Spinalcat's Crafty Adventures

Whoops! I accidentally a whole year! Here's some stuff I made. Unfortunately I don't remember all the exact details of issues I may have had/modifications I made. Seaglass Shell  from Interweave Knits Summer 2012, design by Daniela Nii. Yarn: Madelinetosh Pashmina in Norway Spruce, 3 skeins for 3rd size. I ran into some problems that required some minor fudging at the shoulders for my size. The serious problem was how enormous the hips run in this design. I was devastated when I tried the FO on and it looked horrible. I had to unseam a few inches of the front and back and then rip them out from the cast on edge for several inches to get rid of the excess fabric, then knit straight down and cast off again. It worked and looks great now. For anyone who isn't extremely pear-shaped, just cast on fewer stitches on all pieces to begin with and skip most of the decreases. Low Tide Cardigan by Tincanknits Yarn: SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in Tourmaline, 2 skeins for ...

Here's some of what I've been doing with the fruit from my friend's backyard and from a trip to Gizdich Ranch this summer! Cherries - BBQ sauce for         chicken wings        ribs (see blackberry ribs recipe below for method) paleo cherry crisp Blackberries - pork chops ribs pie  - This is my old favorite pie recipe. This time, I used the gluten free frozen crust from Whole Foods. You can substitute almond flour or whatever gluten-free flour you have for the topping. If not using rhubarb (works just fine with just berries), you can use about half the amount of sugar it calls for. Peaches- peach cobbler  - Also one of my old favorites. I used the all-purpose gluten free flour in the green box that     looks like this . I also subbed a buttermilk + water blend for the 1% milk. The batter got super fluffy from the acid in the buttermilk (I guess), but it turned out great!

I've got quite the backlog of projects to show here, and all of them are pink and/or purple! First up, Old Forge by Steven West from the book Westknits 3. Yet another bandwagon project ... I probably never would have given it a second thought if Teri hadn't made her shop sample in Madelinetosh yarns. The original (from Westknits Book 3 ) is super huge and rustic. There is a lace pattern that I omitted for several reasons- too rustic looking (although some people have changed it to stockinette instead of garter), not lined up correctly with the rest of the pattern (although there is a modified chart floating around that corrects this flaw). Instead, I kept going with the stripes, spacing them further and further apart. I really like the effect and it pretty much matches what I had going on in my head when I planned it. With everything all bunched up on the needle, I couldn't really tell if it was going to give the effect I was going for (sort of a pond ripples thing). ...

My husband's family often sends us goodies from a local (Houston area) nut shop for the holidays. They mostly do sugary pecan concoctions, but they have a couple of savory varieties, too. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately cause now I figured out how to make them myself) they have hydrogenated sunflower and soybean oil. The biggest hurdle is getting really really good raw pecans. I've been making my spiced nuts with Trader Joe's pecans after having a bad experience with a package from Whole Foods recently. I just discovered that the Collins St Bakery sells raw pecans online, so I may have to try those. I don't know if anyone outside of Texas is familiar with them, but they are a major player in the mail-order fruitcake business! Anyway, here's my version- 8oz raw pecan halves 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (I use Penzey's) 1/2 tsp onion powder (I use Penzey's) 1/4 tsp garlic powder (I use Penzey's) 1/8 tsp black pepper 1/8 tsp to 1/4 t...

These are both Fiber Trends patterns that are ostensibly for kids, but have rather large sizing. They are constructed the same way and the berry hat has a really cool stitch pattern. It's not bobbles- it's a lot easier. You basically drop a stitch several rows then knit into the row where you stopped dropping. I realized that the same technique is used for this Madelinetosh cowl pattern that Susan (the new owner of Yarndogs) is working on as a shop sample. In 2 colors (as in the cowl), it looks even more complicated but is still incredibly simple! About the sizing- the smallest size would fit a big kid at 19" around (probably 8-10 years old), and the largest easily fits most adults. When customers want to make a baby size, I've been having them buy DK weight yarn and size 4 and 6 needles and make the smallest size. The pattern calls for worsted and size 6 and 8. I used Madelinetosh Vintage for all my hats so far. (Moorland and Lolita for the berry hat, and Mo...

For breakfast, I made this pumpkin bread french toast from PaleOMG, which was completely amazing! The other new thing I made this year was her carmelized onion & sausage stuffing . I really like it, but Bryan thought it wasn't casserole-y enough. I realized that we have totally different eating styles (at least for Thanksgiving). I like to get a bit of everything on the fork, and he likes to completely finish one thing at a time. Everything else was the same as last year- roasted brussels sprouts & bacon braised turkey legs sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce from Paleo Comfort Foods stuffed dates pumpkin chai bars

So this is the Big Snowy Owl from purlbee.com . It's another one of those fads that was going around the shop and I really wanted to make one for some reason. The pattern calls for Blue Sky Bulky alpaca/wool, but I used Encore Mega instead. It was super fast and fun and cute, though I'm still not sure I need a huge stuffed owl around the house. Right now it's sitting on top of my crafty bookshelf. I know the eyes are crooked, but I'm not sure I care enough to go back and fix it. Maybe eventually.