Ten years in the making

Ten years ago, two people in their mid- twenties went here to meet for a first date. Thirteen hours later, they said good night, knowing they had just met someone very special. 

Here are a few thoughts on that first date:

Burgers and beer? Dream date! 101 degrees Fahrenheit...there goes my cute hair, make up... A bag of bread?  Feeding ducks, being chased by geese First act of heroism: defense against a goose Franklin Park Zoo, holding hands by the flamingos Pizza fromAngelina's " I have AC, you want to come in?" Omg, I melted today...will he like someone this sweaty and gross? First perfect kiss He is sweaty and gross too.... <3 A few short months later... So THAT is what they mean when they say "you will know when it's love."  Ten years. 6.5 living together. Two apartments. One cat. Three couches. Three cars...and one love.  Love you, honey.

Never Too Hot for Lemon Chicken!

No knitting content today, but how about a new recipe? It is wicked hot here in Boston and hot means you want a quick, light, delicious dinner made in under 30 minutes. This is one of my go to recipes; the original was from a mash of lemon chicken recipes. 

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts, cut in half and pounded thin; about 1 lb, split into 4 servings

Flour, 1/4 cup

Salt and pepper

Lemon juice, 1/4 cup

Chicken broth, 1/2 cup

Butter, 4 tbsp, divided

Olive oil, 2 tbsp divided

Parsely, chopped, 1/4 cup

8 thinly sliced lemon slices

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 250 F

2.  Pound breasts thin and dust with a mix of flour, salt and pepper.

3.  Heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter in a sauté pan; add dusted chicken. Cook 2-3 minutes each side, turn. Place in oven to keep warm. Continue with rest of chicken breasts, adding more butter and oil in between the two batches.

4.   Add rest of butter, lemon juice, broth, sliced lemons; reduce. Add parsley and mix. 

5.  Remove the chicken from the oven and pour sauce over. Serve immediately with steamed broccoli and couscous. 

A few notes: I make couscous the following way: heat 1 1/3 cup water with 1tsp olive oil in the microwave, remove' add couscous, cover with dish towel for 5-8 minutes, fluff with fork. Broccoli is steamed n the stove top. 

A Boston knitter in NYC...

A trip to Purl SoHo was, happily, in the cards for this trip. Yarn? Nope! Embroidery supplies! I have remained (mostly) strong in my commitment to knit down the stash and their excellent selection of Madeline Tosh or the sale on Manos silk/wool wasn't going to sway me. I treated the yarn walls like a petting zoo: nice to touch, but not coming home!

I grabbed two fat quarter packs that will complement my current fabric stash and help me get some quilts off my brain. The book is a great resource for my favorite kind of stitching:doodles! I'm a lifelong doodler, so I love this style. I see a lot of tea towels and felted mittens this fall! 

One sad thing? Something from Purl SoHo didnt make it into my bag and with our bus tomorrow, I wont get over there again. I hope they can mail it to me. I'm going to tweet them tonight to see what they can do... And call them tomorrow. 

W are on a brief break for the evening, then back out tonight for dinner and a movie. It has been so much fun hanging out with PC and my cousin, Jason. By the way, any NYC girls  reading? He is gorgeous, single, Christian, great job, very funny and lives in the east 70s. :) did I mention he is single?

More tomorrow, and hopefully some socks. Socks? What happened to the hat? Hunting down my US 7 dpns is what happened!

moonlight sonata

I headed back to the guild tonight after five months gone! Me, missing five months? Yikes! Guess that pesky job was really taking a toll on me! 

Tonight was just sit and knit, as its summer and, well.... We are really only there for the air conditioning. I worked on my blackberry wood hollow hat; it is coming along. Hopefully I will have it done tomorrow night.  We are leaving for NYC this weekend, visiting family, and  I will be hopefully visiting Purl Soho for the first time. I CANNOT WAIT. 

Purl Soho is my dream: fabric and yarn and embroidery? Consider me "in." 

Pics tomorrow of the finished hat. For now, here is something else to look at:

Moonrise off our campsite....I miss my lake!

Squeezing in some knitting time

I have had a pretty nasty infection on my foot this summer. It's part of having had a really bad case of cellulitis and blood-borne streptococcus many, many years ago. After months of dealing with bleeding wounds, the doc gave me a cure: antibiotics, steroids, a salve, and nightly foot soaks. Foot soaks are great for knitting time. 

Or bonding, pedicure style, with my cat. When I settle in, she settles in. Girl time, good times. 

Blueberry Pies and Home for Strawberry Shortcake

Blueberry pies in jars? Meh. I need a new recipe and a way to make the bottom crust cook. Any ideas? 

 A very special young lady turned four this summer. And four means Little People, dollhouse residents, Polly Pockets, Barbies, and all the associated "stuff" that goes along with these wee play friends. Like tiny shoes and outfits. And, of course, every girl knows that it is fun to go places with friends.

Enter the traveling dollhouse. I've made a few of these in the past, but I made some mods to this one. 1) added brown felt for the roof, 2) added pockets to the inside, 3) added a front "door" and I glued the batting to the canvas, which made life easier. 

The pattern is from UK Lass in the US. The tutorial is good, but really read it through and double check your cuts and measurements. 

And now that my best friend just had her little girl, I have about 3.6 years to make the next one.

Home sweet portable home.

Bonus for using all materials I had in hand. Cost? Auntie time.

Love this button!

A tale of two hats

Wow. It has been awhile, huh? My return to the blog was delayed by some changes in my personal life. I was laid off from my job the day before we left on vacation. It sucked, I cried, we had a great vacation and then we came home. And I hid. And hid some more. I've been interviewing but I did hit a funk and I am happy to report that I have snapped right out of it. I have been knitting. And quilting. And baking. And cooking. I will start to update you as we all catch up. 

Today, look at the pic above. My second wood hollow hat by Kirsten Kapur at Through The Loops. My first is this one:

pea. US 6 16-inch circulars...about two sizes smaller than the recommended for the gauge. I'm thinking it will be deliciously warm and snugly on my dad's head this winter, so it needed a smaller, tighter gauge. One thing I always try to remember when I'm knitting with alpaca is that is has drape, not a whole lot of stretch. This can be hard in something like a hat, so finding a pattern that uses: cables in a rib-like way and utilizing a   Twisted Rib for the band is a great way to build stretch into the resulting fabric. Ultra Alpaca has some wool in it, I believe, so that helps a bit, but the drapieness of alpaca will always try to win over the other fibers. Knitting with a smaller needle will also help later drape and keeps the hat's shape once it's worn. It is knit in Berroco Ultra Alpaca, in the color split pea. US 6 16-inch circulars...about two sizes smaller than the recommended for the gauge. I'm thinking it will be deliciously warm and snugly on my dad's head this winter, so it needed a smaller, tighter gauge. One thing I always try to remember when I'm knitting with alpaca is that is has drape, not a whole lot of stretch. This can be hard in something like a hat, so finding a pattern that uses: cables in a rib-like way and utilizing a   Twisted Rib for the band is a great way to build stretch into the resulting fabric. Ultra Alpaca has some wool in it, I believe, so that helps a bit, but the drapieness of alpaca will always try to win over the other fibers. Knitting with a smaller needle will also help later drape and keeps the hat's shape once it's worn. 

The second hat is knit n US 7 16-inch circs, with Berroco Blackstone Tweed. I love the raspberry color. It's knitting up very pretty. I like that Berroco hasn't polluted the pink with blue "tweed" flecks but stuck to reds and purples.  Surprisingly, this yarn has a bit of a thick and thin feel, almost like a handspun tweed. It ribbed nicely and is cabling well. The yarn is made of wool (65%), super kid mohair (25%), and angora (10%). That angora will make a soft hat and very insulating, while the mohair and wool gives it a lot of durability. So far, the hat has a great halo forming as well. 

Tomorrow, miniature pies in jars.