[pattern] Mom's Thrummed House Slippers

These things are so cozy! The slippers knit up in a few hours on Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in Oatmeal with size 11 needles, and then a few more hours to thrum them with alpaca fiber with a crochet hook. Probably 4/5 of the skein was used. And I really should have written this up a month ago when I still had everything fresh in my head :/

PATTERN
This is a modified toe up sock with a figure 8 cast on. Increases are every row instead of every other row. Work is done in spirals. The leaf pattern is the same one used for my Lacey Leaf socks, taken upside down, and only once across.
1) Cast on 8 sts on two DPN needles in figure 8. Knit first row all around, splitting on to 4 DPNs.
2) K1, m1, k6, m1, k2, m1, k6, m1, k1. 20 sts around.
3) K1, m1, k8, m1, k2, m1, k8, m1, k1. 24 sts around.
4) K1, m1, k10, m1, k2, m1, k10, m1, k1. 28 sts around.
5) K1, m1, k12, m1, k2, m1, k12, m1, k1. 32 sts around.
Here is where the patterning starts. For the lace pattern, you will pattern every odd row and k every even row.
6) K32
7) K5, yo, ssk, p1, k2tog, yo, k6. 16 sts.
9) K4, yo, k1, ssk, p1, k2tog, k1, yo, k5.
11) K3, yo, k2, ssk, p1, k2tog, k2, yo, k4.
13) K2, yo, k3, ssk, p1, k2tog, k3, yo, k3.
15) K2, k2tog, yo, k7, yo, ssk, k3.
17) K2, k2tog, k1, yo, k5, yo, k1, ssk, k3.
19) K2, k2tog, k2, yo, k3, yo, k2, ssk, k3.
21) K2, k2tog, k3, yo, k1, yo, k3, ssk, k3.
22-29) repeat first half of pattern from row 6.
Insert a short row heel on side opposite of pattern.
30-37) repeat second half of pattern (rows 14-21).
Knit in spiral to desired height (about four rows) and make an EZ super stretchy bind off.

Thrumming is inserted down center of pattern, and along footbed, moving diagonally two rows and two stitches for next point.
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My sister's house slippers, in brown, were done on size 10 needles and without thrumming or lace pattern. Five more rows were added to the footbed (35 total) to compensate for a smaller gauge.

Happy No Longer Holiday Season!

I am so happy that I managed to finish everything for my family! I still have several gifts for friends on the needles, but meh, I'm spreading the Holiday Cheer ^_^



Just in december, I managed to make the thrummed slippers for my mom, regular house slippers for my sister, fingerless mitts for her husband and two kids, and Snoopy Pilot Scarfs for Rudy and Chris (k1, p1 in 50/50 silk/wool; quite yummy!). Individual patterns to come shortly.



For me, Jessie got me some wonderful alpaca to spin, and Erin got me some Manos, which I'm dying to make into gauntlets and a hat! Erin, and her fiance Drew, are now the proud owners of my Leaf and Steelers socks (and a howling monkey that loves Pittsburgh), and Jessie's husband Matt now owns a Funny Metal Hat. Her belly dancing gear has gotten much better tips and is currently being produced in my basement...




I made a Chunky Button-Up Cowl for my boss, and I am ALMOST FUCKING DONE with my orange headwarmer thing. I can't believe how busy I've been for the past couple of months! In store for me now, I should be making a Quadrat in a KAL with nanonukie and a bitterroot shawl just because. I bought some skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, and hope it will be enough!

Oh, and I also knit a horrible cabled scarf for my roommate's father's new wife.

[review] Books and Movies and crap

Recently, I've been very active. Not only in crafts, but also in reading and movies. Here's a quick summary of everything.

Knit One, Kill Two
rofl. This is the first in a series of mysteries that take place in a knitting store, or around it's patrons/owners. This first book was a good way to blank out on the world. Easy read, I'm curious how the New Found Love at the end evolves throughout the rest of the books.

Dead Till Dark
First of the Sookie Stackhouse books, on which True Blood is based.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It keeps with your typical Anne Rice cannon of vampires (no glittery shit here) and respects tradition. The beginning was a little too simple, where the main character just can't help falling for the new vampire in town, but the interactions and plot throughout the rest of the book are very entertaining. There's a guest character at the end that is just fucking hilarious! It just kept on getting better and better, and there were times towards the end where I couldn't help laughing for five minutes straight. The best thing is that it seems like it was intentional.

Whip It
This was Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, based on a memoir of the Texas Roller Derby in the 80's. If they hadn't used a cell phone, I would have sworn it was set in the 80's. There were so many hipster kids in it (including the chick from Juno) that one more guy in girl's pants would have made it painful. Luckily, it all managed to blend together and disperse. I loved the story, I loved the bouts, the music was incredible, and the cast was surprisingly tolerable. A very good experience all in all.

Julie & Julia
This movie made me have to make room on my altar next to Martha Stewart in order to also fit Julia Child. Holy crap, this woman was amazing! She just decided that she was going to take classes at Le Cordon Bleu with the Big Boys, just because she was bored of being a house wife! I hope my love for her super duper cooking prowess isn't just due to my love of Merril Streep who played her. I now want to find her memoir, cookbook and tapes of her show, because I really, really want to cook like her!

Zombieland
I saw this for the second time, and it is still a great movie. It is a wonderful movie where all you have to do is laugh and enjoy. It has a great soundtrack, simple yet effective plot and cast. And Bill Murray ^_^

ThanksKilling!
Gobble Gobble, Motherfucker! hahahahahahahahah. Dude, DUDE! You have GOT to find this movie on Netflix on Demand! It is a horror/slasher movie that prides itself on its minimal $4000 budget. It's a spirit that is pissed off at the pilgrims, that reincarnates 505 years later in the form of a turkey (puppet) that is out to kill the descendants of the pilgrims. It is bad, and they know it, and embrace it, and make it absolutely awesome!

[recipe] Seltzer Cupcakes with Strawberries

Last year a friend made this recipe for rainbow cake, which I have tried in many incarnations. One of my main gripes was the use of artificial sweetener in the Diet Sprite, so I decided to use seltzer instead.

INGREDIENTS
1 box cake mix - devil's food cake
12 oz (1 355 ml can) plain seltzer
24 small strawberries for decoration (these were a bad idea, next time will try dehydrated)

The important part here is that the seltzer replaces ALL of the additional ingredients, so you don't use oil, water, butter or eggs. As far as I've read, any carbonated beverage can be used. This drops the calories from about 220 to 160 for two cupcakes.

Mix, pour into molds, and follow the baking instructions on the box. Some people on the internet have mentioned that this cake is a bit crumbly (mine haven't been) and recommend adding an egg or egg white.



I decided to put a strawberry on each cupcake, and I would now like to advise people against this. They were very good right out of the oven, but after a couple of hours, the strawberries started to melt, leaving these tiny bunt cakes with strawberry mush in the middle. Future incarnations might include dehydrated strawberries instead of fresh, or chopping them up and tossing them into the batter.

[recipe] Breadz!!!!

This weekend we are going to my roommate's mom's house for Thanksgiving (the real one) and I made breadz. Four of them! I am using my lovely Jamie Oliver's basic bread recipe, with a few minor extras ^_^
(mainly a ton of butter spray)




1) BASIC BREAD
The original recipe is enough for two, 1 lb loaves. I mixed up two batches separately, and then divided into four. The first portion was very well buttered and dropped into it's pan.

2) CHEESIE BREAD
Roll out the dough and cover with a couple of cups of cheese. Roll up, cut in 1" slices and toss into a well buttered pan.



3) MONKEY BREAD
Ok, not really, but close enough. Melt half a cup of butter (1 stick) in 1 cup light brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. Ball up the dough and toss liberally with butter spray and sugar mixture.

One thing to make sure of, though, is to keep the butter and sugar from spilling over and burning. (ask me how I know!) An aluminum wall is helpful. Or a big enough pan.



4) ROSEMARY GARLIC
This was an easy one. Before kneading the dough between proves, add a handful of rosemary, garlic and salt to taste. Yet again, place in well buttered mold.




Once the breads are formed, it is necessary to let them prove again and double in size (about half an hour). In the meantime, set the oven to 425 (if your oven can actually set itself at a desired temperature). Bake for about 20 minutes. Cool in pans for about five minutes and remove whenever possible to cool on racks (except for the monkey bread).