Bird's Nest Knits

Coffee Tea or me?

There is nothing like a gathering of friends and an excess of good food.  Sunday was an English afternoon tea hosted by yours truly.  We tried to be all sly and turn it into a surprise party - but considering the nature of surprises - our guest of honor wasn't feeling well.  It all turned out for the best though - cause there was knitting to be done and my present isnt even near ready!

On to the food - cause thats what it is all about Chez Bird.

There were three kinds of scones - Ginger Carrot, Blueberry and Apple Carrot - all based on this basic cream scone recipe.  I just would mix the fruit mixture into dough before making the little balls to go into the oven.  There nearly was more fruit than dough in these lovely crumbly bits.

Tell me this isn't what dreams are made of...
 

In addition to the scones, there were proper tea sandwiches (cucumber dill, curried egg salad, and smoked salmon cucumber), real devonshire double cream, lemon curd (so tart and tasty), fig pear butter, lemon poppyseed rosettes (thanks to Hilari), and yummy goat cheese and french bread that Crissy brought.

And what is an English tea (hah! I typo'd teat first)  without a generous selection of teas.  I had some Earl Grey, Chai, Green Tea and some fresh tea of Lemon Verbena Leaves, Mint and Crystallized Ginger (which was my personal favorite).  Yoly brought a very cool selection of loose leaf teas, (Rooibos, some minty stuff, another chai, and this dragon blooming tea) which we all enjoyed as well.

So part of the dress code for the tea party was a tea party HAT.  No tea without a hat, bitches.  Happily - everyone came with a hat, and someone even came with a boob.  With a tassle no less! There was even some knitting done.

Moons over my Hammy

Meet Ted.  Ted E. Bear aka Ted Bundy aka Ted of the very sharp Teeth.

He is the newest resident of my office, happy to run mindlessly in his wheel, to hide all of his food, and generate some seriously rank smelling pee.  Bless his little heart.  He is a Syrian Hamster - more commonly known as a Teddy Bear hamster.  Adorably fat and furry, I have my own Cute Overload in a Cage.  He's not really into being held yet - but I'm hoping the bribery in the form of apple bits, grapes, and banana pieces will work in the long run.    He did bite me pretty good today - drew a good deal of blood even.   Luckily I am such a ridiculous pack rat that I had bandaids - TWO boxes even - and a tube of neosporin.  I saw the fur around his butt was all matted and wet and I thought it might have been diarrhea.  So I did what any good hamster mommy would do - I wiped his butt.  He did not appreciate my attempts to assist with his hygeine and chomped my finger pretty good.

Two words Ted... Hamster Kabob.  Sleep with one eye open furface.

Tonight is Mary Kay's pot luck party.  I can't wait!  Mr. Bird is on his way over to pick me up from work and we'll stop by to pick up something to share with everyone and trek over to MK's.   I haven't seen the knitting ladies in a few weeks and I miss them all.  I'm going to plan a Sunday tea party sometime soon.  I'm looking forward to going to some thrift stores to find some vintage tea cups :)  I'm really going to miss Mary Kay.  She's so wonderfully enthusiastic and has a heart the size of Texas.  (I don't even mind that she's a Republican)  *wink*

On the knitting front I should have a finished object to wear to Heidi's house tomorrow night! woo hoo!

On the not finished front is Hilari's book which I need to get done by tomorrow night.  MERP.

Knitters Run Amuck

So as some of you out there may know.  I am a bit of an instigator.  I like to gather a bunch of people together to do stuff.  This is rather novel for me because I have a not so latent hermit gene.  It takes quite a bit for me to gather up the motivation to go out and see people.  Since I met my knitterly crew though - they get me out and about - even if only for a beer and a couple of rows. 

This weekend however - was more than just a jaunt of an afternoon.  Two and a half days in Big Bear, California!

Friday evening we all gathered at my house for a quick bite to eat and to carpool up together.  Only two cars but man were those cars packed with stuff as you will see shortly. 

We had about a three hour drive ahead of us - which was a challenge in the dark going up the mountain.  I'm not the most confident of drivers and I'd taken Mr. Bird's car which is a stick.  With a white knuckled grip we managed to get to the cabin without me sending us over the edge of the road at 6500 feet or having Mary Kay barf on me.  Poor woman - she was just miserable with motion sickness, but she was a total trooper and made it all the way there!

By the time we all get settled in it was after 11pm so we just relaxed a bit and went to bed.  There were three bedrooms and several of us brought those spiffy Aero beds which came in handy.  The cabin was cozy but I dont think too cramped for the seven of us.   I would have liked to have more lounging out room though.

Saturday morning lazing about watching some movies and knitting.  It was super dry up there so we all were chugging down water like it was going out of style.  The skin goop I brought came in handy as we all started to turn ashy and dried out.  Friends dont let friends have flaky skin I say.

Have you ever wondered how much food 7 women need for 2.5 days?  Definately not this much...

The fridge was fully stocked and we ran out of room, this doesnt include all the snacks that were brought either.  The cabin came with a fully stocked kitchen so we split up the meals for the weekend and those who didnt make a meal brought snacks.  And MAN were there a lot of snacks.  Fruits, chips, nuts, cheeses, 5 loaves of bread - you name it - we probably brought it.  And there was lots of beer!

You can see from the view from our deck and the treeline by Bear Mountain Sky resort that it was incredibly beautiful.  The leaves were turning and the air was brisk and clean.  We had wood peckers, chipmunks and squirrels in residence around the cabin.  Quite the departure for us city girls and I loved it.

I sat on the deck with Heidi early Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and enjoyed the cool weather and it was wonderful.

After a nice breakfast we hung out at the cabin knitting for a while then headed into town to explore.  The area we ended up in was filled with tourists and kitchy shops.  Wandering about for a bit we made our way down to Big Bear Lake as the sky started to become over cast.  I really like this picture of Wendy looking out over the water - she seems so pensive.

A knitting retreat's Must haves:  Knitting, music, phone/technology, trashy magazines,  and yarn!

By Sunday we were all pretty worn out and the drive home during the afternoon was much less scary than the drive up.  On the way home we pulled over for some pictures of the lake and saw this ruin of a house up on the hill.  Didnt get to explore it though unfortunately, but I thought it looked really cool.

Finally our Ode to the Cabin in the Woods scary movie genre....

Blair Witch Pine Cones

One more day...

I'm so jazzed - tomorrow seven knitters - Heidi, Wendy, Crissy, Hilari, Mary Kay, Yoly and myself are hopping into a couple of cars and driving up to Big Bear for the weekend! 

The idea came around when Heidi and I were noting how fun a knitters cruise would be and there was one with the Stitch & Bitch chick Debi Stoller.  THEN we saw how much it would be.  *choke-$800HAH-choke*  Got the book, thats good enough for me thanks.  Then we waxed poetic about how nice it would be to get away, and go with people we already knew who we had a good time with and voila - The Knitters Retreat was born.  (for a TENTH the cost mind you).  The cabin has a full kitchen so we are cooking most of our meals and hopefully will get a hike in at some point. 

And yes... there will be booze involved.

It was an incredible sunset tonight - heres what it looked like from my back yard.

Amazing what nature can do with a smog layer.

So with the recent travelling - the time afforded me a chance to actually KNIT.  Amazing I know.  And what do I do with the time?  Do I finish any of the various languishing items in my knitting bag?  Of course not.  I immediately cast for Mariah using the Odyssey 100% merino yarn that I got from Mary Kay not too long ago.  I've fallen in love with cable knitting - even though it requires a good bit of attention to follow along with the chart.  I got one of these:

which rules by the way.   Its got magnets and you can frame the row that you are working on.  Why didnt I think of this?   Brilliant.

I'm knitting both sleeves - also known has gauge swatches - at the same time, and Im liking how its turning out so far.  I've got plans for the body too.  I'm going to run the small cables up the sides to kind of shape the sweater a little bit and to keep the knitting not quite so much stockinette.  I also may do a shawl collar instead of the hood.    Its a super secret Christmas present for my sister.   Hopefully for Christmas 06 and not 09.

I got my first skeins of Sweet Georgia Yarns too.  They are mucho squishy and the color is almost edible.  I've got a long list of socks on my to-knit- list so I'm looking forward to casting on for these.  The left is a skein of Speed Demon Sock Yarn in Viola and the right is Marina.   I love me some worsted weight socks.

... a hole in the head

So, I told myself after spinning that I needed another hobby like I needed a hole in the head.  Then I took up sewing, and now to add to the many holes in my head, I present to you...

Medusa

Selene

After a little jaunt to the Whistlestop with Wendy -

We wandered over to The Grove - the site of regular frivolous spending, I once again ignore the more practical - yet not nearly as fun voice in my head - and came home with a wire jewelry book, a supply kit, and several neat little pre-packaged projects direclty from the book.  Two sets of earrings, and a ring project.    It took me a little bit to get used to using a pair of round nose pilers, and my first set of earrings you can see that the curves are not completely perfect.  I think that it adds to the charm of them though.    I don't have a ring mandrel so the knot ring project will have to wait. 

Lots of fun, almost instant gratification,... winner!

Last night I went to the Padres game with Wendy and Mr Spazz and her parents.  We didn't end up sitting with the rest of the knitters but the game still was lots of fun just the same.  We saw Tanya from afar.  The Padres kicked some Reds ass, and I got quite a bit of the back of Sizzle completed.

The view from nosebleed (not bad at all - but going up and down those stairs freaks me out)

Sizzle at the game - knitting with SWTC Phoenix (soy silk) on Knitpicks Options needles.  The perfect KIP project with lots of stockinette.  I'm finished decreasing for the arm holes and about to knit up to the increases for it.

Wendy was working on Rogue with her lovely hand spun (so frickin' perfect this yarn)

You filthy whore!

I've been cheating, its true.  Such a faithless and fickle woman that I am, I could not resist.  The temptation was too great, and the experience too exciting and sweet.  I would feel guilty if it hadn't just been so deliciously GOODDDDDDDDD.   The pleasure of the forbidden, that first amazing touch and indulging in the decadent desires, with the sweet twinge of guilt.   You can stone me later.

I'm a yarn whore, and unrepentant!

Behold, Rowan 37's Butterfly -one strand of KSH in black and one strand of Kid Silk Spray in a cranberry color.  The resulting combination is a black cherry with the occasional cranberry fleck... fan-tastic. I tried working on Butterfly during a knit night at Noble Knits on Wednesday night, but she refused to be unappreciated like that, and after reknitting the same three rows about 6 times, I went back and begged Eleanor to take me back.  Ripping KSH wasn't really as bad as how people seem to think, and having a life line at the beginning of the last repeat made it pretty painless actually.

And eventually, filled with shame and reluctant remorse, I find myself returning to the safe and comfortable relationship, knowing it would still be there waiting for me.  Good thing that Eleanor isn't the jealous type, although I think that she leaves little angora hairs all over me on purpose, kind of like her version of pissing on my leg.  She's the Maryanne of knitting, consistent, dedicated, and not to challenging while knitting with other people.

Eleanor is perfect for in the car knitting, or knitting with other people.  Interesting enough to keep me from going comatose, but the pattern is easy enough to memorize after a few repeats.  This is about 1.5 skeins into it.

On Sunday was some Whistlestop knitting, where we met a new person - Kerry whom I pulled over from the bar cause she was sitting by her lonesome and we assimilated her.  Hopefully we'll see her regularly at the knitting meet ups.  In attendance were:

Jessica
Tania
Krys
Wendy
Kerry (who needs a blog)

We missed Hilari, Christina and Heidi, and hopefully next time around my coworker Yolanda will be able to show up too.

Oh.  and I missed all you guys too :)  Was just being lazy and knitting guiltily on my own.

P.S. - best Google search that found my blog?  "Nancy+ass"  - I got junk in my trunk and all that.

BroadRipple fingerless gloves

Its all knitting all the time Chez Bird's Nest.

Most recently finished are the BroadRipple fingerless gloves- which was a really fun way to get ride of extra skeins of sock yarn because it only takes one skein for a pair.  It was a pattern I made up as I went along and was inspired by the BroadRipple sock pattern from Knitty - originally I'd started knitting the cuff on that and got bored and turned it into a fingerless glove pattern.  Anyone can probably divine the pattern but I'll type it out here for whomever might want to try it out, your mileage may vary!  I use the Magic Loop method but you can easily enough split the stitches onto 4 dps if you want to use those. 

Yarn:  1 skein JaWoll Color Superwash Sock yarn
Gauge: 9/5 sts/inch
Needles:  Size 3 Addi turbos

Cast on 56 stitches and join in the round without twisting.  (Magic Loop or two circs will split the stitches evenly in half and have 28 stitches on each section, DPs will have 14 stitches on each needle). 

Work the Garter Ripple stitch for 6 repeats.

Garter Ripple Stitch:                            

Round 1: *K2, yo, k3, ssk,  k2tog, k3, yo, k2; repeat from * around.
Round 2:Purl.

Repeat Rounds 1 & 2  - 6 times

Switch to the Ripple Stitch and knit in this pattern for 2 inches.

Ripple Stitch:                            

Round 1:*K2, yo, k3, ssk,  k2tog, k3, yo, k2; repeat from * around.
Round 2:Knit.
Repeat rounds 1 and 2 for 2 inches.

Then knit for 2 inches.

Knit the round up till you have 4 stitches left from the end of the round, purl 1 stitch, make 1 stitch twisted, knit to the end of the round. (on following increase rows - purl the purled stitch to note where the increases should be)
Next row - knit

Repeat these two rows until you have increased 14 stitches, finishing with a knit round.  This is your thumb gusset.

Place these increased  stitches plus the purl stitch onto a scrap piece of yarn (18 stitches) - you'll finish the thumb later.  Knit to the top of the thumb opening where you've slip the stitches to scrap yarn.

Cast on using the backwards loop  11 stitches, and knit the last cast on stitch with the first stitch at the end of front of the hand (stitch right before the purl stitch).  This now rejoins the back of the hand to the front of the hand.

Knit for 1 inch and then bind off the body of the hand.

Slip the 18 thumb gusset stitches onto your needles in the round and pick up 12 stitches from the cast-on edge of the thumbhole, twisting them when needed to keep holes from forming.  Split the stitches evenly on the needles as necessary.

Knit 20 stitches, SSK, k6, k2tog in the thumb crotch.
Knit the next round even.
Knit 18 stitches, SSK, k4, k2tog  in the thumb crotch.
Knit evenly for four rounds, bind off.

Repeat for second hand reversing directions for your right hand.  Try it on as you go along and adjust the length of each section as desired if you want a longer cuff or have a longer palm etc.

Edges along the thumb and fingers are meant to roll.

===============================================================

In other knitting news - I met up with a few of the SD knit bloggers at Rebecca's for coffee and then lunch at the Linkery.  I loves me some sausage yes sirree.  In attendance were Christina, Heidi and Mary Kay, we missed Wendy, but I got a call from her that she was fine and ended up spending the morning in bed with Mr Spaaz and the pups - which is a good excuse as far as I'm concerned.  The coffee was good and the company even better.  We even had a lady come up to us and ask if we were some other SnB group that was supposed to meet there.  I said we weren't but invited her to join us anyhow.  She decided to wait it out though.  Maybe I look intimidating who knows.

I started on Lady Eleanor and I must say - looking at the instructions the first thing I thought was - how the hell is this going to work?  I even had Christina and Mary Kay trying to figure it out with me.  But I decided to go ahead and just take the leap of faith and do what it says.  Entrelac is cool people!  Much less confusing once you do it and its pretty interesting.  I'm not all that far along but it's keeping me quite engrossed to see the color changes.  My only beef on the Noro - Not even done the first set of triangles and I already find a knot.

And on Thursday a few people met up at Mary Kay's house for beer pizza and knitting.  What better reason to get together?  Its been lots of knitting events in the last few days and I've been really enjoying it.  I had class on Thursday night so I only could stay until 6 unfortunately and missed seeing Hilari and Christina.  I did get some Rottweiler love though from Mary Kay's pup Missy - the 2nd cutest dog ever.

I got some amazing hand dyed roving from Mary Kay which I cant wait to spin up into sock yarn cause umm.. I dont have enough sock yarn as it is or something.

Uh.. here's Mary Kay spinning (we wont speak of what I need or dont need)

Saturday at the Library!

On Saturday the Oceanside library is doing a free Learn how to Knit program at 10am. Wendy, Heidi and I (and maybe Mary-Kay) will be there to demo hand spinning as well.  If anyone feels like stopping by to get your knit on - (or spin on)  we will be meeting at the Longboarder Cafe at 9am which is right across the street from the Library.  Wendy's bringing her Louet wheel for anyone who might want to be learning how to spin (cough HILARI cough).   

Heather the owner of Noble Knits is doing the Knitting Lesson.

Oceanside Civic Center Library
330 N. Coast Highway, Oceanside, CA 92054-2824

I'll be bringing my balls of BFL that I got on the trip up to the last fiber fest we went to - which I cant remember the name of.  Yummy thick thin stuff.  And I also have a surprise for Wendy and Heidi that I have to get done before Saturday.  *rubbing hands together*

I spent the weekend up in Oakland - San Ramon to be specific - with my brother in law and his family.  His daughter Ashlinn just celebrated her 5th birthday so we flew up and got our party hats on.  The house was filled with little kids and it was a little overwhelming for someone who's not spawned yet.  But I did meet a little girl that made my ovaries TWITCH I tell you.  Her name is Juliette, and she's about the cutest doll-baby I've ever seen.

*twitchtwitch*

I did my first training run last night - and I didn't die!  Going from devout couch potato to runner is going to be tough though.  I did my little intervals of jogging and walking - and on the 7th and 8th repeat - I was dragging for sure.  I like running at night though - there are fewer people around to see my ass jiggle and running with my dog is always motivating cause she doesnt get tired.    Its also nice and cold out so I don't feel like I'm getting over heated and sucking wind at 50 degrees is much nicer than sucking it at 85.  I'm not nearly as sore today as I thought I would be though which is nice - I might even go running tonight again since I have dinner plans tomorrow.

There also has even been some knitting going on.  I've been diligently working on my Picovili for the Sexy Knitters KAL and I'm just starting on the waist decreases.  I slipped all of the stitches to some waste yarn last night and tried it on - I'm knitting the 40" version for my 43" bustline and it seems to be fitting quite well so far.  The Knitpicks Shine is working up to a very nice soft and dense fabric which I like a lot.  The 5.25" of stockinette from the armholes was pretty boring though. Good thing my boobs aren't any bigger since I have the attention span of a 3 legged dung beetle.   It was the only thing that I worked on over the weekend during the waits for the plane, the flight, and during the party to keep myself from going insane.

And because I've already shown this photo to one person that I'd have been worried about what they might think of me looking like an idiot - here it is for ya'll in blogland.

Viva la NERF Tiara!

Food Fun and Furry animals that go.. meeeeh!

Its been a busy weekend.  Saturday was a fun little housewarming for Heidi, and I got the chance to try a new recipe - Fried Risotto Balls!  I also brought a Caprese (tomato, fresh mozzerella, and basil salad with olive oil and basalmic vinegar) as my back up dish in case the balls bombed.  But luckily - the risotto balls were a hit because.. anything fried tastes better!

Recipe for Fried Risotto Balls:

2 boxes of risotto
fresh wild mushrooms (shitake, oyster, portabello - cut into small pieces)
2 cloves fresh garlic
2 heaping table spoons shaved parmesean
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
vegetable oil
1 tblspn olive oil

Saute 2 cloves (pressed) garlic in olive oil until just starting to turn golden, and add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are cooked.  Set aside and prepare risotto according to box directions, add cooked mushrooms and garlic when you add the packaged spices.  Add parmesean and stir to melt.  Remove from heat and allow to cool 2-3 hours.

Scoop out risotto and shape into balls between your palms and roll in the bread crumbs.  Fry in very hot vegetable oil until golden and set on paper towels to drain excess oil.   Sprinkle a bit of parmesean on top of balls and serve warm.

At Heidi we met her very cute cat Morpheus - and what is a blog without a photo of a cat?  He was adorable, and got a nice ball of cotton yarn from Wendy to drag all around Heidi's house, and spent a good part of the afternoon with his head in my purse.  I'll leave it up to you to wonder what sort of things I have in my purse that attracts pussy.

Today was Alpaca Critter Crawl!  We met for lunch at The Linkery - which won rave reviews from all of us, and we'll all be back for another pass at stuff we didnt get to try this time around (sliced pork chop wrap for me).  We went to visit A Simpler Time in Crest California - which is a family run farm with about 24 animals.    We met Barbara - a woman who looks AMAZING after having 9 - yes I said 9 - children.  We got to tour the farm and get into the pens and bribe some alpacas to come closer with grain.  They are very skittish animals, except for one adorable little black female that Mary Kay got to nuzzle with.  Afterwards we went to The Grove and got some coffee.  I managed to not by ANY fiber or yarn today.  Yay me!  It was hard let me tell you.

AND.. I've even finished something!  Behold - Bea Ellis's Traditional Hat Kit.  I sent an email to Bea Ellis and told them I'd lost my pattern and was willing to buy the pattern if they would sell it to me separate from the kit.  She sent me a replacement pattern for free!  Now that is some nice customer service.   I used three colors instead of the traditional two, and did a makeshift braided cord because I dont really like pompoms.    I think it turned out pretty well.  Too bad its 80 degrees in San Diego right now. 

And -- to be able to balance the kitty cuteness - another photo of my dog trying to beg for a bite of my dinner, but being blinded by the flash.

Rude... just rude..

Dont click here if you don't have a sense of humor (or are easily offended by jokes at the expense of the right wing)!

Today was nice and mellow - met up with Wendy, Heidi, Hilari, and Jessica for a couple of hours of knitting and chat. 

I forgot to actually take pictures of us knitting - but here is a picture of the cat at Rebecca's Coffee shop - she was mucho cute even when attacking Wendy's leg.  Too bad I'm allergic.

I made some headway on Clap-o-TEE - and might actually finish it by New Year's just so I can put it on my 2005 FOs list.

*crosses fingers*

Next Week:  ALPACA CRITTER CRAWL!  woo hoo!  I love me some alpacas.