Feels like

Spring is in the air.  Not really here, of course, but you can almost taste it. 

Here's my ode to the imminent season:  Spring Has Sprung!  Hourglass blocks surrounded by a border of green sprinkles on a white background, sort of like early grass.  Bad photography because the borders look more turquoise or blue that white with green leafy blades.  Ah well, maybe next time I'll get better pictures.

Maybe I'll even get it done by the first day of spring.  Possible.

5 finished blocks

Let me tell you, this is some slog here.  This moves so slowly that it almost qualifies as slow stitching.  But it's fun, I get to play with putting blocks together, and planning colors, and that's what I like to do.  Matching the points is nutsy, at least for me.  But I seem to get most of them somewhat correct so I'm happy.  No ripping out unless the points are really a mess.  As Jenny Doan says:  "Better finished than perfect."  And that's my motto, too.  Plus, when the whole mess is put together, who is going to care about a not great point?  You're going to look at the colors and sparkle, not those dopey points.  At least that's what I tell myself.

At first I thought I'd just sew these guys together, but that's a lot of matchy matchy stuff, and I'm not that crazy.  So, the current thought is to border each block with a 1.5" strip of something light with pale green.  I have the perfect fabric, but it's not enough and I don't know where or when I bought it or if it's even available today.

On the other hand, here's a loaf of bread that I made today.  It's a caraway rye bread, with a bit of rye (not too much since I hate working with sticky dough), lots of caraway seeds, and a special ingredient.

It's not sourdough, 'cause I'm way too lazy to deal with sourdough, but it has a bit of sour flavor, just enough to give it some zip.   2 TB of dill pickle brine.  Yep, add the leftover brine from a jar of dill pickles, and you get that lovely sour rye moment.  Good stuff.

Knitting and quilting

Mismatched socks for Miss P, she who inevitably loses socks, therefore I make singleton socks that don't match.  She loses one?  Doesn't matter; she has plenty more.

64 stitch sock, helix pattern with 3 yarns.

I also have a shawl on the needles, but no sense in photographing it yet; it's messy as usual.

More hourglass blocks.  Such fun! This is not a design board; the blocks are just plopped down randomly.

Take a look at the center points of each block.  They match!  And I didn't pin them; just sewed them.  whoo hoo.

Playing around

with hourglass blocks.  These little guys measure 3.5", and will finish at 3".  I figure I'll need about 400 of them! 

This is not a real layout, just me playing around with them.

Yesterday's eggplant dish proved to be adorable, but not very tasty.  Both the Hubz and I found the eggplant very bitter.  I love the idea of the little eggplants, but not the taste.  I did find another recipe that I might try.  The other possibility is to use Japanese eggplants, which don't taste bitter to me.  We shall see.

Hourglass blocks and food

The latest hourglass blocks.  These take so much time that they almost qualify for slow stitching.  It is a nice rhythm, though. Same blocks in both pictures, just moved to the left.

Food!  The Yarnarian is still cooking Indian, just not taking photos.  But look what the Hubz got today at the Indian grocery store:  baby eggplant.  Are these not the most adorable veggies in the world?  I have recipes for them made in the Instant Pot, as well as one on the stove top, but I'll probably try the IP one first, just because I can.

Knitting?  I'm working on a pleasantly mindless shawl and the endless socks.  This time it's another mismatched sock for Miss P. 

It's time to sign up for this year's Sock Madness.  Why do I do this?  The socks are always way to large for me, I often don't like the complexity (I've made so many socks in my lifetime that I want simple TV watching socks), and I'd rather be knitting something else.  BUT, I love the goofy idea of Sock Madness and the camaraderie,  and the lunatic fun of it.  I also like being on a super fast team with my role being canon fodder. 

A Beginning

A brand new quilt in the making.  Hourglass blocks finishing at 3".  This might take me forever, but it's fun and mindless.

Mindless?  Me?  Quarter square triangles?  Bias edges?  Hah!  I have that covered.  A couple of years ago, I bought Brenda Henning's Triangulations CD.  This is such a great program, especially for someone who cannot sew half-square or quarter-square triangles without stretching them and making a mess.  I find the size of the triangles, print out on newsprint paper (yes, the printer does that very well).  Pin onto my fabrics and sew on the dotted lines.  Cut on the solid lines, and, voila!, I have triangles that work.  In this particular size, 3.5", I get 11 quarter square triangle units, and, 2 bonus half square triangle units that measure 1.5".

So here's the beginning of some blocks.

All 5 of these have that same dark green/peachy rose combination.  I have 6 more of these to mix up with other combinations.  Delicious fun.