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 It's been replaced by Rope Swing.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!

Embracing the pink

Last year, around this time, I had a new favorite sweater. Shortly after finishing, I ran into a deal on the Dizzy Sheep and bought another sweater's worth in a different colorway. It's only taken a year for me to knit it again, with just a few modifications!
Over time I realize that my favorite sweater construction not just for its ease of knitting, but how it also fits me is the top-down raglan. It has everything I like in a sweater...clean, classic lines, easy knit and a million ways to customize it!
Details:
Pattern: Francis revisited
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca, about 3.9 skeins
Needles: Size 10.5
Modifications: I knit the body about 3 inches longer the the pattern called for and only one increase/decrease on the body. I knit the sleeves a bit longer as well. In addition, I didn't do any increasing on the sleeves and did a garter ridge on the sleeves, collar and hemline instead of seed stitch. The most obvious mod, of course is that I left the cowl neck off on this one.

I've already started another top down raglan again! This time, it will be a v-neck. What can I say, for my day-t0-day clothes I am nothing, if not a creature of habit.

Restocking the supply

Over the last year or so, I've knit a decent amount of sweaters and shawls. When asked, though by a non-knitter what my favorite thing to knit is, I'll always reply the same... socks. Sure, they wear out faster then a sweater and won't become a family heirloom, but I truly believe, unless you're "blessed" with feet that run hot (like the Tall Guy) there's nothing that feels more cozy then a pair of hand knit socks on your feet! I also noticed over the last few weeks that the cold weather and my near lack of sock knitting over the last season has left me with a lot of tired looking socks.

This resulted in my kicking into high gear a pair of socks that I had been knitting a row here or there on and had managed to knit one of the socks a total of three times before getting it right. If you know this pattern, you will understand why this is funny. The Jaywalker, while notoriously a problem causer in the way of biasing=tight fit is not a difficult or challenging knit. At all.

The first time I knit the on size zero needles that I thought were ones. An entire sock. I don't know why I didn't try it on, this is not like me! The second time, I got 90% down the leg/cuff only to notice a major major error about three rows after the cuff. The third time I got it right and the second sock pretty much flew off the needles. Thank goodness.
I've already cast on for another pair of jays which will be my commuting/work knitting for the time being.

Details:
Pattern: Grumperina's Jaywalker
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Sock in Amy's Vintage Office
Needle: Size one magic loop
Mods: None. I knit the 76 stitch version and I think it's a pretty perfect pattern w/out me messing with it.
In the meantime, today is the first day where spring may actually be starting to poke its head out of the dirty leftover snowbanks. I am cautiously optimistic.