Sunday is for FOOD!- Pumpkin Bread

I've noticed a new trend in my family's schedule that I am loving, Sunday is for FOOD! The kitchen is always busy on Sunday, with treats in the oven, soups on the stove , and snacks for the week being created, it's a yummy day!  I am going to start sharing more of my weekend cooking with you, sound fun?

Today my girl and I had a "double" playdate day, we both had friends over... Connie stopped by with her hubby, Maurizio.  She used to live in Ithaca and luckily she still comes back often so we get to visit multiple times a year!  Connie shared with me earlier this fall that she loves everything pumpkin, so I decided to make her my version of pumpkin bread.  I've found that it takes an hour for the bread to cook, so I always save some batter and make a batch of mini-muffins that cook quickly.  That way we have something to snack on while we wait for the bread.

Besides the ginger pumpkin bread we had cashew chili (vegetarian) going in the crockpot for a chili cook off we went to later in the day... my secret?...  a bottle o' beer!

Ginger Pumpkin Bread and Muffins

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (melted)

2 1/2 cups flour

(I mix whole wheat and white)

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1 /2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg (or pre-ground)
1/8 tsp cloves

2 eggs

1 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 can solid-pack pumpkin puree

1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan, and a 12 count mini-muffin tin (I used papers in the muffin tin).

In a large bowl melt butter in your microwave.

While the butter is cooling, in a medium bowl, mix together the flour, spices, baking soda and salt.

Add the eggs, pumpkin puree and brown sugar to the melted butter and mix.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture, stir gently until combined.  Add chopped ginger and stir in.  (Sometimes I add chocolate chips, at this step since my family says EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH CHOCOLATE!)

Bake Muffins for 15 mins and Bread for 55 minutes.  You may want to make a tent of aluminum foil for over the bread after the first half hour if the top starts to brown too much.  Take out and cool 10 minutes before slicing and eating!  Yummm! 

Family Festivities

Here's one the many things I was secretive about this year:

Family Festivities

Creative Knitting, November 2009

Coordinating skeins of Schaefer Nichole

Shown in Clara Barton and Indira Gandhi

This sock pattern is based on an easy slipped stitch pattern I was obsessed with last winter, add in a two color ribbed cuff and heel and you've got a design that really playswith color!  Sized for the whole family from 2 -3 years to a men's medium.  If you use Schaefer's Nichole you can get a few pairs out of the 2 skeins... perfect holiday presents for the whole family.

Here I am knitting away on them on vacation in Costa Rica last year,  the easiest "working" vacation I've ever had!  I don't know what's up with that scowl on my face, guess I was concentrating... and using my mouth as my third hand!

A little bit o' everything!

I'm fresh from a long weekend, well not actually fresh, cause I always stay up too late when left to my own devices and then when I have to get up at the crack of dawn for the school bus again I'm a bit bleary for the rest of the week; it's my cross to bear that I perk up around 10 pm!

First off, I'm going to Maryland this weekend:  My dear friend "Jay-Lo" is having a baby shower on Saturday. On Sunday I'll be teaching Migrations at Woolwinders and having a Schaefer Yarn "Petting Zoo" afterwards.  It's all sold out and I am really looking forward to meeting all the knitters there!  Hopefully my Squammie BFF Betz will be able to pop over in the eve for a visit!

Number Two: I did LOTS of knitting this weekend, see?

From right to left in clockwise direction: Tiny Shoe (see info below),  Beaded Cable Cuff (no edging or clasp yet) , New Design (with secret NEW Schaefer yarn...)

Number Three:  These are for my dear friend's baby shower this weekend, I'm just hoping she doesn't read my blog regularly... so Jen, if you are, STOP!!!! and don't scroll down anymore! 

About to be released Walking Spiral Socks (there's a super cute cap in the set too!)

Tiny Shoes by Ysolda

I bought Whimiscal Knits from her at TNNA last June and finally got to make something from it!

Finally, my friend, and editor, Kara, is getting together a blog tour for her new book It's in the Bag... get in touch with her if you think you might want to take part!

And the Winner is...

First off, can I just say, THIS WAS FUN!  I got to listen to some music I'd never heard before, and some I hadn't heard in a long time. I'd love to share a few of my favs (I wish I could link to them all, you built quite a compilation for me to listen to today while I worked!):

Foundations by Kate Nash (with Billy Bragg) (thanks Kathy)

If I had a $1,000,000 by Bare Naked Ladies (thanks to Sam)

Papa was a Rolling Stone by the Temptations (thanks Hadley!)

I used a random number generator... and the winner is #22 Michelle, get in touch with me so I can send your goodies (Brickhouse and 2 skeins of Schaefer's Heather to make it) on their way.

p.s. I might need to do this again, I had way too good a time this go round!

Introducing: 3fer

3fer is three for one!  One skein of Schaefer Yarn's Nichole will make you all three items in this pattern, the cap, the mitts, that's right folks, and even the cowl... better than ginsu knives, I'm telling ya!  Using beads is optional, you can make all three items with beads, or without, or make the cap with beads for your mom, the mitts without for yourself, and the cowl for your kid's fourth grade teacher.  

3fer is based on an easy slip stitch pattern that is created by wrapping the yarn twice around the right hand ndl and then cabling it on the next row.  Directions are included in the pattern for cabling without a cable needle, which is SO easy!  As with all Nelkin Designs patterns the stitch pattern is both charted and written out.

I have to tell you that hilarity ensued when naming 3fer, as I brainstormed with friends and family some rather risque names emerged... do you want me to share?

You can purchase 3fer here or here.
3fer is shown in Nichole by Schaefer Yarn in colors:
(from top to bottom) Indigo, Mary Walker Phillips, and Jane Addams

P.S. There is still one more day left to the giveaway, feel free to join in!

Learning = Brickhouse Giveaway!

I learned something new this week, a super important skill:
How to embed youtube videos into my blog posts!
(Btw, it is easy!!!!)



To celebrate I am giving away 2 skeins of Schaefer Yarn's Heather and the pattern to make my latest design Brickhouse! Leave a comment and share one of your favorite songs with me (I would love a link but it seems that comments won't post with links.... sorry!) before Tuesday October 6th. I'll use a random number generator and announce the lucky winner!

Workshop with Brandon Mably

An amazing opportunity came to Ithaca this week, in celebration of the Bloomsbury Group exhibit at the Johnson Art Museum at Cornell, Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably came to lecture and teach. Schaefer Yarn dyed a series of 6 colors for the Bloomsbury Group exhibit and I showed those along with the event.

Last night I went and listened to Kaffe give a presentation of his work, and today I took an all day workshop with Brandon. We had to bring 20 ass't colors of yarn... I packed WAY more than that the night before, but no where on the info did it say they should be solids... I ended up with TONS of my hand-dye leftovers from Schaefer and not many of "okay" choices; needless to say, I ended up borrowing ALOT of yarn. The workshop was a great stretch for my creative self as I am so used to my yarn doing color changes for me...

Look at what everyone created, aren't they all individually beautiful and hanging together, gorgeous?

Here's mine:
Btw, the new Schaefer colors will start shipping to stores next week, they are really nice, particularly Lytton Strachey... you will probably see it in a design of mine one day soon!

This, That and the Other Thing!

So MUCH to tell you... so little time, (what a cliche!)

1. There's a new book that just hit the stores that has not one, but two of my designs that I was secretive about last fall. Conceived and edited by my friend Kara Gott Warner of I Gott Knits for DRG this new title is a real hit!

It's in the Bag: Knitting Projects to Take and Make is such a great concept... I am totally a knitter who has home and away projects and always get ready for trips by getting my knitting ready first. There will be a blog tour for this book soon, but for now I wanted to quickly share my designs with you!

Andrea Cuffs

Schaefer Yarn's Andrea, colorways Margaret Meade and Greenjeans.
All you need to make these babies is less than 40 yards of laceweight yarn and needles the size of toothpicks!

A-Dorable A-Line Ruffled Dress

Schaefer Yarn's Lola, colorway Sophia Smith, size 2T

p.s. Both of these patterns will be available for release through Nelkin Designs in January.

2. I am now a twitterer, come follow me @LNelkin, I'll follow you, it will be fun, and we'll get to know what we both like to eat for dinner!

3. I have a pattern almost ready for release, I have to share this one "sneak peek" pic with you... I almost used it in the pattern until I realized that the waterfall was perfectly placed to make my model look like she drools ALOT!

Happily Hookin' Away....

I've been slowly teaching myself crochet, not because I want to become a crochet designer too, or that my life's goal is to be a happy hooker, but I've felt that it's a skill I can be applying to some of my designs when it's time to "finish" them off.
I saw this great cuff pattern on my new friend Mercedes blog, and decided that if I made a bunch of them over the weekend I might have worked up some muscle memory by the end of the exercise. IT WORKED!!!!, and I have a few great gifts... Miss B already claimed the green one, or was it the red one? She can't decide.
I tell my students about muscle memory all the time; they might be working a new technique and feel like they are all thumbs, I remind them that they are teaching their muscles a new way of doing something and that the more they practice and repeat the more their muscles will gain memory for this new crazy motion I am asking of them. It works... I swear!

Speaking of teaching, I'll be at Woolwinders in October for a class on Migrations and a special Schaefer Yarn petting zoo... my class is already sold out, but there are a few spots left in the zoo, join us! I also have a few classes coming up this Fall at my LYS, Knitting Etc, Ithaca is gorgeous at this time of year, so you may want to take a trip up!

BLUE DOOR

Inspired by this:I had to do this:

I've always wanted a blue door and now I've got one... mind you the blue I started with was WAY TOO like the caribbean on acid, so I toned it down a bit with some paint samples from the basement (I do this way more often than you'd think) and it's more like what I had envisioned. There is something romantic, funky, and mysterious about blue doors, perhaps someday I will open it and it will lead to somewhere more exotic than my deck!

Stay tuned for more next week, I've got crochet learning in progress, a new pattern almost ready for release, and a raffle/giveaway that promises to be quite the treat!

I went to the State Fair?

Yup I did, and there were:

Fancy Blue Chickens

Wee baby chicks

4-H Blue ribbon winning jewelry! (...by Miss B)

Nicholetta in the Wild!

PORK Sammies (Dinosaur BBQ)

And Sha-Na-Na, performing Eensy Weensy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini!!!!!

She's A Brick House!

“She’s a brick house, she’s mighty mighty…”

The Commodores

This shawl is all that and more: Warm and cozy like a home, built to last, and keeping you looking fine. Make this a study in color; try different color combinations to discover the best mortar for your bricks. Brick House is based on an easily memorized brick eyelet pattern. Discover all the fun ways Brick House can be worn; to the front, down the back, over one shoulder....

Knit in Schaefer Yarn's Heather, this supple fingering weight yarn is a blend of superwash wool, silk and a little nylon. It is the perfect lofty light weight fiber to keep you comfy in those cool days of fall.

I've kept this baby underwraps for a bit, but it was time to let her loose in the wild! Play with color, but make sure that the two colors you choose are different enough that you can see a distinct difference between the mortar and the bricks.

You can see the stats and purchase it here or on Ravelry. I'd love to see what colors you choose!!!
As with all my patterns the lace pattern is both charted and written out, and it's been model knit, and tech edited, and is TOTALLY ready for public consumption!

Wowsers

I am still digesting, in a major way! What a fabulous weekend at Sock Summit. There aren't words for the inspiring knitters I met, great food I ate, yarn I coveted, and sights I saw.

Here are some highlights:
* "How I became a Knitter" lecture with Barbara Walker, what I learned from Barbara is that her life is a series of obsessions, and that knitting was one of them (I think she needs less sleep than I do), the woman is so amazing she has even designed her own Tarot.
* An amazing Ravelry party, Jess, Casey, Mary Heather and Sarah have a calm, fun loving dedication they bring to their project, they don't hold anything back, and are amazing appreciative, supportive, AWESOME people, I LOVE THEM! Mary Heather even wore Entomology, I'm a loser and didn't get a good pic... but I know there are some out there!

* Participating in a Guinness Book of World Records attempt for the most people knitting at one time, I think we did it, need I say more?

* GREAT FOOD, Alice (my buddy from boarding school who I stayed with) and I ate at Por Que No and Burgerville, and a yummy french brunch place with homemade croissants I forgot to get the name of!

* Shopping... I got some yarn, which I need like I need a whole in my head, but I HAD to do it: Shibui Silk Cloud in Wasabi, and a gorgeous skein of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks wool/bamboo blend in an awesome one of a kind green. (Mercedes calls her one of a kinds "odd ducks" which I love!) I also got a great bag from Splityarn which matches my yarn purchases beautifully. (I'll admit I bought the bag first and found yarn to match it.) Here's Star, myself and Caro (Miss Splityarn herself) with our matching purchases:* I talked with lots of knitters about Schaefer Yarn, and gave away TONS of samples I had on hand. This was super fun, and a great way to spend my "down" time.

* A Luminary Panel that blew my mind... one quote I remember "Busy hands are joyous hands", that must be why I knit! I was so busy soaking in all the knowledge and sage advice I forgot to take notes... so that's all you get!

* I won a raffle hosted by Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks for Doctors without Borders, and am the proud owner of an amazing barn raising quilt from the book Knitalong by Larissa Brown & Martin John Brown. I'll take pics and talk more about this later, it's an amazing piece I am honored to have.

I'm hunkering down to spend some quality time with my family and get some knitting done on deadlines that are looming scarily close, I'll be back!

Off to Sock Summit

I'm off to Portland for Sock Summit on Thursday, it's the best work perk yet! I'll be in the Knit-Purl booth (#1022) and Simply Socks booth (#523 and 622) on and off all weekend... I got into Barbara Walker's lecture "How I became a Knitter" on Saturday and cannot wait to listen, knit, and soak in all the goodness.

Also, seriously, in a majorly geeky way, I am looking forward to taking part in the Guinness Book for World Records attempt. I'll also definitely be at the Ravelry party Sat night helping out. Expect to hear more!

I still have my two "secret" projects with deadlines looming on the ndls, those are plane knitting! Obviously, though, I need to knit some socks. I just finished these for me:Pattern: My "Plain Vanilla" Toe-up Sock based on Nicholetta
Yarn: Schaefer Yarn's Nichole, one-of-a-kind color

The next pair will be "for my man" in Anne, I'm thinking Angee sized up in Ash. Call 'em my AAA socks!

Good Parenting

Miss B: "Can we make these?"

Me: " Twist my arm!" After many hours, dishes, blueberry picking and references to offset spatulas (which I don't "think" we have), I introduce:

YUMMMMM!

Crochet, me?

guardrail photo thanks to Maya*made

This spring I decided it was high time for me to learn to crochet, when in my LYS, Knitting Etc, I saw my friend Ashley's recently finished crochet top she was getting ready to teach a class on and I LOVED it. I wanted to sign up for the class, but my schedule said "no", so I asked her to teach me the basic's instead. I already knew how to chain, so it was just learning to join into the rnd, not so different from knitting, and single crochet through both loops on the chain, or one loop on the chain. It was a 6 minute lesson and I was off and crocheting. The pattern is from Contemporary Crochet. I made it in Cascade Yarns Pima Tencel in my new fav color! I've worn this top a ton this summer, above I'm wearing it on the last day of Grassroots with a new necklace I got from Jennifer Feldman earlier that day in the craft area.

This top has inspired me to design a tank for summer that combines crocheting and sewing. I went to school for apparel design and have been itching to use my sewing machine lately. Of course that meant that when I went to NYC with dear friends (Maya's 40th b-day present) to see a free Jonatha Brooke concert last week we had to do some shopping. I've been listening (i.e. singing out loud in the car) to Jonatha non-stop since SQUAM in June, and it was great to see her live and electric!
It was a 24 whirlwind trip that included a trip to Purl for fabric (Liberty of London) and Kinokuniya for some books I've been coveting... dangerous fun! I'll keep you posted on the new design.

And, just so you know I am knitting, here's a pic of the mystery blob I am working on for this Fall's Year of Lace Club.

An Interview!

One of my closest friends, Maya, is a blogger, though I've known her for WAY longer than blogs... We met when our kids were wee ones, Maya can even tell you what my girl was wearing that first day! Our creative mediums are different, but the day to day conundrums we face, from designing to contracts to our computers and sewing machines to photography and styling are the same... it's great to have a buddy right down the road that knows exactly what I am talking about, sometimes even before I say it. Maya graciously offered to interview me on her blog, which feels like cheating, cause really she already knows everything about me... but you don't, so here you go!

Btw, I will be at Grassroots Fest this weekend, I'm the craft coordinator, so I'll be super busy keeping all my crafty crafters happy and trying to not spend all my money on their beautiful wares (and wears). I'm really looking forward to dancing to Toots and the Maytals, Oumou Sangare, Bela Fleck, The Horseflies and more! I also get to celebrate Maya's B-Day with her, the girl get's a insta-party with 4 stages, and 40 bands for her 40th!!!! woohoo! (and there might be cake...)

A little bit of Vacay!

We just got back from a long weekend with our dear friends in Baltimore. All we did was bike, eat and laugh (oh, and I knit) it was perfect! My girl took all these pics as I was too busy eating (and feeding her succulents bits of crab), I think she's my new photographer!

The dog had so much fun she even posed for a pic...


photography tip: get your black standard poodle to stick her tongue out before taking the pic... you need the contrast or they will just look like a blob of black fur!

Summer is upon us!

Woot!!!! Our garden and the CSA we joined are starting to CRANK out the good food... all that hard work is giving us a real abundance that will only get better as the summer continues. We used to raise all the veges we ate in the summer, but I got just a wee bit overwhelmed with work and the CSA has really helped us stay in the fresh veges, while supporting our local farmers, and taken the pressure off me. Thankyou Sweetland! Now we just grow what we know we eat tons of, mesclun, microgreens and herbs, what we don't get enough of from the CSA, egglant, peppers, brussel sprouts, and cabbage, and what we like to pick and eat while we are outside... peas, raspberries, cherry tomatoes.



Do you know about Black Caps? I never really got to eat them when I was a kid, but here in upstate NY they are prolific... we keep areas of our yard dedicated to them (i.e. wild!). They are sweet and tart at the same time and do not keep, the answer is to go out and eat them off the bush and be sure to remember to pick just enough for pancakes!


I still can't tell you about what I am knitting. I'm on to new projects but they are ALL secret... I HAVE to start something soon that I can blog about from start to finish, it's frustrating to have to be cagey about what's on my needles... trust me though I AM KNITTING!

Now that's some love!

Wow, doing a give-away is fun... I'm going to make a habit of it, I promise!

I'm so glad I said that I was using a random number generator, I never could have chosen one of you over another. I loved reading everyone's reasons why they wanted to knit Entomology, from biologists weddings to the holidays, to a deep love of bugs, to ambitious first lace projects, all of your reasons were perfect!

And the winner is:
As a present to you all I got some help from some friendly raveler's and now have written directions for Entomology. Drop me a line if you'd like me to send them to you. I'll post them on my website once I've gotten the okay, but for now I know some people would prefer the written instructions to a chart. (I personally REALLY like reading charts!)