Make Me

Recipes for the Stalwart

Or, "What to Feed a Vampire for Dinner"

Or, "Things That Make Me Go Euuuw!"

Borders sent me an email announcing Christopher Moore's new book You Suck and in keeping with the vampy theme, had a recipe for Blood Puddy. 

It reminded me of the time we went to a Filippino restaurant for dinner when I was about 14 and I unwittingly came across the description for Dinuguan.  For the rest of the evening I tasted what I thought was pig blood - even though I never ate it, never even saw it.  I don't normally have a reaction like that to foods - especially foods I never even see!  It was so weird.   For like a week afterward, every time I thought of that dish I swear I could taste it.

I started to wonder if I would have the same reaction now.  Then I got obsessed looking for more bloody recipes. Thus began today's quest for recipes calling for blood.  Thought I'd share.

Haggis
Navajo Blood Sausage
Blood Pancakes
Hot & Sour Soup
Chicken Blood Rice
Another Black Pudding
Saksang
Czerina

That's probably enough to get you started.  Bon Appetit! Holla if you've tasted!  Holla twice if you've made!

Another Change of Clothes

Why am I constantly changing the look of the blog?  Because I'm never happy with it, that's why.  I always think it looks too cluttered or the colors are off.  This one is my favorite layout.  I copied the colors from another website I saw. 

I thought if I had seasonal layouts, I would be less inclined to be disappointed, but not so.  So I'll probably keep changing it and tweaking it and maybe one day I'll be happy.  Until then, hope it doesn't make you seasick!

What We Have Here is an FO

Voila!  The first FO of 2007. Wendy's Dream Swatch Head Wrap.  Actually, I finished it in 2006 but finally blocked it and wove ends in last night.  I knit it exactly as written and used one skein of Koigu.

I got the Koigu last year when my friends Kathie, Shona and I went to LA to shop at Wild Fiber.  Everyone in Blogland had been talking about this Koigu I had only seen in magazines.  When I saw it in Wild Fiber I swear the lights dimmed, except for a single spotlight on the blessed yarn and there was a chorus of heavenly angels singing. 

Now everyone was talking about using Koigu for socks.  I hadn't yet made a pair of socks, but I was hopeful.  So I bought 2 skeins.  Well, thought I bought 2 skeins.  I distinctly remember drooling over all the impossible-to-choose from color combos and out of the corner of my eye I saw... I don't know...something bright and shiny.  So somehow, I forgot about finding the matching skein to my Koigu and ended up at the register.

When I finally sorted the mess out months later (when I found the bag of yarn!) I couldn't believe I only had one skein!  What to do with it?

Well, ta da!

 

The pattern is really easy and, even though I got tired of doing the repeats, the color and the yarn kept me going. 

Of course, this is a gift for someone else, so now, according to my own rules, I gotta make something for me now.

The Me I Could Be

I love fashion.  Really.  Perhaps it's my theater background, but I absolutely love the idea of clothes creating a new person.  You can be one sort of person most of the time, but put on a black and red tango dress and you become an all-together different sort of person.  Then you can switch it up with a pair of bootcuts and

Right now I hate almost everything in my closet.  So I've been looking over patterns and searching for something new that will make me into, I dunno - Sophia Loren?

Spent my lunch hour "shopping" online and found some goodies to share.

From the J Peterman catalog:

I love surplice wrap dresses. To me they are timeless and flattering on nearly everyone.  I also love flowy skirts that swish your legs when you walk.

From Anthropologie:

These all have such a romantic, girlified look to them.  I used to just like simple stuff, no frills, no lace, no sequins, not a lot of print, buttons, gathers or tucks.But all these pieces have me imagining myself frolicking through fields of Queen Anne's Lace while carrying a large-brimmed straw hat with pink, silky ribbons trailing behind me. I would say things like, "tra la la!" and "fiddle de dee!" while men in white seersucker suits and boaters looked at me with longing.

Maybe I just need to be a romantic sort of person at this stage in my life.  Or maybe I just need to up my meds.

I like these two sweaters because they are utilitarian but very soft and pretty.  A lacy hoodie is just so cutely funky, I can't stand it!  And the brown with its soft, drapey peplum and ruffle-y cuffs is so fun.  Both are sort of bookish, yet feminine.  So not like anything I'd pick for myself a couple of years ago.

If you don't already know, I had breast reduction surgery nearly a year ago (best thing I ever did) and no longer have any idea how to dress myself.  You think, oh, just the boobs are gone, but I went from hourglass to pear-shaped overnight.  Or is it apple-shaped?  I don't even know.  I have no balance to my shape anymore.  I'm afraid to knit myself a sweater for fear it might look stupid after all that work. 

I need Stacy and Clinton to come and clean out my closet and give me some of them rules they're always yakking about. They're coming to San Diego....maybe someone will nominate me....(hint, hint)

Fun & Games

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye - then it's a new game! Find the eye!

Sock game

Have fun!

The Wanting

First, the jealousy.  Oh, the jealousy!  I would cheerfully spend the night with Donald Rumsfeld if it would yield me this kind of organized tidiness; this kind of creative utopia.

This weekend I battled a cold and came out the winner (yay! Airborn!) but did need quite a few naps to make it through.  I had planned to finish that second sock, but that didn't happen.  It was me and the couch gettin' all up close and personal this weekend.

My friend Priscilla was going to come over and help me organize this weekend.  I've been tossing and donating and selling and sorting for the past month.  Still there is just busloads of crap all around me!  Pris was going to help me with the purging and the neatening (is that a word? It looks wrong if it is.)  I've done the hall closet and the pantry, but somedays I think I should just toss in a match and be done with it.

Finding proper storage pieces has proved one of the tougher challenges.  I spent days in The Container Store and came out with two small plastic bins for my fabric remnants and notions.  I'm amazed at how cheaply made stuff is.  Drawers that don't stay on the tracks or materials that don't hold up to moderate use - it's terrible!  The good pieces I've found have been a garage sales and Ikea, although I'm getting tired of nailing those Ikea drawers together.

I'm thinking about moving.  Well... I'm always thinking about moving.  Then I go look at places for rent and realize I'm better off, at least financially, staying in the same place. The thing is, you start watching HGTV or something and you see other people's sewing rooms and craft rooms and your brain starts telling you that you need more space than you actually do.  Not to knock craft rooms, by any means - if you have the space, use it!  But sometimes I think it would be better for me to learn to work in the space I have.  To learn how to make that function for me.  And to pare down the things I have to the necessities.

The way everything is now I feel stifled and cramped.  When I moved into the apartment I knew it was smaller than the place I was leaving, but it was safer and had amazing light and, most importantly, a walk-in closet.  At that time I had a serious rubber stamp habit with a slight beading addiction.  Both come with the requisite books and magazines.  Now we add the knitting and the collaging (an evil art form that renders you incapable of throwing ANYTHING away!) and everything started to fall apart.  Then came Craftster and I started sewing again - patterns, fabric, zippers! Oh my! 

Now things are totally out of hand.  I'm determined to do something about it but the apartment is conspiring against me.  The closet light broke (it doesn't turn off, so I had to unscrew the lightbulb).  I can't fix the a/c.  There's a leak under the sink.  This means stuff in the closet is on the bed. Stuff in front of the a/c is in the dining area. Stuff under the sink is on the kitchen floor.  Sigh.  I hate when the apartment fights back.

I would love to hear some success stories of getting organized and staying that way.  Give me some hope, please!!!!

Makin' It

I've been having such a fun time scouring the Etsy pages!  This is how I spend my lunch hour at work these days - clicking on random links through the Time Machine and other fun searchie things they have there.  Here's a sneak peak.

Calla Lilies

Mocha Bib

Octopus!

Cool Mobile

Weiners!

Since I've been feeling very uninspired lately I've been doing a lot of blog reading and , seriously, THAT can be a full-time job.  I've had to resort to actually using my blogroll! Craft Apple, The Panopticon and Bumblefunck are my latest obsessions. 

I love how there are so many of us out there that feel this crazy compulsion to make things.  Actually, I'm amazed there aren't more of us.  Every time I'm knitting or crocheting in public there will be at least one person who will come up and say "oh I wish I could do that!"  When I'm feeling benevolent I will offer to teach them or show them how easy it is (I'm quite evangelistic about the knitting since it took me 30 years to learn how!) but my latest response is, "you just have to want to do it."

I wanted to learn to knit and it was a completely frustrating process because I just could not GET IT.  I was so happy when I finally got knitting down, I wasn't even thinking about purling!  It was such a major accomplishment for me (really! 30 years!) and I was so proud that I kept trying and trying until I was able to make it work for me. I even love my mistakes, glaring though they are, because I can make knitting mistakes! 

My errors make me laugh and give me joy.  They teach me about myself (never attempt  lace when watching a movie) and my capacity to learn something new.  Even right now I'm wearing Branching Out, my first lace project and I love how the scarf is a visual diary of me learning to knit lace.  The pattern shows up as it's supposed to somewhere around the 7th repeat.  After nearly two years, I still get a kick out of that.

When I used to teach stamping classes I would always get frustrated with the people who were afraid to make a mistake on a .20 piece of paper.  I mean, where's the fun if you excel at everything right away?  You have to be willing to let go and have fun in the process, you know?  Live a little, it's not brain surgery.  You have to make the mistakes in order to progress.

And whenever I look at the stuff you guys all make, I'm inspired to challenge myself.  What's next on my agenda?  Yeah, yeah, I know - soap. I'll get to it. I promise.  Quit nagging at me.  So I'm looking for something new to learn this year.  But I want to make sure all the crafty bloggers know that their efforts are well and truly appreciated.  Keep on felting, cutting, sewing, glueing, stitching, knitting, spinning, beading, stamping, crocheting, painting, and all that jazz!

Socks. Are Magic.

I'm impressed with sock patterns.  They look hard and confusing.  Some things don't make sense - Sl1, K1, what? - and when you are just starting out it seems like forever till you get to the instep.  And the heel thing - all the time you're wondering how you're gonna get a decent, foot-like heel when you don't even know what it is the pattern is making you do.

But you persevere and you do what the pattern says without worrying about how it doesn't make any sense and at the end of the journey you have a sock! And it fits on your foot!  If that's not magic, I don't know what is.

Last week I cast on for the Broken Cable Rib Socks by Ann Budd from the subscriber's only section of IK.  Since I can't link to the pattern, here's a great pair of socks from Knitting the Blues.  Mine sort of don't look like that.

I made this bizarre funky mistake at the first cable pattern when I thought well, that must be the way it's supposed to look.  Since I printed the pattern and somehow lost the photo and the toe part of the instructions, I probably shoulda looked it up again online before starting, but sometimes it's fun to just follow the directions not knowing what you're going to end up with. 

The yarn I used was Moda Dea Sassy Stripes that I got on clearance for $2 or $3/skein at the Evil Empire.  I bought this when I just began knitting - had never seen anything like it and was intrigued with the idea of self striping yarn.  However, in the time that has passed with the completion of my first pair of socks in an alpaca/silk blend, I was in no rush to make myself a pair of acrylic stripedy-stripe socks.  I don't usually like patterns and variegated yarns tend to make me twitch, but this one made a claim I had to see for myself.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP!!!!

 

I modified the toe slightly since I had to find another Ann Budd pattern to complete the toe pattern portion I lost.  I like how that turned out a lot - very rounded instead of pointy.  I'm still having a bit of trouble with the kitchener stitch closing - this time I used Annie Modesitt's guide in her Knitting Heretic book and even though I was certain I was screwing it up royally, it turned out quite nice.

And even though I had reason to curse my big feet, I congratulate myself on my yarn stashing ability.  I ran out of yarn about 6 rows (6 rows!) from the close of the toe and I luckily found a third skein to save the day. (There's an important lesson here: always buy more yarn than you need.)

So now there's the thing about the second sock.  Yeah, I'm all over that.  ASAP.

Think this new fashion will catch on any time soon?

Catching Up From Christmas

Aha!  Mom sent the card reader and now here's some of the photos from Christmas!

First here's Bentley's Christmas experience:

See the gift, smell the gift

Taste the gift

Smell the other gift...wait a minute! That's MY gift! MY yarn from Wendy!  Back away pup if ya know what's good for ya!

Aaaah! Experience the gift!  Toy bliss!

Speaking of dogs, here's Fetching.  I don't know the yarn its from because it may have been a gift from Mary Kay or it may have been in a grabbag I got from eBay.  Look familiar MK?

Modeled by my mommy cuz I was being too picky in how the shot should be taken.  I think they're a little too big in across the knuckles - next time I'll make them without the picot edging.  Those little bits don't wanna stay blocked!

Finally, the socks. (This is where the music would crescendo)

As Kathie would say, "nice pair!"

The yarn is Knit Picks Palette and when I used the evil Susan Bates needles it was awfully splitty.  If you're desperate for circs and nobody has the size you need, don't settle for SB, okay?  You'll just be disappointed.

I think the heels turned out nicely.  My second pair of socks and I'm getting better! This time I blocked them and they turned out very pretty.  Blocking DOES make a difference!  Next thing you know I'll be knitting guage swatches!

And here's a strange shot of my toes in the air!  Whee!  I like the simple ribbed pattern, even if it was kinda boring. They're on their way to my father as a belated Christmas gift.

Tonight I'm taking a class at Lori's with Nicky Epstein (I got the last spot!) - she's in town for TNNA.  Anyone know how I can get into that place?  Lori says it's locked down tight like the Oval Office.  Here's my ideas so far:

• Dressing up like a janitor and saying it's my first day on the job.
• Wrapping myself head to toe in yarn and saying I'm a display.
• Tell them I have a medical condition and need an immediate infusion of Lorna's Laces.
• Cry.
• Threaten to make them a muu-muu from Lion's Homespun yarn if they don't let me in.
• Tell them I'm in a new knitting reality show and if I make it into TNNA I will 1 million dollars.
• Tape Addi Turbos to my hands and say I'm Edward Needlehands.
• Find my father's invisibility cloak and sneak right on in.
• Bribery.
• Get to the front door and say, "omigosh! Isn't that somebody incredibly hot and super famous?!!"
• Say, "I'm the crazy midnight bomber what bombs at midnight, yeah baby!" You get that one doncha Jenn?

And in the category of future projects, I'm giving Minuette a thought or two.

Lastly, don't forget the cuteness.

A Real Soy Bomb - Or Why It's Sometimes Embarrasing to be Christian

First, read this crap.

Say wha?!!!

Soy makes you gay?  Soy is full of "estrogen hormones?"  I'm a long way from biology class, but I don't recall estrogen as being one of plant hormones - I really think I woulda remembered that one.  Somebody smart wanna ring in on that one? Maybe I'm wrong.

Too bad Mr Rutz didn't go to journalism school so he could learn how to cite his sources - all that "research" and "scientific evidence" is probably conducted by the Beef/Milk councils who, apparently, avoid all soy but still like an occasional puff of the crackpipe.

Of course, this same site recommends books by Fox's Whore-for-Hire and KinkMeister General Bill O'Reilly so what can you expect?