Project Rusty

Super Secret Pal 11 Reveal

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:11:23 -0800

The Knitting Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You

I know I've been the worst craft blogger ever (OMG I hate when people write for days about how busy they've been and why they haven't blogged in ages), but after traveling to Texas for the birth of baby girl Lilac and breaking my camera and then the holidays and my husband's crash, I've been a little busy. Since I got a gorgeous Canon Digital Rebel EOS for Christmas from the best husband in the world, I now have pictures of the gorgeous Kollage yarn and goodies my super wonderful Secret Pal sent me. My very generous Pal is none other than the amazingly talented Kim. Seriously, she is a fabulously talented knitter. But, not only that, she really paid attention to what I needed to learn as a knitter and helped me get there. Not to mention the really beautiful yarn and books. Thanks so much, Kim. I had such a good time as your pal and can't say how much I appreciated the effort you made for me!

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Giving Thanks

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:39:36 -0800

More feast food

Thanksgiving this year was smaller than usual, but a lot more work due to my mom and I deciding to cook almost everything from scratch. Woo hoo! It was fun and tasty. We tried to make everything from local and organic whenever possible. Our menu included:

Heritage local organic bird (I don't eat meat, but the rest of my family does) - 29 1/2 lbs.
Wild rice stuffed acorn squash
Cranberry ginger relish (I had no idea it was so easy!)
Creamy pumpkin penne
Mushroom stuffing from scratch

Obviously, that's just a sampling. I have to say that it was incredibly rewarding...and health...and delicious! :-)

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Belated Thank You to My Super Secret Pal

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:41:36 -0800

The Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques

Nancie M. Wiseman

Well, I've been struggling with my camera for the last couple weeks and I think it's officially dead. I've rudely made my upstream Secret Pal wait for a public "thank you" for quite some time while I tried to get some pictures of the awesome goodies she sent me. For now, my gratitude will have to be text-based. For the record, I just want to say "Thank you so much!" The very cool thing about my SP is that she really paid attention to some of my knitting issues and has helped me solve them. The bigee was my inside-out socking knitting. Solved...thanks to my secret pal. The second is my problem with casting on and binding off...and, well, finishing. In my October goody box she sent me some wonderful tasty treats and tea (all of which I had to eat/drink quickly to avoid being pilfered by husband and children), some gorgeous purply mohair and the perfect book ever: The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques. I've already referred to this book over a dozen times in the past 2 weeks! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Secret Pal! You are very sweet and it's been such a pleasure getting to know you.

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My First Secret Pal Package

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:12:28 -0700

Yesterday, I came home to a mysterious package. Funny, how excited a grown woman can get over a box with her name on it. Weird, even. Anyway, my pictures are kind of sucky, but I think I have the most considerate and thoughtful Secret Pal evah!

She obviously read my blog and picked a box of goodies that is absolutely perfect for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for realizing how badly I want to be a sock knitter and how much my one little sock knitting issue (knitting inside out) is keeping me from that goal. Not only did she include an amazing soft skein of Lana Grossa sock yarn, delicious chocolates (that I've had to hide from my husband and children...the little piggies), some printed instructions for using 2 circulars to prevent knitting inside out, 2 adorable little zippered bags (so, so cute), a bonus Debbie Macomber book, but she also sent me Ann Budd's new Getting Started Knitting Socks. Score!

Really, thanks again. So much. You are awesome.

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My First Homemade Apple Butter

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:25:34 -0700

Homemade Applegate Apple Butter

Yum! My mom and I made homemade apple butter this weekend from apples we picked in our orchard. We slow cooked them using a very cool and super easy recipe. The apple butter turned out amazing! One note, though, we almost totally blew it on the whole canning thing. Dude. Botulism. Bad. So, I have to say that we were pretty pleased with ourselves when the apple butter turned out beautifully and the canning process went smoothly and safely. It's one thing to talk about all the things you want to do, it's another thing altogether to actually do it.

Here is some helpful info on canning fruit:

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Obnoxious Ravelry-er

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:10:12 -0700

I now belong to something like 44 million Ravelry groups. It's out of control. Must scale back. Maybe tomorrow.

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Gonna learn to drop spin!

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:06:05 -0700

Woo hoo! I am so excited. This weekend my little froo froo LYS is having a drop spindle class and I'm going! Kids are staying with my mom and I'm going to finally learn how to spin yarn. OMG.

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SP11 - first package sent

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:54:15 -0700

So did I mention that I sent out my very first Secret Pal goodie package last week? I'm dying to see if she likes it. I think I did a pretty good job...maybe even went a little overboard. I guess I can't really say what I sent because it's, uh, a secret. I really hope she likes it.

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Simple Living vs. KnitPicks Wood Options Needles

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:46:37 -0700

So much for simple living and not being driven by my consuming habit...no more shopping...blah, blah, blah. Did you see the new KnitPicks Harmony Wood Options needle set? Dammit. I wants them.

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Feeding my soul with books

nobody@vox.com(rustyk) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:44:06 -0700

Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking

I didn't get much chance to craft or knit this past week, but I did do some cooking and a lot of reading (among many family-related activities). I'm reading three books right now that I'm really loving. The first is Noah Levine's "Against the Stream," the second is about natural foods by 101cookbooks.com blogger Heidi Swanson, and the last book is called "The Simple Living Guide" and is about volunteer simplicity. All three are movements that I'm really trying to embrace and get my family involved in. I've been studying Buddhism for the last 3 years and really relate to Noah's background and teaching style (he's also in recovery and participated in a similar "scene" when younger). I think a lot of my health and spiritual issues have to do a lot with the crap I put into my body and my obsession with having to have this or that latest and greatest thing. That, in addition to recent medical findings linking food additives to ADHD (which my son has), is really driving me to find easy and simple ways to make my family healthier. The simplicity book is sort of a roadmap for a simpler, less stressful way of life. It's all good stuff. Slow change...that's what I'm looking for. Slow and steady. Both are new words in my vocabulary.

I also updated my dailyish blog today with babble about modern day rural life: fruit smoothies, fresh chicken eggs, and track meets. There are some pictures though. I'm just so punk rock it hurts (now if I could just get my son to stop calling me a frickin' hippie!).

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