AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

aaeeeiii! moving day

Not surprisingly there was no knitting, crochet, beading, cross-stitch or cooking last night (scrambled eggs don't count as cooking).  There were a few panicked moments of acquiring more boxes, followed by filling those boxes.  At this point, everything that doesn't have a home will probably get pitched.  The last thing is the refrigerator, which will happen as soon as I've eaten something.  We have a cooler and two frozen ice cream canisters, so I'm not worried about keeping our food cold.  I just don't know how long we can store it that way.

Hopefully yesterday's panic will melt away into a happy and productive day with house closings, priming, painting and unpacking in the future.  I'd love to say that everything will be unpacked by the end of the weekend, but that is probably a pipe dream.  As long as I manage to get to the post office on Monday to mail the potholders, get some sleep, and a little bit of craft time I probably won't go bonkers.

Probably.

day 3...

I am in the home stretch, but can't do anything but cleaning and laundry until the Office Max opens at 8 (where I'll be going after I click the save button).  I'm out of paper to wrap all of the dishes with, but today is dishes, three cabinets and the random cruft that I'm sure I've missed.   I have 6 boxes or so and I hope I'm not making them too heavy.  We'll see.  The movers will need to be able to cart them tomorrow, and I'm sure that they are stronger than I. 

To pass the time this morning, I have been catching up on Girl Genius, which is always entertaining especially when my hubby comes over and comments on how long she has been in [insert location here].  Serial comics are a bit slow that way, because they take so long to produce along the plot arc.

Last night was a little work on Ishbel, when I realized that the random cross-stitch kit I found was done except for assembly.  Maybe I'll make that one of my relax projects after we move. 

I'm really enjoying Ishbel, but I decided I wanted to bead the lace portion.  Of course, I didn't have the right beads with me, so I'm making the large instead to pass the time.  I only have one skein of the yarn though, so I might have to do some futzing to make it work later.  Maybe not.  Last week I returned 2 skeins of yarn, because the sweater pattern called for 6 and it took me 4.  Sometimes I wonder if I just knit and crochet in a way that uses less yarn than expected.

day 2 (packing) still not queen

Last night I made a potato pizza sort of like the mashed potato deep dish pizza appetizer thing (that is what I get for being too lazy to just find a link or a picture). 

I boiled and mashed a small bag of baby yukon gold potatoes (I think it was 1 pound) with about 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/2 to 2/3 cup of nonfat milk.  I tossed in a large handful of shredded parmesan and let it sit until cool.  I used Deb's recipe at Smitten Kitchen to caramelize my last 2 shallots.  Then when they were cool I cut the root ends off and cut them as well as i could before mashing them into the potatoes with all of the caramelizing liquid. 

The crust was a sheet of puff pastry dough, thawed and rolled until it had about an overhang of an inch on each side when placed in an 8x8 baking pan.  I put in the potato mixture, topped with more shredded parmesan and grated cheddar, and then folded the edges of the dough in to make a high crust.  I baked at 400°F for about 20 minutes until the puff pastry was wonderfully golden brown and then I blotted the top with a couple of paper towels.  Cheddar always melts pretty oily, so I wanted to get rid of a bit of that. 

It was delicious and the smell of the caramelizing shallots was really wonderful too.

Of course, that was a bit more leftover than I needed to make, so I will be having potato pizza for breakfast for the next couple of days while I pack.  Today, I pack the hand knits, the bedroom closet, and the rest of the kitchen foodstuffs that aren't perishable.  I also get to wash the bathroom and move enough stuff out of the living room to vacuum that up as well.  It's a good thing I actually like vacuuming as far as house cleaning goes.

If I have anything interesting to say, I'll probably post to Twitter (I'm there as qarylla).  Yup.  I joined the dark side... what can I say, there were cookies!

packing minion takes a break

I just got back from the post office, which means I should announce the winner of the giveaway!

Saturday, I wrote the names of all the commenters on little slips of paper, stuffed them in a plastic bag, and made my husband pull out a name.  A very scientific process I'm sure.  Becky S. won the book and I have just mailed it.  Hopefully it won't take too long to get to you!

The suggestions I received were:
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
The Harry Dresden books and specifically Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
Urban Shaman, Thunderbird Falls, Coyote Dreams all by C.E. Murphy
The Onion Girl by Charles De Lint
Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Thanks for all of the suggestions! 

I read a lot of young adult, with a focus on stories of usually young women with strong personalities.  Most of these are coming of age stories.  I reread a lot of these books *cough**cough* three or four times a year.  My favorites include the Protector of the Small quartet (Keladry) by Tamora Pierce and A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer.

There isn't much reading for me for the next few days with all the packing that is left to do (one-two rooms a day, *crack of the whip*), but I have currently out Downbelow Station, Hogfather, and Julie & Julia.  Maybe I'll get a few minutes before bed to make some headway on one of these.

for the graduating masses

A few of my friends were graduating this weekend and had a big party to celebrate.

For them, I made Bakerella's Graduation pops.  They came over well even though I mistakenly connected the pieces with corn syrup instead of more chocolate.  You definitely get a better seal with chocolate!

Bakerella's instructions were to use Reese's peanut butter cups to to make cake balls.  I probably should have made cake balls, but I really wanted to make S'mores truffles.  The truffle base was a combination of semi-sweet chocolate chips, unsweetened chocolate and bittersweet chocolate (Bakers, mostly) with heavy cream.  I had some leftover graham cracker crumbs from my last graham cracker crust, and mini marshmallows.

I made up a decent number of truffles, because I intended to make about 50 graduation pops.  I ran out of time, so some of them were just left in their unenrobed state for eating.

I took the chilled ganache and worked it for a bit and then put a marshmallow piece inside.  I rolled it around until the marshmallow was completely covered with chocolate and was round-ish.  Then I rolled it in the graham cracker crumbs and placed on a wax paper covered baking sheet.

Like so.  I made 24 of the truffles into graduation caps, but the rest of the truffles were just meant for eating.

Some of the truffles were a little too big for the candy pops.  I used a mini-muffin pan lined with my silicone mini-cupcakes.  It was a great combination for providing plenty of stability while making the pops.

One note:  don't do what I did... once.  And put the lollipop stick in before topping it with a bit of extra chocolate!  So messy.

I had a hard time finding the candy components for the tassles.  Eventually I found a package of rainbow colored Twizzlers (I needed yellow, blue and red).  I cut them between a set of ridges and then pressed them flat.  I used a pizza cutter to cut them into strips, and then I cut the strips in half.  Not quite as elegant a presentation, but it worked!  I'll still be on the lookout for the airheads strips, because they look so much easier to use!

We bought florist foam to rest the pops in, because I was having issues with their structural integrity (and really, this is where using the melted chocolate or candy melts would have made a big difference).

Graduation pops were pretty easy to make, and obviously easier if you use peanut butter cups (but the smores truffles were peanut allergy friendly).

We transported most of them on the florist foam, which was a great decision.  Using corn syrup with the heat of the day meant that the lids with tassles were just a little too likely to fall off. 

The lids were Ghiradelli (and faux Ghiradelli) chocolate squares and the buttons on the tassles were mini m&ms. 

The first few truffle cups were made using Vahlrona Feves bought from [W]hole Foods, but I ran out of that chocolate source pretty quickly and melted a bag of semisweet chocolate morsels to the mix.  I've never been so happy as to realize my habit of buying bags of chocolate chips was being happily rewarded as when I was making these!

The ones that are a 100% Vahlrona are a little better, because they aren't so cloyingly sweet.  I'm sure that a mix of Baker's bittersweet chocolate would have worked as well, but at that point I was out.

These were fun to make and a great learning process!  And I promise the blue ones eventually got tassles too!

Of course now that I know how easy it is to make 'peanut butter cups,' I will probably make these for gifts for some of the sweet-oholics in my life for birthdays or other occasions (yes, I'm looking at you!). 

Today I am going to finish cleaning up the mess from the truffles (dishes only, because I washed the counters right away) and use the cleaned up space to make strawberry shortcake and hot fudge peanut butter pudding cake.  It's dessert all week here!

and now to hydrate!

Today started off with a bit of rain and the threat of thunder showers, and while I was fairly certain that the race would go on I was a little nervous about racing.  I tend to avoid running during most acts of weather, even rain most of the time.  Truly a wuss, because it isn't like I will melt after all.

The last training run I did that wasn't treadmill training (the treadmill has its place, but it doesn't really prep my ankles at least for the pounding of street running) was - ahem - April 5, when I ran nearly 10 miles along the race route.  After that, almost nothing.  The show picked up, I was weaving nearly every chance I could, and as it did last year my training was what suffered for it.  This week I did two stints on the treadmill for about 30 minutes each to remind my body that it does know how to run, but I wasn't the most confident.

I got to the Seaport and set myself an optimistic pace goal of about 10:30 min/mile.  I had my shuffle with me loaded with Podrunner mixes to keep me on a steady cadence.  I'm really bad about pacing myself.  I chatted and tried to stretch in the crowd, and then 8 a.m. came.  We were off!

My first mile was a fairly pedestrian 11 minute mile.  It always seems to take me a mile or two to get into my stride.  The next three or four miles were about a 10 minute mile, which was fairly close to my training pace... when I was training.  Whoops!

Around mile 7 I decided it was OK to walk.  Bad idea!  Even then I tried to keep the walking to a minimum.  I wanted to run as fast as I did the first time, and walking the second half of the race was just like a death knell.  I kept going, trying to run consistently on any flat surfaces and downhill slopes and walk jogging the rest of the time.

We got to the end and I just didn't have a lot left to push through.  I just told myself that I couldn't walk across the finish line, because my legs aren't that done!  And my steady run brought me across the timer at about 2:27:xx gun time.  My net time (which I will get officially when they upload it) was about 2:24:xx or an 11:02 min/mile pace.  Better than I've done before, so I'm pretty thrilled! 

The race flaws:  really high humidity as the rain gamely tried to evaporate as we were pounding over it, and my Nike+ did not want to record my race.  Other than that, it was a blast!

tomorrow I run

This morning I nearly finished potholder/hotpad #4 while I went into Boston to pick up my race packet.  It's been a fairly busy day, so I am glad to have a few minutes to rest before heading off to Western Mass to celebrate our friends' graduations (college, law school and dental school).  It's a lot of celebration, so I worked on some truffles this morning to bring along. 

Hopefully I will have a real update tomorrow after I get back from the race!

panic! potholder swap!

Too thin!  Too thin!

I stopped by Windsor Button yesterday in a foggy haze (it was a really tiring day), and showed off a couple of the flower pad centers while paying for another skein of Tahki Cotton Classic and picking up some boxes for the move.  I've been trying to figure out how I was going to sew them together so they didn't look quite so small, and I decided that I would crochet circles to pin them to and do the final row of edging.

Then I got home.  Kind of panicked about how they weren't coming out the way I wanted them to and that if I was going to change my mind that last night was pretty much the last day I was going to have to do it.  My drop date is Tuesday and only because I live in Massachusetts and can expect the package to arrive within 3-5 days.

Instead I have this:

I'm round but double thick!

There is one more color and then some decorate shell stitch (or a different decorative stitch if I come up with something else this morning).  This took me about 1.5 hours last night, but mostly because I crochet a lot slower when I'm watching anime. 

And the next time I want to make the flower pattern? Half doubles at least.  Possibly a thicker yarn, because even my double crochet is a little on the short side.

the crochet potholder swap

Just about a week ago I finally decided on my pattern for the crocheted potholder and hotpad swap.  I wanted something that was a little more 3dimensional, sculptural, if you will, and that wasn't as difficult as some of the flights of fancy that I knew where out there. 

Some 6+ skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic later, I've mostly finished the crochet of the potholders with a mere 8 days till we move and 5 days (max) before I mail them.  No pictures, because I'm writing this up in the oh dark hundred waiting for my body to remember that it can go to sleep thankyouverymuch.

I'm using this pattern.  My petals look really thin, and I figured that these were going to be more for hotpads (umm, like the pattern says - duh), so I have 5 more items to crochet.  Basic circles in the available yarn I have left and one additional skein that I will pick up today when I return two balls of yarn from another crochet project I finished.  Then I will use the basic circles to pin the flowers into place before I sew / crochet the border all the way around. 

But where I am now?  Not bad for having started the crochet in the middle of May!

Give Away! The first novel

My friend, Maggie, had her first book come out in February, and I really liked it.  Not a very exciting review, huh?  Well, here is better:

Spiral Hunt is combines a strong female character with the evocative scenery of Boston, without giving you those stupid moments when you want to slap everyone for their inherent stupidity.  It combines myth with a modern sensibility and turns magic into something that not everybody would or should have.  While Evie is the main character, Boston is right behind her, giving you a visual and olfactory travelogue.

Thing's I loved most: 
Not needing to slap the heroine every 5 minutes (you know you read books like that)
That magic isn't the best thing since sliced bread
Non-visual magic (a similar reason why I like the Tamora Pierce Circle books, for extraordinary magic through ordinary objects).

Why this matters?
I have an extra signed copy of the book that I picked up from Pandemonium that I would love to give away!  Just leave a comment on this post with your favorite paranormal or urban fantasy novel by Friday, May 22nd at 5 p.m. and I will use the power of the random selection to pick a winner!

I'm looking forward to a lot of suggestions for my summer reading!