Coopworth! or "Toothfairy Trapping!"

Episode 25

I. Production Scheduling

1. Events

   1. 

      B has to sit on Joe's shoulders to get eye level with Humphrey.

      

      Petting the Angora Rabbit.

      Ann Arbor Fiber Expo! This show was a it smaller than I expected but it was totally worth the drive out. There were a ton of vendors crammed into three barns. We got there about 10:00 AM and we had plenty of time to canvas the barns and to see what was there before the crush of people came. There were all sorts of yarn vendors but I was really wasn’t feeling the yarn <Gasp> I was there for the fiber! So My first run through the barns I made a mental not of everything I was interested in. Which was mostly roving but I saw a few fleece that I was thinking about and I was also in the market for a real nostepinne so I can retire my Q hook. The first pass took a bit longer than I thought because an the last barn they had some adorable French Angora Rabbits. I would love to have one and living in suburbia this is the only fiber animal I'll be able to keep. (unless I can manage to buy out my neighbors I need and acre of land per sheep...) I stood and chatted with the breeder for 10or 15 minutes gathering rabbit information. I felt too guilty that the poor rabbit would have to endure a 3 hr car ride to buy him. After the rabbit we found a camel named Humphrey. Humphrey was extremely friendly and really likes kids. I have a picture of B, Humphrey and Joe that will be up on the show notes page. Humphrey's owners were selling camel and Jacob fiber as well. I had no idea camel was so soft. I had been previously squishing everything in sight critically and was pleasantly surprised when I squished the camel. After we had seen everything the boys and I headed for the food stand to grab a snack and plot our attack, which was almost my undoing! (BTW the fries here were awesome hand cut and yummy, the polish sausage was decent fair quality, but the funnel cake was sadly over cooked and crumbly) While I was planning my strategy the masses were descending! ACK! I left B and Joe to continue munching and I headed back to the vendors without them to slow me down. Stop 1:Yarn Hollow ( www.yarnhollow.com) where I bought 4oz of Merino Super wash and Tencel in the Galaxy colorway I'm a sucker for jewel tones. The tencel in this roving makes the burgundy's and blue's shine like silk. This was a pretty popular shop and it was hard to get to the braid I wanted though to the braid I wanted through the other shoppers. Stop 2: and where I realized I should have been buying as I went.... Copperpot Woolies. (www.copperpot.etsy.com) Some of the best colors I saw at the expo. Really nice ladies and a great sale. Their fibers were selling quickly and by 11:00 their back shelves were almost empty. I bought 4.3 oz of merino in O Oak, 4.3 oz of Merino, corriedale with Icicle in Hollyberry, 6.8 oz Merino / Corriedale in Nantucket, 4.1oz of merino in cotton candy. Here's where I started to feel my inner penny pincher start to complain... So I headed back to the Camel and Renee Mickam Hairy Camel – Camel Hair Crafts where I picked up 4 oz of Humphrey and 8 oz of Jacob roving for a steal of a deal. I had to ask her if she got the math right and I still think I got the better end of things. At this point I thought I was done and I was headed tot he door. I met up with Joe and B and we were headed out when I saw the angora. I've been regretting not picking up angora at the peninsula fiber fling. So when I saw that Jelly Beans Farms had angora fiber and it was from one of the bunnies we were petting in the barn by the camel I snapped up .8 oz of Carlysle the bunny. I really thought I was out the door this time but as I turn to follow Joe and B Melissa who we were staying with and who had to take her rabbit (non Angora) to the vet came walking in. So Joe went off to hang out in the picnic area and Melissa B and I did the show again. Where I ended up finding Coopworth which I've been wanting for a while. I bought my Coopworth at Hidden Valley Farm and Woolen Mill (http://www.hiddenvalleyfarmwoolenmill.com) I got 8 oz of Peacock and 8 oz of Mary's Lake effect. Whooo! I have officially out grown my fiber storage. It's now a good thing I acquired a huge footlocker size Rubbermaid container when I thought that impromptu crochet course. I now need it for storage. I did made sure to wear smething hand knit so I wore my summerflies shawl and it got several compliments and a few pets as well which was a new experience. b The rest of the trip was really nice. Nate got to see his dad. Joe, Melissa, B and I had dinner at Palm palace (http://www.palmpalace.com) where the bread is made fresh and is to die for! We get the the chefs sampler and never ever pass by desert the chocolate cake is phenomenal with layers of dark chocolate mousse. Mmmmmmm... The next morning we had breakfast at Zingermann's ( http://zingermansdeli.com) followed by cheese shopping yummmy and a new treat called a meat cone which turned out to be and assortment of cured meats, a few slices of pate', and two cornishons. We at that in the car on the way Greenfield village. With such a full weekend we were pretty wiped out on Sunday as we drove home but there was the one stop that Joe was most looking forward to Beef Jerky Unlimited in Luna Pier, Mi. If you';re on I-80 by Toledo and you see the sign that says Beef Jerky Unlimited “We're not a Gas station!” stop in it's worth it! Joe's favorite is the honey BBQ pork jerky. Which is pretty much a cured pork chop with BBQ sauce.
   2. Camp KIP April 21-24 2012 at the Cedar Creek Conference center in New Haven, Missouri
2. Production
3. After 5

II Production

1. Holiday Knitting – we're at 35% with 61 days til Christmas. With all the hullabaloo involved with a family trip I haven't made it back to the ornaments.
2. I heart lace by Inese Andzane knitted out of Cascade Heritage silk in color 5637 which is a peacock blue. Last week this shawl was in QC. This week I'm back on track. I'm currently 4 rows past where the previous problem was with another life line in. This puts me past the half way point in the lace chart and hopefully it will be a nice downhill coast.

III What's In My Tea Pot

1. Bengal Spice® Herbal Tea - "Brimming with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and cloves, a cup of our aromatic Bengal Spice tea is like a trip to an exotic spice market in a faraway land. This adventurous blend is our caffeine-free interpretation of Chai, a piquant Indian brew traditionally made with black tea. Try Bengal Spice with milk and sugar for a true Chai experience."

1. Melissa gave me a recipe to make this tea bag into Coconut Chai. To do this you take 2/3 coconut milk, 1/3 water and 1 Celestial Seasons Bengal Spice tea bag per cup heat the liquid ingredients and then steep the bags in the liquid. Melissa prefers to use unsweetened coconut milk I prefer the sweetened.

IV After 5

1. 

   "Oh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner...."

   B lost his 1^st tooth. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Personally I thought he was too little for this. But we've called the pediatrician and the dentist and they say it's possible and not at all unheard of. I looked at the tooth and it doesn't look damaged. I think My issue is that he's my baby and he looks too little to be missing a tooth. He freaked out a bit when it happened (of course we were in the parking lot of the Henry Ford...) But he was quickly reassured when his daddy, miss Melissa,mommy, and even Nate's daddy all reassured him that this was normal and it meant he was getting to be a bigger boy. He did not however want to sleep with the tooth under his pillow. He thought that was like sleeping on a bone and that was scary. So we put it on the corner of his dresser. This morning when he went to look at his tooth Joe tells me that he yelled “Dada! It's a miracle my tooth turned into a dollar.!” We'll have to work on the whole tooth fairy thing. Though I have to say that this tooth fairy experience is so much more preferable than one I had with Nate. Nate decided he was going to attempt to trap the tooth fair and so when I went to creep into his room to put the money under his pillow he had bungee cords and strings clanking cans strung from them so that I had to thread my way though the room mission impossible style avoiding all the strings.
2. B has also figured out that daddy can be easily swayed into buying treats as the grocery store. As they were walking down the fruit snack aisle B saw the fruit leather and went into begging mode. When daddy gave in he grabbed a second box and said “we'll just get 2...” and popped it into the cart. I can't believe it worked! I hope that trick works for mommy the next time she's in the yarn store and daddy is paying!

.

One more day

Episode 25 is recorded but will e edited on posted on Tuesday.  Sorry for the delay!

Oh Martha! or "You're Fired!"

Episode 24

I Production Scheduling

1. Events

1. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo or the Fuzzy Fair as Melissa has taken to calling it...October 22 and 23^rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
2. Camp KIP April 21-24 2012 at the Cedar Creek Conference center in New Haven, Missouri
1. Production
2. QC Inspection
3. What's in My Tea Pot
4. Materials Sourcing
5. After 5

II Production / QC

1. Holiday Knitting – Holiday knitting is under way and uneventful. I wish I could talk more about it but I know this person listens... :)
2. I heart lace by Inese Andzane knitted out of Cascade Heritage silk in color 5637 which is a peacock blue. I made it to the chart! I thought I would e able to finish this week but I ended up a stitch off on the 6^th pattern row and wound up in QC.

III QC Inspection

1. So down to the meat of the problem. What went wrong. Initially I think I got distracted early on into the row. When I got to the center stitch I saw I was one stitch off. At that point I checked the clock and saw it was late and put it down for the night. The next day I tinked back to where I thought I had made the error and went forward again. I was still one stitch off. So I put it down again to work on something else not wanting to do anything rash. The next day I counted my stitches wondering if I had dropped one somewhere a long the line. The count came out right. So it had to be a mistake I made in the pattern. Tink tink tink back again this time to the beginning of the row because I never found the mistake and during that tink I dropped a stitch un knitting a slip 1 knit 2 tog psso. <grumble> Luckily I had put in a life line before I started the lace rows. It's back on the needles now. I took the chance to switch to my pointier lace needles. I had originally cast this on my addi circs I wasn't happy with these needles so when I put the project back on the needles I switched to my pointier lace needles. Sacrificing smooth joins for pointier tips. You can't have everything... after all where would you put it.

IV What's in my Tea Pot

1. LIPTON Bavarian Wild Berry Tea Sweet and indulgent, Lipton Bavarian Wild Berry Tea tantalizes the senses with its vibrant flavor and robust aroma. This bright berry taste is great at any time of day.
2. Another one from walmart... this one is yummy as well. According to the box there are chunks of apple, Blueberry, Blackberry, and Black Currant. I taste the berry and I see the red “berry stain” on the bag. Pretty impressive for a tea bag. I like this one just a bit less than the Vanilla truffle one. Same advice applies. Double bag if you;re like me and love a mug you can do the backstroke across.

V Materials Sourcing

1. I finished the 1^st bobbin and ½ the bat of the knitty and color bat. The angelina in that bat gets everywhere I've been finding strands of sparkly purple stuff everywhere! On me, on my other knitting, on the dog... I was sitting in the production scheduling meeting at work and found a peice on my blouse and I hadn't even touched any thing knitting / fiber related that day.
2. The Mohair kid has been plied with the thread and the beads. It took me 2 days to sting all of the beads. I had wanted to use the floss threader trick but I bought the wrong stuff. When I went to the drug store I didn't see the clear bag with the floss threaders. But I saw a box of super floss. Reading the outside of the box I thought I had the right thing. Getting home and opening the box... boy was I wrong. I managed to find a needle that worked. I'm really happy with the skein. The thread and the beads sparkle in the light but don't jump out and and scream at me., At the moment it still needs a bath before I can turn it into Christmas ornaments.

VI After 5

1. Friday B went to his grandma's house and for some odd reason Nate's dad drove in from Detroit. Which gave me what I thought was going to be a night off. When I realized I had the evening to my self I started checking the knitting group site to see if there were any Friday night gatherings. No dice... Next I checked the LYS' in town to see if anyone had a knitting group I could drop in on. Every one of them closed at 5 except for the one in Medina which is 40 miles away and requires you to knit with yarn bought from the store. I get it. I realize you should spend some money if you plan on hanging out for 3 hrs. But it was a 40 minute drive and I wanted to work on my projects and not buy something to cast on to hang out with people I don't know. After much thought I figured I'd hit up Jo Anne fabrics to cruise the store maybe pick up some polar fleece for Joe's Halloween costume and just hang out with the crafty goodness. I ran into a display of the new Martha Stewart yarn. I am a huge fan of Martha. Martha is my hero, I want to be Martha when I grow up. But I was not impressed with the yarn. The super chunky Mambo is just bizarre. It's encased with some kind of mesh. As the mesh was white and did no t match the color of the yarn inside I was confused about whether or not I was meant to remove the mesh. I did see a funky necklace thing made of it on display and they left the casing on. I checked the Lion rand website and they show it on as well. Just not my cup of tea. I did like the bulky lofty wool blend Super bulky but at almost 12.00 a skein for 28 yds... I'll save my money. After my run in with the Martha Stewart yarn I was pretty much depressed and I left Joanne’s without buying anything! Which is totally no tin character for me. I should have known my night was shot at that point because when I got back Nate was playing video games in the living room. His dad had been held up in Detroit and wasn't going to make it until Saturday morning, So much for Mom's night off. As an aside how pathetic is it that on my big night off I went to a craft store and then home. When I have the children home with me I can think of a million places to go / be. The one night I get... and I'm home in front of the TV. I did get some knitting done though... Not a total loss.
2. Joe has been working 12's and weekends for the past few weeks. He'll on occasion call me and see what we're doing and let me know he's still alive and hasn't run off.. This weekend B was missing him more than usual and when Joe called at lunch ran over and asked “is that Daddy?” I told him it was and he pointed his little finger at me and said “You tell him if he doesn't come home He's Fired!.” It just so happened that Joe worked 1 shift that day and was home when got up from his nap. They then went to the grocery store to get something special for dinner since it was sweetest day. (we won't spend money on sweetest day but we'll make something nice for dinner together.) When be got home he said “Mommy I got something for you and it looks just like you.” Normally B is very sweet. Any perfect barbie-esque image he says looks like mommy. So I was expecting something pretty. What does he present me with? A glow in the dark pez dispenser with a witch head on it. I'm willing to bet his father had something to do with this.

Algonquin Mill Fall Festival or "The Bullwinkle Convention"

Episode 23

I Production Scheduling

1. Events
   1. Algonquin Mill fall festival was this weekend. What a great time! Nate, and I saw the festival with my dad as Joe had to work. The apple butter is awesome! I've been looking for things to spread it on. I got my Sauerkraut before it sold out,and had some of the best apple cider I've had in a while! We also got to watch a demo on how sorghum was processed. The family selling the sorghum had a large horse hooked up to to a mill of sorts and were boil down the “juice” from the mill on site. I'm a big fan of molasses flavored candies so I've been looking for recipes to use the pint of sorghum I bought. I'm wondering if I can use it interchangeably with molasses... Perhaps some shoo-fly pie bars are in the future? Oh yeah and there was fiber! The Algonquin spinners and weavers has spinning demos, a dye demo over an open fire, some really decent prices on fiber I saw some alpaca blend, Leicester, and dyed mohair locks that I considered buying. I managed to refrain as I plan on stocking up at the Ann Arbor expo and I think I can beg my mom to ask the owners of these animals if I can buy their fiber later on this winter. :) I also came really close to buying some lovely alpaca fingering but it looked like the yarn had rolled around with the alpaca in the bedding. At 18.00 for 200 yds I really don't want to be picking out veg matter. I did buy a very cute treat bag That has a Skull and cross bones on it and reads 100% poisonous Terribly toxic treats Guaranteed to make you shriek! Enjoy at your own peril. It's the perfect size for tea bags or tucking some sweets in for a gift. Nate wore his completed lumber jack hat even though it was about 80 and we were all sweating bullets. It got rave reviews and we were asked If they were selling them at the festival.... Hmmmmmm... an idea for next year? Maybe not because I'd have to track down three designers and ask for permission to sell their work or redesign the whole thing so it's wholly mine. B really enjoyed the steam powered saw mill. We stood for about 20 minutes watching them cut planks. He also enjoyed the steam powered flour mill and the area outside where they were using some of the steam from the mill to shoot plastic water bottles high into the air. He was very excited to shoot the bottle until another child tooted one of the steam whistles and scared him half to death. After that he just wanted to get as far way from that whistle as humanly possible. He did perk up again when I let him ride the ponies. I think that or getting to crank the sock machine was the high light of his day. The sock machines live up to their Hype. They are very cool and I have a few pics to post on the show notes page. B got to crank one and he asked the woman running it what they were making as he cranked away. It was decided between them that they were making “sweaters for snakes.” This was a really we attended event and if you thought about going this year and missed it be sure to look for it next year!
   2. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo or the Fuzzy Fair as Melissa has taken to calling it...October 22 and 23^rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
   3. Camp KIP April 21-24 2012 at the Cedar Creek Conference center in New Haven, Missouri
2. Production
3. What's in my Tea Pot?
4. Materials Sourcing
5. After 5

II Production

1. I heart lace by Inese Andzane knitted out of Cascade Heritage silk in color 5637 which is a peacock blue. I saw this pattern browsing through ravelry looking for things to use up my stash. I'm a sucker for things with a back seam. The wedding dresses with the buttons down the back, those necklaces that we're popular with the chains that hung down the back, even back seamed hose, all looks I love,. I fell in love with the back seam detail on the shawl and the elegant pointed lace detail on the edge. This was before I found out that the edge on this shawl is just one no nonsense chart. I cast this on Monday night and I'm about 5 rows from starting the lace chart. Reading the comments on the pattern this runs small and some raveler's have added rows on to give it a bigger wingspan. I like wear my shawls around my neck over my t shirts to dress them up at the office so the smaller size will actually help me. ( oh and speaking of back seam detail check out the cowgirl cowl by Pam Powers on Ravelery! I'll be purchasing that one soon! That will look awesome over a t-shirt this autumn!)
2. Beaded Ornament from 12 Exquisite Beaded Ornaments to Knit published by Leisure arts. The first ornament I cast on was just out of some sparkly sock yarn that I had been saving for a preemie hat. I already had one hat out of it so I figured why not an ornament. I did not bead this one as it was an experiment. Other than some shaping and setup in the beginning these ornaments are just tubes that drawstring up and around the top of the glass Christmas ball I slid inside. It's really adorable! With the addition of possibly a bow to the top by the hanger it would look great on any tree. I must say that I do not like how the bottom of the ornament it set up. When the knitting is complete there is a gap at the bottom that needs to be seems up. My ornament is done in a self striping yarn and I can clearly tell where the stitching is. It is on the bottom and the likely hood of anyone examining it is low. But... if I'm giving this as a gift I wouldn't be happy with it. Now that I know the secret formula for making these I'll start tinkering with it. My plan as of now is to treat the bottom like I'm casting on for a top hat. I'll be burning through my leftover sock yarn in no time.
3. Holiday knitting – So after I had stated on knit chat , knit group, and I'll have to go to the replay of what I said on the pod cast... (though I think it was I have to decide if I'll be holiday knitting....) I've been volunteered / shanghaied / requested to do some holiday knitting. So I have at least one holiday project on the needles . Now that I'm on the slippery slope I may just add some more.

III What's In my Tea Pot

1. Silk Road Teas: Jasmine Pearls (Mo Li Zhen Zhu)

2. Our supplier's family has been making Jasmine teas for generations, choosing high–quality, tender green leaves and buds for our pearls. The leaves are hand rolled and later infused with the essence of fresh Jasmine flowers. The pearls open during brewing to release their pale green liquor. Aromatic and naturally sweet, this is a relaxing tea. Steep at 175 – 185 degrees for 2 minutes and enjoy
   

3. What can I saw Jasmine is my hands down favorite. There's just something about how the floral perfume hits the back of my sinuses that relaxes me. This particular tea infused well through the second steeping. That being said while I love this jasmine pearl it's pretty much the same as any other I’ve had lately. The bag states it's from Fujian Province so who knows the last three label's I've tried could all be buying from the same supplier. Price and availability will be the key to weather or not I re purchase this tea.

IV Materials Sourcing

1. I finally did it. I started the Knitty and Color batt that I purchased with my winnings from the Summer Spin Along on the I got Ewe Babe group on ravelery. This bat was named Cauldron and is 4.6 oz of BFL and Merino with some Firestar (tri-lobal Nylon) and purple angelina mixed in for sparkle. It's fun and very seasonal. It's been spinning up well with no predrafting. I have about half the bat spun and I'm almost ready to swap bobbins so that I can do an actual two ply. No Andean plying no chain plying. I think that I want the barber poling to break up some of the purple sections with the black and the gray.
2. Some time ago I spun a chunk of Kid mohair that had been given to me. At the time I wasn't sure how I wanted to ply it or what I wanted to ply it with. With a little more time to ponder and a lot more exposure to other spinners I've decided to ply the single with thread and beads. I'll be using it to make some Christmas ornaments as I'm certain that I don't have enough yardage for anything larger than a dish cloth. (who ever hear of a mohair dish cloth?!) I picked up my beads and thread this weekend. I went with a metallic silver thread and clear silver fill beads. I'm going for as much sparkle as possible... I hope it doesn’t end up being really tacky! I was getting ready to take the cauldron batt off the wheel for a bit with the aim to ply the mohair. I figured I'd string the beads first and found out that my beading needles had disapeared and that I had nothing to string the beads with. So tomorrow I'll stop at cvs on my way home to get a pack of dental floss threaders to get these beads strung. Why is it that ,y est laid plans never seem to work out?

V After 5

1. Joe has graduated from Knits and Purls and stockinette. This week is the big week if I can ever manage to be in the same room with him for any amount of time before midnight. He'll e casting on his decepticon washcloth in Peaches and crème in Denim. The Pink, Hot Green and Yellow I had in house didn't appeal to him... :)
2. The race for the Halloween costume is on. Halloween is Joe and my favorite time of the year. Each year we try to think up something to dress up as while we take B trick or Treating. It's really hard to think up couples costumes. I think this year we have it though. I think I'll be able to make him the hat for Fin from the Adventure Time cartoon on Cartoon network. Fin just wears A blue t shirt and blue shorts which Joe already has with a green back pack and sword. That puts me one hot pink thrift store prom dress away from a princess bubble gum out fit. If I can't find that I can always get a long lack wig and some grunge rocker clothes and go as Marcelline the vampire queen from the same show. B is still on the fence. One minute he wants to be the creeper from scooby doo which can easily be any Frankenstein costume, then he wants to e a race car driver with a helmet and a gun? Not sure where he got that race car drivers carry guns... and now he wants to be Super Why from a PBS show. I thought that would be next to impossible to pull off but then I saw that I could order it online. What I really need is for him to really settle on something before I order the costume.
3. B really doesn't like tea. He must take after his father in this regard or maybe it's just a taste I need to cultivate in him. When I use my tea steeper none of my mugs totally empty the steeper. So I usually just put it in another cup so it doesn't over steep. B wanted something to drink and I was about 10 stitches from the end of a row and told him he had to give me a minute. Instead of waiting he wandered into the kitchen and grabbed my extra teacup. I had no idea what was going on and all I heard was the sounds of him trying to cough up something in the other room. So I ran in there to find him with my tea cup and and a straw. He had taken a huge swig of unsweetened tea and was not happy about it. Between his sounds of disgust he managed to gasp “What is that! It's awful!”.
4. This week was Sunday brunch with the knit group. Joe has been working 12'sand weekend's for the past few weeks so Nate baby sat for the half hour between when Joe left or work and I walk ed in the door. Joe put B down for his nap before he left. He told “It's nap time. I won't see you when you get up because I have to go to work.” “Is mommy home?” B asked... “No,she'll be home in a little bit.” “Nate's in charge?” “yeah just until mommy get's home.” “Awwwww! I thought I was gonna be in charge!”

Talking Turkey or "Monster Crochet"

Episode 22

1. Events:

1. Algonquin Mill fall festival Friday, Saturday, and Sunday October 7,8,9.at the Mill Farm Located 5 miles south of Carollton, oh on rt 332. I'll be at this event on Saturday October 8^th. Bring the family, see the sock machine, and get some sauerkraut before it sells out!
2. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo or the Fuzzy Fair as Melissa has taken to calling it...October 22 and 23^rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.
3. Camp KIP April 21-24 2012 at the Cedar Creek Conference center in New Haven, Missouri
1. Production / Shipping
2. What's In My Tea Pot
3. QC Inspection
4. Materials Sourcing
5. After 5

II Production

1. 

   The knitting on the Twisty Sister Cabled Hand Warmers by Kate Gondwana out of the donated acrylic is done. All that's left is to weave in the ends on the left mitt and take pictures. I really like these the cable pattern looks deceptively complicated. I've been trying them on and I think I'll be casting on a pair for me shortly. I'll have to do some stash diving this week to see what I've got for another pair. I will not miss the red heart yarn it's kinda hard on the fingers. I finished these tonight before getting my show outline together and Joe peered over and asked are you going to finish those before recording tonight? And I said “Yeah, I'll be done in abt ½ an hour.” to which he replied “But their not sealed their just tubes.” Needless to say he doesn't get fingerless mitts.
2. I'm in an odd position knitting wise right now. I have a few UFO's I could pick up again and finish but I saw on my twitter feed that there are less than 100 days to Christmas. I need to decide if I'm doing holiday knitting and who if anyone I'm knitting for. I have ornaments to cast on, I can do puppy puppets for the kids at day care (1.99 download from knitpicks the puppy hand puppets by Yvonne Burcher) http://www.knitpicks.com/cfpatterns/pattern_display.cfm?ID=10170220, or I can finally cast on the Harry Potter inspired Mrs Weasley sweaters for the boys. Then again I have and awesome Blueberries and Honey sock club pattern to cast on from the Knitting in the Red shop on Etsy and socks have been calling my name as of late. So next week will be a total surprise! Even to me!

III What's in My Tea Pot?

1. LIPTON Vanilla Caramel Truffle Tea: A perfectly sweet indulgence. Delicate vanilla blends beautifully with pieces of real caramel and the taste of rich chocolate truffles. Go ahead. You deserve it.
2. I was in walmart for a totally unrelated reason and I wandered down the isle with the tea and found this. Looks like Lipton is getting fancy. It's really pretty good. The bags need some work because if you use the string on the tea bag it can rip a hole in the bag, (My friend the intern found this out the hard way.) The other thing we noticed is that if you favor large mugs like I do definitely use two bags or it's really weak. This has been the tea in my mug this week and has been a hit at the office. (So much that I need a new box.)

IV QC Inspection

1. The Brea Bag by Norah Gaughan being knit in Berroco Ultra Alpaca in color 6279 which is a reddish brown. I made a yardage error. I have the front and the back done. The gusset is about 7 rows from the end. I have nothing to construct the bag with and nothing to finish the edges. <GROAN> so hopefully this week I'll make it up to Stitch piece and purl to see is maybe there's another skein in the right dye lot to finish this up this week.

V Materials Sourcing

1. I'm still struggling with the black cherry slubby fiber. I have almost a full bobbin and more than half of the ball gone. I am getting to the point where I'm about ready to dissect my pretty batt from knitty and Color. If I get in the mood I may just take the black cherry off the wheel for a while and move along. No use working on something I’m not enjoying.

VI After Five

1. Back into the kitchen. Joe was in an adventurous mood this week an bought a turkey to cook for dinner. Joe has seen me do thanksgiving for the last 5 years and you would think he would realize that a turkey has to defrost for a few days and then it takes about 3 ½ to 4 hours to cook. Which on a week night means we're eating at 9-10:00 at night. Not good for the kids. But none the less I did roast a turkey this week. I brine my turkeys. I for thanks giving I use Martha Stewart’s recipe from the 2005 Living Thanksgiving Edition. That recipe is a bit involved for a late night turkey. So I used the recipe from http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/11/how-to-brine-a-turkey/ which was quick and easy and since it uses ice to chill down the brine saves time. We brined our bird for 24 hours in the fridge. When I got home from work I pulled it out of the brine and set it in the roaster while I preheated the oven and cooked dinner for the kids. After dinner a coated the turkey liberally with butter and set up my secret weapon. I take a cheesecloth and fold it into quarters to fit over the turkey and the sides cover about halfway down the bird. In a sauce pan I melt 2 sticks of butter and mix it with 2 cups of white wine (Sauvignon blanc was recommended in the recipe) I soak the cheesecloth in the wine and cover the turkey with it while cooking . The butter and wine mixture are used to baste every ½ hour for 3 hrs of cooking time. I take off the cheesecloth about ½ from the end to brown up the skin. I make the gravy from the pan drippings. This time I used the recipe from http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_gravy/ Please be aware that if you brine your turkey the pan dripping will be VERY Salty! Be sure to taste the gravy and add enough water or unsalted broth to even things out. A gravy separator is also handy with the butter wine mixture used for basting there is a lot of fat in the drippings. I put my drippings into a measuring cup, let them settle and then poor off the majority of the grease.
2. Last year about this time I ran across a pattern for a Pumpkin Pie-ret. From Lady Linoleum over at Monster Crochet http://monstercrochet.blogspot.com/2008/11/holiday-pie-rets.html this is a pay pattern but it's was too cool to pass up and you get a pumpkin pie, a pecan, Pie and a lattice top pie pattern. I made the pumpkin pie to wear for Thanksgiving last year and it was a hit. SO much that the ladies at day care all purchased the pattern. Last week I was asked to help out with their problems with the pattern. The popcorn stitch used for fluting the edge of the pie crust and the attaching of the bottom of the beret were causing some problems. SO Saturday I taught an impromptu course in crochet using the Pie-ret pattern. If you're into funky holiday wear or have a special someone who is this pattern is great and deserves a look! Lady linoleum has some great projects up there like a grill scarf complete with steaks and Kabobs and a bacon scarf. The patterns are not always available but they're great for inspiration and her blog is definitely worth a look.