Perfect Day!

Ah, what a lovely day! Best friend picked me up for a birthday lunch out of town. Yea! Road trip!! Ok, so it was only 40 minutes away, it was in a darling little town. The Blue Willow Inn is a beautiful Greek revival mansion that serves REAL southern food buffet style. Man, the food was amazing. Fried chicken that would bring tears to your eyes. And the dessert table was groaning with cakes and pies! Perfect day! Oh, and the gift shop was packed! I bought this darling teapot. You can never have too many teapots or tea accessories!

Oh, and DD sent a picture of the grocery bag bag.

Tonight is game night so after dinner we will pull out the UNO and ROOK cards. Hard to knit and play cards, but I’m a brave woman. I am 50 after all. That means fearless and brave! (Within reason!) Popcorn and mocha latte’s are our specialty! I figure if you can eat and play cards, you can knit and play cards. Maybe not socks on 4 needles, but my Mists of Avalon scarf should be the perfect piece.

Speaking of knitting and tea, I am noodleing in my noggin a set consisting of a multicolored tea cosie, tea bib, lacy coasters for saucers and a heart shaped trivet for the table. All in crochet thread size 10 maybe. I like the bright multicolored over white because tea stains. And I use my tea stuff whether it will be stained or not. An antique appraiser once told me to use my antiques and enjoy them. So, I do! I’ll strike out on that adventure this week. I have some bright multi that is perfect for spring.

And now – to cook!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Well, we lost internet half way through our trip. I guess the point of being in the mountains is to disconnect from the “real” world any way!

We are back and my DH and kids gave me a surprise birthday dinner on our return. Monday was my Fabulos Fiftith Birthday! Yea me! I have had a terrific fifty years on planet earth. Now for the next fifty!

I finished the grocery bag bag. I gave it to DD in college without getting a picture of it. I’ll have her email me a photo and post it later. I was inspired with the whole “plastic” crocheting and spent an lovely evening at Home Depot looking for something wierd to work with. I bought a large reel of Caution Tape and have begun a yellow bag for DD at home. We call it the “Police Tape” bag! It is much harder to work with. The grocery bags were slippery and the tape is not. I am using the largest hook I have which is a Q. I have one third of it done and had to stop because my arm was hurting!

This all reminded me of a piece of knitting I was asked to do for a play at Emory University. The queen in the play was to be seated and knitting chainmail. Well, of course I would take the challenge! To Home Depot! What a sight I was, standing in the store with huge needles and making swatches from the rolls of chain. I found the perfect size and knit up a piece that she would knit on each night. I don’t recommend knitting with chains. Very hard on the hands and arms. I also can tell you from experience that knitting with sisel rope bites also! Here is a shot of the chain.

Tonight I teach (voice lessons) and then I’m going to work on my llama scarf for the Mists of Avalon knit-a-long. I had better get on the ball and read some of it tonight, too. I wish I could read and knit at the same time. I guess that is what books on tape are for!

Mountain internet!

Yes, we can pick up some lovely neighbor’s wireless internet here at the cabin! Yea! I do love technology. So, we had a very laid back trip up here. It seemed that eveywhere we went, the people were in no hurry to go about their business. We waited 45 min. at Cracker Barrel for eggs. We waited for what seemed an eternity at Walmart to just have our food scanned. Those beeps were far and few between in the entire joint! So, we decided it was the journey, not the end that we needed to enjoy. That’s what we told ourselves, anyway.

So, we are settled in. Ivey and I have played with our tarot cards, watched a movie on the computer, gone for walks, and sketched some of my birds. I did start and almost finish a toe-up sock. I also made a teapot bib out of multi-colored crochet thread. I have some in white, but the tea stains them. The multi colored one will just age nicely. And then today I started a bag knitted out of strips of grocery bags. It will take a couple of days. I can’t do it at home because of our insane cats that are addicted to chewing plastic. So, check out the pictures.

Soon, I hope to master this blog program so I can post patterns.

Short Hand

Ok,

DD = darling daughter
DH = darling husband
DS = darling son

I’m sure you get the idea!

Yarn stash Saturday

Spent the day on Sat. pulling out all of my UFO’s and deciding what to finish and what to toss back into the vortex of my closet. Then, being a typical knitter, I promptly went out and bought yarn for a pair of toe-up socks and lace socks that I will tie-dye when I am done. I do feel smug because I finished a black lace shawl that had been in the making for 3 or 4 years. I need only block it and it can live, unused, in my drawer with all of the other lace shawls I have made. I love making them, but rarely wear them. Go figure. I also knit up a wierd little slipper in the wrong weight yarn. I knew it would be too big as I was knitting, but I didn’t care. I was watching my favorite Brit sit-com “Coupling” and knitting up a storm. I later unraveled and returned yarn to stash container in basement. It would be a cute little slipper made in worsted. Kind of a mary-jane look. I’ll post the pattern later.

We are off to the mountains this week. If the laptop works, I’ll up date the knitting frenzy.

Ciao!

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Dish cloth heaven

Corny as it sounds, I do like knitting dishcloths. They are fast and you can experiment with colors and patterns that you wouldn’t do on a full size project. Here are a couple of finished products. The green and yellow is a gift that I am bundleing with a straight garter stitch dishcloth in the remains of the balls of yarn. So it’s not lace or fairisle, at least I can swipe a countertop with them!

Valentine card for DD

Here is the altered playing card I made. I love altered art and this was fun to do for my DD.

Red velvet cake

Here is my first attempt at a southern classic. It is an easy recipe. Not quick, but easy.

The recipe is on the side bar. Too good!!!

Valentine stuff

Well, yes, I’m a day behind. But yesterdays valentine’s dinner took most of the day. I am also fighting a cold so please be kind.

I have been going to this great place called A Dinner A’Fare to prepare meals in advance. I love this place! Twelve meals for a great price and they are not casseroles. Last night was the Italian Braciole Stuffed flank Steak. Beautiful flank steak with prosciutto, parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Rolled tight and cooked in a red wine broth. Served with mashed potatoes, green beans and salad. Wonderful! But the work of the day was a red velvet cake. I have never tried one before and thought “what the heck”. It was beautiful and delicious! (If only my new battery for my camera would come, I’d show off!) Then the husband, and daughter and I sat before a fire and watched a Mystery Science Theater movie. Ah, and they say romance is dead!

And so today, daughter is doing algebra, husband is helping and I am planning our week in the mountains. I always like to complete some project when we go somewhere, and so I am scratching my head as to what that could be. I am curious to make a market bag from plastic grocery bags. Crochet and quick. The prep work takes longer than the item itself. I want to make a rug, but our insane cats are allergic to plastic and would kill themselves licking and chewing the rug! I figure a bag could be hidden from feline eyes. As soon as I can take pictures, I’ll post the process and pattern. It takes 50 or more bags, but a couple of trips to Wallmart and your’e good to go.

I’m also thinking about joining a knit-a-long that will be reading The Mists of Avalon and then creating a knitted or crochet piece that is inspired by the book. I have read the book but was thinking of rereading it. I have some beautiful moss green llama wool and could rework a leaf motif for a scarf. I gave away my book, so today will be about finding a new copy. I like the idea of a book club and knitting circle rolled into one. I would LOVE to find a book club that reads cook books and then meets to discuss the book over a meal created from that book. Maybe I’ll start one.

Must scoot!