Slacker, knitter..

When asked to describe myself these are the two words I usually use. I find them to be pretty accurate. Case in point: the other two Dana and Morgan have been all "Ooh lets blog everyday". Hi this is where the slacker part comes in. I had just as much fun as everyone else, in fact maybe more because I was suffering greatly* and got spoiled a wee bit. Ate a whole bunch of the WORLDS BEST PIZZA (with extra cheese!) and didn't even have to exercise my dogs for two days! But did I do the right thing and blog? Nah! I whined some more and went shopping .

Someone had to buy more HACHO (rhymes with NACHO!) yarn you see. This is the most awesome sock yarn.Mmm.. mmm!

I have yes, started another sweater. This is inspired by the Cobblestone Pullover in the Fall Interweave. I love the garter yoke, but being the ornery cuss that I am I wanted to do it my way and make it a cardigan. So we'll see. We have had two rippings out so far, but I seem to have fixed what mistakes I was making. It is going to be out this:

Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran. I am getting a true aran gauge with it too. And can I just say knitting on 4.5 mm needles after doing so many socks feels like knitting with broomsticks.

*Suffering Greatly. When one overindulges in too many glasses of many different red wines during the course of an evening. Especially when its your husbands boss doing the pouring and is a total booze pusher. AND it was a competition of sorts on you know nothing about wine except that one had notes of pure gasoline and monkeys ass. Gross. I took one for the team I did. And felt like crap for 2 days. Note to self: YOU ARE NOT YOUNG. CUT THIS CRAP OUT.

Running towards the finish line

This has been a productive sock month yes? The fabulous garter toe socks.. inspired by Morgan and Lucy Neatby I reckon. I cannot believe how fast these knit up. Really it was quite astonishing. Hacho by Mirasol knit on um.. 2.25 mm needles. Super comfy with the garter heels! In fact Chris has requested the exact same pattern for his next socks (which I am almost done the first one of! GO ME!) and may become a standard for me.

Speaking of the next sock, I was pretty excited to start them for Chris, see they are truly a collaborative effort. Dana dyed the yarn, Morgan spun it and I am knitting it! They are payment of a sort. For refining and making out logo better. A fair trade I would say :)

I told you I was being pushed toward the spinning yes? Well.. maybe it might take. Just a little bit. I have a Louet Victoria in my possession right now and wow! She is a joy to work on. Even if my feeble attempts look like they came out of a monkeys butt. haha.

breathe.

The dogs were napping this morning and I just had to snap them in repose. Pickles hides in his Pickles only clubhouse and Max wedges himself in the sofa corner so deep you can barely see him. Oh my dogs!!

Socks are my crack. No really. These are just plain ol' toe ups done out of some really nifty yarn. STRIPEY GOODNESS!! I mean who doesn't need more stripey socks? Not Quite Knee Highs because I got tired of knitting ribbing. :)

The colour is called Near Dark. Cute innit? NICE! Now I am the lucky recipient of yet more yarn/fibre this week. This travelled all the way from Salt Spring Island for me.. oh and BY THE WAY.. NEW FREE PATTERN from kfb. Salt Spring Waves. Wow!! Look at us go :) Anyways, this is the bootay!

Mmm pink. I think REAL knee highs might be needed..

And some really nice close up of the pretty fibre. I think there are a couple of people really pushing the spinning eh? ;)









Wow huh? This whets my wet felting appetite something terrible. Need some silk... Now for what I've been working on:








Like WHOA! I went to Gina Browns this weekend and found this new beautiful stuff. Hacho by Mirasol. The price point is not to be believed (7.99 a skein!! OMG!) and it is truly scrumptious. Like STR nice. She had more by Mirasol including gorgeous sweater weights and they were silly good priced as well. I maybe see another trip soon.




I'm doing a garter stitch toe and heel pattern. So cushy, so sqooshy. I am in heaven. Mmm..

I usually try to keep things very light and breezy on here, in fact as I have explained before, I try to only blog happiness. But some significant changes have happened to our little house and I have to acknowledge them. Jake has moved up to Edmonton to live with his Dad. Not his idea, but we have all had a really rough time of it for the last 9 months + and it was with a heavy heart the decision was made for him. I'm hoping this will help him on his journey and give him some very desperately needed distance to figure stuff out. As it stands, we will all be able to take a breath now.

Knock wood for all of us ok?

Betty Cable!

Here they are!! Cabled and oh so yummy. I have to say that alpaca socks are not the worlds most practical socks, no superwash here, but soft? Oh the soft!

Done out of 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca sport weight, on 2.5 mm needles. These worked up really quickly. I would have had them done sooner but as I was making the pattern as I was going along I learned this cable wouldn't work up the back as it made the sock too rigid to get on. It may have been the yarn, but I just did a rib up the back instead. It worked just fine!

Socktacular aren't they?

There is another free pattern up at kfb! Its the felted slipper pattern! Its not PDF-ed quite yet, but keep your eyes peeled. A new logo is on its way too.. cool huh??

We had a fun weekend with the seeeeeester Angie and her SO (stinky odour? NO! heh hehe Ang!) Jeff. Had some Wii time, some beers, some laughs, what else is there?

Pickles is SMRT! He has learned sit, down, sit up, and shake a paw! Now if only it was that easy to train a teenager..

Lap dog

Pickles likes nothing more than to sit on my lap as I peck away on the laptop in the kitchen. Max was never a lapdog like this! In fact he is sitting here right now making all sorts of grunty puppy noises. Resting his head on my arm as I type. Silly beasty.

It was turkey day this weekend and we three (5 if you count the dogs who got turkey gravy on their kibble!) had a nice little dinner. Thank you Butterball for the prefrozen stuffed turkey breast that you can just pop in the oven! Mmm.. mashed sweet potatoes and veg, pumpkin pie! Nice and not really much in the way of leftovers. Jake took some to one of his pals who wasn't having a turkey day so that resolved nicely. :)

In knitting news... almost done a pair of cabled socks out of Blue Sky Alapaca sport weight. I don't think they will be the most practical socks, but they certainly are YUMMEH!

We have guests coming this weekend!! Chris' sister (my seeeeeester!~) Angie and her SO Jeff. It will be awesome to see them and I so hope Ang has planned for at least a teeny bit of shopping. I so need to show her Sephora!!

Stay tuned for another free pattern.. it is SOCKTOBER right?

Free at last!!

Ok I really should get my head together a little better no? Announcing the first FREE PATTERN from me and knitfrontandback.

Uzumaki socks!!!

We are hoping to have a pattern up once a week during Socktoberfest. Stay tuned for more free goodness (the best kind of all dontcha think?) soon.

I think I made the best soup ever last night from leftover pot roast and veg. I cubed my leftover roast, and left the potatoes and carrots whole, they were both just babies see? Added the leftover gravy (which was not thick like gravy, just what was in the slow cooker apres cooking) and a litre of beef stock to a soup pot, tossed in a handful of pearl barley with everything, generously peppered and salted it, pitched in a few tbsp of freeze dried mixed herbs and OMG. It was heavenly. Served it with slightly stale pita bread (work with whatcha got) that was great for dipping and YUM!

It went really well with my favorite cobbler that I have been making quite often too. My preference is strawberry rhubarb, but have done it with blackberry pear apple, and would like to try some peach something one day. I take all this luscious fruit (usually frozen cause who has all this fruit in the house at once fresh? Not me! And I usually try have have organic frozen fruit on hand)I bag of each say strawberries and rhubarb, toss it in a big bowl and add a tbsp or 2 of cornstarch, a whack ( a couple of tbsp) of cinnamon and splenda (see I am still trying to maintain a modicum of healthy, no way do I wanna gain any weight back thanks.) but you could use sugar for sure, I don't measure so much as see what looks right. Toss all together. pour into a 9 x 13 backing dish. Add say a cup of rolled oats (steel cut would be nice) a few big spoons of organic brown flour, more cinnamon and splenda to a bowl. Cut in about a 1/3 cup Omega 3 margarine or (YUM!) butter until its really dispersed through the mixture. I use a fork and just mash it all up. :) Sprinkle topping over the fruit evenly and back in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour 20 min or until fruit is all bubbly and topping is brown.

I forgot to add splenda to the topping the last time I made this, and when I realised it, I tossed splenda brown sugar blend all over the top with some maple sugar flakes and popped it under the broiler for a few minutes until the sugar began to melt. OMG IT WAS AWESOME. Little crunchy bits of brown sugar goodness.

I usually serve this with a dixie cup of ice cream (serving size ya'll!) and everyone LOVES IT. mmm...

Rock it, Sock it.

Well well well.. its up and its going. Look here:

knitfrontandback!.

This has been in the works for a looong time now and with the down time I have made for myself its time to spring it on the rest of the world.

We hope to have more free patterns and other goodies up very soon. Why hide our collective lights under a bushel? Welcome to the world of knitfrontandback.

Now for happy sock yes?

Please understand I was screaming at Chris.."Take the picture! How long do you think I can hold my legs up like this?!?" He took his sweet time he did. Mystery sock yarn from Morgan that I have no idea what it is, if its superwash, or anything. But I likey the stripes and I really like the mismatched-ness. Haha.

Please note cam ho Pickles. I swear he sees the camera is and all HAY GUISE!! Sheesh.

Pickleskin rug!!!

He does this randomly all around the house. PICKLESKIN RUG!!!!



So as if to prove my techmuhnological impairment, I screwed with my blog and lost all my links (and holy shit you'd think I'd have learned from Nana by now huh?) and all my side bar stuff. I recovered my blog links, but haven't gone through and redone everything else. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll keep 'er clean. Slackers unite, like tomorrow maybe ok?

I have to say I really do have the cutest terriers in the world. As if to prove it have a look. Hey Moms! We aren't up to anything, nope.. not us!

I LOVE MY GAY DOGS! Or maybe they are just exploring.. I won't judge, just celebrate their love.

Now I took a picture of the slipper on.. it is so comfy! And fast. Did I mention fast? Cause it was sure fast. In fact, it took longer for them to dry than to make them.

Socks of the unknown yarn. I'm calling them ribsy because like they are ok? They don't look like much off, but on, NICE! Just a hair away from being done number one.

I have a bunch of sock yarn I'm DYING to knit up but am forced to wait for my Knitpicks order of super small needles to get here as I am a knitting hussy. LOOSE ok? I also got the Elann update and there is some yarn coming on Oct 16th that is positively calling me. I have a hankering for a sweatshirt gray sweater this fall. Something super soft and snuggly (which seems to be the word of the week yes?) to pull on.

Stay warm kittens, its gonna be a chilly weekend I think.

Whoosh!

And there they are. Finished. I hand felted them in the sink, took about 10 minutes. Now if only they were dry.

Wait .. what?

I am going to shock people I know with this statement. The best cookie I have ever made is a VEGAN recipe. Fall down dead now my bacon loving friends, yes I the lover of all things animal (mmm tasty) have seen the vegan light. Hahahaha.. now don't you worry, I certainly am not changing my ways, just opening up to the possibilities that not everything needs to be made with butter, eggs, cheese or bacon.*

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies Submitted by Isa
prep time: 15 minutes cooking time: 32 minutes makes 4 dozen cookies
These are soft out of the oven, but as they cool they are nice and chewy. They are a serious crowd pleaser, for crowds with taste buds. Note: I use flax seeds because they make the texture a little chewier, but I've made them without and they're still good!
Equipment:

baking sheets

2 mixing bowls

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 1/3 cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 2/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup canola oil

2 tablespoons molasses

1 cup canned pumpkin, or cooked pureed pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla

optional: 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

1 cup walnuts, finely chopped

1/2 cup raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Have ready 2 greased baking sheets.Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin and vanilla (and flax seeds if using) until very well combined.

Add dry ingredients to wet in 3 batches, folding to combine. Fold in walnuts and raisins.Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets. They don't spread very much so they can be placed only an inch apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or with your fingers, to press into cookie shape. Bake for 16 minutes at 350.

If you are using two sheets of cookies on 2 levels of your oven, rotate the sheets halfway through for even baking. You'll have enough batter for 4 trays.Remove from oven and get cookies onto a wire rack to cool. These taste best when they've had some time to cool and set. They taste even better the next day

Things I changed (either out of preference or necessity)

I used 2/3 cup of applesauce instead of oil.

I didn't add the flaxseed (didn't have it or I would have).

Used 1/2 sugar, 1/2 splenda granulated (ran out of sugar and hey it saved a buttload of calories) Used 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, no nutmeg.

I would add more cinnamon next time, but I am a freak like that.

I also didn't have any nuts on hand so used 1/4 cup of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips Next time I'll use more in addition to the raisins.

These bad boys run about 43 calories apiece and I got 59 cookies out of this batch. Holy hell they are fantastic.

I found them on this site:

http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=187

It doesn't look like its been updated in ages, but the recipes look GOOD! Go forth and veganise your cookies my friends. Now I am going to try a vegan cupcake recipe for sure. :)

KNITTING KNEWS (oh god I am so sorry) Knit these up yesterday. Will felt in sink today and report back. Again, knit out of necessity as I have no slippers. Used Patons SWS in Natural geranium, and just kinda winged the pattern. Cellphone for size reference and please note my Hello Kitty charm/bell because I love my inner 13 year old girl.

Yesterday we made like babies and headed out to Best Buy to get Halo 3. In fact I'm gonna tell ya'll a little secret, my husband went out the night before at midnight but the lines and the cold dissuaded him from indulging his inner geek.Ah well... anyhoo.. to Best Buy right. He got his game and even a free tshirt and camo headset YEEHAW!! Get home, plug in the most anticipated game ever (I have never know Chris to go on opening day and buy a video game. NEVER) and guess what?

RED RING OF DEATH. (oh noes!)

If you aren't an XBOX 360 slave this will mean nothing. If you are you know. Major boo hoo. Well XBOX is sending us a new unit (thankfully) and I guess the GAME OF THE CENTURY will have to wait. The customer service guy was really lovely, so Chris is just happy that a new one will be here eventually.


Here's some yarn porn for you all.. I'm a sad sad woman huh?




*But realistically most everything is made better with the addition of these ingredients. Like most movies would be made better with zombies in them. Who knows, Armageddon may have been watchable with the addition of zombies. Or not. :/

Less is more.

I am sitting in my kitchen with the heat cranked (the ground was covered in frost this am. Pickles was scared of it HAHA!), on the laptop, just finishing my latte (gingerbread with some cinnamon thanks) thinking about how much I love my little house. Really. I know that there are lots of folks out there who can't understand how three of us (and two terriers of fury) can share such a small space and not kill each other. Hey, sometimes I agree wholeheartedly (and would indeed LOVE just one more toilet in the house) but you know, I am gonna have to say the smaller life suits me just fine. Less house to clean, less house to heat, less space to fill. This is not to say I don't have lots of crap, because oh boy I do, but if I had a bigger place, the possibilities of crap would be overwhelming to say the least.

I think a smaller footprint is what works for us. Its not to say when we are driving out in the burbs I don't sometimes look at the McMansions and think Ï wonder what it would be like to live in a house where I couldn't instantly know where Chris or Jake is? Or have a room that no one else ever goes in, or you know 2 toilets but I digress.. I do wonder this. Then I realise we are driving less (in our little KIA Rio) as we are closer to everything. We are consuming less space, conserving in our small ways. Paying someone to come collect our recycling cut down on our garbage by 75%. Most weeks we have one bag. We have fluorescent bulbs in our fixtures, and use Bio degradable cleaners. I know its not a whole lot but it makes me feel like I am doing a tiny bit.

Well enough proselytising, here's some socks I finished last night. They are super snuggly, as the spiral rib around the ankle is wonderful for chasing away the chill that is Fall around here. I could actually hear the leaves falling off our next door neighbours tree this am. It was like rain.

Colinette Cadenza in Florentina. I think I used a 2.5 mm needle but will have to check on it. Pattern is my own but I think it will be available soon.. (all part of my Master Plan mwaaaa haaaaa!) just keep your eyes on this space.

I have rediscovered my love of cooking this last week. Hearty things and tasty treats. I can't believe I lived without a Kitchen Aid for so long! I made some yummy pumpkin muffins with Ghiradelli chocolate chips, a fabtastic veggie soup, some bitchin' (my Dad loves bitchin' meatloaf) mealoaf and various other yums. Something about the oven being on in the middle of the day is comforting yes? Whats your favorite thing to cook when it gets chilly?

Enhancement

When does Stash Enhancement stop feeling so good? Probably never right. Oh well.. When its hot stuff like this, should I care? The delovely Morgan was pretty damn pleased with the giving of a sweater and rewarded me thusly. MOAR STR! This time in the medium weight. Velvet Moon its called and having just washed my first STR's (in the machine!) they just got softer and slightly fuzzier and OMG YUMMIER.

Now some mystery yarn. There is no tags on it, no idea what the heck it is besides pretty. I reckon I'll have to do some testing to see if its super wash or?? Any ideas on what it is out there?


Mama E's Softee Sock. I have to tell ya'll, this is the nicest feeling Mama E's I have felt. No weird fuzzy, just soft soft soft. Hence the name huh? Durrr..


And finally the Harmony from Zen Strings. Going to Morgans is like going to the bestest yarn shop ever. All different brands for you to touch and ogle. Plus the hostess is hot. And did I mention fun? Goes without saying. :)


I also got a little Koigu action on the side from a sweetheart pal with a pink aversion. Matching skein coming soon from another lovey. I have such fantastic friends.


I did have to do a little enhancing on my own too... Colinette Cadenza that I fell for head over heels at a LYS. I am really losing it here.

Finally you didn't think I'd post without some more socks to show off did you? Knit Picks Tweed from the superfantastique Knitting Grammy! Oh Nana.. purple socks just like Donny Osmond.

We had an exciting weekend full of Vet Trips (GROSS STUFF better not mentioned here. Or anywhere) productivity and exciting-ness. Things are moving so quickly, I have to remember to slow down and take a breath. Like tonight. For UFC FIGHT NIGHT. YAY!!! And there is a PPV this weekend.. that is sure to make me stop for a minute.