Obsession

I warned you before.

I told you once or twice already.

This is where an obsession will take me.

A tiny copper bowl.

It's 3 inches in diameter, 2.25 inches tall, and of course done in Viking Knitting.

Even I was getting tired of making chains. :o) I see some places for improvement in both execution (duh) as well as design aesthetic, but hey, I started out not really knowing if it could be done so I'm happy.

Although that is a gazillion tiny stitches I as able to get a bit of knitting in as well.
This is the previously mentioned boyfriend sweater. My cousin and I have had some discussions about the gender of this sweater. Is the color manly enough??? Is the softness of the yarn (Frog Tree Alpaca) and cable too much???? One thing for sure it's going to be a beautiful sweater. I can't wait to see if after blocking!

I'm having a love/dislike relationship with this yarn. It is an incredibly soft single ply. I love the warmth both on my lap and even in my fingertips. I'm not loving the occasional snag cuz of uneven places in the yarn itself, but they are few and far between and the overall lushness of the yarn clearly makes up for the tiny inconveniences. This is definitely NOT a yarn I could knit in the summer, but now, in the doldrums of winter, it is fabulous.

YUM

I got all Susie Homemaker today.....

YUM

I've been dying to try this and finally got my time frame figured out so we could have a nice warm bread for dinner at 7:30 PM.

And again I say yum.

It might take a bazillion hours from bag of flour to this but the amount of work is nada. Watch this video and you too can have a lovely loaf of bread with very little effort.



Joe really liked it and that is saying something considering his mother use to bake fresh bread everyday. I cheated, this is a no knead bread, hers was the old fashion kind with mashed potatoes in the dough and kneaded. I've tried her recipe and many many others over the years. Kneaded bread recipes and I don't get along. This no knead recipe makes a nice family sized loaf, which is way more than Joe and I need. I'm going to try and cut the recipe or at the very least make two loaves out of this dough. I'm not sure how well it holds up once the loaf has been cut, but I'm really looking forward to having some for breakfast with maybe a little honey or some jam my SIL made.

As far as other news around the Hermitage to report there isn't much. I've been working more sample pieces of the Viking Knitting. No point of pix cuz a chain is a chain, is a chain. I've also begun a sweater for my cousin's bf. It is of course a Drops pattern, #85-23. I'll get pix up when I have a little bit more done. I've got both sleeves up to the elbow and two twists of the cable on the body done....still not picture worthy. I wonder if the curse of the boyfriend sweater applies when the knitter is not the girlfriend?

I did get some goodies in the mail on Friday, Melissa Leapman's Continuous Cables, Margarets Radcliffe's Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques, and Elise Duvekot's Knit One Below. I'm thrilled! More than pleased with each and every one of them. WOW

Oh yeah, btw, if you are a member in Ravelry, and you're looking to buy any of these books, (or anything else from Amazon) remember to link through Ravelry, Jess and Casey get a kickback if you do. :o)

Bless be Ve, Vili, and mighty Odin

OK paying tribute to the Norse gods of creation might be a little over the top, but I've been smitten by Viking Knitting.

Susieb a Ravelry and Friday Lunch and Knit bud came over yesterday and we played with wire all day. I had done this before but never ever pulled a piece through a drawplate (that's where the real magic is). Susie brought one with her that her dear hubby had made. One pull through the drawplate and life as I know it changed. I have a new love.

Remember that little piece I showed you the other day? Here it is, after I pulled it through a drawplate, with two other pieces (made yesterday) waiting to be pulled through a drawplate.


I kinda killed it. It's OK but I did two things that any impatient novice would do. First I used a knitting needle gauge as a drawplate, and secondly I pulled it too small. Having used a thin metal knitting needle gauge plus pulling it too small equals breaks in the chain.....sigh Oh well, live and learn huh. It was only a 4 stitch piece.

The short brass piece in the picture is 6 stitches done on a vise with an allen wrench. I was fine with doing it that way until Susieb suggested working it on a dowel. She grabbed one of my big wooden crochet hooks and was thrilled with the ease of it, waaaay less fiddly than the vise method. Thus the blue piece in the picture is 6 stitches on wooden crochet hook (minus the hook part I broke off) :o)

Below is a close up of the 6 stitch 24 gauge brass pulled through a drawplate.


And here is the 24 gauge colored copper pulled.

All three together....I'm loving this!

So much so I even made my own drawplate today. :o)


It is a scrape of my oak flooring. lol



















.....

Hibernating???

I think not.

Guess who dropped in to say hello?

Again.



Damn it.

To all flying mammals residing within the confines of the Hermitage:

I regret to inform you that your continued existence in this domicile is not desired by the owners. Your feeble attempts of neighborly visits have merely caused our owner/squatter relationship to swiftly deteriorate into an ever deepening loathing of you and your kind.

You have shown a blatant disregard for the boundaries that have been set. We, although it is our right, have not ventured into the nether reaches of the attic, walls, chimney, basement, heat ducts, or wherever you have your illicit roost, and yet you continue to boldly fly into each and every room of the Hermitage. It is abundantly clear you can not be trusted. The trespassing alone is enough cause for eviction, but now this second display of aberrant behavior of flying instead of hibernating, cannot be overlooked. If you do not voluntarily vacate in a timely manner, please note that you will be forced to go.

Signed,
The Owners of the Hermitage


This is war.