Nibbling Along

In Which I Crochet A Giant Granny Square

Recently, I went to Michaels and the Vanna's Choice yarn was on sale 2 for $5. Although I'm not a huge fan of acrylic yarns, I think the Vanna's Choice feels pretty nice. I wouldn't make a sweater out of it, and I thought crocheting the hippo (at a fairly dense gauge) was a little hard on my wrists, but it does seem like a good choice for practicing crochet motifs, and I thought it might make a cute little mini-afghan for Measure. He helped me pick out a selection of nice bright colors, and when I got home, I pulled out a mega-enormous size P hook (I think it's 11.5mm or something like that) and started right in. In each round, I held two colors together, changing up the colors every round. For a pattern, I used the basic granny square instructions from Maggie Righetti's Crocheting In Plain English. By that evening, I'd finished about 75% or so of the blanket, and I completed it the next morning. I think it's a pretty good result for such a small time investment -- it's not the warmest blanket ever, but it's bright and cute and makes the couch a little more cozy. Measure likes it, so I'm happy.

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend, we had some friends and family over for a pumpkin-carving party. Good times.

This is the pumpkin my sister carved with Measure.

This one's mine -- the big white pumpkin is nomming on the wee pumpkin (I also carved a little pumpkin which was vomiting pumpkin goop in fear.)

My friend Tracy carved the beautiful tree, and my friend Nicole carved the cute kitty in the middle of the photo.

Measure's favorite part was the lighting of the jack o' lanterns. He loves blowing out candles, so that made the process of getting them all lit take a little longer than usual.

This is a very creepy mini-pumpkin carved by my sister, Emily.

 

Happy Halloween!

A Perfect 10

Today I let Measure draw on the white board we keep in the kitchen while I washed some dishes. He can recognize most letters and a lot of numbers now, but when he tries to "write" he usually just scribbles. When he said "I drew a number ten," I turned around expecting a bunch of green blobs -- but no, he really did draw a ten! There it is, a big long line, and a circle. (As I got my camera out, he started to "enhance" the zero by coloring it in.)

Honestly, I had no idea he could do this. I'm impressed.

In Which I Crochet An Angry Hippo

I've never been much of a crocheter, but seeing so many beautiful and cutecrochet projects on Ravelry and in the blogosphere inspired me to put a little more effort into building my hooking skills.

Some friends are expecting, so I figured a little amigurumi baby toy would be both a good gift and a good way to practice. This hippo ended up looking rather angry, thanks to my lack of embroidery skills, but other than that I think he came out rather well. The pattern is from a Lion Brand booklet, and the yarn is Vanna's Choice, since I figured the expectant mom and dad would want to be able to toss the toy in the wash if necessary.

New Designs!

Oh, I have been such a bad blogger...I've been really busy teaching a class (my first class of my very own!) and it's going well, or at least I think it is -- we'll see when my students turn in their first essay on Monday! I'm also taking my thesis class, so I've been working on my protocol, my research design, and my lit review.

The good news, though, is that Measure has really taken to daycare! He goes three days a week, just in the mornings while I'm teaching, and so far he has been totally happy to be dropped off each day -- I think he's very excited to be going to school like a big kid, especially since school has way cooler toys than the ones we've got at home!

Before school started, though, I did manage to get some design work in. I released the pattern for Le Facteur (Ravelry link), which I'd been working on for a while. (You can see more photos on Flickr.) My sister was nice enough to model for me:

Just a few days ago, another design of mine was published in Yarn Forward issue 18, a UK-based magazine (the link takes you to the preview page for the current issue on their Web site). It's a shawl called the Spider Stitch Shawl (Rav link), and I'm really excited about it -- this is my first published shawl design! The magazine is on sale now in the UK, and should be in bookstores here in the US in a few weeks. Yarn Forward also sells digital versions of the magazine, if you can't find a store that carries it near you. The current issue isn't up yet, but will hopefully be up in the next few days. Here are a few of my photos of the shawl, which, by the way, is knit in Malabrigo Lace in the "Olive" colorway, which, by the way, was totally lovely to knit with! It took less than two full skeins to knit the sample, which is about 64" long and about 30" deep.

And So The Stash Grows...

Although I've been able to resist most of Sundara's Year In Color offerings, I really had to indulge in June -- how could I resist the bluey-green loveliness of Mint Julep? I love this color. I have a shower curtain in this color. The cool vintage tile in my bathroom is also this color (well, really it's just old, but since I like it I call it vintage.) And since I was getting a few skeins of Mint Julep -- one in sock, one in Aran Silky Merino, and one in Worsted Merino -- I figured I'd better get a skein of Crushed Cherries sock too. The sock yarn will probably become socks, and the ASM and worsted will probably become cowls, hats, or other small accessories for this winter. I'm not sure if any of this yarn is destined to become gifts for the holidays, because I think I am probably too selfish for that. This is my color.

There was a period in which Sundara yarn was really hard to get, when updates would sell out in seconds. Fortunately it seems like she's been able to really increase her production, and now offers yarn in a few different ways -- the Year in Color, occasional collections, and of course Limited Edition updates -- and it doesn't immediately sell out. There's even limited edition yarn up for sale right now, and I just received an email saying that 10% of this month's limited edition yarn sales are going to be donated to the Seattle Animal shelter. I sound like a Sundara commercial, but honestly, I've got no affiliation aside from being a very addicted happy customer. So please...if you've been wanting to try Sundara, go buy some. Because if you don't, I will, and I'm really running out of room here.

3.1415926...Blanket

I think that I have knit more of Elizabeth Zimmermann's designs than that of any other designer. By a long shot, probably.

This was my first attempt at the Pi shawl, which I knit as a blanket, using that yummy chunky Cascade Eco Wool stuff and a size 10 needle. I kept it simple -- stockinette all along, with a garter-stitch edge. I think I used about one and a half skeins. If I'd managed to find the other half-skein (I'm sure it's lurking in the depths of the stash somewhere) I would have knitted the last segment a little longer, and it wouldn't ruffle so much, but oh well. The garter stitch ruffliness is kind of cute.

This one is intended to be a gift, although I love it so much I may need to knit another one for myself. I haven't measured it, but it's big enough to keep my lap and legs warm. A nice alternative to the Snuggie, I think.

Birthday Socks

Most of the knitting I've been doing lately is design-related, but I have had a couple of personal projects going, too.

Jason's birthday was in July, so I decided to bring along a pair of socks as my vacation project when we went on our trip. Luckily, I had no trouble getting my SIP through security, but I was prepared: I usually knit socks on two (metal) circular needles, but I transferred over to wooden DPNs the morning of our flight. I also brought a tapestry needle pre-threaded with a length of waste yarn, so that I could slip my stitches onto the yarn if any of the TSA staff decided that my toothpick-sized DPNs posed a threat. My metal circs, meanwhile, were packed in a bag we were going to check, so even if my DPNs were confiscated, I wouldn't need to buy a new set of needles in London. Thankfully that wasn't the case, and I actually got a fair amount of knitting done during the flight, since Measure slept for a while on the way over.

The pattern for these socks is a variant on the "slip stitch heel basic socks" from Wendy Johnson's book Socks From the Toe Up. I changed the cast-on number, added a mini-cable to each side, and instead of a slip-stitch heel, did a stockinette heel with a mini-cable on each side to match the ones on the front of the sock. I haven't done many toe-up socks in this style -- usually I just do a short-row heel, because it's easier -- but it was interesting trying it out. The yarn is Sundara Sock yarn in a limited edition colorway called "When the Fog Clears." I love her yarns, but not that many of her colorways would appeal to Jason, so I was glad to snag this one. Happily, this month she's offering Graphite in the Year in Color collection, so I'll be picking up a skein or two of that for future man-socks.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zucchini

I think the whole secret to loving zucchini is to think small. Don't be a zucchini size queen; the giant ones tend to be watery, and therefore less flavorful, compared to their more miniscule brethren. Whether you're planning on sauteeing, roasting, or shredding your zucchini and turning it into a delicious quick bread, go for the little guys.

Zucchini bread is pretty much my favorite way of eating zucchini, and it may even be my favorite quick bread. Banana bread and pumpkin bread are awesome, of course, but zucchini bread has that subtle extra textual thing going on. Plus, how often do you get to eat green bread?

My mom's recipe (I don't have any idea of the original source; we've been using this one for a while so it has been copied and re-copied as various cards have fallen victim to oil spills and overuse) hits all the right notes for me -- provided we leave out any nuts or raisins, which I think are just silly. Of course if you are a nut and/or raisin lover, you are free to add them to your bread, but in my opinion this is one of those cases where less is more. Let the zucchini shine, my friends, let it shine in all its glossy green glory.

Zucchini Bread

4 cups shredded zucchini (about 6 small zucchini will usually do the job)
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil OR melted butter
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
powdered cinnamon and cloves, to taste
big pinch of salt

First things first: preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease two largeish bread pans.

Wash and shred the zucchini, then use a few paper towels to squeeze some of the water out of the shredded pulp. This is less necessary if you're using really small, firm zucchini, but very important if you are using ginormous watery ones -- it helps you get rid of excess water, which is good because that water is not adding any flavor.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and oil, then add in the eggs and stir until they are well broken up. Throw in the zucchini and mix. Measure out the flour, then stir the baking soda and baking powder into the flour. This helps ensure that they will be more evenly incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture. Now season the batter to taste with a few shakes of cinnamon powder and a dash of ground cloves. Add a pinch of salt or two.

Pour the batter into the pans. Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the exact size of your bread pans. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Turn out onto a cooling rack and cool before slicing, if you can wait that long.

Steal This Ice Cream

(My computer and my camera are finally on speaking terms again, so I am actually posting -- can you believe it?!)

OK, so maybe you shouldn't actually steal this particular bowl of ice cream, especially since I've already polished it off, but you should totally steal the idea. I did. We've subscribed to Cook's Illustrated magazine and the Cook's Illustrated web site in the past, so occasionally they send us a free issue of Cook's Country to try to tempt us into subscribing again and whatnot. Fine by me. This time, they sent us an issue with a recipe for "magic chocolate ice cream" -- ice cream which you can make without an ice cream maker.

Now, I do actually own an ice cream maker, but I can never get it to work properly and it's such a hassle to put it all together it's just not even worth trying. So I was intrigued. I had pretty much all of the ingredients on hand, and I thought it would be a fun thing for Measure to help me with.

The basic procedure for making this ice cream is quite different from your typical churned version. Instead of using eggs and making a sort of custard, which requires using the stove and dirtying saucepots and all of that stuff I don't want to do when it is 90 degrees in the shade, you just melt chocolate, condensed milk, and some flavorings in the microwave, and then fold in a bunch of whipped cream and freeze the whole shebang. Jason pointed out that this ends up giving it the texture of frozen chocolate mousse, to which I say, is that a bad thing? One of the ingredients listed was a teaspoon of espresso powder, which is always good for boosting chocolate flavor. One of my great weaknesses, though, is coffee ice cream, so I wondered if the addition of even more espresso powder would give the ice cream a nice mocha flavor. It did indeed.

Although I wouldn't say that this is quite as unctuous as a really killer premium ice cream, it's pretty darn good. The main difference is the mouthfeel, which is definitely lighter than that of a dense premium variety; you can almost feel the microscopic bubbles of the whipped cream bursting as it melts on your tongue. One of the good things about the homemade version, of course, is having complete control over the ingredients list. It's also not going to be hard to fold in whatever crazy ingredients take your fancy; I'm thinking later this summer I need to make a "rocky road" version with mini-marshmallows, little chunks of really good bittersweet chocolate, and chopped toasted almonds. It's summer. Go nuts.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp instant espresso powder (reduce to 1 tsp if you just want chocolate flavored ice cream)
1 tbsp hot water
4 oz dark chocolate
1/2 c sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 1/4 c heavy cream

Directions:
Mix the espresso powder and hot water together until the powder has dissolved. Mix the espresso mixture, chocolate, and condensed milk together in a bowl and microwave for 15 seconds at a time, stirring every 15 seconds, until the chocolate has melted. (This should take about a minute, depending on your microwave and the size of your chocolate chunks.) Stir in the vanilla extract and salt.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream until it has formed soft peaks. Fold about 1/3 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture, then fold the rest of the whipped cream in until the mixture is pretty homogeneous. Pour it all into an airtight container and freeze until firm (I used a large one of those inexpensive Glad containers). This may take 4-6 hours, though I won't tell anyone if you sneak a few spoonfuls before then.

I Knit London

Well, I'm in London right now, and I did make it to a knitting shop -- a real knitting shop, too. I'm not sure the knitting shelves in the haberdashery sections of department stores should really count, although I appreciate the opportunity to use the word "haberdashery," which never fails to charm me.

I Knit is out by Waterloo station; a bit of a jaunt from where we're staying in Wimbledon, but not too bad since I was making a day of it by doing some shopping near Oxford Circus anyway. I've seen the shop mentioned on Ravelry boards whenever people ask for London yarn shop recommendations, and although I can't say it was mind-blowing, it certainly was a nice shop with a very good selection, especially considering how small the place is. I would say that it was the kind of place with not enough room to swing a cat, but I've never really understood the metaphor -- considering the nature of cats, I don't think there is really anyplace in the world you could attempt to swing one and get away with your eyeballs intact. Unless we're talking about "rock-a-bye-baby" type swinging, which I believe some felines on the cuddlier end of the spectrum would not oppose, at least not violently; I've always envisioned someone grabbing a puss by the tail and heaving away. But I digress.

At the shop, I was rather taken by some German self-striping sock yarn. I believe the brand is Schoppel Wolle, and the type is Zauerball, though I may be reversing that. Either way, the colors are lovely and it's a fairly soft, tightly spun single ply. I'd say it's about as soft as Noro Silk Garden Sock, though it's less hairy and the color repeats look like they might be longer. I bought two colors, one russety-orangey-red, and one purpley-plummy-maroon. I think at least one is going to be a gift. Likewise, I think the other two skeins I picked up will be gifts -- one is a Wensleydale Longwool, spun in Yorkshire from the fleece of Wensleydale sheep. There's a nice lustre to the wool; it almost looks and feels like a wool/mohair blend. (It's the paler green skein on the top right.) The last yarn I picked up is a Scottish-made yarn, J.C. Rennie Supersoft. According to the label, this yarn is a blending of the "first clip", from lambs' first shearing. It's pretty soft for a shetlandy-type yarn. I can't decide whether this one is for me or whether I should use it to knit a gift for someone.

My final purchase was that of the earrings you see in the second photo. The wee studs I bought for myself, since I think they'd be cute to wear to the next Stitches, and the gaudy turquoise ones are going to be a gift for Jason's grandmother, who likes both knitting and silly dangly earrings. The maker, Max Alexander, has a web site -- and an Etsy shop.

Tomorrow, we're heading to Brussels. I may check out a yarn shop or two while I'm there, though at this point I'm a bit more interested in shopping for clothes. I usually find tons of awesome stuff when I'm in London, but today's excursion was disappointing. I'm holding out hope for Brussels, and, more importantly, Paris!

Everything is Better Deep-Fried

There's a restaurant in Santa Barbara called Bouchon which Jason and I have some fond memories of. It's where we first tried Cambria's pinot noir, which has since become a longstanding favorite, and it's where we first had fried, goat-cheese-stuffed squash blossoms.

OK, maybe not everything is better deep-fried, but frying does some pretty good things to squash blossoms. They're not bad sauteed, but frying them makes the petals all crispy and delicious. Also, if you stuff squash blossoms with a bit of goat cheese and then fry them, then you end up with a shell of crispy blossom goodness encasing a blob of soft, molten cheesy goodness, and it's a match made in heaven.

These are pretty easy to make. First, peel the little green stemmy bits from around the base of the flower. Stuff each blossom with a teaspoon or two of chevre, then set up your frying lineup: in one bowl, whisk together an egg and a couple of tablespoons of water to make an egg wash, then in another bowl stir together some flour, salt, and pepper. In a tall pot, heat up about an inch of your favorite frying oil over medium-high heat (I used olive oil, but something with a more neutral flavor would be fine too.)

When your oil is hot enough to sizzle a drop of water, start rolling your squash blossoms in the egg and then the flour mixture. Don't do all of them at once; just dip the ones you are planning to fry together. The amount you can fry in one batch will of course vary widely depending on the width of your pot and the size of your squash blossoms; keep in mind that you don't want to crowd them.

Keep an eye on your blossoms -- they'll take just a few minutes on each side to fry (the first batch of anything fried usually takes the longest, in my experience), and you're looking for a light golden brown color. When finished, remove the fried blossoms to a plate covered with paper towels to soak up excess oil, and sprinkle a little salt on them ASAP. Serve them while they're still hot, but warn everyone that the cheese inside will tend to be very hot even when the outside blossom has started to cool down. Enjoy.

I'm Still Here...

In case you were wondering, I haven't been hit by a bus or anything, except in the metaphorical sense of being hit by a busload of stuff that needs doing -- the usual end of semester stuff, general grad school stuff, magazine submission stuff (yes! I have been submitting designs! Not just saying "oh, I should really submit something" and forgetting about it!), plus Measure's birthday stuff. He turned two last week. You can tell, because now he sits down on the floor wailing "no! no! no!" when you thwart his plans.

Also, I got a teaching job! My grad program sets aside ten freshman composition classes for graduate students to teach, and I applied and got one of the spots. I'm very excited, because I'll be finishing up my thesis as well next year, and this means that I'll have actual teaching experience to put on my resume when I go out looking for a job. This also means that I will be pretty damn busy next year -- I'll be doing my thesis, teaching, plus looking after Measure, plus trying to continue with knitting design. It's a full plate.

So yeah, I may not be blogging so much in the coming months, and I may not be commenting on other blogs much, but I am still reading a lot of blogs, and I'm still pretty active on Ravelry. And I'm still knitting, of course, but since I'm trying to do a lot of design submissions, it's not always stuff that I can actually blog about. But I promise to blog about anything really exceptional, like if I get a new design finished (I'm working on a couple), or get something published in a magazine (and there may be something to report on that front in a few months).

And since every post needs a photo, I give you a shot of my final Sundara Seasons subscription yarn, the lovely Viridescent aran silky merino. I'm using it to knit a Vivian. Slowly. But that's ok, because I don't need an aran weight cabled wool/silk hoodie for the summer anyway, right? Right.

Do you ever get the feeling that you really want to be knitting -- even when you're already knitting? Even though I have a few things on the needles (Na Craga is languishing in a basket, I cast on for a Shetland Triangle using some gorgeous laceweight I bought from the A Verb for Keeping Warm booth at stitches, and I've also got a garter stitch blanket in progress, not to mention various other UFOs buried in the depths of my closet), I still keep feeling the urge to cast on for something new.

That's the problem with having a stash -- once a few skeins start whispering "knit me!" the rest start to pick up the refrain. It's hard to resist. I bought a few skeins of Malabrigo Sock from WEBS recently (my brother gave me a gift certificate for Christmas, and I think I showed admirable restraint in waiting this long to use it), and I'm just itching to use every single buttery soft skein. It is taking a lot of willpower to just leave them on my desk.

The funny thing is, I still feel like I'm in the "auditions" phase with every project I'm working on right now. None of them has taken on a starring role, like the last couple of sweaters I've knit did. None is a diva, demanding all of my attention. They're all perfectly nice projects, they just aren't jumping into the spotlight, singing and dancing. (The garter stitch blanket is cute, though, isn't it? I'm surprised I haven't seen more of these around. Ravelry shows only 195 projects, which seems kind of low, considering how satisfying and simple it is.)

So maybe I should wind up a skein of this luscious sock stuff. The only other pair of socks I have on the needles has mysteriously vanished. These socks managed to make it from Japan to Thailand back home without incident, and now I suspect they have disappeared into some mysterious vortex in my living room. Or possibly the bedroom. It's a small house, but it's messy. Since I can't find them, maybe they don't count as a current project. And in that case, you could say that I don't have a pair of socks currently on the needles, which I think might be a violation of some very basic sock knitter principles. Casting on a new pair will restore balance and harmony to the universe. And maybe take the edge off of this startitis. Anyway, if you see one and three-quarters of a pair of socks in Noro Silk Garden Sock wandering the streets, tell them that I'm not angry, I'd just like them to come home.

Stick a Fork In It...

...It's done!

I started this sweater almost a month ago exactly, according to my notes on Ravelry. If you recall, it's the sweater-ized version of the cardigan I knit with Sundara sock yarn which I finished in February. This one is obviously different in a couple of respects -- it's a sweater vs. cardigan, it's got longer sleeves, it's got a little lace edging instead of garter stitch edging, and it's knit in a merino-silk blend (Sundara Fingering Silky Merino) instead of merino sock yarn.

I'm working on a pattern, I promise...and while I do that, I may or may not be casting on for a third version (but the next one will have a shallower v-neck, and maybe a simple allover pattern stitch.) Is it weird that I keep on wanting to knit variations of the same thing over and over again?

More photos over here on Flickr, by the way.

Work In Progress

I am a little ridiculously happy with how this sweater is going. At this point, I still need to knit the sleeves (as well as decide how long I want them to be) and the neckband edging, but hey, the body is DONE. It's so satisfying to finish binding off the hem of a top-down sweater, try it on, and find that it fits just the way you wanted it to.

This is the sweater version of the cardigan I finished a couple of weeks ago. That one was knit with two colors of Sundara sock yarn, this one is knit with just one color of Sundara Fingering Silky Merino. Both yarns are the same weight, and I'm using the same needle size, so this one is serving to kind of help me test the pattern notes (such as they were) I took for the first one.

Obviously the two are going to look quite different when they're finished -- this one will have a lace edging, and the sleeves will be different -- but the basic numbers and the basic shape are all the same. I think I see more variations on this theme in my future.

Problem Exists Between Eyes and Monitor

If you know anyone in the tech industry, or anyone who has worked in a call center, you have probably heard of PEBCAK, which stands for "Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard," i.e., the problem is with the person using the equipment, not the equipment itself. (Stories of clueless PC users confusing a cd drive for a cupholder come to mind.) I think producers and consumers of yarn sold online need a similar acronym: PEBEM, or "problem exists between eyes and monitor." Sometimes, for whatever reason, yarn just does not photograph well, or the seller's monitor isn't properly calibrated, or the buyer's monitor isn't properly calibrated, or the browser does weird things to certain colors (I've heard that this can happen with Firefox, anyway), or any number of other things can interfere with the correct communication of color.

Until now, I've never had any catastrophic misinterpretations of yarn colors. I've bought a few things which turned out to be a little darker or lighter, or more or less intense, than how they appeared -- but nothing too dire. Usually, if it looks like the photo has been heavily manipulated, or not taken in great light, I just skip buying altogether until I can see some of whateveritis in person. It's just not worth it. But Sundara's yarn photography is usually really accurate, in my experience, so I was pretty surprised when the Aran Silky Merino I ordered earlier this month turned out to be green and reddish-brown, when the photo I remember was of a goldish/ochreish/orangeish yarn. Very weird. It's so different, I'm thinking I should email Sundara just to see if she can compare my photo (which is really accurate, on my monitor anyway) with the one she put up when she sold it, just to make sure that some sort of mislabeling didn't occur. Because the color I got, while pretty, is probably not going to be as flattering on me as the color I thought I was going to be getting, and I am really kind of tired of going through the whole destash rigamarole. We'll see how that goes.

So tell me -- have you had any truly terrible PEBEM experiences?

I *heart* Etsy

I love Etsy. Apparently everyone else is feeling the love, too -- I heard that many Etsy sellers did way better than they expected to over the holiday shopping season. I guess one good thing about a turndown in the economy is that it drives people to seek out handmade gifts instead of expensive big-box store stuff. Good for makers and sellers of unique handmade stuff, anyway.

Some of my favorite Etsy vendors include BeckyM (I got a really cute felt food set for Measure for Christmas), Maryse, of the very cute knitterly photo cards, and Sharon Montrose, whose animal photography is just awesome. I got my father-in-law a couple of her photos for Christmas, and am seriously jonesing for a set for myself. One of my favorite booths at Stitches was that of Etsy seller Pigeonroof Studios, full of beautiful colors and totally squishable yarns. It was great to see all the pretty goodness in person.

My very favorite vendor, though, is of course my little sister, Emily. Even if I weren't related to her, I'd still think the stuff in her shop, Emcards, is really cute. I especially like the little moleskine notebooks she Gocco printed with wooly mammoths. She also prints the mammoths, as well as Dodo birds, on notecards. The animals may be extinct, but hopefully the art of the handwritten note is not.

Sundara Strikes Again

Sundara really needs to stop dyeing yarn (just a little break, please!) so I can stop buying more and finish knitting what I have.

The downside of falling in love with a beautiful sock yarn is that when you knit socks, your beautiful yarn ends up on your feet. Sure, it performs the admirable service of keeping your toes warm, but if you wear your handknit socks often, they inevitably begin to age and deteriorate, and gradually pass out of existence having been truly appreciated by one or two people. Don't get me wrong -- I'm all for knitting socks. I'm just saying that sometimes, you really can't help wanting to go up to everyone in the entire world and say, "Look! Look at how pretty this is! Touch it! Isn't it pretty?" Which might get you some odd looks. (Then again, maybe this would be a great strategy for bringing about world peace. How can anyone fight if everyone is distracted with pretty yarn?)

Of course, sock yarns are also great for scarves and shawls and stoles and hats and cowls and gloves, which give them a better opportunity to beautify the world. But sometimes...you need to up the ante. For that, you need a sweater. When I got my Sundara Artist's Choice yarns in the mail, I was completely bowled over by the beauty of the Royal Touch colorway. It called out to be knit into a larger project. So, I knit this short-sleeved cardigan. It only took two skeins, plus a little bit of another great Sundara sock yarn, the "Arabian Nights" colorway.

The weather has been pretty gloomy here, and the photos don't come close to capturing how pretty this yarn is. But I'm really happy with how this came out. I kept things simple, to let the yarn shine. I knit it from the top down, so it would fit exactly the way I want it to. And it does.

I've already cast on for another one, using Sundara's other fingering-weight yarn, a merino/silk blend. I took some notes when I knit this first one, but I'm doing better this time so I can write up a pattern. I'm also planning on knitting a coordinating camisole, and offering a couple of different options for the hems and edgings.

So if you've got a sock yarn that is calling to you that it MUST be knit into something the whole world can admire, stay tuned.

Two-Track Twist

New pattern! Betcha didn't see that one coming. This design is called "Two-Track Twist," both for the way the horseshoe cables seem to run both up and down the sock, and for the fact that I feel like I'm on two different life tracks at the same time -- the mommy track, and the school/professional track. Sometime it's a little weird to go from discussing Elmo to discussing schema theory in the space of an afternoon, you know?

As a Valentine's Day present (because I love) the Two-Track Twist pattern will be available now through Valentine's Day for only $2.

The pattern can be purchased via PayPal using the "buy now" link above. The pattern PDF will be e-mailed automatically when payment is received.

These socks are knit from the top-down on two circular needles, and the pattern includes a photo tutorial on working the wee cables without a cable needle, to make your life a little easier.

For one sample, I used Cascade Heritage sock yarn (one skein makes a pair) and for the other, I used two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (two skeins make a pair). You can of course substitute any number of other sock yarns, but I recommend using something which has a multi-ply construction, as these yarns do, because you will get better stitch definition. The pattern looks fine in two-ply sock yarn, but a multi-ply will make the cables "pop" just a little bit more.

I used US size 0 needles (2mm), but I think I may be a bit of a loose knitter, so be sure to use whatever gets you the correct gauge. The size of the pattern repeat makes it a little difficult to add or subtract repeats as a way of resizing the socks, but you can certainly get a larger sock by adding length to the cuff and foot, as well as using a larger needle. Those with smaller feet may find that the only adjustment necessary will be to shorten the length of the foot, as the pattern stitch draws in like a ribbing, providing some flexibility in fit.

The Ravelry page for Two-Track Twist is here, and you can see a few more photos here, on my Flickr page.

November Sweater (a little late)

You may remember a sweater I started way back in November, using Dream in Color Classy in the very appropriately named November Muse colorway. The thing was, even though all of the skeins I had were the same dye lot number, they did not match. If you click on the link to that earlier blog post, you'll see that the top half of the sweater is a nice warm brown, while the bottom half is decidedly muddier and duller. What's up with that? I mean, what's the point of labeling your yarn with dye lots if there's that much variation within the lot? It makes no sense.

I really hate alternating skeins in the round, so I just knit and seethed a little, and decided I would deal with the problem later. Now, normally I would have probably finished the sweater, said "ugh!" at the now-glaring and galling differences in the skeins, and banished the sweater to a dark corner of the closet. But luckily, I read Suzanne's blog, so I knew that the problem was fix-able. She is a master (mistress?) of overdyeing. Check it out: her Sahara is a great example of how to deal with a project that ended up using two very different dye lots, and her more recent Autumn Leaves shows us that all is not lost when a yarn fights with the pattern into which it is knit. Cool, huh?

So, I popped my sweater in the washer with a packet of RIT dye in Cocoa Brown -- which was not far off from the color of the yarn to begin with -- and gave it a whirl. The dye bath was not super concentrated, so the variegation in the yarn still comes through, but now the entire sweater is all the same color. Hooray!

YUM.

I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Reese's peanut butter cups. They ought to be good, because they are made of peanut butter and chocolate. And yet, upon actually eating one, I am inevitably disappointed. For some reason, most of the chocolate used in commercially produced candies has a weird bitter, slightly chemical-ey aftertaste that I can't stand. Maybe it's the corn syrup? Or the fact that they're using the cheapest possible ingredients? I don't know. But it's a sad way to execute a good idea.

Homemade peanut butter cups taste way better than anything you'll buy in the shop, and actually really easy to make. All you have to do is melt a little chocolate in the microwave, and mush up a mixture of peanut butter, sugar, and a little vanilla. You really can't go wrong. I used the recipe from Have Cake, Will Travel, and I highly recommend it. I didn't have mini cupcake liners, so I just used regular ones and made only six. They're quite decadent. To fancy them up a bit, I sprinkled a little bit of my favorite flake salt on top. I think it's a good addition, since it brings out the saltiness in the peanut butter mixture nicely. Because the chocolate isn't really tempered, I'm not sure how well these will hold up at room temperature, but I think they taste better straight out of the refrigerator anyway.

Souvenirs

It seems like all I'm doing on the blog lately is apologizing for not blogging! Sorry about that. One of the less pleasant souvenirs I brought back with me was some kind of nasty stomach bug. On Tuesday I ended up going to the hospital to get IV fluids and antibiotics, I was so sick. Very unpleasant. Jason and Measure were both under the weather as well. It sucks to be sick, but at least we weren't feeling lousy during our trip, right?

The other souvenirs we brought back were much more pleasant. We got some presents for our family, and I definitely did a little shopping for myself. Thailand is a great place to buy clothes -- we ordered a custom suit and some shirts for Jason, and a jacket, pants, and a skirt for me at one of Chiang Mai's many tailors. Chiang Mai also has tons of cute, independent boutiques, and I found some stuff I really like. In Bangkok, one of my favorite places we visited was the Jim Thompson House. If you're ever in the city, I highly recommend visiting and taking a tour. The house itself is actually made of six traditional Thai houses, all made of teak, which Thompson purchased from various places in Thailand and had assembled together on the property. It's all set in really beautiful gardens, and there is also a nice casual restaurant and a shop at the same location. The shop sells nicer than usual touristy t-shirts and stuffed animals and the like, but the real highlight is the selection of silk products highlighting the beautiful Thai weaving that inspired Thompson to start his business. I had to get a scarf of course, and I wish you could see it in person because the photo really doesn't do justice to the subtle interplay of colors. Definitely a better souvenir than the stomach bug!

There's No Place Like Home...

...And there's no feeling quite like jet lag. Sorry to be away from the blog for so long, but for the last part of our trip, I was just too busy or too tired, or both.

Now we're just recuperating. Measure and Jason both seem a little under the weather, and I am just incredibly tired and still recovering from the cold I caught when we were in Japan. But I did get a really beautiful woven silk scarf in Thailand, and some other cool stuff I really want to share with you, so I promise photos and a more engaging post as soon as I feel a little bit less like a zombie.

Monkey School and Elephant Camp

We're having a lot of fun here in Chiang Mai. The weather is beautiful -- not too hot, but pleasantly warm -- and we've been having fun hanging out with our friends here. Today, my friend Chris took Jason out rock climbing, while Chris's girlfriend Nid and I went and got pedicures and went shopping.

Yesterday, Chris and Nid took us out to visit both a monkey school, and an elephant training camp. At the monkey school, trainers teach monkeys (actually, a couple different species of macaques) how to harvest coconuts. They also put on a little show for visitors.

The baby monkeys were a big attraction, as they cavorted and played. The show was also very cute -- the monkeys demonstrated their coconut-gathering skills, as well as a variety of other behaviors, such as dunking and shooting hoops, riding a tricycle, and even swimming.

The elephant camp was also a lot of fun, though we decided to skip getting an elephant ride. Measure liked the elephants, but only as long as they were a little distance away, so I don't think he would have been too keen to go for a ride. We did have fun feeding them, though.

The trainers and elephants also put on a big show for visitors (of which there were probably a couple of hundred -- the show takes place in a large outdoor stadium, and the seats were all full.) The elephants demonstrated how they haul and stack logs, then got to the fun stuff: they played soccer, threw darts at balloon targets, danced and played harmonicas, and even painted. They didn't just hand the elephants paintbrushes and have them slap paint around, either, they've trained them to paint flowers, trees, cherry blossoms -- even elephants. As usual, I've got more photos posted in this set on Flickr if you want to check them out.