Haekeldecke 2015/Crochet Blanket 2015

Well, between a change in yarn choice and my wrist not being very cooperative I have not made a lot of progress but a few more squares were added nevertheless. I like the muted colors I used in the Doctor Who scarf a lot better and I think using the same color for the outside border of the squares keeps it all nicely together.

Ich habe meine Woll-Wahl geaendert, anstatt alle moeglichen Reste zu verwenden, habe ich mich fuer die Farben, die ich auch im Doctor Who Schal verwendet habe, entschieden. Ich mag die gedeckten Farben lieber als kunterbunt und die einheitliche Umrandung haelt alles schoen zusammen. Mein linkes Handgelenk ist beleidigt, daher habe ich nicht soviel geschafft wie geplant, aber ein paar Quadrate sind doch dazugekommen.

Here you can see all the other pretty blankets in Progress.

Feline Friday

Snow Day!

As predicted it started to snow around 9 pm last night and this is what we woke up today.

Yarn Along

Another cold and sunny day and a winter storm in the forecast, yikes. There has not been a lot of "yarning" around here lately. I injured my left wrist somehow and it protests when I do too much, I am still working on my blue socks and the Ludlow shawl, but very slowly. So I thought today I show you my finished "Shaelyn Shawl" instead of my ongoing projects. I really enjoyed knitting this pattern. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft in charcoal heather.

I am reading "Call the Midwife" by Jennifer Worth (on loan from the NC Digital Library).

Joining with Ginny.

Feline Friday

Yarn Along

A cold and icy yarn along today. But at least it is sunny. We had some snow on Monday afternoon, quickly followed by freezing rain and now everything is covered with a layer of ice. It thaws a little in the sunshine and then freezes over again.

I plan on knitting at least one pair of socks every month this year and I am already one month behind. These are my January socks. My boy Jack is terrified of the noise the dpns are making and so I try to avoid knitting with them when he is around (I don't like scaring my cats) and since he hangs around me a lot I am not making much progress on my socks. I have already ordered some bamboo needles.

These are the squares for my 2015 Crochet Blanket project. I decided to use the colors I used in the Doctor Who scarf, using up the leftovers and then buying what is needed as I go along.

I am reading War Brides by Helen Bryan.




Joining with Ginny.

Weekend Baking

A tea loaf and heart shaped Lamingtons for Valentine's Day. I am currently baking my way through this book.

Feline Friday

Yarn Along

It is a gloriously sunny day with frost on the pumpkins (and everything else) and time for another Yarn Along with Ginny.
One can never have enough shawls, right? That's why I am knitting another one, this one is called "Shaelyn" and I really enjoy it. The pattern is easy to memorize and has a nice rhythm to it. I am knitting with Caron Simply Soft in a dark grey.
I am currently reading "All God's Children" by Anna Schmidt, I am almost finished and I like it a lot, enjoy would not be the right word to use in this case as the story is rather grim, but it is a gripping tale and hard to put down.

A new tea cosy ...

.. for my little purple tea pot.

Knitting, Stitching and Baking ...

... are three things I really like doing. Over the past week I finished the last two washcloths in the KAL. The cross stitch piece I finished a while ago but I found it very tricky to photograph inside, I will turn it into a wall hanging.

And my new stove and I are becoming quite good friends, I gave it a good workout and I am very pleased with its performance. I baked regular bread, dutch oven bread, a nutmeg cake and a spice bread for the weekend, everything turned out very well.

Signs of Spring

I knew it, the groundhog was wrong. The little yellow crocus are always the first to stick their heads out and the green shoots are a flower called spring snowflake and they grow behind the A/C unit.

Fabric Auditions

Decisions, decisions, decisions. This is the first design in a 12 month SAL and I plan to frame each one with a matching batik fabric and then put them together into a wall hanging. I am trying to decide which one of these fabrics looks the best, I will not combine several fabrics per block, just one, the question is: Which one is it going to be?

Feline Friday

Cookbook Purge

As part of my spring cleaning I purged and sorted my cookbooks. I looked through most of them to see if there is anything in them I might actually be cooking and I found two books with really nice recipes. I kept seasonal and international cookbooks, some for reference and some I just can't part with.
I also rearranged the bookshelves and now the smaller books are in the dining room, the big ones on the shelf in the back hallway and those I use a lot are on a shelf in the pantry. And a big laundry basket full of books is waiting to wander over to the library.

Before:

After:

Yarn Along

Joining with Ginny today to show you what I am working on and what I am currently reading.

My Ludlow is coming along nicely and I am reading "The Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne and when it gets too much I am reading my way through some free for kindle books, mostly romance novels.

Tuesday Morning

When I stepped outside this morning to hang the laundry, my watch bird was being harassed by some blue jays. I am still trying to find out what kind of bird he might be as he seems to be too small for one of the hawks.

It was rather cold but the sky was beautiful and the frozen puddles looked pretty cool.

I don't care what the groundhog said, it was raining and windy here yesterday and there was no way he could have seen his shadow, so I am preparing for an early Spring.