Oh the grand and wondrous road...

What do you see when you look inside this box?

Do you see a bag full of string?  White-ish yarn waiting to go on a shelf?  A bunch of that wooly stuff old women turn into things?

Or...

Do you see what I see?

Possibilities... Potential... A blank canvas of maybes.  That is what I see.  Color waiting to happen.  Shape waiting to take form.  That is what I see when I look in that box.

It is the same here.  Where someone else might see blue yarn, or the sky and the sea... I see a ferret.  I wonderful muse who kicks my behind and tells me to write more. 

Possibilities ... they are grand and wondrous things.

Want to but what I actually did...

Okay I wanted to work on a different project tonight...

...but I didn't.

I wanted to show how far I am right now...

...but I'm not.

What I did work on tonight as I watched the new Frightnight movie was work on some blanket squares.

No they are not very big and yes I am going to have to make a ton of them to make the size I want to but that is okay.

Here is a close up of the texture of the squares.  It is really an easy knit for me, which is nice.  This is what I am planing on knitting for social knitting, at least until I get my non-dyed yarn and I start knitting the blanks for my experimentation dye project.

Now why I am I not posting other pictures?  And why did I not work on the project I really wanted to?
Because I was watching the movie with my roomie and sat with her for a bit afterwards and what I want to work on is actually her birthday present.  She knows what I am making for her, a poncho, because I totally blitzed and let it slip, but she doesn't know what pattern or what yarn I am using.  And dangnabit I am not going to share that with her.  She will be surprised somehow with it.

The other thing that I am trying to keep on the back burner right now is the fact that there is something I want to knit for myself.  A sweater, I know, I hate knitting sweaters.  But it is a fun sweater and I am going to give myself a goal of three months to knit it up.  It is out of the book knit, swirl! by Sandra McIver. 

And I think it will be a lot of fun to wear.  It is the first pattern in the book and requires over 2000 yards of yarn.  But I know I can do it and I will wear it big time... so that will be my next big project.  I have some other little ones floating around but that is my big one.

I do have some other stuff to share but they too are presents and I want pictures with the receivers before I actually post pictures here.  So they will have to wait.  Specifically Ian's Toss Game, Flower headbands and the 60th Sweater (I know I finished it.)

Knitting Song... LOVE IT!!!

Well I just found this... thanks to Susan of the Knitajourney Podcast... it is too awesome.

And it is 'muppets'... yes I realize they are in the Fraggle Universe... but they are still Jim Henson Muppets.

A White Elephant's Heart?

Well here I sit after my dad's side of the family Christmas party. 

I think I was okay... I know I had other things going on in my head but that is not for here.  It was fun.  We had a lot of creative things going on, which give me an idea for the year that my dad hosts it.  Things I can do, create and help with. 

We, however, did something new this year.  We did a White Elephant gift exchange.  Now it isn't a nice gift exchange.  This was the more horrible the better White Elephant.

I suppose I should explain a White Elephant Gift Exchange.  It is basically getting rid of something you have and gifting it to someone else.  Something you don't like or don't want.  Now some of that stuff is worth something to someone else.  You never know. 

A second hand shop is a good place to find White Elephant Gifts if you do not have something you want to get rid of.  Garage or Yard sales are another place. 

I did not totally do the right type of gift.  I did a 'Choose Your Side' box.

The note reads...
"Choose your side:
Coffee or Tea
Vampire or Werewolf
Red or Blue.
Let the battle begin!"

I had red and blue coffee cups, instant packets of coffee and tea, and marbles in the theme of Vampires and Werewolves.  I thought it was fun.

I was wrong... there was an old lamp, a wall hanging cheap plastic tiki mask, and a dead animal bag.  Though the toppers had to be the tong and the heart.  Yes someone (my father and his wife) brought a heart and a tong.  Eeeww.

Mine was a party in a box... couple of old games, a blender and two other items... which will, if this continues next year, be involved in White Elephant Revenge...

Yes that is a wig and a plaster hand... oh the ideas I have.   And there will be updates... but only covertly.  Because it will have to wait until next year for the reveal.  Mwhahahahahahaha!!!!

Brownie Queen Strikes Again...

Well here I am again.  About to go and show off my work.  Not knitting this time 'round but something delicious and fun.

Now let me start by telling you a story about me and baking.  I can't bake cookies to save my life.  They never turn out.  Whether it is because of the ingredients I put in them or that I forget they are in the oven or do preheat the oven or let the dough sit out on the floor too long I am not completely sure.  I just can't seem to have them turn out.  Brownies, however, I am excellent at. 

It started when one night I got a craving for brownies and we did not have any brownie mix in the house.  So I pulled out my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook and looked up brownies.  I made sure I had all the ingredients and went to town making homemade from scratch brownies.  Ever since then I have been the brownie queen.

My favorite brownies to make are a Yule tradition.  My mom when I was little would make peppermint brownies and I adored them, because mint and chocolate are the bestest thing ever.

Well you can see were this is going.  I started to make peppermint brownies as a regular thing.  This week I made a couple of batches of peppermint brownies and a pan of raspberry brownies, substituting raspberry flavoring for the peppermint flavoring. 

I did cheat a little on these.  Normally I make a glaze to go on top of homemade frosting.  I didn't make the glaze and I did not make the frosting. 

I bought frosting and added the flavoring to it.  I just was not in the place to deal with it at the time.  But the girls that got to eat them did not mind. 

I brought a couple of plates into my work that night.  They loved them.  One place was for the closing staff and the second plate was for the following morning crew. 

I had fun making them and have found out that baking with butter makes and even better brownie.  I ran out of butter on the last pan and had to use margarine, they did not turn out as nice.  I can't wait to make more and make the frosting and glaze style ones. 

Once I do that I might actually put up the recipe... we will see.

Colors... to drink?

I am alive!!!!! *looks at last date of journal and cringes* Sorry... it has been awhile hasn't it. 

Well on the good side of things.  I have a very very very very very rough draft of Moosehold Part Two... now all I have to do is re-write part one.  And I have earned a fair amount of points for my competitive knitting group on ravlery. *grins*  That will be coming later though.  Right now I want to show off what I have done for dyeing.

I had fun.  I figured out Kool-aid dying.  I would love to do a little bit more permanent but I really don'thave space to do what I want to do right now.  So my next couple of dying excursions will be Kool-aid as well.  But it still will be fum and I will definitely be posting stuff on the dye experiences I will be having.

So here is my first excursion into dying...

First off preparing my dye...

I had prepped up my yarn and set everything up in the tub.

Then rolled it up and set it aside for steaming and moved on to the next color set.

And set that one up differently because I didn't like how the colors on the first one ran together.

Then I steamed... and didn't take any pictures but afterwards I soaked them to clean them

Pretty yarns...

So there is my first excursion into dying and more to come next month. 

Really I will have another showing here soon enough, and it will be something pretty and inspiring.

The love and hates of a swirl...

Now for my love hate relationship with the Swirl Starry Night Shawl, and trust me it is a love hate relation ship.

It started with finding this wonderful pattern of a swirly nature that I fell in love with.  I knew I had to make it.  It was the perfect shawl for me to make for myself.  None of the lace shawls I had looked at came even close to what I wanted to do.  They were too grandmaish, nothing I would want to wear.  But this was perfect little swirls, with enough challenge to keep me entertained.  So I got the pattern and started on my hunt for the perfect yarn to use.

I initially started with a variegated sock yarn that I spent a good hour finding in Threadbender, my local yarn shop.  But I was not happy with the results.  So I sadly set it aside, longing to find the perfect yarn so that I could knit this perfect shawl. 

This last August became inspired by Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night and decided to make the swirly shawl in it's honor.  I went to a fiber festival, on the hunt for the perfect yarn.  I found it.

So I started on the first of September with grand plans to finish it really really fast.  But there were a few hic-ups.  Casting on took time, knitting in a round and picking up stitches.

Then started my second row and I was way into October.  I need to be done with the second row and working on the third by now... but disaster struck.  I found I had dropped a stitch in one of the swirls in the first row.  I had to rip it out and some how save it.  But I managed, getting extra needles and casting on in between two swirls.  I managed to make it work.

And there I stood on the couch cushions taking a picture of my shawl and realizing I wasn't making it fit in one frame.

So I took a reference picture using my sixty inch long tape measure...

And again so that I could show how long past the end it actually was.

Then I started to knit.  I had two more rows to finish before the end of the month at least.  And in ten days I managed a few more swirls, even with a couple of cast on in the wrong spot issues.

That is my normal point with it but I am enjoying it more and more.  I also no longer need to pay as much attention to the knitting.  I have the pattern fairly memorized now.

I am also half way through the second row.  I am proud of what I am accomplishing and can not wait to show it off during the holidays.  The only thing is... what big project should I take on after this one?