Chunky Knitted Homewares. Wow. Margarita is gonna LOVE that stuff. 🙂
Month: May 2011
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Shared today on Twitter
@knitabulous Dye and acid in, quick stir, then jumper, IIRC. Maybe I didn’t dissolve it well enough?
@knitabulous Sure. Not terribly worried; just wondering if that was expected behaviour or if I did something wrong. I’ve got more dye. 🙂
@lahondaknitter Pre-soaked for about 6 hours, in fact.
@henrytapia Good, up until the point where the cheese baby we ate started getting revenge in our bellies. Bleccchhhhh.
Just registered for City2Surf – and to my surprise, Snook and I qualified for green start group! GO US!
@AusVintageGrrl I still haven’t finished the damn Nutkins.
@jenbishopsydney RICE: rest ice compression elevation. Was it you? Hope it’s not too painful!
@Ezzles Yikes! iPhone or android? Delete and reinstall fixed RK when I had issues.
@kunaal84 @AusVintageGrrl If you’re lucky, she’ll hold up a sign for you: “KUNAAL – DON’T POOP YOUR PANTS!”
Hm. Cardy has been rinsed… and results are odd. How in the world did I do THAT? Colour is (mostly) good tho. http://twitpic.com/51frvv
@knitabulous @mrs_sockvictim @gusseting Just posted photo. It’s odd. I think I invented knitted tie-dye. How the eff did I get that square??
@drkknits @knitabulous I think perhaps my pot was a bit small. It didn’t have a lot of room to expand in there…
@chrisgander Hey, I think Spudds is supposed to be on this TV show thursday: http://bit.ly/myWy4f. He was filming in Melbs yesterday!
@randomknits CARDIES ARE COOL, DONNA.
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Shared today on Twitter
Cheese is happening! http://twitpic.com/50tqqc
We made a mozzarella cheese baby! http://twitpic.com/50v75g
@FlavourCrusader Mozzarella, then ricotta!
@Lauren_lolly_ We’re in a class, so yep.
Eagerly awaiting our lunch of homemade pizza with from-scratch mozzarella! http://twitpic.com/50w6qc http://twitpic.com/50w6xe
Uccccchhhh. The cheesemaking class was great, but now I have a garlic cheese baby punching me in the guts…
Home again, and now to dyeing. There’s a cardigan in there! http://twitpic.com/50xibt
RT @mayorofnewtown: “@brishmoe: @mayorofnewtown bob gould died 🙁 http://t.co/JrWFFM0” sad news re Newtown identity and bookshop owner
Nearly there. Does “exhausting” the dye mean the water is totally, crystal clear? (cc @knitabulous @gusseting) http://twitpic.com/50y0pn
@Lauren_lolly_ Cream. Blecccch!
@knitabulous Ha! Actually, I went for an evening run too. Great minds think alike. 🙂
@gusseting All good. It’s pretty darn clear! @knitabulous said to leave it in the pot overnight; I’m in no hurry so I’m doing that. 🙂
I finally got around to properly documenting the Snook’s Hipster Cardy: http://bit.ly/jo9Mov.
Jamie’s 30 Min Meal #16: Tasty Crusted Cod, Mashy Peas, Warm Salad, & Tartare Sauce. 10/10 and only 32 minutes!! http://bit.ly/k5cENZ
Very busy weekend. Pretty much got everything done I wanted to… except for sleep. Off to rectify that now.
The cardy seems to have taken up the dye very unevenly. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing yet. Was my pot too small, @knitabulous?
@indefensible Eh. I passed one of those women tottering up Broadway like a dainty pony this morning. Blew past her in my sensible shoes. 🙂
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Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #16: Tasty Crusted Cod
This is our 16th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. We selected “Tasty Crusted Cod, My Mashy Peas, Tartare Sauce, and Warm Garden Salad” because it seemed vaguely wintery and we had the episode recorded. We also decided to switch up the format of our experiment a bit. Rather than both of us cooking, we decided to play it like a rally car team. Snookums was the cook/driver, while I was the one shouting out instructions (and taking photos). We figured that was the most fair way to test the “30 minute” claim, and it avoided the usual chaos of both of us trying to read from the same recipe. To our surprise, this system worked out amazingly well!
Substitutions: Our fish was “Blue-Eyed Cod,” which is an Australian fish that we figured was close enough to what Jamie used. (North Atlantic cod and haddock aren’t easy to come by Down Under.) Our pancetta was round and had less fat than Jamie’s, which was more like a very thin bacon. The only other substitution was using a mix of rocket and spinach for the salad (rather than rocket and watercress). Everything else was as-written.
Quick verdict: This was FANTASTIC! Neither of us was expecting much, given that Jamie bills it as a grown-up version of fish fingers and mash. But the fish was cooked perfectly, and the herb paste and breadcrumbs were a welcome addition. The tartare sauce was a great accompaniment too. The mashy peas were rustic and comforting (and the recipe made HEAPS). I’d feared the simple salad would be bland, but the warm dressing was a knock-out. We both rated this meal a 10 out of 10. And what’s more: the Snook finished it off in 31:58! RIPPER.
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Snook’s Hipster Cardy
As my knitting buddies know, this has actually been finished for more than a month but I’ve only just now gotten around to documenting it. This was my entry to the 2011 Sydney Royal Easter Show, where it didn’t win anything. The pattern is “#17 Man’s Cable Cardigan” by Josh Bennett for the Winter 2009/2010 issue of Vogue Knitting. (Many thanks to Reecie for lending me the pattern.)The Snook was not initially receptive to the idea of a cardigan, because they seemed either a) too daggy and “grandpa” or b) too hip and trendy. That’s when I started calling it the Hipster Cardy. I told him that as a bicycle-riding, bearded I.T. nerd from the Inner West it was his sacred destiny to wear an ironic grandpa cardigan. So I knitted it anyway, knowing he’d like it once he had it on. He’s worn it several times now. We’ve had some fun staging photos where I tell him to “Look supercilious! Like you think my favourite band is crap!” and stuff. “More condescending! Sneer at my carbon footprint!”
It’s actually a very nice cardy and he does sincerely like it. I was worried about the ribbing along the buttons, because I had seen others that came out very wavy and ripply. The instructions say to cast off as loosely as possible, which seems INSANE. That would just make it more ripply! I did a sewn cast-off, and I’m mostly happy with it. He tends to only do up a couple buttons anyway, which means you can’t really tell.
The wool is Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in “Pumpernickel” (a nice dark flecky brown). I actually knitted on the recommended needles (4mm and 4.5mm). The buttons are vintage men’s buttons I got at All Buttons Great and Small. (Ravelry details)
And as always, the Easter Show judges can suck it. 🙂
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Shared today on Twitter
@imdominating Wait, the wedding is DRY? Oh lordy. I didn’t know that. HAVE FUN.
@imdominating You should slip @carbolicious some cash to work a little alcomahol into the cake frosting or something. LIVEN IT UP!
Picnic for my nephew Kurt’s birthday! (@ Victoria Park) http://4sq.com/iWeEvC
Going to dye my Feb Lady Sweater. Anybody have experience with Jacquard dyes? Just got some from Granny Square. Tips & advice welcome!
@lahondaknitter Knit up. It’s this: http://flic.kr/p/5fLfhW. Alpaca/wool blend. I just don’t wear cream cardigans!
@lahondaknitter Thanks for pointing me to @cloudynatknit! Got good tutorial link to adapt. Will use Snook’s big homebrew pot.
@drkknits Ooh, that’s different from what I was planning. I was going to use vinegar and cook it in a pot?
@drkknits But it’s a whole cardy. Not even sure I have a microwave container big enough!
@drkknits Will email you and Ailsa now… 🙂
It’s 6:03pm and the Snook and I are still here. Not a big surprise. On the plus side, we get to go to our CHEESE-MAKING class tomorrow!
@Opheli8 Once I am indoctrinated into the ways of the cheese, I will be spreading cheesy joy to all my friends. Unless I eat it first.
@drkknits If you mock us, I won’t share any of my fancy artisanal organic Chippendale Cheese with you! 🙂
@drkknits THINK OF THE CARBON FOOTPRINT, YOU BOURGEOISE NITWIT! (I had to google how to spell “bourgeoise.” Rather ruins the outrage.)
@drkknits Oh, you’re gonna get another visit from our Red Scare bot friend…
Actually, we’ll learn to make mozzarella, ricotta, and “labne”. The hipster part will be because we’re wearing hats and carrying iPhones.
@drkknits Like they could KEEP ME from blogging it. 😛
@kunaal84 All the people you know are Hindus and atheists. What did you expect? 🙂
@drkknits @kunaal84 I spent an hour last night working out how to play “Makin’ Whoopie” on the ukulele. #hipstercentral
Going to try a “rally car” strategy for tonight’s Jamie meal. Snook will cook while I shout out instructions and take photographs…
He says: “If a man’s not makin’ a mess, he’s not makin’ anything.” http://twitpic.com/50homc
Post-Rapture WIN! Tonight’s Jamie meal: Crusty Cod, Mashy Peas, Warm Salad. 32 minutes and 10/10!! http://twitpic.com/50hqod
Normally our bedtime, but we’re headed to an Enmore pub to wish @henrytapia a happy birthday! #hardlyhipsters #sleepynerds
@drkknits Holy crap, you are so far ahead of me on that book! No more chatting about it til I finish…
@imdominating You haven’t been to Manly Beach yet. God is clearly from New South Wales, Australia. 🙂
RIP Bill Hunter. “You can’t stop progress!”
@imdominating Gorgeous!!
Heading off to Cheesemaking Class! Sadly, the Snook rejected my suggestion to wear a beret.
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Shared today on Twitter
@randomknits Totally getting deja vu from that. 🙂
My new foam roller has arrived! @seanchadwick immediately had to try “planking” on it. http://twitpic.com/4zvhtz
@AusVintageGrrl @randomknits There’s nothing much to get. I’ve just heard her make that specific rant a couple times in the past few wks 🙂
@MiscMarci You love me! (I actually made Rodd watch that movie recently, as he’d never seen it the whole way through.)
@FlavourCrusader THAT’S AWESOME! Was it the photo of me and the fish? Because I can eat some more fish if that’ll help. 🙂
If you’re gonna break your diet, break it HARD. #nachos #beer #happiness
The Snook is raiding on WoW in another room. Me: “Did you just tell someone ‘Take your pants off?!” Him: “Actually, yes. It’s a tank thing.”
“Not only did you miss your pre-rapture orgy window, you spent your last night on earth playing Warcraft. I hope it was fun!” #actuallysaid
Matching Starmores at the Farmers’ Market @ Eveleigh Markets http://instagr.am/p/EfhT9/
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Photo Post
Matching Starmores at the Farmers’ Market
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New Adventures in Cat Parenting
New Adventures in Cat Parenting
Recently I stumbled across this fantastic MetaFilter comment by a veterinarian advocating feeding your cats ONLY canned/wet food. The Snook and I discussed whether it would be a good thing to do for our furballs. They’ve both had UTIs, so anything that gets them ingesting more water is a good thing. The only thing we’ve ever fed them has been Friskies, and they both seem to like that. Amy begs for the occasional bit of chicken fat or bacon rind, but Petey’s never shown any interest in meat or human food. (We even put out raw chicken wings for him a few times, but it’s like he didn’t even know what to do with them.) Anyway, a couple weeks ago I saw that the grocery store had a sale on a case of cat food pouches. I checked the ingredients to make sure that it was high in protein and real meat, which it was. “Why not?” I went for it. We’ve been augmenting their daily food ever since.We started with just a tablespoon of the meat. Amy woofed it up before Petey even got a sniff. For the first few days, that was the biggest problem – we couldn’t get Petey to eat any because Amy would get to it first. We eventually resorted to locking her in the bathroom so we could try to get him to eat some. Eventually he seemed to realise it was good stuff. Now we’re up to giving them a whole pouch each morning. I divide it into two bowls so they don’t have to fight. We’re still giving them dry food as well, but a smaller amount. The really weird thing is that they both seem to LOVE the gravy. Like, they’ll lick all the gravy out of the bowls and leave the meat chunks. They’ll eventually eat most of the meat, but only if the dry food is gone. Still, getting more water into them is a good thing, right? And I’m sure they’ll eventually transition all the way to the wet, as long as we keep restricting the dry.
To my surprise, we’ve seen some immediate behaviour changes! Especially in Petey. He is being way more playful and affectionate, even going so far as to rub my legs while I’m prepping his breakfast. (Previously he’d never come into the kitchen while we were in there.) Last night we even got him to chase the laser pointer, which is something he’d shown no interest in before. He’s actually behaving like a normal cat instead of nervous, socially-awkward ‘fraidy cat! Amy also seems to be a little more energetic and demanding of cuddles. The experiment is going so well that I picked up another case of the food while it’s on sale. I’ll keep you posted…
