A Valentine's Day Surprise

Robert and I are squirreling away every penny possible to buy a house, but we still wanted our first Valentine's Day as man and wife to be special. I chose to celebrate Robert with a semi-homemade treat: an edible bouquet!

It was easy and completely customizable. I chose some of Robert's favorite candies, including Dove dark chocolates for filling, and some beef jerky sticks.

 All I had to do was tape the candy to bamboo skewers and arrange them in the vase, which we already had. I hid the finished product until the morning of February 14th, when I left it with a romantic note on our kitchen table.

Robert definitely had a sweet surprise that morning.








That night, I had a surprise in the same vase: Robert reused the vase for a dozen red roses. So sweet!

The Chest of Drawers

This post is all about instant love for a garage sale chest of drawers. That love would later be my motivation to sweat for hours in the garage while I got a crash course in restoring antique furniture.

 I cannot even begin to describe the level of grime we were dealing with on this dresser. I am pretty sure this solid oak piece was abused by being used for paint storage in a garage.

I happily rescued it from such mistreatment.

 Look at that drawer. We're talking years of abuse that required three coats of Citristrip.

Citristrip is amazing stuff, by the way. It took a few layers, but the ancient finish and all the filth came off without any yucky fumes.








My supplies:

Tada!

Remember that nasty, grimy drawer? Look at it all beautiful and gleaming!

I love my chest of drawers. It was such a bargain, and it is now a priceless heirloom-quality antique that we will cherish.

The Wedding Blanket is finally finished.

I finished it, and I got Avalanche to model it. He sat on the blanket, but he sure doesn't look happy about it. He loved it while I was working on it, so I guess he's just disappointed that he will not be curled up in a blanket while he plays with my working yarn anymore.

 I am also finally posting pictures of the River Run scarf I made last winter. The Kauni roving made such a beautiful wave of colors, and I cannot wait for cold weather to arrive so I can wear this warm and cheery scarf again.

 The stitch pattern may not have been the wisest for single-ply handspun, but I still love the effect.

Show and Tell!

Here are some pictures of my progress on the Feather and Fan wedding blanket.

Where did the time go?

Whoa! It's been a long time since I've updated this thing.

During the Christmas holidays, I used my drop spindle to spin some Kauni pencil roving into a beautiful, slowly striping, rainbow yarn. After much deliberation, I knit all of it into one wide scarf. I couldn't stand to cut the perfect flow of colors through the spectrum. Next time I spin something with such a stunning colorway, I'll ply it for even more lovely color blends. Alas, I had to knit this one right away, so I made a scarf with single ply. I used this free pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/riverrun.

Now, as my wedding approaches quickly, I have begun working on a fast, stash-busting project for the home Robert and I will share. I want it to be fun, with the colors and widths of the stripes being randomly selected from the kaleidoscope of worsted weight acrylics in my stash. Some of the fun lies in the patchwork quilt effect of knitting from my stash. Nearly every stripe carries a memory of a baby blanket, scarf or stuffed animal from years ago. I am using the classic Feather and Fan stitch pattern based on the written pattern here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sweet-stitchin-betties-group-feather-and-fan.

Later this month, I'm going to try something new. As a self-taught knitter, I've never attended a knitting class. That's about to change, though, because I'm enrolling in a class for a lovely finish-free shell at my local yarn store, The Hook and Needle. I'll post my progress, as well as my thoughts about knitting with a group.

Boot Socks: Done!

I forgot to post pictures of the finished boot socks. They're cute, but I still won't buy another of the same kind of kit.

Anemoi and Chevrolace

Robert's hat is finished, just in time for our ski trip!  

He'll be handsome as he glides down the slopes in his new maroon and gray beanie. I'll post pictures of his lovely head after he opens his present, but for now I have pictures of the hat itself. This was my first foray into charted stranded colorwork, and you can see my skills improve from the bottom of the hat to the top.

I have also started Sarah's present: I'm knitting "boot bands" using Knitty's Chevrolace Sock Pattern.  Essentially, these are sock tops to wear poking out of tall boots.  I simply do not have the time to knit lace boot socks, but I can knit cuffs to fake the look.