Delicious things I have cooked of late that deserve to be written down

Cream sauce for lunga noodles: with black pepper, tons of paprika, tobasco sauce, garlic and a lick of lemon.

Cream butter with garlic, coriander, thyme, dijon and grated mozzarella. Spread on bread and toasted under the broiler.

Haddock en papillote: thyme, coriander and garlic on the fish, some slices of tomato and steamed carrots (cut slim carrots in half lengthwise, leave on a bit of green).

Roasted carrots - with my current favourite combination of garlic, thyme and coriander, lots of olive oil, roasted until delicious. Served with steamed spinach and some leftover chicken rice from a lebanese place, that I added cumin and tobasco to while heating up.

I have been so impressed with myself lately.

Little yellow hat

Yay! I finished reknitting this little guy, and he's just the right size. So, now I know that Cascade 220 grows a lot lot when you block it, and also that it smells horribly when wet. Although that may have to do with the yellow dye specifically? It didn't smell at all the second time I blocked it.

Now I will just have to make a pom to put upon it.

"yummo"

I should be reading for a paper, but I've taken a break to heat up some lunch:



These are leftovers from last night. I had an ambercup squash and cooked it according to the suggestion that was on the little label, so cubed and steamed, and then fried in olive oil until it's nice and brown. I used a spice blend that I got at the grocery store, called Carribbean spice, on it. It's got a lot of things in it, lots of cumin and garlic and oregano and chiles. This tasted so, so good. The squash was awfully hard to cut up and I wondered if it would be worth it, and it definitely was. On the side is just a pile of spinach with some dressing on it. I was actually too lazy to make a real dressing, so I just drizzled some olive oil and rasberry red wine vinegar on it and cracked some pepper over top. The squash is especially nice when a little of the vinegar gets on it. And yes, I'm not going to lie, that is a pillsbury crescent roll on the side of the plate, and it tasted delicious.



Yesterday I made blueberry muffins. It's a basic recipe, with oats and buttermilk too.

I think I'd better go put on some tea, do up the dishes, then grab a muffin and get down to work!

So it turned out a little big.

yellow hat # 1

I can't get over how adorable these tiny bamboo needles are!!

Dear Diary, spent the afternoon taking artistic photos of yarn...
















Odd hobby.

So excited with this new yarn! The yellow is a skein of cascade 220 that I'd had around for a while. I picked it up without knowing what I had in mind for it, but I think a hat is in order. The desire to start a hat today led me to the yarn store to get the right size circs, which led me to spy that sock yarn, which is just perfect for the socks I've had in mind. Meanwhile, while the nice yarn store lady was winding those two skeins into balls for me, I spied that beautiful aqua yarn, which is just the colour I had been dreaming of to make a hat out of, before I thought of the yellow. And it was the last skein in that colour! Obvs, I had to have it.

Must go knit now... pictures of f.o.'s hopefully soon to come!

new project - dressing gown

Dear Reader,

I came perilously close to buying five metres of royal blue silk today, at 40$ a metre. To make a dressing gown (e.g. a glorified house coat). The silk is just so beautiful! Thankfully I came to my senses before purchasing a 200$ house coat, and chose this instead:



It is (blurg) 100% polyester, but it has a nice drape and was only 6$/metre. I am positive that in this whole giant city of Toronto, I can find silk at a better price. So, this will be my practise piece until I do.

Oh, you probably want to see the pattern, huh?



I wanted to sew it all up today, but I got started late and only got part way through the yoke. Then the next thing I knew it was nine p.m., and I have a strict rule about not sewing after nine. It's around that time that I lose the ability to both see properly and think properly, so I know better than to sew.

First day of class tomorrow! But not until noon, so hopefully I'll have a bit of time to sew in the morning.

Oh bother, I've been spending way too much time on Ravelry and I just want to knit! But naturally, the project I have on the needles isn't good enough for me, oh no, I want to go out and knit something brand new. Visa, I have a feeling you may be getting a work out soon. Starting school now and all, I'm feeling broke, so I think it'll have to be a small project like a hat, either Rose Red or Baroness Beret which I'd really like to make in Noro Cash Iroha in aqua. I think it would look just nice with my black winter coat. Rose Red I would want in that exact scarlet yarn. Or these Anastasia socks, which I am completely in love with.

I've been reading, napping and eating all day. Last night I finished Brideshead Revisited and today am starting Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Now at first glance, it may appear that I am simply doing the rounds of novels recently made into films, but in reality my theme is simply English novels.

Presently I'm scouring the internet, having decided that I need a silk dressing gown, and am searching out either a vintage one or a vintage pattern that looks just like this :

My latest activities

I have been up to a lot of cooking lately. I finished work a week and a half ago and am just now getting into the swing of being off. Today I made these lemon scones, and earlier this week a plum cake:





This was my dinner last night, a pile of boiled potatoes topped with steamed spinach and a poached egg, topped with more Swiss cheese. Delicious! I got the idea from The New Laurel's Kitchen.



Speaking of which, I do miss the regular Laurel's Kitchen. It is in Montreal somewhere with my friend Lea. Rats!

And somewhere in there I finished those socks for my grandmother:



And tried them on, of course. I have also knitted a ways up the back of my stiped sweater, but have no pictures of it as yet.

Progress report

 

Work on my sock continues! I have just turned the heel of the second one. This sock is turning out much better than the first one. I figured out what I was doing wrong with my "YO"s and why the right-hand YO of every pattern I've knit never turns out properly. Well! What a learning experience. I suppose a dilligent crafter would tear out the first sock and do it again properly. What you call thorough, I call crazy. After all, they are just for feet. And an old lady's feet at that, I really doubt she's going to notice the missing holes. Although she might find one foot consistently feels warmer than the other.

I took this photo with my roommate's camera. If I use hers any more often, I'm not going to be able to stand my own anymore. It just doesn't take good photographs, especially of the things I like to take, namely, small objects close up. The clincher was when I set up a shot, and took the exact same photo with my camera and hers. The difference was brutal. I'd better start saving!

Today was a lazy sunday. Dropped some books back at the library, Instead of Education by John Holt and Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander. I had the last one on hold at the library and waited a few months for it, definitely worth the wait. Really hilarious. And Instead of Education was probably my favourite Holt book that I've read so far. He makes so many good points. I don't have any children of my own, but I have seen in the children of a family friend, that as soon as they started going to school, their personalities changed drastically. Do we really want to train ourselves for a life of fear, and competition, and subservience to some self-appointed leaders? The book itself is about schooling, of course, but it applies to most jobs I have known, as well.

Coming up soon

Today was a long and rotten day, so I am going to list things I really like.

1) This Cascade 220 I got to make a sweater:



I think I chose the wrong shade of blue, so unless I can decide to stick with one of those two, I'll need to go back and exchange it for a slightly lighter, more robin's-eggsy shade.

2) This pattern, which I started in high school out of a scratchy acrylic, and will now re-make out of said Cascade:



3) This adorable little heart-heart shaped plant I got today:



4) Look how his little branches are reaching up to you!


Cute!

5) This adorable book I am reading:



These Gallimard Folio editions, it was only 3.95$ when I was in Victoria and contains a dozen nice little excerpts from litterature on the subject of "Happiness". I also have the one on "Friendship", and would really like the one on food in litterature.

6) A morning coffee from Bulldog:



I was so sad to realise I'd forgotten my camera this morning and couldn't take a picture of the perfect leaf he drew in my cappucino.


Okay, that's all for now!

Sunday Lunch

This afternoon I wanted to bake a loaf of quickbread, from an old bread cook book I have. The recipe is called Brown Apple bread. It's very simple recipe. No yeast of course, because it's a quick bread. The only really time consuming part was creaming the brown sugar and butter together because I had to use cold butter, and waiting for half a cup of molasses to pour from the carton. Apparently molasses is as slow in June as it is in January! Before I could start cooking, I went to the grocery store for the buttermilk I would need, as well as some other food for the week.

While the bread was baking I fixed a lunch that made me very, very happy:



Pâté on fresh bread, with big chunks of a super-rich double-cream cheese, big pieces of ripe tomato, and salad with blueberries and pear-guava vinaigrette. So satisfying. I shop best when I imagine that I'm either French, or a very healthy hippy as I wander around the store.

The bread took an hour and a half to bake, and then I subjected it to a lengthy photo shoot. The kitchen was no good as the lighting was very blue, so I moved it to my roommate's room where there is a bright, plain corner. After taking the exact same picture of the same object, in the same position, under the same lighting conditions with both our camers, I am convinced of my need for a new one. Mine doesn't let in enough light. Anyway, here is the completed loaf, with a couple of thick slices cut out and a big pad of butter on one of them.



And I did end up unravelling my sock back to the heel flap and making it the proper length, and I'm glad I did. I do want to get these done soon, though, so I know what I'll be working on tonight!

Oh no! I thought I was doing something wrong with the heel flap on these. I've been reading a KAL on Craftster for these socks, and it turns out my suspicions were right, I did make the heel flap way too short! The pattern is just crazy like that. You can see here how it's all silly looking now:



To ignore it and continue on, or rip back and do things properly? Argh decisions!

Sock in progress, or, Returning to Making Things

My granny's birthday is coming up in July. Last year I knitted socks for my mother and aunts, and she was very interested in them. She knits, but has never knit socks. I thought she'd like her own pair, and her favourite colour is purple. So here they are in progress:



The pattern is Hedera from Knitty. Hopefully the lace will become clear once they are being worn (does one block socks?) but this is as it looks right now, stretched out over my fingers:



I haven't knit or sewn or done much of anything in the past few months. Often I would be sitting around feeling that my hands really ought to be doing somthing. It's amazing how much better I have felt since starting these socks. I bought the yarn Monday afternoon and started them as soon as I got home. The next day I was already thinking of more projects I ought to start, feeling creative and lively again. I hadn't felt like that in quite some time.

You know I just love Brenda Ueland. And she always says that creativity is like a tap. The more you turn it, the stronger it comes. And it's so true. Just start something and it keeps flowing!

Would you believe it, I went back to the old template and just changed the colours. It's not perfect, but ok for now. I've been making a lot of socks lately, I'll post a picture when they're all done. I've got five different yarns to knit up.

New city, new blog look! (I live in Toronto now)

But I don't like this completely... I forget how to change the colours and get rid of that green. And I want the side bar to be farther to the right to give me more space. Hmm...

This weekend's project was to burn some groovy CDs of Cottage Music for my holidays next week!

Besides painting, of course, which would be finished if I could just get the ladder out of our building's storage room. Unfortunately, it's locked. I think I'll designate the painting of the top edges to my new very tall roommate who's moving in while I'm away.

I also worked some on my Granny Smith sweater. I swear I will finish it. Soon. I promise.

And in less than a week my holidays start! Two beautiful weeks outside of the city. I have been waiting so many long, cold months for this. The first week is at the beach and I expect it to be a great one. Besides swimming and lying on the sand, my mum's (and my) very crafty and inspiring friend is coming along with her sewing machine, so I hope to get some sewing done, as well as knitting, if I can find time this week to pick up yarn for a new, beach-friendly project. (I find kid silk haze just doesn't travel so well for me). Then after that I'll be at my parent's for a week, spending some days in Toronto and convincing my friends to have pool parties.

I can't wait!

Bye-bye orange!

oh gosh

So I've been behind. But after colour week I had an idea that interested me. I've noticed that blogs from time to time give themselves themes. I really enjoyed finding the photos for colour week, both looking through my old photos and finding the colours around me. I thought it would be a fun project for myself to do a few of these, with the same colour for each day of the week, but different themes for each week. For example, one week in the kitchen, another in the neighbourhood, etc. I wanted to do it for the month of july, but I have dumbly loaned my camera to someone for the week. So anyway, that's what's upcoming.

Otherwise, I've finally gotten around to really looking at the book "D.I.Y. Design it Yourself", which I've had for a few months. It's fantastic and I've got a lot of projects I want to get started on.

And it's already quarter after eleven! I better run. Back soon with photos!

Friday = Red