delaying the inevitable

After trying on the sock, which is a very interesting endeavor with the dpn's still on the stitches, I'm not sure if I want to rip it out yet. I think I'm going to do a few pattern repeats with the 1s to see if I like the fabric better and if it seems like a better gauge before abandoning the work I've already done.

senile

I bought yarn for my mom's surprise yellow socks from ebay and it arrived late this week. I cast on for it and started knitting the ribbing part at the top. Yesterday I waited in the dentist's office for 3 hours, so I whipped out the sock and kept working. I ended up having a conversation with an older woman and her daughter. The mother is a knitter and her daughter crochets and they had just gone to get new knitting needles, but the mother was intrigued by the double pointed needles.

The night I started knitting, I thought one of the needles seemed slightly smaller, but I dismissed it, since I couldn't remember having bought more than one size of wooden double pointed needles.

Back in the dentist's office, I had almost reached the end of the lace pattern and wanted to stop before I got to the heel. It would be too depressing to complete a sock while waiting to be seen by the dentist. Before I put the sock away, though, I decided to check the small needle to determine for once and for all if it was the same size. The size is carved into the needle and painted on, but the paint wears off when you knit. Scrutinizing the needle, I read that the small needle was size 1 and the other needles were size 2--different brands. I still can't remember buying the two different sets. The whole time, I thought I was knitting on 1s, but they were actually 2s.

Gahhhh.

I found the rest of the 1s in a half-knitted sock that I had abandoned. I didn't like the first sock, so motivation to finish the second was low. I'm not sure what corner of the world the first sock is stashed in.

I'll have to rip out what I have so far for my mom's sock. It is inevitable, but still somewhat sad.

year of the rooster

sort of belated, but that's the way we do things around here anyways. this weekend we celebrated the lunar new year with a gathering where, according to our family tradition, we ate, and ate, and ate, until it hurt to move. sandia made the trip up to celebrate with us (yay!) and i noticed that even lili was wearing red. unfortunately i forgot my camera (as usual) so i didn't catch any pictures of the food but next time i will. i promise!

Liliphant

I made this elephant for my niece awhile back. Her mom says that when she's in her crib, she tries to grab the elephant by its arms and pull it into the crib with her. The elephant is too plump to fit through the bars... poor thing. At least it means that means that the arms are firmly attached.

SF MOMA

since i have my computer hooked up to the internet i figured i might as well post up everything i thought was interesting all at one time. a long time ago i went to the sf moma (i think i was there with sandia for the free day) and i took this picture. i just like the colors. rainbows are pretty.

unfinished

this was actually INTENDED to be a christmas present. unfortunately, it now sits in a plastic bag in my room somewhere. i seem to have lost track of it's whereabouts. for a brief time i was completely obsessed with felt and all the things you can do with it. the beauty of it is that you can cut it and the edges won't unravel on you! imagine all of the possibilities! so anywas i fashioned this flower pin. but i can't figure out how to attach all of the petals together in an attractive way. the other problem was attaching the pin part to the flower without having it show on the front.

any suggestions? anyone? anyone? bueller? bueller?

baaaaa....

this is a project that originally was intended as a going away to grad school present for sandia but ended up being a christmas present because the progress was so slow. the posting has been even slower due to the lack of internet access and the fact that my laptop was holding the pictures hostage. anyways... a venture to the thrift store for a pair of corduroy and wool pants allowed me enough materials to whip up a sheep themed pencil case for the newly reinstated student in our family. i didn't know how to make buttonholes so i just sewed a couple of loops onto the back in order to make a closure of some sort. i didn't upload a picture of that because the front part is much more appealing. =)

Withdrawal

Recently, I decided that in the spirit of Lent I would go on a fast of sorts. I have not read any craft blogs for a week. I don't know if I can take it much longer. I may be forced to study for stats or do work on a paper and it is frankly rather terrifying.

In the meantime, my attempt to redesign the sweater with different cables has failed. I'm not sure what to do with the yarn. A whale seems like a good idea, but I wanted to make a sweater... I wanted to make a cabled sweater... I hate compromise.

Stripes

I finished my second project, too. Awhile ago, I got a very 80s striped polyester dress (I promise I will post pictures later) with the idea that I would separate the bodice and the skirt. I made an elastic casing for the skirt yesterday and wore it today. I think the elastic is a little loose, but otherwise it's ok.

I got several looks today that either meant, "That is an interesting skirt--in a good way" or "Why the hell is that woman wearing that skirt?!" Oh well. It's practically a circle, so it's fun to spin around in. That would be useful if I were to, say, take up swing dancing. Don't hold your breath. I can see myself spinning out of control and smashing into a wall.

pertaining to homeland security

valentine's day

after spending the entire day being completely unproductive, i decided to work on a valentine's day project. so, at 7 o'clock in the evening i took out my heart shaped cookie cutters and proceeded to make a bunch of heart shaped cookies for my friends and family and for whomever else wants to get in my way today. you can't really tell from the picture but there are actually three cookies in each package. the varying sizes of hearts (thanks to a gift card sponsored trip to michael's the other day) would have been more distinguishable if i was able to dip the middle sized heart in white chocolate like i wanted. but alas, i didn't have any white chocolate in the house. so everyone will have to make do with similarly colored hearts. deal with it.

oh yeah. happy valentine's day

Project #1 completed

Ta-da! In a burst of knitting productivity and low-quality television-viewing, I finished the shorts. They were knitted completely in the round with garter stitch and eyelet details, which serve as carriers for the drawstring at the waist. The back waist dips into a slight v because all of the increases are in the back. Overall, they are comfortable and since they are made of cheapo acrylic, they are also very functional... I may need to rethink the usability of my other knitted garments.

Sleep addiction

I relate to this post (also check out her hilarious photo essay in which she and her beloved plant, Pointy, hang out). I have a sleep addiction. My craft projects are in a funk and it's raining! Whine whine whine.

jill scott

although this blog is called THE CRAFT COLLECTIVE, most of my postings are about other things. am i procrastinating? avoiding my unfinished projects? of course not! i would never do anything like that. i just have other things to tend to. =D

went to see jill scott last night. her voice SO amazing. i wish i could be even half that talented in any one area of life. she even sang my favorite song... magic number... how did she know?

so that this is not a completely pointless post... look at these cupcakes!

year of the rooster

"May the year of the Rooster bring you utmost joy, gleeful agonizing love, adventures into the unknown, a hurried step toward your life passions, frequent unions with cherished friends, tranquil solitude inthe backcountries outside city craziness, and occasional regression tothe carefree days of childhood innocence!"

it's a quote from an email from a friend of a friend. you got that?
i like it. so i posted it here.

roy's

roy's

a couple of weekends ago we went to roy's to take advantage of dine about town. it was something like a three course meal but it felt more like ten courses because i couldn't even finish my dessert! i really liked my main course which was some sort of japanese-like pork pot roast and i had the chocolate souffle for dessert (YUM!). the only weird thing was these albino string beans that were served as the veggie side dish.

string beans need to be green. enough said.

stitch

stitch

so after much anticipation a group of us ventured to the city take a class at stitch. we decided on a beginners sewing class that claimed to be able to make sewers out of us in just a couple of hours. the place was very small and cute with sewing stations, a section with fabric and notions, and an area in the front for local artists and craftsters to sell their wares.

the class was inspiring... i made the ugliest pillow in the world, but, after returning home i took the sewing machine out of the box and put it on the dining room table! hahaha... that's about as far as it's gotten. but the idea of a pink felt camera case has been festering in my head for a couple of weeks... and purchasing some pink thread would put me that much closer to actually using the machine!

hiatus

metreon

so FINALLY after months of being a blogger delinquent, i've actually transported my camera to work where i have reliable internet access. the only problem is... i no longer have any project pictures in my camera! so you'll have to settle with some pictures that i had leftover from my trip to the metreon to see lemony snicket's series of unfortunate events. it was a movie that i didn't really want to see, and the trip to the metreon was inspired more in an effort to kill time between our stitch class (i didn't post the pictures in order so see the above posting) and tina's date in the city, but i ended up liking the movie. sort of a dark cartoonish version of a not-so-happy-fairy tale. so between stitch and the killing time movie, we attempted to kill more time by wandering around the shops at the metreon. i became fascinated by these lamps which are decorated with paper cut outs. i thought... i can make that! but, of course, i never actually would. so i figured i would settle for a picture. =)

doubts

I thought redesigning the center panel of the cable might solve my problems with the baby sweater, but I am still concerned. It's slightly more visible, but... is that enough?

View Elka's entry from February 7. My cables are similarly invisible. I think I either have to change yarn or change patterns. What to do, what to do? (Maybe finish reading my assignment.)

Ok, or not, since I am still thinking about patterns.

I like the wide cable pattern on this aran... but maybe I should stay away from cables.

Maybe wavy ribs, inspired by this Knitty scarf.

Arghhh.

UFOs

In craftland, UFOs are not alien space ships or blimps that you don't recognize right away, but unfinished objects. They are the projects that were abandoned for one reason or another: loss of enthusiasm, disenchantment or the fickle behavior of a crafter who was distracted by shiny new projects. As far as knitting goes, I have my two active projects (one is marginal and seems to be heading towards reclassification as a UFO) and one UFO. I hadn't given it much thought until Betsy's post.

I think it has been languishing for about two and a half years. In the interim, I have started other projects, finished some and even, in a fit of cleaning, threw one away. I was never going to finish it and really, what was the point of keeping it around, since the yarn was free and also scratchy?

I started this one in an attempt to be creative and improvisational. I was going to knit a pair of comfortable pants that I could wear around the apartment as pajamas. This was before Interweave Knits published a pattern for their No-Sweat Pants (here is Alison's version), so it was novel. I guess knitted pants are still a sort of novelty. I had knitted them in the round, almost finished one leg and then got discouraged.

Now I'm thinking, I will just rip back the one leg to shorts length, knit the other leg and call it a project... one that I can count as being completed for part of my "finish two projects before buying any new supplies" plan. It should still count as a completed project, yes? Yes.

If you were Mom...

...what color socks would you like? I got her a light blue sweater awhile ago and then realized that she doesn't really have any other light blue clothing. Oops.

I was thinking of making her some socks because she doesn't really like hats or scarves, but socks are something that she likes in fun colors. Help!

rollercoaster

Things have been a little off over in this corner of the world. I'm not sure if it is excessive work or not doing any of the excessive work, but it's like the angle is tilted just slightly so that things seem weird, but I can't figure out what they are.

Lf emailed about She Who Eats and I checked out the website. I want to make macarons, but they seem a little to intense for me right now. I'm also not sure if the egg whites that I have had sitting around have gotten stale... do they have a shelf life that starts post-cracking and separating from the yolks? I felt lazy and didn't want to cook at all today. I had chicken korma leftovers for breakfast... what does that tell you? I didn't feel like making rice, since it might burn and then I would have to scrub out the pot again, so I made nabe.

I threw in some enoki, imitation crab cylinders (why that shape and I wonder if they are qualitatively different from the fake crab chunks), carrots, green onions, leftover ganmodoki, shiitake and chicken broth. I liked the first bowl, except I don't think imitation crab is something that's supposed to simmer. It started to disentegrate into imitation crab goo. By the second bowl, I was slightly grossed out.

I just tasted a bit of the lemon cake. Since it was the first slice, I got a bit of the extra-toasty, charcoaly crust. Not delicious. After I cut off that part, the inside tasted good. There was a hint of almond from the extract, a slightly nutty texture from the ground almonds and a lot of tartness from the lemon juice. Yay lemon juice slathering. I need to invest in a pastry brush.

Aran sweater and rules... are they meant to be broken?

I'm working on a tiny sweater. A lot of my progress is fueled by my new rule that I can't buy new craft supplies until I finish two projects. Taking that into consideration, it is useful to work on relatively small projects.




This picture belies the amount of drama that has already been caused by this sweater. It looks harmless, even with its stray ends hanging out. Since I took the picture, I knitted about five more inches into the cable pattern, decided that the tweed of the yarn was making the dramatic cable panel in the center almost invisible. I was not about to go through that much effort if it wasn't even going to show up, so I found another pattern that I hope will be cute, and I ripped back to a little before this point. It's more of a diamond than a braid. I won't work on it again until I finish reading two more chapters.

Deep fried

Last night, in a fit of inspiration to eat well and not do any work, I made these ganmodoki using a recipe from The Hungry Tiger. I pretty much followed the recipe and then made a dipping sauce with soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar and green onions. If it is tofu, but deep fried, is it still healthy?




My bad cooking energy is mostly gone, but I think I need to get an oven thermometer. I made this lemon-almond buttermilk loaf today. The best part was slathering it with lemon juice after it baked. The top and bottom got a little too toasty, even though I gave it a protective foil hat and baked it 15 minutes less time than was recommended.

cookie update

I broke down and baked the cookies yesterday. They turned out ok, and there wasn't any crazy spreading or anything that might have taken place since I didn't bake them in muffin tins. The only thing is that they aren't exactly the most photogenic cookies (imagine, if you will a round butter cookie). I think that was the main point of the muffin tin, since it makes them perfectly round and slightly concave in the center. Yummy. Nothing too exciting.

Broiled vegetables with couscous

I have had more bad cooking experiences lately than I care to remember, even though I have dutifully described most of them in this blog. In an attempt to rebalance my cooking karma, I browsed epicurious.com for a recipe that would use mushrooms, red bell peppers and zucchinis, since I had gotten the peppers on sale awhile ago. I came up with this recipe, which I diligently printed out.

Later I realized, surprise, that I don't have a broiling pan. This isn't as big a deal as, say, wanting to make muffins and not having a muffin pan. I realized I would have to suck it up and risk Alzheimer's disease by covering some cake pans with foil, into which I had cut slashes.



Ok, so I didn't really follow the recipe at all. I don't have balsamic vinegar, since my last bottle met an untimely death in the trunk of my car when I hit an invisble speed bump. I used red wine vinegar instead, was too lazy to go to the store to get Iranian couscous or mint, didn't put in any summer squash (it's February), added some chicken sauteed in garlic and... didn't read the instructions carefully enough to know to reserve half of the marinade to pour over the cooked couscous. It still managed to be tasty. Recipes are meant for some improvisation, right?