I'm Knitting a Sheep

This yarn! It's literally a sheep. It smells like a sheep, it feels like a sheep, and it looks like a sheep! Complete with sticks, oils, and maybe a stray lamb or two.

I counted one of the skeins and I've got about 125 yds / 8 oz of wool. So, I've got about 625 yards here. I swatched tonight, on a size 8 and a 10. The 8 gets gauge exactly for the Cozy V-Neck Pullover With Deep Ribbing (Ravelry) from Fitted Knits (not Ravelry), which is a book I bought and from which I have yet to knit something. However, I'm supposed to use a needle two sizes smaller than the 8 for the ribbing, which is the majority of the sweater, and my wrists hurt from just knitting those two swatches.

Do you like my swatches? And my cute little label?

The swatch on the 10s wasn't much easier on my hands, although they are now quite soft from the oils in the wool. Does anyone know if I can wash this yarn before working with it? Is that bad? Should I just proceed as is and enjoy the feel of down-to-earth, honest-to-goodness wool?

Also, I think this yarn deserves some cables, so I should do something other than the V-Neck Ribbed Pullover. And to preserve my hands and to make the most out of the yarn, I think I should use size 10 needles.

The ball ended up the size of my head!! I had to wind the second half of the skein by hand, because my ball-winder maxed out. This picture is now my avatar on Ravelry, because it's too hilarious not to. That is some bulky yarn, baby.

Tonight's dinner: homemade pita chips, hummus, and broccoli-cheddar soup.

PS- Anyone know anything about html and why, after the pictures, the text switches to single spaced? I like it better double spaced, and I've looked at the code, but I can't figure it out.

Blackberries for Sal

We've been exploring our new neighborhood, and one of the things we've found is blackberries. Everywhere! We've been going out (ok, Mike has been going out- I went once) and picking blackberries. Just a few minutes of picking reaps a whole bowlful of berries. It's really wonderful to find these up here, because growing up we had a huge patch of raspberries and it was so wonderful to have fresh berries anytime you wanted!

The abundance of berries has resulted in a flurry of baking. First up, Mike baked a fresh blackberry pie. It was a chilled pie, with a graham cracker crust. As you can see, it didn't last long!


Next I made blackberry scones, which are just now cooling in the kitchen. I had planned to substitute yogurt for the heavy cream called for in the recipe, but discovered that the container I thought held yogurt actually contained jaggery, an ingredient for Indian cooking! I ended up using soy milk instead and they are just delicious. We have guests coming over the next few days, and these will be great to share with old friends.


We froze the rest of the berries and are planning many smoothies and more pies! We're planning a baked pie next, with a traditional pie crust & top crust.

The cookbook we used for both these recipes is the New Best Recipes from Cook's Illustrated. I love this book because just like the magazine, they detail all the variations they tried in order to get to the very best, most ideal recipe included in the book. It gives insight into what makes a good recipe, and has many good tips for attaining perfection in baking. Everything we've made out of this book has been absolute perfection.

I also want to make a note about the butter we've been using. We got it at the Farmer's Market yesterday and it is just incredible! Organic and local and sustainable just makes all the difference. It's so creamy, so lucious, and so flavorful. I'm in love.

In the midst of all this baking, knitting continues, although it is not very exciting. I'm working my way through the second skein for Lelah. It spends its days at the top of my brand new knitting basket.

Also flying off the needles are cupcakes, for all those August birthdays. I had high hopes of knitting everyone socks, but I only got through one pair. I turned one slightly ugly cupcake (darn you, acrylic yarn!!) into a much cuter pin cushion. And for my brother, I tried to make a slightly more manly cupcake. I tried my hand at imitating the swirls of piped on frosting. It's the vanilla frosted chocolate cupcake on the left in the photo. The cedar chest is the one made by Poppy, my great-grandfather, and is where I'm storing all my yarn.

Group Knitting

Last night I went to my first ever knitting meet up. It was at a great LYS- I didn't get a chance to look around the store much, but the sheer quantity of yarn was excellent. About 20 people showed up, and as far as I could tell they all knittogether a lot. Everyone was chatty and very familiar with each other. There was free champagne, which was an excellent bonus. (I didn't bring my camera- the photo is from thier website.)

I got a repeat and a half done on Lelah, and finished the first ball of yarn. I only got 3.25" out of it, so it's going to be very close. Five balls of yarn gets me 16.25", which goes from my hips to my shoulder, so I'm crossing my fingers I'll have enough. I'm toying with ideas about adding in a stripe of white cotton (from my stash) at the eyelet rounds, then using a green ribbon.

Speaking of my stash, I organized it the other day. I took all the random balls out of the box and shopping bag we moved them in, put them in labeled ziploc bags, and then into this beautiful cedar chest my great-grandfather made for me when I was born. I even weighed them all, so know how much I have, since none of them have bands anymore (i inherited most of the stash in college). It's a lot of acrylic, so I'm thinking more and moreof learning crochet so I can make a ripple afghan.

And, baby Faust's booties arrived and he is a studly stud, sporting them all over Germany!

You can tell in the picture that my grafting at the bottom of the foot left a bit of a ridge, but luckily he won't be walking until he grows out of these!