Do you have Grey Poupon?

Remember the old commercial where the car drives up, the window rolls down and the butler asks "Do you have any Grey Poupon"? Well, as I was thinking about my Blog Carnival post for the week, it flashed through my mind.

No, I didn't have any GP, but I did have some generic Dijon mustard which worked just fine and I made up this tasty grilled concoction when I had guests over for dinner. Everyone approved and it made great leftovers. I liked the fact that most of the cooking is done in the oven because I tend to over or under-cook chicken when it is just done on the grill. I need to give the credit to Cooks.Com where I found what is destined to be an all-time favorite grilling recipe. I'm just sorry that I failed to take a photo of our feast.

GRILLED CHICKEN BREASTS

5 whole chicken breasts, boneless & skinless (cut into halves)
(Note: I also like to pound them to thin them a bit)

MARINATE OVERNIGHT:

Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 c. olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. honey

Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Finish on grill 5 minutes a side and brush with Honey/Mustard Glaze.

HONEY/MUSTARD GLAZE:

1/2 c. Dijon mustard
1/4 c. honey
2 tbsp. brown sugar
Juice of 1/2 a lime

Speaking of the EtsyBloggers, it will be the one year anniversary of the team and we are celebrating with a team sale from August 13-17. Visit the team shop for a a links to the participating shops. I will have a special sale section in my shop for this sale.

Purple!

Here is the finished purple alpaca neckwarmer. This yarn is yummy, so soft. I'm not sure if I'll keep these buttons or try to find some that match better. It will depend on my customer's opinion of the finished product.



I also finished the second sleeve for my CPH tonight. Even thought I measured and followed the pattern, the second sleeve ends at a slightly different spot in the cable pattern than the first one did. I can't explain it, but am just hoping the couple of rows difference won't be notieable when it is sewn together. My next step is to block the pieces, then sew it at the shoulders so I can knit the hood. I pinned it together and tried it on and I think it is going to fit. I'm so glad because I was worried it was going to be too large. (Initially I thought it would be too small!)

New yarn

My new yarn came in and I picked it up today at the LYS..I bought a couple of colors of Baby Alpaca Grande, includng this one:

and a beautiful red. They ordered about 5-6 other colors too, so I may be back for more. I love the feel of this 100% alpaca yarn and I plan to make the purple into a neckwarmer (custom order).

Central Park Hoodie progress

My sweater is moving along. Going on a 5 day business trip with some time to knit moved it along. The last two nights were late nights on a work project, so I didn't get as much done then. However, I've finished about 12" of the second sleeve after knitting the back and fronts. The hood will be next after the sleeve, I imagine. Here are all the pieces I'd finished earlier today:

Crafting 365, Day 263, New needles

Crafting 365, Day 263, New needles, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

The needles are Knitpicks Options in wood....my newest needle acquisition. I've loved my interchangable Options needles from the day I got them, but the wooden tips are gorgeous and I love the warm feel. I only ordered two sizes to try and I just may have to get more. What are your favorite knitting needles?

Well, I have just over 100 days to go in my Crafting 365 challenge. It's really inspired me to be very productive. Today, I finished the second front section of my Central Park Hoodie and started the first sleeve. I'm beginning to feel like there is an end in sight to this project. I love the cables in this sweater.

My Favorite Creation

The theme for the Blog Carnival for Etsy Bloggers is "your favorite creation". The first answer that popped into my mind was that my most recent creation is usually my favorite creation. I feel that I am still developing and improving my craft. My favorite is often whatever I have just finished, until the next idea and next great creation comes along.


Since I recognized that was a bit of a cop-out, I thought about it some more and decided that my favorite all time creation is actually...... drum roll....





This is my first (and so far my only) original knitting pattern. I created it while I was on vacation in Arizona and I've knitted it up many, many times in a variety of yarns. Each time, I love how it turns out. I've sold a dozen or so of these as finished products. I made one for my boyfriend and I made three in organic cotton to a buyer in Australia. Recently, I've made a few with Alpaca which are wonderfully soft and warm. I've sold 55 copies of this pattern. So, how could this NOT be my favorite?



My knitting needle holder got included in this great treasury today:

This month's featured Etsy Blogger has some great items which could easily become favorites of mine. Check out A Keeper's Jackpot Etsy store and blog. I love the "Ear Candy" she wrote about in her most recent blog post. Doesn't it look good enough to eat!

Etsy FAST treasury

I'm in this lovely treasury of Etsy FAST (Fiber Arts Street Team) items:

Lime alpaca neckwarmer

Lime alpaca neckwarmer , originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

What do you think of these buttons? They aren't exactly what I had in mind, but I thought they added some interest to the neckwarmer. This one is so light and soft, just scrumptious!

Alpaca Wonderful

I knit up the beautiful lime green Baby Alpaca Grande I bought a week ago into this:



It is so soft and lovely. I just need to find some matching buttons to finish it up. I have a custom order for a purple neck warmer and I was thrilled to see that this lovely yarn is available in that color too. I may just have to order a variety of colors to knit a few more of these.

Baby alpaca, by the way, does not come from a baby alpaca, but is just the softest, finest part of the fleece. NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS NECK WARMER, I PROMISE!

Did you know that alpaca fiber is several times warmer than wool and much stronger? Alpaca fiber is as soft as cashmere, but can feel even smoother and softer than cashmere. A cross section of an alpaca fiber reveals microscopic air pockets. These pockets of air add to the insulating qualities as well as the light weight of an alpaca garment.

On a Roll

I got notice that I was featured in this great treasury...all things that roll. My "repeat bag" is a resuable grocery tote that rolls up to conveniently store in your purse, car, etc.

And speaking of rolling, I'm starting to do that on my Central Park Hoodie. I've finished about 6 1/2" already. Now that I've figured out the cable repeat, it is going very quickly.

Knitting Thrills

Yesterday was a day of several knitting thrills. You might say we knitters have a perverted notion of "thrills", not exactly the skydiving thrill my daughter had a few years ago. By the way, she didn't tell me she was going to do this beforehand, I'm sure she knew that I would try to talk her out of it or forbid it. I've never been a thrillseeker in that sense.

But, back to knitting. First thrill, I bought a bunch of new yarn at my LYS 40% off anniversary sale. I bought so much I had to go out and buy a new set of storage drawers to keep it. I already have plans for pretty much all of this yarn which I'll share with you over the next few days. This yarn is going to be a Central Park Hoodie for me. It's a gorgeous heathery green that is machine washable:

and this is going to be a baby "Cable Patchwork" sweater:

And this is destined to be a couple of Cabled neck warmers. I actually knitted one this morning, just need to find buttons to finish it.

Second thrill: I've always wanted to meet one of my on line "friends" from Etsy, Flickr, or Ravelry. While I was at the LYS yesterday, I met werlkj from Ravelry. We oogled over some luscious yarn and visited. And she bought my pattern for her Mom. Third thrill, also yesterday, I finalized my first wholesale order...10 copies of my pattern to my local LYS. I reached a milestone in that I've now sold 50 copies of my pattern, though none on Ravelry yet.

Then I came home and cast on for my central park hoodie. I knitted a swatch, then managed to knit about an inch of ribbing.

Crafting Milestone--Knitting Needle Doodads

Felted needle case-Crafting 365, Day 247, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

I forgot to notice that I passed a Crafting 365 milestone. I am several days past 2/3 of the way through my crafting year. I still haven't missed a day, though some days I haven't been able to spend a lot of time crafting. However, I've done some each day.

I spent a quiet 4th of July, watching Wimbledon tennis, cleaning my craft area (it was a total disaster), and making a couple of knitting needle cases. I listed this one, for double pointed needles in my Etsy shop and probably will list the straight needle holder that matches as well. Although I really like it.

Stash busting....Busted!

EtsyBloggers treasury, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

First I have to share this wonderful treasury my beige wristlet was included in. Thanks, StoryBeader from EtsyBloggers for putting together this treasury.

Now, a confession. I actually thought about making this month a stash busting month, one in which I bought little or no new yarn or other supplies. I thought about it for a whole (almost) two days...and then I went to my LYS because I had to check to see if they were going to carry my pattern (Yay, they are!) and I learned they would have 40% off their yarn tomorrow for their one year anniversary. So, my stash busting efforts are totally busted. Instead of staying home and working on my stash, I'll be stocking up at the LYS on Saturday morning. Tonight I'm thinking about projects I want to make and yarn I want to buy.

It was supposed to be a....

Maybe it's a backpack-Crafting 365, Day 245, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

it was supposed to be a bag, a slightly bigger version of this. When I felted it, it came out a little strange shaped and more felted on the top than the bottom. And I was totally unhappy with the strap because it didn't felt much at all. So, the strap is gone, I'm going to make two smaller straps (maybe in dark brown) and it's becoming a backpack. Stay tuned for the final product.

And this photo says, it was supposed to be a cherry pie, but instead it's turning out to be bird food. The birds are eating all my cherries before they are ripe enough for us humans to eat. The phto makes them look ready to pick, but believe me they are still too sour. But, don't they look lovely! Photo courtesy of JJ.