Flannel and Lace

Dress Shirt to Dress!

2012-01-20T13:09:00.000-08:00

DH has a pile of discarded dress shirts that I just can't seem to let go (look at all that wonderful fabric!!!).

Since Sweet Pea is always after more dresses, I thought a quick dress might work. This blog post inspired me to try something cute.

I followed the tutorial, but left the button band functional (rather than sewing it closed with the waistband). Next time I might make the waist a bit higher, as it's a bit 'drop waist' right now. The pink is leftover from her quilt backing several years ago.

But she's seen me embroidery and really, really wanted flowers. And I can always use some practice with French knots, right?

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-18T03:22:00.000-08:00

Last week, I came clean about the amount of yarn stash I have. This week, I'm digging out some UFOs, most of which have been on the needles for months! They will be finished, or frogged!

Kindled Fires socks. One is done, and it wasn't much fun to knit. The needles are small and the socks are denser than I care for... But the colors in the yarn are beautiful!

Flip top mittens. Again, one is done!

This sweater was too short, and I wasn't wild about how the colorwork on the set -in sleeves widened my shoulders. I frogged it, lengthened it, and now just need to knit the raglan top. Now this yarn is discontinued, so I'm hoping that I have enough.

The Sock Blanket. I didn't knit a stitch on this last year. Not one. Maybe it would be a good baby blanket for Wicket...

And another sweater project. This yarn has been earmarked for Sweet Pea since I got it several years ago, due to its pink content (though it looks red here...). It has, however, survived to major froggings. This has only been on the needles a few days, but it flying... One sleeve done, one mostly done, and several inches into the plain stockinette body.

Embroidered Onesies

2012-01-14T18:21:00.000-08:00

I have not yet knit anything for Wicket (the temporary name for the 3rd in our offspring installments). He's scheduled to join us late in April, just in time to not really need any heavy woolens. But every baby needs some onesies...

A pack of Gerber onesies and a few hours with Aimee Ray's Doodle Motif book, and we've started a little wardrobe.

This one is next up - the dragon's a bit more extensive than the octopus, but I can't wait to finish!

It's a fun, quick way to turn out something unique for the new little one.
Dragon (DMC floss: Body - 3809, Belly - 472, Back - Unlabeled dark green, Fire - 3853 )

Mittens on a Cord

2012-01-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

Kids lose mittens. My kids lose handknit mittens. It's hardly a crime, but I'd like to slow the rate of loss. So, I turned to the coat cord! A few feet of Icord, sewn to the cuff, and run through the sleeves of the coat.

This has the added bonus of drastically increasing the speed at which we can find matching mittens first thing in the morning. Plus, according to the Little Dude, it's kind of like having nunchucks hanging out of your coat. You can pick your favorite reason for the coat cord, but they're all pretty good!

The yarn is Elegance (190 yards), which I've previously used in this sweater, and this scarf. The picture was taken before I added the cord, but it's now safely in place. It's a lovely alpaca/silk blend that has, sadly, been discontinued. The pattern is loosely based on the mitten and tam patterns from Ann Budd's fabulous book.

Of course, once Sweet Pea had a set, the Little Dude wanted one, too. His is about 175 yards of Knit Picks Swish DK (the grey left over from this sweater, the blue-green from this one) and a butter yellow skein of Heirloom easy care 8-ply. Both the hat and mittens are already a little small, so a third set may be in the works. Goodness knows I've got the stash for it!

Year of the Family Recipe begins with... Salad Spotlight!

2012-01-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

Family recipes... the ones that get made over and over again. Or the ones that are so bad everyone remembers the night you tried them, and ordered pizza instead. I have a separate blog where I track all of my food exploits. It's more of a scientific notebook than food blog, really. I record all the recipes I try, even the one that turn out... not so hot. Negative results are still results, after all! But, I wanted to bring some of the more successful and repeated recipes to this blog as well.

This year, my goal is to get 365 more recipes onto that blog. I use it all the time when I'm short on time, don't feel like going to the store, and need some inspiration. I started out with 46, so I should get a grand total of 401 recipes on their by the end of the year. Starting with.. salad!

These salads are the mainstays of my lunches. They're easy to throw together, either before work or at home. When I take them to work, I have a jar of plain lettuce, then carry the rest in a separate jar. Mix at work, and... ta-da!

Every weekend I cut and wash a big bunch of lettuce, then keep it in a gallon bag in the fridge. You can try this idea here, but I don't have a Food Saver. I don't, however, have any problems with browning edges.

1. Cobb

2. Greek

3. Quick Taco Salad

4. Bacon Turkey Salad

3. California Goat

More Stashbusting

2012-01-06T06:43:00.000-08:00

2012 has many big changes in store for us. We are planning a Big Move - not far, but hopefully buying a house! While I'm excited about some of the changes, the actual act of moving is a bit daunting. I look around our house, and imagine putting it all (toys! clothes! yarn! electronics! fabric!) in boxes and get a little weak.

For example:

That's not all of the stash, just the part I haven't seen in awhile. It doesn't include the laceweight, or the handspun, or the drawer of fingering weight for colorwork. Or the sockyarn. It takes up half a dresser. There's a sweater's worth of Malabrigo, a couple of half-frogged sweaters that don't fit, but mostly... odds and ends. Some labeled, some not so much. Most of it has remained untouched for ~1.5 years, possible 2. It's a mess, and I'm starting to resent the space it's taking in my house. And, the potential packing it represents for a move.

So... Stashdown '12. It's on.

Trying out Applique

2012-01-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

I've been intrigued by applique for awhile. I got a few books from the library, read all sorts of blog posts, then decided to just try it out! The night before we left for our awesome Thanksgiving trip to DC, I cut out two large rectangles from some of DH's old jeans. Then I used the method from this blog post to make some circles. I cut my pattern circle by tracing the top of a pint glass on some cardboard on the way to the recycling bin.

By the time we were on the way home, I had this:

I folded over the top, sewed it down, and ran a ribbon through it, to get a handy bag:

It currently hangs from the doorknob and holds my machine's foot pedal and power cord!

Applique no longer scares me! In fact, I've got big plans...

Next up on my 2012 sewing list:
A Christmas Tree skirt! - I love this one
Embroidered Onesies
An abstract wall hanging
A duvet cover - with more circles!

In Closing...

2011-12-31T06:19:00.000-08:00

In closing, what I've learned this year...
1. Reconnecting with old friends is fantastic!

2. I can host a birthday party of 4 year olds without losing my mind.

3. Knitting is not the only hobby!

4. Even with no knitting mojo, I can turn out socks (7.5 pairs this year):

(Stroll Tonal in Springtime, 240 yards)

(madelinetosh sock in some fantastically grey colorway, 270 yards)

5. Cooking is a gateway hobby to science.

6. Vacations are a blast.

7. Vacations at home are equally fantastic.

8. My kids are old enough to enjoy camping and museums.

(somehow I didn't get any pictures of the tent - just the kids' and the campground playground)

9. Pretty soon, not all my kids will be so grown up!

Llama Llama Sweater!

2011-09-16T03:43:00.000-07:00

This sweater has gone to its recipient, so I can now share it with you lovely people!

Yes, those are llamas! A good friend of mine recently finished vet school and is crazy for llamas. Years ago, I remember sitting in a seminar with her when our favorite instructor came in wearing a a yoked sweater with llamas. My friend and I quietly argued about who would be brave enough to go ask her about it, and we ended up both going together. Our instructor was flattered, but hadn't made it herself.... So, eventually, I figured out how!

I found a great llama colorwork pattern on this hat, and adapted it so that the llamas would have saddle colors echoing the rest of the colorwork (Celadon, in Palette, if you're curious. The main body is Charcoal Heather). The rest is all EZ and Barbara Walker. Oh, yeah, and the endless Palette Stash. 1820 yards. Booyah.

Icelandic Ninja

2011-09-09T03:46:00.000-07:00

This was the sweater that almost didn't happen. Nearly a year ago, Little Dude asked for another sweater. Even though he has this one, and two others than aren't ravelled, it was hard to say no! So I dashed through the stash, and started in with some handspun and vague ideas. Ran short of yarn, screwed up the gauge, and lost half a ball of handspun. That got thrown in the drawer, and out came some stashed Noro. Again, ran short of yarn, plus the brown started to look much more purple than I anticipated. That also got thrown in the drawer.

I wised up, scrolled through patterns on ravelry, and finally got Priscilla Gibson-Roberts book, Knitting in the Old Way, from the library. I was drawn to the Sami-Inspired Tunic, but decided that that the Modern Icelandic Sweater 1 was a better choice. I mucked about with Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top down, a gauge hat, and a calculator. Lo and behold...

Planning works. Here he is, doing his best icelandic ninja impersonation.

I chose the colorwork in the yoke from a colorwork book I have, and would use a 2 stitch thick line next time. One stitch just looks thin. The yarn is, of course, Palette held double and on size 8 needles. In other news, I'm finally making a dent in the crazy Palette stash, and this took another 1035 yards. Just in time for them to release several new heathered colors... Here is the sweater, ravelled.

Also, my recipe blog is coming along, though pictures are slow to be updated. If you're curious, we had tilapia baked with sun-dried tomatoes with creamy tarragon peas the other night. Easy. tasty, and really, really healthy!

Up next? I can finally share a gift sweater with you, because its recipient finally got her hands on it!

Preparing for A Toothy Milestone

2011-08-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I showed you my first embroidery pieces, which are still waiting for their binding. Today, I bring you a tooth fairy pillow!

The fairy is adapted from Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching Motif Collection book. I changed the hair a bit, then freehanded the tooth itself. I got the book from the library, but have really enjoyed its cute motifs and may have to invest in my own copy.

Sweet Pea has a loose tooth, and I rushed through this to get it done in time for the weekend (just in case)!

A Most Pleasant Distraction

2011-08-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm going to confess another reason that very little knitting has occurred around here lately.

That's right. Embroidery. Right before we left for vacation, I downloaded several fantastic tutorials from Wild Olive (to my hand little nook). I dog some old pillow cases out of the crafting closet, grabbed some floss and a marker from Michael's before we left, and spent most of the car ride making these little sampler/birthday wall hangings for the kids.

They're almost done - just a little binding and some hangers left to go. Best of all, the kids' love them! I'm hooked.

An Abbreviated Tour

2011-07-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

Tour de Fleece ended several days ago. My mammoth undertaking included four project, looking something like this:

My spinning was cut short by two things. Firstly, all my running goals were a bit much. I strained my soleus, developed tendonitis in my ankle, and other problems related to muscle strain and shin splints. I had doctor's orders to take it easy for several weeks. Thus, hours of treadling were verboten. I did, however, manage to treadle my Julia with only one foot.

The second stumbling block was much more pleasant.

We had a vacation! There was some 11th hour googling of travel bags for spinning wheels, but I passed at the last minute and left the Julia at home. There was enough swimming, pizza, and mini-bowling that I barely missed it!

All of that aside, I did manage to squeak out with this:

Spicy Sparkles; 366 yards of 2-ply, and about 100 yards of chain ply of superwash with firestar. Only a quarter of my goal, but enough to be going on with. I have no idea what to make with it. I did, however, try a new technique for spinning batts! May I present... Faux-lags!

I just unrolled the batt, and gently split away a strip of the fiber.

Roll them back up, and spin from the top of the roll.

Summer socks

2011-07-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

What do you do when family visits for summer fun? Other than disappear from the blog?

Make them model socks!

These are 265 yards of plymouth Happy Feet in color 18, knitted in my own plain, toe-up pattern. My mom got to take this with her as her modeling fee!

These were a gift to a coworker with sufficiently small feet. They're 269 yards of Knit Picks Chroma, in the New England colorway. I used the same pattern, as above and below...

These are 291 yards of Koigu. Unlike the other two, these are already safely tucked away in my sock drawer, awaiting next winter.

All three of these are the same pattern, which brings me to an interesting point... I apparently like knitting boring socks. I began this year with an intention of knitting 11 interesting, different sock patterns. Half of the year is gone, and I am precisely 1 sock + 1 toe into 1 pattern. And everytime I pick up that toe, I mutter and set it back down.

I think interesting sock patterns are for others. I've decided, instead, to try different yarns! Knit picks stroll is my go-to sock yarn, but I'm going to branch out. What are your favorites? Which ones have you always been meaning to try? Make my yarn shopping easier :) Now opening the forum to suggestions...

Tour de Fleece 2011

2011-07-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

Tour de Fleece. Starring, in no particular order:

Iced spice batt: Superwash merino with firestar.
Antarean brandy batt. Merino and tussah with firestar.
Tsavorite Gotland braid.
Talisman Texel braid.

It's on, bitches.

Friday Favorites: Media edition!

2011-07-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

Here are the music, books, and games that are making my week!

Gaelic Storm. Fun band, funny songs, with lots of energy. And a bit of Irish.
I just finished up book two of Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles. Here's a link to book on, The Name of the Wind. It fantastic, epic, character-driven fantasy - my absolute favorite.
Speaking of books, I've had a nook color for a couple months now. I held out against e-Readers for awhile because I've always loved the smell and feel of books. But, I absolutely adore it! And I read 10x more often now that I've got books so easily available. Also, if you're into classics, many of them are freely available on most platforms.
I'm currently reading The Winds of Khalakovo, another fantasy novel. This one has a Czarist flavor, and I'm a sucker for the combination of interesting magic system paired with social commentary. It's so engrossing that I missed my trainstop on the way home last Monday...

In other news, summer is revitalizing my interest in sewing. Sadly, I can't seem to find a fabric store that isn't completely depressing, so this obsession is on hold for now. I'm knitting socks in the mean time.

Gotta Get a Gotland

2011-06-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

Tour de Fleece starts this weekend and I'm trying to wrap up 12 ounces of natural Gotland.

Two skeins are finished. One is soaking, here's the other hiding out in our garden.

This is the last bit of fleece, and a final bit of two ply before the Julia and I are ready for the big event!

Crazy Weekend Fun!

2011-06-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday, and we are recovering from a crazy weekend of fun!

We kicked it off on Thursday with a visit from an old friend. Tika, of Largely Unrepeatable, managed to squeeze in a visit to Philly! In addition to being a great knitter and spinner, she also happens to be an old friend from high school.

In addition to the requisite cheesesteak, we visited the Tangled Web. There was a bit of stash enhancement (lace weight! Whee!), a nice walk in the sun, and a bit if Hershey's ice cream at the market.

Saturday was Little Dude's birthday party, and much fun was had by all. The house was awash with preschoolers. They enjoyed making noise, making English muffin pizzas, and eating cake (in no particular order). Sunday was another birthday party, this time for another friend, which involved just as much noise, pizza, and cake. While it was all terrific fun, I don't mind telling you all...

This was me within five minutes of coming in the door Sunday night!

Bulky Montague Camping Vest

2011-06-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Last month we went on our first family camping trip. We spent a weekend in Hershey, PA and had a blast. Before we left, I had just enough time to toss my copy of New England knits, random balls from my Palette stash, and size 11 needles into a bag. I had my eye on the Bulky Montague Lace vest. In the 'roughing it' spirit of the weekend, I passed on anything resembling a swatch and just had fun. And... it was a fun knit!

Does it fit me? Not especially! But, it fits Sweet Pea and she loves it.

This is 513 yards of Palette, which was help tripled. I'd love to tell you the colors, but the ball bands have been gone for while. I think one might be celadon heather, and another edamame? Who knows? :)

Running Break

2011-06-21T05:17:00.000-07:00

I am now 2 weeks into my new running schedule and I have a worrying ache in my right foot, ankle, and shin, as well as slightly strained adductor muscles. Awesome, right?

I may have started out with too much enthusiasm when I jumped from no treadmill running to 12 miles a week on the treadmill. I'm going to spend a week back on my normal exercise routine (now with more yoga!) then try a slower incorporation of treadmill running next week. To ensure that I'm not just giving up, I've picked out a present for myself once I get back on the treadmill. If I do get back on after a week and stick with it, I'm getting myself this super-pretty yoga mat! Or maybe this one. I'll let you know :)

Friday Favorites

2011-06-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of some of the fun things on my radar these days:

Sweet Pea just got her ears pierced and it excited about all the associated accoutrements. Though she only has one pair of earrings, she's pretty sure she needs an earring holder. Some time on Craftster brought this one to my attention. Easy, and super cute :) Though I might cover the felt with cute quilting prints.
I have become addicted to Starbucks Via. I never liked the taste of instant coffee before, but this is fantastic. I avoid the flavored once because they come preloaded with sugar, but the Columbian is a fantastic, every day alternative to mucking about with coffee grouns.
Sweet Pea and I now have matching workout shorts, thanks to a sale at Old Navy. They're $5 each, and the girls' XL was big enough for me (though I couldn't bring myself to get the hot pink Zebra...). Matching might be a bit corny, but she loves it and they're only little once :)
Apples and peanut butter. Hardly a recipe, but a great snack.
For another fruit based snack, we're planning on fresh strawberries with creme fraiche. Dorie Greenspan's Creme Fraiche (you can find the recipe here) has been on my to-do list for awhile, and I finally have heavy cream in the fridge! Yippee!

That's all I've got today. Have a good weekend!

Languishing Scarf

2011-06-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

This scarf languished in the WIP bin for a ridiculously long time. Ridiculously. The yarn is Casbah Sock (in Woodland colorway), which was a present from my mom (Hi Mom!). It has enough cashmere content that I was a little intimidated at first. I mean, what if I screwed it up? So, it languished (and was petted) for nearly a year before I settled on a simple pattern that highlighted its pretty color changes without a distracting pattern.

So, by the end of 2009, I had cast on as per The Commuter Scarf pattern. The pattern is simple, and really great for variegated or handpainted yarns.

Then, I was whisked into the 10 Shawls in 2010, and this scarf languished in a drawer for an entire year! I got it out in January, only to realize that a single skein would make a scarf that was a bit too short for my tastes... Luckily, I tracked the colorway down again, didn't bother with the dyelot, and managed to get 134 yards into a luscious scarf.

Fruit Fun!

2011-06-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

We just finished a crazy busy weekend, which involved a fun party on Saturday night. Since much of the earlier part of the day was taken up with family-goodness, I knew I wouldn't have time to make anything elaborate. I opted, instead, to make a quick fruit tower (which I'd seen in this month's issue of Food Network magazine).

Less than ten bucks at the local produce store got us melons, strawberries, and grapes. I dug the skewers out of the grilling bin, and we were good to go. I cut off a bit of the bottom of the watermelon (enough so it sat flat), then halved it to make a nice, stable base for the skewers. The one in the magazine had perfectly round melon balls, but that was a bit fussy for me. I opted for cubed melons, halved strawberries, and good old grapes. I think the different shapes gave it visual interest (and were waaay easier than messing with perfect spheres).

Need two other bonuses to this project? If you use a paper plate under the base, it's entirely disposable/recyclable. So, if you're planning on heading to a party elsewhere, you don't have to worry about packing back your dishes. Also, if you've got older kids (who can be trusted with skewers) it's a great project for making patterns!

Half a plan

2011-06-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

Running a marathon is always one of those things I've wanted to do, but not been sure I had it in me. Last week a friend asked if I wanted to run a half-marathon with her next fall, and I tentatively accepted. Part of me was squeeing with delight, and part was utterly convinced that I could never pull it off (that's the self-doubting part). I spent a week yoyoing between the two, and have dedicated this week to a feasibility study...

I grabbed several portable electronics, fired up the treadmill, and spent about an hour on the Runner's World training page. I've run on the treadmill both Tuesday (3.65 miles in 31 minutes) and Thursday (2.58 miles in 24 minutes). Today I also did a bit of Wii jogging as a warm up and cool down. It's been years since I did regular, actual running and now I have that familiar tightness in my legs and am scrambling to remember all my old stretches!

I'm planning on a Saturday treadmill run, then next week I might look into some interval training After a few weeks I'm hoping to get pretty comfortable doing 4 miles. Then I might commit to a race. After all, half a marathon is only half a commitment. It should be half as intimidating, right? Right??

Bark of the Spruce

2011-06-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

I've dabbled in dyeing both my own yarn and fiber. Just after I got my wheel, I dyed and spun up this, my Spruce Sky Merino from Jan 2010.

I recently got a copy of Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece and wanted to dabble with a way of doing multiple colors in the oven.

I used the fleeve leftover from my Spruce Sky superwash merino because it didn't have quite enough color to suit my tastes. The finished yarn was a little washed out, so I added more to these braids.

Then I took one of those braids and overdyed it brown.

I spun the singles up,

... then plied the overdyed brown with the brighter orange and green. There's a bit more color, not too much of the orange.

There's a bit of barber-poling in the finished yarn, but I'm hoping it mellows as I knit. Now... what to knit?

New Recipes

2011-05-31T16:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome, dear friends, to the final day of my Recipe Countdown. On June 1st of last year, I started keeping track of every recipe we cooked. I fell a little short of 365 new recipes in 365 days, but I'm pretty proud to say that we managed 238 new recipes! Tonight's success involved Prosciutto-Wrapped Tilapia (adapted from America's Test Kitchen Simple Recipes) and Warm Broccoli Salad.

I'm working on classifying and categorizing all the trials (and tribulations!). Would there be interest in the actual recipes? If so, I can work on making them available on another site.

I wonder what to cook now...

Inishturk: A Lesson in Blocking

2011-05-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of last winter, Mr. Book expressed interest in a new handknit sweater. After the planning dust settled, there were two in the works - a monstrously cabled one out of commercially spun yarn, and enough fiber for a simple handspun.

I specifically tracked down a commercially spun BFL, then dyed it grey. Halfway through the last sleeve, I realized I was going to need more and I carefully dyed a second batch, then alternated 'dyelots' I knit it all up, sewed it together. Too impatient to wait for blocking, I threw it at him and asked him to try it on.

We both silently cringed when it was too small. He's been married to a knitter long enough to say something soothing about blocking, then take it off and put it on a shelf.

A month passed and I finally got brave enough to block it (as per my last post). I couldn't decide whether I'd frog it or keep it myself if it was still too small.

Luckily, the superwash blocked true to form, and it now fits!:

1297 yards of Kickitat from Ashland Bay, dyed with Jacquard Acid Dyes.

The pattern is Inishturk, and free from Lion Brand yarns. It's a drop shoulder, but I changed it to modified drop for a slightly more fitted feel. The pattern was quite easy to follow and has a great, traditional Aran look. The slightly tonal variations of the kettle dyed yarn is a bit distracting from the cabling, but I'm still pretty happy with it. More importantly, he loves it.

Block Party

2011-05-17T09:53:00.001-07:00

I've been quiet, but I haven't been idle!

It's a blocking party, down in the guest room. Project details can be found here, here, and here. Individual entries for each sweater to come!

Juno, Born and Raised

2011-04-21T03:41:00.000-07:00

It's not often I get to play on words with the name of my hometown, so I'll take what I can get!

If you recall the Leeks Camel/Tussah/Merino that I spun as part of last year's Tour de Fleece, you'll understand why this yarn looks so familiar. This is Miriam Felton's Juno Regina wrap, in 564 yards of camelid blend goodness. I was turned on to this pattern several years ago by Tika of Largely Unrepeatable, and its been languishing in my queue every since! I can highly recommend the pattern as travel knitting. The edges are complicated enough to be distracting during a 7 hour flight, while the middle bits are great for waiting in lines, riding in taxis, or even relaxing by the pool (as seen below).

As a side note, this is my first lace project of the year. 10 shawls really wiped me out last year!

And, of course, my traditional 'stuck to a tree' picture. I'm not sure where I'll photograph my shawls when we move out of this place.

Galapagos Anklets

2011-04-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

Back when knit picks first announced its new subtly self striping Chroma sock yarn, I knew I wanted to try it.

These were a quick knit, in my usual toe-up pattern. I used 1.5s, and its a nice, dense fabric. The yarn is a bit fluffier than the Stroll/Essential that I'm so used to. Chroma is a single, rather than plied, which I think helps to keep the color gradations simple and uncomplicated. These came out to 250 yards of the Galapagos colorway for a pair of anklets. I have plenty left, but I'll just toss it in the leftover sock yarn bin for a rainy day.

And also, we will be making these next weekend. I'll take pictures if I can keep the kids off of them for long enough :)

A Baking-type Morning

2011-04-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

First thing this morning, Sweet Pea came out to the living room, rubbing her eyes. She collapsed into one of the comfy chairs, rubbed her eyes while looking up at me, and said; "Mommy, can we bake something?" I set down my knitting and coffee (of course I was knitting...) and out came Dorie Greenspan's Baking. An hour later we had Blueberry Brown Sugar Plain cake, not to mention several other recipes that I've been meaning to try. Rather than string them all together, I played around with a mosaic maker on flickr (inspired by Jacey's recent faboo mosaics!) and I bring you this...

A host of fantastic things we've made in the past couple of weeks. My recipe countdown project is currently at 199, meaning I only have 66 more to make before June 1st! I've got a stack of magazines and cookbooks, and this might actually happen!

This mosaic includes adaptations of:
Chocolate Bark
Italian Gravy (that's a link to the book)
Marinated Mushrooms
Soy Wasabi Dip
Twice Baked Chipotle Sweet Potatoes
Blue Berry Cake
Parmesan Crackers

In other news, everyone but Sweet Pea loved the blueberry cake that she picked out. At least the baking part was fun!

Polwarth to Scarf Therapy

2011-03-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people ask my why I knit. Maybe it's because it's the new nerdy. Sometimes its meticulous and appeals to my OCD. Sometimes it's soothing, pretty, and demands nothing. This is one of the latter:

That's a brainless, nameless, garter stitch scarf that got me through last week. We'll skip over most of the details, but I killed an iPod, had several family members through various health-blahs, knit four socks that didn't fit, and cried about stats. This scarf was my fall back.

It's about 200 yards of handspun. It even has adorable little Celtic Knot buttons so it can be worn as a cowl like this:

(Please ignore the squinting and the sun :)

I knit it from this:

220 yards of chain plied Polwarth. I had heard Polwarth has the softness of merino without all that pesky pilling that comes from short staple length. I found it to be lofty and soft, but much easier to spin than merino. The colorway is Time Wars, and its from (where else?) Corgi Hill Farms. Seriously, I have an addiction to her colorsense and range of fibers. I'm even picking out the fiber for this year's Tour de Fleece....

Key Lime - Both Pie and Socks!

2011-03-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

For St Patrick's day we indulged in a bit of Key Lime Pie. I hatched the plan on International Pi Day, as it was a great chance to bake something in my pi plate, and make something green!

After a bit of eating...

The pie is from Dorie Greenspan's Florida Pie recipe, only without the meringue. If you don't have the book you can see the recipe here (as well as some other tasty treats from a neat food blogger). While I enjoy meringue on its own, there were enough flavors in this by itself! I also made the crust myself, from stale bunny crackers in the food processor. This earned it the name pureed bunny crust - but don't let that stop you! It's a great way to use up crackers a bit past their prime.

I also finished up these socks.

259 yards of yet another sock blank. I can't get over these things - I just love the way the colors dye up into the machine-knit yarns. This time we had a combination of limey yellow-greens with just a bit of brown for the graham cracker crust. I love them.

They don't fit me.

I knit them in a tube, from the toe up, and did an afterthought heel a la Elizabeth Zimmerman via Yarn Harlot. Great idea. Heel is in the wrong place entirely. I'm in search of a petite-footed friend on whom to bestow them.

Summer is Coming

2011-03-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

And I've got a sweater for it!

The pattern is Hannah Fettig's Featherweight Cardi, with a few mods. Mostly I extended the arms and body to make it a little warmer against summer AC. It's 1082 yards of knit Picks Shadow. This has taken months to finish, and it falls under both the 'Queued for longer than a year' and sweater category!

I also modded the collar/front/edging a bit, in the style of the Forestry (which is still one of my all time fave sweaters). While that collar worked for the relatively heavy City Tweed, it was not perfect for the shadow. It's a bit floppy, which you can see in the above picture. I may or may not tack it down.

Grab and Go Veggie and Egg Breakfasts

2011-03-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

When I started eating healthier several years ago, breakfast was one of my biggest struggles. Everyone seemed to agree that eating breakfast was important, but the morning time crunch makes it hard! Plain cereal just made me more hungry and premade frozen breakfast burritos or biscuits were loaded with all kinds of things I was trying to avoid.

I needed something quick (or premade) and portable that I could eat in the car/train or reheat once I got to work. Preferably something with vegetables, lots of flavor, and some protein. I finally worked it out, and thought some of you might be interested! For those of you interested, these are all Phase I appropriate for the South Beach Diet. For those of you who don't care, they're just really good.

I make these mostly with frozen broccoli florets, which I buy from Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Costco. I've also made them with frozen Brussel sprouts and fresh broccoli.

A note on the jars: I use 16 ounce canning jars for this recipe (and many other things). I think they're beautiful, useful, and the glass is non-reactive and safe at high temperatures which is great for the oven or microwave (unlike plastic). Also, their lids fit really tightly and I don't have to worry about the food spilling all over my bag on the way to work. You can see them here. I found them both at Target (in the kitchen section) and my local grocery store (in the canning section).

Grab and Go Veggie and Egg Breakfasts
Needed Ingredients:
5 heat-proof jars
5 c frozen broccoli (1 cup for each jar)
10 eggs

Optionional Ingredients (to taste):
a) Cheddar cheese and garlic salt
b) Soy sauce, sesame oil, and cashews
c) Garlic, thyme, and a triangle of laughing cow cheese
d) Pepper, thyme, and lemon juice
e) Oregano, garlic, spponful of tomato sauce, and Mozzarella (I often use string cheese)

Make ahead version:
Put jars on cookie sheet and preheat oven to 325F. Put 1 c of broccoli in each jar, Put 2 eggs in each jar, and optional ingredients on top. Bake for about 20 minutes, stpulling out to stir once or twice to get the flavors mixed in.

Hurried, 'that morning' version:
I'll be honest and tell you that this is generally the one that I end up making despite my plans to plan ahead. Dump broccoli in jar. Microwave for two minutes. (Go brush your teeth or start getting dressed!) Crack in two eggs. Microwave for two minutes (finish getting dressed!). Add rest of ingredients, throw on the lid and go!

Sugar Hearts

2011-02-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

We don't "do" Valentine's day at Chez Book. I hardly need a Hallmarked Holiday to remind me to do something sweet for DH.

We don't do Valentine's day, but we do bake. Maybe it's all the Ace of Cakes we've been watching, or maybe it's because What's New Cupcake is Sweet Pea's favorite book. I'm not really sure. But when Little Dude had a sign-up sheet for his preschool party, we signed right up for cupcakes.

It took some time, Jolly Ranchers, metal cookie cutters, and food dye, but we have 20+ red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, pink sugar cuffs and big red and pink hearts.

The cupcake recipe is from Pinch My Salt, and really quite tasty (even though I don't normally care for cake).

I also have these:

lovely new potholders that I used to pull them out of the oven! They were a great use of fat quarters and old scraps. I used 2 layers regular batting leftovers, rather than getting a special heat-impervious batting. They work well for pulling stuff out of the oven, but I'm not sure I'd want to hold something at 450F for a long time while using them. I do, however, enjoy seeing some fabric that I've had hiding in my closet!

Flip-open Mittens

2011-02-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

Cowls and flip open mittens. These are trends that I've seen this winter that I covet. There are some lovely patterns on ravelry for flip open mittens, but it was easy enough to make my own...

These are done with Palette held doubled (go stash-busting!) on size 5 needles. It used 371 yards and made a nice, firm fabric. I used a basic fingerless glove pattern, some basic colorwork, and garter edges at the tops:

I knitted the tops separately, almost like toe-up socks and grafted them to the mitt. This was where the colorwork came in really handy - it helped me get the tops on in the same spot on both of them! These were a practice round, for a coworker. They were so easy, though, I may make another pair for myself.

February?!?

2011-02-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

Hello lovely readers.

It's apparently February, which means several things didn't happen in january. They include, in no particular order:
a. Blogger did not successfully allow me to update my sidebar goals to include either the Elevensies or update 12 miles goals.
b. This hasn't turned out to be a huge problem because I've only finished ONE knitting project in January. Eleven of anything is starting to sound daunting.
c. A five day week. Seriously, I love snow days as much as the next person, but my kids are starting to forget what it's like to not check the weather channel every morning.
d. Beginning of my self-imposed sock club to try new sock patterns.

But it's all okay, because I have this...

Yogurt Fail

2011-02-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

I had this great post written out in my head, in which I extolled both the ease and the virtues of homemade yogurt. Only to wake up the next morning to find that, for the first time, my yogurt did not, in fact, 'yog'. (Really, I'm lacking for a verb here, and just abusing English). I have no more yogurt based recipes, and am currently troubleshooting the protocol for temperature and concentrations. Luckily, troubleshooting protocols is something I have experience in. Stay tuned.

To distract you from the lack of yogurt recipes, here's an FO!

These are fingerless gloves to match this Multnomah. I used the same laceweight, but held double and used 228 yards. I improvised the design - it's basically knit flat in one piece, with a gusseted thumb that doesn't extend beyond the gusset (so you don't have to pick up extra stitches, or knit it separately). They were really easy, and a last ditch effort to finish 12 miles in 2010. However, they weren't bound off and grafted until January, so they get to be 2011's first knitted FO!

For strategic sheep purposes...

2011-01-27T10:53:00.000-08:00

That's right! Today's post is brought to you by the Falkland's (via Corgi Hill Farm's magnificent dye pots and my very own spinning wheel).

Falkland, and is the January fiber of the month for CHF's un-club (details here) and I chose the Irish Moss colorway. It's 204 yards of chain plied goodness and I just can't decide what to knit from it.

And this:

is a camel silk blend called 'Fresh Dill' that was on the wheel when the postman brought the Falkland braid. It's 250 yards of heaving fingering 2-ply. Only through sheer willpower did I manage to get it finish and plied before immediately throwing on the Falkland (which is currently hogging all my love). I still have 4 or so ounces of this color to spin up, but this polwarth

is trying to jump the queue.

If you've never tried CHF's fibers (and even if you have!) you may want to check out this rav thread where you could win some.

Broiled Tilapia and Roasted Broccoli

2011-01-24T16:20:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I tried my broiler for the first time. Or, really, any broiler for the first time. I've been toying with my newly downloaded Whole Foods recipe app (which is awesome) and collected a set of week night dinners. Tonight was adapted from this recipe. It's also the first in a series that I'll tag 'Costco Gourmet'. To qualify for this, recipes must have the majority of their ingredients from Costco - which is really easy to do in this house! The roasted broccoli went well with it, but the recipe will wait until later!

Broiled Parmesan Tilapia

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
2 tablespoons low fat mayonnaise
4 tablespoons homemade yogurt or sour cream
2 tbs lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
4 tilapia fillets

Combine half of the parmesan and all other ingredients except the fish. Smear over tilapia and let sit for 15-20 minutes.

Preheat broiler. Line baking pan with foil. Place filets on foil and sprinkle on remaining parmesan. Broil 4 to 6 inches from heat until topping is lightly browned and fish flakes easily with a fork, 5 to 8 minutes.

Thanks to you all for your sweater comments! After taking those pictures, I got around to trying on the body that I had knitting and... either my math or my gauge was off. So, I must either 1) frog or 2) finish and gift. Decisions decisions!

January is for Sweaters

2011-01-22T05:31:00.000-08:00

As 2010 was drawing to a close, and I was trying to cram in every last shawl and Christmas hat, I really found myself wanting to work on sweaters. Don't get me wrong - I love hats, scarves, lace shawls, and even socks. Somehow, sweaters - with their issues of fit, gauge, and fashion, seem like the holy grail of knittings. Plus, it's cold out! I wear this to work nearly every day, and could use a few more. Besides, even Tika mentioned that eleven sweaters in a year might be a bit crazy. I don't deny that I might resort to tiny sweater-shaped ornaments by December, but I'm going to go for some full size ones in the mean time.

I'm turning my ridiculous Palette stash:

into an EPS colorwork yoke sweater (which meant ordering 9 skeins of charcoal heather for the body and sleeves, but this still counts as stash busting)! I'm cruising through the body, and am now faced with a decision:

Autumnal browns and reds?

Cool greys and greens?

I ask you, my lovely readers... what do you think?

And, because January is also for baking hot things, I'm celebrating my pantry reorganization with these potholder tutorials:

http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2010/06/quilted-potholder-tutorial.html
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/craft_project_simple_quilted_p.html
http://www.texasfreckles.com/2010/08/quick-and-easy-qayg-scrappy-potholder.html
http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=550

Time to dust off that sewing machine!

Beginnings with bleu cheese

2011-01-20T10:08:00.000-08:00

Reasons I don't food blog:
I have no formal training in cooking (other than a high school Chef class).
It's much easier to take pretty pictures of yarn than food.
I don't really have a niche, culinarily speaking. I'm all over the place.
I'm unclear about the copyright issues about adapting other people's recipes.

Reasons why I might start:
I love cooking.
I cook a lot.
I love the food I make. I think other people might like it, too.
I like to make things from scratch, because I like to know everything that's in my food. I'm a compulsive label-reader. Many things are much easier to make than you would think!
I am far behind in my recipe countdown. I need a new reason to keep adding new recipes!

I think food blogging might be a fun addition. It's in the spirit of the blog - utilitarian (flannel) but also a bit of elegance and excitement (lace). In that spirit, here is my lunch today:

Bleu Cheese Coleslaw

Ruby Tuesday recently added bleu cheese coleslaw to their salad bar, and I found myself looking for any reason to go there. The easier route was to create my own recipe so I could bring this to work for lunch every day. It livens up leftover chicken, but today I'm splurging and having it with a crab cake!

1/2 c olive oil mayo

1/3 c apple cider vinegar

1/3 c white wine vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tbs mustard

3 c shredded cabbage (1 head)

1 c blue cheese crumbles

I shred my cabbage in a food processor, then toss it in a gallon bag. You can also buy precut coleslaw mix, if that's easier. Either way, I mix the whole salad in the bag then leave it there or, more often, split it into single serving jars for taking to work. You can do it in a bowl if you're feeling more traditionally minded.

Mix ingredients and refrigerate!

Sock stash

2011-01-18T05:13:00.000-08:00

As promised, here's the rest of my sock yarn. My birthday resulted in two Knit Picks orders. The major point was a yarn meter, which means I no longer have to count incessantly while using my niddy noddy. I'm excited about that, but it hardly makes for a pretty picture. What does is this...

Stroll tonal in Springtime and Kindling in the aftereffects of last week's blizzard. The kindling is destined for fire starters, while the springtime is still undecided. I queued up a ton of socks in '09 that I still haven't managed to knit. One lucky winner will get the springtime!

This is the new Chroma, a noro-esque series of color progressions in a fingering weight. These colors are New England and Galapagos. I plan on using at least one of these to try out more of Cat Bordhi's sock architectures. Maybe Upstream, or Sidestream? I did ridgelines a few years back and didn't care of them, and haven't picked up the book since. I think subtle self-striping yarn might show off the architecture well.

I now have 10 skeins of sock yarn ready to go! Now I just need to cast on...

A Dye-athon!

2011-01-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

I've recently reorganized the stash a bit, and was shocked to find that I only had 2 skeins of usable sock yarn. I had some undyed and some unsatisfactorally dyed sock yarn, but very little usable. Out came the dye pots, and my house smelled of wet wool for a few days, but this is what we got:

The two at the top are 100g skeins of knit picks Bare base (which I don't even bother to reskein) and each one was overdyed at least 3 times until I was happy.

The two on the bottom are skeined from two sock blanks that sweet pea and I did together. I love the sock blanks. I don't presoak as long as directed, and it gives the yarn an almost heathered look. I did several of these a few tears ago, and made some of my favorite socks out of the yarn (like these ones below).

My techniques are pretty vague and unmeasured, but I did get a chance to spend more time with my copy of Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece (Amazon or Rav link), which I highly recommend. I mostly just throw the yarn in a dedeicated pot with a few glugs of vinegar and a smattering of dye, then simmer until I remember its going. I used Jacquard acid dyes, but I think it would be easier to start with Wilton cake dyes. There are a good range of colors, and they're food safe. The book has much more info, including some cool stuff on color theory.

Lastly...

This had been languishing in my stash as a pale sea foam green and grey skein of laceweight. I overdyed this with chestnut and am much happier. This will either become Gnarled Oakwoods or Tibetan Clouds stole.

Up tomorrow... How a birthday order at Knit picks enhanced my stash!

Elevensies

2011-01-12T05:29:00.000-08:00

I've been musing over possible fiber-related goals for the year. 10 shawls in 2010 was fun, but I want to try something new. I mentioned my current obsession with sweaters, and I've been toying with the idea of my own sock club. Then I've been finding little patterns here and there that would be fun. Plus, there's all the fun spinning! But then there are a few WIPs that really should get done...

But there was no theme! I decided to make 11 my theme for 2011; 11 things from each thing I want to knit (or spin) this year. If I do one a month from each, I should be just about on time. But there's a little wiggle room, too.
And items can count for more than one category. If I knit a cabled hat for my brother - that's three categories right there!

11 Sweaters

11 Mittens/Gloves

11 Socks

11 Hats

11 Skeins of handspun

11 Other objects
11 Cabled Things
11 Lace things
11 Gifts
11 Things from Handspun
11 Things from that have been queued for longer than a year

Anyone else have 11 things they want to accomplish this year?

2010

2011-01-04T06:17:00.000-08:00

Whew! What a year!

We've had a good one here at Chez Book, and are hoping for a continuing happy trend in 2011.

I finished all 10 shawls for the challenge, a fact only held out by two largely-garter-stitch Multnomahs in the last 2.5 weeks of the year. Here's the final one:

The yarn is a special skein of laceweight dyed for me by a friend several years ago in a secret santa swap. I've been wanting to do something spectacular with it, but it turns out the subtle color variations really wanted something simple.

I'm done with the shawls. There's an 11 in 2011, or something like that, but I'm switching gears for 2011. I was thinking of my own sock club, but I only have 2 skeins of sock yarn in my drawer. Two!?! WTH?

As for the 12 mile quest. Dudes, I was only 800 yards shy! That's waaaaaay better than last year, in which I crapped out somewhere in mile 6. The spinning wheel definitely helps. And, this is a fun way for me to keep track of how much I finish. It's also good inspiration to get things finished and have fewer WIPs laying around. So... here goes 12 miles in 2011.

In the spirit of new beginnings, I spent New Year's Eve frogging projects, drying self-dyed yarn and watching movies with the fam. Here are some of the ingredients for 11 sweaters in 2011:

A frogged hooded scarf into a cabled sweater (or this?) for Sweet Pea.

Two skeins of klickitat that I dyed grey to become an Inishturk for Mr. Book.

Three skeins (and some minis) for a colorwork sweater for Little dude.

Not pictured: A drawer of Palette for an EZ fair isle, and 9 skeins of same-dye-lot Malabrigo for a blackberry cardi. Both for me, cause I'm greedy that way. This is also going to be frogged and reforged into something that will fit my mom. I also plan on finishing my Feathered Plum Cardi. That puts me at seven. I'm sure I can find five more...

Happy New Year to you and yours! I look forward to sharing further craftiness!

My First Year of Handspun

2010-12-30T18:12:00.000-08:00

This is 848 of 2-ply, plus a little bitty 20-yard skein of chain-ply. This was a merino/silk batt called Forest glade, from Corgi hill farm.

Chocolate cherry BFL mini

This fun little thing is a bunch of color samples from Corgi Hill farm, of fibers mostly blended silk samples

This is 214 yards of a light worsted superwash merino called Chocolate wine (plus a little 24 yard chain ply), also from Corgi hill farm.

This is 196 yards of another light worsted superwash merino in Denim. The chain plying on this went really badly, and I have no idea why.

All total, having a wheel is exactly what I dreamed it would be. I love it, and I've finished just over 4600 yards on it this year.

Yarn Blocked Hats

2010-12-29T06:20:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago, I really wanted to buy some yarn. Really, really wanted to buy a sweater's worth of Klickitat and Malabrigo Worsted. Weeks went by, and things were out of stock, and back ordered, and different lots and it was all ridiculously frustrating. I was completely yarn blocked. Somehow, I ended up down at Michael's, coming out with 5 different skeins of Vanna's Choice. I'm not even kidding. And I got some great Christmas hats out of it!

A twisted rib (136 yds):

A Koolhaas (107 yds):

And three self-designed hats with garter stitch earflaps and a garter edge (277 yds):

I also got a Noro hat (119 yards) out of the stash-diving part of my frenzy - it matches my Noro striped scarf, but the Little Dude has appropriated it.

Now, it's my birthday today. So I'm off to buy yarn, my lovelies!

We Three Shawls

2010-12-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

There are several days left in 2010 and, thus, only a few days to finish Shawl #10 of 10 shawls in 2010. You may be surprised at that number, because I still have 3 shawls to show you!

The first is a handspun Madli's shawl which I made for my mom for Christmas. Since she's one of my mainstay readers (hi mom!) I've been sitting on this one for months now. It's 530 yards of a Corgi Hill Farm-dyed merino/cashmere braid that I spun for Tour de Fleece.

This is a Peacock Tail and Leaf shawl made of 308 yards Alpaca Cloud in Raspberry Heather. Also a Christmas present, finally making its blog debut. This one was a really fast knit - the pattern was fun, but easy to memorize.

The third is a Multnomah, which I finished on the 23rd. It's still not blocked (maybe I'll get a chance next year!) but Sweet Pea has already adopted it as her own.

It was a fun conglomeration of all sorts of lace ends from the previous 8 shawls (plus others from last year, and one that didn't quite make the yardage requirements). It's a total of 1066 yards of 7 different kinds of laceweight (for a breakdown, you can see the project page here). The color gradations are seen better here:

This pattern hit my sweet spot of stupidity. It's simple enough to not engage my brain at all, but complicated enough that I couldn't get the feather and fan to line up. Really. Didn't happen. Let's blame it on the cold medicine, shall we?

Shawl #10 is more than halfway done. Guess what it is? Another multnomah. Here's hoping I can get the increases centered.

Undecided Handspun

2010-11-03T03:13:00.000-07:00

If you've been keeping track of my mileage on the side bar, you'll notice a big jump recently. I've finally gotten around to adding in the totals of everything I finished in the black hole that was September. Now to share it with you, my lovely readers!

Some handspun whose fate has yet to be decided:

Chocolate cherry Superwash BFL sample. 24 yards, 16 g chain plied. It's somewhere between a dk and a light worsted weight. At this small yardage, it's probably only going to be good combined in colorwork with another handspun. Any thoughts on a color range that would look good with these pinks and browns? I feel another fiber order coming on...

Forest Glade. 562 yards, 81g. Spun from Corgi Hill Farm batts of Merino and Tussah silk, probably in a light fingering weight. This is slippery and still a little over spun, but I like it! Still no idea what to do with it. Any suggestions

The pictures are strangely moodlit, what with the trees casting their long autumnal shadows on my yard these days.

To cowl or not to cowl?

2010-11-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

Last week, as I was waiting for the train and trying to arrange my scarf tightly enough to keep my neck warm but not so tight as to choke me, I had a revelation.

I want a cowl.

I figure, as a knitter, I could make this happen. Then the following conversation occured:

Doubting self: "A cowl. Really? But we hate turtlenecks, tight scarves, and anything that rubs on our neck."

Excited self: "But totally! A cowl! We won't have to fuss with tucking in ends. And we've never, ever knit one!"

Doubting self: "We've never knit a tea cozy either. Or a doily."

Excited self: "Doilies are crochet. And our neck is coooooold! C'mon. It would count for 10 Shawls in 2010. We just wound a ball of Sea Silk...."

Doubting self: "Oh, the Sea Silk is nice. And I never thought we'd make it through 10 shawls..."

Excited self: "We can do it! I know we can!"

Doubting self: "Don't push it. You sound like a cheerleader. We are not a cheerleader."

Excited self: "Let's just check ravelry for a good idea tonight."

And there I discovered wisp (along with 2963 other people). A shawl, with buttons to convert to a long cowl. Or hooded scarf (see obsession from my last entry). With an easy stitch pattern!

Several days later...

It's practically knitting itself! Take that, Doubting Self!

Handspun Christmas Set

2010-10-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

Much of the recent knitting has been Christmas presents, so the details are under wraps for several more months. I can, however, share this:

with you, because I'm pretty sure the recipient is not a reader. Just in case, I'll keep the identity secret. Together, this hat and fingerless mitt set comes in at 215 yards of handspun. The patterns are just a basic tam and mitttens from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns.

I really can't sing the praises of that book enough. I have lots of pattern books and stitch dictionaries, yet I always find myself going back to the Ann Budd book. Even more so since I started spinning my own yarn and like to let the yarn take center stage in a project.

Little Pink Riding Hood

2010-10-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, two jobs really cuts down on my blogging time! Knitting still progresses, so I have plenty of things to show you (and some Christmas goodies that will have to wait...). For now I have a lovely Malabrigo hood for me in... pink! Surprised?

640 yards of Malabrigo worsted (just over 3 skeins). The pattern is the Pfeiffer Hills Hooded scarf from Interweave Winter 2008. I loved the idea of a hooded scarf with pockets from the moment I saw the pattern. My best friend in kindergarten had a hooded scarf and I thought it made so much sense and would keep me from constantly losing my hats.

This was my second try at the pattern. I wasn't wild about the elongated braid so, the first time, I tried replacing it with a tighter braid. Meh. It didn't work out so well. Plus, the yarn was riduculously scratchy (Paton's Non-merino wool) so it sits in my unfinished project drawer, taking up space.

This, though.... Mmmmalabrigo! I told you I was crazy for this stuff. In fact, I've been dying to make this sweater in Malabrigo. Only... I can't seem to find a sweater's worth of green, grey, or brown anywhere!

Mmmmmmmalabrigo

2010-08-06T05:15:00.000-07:00

Presenting... Tudor's Grace in Malabrigo Lace, Hummingbird Colorway.

Yet another picture taken in what I'm coming to think of as my 'shawl tree' in the front yard. At 245 yards, it's just short of the yardage requirements for the 10 shawls in 2010, but it was a fun knit. It's already whisked its way home as a thank you gift to Sweet Pea's preschool teacher from last term. This was the first time I tried malabrigo and I was hooked. I mean, really. Spongy, springy laceweight? Fwah? Really? And thus I ordered the pink worsted that I posted earlier this week. And I may or may not have three more colors of worsted in my Loopy Ewe cart right now...

The Last Yarnbender

2010-08-02T18:15:00.000-07:00

This is how much of the Pfeiffer Falls Hooded scarf I can knit while watching three episodes of Avatar; The Last Airbender. It is also, coincidentally, how much Malabrigo it takes to make me wonder why I ever knit with any other yarn. Seriously. I can't believe this is my first time knitting with this yarn.

Tour de Fleece 2010

2010-07-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

This Tour de Fleece has brought me 1684 yards of yarns, and some as-of-yet unplied singles. My wheel is tired, my brakeband is still intact, and the afternoon's thunderstorms have prevented me from getting better pictures.

First up, we have a cashmere/merino blend in Red Grapes from Corgi Hill Farm that was my first project on my Julia's high speed flier. I got 2 2-ply skeins for a total of 644 yards, plus a 20 yard chain plied skein. I didn't love the flier - instead of sliding hooks, it has sliding rings on a hollow metal tube and it was a complete pain to get the singles back together when it broke.

Next was some silk/merino from Ashland Bay in Sea Mist, which I hope is a suitably masculine color. It already has plans as a Christmas present for my FIL (shh! don't tell!). It's 11-13 wpi, which is about DK weight and I have 342 yds of 2 ply and 14 yds of chain-ply.

The final finished yarn is a merino/camel/tussah silk in Leeks that I am absolutely in lurve with. I've never tried this blend before and it was sooo wonderful to spin. I got 656 yards of what I think is a light fingering weight, though I haven't gotten the wpi because it's not totally dry yet. And, it's green! I still have no idea what I'll knit with it, but I'll be petting it until then.

I also started a bobbin of singles of the faux cashmere. But, it's not finished, so we'll save more on that for later...

It was a great Tour, and I enjoyed reading everyone else's spinning experiences. Looking forward to next year...

A Quick Hat

2010-07-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

My Interweave Knits fall issue came a few days ago in the mail. I only made it as far as the article on twisted stitches. Before I knew it, I had raided the stash, grabbed some size 7s, and cast on Meg Swansen's Proverbial Cap. I made a few alterations. As per usual, I had to size it up for my ginormous head. The pattern calls for worsted weight on 4s, so I did worsted weight on 7s. I also ~~screwed up by misreading the chart~~ altered one of the cables by doing an extra twisty repeat. Yeeeah...

126 yards of Cascade 220 in some sort of green tweed (I know, helpful, right?). And am I crazy for just now noticing that the '220' in Cascade 220 is because each skein has 220 yards? I've only had this in my stash for 2+ years.

Any way, the hat only took a couple days to finish, but was a nice little break from Tour de Fleece. I've still been spinning, but the end is in sight! I'm plying tonight to try to finish one last skein before the end....

Socks in the Rain

2010-07-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

If my neighbors caught a glimpse of me this morning, I'm sure they thought I was crazy. It's raining buckets here, and the light is awful for photographing knits. Not to be dissuaded, however, I propped open my storm door and got my yoga workout by balancing on my doorstep, holding my be-socked feet in the air to get the rain in the background. Hopefully the camera flash was mistaken for lightening and no one came out to see what I was up to.

I knocked these socks out in a couple of days. I bought the yarn at Twist, a great little knitting and spinning store in New Hope, PA. This is my first time using Claudia Hand Paints (in Fingering, colorway Teal Party, single skein) and I really liked it. I used size 2s, 54 st foot circumference and they're nice and sproingy. I knitted these one at a time until just after the heel turn, then put them both on 2 circs and finished them out together to maximize my single skein.

A Note on Goals and Rewards

2010-07-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today is the rest day for Tour de Fleece and I am resting. Well, plying, but not *technically* spinning. And I've decided what my reward will be if I complete my TdF goals... A Woolee Winder! I've not tried one, but read about them and they sound heavenly for plying. Anyone out there try one?

The other goal I've decided on today is recipe-related. As many of you know, I've lost 100+ pounds through exercise and changing my eating habits; mostly using guidelines from the South Beach Diet. Not all of the 50+ recipes that we've tried on the Recipe Countdown have been SBD-friendly and I'll admit that a few pounds have crept back on. So, before I tip the scales at 250 again, I thought I'd use both positive reinforcement and my new recipe project to get them back off.

Here's the goal: Two weeks of SBD dinners and low or no sugar treats.
Here's the plan:
Pesto Chicken
Parmesan Chicken
Chicken and Avocado salad with Walnut Vinaigrette
Shrimp and Avocado Salad
Park City Cashew Chicken
Courgette Soup with Turkey Bacon and Bleu Cheese
Halibut Caddy Ganty
Summer Squash and Turkey Gratin
Halibut with Sun-dried tomato mayo
Taco Salad
Vinegar cream sauce, either on chicken or shrimp
Chicken salad with Feta and Peanut Lime dressing

As for going out, McDonald's has Bacon ranch salads, Panera has Greek salads, and Chipotle has fantastic burrito bowls.

Reward: Clothes shopping!

Baby Gifts!

2010-07-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Spoiler alert! If you 1) have recently had an adorable little baby girl, 2) have recently sent me your address, or 3) your name rhymes with mane, please read no further.

That's right. Come back in a few days. It'll be safe then :)

...

(Is she gone? Ok...)

For the rest of you, I've finished some gift knitting and can't wait for the package to get there before I show the rest of you!

A set of blanket and sweater. The sweater is none other than EZ's February Baby sweater, and the blanket is roughly based off of the Circle of Friends blanket. Honestly, I liked the look of it, but would hardly be worth my salt as a knitter if I couldn't throw together a garter stitch blanket without a pattern!

Here's a closeup of the sweater itself.

Reasons I love this set:
1. It matches. I love matching.
2. It's tiny. Babies are tiny. That matches too.
3. I've been wanting to knit the February baby sweater for absolutely ages.
4. It ate up a shoebox full of stash. Not kidding. 236 yards of Rowan wool cotton for the sweater, 840 yards of Rowan Wool cotton and Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino for the blanket.
5. I totally crocheted. That little border around the blanket? Crochet! See? Those hooks are apparently not just for dropped stitches.
6. A new little human gets hand knits just for her.

Dyeing; Faux, Real

2010-07-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

As a relative newbie, I find myself ogling all sorts of spinning fibers available online yet completely unsure as to my ability to turn it into a knittable yarn. I'll google it, read forums, and try to make an educated decision without actually doing it. But, sometimes you gotta just jump in blindly with both feet.

This is 8 oz of faux cashmere from Paradise Fibers in Spokane. For less than $2 an ounce, it was a pretty safe jump!

Now, I know even less about dying fiber than I do about spinning it, but I just tossed the whole mess into a pot of vinegar water, soaked for a bit, and started adding some concentrated dye solutions. Jacquard Acid dyes in Spruce, Chartreuse, and Chestnut, if you're curious. At first it sucked, then I threw it in again and stirred it around a little more, and was finally happy with it! I even braided it up myself, once it was dry, and it looks all fancy.

I love it :) I did fewer happy dances in the living room than I did for the little zipper bag, but I will admit to a few. And I pet it, occasionally. I think it might have bumped itself to the top of the queue. Now if I could only get the current thing plied...

Elegant Pullover

2010-07-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

Remember this sweater?

It was frogged quite some time ago and has finally realized its potential as this:

This is the first in the round of Project: Wearable Sweater. I have a few other handknits that I never wear due to fit problems, and it's time for them to get back in the game!

The pattern is Hannah Fettig's Lightweight Pullover. The yarn is 1034 yards of Knit Picks Elegance, in a color that's been discontinued for some time now. There are a few weak places in the yarn, but it's hardly surprising given how many times the yarn has been frogged and reknit. Oh yeah - and it's hot! It'll be nice in the winter, but I had to tear it off as soon as the photo session was over. As for the pattern, I have to confess that I did modify the sleeves. I didn't do any decreases, and let the ribbing pull it in slightly. This is the type of sleeve from my garter yoke pullover, and that's one of my favorite things about that sweater. I'm sure the fitted sleeves would have been more elegant. But you can see here that they're slouchy, and that's kinda my favorite style.

This pattern is pure stockinette (you know, except for the ribbing) and has been great while I read, work, etc. Moments after casting off, I cast on Hannah Fettig's Featherweight Pullover to fill the same purpose. That'll take ages, so don't hold your breath, because... Tour de Fleece is on, baby!

Craft Closet Revamp

2010-07-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is what my craft closet looked like this morning:

One trip to Ikea, and an afternoon showing Sweet Pea how to use an electric drill, the craft closet looks like this:

All told, it cost less than two bobbins, and I can now find both sewing and spinning stuff! And the closet closes! I can hardly believe it. And, I have a very understanding husband who enjoyed spending our wedding anniversary indulging me in the AC for an afternoon of Ikea.

Tour de Fleece 2010

2010-07-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

Do you remember those woven, cotton, fringed-edge blankets that were huge in the late 90s? You could get picture, just about any, on a cozy large blanket. That was back in my vegetarian days (and Birks, too!) and my mom got me one with cool veggie pictures on it. I've carted my veggie blanket all over the States as I move, and it's held up pretty well though it occasionally loses a string or two.

Which brings me to this morning. I had set up my wheel and fiber last night to be ready to go this morning. I woke up, got my coffee, sat down to spin and saw that my brake band was broken. And I didn't have an extra. I don't have much in the way of cotton around here, so I was nearly broken hearted. Until I saw the long thread hanging off of the edge of the veggie blanket.

Saved for Tour de Fleece! I drooled over everyone's beautiful spinning last year. This year, I get to play!

Goals:
1. Spin and ply the 116g of cashmere blend, on the high speed flyer, for a laceweight.
2. Spin every day of the race, except the rest day

Teams:
Rookie
Corgi Hill Farm

See you at the finish line!

Recipe Countdown: Month 1

2010-07-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

Thirty four recipes done in 30 days, 331 left to go! Memorable recipes have included several types of freezer jam (which is so easy everyone should try it), creamy lemon caper chicken, and brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar onions and bacon. The kids have snipped their own herbs, carefully turned on the Kitchen Aid mixer for the first time, and made incredibly messy cupcakes that were shaped vaguely like sharks. We made a vaguely ok emergency chocolate birthday cake with no butter, vastly improved by its peanut butter frosting. It's been a blast so far.

Snipping herbs.

Making omelettes and snipping more herbs.

The pan-fried okra, which was surprisingly tasty.

Next up? Cherry conserve and something with a spaghetti squash that I accidentally bought. But first? Tour de Fleece, baby!

Stalled Out on Shawls

2010-06-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

Ten shawls. Four down, six to go, and two of them are on the needles. And I'm just not feeling it. While lots of people like to knit shawls and socks in the summer, I always find myself with a lapful of large, cozy sweater. Right now I'm thinking of either another Brigid, or the Fireside Sweater. Maybe it will be done in time for nice, cool weather...

But! I got a new sewing machine, and it works, and I totally made a little, lined zippered bag! I used this tutorial, and it was fantastic. I don't even have the zipper foot, yet, but it turned out really well.

I needed a new change/cash/usb key bag to toss in my purse and this is it! I didn't have any interfacing, so I threw in some quilt batting to give it some heft. It's a little big, so I'm planning another one, with a smaller zipper. Since every Joann Fabric store that I've visited in the area has been totally off-putting, I dove into our rag-bag and removed some zippers from old jeans and khakis. I sense a wealth of little zippered pockets in my future!

Recipe Countdown: The Plunge!

2010-06-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

I've decided, thanks to your votes (hi girls!) to take the plunge. I've created a little page on the blog for finished recipes and have been diligently keeping track of what I cook. I'm toying with different organization ideas but, for now, you can find the finished recipes in the side bar and the ticker under 'Dopamine Circuit'. I hardly want to bombard my few but loyal readers with daily recipes, but I'll link to some of the more interesting ones.

Phew. Commitment to excel. Gotta love it.

So far the best night has been a 3 recipe Chicken Parmesan night that involved the whole family. Sweet Pea couldn't stop dredging the chicken in parmesan and she declared the result better than chicken nuggets.

Felici Set

2010-06-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

I like the idea of self-striping yarns, but I often find that the joins between the colors to be too jarring. I also needed to knit up a quick gift, and am nearly out of worsted weight yarn. So I tried holding this Felici doubled and.... ta da! Much subtler color shifts, very light but bouncy fabric and the whole set knit up in 3 days.

The set is 450 yards of Felici in Dakota, with a smidge of Essential (now Stroll) in Grass thrown in to make the hat long enough. The Dakota is long discontinued now, I think. The set is for the Little Dude's teacher. They've already had their last day of school but, luckily, she'll be at the summer camp as well because I didn't manage to finish it on time.

In other news; I'm just about to get another sewing machine! My Huskystar C10 is a few years old and I completely hate it. I won't go into a full review here, but the beast and I do not get along. I think I'm moving up to an Emerald 183 from my adorable local sewing store. Anyone have experience with that line?

Recipe Countdown

2010-06-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

I've started a new project. There are no needles, no gauge, no plying. The plan is to make 365 recipes in a year, beginning june 1. The point is to write down the recipes that I make all the time, and try all the new ones that I find. I think about my mom's little plexigas recipe box, filled with snippings and 3x5 cards, and I want a place like that to keep mine. I've tried in the past and (guess what?) not finished. So, here's to the finishing of projects!

The feasibility analysis has quickly turned into actually starting the project. I hit the kitchen on June 1st with some initial jam making. Let's be clear. This is not a commitment to make a full dinner, at home, every night. Really. I am not going to turn into a food blogger. I will not try 30 iterations of a recipe in one week until I get the right one. I will not take pictures of everything I make. But I did go out tonight and buy a mandoline and a meat tenderizer tonight.

So, what do you think? Anyone interested in a few recipes here and there? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Celtic Knot

2010-06-04T03:47:00.000-07:00

This week has been a crazy week, but last ee was a productive week here and Chez Book! Not only do I have a completed shawl and a completed handspun project, but my carpal tunnel syndrome is killing me!

Celtic Knit stole. 854 yards of Knit Picks Gloss Lace in Stirling. I'm not wild about the pictures, but I'm still getting the hang of the new camera. And that's 4 of 10 shawls for 2010. This one went pretty quickly, and the pattern seemed fairly intuitive to me. Again, I cut out a repeat. I did three knots, rather than four. It huge and I was running out of yarn.

This is the Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang batt from CorgiHillFarm. I swear I'll spin something not from her again, but I'm not sure when. I've already got another braid (cashmere blend - yum!) on the wheel right now. For this batt, however, I got two skeins of singles, for a total yardage of 327 yards. I made an effort to keep this thicker than the laceweight singles that I've been getting. As a result it's pretty rustic looking. It's my first attempt to spin for a specific project.

Yak. Really, yak.

2010-05-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

This is a new fiber blend for me, 50% yak and 50% merino. It's ridiculously soft and I adore the greeney browns of the dye. The braid was from CorgiHillFarm and the colorway was North Bark Moss. Seriously, she has the best color names. And colors, of course, but I'm sucked into the names, I will admit.

430 yards of Merino/Yak 50/50, 2 ply. I think it's about a fingering weight, maybe a tiny overspun in parts, but I think my spinning is coming along quickly!

Also, last night we read a Richard Scarry book that has a yak in it, so my kids got to listen to a fiber-bearing animal lecture during story time. Let's all pretend they loved it, mmkay?

Mossy Stonington

2010-05-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

It's done. It took me all semester, but the shawl is done. The pattern is a Zimmerman, mostly garter stitch, with a little bit of lace edge from VLT, brings you 775 yards of Alpaca Cloud in the now-discontinued Moss color.

Phew. That was a long one. Shawl #3 of 10.

Dream in DNA

2010-05-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

I don't do a lot of gift knitting. Either I'm afraid it won't fit, or it won't be the right color or style, or my knitting simply isn't 'good enough.' I'm trying to get over this idea that various aspects of me aren't 'good enough' so I'm doing more gift knitting.

Dream in Color Classy, Cloud Jungle; 248 Yards.

Plus, this was perfect. June Oshiro's DNA Scarf is one of the first 10 things that I ever queued on ravelry, the first day my account was activated for the beta (anyone else remember how exciting it was to get that email?). I've wanted it for myself, but I only use DNA occasionally in my work. My office mate, however, is quite the geneticist, so this scarf is now hers.

This is the first time that I worked with Classy, and I like it. I used size 7 needles, which was really dense. I think I might go up a size or two if I use it again, though I'm not sure I will any time soon. The colors are nice, but I'm falling further and further in lurve with spinning.

Next up? An FO of the Stonington...

Maryland Sheep and Wool

2010-05-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

Yeah. I'm not there. It's less than 2 hours away, but I opted out again this year. Instead, Sweet Pea had a rocking birthday party, I've knit a ton, and even managed to play a bit of Star Trek Online (just don't tell my WoW mage!).

Since I didn't spend money on a hotel this weekend, I got this and this at from Corgi Hill Farm. Due to my planning and her crazy-fast shipping, I started on the merino/yak blend this morning. Still getting the hang of the fiber itself, and I'm completely entranced by the colors.

Speaking of spinning, Corgi Hill Farm fiber, and what I did this weekend:

Here's Sweet Pea, wearing her new February Little Girl Shrug. It's 200 yds of handspun (remember this?) based on EZ's February Baby Sweater. In retrospect, I should have done more raglan increases and left out a row of the yoke increases, but it's pretty cute.

Eight Stars of Holes on a Field of Muskox

2010-04-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

...and you should already be singing the Alaska State Song, because that's what I was humming the entire time I knit this scarf. I'm sure it wasn't annoying to my family at all. And, since I started in January and finished this weekend, it was pretty frequent. This took forever to knit, mostly because the yarn is so nice that I was afraid to take it out of the house. That means no car knitting, no restaurant knitting, no work knitting, no dance class knitting.

About a month ago I thought that I had finally finished it. I completed the last row of pattern repeat and proudly held it up to show DH only to see a strange mutant star, two repeats down. I had omitted the entire center section of one of the pattern repeats, leaving a strange tiny diamond in the middle. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture. But, instead of letting it languish, I pulled it back and fixed the problem.

Pattern: North Star Scarf, from Arctic Lace
Yarns: 397 yds Windy Valley Muskox Qiviuk (A birthday present from my mom)
My project page

Maple Cranberry

2010-04-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

I've got 43 unread posts in my blogroll, an empty fridge, a garden full of ivy, and an unplanned 5th birthday party. What does that mean? You've got it... the end of the semester is nearly here!

And what am I excited about?

204 yards of DK weight handspun merino, tussah silk, and firestar from the color genius at Corgi Hill Farm. Seriously. I could dive into her entire etsy shop and not come up for air for weeks. Plus she has corgis, which I want, and reads all the same books I do. Chain plied because I'm loving using up every inch of this pretty, pretty stuff. Perhaps I'll buy two next time and ply them like a grownup spinner.

And because you've stuck with me this far: Sweet Pea spinning a few yards of the above yarn.

Which is only fair, because it will most like become a February Girl Sweater for her. I love spinning it, but I'm not sure I'd wear that much pink and brown.

Oh, and I made some socks. See? My regular pattern, dyed by me, 240 yards. This is actually the last of 4 sock blanks dyed by me and Sweet Pea a year or two ago. Frighteningly, when I opened the sock yarn drawer to start another pair... I'm down to like 4 skeins of sock yarn. And none of them green. Dudes. I need to order yarn.

Snowy Midnight Merino

2010-04-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

That's 210 yards of handspun, chain-plied superwash merino! I bought the roving from the Bonkers fiber booth at the Estes Park Wool Fest in 2007, just a week before the Little Dude was born. That gives you an idea of how long its been languishing in my stash. Languish no more, merino! You are spun.

The ravelry entry found here. Anyone else dying for ravelry to release better stash and project management for spinning? And, while we're asking questions, any idea what to do with 210 yds of DK weight handspun? I was sort of thinking of Jared Flood's Druid mittens. Do you think the tonal variegations would obscure the cabling?

I also finished some boring socks. 240 yds. Dyed by me and finally done.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I just downloaded the Kindle app for my iPod touch and am going to figure out how the read the free poems of Erasmus Darwin this afternoon.

Too Hot for Handspun

2010-04-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

What did you do for Easter? I finished up a cozy wool sweater just in time for 70 degree weather.

This is me standing in front of my house, trying to look like I'm not baking in my new Handspun Garter Yoke cardigan. I followed the pattern pretty closely, though I used a dk weight yarn, rather than worsted. I followed the stitch counts for the large size and it came out, after blocking, to be a small or xs. I had knit an adult sweater from the Swish DK before, and knew that it would probably grow quite a bit, so I planned accordingly. It did not disappoint!

I love the way the handspun looks with the grey Swish DK,but Will refers to this as my Wesley Crusher sweater. Which isn't too bad, as far as geek chic goes :)

I knit buttonholes into it, but now am thinking I'd like to try a separating zipper instead. The sweater has actually been put away due to our warm weather, but I think I'll put in a zipper before next winter. The sweater is a bit oversized, and comes in at 1039 yds, bumping up my 12 mile quest quite a bit!

In other news, I'm still up in the air about attending Maryland Sheep and Wool. I priced out some really reasonable hotels in the area, but can't bring myself to make a reservation. Every time I come close, my mind formulates a list of how many beautifully dyed batts I could buy off of Etsy for the same price...

FO Funk

2010-03-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

I am in a an FO funk. I've got my Stonington Shawl and Qiviut scarf on the needles, and they've been there for months. Both are nearing the end: I've started the knitted-on lace border for the Stonington and the last star of the North Star qiviut scarf. I'm at the end of the waist shaping for my handspun garter yoke and almost to the cuff of a plain sock. I feel like I've been working on these 4 things forever (well, the sock is a relatively new addition) and haven't finished anything in ages.

I'm also dying to start something new. Is it because I'm frustrated with my current projects, or am I frustrated with the current projects because I want to start something new? I can't decide, but I know I have the yarn for the following things trying to climb out of my stash and cast intself on: Geodesic Cardigan, Tiger Eyes scarf, DNA Scarf, Celtic Knot stole, and Tudor Grace. Maybe even some garter mitts and a suitable springy cardigan for teaching out of a bag of cotlin. Gooseberry cardigan?

Blue Cheese and Cherry Meatloaf

2010-03-08T04:42:00.000-08:00

Life has been busy, as evidenced by a lack of blogging and ravelry posting. A less obvious consequence (at least to you, dear readers) has been an utter lack of originality in the kitchen. Last week, I grabbed hold of the reins of my life and pulled it back in a bit. This involved cookbooks from the library, one of our favorite weeknight pastimes.

Bleu Cheese and Dried Cherry meatloaf is what ultimately happened, and I can't rave about it enough. The idea is from Make it Fast, Cook it Slow, but can be found on her blog here (but I added more stuff). The technique is from the 2009 Best Recipes book from America's Test Kitchen. Basically, it's a freeform loaf rather than in a pan and it turned out great. You put a wire rack on a cookie sheet, jellyroll pan, whatever you've got. Then you toss some tin foil on top of the rack and perforate it in a couple places. I have no pictures, because it was devoured as soon as it came out of the oven. Also, the mix of ground meats really helped the flavor and texture. I used to be a fan of all beef meatloaf, but this was waay better.

Meatloaf Base:
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground turkey
1 egg
1/4 c oat flour (just oats in the food processor for a few seconds)
garlic salt, basil, dried onion, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce

I actually made a double batch of the above ingredients, then split the result in half. Burgers are on the menu for the rest of the base.

Now add:
1 package of blue cheese (I think it may have been 5 oz)
1 c dried cherries. I think this was a scant cup, because 2 year old kept nicking cherries out of the measuring cup while I wasn't watching

Mix. Squish with your hands, because it's really the best way to get it all incorporated. Shape into a general ball-form, and toss it onto your foil contraption.

Bake at 375 for 55-65 minutes.

Grizzzly Chullo and Mittens Set

2010-03-03T04:40:00.000-08:00

This set has been a Knitting Event in my life (which probably sounds strange to those of you who aren't knitters). It was complex, original, and produces something that I love wearing. I'm going to slap a warning right here: This post is full of knitting, with very little reference to kids or my life outside of knitting. Really, if you're not down with steeks, this may be a yawner for you.

The Polar Bear Chullo is the first twist collective pattern that I've ever tried - I just don't like the pay by pdf system. But, the combination of bears, intense colorwork, and a hat that might just fit over my bun won me over. If you'll remember, the first was too small and became Little Dude's winter hat. As I was knitting, I loved it, but knew I wanted one for myself that had grizzly bears, to remind me of home, and green, because its my favorite color.

Now, the pattern starts with back and forth colorwork in the earflaps. On top of that, they are my least favorite part of the color interplay. I grabbed my new colors (greens, blue, brown, and grey) and tried the earflaps two at a time on 2 circs, with a steek planned for the back. That was a disaster. Steeks are not for me; they violate one thing I adore about knitting. If it sucks, you can always pull it out. Luckily, I didn't like the way the celadon heather played out, and those earflaps went in the trash bin. I tried one or two more color combinations and got really tired of messing around with earflap design and colorswatching at the same time. I wanted to invert the colors (use dark colors for the light areas in the pattern and vice versa) but, frankly, I didn't want to knit those earflaps until I was in love with the color combination.

So I made matching mittens. They're 60 st diameter on the same 2.5 mm needles I used for the hat. I worked the charts in the same order as the hat and started a gusset at the beginning of the first bear chart. I used a patterned gusset to carry the yarn across, and it was just k1 in light color, k1 in dark color and I love the way it came out. For the top of the thumb, I found a star pattern from Selbuvotter Mittens that worked well with the stars in the chullo pattern. I had to fudge the colorwork slightly to get things to line up on 60 sts, but mostly just on the cuff. The only other change to the patterns was to shift the bear over, so that the bears in both rows were aligned with each other, rather than being offset. I hardly wanted a grizzly with a thumb gusset sprouting out of his back!

While I was working through the thumb gusset, I got a great idea for the earflaps. I had toyed with the idea of lining the hat, and decided I could knit the lining and the earflap together, making them a circular project (and thus avoiding the wrong side colorwork). The earflaps now feature a lining in the same pattern as the thumb gusset. When I switched to the body of the hat, I just put the live earflap lining stitches on a holder. After finishing the body of the hat, I picked these back up and picked up stitches from the inside of the bottom rim of the hat. I worked up a couple inches of lining, then sewed it down.

Honestly, I've worn the hat many times, and still haven't had a chance to block it. It fits perfectly over my bun, and is exactly what I wanted. The hat is 435 yds, and the mittens are 236 yards.

A Bevy of Firsts

2010-02-24T04:21:00.000-08:00

My lifestyle doesn't lend itself well to podcasts, so I've only listened to a few in the years I've been an avid knitter. The only one that really sticks out was an interview with Shannon Okey. After listening to it, I wanted a spinning wheel and I wanted it now. I immediately bought her book, Spin to Knit, and have been dying to try the handspun yoke sweater ever since then. This yarn is destined for that project.

This is the first time I have spun from a bat, and the first time that I have spun yarn with a particular project in mind. I got the batt from Funky Fiber Farm on etsy, also making it my first etsy purchase! Then I chain plied the bobbin full of singles, making this the first time I chain plied. I found a great tutorial here, and, after watching it a couple times, managed to chain ply the entire skein in an hour or so.

Total length is 166 yds, ravelry page is here. Anyone else looking forward to whatever changes ravelry has planned to accommodate spinning projects?

Garter Yoke Henley

2010-02-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was reorganizing my stash and noticed that my sport/dk weight drawer was getting ridiculously full. In fact, my ziploc bag with 4+ skeins of swish DK leftover from my St. Brigid wouldn't fit at all. Frustrated, I tossed it on the floor and went to look for a pattern to knit it up since it wasn't fitting back in the drawer. I am loving all the garter yoke sweaters that I've been seeing on blogs and ravelry, mostly from the knit.1 pattern. I didn't have the pattern (I do now... :) so I busted out Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns and worked up a kids' seamless yoke sweater with garter stitch edgings. Once I got to the yoke, I split it for a henley and worked the entire yoke in garter stitch. `I ran out of swish DK for the top and worked the last inch or so in leftover Elegance. `

I have the buttons picked out, but haven't gotten a chance to sew them on yet. Sweet pea has already adopted this as her sweater of choice, and I haven't even gotten a chance to block it yet. It's weighs in at 494 yds, 472 of which is the swish DK. The link to my project page is here.

Romney Square

2010-02-20T04:23:00.000-08:00

Remember that white romney that was so uninspiring? I busted out the Jacquard Acid dyes, spent some time one afternoon mixing and simmering, and came out with with a much improved pearlescent green and purple. About half of that has become this:

Please dom't mind the sulky look. I think Sweet Pea is practicing being a teenager about 10 years too early.
I used Jared Flood's Turn a Square pattern yet again. It's the only hat pattern I have memorized, so it just keeps coming back! It was a quick knit and used about 100 yds.

Triinu Birthday Scarf

2010-02-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

I have family visiting from out of town right now, which has been tons of fun but has superceded blogging. However, the sun is just rising, the automatic coffee maker has not yet started grinding, and the rest of the house is sleeping peacefully. I, dear readers, am bringing you... this!

This is the Triinu Scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia, knitted in Knit Picks Gloss Lace, colorway Aegean. I hated this yarn the first time I tried it, which is weird because everyone else seems to have overwhelming lurve for it. I didn't hate it this time, but it certainly didn't fill me with snuggly goodness while I was knitting. Also, the only modification I made to the pattern was to leave out the nupps, because I abhor all things bobble. Thus, I used only 396 yards for the entire project, making it a One Skein Wonder!

The best thing about this scarf? Remember the aforementioned family? My mom is in town to celebrate a Big Birthday (one with a 0 in it) and the scarf is for her. And she loves it.

And have you seen these? I think I'm in danger of needing these.

Craftster-Inspired Dress

2010-02-12T07:13:00.000-08:00

The kids have no been to school all week. Between bronchitis, snow days, and President's day, we have been all snuggled in together. There's been good books, good movies and nature specials, some good food, all punctuated by coughing.

I have done some knitting, but none of its quite ready to show off. I did, however, finally complete a sewing project!

Before you get too impressed, it's reconstructed from 2 different shirts. There's feet of snow on the ground and yet, just a few weeks ago, I couldn't find a long sleeved girls' dress in any store. Apparently, January is when everyone starts coming out with their spring lines. It's also the time when Sweet Pea grew several inches, making all of her winter dresses too short. My sewing machine and I still aren't close enough that I wanted to sew a week's worth of playdresses, so I found this great idea on craftster. In short, cut the bottom off of a t-shirt and sew on a skirt of knit fabric. We found several clearance shirts at Target for our experiment, some in her size and some in 14/16 to use for the skirt. After resolving a two week long dispute with my machine, I finally got all the seams done! And, she loves it, making it work the effort.

Snowed In

2010-02-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

We, like so much of the east coast of the US, are snowed in. Both of the kids are sick, so we hadn't planned on leaving much, but are bitterly disappointed that they can't go frolic in the snow.

Not that I'm complaining - there's plenty to do inside! I've got a house guest coming next week (hi Mom!) and need to clean the guest room. I've got a job interview next week, tests to grade, and an exorcism to perform on a demon-possessed sewing machine so I can finish the dress that Sweet Pea so desperately wants. There's snow to shovel and a batch of soup that needs to be dreamed up and made for next week's easy food. It's 7am on Saturday and what am I doing? Finishing a hat, listening to my Everlast station on Pandora, and rearranging my ravelry queue.

Let's talk about queues for a moment, shall we? It has recently come to my attention that some people resent their queues, find them stressful, or nagging. I've got 7 pages, and I use it like my own personal knitting magazine. Every time a pattern catches my attention, I throw it on there. Then, I don't have to waste valuable knitting time thinking, 'now where was that belted sweater pattern?' and can just page through at will. This morning I've rediscovered several patterns that I suddenly must knit Right Now. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to browse some yarns to go with.

Happy Weekend, readers :)

Wheelspun Urchin

2010-01-31T17:30:00.000-08:00

I finished this a few weeks ago! The pattern is Urchin and the yarn is, of course, my first handspun. It's a thick, heavy, not supersoft hat, but I love it! The yardage was a little hard to estimate, but I think it's about 90 yds.

The Skinny on my Merino

2010-01-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

I can tell you (though you may not need me too) that a pound is a lot of fiber. The dying that took place here went quite well and I've begun spinning it up! My control is getting much better, the singles are getting much finer and.. it's taking much longer to fill up a bobbin! I had planned on filling this bobbin, then another, then plying, but I took it off when it was only half full so that I could ply earlier. It's very fine and I'm curious how the plying will go. Unfortunately, it'll probably be at least a week before I get enough on the 2nd bobbin to find out.It needs to hurry, because I ordered by first fiber off of etsy and am dying to try that, too!

And I've finally cast on with my qiviut. The pattern is the North Star Scarf fron Arctic Lace. The yarn is ridiculously soft - you can even see how fuzzy it is in the picture. But, it's not itchy. At all. Not like alpaca, which mostly scratches me if it looks this fuzzy. The pattern calls for 9 repeats of the star pattern, but every time I pick it up, 'eight stars of gold on a field of blue..." starts up in my head and I can't stop. I'm going to assess the length at 8 and see if it's long enough.

In other news, I made the bestest, barleyest soup ever and am wildly in love with this new to me whole grain. Want to eat it all the time. I've still got 2 soups to go for my goal, but I've narrowed my reward down to 2 possible cookbooks.

Photo session and some shameless begging

2010-01-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

With my first week of lectures successfully behind me and the kids in school for a few hours, I spent this morning getting caught up on my knitting pictures! With two spinning and six knitting projects newly photographed, all I had left to do was choose which to tell you about first. The spinning FO won out. Now presenting... My 2nd yarn spun on my wheel!

It's the unimaginatively named 'White Romney'. Seriously. I need to come up with better names. There's 202 yards at 9-10 wpi, making it a worsted weight. It's not nearly as overspun as my first, and is much softer. And I have no idea what to knit with it! I think I may dye it before I decide, though. After dyeing merino the other day with the kids, I've been itching to do it again. Maybe brown and reds? I need help here, people! Color and project ideas are not only welcome, but strongly encouraged :)

And now, for a totally gratuitous shot of me and the Little Dude.

Sweet Pea has been experimenting with her photography skills, and does pretty well for a 4 year old!

12 Mile Quest, 2009

2010-01-19T14:52:00.000-08:00

How did I fare in my 12 mile quest for 2009? About half way there. I am not, however, revising the distance for 2010 because now I have a spinning wheel and spinning goes muuuuuch faster!

1 jan, 2009 - 31 dec, 2009
807/1760 yards of Mile 7
6/12 miles completed
Last Item Finished: Sock Blanket Squares, 2009

Planning 10 Shawls

2010-01-15T04:38:00.000-08:00

Today, I bring you two lists: why I joined the 10 shawls in 2010 insanity, and what I plan to knit. I joined this group for 3 reasons:

I’m trying to set m ore big goals for myself. You know, ones that you’re not 100% sure that you can finish. You never know until you try!
I love knitting lace, but realized that I didn’t finish a lace project last year because I got stalled out on a sampler stole. I still have the stole on the needles, but I think the yarn, while beautiful, is too busy for the pattern. But, I want to get my lace mojo back!
Stash busting!

Here's what I've planned to knit, so far, in no particular order:

1. Stonington Shawl in Moss Alpaca Cloud..

2. North Star with lovely qiviut from my mom for my 30th birthday.

3. Something with Sea Silk that I got from my mom for my 31st burthday. Ideas welcome. I've got 2 skeins for a total of 874 yards, but I could make 2 things.

4. Children of Lir stole in the stream colorway of Alpaca cloud.

5. Celtic Knot Stole in the dill heather colorway of Alpaca cloud (I've got buckets of this yarn! Love it!)

6. Something out of Henry's Attic Pony laceweight dyed by a friend of mine. It's currently partway through the sampler stole, but it needs a simpler pattern to show off its colors. No idea what, though.

7-10: Since the above takes us nearly through August, I've left this open.

11. A multi-colored biased eyelet stole with the leftovers from the other projects.

12. Something with handspun, should I get that good by the end of the year.

I'm still planning my sugar-water for this particular exercise. I was thinking that I might try for something special and lace related. Then again, I may be totally sick of knitting lace come 2011. It's still up in the air

Acid dyes and combed top

2010-01-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

What do you get when you combine 1 lb of superwash merino, Jaccquard acid dyes, this handy tutorial and these charming assistants:
?

And afternoon of slightly messy fun and this:

Which is currently drying quite well in the basement. It didn't dissolve apart, as I was convinced that it would. If it dries by the weekend, I might even get a chance to spin it up soon!

Fancy Foods

2010-01-13T06:38:00.001-08:00

A new, fancy Whole Foods market opened up in our neck of the woods yesterday, so the fam and I went to check it out. It was great, if crowded. I raided the Bob's Red Mill section for my reawakened interest in bread-baking. I saw some produce I had read about, but not seen. I picked up some pearl barley and squash for soups. I picked up two spices I hadn't been able to track down elsewhere (Sumac and Za'tar, if you're interested).

In other news, I racked up another soup! My favorite food blogger, Kalyn, had posted a great sounding recipe for West African Chicken and Peanut Stew. And, it was great! I made a few mods. While I bought a rotisserie chicken this weekend, there was hardly any left, so I augmented the chicken content with a couple of chicken breasts. I used a whole yellow onion, pickled ginger (the sushi kind), and red pepper flakes because that's what I had. I also gave the whole thing a few pulses with my stick blender before adding the chicken, because I was totally lazy with my dicing. All in all, it had a wonderful fruity flavor, with plenty of kick.

And, for some fiber-related content... I'm plying my 2nd yarn! It's beauuuutiful. I can't wait to show it to you all.

Minestrone

2010-01-11T06:35:00.000-08:00

Broth based soups. I love them, but I rarely buy them at the store or get them when I go out. Why? Celery.

Let's talk a minute about taste. If you can taste something, it's because a molecule from that food bound to the appropriate receptor in your body. Very science-y sounding, but stick with me. For most people, celery has a pretty mild taste. Some of us, however, know celery's true secret. It's full of nasty, bitter, aversive flavors. Thus, it's up to me to make all my soups without celery. Without further lecturing, here's a celery-free minestrone recipe that I made last weekend.

Minestrone sans celery
most of a head of cabbage, chopped and sauteed
2 onions, chopped and sauteed
3 tbs garlic salt (more to taste)
2/4 c parmesan
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed and kind of squished

Throw in a slow cooker and let it go until the smell is so good you have to eat it :) For lunch, I usually have it with some leftover grilled chicken or turkey sausage.

P.S. You can add celery if you're not a super-taster.

Lace Hijacking

2010-01-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

I'm not really sure what happened. This morning, I sat down to work, planning to reward myself with a quiet afternoon of knitting while the kids were at school. I have frogged this and was totally ready to start turning it into this, a similar sweater but several sizes smaller. Or maybe working on another polar bear chullo, based on these swatch mittens.

Then I happened across this post on Jacey's blog (she's a knitter with the same birthday as me, can't pass that up!) and started musing about lace. Next thing I know, I've got a stack of lace books on the table, my laceweight drawer open, and have joined 10 Shawls in 2010 group on ravelry. I may have an impulse problem.

First up. Stonington Shawl from EZ's workshop. And maybe the Children of Lir stole, if I can find where I stashed the pattern. I'm casting on this afternoon.

Dopamine Circuit

2010-01-06T07:15:00.000-08:00

It's a time for talking about resolutions and goals. You know what a lot of these resolutions are missing? Rewards. If you're not already doing something, chances are you need a bit of incentive to do it. If I want to do something but can't seem to get around to it, I give myself a little reward. Something that I want, that I can get, but I won't unless I achieve the predetermined goal. And it works.

Dopamine in the neurotransmitter involved in reward based behavior. As part of the blog redesign, I've added a little box in the sidebar sharing my current goals and their planned rewards and called it the 'Dopamine Circuit'. Let's see what kind of goodies I can earn this year, no?

All ahead Squee Factor 10!

2010-01-01T11:19:00.000-08:00

A Julia (Louet S-11) spinning wheel joined our family this Christmas!

It came with a half pound of dark coopworth, found on this page. You can actually see it on the floor in the above picture. I had other fiber from my spindle, but the coopworth was sitting closest to the wheel, so that's what went in first. It has now become this:

and has been soaked, thwacked and is now dripping dry in the dining room. Overspun? Yes. Usable? Maybe. Done? Yes.

I love the wheel. We're still getting to know each other, but I love it. I still have a million questions about it, but we'll see. Right now the right treadle makes a weird, grindy, squeaking noise when I squash it down, but that might be related to my troubles when the footman is at the azimuth.

Sock Yarn, in Review

2009-12-31T08:16:00.000-08:00

Many people spend New Years' Eve reflecting on the years' accomplishments or prepping for a big party. This seems natural, as we're ending one year and starting a new one.

So how do I do it? Weighing squares for my sock yarn blankie. I started in March, using only washable, fingering weight yarn that was leftover from previous projects. They don't have to be socks, because I use that weight yarn for lots of things, but they definitely have to be leftovers.

I'm including the yardage in my 2009 12 mile quest instead of saving them for whenever the blanket is finished because it would totally skew that year. In other words;
1173 yds

Knit Picks Essential: 619 yds
Knit Picks Imagination: 70 yds
Knit Picks Gloss: 70 yds
Mountain Colors Bearfoot: 154 yds
Koigu KPPPM: 202 yds
Plymouth Happy Feet: 58 yds