The Sweatshop of Lovers Blog

My only real goal this past weekend was to finish my second Slouchy Beret for the Heather, the second blog giveaway winner. I mailed the first one out Saturday morning, well ahead of schedule, so I was confident I could knock the other one out.

I got some Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick N Quick and knit it all afternoon. I blocked it on a plate, put it on the radiator so it would dry faster, and in the morning I had a cute pink hat!

Pink Slouchy Beret

Or, that was how it was supposed to go. Sunday morning I checked on it and about died.

BURNED!

It got torched on the radiator!

My Poor Hat!

I have put projects on the radiator to dry since the beginning of time and this has never happened before! I throw my wet mittens, socks, hats, and scarves on the radiator when I come in from a snow storm. So what the hell happened?!

I told my mom, who said, ‘Oh man, the woman you are sending it to is going to be so disappointed to see that.’

New Hat

Don’t think I didn’t think of it! But of course I can’t send someone a hat that looks like I used it to clean up cat puke. The second hat, however, is going a little slower. Once you finish a project it is hard to get the motivation to start the same exact thing over again.

Have you ever had a similar knitting disaster?

But I’ll finish it this afternoon, NOT block it on the radiator, and hopefully it will be dry by Thursday.

Breakfast Makes it Better

I always turn to pancakes when I’m feeling sad/sick/like I want to kill someone, and these pancakes with my mom’s apple  butter and potatoes made me feel better.

Homemade Tuna Helper

So does Homemade Tuna Helper. I don’t know what it is about shell shaped pasta. It just makes me feel so good. And I love when my food pictures have yarn in them.

Cabled Belt

The yarn next to dinner is from the Cabled Belt from the 2008 Winter issue of Vogue Knitting.

Picture in the Magazine

I have been lazily knitting it because I don’t plan on wearing it until New Years Eve. How fun is it to plan an outfit around a belt?!

The only people on Ravelry to knit it have used gold or grey yarn, but when I saw the picture I knew it had to be in a bright color. The cable pattern is very intuitive and it is knitting up quickly despite the size 5 needles I’m using.

And yes, I’m keeping this belt as far away from the radiator as I possibly can!

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.

Goldfish? On My Toilet

After putting this project on a mini hold for about a week and a half, I was reminded that Part One of the Goldfish Toilet Lid Cover Class is next week! So I buckled down and finished it and isn’t it hilarious?! It makes me entire bathroom happy.

The cover part is an easy knit. There are some short rows in there towards the bottom, but for the most part it knit up quickly and wasn’t boring.

The Goldfish Toilet Lid Cover pattern (a free knitpicks.com download) calls for dk weight yarn and size 6 needles. I thought knitting a toilet seat cover with dk weight yarn was completely ridiculous, so I rewrote the pattern as I was knitting it to use worsted weight yarn and size 4 needles. It’s a little snug on my seat, but I think size 5s would be perfect.

Fish? Kinda?

When I first looked at the pattern I just assumed that the fish would be intarsia-ed on. I hadn’t ever heard of duplicate stitching, much less done it before. I even googled it.

Duplicate stitching is just like cross stich! You just follow the stitches that already exist, and sew over them. It was easy!

The problem, however, is that when you use orange yarn instead of blue, and when you use whatever yarn scrapes are laying around instead of fish colors, the fish doesn’t end up looking like a fish. I thought when I started the pattern that it looked like Wilson from Cast Away, and PT thought it looked like Pikachu. The consensus now is that it’s a dog-like Pokemon. So I have a dog-like Pokemon toilet lid cover. I’m ok with it.

There is still room in the class! Interested? Sign up! Email me.

Fruity Lunch

There Are Oats in There Somewhere

I’ve been talking a lot about all the vegetables in my house, but I’ve got a lot of fruit, too. PT and I got half a bushel of apples, 1/4 a bushel of peaches, grapes and pears while we were in Michigan!

I had the most amazing oat bowl for lunch today, with peaches and grapes and apples, my mom’s granola, extra raisins, and a piece of the pumpernickle bread I made with crunchy peanut butter.

Those peaches are out of control.

Peach Pancakes and Potatoes

I made peach pancakes the other night. Peaches baked into the pancakes, with peaches sauteed in butter and brown sugar on top. Peaches can go in anything. And thank god because I’ve got a million of them!

Elizabeth and I met at Adrian College our freshmen year. We were both there for only one year, but the year highlights include strip monopoly, Optical Illusion Boy, me living off cookies and coffee for 9 months, Cripple Boy, Brad playing Oasis and Travis nonstop, Dreamy Matt Rife, Chelsea and I becoming drummers, The Gloworm, and a WHOLE lot of boy drama. Elizabeth, Chelsea, Lindsay and I, while recapping our weekends one Monday at lunch, discovered that between the four of us we made out with enough boys in the past 2 days to field a baseball team.

Elizabeth and I hadn’t seen each other since my 21st birthday party four and a half years ago. You know, like the Olympics.  She lives in Columbus, just far enough away from Chicago to make that an inconvenient drive. But she did it Friday! And 7 hours later she was in, and then we were out, of Chicago.

Colleen's Birthday

We had to drive out to St Charles for Colleen’s birthday party. After Elizabeth’s drive, and I had just gotten back in the city a couple hours before as well, we weren’t exactly pumped about the two hour drive through traffic to the burbs, but we had to do it for Colleen.

Well, I had to do it for Colleen and Elizabeth was a trooper.

Blueberry Pancakes and Potatoes with Fresh Dill

Saturday morning we made blueberry pancakes with the abundance of blueberries I brought back from Michigan, and potatoes with fresh dill.

It was hot and sunny and beautiful in Chicago Saturday, so Elizabeth and I walked around Logan Square and Wicker Park for a while with iced coffees before heading to Handlebar for a late lunch.

Elizabeth is PUMPED

We walked over to The Clipper for drinks after some Saturday night baseball (that Elizabeth was also a trooper through).

PT Ready to Ride

Beers and the Band

Gil and Martin came with a friend, and PT rode over despite having a Tastee Freeze-for-dinner tummy ache (Elizabeth and I didn’t seem to have a problem with it!).

Clue on a Rainy Afternoon

Sunday was rainy, so we played Clue! PT looks like he is really concentrating on the game, but it was a massacre. Elizabeth won twice and I won once.

BORED

Pudge thought we were the lamest people in the history of the world.

Look Out!

So she made us some drinks! The combo of the night? Aloe vera juice and coconut rum. Well done, Pudge. Well done.

Beet Salad and Fresh Corn on the Cob

They went very well with the beet salad and corn on the cob we made for dinner. Elizabeth has never eaten beets before, and she gave this a thumbs up! Naturally.

Night Beach

After dinner it stopped raining enough for us to drive over to North Avenue Beach, something we had been talking about all weekend, but with the Air and Water Show and it being 90 degrees, it was crowded and loud all weekend.

Water? 0 Degrees

Of course, without sun the water was a little cold! This was about as far as we could make it.

But the city was beautiful and the beach was empty. There was even a storm over the water we were watching for a while.

I think we showed Elizabeth a good time. I mean, who doesn’t like blueberry pancakes, clue, and the night beach?

It was nice to be back in the city for me, too. Sleeping in a bed was sweet! Seeing the kitties, and PT, was much needed. And those four pounds I didn’t gain while home I sure gained this weekend!

I’m looking forward to seeing Elizabeth again in four and a half years for my 30th birthday party! We planned this one out well, actually.

Finished Sock, and Pudge

I’ve had a rough weekend. I fled to Michigan where I finished these socks, which Pudge Rodriguez really likes. Actually I think they just smell like my mom’s house full of animals. So, she doesn’t like them. She is confused about how they smell. I’m often confused about how socks smell.

… what was I saying? Right; I had a rough weekend. Then I came home and PT and I broke up for realzies.

Blueberry Pancakes, and Potatoes

So we made blueberry pancakes and potatoes and onions. Because, well, you eat pancakes when you are sad. And my mom sent me home with a ton of blueberries. And blueberry pancakes are one of the best things ever. And we ate them.

Comfort Socks

Needless to say, we didn’t make it to Duck Soup. I was really bummed because I was looking forward to it. I love that movie, and I had the best time last week. But there would have been tears and crap. So I knit this sock, with the nice striping yarn, and watched the Tigers, who eked out a win for me. It’s really the least they could do.

I can’t stop knitting this sock. I’ve memorized my pattern so I’m just knitting and knitting. I’m just knitting and thinking and enjoying the quiet of the apartment. The Chicago quiet, so car alarms and people laughing and cars cars cars. If it were warmer, like it should be, there would be yelling and screaming and kids fighting in sprinklers, which I like. I miss being miserably warm.

I’m going to knit this sock some more. And make myself a dinner I will hopefully have an appetite for. I want zucchini pasta, with zucchini my mom sent me home with. The produce box just came so I can dig around in there, too.

Deep breath. Cooking for one.

Since I got that Summer Sweater out of the way, I’ve been able to work on my other projects that have been hanging out on the back burner.

My Sweater Pattern

I separated the sleeves of the sweater pattern I’m writing. Cute, right? Tara’s Sweater inspired me to make my sweater stripped, and I’m working on it right now and looking at the picture of Tara’s sweater and it looks a lot alike! Right now I’m working on boob increases. It is hard to translate boob size to stitches increased, but I’m trying.

Working on it right now, you ask? One of the many joys of having a very old computer is that you have a ton of free time to knit, balance your checkbook, dance, whatever! while things are loading. I am never without a project while working on my Old Lady. Especially when I have a lot of programs going. Right now? iTunes, gchat, my photo editor, and this blog writing page. Old Lady is working hard. She is just lucky there isn’t a baseball game on.

F-BLTA Sandwich

If it is possible to die from an avocado overdose I’ve got to be close by now. After Saturday’s avocado soup and avocado salad, you would think I would have had enough of the stuff. Not the case! Yesterday PT suggested BLTs for lunch. With avocado, of course, though the letter is not represented. And if we are being technical, that is fake bacon. PT calls it bacon crackers, but I’m fine with it. I can’t remember what real bacon tastes like, anyway. This sandwich was unbelievable! Homemade bread, a little Miracle Whip, lots of tomato, romaine, bacon crackers, and a quarter of an avocado.

Egg and Avocado Salad Sandwich

Then I turn around this afternoon and make egg salad with avocado for lunch. This is so incredibly simple: one hard boiled egg, 1/4 of an avocado, fresh cracked pepper. Mash with fork. Throw on toasted bread.

I’m sure I am alive right now only because my dinner last night didn’t involve avocado at all.

Fresh Michigan Blueberry Pancakes, and Potatoes

One of the best parts about being an adult is that you can eat pancakes whenever you want. Hungry at 3am? Pancakes! Dinner? Pancakes! Hungover and just woke up at 2pm? Pancakes!

Our excuse? The Logan Square Farmers Market treated us right again yesterday with a pint of fresh Michigan blueberries for $4. One pint of fresh Michigan blueberries? Pancakes! These were cinnamon blueberry pancakes and heavenly. The blueberries exploded when I cut into them, so the blueberry juices would spill onto the plate, mixing with the syrup I sopped up with my pancake! Stop. Just stop.

The potatoes were excellent, too.

I still had those pancakes on the brain when I was hitting my Goggle Reader this morning. A blog I just recently started following, Bakerella, had a blueberry pancake orgasm on her blog, too. And while you are over there, check out the reason I’m following this amazing woman in the first place.

By the way, my boobs are size 12 stitches. I’m ok with it.

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 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.

First of all, PT got an Amigurumi Lion for Valentine’s Day!

PT's Lion

Look out for him to make an appearance on the website later today! My Amigurumi Class coming up in March, Mondays 16 and 23, needs a mascot, and as everyone knows Lions make great mascots! … right?

…right?

Valentine’s Day this year felt a lot like I imagine Thanksgiving does for normal, meat eating people every year. You eat until you want to die and then eat as much dessert as you can?

Peach and Raspberry Topped Pancakes

Making pancakes isn’t remotely special for us on a Saturday morning. No picture would be able to capture the amazing flavor combo created on the top of those clove, cinnamon and nutmeg pancakes. Sauteed raspberries and peaches! With potatoes, of course.

We ran out to Target between fatty fests, at least. And by ran I mean strolled, burning no calories in preparation for this:

Pizza Fondue Picnic

We toasted french bread and sliced veggies to dip it into hot pasta sauce and melted pepper jack cheese. I had a 3 month old food baby after that pile of bread and spicy cheese.

Peanut Butter Fondue Tummy Explosion

Note the empty plate behind the scene. We baby crock potted peanut butter, soy milk, brown sugar, and a few chocolate chips to create this hot fudgey peanut butter mess to dip marshmallows, graham crackers, and pretzle rods into. I had a food baby well into its third trimester by the time this plate was clean. PT had a three hour food nap while I finished up the first season of Friday Night Lights and felt my baby kick.

I also started over my sweater jacket. It was too holey. I started it over holding two strands together and am not very far. I’ll work on it tonight and report back this week. I like it better already, though.

Leftovers

Sunday we used the leftovers for good – trying to avoid another food baby. We made very delicious french bread pizzas! Velma didn’t move all day; Valentine’s took a lot out of her, too.

We had the crock pot rocking all day yesterday! We cooked up a spicy black bean soup that is delicious, and a butternut squash lentil soup.

Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup

It certainly doesn’t look like much, but I’ll be eating this all week! So good. The carrots got a little too mushy because this cooked overnight and I let it go about 10 hours. Next time I’ll add the carrots half way though the normal 8 hour cooking time so they keep their crunch.

Sweater Club Participant #5 signed up today after the newsletter went out! Three weeks! The Sweater Club makes my schedule look like it is out of control. March is going to be busy! I can’t wait!