When life gives you lemons...

When life gives you lemons... make lemon bread... and lemon cookies with lemon icing, lemon marinade with herbs, lemon viniagrette, lemon meringue pie, lemon shortbread cookies... ah, such possibilities!

Some relatives in Arizona have wonderful citrus trees in their yard, including a very prolific lemon tree, and the past few Januaries, they've sent us big boxes of the biggest, freshest lemons I have ever seen! I have them stowed safely in the fridge for now (can't let any go bad or go to waste!) as I dream up recipes for them. So far I've made this moist, sticky, slightly sweet loaf of lemon bread from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. The recipe calls for brushing the loaf with a combination of fresh lemon juice and sugar while the loaf is still hot. Yum! Coworkers loved it! Next time, will add poppyseeds for sure!

Block #24 is nearing completion. Will post a photo of that later today. Nine more rows to go and a bind off row and some blocking to stretch it to size, and then I'll be on to the next block! I wonder if the ladies at my Thursday knitting group would like some lemon cookies with icing? I've got just a recipe for that!

Sock

Made a sock this week. Need to make another of course. This is the great sock yarn I got from http://www.knitpicks.com/ with the gift certificate from my mom for Christmas. I still need to finish the toe and am planning to attempt to complete a proper Kitchner Stitch for the toe. On past socks, I've not taken the time to really do this properly. Hoping I can find a great video on the internet to walk me through the process. I think I saw a video on http://www.susanbanderson.com/. Wish me luck!

Goodies from Knit Picks!

I've been expecting a package from Knit Picks (Thanks for the gift certificate, Mom! Would you know... for Christmas, my mom got me a gift certificate for Knit Picks and... for Christmas, I gave my mom a gift certificate for Knit Picks! Imagine that!? Great minds think alike. We even picked the same snowman design on the gift certificate). Yesterday, a storm front blew in from the North. You could see it snowing in the mountains and hills not too far from us. I happened to peek out the front of the house toward the mailbox at the end of the street and noticed the mailman pulling up to the mailboxes. My husband braved the wind and cold and rain to gather my package. It was a treat to tear into it! Check out my goodies. A book entitled "Andean Folk Knits", Susan B. Anderson's book entitled "Itty Bitty Toys", a kit to make two blue and white stockings, more blocking pins, two balls of gorgeous sock yarn, and a pattern/chart keeper.

I was most surprised by the "Andean Folk Knits" book. I think it was on sale for $5.99 on http://www.knitpicks.com/. I expected the book to be small since the price was so low, but the book is huge with tons of patterns and colorful photos. The book contains personal stories from the author (what I've picked up on so far is that she and her family lived in South American as Mennonite missionaries). She goes into great detail about the history of this part of the world and the tradition of knitting as part of the culture. The book contains a number of pattern for bags or purses, many of which are shaped like animals. So many patterns, so little time... okay, enough procrastinating... I need to get moving on that baby boy sweater!

How things are shaping up!

Since I got some great blocking mats for Christmas, I've been spending time blocking most my afghan squares. I like to lay out the squares to see how things are shaping up and to determine colors for the next squares. I am really happy with the yarn I selected for this project.

#5 Bows and Arrows is Complete!

With the exception of "invisible diagonal seam", I am done with block #5. I was so anxious to have show & tell with you that I snapped a photo while it was pinned down to the blocking mat! I still marvel at the creative construction of this block. The designer must be one smart cookie! Snapped a few photos of this one so you can see how this came together. Although the bobbles on this block are not super apparent in these photos, in case you were wondering... there are 80 bobbles in this block. Yep, I counted them! Eight in the very center, 40 around the outside border (that was a rough, slow row!) and the rest outline the lacy design in the center of the block. I really need to get moving on a baby boy sweater I promised to make. I had a great lavendar baby girl sweater made but then I found out... it's a boy! The baby is due in two days. No pressure!

#5 Bows and Arrows in Progress!

Check out the unique construction on this block! This block starts with only five stitches in the center of the block and then you complete eight pesky big bobbles straight away on row five. You would think, from looking at the photo above, that this block is being knit in the round... but NO! It's knit back and forth and then at the end it will be joined together with an invisible diagonal seam (wish me luck with that part). Right now I am on row 30 which has 121 stitches. By row 49, I'll have 169 stitches. The increases are done every other row if I am not mistaken. Fun pattern, but I have to be pretty focused on the instructions when working on this design. I have not been referring to the pattern chart in the instructions. The written-out instructions are good.

#21 Aran Sampler is Complete!

This block was a blast! Posting two pictures so you can see all the great texture and detail. :)

I noticed today, when looking at the GAA instruction booklet, that this block is supposed to be one of the most challenging. I breezed through it following the excellent written-out instructions. I did not refer to the chart at all. Does this mean my knitting is improving if I found this to be not too challenging!??? I only had one problem on the portion on the right hand side... the cable that snakes from the bottom to the top. Maybe it was around row 26, 27 and again 55, 56... I was supposed to do some purl two togethers... but if I did, the number of stitches was wrong. I worked through it and ended up skipping the p2tog and it looks just fine.

I am calling the block the Aran Sampler because our course instructor said once we complete a block like this, we'll be able to complete any aran sweater! Almost makes me think maybe I'd like to make the Great American Aran Afghan someday??? Hmmmm.....