Give Away

Dear Mom,
Everything offered except for the mitten kit that looks like shamrocks has (have?) found new homes.  The Blue Sky Alpaca yarns had 2 nice people ask for it, so I had My Hero reach into a North Porch hat and pick one of those names. Congratulations, "Anonymous",  you win!

I've emailed all the winners and as soon as I have their mailing addresses, the goods will be on their way.
Thanks and Congratulations to Elaine, who will soon have the Carrots and Beets mitten kit and the Suri Silk. I'd like to know what brain storm inspired Elaine to ask for the Suri Silk. I love Brain Storms.
And Thanks and Congrats to Reneelynn, to whom I will happily dispatch the Cupcakes mittens kit.
This was a fun way to give good homes to neglected yarn and projects.

Love,
Kim

Three Bags Full

Dear Mom,
With your help, the yarn stash went through an Epic Purge a couple of weeks ago.
All those partial skeins of yarn that I thought could some day be….. something…… and all those yarns for projects I started and did not like, supplies for project ideas that IwillNeverInMyLifetimeIfILiveToBe103HaveTimeToDo- all of that- went in to Three- yes. THREE! Contractor- sized garbage bags, into the back of my car, and donated to Goodwill.
EDITING is my new mindset. Edit out those projects that I do not Love. Life is too short and free time is too precious to do anything but the Really Good Stuff. And just because I Have An Idea, doesn't mean I have to act on it. (Until I find a way to stop the clock, or function on 45 minutes of sleep.)
I have to say that some parts of the purge were painful, but not many, and mostly it was liberating to rid myself of the burden of those "this could be ….. something…." projects and to have all that under-the-bed and closet space cleared out.

However.
Some of those projects and yarns were just too good to donate to the Goodwill, even though they are things I don't want to knit anymore, or yarns I can't decide what they should be, and I've decided to offer them here for any blog readers who are interested. Free. I'll even cover the shipping ( US, please). Such is my desire to see this stuff in good homes and not in the bottom of a craft bin at the Goodwill.

First thing up for grabs:

 A Spillyjane Cupcakes Mitten pattern and the KnitPicks Pallette yarn to knit them.

Next:

Spillyjane's Heather's Mittens pattern and KnitPicks Pallette yarn to knit them- FYI- I swapped out white for the brown thinking  I would make a Shamrock Mitten for St Patrick's day.

And then there's:

Spillyjane's Carrots and Beets Mitten pattern (why, yes, I did lose my mind one day and went Spillyjane crazy) and the KnitPicks Pallette yarn for knitting them.

And there's this too:

6 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk. (50 grams, 146 yards per skein) 2 skeins of Blueberry,  color #140; 2 skeins of Slate, color #100; 1 skein of Iron, color #134 and one skein of a light lime green color, tag missing.

And finally:

2 skeins of Misti Alpaca Handpainted Baby Suri Silk  (80% baby Suri Alpaca 20% silk Color #21/ 100 g, 218 yards per skein) AND this handy Circular Solution Port-a-Pocket.

IF anyone out there is interested in any of these. please leave a comment and tell me which thing you want. IF there are more than one interested knitter, I'll draw a name out of one of the Young Lady's North Porch hats. Is a week long enough for any/every one to get their dibs in? Let's see how things look next Thursday. Tell your friends -unless they might want what you want and then we'll just keep it a secret, okay?

Love,
Kim

Rosi's Lunch

Dear Mom,
Rosi was one of the first two ladies to take a knitting class from me at the Village Yarn Shop. When the class ended we continued to knit fairly regularly and eventually she became the crochet teacher for the shop. In a few weeks Rosi is moving back to Minnesota. I couldn't let her leave without acknowledging it somehow, and decided a simple lunch in her honor would be nice.

Hosting events like this
a.) gets the house real clean, and,
b.) justifies many of the frivolous purchases I've made over the years.

Setting up for this was fun, even though there were times during the prep when family life and Ladies Who Lunch life made me wonder what I was thinking when I thought of hosting a Farewell Lunch. But it was worth it. And that pain that was radiating from my clenched jaw into my right ear has mostly stopped now.

I served quiche and fresh fruit on Grandma's milk glass place settings.

We had cinnamon spiced tea and lemonade.

As napkins, I used some pretty hankies.

These individual bud vases are meant to be used as place card holders, but I stuck Forget-Me-Not seed packets in the name card slot and filled the vases with cranesbill flowers. Because I only have 6 of those, at each end of the table I used a different bud vase with a peony flower.

My most kind, sweet, gentle (I am so blessed!) cousin baked her delicious, pretty cookies for our dessert. I used them as our centerpiece.

I prepared all the ingredients for the quiche yesterday and then assembled and started baking them about an hour before I expected we would sit down to eat. This made things much easier (and me a whole lot calmer) today.

The easiest of the two quiche recipes was, in my opinion, the tastiest. I found the recipe in the "Summer in the Country" Gooseberry Patch cookbook. I didn't do exactly what the recipe says to do, though. Here is what I did:

Farmhouse Quiche

serves 6

1 frozen 9-inch pie crust (I made mine the day before and popped in the freezer overnight)

2 T olive oil

1/2 red pepper, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced (I used the kind you find in the jar in the produce department)

1/4 c. zucchini, diced

2 T fresh basil, chopped

4 eggs, beaten

1 c. half-and-half

1 t salt

1/2 t pepper

8 oz shredded Colby Jack cheese*

1/3 c shredded Parmesan cheese

3 Plum tomatoes, sliced

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté the peppers, garlic, zucchini and basil until tender.

Whisk together eggs, half-and-half, salt and pepper in a large bowl. 

Stir in veggies and cheeses.  Refrigerate until ready to use. 

Pour into frozen pie crust and top with sliced tomatoes. (confession: I forgot the top with sliced tomatoes part. The quiche was still good.)

Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.

*The recipe calls for 8 oz of shredded Pepper Jack cheese, but I am a total hot pepper wimp, so I substituted the Colby Jack.

I think the luncheon was a success. After everyone left (with their Forget-Me-Not packets and an extra cookie- which they claim was for sharing when they got home but I am suspicious) I ate 2 more cookies and took a nap. The house is clean. Laundry is a little backed up but what the heck. I'll tackle that tomorrow.

Love,

Kim