Baby Birds and Baby Socks

Yesterday was my sister Jennet's baby shower. She collects nests with eggs (and has done a few related art series) so I used a "nesting" to get ready for the baby/baby bird theme.

These were the cupcakes

design found here, I split them up doing some with eggs in the nests and some with the baby birds. These eggs are easter egg shaped m&ms. Here's a close up of the baby birds:

These are nest cookies from an m&m cookbook, but these eggs are Cadbury Mini Eggs. I glued the eggs on with a dot of frosting.

These are delicious chow mein noodle cookies with m&ms:

Here we have some of the other refreshments (deviled eggs, heh.)

The centerpiece of pussy willows with different bird ornaments...

The favors were mama blue bird sugar cookies with Cadbury Mini Eggs

And these are the socks I knit her for the future bambino...

They are both a mix of Cascade Fixation and Elan Esprit and the pattern is from Cute Knits for Baby Feet

A Bit of Knitting

Super Mario Mushrooms made for my brother for christmas. Cute, eh?

Winged Tattoo Heart paperweight/stuffy/doohickey - this was a baby shower gift for a former coworker/friend. She loves tattoos and hopes to become a tattoo artist someday so this seemed the perfect gift for her and her first bambino. I love this one and will probably make myself one with a different inscription at some point. The wings in the pattern are to be knit and felted, since that isn't easy wool-free, I cut them out of regular white felt.

This is a variation on the Monteagle bag from the newest Mason-Dixon book. I love this bag but I did have trouble getting one of the stitch patterns into my head, so at one point I just started doing a simplified stitch version instead. I also used the seamless cast-on Kay suggested on the blog. It was a little tricky because I didn't have the appropriate needle length... next time I'll get the right size and it will be much easier.

The strap does stretch more than you think it will when you stretch out the bag to open the stitches... so stop before you think it is long enough. This was a christmas present for my mom. I want one of these too. ;-)

A Cal stuffed kitty to match the Butterkitty... this one went to my nephew for christmas. (cute photos with the baby coming soon!)
is that a cute kitten I've got or what?

This started out as a Lichen Cowl but the yarn lacked the proper stretch/give so it came out an awkward size (too big singled but not big enough to double). So I did some cutting, stitching, and added buttons.

This Tudora was for my sister for christmas. I love this Edwardian looking pattern, the cables add just that right touch.

Another Marley hat, my third. This one I call Muted Marley, with its sophisticated colors. This was for the same coworker/friend as the tattoo heart. I love it, and she said her husband does too. :-)

Cooking the Tree of Life

Long time no see! Miss me? Sorry for the extended absence, December was a rough month Chez Yarnlibrarian and I'm just getting back into the swing of things. So I've got a lot of upcoming posts. First, an amazing program at the New York State Museum for Darwin's 200th birthday.

They call it Cooking the Tree of Life - four cooking demonstrations that highlight the evolutionary history of the meals' main ingredients, teaming up a local chef with a biologist. Each week covers a different branch of the Tree of Life: vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, and fungi.

Last week was vertebrates. Chef Tony Destratis of the Lake George Club cooked while Dr. Roland Kays, curator of mammals at the museum, handled the science end of things.

I forgot my camera, so I just have one from my phone

It's a birthday cake for Darwin with an illustration from his notebook in his hand with a sketch of the Tree of Life. And it was yummy as well.

The vertebrate menu included: Braised Oxtail; Swamp Gumbo (alligator and frogs legs); Atlantic Salmon as gravlox, poached with white wine and leeks, and as fried nuggets; and a special request from the biologist - an "Evolution Omelet" combining the three "major advances in vertebrate reproductive adaptations". Um, yeah. I'm not a science person but those are apparantly: amniotic eggs (caviar); cleidoic eggs (chicken eggs); and lactation (milk). That's an omelet, alright. So no sampling for me last week.

Tonight was Plants! I had high hopes of being able to try all the samples but these chefs do like to throw meat stock into otherwise vegetarian things. sigh. Tonight's chef was Timothy Warnock, corporate chef for U.S. Foodservice, and the biologist was Dr. George Robinson, a professor at UAlbany. George also entertained us with his guitar. :-)

Chef Tim made a lot of amazing things tonight. First, we had a smoothie - Jungle Juice

Looks gross, but it was tasty! It smelled like kiwi to me, but it didn't have any in it. It was pear, mango, grapefruit juice, and spinach. While it was passed around George serenaded us with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." ;-) (I don't care what they say about scientists, both biologists have been funny! After singing George said "I'm a botanist actually, which is a good thing for the music world."

Next they made a Hunter-Gatherer Salad. This was wonderful, both delicious and gorgeous with all kinds of pretty things in it.

You are looking at:
chopped smoked almonds
spring mix
orchids, pansies, amaranth, baby sunflowers, marigolds, and other flowers
borage
basil flowers
microgreens (baby swiss chard and lavender buds)
chili peppers
organic blueberries, golden raspberries, red raspberries, black raspberries
crumbled goat cheese
and an Herb Balsamic Dressing
I already said amazing too many times, but, it was amazing!

Next was a chili of garlic, chili peppers, kidney beans, tomato, lavender buds, basil flowers, and pork stock.

George said "Darwin was an outlaw" and sang a birthday song to him including lyrics on the big screen with a bouncing Darwin head!

Next on the menu was a polenta with jalapenos and Speck ham (smoked, similar to prosciutto it seems). There was a multibean salad with kidney beans, white kidney beans, three kinds of lentils, onion, and chilis. This was served with grilled elk so I just tried a few uncontaminated beans. It was spicy!

There was a Quinoa Salad with quinoa, bulghur wheat, lemon & orange, and pork stock (grr!). And red couscous with blood orange zest and juice, onion, garlic, white wine, pomegranate... something (it was oil or essence or something like that in a small bottle), and the couscous - a frozen flash cooked kind with peas and red peppers already in it. This was very good! Sometimes I don't even like couscous, but this was good. I would totally buy the flash cooked/frozen couscous but unfortunately it is a restaurant only product.


Then it was on to dessert! Thank goodness chocolate comes from a plant. There were chocolate drizzled strawberries (a really good strawberry even this time of year!),

cookies
this looked like some sort of brownie cookie, maybe. Then I bit into it and discovered...
a macaroon inside! It was great.

There was Mayan hot chocolate, but it was waaaay too spicey for me. I took one sip and had to move on to the birthday cake to fix my poor mouth. I don't do smoked chipotle, apparently.

This was this week's birthday cake: You've got to love Darwin in a birthday hat!
I'm so glad I found these great (and free!) programs.

What I did on my summer vacation by yarnlibrarian

Yes, I know, it is almost December. I'm behind. Here's a wrap-up of some of the cool places we visited this summer and fall!

In July we took a trip to Massachusetts with one of my sisters and her husband. We stayed in Salem and took side trips to Marblehead, Gloucester, and Rockport (Cape Ann). A good time was had by all as they say. It's really a beautiful part of New England, I've been a few times and enjoy it every trip.

Something new and very cool we did on this trip, was a hiking tour of Dogtown. Dogtown was a town in the 1600's & 1700's. Nothing is left now but cellar holes and an occasional pile of rocks. This is cool, but the extra cool part is this -
during the Great Depression Roger Babson, a local industrialist, did a public works project of sorts and paid unemployed stone carvers to carve meaningful mottos into boulders all throughout Dogtown. The hike was very nice and the guides were great, info is here.

When we were in Rockport we visited Rockin' Cupcakes! (no website but contact info is here)

The cupcakes have cute names that I no longer remember, the one on the left was chocolate and cherry and the one on the right was key lime with a mountain of frosting and coconut on top. yuuum!
If you don't have a boat but want to get out on the water without spending a fortune on one of the little cruises, have lunch or dinner at the Rockmore! The Rockmore is a floating dock of a restaurant, in the middle of the harbor! This is part it, the bathroom actually ;-), but it is painted up in a fun way and has a cute seagull perched on top! The menu is very casual - hot dogs, lobster rolls, that kind of thing. I had a cheese quesadilla which was the only vegetarian thing if I remember right.
You don't just get to be on the water at the restaurant though, you have to get out there! They have a little speedboat (note: I know nothing about boats or if this thing was a speedboat. In my head, that's what it seemed like) that is a water taxi to and from the restaurant! You can be picked up from the dock on either the Salem or Marblehead side of the harbor. If you have your own boat you can tie it up the restaurant. So, food and a free (tip the boat guy!) boat ride! Pretty good deal.

random sunset at Marblehead Neck

Another yummy bakery! Coffee Time Bakeshop, home of the real cream bismarck! Located in Salem, right around the corner from our Bed & Breakfast (also recommended).

The drink is a frozen hot chocolate (amazing) and in the box we have a mini eclair and two bismarcks! A Bismarck is like a whipped cream filled donut, the donut part is cut up the center like a hot dog roll instead of the cream being piped in. These are lemon and raspberry. They have full size and mini. These are the mini and no matter how hungry you might be, I don't recommend the large. They are super tasty but I can't imagine any human being wanting that much cream in their stomach at once.

On our way out of town we stopped outside of Gloucester to tour a castle - Hammond Castle!
This is the back so you can't see the drawbridge, unfortunately. I took a ton of photos though. John Hays Hammond built the castle in the 1920s as a gift for his wife. (pretty nice, huh?) He was an inventor and invented all kinds of crazy important things like an important component of the modern stereo system.

Here's a stained glass window from the large cathedral like room. The whole castle has a lot of Catholic icons etc.
The castle is really beautiful and very impressive. I think it was the favorite part of the trip. Everything is medieval (real or in the style) except for the Hammond family's private quarters. Instead, that is set up in early to mid 20th century. Here are a few nifty retro finds from the kitchen!

I love this cat food box! Cop-e-cat! Also, only meat "flavor"? ;-)

This is long so the next trip will wait for the next post...

Dishcloth Explosion!

I've been going crazy with the dishcloth knitting lately! I went to two weddings in the past month and a few were for each gift, plus a few swaps, etc. So here we go...

The bright and sunny yellow petal and tan grandma's favorite were for my friends Laura & Rod's wedding last month (more cool photos from that trip coming soon)

the blue skull was for the skull package I sent out for the All Hallows Eve Dishcloth exchange

Blue grandma's favorite, blue & brown grandma's favorite, matching tribble/scrubbie, and tan petal for my friend Elissa's wedding earlier this month

a lime green petal for the reverse Dish Rag Tag swap

and... the cream of the crop - a Transformers Autobot dishcloth for Trevor's birthday last month! :-D

If you make one, please make note of the correction in the comments - I missed it until I finished the cloth so it has a little imperfection. Oh well.

Dish Rag Tag follow up!

The Dishy Dozen finished up with a very respectable 7th place out of 24! This was very fun so I'll definitely try to compete again next year.

After the swap, most of the Dishy Dozen decided to do a reverse swap. Since Dish Rag Tag works down a chain, the reverse swap has you send a box of goodies to the person who send you the box during the tag. I forgot the shipping deadline and was a loser who sent my box off late. :-( But it went out in the mail first thing Saturday morning.

I got my box from Katherine on Thursday. She sent a super colorful dishcloth, three balls of cotton - one lovely blue sugar 'n cream twist, and two SRK CoolSpun which I've never seen before!, yummy sounding cherry tea, chocolate, a tube of needles, and pretty Japanese split markers.
Thanks again, Katherine!

Gift Making Fun!

Yesterday I went to a holiday gift making workshop at the New York State Museum with my mom and sisters. It was very fun and a great deal at only $11.25 for each of us! They had stations set up around the room to make many different little gifts with almost all natural, herb ingredients. They even had a station set up with all the little cellophane bags, raffia, paper, stickers, etc. so you could decorate everything and make tags.

We made soap,

This was a goats milk soap base that I colored a pale yellow, added ground oatmeal, and a honey almond scent. I love almond scents and these smell great.

These cute little soaps use chocolate molds. I didn't make these, I think people stuck their leftover soap bits into it but nobody took it home so I did. ;-)


They had fabric to pick from and a sewing machine set up to make dream pillows. It isn't a "pillow" pillow, it is lightly filled and is meant to go inside a pillow case with your regular pillow to add aroma therapy. It has flax seed, peppermint, and roses inside.

They had candles at the decoration table to decorate with corrugated paper and raffia.


And we made a whole bunch of different kinds of natural bath products.


Bath salts - lemon, and lavendar

This bath soak was made with ground oatmeal, roses, and baking soda.

This lemon bath bundle can be used as a scrubbie in the shower - it has grated castile soap, oatmeal, lemon essential oil, and lemon peel sewn into a little muslin bag.

The body scrub has corn meal, ground oatmeal, rosemary, and castile soap.


The bath tea bags can be tied onto the bath tub to "steep" in the bath water and can be used more than once even. One has lavendar and roses and the other has orange peel and ginger root.

We also got a packet with all of the recipes to be able to make them again, and tags to copy!

This was a really good class so I'll keep my eyes out for future classes at the museum.