a little knit goodness in all the chaos

Thought I'd share a little something that I'm working on with you....

My first project in intentional fulling.

It doesn't look like much yet, but it will grow up (or shrink, more accurately) to be a French Market Basket, a la knitty.

Right now the bag base measures 12" square, the sides are about 10" tall, and the handles are in progress. I've modified it a little, based on some of the lovely finished projects on Ravelry....

I bought the wool for it in New Hampshire, at Pearl's. Apparently she's the only knitting shop in the city, and we were lucky that she was located so close to MQX! We snuck over to her treasure trove during one of our lunch hours.

I wish the colour would come out better in the photos! It's really quite lovely, all purple, blues, greys and gold. Once it's all beaten into shape I'll try to get some photos of it outside in better light. It's taking longer than I thought it would to knit, but I have to keep reminding myself that the body of this honey is 200 stitches...as much as the body of some of the sweaters I've been working on lately.

I've got a bit of a deadline for this one, though, as I'd like to take it in pre and post fulling for the kids in the grade 7 class to see...tomorrow with them I get to do Kool-Aid dying! It should be good fun. They're all busy working on vests to send to Afghanistan. The community has gotten involved in a big way, too, and many, many vests are coming in from ladies who have heard of our project. It's so wonderful to see them all displayed on the wall of the school as they come in...

Happy stitching,

Lisa

Oh, I can't stand it.....

As of tonight, we are sooooo close to the completion of the purchase of the property we want in Krestova. All that's left is the land title transfer....

I can't stand it. I'm so excited. We've been waiting for a change for so long!

The boys and I will not move right away, we're staying here until the end of the school year, now. Only two more months of school, then off we go! I'm so happy that we'll all be together again. Heck, we'd happily live in a yurt if it meant we could all be together.

:)

(Will I get any sleep tonight??? nah. Who needs sleep.)

:)
Lisa

Gifts and surprises...

The boys liked what I brought back for them from MQX...


They love dragons. I mean LOVE dragons.


Most of our daily lives involve long discussions (or monologues) about the specifics of types and habits of dragons.

Did I mention dragons?


Anyhoo....

Youngest surprised us with an idea this morning. He was ready to part with his long tresses!



Here's what he looked like before we got going.


He was hopeful that we could cut it for charity, but alas, it's too short for that but was driving him crazy. He really couldn't take it being in his eyes anymore.


This is the photo we sent via email to his Dad as a little joke....












And he does SO love hamming it up for the camera.








Convincing, isn't it? You should have heard the laughter!



Final look, pre-sweep.


Happy boy. Mostly happy because we're not letting his dad off the hook to know it's a full head haircut until tomorrow morning.

Daddy never reads the blog. Or does he?


:)

May all your cuts be straight,

Lisa

Manchester

I tried to get some photos of the areas around the convention hotel and our hotel (only about a 4 block walk). The area of Manchester is where the woolen mill was - I think one of our drivers called it the largest one in North America in it's heyday.

Between the Merrimack river and the canal (which I think is now Canal St?) is a long, long loosely linked set of brick buildings, all former mills and dormitories that are in various stages of retrofit with new businesses and homes. Charming buildings, beautiful to look at and not austere at all.

The photo at right is of the TV station. Pretty grandiose for TV, eh?








We were graced this particular evening with a wonderful view of the Moon.



I think this was Wednesday or Thursday night? We were on our way to the Commercial Street Fishery
(amazing food. Amazing). Jodi and I decided that this would be a darn impressive date restaurant. If you want to share with someone a great love of good food, this is the place to go.

This particular mill holds not only the restaurant, but many, many other shops and services, housing and workspaces.

The main entrance looks like this:



It probably didn't look like this inside back when young women were being brought down from Quebec to work in the mills. We had a particularly lively shuttle driver tell us about the history of the area before child labour laws, of how young (11, 12 year old) girls were brought to work here in the factories. It was his assertion that most of the area in fact has a French heritage, though we never thought to look in the phone book at all the French names as he had suggested.

Apparently, back while the mills were running, there was a huge immigrant population concentrated along this part of the river with ethnic markets and stores. The evidence of that is all now gone.

The view from the restaurant was really lovely as the sun went down, and my camera cooperated with me to take a picture of our point of view as we saw it from our table.


I also took a picture of my dessert in this restaurant (I know, I'm such a tourist), but the photo didn't work out. Too bad.




In amongst all this wonderful architecture, the roads are atrocious. Check out this pothole! Yes, those are my feet next to it at the bottom. Yes, it really was about 5" deep in the deepest bit there. All the roads in the area we were in were pockmarked and pitted like this except for the main ones, and the bridge reconstruction that had been going on last year when we were there was still going on. The sidewalks (where they exist) are not a lot better. In the main downtown, on the main street, the sidewalks are all brick and paving. Just a few blocks in any direction from there would reveal that this is a city population that does not really walk anywhere (signposts and trees planted in the dead centre of crumbling 2.5' wide sidewalks).

One of the things that we kept noticing, too, is how few of the motorcyclists bother with helmets. Apparently it's not a requirement by law in this state, and many, many riders were taking advantage of the gorgeous weather we had to feel the wind in their hair. Considering the size and frequency of the potholes, I'd wear a helmet.

:)
Lisa

We're home

I thought I'd do a few posts here for catch up... took a few more photos to share with you while we were in Manchester, but was busy enough to not get a chance to post during our last few days.

I only took a few photos at the show itself, of friend's quilts. It was different this year to not have a quilt of my own in the competition and makes me think that I'd like to really focus on getting one done for next year.



The conference itself was really well run. I don't know how Mary and Janet-Lee do it! There are so many little details and changes that happen during the conference itself, there really is no way that they could plan for every eventuality. From what I saw of them, they handled all the unexpected with grace and humour.


I took a couple of pictures in the Armory (one of the show halls) that I wanted to share. The hall shot is taken from the end of one of the rows of quilts. You can see that they are hung really well, and that the lighting shows off the quilting beautifully! There were a couple of special exibitions in this hall, one of which was these amazing paper pieced dog quilts. Unfortunately I can't find where I scribbled down this woman's name - if someone out there remembers, could you send it to me?


There were at least 5 different dog quilts, all with the breed portraits sorted according to type. Imagine how excited I was to find our dog in the Sporting Group, even though she is a Canadian breed, only recently embraced by the AKC? What a lovely portrait...it looks just like our Breezie, as she looked when she was younger.


Beautiful, isn't it?


I've got some more photos to share, but I'll break it up into several different posts.

Hope your day is good,

Lisa

Manchester walkabout

I had some time this morning and got to spend an hour or two walking around down town, around the area the the convention is at.

This little piece of paper caught my eye....


It gave me quite a laugh...



And you know me, once the camera is out I'm incorrigible.


The city is quite pretty to me. I'm definitely from wood-built-building country. Everything here is brick. The sidewalks, the buildings, and many old woolen mills along the Merrimack river.

And from time to time, you come across these wonderful manhole covers:


Aren't they just wonderful? I don't think that they custom ordered them just for the quilt show, but there's some lovely Grandmother's Flower Garden Variation stuff going on there.




Oh, and I found a little remnant of times past in a back alley not to far from our hotel. Just imagine what this sign must have been for...a dance hall? A movie theatre? A roller rink?

Who knows. Once you go up the stairs all there is is an empty lot. Kinda sad.

And......
be forwarned.....





I did it again. Hopefully this is the last time.

(I know my parents are probably cringing right now, thinking, "why couldn't she just bring back a t-shirt, like everyone else?")

:)

Lisa

Oh!

The time change is totally kicking my butt.

(yawn)

g'day!
L

We're here!!!

Jodi and I got in to Manchester, New Hampshire around 5:00 local time (our body schedules, still very much on coastal time, thought it was about 2pm...). The flights went well, we had plenty of time to make our connection in Chicago, which is always a concern with the sheer size of that terminal.

The second flight was pretty bumpy toward the end, and Oi! I came close to real, bona fide air sickness! I think my seatmates were ever so happy that I kept my -er- equilibrium...not as relieved as I was, though! Yike. It makes me think I should take some chewable Gravol or something with me for the return journey, just in case.

Yesterday, in Colville, we went to a shop called EZ-knit...a huge repository of quilting fabric, books, magazines, beads, sewing machines and wool. I came across Noro sock yarn, in real life! Of course I had to buy 2 skeins...who can resist that kind of saturated colour? I bought some really wonderful knitting needles that I stashed in Spokane, and some really crummy ones that I thought I could risk having confiscated by the airline. I needn't have been worried, there were no issues at all with bringing my knitting on the plane. I listened to my book and knit on both flights and got a WHOLE LOT of sock knitting done! I'm almost done the leg on this honey and I started it late last night. This sock has sweet mock cables on it. And yummy Noro colour.


We're staying at the Hilton Garden here. The Hilton GARDEN because.....



TAA DAAA!









It has a baseball diamond! There was a big game just after I took this picture (you can see all the fellas out there grooming the field). The photo was taken from the window of our room. We're hoping to catch at least one ball game while we're here.

And did I mention the weather is glorious?

And tomorrow we're looking forward to lots and lots of good MQX vibes. I can hardly wait.

:)
Lisa

Gettin' ready to go

to MQX! Whoo hoo! This will be the second year that I go with Jodi Beamish of Willow Leaf Studio fame...look for us! Make sure to say hi!

For those who aren't going, I'll try to keep up the blog while we're there....

As for us now, today we drive to Spokane, tomorrow we fly.

Happy trails,

Lisa

Kitchen Joy

We are back from Spring Break, getting re-adjusted to the schedule that is our regular lives...

I'm back with this lovely thing that is making my life so much easier - a gift from my Mom-in-Law - a mandolin. Woah, what took me so long to figure this out? Why not sooner? Hunh? It certainly does let me make all those elaborate, chopping intensive things that I try to avoid...and fast. I'll just try not to take off the tips of any of my fingers...



Got a chance to start my new gift for my fella...shhhh...don't tell him, okay? The wool finally came, so I can get on with it.



We spent lovely holidays with both sides of the family and got tons of cousin/aunt/uncle/grandparents goodness in the bargain. Took our old, deaf dog with us to my parent's house after she was cared for by my sister (thanks again!) and that was interesting. We haven't tried to take her anywhere but camp (and even that not in the last couple of years), so it was new all over again with the hand signals she and I have negotiated between us. We were out in the Kootenay Lake area - a definite no-leash zone. It felt strange to be the only person walking with the dog on a leash, but with her stone-deafness, I couldn't call her if she decided to take off after an interesting smell, a deer, coyote, car or an emu(!).

A sweet local girl took care of our cats while we were gone, so today I got down to making her some sweet thank-you's.

Now, if you've been reading the blog for a while you'll know that I do a lot of whole food cooking, a lot of food from scratch. If you normally tune in for a bit of that foodie goodness....stop reading now! I made something truly decadent for our young friend and some to share with her little brother (maybe). Something that involved buying two (!) devil's food cake mixes. And cream cheese. And butter. And shortening.



It's enough to make any heart patient cringe, but lordy these are good.
They're Faux-reos...yes, Oreo cookies without the trip to the store. Both boys said that these blow the store-bought ones out of the water, and I have to say I agree.

It was a first time 'round with this recipe, and I'll be adding it to our once-a-year, diet-to-the-four-winds cook book.

I can't wait to inflict these on my book club friends.

If you think you can stand the sugar rush you can find the recipe here for the cookies, and here for the filling.

Yes, the amounts are right. There really is that much butter, sugar, shortening and cream cheese in this recipe. Please do yourself a favour and don't look at the nutritional information. It'll only make you sad.

The good news is that it made substantially more than I thought...85 cookies! We'll give away 3 dozen, and that leaves us with 49.
Oh, make that 48.

I mean 47?

Would you believe 44?

:)

Lisa

A little newsflash

We're going away for a couple of days. Happy Easter!

:)
L

Finished Rogue sweater!

I woke up this morning to this:

He asked to be the first to wear the sweater once it was done. Sweet, eh?

He took this photo of me a little later in the morning:






Happy stitching,
Lisa

Slow progress

I'd have posted some pics sooner, but Sally Stitch has been at school wearing vests for the Afghanistan project. I've got her back over spring break and was hoping to take advantage of the time and get my Rogue sweater together. Sadly, I've got most of one sleeve yet to do and don't know if I'll get it done before we go to Abbotsford later in the week.

I've been really happy with how it's going together, and love the fit! The only thing that I'm thinking I'll change is the hem. I did it differently than the pattern, and now am regretting not putting a turning ridge on it. I'll cut it and re-knit it once the whole works is done, I think. I put a turning ridge on the sleeves and the hems there behave much better.

This pattern is wonderfully written. The shaping is incorporated into the cabling at the sides beautifully. The main modifications I have made are in length...I wanted the body to be longer than the pattern, and my arms are much longer than the ones designed for the smallest size.

I haven't done a whole lot else these days aside from being sick, helping the boys while they were sick, and schoolwork for my new class. I submitted my first assignment last week - and will get it back tomorrow - I'm nailbiting a bit! It's been a really, really long time since last time I was graded on anything like this. Got my fingers crossed.

Hope all is well with you!

Happy St. Patrick's day,

Lisa

And just likethat....

I'm a student again.

And I'm sick.

Somehow, though, the weight of the textbook on my lap and the hot drink in my hand makes me feel like it's 20 years ago....trying to ground facts in my fuzzy brain. Are my crow's feet fading with this little trip back in time? Somehow I doubt it...

I'm doing a course toward a certificate program at a local college that will let me apply to work in the school system. Hopefully I'll get it done within the year allotted and not bore you all with it in the meantime. It's exciting, and a little scary...but I figure I'm learning things all the time, I just need to apply that same zeal and focus to the books.

The other night while I was reading Oldest said,"Mom?"
I said," hang on, wait 'til I finish this paragraph"
he said, "I liked it a lot better before you went back to school"

That made me laugh. I'd had my textbook precisely 2 hours by then. What a hoot, eh?

Here's the other thing I've been learning - or relearning, rather - Cables. These cables are different than any I've done before, as they're a little more Celtic in nature, and they don't all originate from some lower stitching. Some of these babies just start or end on the ground stitching without flowing into anything else...nifty, eh?

It's really a dry run for a sweater I want to make for DH. He doesn't know yet, so keep it quiet, okay? I'm waiting for the yarn to arrive....



Happy stitching,

Lisa

The news is out....

This is the class and teacher that I've been privileged to work with since the Christmas break - and look! We're in the newspaper! As the students' final project, they'll each be knitting a vest for a needy child in Afghanistan. Our teacher has put out a call to the community to match us, vest for vest, or at least to join in the fun by donating some wool or money to buy wool. The paper came out this morning and we've already got 18 community members signed up to help by knitting, and several skeins of yarn have already popped up in community drop boxes that have been placed around town.

Exciting stuff!

I first read about this charity while reading Debra's blog last fall...and had it in the back of my mind, thinking it would be a great one to contribute to. Our classroom teacher thought it was a great idea, and it ties into other parts of the class curriculum around citizenship, global issues and other things. I'm so excited to be part of this project! Normally our family tend to volunteer for things closer to home (Christmas boxes, charity quilts, local fund raising). I think this will be the first really large contribution to an international charity that I've been part of, and it's so exciting. I'm glad that these kids will have the chance to participate in making a difference. What a great experience for them at this young age.

More to report soon on life, the universe, and everything....

Lisa

Cora, finally done

I finshed it last night, got the binding on and everything.

This is by far the largest quilt I've made for us! I've made larger ones for customers (some with the piecing and all - the largest one that springs to mind was one for a lady in Germany a few years ago, a huge red and white lone star about 100 X 120").

This quilt finished 97" square after the quilting. It did 'take up' a little, but it's quilted pretty heavily. I keep going in and petting it.


Here's a little shot of it right after trimming, before the binding went on...





Yummy texture, eh? Gotta love cotton batting. It's going to be wonderfully rumply after it's washed.







And a little shot here of the top edge of the quilt after binding:









Don't bright colours just make you happy?






And a little arty oblique shot, just 'cause I can't help myself.






Happy stitching,

Lisa

Youngest makes Raviolini

Guess what we had for supper?

:)
L

The things that make a girl happy....

You know you've irrevocably crossed the line into adulthood when household appliances can make you giddy with joy.

If you've been reading for a while, then you know that I do quite a bit of 'scratch' cooking. I make the majority of our bread, granola and baked goods...we try to eat a very natural, mostly whole foods diet - and I love cooking.

One of the things that I'd moved away from in recent years and am just now re-discovering is how much we all love homemade pasta. A LOOOONG time ago I bought a Marcato pasta rolling machine. It came with cutters for both spaghettini and linguine. I always wanted a ravioli attachment, but never could see myself affording one. I made our spaghetti, our linguine, our lasagna noodles - all manner of flat noodles (even won ton and egg roll wrappers) with my trusty Marcato.
Recently I found myself looking online researching vegetable cutting mandolins. I've been wanting one for a while (my Mom in Law uses one religiously, and I think it would be a good solution to our 'never a sharp knife' problem) when I ran across ads for my old Marcato! Not old, mind you, but current! It would seem they are still making this wonderful tool, and all the attachments. I came across the ravioli and raviolini cutters and thought -" jeez, I'm a grown up - I can have a raviolini cutter - what am I actually waiting for?"

Well, I didn't buy a mandolin. Yet. But my raviolini attachment arrived today....

and I almost kissed the delivery guy! I can't believe how excited I am to have this gadget! Since I ordered it I've been brainstorming ideas for fillings, looking up ones in old cookbooks and hoping that a couple recipes would be included. There are two - but honestly, the manual is in at least 6 languages...2 pages per language, - two recipes is plenty from there.

And here it is, on my trusty Marcato.

I can hardly wait to start some pasta dough, clamp this honey to the counter and give it a crank.

I've already got the spinach thawing upstairs for spinach/ricotta filling....


Oh, it is the little things in life, isn't it?

:)

Lisa

for the love of squares

That just might end up being the new title for this quilt. It's all about squares. Squares next to squares, squares within squares, square borders...

Yep. This is becomeing my ode to squares.


And if you ever wondered what I use for marking - - for the most part, just good 'ol chalkboard chalk. It goes on easy, shows on most fabrics, brushes off with the lint brush. If I'm feeling picky and need some VERY precise markings, I sharpen it with a pencil sharpener. It dulls quickly, but that's okay. Mostly it's only needed for basic guidelines, anyway.

Hope your days are full of colour,

Lisa