Author Archives: Jean

Knitting

Yeah! I can still Stricken with the best of them…

Posted on by Jean

I loves me a challenge.  Especially a quick little one that’s not too hard.  😉

I knit this swatch from a German pattern which is now off the internet. 🙁

When we did our first tour in Germany I did a lot of lace knitting and the German Lace Knitting mags were awesome and plentiful.  I couldn’t believe how it all came back to me.  I did this swatch and only had to look up the definition for the SL2 K PSSO.  Not bad for a girl who’s best phrase in German was, “Noch ein Beir, bitte” after living in Germany most of her adult life.

Animals and Nature, Knitting

Hot Diggity Dog

Posted on by Jean

As you can see, Lucky is coming along nicely.  Since he’s still a little lacking in the hair department, he needed a sweater for our daily walks that help build his muscle tone and confidence.  Isn’t he handsome?  He’s even sweeter than he looks if you can believe it. 

Pattern:  Fiber Trends Dandy Dog Sweaters (with some adjustments).

Yarn: Elann’s Highland Wool in Claret (#2020)

I’m one of those people that never follows a recipe exactly (and then wonder why it doesn’t taste the same) and I rarely follow a pattern exactly.  Instead of knitting the chest piece I just knit a band in garter stitch to go around his belly and then I knit a little triangular gusset to fill in where the polo neck pulled apart under the front of the collar.

Work it, Lucky!

Animals and Nature, Knitting

Fitting In

Posted on by Jean

I can’t believe that I keep forgetting to tell you guys about this….  Last year I mentioned in one of my posts about a surprise but it was hush hush at the time.  One of the Elannites, Michelle Ciccariello, was working on a possible book deal and asked if any of us would volunteer to test knit for her.  This is the sweater that I knit.  I sent it in unfinished because I was under a time crunch with Dan coming home from Afghanistan and we were getting ready for the move back to the States.   A bunch of us on the Elann chat site decided to give it to one of our own who is going through Chemo.  I sent it off last week with cards from some of us.  I’m getting kind of nervous because I haven’t heard yet if she got it.  I’m sure it’ll catch up with her.  I hope I’m not letting the cat out of the bag but I don’t think she reads my blog so I’m feeling pretty safe about having a big mouth.  🙂

Especially gorgeous on Margaux, the daughter of wonderful Ann, owner of Elann.   It’s knit in Highland Wool.  Thank you Ann, for giving me permission to use the photo here!

I’d say Lucky’s getting comfortable around here.  This morning he decided that his new favorite place is Aggie’s bag.  She isn’t too happy about it.  I’m going to go out to our storage place to get one of the larger crates we have so they can share.

The woman that actually rescued him from the mill wrote to me and told me that the conditions were awful and they weren’t sure he was going to make it.  He most likely spent all of his life (he’ll be three in February) in a cage of some sort just being used for breeding.  There was a special on Entertainment Tonight last night about puppy mills.  I was a little disappointed in how little they said but there’s a second part on tonight so I’m hoping that it has more detail. 

He’s doing really well considering what he came from.  He doesn’t walk hunched down anymore and comes running to me a lot when he sees me.  He and Aggie have actually played… sort of.  It’s more like she’s playing and he’s laying on his back swatting every now and then.  He also tried to play with her ball yesterday but he got scared when it moved and ran for the sofa (where he felt safe until he took over Aggie’s bag). 

It’s really hard to get used to the fact that he can’t hear us.  I still call him and then slap myself on the forehead and think, “Oh yea… that’s right… he can’t hear…” 

Animals and Nature, Family, Knitting

Lucky

Posted on by Jean

We have some huge new family news but first a little knitting.  I finished the scarf for my Gram.  This is the yarn and pattern that I bought at Morehouse Farms when I went to meet Jennifer (Major Knitter).  Simple Feather & Fan but I can’t tell you how many times I had to frog back several (once it was about six inches) rows to fix an error.  I even tried once to just drop down the stitches where the repeat error was but I made a bigger mess of it.  Click on the pic for a bigger view.  This merino yarn was SO soft and the colors are beautiful.  Because I used two skeins, I did two rows and then switched skeins so that the color variation would be more even.  There was quite a difference which gives it that striped effect.

Now the big news…

We’d been toying with the idea of getting a companion for Aggie.  We thought about a puppy and then thought we’d look into rescue.  Cavs are such a great dog that there aren’t a lot of them in rescue (well, one is too many, but compared to other breeds there aren’t a lot of them) but I looked anyway.  And then we saw this guy who was rescued by Lucky Star Cavalier Rescues from a Missouri puppy mill.  These two photo were taken after he’d been in rescue care for about a month.

When he was rescued he had a terrible case of mange.  You’ve seen Aggie and other healthy Cavs on Kim’s blog, so you can see how badly he was treated.  He’s also deaf, which no doubt in my mind, is due to ear infection, I could be wrong but it wouldn’t surprise me at all. 

So I wrote to his foster mom and told her we’d love to bring him home and give him the love he needs.  Sadly, she wrote back that he was already being adopted.  We wrote back and forth a few more times and last Thursday morning must have been our lucky day because I got an email from his foster mom saying that the adoption had fallen through and if we were serious we could have him!  I would have left right then and there but we had Joe’s parent/teacher conference Friday morning.  As soon as that was over I hit the road for the twelve-hour drive through NY, NJ, WV, PA, OH to IN to pick him up.  About halfway there I was thinking, “What the hell am I doing”… do you have any idea how wide PA is?!  It was 730 miles each way… at least 400 of that was PA! lol.

The second I saw him I knew it was worth every single mile and every gallon of gas.  He is the sweetest dog I’ve ever met.  It was a pretty full weekend getting him accustomed to our home but he’s fitting right in.  He’s very skittish.  It’s hard to remember that he’s deaf.  He can hear a loud whistle, shout or when Aggie barks but that’s about it.  Aggie, the priss that she is, growled at him as soon as I brought him in the house but we layed her on her back and let him smell her and she’s been fine since.  Here’s the proof:

We toyed with Texas A&M names like “Bear” for Bear Bryant (a great A&M coach), Kyle for Kyle Field and Sarge for Old Sarge but we couldn’t really name him anything other than “Lucky”, now could we?

His birthday is listed as 2/1/2005 so he’s six months older than Aggie.

I’ll keep you posted on Lucky’s progress. He’s going to be absolutely gorgeous when his coat comes back in and he gains some weight but it doesn’t matter.  He’s such a sweetheart and cuddler I’m completely in love with him already.  Who couldn’t be? Rescues are the best.

Knitting

Everything I’d hoped For….

Posted on by Jean

In a word… FABulous!   I have to say that I wasn’t near as overwhelmed as I thought I’d be but it was grand.  I did wear the Must Have but Holy Smokes… it was HOT!  I thought it was October when I checked the calendar.

I know that I don’t need any more wool but you can’t go to Rhinebeck and not buy *anything*!  I’m pretty sure there’s some rule against that.  I bought some GORGEOUS Duet Yarn from Brooks Farm.  I bought it for a Clapotis (which I saw quite a few of) but we’ll see….  I think the color way I bought was Santa Fe, but I’m not really sure and it doesn’t say on the label.  I love it though.  It’ll go great with jeans.

Here’s the rest of my loot (the Duet Yarn is in this photo as well and it’s a little more true in color):

I’m a sucker for all things Scottish so how could I go wrong with the picture of Scottish Black face sheep with a Scottish castle in the background?  There’s a Fiber Trends pattern for a special little dog and two bags of Bluefaced Leicester roving.  After all, it was the featured breed and I’m pretty sure there’s another rule about going to the wool fest and not buying the *featured* breed.  Am I right?  Dan bought it and that’s all that matters.

I printed out my banner on some ink jet fabric and ironed it on to a black tote bag.  I figured this would help anyone give a shout out to me. 

I got to see Kim (Woolen Rabbit) again and she introduced me to quite a few bloggers during the meet up.  I failed to get any photos at the meet up but I’m sure they’ll be all over blogland.  I especially enjoyed meeting Diane (Indigodi), Carol (Carole Knits) and Chris (Wooly Buns) ( and no, none of those butt shots are mine).  There were others, but I told you, I’m horrible with names!  I really enjoyed meeting everyone.

Knitting

FINALLY!! Rhinebeck!

Posted on by Jean

I’ve waited for this moment since I first heard about Rhinebeck.  I think that was at least seven years ago.  I never really thought I’d get to go and now here I am… living only an hour away in the beautiful Hudson River Valley!  You might remember my somewhat bitter post three years ago and then the big tease when I thought I’d get to go last year but Dan had that little detour to Afghanistan…  Well it’s finally my turn, Baby!

I missed the whole Blogger Bingo thing so I won’t get to play but please holler howdy if you see me and my clan (they’ll be with me on Saturday but I’ll probably be flying solo on Sunday).  Is there some big blogger meet-up or something?  I don’t want to miss out on that for snoozing too!

Here’s what I looked like today and am pretty sure I’ll look about the same this weekend:

Say HI!  I’m terrible with names and faces so if I don’t recognize or remember you right away, I’m not a snob, just a bad memory.

Friends, Gardening

Major Fun!

Posted on by Jean

Okay.  I know it’s been two weeks but that’s not to say I didn’t have a blast meeting up with Jennifer (Major Knitter)!  I did.  In fact, I hope there are many meet-ups now that we’re only an hour and a half apart.  Plenty of knitterly joints in between and around us both.  We’ve been web pals for quite a while.  It’s so funny to walk into the coffee shop and spot her immediately.  I got to see her beautiful sample of the Dale baby sweater class she’s going to.  So fun to be with people who understand your passion.  It’s even funnier when people are looking with a crooked eyebrow trying to figure out what’s going on.  lol.   Just as many of you promised, Morehouse was FABulous!  It’s very dangerous that it’s only an hour and twenty minutes from my door.  As you can see, Jennifer did some damage:

I put myself on a small budget after the shock of the move and finding out exactly how much wool I already have.   I bought some gorgeous soft pink merino for a hat and booties for my neighbor (due with her 5th in a week) and two different varigateds for scarves.  One for me and one for my Gram.  The one for Gram is a simple Feather and Fan pattern but it’s kicking my butt.  I’ve had to rip back about five inches once already and last night I found another big mistake about the same distance down.  Tried to just rip down the stitches that were messed up…. yeah… made a bigger mess.  I finished the hat and booties within a couple of days of getting home.  I forgot to take a photo before giving it to my neighbor so I’ll try to remedy that by the next post.  I’ll hopefully have Gram’s scarf done by then to show that to you as well.

I think my favorite part of the visit with Jennifer was sitting down and really getting to chat over lunch.  It’s fun being around all that wool but a little distracting and SO overwhelming.  What the heck am I going to do at Rhinebeck in two weeks?  I still can’t believe I get to go finally.  I’ve wanted to for years and now I’m so close to it I can drive each day to visit.  Wheee!!!  I’m not going to buy much (really) but I just can’t wait for the experience.

Have I mentioned that I love the Hudson Valley?  It’s gorgeous here.  The leaves are really starting to change.  I went apple picking at Applewood Orchards with my neighbor.  So much fun.

Speaking of my neighbor… she has these flowers in her flower bed:

You all came through for me so I thought I’d give it a shot for her.  Anyone know what these are?  She wants to find out if they are perennials or not so she doesn’t yank up something she shouldn’t.   I planted over 350 bulbs the other day.  After all that work and the blisters on my hands now, our flower border better look like the Keukenhof in Holland next year!! lol.

I hope you all have a great Columbus Day weekend!  Dan has tomorrow off so we’re going to head to lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.  I’ve gotten very into Puerto Rican cooking (been watching Daisy Cooks on PBS) and I want to hit some of the Latino markets down there.  Then we’re taking the boys camping right near our home for a couple of nights.  Sunday night we have a camp cabin mini reunion for Daniel in Connecticut.  He can’t wait to see his pals again.  He’s been having a pretty hard time here at school so far but the school is wonderful!  They have a great team working with him and helping him through things and most importantly, keeping in constant contact with me to let me know what’s going on.  Have a great long weekend!

Animals and Nature, Cooking, Knitting

Happy Birthday My Little Redhead

Posted on by Jean

From this (Aggie is on your left):

to this:

in two years.  I took this picture on Aggie’s 2nd birthday (Saturday).  Happy birthday my sweet girl.  To celebrate I bought Aggie a gift!  Wasn’t that nice of me?  She’s always wanted a skein winder that she didn’t have to clamp down!  Who knew?!

What better way to try it out than with the yarn Kim (Woolen Rabbit) gave to me over Labor Day weekend. 

Finished the socks I started on Labor Day from Regia.  I have to say that the mismatched look drives me nuts.  Someone in the family is definitely getting these socks.

The color got me thinking of blueberries and blueberries got me thinking of one of my favorite treats:

Blueberry scones and a cuppa tea.  Must be the Scottish blood roaring through my veins.  I’ve made them enough to have been able to tweak the recipe a bit from various recipes I’ve found in books and on the web.  I like a denser, not so bready scone with an almost crunchy outside.  This was my latest try and so far it’s our favorite.

Scottish Lamb’s Blueberry Scones –

  • 2 1/2 c flour
  • 1/3 c sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 TBS baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • fresh nutmeg (I grate about a tsp worth if you’re using the already grated stuff, I’d double it)
  • 1 TBS grated lemon rind

Preheat oven to 400F.  Mix above ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until well blended.  Then cut in:

  • 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup) – do NOT use margarine

Until it looks like cornmeal.  I usually stick the whole bowl back in the freezer (or at least the fridge if there’s no room in the freezer) for about a half an hour before continuing so that the butter gets nice and cold again.

Then add about a pint of fresh blueberries (you can use frozen but don’t defrost them so they won’t turn the dough blue).  Really, you have a lot of choices at this point.  Try raisins, craisins, nuts, cranberries, etc.  You really can’t go wrong.  My favorite is blueberries or raspberries though.

Beat together:

  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup milk (buttermilk will make the crumb softer and lighter if you’d like to try it)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoonula until it comes together into a ball.  Dump onto a floured surface and gently knead just until it is combined well (you have to do this carefully with berries so you don’t crush them).  Flatten out into a disk about an inch thick and cut like a cake into wedges.  Place on a sheet pan and brush with either milk or an egg wash.  Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 400 for about 20 min or until golden.  Best when fresh out of the oven. Brèagha (Gaelic for Beautiful)

Cooking, Family, Friends, Knitting

Nothin’ Says Fall like FOOTBALL!!

Posted on by Jean

Black Knights!!  Hooah!

I wish you could feel the excitement here today.  Tomorrow is a special day.   The first home football game of the season and guess who has tickets?!  We are SO excited we can’t stand it.  Best news… we live less than a mile from the stadium so we can walk and not suffer all the traffic.  We went today and bought all the fun stuff for the game.  Evidently football is HUGE here.  Dan even had to bring home one of the office cars with the sirens and lights so that he can get through traffic if he has a duty call.

Dan laughed and said we have a pretty good chance at being at a game when Army wins because they’re playing Rhode Island tomorrow (please, if you’re a Rhode Island fan…  yell at Dan.  He said it, not me).  Next one that we have tickets to is against Rutgers.  He suspects we’ll lose big time.  Still fun to go though.

Kim blogged today about the little things I brought her last weekend and I felt like a schmo for not sharing what she gave me.  I’m sure you all know she’s been working hard to get ready for the fair but she let me dig into her bag of goodies and pick a skein.  This colorway is called Boysenberry.  Purdy, ain’t it.  As soon as I finish up the other socks I started on the trip to NH, I’ll cast Kim’s luscious yarn on.

I turned the heel on the sock I started last weekend.  This yarn is fun.  I’m carrying the ribbing just down the top of the foot.

I also did a little more canning.  A bunch of Gramp’s tomatoes were nice and ripe and I didn’t want to lose them so I made some marinara sauce with them.  No recipe.  Just winged it which is usually what I do when I’m cooking.  I had a bunch of fresh parsley and basil to use up to so it all worked out great.  I only got three quarts but that red color is spot on.  I’ll save one jar to take back to Gramps on the next trip.  He’ll like that I think.

Cooking, Family, Knitting

Take Me Home, Country Roads….

Posted on by Jean

What a FABULOUS weekend! Family, friends, even some knitting!

The biggest reason I begged Dan to endure the winters of the Northeast (he is a Texan, you know) was to be near my family in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. They’re only a five to six hour drive away (not counting the Friday before Labor Day when everyone and their brother seemed to be headed the same way we were…).  We’ve been so busy getting settled in that we’ve only been up there for once right after we landed back in the States.

Joe got a little taste of what I loved to do as a child.  Go pick dinner out of Gramps’ garden.  Fresh potatoes, tomatoes, cukes…  nummy.

My grandfather is the best gardener, historian, teacher (not professionally) and philosopher.  I love sitting and listening to him talk about anything.  When I was a little girl we weren’t close.  I lived with them for a while after my parent’s divorce when I was four but he was working (they were very young grandparents – their youngest of eight, my uncle, is only a year older than me) and busy with his own kids.  Age has mellowed him but he still doesn’t sit down for more than a couple of minutes at a time.   Even at 81 he still works hard keeping the up with the land and home he’s built for them up on the mountain.  I remember being about 11 and he and my grandmother would be walking us through the woods next to the house he was born in, telling us just where each room in their house would be.  I thought they were nuts at the time.  Funny, here we are, about 30 years later… yesterday morning Dan and I were walking in the woods with my grandfather having him show us just where we should put a clearing for our camper so we have a place to stay when we go up to work on our little cabin we’re going to build down the road from them.  It will be right across the dirt road where his grandmother’s house stood more than 50 years ago.   I love family history and I love going home.  I love showing my boys through the little town where my roots go way back.  Lots of people have that every day but growing up military and then raising military kids…  that’s one of the things I miss the most.  Roots.

Years ago Gramps used to make these spicy pickled green tomatoes.   As he got older he stopped making them and my Uncle Chet started.  Dan and I always managed to get a jar and we’d savor them for as long as we could.   If you remember, my Uncle Chet passed away suddenly less than a year ago.  Gramps and I made a date for this past Saturday to make those special little treats and I couldn’t help thinking Uncle Chet was up there grinning down at us and probably thinking we’d never make them as good as him.  He’s probably right. lol.  It was so much fun to share this with my grandfather.  He showed me how it was done.  When we were leaving this morning he told me I could take half the jars and he gave me a few pounds of green romas so I could make some more.  I wouldn’t take more than two jars and I plan on bringing some back to him on our next trip.

The other big treat was getting to finally meet someone that I’ve considered a friend for quite some time now.  Dan and I felt right at home in Kim and Ken’s wonderful home.   They live only about a half an hour from my grandparents so I know we’ll be seeing each other again and hopefully have the chance to spoil them as they did us.   I brought my camera.  I really did.  I have no idea why I didn’t take any photos because they would have been great.  When we got back to my grandparents and were trying to describe the day I hit myself in the head in disbelief.  Kim and I have so much in common and it was so fun to finally meet her family and her beautiful little dogs.  It was funny to see four little Cavs go sniffing at Aggie (who is a little alpha and used to being in charge).  The hubs kept busy talking the whole time as well.  The boys even had a great time playing in the pool and rolling around with all the dogs.

I even got a little knitting done on the trip there and back.  Just a sock but it feels good to have the wool and needles in my hands again….

I leave you with a before and after picture of the town store that my great-grandparents ran for years.   It’s so sad to see it as run down apartments now.