OKC!

Today started with Josh shaving most of his beard, leaving a handlebar mustache and soul patch.

Then we went to the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, OK. There we saw all kinds of stuff native to Oklahoma.

A Wooly Mammoth stepped on Josh.

And we saw some artifacts from the Mediterranean.

A Hat, A Plan, A Canal, Panama!

I have designed matching reversible hats for Sandy and I to wear at the Shamrock Shuffle this year (held in April of course).

The hat is designed in thirds with three simple celtic knots forming the bulk of the hat, with two shamrocks and the year in between the knots. The shamrocks and knots are regular double knitting where you have the mirror image on the reverse. The year is fancy double knitting where you can have different designs on each side.



Here you can see the bottom half of two of the knots, the year, and the chart.

Call me Martha

Actually, call Sandy and I Martha.



We made this awesome, high maintenace, vertiucally layered, rose cake.

The Cake.





Chilling in the fridge, pre eating.


Icing the roses.




Assembling the layers, high maintenance vertcal layers.




The cakes, mid slicing and layering.


Sandy baked four layers, two chocolate, two yellow and glued them together using simple syrup (no icing) into one tall chocolate cake and one tall yellow cake.

After freezing them to help them stick together we cut them into concentric circles and reassembled the rings of cake into bullseyes.

Then we used more simple syrup/glue and froze them again.

We made buttercream icing and Sandy applied a crumb coat to the cakes. She made me do the roses.

We then force fed it to the regular crew after Sandy fed them lassagna and roasted chicken & vegtables.

Icing the roses was easier than I thought it would be. I'm probably never going to do the vertical layers again, they were so much work, and they fell apart when you tried to cut the cake. Next time I'll do regular layers and ice the roses.

Big Cat

Cat, no hat

With fish!

This is my first completed crochet project. I'm already making another one, and I have plans for a third.

I stitched up her little fish too.

I'm very pleased with myself. My cousin Laura taught me the basics more than a year ago when we were in London. I started two scarf/shawl type patterns, but never completed them.

I saw this pattern in a book (Hello My Name is Amineko) at Borders. The book was on a super sale, and the cat looked basic enough that I could figure it all out. It was a great first project. It's all single crochet, but you learn how to increase, decrease, and change colors. There is one fancy decrease on the mouth that I may not have done 100% correctly, but it looks ok to me.

Project Update

A green cowl for me.

Hand dyed sock yarn from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks, knit up in a twig lace pattern, with the ends grafted together to make a seamless tube.

And a Space Invaders Hat for Josh.

Josh's hat was designed for his birthday. It's double knitting, so it's completely reversible and super warm. It's also made to measure, so it shouldn't squish his curls too much.

Happy Birthday to me!

A snapshot of my yarn haul from yesterday.

A closeup.

Dream in Color, a yarn manufacturer in the Chicago suburbs, had a warehouse/mill ends sale yesterday, my birthday. I brought home about $300 worth of lovely hand dyed yarn for $75.

It was great!