New Adventures...more info soon

Today, for the first time in a long time, I actually repaired something rather than just throw it out.

It was the rear seam of my daughter's pants. I purchased them on sale at target for $4, and they aren't likely to fit her for much longer. But I took the time to pull out the needle and thread and repair them...BY HAND.

Sometimes I forget that I can sew, but I've been reminded of that simple truth more and more lately.

So I've decided to join a special little challenge this month, and I'll probably start a new blog for it... I'm hoping to call it Project Charlotte.

The official challenge set to me by AVFKW in Oakland is for me to pledge to make 25% of my clothes, either through sewing or knitting or crochet. This challenge, called Seam Allowance, will hopefully be the catalysis I will need to reignite my faded design career. My personal goal will be for me to make 90-100% of Charlotte's new clothing as she outgrows her old clothing, and even some new pieces for me in a very modern Mommy and Me kind of way. And of that 90%, I hope to design most of them myself, adding my own special touches that I will share with you all.

For those of you following my knitwear adventures...don't worry, I have lots of new knitting adventures to share in the coming months. I hope to "finish" my Hunger Games socks by this fall, Christmas time at the latest.

I will also have cooking adventures too. In fact, I am baking my first bread pudding right now. Here is the recipie I made using Fine Cooking's Bread Pudding Creator

My Recipe:

Rum Raisin Bread Pudding

Yields one 9x13-inch bread pudding; serves twelve.

ingredients

7 large egg yolks

3 large eggs

1-1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. table salt

6 cups half-and-half

1/3 cup dark rum

1 Tbs. pure vanilla extract

10 cups 1-inch cubes day-old white artisan-style bread (like Tuscan or French)

1-1/2 cups toasted sweetened shredded coconut

3 ripe bananas, thinly sliced

1 cup golden raisins, soaked in very hot water for 30 minutes and drained thoroughly

instructions

In a large heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks and eggs. Slowly whisk in the sugar and salt until thoroughly combined. Pour the half-and-half into a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until steaming but not bubbling. Slowly whisk the half-and-half into the egg mixture until thoroughly combined. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large Pyrex measuring cup or heatproof bowl. Whisk in the rum and vanilla extract.

Put the bread cubes in a 9x13-inch baking dish and pour the custard on top. Make sure the bread is as submerged in the custard as possible and let cool at room temperature for about an hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 5 and up to 24 hours.

Heat the oven to 325° F.

Transfer the bread mixture to a large mixing bowl and gently fold in the coconut, bananas, and raisins. Return the mixture to the baking dish.

Cover the pudding loosely with foil and bake at 325° F for 70 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until no liquid custard is visible when you poke a small hole in the center with a paring knife, 20 to 40 minutes more.

Let the pudding cool on a rack. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled, with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.

Updates! Gale, Effie, and other new friends!

I know its been a while since I've posted anything. That's because I've been stuck under a pile of yarn and behind a computer desk.

So since I last wrote, I've completed two more patterns in my Hunger Games Tribute Series.

After a month of collaboration with Tami of Candy Skein (check out her blog here), we developed Effie Sock, inspired by Effie Trinket, the effervescent, bubbly liaison between District 12 and the CAPITOL.

We are having a KAL in the Candy Skein Addicts Raverly group from May until July, so please, if you like my pretty ruffled sock, come play with us!

In the meantime, I've also been testing another of my Hunger Games socks, Gale Sock. It just went live today after a month of vigorous testing, planning, editing, and headaches. Finally it is ready for the public. We had a little photo shoot for it today.


Here is the sock on the rocks at the Berkeley Marina....





...here I am looking coy for my "about the designer shot....

...and here is Charlotte Rose, hiding in the rocks. She really really liked the rocks and didn't want to come home for her nap....

....and here are the socks again, enjoying the spring poppies...

This is a fun, addictive knit. It includes 18 pages of thorough charts and descriptions. And only $3 for the month of May. Come on....you know you wanna knit some socks!

New Socks, Old Socks, updates!

NEW MONTH...new sock pictures~!

Here are my finished Peeta's enjoying some California sunshine in my front yard yesterday

Now its on to my next project:

Another Hunger Games sock, this one inspired by Gale Hawthorne, the third leg in the love triangle between Peeta, Katniss, and Gale. It will incorporate cables and A LOT of traveling stitches. Basically, expect a cyclone to wind its way around the leg. For this sock, I'll be using some very lovely Socks that Rock Medium Weight that I purchased at Stitches West. I plan to start swatching the wind pattern sometime in the next week.

In the meantime, I will continue working on my Mockingjay (Rebel 13) Socks

It took me a few weeks to really nail down the mosaic pattern in a way that I am satisfied with. Even now, as I knit up the first sock, I am finding ways to improve this chart, and the overall layout. I guess I'm not able to leave good enough alone.

I just ordered some more lovely Socks That Rock, this time in Lightweight. I've never knit with their Lightweight before...so this will be interesting. I'm planning on knitting a lace sock inspired by roses in literature--Snow White (whose name was inspired by a drop of blood on white snow), President Snow from Hunger Games (who carries a genetically modified rose on his lapel in a pure white to hide the blood smell on his breath) and lastly, but not least, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. I was going to title them "Roses for Snow," but instead I think it will be better titled "Painting the Roses Red." The colorway I purchased benefits Doctors Without Borders and can be viewed here on the Blue Moon fiber Arts Website. I am excited to star these socks next month for the Socks Knitters Anonymous "Literature" challenge.

April promises to be an interesting and prolific month :)

Until my next update!

Spring and Mockingjays

This is the view from my kitchen window. I love the almond tree in my back yard neighbor's back yard. It only looks like this for a couple of days before it becomes a riot of blossoms. I prefer the green buds with only a couple of flowers--its so very striking against the red of their house.

My yarn arrived this afternoon for my Mockingjay Socks. I'm not quite ready to start them...I need to finish my Peeta Socks and get the pattern to my testers, hopefully by tomorrow. Otherwise, I may not have the pattern published soon enough for the fans who want to knit them for the movie premiere next month.

But here is my lovely package from The Loopy Ewe. It was packaged so nicely~

This was my first order with this company and I am happy to say I will definitely order from them again in the future. They have an amazing selection of sock yarn, and the yarn arrived so fast! It shipped the same day I ordered it, and even with the post office being as slow as it is around here, I got it on Tuesday, after ordering it late Friday afternoon!

The inside of the package was just as fun.

I think my Mockingjay socks will look amazing. Here is a photo of the yarns and my most up to date design idea. As soon as I'm done with Peeta, these are going on the needles!

Tomorrow I will go over my next planned designs, I have so many things running through my head right now....I could spend several months just designing socks!

Until next time.

Today, I announced my next sock design, a mosaic knit color work stocking inspired by

Katniss Everdeen's Alter Ego--The Mockingjay

So now...I'm just waiting for my yarn to arrive. This sock will be knit in three colors--Black and White to represent the Mockingjay, and a rich blood red. The yarn I'll be using is Shibui Sock in colors Abyss, Cranberry, and Ivory ordered today from The Loopy Ewe. I chose Shibui Sock due to the wide range of available colors (I wanted a yarn with a white, red, and black in the same base) and the affordability. You can make this whole pair of socks for less than alot of artisan skeins cost, and you'll probably have some yarn left over.

Concept sketches and swatches to be posted soon.

Sock Design...and other obsessions

May the odds ever be in your favor....

SO I guess its good I don't have a lot of followers, as they would probably think I fell off the edge of the world. Its been a pretty busy year, adjusting to having an increasingly mobile toddler (who is sitting in my lap "helping" as I type this...)

So if you ARE reading this you might be wondering, what have I been up to lately? Well the easy answer is lots of knitting and lots of running.

Recently a friend suggested I read the Hunger Games. I wasn't familiar with the series at all, but she gave it a pretty good review and so I thought, why not? Well I read the entire series in less than a week (took me about 4 days). It was a good and memorable read. Inspirational enough to get my designer juices flowing in my brain again. And so, I began designing. Since my latest obsession has been knitting socks, I am designing socks for some of the characters from the Hunger Games.

If you're on Ravelry, you can go check out my Peeta Socks. They are the first socks in what I

hope will be a collection of socks. I am not sure if these will be a for sale sock or a free sock, but I am thinking having them as a really inexpensive sock pattern once it's been tested and I get the pattern written up properly.

Today I hope to make it to one of my LYS-es to find some yarn for the next sock in this

collection--Mockingjay. I also intend to design a lacy pair for Katniss' sister, Primrose, and something similarly delicate for Rue. Later I may also do one for Katniss that isn't mockingjay related.

I am also currently thinking of designing a series of socks for the Kim Harrison Hallows Series.

Al definitely needs a pair of socks, and I think Ivy, Jenks, and Rachel herself would also make great inspiration. We will see how the summer turns out and what I come home with from Stitches West this year.

COOKIE A CLUB SPOILER ALERT!!!!

If you are in the Cookie A Club for 2012 and haven't yet received your yarn, you may want to stop reading here. I am about to post a picture of our latest yarn.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This is my second year as a member of the Cookie A Sock Club, and this year, I'm a

moderator for her Ravelry group. Sadly, this doesn't mean I have any kind of special relationship with Cookie A

herself other than a working emailing one, but it's still pretty cool.

Anyhoo, the first recipes and patterns and cookies didn't disappoint. I now have a fortune cookie recipe, how cool is that? Also, I have a wonderful deep choco cookie recipe spiced with cinnamon and chili peppers. With a strong cup of coffee and a bit of homemade whipped cream these cookies are absolutely divine.

On the running front: I joined the LMJS women's racing

team and participated in their cross country events this past summer as part of their open team. I also reached new PR's in the Marathon(3hr 42min) and 12K (57min) distances. Yes, I am one speedy bunny. I am currently working for LMJS as a volunteer pacer for their Oakland Running Festival Training Program, training 1/2 marathoners for their even this March.

The picture on the left is from September, the team celebrated my birthday (and two other team mates) with cake after our 4mi run in Hayward.

Well this is it for me today, stay tuned for more updates on my current obsessions.

My week in pictures--Cookie A, Ysolda Teague, new knitting and new running

January is turning into a banner month for me :D

I got to meet one of my knitting goddesses: Cookie A, sock designer extraordinaire, and the amazing Ysolda Teague, designer of many super cute knits herself, including a new book set to come out soon: Little Red in the City. That's me in the center. I am trying not to geek out in this photo.

To be fair,I would have gone to the event for Cookie A alone (I own both of her books, adore her socks, and kinda worship her in a very unhealthy fangirl kind of way). In fact, if Ysolda wasn't visiting one of my favorite yarn stores (communknitty centers/fibertopias), A Verb for Keeping Warm, I might not have purchased my copy of Whimsical Little Knits 2--and that would have been a mistake because this little collection of patterns is full of real gems, like this one I'm knitting right now:

Here is 2 days worth of work on Damson. Ysolda knit hers out of Malabrigo Sock (always a good choice). Even though Verb had Malabrigo Sock in stock, I decided to go with something different:


The Sanguine Gryphon's Skinny Bugga handpainted sock yarn (80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon)
A luxuriously soft yarn with amazing hand and drape, it comes in beautiful handpainted colors with a lovely sheen. Its a real pleasure to knit, and at 450yrds a single skein is long enough to complete this pattern.

This will be the first pattern I knit for myself since the baby buns was born (and since a bit before she was born as I was knitting baby stuff before that).

In other news, I'm now officially signed up for the Oakland Running Festival's Half Marathon. I'm now in Week 3 of my training with the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders (LMJS). This morning, for my 5 mile training run I hit the El Cerrito Hills for a challenging run up Cutting Blvd to The Arlington, through El Cerrito, through Kensignton, down into Berkeley at the Circle, down through the tunnel and out to Solano for coffee at Starbucks. I should have mapped it before leaving--it ended up being closer to 6 miles than 5, but I still managed to complete my run in 1hr (1hr 2min). My goal for the half marathon is to break 2hrs. In my marathons I've gotten close, reaching the halfway point at 2:04-7. I am hoping that a combination of speed and hill work on my short weekday runs will help me meet this goal on the mostly flat course on race day. We will see. I'll keep blogging my progress, and hopefully get some new running pictures up.