Household Drink Covers

I have been working on this particular project for months! I had hoped to have it done earlier in the year, but turned out that getting them done in time for Yule worked out too. They are part of a other things that I didn't get finished and need to get wrapped up here in the next few weeks, so future posts about those. ;-)

These are hand embroidered drink covers. First drew out the pattern using a light box on some gold linen. Stitched using some of my black lace alpaca. Used embroidery and cross stitch to complete. Then ironed the squares and stitched those to blue linen circles I cut out. Then hemmed the circles. Next step was adding beads to act as weights to keep the cloth from flying off in winds. I strung sets of beads on and when attaching to the circle made sure to add a knot in case of any breakage.

I completed Ignatius, Larissa (yes, she really needs to come up with an SCA name!), Millicent and Edoaine's:

If you put them all together, you get MILE. ;-)

I've since finished the embroidery on mine, just need to stitch it down to the circle and then do the beading. We've since added Gwencalon to the Household, so I'll need to make another one! I had thought of this so have a couple extra ready to be embroidered. 

Christmas Knitting and Turkey Canning

I was having a really hard time doing gift knitting. I came back from the beach with the turkey carcass and leftovers. We had one more dinner off of it that Sunday night for our gaming group. Then I popped it into two pots and started cooking it for broth. I had pulled off the excess turkey. Realized that I had leftover carrots and celery as well as a pressure cooker. Pulled out the pressure cooker, rounded up jars and lids and then started canning turkey broth and turkey soups.

This was the first batch out - notice the color difference?

This is the second batch out. Not sure why the broth looks so 'milky', might be less fat?

So ended up with lots of broth and enough jars of soup that I gave some to family as part of their Christmas gifts. Those along with jars of jam helped so I didn't have to knit as much! I did give some pre-yarn crawl knit along items as gifts. Worked out well for me that way!

This left me with knitting some hats for one niece and three nephews. Logan got a couple of books and Cole got a stuffed toy and a bunch of socks. His dad, my brother Scott, said that he really needed those too. A week's worth of fun socks to wear may not be really really exciting to receive, but parents ultimately appreciate it!

Bailey's hat:

Pattern: Making a Memory

She said she liked it. I'll have to see if I can get my sister, Tanya to take pics of her wearing it. ;-)

Garrett's hat, the Half-Pipe, I had planned to use the Berrocco Alpaca, but The Knitting Bee doesn't carry it any longer. Since the pattern calls for using two strands of DK together, Trish and I decided that using an Aran weight would work. I didn't want him to worry about washing, so got some 220 Aran Superwash in a nice Charcoal. I need to get a pic of him wearing it, just have him opening up the package at Christmas:

He's wearing a hat, so hats are good. ;-)

We had dinner with my dad and sister and brother with their families after Christmas, but before New Year, so still in the ball park. Here's Keefe with his hat:

I'm chewing, just a second! Pattern: Ola!

Nice big smile!

 Little brother Cole, liked the hat so much that he put in a request for one 'just like it'. He's three. He asked, so he'll get a hat. Not sure when I will see him next, because he's not always at family events. I'm also almost out of that green, so it may be in a different main color but same blue.

Adam got a Turn A Square Hat in a variety of colors. I think he likes it. He was wearing it for awhile. So it wasn't an on to make me happy, then right back off. I figure he can wear it under his helmet when he's four wheeling with his dad and grandfather.

Again, I was knitting this hat just an hour before giving it to him. I'm so burned out on gift knitting. Maybe if I saw things being worn, I may be more excited to knit and gift things to people?

I did chat with Carina at 12th Night. I still have the qiviut I spun for her. Confirmed that yes, she does want a cowl out of it. So found a pattern that I think will be nice, just need to get it knit up! First though, I really need to knit something for me!

Yule Feast 2013

The Baronies of Dragon's Mist and Three Mountains held their first combined Yule event and I think it came off pretty well! Granted I spent 95% of my time in the kitchen, so I missed a LOT of what was going on. Unlike last year, there was more than enough food, even after a table mishap took out a couple of crockpots.

Deboning chickens

There's dancing over to the right.

We had then Princess Drifinna come to the event. I fed her a couple of times. ;-)

Taking a dancing break

Salads and 'cold' pies - quiches and the like along with rolls

Some desserts and fruits

Roasts, ham, and some soups

Veggies, and pastas

Watching the first bunch of people go through and making sure things are going well

The pork

Nibbly food - veggies and fruits and crackers with cheeses

Desserts - closest were Lissette's yummy lemon curd tarts

More desserts - center right - Osanna's lefse - yummy!

Be'ak's little receiving an award from Baroness Alexandria

I asked Andrea to put up my hair for me. She did a nice double braid that survived the day. 

Beach Weekend - Thanksgiving 2013

We've used the beach house for the weekend before, this time it was after celebrating with my family in Corvallis, Thanksgiving. This trip was a Household trip for the Golden Bees. We had Dawn-Marie with her husband Brent, their daughter Larissa and Jenna along. Turns out that they all came down without having a Thanksgiving dinner. I had received a free turkey that month for shopping, so brought it and some potatoes for making mashed ones. Jenna brought the green bean casserole and Dawn-Marie made deviled eggs and cranberry sauce and brought a small brown sugar ham from Fred Meyer.

Friday we put it all together and had it for our dinner. That was after grocery shopping for weekend supplies and having lunch at Abbey's Pizza. There was also movie watching and taking Leeloo down to the beach at low tide.  She loves the beach! It's a community beach and there weren't a lot of people and its long enough that you can see people. So I felt free to let her run off leash and have fun being a dog.

Before taking leash off

Still dragging leash

Can you see the leash?

Going to dad!

Off leash and running back and forth from mom to dad!

Brandon and Larissa skipping rocks

 He had the camera on a burst - these are us trying to get her to run over the abandoned sandcastle...

I LOVE the BEACH!

Saturday Dawn-Marie, Larissa and Brent went in to look at the shops. They left Devin, their Chihuahua with us. He cried and fussed. So couldn't find his gear so put him in Leeloo's harness and walked him down to the beach. The little sausage could back right out of it if he decided that, no I'm not going forward. You wouldn't think that he'd get cold but after a bit Brandon had to carry him around because he was shivering. Could have been fear too. Leeloo had a blast while we were there, but went back up because he was cold.

She didn't enjoy the baths after because the sink doesn't have a sprayer so it took longer. Plus I hadn't thought about it, so didn't have her shampoo. Small price to pay for all the fun!

Brandon got some sewing done while we were there and I tried out the pattern pieces that Jaime had created from a bodice that had gotten too big for me. Jenna tried cutting out some fabric while we were at the beach, but overall it was just a relaxing weekend. Watching sing along movies - Pitch Perfect, Rock of Ages, and Mamma Mia! As well as introducing Jenna to Cards Against Humanity.

So long as Brandon's Uncle Dave has the house, we'll try for another beach weekend late spring as another household get away.