Friday, December 26, 2008

Painted Snaps



This is for project #6 from March. Yes .. it took me this long. This is what my instructor does.. and I forever ignored this part because I always thought it was ridiculous. She paints buttons with cheap nail polish. Why someone would buy buttons of one color and paint them one of another is very beyond me. However today, out of nowhere I totally fell victim to this process and suddenly I find this to be for lack of a better word .. adorable. She had some metallic gold markers lying around.. the kind that I liked growing up. She said I should paint the snaps, because they came in solid black and did not match the sweater I made for T. I said that she should do it, I was scared to ruin something as usual, so she striped them. It would never occur to me to stripe ... I am so in the box. I would have painted them and gotten the marker all over the sweater.. not like you could tell. I kind of now wish she insisted that I paint them. I need some imagination exercises. The photos are a blur but they look good as a blur because the snap blends in completely into the background.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Project #11


December 19, 2008
It's the first snow storm of the year. I am sure it will not be as beautiful as last year's snow thunder storm that I very accurately photo documented. Besides it's only a snow storm. I almost feel like last year meteorologists did not accurately identify the phenomenon. My building is perched on a hill and I can see the storm very well outside my living room window. Anyway project #11 is for my friend Masha. I don't have the yarn yet. It's a lacecap from knitty.com




January 21st, 2009
5:44 PM
Shipped the hat to New York about an hour ago. All I have left are these photographs. I really hope it fits. In conclusion I would like to say that after this project I lost my fear of knitting hats on straight needles. I used to think everything I made would come undone and if something could be done on round then I would chose that option but knitting hats on round needles is absurd. I think this blog's direction should be changed.. as in more useful and less blabber.

10:25 PM
Hat is in the mail.. I really really hope Masha can wear it, that it's not too wide, too short and too cold and that she does not notice the waves at the top. I told the instructor that the hat is cute and she said ".. and you gave me such a hard time about this hat!" .. and that I did do.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Want

I am going to put everything I want to make in here:
1. A loop like Linda has on her sweater which emerges from a cable.
2. Some kind of cable scarf in white where fringes are 8" long and some are twisted and some are not. Carmen had it on today.
3. The sweater the instructor had on today for my mom. It had squares, a rolling neck, the sleeves had no ribbing and the bottom was going outward so it did not cling to the body. It was gray with squares. The instructor said she added a red square to it? I have to remember all this so I can remind her.
4. Once I wanted to make something out of this yarn. It looked like a rope and then had colors in it, very skinny yarn it was.
5. A fringe looking thing with short rows and where the edge is not bound off ..
6. A scarf with sleeves and holes
7. A back there there are 3 slits like the one from Free People with embroidery
8. A sleeve where the ribbing is on each side on the arm and meets in the middle.. the one I saw had a rib in the middle but I do not like the rib
9. A sleeve where the cuff is ribbing and there is a cable going around next to the ribbing diagonally around.
10. An edge where it's folded over and looks round
11. The green sweater from Verena
12. Jan28 A fabric covered button on top of a hat
13. Feb17 Heidi made a sweater and a part of it had a gray and pink striped piece.. I want that piece
14. Feb19 Stars knitted in of a color other then the item
15. Feb 19 The striped something raspberry and gray alternate on it

Friday, December 12, 2008

Project #10


I am thinking that on small things you should not slip the 1st stitch ever. Uggghhh.. Started #10 without completing #9. The instructor made #10 up. I have been dreaming about this, since I started coming to her store. It's only a hat but it's made up! I already messed it up because when I got home I just had to work on it, without knowing what I was doing. I will see tomorrow. I have officially made 10 things with the Instructor.
1. Sweater [Dad] 2. Sweater [Mom] 3. Gloves [Mom] 4. Hat [Mom] 5. Sweater [me] 6. Sweater [Masha] 7. Sweater [Tanya] 8. Sweater [Eli] 9. Sweater [me] .. in Progress10. Hat [?] .. in Progress
I am so mysterious. I already cannot wait until tomorrow. I hope it does not hail or something. I am still recovering from this morning's weather. I still have to fix my dad's sweater, then buy more snaps for Tatyana's sweater, then do the hat and my sweater. I saw the instructor today trying to mend a sweater and I don't think she did anything to it for like 5 hours because repairs are b-ooring. It's a light blue garment and I think she said the sleeves needed to be shortened but if you ask me they should buy a new sweater. It had a huge yellow stain on it.

December 13th, 2008
I learned short stitches. I should go look up what that is in my book since no one explained them to me. I mean I see what they did.. they bend a straight section into a triangle on one side at the top. The instructor had to weigh my yarn for the 1st time in my knitting life to see if I had enough. Something else I do not know. How many grams equals a hat?

Technical Notes:

Short stitch for stockinette
On the RS stop 2 stitches away from the edge and begin to knit. Slip the first stitch (#3) purl-wise. The next time stop 4 stitches away from the end.. etc.

Short stitch for garter
On the WS side stop 2 stitches away from the edge, bring the yarn from the back to the front, slip stitch #2 purl-wise, bring the yarn to the back, put back stitch #2 on right needle. Turn work around on the RS and continue

Hat Edge:

If you are knitting purl the last one and then on the other side knit through the back of the 1st one so you form a braid. Knitting through the front makes a knot. And if you are making a hat with different colors you cannot slip stitches.

December 14, 2008
I figured out that if you use several yarns it's best to de-tangle the one you are using next and then use it. This seems to work out best. You will still get tangled again but then you can untangle the one you are using once again. It took me a while to figure this out. I used to periodically try to de-tangle everything which was a waste of time. It got so bad when I was soing my mom's sweater that I think I had to rip the yarn at some point which I really took hard. I hate ripping yarn.

The Pattern

This is the pattern by the way in Russian handwriting. This is all it is. You can see the yarn was weighed because she was not sure if I had enough gray. What's amazing that less then 1 oz told her that I did have enough. Let's see if I can remember this a year from now. I am looking at this, and I am like what is l.g. d.g.? I am a moron. What's even more amazing and makes me an even bigger moron is that the actual less then sign is a computer term! It totally screwed up this blog entry.. I just realized this today 12/18/08

December 15th, 2008

I am done. It's adorable. I am not sure I want to part with it. I came in this morning thinking that I can do another one just like that but the finishing and the tiny tiny flaps took all day. First we made the flaps, pick up (9) ? stitches, work in stockinette for 3 rows starting with purl then decrease.. K1, slip 2 as if to knit, then slide the left needle in the front and knit through the back then knit the 2 tog, and then the last one on the end. We did this twice and were left with 5 stitches. Then one side was the strap so I knitted it in garter.. then the instructor picked up stitches on the side of the flap, I think it was 15 in light gray.. I bound them off knitting on the wrong side, then knitted the 5 I had at the end of the strap and bound those off then she picked up the stitches on the other side of the flap so I bound those off then we had to sew the edge on the inside so something did not stick out. Then the other flap.. I don't know what she did. Maybe picked up stitches in the center of it which I bound off. Anyhow the thing looks amazing. I told the instructor I was in love with it and I think she was annoyed. I knitted so tightly that my thumb has some kind of growth on it that is quite painful. Ridges: d.g. 11+1 where we bound off d.r. 7 d.g. 6 l.g. also 6 Strap: 5 stitches I am looking at the top where the instructor sewed it together and it's perfect. It forms that flower I saw when I did the other hat on the round. She said to go into the bumps and she was not even sure if it would work.. or so she said. Here it is below..

P.S. The instructor gave me a button .. for free.. not sure what is going on.

6:17 PM
I just spent the last hour or so sewing on the button. I need alcohol. I sewed it on 3 times.. it's still not in the center and the button simply refuses to go through the button hole. I have no idea how we did the button hole. K2 and make a hole and like the sweater?

6:43 PM
One of the sweaters I saw today had the ribbing folded in half, stuffed and sewn together on the collar and where the buttons go.

7:28 PM
I only now understood why my finger hurt so much. It had a hole in it. I just bandaged it.

8:36 PM
The hat actually took from the 12-15th so 4 days. It's a 4 day hat. The red in the hat is Tahki Bunny 027 which is deep red.

December 16th, 2008
I asked about the button hole today and she said it was knit 2, slip 1, knit 2 tog. I don't remember that. The instructor today said that she only buys yarn that she can see. I always wondered how she can buy yarn without seeing it but guess what.. she does not.

December 18th, 2008
The hat was well received. I kind of miss it but I know it will be loved. I actually did not want to post photos of it in case 'someone' was watching but now I can go all out! I actually emailed interweave to see if I can submit this without the ear flaps.. but I just read the above entry where I am trying to recall how to make it and like I do not think I can submit anything. They are not accepting anything until January 2009 and I really do not have anything to submit. The below adorableness is not mine.


Beginning stages ..






This is my favorite photo..


January 1st, 2009
!!! Someone on ravelry favorited this project. This is the 1st time ever anyone favorited anything of mine on that site. I am proud I think.. well the design is not mine.. but I have a sense of pride to some degree.
February 23rd, 2008
7 times favorited. I realize people have hearts in the thousands and I just 7 but I knew this hat was a winner even before it was done. I told the instructor we should publish the pattern. Too bad because now I remember nothing and although I may be able to reproduce the hat.. I will most likely not be able to do the strap since I cannot remember how we picked up stitches.. I don't think I ever picked stitches up in general.. and how we knitted around the edge?

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Recipes

http://bakingbites.com/
http://www.foodonthefood.com/food_on_the_food/2009/02/serendipitous-cheesecake.html
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cookingdebauchery.com/cooking_debauchery/images/vareniki.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cookingdebauchery.com/cooking_debauchery/desserts/&h=247&w=350&sz=30&tbnid=-SzmGQgf7Dn6EM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvareniki&hl=en&usg=__xxHPQpapeC6XmPW3H3DXbbpIA5U=&ei=YY-wS5erMcL6lweqy6SQAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&ved=0CBgQ9QEwAw

This is where the chocolate matzho recipe came from ...
http://smittenkitchen.com/recipes/

Has good cakes ..
http://zoebakes.com/

By Shifra Schwartz

Squash:
Preheat oven to 350'
1 butternut squash-peeled, cubed, boiled, drained and mashed
Add:
1 stick margarine-add while butternut squash is still hot so it melts.
1 cup flour
1-1 1/2 c sugar-depending on how sweet you like it
3 eggs
1 1/4 c non-dairy creamer (or rice dream)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix well. Grease a shallow 9X13 and sprinkle cinnamon on bottom, pour batter in and sprinkle the top with more cinnamon.
Bake at 350' for 1 hour.
Enjoy!!

March 29th, 2010
Blinchiki
Stolen from beyondsalmon.com
Serves 4

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt (or 3/4 tsp table salt)
1 tsp sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup cold milk
1 cup cold water
4 Tbsp oil
Butter for frying

The night before making blinchiki:
  1. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, and sugar.
  2. Beat in eggs and milk into flour using a whisk. Beat until no lumps remain.
  3. Beat in the water. The mixture should be the consistency of light cream. If too thick, beat in another 1-2 Tbsp of water.
  4. Beat in the oil, cover, and refrigerate at least for 2 hours or overnight.
July 21st, 2010
Broccoli Salad
Broocli,
purple onions
salted cashew halves
mayo
vinegar
sugar