The Scullery

Some Finished Stuff

I got a few winter break projects finished up in the last couple of weeks, so here's a picture post.
Pattern is Monkey, from knitty, probably the most-often-knit sock pattern in existence at this point. This was the first pair I started, but then I put them on hold and knit another pair for a friend:  It really is a fun pattern, and I had it memorized after the first repeat, so I'll probably make many more. Oh, both pairs were my first time using the yarn involved, too: the top pair is Socks That Rock, and the grey ones are Schaefer Anne. Love both yarns, have more of each (yippee!)

I finished another Clapotis, too (gee, is this the post of over-exposed patterns, or what?) I used almost three skeins of Lion & Lamb for it, but it's three repeats shorter and one repeat narrower than the original pattern. I don't think I'd want it any bigger - it would be too bulky to wear as a scarf and too long as a shawl. Right now, it wraps around my shoulders and ties in front without the ends dangling too far, and if I wear it as a scarf, I can double it and pull the ends through the loop and it's just right. The colors aren't really me, but it looks nice with a green sweater that I wear a lot.

I'm not sure what is up next. I have 3 requests for socks, and will probably start one of them this weekend, but I don't know what I want to make for myself next. Maybe I'll take the Yarn Harlot's calendar suggestion and do a stash cull this weekend, and see what inspires me. In all my spare time, between reading two books, writing two papers, creating a research proposal, and maybe, just maybe, doing some much-needed housework!

Comfort Food

My blog prompt buddies over on ravelry picked Comfort Food recipes for this round of posts. It's a chilly Saturday here in northern Colorado, and I have a pile of studying to do, so it's a perfect day for some quick comfort food that I can stretch to lunches/dinners for a couple of days.  Like nearly all my food posts here, this one comes from my favorite cookbook, 365 Great 20 Minute Recipes, by Beverly Cox. The good news? After being long out of print and unavailable, I just checked Amazon and there are loads of copies available through their affiliated sellers at cheap, cheap prices. Go buy this cookbook! I guarantee you will not be disappointed. And before you look at this recipe title and think "tuna helper! ewwww!" all I can say is trust me.

FUSILLI WITH TUNA SAUCE

1 lb fusilli
3 T olive oil
2 (14.5 oz) cans diced pasta-ready tomatoes, with their liquid
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 T lemon juice
2 tsp drained capers
1/2 tsp pepper
2 (6.5 oz) cans oil-packed tuna

1. Cook fusilli according to package directions and drain it.
2. In a large skillet, heat the oil. Add the tomatoes, olives, parsley, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring, until heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in cpaers and season with pepper.
3. Add cooked pasta to pan and toss to combine. Add tuna with oil and toss gently to break tuna into chunks.

I usually sprinkle a little shredded parmesan cheese on top. Like, just now, when I had it for lunch!

If you want to make substitutions, a couple things to keep in mind: this is a fairly flavorful sauce, so if you wnat to substitute another protein for the tuna, you need something else with a pretty strong flavor. I don't think chicken or shrimp would work very well - too mild.

Likewise the pasta: you need a pretty chunky pasta to handle this sauce. I was out of fusilli today and subbed farfalle, and it's a little wimpy.

I don't always use the olives, and that does take the flavor down a notch. Fresh olives are way better than canned for this - I don't even bother with them if I don't have fresh olives.

Yumm! Off to refill my bowl.

New Toy

I haven't done much spinning at all since last summer, and I thought a new spindle would help jumpstart the spinning mojo, so I got myself one! It is a tapered square of sodalite on a walnut shaft, from Zebisisdesigns on etsy. Lovely lightweight spindle, with a long shaft and good balance. The fiber is some Finn top from the same vendor, and I first started spinning it quite fine, but the cop on the spindle in the photo is the second try, that will probably come out to a nice sockweight 3 ply.

Oh, and I finished the grey and pink striped socks out of Austermann Step:   I seem to have some sort of pink/taupe thing going on right now, don't know why. I'm not loving the odd striping pattern in these socks, but they're meant to be bootsocks for a friend, and she's looking for warmth, not beauty.

Startitis

Well, not so much startitis as a rush to get things done before school starts again in a couple of weeks. I started a pair of Monkey socks in lovely STR Thraven, only to discover, once working on them under natural light, that the yarn is very GREEN, not very Black. Which is fine, except that I was using them as my entry in the ravelry Solid Socks KAL for January, which specs black, grey or burgundy colors. oops. So I started a second pair: these are Schaefer Anne in an unknown colorway that has been aging in my stash for a while, waiting for the perfect project. This is definitely the perfect project. I LOOOOOVE the way they feel! Still knitting the first pair, too; I'll give one pair to the friend who's getting the grey and pink ribbed socks in my Dec 31 post, and keep one pair for myself. I haven't knit Monkeys before, nor have I knit with STR, so I'm a little worried about yarn famine. Anyone know if there's enough yardage in STR for Monkeys in size 8?

Darn. I forgot the plum pudding.

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you're enjoying the day, and indulging in whatever traditions you keep, be it food, drink, or football. I've hit most of my annual traditions today, but not the plum pudding. We used to have that when I was a child - I think a neighbor made it for us - and one of these years, I'm going to give it a try.

I know 2008 was a tough year for many people. I've always been a "gee, that glass looks pretty full" kinda gal, and I have been blessed with many good things this past year. Most importantly, 2008 is the year my wonderful niece Mikayla joined our family, and that overrides any negative memories.

As far as resolutions go, I'm never very serious about making them at New Year's. I'm a longtime FranklinQuest What Matters Most follower, so goal-setting is more of an ongoing process for me than a calendar-driven one. My New Year's resolutions tend to be of the "take more bubblebaths, drink more champagne" variety. However, this year, I'm making an exception, with one knitting resolution and one diet resolution.

Knitting: Challenge myself to find solutions.

Instead of just saying, oh, I don't like toe-up socks, and skipping all the lovely toe-up patterns out there, this year I'm going to figure out why I don't like them and find solutions to make them work for me.  I'm pretty sure nothing will solve my dislike of intarsia, though.

Diet: Help Harley lose 1.5 pounds.

Ha! You thought I meant MY diet? bwahahahahaha

Harley weighs a hefty 17 pounds as of this morning, and he really ought to be somewhere around 12. We're going to aim for about a 20% reduction over the year, which almost certainly means cutting back on his food, since all attempts to get him to exercise have failed miserably. Exhibit A will be the photo at the end of yesterday's post, and we'll keep y'all up to date on our progress.

Famous Last Words

Okay, first of all, ripping mohair is never easy. RipRipSnip, ripripsnip.
Second, I need to go over to ravelry and change my profile where it says I've been knitting for 40 years. I've been doing something that involved yarn and needles all that time, but based on this sweater, I'm not sure I'd call it knitting. Not only did I not weave in ends, or swatch, or block, I actually tied knots in the yarn, right in the middle of large swaths of plain stockinette. Sigh. Actually, scratch the not sure bit. I think good basic knitting is what saved this garment. It's the finishing that was an abomination. The sleeve seams would've made you cry. Or laugh. But mohair apparently hides many, many flaws.

Some before and after shots:
There you have ugly seaming, knots, and 8 inch loose ends! Yikes.

There you have salvaged yarn, soon to take a nice warm bath in some Soak and be restored and ready for a new project.

Okay, on to other, less scary stuff: I'm making a pair of socks for a friend, who requested them after borrowing a pair I'd made from another friend. She's quite fashion-conscious, so I'm doing something I've never done before - matching the stripes.
Last but not least, I must end the year with a kitty picture, showing something else that's never been done before - Harley and Cyra occupying the cat perch simultaneously and in some form of harmony.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Knitting Resolutions: Recycle More

Last year, one of my New Year's resolutions was to recycle more stuff. I've done really well with that, cutting way back on my landfill contributions, recycling all my plastic, glass, paper, paperboard and cardboard. I've switched to canvas bags for all my shopping, except when I need more Target bags for the kitty litter trash can. I got mesh bags for fruit and veggies so I don't need those obnoxious thin plastic bags from the grocery store, I use plain white washable terry towels instead of paper towels, and I'm switching all my light bulbs to compact fluorescents as the incandescent bulbs die.

Now I'm extending the recycling love to the knitting. Here's Project #1: The Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair cardi. I knit this some years ago, and have worn it and loved it since then, but it has a few flaws and is looking a little ratty. Back when I made this, I didn't understand about swatching, didn't know about blocking, and never got around to putting buttons on it. (It DOES have buttonholes, though! I'm not a total slouch.) I plan to take it apart and recycle the yarn. Since I also didn't know about weaving in yarn ends, the taking-apart process should be pretty easy! 

A Little Knitting

A Christmas gift for a friend, still in progress:
It is the Marialis scarf, designed by Myrna Stahman. Ravelry says the pattern is in 101 One Skein Projects, or something like that, but I got it originally in IK, I think. The backstory on this scarf: I'd taken the yarn and another pattern home to Maine over Thanksgiving, but the other pattern wouldn't cooperate. Faced with NO KNITTING!!! for a week, and looming Christmas deadlines, I was getting slightly, ummm, stressed. Mom said what about that scarf I have? Said scarf would be the original Marialis I made for her 8 or 10 years ago, when the pattern first came out. So I sat down with the scarf and got a little stitch pattern help via email from a friend (I was out of ravelry range) et voila! A brand new Marialis. I'd forgotten how much I love this pattern. It's so elegant. The yarn is String Theory Hand Dyed Bamboo Merino in the colorway Labrador.

Oh, and a Harley picture, just because. This was one of those traumatic moments when I was vacuuming.

Surfacing....

Oh! Hi. eek. Didn't realize I'd gone so long without a post. Where did November go, anyway?  Here's a quick update on what I've been doing. Short on pix, though, 'cause all my camera batteries need recharging.

I spent the last 10 days on the east coast for the big adoption celebration and family holiday stuff - yayyyy! Did a wee bit of knitting on a scarf for my Christmas hostess. It took 3 tries with one pattern before I gave up and switched to another one, and 2 tries to get that one right, then last night I discovered a mistake that took a couple of hours to fix. I'm wondering if this project is doomed. This yarn really doesn't seem to want to be a scarf.

I am in progress on several other holiday projects...one for my sis that I can't show because she might look, but it's Dream in Color in Lunar Zazzle in a fun pattern. A Marley's Ghost for a friend (not linking 'cause he might look). A cashmere scarf for my uncle, although now that I'm half done I find out he doesn't wear scarves. But really, who wouldn't wear a cashmere scarf? I'm gonna keep knitting. Calorimetrys for the niece and her two best pals. Dad wants more socks but they won't be for Christmas, and Mom wants the Orange Cannibalfish socks that are too big for me, but they won't actually be a Christmas gift, either, just a "here, have some socks" package.

Otherwise, school continues to suck up nearly all my knitting time, blogging time, sleeping time, etc. I'll report in after finals. Wish me luck!

A Progress Pic

Despite the feline knitting assistance pictured in last week's post, I have made progress on Mikayla's new sweater. Still have to do the trim around the hood, and stitch down the pocket trim, but I love how it looks so far!

I think I'll need to get more of this yarn to make something for myself - it's a dream to knit with and the colors are fabulous.