Tortellini Soup

I have today off, which is really nice and I got a chance to make something so I have lunches this week. I found this recipe awhile back and have been meaning to make it, but never got the chance until now. I made Tortellini Soup; it is really good and super easy. Really though, there isn't much to the recipe, so I wouldn't even call it a recipe.

Here is is:

Low-fat Cheese tortellini
30 oz chicken broth
4 oz chopped frozen spinach, thawed
garlic, browned
stewed tomatoes

I'm one of those people who boils any type of pasta/potato and drains it before adding it to anything, because I like to remove the starch. This recipe called for cooking the tortellini in the chicken broth, which I didn't do - I resorted to my starch removal method. It really isn't worth while writing the instructions because it's a soup, and soups really just consist of adding your ingredients and enjoying your creation. I suppose though I should write something however: cook tortellini, brown garlic in same saucepan, add ingredients, cook, eat. There. Enjoy!

I knitted this weekend to releave some stress

Last week was a bit stressful (Tuesdays Spinal exam) and worry-some in regards to Thursday's events, so I ended up staying in on Friday, instead of going out. I watched movies and I knitted. In the eyes of the non-knitter, that may be a bit sad, but to me it's not. I would rather knit than go out in any stressful situation. I must admit, I'm a bit of a homebody, so that sort of adds to the wanting to stay home and knit sort of thing. Obviously, I'm beyond the gusset. I've continued on with the size 2 needles and tried to loosen up my tension, but unfortunately it wasn't working very well. As Elizabeth Zimmermann said in "The Knitting Workshop," your tension depends on what kind of mood you are in - or something along those lines if I recall correctly. I think that being a little stressed affected my knitting, just a bit. Hopefully after blocking, it will get better.

Stocking

I finally finished my Apartment Christmas Stocking. It's lined and everything, although I cannot take credit for lining it. I will probably keep it up for the month of January and enjoy it, since I wasn't able to enjoy it entirely before Christmas. Here it is:

Blocking

Completed Stocking

Dyed Socks

Happy New Year!

This past Tuesday, I went to Olbrich Gardens to see their poinsettia and train display in Madison with my mother, Vicki, and Mark. To my surprise, I got a sock kit where I could dye the yarn from Vicki and Mark. I was really excited and thrilled. The kit is called Spiral Socks Kit from Knit One Crochet Too and I got the Fawn color.

I sort of deviated from the directions as to how to dye my yarn (where to place the dye color) and followed a Knitting Daily TV by Interweave Knits way of dyeing yarn to get a variegated pattern, instead of a striping effect.

I mixed my dye accordingly as to what the directions stated, although for my project, I used about a cup per skein, except for the strawberry mixture, I used two cups per skein:
Color 1: water, rose, vinegar
Color 2: water, lime + rose, vinegar
Color 3: water, strawberry + lime, vinegar

So this is how it went:

Unwinding the balls of yarn. I also tied the yarn up in two places. This yarn does have 1% spandex and surprisingly, it stretches quite a bit. With that in mind, follow what Elizabeth Zimmermann would say (from the Knitting Workshop) and be careful not to stretch your yarn when winding it and for this case as well, unwinding it. When push comes to shove, if you wound your ball up too tight, it will effect the tension when knitting, so you want to wind it up loosely, so it won't be too tight. Elizabeth Zimmermann could explain it better. I ended up watching her DVD's during my fall break and got them from my library.

Soaking the yarn in warm water for 30 minutes

Mixing the dye. Note - for this part on wear crappy clothes and gloves.

Dyeing the yarn. I ended up going in order from Color 1-3 when doing this. So I first went around and used color 1, and then did color 2, etc. I also used an old turkey baster for this since I didn't have any squeeze bottles and I think it worked out nicely. It is also a nice cheap method. After I was done with a color, I just rinsed the turkey baster out a few times with clean water to remove some of the excess dye that may have lingered inside.

It's important to blot after dyeing each portion so the dye doesn't run down the plastic wrap and effect the rest of the yarn that wasn't dyed yet. You can see on the right, dye started to run down and dye the portion of the yarn where I didn't dye it yet.


I ended up squeezing excess water out before microwaving it, otherwise it's so saturated with water.

Microwaved yarn for 5 minutes vs non-microwaved yarn

Yarn cooling after it's been microwaved

Yarn after it's dried on a drying rack for a night.

What it looks like in a hank:

And, finally, all balled up.

So I have two balls of Soxx Appeal in a "Sunset" colorway. Note, I started off with Fawn, and looking on the Knit One, Crochet Too website, my yarn sort of looks like the Raspberry Sundae note on the sort of.

Fiddlesticks

Here is a mini update on my fiddlehead mittens.

Well, I'm working on size 2 needles and I'm getting 27 sts to 4." The circumference is at 9.25." Unfortunately, I feel like I should leave it alone and just continue on knitting. Usually with fair isle, I was always tight, especially when I carried my yarn over and didn't give it enough room for ease. My fair isle stocking was to practice my fair isle, in addition to this project before I pick up my snow flake test project mittens again. A few rows ago, I started to either knit tighter or not give as much ease when I carry my yarn over and I may continue with my tighter knitting and see how it goes, but we'll see.

I tried to knit with the size 1 at first, but that was a bit too much, especially with the icord cast on, so I switched to the 2's.

I do think that the colors are pretty, but they almost blend too well together, where the colors don't pop out as much as I would have exactly liked, but when I was picking out the color for these mittens, I didn't want to go for the wow WOW factor, but something that didn't stand out too much. My goal was to be able to wear them with multiple things and not just certain things. I feel that I could have probably gone with a brighter purple or something. Next time I guess. They aren't done yet and maybe my eyes are just too tired to concentrate on the colors, but maybe it'll look better/stand out later.

Now I just have to get motivated to start studying.

Merry Christmas

I figured I should update about my knitting progress and my stash since it is nearing the end of the year and once school starts again, I won't have much time to post for awhile. I suppose, I should start off with my Christmas stocking. I finished knitting it, but I have decided to block it and line it. I have yet to do both of those things however, unfortunately. I have been knitting and watching lots of movies with my cat and neglecting my school work. Due to the fact that Pipie, my cat sleeps next to me or on my lap while I knit, I say that she helps me knit. Well, Pipie, has done a beautiful job with my Christmas stocking.

Yarn: Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky
(1.5) 23 Eggplant
(1.5) 24 Light Blue
Needles: US 10
Pattern: Falling Snow Stocking by Jennifer Hoel

I ended up bringing it to Christmas at grandma's because I started the stocking at thanksgiving and decided to show everyone. Nearly everyone laughed at how big it is and it is quite big, but if you read all of the comments on ravelry and even in the pattern instructions itself, the stocking is large. If I put the stocking on my leg, just for kicks and giggles, the thing will go up to my knee, that is how big it is. I must say though that it certainly beats Mr Morter's Christmas stocking just outside of his office. He's my Spinal II teacher and his stocking was like 3 feet long - that is just tacky.

I was quite suprised that my brother's girlfriend gave me a gift certificate to The Sow's Ear in Verona, WI. It was very nice, especially to a real yarn shop. There is nothing more pleasing than feeling the fiber of a sheep, alpaca, or whatnot flow through your fingertips as you knit. Now that I am here, I'm never going back to that plastic crap again, or at least I will try my best not to. Every time I handle the crocheted blanket in my stash bin, I can just feel the ickyness of the plastic fiber, which is why I have decided not to make it into a full blanket and just finish up the yarn and give it to my cat. The Lionbrand Homespun just feels so nasty, which is why it's so hard to pick up and finish, despite my lack of time to work on anything. Anyways, moving on from my plastic rant, now it's time to share what I picked out.

Yarn:
(1) Cascade Yarns 220 Paints (Denim's Storm)
(1) Ella Rae Classic Solid and Marls (117 Purple)
(1) Isager Strik Alpaca 2 (23)
Pattern: Fiddlehead Mittens by Adrian Bizilia
Size: Small - 7.5" to 8" hand circ.
Needles: US 2 dpn

The pattern says to use US 3 needles and I did, but “surprisingly” my gauge was way too big. I ended up getting 24 sts to 4” and I need 28 sts to 4.” The actual circumference that I knitted was 10.25,” which is way too big. Now I am trying to knit this with a size 2 needle and it’s turning out to be a challenge.

I am two rows from where you would normally change to CC2 and I noticed that I was supposed to read the chart from right to left, but I haven’t. I suppose it won’t make any difference once the mittens are finished, just so I keep everything consistent. Whoops.

Santa ended up giving me yarn and "Bella's Mittens" pattern.

Yarn: (2) Cascade 109 LE (8685) - now a discontinued yarn
Pattern: Bella's Mittens by Marielle Henault
Needles:

Yarn: (2) Plymouth Yarn Co. Happy Feet (24)
Pattern: Firestarter by Yarnissima
Needle:

I was thinking about it and I decided to forgo making the wedding gift because of the time involved and lack-there-of on my part with having the time to make the projects, so now I have 4.5 balls of the Berkshire Bulky the purple color and I am not sure what to do with it. I thought about making the Shalom Cardigan, but it's for a 32" bust and I'm a 34". From what I read on ravelry, it is kind of small. Still debating it, or I may just make some thrummed mittens out of the lot, which I know will turn out. I may not even have enough yarn for the Shalom if I decided to make it and that would be a disappointment to put all that work into such a project and not have it turn out correctly. I will just have to get some roaving for my project. I saw some in a corner room at the Sow's Ear, but I have heard that they also have some at a new yarn shop in Mt. Horeb, and I wanted to go there sometime during break too. I also have roughly over half of the light blue Berkshire Bulky leftover as well that I'm really not sure what to do with it. It may have to stay in my stash to be used at another time.

I hope I'm not forgetting anything, if so, I'll post about it later. Enjoy.

Christmas Decorations

I ended up getting a lot of knitting done this weekend - half a project. Well, considering how much knitting I've done in the last three weeks, I would consider how much I have completed a lot. I am really happy with how my Apartment Christmas Stocking is turning out. I must say however, that the pattern goes against Elizabeth Zimmerman's Fair Isle rules. Elizabeth says that you should never run a yarn more than 5 stitches and I found that I was running my yarn for the smaller snowflakes 7 stitches. Tisk tisk. I didn't change the pattern because I just wanted to go as fast as I could. Next time though, I will add stitches to not break the rule. I can see the benefits of Elizabeth's rule, and unfortunately I can also see what breaking the rule does in this pattern. Anyways, here is what I've knitted so far:

My Felted Clogs/Slippers are finally done. I must say that I cannot take credit to the suede part. Mom cut up her old coat and the skirt for the soles and sewed them up for me. Here they are, all done, yay.

I got back today and decorated my apartment after putting everything away. Here are my Christmas decorations, tree and all: (The ornaments are this year's Hallmarks - Corvette and all :-) )

This weekend, I also decorated my Polish Christmas tree, I don't have a picture with me, but will have to post it later.

Oh, when I checked my mail today, I got a letter from a National Board Review and it was Addressed to Dr. Nicole D>>>. I'm not even a doctor yet. I was taken aback by it, in a good way; it felt nice.