Paperwhites ,Pizza,, Card , Knitting

This picture did not come out that great but it is a card for my oldest son's birthday.  Believe it or not it took me almost an hour to make.  I save little things I find- interesting stamps,pieces of material,old cards,buttons and use them to create one of a kind cards.  It is kinda fun .  I wish this picture had come out better.  My mother's birthday is coming up so maybe my picture will come out better next time.
I continue to read "Bird Song" by Sebastian Faulks.  It takes place during WWI with jumps to 1978.  I saw where this book was going plot wise 50 pages in but maybe it will surprise me.  My next book is"Below Stairs" by Margaret Powell.  This is the book Jullian Fellows used to get his ideas for Downton Abbey.I am
looking forward to this one

.progress this week on the Rocky Coast Cardigan.  This sweater is by Hannah Fettig of Knitpot .  I have talked about it in many other posts.  I really like it.  The other sweater I have been working on is "Tea Party Cardigan ".  This is knit in pieces so we will see what happens when I try to put all together.

Every Friday I make pizza.  This has been going on for about 9 months.  It really comes out good.  I have learned a couple of tricks since I started.  First preheat oven to about 480 degrees at least 1 hour before you are going to cook it,take the dough out about 20 minutes before.  I thought fresh mozzerella would work best but it didn't. It made the pizza watery so now I use shredded in a package and that works much better.
Sadly my paperwhite bulbs are coming to a end.  I have one more container in the garage then it will be over.

Downton Abbey has started so I am going.  Want to talk about the podcasts I listen to so will try another posting in a few days.Peace

things started, things finished

Today is Sunday and the playoff games for the superbowl are happening and it is best to stir clear of my husband unless the Giants are ahead by 40 points and they are not so I thought I would do this blog.  I kinda like doing the blog but I am still so slow with it.it is cold today .  Really it is.  This morning it was only 38 and later today got to about 60.  It is cloudy so it makes for beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Let's start with reading.
First, I finished "Blue Prints for Building Better Girls" by Elissa Schapell.  I have read books by this author before and I liked them.  This was okay.  It was a series of interconnecting stories.  I swear I read some of them in other places.  They seemed very familiar  to me.  The fact that I can't remember much else about the book is a bad sign-it means it did not hold my interest and I was probably daydreaming through parts of it.  Continuing with "look me in eye" by John Elder Robison .  I could probably finish this quickly but son is reading this for school and I don't want to get too far ahead.  It is memoir about his life with Asperger's syndrome and is good.  I finished "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair"by Nina Sankovitch.  I got this as a Hanukkah present.  I had been really looking forward to reading this.  The author's sister had died of a rare form of bile duct cancer 4 months after her diagnosis and she was devastated . They were very close and shared a love of books.  To help her get her zest for life back she decided to read a book a day for a year.  Some were books others were long stories.  Parts of this were good other parts bored me.  She started a blog called ReadAllDay.org where she reviews books and talks books.That is where I first heard about her.  The blog is fun.  She lives in Westport Connecticut not far from where I grew up so it does invoke memories of my childhood spent reading.I have been loving "Downton Abbey " on PBS so I started" Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks.  It takes place during World War 1..People have been telling me this is a great book but I could never get into it.  I understand it has been made into a movie which is coming out latter this year.  I always like to read the book before I see the movie so I hope I can get into this book this time around.  I am tempted to read some Edith Wharton.  It is her 150th  birthday in a few weeks.  She wrote books taking place around the time of "Downton Abbey" . Most of her books concerned wealthy Americans living in Europe looking for husbands and titles-somewhat like Lady Cora so maybe she will be my next read.  I went through a Edith Wharton reading phase about 20 years ago and I liked her writing.  All books available at Amazon.com..

Next my knitting.  I finished, blocked,sewed on buttons,and wore my Trail Jacket a Hannah Fettig pattern done in Osprey Yarn from Quince and Company.  I talked about this in other blog posts.  Love the sweater and yarn.  I have started another Hannah Fettig pattern that appeared in her book "Coastal Knits" called Rocky Coast Cardigan.  I know a lot of people are making this sweater.  I am doing it in Quince yarn  in the Icelandic color on size 10 needles the same as called for in the pattern.  Again it is knit from the top down.  I love the yarn and pattern.  At this point with all the cables I really have to pay attention so it is not going that fast but the large needles are helping.I also started the Garden Tea Cardigan from Blue Sky Alpaca Spud and Chloe Yarn.  This yarn is 50 percent wool and 50 percent cotton.  I really like the pattern and yarn.  I bought this over a year ago at Jessica Knits a great yarn store in Scottsdale.  The pattern is easy and if I put the time in it should go quickly . The only problem is I will have to put it together which I hate.  I am going to put pictures of both sweaters in.  There is not much to see right now but you will be able to watch my progress.  I am almost finished with a couple of scarfs I have been working on hopefully I will be able to show them in the next blog.Peace 

Reading,Knitting and Rugelach

I wanted to write a blog today.  I felt too much time was passing between blogs.  I have some pictures I want to put in but I am having some trouble with them.  It is cool and cloudy here today.  It really makes me want to work on my knitting so I can wear some of my wool knitting.My son has early dismissal the next 2 days for parent teacher conferences.  His school is too far to keep going back and forth .  So what did I do?  I went to Jessica Knits.  This is a really great store in Scottsdale .  They have beautiful yarn there and a nice group of people working there.  I am going to try to get there more often.  My only problem is I love the people at Knit Happens and I feel somewhat disloyal going to another knitting store .Hopefully I can reach a compromise and go to both.  I really don't need any more yarn but I enjoy knitting and talking with other knitters.  I did buy some interchangeable circular needles.  A friend of mine let me try hers yesterday and I really liked them.  They are called HiyaHiya.  I have been looking for a set I can leave in Maine.  I will let you know what I think after I use them in a project.
Reading-  I finished a book last night "Outside the Ordinary World"by Dori Ostermiller.  This book was just okay.  I read it on my Kindle Fire which was a pain.  I am trying to like this device but so far no.  I don't think this book is very well written and the characters are not well developed or even very believable.  It wa a easy fast read.  "The Tiger's Wife "  byTea Obreht I finished and still didn't like it.  My son is reading "look me in the eye"by John Elder Robison for school.  It is about someone with Asperger's syndrome and how he sees the world.  I am really enjoying it.  A lot of times I don't like reading books about Autism. I find them too depressing.  But this book is good and has made for great discussions with my son and helped me see his world a little better. All the books are available at Amazon.com

All blog entries need some photos. For the New Year my husband requested "rugelach".  I use Ina Garten's
recipe but instead of using apricot jam I use raspberry and to some of them I add mini chocolate chips.  They were delicious.The dough is wonderful.  She has you divide it into 4 pieces.  One piece I didn't use for 2or3 days and it still came out good.  You can probably find the recipe at the Food Network or in Ina's cookbook  "Parties"

2 views of Trail Jacket      so you  can see the sleeves 

Last is the knitting.  I finished the Trail Jacket by Hannah Fettig of Knitbot.  This sweater was done in Osprey,the peacock color from Quince and company in Portland Maine.  The sweater still needs to be washed and blocked.  The buttons I am not sure about they are not sewn on yet.  I just wanted to finish and wear it while it is still cold.  I hope to get the finishing done tomorrow.  I have cast on today for 2 more sweaters-"Rocky Coast Cardigan" from Coastal Knits another Hannah Fettig pattern and a sweater from "Spud and Chloe" from Blue Sky  Alpaca.called Tea Party Cardigan.  Will talk more about these soon once I definitely decide to make them.The "Trail Jacket waseasy to make and went fast.  It is knit on 10 needles and I used 5 skeins of the Osprey Yarn with very little yarn left over.  I was able to finish the sweater in 3 weeks and that was over the holidays so it is a great sweater.  It is 9o'clock here,my bedtime. I am making so many mistakes I must say "good night". Have a great week!Peace

Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe another year has started.  We had a quiet New Year with just my youngest son here.  As usual we made some snacks and talked a little about the coming year.  My eldest son almost died one New Year when he was about 2 after a accident with a babysitter after a few days in the ICU when we knew he would be okay I said I would never go out on New Years again,and we haven't.  We always stayed in with our kids,made appetizers and talked about our resolutions and maybe watched a movie.  My kids thought it was fun-at least I think they did. This is the first year our group was so small.My husband made his delicious Chinese dumplings which we will have more of tonight.
I have gotten a lot of work done on my Trail Jacket designed by Hannah Fettig of Knitsbot  fame.  I love the sweater and pattern but I am afraid I may run out of yarn.  The yarn is from Quince & Company out of (you should know by now) Maine.  It is called Osprey which is aran weight in the peacock color.  If I need to send out for more yarn and can't match the dye lot I was thinking I would do the garter stitch ribbing along the

bottom ,sleeves.and neck in this new skein ao yarn and everything should work out .Another thing I like to do this time of year is to force some bulbs.  It is so easy.  Just buy some bulbs.  Put some small stones in the bottom of different containers and place the bulbs in .  Put some water about halfway covering the bulbs and put in a cool dark space for about a week to ten days.  Take out the bulbs, add a little more water and put in a sunny spot.  Magic They seem to take off! I plant more bulbs at about 10 day intervals and we have great flowers for the month of January at least.

While my daughter was home for the holidays she helped me design a business type card.  She is really good at this.

Last but not least my reading.  I finished "The Marriage Plot"by Jeffrey Eugenides.  I really liked this book and I would recommend it.  I have started "The Tiger's Wife" by Tea Obreht.  This is this author's first novel.  It is about a doctor in the Balkan's during and after the war told through folktale type stories told about her much loved grandfather who has just died.  I do not like this book.  I am about half done and I say to myself why do I keep reading this?  Because I don't like it I won't remember it a week from now but no I have to be a good girl and finish it.  Maybe I won't.  I just want a good story.  I don't want to try to figure out what the author is trying to say.  I want agood read.  Any suggestions?? Books read are available at Amazon.com.  Speaking of Amazon I got a Kindle Fire as a holiday gift.  I hate it.  I even wrote to Amazon about it.  I had one of the original Kindles and I love it .  As a matter of fact I have been using it when I get too frustrated with my new Kindle Fire.  My husband says I should play around with it a little more but even he was frustrated with it this weekend.  I still like reading a actual book better but I must admit the Kindle is nice for traveling and trying samples before you buy a book.  I also like all the classics you can get for free.  Well Happy New Year everyone! Peace to All.

A Channukah  Picture or 2