Not Knitting - Food!

Not so much a recipe as just what I did today to make some pretty yummy chili.

~ 1lb ground beef (85% lean), cooked
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
splash of white wine vinegar
splash of Worcestershire sauce
1c beef broth/boullion
1tsp crushed red pepper
1tsp cumin
1tsp chili powder

Put everything in the crock pot and simmer for 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally.

*Notes: Could have used less beef and more beans. Could also possibly have used some peppers and onions, though it was pretty damned good by itself. Using leaner ground beef or ground turkey/chicken would also cut points.

Made: ~ 7cups .. could be adjusted to make a little more with changed to beans, liquid, etc.
Points: ~ 4 points a serving at 7 cups. (1c servings)

All in all I'm pretty proud of myself. I just made the whole thing up after scanning a few dozen recipes. It had a good kick to it .. that I of course had to tame with sour cream, but that's because I'm a wimp when it comes to spicy food. My stomach just can't handle it.

Look at my adorable Isis .. isn't she sweet!

Proud of myself .. and 'You're the knitting girl, right?'

During a few errands, my copilot .. and the person I taught to knit ... wanted to stop at the yarn shop closest to us. We don't whop there usually, as her prices aren't phenomenal .. but he needed something to finish a scarf he made for his cousin.

So we stopped in.

And despite finding several rack on 40%-off sale, I did not by a single hank, skein or ball of yarn. Not even when I saw the mohair I already have one ball of was in the sale bins. And I really could use a few more balls. But no, I was strong. I resisted temptation. And I bought only the ball he needed .. which of course is really -him- buying the yarn. I just pay for it for now and he pays me back.

---

This was all -after- we went to lunch with hubby at Ruby Tuesday's. We chose to sit in the bar area, as it was empty, and we hate sitting near people. Humanity, in general, annoys us. And, like always, B and I had out knitting with us .. well, he did. I thought I did, but had left the current cloth in the car because I was knitting it waiting for J to get out of work, and didn't get it put back in my take-along bag.

So the waitress comes up to us, asks what we'd like to drink, then pauses and looks at me and says 'You're the knitting girl, right?' I am now know as The Knitting Girl. And I think I kinda like that.

I had a new dishcloth finished, a pattern I made up based on the bamboo stitch, but B's mother absconded with the cloth because she liked it so much. I'll make another one soon and show it off .. I really liked the colors in the yarn I made it from.

I do have this one though, made in the bamboo stitch. It's not as pretty, but it shows off the stitch. The one I made that I no longer have posession of (that'll teach me not to take pictures immediately) is a variation of this stitch.

Nothing to do with Knitting

4 jobs I’ve had in my life:
* Cashier at a grocery store
* Assistant Secretary at my college
* Cashier at a drug store
* Technical Support representative for an internet call center

4 movies I can watch over and over:
* Legend
* Labyrinth
* Harry Potter Movies
* The Princess Bride

4 TV shows I love to watch:
* CSI (All three)
* American Idol
* Hell's Kitchen
* Knitty Gritty

4 places I have lived:
* Springfield, MA
* Hampton, NH
* Derry, NH
* Rock Hill, SC

4 places I have been on holiday:
* Toronto, Ontario Canada
* Mount PLeasant, MI
* New York City, NY
* Atlantic Beach, NC

4 of my favorite dishes:
* Veal marsala
* Lasagne
* Thai pineapple fried rice
* my own recipe for beef soup.

4 websites I visit daily:
* Livejournal.com
* Blogger
* Xanga
* Mystic Wicks

Dishcloths Done!

Well, at least the ones for my neice Brittany are done. Now I'm working on using up more of my cotton stash to make more ..probably will keep some, and give some away. I love the two I already have though, so .. we'll see.

1. Top Left: Lily Sugar & Cream, Key Lime Pie, Pattern: Heart Squares.;2. Top Middle: Lily Sugar & Cream, Orange Creamsicle, Pattern: Basketweave;3. Top Right: Lily Sugar & Cream, Key Lime Pie, Pattern: Bramble;4. Bottom Left: Lily Sugar & Cream, Key Lime Pie, Pattern: Raspberries;5. Bottom Right: Lily Sugar & Cream, Orange Creamsicle, Pattern: Bramble

1. Top Left: Detail of Bramble stitch.;2. Top Right: Closeup of Basketweave and Bramble cloths.;3. Bottom Left: Closeup of Heart Squares cloth.;4.Bottom Right: Closeup of Raspberries cloth.

1. Left: Closeup of Bramble in Orange Creamsicle, showing (sort-of) my pattern mishap.;2. Middle: Detail showing bind-off mishap.;3. Right: Whole cloth, showing the odd edge from my pattern mishap.

As you can perhaps see, I had a little issue with this cloth. Somewhere around my 5th repetition of the pattern, I purled twice, and it flip-flopped the pattern. I flopped it back after 4 repetitions to get back on track. Also, I didn't have -quite- enough orange to finish the cast-off, so I had to use a little bit of the green. Not a huge deal really .. just goes to show I suck at that whole estimating yardage thing. Also, I should have checked Yarn Harlot's recent post detailing a crocheted cast-off.

Now, I get to make cloths using up my stash. I've already started, in fact. I'm making one in a red-pink colorway of the Sugar and Cream (Which I just love to knit with!), using a Bamboo pattern. It's coming out nice, too. I may also get around to frogging the massively huge afghan block and start working on a tesselating fish afghan instead. It's just acrylic, Caron Simply Soft .. so I should be able to fly through it. Making squares is just too dull for me to work on at all.

I have been lax in posting any real knitting content. But then, I have been lax in any real knitting, I guess. I haven't gotten much stash-busting done just yet, and I'm feeling rather un-motivated to do so. Grr.

I have gotten 4 discloths done for my niece, and the fifth and final one is on the kneedles. (Oh lord, I did just type that. I was afraid I'd do that. *sigh*) I have discovered that I -really- like the bramble stitch for dishcloths, and plan to mae a few for myself before giving a bunch away.

I also have looked at my stash and decided that while the eyelash yarn I've hoarded is pretty, I don't much like it for anything I'd wat to make, and I'm going to declutter it. I'll put it on ebay today, I think.

I'll post pictures later of the finished discloths. Time to go enjoy a mid-morning snack. But first .. one of my favorite pictures from my Project Spectrum mosiac:

Project Spectrum - July

Non-Knitting Post

It has been raining for the last two days, mostly just for an hour or two then stopping for a bit, but apparently it rained all night long. I should have taken my camera with me when I drove honey to work. There were lawns flooded, roads that looked like rivers, and ever drainage ditch on the side of the road had been transformed into a rushing rapids. These are a couple of pictures showing the rain outside my front window. The middle one shows where even under my birch tree, the water is pooling on the surface.


I've been cleaning my kitchen .. encouraged by a dear friend's own post elsewhere about her cleaning spree and subsequent pictures. Here's mine.


The first is proof that my knitted dishcloths -do- get used. I love them! The other two show the bar we use as a catch all and the counter to the right of the sink, above my dishwasher. The first one is before I straightened the bar just today, the second is after. (Duh!)


The first one here shows my clean sink, complete with dishcloths. Note the messy bar .. obviously, taken before I striaghtened that today. The next is the right side of the stove, where I keep the coffeepot and the toaster, and where my aloe plant continues to live, even after repotting it. Ignore the wine bottles. We're really not alcoholics. (You should have seen it a few weeks ago .. we had 8 bottles up there!) The next picture is the left side of the stove .. note the -immense- amount of counter space we have! This is where the rest of the appliances live .. can opener, Kitchen Aid mixer, coffee grinder, iced-tea maker and crock pot, as well as the knife block and the spinning storage container thingy. On the stove you can see my honey's cast iron grill/griddle. Which we LOVE! And last but not least is a picture of my china cabinet, where you can see my beautiful Blue Garland china. *purrs* I love my china.



A bonus picture .. B and Isis sleeping on the couch. It's been rainy, and they got all snuggly-warm, and this is the result. Note Gracie Hart on TV .. they were watching Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous. Ignore the mess in the background. I've not messed with the living room yet.

My progress thus far on dishcloth #2, using Bramble Stitch. The scanner really doesn't do this one justice .. the texture really doesn't come through.

Ack! I hate ants!!!

I have been dealing with, for the last few hours, a sudden and highly annoying ant invasion into my house. And I don't have the faintest idea WHY they're getting in. I realize it's suddenly VERY hot outside, and that they may be coming in looking for water .. but good god. All of a sudden? Like .. in the last 6 hours? And now I have that creepy-crawly feeling, like they're crawling all over me. I'm going to have to shower before bed, for certain.

Anyone know of any reason ants might suddenly manifest in ones house, and how one might get rid of them, besides highly toxic poisons (which I've already sprayed everywhere possible!)

Another one!

This is the first of Brittany's dishcloths. The hearts pattern doesn't quite work as well for this yarn though .. I think it's probably the variegatedness of it.


Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream in Key Lime Pie
Needles: US 9 Aluminum straights
Pattern: Heart Squares, from The Knitter's Bible

Yarn: Bernat Cottontots in Wonder Dreams
Needles: US 7 Aluminum straights
Pattern: Heart Blocks, from The Knitter's Bible

Yarn: Bernat Cottontots in Wonder Dreams
Needles: US 7 Aluminum straights
Pattern: Small Gingham, from The Knitter's Bible


I made this on the trip up to my nieces' graduation party yesterday. It's made out of the same baby cotton I used for the towel posted earlier. I think it came out pretty good. I was surprised it didn't use up more than it did though .. I still have baby cotton left. Aaargh! I'm going to try another pattern from the book I got this one from. Maybe Heart Squares. I think that's a good 'baby' pattern.

I enjoyed the trip, though it was ungodly hot. I hid inside a good part of the time, untill too many people I didn't know were inside, and then I ended up back outside, though in the shade. And I knitted in public a lot too. Brittany's boyfriend asked me to make him a sweater. I told him as long as he buys me the yarn, I'd do it! :) And Britt wants me to make her discloths for her new apartment. So I've got to be okay with buying more cotton so I can make them in the colors she wants. And being in the SOSKAL, I'm not sure I really should, but it's a gift, and I won't be keeping any of the yarn.

I started another cloth for the baby, and here's a pic of my progress. I'm liking this pattern .. even though I messed up the center (blue) heart. It doesn't show much though, so I'm not worried.

Dishcloth-Hat

This was supposed to be a round, flat dishcloth. It's not staying flat. I'm unpleased .. but at least I got to use up some of my cotton yarn, and learned a new technique.

Finally Done!

Look! Look! I finally finished it! And there are -so- many things I will do different on the next one (which I already have the yarn for, but I need to work on something else first, to get a break.) but it's done, and it'll look alright I think. And I have to keep reminding myself .. it's a -towel-. It's not like it's haute coteur (sp?) baby-wear or anything. It's a towel. And I have probably 3/4ths of a skein left. Maybe for some booties, and/or washcloths to go with the towel.

This is is all stretched out .. I have no really good place to take pictures without having awful light. This one I did on my freshly-made bed .. and it still looks kinda funny. I probably should have grabbed the knitting inspector - for persepctive or something.

This is my favorite shot I think, showing the hood, lopsided though it is, and the beautiful seaming. I think the hood could have been deeper .. so I maybe should cast off earlier, at a wider point. But I -love- the border on this, even though it likes to fold over. And the colors are just so soothing. So baby.

I'm pleased.

Project Spectrum Blue Kitty

For some reason, Blogger wasn't wanting to add these photos to my last post, so I had to write another one to add them in. Since it's Blue month in Project Spectrum, I thought I'd post these two photos which were the only pics that came out from a disposable camera I recent found and sent in to Snapfish.com. I'm not even sure why they're blue, though I know they must be from sometime around Yule, 2004.


And just look at this precious darling. This is Isis, the house knitting inspector. She's showing off her Winged Isis charm we got for her as a nametag. Well, that, and complaining because I put her harness on her, so she could go outside some.

Knitting Progress

This is how the baby towel looked three month ago .. and I'd been working on it for a while.

This is how it looks now. I've been working on it pretty steadily for the last moth or so .. especially since I joined the SOSKAL. And I'm bound and determined that I am going to finish this in the next few days, if not today.

Now, there are a few issues. The pattern I'm using has you bind off the 'body' of the towel, then knit the hood separate, then sew it on. Well, seaming and me aren't friends. Sorry. Seaming and I. So I figured out that I could quickly decrease from the 100 stitches of the body, to the 75 of the hood. Not so hard, right? Except it's made these funny places, especially on the right-hand side of the towel.

They're not a -hugely- bad thing, but they annoy me.

Also, in making up the hood, the pattern has you knit for 26 rows, then begin to decrease on every other row. I've been doing it on the purl side, as the whole shebang is stockinette with a seed border, and so I'm getting this nice shaping on the left side:

But on the right side, it's remaining perfectly straight.

Again, not a big deal. It's a towel, after all. But I would like to figure out how to remake this pattern to have a more symmetrical look to it. I have yarn to make another towel, in slightly different colors, so I would appreciate any suggestions. I'm by -no means- a knitting designer, and have been pretty much flying by the seat of my pants with this project.

Project Spectrum - June

I love having things growing with my help .. though, my beautiful hydrangea is starting to sprawl a little .. I may need to tie it up a bit, keep it from taking over what little yard I have. But look how pretty!

The new Magknits just came out .. luckily, the one projects I -really- want to make from there I already have a cone of cotton yarn for (Sugar & Cream). But I just got email from Berocco, with their new pattern books, and there are several things I want to make already. Soleil is beautiful, and I've wanted an excuse to use the Berocco Suede for a long time .. damn them! And I love this Fleur cardigan, knitted with their new Foliage yarn. And there's a bunch of new booklets for all their new yarns .. all of which I -have to have- ... which in turn is making me want to go out and buy yar. Argh!!

I took the baby towel with me to the movies lastnight, well, yesterday afternoon, though I didn't get more than two rows done. It was X-Men 3, for Lady's sake! How can you knit through that!!! I'm 13 rows in through the hood though .. I'd take a picture, but my husband drove off with my knitting bag in the car this morning, and can't come home at least until lunch. *flop* It's looking good though. I'm on the home-stretch now!

I think, since I have the knitting bug bad right now, I might start on the baby blanket. Or maybe on the Market Bag pattern I found in MagKnits this month. Yay! I've been looking for one of those. And I don't have to worry about needed yarn for it, that's for sure. I have a whole cone of Sugar & Cream just for that purpose!! It's ecru, and rather boring .. but that's okay. The only problem I'm seeing is it calls for US15 circulars, which I don't have. But .. 45 stitches .. I can probably make it on straights, dontcha think?

WIP: Hooded Baby Towel #1

I have reached a point on the first baby towel I'm making that I need to come to a decision.

First of all .. here is the pattern I am using .. losely .. to make these:

Materials:
Size 10 US needles (6mm)
5 x 100gm balls worsted weight Lilly Cream and Sugar 100% cotton

Gauge:
16sts and 26 rows to 10cm (4 inches) over garter st worked with Size 10 US needles

Size:
31" (77.5cm) x 27" (67.5cm) (excluding the hood)

Towel Body:
Cast on 100 stitches on #6 mm needles
Knit 200 rows in gater or seed stitches, cast off.

Hood:
For the hood, cast on 60sts and knit 5 rows in garter or seed st.
Knit 25 rows straight

Cast off 1 stitch at the end of the next 2 rows.
Repeat this every 5 rows until you have 40 stitches on your needle, cast off.
(Note from Deloris: I would change the pattern a little and cast off the hood at 44 stitches rather than 40)

Making Up:
Fold the hood in half vertically and sew the cast off edge together.

Fold the towel in half and mark the middle. Sew the cast on edge of the hood to the towel, matching the centre of the towel to the centre of the hood.

To finish your towel you can do some embrodery on it or crochet all around the towel and hood. You'll have a softer result if you wash it (before you do the embroidery or crochet) with a special mild washing soap for babies or kind of "zero".

Addendum: Sent to GLBT-knit March 3rd 2000

I made a few corrections to a better fitting hood
Cast on 75 stitches.
Knit 5 rows in garter or seed stitch.
After 30 rows, cast off 1 stitch at the end of every other row until you have 45 on your needle, cast off. (You can keep casting off one stitch until you have 4 left, then cast off)

Then, fold this piece in half and sew the diagonal line and the top. Sew the bottom of the hood to the middle of the blanket top.

This pattern is Copyright © Paskale Soucy, mimigazon@hotmail.com, all rights reserved.

Now, I say I'm using it loosely because when I began the towel, I started it with a smaller needle than it calls for. I'm using an 8US I believe, when it calls for a 10. Thus, my gauge is totally off. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, as it's probably a much closer knit fabric than I would have ended up with .. good for a towel, yes? But now I'm a little unsure if I should continue with the hood or not, and if so, how I should do so. I'm not sure how the hood will look/feel if I make it separate and sew it on after. But I'm not sure how to go about going from 100 stitches to 75 withough a whole lot of funkiness going on. And I could try knitting the hood separate and then grafting the two together, but I've not tried that at all before now, and I don't want to mess this up.

I'm going to knit another 10 rows or so (1000 stitches .. yikes!) and see if I can figure out how to quickly drop 25 stitches. I really don't like the thought of sewing the two together.

Summer of Stash 2006

I joined the Summer of Stash and so I pledge to knit from stash from today to Labor Day.



1. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, no yarn purchases allowed. You must knit only from stash.
2. Each SoS team member may have up to two exceptions to their rule this summer. For example, if you find us after Memorial Day, you are welcome to join later, and simply designate a later start date as your exception.
3. Challenge yourself to reduce your stash in creative or generous ways. Share your projects and ideas with other SoS-ers.
4. Rules apply only to yarn purchases. Books, patterns, and needles/notions needed to complete projects are allowed and encouraged if it gets you through the summer.
5. Plan and post about special Post-Labor Day Reward.

Have a great Summer of Stash!


I have to confess that I have been horrible about buying a bunch of yarn without truly needing it. I have tons of cotton for dishcloths, actually .. and while I do intend to make them, I've gotten sidetracked. And baby-yarn has been a real bad sin of mine .. with D soon having her baby, I've been buying a lot, but haven't finished a single project. So this Summer of Stash will be very good for me .. and Jason will be happy about it too!