Vertical Weave Fingerless Mittens and Flatbread

So I've been MIA for quite awhile. I returned to school in the fall and have been super busy. I've still had some time to knit, but I haven't found the time or motivation to post anything until now.

So lets play catch up, starting with...

The Pattern: Vertical Weave Fingerless Mittens by Me!
Size: 8 inches around forearm, 7 inches around hand, and 2 1/4 inches around the thumb
The Yarn: 1 ball of Cascade Yarns 220 Wool in Teal 9420 (220yds/201.2 m) or 1 ball of Paton's Classic Wool Merino in Dark Gray 000225 (223yds/203.9m)
Needle size: Size 7/4.5 mm

Started: 10/22/10
Finished: 10/23/10

This is two pairs. Not a pair made up of one teal and one gray, although now that I'm thinking about it wearing one of each color would be cool. It only takes about half a ball to make one pair

When I started this project in October I took detailed notes because I was going to post the instructions. Then I put the instructions in a really safe place. Which has proved to be so safe that nine months later even I can't find them. And unfortunately I gave these away, so I can't even use the mittens to jog my memory.

The mittens are pretty much a tube until the thumb. Then, like most mitten or glove patterns, there's some increases to add the thumb gusset. The vertical stitch pattern came from Knit Stitches & Easy Projects Beginner's Guide from Leisure Arts.

This is no knead garlic cheese flat bread. The recipe is from the King Arthur website. This bread is soooo easy to make. You mix the ingredients, let the bread rise, pour into a sheet pan and bake. I cut them into strips and dipped in marinara sauce. Yum.

Happy Halloween Weekend

The Pattern: Minimalist Cardigan by Ruthie Nussbaum
Size: 35 1/2
The Yarn: 11 skeins of Valley Yarns Sugarloaf in Sienna (891.0 yards/814.7m)
Needle size: Size 7/4.5 mm

Started: 10/16
Finished: 10/24

This is another project that has been in my queue for a while. I might wear it like this.

Or like this.

I wish I made the smallest size, because it came out a little baggier in the shoulders and arms than I'd have liked.

I really like the texture of the moss stitch. I'm also really happy with the yarn. I love the color and the squishiness.

It's pumpkin season, so I made this pumpkin bread recipe that I found on Tasty Kitchen. It makes 2 loaves, I have only been making a half recipe at a time. Partly because J and I won't be able to eat two loaves before they go bad. But mainly because I only have one loaf pan :)

The recipe calls for shortening. Instead I substituted coconut oil and butter. Coconut oil is supposedly very good for you.

Mitered Hanging Towels and Scroll Shaped Semolina Bread

The Pattern: Mitered Hanging Towels by Cristina Bernardi Schiffman published in Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines and available online at canadianliving.com
The Yarn: 3 balls of Red Heart ECO Cottom in vanilla, denim, and linen marl - one of each color (145yd/133m per ball)
Needle size: US8/5.0mm

Started: 6/17
Finished: 7/10

I made these for a gift, but I still don't have a recipient in mind. This was a nice project to give me a break from Anthemion (This thing is taking forever!). You could knit one of these in a day or over the course of a couple evenings.

I bought this yarn with no particular project in mind. I just happened upon it when I was at Knit-A-Way. I loved the look of the denim and linen marl colors. The yarn is 75% recycled fabric remnants from t-shirts and 25% acrylic. It felt a little bit stiffer than other cotton blends I've used in the past. It is a good yarn for householdy items. So when I ran across this pattern in Mason-Dixon I decided to dig out the Red Heart.

The buttons are 28mm in diameter and made of horn. I got them at M&J Trimming on 6th Avenue between 37th & 38th. They broke my bank at about $5 a piece, but they are so handsome and perfect for these towels I couldn't leave them behind.

Here is my latest baking creation.

Pane Siciliano. Again from the Bread Baker's Apprentice. I didn't get the shaping quite right. I think the problem was the surface tension on the dough. So when they rose they sort of just melted together, making the scroll shape less obvious than the loaves pictured in the book.

I ate one loaf over a week and froze the other two loaves. They weren't quite as good out of the freezer, but they make good cheesy garlic bread.

This is how I do cheesy garlic bread:
Place desired number of slices under the broiler to toast.
Crush one clove of garlic and rub it on the toasted bread.
Place a layer of cheese on top. I use shredded parmesan, but you could use mozzarella or whatever.
Stick the bread back under the broiler until the cheese starts to brown. Enjoy!

Textured Shawl & Braided Bread

My third shawl for 10 shawls in 2010.

The Pattern: Textured Shawl by Orlane
Size: 44in/112cm neckline; 28in/72cm sides; 20in/51cm neck to tip
The Yarn: Three balls of Valley Yarns Sheffield in Light Grey (360yd/329.2m)
Needle size: US9/5.5mm and US10.5/6.5mm

Started: 4/4
Finished: 4/13

This was a really quick knit. Its simple and beautiful. I wanted to use a light solid color to show off the textured pattern. Dark colored yarns work well with lace because you get light shining through to highlight the pattern. But with a solid peice like this I felt that a dark color would just eat up the textured pattern. I also decided against varigated yarn because I thought it would make the texture disappear. I love how the textured portions look against the simple stockinette stitch. I think this would be lovely adapted into a blanket.

The Sheffield yarn was ok. It feels nice and was priced well. I think I just don't really like yarns with angora. I find that they shed alot. So the entire time I knit this I was a total mess. The yarn was shedding all over my lap and the little hairs would float up and stick to my face. Yuck. But it does look really pretty and feels soft.

I cast on using a crochet method where you make a crochet chain and then knit into it. I don't think this was the best choice. If I were to do this again I'd use a cable cast on. But if your interested in the crochet chain cast on Eunny Jang has a good tutorial here: Invisible Crochet Cast On II.

After casting on here's what I did:
26 rows of stockinette
9 repeats of textured pattern
18 rows of stockinette
9 repeats of textured pattern
18 rows of stockinette
7 repeats of textured pattern
BO with US10.5/6.5mm

Leaving me with only had 94in/23cm of yarn.

When I look at Orlane's shawl I think mine turned out kind small. Ooops. We have approximately the same yardage (Orlane used 328yd/300m), but different weights (I used worsted and Orlane used DK). So maybe that's why? I didn't swatch or anything before hand. I typically don't unless I'm doing a sweater or something where the fit matters. I might try blocking it again to get it just a little bigger. But I kind of like the kercheif size.


Here is my latest baking attempt.

It looks so pretty. It's cranberry walnut celebration bread from Bread Baker's Apprentice. Along with the cranberries and walnuts there is also orange zest in the dough. And surprisingly it is really easy to make the braided shape.

Clothilde & Pretzels

Another shawl completed for 10 shawls in 2010. I have actually been meaning to post this for a few weeks now, but I'm lazy. I finally got my butt in gear and retouched my photos. Of course retouching wouldn't be necessary if I just took better pics in the first place.

The Pattern: Clothilde by Kristen Hanley Cardozo
Size: neckline 64”/162cm; sides 33”/84cm; neck to tip 45”/114cm
The Yarn: One skein of Sundara Yarn Fingering Silky Merino in Pine over Gold
Needle size: US6/4mm and US10.5

Started: 1/23
Finished: 4/4

I'm really happy with how this turned out. The yarn is delicious. If I could afford to I'd use Sundara yarn all the time. Its soft and shiny and the colors are great.

Following Cattywampus's project notes I completed 4 repeats of the Gull Wing Lace and two repeats of the Spearhead Lace. I was a little bit afraid that I would run out of yarn. Cattywampus said she only had 12 grams left. I don't have a scale and have no idea what that really means in terms of yardage. But she had used the same yarn, so I put in a lifeline after finishing the Gull Wing Lace section in case I had to take out a repeat of something. The lifeline turned out to be a total lifesaver. I didn't run out of yarn, but I really messed up somewhere.

I'm still not sure what I did, the pattern was really easy to follow. But partway through my first Spearhead Lace repeat I noticed the sl-k2tog-psso's weren't matching up. I kept trying to fix the part that was screwed up but then it would mess up the next part. This led to much frustration and and angry muttering and I was forced to put clothilde away for a few days in order to preserve my sanity.

Luckily I'd put the lifeline in. This was my first time using a lifeline and it made it so much easier to fix my error. For those of you unfamiliar with lifelines check out the fixing mistakes section on knittinghlep.com.

I also made some soft pretzels.

I got this recipe from The Best of Cooking Light Everyday Favorites. I topped half with salt and sesame seeds and put asiago cheese on the other half. I prefered the asiago cheese topping. They were really good the first day, but weren't that great the next day. They got kinda tough. Anyone know how to solve that?

News Bulletin

Thought I'd finally let you know what I've been up to.

Mid-Feb I was really busy putting my portfolio together. I had a review to get into upper division at FIT scheduled for the 26th. I worked really hard to get everything together, then there was a freaking snow storm and my review was rescheduled for March 11.

In between I went to Vegas.
My first time. J and I stayed at Cesear's Palace. Here's the view from our room:
That big pool of water is the Bellagio fountain. I swear our room was bigger than our apartment. Guess that's not so surprising considering we live in a studio.


Our friends from Fargo met up with us there and we had a really good time. I even played poker. Now J and I want to go down there for a weekend every year :)

When we got back my schedule was thrown off and I still haven't gotten totally straightened out. I had my portfolio review and was accepted into the BA program. Yay me!

Oh I've also taken up baking bread.

This is a loaf of sandwich bread and some buttery rosemary dinner rolls. Yum.

There has been some knitting too. I participated in my first Ravelympics. Its an event on Ravelry where you try to knit a project start to finish during the Olympics. Unfortunately I was a total failure and didn't finish my project. I did finish this before the Ravelympics started:

Another Duck Soup Sweater. This one was for Elise, the daughter of our friends that met us in Vegas.

Here's the project run down:
Duck Soup by Anny Purls
Yarn: MC Cascade Yarn 220 Superwash Color #858 - 2 skeins
Closures Regia Design Line by Kaffe Fassett Color #4451 - maybe 1/4 of a skein
Size: 18 months
Needle size: US9/5.5mm and US1 for closures


Pretty cute.

And I did another swap. This is what I gave my partner:

And I got this lovely package in return:


Whew! A lot has happened.

Now I'm working on:
Getting my portfolio in digital format to apply for a scholarship
Finishing my Clothilde shawl (I'm currently mad at it)
Finishing my Whisper cardigan that I started for Ravelry
School
Work
Sleeeeep

Ok I'm off to knock that last one off the list. G'night!

Birthday Treat

Remember in grade school when your birthday rolled around you got to bring in treats for the class - popsicles, cupcakes, cookies...mmm.

Well I never got to do that. 'Cause of my sucky summer birthday I never got to be the hero for bringing sweets to class.

So to make up for that lost childhood dream I brought cookies into work today. Yes it is my birthday! Happy Birthday me!

I found this delicious recipe on Tasty Kitchen, Pioneer Woman's new cyber venture. It's a place for home cooks to share their recipes, check it out. And, if you haven't, you should check out PW's blog. She's very funny and has great stories, pictures, recipes, and giveaways.

These are Cheesecake Cookies from the kitchen of countrycookingmama. The recipe calls for a block of cream cheese which leaves these cookies moist and tasty. I made them last night and they were very delicious right out of the oven! And still great the next day.My co-workers loved them.

I posted my guac recipe on Tasty Kitchen a few weeks ago. If you want to find me there my username is Marn

Have a great weekend!

Bake My Valentine

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

On Thursday my office had a Valentine's Day celebration. So I donned my apron and got baking.

I had this great plan to bake these:

Vanilla Chocolate Wafers from MarthaStewart.com. And instead of leaving the vanilla side white I would add a little red food coloring so that they'd be pink! So cute!

Hmmm...I didn't take into account that as the cookies bake the edges brown up, making my pretty pink and brown cookies brownish-pink and brown cookies:



Note the wonky shape the two colors create, definately not like Martha's. Oh and I burned half of them to cinders. They were so horrible not even the pigeons would go near them. Okay I didn't really try giving the to the pigeons. But I thought about it.

I was also really excited to make these:

Raspberry Almond Financiers! I'd never made a financier before and didn't know exactly what one was, but the picture and description left me believing that they would be cupcake-ish.

"honeyed, cakey interior beneath a crisp, crackly surface" -description from MarthaStewart.com

"fin·an·cier A French pastry. The financier is a light tea cake, similar to sponge cake, and usually contains almond flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavoring." -definition from Wikipedia

Huh.

Mine turned out like this:


More of a muffin than a cupcake. The tops were rounded not flat like in the photo. And I couldn't get the raspberry to look like Martha's! These were the best looking out of the batch.

Well at least everything tasted good.

**note: all recipes are from MarthaStewart.com. I am in no way associated with Martha Stewart, I'm just a fan of the recipes.**