Warmth in the North

contest winners

    I'm sorry for posting late, all this week time has flown by.  Thankfully the temperature has risen to a more humane level.  I have actually finished a few knits and hopefully will get around to blogging about them this week.  For now here are the winners...

    Which means that Lucette and Kerry will both be receiving a skein of the hand dyed yarn.

'tis the season ~ a contest

    It's cold outside, really, really cold.  According to the temperature converter -40 is -40, in Celsius or Fahrenheit cold is cold no matter what.  My car wouldn't start this morning, which wasn't the best way to start the day.  Now that I'm home and cozy the cold is a little bit less painful but I'm not looking forward to going back outside.

    I'm not about to share the cold with you but I do have something else.  Two skeins of hand dyed yarn created by the owner of my LYS.  They are both 212 yards of worsted wool in some of the brightest and warmest colours around. 

    Leave a comment about the weather or whatever else strikes your fancy by Friday, December 18th at 7pm pacific and I'll announce the winners that evening.  

the first batch

    I decided to make the first batch of Christmas cookies today and tried a new recipe for fun.  The peppermint cookies Sarah of Handmade Homeschool posted had been calling my name for a little while so I thought I'd give them a try.  They seemed like a good wintry recipe without being too holiday this early in the month.

    It's a really simple recipe and gives you a tasty cookie without much effort.  I did end up changing the icing recipe, her's calls for meringue powder which is unavailable here.  Changing the icing also let me switch the vanilla extract for peppermint giving the cookie an extra kick.

Peppermint Glaze

1 egg white

1 cup icing sugar

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1/2 tsp green food colouring

Whisk everything until smooth adding the green food colouring until you're happy with the colour.  If you have issues with egg whites (ie. you're pregnant) you should stick with her recipe but this one will work in a pinch.

do you ever?

    I had planed on being productive today but it's not going to happen, instead I wound some yarn.  It reminded me of something that's been bugging me for a while.  Why do some yarn companies include patterns with every skein of yarn?  From dishcloth patterns on Peaches n' Cream ball bands to simple sock or hat patterns attached to skeins of Fleece Artist they confuse me.

    Do people really knit those patterns or do they just get thrown out?  I've never knit a pattern that comes with yarn but every time I discard the pattern I feel guilty.  When I bought this Handmaiden Double Sea Silk I searched the whole pile looking of a skein with no pattern.  I was tempted to detach the pattern and shove it to the back of the shelf.  If I ever bought a sweaters worth of similar yarn it might drive me nuts as I'm not very good at letting stuff like this go.     Especially when it comes to some of the higher end yarns I wonder if the pattern is attached to give someone an idea of what's possible with a lower yardage skein of yarn.  This Wavy Scarf pattern doesn't really inspire me and more than that the yarn I bought isn't even on the list of suggested yarns.  Do you ever knit the pattern that comes with a single skein or ball of yarn?

miracle cookies

    I came home from work this morning at around 7:30 and instead of going to sleep I decided to bake cookies for an afternoon staff meeting.  Usually our staff meetings take forever and involve a least some disagreement ~ that's the politest way to put it.  They were just cool enough to pack up when it was time to go so the staff room smelled wonderful when I opened the box.     These particular cookies always go over well and there's no harm in raising peoples serotonin levels.  Wonder of wonders, the cookies worked their magic.  It was the shortest and least disagreeable staff meeting I've been to in three years.  While the cookies can't take all the credit I think I'll be bringing more next time.

chris is having a contest

    Chris is having a contest, she's looking for pattern suggestions for some special yarn.  The prizes are incredible... if you'd like to play go check out her blog.

round two

    I've been working on these mittens for way to long.  At first they appeared to be a fairly quick knit with an easy combo of worsted wool and 4.5mm needles.  Then just as I finished the first mitt I realized that I didn't have enough of the bright pink roving for the second mitten.  I'm not sure what lead to the shortage but I needed more of the second colour. 

    I thought I'd just pick some up at the store but they were out.  The lady working that day in August said that they get the roving in regularly and I should just come back.  I returned over and over but no more of the bright pink roving appeared.  I thought about ordering some but the bags are really big and I don't spin so that option didn't seem very sensible.

    A few days ago I caved and bought the lighter pink for the second mitt.  They won't match but at this point I'm not that concerned and would just like a warm pair of mittens.  I'm still going to use the bright blue and simply swap the pinks.  Hopefully the second mitt won't take anywhere near as long as the first.

in fading light

    All through winter I keep as many flowers around as possible.  It's my dream to live in a greenhouse or step back in time and have a conservatory - of the plant variety although I'm not opposed to music.  December is the month when I really start to ramp up flower acquisition.     Potted poinsettias, forced bulbs and mixed bouquets are forced to live together around here.  Even I was surprised by this bouquet though, usually I gravitate towards the simple.  For some reason the vaguely tacky gold tipped pine cones and vibrant green arrangement called to me.     I'm sure the elegant paperwhites will survive next to the brassy spider chrysanthemums. 

made by other hands

    I'd love to give everyone on my list items that I've made but it's not reasonably possible.  To a certain extent this is due to time constraints and a wish to not be a stressed mess at Christmas.  However the main reason is that I'd like the gifts I give to be reflections of the receiver rather than the giver.  Sometimes what I can create isn't the perfect gift so I go searching and Etsy is always my first stop.     The ornaments I found for my aunt are beautiful hand painted glass.  They come from Sarah John Afana of Schemata in small little gift boxes all ready to go to a new home.  I was a little bit nervous about something so delicate arriving intact but she packages them really well and they arrived safe and sound. 

   I played it safe with traditional round balls but she has hearts,  teardrops, and cubes if you're looking for something different.  Everything is unique so just like making something myself I know it won't be repeated.  If you're in search of something special I can't recommend these ornaments enough.

~ Sarah was nice enough to allow me to use her images for this post but the content isn't sponsored.

gail

    My mother's present is finished right on schedule and it's rather nice, if I do say so myself.  I don't have a picture of the entire shawl since I'm waiting until she's seen it.  Hopefully when I go home I'll be able to take a few.      I didn't modify the pattern at all and followed the chart exactly.  Quite a few people get rid of the double yarn over in the center but it adds to the airiness.  I knit the whole chart once and then rows 23-38 twelve times.  The shawl is really large and could lose a few repeats without any harm but I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible.     The one addition I made to the pattern was a small amount of beading.  I added pink beads to the edging chart as an accent.  Then on the last row every stitch but a yarn over has a gold bead.  It took almost 12oz of beads and that last row was rather slow but worth it, I hope.     The beads aren't overpowering, they're more of a special touch of sparkle.  I thought about adding them to the whole shawl but this option seemed better for my mother.  Now I just need to pack it up and send if off for Christmas.

just in case...

pattern ~ Gail (aka Nightsongs) by Jane Araujo

yarn ~ Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace in colour #29

needles ~ 3.5mm (US 4)