Food Blogger? (A Recipe for peanut butter pancakes)

No, not quite. But I have been cooking a hell of a lot more than I've been doing anything fiber related. The last thing I knit was that snail, and I haven't really touched the needles since. I just haven't felt like it. I guess I shouldn't really feel bad. It is my hobby after all. It's not like anyone else is counting on me to do it.

In addition to cooking I've been reading a heck of a lot. This week I finished Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips and I reread Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. I'm working on rereading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's a really amazing book, but so very sad at the end. The first time I read it (the summer before the movie came out - I'd never even heard of it before a friend let me borrow it) I remember thinking it would be a good reread because you'd probably pick up on a lot more during the second read than the first. It's a bit of a confusing book due to the time travel. It's a little odd to think about. I prefer to think of all time existing at once which is why the conundrums in the book are possible, but it's still a bit mind boggling.

Okay, so now for the real reason for this post. Peanut butter pancakes. I whipped these up this morning. I put bananas in a few and none in the others. I didn't actually like the slices of banana in the pancakes, but I think sliced bananas would make an excellent topping. They were a huge hit both ways with the boyfriend, who is a peanut butter addict. =)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour (you can use all purpose flour if you don't have it, or 1/2 all purpose, 1/2 whole wheat)
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c. sugar
1 egg
3/4 c. sour cream or plain yogurt
1 c. milk
1/4 c. peanut butter (I used freshly ground peanut butter, there's a station for that at my local grocery)
1/2 tsp vanilla


Directions:
In a small bowl whisk together the egg, sour cream, milk, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla until combined.

In a large bowl mix together the remaining ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter will be thick, but if it's too thick you can add a bit of milk.

Preheat a skillet to medium heat. Spray the skillet w/ spray oil or melt a bit of butter into the bottom. I would use maybe 1/2 c. batter per pancake. The pancakes are very filling so you'll eat a little less than you'd think.

Cook on the 1st side until you see bubbles and then flip and cook the other side for another couple of minutes.

Serve with pure maple syrup and sliced bananas. You could also garnish them with some whipped cream and cinnamon if you wanted to be really decadent!

Serves approx 4 people.

The Move

Hi all! Today, finally, I don't have a million things that I need to get done, so I thought I'd go ahead and do a little recounting of our journey, along with some photos that I managed to capture. Most of them are from the window of the moving truck, because we didn't make many stops and none of them were for scenic purposes.

I have to say that I was dreading the 4 day drive across the country, I'm not one for long road trips. It actually ended up being okay, though. In part because my boyfriend did absolutely all of the driving. Seriously. I only drove the truck when we picked it up on Monday. He felt bad because he sprained his ankle and wasn't able to help me load the truck, so he did all of the driving.

We split the move up into 4 days, so we wouldn't be driving all day every day. We also visited some Ravelry friends in Tulsa, OK. It was so amazing to meet them! The lovely and generous Kat allowed us to stay in her home over night. She is possibly one of the sweetest people I've ever met! Her kids and husband were awesome and in general they were a joy to be around. I also got to meet Calista as well at their weekly knit meeting (It was purely coincidental that we happened to be staying there on Wednesday which is when they meet. It was awesome to meet some local knitters!) Silly me, I left my camera in the car, but Kat managed to get some great pictures which I will now steal:

This is Calista and Me, as well as her Dread Bump Wesley (Baby bump!) and some friends. See that snail? I made that in on the drive to Tulsa for her. It's from the Amigurumi Knits book.

Kat took a couple of pictures of it before he went to his new home. He's made with acrylic and cotton so as to be easy to clean if the baby gets anything on him. It's an adorable pattern, but so fiddly! I grafted about 130 stitches, 90 for the shell and 40 for the snail body. Gah! You can't argue with the adorable results, though.

So, day 1 we drove to St. Louis, MO.

St Louis Arch.*

Day 2 to Tulsa, OK. Day 3 was our longest day. We drove from Tulsa, OK to Holbrook, AZ. It ended up being about 15 hours of driving. Ugh! We went through 2 time zones, so even though we left around 8 AM, we got to Holbrook around 9 PM.

Wind energy in OK.*

The flat, flat panhandle of TX.*

Cool plateau in NM.

We drove through a rain/hail storm in NM on a mountain. It was scary!*

The end of the storm. The sky looked so cool!*

Day 4 we finally made it to Tempe, AZ. We got the keys to our apartment. We arrived around 1 PM, just in time for the hottest part of the day, so we ended up going out to lunch and doing some shopping before we unloaded anything.

Mountain in AZ.*

More mountains!

Cacti!*

We spend the weekend unloading the truck, unpacking a bit, and furniture shopping. Every night I've gone to bed exhausted. Today is the first day I haven't had a million things to do and it's kind of weird.

Once we get our couch delivered and have the apartment set up to our satisfaction then I will take some pictures and post them. I think it will be a great living space. The apartment is a little long, but that's okay. It has 2 balconies as well as a garage and a washer/dryer. We are very pleased with it.

And since I think that's about enough information to pack into one post, I'm going to leave it at that. =)

*These pictures were taken with my Droid phone because either I didn't have my camera, or I was sending them via picture message.

Checking in!

Hi all, I am safely in Arizona, in my new apartment. I'm exhausted from the move and from moving and unpacking so I won't be saying much now.

Just Hello from Arizona! =)

Moving Day

It all comes down to today. It's moving day. I'm leaving in just an hour or two. I am excited and I was never nervous. Today, though, I'm a little sad to be leaving all of my family behind. I wasn't sad, not to begin with. Today my mom was sad and that broke my heart a little.

The truck is packed, in large part by me. My boyfriend conveniently sprained his ankle on Saturday. He should be able to help me by Friday, but probably not with the heavy stuff, so we'll see how that goes.

I still need to gather some odds 'n' ends, like this computer...

I feel a little disjointed, so I won't say much else besides...


See you in AZ!

PIllows

Hi all sorry for the missed post last week! As you can imagine, things are kind of hectic getting ready to move, and aside from that on Sunday blogging didn't even cross my mind. I spent most of the day working on this:

What is this you say? Why the front of a throw pillow, of course! I decided to make a few throw pillows for my apartment, because it's something that I thought would be fun and easy and actually useful in Arizona since it doesn't involve garments. Actually, I see a lot of home-knits in my future.

It's based on this pattern, but I've obviously made a lot of changes. The big one in the middle is basically following the pattern but the rest is not. I did few rounds of the circle and made the corners a bit smaller. Putting it together was a night mare. It took at least 4 tries. Some parts were too scrunched up, others were stretched, there wasn't room for the last piece, there was too much room for the right piece. Finally I found the correct temperature porridge, though.

This is the first of 3 different pillows I intend to make, all based on one color theme that I intend to explain a little more when I have a bit more time. I actually have to get ready for work in a bit. This is also evidence that I caught more of the crochet bug. I'm more enamored with it that I thought I could be. It's just as easy if not more so than knitting. It lends itself to change more easily, and it's so much quicker.

Last post someone asked where I was moving to in AZ. I'll be moving to Tempe. It's the half way point between Phoenix and Chandler, where the call center will be located. We found a (hopefully) great apartment that I'm really excited about. The only way it will be bad is if the apartment is in some way dilapidated.

More more more! When? I don't know. Maybe when we're in Arizona. Most likely on the 24th, the day before we move and the BF has to work but I don't. We'll see.

Ciao.

Yarn!

Still no knitting, but I do have lots of spinning and some BIG news to share with you!

I finished the falkland from Cosy on Sunday. I have to say that I LOVE it, even though it's not as even a weight as I had hoped. It's on average, a worsted-aran weight. I can't stop petting it!

Soaked and thwacked to finish!

Next up is the silk yarn I bought back in September. It was a little graduation gift for myself. It's from Gnomespun, and the color is "Demeter", although I tend to think of earthier colors when I think of Demeter as she's the chaste earth goddess. Although she did preside over the harvest too, so you can think of this as her golden waves of grain. This is 2oz of tussah silk top. It was super easy and fast to spin. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. But it's shiny and nice enough to look at right now. =)

This is a picture of it before the twist is set, you can see some of the kinks in it. I left it as singles to get the most possible yardage out of it. I'll get a better picture of it once the twist is set.


I promised BIG news, didn't I? Okay, well, I think I mentioned before that my company is opening a new call center in Arizona and that I applied to go. Well, they pulled me aside on Monday and told me that I was one of the few that they had chosen to reloacte! EEE! In just 4 short weeks I will be living in Arizona. They certainly are not giving us much moving time, they want our last day here to be May 26th, and our first day there to be June 1st. That's a mere 5 days to drive across the country. However, I requested the 24th-26th off so I'll actually have 9 days to get moved.

This will be the longest road trip I've ever taken and I'll be going through a lot of states that I've never been to before. It's exiting and scary. I've already called a few places about apartments and I think I've found one that I really want. It's 1050 sq. ft. for $725/mo, with a balcony and a washer and dryer in the unit. None of the utilities are included so that's kind of a down, but it would be great to have all that space!

Until next time.

Not a Stitch!

I haven't knit ANYTHING this week. I know, crazyness, right? I talked before a little bit about my phases, and this week it's not been knitting. I did, however, tuck 2 and a half novels under my belt as well as a skein and a half of yarn.

A few weeks ago I signed up for Cosy's Falkland Fiber Club. I've never been in any kind of club before because they're usually to expensive. However this club only lasts for 3 months and so it was at a reasonable price. Plus the faulkland isn't treated with chemicals and it is dyed with organic dyes, who wouldn't love that? Anyway, I got the first shipment in the mail on Monday. It's a riot of color, if you think about it, chocolate brown, acid green, deep purple, with some dots of red, lighter yellowy green, black, and some of the white still peeking through. I was enamoured with it an I wanted to spin it right away! However I still had some fiber on my wheel from the last time I spun, so that needed to get out of the way first!

This is the fiber that I won at Sticks 'n' Stitches back in January. It is a merino/tencel blend from a local dyer whom you can find on Etsy as the Yarn Chef. The colorway is "Mauve Maven" and it's really lovely. I'm not usually a huge fan of the softer colors, but I love this. It also has a really great sheen and I can tell that the final project will have amazing drape. This yarn is, on average a chunky weight, but it's thick/thin so it varies.


After that I divided the falkland in half and fluffed it up before spinning. I finished the first half this morning, and prepped the second half. I usually half the entire length of roving long ways so that all of the colors are in both sets of singles, however, I didn't really want the colors to match up in any way for this yarn so I tore it in half length wise.

The 2nd half of the fiber, prepped for spinning.

The 1st half of the fiber on the bobbin.

My goal for this yarn was to come up with a lighter weight yarn that was more even than thick/thin. I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it. It's a little thick/thin, but mostly even. The falkland is lovely to work with. It's soft and it drafts quite easily. I can't wait to have the finished product! I'll either finish it on my day off tomorrow or on Thursday, hopefully.


Happy Weekend!

Is it summer yet?

I actually am not overly fond of summer, at least not in Ohio. It's terribly humid here and I hate sweating. My car used to not have any air conditioner so I would take a shower, get ready for work, and by the time I got to work I would almost need another shower. Humidity makes warm weather so heavy. It's miserable.

But, in the spring time, it is a welcome change. Today it was 80* F here. It was lovely. And after reading this post by Emily, I was inspire to have some quiet time of my own. I did some laundry today and hung it out on the line, and while it was drying I sat in the sun and finished another book in the lilac perfumed air. In books often times there is air that is "thick with the perfume of" such and such a flower. I don't know that I really have experienced that until today. There was a lilac bush behind the deck and a few yards away near the drive way, as well as a gorgeous and heady scented blooming tree in the yard. It was very pleasant. Very relaxing.

Yes, another book. The past week or two I've been on another reading kick and I haven't been knitting nearly as much. I tend to go through phases, spinning, reading, knitting... crocheting they can last a month or a week or maybe just a few days, but in that phase there is little else that I'd like to do.

Since I graduated I've been reading "trashy" books. Not necessarily romance novels, but novels that would definitely not be considered literature. I'm hooked on the Anita Blake vampire hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I was thinking, while reading the last book, that while I like reading her books, they are a little tiring. They are non-stop action. There is very little down time, time for the reader, or even the main character, to catch their breath. Not only within the single book, but within the series. It is a lot of action and events that happen in a relatively short amount of time. I do feel a little guilty about that so I started reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. It's actually quite enjoyable, though it promises to be a long read.

What books are your favorites?

Yarn!

So it's been a little while since I've actually posted something. I've been fairly busy! Last Saturday was my Birthday and I had several celebrations. A friend even came down from Cleveland, although that wasn't exactly for my birthday. We hung out and went to the Franklin Park Conservatory as well as the Columbus Art Museum (which is being renovated and so has a very small collection at the moment!). We even went to Jeni's... twice. It was a good time. I also went out to eat with a good friend who gifted me an Eggplant Monroe Namaste bag, a matching Buddy Case, a Catalina Bag, and 2 skeins of Shibui sock in a gorgeous purple! Far more than I deserve. ;-)

Both the Conservatory and the Museum had some Chihuly art on display. I used to think that most of his stuff was too similar, but no more! It's gorgeous and it looks incredibly and painstakingly time consuming.

(These pictures were taken with my Droid phone so please excuse the quality!)

This one is in the Koi pond.


This one is from the museum, the glass was this gorgeous gold color and see through so the layers were two fold as you could see them through the opening and the sides of the creations.


This also at the museum the bottom looked like it was glowing, it was reflecting the spotlight.

Yay, glasswork!

Okay, so I named this post "Yarn!" didn't I? I was clearing off a memory card so I could give it to a friend (you know who you are!) and I found some pictures that I took of my handspun. It was actually used to make a hat for the same friend! I need to get a FO picture of it because I LOVE the way it turned out!

It's definitely the most satisfied I've been with a yarn that I've made. It was just the right amount of bounce from plying. It's BFL. I lurve BFL.

Oh! One last thing! I wanted to mention that the knitting in my last post is indeed a log cabin blanket. It's a bit bigger since that photo. Perhaps there will be some progress photos in my near future because I have a couple of new projects started!

Dear Blog,

Ahhhh! I missed last week! Where did last week go, anyway? This week is going to be a doozy, Safelite is doing their add campaign so call volume will be way up. I can more or less expect back to back for 5 hours instead of back to back for maybe 2 hours with 1-5 minutes inbetween calls for the other 3. *sigh*

In other news I have tons of knitting to show you! But absolutely no pictures. It's been grey and rainy here. At least it's not snowing!

Last night I had a random etsy splurge on some vintage buttons. After hearing Hello Knitty rave about the vintage buttons at greenrayprod yet again.

(photos from greenraypod)



Fan Dance "Eight metal buttons from the Victorian period, 1870-1890. A large braided metal rim surrounds a dyed red center, over which is placed a large multicolored stamped ornament of a fan." I love them! The red back makes them perfect for the Honeybee Cardigan that I plan on making out of my Malabrigo Sock in "Ravelry Red".


Four mother of peal buttons from 1900-1920. Love love love!

Have a lovely week!

Olympian!

As I'm sure most of you are aware, there was some furious knitting going on all over the world the past few weeks for the Knitting Olympics, found in different degrees on The Yarn Harlot's Blog and Ravelry. I happened to be one of the, although I feel like I could have set the bar a little higher, given the Yarn Harlot's long and dangerous tiny-needle-colorwork-sweater journey. I knit my Aeolian Shawl for the wedding that I went to on the 26th, finishing it at the last possible minute. I was beading and knitting like a fool on the last day, finally binding off around midnight. I breathed a big sigh of relief and gave the thing a bath so it could be pinned out and displayed proudly the next night.

Well.. when I took it upstairs to pin it out I remember thinking "Hmm, that's strange, I didn't think that I left that long of a tail." Well, folks. Infact, I did not. I, however, discovered this:

Horror of horrors! My tired self did not secure that last stitch and it became unraveled! Well there was hardly a lot that I could do at midnight so I pinned it out, making sure to pin the last bound off stitch so it wouldn't unravel any further. The next day before I went to the wedding (After an icy mishap on the road I was already running late) I decided to do a sewn bind off on the rest of the stitches, and even though the edge was considerably messier it got the job done and I'm certain no one noticed the difference.

So, Without further ado, I give you the Aeolian Shawl:

I even have an action shot:

(That's the side with the original bind off)

Specs:
Yarn: Silky Sock by Squoosh Fibers in "Depth" (Really lovely stuff!)
Needles: Size 6 and a very tiny crochet hook for beading
Beads: 50(?) grams of size 6 seed beads in aquamarine
Pattern: Aeolian Shawl [Ravel it!] By Elizabeth Freeman
Mods: I used a bigger needle size and did a slightly different bind off. I also only did 1 strand of yarn for the bind off instead of doubled because A) I was worried about having enough yarn (I had 2 grams left over!) and B) It would have been complicated/taken more time to unwind the ball and bind off with 2 strands
Thoughts: Lovely pattern, fun to knit, although a bit complicated and fiddly. The Agave chart gave me a run for my money when the BOLDED "/" and "\" meant k3tog and sssk (double decreases) instead of k2tog and ssk (single decreases). Ravelry forums to the rescue. ;-)


I also entered myself in another event, Aerial Unwind. For frogging projects. I frogged my Damson. *sigh* Even though I just loved the way it came out, I never wear it. And I love the yarn (Malabrigo Sock in "Rayon Vert") too much to never wear it. So rrrrip it was!

Bye Damson! Hello possibilities!

I also started frogging my Hey, Teach! Because the fit is wonky and since I've gained a bit of weight I can't wear it anymore. Rrrrip!

I realized...

...that I haven't posted this week! I kept thinking about the Shalom sweater post and how it was "Just on Tuesday" but that was over a week ago! Alright, so on that same snow day I got the BF to take some FO pictures of my Vine Yoke Cardigan that I finished way back when.

Vine Yoke Cardigan

Specs:
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in "Simply Taupe"
Needles: Size 9
Pattern: Vine Yoke Cardigan [Ravel it!] by Ysolda Teagues
Mods: My gauge was smaller so I followed the directions for one size larger. If I were to do that again in this same yarn, then I would cast on the number of stitches for 2 sizes larger but follow the directions for 1 size larger, so the sweater would be longer. It blocked to be a lot longer than it was on the needles but i would still like it to be longer than it is.
Thoughts: Really great pattern, as usual. I love the side to side construction, although that does make it a bit difficult to add elements for a custom fit. As you can see the Malabrigo has held up pretty well in this loose gauge sweater. There has been pilling, but you'll have that with almost any wool sweater, especially a fine wool like merino. I love the color of this sweater and I wore it fairly often when it was a little warmer out. Now the half sleeves aren't long enough and they bunch up under my winter coat.

Shalom!

It's been snowing like crazy here and we've gotten at least 10" in the past day or so. Soooo the BF and I took a snow day today. It's irresponsible and I'll be getting an occurrence at job #2 but it feels so right! ;-) I'm getting pretty burnt out on the 2 job thing and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be doing it.

Anywho, I took advantage of the both of us being together in the daylight and had the BF take some FO pictures of my Shalom! Complete with Buttons!

Specs:
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Needles: US Size 10
Pattern: Shalom Cardigan [Ravel it!] by Meghan McFarlane
Mods: Lots...

• Different Gauge so I had to account for that. I cast on 97 sts for the neckline and I changed the increases to: 1st round of increases [kfb, k1, kfb] all the way around on the WS. 2nd round of increases [kfb, k2] all the way around on the WS. 3rd round of increades [kfb, k6] all the way around. If they didn't line up exactly so the ribbing ended on a ktbl I used a m1 at the end of the round.
• I also ended up thinking that the neck line was too big/it felt like it was sliding off my shoulders so I crocheted a chain around the neckline for some added stability.
  
• After the last tier of the yoke I knit 3 rows of garter and then 3 rows of stockinette before splitting for the sleeves. Sleeves go as follows: 42 sts on each front and 40 sts on waste yarn for the sleeves. I cast on 10 sts after putting the 40 sleeve stitches on waste yarn for the under arms.*
• I did short row shaping for the bust.**
• I added button holes on every 14th garter ridge. (I would put them closer together it I knit this again.)
• For the long sleeves I did 14 rows of twisted rib for the cuffs and then bound off knit wise to give it a ridge similar to the yoke.
• I slipped the stitches on the garter button band as follows: slip the last st of the row p wise with yarn in front. Knit this stitch on the next row.
  

Thoughts: Lovely pattern, ingenious really. I would definitely recommend it!

Things I would do differently if I knit it again:
1) I would cast on fewer stitches, which would mean I would need more increases so for the 3rd tier I would probably do [kfb, k5] all the way around.
2) Knit 2 more rows of garter stitch at the neckline (I only did 6 before the 1st increase)
3) For the ribbing on the sleeves I would purl one round, knit one round before the ribbing and then maybe knit one round, purl one round, and bind off to make it match the yoke a more.
4) Make the button bands maybe 1 stitch bigger so the button holes would have 3 stitches to the end of the row instead of 2.

*When I went to knit the sleeves I picked up a total of 14 stitches for the underarms. 2 before the 10 cast on stitches and 2 after.
**For the Short row shaping I did the same shaping on both of the fronts:
1) Knit 40 sts, wrap and turn
2) All even rows purl to last 6 sts, knit 5 sts, bring yarn to the front, slip last st
3) Knit 38 sts, wrap and turn
5) Knit 36 sts, wrap and turn
7) Knit to button band, picking up wrapped stitches

For the left front you have to wrap on the purl side. You pick up these wraps and then ptbl to get rid of the holes.

Things

I love Etsy. It is an awesome website and I love finding what I need on it. If I'm going to spend my money on something I would much rather spend a little more on something hand made from a single person than something a little cheaper that comes from a factory. Case and point, the wooden buttons I purchased for my Shalom sweater. They are gorgeous.

Spalted Maple. Hand cut and sanded, finished with tung oil. (Only 2 out of the 7 because the other 5 are on my sweater!)

Spalted wood again, hand cut, sanded and finished with tung oil.

They feel so smooth and lovely and I LOVE how they look like little packages. They are light weight and perfect for knitted items as they won't weigh them down. Not only do I love them, but they came with a lovely personal thank you note from the maker. I bought them from A Remark You Made and I would definitely recommend her shop.

Another Etsy purchase I made was to buy a blue sock yarn for my Aeolian Shawl. I mentioned this earlier as my Knitting Olympic project. It starts tomorrow! I knew I wanted something with a silk content, but I wasn't sure what brand of yarn I wanted. When I read about Squoosh FiberArts over on The Knitty Vritti I decided to check it out and I found a delicious merino silk sock blend in "Depth". In the picture on the shop it looked almost teal, but when it arrived it wasn't teal at all.

However I love this color even more than the color in the photo. I immediately balled it up so it's all ready to cast on tomorrow! It will be a race against the clock to finish the shawl in time. ;-)

My last Etsy treasure is from the Yarn Chef. This actually isn't a purchase, I won it in the raffle at Sticks and Stitches that I went to back in January. I got to choose between some of her yarn and her fiber and I chose this lovely merino/tencel blend in "Mauve Maven".

She's actually a local dyer and works out of Columbus, OH which I love. Just look at the shiny! (Also I just polished up my wheel so it's looking pretty spiffy as well. ;-])


And there's just one last thing I wanted to share...

omgsnow.

To the Finish Line!

I've been diligently working on my Shalom Cardigan. This morning I finished the first sleeve and I am currently ready to pick up stitches for the second. It is nearly impossible to get a good shot of this thing indoors, and it's cold outside so I wasn't exactly in the mood for an outside photo shoot...

In any case I will definitely be finished with it this weekend! I'm so excited! I love it already. I purchased some hand made wooden buttons on Etsy yesterday for the sweater. I think this will be my new favorite clothing item. =D


In other knitting related news, the Winter Knitting Olympics are coming up! I sort of decided to do this again. I participated in the Ravelympics last summer (I think it was last summer, anyway). This time I'm going to do something a little bit more challenging! I have a design in the works with the blue Malabrigo that I purchased from Eat.Sleep.Knit. I'll be attempting to finish that during the Winter Olympics. It actually shouldn't be too hard to finish in the time allotted, but that's only assuming I don't have to rip anything out!