The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Yesterday at this time I was sitting outside on the porch with a glass of iced tea, a burrito, and A History of Love.

Outdoor Burrito!

Today I’m inside huddled around a mug of hot tea, eating hot oatmeal and toast for lunch, and happy about the warmth from my laptop on my legs. Shesh.

I’m not discouraged, though. I know this is only temporary. And I’ve got work to do! I’ve got to finish patching up that quilt I was working on last week, and the sewing machine is not going to make it to the porch. I’ve got to blog! Catch up on some emailing! So really, I should be happy about 52 rainy degrees.

Mother’s Day is next weekend, and I’ve gotten a couple emails from students asking about Mother’s Day presents. For the most part they have been simple problems; questions about toys, about knitted flower patterns. Of course Lori has to throw me a curve ball with this shawl pattern. It is cute, isn’t it? But damn, it is a hard pattern to read and explain over email. I was getting so frustrated with it I pulled out some needles and tried it myself.

First 10 Rows

See those weird Xs?

8-St Cross Pattern

I can see once you get the hang of it this being easy and moving along, but I can’t lie. It took me three tries to work it out. As I was looking at the pattern and working on the shawl I was thinking I would give it to my mom for Mother’s Day or her birthday (on May 31st), but I don’t like how it is looking with this yarn, so I’m just going to pull it out. I’m glad I tried it, though! Hopefully these pictures and my trials and errors help Lori get this project done.

I, on the other hand, am still in the same place I was Sunday with my socks! I plan on taking in a couple baseball games this afternoon, though, so I’ll be able to turn that heel.

In the mean time, back to the sewing machine.

Oh! And the Anniversary Party is Saturday! Are you coming?

I’ve been trying not to measure the skirt part of my sweater dress too much. As Lori so lovingly told me at Sweater Club a couple weeks ago, I’m just driving myself crazy. I took Lori’s advise and chilled out. My plan was to get to 18 inches before starting the second sleeve. Yesterday morning I was knitting a long and looked down and was astonished! I had knit the shit out of that skirt! I measured and was just over 19 inches! I squealed and started the collar, just to mix things up.

I Could Wear it Outside if I Were LiLo

That is a one armed dress! The collar makes it look so awesome! I even squeezed into it this morning before work and it fits! The arm is a little big, but I’m not concerned. I could beef up my arms… I might just have to. Eh, I’ll wait to worry about it. Thanks to my mlb.com premium package, meaning I get every game I could possibly want every day, I’ve got many excuses to sit in front of my computer and finish this up by the end of Sweater Club! Trying it on really motivated me to finish it and wear it every day.

My meeting Monday with Distant Village, the Treeless Paper Yarn guys, went well! They are making some balls of it for me, I’m going to have a class, going to package up some kits for etsy, going to get rolling with this fun project!

Lunch

I was emailing him so treeless paper bead ideas while I was eating my lunch burrito. Homemade lunch burrito! I love life.

I’m going to do some preliminary Spring cleaning now before the tigers game. I’ve started doing that thing where everything is in piles, and then I refer to the piles of shit as tables. That just isn’t right.

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.

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’.