Things have changed. Spence won't be getting back until early October.
But hey, he's still coming home much earlier than the boat is.
My automatic ice cream maker (only $50 from amazon, and free shipping!) arrived yesterday and I made my first batch today. I decided to just go with whatever I could make with ingredients on hand, which didn't include milk, and here's what I came up with:
Pineapple Sorbet
1 c. Splenda
1 c. water
several splashes lemon juice
one splash lime juice
1 can crushed pineapple in its own juice
Blend it all together on high speed, chill in the fridge, pour into ice cream maker and 25 mins later you have luscious pineapple sorbet! You can also use sugar instead of Splenda, but Splenda tastes just as good.
Best of all, reading through the instruction book has finally taught me the difference between ice cream (frozen milk-based dessert), sherbet (frozen citrus-and-milk-based dessert), and sorbet (frozen water-based dessert).
You just can't put a price on that kind of knowledge.
After replacing the power supply I have discovered that the NIC is fried, so I've got to replace that, too. It's going to be awhile longer before I'm back on that system, so awhile longer till we have pictures.
The end is in sight for Makayla's blanket....10 more rows of stockinette, 36 rows of lace and I'm done! I don't care how soft microfiber is, I'm never using a 100% acrylic yarn again! It's like constant rugburn in my hands. Ick.
The suki tote is almost done, also.
And 50 more days :)
So it occurred to me that with everything I have knit, I have YET to make anything for me. And that's just crazy. And I've been dying to felt something, so I decided to make the Suki tote from Knitty.
This is marvelous fun. I'm doing different colors and just playing, playing, playing. I mean, it's a bag that I'm going to toss into the washer and felt so I can do no wrong! Aaaahhhhh, what freedom. I'm using Bartlett Maine wool in Peacock, Delft Blue, Dark Lovet, and Mountain Laurel. I didn't have quite enough yarn to do the pattern as-is, so I've changed the patterning.
I began with Peacock and a stack of "Adornaments" fun fibers from EK Success. As I did the first 8 rows, I incorporated piece after piece (~3 yards each) of Adornaments, everything from eyelash and sparkly mohair to chenille and some furry stuff. I'm curious to see what it'll look like after felting the yarn it's knit with. And even though I'm knitting with a doubled strand, I cast on with a single strand. This is making the top curve over. I want to see how that looks after felting, too. After the first 8 rows of Peacock I'm doing:
Mountain Laurel - 7 rows
Delft Blue - 3 rows
Dark Lovet - 6 rows
Delft Blue - 3 rows
Mountain Laurel - 5 rows
Delft Blue - 3 rows
Dark Lovet - 5 rows
Delft Blue - 3 rows
Mountain Laurel - 6 rows
Delft Blue - 3 rows
Dark Lovet - 7 rows
Then I'll do the finishing and decreasing in Peacock. Truth be told, I think it'd be prettier if I could leave out the Delft Blue and use Peacock in its place, but I don't have enough yarn for that. It's still pretty this way. I haven't decided on the color for the handles. Mountain Laurel would balance nicely, but I don't know if I'll have enough left. I might have to stripe the handles, or just use the Delft Blue. We'll see :)
It'll be so much fun to throw this in the washer and see what comes out. I love experimenting! And when I'm done I'll have the perfect bag for toting around my knitting.
Which will probably turn into a diaper bag. Yeah, all you mommies of infants know what I'm talking about! Do you have any kind of carrying device that does not at some point wind up with a diaper or teething toy or extra onesie inside? Didn't think so ;)
Oh, and I almost forgot the best part: no weaving in ends....tie and snip, because they get felted in! Woohoo!
And just because I can't say it enough: I love my fantabulous husband. He makes my heart sing =)
Have I mentioned that I have the most spectacular husband ever?
(Scroll down and read the comments).
And so, per his request, I'm putting the countdown back :) I'll have it counting down to the 6-month point. He'll probably actually get back shortly after that, but by the time the countdown is done we'll be so close it won't matter that it's off by a few days ;)
Unfortunately, I'm partial to the countdown script I was using and I haven't been able to find the webpage again. I've got it saved on the other computer so once it's fixed, I'll put the countdown back :)
PER MY MOTHER'S REQUEST: There are 55 days until Spence comes home :)
That doesn't even sound like all that much, does it??? Especially when you consider that we've completed 125!! We are both starting to get really excited.
I haven't been updating much because I can't add pictures. The power supply blew on our usual computer and I'm awaiting its replacement. Right now I'm limping along with our old system and don't feel like forcing the scanner into submission.
I've finished the first sock of the first pair for Children in Common. I also managed to get a hat sent out for afghans for Afghans. The deadline is still a week away and they're quite a ways from their goal, if anyone feels the urge to whip up a quick hat.
I've also done a new necklace which turned out so lovely. It's predominantly garnets and sterling silver, with swarovski crystal and accents of tree agate.
I'll put up pictures of all these finished things as soon as the computer's running again.
And my husband is in port again, so yay, phone calls!! Also, it's looking like he's actually going to be back when he was originally supposed to be back which would mean we only have about 8.5 weeks left...and about half that will be spent in ports, so it should go pretty quickly (unlike the last 4+ months, of which only 2 weeks total were spent in port). The time time always passes faster when we get to talk to each other.
Because you're always supposed to do what your mom tells you :)
So, good news #1: Spence will be home later than we originally hoped, but not as late as we thought would happen. He's being sent back early so we can transfer. He will hopefully be home sometime in early October.
Good news #2: I finished the socks for afghans for Afghanistan and sent them off. They're quite pretty. I took a picture but have not yet uploaded it.
WIP: Makayla's blanket, Connor's blanket, socks for CIC. Thinking about sweater for Spence. And blanket for new house.
Pondering #1: Why is it that every person from my past I get curious about and go looking for is totally lacking when it comes to internet presence? Get with the times, people! How can I track down, say, my friends from TIP if you don't get online! Although I'm all bouncy tonight, because I did find one of them: Elizabeth. On Friendster. Now I just hope she accepts my friendship request instead of discounting me as some psycho who picked her name out of the ether.
You may notice that the countdown is gone. Why? Because I no longer know when my husband is coming home.
Yet another marvelous resource discovered through my Socknitter list:
StitchGuide.com - a wealth of information on lots of different craft techniques, including knitting and crochet
I'm really happy with the way this one turned out. I was designing it around the pendant I wanted to use. I'll have a hard time parting with this one, but I've put it into the gift shop nonetheless. Click on thumbnails:
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I'm almost done with my socks for Afghanistan. Unfortunately, they look pretty different. Normally I don't mind fraternal twin socks but this one is bugging me. I really wish dyers would consider the fact that knitters often knit from each end of the skein, rather than just one. It's common practice when doing two socks. The sock I'm doing from one end has a lovely blue stripe that winds slowly around the sock in the opposite direction from the spiral (Refresher: I'm doing spiral tube socks). The sock I'm doing from the other end has a blue stripe zig-zagging up one side of the sock, and no blue on the other side of the sock.
Usually when I wind up with two different patterns I leave it. In this case, it's driving me crazy because the first sock has such a GREAT pattern that it makes the second sock look like a mistake. So you know what's going to happen, boys and girls....I'm going to have to frog the second sock. The only thing I hate more than finishing is frogging. It's so frustrating to do something ALL OVER AGAIN when you've done it already. But I don't think I can let this one go. At least I have enough time to do it before the August 1 deadline. I think. I hope.
Here's a necklace I custom designed for a friend of mine, Kenna. Click on thumbnails for larger picture:
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Russian Join - I think this is the coolest way of joining yarn I've ever seen.
You know what's great about a mom who knits? She learns all kinds of stuff and then teaches you the best method from all the things she's tried :) The only socks I've ever knit are figure-8 toe-up with short row heels. As far as I'm concerned it's the perfect sock and I got the benefit of her trial and error. I only just found out that there are people out there doing toe-up methods with short row shaping and all kinds of crazy stuff! So I figured I should spread the knowledge around:
That's the toe-up method my mom taught me. Of course, it's a lot easier if you have someone there to actually SHOW you. I'm not sure I would have been able to do it just from this website. Incidentally, what she's telling you to do with the second needle of stitches (once you've looped on and knit the first needle) is to knit through the back loop. That's how my mom explained it to me and I think it makes more sense :)
Thank you, Momma!
