2008 October « Stringcat Knits!

Acadia Neckwarmer

October 24, 2008 at 6:48 pm | In Free Patterns, Knitting | Leave a Comment
Tags: acadia, angora, free knitting pattern, free pattern, Knitting, knitting pattern, neckwarmer, pattern

I haz a new pattern! Acadia, a lovely soft angora neckwarmer, is the perfect fall accessory. It only uses 60 yards of worsted/ aran weight yarn too! It’s free, so just click the download link, or the link to the Ravelry page to get the pattern. Hope you all like it! :D

Acadia

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Angora – 1 skein “Velvet Grapes” (60yd/ 50gm)

Needles: US10.5 24″ circular needle

Gauge: 3.5 sts/inch

EPIC! Rhinebeck Post!!!

October 23, 2008 at 4:06 pm | In Knitting, Spinning, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: fiber, Knitting, Ravelry, ravelry party, rhinebeck, rhinebeck 2008, Spinning, yarn

I was at Rhinebeck last Saturday! It was so much fun! I got yarn! I got fiber! I got more yarn! I met Ravelers! I went to a Ravelry party! It was so. awesome. :D

First of all, Small Bob. The Small Bob. Like, the one in Casey’s pocket. :D

There’s a funny conversation that goes along with this picture:

Me: Small Bob! Can I take a pictue of Small Bob?

Casey: Just Small Bob?

Me: Yeah!

Casey: Okay…

I take the picture. :D

This is from the Ravelry meetup at 12:00!

While at the meetup, I asked Mary-Heather, Jess, and Casey to sign my Rav bag. They did, and it’s awesome. :D Here it is.

Thhheeennnn, I bought some yarn. Lots of it. And took a picture of a sheep. And a chicken. :D

That night, I went to the Ravelry party! There were cupcakes with Ravelry and Bob on them! I was talking to MH, Jess, and Casey a little bit before I left, because we had to go home. They’re pretty awesome people! :D

This was what was in the bags that were given away! Yarn! Pattern! Coupons! Sticker!

Now, for the best part! The yarn! Here it is. All of it. Whether you like it or not. :D

An 8 ounce bag of Cormo wool fiber

2 ounces of “party in a bag” fiber

A corriedale Grafton Fiber batt!

4 ounces of unbleached tussah silk fiber

8 ounces bleached tussah silk

A flax strick- this is already being spun!

Socks That Rock Lightweight mill end

A skein of STR “Loch Ness”

BMFA button

Brooks Farm Yarn Solo Silk

82 yards fingering handspun angora

600 yard skein of merino/tencel cobweb weight lace yarn (that’s a quarter in the second pic) I’m making a Zetor Scarf with it!

2 50 yard skeins of angora/merino yarn

.3 ounces hand-plucked agouti angora fiber from “Peter”

A cotton fiber sampler

3 270 yard skeins blue/green/gray rayon sportweight yarn

Last weekend was SO awesome! Oh, that free neckwarmer pattern. It’s still coming, I just need to take pictures. :)

Acadia/ Bar Harbor

October 13, 2008 at 9:29 pm | In Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Tags: acadia, bar harbor, cadillac mountain, maine, mountains, sunrise, travel

This weekend, I was at Acadia National Park in Maine! It was lots of fun, and I took tons of pictures.

First when we got there, we walked around Bar Harbor, bought a copy of Fandango signed by the illustrator, ate lobster at some restaraunt, bought a tourmaline necklace, and went back to our hotel.

We woke up around 5:15 AM to see the sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, which is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise. The sunrise was beautiful. I mean like, so pretty that I’ll never forget it! Of course, I had to take tons of pictures from the beginning to when the sun was completely up.

Then we ate breakfast at this restaraunt called Two Cats, and I bought a T-shirt there. After eating, we drove to the park loop road and stopped at Thunder Hole, Jordan Pond, and other places.

At Jordan Pond, we ate popovers and sandwiches for lunch, then went outside to see the pond and The Bubbles. (they’re mountains)

Theeeen, we drove around the mountain and stopped at a lighthouse.

So, we ate again, saw a cruise ship, and went to our hotel for the night, and drove home. But I have more pictures!

While driving home, I finished knitting a neckwarmer! Expect another free pattern soon…

Le Breadalong, Loaf Two

October 10, 2008 at 8:32 pm | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: baking, bread, breadalong, cooking

Wooo! My second loaf! Here it is…

And this time, I made cinnamon honey butter to go with it. (1 stick butter, 1 cup honey, 1 tsp cinnamon) I think that this loaf came out better than the first one. It had bigger holes and was less chewy. It tasted better too. I looove making bread. :)

Four Ingredients. One Jar. One Loaf.

October 5, 2008 at 10:19 am | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: baking, bread, breadalong, sourdough

Flour. Water. Salt. Yeast.

Put it together, throw it in the oven, pull it out. What do you get?

Bread, of course! Yummy, delicious, sourdough bread!

I finished the breadalong yesterday last Sunday. (I can’t believe it took this long to write this post! My loaf of bread was so good! Here’s what I did…

Step 1: Wake up at 10 AM

Step 2: Dig out your bread hook.

Step 3: Put the ingredients into the mixer bowl.

Step 4: Turn it on!

Step 5: Watch the pretty dough turn around and around and around and around…

Step 6: Realize that there isn’t enough flour in there to possibly make that massive lump of stuff into a ball of bready goodness.

Step 7: Add more flour. Add more. Continue to add more flour until the dough actually forms a ball.

Step 8: Watch the dough for 10 or 15 more minutes.

Step 9: Take the dough out of mixer, place in bowl.

Step 10: Wait.

Step 11: Wait more.

Step 12: Wait more until the blob in your bowl is double the size.

Step 13: Punch it!

Step 14: Listen for that sad, deflated sound as you punch your sad, sad, blob of dough.

Step 15: Shape loaf, let rise.

Step 16: Throw loaf in oven.

Step 17: Enjoy warm tasty bread!

Step 18: Feed the chef.

I have yet to make another loaf. Maybe sometime this week. Maybe next weekend. I don’t know. I also bought a new jar to keep the chef in! It’s smaller so it doesn’t spread out on the bottom and take forever to mix in flour and water. Happy bread making!