New Handbag

March 27, 2012

New handbag, knit and wet-felted in the washing machine. Chain and clamps from local Ace Hardware store, right across the street from the yarn shop – very convenient! Made with Cascade’s Eco yarn - 100% Natural Peruvian Wool. Very firm and sturdy! Made this one for myself.

7 comments bags, knitting

Knitting this Week

March 16, 2012

Tamdoll's Chloë

Chloë from Spud and Chloe at the Farm (Knit & Read Book). She was fun to make. Why 2 pictures? I couldn’t decide which background I liked better.

I have to make an effort to watch my stitching – you can tell at the bodice that my tension changed when I moved from knitting-in-the-round to back & forth. Usually I’d say “I did it that way on purpose” and I think I can get away with it in this case as a dress “design element”. But… I just want to get things right this year and this is something I’m going to work on!

Right now I have a new handbag in the washing machine being felted, and half-way through I can already tell it’s going to be a good one. But I forgot to take a “before” photo! Also been experimenting with some domino knitting – and I really, really like it! Much better than entrelac. Photos of those projects in a few days.

What are you working on?

6 comments dolls, knitting

Sweets, Shopping & Bread

March 14, 2012

An odd post today, a mix of what I’m doing and what’s on my mind.

This week I discovered Biscoff spread. Have you ever heard of it? When I first saw it in the supermarket, I thought it would be like peanut butter – a protein. It’s not. I don’t even know what to call it – dessert? And I don’t think I’ve ever talked about a packaged food here before, but this is really freaking awesome. Like cookie flavor in a frosting consistency. It’s dangerous. So, of course I have to share it.

Lots of cleaning and reorganizing at my house lately because from here on - Mr. Tamdoll will be working from home. I’ve been emptying storage bins and cabinets and trying to make room for his office supplies and it’s been quite the discovery. Which has led to much purging…. and a week-long listing on Ebay of the oddest collection of paper memorabilia, advertising and educational materials from the 1960’s and 70’s.

Collectors may cringe, but I’m thinking that if someone doesn’t value these for their historic factor, they’d make awesome materials for paper crafting, collages, mixed-media and altered art.

There is: pottery, magazines, NASA, General Electric, IBM, "Sardineland”, Peanuts characters, space and electric car promos, and some of my favorite text is about the emerging computers “Mighty New Servant To The Mind of Man”.

And last but not least, I’ve tried a new bread recipe & it was GREAT! I heard about Schrafft’s Cheese Bread from my MIL, and found the recipe online at Four Pounds Flour. Made the recipe as described, but in place of boxed mac&cheese powder, I used King Arthur Flour’s Vermont Cheese Powder.
tamdoll bread 003

Next time I will add a strip of parchment paper to the bottom of the pan to prevent the bread from sticking when the cheese melted to the bottom. Oh yes, there will be a next time.

3 comments baking, food

Not There Yet

March 6, 2012

Not as coordinated as I thought I was. Balancing family, home, part-time work, creating, volunteering, etc, etc, isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I really want to do it all. ALL. Resisting sleep is not the answer – no matter how late I stay up – those late night hours aren’t exactly productive AND don’t lead to the most pleasant of mornings the next day.

I’m still evaluating whether I’m making the best use of my time & all this contemplating is making me drag my feet… each week I add project to-do lists to my calendar, and on Sunday, it seems like I’m re-writing the same things on the calendar again for the following week. Still trying to figure things out, just a “checking-in” blog post here.

I’m still online, browsing blogs and looking at inspiration all over the internet. Not a time-waster, I definitely get inspired by creative folks, colors, images and the productivity of others – that nudges me on. And.. I entered a contest online and won! That was pretty exciting – I won the pattern and Blue Sky Alpacas TECHNO yarn to make The London Tunic:

I’m putting this aside for now, and will concentrate on spring and summer projects as best I can. I have been in love with Blue Sky Alpacas yarns since they came to town, the yarns are truly luscious to work with and make the most beautiful items.