Oogyknitter

Hello on this lemon garlic salmon and green beans Thursday!! By way of food updates - Oogyhubby got me an InstaPot for Xmas, so I've been taking it for a test spin this past week.  So far I've boiled water (to practice releasing the pressure - which scared the crap out of Daisy!), made carrot/ginger soup (was OK), and made a shawarma (delicious but I added too much curry powder; can't wait to make again!).  I've ordered a cookbook full of InstaPot recipes, and will look forward to exploring that too! I completely forgot that I took a picture of Sharon Air while it was drying (I've since worn it 2-3 times already!): There's tons more things in the works but nothing quite yet to show for it all; as usual, more to come on that!  In other news - I came home the other day from running an errand and heard this strange noise in the background.  Upon further investigation, it was coming from a kajillion birds all perched in the tops of the trees nearby (those little dot...

Hello on this Baked Salmon (with lemon!) Saturday!! A few more things are starting to move out of the finishing pile and onto the next part of their journey!  Here is a pair of slippers made from that terrific pattern, Felted Clogs , that I keep re-making for various people because they wear them so often that they put holes through two layers of double-stranded wool on the bottom!  (Oogydad has taken to duct-taping the bottom of his, preferring any slipperiness over hold prevention!): And here is Sharon Air, taking up all four blocking squares and most of the Yarn Room (and too wide to photograph without somehow swinging from the ceiling!!): I've still got some stuff on the finishing pile and of course tons in process, so stay tuned for more! Stay safe and well too :)

Hello on this Freezer Bingo Friday!! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted something here.  While I still have a ton of projects in various stages of completion, I haven't finished any until fairly recently.  Now I have a few to share! First up - a hat for our physician who is retiring at the end of this year: Closeup of vintage button I used instead of a pom-pom (or nothing): This gentleman has been our PCP for about 30 years, and I thought we'd all retire at about the same time.  We'll both miss him for sure!! This hat gave me a ton of trouble at the end.  It's knit in brioche stitch, which can be a challenge for a brioche semi-newbie, but that part was OK and even the crazy twisted cable cast-on worked out great.  I hated the double-sided brioche decreases, which created a kind of open-work wedge at the top, so I tried to experiment with other patterned decreased (fisherman's rib and such). In the end I gave up and just used a vanilla incr...

Hello on this crazily summer-like November day!  We'll be having shrimp cavatappi for dinner tonight. OK, so last Saturday was Vaccination Day.  Daisy got her rabies and distemper boosters, and I got my flu shot and Omicron booster.  We both took a nice long nap that afternoon and don't seem to be much worse for the wear otherwise!  (And now are full of antibodies - yay!!!) Work has been getting in the way of knitting again; the last couple of weeks have been especially busy.  This is definitely a First World problem, but it leaves me with very little progress to show you. However, I think I've done enough on Twists&Turns to demonstrate some progress: Lately I've just had this at my desk so I can knit a couple of rows here and there during a meeting where I'm not presenting or taking tons of notes.  Which hasn't been often, LOL.  I'm in no rush, and I can't wait to see how this thing evolves.  I've got a LOT more repeats of this section before...

Hello on this beautiful Autumn and spicy chicken burger Monday! We've had the loveliest weather here for the past few days - clear, sunny, warm (but not too much).  With the exception of one day it looks to be nice right until the weekend! I finally started the new Stephen West MKAL, Twists&Turns, and evidently the below gets repeated several times in Clue 1 so this one is definitely going to be a marathon, not a sprint: Of course I'm still working to finish last year's MKAL, so I suppose as long as I have this mostly finished within the year I'm right on track for myself!! I also finished the knitting on Mountain Musings, so will have pics to share when I get around to blocking it.  I cast on for a pair of felted slippers as a holiday gift, and need to get my stuff together to cast on for a hat. Stay safe and well - and be sure to get your flu shot and any COVID boosters you're due for :)  Mine are both scheduled for this coming Saturday!

Hello on this Freezer Bingo Sunday!!  (This is where I find a soup, chili, or stew that I've made in the past and then frozen the leftovers.  Grab one at random, heat it up, add rice, and poof - instant dinner!!) I FINALLY got to dyeing the yarn for the SW KAL (that started this past week!): Neuro - this is a little different than what I was describing to you earlier, but it's along the same lines.  I ended up using Bright Purple (the dark one) but didn't worry too much about stirring it around and distributing the color uniformly, so it's got some nice gradations in there.  For the lighter color I used Wild Iris, but only very sparingly in the dyebath with random yet concentrated areas of speckles and no stirring.  It came out a lot less uniform, and there are areas where you can tell the underlying yarn was a very warm beige (leaning towards peach but not quite).  On top is my AC, Salty Tales by Hedgehog Fibres.  The yarn is still a bit damp today so...

Hello on this prosciutto ratatouille Monday! I realize that I've been seeing H-week candy in our Wegmans since just about Labor Day, but it somehow feels like time is accelerating us into Autumn and Winter!  It's been cooler and lovely lately, but the leaves are starting to change already!  And the last couple of nights there's been a light frost on the lawn and field.  The deer are all over the place all the time as well! We had the pleasure of a brief visit from JW yesterday, and he brought along their dog, Sophie.  J had met Daisy before, but this was the first time the two dogs had met nose-to-nose.  I think they were both a bit bored by it all!  Anyway - it's nice to know that they get along.  Daisy got to sniff the W car all around and I think wanted to go with them in it as well!!  In knitting news, I'm finally starting Clue 4 for Mountain Musings: I accidentally added a couple of rows of the purple before all those flowers, but it didn't s...