Spring in the Tundra

yay. I am so excited. I love the images of spring.. Especially flooding rivers. You can sense my irony here obviously. We are high and dry, but the river does run through my town, and some aren't so lucky. I can only hope it stops rising soon.

This is a road to a neighboring town Or was.

The river is more than twice it's normal size.

So, we'll focus on more spring colors in roving. A couple of these came while I was distracted with Kenny, so I hadn't focused on them, but they are so pretty!!!

Neptune is testing some Merino Primrose for it's sturdiness. This is my March fiber from Fondle This!

Who me? I'd never shred roving. Nope. Wrong cat.

Sorry, but he's cute. He sees the camera and the fiber and does this. Can I get an awwwww

Knittyandcolor batt. My welcome spring gift to myself!

Because I HAD TO HAVE THIS! Falkland fiber in Fresh Cut from knittyandcolor.

March Painted Tiger fiber club - Romney in a beautiful blues, greens and browns.

These are my 3 go-to fiber people, and I think you can see why. If knittyandcolor ever did a fiber club I'd be the first to sign up. Just love them all so much!

Thriller Night!

In October I received yarn for The Painted Tiger fiber club, and I fell in love with. I ordered a bit more, and have been knitting it up. My mom took over some and made this incredibly cute Godric's Hollow hat. It's still damp from blocking in this picture but is warm, and so cute! We made it a bit bigger than the original pattern called for, and on an adult head the poofiness is just right! I still have one fingerless mitt to do, but I decided since it's Michael Jackson yarn, one glove would suffice for pictures. Besides, I had a model here today!

Fire And Ice

Once thing I love about spinning is being able to switch from project to project randomly and just as I'd like to. An average skein of yarn, takes me around 3 hours start to finish, so I can get one done in an evening, or at least a few a week. And that lets me switch from color to color to color all the time.

Thriller BFL - Destined to be a hat October TPT Club

Temperature Flux Corriedale X November TPT club

Here are the 2 I finished this week. Both Club fibers from The Painted Tiger, but one is all fire and one is ice. I can't decide which one I like better...

I love this hat!

Last night, I looked around and realized that everyone had handknits on as well. My mom was sporting a 100% alpaca hat she'd crocheted, along with the drop stitch scarf I'd done the other week, and fingerless mitts. Kevin had on a handknit hat out of wool. Cory had on a handknit hat out of llama, and Devin one out of Merino. I had on fingerless mitts, and another drop stitch scarf. It was fun to see them all in use, though personally I'd be fine with them all being stored while we walked on a warm sandy beach too..

The Painted Tiger

I get several fiber clubs. Some with knitting patterns, some without. In my crazy day that was October, I didn't get a lot of spinning done (understatement), especially the last couple weeks. But I got 2 of my fiber clubs from The Painted Tiger partially spun.

This one is from September, isn't it gorgeous? Love the fall type colors.

And then there is October. Sometimes fiber clubs surprise you. This one, I fell head over heels in love with, though I probably would never have purchased it myself.

Neptune is also obsessed with my fiber from TPT. Why? I think it's the name. Neptune always helps me to unpack boxes but when TPT comes he rolls in the fiber, and takes it over kneading it into a batt for me. He and I have come to the agreement he can play with it, and lay in it unless it's what I'm spinning. Anyway, here is Thriller!! I still miss Michael Jackson every day, but this brought a smile to my face - and to Neptune's!

We may have to come to some sort of agreement about TPT yarn too...

Dear Martha and Julia

Dear Julia, can you please tell me your secret to following an 18 step recipe for stew? I always start, and end up with some delicious yet definitely not Beef bourguignon, especially when the stupid liquor store closes before 11:00 on a Saturday, and when in Minnesota they don't sell wine in grocery stores. Maybe you lacked these problems? Or maybe you had more time to shop? In any case, I hope you don't mind my crockpot stew, it's kind of the same thing. But really not.

I like my stew with broth, you can add less liquid for a thicker stew

Recipe is easy:
1 package mushrooms brown mushrooms.
1 package baby carrots
5 parsnips
5 yukon gold potatoes
1 package celery
1 medium yellow onion.
1 pound stew meat
Enough stock to cover (personally I use chicken stock)
sprigs of fresh thyme
garlic
dash of worchestershire sauce

1. Pat stew meat dry and toss stew meat in flour using a plastic bag, (preferably one without holes, unless you want to a
2. Drizzle olive oil and add some butter to a pan and heat. gently saute mushrooms and dump into crockpot.
3. ctually look like you were cooking. 
4. Coarsely chop an onion and saute both the onion and meat in the pan.
5. While that's browning, dice the celery and parsnips into the same size (approximately) as the baby carrots. Slice potatoes in half and then into 1/2" pieces. 
6. Add all veggies to the crock pot. 
7. Add the meat and onions, mix gently, add garlic (a good tablespoon - I love garlic!) and thyme to the mix.
8. Add enough broth to cover. 
9. Cook for 5 hours on high, or 9-10 on low. It's done once the potatoes are cooked, and can be speared with a fork. Enjoy with bread.

Dang, that's still 9 steps. If you want it to taste better, or more authentic, add red wine to the browning meat. I use a good burgundy. But it's good this way too.
 
Now, ahem, Martha, I know you do crafts, how do you clean your house at the same time? And how do you keep your cats from destroying everything? Furthermore, I have a large glass jar of sand. What should I do with this? I am thinking of having the kids decorate it with shells, but maybe that's too blase' Any suggestions?

You would be proud though, that I managed to finish 4 yarns today, 2, start to finish, the others plied.

Left to right:

120 yards of Navajo plied Taste The Rainbow (from the Painted Tiger)

380 yards of super soft 2 ply Haught Pink (knittyandcolor)

125 yards Navajo ply Hydrangea (The Painted Tiger)

200 yards Navajo ply Vineyard (Louet Northern Lights roving)

I totally, completely screwed up Hydrangea, I had the tension set too high and it just wacked out the finished yarn. So N-plying wasn't the best idea, in retrospect, I should have just plied it. But it's done, and it's pretty, just not perfect. It'll still make a nice something someday. I still have a lot of that to spin, and the same with the rainbow. That was originally supposed to be spun back on itself but someone (Neptune) shredded the roving and I ended up N-plying instead. Maybe the Painted Tiger puts catnip in the color. Or else he was inspired by the name.

And I love the pink, and the rainbow. Anyone else? I have no idea what I'll do with them but I LOVE THEM!

Rainbow Bright!

Love's Labor's Lost..

Or the lost Labor Day weekend.

I love Labor day, doesn't it always bring back memories of school starting, new opportunities, and seasons changing. School may have sucked, but the first few weeks were always fun. Kind of like New Years, but not. It brings to mind the State Fair, greasy food, cool mornings and the promise of frost.

All of that was before I moved to Minnesota. Minnesota Labor Day brings to mind cold blizzards, and the knowledge that in a few short weeks we won't see grass or any color other than white and shades of gray for weeks at a time. Months I tell you!

All of which is immaterial this year, because I worked every day of Labor day. Yup. Took it literal this year, so I worked 2, 10+ hour days, and one 2 hour day. And yes that last still counts. Unless I am absent from my work for 24 hours, I did not get a real day off.

Goodbye summer, goodbye State Fair

So in protest to the end of summer, my lack of a Holiday weekend, and having to squeeze in the State Fair in a few hours I started spinning some of the roving from thepaintedtiger.com I love these colors, and it's mesmerizing watching the colors change. I also finished up, the bright batt from knittyandcolor, oh, do I love this! I should have plyed it after finishing it, but I just needed to start more color in my life.

In other news, Sock is still researching suitable partners, and looking rather forlorn while doing so. My mom strangely is knitting a scarf, she of course is using a pattern IN LACE right away (show off).

Lance feels sorry for poor Single Sock

Random picture of Oscar, the fish, for a random post

My Favorite Color

Sparkly Green Batt from Knittyandcolor on Etsy

Is Green - Deep emeraldy beautiful green. Green

Bright sparkly pink and orange batt from knittyandcolor

Or, maybe it's PINK! Bright fuschia gorgeous pink!

New braids of roving from thepaintedtiger.com Don't they just make you happy?!

 Or maybe every color of the rainbow! Red, yellow, purple, blue, silver, green.. How can you have a favorite? They're all gorgeous, and they all have their own purpose and place in the world!

My first shawl!

And speaking of color - the beautiful Noro Taiyo scarf, finished with it's crocheted border and blocked. Sorry, I couldn't afford a model, the couch volunteered.

Closeup of the border

Neptune and Merc are wonderful blocking weights.

This is extremely sensitive and hard work!