Rug is done.

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before and I don’t feel like scrolling through to check but I have been working on a rug for a few months. My friend Lin is an incredible weaver with an amazing studio that is also known as the sweatshop.

She cranks out project after project and encourages Molly and I to do the same. She has taught both of us to weave and supervised me on easier projects such as a scarf.

Because I am so messy and reckless I had a number of sweaters that had been ruined. Beautiful, soft, mostly pink, mostly cashmere sweaters. Mostly they met their end through stains or being carelessly thrown into the dryer. I wasn’t ready to part with them. I tried to felt them into immortality so I washed them all in hot water at least once. For some it worked and for others not so much. Then (or maybe before) I decided that I could use them to make a rug. It was not my idea; I read about it here http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/rugs-carpets/recycled-sweater-rugs-035279. Would I spend $125 for a rug made out of someone else’s old sweaters? Maybe, but not when I had several of my own laying around and access to a loom. It was going to work perfectly because all of my sweaters were in a coordinating color family because that is how it works. You like a certain group of colors and you go with that. I had a few pinks, one green, and one dark blue/green color.

We then cut the sweaters into strips. Molly cut them into really really really long strips. Yards and yards and yards long. I suppose by starting at the bottom of the sweater and cutting in a spiral until there is nothing left. While we were cutting strips we got the warp ready – light and dark green stripes. We got it all on the loom, blah blah blah. That part took months because it was tedious and the loom was at Lin’s and there were the holidays… you know how it is. 

Now it is done! I am so happy. It came out so much better than I could have dreamed. I wish you could feel how crazy soft it is because it is unbelievable! Also, there are sweater bits throughout the rug like tags and a button.

I love every weird element and I am so happy that my old sweaters are a new rug that will last a lifetime, maybe more! It is 3.5X5 ft so bigger that the rug at the link above and free!

Julie's Scarf Problem

This is a blog post in response to my friend Julie’s blog post about knitting projects that curl. Lets get right to it. Here are the pictures; do you see what is happening here friends?

Here is the thing, and I don’t like telling you this Julie: stockinette stitch curls, it does not lay flat. By the way, stockinette stitch is knit a row, purl a row.

Don’t believe the hype about blocking. I love blocking to get my projects looking even and professional looking, but not to combat major curling – which is what you are faced with. So you totes should block but not to uncurl, just to make all your stitches look perfect. How you block depends on what your yarn is made of. 

You haven’t gone too far. I suggest if you can’t live with the curling (which will be much worse when you take the needle out. The needle is trying to keep the whole thing straight, when it is gone you will have a tube, which could be cute) you take it out and start over.  Curling can be curbed with a boarder. Lets say your project is 20 stitches wide, here is what you do:

Um… I don’t usually fix knitting projects over the internets and I am realizing that I rely heavily on sketching. Ok, lets say that the X’s are knits and the O’s are purls.

Right now you are doing this

Row 1: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Row 2: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Row 3: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Row 4: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

And so on….

I suggest a scarf of stockinette with a garter (all knit) border so the first few rows and the last few rows are all knit. Then, for the main part of the scarf you can do garter stitch on the edges.

So do 6 or 8 rows all knit (k a row, k a row, k a row….)

Then switch to this pattern

R 9 :XXXXXOOOOOOOOOOXXXXX

R10:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

R11:XXXXXOOOOOOOOOOXXXXX

R12:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

R13:XXXXXOOOOOOOOOOXXXXX

R14:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

R15:XXXXXOOOOOOOOOOXXXXX

R16:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Or, leave it as is and love it!

What do you think? Other suggestions from my knitty friends?

Lemon Ginger Tea

About 3 inches of ginger, grated

A small saucepan of water – 5 or 6 cups

3 lemons, juiced

¼ cup honey

Grate the ginger into the water; bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer for about 30 mins. Strain into a teapot. Add lemon and honey.

After tasting a lemon ginger tea at a restaurant, I searched and experimented for the perfect recipe. This is my version.

This makes a very zippy brew. Adjust to make it more mellow by reducing ginger and/or lemon if you please. It is also great iced. 

Waffling

We like waffles. We do not, however, own a waffle iron. Luckily, our friend Molly is out of town this week and allowed us to use hers! Not luckily out of town but luckily let us borrow. Dave, in his usual half-assed way, decided to simply use the recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook while Renee wasn’t looking. Several months prior, we watched an episode of Good Eats devoted to waffle making, and Renee wanted to try Alton Brown’s recipe. But it was too late, Dave had already begun. He was persuaded to sub some of the while flour for whole wheat. We started cooking and sampled the first one that came out. It was, in a word, horrible. Renee said she thought it tasted like ice cream cone, while Dave likened them to plain dry toast. They were way too crispy and flavorless. We continued cooking until we ran out of batter, but as we went on, the idea of eating these flavorless discs of death became less and less appetizing.

So the decision was made to start over using Alton’s recipe. This was a pretty major undertaking: facing the prospect of another batch was daunting when already faced a pile of “waffles” that were already finished and a messy kitchen. Not to mention the waste. But one taste of those communion wafer flavored  (and textured) waffles would have convinced anyone to do the same. We pressed on and made the new recipe. There were some pretty big differences – 3 times as much sugar and butter – destined to be better, right? -  an additional egg, 3 times less baking powder and some baking soda and whole wheat flour! These waffles were fluffy, sweet and all around delicious. Two hours after we started the waffle debacle we settled into eat our breakfast and watch Roseanne. It took forever but was well worth it for our exquisite brunch. Don’t worry, we fed some of the yucky waffles to the birds and put the rest in the compost.

Waffle Fail.

Waffle Win!

Mitten Cookies

It's December 24th and quite chilly in Colorado Springs. We decided to celebrate the holiday season by making some wintery cookies. We made sugar cookies from the Betty Crocker cookbook, cut them into mitten shapes 

and sprinkled them with granulated sugar. They turned out poofier and softer than we initially expected, but hit the spot regardless. 

We had a little extra dough and made a few special cookies. Renee made some thumbprint style cookies with raspberry jam. Dave made a snowflake - but of course you knew that from the picture! 

Tomorrow we are making chili and hope to blog about that as well.  

Why Buy Crackers?

A new discovery of ours is how simple it is to make crackers and how much more delicious they are than any cracker we have ever tasted before. We made this discovery out of necessity – we wanted cheese and crackers but didn’t have crackers so we made them. We cut bread in very thin pieces, less than a quarter of an inch, applied an oil, salt, and pepper mixture we made with a brush, and toasted until crisp. Another variation we have tried is to rub garlic on the bread for a garlicky cracker – YUM!

Roasting Chickens

We cook chickens fairly frequently, a couple of times a month. It is a perfect food for us because we crave meat but try not to eat too much of it. By choosing the whole chicken we can feel good about using most parts of the bird without much waste. We typically get several meals out of the chicken because we eat the white meat on salad or in sandwiches, save the dark for soups or pot pie, and use the stock for soups. The other benefit of the chicken is that it is so easy to cook it takes hardly any time or effort. And if we are one thing that thing is lazy! Here is how the chicken goes.

Buy a whole chicken

Mash up butter with tons of pepper and salt

Peel back the breast skin and smear most of the butter between meat and skin. Spread the rest on the outside

Fill the cavity loosely – usually we use citrus fruit, garlic and onions. You should cut this stuff in half or quarters but leave the skin and stuff on

Bake in the oven and baste every half hour

Take the meat off when the chicken is still hot

Throw the carcass in a big pot of water, bring to the boil, then simmer for an hour or so (probably while you are enjoying your chicken dinner) strain and freeze