Fiber Fool

I *love* watching holiday shows - made for TV movies, classic movies and modern day big screen holiday movies. Because in more of a tech editing and layout mode with most of my knitting rather than knitting mode right now I’m kind of sad that I have not gotten to watch many holiday shows yet this year. I’m accustomed to knitting away like mad on a last minute “Christmas sweater” I’ve decided I needed. I’ve had the urge the last couple days to knit something special to wear for Christmas, but my logical mind that says I have too much other work to do right now has prevailed.

1. White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kay, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen is a classic and some years we watch it twice before Christmas hits. Our lack of seasonal weather this year means we haven’t watched it yet (we often wait for a snow, and while we’ve had one it was a tad early for a Christmas movie).
2. The Holiday is another favorite. I’ll confess that this is one of our go-to movies when either of us is stressed out so it gets watched at other times of the year as well, probably on average 2-3 times. It’s a classic beautiful people with no real problems get a storybook ending.
3. Christmas in Connecticut (1945 version) is another black and white classic we enjoy. Crazy hijinx and mischief abound. I dare you not to laugh when you watch this one!
4. The Hebrew Hammer has become a traditional holiday season watch for us as well. It’s kind of spoofing blackploitation films and has a fun cast. There is definitely some adult humor so this might not be for the whole family. While I rarely care for Andy Dick outside of News Radio, his role in this one works.
5. Love Actually is another heartwarming romantic comedy. It is one of those that happens to take place at Christmas but it isn’t so “holiday” that I can only watch it during the holiday season. But I like to watch it then as it makes me smile.
6. The Shop Around the Corner is another classic one we enjoy watching every year. How can you go wrong with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan?
7. Prancer is one I enjoy from my youth. It’s a good family movie and probably just right for when the kids are getting just old enough to doubt Santa Claus but you want them to hang onto the magic just a bit longer (though it came out too late for me).
8. The Bishop’s Wife is another black and white oldie but goody that makes me smile. I love the skating scene!
9. Elf is one I just *have* to watch each year. I love Zooey Deschanel and while I’m pretty hit or miss whether I’m going to like Will Ferrel, this is a “like.”
10. The Christmas Shoes is a great choice if you want a holiday movie and tear jerker all rolled into one. I don’t watch it every year and we don’t own it so I have to catch it on cable to watch it, but I think it plays on some network pretty much ever year.

I could keep going I think. In fact I don’t think I hit any made for TV ones except #10 and there are all those Hallmark Hall of Fame holiday movies based on Richard Paul Evens books that frequently star Richard Thomas. And last year or the year before there was a cute one that came out on ABC Family maybe with Melissa Joan-Hart and Mario Lopez… Okay, I’ll stop!

What’s you *must* watch every year holiday movie?

I spent a good chunk of the weekend with the above - not the model, but the modeled items and their pattern. I’m looking for test knitters for it so if you’d like to get the pattern early enough to knit as a gift, here’s your chance! I’m flexible with it being so close to Christmas, so you do not need to commit to both projects, though you’ll get the pattern for both. If you choose the mittens I only need one knit which should only take 4-6 hours, depending upon size and experience. There are 4 sizes to cover for each, roughly Adult Small - X-Large and if you knit both hat and mitten they do not need to be the same size, though I want to make sure all sizes are covered by at least 1 tester. You can see all the details such as yardage requirements etc. at http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/free-pattern-testers/1421465/. To sign up, reply to that post with which project and size you’d like to knit and then PM me your e-mail address.

It seems Tumblr is down for the count and that is where I track all the interesting things I come across while reading blogs or catching up on Twitter or Facebook etc. It seems to be a common problem for it to be sketchy when I’m wanting to put together my linkity posts :-/ I have gone ahead and given Pinterest a try. I only just signed up so I don’t have much there, but I’m envisioning it as a little more selective than my Tumblr so check it out if you’d like.

Fortunately, if I’m reading blogs on my phone it is inconvenient to post to Tumblr so some of the things that have caught my eye lately were accessible via my stars on Google Reader, so here is a short linkity.

Crafty:

• Ana at I Made it So has done it again with some great freebie drawings - this time she offers up some project placeholders for use on Ravelry. They are too adorable!
• Lisa Shroyer has had a couple really great posts on designing (and choosing color too) for fair isle knitting.
• I’m never quite sure which category to put this in, but the Winter Rhythm of the Home is out. I’m particularly excited to see articles on St. Lucia (next Monday) and making Tomten :-)

Natural Living:

• Essential Oil vs Fragrance Oil

Photography:

• 8 Photography Tutorials for Thanksgiving - yes, I realize we’re well past Thanksgiving, but these tutorials really apply throughout the holiday season!
• Have the Rule of Thirds Down? Try using the Golden Ratio in your photography to take it to the next level!

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to stock the freezer with cookies to last us through the holidays and take us to impromptu gatherings and what not. I had collected a bunch of cookie recipes over the last two weeks, but it seems they were all tumbled and not starred. I’ll have to share them next week I guess.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! While I worked, I did not put in the kind of hours that I have been the past several weekends. There was some time out taken to watch A Christmas Carol and The Hebrew Hammer and to visit with friends a bit.

You may recognize a few of the images in the above mosaic. Back in July some of the detail shots of my original Kate Shawl adorned several posts. This shawl design was created for Wooly Wonka Fibers‘ 2010 Shakespeare in Lace club. If you are familiar with Taming of the Shrew you’ve no doubt already brought to mind Katherine Minola, the play’s protagonist. I chose angular stitch patterns to represent her abrasive and contrary personality, but as the shawl grows from the top down the patterns get increasingly delicate just as Kate herself was tamed by her new husband Petruchio. Since many of Kate’s fellow townsmen see her as a woman who goes against the grain, I placed these angular stitch patterns on an asymmetric triangle.

I love the asymmetry of this shawl. Having a slight curve in the long side in addition to the extra length allows it to wrap across the front and over the opposite shoulder with plenty of fabric to hold itself in place. It is very easy to wear without requiring a shawl pin or stick (though you may choose to wear one anyway, or course). In the case of the smaller, fingering weight version I have added to the original pattern you get a wearable span without an overly long drop - especially nice for the petite! If I haven’t sold you on the advantages of the asymmetric triangle there is some guidance provided to knit it in the more traditional symmetric triangle shape if you’d rather.

The fingering weight version uses less than 100 grams so many sock yarns can be used. Here we’ve used Madelinetosh tosh sock in the color Fig. I just adore working with these yarns as so many of the colorways come across as semi-solid so they don’t compete too much with stitch patterns, but when you work with them and are looking closely you see there are many, many colors making up that “semi-solid.” In most lights this reads as a dark, cool brown, but there are actually many different shades of brown and purple making up this yarn.

The laceweight version is using Wooly Wonka’s Thalia Lace (1200 yds per skein) in the color Katherine (of course). I believe she may have a few extra kits to part with if you’d like to knit it as is. Thalia is a wool/silk blend that is a tad towards the heavier side of lace weight. It is probably relatively comparable to Zephyr (which I’ve been working with lately) in weight.

Kate Shawl in Lace and Fingering - $7 - Buy Now
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Busy time this week! Everything happening all at once it seems. I knew of several people who were anxiously awaiting the availability of this pattern so I didn’t want to hold it back.

I’m going to get some rest now and be back to the normal blog schedule come Monday. Have a great weekend!

Yesterday’s loaf of bread was the prettiest loaf I’ve *ever* made. So of coarse I *had* to photograph it :-)

It doesn’t just look good. It tastes good too!

I used a recipe in Beth Hensperger’s Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (yes, again - the binding is nearly ready to give up the ghost we use it so much). It calls for a cracked 9-grain hot cereal that you soak in hot water with honey and butter for an hour before you add the other ingredients. I used Bob’s Red Mill 10-grain cereal.

Obviously I didn’t bake it in the machine. I also omitted the powdered buttermilk as we didn’t have any on hand. I also left out the gluten and worked it up on my own, kneading the dough myself after the last rise in the bread machine. It had a final rise of about 45 minutes, then I floured and sliced in ~1/4 deep along the top. It baked at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes, then I turned off the oven and left it in for an additional 10 minutes.