Today I'm enjoying a day of knitting on my TGV shawls and reading. Yesterday's blog on what I'm reading- Musing Mondays.
I started an amazing TGV shawl at the beginning of my Adirondack trip and it's coming along nicely. I'm not one to keep to just one project and I like variety, so I cast on a pretty purple (the pictures come out blue) fingering yarn. The pattern for the TGV Shawl is found in my blog Friday Fantasy Knits- Dreaming of Shawlettes. Yarns for both shawls were given to me by a dear friend back East who is an avid expert knitter.
It's really interesting to contrast the two shawls. The one made out of Noro Kirara, which is a wool, cotton, angora, silk DK yarn with variegated colors and varying thicknesses. I love the different play of texture and color. It's exciting to continually start new colors and it's turning out really exquisite.
My other TGV shawl in progress is being knit out of Merino Nylon Superwash, a thin fingering yarn and the color is purple entwined with blues, green and magenta and black. The finished shawl should have a really nice drape to it because it's such fine yarn. The knitting for me is tiny and fun but I can only knit it in small spurts due to carpal tunnel in my hands. I take breaks and up change to the other knit which is on slightly larger #8 needles and bigger yarn which is easier for me to handle. Also I try to intersperse knitting with hand stretches.
I have been sporadically working on my teeny-tiny sock. I spent my daughter's graduation knitting under the tent in back with my 84 year old Dad. I figured since everyone was on their phones doing who-knows-what it must not of been rude. Great speakers, but a 4 hour graduation in 80 degrees requires some action (knitting-wise). Check out the graduation speaker at the Middlebury graduation. I honestly wish it could of been broadcast nationally! A word we all need to hear. His catchphrase was: "we need two wings to fly", encouraging the next generation to learn to listen to both sides of the political spectrum and work together. Citing numerous victories politically that would not of been won without support from both sides. It received a standing ovation! Awesome speaker who is published. A former advisor to President Obama and an Environmentalist and human rights activist and CNN political contributor. Middlebury Celebrates Commencement 2016.
I have another blog that I sporadically work on called "Today's Positive Thoughts". It had lots of post from over a few years. It was started when I realized my Mom had alzheimer's and I got home from visiting her back East and I needed a positive fix to get me through life. Unfortunately I discovered a bug the beginning of this year and I took down the original blog and I'm recreating it with some new material and slowly editing old blogs that I especially liked and re-adding them. So here's a new piece encouraging others to give and I've shared some personal history to put giving into perspective. Probably information I would not normally give out, but in this context it seemed appropriate. Kind of a "been there, done that" situation. Today's Positive Thoughts- Charities to Love and Give To. I'll keep a permanent link on the side so anyone can access the list of charities that I suggest or search through Charity Navigator- Your Guide To Intelligent Giving.
I'm listening to hail now the size of marbles and torrential rain with dark blackish grey skies. Surely summer has arrived in the Rocky Mountains. It'll storm like crazy, then clear and be bright blue probably within an hour or so. In town there's chance of flash floods and I'm glad I'm high up, but I listen with part of my ear for "Flash-Flood" warnings. We hit front page news a few years ago with devastating floods caused by the forest fires eating up all the vegetation above the town a previous year, so the rain has no where to go. Have I mentioned the West is definitely a bit wild to live in? Throw in some bears, mountain lions, mule deer and a wild flora of yucca plants and cactus, scrub oaks, sage and pines and we are very much the foreigners in this land.
I'm up on the third floor in an old apartment complex up high above town. Floods don't worry me, Forest fires do- the National forest is right behind us leading up Pikes Peak (a 14,000 ft mountain). We're on the only side of my town that hasn't had forest fires, so this summer we'll create a bug-out bag in case for a quick exit.
While in the Adirondacks I made an amazing cake for my daughter's graduation and I finally figured out the perfect frosting. Check out the recipe- Decadent Chocolate Pound Cake, I haven't added the frosting recipe yet, but if you want to try it's a 2 cup bag of Dark Chocolate chips melted 2 mins. in the microwave, stir and cool. Then add in a bit of sour cream to temper it, and then put the whole into about 2 cups of sour cream. Whip. Chill the cake. I did a layered cake and this produces plenty. I didn't temper it at the time and got ugly frosting for an ugly cake, but it tasted amazing and I just wasn't being patient. My son who's studied with a chef we knew, told me to temper it and I skipped the process. So I need to practice again. What a shame! I actually froze most of it to save for when we're back next month. I knew my son would want some.
Bon Appetit!
Have a great week.
Happy Knitting Journeys.
Join "Keep Calm & Craft On" to post your projects on Tuesday or later in the week.
Nicole says: "The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link" on her blog, link above.
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