Birthday, Pattern, Sunset

It is fun to celebrate birthdays and today we celebrated mine and our older daughter, Rebekah's. We had a great time! The server was a bit confused. She saw the packages and new there was a birthday. She watched to see WHO was opening the gifts, but two of us started opening gifts! LOL! So, she brought a tiny little sundae and asked who's birthday it was and found out, both! We shared our little sundae and then had a few bites of our cheesecake, boxing the rest up to go home.

New pattern!! I have finished another pattern. This pattern is called Hugs and Huglette. It is for sale on Ravelry, right now. You will find it with my user name TerrificFibers, if you are interested.

Huglette is the scarf and I used a worsted weight yarn for it. In particular I used Brown Sheep Lana Loft. What a wonderfully soft wool! The purple is actually a gorgeous jewel tone, but I wanted to show the pattern stitches, so I lightened the photo.

This is the Hug. The directions also call for worsted weight yarn. I used some wool/alpaca handspun that I had sitting in my stash. What a great yarn that was to use! Knit flat and then, after a half twist is put in it, the two short ends are sewn together and it becomes a mobius.

We don't get much in the way of fall colors down here. BUT, we get fantastic skies. This is the sunset from Friday night, January 21, 2011. Don't you just love it??

Here is a picture with the phone turned sideways, to capture more of the horizon. Nothing is on fire, except the sun, in this picture.

Lucy Neatby and Navajo Knitting

Lucy Neatby is a wonderful knitter and instructor from Canada. She has some great and inventive ideas.

This knitting idea is actually a type of plying technique when spinning. Take a look, I think you'll love it!

Graham Cracker Toffee Bars

I love toffee. Do you? I tried to make toffee two times. It was a nightmare. The first time, I actually broke the Pyrex dish when I poured in the hot toffee. The next time, it was under cooked and I had a crumbly mess on my hands. Then I found this recipe. I don't just make it at Christmas either, I will actually make it a couple of times throughout the year. Valentine's Day is coming soon and this might be a great idea to make, a sweet for your sweetie.


Graham Cracker Toffee
2 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 box graham crackers
1 -12 oz bag of chocolate chips.(I use 2 cups of semi-sweet or bittersweet chips)

Layer crackers on a deep cookie sheet(15 x 10 x 1"). Melt butter and brown sugar, bring to a boil and stir constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from stove and pour over crackers. Bake 7 -9 minutes at 350F. Remove from oven. Sprinkle chocolate chips over top while hot, so that the chips melt. When the chips are completely melted, spread them evenly over the top with a knife. Then cut into rectangles, or any shape you want, while still hot. Remove from pan and allow to cool on waxed paper.

One day, I will conquer real toffee. But, until then we enjoy these.

One of my friends suggested trying the recipe with a saltier cracker, so you get the salt, sweet, chocolate flavor. I think that would be great too!

The New Snow and the Resident Hawk

On Sunday, January 9, we had some snow and ice. Then the temperatures dropped and today, Tuesday, we STILL had snow on the ground and on the trees.

I wanted to do some errands today. I bundled in my winter coat, a nice handknitted scarf and warm felted wool mittens and out the door I went. I was in the car and started it up and saw it.
The hawk, just sitting regally in the tree above the car. I rolled down the window and used my phone to capture this photo.


I wondered if it would get spooked if I moved the car closer and thought, why not. So, I put the car in drive and slowly moved the car. The hawk just sat there looking at me and then decided that the big metal box wasn't going to hurt it. :)

Took another picture.


Then moved a bit closer and got this one.





Here is one of my knitting projects. I am trying to make myself a shrug. I am using my handspun yarn and didn't have enough of either color to make the shrug. So, I am trying to use both yarns. The back is finished and I have picked up the stitches to go around.

Christmas Knitting Project

Well, this year, I was so not prepared for Christmas. I did make it through and everything, except the cards, was done on time. Christmas cards are being addressed today. :) I know it is already January, but they are here and I have done the letter, so they are going to get mailed.

One of my Christmas knitting projects is this young girl set. I had thought to knit a scarf for each granddaughter, but when I was done there was a whole set for each one. So, I guess you could say that I actually knit 2 of these. When taking pictures, I didn't get a good photo of the handwarmers, I hope to get a better photo this week.

Here is the set: Miss Sophisticate





I really had a lot of fun making these, and I love the addition of the beads and fun fur. The pattern is not published, yet, though. Sorry, but I wanted you to see what I had been working on.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year. We had a quiet New Year's Eve and we are enjoying time off this weekend.

Before Christmas, I had the opportunity to visit the Kimball art museum in Ft Worth. My oldest daughter had won tickets to the Mayan exhibit and asked if I had wanted to go. I said, SURE!
So, on the Thursday before Christmas, she and her daughters and I, went to the museum. The museum had a very large Christmas tree, with some absolutely gorgeous ornaments on it. So, Nicole and Claire each picked their favorite on the tree. Here they are.

I think that both the ornaments are very pretty.

I took a picture of the next one, because I think it can be made very easily if you want to start on NEXT Christmas.

Looks to me like they took a simple pine cone and sprayed it with silver paint. While the paint was still wet, they used sparkles and sprinkled them all over the pine cone. It truly was a beautiful ornament.

The Mayan exhibit was very interesting. Unfortunately, and for good reasons, we weren't allowed to take pictures of anything in the exhibit. I would've like to have taken a picture of one item.
It was a 6 inch tall sculpture of a woman weaving on a backstrap loom. If my memory is right, the estimated date for it was 650 -950 AD.