Girl Meets Needle

A New Year to Live By

2012-01-01T05:09:00.001-08:00

As we all welcome in the year 2012 - I'm going to do the expected thing and blog about my New Year resolutions! Predictable in my old age? Yes! Thinking that I'm actually "old" - NEVER!

Resolutions!

1. Blog More - I'm not gonna promise to blog once a week, but I think working on an update once a month is more than doable. Hell I'll even put it in my planner! I just need to hop back on this thing!

2. Knit More - Once again, I'm not gonna promise that this year will be filled with projects, but I'd like it to have at least 12. :D I think one project a month is a good start to get my knitty groove back. ;)

3. Get my dang Thyroid regulated - I confess...this should be an easy one as I'm going to the Endocrynologist in February. Hopefully this means they'll finally treat the problem rather than going round the giddy goat with it. :D

I'm stopping at three folks...three measely resolutions. Makes a good start to the New Year I think, and makes me feel that I can live by them. :D How about you out there? Did you go all out there and name fifty million resolutions? Or did you just pick a few things that you think you can stick to? I want to know! :D

We have KNITS folks! REAL LIVE KNITS!!!!

2011-10-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, I actually have tangible proof that I have, indeed, been knitting. Well tangible proof for two of my projects...the other two have decided not to grace my camera with their presence (one because it's simply not recognizable enough for you guys to know what it is yet and the other because it is a SUPER SECRET TEST KNIT and I'm sorry, but I simply can not reveal her to you yet).

The first project is an actual, for real, FO. It's...a scarf. Or a boa. Or a scoa...or a ~~barf~~ (Barf? What was I thinking?)Erm...either way, it's pretty, it's ruffly and scrunchy and feels relatively soft against the skin though, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure I'll end up keeping it as I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know what to wear it with.

Pattern Name: Ruffly(Okay so I made that up)
Yarn: Knitting Fever's Flounce
Colorway: Not named, just Purple, Burgundy and Brown
Needles: Size US11

Over all, I'd say this was a fun, easy knit, once you get over the fiddly way this yarn (mesh?) is knit. Honestly it probably would have only taken me a few hours to work my way through this if I hadn't been so destracted by other shinies in my knitting bag!

This next project is a WIP - but one that is actually actively in progress. :D

Pattern Name: Little pumpkins socks by Sabine Ruppert
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal
Colorway: Foliage
Needles: Size US1 for the cuff Size US2 for the rest.

I really, really like this pattern. It is easy to memorize, but entertaining enough to keep you from being bored. Not to mention that this pattern screams at you to use orange yarn, and well, in my book, anything that wants to be orange is okay in my book!I'm actually almost done with the leg, because well, I like my socks a little shorter so I'm only doing three repeats of the chart in the leg rather than the four the pattern recommends. Also, if you are knitting this pattern for the first time, please do yourself a favor and read the notes on the pattern page in ravelry as she gives you the CORRECT way to do the cable row on the chart. If you don't, you will be looking at the chart in utter confusion, wondering how to get those two stitches back that you somehow lost on one side (don't ask me how I know this...just trust in me. Yessss...trust. in. me.Good pretties. *pet pet*)

So now that I've given you a mini yarn peep show, it's time to give you all a small recipe. Sadly, there is no food pron available for this, as all that I've made has been canned and gifted way before I even thought of picking up my camera. I know. I deserve spankings. But I also deserve warm bread...smothered in apple butter. Actually I happen to have some yummy, still warm from the oven sweet potato honey rolls that were most likely meant for this condiment and this condiment alone....huh. Food for thought. Anyway!

As requested by a few of my plurkies....(cue drum roll please)

APPLE BUTTER (Ta-da)
as found on myrecipes.com

You need:
10 medium apples that have been peeled, cored and cut into chunks
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves,
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
A sprinkling of allspice to taste (I probably used about...can ya guess? 1/4 tsp!)

Mix the sugar, spices, honey, and cider in the bottom of your crockpot until combined, throw in apples and toss to coat, cover and then put on low and just LEAVE it for about, oh, let's say 10 hours (or until your apples are very, very tender). Once the apples are nice and tender, get your good old fashioned potato masher out and give the apples a few good smashes. Trust me, this helps. Oh, and leave the crockpot on low, you want to keep the apple mixture nice and HOT while you're doing all this. Next, grab a large, fine mesh sieve and ladle apple mixture into it (over a bowl outside of the crockpot, silly) and start squishing it through all those little holes with a rubber spatula. You'll have pulp left over, but not much, just discard it all before you put more apples into the sieve and give the outside a good scrape down into the bowl of the good stuff. :D Continue in this fashion until all the apples and liquid have been pushed through. Then pour it back into your crockpot and turn that baby up to High (yes, we get to live a little!). Leave it uncovered, and let it bubble away, because we want all that "water" to evaporate so the butter can thicken. It needs to do this for at least an hour and a half. Butter is done, when it will either a) stay mounded in a spoon for a full minute, or when butter is drizzled in a line across the surface and keeps it's shape for a full minute before dissolving back in with the rest. The texture of this butter is relatively thin, even after all the evaporating, but it's okay. Leave it that way. Do not add pectin...do NOT be tempted by it. It will make your apple butter resemble something like apple cheese...or that oh so delicious (but THICK) cranberry sauce that's jelled and in a can and that you SLICE before serving.

Next up, you can spoon that hot butter in a bowl and chill in the fridge for up to a week, or you can actually gosh darn it all and can that stuff. This size batch will make a little over two pints, or 4 half pints. If you don't know how to can, it's really easy. Just buy your ball jars and lids, and wash 'em with good hot soapy water. Give 'em a good rinse. Then pop those jars in a big old pot of boiling water and let them boil for 15 minutes. Pop the lids into a separate pan of boiling water and let them boil for the same amount of time. Keep in the hot water so they stay heated when you use them. Pour piping hot butter into jars (I just ladelled it into a measuring cup and did it that way but you're supposed to use a canning funnel), then put on lids and tighten rings around them. Put them back into that big ole pot of boiling water to let 'em seal up and keep 'em boiling for ten minutes. Then take 'em out and you should be good to go. You'll know the jars are sealed when you hear a faint "boing". Now the butter should pretty much keep indefinitely canned in this way...buuut, it most likely won't last that long in your household so I doubt you'll have to worry about it. :D

Anyhow folks, I hope you enjoy, and happy crafting!

A perfect Fall!

2011-09-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

So far, this fall is shaping up to be everything I want it to be. DW and I went apple picking (got fully 30 lbs of apples plus a half peck of peaches), have gone for multiple walks in the cool autumn mornings, and have celebrated my beloved DW's 30th birthday in a simple, quite manner. Next up, Halloween...and after a couple more trips to Wal*Mart, I think we'll be just about ready.

In other news, I have most certainly taken up the needles again - and thanks to Mz. Olivia I've found a splendid group of ladies to knit with at the local public library as well. These women could easily be good, and bad, for my knitting habits. I have a feeling that they'll be excellent at inspiring me to knit more...and even more excellent at enabling me to buy more yarn. Especially with all the talk of a certain LYS going around while I was working on the Giant Socks of Doom. :D Still, I haven't bought yarn in over two years sooo...I think it's about time I joined the world of the shopping.

Other than that, life's good, and there's not terribly much to report so I thought I'd finish this up with a recipe for a delicious (and EASY) fall dessert that seems to be pretty popular among my plurkies! So for everyone's enjoyment I give you: Spiced Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

Spiced Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

For the caramel apple "topping":

4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 c light brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg

Place the above ingredients in a saucepan and allow to come to a boil while stirring to keep it from burning. Continue boiling for approximately 30 seconds and then pour the caramel into the bottom of a greased and floured cake pan - spread evenly.

Next, peel, core and thinly slice three small baking apples (I used Cortlands, but you can also use Macoun or Macintosh, I wouldn't use Granny Smiths as they may be too tart for this and too firm). Sprinkle sliced apples over caramel.

For the cake

1 box spice cake mix
1 15 oz can pumpkin (unspiced)
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 pinch each of cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice

Mix all the cake ingredients together in a bowl until thoroughly moistened. Batter will be quite thick. Some lumps may remain and that's okay, just as long as they're not too large. :D Spread batter over your apples as evenly as possible without disturbing the apples too much and place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 30 - 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. :D I also did a thorough touch test, to make sure the cake itself wasn't jiggly inside - because nothing is grosser than cutting into a cake only to find mushy batter instead of fluffy goodness. :D It's a good thing I did too as I had to return it to the oven to bake a bit further cuz part of it was quite jiggly due to semi-uneven spreading.

Allow cake to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes, and then loosen cake from pan by sliding a butter knife along the outer edge. Tip over onto a plate and don't forget to scrape any yummy caramel apple goodness that might have been stuck to the pan back onto the top of the cake! :D Serve with freshly whipped cream (spiced with a hint of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and sugar) and maybe a little caramel sauce for drizzling. :D

Oh ehm Gee...

2011-09-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

So it appears as if I've died or fallen off the planet. The fact is, I took a break from knitting for a while - and took a break from cooking or baking as well (at least in ways that made me want to take pictures of it :P ), but well, it's autumn and for some reason that brings me back to life, so hopefully that also means that there'll be more bloggy goodness for all. :D In the meantime, watch this!

A belated welcome to the new year....

2011-02-02T03:57:00.000-08:00

Okay folks, I'm not going to lie to you. So far, 2011 kinda sucks. Dealing with car issues and money issues, warring with my propane company - well, let's face it! That's a whole lotta stress to deal with in just a few short weeks. Still, it's only stress right? And it's pretty much over, so what am I still bitching about? The fact is, after 2010 (which was an AMAZING year by the way), 2011 seems like kind of a let down. Then again, that seems to be par for the course. EVERY YEAR I have an obscenely crappy first couple of months - only to have the rest of the year go off without a hitch. Well, I'm crossing my fingers and toes that this tradition still stands because I really loved having such a kick ass (most of the) year - last year.

Things I accomplished in 2010:

1. Got a job - not a wow, amazing job with amazing pay and amazing benefits kind of job, but still one that I enjoy (and that's really all that matters) and brings in more than a piddling 80 dollars per week of pay!

2. Conquered lace - I knit my first REAL lace shawl last year - and not only that but I knit it with beads. The Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark. Thanks to this shawl, I'm no longer suffering from fear of intricate lace knitting and am even now working on my second lace shawl (after this shawl was finished I fell into kind of a sock knitting rut where I went on a bender and knit sock after sock after sock- seriously, I don't know what happened!)

3. I conquered (with great success mind you) the thing that I formerly referred to as Baguettes of Extreme Hatred. That's right, I successfully baked beautiful, delicious, crunchy on the outside soft on the inside French Baguettes.

See? Visual proof! Not the prettiest of breads, but they were outstandingly tasty! And not burnt at ALL! WOOOOT!

Now, I'm sure I accomplished a few more things than just three - but I felt these were three personal mile stones worthy of note. :D

Things I plan on accomplishing in 2011:

1. Hop back on the blog bandwagon and try very hard to blog more consistently - at least twice per month. I know I failed at this last year, and honestly I have no excuse except that Plurk and Ravelry seem to have kind of killed the purpose behind this blog. Well, no more. While I will still be sharing on both those sites, I will also be sharing here, in hopes of attracting the readership that I once had. :D I may even be holding contests and giveaways - provided I can think of adequate excuses to host such things. :D

2. Become a more versatile knitter - I plan on experimenting with colorwork (which I've already started as you will see following this little blurb), magic loop, two circs, toe-up socks - new techniques that I previously shied away from. I've been at this for a while now and I think it's time I upped the ante!

See the pretty plaid pattern? I know it's not intricate colorwork- but it IS colorwork and the hat itself came out amazingly gorgeous. My brother LOVED it - and is apparently anxiously awaiting a matching pair of mitts - which I apparently need to design.Once I can catch my elusive lil' bro and the hat in action I'll snap a pic and post it here so you can see the finished project.

3. Have a baby of my own to spoil with hand knits - that's right. Me and DW have thought about it and we're planning to hopefully be pregnant by September (this way I can avoid being pregnant during hot summer months :D). Naturally we have to do things via a cryobank so if anyone knows of any good information out there about this sort of stuff I'd be grateful if you could point me in that direction.

4. Lose about 15 lbs (I'd like to lose more - but the 15 lbs is a good, pressureless goal and I need to not feel pressure. Pressure = failure for me. ). :D

These are not actual resolutions, as I think that resolutions (since I've failed them so often in the past) seem to fall pretty much useless to me. So instead, I'm considering this more of a To Do list. That way it seems more like these are things that MUST GET DONE as opposed to things that Could Possibly Be Done. :D

To kick 2011 off, I cast on for some intricate - previously feared lace. Yes, I did knit lace in 2010 and successfully too, but as opposed to the 6 different charts this shawl utilizes, the Swallowtail only utilized two. So, this should help me branch out into more complicated lace. :D

The Echo Flower Shawl - in it's first stages. That's the set up chart and the first of 13 (maybe more depending on how it looks after 13 - I don't want to end up with yet another neckerchief sized shawlette) repeats of the Flower chart. :D So far, so good. And no, I will NOT be using beads in lieu of knitting the nupps. I don't care how torturous it is to purl those little buggers, I WILL do it. 9 stitch nupps will be my servants by the time I'm done with them. And that's a fact!

I've also semi-designed a pattern for a pair of men's socks for DW's captain's very large man feet. He's a size 11, and while that might not seem huge to most of you, I'm used to knitting for my tiny size 6 feet, DW's normal size 8 1/2 feet and my mum and aunt's equally tiny size 7 feet. Knitting for size 11's - well it's intimidating. Especially since every single pattern designed specifically for a big guy's clown feet seems to be like two miles long, involves calf shaping, and just generally seems to be too much work for something I wanted to be TV knitting. So, I used this pattern as kind of a guide to do some guess work and with the help of some of my very awesome Plurk friends used guage *gasp* to do the rest. I've been knitting so many socks lately that I pretty much know the basic anatomy of a sock and well, the rest was just kinda eyeballing it.

That's the first of the Giant Socks of Doom, and well, I don't think it came out all that shabby. I only hope it fits. I mean, we all remember what happened that last time I bothered with a guage swatch, right? (Shall I remind you of the Great Talia Desaster of '08 ? ) But really that's all I've done knit-wise for 2011. I do plan on relearning crochet though. There are way too many adorable amigurumi dolls and such wanting to decorate my bookshelves. Seriously. Way too many to even name. I mean, oh my gosh, look at the cuteness!

Cooking wise, I haven't done much either. Well, nothing out of the ordinary until my dinner last night. It was just steak and the most amazing side dish ever! It was so light, but so filling. It was just perfect. And yes, I WILL be sharing that recipe with you all, here and now. :D So without further adieu, I give you:
Whipped Cauliflower!

I've roasted it with great results, steamed it with just a little bit of butter, had it pickled, eaten it blanched and dunked in the most delicious of creamy sour cream based dips, but this was the first time that me and whipped cauliflower have met with success.

My obsession with figuring out this recipe started a few years ago when it first graced my palate via a local restaurant that I can't even remember the name of. But oh this cauliflower was perfect. It was creamy! It was delicately nutty in flavor, with just the perfect hint of garlic and still had those pleasing little lumps of tastiness that I've come to love in home made mashed potatoes. My first attempts only yielded a watery, chunky, oily puree of grey disgust with little to no flavor and I gave up. But suddenly,yesterday, I was struck with total inspiration and realized that while my basics were indeed all there, I had forgotten one important thing. A thickening agent - which I discovered in corn starch blended with a bit of heated milk.

All right all right, I'll get to the recipe as I'm sure you're all slavering to get at it. Let me just tell you that I was not always a cauliflower lover, and it wasn't until I tried this dish that I became a true cauliflower devotee. I'm hoping this will convert you all to this new epicurean religion as well, or at least have you wanting to lick the bowl of your food processor afterwards as I nearly did. :D

Whipped Cauliflower

What You Need:

A small head of fresh cauliflower
3-5 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp to 1 1/2 tsp corn starch
3 small shallots
olive oil
1/4 cup of freshly shredded parmesan
1/2 cup of fat free sour cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter - do not substitute for margarine. It WILL turn oily and icky.
salt and pepper to taste
* A steamer basket *

Step 1: Trim the cauliflower into florets and peal the garlic cloves. Insert steamer basket into large pot (or smallest pot that you can fit it into and still have it completely open) that has about 2 cups of water poured into the bottom of it. Put the cauliflower florets and garlic cloves into the steamer basket, turn your burner onto medium-high heat and cover the pot and let steam until the cauliflower and garlic is tender (by tender I mean you can insert the tines of a blunt fork - such as a plastic one - into the toughest part of the floret with ease. You want it softer than you would if you were just steaming it to eat it with butter or cheese, but you don't want it to fall to mush either.). About 15 minutes seemed to do the trick for me once the water got boiling.

Step 2: Peel and trim the shallots, cutting them in half and give them a toss in a little bit of olive oil and then sort of pan roast them until they show signs of softening and a bit of translucency. Set aside.

Step 3: Remove cauliflower and garlic from your steamer basket and put in the bowl of your food processor. Add the shallots and put the lid on the bowl and pulse a few times to get an even, almost granular consistency. The cauliflower will not totally puree, but that's all right. It will. :D

Step 4: Heat the milk up in the microwave for about a minute, and dissolve the cornstarch in the heated milk. While continuing to pulse the cauliflower mix, slowly add the milk/starch mixture. Stop pulsing and just allow the food processor to run (if you have multiple speeds, use medium speed). It will turn thick and somewhat pasty. Add in the butter, sour cream, parmesan and salt and pepper, blend until it holds a reasonably even and smooth consistency. It should look something like this:

Step 5: Serve hot with a small pat of butter (or at this point margarine) on top, some freshly snipped chives or parsley, or even with additional sour cream and cheese as you would loaded mashed potatoes and enjoy!

Also in case you're curious, the steak that accompanied this side was a London broil cut that I trimmed all tough connective tissue from, rubbed with a mixture of dry mustard, smoked paprika, garlic and onion powders and sea salt after it came to room temperature, then rubbed with softened butter on both sides and put into a pre-heated skillet for a nice sear. Mine was about 1 " thick so I did it about 3 minutes on each side and then just let it sit in the skillet for a few minutes to cook to medium rare. I basically adapted this recipe to suit my needs and it came out fantastic! I will probably never cook steak a different way again. Yes the butter was kinda fattening, but unfortunately butter seems to be the only adequate browning agent for meat without having to use tons of it (I used about 1 tbsp for each side of the steak). And then for serving I did as advised in the recipe and sliced it on the diagonal going across the grain of the meat.

*By steamer basket I do not mean that little insert thing that sometimes comes with your pan sets. I mean something like this. I find it provides a faster, more even steam than those little inserts. And microwave steaming, well, it really just turns the veggies to rubber right? I bought mine at Wal Mart for like five dollars, but I'm sure if you want to you can spend more money for a fancier one that does the same thing. Just goes to show you that sometimes the more money you spend (i spent like twenty dollars on that little insert thingie) does not always equal better. :D *

Adventures in Handspinning and KAL news...

2010-06-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

So this week, I really haven't been doing too much knitting. Actually I don't think I've picked up the needles since I've picked up the spindle (don't worry, that'll change soon - I have some things I need to finish up already and I'll have to do it over the weekend to make way for other things). And let me tell you, I really think I'm getting the hang of this.

I'm sure you recall the blue BFL I had on my spindle at the last posting, right? All slubby and thick and thin? Well...here's a picture of the finished yarn.

That's actually just one mini-hank of three that I managed to spin out of 4 oz of fiber - got a whopping (note the sarcasm here folks) 64ish yards of pretty much what you see in the above photo. Thick, thin, slubby - my splicing of new pre-drafted strips of fiber onto the spun yarn horrible. Still, I was damn proud of it and still am. It might not be knittable but it sure is purty to look at. And since I was having such fun, I decided to pull out that oh so fruity smelling merino/tencel fiber and see if I could spin that up! And here's what I got!

Still thick and thin, not really all that slubby, but my splicing still leaves a lot to desire. And yes, this time I managed to skein all my little mini hanks together to make one very short but very fat skein of heavy fingering to almost bulky thick and thin - this time managing 116 yards! I know, still not really knittable (though I might see if I can manage a Calorimetry out of it) but once again, very pretty to look at. :D And I was still having such fun!

So much fun that I decided to get ambitious. I had this 8 oz hunk of super soft,shimmering 50/50 combo of merino/tussah silk that I had purchased from The Sheep Shed's fiber festival booth at Rhinebeck of 'o7 hanging around in a plastic tote. Every now and then I'd take it out to sniff it, pet it, and rub my face against it, but whenever I got the urge to try and spin it, I'd hide it away quickly for fear that I'd try and fail.

You see, I knew when I bought that fiber that I wanted it to be a lovely delicate lace-weight (single ply would more than fit the bill), and well, I kept doubting my ability to be able to spin a yarn that fine. Well, after I finished with that fruity merino/tencel I pulled out that fiber and separated it into two strips - then I took one of those strips and split it into fourths, and then eighths, and then rolled those little eighths up into balls and went to work on drafting out those eighths into nice, thin strips workable for spinning up a nice shimmery lace weight. And well, I hate to sound cliche' but Eureka, I think I get it!

Ta-DA! Oh I know it's not perfectly even - still a bit on the thick and thinnish side (though not even close to the degree it was before...it just goes from a lace weight to a slightly heavier lace weight) and I'm down to the last three eighths of that first 4 oz strip of fiber and I already have 143 yards spun up! If I keep spinning at this rate, then I think that I'll have surpassed my goal and possibly have spun up enough for the Calais Shawl - nevermind my original goal of 198 yds of heaven!

Speaking of the Calais Shawl(Rav Link) - apparently it's a FAIL in the KAL department for the official True Blood Group on Ravelry, BUT I still want to knit it, and a couple of my friends do as well. I'll be starting a group for the Calais Shawl KAL over on Ravelry and while we'll officially cast on on June 13th at 9 p.m. I'm thinking that it'll be more of an on-going thing, that way whoever wants to hop on in whenever they want to, they can. :D And like I said, if you're participating in the 10 shawls in 2010 KAL, this shawl kal does double duty. ;)

Now the only problem is, I only know of two people besides me that want to join in, sooo...if you're interested in participating in the KAL just shoot me a private message over on ravelry (I'm girlmeetsneedle there too) and once I get three people interested then I'll set up a group! Also keep in mind that while this will be primarily a KAL group - there will be other fun groupy type activities in the future! Like swaps, and possibly a contest or two! :D

Anyway, it's 3 am and I'm going to actually go knit a little bit instead of spinning up any more fiber and then maybe head off to bed. Don't forget to pm me on Ravelry if you'd like to participate in the KAL and wait!

One more thing. While I was digging through my stash of fiber, I found this.

This, is an Ann Grout support spindle - turnip based. Pretty, isn't it?

Sweet how it rests in that little bowl right? Well, you'll notice that there's a tiny bit of blue fiber attatched to the spool of the spindle - but let me hasten to assure you that only a very small amount of fiber was ever spun using that thing. It is not for me, which is why it remained hidden for so long. However, I found a group on Ravelry and put it up for trade. I got quite a bit more interest than I thought I would, but I made speedy arrangements to make the trade with a very kind lady named Stacey (the oh so talented creator of Spindipity yarns and fibers) - for a 4 oz braid of her very aptly named "Pansy" colored SW merino. So recently, that support spindle has become this.

Don't the colors just make you happy in your soul? As soon as I got it, I sniffed it (smells vaguely of lavender and soap with the deep down earthy smell of sheep...mmmm) and petted it, and hugged it. And I squeed for about fifteen minutes. ANd then I squeed even more about the little post card she sent with a little code to use to get 15% off my next order from her (and oh there shall be plenty). Yes, I tucked the pretty away before I abandoned spinning up my lace weight to get that all drafted. And yes, I'm hoping I can hold off on spinning it for a while because I'd kind of like to savor all that happiness. :D She thanked me for the trade, but really I'm feeling like I'm getting the better part of this bargain here. Totally.

Now...I'm going to bed for realz. Night folks!

In other news...

2010-05-29T22:53:00.001-07:00

I'm blaming this on a certain someone who shall remain nameless (however...I'm sure you know who YOU are as I type this - evil foul temptress of spindling), but well, I did a crazy thing. I decided to take some of that fiber that I bought years and years and years ago at the only MDS&W I ever had the good fortune of attending (a super soft, scrummy braid of BFL) and actually attempt to spin it.

Well...it's not pretty. In fact, it barely looks like yarn - and actually, now that I think about it, I'm not entirely certain I'm even remotely doing this properly. But here it is. My first, yarnish type thingie...

Ta-Da!!!! Erm...I know. Hardly impressive right? First off, allow me to critique myself here, but this "yarn" is incredibly thick and thin. Oh yeah. Goes from a thickness that vaguely resembles sewing thread to an outright bulky. There are slubs, despite the fact I did pause (spindle clamped between my knees) and attempt to draft out the super thick parts of already pre-drafted wool. Actually, there are lots of slubs...and I'm not sure the twist will even stay really, but it kinda, sorta, almost does look like yarn, right? RIGHT?! Just agree with me and humor me people. :D Oh well, at least the colors are pretty and if I've wrecked this beautiful BFL roving beyond all reason, at least it was already pretty well wrecked from my prior attempt at spindling it a couple of years ago...so it's okay if I wreck it even further. To think I'd daydreamed myself into believing that I could get a lovely, even fingering weight single my first try...talk about ambitious.

On the home front, DW is doing well. Recently she partook in the physical aspect of testing for SRT (Sheriff's Response Team), and managed to pass it on her first try - much to her apparent astonishment (not so much mine - I knew she could do it), and is just waiting for an interview before she finds out whether or not she actually made it onto the team. DW is acting uncertain about her place in it - but she's not fooling me. I'm pretty sure she's a shoe-in.

I have a few more FO pictures to show you, too as I kind of held some back from my last post so...without any further ado, here they are!

Pattern: Baby Rollin' Beret by Woolly Wormhead
Yarn: Lane Cervinia Madrid Multi in colorway #2011
Amount Used: About three quarters of a skein.

This pattern was a very fast and very pleasant knit, and I think it could make just about any baby's head look adorable. A big bonus for me was that it took on a very Strawberry Shortcake kind of feel when it was done, because if you're as old as I am you actually remember when Strawberry Shortcake wore a beret-hat instead of the floppy brimmed monstrosity she wears now. I'm not entirely sure what Ms. (or Mr.) Wormhead meant by a "dinky knot"...but the little knot on top really is a cute addition. I think the knotted top is actually what drew it to my attention! :D

Pattern: Striped Baby Halter Top by Shelly Hattan
Yarn: Lane Cervinia Madrid Multi and Solid in colorways #2011 and #2003 respectively
Amounts: About 3/4 of the skein of solid, and about 1/2 of the skein of multi

This halter is easily the cutest little baby item I've knit. I don't know why, but I love it and I really think that it complements the little beret above. However, I suspect this project has cured me of my love of ruffles for a while. No need to be knitting and binding off that many stitches any time soon. However, the cuteness of the beret and the sweetness of this little top/sundress left me kind of at a loss for what kind of little shoes to make. I had intended on knitting yet another pair of Mary Jane Booties But for some reason (though I knit this with the same needles I knit the last pair in) when the first bootie was finished it was fully twice the size of the first pair I'd made! Sooo...that was a no go. I did however, finally manage to find a nice, simple pair of little footies that did just nicely.

Pattern: Organic Cotton Knit Booties by Bernat Design Studio
Yarn: Lane Cervinia Madrid Multi #2011
Amounts: Two walnut sized balls of leftovers from previous projects. :D

Aren't these just so sweet and cute in their simplicity. I think after all the ruffles and decreases and increases and picking up stitches I just wanted something kind of plain...something that would keep baby's foot warm without taking away from the ornateness of the little halter. I think they fit the bill, and on top of that were an incredibly fast knit - one that I can easily repeat over and over again (which is good as I plan on knitting a rainbow of them for my own hypothetical future child - hypothetical mind you because we have yet to find a suitable clinic with a suitable donor as of yet).

All the pink stuff above is intended as a belated baby shower gift to a friend of mine, along with two sweet little crocheted sets that my best friend's mother in law made out of the goodness of her heart for little Aurora Jane. Now if only we can agree on a time and day to meet so I can give them to her...well, we'll be in like flynn!

The last thing is the first part of a gift that DW requested that I knit last minute for her friend at work who is also having a baby (well, now we know exactly how most people entertain themselves during winter, right - dangit, where's that evil grin plurky face when I need it the most!)- this one a boy.

Pattern: Caterpillar by Kimberly Chapman
Yarn: TLC Cotton Plus - not sure who makes it - blueish green color and white.
Amounts: Uhm...scraps really. I used the rest of the skein of blueish green for a hat and booties (which I'll be showing in a later post due to the fact that the current pictures I have of them both really really suck)

This was an easy, fun toy to knit, though I wish that a) I'd had brighter, more crayola inspired colors to work with (next time - oh yes, there will be others to follow!) and b) I'd had noise making implements like bells, rattly things or squeaky things to put in the different sections. It would have made it way more of an interesting toy for a baby - but even though this toy will most likely be relegated to a shelf somewhere, it'll at least be one of the cutest toys on that shelf. Even if the antennae didn't quite do what I wanted them to do and flopped over...and my sewing of the legs kind of stinks, and my embroidery is awful! :D

I have a couple of other things on (and off) the needles, but once again, later posts. I can't just give you all my goodies right away. It's just not lady-like. Besides, I have a mouth full of BFL and my eyes are closing as I'm typing. It's looking like it's just about time for me to hit the hay for a bit of a kip. DW will likely be forced into OT tomorrow, or take, so after my kip, I'll spend my morning baking whoopie pies as kind of a last hurrah, if you will. A so-long to those cold wintery nights. And a delicious one at that! :D

KAL and other things...

2010-05-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

So, at random on plurk, my friend KnitChick and I were chattering away about True Blood Season 3 - and needless to say we're both super psyched and pretty much impatiently waiting for it to just start already! And of course, being as we're both obsessive knitters, the topic gradually turned to just that - and then moved on (quite rationally I'd say) to the idea of having a Knit-a-long (KAL) for Season 3.

Okay, so I know that this idea is not a new one, and that people have been having KAL's forever, and that there's been one for each season of the show (which I hadn't had the fortune to jump in on), but I can't seem to locate one for this season so we thought we'd try and get the ball rolling.

The tough part was finding an appropriate pattern (as the other appropriate patterns for such a tv show had already been used in previous KAL's - or were *gasp* Twilight related), so I plugged the word "vampire" into the little pattern search bar on Ravelry and went rifling through - and managed to discover this little gem : Calais Shawl . It's beautiful, the lace pattern isn't overwhelmingly complicated and looks to be repetitive and thus easily memorized - and it looks great in red, black or just about any color you'd want to knit it in! And after a few moments of discussion with Miss Chickie, we decided that it was just perfect for what we were looking for (plus as an added bonus, it ties into the 10 shawls in 2010 KAL that we're participating in as well).

So here's the info for the KAL

WHAT: Calais Shawl by Judy Marples
WHEN:Sunday JUNE 13th (edited thanks to a kindly reader) :)
CAST ON: 9 pm SHARP
CAST OFF: 10 pm SHARP on the day of the Season's last episode (or at least, that's our goal :) )

And believe me when I say that we'd really, really love to get as many people in on this as possible, so feel free to join in. And yes, we want to see pics of your FO!

Speaking further of knitting, I've been knitting up a storm lately! So much so that I actually need to take a break tonight so I can let my forearms rest. I don't know why, but they're killing me today! But...I do have plenty of FO pics to show for the aches and pains!

First up, we finally have here a complete, FO picture of the Bubbles Wrap I mentioned eons ago. The yarn again, is Acero by Brooks Farm yarns , and let me tell you it is some of the prettiest yarn I've worked with. Slips right through your fingers and is a dream to knit with. The model would be the woman that I actually wound up gifting it to - my Aunt Sharon - and let me just tell you she loves it. She wears it with everything and says that it even looks good with everything. It even looks nice with that bright, floral dress she's wearing! I'm just glad it went to someone who will actually get use out of it. Although, I fear I've turned her into a handknits addict. She's already looking through the magazines I have at patterns and plotting out when to take me yarn shopping her next hand knit piece. And my mom's super jealous because I've never knit her a stole like that (because I thought she wouldn't wear it)...so now I absolutely have to knit her a sweater. Hehehe. Soon I'll have projects coming out of my ears.

Up next is my Citron. I know this is meant to be a winter type shawlette, but around here, it still gets cooler at night occasionally so I thought it'd be nice to wear out in the evening - and the color is bright enough that it'll still be noticed. This I knit up in Mmmmmalabrigo lace. It was my first time ever working with this yarn, but I have to admit that I now see what all the hullaballoo is about. This is hands down the softest, skwooshiest, prettiest lace yarn I've had the pleasure of petting,and it almost seemed like a waste to remove it from it's oh so squeezable skein to wind it into a ball. The color I chose, was Tiger Lily. I'm a pink person by nature - and as such I tend to gravitate towards just that pink. Sooo...with this I took myself out of my color comfort zone and I have to say that I really, really love the result. I think I'll have to do this sorta thing more often!

The above is some baby stuff I knit up for my cousin's baby shower. They were a last minute, quickie gift, but still came out beautiful. I used yarn from my stash for this - as I was able to locate about 9 skeins of Madrid (6 of the multi and 3 solid pale pink). The hat, sweater and booties took me a combined four days to knit, and let me just say that they were a HUGE success. The patterns (in no particular order) are: Mary Jane Booties by Lucie Sinkler, Ruffled Baby Hat by MaryAnn Hwee, and Confection Baby Shrug by Tonya Wagner. I matched them with this cute little ruffled denim dress bought at Wal Mart and the result was adorable. I knit a blanket buddy for her too, but I can't seem to locate the pictures!

Now on the ruffled hat - I know my "flower" doesn't even look remotely like the ones in the pattern - and that's because I can't crochet for crap. So, if you like it, all I did was knit about 3 1/2" of a 3 stitch I-cord and then sewed it into a spiral and then proceeded to sew some beads into the center for sparkle. My cousin loved the result. So easy and yet so little work. <3

I have a few more FO's to post pictures of, but I think those will have to wait for another post as I'm kind of drifting off to sleep here...and I still need to get my butt in gear to do some cooking for tomorrow's family BBQ. But I absolutely have to leave you with this:

DW! Freshly showered, scrubbed, smelling oh so nummy and looking oh so sexilicious! Is it any wonder I love this woman? She's HAWT!

Food, sticks and string...how can you go wrong?

2010-02-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

First off, I have something to say and I'm going to say it. Some people, are inherently morons. There. I've gone ahead and done it. I'm not naming names or anything, but really now. Some things are just a matter of common sense and if you have none, then basically, yeah, you're screwed.

So, for those of you not "in the know", I now hold down a part time job at a bakery. Now, I don't actually do any of the baking as we have big, strong men in the kitchen to handle all that heavy lifting (and I mean heavy - you should see the size of these bowls the guys whip up various batters and frostings in, I'm talking HUGE!). My job is to stand out front at the counter, smile prettily and ask if the customers would like that in a box or a bag. That's right. I'm a pastry peddler. And generally, I like it. It's exceptionally fun because I can call my MIL down at the main bakery when she's working and harass her whenever I feel like it because, hey, she's the cake decorator!

Anyway, this past Sunday I get to work at 6:30 a.m - as usual - and start putting out trays of glossy, powdery, flaky pastries and the day starts per the norm. Nobody comes in until about 8:30 a.m (usually the woman who lives across the street asking for her large coffee hold the sugar please). This particular Sunday, there seemed to be a LOT of birthday parties. At least thirteen that I personally had knowledge of as my little store was in possession of the stars of those shows - the cakes. Now my mother in law, she does beautiful work. I've never had a customer complain about the cakes they receive. In fact, they all say "Wow, that came out so much better than I expected!" and generally,they leave with shiny happy faces which, in turn, makes me put my shiny happy face on. I love seeing the people walk away happy, you know? I mean, there's so much misery in the world already, so if a little thing like a doughnut dripping with glaze or a ten pound marble cake loaded with buttercream icing, stuffed with strawberries and topped with about ten million beautiful frosting roses makes people cheery then I'm all for it!

Sounds like a pretty decent day, right? It was, until the BIG IDIOT walks in. Now, he's a young guy - obviously out of his depth. I mean, you can tell when a customer's comfy with being in a place and he was so NOT comfy. He walked quickly up to the counter, eyes darting nervously (most likely this was a ploy to emphasize the fact that yes, he'd almost forgotten to stop by and thusly was in more of a hurry than he usually would be - sneaky devil) about the place until he finally arrived right in front of me.

ME: "Hi there! How can I help you?" ::smiling pleasantly::

BIG IDIOT: "Uh...I'm here to pick up a cake?" ::looking at me quizzically, as if unsure that this is in fact a place where you could find cakes::

ME: "Okay...what's the name?" ::still smiling::

BIG IDIOT: "Uhm...*Smith*?" ::looking more confused by the minute::

ME: "Oh sure thing! Let me just box it up for you!"

At this point, I head into the back to do just that. Meanwhile I can hear him reciting his errand list out loud...and I'm trying not to giggle. After all, laughing at the customers is rude right? At least, it is while they're in earshot of it.

ME: "Here it is Sir! Isn't it nice?" ::grinning, ignoring the fact that BIG IDIOT has registered that I heard his little littany and is now actually blushing and trying to avoid looking me in the eye::

BIG IDIOT: "Oh yeah, it's great!" ::takes a peek inside and nods as if he knows what the damned thing is supposed to look like::

Now please, take note. This cake wasn't your average marble birthday cake. It was stuffed to the gills with our home made chocolate custard with loads of our real whipped cream piled and whorled on top of it. Not to mention the inch-thick colorful balloons on either side of this thing. Needless to say, I could not close the top of the box all the way for fear of smooshing my MIL's lovely work. So I closed it as much as I could and taped the sides down. Now...since we've already established this man's idiocy, I'm sure you can only guess what this guy did next.

BIG IDIOT: "Uh...why's it open?" ::untapes the sides and puts the box top completely down and then starts PUSHING the top down on top of the cake::

ME: "What are you DOING?!" ::no longer smiling, but rather looking on in horrified fascination...and yes, my voice did raise into a bit of an incredulous shriek on that last word::

BIG IDIOT: "Uhm...trying to close the box." ::this said slightly condescendingly, even as he pushes the box top down a bit further:: "But it ain't closing all the way..."

ME: "Well no kidding!" ::grabbing the cake from him and lifting the top, showing the now totally smooshed top of the cake. The balloons? Totally flat and smooshed into the cream and smeared all over the place. The pretty whorly trim? Pretty no more. It was a mush pile!:: "See why I didn't close it all the way? You probably would have been fine if you'd just left it closed but look! You squished it!" ::looking at him like he's the biggest moron on the planet::

BIG IDIOT: "Oh shit..." ::eyes bugging out of his head, disbelieving:: "Can you fix it?!?!" ::panic is definitely setting in. Oh yeah, he's gonna get a HUGE earful when he gets home with that mangled marble cake::

ME: "Uhm, no, I can't. I'm not a decorator. And we don't have one in the store right now. You're going to have to take it as is. Sorry." ::not smiling, shoving the cake receipt in his face:: "But I want you to sign this so we know that you did see it in EXCELLENT condition. Please."

Of course, he signed it and took the cake as it was. So what's the moral of the story here? Never let a man pick up a cake that you took the time to painstakingly choose colors, filling, and flavor for or you'll essentially end up with trifle. And...as you can well guess, names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Speaking of pastries and doughnuts and things, I have been working in my own kitchen (as usual) - whipping up what I hoped would be a rather tasty concoction on my stove top only to find them to slightly fail at the finish line.

The culprit: Zeppole by Giada de Laurentiis

There mine are, frying up in their two inches of oil. I didn't use olive oil, like the recipe suggested, but rather canola. I did cut the recipe in half as it was just me that would be eating them (DW having been forced to work over time that morning, but well, they look the way they're supposed once they hit the hot oil. They puff up, and appear to promise a light, airy confection that will be crisp outside and soft and puffy in the middle and when sweetened with some vanilla sugar and cinnamon? They promise to be heaven, right? Well, while the dough did exactly what it was supposed to, I found they lacked any bit of true flavor (except for the eggs...I could definitely taste egginess in them and maybe that's why I found them to be a bit blech). Also they were far too dense. More like a deep fried pancake (despite them puffing up in the oil) in texture than a doughnut of any kind. The cinnamon sugar was a nice touch...but I think they're just not for me. Needless to say, next time I get the urge for piping hot, home made doughnuts, I think I'll go for the apple cider variety - rolled hot out of the oil in cinnamon sugar and then served with a cream cheese glaze for dipping. Yeah, now that's the stuff. Anyhow, here's the finished, yet disappointing, zeppole.

Notice the amount of sugar that I applied to make them palatable...

Aaaanywho, moving on to the world of knitting. I've finished my Swallowtail , and can safely say that I am absolutely addicted to lace. It took me a bit to feel "brave" enough to attempt it, but when I successfully completed my Ishbel, I realized it was time to step the lace up a notch and I really feel I did.

There she is boys and girls, and I have to say I'm pretty darn pleased with myself. Granted, I didn't bother with the nupps (being as no matter how loose I worked them they still seemed to need enough force to push the needle through all five stitches to cause pain in my shoulder after four or five of them), and opted to use beads instead. My only regret is that the beads were size 8 mm instead of 6...I think the larger size would have shown up better...but still, for a shawlette of this delicacy I still think it came out beautifully. I don't really understand how people who knit this pattern wound up with full sized shawls (maybe they used much bigger needles than I did?), but I'm happy with the size anyway as I prefer scarf-like shawlettes to big wraps anyway! :D

There's a closer view of the beads. Hopefully you can see them. It was tough trying to figure out what color beads to use, but I think I chose well.

Conveniently, the day I finished this shawl, the needles I'd ordered from Knit Picks came in, which allowed me to cast on the socks I promised I'd knit for my Aunt Sharon. She was so delighted by the wrap I gave her for Christmas, that when I mentioned I really liked to knit socks she promptly bought me enough skeins of Happy Feet to knit herself and my mother each a pair of socks. They're thrilled. Now I ordered two sets of needles from KP. Both size 2, each a set of 5 DPN's. One is nickel plated and the other is a true blue indulgence - Knit Picks' Harmony Wood. I haven't used them yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I've heard lots of good things about the Harmony Wood and I thought I'd give 'em a test. The nickel plated are mostly for practicality as one of my dogs has a fondness for stealing my wooden DPN's out of my knitting bag and chewing them up until they're nothing but splinters - thus the reason for my having to order new DPN's in the first place!

Either way, I'm really liking this sock pattern so far, and I absolutely love this yarn. Yes, I know it's not Wollemeise, STR or any of the other "BIG NAMES" that I'm in sock yarn lust with, but this yarn is still awesome. It's soft, it's squishy and while the other yarns I suspect might be lust for me, this yarn seems to be true love. I chose a semi-solid...more like a dark grayish blackish blue with hints of a lighter color that add subtle highlights to my stitching. Sooo pretty. Here's what I have done so far:

Pattern: "Embossed Leaves" by Mona Schmidt as presented to me in "Favorite Socks"
Yarn: Plymouth Happy Feet - Color #18 - 2 skeins
Needles: Size 2 - 2.75 mm DPN's
Adjustments: Rather than knit the full 18 rounds or whatever she suggests for the cuff, I knit a mere 10 and with all the repeats of the chart for the leg I still got the 6 3'4" length that she suggests!

And do you see what I mean about prettiness? Check out that subtle glossy sheen! Those lovely little highlights from the lighter parts! I mean, you can't beat it for what it cost - a mere 5.99 per hank! And it's really, truly delightful as it runs through your fingers while you're working with it.

On the home front, DW's been sick lately, but I think she's starting to come around to being better. She's sitting on the couch right now, playing a hack 'n slash game and delicately sipping some coffee. She's also managed to find time to thumb through Favorite Socks and pick out a pair of socks that I absolutely "MUST" knit for her.Of course, I'm a little nervous about them because she's picked out a pair of socks that require colorwork (luckily only two colors I think but still)and I've never successfully knit with more than one color in the round before. Well, I guess there's a first time for everything, right? And of course, DW's still thrilled with her job. She's going out for SRT soon (the jail's version of SWAT) and is looking into taking the Hostage Negotiation class their offering, as well as the gun safety course so she can legally carry. DW with a gun - I almost shudder to think of it! Just kidding - I know she'll be very serious about safety with that thing, and even though I'm not sure how to feel about the Hostage Negotiation thing..I know she'll be great at it and will think before putting herself in any dangerous situations. I'm just a worry wart and I can't help it. :P I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I'm off to head back into the living room, knit a few more rows and listen to the rain drop all pitter-pattery on my roof! Keep knitting, baking, and reading! :D I love having readers...it makes it so worth it to me to keep this blog up, so thank you so much!

Where's Waldo?

2010-02-06T00:03:00.000-08:00

Here I am! Well, okay so I'm not a tall, geeky looking male with glasses and a penchant for wearing candy cane print clothes...but here I am nonetheless. You may be wondering exactly why I've been gone so long...and well, frankly I have no excuse other than sheer laziness. So this post is gonna be a bit of a doozy - because there's a LOT to catch up on.

First off, let's go all the way back to Rhinebeck, 2009. Once again, I didn't make it. This year however, I have a very, very good excuse. The night before we were going to leave, I had a gallbladder attack that lead to a very stressful 8 days in the hospital and a gallbladder removal surgery. It was quite upsetting because I was completely prepared to go too! And, being the sweetheart that I am, I gave the people I was going with my share of the hotel room anyway because I didn't want to screw them. And what did they do? They repayed that kindness by being triply kind and using the money on yarn for me instead!!!!

There it is, three squishy, gorgeous, PINK skeins of Brooks Farms Solo Silk. The only yarn I was really interested in purchasing and they bought it for me. They even picked out the perfect color! Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with it! I've been told to "make it something good" because, well, they spent a looooong time picking out just the "right" color for me. Apparently, I'm hard to shop for when it comes to yarn because my taste in colors is considered unusual by them. While they for the most part blatantly favor earth tones or fire-y type colors, my taste tends to run all over the spectrum (but skipping a few shades in the color wheel just because they bore me). But I think that they did a superb job!

And, on top of all that, they got me this nifty little goodie bag from the Rav party and had people sign it for me and stuffed all kinds of fun little goodies in it!

I was, and still am, blown away by their thoughtfulness. It was something I wasn't remotely expecting, and it really made my hospital stay that much less stressful.The months after that stay - well that's another story. There was a bit of a leukemia scare due to high white blood cell counts, but after umpteen million viles of blood taken out of my poor, bruised arms, they were quite happy to tell me that I was cancer free...but still, it was a bit harrowing. Thankfully, things have settled down where my health has concerned.

On the knitting front...I've been doing quite a bit of it, and even managed to successfully complete my first actual lace stole - the previously mentioned Bubbles wrap! I, however, do not have a FO picture as of yet because it was gifted to my fantastic Auntie Sharon (who got all teary eyed when I gave it to her because it was the "best Christmas present" she'd ever received). However, I told her that I needed to nab her for a picture with the stole...and she has agreed! So one should be coming soon! In the meantime, here are some of the things I've cranked out!

Pattern: Baktus
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn - Happy Feet - Color #04 - 2 skeins
Needles: US size 6 / 4.0 mm
Difficulty: Easy - a mindless knit.
Alterations: Instead of leaving the ends plain, I added some fun tassles.
Made for: My Mom!

Pattern: Ishbel - the smaller version
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug - Color "Fire" - 1 skein
Needles: US 6 / 4.0mm
Difficulty: Intermediate.
Alterations: None
Made for: Myself!

This was my second "real" lace project and my first lace shawl. It was such a fun knit, that I really want to make another one, but this time I think I'll add some beads. I just need to find the right yarn. Might have to get some more Jitterbug because I really, really like the feel of it and it was awesome to work with. No splitting or anything! My only regret is that I didn't block the points out more aggressively. Maybe if I get unlazy, I'll re-block it and do so. We'll see.

Pattern: Brigid
Yarn: BMFA STR Mediumweight - Color "Alina" - like maybe 1/2 the skein if that?
Needles: US 4 / 3.5mm
Difficulty: I considered these easy. They took me like two days to knit!
Made for: My friend Lee-Ann!

These were a thank you gift for feeding DW while I was in the hospital and feeding us the day I got out of the hospital. My only problem with these, were the way the colors pooled...and also, belatedly, I discovered that I'm not actually fond of this colorway at all. Next time I make these I will do two things: Go down a needle size and knit them in a solid, semi-solid, or heathered yarn.

Pattern: Swallowtail Lace Shawl
Yarn: Handpaintedyarn.com Merino Lace - Color "Warm Spirit" - a little over half a skein
Difficulty: Intermediate for me...but so far so good!
Made for: Dunno yet, but it's the first of my 10 shawls for 2010!

I started this originally back in the beginning of January, but I dropped a stitch so far down while working the nuppps that I had to frog it...and while I was frogging it the yarn decided it was going to pull the entire shawl up into one, big unmanageable knot. So I had to scrap it and start again. Took me a bit to re-cast on...but I decided I'm not letting this beat me down!

Also, as you can see from the photo, I've been doing some baking! In that photo is a chocolate cupcake with toasted 7-minute frosting! I used this recipe for the cupcakes, and the following recipe for the frosting. I then put them in the oven to bake and at about 7 minutes till baking time was over I took them out and piped the frosting on then put them back in the oven for the frosting to toast up a bit.

7 Minute Frosting - courtesy of Foodnetwork.com

1 ½ c White Sugar
1/8 tsp Salt
1/3 c Water
¼ tsp Cream of Tartar or 1 tbsp. of White Corn Syrup
2 Egg Whites
1 ½ tsp Vanilla

Place sugar, cream of tartar (or syrup), salt, water and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with a hand mixer for a total of 1 minute. Place pan over the boiling water (but make sure it doesn’t actually touch the water as this may cause crystallization of the sugar) and beat constantly on high for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and beat in vanilla.

Some things I would have done differently: First, I would have only filled the cupcake cups up halfway rather than 3/4 as my cupcakes kind of overflowed their little holders. I had to cut away some of the edge so they would be perfect icing size. Also, I would have cut back some of the milk in the recipe even more than I did. I cut it back from 1 cup to a little over 3/4 of a cup of milk...but still they almost disintegrate when I pull the paper off. So maybe next time I'll do a 1/2 cup plus a tablespoon or two. Secondly, I would have left them in the oven to toast some more to get more of that crisp, cooked sugar flavor! However, these are still yummy, and with only a scant 3 tbsp of butter in the cupcake, even someone on a diet can afford to splurge with these! Here's a closer picture of the cupcake (and yes there's a bite missing)!

Here are some other things I've baked up in my kitchen on the pond...

Apple Pie!

Chewy,crispy, chocolate chip cookies (courtesy of SmittenKitchen.com)

Miniature Soft Pretzels (also courtesy of SmittenKitchen.com)

And the only pancakes I'm allowed to make ever...Aunt Edna Rae's Sour Cream pancakes (recipe found via SmittenKitchen.com)

As you guys can plainly see, GMN is back in business! Knitting and domesticity is ensuing! And yes, there will be more blogging in the future! I promise! But for now, it's back to knitting...and maybe consumption of another cupcake or two! ;) Be safe, happy and make sure if you're being bad that you're at least good at it! >:)~

Omigosh...I'm ALIVE

2009-09-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

I can't help thinking that somehow, this was all a HUGE mistake. I fell away from my knitting groove, and instead found myself in this total knitting FUNK. Nothing I cast on was good enough, or pretty enough to keep me entertained long enough to actually want to continue knitting it. Not even a dishcloth was enough to get me started. So, obviously, for MONTHS, I haven't knit a thing. Not one single stitch. In fact, the idea to cast on never even entered my mind.

I guess in a way I needed the break. I had stuff to concentrate on that had nothing to do with knitting, and therefore I felt if I didn't think about it, then it wouldn't bother me. Well, it's September (almost October already) and my hands have started to itch. Literally, a tingling in my palms where I would be holding nice, smooth knitting needles while stitches dropped off the tips like magic. So I went a-searching and OH MY GOD, found a pattern that I really really HAD to knit. It's socks, of course. They seem to be my go-to project when I really need to get back into the groove of things. Once I get a few inches of a sock leg going, I'm unstoppable...and then I'll be a knitting fiend...and hopefully won't decide I need a crazy long break again.

I'll letcha know how it works out...maybe even before I head off to Rhinebeck (because I'm SO going this year!). ;)

Till then, keep knitting and cross your fingers that I finally manage to fall out of this knitting void I managed to climb into!

Frogging Friday - Talia

2009-01-16T23:35:00.000-08:00

Started: July 2008
Frogged: January 15th, 2009
The Proof:

Okay, so here's the story with what has come to be known as the Great Talia Cock Up.

I wanted to knit this vest because it seemed like a fun and still easy enough first sweater-like-object kind of project. The yarn that I wanted to knit it in was a chunky, super soft yarn known as Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky. The sheen was what drew me, that and the skwooshiness of it. It told me that the vest would look stunning knit up in all it's fine, nommable glory, and I agreed. So, I did a swatch - and that's what I believe was my fatal mistake. I actually, for the first time ever, knit a swatch and fiddled around with it until I got the needle size that would bring me to guage - a feat which I achieved on the second knit of the swatch. So, armed with the knowledge of my perfect guage I set out to make this epically beautiful vest which wound up being epically HUGE.

As you can see from the picture at the top of the page, it is large enough for both me and my SIL to stick our heads through the armholes like they were windows. It is large enough for both me and my SIL to wrap it around us and wear it together, at the same time. In fact, it was so HUGE, really, that it was obvious that it would only do as a Siamese Twins Costume for Halloween. I was so disgusted that I stuffed it in a tote and hid that tote so that I couldn't look at it even if I wanted to!

Originally, I was going to see if maybe I could fix the straps - because that's where both myself and my SIL believed the error to be. Then I decided that I'd rather re-knit the Talia vest in the yarn and needle size that the pattern actually calls for and instead, recycle this yarn for something else. Thus, the frogging.

It took a lot of work - especially since I tried to frog it backwards at first, but eventually I wound up with quite a few balls of recyclable, knittable yarn. And thankfully, this yarn seems to have bounced back quite nicely...despite the fact that it has been knit up for quite a while!

I plan on using the yarn to make a pair of these, and a hat or scarf (depending on how much yarn is left over - I might even make both!), to go with them! Aren't they pretty?

So yeah, I haven't been doing all that much actual knitting...but at least I've been doing some preparation. That counts for something, right?

Also, in other news, I've recently hopped onto a new bandwagon. The Toy Society is just such a great idea to me! I mean, how often can we really say that we get to give happiness to a stranger? Not that often for me, really...but I'd like to start.

And once he's finished, that guy's going to be my first drop. Think he'll make somebody happy? I hope so!

If you want to get in on it, then drop the folks at the toy society an e-mail (the address is on the blog itself) and you'll find them to be exceptionally friendly and quite happy to have you play along!

2009-01-12T18:23:00.001-08:00

So, knitting has been kind of a no-go for the last little while. I think maybe I got temporarily burnt out during the last minute December rush of Xmas knitting. Never fear though...because even as I speak I can feel the urge to knit itching away at my fingertips. I'll probably actually finish one of my UFO's!

So instead of FO pics and stuff, here's a recipe.

"Crab" Stuffed Portabella Mushroom Caps

You'll need:

5 large portabella mushroom caps
3/4 lb. of fake crab meat - hand shredded (I basically just smooshed it through my fingers)
1/2 of a large red onion - chopped
1 tbsp. of dried parsely
1/2 tbsp. of dried oregano
1/2 tbsp. of dried chives
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 large egg
4 slices fresh white bread (do not substitute)- torn into small pieces
1 red pepper - roasted*, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs (more or less as needed)
1/4 cup powdery parmesan cheese (the kind you can buy in the little plastic can to put on spaghetti)
6 tbsp. shredded parmesan cheese (such as Sargento's or whatever type you like. You can even buy a brick of parm and grate it yourself if you like)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Clean four of the caps off with a damp paper towel, trim off any excess stem and place flat side down on the sheet. (You want the part where the stem is facing upwards like a sort of cup.)
3. Take the fifth cap and chop it up finely and put in a large mixing bowl and combine well with the rest of your ingredients except for the shredded parm.
4. Heap the caps on the baking sheet with the stuffing mixture (I used an ice cream scoop and put roughly two and a half scoops on each cap), and use a rubber spatula to pat down slightly to flatten just a bit into a "cake".
5. Bake for 8 minutes, remove from oven and sprinkle each each mushroom with 1 1/2 tbsp. of the grated parmesan cheese. Return to the oven and bake for an additional seven minutes - or until the cheese is melted and starts turning a light golden color.
6. Serve hot with garlic mashed red bliss potatoes and enjoy!

* When I use roasted red peppers in any dish, I usually make my own. And this is how I do it.

1. Trim off any excess stem from the top of the pepper.

2. Turn a front burner of your stove on medium-high and sit the pepper directly on the grate. Hold in place with long metal tongs, and keep there until the bottom is fully blackened.

3. Once the bottom is blackened, sit the pepper on it's side and let blacken as well, turning as you go so all sides are completely blackened - including the top. (If you have to, pick the pepper up and apply sections that aren't blackening properly directly to the flame in between the grate).

4. Once finished blackening the pepper, either put in a tightly fitting tupperware container and cover with the proper lid, or wrap in aluminum foil ( I prefer to do it this way) and let sit for at least an hour. This allows the steam coming from the roasted pepper to loosen the blackened skin and makes for easy peeling.

5. After at least an hour has past, remove from the foil and peel the blackened skin from the pepper. If a little of the blackened stuff remains (and you will still have flecks of it on the pepper no matter what you do), that's fine, but if it's too much for your liking, wipe additionally with a moist paper towel.

6.Cut just the green stem part of the pepper away from the flesh and discard, then split down the center and lay out as flat as possible. Strip the bitter white parts from the flesh and wipe any seeds away with a moist paper towel.

You can do this up to four days in advance, but I prefer to do it the day of whatever dish I'm preparing that requires it. If you're going to do it early, just store in the refrigerator in a small, airtight container drizzled with a little olive oil. Blot the oil away from the pepper prior to using. Also, it will only keep for four to five days in the fridge.

Now, this method only works if you have a gas stove. If you have an electric one, you can roast your pepper in the oven but it takes a lot longer. In that case, I'd just buy a small jar, and use up the entire jar for this stuffed mushroom recipe.

Also, just thought I'd end this post off with some puppy cuteness!

Happy NEW YEARZ!!!!

2009-01-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2009 everybody! I hope that everyone had a safe and sane (to quote my dear, darling Betty) New Year's Eve, and I hope that everyone's hangovers were spent in a quiet environment the day after!

I thought I'd kick this post off with a little Meme of my own making!

So here we go:

5 Things that 2008 Drilled Into My Skull

*1. Being lucky in life all year long means that something is going to kick you in the ass at the end of the year and seriously make you lose all sense of cheer, very quickly!

*2. Apparently, my fingers and toes are not, in fact, body parts but playthings for a puppy!

*3. It is possible to knit eight Christmas gifts the week before the Holiday!

*4. Family will always be your saving grace - no matter what.

*5. Being a happy housewife is hard work, but rewarding!

Feel free to do this, if you like! :) I know some of you guys like to do Memes!

And going back to #1 on that list, what I thought was going to be a really shitty Xmas, turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant one! DW managed to find a way to surprise me with not one, but four gifts (two of them really BIG ones!).

The first one, as all my Plurk friends know by now, is my fabulous Sunbeam Mixmaster Heritage Series stand up mixer! I have to say that I was thrilled to see this under all the pretty wrapping paper that DW attractively arranged around the box!

Here it is in all it's glory. Not a Kitchen Aid, but I'm no appliance snob and this one came with a 4.6 quart bowl, a spinning turntable, V-groove beaters, dough hooks and has a little switch that you can push to move the bowl from side to side. Plus, it has 12 Speeds! The only think I'm missing is the whisk attachment, but I know where I can buy them, and a paddle. However, I find that the paddle isn't really a necessity. I've already put this mixer into action several times, which excites DW to no boundaries!

First, I used it to whip up some icing for the meltaways I had to make for Christmas. I forgot to take pictures...but I'm sure I'll be making them again in the future and will endeavor to remember to do so then! And then I used it to whip up Peanut Butter Blossom dough.

They came out perfectly! The cookies were tender with a slight crispy-chewy thing going on, and I made them right this time! I remembered to put the kiss in the middle AFTER they'd been baked (doing this before they go in the oven results in a nummy cookie, but a rock hard Hershey's Kiss with a very burnt flavor - trust me, I know these things). If you decide to make them, be warned. You have to wait until they cool COMPLETELY before you put them in a storage container. When you put the kiss in the cookie, the kiss melts. Doesn't lose it's shape, but it does melt. When it's completely cooled, the kiss will be solid again. It's almost like magic! :)

Then I decided that if I was making those, I might as well make some whoopie pies too!

That's the filling for the pies. This mixer is the best, because before I was hand blending the filling with a wooden spoon, and now all that stress on my arms and hands is over thanks to my nifty stand up! And it makes the fluffiest frosting ever!

That's what they look like when they're finished. And believe me, they're dangerous. Mostly because they're addicting. And despite the fact that a lot of people are making resolutions to lose weight (me included...*shame faced*) I've decided to include the recipe for these wonderful confections. They're great to make for parties too! You can double the recipe easily, or you can make the cake parts smaller for more bite sized pies! :) It was passed down to me by my wonderful MIL Debbie Helme A.K.A. ScottishNana, and trust me, they're incredibly popular!

Whoopie Pies

For the frosting:

1c Crisco
2c Confectioner’s Sugar
2c Fluff
4 tbsp. Milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat together until mixture is light and fluffy.

For the Cake

½c Vegetable Oil
1c White Sugar
½c Cocoa
1c Milk
1 Egg
2c Flour
½tsp. Baking Soda
½tsp. Baking Powder
½tsp. Salt
1tsp. Vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and drop in 1tbsp rounds on a baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 7 minutes. Cool. Pipe frosting on one part of the “pie” and then put the other part of the “pie” on top and enjoy!

I know, this is not a fat-free recipe, but they're delicious! And since this is my last week to eat whatever I want (I'm saying this merely because I have too much junk in my house and want to eat it all up before I go shopping for healthy stuff...don't wanna waste money after all!), I'm doing it up proper!

My second BIG present was a new family member! If you haven't met her yet, meet Holly!

Oh, HAI!!!

I haz a kyoot.

I iz an angel!!!

Getting those pictures was really, really hard being as she's barely eight weeks old, she has a hard time sitting still. Also, she is a plastic magnet. I don't know how, or why, but I have had to remove vast amounts of tape from her jaws as she seems to like to chew it. And, she appreciates the internetz as everytime I'm sitting at this thing she doggie-meows at me until I put her on the desk...where she will rest her head on my arm and she'll watch me type. Sometimes, she'll put her paw on the keyboard and try to type too! She's a goofball!

Also, my hand made gift baskets were a HUGE success, and everyone was completely impressed with my mad baking skillz...especially the marshmallows. For something so easy to make, they really impressed everyone - including my grandpa (the baking KING of the family). He has to master everything sugar-related, so I of course shared the recipe with him because he was kind enough to share his PB&J sandwich cookies with me!

Also, the handknits that I gave out were well-appreciated!

That's my younger brother Derek, wearing the hat I knit for him. He loved it, and as you can see it fits him perfectly!

That handsome fella is my mother's main squeeze, Michael, and he really, really liked his mitts. Said they were perfect for keeping his hands warm while he worked outside. And he liked the color and /feel/ of the yarn. Impressive, isn't he, that he'd worry about the /feel/ of the yarn! What a guy!

And then finally, my mom!

She was thrilled with the neckwarmer. Totally thrilled and couldn't wait to try it on under her new black coat. Also, she wore it around the house for a while too. Unfortunately, my camera sucks and was unable to capture the way she really looks...and this picture is horribly unflattering. The lighting in the room sucked too.

Now...onto the typical portion of my first post of 2009. Resolutions! I have them divided into knitting and miscelaneous!

First, we'll go into knitting!

My Knitting Resolutions for 2009

1. To try and remain faithful to one project at a time so that I may efficiently produce more FO's.

2. To knit when I feel the urge to snack due to boredom!

3. To try to learn one new technique a month (ie: stranded colorwork, or toe-up sock knitting!)

4. Try to blog more regularly (not exactly knitting but still related to knitting being as this is mostly a knit-blog!)

Easy, right?

Now onto the hard stuff!

Miscellaneous Resolutions for 2009

1. To uphold a weight loss goal of losing 1 lb. per week, and once I've lost 35 lbs., to maintain that weight!

2. Eat healthier! - No more late night junk food binges, and no more excessive unhealthy snacking. Treats occasionally are okay, but not every day!

3. Get active again! - Start taking the doggies for walks, get into the Yogalates again, and look up some belly dancing classes and other types of excercise that are fun!

4. Find a job. - Not something full time, just part time. Something that will get me out of the house and help with the bills and such so DW doesn't have to work so much!

5. Keep positive about life! - For every negative that happens, find something positive about that negative. It's hard, but it'll help keep me from being depressed.

6. Find a therapist. - Just for me. I need someone to talk to that can remain unbiased about what I say and feel. Just someone that could help me with my depression and anxiety issues. My worrying tendencies too!

7. Quit that stinkin' thinking! - In other words, don't worry so much! I'm the type of person that even if things are going extremely well...I'll dig and dig until I have something to worry about. Or I'll make up reasons. It drives DW crazy, and me even crazier!

And well, that's all folks!

See ya either later on in the week or next week!

So this is Christmas...

2008-12-22T23:58:00.000-08:00

Or rather, it will be in a couple of days.

To be honest, this year is not what I had hoped it would be. Me and DW have been trying very hard to keep with the holiday spirit and maintain a level of cheeriness that we are accustomed to, but for some reason it just doesn't "feel" like Christmas to me. Maybe it's issues we've been having in the RL world having to do with a car accident that occured a month ago (well, accident is being nice. In reality it was a car slaughter since our car was parked when some stupid woman smashed into it head on...), or maybe it's just because of all the other troubles going on in the world around this time.

I really don't know any of that. All I do know is that this year, Christmas will be thrifty. Gifts will be handmade with inexpensive enhancements meant to personalize them, and hopefully everyone that receives them will enjoy them. I think they will. I like to think that my family prefers handmade seeing as those kinds of gifts really require more thought, time and care than just going to the store and buying them. And this happens to coincide with my decision to make the handmade pledge this year, so that's good news! However, me and DW have decide to hold off on exchaning gifts between us this year until the end of January. It's kind of sad, because I hate not giving my wife anything to open on Christmas...but in a way it's not.

I suppose in retrospect, despite my lack of Christmas spirit, I'm reminded of what Christmas really is about. It's not about toys and glitter, and all the lights and sparklies (although we do have lights and sparklies thanks to our pretty tree all lit up in our parlor), it's about family and friends and spending time with the people you care about. I may not get a gift from DW this year, but I will get my wife's company, and the fact that I have her is amazing to me, and I'm thankful for it. Also, we are getting a new puppy soon, so that, in a way , is a Christmas gift for both of us. I still plan on getting her at least some little stocking stuffers though, so that way she has something to enjoy from me. :)

So, on the handmade scene, I've been baking and candy-making up a storm. I'm going making my homemade marshmallows, some peppermint pinwheels , and some fudge.

So far, I've made the marshmallows and that's it...but the rest will be done in due time. I've got a couple of days. :) And if I can find the other box of gelatin I have kicking around somewhere, I'll be making some peppermint marshmallows with some crushed candycanes in them for additional gifts for family and friends that I couldn't afford to make baskets for.

On top of all that, I still have to make meltaways and pb&J sandwich cookies...dunno if they want me to make rolls or not.

So what the hell am I doing here? I gotta get cracking!

Busy Little Bee

2008-12-19T23:21:00.001-08:00

That is me!!!! Life has been a flurry of activity this past week, including actual knitting activity! I've been cranking out the last-minute additions to Xmas gifts to beat the band and I finally have some photographic evidence of the fact, and I swear I'll include it shortly.

I've decided that while I shouldn't necessarily wait until the week before Xmas to actually go out and start shopping for presents, I'm really good at it. Actually, me and DW are good at it. In fact, we're so good that present shopping for roughly thirteen people only took an hour and a half and each gift still manages to portray that a lot of thought was put into every single one! It's great when stuff works out like that, isn't it? Now all I have to do is bake, make fudge and marshmallows and put together baskets...which isn't a big deal because DW is a genius when it comes to arranging things prettily. Odd isn't it, that for all my craftiness, I am incapable of artistically arranging gift baskets? Well, we all have our talents...

Anyway, on to the finished (or even semi-finished) gifts I've whipped up so far!

First on my list are Michael's Manly Mitts! I made these for my mom's boyfriend because he's one of the few grown men I know of that actually appreciates handknit items - and knows how to care for them! Last year I gave him this simple 4x4 rib scarf made out of this gorgeous chunky weight baby alpaca yarn and it still looks like it did when I gave it to him! So, here are the mitts.

Pattern Details
* Pattern: Boku Fingerless Gloves (Free Pattern Handout)
* Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Boku Colorway #60 - 1 skein
* Needles: US8 DPN - set of four
* Modifications:None
* Size Made:I made it exactly the way the pattern said to.

These mitts were literally cranked out over one single 8 hour period of time and were such easy knitting that I found I didn't have to pay too much mind to them until I got to the point where I had to start measuring. My attempts at matching up the stripes from glove to glove were a failure, as they usually are, but I thought I'd fouled it up a whole lot worse than I did, and when I saw the finished pair together I was relieved to be able to see that they did look like they came from the same ball of yarn at least. The Boku was a dream to work with, and I'm already plotting an entrelac stole knitted out of it for the future.

Next up, we have my brother's Big Head Hat. That's not the actual name of the pattern, but well, my brother has a sizeable noggin, so I thought that it was fitting.

Pattern Details
* Pattern: Helping Hat - Made in the Style of the Cranberry Hat
* Yarn: Plymouth Encore Chunky - Colorway 389
* Needles: US9 - 16" circs and US9 DPN's for decreasing
* Modifications: After the cables are finished, the designer recommends doing 19 rows of the ribbing, and I think I only did 12. My brother's head is big, but not pointy, and he likes his hats to fit quite snugly and I just had a feeling that if I made it as tall as the designer said to, he'd wind up with a point on top of his head.
* Size Made: Sized to fit my brother's head as best as I could without actually measuring it.

This took me no longer than three hours to whip up, and I did this while catching up on some old episodes of CSI and without a cable needle - which was surprisingly fun! I think I need to figure out how to do other types of cables without a cable needle as they can sometimes be awkward.

Third on my knitted objects list are yet another pair of fingerless mitts, intended to be made for my friend Faith, but inadvertently sized down for my shorter, stubbier hands. So, it looks like I have an early Xmas gift and I'll just have to make Faith another pair.

Pattern Details

* Pattern: Fetching
* Yarn: Wilfert's Verona in Colorway 60 (I think, couldn't tell, the label wasn't written in English)
* Needles: US6 DPN's
* Modifications: In order to conserve yarn as I wasn't sure I'd have enough to complete a full pair, I sized the hand down just a tad by only knitting three rounds above the thumb placement, and then only two rounds before the picot bind off. Also, I only knit two rounds for the thumb and then bound off. The result was a smaller, tighter fitting glove that was more suitable to my stubby fingers than Faith's...oops!
* Size Made: Basically the size the pattern recommends.

This yarn was a dream to work with and I love it's silky sheen! It's so soft, and so warm and just so mmmm...and the color is so rich! I'm secretly glad that I get to keep them because it would have broken my heart to give them away.

And finally, my most recent forray into last-minute gift knitting - a pair of footies for my friend Randi

Pattern Details

* Pattern: Cable Footies - "One Skein" by Leigh Radford
* Yarn: Universal Yarn Classic Worsted Tapestry in Rose Garden
* Needles: US8 DPN's - set of four
* Modifications: None
* Size Made: Size for a foot that wears a size 8 shoe.

Okay, normally, I hate yarns with a lot of acryllic in it, but I wanted to make something that was machine washable for Randi simply because she has a child and this child is not only energetic, but typically (and accidentally) destructive. So, just in case her little girl spills something on them,she can just pop them in the wash. And this stuff is nice and soft and not plasticky feeling - and the colors were so pretty I just had to!

My only issue with this pattern is that it knits up rather large. Not necessarily for Randi's feet, as hers are bigger and slightly wider than mine, but if I were knitting these for me, I'd drop down to a size 6 needle rather than stick with the size 8. That way I'd get a tighter fit. Still, these will do quite nicely for Randi and I'm sure she'll like them. Besides myself, DW and my mom, Randi and her boyfriend Ian are the only two people I would knit socks for. I just know that they'd appreciate them more than some of my other friends.

Ah well. In other news, I finally got my knit picks order in, and let me just say that the customer service people are excellent there! It turns out that I was waiting and waiting, when it was never gonna get to me that way at all seeing as the address part of my address went mysteriously missing...so they were shipping to just Apt 3 in Fall River Ma with no house number or street name at all! Silly me! Still, it's all here, and it's all lovely!

Yay for the swag! :D From top to bottom I have here: 2 skeins of Knit Picks Imagination in "Lost Boys, 2 skeins of Knit Picks Imagination in "Seven Dwarves", 2 skeins of Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in "Porcini", and 2 skeins of Knit Picks Palette - 1 in "Blue Note Heather" and the other in "Golden Heather".

I have plans for most of this stuff already. The Lost Boys are going to a pair of Zombie Socks[ravelry] for DW. She's obsessed with all things zombie and I know she'll love, love,love them. Plus, she won't have to steal the handknit socks I make for myself when she has her own! For the Gloss, I was thinking of making the Anniversary Socks [ravelry] from Favorite Socks. The color of the yarn is so elegant to me, and these socks just seem to scream elegance. Plus I think the pattern would look lovely in a pale, solid color.

Now the Palette is where I get sticky. See, the Golden Heather didn't look nearly so orange as it does in person...still, I think I'm going to plod through and hope for the best with what I have in mind for these two skeins. See, I've been itching to try colorwork, and a lot of people recommend starting off with Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts [ravelry]
, and at first I thought they weren't all that attractive. Yet I'd still go back and look at the pattern often and I'd admire other people's FO's in this pattern. Eventually it grew on me, and now I've decided that I must have them. I just hope they'll look all right in the colors I've chosen. If they don't, I'll gift them to someone and buy up two more skeins of Palette in different colors for myself.

All that leaves me with, is the Seven Dwarves...and I have no idea what to make with it. I mean, I don't know how the yarn knits up. Does it stripe, or does it merely pool? Anyone have any clues? Anyone have any recommendations? Maybe I'll come up with something...

In the meantime, knitting isn't all I've been up to this past week. I've humiliated my dog yet again.

And bought and decorated a Xmas tree - which made me realize that no matter what we do, our Angel topper is always going to look HUGE.

And baked some gingerbread men from scratch(well, a couple of 'em got turned into drag queens thanks to DW)

Once DW gets her next day off, we'll be putting together our holiday gifts, and putting together a gingerbread house as well. We're determined to stuff our holiday full of as much xmassy goodness as possible since we pretty much crapped out on Halloween and so far, it's working.

Now, I'm off to forage for food in this house of mine, because I'm suddenly and irrevocably, starving! Cheers and thanks for reading! Also, if I don't get on here before then, I hope everyone has a very happy holiday - whatever they may be celebrating!

A little snippet in time...

2008-12-19T04:43:00.000-08:00

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm an

Extroverted Self-Improving Believer

Hrmm...not sure if I can believe my results...(apparently I'm an Extroverted Self-Improving Believer and only 1% of the 5552 people who have taken the quiz are like me), but it was entertaining to say the least.

Oh, and I swear, knitting pictures and a real blog post coming soon!!!! I just have to get off my ass and take the piccies and upload 'em to the computer and what not!

I've Been Tagged!

2008-12-14T22:50:00.001-08:00

So, I haven't blogged in a day or so, but I've wanted to and just haven't had all that much to write about. Until this!
I've been tagged by YarnPiggy...and when I'm done, some of you guys out there are about to be tagged as well! :)

Here's how it works:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about GirlMeetsNeedle:

1. I have grays...lots of them and I started to go gray when I was 18.
2. I can eat an entire jar of kosher dill pickles all by myself.
3. I am deathly afraid of tornadoes...even though I've never seen one/been in one in my entire life.
4. I am 27 years old and still do not have a driver's license.
5. I used to weigh 85 pounds all the way up through my sophomore year in college.
6. When I was nineteen, I worked as a stripper, but wound up quitting because I couldn't stand dirty old men trying to peek into my private parts!

Tag, you're it!

Betty
HummingBird Knits
Jeanne
PicnicKnits
KnittingKitties
Knitphomaniacs

This IS a knitting blog, right?

2008-12-12T08:25:00.001-08:00

So, this week, I actually did some knitting. Some real, honest to goodness knitting! I (belatedly I know) started knitting one of the little "extras" for Christmas that I'm trying to include in all the gift baskets me and DW are putting together, and I finally finished knitting my Pomatomus Socks!

Pattern Details

* Pattern: Pomatomus
* Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck Blues/Purples
* Needles: US2 DPN - set of five
* Modifications:N\A
* Size Made: Whatever size the pattern allows for! :)

I realize that the picture is crap and truly, I'm sorry for it as it doesn't show the awesomeness of the colors or stitch pattern to the socks' fullest advantage, nor does it show how truly cute my shoes are. You'll just have to trust me on this. The shoes are teh cute.

Anyway...on to the next thing I knitted. A cozy neck warmer for my momma! And yes, it's being modeled on top of my space heater. Sadly, I had no better lighting anywhere else, so I had to make do being as it was raining and winding way too frickin' hard for me to even consider going outside.

* Pattern: Tudora
* Yarn: TLC Cotton Plus
* Needles: US6 - 16" circulars
* Modifications: Well, rather than bind off at an angle, I knit it a little longer and bound off straight across, but sewed the buttons on in such a way (and made the button holes in such a way) that they'd button at an angle and leave a little room at the bottom for the wearer to be able to pull a bit down to form kind of a cravat-like thing...if that makes any sense.
* Size Made: One size fits all!

I'm pretty sure my mom will love it, being as she asked me to make her one sans upper flappy bit.

However, there my Xmas knitting has hit a stand still until I can get to my LYS to snag a few extra little bits for hats and mitts and such. Luckily, it doesn't take me all that long to whip up a hat, so we should be in good shape. :) Hopefully.

So, since I have no more knitting to write of, I thought I'd finish this post off with a recipe. And yes, I know this was supposed to be dinner, but I was hungry now,so I ate it for lunch.

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Carrots and Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 Natural Pork Tenderloin
1 packet Onion Soup Mix (the powdery kind)
2 tbsp. Flour
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Onion Powder
2 1/2 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp ground sage
1 c chicken stock
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
For the Vegetables:

Red potatoes - washed and cut into chunks
Carrots - peeled and cut into quarters
4 tbsp Olive Oil (or more depending on how many people you're hoping to serve with the veggies)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tbsp parsley flakes
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 packet onion soup mix

**EDIT #1** Prior to rubbing the tenderloin with the spices, take one of the packets of soup mix and thoroughly mix it with the chicken stock and let stand so the onions in the soup have some time to rehydrate. I microwave the mixture for 30-45 seconds to help the powdery stuff dissolve better and then stir it up and let it stand. :)

Rub the tenderloin with half of your spices and the ground sage (ie: 1 tsp of the garlic powder, etc.) and let sit, covered in the fridge for half an hour to an hour. Mix the rest of your spices in with the flour and remove tenderloin from the fridge. Rub with a little olive oil to moisten and then thoroughly dredge in the flour mixture. Heat up about two tbsp of oil in a frying pan and place the meat in the pan, making sure to brown each side before putting in a lightly greased, shallow 11x9" baking pan and pour in the chicken stock/onion soup mixture you made before.

Next, take the vegetables and put in a gallon sized freezer bag. Put in spices,honey oil and entire packet of onion soup mix and close bag and shake vigorously for about five minutes, making sure to thoroughly coat the potatoes and carrots in the mixture then spoon out of bag and place around the tenderloin, making sure to pour any excess liquid over the roast itself as well as the veggies. Then put the roast, uncovered in a 425 degree oven on a rack in the middle slot for 25 minutes or until veggies are tender. Remove from the middle rack and cook on a rack set lower (about 5" away from the flame) for an additional 5 minutes and then remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before removing from pan and putting on a serving platter.

For the Sauce:

Drippings from the roasting pan
1/2 cup of medium-dark beer (similar to Sam Adams Octoberfest if you don't have the actual Octoberfest on hand)
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. light cream
1/2 tsp of corn starch + more if needed

Spoon the drippings into the pan that you used to brown the tenderloin, and stir on low heat...scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan with your wooden spoon. Add the beer, and bring to a boil, stirring all the while so as not to burn it. Once it boils, reduce heat once the sauce begins to reduce a little and add the butter, cream and half of the corn starch at first. Whisk, and then add more corn starch as needed to get desired sauce consistency.

Allow the tenderloin to rest about twenty minutes total, then slice up and serve the slices with a thin line of sauce down the middle.

Also, if you like like less of an oniony flavor, you can use one packet of soup mix and divide it in half between the stock mixture and the vegetables, or you can use it all with the stock and nix it on the veggies. It's up to you. :) I just find you get maximum flavor with both packets.

Baguettes of EXTREME HATE!!!!!

2008-12-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Oh, baguettes. You should have been a chewy golden triumph of deliciousness. You should have been tender and soft, with a quite tasty and texturally pleasing crust holding all that softness in. You should have been perfect! I started with the "sponge"...and it fermented beautifully, and even fell like it was supposed to. It couldn't have been more ideal! When the fermentation process was finished, I added in more yeast, more flour and yes, a bit more water and mixed you all up until you were a scrappy ball of toughness that needed to be kneaded. And knead you I did, with nothing but love in my heart, and threw you into the counter forcefully enough to let you know I meant business this time, and I know you liked it. The recipe says you like it rough, and I don't expect a recipe to lie to me. I added the perfect amount of salt (I should know because I measured it exactly as the recipe said), used just enough water without keeping you too wet (Because we know you hate to be soggy from past experience) and by the time I was finally finished kneading you (a full 20 minutes later), you were supple and pliant, with a powdery smooth finish and were definitely not wet. You started out life as the perfect bread dough! And lo and behold, when I put you to rise, you rose beautifully! Perfectly! You were doubled in size at the exact moment you were supposed to be, which helped me keep you to your baking schedule. And then when it came to rounding? Piece of cake (er, bread actually). You continued to be compliant, and I appreciated it. I appreciated it even more when you shaped up nicely and doubled in size in loaf form over a period of 9-12 hours (as the recipe said you should). I suspected things would go wrong when I had to proof you, as when the knife slashed across you, you defensively deflated, but when I placed you in the oven...you puffed right back up again and once more you were showing only signs of perfection. So, why...why did you let yourself wind up looking like this on the bottom crust?

Why did you have to burn? I worked so hard to make you perfect, so you could be enjoyed by anyone who happened to want a slice, and here you are, betraying me once again by screwing yourself all up! Don't you know that you're meant to be eaten? I'm not some kind of bread cannibal, damn it. That's what bread's for. For dunking in soups, for munching on with layers of butter, and for cubing up for stuffings and panzanella salad. I thought you understood. In fact, you lead me to believe that you did understand, and now I realize that it was just part of your dastardly plot. You lured me in by tempting me with the prospect of still-warm bread right from the oven and then allowed your bottom half to turn to charcoal. You are EVIL. EVIL I say and I'm pretty sure I won't be attempting you again for a little while...but rest assured, oh baguette of hatred, I shall conquer you some day in the future. When you're least expecting it.

And the ironic part in all this, is that upon tasting a patch of the golden brown, perfect top part of the bread, the taste was perfect! No play-dough without the salt...just perfect. Oh the agony! Still, at least I can salvage those top parts for bread crumbs or something.

Ugh. What a disappointment! I'm pretty sure I missed something somewhere in the recipe...like maybe a part where it said I was supposed to turn the heat in the oven down from 500 degrees to 425...I don't know. I'll have to read it more thoroughly next time. Meaning, months from now when I forget about this little forray.

Operation: Train Wreck Watch!

2008-12-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

Last night, I indulged in a glass or two of Sam Adam's Winter Lager, and some train wreck spotting. Oh, it was not what it usually is on a Wednesday night at the Bayside. There were no warbling old ladies with three inches of wrinkly, fake-tanned cleavage exponsed above a tacky, tight fitting zebra print top trying to shake their booties for the crowd to prove they were man pleasers (and I was kind of disappointed...but it seems that the other deejay only draws that kind of crowd), but there was a girl wearing the Belly Shirt of Doom, and that made for some entertainment. Especially since the girl obviously thought she was the hottest thing in the place, and was strutting around like all the mens up in there thought so too. She was probably wearing her vodka goggles when she got dressed, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt - but believe me when I say there are just certain people that should not wear belly shirts, and she was one of them. Still, it takes a lot of confidence to go out in public like that and stripper-dance on guys like it's your job. So I give her props for that. Other than that, there weren't any other real train wrecks, except for "Crazy Dancing Girl", who was amazingly entertaining to watch as she swung arms and hips in circles that you only see in bad tv musicals. It was great, and me and my friend Randi enjoyed it most thoroughly. Oh, and of course there's always the stranger that comes and sits at your table to drunk-talk to you, so we weren't disappointed on that score either. At least he was a nice drunk-talker. Very polite, and even stated that he liked my shawl(read Clapotis) and asked if I knit it myself. I was impressed...and if he slurred the word shawl a bit, I forgave him.

So, after a night spent enjoying some bad karaoke-singing (and some really good since both my friend Alex and DW were there...and they're both exceptional singers),some tasty beer and then...er...special alone time with DW, I woke up this morning feeling great! A bit floaty to be sure...kind of like every time I moved I was moving under water, but still nice. No headaches. No achiness...just wonderful,limbery, liquified limbs. It's the way I like to wake up after a night like that, so yeah, I was happy. So happy that I didn't want to move, and actually didn't until four or five hours later when I came to the conclusion that I needed to do some grocery shopping and that it sucked because I didn't want to get out of bed. I wound up dragging DW out anyway, if only to get the essentials considering I'm not planning on doing too much cooking this weekend. Of course, into the cart of essentials went not one, but TWO boxes of Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge brownie mix...and needless to say I'm thrilled! I finally get my brownie reward, and the house is a mess again. Go figure! DW agrees though, so I still get my chocolatey, fudgy yummy goodness, and will actually set about making them after she leaves for work so she can have some for breakfast when she gets home.

On the knitting front, I almost have the full pair of Pomatomus socks done, and will have pictures to prove it up here soon. They're coming out beautiful, and if there's a couple of little "oopses" in the legs of them, even I can't tell so obviously they're not that bad. Besides, according the Wampanoags, if a thing is perfect, then it's bad luck. I mean, if they weave a basket perfectly, they will undo the whole thing, re-weave it an purposely put in a mistake to make it good luck...and since DW's a Wampanoag Indian (along with being Scottish, Cape Verdean, Portuguese, and English), I get to adopt that theory and adopt it I will. So these socks will be good luck Pomatomus and that makes me happy!

On the NaBloPoMo front - I did it! I wrote on here for 30 days straight and I'm proud of myself. I just wish I could find a badge that says so on the site...because I'd like to add it to my blog.

And on that note, I'm taking my leave for a moment considering DW just woke up and I have to get her dinner all ready for her take to work! :D

Success!

2008-11-30T19:56:00.000-08:00

So, I managed to do everything on my list...and much to my back's relief, had some time left over to take a nice long soak in the tubby. When I was younger, I used to love bubble baths. I would beg my mother to buy me some pretty colored soap and squeeze enough into the tub to make sure there were lots and lots of suds to play with. Nowadays, I go more for milk baths, or baths with scented oils (not too heavily though, because my skin is a lot more sensitive then it used to be). Yesterday's had nothing in it but very, very hot water and myself. It was great. I just wish my tub would hold the heat in better...but at least it's big enough to kind of float around in.

In case you were wondering, I have one of those old-fashioned porcelain claw-footed numbers, and yes,I actually do love it. We have a shower head hooked up to it for those days where you just want to get clean, but the tub? The tub is great for relaxing in!

After my tubby, I of course went in search of a box of brownie mix so I could actually reward myself a little further for doing a nice job on the house and lo and behold, there wasn't one. I have three boxes of cake mix, but no brownies. How can this be? Especially since I know I bought some the last time I went out to the grocery store? Didn't I? At least, I'm pretty sure I did.

Maybe I sleep-bought them...and then sleep-baked and sleep-ate them. I dunno. Either way, there will be no brownies and this makes me incredibly sad. I have all the stuff to make them from scratch (which, though they do taste all right, they never come out as good as brownies from the box for some reason), but I'm far too lazy to actually get up, make a mess out of my kitchen again, and then clean it...again.

So maybe I'll have some fudge instead...nah. I really want brownies. Guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow then! ;) I just hate when I think I have something and then find out I don't though...

UGH!

2008-11-29T03:29:00.000-08:00

Technically, I know it's already Saturday. But for me, Saturday doesn't begin until DW's off at work, because that's when I get all my chores done. It's odd really, being as I'm one of those people that has a genuine loathing of housework in most normal circumstances, and yet I'm finding that when I'm standing in a clean, nice smelling apartment, I'm quite satisfied and proud to know that I am the reason for all the sparkliness that abounds. Still, I've been lazy (read naughty) this week, and have done "bare bones" cleaning...and that means that the apartment hasn't truly been as clean as it should be. So, I did what I said I'd never do and made a list of all the stuff I need to get done by the time Sunday afternoon rolls around to make sure that DW doesn't feel the need to run around, last-minute tidying before she heads to bed after working a double shift. After all, she works a LOT (as my friends on Plurk can attest), so why should she have to come home and work too.

The problem is, I've been having some difficulty with getting motivated. I recently joined Chore Wars, signing up with some of my fellow Ravelrousing Housewives to team up against the household messies that tend to accumulate as part of life, and for a while, that really did help. I guess the novelty wore off because, I have to confess, I have been quite sadly inactive there of late. I'm hoping that making a much hated list and placing it on the fridge will change that...especially since list-making is a new approach for me.

And if I finish my massive amount of tasks in time, I'm rewarding myself with brownies - from the box because I actually like them better than home made (mine always come out too cake-like for my tastes). And maybe,just maybe I'll throw in a pound of some really excellent locally roasted coffee beans....but only if I finish my list, which though it is a doozy should be doable (hopeful here, can ya tell?).

I just hope I finish cleaning in enough time to catch up on my CSI's...;)

And the Day After.

2008-11-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

I'm really wishing I'd though to do more than grab desserts on the way out of my MIL's house, but only having three hours of sleep might have had something to do with my lack of forethought. Here it is, the day after Thanksgiving and I have no leftovers to munch on. No stuffing to heat up and pour left over gravy all over. No cranberry sauce. No cold turkey sandwich. It's just sad...especially since I really, really want stuffing. A lot! I don't know why, but it was so good this year...better than it normally is. I think it has something to do with the fact that my MIL made it in a baking pan rather than muffin cups, so there was still some softer, mushier goodness inside the crispy, buttery stuffing crust. So GOOD! Just thinking about it is making me hungry.

Actually, I'm just hungry in general, mostly because I can smell the meatloaf I have roasting in the oven all throughout my house and it's making my belly grumble. Now, when I was younger, I hated meatloaf. Hated it with a passion beyond belief. Then again, my mother's meatloaf could quite easily turn off even the most staunch meatloaf supporter. It was always dry and flavorless (as my mom, who hated cooking, would just dump an egg, some salt, pepper, and too many Italian Seasoned breadcrumbs into the meat), and was topped with a not spiced up at all tomato paste. Oh don't get me wrong, I ate it. In my house, you ate what was put in front of you, and that was that. But it didn't mean I liked it. In fact, I also had a bit of a resentment harbored towards it because growing up on the poor side, meant that if you wanted meat in your meal, it was usually one of those icky, super-dry meatloaves. Depressing.

However, all that changed the first time I ate meat loaf at my MIL's. No tomatoey topping here, no sir. And dry? Hardly! It was the most moist, delicious meatloaf I'd ever tasted, and when I first moved out on my own with my then gf and now DW, I begged her for the recipe - which she happily divulged. And since I'm going on and on about it on here, I think I'll share the recipe.

Debbie's Meatloaf

INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs. Ground Beef
1 can Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 c minced onion
2 eggs
1 c dry bread crumbs - UNSEASONED
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix together all the ingredients except for the beef, making sure they're blended thoroughly. Add the meat, and squish together with your clean hands (or you can be non-messy and use a spoon or something...I just find you get a better, more blended result by using your hands), until all the ingredients are blended well with the beef. Form the mixture into a loaf on a baking sheet and roast in a 350 degree oven for about an hour and a half.

Simple, right? Incredibly! Serve it up with some brown gravy, mashed 'taters and some kind of vegetable and you have yourself a meal - sans that tomatoey ickiness that I hate on my meat loaf. This recipe would probably be delicious if you put barbecue sauce on top and maybe added some cheddar cheese in there as well too. (Mmm...that does sound good, maybe next time I'll try that!).

Now, I don't actually just put it on a baking sheet in a loaf-like shape. I have a small casserole dish that I put it in, but then again, I cut the recipe in half. Leave the recipe the way it is, and it'll serve 6-8 people, cut it in half and it'll serve 2-4 people. It's an easy recipe to double up on, or half, and it really is tasty.

No pictures right now, because I don't have a finished meatloaf to snap a photo of...yet. When it comes out of the oven though, I'll add in a picture so you can see what it looks like. :)

If you try this, I hope you enjoy!

And I also hope that all you people that do have Turkey Day leftovers...I hope you enjoy them as well. And possibly do a little happy dance for me as you bite into that bit of leftover stuffing...just once. Please?

Today on Thanksgiving...

2008-11-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Right now, I'm waiting on two bowls of bread dough for the no-knead rolls to finish rising so I can shape them into buns and then bake them. I know, kind of last minute since I could have done it yesterday, but then the rolls just wouldn't have been fresh, you know? And we can't have that! Oh, and I have no pants on because I just don't feel the need to be wearing 'em since I know that for most of today I will be full and fat to a level of uncomfortableness that is almost unimagineable and yet, I will still have to keep my pants ON! (TMI? Sorry! :) )Also, I'm kind of having to make up for a mistake at this late stage of the game, because one of the bowls of dough decided it hated me and didn't want to rise so I had to whip up a new batch an hour into their relegated rising time. Talk about a set-back...makes me wish I'd actually done the baking yesterday and sucked it up if they weren't "fresh"...

So anyway, while most people were doing useful Thanksgiving Day prep, I was off at my friend Ian's house with DW playing an impromptu game of D&D - which I thoroughly enjoyed! Don't get me wrong, playing with the group sans DW is alright, but for some reason we seem to gel as a group better when DW's there, making us crack up with her character's (usually) crazy antics! For instance, this particular group was comprised of a half-elf, a full elf, three humans and a HALF-ORC(DW)! And the best part? We all started out as 0 level characters with no actual class, but otherwise normal commoner type occupations...and we were all either teenagers or young adults (or the equivalent thereof according to how your race ages). It was so much fun, and since I've never actually played a character from the bottom up, it'll be interesting to see how things develop.

OH! And I broke through my Second Sock Syndrome (aided by some nifty calculations in my head that said that I actually might have enough yarn for the second sock after all!), and cast on for the other half of my Pomatomus Socks. I have the entire cuff, and the first repeat of the leg chart completed, and so far, so good.

Now, as much as I'd like to continue going on and on, I have some last minute, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants work to do so wish me luck and have a very happy Thanksgiving!

So...

2008-11-26T15:00:00.000-08:00

In lieu of actually doing anything useful, I've decided that today, I'm going to head off to the Dungeon of Dorkdom and either watch some movies with DW and some pals or play D&D...whichever happens to be the case! In the meantime...

Enjoy this as a little prequel to the actual feasting day! :)

I am covered!

2008-11-25T17:28:00.001-08:00

Covered in powdered sugar that is. They fail to warn you that when you sift it, it tends to fly everywhere...and since I've never actually made anything that required that it be sifted I had to find it out the hard way. I guess it's a baker's rite of passage! Anyway, DW is curled up in bed (hopefully) fast asleep, and since I am not remotely tired because I took a loooong nap in the morning, I decided to do something productive. No, not making dinner. I did that at three this morning. Green Bean Soup, yum! Nope, I decided we needed some dessert...and as all my plurk friends know, I've decided that the dessert in question must be these Home Made Oreos!

The wafers are buttery and crisp, and the filling is perfect seeing as it has that slightly stiffer feel that real Oreo filling has, but it tastes better - less like candle wax and more like vanilla, sugar and buttery numminess. I did play with the recipe a bit, which is one of the reasons I suspect that my chocolate wafers spread as much as they did. See, I had planned on using my blender (since I'm sans food processor or stand up mixer) to make the batter...and when that didn't work out so well, I thought adding about 1 1/2 tsp. of vegetable oil might help it along. It didn't really so I wound up just mixing it all by hand in a big bowl - and actually, that worked out just fine. Just make sure your butter is soft enough, otherwise there will be chunkies. Also I added a bit more salt than the recipe called for and took away 1/2 c of the sugar for the cookies like Ms. SmittenKitchen recommends.

Seriously, if you're ever looking for something to cook and don't know what you feel like having, visit Smitten Kitchen. She has something for everyone, and even if you don't wanna cook, at least go and look at the pictures - because they alone are good enough to eat. ;)

At a stand still...

2008-11-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not really. I'm just suffering from a temporary dose of SSS (Second Sock Syndrome for you non-knitters out there). See, I finished the first of a pair of Pomatomus socks, and though I would love the finished pair to warm my feet, I can't quite get up the motivation to actually cast on for the second. I'd take a picture to prove that I have indeed finished the first sock, but well, the lighting sucks and my camera sucks even more (time for a new one? Yes, I think so!) so I can't get the pattern to show up. It's pretty though, and warm and I love it so why in hell can't I bring myself to cast on?

It's like this: I'm not sure I'm going to have enough yarn to actually make the second sock, and that pisses me off to no end since (even though I don't care if the stripes match up) I at least want the two socks to kind of match. And I've just discovered that it's not as simple as just picking up a new skein of the yarn because it's Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck (not merino like I'd originally thought) and though it is in the Blues/Purples category, it's kind of just the luck of the dyepot with this yarn. I guess all I can do is actually cross my fingers and hope to GOD that I have enough yarn. Unless of course, one of you kind souls have a skein of this yarn that would match my current unpaired sock? I mean, it would be terribly convenient...really. :) I'd pay too! Money and homemade marshmallows! Yep. Just putting it out there...;)

Anyway, I've received my Thanksgiving Day assignment and I must say that I'm relieved that it's stuff I can more than handle.

My MIL would like me to bring two pans of some home-made rolls, and thanks to the lovely Mrs.B, these will be a piece of cake. And I have bread flour so I'm excited!

She would also like me to make some chocolate melt-a-ways (supah-secret family recipe that I'd love to share but MIL would most likely sacrifice me to whatever Gods she believes in if I did), and a couple of dozen of my grampa's PB&J sandwich cookies. The only snag for the cookies is that I don't have the recipe...yet. But I believe I can finagle it out of him in time to make them. So, I got kind of lucky because I get to make all the fun stuff! YAY!

I personally can't wait for Thanksgiving because it's one of my favorite holidays. I don't know why, I just really like it. And on top of that, the food's always amazing. Nobody makes a turkey like my MIL, I swear. Although, there was this one year that they deep-fried a turkey to go along with the roasted one and that was YUM too (wish they'd do it again...or at least give me the turkey fry-er so I could do it myself). Plus, with all the great Thanksgiving themed cooking show episodes playing this week, I'm really, really syked for it!

So, I guess I have a question to put to all my readers:

What are you thankful for?

I'm thankful for a great wife, a fantastic family (in-laws and blood relatives alike!), my Beeba-dog, a nice soft skwooshy skein of yarn (STR = teh YUMMY), bamboo DPN's, Plurk (not only did it help bring readers to this blog but it also introduced me to a WHOLE bunch of really great people - I love my plurk buds, I really do. They keep me sane!), Ravelry, and the wonderful world of the internetz. I love the internet. It's sad how much I love it really, but love it I do! :)

Meeeeeeeeeee!

2008-11-23T19:45:00.001-08:00

This is a meme I found by googling the term "Knitting Memes",(thanks CmeKnit for creating this nifty meme three years ago!) and since I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for stuff to blog about for this Nablopomo thing, I've decided that using google in such a way was probably a very, very smart thing for me to do!

Okay, here goes:

What is your all time favorite yarn to knit with?

Socks that Rock, hands down. It is the softest, skwooshiest, yarn I've ever been able to touch and I love, love, love it. The colors? They amaze and astound me. And is it bouncy? Oh yes it is! Does it have a lovely drape! It does, it does! Me and STR = total yarn love. Not just lust. Love.

Your favorite needles?

Right now, I'd have to go with my Crystal Palace bamboo. They're smooth, they're sturdy, and they really warm up beneath my hands as I knit. I've been itching to try out those KP Harmony needles though, but for now Crystal Palace Bamboo rocks my socks. Literally actually since I wind up using the 6" size US2 DPN's for socks more often than not.

The worst thing you've ever knit?
I started to knit a Marley's Ghost, and became so disenchanted with the pattern that I pretended to "lose" the already knitted links when in reality I got aggravated and chucked them in the garbage. Yes, I actually threw them away. Thank goddess I never finished it!

Your most favorite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it...but it was the most fun to knit)

It's a toss up between DW's Greenery Hat, or the Goddess Knits June 2008 Mystery Sock , which I really hope gets named soon! Also, I really hope I find the finished pair because I miss them.

Most valuable knitting technique?

Learning how to purl backwards. Since I've discovered this past year that I really, really love to knit entrelac, this technique happens to be incredibly valuable because turning the work back and forth so much was a serious pain in the butt!

Best knit book or magazine?

It's kind of hard for me to answer this question since I won't buy a book or a magazine unless I like it enough to want to knit at least 10 patterns out of it - although sometimes I will buy one if it has just ONE really, really, WAY cool pattern in it, but if I had to make a choice, I'd say Interweave Knits...just because I love to LOOK at the stuff inside.

Your favorite knit-a-long?

Goddess Knits Mystery Sock-A-Long.

Your favorite knitblogs?

Flying Pig Knits, Crafty Crafter, and a whole bunch of others that I read. Actually, chances are, if it's on my blogroll, it's one of my faves. :)

Your favorite knitwear designer?

Though I haven't knit too much of her stuff, I love Evelyn Clark's shawls. They're gorgeous!

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)

My Clapotis!

Now for the tags!

I'm tagging Courtney,Betty, Yarnpiggy, Ms. Lori and anyone else who reads this blog, needs blogging material and hasn't done this meme before!

Left blank to protect the names of the innocent

2008-11-22T20:13:00.000-08:00

So I don't know what to blog about, but I don't want to put another stupid video up.

Today was a pleasant day. DW came home at 7 a.m., like she was supposed to and I was thrilled considering I was expecting her to be forced (which has been her luck lately). After putting away all her stuff, we snuggled up in bed and then woke up at around 3 so we could watch American Beauty and order some Domino's. Not their pizza...actually, we hate their pizza. The cheese is never gooey enough and the sauce is just plain disgusting - and we all know that sauce makes the pizza. We just order their BBQ wings and bread sticks, and they were yummy. After that, we kinda finished the movie up and then went back to bed, because we are lazy, lazy human beings.

Right now, DW is off at work, doing workish type things and here I am, stirring up the dredges of my mind with some absolutely yummy coffee so I can find something interesting to say here and all I can think is that I've got nothin'. I could talk about the game last night. Shadow Run was fun, as usual. My team got into plenty of shenanigans and is now seriously wanted by what amounts to being a futuristic version of the FBI because we kind of had to kill four of their boys in the process of trying to get what we were being paid to get. I ate some yummy japanese stir-fried noodles last night from a local Japanese steak house, and watched my friends enjoy some of my very tasty fudge, and decided not to go and play D&D tonight in lieu of sitting at home and vegging out - trying to decide what I want to do now.

I could play some video games. I could knit. I could watch TV, or I could sit at this computer desk and just play Zilch all night. I dunno. It's kind of a toss up.

Anyway, before I bore you any more with my mindless blather, I'll just leave you with the hopes that you're having a more active night than I am. And as always, thanks for reading!

I'm sorry...

2008-11-21T13:44:00.001-08:00

But it has to be done!

*WHOOOSH*

And now I'm off to go play ShadowRun and Rockband!

So I screwed up the bread...

2008-11-20T19:43:00.000-08:00

But I made awesome fudge! Of course, that was mostly because the wifey was there, guiding me through step by step. See, I love the kitchen...and for the most part, my kitchen loves me. I keep it clean and orderly and cook yummy foods in it and don't let my dog pee on it's floor. However, with fudge, I have a bad track record. I tend to put the heat up too high on the stove and therefore wind up burning it on the bottom...which results in a none too desirable "crunchy bits" texture. Now, imagine biting into what you think is a creamy hunk of chocolate fudge, only to find crunchy bits that aren't nuts. Eeeew.

So, DW watched me every step of the way, and pitched in when it came to readying the ingredients, eyeing the cooking fudge for consistency and using her big, strong arms to stir the pot - as anyone who has made home made fudge before knows that stirring that shit is hard work!!! It came out perfect! Excellent creamy consistency, that perfect balance of salt and chocolate, and it just melts on the tongue! Before I knew it, I'd eaten three pieces of it...and DW had eaten four! Oh don't worry, there's plenty left as we made a double batch. We had to. DW promised one of her co-workers (as well as a friend of ours) fudge because his fiancee' neglected to share the double serving size portion of shepherd's pie that I sent for them to eat for dinner. Of course, he'll probably share it because she'll be all cutesy so she can get some. S'all right. I understand - that's how we women roll, right?

Anyway, I'm sure you're just aching for some chocolate porn, so here it is!

This is the fudge right after it was poured into the pan to set. See how it's already beginning to set? Score! The last time I made this, I didn't burn it like usual, but I did add too much cream and it wound up making excellent hot fudge (meaning if you want to tamper with the recipe, make sure you have ice cream on hand just in case ;) ).

This is not the full pan of fudge cut up, but rather about a quarter of it (maybe a little less after I munched on a few pieces). I just wish you could smell this through the internet because the chocolatey goodness that permeated my apartment during and after the making of this fudge was just heavenly. Made me feel like it was Xmas already!

Now, in case you're curious about what recipe I use, I'm going to share it here (or you can just go and buy the box of Domino Confectioner's Sugar and use the recipe found on the side of the box itself - same thing!)

QUICK NUT FUDGE - Domino Sugar

4 c of Confectioner's Sugar (1 1 lb. box)
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tbsp - butter or margarine
1/4 c Milk
1 tsp - vanilla
1/4 teaspoon - salt
1 c chopped walnuts or pecans (optional...I usually nix this because the wifey and I hate nutty fudge)

*First off, we use a whole stick of butter rather than the 6 tbsp. because we rounded up the amount of sugar we needed to 4 c. Also, we didn't use milk, we used heavy cream and though we started with the 1/4 c, we actually wound up adding more because the consistency just wasn't right. Also, some advice. Melt the butter first, because otherwise you may burn the chocolate while you're waiting for the butter to melt in the pan if you follow these directions.*

Grease a 9x5x2-inch loaf pan; set aside.

In a heavy 3-quart saucepan, add all ingredients except nuts. Over very low heat, constantly stir mixture until well combined and smooth. Remove from heat; stir in nuts. Quickly spread into pan.

Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm. (We didn't need to do this because it set up just fine without it, but you may feel more comfortable doing this.) Cut into squares.

Makes 24 pieces.

Now, after you're done making the fudge and it's all cut up and ready to NOM, just remember. Do not refrigerate. It will sweat and turn gross, or it will get too hard and turn grainy. Refrigerating fudge after it's fully set is a no-no. Or at least it is with this particular recipe.

Now, enjoy! :)

Oh, and I think I figured out what happened with the bread. I did add the salt, but I don't think I added enough salt to the mixture and that's why it was so horribly bland. Next time, I won't eyeball it, I'll actually measure it (and maybe add a dash extra to be on the safe side). Yes, there will be a next time. I am determined to conquer the baguette. Determined I say!

Just to set things straight...

2008-11-19T17:29:00.000-08:00

I did everything that stupid baguette recipe said to do. I made a starter, using exact measurements for everything (even down to the 1/16 tsp of yeast for chrissakes!), and set it out to ferment for the 14 hours it was supposed to. I then made the dough, this time not putting too much water and wound up with a PERFECT frickin' consistency for bread. PERFECT! True, I refrigerated the starter, so maybe that had something to do with it, but I doubt it. The dough rose, and I even gently deflated and turned after the first hour before putting it back inside a heated (heated to warm) then turned off oven to rise some more. (Okay, I had to take it right along with me to my friend Ian's house, but still, it rose and it was doing everything it was supposed to. It even got nice and puffy when finally shaped them before putting them into bake.) After I removed them from the oven, they were a lovely deep golden brown, and yes, they looked like baguettes! We let them cool, and then each ripped off a good sized hunk and bit in.

Texture wise-they were perfect. The crust was chewy-crisp, it had a moist, slightly dense but still fluffy inside, and it smelled like heaven. But that was where all happiness at these baguettes ended. They tasted awful. Well, not awful, but bland. Seriously, seriously bland. I'm talking reminiscent of home-made play-dough but without the salt.

What the heck did I do wrong? Did I just use the wrong recipe (yes, the link takes you to the recipe I did use)? Is there another recipe out there that is perhaps more flavorful than this disappointment? I mean, after all that effort to make some goddamned bread I could buy in the store (and have it taste DELICIOUS!), to have it taste like NOTHING at all?!?!?! Ridiculous, I say! RI-DICK-U-LOUS!!!!!!

Did it have something to do with the fact that I had to substitute all-purpose unbleached flour for the bread flour it recommended? Maybe the flavor comes from all that extra wheat-gluten? I've subbed all-purpose for bread before and the breads always came out fine! Yes, I admit it, I'm whining. I don't like to be thwarted damn it. I was craving some warm, delicious, fresh out of the oven baguettes and wound up with a chewy bit of ickiness that made me toss out the other two baguettes. Please, if you have a better recipe than that one, let me know. I'd love to try again. Later, though...much later. Unless I get bored enough. ;)

To console myself over the great Baguette Disappointment, I've decided that I'm going to make fudge with DW - who is the expert of all things fudgey. She likes to claim that she's not crafty, but when it comes to baked goods and anything chocolate - she is queen! I mean it. QUEEN!

This will be fun and a treat considering I can hardly ever convince DW to do kitcheny/crafty things with me.

Not to mention this counts as practice for Xmas (or giftmas as a friend calls it - I may start to adopt that term btw!)considering we're planning on giving out a whole bunch of goodie baskets this year!

Anyway, what the hell am I doing writing this? I should be elbow deep in chocolatey goodness! Thanks for reading guys! And thanks for letting me rant! :)

Before I head off into the sunset,

2008-11-18T14:26:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to tell you all that so far, the baguette experiment is working out well! The starter finished fermenting at 8am and I refrigerated it so I could make the dough and set it to rise later in the day after DW and I got up. Dough is rising beautifully, no baking onto the side of the bowls. However, I'm about to kind of mix things up by making this a Traveling Baguette. I'm heading out to my friend Ian's house to watch Tropic Thunder and play some Rock Band, so since the dough's not finished rising, I figured I'd take it with me, let it rise the rest of the way and then bake it there. Hopefully, this doesn't screw things up. I know that I'm tempting fate, but maybe, just maybe I can pull this off!

Also, I plan on knitting some tonight too...but mostly my plans include plenty of one on one time with the wifey. ;)

And while she's over here making "Ooowaaaaah" noises on my neck, I figure I'll give you this website to check out.

http://www.subservientchicken.com

It's fun! Type in a command and he'll follow it!

CRAP!

2008-11-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

I totally almost forgot to blog for today!

So, my first attempt at making baguettes was an abject failure. Oh, the starter came out fine...did what it was supposed to do and therefore was all risen and bubbly, but the dough...well, the dough itself didn't come out right. I put in too much water I think, which is why the dough was probably too sticky, next time I'll use less as I'll remember that it is supposed to be a bit dry. But even with the dough being a tad sticky, it would still have been okay if I had not set the dough in a not-quite oiled enough metal bowl on a much too hot space heater to rise! I went to turn the dough out for shaping and much to my surprise found that only half of it came out - the rest was baked to the inside of the bowl.

I had a fun time washing that dish I'll tell ya. Not!

Well, needless to say, I wanted to pitch the bowl out the window, but instead I soaked it so I could use it again. After all, I can't just give up. I am NeedleGirl - Housewife extraordinaire and baker of delights damnit!!! So, I totally made another starter today. Now I'm just waiting for it to ferment - and this time, I'm following Betty's advice and sticking it in an unheated oven to rise rather than on the space heater of HATE!

As for the rest of life, I'm waiting for an order from Knit Picks to come in, contemplating knitting some more of my Pomatomus sock (I'm on the gusset now!) and hoping that DW doesn't get forced because I selfishly want her to come home at 7 so we can cuddle.

I love cuddling and DW is the best at it! The best EVAR!:)

I totally promise

2008-11-16T19:40:00.000-08:00

No Mr. Pregnant video. I swear!

So, I've discovered Guitar Hero. I know, I know, it took me a very long time to jump on the bandwagon on this game, but that's just how I tend to be. I will purposely avoid heavy trends. I don't know why. I guess that just makes me slightly perverse - especially since by avoiding Guitar Hero (and Rock Band) I've been avoiding some very fun times! Although, this past weekend I maybe played a little bit too much of it because every time I close my eyes I keep seeing these colored blobs coming flying at me and I'm like "Whoa! Hit the red! The Blue! The Green!" Well...actually I didn't have to touch the blue key...I played on "Easy", but you get my drift. Oh, and I have all kinds of songs that I don't usually listen to running in blurts of lyrics through my head. Also, if I ever hear the song "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" again, it'll probably be too soon (It took me and Ian like twenty times to play all the way through because I suck at playing guitar - managed it when I switched to Bass. :) )

Video gaming isn't the only kind of gaming I did though. We also played some Shadow Run (my all time favorite game ever!) and some D&D! Now, you've all heard me blab about D&D, so I won't get into it. But Shadow Run? The only way I can explain it is think The Matrix - since basically the entire story line of that movie was ripped from a Shadow Run campaign. I'd get into heavy duty detail, but I have a feeling I'd lose y'all, so let's just suffice it to say it's a game set in a futuristic world run by corporations. Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Humans...and a variety of other races co-exist, and life is tough. So, to supplement income from a day job (or hell just to make the REAL money), people become Shadow Runners (basically criminals - but really skilled ones)and perform illegal acts for cash.

The story teller for Shadow Run is my friend Rob. He's devious, and he likes to put our characters in very, very difficult situations. Practically kill us really, but mostly he just likes to make us think. Now, since I haven't played in a while I didn't have a character written up so me and Rob put our heads together and came up with, basically, this: A gun-crazy paranoid schizophrenic who believes she's a Shaman and can conjure and speak to Spirits (ie: the voices in her head). Believe it or not, this was incredibly fun to play. So much fun that I can hardly wait to play again! I just wish DW didn't work Fridays so she could come along and play too. :( Sad, I know, but we're hoping to start a game either Tuesdays or Wednesdays so DW can participate!

Anyway, aside from playing too much Guitar Hero, panicking about the storminess of the outdoors, and gaming my brains out, my weekend was uneventful. I've put together a starter for some French Baguettes, and when they're done, stories of my success (or failure as this is my first time making artisan type bread) will be posted here! Until tomorrow...and thanks for reading! :)

Nothing to say...

2008-11-15T16:27:00.000-08:00

So have a laugh at this instead.

Just a quickie

2008-11-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

This has to be fast, because I really don't have too much time to write much now, nor will I have much time later! Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you're entirely well organized (for once!)? The dishes are done, something is out of the freezer already mostly thawed for supper, and all that's left to do is cook it and then veg out for the night? Well, that was me this past Wednesday. I had these lovely center cut pork chops out and ready to roll for dinner, all the errands for the day had been done and the house was spotless. I was ahead of the game, and it was great while it lasted. At about 4:30 p.m., I was informed by DW that the in-laws were coming over for dinner at 7:30 p.m., and then from there we were going to go and see RocknRolla at a nearby cinema. The movie was something I was all for, considering I absolutely love going to see movies in the theatres, but the in-laws coming over for dinner? It was almost instant panic! Not only did I have to change my plans for dinner over, but I had to do it in a way that would satisfy the in-laws' picky palates and I had three hours to do it!

See, since there are only two people in the house, I generally buy a lot of meats sized for just that - two, but I do buy a couple of things that will feed at least four people knowing that I do enjoy to occasionally have a couple of folks over for dinner. Still, I had to put the pork chops back in and thaw out one of those bigger sized things (for them I chose a nice chuck roast that I could put in the oven with some braising liquid and let it just sit for a few hours) and then get it in the oven too cook, peel enough potatoes to make a mountain of mashed (the people in my family love, love, love mashed taters. I don't blame them as they're my favorite thing to eat and I could eat them all day every day!) and set some fresh broccoli on the stove top to steam. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it was...but I'm the kind of person that strives to impress - especially when it comes to my MIL. She's a culinary genius, and I like to show that I'm doing her proud by feeding her daughter up as well as she can. Naturally, for this meal, this meant putting the canned biscuits aside and digging out the makings for fresh bread.

I know what you're thinking? Fresh bread?! Are you nuts? Are you trying to make your life more difficult? Well, normally I'd have said screw it and dealt with the canned biscuits I keep in my fridge in case I feel like making southern-style biscuits and sausage gravy or Monkey Bread because they're coming over for dinner was kind of short notice. But for some reason, on this day I was determined to find a decent recipe for fresh out of the oven dinner rolls - because let's face it, nothing says home cookin' like fresh-baked dinner rolls. Not to mention the fact that the yeasty bready smell that pervades the house while stuff like that bakes is divine!

So, I was looking on the internet, hoping to find something easy, when it occured to me that Mrs.B had a recipe for these yummy sounding, no knead, relatively quick rising yeast rolls over on her blog. I said, what the hell? I have yeast, I have flour. Let's give 'em a try!

I whipped up the ingredients as stated in the recipe - except since I didn't have bread flour I used all purpose unbleached flour - and set the dough in an oiled bowl covered over with a damp, clean kitchen towel and put it on top of my handy dandy space heater to let it rise. I put the dough to rise at approximately 4:50 and at approximately 6:50 the dough had doubled in size as the recipe recommends. I then followed the rest of the directions from there and wound up with rolls that looked like this!

Now, this recipe made about 24 or 26 rolls, and between four people, we pretty much devoured the whole pan. They were fantastic! A nice, dense chewy roll that, when paired with pats of butter, were an excellent accompaniment to a savory roast dinner. In fact, just thinking about them makes me want to make more and I don't even have a clue what I'm going to make for supper tonight! I bet they'd be even better with the bread flour - probably more light and airy and less likely to have a consistency almost like a biscuit. Still, they were so easy to make and had the added side benefit of thoroughly impressing my in-laws. :)

Thanks for sharing that recipe Mrs. B!

Swap Shenanigans

2008-11-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

So, last month I joined in on a Chocolate and Yarn Swap through the Chocolate group on Ravelry. Let me just say that this is the first swap in a long time that I've thoroughly enjoyed. Not only was it fun for me to shop for my spoilee, but my spoiler- well she definitely spoiled me!

Let's just say that MrsDarcy knows me well! Now, I know the picture kind of sucks, but see I couldn't wait for better light because I absolutely had to have that Sansibar sesam and havsalt(sesame and sea salt I think it means)candy bar and I had to have it yesterday. But today had to be good enough, and for all you jealous chocaholics out there - it was delicious! I got three bars of chocolate the Sansibar and the Bocca both made in a local factory to where Mrs. Darcy lives in Norway, and the third one (little yellow bar I think it's Freia or Freida) is produced in Oslo. I've only tried the Sansibar because I'm trying really hard to savor them. It's working out so far, but the temptation of that Bocca is really getting to me.

For the yarn, I got four lovely skeins of it! Two skeins of Falk by Dale of Norway, one skein of Verona (a merino/silk blend that's from a Danish company), and a skein of Alpakka - 100% Alpaca sock yarn imported from Bolivia! Also, she included a lovely pair of super comfy, pretty and warm crocheted wristers and two fantastic buttons plus a lovely postcard featuring the place where she's from as it's picture! Oh! And some delicious loose leaf tea! Thanks again, and here are a couple of more pics!

A closer look at the yarn and tea.

A better (if a little blurry) look at the chocolate and the gorgeous post card that she wrote her note on!

A better look at the wristers and the two awesome buttons she sent me (I love, love, LOVE interesting buttons! Squeee!!!!)

Once again, MrsDarcy, you rock!

And for those that are curious, this is what I wound up sending my swap pal, PrincessPurling over in England!

I sent her two packets of Milk Chocolate Pretzel Flips (She asked for them because she loves them and can't get them over in England), and one packet of chocolate swirl. Two Dagoba chocolate bars - Chai and Chili and Nibs. Two 100g skeins of Knitpicks' Gloss Bare and a bunch of kool-aid packets to dye it with and I made her a Tudora to keep her neck all warm and cozy while she enjoys these things.

Truthfully, I agonize over whether the person I'm sending to will like the stuff I give to them, but I usually find that all that agonizing is for naught as they wind up loving it! I am however, glad that the swap is over because now I have all kinds of fun stuff to play with. :)

Two people in a car

2008-11-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

Apparently, when me and DW get together with little else on our minds but getting out of the house for a little bit to get some fresh air, it winds up being just a bit of an unexpected escapade. See, we hopped in the Jeep at 11 in the morning, and just planned on a quick little drive and chat, maybe grab a couple of coffees and then when the coffee was finished - boom, we go home. Yeah, we should have known that was so not how it was going to be. We didn't actually get home until 2 p.m., and that was because somehow, someway we got lost. LOST! It was kind of fun actually, looking around to see where exactly in Massachusetts (or Rhode Island depending on what part of the trip we were on)we were and giggling over how far we accidentally drove. And it gave us an excellent opportunity to just talk.

Talking is something that I find to be highly underrated by society today. Either you talk "too much", or talk "too little" and never talk "just enough". It's always something that is spoken of in a negative way...this talking. I wonder why. Me, I love to talk (in case you couldn't tell), and I'm always willing to listen to other people talk too. In fact, in my opinion, you can never really talk enough! Talk about the weather, talk about politics, talk about silliness...talking is a basic human need that not too many folks indulge in around here it seems. I've been told I talk "too much" on more than one occasion, really, but I tend to just shrug that off. I mean, isn't it more interesting if you're a talker. Doesn't that mean that you lead a rich, full life just bursting to be spoken of?

Sure some of the things I talk about might be boring to some people (like knitting...for some reason that makes quite a few people look at me odd...and needless to say I am not close to those people)but for the most part, a great many folks out there seem to find what I have to say interesting and I am well-liked because I talk a lot. It just makes me wonder about those people that are negative about it. Are they hiding something? Are they somehow jealous of my mad talkin' skillz? Or perhaps...they are secretly mute? I don't know.

What about you guys out there? All you folks that are reading my blog and wondering what's what in the Needle household? Are you guys talkers or are you of the opinion that too much talk is just that - too much?

Seriously, I wanna know!

Because I have no time

2008-11-11T16:34:00.000-08:00

I've decided that today I'd let Keith Oberlmann speak for me.

You should listen to him. He knows what he's talking about! :)

One word

2008-11-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

Saw this meme on Jeanne's blog and decided that since I could use some blogging material for tonight I'd steal it and then tag a few folks out there!

Where is your mobile phone?
Purse

Where is your significant other?
Work

Your hair colour?
Fake-ish

Your mother?
Home

Your father?
Postmaster

Your favorite thing?
Knitting

Your dream last night?
Forgettable

Your dream goal?
Mom

The room you’re in?
Denroom

Your hobby?
Knitting

Your fear?
Death

Where do you want to be in 6 years?
Here

Where were you last night?
Home

What you’re not?
Tall

One of your wish-list items?
KPHarmony

Where you grew up?
City

The last thing you did?
Ate

What are you wearing?
Clothes

Your TV?
Cheap

Your pets?
Doggie

Your computer?
Compaq

Your mood?
Ouchie

Missing someone?
Wife

Your car?
Jeep

Something you’re not wearing?
Perfume

Favourite shop?
Witchy

Your summer?
Pleasant

Love someone?
Absolutely

Your favorite color?
Pink

When is the last time you laughed?
Always

When was the last time you cried?
Weeks

And that's all folks!

Oh, and by the way, I'm tagging Yarnpiggy, Betty and anyone else out there who feels like doing this! :) And don't forget, you can only use one word! :)

Slave to the oven

2008-11-09T11:09:00.001-08:00

So, today being a nice, happy Sunday that makes me long for cool, crispy air and scents (and for some reason,neither are so totally not even remotely here in Massachusetts and it's frickin' November for crying out loud)so I decided to do some baking and cooking with all kinds of yummy autumn flavors hoping that by doing so I'd bring those things on.

Today's Menu:

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup!

It was easy to make really, and is totally worth the pain in the assiness of having to drag my blender down from the uppermost shelf of my pantry. I followed the recipe exactly, except I didn't have any stock so I made stock using four cups of water and six chicken bullion cubes. It worked out pretty well. I also added just a bit of brown sugar to the mix so we could have sweet and savory flavors. Oh, and I know you might cringe a little when it says to top with celery leaves...but really, I've tried it (as you can see from the picture above) and it's simply delicious. I also added a nice dollop of sour cream to counter-act with the sweetness of the soup. Yum!

And for dessert? Well, it was supposed to be a caramel apple upside down pumpkin spice cake, but wound up being more like a cobbler or a molten caramel cake. But even though it wasn't as pretty as I wanted it to be, it still tasted phenomenal! It was so gooey, and just sweet enough and served with some very lightly sweetened whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon? Delicious!

So, I know a few of you are wanting the recipe, right? Now, I could be a tease and wait and post it tomorrow, but I won't. I'm not nearly cruel enough for that, so here it is.

Caramel Apple Upside Down Pumpkin Spice Cake (or cobbler...whatever you want to call it!;) )

For the Cake:

I used this recipe for it. But, if you don't feel like making a cake from scratch, feel free to use a box of spice cake mix and add a 15 oz of canned pumpkin to it!

Now, in this recipe, I find a little bit less sugar than is called for is good, because you don't want the cake to be overly sweet. Trust me, the caramel makes up for it!

For the caramel:

A stick of butter
1c white sugar
Heavy Cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

How to put it all together.

Peel and slice about 7 or eight medium sized apples (I used Cortland, but next time I might use a mix of Granny Smith and Cortland)and line the bottom of a 13x9 greased and floured cake pan. Now, don't be stingy on how thick you cut the apples because they will disintegrate in the caramel while it's baking and you don't want that! I cut it into chunks rather than slices because I wanted a nice thick layer of apple, and it worked out very, very well!

Now, melt the stick of butter in a pan on the stove and mix in the sugar, cooking over high heat until the mixture starts to darken. Add vanilla and cream and keep stirring until the caramel is a nice golden-brown. It's okay if it seems a little gritty, because it will get creamy again when it bakes and the juice from the apples mixes in with it. Let cool a bit and pour over the apples, spreading evenly so it coats the entire bottom of the pan. (I actually doubled the recipe, and it worked out great, but it was messy. If you do this, make sure you line the bottom of your oven with some heavy duty foil to catch any caramel that bubbles up and drips over the sides. It will smoke, it will smell awful when the caramel burns on the foil, but it does not affect the cake. Not even a little. Trust me. :) ) Mix together your cake and pour over the apples, and bake until a fork inserted into the center of the cake comes away relatively clean!

For the Whipped Cream

Now, you can use Cool Whip if you like because it's not overly sweet, but I preferred fresh for this dish since whipping it up myself allows it to be sweetened as I go.

Chill a metal bowl in the freezer for five minutes, and then remove. Pour in cream (as much as you think you'll need). Add a tsp. of sugar to start and 1 tsp. of vanilla and start whipping. You can hand whip if you like, but I used my electric mixer with a whisk attatchment. Beat until light and fluffy and then top a big hunk of the cake with it and sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon to make it pretty and ta-da! Yummy!

:)

I hope anybody that makes this cake really really enjoys it! I know I did, and it's odd because I'm not overly fond of pumpkin anything!

The things I did today...

2008-11-08T12:44:00.001-08:00

TO DO LIST:

1. Run around 20 minutes before DW gets home doing dishes so she doesn't think I've been a lazy twat - check

2. Go Nascar grocery shopping (so called because my methodology is to zip in and out of the aisles as quickly as possible and I don't care who I have to slam into to make certain that's possible) - Check

3. Come home and go to put away the groceries only to discover that I had to clean out the fridge first? - Check

4. Actually put the groceries away - Check

4. Locate a friend of a friend's boxer shorts and let wife tape them with a little love note outside Mr. Stick's second story window - check.

Yeah, today's been a full day. And now, I'm left waiting around for my friends Ian and Randi to call me so I can go and be a nerd and play D&D with them...hopefully he's sober enough to run a game though. He went to some beer fest today (I think it was somewhere in Rhode Island) so goodness knows when I'll be hearing from him. I hope soon though. I'm wide awake and wanting to get out of the house for some fun! I know, I'm a geek...dweeb, and a nerd. All three, yes...yes I am. But I love Dungeons and Dragons. I've been playing since I was in junior high, and I don't care how many people tell me to "grow up"...I won't. Not if it means I don't get to play a Drow Necromancer and do all kinds of woggy stuff that normal people can't do!

What is it about D&D that inspires that kind of "Ew, you're a nerd" response anyway? I mean, it's fun for all ages and actually requires some modicum of intelligence, ingenuity and just general imagination to play it. It's not like a video game where you push a bunch of buttons and then start slashing away (not that there's anything wrong with some good old button pushing - I do loves me some video games). It requires slight acting skills. Oh, and reading. Maybe that's it. Not all that many people of the younger generation (or heck older generation) actually seem to like to read.

I tell you, it's a sad state of affairs when something as simple and entertaining as reading deterrs people from a fun time. I've recommended so many good books to so many people over the last few weeks and they just stare at me - usually with their eyebrows all frowny and a glazed look in their eye- slack-jawed that I would even suggest something like actually picking up a book (without pictures mind you) and expanding their minds. Thank goodness my nearest and dearest aren't like that, otherwise I'd go crazy! I read and I read a lot and quickly. I can finish a novel in a day or two usually and still get a good grasp of what's going on in the story.

How about all you readers out there? Are you a speed reader, or are you a slow goer?

Your regularly scheduled Programming

2008-11-07T04:28:00.000-08:00

I've decided to break up the monotony of me basically rambling on and on and on in complete randomness with some happy, dancy, singy music!

Don't you just love Cyndi Lauper?

Yeah, I know this is kind of cheating, and I swear the next one I'll actually have something to write about.

Promise!

Well now...

2008-11-06T19:38:00.000-08:00

There's been a lot of chatter on Plurk about the "ding". I have to confess I had severely underestimated the "ding", mostly because I usually keep my speakers turned off unless I know I'm going to need sound. Well, this time, when I signed on to Plurk to catch up (which I love, love, love to do because to me, plurk is just as much of a time suck as Ravelry)I heard the "ding" five times before I got sick of it enough to remember to turn the speakers back off. I guess DW had turned them on because she's obsessed with YouTube. And now that the "ding" is taken care of, I can happily continue blogging without having to worry about being caught off guard by that noise and practically falling off my chair in the process. See, DW likes to turn the speaker volume up real loud, and sometimes she forgets to turn them down/off...which often leads to a near heart attack for the knitter. It's okay honey, I love you anyway.

Well, last night we actually got out of the house, and even though I have no photographic evidence of this, I assure you it did happen. We got gussied up and went down to ye olde karaoke bar, also known as The Bayside. Now, I know that the singing is supposed to be bad, with some good interspersed just to make it less hard on the ears, but there was this one annoying old lady that was so drunk by the time she walked into the bar that every song she got up to sing hurt me. Not just because of her horrible singing either, but because she only spoke every other word of the song she chose before elapsing into a fit of cuss words and generally insulting terms directed at the karaoke deejay while chugging back various alcoholic beverages in between. In hindsight, she was a very LSG type of lady...but was painfully embarrassing to watch. Especially since she had about three inches of highly wrinkled cleavage on display...and I didn't even know that you could have wrinkly cleavage! :(

But at least the beer was good. I got to enjoy my first pint of Sam Adams' Winter Lager of the Season, and considering how much I love that beer, it was a very happy time for me. And a couple of good friends met me and DW there, so fun times were had by all...until I had the Horrible Shot of Vodka. It was supposed to be a lemon drop, but they didn't put any sugar (because they'd run out and I foolishly thought it would be okay without it), and they failed to give me a lemon wedge to suck on after downing the shot. Also, I'm pretty sure they used cheap, horrible, rubbing alcohol type vodka instead of the good, smooth stuff. It was awful, and a serious let down after the yumminess of the beer. Oh well, you win some you lose some!

Other than that, my life's been pretty boring. Same old thing, same old place, but at least I'm comfortable with it. And I'm seriously running out of things to say...damn this Nablopomo thing is hard!

I wonder if my blog's listed on the blogroll for November yet...

I'm running out of material here folks!

2008-11-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

So I decided to post this thing!

The Recipe For Cadence

3 parts Prosperity

2 parts Shrewdness

1 part Grace

Splash of Cleverness

Shake vigorously

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Also, my Pomatomus sock is coming along swimmingly. I almost have the whole leg done on it and I only cast on for it yesterday...or maybe the day before. I can't remember. The days kind of just smoosh into one another when one is unemployed!

Now that that's over with...

2008-11-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

So, I voted, and I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the turnout at the polling place where I had to go. I mean, I don't know if there was a larger amount of people earlier in the day, but when I got there at about five p.m., there were only three people ahead of me in line to vote, and I was pretty much in and out of there. Still, I voted and that's going to count for something. Especially since as I'm typing this Barack Obama is 70 electoral votes away from becoming the next U.S. President. Here's hoping that those 70 people chip in for a change in the way our country is run! WooT! This makes me more happy than you can possibly believe! It's been a while since a presidential candidate has moved me to the point that the prospect of him actually winning the election makes me giddy beyond belief, and if he doesn't win I will honestly be heartbroken...not to mention seriously considering a move to Canada.

Okay, so enough of the politics. I know a great many people out there are getting royally sick of it, and I can't blame them. It's just such an emotional time, especially since our candidates seem to inspire so many people on so many different levels...in fact, I'm pretty sure it's the first time I can recall folks getting so riled up over a presidential election, but well, this time I guess people feel that it really will make a difference. I know I do. I know! I said no more politics. I'm done. Promise! ;)

As I mentioned a post or so back, I cast on for a pair of Pomatomus Socks. I have to say that I really, really like this pattern. It's not so difficult that it's impossible to knit, but it's not so simple that you get bored with it after knitting it for two seconds. Even the 1x1 ribbing on the cuff is entertaining, and that's saying something considering I hate 1x1 ribbing...seriously. Hate! And it's weird that I should be enjoying knitting this pattern so much because I'm knitting it in my least ever favorite color yarn...purple. Blech. Now listen, I know there are a lot of people out there who are like "What? This bitch doesn't like purple?! That's it, I'm gonna go and stab her with my needles." It's not really that I don't like the color purple, because I do like it - just in an offhand-as-long-as-it's-not-on-me kind of way. It makes my skin look yellow and doesn't really flatter me. Still, I happen to have this skein of purple Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn mocking me from my stash every time I so much as look at it so I guess I decided to put it in it's place by making something beautiful out of it despite it's color. Surprisingly, I really, really like the way the color looks in the pattern. It's lovely! And on top of that, the yarn has some blue in it too, providing a nice thin stripe to break up the purple so the colors don't bore me to tears.

The colors aren't quite as dark as the photo, but what can I say...the lighting's crappy. The purple is nearly as dark as it looks, but that dark blue stripe that you can see running through it? It's not as dark as that at all. In fact, it's a lovely bright cobalty blue...if I'm thinking of the right shade. If not I'll just come back here and edit it or something. Anyway, that's what the first knit through of chart A looks like, and I'll only say it one more time, I'm loving it! Cookie A. is a genius! I swear, the girl is dangerous for me because every time I see one of her new sock patterns come out I'm like "Oh! I have to knit that!" and that often gets me in trouble because that usually gives me an 'excuse' (like I really need to hunt one up, right?) to go and buy more yarn!

And as for the rest, well, all I'm going to leave you with is a picture of my dog in her Halloween Costume. I didn't really get to take her out and show it off, but I did make her wear it around the house, and she was kind enough to keep it on for an hour or so to amuse her mommy. What a good little Beeba dog I have!

For future reference, I need to knit sweaters for this dog a little longer because the green "stem" barely covered her doxie-like brisket! And also, I should make the poor thing's neckband a little looser. Poor darling got her head stuck every time we tried to take it off her! Maybe I need a looser cast off? I don't know...maybe I just need a few more stitches...

Well, at any rate, I'm off for the moment to be generally lazy and take a cat nap - mostly so I can avoid the after election stress of wanting to be glued to the tv screen to watch the votes pour in. That's the worst part for me! ;)

Night all, and as always, thanks so much for reading!

Okay then

2008-11-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

Not to scare anybody by being all political, but I'd just like to remind all of you that tomorrow is a very important day. Vote. Even if you never have before, make sure you're registered and go out and excercise that right that so many people are still fighting to have. Vote! I don't care who you vote for (well, all right, I do but that's besides the point)just go and stand in that line and put your little x's or whatever in those boxes on that ballot. We can not expect a change in this country until we, the American People, vote for that change. Oh, and if you don't vote then don't bitch about the state of our country to me because in my opinion, you have lost the right to do that when you neglected to vote. You didn't want to have a say so therefore you don't have a say.I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but that's the way it is.

Me, I'm voting for Obama. Neither one of our candidates are perfect, and we can hardly expect them to be, but Obama, well...he's someone worth getting behind. He's someone I feel that I can believe in and someone I can trust to lead our country out of this giant hole that the Bush Administration has buried us under. He's got ideas and he wants a change, and best of all...he comes from Middle Class America so he knows what it's like to have three kids and not enough money to feed them because the jobs are scarce.

So yeah, whoever you want to vote for, just go and do it! Stop talking about voting and VOTE!

Here's hoping that there will be a change in our country for the better. Here's hoping that over the next four years this land will be a better place to bring children into.

Here's hoping.

In lieu of...

2008-11-03T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well, since I haven't been knitting too much of late (although I did cast on for a pair of Pomatomus Socks - let's cross our fingers and hope that helps me find my knitting groove again), I've been baking instead. No, don't get your hopes up. This will not be a post just chock full of num num pictures. In fact, I've only baked two num nums in lieu of knitting, and one of them probably doesn't count as baking because there was no actual baking involved.

The first of these things, was some super yummy, home-made bread. I used the recipe for American Sandwich Bread from The Cook's New Best Recipe cookbook. The recipe is relatively easy to follow, but since I don't have a stand up mixer (which I seriously want by the way)I had to kind of eyeball the kneading process and fudge it as I went along. Surprisingly, for a first ever attempt, it came out quite nice. It has a delicate, super-moist crumb with a slightly chewy texture that I adore in sandwich breads and the crust baked up to be a pleasant light golden brown so it wasn't too thick. Honestly, it's a bread that I'd rather just eat with butter and honey smeared all over it rather than hide it's flavor behind sandwich meats and condiments.

Doesn't that look nice? It is, and on top of that, it's slightly sweet (kind of like a yeasted doughnut without any frosting or sugar all over it) so you really don't even need the butter.

I also took a forray into candy-making (this is where the non-baking baking comes in ;) ) and decided that I was going to be ambitious and make some home made marshmallows. It was a surprisingly easy task, and I can safely say that if you don't happen to have a candy thermometer you can still make these things by simply following the instructions on the time. Once again, it would have been so much easier if I'd had a stand-up mixer, but my little electric hand mixer worked out just fine. It's just that when the marshmallow thickens, it kind of blobs up over the entire beater and pools up at the top of the mixer so you have to keep stopping to scrape down (oh and if you're going to have to scrape a beater, please remember to oil your spatula before doing so otherwise you're going to wind up wearing more of the goo than you wanted to - don't ask how I know this, just trust me) the beaters. Still, they came out quite nice.

I've been told the pictures look like tofu, and yeah, they do...but it's sooo not. The texture of these marshmallows is nothing like the ones you buy in the store - at least, not to me. There's a denser, more silky mouthfeel to them and you can really taste the vanilla. All in all, a much creamier candy that I can't wait to try in hot chocolate! After all, that's the whole reason I made them. I have tons of hot cocoa stuff but had no marshmallows in the house and had eaten the last of the Marshmallow Fluff (right from the jar with a spoon...because I get sweet cravings and that's one of the first things I think of to eat). Trust me, this recipe has saved the day. And you get tons from just the one recipe. I'm thinking I might use this recipe and put together some baskets featuring them for Christmas gifts...

Oh and in case you're curious, I used this recipe for them! Thank you Alton Brown!

Ugh.

2008-11-02T19:51:00.000-08:00

Does anybody get the point of wakes? I mean, I know that they're specifically for the purpose of remembering a loved one and the things they did in life...but why do we, as a society feel the need to put ourselves through them. To me, it's morbid. Nothing nice about them. Not to mention they can be damned awkward occasions for the living - especially if you're me. Now, I've been to quite a few wakes in my time, and let's just say that my awkward relationship with these particular occasions started early in life when I attended my first one at age 11.

It was for my mother's BFF from high school - no, she wasn't the one who'd died, but her mother had. I'd never met the woman, but my mother was willing to let me miss school so I could go with her and therefore, she wouldn't have to go alone so naturally, I jumped at the chance. It was a room full of the elderly and middle aged with my mom and me being the two youngest folks there, and I remember thinking it was strange that we had to stand up there and look at her...and also that it was weird how alive she looked even though she was dead. It didn't freak me out totally, but I found it strange enough to set my nerves jangling. And then when the priest came out, it was all over. He had some kind of speach impediment that made him sound like the priest from Princes Bride (Mawwage...mawwage is the fing dat bwings us togevah today....), a movie I had just seen for the first time ever barely two days before and well, let's just say that laughing while a priest is delivering what was supposed to be a heartfelt, touching speach is definitely a no-no. My mother had to drag me out to the ladies room and calm me down before I could go back in.

I think that's another reason why I hate those things...I am queen of the inappropriate reaction. I cry when most people laugh, I laugh when people are in deep mourning...I'm telling you, I'm just bizarre. And then of course, there's the matter of what exactly to say to these people that you more often than not barely know who are so terribly sad that it's hard enough just walking through the wall of grief they've put up around them, never mind thinking of something intelligent to say. And the pressure of it all! You go right to the front of the room, in front of everybody else, and shake the hands of the folks that were closest relation to the deceased and they say "Thank you for coming", and before you know it, you wind up saying thank you back to them and they're left wondering why you're thanking them when you should have been giving condolences. I'm telling you, wakes are nightmares for me.

When I die, I don't want a wake. I don't even want to be buried. I'd rather my family cremated me and then spread my ashes somewhere nice and had a big old party (complete with booze and belly dancers) to send me off with a bang. Yeah, that's the ticket. No line of folks standing at the front of a room waiting to shake the hands of virtual strangers and listen to them talk about how "sorry they are" that I'm gone. Just friends and family, gathered together to talk about old times and watch the pretty girlie show. Yep. That's the ticket.

Meanderings of a worn-out Mind...Possible Spoiler Alert

2008-11-01T02:23:00.000-07:00

So, for some crazy reason that is as of yet unknown even to me, I have decided to participate in NaBloPoMo. Wish me luck, because I have enough of a hard time blogging every week, never mind every day! Now, what on earth could I blog about every day, you ask? Well, certainly not knitting since I really haven't done too much of that lately. Every time I go to start a project, I get the blahs in the middle of it and rather than just set it aside, I usually frog what I've done and shove the re-wound yarn back into one of my stash cupboards. I don't know why...but I just can't seem to get "startitis" lately. Maybe it's partially because I don't know what I really want to knit. Maybe that's it. I mean, I want to knit socks, I want to knit a neckwarmer, I want to knit a shrug, I want to knit this, I want to knit that...but I'm finding it a tad difficult to find a pattern that really excites me. Everything on Ravelry is just starting to clutter into one big jumble of similar patterns so very rarely do I find something truly unique. I suppose I could knit some more of my shawl, or put the thumb into my mitts, but even then I find myself easily distracted. Well, since I've been unable to properly start a new project I'm giving myself a kind of break from my hobby and going back to reading.

Lately, I've been re-reading rather than actually going out in search of a new book - a new form of literary entertainment. I know, I know...most people look at me like I'm crazy when I say that I can read the same book over and over again, but I can! To me, returning to a book I've read several times is a comfort. A kind of homecoming really. I settle back on the couch with a well-worn copy of a particular story (my favorite of all time being The Time Traveller's Wife...damn you Pam), take a deep sigh and just let myself get taken away by the author's words. And it's just so easy because you know how the story ends already, so there's no rush to get to that climactic (or sometimes anti-climactic part). I find when I re-read that I often pick up on little nuances that I missed the first and even second time reading a book, and that just thrills me. Makes me feel like some kind of novel detective picking up new clues in an old murder case. Silly, I know...but true nonetheless.

I'm trying really hard to plod through Gregory MaGuire's "Wicked", but at times I find his writing style just so dry. He tends to go off on tangents, I find, letting himself get carried away in pretentious detail. The basic story is good, or at least it is from what I can tell. Mneh. I'm just going to keep on trekking through so I can get to the point where I can put it down and then re-read. For some reason, a book is also always better the second time through I find...which is another thing I like about re-reading.

I finally finished the Twilight series as well, and I guess I have a question for other Twilight fans out there. Did you find that last book to be a bit of a let down? I know I did. I don't know, I was expecting there to be more at the end then there was. It's like "boom" Bella's a vampire and married and well, she's GOOD at them both and oh yeah, she's pregnant too so obviously Bella's even more special than she already is. And oh yeah, Victoria's still around and trying to kill Bella (which I have to confess gets kind of boring after she uses hunting Bella as a plot twist in the first, second and well, third books)...and don't even get me started on Jacob's imprinting on Renesmee. I don't know. Maybe I'm disappointed because it just got to be so predictable after a while. I liked the books, don't get me wrong. I did! They were quick reads, and when I didn't get too bogged down in the fact that it was almost like the same plotlines over and over and over, I found them incredibly enjoyable. The vampiric family of the Cullens are a likeable bunch, and so is Bella herself since she's not some perfect, uber-strong, uber-tough chick that can handle anything. She's a teenager, and well quite simply perfect in her imperfections...if that makes any sense.

Eh...anyway, I'm done ranting and raving about that. Eventually it starts to sound like repetitious nonsense in my head so I'll just stop before that happens. I think I'm going to head off and have a snack. Thanks for reading guys,and I promise...I will have some FO's to post soon...provided I can get off my ass and actually knit something worth a damn! ;)

I am of teh bored...

2008-10-24T01:02:00.000-07:00

So, I've been sitting around for the past few nights, trying to decide if I should get at least a part time job or something to keep me occupied just enough to keep me from going stir crazy. The wife says it's not entirely necessary, but that it'd be helpful, so I'm thinking that yeah I should. However, what the heck do I want to do? I don't want to do CNA work any more. Not even a little. I am burned out after only doing the job for four years, and have no idea how on earth people make it to ten in that career never mind thirty years! It's especially hard because you start to actually care about your residents and then are told that while you can care, you can not do things for them (like donate clothes to them...you'd be amazed at how many people do not have clothes in nursing homes)but have to wait for the families to do it themselves. It's considered "favoritism" and even "abuse" because supposedly it forces the residents to become indebted to you. Of course, that's bullshit. Total, and complete bullshit. I call it caring and they call it abuse. Oh and let's not forget the fact that if the nurse screws up, it's always the lowly CNA's fault. "Cadence, he can't have juice...you know that. Now his blood sugar's too high. He's a diabetic for Christ's sake...are you stupid?" (Yes, this was said to me. And in front of other residents and staff. Embarassing, no?) I repeat, no thank you CNA work. You can keep my certificate because I'm done.

So, that just leaves the question of what kind of job I do want. Now, please don't think poorly of me, but I have no desire to have a career. Or if I do, I quite simply do not have a single inkling as to what "I want to be when I grow up". I spent two years at college with the vague idea of being an English Major and when it occurred to me that I had no clue what I wanted to do with that degree (Be a teacher? Ugh, no way. No offense teachers, but I just don't have the kind of patience for that. Especially for the students you guys teach nowadays. You guys are saints in my book. And journalism? No thanks. I'm not nearly cutthroat enough for that job nor am I ambitious enough to be a good one.) I dropped out. The option of going back to school is there, I know, but for what? What do I want to do? Again, no clue. In the meantime, I'll just figure out some kind of job that seems like fun. Not retail...been there, done it and hated it. Maybe waitressing. I liked that, and I used to make really good tips. Or maybe I'll just go apply at a coffee shop or something. When I figure it out, I'll let y'all know. Enough with this semi-maudlin prattle and onto the good stuff.

I have been knitting! Sort of. I can't say I've been cranking out huge amounts of sweaters, or mitts, but I have been knitting small things. Mostly neckwarmers. I've recently discovered that I have a particular fondness for neckwarmers and cowls. They're attractive, simple, and can decorate any coat with panache without being too heavy underneath it. Of course, it is sad when the neckwarmers you've been knitting have all been made from the same pattern, right?

* Pattern: Tudora
* Yarn: Plymouth Colorspun Chunky for the top, and Red Heart TLC Cotton Plus for
bottom
* Needles: US9 for the top, US6 for the bottom
* Modifications for the top Tudora: I bound off an extra buttonhole stitch to make room for the extra large button!
* Modifications for the bottom Tudora: In the buttonhole row I K3,BO2,K3,BO2,K4
Then in the next row I K4,CO2,K4,CO2,K3
* Size Made: Normal Size

I really, really like this pattern as far as neck warmers go. It's quick, it's elegant and the assymetry of it is just so very appealing to me for some reason. I love the victorian feel. The top one was made for me, personally, and the bottom one (with the two buttons) was made for my Chocolate and Yarn Swap being run through the Chocolate group in Ravelry. I'm going to make a couple more, definitely, since I have all kinds of buttons and single skeins hanging around, but I'm also planning on branching out into other types of neck warmers. I think I'll knit as many as possible and give them as Christmas gifts to those that will appreciate them.

Weird, isn't it? Nobody seems to appreciate a good, handmade gift nowadays. Everybody wants the most expensive, newest things whether it's clothes or techno-toys. I don't get it. This world is turning into such a breeding ground for commercial-inspired greed, it turns my stomach. That's why this year, I took the Handmade Pledge, and I'm going to try to stick to it as much as possible! Anything to pump money back into local business! :) Especially for the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, Halloween (or Samhain for my fellow pagans out there) is just around the corner! I'm so excited, I can hardly contain it. I love Halloween. There's just something about it that thrills me. The crisp fall air filled with smoky, woodsy scents. The clearness of the night sky leaving all those stars to twinkle while you rush from house to house hoping to fill up that pillow case with as much candy as the unsuspecting folks inside can dish out while dressed up like some kind of ghoul, monster or princess. It's just fun! Naturally, I don't trick or treat myself, but my wife will drag out a sack and collect candy with the children of family and friends.

We haven't decorated or anything this year, mostly because we know no one's going to stop by our third floor apartment just to get a candy bar, but we will be carving pumpkins next week. I love carving pumpkins because I literally start to covet freshly roasted seeds around this time of year. I love roasting my own, and experimenting with various sweet/salty spice rubs to smother them in! I think this year I'll do a typical salt/pepper on some of them, a garlic/salt on some, and maybe I'll pan roast some in a mix of brown sugar,cinnamon and butter. Mmmm....and then when Halloween is over, I plan on using the pumpkin for the bake-a-long I'm running in the group Ravelrousing Housewives (if you're on Ravelry, and a bad ass Stay at home mom [SAHM],Stay at home Wife [SAHW],Stay at home Husband [SAHH] or someone who has any of the above...check it out and join us! And yes, if you work a part time job, or have to work a part time job but still spend most of your time at home, you can join us too! We're a really fun bunch of people, and we don't bite...unless you ask us too. ;) )

I have been maintaining some of the spirit of Halloween, however, by playing Mrs. B's 31 Days of Halloween. If you've never played, I suggest you pop over and take a look at it. You might think it's too late to jump in, but remember, there's still 7 whole days left, and who knows, you might win something. I did. A very sweet tarot card bracelet.

Isn't that great? I can hardly wait to get it in my hot little hands. I love the Tarot, and though my cards are probably very angry at me for not picking them up in a long time, I love them. Unconditionally in all their various forms of beauty! Each card is a piece of art to me. The colors, the meanings behind the pictures, everything. I love everything about them. If you want a bracelet like this, and don't feel like trying to win one, check out the lady who actually made it and donated it to the contest. Miss Dismissie of Dismissie's Mixed Bag! Her shop is full of neat stuff, so do yourself a favor and check it out even if you don't want to buy right away so you can keep it in mind for future gift ideas for...uhm...certain people! ;) Also, check out the contest in Mrs. B's Blog...even if you don't want to participate this year, keep it in mind for next year. It's good, clean Halloween fun!

Okay folks, that seems to be all for now! As always, thanks for reading!

Rhinebeck Rolecall!

2008-10-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, I was going to follow that up with a silly obscenity, but not everyone is an LSG wench and therefore I just couldn't bring myself to actually do it. Still, if any of you are headed up to upstate NY this weekend for the sheep and wool festival, it'd be awesome to meet up...or at least I think so. ;) I'll be headed up there too early in the effing morning on Friday with Lickmysticks, ScottishNana, and Fussygusset, and I'm pretty sure we're actually attending the festival both days so something should be workable! Of course, we're also attending the Ravelry party Saturday night too,so if I don't see you at the festival (and you're a ravelholic like me) I'll most likely run into you there!

I'm certain that this year's experience will definitely outshine last year's. Oh, the festival itself was nice, but we took a Yarn Safari bus and we arrived late so shopping time was minimal. Also, on top of that I had to listen to some woman chatter on about her shawls (which I'm sure I would have loved if they hadn't been knit out of the scratchiest wool possible and in hideous colors)which got sickening after a while. We missed the Ravelry party, missed a lot of the stalls because we had to rush, and got home waaaaay too late because we were on a bus which had several stops to make on the way back home. Boo. So yeah, this year ought to be way better.

On the home front, everything's going well. I am currently a quite happy little housewife, thanks to my wife finally graduating from the Academy (for the Bristol County Sheriff's Department)!

Doesn't she look hot in her uniform? She graduated as class valedictorian and class treasurer with a 97.0 G.P.A., which I'm told is one of the highest G.P.A's ever to be seen in that setting. I can't begin to tell you how insanely proud I am of her. She's always wanted to do something like this and well, I have to say that I think she'll be good at it. True, right now she's at the bottom rung with the title of Corrections Officer, but I don't see her staying there for long!

We wound up going out to celebrate the Friday after her graduation, stuffing our faces at a Chinese buffet with most of the rest of her class before heading down to a local bar that just happened to have an actual mechanical bull. And yes, I rode the mechanical bull. Just about everybody did because we were all that blitzed out of our minds.

The picture is horrible, I know, but that's what happens when drunk people take pictures of drunk people. That my friends is what two shots of SoCo and lime (which I actually dislike), four lemon drop shots, and two Boston Lagers look like on the face of a lightweight. And yes, I'm hugging the stupid mechanical bull, and looking fat and awful and well, drunk! The thing of it is, I'm not a huge boozer, but once in a while I like to cut a little loose. However, mixing the beer and the hard liquors was probably the worst thing ever. I had such an icky hangover the next day that didn't actually take effect until about twelve hours after I woke up. It was weird. One minute I was feeling good, and the next I was feeling awful! Welp, guess that teaches me. Still, if I hadn't been drunk I probably would have never even thought to get on that stupid bull, and it was fun! If you haven't done it and you have an opportunity to, I suggest you try it out! Really, I do.

So, day after drinking, me,the wifey, and my SIL Pam decided to head out to go apple picking. It's a fall ritual that my family has pretty much upheld yearly, so I was naturally not going to disrupt tradition! We had a blast and it was a perfect day for it. I was a tad disappointed though, because it was so late in the season that all the good apples had been picked (or at least the ones that were low enough to grab without a ladder) so we had to kind of hunt and stalk a ladder out before we could get to the fun!

There I am, apparently finding it all to be just "too much". :) Hehehe, in reality I probably had the beginnings of a headache when Pam took that picture....

It's a good thing that DW was more than willing to climb the ladder though because neither myself nor Pam really wanted to actually climb to snag the fruit. I have a bit of a fear of heights so and I get a little bit of vertigo now and then so that piled on top of the beginnings of a belated hangover would have just made it all so much worse.

After apple picking, we grabbed some food and then I went home and felt ill the rest of the night. The rest of the weekend was pretty much pleasantly inactive.

On the knitting front: I've been trying to knit the Through the Loops Mystery Sock, but have had to keep frogging it out. First, it was because I cast on too few stitches to do the cabled version so I had to frog out both cuffs (I'm knitting one sock off of each end on two sets of the same size DPN), which sucked. Then I cast on the right amount but twisted the stitches somehow and didn't realize it until I was halfway done with the cuff. I got sick of all the frogging, and I'm starting to hate the yarn I'm knitting them in so I may just wind the yarn into a cake so it looks neater and offer it for trade and try to cast 'em on in something else! I love mystery sock KAL's because I can keep up with them damn it.

In the meantime, I cast on for a pair of Bronte's Mitts in some Artyarns Silk Rhapsody. It's like heaven. I don't even like mohair, but I love this stuff! Too bad it's so expensive otherwise I'd frickin' have a whole closet full of it! It's super soft, super squishy and just so yummy! Plus it smells like lavender because I still have a whole bunch of my lavender stuffed sachets in my knitting bag!

Other than all that, life's fine. I kind of have an unwanted pet spider that lives outside of my front corridor window. My wife insists on naming it Emily, but I would rather call it Filbert. It's an ugly sucker though, and HUGE. It's got this weird, bulgy body that goes to a point and is brown with darker stripes. Gross. I hate spiders, I really, really do, but as long as this one eats up all the icky beetles (which I hate even more than spiders) that keep trying to get inside my house, Filbert can stay.

The picture kind of stinks, because we were only able to get the spider's silhouette, but trust me, it's better this way. I've quite possibly spared you all a bunch of nightmares, preventing you guys from seeing how ugly it is and all. At least the picture does give you an idea of it's size though so you can tell what I'm dealing with. If Filbert does turn out to be an Emily, I already told DW that she has to "man up and kill the thing"!

Alright, I've pretty much run out of things to say, so, just remember, if you see me at Rhinebeck, wave and come and talk to me! I love talking! A lot. Sometimes too much according to certain parties...

Oh! Wait. There's one more thing...

Tag if you haven't seen this thing before or haven't done one yet! Here's how to do it!

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
Using only the first page, pick an image.
Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into the bighugelabs.com mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you wanted to be when you grew up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Add one of your own flickr images.

And I think that should be it...nope. Wait, one more thing. I have another recipe for you folks to try if you like! Once again, it's chicken (I seem to be cooking a lot of it lately), but it's equally as yummy as the last.

Terriyaki Style Chicken

By: Yours Truly and published for the first time ever, here, on this blog. Wahoo!

What you need:
Chicken parts ( I use wings because I like them better, but it comes out just as yummy if you use thighs or drumsticks!)
Soy Sauce
Honey
Minced Garlic
Hot Sauce or Cayenne Pepper
Molasses or Dark Brown Sugar (the Molasses works better for this I find)
Salt and Pepper

Sprinkle your chicken parts with salt and pepper and broil for five minutes then put in a roasting pan. Mix 2 parts Soy Sauce to 1 part Honey and add the molasses or brown sugar to taste.(If you use sugar, please, make sure it's dissolved fully in the liquid before you pour it over your chicken). Mix in at least three tbsp of minced garlic (I like to add a little more because I love garlic!), and add in hot sauce or cayenne to taste then pour over the chicken. Add a little bit of water to thin out the liquid. Lower the heat on your oven to 250 degrees (use an oven thermometer to help you figure out when the oven actually reaches that temperature) and then cover the meat with some foil and place in the oven on a rack placed in the center. Slow roast for three-four hours (chicken will get a rich, dark brown color from the liquid, and the meat will be very tender...almost to the point where it falls off the bone) and voila! Terriyaki style chicken.

This recipe is easily made for two or a whole bunch of people. Just make sure to get that chicken really coated well with the sauce before putting it in the oven! Also, if you have a crock pot, by all means, dump all the ingredients in and let cook in that, just be certain to broil the chicken first or the meat will be mush! :) Enjoy! And as always, thanks for reading!

ETA: There will be no fun Rhinebeckishness...sadly I got a sickie and was unable to go... :(

True Blood rocks my socks!

2008-10-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

Bill: Can I ask you a personal question?
Sookie: You were just licking blood outta my head...how much more personal can you get?

God I love On Demand. I really, really do. All those nifty tv shows that I've been missing out on because of previously un-had cable...I get to play catch up during the daytime, which comes in handy because well, daytime TV basically sucks. Unless of course you're watching BBC America or Food Network, but let's face it. There's only so much BBC and Food Network that you can watch before you get sick of it. Of course, this could be bad for knitting. I'm one of those knitters that can't really knit AND watch tv unless it's something really mindless.

Okay, okay, I know that I suck for real when it comes to blogging. I just haven't had much of a chance until now. What have I been doing, you ask? Moving!!! That's right, as of August 8th, I ceased living in my MIL's house and now live in a lovely 1 1/2 bedroom apartment in Fall River, MA. It's third floor, but I really can't complain much about it. My fat ass needs the exercise, that is fo' sho'.

Seriously though, I love it here. We have a great view of the water from our living room windows, my dog has all the room to run around that she wants, and I actually don't have a galley kitchen to cook in so I've been getting lots of use out of it. I've been baking, and cooking way too much. But I'm loving it.

From the top: Banana bread and homemade chicken pot pie. Super yum! My wife complains that since moving out she's eating too well and therefore finds it hard to actually want to go to a restaurant once in a while. Of course, I'm just pleased as punch because that means that I'm finally turning into the kind of home maker that I've always wanted to be! YAY ME!

Also, for all you folks that like to cook out there, I have a recipe to share. It's one of my mother's that I've adapted a little to make it just a wee bit more flavorful! I don't have a name for it, so I can't give you that, but if you've ever got chicken breast on hand and have no idea what to make with it, you could try this. It cooks up relatively fast and is definitely no scrimp in the flavor department!

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast (I used 1 whole breast to make enough to feed two with leftovers for a crispy chicken salad the next day)
Dried Parsley
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
Onion Powder
Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix
Unbleached flour (for dredging and for mixing with the pancake mix)
1 can of Campbell's cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk/light cream
2 eggs
Vegetable Oil for frying

Take about 1/2 cup of flour and put it in a large bowl. Beat the eggs with a little water until they begin to foam, making a nice light egg wash. Cut the chicken into about 1 1/2" wide strips (I did mine a bit more on the narrow side) and dip into the egg wash then dredge in the flour. Put the dredged chicken back in the eggwash and then mix about 1 - 1 1/4 cups of the pancake mix (more or less to your taste of course!) into the remnants of flour. If there's no remnants of flour in the bowl, that's okay,just add a bit more flour to the bowl. Season the pancake/flour mixture with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders, paprika, and add a generous pinch of parsley. Seasoning is done to your taste.I like to season liberally with just a pinch of the paprika so as not to turn the flour red. Whisk all these ingredients together until well-blended and then remove the chicken from the egg wash and drop into the bowl, making sure to coat ALL surfaces generously.

Heat your oil (a little tip: You can tell your oil is ready for frying by dropping a bit of plain flour into the oil. If it sizzles, it's ready) in a deep saute' pan. When it's ready for frying, place the chicken in it and fry until it's a deep golden brown. Drain on a paper-towel covered plate, and set aside

Take the soup and put in a medium sauce pan. Pour in the milk/cream, add a pinch of garlic powder, a generous pinch of pepper, salt to taste and if you want you can throw in some parsley flakes. Heat and stir until creamy and warm. Serve spooned over the chicken, and serve with white rice, and your vegetable of choice.

I hope if anybody tries it, they like it. It's not exactly the most non-fattening of meals (though I'm sure you could make it so easily), but it is delicious!

As for knitting...mneeeeh, well I haven't been. Not so much anyway. The Ravelympics was an epic fail for me simply because I never found the time to actually cast on for my Luna Moth Shawl, never mind actually knit it. So yeah, that didn't go so well. I did recently start it though and I have to admit without too much bragging that I could have easily finished it in time to not have a failure if I had bothered to take the time to do so. This is an excellent first lace project. Excellent. I even tried to take a picture of it...and I hope you all appreciate it because after this picture I will have to frog back to the lifeline and fix something funky that happened while I was trying to take the pins out. This probably aggravates me more than anyone else, but well, I'm sulking about it so give me a break! ;)

I'm using a skein of Michelle's (from the Sweet Sheep)merino fingering in the "Fields Forever" colorway and I have to say that I really, really love the way the colors pool on this shawl. I just wish I didn't have to frog. Ahem. Okay, I'm finished bitching about it. It's still looking damn good though, right? And at least I had the foresight to put a damn lifeline in it.

I've also found that a good knit for those fascinating TV shows is Meg Croft's Strawberry Sachets. Not only are they super cute,but they are super cheap to make. And when you stuff them with lavendar, they smell super yummy!

That's the first one I made. Since then, I've made roughly about ten. Be warned before you attempt this pattern! Because they are so easy to make, they are super easy to give away. I made ten but gave away three, so I'm stuck with just seven. I think I'll keep making them because whoever my next lucky swap partner is will end up with one or two of these sweet little sachets in her package!

I managed to finish the entrelac tote up a bit, though I still have to do the I-cord around the bottom. Keep in mind guys, if you do end up knitting this bag, make sure you DO put the I-cord edging around the top at least. I know, I-cord edging is a huge pain in the ass - especially on a large scale, but without it, the bag is gigantic and wider than my 7th grade English teacher's butt.

Yes, before the edging, I could fit a taller eight year old child inside it. (Thanks Zoe for being willing to snuggle up in it for the camera, and yes Pam, I will send you a copy of the picture!)It's a scary thought, I know...but never fear. It is going to be felted. I can't imagine trying to line that monstrosity, so even if it weren't meant to be felted, I would felt it anyway.

I think the next bag I knit will be this one. Something about it just calls to me. It keeps saying "Caaaaaadence...kniiiiiiit me. You luuuuuuurve meeeee...you waaaaaants meh sez I!" And it's right. I do. So I must make it. Although, I have no idea what colors I want to make it yet. Maybe something autumny.

By the way, on an almost random note, I'm vaguely disappointed in the new fall Knitty. Oh, the sockiness is wonderful, but there really aren't that many sweaters and I desperately want to knit a sweater after my Talia fiasco so that I can redeem my faith in my sweater knittiness. (Speaking of that, I did manage to snag a picture of the horrifically HUGE Talia and well, I'll post it after this paragraph so you can laugh at me). Alas, it was not meant to be. So instead, I'll just have to knit one out of the newest (or maybe this is a brand new knitting magazine...I have to confess, I have no idea) Debbie Bliss knitting magazine. She has gorgeous patterns in it, and hopefully, one's a top-down so I can try it on as I go.

Depressing isn't it. Still, my SIL thinks (and I'm thinking she may be right) that the hugeness is all in the straps so maybe if we rip them back a bit it'll be okay. Still, that means not only unbinding off but also unseaming. No fun. So, that'll have to wait for another day and it can just sit in the box that I put it in and stay out of sight until then.

On a happier note, I bought my dog a super silly tutu-dress for her to wear around the house and well, she may not like it too much, but it's definitely a keeper. She looks so cute when she jumps up and down in it (and she does jump up and down an awful lot) so whether she likes it or not, she's got a new dress. Here's proof that I actually wrestled it onto her!

I just wish she'd let me paint her nails too so she could have had pretty pink toes to match! And while I'm at it, here's a couple more pictures of doggie cuteness!

Doesn't she sort of blend in with the futon? It's a good thing she's got those reddish brown patches on her.

Aaaanyway, as much fun as this has been, I have to force myself to step away from the computer long enough to finish the dishes and make dinner (and whoopie pies) for tonight! I promise...I will blog again sooner than two months from now! Cross my heart and stick a needle in my eye or something...;)

Oh my goodness...

2008-07-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I've gone ahead and done it. I've joined the Ravelympics. And with what project you may ask? Not socks...which I could knit standing on my head...not a scarf or anything simple but a shawl. A lace shawl. I, who has yet to complete an entirely lace project have chosen to try and not only complete one, but to complete it in 17 days! Yikes! I keep wondering what the heck I was thinking but well, the Olympics are all about accomplishing a goal in the face of a challenge, and since I can't run, or do pretty much anything truly athletic, I figure I'm safer competing in this.

You may have noticed that I haven't been blogging too much of late, and for that, I really am sorry. I've been plurking quite a bit though, and if you have yet to meet with this rather addicting internet toy, then I suggest you get acquainted with it. But be warned...it is not only addicting, but VERY addicting! Really. So much so that I pretty much have neglected most of my other hobbies...except knitting of course.

I finished my Clapotis a while back,though I had yet to take a full FO picture until today. I just have to ask a question. What is the fascination with someone knitting while on the T to Boston? I was finishing this project up on WWKIP day while on the T heading towards the Pride parade (and hoping to find some public knitters in the Common along the way...no luck there)and about eight people were staring at me with obvious interest. Either that, or they were just knit-gawkers. I don't know. All I do know is that they all had their mouths hanging wide open and their eyes were pretty bugged out. A couple of the guys were trying to be subtle, but even then it failed. Believe me, if I notice people staring at me, they're not being subtle. I am pretty much one of the most oblivious folks I know. Even DW noticed and thought it was so amusing that she said, quite loudly, "Jesus, you must be doing something really interesting...maybe I oughtta be watching you too." And it must have been interesting to them because even that comment didn't stop it! I ask you, is it so odd that someone would actually want to be seen...knitting? I didn't think so. Anyway, here's the FO.

*Pattern:Clapotis
*Yarn: Socks that Rock - Mediumweight in Dutch Canyon - 2 Skeins
*Needles : Size US8 circs

All in all, the pattern was a pleasure to knit, and it was a quick, quick knit despite the fact that the increases seemed to drag!

Also, I cast on a Goddess Knits Mystery Sock in June, figuring that this was one KAL I could keep up with. I was right! I only have a picture of one, but rest assured that the full pair is completed. I'm a little disappointed with the way the yarn pooled rather than striped, but all in all, I'd say they're my favorite pair of socks!

*Pattern: Goddess Knits - Mystery Sock June 2008
*Yarn: Socks that Rock - Mediumweight in "Mesa" - maybe 3/4 skein at the most was used
*Needles: Size US2 set of five DPN's.

Probably one of the most pleasurable sock patterns I've knit. The cabling made the socks go really, really fast, and though I had to wait three weeks to get all the clues for the first sock, the second one only took me one week to knit, so I could have knit this pair in two weeks. Exciting! I actually made the leg a little longer by adding extra cable repeats...continuing on until the leg reached three inches (four inches including the cuff) before turning the heel. Not only were they fun to knit, but they're really soft and squishy on the feet!

I've also cast on and knit most of Talia, but am ashamed to admit that some shrinking is in order before I can finish it as it came out quite, quite huge. Which, actually, I'm lead to understand is quite common amongst first ever adult-sized garments made. Still, it fits me like a tent, so I'm hoping I can shrink the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky that it was made out of without felting it - just enough so that it actually fits the way it's supposed to!

One final note before I head off to wind yarn for my Ravelympics is that I'd like to announce a little contest that I'll be running on my blog shortly. It's quite simple really. I'm going to post a picture of my face and what my hair looks like now and you, dear readers are going to choose my next haircut! If I choose the one you post, then you will get a prize of some variation of knitty (or crochet) goodness!!! Don't worry, you'll have time. I won't be starting the contest until August.

Until then, keep on knitting everyone!

Too hot for the hot tub...

2008-06-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Or to do anything else but sit around in my air-conditioned room and knit while my dog snores at me from beneath the blankets. How anything covered with fur could possibly want to snuggle under the blankets on my bed in this heat is beyond me, but Beeba seems to like it. No wonder why she always feels like she's a million degrees. And another thing...she smells like corn chips when she sleeps. Big time. Ew. I think I need to give her a bath. Oh well...

So this past weekend, I was busy. Very, very busy. I worked a sixteen hour shift on Friday, went home and stayed up until noon so I could get started on a baby shower I was informed I was in charge of throwing (along with my loverly wife of course!) a week before the actual date of the shower mind you. After sleeping a few hours, I went back to work for another twelve hours and then came home and stayed up until five to both set up the shower and actually enjoy the shower.

I'm telling you, as far as baby showers go, I throw a mean one. There was plenty of food, plenty of beer (none for the preggo though, sorry Pam! I'll buy you one when you squirt the kid out!), and well, plenty of laughs. We played some hilarious games, the happy couple got tons of handy-dandy baby presents (and a super-cool baby survival kit from me and DW - best present EVER), and got to cool off in a just-opened,crystal clear (well, would have been if the kids had stopped putting their super dirty feet in it)swimming pool. The weather was almost perfect too, just extremely hot. I probably lost about five pounds just sitting still outside, which really isn't all that bad a thing. Anyway, here's a few pics!

The cake - made by my talented SIL Allison a.k.a FussyGusset! She used a spatula to frost it with and then basically finger painted the rest because she had no tips or proper decorating equipment. Good job Allison! And it tasted good too! :)

Doesn't Pam look so serene?

Me, Pam and Allison. All wearing the same shoes. That were all bought at the same time at a Wal-Mart in Maryland while we were at the festival. We're dorks, but our feet never ache when we wear 'em! :)

This is why I hate putting anything together last minute. Something awful inevitably occurs, and this time it involved me getting temporarily blinded in one eye by Hellman's Mayo. Gross.

Despite the mishap though, the shower, I believe, was a success. And there were some left over favors too, which means that all I have to do is rip one open to get to the chocolatey goodness inside. Bonus! After the shower was over, I conked out until 10 p.m for some much needed shut-eye before heading off to work for the night. That's right! I'm officially back on 11-7, which I love! Yee-ah!Especially since that means I get paid mo' money to do less work! Boo-ya, now that's what I'm talkin' about! And I get to knit too! Which is why I've actually finally managed to get somewhere on my Clapotis. Here are some pics of it so far.

The colors show up a bit better in the second pic...but either way I know the pictures are crappy. I'll be better and take some new ones in the daylight this weekend. Until then, these'll have to do. I used Socks That Rock - Mediumweight for this pattern and find that Pam's right, this yarn does have a really nice drape to it, and the colors! Oh my gawd the colors! I chose Dutch Canyon for the fact that there seems to be about five or six different colors in this colorway, which means minimal pooling, which makes me happy. And so far, I'm not disappointed!

And who are those cute little critters helping me hold my Clap in place? Why, they're my Sock Monstahs, of course!

I first heard of Sock Monstahs through Pam's blog,and after procrastinating for a couple of weeks,I finally got around to checking out the etsy site and wound up buying one of the monstahs. Actually, the one I've pictured above. His name is Twinkles the Executioner, and I just think he's super adorable - and he only cost 13 bucks with Free shipping. And naturally, I can't just buy one of anything (except maybe sock yarn because you can pretty much knit a pair of socks out of one skein if you choose the right pattern), so I custom ordered a pair of Zombie Sock Monstahs from her as well!

Meet Zeek (right)and Murl (left), the first ever Zombie Monstahs in creation...and they're all mine! Aren't they great? Apparently, they also like yarn. See?

I caught them in the act of trying to unravel my clap or just plain unravel the ball of yarn I'm knitting with. I haven't decided which yet, but either way, I love them. And for 30 dollars for the pair...well, it's a deal that you can't just pass up. It helps to know that all the money that I've spent (and will be spending) on Ms. Jacky's monstahs is going to the American Cancer Society makes me feel all good inside too! See, I'm a lousy charity knitter. I join all these charity groups, make a couple of things and then just never get around to actually mailing them until maybe a month or two after they were supposed to be there. But this makes donating easy! Here's another pic of all three of my monstahs, just sitting around, minding their own P's and Q's. :)

And here's the little note Wacky Jacky sent me right along with my custom order, along with a cute little comic on the side of the box she mailed them in!

Well, Ms. Wacky Jacky...you say I rock, but I say it's YOU who rocks. Totally. Thanks so much for providing me with a new addiction that's now right up there with yarn. Trust me, I love you for it!

Aaaah...other than knitting my clap and buying monstahs, the only other things I've done is knit a couple of pairs of pasties for a swap I did with the Bad Knit Girls via Ravelry , and go a little old school to make one of those embroidery floss friendship bracelets for an LSG swap. I neglected to actually take a picture of the bracelet...but I managed to take pics of the pasties, so here they are...for your enjoyment!

I used the pattern from the Naughty Needles book, and added the little extras on my own. The top pair I used some of KP Andean treasure along with some Berocco Zap (just in the initial cast on, then I just knit with the treasure) and finished them off with a cute little silver star and moon charm. The bottom pair I used some STR and finished them off with bits of chain and beads and feather. Really cute. And what's best is my swap partner Amy looks hot in them! :)

Now, as much as I hate to cut this blog short I am just sitting here at the computer and the sweat is pouring down my face. It's icky, and I need a shower, so yeah, peace out!

Attention!

2008-05-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

And that is all!

I've been so very, very bad...

2008-05-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

First off, let me start off by saying this: I suck, and I know it. I have been neglecting blogland for a while, but because I suddenly find myself with a refreshing amount of free time on my hands, I have decided to return to the land of the internet-living. I haven't been knitting as much as I'd like to, and that's truly sad, sad, sad. But, thanks to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I've found new inspiration and happily, the need to knit is back in place. Thank the Goddess!

Let me start by re-capping my weekend in Maryland. Friday, me and the in-laws (MIL,and two SILs) woke up early and headed off for our long drive. We were armed with coffee, knitting projects and plenty of cash to spend on Saturday. Ten hours later, we arrived at the Comfort INN, in Catonsville, MD. Next year, we're planning on staying somewhere else, but as far as hotels went, it wasn't so bad. The rates were good, which was a bonus, but on the negative side we had to deal with being surrounded by a high school basketball team the whole weekend we stayed. And they were loud, and kept knocking on our door all fucking night. Probably, they figured that they were banging on one of their teammates' doors,but in reality, they weren't. They were lucky that we were too tired to chase them off with pointy sticks. Instead, we unpacked, went to Wal-Mart in search of sandals, and then crashed after eating dinner at a local fast-food joint called Chick-Fil-A. It was okay. If you like fast food crap, which I'm getting kind of sick of.

Saturday: We started off the day bright and early by getting to the festival at 7:30 a.m., where we were instantly greeted to a few smiling early birds camped out up front (complete with chairs and knitting in laps), and the cheerful cry of "Is that Lickmysticks?" by none other than the wonderful LanieRed!

Not only a fellow Ravelry member, but a fellow LSG bitch as well! Yay, what a great way to start our day. She drove all the way from Biloxi, by her lonesome, to head up to the festival, and we marvelled at her true-blue knitterly status for a moment before heading right over to the Fold where we could make sure to score enough STR to tide us over till Rhinebeck. I myself only bought four skeins, but kept running back in after I'd paid to fetch skeins for my SIL and another fellow raveler KnittingKris, who had also arrived with some other ravelers and friends. Let me tell you, there were a lot of us there! Once we were done there, we hit the food stands, where I had a healthy breakfast of a fatty, fried, HUGE corn dog with mustard and then prepared to hit up some of the other booths where I bought a braid of BFL from the Flying Fibers stall.

Now I had originally told myself that I wouldn't buy any roving as I hadn't even spun up the stuff I bought at Rhinebeck, but that was most likely a bold-faced lie as I couldn't resist the soft loveliness of that bfl, and on top of that, it was in pretty sky-like blues so I had to have it. Gorgeous! So, yada, yada I bought more yarn and then, at around 12:45-ish we arrived at the Rabbit building for the Ravelry meetup, where were greeted by this...

What a huge friggin' crowd! And better yet, while hanging around waiting for Jess, Casey and Mary-Heather to arrive, we managed to meet a few more LSG girls and ravelers!

cicadaqueen

silkworm

Dulcedosa

Yarnedy

You girls rocked! Thanks so much for helping us pass the time with chatter while we waited for the rock stars of the internet knitting world to appear.Also, earlier in the day I met Michelle from Sweet Sheep while I was buying a more than generous skein of her hand-dyed fingering weight yarn in "Fields Forever" (gorgeous pink/green colorway).
She also rocked. In fact, I can't wait to buy more of her yarn. Thanks Michelle, for giving me yet another yarn to be addicted to! :)

Once the heads of Ravelry arrived, buttons, and avatar stickers were passed out, and pictures galore were taken with our three hosts. So many, that none of my group wanted to bother them for a picture just yet, but Mary Heather came our way, and to prove she's not a narc, snapped a picture with my SIL, the infamous LickMySticks - LSG loudmouth extraordinaire! Good times were had, and then we headed back out to catch some more shopping before heading back to our hotel to take a yarn nap.
A hobby Pam apparently took far too seriously. Still, it must have been nice to lay in all that skwooshy yarn, and I'm jealous that I didn't get to stage dive into it too. Either way, yes, that pile of yarn she's laying in is the amount of yarn four women are capable of buying in a five hour time span when budget constraints are abnormally large. Want a better look? Sure!

That's a whole lotta yarn. I'm sure plenty of people bought more than that themselves, but still...that's a lotta fuckin' yarn! And what, out of all this swag is actually mine? Allow me.

Total purchases for me = 4 skeins of Socks That Rock - Mediumweight (two in Dutch Canyon, one in Sherbet, and one in Knitty Rocks)

2 skeins of Acero from Brooks Farm

2(4?...they're each two skeins but were sold in pairs for a sock amount) skeins of Made by Ewe Sock Yarn.

1 skein of "Out of the Dyepot" yarn...I don't remember the actual name of the booth though.

1 neat-o expandable shopping bag kit from The Spinnery

1 HUGE skein (745 yds) of Sweet Sheep Fingering in "Fields Forever"

1 4 oz Braid of super-soft BFL roving from Flying Fibers

Not bad eh?

Please, don't mind the scary red-eye in the picture and just look at all the lovely stuff I'm holding. It looks like a lot more than I listed when in my short, stubby arms, but I assure you, it's everything!

So, after we played with our new yarn and napped a bit (erm, a bit longer than intended that is), we rushed out the door (after prettying up again)to head to the Ravelry after party, where we got boozed up and had plenty of laughs with silkworm and a newfound friend, ChezAristote (who won a door prize and gloats about it very demurely) while Pam pouted a bottle of beer that she could not drink.

The whole night was quite, quite spiffy, and we even managed to score some photographic proof that the heads of Ravelry DON'T hate LSG. Note: Casey looks a little terrified, but at least this further proves that MH is not a narc and that Jess likes us too. After this picture was taken, we headed back to our hotel only to have those asshole basket ball players keep on knocking on our door, jiggling door handles and basically just being annoying, teenage kids. Ugh. No sleep for me. But at least I woke up plenty early in the morning so I could pack it up and shove it back in the car before heading back to the Festival for a quick peek around to make sure we didn't miss anything. All I wound up buying was a fabulous, hand-made wooden drop spindle made by Bill Hardy! So far, I love it. It's weighted nicely, spins like a dream and really is lovely to look at. I still might check out a Kundert though, as they came highly recommended! ;)

Anyway, we left the festival at 11 a.m. on Sunday, and eight hours later I wound up back in good old New Beige. Note the sarcasm. Anyhoo, (If you are KaRi a.k.a Coggie TM then read no further until you get your package!!!***) later on in the week, I got kind of hungry so I helped myself to a nice, big piece of Blueberry Pie!

Isn't it cute? It's the first piece of knitted anything that I've ever made that required stuffing, and I think I did a pretty good job of it. I used Caron Simply Soft for the filling (I think it was Country Blue or something like that) and then I just used some Red Heart Supersaver for the crust. The pattern was super-easy to crank out (once I looked at it with tired eyes) and was knit up for a swap that took place in the Kitchen Item Exchange group via Ravelry. I made a couple of extra things to go along with it, just because I tend to be a bit of a spoiler when it comes to swaps.

Besides the blueberry pie pincushion, cupcake cloth and kitty/butterfly stitchmarkers, I also included a set of ten bamboo blocking pins and a tiny little bamboo crochet hook, useful for picking up stitches. I hope KaRi likes it! The cloth was the result of me just messing around, and it's way larger than a normal dishcloth , so maybe it's more of a mini-towel or something. At any rate, I especially like the cupcake portion as I pretty much just kind of designed it off the seat of my pants. I didn't write down anything that I did, but when I try to replicate it again, I'll write it down and maybe I'll have a pattern up for it soon!

Once I finished that swap package up, I cast on for me later-than-late to the party Clapotis - after all, it's what I bought those two skeins of Dutch Canyon STR for ;) (totally biting your idea Pam...and doing it unashamedly as well : P). I originally wasn't going to knit it, because honestly, I'm not one to knit something just because everyone else in the knitting world was. Not to mention the fact that I didn't think it was all that pretty. I guess you could say that looking at everyone else's work on the pattern finally made me want one of my own. I'll be posting pictures as soon as I get past the damn increase rows. Those things take forever.

Also, I finally have a picture of my previously mentioned Entrelac Tote to show off as well. It's still not finished as I had stopped knitting on it due to being disheartened by the fact that my LYS didn't have another skein of one of the colors I needed to make it look pretty (I bit the bullet and bought it off eBay...luckily for like two bucks cheaper because it was an auction). So far, so good, though, don't you think? Made with Berroco Peruvia It's huge though, which is good because once it's finished it will be summarily felted, and then shaved with disposable razors to remove fuzziness,and then will have leather handles added to it so I can hopefully wear it around Rhinebeck right along with my Clap and hopefully my Luna Moth shawl (I plan on making it out of that gorgeous Sweet Sheep stuff I just bought)...if I can actually manage to cast on for it. Right now I'm supposed to be knitting my Slow Bee, but the lace that I have for it is packed away so it'll have to wait I guess. At least until I can get off my lazy ass and poke around the box my yarn's been shoved into. Either way, I plan on keeping myself busy knitting over the next few months, as , sadly, my hobby has been quite neglected. Not to mention the fact that I've joined a couple of other swaps and have plans for a Dexter Swap 2 in the making (The first one can be found here.)

On the homefront, life is going well for me. My wife might be getting a new job as a Corrections Officer with our local Sherrif Department, which means that she'll be making TWICE as much as she currently makes as a CNA (yay! That means that I might actually be able to be a housewife soon!). Beeba is still the cutest doggie in the whole world, though I still need to knit her a sweater. I just can't find the right pattern. I think I might have to try at designing again for her itty bitty skinny body. And well, everything's going good! It's cold as hell here right now though, so I'm gonna head off upstairs to get cozy with my knitting for a couple of hours before I have to sleep. Goodnight all and happy knitting!

No-knits!

2008-03-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

I know! I mean, don't get me wrong, I have been knitting...I just haven't bothered to take any pictures yet, and well, I don't like to talk about my knitting unless I have some pics to back up all my fibertalk...so, suckage on that. However, I did feel the need to come on here and announce that I now have a new family member to knit for! :)

Meet Beeba:

Yes, that's right, her name is Beeba. She's five years old, and weighs just under five pounds and she's just about the cutest little snuggle bug ever! Me and the DW adopted her from a family that just felt they couldn't pay her the amount of attention she deserved any more, and let me just say that she's just about the most beautiful gift I could ever recieve. Although, getting her to sit still for a decent picture is nearly impossible...I managed a couple of them.

I was told that Beeba was named by her former owner's then two year old son, and we decided that the name suited her so we kept it. She's a minpin/chihuahua(EDIT: Actually, I don't think she's minpin...I'm pretty sure she's mini doxie/chihuahua...yeah, definitely.) crossbreed, and as a result of that mix is always, always cold and shivering so I really need to either find or come up with a couple of doggie sweater patterns that can accomodate a dog that's on the extra small side of small. Also, as I found out yesterday, she's a burrower and is perfectly content to snuggle way down underneath the blankets and curl up by my or my wife's legs. She's adorable, and we love her, and even when she's stepping in circles around our faces to wake us up so she can have food we just can't get aggravated with her. It's kind of a pain in the ass actually, because I'm sure she knows we're suckers. All she has to do is stick her ears straight up and sit there all prim and proper like and we're just like "Awwww..." It's sickening.

Anyway, that's all she wrote for now. Knitting pictures coming soon. I promise!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

If you celebrate that kind of thing...

The swing of things...

2008-03-09T19:33:00.001-07:00

Holy shit, have I been gone forever or what? The truth is, and honestly I ain't lyin, I have been suffering from what I like to call Post-Christmas-Knitting-Avoidance. Let me just say that my attempts at knitting for people for Christmas were failures. Apparently there is not enough time in an entire year to knit something for each person on a gift list of approximately 45...or at least there isn't when you'd much rather knit things for yourself, for various KAL's and well, basically avoid the Xmas knitting scene period. Call it selfishness, or call it laziness. Either one applies. And actually, I had all the signs of a knitter on the brink of temporary destruction. Strands of multi-colored wool stuck in my hair, all over my clothes like mock-cat hairs, tips of bamboo knitting needles dyed an abominable shade of purple from knitting too much Moonlight Mohair on them, and not to mention the tell-tale crampiness in my finger joints. But no, I was determined to at least TRY and knit for one or two people in my family,and those people were supposed to be my SIL Pam and my little Godson(for want of a better word because I'm pagan and his parents are NOT Catholic) Jeffrey, but wound up being my Mummy's fiancee' Michael (he got a basic 3x3 rib scarf made out of Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande because I'd knit that up like last year and no one had ever worn it) and Jeffrey instead.

And doesn't he look so cute in his slightly too-big, unblocked sweater? I think so. His family loved it! But that's not the point. I was successful in the creation of his sweater simply because I actually WANTED to knit it. I wanted to knit Pam's bag too, but well I think the problem was, I took on a project that was a bit beyond my capabilities as a knitter so I could try to impress the super-knitty and crafty Pam. Big no-no there, et me tell you. I should have stuck with what I knew, but ooooh no. I just thought, "Well, how the hell hard could it be to do this? Pattern shmattern, I'll design her the perfect bag all by myself and it'll be cake!" Ha! Bullshit! I should have looked harder for a pattern and stuck to that one. Oh, don't get me wrong. I consider myself a decently skilled crafter when it comes to the needle, but one should never, ever attempt Intarsia in the round when you've never even really done Intarsia before. I had fooled myself into thinking that I could handle it, however, by knitting this nifty skully dishcloth.

See? Not bad, right? I didn't think so. And it was marvelously easy too. The problem? Well, for this particular cloth I had a pattern to follow, and a chart that I didn't have to make myself...and furthermore, it WAS NOT IN THE ROUND. It was flat. I should have stuck to my original plan and made the bag that I was intending to be for Pam kinda boxy. It would have been easier because then I could have knit it flat and then seamed it (even though I hate seaming). Instead, I get the idea in my head that she needs a bucket bag, because well, she just does. So, I make the chart for the image I want to knit into the bag (A Heartagram...which is appropriate, yes indeed), and then come up with this hairbrained pattern for making the bag (which if I ever re-make it, and I think I will, I will so totally do it a different way) from the top down in one tube and then pick up stitches from the bottom edge and decrease accordingly so the bag can have a roundesque bottom. And I don't care if "roundesque" is not a word...it is my word, and therefore it is a word and that's that. :) I'm being belligerent here. Humor me.

Anyway, so I knit it up, and it looks like it'll be fabulous once it's felted. So what if the red on the bottom is a bit...uhm...skimpy. So what if the heartagram is a bit...ermm...elongated across the middle. It'll look fine. So I felt it. Once, twice. I mean, this sucker was huge so it really needed it. And when I take it out of the machine I hold it up and peer at it in the dim light of my basement and it looks...fine. I was surprised, and pleased. Sounds good so far right? Yeah, but then everything went so wrong! I take it upstairs, where the light is unfortunately much better, and notice something odd. Holes. Holes? Why the hell are there holes in it? Turns out my joins are shit and I don't have enough yarn leftover to kind of gui
nea-rig it so those damned things can be felted together, so now I'm stuck with a sopping wet, holey bag that looks like it could have been really cute if I just felted it once more. Here are the pictures of my failure. Go ahead. You can laugh. I did...after I finished crying and screaming and tossing various projects angrily against the walls of my bedroom.

Doesn't it make you maybe want to hang your head in shame? I was so disappointed because I really had thought that I could do this. In hindsight, I'm pretty sure I can figure out what I did wrong and re-knit it, but that isn't going to happen for a good long while. I'm also not really happy with the way the heartagram came out. The sides were too thick, and it was too, I dunno, stretched out. I was hoping it would be a bit more round. I guess I'll just have to tweak it. But anyway, that bag was my reason for taking a temporary break from knitting. And my excuse for a few weeks of beer festivals at a local karaoke bar.

Mmm...Sammy Adams Winter Lager. He became one of my dear friends, but was also responsible for several embarassing karaoke renditions of 80's and early 90's pop songs. For some reason, alcohol makes you do genuinely stupid things, and I think that the stupidest I've ever done is getting up and singing "I like Big Butts" in front of a room full of strangers (okay and some of my friends were there too) and then proceeding to shake my money-maker like it was nobody's business to demonstrate that I had to like big butts...I have one! Not cool. But at least the beer was good. And the glass was never empty either, thanks to a certain person (mm-hmm...and you know who you are too John).

My wife also enjoyed several pitcherfulls of the stuff. Here she is, chugging back a cold one for the camera.

Ain't she special? :) You should see her after she's had a few Jaegerbomb chasers.

Anyhow,I'm glad to say that I'm back in the land of fibercrafting after several rough weeks of drinking,working, and drinking. Granted, I haven't been cranking out the FO's exactly, but I've gotten a few nifty things done.

Meet Swatchy!

This swatch is for my Secret of the Stole II. Of course, that's about as far as I've gotten on the thing as of right now, but still it's a damned good swatch, isn't it? My first attempt at knitting actual lace, and I think it's a-okay! Plus, Swatchy here went a long way to re-affirming my need to knit and even my talent as one. I can, in fact, read charts, and the Great Bag Flunkeroo was in no way my fault. It was an awkward, but inspired first shot at designing, but that's no reason to stop knitting for a long time. I do intend on knitting the stole, but I've yet to decide whether I want to fiddle around with it by adding beads, or if I just want to leave it plain. And while I've been pondering that, I've knit a couple of chemo caps. And that last picture was probably supposed to be revenge for me making the wifey model it for me. Bet she didn't expect me to post it here...Hehehe. I love you too baby. ;)

I also bought MORE laceweight yarn from handpaintedyarn.com even though I have no idea what the hell I'm going to do with it now that I've decided not to do Dem Fischer Sin Fru. It was just so pretty,I couldn't say no. See?

And I've been systematically working on an entrelac (my first time ever doing entrelac - yay!) tote, which I have no pictures of as of yet. But besides from doing a decent amount of knitting, and a lot of stash enhancement, I've also been doing a helluva lot of frogging. I had started a pair of Jaywalkers, a Branching Out, an Anniversary Sock (almost had that one finished too), and had been attempting to design a sock. All of 'em were ripped out three weeks ago and have since been reverted to their former skein state. I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with the yarns as of yet, but I'm sure they'll all soon find a home in a brand-new project. I'll probably re-start the Jaywalkers, but on a size bigger needle so it will fit over my big fat calf.

Agh! Anyway, it's getting late and I must dash for now. I will be back later on in the week with an update, and hopefully a few more pictures!

To all my fellow knittahs!!!

2008-02-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

Hope your day is fiber-filled (and not in the dietary sense), and full of all sorts of warm'n woolly love!!!!

More coming soon...

2007-11-28T02:12:00.000-08:00

Argh, I know that I haven't posted in a long, regrettably long, while! I promise I will be posting a big, long, HUGE post by the end of the week, but I just wanted to pop in and say a big THANK YOU to Mamateja for sending me a beautiful Caffeine Addicts Swap Package. It included such goodies as a pound of organic, fair trade coffee beans, a cute seasonal (and festive!!!) mug, chocolate covered espresso beans, a fun pack of playing cards, two sets of gorgeous hand-made stitch markers (each with row markers included as well!), and some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. I have not taken any pictures yet, but rest assured that I shall and they shall be included in my next post. I can see why so many people enjoy participating in swaps and how they can become so addictive!!!

Oh...The Things We Do

2007-11-09T00:55:00.000-08:00

Has boredom ever made you do some seemingly inane things? Okay, so I wasn't EXACTLY bored because I was, after all, knitting, but being that I'm one of those strange people that really doesn't like complete quiet I had the TV on for background noise. So, it's late night, which means that basically I'm stuck with re-runs of TV shows that either aired earlier in the day/night, earlier in the week/month, or are pretty much all through and didn't do too well the FIRST time it ran. Well, I did manage to watch the CSI/Without a Trace crossover...which was really frickin' good and NOT a re-run, so the TV wasn't a complete waste, but still. I cast on and began to knit a ballband dishcloth(from Mason Dixon Knitting of course!) through that, and then through some re-runs of Everybody Loves Raymond(which really isn't a bad show at all), and then through the Simpsons(love them), and THEN through other shows (Something with George Lopez in it, and before that some other shows that didn't stand out enough to recall), et al when suddenly the mildly entertaining shows switch over to completely stupid. That's right. On comes BLIND DATE, and boy did they start this one off with a bang. They bring out this couple "Mike" and "Tess".

Tess is some kind of supposedly "normal" girl, that still manages to dress completely slutty and give off the bad-girl impression while still being wound tighter than a cat's ass, and Mike...well, Mike is "special". And not in a good way. His little intro about himself is basically all about how he wants sex, sex, and more sex. And according to him, any way he can get it is good with him. He'll beg for it, and probably even pay for it, making himself sound like a complete and total sex-obsessed loser (Okay, so if you're on the show Blind Date, you probably already ARE a loser, right?), as most men are so he should fit right in. Right? Wrong. He then goes on to say that he is "so wild, he thought he was insane" and sought out psychiatric help. Good on you buddy. And while you're at it, here's the door.

He opens the date up by presenting Tess with some silk flowers. Yep. Silk. Flowers. Not even real ones. Fake ones. And, to make it worse, he stole them from somebody's grave. Yep. I didn't believe it, but then they showed a clip on the show of him earlier that day, taking the flowers from the grave. Oh, dear god, kill me now. It was horrible. I had to shut it off before I stabbed my strongest metal knitting needles into the TV and risked getting myself electrocuted. Tell me, please tell me, that this show is in fact scripted and that none of the above REALLY happened. Tell me, that there are no men out there that would take SILK FLOWERS from somebody's fraggin' GRAVE and then give them to a date with some bullshit reasoning.

Tess: "These came from a GRAVE! They're cursed!"

Mike: "No they're not, they're blessed. Want me to tell you how?"

Tess: "Oh. Suuure."

Mike: "You've gotta figure that the person who put those flowers on that grave really loved the guy, right?

Tess: ~ blank, disbelieving stare~

Mike: "Well, I took them because I wanted to transfer some of that love over to you."

Tess: ~blink, blink...thinking quite obviously that this guy is a fucking nightmare~

Well, I'm with you Tess. Let me tell you something Mike, if you have so much damned respect for the people that left those flowers there then you WOULD HAVE JUST LEFT THEM THERE AND SPRUNG FOR SOME REAL FLOWERS FROM A FLORIST YOU WANNA BE GRAVE DIGGING ASSHAT! Your mother should have taken prophylactics before she fucked the guy that helped spawn you, creep. Whew. God. So glad I'm a lesbian right now and that my wife would never, ever do that. Not even in a million years.

There, I feel better. Now...let's get on to happier subjects. I've been knitting like a mo-fo for the past two weeks, and even though I still feel like I'm getting nowhere with knitting Xmas gifts, I at least have made some progress with Jeffrey's sweater. I just need to knit the sleeves, but I'm procrastinating because apparently I'm addicted to knitting dishcloths. They're so quick, and simple and just play USEFUL that they're just great! I joined two KAL's revolving around dishcloths (Monthly Dishcloth KAL) and Dishcloth Weekly KAL. They're great, because they're two KAL's that provide short knit-along projects, and they're low-pressure. If you want to knit one of the cloths one week, do it, if you don't, then don't. It's all okay. And the yarn's really cheap if you just use Peaches 'n Cream or Sugar 'n Cream. Of course, it's all Ravelry's fault! ;) As soon as I see a dishcloth KAL group, I join it. I don't know why. I just can't seem to resist. I. Must. Try. To. Resist and damn well finish my Xmas knitting first! Hrmm...maybe I'll give away a couple of dishcloths with some home made soap...

Mmmmanyway, progress is progress, right? At least I managed to get some of the rest of the sweater done. See?

It looks pretty cute, but it is HUGE on Jeffrey (or maybe he's just a really tiny two-year old, I don't know), but he is simply the cutest kid. Really, really is.

See? Adorable! He definitely gets all his charm from his mother, but he totally has his father's craziness.

That's Mike for ya. Don't ever give a gummy eye to a crazy person because this is what they come up with. ;) Great guy. Very nice and just silly enough so he fits in quite nicely when he's around me and the DW. So, a lot of my knitting is done in his house too. Him and DW sit on the counch and play Resident Evil and me and his DW are forced to find other forms of entertainment, so I knit and semi-watch and poor Kirsten falls asleep because she gets up super early in the a.m. with little Jeffrey, who has to have the most energy a two year old has ever had. Seriously. Kooky little kid.

Speaking of kids, you'd think that my DW was one with the way she acted this past Halloween. We both got dressed up, but I just went as a semi-dirty gypsy while she went as a convicted murder after they remove him/her from the electric chair. I know. she's a sicko, but I love her. :)

I'm just a sweet little gypsy, and there I am with this crazy, burnt to hell mo-fo draped all over me. Hehehe. And yes, that's a vegetable steamer on her head, but
it did manage to look like the little helmet they put over your head while you're waiting to be sizzled. All in all, it was a good time. We really only went out and trick-or-treated with Mike and his family,ex GF and his older kids and such. It was a huge group, and it was fun. Plus, I managed to score lots of free candy because Steph took a bag and went around with the older kids to all the side streets AND the main strip of houses that we were hitting up.

Oh yeah, I've been eating that for breakfast for a loooong time, especially since there are TONS of peanut M&Ms in that pile. I love peanut M&Ms. So I pretend I'm on a sugar-only diet...until I feel guilty enough that I have to fix myself a salad to go along with that helping of TWIX. Not a bad combo really, if you don't think about it too much.

In any case, more knitting. In the spirit of Halloween I started to work on Marley's Ghost, but have neglected to pick it up since I first began knitting it simply because I've been crazy over dishcloths. But, here's what I have so far.

I like the pattern, but I'm just in this phase where I want instant gratification.
For instance, this dishcloth was quick. Really quick. It was my first KAL for the Month Dishcloth, and though I originally screwed it up (the squirrel had three extra arms and a weird spot on its tail) and had to frog the whole thing, I re-knit it in a matter of four hours! But, I don't have a pic of the completely finished project, so you'll have to deal with what I do have.

Now if I can only find an acorn patterned cloth, that dishcloth Squirrel would have something to damn well eat! And while I was both re-knitting that dishcloth and playing around on Ravelry, here's what my wife was doing!

Baking cookies from scratch!!!!! See, I cook, but she does all the baking. I'm not generally any good at it, so that's really fine by me. For further proof of this phenomenon, please view the following.

Isn't that great? Who else's spouse does that? I know. I'm lucky. And the chocolate chip cookies came out beautifully.

Oh, there were sooo many more cookies than that when they were done, but that was the first batch. And, on top of all that, there's still half a batch of cookie dough left...after four dozen were already baked. Awesome, cookies for later on in the month in the freezer. Love it.

Anyway, I'm headed off to finish my Ballband dishcloth. Yep. Another damned dishcloth. Gotta love 'em. :)

Kitty Sweater Cuteness!!!

2007-10-30T19:12:00.001-07:00

Bwahahahaha! This is what happens when I get bored and find a really, really cute pattern on the internet for a cat sweater.

Surprisingly, Sophee the WonderCat actually liked the little sweater vest I knit for her in three days so I'd have a picture to send to Crazy Aunt Purl's Sweepstakes, and did nothing but purr, purr, purr while wearing it. Only problem was that the damned thing was a bit long for her skinny body and she kept getting her hind feet caught in it. Ah well, that's what happens when you rush. Either way I think for a first pet garment it didn't come out so bad, but next time I'm knocking off two inches from the body, extending the length of the neck AND knitting some sleeves onto it. Definitely needs the sleeves.

Anyway! If you like the pattern go and check out Christine Landry's page because that's where I nabbed it from (thanks so much Christine for posting it, it's sooo cute!). Hers came out better than mind did though! ;)

Rhinebeck Recap and UFOs

2007-10-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

Reason #158 why work is bad, bad, bad for me. What the other 157 reasons are, well, I can't tell ya, but I'm absolutely positive that the above is in it's correct place on the list. Sure, I'll bitch about my ass getting wider, but not until after that bag of fat-free (but sugar-loaded) Circus Peanuts is empty. I don't even know why I like Circus Peanuts. I mean, think about it, they're not really peanut-flavored and they certainly weren't bought while on a fun trip to the circus...but they're sweet and well, I'll blame it on my mother since she used to feed us all kinds of old-fashioned, "old folks" candies growing up. :)

Ah...it's been an incredibly busy, busy week or so, but at last I finally seem to be able to actually sit down (for a little while anyway) and tap away on this damned keyboard! Flash back to last Saturday - Rhinebeck. The greatest yarn-gasm of all time...or at least it will remain as such until I find a BIGGER wool festival to go to. Hoo boy, I'm just lucky I only brought cash because otherwise, I'd pretty much be a starving fiber artist for the next year or so...just until I got caught up with my bills. ^_^ You know how it is. A big place just loaded with all kinds of fabulous, woolly wonders. It just kind of sucked because the shopping was semi-rushed. I went on a Yarn Safaris day trip, and as nice as it was to be surrounded by all those fantastic knitterly women, we were late leaving the bus station, late arriving at the fest...but somehow managed to leave the fest right on time. Boo. And on top of that, I missed the Ravelry meet up while there AND got screwed out of the after party because of that damned bus. Will I be taking the Yarn Safaris trip again? Probably not. I think next year we're planning on staying over night to get maximum spendability...which means I'd better start saving in January. After all, I plan on making my rather modest haul from this year look like a tiny insignificant smudge next year. :)

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Here we are, all on the bus at a positively unGodly hour in hopes of getting to the festival in enough to time to spend our hard earned cash on gorgeous, yummy fiber! Up top, you'll see my SIL Pam knitting maniacally away. Then, it's Pam again, with my MIL sitting right next to her and finally we have my OTHER SIL Allison, looking surprise because I sorta snapped the picture without fair warning. I know, I know...I'm naughty. The bus leaves the station at about 8 a.m...late, but at least we're on our way!

Finally! We arrive at the festival at about 11:30 a.m (almost an hour AFTER we were supposed to be there...thanks NY for not letting busses on the park way and making us travel that hour OUT of our way). Don't we look happy to be off the bus? Actually ths picture was taken as we were leaving the festival, but well, it seemed to fit here so I just stuck it in. >:)~ After all, I don't have a picture of us happily getting off the bus only to be told that we need to wait, again, so the lady can go and get the tickets. Ugh...frustrations abound. It was like a knit-tease having to stand there and watch everyone else just walk right on up to the ticket place. Oh well. On to the shopping.

First stop was of course, The Fold, so we could snag some STR. And snag some I did!

Colorways "Alina" and "Mesa"...respectively, though I'm not sure which is which. I just liked the bright, saturated hues. What can I say? I'm attracted to bright, happy colors! See?

Weehee, that's from Ancient Threads Farm...and I think it's Merino and Nylon blended together but once again I'm not sure. Anyway, I also managed to score a lovely spindle that I don't know how to use.

Some fruity smelling Merino/Tencel Roving:

Some Merino/Tussah Silk Roving that just smells edible in a farm-y way...if you can understand what I mean there:

And finally, I snagged a pair of Addi Turbos and some cobweb lace-weight stuff from Skaskas Designs.

It's called Heaven, is 55% Merino and 45% Tencel, and can be found at Yarn Place if you really, really want some. It's soooo soft and has an absolutely gorgeous sheen!

I also saw lots and lots of fiber-making critters and enjoyed snapping pictures of this rather angry looking alpaca.

Oh and while I was there, I decided to snap a few pictures of some BFL. :)

I just thought they were so frickin' cute! :) Makes me want to hug them and squeeze them and possibly take them home with me so I can let them get woolly and then shear them so I can spin the fleece...of course, there is that little matter of learning how to spin, right? Heh.

Anyhow, after all that fiber frenzy, I went home, and passed out for nearly 18 hours and then had to work the rest of the weekend, which kind of sucked...but at least I got to eat yummy junk-food and such. Oh! That reminds me, I didn't really have too much to show off at Rhinebeck knitwear wise, but I did knit these Fetching two days before the festival in hopes that it'd be cold enough to wear them. Of course...it wasn't, but still, I had them just in case! :)

They're actually the second pair I've made, but I don't have a picture of the first considering I gave them away as a kind of belated Xmas present. Still, they did look the same considering I made the first pair with the exact same yarn. Actually, I made both pairs from the same ball of yarn (Plymouth Encore Worste), which is cool. Aaaand...I finally finished my Dashing...or rather I finally took pictures of the finished Dashing. Hehehe.

Of course, as soon as I took the damned things off again, the wifey snatched 'em right up and put 'em back on. I swear, she's been wearing those things all the time, even when she's indoors. She calls them her "video-gaming gloves". Prevents the "Joy Stick Chill". She's so cute!

OH! You know how sometimes you knit something and then don't feel like seaming it when it's finished so you just kind of stick it in one of your totes and forget about it for a while? Well, last year I started knitting yet another Romantic Ruffles Purse, but once it was done I just kind of neglected to finish it. I'd actually thought I might have thrown it away, but sometime this past week I re-discovered it!

Excuse the semi-messy room, but I wanted to snap a quick pic of it before I felted it. It's kinda scary looking just lying there, but once it was felted it came out gorgeous!

I think I'm going to give it to my Auntie Sharon for Xmas. Awesome! Isn't it great when you just "find" UFO's and realizing that they're really not *that* unfinished? I was thrilled!

Damn it. Now the suckage is about to re-commence. I. Must.Work.

Boo.

Oh well, at least I'll be able to get more knitting done!

2007-10-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

So, I've been reading a lot of other folks' blogs these days and well, I simply had to steal this super cute meme from my sister in law, Pam!

Readers, friends and anyone else who gives a damn I give you... my (wo)man

1. Who is your (wo) man? Stephanie

2. How long have you been together? We've been married for two years but have been together for a total of nine years.

3. How long did you date? We dated for seven years before we got married. :) We've had our issues but managed to iron them all out before we said "I do."

4. How old is your(wo) man? 26

5. Who eats more? I totally eat more than she does. I love food, couldn't live without it (except if I had a choice between food and yarn I'd pick yarn). She actually forgets to eat most of the time and if it wasn't for me constantly saying "Hey, babe...you want me to make you somethin' to EAT?" then she'd probably starve.

6. Who said “I love you” first? She did. She wrote me a letter informing me of the fact. It was pretty, had all sorts of scrawly handwriting on it and hearts and cute things like that and I ruined it by crying all over it.

7. Who is taller? She is. In fact, when I'm not wearing heels, I have to tilt my head back a little just to get a good look at her!

8. Who sings better? She does, totally. She's actually had over fourteen years of voice lessons and is both classically and jazz trained. She also sings a mean karaoke (ask Pam!!!).

9. Who is smarter? I always say she is, but she says I am, so basically it's a losing battle. I still say that she is though. :)

10. Whose temper is worse? Hmm...a little while ago I would have said hers, but lately her temper is next to nill so I'd have to say mine. Except I never really get aggravated with her any more...I just get aggravated with other people. She keeps insisting that I broke her "mad-o-meter" and I suspect that it's probably true. I can be aggravating at times.

11. Who does the laundry? We kind of do it together...but it's supposed to be my job. Most of the time I'm just too lazy to get away from my knitting long enough to do it so she ends up doing it. I'm a bad wifey!

12. Who takes out the garbage? She does. Ew.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I totally do. She's a lefty and therefore must sleep on the outside. Besides, who wants to sleep on the outside when she has to have an arctic blast fan constantly blowing in her face? Not me. I like my warmth thanks! Luckily, she produces body heat like a furnace so we make perfect bed mates!

14. Who pays the bills?She does. If I took care of it I'd spend all the bill money on yarn and say things like "Who needs a car anyway?" I'm so bad with money.

15. Who is better with the computer? She is. I'm lucky I can figure it out enough to check my e-mail. I'm what I like to call technologically impaired for the most part.

16. Who mows the lawn? It's her parents lawn (yep, I live with the in-laws), but she's been known to mow it a time or two.

17. Who cooks dinner? If I can actually manage to get the kitchen away from the MIL then I do. She burns water for cripes' sake.

18. Who drives when you are together? She does. I don't actually have my driver's license at the moment because I have no desire to learn how to drive.

19. Who pays when you go out? She does, because she says it's "ungentlemanly" to let me pay. Unless it's her birthday or somethin' like that. Then I start insistin' that I be the one to pay. Not that it matters. We have a joint account. :)

20. Who is most stubborn? Me, hands down. Even if I'm wrong I don't give up. I'm like a dog with it's favorite chew toy.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Most of the time it's me, because even if she's wrong she still manages to convince me she's not...the clever bugger.

22. Whose parents do you see the most? Hers. We live with them, how can we not see them?

23. Who kissed who first? She kissed me...and surprised the hell out of me. It kind of freaked me out at first so I wouldn't talk to her for two weeks afterwards. Then she convinced me to come over her house and the trickster cornered me in her room and gave me another helluva good smooch. Yep. I'm a sucker for those kisses.

24. Who asked who out? She did. In my mom's basement. It was so cute.

25. Who proposed? She did. I was getting out of the bath tub and then there she was down on one knee holding a ring box in her hand. I blubbered the whole time. I cry a lot...

26. Who is more sensitive? Me. One time, I was washing dishes and she had the termerity to sniff one of the dishes I'd just washed (just to see if it still smelled like the tuna that had been in it for a week or so) and I flipped out. "I can't believe you SNIFFED that DISH!!!! FINE! Wash them all yourself...you're going to sniff my dish...hunh." It was the stupidest fight ever.

27. Who has more friends? Since most of our friends are married or couples, I'd say we each have pretty much the same amount of friends currently. Used to be she had more than me though. She's a social butterfly and I'm a homebody.

28. Who has more siblings? We have the same amount of siblings. She has two older brothers, and I have two younger brothers.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? Please, she totally does! C'mon. Just look at her!

Honestly, I lucked out when I managed to snag her. She spoils me rotten, and loves to do it. Lets me buy all the yarn that we can afford (even if she fully realizes that for the most part, the kind of yarn I buy is pretty pricey), and absolutely adores the fact that I can be pretty high maintenance. Others have said that we are "perfectly matched" and I believe that to be the complete and utter truth. Further more she's the love of my life, and makes me smile and laugh like nobody else can...sometimes even when I don't want to!

Got someone special in your life? Because if you do, then consider this a tag thrown in your direction. I'm nosy, so I wanna know! :)

I love you baby! <3

Dexter is IN the building...

2007-10-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not, but I gotta say that I sure do friggin' well love the second season...so far that is. I mean, I did FINALLY get to see the first two episodes after a two-week wait - Thank whatever powers that be for the miracles of DVR and a friend that's willing to wait until we were able to make it up there to see it! So worth the weight though, even if I'm beginning to like Rita a little less than before. Yes, she went through some terrible shit, and yes, she should definitely have grown a backbone, but come on! Spine is one thing, but turning into a complete and total B*tch? Talk about an unnecessary turnabout. Probably, they're just making it easier for us, as fans, to accept Dexter's cheating (at least, in the preview it so seems like he's gonna anyway). I dunno, I guess I'm just going to have to wait - one of the downfalls of not being able to buy the whole damned season on DVD right away- and see. I just hate the waiting. I want to see it all, right away, right NOW I'm just that anxious to watch. Luckily, I brought something to knit that was pretty mindless so I could just knit away while I watched. Have to have something to do with my hands after all, especially since I'd rather knit than bite the inner flesh of my cheeks off (I do that when I get all antsy and what not). And I was getting pretty nervous there, especially since he didn't actually manage to kill anyone until the second episode. Truthfully, I'm still pretty nervous, on the edge of my seat and just plain antsy about what the writers may or may not do to him in the third episode. I managed to get a little more progress on Jeffrey's Sweater done, though, which is always good. Even managed to get the cute kid to stand still long enough for me to try to guage how big it is for him.

Yeah, it's going to be HUGE on him, which in a way, is kind of good. Maybe he'll get a couple of winters' worth of wear out of it. I mean, I knew he was a peanut...I just didn't figure he was THAT much of a peanut. Hehehe. Still, it's coming out cute though and I think the colors in it really make his pretty eyes pop out. He looks so happy to be wearing it too...hehehe. Next time, I might take the time to thread it on extra yarn though. It might hang better. Oh well, you live you learn, right? And if I have to wait for Dexter, at least I don't have to wait for my yarn. I got it in the mail a couple of days ago, all in a nice, sealed bag which I promptly tore open and discarded so that I could touch it's shiny, softy-ness...and oh it was soft and shiny, believe me there! I'm hoping it'll be enough for the sweater...but I've been told that I might need more but since I'm going to be altering the pattern slightly to suit my figure better I might not need the same amount. :)

And there it all is...a future Buttony! Weehee, I can't wait. I might just start it tonight, but I don't know. I still have a LOT of Christmas knitting not to mention some test knitting to get to as well so it may have to wait. I was wrong about the color though...for some reason I thought there was green in it and well, I must be color blind or something. Either that or my eyes were just plain tired. I dunno, but whatever it is I find that it's actually a grey with a misty bluish tint...kind of like a faded Confederate Blue I guess. I love it though and it'll look so great with the buttons I bought for it. It deserves these buttons because the color just kind of reminds me of a misty, sprinkly day in Ireland (or at least what I'd imagine such a day would look like).

Aren't they great? I love 'em! I know, I know...it seems that I don't have enough for the WHOLE sweater and that some of them are much smaller than the others, but never fear my faithful knitters. There is a reason behind my madness and I just choose not to divulge it because I want my alterations to be a *gasp* surprise! Or at least a surprise as I knit it...because naturally I will be showing a few pictures of it here and there!

Actually, so far, the month of October has been a good knitting month. Very good actually. Besides from the sweater, and my Jaywalkers. I re-cast on my Branching Out that I had to frog after I seriously screwed it up. That's what knitting lace and trying to pay attention to a conversation gets you, apparently. By the time I got back to it I didn't even remember what part of the pattern I was on it was that bad! Which kind of sucked, really because I'd gotten pretty far on it. Still...this is what I've got so far...

Not much I know, but better than a week ago when all I had was one messy looking skein of yarn that was...thankfully...fixed by my oh so loving wife!

Can't you just see the love? That's her "Why am I doing this again?" face! Hehehe. She makes me laugh. Still, the way I figure it, I'm lucky to have her. Any spouse willing to actually wind yarn into a workable center-pull cake for you is definitely worth having! :)

Also this month seems to have pushed into me the yen for actually trying to design a pair of socks, so I picked up my Big Book of Stitch Patterns and thumbed through it, landing on one that I thought was pretty neat and started from there. I picked bright colors to make me think of warm sunny days rather than icy-cold winter nights and cast on and voila! I discovered that it works! It might work better on solid yarn, or a yarn with a more even and maybe even subtle stripe, but well, I think it's coming along pretty well for my first ever custom-made sock. Of course I only have an inch of the leg done so...it's early times yet. But if I like it enough when it's finished and I have enough interest in the pattern I might try to write it down in some form of organized pattern and post it here for other knitters' freebie enjoyment. I like it right now, because it's similar to the Jaywalker pattern but it has a bit more stretch to it. 66 stitches and it fits around my calf comfortably!

You probably can't see the pattern, but once I have more of it done I'll try it on so anyone who likes can get a better look! I used my Knit Picks Memories for this...in the colorway known as "Hawaii". Nice and bright and beautiful and I think they captured the colors on that island nicely. Too bad Knit Picks doesn't sell the yarn any more. It's gorgeous to work with! I haven't named them yet, but I'm toying with "Lucky" since I'll be lucky if I finish it right and the pattern is horse-shoe-ish. :)

I managed to get a few more rows on my Jaywalker as well but not enough to document. I'm knitting a lot of socks it seems. Then again, October's a good month for socks. Very good actually. :) In fact, I think I'm gonna put my feet up and get to knitting. Like I said...lots and lots of Xmas and test knitting. :)

Jaywalker of Intense Dislike!

2007-10-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

I can't say hate exactly, simply because I've only just cast on the damned socks and am STILL on the ribbing. I think that's why I'm irate. I'm anxious to get the annoying 2x2 ribbing over with and move on to the exciting part so that way I can get on my way to turning the heel (which is my favorite part of making a sock EVER!!!). The ribbing seems like it's taking forever, like I've just spent the past three hours knitting ribbing and guess what? I still have like a quarter of an inch more left to do! It doesn't help that I kept accidentally slipping my needles out of the stitches, which then resulted in seven or eight of them at a time dropping down like three rows (talk about a pain in the butt to pick up!). Thank goodness I was at Knit Nite at my LYS where there were plenty of people willing to help me save the sock (THANKS EVA and SALLY!!!!) because otherwise this might have been one of those UFO's that just stayed that way...at least for a while though. I couldn't leave them unfinished forever because I just love the yarn so much. It's so yummy, reminds me of cotton candy so needless to say I just need to knit it up into these socks and I need them to be done soon! Lorna's Laces is so great...I have a feeling I'll be adding plenty of it to my stash AFTER I go to Rhinebeck (unless of course Lorna's is one of the vendors there then I might do it while I'm there!). Anyway, before I get waaay off topic, here, look at my ribbing....

I know it's not much, but I do love the way the colors knit up. Soooo happy and bright and pretty. Hehehe. Ah well. I really can't wait to go to Rhinebeck though. I'm counting down the days...I'm so excited about it that I couldn't even thoroughly enjoy my baked stuffed lobster dinner (provided by my wonderful MIL whom I love to pieces and is the best cook in the WHOLE world). You know how it gets, the mind wanders and gradually it wanders to yarn and then wool and then well, before you know it all you can think about it is all that money you're going to spend! So excited, can't wait, and yes, I know it's ridiculous, but I can't help it. An unrepentant yarnoholic like me just *needs* to get her fix in and a wool festival's the perfect place to do it. Is anyone else out there in Blogland going? I'd love to meet up!

Oh, and I know it's a strange little twist of topic but it kind of goes along with the shopping part of buying yarn...so yeah, that's my rationale. I was in the grocery store yesterday, minding my own business. I was just there buying the stuff I'd need to make strawberry shortcake - YUM - when I notice that as I'm walking down the bakery aisle this guy is staring at me...and not even bothering to try and hide it. So I'm like "Okay...just keep on walkin' Cadence and don't even meet his eyes for one second" and I keep on walking, stopping here and there to grab whatever else I need, and sure as anything, that guy follows behind me, trying to be all clever and stuff by trying to look like he's shopping too. At this point, yes, I'm getting very creeped out, but I keep shopping hoping that he'll eventually just leave me the hell alone. Of course, I had to stop to get the whipped cream though and when I turned around, well, there he friggin' well was, standing right behind me so I'd *have* to make eye contact, which of course I did, and I even smiled a little (just to be polite) and gave him a little nod before trying to walk away. He just kind of stood there and started to engage me in a little conversation.

Strange Guy: "Hey..."
Me: "Hi." (saying this and offering a little half-hearted wave)
Strange Guy: "What's your name?"
Me: "Uh...excuse me?" (I just wasn't sure I'd heard him because he said it kind of softly)
Strange Guy: "Your name...what's your name?"
Me: "Oh...uhm, Cadence."
Strange guy: (Offering his hand for a handshake) "It's nice to meet you..."
Me: "Right." (Kind of scared, but shaking his hand anyway while I look around in hopes of spying my wife...no luck there either.)
Strange guy: "Well, you're a very attractive woman Cadence..."

And mind you at this point I'm about ready to run and hide because he's giving me this weird, intense I-want-to-do-you-up-against-the-Rice-Krispies look. Trust me, this is a scary look coming from a very tall guy that you have to look up at just to get a good look at him. So I just smile, and finish off the conversation.

Me: "Oh, well...thanks, but I'm married. And a lesbian."

And then I proceed to walk very quickly away, thinking that I might just have to kill Stephanie for letting me walk around a grocery store by myself. Of all places to try and pick up a girl, I would not expect grocery stores to be a good spot, but well, I asked one of my straight guy friends if this was normal and he said that actually, grocery stores were, in fact, quite a good place to pick up girls. So beware my friends, of the man standing in the produce section looking at the eggplants with some confusion and scratching his head. He just might be one of those predators looking for a good-time girl to share pasta with for a couple of nights a week! ;) He says that actually he used to make a "killing" at Stop & Shop (of all the friggin' places!) back when he was single! Scary thought. Anyways, that last part may have been overkill now that I think of it (even if they're both true), but at least it made him go away. Then again, I'm sure there are some guys that would hear the word 'lesbian' and be like "Well, that's great, can I watch?" Dirty pervies. Okay, I soooo have to go now so I can hurry up and get to the leg of my sock!

It was only a short vacation, I swear!

2007-10-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

Boy do I feel sheepish...ugh. Well, that didn't sound so horribly punny in my head, but anyway. I know it's been an obscenely long time since I've posted here and really I know I've been a very bad, bad girl but honestly for the past what, month or something, I haven't really been knitting all that much. I got incredibly frustrated with my branching out and just had to frog the whole damned thing so I could start over and well, I guess it left a bad taste in my mouth for a bit. I mean,I did knit some stuff but it was uninspired, boring and well, just generally crap, so for theI decided I needed to pick up a book and read and forget the traitorous scarf for the next couple of weeks. And the book that I picked up...well, let's just say that I've found a new author that I'm truly in love with and on top of all that, managed to find a fantastic new television series that I *have* to watch! You know how it is. I mean, when I was out of work for a week I did sit down and watch the entire first two seasons of Grey's on DVD (which was neat because there was a scene in the second season I think where Meredith and Izzy start knitting a sweater). Ellen Pompeo looked like she'd just learned to knit but was trying really hard to pretend to at least enjoy it a little, but Katherine Heigl moved along pretty fast, not that I believe that she could have actually knit a large men's sweater like the one she tossed to her boyfriend at the end of that episode in a day, but well, it is TV after all and well, I should just be glad that they even stuck knitting in there at all! :) Oh, yeah, and the reason I was out of work was my little trip to that amusement park that I mentioned in my last post. Just watch out for those dastardly waterslides, okay kids? Seriously. I did still have a lot of fun though. And at least I can blame the fact that my knitting sucked during that stint on the Vicadin and Flexarill that my doctor loaded me up on.

Anyway, so after I was done watching both seasons of Grey's, I needed something to do and I guess I needed a small break from the needle, so I snagged my wife's copy of Jeff Lindsay's "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", which I quickly devoured. So quickly that I *had* to go out and get the second book and read that one as well. Really, my "Dexter" addiction can only be blamed on two people, my friend Tiff and naturally, my crazy wife, of course!

See, she really IS crazy. And yes, that is a whole lotta Kale that she's wearing and uhm, playing with. She's strange. But I love her anyway. :) Oh! Speaking of addictions...I'm now on Ravelry so if anybody that reads this is on it, look me up! Anyhow, please excuse the blurriness of the Cap'n Kale picture, but I was laughing and well needless to say the camera shook and yeah, the blurriness occured. I suppose I have her to thank because as soon as I finished reading those books I picked up the needle again. No, I have not re-started my Branching Out (though I do plan on starting it up again sometime this week!), but I did start up a pair of Dashing so that I could properly thank my wife for providing yet more books that I still need to buy(as soon as they come out of course, we have the third one...but I'm putting it off so I can concentrate on my knitting). I used two skeins of Plymouth Yarns' Royal Llama Silk, and the result was a pair of the warmest and softest fingerless mitts I've ever tried on. I love them so much (especially because of the length of the arm itself) that I might have to snag more of it to make myself a pair sometime soon! I will warn you though, while the yarn does have some stretch to it, it's not a lot (or at least not in my opinion), so if you're using it for things that might have to stretch I'd be careful of the size of the garment being made. I have a few pictures of the gloves taken while the second one was still in the making. I've since finished them, but I've yet to take a picture of the finished product but when I do, I'll post it!

And...here's a close-up of the cable just because I think it's pretty!

I wicked love Cables right now...a lot actually. But the problem with them is that if there's too many of them on a sweater I tend to find them kind of fussy. Oh well, at least I can knit cable-loaded stuff for other people! :)

So, since I've finished with that, naturally I had to find another project and well, what I wound up starting was a Top Down for my friend's son Jeffrey. He's just the cutest kid ever and well, he deserves a cute lil' sweater so I went to my LYS and bought up some Classic Worsted
Long Print and started it up. I've only been working on it for a couple of days but I have almost the whole yoke done! It's going really fast and well, it's lots of fun to mindlessly knit it (a great project while watching "Dexter"!), not to mention the yarn's super soft and stripes up so beautifully!

I chose the bright greenish yellow and blue striped pattern because well, he's the kind of kid who deserves bright colors. I can't wait till it's done! I think I'll knit him a hit to go with it too...hrm.

Anyway, on other news fronts, a few weeks ago my wife found a little surprise in our basement. It's strange really, I didn't realise that thirteen year old cats could still get pregnant never mind give birth, but well, I guess I have to believe it because it happened. Why was the kitten in the basement you may ask? Well, Sophee (a gorgeous angora/calico mix) is the kind of cat that chews wires, scratches furniture and generally finds every which way to make herself a nuisance so...she lives in the basement and helps rid the househould of any mousies that may try to come in for the winter. She's really good at it. There's an orange tomcat that keeps coming around the yard, and we even found him in the basement with Sophee on one occasion, so I'm guessing that's probably when the cat got knocked up. Either way, by the time we found the kitten it had to have been at least four weeks old, and well, it's the cutest little orange and white fluffball ever seen! I mean, like calendar cute! See?

Super cute! We think he's a boy so we've named him Milo...which I think suits him perfectly. Right now he's a little people-shy but we're getting him out of that phase quickly so we can move him upstairs as soon as possible. There's nothing I like better than knitting with a cat curled up behind me. Somehow though, I don't think this kitty is the curling up kind. More like the play with the ball of yarn until it's spread all around your living room like a parade went through it kind of kitteh. Here's a few more pics of him!

That last picture makes me laugh simply because it looks like he's confused or something. Like he's saying "I'se nawt a shoulder kitteh...how'd I git here?" Too cute. And he's so soft and fluffy like his momma!

Okay, back to yarn. So, I was online, desperately searching for just the right yarn for the Buttony Sweater I plan on making soon, and wound up scoring a really good deal for some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky! A sealed bag of ten 50 g balls for only thirty-seven dollars! Talk about bargain. I mean, it's usually 8-10 dollars a SKEIN, so this was a complete and total blessing. Thank God for Ebay I tell ya. Now all I have to do is wait...which is my least favorite part of any order-by-mail transaction. It almost never arrives fast enough for a yarnoholic like myself. Still, I have other projects to keep me busy...yes, even that damned Branching Out. I don't know what it is about that lace pattern that eludes me. I'll have a good section going, and then whoops! I've stopped paying attention and I've lost my place in the pattern! This time, all I can say is LIFELINE! I'm gonna put one of those suckers in for every section I complete so that even if I do get lost I can try to save it rather than frog it! Anyway, once I get my yarn I'll start looking at buttons. I'm thinking something all Celtic Knotwork-y. Once I start it up I'll be posting pictures, but until then...I think I need to get off my knitty ass and get crackin' on something besides Jeffrey's sweater. I'm thinking socks so that I can put off the Branching Out a little longer. Heheh. :)

A week sans the needle...

2007-08-08T03:56:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...it sounds terrible, but truth be told I was so darned busy last week that I hardly had time to pick up my stitching...which now that I think about it, is actually terrible after all! Still, I managed to have a lot of fun, as well as hang out with some great folks! I also actually managed to find a nifty little yarn shop on my travels as well! Anyway, I started my week off by running a couple of errands that needed to be done before my trip up to NY with the wifey, and then heading off to my friend Mike's house to get tattooed. Originally I wanted the Eye of Horus, but the one that he had was too big to put where I wanted it so I changed my mind and wound up with this nifty girly piece instead!

Of course, that was taken when the ink was still very, very fresh and smeared with all sorts of bacitracin. Now, it's healing nicely but I think the blue in the moon needs to be re-done because I can still see some of my skin-color through it, which is actually okay considering he said that because me and the wife were good friends of his he was perfectly willing to do any work we wanted for free! He also wants to add some stuff to it, make it into a whole fantasy scene...and ya know what? I say ink me up! Granted, it probably wasn't smart to do it the day before heading to NY but at least nothing bad happened to it. Also, if anyone happens to be a fan of video games and/or Resident Evil, here's a picture of the one that my wife got done just before me!

Yay Resident Evil!

After the tattooing took place, we headed home and packed up for our trip and headed out at about 4 a.m., so we could beat the traffic and possibly avoid any manhole covers that may or may not explode (caused by pressure brought about by extreme heat, I guess) as I'd been warned that it had been happening on the Mass Pike prior to leaving. Luckily, we managed to NOT meet up with any of those shenanigans and the ride was smooth sailing, so we arrived in the town of Galway, NY (right in Saratoga Springs) at around 8 a.m., where we met up with our long-time friend Nicki and then promptly set up our tent (because we all decided that it would be FUN to camp out by the pool on her property) and took a three hour nap, only to be awakened at around one-ish to eat chocolate chip cookies and then head into downtown Saratoga to do some shopping and grab some real food. There were tons of places to buy things at, but I was pretty good until I got to the Stitching Post...a tiny yarn shop that specializes in my favorite thing in the world...SOCK YARN! I love sock yarn because you can buy enough to make a pair of socks for as little as nine dollars a skein and well, because socks are such a small project I can actually afford to buy the nicer stuff! Because I was kind of on a budget I had to limit myself, but I did manage to snag a skein of Tofutsies, and two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Baby Stripe"...which I was quite thrilled about. I can't wait to play with them...but alas they have to wait until I finish my current projects. Maybe. I haven't decided yet. Here's my newest additions to my stash, in color!

Aren't they pretty? Now all I need to do is either find a nifty pattern for socks for either of these yarns or just figure out my own (which I think I'm going to do) and then get crackin'! I can't wait! Ah well...it was beautiful weather in NY, so it was also just plain nice to be walking around outside and getting some fresh air. Plus, I swear I've never seen a city that actually keeps itself so clean! Even the side streets were kept free of debris! It was fantastic! I just wish places around here could start adopting some pride in their upkeep. Oh well. I can't spend too much time worrying about it.

So, after we finished shopping, we went to meet Nicki's boyfriend Dan (who is a great guy by the way) at his place and then drove off to their softball game (a game that their team lost but still looked like they were having great fun playing) and then headed off to a local bar for a few drinks that were all on the team's captain (and I think owner) Dan's dad. The beer was cold, and the conversation was friendly. A great time was had. Of course, this meant that I was missing out on knit nite, but still...it was almost the same...except with beer, and baseball talk going on and actually very little (or rather, none) knitting at all. So strike that. Not at all like knit nite but still fun. Of course, after that, I was so bloody exhausted that I could barely stay awake through the outdoor bakeoven pizza making that ensued back at Nicki's house, and actually spent very little time getting sloppy drunk as I'd originally planned. On the plus side, I still have a happy bottle of Grey Goose sitting at home (well hidden from anyone else mind you) with my name on it and it will probably be drunk over the next two weeks. I'm not really a heavy drinker (in fact, I'm very much a lightweight), but I'm at least a happy drunk. No fighting for me. Just hugs, usually...which actually, nobody seemed to mind at the bar, which is nice considering usually I get teased mercilessly after getting buzzed off of half a beer. So, after pizzas, we went to sleep kind of early in preparation for spending the next day at Six Flag's Great Escape!

This picture was taken while standing on a ramp that faced the rollercoaster with the sign for the park at the back drop. The coaster is called the "Steamin' Demon" and though it's a ride that only lasts ten seconds, it is one of my favorites! The park used to just be The Great Escape with a Storytown theme, but Six Flags bought it and well, now it's a mini-Six Flags...but it's still incredibly fun with just the right amount of cheez! :) Edit: Apparently I had a little too much fun at this park seeing as I'm now going to have to be out of work for a week because of it. Damned Black Cobra...I friggin' cracked a couple of ribs on that ride and damned well caused the joints of the same two ribs that I cracked to separate from the cartilidge that attatches them to the breast bone. It hurts! HURTS I SAY!!! Waaaauuuugh!
Here are some more pics from the park!

Me (top) and the wife on the way to the park in Nicki's car.

My friend Nicki and her boyfriend Dan on the way to the park. No, Nicki does not normally look like some kind of silly zombie...she just likes to take strange pictures. Ah, Nicki, I love you! Especially since you're currently trying to learn to knit! Yay for fledgling knitters! The world needs more of 'em!

Me and Nicki standing somewhere near the Papa Johns in the park after feeding a greedy little duck all the rest of Nicki's pizza crusts!

The greedy duck in question. I had to get a picture of the duckie that was hungry enough to bite another duck on the butt just to get him to turn around so he could snatch the crust right out of his mouth...and succeed! It was funny to watch, but you kind of had to be there I guess. Anyway...

This was part of the original park, and though the paint is chipping on a lot of the life size sculptures, it was still nice to see that despite it now being a mini-Six Flags, it still has the quaintness of a small, classic amusement park! They even had a rabbit hole that you could crouch-walk through so you could get to the "Wonderland" part, but I think I neglected to take a picture of it. Stupid me. Anyway, here's a little more from that section. But I did get to take a picture with the White Rabbit!

This picture was taken inside the rabbit hole and is supposed to be a picture of Alice sitting at a really huge table, but unfortunately I took it kind of off-centered. Oh well. I'm not a professional photographer, so sue me. And here's one of Nicki and Dan sitting in front of the sign.

Aren't they so frickin' cute together?

The Cheshire Cat...both visible and invisible...my favorite Alice in Wonderland character!

The Queen of Hearts, of course. :) Can't have Alice in Wonderland without the Queen of Hearts!

And well, the rest of the day was spent riding rides, eating junk, drinking lots of soda and basically just having a good ole' time. After the park, well, we hung around Nicki's house for a little bit and then we wound up just driving home due to the fact that we had to go into work on Saturday and we wanted a full day to recoupe. On Friday I lazed about doing basically nothing and then began another hellish work weekend...which sucked. Saturday was alright, except for the fact that the nurse I was working with went berserk and kept frickin' yelling at me until I finally told her to not snap at me any more and I think I may have gotten in trouble for insubordination for that, but I'm not sure. Sunday I worked on a unit of 42 patients all by myself over night which sucked because the floor's heavy, and by Monday my back was killing me so bad that I left work early and began my four days off early. Of course, I'll probably get in trouble for that somehow too, but I'm beyond caring. I just need to sit down and knit I think...get rid of some of the lingering stress before I just do something dumb and simply quit. Can't quit...must enhance stash...therefore need to earn money. :) But I will be looking for a new job this week! At any rate, I think I'm about to go and catch up on my knitting now. Have a nice day all! But before I actually leave you all...

Introducing Bacchus...owned by my friend Nicki and well, the fattest cat I've ever seen. He's HUGE! I mean, I think he's like close to 30 lbs he's that huge! But I love him...even if he is a snotty kitty.

And well, this is what happens when people with dirty minds try to grow tomatoes. I'm sure you can guess what this one looks like? :) Of course, if you turn it a different way it resembles a duck but well, I'll never tell! >;)~

Knitting away the blues...

2007-07-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a lousy week at work. The usual story, really. Boss gives girl a hassle, girl wants to stab boss's eyes out with sharp pointy objects, girl actually has sharp pointy objects (ie:Weapons of choice=knitting needles), but girl doesn't want to ruin her lovely bamboo needles with her boss's possibly nasty, disease-infested blood so girl is forced to sit and suffer. Thank God that I work the night shift because that meant that I could knit off some of my steam,which really is probably the only thing that saved me from walking out of my job the next morning screaming and missing a few patches of hair! But enough about work. I went to knit nite on both Wednesday and Thursday this past week (yes, I needed that much time to de-stress) and naturally had a blast. I was good too, only buying a skein of yarn to knit up a quick pair of fingerless gloves for my Bro-in-law for Xmas and yet another cable needle seeing as I lost the set of three that I'd bought the time before. It was a lot of fun though, and I met some really nice ladies on Thursday. I even managed to capture the elusive Eva on film. See?

There she is! Granted I had to do it at the end of the night when I could catch her by surprise, but I still managed it. Here's another moment from Knit Nite.

That would be one of my knitting partners in crime, SIL Allison. Isn't that lace panel pretty? She's knitting the cardigan for her mom for some reason or another and well, I think the lady'll love it though Allison seems to have some doubts about it.

I did manage to pick out a bunch of yarn that I want to buy next week though (after I get paid of course! ;) ), and already have projects in mind, but currently the yarn I most covet is Plymouth Yarn's Royal Llama Silk. It has such a soft velvety texture that I'm really going to have to make that my first purchase of my next stash enhancement expedition.

Anyway...as I've mentioned before I've been knitting like crazy! I started on the Fetching pattern a couple of days ago, finished one glove and then started working on the second on Thursday night.

It was both my first cabled project and my first glove-ish / fingerless mitt and all in all I think it came out pretty good. I did something funky with the thumb, but I'm not sure what so hopefully I don't make the same mistake on the second one. So far, I only have a little bit done because well, after knitting up a storm I took a break to sit in my air-conditioned room and basically be lazy, but here's the beginnings of the second one.

My SIL Pam suggested I knit it up in Plymouth's Encore, so I took her at her word and sure enough, the finished glove is soft and warm without being overbearingly so. I think the next pair I knit for myself however might have to be in some of that Royal Llama Silk, I love that stuff that much! Maybe as a splurge before the Xmas season gets fully under way, who knows?

I'm one of those knitters that actually likes having more than one project going at the same time so after I got bored with knitting the Fetching pattern, I picked up a copy of Interweave Knits and started a pair of the Motorcycle Chica gloves. So far I've only gotten as far as the first twenty-eight rows because then the pattern calls for something a bit confusing to me so I have to figure it out. I'll probably get it eventually I just don't get what they mean by backward-loop CO stitches over the 'gap'. What gap are they talking about? I have no frickin' clue.I also started the Branching Out scarf pattern in some of Lion Brand's Microspun (Leaf Color). I was surprised that this yarn is really very nice to work with, feeling kind of like Plymouth's Royal Bamboo (if you've ever worked with it, you'd know it's super soft, super silky and tends to split pretty damn easily if you're not careful but it's generally worth the trouble just to be wearing something made of it). I was going to use some lace-weight stuff that I bought off of knit-picks but the yarn was too thin, I thought, to properly show stitch definition and that's what I wanted to have was some definition. Anyway, here's a couple of pics.

I think it'll drape nicely when it's blocked and stuff. :)

Okay, it's too hot in this room so I think I'm about to head back up to the aforementioned air-conditioned room. But before I go, I just wanted to say thank you to Knittymuggins for allowing me to join in on the fun of the Sexy Knitter's Club! I can't wait to get started in on the next KAL! Now, if only I could figure out how to put stuff in my side bar so I can have that nifty little button provided on the site displayed ever-so-proudly! :) Anyway, now I'm serious! Too hot to knit, which actually makes me kind of sad...thank goodness for AC!

By the sweat of my brow...er hands.

2007-07-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here's the first post on the new blog, which is actually the last post that was on my old blog. If that makes any sense. If it doesn't, well I can promise that I'll try to make it all make good, honest sense from here on in. I really didn't post all that often before but I swear I will definitely do so more often...especially since I, techno genius that I am (NOT) finally figured out how to transfer the damned pictures from my digital camera to my computer. Yay me. Took me long enough. However, much to my disappointment, it looked like somebody actually went through and deleted all sorts of other pictures so I'll have to start at the middle rather than the beginning. Oh well, there have been worse things. :)

Anyway, I guess I'll start by showing off my pride and joy...my very first ever pair of socks. They're not perfect (I kinda screwed up on the kitchener weaving on the toe of one of 'em) but I love them anyway. The stripes don't really match up either...which kind of sucks. Why nobody ever told me to waste some yarn after finishing the first sock so I could match the stripes I'll never know, but well, consider it a learning experience that resulted in some toasty foot wear that I'll wear to death simply because I made them all by myself. YAY me!

These were made in Plymouth Sockotta yarn, and well, I can't think of the color I used right off the top of my head but needless to say it was fun to work with. It was great to see all those stripes just pop up like 'magic' and well, I just LOVED it when I got the heel. It was awesome to watch it pucker up and become an actual, you know, heel. The pattern I used was by the Plymouth Yarn Design Studio and was #1090 Lace Mock Cable Sock. It was honestly a fun first sock pattern to play with, because it wasn't just miles of knit, knit, and more knit thanks to the lace work on the leg. Here's a close-up of it. Well...sorta. :)

It's not as hard as it looks so I definitely suggest anybody give it a try. I mean, it probably wasn't the best choice for my FIRST SOCKS ever, but it definitely helped me get over my second sock syndrome that's for sure! :)

Okay, onto the next thing. I wanted to try my hand at felting, but didn't know where to start so I went to my YS of choice, Eva's Yarn Shop, and found this fantastic ruffled purse to knit up and after I was assured it'd knit up quickly I bought a couple of skeins of the yarn and the needles to knit it with and went to work. I don't have a picture of this first one that I knit only because I gave it to someone before I thought to even snap a picture. However, it was so much fun to knit that I figured, why not? I'll knit up another one. So, here it is.

I knit this Romantic Ruffles Handbag using Kraemer Yarns' Mauch Chunky in 'Sandstone' and I used some eyelash yarn for accent in the ruffle, which is why it's so fluffy. All in all the yarn felts up really nice, but I find that to get a decent enough effect I had to wash it in the machine twice just because I thought that the fabric was still too, I dunno, floppy. Still, it was an easy enough project and I enjoyed knitting it. I can't really remember what kind of eyelash yarn I used, but it was nice just tough to untangle sometimes. All I can recall about it is that it's 100% nylon and super soft, unlike Lion Brand's Fun Fur, which I find is like running threads of pure plastic through your fingers. It's completely pleasant to work with, but because it's so incredibly soft and silky it slides off of needles easily so I recommend using wooden needles with it. I'll have to go back to Eva's (Big tragedy there!) and find out what brand it is and then come back here and add it in as an edit or something.

Anyway, so I have half a skein of that eyelash yarn left over from the purse so I figured I'd knit up a quick and simple lace scarflet (so-called because it's only 10 stitches wide and is probably not going to be all that long). Just a little floof to tie around your neck to decorate an outfit or something. It's still a WIP and all, but I tried to take a couple of pictures to really capture the intricate looking pattern that's accomplished in a relatively easy manner (if you discount starting the damned thing of course!) , but I don't think I managed it. Still, I tried and I'm going to show the pictures to you anyway because well, I took 'em so damn it you have to look and that's that. Here they are.

If you want to make the scarf just do the following: CO an even amount of stitches (10 or 12 works best) onto size 17 needles. K1, YO, K2tog, all the way down to the last ONE, and then knit the last one. Do that until it's long enough and then BO in pattern. Simple enough, right? It works best with really delicate mohair but you can do it with almost anything.

Also, I just thought I'd say that I LOVE my stitch markers. I got so sick of looking everywhere for a decent set of markers that weren't too plain looking that I decided to make my own. I just didn't know how but with the help of MIL and SIL(Mother in Law and Sis-in-law) I think I've figured out a great way to do it. Here's my little loves!

Aren't they pretty? I love the fact that not only are they rainbow but they also represent the colors of each chakra! I think for a first attempt at making stitch markers they aren't half bad! All right, I'm running out of things to say so finally, here are some pics of my crafy family!

The MIL

Don't mess with her foos, she got a Guinness and she knows how to use it! See?

The Wife

She works hard to help support my habit. Muahahaa!

Allison, SIL # 1

Crafty chica extraordinaire and support system in those frog-it or trash it crisises. You know the ones I'm talking about.

Pam, SIL #2

Yes, she's as crazy as she looks and twice that much. But she can outknit just about anybody I know. The girl's deadly with two needles and some red yarn (has to be red...like blood. >:)~ ) Check out her blog!

Steve, Nephew #1

Awww...he's such a cute little native boy! He's in his regalia for the Mashpee pow wow that just recently passed by.

Timmy, Nephew #2

Yep, he's in regalia too. See that mischeivous smile? That's because he's thinking of world domination. Dominating the world makes. Timmy. Happy.

David, Nephew #3

Don't let those angelic looks fool you, this boy is trouble with a capital TROUBLE!

Zoe, Stepniece

Isn't she sweet? She's a gorgeous little girl who loves cats, and pretty sparkly things and she's learning to KNIT! Her mama trains her right!

Anyway, I'm off I think, probably to start working on my next project or maybe some more stitch markers. :) Before I go though is anyone knitting this?because I was wondering what kind of yarn to knit it in. I was thinking about using this yarn in Embers for it. I think I have enough in my stash. Any other suggestions?

All right, time to end this off right!

A nice peaceful sunset at whatever time in the morning it is! Let me just remind you that and then we'll really call it a day!