More Red

I have finished up another languishing project. I had the red and white pinwheel squares left another from another quilt that I made (a really really long time ago) and well, they were just bugging me. SO hear we are.... This fabric can stop nagging me now.
This isn't a really good shot but I think that I might like the scrappy back a bit better than the front.

Red Socks

I really should be working on my time-sensitive projects, but somehow I don't feel complete unless I have pair of socks on the needles. So, I cast on another pair of socks from Socks From the Toe Up. This is my third pair from this book and I have to say that I love the book. The only problem that I have with kitting socks from patterns in that they are always to wide. I think that it must be my family we must either have narrow feet or like tight socks. I think that I'll add some ribbing to the arch of the foot to snug them up a bit. I got this great red and black hand-dyed yarn from a yarn swap that I signed up for on ravelry.

Casting on these socks has meant that my scrappy blanket has to go on haitus because I am down to only one size 0 needle. I am always breaking this size and really should start ordering them in bulk. It is a good time for a rest thoutgh because I finished row two.

Happy Fall everyone

No, I am not trying to signal aliens today, on this first day of Fall, I am just trying to cook some dinner. This is usually the time of year that I clean up my solar oven and put it away in the garage to store until next May, but the weather was supposed to be so hot today that I didn't want to cook anything in the house.

What will we be having for dinner on this first day of Fall you ask?

Well, Cauliflower/ Cheddar soup, it might sound weird, but for some reason I love soup in hot weather. I don't really have a recipe for this soup, but I will tell you what is in this pot of soup.

1/2 a sauteed onion (a whole would work, but all I had was a 1/2)
oil for sauteing the onion
3 small potatoes cut up
1 leek chopped
2 small heads of cauliflower
about 2 cups of water

This morning I stuck all that in the solar cooker and and will let it sit their all day.

Right before dinner I will bring it in side and puree all the veggies with a hand blender.
I will then add about a cup of milk (we use skim, but any would do) and cup of shredded cheddar and heat for a couple of minutes then serve.

Veggies that my picky eater will eat.

By the way, as a wrote this post the solar over was at 250 degrees.

I am also happy to report that I have my camera back at home and will be posting some of my finished objects very soon.

Out on the water

Last weekend our whole family drove down the California coast a bit to the Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing. It is a great place to visit, when Lena was little she used to call it the nature zoo because of the wealth of wildlife. Above is a picture of the harbor seals that we shared the launch area with. We also saw brown pelicans, mud crabs, sea otters, sea lions, sea stars, cormerants and others.
My husbands friend, Dean, is a docent at the Slough. He graciously offered to give our family a guided tour. It was great having a tour from a insider, for example, I now know that the Elkhorn Slough is 2nd largest estuary in the state of California. Anyone know the largest?
This was the also the first time that Lena got to steer our canoe. That is not as easy a task as it seems, but she did great.
Not to be out done Sara kept a cheerful smile on her face for the whole 3+ hours we were on the water. That is quite an accomplishment for a 15 year old who had to sit next to her sister then her dad.

I'm sorry little blog for ignoring you

I just realized that I have not posted anythin to my little blog in a week. Don't think that I have been slacking. I have finished several projects and have been itching to post them, but, well, I forgot my camera at a friends house last friday. I feel as if my right arm has been cut-off this week with out my beloved camera. I broke down and took a few crappy shots with the crappy point and shot camera that the kids use, just so that I could post this quilt that I finished over the weekend.


Thanks you all for your kind words when I posted about this quilt before. I am happy with how it turned out. I ended up doing very little actual quilting because I did not want to distract from the blocks that everyone made. I also don't think that this is the kind of quilt that will see that much washing, so I hope the lack of quilting will be okay.

Here it the square that my own talented daughter made. The pattern is from Sublime Stitching

Does not work well with others

I volunteered to make a thank you quilt for a friend who gereously gives of her time. I am supplying all the labor and materials. All the other group members needed to do was decorate one square and mail if back to me in the envelope that I supplied. I did not get one square by the deadline. I know the quilt will look great, but I am not sure that I have the temperament to work well with others.
Here is the preliminary layout of the quilt. I don't want it to get too busy and detract from the lovely (and late) square that were contributed.

And four days later...

The socks are done. I am pleased to say that these socks were super quick to knit up. I started these sock Friday night and finished them on Tuesday, that is a pretty fast sock project for me. Sheepfeet, yarn is a bit thicker than most sock yarns, so it knits up much faster. The pattern is from Socks from the Toe Up. What I love about his book is that is offers you three different toe cast-ons and three different heels for toe up socks. Which allows me to add some variation to my toe up socks. This pattern is called Serpentine and the color-way of the yarn is called Royalty. These will make a nice gift for someone special. Hubby was a bit out of sorts because he thought that it might might be a violation of our marriage vows for me to make socks for anyone other than him. He seemed to calm down when I showed him the yarn for them next pair of sock that I will be making (for him).

On another note the tiny squares blanket has also made some progress. I am know starting on my second row and still have plenty of sock yarn scraps to keep me going for at least one more row. I just love crazy quilt look of this.