Wednesday, August 27, 2008

A couple of unrelated things:

TChem, thanks for the sweet red beans! (I kind of suspected, when you said "heavy for its size" that maybe you had bought me some.) I'm going to have to look for those Hokkaido-style bun recipes so I can make my own "Kogepan breads."

I also may try the stuff on ice cream, seeing as they show that as a "serving suggestion" on the back of the can. (I *assume* that's ice cream; I can't read the Japanese text.)

And the little bits of different wools were interesting. I think for my money I prefer the Leicester, but I can see how the Jacob would be good for an outer garment.

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Mary Ellis, who has a quilt shop, is still doing machine quilting for people. So I'm quickly trying to get the backings for the Straits of Georgia top and the flower garden top together so I can run those down to her Friday. (She's not in on Saturdays.)

I've got the backing ready to go for the flower one - it was already washed up - but I had to wash the autumn leaf fabric for the second backing. (I might wait until tomorrow to do that one. It's just a long straight seam and then a lot of pressing.)

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Some pictures.

first flow sock

This is the first of the "Go With the Flow" socks. For some reason I'm having a hard time getting very far on the second. I am glad I "sized up" the sock - these, over 72 sts, fit me just about perfectly. The original 60 sts would have been too tight.

hobbitscarf

Maybe this is why. This has been my main knitting project the past couple days. It's the Ribbon Lace Scarf. Once I did a few repeats and got the hang of how the pattern works, it got really fun to do. (I also think I'm going to make a second one; I have some CTH sockyarn in the color "Java" [dark browns like coffee] that I don't like so much for socks any more [I think I bought it very cheaply on sale] but I think it would make a nice one of these scarves.)

One last thing.

sheepy slippers

These were a gift from my father. Slippers with a sheep on them! They're Haflinger, which I guess is one of the good old German shoe brands (like Birkenstock). My father had bought a pair of slippers (but not with a sheep on them!) by this company and really liked them (they have an "anatomical footbed" in the slippers which makes them more comfortable than typical slippers). So when I was up there in early August, he asked me if I wanted a pair. At first I thought perhaps not as they're rather expensive slippers, but then I saw the ones with sheep on them.

And they're well made, so as long as I take care of them, they should last for a long time. And they are more comfortable than clomping around barefoot, especially on the hardwood and tile floors in my house.

Yes, I know the sheep looks kind of "long." (That was my dad's first remark on seeing them.) Well, maybe it's Longsheep, an ally of Longcat (which is now also available in scarf form

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you liked! I can picture it with ice cream by taking the mental flavor-jump from chocolate to carob to red bean.

I think part of my problem with the Border Leicester has to do with it being the first fiber I spun (not that particular batch you have, I threw away all the very early stuff because it was THAT BAD). Too much frustration associated with it.

dragon knitter said...

hey, a long sheep means more wool, lol