The lovely ladies of the G+ Knit Chat and I have begun a year-long project whereby we are going to start/work on/complete a project based on a corresponding letter of the English-language alphabet, every two weeks. Started on New Year’s day, which was conveniently on a Sunday, and I’m now working on “D”. The rules are somewhat up to interpretation, such that we can alter project names to suit.

The socks above are my “A” project. The Aran Twist Socks were a heck of a project, mostly because I kept messing up and having to restart. Annoying as heck but user error for sure. Nice simple pattern that I would likely do again. I did a different heel than what’s listed in the pattern but the main thing is the top and leg of the foot right?

Next up is my “B”. I had originally thought of the Buttercup Tunic (Ravelry link) sweater but that pattern is a disaster, IMO. I read through it to familiarize myself with the construction and couldn’t make heads or tails of why it’s constructed the way it is, so I changed my mind and went for a Tappan Zee Sweater, renamed ‘Bridge Sweater’ to fit the project. So far, not bad. I’m already done with the knitting. I opted to make it into a pullover instead of the cardigan it’s designed as. Not sure if that was a good idea, or if I just used a not-very-good choice of yarn because it bloomed like CRAZY with blocking. Instead of buttons I will be adding in some ribbon to cinch the neckline and button band. Whoops.

Then there’s “C”: the Caroline Hat.

This needs a ribbon and I already bought it, but you know me, procrastination galore here in Chez Bean. I bought it the same day I got the ribbon for the Bridge sweater, so at least I’m on something of a roll in terms of acquiring the embellishments. I’m sure I’ll get it done before Fall.

Finally, I’m on “D”. First, understand that projects are NOT required to be finished within the two weeks, just that it should be the main thing I’m working on.

I’m knitting The (‘Da) Age of Brass and Steam next. It’s all in my own handspun. Some of the fiber is pre-dyed Grafton Fibers Merino that I picked up in a buying frenzy when I first learned to spin back in ’06. The rest is some undyed Merino that I dyed myself, with Koolaid the following year. I’m just now getting around to using it. I’m sort of on a stash-burning quest in the process of completing these projects. Kill two birds with one stone, or something like that.

Eileen is next on the horizon, though, guess what? She’s done! Except for the zipper, which makes things easier, but I’ll likely throw in a secondary “E” project for $hits and giggles. We’ll see..

TTFN!

Quite a bit has occurred since my last post.There’s been some knitting/crocheting of new projects, as well as finishing up an old, long-standing WIP.

In the finish-up department:

There’s the Cable Plait Bag that I started wayyyyy back in 2009. Finished it Christmas Day, 2011.

I actually had to call Big Beanlet back to get a picture of it, because she’d run off with it before I could finish a sentence. I’d been putting off lining the bag for fear that I’d mess it up. Silly me needs to get a picture of the lining; I don’t know why I didn’t think to do that before I let it out of my sight again.

After that, though, I got back into a bout of startitis and wound up working on a Half-Granny Square shawl, which I actually started and finished before I even bothered with the bag. I’d bought two skeins of this awesome Loops and Threads Luxury Sock yarn, but found myself crocheting the shawl instead of actually making socks. Since crochet takes more yarn than knitting, I went back for another two skeins to complete the project. (Gotta love coupons from Michaels and A.C. Moore!).

All of these were finished before the near year began, and I’m now on a new ‘mission’ to complete and work on projects with a different goal/inspiration in mind. I’ll detail that more in the next post.

TTFN!

With winter coming I had to get on the move with some new handknit accessories. You need something around your neck in these cold Northeast winters but I got tired of arranging and rearranging scarves. Cowl time! I just wanted something simple to start with, something I could use up some leftover KP yarns. I got 4 wildly different colors of Palette together and just ran them one behind the other.

I hit a roadblock with the way the top droops and I’m going to fix that before I show a FO picture.

I’ve also been putting some inches on the sleeves of Eileen, after pinning together the body to get a better sense of how I’m going to work the sleeves. Thanx to a very kind and smart knitter I learned the sleeves would have turned out WAY too big so I ripped and restarted. They’re almost to the arm caps as I type this.

I’ve also got a scarf and hat set going for Littlest Beanlet. They’re being done in undyed wool, so I’m going to dye them all at once when they’re done. I’ll see what color is her favorite this month.

TTFN!

I had about 8 or 9 balls of dishcloth cotton. I was supposed to make some new potholders but got sidetracked by a stuffed animal pattern, only to abandon that(for the time being), to wind up working on the washcloths. The pattern is easily remembered and that only fueled my crochet addiction.

I’ve got some Sugar n’ Cream ‘Denim’ yarn which is a bit thinner than the regular style. I’m going to make towels with those instead of cloths. Can always use more kitchen towels, right?

I’m making minimal progress with Eileen. I’ve long since finished a front but I had to rip the second front when I realized I’d done too many waist decreases. Oopsie. I should be picking that up again in the next few days. It’s just the portable, mindless, addicting washcloths came into my life and totally took over.

On another note, I might wind up dropping the second towel to get back into wearables for the Beanlets. It’s getting cooler and that means hat and scarf time. Littlest is begging for gloves instead of mittens. I really am not a fan of knitting all those fingers. I convinced her to stick with mittens by telling her that your hand stays warmer if all your fingers are together; like in a mitten. She went for it, so I’m off the hook for now.

I’ve got some undyed Merit brand 100% wool I picked up a the Save-a-Thon a while ago, I was making a shawl from it but it’s just too thick and not very shawl-like. It’ll make a decent hat for her and that’s what it’ll become. I just need to find a suitable pattern.

That’s what’s been going on with the yarn-craft.. If you’re looking for photos, check here!

Stir-Fry Beef*

1 lb beef strips for stir-fry*( If I can’t find that I cheat with pepper steak that I then slice thinner)
1 16oz bag of fresh made shanghai noodles
(pre-cooked or raw)
1 larg green pepper
1 medium onion or 1 bunch of scallions
1 16oz can baby corn
big handful of snow peas
2 tbls Hoisin sauce
1 cup soy sauce
1 tblspn garlic powder or
1 tsp paprika
2 tblspn sesame, peanut or any oil except olive, divided

Combine the soy sauce, garlic and paprika
and marinate the beef in this mixture for up
to 4 hours
Boil the water for the noodles if uncooked,
if they’re pre-cooked, just hold them til
it’s time to put them in.

Heat half the oil in a wok or large frying
pan and stirfry the veggies til just tender and the corn is
warm. Remove from pan and set aside.

Heat the rest of the oil and in two or three
batches cook the beef til almost done. Add
the hoisin sauce and the noodles and stir to
mix then add back the veggies and the rest
of the beef and heat through.

Serve and enjoy!

* This can also be done with thinly sliced
chicken breast, or omit the meat and use
tofu, if you like.

Adrift in Photos

Sewing:

Instead of making another sleep mask I decided to try my luck at making a camera strap cover.

Nice and simple. In hindsight I probably should have padded it and spent the time to press the seams open so you don’t get that divot along the seamlines. All in all, it was a quick sew and I’m looking forward to making more strap covers with padding.

Knitting:

I’m almost done with one of the fronts for Eileen, but I got sidetracked by some bus knitting. I’d made a few trips around town last week and needed something portable to work on. I still haven’t memorized the chart for Eileen so I took some sock yarn and cast on. In just a few days I’ve already passed the heel on the one I started. I’ll probably go back to Eileen before I cast on the mate.

Cooking:

I made carrot cake! Yay! Well, maybe. It was fun to make and the cream cheese icing was easy and delicious but the cake itself, well. It was OK, but not as moist as I’d have liked. I might have over-baked it because with a cup of oil and 4! eggs, it shouldn’t have been so dry. Oh well. The Beanlets like it so that’s all that matters, right?

There was also a first attempt at making my own corn tortilla chips:

Those didn’t go over well at all. I don’t know where I went wrong, so I just gave up and bought a bag from the store. The salsa, though? Awesome! It was originally supposed to be tomato sauce and I jumbled up the processing steps and it came out too chunky to be ‘sauce’. I am now planning to try and make this mistake again on purpose to get more salsa. It’s a hit!

Here’s what I remember doing:
I blanched 6lbs of plum and regular tomatoes to get the skins off
Chopped and boiled them down for about 20 minutes, then added a large white onion and large green pepper, both chopped up into about 3/4inch pieces.

Boiled that down about 10 min more to soften the pepper and onion, and added about a teaspoon of seasoning salt.

Then, in batches I pureed the mixture to what was a salsa-y texture. I stopped at that texture because the mixture was hot and somehow spilling out of the food processor. That’s when I just said “F it!” and jarred it all up and did the heat seal thing.

I SHOULD have pureed the tomatoes alone to get the sauce texture I was aiming for. I actually followed a recipe for that which is probably why I got it right the first time. Oh well, learn something every day!

Photography:

I’m currently working on putting my current photography themed posts and any future posts onto a separate blog. Stay tuned for the launch!

TTFN

Applesauce!

I would have loved to make some fruit jellies but I can’t seem to get my hands on any pectin(the stuff that causes jelly and jam to thicken) without ordering online. Budget-conscious and all that. So, the next best thing? Applesauce. I hit up the farmer’s market the other day and picked up 6lbs of Empire and Red Delicious apples. Prepped, cooked down and ready to process:

Just two jars for now. Maybe next month I’ll try some different apples and get enough for several pints or a few quart jars. This stuff goes fast with the Beanlets around. The fridge pickles I mentioned in the last post were yummy, so I know the stored jars have the real goodies in them. Sigh. Patience is a virtue? Are you sure?

Anyway on to the knitting.

Socks galore!

Top to bottom: Plain toe-up socks in a wool yarn gifted to me, 2×1 ribbed “Almost Java” socks in Misty Mountain Farms Prime Alpaca, and one of the Hat Heel socks I started eons ago, and have just recently found while trying to locate a missing ball of sock yarn. Turns out, the sock WAS the yarn. I about tore up the house looking for what I thought would be an unused ball of Lorna’s Lace Shepherd Sock, and found some missing needles in the process.

I should point out that I put off finishing the Hat Heels because there seemed to be some issues/errors with the construction of the heel. As it turns out, this has to be the BEST-fitting sock I’ve ever knit. And of course, since I was so disgusted with the pattern I deleted any and all info about the project and don’t know what size needle I used. I’m gonna bank on it having been a US1.

Then, there’s Eileen!

The back is done! I’m about halfway done with a front section. So far, so good. I’m wondering now if it’ll be a little big on me. I wouldn’t mind so much, since I like to wear t-shirts all year long and this would allow me to be comfortable when indoors without freezing while I’m outside. I do think my next sweater will be a pullover of some sort.

So that’s pretty much what’s been going on here with the crafts. I have been wanting to sew more lately so perhaps that’s in store for me this weekend..

TTFN!

What started out as this(sans peppers, they are for something else):

Is now this:

And this:

Let’s talk about what I’ve learned, shall we?

I’ve learned that only certain produce can be canned in a waterbath, and since I’m a chicken I won’t be getting a pressure canner for a while, so that means I’m limited to things like tomatoes, pickles, and certain fruits. But that didn’t stop me from jumping in ‘half-hog’.

The tomato sauce is orange because I didn’t remove the skins before pureeing them. Oops. I actually had read about blanching them and placing them in ice water to get the skins to just slide right off but I wound up following a different recipe which called for straining after pureeing. Which of course didn’t work, so there are bits of skin in there. No biggie. I was also advised to just keep letting it boil down for it to turn red, but then I probably would have been left with a spoonful, since I only started with 9 tomatoes which resulted in just the two jars. I’m not sure when I’ll get around to tasting it, but based on the overall consistency I might be better off calling it a soup rather than a sauce. Oh well, live and learn.

Now on to the pickles. Who doesn’t love pickles!? Well, other than Mr. BeanKnit.. But I adore them. Once I got into trolling browsing the various local farmers’ markets, I realized what great deals there are to be had and decided I could save money by canning my own pickles. For a little less than the price of a commercially made jar(at least where I live), I could get 4 times as much! So I picked up 6 lbs of kirby cucumbers and got started. It was much simpler than the tomato soup/sauce and I even had a few extra spears to make refrigerator pickles. I knew I should have gotten that 5th jar! I have to wait a few weeks for the flavors to really kick in, and that’s going to be the hardest part, perhaps.

I also learned there is some truth to the old adage, “A watched pot never boils.”. This is especially true when prepping a 21-qt canning pot. Between traveling to the markets and the canning process itself, I was able to get in some knitting. I put some serious rows on the toe-up socks I’ve been working on, but I’m almost done, so look for an FO shot in the next post, as well as a finished Eileen back.

TTFN!

Clockwise: Yellow Summer Squash, Zucchini, Sweet Basil and Yellow Onions.

These ingredients made up part of the Easy Cheesy Zucchini Bake I made for dinner tonight.

I’d left out the other cheeses called for in this recipe because I forget to purchase them. Next time, they will be added. It’s really yummy, though the Beanlets weren’t too thrilled. Too bad, they’re not the ones cooking. There’s still one yellow and one green squash left. Not sure what to do with them. Refrigerator pickles may be in order.

As for yarn craft, the Eileen sweater got picked back up again during a fun evening of chatting with some knit buddies on G+. I forced myself to get over my fear of knitting the shoulders(I’ve had this fear since I first started knitting sweaters in pieces), and just did it. I’m not actually at the shoulder decreases yet, but I’m no longer scared of them.. There was a brief moment of “Noooooo” when I couldn’t figure out what was happening last, even though the chart is marked. I solved that and it was party time!

Now, I’m looking forward to starting the next sweater.

There’s been some other crafty FO’s too, but that’s the next post.

TTFN!