The Sweatshop of Love Blog

I know, I know, it’s super early to be scheduling Holiday Parties, but when you’ve got holiday knitting to plan, the earlier the better.

The Sweatshop of Love Holiday Party!

When: Friday, December 9th at 7pm

Where: Green Eye Lounge on Western and Milwaukee

We come up with a lot of excuses to knit in the bar, but I think the Holiday Season is our best excuse yet. It’s time to celebrate nearing the end of holiday gift knitting with some beers and some more knitting! So grab an easy project (its dark, and loud, and there will be beer) and please join us at Green Eye on Dec 9th!

RSVP on our Facebook Event Page. It’s going to be an awesome time!

Secret Knitting Santa

Want to knit a present for someone you know will appreciate it? Then knit something for a knitter! Let me know if you want to participate in this years Secret Santa exchange.

Rules: Put together a knitterly gift! Knit something, put together a kit, package up some pretty yarn, buy some much needed needles or a project bag. A good rule of thumb is buy or knit for yourself, and your Secret Knitting Santa will probably love it.

Let me know if you want to participate! I’ll be drawing names and letting you know who your person is a week from today, Wednesday, November 2nd. You will need to either guarantee you are coming to the party on Dec 9th or get me your present before the party to participate. I had a hell of a time last year getting presents to people and I’m not doing it again, dammit! (<- holiday cheer!)

I’ve been pretty much constantly wearing my half fabric half crochet scarf since I finished it back in September.

Sweet Scarf!

I know that if you had one you’d love it and wear it as much as I do, so I’m having a party!

Half Fabric Half Crochet Infinity Scarf Workshop!

When: Saturday, November 12th from 12-2pm

Where: Knitting Workshop at 2115 N Damen

What You’ll Need:

• 44″ by 16″ square of fabric that is the same on both sides
• 330 – 400 yards of worsted weight yarn
• Crochet hooks, size 1 (2.35 mm), and size J (6 mm)

Knitting Workshop has been kind enough to host our event! Mary will have yarn and crochet hooks available for purchase before our workshop, and some coffee and treats. Yay!

I’ll have a hole puncher and a ton of help to offer to get you started on this fun project.

Scarf For The Win!

Please RSVP for this event by emailing me at allyson[at]thesweatshopoflove[dot]com, commenting with your email address on this post, or RSVP on the Facebook Event Page!

Excited?! Me too! I can’t wait to craft with you all on the 12th!

Coconut Cream Pie

Once upon a time I was eating pie and I thought, ‘You really don’t need to eat anything but pie.’ It’s true. Everything is better in pie form. Everything is better with pie. Somehow that thought turned into Pieapalooza! The date: July 3rd, a Friday that pretty much everyone had off because of the holiday. The request? Bring a pie paired with a cocktail! I cooked up this coconut cream pie (who knew it was so easy to make coconut cream pie? It is no bake, you just throw some stuff together in a saucepan, heat, make up a pie crust, pour the coconut mixture in the crust and cool it in the fridge. Spread whip cream, sprinkle with toasted coconut, serve) to be served with coconut rum and cokes. Cute, right?

PT and Brat

Kasia and Anders thought we should eat real food first, so we met a few hours before Pieapalooza! was scheduled to start and grilled.

Tofurkey Brat

Kasia picked up these toferkey brats, which I’ve never had before but really enjoyed! I never really liked those Bocca brats, I don’t think they make them anymore. They were always really dry. But this was great! I topped it with sauerkraut, mustard, and ketchup, like pretty much everyone else did.

Chris and Anne, and Brats

I, of course, had my brain on pie. My coconut cream pie and Chris and Anne’s Jewel strawberry rhubarb pie (don’t judge; Emeril’s strawberry pie recipe was total crap so this was a last minute grab) were just sitting on the blanket, screaming at me, ‘Eat! Eat! I’m so good!’

Three Pies to Start

Kasia and Anders, and Pie

Kasia and Anders made the most amazing cherry pie I have ever eaten. And that is saying a lot considering I’m from Michigan and we take our cherries very serious. This was a sweet cherry pie in the same amazing crust her strawberry rhubarb was in last week.

Love

Tally:

1 piece strawberry rhubarb/champagne
1 piece cherry/cherry lemonade
1 piece coconut cream pie/coconut rum and coke

Lemon Pie, Peach Pie

We were barely recovered from the first round when in came more!

1 piece lemon pie/summer shandy
1 piece peach pie

Getting Messy

A couple pieces pi(e) – neapple (clever, and a welcomed break).

Shepard's Pie

I couldn’t eat this one, but it’s so pretty! And patriotic. And this was the only pie that was eaten completely so it must have been great. Or people just felt they needed some protein.

Drag Queen Pie

This beauty is a drag queen pie, or raspberry lemonade pie, frozen and like sherbet! It was fun and pretty and tart as hell!

1 piece drag queen pie/2 vodka tonics (… they were good)

Gil (and Martin)'s Fabric Bag

Between the eating and the drinking and the frisbee-ing, there was a lot of knitting going on. I was a proud mama! Gil finished up her fabric knit bag which turned out so cute! Her bf Martin picked up some knitting skills with this bag, so he gets credit, too.

Bound Off Bottom!

Tara bound off the bottom of her sweater! It looks so cute. See the admirers behind her? Today in Sweater Club she finished a sleeve, so this sweater is really close to being done.

Oh god

We made a mess. There were tiny plates and tiny cups everywhere, people had their hands and forks in pie remnants between laying down quiet time. We would play a little frisbee to make room for more pie.

Pieapalooza!

I was trying not to keep track of the pie I ate on Friday, and I was trying not to add it up afterward. There is nothing I can do about it, all that pie was eaten, there is no use worrying about calories. Thanks to this post, though, I know I ate six pieces of pie and had six drinks. How I’m still alive I’m not quite sure, but we all made it through Pieapalooza! with tales to tell. Pieapalooza! is totally going to be a thing now! Because who wouldn’t want to sit around eating pie and drinking all afternoon?

However, it is not going to happen again any time soon. The party wrapped up around 7 and if the Tigers wouldn’t have gone into extra innings I would have been asleep by 9:30. The Tigers kept me up with a sad, bloaty tummy till after midnight. The whole time I was thinking about how pissed I’d be if they ended up losing and I could have been sleeping it off instead of awake and in pain. It was totally worth it! But seriously I don’t want to be in that kind of pain again for a long time.

Like, a week at least.

Saturday was a big day for The Sweatshop of Love. We celebrated our three year anniversary! It was sunny and warm for the first time all week and I couldn’t have been more excited about it. I frosted the cupcakes, I got my knitting together, I grabbed some books to swap, and then realized there was still four hours until the party started.

Muffin Club

Although the blackberry muffins I just kind of made up the recipe for fell, they were still very delicious, and they were more delicious walking around the boulevards in the sunshine.

I Love Rachel

Something else that tastes good in the sunshine? Sure, I made cupcakes, but my love Rachel made this Sweatshop cake! How cute is that? I promised her I wouldn’t send it into Cake Wrecks, and of course it wouldn’t even make it on Cake Wrecks because it is so beautiful, but it had to go on a blog somewhere. Have I mentioned how much I love Rachel?

Tara, Gil, and Martin

It was breezy, it was warm most of the time, and we all stuffed our faces.

Rachael, Erin, and Colleen

Everyone got some knitting in and some Vitamin D. I’m really excited to get another knitting afternoon together very soon, so keep your eyes on your inbox for Sweatshop newsletters!

For me the fun Saturday didn’t stop there.

Sun Dried Tomato, Artichoke Heart, and Olive Deep Dish Pizza

A couple friends and I got together and between the five of us we threw together a green bean and beet salad and this delicious deep dish pizza (thanks Shawna!).

Today was full of classes! The last Sunday morning Sweater Club class, then I ran home, watched the beginning of the tigers game, then ran to Entrelac Workshop. Whew! All the knitting must have gotten my brain working because DAMN PT and I knocked dinner out of the park tonight.

The Best Fish Tacos EVER

After many many tries, PT and I have finally gotten our recipe for fish tacos down perfectly. Pan fry the fish brushed with a little oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Meanwhile, we slice up the avocado and mango. We heat up the taco shells by toast them on the stove top burner. We put down the avocado slices on the shells. When the fish is cooked we flake it and put it on the avocado slices, then put some spicy chunky salsa on the fish and fresh mango on the salsa. Before we eat them we squeeze on a little lime. Holy. Shit. Amazing. But it didn’t end there.

Fried Plantain Split

We pan fried up a plantain in butter, sliced it, and put ice cream on it. It was salty and sweet and SO good! I can’t figure out why this isn’t a thing at every restaurant. Warm and creamy.

‘Do you remember when we made fried plantain splits?’ PT just asked me, three hours after we ate them.

Yes, PT. Oh yes I do.

This weekend was great! Sunny, warm, full of knitting and friends and amazing food. And I’m going to sleep well tonight.

Yes, this is my third blog post of the day. You would think I’m getting paid to blog.

Today for lunch I had a ‘what is about to go bad in my fridge lunch’:

Potatoes, Pinto Beans, Corn, Onions

This mush bowl was actually pretty good. I seasoned it with taco seasoning and mixed in some ketchup. I’m poor, ok? Lay off.

And don’t feel sorry for me! Last night PT and I ate like kings at Buona Terra. Thursday night they have a $22 prix-fixe menu, which to them means any appetizer, entree, and dessert on the menu. We knew it was going to be good when we got the bread.

Garlic Goodness

The bread was served with this garlic, oil, and cheese spread that was out of control! We put it on everything that crossed our plates until they took it away.

Appetizers

We tried to be adventurous, and we also wanted to get way more than our moneys worth. PT got the Carpaccio de Baebadietola, which was thinly sliced beets with arugula and breaded goat cheese, and it was awesome! I got the Zuppa di Cozze, or black mussels in spicy tomato sauce, which was also so good. It was great spreading that garlicky sauce over the extra bread we got with mine, too.

Butternut Squash Ravioli

I ordered the Angelotti Zuca, or the butternut squash ravioli soaking in butter, in a good way. It was a lot of butter, though. The sage was out of control! I ate all the little sprigs.

PT's Seafood Linguine

PT was the real winner, though, ordering one of the specials. Linguine Frutta di Mare, which was delicious pasta with fish, mussels, calamari, and shrimp in garlicky red sauce. I might have eaten more of this than PT did.

PT's Tiramisu

PT loves Tiramisu, and this one was really good. I usually like more cake in my cake, but I had my fair share of this dessert!

Chocolate Pecan Tart

In what the Tiramisu was lacking in density my chocolate pecan tart made up for! The crust was chocolaty and pecany, and the chocolate gouache filling was very creamy and really good.

Overall, Buona Terra treated us right. We would for sure go there again, after May. Because May is going to be a money saving month! No eating out just the two of us, no spending money when it is just the two of us at all. We will only spend money when other people make us. Buona Terra was a great way to kick off the money saving month, though! I miss it already.

Bake A Lotta

This afternoon I baked up some cupcakes for the party tomorrow, and I kind of made blackberry muffins for muffin club this weekend. As you can see those muffins dropped like its hot. I picked at the one on the left and they taste good. So much for thinking I could leave out the eggs!