Falling in Love with Blossom Street

Posted on June 11, 2013 by atangledyarn84

I am now the proud owner of a library card! I have been meaning to get one since I finished graduate school and I lost access to the campus library. No excuse for taking this long but I digress!

The husband took me and we had a date night last week browsing the stacks. My taste leans towards murder mystery and fiction whereas the husband likes sci-fi and non-fiction. Browsing the electronic catalog I found the Blossom Street series by Debbie Macomber via a keyword search for knitting.

I’m addicted. No seriously, I have read the first seven novels in the series in the past two weeks. When I can lose myself in a good book I can devour them. These fiction novels start out about knitting and friendship but as the series progresses they cover so much more: life, death, love, heartbreak, change, illness, and so many more. I have laughed, cried, giggled, gasped, and fallen in love with all the characters. I love how she keeps introducing new characters and relationships but they are always connected back to Blossom Street and original story. I highly recommend this series to all fiction lovers!!

Having access to such a huge library is awesome and I can’t wait too see what other treasures it holds!

Happy Tuesday!!

Sweater 911: The Fix!

Posted on June 10, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Remember my sweater 911 from last week? I mistakenly knit part of my garter edge as a stockinette edge. It looked something like this….

After some hemming, hawing, and wine drinking I decided on a fix. I picked up my yarn and tapestry needle and went to work. I ended up with something like this..

I cut a length of my leftover yarn and threaded on my tapestry needle. With the right side facing me I simply stitched over and around each one of the 7 edge stitches with a whip-like stitch creating the top of a faux purl like bump. When I reached the stockinette section I turned the work around and stitched back across but this time staggered by half a stitch. This way I could create the bottom of the row to create the look of garter stitch. It didn’t turn out as perfectly as I wanted but it definitely looks better then when I started.

I think the corrections are hardly noticeable when looked at the garment as a whole. Stashbustin’ #18 is officially complete! I hope to snag the husband some night this week so I can get some shots of this garment in action!!

Happy Monday and Happy Knitting!!

Sweater 911

Posted on June 8, 2013 by atangledyarn84

I was sooo happy to finish my Shalom Cardigan (Stashbustin #18) that I snapped a few quick photos with my iPhone….

I was so happy and excited! It fit great and I had the perfect button for it….and then I found them! Did anyone notice the two glaring mistakes in my sweater above? Here is one of them….

I totally messed up the sweater edge/ribbing. I know exactly what I did, I was on a purl row and purled row all the way across…sigh. This happened in two obvious places. I didn’t even notice until I was ALL the way done and bound off and washed/blocked.

After much brainstorming (drinking a little wine) and consulting of the online tutorials and blogs, I have settled on a solution. I have lots of yarn left over. So I am going to cut a small length and with a tapestry needle sew over the stockinette stitch to create an artificial garter ridge. So that is my mission today is to fix these oops.

Wish me luck! I hope to have a success story to share with you later….fingers crossed!!

A Little Cuteness For Your Friday

Posted on June 7, 2013 by atangledyarn84

I don’t have a FO this Friday because I got all the way done with my Shalom Sweater and found two glaring errors I need to fix. That is for another post…..

So I’m hoping to distract you with a little cuteness….

Here are some action shots of my Snug…

Many thanks to Baby B for being a good sport about taking pictures in a sweater in June, lol!!

I’m off to work and then to work out how to fix my sweater problem, TGIF.

Happy Knitting!!

Happy Early Anniversary

Posted on June 6, 2013 by atangledyarn84

My parents visited last weekend to deliver our new (to-us) living room furniture.
And of course we they went shopping to pick our their new set. Not to mention my dad finally go to pick out his first cross bow (he’s avid deer hunter with a rotater cuff injury and hopefully this will get him back to a hobby he loves) and while we were at Cabelas…my husband lamented the state of our grill.

Our grill was a cheap $180 put together your self grill from when we first got married. The heat shields are rusted out. One auto ignite switch never worked. And the frame is badly in need of some spot welds. So my parents schemed and agreed to halfsies on a new grill for our wedding anniversary in June!

Can’t wait to cook on this bad boy! And we have found a good home for our old grill. The father-in-law is going to buy the old grill and fix it up for his mechanic shop so he and his employees can grill out at work!

WIP Wednesday: Shalom Cardigan

Posted on June 5, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Stashbustin’ #18 update!

Here is a shot from the front…

And the back….

I’m almost done with my Shalom Cardigan! This was an extremely quick knit (once I started knitting monogamously on it). I’m at the end of the pattern (sans garter border) as it’s written. It’s still a bit short on me and I have yarn enough to keep going. So I think I am going to add at least one more increase pattern repeat if not two to get the length past my hips. Then it’s just the garter border, a good wash, block, and dry then viola! I’m done! This might even make FO Friday….fingers crossed!

What’s on your WIP list this week? Anything exciting?

Happy Knitting!

Houston, We Have Couches!

Posted on June 4, 2013 by atangledyarn84

My parents are handing down their living room set to us for our new house. And after a month of sitting on camping chairs in my living room, they got them delivered!!! (Complete with washable cloth covers to combat puppy hair)

So glad to have a couch and love seat! And of course you can see that I have already made them my knitting nest! And I adore the rug with these couches.

It’s rich and pulls in all the colors of the room. Plus it’s basic as I don’t like things to be overly fussy. Not to mention I picked it up for a steal at Kmart!

It’s really starting to feel like home!! Now I’m off to do some knitting in my nest.

Happy Knitting!

Odds and Ends Update

Posted on June 3, 2013 by atangledyarn84

I must have some very picky birds in my neighborhood….

My contribution for local bird nests is going largely ignored. The only yarn that has disappeared is the 100% wool that was at the bottom. All the cotton, acrylic, and wool/acrylic blends are untouched.

I put this under my apple tree and I think I’m going to move it to the patio. Maybe my placement is bad, or maybe I have horrible taste in yarn according to birds, lol? It has been TERRIBLY stormy here in the Midwest and it could be weather related as well. Or maybe it has already passed prime best building time for chicks and chickadees? I’m not even close to a bird expert by any means!

Only time will tell! I’ll post another update in a couple weeks. Happy Monday!

FO Friday: Snug

Posted on May 31, 2013 by atangledyarn84

Tah Dah!

Stashbustin’ #16 finally has buttons!

I was walking through Joann’s this week and these puppy buttons caught my eye. They are super cute and matched my chocolate yarn. And it made me think of that commercial on TV where the little girl talks about her puppy brother, lol. So of course I had to buy them.

I was hoping to snag some pics of this on a real baby this week but my friend’s sweet Baby B has an ear infection. So we snuggled instead of having a photo session.

I’m off to work and to get ready for my parents to visit this weekend! TGIF!!

Lemon Bars: a Pinterest experiment

Posted on May 30, 2013 by atangledyarn84

I got the urge to bake this past weekend but I didn’t want to invest a lot of time. A Pinterest idea popped into my head, Lemon Bars

All I needed was an angel food cake mix and lemon pie filling. Easy, quick, and low maintenance!

I combined the two together in my mixer. Was a bit of a strange texture but I may not have mixed well enough in fear of over mixing.

Slipped in a 350 degree oven for 30-32 minutes. It was only slightly brown on top.

Then after cooled I cut and served with powdered sugar.

It is a very spongy cake. I wouldn’t categorize it as a bar so much. It was very lemony and not overly sweet. Tasty none the less. But next go around I think a lemon icing or glaze would punch up the sweetness to cut the tartness.

This recipe is so easy and quick it’d be great for last minute baking needs. And it’s very pretty on a plate. For a Pinterest recipe this wasn’t too bad. Not the finest I’ve ever had but I’m not one to turn down desert!

My Tangled Yarn Knitting Adventures

Ramblings from an obsessed knitter