The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Lacey Shawl Thing

I am finally giving in and knitting one of those lacy shawls that everyone is knitting. This project has been on my radar for a while because every time I jump on ravelry.com, every time I read a blog, someone is working on one!

I haven’t seen a lot of patterns I’ve liked, though. They all look pretty basic and, while cute, I couldn’t picture myself wearing any of them. Shawls are nice, but when they are knit with sock yarn they don’t keep you warm. They are basically glorified necklaces, and when you are talking jewelry you can’t mess around.

Then I saw this finished shawl on Team Knit, a blog I’m liking more and more! It’s the Twilight/Gloaming Shawl by Phoe M White. The finished shawl is beautiful, and Julie’s write-up totally sold me. I even BOUGHT the pattern, if you can believe it. Here is the ravelry.com page.

I’m using Knit Picks Gloss yarn, which is 70% merino wool and 30% silk, in Concord Grape. I had some of this yarn left over from a sweater I knit ages ago that is now too big for me and the perfect example of why knitters can’t lose or gain weight. It’s going to have to be pulled out at some point, but I don’t have the heart for it yet.

So far so good! I’m in the easy beginner part and have yet to start the lacy edging. Weekend football project!!

Carrot Fries, Pre-Baking

Sandwich With Fries

Last night I cooked up some carrot fries to have with a cheese and veggie sandwich!

Carrot Fries (for 2)

3 big carrots

1 tbsp oil

BBQ seasoning

Preheat over to 450

Drizzle oil (olive, vegetable, whatever!) in the bottom of a baking pan. Slice carrots to look like fries and put in pan. I sprinkle mine with some BBQ seasoning, but you can use whatever you want to. Just salt and pepper is even good!

Bake for 10 minutes, stir, bake for 10 minutes longer. Done! If you slice your carrots thicker they might take more than 20 minutes.

Carrot fries taste just like sweet potato fries but are healthier and take a shorter time to bake. And they help dress up a sandwich dinner!

Flat McFlat Flat

I got cocky. Again. This always happens! PT and I ate that entire no-knead loaf of bread in about 36 hours, so I thought I would just throw together another loaf! I knew something was wrong right away, and then, of course, out came this hard, flat pizza crust like loaf. It was very disappointing, considering how amazed I was at the outcome of the last loaf, and how amazingly delicious it was with peanut butter.

Egg Salad with I'm Stupid Bread

Somehow PT cut this loaf and made sandwich-like slices out of it. It was very dense but crisp and a nice accompaniment to egg salad. We also roasted up some carrots with bbq seasoning and those made a nice accompaniment to the egg salad sandwich, so amazingly it all worked out. Another loaf, however, is rising it’s designated 18 hours as I write, and I kicked everyone out of the kitchen so I could count everything correctly. We will see what happens.

Asian Noodles

I found this food blog I’m liking called Keep It Simple Foods. These two women write it and its cute and all about eating simply, which I like. Friday they had a post about Asian noodles, and how simple they are to make.

Friday was the first hot day Chicago has seen this year and I thought some cold Asian noodles would be a great dinner choice! So I cooked up some Chinese noodles, stir-fried up some broccoli, carrots, and the last of the farmers market mushrooms, and made the Asian dressing she recommended. This dish turned out so well! PT and I both loved it so much that we made it again for lunch Saturday.

Asian Noodles, Part Two

We replaced the mushrooms with Vidalia onion for lunch Asian noodles. See all those sesame seeds? It is a great summer meal!

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds!

Yesterday we made our way to the Belmont Arts and Music Festival, where we sampled some amazing cinnamon roasted almonds, which might be my favorite outdoor food. I smell that sweet nutty smell and I just can’t say no! I want some sweet almonds. And these didn’t let me down! PT and I sat in the shade and enjoyed every last one. Unfortunately there was some terrible music playing nearby and I almost got run over by a couple strollers, but I don’t harbor ill will for the nuts. To get these you usually have to deal with strollers and bad cover bands and lots of sweaty people.

Me Enjoying Some Fresh Lemonade

We washed our sweet nuts down with lemonade, the perfect drink on a hot day. Bud would have you think it is Bud Light Lime, but we were sitting right across from the alcohol stand where you could get regular Bud and Bud Light for $5 and Bud Light Lime for $6, which would be enough for me to get the Bud Light (Actually I would just get another bag of almonds! You know me.), but douchebro after douchebro bought the Bud Light Lime! It just can’t be good.

After the fest we biked to the lake, where everyone in Chicago was.

North Avenue Beach

Float+Baseball=Heaven

It was a nice bike ride, but there were just too many people laying around, running and biking on the trail, walking around with huge coolers, that we didn’t stay long. And my Snow White skin can only take so many hours in the hot sun. We biked home and relaxed with some baseball and root beer floats.

I started on my Summer Sweater straps and am working through them. 35 is a lot of inches! And K1P1 is much less fun than the diamond lace pattern I was knitting in my sleep I loved so much. I’m going to have to think up a way to use that pattern again soon! I miss it already.

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.