Knit night!

I went to my first-ever knit night, and met a group of great ladies. I'm hopeful that I can make it over at least a few times each month.

Mmmmm. Pumpkin!

We carved pumpkins Tuesday night, and I roasted the seeds. Not as good as last year... but I forgot to mark the recipe I used. That's one big down side of Internet recipe-hunts, I've found. I can rarely re-find the ones I use.

This morning, I made whole wheat pumpkin scones, based on the recipe at A Dash of Sass. I used a food processor, instead of making them by hand, and substituted milk and Splenda for the cream and sugar. I was also lazy, and did not use nuts or fancy up the tops. Some mornings, it's quick gratification.

The adjustments I made turned this recipe into a diet-friendly scone -- something I really need to do more.

Whole wheat pumpkin scones (based on A Dash of Sass recipe)

2 c. whole wheat flour
2 t. baking powder
1/3 c. Splenda
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 t. grated nutmeg
1/2 . ground ginger
1/4 t. ground cloves
1 egg
1/2 T. vanilla
1/2 c. pumpkin
1 T. milk
1/2 c. butter, cubed and chilled

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix pumpkin, milk, vanilla and egg in a bowl, put in refrigerator.

Pulse dry ingredients in food processor to mix.

Add butter, and pulse until it looks like clumpy, wet sand. (about 10 one-second pulses -- be careful not to overpulse)

Add wet ingredients, pulse just until dough comes together.

Turn dough out onto counter or other surface. Roll out to 1 to 1 1/2 inch thickness and cut into triangles. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet, and bake 15-17 minutes.

These are darn good scones. Though, when I make them again, I would up the spices and add a tablespoon of real maple syrup to give it a bit more flavor. There wasn't quite enough zing for my taste. But they were delicious with butter and coffee!

Owl Baby Vest: Finished!

I am so thrilled -- I'm all done with the Owl Baby Vest. Henry will be able to wear it tomorrow, to the Three Pillars Ceremony. I'm so excited!

And, for my first-ever attempt at embroidery, I don't think it's half bad, though I can tell I need some practice with the technique.

The pattern's available for free, here: http://caffeinatedyarn.blogspot.com/2008/04/owl-baby-vest.html

Here's a picture, of the vest on the floor. Once I've got it on the kiddo, I'll get a photo of it in action.

The importance of yarn choice

When I decided I was going to make the Owl Baby Vest for Henry, I thought about what yarn to use. I knew I wasn't going to use the DK in the pattern, because I needed to make it bigger but didn't feel like doing a whole bunch of math.

He's a toddler, and I figured superwash would probably be best. But I didn't have any superwash in the stash. And I had no yarn money.

I did, however, have a TON of Cascade 220.

Despite its non-superwash status, I cast on. I'm making great progress on the vest, but I didn't get it done in time to put Henry in it for a family wedding yesterday afternoon.  The armhole ribbing wasn't done yet.

And, it's a good thing.

Henry puked all over, almost as soon as we sat down for the ceremony. I was covered in it, he was covered in it, and if he'd been wearing the Owl Baby Vest, the vest would have been covered in it. It would probably have been the first and only time he would have worn it. Not exactly sure how I would have gotten the baby puke out of the hand-wash-only wool vest.

Lovely.

I'm going to be adding some superwash to the stash.

Owl Baby Vest: Yarn ball wound!

I did the math, and all I've got to do to adjust the baby-sized Owl Baby Vest into a toddler sized vest for my little guy is go up a yarn size.

My hope is that the vest will be ready for Henry to wear to a wedding next Saturday. I'll have to be one speedy knitter (not my normal state) to get it done in time. The only yarn I've got in the house is Cascade 220. No superwash. I know I'm tempting fate... but I don't care!

If I can get this finished, and the Third Wave Harf done, then I can start socks and a sweater for me in November. I've got some great yarn for both projects and can't wait to get cracking!

Here's hoping...

Quick progress update

I've completed the hood on the Third Wave Harf, and picked out a couple sock patterns to use for my first pair of socks. I'm hoping to cast on tonight for the Owl Baby Vest.

I'll get pictures up soon.

Serendipity

Last month I had to drive an hour a day to get to work. I was driving through country roads to get to a jury trial in a nearby county. I didn't want to spend my brand new two-hour commute (it usually takes only 7 minutes to drive to work) just thinking about work, and started listening to Lime & Violet's podcast.

I downloaded a few random episodes and got to listening. In the first episode I listened the gals talked about Amy Weber's artwork, among other things. The next episode I listened to, they talked about Amy again, and followed up on a whole lot of the things they'd talked about in the first episode.

When I got to court and fired up the Internet connection I went to Amy's blog. It just felt a bit too coincidental to let it pass by. She had just posted information about her newest project -- a traveling art box. Crazy stuff started happening in the trial, so I had to stop paying attention to the Web.

As soon as I got home, and got the toddler off to bed, I fired it back up, and managed to get myself on the list.

The box is off, winging its way around the globe. I can't wait for the day it gets here. I've got some ideas for some projects to load back in when it arrives.

Devil brownies, a la Sie Macht

Last week I made devil brownies as described by my good buddy Erin over at Sie Macht. I committed the cardinal sin of fudge brownie-making, however, and overbaked them.

I shall try again, and this time, I won't be a chicken. Those puppies will come out when they still look gooey.

Of reading and knitting

Lately, if I'm not knitting, I'm reading. I went through a stage where very little knitting or reading got done and now I want to do both all the time. Sleep? Who needs sleep... There's books to read! There's stitches to knit!

I checked Middlesex out from the library last week (if you haven't read it, I recommend it), and just finished it this morning. I'm now blazing through The Children's Blizzard, and will then pick up Sex with Kings. It's that last one that gave me and a literary friend an idea: a chain of book titles.

See, I'll go from Middlesex to Sex with Kings to something that starts with Kings and ends with some other word, then follow that one to the next book, and so on and so forth. This brings me back to my college days, wandering the stacks of Memorial Library letting the typeface, title and first sentence of a book seduce me.

Middlesex would have won on all three counts, had I actually encountered in the late 1990s.

In knitting news, I managed to get another full repeat of the cable pattern finished in the Third Wave Harf. I'll get pictures posted soon. Here and on Ravelry.

A sock pledge

I'm getting together with a knitterly buddy on Saturday, and we're making a stop at Just 4 Ewe in Oak Creek. I popped in there one day and left with a tiny circular needle perfect for making socks! Now I've just got to make the socks... I should really search ravelry for a sock knit-a-long or something.

Also, I'm intrigued by Kory Stamper's double-knitting sock technique. That might be the key to getting me to knit socks.

Green with envy...

I've been at a jury trial all week. Another knitter worked on a lime green baby hat throughout the whole thing. I took notes on my work laptop. My fingers were jealous.

Back home

So, the new blog location's all gone, and I'm going to move back here.

I've been driving an hour each way to and from an off-site work site this week, and discovered Lime n Violet's podcast. I've been inspired, and am rededicating myself to knitterly and other artistic and creative pursuits.

I've got some ideas for writing, knitting and quilting to start with... we'll see what else appears.

I've moved!

Check out my.journaltimes.com/knitwithchopsticks

(now defunct 8/19/2009)

SP finale

I should have pics up here for you to see, but camera-wizard husband has been working like crazy since the box arrived. The stuff's too nice for me to give it my usual cell phone camera treatment.

Either way, my spoiler was Karyn, who sent me a lovely pink lace shaw (I've been using it almost every day, particularly at work), some gorgeous brown yarn, lavendar-scented face mask, and delicious treats! I promise the photos will come soon.

Wedding day!

Two of my dearest friends are getting married today. My husband and I are in the wedding, and I'm super excited to be a part of their big day. Some last-minute things to take care of (like hair, shoe shopping and make-up buying) but other than that, I'm ready to go.

Yay wedding!

So busy!

No knitting is getting done. Ack. So much for my four-rows-a-day commitment...

It's my birthday, SP10 style!

I got an e-mail from my secret pal last weekend, wishing me a happy birthday (it was on June 3) and letting me know that a package was on its way. I must admit, I was getting a bit worried when it still hadn't come by the end of last week. But, no worries anymore! That package just had an awfully long way to go -- check out that postmark!

A goofy aside about the package... I got home from work and checked the mail about 5:30 p.m. Monday night. No package. My husband and I were going grocery shopping and I thought I had forgotten to lock the front door. When I went to check, there was this package sitting there. Who delivers packages after 5:30 p.m., without knocking on the door? My suggestion -- the postman we saw driving in our neighborhood on Sunday. Apparently there's a good samaritan mailman in town. Thanks, whoever you are!

I couldn't wait to see what was inside, and I started opening it (leaving my husband waiting out in the backyard). Oops. He came to the door pretty quick, though, and watched me finish opening.

Here's what I found:

Fruit jelly candies, some chocolate and an adorable notebook that says "Mon chouchou" on the front and "Quelque chose de bon peut m'arriver" on each inside page. Mon chouchou was always my favorite of the French pet names -- chou is cabbage -- though I suppose the American pumpkin doesn't make much more sense. The inside phrase means (roughly) "something good will come to me."

Missing from the picture are sticky notes that say "A note from a groovy chick." Those are so coming to work with me.

Also:

Chopsticks! These are way nicer than the wood ones that come with take-out Chinese! I'll bring them to use on sushi days with my friend Sarah. I also love the cute red case to put them in. It's got bunnies on it, which is hard to see through the plastic package.

And finally:


Yarn! It's way more blue than this picture shows. This is, I think, the softest bamboo yarn I've ever seen. I touch it often, but never buy for some reason. This shall become a baby something. I just don't know what yet! The color would work great for a boy or a girl!

Thanks, secret pal!

(p.s. I had a dream about the chopsticks last night. It was very odd. There were tiny candles inside them. That's all I remember.)

And in a side note, I've decided to try plowing ahead with the Mommy Snug. I'm committing myself to a minimum of four rows a day. I had 12 done, realized my gauge was totally wonky, so I frogged it back, and now have eight. But it looks closer to the right size.

Delusional knitter? Yeah. That's me.

So, I'm coming to realize that I was incredibly delusional when I thought I'd be able to knit the Mommy Snug in time to wear it. It's June and baby's due in November. That gives me just about three months to knit it.

I swatched, and my row guage is off, so I did all this math, and I think I got it right, but I haven't even had time to cast on for the front. Argh! I'm not the world's fastest knitter to begin with, I've already got one failed sweater project lurking in my stash (Swatched, cast-on, started, then frogged) and I'm not looking forward to another one.

This has me rather disappointed. I could start the sweater, see how long it takes to do the front, and save the whole thing for any future pregnancies or I can start hunting for alternate uses of 19 skeins of Classic Elite Four Seasons Cotton. Grrr.

Finished!

I finished the Ballet T the other night. No pics yet, but I'll try and get some up this weekend. It's all rainy and cloudy, so the light's not great for photo taking...

Must keep knitting!

The baby must have been going through one heck of a growth spurt last week, because I was back to napping every afternoon. Not much knitting gets done when I'm zonked out for two hours. I knit a few rows on the Ballet T last night, though, and I think I've got nine rows left. I'm hoping I can finish it up this week. I really want to get cracking on the Mommy Snug now!