Star Crossed Road to China

Road to China is my new favorite yarn. What is not to like? The deep purple color is a winner. The combination of 65% baby alpaca (not just any alpaca, but a sparkling new baby one!), 15% silk, 10% camel, and 10% cashmere is a winner. (The fiber breakdown on the website is different than what is written on my ball band. *shrug*) Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Lawson is a winner, too. (ETA 8/24/21) It's a free download here. The colorway is Dark Amethyst. It was abbreviated on the ball band as Dk Amethyst so I mistakenly thought that the yarn was DK weight, but no matter. It all turned out fine. Because I have some sort of blockage in my head preventing me from following a pattern, here are my modifications: - Cable cast on - 1x1 twisted rib for 6 rounds on size 9 needles - Knit the rest of the hat on size 10.5 needles And a question for the ladies: why is it so hard to make your hair look right when wearing a slouch hat? I could not get a picture of me in this hat that deserved the light of day, so back of the head is all you get to see. This is partially due to waking up at 4:45 AM for work, but mostly due to it being really hard to get cute hair with a knit hat. Hmph.

Year of the Dumpling

Happy 2019! Chinese New Years is this week, and it happens to fall in line with my newest obsession: dumplings and baos! When I was a kid, I helped fold endless wontons and potstickers, but we always used the prepackaged wrappers. I got it in my head late last year to start making dumpling wrappers and baos. And once I start something... Well, you know how that goes.

The boy made me some Asian-style rolling pins, because my tapered bread pin from India wasn't made for the task at hand. Dumpling rolling pins are straight, so conveniently, you can buy a dowel rod between 3/4"-1" in diameter and cut it into 12" chunks. I wanted a fancy walnut rolling pin, not quite traditional, but they're sooo pretty!

Rolling out dumplings reminds me of first learning how to knit. I was all thumbs when I started to learn, and my garter stitch scarves would mysteriously increase and decrease in width. My dumpling wrappers are doing the same thing! But, I'll get my 10,000 hours in and rock this with time. I just have to push through the apprentice stage and realize that even ugly dumplings are good to eat. Two particularly ugly batches of dumplings are pictured below.

Now that I have the hang of the dumpling dough, I've been experimenting by replacing some of the flour and water with sourdough starter discard. For any of you making sourdough breads, you know that the hungry little starters need to be periodically fed by dumping out half of the old starter, and refreshing with new flour and water. But what to do with that old starter? I was making pancakes with it, but I'm not really a pancake person. However, I can confidently call myself a dumpling person now, so into my dumpling mix it goes! I still don't have the perfect proportions yet, but I can share if I ever get there and if you're interested and make another post.

I've neglected this blog in favor of Instagram, but I find myself constantly coming back to this blog to look up recipes and methodologies because I have a hard time keeping track of what I do and when. It's handy! I need to remember to post more often.

And since this blog started off as a knitting blog, here are some of my favorite FOs for 2018.

Laurie

POP!

Faceted Yolk Pullover

I linked my project pages to the captions if you would like more deets. Until next time, have a happy 2019!

(Not My) Grandmother's Slippers

I'm still knitting! I know that it doesn't seem like it, but I do have some small projects that I'm clicking away on while watching American Ninja Warrior, a guilty indulgence that motivates me to climb harder routes at the gym.

These slippers are for a friend who fondly remembers getting new pair of slippers annually from her grandmother. Although her grandmother is no longer here, my friend did have her grandmother's pattern and the last pair of slippers (preserved in a  Ziplock bag) tucked away. With those items in hand, I was able to recreate the slippers - I'm a sucker for a challenge.

I love the way these turned out. They do remind me of something my grandmother or an elderly relative would knit for her beloveds.

These slippers were cool because they are knit flat and then seamed together. My project notes are here.

Does anyone know of a similar pattern? I was trying to find the original source, but no luck.

Granville Complete!

Granville is off the knitting needles, finally! It only took me 504 days. Nothing about it was hard, but for some reason, I kept on starting and stopping, and starting and stopping, and starting and stopping this project. I raced through the front panels and the sleeves, and then it sat. And then I raced through the back, and then it sat. And then I blocked the pieces, and then they sat. You get the picture.

The yarn is Hemp for Knitting's Hempwol in color 040. The cables really pop with this yarn, and it's light and warm. However, maybe due to the hemp, it's a little bit itchy. I'm hoping that this hoodie will soften up the more I wear and wash it.

Tidy Mania

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and that 2015 is the best year yet! This year, instead of driving all over during the holidays, we stayed put. I wish I could report that we did wonderfully fun things like take an exotic vacation somewhere warm or kayak all over the bay, but we chose (and some of us grudgingly) to tackle some home improvement projects.

First up was managing our pesky kitchen pantry. That stupid Japanese tidy book convinced me that we lived in a hovel more so than watching a Hoarders marathon. The boy didn't know what hit him. Since we had company over, the house was clean, but I argued that our house was skinny fat. Just because it looked good on first glance, didn't mean that there weren't disgusting things behind closet and pantry doors. Faster than he could ask me to define skinny fat (a horrible term that implies skinnier people look better - so not true), he was installing new pantry drawers and I had dumped old flours, seasonings, and sauces. Now our two-feet deep pantry shelves are transformed into usable drawers where hopefully nothing will be forgotten due to never seeing the light of day. This was a much easier task, from my perspective at least, than weeding through our clothes, and I felt emboldened to continue tidying our closets and office room.

Several trips were made to the El Cerrito Recycling Center + Environmental Resource Center, the most wonderful place in the world for someone wanting to declutter with less guilt. I got rid of old office supplies, old clothes, electronic waste, kitchen tools that were redundant or not my style, and random memorabilia that had no place in the house anymore.

For those of you who live in the East Bay, East Bay Humane Society accepts donations of clean, used bedding and towels (and they are also walking distance to The Rare Barrel if you want to make an afternoon of it). Figuring out where to take used bedding instead of throwing it out was the hardest challenge. We had a ton of sheets that were ratty due to dogs and cats having claws. Out they went for a second life!

I even went through old photos and purged ones that were awful. Remember when you had to get film developed? You would end up with perhaps two good photos from an event, and 20 blurry photos. To add to the clutter, every photo developer offered 2 for 1 deals, so you'd get 40 blurry photos. So, yeah, although I initially thought it would be hard to throw away things that may have sentimental value, it wasn't hard to whittle down our photo collection and keep the photos that were truly precious.

The same went for old letters. I had saved old holiday and birthday cards and letters from friends, again these mostly were back in the olden days before email and Facebook. These items have served their purpose, although I did save a handful that I can use for blackmail. 20 years later, I do not need to know that my friend went to Costco or had coffee at so-and-so cafe. It's funny the things we hang on to thinking they have so much meaning.

Henslow shawl knit mostly in Sri Lanka

The tidying process also gave me a chance to unearth WIPs that needed finishing. I blocked and finished my Henslow shawl, a Wildcat Canyon scarf, and a ripple afghan that took me 4 years to complete!

Wildcat Canyon Scarf for Jen!

The never-ending ripple afghan has finally ended

I even had a chance to crochet some cool hot pads (Starburst Hot Pad), and I neglected to make one for myself. Once I finish some more tasks, I need to make myself a couple of them for the table.

Crocheted Starburst Hot Pads

In the office room, I had a box of vintage canning jars my MIL gave me. Among the odds and ends, for the box was full of lids jars that did not always match, I found a matching set of Triomphe canning jars in great condition. Fortunately, I had new gaskets laying around for them since Fido jars also use the same sided lids. Ta-dah!

Triomphe jars!

We also had time to experiment a bit with food and drink. The boy had picked our backyard plums last year and turned it into wine. We were skeptical that it would be something quaffable, and to our surprise, it was more than quaffable. It is delicious and it will be a good substitute for the gewürztraminers and edelzwickers I like to pair with spicy foods! So far, it's been aging for 6 months. I think it will be better in a few more months to smooth out the rough edges, but I'm happy with the finished product.

We also had a chance to play more with the extruded pasta press, this time making bucatini to pair with the last of our 2013 season tomato sauce. Man, that thing is fun! Expect to see more pasta posts soon.

Potential Hoodie

I can almost feel this sweater on me, but I still need to seam it together, add the zipper, and knit the hood. So, I'm not very close to wearing this in Mendocino, but I'm much closer than when I started Granville on Christmas 2013. Usually, I blaze through clothing I make for myself, but the arrival of Sesame and a slew of other early 2014 happenings made my knitting take a backseat. Just in time for… Summer?

Point Isabel Cowl

The Point Isabel Cowl is a luxurious cowl that can be dressed up, dressed down, and worn by everyone. It is a must-have accessory for both women and men!

 

Although the resulting cowl looks intricate, this pattern is easy to memorize and great for working on while at the beach or while watching a movie.

Going for a retro look? Pair two high contrast colors like blue and white or red and white.  Going for a modern look? Pair two muted colors together like black and gray.

This pattern includes a tutorial for the sewn bind off.

Thanks to my awesome pattern testers and the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group all your help! If you are a Bay Area peep, you can see a sample cowl at The Yarn Boutique.

Bucket of Chicken and Orange Foods

In my quest to use every last scrap of yarn in my stash, I made these tiny chickens for my knitter friends. The free pattern is from Mochimochi Land, and you can find it here. Yes, they were a random gift, but who doesn't love chickens? Most of them are gone now, and my only regret is that I can't take any more cute pictures of the brood together.

In that same spirit of "use what you got," we've been eating a lot of orange foods. I have a backlog of carrots and winter squashes from my CSA, so the carrots have morphed into a French carrot salad with raisins and toasted nuts, and some of the roasted winter squash pulp (this time I used honey nut squash, a sweeter cousin of butternut squash) was transformed into an easy flan with toasted hazelnuts and Gorgonzola. Both recipes were based on ones in Dorrie Greenspan's book "Around My French Table," the first cookbook I've been compelled to buy in ages. I first checked it out from the library, and after renewing it as many times as I could, I was convinced that it would be a worthy addition to my cookbook collection.

Mingus has found another buddy, or is it the other way around? I was startled out of my daydreaming when I saw a flash of GSD butt run past my kitchen door. When I walked outside, I found a husky-GSD mix dog as friendly as can be walking around the front of my house. It turns out that she belongs to a neighbor's friend, and that she had been visiting with Mingus for some time. Mingus often sits on our front deck, and these two have been in love with each other for a few months. I invited her to our backyard, and these two ran around the yard for two hours before they had to part.

I don't think either one of them wanted to be apart, though, since I found her sitting outside my front door after the playdate was over. Then, she walked over to the kitchen door and stared at us. If it weren't for the wrath of our cats, I would have let her inside, but Greaseball and Fifty would never forgive me.

She's a goofy dog who has an unfortunate name (she is named after a sexy female character). I can't even type the name without feeling gross, and I've been trying to think up reason why someone would willingly name her that. One friend suggests that her owner wants to say, "I sleep with ***!" Ew, ew, ew!

Spicy Knitted Carboy Sweater

Hopefully, this is the last carboy sweater I knit for a long, long time. The summer of 2013 is forever going to be remembered as the time I knit 4 consecutive carboy sweaters. It's a rather pathetic label for a time that should be remembered as, say, the time I conquered stand up paddle boarding (I have a long way to go) or time I took a fab vacation to Italy. Still, it will have to do. As my friend said after she gushed about unwrapping a new kitchen sponge, sometimes being an adult sucks.

Numerous people have told me that I should make these and sell them because I could make so much money. These people think I'm a little lazy for not spending my time cranking these out. Then, I ask them how much they would pay for this sweater made of mostly acrylic. The answer? $20, max. I tell them that it took me probably 6 hours or so to knit this, and they now look at me like I'm a little crazy. One person had a novel solution: I should have a sweatshop in China where people knit these carboy sweaters. That's every young girl's dream, isn't it? To lord over a sweatshop in China! Ugh, no thanks.

This is why I sell patterns, but not handcrafted goods. Although desktop publishing makes me feel all stabby, the stabby feeling fades after a brisk walk with the dog, and I can resume wearing my rose-colored glasses. That stabby feeling would last 6 hours multiplied by the number of commissioned sweaters I made if I were to knit for hire. No thanks.

Who I'll knit for and what I'll knit is always evolving. Babies? Sure! I do love giving babies a hand knit sweater. Adults? It depends. I will happily teach adults to knit, but the thought of knitting something for someone who just wants to throw money at me never seems worth it. I'd be interested to hear other crafter's thoughts about this, and how you handle people asking you to make them things.

Knitted Carboy Sweater

Click here for my Knitted Carboy Sweater Pattern!

For the boy's birthday, I wanted to make his 6.5-gallon carboy a sweater of its very own. Since light exposure can lead to skunky beer, he had been wrapping his carboys in dog towels. While this practice wouldn't bother me that much if his beers were brewing in the back room, the fact that he insists on fermenting on our kitchen counter, where it was the first thing I'd see upon entering the house, started to wear me down. So, I guess you could say that I also knit this for myself.

See that blowdown tube in the above picture? That tube saves marriages. Seriously. It still makes me livid to repeat the stories (yes, plural), so just trust me on this one.

I decided to knit the sweater in 4x4 ribbing in a tight gauge, and I did want something that looked, well, classic. More Pottery Barn than CB2. It's hard to not think of yourself as a little odd when you're designing a classic sweater for a carboy, but I am pleased with the final result!

In the end, it was all knit out of leftover Wool-Ease I had purchased for a blanket (almost done, although I keep saying that!). There were several times during this process where I resented the carboy sweater because it was more knitting than I would have to do for a sweater for myself. Yet, it was the perfect project for that time because it was fairly mindless after a few easy calculations and gauge swatches. I knit it bottom up, but the next one I do will be top down. Although this is a ribbed sweater and it can fit both the 6.5- and the 5-gallon carboy, I do want to knit another one since the other carboy we have in the house is sitting in a cardboard box. Sour beers age for about a year, and I've been staring at that box in the corner of our living room way too long. If I don't knit it a sweater, I'm going to insist that the boy makes it into some sort of coffee table so that space isn't wasted.

Vitamin D

Done! My Vitamin D sweater, started in June 2012, is finally off the needles, and I've been sporting it around town. Since I wanted my cardigan to be longer than the pattern suggests, I knit 5 lower body radial rounds instead of 4.

The yarn is Lisa Souza BFL DK in the Forbidden City colorway. I purchased this at Stitches West 2012. Happily, this yarn softens up quite a bit after a good soak because part of the reason the cardigan sat around so much was that each time I tried it on, it was itchy. I lost my motivation because I hate wearing itchy wool! But, since my girlfriends have reinstated our weekly knit nights for 2013, I had to do something during that time other than eat cookies, cheese, and drink sparkling wine. So, I dragged the sweater with me. Some nights, I didn't knit a stitch, and then after about the 3rd week of dragging the sweater around, I really wanted it done. Two days later, the second sleeve was bound off and I was ready to soak it.

The most exciting part about finishing this sweater is that I no longer have a sweater's worth of yarn stashed away. Wheeeee! This makes me feel free! I have a few single skeins of yarn leftover from projects and some earmarked for socks, but besides that, my stash is teeny tiny. The anti-hoarder in me is rejoicing.

More details about my modifications are on my Rav page.

A Table Full of Handknits and Other Miscellany

Next time, more signage

The trunk show at The Yarn Boutique is over, and I can start knitting and designing other things rather than past patterns! I had a blast meeting new people, seeing FOs that other people knit, and hangout out with my friends who stopped by. Lessons learned: make a sign so people know why I'm sitting outside with a table full of handknits, add more height to the display so everything isn't flat and the baby hats don't look like potholders, and bring a mirror so people can try things on since that is the point of a trunk show. Oh, and an iPad or other tablet would be nice - thankfully, I borrowed one from the LYS owner. 

My friend comparing skeins of yarn in the natural light.

 This was a chance to revisit patterns I put on my blog, like the Stripey Baby Beret...

And the Baby Cabled Baby Slouch.

My friend Rachel helped me out by knitting two versions of my Ultimate Slouch Hat. I especially love this version made with Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky. I'll have to pick up some more of it so I can make one to wear!  Samples of my Tilden Park Scarf, Wildcat Canyon Scarf, and this red Ultimate Slouch hat still reside at the Yarn Boutique, so if you want to try one on before you knit it, stop by!

Cooler weather also means that bread baking is back on! This time, I made the Tartine Country Bread recipe, and it turned out full of holey bread goodness.  The dough hydration was higher than I'm used to and you don't need a kitchen stand mixer at all. However, the biggest drawback is that this recipe does take a long time and it isn't something you can decide to do at the last minute (you need to prep your starter), so I can't see myself making this all the time. The sad thing is that I still have some leftover bread here that I'm now using as dog treats since the boy and I can't manage to finish a loaf of bread in under a week.  Baking bread is always such a fun experiment, and I'd bake bread all the time if I had an outlet for the end product, but we're slow bread eaters. Next time, I need to cut the loaf in half and freeze it so Mingus doesn't get the lion's share of the bread.

Exciting happenings for me also included organizing my spices. (I'm not being sarcastic at all!) Instead of piling them all in my pantry, I'm going for a more flat layout that makes all of them reachable and visible. We'll see how this works. The good thing is that it made me throw out some of the bulk spices I've acquired over the years, and it always feels good to know exactly what lurks in the kitchen.

I had to put this gratuitous shot of my carnita scramble here. I didn't make it, Chow in Lafayette made it, but I've been thinking about the lardy goodness of carnitas all week. I'm starving again now!

And another picture with no transition at all: Thomas the cat. He came to visit me on Saturday, and we had a grand old time. I think he likes to visit me because he likes to tease Greaseball and Fifty, but I'll let that slide. However, when he rolls around like this, I do not pet him because I worry that he's spring loaded and just waiting for an opportunity to scratch me. My cats are mellow and do not do this, but Thomas is full of himself and probably not as docile as my crew.