Simmer Down

Wouldn't it be amazing if I could find titles for my blogs that all had cooking words in them, but didn't mean them to be about cooking. Simmer Down - by, Bob Marley. Or the song that has been in my head lately, "Sim Simma who's got the keys to my beemer..." Remember that song? Early 90's I think.

Anyway, it's been quite a long while. I think my last post was from the end of March - over two months ago. I just have not been in the mood to write a blog. I have still been cooking dinner - many fantastic meals in fact, but when I finish them I have been knitting not writing. I keep thinking that I'll write a post and then I just don't feel like it. Sorry to people who came to enjoy this, but I only want to do it if I actually feel like doing it.

So some things I have worked on while not blogging have been random knitting projects. I began again probably somewhere around February or so. I started on a project with teeny size two double pointed needles. My friend who I teach with was convinced I would be totally fine with them. Gotta love her confidence. I was completely confused, because all I had ever knitted until that point was a scarf for Tom (sooooo bad) and I dunno maybe a hat? But I think my mom really did the hat. So basically I had knit nothing. I knew how to cast on and bind off and knit and purl and that was it. So this size two double pointed needle project of a small stuffed toy cat was ridiculously out of my realm. But I attacked it.

At first I had no clue which way to hold the needles and I couldn't "read" the yarn and I kept twisting it all and screwing it up. But after a while I actually got the hang of it. I mean there are mistakes in it for sure, and my mom did the super hard part (she made the miniscule hands that actually had freaking thumbs), but all in all I put it together. I learned that I can knit with double pointed needles, and I also learned that I suck at sewing.

Here's the finished cat:

Pretty cute right? Not evenly sewed arms, but will a baby ever know? No they will just suck on it.

Ok so while I was floundering with the cat I began doing finger puppets. I started with ones where I had to sew the seam, but since I suck at sewing I changed to doing them on double pointed needles (yeah me!) and I gained confidence in using those darn needles. Here are some of my finger puppets in action as modeled by my dad:                                

I passed these out to my brother and to my friends from Davis (girls I miss you every goddamn day!) who are all having or have recently had babies.

After being home in CT my mom gave me Itty Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson.

I started with the snake. That was a fun one. I don't know if I actually have any pictures of the snake because I mailed it to New Haven a few weeks ago as a baby present, but let me assure you, it was darn cute. I do know that I did not use the almost $20 or maybe it was more then $20 a skein brand yarn that it called for. I used Bamboo and Ewe in a funky pattern. The snake only took half of the skein, and with the other half I made the bear. Here's a picture of the finished bear. It kind of looks like a cat because I could have placed the ears a bit better, but hey you live and you learn!

That is the bear with the elephant that I made sitting on a lamp at my friends' house with their amazing plant collection waiting for their baby to arrive this July! I finished the bear while on ski vacation in Whistler and then I sped through the elephant. The elephant is ridiculously cute and quite easy! About the quickest thing I have ever knit. They come from this website:  

When and if I finally download the pictures from my camera I will show you my elephant. I did not do any embroidery or a bow. As I said earlier, me and sewing don't go well together. Here is the picture of my elephant - a little better view than the other picture.

And finally, after all of the toys I decided I was ready to try something bigger. A sweater. Not for a regular person mind you, but for a baby. I mean let's be realistic I don't need to spend the next 12 months knitting Tom a giant lopsided sweater. But a teeny baby, they'll never know. So I knit a cardigan. It was coming out so well and then at some point it wasn't. I was basically done and I had to add an edge to it. I added it, but then the whole thing was only going to fit on someone with a neck the diameter of a drinking straw. So I tore out the edging and just fudged it a bit. The sleeves also were not "set in" all that well, but overall I am proud of it.

And that is where I'm at. I am currently working on a different baby sweater right now for someone's baby...not a clue who yet - maybe if you comment first you will win a baby sweater although I can't guarantee on its quality. This time I don't have to "set in" the sleeves because it's a totally different pattern. We'll see if that works out better or worse for me - I do not know.

Other than all of this knitting there is still fabulous cooking happening, and I will elaborate with some new recipes in the near future.