Chickenlips Knitting

We're back from Spokane, and it is oh so good to be home! Not that all of it was bad; the weather was cold but clear, and being away from home gave me extra time to knit so I finished a couple of projects.

This is the Beginner Sock pattern from Knitting Pure & Simple. It uses worsted weight yarn. I'm excited to be leading a workshop at The Naked Sheep Knit Shop this winter for these beginner socks, using my own Stitchjones Dyepot Worsted. Here is a class sample in the colorway "Salmon Dave".





It took a couple months, 6 balls Rowan Kid Classic in "Tile"--a tangerine orange which I think is a discontinued color--and 1 ball Kid Classic in red for the sleeve and neck trim--but I finally finished my St. James.



There are no words for how much I enjoyed knitting this, and the yarn! Great drape, soft and comfy, even if it is extremely warm. I need the kind of cold snap we had a year ago--without the snow, thanks--in order to be comfortable in it. At my mother-in-law's house, the heat always seems to be up around 74, which is too warm for me. I went around all weekend in T-shirts and tank tops. And all day today on the drive home and since we arrived at 4 pm, I've been zooming around like Moses on a motorcycle doing mountains of laundry, unpacking and what have you, and I've been feeling feverish! I took my temp and it was normal, so I'm not sure what's going on. Hopefully not the onset of flu; I feel fine otherwise.

One more note about my sweater; necklines still give me fits. It's a sort of modified boat neck and is quite wide on me, since I'm basically shoulderless. I'll just have to adjust the undergarments so straps won't show. It could also benefit from some blocking, as the neck trim is a bit floppy and needs to stand up more.

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Mystery Date With Mystery Wool


I forgot to show you this last time I posted...I got some undyed mystery wool yarn in a swap. I think it's Wensleydale handspun. There are lots of broken ends, but there's about 350 grams, enough to make something, and it has a nice hand to it. I tried to handpaint it in Mulberry, and the dye sort of broke up and it came out looking kettle dyed a la Malabrigo! The photo is horrid; it's much prettier close up. I won't be selling this, as the swap was part of the Shawl Ministry--it'll probably end up becoming a shoulder shawl.

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Ooooo-kayyy! Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook probably already know this, but my Christmas wish came true on Friday. Meet Toki Wartooth*. He says to please call him Toki.




Toki is a PomChi; his daddy is a beautiful fluffy Pomeranian and his mom a smooth coat Chihuahua. He's 7 weeks old. There aren't enough A's in Adorable to describe him--he is the precious baby I ached for since losing little Buster. I happened to find him on kijiji.com and had to bring him home with me.

The adoption story: Toki was born on a little farm in Spirit Lake, Idaho. Out of a litter of 4 babies who were all different colors, he and his sister were left. The 2 puppies were being offered at a very good price, as homes were urgently needed for them. The lady who sold him to me met me in Post Falls, Idaho, about 35 minutes from Spokane. I had Jimmy with me in his pet taxi, because no one was home at my mother-in-law's and I didn't want to leave him. It was kind of weird; the lady gave Toki his booster shot right there in the freezing cold parking lot of a truck stop off I-90! She was going to give him the wormer as well, but he started drooling a lot and I just wanted to get him to a warm house, so I said we'd take care of it as soon as we could in Portland.

She drove away with her daughter, the little girl puppy and $120 in cash--and I then realized I had absolutely nothing for the poor little guy. I was away from home and definitely needed to pick up a few things! Necessity and a slim budget (there's that word again) dictated a stop at the Wal-Mart in Spokane Valley. I put Toki inside my zip front hoodie sweater and took him into the store with me. While getting a pet carrier, training pads and some toys, I didn't realize it but Toki had become nauseated from the vaccine and decorated my sweater sleeve. Here I have to stop and say how nice all the Wal-Mart employees were that I came in contact with! On Black Friday no less, the busiest shopping day of the whole year. Amazing. A young man led me to some paper towels and water so I could clean off. Then in the checkout line, the cashier took the time to remove all the tags from the carrier and wrap a training pad around the bottom so I could transport the puppy safely. I never expected that kind of customer service from Wal-Mart and I later called the store manager to let her know the cashier did a great job. Even the customer behind me in line was really nice and patient! I realize that part of this extreme widespread good will had to have been in direct correlation to the cuteness of my puppy, but who am I to be picky!?

Fortunately, my MIL loves animals and she was the one who encouraged me to look at the ads. Little Toki settled in very well at "Grandma's house" and for a tiny one who's been through a lot, he is doing fine the first night in his new home.

*"Toki Wartooth" is the name of a Norwegian guitar player in the animated show Metalocalypse, which is a satire about a fictional Scandinavian death metal band. Being a huge fan of Spinal Tap, I think the show is hilarious. Jason, Michelle and I deliberated for an entire day over what to name the puppy, and Toki was the only one all three of us could live with!

Now to catch up on some extremely overdue dye work. Tonight I'm a very happy knitter and dog owner, and I hope the Thanksgiving weekend brought joy to you all too.

I loves me some color pooling! I finally knit up that skein of STR Lightweight in "Backstabber". This will be my last pair of plain vanilla socks for a while; I'm working on some lace socks right now and have downloaded great patterns and planned out my sock knitting agenda right up through January.

"WTF" Photo of the week, or Michelle in disguise

Just had to post this picture of Michelle being Michelle. She is a huge fan of the British girl group Robots in Disguise. Being a skillful makeup artist, this was her getup for Halloween, along with a vintage black lace dress (think Morticia Addams).

That's all the blog fodder I got for now, good people. The KISS concert in Portland is happening right now, I mean *this very minute*, and I am not there...sigh. Trying not to think about it. Into the kitchen for a bit of dyeing now. I'll get in a post before we leave next Wednesday.

(extreme closeup of cable action)

I used some mystery wool from my friend Gail's destash last year. I think it's Manos; it's thick/thin and soft.

My WIP's are calling to me with plaintive little voices, and the stash is eager to be knit...so I'm going back into the knitting salon now, which is just a high falutin' term for the family room. But I'll be back soon with some retina-searing socks from one of my most treasured stash items, the Blue Moon STR Lightweight! There's one stash yarn I'm not touching yet though, because I firmly believe that you cannot have your Wollmeise and knit it too. Even though it reeeeallllly wants to become a scarf...

The wonderful Rachel made me KISS stitch markers for my birthday! I love 'em. Tonight I'll put on some classic Kiss, crank "Detroit Rock City" and knit on my sweater in progress. I'll swap out those boring plastic ring markers for these. "Increase one when you get to Rock & Roll Over..."

NOW who would dare to say that knitting is dull?! If my smacking them upside the head didn't educate them in a hurry, that is.

Wednesday night is macaroni and cheese night

Do families have a set dish for a particular night of the week anymore? In our house, Wednesday seems to be the craziest weeknight. I have my knit night, Mr. Stitchjones has either an early evening meeting or band practice--so we need something good that goes on the table quickly. Here is the Chickenlips version of Mac & Cheese. It's perhaps the one remaining way I stay true to my Italian roots.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, cut in half lengthwise
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1/3 cup dry red wine
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
Pinch of dried basil and oregano

2 cups uncooked rotini pasta

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (aged)

In a deep saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic cloves. Swirl pan so that the garlic browns gently and evenly, do not allow garlic to become dark. With slotted spoon, remove garlic cloves from pan and discard. Add tomatoes, wine, sugar, salt, pepper and herbs. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced and thickened. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and add to large bowl. Pour half the sauce over pasta; reserve remaining sauce for another use. Toss gently to mix. Add cheese and toss until cheese melts and is mixed through with pasta and sauce.

Enjoy! (3 to 4 main dish servings)

Because I don't like to write pictureless blog posts, here is an exclusive colorway available only at StitchCraft in Vancouver, Washington.






Oh, and one more thing: Dude! If you haven't looked at the Stitchjones website in a while, check it out! Rachel (aka trtlgrl) has resurrected my site and it now looks state of the art!