Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you are not disappointed as this is a non knitting post. I've been busy knitting Christmas presents, which I can't show you just yet. Instead thought I'd show you what's been going on in my kitchen. I've been busy making pumpkin bread (recipe here):

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...and granola: (recipe here)

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...and in preparation for Thanksgiving,

pumpkin pies:
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...and apple pie:
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...and jellied cranberry sauce: (recipe here)

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...and a birthday cake: (My baby turned 16 yesterday, but we celebrated it today as he was born on Thanksgiving Day 1994)

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We had a wonderful day today. There is nothing better than having your family all together for a holiday. I'm exhausted, but it's worth it! Hope those of you who are in the States today had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day as well.

Now back to my knitting...happy knitting :)


Copyright ©2006-2010 hakucho, All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Long overdue PSI KAT Report

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I can't believe it's been a whole week and half and I have not reported on my trip to the Massachusetts State House in Boston for the 2010 Pine Street Inn Knit-a-thon on November 7th! It is truly paralyzing when you actually think about how fast the time is flying by. With Thanksgiving approaching and the fact I still have so much to do as everyone is coming to our house to celebrate, I just had to squeeze out a little time to fill you in on the big KAT day before the weeks turn into months as we ease into the Christmas season.

Let me start with where I left you last. My last square was finished in time for the KAT, but unfortunately I only had 32 squares; three shy of the 35 needed to complete a blanket. I was a bit sad because it would have been nice to keep all my squares together in a blanket. Next year my plan will be to start earlier and try to put a blanket together before the KAT.


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The very last square
When we arrived at the State House I dutifully handed over my squares and the squares (totaling almost 400) from my church to be sorted by the volunteers. They sort by color and wash-ability. Groups then find a table and choose a collection of 35 squares to assemble into a blanket. We chose a pretty pink combo. Given the fact that among the 5 of us only 3 knew how to crochet, we decided to sew the blanket squares together using mattress stitch. Crochet would have been much more time efficient, but you do what you have to do, right? The process seemed a little slow for us this year. There were many more distractions and a few of us had headaches. In the end we didn't quite finish putting together one blanket because we left early. Almost finished...I'd say we were about 75% done. My friend brought it home to finish. Last year we were able to finish one and a half blankets.

Here's the blanket we were working on. You can see how it's not quite finished:
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We got lot's of compliments. Everyone loved the shades of pink!

I brought home a "to-go" bag. This will be my big project for January. I can't even think about it until after the holidays are over. I need to lay out all the squares on my dining room table. That's what I did last year and that seemed to work out well.IMG_0769



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This next photo is one from the PSI KAT Facebook page. In it you can see that four of my squares are on the corners. I wonder what the finished blanket looks like?


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 Not my photo - Can you see my squares on the four corners?

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The amount of blankets finished at approximately 3:30PM.



The next photo I thought was very impressive.

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  Not my photo. This says it all....a very productive day!


Be sure and check out the KAT's facebook page. That's where the two photos, that are not mine, are from.There's lots of great info and photos about Pine Street Inn KAT and the people they help. (It's never too late to donate to such a worthy cause.) I also don't want to forget to tell you about the wonderful lunch of delicious wraps, sandwiches and cookies provided for by Abundant Table, another Pine Street Inn Enterprise.


Last but not least, on the Tuesday after the KAT,  my phone rang with a wonderful surprise. I had bought some raffle tickets at the KAT, never thinking I would actually win anything...well, to my great surprise --  I won!  Check out all my loot in a large craft basket! It will certainly keep me very busy :) Many thanks to Loraine of Stitches by the Sea in Winthrop for her generous donation to the raffle prizes for the KAT. I'm very appreciative!
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 Not my photo.  My winnings :) 




 




Since the Knit-a-thon I've been busy with my Christmas knitting, but all of it is going to have to remain top secret for the time being. I'm not sure what I'm going to blog about over the next few weeks, but I'll try to come up with something :)

Sure hope everyone is happy, enjoying the coming holidays and knitting happily away!



Copyright ©2006-2010 hakucho, All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Need to do one more square!

 Pine St. Inn Knit-a-thon
 I have managed to finish another seven squares for the 2010 Pine St. Inn Knit-a-thon. That makes a total of 31 squares. I'm planning on making one more today and tonight if all goes well. I didn't quite reach my goal that I set for myself this year of 35 squares. The reason why I wanted to knit 35 was because that it's the number of 9 inch squares needed to make one blanket.

Pine St. Inn Knit-a-thon


For the fun of it I placed the squares on my dining room table to see how they would look if I were to sew them into a blanket. I think they look pretty good. Next year I'll have to get started a little earlier and try and complete a whole blanket. Maybe I might even try to sew them all together before the knit-a-thon.
Pine St. Inn Knit-a-thon

All my leftover yarn is pretty much gone - at least all the really good colors, that is! I have a year to try and save up some more odds and ends. This year I pretty much wiped out all that I had been saving. I LOVE using odds and ends...makes for a wide assortment of colors and makes it really fun to figure out what colors to use. It's really is a fun project.

Pine St. Inn Knit-a-thon

Now once this last square is finished, I have to get going on my Christmas knitting. Christmas is right around the corner so I have to get cracking!

Thought you might like to take a peek at my Christmas, no Thanksgiving Cactus this year. I'm not sure if you remember seeing it in the past or not. Part of it is the plant my husband gave to me when my youngest was born on Thanksgiving Day, 16 years ago and the other part, the peachy colored blossoms, was a piece of my mother's plant. Originally they were 2 separate plants, but a few years ago I decided to plant them together in one huge pot. It has worked out well and the plant enjoys spending the summer outside...the only drawback is that the pot is so heavy that I need someone strong to bring it in for me.
2010 Christmas Cactus

Well, must get going on that one last square and get ready for tomorrow. Will write more next time about the knit-a-thon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend....happy knitting :)

Copyright ©2006-2010 hakucho, All Rights Reserved.