Sunday, May 29, 2011

Knitting Update

I've finished a few projects lately, finally done all planned baby projects for now!! Finished recently:
Baby blanket for Cobble Cobble's sweet little girl, quilting pattern inspired.
Hooded jacket for a friend's little boy.
And no picture update w/ both socks, but I FINALLY finished my mom's Christmas present pair of socks! Only about 5+ months late. I basically knit the whole sock while on the trip to Alaska. Everyone says socks are good travel projects b/c they are small and portable, and they are right! After doing this first pair of socks I am super inspired to knit a pair or two for myself. I have have at least four skeins of sock yarn in the stash waiting for projects. I got some of the new yarn from a cute new yarn shop in Juneau, hand dyed in Juneau.

But, first I have to get back to a project all for me. My "Cherry Cardigan." I probably put the needles down for this over 8 months ago when baby season reared its head again. I'm excited to get back to it. Took me a good bit to remember where I was in the pattern, but I am ready to go. Maybe I'll even get it done in time to wear it in the proper season!

Off to a bbq. I'll post pics of Alaska soon, they are on the other computer...

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

The Last Frontier

In about 10 hours we leave from National Airport via Alaskan Airlines for Juneau AK. A very long stop in Seattle, WA for our layover, then finally we hit AK at like 2 am Eastern time. Tomorrow's gonna be loooooooooooooooog.

But...Alaska should be awesome! Don't worry, I'll take tons of pictures and be sure to share when I get home. Byeeeeeeee!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Awesome Saturday

So this past Saturday I was brave and ventured to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival all by myself. I had heard about this kind of festival before, or more, the knitting part and I really wanted to see what it was all about. Well, it was clearly popular, b/c when I was approaching like 2 hours after it opened I got stuck in traffic on the access road for like 15 mins just trying to park. But it was totally worth it! It was held at the Howard County fairgrounds, and a major part of the event is agricultural and basically farmers that have sheep and produce wood/lamb meat and whatnot showing off their animals and having demonstrations on sheep herding, sheep shearing, and other animaly things. I was there for the yarn! Another huge part of festivals like this is not actually the yarn, but the wool from the sheep that people use to spin their own yarn. Spinning is a major pastime for tons of people, and like knitting or other crafts/arts, those who spin, are seriously serious about it. There were auctions for spinning wheels and lots of spinning accessories for sale.
This woman was just camped out spinning her own yarn. She was also wearing socks she knitted!

I'm not into that aspect yet. I did see a pin that made me laugh though, it said, "I spin...because knitting is not weird enough!" I bought pins that said "Will knit for wine," and "Friends don't let friends knit drunk" b/c I thought they were hilarious. I saw a women w/ a t-shirt that said, "will knit for beer." Knitting really is a community with deep bonds and people who truly enjoy knitting for the sake of knitting and making things for themselves and other people. Just this week I was working on an older project and realized, knitting makes me relax.

So...I saw lots of cool things while walking around the stalls of vendors and outside. It really did have a festival feel. There were musicians, food vendors, and tons and tons of shops selling yarn, fiber [to make yarn] knitting accessories, books, knitted objects. There were classes all weekend long, and I passed a tent full of little kids all sitting in chairs knitting and I basically stopped to stare it was so cute. There were people just set up places spinning or knitting for the fun of it, AND there were cute animals to pet. I pet some Angora goats, which I found out, make "mohair". Angora sheep make "angora."
These little guys are Angora Goats. I pet a few, they were soft!

Finally, i got some awesome yarns for future projects. Part of me wished I had come with projects/patterns in mind b/c buying yarn for the heck of it is dangerous. 1- you don't know what you will use it for, so it might go to waste, 2- what if you find the perfect use, but don't have enough! So I tried to buy w/ a pattern from the vendor, or enough for small project.

The white yarn is the softest yarn I've ever touched. I HAD to buy it. From the point when I touched it, and then went to talk to the husband on the phone about something and went back there were only two skeins left, so I snatched them up! Luckily they are just enough to make this soft, flowy hooded sweater for me! The pinky yarn is for socks, as is the ball of black/blue yarn. I'm finishing up a pair of socks for my mom and I really want to make the next pair for me. The spirally [hank] of yarn is super soft and variegated and I got a free pattern for a neat scarf, and finally the other ball of multicolored yarn was just a spontaneous purchase! I could easily make a gift scarf or something from it, and hey, it was on sale [or at least they said it was.] I easily spent $100 on these yarns, and I had to make myself walk away from so many more that were awesome, but were like $40 for just one skein/hank/ball. Which, at this point in time, I cannot justify. Yarn at stores like JoAnn's and others is ok, but you don't really make long lasting quality things from it, so I know really good yarn is going to be expensive, but...I couldn't justify that. The best part is, at least half of these were actually made in Maryland, from MD sheep and crafts people that spun and dyed the yarn themselves. So I can feel good about buying local! I can't wait to go to this next year and will see if anyone else wants to go. It's free and was so much fun, even all by myself!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Royal Wedding

Yes, ok ok, I watched the royal wedding. Not at 4 am, I'm not THAT crazy! I have off work today so I was sound asleep till 10ish :-D I watched the reruns of it this afternoon and I have to say I enjoyed it. Her dress was beautiful, but actually not that much fancier than some of my friends' dresses. The whole time I was watching I was thinking to myself, wow, what is going through her mind? She is my age [give or take some months] and she is now part of the royal family! The pomp and circumstance of this day is just the beginning of her new life!!! She looked like she was taking it all pretty well, she didn't look that overwhelmed. There were some great moments where they just looked happy and in their own special moment. Being the sappy girl I can be sometimes...it made me think of my wedding day and of course that made me happy. Did you watch the wedding?

Sunday, April 10, 2011

2 posts in like 6 hours!!!!

I'm on a blogging roll!!!!!!!!!!

So...all this baking recently has made me wish it were cookie season, which I guess is Christmas season. When everyone has those cookie exchange parties. Or you can bake cookies for the church bazaar. I'm loving baking and trying new recipes right now, but who needs dozens of awesome cookies laying around? Right? Sooo....who out there wants to share with me? Or have a baking party. We can bake just one type/batch of cookies and share, or try several recipes together? Like actually bake together rather than bring the already cooked things to the party? I think it would be fun to pick some baking/cooking things to try as a team???? Who is with me!!!???

Also, baking all these things makes me think it would be fun to have a 'brunch party.' What do you think? Cookies, cakes, quiche, mimosas...all things delicious. Again, who is with me?

Ok, maybe I'm just up way too late, but I'm excited about all of this. Ladies, gents- lets plan something :-D

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Cookie experiment

Have you ever tried to recreate something you ate at a restaurant? I've been dying to find a recipe for Italian almond cookies like the ones at Vaccaro's Italian Bakery in Little Italy, Baltimore. They are amazing. Chewy, super almondy, and just delicious! I've looked at all the recipes in my books at home and never found anything that sounded right. Andrew found this recipe and I've given it a try. The super almond flavor is from almond paste, which is a little pricey, but definitely has the right flavor.

I halved the recipe but actually had about 2 oz. less of the paste than I needed. I'm hoping that is not a terminal loss. The cookies are turning out ok, much flatter than the originals though. I'm not sure that is because of the missing paste though. What makes a cookie flat vs. rounder and puffy? Anyone know? Is it flour? Eggs? Type of sugar?

So, they taste perfect, but since they are flat, there's not as much chewiness available. Still happy though! Now I need some will power to keep from eating a dozen of them tonight!

The Vaccaro's cookie is in the middle, see it's shape?
Here are mine cooking on the sheet:

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Awesome Happy Hour

Yesterday Beeps and her husband met my husband and me at Talara in the Harbor East neighborhood of Baltimore. We had been there before and have been itching to take Beeps and husband there because they have all kinds of great Latin American dishes and drinks, they even have caipirinhas!

Well we took full advantage of their great happy hour deals. We had mojitos, caipirinhas, and seviche! One of the dishes we had was this Salmon Asian Tartar:


It was yummy. Who knew raw fish was so tasty. I've had sushi/seviche several times now and it's always good. The whole raw fish thing is interesting in that, the texture is so very different than cooked fish. And it can take on the taste of the sauces and other ingredients. This dish was seasoned with soy sauce, scallions, sesame oil and capers, served on sushi rice and nori rolls with white truffle oil wasabi mayonnaise,Tobiko caviar and fried lotus root. I would totally recommend it.

And if you go, make sure you try the Key Lime Mojito...fabulous! [I had four :-D ]

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Lofty Saturday


Yesterday Andrew and I went with both our sets of parents to the National Cathedral in DC. Dad, Andrew and I went on a special tour where you get to climb pretty high up in the crossing tower [the big one in the middle of the church, not the two at the west/front end]. This is the tower with the two sets of bells. Apparently this is not a normal tour. The weather was pretty good, little windy though and cold when you were up in the parts of the tower that are basically open air.

There were two sets of bells, one which are rung mechanically w/ a hammer type thing, but where the 'tune' is played by someone sitting at what resembles an organ. So someone is actually pounding at the keys to make the bells ring.

The second type are huge bells that have long ropes attached that people pull in different ways to make music. Apparently this type of ringing is centuries old. We got to hear both which was kinda neat. I would have enjoyed a little more of an 'architectural' tour that taught us about the tower construction and the building, and where we would have gotten to go higher [we really only went about half way up the tower] but it was still a cool tour.

My dad has a former student that works there that is going to set up a tour for us kinda behind the scenes, where we got to go through special doors and up stairs that regular people don't- now this is my type of tour! Looking forward to when that happens. This place is full of cool carved doors that are locked and carved spiral stone stairs that look like they go to cool places....

Afterward we all went to lunch in Georgetown which was nice too. It was great to see each of our parents all at once. We are amazingly lucky that we each have parents we totally get along with, and that our spouse gets along with too.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Cookie Success!

So the new mixer got a workout this weekend. Yesterday I made a batch of buttery shortbread cookies and today I made a ton of ginger snaps. The ginger snaps turned out awesome. You mix all the ingredients together, including butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, vinegar, ground ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and molasses [which I was skeptical about b/c it didn't smell all that great] then roll the cookies into little balls and bake on the sheet. I used the Joy of Cooking recipe, but took a cue from another recipe and dipped the cookie ball in granulated sugar before putting it on the cookie sheet and baking. That turned out to be a great idea, as the cookies bake and flatten they get that awesome characteristic cracked surface and the sugar makes them sparkle and adds just a little extra sweetness. The cookies are crisp but still a tiny bit chewy at the center. I'd say this was a success!

These are the shortbread cookies all cut up into squares. You bake them in a jelly pan [cookie sheet w/raised sides] and just press the dough in then cut into pieces when done. Very easy.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Early Birthday Gift!

So, the big 3-0- is coming up in a month, and I already get to play with my gift! I told my husband I wanted the Kitchenaid stand mixer we registered for from the wedding but never got. Over the years I've kept an eye on the price via amazon.com and figured we'd buy it asap when a good price showed up on the onyx black one we wanted. Well $207 came around, and voila! New pretty mixer to play with. It's kinda a gift for both of us, but I've been wanting it for a while and couldn't justify just buying it.

So...what do I make first!!!!!!!! I've been dying to make shortbread cookies w/ jelly in the middle and I think that will be my first recipe. What else? Any suggestions? I know there have been things I've tried to make in the past or wanted to but knew the little hand mixer I had just wouldn't cut it. So now I've got all the power and glory of this bad boy to make it happen! I think husband will attempt some bread recipes too, he's got a pretty awesome dutch oven bread already. With time I assume we'll buy the pasta attachment and maybe some others. I figure lets master the simple stuff first and then we can move on.

So, now the important question...where do I keep this thing? It's pretty big, and we have limited counter space. Already hogging space are, toaster oven, bread box, knife block, utensil holders, and griddler...all very important things. Guess we'll just have to cram one more thing on the counter. Maybe we should clear up the recycling stash and other little things....

Oh, and in other news, I don't have to go back into work for a week!
Today- telework
Friday- flex day
Saturday
Sunday
Monday- fed holiday!!!
Tuesday- telework

Wednesday, ugh, back at work :-(

Ok, back to getting some work done at home :-D

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Knitting Fun- Socks and Mittens

So, it's been a while since my last knitting update. I was busy for the holidays. First I tried to make these cute little mitten Christmas ornaments for my family, they are relatively easy and took about 1.5-2 hours each. I am going to try to stock pile them this year for next Christmas and the church bazaar, apparently they were popular there. I used a self patterning sock yarn and size 1 and 2 needles.

I wanted to find something special to knit my mom for Christmas. She's not really a scarf person, and there certainly wasn't time for a sweater or anything, so I figured socks might be a good idea. This was my first attempt at knitting a sock and I must say it was kinda fun. They look complicated, but probably aren't' as bad as they look. I had a great pattern from the magazine Knit Simple and did a little research on Ravelry.com first to see what others thought of the pattern. It sounded like a good place to start. Here's the yarn I chose, Lion Brand Sock Ease, w/ aloe to sooth the hands while knitting
You start this pattern at the cuff of the sock and knit down the length of the leg. To knit the sock as a tube, you use 5 tiny needles and spread the stitches among them. This is also how you would knit a sleeves to a sweater or finger on a glove if you did not want to have a seam down the whole thing. It's a little tricky to get going, but easy once you get the hang of it. After the cuff is the desired length, then you knit the "heal flap" the part of the sock that extends down over the back of your heal, then you "turn the heal" where you make the knitting cup up so that it fits tight to the rounded heal of your foot.

Here you can see the heal flap knitting as a separate piece from the rest of the leg of the sock.

Next you pick up stitches from the portion of the leg you left on the needles, and then heal and knit the "gusset" which is the triangular space next to the heal on either side of your foot. Every other round you make decreases by knitting two stitches together, this makes this part of the sock narrow so that it will fit the flatter part of your foot. Then you just knit the top and bottom of the sock for the rest of the length of the foot until you hit the toe area. Finally you do another round of decreases specially designed to make a perfect point in the shape of the toe and, you are done!

So, I've made exactly one sock. Gave it to my mom for Christmas with the promise of its matching pair. I've got a few baby projects to get done before I can finish the second sock but hopefully it won't be too long. I see more socks in my future, they aren't as hard as I expected, and the pattern choices are endless. I think I might make the next pair for myself :-D

Sunday, January 16, 2011

The weekend

Exciting things this weekend has brought, or has yet to bring:
-relaxing with my husband unexpectedly
-making awesome teriyaki steak dinner last night
-gym, trip to BJs to stock up, then more relaxing
-break in the relaxing to clean clean clean
-husband set up our new reading lamps! [guess who is going to bed early to read!]
Tomorrow:
Thrift store w/ Beeps. Then lunch and watching the season premiere of the final season of Big Love. Then more relaxing on my lovely federal holiday. Thank you very much.

How are you all doing?