Roses on the Breeze - an MKAL

Mom and I have been eagerly anticipating a mystery shawl knit-along (aka, an MKAL) on Ravelry by one of my favorite shawl designers - Boo Knits.  Since the MKAL is finally set to begin in a couple of days (you can find the pattern "Ocean Breeze" here on Ravelry), I thought I'd go ahead and share my yarn and bead choices.

Boo typically uses amazingly decadent, gorgeous and expensive yarns for her shawls - they're beautiful, and they make beautiful shawls.  Her yarn recommendations for this shawl are no different.  However, due to my current budget restrictions (broke nursing student here), I had to choose between making do with something else, or not making the shawl right now.  I've made enough of her designs to know that they turn out fabulously no matter what kind of yarn I use, and not making it was not an option!  So, I'm making do.

The biggest, most important thing about choosing yarn for this shawl is texture.  It calls for two yarns of the same color, but different textures - one silky and smooth, the other fuzzy.  What I ended up doing was getting two different bare yarns and dyeing them together.  I've used both of the yarns that I chose - Knit Picks' Gloss and Bare Hare (both fingering weight) separately, so I know that they do have very different textures once washed and blocked, although they don't look all that texturally different in the skein. 

Then I looked at what colors I've already used to make shawls, and what colors I still wanted.  I decided that I needed something rose-colored.  But it had to be the right rose - not too pink, not too dark or light... I found an acid dye that produced a color that I liked (PRO Wash Fast Wine Rose), so that began several weeks of experimenting and trying to get the dye results to match my vision.

I wasn't about to just dye my yarn and see what happened, so I started practicing.  My first attempt turned out much too dark, too wine-colored and not rosy enough:

My second try was much better (yes, the exact same dye produced both results!):

I was really happy with that, so then I dyed my yarn for the MKAL:

I love the way that it turned out (yes, I hang my yarn to dry over the kitchen sink on metal bbq skewers held down by my plastic storageware - making do, remember)!  I got the tone differences that I wanted, without clear lines between the shades.  I'm hoping that it gives a beautifully mottled effect.

So now I have my yarn dyed - and that was almost as fun as actually knitting - I found my beads, and I wound my yarn into balls.  I'm all ready!  Bring on the first clue!!!

**If you want to follow along with me on Ravelry, my project page for Roses on the Breeze is here.**

How I Spent My Five Days of Summer Vacation

Friday~
 My first attempts with royal icing flowers:

  And my first time dyeing with acid dyes:

Saturday~
 Chocolate cake with blackberry filling and white chocolate buttercream for my Mother-in-Law:

And 24 cupcakes using leftover batter and icing for the church bake sale:

Sunday~ church and visiting with the in-laws.


Monday~
 Housework, knitting, cooking, and having Mom over for her Mother's Day:

  
Tuesday~
 More knitting and dyeing!

Not Your Mama's Chicken and Potatoes

One of the keys to healthy eating and weight control is having an arsenal of recipes you like to fix and love to eat. But even the best recipes can get tiring, or something can happen to make them less accessible. In my case, the fact that my oven died has kind of messed up menu preparation. And I confess that I fell back on a lot of microwave or take-out meals. Then Betsy started raving about the great recipes in the May 2014 issue of Cooking Light. "Every Recipe under 25 Minutes" means pretty much everything is done on the stove-top. Of course, my subscription had just expired, so I picked up a copy at the newsstand, and I'm pretty sure this is the first of many meals I'll be making from it. In the case of Greek-Style Chicken Breasts and Herbed Gold Potatoes, the combination of kalamata olives, oregano, lemon juice and feta is mouth watering. And most of the ingredients are staples in my kitchen.

I only made two servings of the chicken, since there are so many others I want to try, too. But I'm pretty sure it will make great leftovers. And the potatoes are just right with it. If I'd had fresh green beans I think they would have been the perfect accompaniment. Steamed spinach or a tossed salad with vinaigrette dressing would work, too. One more note about this meal - it was tasty and filling. I realized I'd forgotten to eat lunch,so I munched an apple while cooking, and that and this meal left me plenty full when I'd finished. That's pretty awesome for a meal that came in at 10 Weight Watcher's Points by only reducing the fat a bit.

Note: Later in the week I heated the last of the Herbed Potatoes with some sliced turkey sausage, and it tasted amazing. I wasn't sure if the seasoning of the potatoes would hold it's own with the sausage, but it did. I got a delicious, quick and healthy dinner in about 4 minutes. Can't get better than that!

Springtime on Easy Street - A Sneak Peek!

I went ahead and put a couple of the rows together tonight.  I just couldn't figure out what it was going to look like!  Even though I've seen pictures of lots of other people's completed Easy Street quilts, I've just been so curious to see how my color choices would "play" together, and how the on-point assembly would go together.  I've never done a quilt on-point before, it's not nearly as difficult as I was afraid it would be.  As long as I double check everything...  I'm very happy with this so far!  Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to finish putting it all together.


Yes, that's my husband laying there, playing his video games!  His recovery is - finally - going well.  The orange flannel quilt he's laying under is one I made him for his birthday.

Springtime on Easy Street - Part 8, Block A

Whoohooo!!!  I finished all 16 blocks!  They're not perfect - seams don't always match up, and points sometimes got cut off, but every component of this quilt is DONE!  And once it's finished, it will be beautiful!  I can't wait to get it all assembled!!  (Too many exclamation points? Never!!)

First off, the central 9-patch blocks:

Next, with the left and right wings:

And last, but not least, top and bottom rows added to make the completed block:

On to assembly!

Springtime on Easy Street - Part 8, Block B

I finally decided what I wanted to do with bordering this top (when it's finished...), so Saturday morning I double-checked the fabric I had remaining, and went to Hancock Fabrics.  I'm going with a purple 1" finished inner border, and a 3" finished outer border and the binding in grey.  I didn't have enough of a purple for the inner border, and was a little short of the grey as well.  Once I got to the store, I discovered that they were having a sale - 50% off notions!  Most of the cotton fabrics were marked down as well, so I ended up spending more than I had planned, but got more needles for my machine, more pins, lots of thread, a circle template, both border fabrics, and backing for the quilt.  I found a steel grey fabric with white, cream, and lighter grey swirls running through it, a nice medium-sized print with plenty of movement that coordinates with the binding and won't show my quilting too obviously.

After I got home, I cut and sewed and pressed the border strips and the binding, so they'll be all ready to go when I finish the top.  Then I started in on the block B units.  I decided that, since I only needed to make 9 of them, I would get them finished first, and save the block A units for last (since there are 16 of those).  I started with the center 9-patch:

Then I moved on and added the right and left "wings":

At that point, it was after midnight, so I went to bed.  The next day, however, I was able to sit down for an hour or so and add the top and bottom rows, finishing out the B blocks:

I don't think I've ever made blocks this large!  Mine usually finish at 9.5" or 12.5".  I'm not entirely sure how to best square them up...  I think I've gotten spoiled by my 12.5" square.


 I'm really, really excited about the progress I've made this past week, and I'm really looking forward to finishing the piecing on this top.  I've got the quilting pattern all picked out, and I'm ready to be snuggled up under this quit in the very near future!

Springtime on Easy Street - Part 7!

Today I worked on Part 7, and was so excited to get to begin putting all of the pieces together and see how my quilt would turn out.  I've seen lots of completed tops made by other people, but I haven't come across one with my color choices, so I've had trouble visualizing exactly how it will look.

Before I could start working on the corner and setting triangles, though, I added the remaining bricks to the leftover cream/purple flying geese.

 Then, it was on to the really fun stuff!  First, the four corner triangles.

Then, the 12 setting triangles!

It feels like an awful lot of green right now, so I'm really looking forward to making the center blocks and assembling the top.  I'm also considering my options for a border.  First, do I want one?  I think that I do.  For one thing, it will make the quilting easier.  For another, I'm not sure I want it to be so green around the edges...  I'm thinking of a narrow inner border (maybe finished at 1"?) with a purple batik, and a larger (~3") outer border of the grey, if I have enough of it to do that, and still bind the quilt...  At least I have plenty of time to decide.  For now, though, I'm just excited that the end is in sight!