Knitting until my hand stops working

Being a smart (lazy) person, I did not attempt to knit any holiday gifts for people. It's just too much pressure (on me, by me) and I can never remember to start early enough. Maybe next year? I have been furiously knitting though. The MKM has been selling items at Republic Coffee, our weekly hangout, to raise funds to help me pay for this. I can't thank my MKM friends enough for giving up their precious knitting time to make items to sell. They are made of awesome. These are some of the things I've been knitting recently (with stash yarn!)

Neckwarmer in an alpaca/wool blend

Ribbed man hat

Chunky button hat

Queen Anne's lace hat (I made this in October but forget to post a picture)

 Apple/pear baby hats 

Also in progress, baby sweaters for my very dear friends who are expecting twins in February. The green one needs to be blocked, have the sleeves seamed and buttons sewn on. The blueish/gray one is still being worked on. Both are knit in Madelinetosh sock, one in Thyme and one in Celadon. The sweater pattern is Maile and is free on Ravelry. I'm desperately trying to finish them in the next week or so, I wanted to finish them by Friday but that is so not going to happen.

I also have some new yarn porn to show. In order to save funds for the baby-making, I limited myself to  buying just two skeins of yarn in Seattle. This is Blue Moon Socks that Rock in Rosemary Rocks. I bought it at Churchmouse Yarn and Teas on Bainbridge Island.

This is Madelinetosh Vintage in Colbalt and I bought it at Little Knits in West Seattle.

Since I had already signed up for the Madelinetosh yarn club and couldn't cancel, I've gotten two shipments of it. Although I did sell some stashed yarn on Ravelry. This was the first installment, the colorway is Laurent and it's 80/20/10. It's very soft and springy and the color is so pretty in real life. I'm planning on using it to make a set of Snapdragon mittens and a tam.

This was the second shipment, it's Tosh DK and the colorway is Geode. I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it but I really like the color.

My poor hands have really felt the burn lately, I've been knitting so much my hands are stiff. I think I need to start wearing one of those hideous braces, at least at home.

Made with love (a little bit of snark)

Two weeks the MKM had our Christmas party/ornament exchange. Each of us handmade a dozen ornaments to exchange. My original idea was to print off a black and white graphic of a whisk onto fabric and then sew little pillow style ornaments. Unfortunately neither my printer at home, nor my printer at work would cooperate. Plan B was to make the same kind of ornaments I made last year, the glitter cupcakes (instructions are found here at Bake It Pretty). Of course I ran out of the Martha brand glitter glue I bought last year and couldn't find any at Michael's so my cupcakes didn't look at 'frosty' as I wanted them to. 

Everyone made such cute ornaments and every time I put them on my tree I'll think about them!

We also had a potluck and I brought an orzo salad with baby spinach, feta, sun dried tomatoes, olives, etc. and I wanted to try something new so I made Nanaimo bars. You can read all about them here. I used the recipe on the City of Nanaimo's website  . I couldn't find any vanilla custard powder so I subbed vanilla instant pudding mix instead. These three layer bars were deeelicious. The base was coconut/almond/chocolate graham crackers, the middle was a vanilla frosting/custard and the top was chocolate ganache. Very yummy and pretty simple! 

A bridal shower for a knitta

Last week the MKM hosted a bridal shower for fellow knitter, Emily, who will be walking down the aisle very soon. Kenan opened up her lovely home to us for the event and everyone brought something for us to devour.I made this Sweet Almond Cake with Lemon Curd and vanilla buttercream frosting from the Sweet Melissa Baking book. The book calls for a lemon-mascarpone frosting, which I made the night before the shower and refrigerated (the book said it was okay). Unfortunately, the next afternoon when I was ready to cover the cake the frosting had turned into a clumpy, un-spreadable mess. I whined a little before admitting defeat and throwing together a buttercream frosting, which came out perfectly. The cake was really delicious, it had 14 egg whites and coarsely ground almonds in the batter too.After the rounds were baked each layer was given a thin coat of lemon curd before being topped with the frosting. I might be a baker but I'm not a decorator, so to spruce it up a little I added some spray roses and a little ribbon (removed before consumption of course). The 10 minute drive from my house to Kenan's was a little harrowing. I was almost there when the cake took a slide off the it's plate and had to be repaired a little when we made it to Kenan's. I think the next time I transport a cake I need an extra person to come with me.As an extra expression of our love we knit flowers and leaves for a corsage which Emily graciously wore, even though it was a little large. Happy Wedding Emily and Eric!

Downtown dining

So this week in Memphis is Downtown Dining Week. Several local restaurants (located downtown) are participating. You get a three course meal for $20.09. I was lucky enough to get to try two restaurants I'd never been to before. SOB (South of Beale) opened earlier this year, maybe in the summer? It's a gastropub on South Main, friendly waitstaff and delicious food. The MKM decided to head over Tuesday night for our knit night. They even reserved the table for us.

I had oxtail wontons, braised pork belly with apple au jus and fennel and a chocolate brownie with almond brittle for dessert, delicious. I also got a taste of one of my friend's grilled calamari steak. I'm pretty sure we'll be returning. (please excuse the crappy iPhone pics)

Last night Doug and I had the pleasure of dining at Circa downtown. It was insanely good, my favorite thing was the lobster and crab bisque, which I could have a gallon of. For our entree I had beef tenderloin with mushroom demi-glace and Doug had tilapia, and for dessert we both had chocolate tart. I also had a glass of petite syrah that was a little spicy but smooth. The meal was the perfect amount of food, we left feeling satisfied but not too full. If you're a local I highly suggest you head downtown to enjoy the last few days downtown dining week!

A reason to dress up

Friday night we hosted a Halloween costume party for my knitta & hooker friends and their significant others. It was a ton of fun and everyone helped me prepare (especially Lynsey and her significant other who helped and brought delicious food AND set up a movie screen on our patio).

Here are some highlights:

Creepy ham face! Made by Lynsey with ham, prosciutto, cream cheese & ranch dipInstructions found here

Me, in costume, I was the Sunmaid raisin girlDoug, also in costume, he was a farmer. Just an excuse to buy overalls. The food tablePeople watching movies on the patio

I'm number two

Remember my ranting about not winning anything at the Mid-South Fair? Well it turns out I did win something. Last week as I was shifting through the mail I found a thick envelope addressed to me from the Mid-South Fair. It seems my blueberry muffins and my brownies won 2nd place ribbons and my almond brown sugar cookies won a 3rd place ribbon. Plus I got a $5 check and $4 worth of Domino sugar coupons. I guess they only show the 1st place winners and ribbons at the fair itself. So I'm pretty excited, my chocolate marshmallows were the only thing they didn't win a ribbon, which seemed surprising because most people love them. The brown sugar-almond cookie recipe is below, I thought it was the best tasting thing I entered. They're simple and quick to make, be forewarned though that I play it by sight for the ingredient amounts so it might not be perfectly precise. If I ever get my hands on almond paste I might try to use it instead of almond extract.

In other good news, my awesome group of friends and me, aka the Memphis Knit Mafia, made the Memphis edition of Skirt magazine this month. It's free on newsstands around the city and the full article and photo can be found here. Although in the online article they forget to mention me at the very bottom but they do tell the very sweet story of how my knittas bought my sock yarn to help fund my purchase of my KitchenAid mixer back in the spring. Love those women SO much!

Brown Sugar-Almond Cookies

1 stick + 6 tbsp unsalted butter

1 3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 tsp fleur de sel salt

2 large eggs

2 tbsp high quality almond extract (Nielsen-Massey is my favorite)

2 cups King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Baking Powder

For sugar coating:

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp light brown sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees

In large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and baking soda, set aside.

Melt stick of butter in a small saucepan on medium heat, stirring continually until the butter becomes a light tan color. Remove from heat, pour into small bowl, whisk in the remaining butter and let sit for 5 minutes. Add brown sugar and fleur del sel to the butter mixture, whisking until smooth. Then add eggs and almond extract.

Fold the butter mixture into the flour mixture until well combined.

Mix 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp brown sugar in bowl roll out cookie dough into small balls and coat in sugar mixture.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes (or less depending on how hot you’re oven runs). Let cool on sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Too many WIP's

You know the phrase 'out of sight, out of mind'? I've had so.many knitting projects that I put aside for other projects (also known as cast-on-itis) and now there's just 3.5 months of knitting time left in the year. I feel like I have to finish every project I started this year. I took an inventory and this is were I stand:

• Back-To-School U-Neck vest (found in the Fitted Knits book) - I can't even remember where I am on this. I do know one thing, I refuse to rip it back. No way am I doing all that ribbing again. (it's a reddish burgundy, the photo color is off)

• Francis/Francie sweater (found on Ravelry) - have to finish the cuff and then pick up and knit the cowl. Maybe a week's worth of knitting time?

• Woodland Shawl (from The Thrifty Knitter)- I love knitting with the Dream in Color but because it's just one long piece it feels like there is no end in sight. Which is a shame because I can't wait to see how it turns out.
• Whisper cardigan (found in Interweave Knits, Spring '09)- I'm ripping this back to the top of the shoulder because it the sleeve needs to be a little longer. I'm really anxious to get going on this, the Malabrigo lace is dreamy.
• Summer Tweed hat (also from Hannah Fettig here) - cast on in the airport on the way to Chicago three weeks ago. Reminded why I hate knitting with summer tweed, it's like knitting with rope. Maybe three days worth of knitting time left? Also I may run out of yarn. Argh.

Also the Memphis Flyer named the Memphis Knit Mafia a staff pick of 'The Best of Memphis 2009''. Kickass!