Duckie

So, the sweater is slow going because I'm on the sleeves now, and it's just straight stockinette for the whole thing, and my attention span is pretty mediocre.

I'm taking a break to make these duck socks, because my boss is having a baby.

In the sweater from-the-neck-down class that I took, everyone was making baby/child sweaters, except for me. So while most people were on step 3 or 4, I was still stuck at step 1 because it takes so much longer to make an adult-sized sweater. I was so jealous of those other people. All the satisfaction of making a sweater, with a fraction of the time and effort. But I didn't know any babies or small children at the time, so I had no choice.

But now I know a baby. Or I will very soon. I've never made anything for a baby before, and I've also never made socks before. So this project will by doubly challenging.

The project so far has been pretty fun, but difficult. I didn't bother with the "magic" cast-on, and when I got to the Turkish cast-on part, I was just like "pffft... I can do this an easier way." So I tried k1fb to do the increases, until I got to the part where you do 12 increases at once. Yeah... that was a little tricky. I went back and actually learned the Turkish cast-on and guess what: it's totally easy! I was just over-thinking it. My advice: don't try to do it while reading the directions. Read the supplemental directions over once, then attempt it while looking at the example pictures in the pattern. The Turkish cast-on makes a lot of sense for this project.

I did the whole thing on dpn's, because I started out with no size 2 needles, and buying one set of dpn's was cheaper than buying a set of dpn's and two sets of circulars. But if I ever do this project or anything like it again, I will certainly get the circulars. I definitely got the gaps with the Turkish cast on as described on the Ravelry page, but that's almost certainly due to the fact that I used the dpn's throughout.

The applied I-cord is a pretty ingenious design. That's where I'm at now. I really need to hurry up though, because I wanted to give them to my boss before the baby arrived, and this baby is coming out any day now.

I am so obsessed with how cute these socks are. Here's one done!

I took this next picture when I was working the applied I-cord. I think this picture illustrates how much better it looks with the I-cord. It goes from having a messy-looking seam to looking like a real ducky foot!

In summary: I-cord is awesome. Ducky socks are extremely cute. I cannot wait to see how cute they look on the baby!

New Yarn!

As I've mentioned before, I love new yarn. Recycling is great, but nothing beats the feel of brand-new yarn. However, I rarely have enough money to buy new yarn for a big project. Well, someone who works in the Chemistry department with me is also a knitter, and bought a bunch of yarn for a blanket. She then discovered she hated the yarn, so she just gave it all to me! For free! I thought, wow, awesome, free brand new yarn. Well, let's take a look:

And there it is. Six skeins of Lion Brand Micro-Spun yarn of various colors. At first glance it's easy to figure out why it was given to me for free. It becomes un-spun at the drop of a hat.

 And I don't mean to be pretentious here but... it's acrylic so... yeah, ew. 

I'll still use it, that's for sure. For what, who knows. I'm a couple days into the Middlefield Sweater and I'm working about midway down the body of it so it will be a while before I can think of starting to use this stuff.

Speaking of the sweater, I'm starting to regret my haste in starting this project. It's pretty clear that there's a good chance I will run out of yarn, and since it's just from a taken-apart old sweater, there is no more. Making sweaters, especially from the neck-down I think, are arduous tasks. I'm afraid I will get to the second sleeve and then discover I'm out of yarn. Then I have to take it apart, again. That just sounds traumatic. We'll see, I guess! So far it's an easy sweater, though. Looking ahead, there's a fancy seam that I've never seen before. More on that when I get there.

New Book and Project

It's been way too hot for me in Madison these past couple of days. I have no a/c in my apartment, so after work I seek refuge in the library until the sun goes down. I woke up early this morning, unable to sleep through the heat, and started a new sweater: the Middlefield Pullover from New England Knits.

I originally got this book from the library to make a different project, but when I saw how many cool patterns there were in the book, I purchased a copy for myself. I'm making it out of the same recycled sweater yarn that I made Tosha's Scarf from (see Ravelry project.) I know I said previously that I would soon do a "from-start-to-finish" recycled sweater project, but I also decided that I would use up all of the yarn that I already have (which is a lot) before going out and getting any more. I plan on making this sweater, at least two others, and the hat and the scarf from this book (ambitious, I know.) So many cool projects! I'm so happy I bought this book.

Now that I think about it, it's kind of silly sounding that I'm making a sweater when it's 80 billion degrees outside. WHATEVER. I do what I want.

I'm making this with size 7's instead of the recommended 8's, because I'm a small person and I don't have size 8's, and the nearest knitting store is too far away to conveniently get to by bus, so the only other way I can get there is by bike, AND IT'S TOO HOT to do that. 7's it is!

How about that Ravelry hack? Weird. I changed my password, did you?

Food and You

I like food. I like making food, eating food at restaurants, and trying new things. I love going to Taste Spotting and making huge lists of dishes I want to make.

I like good food. Sometimes I like bad food, but rarely. I like things made out of quality ingredients. Real food. Food that comes from the ground, not a factory. I like giving my money to hard working farmers, not big corporations.

I stopped eating meat about 7 years ago after discovering how most meat is produced. It took a lot of will power to give up bacon, but now I don't even think about it anymore. I started contemplating incorporating meat into my diet again, as long as it was locally, and responsibly produced. I tried a buffalo burger last summer, but after 7 or so years of not eating meat, my stomach just couldn't take it. I've been cooking a lot of fish lately, because my stomach can handle fish, and because my favorite guy is a meat-eater and I have sympathy for him for all of the meat-free food I make. Unfortunately, eating a lot of fish from the midwest is NOT recommended because of how gross these lakes are.

I usually don't like talking about it, though, because I can very easily sound very preachy. So I'll leave it at that, and show you something I made super quick the other day:

Whitefish in a white wine sauce with sautéed mushrooms and broccoli and some cheese & baguette. It's super quick, here's how:
Cover the whitefish fillets in olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap them up in tin foil, and put them in the oven (375 F) for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the fillets. Meanwhile, measure a cup of cream (half & half works too) a cup of white wine, a tablespoon of flour and some parsley flakes into a saucepan and bring to a boil, then simmer until the fish is done.

I was doing this, then I was planning on roasting the mushrooms and broccoli, but I was running out of time so I decided to sauté them. Just some oil, salt, pepper, a little bit of garlic, and the veggies on a frying pan for a few minutes.

The cheese we had with this is my favorite. Goat cheese from the farmers' market.

Then, of course, there's the rest of the bottle of the white wine. I'm no wine snob (I kind of wish I was sometimes, though) so I usually just get what's on sale at the store.

What's the perfect activity for after eating a delicious meal like this? Watching Ancient Aliens, of course.