The Sweatshop of Lovers Blog

My rewards program totally worked for my brain. I didn’t know if I could knit 26 inches for that skirt, but I knew I could knit 10 inches, and rewarded myself with a sleeve.

Sweater Dress Sleeve One!

Now I’m back on the skirt. I’m at about 13 inches and want to get to 18 before I knit the other sleeve. It actually looks like something now! The sleeve got me excited…

Pudge Rodriguez

but it blew Pudge Rodriguez away! She just couldn’t handle how awesome it looks.

And that is about the position I took after the Mexican Feast PT and I made on Saturday.

Fish Taco+Burrito=Love

One of PT’s specialties is the fish taco. We got tilapia super cheap at Emilio’s, cooked it up, threw it in the taco with salsa (with added fresh mango!) and avocado. The burrito has become my specialty! This one was with black eyed peas, tomato, guacamole, some of that home made mango salsa, and spinach.

Plantains!

I even fried up some plantains in butter for a side, which I haven’t done in a long time but want to do every day for the rest of my life.

Raspberry and Blackberry Pancakes with Potatoes

Not to mention we started the day with raspberry and blackberry pancakes with potatoes. We ate well Saturday.

Sunday I just couldn’t keep my tuna helper concoction to myself anymore.

Allyson's Tuna Helper Creation

I made it for PT and he loved it! I traded out the cheddar for pepper jack and it was even better. A little crushed black pepper! Love.

Shrimp Fried Rice and Spring Rolls

We rounded Sunday out with shrimp and veggie fried rice and spring rolls. In retrospect, I would have slapped that leftover rice on another shrimp pizza, but it was good with asparagus, broccoli, carrots and green pepper, too.

The soup of the weekend?

Purple Soup

Red potato and back bean with carrots and onions. Served with a hunk of freshly baked bread, of course. It is purple and delicious!

Off to Lula for dinner. Reliving all this food has made me really hungry.

I’m at like 8 inches with the sweater dress. I know I was talking big about having 10 inches done by class last night, but it just wasn’t going to happen. It takes me 11 minutes to knit one round, and five rounds makes an inch. You see my problem. And yes, I figured that out because I was so bored I was actually watching the clock while knitting.

Pretty Sweater Dress

But holding it up to take this picture I got a renewed sense of purpose. It is so pretty! Thanks to snow in the forecast I’m going to go way out on a limb here and say that I want to get to 10 inches on the skirt AND finish a sleeve this weekend. I know, I know. It is out of control since over the last two weeks I’ve knit about 6 inches, but I think I can do it.

Oh and check it!

<- You see my twitter widget? I did that by myself. Now if only I could remember to twitter. Tweet? I still don’t really get it.

My sweater dress (pervs) is only at 6 3/4 inches, of 26. I need little goals to get me through, so at the 10 inch mark I’m making a sleeve, dammit. If I can get there with my sanity.

In the mean time, I have a lot of asparagus to eat.

The Most Perfect Omelet I've Ever Made

Breakfast for dinner (love!) was an asparagus, tomato, and spinach omelet with feta cheese and potatoes. And it actually looks like an omelet instead of looking like scrambled eggs with vegetables in it.

It Fits in a Regular Bowl!

For lunch today I had pasta with broccoli, asparagus, and spinach with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. I should have thrown some carrot in it for some color but I didn’t think of it until I was already eating it. Asparagus pasta is great though!

Raisin Granola Bars

Yesterday was granola bar day. Not only was I running low but PT had a special request for some. You can tell this is my batch because of all the raisins. He is not a big fan of nature’s candy, which blows my mind since raisins are all over delicious.

After Class Snack

They are just so cute and delicious. And much cheaper when you make them yourself. I had one when I got home from class last night. Class was a little out of control…

Kind of an Elephant

Brijeet set out to make an elephant but ended up with a dildo fully equipped with clitoral stimulator. We also decided that the problem with Playing With the Grown-Ups was the lack of virginity losing. And that Nicolas Cage and Sandra Bullock should be in a romantic comedy together instead of Nicolas trying to save the world from armageddon (again) and Sandra pretending to be 24. I’m going to go ahead and say that we were a shining beacon of lively laughter and that everyone wished they were our friends, but we could have been the obnoxious table everyone wished would just shut up about clitorises already. It is truly hard to tell.

The other day a blog reader said that it was a nice change of pace reading my blog because I write about things I love and don’t really complain all that much. I do like a good complain every once in a while. I complain to my BF Rachel. My complains are just unblogworthy, like boy bullshit and the amount of puke Velma produces. Or they are just big downers, like my baby brother being in jail.

Drooool

I’d much rather talk about shrimp pizza. I’ve talked about this shrimp pizza before, but seriously seriously seriously seriously this pizza is so out of control amazing it should be talked about every day.

Pizza Crust:

1 1/4 c flour

1 c whole wheat flour

Combine 3/4 c warm water, 1 1/2 t yeast, 1 1/2 T olive oil and a pinch of salt, add to flour until a dough forms, let rise for 1 hour.

Meanwhile saute 1/2 a red onion and 1/2 a white onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic up in oil. Add shrimp until cooked. Add 1/2 a can of pineapple and 2 T teriyaki sauce, stir to coat.

Preheat oven to 425. Roll out pizza crust, sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Add a hand full of spinach to the shrimp mixture and mix till the leaves are wilted, dump mixture over crust. Sprinkle more mozzarella and Parmesan and drop goat cheese sporadically over it. Bake for 20 minutes.

Best. Pizza. Ever. I wouldn’t lie to you. Just LOOK at it!

Oaty Goodness

I love breakfast, this is not news. But I don’t eat pancakes everyday, surprisingly. I eat oats. I love them. I have a bowl of some oaty concoction most every morning, and sometimes for lunch or dinner. I found a cute food blog Carrots N Cake, and she loves oats, too. My oats usually consists of milk, oats, some fruit and nuts or cereal. This mix is 1/2 of oats, 1/3 cup of milk, an apple chopped up, a heaping spoonful of pumpkin (idea from Carrots N Cake), a sprinkle of dried blueberries and another sprinkle of GoLEAN Crunch cereal. It is amazing with the pumpkin! I’ll be keeping that idea for sure.

HamBone-Less Soup

PT and I made bean soup Sunday afternoon in the crock-pot by just throwing in whatever was laying around. I bought a bag of mixed beans, HamBone mixed beans, to be exact. They were nice enough to include a packet of ham flavoring in the bag, like ramen noodles. We laughed and puked a little in our mouths and threw it away. Instead we dumped in water, carrots, onion, a can of diced tomatoes and some spices and got this amazing soup! I’ve been enjoying it with some homemade bread.

I have also been using the book club book for April as a napkin, as you can see. I got to the point yesterday where I would have stopped reading it if it wasn’t for the club. And I hardly ever stop reading books.

Potato Stir Fry

Tis the season for the huge potato and veggie stir fry! I chopped potatoes and cooked those up in the wok while chopping asparagus, (it is asparagus season! you can get it semi-local now) carrots, and red pepper. Sprinkled with a tiny bit of salt and pepper and a few squirts of ketchup and you are in healthy dinner heaven. All for like $1.

… can you tell I’m bored with the sweater dress? It looks amazing but I’m at about 4 inches still. I feel like it is easier to manage when I’m working on it in the dark so I can’t measure it every 20 minutes. I’ll have to go see more movies.

I’m doing everything I can to not start my second sock, even though that is all I want to do.

Big Big Big Smile!

And I’m really glad I shaved my legs before taking this picture. I’ve been toting this sock around all weekend, to bead class Saturday and Sweater Club this morning. I’m in love! And all I want to do is start sock number two.

K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1K1P1

I have hit a wall with the sweater dress. See those three inches of K1P1 rib? That is three of 24. I even took it to Slumdog Millionaire at the Logan last night and worked on it in the dark, it is that boring. I had to use my phone as a flashlight a few times but I had it under control otherwise. I was thinking I would try to knit half of it before starting my sock, but I think I’m going to knit 10 inches and do a sleeve. I’ve got to focus on this dress if I want to finish it!

I’ve had a pancake craving for a while, but I really think pancakes are food that need to be shared. I waited for PT and we made a delicious brunch of blackberry pancakes and potatoes.

Blackberry Goodness

I don’t know why people make plain pancakes. I just threw in some frozen blackberries. That is it! Would you rather have plain old pancakes or blackberry pancakes? Yeah, clearly no question.

Happy Corn Dog Day!

For dinner we celebrated National Corn Dog Day with some seriously amazing Morningstar Farms Corn Dogs and carrot fries.  PT is not a vegetarian but is just really nice to me. When we go out he orders steak, but on Corn Dog Day? Fake corn dogs do the trick, too.

Pumpkin Brownie Sundae

You can’t have a corn dog and an afternoon of intense basketball action without a sundae. I made pumpkin brownies – a box of brownie mix with a can of pumpkin at 350 for 30 minutes. Seriously amazing with hardly any added calories and no fat. That makes up for the fact that you are putting ice cream and caramel sauce on it.

Tuna Helper Allyson Style

So I’ve been having this weirdo craving for Tuna Helper. Remember Tuna Helper? When I was little my mom always had to work late on Thursday nights, and my dad would make us whatever we wanted for dinner, and I always wanted Tuna Helper. Thinking about the actual Tuna Helper makes me want to puke, but I made my own but cooking some pasta and broccoli, then mixing it with a little butter, milk, and cheddar cheese, with a sprinkle of fake cheese sauce mix I stole out of an old box of fake cheesy potatoes I have for some reason. Dare I say it? SO good. It is kind of like glorified mac and cheese, only substituting tuna and broccoli for sodium.

I’ve got to get ribbing my sweater dress. Sigh. The sun is shining, the windows are open, basketball makes a great background noise and I’m biking to Target later. Great Sunday.

This is my third burrito of the week.

My Lover

Do I have a problem? I chop up some onion and throw it in a pan with some oil. I chop up tomatoes and cabbage and mash up some avocado while that is cooking, then add my pinto beans and some rice to the onions with some taco seasoning. When that is cooked I warm up my burrito wrap, then I dump the beans and rice, tomato, avocado, and cabbage on it, wrap it up, and eat it. Today it was the perfect accompionment to the West Virginia game I’m now watching. Not that I care.

Almost Done!

I’m going to finish up my sock today. I’m working on the top ribbing. I was driving everyone insane last night at Sweater Club because I wouldn’t stop talking about this sock. And my love of entrelac. I love it! I will shout it from the rooftops. I want to buy a car just so I can get a bumper sticker made that says ‘I Would Rather be Entralacing’.

Behold!

Before/After

I had to wind something, so I wound one of the skeins of sock yarn I got to bring my order up to $50 to qualify for free shipping.

It.

Was.

Awesome.

I winded the shit out of it.

However I will still need a friend to hold a hank if I want to wind yarn that isn’t in a skein. My mom’s hot tip is to put the hank around your feet and wind it from there. Then your feet is your friend. Are your friend? Gah.

Saturday is the kick off of a new program I’m starting, monthly workshop classes! This Saturday’s workshop is Knitting with Beads, something that is kind of tricky. Like anything with knitting, and I say this all the time I know, it looks trickier than it actually is.

I’m working out the patterns today, actually putting them down on paper, and I’m teaching myself how to knit with wire.

Wire+Beads=Bracelet!

I’m happy to report that knitting with wire is much easier than it looks. I knit this puppy up in no time.

See? Not a Liar

I started it to be funny, but I actually kind of like it! The beads are ridiculous and of course I got the ugliest gold wire, but somewhere in my head it is cute and wearable. I go to do something else and think about the bracelet, convincing myself it is actually really ugly, then come back to it, pick it up, and re-decide it is cute. We are making them Sunday.

In class we will start with bead knitting with yarn. We have three hours so we will be able to cover everything. Interested? There is still room! This class is $40, including the beads and wire, and it is Saturday from 1-4pm.

This afternoon I have also been working on my new side job of assistant editor-like person for Grocer Gram Quarterly. I’m not kidding. I’m writing blurbs related to food products, like this:

The Quaker Oats Company to Focus on Whole-Grain Oats

For the first time in its 130-plus year history, The Quaker Oats Company will campaign for all its products at once, focusing on the whole-grain oats in its most popular products. “This repositioning helps us elevate and communicate the power of this surprising super grain – the oat – to meet the needs of the growing number of health conscious consumers,” said Mark Schiller, president of Quaker Oats. Quaker is pushing whole grain oats as the ’super grain’, a key ingredient in the health and wellness of everyone. The ‘Go humans go’ campaign is encouraging Quaker customers to use the super grain to power their bodies and minds so they can live life to the fullest. In the ads the iconic ‘Quaker Man’ offers an encouraging smile to all people using Quaker whole grains to fuel their activities. In addition to boosting sales, Quaker hopes to raise money to help fight childhood hunger with its Quaker Go Project that encourages people to use the energy from Quaker whole-grain oats to fuel forward Through donations, grants, and volunteerism.

I wrote that and it is going in Grocer Gram Quarterly. My life is weird.

It was sunny and beautiful all weekend, and yesterday, (and today) and that resulted in not a lot of progress with any knitting.In Sunday’s Sweater Club I pulled out the sweater dress after retiring that basically the entire week to work on the socks. I’m working the under arm part, still in moss stitch, for three inches before I start ribbing for the skirt. It isn’t boring as much as I would just rather be entrelacing!

I'm in Love

Isn’t it cute? I love doing it! I wake up early and knit a few rounds while watching The Today Show before work. And see my open window! It is getting chilly, I’m just sitting here with a tank top on but I’m being stubborn. My feet are blistered from all the walking I did today. My legs are sore from all the biking! I’m happy. Chicago and I are working on our relationship. We broke up hard core in January and it is going to take more than a random 72 degree March day to get me back, but he is moving in the right direction.

Sea Food Crazy

It helps that I cracked out the pasta maker this weekend again and we cooked up an excellent sea food pasta dinner. PT was thinking shrimp, but we saw this random bag of, like, octopus, muscles, shrimp, and imitation crab for $4 so we grabbed it. We threw it in the pot with onion, red pepper, broccoli, garlic and tomato sauce and out came a very delicious dinner!

Speaking of dinner, I should get on that. After my afternoon Shamrock Shake (oh yes, McDonald’s and I hung out for a bit this afternoon for the first time in years) my tummy is a little uneasy. It did sound like a great idea at the time, though.

Seriously? Seriously, Interweave? Seriously with the wraps and turns and all that counting? You expect people to be all super pumped about knitting this entrelac sock with this wrap and turn bullshit?

It Is Cute Though

And please take note of my princesses kleenex box.

The problem is that when you knit a sock from the toe up you have to wrap and turn like a crazy person for the heel. You all know how I feel about wrap and turns. And you all know how I feel about the rib down sock heel! I love it so much. But this toe up sock makes so much sense, especially if you have nice sock yarn, you just rib until you run out of the ball, instead of trying to guess and ending up needing the toe to be a different color. Which I kind of like.

God I’m a sock neurotic. Who knew?

Is there any way to knit a toe up sock with a short row instead of wrap and turn heel? I was trying to work it out with I was wrapping and turning and wrapping and turning but I couldn’t. I can’t!

Tara Made Me

I bought this yesterday. One for me and one for Tara. I figure I can get people to come to a class to wind their yarn, right? It is like a business expense. And it is cute.

And I was watering my seeds this morning and I have somem catnip and a lot of camomile! My mints and flowers have nothing going on, and my avocado pit is still very dormant. But it is supposed to be 50 degrees this weekend so that has to help! Even if they are inside.

Back to my heel. I want to finish that bitch before dinner.