We have a winner

I'm totally lame since I posted a contest and then didn't post a follow up - until now. We were getting ready for vacation but in the midst, we did pick a winner. I was planning on posting these great pics of picking the winner, but didn't.

Still the winner is:



Congratulations Lisa L.!

I have your prize with me and will send from Connecticut.

I will also post pics soon of the baby hat I am working on while on vacation. It wasn't on my to do list, but her sun hat was too big. What else can a knitter do but knit a new one?

Hope everyone is having a great and sunny summer.
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Butterflies and Birthdays

I'm not quite sure how it happened since it's all a blur but two days ago I had a three year old and now I have a four year old! This required not just one, but two cakes. The tier of cupcakes (designed by ds in the red tshirt) was for the party with her friends (finger foods - no forks required).

What's fun is how excited she is about everything - she asked for a big pillow, a new comforter, sheets and an armoir for her Build-a-Bear. Hmmm, does she have a future as a decorator?

Prior to the celebrations, I got to use my blocking wires again for Knitty's Flit and Float. I love this pattern - it's much fun and so pretty (except that it rolls into the middle). I think if I did it again, I would make it twice as wide. It would be a gorgeous stole. The design is butterflies - perfect for Spring.

Teenagers and Loud music

You are lucky that this site doesn't come with volume. The teenagers are out of school and they're home. That means loud, obnoxious music! I sound like my parents! Aarrgghh! It's not just the music, it's the singing that goes with the music. Still, better to have them here than hanging around somewhere else getting in trouble, right?

Quick, does anyone have a pattern for knitted ear plugs?

Join me in the Happy Dance

(Make sure to check out the contest in the post below if you haven't already!)

I have finally arrived at the end of a long, long, long journey that proves if you keep moving you will get there eventually even if there are several setbacks along the way. I think I spent as much time unknitting this as I did knitting it!

I started it well over a year ago. It was a Secret of the Stole - clues and rows revealed weekly. Somehow, I fell behind - way behind. When everyone else was wrapping themselves up in their lacy beauty to go off to New Year's Eve parties, I was still struggling along - knitting and then unknitting trying to follow the complicated pattern.

Part of the problem was tha I kept getting side tracked by other, simpler projects that I could actually get done in days or weeks, not months or years.

I kept at it, however, sometimes knitting just two rows at a time (one complicated, one straight purl) I thought for sure I'd have it for last New Year's Eve - but no.

I learned so much from this project - like how to read a chart, how to read my knittng and how to correct knitting several rows back. Now I'm going to have to learn how to close up a hole - the one I made months ago during one of those frogging sessions! I found it when I was blocking - actually when I was taking pictures to post. The best I can figure is that it was a failed k2tog or ssk. I think fixing it will involve some sort of duplicating stitch. Well, at least it should be done by this coming New Year's Eve!

It's blocking on a set of my children's foam blocks. How convenient that they just recently dragged them up from the basement to play with!

A riddle and a contest

I have a riddle for all you clever, creative folks (put your funny on):

How many seam rippers/needle guages/row counters does one crafter have to buy before actually having one when needed!?


On June 24th (my birthday) I will randomly pick the name of someone who answers the question. The prize - your choice of a seam ripper, needle guage or row counter (plus a few surprises on the side)

This is my very first contest so please send your friends over so I won't feel like the school yard geek who no one will play with!

what I would have bought

A few posts back, I mentioned a site called futureme.org where you can send an email to yourself to be delivered in the future. I lamented that you can't send one to your past self like this - buy three skeins of the Cascade 200 in green and a few in pink and blue while it's on sale. No, I had no way of knowing then that I might discover a pattern for what is quite possibly the cutest crocodile ever on the Twist Collective!

Perhaps I could send an email to future me - if you find Cascade 220 on sale - remember the crocodile pattern.

Never buy store made pasta salad again

I had obligated myself to bringing pasta salad to the aforementined birthday party. DH kindly said I should give myself a break and just buy it. The selection at the deli counter, however, was so, well, icky is the only word to describe it. One was too globby, one looked just paltry and another was dried out. There wasn't one I wanted to eat let alone serve anyone else! I was stuck in the store with no recipe just hours before the party so I decided to wing it. What should cooking be if not an adventure? I love what I came up with so much that I want to share it. It's more of a formula than a recipe. It should be easy enough for anyone to remember. It's flexible enough that forgetting an ingredient or two won't matter.

Basically it's this: salad dressing, pasta and some veggies. Make it fancier with mozerella cheese, shrimp or cooked chicken.

The one MUST is pasta! I used corkscrew pasta, although I think any of a number of others would be fine.

Next a couple of bottles of really good salad dressing - I used an Italian Vinegrette, Ceaser and Ranch. At home, I combined them in a bowl - I started out with 1/4 cup each and added a little more of my favorite (the Ranch) until it tasted right. I also added 2 tablespoons of mayonaise, which mellowed the flavor quite a bit. I might have added more, but I ran out.

I found that I about a cup of sauce per pound of pasta. You could use more or less depending on how saucy you like it.

Then I added:
Cherry tomatoes cut in half
Cucumbers sliced small
One can of chopped black olives

Toss the sauce and the veggies with the pasta and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.

Optional ingredients:

Mozzeralla cheese (cubed would be best but shredded works)
Red onion
broccolli
Peas
shrimp or cooked chicken

A Shout Out to AAA

I just have to say how glad I am that AAA is in service. I was deep into Boston at a baby's birthday party when I realized that my keys weren't in my purse. I remember locking the car but I couldn't remember checking for the keys like I always do. I dumped out the purse (what a mess! Not a good time to discover how badly it needs to be cleaned out!) I searched the kitchen where I'd been unloading things. With that sinking feeling, I went to the car and looked through the windows. On the third seat of our giant van (there are five rows of seats!) were the keys.

We have just one car and DH was several bus transfers and two train stops away from me on a Sunday when all the services are slow.

I was just about to launch into a full blown panic when I remembered that I didn't have to. It's almost like having a Fairy God Mother in your wallet - call them and all will be well. It was a long wait but just as the sun was going down and the cold was settling in, the white knight came riding up on his giant tow truck. We all agreed that we have never been so happy to get into the van!

The only downside to all of this is that the knitting was locked in the van with the keys!

Recycle This

Just as I am learning to let go of things and purge the clutter, the 7yo dd is learning to save the earth through recycling. I see garbage and she sees building blocks.


How could I squash such creativity? She has taken what I would have put into a landfill and turned it into a stuffed animal's delight. The first is a car wash for the animals. They go in "dirty" and come out "clean," she explained. The second is a hutch for a rabbit - the real rabbit she hopes I will buy her this summer! (Not sure where she got that idea - I have no plans for a live bunny)

So what if there are little pieces of cardboard all over the living room. So what if she unpacked a full recycling bin and scattered the contents from one end of the house to another. She is trying in her own little way to save the planet. Messes can be cleaned up but Earth can't be undestroyed, right?


I have to give props to DH! The man who has a to-do list longer than I am tall actually spent an hour - a full hour - untangling a snarled up pile of fingering weight yarn that had reached an epic state of tangliness. It was at least a quarter of the skein and much needed for my Flit and Float. At the end he handed me a tiny ball (it was fingering weight) and said simply, "Please don't do that again." I knew there was a reason I married him other than his good looks, charm and great sense of humor!


In the interest of not testing his love - is there a way of not doing this again? The yarn was wound with a regular ball winder and swift combo. I'm wondering if since I was pulling from the middle the yarn fell into the void and twisted around itself. I haven't had this happen before, but was it a fluke or does this sometimes happen? Should I put something in the middle to hold it open. If I do that, can I still use it as a center pull ball?

tempting friends

The transition from freezing cold weather to just plain chilly but with the promise of warm weather soon sparked a bit of knitting limbo for me. Not quite a knitting slump, but in that direction. For months I'd been driven by a strong desire to knit warm things - hats, scarves, mittens and more scarves. Then suddenly it was gone. I still have two beautiful halfs of a scarf that need to be kitchnered! I've been keeping busy with the Flit and Float, but I had no vision beyond that. Nothing to drive me toward the next project. Until now.

My dear friend Allison, who gets me into all sorts of knitterly trouble has done it again. "We HAVE to knit this..." was the subject of the email with a link to a shawl called Ulmus. That's just what I needed - a good challenge. Step one was to find the right yarn. Perhaps for some this is the easiest part of the project. For me, it is potentially the most difficult. I know that I am going to have to live with this yarn for a very long time. I have a hard time letting go of things, even things I end up not liking all that much. If I get sick of the yarn midway through the project, it will sit unfinished in my drawer for years making me feel guilty every time I see it. Then there is the need to commit to a color. Sometimes, I can't find one I love and then other times I love so many I can't pick!

This time was different. I had just ten minutes to spend in the yarn shop since the rest of the family was waiting in the car after a long drive on our way to a party. It took me less than eight.

I saw the light blue and lavendar and fell in love with the combination. Individually, the yarns are gorgeous. Together, they are spectacular. The hand painted yarn is called Smooshy from dreamincoloryarn.com. It happens to be a superwash, although I didn't pay attention to that until after the purchase.

I can hardly wait to get started! In fact I can't believe I'm spending time posting this instead of casting on. But first, I am going to finish the flit and float. It's a fun pattern and I don't want it to turn into a UFO. Besides, this is probably my second favorite part of the project - that wonderful sense of anticipation when you have the yarn and the pattern but haven't hit the frustration of failing to read it properly. (My favorite part, of course, is when it's successfully done, being worn and winning compliments.)

When I was buying the yarn, I just thought I'd stumbled on a wonderful new combinaiton of colors. When I got, home, I discovered I'd encountered this combination before. It perfectly matches the material for my daughter's dinosaur dress. The too-cute, finally-finished one that she inexplicably won't wear! I added real button holes as she requested and trimmed it with satin, as she requested. It's a lovely addition to her closet, but you will note that this robs my of my favorite part of the project! (I'm not bitter! Much.)