Maddie B & Me

Salsa

2011-07-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday

2011-07-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

Pigeonroof Studios Storm Cloud 2 ply DK, I knitted this swatch to test the "superwash" wool.

Pigeonroof Studios Superwash 2 ply DK

not m.i.a

2011-01-22T09:31:00.000-08:00

I have been a bit m.i.a on here, but not in life! I bought a spinning wheel for my birthday last year! I also bought myself a Kindle. I have turned into a Pigeonroof Studios lover and I have dyed some of my own wool.

One of my first and my favorite attempts of dying my own wool. I used a squirt bottle to spray the green that I made from Wilton food coloring on to the roving. I started with the darker green at the top and added water to the bottle until the end. I forgot to soak the yarn in vinegar first but it was the best result!

Pigeonroof Studios SW Merino. It was my favorite color and I will us it in Veronik Avery's Bear Claw Blanket. I ordered a green PRS SW Merino from someone's stash on Ravelry to have as the contrast color. I will spin the entire blanket.

I tried to dye this to be striped in color so that I could use it in the Buncha Squares blanket. I wanted to have variation in stripes so that I didn't have to change the yarn colors.

The single ply of the PRS SW Merino for the Bear Claw

I didn't think that this roving would turn out so well!

Road to Roswell

2010-07-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

From the 9th - 11th of July, I went to Roswell, GA to visit my longtime friend Carrie. I knitted the hats for Tottoppers the entire weekend so I didn't get a lot of picture taking in. On the way there, Maddie and I stopped in a town near Clemson, SC for a puppy poddy break. Maddie ran up and down Main Street and met a cat in a store window. In Roswell, I made Carrie pull over at a Krispy Kreme shop so that I could take a picture of its vintage sign. I finished the hats for Kate at Tottoppers and took photos while attempting to use Maddie as a model. It didn't work out so well. Last Monday I got to watch my godson Kaiden over night. It was a blast and I got my first glimpse into what life with an infant would be like!

Another Biscuit Attempt and Tot Toppers

2010-06-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

I met Kate from Tot Toppers. We spoke a year ago through Ravelry, she told me about Columbia before I moved here. On Thursday I finally went to the local knitting group at In the Loop. I met 3 nice ladies and I had a fun time knitting. I am so glad that I went, I no idea how much I missed knitting group! They had mentioned Kate needing a sample knitter and I saw it again on Ravelry so I signed on! We met yesterday and I had fun chatting with her. I have seven hats to knit.

I am starting with Sunny Textured Cap from Topped for a Year.

I also cast-on the Ruffled Striped Hat.

This hat knitting will put my Plain and Simple Pullover on the back burner. I cast-on for it last week using stashed Rowan yarn. It's so stashed that I don't remember what it is and I haven't gone into the closet to figure it out! I have 10 balls of it and I have had it for years. It's Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply! I looked it up on Ravelry!

I also re-tried a recipe for Cracker Barrel Biscuits and used real buttermilk. Then didn't turn out great so I officially give up!

One Year Ago

2010-06-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

I am in the Army and I have taken several pictures over the past year. In all of my schools and in my current job I am the "historian". From time to time I will post pictures when they hit my memory. About a year ago I was in Basic Officer Leader Course for Engineers in Fort Leonard Wood, MO. We took a field trip to the post Waste Water Treatment Plant. The trip took me back to the sixth grade when we did the same thing! It rained that do so the colors are saturated.

I worked a 24 hour shift at work yesterday but I didn't have to work. I went through and edited and deleted a lot of photos. I also watched A LOT of videos on YouTube. I snuck off to the Clinique counter on Post and bought MORE make-up. I dozed off a few times in the middle of the night and my relief didn't show up. I fell asleep for a short nap at 3 but I have been up since then. I got to hold my favorite baby boy. What is so important about any of this? I have been awake too long so now I feel quiet and tired.

Why is it that music becomes more beautiful when I am tired or quiet? It has also stormed today. The words in songs have become so much more beautiful. It's so hard to describe how I feel when I am tired and I don't have a particular assignment, motivation, or goal. Right now it feels sweet.

Some of my midnight finds:

2010-06-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have been hording this Heather Bailey fabric for quite some time.

I have no idea what to do with it but I have some ideas:

quilt 1
quilt 2
quilt 3 (similar to quilt 1)
quilt 4

All of the quilts are from filminthefridge. I found her on Flickr. I often search certain fabric designers and then follow pictures streams from one pretty project to another. I have seen a lot of beautiful things this way!

Bisquit Biscuit

2010-06-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months, I have been trying to make the perfect scratch biscuit. I have used White Lily Self-Rising Flour, Pillsbury All-Purpose Flour and Bisquick mix. I have followed several recipes. The two that I have tried the most are the White Lily recipe on the bag and a Googled copy of the Cracker Barrel recipe. I have only used actual buttermilk once, last summer. I have been substituting regular milk for it. Today I actually soured milk with white vinegar. It's the best way to have buttermilk on hand!

I must say that the results for the Cracker Barrel recipe turned out the same. Unless anyone has a better idea, I am going to stick with canned biscuits. The Texas style are my favorite but they still don't compete with Cracker Barrel biscuits!

read, knit, sew, repeat from

2010-06-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday. I took a break this weekend and didn't go anywhere. I also didn't do much. It has been very relaxing. I am going to finish sewing up some pillow covers today. I am also going to knit on the "baby boy" baby blanket and perhaps make a pot roast. I got the idea off of facebook of all places! Maddie was fixed on Tuesday and has been a whiny fool! She will probably continue to lay next to me all day. I will also make some cookies for my co-workers.

Yesterday I took long-awaited pictures for my Ravelry. Last week I re-picked up my Retro Rib socks. The yarn is Madelinetosh sock that was gifted to me by Stefanie of The Backwards Loop. I need to pick a new motivating project and get some new yarn from her. I have a few ideas in mind, but first, I will finish at least one sock!

Charlotte, NC for G Laswell

2010-06-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

I headed north to Charlotte, NC last Saturday afternoon. I checked into my dowtown hotel and headed to see Greg Laswell. It was an amazing show. There were only 50 people in the bar. I have been in love with this musician for about a year and a half now. I found a song of his on Grey's Anatomy. He was just walking around the little bar waiting for his time to take the stage. I had those weird moments where I was surprised that I was in the same room with someone who's music has very literally changed my life.

Yes, I even got to "meet" him which included a picture. He was such a nice guy which has made me just fall in love with him more!

Downtown Charlotte at dusk (my favorite time of day).

Charlotte in the morning (as long as here is coffee, an ok time of day!)

On Monday I decided to head down to Charleston. Did I mention that Greg Laswell will be in Charleston in July?! I went with my friends Jacob, Amanda and baby Kaiden.

This weekend? I don't know. Maybe the beach again!

Newberry, SC

2010-05-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

After work on a Saturday I headed to Newberry, in the Midlands of South Carolina. Only an hour away, I heard that it would be a great place to antique shop. It was an absolutely terrible place to shop for nearly anything, and it had small town charm but no better than the next small town. Antique shopping here in South Carolina has proven to be a dead end. I wish I would have taken better advantage of Missouri and Arkansas while I was there.

My friend David, whom I have never met, told me to take one of my many cameras along. I wasn't very motivated to take photos of anything when I drove it, but I drove past a cemetery (of all things, I know) and I just had to take pictures of the plastic flowers. They proved to be a not so interesting subject but I went to town on some brick with my new macro lenses. I am still stumbling through composition and through the depth perception of a macro lens, but I liked this next photo.

After the cemetery I headed downtown and snapped some photos of me in windows (a blurry ordeal). I also too this next photo. Can you tell what it is?

It's the top of a fire hydrant, the lens looking down on it. I want it to end up framed in my house somewhere. After my trip to Newberry, I fell off of the go-somewhere-every-weekend bandwagon. This weekend I will climb back on and head to Charlotte, NC.