Fiber Friday!

Since I've been inside so much I've done a bunch of knitting.  I made Babes a Hat, Scarf and glove set to match her school uniform.  I had to make the hat super huge to fit over all of her hair braids.  But I'm fairly happy with the results.  The hat kinda looks like a watermelon, and the scarf, well it's a scarf.  I used the foaming waves lace pattern to make both the hat and the scarf interesting, as well as stripes in her school colors.

I also making a pair of convertible fingerless gloves for myself.  I was inspired by the Diamonds in the Snow pattern on Ravelry.

They are a little big, and there are some things I'd do differently, but overall I'm happy with the way they turned out.  On my needles right now is a fuzzy scarf I'm making for someone who recently gifted me some yarn.  It's going to eventually look something like a fox, I hope, but right now it looks like this:

Waffles and a Wrap

When Hubby goes out of town Babes and I almost always have breakfast for dinner.  I love breakfast, but Babes' 6:55am bus means that most mornings it's oatmeal from the crockpot, a bagel, or cheerios.  There is almost no way that I am ever going to be coherent enough in the morning to make waffles, pancakes, or anything like that.  She might get French toast or a scrambled egg, but that's a rare occasion.  So my solution is to have breakfast for dinner, but this is a love that hubby does not share, so we do it when he's out of town...
Which brings me to one of my favorite Christmas presents--my campfire (or stovetop) waffle maker.

 It's cast iron, and it sits on top of the range so I don't have to worry about plugs, or transformers or anything, I just heat it up on the eye and enjoy yummy yummy waffles.

And you know, of course, that my favorite waffle recipe would have to include oatmeal.  Because really, what food is not improved by some good old fashioned oatmeal?  I actually ran out of oatmeal (*GASP*) while making the waffles and I subbed in some of my leftover crock pot oatmeal and decreased some of the milk and they still turned out awesome.  (I would normally just link to the recipe, but I can't find it on Allrecipes.com anymore so here it is)

Oatmeal Waffles

---

Ingredients

• • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 6 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar

---

• 1. In large mixing bowl, stir together flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; set aside. In small mixing bowl, stir together eggs, milk, butter and brown sugar. Add to flour mixture; stir until blended. Pour batter on to grids of preheated, lightly greased waffle iron (amount will vary with size of waffle iron). Close lid quickly; do not open during baking. Use fork to remove baked waffle. Top with fresh fruit and yogurt.

Also, remember my the leafy scarf that I was working on? Well, it's finished blocked and ready for wear.  It turned out really well, I just wish I had more yarn so I could have made it wider and longer.  It makes a pretty fancy scarf, but I think it would make a smashing wrap.  (yes I said smashing!) 

 PS-it's a real pain in the butt to try to take a picture of your back by yourself.  I know I should have just pulled out my camera and remote, but if you know which box they are in, please let me know! (also after all that work, the scarf is on inside out!)

rainy day plot failure

So today I had epic plans to take a BUS to the Metro (think Costco or Sam's club--sort of).  Babes and I got all dressed up to go out (we took off our yoga pants and put on jeans), but while we were at lunch, IT STARTED RAINING!  So instead of going out for some Wuhan Bing (think Chinese burrito) and a bus ride, we had KFC and watched a movie.  What that means for you, dear reader, is that you get pictures of knitting instead.  OH and a picture of some creative yarn balling from the airport. 

This was my travel solution to turning a bunch of loops of yarn into a ball.  I got some pretty weird looks from people at the airport McDonalds... I mean what, you've never seen a black woman ball yarn, using a carry on suitcase, and a Madame Alexander doll? 
But once the yarn was balled, I started working on a shawl for me.  I'm using the Unique Sheep pima petite that was part of my Xmas gift last year.  I didn't like the pattern that came with it, so I cobbled together a pattern of my own using two different patterns.  I'm only about halfway, so here's some work in progress pics. 

I love the lace leaf edge. Which I got from Janine Le Cras' Lace leaf wrap (you have to be on ravelry to see the link). 

Baby Booties and a hat

Sorry for all the knitting posts, but I haven't seen anything too crazy outside and I've been knitting a lot trying to finish some baby booties for a friend who is leaving post on a maternity evacuation.  I started last week, but with moving coming up I did not have the set finished (of course) for her party.  I finished up last night.  The booties were easy enough, but didn't come with a gauge, so the first pair I made might have been to small, so I made a second pair. OMG these booties are cute and SO easy!  3 hrs a shoe!  Seriously!  And I think you could make them faster, I just usually get distracted by something so it takes longer.  Anyway, here is a picture of the tiny shoes and the octopus looking hat.

And then all wrapped up and ready to gift.

Knitting Fraggles

I saw this and had to share.

Crafting update

I haven't been knitting that much lately.  After I finished my sister's sweater for Christmas (OK I didn't make it in time for Xmas, but I got it to her before I left the US) I didn't really feel like making anything big.  So I've spent my time knitting a bunch of little projects that I have had on my list, but didn't get to.  I made a pair of socks, some fingerless mittens, and two doll dresses for Babes' doll.
The socks were not my favorite project, the yarn Crystal Palace Mini Mochi was very hard to work with, it was fuzzy, and didn't really hold together well.  A lot of people mentioned that it broke easily, and while I didn't have that problem, it was a mess to work with.  But the socks are pretty crazy.  Take a look:

I LOVED the Evenstar fingerless mitts pattern.  They were super fun to knit up, the pattern was easy to follow, and they are GORGEOUS!  I wear them everywhere.  I'm going to unravel one, because it's funky looking, but I love them:

The two doll dresses I am very proud of because I personally adapted the patterns from other patterns to make them the right size for the dolls.  One of the dresses came from here and the other one is sort of this one.  (I say sort of because I modified the original pattern to fit Babes' princess tastes).  {I just realized that I already did a post on these dresses, so I'll just post a picture of her doll in one of them, and leave it at that.}

After the New Year

I have been busy and I have been lazy.  After we came back from the US for our marathon Christmas visit (5 weeks baby!) there was jetlag, and WHAM right into Chinese New Year.  And like last year, DH was out of town for it.  I thought with DH out of town I would have plenty of time for blogging, knitting, cooking, and preparing the house for moving... BUT NO.  What I did not count on was 1 child who, after spending 5 weeks at the grandparents house, was constantly used to being entertained EVERY WAKING MOMENT.  And 2 dogs who generally got along, but could not be left alone because playing could turn into fighting.  So between the three of my small charges, and the ball tossing, and the dragging, bikes, dogs, balls, and whatever downstairs for daily exercise, by the time evening rolled around I did not do anything at all.  I pulled out my extended versions of Lord of the Rings and I methodically went through all six disks over five evenings.  Nothing like escaping into the reaches of Gondor with some knitting and decaf tea to bring a soothing end to your day. 
I'm not saying it was stressful, or hard, because I only have 1 kid (I honestly don't know how people with more than one do it), just busy and tiring, I'd forgotten how much energy puppies have, AND how long a day is when there is not 4 hours of school to break it up.  It was really my own fault, I did not have enough planned for either the dogs or the little one until mid week, and after that everything went along smoothly. 
SO, I'm done, with that, and I'm done being lazy after that, I've got some posts planned, and some pictures from some Chinese New Year events to post, but until then here are some pictures of some of the things I've been knitting: 
 

 
The big dresses are things that I've previously knit for Babes.  For Christmas, Santa brought her a Madame Alexander doll and I thought she might like some matching clothes for "Christina".  I adapted the patterns from the big dresses myself. 

I've also got a glove and a half of these, but I ran out of yarn on the second day of Chinese New Year, and the yarn store is still NOT OPEN!!!!!! I really want to finish them because the pattern is amazing and so beautiful on.  I would post a picture, but their in the car, waiting anxiously for the opening of the yarn store so I can buy matching yarn!

A shawl for my mamma

At the beginning of the summer I started making a shawl for my mamma.  I started on this idea because I saw this picture of a shawl in the knitpicks catalog and it was beautiful!  (If you're a knitter and have not looked at the knitpicks website then you must go there now!) Anyway, to make a long story short, I did not get to knit that shawl, but started looking around for a shawl to knit my mamma for Xmas because she didn't want anything that would be too hard to put on or take off.  The one I picked is named the Elizabeth Zimmerman 100th anniversary camping shawl (which is a mouthful to say) by Mwaa knit obsession (it's free on Ravelry).  I took the idea from the original idea and held my yarn double and then changed colors as I knit to give it a fading looking. 
To be honest, I never really saw the point of knitting lace shawls...  I'm not 80, I don't generally wear shawls, but by God was that fun!  I found myself wanting to knit on the shawl exclusively.  I had a couple of other projects that I was supposed to do, but this one was so much more fun.  I've already planned out at least two more, possibly even three or four.  I guess what I'm trying to say is.... I get it now.  

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

while watching a movie

I have been mad at my blog.... Ok not really, I'm more mad at myself.  I restored most of the pictures to my blog last week, but I haven't wanted to blog AT ALL this week.  Stupid blog! 
But I feel like I should break the web silence and at least do a crafting update to get something up here.  One of the most awesome things that I've discovered in the last year is the public library ecollection.  It is awesome!  One of the things that I hated most about living overseas was having to plan your reading materials out 6 months in advance.  Before whenever we went home we would hit up the used bookstore and buy what we hoped would be 6 months of books (just so you know that's one heavy box).  And, of course, we would always run out of books around month 4, but a used bookstore only has so many books. Then my sister bought me a Sony Reader for Christmas...  I poo pooed her at first, I mean why would I need a reader, I like paper books gosh darn it, and I'm not going to buy books for $10 are you crazy, etc, etc.  But she bought it, so I set it up, but then discovered that you can use your local library with the reader (from anywhere in the world)!  Now I can go to the library while I'm in China, download a book, and read it anywhere!  There are tons of new books for me to read all the time! 
At the same time, I discovered audio books.  I have tried audiobooks in the past, but I just didn't like them.  You've got some dude reading and pretending to be a lady, and more often than not they have annoying voices, but I've discovered that while I listen to an audio book I can knit at the same time!  (as I write that sentence I realize how really lame I am, but I don't care).  So that has lead to me doing a lot of headphone listening... and basically this is a long winded introduction to the earbud covers that I knitted while watching a movie yesterday to turn my earbuds from tangled to tame while sitting around in my purse. 
hopelessly tangled
perfectly tame

Chutney and baby booties

It's been awhile since I've done a what I'm cooking post.  Mainly because the farm subscription has been boring.  I understand it was winter, things don't really grow in the winter, but MAN did I ever get tired of greens.  However, two weeks ago I got a two handfuls of long green hot peppers (I looked it up and this was the best name I could find), which gave me pause.  In the past, hot peppers would not have been a problem, I would just chop them up and add them to everything.  But since Babes has been with us, I can't take the heat, and she can't either.  So what's a woman to do with the hot pepper bounty?  CHUTNEY!  I don't think I've ever had chutney before this winter when NY galpal and I went to do a cooking class at Camaje.  In the class we did a whole Indian menu, and most of it was pretty simple, and Chutney is SO good.  Which is what I ended up doing at home too.  It started off as "well let me make chutney with these hot peppers"  And then since it was vegetarian night I thought I would make Eggplant fritters with the eggplant in the fridge, but instead of making them Italian like the recipe called for I added a barrage of spices to turn them into Curried eggplant fritters.  Add some random stir fried veggies, and curried Indian chickpeas and you have this:

From Blogger Pictures

In other news, I have been knitting a flurry of baby related items.  For my new niece (Welcome to the world Niecey!), And for two little boys that are due to arrive in our community before the fall.  So just for the awww factor, here are a some baby booties for your viewing pleasure.  All were knit with local self striping yarn.  I love this stuff, except for the tendency for the stripes to not knit out the same.   From Blogger Pictures From Blogger Pictures

crafts, cars, and lunch

I finally finished one of the two baby sweaters I've been knitting for the little baby boom that has been going on in my world.  My brother and a good friend from college are both having babies this summer so I decided to knit them baby bear sweaters. It was just supposed to take two months, but I wanted them to look awesome AND I was super busy in the US so they bled into a third month.  They also required me to seam which I've never done on such a large project but I found an excellent online guide at Studio Knits.

From Blogger Pictures

Also yesterday I went to get an oil change, all by myself.  Now, you might be thinking to yourself "so what, getting an oil change is no big deal"  But you'd be wrong.  First of all, they are doing construction up and down the airport expressway so while the Toyota dealership is only 15 minutes away, it took me over 2 hours to find the place.  I could see it almost the whole time, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to get there.  I kept getting closer and further away, closer and further away.... When I finally did make it there it was during lunch time and all the front office people kept trying to get me to go get lunch.  But I told them, in my toddler Chinese, that it took me forever to find the place so I would just wait because I wasn't leaving.  Now onto the second problem....  How much do you know about what they are talking about when you get an oil change?  I know that there's a filter involved, and oil, but that's about it.  Now, imagine trying to conduct this business in a language you barely speak.  None of my Chinese involves anything to do with cars.  Basically I told them, Change Oil, and if they asked me anything, I said just Change Oil.  They tried to sell me the expensive oil (I think) and I said, no, just the common oil, and then they asked something else, and I said Change Oil.  I'm sure they thought I was none too bright.

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

On the bright side, they took pity on the poor lost foreigner and fed me lunch at the Toyota Employee cafeteria.  The food was pretty good.  It didn't look great (Chinese food served buffet style almost never does) but it tasted pretty yummy.  And they washed the car.  So I got the signature Toyota service oil change, lunch, and a car wash for about $50 US.  Not cheap, but I found it myself, got it done-in Chinese, and made it back in one piece.  All in all a successful trip!

New Hope

The past two weeks have found me in the suburbs and surrounding areas of Philadelphia.  In an effort to do something different I met a friend in New Hope and Lambertville.  I think this is one of those "revamped" small towns that now cater to the antiquing set.  It is basically a town that consists of a main street, and several smaller streets that spoke off the main one.  There are lots of furniture shops, restaurants, coffee houses, and general kitsch shops.  Very very cute, and very very expensive.  I know I'm cheap.  Yes, I admit it.  I'm cheap, but I will sometimes pay for something if it's quality (not always, I like to shop on sale), but this is a recent development.  DH has been working hard to get me to spend more than $50 on a pair of shoes, or pay more for the expensive phone that will last longer than a year.  And I have slowly started to listen.  But this stuff is expensive!  Which is unfortunate, because some of the furniture they had was really cool, funky, and a little odd.  Perfect for us!
But that's ok, I figure we can save up (that's my answer for everything)!  In the meantime, as we were meandering the shops I noticed some hand knit items, so I casually wandered over to see how much they were, just curious.... and I was BLOWN AWAY!  Yes I used all caps on purpose.  I saw socks for $15 a pair!  Scarves for $80 and those little knit flowers that I love to do for Zora and can churn out in an hour $12!!!!!!!!!!!  People have said that I should sell my stuff, but I always thought that what I would have to price them at, no one would pay, but I guess I was wrong.  SO CRAZY!  I'm totally going to open a knitting boutique next year!  TOTALLY!

One of those women

So yesterday I went to my first Holiday Planning meeting as a wife of a diplomat. I have always avoided such things in the past by either working or leaving post. But this year I am in town and my child is too big for me to say I'm too busy. *sigh* I've crossed over and become one of "those" women. It's not bad I guess. I am involved in what happens over the holiday, and I can steer events towards things that I like or Babes likes, but still.
I knew this before though. We've only been at post 3 1/2 months and I've already been to 3 maybe 4 potlucks and I'm pretty sure we've got at least 3 more before the end of the year. So I've decided that I need a casserole warmer. But all the ones I have found are so old fashioned. You know, big sunflowers on the top and what not. I've decided that if I'm going to knit or crochet one I need to put something cool on top. But so far I can't find a 3 dimensional pattern for a Darth Vader helmet or tie fighter. *SIGH* I might just have to make the lame sunflowers.