Purling Sprite

Friday Fill-Ins

1. The pozole had an extra secret ingredient; it was bay leaves!
2. I can see the rain through my window.
3. Right now, I need breakfast.
4. To the movies (Ironman) and dinner (Indian Food) is where I went Thursday night; it was fabulous.
5. Why does my left calf hurt so much?
6. All I can think of is the half marathon coming up on May 17th.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to staying home and watching some movies, tomorrow my plans include a 10K race in the morning and then a 30mile bicycle ride and Sunday, I want to sleep!

Currently Knitting:

Baby bootees for a friend who just had her little baby about two weeks ago. Pattern comes from Easy Knitted Socks by Jeannette Trotman. The book has easy to follow patterns for the new knitter. Socks done on two needles, booties done on two needles, or socks done with dpns. The Textured Baby Bootees are easy as it comes. All the parts are done separately on two needles and then all the little panels are seamed. The approach is different but easy and they create a pair of cute little bootees!

Failure is not an option!

Wednesday Quote:

Pain is temporary, it may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."

Lance Armstrong

I read this quote over the weekend on my way to my Saturday ride. Sam was driving and a few friends were with us in the car. When I read it, the quote hit a spot in me. I have always been a stubborn mule and when I fall, I dust myself off and just get up and keep going. It is said that it is hard to defeat a person who never gives up, I would like to be a person like that.

The quote by Lance hit a more special spot yesterday as I went out for my last long run before my very first half marathon, May 17th. The first 10 miles were a piece of cake, I was listening to a book on my Ipod and I felt great, I was pumped and was going at a very leisurely pace. By mile 11 though, I was feeling tired and hot. The temperature was about 70 degrees with a nice sunny day which is perfect for cycling but a little too hot for running. My dark skin attracts the sun and I was literally baking, I have blisters on my arms to prove it (I wear 80spf all the time but even with that on).  By mile 12, I was able to see home (it is a long road) and I just felt sooo tired, I was ready to give up...the heat was way too much for me. I drank a little bit of water and then I dumped the last of the water on my head, the cooling was heaven sent and my heart was a little revived but my legs just wanted to stop. Then, I remember the quote that I had read over the weekend, I pondered it and it just hit my heart. I can't give up on the last mile home, I just can't. I kept going and going then when I finally turned into the cul de sac, I saw my kids and hubby and I just sprang to life. I was home, I had done it! I didn't give up.  I had gone 13.4 miles...a full half marathon and a little more.

Soysilk's Love Scarflette

Knitting in this blog for a change. It may seem that I do not knit or loom but I do, here is proof. I worked on the Love Scarflette last year for Soysilk. It uses Vickie Howell's Love yarn, a silk and bamboo blend. The yarn is one of the softest I have ever worked with which makes it perfect for something that is going to be worn around the neck.

The scarflette has two side cables at each edge and then a middle center cable that forms hearts. Although the pattern makes a shorty scarf, you can always get more yarn and work a few more repeats for a longer scarf.

The pattern is available through Soysilk's shopatron store where you can get the yarn too!

Oh...the pattern is needle knit, not loom knitted.

Happiness in an envelope

A little friend sent me a little sunshine my way. Unbeknown to her she was inspired to send me a special little something just because, little did she know that her package will arrive to me when I needed a little cheering up. Pink rays of sunshine came my way in the form of pretty pink pencils and wonderfully soft Malabrigo Lace Weight.

I have never had the chance to experience this yarn first hand, my oh my, I have been missing out on something grand! I have read over and over on many blogs about Malabrigo but I stayed away thinking that everyone was just overly excited about this yarn. Boy, I was wrong! This yarn deserves raving about! It is soft and luscious....soft enough to make a blanket out of it and sleep nakid under it! Don't worry, I won't share nakid pictures...we'll keep the blog rated PG-13.

Back to the Malabrigo yarn, it is luscious! Stacey already questioned me what I would do with it and guess what her and Cookie provided me with the answer, I am joining Nora and knitting my first shawl: Forest Canopy. I have knitted lace before but I have stayed away from shawls. This yarn though and Nora's lace-along are the perfect pair to get me started in shawl making. Thank you Stacey! Check out the other pictures I took of my beautiful care package. 

I know a few of you are going to be jelous (coughJeanniecough) of my new cute pencils. Even my Wonderboy wanted to take them to school....something about a girl name Jenna and his teacher...I stopped him right on his tracks before he stuffed them in his backpack. I can't blame him though...they are super cute!

Meetings that Touch Your Heart

A couple of months ago, I met a wonderful friend through the internet. Joel Pennington, his interests were very similar to mine, he loved loom knitting, knitting with needles, but most of all he loved his family. Everytime we chatted, he talked about the items he was knitting for his wife or for his daughters. Last email we exchanged, we talked about a scarf pattern and how to cast on for it. He was making the scarf for his wife and had plans to also knit the shawl on the Learn to Knit Cables on Looms book for her. His family was always one of the main topics in his conversations.

On Monday, March 17th, he was taking his little girls to school when a car came crashing into theirs. His wife, Rebekah emailed me last night and told me the tragic news. He was able to stay long enough to see his little girls safe out of the car and then at the hospital he went into cardiac arrest.

Joel, I will miss you. I feel very blessed to have met you and to have been touched by your kindness. I am sending love and prayers to your family.

Please take a minute and read the letter that Rebekah sent me.

Hello to everyone.  Sorry if this is a repeat for any of you.  Many of you I don't know, but found all these addresses in Joel's email address book. 

For some of you this may be the first of hearing our tragic news, others this is an update, but please bear with me. 

Joel was in an awful car accident on Monday March 17th while driving the girls to school.  Diane got herself out of the van which had been hit by an oncoming car and then rolled several times.  She told Joel she was going for help, when she then found the nearest person and demanded they call 911 and me at my home which she read off to them.  They asked if she was ok and she said yes, but she's going back to get her sister.  She went and help Brooke out of the van.  Joel was still conscious and concerned for them to get out and that they were ok.  Joel was trapped in the van, and the fire and medic departments extricated him to be rushed to the hospital where I work.  I arrived on scene as they were loading Diane and Brooke in an ambulance unsure if Joel was alive at all.  I went with the girls to seek treatment.  Only by nothing short of a miracle Diane and Brooke are alive.  Joel arrived at the ER a while later and I quickly rushed to see what his status was.  He was severely injured, but talking and asking about the girls and me.  I went right in and talked to him.  I knew they were going to have to put him out to evaluate his situation.  We learned that his pelvis was crushed, shoulder dislocated, arms/wrist breaks, pneumo thorax and more.... He was bleeding internally.  I talked with our general surgeon and he decided to operate.  I spoke with Joel again and we had a few minutes of words.  He was taken back to surgery to discover his spleen was torn in multiple locations and they removed it.  They stopped as much of the bleeding as they could and prepped him to be air lifted to Billings MT for further treatment.  As he arrived in Billings he went into cardiac arrest.  They were able to revive him, but he had gone without oxygen for a concerning amount of time.  He was not stable enough to endure further surgery at that time.  They did everything they could, but he went into cardiac arrest again at about 11 pm and was not able to be resuscitated.  I was right there all the while held out hope, but sadly God was ready to call him home. 

This has been a very trying week and our lives will be much different now.  I'm so thankful that God held our two precious girls...one in each hand.  Unfortunately he couldn't let go of Joel.  I knew right off from the state trooper that the other car was in Joel's lane by a good five feet, but didn't know why.  Today we found out that the 44 year old woman driving the other car was text messaging while driving.  She died on impact, her two children and one of their friends were in that car.  Her kids were hospitalized, the friend was treated and released.  I'm thankful that I had a few minutes to talk with Joel and consider that to be nothing less than a miracle, because after seeing the van at the tow lot today I am amazed he wasn't also killed instantly.  We had Joel cremated and we are having a memorial service on Tuesday March 25 at 10 am at the First United Methodist Church in Powell WY. 

The girls are doing remarkably well.  Brooke didn't walk for a couple days because she was pretty bruised and sore.  She is moving around much better now.  Diane has some visible bruises and her breastbone is sore at times. 

I want to tell everyone how thankful I am for the outpouring of support and prayers.  We have amazing family, friends and live in a community second to none in terms of outreach.  I apologize for not being able to talk to all of you personally yet, but I'm quite overwhelmed with grief, caring for the girls, investigation into the wreck, arrangements for Joel and the memorial. 

I also know that this news hasn't been able to get to everyone that I would like to tell and talk to, so should you like to pass it on that is fine. 

I ask for continued prayers for the girls, myself, the others injured in the accident and their families. 

Rebekah S. Pennington

Rebekah, Brooke and Dianne: I wish I could hug you right now and bring some measure of comfort. We will keep you in our prayers and we are sending love and comfort.

 

Half way there....

The first flowers of Spring are shyly coming through. These little ones are the first ones to arrive this season. Braving the blistery cold they are bringing a little color to my yard and with it a measure of hope that Spring is finally around the corner. Aren't they beautiful? They are the first ones in the entire cul de sac and all the little children (about 10 of them) were outside admiring them this morning. We were cleaning up a little bit around them and moving the dead leaves off from them and later on putting them back over to keep the cold away from the flowers. We even managed a mini-lesson on the role worms play here on earth when one of the little tykes was adamant on squishing it between its fingers!

Next to the flowers is my pretty Chevron Scarf, it is coming along slowly. I am almost to the end of 1 skein of the Koigu (using 2 skeins at the same time to knit 2 rows with each skein). I took the other skeins with me to the KnitOut and I don't remember where I placed them. I am going to have to dig through my luggage and my boxes of projects. I just hope I didn't lose them as I don't remember the colorways. It is looking attractive and I can't wait to have it finished and save it for next winter, it would bring a bit of color to the Winter drab.

Book reviews: Knit Tricks

Confession time: I didn't order this book, it just popped in my mail because I have been lazy and haven't responded to my Crafter's Choice notice *yeah, they always get me to buy more books this way*. But this is one time when I don't regret getting the "editor's choice" book for the month. The book Knit Tricks is full of inspirational knits from simple tops to bags. Ingenious ways to arrange rectangles to create beautiful garments.

Have you just started knitting or loom knitting? Rectangles have been your forte but you are ready to move away from knitting scarves. Pick up Knit Tricks, 25 Stylish Projects from Simple Rectangles by Rebecca Wat.

The main reason why this book made it into a review is that loom knitters are usually looking for more patterns. More, more is a constant in our little corner, despite all the flourishing designs coming out everyday, there is just not enough (when compared to needle knit designs), Knit Tricks fills a little bit of that void.

The patterns are easily convertible to knitting looms; remember most of the patterns are just rectangles put together. Check out this page on Converting Needle Knit Patterns to Looms and you will be on your way to putting all those lovely patterns from the Knit Tricks to the looms. Try to achieve the gauge that the item is knit to or simply follow the schematics and knit the rectangles to that size and arrange them as instructed. Run, run go and get this book, you will find it inspirational. Rectangles are definitely more than just scarves and with the help of this book, the door to more designs is open to us!

Here are a few pictures of the patterns I queued from the book. (Click the image to view larger.) You see that vest in the lower right hand corner, it converts into a purse! Yep, it converts into a purse. It is ingenious indeed. The blouse on the lower left has me very tempted to cast on...it looks easy enough and it can probably provide me with the perfect knitting project for watching some tv (I hear Lost is starting today).

Knit Tricks gets a very good review from this reviewer. I am all for easy, fast projects and the projects in this book seem to fulfill those two qualifications.

This reviewer gives Knit Tricks: 5 wonderful balls of yarn!!

 

Cakes and Hats

The birthday went without a hitch, despite the stubborn pizza dough. Boyo loves pizza but not just any pizza he likes homemade pizza which usually means having to make the dough an hour in advance and get all the toppings and all the other stuff that pizzas have. Usually, our pizza dough is done in a jiffy without any problems, but this time around we had to make it twice. The first time around it just crumbled and the second time it was very tough. We didn't do anything different but for some strange reason it didn't want to cooperate.

The cake was simple. Really easy and yummy recipe. I got the recipe from one of my neighbors. It looks super and it tastes even better. You would never know that it was a box cake. Here is the recipe for the Alaska Cake.

1 package of Devils Food Cake (plus all the ingredients that the box calls for).

3/4 semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1 pkg of cream cheese (8oz). Softened.

1 cup of powdered sugar

1 container of frozen whipped topping. Thawed (it takes about 5 hours to thaw in the refrigerator, so plan  ahead).

The most difficult part of this cake is finding a bowl to bake it in. It has to have a mountain shape. I went to my local kitchen store and found a mixing bowl that could be put into the oven. I found that metal bowls dry the cake too much, glass bowls seem to provide a more moist cake.

DIRECTIONS

Prepare the cake mix as to box instructions. Bake at 325 F. Bake for 1 hr and 10min, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let it cool for 15min in the bowl. Run a spatula or a knife around the perimeter of the cake to unstick it from the bowl. Gently turn it upside down onto a plate or cooling rack. Cool completely (about 4 hours)

MAKING THE LAYERS

Trim the large end of the cake to level. You will cut the cake into 4 equal layers. First cut the cake horizontally in half. Then cut each half into two layers.

FILLING

Using a food chopper, chop 1/4 of the chocolate morsels, set them aside. Place the remaining 1/2 cup of morsels into a microwave safe bowl; microwave uncovered, on high for *20 seconds, stir; rep from * 3 times or until chocolate is completely melted.

In another bowl, whisk cream cheese until smooth, add powdered sugar, whisk until smooth. Stir in the melted chocolate, mix well. Fold 2 cups of the whipped topping and the chopped chocolate morsels.

Using a spatula, spread the bottom layer of cake with about half of the filling, it will be about 3/4" thick. Place the other cake layer on top of the filling, and spreak filling over the new layer. Repeat with all the other layers.

Spread the remaining filling over the outside of the cake, creating a smooth surface.

FROST CAKE

Using the remaining whipped topping, frost the outside of the cake. To make it look all spiky, press the flat side of a knife against the frosting and pull away. Refrigerate about 30minutes.

EASIER CUTTING

Cut the cake into eight wedges from top to bottom, then cut horizontally.

Enjoy!!! We really, really love this cake. It is a little rich but ooooh sooo scrumptious!

Now, life around here is not all about eating...well, it is but we try to squeeze in other activites. I managed to finish a little hat for another one  of my friends. She is in my cycling group and she is due in April and she requested a few little caps for her new little boy and I am more than eager to oblige. It is rare when  people ask me to knit something for them, so this is very exciting.

I followed my own Bundle of Joy (it is on Ravelry too) pattern and created gorrito numero uno (Stacey....pop quiz, what did I just say?).  These little hats work up so fast and I can't help but think that it is almost instant gratification. I already casted on for gorrito numero dos, this one will have cables (did you think I will not include them...they are my knitting stamp, lol).

Book Review: KnitSpeak

I found this gem, KnitSpeak by Andrea Berman Price, on my last trip to my local Borders. The first thing that caught my attention was the bright pink hardcover with accents of neon green. The second appeal came with its portable, compact size, perfect to take along inside your knitting bag.

The book is a comprehensive guide, from A-to-Z on the Knitting language. Who would have thought that you needed to learn a new language to be a knitter? As a second language speaker (first language was Spanish), I can attest that learning a new language can be a bit difficult, not impossible, but difficult. Learning the language can make life enjoyable and you will be able to communicate with many others--the world opens up.

This little book can accomplish the task of opening doors/friendships to a whole new world. If you are a new knitter or loom knitter, you have undoubtedly seen a typical pattern that look more like Greek than English, or you have seen a chart and your eyes just rolled upwards and your head adamantly said--there is no freaking way I can read thing! I know. I said the same thing when I first learned to knit. Mim can attest to my terror of charts. I avoided them like trying to avoid my visit to the gynecologist.

Knitting has its own language, formed with abbreviations such as p, k, k2tog, yo, skpo, just to mention a few. The first time you encounter these abbreviations, your heart starts beating and small beads of sweat begin rolling off your forehead, you hands tighten on the needles and the once loose knit stitches have become iron on the needles. KnitSpeak can make your life into the world of knitting or loom knitting a lot easier. The guide starts you off with a lesson on reading knitting patterns, this section is indispensable when starting off on your knitting or loom knitting journey. There are a few things that have double meaning, others that require a little knowledge to know what they mean "knit as other side, except reverse all shaping" being one of them. Look no further, pick up this little book and find out how to read a pattern and what all those foreign words mean.

Need help with knowing what the little * or the [ ] mean? We don't come with this knowledge in our arsenal, nor is it something that we learned as little kids in school, however, they are ever present in knitting instructions/patterns. Andrea goes over symbols and abbreviations and their meanings. Along with the words, the book is beautifully illustrated. The illustrations are clear and easy to understand.

At the very back of the book you will find an index with imperative information such as sizing, yardage (estimated) needed for different items, substituting yarn, and even fixing errors.

Overall, this little gem packs a punch! I highly recommended it to new knitters, or knitters who need a little help looking up some information. I also highly recommend this book to loom knitters. We (meaning loom knitters) use many of the same terminology, abbreviations, symbols, and pattern reading is the same, thus this book can become one of the most used books in your looming library.

This reviewer gives it 5 sweaters:

Yarnia related

Updated: check the new Loom Knitter's booklet out!

Saying Yarnia makes me think of the next Narnia movie...anyone know when it is coming out? I haven't even seen the previous yet. Last time, I was at the theater I was out getting popcorn for the monkeys when I came back hubby said they had played the preview. I missed it! What a bummer! But the post is not about Narnia but Yarnia related stuff. Have you taken the little quiz at Potter Craft. It is related to Clara's book, the Knitter's Book of Yarn. Great book! Great information on fibers and their properties plus a gazillion patterns in the back section. And even a fun quiz to find out what type of fiber you are. I am something cozy and warm...Angora. I am all for all its nice qualities, except the shedding...don't like it.

"Angora – Soft and warm
“Angora has a warmth that rivals cashmere and softness that rivals qiviut. Best of all, it comes from cute little bunnies that look for all the world like furry footstools with ears.” –The Knitter’s Book of Yarn

Angoras are eager to please and are highly sensitive. Flexibility and adaptability are your strengths and sometimes your weakness, as well. You are essentially a warm and feeling person, and little escapes your impressionable mind. You are generous with others and strive for harmony in your relationships."

On more Yarnia-related-stuff, I received a box from one of the publishers, I have all the projects back from that particular book and now I don't know what to do with the contents. Any  ideas? There is a blanket, 2 hats, scarf, socks (thick socks), handbag...and some more random things in there. Any ideas? (I have been thinking of just giving them away here but I still have to send out 2 little somethings to 2 contest winners...I just keep forgeting).

Non-knitty related but fun at its best: I just finished reading the Alchemyst by Michael Scott. What a read! It was sensational! A page turner, heart-thumping book. I enjoyed every single page of the book. Usually there are some slow paragraphs in books (and I am okay with that) this one, kept me awake an at the edge of my couch! Mythology, history, fantasy all in one little bundle. Great, great read! I give it 2 thumbs up. Can't wait til the next one in the series comes out . Great job Michael Scott!

Update! Stop the presses, stop the presses! My friend's booklet on loom knitting has just been released! Congratulations Kathy! Coming soon to DA store!