Luscious Fibers, Food and Family

dinner with friends and a FO!

dinner with kate and lawson, originally uploaded by suz4t.

Last night Grant and I had Kate and Lawson over for dinner. It had been a while since we visited with them so it was great to catch up. We had a good dinner (pot pie and super food, kale) and for dessert we had blueberry grunts.

Have you heard of the dessert "blueberry grunts"?  I hadn't, but Vegan Yum Yum posted the recipe and I always love what she's whipping up so I tried it out. It was very good and easy to make. Perfect for in-season berries.

In knitting news. A few weeks ago I finished Katja and this past weekend I got a picture of Marcella wearing it. She's so cute!

Still knitting

I know there hasn't been much knitting news lately, but it's happening. Not as much as I'd like, but that's ok...life has been busy. Right now I'm on a DC bus headed home. It's funny when I took this picture 5 blocks ago the bus was empty and now it's standing room only...darn S buses. Ok back to knitting in public.

Knitting at Work

For a few years there have been a number of us that knit during lunch.  Unfortunately I don't go to knitting lunch as much as I used to, but yesterday I was able to join the group and I cast on my second baby sock.  Yesterday there were only four of us around the table, but sometimes there can be as many 8 or 10 people. There are quite a few knitters in our office so on any given day you could see a number of people knitting, purling and chatting.  The below video is of yesterday's knitters.

Kirstin, who is knitting the orange and yellow lace pattern baby sock, is quite a knitter. Even though I started knitting before her, her skills and stitches far surpass me. She offers great support and is fabulous for sharing ideas with. Amani, who is knitting the glove, is a break all the rules, risk taker. Soon after she learned to knit and then purl, she decided her first project would be a pair of gloves. It's something she needs and so why not?! Lastly, Sarah has been knitting with me pretty much all along. While she may be an off and on knitter, she's an incredible knitter, especially after a couple glasses of wine.

 

Below is a picture of one of the finished baby socks I'm working on. I've finished one pair and this is my second pair.

One final note, Grant and I went to Vegetate last night for Restaurant Week. I took pictures of all our dishes and will provide all the amazing details this weekend. Lets just say I left feeling quite happy and satisfied.

I am knitting, really!

I know lately my blog looks more like a vegan cooking blog than a knitting blog, but I am knitting (and cooking too!)  Here is the yarn I'm working with right now for a secret project.  I can't post pictures of the project, because it's a gift.  Hopefully I will finish it soon and post pictures as well.  Until then...

 

Here is some more vegan baking. :)  Some of us got together last night for pizza and dessert.  I thought I'd try some new cookie recipes, as well as the always perfect, Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Dreena Burton.

I tried two recipes from Sinfully Vegan and both are just ok for me.  I'll have to do some searching online and see if others had more success. The first recipe, Little Oaties, actually taste quite good (I bet even better with a few chocolate chips...next time). Oatmeal cookies are one of my favorites and these are chewy, not hard, which I like.  The only thing I don't like about these is that they're very crumbly, but aside from being a little messy to serve, they're yummy.

The second recipe I tried was Mom's Warm Peanut Butter Cookies. I was a little suspect because there was only 5 ingredients, but I thought I'd give it a try.  Half of the batch I made traditional and the other half I made a thumbprint and filled it with chocolate chips right out of the oven.  These cookies turned out to be a little dry and really thick...or maybe peanut-buttery, which wouldn't seem like a bad thing, but it took me forever to eat one cookie because it was like I was eating peanut butter right from the jar. You know you can't do that fast, and I love it out of the jar just like the next person, but no so much in my cookie.

So not a complete success, but a pretty close.  Ok, now I'm off to make Jelly-filled donut cupcakes. I couldn't pass these up when I saw them online.

Some Knitting Knews

Right now I'm mostly working on Grant's socks and a couple little things that I can't mention because they are gifts.  Grant's socks are actually a bit further than this - I'm well into the foot and should soon be changing yarn for the toe. (I'm switching to a odd green color for fun and well in case Grant has larger feet than I expected.) 

In other news, our  first CSA delivery from Fresh & Local CSA is today!  Here is what we might expect to find in our bag...
Look for these items in your share bag:
1. Strawberries
2. Spring Onions
3. Lettuce Mix
4. Heirloom head lettuce
5. Cut Green (bunched: chard, kale or collards)
6. Lambquarters (bunched)
7. Mizuna mustard

Yeah!

A Felted Bag and Other Life Happenings

 

In knitting news, last week I helped Amanda (well really gave moral support) felt a bag she knit for her mother. I think we were a little concerned at first because it wasn't felting much and it was getting *really* furry.  In the end it turned out lovely and I think her mother liked it very much.  Take a look at the before pictures here.

In other news. My trip to San Francisco was great. I was busy working most of the time, but did find some time to enjoy the 70 degree weather. (Specifically knitting in Union Square while drinking *many* cappuccinos, see below).  On the last day Kirstin, Cee-Cee and I found time to visit Imagiknits and drool over all their amazing yarn. I bought some Noro Kureyon as I'm thinking about starting the Lizard Ridge and I figured why not start with just one ball. If I can figure out how to do one square, perhaps I'll do more.

I took a number of fun photos during my trip and you can check them out here.

Lastly, it snowed in DC on Sunday. Grant and I had much fun walking around in the snow and taking pictures.  I think the 3-4 inches we got took everyone by surprise.  It was a sticky, thick snow, so everything was white and clean. 

A spinning blur

 

I got to try out my new ball winder and swift at craft night earlier this week.  Well Kate actually used it, but I got to see it in action and it was beautiful. Kate was winding up some incredible Fiesta Yarn that she had received as a gift. It was made of 2 strands and the colors were gorgeous.  I can't wait to see what Kate knits up with this yarn.

Take a look at how pretty the yarn is...