A Happy Thanksgiving

Yes, it was.

Good food, good company and an all around good time. We put out the good dishes...


while we chowed down on the cranberry salsa that Rena made. There was deep-fried turkey, mashed taters, squash and green beans. Yummy!

Hope all of you had a great holiday too.

Circular Needle Storage

5 1/2" Floppy Box Finds New Life...


I've been searching for the perfect method of storing my circular needles. Way too much time has been spent untangling the spaghetti-like cables and inserting the needles in the gauge to see what size they are, then measuring the cable length; only to forget a couple days later what I have in my arsenal of knitting weapons.


Finally, I will measure needles no more! In the trash pile at work the other day I found an old floppy disc box - remember those? There was a time when every office in the building had one. Now however, the "floppy" has been replaced with the CD drive or the handy-dandy portable USB drive.


What many would regard as junk has found a new use at my house. A little time, construction paper and glue and I have a great new use for this seemingly outdated item. I'll be searching through the basement storage next week to see if there are any more available. I know some other folks would like to have one too.

If you'd like to make your own and don't want to figure out the measurements and method, here is a tutorial on how I made mine. Hope you find it useful in your craft room.

All photos will biggie-size if you click on them


Find an old 5 1/2" floppy disk box...Gather construction paper, ruler, scoring tool - I used a mechanical pencil with lead retracted - scissors and glue. If you're crafty like me you'll already have this stuff leftover from another project, lol.


Measure and score the construction paper as follows...1 5/8" down each long side of sheet, 6 3/4" from one short end then 1 3/4" from same end.


Trim square from corners and a narrow wedge at center fold You'll have something that looks like this...

Fold in the upper side flaps, fold bottom half up and wrap the lower flaps around the back of the envelope. Spread Elmer's type glue on the flap and stick it to the back of the envelope.


It should fit perfectly in the box...

Fold down the top flap to close and add a sticky label with the needle size and you have nice sturdy storage for your circs.

Any questions? I'd be glad to help you with your very own circ box, just leave a comment here or send me a PM on Ravelry.

Happy crafting!

The Saint's Cheese

WARNING!!! THIS POST IS NOT FOR THE WEAK OF STOMACH!!!
Or if you haven't had your breakfast yet, or if you've just finished your breakfast, hahaha.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

***********************************************************************************

Yes, it's that time of year again at Chez B...head-cheese time!

The Saint takes a week off before Thanksgiving under the guise of deer hunting season but what he really does is plan and execute the making of the head-cheese. We begin getting calls about the middle of October, folks asking when the cheese is gonna be ready and can they get a one? I know when I hear him on this end of the conversation asking do you want hot or not-hot? that he's talking about the cheese.

It's a mystery to me that anyone can eat it but I guess there are those who don't like fruit cake and that's one of my favs so it proves - there's no accounting for taste.

He even did a little photo shoot for me while he was hookin-it-up, LOL.

I present you...the making of the cheese!


It begins at 4:30am with pots of boiling pig parts...










Then the parts are drained, mashed...



and seasoned...then pressed into loaves.


Not a bad days work and the kitchen was clean when I got home too!







Thanks Honey!


Check back for my first tutorial...

How to re-purpose an old 5 1/2" floppy disc box (free from the trash at work)
into a circular needle holder, using materials I had around the craft room...

My spiffy newest socks

Wooo, check out my new socks. I-love-them!












Socks That Rock, Knitters w/o Borders colorway.

And doesn't this cloth I made over the weekend remind you a little bit of peppermint candy?

Hmmm?

I've been hearing bells jingling in the far distance, I better get busy on the gift knitting. I found a great little gifty thing to knit on Ravelry today. Hope everybody likes soap and felted knits cause this looks like it could be a great stash burner.

Hope everybody had a great Monday. Mine was nothing special at work, just work, meh.

For dinner I made my Grama's Hand-Made Noodle Soup. I had boiled some beef bones most of the afternoon yesterday so I would have fresh stock. I didn't have any Accent, which was always her secret weapon in any soup, but I did put some Chipotle Pepper in to give it a little heat and disguise the fact that it wasn't laden with MSG. The Saint was disappointed there was no meat in the soup so guess I'll have to alter the recipe to accomodate the carnivore. Grama always made it very simply...beef stock, onion, potatoes, handmade egg noodles and a sprinkle of dried parsley at presentation. Nummy! Even thought it's been many years since I've hand-made egg noodles they didn't turn out too bad. I'll have to make it again soon with a few alterations, soup is good food, you know, LOL.

A hunting he will go...

Yep, I'm a deer hunting widow this weekend. Not complaining! It's been a great weekend so far. I love The Saint but enjoy my alone time too. When I got home from work yesterday he had left this little gift on the dining room table before he went off to the woods. Once again, he earned his nickname...


Last night Rena and I went to the local theatre and saw The Secret Life of Bees. Go see it!!! If you read and liked the book, you'll like the movie. I was glad I grabbed a napkin with my popcorn as it ended up in soggy shreds by the end...if you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about...sob. The casting was spot-on...I want August Boatwright to adopt me, I think she'd be a great Mom and Queen Latifah was perfect in that part. When are they gonna release the soundtrack? The trio of singers in this movie are amazingly talented. I want it now!

In knitting news...my Election Day Socks are finished. I got a pair of socks done in about 3 weeks, that's some kind of record for me. They're pretty fun...nice and heavy for wearing around the house this winter without shoes.
I'm off to find a cardigan vest pattern for The Saint...wish me luck.

Thanks everyone for stopping in and saying hello. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.

My knitting education continues...

I got to meet Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed fame at the EGR Public Library last night.


And I won a fabulous prize, a kit of Rita's yummy hand painted yarn and an EZ BSJ pattern, thanks Lorilee!


We saw beautiful photographs and picked up some great tips on improving our own photos without spending a gazillion dollars on equipment.


His knitwear is amazing! Go check out his blog if you haven't already. He has some mad teaching skilz too.


This morning was seamless sweater design at City Knitting. Jared explained the percentage technique for knitting his awesome Cobblestone Pullover. Before the class I would have thought it was beyond my ability but now, I am so doing it!

And he's funny! And very cute...in a cute like my son Jared kinda way, LOL. We had lots of laughs in class and even though I totally abandoned my swatch (I can't knit and watch detailed instructions on a white-board at the same time) I learned a lot and had a great time.

Jared & Lorilee
And it's always great to see Rowan at class, hey Rowan!
Rowan & Josh
Lorilee & Jared
If you get the opportunity to take one of his classes, don't miss it, especially if you have an appreciation for Elizabeth Zimmerman's knitwear. Having made the BSJ and the ASJ myself I really was glad to hear an oral explanation of her design strategy using the percentage system. I fumbled my way through the two sweaters I made and having Jared explain them in a class was really helpful. I'll be starting a new sweater soon, I'm sure.


Lunch at Rafav's then it was back to CK for a few photos, autographs and another class for Jared to teach on Aran sweater knitting.


Jared & Ally>>>




Kristin & Jared
I spent the afternoon hanging out with the usual peeps (hey Carol, Rosalyn and Suzanne) and finished my Election Day Sock - that didn't get done in time for election day, hehehe.

This was my first toe-up sock after taking Cookie A's class a couple weeks ago. I like it, alot!

What an exciting ride it's been...

Of all the political buttons I've collected over the past few months this one is my favorite!


We met up with a few friends Tuesday night for a little party at Mosaic. What fun! We got to hang out with the volunteers from the local Dem HQ and watch the election returns.


There were refreshments and we got to meet a few new folks and watch the big screen tv's


Sorry for the crappy picture quality, I forgot my camera and had to use my cell...bleh.

a pretty emotional night for all of us

The Saint has worked very hard the last 60 days. It's been a long, nerve wracking campaign - draining at times and uplifting at others. A learning experience the whole way that I would not have wanted to miss. Thanks, Honey, for working so hard even when you were unbelievably tired some days. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Turn out the liiiiiights, the party's overrrrr...



Now we can rejoice in these historic moments. I'll be reminded everyday when I look at this hanging on my kitchen wall...


Let's get to work!