Welcome home

So after I went to the grocery store on Friday, I made it home just in time to see the UPS man in the back of our housing development. OOoooooo, could it be! It was he was there with my wheel just as I unpacked the groceries.
Hub packed it into the house for me while I spent a little time with a friendly puppy who had a bit of a jail break. Groceries, lunch and then my spinning lesson from Woven-Spun. She showed me some of the little ins and outs of spinning. After that I went home to attach the treadles and get started.
I've been spinning a few hours everyday just to get the timing right and the magic pinch, release, give pattern. We're working on it. Right now it's more predrafting then spinning but that's okay with me.
Still no name for the wheel it's self or the ladybug.

It has been done

Hub gave me a lovely gift, the chance to buy my Wheel. I had said that I really never wanted to learn to spin, that I didn't need another hobby that needed me to sit on my butt. I was never thrilled with the way most wheels looked, the darn Alpaca looking at me on some, the total lack of anything on others. I knew if I ever spun I wanted a double treadle, and something slightly portable since we move every two years (either state or house) like clockwork. While at the Dickson Fiber Fair I saw it, THE WHEEL (insert angels and lights here), but then I fell on my face when I saw the price. $925! Ugh. But a Schacht Wheel, with all it's lovely wood work, and art deco appeal, the way the wood aged and the the way the treadles worked! I was smitten. I couldn't even use a drop spindle, how would I have get a Matchless. Not long after I went head over heels for the Matchless Schacht introduced the LadyBug, and my heart leapt again! *SQUEEEEEE* It was affordable, for any wheel, painfully cute, and well just want I wanted. Thing was I was working full time, and drive roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes round trip daily. Which left me NO time to spin, and barely enough knitting time. Fast forward a year or two, new town, no job until January (adjunct at the college to teach lab) and some new friends who spin and weave. What's a girl to do? After an evening breakdown that focused on "I didn't get to BS's to wash dishes and make house" Hub looked at me and said "well do something you've always wanted to do but didn't have the time, so get your wheel." After a wee bit of hemmming and haaaaaaing, and me trying to make excuses in my head for why I didn't REALLY need it I broke down and ordered the thing.
No idea when she'll be here but Friday is my first spin lesson!

Wrap

PATTERN: Strangling Vine
YARN: Fiber Denn Sport Weight 1 large-ass Skein
NEEDLES: Knit Picks Options US6
SIZE: about 63", so me sized
Before being Blocked
I loved this yarn and this pattern, which was super easy to remember and the pattern was easy to modify, I added a few repeats to make it more wrap than scarf. It was a lot of yarn.
I bought this yarn some time ago, when I can't quite remember. I do remember that I was going to split the yarn and share with a friend who purchases the more purple of the two. It would have made a great chevron scarf. Well it never happened and I needed to knit some lace!

Every Thing Off the Needles

I've been using my excess of time to get things, everything, off the needles. My rule about only three things on the needles was blown out of the water sometime along the time when I started knitting some gifts and teaching toe up socks to the lunch bunch at the BVC. Soooooo, I've frogged the dish cloth because I couldn't remember what row I was on, I finished the Strangling Vine Scarf and blocked it (pictures to follow), the black shrug is super close to being done, the Hew shrug is giving me fits and killing my arm, pink socks need binding off, teal socks need a toe sewn up. I still have a stormy sea sock to make and most of the Potato chip scarf to finish. I'm kinda running on empty though. I REALLY WANT TO CAST ON FOR A NEW PROJECT. But what? The Lady February Sweater just in time for winter, the Chevron Scarf with two beautiful skeins of alpaca bought last year at the Dickson Fiber Fair. I just can't do it, I MUST FINISH!!!!! I must finish what I have on the needles before I can start anything new.
I'll post pictures soon!

Just What I Don't Need

I don't need another bag, I have tons and tons of them. It doesn't stop me from making more of them though...
Once again another project from the Sew Everything Workshop, which is a great step by step book to learn from.





Don't forget to check out the new earrings at The Good Bird

Round and Round

Sooooo a long while back Tracie and I from my old job back in my old city, back in my old life (I do miss it but only because I was comfortable and happish there, but this, this new start in a sorta new place is a means to an end. That end is Seattle) started the Circle Shrug from the lovely Glampyre knits which Lion Brand featured for free. We love free, and we love shrugs. While I'm not thrilled with the way the pattern is written and it's lack of measurements in important places (ehhhh TATAs) I will wear it and it is soft and comfy.

Side effects

So one of the side effects of chronic unemployment is that I have lots time. Loads and loads of time. I've been getting stuff done, lots and lots of stuff done. Besides lots of earrings for Etsy
I finally got around to finishing some projects that have been floating around my knitting bag. For starters I picked up the stitches for the button band on the basic black cardi, not as hard has I had thought it would be.
I'm going to block the whole thing again because it's a little dumpy, I made the sweater to fit the tatas but forgot that I have to arms and shoulders of someone much smaller.

I've also been working away on my strangling vine wrap. I want to use up all the yarn but it just seems to keep going and going.

Eye Candy Friday

Helper Bird

Frankie has always been know as "an up in your stuff" budgie, and he's always helping people out....


I caught him doing Hub's CFA homework, I knew he had a head for numbers but too bad he's only got seed for investing.

Great big move...

So the great big move is all done, still haven't changed some addresses but mostly all moved. Still unemployed, which is a major crapper. A few pictures of the new house...

Living Room

Kitchen

The house

I've also did something I've been meaning to do forever... ETSY PAGE!!!!!!!!
The Good Bird is up and running.
Please go check it out there will be lots more promise!

It's on

We hit the road at around 10:30 this morning. One Mini Cooper packed to the gills, a Jeep stuffed with Booze and TV's and a Huge Yellow Penske truck pulling a huge red car. One Parakeet, four people and a spare roll of TP rolled into the city of Van Buren AR at about 7:30pm with all kinds of road buzz. Tomorrow morning we will cross over into Oklahoma and officially move into our neato house. See you there!

Moving

So Lawton, OK is home to Field Artillery and now home to the Army's ADA (air defense artillery) which means that the homes they had for FA now has to make do for two sets of people. We lived on post the last time, in a hotel room. Now we're getting a real house and living like normal(ish) people. Because of the house crunch they've been jacking up the housing cost, someone wanted to rent this house for $1200 a month....




We just kept looking. We did find a place but the last renter left the place a little sad so I didn't take any pictures at the rental lady's request. Time line is as follows.... Movers on monday to pack, Movers to move on tuesday, Wednesday last day of being with the 101st (sooooo long), thursday pick up and fill the uhaul and car trailer then pick up the parents, friday get up at the ass crack of dawn to leave for the first half of the trip, saturday second half of the trip and arrive in Lawton.

Just Noms

The Great Big Quiche of DOOOOOM, 6 eggs, two sticks of butter, 1 pound of bacon, two onions
It was beyond good.............


Chocolate Banana Bread, the recipe needs some work it turned out a little dry, but I've got Banana's and some sour cream and lots of time...

Finally, the Spring Onion Corn Bread! Normal Betty Crocker Corn bread with whole corn nibblets and spring onions, brushed with butter!

Back by popular demand

A few facebookers have requested the London photos sooooo here they are.....

LONDON

Birthday wishes

You know how some friends are "buy stuff" present people. The kind of people who know just what they want and it's just better to buy that one thing for them, but you also have "make stuff" present people. I have one of these friends.
She loves the ocean, which was my inspiration for these. I picked all the beads that reminded me of seaglass.

I searched for a good owl pattern but never found one so I just made this little guy up. I call him Hooty. I promise that a recipe for him will make it to this page someday and for his bat stunt double. She also got a nice hand made draw string bag. It was a little preview of things to come on my Etsy site when I get it up.

Claire-cation Day One

Today was the first blissful day of my three day Claire-cation. I've been sleeping in (6 am!) Grocery shopping in the middle of the day! and making yummy foods, chocolate banana bread. I have lots of plans not all of them will happen. The most important thing that I'm going to get to this week is making THE quiche from St. Thomas Keller's Bouchon cook book. I know that better cooks than I have tried and failed but I am confident that I can make something passable and at least yummy.
Not only do I have a pound of butter with my name on it but I also have some lovely fabric to play with.

Dry Those Clothes, Damnit

So I was watching Sunday Morning, as we always do and they had a short segment about a nice lady in Oregon who was drying her clothes outside in the FREE sunshine. Well her super bitch neighbor driving her SUV, wearing a big fat diamond Channel Necklace and a pair of super expensive bug sunglasses was interviewed about how ugly it was and how it was against the rules blah blah blah, and as she pursed her old wrinkled lips to bad month her neighbor some more it came to me! Go outside and dry you clothes today and every day! It's free!

Spinach Phyllo Pie with Turkey

A while back I came across a recipe what just needed something, but was too yummy looking to pass up.
Adapted from Everyday Food
Spinach and Turkey Phyllo Pie

• Olive Oil
• 1 medium onion
• 3 large garlic cloves
• 1 package baby spinach
• 1 cup crumbled feta
• 1/4 dried dates
• 16 oz ground turkey or chicken
• 20 sheets frozen phyllo, thawed
• salt and pepper

Heat oil over medium heat, and cook onion until soft and then add ground turkey. Cook until slightly brown. Transfer to a large bowl.
Return pan to heat and working in batches if need be cook spinach until wilted about 1 minute. Press out the excess moisture and then roughly chop. Add the spinach to the turkey. Add the feta and dates to the bowl, then salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Unroll the thawed phyllo, working one sheet at a time, brush with olive oil and lay another sheet down. Repeat until you have 10 sheets. Spread half the mixture down the center and roll into a log. Brush the seem with oil to seal. Use a sharp small knive diagonally cut across the top.
Repeat with the remaining filling.
Place both logs seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Baked until golden brown, about 45 to 50 minutes. Serve warm or at room temp.

London Part II

Yes I know, I've been a little slow on getting this second post up but I've had lots going on and just haven't thought much about it.

On Sunday, we got up at our usual half awake what-time is it here and what time is it there. Hit the Pret for our now favorite breakie. We did lots more walking on Sunday. Remember that all the museums are free, so we popped into the National Gallery to see a few of the more important item there. Another place that will make your head spin from all the amazing art and the amazing amount of it. So we headed out to St. Paul's by taxis after walking around by Parliament again and snapping some pictures of the Household Guard. Those boots are not made for walking.

We walked along the water front until we reached the Tower and the Tower Bridge offering me a chance to take some nice pictures. But most of them are very underexposed.

The people watching at the Tower was fantastic, including a large group of overly skinny girls wear nasty street walker shoes and nearly falling on their butts. So we moved on to the next thing. It was getting to be lunch time so we walked over to St. Katherine's Dock. On a little "island" in the middle of the dock we had a great meal and watched the boats go in and out. A touch sun burned and very full we went a walking again.

As soon as we could find a cab, which was kinda hard since this end of the Thames is very residential, we went out to Greenwich Park and the Prime Meridian. I did fall asleep in the cab, which was hard to avoid. It was a great toasty warm day, I was full and it was a long ride. Hub and I climbed all the way to the top of the hill, which wasn't as bad as it looked. A huge line was waiting to take their picture with a line in the brick. I just snapped a few pics at the end of the meridian. Despite the large number of people we walked through the observatory. It was amazingly well preserved. By now, we've gotten a little hot and sticky so we stopped at the best little I can't believe this is in the park kind of a place, The Honest Sausage. They serve yummy sandwiches and more importantly ICE CREAM! Two ice cream cones and two waters.
After we headed down off the hill we want to find the farmers market that we had passed when we drove it, but it was just too hot and there were just too many people, so we called it quits.
Once back to the hotel we napped a little and got ready for our last night in London. Just a few more stops. Refreshed we made the short walk to the palace again, and across Green Park, which lead us to Picadilly Circus. WOW, the people watching was fantastic! So by now it was dinner time and we wanted something a little different. Now if you want to go to TGI McFunster's this is the place to find one. I did not fly 9 hours to eat at a restaurant that I can eat at in Nashville, so to the Alley! A little Japanese Restaurant caught our eye, called Akasiro. The dinning room was super tiny but the food was great, it came up from the down stairs kitchen on a little elevator. As with every restaurant we dinned at in London, something was just a little off about this place and it was the music.
After dinner, we walked down through Reagents and Pall Mall and through St. James Park.

Good Bye London!
We left Monday morning, getting to the Airport almost 3 hours early to avoid any problems. We enjoyed a great Airport Breakie at a pud and then spent the next 9.5 hours on a plane. Once in Atlanta we collected our bags and rechecked as is the process, and then flew home to Nashville. We'll be back!

London Part I

As many of you know Hub and I went to London for a long weekend a little while back. I have been avoiding it but here goes.

We left late on Thursday for Atlanta and then at about 10pm for London. It was like the first night of summer camp on the plane. Everyone was making friends and getting comfy. They gave us all blankets and eye masks. They even fed us a normal, and darn good dinner for free! Lots of sleeping and trying to find a place that didn't make my back hurt but we got there. We picked up a cab into the city and took a nice long nap before dressing up and going to the concert.

The Concert which was held at The Royal Albert Hall, was freaking fantastic. It wasn't too long, but had encore. Lots of lights and good solos. He had his usual backup singers and keyboard player. He played Cocaine and Badge plus lots of other great stuff. An amazing range of people there too. We had dinner from a take-away truck in the park which proved to be quite tasty. I have no pictures because they said no cameras but everyone was taking them. We walked part way home and took a cab. We fell into bed, which mind you was two beds. Yes, in a rush to get us checked in they gave us a room with two fulls and not a king like we asked for, so we pushed the two beds together. It was the first of many laughs.

The next morning we struggled to wake up but we wanted to get going before it was too late in day and we headed straight for the Pret. Pret A Manger is like the Starbucks of London, except 10 times more cool. They don't just serve coffee, they mainly serve wonderful fresh made sammies and what nots. It's hard to explain, go to the website. It's all fresh and made from fresh things and the coffee is beyond 4 dollar frappie thing that the 'bucks could ever make. From there we strolled to down to Buckingham Palace. There we learned how stupid most American's really are. A group of silly, stupid, fat, and overly tan ASU girls jabbered like morons in that OH MY GOD voice while we waited for the changing of the gaurd.

If you aren't of a certain hight then kiss off the changing of the gaurd since you aren't going to see a bloody thing.

We moved on as soon as we could, and caught a cab to the British Museum. Neither one of us was fully prepaired for what we were in for. We could have stayed at the museum for the whole trip and still not have seen everything or read everything. The impressive collection was just too much for us and we had to move on. It was just past lunch and so after walking up and down the streets we settled on an Italian place that looked promising and we were not disappointed.

From there we took a cab to over to the other side of river to check out the EYE, but when we got there the line was huge! And the thought of being stuck in a pod with a possibly stinking, non-DO wearer was more than we could handle so we moved on. The next stop was a walk to iKnit, which was surprisingly just around the cornor. I picked up some yarn, which wasn't from England, why didn't have any. Can't say the guy running the place was a real talker or that the place was very large, but it was cool.

Mind you we're walking, and walking and walking. So we walk to the next stop. The Imperial War Museum. We stayed until closing time. It was also way more museum than either one of us could have handled. We stopped for drinks and then trucked back across the river stopping to snap some shots of Big Ben and Parliament. More walking and a pub dinner. I was not thrilled with my fish and chips, but the blind date at the table next to us had great conversations! Off we went, walking back to the hotel and bedtime.

To be continued.......

*Visit the Picture Gallery*

Green weekend

Clarksville stepped up this weekend and opened a real Farmers Market. Not a lot of veg yet but the city is working on it. I was happy to see a few grain fed beef vendors with sign ups, a few organic growers and some crafts. Without any veg to buy I picked up some nice plants from Nancy's Herb Garden.


My tomatoes are also doing a nice job of doing what they do best.

So on thursday we drove out to nowhere for a hail and farewell, when I asked Hub where we we're going for this dinner he answered "a Quonset Hut in the middle of nowhere. I laughed. No really folks it was a quonset hut in the middle of nowhere decorated with a ton of 101st stuff. I have no pictures, but we had no bars on our phones.

I've been knitting too, a co-worker and I are knitting a shrug together. We've picked the Textured Circle Shrug from Glam Knits.
I'm using UltraAlpaca which is one of my fav yarns. We're working our way through, and I'll keep you up to date.

Welcome

Hey, Welcome to the new and improved blog. New name and such. Yes there will be still be knitting but lots more of lots more things. I just don't knit as much as I used to and I have lots of other fun stuff I do.