slice and bake - so easy - and pecan brown sugar shortbread, so delicious

Next up on the delicious hit list – looming yarns and their associated projects:

next on deck

MAN THIS IS KILLING ME. I want to grab needles and cast on for the five projects that will use these glorious yarns. Let’s go around the circle:

• top left, that pale, pale pink? That’s madelinetosh’s tosh merino light, in the porcelain colorway. I’m going to make the Austin Hoodie, designed by Connie Chang Chinchio – designed especially for this yarn, I believe. I’ll have a lot of new experiences with this one, including set-in sleeves and a hood.

• that red, on top? That’s my new Okay Knits Sena, in the sweetie-pie colorway. I’m going to knit the LaReine Shawl, designed by Angela Tong. No new experiences, but loads of pleasure with the fun design and gorgeous yarn.

• that brown(ish), on the right? That’s madelinetosh’s pashmina, in the silt wash colorway. I think I’m going to make the Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan, designed by Nicole Feller-Johnson, but I’m not sure on this one, like I am on the others.

• the red, on the bottom — of course that’s my new Spirit Trail Fiberworks “clotho” in the dragon’s blood colorway, which I’ll use to knit Gudrun Johnston’s beautiful little Laar sweater. Thanks for your thoughts on that one! Right now this one is the most fun to think about.

• and last but certainly not least enticing, the fawn-colored laceweight wool on the lower left is the Jamieson & Smith Shetland Supreme, which I’ll use to knit either the Madli’s Shawl mentioned in the previous post, or the Tree of Light Shawl. Still pondering that one, and don’t want to give short shrift to the gorgeous yarn.

I’m just going to put all these yarns away, out of my sight (in the hopes that my age-related memory loopiness will help them slip out of mind) until I finish the Eve Shrugged and the Lace Ribbon Scarf. I want to finish the shrug, and I need to finish the scarf, and that’ll only happen if I give them both all my spare time and attention.

Do you continually massage your ravelry queue? Mine is extremely organized, and I regularly go through and reorder the items on the individual tabs (e.g., socks, sweaters, shawls), and then reorder the top items on the queue as a whole, matching them with stash yarns. In a way, this keeps my obsession going (the downside), but in another way, it gives me a way to play with projects without actually casting on too many at once (the upside). The top of my queue is now dominated by sweaters, a fact that tickles me.

A downside issue that warrants my attention…..I’m getting knitter’s elbow in my left elbow. It hurts, a lot, and I know I’d better slow down and do something about it before it gets so bad I can’t knit. THAT WOULD BE AWFUL. Since I spend so much of my day hunkered over the keyboard with long hours of focused attention, and then much of the rest of my time knitting, I hold my elbows in one position for long periods. I’m trying to stop very regularly – predetermined intervals so I don’t forget, like every page, or every couple of rows – and stretch out my arms, flex my hands up to further stretch the muscles and tendons, and breathe while I’m at it. [I forget to breathe.] This part is not so delicious.

Ingredients:
4 cups of cooked black-eyed peas (or 2 16-oz cans), drained and rinsed of all juice
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced (i use the green and white parts)
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
3 canned or fresh jalapeño chiles, chopped (or more, add a habanero if you really like heat)
1 can Rotel tomatoes or 1 ripe, chopped tomato
3/4 cup olive oil
Juice from one lime
1 yellow bell pepper, finely chopped (red bell peppers are good too)
3 cloves fresh garlic, pressed or minced (or more….I usually use 6)

Mix everything together, and taste and adjust as you wish. Chill for four hours. Serve at room temperature with tortilla or corn chips.

It’s really, really, really good. Do you have a go-to dish like this, one that’s cheap and easy to throw together, that everyone always loves?

On the knitting front, I made it through the entire part of the shawl chart with the big set of nupps. And they were fun! I definitely learned how to do them better by the last row of them, but I was happy enough. Then, knitting the last set of lace rows to complete the chart, and *clunk*. Something was way wrong. After each row – partly due to overweening pride – I’d stopped, stretched out the lace, admired it, looked for problems, found none. After each pattern repeat, I rechecked the stitches. If each pattern repeat was correct, and each row was correct, I’d be in good shape, right? And yet I’d really screwed up something, somewhere. How hadn’t I seen it in all my looking?! Too much pride, too much “look, isn’t that cool what I did?” I guess. And so I had to pull that whole section out. Had I put in a lifeline? NO.

So I held my breath, got out a small tapestry needle and a roll of dental floss, and tried to put one in, below the nupps chart. A tiny little stitch at a time, through the cobweb-weight lace. plink. plink. plink. plink. plink. Across the row…..and then pull pull pull pull, unknitting. It worked, and so now I begin again. At least this time I’ll do the nupps pretty well from the very first row. So with the shawl too, I’m back where I started.

My sweetheart and I have been dieting – him on Atkins, me on low-cal – but here it is, Valentine’s Day (tomorrow). We’re going out for dinner at our favorite Ethiopian restaurant, Awash, and then we’ll come home for something sweet. He really loves blueberry coffee cake, so I just popped one in the oven. Photos of a slice tomorrow, but for now, The Making of the Coffee Cake, followed by its recipe.

rich batter chock-full of blueberries

sprinkled with a yummy streusel topping, ready to bake

Want to make it yourself? Here’s how: