Grandma's Brag Book

I thought I'd share this little video with you; I put this together for my mother. For her, I put it onto a DVD (menu and all! I love my Mac!). Here, it's just the video.

It includes my children and grandchildren, hence a "brag book"... the video version.

May I Present?

Yesterday, after Sit & Stitch and after packing a box, I had some time to sit down and finish the shearing day video. I hope you enjoy it.

It's Official

We're moving. Again. Yes, this is a good thing. We're moving out of a third floor walkup into a ground level basement suite. No more lugging bags of groceries up two flights of stairs after a day of standing all day at work! The new place is a little outside of the town center, but has good bus service and is closer to the lake. We like that!

Now the packing starts! We'll be moving in to the new place (and out of here) by the end of May and we're both looking forward to getting settled in over there. As you can certainly understand, there won't be a lot of knitting time in the next few weeks.

Actually, there hasn't been a lot of knitting in the last while, other than knitting the seemingly endless garter stitch section of the Shetland Christening Dress. Last Saturday, John and I went up to the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm to watch (and record) this year's shearing. That was fun! If you'd like to hear about it, do check out this week's podcast. Unlike last year's visit to the farm, this time all the equipment worked, thankfully. You can listen to the podcast over in the sidebar.

Here are a couple of pictures, and there are a few more over on the podcast notes page.

What's going on over there????

Herding "the boys" into the barn for their haircuts

(that's John in the blue sweater and ball cap)

I'm also putting together a YouTube video; once it's ready and uploaded, I'll link to it from here. Now, back to hockey watching; it's playoff time!!

Fun Day Scheduled

Today is supposed to be a podcast day, but there's just too much going on today to allow me the time required. It will be postponed. Today, John and I are going to watch an alpaca shearing and I'm kind of excited. I've never seen a sheep or alpaca or any animal being shorn before. This time, unlike last year, I am ready.

If you don't remember our last visit to the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm, you can find the original post here. Last week, I bought new batteries for the camera, charged them, let them run empty, then charged them again. I have a backup set of batteries. I've checked to make sure the recorder works and I'll remember to turn on the microphone! All we have to do before we go is renew the insurance on the car (which has come down this year... yay!)

And, when I can, I'll blog and/or podcast all about it!

In the meantime, here's what one of the future tutorials will be about...

Breaded

If you hadn't guessed by now, I love baking bread... bread of almost any kind. After a fragmented day today (I had two specialist's appointments today - OB/Gyn and ENT and worked between the appointments), I decided to make focaccia bread and tomato soup for dinner tonight.

I'd bookmarked a recipe on recipezaar.com a while back and tried it tonight. It's a keeper!

Above... before baking

Above... after baking

And, with the tomato soup that John made. This is good eats!!

You can find the recipe here.

And as for the doctors' appointments? Ob/Gyn says all is well. ENT (ear, nose & throat specialist) wants another needle biopsy on another part of my thyroid. Then, when the results are in, he's considering surgery to remove at least half of my thyroid (thyroid function is normal, but there are some lumps he'd like to remove). That's way down the road, though. For now, I'll just wait for the call from the hospital for the repeat of the biopsy. Oh, preliminary results indicate that there's no cancer. Life is good!

Corked!

This is FUN!!! I've made a second tutorial; this time it's about spool knitting, also known as French knitting or corking. We used to do a lot of this as kids. I don't do a lot of it now, but it's a handy thing to know.

A third tutorial is in the works.. for nupps, as requested.

Enjoy!

Thanks, but....

Wow! Your very kind responses amazed me! I am thrilled and humbled that you all thought my very first (yes, artful soul, my very first ever) video tutorial was worthy of such high praise. I had fun putting it together. That said, I can't take all the credit.

As a friend from irc (internet relay chat) once typed: /me hugs his mac. This computer has a wonderful program called iMovie and it's what I used to put together the tutorial. I've also put together a dvd for my mom, who's not online, using iDVD, another wonderful program on the iMac.

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement for Apple in general, and iMac in particular, I'll just say.... Ev hugs her mac!

Oh, Carol? A tutorial on nupps is in the works, and I have ideas for a couple more. Again, if you have any ideas for tutorials, please do let me know. You ask, you get.

You Ask, You Get!

In an earlier post about the lucets, Emily and Gail (hi guys!) were both curious as to how to use a lucet. Seeing as I was home today, I decided it might be a good time to put together my very first video tutorial.

Emily, Gail, here you go... How to Lucet

And, if you'd like the YouTube link, you can find it here.

Incidentally, it was so much fun putting this video together that, if there's something you'd like to see in a tutorial, let me know; I might just be willing to put together another one.

That Was Then

Just two days ago, I did say that I didn't need another knitting project, didn't I? I thought so. Well, that was then and this....

... is now. After swatching for Summit, I realized I had THE perfect yarn for it. Handmaiden Yarns Sea Silk. And it IS perfect! The yarn has a lovely sheen to it and will have (I think) just the right amount of drape for this pattern. I couldn't resist it's siren call.

Knitting isn't all I've been doing this weekend. I also made these lovelies. I've been baking for a long time and I have to say that these are the best cinnamon buns I've ever tasted, let alone made. They are really, really decadent and delicious!

After I'd glazed them, John had to help by cleaning all the dribbles off the counter. Such hard work! They were barely cooled and we already had one eaten. Incidentally, if you do make these buns, be advised that I only made a half recipe. The recipe calls for a 9x13" pan and an 8x8" pan. I used an 8x10" (ish) pan and made 8 large cinnamon buns.

The recipe is definitely a keeper!

New Toys!

Do you remember that back in January (here, to be exact), I improvised a lucet? To refresh your memory, a lucet is an ancient tool, harking back to Viking times, for making cords. I've used lucet cord to make a drawstring for a bag I made and I wear one as a reminder bracelet (every time I touch it, I think of my daughter).

Well, two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to work with Tim. He used to work in the same shop I'm in, but after the owner bought a second print shop, Tim has been managing it and no longer works with me. While babysitting the copier there, I asked Tim, who has a well-equipped woodworking shop, if he could make me a lucet.

After drawing one out and explaining to him what it was for, he obliged me and this week, as my boss passed me in the shop, he said "Your slingshots are here". I was momentarily puzzled, but quickly realized that he meant the lucets Tim had made for me.

The two lighter coloured lucets are made of pine; I'm not sure what kind of wood the center one is, but it is also quite a bit thicker than the pine lucets. Both of the pine lucets are very comfortable in the hand, light, smooth and fun to work with.

The cord you see on this lucet took about an hour to make and, now that I have the rhythm down, goes very smoothly.

Tim has let me know that the lucets aren't difficult to make, but the sanding takes some time. He's also let me know that he's more than willing to make them for sale. If you're at all interested in learning how to lucet, let me know and something could be arranged.

I'm Swatching You

It's not that I need something else to work on; heaven knows that's the last thing I need! It isn't that I think this is the most beautiful yarn in the world and I want desperately to knit something with it. In all honesty, this yarn has been in my stash for years and I just don't know what to do with it; I dislike everything I've ever started with it.

However, this pattern just begged to be swatched... just to see how it's done! If you don't recognize it, head on over to Knitty and look up Summit in the Spring & Summer 2010 issue. I just HAD TO!!

I like it! I have a feeling another shawl/stole will be in my wardrobe at some point. I'll just have to decide on the yarn I'll use; it won't be this one. It's working up just a little too stripey for my liking.