A new treat

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

I read and subscribe to various blogs. Some are about knitting and some are not. Kate Davies’ blog, “needled,” is one knitting blog I read regularly. I have a link to it on the right side of the screen. I truly admire her.

She recently published a pattern that I fell in love with instantly.

The Sheep Carousel tea cozy.

I’ve only purchased one kit previously and I decided to treat myself to another one. It’s sent, I mean dispatched, from Jamison & Smith. I usually wrap a tea towel around my teapot to keep it warm but once finished my teapot will be very fashionable and warm in Jamison & Smith 100% Shetland wool.

I ordered it on July 7 and it was dispatched from the UK on the 9th. It was waiting for me when I got home from work today.

The contents:

The pattern (a bit wrinkled and crinkled):

A close-up of the project bag (squee!!)*:

The back of the booklet:

A couple of the techniques are a bit daunting for me. I’ve done stranded colorwork, corrugated ribbing (semi-successfully), i-cords and centered double decreases. Steeks scare me. A lot. What? Cut my knitting? Are you nuts?!? Vikkel braids look so interesting.

There is enough yarn to make two tea cozies. My teapot can have two outfits: one with moorit (brown) sheep and one with white sheep.

I only hope I do this pattern, yarn and designer justice.

* Did I just type “Squee”??

Things I ponder

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

The electricity went out in our area around 4:15 this morning thus knocking out my alarm clock. It eventually came back on but I didn’t wake up until 6:15 a.m. I need to be out of the house by 6:30. Needless to say I was late for work.

In my haste to get ready and not be too late, I forgot to pack something for breakfast that I planned to eat once I got to work. I usually have cereal bars or something like that stashed away in my desk but I ate the last one yesterday morning.

What to do? So I ventured to the vending machines to see what deliciousness was available. We have been in this building for three and a half years and this was the first time I actually bought anything from the vending machines. A 76 gram carbohydrate and 420 calorie cinnamon roll was calling me.

So when you eat a cinnamon roll, do you just dig in and eat it or do you uncurl it while you eat? Just one of the many things I ponder.

Ruby’s nest

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

At the end of May we discovered a hummingbird nest right above our deck. It belongs to a Ruby-throated hummingbird so we named her Ruby. Not too original, I suppose.

We didn’t see a lot of activity with the nest until a few days ago when I snapped these pictures.

Two babies. Do you see their tiny beaks?

I don’t know how much longer they will be around as they appear almost adult-size to me, though I’m no hummingbird expert.

We had a terrific line of storms come through Friday night with a lot of downed trees and power outages in our area. Ruby is still here.

God Bless America

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

Tank top part 2

On Saturday morning the twins and I decorated another tank top. With America’s birthday just around the corner I thought we would do a patriotic themed tank top.

Materials we used:

Tank tops, cardboard, painters tape, textile medium, acrylic paint, Stained by Sharpie markers, old toothbrushes, tongue depressor (not shown), alphabet stamps and star stamps.

I inserted the large piece of cardboard inside the tank top so the ink/paint would not bleed through to the back. Using the Stained Sharpie marker as the ink, I stamped God Bless America near the front neckline of the tank top.

I taped the edges and made stripes using the painter’s tape to keep the white parts white. I also taped off the area for the stars.

We tried to splatter the paint on the tank tops but the technique just wasn’t fast enough for 3-year olds. So they took matters into their own hands and “painted” with the tooth brushes.