Splitted Yarns

F.A.C.

2012-01-26T19:49:00.000-06:00

In high-school my friends and I had a term we used often "F.A.C", which stood for favorite article of clothing. At that time my F.A.C. was a Texas Tech t-shirt. This is ironic considering the fact I have no association with Texas Tech other than having taken a campus tour there once and attending a HS football game at the stadium there.

In college my F.A.C was my University of Oklahoma hoodie, who didn't have and absolutely love a hoodie with the name of their university on it? I LOVED my OU hoodie and it went with me everywhere. The thing was more of a security blanket than anything else. I even toted it around with me to a summer job in Texas when it was approximately 155 degrees outside, EVERYDAY.

After college my tastes evolved and I realized if I wanted to be taken seriously in the working world I'd have to give up the hoodie for a new F.A.C. In my professional years the F.A.C has traditionally taken the form of a light-weight cardigan sweater (wonders to herself, why haven't I knit myself a F.A.C. yet?), but this is the year for a new F.A.C. and, while it isn't a hand-knit cardigan sweater, I am happy to report, it is a hand-knit.

My Brand New F.A.C (Favorite Article of Clothing)

Pattern: HoneyComb Cowl by Madeline Tosh - Available for FREE!! (Big Size)

Yarn: Louet - Eastport Yarn (unsure of the colorway, can't find the ball band - my apologies)

Additional Notes: This pattern is perfect just the way it is! It was super fun and easy to work, because it does call for a rather large amount of stitches (220) I used stitch markers every 20 stitches (with a different color one for the beginning of the row) to keep track of where I was.

I absolutely adore this finished product. It is so darn soft and squishy; I find when I'm wearing it I can't keep my hands off of it and I'm always rubbing the scarf against my face. I'm weird. Today, while I was eating lunch with Kyle he commented that I might want to knit myself one in every color (second wondering: is this my husband's way of encouraging me to buy more yarn?). With that, I knew a new F.A.C. had been born. Please don't look at me strangely when I'm still wearing this in July; I love it that much.

What is your F.A.C.? Has it changed over the years or remained the same? Who isn't afraid to admit at one point in their lives (when they were older than 10) a pair of denim overalls fit the bill? There's no shame.

Resolute

2012-01-03T18:55:00.000-06:00

Happy 2012! Am I the only one having a hard time believing it is actually 2012? The only person who will admit I am actually a tidbit scared the world might end this year (yes, I'll admit it)?

The holidays were filled with fun, friends, family, and merriment. So much so, that I had very little blogging time (there were a few naps during blogging time too), and now that we are onto a new year it is time for me to write my resolutions/hopes for general changes in list form, naturally.

Work-Out More: Admittedly, I have fallen off the work-out wagon recently. I've still been making it to my weekly spin classes but that's been about it and frankly I'm sad to admit my running is suffering. Goal for the year: Work out 4-times a week during the work week, do one "long" work-out each weekend (bike ride or run or something of the sort). There are some "stretch" goals too: run a half-marathon again, complete a sub-30 minute 5K, do a triathlon.

Knit:

Enter a pair of knit-socks into the Oklahoma State Fair. 2011 was certainly the year of the sock for me (more on that in a later post), and I think my sock-knitting skills have finally reached a point where I would be comfortable entering a pair of socks into the competition at the fair. If I'm lucky, I'll be met with the same success I was last year.
Finish a knit sweater - it's been a loooooooooong time since I've knitted a sweater. My failure to do this is because of my inability to finish the Gooseberry cardigan, which I'm ashamed to admit is still sitting in my knitting basket yearning for attention. I just can't seem to justify starting a new sweater when I have one sitting on the needles. Guilt is a terrible thing.

Quilt: Finish a t-shirt quilt for myself.
Read More: This shouldn't be too hard with the help of my new book-club (btw, you can see what we are currently reading listed in the right-hand column).

I think this list will keep me busy for now. What are your New Year's Resolutions? I'll be sure to keep you updated on my progress here.

By the way, I updated my Ravelry page during the holidays. Hop on over there and check it out, if you are inclined "friend" me while you're at it.

Leaving the Comfort Zone

2011-12-29T19:35:00.000-06:00

Last night Kyle and I did something ~~a lot~~ a little out of our comfort zone and attended a knitting trunk show and fashion show. This was the first time for either of us to attend an event like this and while I was out of my element in a first-time-ever-attending-knitwear-fashion-show kind of way, Kyle was out of his element in a much more I-don't-even-knit-or-care-about-fashion-or-know-what-a-trunk-show-is kind of way. He was that guy in a suit; Kyle is The Man.

All that is to say, I'm so glad we left our comfort zone because the trunk show was totally inspiring! The show was hosted at Anty Shanty a vintage boutique in Norman, OK and featured the knitwear of Oklahoman turned New Yorker turned knitwear designer, Alexis Winslow, aka KnitDarling. The items in the show included things from her recent feature in KnitScene Magazine (one of my favorite knitting magazines, btw) and a few things off of her website.

I think my favorite thing about the show was getting the opportunity to see how somebody else styled the knit items. One of my favorite features in the KnitScene magazine is located on the very last page and shows two-ways to wear one of the knit items featured in the issue. I always find it interesting to see what others pair their knit items with or, for example to see if they wear their cardigans open or closed or belted or inside out. You know, simple things.

Plus, I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of the new Interweave Knits Accessories from my Mom as an early Christmas present and there were a couple patterns from the issue featured in the fashion show too, which made me totally excited. I definitely leaned over to Kyle more than once and said "whoooo - I have the pattern for that, do you like that?". He nodded. One thing Kyle is good at in knitting discussions, nodding.

As for a review of the knitwear itself, I was a HUGE fan of the sweaters. I really liked the clean lines and fit of all of them and the patterns seemed as if they would be fairly accessible to knit. Unfortunately for me, some of the patterns involve piecing, which would require me to overcome my fear of stitching knitted items together (long story, to be divulged later). Fortunately for me, my favorite sweater of the show was actually one that is knit in one piece. I really love the striping in this bad boy, it just seems so darn flattering.

I had mixed feelings about the hats. I love, love, loved the color work hats but wasn't so sure about this one. Most likely, that's because I could never ever picture myself wearing it. However, I do think it could be really cute on the right person and/or in darker colors for a dressy evening.

There were also a few pairs of fingerless mitts featured (not sure how I feel about the fingerless mitts concept in general), a couple of gorgeous pairs of gloves (will I ever be brave enough to try color work in such an intricate project), some super warm and practical looking mittens (I'm all about practical and love a good mitten), and a very masculine looking cowl (Kyle declined my offer to knit it for him - I think he really only appreciates socks).

I'm glad I was able to attend this event and learn a little bit more about a new up-and-coming knitwear designer and gather some new year knitting inspiration. I'm definitely looking forward to trying some of the KnitDarling's patterns.

As for Kyle, after the event we went and did something he is very comfortable with, ate nachos and pizza and drank beer at The Library in Norman. It was a good night indeed.

Turtles....The Edible Kind

2011-12-28T21:19:00.000-06:00

I did a fair amount of baking, candy making, and eating over the Christmas holiday, which unfortunately is now reflecting itself in my waistline.

Things made included: puppy chow (not the kind for your dog), buckeyes (basically chocolate peanut butter balls, what can be bad about that?), fudge (I add chopped candy canes to my fudge instead of nuts), and this my most favorite, super easy, always yummy recipe for turtles.

Super-Easy Always Yummy Edible Turtles

Ingredients:

Pretzels Twists (the kind shaped like a heart, Rold Gold are what I use)

Rolos

Pecan Halves

Line cookie sheet with foil, place pretzels on sheet. Place an unwrapped Rolo on the center of each pretzel. Place the cookie sheet in a warm oven (about 300 degrees) for about 3 minutes. After you take the cookie sheet out of the oven immediately use a pecan to "squish" the melted Rolo to the pretzel. Place the cookie sheet in the fridge for about 30 minutes to allow the turtles to set. Enjoy!!!!

If my calculations are correct, you still have 3 days until the New Year which means there is plenty of time to gorge on these bad boys before January 1st rolls around and the resolutions kick-in. Enjoy!

Trees on the Table

2011-12-20T20:51:00.000-06:00

This post might better be named Trees on the Desk, but I like alliteration so there you have it Trees on Tables, onto to the post.....

I work in a small office where we don't typically do much for the holidays aside from a nice lunch out, which I appreciate greatly because it frees up a lot of pressure to buy one another gifts and/or add another holiday party to an already jam-packed schedule. I was, however, a bit sad last year when I realized we don't even do any sort of holiday decorating, not even a wreath on the door. Boo. This year, I set out to change that by making these little trees for each of my co-worker's desks.

Trees for the Table

Pattern: Purl Bee's Felted Christmas Trees (Small Version)

Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool in Cloverleaf, plus misc. sport weight wool from the stash for "ornaments"

Modifications: The pattern suggests using french knots to make the ornaments (prior to felting). I had mixed success with this and found it to be easier and quicker to needle felt decorations onto the trees. I also used a piece of plastic canvas at the bottom of all of the trees to help them stand up (this was met with mixed success).

I'm pleased with the overall result as this is my first time knitting and stuffing project. A few of the trees ended up a little bit lopsided but I think that is due to my error and not a fault of the pattern.

I also needle felted each of my co-worker's initials onto the bottom of her respective tree. Some of the initials look better than others, but I still thought it was fun. Also, I'm kind of in love with needle felting now. Who knew?

What kind of holiday crafts have you been doing? These little guys can be knit in one holiday-watching movie sitting. Make one tonight, whilst sipping a cup of hot chocolate and forgetting about all the other dreaded holiday to-do's. You won't be sorry.

Recently.....Randomly......

2011-12-14T21:27:00.000-06:00

The holiday hustle may be getting the better of me. Lately, I've been feeling way behind the curve on just about everything - I had lots of great holiday-themed ideas for my blog and they have all fallen by the wayside due to work traveling, holiday parties, and volunteering obligations. I'm vowing to do better soon and wow you all with my super-duper organized self. Until then, you'll have to settle for my list of random happenings below and if my random list isn't enough for you head on over and visit Sarah at WordyThirties and check out her random list. It's the most random time of year, after all.

Random 1: Saturday I participated in the Oklahoma City Santa Run with my good friend, Kellye, her husband, Tom, and Kyle. Of course, Kyle smoked the run finishing in just a little over 20 minutes. Kellye and I had a goal of finishing between 32 and 33 minutes respectively. I'm proud to say I finished in exactly 32:00 minutes and Kellye finished in 31:51. For a moment during the race I honestly thought I might be able to finish in less than 30 minutes, but due to an unfortunate incident at the end of the race that didn't happen. Someday, maybe I'll share with you all just what that unfortunate incident was - but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Random 2: This Santa Run was so much better than this Jingle Bell run, when I was first getting involved in running.

Random 3: Also, I like to run with jingle bells on; it's festive. I'm not such a big fan of running with a Santa hat on; it's hot.

Random 4: We celebrated our run with breakfast at Coits. If you live in Oklahoma City and haven't been there for breakfast run, don't walk. It's yummy and cheap and local and you can order things in a "mini" size. Awesome.

Random 5: Kyle and I finally got our Christmas decorations up. After Thanksgiving spent in Albuquerque and the first weekend in December spent in Dallas I was beginning to feel a bit behind the curve, but now the decorations are up and it's like they were there all along. Plus our house is really clean - I even swept out the garage.

Random 6: On Monday night, despite the fact I'd yet to buy one Christmas present I decided the best way to spent my time would be to make cinnamon rolls. I used Pioneer Woman's recipe and baked a TON of cinnamon rolls and the house smelled delicious and the rolls looked perfect and I tortured Kyle by waving every freshly baked pan under his nose.

Random 7: Last night I finished all of my Christmas shopping for one side of the family in the span of about 45 minutes at Macy's. I had no idea this was possible, but it is and I did. I was so darn proud of myself I bought a pretzel at Auntie Anne's to celebrate - then, I proceeded to have an awkward conversation with a gentleman about if my pretzel tasted like a pretzel, it was weird and awkward and caused me to conclude it's best if I stay away from talking to strangers.

Random 8: Believe it or not I have a few finished knitting projects that are just waiting to be blogged about. Hopefully, that will happen soon. Be on the look-out.

I'm off to buy wrapping paper and cards and such. Over and out and random.

Running in the Rain......Again.

2011-12-08T21:27:00.001-06:00

It was a cold and rainy day in ~~Whoville~~ Dallas when Kyle, I, and assorted family members decided to kick off December 2011 with a marathon relay. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Are we having flashbacks to the coldest/wettest race ever run (i.e. the Oklahoma City 2011 Marathon)?

To give you a bit more of the race run-down here are the details: our team consisted of Kyle, myself, Jim (my brother), Mary (my sister-in-law), and Jennifer (Mary's sister), we were the self-named Team Top Gun. Although, there were no mid-air dogfights in multi-million dollar government equipment and saying we went "through" the Danger Zone might be a bit of an exaggeration it certainly felt like we were skirting the Danger Zone running in the cold and wet. Gah!

The race we were participating in was the Dallas Whiterock Marathon.

Mary kicked off the race for Team Top Gun, while she was running the rest of us stopped at Target for some pre-race fuel. I feel like a bit of a chump for admitting this - especially given the fact that it was probably raining the hardest while she was running but in the interest of transparency you must know; I ate a bag of pretzels and a candy bar while Mary was running in the cold and rain. It's true and I do feel slightly guilty about the whole incident.

After the Target run, those of us who weren't running drove to the first relay transition point, where we dropped Jim off. He walked about a 1/2 mile to the transition and met Mary. Jennifer and I hunkered down in the warm car and watch "Little Women" on her iPad, again there was a slight feeling of guilt. However, the guilt was far outweighed by a feeling of ~~dread~~ lack of excitement for running, for some reason I had a really hard time getting my head "into the race". It could have been the weather, but it may be my general lack of running too.

Anyhow, Mary handed off our timing chip to Jim and then headed back to the car. Unfortunately, she got a little turned around on the walk back and traffic getting the the next relay transition point was a bit of a nightmare - so Jim had to wait about 5 minutes before Kyle made it to the transition. Lucky for us, Kyle is a super-duper speedster and was able to make-up for the lost time quickly and the next transition area (where I met Kyle) was very close.

We arrived at transition area 3; I bemoaned my having to run in the cold, wet, weather fate - walked to a port-a-pottie, prayed it was clean - used said port-a-pottie (it was clean), and then waited for Kyle. Lucky for me, Kyle (who had already run 7 miles) decided to run my leg of the race with me. Side note, is my husband a stud or what? We took off for 4.5 miles and the rain started coming down. I was definitely having flashbacks of the OKC marathon and, ironically enough, the song Crazy Train came on my iPod at just the right time. Is this the Universe trying to tell me something?

I'm not sure if it was the cold weather or the rain or my general desire to just be done running but I was able to run my portion of the race in a very speedy (for me) time of 47 minutes and change. Seriously, I clocked one of the fastest miles in my running life at 9:48! Woot, woot! And, while the cold and rain did suck - I do have to admit that running the race overall was actually a really great experience - during my leg (mile 16-21 roughly), there was a band, a scenic run along Whiterock Lake in Dallas, a large water/Gatorade/GU stop, a BIG downhill, a group handing out beers (I abstained), lots of spectators (one with a sign that said "you run better than Rick Perry" - LOVED IT), and it ended with the "Dolly Parton Hills" and some older gentlemen dressed like Dolly Parton playing Dolly Parton music.

Kyle and I met Jennifer at the last relay transition area, handed off our timing chip and then made a b-line for the car. We had just enough time to warm-up by the time we made it to the finish line at Dallas Fair Park, where we all ran across the finish line together, grabbed our medals, took a few pictures, and enjoyed beers.

Then we headed off for a celebratory burger, fries, and fried pickles. YUM!!!! And then the most important part a long hot shower.

Marathon Relay: Complete.

Taking a Hike

2011-12-01T20:47:00.000-06:00

Kyle and I spent our Thanksgiving holiday in New Mexico. Yes, I realize Thanksgiving was a week ago; yes, I have been super busy since arriving home; it's true this post is a bit un-timely but I didn't think you all would judge me.

Anyhow, Thanksgiving was spent in New Mexico and in-between the requisite eating, knitting, football-watching, family timing, and friend visiting we managed to squeeze in a few minutes to visit the Petroglyph National Monument, take in the visitors center, do some hiking, and, of course, find some really cool petroglyphs. Below is a brief photo essay of our trip there and for more information on what the heck a petroglyph is click here.

Our hike. We made our way to the top.

View of the Sandia's and Albuquerque.

Kyle, Mike, and Carla, my hiking companions.

Pueblo bread this was being baked in a wood burning stove outside and smelled heavenly.

New Mexican Christmas.

As luck would have it there was a large display on this history of fiber/wool in New Mexico, who knew?

YIKES!

Mike wowing us with his knowledge of New Mexican history.

In Case You're Hungry

2011-11-24T21:37:00.000-06:00

I am well aware Thanksgiving Day might be the absolute worst time to post a restaurant review coupled with pictures. However, the way I look at it I'm doing you all a favor by posting this today. Hopefully, the over eating you've done today will allow you to avoid the need to run out to your nearest burger joint and demand a large fries, double patty burger, and homemade milk shake. Be warned though, you may just crave a burger after this post; I can't be blamed.

Onto the good stuff - last night (the evening prior to Thanksgiving) Kyle and I decided to keep our clean kitchen clean and go out to eat. I picked him up from work (my uber-fit husband bike commuted into the office), we proceeded to have a 15-minute conversation about where we might like to go, decided on a local favorite Big Truck Tacos and then headed on our way. To our dismay, Big Truck Tacos was only operating out of it's truck for the evening (long story to be shared another time) - so we headed down the road to try something new, Tucker's Onion Burgers.

For those of you who have never heard of an onion burger (I hadn't before moving to Oklahoma), I'll provide a brief bit of history. In the 1920's and 1930's Oklahoma ranchers and restaurant owners were looking for a way to stretch their meat a bit further. They found by chopping up onions into very small pieces and mixing it with ground beef they could make more burgers for less money - and the burgers themselves were pretty darn yummy to boot. There is a bit more info on Tucker's website here.

Tucker's opened in 2011. The restaurant itself reminded Kyle and I both of something similar to a Five Guys or In and Out burger. There aren't a terrible lot of options on the menu, but you can get a single or double burger, with or without cheese, a simple salad, fries, and hand-dipped shakes. Kyle and I each got a single-burger, one with cheese and one without (care to guess who had cheese on their burger?). Our burgers were made-to-order with the fixings each of us like and, of course, onions. We also got an order of fries and a vanilla shake. Yum, yum, double yum.

All the food was absolutely outstanding and the service did not disappoint. Things to like about this restaurant: it was super-duper clean and the service was very good, the menu did not provide a lot of options but it did allow for customization of your own burger, it is a local restaurant and has partnered with lots of other local food vendors/restaurants, the ingredients are all natural, and if you are a member of Keep It Local OKC you get a discount.

There really isn't too much not to like, honestly. Kyle and I will likely be going back again sometime soon - if our opinion changes you all will be the first to know.

P.S. I've finally joined Twitter. Be sure to follow me!

P.P.S. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I have a lot to be thankful for this year, including all of my wonderful readers!

Yarn Along: Sisters and Infiniti

2011-11-23T21:19:00.000-06:00

From Ginny at Small Things: "Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading?"

This week I've been readings two books, both are told from the point-of-views of sisters. I've made the most progress in "Poisonwood Bible", which is about 4 sisters traveling with their missionary father in Congo during the 1950's. The second book was just started today, "In The Time of the Butterflies" is a book for a new book club some girlfriends and I are starting. I'll be sure to check back in with a review of each book once I'm done with them.

On the knitting front I've been making good progress on my Honey Cowl. There will likely be a lot of knitting over the holiday weekend, so if all goes as planned I should be back with a finished project next week. Fingers crossed.

What is on your needles this week? Any good book recommendations for a newly formed book club?

Color Me Happy!

2011-11-23T10:04:00.000-06:00

About a year ago - when I really started entering the blog world - I found a lot of the great blogs through a little award that, at that time, had a heavy circulation in the quilting blog world. The award is named the Liebster award and is given to bloggers by fellow bloggers with the goal of helping smaller lesser known blogs gain a larger audience.

Never, did I ever imagine I would be the lucky recipient of the award. However, thanks to Sarah at WordyThirties, I'm happy to tell you I am. Hopefully, my dear readers will appreciate the significance of this a bit more than others (who have just seem confused).

Specifically, the award is designed for blogs with a following of less than 200 people. The rules for the award are fairly simple - once you have been nominated you should copy and paste the award onto your blog, thank the person who gave you the award, choose 5 other worthy bloggers to give the award to, post it on your blog and notify them of the award via their comments section.

Today I'm happy to pass along the love to 5 other well deserving blogs that, in my own humble opinion, are worthy of a visit. They are listed below in no particular order. ~~Run don't walk,~~ click really fast to get over to each one and check it out. You won't be sorry. I guarantee it.

SeeminglyGreek: This is a great blog by Jacquline, filled with yummy Greek recipes and fun little tidbits about Greek life. It's truly a hidden gem and Jacquline just did a revamp of her site a few months ago, so it looks really pretty too!
DescribeHappy: A blog about all things Happy including two adorable dogs, lots of fun quilting and sewing projects, really creative "doodles", and an occasional recipe. Christie shares the Happy and it is down right contagious.
Life, Love, Libraries: Lauren and her husband are two wondering Cajuns exploring the great state of Oklahoma and beyond. Lauren shares lots of fun recipes, her crafting endeavors, and life in general. A good read. (Also, in the interest of transparency - Lauren and I are real-life and blog friends, I have made a few cameos on her blog.)
PeacefulKnitter: One of my favorite knitting blogs, Sonia shares all about her knitting adventures, her life with Peaceful Baby (who is ADORABLE), and the opening of her brand new yarn store. This is always a great visit for knitting inspiration and beautiful photography.
MediumTriGuy: Yes, this is Kyl'es blog. Yes, Kyle is my husband. I still think his blog is pretty darn good though and worth a look. Especially, if you have any interest in running a marathon, or training for a triathlon, or any other type of athletic endeavor. It is pretty darn impressive what he does.

Now for your assignment, grab a cup of coffee (or tea), put some music on in the background and get lost in some other really great blogs! You won't be sorry you did.

No Bluffin' It's a Muffin......

2011-11-11T20:41:00.000-06:00

Today at work my co-workers were talking about breakfast, all sorts of breakfast - pancakes, waffles, omelets, bacon, and biscuits and gravy. It was all I could do not to leave immediately and go buy supplies for breakfast for dinner. Seriously folks, I was eavesdropping on this conversation at 2:30 in the afternoon, a time when my lunch just wasn't cutting it and the wait for dinner seemed un-ending. It was torture.

All this got me thinking about one of my favorite, supa-dupa easy breakfast recipes for muffins. While this recipe won't fill the need for biscuit debris (a most yummy southern breakfast tradition), it certainly will start a chilly morning off the right way.

Ever-Ready Muffins

15 oz box of raisin bran cereal
3 cups sugar
5 cups of flour
5 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice
2 Tbsp vanilla
2 tsp salt
4 beaten eggs
1 cup melted margarine or butter
1 qt buttermilk

Mix bran, sugar, flour, soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a VERY large bowl. Add eggs, shortening, vanilla, and buttermilk. Mix well. Store in a covered container in the refridgerator and use as desired. For muffins, fill greased pans 2/3 full, bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Batter will keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Just dip out enough for your family needs.

These are great in a hurry and for over night guests. Just think - you can roll out of bed, put some muffins in the oven, get coffee going and greet everyone with a smile. This will earn you BEST HOST EVER Award in no-time.

One Lucky Girl......

2011-11-04T12:54:00.000-05:00

Look-y what my husband surprised me with, am I lucky girl or what?

For those of you who don't know what you're looking at that's a hand-crafted "yarn bowl", bamboo knitting needles, and some fun chunky yarn.

Better than flowers? I think so!

Weekend Delayed

2011-11-02T20:51:00.000-05:00

I realize it is almost the end of hump day and that I'm closer to a this weekend than to last weekend, but I had such a good couple of days LAST weekend that I thought I'd share a little photo essay of the weekend gone by.

The weekend started out with pizza.......

Then there was breakfast at one of our favorite places with our good friends, then a little road-trip to the Wichita Wildlife Refuge......

Hiking with good friends and prairie dog viewing......

Then some burgers and cobbler with ice cream at Meers - you may remember Flat Stanley's trip there last spring....

Sunday brought grocery shopping, cleaning, and

Trunk or treating! That's me doing my best impression of a chipmunk.

Then there was some football watching, taco soup eating, and apple dumpling enjoying.

It was a full weekend to be sure, but a good one. Monday morning I left for work while the pets laid on the bed and recovered. I was a more than a little bit jealous.

Making a List.....

2011-10-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

The weather in Oklahoma is turning colder and it is almost November, which can only mean one thing - it's time to start thinking about my winter knitting. My list of to-be-knit before January patterns is growing slowly and I'm happy to report I think my obsession with knitting socks may taking a break for now......so without further adieu my knitting to do-list

Madeline Tosh Honey Cowl*

I love the look of infinity scarves and I have just the right yarn to make this long cushy scarf. It should be just the ticket for the winter, especially with the right jacket. I can hardly wait.

Felted Christmas Trees x4**

Last year I was a little depressed to find out my office does absolutely no decorating for the holiday season, and while I can certainly appreciate not being forced to buy a present for some silly holiday party, I was a bit sad to have no decorations to liven up our office. So, my very BIG goal is to make 4 of these little felted Christmas trees before the middle of December to give to each of my co-workers. That way each one of the offices will have a little holiday cheer on the desk.

My only thought/concern about this project is that I'd like to make each persons tree slightly unique. I though about doing different ornaments on each tree (buttons, beads, knots, needle-felting, etc.), but I'm not sure if that's the best option. Suggestions?

Once again, I've decided to participate in the Red Heart Special Olympics Scarf Project. Care to join me? You all know I love a good craft for charity project and last year after I sent my scarf in I received a very nice thank-you note with photos of some of the athletes wearing the scarves they received, which made all my work that much more meaningful.

Of course, there's still the Gooseberry Cardigan which is moving at a snails pace and is one pair of socks on the needles (I never claimed to be completely through with my sock addiction).

I guess I need to get knitting. I'll catch you all on the flip side of my very long knitting list (or more than likely somewhere in between).

*Source

**Source

Weekend Happenings

2011-10-17T20:28:00.000-05:00

The past weekend was all about holidays and getting ready for them. Friday, my Mom came for a visit. She brought a little guest with her too - this girl sure is cute.

Rascal came for a visit. She is a fan of the TV.

Saturday, Mom, Mary, my sister-in-law, and I all headed downtown Oklahoma City for the Junior League of Oklahoma City's annual Mistletoe Market, a large shopping extravaganza featuring a little bit of everything. There was clothing, food items, holiday decorations, wrapping paper and lots of other things for sale and fun Christmas music playing. It was a great way to get my wheels turning for possible Christmas presents. I didn't end up buying much, but I did come away with a few things: Halloween Placemats (Thanks, Mom!), dip mixes (for game day watch parties), and a super-secret-to-be-delivered-soon birthday present

The rest of Saturday was spent being lazy. After a nap to recover from our shopping trip, we did manage to drag ourselves out the door and I finally was able to purchase some mums and pumpkins for our front porch. It looks so much more festive and fall-ish now.

Sunday, I got the pleasure of carving pumpkins with my friend, Allie, and our pug-helper, Harry. Isn't he a cute little guy?

Allie and Harry hosted me at their house and they are both certainly hosts with the mosts. Allie made the most adorable candy corn garland and yummy pumpkin spice cake for us to snack on. She also wowed me with her chalkboard spray painted pumpkins - such a cute idea.

Allie's finished pumpkin and a blackboard pumpkin.

Harry provided the entertainment with occasional displays of his incredible lung power as demonstrated through his snoring.

It was my first time to carve a pumpkin and I'm not going to lie, I was more than a bit nervous wielding sharp objects whilst jabbing them through such a heavy object. Thankfully, the day ended injury free and my weekend ended with a fall-ed out front porch, a yummy pot roast, and mashed potatoes and an episode of The Amazing Race.

There was a little incident with our smoke alarm and the pot roast, but that's a story for another time......

Crafting for My Triathlete

2011-10-14T21:30:00.001-05:00

It's finished and only a month and a half after Kyle's birthday and celebratory completion of the IronMan triathlon. Hooray! Kyle finally has a completed t-shirt quilt.

I started this project back in March and finished the piecing of the project fairly quickly. I dropped it off to be professionally quilted in early June, picked it up about 2 weeks before Kyle's birthday, promptly finished the binding, attached it to the front of the quilt and then let the project sit for a few weeks before attaching the binding to the back of the work; such is the life of a part-time quilter, knitter and professional craft project procrastinator.

I finally finished the quilt, showed it to Kyle, allowed him a moment to cuddle with his new "blankie", and then demanded he help me take it outside for a photo shoot.

Kyle's I'm An IronMan Quilt

Quilt Pattern: Basic T-Shirt Quilt taught in a class at Quiltworks in Oklahoma City.

Fabrics: Various t-shirts from races Kyle has participated in (note this is not ALL of his race t-shirts, there will certainly be more t-shirt quilts in my future). Other fabrics were purchased as Quiltworks Oklahoma City.

Quilting: Professionally done by a local long-arm quilter, Brenda Esslinger

Additional Notes: I had a really, really hard time choosing the sashing and cornerstones for this project due to the wide array of t-shirt colors and print. The course instructor spent about 45 minutes with me trying to help with the selection before she gave up. Eventually, I choose an orange (one of Kyle's favorite colors is orange) with a bunting print for the sashing, because it reminded me of the flags at the end of a race. The cornerstones are a grass print which I thought was a nice contrast to the orange.

As Kyle and I were taking photos we noticed a number of the t-shirt graphics are slightly off-center and/or crooked. I don't imagine it will affect the functionality of the quilt or be entirely obvious unless we hang it on a wall, which we certainly aren't intending to do. In fact, for the past few days it has been sitting on the chair in our living room and is seeming to serve as a pretty good cat bed. Hopefully, when the weather turns colder our four-legged friends won't be the only one appreciating it.

And now for some out-takes from our photo shoot........

Kyle point the t-shirt from your favorite race......

Now point to the t-shirt from the most boring race.....

Now point to the t-shirt from the hardest race......

The race you cared the least about......

Then it was time for "aerial" shots of the quilt. We really are running a high-tech operation around our house.....

I've already got a bag of t-shirts just waiting to be cut up for my own t-shirt quilt. It's only a matter of time before Kyle does the same "point to the....." game to me - if I ever get around to starting the quilt.

I'm Linking to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.

It's the Most RUNderful Time of the Year

2011-10-05T20:43:00.000-05:00

Aren't I clever? Does my punny-ness just kill you? Go on, you can be generous with the comments, they never get old.

As you can see from the above title it is absolutely the most RUNderful time of year. I heart running in the fall, the cool brisk mornings and fall leaves are just so runderful. (How many times do you think I can use the word runderful in a post? Let's see.)

After taking the summer off of running (for the most part) - I've decided now is the perfect time to begin training for something big again. Once again I'll be training for the Cowtown Half-Marathon, which will take place the last weekend in February in Fort Worth. After a summer spent in spin class I'm looking forward to doing some more running - don't worry though, I'm definitely not giving up on spinning, just adding on running.

To kick off my training I decided to run a 5K with my friend and Kyle's former co-worker, Kellye. We decided to run the Fit to Serve 5K - hosted by Church of the Servant in OKC. The event benefits the church's partnership with a local group called Safe Kids Oklahoma that provides car seats (and car seat fitting) for low-income families. I got a work-out and my money benefitted a good cause - it was definitely a win-win situation.

Kyle even joined us for the run, which was a big deal considering he's been nursing a post-Ironman injury. Apparently the injury isn't all that bad - he came back in fine form and placed third in the whole race. Show off.

Kyle waiting to pick up his finisher medal.

Kellye and I ran the race together - at a healthy faster than a tortoise slower than a hare type of pace - considering we were both fighting off colds, I think we didn't do too bad. Kellye finished in 34:28 and I finished in 34:58. We both came in under our 35 minute goal, yay!

FINISHED!

One of the most RUNderful things about this race was all the folks cheering at the end - for a small race there was a healthy, enthusiastic crowd and that always makes things fun. Plus, we got finisher medal's made by the kids at the church. They were all unique and very special.

Now I'm on to the doldrums of training. In case your curious, here is the training plan I'll be following (more or less). If your interested in joining me to train, let me know. I love company.

Next RUNderful stop, Dallas White Rock Marathon Relay. The family is preparing for a repeat of our OKC Marathon performance. Hopefully, the weather will be better this time around......................

Pinspiration

2011-09-26T21:25:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been spending a lot of time on one of my new favorite websites, Pintrest. Pintrest, itself, isn't the easiest thing to explain, but I'll do my best. Essentially, it is a personal online inspiration board. It works by allowing users to "pin" ideas they see from websites onto a virtual bulletin board. Users categorize their bulletin boards however they like. For example, I have a board for knitting, fall decorations, my style, and books I've read/hope to read.

Pintrest users can then browse through other users boards and re-pin things they like. The best part about it is once you see a photo or craft project or outfit you like the photo identifies the original source so you can find a link with directions for how to make said craft or a store where you can purchase the awesome purse. Really, the best way to experience Pintrest is just to use play around with it, use it, and love it. I promise it will make much more sense once you look at it. There is a link just over to the right - if you go, follow me. I'd be absolutely tickled.

Anyhow, one of my Pintrest boards is title "For Fall" and I've been using it to find inspiration for fall decorations around our house. I was particularly excited to find a cute little tea towel with a pumpkin on it.

Side note, I really enjoy having tea towels/kitchen towels for the appropriate seasons. They are such a fun, cheap way to decorate the kitchen.

It occurred to me I could actually make the tea towel so I went ahead and bought the supplies. Then I launched into the wonderful world of applique.

This project was certainly quick which was a good thing. I used a flour sack kitchen towel, which I bought at Wal-Mart. The towel was cheap I'm not overly pleased with its "look". In the future I might add some rick-rack or a little fabric border to fancy it up. Suggestions?

At any rate, it's fun to know I can make a cute little decoration with a bit of fabric scraps and thread.

What has been your inspiration recently?

Random Weekend Happenings

2011-09-25T19:55:00.000-05:00

I'm at the end of one of the best kind of weekends. We had no plans and did very little but it was just so darn mellow - I loved it very much. Below a list of weekend happenings:

1. Ate junk food, knitted, and watched Freaky Friday.
2. Savored a morning bagel and cup of coffee.
3. Knitted and watched The Pioneer Woman's show (was inspired by the food, but unimpressed with the show.).
4. Cleaned the house, cleaned the house, cleaned the house. LOTS of cleaning. I even washed the dog bed.
5. Learned the best time to run errands in Oklahoma is when OSU (or presumably OU) is playing football on TV.
6. Made a blackberry cobbler (Pioneer Woman's Recipe).
7. Made homemade vanilla ice cream.
8. Watched the OU game.
9. Went for a morning trail run.
10. Made pancakes.
11. Worked on a small little tea towel project (more to come soon).
12. Made Pioneer's Woman's recipe for Knock You Naked brownies , put my clothes back on.
(Side note, it was a Pioneer Woman kind of weekend around here).
13. Went for a bike ride with the husband. Impressed him with all my cycling skillz.
14. Made enchiladas.
15. Still to come.....Amazing Race watching, brownie eating, fingernail painting, good times. Oh yeah.

And just for kicks, here is a video of our dog settling into her freshly washed bed. She sure is a cute little thing.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

2011-09-18T19:15:00.000-05:00

Did you hear the shrieking? It's true and something I can hardly believe myself, I actually won a Blue Ribbon at the Oklahoma State Fair. To say I was surprised by my success would be nothing short of an understatement. Here is how it all went down.......

Kyle and I had initially planned to wake-up early on Saturday morning and head straight to the fair, but then we woke up and I went for a run and he went for a swim (an attempt to earn some extra calories for all the fair food), then we had to get cleaned-up, then we stopped and ate breakfast, then I decided we needed to stop back at the house so I could pick up a sweater, and then we were running about an hour behind (the schedule, which was in my head only).

We arrived at the Fair shortly before the exhibit buildings opened and busied ourselves with finding a map and attempting to decide what type of junk food we might like to eat. Then we made our way through one of the pavilions of random fair vendors and onto the Creative Arts building.

We took in a lot of 4-H displays and I began to get a bit nervous about finding my entries. Kyle asked me if I wanted to go and look for my items first, but I was trying to play it cool so we looked at a lot of 4-H entries.

Eventually, we made our way over to the needle arts display cases. The first case I noticed was the charity division. I was more than a bit excited to see my Little Sister Dress with a 5th place ribbon attached to it. Woot, woot. Getting any ribbon at all was fairly exciting. I should say though, had I known they would display the tag I made with the dress I would have done a better job making one, boo on me.

Here is a picture of the item that one first place in that division.

Kyle and I then began to make our way through looking at all the other display cases with needle arts entries. We were about 3/4 of the way through scanning the cases when I told him, I was concerned that perhaps the items which did not get a ribbon were not on display and that is why we weren't finding mine. Right as he was assuring me he didn't think that was the case I saw my shawl in a cabinet across the room from us.

I yelled "there it is!" and took off running. My ever cool husband probably thought I lost my head, then when I started jumping up and down and yelling "I won a blue ribbon, I won a blue ribbon," I'm pretty convinced he was certain I'd lost my head. Words cannot accurately describe how good it felt to win - never before in my life have I won first-place at anything. I wish I could bottle up that feeling and take it around with me in my pocket - it was euphoria to the nth degree.

After that, I was kind of walking on a cloud and nothing else made much of an impression on me. Don't worry though, we did make it to the pig races and we chowed down on a celebratory cinnamon roll.

Success is sweet indeed.

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!

2011-09-14T20:42:00.001-05:00

Quick question: do you know Oklahoma's state song? Can you guess it? Maybe this little video will help........

This weekend Kyle and I are heading to the Oklahoma State Fair, which certainly seems like something Curly would approve of. I'm looking forward to checking out the exhibits, picking up random free "fair schwag", attempting to find some pig races (or the like), eating something fried and/or on a stick, and making Kyle trudge through the livestock barns where I impress him with all my random knowledge about bovines native to Oklahoma.......or something like that.

All of this should be a rip roaring good time and there is no doubt I'll need a few breaks in all the excitement, but the MAIN reason we are going to the fair is to see the two things I have entered into the fair and find out if I won anything (don't hold your breath).

This is my first year to enter anything in the State Fair, but after my Mom's success at the Texas State Fair in 2007 and again in 2009, I thought it was high time to represent our family outside of the Lonestar State and see how I'd fair in a competition in Sooner Land. Have I also mentioned that my friend Becca is a rather accomplished Fair Competitor? She's won a number of prizes for baked goods and table decorating. I'm simply not worthy of the greatness of those around me.

Anyway, on to what I entered........

Initially, after reading the State Fair Creative Arts Competition Guidelines I decided to enter the Miami Beach Shawl I finished back in July. Here is a picture as a refresher.

I was so nervous at the prospect of entering one item that I began reading and re-reading the fair guidelines in order to make sure my project would be acceptable. It was somewhere during one of these re-reads that I finally made it to the last page and realized there was also a "Charity Division", which meant entrants knit/sewed/crocheted something to enter into the State Fair Competition and then it would be donated to a local charity, Infant Crisis Services. I'm always game for a knit-for-charity project so I got to knitting on this project too.

State Fair Baby Dress

Pattern: Little Sister Dress (I made the 6 month size - it seemed to turn out a bit large, but since I have no children I have no idea what age this would fit - maybe a 12-month old?)

Yarn: Berroco Comfort DK in Grape Fizz

Modifications Made/Notes: Surprisingly, none. I even managed to crochet around the neck and do a single crochet chain for the buttonholes.

This past Sunday, I headed over to the State Fair grounds to drop off both the Miami Beach Shawl and baby dress for the needle arts competitions. My ever supportive husband accompanied me, took a few pictures of my nervous self, and scratched his head at some of the more "creative" entries (duct tape dress?).

As I was checking my projects in, I was surprised to be told that, unlike other fairs (I've been told about), the Oklahoma State Fair displays all entries into the needle arts competition - and in order for me to find out if I've won or not I would simply need to come to the fair and see if there is a ribbon by one of my projects.

The suspense is hard to deal with. Apparently projects were judged on Monday, but I won't know how I did until sometime this weekend. Sheesh, that's a lot of waiting in today's world of instant gratification.

The good news is you all are here to wait with me, and if you hear loud shrieks of excitement this weekend coming from the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds you can assume I've won some sort of ribbon or I got a bit carried away at the pig races...........

You really never know what you are going to get when you go to the Fair with me.

Habitat Quilt Challenge

2011-09-11T18:23:00.001-05:00

It may be hard to believe, but I'm actually going to take a break today from posting about kittens and beer drinking and Ironman cheering to, gasp, actually blog about quilting.

Yes, I still occasionally sew and knit. I know it may not seem like the case but it is.

I've been struggling a bit with quilting motivation lately; I just can't muster up the energy to do any sewing or quilting. It may be because of my recent frustration with a quilt binding or the stopped and started 4th of July table runner or the hot weather. I don't pretend to know what has caused the dip in motivation, but what I do know is when I saw the OKC Modern Quilt Guild would be participating in a Habitat Fabric Challenge I thought it would be a good chance to re-start my stopping and starting quilting life. I signed up to participate, received my fat eighth bundle in the mail and began the piecing process.

The basics of the Habitat Challenge are that each Modern Quilt Guild across the country will do something unique with the Habitat fabric. The OKC quilt guild chose to make X & Y blocks, adding solid colors as needed. We will then assemble all the blocks together to make a small lap sized quilt. I made six blocks as part of the challenge and opted to use white as my solid fabric.

This was the first time I've made such a complex block and I was definitely a bit nervous about how it would all turn out, but overall I am fairly pleased with my blocks. Although, I do know I definitely need to work on my pressing skills.........

At the last meeting we started to lay-out the the blocks to get a feel for how the whole quilt will look. I'm excited to see what the finished product will look like.

I'm also happy to announce that some of my quilting mojo may be returning - hopefully you'll be seeing some more finished projects here very soon.

I'm linking to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.

Guess Who Came For a Visit

2011-09-08T19:32:00.000-05:00

As I alluded to in my earlier post Kyle and I ended our weekend with some surprise visitors......my parents, Rascal and Scout. It sure was great to see my Mom and Dad, but if I'm being honest (and I am) Rascal and Scout were quite possibly the highlight of this visit. Who doesn't love a baby animal? I took lots of pictures to share with you all and because these two are just so darn cute. Enjoy.

Jim and Scout

I decided to teach the kitties a bad habit and let them play with a ball of yarn. My Mom thought it was cute, but something tells me she may not think it is so cute if they get into her yarn basket!

Mary and Scout.

Rylie the dog came for a visit too.

Ja'dii was a bit skeptical about all the new animals in the house.

Kyle and Rascal.

Rascal is a sweet little lap kitty, all she wanted to do was nap.

There are two kitties in the carrier Chaco is approaching, that is as close as he got to either of the kitties.

Blissfully blessed.

2011-09-05T20:42:00.003-05:00

Kyle and I have had a busy weekend, a busy in the best kind of way weekend and now that we are at the end of it I'm feeling incredibly grateful for all the wonderful people we have me here in Oklahoma and the very fun things we have gotten to experience together.

Our weekend kicked off eating some Humble Pie with Jim and Mary (my brother and sister-in-law) and our friend Joel (who you may remember from this post). It was a fun evening with good friends and family, conversations that had everyone laughing, and, of course, yummy pizza.

Side note (because I love side notes): Last week while Kyle and I were in Louisville we met a woman who had twins, a boy and girl, who are about to turn 2-years old. Kyle and I stopped to chat with her for a moment and Kyle told the woman I have a twin brother. She was very curious to know if my brother and I are still close, now that we are adults. I suppose I don't think about it often but I my brother and I have always had a close relationship and now that Kyle and I live closer to Jim and Mary, I'm lucky enough to call both of them family and even more lucky to consider them both good friends. Side note within the side note: please ignore my inability to keep a consistent verb tense in the previous paragraph. I'm well aware it is glaringly bad, just not terribly sure how to accurately fix it without messing the whole story up. I need a grammar lesson.

Game Day, Kyle and I in front of OU's stadium.

Anyhow, I digress. Saturday meant game day and Kyle and I were up early to prepare for a trip to Norman to take in the pre-game OU atmosphere and then prep our house for people to come over and watch the game. We got to show my friend Lauren and her husband Mike what "football time in Oklahoma" is all about. Joel, Jim, and Mary joined us too. After we took in the pre-game we all headed back to our casa and watched the rest of the game, ate some ice cream cake, and snacked on football watching food.

Joel channeling Bob Stoops.

Sunday, Jim, Mary, Kyle and I headed down to Oktoberfest in Choctaw, OK. Before making our way to the festival we met up with Kyle's co-worker, Steve. Then we headed off to drink some yummy beers and eat lots of yummy food. Actually, I think Mary and I were the only ones who ate very much, but I just couldn't let all that yummy German food pass us by. The festival is put-on by the folks who own the restaurant, Old Germany in Choctaw. You all may remember Kyle and I made a visit there not too long ago.

Pretzel and mustard, yum yum.

Apple strudel

Schnitzel sandwich

Bratwurst and Knackwurst

Potato pancakes with applesauce

The weekend ended with a surprise visit from some very special guests, but that's a blog post for another time. Until then, I'm counting my blessings and feeling very grateful for all the wonderful people Kyle and I got to spend the weekend with.

A Different Kind of Crafting.......

2011-09-04T21:06:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe just exactly one week ago Kyle was finishing his race and becoming an Ironman.
Our trip to Louisville was a short one, which was mostly consumed with preparing for and running in/cheering for the Ironman. However, my husband, kind loving soul that he is, did manage to find a crafty way for us to spend the afternoon prior to the race.
I was pretty excited to check out Glassworks Louisville's walk-in workshop and see what they had to offer, so Kyle and I headed over there with plans to distract ourselves from all the Ironman hoopla. Unfortunately, the experience wasn't as fun and relaxing as we had hoped, but we still managed to get a few good pieces made and have a couple of chuckles along the way. Below are some pictures from our crafty adventure.........


Kyle and I hard at work on our creations. Kyle chose to make two magnets and I made a pendant.

The two magnets and pendant that I made. Kyle and I were a bit frustrated with our first projects, so we threw together the last (oddly shaped) magnet in just a few minutes.

Kyles' magnet with the Ironman logo on it. He spent a long time on this and I was surprised with how it turned out.


My pendant.

We were told that our finished products would be shipped to us in 2-3 weeks, so we were rather excited to see the UPS man show up with our finished products in a package. We were definitely happy to see how our work turned out - turns out our frustration paid off in the end.

Cheering for My Ironman

2011-09-02T15:40:00.002-05:00

Me prior to the start of the race. My shirt says, I love my triathlete. The sleeve says "Go, Kyle". I'd love to claim this was an original idea, but I actually saw someone at a different race wearing something similar.

Kyle ran an Ironman Triathlon this past Sunday. In case you don't know what that is, it means he swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, and ran 26.2 miles - in sequential order without stopping between the running, biking, and swimming to sleep for 5 hours or eat a steak dinner or any other activity a normal human being might need to do after doing just one of those things.
The whole event took him 13 hours and 7 minutes, which is a very respectable time. If you want to read an in-depth race report you can hop on over to his blog by clicking here, but then come back here to read my spectator's report.......
Kyle chose to run the Louisville, Kentucky Ironman, which takes place in Louisville, Kentucky (duh?) and the surrounding countryside areas. The race started early Sunday morning - 7:00 am to be exact. ~~All the cray people who were running the race,~~ participants started the swim first. Because the swim is in the Ohio River and there is no way for everyone to enter the water all at one time each athlete enters the water by jumping off of a small pier in 7 second intervals. There was a really long line of triathletes waiting to get into the water and an even larger number of people waiting to cheer on their respective person, so the start of the race was rather hard for me to see. I did manage to make it down to the pier area right before Kyle jumped into the water and snap a picture of him starting to swim.

Where's Kyle? This is the start of the race, he is fixing his goggles in the middle of the picture.

Once Kyle was off on the swim I moseyed on over to the transition area where athletes would be getting out of the water, drying off, and gearing up to go out on the bike. I thought about standing right near where Kyle (and all the other participants) would be coming out of the water, but the area was packed so I stood closer to where athletes were grabbing their bike gear and getting sunscreen put on. Side note, people actually volunteer to slather sunscreen on the triathletes (for some reason - mainly because of time, I think, triathletes don't do this themselves), I'm still undecided if this is a really cool part of running in a triathlon or just a really gross yucky volunteer job.

I waited for, what seemed like, a long time for Kyle to come out of the water and was getting a bit nervous. Eventually, he did run by me on his way to the bike and I was able to snap a quick photo.

Kyle out of the water and off to the bike transistion area.

Then he was off on the bike.

Quick picture before the bike course.

The bike portion of the race is LONG for both triathletes and spectators - however, I was prepared. I had a large bag packed with snacks, a good book, and (of course) my knitting. The Ironman Louisville race planners had scheduled shuttles to take spectators to the town of LaGrange about 30 miles from downtown Louisville to watch the triathletes ride by. Kyle and I drove the race course on Saturday prior to the race and I was excited to check out all the cute shops and restaurants and the festival going on for the Ironman Race. I was also exicted that I would be able to see Kyle ride by in LaGrange twice.

Unfortunately, the shuttle line was long and took forever. I waited about 2 to 2 1/2 hours to get on the first shuttle, which meant I missed Kyle riding through LaGrange the first time. I wanted to be sure I did not miss him the second time, so I bought a quick sandwich and then set-up camp to watch the cyclists go by. After waiting (again, for what seemed a really long time), I saw Kyle zip by me. Actually, he saw me and yelled my name. Admittedly, I was so zoned out after watching a lot of cyclists go by that I kind of stopped paying attention.

The race atmosphere in LaGrange was really cool. There was tons to do and tons of people cheering (and lots and lots and lots of cowbells), I just wish I'd had more time to take it in. After Kyle passed on the bike I did manage to make a quick pit stop.

Yes, I found a yarn store. Can you believe it? I can sniff the things out. The people at this store were so friendly and welcoming. It would have been lovely had I been able to stay longer, I did manage to purchase some yarn to knit a hat for Kyle and chat with the store owner for a few minutes before taking off.

After another hour of waiting for the shuttle I was back on the bus from LaGrange to Louisville. Luckily, on my return trip I met a very friendly fellow WOIM (Wife of an IronMan), Alyssa. We chatted on the drive back to Louisville and decided to watch the rest of the race together.

This is Kyle right before he went off and dominated the run. He sure is looking peppy for someone who just biked 112 miles.......

We got off the bus and back to the bike-to-run transition area just in time to see Kyle take off on the run. He took a few brief minutes to stop and chat with me and Alyssa and then was off and running for 26.2 miles.

Alyssa snapped this picture the first time we saw Kyle run by. He is looking tired, but at this point he had already run 14 miles, biked 112 miles, and swam 2.4 miles and was still standing, so I think that's a pretty darn good thing.

A little while later we saw Alyssa's husband ride in on the bike and then take off on the run. Then, after a brief pit-stop to get a drink and cool-off, we headed to the run course. Again, there was lots of waiting but it was pretty exciting when I got to see Kyle run by. The first time I saw him was at the 14 mile mark, considering he had just run 14 miles, biked 112 miles, and swam 2.4 miles he was looking pretty darn good, I think. About 15 minutes later Kyle passed by again (part of the course had the athletes circling the same few city blocks, which meant you could stand in one place and watch people run by multiple times), I snapped a few more pictures and gave him one last "you can do this" speech - or something like that..........

My studly husband.

Kyle taking a quick walk break, can you blame him?

I continued to hang-out with Alyssa for awhile, but I was getting hungry and wanted to be sure I made it to the finish line in time to see Kyle finish. I headed down to the 4th Street Live area in downtown Louisville where there was, what looked like, a massive party going on. Things were pretty darn eventful. I knew I had at least an hour until Kyle would finish so I stopped in a bar and grabbed a beer (did I mention it was a seriously long day?) and a snack. Does it make me a bad person, if while my husband is running a crazy insane race I was in a bar, having a drink, talking to strangers (also fellow spectators) about college football? Don't answer that.

After my snack, I headed out to the excitement of the finish line, after about 20 minutes of standing at the finish watching some very tired people run to the finish line I spotted Kyle, running in to the finish. I yelled very loudly, but I don't think he heard me over the noise of all the cowbells (seriously, there were a LOT of cowbells at this thing).

Heading into the light or Kyle finishes an Ironman.

I met Kyle at the finish line, snapped a few more pictures, then walked with him to the medical area where he got some ice for his knee (a very minor injury compared to what a lot of people were being treated for). Then, Kyle and I headed back to ~~my new favorite watering hole~~ the bar I had been at before to grab some dinner. The bar was right at the finish line and we were able to take in a lot of the action, without having to walk/stand/run too much, which was a VERY good thing for Kyle and, if we are being truthful, me too.

Post race celebration, we were both pretty tired and hungry at this point.

After our meal, we watched a few more people finish and I got a text message from Alyssa letting me know her husband had finished the race. Then we headed back to our hotel. On Saturday, I picked up cupcakes from The Cupcake Shoppe in Louisville. When we got back to the room Sunday night I surprised Kyle with them and we each indulged in a little late night treat. My cupcake was yellow cake with a yummy chocolate frosting, Kyle had the mint grasshopper cupcake (which I knew would be his favorite). The best part about ordering 4 cupcakes, we had two more left-over for breakfast on Monday. Yum. Kyle raved about his blueberry streusel cupcake (it must have been really good, because he said he even liked it better than the chocolate mint one and that is unheard of for him). My red velvet breakfast cupcake was pretty darn good, anytime you start the day with a cupcake it's a good day.

Yum, yum, cupcakes.

A few final thoughts on watching an Ironman Race:

The sense of community at these types of events is unbelievable. It can sometimes be a bit lonely to be all by myself cheering Kyle on, but I almost always meet other friendly triathlon supporters and that can make all the difference.
Swimming, biking, and running that much seems a bit crazy to me, but it is defintiely more than a bit motivational to watch people work so darn hard towards a goal. It almost makes me think I could do something so crazy, almost.
The best volunteer jobs, from what I could tell, seem to be those at the finish line. If you ever, ever volunteer for a triathlon be sure to ask to be stationed at the finish line. Otherwise, you may end up slathering sunscreen on a bunch of sweaty strangers all day........

In all seriousness though, I couldn't be more proud of Kyle. He has crossed a major item off of his bucket list and proven anything is possible with the right amount of training and determination. Impressive. As I've said before, I'm one lucky girl to have such a great guy.

Deadlines.....

2011-08-31T19:30:00.000-05:00

I'm joining Ginny over at Small Things this week to share what I've been reading and knitting recently. Once again, I've gotten bored with my Gooseberry cardigan project and decided to switch to a new and different project, the little sister dress.

I've decided to enter something into the Oklahoma State Fair this year, and while I was reading through the manual on categories for submission, rules, etc. I was excited to note the fair has a charity division for needleart competitions. What's better than a knitting project for the state fair and for charity? I can't really imagine.

This year the charity of choice is Infant Crisis Services, Inc. Thus, I've decided to knit this cute little dress for a baby in need. All the projects donated at the fair (which could be anything from knit booties to baby quilts) will be displayed at the fair and then donated. Prizes will be awarded for best in show, but I'm not expecting to win anything as I'm sure a lot of other talented people will be entering in this category as well. At any rate, it will be fun to go to the fair and see what others have made. I'm also entering something else into the fair but that's a blog entry for a different day..........

On the reading front, I'm continuing to slowly progress through Gone With the Wind. I've also been reading a lot of back issue of my Women's Running magazine as I'm beginning to think about training for another half-marathon in the fall. *Think* is the optimal word here as I have done little else to motivate myself to run outside in this blazing hot Oklahoma summer. I did manage to squeeze one early morning run in the other day but I'm still waiting for the big chill and it's seeming like that may never happen.

What are you crafting this week? Any books worth checking out?

Visitors.

2011-08-25T09:53:00.001-05:00

I generally try to avoid posting too much on this blog about pets, cats in particular. I do this for two main reasons - One, this blog is meant to be about knitting, quilting and life in general, which I realize includes pets, but I also realize no one else thinks my pets are as cute as I do. Two, I'm terrified of becoming the weird knitting cat lady. I just don't want to go there.

With all that being said, this little life in general post is, to me, just too cute not to share. A few weeks ago, when the full heat of the "heat dome" was on, my mom called me early in the morning.

"Honey, I just wanted to let you know I'm probably not going to be at work today. I have to go home, so don't try to call or email me," she said.

"Are you ok? Is something wrong?", I inquired, rather worried.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she assured, me. "But your Dad called this morning and said he found 3 little kittens on the front lawn, I need to go home and help him."

Me: "Mom, there just cats I'm sure they'll be fine."

About six hours later my mom called me to tell me she was on the way to the store to pick up kitten formula and an eye dropper to feed the little, probably 3 week old, kitties. My parents are such ~~suckers~~ good Samaritans, sheeesh.

Anyhow, the ~~babies~~ kittens were too little for my parents to care for as they needed to be fed regularly (every 3 hours, by bottle) and my mom and dad both work, so one was given to a friend of my mom's and two other were put into a foster home run by animal humane services in my parents' town.

This may seem sad, but I promise you it's not because.......guess who's back? The brother and sister kitten who went to a foster home rejoined my parents about 3 weeks later and would you believe it, they are thriving.

Jim and Mary have adopted the little boy kitten and named him Scout. My parents are keeping the little girl and have named her Rascal. Below is a video of my brother's dog, Rylie, playing with Scout.

I've yet to meet these little guys in person - but their pictures sure are cute. I guess I may be more of a sucker than I thought I was. Who knew?

Frustration.

2011-08-24T08:56:00.000-05:00

This is embarrassing to admit. In fact, I'm not sure why I'm admitting it, but I am. My confession: last night I cried. I think it might have been what Oprah would call an "ugly-cry"; it certainly wasn't pretty. Did I receive bad news? No. Had I hurt myself? Luckily, no. Was I watching an SPCA commercial or some sort of equally sad television program? No. Although, on a side note watching the Bachelor Pad kind of makes me want to cry but for different reasons.........

So, why did I cry? I cried out of pure frustration with one of my many crafting projects. Does this mean I've sunk to a new crafting low? I'm not sure. What I do know is this, Kyle's birthday is on Thursday and on Sunday he is running an IronMan. I want nothing more than to be able to shower him with lots of thoughtful wonderful handmade gifts to celebrate both of these occasions and it is seeming more and more like that is NOT going to happen. OY.

About last night - I've been working on a t-shirt quilt for Kyle for awhile now. I picked it up from the long-arm quilter on Sunday and last night when I got home from work began attacking the binding with zeal. In no time I had made my entire double-fold binding, after dinner I set to work attaching the binding to the front of the quilt. This is where the first piece of (relatively small) frustration set in. Seriously, how do people bind such large heavy quilts through small personal sewing machines? My arms, back, and shoulders were all hurting from attempting to maneuver my quilt and I like to think I'm in fairly decent shape!

Attaching the binding to the quilt, while cumbersome, was a minor frustration compared to what happened next. I attempted to join the two ends of the binding and continued to attempt to do so for about an hour and a half, all whilst wrestling my large heavy quilt. Then I did the unthinkable, I cut the binding fabric and ended up about 3" short. Grrrrr. Ughhhhhhhhhhhh, yuck.

After numerous sessions with the seam ripper I managed to fix my first mistake, but still did not have the binding joined. I ventured to the kitchen to do a bit of "how-to join a quilt binding" Google research. As I suspected, I was executing the joining the binding steps properly, in theory, I was just struggling with the weight of my project/having the correct amount of binding in the end.

At this point, my loving husband (who knows about his present) sensed my frustration and asked if he could help me. I'd like to tell you I said yes and the quilt came together perfectly, but I was frustrated and bit his head off. I'm one mean, grumpy frustrated person. Then my phone rang and things went way down hill. The ugly cry started. My mom assured me things would look fine (after first enduring getting her own head bit off by my venomous frustration, my mom's patient like that) and she told me perhaps it was best to put the project down for the evening. We hung up. I cried some more - sob, hiccup, losing adult points quickly.

Then, I went back to my sewing corner and fixed my mistakes and attached the binding, albeit not the perfect way I had envisioned.

What did I learn from this? Sometimes, it is hard to not let our crafts get the best of us. Creating gifts for others is a unique process and things don't always have to be perfect so long as they are functional. Sometimes, it is ok to take a break and leave things as they are for a few moments. Crying over a craft project is about like crying over spilt milk.................

I'm finished with this quilt binding for now, but am entertaining any suggestions for simple ways to join binding. Do you all have any tips or tricks for finishing quilts and/or preventing yourself from getting to a point of frustrated tears? Please tell me I'm not the only one who has cried over a craft.

A Trip to Germany (Sort Of)

2011-08-14T22:05:00.000-05:00

Lately it seems like things have been busy around here. July and August are fairly busy times at my work and Kyle has been studying for big tests and training for an IronMan and things have just picked up speed, which is all a good thing but it is causing us to forget important things, like expiration dates on Groupon purchases.

The other night we realized we had just a little less than a month left to use a Groupon we purchased a few months ago. It was a Tuesday night, I'd had a busy day at work and it seemed like the perfect time for a trip to Germany, or a trip to a restaurant a few miles south of OKC called Old Germany. Almost as good as the real thing.

We'd both heard a lot of good things about Old Germany and our meal did not disappoint. We started out with beers, naturally.

Then ordered a pretzel appetizer. These were, perhaps, the best pretzels I've ever had in my life so entirely yummy. The pretzels had a good outer crust and a soft pillowy interior, they were served with a jalapeno dipping sauce, which was excellent. Although, at first we both thought it was honey mustard.

We then had German Egg Drop soup, which was good. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of it because the lighting at our table wasn't the best and the restaurant was kind of dark and I was taking pictures with my iPhone, and and and......

The special for the evening was a choice of two types of sausage with sauerkraut or red cabbage, and choice of potatoes.

I opted for a chicken apple wurst, kraut wurst, sauerkraut (my personal favorite!), and fried potatoes. My meal was A-MAZING! The chicken sausage was unlike anything I've ever had before and had a really good robust flavor, particularly when paired with mustard (btw, mustard where have you been all my life, I'm only sorry we weren't better acquainted sooner). The kraut wurst was about what I expected it to be, which was a good thing. It had a good blend of seasonings which added a lot to the flavor. As for the sauerkraut and fried potatoes, they were an excellent side to my meal. I really don't think you can go wrong with sauerkraut. Ok, maybe you can, it probably is possible.

Dessert was coffee and a chocolate cigar. No, I haven't taken to after-dinner stogies, it was a pastry-filled chocolate tube the restaurant calls a chocolate cigar, a bit like a German canoli. Just like the rest of the meal, the dessert did not disappoint and I finished my dining experience off one pleasantly full and happy-camper.

All of the things above were good, you can never go wrong with great food and cold beer, but I think the thing that made Old Germany stand out the most was the exquisite customer service. Those of you who frequently use Groupon's know that, oftentimes, if you do not use the complete amount of the Groupon you are forfeiting the balance. At Old Germany the owner actually provided us with the $9 balance on our tab (which was left over because Groupons do not usually cover the cost of taxes and/or alcohol). Plus, the owners engaged in a long detailed conversation with Kyle about soccer, which was rather boring to me, but seemed to thrill him and anything that makes Kyle happy makes me happy......or something like that.

We'll definitely be going back sometime soon and if you live in the OKC metro area you should check it out too. I'm told there are watch parties for out-of-state OU games, which may or may not include free shots for touchdowns, sounds like fun to me!

Yarn Along: Look What the Cat Drug Out

2011-08-10T21:20:00.000-05:00

This week I'm participating in the Yarn Along with Ginny from Small Things. I love that she does this every Wednesday because it provides lots of great inspiration; I just wish I wasn't stuck in a commitment rut I can't seem to drag myself out of. At any rate, it is always fun to share and share alike and see what others are knitting and reading.

As you all know, I can't seem to get enough of sock knitting lately. Seriously, I'm beginning to think it's a sickness. The worst of it is I'm not sure I know anyone who would really appreciate a good pair of hand knit socks (aside from my husband). I've made myself about 10 pairs of socks and it is starting to seem a bit wasteful. Anyone want some hand knit socks? I'll knit you some, if you promise you'll actually wear them.

I finished a pair of socks about 2 weeks ago and since then have been using all of my willpower to avoid casting on another pair and instead have been forcing myself to work on my Gooseberry Cardigan. Do you all remember when I started this sweater? It was somewhere around January of 2010.............

I'm not the type tho have multiple projects languishing in the background and not having this done has been causing me tons and tons of guilt. I'm close to done with one sleeve and really hoping I can be done with the project by sweater season, which is seeming like it may never come here in Oklahoma, but I'm not holding my breath. I just don't like knitting on this project anymore and it's beginning to seem counter productive to use my knitting time (when I relax) to work on a project that (because of its slow pace and boring rows of stockinette) is frustrating me so.

On the reading front, I'm STILL reading Gone With the Wind. Like the Gooseberry cardigan my feelings about the book are mixed. I've read it before and love the storyline, I just don't seem to have the time to finish it (when I read it the first time I was teaching and was able to read during silent reading time with my students). I want to finish it and feel guilty if I pick up another book, I just can't cheat on Scarlett and Rhett like that. What's a girl to do?

Distract herself with magazines, cookbooks, and blogs that's what. My brother and sister-in-law, got me a cookbook from the Gooseberry Patch collection for my birthday and I've been thoroughly enjoying flipping through it, not only are there great recipes (I've already made one), there are lots of excellent hostess ideas. Who wants to come to my house for a party? Home cooked food and hand knit socks will be provided.

What have you been knitting and reading lately? Is it wrong to cheat on a project? Do you have UFO guilt? Do I need professional help? Don't answer that.

Storms.

2011-08-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

It stormed tonight here in Oklahoma, stormed quickly and violently and Kyle and I became a few of the 45,000 people who lost power. We found flashlights, lit candles, took the dog on a walk and chatted with neighbors we didn't know. We even bemoaned the fact that the trashy tv show we were watching was interrupted.
Then I called my mom to tell her of our troubles. Her response, "how cozy you two can snuggle by the candle light". I guess she doesn't realize it August and despite the storm it is still 90+ degrees here, now without ac. No cuddling will be happening here tonight, but we will be drinking the last of our cold beers. Thank goodness for that.

Thoughts on Color....

2011-08-02T20:53:00.000-05:00

One of the most challenging parts of crafting, for me, is color and pattern selection. In knitting, this typically means I spend long amounts of time wavering on what type of yarn will be appropriate for a particular project - self-striping or solid or varigated or not? It can get a bit perplexing. I just don't have a good ability to picture what a particular project will look like in a particular color.

In quilting, this problem rears its ugly head even more. I tend to gravitate towards bold fabrics with lots of colors, but then have problems pairing one or two bold fabrics with softer more understated fabrics for a compliment. Don't even get me started on choosing appropriate border or sashing material, that's a whole other ~~blog therapy session~~ ball of wax to be tackled at a later date.

If you asked me, what is your favorite color I'd be likely to tell you I like blues and greens, but lately I'm beginning to think that may not exactly be the truth. This became glaringly obvious this morning, while I was knitting this sweater.......

with my nails painted this color.......

wearing these shorts.....

pulling yarn out of this bag.

So what is my favorite color - what am I naturally drawn to? Apparently it is a color somewhere between a warm cranberry and a cool raspberry on the fruity color spectrum; I've learned something new about myself today. This isn't earth-shattering, by any means, but it is a definite shift in my taste I wasn't quite aware of until about 2 hours ago. Who knew?

What's your favorite color? Has it changed lately?

T-Town. Yo.

2011-07-27T13:19:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Kyle was busy studying for a big test, a BIG big test, and he needed solitude and to live in filth (relative filth anyway, I cleaned before I left so it wasn't that bad). I took the opportunity to voyage northeast to Tulsa from Oklahoma City to visit my dear friend, Becca, who you may remember from this post and this post and her husband John. We had a great time, despite the supa-dupa hot weather, I only wish I'd taken more photos of all our adventures. Sadly, you all will have to settle for the few I did take and my re-telling of the rest of the details in shocking, photographically, descriptive language. Does that even make sense? No. Ok, a brief run-down of events will have to do the trick then.....

I left Saturday around noon and headed up the turnpike to Tulsa. After a brief stop in Stroud, OK for some Twizzlers and a bottle of water I made it to Tulsa. I didn't even get lost navigating the unfamiliar Tulsa streets. Woot. Woot.

When I arrived Becca and I sat around and chatted and amused ourselves with the antics of her dog, Scooter. Best small dog, ever. Sorry I don't have a picture of you, Scooter. Once Scooter tired of entertaining us, we decided to get crafty and headed over to Purple Glaze, a local pottery studio.

A long time ago, Becca gave my brother and sister-in-law a painted plate from there for an engagement present, and a painted vase (which, John actually painted) for an anniversary present. Ever since then, I've been dying to go there and get my ceramic paint on. Oh yeah! The ironic thing about this desire to paint? I worked in a store with a paint-your-own-pottery station in high-school. How often do you think I painted pottery? Somewhere close to never, I didn't even really have the desire to paint pottery.

My painted vase ready to be fired. The pebble looking things will add little crackles of color once it is fired, hopefully.

Anyhow, I painted a vase, to help fulfill my quest to stock my house with something OTHER than clear glass vases, and Becca painted a cute little cupcake plate. It was all too much fun and I'm excited to see the finished product, but you all will have to wait along with me since it takes a few days to fire and I figured John and Becca probably didn't want me camping out on their couch in the name of waiting for a pottery piece.

Cupcake plate.

The rest of Saturday was filled with iced coffees and chai teas, yummy homemade pizza and salad (Becca's a great cook!), and a little bar hopping to cap off the night.

Sunday, we woke up late and headed out to breakfast. The place we went to was pretty tasty and (from what I can gather) rather popular in Tulsa, because there were no seats in-doors so we sat outside on the patio. My food was excellent but the patio was steamy and I think it affected my brain, because I have absolutely no idea what the name of the restaurant was. Fail.

Did I mention in some parts of Oklahoma the high on Sunday was close to 109? This state does not mess around when it comes to heat.

After breakfast, we went on a search to find the perfect little pick-me-up to help Kyle through his studying. We settled on a Tulsa t-shirt (apparently Tulsa t-shirts are a thing?) from Boomtown Tee's. Looks pretty good on him, yes?

Yes, this is a weird picture of Kyle I realize - the Rough Necks used to be a soccer team in Tulsa.

After walking one city block and sweating our eyelashes off in quest for the perfect t it was time for me to head home. I was sad to go, but happy to arrive home and know Kyle hadn't been buried under a pile of books and note cards. It was good.
BTW - while I was driving south on the Turnpike I spotted a billboard with a picture of a cartoon sheep on it. I saw it about a minute too late and wasn't able to take in the whole thing, but I think it was an advertisement for a yarn store. Does anyone know of which billboard I speak or where said yarn-store might be? Anyone, want to take a road trip to find out?

Peaches, Prosciutto, Summertime.

2011-07-18T19:43:00.000-05:00

A friend of ours recently moved to OKC and on Friday night Kyle and I decided to take him out on the town and show him a good time....or something like that, our good time usually ends around 10 pm, we aren't the young kids we used to be. We started our evening at Cafe Nova's Happy Hour, where from 4-7pm all domestic drafts are free, major score. On top of that, we used our Keep It Local OKC card and received a free appetizer, their yummy tater tots, we also ordered brushectta. Yum, yum, double yum and super affordable, my kind of place.

After our drinks we headed over to one of our favorite OKC restaurants, The Wedge Pizzeria. We had a flatbread appetizer, and a truffle shuffle pizza that had mushrooms and spinach on it. It was all excellent, but the thing I haven't been able to get out of my head was the oh so tasty, oh so fresh, oh so summery and divine peaches and prosciutto appetizer we also enjoyed. And then, I decided to make it at home. It is rather simple to make and would go well with many different dishes. Enjoy!

Prosciutto Wrapped Peaches with Goat Cheese

Ingredients

Prosciutto

Goat Cheese

One large ripe peach

Wash peach, then cut it in half and remove the pit. Cut peach into quarters or eighths, depending on the size. Use a butter knife to smear goat cheese on each side of the peach slices. Then, wrap a thin slice of prosciutto around each slice. Arrange on a plate and serve.

Summer Time Finish

2011-07-17T15:29:00.000-05:00

Lately it seems as if I can't get away from pictures of hand knits and quilts in action in the summertime. You know the kind I'm talking about, pictures of cozy New Englanders at dusk wearing shorts and a loose cotton sweater carrying an LL Bean bag towards a lighthouse, people in Northern California sitting on a beach at a campfire wrapped up in a quilt making s'mores, women wearing breezy summer dresses with shawls tucked around their shoulders enjoying dinner outside on a patio. It all seems lovely and glamorous and tricks me into thinking I could look cute and summery. Then I go and purchase yarn and knit a lovely yellow, sunshiny shawl. Then, a second before I go to take pictures of it in all the glorious summertime weather - I'm reminded that I live in Oklahoma and we have had over 25+ days of over 100 degree heat and it will never be comfortable to be outside in the summer in ANY sort of hand knit and there is no way on earth I'll ever, ever need a quilt in the summer here - the most comfortable summer outfit would be something close to my birthday suit, but (because I value other people's eyesight) I refrain. I take pictures of my shawl, share them with you all, and then plan for the nice cool day in late September when I can wrap it around my shoulders and look smashing!

Yellow Sunshine Shawl

Pattern: Miami Beach Shawl free from Cascade Yarns

Yarn: Cascade Yarns - Ultra Pima Yellow - 3743

Modifications: None - followed the pattern and it was easy peasy.

Additional Notes: I made this shawl as part of a Knit-A-Long which was hosted on Ravelry. This was my first time to knit any sort of lace or shawl project and I'm more than a little in love with the result.

Also, please forgive the photos, I was having a bit of fun with the Instagram app. on my iPhone.

Off the deep end.....

2011-07-12T21:27:00.000-05:00

Hello again, my apologies for the break in posts. I took a brief hiatus to have my wisdom teeth removed, anyone jealous? Recovery is taking a bit longer than anticipated and while my Mom was here to nurse me (thanks, Mom), I'm still not feeling 100%. Forgive me?

I did want to take a moment and share with you a few of the goodies I filled my bag with over the July 4th weekend at First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX. As I mentioned before you can find a little bit of everything at the Trade Days, it would certainly be easy to become overwhelmed with everything. I, however, was on a mission - there were two things I was looking for, vintage Pyrex and vintage linens.

The start of the V.P. collection. Pyrex mixing bowls from my Mom's kitchen.

V.P. Casserole stolen from my Mom's kitchen, the lid is so fun.

I'll be the first to admit both of these ideas were planted in my head from blogs (just look on the right hand side of the screen), there are so many people doing such cool things with vintage sheets and making food look much yummier in vintage Pyrex that it was only a matter of time before I jumped on the bandwagon. I was more than a little surprised to find such vintage Pyrex love out there in blogland and even more surprised to realize I already had some v.p. (vintage Pyrex - my new nickname for it anyway) in my own home.

Purchased in Canton, TX at First Monday Trade Days. This was part of a set of three.

Refrigerator dishes.

I shared this website with my Mom who was also more than a bit tickled at the whole idea that v.p. is cool again and with her encouragement a ~~obsession~~ collection has begun.

This was purchased at an Antique Mall - it came with the proper lid. I realized the lid that was on it wasn't the right one after the picture was taken.

There was tons of v.p. at the Trade Days, unfortunately there wasn't quite the vintage sheets and linens I was hoping for. There was one rather large display of linens but most were in pretty rough condition so I decided to pass. I did purchase one dish towel. My *hope* is to quilt it and use it as a table runner in my kitchen, but it will have to get in line behind a long list of other projects.

What have you thrifted lately? Any vintage Pyrex hiding out in your cabinets you want to tell me about?

Treasure Seeking

2011-07-05T21:38:00.001-05:00

Since Kyle spent the 4th of July weekend studying and training for his Ironman Triathlon (boy, will I be glad when that thing is over), I decided a little holiday adventure was in order and I decided my mom needed to join me, so on Friday I headed south to Texas. I spent Friday night at my parents' house and on Saturday morning my mom and I woke up bright and early, grabbed our tote bags, hopped in the car, made a pit-stop at McDonald's for breakfast, and headed east from Dallas to the little town of Canton, Texas for First Monday Trade Days.

The First Monday Trade Days aren't an easy thing to explain, its one of those things you have to experience in order to fully understand. My most basic explanation would be to call it a very, very large flea market/swap meet/craft fair. If there's something you want you can probably find it there.

Just take a look for yourself.

Half the fun of it is searching for treasure and finding things you never knew you needed, like vintage Pyrex.

Or linens and quilt-tops.

Of course, most of the event is outside. There are a large number of open air pavilions, which at least provide some shade, a number of vendors set-up in a park-type area, and one small air-conditioned antique mall. Saturday was hot. The temperature was close to 103.

It's entirely possible to spend a whole day at the Trade Days, but we knew it would be hot and never intended to stay past about noon. We headed off to get lunch and a little treat at a 50's style diner on the Canton main street.

Then we stopped off at the Canton Dish Barn where we stumbled upon the most Fiestaware I have ever seen in one place. It. was. awesome.

We capped the day off with a quick trip to an outlet mall and then headed back west. Not to worry, our bags were certainly full and I'll be sharing with you all my finds soon.......

Blog Birthday

2011-07-04T17:25:00.000-05:00

I've had a busy 4th of July weekend and will be sure to share all the details with you soon, but for today I'll just give you all a brief update.

My Mom and I headed off to a large flea market/swap meet/craft fair this weekend and I made us tote bags to lug all of our ~~junk~~ treasures. The pattern for these bags is really simple to follow. A good friend actually made me my first eco-chic tote and provided the pattern too, which really is the gift that keeps on giving.

Full details on our ~~junking~~ treasure seeking adventure will be coming later this week.

In the mean time, July 4, 2011 marks the 4th year I've been blogging. It's my blog's golden birthday. Happy 4 years, Splitted Yarns.

I should also take a moment to say Happy Birthday, America. You are one special lady, thanks for allowing me to enjoy all of your many freedoms!

Dirty Little Secrets

2011-07-01T09:41:00.000-05:00

I have a dirty little secret, a few dirty little secrets, actually - and today, I'm here to admit them.

Dirty Little Secret 1: I've been quilting for awhile now (two-ish years) and I still cannot bind quilts. Here is what I can do: I can cut and piece a binding, I can press a binding - that's where my list stops. For some reason, I always seem to have problems attaching the binding, mitering the corners, attaching the binding to the back of the quilt, and (don't even get me started) joining the binding. Is it me? Do you have any tips on binding? Over the weekend I finished quilting my 4th of July table runner and pieced a binding, then I attached it and things started to go down-hill. This project is on hold. Ugh.

Dirty Little Secret 2: I've mentioned before I'm not a very good measurer, but I thought I was beginning to overcome that hurdle. In a small way, I think I have. I cut 5" squares with the best of 'em, ask me to measure anything larger than 15" square (which I have a ruler for) and I'm in trouble. I found this out while working on a tote-bag project; 21" squares quickly shurnk to 20" squares - that were more than a little lopsided. Oy. The project worked, but it certainly could have been better.

Dirty Little Secret 3: This week I took my t-shirt quilt to a professional long-arm quilter, I decided to buy my batting from her and she recommended a cotton/poly blend because "it wears well and holds up to a lot of washing, so your project will last". This was great advice, but it also put a startling thought in my head - I've never even considered how my quilted projects hold up to general wear and tear. Not good. It is very possible I've been going around gifting people with quilts that disentegrate the moment they put in the washer and dryer. Bad.

Thanks for letting me share. I feel better now.

Yarn Along: Gone With the Yarn?

2011-06-29T20:58:00.000-05:00

This week I'm participating in the Yarn Along hosted by Ginny at Small Things and sharing with you all my latest and greatest knitting projects and reads.

I still can't seem to get enough of sock knitting these days, I'm quite in love with it, the tiny needles, the fine yarn, turning the heel, kitchner-ing the toe - I love it all. My current ~~sock~~ knitting project is a pair of socks for myself, knitted with ~~I have no idea what brand of yarn or colorway or anything because I lost the ball band~~ yarn purchased during my visit to Sealed With a Kiss in Guthrie, Oklahoma. I'm improvising using my sock-knitting go-to book Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

I did take a little break from sock knitting, exclusively, the past week to work on my Miami Beach Shawl. I'm happy to report the shawl has been bound off and is now ready to be blocked.

On the reading front, I'm still plugging my way through Gone With the Wind. Did you know this year is the 75th anniversary of its publishing? It is one long book and a few times I have been tempted to put it down and start something else (not because it isn't good, I love the book but I have read it once already) but I really want to stick with it and finish it, thus I continue to plug along.

What's on your needles this week? Any good reads worth recommending here? Once I'm done with Gone With the Wind I intend to read something light and short, I'd love recommendations.

While the Husbands Away......

2011-06-27T20:44:00.000-05:00

Kyle was out of town this weekend running a half-ironman triathlon in Lubbock, Texas. Yes, that's right, a half-ironman, as in 1.5 miles of swimming, 50 miles of biking, and 13.1 miles of running - did I marry a stud or what? Click here and you can hop on over to his blog and read all about it (report coming soon)- the heat made the whole thing even harder than it would normally be.

I stayed home, and while I certainly had no intention of doing that much physical activities unless under the threat of a SERIOUS weapon, I did manage to get a lot of things done. Isn't it amazing what you can do when your time belongs to you and you alone? Below is a brief weekend recap - in list form, naturally.

Mary, my sister-in-law, and I attended spin class on Saturday morning. It was a butt-whooping and a half. It was Mary's first ever spin class and she did awesome. She didn't even ask to get off of the bike once or utter any curse words (that I heard, anyway).
After spin Mary, Jim (my brother), and I checked out a new-to-me restaurant and bakery, Nicolette's Raspberries and Cream. If you live in the OKC area, you must go. The food is yummy and cakes are beautiful enough to make you cry.
Ran lots of errands.
Knitted, and knitted, and knitted on my Miami Beach Shawl.
Ate dinner with Jim, Mary, and other family at Ted's, an OKC favorite. The service was excellent the food, ok. I'm not sure I get the hype.
Knitted, and knitted, and knitted on the Miami Beach Shawl.
Did laundry.
Made my own coffee for the first time. I'm a big-kid-now!
Cut coupons.
Bought groceries.
Made a pie.
Made muffins. (Recipe coming soon).
Basted and quilted my 4th of July table runner.
Bought ice cream for the pie. (Blue Bell is on sale at Walgreen's,a seriously good sale too - $3.49 for a half-gallon).
Made dinner for myself.
Bound-off the Miami Beach Shawl.

Walked the dog.
Welcomed hubby home and made him dinner.
Took pictures for the blog.
Ate some pie and ice cream!

It was all relaxing and wonderful, and productive, but I'm glad to have my husband back and glad he survived the heat! I'll be posting a few more blog entries all about my productivity soon. It was almost too much to believe.

Something Different

2011-06-22T15:56:00.000-05:00

I've been knitting a lot of socks lately, an unhealthy amount of socks. In fact, the only knit projects I've finished in 2011, aside from one scarf, has been knit socks.

A few weeks ago, I decided I need to do something to mix it up a little. After all, there are only 2 sets of (human) feet in my family and I was well on my way to making socks for a whole army. Choosing a project aside from socks was hard, of course there is the Gooseberry Cardigan to go back to, but I didn't want to. Ususally, there is a friend having a baby or a head needing cover to knit for, this summer though I didn't have either of those things. What to do?

I logged into Ravelry for some much needed knitspiration and lo and behold there was a message waiting for me from my friend, Katie. I'd been invited to a knit-a-long and it was a knit-a-long for a summer time-y shawl, something I would never choose to knit on my own, but a new and challenging project, just the same.

I was sold. That night I left work, drove immediately to my local yarn store purchased the yarn and started my very first shawl project, the Miami Beach Shawl, by Cascade Yarns.

I'm using the Ultra Pima Yarn and am proud to report the project is coming along swimmingly. I may have a future as a lace knitter, who knew?

Finally Friday......

2011-06-17T11:56:00.000-05:00

Finally a quilt top finish. I finished the top of Kyle's t-shirt quilt this past week, then wrestled around with way too much fabric (about 8 yards) to piece a back for this guy. It will be off to the long-arm quilter in the near future and then I will get the ~~tedious, excruciating, terrible,~~ really exciting job of binding it. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I've never sent anything off to be professionally quilted, but this sucker is just too darn big and heavy for me to want to use my own machine to quilt it with.

I've already pulled out t-shirts for my next t-shirt quilt and my mind is rolling with what fabrics I'll choose. Would anyone be interested in participating in a t-shirt quilt quilt-a-long? It could be fun and provide some much needed closet cleaning motivation.

I'm linking to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.

Recent Random Happenings.......

2011-06-13T19:09:00.000-05:00

Random Happening 1: I traveled to New Orleans last week for work - it was too fun. I got to catch-up with a good friend from my Teach For America days, Liz, catch a drink with a different newly-engaged friend, sample beignets and coffee at Cafe Du Monde, enjoy some really excellent speakers, and luxuriate in some knitting in the hotel solitude.

Liz and I at dinner in New Orleans.

Random Happening 2: Kyle and I decided in mid-March to take on a little canister gardening and composting project, and while not all of our plants are thriving (my cat will have to wait on the catnip) I was pleasantly surprised to see this the other day. The fruits of our labor, one tiny bell pepper.

Catnip failure. Sorry, Chaco.

Random Happening 3: I made tuna melts and they were AWESOME! Seriously, who was keeping the tuna melt secret from me? We had apple-curry tuna melts for dinner a few nights ago, yum. The recipe was simple too, here's a link, essentially all you do is cut up an apple, chop some green onion, mix with tuna, mayo, Dijon mustard, and curry powder. Then place tuna mix on top of English muffins and top with cheddar cheese, put tuna melts in oven for about 5-7 minutes to melt cheese, enjoy.

Random Happening 4: I've been forced to relocate my sewing area into the guest room so Kyle can utilize our office for Bar Exam studying, which is an allowable reason for me to relocate, I suppose. I decided the sewing area needed a bulletin board and that I should spray paint my red bulletin board hot-pink (fit of madness?). This is the result. My spray painting skills need some work.

Random List of Other Random Things of Late:

I'm kind of obsessed with spin class - such a great work-out.
I have a t-shirt quilt, socks, shawl, and hexagon-pieced project in the work-in-progress category. None of this stopped me from starting a new table runner yesterday.
Does anyone out there watch The Bachelorette and/or Dancing With the Stars? I'm beginning to get tired of these shows, yet I can't stop watching, maybe it's my fear that if I stop watching I'll miss something really good. Thoughts?

What is random in your life today?

Cadillac

2011-06-09T17:35:00.000-05:00

This weekend I got a very special treat. I got to test drive the Cadillac of all sewing machines, the new Bernina 830.

I've been meaning for some time now to write a post about my modest sewing machine, the original Bernina 830 and I will, eventually, but for the purposes of this post it will suffice for readers to know that my machine is about 30 years old. I love it dearly, but it could never compare to what I saw and sewed with.

I became acquainted with the Bernina OKC store because I've taken my machine (a humble 30-year old, Bernina 830 Original Series) to them for servicing and I've bought a few accessories there. When I learned they were doing a Bernina 8-series demonstration, I knew I had to take advantage of it.

Originally, I was put on the wait-list for the demonstration, but as luck and weather would have it the date was rescheduled and I secured a spot. I didn't quite realize the jackpot I was hitting until I walked into the store and started to learn more about the 830 - it is AWESOME!

The demonstration started off by explaining some of the features of the new 8-series, including a larger throat (much larger than other machines, by about 3'), top and bottom feed dogs, and a large embroidery hoop, among many other things.

Then, we got to try out the machines at three different stations - the first station I was at we learned all about the embroidery feature on the machine, which is INCREDIBLE! It is totally computerized basically all the operator has to do is get everything lined up and secured and the machine does the work for you. We made flour sack tea towels with our names on them. Here's mine. Fancy, huh?

It's not completely done and I'm not sure I'll use it as a tea towel - but I'm still so impressed with how easy it was to embroider. I think my jaw was on the floor as the machine did it's work.

The second station I worked at was where we learned about decorative stitches. We basically made a quilt sandwich and then got to play around with all the fancy stitches the machine has. I didn't take quite as much advantage of that station as I probably should have, but I did get to play with this fun heart stitch. How cute is that?

I also got to try out these little loopy and vine-y looking stitches.

The last station we again worked with a quilt sandwich, this time learning about the stitch regulator, free motion abilities of the machine, and applique. Again, I think my jaw was on the floor. This machine is just so cool.

It was a bit difficult to get the free motion started but once I did it was so easy. There was no worry about tension or speed, the needle moves as fast as the fabric moves.

At the close of the demo we place a zipper into our free-motioned piece and then used the decorative stitch piece to form a little bag.

The whole opportunity was fabulous and since I doubt I'll be able to afford one of these machines any time soon (they retail for between $12,000-$14,000) it was definitely fun to get to try it out.

For now, I'm going back to old faithful - my Bernina 830 original series - and going to tell it all about what its successors have become.

Problems and Solutions

2011-06-04T21:11:00.000-05:00

Since the beginning of my marriage to Kyle we have had a problem, not a major problem but a problem none the less. Instead of telling you all about the problem, I'll just go ahead and provide photographic evidence.

This was the state of Kyle's side of the bed until a few days ago. YIKES! I recognize this isn't a major problem, really it is more of a bump in the road in our otherwise happy marriage, but seriously - YIKES! My type-A personality had been dealing with this for far too long. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Admittedly, when Kyle and I first got married we definitely weren't swimming in the dough. My non-profit salary and Kyle's student status made it hard to justify purchasing new furniture, and neither of us brought a ton of furniture to the marriage. We decided a set of rubbermaid drawers would be a suitable dresser for Kyle, a sort of temporary solution.

Then time got away from us and it was two and a half years later, we were still working with our temporary solution - and not ready to commit to buying large amounts of furniture, something had to be done. I was sick of living with a rats nest of junk and tacky rubbermaid drawers in the bedroom. I found some inspiration at this blog and this one, and decided to go thrifting to find a good cheap-ish solution.

This is what I found, a chest of drawers the right height to serve as a nightstand and wide enough/with enough drawers for Kyle to store his clothes. The chest is real wood and had very little damage to it, aside from a small crack in the top, for $75 it wasn't a complete bargain but it was still affordable when compared with what something like this would cost new. It also came with a mirror, which you can see here sitting on top of it.

I took the chest home and did some minimal repair work. I used wood putty to fill the crack, which worked surprisingly well, some 0000 steel wool to give the piece a slight buffing, and some left-over t-shirt scraps from this quilt and Old English wood polish to shine the piece. This is what we ended up with.

Total cost of the project $85. A neat and orderly bedroom, priceless.

P.S. Please ignore the clipboard hanging above the chest. I mentioned to Kyle it would be nice to hang some art above the chest, his response was to hang a clipboard on a nail in the wall...........

P.P.S Anyone have ideas for what to do with the large mirror? I'm not really wanting to put it on top of the dresser.

Crayon Apron - Tutorial

2011-05-31T19:47:00.000-05:00

The crayon apron has been a surprise hit with young and old alike, and because it is Tuesday, and I need to lighten my mood I thought I would share a little tutorial with you all. Please be kind, this is my first time writing up sewing instructions with pictures. If you have questions please ask.

Materials

15"X15" Square of fabric for the main body of the apron

8"X12" Rectangle of fabric for the crayon holder

4"X42" Strip for apron tie (or size needed to accommodate the apron recipient)

Crayons

Sewing notions

Let's get started, shall we. Once each piece is cut, I give it a good pressing to get out any wrinkles.

Main Body

To make the main body of the apron, fold the large square of fabric in half with right sides facing each other, pin around the sides. Using a 1/2" seam, sew around the rectangle. Leave about a 3" opening at the top of the rectangle. Once the piece is sewn, give it a good pressing, then turn it right side out. I used a kabob skewer to push the corners out, a knitting needle would work well too.

Press the piece again. The opening seams should lay down into the work, use a top-stitch to close the opening. This will be covered up so it doesn't need to look pretty (but matching thread would probably be a good thing). Part 1, assembled!

Crayon Holder

For the crayon holder, sew a 1/2" hem on one of the wide ends of the rectangle (for the crayon holder). Press.

Fold the fabric so the right sides are facing each other, making about a 3" pocket. Pin. Sew sides together, press, and turn right side out. Press again.

Turn the raw edges of the sides of the crayon holder over and hem, press.

To make the crayon pockets (my totally unscientific approach) is to stick a crayon in the pocket at the very edge, hold it in place and then run a seam. It comes out to about 1" - 1 1/2" per crayon. The apron should hold about 10 crayons, or you could leave a larger pocket for stickers.

(Please note - I'm still perfecting the actual crayon apron holder part of this project. It is a bit fiddly. If you have better suggestions for how to sew it, I'd love to hear them).

Tie

The last piece is creating the apron tie, fold the apron tie piece in half, lengthwise with right sides facing each other. Pin, then sew leaving about 4" of un-sewn material at the end. Press your seam, then turn the tube right side out. Press again, and use a top-stitch to finish the tie.

Assembly

Lay the main body of the apron on a flat surface. Then center the crayon holder on the main apron body. Place the tie on top of the apron/crayon holder, pin all three pieces together. Sew. Press the seam, then press the tie "up".

Stuff your apron with crayons and give to your favorite kid. Enjoy!

I'm linking to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.

Bike, Bike, Revolution

2011-05-28T18:31:00.000-05:00

Kyle and I kicked off our long weekend by traveling south to the Wichita Mountains to participate in the annual Tour De Meers bike ride. There is nothing like some good physical activity to get a long weekend started off right. Kyle participated in the metric century ride, which should be about 62 miles but ended up being closer to 67 miles. Since I'm nowhere near committed enough to ride my bike for that long, I stuck with the basic 22 mile ride, then hung out in the firehouse (Tour De Meers benefits the Meers volunteer fire department) with my knitting and waited for Kyle to finish.


Don't be fooled, Kyle took this picture. I'm definitely not brave enough to get that close to that sucker!

The 22 mile ride was certainly picturesque. We rode along side a large lake (not sure the name of it), then through Medicine Park, and the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, the only wildlife I saw was this guy during the whole day and that was before the race even started.

The roads were fairly open and for the most part I felt safe when cars passed. There were also a TON of motorcycles out there and while I wasn't nervous about them passing me, it did get slightly annoying when a large group went by and I was left choking on their exhaust. All the motorists I encountered were polite; I can't complain too much.

On the course.

There were a few hills on my course but, overall, it was fairly flat. I can definitely tell my spin classes are paying off. It's nice to see some rewards for waking up at 5:00 am! The weather for today's ride was HOT - it was near 100 by the time Kyle was done. The race organizers did a good job making sure the course had plenty of water and Gatorade which certainly helped. They also allowed riders to start early to avoid being out in the heat, we started about a half an hour ahead of the pack and I think it made all the difference.

Until next time!

Hexie Vexie

2011-05-24T20:39:00.000-05:00

Please forgive my title. I'm into rhyming lately, ever since I started making hexagons (a little over a week ago) the fore mentioned blog title has been rolling around in my head. Today, it's time the words leave my head and enter the blog realm.

As you all may remember, last week I traveled to Guthrie, OK and visited Sooner Quilts. This is where I was struck with my hexagon inspiration. The night before my faithful trip I was engaging in some experimentation. Experimentation with hexagons, paper-piecing, needle and threads, and small scraps of fabric. That's about as wild as this girl gets.

It was while I was at Sooner Quilts, with a small package of hexagon paper-piecing templates in hand that I stumbled across a rather large section of 1930's reproduction fabrics. My head started spinning - vague ideas of piecing an entire Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt entered my mind and haven't since left.

I exited the store with two charm-square packs of fabric and a pack of paper-piecing templates. My progress a week later: one practice flower successfully pieced (and not looking too terrible - in my humble opinion), one charm-square pack cut and prepped for basting, and about 6 hexagons basted.

This should be a fun adventure. Hexagons away!

I'm linking to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.

Move It, Move It - Walk It, Walk It

2011-05-22T21:32:00.001-05:00

Paula, Mary, Dixie ready to Walk-It!

I like to Walk It, Walk It. I like to Walk It, Walk It.

Do you all remember this song? Its been swirling around in my head since this morning when I participated in the National Weight Watchers Walk-It Day, with my mom, Mary (sister-in-law), and friend of my mom's, Terry.

About 2 months ago my mom mentioned that she wanted to start walking more and decided this Walk-It 5K would be a good goal for her to reach. She participated in a few training walks and this morning Mary and I joined her to Walk-It!

Terry Walking-It!

The weather was rather humid and muggy, which made for a sweaty walk, but it was still a fun event and I'm super proud of my mom! Next goal - walking a 10K!

Walking-On!

Adventures in Oklahoma

2011-05-17T20:13:00.000-05:00

Oklahoma City is the capital of Oklahoma, but it wasn't always that way. Once upon a time, when Oklahoma was a baby state, a town called Guthrie was the capitall. In those baby state days the folks in OKC got a little perturbed at the folks in Guthrie and decided that OKC should be the state capitol, so the mean OKC cowboys rode their horses to Guthrie and stole the state seal. Then, they rode back to OKC and made it the state capital......or something like that. You can read the actual story here.

I may not have all of my Okie facts down, but I'm learning and there is truth in the fact that Guthrie was the first state capital of Oklahoma.

Why does this matter? This weekend, I decided to ~~take a journey into Oklahoma state history~~ visit a quilt shop and yarn store located in the capital-forgotten and travel to Guthrie. My primary motivation for doing this, aside from a thirst for Oklahoma history, was because I still had a bit of money left-over on a gift card at Guthrie's local yarn shop. I also heard rumors about a quilt shop in Guthrie; a small town with a quilt shop, yarn store and historic appeal, wild hogs couldn't keep me away - snakes probably could, but that's a story for another day.

Guthrie is about 30 miles north of OKC, just over yonder, as they say here in Oklahoma. I drove up there Saturday morning after a brief work-out. My first stop was Sooner Quilts, where my intention was to buy some pre-cut hexagons for paper-piecing (new project) and then just browse. To say Sooner Quilts is an awesome store might be an understatement. I was flabbergasted at the amount of selection of fabrics, and pre-cuts, and magazines, and tools, and sewing machines, and and and - it was love. Then, I saw the wall of the 1930's replica fabrics and I nearly cried with delight. It was all so beautiful. All of this joy and excitement caused me to hatch a bit of a hair brained plan for a quilt in my head, which led to me buying two charm packs of 1930's replica fabrics, and some solid yellow. Any guesses what I'm going to try and make?

The staff at Sooner Quilts was friendly, but not pushy. The selection was out-of-this-world. I'll definitely be going back.

My next stop was "in-town" at Sealed With a Kiss yarn store in downtown Guthrie. When I left my last job in Albuquerque my co-workers generously gifted me with a gift certificate for Sealed With a Kiss, which also used to have a location here in OKC. I had used part of the gift certificate in July, but then the OKC Sealed With a Kiss shop closed and traveling to Guthrie went to the back burner.

I wanted to use the remainder of my gift certificate to buy sock yarn. However, the sock yarn was priced higher than I expected so I was only able to buy enough for one pair of socks. I also bought some Liberty Wool to make a few charity hats with.

This was only my second time to shop at Sealed With a Kiss, their selection is okay and staff are likely helpful if asked, but the environment in the store Saturday wasn't overly welcoming. I think these things can be kind of hot and cold anyway - in July they were very friendly, maybe because they were hot?

Once the yarn was purchased and the fabric packed away I loaded up my trusty ~~horse, Silver,~~ Honda Civic and headed back to the City. It was a fun little field trip and I'm happy to report the state symbol is still in OKC and my knowledge of Oklahoma history, quilt shops, and yarn stores is growing.

Pinwheels

2011-05-10T19:52:00.000-05:00

It turns out my WIP Wednesday entry from last week was just the ~~kick in the pants~~ motivation I needed to get at least one of my projects done. Behold, my improvised Pinwheel Quilt.

Pinwheel Quilt for a Baby

Pattern: My own improvised design - based loosely off of this pattern.

Fabrics: Random scraps from my fabric basket. There is a little Amy Butler mixed with a little JoAnn Fabric sale rack stuff in here. Is it bad to mix good fabrics with cheap fabrics like that? I may not want to know the answer.

Quilting: All over stippling with my free motion presser foot

Measurements: Baby-Sized (smallish) -about 24"X36", a small quilt. It would be good for tucking around a baby in a car seat or as a blankie.

Artistic quilt blowing in the wind photos.

When I initially started this quilt it was for a charity project. I'm sorry to say, that I missed the deadline for said project. However, I am planning on giving this to some charity somewhere. Any suggestions? In the meantime, I have to fix a small error in the binding......

I'm linking to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.

True Love

2011-05-09T21:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my husband demonstrated his love and commitment to me. He stopped what he was doing, put on wool socks, and walked outside into 90+ degree heat to serve as a foot model for pictures. If that isn't devotion, I don't know what is.

He even managed to do a "fun feet" pose.

He happily posed with me for a few cute couple pictures - and took a picture of my "fun feet".

Then he walked inside and went back to what he had been doing. I'm sure he was wondering if I was suffering some sort of weird psychosis, but he smiled and complied with my requests. He even put his new socks back in the drawer after our photo shoot. I guess he knows it's best not to mess with a crazy person.

His and Hers' Sock Stats

Kyle's Socks

Yarn: Berroco Comfort Sock - Southland

Needles: Size 1.25 - KnitPicks Harmony Double Points

Pattern: Simple Knit 3 Purl 1 Rib. Adopted from the basic sock pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.

Notes: I love, love, love, love this yarn. This was my first time working with it and I absolutely adore its soft squishy texture. I'm not sure I'll ever buy another sock yarn - it was that good.

Paula's Socks

Yarn: Panda Wool

Needles: Size 1.25 - KnitPicks Harmony Double Points

Pattern: Knit using a toe-up sock article by Ann Budd from the Summer 2007(?) Interweave Knits Magazine.

Notes: As you may remember, I took a sock-knitting workshop with Ann Budd in early March - where I learned this technique. This was my first-time to knit toe-up socks using this method. The cast-on was easy and straight-forward, but I'm not nuts about the short-row heel. The pattern does not call for a gusset (by design, not an error), this results in holes by the heel which had to be stitched up. It all seems a bit fiddly - and once again, I'm not sure if I'm sold on the idea of a toe-up sock. I'm beginning to think I'm a bit of a sock-knitting purist, but that's an entry for another time.

Mother's Who Knit

2011-05-08T19:40:00.000-05:00

Mothers who knit are a good thing. Their childrens' heads are never cold for want of cover. Mothers who knit are patient and kind - and always up for a craft project. There is never a shortage of scrap yarn to be used for a school art project in a mother who knits home. Mothers who knit are teachers and always ready and willing to hand down their craft to their children. Mothers who knit know free knitting lessons for teenagers is an easy way to keep their children from mischief. Mothers who knit are generous, always willing to share a skein or too from their stash or "loan" a book, pattern, or needles.

I am lucky enough girl to have both a mother who knits and a mother-in-law who knits. I could not want for more. Both my mom and mother-in-law have gifted me with a plethora of knitted items over the years (not to mention the yarn, classes, bags, books and other things I've been the lucky recipient of). This Mother's Day I'd like to take a moment and show my gratitude for these two women by sharing my favorite project that each of them has knit for me. Indeed, Kyle and I are both blessed with great moms - their knitting skills just make them that much greater.

My mother-in-law knit this stole for me as a wedding gift. The project is the Unst Stole. I believe it is an Interweave pattern, but I'm not certain. Carla, my mother-in-law, has logged the important details about it here on Ravelry.

I wore this stole at my wedding reception and in a lot of our wedding pictures. You can see it in wedding action, below.

Carla's been knitting since she was a wee girl in Scotland. I'm consistently impressed with her ability to knit socks without a pattern and her patience when it comes to knitting very intricate lace patterns. She is one brave knitter. Once she told me a story about how she messed up about 20 rows of a lace pattern (using very fine cobweb yarn) and subsequently spent the next two weeks pulling out her mistake. I'm pretty sure if that happened to me they'd be hearing my screams all the way over in Scotland......

Kyle has also been the lucky recipient of many of Carla's knitted items (he's known her a lot longer than I have). In particular, he likes her knit socks. I may never fully live up to his expectations of a sock-knitter.......

My mom has a much different knitting approach than my mother-in-law, but is an equally talented knitter. My mom prefers to knit things on big needles and has a much looser gauge than both my mother-in-law and I do. She's just a laid-back type of lady.

Over the years my mom has generously bestowed on me many a knit project, blankets, sweaters, hats, mittens, scarves, you name it my mom has probably knit it and given it to me. She was also my knitting teacher, which makes me one lucky gal.

My most favorite knitted item she has ever given me is a red throw she knit for me while I was living on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. She knit it for my first "big-girl" house and mailed it to me in a package. I remember the day I picked it up at the post office, I took it home and laid it gingerly on my bed. It was true love.

Now, 6 years later it is looking a bit beat up and there is a lot of fuzz and cat hair I'm not sure will ever come out of it. Countless naps have been taken under its warmth and Kyle and I have cuddled under it many a night to watch a movie.

My "blankie", as Kyle calls it, has been loved and is showing it, but has managed to hold up to a lot of wear and tear.

Knitting (or quilting, or crocheting, or whatever other craft it is) something for another person is a true act of generosity and love, it requires time, attention, and care. Perhaps, this is why Mothers who knit are so unique - they craft for their children and never ask for anything in return. In my opinion, that's one of the best examples of a mother's love you could ask for.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and Carla, and all the other crafting mama's out there. One day your children will appreciate your eccentricities and won't be embarrassed when you take your knitting to the movies with you.

Work-In-Progress Wednesday: Failure to Finish Edition

2011-05-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

Lately it seems as if I'm having trouble finishing projects. I'm not sure what exactly the problem is but I seem to be lacking the "want-to" to finish any of the myriad of projects I have started. Perhaps, it's because I've been busy with other things - but I think the more likely reason is because I'm just not that excited about any of the projects I've been working on recently, everything seems sort of boring to me right now. Below is a break-down of some of my recent ~~stops-and-starts~~ projects. If you are looking for inspiration to actually finish a project, I suggest you visit one of the blogs on the right-hand side of the page - then, maybe come back here in a week or so, when I've *hopefully* finished something.

Knitting

Gooseberry Cardigan- This is actually the only knitting project that I have going right now and I really just want nothing more than to be done with it. I'm sad to say, my want hasn't done much to inspire my work. Truthfully, there isn't much excitement in knitting a sweater in the month of May, I'm beginning to question if the finished project will even fit me, and I noticed the other day there are a few snags in the yarn. This project would probably go faster if Kyle picked up the needles and started knitting - sheesh.

Quilting/Sewing

Kyle's T-Shirt Quilt- The last Saturday of my t-shirt quilt class I came home in a frenzy of sewing, t-shirt cutting, chain piecing passion and managed to finish almost the entire top of Kyle's t-shirt quilt. All that's left is the outer border, then I'm going to piece the back, and have it professionally quilted.

Pinwheel Baby Quilt- Top is pieced (I've decided to leave off a border), back is pieced, batting is purchased. All this needs is to be basted, quilted, and bound - seems manageable.

Curtains for Guest Room- Would you believe I actually finished something? Having company provided the proper kick-in-the-pants to get this project done and now our guest room looks happy and sunny.

Triathlon Train-A-Long

I've haven't quite fallen off the wagon with this one, but I'm definitely in the process of falling off of the wagon - picture me holding on for dear life as the wagon tries to run away from me. I sure hope I don't get trampled. I'm still running and have been going to spin class (LOVES IT), and getting in the occasional swim; still haven't done much in the way of long-runs and haven't been on my bike since last September. Major fail.

In other news, I'm still reading Gone With the Wind. This is my second time to read it and I'm enjoying it just as much as the first - but it just isn't going quickly. I've never been one of those people who can read multiple books at once, which could mean I'm stuck with it for awhile or I should just put it down and read something new? This is a big decision and points to a larger craft, work-out, life-in-general question I've been pondering lately.

If you don't like something (book, craft project, work-out plan, etc.) is it best to force yourself to finish it in the name of perseverance or is it ok to "break-up"? How do you deal with the feelings of guilt over un-finished objects? Thoughts?

I'm linking to Freshly Pieced Work-In-Progress Wednesday.

Cold, Cold

2011-05-04T08:52:00.000-05:00

This is the story of one very cold rainy Oklahoma day. It was a spring day, but the rain felt like a winter rain, at one point there was hail. It would have been a perfect day to sit inside with a cup of coffee, some knitting, and a good movie - but instead, it was marathon Sunday in Oklahoma City and Kyle and I just couldn't stay away.

So on Sunday, at 5:30am Kyle and I left our house, along with two of our good friends who were visiting from Albuquerque, to head down to the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Monument to participate in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. The weather when we left was pleseant, it was cool but not unreasonably cold and it was dry. On the way to the starting line it started to rain, but even that was a nice calm rain. I didn't start to worry until I saw the lightning.

My friend, Ayesha, and I hanging out in Kyle's office prior to the start of the race. Ayesha ran the whole marathon! You may remember back in 2009 we both ran our first half-marathon together.

When we got to the downtown area we learned the race had been delayed by half an hour, it continued to rain and the temperature started to drop. Lucky for us, we were able to take shelter in Kyle's office, which was super close to the starting line. The race was scheduled to start at 7am, around 6:45 am we made our way to the start line. I wished my friends and Kyle, who were all running the full-marathon, good luck. Then headed to find a good view of the start; as the starting gun sounded the rain started pouring down. I attempted to take pictures but my poor iPhone camera abilities coupled with the cold, wind, and rain made it all but impossible.

Very blurry picture of the start I shot with my iPhone. At this point it was raining steadily and the temperature was dropping.

Once the race had started - I boarded a bus and made my way to where I was handing off for the Relay team I was participating in. (Side note, the relay team consisted of me, my sister-in-law, my brother, my sister-in-law's sister, and a friend. Since our team was made up of siblings [our friend's sister was running the full marathon] we named ourselves Sibling Rivalry. We even had cute shirts with our names on the back, which my brother and sister-in-law made. However, all this was for not as we were way too bundled up to even think about wearing our short-sleeved shirts.) When I got to my relay stop I found a place to take shelter (along with about 50-75 other runners) and waited for my hand-off. The whole time I was waiting I was standing inside a businesses garage with all the other Leg 3 Relay-ers, questioning my sanity, watching the rain come pouring down coupled with a few claps of lightning and some thunder. Things were looking ominous. They were looking even more ominous when I handed off (btw, special kudos to Allison, leg 2 of our relay who ran her first 5K) and started running straight into the wind, with rain blowing in my face, and a VERY loud train on the tracks about 75 yards away from me. The first song that came on my iPod was Ozzy Osborne's "Crazy Train" - I had just boarded the crazy train.

Relay 3 was the 7.5 mile leg, right smack in the middle of the race. I'd like to say that I braved really tough conditions during my run, and while they certainly weren't any walk in a park they weren't too bad either. I had been running about 10 minutes when the rain stopped. It didn't start again until the very end of my leg (probably for the last 5 or so minutes). My teammates had it much worse. In particular, my brother who was running our last leg was running in rain and hail. Good thing that guy is a former Army Ranger, he is used to doing crazy stuff.

Random picture from the course that Kyle took, by the Oklahoma State Capitol Building.

Once I was done with my run - I ran straight onto a bus back to the finish line. As I was making my way from the bus station to the finish - I walked by a United Methodist Church hosting a pancake breakfast for race participants. The church is located directly across from where the Murrah building stood and was badly damaged in the bombing, having such a close tie to the Memorial is their reason for hosting the breakfast (and canceling Sunday services, which I'm told where held on Saturday night). The people of the church had generously opened their sanctuary for people to warm up, and were providing coffee, pancakes, sausage and clean, dry socks. It was amazingly generous and in a true spirit of Christianity, it gets me misty just thinking about it.

From left, Dave (Ayesha's husband), Ayesha, and Kyle warming up in the church after their marathon. We were all freezing!

I met Kyle, who finished the marathon in 4 hours 20 minutes, inside the church. We warmed up for awhile and then headed back to the finish line to watch my brother come in, along with my other relay teammates. We waited outside about 20 minutes and then my brother, Jim, came running in soaking wet and squinting into the rain and hail. Mary (his wife), Jennifer (his sister-in-law), and I joined him as he yelled to us. We sprinted the last .2 miles, took a quick finisher picture, then said good-byes. I headed back to the church and met Kyle and our friends. Eventually, we were all warmed up enough to head back to Kyle's office (across the street) to get our clean, dry clothes and then make our way to the car.

Words cannot convey how good the hot shower I took when I got home felt. It was a little piece of heaven.

A few final thoughts from the race - at the start of the race it was about 50 degrees outside, by the end it was in the low 40's with a wind chill of 36 degrees, many people were treated for hypothermia. All of these things were immensely challenging and frustrating. However, the Oklahoma City Fire Department and Police did an excellent job making sure everyone was cared for and safe. There were plenty of people along the course offering support and encouragement (including Lori - my brother's mother-in-law, who braved the conditions to cheer for each leg of our relay), and I certainly experienced the "Oklahoma Standard", through the generosity of others and the kindness I witnessed on the relay shuttles and at the church. I imagine, it is this same sort of work ethic, detirmination, and compassion which helped OKC come back after the Murrah building bombing 16 years ago - and that is what this race was really all about, remembering those who lost their lives and were forever changed.

Easter Dinner

2011-04-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

Hosting Easter dinner at our house has become a sort of family tradition for Kyle and I. In New Mexico, we never really had a chance to celebrate with family (aside from one year), but there were always plenty of friends around who were happy to join us for an Easter feast. This year, now that we are in Oklahoma, I was able to play host to my parents, brother and sister-in-law, and sister-in-law's mom and sister. Did everyone get all that? I know it is kind of confusing.

Hosting 8 people for dinner required a bit of maneuvering on our part - since our kitchen is definitely not big enough for that type of crowd. Luckily, we were able to borrow some tables and table clothes from various friends and co-workers. We ate in the space between our living room and "sitting room" (not really sure what to call it) and despite what my brother told me about eating in doorways being bad luck (not really - he was just trying to mess with my head) no one choked on their rolls.

I also made hot-cross buns, which my mom decided should be a new Easter tradition. I agree.

You know I love a tradition and the buns were pretty good. I think I'll keep it up. By the way, how much do they cost?

Oh, one last thing ~~the Easter bunny~~ my Mom brought me a little treat. Yes, I know it is lame, funny, weird whatever you want to call it, but I am absolutely tickled by this book. I'm even thinking about knitting a little corgi while I watch the royal wedding. Please don't judge.

Triathlon Train-A-Long: Week 4 and Week 5

2011-04-20T09:12:00.000-05:00

My apologies for falling off the triathlon train-a-long, updating bandwagon. It isn't because I haven't been working out; I can promise you that much.

Actually, the past two weeks of work-outs have been really quite solid. I still haven't managed to get in a long bike ride (or a bike ride at all for that matter), but I have consistently stuck to my weekday morning workout routine, and I've managed to do a six-mile long run the past two weekends. The first was in the form of the RedBud Classic, which I blogged about here. That race didn't go as well as I would have liked, but yesterday I made up for it. I participated in a training run with the Oklahoma LandRunners club and I finished 6 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes, a personal best. I actually did the run with a lovely woman named Liz, who I was lucky enough to meet through my brother and sister-in-law. Liz and I both really pushed each other - even running into a direct headwind we managed to keep going and didn't stop running once. Woot! Woot!

There has been a bit of a set-back though, it turns out the race I was originally training for is the same weekend as a major work conference I have to attend. I'm bummed to miss such a fun race and one I've been wanting to do for a long time, but I am looking forward to the work conference. I'm now trying to find a new triathlon to get excited about doing. There are a few options, but I haven't settled on anything yet officially (all that really means is I haven't paid any registration fees). I'll keep you all posted and let you know when I do. Until then - here is my work-out for the upcoming week:

Triathlon Train-A-Long: Week 5

Monday - Swim 1200 yards

Tuesday - Run 4 miles

Wednesday - Run 3 miles

Thursday - Spin Class

Saturday - 6 mile run

T-Shirt Quilt Update

2011-04-15T22:35:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the second session of my t-shirt quilt class and I'm starting to get a wee bit nervous about it. I have successfully cut out all my t-shirt "blocks" and successfully made a few mistakes here and there. I'm already afraid the teacher is going to scold me - and I really, really, really don't want that to happen.

My mistakes boil down to two. One is a simple mistake, which I think has a easy fix. On a few of the t-shirts I don't quite have interfacing covering the whole block. In my head I've figured out a way to fix this and I'm going to try and do as much tomorrow prior to class. I'll let you know if it works.

The second mistake is a bit bigger. It's more like one of those mistakes where a stream of bad words flows violently from the mouth like Niagara Falls, because there really is no way to fix it. Have you heard the saying "measure twice, cut once"? I should probably have that tattooed to my forehead or maybe my forearm, where I would see it before hastily cutting away at fabric. Anyway, the very first block I cut I left only about 1/2" of space between the top of the block and the logo. This may not seem like a big deal, but since a t-shirt quilt has a 1/2" seam allowance it means there won't be any white space (do artists call this negative space?) between the logo and the fabric - ah well. I guess, I'll just have to accept my scolding for that one.

Updates to come soon......

In Under an Hour

2011-04-12T20:51:00.000-05:00

Last night I came home from work, put away the clean dishes, changed clothes, put away folded laundry, and got set-up to work on a mini-project (not craft related), when I was urgently bit by the sewing bug. It snuck up from nowhere - but all of a sudden I wanted to sew something. My mom has been sending me pictures and patterns for various crayon aprons for awhile now, so I took advantage of the hour before I was to meet Kyle for dinner and my need to sew and sat down at my machine and to experiement with making one.

Generally, when I craft I need a pattern and directions. I might deviate some from the directions and pattern, but I at least need a starting place. It's just who I am - creativity was never really my thing. However, last night I had a vision and decided to just go without a pattern - like the total, fun-loving, rebel I am.

I dug through my fabric stash, which is growing at an alarming rate, found a few pieces to turn into an apron and set to work. The hardest thing about constructing this apron was getting the size right - I don't interact with 3-6 year olds on a daily basis, so I had no idea how big or small to make my apron. I used my own waist as a guide and then cut things down by about a half to a third. Here's a look at the finished product.

Crayon-Apron

Pattern: My very own design

Fabric: Random pieces purchased at JoAnne's

Additional Notes: I left a large pocket on the side to hold stickers, or whatever else little hands might want to put in there.

I'm planning on making a few modifications to how I constructed this apron and then will hopefully be posting a tutorial. Be on the look-out.

I'm linking to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.

Rolls and Runs

2011-04-10T22:09:00.001-05:00

This weekend was all about first. My first first of the weekend was baking related. Since moving to our house last June there has been an ongoing war being waged between my oven and me. The baking skills I once prided myself on have slowly slipped away as I wage war on oven that consistently burns things. Yes, I still blame the oven.

Yesterday, I gathered my supplies and decided to enter in a battle that will surely go down in baking history. The Battle of the Cinnamon Roll. Epic. My inspiration came from a famous Okie known as Pioneer Woman - and a desire to jump on the bandwagon with all my Facebook friends who've raved about her cinnamon roll recipe. Proud bandwagon rider, here.

The original cinnamon roll recipe makes up to 50 large cinnamon rolls. Kyle and I do like a sweet, but 50 would have been a little much. I cut the recipe in half, made the dough, and things were rockin' and rollin'. Then, as the recipe says to do, I cut the dough in half and rolled the first section out. This step wasn't a total failure, but was difficult due to my lack of flouring. If you make these rolls, heavily flour the surface for rolling out the dough. Very heavily. Once the first batch of cinnamon rolls was in the oven I started on the second, wiser about the flouring situation.

Then a scent tickled my nose and about two minutes too late. First half of battle=fail. I put the second half of the rolls in the oven and started the icing. Second failure = runny icing, no bueno. I preempted my second batch of rolls from burning, thickened the icing and ended with this.

Who wants to come to my house for cinnamon rolls? I can bake after all. Final score, Oven=1, Paula=1 and the battle continues.

Pre-Race Photo

Having cinnamon rolls to fuel up on definitely helped with my second first, on my weekend of firsts, a 10K. I've done plenty of 5K's and a couple of half-marathons, but the 10K is something I've never done. With Kyle's encouragement I signed up to participate in the Red Bud Classic in Oklahoma City.

The weather today was a warm mid-80's and there was a fair amount of wind, but the event was fun. The course snaked through a picturesque neighborhood in OKC, which provided for a festive feel. Since the course ran completely through neighborhoods there were a lot of folks sitting on their lawns, cooking-out, and cheering on the runners. A few saintly folks even turned on their sprinklers or were letting their children spray the runners with hoses, which provided a welcome cool-down.

I finished the race in 1hour 20 minutes. This breaks down to about 13 min. miles - much slower than I've been running and 5 minutes slower than the overall time I was shooting for, but I'm still pleased with my performance. Plus, since it was my first 10K I've set a new personal record. There is only one way to go, up.

The Shirt Before the Shirt and the Quilt Before the Quilt

2011-04-04T19:58:00.000-05:00

One shiny-happy gold star will go to the reader who can tell me where the reference in the above title comes from. This weekend it was all about QUUUUUUUUUUUUILting TIIIIIIIIIME, at my house. First, there was the t-shirt quilt class. I have been telling Kyle I would make him a t-shirt quilt since we got married - two and half years later, I figured it was time to deliever on my promise. In order to ensure that I stay on progress with this project I signed-up for a t-shirt quilting class at my local quilt store.

The class itself was a blast. I even met some knitters-turned-quilters. My class lasted most of Saturday and I learned how to properly cut and prepare the t-shirts into quilt backs. The teacher also helped each student choose fabric for sashing, cornerstones, borders, binding, and backing. The actual process of selecting fabric was, quite possibly, one of the most overwhelming things I have done in a long time. I'm beginning to think I just don't have an eye for colors and patterns. It was impossible for me to come up with color choices that I felt looked good, am I the only one with this problem?

That leads me to my next quilting time project that I worked on Sunday. I'm still trying to piece together my pinwheel quilt top - and yesterday, things took a turn from bad to worse. Fortunately (or not, depending on your perspective) there is little photographic evidence of this debacle, so you will have to take my word for it. I first laid out my squares to get a feel for how the whole quilt will look, then decided I didn't like two of the finished pinwheel squares - I dove back into my basket of scraps and somehow managed to produce enough to create two more pinwheel squares, pieced the pinwheel section of the quilt and sighed with happiness.

Then, I added a stone grey border fabric to the two long sides of the quilt and things started to look bad. Kyle told me the quilt looked nice - then asked if I thought it would look good with a patterned border on the other sides. This was his way of telling me the border looked like junk, I agreed. I added a floral print border to each of the short-sides of the quilt. It looked even more like junk than before. Then I did something I never do. I got out the seam-ripper sat down on the couch, squinted vehemently and ripped out each tiny little stitch from the borders.

This is what I'm left with, the quilt before the quilt, and I need suggestions. Is it absolutely necessary to add a border? I kind of feel like it is, but could probably be persuaded otherwise. If I do add a border, what color should it be? I'm using a pink and white binding.

Help, please. Don't make me get my grenade whistle.

I'm linking to ThatGirlThatQuilt's Stitchin' Weekend Party

Triathlon Train-A-Long: Week 3

2011-04-03T21:44:00.000-05:00

I'm here at the start of the third week of my training for a triathlon and wishing the weather in Oklahoma would go ahead and make up its mind. I set-out this week to get in two weekday runs, a spin class and an early morning-swim. I'm proud to report for a second week in a row I got in all my weekday work-outs. The week was cool but humid and I came back from both runs a bit sweaty - but proud of my speed.
This weekend, the bi-polar state that we live in transitioned to much more spring like weather. Yesterday, was beautiful. It would have been a perfect chance to get a long run in outdoors - AND I spent the day inside taking a quilting class (more on that later). No run was completed, but I did learn a lot of things about quilting.....
I intended to use my Sunday for a 10-mile bike ride, but woke up to rather strong winds and a bit of an allergy attack (most likely from sleeping with the windows open, our fresh cut grass, and the insane wind). Instead, I used this morning to catch up on some chores around the house, plan our weekly menu, clip coupons, and lazily watch some TV. Eventually, I made my way to the YMCA and ran 3-miles on the treadmill. My weekend of work-outs didn't go exactly as planned - here's to next week.

Triathlon Train-A-Long: Week 3

Monday: Swim 1200 yards/Strength Train

Tuesday: Run 5 miles

Wednesday: Run 3 miles

Thursday: Spin Class/ Strength Train

Sunday: 10K Race (My first ever!)

Oh Scrap.

2011-03-31T20:03:00.000-05:00

I have read a lot of blog entries about piecing quilt tops and quilt blocks with scraps - and I've always loved the idea of using what I have to make a project, but to be honest I never thought I had enough scraps to do anything with. Perhaps this is because of my knitterly background, I really can't do much with "scraps' of yarn and it is hard to combine multiple types of fibers, colors, etc. and get a clean looking project, or perhaps this was just my way of reasoning with myself while buying new fabrics. At any rate, I never really used my scraps of fabric and it was starting to seem, wasteful.

Then last week I was chatting with my Mom and as we were talking she trailed off and started reading her email to me (yes, she does things like this, it's endearing).

"Baby Shower for 150 New Mommies at Fort Hood. We are accepting knitted hats, blankets, sweaters, booties, and other baby items at [Local Yarn Shop - I forgot the name]. Please donate." She said.

Then I heard a quiet little noise growing louder and louder and realized it was my small bin of fabric stash calling out to me, a perfect opportunity to pick through scraps and piece a baby quilt.
I spent awhile digging through my stash and realized my "scraps" really weren't that scrappy at all. I had a very good amount of a number of different fabrics - so I grouped like colors and began the piecing process for this quilt. Thus far, I've finished piecing all the blocks and am working on figuring out the best lay-out. My goal before Saturday, is to have the whole top pieced and (crossing my fingers here) basted.

I'm excited to see what the finished product will turn out like as I have a cute little owl fabric for the backing, which I did buy. I can only use so much restraint.

Triathlon Train-A-Long: Week 2

2011-03-28T21:29:00.000-05:00

In an effort to stay accountable to something I'm back here to report on my triathlon train-a-long after week one. I'm happy to report that I was able to work out M-Th morning last week as I had planned. The only change to the plan was to substitute about 40 minutes of running intervals on the treadmill in lieu of running 5 miles outside. Does anyone remember that line from the musical "Oklahoma", sing along with me now "Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, where the waving wheat it sure smells sweet and the wind comes right behind the rain...."?

It turns out Curley et. al were right, the wind certainly comes sweeping down the plains here, which made it a bit hard to motivate myself to run outside last Tuesday, thus the treadmill run. Other than that, I lived up to my week day work-out commitments. I especially loved my early morning spin class. I was a bit reluctant to get out of bed so early in the morning, but the class was worth it. I was surprised the 90% of the other students were middle-age men, who were all very encouraging and also rather humorous.

Unfortunately, the long-run I had planned for Saturday did not happen because I decided to sleep late (as I did on Sunday, too), then Kyle and I headed down to the Witchita Mountains in Oklahoma to do a 3 mile up-hill ~~both-ways~~ hike. It seemed like a good substitute to me. Here are my plans for this week and some pictures from our hiking adventure.

Triathlon Train-A-Long: Week 2

Monday: Swim 1000 yds/Strength Train

Tuesday: Run 5 miles

Wednesday: Run 3 miles

Thursday: Spin Class/Strength Train

Saturday: 7 mile long run

Sunday: 10 mile bike ride

Exploring Oklahoma: Flat Stanley Edition

2011-03-27T20:01:00.000-05:00

Ja'dii and our house guest, greeting him with a good sniff.

Kyle and I have spent the past couple of weekends getting to know Oklahoma a little bit better - and it certainly has been a treat. Finding special little restaurants, unknown hiking trails, off-the beaten path shops, and taking in local events is starting to make the Sooner State feel a little bit more like home. We've also been fortunate enough to have a visitor, Flat Stanley, join us for our various excursions. Below is a brief summary of all the things Flat Stanley has gotten to do while in Oklahoma, along with pictures. Enjoy.

We started off Flat Stanley's trip to the Sooner State by treating him to burgers at a local hot-spot, Irma's. The next evening Stanley took a walk on a warm Oklahoma spring evening to a local gelato store (he told us he was craving a sweet). One thing we've learned about Stanley, he sure likes to eat.


Flat Stanley at Irma's Burger Shack.

Stanley eating gelato.

We also heard that Stanley was a basketball fan - and since the second round of NCAA tournament was just up the road in Tulsa, he convinced us to go on a little field trip. Lucky for Kyle his alma mater, Boston University, just happened to be playing in the game we went to. Despite the Terriers loss a good time was had by all, and Stanely remains a fan of basketball. If only the Sooners had made the tournament.......

Taking in the University of Kansas vs. University of Boston game in the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament

It turns out Flat Stanley also has a creative side so I took him along to a committee meeting for the Oklahoma City Arts Fest. Lucky for Stanley the meeting took place at Paseo Pottery, where he got to paint a pot (pictures of the final product will be coming around the end of April, once the pot is fired).

Painting Pottery at Paseo Pottery in Oklahoma City.

This past weekend, we decided to take Stanley for a little trip to see some Oklahoma nature. We headed south to the Witchita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and did a little bit of hiking.

Stanley in the Great Oklahoma Outdoors.

After climbing up and back down a rather large hill we decided to treat Flat Stanley to an Oklahoma burger at Meers. Stanley enjoyed a cheeseburger, cheese fries, onion rings, and peach cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream. For a little guy, made out of paper he sure can eat!


Stanley with his dinner at Meer's Store and Restaurant.

Stanley with his peach cobbler dessert, which he was nice enough to share.

This week Flat Stanley will be headed home. We will certainly miss him, as will the fury friends he has made during his stay here with us.


Chaco will miss Flat Stanley, but will be glad to have his chair back to himself.

Back at It

2011-03-20T18:22:00.000-05:00

It is hard to believe that it has been 3 weeks since I ran my half-marathon, it just doesn't seem like that much time has gone by that quickly. The week after the half-marathon I took a complete training break, which was a welcome change. Instead of getting up and running in the morning, I got up early and knitted and watched the Today show. Following that week, I was feeling a bit lazy so I did a couple of early morning runs and a swim and a jazzercise class, but I just wasn't feeling motivated. I guess, for me, motivation comes in the form of a training plan and a race to look forward to and also the dreams of the ice cream, candy bar, pizza or whatever other food I'll be treating myself to post race.

Lucky for me, Kate over at Swim, Bike, Quilt has started a sort of triathlon "train-a-long" for a race she'll be competing in during the middle of July. This was just the motivation I needed to get started on my next training plan. I've changed her plan a bit and will be competing in a triathlon in mid-June. It will be my first open-water swim and is an all-women's event that I've wanted to compete in for a long time.

What does this mean for my blog? I'm going to *hopefully* provide weekly updates on my past week of training and the upcoming weeks training plan. You all are going to help me to be accountable - so if you see that I haven't completed a work-out, please give me a proper scolding. It will help.

This week my training plan is simple - I'm looking forward to Friday, when instead of a morning work-out I can get-up late and grab a bagel and coffee instead of working out. Yay!!

Triathlon Train-A-Long: Week 1

Monday: Swim 1000 yards/Strength Train

Tuesday: Run 5 miles

Wednesday: Run 3 miles

Thursday: Spin Class/Strength Train

Saturday: 6 mile long run

I will be a triathlete again! Woot, woot!!!!!

Then I Told a Fib

2011-03-14T18:57:00.000-05:00

Generally, I like to think of myself as an honest person. I never claimed to be George Washington, and I'm certainly not above lying to spare someones feelings (when someone asks if I like my meal or dessert, I almost always say yes), but on Saturday I told a fib that's been haunting me for a few days and I've come to my blog seeking absolution.

I suppose, in order to find said absolution, I should tell you all what happened. Saturday in Oklahoma was a beautiful spring day and I woke up early in order to prepare for my first meeting of the Oklahoma City Modern Quilt Guild. I didn't really have a finished project to share or even a work-in-progress for that matter, but there was going to be a mug rug swap and I wanted to participate in it. Soooooooo, Saturday morning I woke up early to finish hand-stitching the binding to a mug-rug that I initially started for a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law, Mary (I'll make Mary another one, perhaps I'll even let her pick out the fabric, I think she'll understand).

I finished the, not so perfect, mug-rug just in time for Kyle to arrive home from a bike ride and tell me it was time to get ready for a church pancake breakfast we were attending. Then I set about the morning's errands of pancake breakfast, hair appointment, and grocery shopping, all the while fretting about if my mug-rug would be worthy of the swap. I stopped by the house prior to heading to the Quilt Guild Meeting, snapped a few quick pictures of my mug-rug (including spot where I messed up joining the binding AND the binding stitches that could be seen on the front of the quilt), wrapped it up with some hot chocolate packets and headed off to the meeting.

I arrived at the meeting, placed my mug-rug on the table and fixed myself a plate of munchies. I spoke with some other folks around me and shared projects. Then show-and-tell started. The first person to "show-and-tell" had a mother who owned a quilt store and had some of the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen in my life, with prize-winning ribbons hanging off of them. Seriously. My neighbors and I looked at each other nervously.

Suddenly, I was anxious and my insecurities took over. My turn came and I explained that I was a new quilter, didn't have a current project, and was really just looking to see what others were doing. Then, all the ladies (who I should say were really quite nice and made me feel super welcome and who I could probably learn a lot from) asked me how long I'd been quilting and I squeaked out "oh, about 6 months", which is a total lie, fib, white lie, whatever you want to call it. My conscience has been bothering me ever since.

At the end of the meeting the mug-rug swap took place and I was nervous that whoever got my rug would take the time to point out all the mistakes and ugliness of it (I have had similar situations happen in other crafting groups). However, I was pleasantly surprised that the recipient of my rug seemed to really, genuinely like it, and I got an equally darling little mug-rug to enjoy with my chai teas.

What did I learn from my experience? Crafting groups, be it a knitting group, scrapbooking group, or quilting guild, are not about judgment. They are about acceptance and having the opportunity to share and learn. The creator of the quilts-with-prize-winning-ribbons was actually a very nice, humble person and there was no reason I should have felt insecure. We all have different talents and abilities and that's ok, what is important is that we learn from one another. Wisdom, pass it on.

I'm linking to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday

Spring on the Door - Tutorial (of sorts)

2011-03-12T09:20:00.001-06:00

After spending two straight days knitting last weekend, I decided that a break from all the yarn and needles would be a good thing. So, I teamed up with my sister-in-law, Mary, to make a spring time wreath for my door. Mary doesn't do much knitting or sewing, but she is artistic and crafty in a lot of other ways that I am not. Lucky for me, one of her many talents is wreath-making and floral arranging.

Last Saturday we headed to Michael's to pick-up supplies for our wreathes. We arrived at the store about 20 minutes before it closed, which made our shopping trip a quick one but we are powershoppers and were able to get all the things we needed before the folks at the store had to kick us out. Then ~~we headed back to Mary's place and worked dilligently into the night making wreathes~~ we went to a movie, and treated ourselves to a glass of wine and a brownie sundae (a combination my husband found to be hiliarious). Since Kyle and my brother knew Mary and I would be doing girly things they opted to take a backpacking trip and sleep in the freezing outdoors. I stayed the night at Mary's place and on Sunday morning we got up bright and early and began the wreath creating madness. The rest as they say is history......

Spring Time Wreath

Materials

Grapevine Wreath

Mix of various faux flowers (I would recommend a few large-ish flowers (gerber daises, peionies, roses), a few medium sized flowers, and some with small buds for filler)

Wire Edged Ribbon

Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

Pair of Sharp Scissors and Possibly a Wire Cutter (we didn't use one, but it might have helped)

First, lay-out all your materials on the table and take in the floral prettiness. That was easy!

Begin cutting the tops of the flowers off from their stems. Leaving about 1-2 inches of stem for gluing purposes. You probably won't need a ton of the stems/leaves but it is good to save a few to add some green to your wreath.

Play around with different ways of arranging your flowers. The general rule, which I picked up from Mary, seems to be to place one or two large flowers in a cluster with a few of the medium sized ones and then use the fillers to make things look full. You might also want to add a leaf or too.

Have a cute little friend inspect your work, get their opinion. It might help.

Then start glueing. Be heavy handed with the glue, you want the flowers to really stick. Run a bead of hot-glue along each side of the stem and put a small amount of glue at the bottom of the stem. Then poke the stem into the twist-y part of the wreath and give it a minute to dry.

Once all the flowers are glued, tie your ribbon into a bow. Then glue it to the wreath wherever you feel it looks best.

Allow everything to dry for a few minutes and then hang on your door and be happy that spring is almost here! Yay.

Pictures from the Knitting Workshop

2011-03-09T21:41:00.000-06:00

You all can read about all the fun that was had at last weekend's knitting workshop, here. I finally have my computer and camera working together at the same time, which means it's picture time.

My Mom and I with our mini-socks. Actually, I knit both of those mini-socks, my mom left hers at home on day 2 of the workshop and then tried to hog all the glory by holding up one of my socks. Typical.

Our teacher and knitter extraordinaire, Ann Budd.

Kerry was one of the hip-knitting ladies I got to spend two days knitting and gabbing with. Here she is with her slipper sock from Ann Budd's book, Knitting Green.

Edde showing off her finished slipper sock.

After finishing a pair of mini toe-up socks, I started a scarf from the Knitting Green book, but two rows into it I realized with all the chatting and activity going on around me I would never be able to stay on track with the lace pattern. I switched to a much easier sock pattern that I'm working on for Kyle, something I don't have to think about while I'm knitting. Bliss.

Knitting Socks Helps Me Learn

2011-03-07T20:33:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to learn how to knit toe-up socks. The girl had access to many great knitting teachers and mentors but was too proud to ask for help. So, she bought a magazine with an article all about knitting toe-up socks. She studied the diagrams, read the article word for word, and tried and tried to figure out how to knit toe-up socks. Her efforts were in vane. She never could quite figure it out and after some cussing and possibly a few tears, she gave up.
As the years went by she did learn other ways to knit toe-up socks but the article, her yet to be slayed dragon, still haunted her. Then one day her mother invited her to a knitting workshop, how to knit toe-up socks, the girl was excited. She packed her bags and left early in the morning to ensure a timely arrival. Upon her arrival at the workshop the girl saw the article that had haunted her, lying on the table.
Then the girl met her own personal Fairy God Mother, who was disguised as a professional knitter and author. Indeed, her Fairy God Mother was the author of the article that haunted the girl. The girl's Fairy God Mother showed her how to cast-on for toe-up socks, she showed the girl how to do a short-row heel, and she helped the girl to learn an excellent new way to bind-off sock cuffs so they would remain stretchy.
It all seemed like a fairy tale. The girl finished two baby-sized toe-up socks, she made new knitting friends, bonded with her mother - and lived happily ever after, with warm feet.

All My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready to Go......

2011-03-03T20:59:00.000-06:00

Last weekend was spent doing some running but it was also spent doing some shopping in an attempt to prepare for the knitting workshop I'll be attending this weekend.

The workshop I'll be attending is a two-day event consisting of two different classes taught by knitter extraordinaire, Ann Budd. The first class will cover how to knit a toe-up sock on double-pointed needles. As an avid sock-knitter I'm excited to learn a new technique for knitting socks, but I would be lying if I didn't say I'm a bit skeptical of toe-up socks. I've tried multiple methods for toe-up socks and have never, ever been pleased with the final result. It has something to do with the cast-off, typically. The second class will cover a pattern from the Knitting Green book. I'll be knitting the sustainable bamboo scarf.

Anyhow, last weekend in between packet pick-up and carb loading my mom and I managed to make a trip her local yarn store and I picked up the supplies I need for the class. The sock portion of the class calls for a small amount of sport-weight yarn, in order to knit a miniature sock. Since my mom and I are both taking the course we decided to "split" a ball of Baby Rooster yarn. I'll be using my favorite Lantern Moon Sox Stixs to knit up my mini-sock. For the sustainable bamboo scarf I chose Louet, Eastport yarn which, I now realize, has no bamboo content in it. I sure hope I don't start off on the wrong foot by bringing in the wrong yarn. The supply list didn't mention a need for the yarn to have bamboo in it.........

I'll be sure to let you all know how the class turns out - and share my final products with you. But in the meantime, allow me to share one last photo from last weekend. Kyle took this picture of me picking up my race packet and he thinks it is an absolute hoot. According to him I'm the only runner in the world who would pick up a race packet carrying a Vera Bradley purse and wearing a cardigan sweater. I say he just isn't paying attention.