I don't have a whole lot to say today, so in case you haven't seen them elsewhere...here's a few quick photos from our trip to see family on Memorial Day.
Our niece...she never.stops.moving. Except while sleeping. I adore her.

The Tall Guy (yes, he's wearing a Rav T, isn't he awesome?) and I at the Reynolda Gardens . They were so pretty!

Baby H. is awesome. I really didn't want to put him down all weekend.

Happy Friday ya'll! Stay cool!!!!

The world's fastest sock and a recipe

I've been working on a variety of projects that I've either a) been too lazy to take a picture of or b) are gifts that will remain un-blogged until the intended receiver has the goods. So, in the meantime, I've been working on a sock that seems to be knitting itself!

Strange angle, I know, but that's what you get when I take a picture at work with my phone... I'll try harder in the future... if you're looking closely you'll notice that I'm using a Knitpicks harmony needle (birthday gift). My first time using one and so far, so good! I like how sharp the needle is and the join is smooth! Thanks Kim!
I'll share all the details when the socks are complete, but I must say, my friend Woolarina hit this color/base combo out of the park! I love it!

Other things that are making me happy at the moment are the fruits of our "farm". The Tall Guy is most assuredly in charge, but I've been having fun cooking with the veggies that come out of our garden. The broccoli came from our neighbor's garden and the radishes and snap peas from ours.

I improvise recipes a lot... probably why I'm a better cook then baker, but here's the gist of what I did.

Summer Salad
Ingredients
Broccoli
Sugar snap peas
radishes
sliced almonds
I used about a full head of broccoli, 1/2 cup of snap peas, a reallllly big radish and about 1/2 cup of almonds... It was what I had on hand and I went with it!
Dressing
I'm guessing on the amounts here...so, like with any homemade dressing, taste as you go!
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I normally use olive oil, but sometimes the flavor is too overpowering and I wanted the focus to be on the veggies)
1/8 cup rice wine vinegar (I like how "bright" this vinegar tastes, you could also use apple cider vinegar)
1 teaspoon honey (Also locally sourced! This old guy down the street has bee hives! And yes, we do live in a city environment!)
Lawry's seasoning salt and garlic powder. I added these until I liked the taste.. a few shakes of the salt and about the same for the garlic. You can use fresh minced garlic too, but I was being lazy.

What to do...
*Boil some water, throw in the broccoli and peas until they turn bright green.. truly, no more then 30 seconds.
*Drain and rinse w/cold water or plunge into an ice bath to chill very quickly.
*Slice the radish thinly
*Toast the almonds until brown (I use our toaster oven for everything!)
*Toss all the veggies/almonds together and then whisk the dressing together, pour over and serve or chill until time to eat!

This is a pretty forgiving recipe which I think I'll be using a lot this summer as various veggies come up in the garden. Are you gardening this summer? Do you prefer flowers to veggies? I'm always curious what others are up to!

Nom nom nom

So, for a moment we'll depart from our normal crafty talk and focus on one of my other loves. Food. Or food and beer...or food and beer and coffee. And by talk, really I mean show with a few needed captions. It's that sort of day.



Redhook went and stopped making my favorite beer this year (Sun Rye). It's been replaced by Rope Swing. I'm not happy, but it's not stopping me from drinking it. (Pretty tasty)

The Tall Guy and I walked into a coffee shop last week and this was on the front entrance. I was mesmerized by the idea of a bacon latte. While you may or may not be aware that bacon is the one thing that will always keep me from being vegetarian, I couldn't bring myself to order it. Plain ol' iced skim latte for this girl.

This is the said caffe, if you're interested in getting one yourself.

A few weeks ago I made dinner and I thought it was pretty, so I took a picture.

Potato leek soup and a green salad with toasted almonds and sauteed lemon soy tempeh. Pretty tasty!

Which then leads me to my final thought for the day... I'm in love with this cookbook, called Clean Food. The website is here. I don't normally push products, but this one is a winner. My HLP sent it to me for my birthday and I've spent quite a bit of time reading it the past few months. The maple mustard tempeh was a hit and there are plenty of other "normal" but, still vegetarian dishes in there for those that are not quite down with tofu/tempeh etc.

The Tall Guy and I are off on an adventure this weekend to see a bunch of family. I'm happy to report this includes the two cutest little ones on the planet! (As proven here).

And the summer begins...

Summer is always a crazy time around here for us. The bed and breakfast (our guest room) opens and it's non stop from May til November with traveling and visitors. This year, things started a little early with a trip to Aruba for Jessie and K's wedding. Mentally, I'm still there!

Here's a photo of the Tall Guy and I from the rehearsal dinner. The light was amazing that evening and our new friend Brian was an amazing photographer!

En route to Aruba I started the Traveling Woman shawl-ette. It seemed fitting for the travel that will be happening this spring and I thought it would be a good take-along project. Frankly, it's going faster then expected, so it may not be making it on to any other planes!

I've knit another 5 or 6 rows since this photo.

The yarn is The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in Cowkiller (I really don't like the name...) and let me tell you something. This is the first time I've knit with Bugga! and I can say that I understand the hype. Holy amazing yarn. I can't say I've ever understood what people meant when they said a yarn felt amazing to knit with until this shawl.

In the meantime, we have the Tall Guys's sister and her husband in town for a few days. I'm looking forward to good food, some tourist visiting and then this weekend? Nothing. A nice quiet weekend ahead and one of the few of this sort for a very, very long time. Hurray Summer!

Knit knit knit

This project has been a slow-going sort of knit.

The Featherweight Cardigan! I just got through the shoulder increases today and divided for the sleeves. At this point, I hope to have it done before it gets chilly again! I'm knitting with Malabrigo sock (the pattern calls for lace).

Me? Obsess? Never....

So, a few of you asked me about what sort of material I'm using for my napkin quest. I made my decision on this one pretty easily and for a few reasons... 100% cotton all the way! Basically, it's easy to care for, I like the way cotton feels, there are a million and one fabric choices out there and, it's a bit more friendly on the enviornment then poly blends. Sure, poly blends don't wrinkle and may not hold a stain as quick but, cotton is more absorbent and doesn't have that weird smell and feel a lot of other materials have. I'm going with wild prints to hide any stains that may pop up in time.

This little project is also a great excuse for me to purchase really cute and random fabric. Or at least use the cute and random fabric I've purchased in the past....
And if you happen to be keeping count, I'm up to 10... I haven't decided what my goal is at this point, we'll have to see...

Exhausted, but in that good Sunday evening sort of way

It's been a busy weekend from beginning to end, celebrating the Tall Guy's birthday, playing outside, going for my first run/jog in a verrrrrry long time and even doing some crafting. Frankly I'm too tired to tell you a ton, so I'll just show you a few highlights instead. I hope everyone enjoyed the nice weather, wherever you are!

This Damson is for Jessie. She's getting married in a few weeks and I helped her out by knitting this up in the yarn of her choice (Neighborhood Fiber Co. sock in Palisades). As always this is one of my favorite little shawl patterns.

And after a very long hiatus away from a sewing machine, I pulled one out and hemmed some "fat quarters" today... Taa Daa, we have napkins!

While far from perfect, these will do just the job I want them to... I've been obsessing over how much paper we toss, so I made a plan to buy up a bunch of fun fabric to make everyday napkins. This blog was my inspiration awhile ago Four down and I have a stack of fabric to go! I used this tutorial here.

A year later...

One of my resolutions this year was to work my way through the UFO's (unfinished objects) that were floating around the house.


A few weeks ago when digging around, looking for something else, I found a one completed sock and one at the heel turn. I had bought this wee skeins kit at last year's Homespun Yarn Party! I quickly recalled that about a year ago I had thrown down the second sock, completely annoyed by the short row heel.
Picking back up and taking my time, I found this to be a super easy issue to overcome and yes, they look crazy, but fun, right? Right?

I love our garden gnome! (Yes, he's riding a pig, no idea why)

Gratuitous kid shot

It's been awhile since I've shown off my adorable niece, long enough that you haven't seen my equally handsome new nephew.




Pretty sure they are reason alone for the Tall Guy and I to stick to a dog... really, how can our potential offspring be any more gorgeous then these two!?!?

Embracing the world in wool...

It seems I've lamented time and again, that while I do have some amazingly cool friends in DC, my nearest and dearest are spread all over the country and world nowadays... this caused me to realize recently that since I don't see these friends as often as I'd like (as in, they're not at my house for dinner nightly and I'm not meeting them for happy hour every Thursday) I've subconsciously started to wrap them in wool as a long distance hug when I'm missing them. Sometimes I don't even realize what I'm doing as I cast on a project and decide "this is going to X" with no holiday in mind. It simply means I miss them and this is the best way I can show it.
The point of my little ramble is this "shawl-ette".

As you may have noticed, I'm not really a purple person, but my best friend is and she lives in San Francisco. One of the great things about being a knitter is that that city is a place where you can always use a little light something around your neck, even in the "warmest" of months. Details:
Pattern: Citron
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Velvet Grapes. Took about 3/4 of a skein
Needles: Size 5
Mods: None.
Comments: This pattern went fairly fast when I put my mind to it, but the last repeat has a sort of out of control stitch count, so it took awhile to get through them!

So, HLP, here's a hug for you, and can't wait to see you soon-ish!