Christmas Sweater Project - May/June Update

Welp, it's been awhile.

Luckily, I have been keeping up with my knitting despite (or possibly as a result of?) not keeping up with my blog posts. I'm calling this one a May/June combined update. I had originally planned to knit only half of the first sleeve in May, then finish it up in June. Why I planned so much time for a single sleeve is now unclear. It's such easy stockinette that I powered through the whole thing without really realizing it about half way through May. No matter, though, and I haven't touched this project in June at all but have focused on others instead. Maybe because I knew I was ahead of schedule and maybe because I was just feeling really into making progress on other things (more on that later).



So, here it is! Body and first sleeve. Check and check. I plan to cast on the second sleeve this coming week and will most likely just knit the whole thing without interruption again like I did with the first. It just feels silly to set it down half-sleeve-way through. Plus, then I'll leave myself more time for the yoke, which might end up taking more time then budgeted. And if it doesn't then this will be the first project I've ever finished before it's deadline!! Wait, that's not entirely true. I made a handful of project for my good friend Lindsey while she was still pregnant with her adorable son Levi that were don waaaaay ahead of her due date. But I think baby projects don't count because they're so cute and quick that it's impossible to stop knitting them. And then make three pairs of wee baby socks when you had planned to make one because wee socks are just about the cutest thing ever (see here and here)

I've mentioned that I've been knitting this Christmas sweater along with two other projects and decided I should provide some photographic evidence of this. From the top down we've got a super special traditional-ish Aran sweater I've been working on for Kevin, a flame (I refuse to say blaze) orange waffle-stitch cardigan for me, and the Christmas sweater. They are all in different states of completion and I love them all at once.

Here's the list of accountability with some very satisfying strikethroughs...

• March - Knit 7" of body (half of 14")
• April - Finish last 7" of body to the armpits
• May - Make half of first sleeve
• June - Finish first sleeve
• July - Make half of second sleeve
• August - Finish second sleeve
• September - Join sleeves to body and start the yoke
• October - Finish the yoke
• November - Seaming, finishing, and blocking
• December - Wear it every friggin day

Piemaking Season

I've been making soooo many pies lately. Like. A pie a week. Fruit pies are my favorite - even though pumpkin and pecan pie are also fabulous - so summer is piemaking season in our house. Plus, I've been getting lots and lots of fruit in my weekly produce box. More than we could simply eat out of hand in a week so what's a girl to do but make it into pie? 

Also, I got a haircut. 

Kevin got me this cool pie book for Christmas (Or was it my birthday? Being ten days apart they tend to run together...) and I've been working my way through several of the recipes. I tend to be of the mindset that a summer picnic isn't complete without a fresh pie, either, and thus in recent weeks there has been apple pie, peach pie, cherry pie, raspberry-blackberry, and most recently this quite adventurous Skillet Stone Fruit Streusel pie. 

Here's the think about stone fruit. I do like it. I think. Sometimes. But...in my opinion it's just got this really short window of deliciousness and if you miss that window it's either way too tart or too soggy to eat out of hand. And even then I'd rather eat citrus, or mangos, or plain 'ole apples. 

So, when I opened my produce box this week to find a slew of apriums and plums I immediately thought of this pie from my Four and Twenty Blackbirds book. This recipe was a first for me in many ways. First pie made in a cast iron skillet (what's not to love about that!), first cornmeal crust, and first streusel top. Oh yeah, and first aprium/plum pie. Actually, first experience with apriums at all. You weird fruit mutant you. 

The result? A+. As usual I cut the sugar in half because we like our pie nice 'n tart. Plus less sugar makes it just perfect for breakfast with a cuppa of course. The filling was lovely and spot on in terms of flavor and consistency. I did have a bit of trouble with the crust, though. One reason could be that I only had medium ground cornmeal and should have used finely ground. I also got lazy with the butter and didn't take it out of the freezer with enough time to partially thaw so I cheated and used the microwave. This was a bit of a fail since it only semi-melted the outside and left the inside completely frozen. Thus, my dough was harder to roll out than normal and turned out a bit more rustic. No matter. I'm fine with a "rustic, raw edge crust" as they say. 

Christmas Sweater Project - April Update

Progress is on track for my Christmas sweater! Hooray!  

I'm not entirely sure when this progress is as of. As in, when I reached my April goal and forced myself to set it down until May. Point being: it's on track! I haven't yet started the sleeves as I've been happy working on other projects and always feel you should keep with something while you're into it since you never know when it's going to become uninteresting. I've got two other sweaters on the needles right now - one for Kev and one for me - and have to say that I feel this is the perfect amount of sweaters to knit simultaneously.  They are of varying difficulties and are all at different stages, which means that I can pick one up to take on the bus (small and super easy), to knit night (which usually involves a pint and thus goes from medium difficulty to "stockinette please"), or on a lovely long couch plot/tv watching binge (concentration required). 

I'm very much looking forward to casting on the first sleeve of my Christmas sweater and plan to do it soon. It'll be a bit of colorwork just like the bottom of the body then lots and lots of small, portable stockinette. Plus, a sweater really doesn't start to look like a sweater until you start making the sleeves (at least not this construction method) and this is the start of that. Wish me luck in keeping on track!

• March - Knit 7" of body (half of 14")
• April - Finish last 7" of body to the armpits
• May - Make half of first sleeve
• June - Finish first sleeve
• July - Make half of second sleeve
• August - Finish second sleeve
• September - Join sleeves to body and start the yoke
• October - Finish the yoke
• November - Seaming, finishing, and blocking
• December - Wear it every friggin day.

Coconut Baked Kale

I've recently started a new job. Among other things, this has meant that we've had a surplus of veggies that we have to figure out how to use within a week's time. Why do the two go hand in hand? Well my new job is at Full Circle, a company that does weekly deliveries of fresh, organic produce boxes. One of the perks of the job is that I get a box of fruits and veg to take home every Friday! It's super cool. We never know what sort of stuff is going to be in the box before we open them up or if the combination of things will be able to make enough meals for the week ( FYI this is not the way their regular boxes work, just the rand-o employee boxes). So far, I've been there for five weeks and we haven't had to do a lot of grocery shopping since. Which is awesome. Mainly it's been quick trips to the store for milk, bread, and eggs plus relying on pantry items we already have.

So far, we've also enjoyed the challenge of trying to mold all the random things into meals without having to buy much more, eat stir fry every night, or let anything go bad. It's kind of fun to have to be creative with whatever you get. And thus, I have arrived at today's recipe post.



A few weeks ago, I found myself with too much kale on my hands. And too little of anything else to, say, incorporate it into some other dish like lasagna or soup or a veg bake. I had already used up just about everything else from the box. I feel a bit like a cliche talking about all the kale I got in my organic veg box. Ah well. Insert kale joke here. You'll just have to trust me that we do get other things and not just a box of kale.

But, onward. Whenever I have a problem with veg I don't know what to do with my first step is to pull out Super Natural Everyday. And, just like that, dinner was unstuck. I made this coconut baked kale and served it up alongside some butter-fried mushrooms (also a bottom of the barrel item from my box) and some soba noodles. It was super flavorful and delicious, and made excellent leftovers the next day. Kevin loved it, too, so I'm filing it away in my mind palace as "here's what you do with too much kale" for future reference. Here's the recipe with my modifications based on what we had on hand.


Coconut Baked Kale

Ingredients: 

• 1/3 cup / 80 ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• Mixed bag of purple and curly kale, about 4 cups. Stems removed and roughly chopped. 
• 1 cup sweetened coconut

To Make: 

• Preheat the oven to 350°F with rack in the top third of the oven.  
• In a small jar, shake together the olive oil and soy sauce. 
• Toss kale and coconut in a large bowl, then toss well with two-thirds of the olive oil/soy sauce mixture. 
• Spread the dressed kale across baking sheet in a single layer. 
• Bake for 14 minutes, tossing once half way through. Coconut should be toasted and kale should be dry but not crispy-burnt.
• Remove from oven and dish up. Drizzle with more of the dressing to taste (or in our case to dress up the soba noodles). 

FO: Agatha Cardigan

Meet Agatha. She's awesome.

I finished her up a few weeks ago and have already worn her about five times, including twice already to work. When picking out yarn, I had a feeling I'd be wanting to wear this little number quite a bit so I chose a superwash wool. Cascade 220 Superwash to be exact. This is a first for me and so far I have no complaints. It's definitely less "wooly" that I usually like my sweaters but it's still soft and warm yet breathable, and seems to be holding it's shape well. I also really LOVE the color. Kind of a dark mustardy yellow/brown with a nice heather to it. Even though it's not a neutral color I think it will pair well with just about all of my dresses and skirts.

In addition to being my first superwash project it also hit a few other "firsts". First lace sweater. First cropped cardigan. First pattern by my fantastically talented friend Andi. And thus my first time doing this type of sweater construction! It seems super weird at first, but then at some point it clicks and you're like "Oh! I get it! That's the armhole! I really am making a sweater!" and then it just seems intuitive and genius and super fast. There are literally no seams. Best thing ever for a finishing-averse girl like me. If you're curious, she did a super cool step-by-step picture tutorial of this type of construction method here.

The stitch pattern was also very enjoyable. It definitely wasn't one I was able to completely memorize - for the back and fronts panels at least - but it still became familiar enough that I only had to glance down at the chart every once in awhile to keep on track. And I'm in love with the finished, post-blocking product. Lace is magic.

So, even though this was a lot of firsts it will certainly not be my lasts. I'm in love with how flattering the shape and length are with skirts and dresses. And it will for sure not be my last of Andi's patterns. Next up I've got my eye on either Hetty or Chuck. My cable loving heart is of course drawn more to Chuck but the cardigan hoarding side of me is leaning more towards Hetty. Either way, I've got at least three sweaters in the queue before I could start another so I've got a while to decide. Your thoughts are welcome...

Last but not least, Raveled here.

Ode to Magnolia

This is sort of a follow up post to my earlier spring preview. As hoped, we did make it back to the Arboretum to see the Magnolias in bloom. This particular trip was taken with our good friend Rachel, who happened to be visiting from Portland on a glorious Sunday and thus made our walk in the park extra sweet.




Arn't Magnolia trees the best! I just love them. Possibly even more than the cherry trees. I love how their blossoms come out entirely before their leaves (at least here), making it seems like they are just a tree of flowers. I love how gargantuan their blossoms are, especially the pale pink ones. The petals are just huge and so thick you almost think they're made of fabric. I don't remember seeing many magnolia trees in Northern Wisconsin (although they may be there?) so to me they seem like a Seattle "thing". A Seattle thing that means spring! Hurray for less grey and more blue ski days to come.

Christmas Sweater Project - March Update

I've been making significant progress on my Christmas sweater. So much so that I think I've got a good chance of finishing it in time for yule-tide festivities. Here's what the progress looks like thus far:

So far it has been a very enjoyable knit. As usual, I hated the ribbing and bemoaned every inch of it (how I ever made a whole ribbed sweater is a testament to my love for the hubs). Also as usual, I flew through the colorwork section because I'm a sucker for watching the pattern develop and thus staying up too late watching three consecutive episodes of Mad Men  not wanting to put it down. Oh how I love colorwork. For me it's the perfect flow inducing balance of challenge and skill that lets me knit for hours and hours on end. Mmmmm. Looking forward to the yoke section fo sho. 

This picture was as of April 5th. It's nine inches long at this point, which is pretty much right on track with the fancy schmancy bullet pointed list. Plus, since I'm past the colorwork section it's just straight one-color stockinette for the rest of the body, which makes this perfect for knit nights (which usually include booze and thus impair my knitting abilities) and bus rides. Optimism abounds. 

• March - Knit 7" of body (half of 14")
• April - Finish last 7" of body to the armpits
• May - Make half of first sleeve
• June - Finish first sleeve
• July - Make half of second sleeve
• August - Finish second sleeve
• September - Join sleeves to body and start the yoke
• October - Finish the yoke
• November - Seaming, finishing, and blocking
• December - Wear it every friggin day.