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All this time off recuperating has given me a fair amount of time to get around to taking pictures of things that I’ve wanted to share!
First up - my freshly completed Maine Morning Mitts, using the Wild Rose handspun I posted earlier.
They’re so squishy and cozy and warm and I can’t wait to wear them to my college classes tonight - it’s a long walk from the parking lot to the building and my regular gloves that match my coat just don’t cut it.
Next, a fabulously vintage coat I aquired at the local thrift shop!
(Apologies for the blur in the picture - my painkillers make me shaky and it took me forever to get a pic even this good)
I’m not really a blue person, and most times when I find vintage clothes they either don’t fit or they’re too dated looking, but when I saw this coat I immediately had to have it. All I have as far as coats go are 2 black wool ones (one long, one short) and two brown leather coats - a very boring selection indeed. I needed a pop of color for these bleak wintry days and this was it! Doesn’t this coat look like it deserves a fabulous scarf to accompany it? At least a cowl to go underneath, I think. Just need to find the right color combo - yellow comes to mind but I can’t wear the color, so maybe something else.
The butterfly pin on the lapel, although worse for wear, was an instant choice for the coat. The pin is something I have had for years and years and years. My sister and I each used to have matching ones, both given to us by my Grandma Lillian. At one point it had 2 antennae, both of which have since broken off as well as the little gold piece on the left side. Its funny, though, that in all these years as it broke I never once thought to throw it away. I treasured it as I grew up, and I treasure it even more now that she’s gone - and the same can be said for all of the little pieces of jewelery she gave us. I remember very well spending weeks at her house and digging through her many jewelery boxes and playing ‘dress up’ in all of her vintage stuff. Good memories, those are. *sniff*
And finally, I found these little candle holders and immediately fell in love. I’m sure they’re probably not actually vintage, but they’re the prettiest rose pink color and will now be housed in my office/craft room. Just need to get some more tealights.
Purple seems to be the theme (except for the pizza)
I made pizza dough!!!! I’ve probably tried to make it 3 times total in my entire life, and each time failed. But not this time! It was delicious and perfect and completely made my Saturday evening!
I also started spinning up some new fiber. Sean made a comment the other day that my wheel looked bare without fiber on it, so I brought out this blended Merino/Silk in a plum/maroon color (the photo doesn’t really do it justice, but you can see the shimmer of the silk in it). I bought over 6 ounces of it at the local yarn store, and I’m spinning it thin, as usual, so I can have enough for another wrap/shawl.
And finally, flowers that my mom brought over to me yesterday after I got home from surgery. Nothing major, but she was concerned about me (especially knowing how much I freak out about needles and such). So when she came over to visit she brought me these gorgeous flowers. <3 I’m considering printing these two shots up to hang up in my office. They look so bright and cheery on this dull gray day.
Today is going to be another lazy one, relaxing and catching up on some TV. I’m sore, to say the least, and my pain pills make me less than functional. I’m going to try to get some knitting done, though, and take advantage of this time off (and college homework, of course… people tell me that’s more important than knitting but I beg to differ).
Impulse Buy
I’ve been eyeballing the Knit Picks Corrie Fair Isle Vest kit for some time. (Link here) Today, after putting on my Cheesylove Valentines vest that I made last year and remembering how fun it is to wear it (not to mention warm!), I broke down and ordered the kit! It helps, though, that Knit Picks has it on sale for $12.99 (regularly $18.99) - The kit plus shipping and tax still ended up being less than the regular price!
Its going to be a LOT of work. All that color work is a little intimidating. And steeking! I’m going to have to learn that whole thing once I get to that point, which is scary enough. But the vest is just so adorable, and I know will fit into my wardrobe fairly well (once its done, that is!). I tried talking myself out of it - I’ll be going yarn shopping in just a few weeks and need all the money I can get, lol. But it didn’t work. That reasoning of the kit being on sale and therefore cheaper than if I bought the yarn individually and such won out.
I cast on, yesterday, for the Maine Morning Mitts. I wanted to use that new worsted handspun from the weekend and thought fingerless gloves would be perfect and so far I’m pleasantly pleased. They’re so thick and squishy! ♥ I was worried about the thick-and-thinness of the yarn, but it adds texture and character to them. Of course, now I have far too many projects on the needles (for me, at least) and I really need to keep it down to one project at a time. I’m far too busy to be able to keep track of them all and get them done by the seasons I want to wear them in! On the bright side, I have Monday & Tuesday off from work (have another -minor- surgery going on - thankfully, though, not for anything that keeps me from knitting and/or eating!) so I’m going to take full advantage of that time off and get caught up on some projects. I’m hoping to get the Betty cardigan finished so I can wear it through Spring - the back portion is done, after all, and while I screwed up on one of the fronts its not such a huge and daunting task to just rip it out and start over.
Wild Roses, Tea, and a Birthday Card
I bought this roving at the same time as my Italian Ice that I previously blogged about. This colorway is also from Tuscan Grove, and is called Wild Roses. Its an absolutely beautiful combination of purple and shades of olive green.
My first intentions for this colorway was to spin thin, as usual. Another shawl was in mind, or maybe a little bit thicker and use it as the yoke for a cardigan and look for some matching purple or green for the main portion of it. But as I sat down at my wheel and opened the bag of fiber it was quite clear that it was not going to be thin. What I thought was plain Merino turned out to be a coarser Australian wool. So on a whim I divided up my fiber and started spinning and chose to try to achieve a worsted weight instead. This is quite a challenge for me, since all I’ve managed to do since my first attempt on a wheel is spin a fingering weight (or less).
I don’t think I did a horrible job at it, either. Its thicker in some areas and thinner in others. I’m sure if I would have been ever-so-careful, as I am when I spin thin, then I would have managed to keep it pretty darn near even throughout. But just this once I just sat down to spin and let the yarn do what it wanted to, and let my hands do what they wanted to. And it was the most relaxing, non-stressful spinning session.
Overall I have about 125 yards, give or take, of 2ply, and I have about 71 yards of a sport/DK weight single. Now on to finding a project for this - I’m thinking maybe some fingerless mitts or a quick cowl.
No knitting tonight. My left wrist (the one I had surgery on last year) is hurting from all that spinning yesterday, so tonight I’m taking a break from the knitting and instead I’m catching up on my correspondences with a cup of TAZO African Honeybush tea with just a tad bit of honey. Mmm. I love taking time to sit down and write out cards and letters to people. Unfortunately, it feels like I get to do this less and less. Anyone out there want a snail-mail penpal?
Italian Ice, and peace and quiet
Italian Ice roving is now plied, washed, and dried and ready to be knit. 278 yards of 3ply (on left), about 244 yards of 2ply (on right), and I ended up with about 124 yards of single leftover. The 3ply I already have plans to knit up as socks, since that was what I was aiming for in the first place with this fiber… they may just end up being ankle socks instead of my usual length. The 2 ply I’m still unsure on. I’ve been scouring Ravelry for ideas, but nothing is really jumping out at me. Maybe I’ll hang on to it for a bit and find some matching fingering weight in a solid color and use the handspun as the yoke and trim on a cardigan? The singles I have been knitting into cute little Valentines Day bookmarks. I have 2 blocking as I write, and another on the needles - and that all came from just the one skein of singles. I still have the larger of the two (pictured above) to go through!
Things are busy (though quiet here tonight), which is the usual it seems. I miss lazy evenings and weekends without homework deadlines looming, and the panic/stress of trying to cram everything in. I’m trying to take things one day at a time, though.
I have managed to get some knitting in. Saturday was the Sticks & Stitches hockey game, which was fun! And as an added bonus, Abby was sitting close by so we got to chat some - and she was incredibly kind and gave me a set of size 3 DPNs that she won :) I’ve had a really rough week otherwise, so tonight I went to the local yarn store to hang out with some friends and knit. I haven’t been there in probably a few months because I’ve been just too exhausted. But it was incredibly nice to get out and knit uninterrupted for an hour or so. I managed to finish the back portion of the new cardigan I started (The Betty Minisweater), and when I came home I cast on for one of the front portions.
Other than that, not much has been going on. Just trying to make time for everything, which some days feels easy and most days feels impossible. But who’s life isn’t like that?
Sleepless
Sleeplessness, while annoying, can be quite productive. Especially when it affects me - it generally means I stay up late cleaning the house up. As I write the entire downstairs is sitting nice and tidy - dishes were done, junk mail thrown away, last of the Christmas decor taken off the fireplace… When I get bursts of energy and can’t sleep, I clean.
Unfortunately, it’s now after 12:30, and I have to work tomorrow. But hey - I can at least wake up to a clean house, right?
In other rambling, a new favorite blog of mine is Little Red House. Her house looks so cozy! I just want to curl up next to her fireplace with a cup of tea and knitting and hibernate for a few weeks 
Baking Day
I want to start a new tradition for New Years Day - a baking day. I always say that I don’t have enough time to do the things I want to do (not just baking), and we really have no traditions for our holidays really, so I think I might just declare January 1st of each year as “Baking Day.” It sounds like a good way to start the new year off, doesn’t it?
I experimented yesterday with some banana bread. I’ve made banana bread before, but I wanted to try to play with the recipe and make it my own. And let me tell you - it is absolutely delicious! Especially on cold winter mornings warmed up with some butter on top and a cup of hot tea. (Ask me how I know, lol)
Banana Cranberry Bread
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp pie spice*
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup (more or less - i just eyeball it) chopped walnuts
2 handfuls dried cranberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and grease a 9×5 loaf pan. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking power, baking soda, salt, and pie spice in a bowl. Add eggs and vegetable oil and sliced bananas and mix until all ingredients are combined. Stir in chopped walnuts and dried cranberries, and then transfer to loaf pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes.
Some notes:
Most banana bread recipes I’ve made call for the banana to already be mashed before you mix it in. Since most of the time most of my bananas are really ripe by the time I get around to making bread with them, I’ve learned that I can just use them as-is and my KitchenAid stand mixer will mash them up for me when I mix all the ingredients together.
Also, a lot of recipes will tell you to mix wet ingredients separately from the dry ones and then combine the two together. I’m a one-bowl kind of girl. I hate dirtying dishes unnecessarily, and always skip that step and just mix everything together in the same bowl. It hasn’t failed me yet!
* Pie spice - I don’t buy commercially-mixed pie spices anymore. I did a search and found a TON of different spice combinations that can be used as substitues, and I happened to have all but one of the ingredients already on hand individually, so I mixed it from there. It actually ends up being cheaper in the long run for us - a tiny jar of pie spice costs a lot and I use it a lot! (I put it in a lot of my quick bread mixes, as well as on baked apples and in apple sauce and whatever else I can think of)
2009 Highlights
I’m a pessimist most days. So when I initially started thinking about this past year, my thoughts immediately jumped to “well what went wrong this year?” But as quickly as that thought crossed my mind, many other good ones took its place. 2009 has been a good year for us. Sure, there’s been some bad things (losing my grandma, not knowing whether I’d have a job come summer, etc) - but who doesn’t have that? I have to remind myself that no matter what setbacks or bad things happen to us throughout each year, it’s not the end of the world. We’re very, very, incredibly blessed.
Looking back, I think we had quite a good year. We put our first big garden out this year. We went biking in May and I got some gorgeous shots. In June we welcomed our sweet Miss Molly D to our family. July was my birthday, and also Sean and I at the end of July/beginning of August took a mini-vacation to D.C. for his birthday. August I did some major canning, and made my own jelly for the first time as well as making custom canning labels for them. September… September was Wool Gathering with Amy. October found us at the OSU/Minnesota game, and dressed up for Halloween to go trick-or-treating with my niece and nephew. November I finished my first handspun wrap. And, of course, December meant my wisdom teeth came out, as well as a lovely knitting day in at the house.
Thank you all for letting me share my little world with you all. Hope your 2009 was a good year for you, too, and I am sending good wishes that 2010 will be even more fantastic!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas from one Home Sweet Home to another!
This fantastic dishtowel was a gift from my sister, along with some matching birdhouse potholders, a much-needed cookie sheet, and a Taste of Home holiday cookie recipe magazine. She knew I have my kitchen decorated in birdhouses, but didn’t realize the “home sweet home” bit was just all too perfect for me. I think the font of it even matches one I used on my canning jar labels I made earlier this year.
I also received a ridiculously nice food processor from my mom and dad, as well as a very pretty ruby bracelet. But my most favorite gift of all is the one I received from Sean: A gorgeous sapphire necklace. His reason on choosing a sapphire? Because we were married in September and that was the month that we went from being just Sean and Candice to being “The DeWitts.” How sweet is that?! <3 Best. Husband. Ever.
Our Christmas has been incredibly relaxing. We slept in, and then made a nice big breakfast for ourselves before we exchanged gifts. And the rest of the day has been just kinda lounging around watching movies and just enjoying the day. I’ve got some fabric in the washer right now so I can try to make some cloth napkins in my effort to find ways to be more green in this upcoming new year. Tonight I’ll light the fireplace candles, and I’m hoping to try out my new food processor to make some homemade pasta since I forgot to go out and get some more ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner foods (and we just had Chinese on Sunday so I’m really not wanting that).
Hope your Christmas is just as relaxing and enjoyable for you as it has been for me! Next up: 2010!