The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Loving Frank Update: Failure. Book club is in 2 hours and I’ve got 100+ pages to go. I admit defeat.

Just got the newsletter out and I’m so excited about the Treefree Paper Yarn Knitted Cuff Classes! You remember when I was working with this a few months ago. Hopefully this handmade yarn will be in in the next couple weeks and ready to be worked with in July. Curious about knitting with paper? Sign up! Especially since this stuff is better than paper. Read all about it at Rich’s site.

Beaded Cuff

In class we will be knitting a beaded cuff and a lace cuff.

Laced Paper Cuff

The Treefree Yarn is included in the price of the class, and you will knit two cuffs whether you sign up for the two night project class on July 8th and 15th, or the workshop class on Sunday, July 26th from 1-4.

Yesterday, still feeling bad about the food (?) we ate Friday night, PT and I decided the dinner party we had planned would be some amazing pasta. Our food soul mates Kasia and Anders came over so we weren’t afraid to get a little crazy.

Table Ready!

PT and I handmade some pasta, baked some fish, cooked up some mussels and shrimp in some spicy sauce, and sat down to eat.

Seafood Pasta, Beet Salad

Spicy was an understatement. See how pretty it is? I couldn’t even eat it. But luckily the spice level was perfect for PT, Kasia, and Anders, who seemed pleased. PT even ate what I couldn’t, so it must have been good.

Next time less adobo. Mental note made.

What do you do with 70 sunny degrees and a Friday afternoon? PT and I thought Lincoln Park Zoo, and were not alone. There were maybe 4 children per person running around screaming, all holding bags of Doritos. We had no children and no Doritos, so we were feeling very left out.

Alpacas

PT and I like to joke about how some day in the future we will be farmers. We went around the zoo collecting animals for our imaginary farm. I, of course, grabbed these two pretty Alpacas. They will be not only good for yarn making, of course, but appear good for snuggling.

Flamingos

I also want Flamingos, which will serve no practical purpose, I just want them.

Very Loud Tiger

This tiger was so loud! I kept trying to make jokes about how it was hungry for some mariners, but it never worked out. He isn’t coming to the farm.

Happy, Despite Lack of Doritos

We both hadn’t been to Lincoln Park Zoo in a couple years and had a great time! We spent the whole afternoon outside, and were so happy to be able to do it.

Shrimp Pasta

We came home and made the most amazing shrimp pasta! We sauteed up some garlic in oil and butter, added the sun dried tomatoes, shrimp and broccoli and tossed all that with the whole wheat pasta and parmesan cheese. Out of control! SO good.

Saturday PT and I spent the whole day outside, walking around to local businesses and leaving Sweatshop flyers before lunching at Handlebar, one of our favorite restaurants. We ran home, made some kebabs and plantains, and biked over to a friend’s house for a bbq.

Grilled Plantains

These turned out so great! I just made a foil pouch, sliced up a couple plantains, threw in a couple globs of butter, sprinkled some salt and pepper and they turned out so well! Soft and sweet and charred in some spots. I’m going to have to buy some and bring them to Michigan when I go in May so the family can try them out. I know they will love them! We don’t see plantains around those parts.

A couple oat combo examples:

Oats, milk, cinnamon cereal, raisins, and raspberries

Oats, milk, canned pumpkin, and Kashi cereal

Today for lunch PT and I perfected the quesadillas I made for myself on Thursday of last week.

Goat Cheese, Tomato, and Spinach Quesadillas, Take Two

Much better this time! We threw in the spinach when the onions were caramelized for a few minutes, just to wilt the spinach a little. These quesadillas weren’t soggy in the least. PT even made guacamole, so we had both guacamole and salsa to dip them.

Now I’m just chilling, watching the Tigers game. It is rainy; the excuse I need to stay inside and get some work done. Must block the sweater dress! Must tidy apartment! Must knit my new sock!

It was sunny and beautiful all weekend, and yesterday, (and today) and that resulted in not a lot of progress with any knitting.In Sunday’s Sweater Club I pulled out the sweater dress after retiring that basically the entire week to work on the socks. I’m working the under arm part, still in moss stitch, for three inches before I start ribbing for the skirt. It isn’t boring as much as I would just rather be entrelacing!

I'm in Love

Isn’t it cute? I love doing it! I wake up early and knit a few rounds while watching The Today Show before work. And see my open window! It is getting chilly, I’m just sitting here with a tank top on but I’m being stubborn. My feet are blistered from all the walking I did today. My legs are sore from all the biking! I’m happy. Chicago and I are working on our relationship. We broke up hard core in January and it is going to take more than a random 72 degree March day to get me back, but he is moving in the right direction.

Sea Food Crazy

It helps that I cracked out the pasta maker this weekend again and we cooked up an excellent sea food pasta dinner. PT was thinking shrimp, but we saw this random bag of, like, octopus, muscles, shrimp, and imitation crab for $4 so we grabbed it. We threw it in the pot with onion, red pepper, broccoli, garlic and tomato sauce and out came a very delicious dinner!

Speaking of dinner, I should get on that. After my afternoon Shamrock Shake (oh yes, McDonald’s and I hung out for a bit this afternoon for the first time in years) my tummy is a little uneasy. It did sound like a great idea at the time, though.