Thursday, January 13, 2011

What I did on my snow-cation

There is nothing like a snowy day, or days, to inspire one to get busy making things. During the Boxing Day Blizzard of 2010, I made: Roast Turkey, Butter Toffee Crunch, Beef Barley Soup, Marinara Sauce, Chicken Stock, Roast Duck, Chile, Buttermilk Pancakes and homemade bread (twice). Luckily, I have a teenage son who eats like one, or I would also be making a trip to my nearest health club.

When I worked in yarn stores, snowy days would be some of our busiest times. This is why having a stash is so important. You need to have enough yarn stashed to knit absolutely anything that springs to mind. I will not post a photo of my stash, as it would be too embarrassing.

Of course, one does not live by bread alone. I also made this:
It is my version of a Knitlab's beautiful shawl called Blackbird. Just enough lace to keep you interested, but not enough that you can't knit it after a long day at work:

http://www.kieranfoley.com/knit_lab_blackbird.html

I also finished up some sewing that has been in the queue:
I had 1/2 yard of wool boucle that had been languishing in my fabric stash. In my creative life, I sometimes find that my most inspired moments come when I go with a design decision quickly, before I let the "no"s take over. If this case, I folded the fabric in half lengthways, gave it a moebius half twist and committed it to the sewing machine before I could talk myself out of it.
It's a very versatile piece, and has cushy warrmth, and took all of five minutes to make.