Felt Like Knitting

Fond of fondue

Last weekend we had a group of friends from church over for dinner and we served fondue.  In preparation, we tried several new recipes ahead of time and bought some bigger fondue pots.  The evening was a success, although I'd do some things differently next time.  And right now, I'm a little "fondued out."  (We tried a recipe on Friday night, served it on Saturday night, and finished up the leftovers with another fondue on Sunday night!)  But, I wanted to share these yummy recipes with you in case you want to have your own fondue party.

Garlicky Cheese Fondue

Pesto Cheese Fondue

Fondue Broth (don't be afraid to add the cocktail sauce)

Honey Mustard Sauce and Garlic Dill Sauce (didn't have dill for the Garlic Dill Sauce, so added chives)

Horseradish Sauce (We also served barbecue sauce and chipotle mayonnaise.)

Flaming Turtle Chocolate Fondue

Chocolate S'Mores Fondue

The kids had a pizza fondue with warm pizza sauce for dipping (chunks of cheese, bread, etc.).

We tried two new fondue pots:  an electric Cuisinart pot and an electric Rival pot.  We preferred the Cuisinart model.  Both fondue pots heated well and cleaned up fine, but the Rival model had a plastic ring (to use while resting the forks during cooking) instead of a metal ring.  The plastic ring warped during high heat and was hard to keep on the pot.  The other fondue pots we used were heated by candle or sterno and they all worked fine for appetizers and desserts.

I've also been busy watching movies.  I caught the end of North by Northwest the other day, but I'm not going to scratch it off the list since I didn't see the whole thing.  I did see all of Dr. Strangelove and Easy Rider.  It turns out that I must have previously seen more of Dr. Strangelove than I remembered because it all seemed familiar to me.  I don't really like this movie.  It's not a bad movie, but it's not a "Beth" movie.  I was very surprised by Easy Rider.  I thought it was just a motorcycle drug movie, but it was way more than that.  It gave me a lot to think about and even though it was a bit hard to watch at times, I'm glad I saw it.  Next up is American Graffiti.  (I've seen some of this, too, but I'm not sure how much.)  I also watched the original Goodbye, Mr. Chips even though it's not on the list.  What a great movie!

There has been knitting during all the movie-watching.  I'll show you that next time...  :)

"I've got wax in my lungs! I've got wax in my lungs!"

Yesterday was S's birthday and I sent him a funny e-card to open at work.  (It's the second card from the left on the top row and says "Happy (cough) birthday.")  I just thought it was so funny when one of the little guys says "I've got wax in my lungs!  I've got wax in my lungs!"  I guess I'm easily amused.  :)  Last night at robotics, we had birthday cake as the snack.  I put the proper amount of candles on the cake and I have to tell you - that thing was hot!  :)

I have to show you the wonderful surprise I got on Monday.  I bought some sock yarn from Rachel's new Etsy shop and it arrived.  The color is called Midnight and it's beautiful - navy and black swirled together.  This is for a super secret project that I will share with you later.  :)  But the surprise is what came with the sock yarn:  some handspun yarn!  Rachel wanted to share some of her handspun yarn with me and I'm so excited!  (The colors are deeper than in the picture.)  This yarn is beautiful and I'm looking forward to knitting with it.  Thank you so much, Rachel!  I love it and I appreciate your thoughtfulness!  Didn't Rachel do a nice job spinning it?  In case the spinners out there want to know, she said it's Targhee yarn.  This was a very nice surprise and cheered me up.

Before I got my Ravelry invitation, I had trouble figuring out what it was all about.  One thing I've discovered is that Ravelry helps me keep track of my current and future projects.  There are so many things I want to knit, but I'm making myself finish some things first.  Well, I tried on my Ribby Shell and decided to frog it.  Maybe it's too big or maybe the cotton/silk yarn isn't holding it's shape.  Whatever the cause, the shell was kind of baggy and unflattering so I frogged it.  Now I have four skeins of Misti Alpaca Cotton/Silk to add back to my stash.  I was actually thinking of knitting another shawl with it, but using big needles.  We'll see...

So now I have the following projects on the needles:  Surplice Lace Top, stockinette socks (almost done!), and the Chevron Scarf.  Well, that's "technically" still a swatch, but I have been knitting a few rows on it.  Plus, I'm still working on charity hats.  So I'm not doing too badly, but several things are on the horizon:  Earl Grey socks, Ariann, La Parisenne beret for E, wrist warmers for E, socks for S for Christmas, a lace project, and the new handspun project.  I need to get busy, don't I?

Seen any good movies lately?

(Please excuse the formatting of this post.  It's being tricky since I cut and pasted this list in.)

Each year, the American Film Institute (AFI) has a "100 greatest" list.  This year they announced the "100 greatest American movies of all time, as selected by a blue-ribbon panel of leaders from across the film community."  Heatherly and I have been discussing which movies we've seen, since our swap has a movie theme to it.  Here's the current top 100 list.  I've highlighted the ones I've seen.  (These are ones I'm sure I've seen in their entirety.)

Now S and I are going to start watching them.  Last night we watched Casablanca (Citizen Kane was checked out).  I have seen at least part of Casablanca, but now I'll get to see the whole thing.  Just think how much knitting I'll have done by the time I get to the bottom of the list!  :)

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)
2. CASABLANCA (1942)
3. THE GODFATHER (1972)
4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
6. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
7. THE GRADUATE (1967)
8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
9. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)
10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)
11. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
12. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)
14. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
15. STAR WARS (1977)
16. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
17. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)
18. PSYCHO (1960)
19. CHINATOWN (1974)
20. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)
21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)
22. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
23. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
24. RAGING BULL (1980)
25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
26. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
27. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
28. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
31. ANNIE HALL (1977)
32. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)
33. HIGH NOON (1952)
34. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
35. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
40. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
41. WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
42. REAR WINDOW (1954)
43. KING KONG (1933)
44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)
45. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
46. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
47. TAXI DRIVER (1976)
48. JAWS (1975)
49. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
50. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
51. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)
52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
53. AMADEUS (1984)
54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
55. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
56. M*A*S*H (1970)
57. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
58. FANTASIA (1940)
59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
60. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
61. VERTIGO (1958)
62. TOOTSIE (1982)
63. STAGECOACH (1939)
64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
65. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
66. NETWORK (1976)
67. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
69. SHANE (1953)
70. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
71. FORREST GUMP (1994)
72. BEN-HUR (1959)
73. WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)
74. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
75. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)
76. CITY LIGHTS (1931)
77. AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
78. ROCKY (1976)
79. THE DEER HUNTER (1978)
80. THE WILD BUNCH (1969)
81. MODERN TIMES (1936)
82. GIANT (1956)
83. PLATOON (1986)
84. FARGO (1996)
85. DUCK SOUP (1933)
86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)
87. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
88. EASY RIDER (1969)
89. PATTON (1970)
90. THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
91. MY FAIR LADY (1964)
92. A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
93. THE APARTMENT (1960)
94. GOODFELLAS (1990)
95. PULP FICTION (1994)
96. THE SEARCHERS (1956)
97. BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
98. UNFORGIVEN (1992)
99. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967)
100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)

Help! How do I wear a shawl?

Kind of like that "I have a new baby, now what do I do with her?!" feeling, I'm wondering what to do with my new shawl.  It is much smaller than I had hoped, even after knitting an extra repeat.  I do plan to re-block it once my wires come in and that may enlarge it a tiny bit.  It should at least help make the points look a bit better.  (I didn't add extra repeats because I wanted to avoid the shawl looking like a large arrow pointing to a large bottom!  I'm not sure I avoided that look.)

But how do I wear a shawl this small?  Maybe I need a new dress.  :)  I could wear it over one shoulder with a pin keeping the ends together.  It's not large enough to wear over my arms like in the picture on the far right. 

Another thing to consider is that I have a lot of yarn left and I didn't cut it from the shawl yet.  Have any of you ever ripped out the edging of a shawl and added more repeats?  Do I need to do something special to it since I've already blocked it or will everything even out when I finish knitting it and block it again?  In your opinion, is it worth redoing it or should I try to wear it like it is and knit something else?

There are so many shawls and stoles that I'd like to knit.  I even have yarn and patterns for some of them.  But, I just can't decide which lace project I want to knit next.  What has been your favorite lace shawl/stole/wrap to knit?

Project details:  Shetland Triangle Shawl by Evelyn Clark and found in Wrap Style

Yarn:  sock yarn from The Woolen Rabbit in the Sweetpea colorway

Needles:  size 3 bamboo

Modifications:  added one extra repeat

Can you handle more random?

Kristen tagged me for 8 random things.  I feel like a lot of you know me pretty well, so I'm having to dig deep for new randomness.  :)

1)  During high school and part of college, I worked at a drive-in restaurant called Maxi's.  Our car hops didn't wear roller skates, though.  I worked in the kitchen, but did get to car hop once or twice.  One skill I learned but haven't used since - how to wrap hot dogs.  I loved to be the wrapper and send the orders up to the front.  It was a challenge not to get behind and I loved that.  It was kind of like a game.

2)  Speaking of games, Scrabble is one of my favorites.  I want to learn how to play bridge.

3)  I love puzzles - jigsaw, crosswords, sudoku, logic.  I really enjoy problem solving.

4)  I'm learning that I sometimes expect too much from people.  It frustrates me when people don't give 100%.

5)  When I started my blog, I called it Felt Like Knitting because that's all I was doing - felted knitting.  I couldn't understand why people wanted to do anything else.  Then I tried sweaters and wrist warmers and socks and lace and...  Now I do very little felting and the people who find me via Google are probably disappointed.  I do have a felted project planned for a Christmas present, though.

6)  I'm not the best athlete.  When I first played kickball in elementary school, I ran to third base instead of first.  I was always the last person picked for teams.  When my brother and I got bikes, he took off on his right away and rode clear around the house.  I crashed and burned.  I'm still ticked off about that.

7)  I was also not "with it" in school and felt this was a detriment.  Now I see it as a good thing.  It was probably for the best that I didn't know all the swear words or get the bad jokes.  As a parent, I think there's a fine line between sheltering your kids too much and telling them too much.  I try to share things with E so she won't embarrass herself in front of her friends, but I also don't want to expose her to too much too soon.

8)  I think I did refer to this once before, but I don't know that I've ever talked about it a lot.  When my husband and I graduated from college, we went to work in a paper mill in rural Alabama.  (We lived in Mississippi and have been in the south ever since.)  My background is in Paper Science and Engineering and I worked in paper for about 5 to 6 years.  I was fortunate enough to get a lot of exposure and worked on projects all over - in the pulp mill, power house, lime kiln, woodyard, labs, paper mill, converting, and even a little bit in shipping.  Our mill made Brawny paper towels and Northern bathroom tissue, among other things.  Tissue softness was very important to us and we ran a lot of softness trials.  One of my favorite jobs was helping to implement statistical process control on the paper machines.  Do I miss it?  Not really, but I miss the knowledge and brain power that I used to have.  :)

I'm not going to tag anyone else, but I'd love to read about you if you participate!  Let me know if you do so I can stop in to read what you have to say.

Blogging in my dreams

Soon I will have a couple of FOs to show you, but for now I will share my dreams with you.  I'm not talking about my personal goals and aspirations, but what I was dreaming about last night.  It went like this...

My husband and I were on the street near our house and noticed that a van was going down the driveway and behind our house.  I thought that was weird.  But since it was a dream, I didn't act on it right away.  By the time we got inside, a woman and her painting crew had painted a mural of cartoon characters on the walls of our new family room addition.  (I don't have this room in real life, but it was a nice room in my dream!)  I asked what she was doing and she said she was told to come to this house to paint.  I told her she had the wrong house.  The room wasn't even entirely finished yet, so it was strange that she thought it was time to paint a mural.  When I went back in later, she had painted over the mural and had actually painted all the walls to match the walls of the rest of the house.  That impressed me.  Now, all of this isn't really worth sharing except for what happened next.  I turned to my husband and said "I'm going to blog about this.  We had to frog the whole room!"

Isn't that strange?  I've been knitting on my Shetland Triangle Shawl and am concerned about the needle size I'm using.  Last night I wondered if I should have ripped it out so maybe that's why the frogging was on my mind.

I don't have enough hands to stretch out my shawl and take the picture at the same time, so I'll just have to describe the issue with my shawl.  Everyone on Ravelry has used fairly large needles (6 - 9) for this shawl.  To get the right gauge, I had to use size 3 needles.  Now I'm afraid that my shawl isn't going to look as light and airy as it should without some heavy, heavy blocking.  My little feathery things (what are they called?) are not as big and open as Kim's or Carole's.  And when I simulate blocking by pulling on the project, I can't get the feathery things to look very distinct.  They still look very connected.  Hopefully I can take a picture this afternoon.

But the good news is that I am having fun!  I'm on the 8th (final) repeat, but I have plenty of yarn leftover to add some repeats and still include the edging.  I've also been knitting on my second sock and am starting the heel today.

I'm getting ready to buy blocking wires.  Does anyone have a recommendation on the best set to buy?

All random

Just a couple of things floating around in my mind...

-  It's an adjustment to switch from an open plastic trashcan to one with a lid.  We replaced our yucky trashcan with a stainless steel one with a lid.  (Boy, are those things costly!  But fortunately I had a coupon and some gift cards.)  I keep finding myself wanting to throw things on top of the trashcan now!  That hasn't happened yet, but it probably will happen when I have something slimy and gross to throw out.  :)

-  When I first heard about Ravelry, the list was already filled up and I figured that I had missed out on the fun until the beta testing was over.  It sounded like a really cool thing.  Then I found out there was a list and I signed up in June.  And a couple of days ago I got my invitation!  I've been trying to add people as I remember who's on Ravelry.  I'm on as FeltLikeKnitting.  One of my favorite things so far is the library.  There's something fun about seeing my books lined up on virtual shelves.  I still have to come up with a picture to put on my profile.  I may use Phoebe's photo.  :)

-  The 2007 robotics challenge was announced yesterday.  I think the actual robot part is going to be very challenging.  The research project portion is great!  Each team has to choose a building in their community and work to reduce energy usage or add alternative energy sources in the building.  (There's more to it than that, but that's the gist of it.)  And how cool will it be to have thousands of teams of kids improving energy usage in their communities?

-  I bought a book of embroidery stitches the other day.  I had one of those Borders coupons to use and sometimes I feel like I just have to use it.  They know what they're doing when they send those coupons out, don't they?!  :)  Anyway, I didn't see any knitting or sewing books that I had to have so I bought the embroidery book.  It will come in handy when I embellish felted items. 

-  I was so pleased with the Misty Garden scarf that I bought some yarn for one for myself.  I had never seen Malabrigo Lace before and I bought the Dark Earth colorway.  But the yarn didn't look good in the swatch, so it's back on the shelf.  It will look nice in a different pattern.  I kept reminding myself that I needed to finish a few things...

Ribby, Lace Surplice Top, socks, Shetland Triangle Shawl, charity hats, dishcloth,

...but I couldn't resist swatching for the Chevron Scarf with some yarns in my stash.  It's just a swatch.  I won't let myself knit on the scarf until I finish at least one big project.  But what do you think about the colors together?

-  My new swap partner for this round of the Special Swap is Heatherly.  I just love meeting new people through swaps and I'm looking forward to getting to know her.

Well, it's time for me to get things cleaned up and start working on my list.  No list was made for the last few days and very little has gotten done.  That could be due to me trying to catch up on blog reading, adding Ravelry projects, etc.  But mostly it's due to me not having goals for each day.  That seemed to have been working well for me.  I don't want to slide back into a messy house.  I hope you all have a great day!

A picnic swap

As I said earlier, Stacey of Sheep in the City was my swap partner for this Special Swap.  The theme this month was Picnic.  Lynne always picks the best themes!  Look at the fantastic package that Stacey sent me...

                          

First of all, click on the picture of the envelope to see her clever artwork.  It covered the outside of the box and was on the card, too. I just loved all of her little drawings!

And isn't this such a nice package?  She included green laceweight yarn for Ene's Scarf in the Scarf Style book.  It's a beautiful scarf and I'll enjoy knitting it.  I've been wanting that book for a while now!  And do you see what I can use?  Some Lace Addi Turbos!  I've been warned that they are very sharp!  The frog is adorable and when I unzipped him I found the ladybug tape measure (too, too cute!) and citrus stitch markers.  And now I have my very own sheep PEZ dispenser!  The chocolate lasted long enough to be in the picture, but it was soon gone.  And one of my favorite things is the lovely bucket.  This is going to look fabulous in my sewing room.  No, wait!  I'm going to put it on my nightstand instead.  I have a bowl with pens, paper, the weather radio, etc. in it.  This will look much, much prettier than the bowl I'm using.  (Stacey said she'll soon be selling these buckets on the Internet.)

Thank you, Stacey, for such a lovely, thoughtful package!  And thank you, Lynne, for organizing such a fun swap!  Our next theme is Movie Night and I know it's going to be a blast, too.

Misty Garden scarf

                              

Last night I finished my first lace project!  It's not as ambitious as the shawl I have started, but I still think it counts toward my goal of knitting a lace project.  :)  I love this scarf!  It's the Misty Garden Scarf from Scarf Style.  I actually found the pattern in last year's IK holiday issue.  But, my wonderful swap partner, Stacey, just gave me the book!  But, that's tomorrow's post.  :)

I think the yarn looks wonderful in this project.  It's laceweight yarn I bought from The Woolen Rabbit.  I can't remember the colorway and I'm not sure where the tag is right now.  This yarn was so enjoyable to work with and I like how the variegation works so well with the pattern.  Before when I tried variegated yarns with lace patterns, they didn't work well for me.

So here are the particulars...

Pattern:  Misty Garden Scarf by Jo Sharp (from Scarf Style)

Needles:  size 7 bamboos

Yarn:  laceweight yarn from The Woolen Rabbit

This was knitted for someone for Christmas present.  I don't think this person reads my blog, but I'd better be mysterious, just in case.

I think I'm going to stop the Encyclopedia of Me.  Not only is August over, but I was having trouble coming up with things and making myself post about them.  I'll just switch back to letting you know what's going on in my life.  But here are the ones I did think of...

J is for Jane Austen:  I love her books and the movies made from them!  I've seen her house and collected as many vintage books as I could while I was in England.  One of the most special to me is a two volume set of Emma which I purchased while in Bath, where Jane lived for a time.  The books were published in 1892.

K is for knitting:  I don't need to say much about this, do I?  :)

L is for Legos:  My daughter has always loved Legos and she is on her school's Lego robotics team again this year.  My husband is co-coaching again and we've decided to have the meetings at our house.  We've moved our kitchen table into the dining room and set up the Lego competition table in the breakfast area.  I'll show you a picture when I can remember where my husband said he filed it.  :)

and the last thing I thought of was...

Q is for Queen's servant:  Our dog, Phoebe, seems to think she rules the house and I am her servant.  When she needs food, she comes to me.  When she needs to go out, she comes to me.  I mean, even if she is standing by S or E, she'll come over to me.  And often she won't leave a room unless I'm behind her (like a proper servant!).  But, on the good side, she won't go up to bed until I do.  And she'll come sit with me while I'm in my sewing room.  She's such a sweet dog.