The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Before

After

I was hoping it was not going to come to this.

I was using some leftover Knit Picks Gloss from a sweater I knit a few years ago for my Twilight/Gloaming Shawl. The sweater is Thermal on Knitty.com, and I liked it, but then I lost 30 pounds so it didn’t fit anymore. It’s been sitting in the back of my closet in a pile of stuff I can’t get rid of but will eventually figure out how to fix.

SOOO Close

I was within four rows of finishing the shawl without tearing up my sweater. But, alas, it needed to be done. And that fatty sweater in the bottom of my closet wasn’t doing me any favors. So I tried not to think about it, un-seemed a sleeve, and ripped!

Pretty!

And I finished my shawl! And I’m not even sad that I had to amputate my sweater because I couldn’t wear it. No matter how many hours I spent on that sweater, it’s unwearable.

LOVE

LOVE LOVE

But this shawl is ridiculously wearable! I’ve pretty much been wearing it since it dried after blocking. And you have to seriously block the crap out of this shawl. I made the big size, and after I bound it off I was seriously underwhelmed. It was tiny!

Pudge Makes Blocking Difficult

But I blocked it, with the help of Pudge Rodriguez, and it is stunning. I mean, I’m wearing it right now in a wife beater and pajama pants. I’m in love with this little shawl.

PT Biked Up an Appetite

Empanadas!

Shrimp and Veggie Special

I finished my shawl, PT finished some fancy producer work, so we thought it would be a great night to celebrate with a trip to Irazu. We went to Irazu once before and were totally in love, and trip two didn’t disappoint!

We ordered empanadas to start: beef and potato for PT, and a black bean and a spinach and cheese to share. They were outstanding! We split the shrimp and veggie dinner special with the amazing Costa Rican rice, cabbage salad, and sweet fried plantains. The entire meal, then the entire rest of the night, we kept saying, ‘Man that was a great meal!’

Man, was that a great meal! I’m still not over it.

Pudge Loves PT's Yarn!

I feel like this project is going very slowly because I can only work on it when PT isn’t home. But luckily for me, however unluckily for PT, he has been working late the past few nights!

I keep everything I need for the sweater in a bag hidden under some other bags. I pull it out when I’m working on it, so just in case PT comes home I can just shove it in a bag that looks like a million other bags of yarn I have all over the house! As you can see, Pudge Rodriguez approves of the yarn I picked out.

Progress!

Last time I checked in with PT’s Modified Cambridge Jacket, I had just barely cast the thing on. I was trying to figure out how to cast the entire sweater on as a pullover and add a ribbed hem. It looks good so far! I had to knit the whole body for 14 1/2 inches before dividing to work just the back piece.

Side, and Armhole Shaping

The side ribbing looks great, I really love the K2P3 ribbing. I stuck with the instructions for the armhole shaping (smallest size). I kept up with the pattern, only two ribs made it through the decreasing, until I was supposed to add more ribbing at the shoulder blades.

Shoulder Blade Ribbing

As written: Mark center 22 sts with waste yarn or removable markers. Next Row: (RS) K1 (edge st), work in established rib to 12 sts before marked center sts, [K3, M1, P1] 3 times, K22 marked center sts, [P1, M1, K3] 3 times, work in established rib patt to last st, K1 (edge st).

… seriously?

I knit my ribs. [K3, PFB] 3 times, K3, P2, (17 new rib sts), K to within 17 sts of established rib, P2, K3, [PFB, K3] 3 times, work ribs.

Love it! I’ve got 23 center stitches instead of 22, but I’m not sweating it. I had to do some finagling to knit the body in the round.

The real challenge will be figuring out the front! I’ll be knitting both sides at the same time to the front rib, separating for the button band? Maybe?

I’ll worry about that when I get to it!

PT had to work all weekend; luckily he could work from home, in front of football, but still. He spent the entire weekend in front of his computer, doing fancy TV producer work. In order to make that less sucky, I had a food plan.

Lentil Sloppy Joes!

It Tastes as Good as It Looks

A food plan that started with Lentil Sloppy Joes! I saw this recipe at No Meat Athlete. He’s got a lot of great vegetarian recipes that he tries and works through on his site, and this one had been on my radar for a while. The recipe, lovingly called Snobby Joes, is really easy and I basically just emptied my pantry into my wok. Some peppers, onions, lentils and spices! They were amazing! PT had two of them for lunch and another for dinner. I thought they were really flavorful; it’s easy to kick up the spices to make them spicier, or tone it down, and it can sit on your stove top all day for repeat visits.

Pizzas for Football Sunday

Pizza Goodness!

A pretty standard meal on Sundays are these little homemade pizzas. Maybe standard isn’t the right word, because it implies a fall back. Our homemade pizzas are so delicious! Homemade crust, homemade sauce, caramelized onions, pineapple, roasted red peppers (and olives for PT) with a sprinkle of Parmesan! I still think we should go into business.

Baking Up A Storm

I went into crazed baking mode last night! I got an extra little gig helping organize the office of a restaurant in Wicker Park (oh the life of a freelance knitting teacher?) and I got home and decided I needed to make two batches of granola bars, more Tigers Suck Cookies (even though they had an off day yesterday! They kinda sucked it up this weekend), a loaf of pumpernickel bread, and zucchini pancakes!

Holy Baker!

I saw the zucchini pancake recipe at Sarah’s blog, and I’m so glad I did! I didn’t have the crystallized ginger, and I only used about a half a cup of olive oil and moistened it up a little more with some water, and these were so great!

Potatoes and Zucchini Pancakes

They were so much sweeter than I expected them to be, being made of zucchini. But just like zucchini cakes or muffins, I don’t really know what the zucchini adds other than an excuse to eat more of them! Because it’s VEGETABLES!

And now I don’t have to bake again for the rest of my life. I’ve got cookies and granola bars enough to last me a while! I love that feeling.

Happy Poos!

Sunday morning I woke up with a job to do. Well, with many jobs to do.

1) Watch three football games.

2) Make Happy Poos.

I’ve made quite a few of these, so I average about an hour and 15 minutes a Poo. A football game is about 3 hours long. So of course I was knitting my Glorified Necklace, watching the first game, la de dah.

Naturally I finished these little guys up at about 10pm.

My mom and I have decided that we are going to apply for the Renegade Holiday Craft Fair the first weekend in December! The application isn’t due for a couple weeks, so we are experimenting with different products to use in the application.

My mom basket-weaves, I make Poos.

Holiday Happy Poos

These are Christmas Happy Poo Ornaments, complete with scarf? Headband? It doesn’t matter because it’s awesome! And pompom hat.

Bride and Groom Poos

And these are Wedding Happy Poos, complete with bow tie and veil.

I mean, seriously. I was making these, half deliriously tired, giggling so hard! I see many more Poos in my future.

Want to learn to make Happy Poos? My Knitted Happy/Sad Poos Pattern is here. Sign up for my Holiday Present Prep class or my Happy/Sad Poos Class coming up this month. (And see The Sweatshop’s full Class Schedule here)

Thursday night PT decided to make some burritos for dinner!

Burritos!

He sauteed up some onions and green and red peppers, mixed in some beans and spices and burritos were had by all.

Burrito Sandwich Wrap

Wraptacular!

The best part of making burritos is having burrito shells in the house, which means you can make sandwich wraps!

I spread some honey mustard on the wrap, the layered romaine, cucumber, tomatoes, and shaved carrots. Delicious! It made a perfect lunch with my Tigers Suck  Cookies and some doritos.

Handlebar Nachos

Last night we headed over to Handlebar and shared an order of their amazing nachos with a side of fried plantains. We just can’t get enough Mexican!

I’m about to settle in and watch some college football! Love Saturdays! I’ve got my Glorified Necklace in my lap and I’m determined to dive into that lace pattern. My rows are over 200 stitches now and it is driving me insane.