Dumbo lost a leg

I'm looking for a good pumpkin soup recipe. Preferably one that tastes like you're eating the inside of pumpkin pie but without all the calories. I tried a WW recipe and it was a bit of a letdown. Very blah and not thick like I wanted, but the bread I got from the Farmer's Market was AMAZING. I think for dinner last night I mostly ate bread dipped in soup and when the bread was gone I threw out the soup (Atkins would never survive in my house). Maybe it was because I used frijoles pintos instead of white beans or are pinto beans white beans? Still so much to learn.

I managed 2 rows on my Icarus Shawl last night and it took 40 minutes. I am so slow at purling and I think that's all the wrong side is. Actually, there are a couple of knits thrown in for good measure. The sad thing is even with all the misery I'm thinking about what lace shawl I should knit next. I'm a masochist.

I need to get some fusible interfacing for the new bag I'm making. I'm out of practice on the bags, so it'll be a little shorter than I would prefer, but hopefully it will still find a good home. I also ordered some fabric to make cotton dishtowels for Christmas gifts. There are some people who we never know what to buy for them, so I think these will be perfect. Who couldn't use some cotton dishtowels in a retro fabric. Maybe I'll do some embroidery too.

Oh, and does this girl know that she's hot now?

A choice was made

So, it was between food porn, knitting porn (kind of) or a picture of my new glasses. I'm opting for the knitting even though the new glasses are pretty nice. (And now I'll see if Husband actually reads the blog...if he comes home and says nice glasses I'll know he does otherwise I'll know he's like all of my other friends - except Daniel and Jeni.) I've been doing the Icarus Shawl for you know, what seems like forever and I seem to be getting nowhere even though I know I am getting somewhere. I now have what seems like 10 gazillion stitches on my 24" circular needles and it's getting a little crowded. Only 27 more rows and I'll be done. Did I mention that you add 4 stitches for every row you do? So by the end of this I'll have 10 gazillion + 27(4). I'm not sure what that equals and I don't really want to open the calculator app. I should also mention that right now this shawl looks like a big lump of nothing. I'm sure it will look good by the time I'm done stretching it out and have nowhere to wear it. Somebody needs to invite me someplace nice.

Winner!

I know Daniel's not actually going to believe this, but I did the random number generator and Jodi won the contest fair and square. Number 4. Congrats! I'll bring it to you Sunday when I see you for the parade fun.

My eye is all better. Thanks for not caring. It was just an infected stye and I got an eye exam and new glasses out of it. Perhaps it's a good thing.

Still working on that Icarus Shawl. I decided to do 4 repeats on chart 1 instead of the 5 called for. I measured 36 inches down my back and it went to my knees. I didn't want that. I'm on the lace edges now and it's going well; a few mistakes but nothing I can't fix and then hide.

I also scoured ebay for t-shirts to make more bags. They seem to be liked. I'm thinking about raiding Husband's closet and making some computer geek bags. He has way too many t-shirts anyways.

psycho killer

I awoke this morning after finally getting a decent night sleep to a swollen eyelid and a bump on the lash line. I'm hoping it's just a stye but since I've never had this happen before it's off to the doctor I go. I don't mess with things when it comes to my eyes; I use them way too much. Until the doctor has a say I have a weird freakish eye. Hopefully the kids won't be scared of me when I pick up Daughter from preschool. Of course if they knew I killed a bunny on my drive home last night they would be. I was just minding my own business driving home from the Ani Difranco concert when something hopped out in front of my tire. It was sad. Unfortunately I had 45 minutes to think of how I am now a bunny killer until I got home. Then when I got home and my husband asked how it was I said "I'm a bunny killer." In an effort to make me feel better he told me it could have been a frog. Apparently he forgot that I really like frogs. Perhaps my weird eye thing is kharma coming back to kick me in the ass for being a killer.

Don't forget to enter that apron contest.

yes, i know she's no longer alive

Dear Julia Child,

Some people may call your Boeuf Bourguignon just fancy beef stew, but I don't care. I'm in love with it. If it's possible to be in love with food. I will eat it for leftovers, that's how much I love it. It was an hour of prep work and drying beef with a paper towel is not for the squeamish, but it was so worth it. The onion and mushroom recipe will be used again for vegetables and they both added so much to the dish. The way you've laid out Mastering the Art of French Cooking is genius. Putting the ingredients next to the directions where you use them. Really, genius! You and Simone Beck knew what you were doing.

I also hope that you would thoroughly enjoy the fact that most people go to see Julie & Julia for the Julia part. And at the end there, loved what you had to say about her blog.

Love,
Me

P.S. I'm a little saddened for you that Wolf Blitzer couldn't get your name right on Celebrity Jeopardy.

Contest

So, I made that apron but failed to mention that I have no need for it. I was going to put it on Etsy, but then I thought I'd give it away instead. There is a very small hole that was sewn shut in one of the corners. It's truly not noticeable, but I thought I'd put it out there in case everything you own must be perfect.

To enter the contest all you need to do is leave your name and an email address if you don't think you'll remember to check back and see if you've won. I'll use the random number generator to choose which comment wins. Because blogspot doesn't number comments automatically you'll have to trust my counting, but I'll be sure to count twice. You can enter as much as you want. Next Monday, September 28th, I will announce a winner.

Here's the photo of the apron again in case you've forgotten what it looks like:

Sewing

In between playing the new Beatle's Rock Band I did some sewing. I got Husband to model this simple cafe apron I made with some Dia de los Muertos fabric. It will now forever be known as the Dia de los Muertos apron which I think has a nice ring to it. Also on the sewing front I made a lovely summer sweater using this method. Technically, that's a no sew method, but I decided to fold back the sleeve and front so that it looked a little neater. I apparently never learned how to use scissors in preschool.

I finished reading My Life in France by Julia Child. I did really like it and I kind of wonder what Julia Child would think of Martha Stewart. PBS put some Julia Child episodes online, so I think I'll have to make my way through them. I already watched The Spinach Twins and so when it came up in the book (just a brief mention) I got a little giddy. Okay, I got very giddy, but I'm a bit of a nerd like that. It blew my mind a little that when she first went to France after World War II she had to take a boat and by the end of her life she was flying there. It must be something to live through that much change.

And before I forget, a close up of that fabric:

Renegade Craft Fair

I'm going to get a lot of slack for saying this, but I don't think it was that great. First off, it was super crowded (no fault of the crafters/people who set up the craft fair). It seems to have gotten super popular all of a sudden, plus it was great weather and there was beer. Wherever there's beer there's a crowd. I thought the music was completely unnecessary too, but I could overlook that. What I couldn't overlook was the lack of unique stuff. It seemed like every booth had silk screened tees, onesies, or jewelry, which would be fine except that everything started to just look alike*. Things that actually did stand out were so expensive I couldn't afford it. I understand that crafting can take a lot of time and that supplies can be expensive, but there's nothing wrong with having some small affordable items. You'll appeal to a much wider audience and sell more stuff. It's a win/win really. But, then there were the vendors that were just asking way too much money. A shrinky dink on a chain should not cost $40 no matter how cute it is. It doesn't take that much time and the chain was obviously a cheap one. Plus there were a million other shrinky dink necklaces there that were a lot less expensive.

I did get a few things. First was a glass ball ornament from a place whose name I don't remember, which is sad because she had some really affordable cool stuff. Plus she was knitting (always a good thing in my book). If anybody knows who I'm talking about maybe you could say. Curse me for not taking a business card from her.

We also got some silk screened glasses from Vital Industries out of Denver, CO. The glasses are a nice heavy weight (so hopefully my cats won't knock them off the counter) which makes them very nice to hold. Also, the silk screened design just adds to the design of the glass with the simplicity of it.

Husband bought himself an ipod case from Mr. Poncho. There's a thing on the outside of the case to wrap your headphones around so that they won't get tangled. Genius. He also bought me a necklace from Le Photique. It's really elegant and seems to be good quality. Plus he said the designer was really nice. He was in that booth for quite a while talking to her, so she must have been. She can also do custom stuff which would make a great gift (I'm thinking Mother's Day Husband).



*I understand these are the things that probably sell best.

baby blanket

Son was nice enough to let me borrow his crib for this photo. This is the perfect size blanket for a crib or for laying on the floor. Plus, it's acrylic which means easily washed and dried; good for mom and for spitting up on.

I'm not always a huge acrylic yarn fan, but for baby items I really do like it. Especially blankets because acrylic gets softer and plushier with each washing and it holds up really well. The added bonus of being machine wash and dry is so nice for any busy mom.

Renegade Craft Fair tomorrow. It's also Grandparent's Day Celebration at Daughter's school. My parents are taking her and then she'll hang with them for the day while we take Son with us to the craft fair. Hopefully it won't be pouring rain.

WIP

Just finishing up a baby blanket to post on my Etsy. I wish I'd thought of these colors when I was making a baby blanket while I was pregnant, but alas even if I had I wasn't sure I was having a boy. I suspected, but it was never confirmed with ultrasound. Anyways, the blanket's turning out really well and I'm horribly excited about it.

I'm also working on my Icarus shawl. I must get photos. Right now it's quite dull because it's a lot of repeats of the same thing. I've never knit a shawl from the neck down before and I never knew you could do it starting with only 5 stitches. Amazing. I'm really excited to see this one done, but I must get past the boredom and work on it more.

I've been distracted by reading My Life in France by Julia Child. The way she talks about food (and remembered it so clearly - the book was written when she was in her late 80's/early 90's) just shows she was incredibly passionate about it. It also really makes me want to cook horribly bad for you things which really means I need to exercise a lot more.

Renegade Craft Fair this weekend! Hopefully I'll be able to make it.

the day of labor weekend

It was a nice long weekend filled with mostly fun. We went up to the Walworth County Fair and if you ask Daughter what we saw she would say a pig's butt and a cow poop. Although it's true, we saw much more than that. The knitting and crochet filled rows and unfortunately I took no photos. While I was there though, I decided that I should try and enter some stuff in fairs. Even if I didn't win it would be really enjoyable seeing my knitted wear on display.

I added the wrap to my Etsy shop today. I have to figure out how to really pimp the shop and blog and I'll be set. I don't really expect to make money off the shop, but I like to make a lot of things and I don't always have room to keep them. It would be nice if they could go to good homes.

for today only!

My sweater is famous! Husband would tell you that his photo's up because it's him, but not really. In case you're too lazy to look, it's this photo:

It's a wrap

It was gorgeous out yesterday so I took the kids to the backyard and got a photo of that wrap. I still have to take measurements, but we've been busy walking all over town enjoying the weather. That picture gets a whole lot bigger if you click on it.

gmail is down so why not write a post?

I'm working on some more dishcloths. Everybody seems to love them, so I think I'll put some up in my Etsy store. Indeed, I do have an Etsy shop, but I've never done anything with it. I have a wrap that I want to put in it, but I need a better picture of it. So I took it outside, had it all set up for a photo shoot and my camera was dead. Apparently, this is not a good day for gmail or cameras in the Land of Sarah. On the plus side (and I hesitate to write this) both children are asleep, I'm listening to adult music and I got to update the blog.

A teaser photo of the wrap. It's oversized, which also means huge. This is just the detail.