Monkey!

Pattern: Monkey from Knitty.com
Yarn: Three Waters Farm sock yarn in "Sunset"
Needles: Handy dandy KnitPicks 32" #1 circs
Mods: None!

What an addictive pattern! I found myself doing many repeats without being able to put the sock down. The yarn is really nice - it isn't twisted as tightly as say a Koigu or STR, but it is really soft and the colors are beautiful! My feet are a few sizes bigger than my sisters, so they are a bit stretched out looking.

After I took the pictures, a good soak in my new limited edition Celebration fragrance Soak from always generous Sarah made the yarn bloom even more and get softer. They will be mailed off to my sister this week!

In preperation for my 3 day weekend in New York at the agility trial, I made another batch of the marvelous Tofu Brownies. I had previously brought some to the kennel and everyone demanded another batch to bring to NY with us. I think they came out better the second time.

With seven of us eating them, they went pretty quick. We even had them with ice cream on Saturday evening to celebrate our last night there. (More details on the trip in another post!)

We also got our first CSA delivery on Wednesday.

(click on the picture to take you to Flickr with all the details on what's what)

Talk about a lot of food! It took me 2 trips to bring it up from the car! Everything was really fresh and so green. I really don't think we'll be able to eat all this in one week! I washed up the red and green leaf lettuces and packaged them up for easy storage. The rest of the greens need to be eaten tonight before we get our other delivery today! I think it is going to be wonderful to have all these fresh, organic foods all summer long!

I have no sock on the needles right now (horrors!) as I'm debating what to start next. I'm leaning heavily towards Whitby (these are beautiful!) in some Pink Louet Opal. Coincidentally, Lolly just cast on for hers! (Great minds think alike!)

I'm gathering all my photos from this weekend - it was quite a time! The weather - perfect. The people - so much fun.

Look Away

If you are watching calories or dieting, you may want to skip this post. Links to yummies ahead.....

Brownies are good. No two ways about it. Blondies are actually my favorite as I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate in any form. (I know - first lobster, and now chocolate....) After seeing Browniebabe's monthly brownie line up here I just couldn't hold out any longer. I wanted something different. Not a typical brownie. I found a great solution with Jess's Recipe. They came out just as she predicted - last night they were cakey and moist. I have yet to try them today, but I'm looking forward to them becoming a bit more dense and fudgy. They were a bit more work than a normal brownie - I had to pull out the blender - but it was a great result with a big glass of milk. Hubby approved.

Speaking of sweets - have you seen these incredible knit topped cupcakes? How cute are they! Perfect for any knit and food gathering! They are so detailed - she did an amazing job!

Monkey sock #2 chuggs along. I still can't believe what a quick knit these are. I have only had a few limited nights this week to work on them, and I am already halfway through the heel flap. With the four hour ride to Vermont this afternoon, I see lots of car knitting! I do plan on having my friend Ivy try them on when we are in Vermont this weekend - she has the same size foot as my sister. The last socks I did for her were DK weight, and since these are fingering weight, I want to get a "second foot opinion" before I kitchner the toe and send them off.

Sorry for the sporadic posting as of late - life has been a little hectic! I hope to get back to more regular posting in the next few weeks. Have a wonderful weekend!

A Few Days Rest

I am back, but only for a few days - we leave Friday afternoon for Vermont! It was a whirlwind shifted weekend. Saturday I had some nice downtime. I finally got around to making the Farmhouse White Bread I've been wanting to try. The day was warm, so it was perfect for rising and proofing the dough.

The loaves came out simply perfect!

The flavor is great and the crumb is nice and tender. As an added bonus, it made three pound loaves, so it will last a while. We made grilled cheeses on it the other night and man, does homemade bread do a lot to pump up a grilled cheese!!

With the recent warm temps, I also pulled out the ice cream maker and made some Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop - a recent library find. There are tons of great recipies and if they turn out anything like this first try, my waistline is in big trouble! I also love the fact that the book has recipes for all the "extras" as well - cones, brownies, crumbly add in's and all the sauces. A double thumbs up.

My "weekend" was really Sunday and Monday with an agility trial. Tucker got his Excellent A Jumpers title and what was even better is that Hubby was there to see it! It was nice having him there for the day with us to root us on. Ravin is still having some ring stress issues, but actually stayed in the ring for his runs on Monday. Small steps.....

Speaking of Tucker, I captured this goofy shot of him over the weekend. Cattledogs are known for their need to "brace" against things - when you pet him, he always braces his front leg over your arm. When he's laying on the couch, he braces his legs against it. This, however, is a little extreme.

He is one wacky dog.

So, I bet you came here for some knitting. I did manage to get Monkey #1 done.

I'm not sure about the length as they are for my sister, so I may have to rip and re-knit the toe a bit shorter. The yarn (Three Waters Farm Superwash Sock)is wonderful though - no pooling, striping or icky color bunching of any kind! What everyone has been saying about Monkey is true - it is such a quick knit!

Bad A$$ Knitter

Or so Sarah says. She sent me this amazing box bag as the ultimate knitty birthday gift.

Pretty amazing, huh? Check out that lining! All cute and mellow and flowery on the outside - totally biker chick/pirate on the inside.

It is the perfect size - holds a ball of sock yarn, my little notions bag and pattern comfortably and cozily (is that a word??). She rocks.

Seems like my birthday went extra long this year. I got some great books in the mail from my aunt (also a knitter) and uncle the other day.

The Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume Two - Cables and Knitting Stitches are both nice, thick books packed with patterns. Stitch pattern books to me are like the novels of the knitting world. I start flipping through, my mind races with all the possibilities and then I look up and it's 3 hours later. They suck you in. The Trianglepoint book (I can't even find it on line to link to!) is one my dad picked up for me at a used book store. He travels a lot for business, and loves to have little missions to go on. Like me, he loves books and sending him off with a list of knitting books to hunt for is not as much of a chore as it is an adventure. This is a needlepoint book, but has some wonderful graphic ideas for patterns. Lots of new reading and browsing material. I love it.

Hubby has found a new source for his sugar rush. Jones Soda. The flavors are anything but typical. The colors - inspiring. (and this is only a few)

Our local warehouse club recently started selling it and the last time we went, I actually had a coupon. So two cases found themselves into our cart pretty quick. The flavors are really intense. The green apple is a wonderful tart, sweet flavor. Berry Lemonade is just that - no artificial soda flavor is covering or altering them. Yum.

With the Heart Crook socks complete, you didn't think I'd waste any time in getting a new sock on the needles, right? This skein of sock yarn was purchased at the 2006 Maryland festival. I had spotted a few skeins that Lolly purchased when we sat down and chatted at the knitblogger meet up. I immediately went back into the main building and grabbed some for me. It has marinated in the stash until now. Avid readers will know I am not a fan of variegated yarns. Heart Crook definitely changed my mind, but after two pairs of fair isle socks done, I was ready for a "regular" pattern.

After seeing all the cute Monkey socks pop up all over Flickr and the net, I knew the pattern worked well with variegated yarn. Then, enter the picot hem. Kristy, Sarah and Cara had such cute pairs I had to knit one as well.

These will be for my sister. An interim pair as her fair isle pair is still on paper at this point! After some struggling with the picot hem, after one night of knitting I am three repeats into the leg. Everyone is right - this pattern just flies!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. The boys and I are off to another agility trial this Sunday and Monday. The weather is supposed to be beautiful and hopefully we'll have good news to report! You know my Bad A$$ bag is going along!