Spring Things

Well, it's March now.  February flew by fast!  I now consider this spring.  The sun is shining bright, and every floor I've seen in the past week is covered in muddy footprints.  That has to mean spring is here!  And with all our developing plans for April, May, and the summer to follow, I can't wait till it gets in full swing!


To prepare myself for the warmer, but still slightly chilly days when I can wear a t-shirt and leave my jacket at home, I am crocheting a bright, bright, flowery scarf from some of my favorite drug, Noro.

 And lucky, lucky, oh so lucky me!  My favorite LYS (Local Yarn Store), Stix, just started carrying Noro's newest yarn, a beautiful tiny, thin, skinny, fine, VERY colorful, lace weight, made from 50% cotton, 17% wool, 17% nylon, and 16% silk.  The texture is awesome and the colors are awesome.  The colorway of the skein I chose just screams spring at me! 
Despite my excitement over my new yarn and project, Noro is notorious for a couple little things...  First of all, the yarn always seems to have a couple small pieces of grasses or twigs in it.  I can totally live with that.  Second, one ball of yarn has so many colors in it that it is almost impossible to see them all without completely unwinding the whole lot of string and laying it out for viewing.  There is always some surprise color in the middle that you just weren't expecting.  Most of the time, it's kind of ugly.  But I can live with that, as well.  
The third thing Noro is infamous for is having cuts and ties in their yarn.  Now, it's no secret that this happens quite often with many yarns.  It's a fact of life.  But, Noro has such unique color patterns that a 'cut and tie' can really throw a wrench in one's plans.  Imagine this... Knitting along with a beautiful mellow gray that is changing so gradually and gently into green that you barely even notice the change.  Now you are in the depths of an almost fluorescent bright lime green and you can already see the next color will be banana yellow.  You work through the flowing, natural color change so easily and mindlessly until, sure enough, there's that beautiful, rich, deep yellow.  Your mind takes you through the yellow to a vibrant orange or a snow white, or even back to the gray or the lime green, when all of a sudden, BAM!, purple.  Yellow, then purple!  Just like that.  No gentle transition, no flowing, gently mixing colors, just yellow...then purple.  Damn that cut & tie.  DAMN that cut tie!  Now your scarf gently transitions from orange slowly into gray, into green, into yellow... then without any transition... purple.  Yeah... That's my scarf.  And that I can't live with.

I have such a love/hate relationship with Noro for that very reason.  Now here I am unwinding parts of my ball of yarn to find another part of it to match the yellow where I was left off.  Then there's the possibility of that screwing up the rest of the color pattern... I'm going to be stopping and starting the rest of my project to get the colors to transition smoothly.   
But that's a risk I take when I buy Noro.  And I have to say, I love the yarn enough that I will gladly take that risk, despite the frustrations.  An untrained eye would probably never notice, anyway...
 Here it is... The Spring Scarf

In other news... The baking continues.  The house cleaning continues, although the laundry situation has reached a complete standstill.  Both parties are currently in negotiations.  The house projects continue. I made a whole list of 'To Do's today.  I highly doubt we'll be able to get it all done before we blow this popsicle joint, but at least we've got some organization now.  The climbing continues,  and soon to be outdoors (!!!!) due to the impending expiration of our gym passes.  Suka's allergies continue, although we are starting to get a better handle on them and his hair seems be holding it's ground for now.  Harvey's love of snow continues.  The snow has not continued.  It hasn't snowed for quite some time now, and the remaining seems to be losing it's hold quickly. 


The Olympics have finally come to an end, and oh man, I have been a busy little bee updating the Curling Blog and replying to curling related emails on a daily basis. 


Aaaaaaannnnndddd..... That's about it.  

Baking

I recently have been SO in love with this book.  It sounds ridiculous, right?  But really, I have been baking bread almost every day, and I have worked 8 to 9 hours the past 8 days in a row.  And STILL have time to bake amazing artisan loaves of bread.  Believe it.  And if you don't... just look at the bread I baked this morning just before work.

Yep, THREE loaves.  I went to work at 8:30 and let me tell you... I am NOT an early riser.  I know I probably come off a little like an info-mercial with all this 'Try it!  You won't believe it!' stuff, but seriously, five minutes and this book and you can have bread that looks just like mine!  And my bread looks just like the pictures in the book!  It's amazing.  And for all you health nuts, get the book Healthy Breads in 5 Minutes a Day.  (Don't worry, I've got both books.)  A couple days ago, I made a pear tart tatine substituting the pastry dough for a whole wheat brioche.  This morning I whipped out those three loaves of seeded boule.  After work I cranked out a batch of dilled white rye dough to bake later in the week and threw a personal-sized loaf of olive and cheese stuffed brioche with cracked black pepper in the oven.  YUM!  So if you love to eat delicious fresh bread and think you can't bake (like me!) then buy this book!  It will totally be worth it!

Murder!

Does that look like a murdered amaryllis to you?!

I think it DOES!

The amaryllis was clearly PUSHED!

The problem is, this gorgeous plant was given to me for Christmas by my aunt.  It is quite customary for everyone of us to receive one of these large bulbous dirt clods every year.  I was so excited to plant mine (i'm not being sarcastic, I really love them!) and apparently the bulb was excited too, since it has been growing inches a day since I planted it two weeks ago.

I've been watering it and sending green vibes it's way, but other than that, I really haven't been paying much attention to it, since it is safely tucked around the corner in the breakfast nook. (Still not quite finished, so we don't really hang out there yet... just have to tile...)

I guess while we weren't looking, pretty much over night,  the damned thing bloomed!  Both stems at the same time... Which created a great unbalanced weight and our poor florescent flowers toppled off their precariously thin ledge, spilling their life giving soil all over my hand sewn nook seats.

AND.......There you have it.  Case of the horizontal amaryllis, solved!

In The Crafting World...

New happenings in my Craft Life.  VERY exciting!  The lace shawl I started in October is finally finished and all pinned out to block.  Now all I have to do is wait for the damned thing to dry, then I can wave it exultingly above my head and parade it around town for all to see.

  The three months of work were definitely worth it!

To finish the fix up of my sewing machine, I bought a new light bulb.  Viola!  Now I can see what I'm making!

(I know, I know.  The needle isn't threaded... I just wanted to take a picture.)

I've finally finished my projects for the Dave's Sushi Christmas Party Gift Exchange!   How fun!

For the man, the ultimate matching party set...

Beer can coozie, wrist band, head band, AND.........

WAIT FOR IT....(Drum roll here)....

The infamous Willy Warmer!

And for the chica on our list, Moustaches!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, Shaun, the dogs and I went camping.

Or tried to, anyway...

The temp was in the 40s, the sun was shining, we had our climbing gear ready to go, and it was a beautiful day!

So we drove past Norris to our favorite camp spot, Revenue Flats.

And then it started to get windy.

Our tent (thanks Fred!) blew up like a balloon and by the second night, it was blowing so hard we could barely even walk around.  And good luck trying to use the bathroom!

Eventually, by about 6 in the evening, the tent straight up blew over and we were forced to pack up and go home.  Luckily nothing got lost or broken, but it wasn't quite the climbing/camping trip we had planned.  Better luck next sunny weekend!

Twenty Ten

2010 in Montana.  This is where we live.

They're all car photos, but I think you get the idea.  Wow.

And aside from having some of the most beautiful January days and snowy mountains of all time, 2010 has really started off oh so right.

I have started going to yoga to become strong and flexible. I've started running to prepare for the fun runs of the summer and, possibly, the Headwater's Relay. I've quickly started working my way back up to the level I was climbing at 6 months ago, before we slid into The Summer of Lazy.  I've learned how to bake the most delicious bread in only 5 minutes a day.  I fixed up a sewing machine I bought for 7 dollars at the thrift store and it runs like a dream. I've started stretching everyday and can now touch my toes.  I've started my application for college and Shaun has started planning an awesome adventure road trip for us to get there.  We both finally got healthy and beat 'the Swine'.

So many amazing things have happened already and the days, the mountains, the sunrises, and sunsets have been so beautiful that it is impossible to not appreciate everything around us.

And with all that said, I feel pretty darned awesome, even if I have failed miserably at fulfilling my New Year's Resolution...to wake up early.  I just can't do it.  And it makes the days so short, but there is something to be said for late night runs and watching the lights of Bozeman twinkle from the top of Pete's Hill.

Bonus Photo

How old do you think that canned food is?  I know for a fact nobody  has lived in that house since 1994, and I'm preeeetty sure it's older than that.  At least 50 years older.  Yum.

happy new year

Happy New Year!  Last night was an amazing New Year's Eve.  It was the end of a decade and we were so fortunate to experience a Blue Moon!  A Blue Moon is the second full moon in one calendar month, which only happens about every 2.5 years, however, the last year a Blue Moon fell on December 31 was 1990 and the next year it will happen will be 2028.  Pretty awesome and what great energy it inspired!

To finish off 2009 right, we finished up the breakfast nook by hand sewing some pillows and hanging some nice lighting.

Bonus photos!  

  

Merry Christmas!

And a nice view from my dad's front door.

Enjoy the beginning of a new decade and good luck with all those resolutions!

Cold cold cold!

Apparently I have had a request from one of my readers (thanks for being my reader Karen!) to break away from my frenzied knitting and actually blog a little about my frenzied knitting.


I have been delighted to find myself in a transition between stages of knitting obsession.  I am currently entering the stage of production obsession.  All I want to do is knit, and I want to knit many many projects in little little time.  I knit in the morning, on my lunch break, in the evenings, and every Tuesday night from 7-9 at Stix.  I have been cranking out knitting projects like there is no tomorrow, especially since days on end of negative degree weather have encouraged me to stay inside where the air is warm and the wool is soft.


But of course there is a tomorrow.  Life goes on with or without scarves, hats, sweaters, and fine lace shawls.  But with the economy how it is and a certain species of dolladollabills becoming harder and harder to find, my new habit of obsessive knitting today has started to make a dollar for me to tuck away for tomorrow.  


And with Green being the new Black, knitting and animal fibers prove to be a sustainable choice, and it's all the rage!  So with sustainability and 'greenness' at the forefront of my knitting, I have made a choice to cater to another new rage in alternative lifestyle, rock climbing.  Specifically, I am encouraging a move away from petroleum based products designed for rock climbers and on towards the woolly.  Obviously it's a benefit for some climbing gear to be made from the newest, strongest, bestest, whatever, due to safety concerns....But in my opinion, all those high tech 'endurance gear' materials aren't necessary for some of the accessories, especially chalk bags.  


A chalk bag's primary and obvious function is to hold chalk, not save your life.  Another very obvious function is to declare your flavor, your style, your spice. Most climbing gear is designed for purpose with little style in mind and when viewed from below, as most climbers commonly are, pretty much all that is seen is a butt and a chalk bag.  As seen below...

So to allow all those style-savvy climber out there to express themselves and their support for a more sustainable mindset, I have created Baa Bags.  They're made from sheep!   Hand knit, felted chalk bags, and (soon to come) bags made from recycled wool sweaters.  These bags will soon be available on Etsy and maybe at a climbing gym near you!