Gary smoked a turkey, made gravy; I made cornbread dressing & sweet potato casserole w/marshmallows on top, green beans & the giblet broth which Gary used to make the gravy... and we had some cranberry sauce out of a can... for lunch today, Gary made a pot pie with a cool pie crust on top & we had that with some sweet potatoes & dressing & also a fruit jello mold..
Tonite we'll have leftover green pozole from Wednesday night's supper with some beans, maybe I'll make a taco filling with the beans, we'll see.
A couple of other bloggers complained about spam in email... I get tons of it. I have not even advertised my new website yet (this blog is already linked to it, as well as to tornadowood.com) and someone posted a spam comment... I deleted it & banned them from this blog...will give Gary the IP info to ban them from the entire site...
One thing I don't like about spam is i can't just keep my email program up & let the kids use the computer... the twins know how to read...sometimes people advertise male genital products in large letters in email... not something i want them to see... I imagine it would be funny at their age or in a year or two, but still...I DON'T WANT THAT STUFF IN MY EMAIL... however, I'd much rather use my delete key & delete my mail myself since I don't trust other sources to go through my mail for me & know it's not a legit email message..
Enough of that... I've been working on the edging for my Sanquar vest lately... the armholes are done, and now i just need to pick up & knit the edging for the front band & once that is done, I'll weave in the edges & then I'll try it on & see if I want to modify the shoulder shaping a bit so that the vest hangs better... if I had to do the vest over, I would do some short row shaping on the shoulders to make it more like the shape of shoulders...but since i've already done the armhole edge finishing, I can't un-do the 3 needle bind off, so I'll just do a bit of sewing to get the shoulders shaped, if necessary... it might not be necessary!
I've also been working on a square for Hunt Valley Cashmere (several others are involved in this project)... it's one of the squares in the American Aran Afghan project in Knitters magazine.... This square was in Knitters #61 (Winter 2000) and is by Meredith Morioka. & has crossing cables & openwork. The yarn is a very heavy worsted weight yarn or chunky yarn... an 8 ply cashmere..it's nice, but working with it is a bit hard on the hands & since other knitters are getting approximately 13-14" for their squares, I found to achieve that width, I need a 4mm (5-1/2 US) knitting needle. 2 skeins of yarn were sent & I finished the first skein before i finished the 2nd repeat & there are 5 repeats... I emailed to let them know I will need another skein in order to finish the square... I'm enjoying this project...
Once I'm done with the square, I'll probably start on the Annabel Fox "Tattoo" sweater. Can't start it now since I want to use my 4mm ebony needle for it & I am using it for the cashmere square...
A question for other bloggers: do you enjoy the process of taking pictures for your blog? Is there an easier way to do it than to:
take pictures
upload pictures to computer
go through each picture & crop & resize & adjust color
upload to website or photo hosting site
type in the URL with appropriate coding...
The last 2 steps were much easier with Greymatter, but Movable Type seems to be a better blog program overall.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
But probably not as cold as it is elsewhere!
I've been working on putting the finishing assembly touches on some things that i'm making for a new website...stay tuned for an announcement! I'm HOPING things will be ready by Thanksgiving, but we'll see... I don't want to say too much about it yet...
However, I will say that I have several books for sale... I have the list posted on the newsletter section of http://tornadowood.com but will be putting together a clickable file later today & will edit it as books disappear. Take a look at the list & if you feel that my prices are off base, please let me know: I'm just NOT good at this book pricing thing...
The boys have 3 more days of school & then they are off for the Thanksgiving holiday, for a whole week...we'll be staying home, and with 6 of us, we've got a good sized crowd! if I sell enough books, I'll pick up a new smoker (they're about $30 or $40 from Wal-mart & double as a grill as well... I prefer using charcoal to gas)... having the smoker will open up a bunch of things: we'll be able to smoke nuts, maybe make our own hot dogs, except I think you need a cold smoker for that...
Have a good day everyone!
Well, today is Gary's birthday & I think it's only fitting that today I've finally located the rest of the yarn that I want to use for a sweater he's wanted to make him for a while now... for the background, I'm going to use some dark teal donegal tweed yarn (I think it's takhi) with a some Annabel Fox yarn that i was able to locate in Ginger & Mustard...then I found some Plymouth Cleakheaton that rounded out most of the colors that I need & today I heard from Velona Needlecraft that they have a DK wool yarn that will work for the Fuschia & I'm hoping that they have what I need to cover the "bee" color (which I think is a darker version of ginger, or a dark reddish brown)...
Gary's cake is in the oven & if it & the frosting come out good, I'll post the recipe. I adapted it from another recipe that I have, which is a vegan recipe, but I'm using regular milk & eggs...
Still working on Reuven's little socks... I just have to finish the foot, and then do the toe & they're HIS... I need to wash Evan, Micah & Harrison's socks...
Also have another square to do for Hunt Valley cashmere..the yarn is an 8 ply bulky yarn & it is just wonderful to work with...I did a little swatching to locate the best needle size for they yarn & I think I'm going to do the square with a size 7 needle...will have to swatch the 7 and then I'll cast on with a slightly larger needle & then knit with whatever needle I decide on.
Our weather is SUCH a rollercoaster these days: we get a few days of cool weather, then a few days of warm weather... we're on the warm side right now.
I'm working on a couple of patterns (to sell) & hope to have them out by Thanksgiving! I have some yarn coming from Elann to try out for the project..also went ahead & got a skein of Aracuana wool to try for a hat...
I'm a bad blogger, sorry about not posting more often, but sometimes I'm just not sure what to say & then when i DO post, it's obnoxiously long & chatty!
Since finishing the socks for Crazy socks day at school last week, I started a pair for Reuven... I've turned the heel & am working the gussett decreases & once that's done (about 5 to 10 more rounds) it should be finished in short order...
I also swatched for an Aran last night.. once I find my 3rd Barbara Walker's treasury, I'll go through it & decide which cable patterns I want to use for my aran cardigan... although I'm thinking of doing this as a sort of combination between the St Brigid celtic cable & the Must Have It cardigan, I'll probably pick different cables to do it... I wish I had the know how to figure out how to design my own cable, but that will come in time when I understand a little more about how cables are formed.
This afternoon, Gary took apart our fan motor for our central heating/air conditioning unit... it's just plain worn out... hopefully we can get another one in town this weekend, otherwise we'll get one Monday in the city... hate having to go down there with all the traffic, etc... meanwhile we'll use the kerosene heater & cook soups & stews to warm the place up...