Orchids, Knitting and BoBo

 

I’m so excited. I went to water my orchid and it’s got THREE new spikes. I had only seen the new spike out of the bottom of the plant, but when I went to water it today, I noticed two new spikes out of the old one. Kenneth gave this to me two years ago on Mother’s Day and it had flowers on it at that time. Since then, I have not had any new blooms, so I’m thrilled that I’ve gotten this far (not to mention, I haven’t KILLED it).

I’ve finished my Shawl but not yet blocked it.  The yarn is from a friend in Sweden.  Here’s a picture of it in progress, I’ll poste one of it once it is blocked.  I’ve begun the Alpine Knit Scarf from Victorian Lace Today.  I’m using Kaalund Yarns Enchante silk, which is luxurious.

Today, we are taking BoBo to the lake to see if he will swim and retrieve.  Also, we’ll picnic and relax.  There will be pictures of that soon!

Frog & BoBo

Frog & BoBo

Originally uploaded by engrgoddess

Lately I’ve finished Froggy! BoBo wanted to make it his chew toy! I made this in record time, one week! This is the project I made for Ronni Spoll by special request at www.chemocaps.com. I mailed it priority on Friday and thrilled to have done this. The frog pattern can be obtained from www.theknittingneedle.com. I visited their website yesterday and it is still for sale. They also have some very adorable felted bears and the frog pattern was very well-written, so I believe that the other very cute toy patterns there would be quite simple to knit. I used one skein of Cascade 220 on US 10 needles. One important fact is that I felted it in my front loader, a first! Yes, it can be done and turned out just fine. I turned off the spin cycle and used a little detergent.

Today I’m cooking out of Southern Living Slow Cooker Cookbook, making Chickpeas in Curried Coconut Broth. It already smells good.

Last night, I made Rao’s Famous Lemon Chicken, a recipe from the Famous Rao’s Restaurant in New York. I had gone to the grocery store earlier in the day, but didn’t get enough lemons. So, Korey and I had to drive 7 miles to the grocery store to buy more lemons, the recipe takes two cups! The extra grocery store trek made us cook later than expected, during the “Earth Hour.” So, we were cooking in the dark, with candles, and ended up with very dark dinner rolls, but it was fun!

We watched Into the Wild, what an amazing movie, I recommend it, Chris was a fascinating person. I believe that would enjoy reading the book.

Today will be balancing the checkbook and practicing “Capriccio Italien” for symphony.

Froggy Beginnings

Ahh, new yarn!  I recieved my Cascade 220 for the felted frog.  Yesterday, the package was from the jewelers, two repaired chains, so I was sad.  But, yet another trip to the post office today yielded the skein of marled green yarn.  I went to dinner with colleagues from Florida, to Abuelo’s in Bricktown, and took the frog project with me.  I finished the head, this will knit up quickly.  I’m excited to complete it and get it in the mail.  I also knitted at lunch, on the purple shawl.  I want to get this off the needles so I can feel good about beginning a new lace project.

It rained all day, was cold & windy and my car got all muddy, yuk.  It will be good for the azaleas, which will begin blooming next month.

 Tomorrow I will try to complete the body of my froggy friend.

It’s Been a While

Ahh, a beautiful day and enjoying all of it.  So much has happened, I got a new car (MB CL55AMG), went on vacay (Sedona Arizona), had the flu (thought I was gonna die), and working very hard.

 I’ve been so wanting to see U23D.  I’ve checked every week for a showing on the IMAX withing driving distance.  Finally, at the close of working yesterday, I checked the IMAX website and there ya go, it is showing (again) in Tulsa.  So, Korey and I loaded up in the new car and made a road trip to Tulsa.  We picked up Laura and went to the Cinemark on 71st Street.  U23D is now my favorite movie!  Really.  Scott also drove up with his kids and I think they enjoyed it, too.  The photography was fantastic, the angles, the composition of the scenes, absolutely wonderful.  I want to see it again, and again!

 I got two new books this week:  Knitting America and Designs for Knitting Kilt Hose and Knickerbocker Stockings.  I’m wanting to knit kilt hose for Iain, but we’ll see.  The book is wonderful, the author and her comments are great reading.  Knitting America is so full of information and the historical viewpoint is so very interesting.  I love history and knitting, so the combo cannot be beat.

 A totally cool experience occurred this week.  Ms Ronni Spoll of www.chemocaps.com contacted me regarding a frog felted knitting project.  Please visit Ronni’s site, it is very moving.  She and I discussed the frog and the desire of one little girl to have a frog to hug during her cancer treatments.  I cried reading the story and am very excited to knit the frog myself.  Another beautiful aspect is that I was sharing this with a co-worker and she wants to begin crocheting chemo caps.  I hope she follows through.  I know that after I complete the frog, I will begin knitting for this project.  Thanks, Ronni!  I’ve ordered the yarn and got a pink slip in the mailbox on Saturday so hopefully, the yarn is at the post office and I’ll pick it up on Monday!  My desire is to knit the frog in one week!

Over vacay, I started and completed a Koolhaas, a scarf, and Scott’s Felted Clogs!  I love making the felted clogs, and have begun another pair for Kenneth.  I got the yarn for Kenneth’s at Alley Cat Yarns in Cottonwood Arizona.  The man that owns that store is great and I recommend the store very much.  While in Arizona, I also went to Knit 1 Bead 2, in Jerome.  The lady that owns that was a great conversation and her store is arranged by color.  She had some terrific Koigu.  I bought some silk laceweight and Noro Sock Yarn.  While I was sick, I knitted yet another Koolhaas, out of Lion and Lamb in the camouflage colorway.  This is for a co-worker that likes to hunt and specifically asked for a hat.  That yarn is so soft, a great hat yarn.  Right now, I’ve got the felted clogs on the needles, as well as a couple of pairs of socks and a shawl.  I want to start another shawl but won’t until I get the purple one completed.  I got the Knitpicks wooden Options needle set for Valentine’s Day from Scott and fell in love with them.  I immediately ordered the remainder bigger sizes to complete the set (13/15/17 sizes).  I love these needles!

Friday night I went to a King Arthur Flour artisan bread baking demonstration.  I won a sack of whole wheat flour!  They also gave some great gifts, a scraper, a gift card, a recipe booklet and a coupon for yeast.  It was at Oaktree Country Club and was a fun experience.  I decided to bake bread today, and it smells great.  I’ve also made a crockpot pork concoction for tacos and a chocolate cake and then mixed up a chicken salad.  My goal is to get food in the fridge and work overtime a lot this week.

BoBo and I will relax for the remainder of the day.

Failed Bread, Perfect First Pizzas, a Happy New Year

First PizzasOriginally uploaded by engrgoddess

The bread didn’t turn out perfect, the first firing of the oven was not hot enough. However, last night, we fired it up again and baked pizzas, here they are! The crust was the crispest ever and then we baked 4 chicken breasts for 3 hours and they were perfect. I’m excited now to do bread, successfully!

For New Year’s Eve, just made the sauce, out of Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasonings Book.  This is the best sauce ever!  The crust is out of the book that came with my Cuisinart, simple.  I always let it rest/rise longer, as it makes a chewier crust.

The rest of the evening I worked on my Ravelry inventory of needles and finished that.  Now I have a correct inventory and no longer have to rely on memory when purchasing needles.  I only wish that the form was more complete (Denise or any other set, short DPNs for gloves, etc.).  Now I must complete my stash inventory, which will be painful.

Today, BoBo and I read the book, Lost and Found, by Jacqueline Sheehan.  A well-written book, and easy to read.  I will try to find her first book, Truth, about Sojourner Truth.  Now I’m going to finish The Ultimate Gift, which is another good one.  It’s difficult to choose between knitting, reading, or cooking.

About cooking, I cooked Black-Eyed Peas today, not from the dried peas, but bought the Melissa’s brand of fresh Peas.  They were very good.  Now I can count on luck for the year.  I fed one each to BoBo and Licorice, to ensure their continued luck, too!

Domesticity

Today is my first entry (obviously).  Not sure why today, other than the fact that it’s the first time to use my new clay oven and I truly believe that people would be interested in this project.  For my birthday, Scott (BF), has built me a Clay Oven.  My Birthday is 30 August, so it has taken a while, but I haven’t really cared about the delay, he’s been working very hard!  This oven is based on the book, “Build Your Own Earth Oven” by Kiko Denzer.   As I was making the bread dough, classic French Bread from Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook,” and listening to Brenda Dayne’s Cast On, I was thinking about how I wanted to share this with more that just BF and dogs.  Here is a picture of the fire.

The fire burns down, then the door is installed and “soaked” then it’s ready to bake! 

In addition, I’ve been knitting the “My So-Called Scarf” by Sheep in the City, which I found on Ravelry.  Also, I’m still populating my Ravelry account and got some of my needles inventoried.  I haven’t finished, since a lot of my knitting is still at BF’s due to moving there because of the Oklahoma Ice Storm.  I was displaced due to lack of electricity for a week and I had to have my knitting (couldn’t live without it for a week), and my dpns are all there!

Tomorrow, I’ll give a bread results update!

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