Category Archives: Uncategorized

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!(again)

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I’ve got so much to tell you, I have to split it up into at least three posts!

This past weekend we made our yearly trip to Maryland and the Cecil County Dragway for a drag racing event.  We always have fun at this one and get to see some friends we only see a couple of times a year.  On the way down I knit on my latest pattern/yarn obsession,  the Big Herringbone Cowl with the Malabrigo Rios:

 

250 stitches in worsted weight yarn on a size 15 needle.  I’m still not sure that I didn’t twist it when joining in the round, but I’m going with it for now.  I had to stop knitting very quickly because this herringbone stitch pattern was a little fiddly and it was making me car sick, having to look it at constantly!

Paul and I got to the hotel in Maryland a little early this year, so we made a trip to Vulcan’s Rest Fibers in Chesapeake City.

Where, as you can see, I didn’t find much…

(Ha!)

The wonderfully nice woman at the yarn shop recommended an excellent seafood restaurant for us to go to, Schaeffer’s,where we had a great view from our table:

And I had an awesome crab cake sandwich.

Just as we left the restaurant, we got THE CALL…

Our friend Rob had almost made it to the hotel when he had a trailer tire seize-up issue.  One trip to Home Depot for an angle grinder later and we were on our way to help.  I’ll tell you, these guys know what they are doing and, despite being under an overpass on the side of the highway, were able to get things up and running fairly quickly.

Back at the hotel, we always have fun socializing with all the other racers and their significant others.  Denny and Renee are friends who live in Ohio (Hi guys!!).  Renee is a kindred yarn hoarder who crochets, and I spent quite a bit of time “having her back” when Denny asked why she needed to keep buying yarn (because it’s on sale; because we love, Love, LOVE yarn; because we can’t help it; because it’s just what we do — pick any one of those) and why she doesn’t “do anything” with the things she knits and they take up space on the recliner that he can’t sit in (because it’s nice to admire your own hard work, plus it’s good insulation for the house, plus there are other chairs for you to sit in).

Once at the track the next day I immediately abandoned my Herringbone Cowl for a little while to start the Coffeehouse Cowl with the Berroco Noble super bulky yarn I found.  Which is also super soft!….

That, too, did not last long because IT. WAS. SO. HOT.

Can you imagine this?…

Paul has to wear pants, a fire jacket and a helmet.  And the inside of his car is black.  So, he keeps the door open until the last minute.

…until the last minute of the last race where he was first place in the Quick 16 bracket!!!

Hooray!  I took the liberty of assuming that some of his prize money would go towards more yarn.  It seemed like the right thing to assume.

 

 

This Row

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“Let me just finish this row.”  Does that sound familiar to you knitters?  I’ve said this countless times to Paul.  When he has asked if I’m ready to go somewhere, it’s “Yes, let me just finish this row.”  When he has asked me to help him with something, “Sure, I’m just going to finish this.” Or I’ve said it to myself: “When I’m finished with this row I’m going to bed.”  When I say it to Paul, I get the eye roll or the sigh and the resigned “okay.”

Well, the other day I asked Paul if he was ready to eat dinner and he said:

“Yes, let me just finish this row.”  The minute it was out of his mouth we both laughed!

And after that one more row and eating dinner and a few more rows….

Hooray!  We have a deck!  Railings will come next year.  I texted this picture to my sister and she said, “I think you might need a bigger table.” Ha!  Better furniture coming next year too.  We do have a gazebo-y thing to put up but that will go up sometime this week.

I immediately put the deck to good use…

In other news, I happened to be at Starbucks on THE FIRST DAY OF PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES!!!

Those are my jam!!  I love them. [The experience was only very slightly marred by the cashier at the drive-thru window telling me how much he also looked forward to the pumpkin spice lattes coming out but that inevitably a week before that happens, his lactose intolerance acts up. I kid you not.  He really said that.]

And speaking of fall when the PSL’s come out, so does the potential for frost:

We were prepared (actually, Paul was prepared) with this humongous tarp that happens to fit over the whole garden. My tomatoes are finally starting to turn color and my one, lone butternut squash is hanging in there and ripening.

Raise your hand if you took advantage of Craftsy’s free viewing day yesterday.  I did!  I watched a class on how to make bread.  I’m hoping to make sandwich bread and English muffins sometime soon.  For some reason I can’t find the exact class to share with but you can click here for a link to Craftsy Food and Cooking Classes. It was fun and very interesting!  I’m hoping to take the Handmade Sourdough: From Starter to Baked Loaf  class next.  Sourdough is one of my favorite breads – especially when it is toasted and spread with butter and jam.  Let me know if you viewed any classes and what you liked!

And now I’m off to finish several rows on my commissioned knitting project so I can show it to you in the next post!

 

 

Nearly There and FREE Craftsy Classes

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I’ve got two quick things to tell you about today:  A nearly finished knitting project and an opportunity to try Craftsy with some FREE Craftsy classes!

The Nearly There Knitting Project:

I am so excited to report that I am nearly done with my first (of four) commissioned knitting projects!  I haven’t finished a knitting project in more than three months so this feels like quite an accomplishment (she says optimistically, even though she is not completely done but nearly done).  I have been very slowly, a little each day, working on this one and I just had to show you how “nearly there” it is:

Amy Shawl by Romi Hill

Amy Shawl by Romi Hill

This has been a fun project and the edging was a great way of pacing myself.  I would do one 24-row repeat of 30 stitches each day.  Nice and manageable.  Stay tuned for the finished and blocked project pictures.  And it better be fun because my second commissioned project is to make another one exactly like it!

The FREE Craftsy Classes:

On Labor Day, Monday, September 4, Craftsy is offering FREE one-day access to ALL of their online classes. All you have to do is sign up with your email address and you can watch all day long!  They have all kinds of online video classes: cooking, baking, sewing, quilting, photography, home decor, knitting, crochet.  This is the perfect opportunity to see if you would like Craftsy and did I mention it is FREE???

I recently purchased the Knit Faster With Continental Knitting class and I loved it! I’ve heard that using the continental method (holding the yarn in your left hand and “picking”) can be more gentle on your hands/arms.  I have also heard you can knit faster with this method — who wouldn’t want to knit faster so you can knit more so you can buy more yarn to knit faster with?  My local yarn shop will be so appreciative!

The class was great video instruction with a great teacher.  You can pause and rewind and rewatch any or all of the class as many times as you want.  I am now practicing this method while working on my Dreaming of Spring hat:

Dreaming of Spring

By the way I also took the class Design Your Own Cowl with Laura Nelkin and as a result of that designed and published my Easy Cozy Cowl!

So, sign up here with your email address and they will email you on September 4 with a link to your free access!

One More Thing….

We’ve got one decking board in place…

Hoping to be done by the end of the year weekend!

 

(I am a Craftsy affiliate, which means if you sign up for something with links from this blog, I get a little kickback.  Please know that I only participate in affiliate programs and recommend products that I truly like.) 

 

 

 

5 Things to Look Forward to in Pumpkin Spice Season

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All things pumpkin spice are coming!  Raise your hand if you love it too.

It is August 28, which means in four days it will be September 1, which means it is practically fall and that means….well, pumpkin spice. I know that many people are aggravated by all the pumpkin spice things because it really is everywhere, but I have to say that I love (almost) all of them! I love the taste but mostly I love what they signify:  Fall is here and that is my favorite time of year. Other things I love about fall…. the changing leaves, the crisp air, cozy wool sweaters, fiber festivals, apples, apple crisp.

But as far as pumpkin spice goes, I’m a huge fan and I’m dying to get this mug.  And here are my 5 favorite pumpkin spice things:

First and foremost, Pumpkin Spice Muffins from Dunkin’ Donuts.  My absolute favorite.  I will take a pumpkin donut in a pinch, but they are definitely not the same.  And I’m always so disappointed when they are gone for the season.

Then there is my favorite homemade Pumpkin Spice Bread from my handy dandy, always trusty Good Housekeeping Cookbook. It has maple syrup in it and I love adding raisins or fresh cranberries.  And eating it toasted with butter.

Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks.  Can’t get enough of those at the drive-through, so I usually buy the instant ones to have at home.

These Via Instant packets are sooooo good.

Pumpkin Spice Candles make the house smell so fall-ish and homey….

(Click on the pictures to get them on Amazon)

Then there are knitted Spice Pumpkins!

Knitted Spice Pumpkin

I made seven of these last year and then gave them all away.  Hopefully I’ll be back to knitting soon so I can make more.  I will also be teaching a class at The Spinning Room this October.  They are a cute and quick little project.

Here is what I do not like:  Pumpkin Spice m&m’s.  They are terrible.

Here’s looking forward to a crisp-aired, cozy-sweatered, yummy pumpkin-spiced fall!

(And stay tuned because it will also be slow-cookering-all-the-things season….)

 

 

While the Cat’s Away…

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Paul and his friend Rob went to a drag racing event in Ohio this week. So, while the cat’s away, the mouse…..

1) Watches him live streamed on the internet while planning a new knitting project and having an iced coffee!

(That’s him in the wagon on the screen!)

2) Works on the re-finishing of the 1950’s-ish desk found at the Habitat Re-Store:

….while still watching the live streamed drag racing event. (pay no attention to the recycling or the questionable electrical outlet…)

3) Does a little yarn shopping:

(… while still watching. I brought my iPad to the shop with me!)

You’d think I wasn’t limiting my knitting at the rate I’m buying new yarn.  But The Spinning Room put out their weekly newsletter saying they got in a big box of Malabrigo and I had to go browse. I just couldn’t resist this Malabrigo Rios.  I love, Love, LOVE knitting with this yarn.  And I have no idea what I’ll knit with it yet, so I bought four skeins to hopefully leave my options open.  It just won’t be a sweater or a blanket.

4) Gets takeout Japanese food including gyoza and shrimp tempura rolls with lots of pickled ginger. YUM.

5) Goes to some tag sales and finds this:

And some books:

LOVE Harlan Coben.  Like Joanne Fluke. (click down there to get on Amazon)

And sees this beautiful scene in Berne, NY:

5) Cleans the house and goes to the transfer station.  Booooooooo.  Who voted to do that????

Speaking of the new knitting project, I found this Dreaming of Spring hat pattern that I thought would make a great fall class.

It is knit with bulky yarn (mine is Azteca) and big (square) needles and is a small project, all of which should be easy on the elbows.  I am also attempting to knit it in the continental knitting style to see if that helps. But what is cool about this hat pattern is that it is knit flat, on the bias and then seamed.

Not your everyday hat pattern that’s for sure.  I like that about it and I think it will make a great class.

And speaking of iced coffee, if you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit obsessed with good beverage containers.  In case you are interested (like you need another recommendation for a beverage container)  I love my Lilly Pulitzer Insulated Tumbler.

It’s not quite like that one (click on that to see on Amazon) but similar.  Keeps things cold and doesn’t sweat on the outside.  And it’s pretty!

As promised in my last post, here are our eclipse photos:

My pinhole thing-a-ma-jig….

We also had Paul’s welding helmet…..

That’s not really what we saw.  We were actually able to see the moon in front of the sun.  It was cool.

I’ve got another 24 hours or so until Paul gets home.  That’s plenty of time to get into some more trouble!  I think I’ll  do something really crazy like make zucchini, carrot, apple bread.

 

 

The Fairs and The Eclipse and New Knitting Pattern Obsessions

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What a crazy busy week we’ve had!

Last Friday, Paul and I went to the Madison-Bouckville Antique Fair.  Aside from the extremely muggy air and the TWO shaved ices I had to have to combat that, it was a good haul day!

We added the bottom two blue bowls and the top yellow bowl to our Fiestaware collection:

We haven’t been adding to our collection (which I started at least 15 years ago) too much in recent years but lately we are finding these fruit bowls to be very useful.

We also got this great set of vintage Pyrex mixing bowls:

I’ve been looking to replace my current mixing bowl set because…. my elbows. It is VERY heavy.  These are much lighter.

We got the additional covered dish to go with it:

(Holding some yummy grilled veggies.)

And now I’m obsessed with finding a matching pink refrigerator set which one of the vendors told me is hard to find.  Challenge accepted!

Oh, and Paul found another 1950s-era stool to refinish (no picture).  He now has FIVE to work on.

Did I say how muggy it was?  We were so happy to get into the truck with the A/C.

Then it was Saturday and we made our yearly trip to the Altamont fair.  Unfortunately, I did not participate in the spinning bee this year, but we went to watch and lend our support:

We also saw some animals:

And stopped at my favorite vendor, the Tupperware lady!  Last year, I got the set of Tupperware 16oz Impressions Dripless Tumblers I told you about in this post.  And this year?

The Tupperware Hamburger Press Set. It makes perfectly sized hamburgers and comes with four stackable storage compartments.  I can’t wait to use it.  We often get ground sausage too and it is so sticky to try and form patties, so this will be great! (Click there if you want to get one)

There was also fair food to be had.  We may or may not have had some ribbon chips, pizza, gyro, cider donuts and/or slush puppies.

Monday was the eclipse!  Thank goodness for Paul’s welding helmet (that man has everything!)…

Ha! And I just realized we took the pictures with Paul’s phone and he is not here and I want to get this published so I will post them next time.  It was cool, to say the least.

Then there was the progress on the deck that happened yesterday:

So exciting.  We are this close to having a platform to sit on…

Lastly, I’m sharing with you my latest knitting pattern obsessions.  I’m not really knitting yet, but still drooling over searching for the next thing I will knit when I do…

I found this great swingy sweater called Selva by Nadita Swings:

Selva by Nadita Swings

And then I got an email from KnitPicks and found these great patterns:

The Oakwood Poncho:

The Tilework Afghan:

(Love that color combo! Hmmm, same as the poncho…)

And the Rainbow Knit Blankie:

I am itching to get knitting!

Whew!  See? A busy/crazy week!  How was yours?

 

 

The Struggle

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The struggle is real, people. Plain and simple, my elbows still hurt.  And I can’t knit very much in the name of resting them, but resting them is hard because you need your arms/elbows for, oh, pretty much EVERYTHING.  This is not going to be a terribly whine-y post, I promise!  I’m just putting it out there to apologize that even though my blog is called Lizy Tish Knits, I don’t knit (very much).  And I might not for a while still and won’t have too many knitting things to show you. So I’m struggling a little because knitting is MY THING.  It’s what I LOVE. My license plate makes that very clear:

And I’m going a tiny bit stir crazy not being able to knit ALL THE THINGS, ALL THE TIME.  So, I will do my best to blog about ALL THE OTHER THINGS besides knitting, with a tiny bit of knitting thrown in and hopefully you will still come back and read.

I am trying to make the best of the situation by knitting the little that I can and enjoying every few minutes of it!  Here is my work-in-progress of the Amy Shawl by Romi Hill that I am knitting on commission:

I think it is very pretty.  I am a little less than halfway done with the applied border.  I knitted the body of the shawl first, then I am knitting perpendicular to the shawl to apply the border, joining it to the border as I go.  It looks like there are a lot of stitches on my needle to knit, but I’m only working on the 34 stitches of the border and on every other row, knitting one of the rest of the stitches. Pretty cool how it goes. It will look great when it is blocked – all those lace-y holes will open up and really show the pattern.

I also went ahead and ordered the Knit Picks Options Foursquare Interchangeable Needle Set.  The square shape of the needle tips are supposed to help with the strain on my hands and therefore elbows too.  I can’t, however, change my needles in the project above because with the square needles, your gauge changes so that would not be good!   Next project, I’ll use these.

And I’m doing things to treat my arms/elbows right:

The thing on the right is an arm massager!  You stick your hand/arm through it and move your arm in and out.  Feels great!  A friend of mine very nicely gave this to me but you can find them (or things like it) here:Forearm Massager.  I also got this great Therapy Massage Ball Set which I can not only use on my arms but everywhere else!  It comes with links to videos and I followed a great one for massaging the bottom of your feet.  Felt soooooo good.  Click up there or here for more info:

In other news, Paul and I went for a quick mid-week racing test-and-tune session:

He is getting ready for a special kind of drag racing event.  Usually, he races and in between runs, tweaks motor things if needed and then races again. He also, based on the time of his races, chooses his dial-in time to race against.  In this race, he has to drive around town for 30 minutes, then make three back-to-back passes down the track and try to get as close the time of 11.0 seconds as he can.  He has to do all of this without touching anything on the motor or making any adjustments etc.  Definitely a little more challenging, especially since he doesn’t usually keep much gas in the tank (to keep the car lighter and hence, faster) so he’s not really sure how much to put in the tank to drive around for 30 minutes and then make three passes.  Should be interesting!

Also, we have this exciting-ness going on:

(That’s our friend Tyler in the hole.)

(Paul moved that whole pile of rocks himself because…my elbows.  I’m extremely a tiny bit not sad that I couldn’t help.  Don’t tell Paul.)

Hooray for a new deck!!

And the blue heron came to visit which is always fun to see:

They are very tall and very graceful and very stealth when catching frogs!

 

 

 

Four Great Summer Reading Books and A Favorite Thing

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In the summer I’m always excited to compile some books to read just in the summer.  Summer evokes the idea of vacations and relaxing and what better way is there to relax than with a book? Aside from knitting.  If I can’t relax with my knitting these days, I’ll be darn sure to be relaxing with a book.  Books are my second favorite obsession hobby.  Summer is about halfway over, but there is still plenty of time for you to add to your list. I have four great summer reading books to recommend to you today!  And then I’ll tell you about a favorite thing….

The Books: (Click on book pictures to go to Amazon)

#1) Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrick Backman :  A great book about a quirky woman who ends up in a small town and has to figure out life, as well as how to get along with the town.  Funny and also poignant.  I laughed, I cried.  (This author also wrote A Man Called Ove, which is on my nightstand.)

#2) Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple:  This is the author of Where’d You Go Bernadette (which I also really liked).  This one is also funny and poignant ( I guess I like that in a book).  A look at a woman’s life and marriage as she goes about her day trying to find out why her husband isn’t at work.

#3) The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand:  I love her books lately.  Light reading with small town drama and romance-y things.  Her books take place on Nantucket and this one is about one woman who grew up there and can’t leave.  She is known for her matchmaking skills and that’s where the small town drama and the romance-y things come from.  Definitely a good beach read.

#4) The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware: I’m currently in the middle of this but can already recommend it.  Soooooo good. It is a mystery/thriller about a travel journalist who gets an assignment to review a luxury cruise.  Things are great until she witnesses a woman being thrown overboard…and the cruise continues on as she tries to tell someone what has happened.  Again, I’m only partway through, but it’s pulling me along and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

My New Favorite Thing:

I actually have a new favorite thing that goes into an old favorite thing!

The new favorite thing is Starbucks’ Dulce de Leche Frappuccino.  So. Good.  The perfect beverage for a warm summer afternoon while you are working on your blog. And to go along with last post’s on-the-go beverage container recommendation, I’m telling you about my old favorite in-the-house beverage container.  My Tupperware 16oz Impressions Dripless Tumblers & Straw Seals .  They are perfect for an icy drink that needs a straw.   I have had them for years and they really hold up.  I even got a new set last year because I loved the colors. If they tip over they don’t leak!  Not even through the straw hole!  Tupperware commercial over. (I really do love Tupperware.)

In completely different news, I’m getting ready to make my first zucchini bread of the season!  Stay tuned…

 

 

More Summer Activities That Don’t Include Knitting

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My elbow tendinitis flare-up is persisting so I’m only limping along with a commissioned knitting project right now.  So, you get a list of the non-knitting things I/we have been doing!

1) The garden!  I’m going to make a batch of canned pickles this weekend (as opposed to the refrigerator pickles I made a few weeks ago) since the cucumbers are still coming.  And I also picked and froze these:

We have beans coming out of our ears now!  And zucchini is not far behind.  The peppers and the eggplant are not doing well for some reason. Lots of flowers, no fruit.  Except for one lone pepper.  But, hey! How about those hydrangeas from our yard??? So pretty.

2) We’ve also been eating lots of grilled veggies from the store, since this is the season for grilling.  Almost all we cook is on the grill this time of year:

3) Our beautiful weather (up til this week and now it is 85 and HUMID) has been great for opening windows, sitting in the kitchen in the morning to have tea and watch the birds at the feeder:

4) I have to tell you about my Thermos Vacuum Insulated 24 Ounce Stainless Steel Hydration Bottle, Charcoal! (<— affiliate link)  I just used it yesterday and I was reminded about how awesome it is.  My friend Chrissy gave it to me for my birthday a couple of years ago.  Yesterday, I put ice and iced tea in my bottle at 8am.  I drank it throughout the day (it holds a lot) and it was icy cold all day long.  At 9pm (thirteen hours later) I dumped out a bunch of the ice that was still in there! This is hands down my most favorite water bottle ever.  Just saying.  (I highly recommend it, can you tell?)

5) We also made our yearly trip to the Park Playhouse in Albany to see the musical Ragtime.  It was a great show.

That picture was taken with my hands way up in the air.  Here is what I really saw:

She was very tall.  Eventually she got tired and started slouching, so I could see better without leaning so much!  (Ok, I’m probably exaggerating a tiny bit. I could see pretty well.)

5) I can hardly believe it but the doodlebugs turned six last week!  Paul and I collaborated and made them a homemade cornhole game:

Unfortunately, I was the only one able to attend the party since Paul was stuck at home fixing an unexpected shower leak.  UGH!  The good news is that he is my most favorite handy guy in the world and he fixed it!

6) We went with our friends Elaine and Steve to Naumkeag House in Stockbridge, Mass.  A beautiful home built in 1896 with wonderful gardens:

We picnicked on the grounds and it was a beautiful, fun day.

7) Just because I’m not knitting much, doesn’t mean I’m not THINKING about it.  Or OBSESSING about it.  As usual.

I’m obsessing thinking about getting this set of square interchangeable knitting needles:

Options Foursquare Majestic Needle Set

Queue the excuse for buying them: The square-ness is supposed to be easier on your hands etc. (and therefore elbows….)

Also, I’m dying to knit these patterns:

Cloud Nine Ballet Slippers

The Girl From the Grocery Store Shawl (because it is by Joji Locatelli and I love her.)

Leoch Shawl  (because it’s pretty and different and has a couple tassles!)

8) And this is hilarious:

How is YOUR summer going?

 

Summer Update

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It’s been SUCH a busy summer!  Not long after my last post we went on a family vacation and things have not stopped since.  It seems as if we are settling down a little now, so I can share with you ALL THE THINGS, including some yarn and knitting!

Cape Cod was beautiful:

I got some vacation knitting done.  Made some progress on Helen Stewart’s Fairyhill Shawl:

And I got some new yarn at A Great Yarn in Chatham to start Helen’s Sprite’s Fen shawl:

And I may have gotten a little bit of other yarn there too…

We’ve also been to our favorite summer dinner spot, Jumpin’ Jack’s:

We also found a great Mexican restaurant which we went to three times in 10 days because we heard it was good.  It was.

And made another trip to the Brimfield Antiques Fair/Flea Market where Paul found a dump trac to go along with his Murray pedal tractor he is restoring, as well as a scooter:

I got a great recipe from my friend Pam, which I am now obsessed with: Firecracker Slaw….

Coleslaw in a bag; red, yellow, orange peppers; scallions, a few pickeled jalapeno slices; dressing.  Dressing is 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 3T olive oil, 1/4 cup sugar, 1T pickled jalapeno juice, 2T mustard seeds.  Nice and spicy and YUMMY!

I couldn’t resist a new Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors yarn at The Spinning Room:

Not my usual colors but I just loved it.

I’ve also taught some knitting classes but only managed to get a picture of the A Gentle Diversion class progress:

The garden is taking off!:

We currently have cucumbers coming out of our ears and I’ve been making pickles like crazy.  Soon we will have zucchini and beans coming out of our ears too.  Peppers and eggplant are doing as well, but we’ll see.  And I’m really hoping the butternut squash starts doing better too.

It’s been a fun summer so far!