even inserted a few beads too.

There you have it. Show and Tell. I hope that something here has inspired you to keep going and to keep creating.  :)

A Tribute

Everyone has memories of where they were on Sept 11, 2001.  Me too.  I was getting ready for work, when my daughter, Rebekah, called and said, "Mom, turn on the TV, a plane just flew into the World Trade Center!" I turned on the TV and together, on the phone, we watched live as the second one hit.... The rest is history. Children lost parents, Parents lost children, Spouses lost spouses, Uncles and aunts lost nephews and nieces.... The list goes on and on. Being a transplanted New Yorker, we were concerned for family and friends and went on the search to see how our friends and family were affected. Yes, we were hit with some of the disaster, as extended family and friends were hit with it.

So, today, as we remember 10 years ago, and needing to go to the local home builders store, Home Depot, I was able to get some photo's. Here are some pictures of what we saw in Texas, as Texans remember and honor our fallen heroes, from that day so long ago and those since.

Flags at half-mast.

Our local fire station, they will never forget.

Along Interstate 35.

The local hospital.

The orange truck is owned by a local lawn care company. They put up a lot of the flags for the businesses on every patriotic holiday.

We won't forget, will we?

Just an aside, the light brown ground, isn't desert sand.  It is our very dry grass, as Texas really is in a drought situation.

News

Having grown up on the east coast and being a transplanted New Yorker to Texas, we have a lot of family still back east.  I am happy to say that even though some of them have had some issues during Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, that they are all OK. I thank God for His protection during this storm.

Below, is a new little outfit that I just finished.  A customer had seen the little firefighter outfit that I make for infants and wanted one to resemble the US Navy dress blues. Since she is having a girl, we decided on a bib portion, some lace and ruffles. She found some great buttons, so she will be attaching those to the front.

Windowpane and Teeny Tiny

Here are some of the knitting projects that I haven't posted on here, because they were made for shower gifts.  Below is a picture of the Windowpane Sweater. It takes one large skein of sock weight yarn, about 450 yards. 

Here's the back. The yarn is self-striping, so the color work came from the yarn changing colors, not anything that I did.

The pattern is found in this book which is found here.

The second project, that I finished, is this one. It is from my Teeny Tiny Baby Sweater and Hat pattern.  The sweater and hat are included in the pattern, which can be found in my etsy shop. The cute little booties are from a free pattern that I found on the internet, called Little Footies. The pattern can be found on Ravelry.

When I was knitting the hat, I wanted to somehow add a little embellishment to it. I kept asking myself, what can you embellish onto a boys hat?  My mind is so geared to girls, since I have 2 daughters and 2 granddaughters. I thought, what if I knit a little patch, that the button can be sewn to. So, that is what I did. I then stitched the finished patch to the hat, with the other color yarn from the sweater and then sewed the button to all the layers.

We're Ready and Dyeing

Tad and Anna(our younger daughter) are expecting their first baby. We are all excited, and today is the day for a shower!  Over the last few weeks, many family members around the country have been shopping and shipping.  Gradually, the gifts have arrived at our home. I spent some time this morning, assembling them into their wrappings. It is soooo easy, now-a-days, to send a gift.  Just put a gift bag and tissue paper in the box and when it arrives, someone can assemble it all for you.  So, this morning I did that.  I assembled and made bows and organized all the gifts, I had the best time. Truly.  :)  

I truly feel so blessed right now.  As I finished and assembled the gifts in one place, I thought, "I have the best family ever!"  Thanks, family!! 

In my last blog post, I showed you my jars full of fiber and dye.  They were sitting outside in our extreme heat and sunshine. It was a successful project, and to think I did it with the sun and no electricity, is even better.


Here are my finished fibers, except one.

One of the dyes said "purple." It came out magenta.  The small pink fiber above is the color it turned out.  So, the wool roving that shared the dye jar with the above mohair curls, is now back in the jar with some teal dye added.  Looks like it will be a gorgeous purple, which is what I was after. 


The funny thing and it is really funny.  The jar is in the house, not out in the sun. Because we are getting rain and it is cloudy. I am not going to complain, one bit, because we have had a tiny break of the 100+ temperatures, as well as, we having some much needed rain.

Some Projects

When I go on a trip, I always take some kind of hand project. Usually knitting or crocheting. In the last decade it has usually been knitting. When Rebekah and I drove off to NY, I had a suitcase for clothing and a very large tote for knitting projects.  :)  She had a project bag too, so she understands her mom. Good thing.

One of the items I decided to work on, was my Take 2 Shawl pattern. I used merino handspun yarn for this shawl. When I spun the roving, I added some white to clear angelina to the yarn, which basically just adds sparkle.  I have really been into sparkle lately. The sparkle doesn't really show in the pictures though.

The yarn was smaller weight than I thought. No I didn't do the WPI test, I thought I could judge it.  Silly me. The shawl turned out wonderful anyway, I think.

Here's the back.

Here is the the overexposed front. Sorry about that.

When I arrived home, I wanted to crochet.  My friend Laurie has been crocheting a wonderful and colorful potholder. She found the recipe for it on Ravelry. The original is written in Norwegian and since I don't speak or read Norwegian, I had to take it to Google Translate.  When you put it into google translate, you can sort of figure it out. But, after combing several crochet stitch books, I thought I would try using a stitch pattern that I found in there.  Laurie's potholder has sharper triangle points than mine. The picture of the two potholders below is a picture from the original pattern.

Here's a picture of mine. The potholders are two layers. The picture of the back is below.

We are having unusually high temperatures here and no rain.  Not any clouds to speak of either. So, since it is so hot, many of us are putting that great solar energy to work. Here are my solar dyeing projects from yesterday. I loved looking out the back window and seeing color. :) Made me happy. I have mohair curls, silk noil and wool rovings in these jars.  Happy spinning times ahead.