Yarn Zombie

Had a massive computer fail twice in the past month. Travis was able to cobble together a temporary fix, but needs to do some repair work to get it all the way healthy again. Blerg.

I’m still doing quite a lot of knitting. I’ve been a sock machine lately, but when I get sick of socks, I’ve moved on to my latest bit of lunacy, knitting a really long piece of I-cord.

My master plan is to sew or crochet it into a rug. So I knit and knit, and occasionally wind the whole thing up into a circle to see how much I’ve gotten. My latest check shows that it is just big enough to be a kitty rug.

Everytime I coil up the I-cord, Ellie immediately jumps on top of it, like it’s a kitty target. Weird.

Spider! from juicysauce on Vimeo.

A couple of days ago, I decided to knit Travis a fully realistic, to scale model of a spider. In the interest of science, you know. Here’s what I came up with.

It’s somewhat amazing how accurate I managed to make it. You may notice that, unlike most spiders, this one only has seven legs.

That’s due to it also doubling as an homage to the greatest piece of art ever made, the seven legged spider.

I promise not to kill you…

In other news, the New Year’s Eve food turned out delicious, except for the crepes, which instead of being crepetastic were craptastic. Oh well. We’ve already made more of the pepperoni breadsticks and the roasted garlic potato soup.

Nom!

It’s been a while since I last posted – it didn’t seem that long, but I think I just got caught up in the annual flurry of Christmas knitting that happens (Must… knit… SOCKS!!!). I’ve been on a mini-hiatus of sorts from the shop, because I’ve been in really productive mode lately (re: knitting stuff), but look forward to putting more fibery goodness back up in January, barring horrible bitterly cold temps that make me want to curl up in the fetal position until winter passes.

We’ve had bitterly cold temps recently, and all it’s done is made me knit socks. So, here it is, the last sock of Ought-Nine:

It’s a modified version of the Slouch pattern (pdf link). I just made a roll top, shorter gusset, and an eye-of-partridge heel instead. I’ll start working on the matching sock today, but don’t think I’ll get it done before New Year’s. I have 12 tons of food I’m planning on making for New Year’s Eve festivities instead. Hooray, food!

My theme for New Year’s Eve Foodstravaganza is, roughly, “shit I feel like making.” This includes the following:

1. Pepperoni breadsticks and cheesy sauce (inspired by, and based on, cheap pepperoni breadsticks made by what was Pizza Luca and is now Pizza di Roma in the Muncie Mall). Basically, I’m just making some pizza dough, letting that rise, and then roll out and cut into breadstick shapes. Then, I’m going to slit open the dough, insert tiny pepperonis (have you seen the tiny round pepperonis they have available now? So adorable!), let rise again, brush with olive oil and melted butter, and then sprinkle garlic powder on top of that. And then bake. I haven’t tried making these yet, but in theory, they sound really good.

2. Spicy bean salsa. My mom made this for Christmas and it was the bomb. She looked at the recipe as a jumping off point, and added fresh jalepeno, cilantro, and some other stuff in it.

3. Roasted Garlic and Potato soup. Just because I ran across the recipe yesterday and it sounded tasty.

4. Crock Pot Italian beef sandwiches. Spicy messy noms!

5. Crepes with 3 toppings/fillings: Chocolate ganache, sauteed apples, and/or creme anglaise. The crepe part of the meal is courtesy of Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio cookbook. And also the wacky crepe making concoction Travis got for me this summer. Made the ganache already!

On a related subject to both knitting and cooking, I got a netbook last month and it has come in even more useful than I had anticipated. I’ve taken to transferring a bunch of my standard knitting patterns in to it and use that while knitting instead of referring to my old, beat up, torn, and practically illegible notebook I’ve been scribbling patterns into for the past two years. It’s also nice to use while cooking, because I can bring the netbook into the kitchen and just reference recipes I have bookmarked online rather than having to print stuff out and waste a bunch of paper (and get more and more disorganized). It’s not much heavier than a cookbook, actually. The future is now!

So here’s some insanely bright mohair yarn that I dyed.

I think I shall name this yarn “OMG! MOHAIR! KITTENZ! RAAAAINBOW POOPS!’ Or something like that. The weather has been nice the past week, so I’ve gotten a bunch of dyeing done. I should have a shop update sometime later this week.

Bela inexplicably woke me up this morning by howling. WTF? She’s never done that. Toby used to, once every four months or so, but this is a first (that I know of) for Bela. Bizarre.

Other happy things for a gray day: Yan Yan

and sugar cookies:

Been doing a lot of knitting lately. I am in sock machine mode. Also finished spinning a skein of superwash yarn that is destined to become socks.

I’m not real keen on the way the yarn looks in the skein, but I think I’ll like it better once it becomes a sock.

I bought some Mexican cocoa tea stuff at Whole Foods a while back. I didn’t realize it had anise in it. I’ve tried it both hot and cold now, and it still tastes foul to me. I think I’m just going to pitch the rest of it. What is wrong with people that would make them think adding anise to Mexican cocoa is a good idea?!

Been crafty lately! I put a bunch of stuff up in the shop on Friday, including some hand dyed fabric.

Is that not the most cheerful fabric bundle ever? It makes me happy to look at it.

I put the fabric up because I’ve been in a fabric-y mood lately. After not having done anything with the sewing machine in months, I got it back out in order to try getting this Big Ass Quilt quilted.

It took me about 3 hours just to get the thing basted. And now it weighs about a million pounds. So I’m working on quilting it, but slowly, because I can only stand to deal with it and the sewing machine for about an hour at a time.

If it wasn’t quite so big and heavy, it would actually be enjoyable. I just want to get it done and on the bed. I bought a duvet thingy at Ikea last time we went, but it has a huge opening in the bottom of the duvet cover and it keeps pooping out the duvet innards at night. I need to put velcro or buttons or something to keep it closed.

Despite it being kind of a pain to deal with, I’m actually getting excited about quilting again, which is nice. I have 12 tons of fabric, but haven’t felt like doing anything with it for so long. I think I’m going to make a bunch of quilts this winter.

Also back into knitting again, happily. Finished a new pair of socks made from handspun. They don’t match at all, which is awesome.

I still had 39 grams (I haz a scale) of handspun left, so I started knitting another pair of socks with them in order to use the yarn up. I knit down to where the heel starts, and then am using some leftover chunks of hand dyed yarns to finish them off.

They look a little odd, but who cares? It’s nice to be able to an entire skein of yarn. I use *all* the parts of the skein, including the squeal!

Last night I successfully made coconut rice for the first time (there was an earlier, unsuccessful attempt…). I used this recipe. It was a piece of cake and cooked perfectly. I topped it with, what else, roasted garbanzo beans. I love them so. I think if I were a magician, my stage name would be The Great Garbanzo. I think next time I make it, I want to combine some onions and carrots in with the garbanzos. I don’t know why, but carrots seem like they would be a perfect match to the coconut rice.

After about 3 years of not doing so, my cat has suddenly started jumping up on the couch with me and Bela and snuggling. It’s terribly cute.

I’ve finally shaken off the malaise that I’ve had since coming home from vacation and am back to doing crafty things. It’s been nice. This morning I dyed some yarn for the shop, which has been neglected for the past month. Don’t be sad, little Etsy shop! I will soon refill you with yarny goodness!

I’m thinking I’ll get a shop update done on Friday. Yarn, and a few other things.

Also am still knitting! Bela dog sweater came out kind of odd, but I think I can use it as a good starting off point for a new one. More excitingly, I finished up a pair of socks for Travis.

Yay! I really liked the socks, but they were kind of an albatross. After I finished up those socks last night, I started on a new pair for me out of some handspun. Right now, it’s a little loose – I’m knitting on size 2s, but probably need to go down to 1s or even 0s. I’m going to knit another few inches and see if the yarn thickness increases (sometimes I spin skinnier at the end or beginning or a skein). If not, I’ll have to rip it out and start over on smaller needles.

My blanket weaving project is cruising right along as well. Got two strips down and am working on a third.

As I laid out these strips of fabric yesterday on our deck, it suddenly occurred to me that I finally have a flat area large enough for me to… wait for it… baste the gigantic quilt top I made a few years ago! Holy crap! I sewed this gigantic thing together, and when I was done realized that it was larger than the space I had available on my living room floor. So, I couldn’t figure out a good place to baste the quilt, and the quilt top has sadly sat in a bag in my closet, neglected and lonely, for the past few years. However, now that I have space, I feel like I have to get this done. I’m going to try and do this tomorrow, but first I have to sew a back for it. This is complicated by the fact that I’m not entirely sure how large the quilt top is – Of course, I didn’t make it a standard size – and the one really good measuring tape we had in our house has disappeared. I guess I’m just going to sew together fat quarters until it seems like it’s big enough.

But first I have to dig out the sewing machine from the back room… eep.

So, I actually did finish that hat from the other day. It’s a bit small, though, so I may just wear it on really cold days when I want my head smashed together. I started knitting Bela a sweater today, too. We bought one for her at Petsmart when we were on vacation. It’s hot pink fleece, and is called a ‘Warmie,’ a sort of Snuggie for dogs, I presume. It’s okay, but a little loose. So I’m trying to knit her one using the Warmie as a guide. I’m knitting it on size 17 needles, so if it turns out not fitting at all, at least I didn’t spend two years making it.

I’ve also been weaving.

I have way too many bits and chunks of handspun yarn hanging around, especially since me and Travis both spin (although not so much recently – mainly because we’ve accumulated so much yarn). So, I decided to try and make a blanket by weaving strips on the loom and then sewing them together when they’re done. Any skein of handspun under 4 oz. is fair game. Got the first strip done today.

I have a bunch of ends hanging out from where I joined the yarn, but I figure I’ll just deal with those later. I’ve actually never tried sewing any handwoven fabric together, so I’m not sure how well it’s going to work. I figure the worst that can happen is that I make a bunch of scarves instead. Actually, the worst that can happen is that Ellie could get a hold of the unsewn fabric and cause massive chaos, causing me to throw everything in the washing machine and make one epic felted blob. That sounds… kind of cool, actually.

I made a really tasty soup today.

Roasted Lemon Chickpea Soup

Heat your oven (if you’re cold and want to warm up your house) or your toaster oven (if you want to save electricity) up to 400 degrees. Open up a can of chickpeas, drain, rinse, and plop them in a small casserole dish or loaf pan. Chop up a medium onion, and throw half of that in with the chickpeas, reserving the other half for later. Drizzle chickpeas and onions with olive oil, sprinkle some salt (and Penzey’s Italian Dressing Base, if you have it) over them, and toss. Wash a lemon in hot water (use a tiny bit of soap and scrub if it has the waxy stuff on it; rinse well), cut in half, and smack one lemon half cut side down in the middle of the chickpeas and onions. The lemon half should be planted firmly on the bottom of the casserole dish.

Get a piece of tin foil and throw 6-8 unpeeled cloves of garlic (cut one end of the garlic off first!) on it. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Fold up the tin foil into a small packet and place both that and the chickpeas in the oven and roast for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, turn the heat off to the oven, but keep everything still inside. I waited about a half hour before I started working on the soup (the only reason I did this was that I heard letting the roast lemon sit makes it not so bitter. Also, I wasn’t in any sort of rush).

Put a bit of butter (a little less than a Tablespoon) and a small drizzle of olive oil (because there’s no such thing as too much olive oil) in a pot, and toss in the rest of the onions. Cook on low or medium low for about 10-12 minutes. After that, turn up the heat to medium and pour in about 3-4 cups of chicken broth (I like the boxed kind you can get at Costco!). At this point I also threw in a cube of frozen cilantro – I’m guessing fresh cilantro or parsley would be even better. I seasoned the soup with a few dashes each of cayenne pepper, curry powder, and Penzey’s Sunny Spain seasoning. I also added just a pinch of some hickory smoked sea salt – that stuff is pretty strong, so you don’t need to add a lot of it at all.

Stir, and add in about 3/4 of the roasted chickpeas and onions. Also squirt in the roasted garlic (just press together on the garlic peel and the roasted garlic should shoot right out). Take the roasted lemon and, being careful not to get any seeds into the soup, squeeze the juice into the pot.

Once all of that is in there, blend together the soup using a stick blender if you have one (and if you don’t, I highly recommend getting one – they’re awesome!) or by pouring the soup into a regular blender. When most of the chickpeas have been squooshed up and the soup is thicker, add in the remaining chickpeas and onions. Let simmer for 5 or 10 more minutes, letting all of your flavors get happy together, and then eat.

This really turned out awesome, especially the roasted lemon part. It added such a great note to the soup, I think I’m going to start roasting lemons in everything. I ate some of the roasted chickpeas while making the soup (because I love roasted chickpeas), and the lemon flavor infused those, too. It’s like eating sunshine. Or sun eggs (\Party Down reference\).

No shit! I honestly haven’t felt much like knitting stuff for the past few months, for whatever reason. I don’t know. I thought that when I went on vacation, I would spend a bunch of time hanging out at a campfire, knitting stuff, but that didn’t really happen either because A. It’s cold in Colorado! and B. There’s a bunch of stuff we wanted to do, so it turned out to be more of an active vacation than a really mellow one. We did, however, do other things by the campfire. Or, on the campfire, actually. Namely:

Make really awesome food. Nom!

Anyway, even though I didn’t knit at all on vacation, I got back in the mood to knit. After my catastrophic floppy knit hat FAIL of last week (where I finished knitting the entire hat and then tried it on, only to find that it didn’t fit, and as a bonus, looked really, really stupid), I started knitting a simple 1×1 ribbed cap out of some handspun. The roving came from Katie, and I spun it as a soft, low twist single. So the hat is really squishy.

All I have left to do is the decreases on the top.

Went to Filene’s Basement in Columbus yesterday and picked up some leg warmer things on sale for $6. My plan is to use them as a template to knit my own. Yes, the winter, I’m going to be the person who wears leg warmers. Maybe for my next trick I’ll be on Fame! Probably not.

Oh, I also started Twittering. Heck if I know why. I think I felt peer pressure once Tracy Morgan started doing it, too. I’m still staying far away from Facebook, no matter how addicting the farm game seems to be.

Hello! I’m back. Back from our 3+ week long epic vacation out West. It was the longest vacation we’ve ever taken, and it was a lot of fun, except when campgrounds in Colorado suddenly started sucking, at which point we just turned south and went to New Mexico instead.

During the trip we saw a bunch of cool stuff, a lot of which were in National Parks and Monuments. That was somewhat serendipitous, because while we were driving back to Ohio, the National Parks documentary was airing in the evenings on PBS. We’d get to a hotel and watch about places we had just been to.

Read a few books about the Dust Bowl and the CCC (one of my all time favorite government programs) while I was gone. We specifically drove back to Ohio taking us on a route that went through some of the hardest hit areas in the Dust Bowl. We saw a bunch of dirt devils in Kansas, leading to this creepy sunset in Wichita:

Soil conservation – you’re doin’ it wrong!

Also along our way was driving through Greensburg, Kansas. We were originally looking to see the World’s Largest Hand-Dug Well, which we never found, because, as we later found out, the visitor’s center had been completely destroyed in the 2007 tornado that also happened to wipe out the rest of the town. As we started driving through the town, it started to occur to me that, “Hey! This was the place that got annihilated in that tornado and now they’re rebuilding everything Green!” Considering the picture on the Wiki page about the town that shows how it looked immediately after the tornado, they’ve really accomplished a lot, but it was still pretty amazing to see the devastation, 2 years on. Main Street is pretty much still wiped out. There are streetlights, but that’s it. Their hospital seemed to be housed in a series of 8 trailers. They did have a really nice gas station/grocery store, though.

Anyway, trying to get accustomed to being back home. That seems to largely entail catching up on a bunch of TV shows I missed (Mad Men, WTF? I leave you alone for a few weeks and you’re taking off people’s feet with lawn tractors?) and doing laundry. Oh, and making soup. It’s cold now, so soup is on the menu.

I need to buy a new printer, an epic quest that is fraught with misery. All I want is a printer, not a scanner or copier or fax machine, but it seems that those are kind of hard to find. Especially since I want one that takes ink cartridges that don’t run out after printing 20 sheets.

But that’s real boring, so enough about that. Here’s a picture of antelopes!

Travis and I are going to go see They Might Be Giants next week. That should be fun. We’re going to see a Flood show, which means they should be performing all of the songs off their album, Flood. I’m especially looking forward to ‘Minimum Wage’ (HYEAH! Whip crack!).

Trying to knit a hat from the top down. Just like knitting socks from the toe up, I sense this is a method that’s not going to work out too well for me. That’s okay. Sometimes it’s nice just to knit, even if I wind up ripping it all out later.

I ran across this list today via Kottke, and it made me happy. I think I have a new game for long car rides, now – “Name something better than a NYC Hot Dog.” Of course, I’ve never had a NYC hot dog, so I’ll just have to replace it with “Name something better than an Arnie’s Hot Dog.” So that probably narrows the list a little bit.

Mmmm, Arnie’s hot dogs… I’d get one covered in cheesy goo, and then put some french fries on top of the cheesy goo hot dog as an extra topping. So freaking good! Yeah, that definitely narrows the list.

Randomly, I bought these pants last week. They were on a major sale, so I figured what the hell. Anyway, they turned out to be awesome. They’re the softest, cuddliest pants ever. I’ve really liked everything I’ve ordered from Athleta, actually. It’s a little pricey, but reasonable if you wait for sales, and even though it’s owned by the Gap, the stuff I’ve gotten all seems to be really well made. They’re my new favorite clothes place.

Oh, Katie, here’s a little something for your dad. Accordians rule!

Last night’s Mad Men was full of win. That’s all that needs to be said.