Ok, so this actually happened a few weeks ago but I had to share these photos of my co-worker Darcey and I playing in the snow on the way back from a local mountain-bound school. This place is called Mount Rose Meadows and is one of the best places to snowshoe in the winter… There isn’t quite enough snow just yet, but a first snow is still exciting! I certainly enjoyed it…even though I wore my Chacos that day.

The meadows...

Darcey was a little cold...

...and so were my feet...

But the meadow was beautiful...

and the trees were frosted with white...

Hooray for snow!

With colder weather upon us (hopefully), I am looking forward to some of my favorite cold weather activities, knitting and cooking! (I know, I know, I do these year round. It’s just so much easier to make excuses when it’s cold out!) Many new projects and yummy experiments to come….

So, Nick and I found a new place! SO excited! It’s right in the neighborhood we want to be in, directly across the street a good friend of ours, and just blocks from the Great Basin Community Food Co-op, delicious restaurants, cute boutiques, and the area doggie park…what more could we ask for? It also has hardwood floors throughout which was a non-negotiable for me. I will post pics as soon as we move in and get settled…we get the keys and sign the lease officially on the 15th. Can’t wait to have our own little place!

As a final send-off to our old house, we hosted one of our famous tamale parties on Sunday, the 1st. It was a lot of fun and as usual, we had many people filling our home–close to 40 actually! It always makes me feel so loved when so many show up to grace us with their presence. I’m sure part of it is the good food, but I really think everyone enjoys being a part of our family for an evening. Here are some pics of tamale production… unfortunately none are of the final product as they were eaten before I could get pics. The tamales were accompanied by homemade mashed pinto beans, spanish rice, and homemade salsa.

Getting my hands dirty making more Masa...

Tamale production in full swing...

Monty making guac...

Beautiful avocado...

Yummm...

Wallace is camera-shy...

Thank you to all the wonderful friends who filled our house one last time… here’s to many more get togethers in the new house!

Happy 1st Day of Fall everyone! I have been so busy since the last post getting to know my amazing new Macbook Pro! Thank goodness the learning curve seems to be curving less these days and I am finally feeling comfortable. For the most part, Mac’s are pretty intuitive, but there are still things to be figured out. Mostly, re-building my life has been the hardest part. I lost a ton of photos and that makes me sad, but it’s given me a chance to start fresh too which is kind of exciting.

Besides working my little butt off the last two weeks, I’ve also been busy knitting on the Napoleon Vest in Blackstone Tweed by Berroco. I loved this pattern the moment I saw it, and I knew it would be the perfect addition to my fall wardrobe. What is cool about it is that it’s knit sideways so you can adjust the chest size as needed. I happen to be in between sizes so it works out perfectly for me! Here is what it should look like when it is done:

Napoleon Vest

Here are a couple of other things I have been obsessing over lately too:

Moving. Nick and I are gearing up to get our own place! How about these for our moving notification cards?

or these that I saw on Lis’s blog:

Fleuvog Shoes. One word: Adorable! AND they look so comfy…

SingleBbeautiful Jewelry. Simple, beautiful, unique, conflict free. Because it’s time to start thinking about such things…

hmm...

Well, back to being sick on the couch… Maybe it’s time to make some homemade veggie soup… Soup is ALWAYS good when you are sick. Especially on cool fall nights…

So about a week ago, my beloved Toshiba Laptop computer (that weighed about a million pounds and was so big it couldn’t fit into ANY computer bag I sought out for it) was stolen out of my car at a park in Reno. Now, I know you must be thinking, “Kristen, what were you doing leaving your computer in your car?!?!?”

That is a very good question. I actually NEVER leave my computer in my car and this one time was the exception. I was doing some location research for the new educational program I am building, and I was on my way to work. Since my home computer is also my work computer, I had it with me. I covered it all up when I got to the park and locked up all the doors and went for a little walk to explore. I was gone maybe 25 minutes and I came back to my car only to find that my car door had been jimmied, and my whole computer bag had been taken. Inside it was also my wallet with my social security card and passport (I know, I know, stupid Kristen! I actually had just put those things in there that morning as well as I needed them for something.) What are the chances?

Yes, the worst had happened. This person was experienced as they jimmied the door (or I assume as the window wasn’t broken or anything), and chances are they were probably watching me as I covered up my computer and locked up my car… creepy. The person who stole my stuff went and immediately tried to use all of my credit cards. Luckily credit card companies are used to dealing with this sort of stuff everyday now so it wasn’t a big deal to get them to reverse the charges and whatnot. The biggest bummers are my passport, soc. sec. card and my computer.

Here’s another stupid Kristen moment…I hadn’t backed up anything on that computer yet… I know, I know! I had just gotten an external hard drive and had not yet backed it all up. Lesson learned… take no chances… Back it up (and get renters insurance)! I lost all of my pics from the last 3 years, all of the knitting patterns I was working on and that I had saved from other designers, all of my work files including the new curriculum I was working on… everything… bummer.

So, I spent part of last week trying to recover from all of this. Thankfully, I was able to buy a new computer this weekend. I feel so lucky… and so in love with the system I bought! I have been wanting to buy a mac for years and I saw this negative thing that happened as an opportunity to get the system I wanted. So I went down to the mac store and bought this:

and it came with this:

All very exciting! I was eligible for the educator discount that is being offered right now so I saved a little money which was nice… especially since I am a volunteer right now and am trying to get by on an AmeriCorps stipend… Anyway, so what was kind of a downer of a week, turned out okay… although I have a feeling i’ll be dealing with the repercussions of this for a while… Hopefully though, this will renew my interest in blogging and the like. So for now this is Kristen signing out with a message to all of you to BACK-UP, BACK-UP, BACK-UP YOUR WORK!

Summer has been pretty busy for us, and aside from me starting a new job (back at Sierra Nevada Journeys), i’ve been super busy with the garden, trying to finish up some knitting projects, and getting ready to release another pattern. We’ve managed to have lots of summer fun as well…and it’s not even over yet! Here are some pics of what we’ve been up to so far:

Some knitting FO’s and projects:

For a little one in Kansas...

Multi-directional Scarf...

A little shoulder wrap...

Malabrigo love... Hats!

The garden is huge and on the brink of producing tons of veggies:

May your garden grow...Squash!

Tomatoes!

Nick and I went to the LIFE conference:

Visited beautiful Lamoille Canyone for a week....

Lamoile Canyon- Ruby Mountains

Wallace loved Lamoille too...

I won’t be working at Jimmy Beans Wool anymore after a few more Sunday shifts. I will still be teaching classes though. I will miss the yarn shop a lot but I feel like job at Sierra Nevada Journeys is more personally rewarding for me in the long run. More on that later and less general blog posts coming soon…

It’s been a hectic couple of months and I apologize for my absence. I’ve been doing more work with Sierra Nevada Journeys, dealing with computer and internet issues, and of course knitting like crazy. Because I don’t really want to make this a long-winded post, I will just include pictures of a few projects and use some of my spare time in the next week discussing them here more at length. So here they are:

Ishbel from Whimsical Little Knits, in Noro Kureyon Sock this one is for me...

...this one is for my mom.

Started my first EVER pair of socks...

Bottom's up!

Slouchy Vintage hat pattern coming soon...

Made my own yarn....adventures in spinning...

And general silliness all around...

Will post more details of my last couple of months later this week as I enjoy my days off. Lot’s of gardening planned for the next couple days as well as some sewing fun too. Stay tuned…

Just dropping in to let you all know that I will be blogging also on the Jimmy Beans Wool blog site. I will continue to post here as well, but until I find my camera charger, there won’t be much to show. (Yep, i’m a big lame-o.) I will have plenty of cool new projects to share soon though. I promise. I’ve been quite the busy bee lately. Until then, check me out at JBW!

Hey all, just dropping in really quickly to let you know that my Basic Neckie Recipe is up at Jimmy Beans Wool for FREE! Yep. That’s right. I’m published! You can use the direct link here. Happy knitting all. I’ll be back in a few days to show off some new projects!

So, although I have been knitting a lot lately, i’m not ready to show off any FO’s just yet. However, I have also been cooking up a storm and I thought I would share a few things with you. First off, folks have asked about my pie crust recipe that I use for quiche, which I LOVE to make on a regular basis. Here is my version of a quiche crust which is really a tweaked version of Angry Chicken’s Pie crust:

Makes 1 Quiche Crust:

1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup unbleached reg. flour
1/2 Cup Corn Masa
1 stick of butter
A small Dash of Salt
5 Tbsp of ice cold Water

Directions: Cut the butter into the flours and salt. Make a well in the center and add the cold water. Roll out between sheets of Wax paper to make the transfer from cutting board to pie pan as easy as possible. Shape edges of pie crust. Voila! Super simple.

I love the flavor the corn masa gives the crust and so does everyone in our household. When I use Pepper Jack Cheese, pasilla peppers, corn and green onions it’s a tex-mex delight!

Also, this afternoon I tried my hand at making butter. Yep, homemade butter! I got the idea over at, you guessed it, Angry Chicken and when I saw how easy it was, I had to try it. I used the food processor method as I am still in the honeymoon stage with the one Nick gave me for the holidays. It was so easy and it was over before I knew it! Amazing! I’m about to try it on some homemade bread that is currently in the oven made from this book. Here’s what the butter looked like after I finished:

Anyway, stay tuned for info on when my first pattern will be debuted for FREE on the Jimmy Beans Wool website. It should only be a few more days…

I finally had a chance to look at the new Twist Collective today! It came out a few days ago but i’ve been so busy I hadn’t really taken a good look. Anyway I am in love with several of the designs–namely Pisara and Pyoree (both by Mari Munionen who designed the Sylvi Coat I am about to start), the Aran Waistcoat, and the Blossom and Netherfield socks. Also the Sleepy Monkey blanket, Little Liza Jane and the Ladybug and Sunflowers dolls make me wish I had little ones of my own to knit for. Lastly, the articles were great but I especially liked the historical piece on Jane Gaugain by Kate Davies (the gal who designed the fabulous Owl Sweater I just finished.) Anyway, overall I was very pleased with this issue of the collective, now I just need to decide which ones to make…