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December 30, 2005

Happy New Year, Cartoon Style

When I was a kid, I loved cartoons. I thought the Bugs Bunny Road Runner show on Saturday mornings was the greatest thing going. I loved Schoolhouse Rock and still know the preamble to the Constitution because of it. Okay, so I have to sing it, but I still know it.

But adult cartoons? Other than Wait Til Your Father Gets Home (does anyone remember this show besides me?) I've never been one to enjoy adult cartoons. I've never watched Family Guy and I think The Simpsons are just plain dumb.

However. South Park? I love South Park. It's quirky and raunchy and sacreligious. They aren't afraid of political commentary and revel in celebrity satires. They kill Kenny in every episode and Cartman just plain cracks me up. Bottom line? The show makes me laugh.

So, when I saw the opportunity to make my very own South Park Carole at this website, I couldn't resist.

The resemblance is striking, really. Right down to the beer in my her hand.

Happy New Year to all of you from South Park Carole!

Posted by Carole at 7:50 PM | Comments (17)

December 29, 2005

Vote Early, Vote Often

Sunday is January 1st and I'm itching to start something new. It's that whole start of the new year, start of a new project thing. Apparently, I'm not the only one. This desire to knit something new for the new year is all over blogland. You know me, the proverbial lemming. Besides, I'm ready to have something on the needles besides socks and mittens.

So, I've got 2 different shawls I want to knit and I need to pick one. There's the Flower Basket Shawl or there's the Diamond Fantasy Shawl. I've got yarn for both. My buddy Jess is on board with me and is willing to start either one, too. So, I turn this over to you all, my faithful readers.

Would you mind voting? I didn't think so. Thanks!

Posted by Carole at 12:25 PM | Comments (23)

December 28, 2005

Warm Feet and Hands

Pssst. Hey! Over here!! Look what I got yesterday.

You want some? C'mon, you know you do. You can get it here now.

Now, just so you don't think it's all about stash acquisition around here, I have been knitting. Look at this mitten!

I bought this kit from Nordic Fiber Arts at the suggestion of Kathy. This is my first attempt at 2 color knitting and I'm really loving it. I can't seem to put the thing down. I tell myself, one more row and then I'll stop, but then I keep going so I can see what happens next. I'm finding it very entertaining and, while I'm not sure what that says about me, at least I'm having a good time.

Right? Right.

Posted by Carole at 2:26 PM | Comments (15)

December 27, 2005

Christmas Gifts

I had a great Christmas, and, from what I've been reading in blogland, so did many others. Our time on Christmas Eve with our family and friends was laid-back and fun. We had great food and lots of laughs and champagne punch. Christmas morning was spent opening gifts with the kids and I am a lucky knitter, indeed. Unlike some others who didn't receive any knitted related gifts, I scored. Dale got me a spinning stool and a WooLee Winder plus 3 knitting/spinning books. And, while I didn't get any yarn, I did get a gift certificate to kpixie from my dear friend, Wendy.

Christmas afternoon we went to my brother-in-law's house for dinner. We had a delicious meal of roast pork and scalloped potatoes and other goodies. We played Catch Phrase and had a Yankee Swap. But, the highlight of the day for me was this:

Yup, Jen and Barry had gifted her niece with a learn to knit kit and I got the privilege of teaching 10-year-old Emily how to knit. It was such fun! She took to it very quickly and spent the rest of the day carrying the knitting around with her and telling everyone how much fun knitting is! Woo and also hoo.

Another knitter is born. Now that's a Christmas gift!

Edited to add: Emily is actually 7, not 10. An even younger knitter than I thought!

Posted by Carole at 10:50 AM | Comments (16)

December 24, 2005

Merry Christmas

Let it be Christmas everywhere
Let heavenly music fill the air
Let every heart sing
Let every bell ring
The story of hope and joy and peace

And let it be Christmas everywhere
Let heavenly music fill the air
Let anger and fear and hate disappear
Let there be love that lasts through the year
And let it be Christmas, Christmas everywhere

Indulge me, please, for those words are from the chorus of my favorite Christmas song. It's Alan Jackson's, Let It Be Christmas, and it's quite special to Dale and I for a lot of reasons.
I wish you all a holiday full of happiness and blessings in whatever form you want them to appear.

And now, let it be Christmas.

Posted by Carole at 4:00 PM | Comments (3)

December 23, 2005

It's Almost Here!

It's all cooking, all the time over here at Carole Knits. This week we've made Ginger Cookies, Peanut Butter Balls, Fudge, Cranberry Pistachio Bark, Spritz, and Polish Teacakes aka Thumbprint Cookies.

Here we have the Ginger Cookies. Yummm.

And here we have Dale and Hannah rolling 6 pounds worth of Swedish Meatballs. Even more yummmmm.

Tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, will find us gathered with family and friends at our house. We will have some traditional Swedish foods, like the meatballs and sill and wasa crackers, plus other Christmas-type goodies. It's low key and relaxing and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Posted by Carole at 1:46 PM | Comments (11)

December 22, 2005

Cookies and Stuff

Those are my favorite cookies in the whole world. They're called Polish Tea Cakes (although my friend, Chrissie, who's more Polish than anyone I know, says no one in her family has ever made them) and they are simply the best. My mother got the recipe from a dear friend about 30 years ago and she made them every Christmas. Now I make them every Christmas and I'm sharing the recipe with my blog readers.

Polish Tea Cakes
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
finely chopped pecans
raspberry preserves

Cream butter and sugar until light. Add egg yolks and mix well. Add flour, salt and vanilla. Mix and roll dough in small balls, dip in unbeaten egg white and roll in finely choppped nuts. Place on butter baking sheet and press down center of each ball with a thimble.
Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and press down center again with thimble. Return to oven for about 5 more minutes. Remove from oven and fill indentation with preserves while still warm.

In case you think there's nothing going on but cookie baking over here, let me show you my latest productions from the spinning wheel.

First we have merino in a teal blue. There's about 270 yards there.

Next we have blue faced leicester in shades of green and brown. There's about 310 yards there.

Both are somewhere between DK weight and worsted weight. Any ideas on what I should knit with this stuff?

Posted by Carole at 10:08 AM | Comments (18)

December 21, 2005

Tis GREAT To Receive

My Better Pal sent me my first package last week and it arrived yesterday. I know everybody says this but, really MY Better Pal is the BEST!

That there is the loot. And, I'm a dope and I didn't take a picture before I unwrapped everything because I'm a little kid when it comes to presents and I got way too excited and there was newspaper and tissue paper and wrapping paper all over the kitchen. Ahem. I'll describe it for you so you can picture how cute it was - the red yarn (alpaca, dude) was twisted up and wrapped in green tissue paper, with part of the red peeking out. There were 2 double pointed needles stuck through the middle of the whole thing and it was placed inside the martini glass. It was a yarn olive. How cool (and clever!) is that?!? Really, really awesome. And blue cheese stuffed olives - which I love and have only been able to find at The Cheesecake Factory - and Knit Lit the Third and a complete set of double points. Sigh.

Clearly, my pal has been reading the blog and paying attention to what I really love. I love you, Pallie. You ARE the best!

Posted by Carole at 7:23 AM | Comments (11)

December 20, 2005

I'm an Elf

Have YOU gotten your Christmas elf name yet? Dude, it's only 5 days 'til Christmas. What're you waiting for?

Posted by Carole at 6:49 AM | Comments (6)

December 19, 2005

Christmas, 1864

Yesterday our Civil War group, the 18th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, attended a local farm Christmas celebration. We set up a few tents and fly, had a fire, coffee and snacks and just all around enjoyed a fun day of Christmas, Civil War Style.

I promised pictures of myself in the paletot, so here ya go.

I'm knitting, of course. And maybe laughing, too.

Here's Dale, pontificating for the local cable television crew.

And this is our fly, all decked out for the holiday.

It was a great afternoon, even if it was pretty cold. The fire and wool clothes mostly kept us warm, although my feet were cold, even in my wool socks. But spending time with our buddies, laughing and just enjoying the chance to be together in the off-season, was a great way to spend the Sunday before Christmas.

Posted by Carole at 8:28 AM | Comments (29)

December 15, 2005

Walk This Way

Allow me to present, for Cara, finished Jaywalker socks. The yarn is Trekking XXL and they are being modeled by the recipient, my stepdaughter, Jessica.

[You'll notice the cell phone in the photo. Jessica is never far from the phone. I think she's had a phone in her hand since she was 2.]

I love knitting socks for Jess. She wears a size 6. Really. Her foot is a whole 1 3/4 inches shorter than Hannah's and 2 inches shorter than mine. And, Jess paid me the ultimate compliment. She said, about twenty times, how perfectly these socks fit her. Words like that warm this sock knitter's heart. What she actually said was, "wow, it's like they were made just for me." Ummm. Yeah, that was the point, Jess. What can I say? She is a blonde, after all.

In any case, let me be the next to say it: I'm a Jaywalker convert. I love this pattern! It's easy but looks complicated. It makes self-striping yarn look funky. And, while it doesn't show up as well with this particular Trekking, look how great it looks done up in Vesper.

Yup, my second pair of Jaywalkers. Cast on about immediately after I finished the first pair. And this pair? They're for me.

Posted by Carole at 4:05 AM | Comments (22)

December 14, 2005

Random Wednesday

Ripped off shamelessly from Cate, I present a Random Wednesday post.

Took this picture of the sky last Saturday night. I saw the colors and I had to do it for Sandy's sake.

While some people are busy making baked goods for their family for the holiday, others are making booze. Yup, this is the annual making of Glogg, a Swedish tradition in our house. If you want to come over on Christmas Eve to sample some, consider yourself invited.

Finally, it's been a while since I've posted any pictures of the most beautiful baby in the world. Yes, indeed, Ambrynn came by for a visit on Sunday.

There's nothing like holding and snuggling a happy baby and it was a nice break from the wrapping and the baking and the candy making! And isn't her sweater the cutest thing? There's a bonnet, too, but she wasn't wearing it in the house. But so cute! And made by her grandmother Patti in Florida.

I think that's enough randomness for this post! Tomorrow: finished Jaywalkers!

Posted by Carole at 2:47 AM | Comments (9)

December 13, 2005

My Knitting Zone

After being tagged, along with the rest of the knit blogging universe, by Scout, I present my space. This is where I sit and knit.

And this is the view from where I sit and knit.

When the weather is warm I love to knit on the deck. Sometimes in the early morning, I knit in bed. But mostly, this is the spot. It's warm and cozy and I can watch TV and surf the internet (for yarn, of course) and keep up with the blogs.

I'm happy when I'm sitting right there, knitting away. You can't ask for more than that.

Posted by Carole at 5:59 AM | Comments (24)

December 12, 2005

Mystery Solved

Okay, so I'm not exactly Agatha Christie and it was pretty obvious what was in that box, right?

What? You need proof? Here ya go!

What? You've never been excited and celebrated a purchase with a martini before? Blogless Sharon and I decided that a Strauch Finest drum carder was too classy to celebrate with plain old wine, it called for Grey Goose martinis.

Yes, it's true. Sharon and I purchased a drum carder. Shut up. You knew it was inevitable. And so exciting! I wish you could have heard Sharon. She squealed! She hummed! She practically vibrated with the excitement of carding fiber!

Sharon wasn't the only one excited by the fiber, either. Mason was beside himself. I think he was high on the lanolin or something because he was literally rolling in the fleece.

So, that's that. We now own a drum carder. Bring on the fleece!

Posted by Carole at 3:05 AM | Comments (22)

December 9, 2005

It's A Mystery

Come they told me, pa rum pum pum pum
A new born King to see, pa rum pum pum pum
Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pum pum pum
To lay before the King, pa rum pum pum pum,
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum

Oh! Hi!! I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were here. I was distracted because that song has been in my head since last night.

Why, you ask? Take a look at this picture of Blogless Sharon peering into a box.

Any idea what's inside? It's what inspired my singing.

Posted by Carole at 9:55 AM | Comments (12)

December 8, 2005

The Big Reveal

Secret Pal 6 has finished and I had a great spoiler! Remember this?

And this?

A few weeks ago I received this:

I was bad and I never showed you that one but it's all purple and it's all fiber to be spun. Yummmy.

My final package arrived on Monday and included this:

The snowman is mine but the book! And the yarn! Knit Picks shimmer and Sally Melville's new book right off my Amazon.com wish list. Woot!

My pal was Cecily and she was great. She sent thoughtful gifts that she researched and knew I would enjoy. Thank you, Cecily. I'll be working on your purple socks very soon!

My spoilee was Cheryl and I had lots of fun sending her packages. Turns out, she knew who I was from the get go, but she never let on. I'm hoping now she'll be a regular reader of the blog.

Begin rant.
While I had a great experience with Secret Pal 6 I know that in such a large group people do get burned. I don't really understand how this happens, though. I mean, really! You sign up for this program and you participate. The end. You don't sign up and then not send anything. Or not spend enough. Or whatever. And yet, there have been posts all over the place on the Secret Pal 6 blog, asking participants to let their hostesses know if they never received anything or if they received gifts that weren't up to the standards. I think it's terribly rude and I can't imagine dropping the ball like that.
End of rant.

It's unseasonably cold around here today. It makes me want to say:
And that's all the news from Lake Woebegone.

Posted by Carole at 8:49 AM | Comments (12)

December 6, 2005

A Letter to Santa

Dear Dale Santa,
I've been a very good wife mother knitter spinner blogger grrl this year. Here is my Christmas list. These items are in no particular order. If you just get them all, I'll be quite happy.

ALL of these books, please. Knitting, spinning, dyeing, I want need them all.

One of these. With two extra bobbins, if you wouldn't mind. Lots of my spinning and blogging friends have recommended this. They say it's great.

This wheel. And maybe this one, too, if you're feeling flush. That one makes the first one look like a bargain, don't it?

A comfy stool for spinning next to the woodstove. Where it's warm. You don't want me to be cold while I'm spinning, do you?

Some more of this, because I'm thinking I would like enough to knit a sleeping bag liner. That was your idea, after all.

How about some yarn? This is good. And so is this. But if you're overwhelmed, just go with this. It's easy. And so nice to give business to a friend, don't you think?

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Your friend,
Carole

Posted by Carole at 11:30 AM | Comments (24)

December 5, 2005

Fibery Goodness

I have been madly spinning the merino I bought at Dream Acres studio. I've got one full bobbin plus this and I still have a bit left to spin. But I've made wicked decent progress. See?

Why the haste to finish spinning this stuff? Because! Look what came in the mail on Saturday!

I wish you could feel this fiber! It's Rainbow Ribbon Fiber Batts from Foxfire Fiber & Designs in Shelburne MA. It's so incredibly soft and the colors are gorgeous and there's little bits of glitz running through it. When I pulled them out of the box, Dale said they look like little sleeping bags, and he's right. And oh my, wouldn't I love to crawl into a sleeping bag of this!

Can you say sensual? Sure you can.

Posted by Carole at 8:05 AM | Comments (16)

December 2, 2005

Frap This!

Okay, I'm a lemming, too. I've jumped on the Frappr Map bandwagon and I'm asking all who enter here to put yourself on the Carole Knits map. I'm also taking this opportunity to thank all you wonderful readers who have already put yourselves on my map! You guys ROCK!

I know, you're all sick of doing this by now, but it is pretty cool and I do enjoy seeing all those red balloons popping up all over.

Thanks! And have a great weekend, everybody!

Posted by Carole at 9:29 AM | Comments (6)

December 1, 2005

Let 'Em Eat Cake. Chocolate Cake.

We're all hats, all the time here at Carole Knits. See these?

Those are the hats I knit for the Knit Unto Others knit along, which officially ended yesterday. Margene and I want to thank everyone who participated in our short and sweet charity drive. While the blog will stay available and we'll continue to update it with suggestions for places to send your charity knits, it will remain basically inactive for now. However, when Thanksgiving rolls around again, we'll once again request that you knit for others during a time when we are filled with thankfulness.

In the meantime, those hats I knit will be shipped off to Norma this afternoon and then she'll bring them to Kaleidoscope Yarns. They, in turn will donate them to various charities in the Burlington, Vermont area. After having such a wonderful time there for my birthday this past fall, it seems only fitting to give something back.

In other news, I have been spinning (right now it's the merino I bought when I took my lesson at Dream Acres studio) and knitting (I'm working on the gusset decreases of the Jaywalker Socks) and baking. I made this cake yesterday and here's what's left of it.

My theory is, if you're going to make a chocolate cake, then make it from scratch. And, if you're going to make a chocolate cake from scratch, then turn to the experts. Hence, the chocolate cake I make over and over again is the recipe printed on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa tin. Except, of course, that it's not really a tin anymore, but I do have fond memories of when it was a tin and not some plastic/paper substitute. Anyway, the recipe is here. Simple to bake, delicious to eat!

I think I'll go have a piece for breakfast.

Posted by Carole at 8:49 AM | Comments (13)