Monday, January 30, 2012

An Update on the Poncho

My Easy Folded Poncho is finished.  Well almost.  It still needs to liberated from the blocking wires and seamed.

After I finished binding off, I pinned up the shoulder and tried it on and I love it!  And at that moment, I knew that it should be cowl-less.  So, all that fretting was for naught. I'm already thinking though that I'd like another one in the Rowan Felted Tweed, this time in Seafarer (navy).

Here it is all bathed and blocking on the blocking bed.  I used my new blocking wires and I love 'em!  It's all dry now and ready for the seaming.















I haven't mentioned how much I love Rowan Felted Tweed.  It's so tweedy......so English (well my idea of English tweed anyway).  And wonderfully sticky.  I used bamboo needles this time but I would definitely use Addi's next time.  But before I start the next one, I need a good supply of movies.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Throwdown!

On Christmas Day, my niece and I had a coconut cake throwndown!  Lindsay made the Barefoot Contessa’s Coconut Cake recipe and I used a version of the one that my Mother, Grandmother, and Great-Aunt made for years.  I forgot to take a picture of the cakes before cutting but here's Lindsay's:















And here's mine:















We even had scoresheets.














The judges were my dad, my brother, my nephew, and Lindsay’s dad and they took their jobs very seriously.















And the winner was.........Lindsay and the Barefoot Contessa's Coconut Cake recipe! I understand that it was close with only a few points separating the two.  One thing though.  We didn’t count on two coconut cakes being a LOT of coconut cake! 

Inch by Inch

My Easy Folded Poncho is coming along.  Inch by inch.  An inch is about all I can manage to knit  in the evenings before nodding off.  I blame it on the TV, of course.  There doesn’t seem to be much on other than Law & Order and Everybody Loves Raymond reruns, most of which I saw last January.  I could get better cable than the 120 stations plus local that I have now, but that would seriously cut into my yarn funds and I’m not willing to do that.  So, until the weekends, when my favorite Britcoms come on, I’m slowly, but surely, making progress.  Right now, I'm at 28.25 inches.  Only 21.75 more inches to go. 














New Toys
I have two new toys that I’ve been coveting for a long time:  a  Rowenta iron and a set of blocking wires.  Now, I think I can do just about anything! 















I’ve been wanting a Rowenta for a long time and I look at them just about every time I go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond,  So, a couple of days before Christmas, I was in Target and you know how you cut down an aisle that's not crowded?  Well, I did that and found myself on the laundry aisle and lo and behold, there were Rowenta irons!  Rowenta's at Target!  I remembered a gift card I’d had for a couple of years because I couldn’t decide what to buy and I knew then, that’s why I’d held onto it.  It was destined for a Rowenta.  I even had enough left over for a much needed new ironing board cover. 

I’ve used it several times and can I tell you, it is wonderful.  The heft is wonderful and when you press the steam button, it sounds like a steam engine!  This baby can steam any curling edge into submission quickly and efficiently.

Then, there’s my new blocking wires from Churchmouse.  I love ‘em.  I had saved blocking my Catherine’s Shawl so I could try them out on the top edge, and they worked wonderfully. 

Speaking of the Catherine’s Shawl, blocking, even with my new blocking wires, didn’t redeem it.  It just didn’t seem to matter how I draped it, tied it, stretched it, or scrunched it, it looked just plain horrible on me.  My mother and my friend, Pam, both seconded the opinion.  I guess I’m just too big for it or it’s too small.  I can’t decide which.  So, I’m frogging it.  Any ideas of what to do with two skeins of Madelinetosh tosh merino light?

Pull From The Tangle
Kay, over at Mason-Dixon Knitting, wrote a blog post entitled “Pull From The Tangle” about how pulling from the tangle applies to life.  That has stuck with me as I've pulled from the tangle a few times for the past week.