Friday Favorites: Knit Porn, a Party & Food for Thought

March 29, 2019July 14, 2020Leave a comment

BBC Knit Porn is a thing, right?

This week I’ve been knitting and watching Sir Edmond Hilary, Everest and Beyond and making comments about every hand knit sweater that appeared. Steve asked me if this was a thing with knitters, and did we all talk about it online. There usually is quite a bit. I remember we all went crazy when Bletchley Circle aired. I’m surprised to not find a lot of discussion about these knits online, as they are all spectacular.

Food for thought

I’m embarrassed to admit this but we waste a lot of food in my household. And by we, I mean me, because my husband is far less particular about eating deli meat and leftovers that have been in the fridge for 3 days. I was made very aware of this when I was volunteering at our community food pantry and humbled by how happy the clients were to receive a clamshell pack of almost gone strawberries that I would have tossed or thrown in the compost heap. Ahem, the compost heap is one way I rationalize waste.

I’ve recently started utilizing curbside pick-up at my local grocery during the work week. Not only do I believe this is saving us money, but it’s virtually impossible to get distracted by all the lovely berries and fresh greens when I’m adding things to my online shopping cart.

This Real Simple article has great tips for reducing food waste at home. Keeping a “waste audit” is a great idea.

Knitting together community for 11 years

Tomorrow our favorite LYS Yarnorama (that’s local yarn store for the non-knitters) is celebrating 11 years of (insert fiber metaphor here) community in the tiny town of Paige, Texas. Weavers, knitters, spinners, and fiber obsessed have been making the weekly trek from Houston to be part of a community of fiber enthusiasts and friends.

The other night at our She Creates Union meet up, Susan talked about what the community she started has come to mean to her. It’s not my story to tell, so that’s all I say. Perhaps she’ll elaborate herself on her own website. It was lovely, and made us all bit misty.

Everyone who knows Susan and John, knows they have created something very special, and so obviously needed. Susan is a brilliant, patient, talented, and funny woman who nurtures us all in our endeavors to make beautiful things with our hands.

I like to brag that I was her first customer. Susan reached out to me on this blog before she even opened her doors, inviting me to her opening.

Let’s go back in time to read this blog post about my first visit to Yarnorama. I obviously felt that something special was going to happen there. Read the post here

Find out more about the weekend festivities here.

www.yarnorama.com

My fellow makers of She Creates Union will have a Pop Up Shop at Yarnorama tomorrow. Come on out and support women artists and enjoy the bluebonnets along the way.

www.shecreatesunion.org

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Let’s keep in touch

So, THIS happened this weekend

June 22, 2015June 23, 2015Leave a comment

Meet Emmett. The last thing, and I mean the very last thing we were looking to do was look for another pet… especially with one very sick dog. But they usually find us, don’t they? This tiny nugget has a loud purr and an even louder voice. My current obsession with Outlander had me spouting off Scottish names like Dougal McTavish, McKenzie and Angus to match his ginger coat. All of these were met with blank stares from the husband. He will never know how close he came to having to live with a cat named Jamie McKenzie Fraser…I’m that thoughtful. We were concerned about Rosoce having to deal with a pesky kitten this summer, but he is very interested in this little guy. I guess it can be his pet.

Saturday our friends Elizabeth & Shane were married in Rochelle, Texas. It was an lovely Hill Country evening with horses running in the pasture below, barbecue and a country band. A great time was had by all. I stamped this cake server for them.

Made this recipe last night…wish I’d like tripled the recipe, it was so good. I grilled it instead of roasting though. It is summer in Texas, and truth be told.. i love a little char on most things this time of year.

Still knitting this, and am enjoying this yarn so much. Knitting Mojo still in working order.

… weaving mojo too. This warp is like a thousand times cleaner than my previous effort. I’m weaving a table runner out of cotton/linen warp and a boucle for the weft. I’m really liking the fabric that’s being created on the loom.

Back on That Horse

June 9, 2015June 10, 20151 Comment

I spent this past weekend at a fiber retreat in La Grange. As a result of communing with such a diverse group of wonderful, productive, intelligent and talented bunch of women… my knitters’ block has been kicked to the curb.

I frogged the squares meant for the Barn Rasiing Quilt I talked about last month and warped my Schacht randomly with different colorways. This is really only my third attempt at weaving and was shy about trotting my sloppy warp out in front of so many accomplished real weavers, but realized it was also the only way to learn from them. Everyone was so kind and encouraging, offering tips, like tying on with smaller bundles to create a smaller gap at the beginning, and using wider paper at top to keep tension and stitches even. I’ll also point out that none of this advice was dispensed while I was frustrated, but when I’d gained momentum and confidence. kindness.

No need to adjust your monitor…this is a particularly electric section of the scarf.

Look I a made fabric!

When making decisions on what projects to start on the retreat, I pulled out this beautiful ginormous skein of Miss Babs Yowza! What a Skein! in Merlot that I bought during The Hill Country Yarn Crawl in 2010, yes 2010. While searching for project ideas for said yarn I saw this simple and fun shawl that was just recently published here. Serendipity.

I am loving both this yarn and the knitting. Win Win.

Each year at the fiber retreat there is a challenge. Last year each participant received a large amount of mystery fiber to spin then weave, knit, crochet or felt into whatever pleased them. This shawl was spun and knit by one of the women who was so amazingly generous to gift it to me when I mentioned how much I loved it. I resisted at first, but when she explained she was just going to ship it up north to family, and unlikely they’d love it as much as I do… well, I gladly accepted. Cannot wait to wear this, and cannot wait for the next retreat.