Piggy!!

The piglet is done!


I think he's looking for truffles in the camera lens.

Taking Care of Business

This has been my most productive weekend like, ever. I accomplished quite a bit yesterday, and I have a whole nother day! Perhaps I'll be able to carve out a couple of minutes today to learn some spelling and grammar.

A short list of what I got done:

1. I organized my yarn stash into spiffy little baskets (no small feat)

2. I got caught up to where I had been before I had to rip out part of the Dalek

3. I made 85% (!) of a piglet from Toy Knits

4. I made a caramel toffee crunch cheesecake

5. I made caramel sauce for the cheesecake from scratch!! I was so proud of this, because I've heard that it's hard to make caramel. It's not, and it turned out perfect - way better than just melting a bunch of those little caramel candies, and less messy.

6. I downloaded about a gazillion mods for The Sims 2 (Including a Sim house that looks like a giant toilet. You would not believe how much time some people have on their hands.)

7. Um, I guess that's about it

Here's the cheesecake:

It got a little dark on the top (this is a common theme in things that I bake, in case you haven't noticed) and there is quite the fault line in the middle of it. The cake itself tasted pretty good, not burnt at all, but a little dry for a cheesecake. The recipe called for you to put the cake in a roasting pan half-filled with hot water while you were baking it. I don't have a roasting pan. I couldn't find anything anywhere to tell me why I should do this. So I didn't do it. That may be why it was dry, I don't know. Also, my oven cooks hotter than it's supposed to - most cheesecake recipes call for you to bake the cake for over an hour, but I can't go more than 45 minutes or it turns out to be a giant, slightly edible paperweight. I did try out a tip from my Sister-in-Law the Caterer - she bakes the cheesecake for slightly less than the time specified in the recipe, and then turns the oven off and leaves the cheesecake in the oven for an hour. However, since I baked this one a little too long anyway, I don't think that it helped in this case. Oh, well, there's always next time.

On today's agenda:
Finish the piggy
The new Vogue Knitting magazine!

Books

I picked up "Toy Knits" by Debbie Bliss today. (Well, ok, it came in the mail courtesy of amazon.com.) The toys in it are adorable. Two of the patterns are blatantly Kanga and Roo, and Eeyore (Classic, of course, not Disney), but that's not really a bad thing. Of course, I'm not the estate of A.A. Milne, but that is neither here nor there. The farm animals are the cutest, especially the pigs with their little floppy ears. There's also a great pattern for a "farm mat," with different squares representing fields, bales of hay, stables, etc, and tiny pigs and cows and sheep. Obviously I haven't tried any of the patterns yet, but a couple of things that I noticed - in the Introduction, I was cautioned not to overstuff the toys, because the stuffing will show through. I then proceeded to see 3 examples of overstuffing, in a casual look through the pictures of the finished patterns. I will also be extra careful when I work the noses of any of the bears, because the person who made the patterns in the pictures obviously had a bit of trouble with them - the yarn is stretched and twisted and doesn't blend well with the rest of the bear. Otherwise, the book is really slick and I can't wait to knit a little piggy.

I also received "Yarn: The Things It Makes and How to Make Them." I haven't looked at it really in depth. It was obviously written for some sort of home ec environment, as it was published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, which published 90% of my textbooks in high school. The book covers knitting, crocheting, weaving and macrame in pretty good detail, as far as I can tell. No sweater patterns, but you can crochet a skirt out of granny squares, and knit some mittens. The many pictures are surprisingly detailed, and the book covers some things that you might pass over as obvious. For example. For some reason, when I was strictly a crocheter, I couldn't grasp the concept of "make a ring, and then make x SC in the ring," if I was crocheting in the round. It never occurred to me to crochet IN the ring, and I made many misshapen circles. I even spent an evening at Barnes and Noble poring over crochet books, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. If only I had had this book! In short, it's definitely a cheesy book, but it also has some value. The macrame chapter lies in wait!

Wookie Cookies!

Here it is, the only cookie recipe you'll ever need. These cookies are much requested at LomL's work, under the name "Mrs. B's cookies." A couple of modifications that I made - I use whole wheat flour instead of white, and I use dark chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet. You'll have people .... umm .... eating out of your hand.

Cakes galore!

Cake decorating is something that I grew up with. To earn extra cash when I was little, my mom would decorate cakes for weddings and graduations, etc, and every once in a while I got to help. When I got older and joined 4-H, cake decorating was the first thing I signed up for and the only event that I stuck with the 5 years that I was in 4-H. Not to toot my own horn, but the other cake decorators of Delta County didn't have a chance once I came on the scene. Seriously, I got 1st place, Grand Champion, and Reserve Grand Champion all 5 years that I competed in the fair. My magnum opus was a cake shaped like the United States, decorated to look like an American flag, with Colorado outlined in blue, and a red star for Delta County. All done with a star tip. All this is sort of destroying my image of kitchen ineptitude, isn't it? Crap. My point: Several weeks ago, my manager and I were bullshitting, and the subject of cake decorating came up. I modestly told her that I used to be kind of good at it, and she offered to give me all of her stuff because she HATED it. She said she had a few pans and some of the Wilton Yearbooks, which was the Most Fun Magazine Ever as far as my 5-year old self had been concerned.

Anyway, today was the day, the day she remembered to pack it all up and bring it to me. The pans are really cute, a Smurfette and a gum ball machine and one of those spiffy 3-D round cake pans. But the books. Oh my gods. In addition to several of the Wilton Yearbooks (including this one), there is a hardcover Betty Crocker book and - I can't even believe this - The Wilton Way of Cake Decorating Home Study Course. That's right, my manager actually paid who knows how much money to have 5 installments of this cake decorating course mailed to her door. And the course is (supposedly) written by the man himself, Norman Wilton. He looks rather severe, as though he's just waiting for someone to make a wisecrack about him decorating cakes. In fact, he addresses this in the Introduction booklet: "Surprised? Well, don't be. The art of cake decorating is a family tradition with us Wiltons." So there.

I can't wait to look through all of the yearbooks and see what cakes I can make. How exciting!

Sock!

My sock is dumb and I hate it. Just kidding, it's a beautiful sock and I'm sure that once I get past the bloody heel turn I'll enjoy it for years and years. After the first frogging, I tried again using a different method, not thinking - duh - that you can't work a top-down heel on a toe-up sock. I've worked two other whole heel turns before this one and didn't have any problems at all! So, I've taken a break or two.

I spent today working on a gift for LomL. He has a sock person of sorts, made at least 30 years ago by some kind Presbyterian lady. The sock person, named Sam, is falling apart and showing his innards in some places. (From the looks of it, he has panty hose for brains.) Since Sam is getting old and lonely, I made a bride for him. Her name is either Samantha or Tiffani, we're not sure yet. She's a Sweet Young Thing, though, and obviously after his money (she needs a nose job). Here is their wedding picture:

Judging by the beer bottle in the background, it was not a dry wedding. I would like to point out that I totally free-handed the embroidery on her face, which is why one eye is smaller. Actually, she's winking at Sam, because that's just the kind of Saucy Sock that she is.

I also started on a possible birthday present for my brother-in-law. I say possible because the pattern is rather involved, and I would like to make two, one for him and one for his girlfriend. We'll see. Anyway, they are fans of the British televison show "Dr. Who," and I happened to find a pattern for a Dalek online. Apparently this is an evil robot; I have yet to see the show, but plans are being made to remedy this.

I am a frequent visitor of Paperback Swap, an awesome webpage where you can trade books with people all over the country at the cost of media rate shipping. Basically, you post a book that you don't want anymore and someone in Ohio decides that they have to have it (Terry Pratchett books are very popular, for example). You ship it to them for $2.13, and when they receive it, you get a credit, which you can use to order any book posted on the site. The person who originally posted that book ships it to you at his cost, and a few days later you get a "free" book in the mail. So, having an extra credit and no specific book in mind to use it on, I did a general search for "knitting." There wasn't really anything good, but I'm a fan of kitsch so the book entitled "Yarn: The Things It Makes and How To Make Them" seemed like a fun choice. If it sucks, it's not like I spent a lot of money on it. When I get it, I'll be sure to review it, so that my readers can rush right out and order their own copy, if it's any good. And if you decide to join Paperback Swap, you should tell them that I, lieslmareth, referred you.

Did you see "The Order of the Phoenix" yet? Ginny had a cute probably-crocheted vest near the end of the movie.

A long one

Sorry about the shortness of that last post ... I was either on my way to bed, or on my way to work. (Funny how I could have confused those.) (You only need to watch the first minute or so, btw.)

Here is the sock that I have been working on (Note the googly eyes in the background! Yes!):

I worked the heel turn, but it was ghastly so I ripped it out and will start again eventually. That little white dangly bit is my lifeline, and I'm soo glad I put it in. The instructions for a short row heel in More Sensational Knitted socks appear to be exactly the same as they are in Sensational Knitted Socks, but they ended up being very different and very confusing. I was going back and forth between the two books trying to figure it out, and it didn't do me any good.

The Fourth of July was spent at a barbeque, drinking and knitting and getting parts of my body ready for the skin cancer I will surely get in 10 years. I had purchased a large quantity of burgandy KnitPicks Essentials sock yarn (ok, 4 skeins) (thanks to Amber for calling it to my attention!) and when I reached the heel turn of the first sock, it became apparent that I would not be using all 4 skeins on one pair of socks. So, I decided to make a little case for my new cell phone. Once, long ago, right after I moved to Fargo and before I got a job, I attempted to make a quilt, but then something happened to my sewing machine and I wasn't able to finish (Yes, it was entirely my fault. Let's be honest, I happened to my sewing machine.). I optimistically saved the fabric; as it turned out, one of the blocks has leaves that match the sock yarn perfectly, so that will be the lining. My hope is to make it reversible, but that might prove to be a little beyond me. (Don't worry, I'll try it and make sure to document the ensuing disaster.) I'm using two cable patterns from Vogue Stitchionary 2: No. 58, River Run for the main part of the case, and No.91, Garlic Braid for the sides and bottom. Here's (mostly) what I have so far, along with the lining:

I don't know if you can tell or not, but there is something very wrong with my cables and I'm not sure what. I started out using the "cabling without a cable needle" technique, but then I noticed that there was a strand of yarn in one particular row that stood out. I switched to using a regular cable needle, but it still happened. I'm reasonably certain that it happens when I do the "4-st RC," but I cannot figure out why or what I'm doing wrong. It's something to do with how I'm carrying over the yarn between pattern repeats. I think. At one point, I thought that it was just the River Run pattern, but it's happening again on the Garlic Braid, so I can only assume that it's Me. Maybe it will be taken care of when I block it? Does anybody know what I'm doing?!?!?

Anyway.

As promised, here is a picture of my lovely banana rum puffs:

They were very good, even though you couldn't taste the rum at all. I felt the banana bread was a little overwhelmed by the chocolate chips, so I made this recipe with the bananas that were left over. The next time you make banana bread, this is the recipe to try, trust me. I try to use whole wheat flour in my baking anyway, especially when I make the infamous Wookie Cookies, so it was neat to try a recipe that actually called for it. The honey also added an interesting flavor. Unfortunately, the bread was devoured before I could take a picture of it, but it was much prettier than my last attempt.

I almost forgot

I got new sock yarn! I'm almost to the heel turn on the first sock, more soon!

New and Improved?

I've decided to add a new section. I'd first like to say that I am not in any way a "homemaker" type. My house is not spotless, my husband does not have a home cooked meal waiting for him every evening at precisely 6:00, and I don't do laundry. Based on some of my hobbies, you wouldn't be able to tell. In addition to knitting, I also really like to bake. (If you hear the sound of maniacal "I told you so!!!" laughter, it means my mother found out.) I'm not very good at reading directions, so there will be much to laugh at. I'm going to put up some recipes that I have made or am going to try, and probably pictures and stuff. Most of the recipes that I use come from the internet, so I'll just link right to 'em and you can try them out, too! Yay!

I'm also probably going to be changing the name of the blog, mostly because when LomL asks me if I'm ready to go somewhere and I'm knitting, I feel like a retard saying .... well, you know.

Anyway. Last week, a girl I work with brought in some banana bread from the grocery store, and it made me want to bake a loaf of my own. Remember how I told you there would be lots to laugh at in this new section? Get ready. The bread pan that I used was smaller than the one the recipe called for. I did not compensate for this by using less batter. Ten minutes after the pan was in the oven, we noticed the burning smell, which was of course caused by globs of batter spilling out of the pan and falling to the bottom of the oven. Then, I did one of the smartest things I've ever done in my life (rivaled only by the time I put my palm directly on a burner turned to "high." Oh, and maybe the time I used my finger to wipe cranberry carmel sauce off of a candy thermometer registering 245 degrees. Then, there was the time ... ok, I'll save some for later) - I took several paper towels and tried to wipe the batter off the coil at the bottom of the oven. Not surprisingly, they caught on fire. Surprisingly, I did not. In the end, the bread turned out almost quite lovely. The top is a little ... umm ... hard and sticky? But the bread is very moist and soft. I've actually been to depressed to try any, but it LOOKS excellent:

Doing a little more research, I found another recipe that included bananas and one of my favorite things, rum! I've made about 20 of the 60 puffs that the recipe's supposed to make, so I'll let you know how they turn out when I'm done. Assuming I don't have third degree burns.