Sunday, July 20, 2008

Let's Make One Out of You and Me

Today's post is based on assumptions. Shall we begin?

Assumption 1: James likes to knit.
Evidence: He has sixty pounds of wool and tons of knitting equipment (i.e. needles, swift, ball winder, row counters, special little scissors, tape measures etc.). Not to mention more patterns and books than a whole family of cold Swedes (I like to think they knit quickly and beautifully even in their sleep [yes I understand that this is ethnic profiling and completely unfounded in reality] ) could knit in a life time.

Assumption 2: James likes taking pictures of his knitting successes (few) and failures (many) in order to post them on the internet for the world to see.
Evidence: Scroll down a few months.

Why then, dear reader, have I not knit a stitch or blogged in three weeks before today? Where has the mojo gone? I could try to blame it on the muggy weather, but as any knit blogger will tell you, that is no excuse. Alas. Let's look at stuff.

Baby Surprise Jacket

Despite all of my efforts to not finish until the kid is able to drive, the Baby Surprise Jacket is coming along well. I will not let this baby face a Chicago winter without a sturdy wool/mohair casing.

I've been baking, and it's improved if I do say so myself.

Fish Braid

This is braided sweet pastry filled with apples and golden raisins. It tasted pretty awesome. Notice the distinctive fish-like shape? I think this occurred due to some inexperience on my part. Whatever it is, I'm into. I'm going to attempt to recreate it with challah filled with smoked salmon and chived cream cheese for an upcoming Yemaya Celebration in Chicago.

And look!

Tomatoes!

Tomatoes! Now with 35% less salmonella! (Brought to you by roof top gardners everywhere).

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

What's up

I figured I should finish a project once in a while, so I picked up my sock and knit the toe. I was pleased that I would have such a snappy pair of striped socks and was already planning the charming photos I would take of the pair. That's until I noticed that I'm an idiot.

toe fuck up

This is the top of the sock. Looks ok, right? Well, this is the bottom:

toe fuck up

I forgot to redistribute the stitches so my decreases are really poorly placed. The top of the toe curls in and the decreases on the bottom of the toe will suck to walk on. Don't even get me started on the impossibility of grafting the mofo shut. I'll just rip the sucker back.

At least I have new yarn.

berkshire

It's Valley Yarns Berkshire (obviously) in Navy. I've got ten more of its bretheren chilling in my office. Together they will join forces and become a sweater for little ol' me. Well, that is after I finish the three other sweaters I've started in the last year. I'll get around to it.

In other news, a local Chicago man made brioche while under the influence of alcohol.

brioche

And it was good.