Hello, my Name is Ellen…

… and I have not been knitting for 15 days.

Seriously! Even though I am much better, I am still struggling with being tired. I have decided not to fight it this time and when I am done with my work in the evening I sit down and read or watch TV and do not knit. I am just too tired.

It does hurt a bit, I have to admit. This is the crafty season after all and I would love to decorate the house with handmade trees and knit mittens, hats and scarves for friends and family. And then there is the sweater that I started in August…

There is one thing I have managed to do: After hearing about it from Heather I bought the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and have tried many recipes. I will tell you all about it  when I have more time. One thing is sure, though: their recipe for Granola is even better than the one I have been using. You can  find it here. ( Pour it in a pretty jar, tie a ribbon around it, add a wooden spoon for scooping and you have a nice gift. This is the season after all!)

The Same In Blue – Please

This is my oldest daughter, warping her loom and wearing her sister’s hat. The inspiration for the hat came from Coronet, but as always I changed things. Obviously the braid is all wrong  different and instead of doubling the hat I decided to line it with knit fabric.

To do this I traced the the shape of the knitted hat directly on the fabric and cut out 2 dome-shaped halfs, leaving the fabric longer on the bottom. Then I sewed the fabric together using an elastic stitch on my sewing machine. After that I asked my daughter to put on the fabric hat first and then the knitted hat on top to see where I should sew these together. After some trial and error I decided to stitch a seam about 1/4 inch away from the knit edge in order to attach the knit fabric to the hat. When I was done I cut off the seam allowance fairly close to the seam.  

The yarn I used is my own hand-dyed Louet Riverstone in worsted weight. It took just a little bit over half a skein. The yarn is soft enough to wear  next to your skin, but I wanted to try lining it after I had seen that in a store. It makes it extra cozy and warm.

Now I have to make one in blue for the model.

What’s In It For Me?

Yesterday at the breakfast table we had the following conversation:

Me: “H., you were born in the US. You are a citizen of the United States and you are getting a new President today!”

H:”What does this mean?”

My daughter is only 8 years old and after some explaining she said:

“What can he do for me? Is he going to make puppies cheaper?”

I have no idea where this came from. I think I mentioned once how expensive some breeds are, but since we are not getting a dog it never came up again.

Can you imagine how surprised I was when I found out later, that puppies are very much on Barack Obama’s mind as well? He promised in his first speech as President-elect that he would get his daughters a puppy when they move into the White House! There you go: Kids know what is important! I wonder how much he will pay for it …