(insert cool name here)

Tamales

2014-02-16T15:39:00.001-08:00

This one I'm pretty excited about. Tamales seem really complicated, but after looking at the steps and considering I already had the chicken cooked from last week it seemed pretty easy.

I made the masa dough following this recipe only I halved the amounts. For the filling I used some of the chicken, some corn, spinach and various spices.

Wrapping the tamales was pretty tricky, I'm sure there's an art to it, I just don't have it. I used twine to tie some of them because the corn husk ties upset me.

It tastes pretty good. I'm pleased with the results but I think this may be one of those foods that you're way better off buying from a stand for $2 than making yourself.

Oh and when they tell you to make sure the water doesn't boil away, you should listen to them. In related news, baking soda and vinegar cleans burned pots very well.

Slow cooker pulled chicken

2014-02-16T12:48:00.004-08:00

A local grocery store was selling chicken for $1.69 a pound, I'd been wanting to make a batch of pulled chicken I could have in the freezer for recipes for a while so this was the time. I asked for 6 chicken breasts, and didn't realise until I got home they sell them joined together. So if you ask for 6 you actually get 12 chicken breasts.

This was super easy, even needing to do two batches because of the amount I had. Put it in the crock pot. Turn it on. Let it cool. Tear it apart. Done and Done.

It was pretty tasty, I wanted it pretty plain so I could use it in a variety of recipes so I used the instructions from Handle the Heat.

This week I turned it into a BBQ chicken sandwich, which involved the very complex step of putting BBQ sauce into a pot with the chicken and stirring it until it was warm.

The next night I turned the left of BBQ chicken into nachos. Delicious? Yes. Healthy? Not at all.

Cauliflower Alfredo

2014-02-16T12:40:00.001-08:00

There's a trend at the moment where people take old favourite recipes and try to make them super healthy. I see the appeal, diets are easier to follow when they aren't major shifts, just little changes.
But I don't think it's for me, I just get angry. Don't tell me that spaghetti squash is just like pasta. It's not. It doesn't taste the same. Don't tell me you can't tell the difference. You're lying. Everyone can tell the difference.

So I'm not going to tell you that this Cauli-Power Fettuccine Alfredo from Oh She Glows tastes exactly like alfredo sauce. It tastes nothing at all like alfredo sauce, it's good. It's even better the next day but it's not the same. It's not as creamy, I blended that thing for a very, very long time and it was still kind of grainy. Not it a gross way, just in a way that didn't let you forget that it was made of cauliflower.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

2014-02-16T12:27:00.002-08:00

I stole a new years resolution from someone in my Stitch & Bitch group, to make a new recipe every week. I'm hoping this will both expand my skills in the kitchen and make me eat actual food. Because I eat breakfast & lunch at home and get home pretty tired I tend to eat a lot of the same thing over and over and none of it particularly healthy.

First up is this Chicken Pot Pie Soup from Heat Oven to 350.

I'd had some puff pastry sheets in my freezer for a couple of years and I was a little worried they wouldn't work but they turned out just fine.

I used almond milk instead of regular milk and I don't think it made much of a difference, perhaps it would have been creamier with it.

It was a little runny so I took out probably 2 cups of the broth before serving it. I used this later in the week just mixed with rice.

From Pinterest: Bread Dough

2013-10-19T07:39:00.002-07:00

I've been meaning to bake my own bread since I moved to the USA because bread here is too sweet. Regular supermarket loaves all taste like sugar I don't know what it is or why but American bread is sweet. I've been buying sour dough but that just doesn't taste the same. I want a bread that doesn't add flavour to the sandwich, just holds the bits together. Four years later I've actually decided to do it.

I used this recipe from Bread in 5 my yeast was 4 months out of date so I was a little worried it wouldn't work but after mixing it all in and leaving it I came home to risen dough. I was pretty excited.

To make the loaf you measure out a pound of dough and make it into a ball, then leave it to sit for 90 minutes. You're supposed to use parchment paper but last time I used it it made my kitchen all smoky so I just used foil.

I cooked it at 400 instead of 450 and for 5 minutes less because my over runs really hot, it probably could have done with a few minutes less because the crust was a little tough. But it turned out great!

Apparently the dough lasts in the fridge for two weeks and I love the idea of having dough in my fridge to use when ever I want.

From Pinterest: Fall Harvest Vegetarian Corn and Butternut Chowder

2013-10-13T07:54:00.001-07:00

Did you know you could actually do the things you pin to Pinterest? Me neither, I thought they were purely aspirational. Here's a series on actually doing the pins.
The Series. My Pinterest boards.

So this is kind of a double. First this recipe for Fall Harvest Vegetarian Corn and Butternut Chowder from A Family Feast, but it uses cream and I can't do dairy (well shouldn't but I do anyway). I found a list of cream substitutes from Go Dairy Free and decided to try tofu, now I'm not a big fan of tofu but it's mainly the consistency that bothers me.

I did the soup in the slow cooker because I don't have a pot big enough and I love my slow cooker. I liked the recipes suggestion of using a bunt cake pan to catch the corn kernels, of course I don't own a bunt pan so I made a mess.

The tofu blended up quickly and looked exactly like cream, it doesn't taste as creamy and I'm not sure how it would work in a sweet dish but it definitely worked here.

The soup was good, a little bland but that might have been the fault of the tofu. I took some of the stock out before I added the tofu because I usually find soups I make to be too watery.

From Pinterest: Rice cooker chicken rice

2013-10-04T20:04:00.002-07:00

Did you know you could actually do the things you pin to Pinterest? Me neither, I thought they were purely aspirational. Here's a series on actually doing the pins.
The Series. My Pinterest boards.

Rice Cooker Chicken Rice Recipe from Noob Cook

The recipe is simple. Rice, chicken, garlic, chicken stock, ginger, throw it in the rice cooker and press the button.

I marinaded the chicken overnight in soy sauce, garlic, lemon and a little cinnamon (I discovered I have far too much cinnamon so it's going on everything at the moment). I'm not sure I used chicken stock Knorr doesn't label their cubes individually so it might have been vegetable or beef.

The chicken turned out perfect, tasted amazing and was the perfect consistency, but the rice was undercooked. I think more water next time.

It also wasn't that interesting to look at, it probably needed some green vegetables or a garnish (which she suggests but I didn't do).

Summary:
Chicken was great, I need to work on the stock ratio for the rice. The site's instructions are easy to follow though.

From Pinterest: Recaps

2013-10-04T19:46:00.001-07:00

I'm going to start a) actually making the things I've pinned to my Pinterest and b) telling you how I did with them.

But first a recap of the ones I've tried so far but didn't think to photograph or pay close attention to what I did exactly.

Cheddar, Apple, & Spinach Grilled Cheese: The apples I used were a little past their best but otherwise this was good and I like the idea of putting things like apples in grilled cheese sandwiches.

Printing on a paper bag: This was an idea for Valentine's Day which I adapted for last minute birthday wrapping paper. I took some birthday clip art and printed it onto a brown paper bag. It turned out ok, I think the picture had too many subtle colours and I had to reset my printer head after doing it.

Plastic eggs & spoon maracas: This is a really simple activity. Plastic spoons and those plastic Easter eggs. Fill the eggs with some rice and tape the spoons to them. I didn't have the pretty take they use and just used masking tape. F enjoyed making them but didn't really enjoy playing with them but she isn't that into maracas.

Ethereally smooth hummus: You HAVE to peel the chickpeas! It makes such a difference and isn't that hard. Peel them.

Vegan chocolate cake: This turned out great, this might become my go to cake recipe especially since I don't keep milk in the house.

Smitten Kitchen home fries: All her stuff is great, including this.

Double fold Binding: My go to binding tutorial, because I usually need to look it up each time I do it.

iKnit Needle Sizer: A good needle sizer app although I haven't tried any others.

Hippie Windex: Rubbing alcohol + Vinegar + water. Was a little streaky but could have been operator error.

Softest Silkiest Legs: Terrible. Messy, sticky, really hard to get off the side of the bath if it drips and didn't make my legs noticeably softer. Also the instructions are bright blue on a red background and hurt my eyes.

Waiting For Baby Sampler

2013-06-22T14:33:00.002-07:00

While I was waiting for the family I work for's 2nd child to arrive I started working on a crocheted blanket made out of left over yarn.

I started with Blair Stocker's Granny Square Sampler. I swapped out some of the patterns I didn't understand or didn't like. Then added some different squares to use up the rest of my yarn. You can find a list of the added squares on the project's Ravelry page.

I am really proud of this, 3 weeks after finishing it I still want to knock on all the doors in my apartment bulding and say "Look what I made!!!" to all my neighbours.

I think I can officially say I know how to crochet after this.

The Admiral hated the joining process. He thinks anything put on the ground is his to play with and sleep on. He did not appreciate being shoved off constantly.

Piecing it together.

Nearly Done.

The last of the ends! Oh my God so many ends.

P.S. The baby arrived. He's very cute and his big sister adores him.

Review: The Sea, the Sea

2013-04-09T15:20:00.001-07:00

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I should not have enjoyed this book.
The narrator rambles, he jumps all over. He talks about food all the time and weird food.
He's a dick, to his friends to his cousin, to women oh my god to women. He's a class A misogynistic douche.
He's paranoid and crazy and self obsessed. He has no redeeming features. None. He's an awful human.
The other characters are also self obsessed or insane or weird.
There were so many weird coincidences, someone happens to appear at just the right time. Turns out so and so knew so and so the whole time for no reason. So many problems could be solved if everyone just sat down & talked like a normal human. But no, not even the non theatre people act like normal people.
And yet I really enjoyed it. No idea why. The writing just carried me, it didn't feel like 500 pages I read it on kindle so I had no concept of how fast I was moving but each time I checked I'd read another 10%.
Read the first 50 pages, if you can handle that he gets slightly less rambley and talks about food less. And it becomes quite tense in the middle.

View all my reviews

Sneezles

2013-03-28T22:19:00.001-07:00

It's spring. You can tell by the fact that my eyes and nose are itchy and I sneeze every 4 seconds. I've always had hayfever, I even started allergy treatment for it but quit halfway through because it was too hard. It involved going to a specialist once a week for a series of injections, I didn't give a hoot about the injections I just hated going.
Now I couldn't afford it even if I wanted it, stupid American healthcare system.

It's really not that bad, a slight inconvenience and tiredness but this year seems worse than the last few years.
Anyone else suffering more this year? Has the Bay Area had a massive pollen explosion? Or is it just me?

Here's a video to get you in the sneezing mood. http://youtu.be/WLY-8_PfxAw

Free Pattern: Chunky Baby Mitts

2013-03-03T21:51:00.001-08:00

We're waiting on a new addition to the family. My cousin & his wife are having a baby and I put off knitting until the point where the baby was threatening to arrive before the gift so this weekend I whipped up a hat and mitts. The hat I used the Fixation Newborn Hat pattern but the mitt pattern I wrote myself and I thought I'd share it. This pattern is for personal or charity use only.

Chunky Baby Mitts

Gauge: 4.5sts per inch
Materials:
A small amount of bulky yarn I used KnitPicks Brava Bulk.
Size 6 DPNs (or size needed to obtain gauge).
Tapestry needle.
Stitch marker if wanted.

CO 18sts, join in the round being careful not to twist. Place marker if desired.
Work in K1, P1 for 2 inches.

K1, m1, K4, m1, K1 three times until all stitches are worked (24sts).
Knit 15 rounds.
K1, ssk, K6, k2tog, K1 x2.
K1, ssk, K4, k2tog, K1 x2.
K1, ssk, K2, k2tog, K1 x2.
K1, ssk, k2tog, K1 x2.
Graft remaining stitches.
Weave in ends.

Repeat for second mitt.

A note on yarn choices for new babies. Use yarns that are machine washable and dryable. Babies are messy and parents are tired, if the people you are knitting for aren't knitters they may not realise some yarns need to be treated with care. If they are knitters they'll still be exhausted and doing a lot of washing, give them a break and don't make them something they need to delicately hand wash and dry flat.

2013 New Years Resolution

2013-02-23T13:12:00.001-08:00

This years New Years resolution is last years recycled (I'm very green).
Last year I wanted to not buy any book until I'd read the ones I owned. And I bought less books but didn't really make a dent in my pile of unread books, nor the virtual pile of unread ebooks.
The trouble last year was that I told myself that library books weren't bought books & this didn't count. So I borrowed a bunch of library books. I also told myself that books I bought after turning my loose change into amazon gift cards at a coinstar machine also didn't count. On the basis that that was somehow free money.

This year I'm being much more strict. No buying books unless it's a Pratchett book or something miraculous happens (I've got a couple books I want to read that are priced at around $100. If one of those is magically on sale for a reasonable price I'm buying it).
No library books, unless they were put on hold last year.
No free ebooks they have to already be on a device to be read.
No rereading, this was another trap I fell into last year.
Focus on the physical books. This isn't a strict requirement but some of these books I brought with me when I moved here with 2 suitcases. I thought they were important enough to lug half way round the world when I had limited space, they need to be read.
Discarding them is fine, I don't have to force myself to read a book I hate. But I need to at least open them.

So far it has been going really well. I've read several from my physical shelf although I haven't tackled any of the heavy ones that will be the most difficult to get through.
I finished 2 ebooks I'd been putting off reading of years, one I started over because it had been at least 2 years since I touched it.
I haven't bought any books. I only read one library books because it has been on hold for me for months and months.
So far this has been a much more effective challenge than last year but it's early days and there's a high probability I'll fall off the wagon.

2013 Reading Challenge

tuttle88 has
read 28 books toward her goal of 50 books.

hide

28 of 50 (56%)

view books

Blog Update

2013-02-22T07:36:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, I've been wanting to post more regularly but I have been in a bit of a blogging rut and I'm not sure why. Actually I know exactly why, I've been needing to write about my friend Rhian who sadly passed away last month but I haven't been able to. I've spoken about her before and I wanted to write something about her but I put it off and put it off, I read other people's beautiful tributes and wanted to add mine but I just wasn't able to write it. And I didn't want to post anything else because I had mentally assigned the next one to be about her.

I will write something tonight, I don't know if it will be about Rhian or about something utterly stupid but I need to get on a schedule and get stricter about it.

Hats hats hats

2013-01-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

I've been making a lot of hats lately. Happily this coincided with one of the Ravelry group's I'm a member of starting a hat making contest so I might win a prize for one of these.

This one is the pattern Gargantuan Melon I made for a friend. It's one of the few free patterns on Ravelry that is designed for giant heads. This is a really quick and easy pattern.

This is the Be Loving for the new baby of the people I used to work for. The colours don't show up well in the photo of the completed hat, but int he close up you can see it's a beautiful deep pink and the base is the Knit Picks Rainforest Heather which has a really interesting subtle pattern.

I finally knit my first Jared Flood pattern. I've been a fan of his work for a while but I haven't actually gotten around to knitting anything of his until now. The person I was knitting it for's nickname is the same as the colourway of the pink and I wanted to use it instead of a variegated like the pattern calls for.

I shouldn't be so hard on this one. This is a pattern I made up and was going to post here but it didn't turn out great. I measured her head, I swatched, I even frogged it once because it wasn't working. And yet it doesn't fit properly. It's too short and too wide. Part of the problem is that I used a cotton/linen blend that doesn't stretch well I don't think it's great for hats. Everyone else loves it, the toddler picks it out when she gets a choice of hat and it gets lots of compliments but it bugs me each time I see it. She dropped it once and I nearly didn't go back for it. I fear this says more about my own insecurities than about the hat.

Finally one for me, actually there are three for me but one of them doesn't photograph well and the other I'm going to write about in a different post. The yarn for this one is part of a recent nerd themed yarn buying spree I went on. I fell in love with this Hermione Jean yarn based on Kaylee from Firefly's parasol. The actual parasol from the episode is actually red, green, yellow and white but because she is such a feminine character I feel like this captures her. When I caked it I was really worried that it was going to be hideous but I really like the way it has striped up. I'm really not a hat person, I wear my hair up a lot and I tend to look bald in beanies, this SockHead pattern has enough slouch that hopefully it doesn't make me look ridiculous.

Stop Procrastinating Update

2012-12-14T07:58:00.001-08:00

Yes yes I know it's been a while. I bet you think I quit doing the challenge, well you'd be wrong. I just quit writing about it for exceptionally dumb reasons. 1) I thought it was kind of dull to write about and 2) I got behind and felt like I had to catch up instead of just skipping ahead.
But I have been doing it. Much to my surprise it has been months and I'm still at it.
Each week I have been going to one new place. It helped that my BFF was here for a month, we did something every night and several things evey weekend. My motivation flagged right after she left but "luckily" my Stitch and Bitch became homeless so we went on a trek to find a new weekly meeting place. I loved our old home but I did knock off a bunch of new places while we were roaming, also the new place has booze.

Like I said in a previous post, this has really worked. I think about weekends differently, instead of doing the same things over and over I have been seeking out new experiences. I have been inviting friends out and they have been saying yes but if they can't make it I haven't freaked out about it.

A couple weeks ago I planned a last minute trip to San Jose & Campbell to go to the Aussie store and a cool yarn store. No one could come with me, and I was sad that I didn't get to share the experience but I didn't start believing that all my friends secretly hate me. Look this may sound exceptionally crazy to any of you who haven't had clinical depression but for me, after years of being on anti depressants having normal reactions to situations is a big deal. Plus it turned out a friend randomly had a spare 3hrs in the South Bay and was able to come hang out anyway.

The week before I was sitting on my couch thinking about a friend I haven't seen in a while and wondering when I'd get a chance to see her. Instead of wondering I sent her an email asking if she wanted to have lunch some time. She said yes, and that she was free that afternoon. I would never have done that before starting this challenge. I would have just thought about it. And you know what? It isn't hard and it isn't scary.

I wasn't expecting to get this much out of it. I also wasn't expecting that I'd stick with it this long. But I have and I did and I'm going to give myself a gold star and a stamp.

Hey did you guys know it's my birthday Sunday? Also that I have a donate button on the sidebar? Those are unrelated.

Life Lessons From Washcloths.

2012-10-21T20:50:00.002-07:00

I don't crochet, not because of any moral objection (don't laugh there are people who are opposed to it) I just didn't learn. I was taught to knit and never really felt the need to until I started hanging out with more fibre artists. Chase taught me to make a passable granny square which I promptly forgot, then forgot again after she taught me again. Last week she showed me how to make a circle for the end of a knit project I was working on. Which I managed to do it by asking her the same question over and over. The next day I made the second circle all by my self. This inspired me to make something without any help at all (aside from YouTube). The results were, um... Interesting.

It's meant to be a washcloth. It's meant to be square and it's meant to look like this.

But I'm not ashamed of it. Ok maybe a little, but I'm not too ashamed to post pictures of it. Because here's the thing, it's not meant to be perfect. Hand made items are never meant to be perfect, crafting is a skill. Something that you get better at with practice making mistakes are an important part of the process. It's how you learn and how you track improvement. Talking about our mistakes and failures is vital, when I put this picture up on twitter I got not only encouragement but actual constructive assistance from people who have been doing this longer than me. If I'd just ripped it out I wouldn't have learned what I'd done wrong. I would have just repeated the same mistakes over and over. This isn't just me justifying spending an afternoon working on something that looks like a 5yr old made. These are lessons I've learned from crafting. Accepting my mistakes. Asking for help. Accepting praise. Striving for improvement over perfection. Admitting and even being proud of my failures

And look at the results. I put it out there and got some amazing assistance and look at attempt number 2!

It's actually a square. I kind of figured out the pattern. It looks like a 12 year old made it. That's a lot of improvement in a weekend.

Finished!

2012-10-14T09:46:00.001-07:00

Back in May I posted about my trip to Verb for Keeping warm as part of the Stop Procrastinating Challenge (which I'm still doing by the way procrastinating blogging about). I mentioned that I'd bought some yarn to start making the Colour Affection shawl, well I finished it last night.

I knew it would be a long and not complex project, it's 99% garter stitch with only increases and short rows. The goal was to keep it as my mindless project and work on it gradually, which I did up until the end when I decided I wanted to finish and stayed up late to do it.

It looks great, I wasn't sure about the green when I added it but I really like it now I think it looks great in combination. I'm really proud of how it turned out but man I need something complicated to work on now I have been meaning to make the Smaug socks in time for The Hobbit movie so I think that's next. In addition to my Christmas knitting.

For those of you wanting to do it I have some tips:

Knit a little swatch with your colours in combination, I didn't and I wish I did. By the time I added the 3rd colour I had a mini freak out about how it looked.
Take your time, if you try to finish this by a set date you will go crazy, it is just knitting. Some increases and wrap stitches but nothing to keep your mind busy. By the end you will have over 400 stitches each row to get through. Keep this as your complicated movie or hanging out pattern.
The short rows don't go all the way to the end. They stop about 100 stitches from the end. It might be obvious to you but it confused the hell out of me.

Carolyn's Guide To Quickly Dealing With Book Samples

2012-07-17T15:15:00.001-07:00

I love my kindle. Yes I love the feel and smell of real books but you can't take 12 books on holiday with you. Well you can but it's a hassle. One of the things I love most about the kindle is that every book has an option to download a sample chapter or two before buying, it's a great way to try books out. However it has the downside of being really easy to end up with too many samples and not enough real books. I had around 200 sample books on my kindle, leaving possibly fascinating histories of the mushroom or the orange uninvestigated. This may sound like not a big deal but I don't have 500 days to read samples, there are actual books to read and I'm behind on my Goodreads reading challenge, 8 books behind and that just won't do.

With 71 samples left I have perfected my art.

1) Go through them deleting ones you were dumb to download in the first place. I hate military histories, what was I thinking when I thought I was going to read 5?

2) Delete books you know you're going to buy anyway. I don't need to read a sample of a Terry Pratchett book. I will buy anything that man writes.

3) Skip the introduction or preface. It is written in a different style to the rest of the book. You might hate the introduction yet love the book and vis versa. It just wastes time. If you end up buying or borrowing the whole book read it then.

4) Don't put too much weight on the first part of the first chapter. It's often written to entice the reader and may not reflect the actual flow of the book.

5) Read more for style than content. I hate nonfiction books written like novels so this is really what I'm looking for. If I end up reading the whole thing then I want to pay attention to what the author is saying but in deciding if I'm going to buy it I'm more interested in how the author says it.

6) And most important, once you've decided you want to read more don't hit "Buy it now", I wasted a lot of money that way. Check to see if the local library has a copy, if they don't and you still want to read it then buy it. Samples mostly cut of mid sentence, it can be so tempting to hit buy just to read the end of a thought. If you are still desperate to read the rest in a couple of days then buy it.

That's my method. Does anyone else have a system?

Mini Sock Lavender Sachet Tutorial

2012-06-24T17:34:00.001-07:00

My Stitch and Bitch group is going to have a booth at the Oakland Fibre Fair and I wanted to make something to sell. I was going to make some baby socks, but after I finished one sock I got bored and didn't want to make its pair. I had some dried lavender around so I decided to make a little lavender sachet out of my little sock. The irony of a project that started because I didn't want to make 2 socks is that I've now made 10 of them but they seem to be much more fun.

The full tutorial is under the picture. If you don't want to make them I have some for sale on my Etsy store or come to the fair on July 8th.

You Will Need:

A small amount of sock yarn
US size 2 DPNs
Some dried lavender, about half a tablespoon per sock
Tulle or netting
Tapestry needle
Stuffing, I used some left over quilt batting but you can use anything

You are going to make a mini sock, and stuff it with batting and a little pouch you've made out of the tulle and lavender then use the cast on tail to sew it closed. You can then use it as a gift, or to freshen up your drawers, or put it in your pillowcase or anywhere else you want the scent of lavender.

Mini Sock:

Gauge:
Gauge isn't important, bigger yarn and/or bigger needles will give you a bigger sock. Make sure whatever size needles or yarn your weave is tight enough that you're stuffing won't come out.

CO 24sts, arrange on 3 needles so there are 6,12,6 stitches (this allows your tail to be in the right position when you want to sew it closed).
Join being careful not to twist

Rounds 1-4: Work in a K1, P1 rib pattern
Rounds 5-15: Knit all stitches

Heel flap:
Work on needle with 12sts, you will probably need to knit the stitches on one of the needles to get to the right spot.

Row 1: knit across 12sts, turn
Row 2: purl across, turn
(Repeat two more times for a total of 6 rows)

Turning the heel:
Row 1: K6, K2tog, K1, turn
Row 2: P2, P2tog, P1, turn
Row 3: K3, K2tog, K1, turn
Row 4: P4, P2tog, P1, turn
Row 5: K5 K2tog, turn
Row 6: P5 P2tog, turn (6sts remaining)
Row 7: knit across

Gusset:
Pick up 6 sts from side of heel flap
Slip Stitches from the next two needles onto one needle. Then knit these 12 sts.
Pick up 6sts from the other side of the flap
Knit 3 of the 6 stitches from the next needle onto the one you've just picked up the stitches with (there'll be 9sts on this needle now)
Slip the remaining 3sts onto needle you picked up other side's sts on so there are 9 on this needle as well.

You should now have 3 needles
Needle 1: 9sts
Needle 2: 12sts
Needle 3: 9sts
Your working yarn should be between needles 1&3

Foot:
Round 1:
    Needle 1: knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
    Needle 2: knit across
    Needle 3: k1, k2tog, knit remaining stitches
Round 2: Knit all stitches.
    (Repeat these rounds until you have 6sts on needles 1&3)
Knit 4 rounds knitting all stitches.

Toes:
Round 1:
     Needle1: k until last 3, k2tog, k1
     Needle2: k1, k2tog, k until last 3, k2tog, k1
     Needle3: k1, k2tog knit remaining
Round 2: knit all stitches
     (Continue until you have 12sts total (3,6,3))
Knit stitches from needle 1 onto needle 3

Graft toes

Weave in this end (NOT the cast on end). If you want to be lazy just tie a knot and pull it through to the inside, no one will be wearing it so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Lavender Pouch:

This is fiddly because tulle sucks to sew and the pouches are about an inch square. I'm going to show you how to make more than one pouch at a time. It is much, much easier to do that way.

Cut a strip of tulle about 10 inches long and 2 inches wide, it can be as long as you like, too short and it'll be hard to hold, too long and it'll slip a lot.

Fold your strip in half lengthwise so it's 10x1.

Sew one end of your rectangle closed.

Sew another line about 3/4 and inch along your rectangle.

Leave a small gap then sew another line. This is so when you're done you will be able to cut out each individual pouch.

Repeat this along your rectangle of fabric, dividing it up into 3/4 inch sections a scissor width gap in between.

Take about a teaspoon or half of your dried lavender and put it in your tulle pockets through the open end. I made a little funnel from some card and used that. It can be a bit messy but it's lavender so if it spills at least it'll smell nice.

Pin the pocket closed, you will need to pin it pretty securely since tulle is slipperier than a politician in an election year. Repeat this for all your pockets.

Sew along the remaining side of your rectangle closing all the pockets at once. It doesn't have to look pretty since it'll be inside your sock.

Finishing

Cut your lavender pockets from the tulle rectangle. (Tip: cut each pocket off as needed so you don't lose the little things)

Stuff the lavender pouch into the toe of your sock, then add in your stuffing.

Using the cast on tail sew the top of your sock closed.

And that's it! These are pretty easy to make and don't take too long.

Feel free to use this pattern for your own personal use or for gifts or charity but please don't sell them. Don't sell this pattern and provide credit of you are posting about it online. Can't be bothered making one? Buy it here.

This is the first pattern I've written, if you find any mistakes let me know. If anything doesn't make sense let me know.

Can I help?

TSPC Week 12 - BBQ at Coyote Point

2012-06-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

The Stop Procrastinating Challenge Week 12

There's not much of a write up for this one. I probably wouldn't post anything but I want to prove that I did something and I'm not skimping on my challenge. The Aussies, Kiwi,s & Saffas group I hung out with on ANZAC Day held a BBQ at Coyote Point Park in San Mateo. It was a pretty nice day, although very, very windy. I hadn't actually realised how close Coyote Point was, I think I had been confusing it with something else, now I know I'll have to go back to CuriOdyssey maybe I'll take the toddler I look after, has anyone been? Would a 14 month old enjoy it?

There were some new people at the meetup and some people I'd met before and this time I actually swapped details with people, so that was an improvement on last time!

TSPC Week 11 - Jewelry Making

2012-06-09T16:38:00.002-07:00

The Stop Procrastinating Challenge Week 11

This covers the doing something I've never done before aspect of the challenge rather than going somewhere. Chase has a bunch of jewelry making supplies she's been wanting to get rid of so she decided to throw a jewelry making party at her house. Because she's Chase she also cooked amazing food and made amazing cocktails so by the time we sat down to bead we were a bit woozy.

I found myself sitting at the "People who know what they're doing" table with people who'd brought their own supplies and were talking in words I didn't understand so I moved over to the "Can I have one of the twisty, squeezy things?" table. I made a couple of things of varying quality, some cat earrings that are pretty cool and a bracelet which is pretty terrible.

It was really fun, the food was AMAZING and if I had more space and more money I might actually start making jewelry but thankfully I'm just sane enough to know that getting into it would be a bad idea.

When you go visit Chase's blog check out the post about Maker Faire has a picture of me making friends with a Dalek.

TSPC Week 10 - Maia & Beryl at the Rooster

2012-06-09T16:05:00.001-07:00

The Stop Procrastinating Challenge Week 10

I have been keeping up with my new activities I just haven't been keeping up with blogging about it. This one is from May 18th. My friend Maia was opening at a CD release gig for the band Greater Sirens.

Maia & her friend Beryl both play guitar and in addition Maia plays the double bass and Beryl plays the ukelele. If you've never seen a ukulele/double bass duo then you don't know what you're missing because it is the coolest. They performed mostly songs written by themselves and my personal favs were Maia's song 'Just Two Friends' and Beryl's love song to Cleopatra which included the amazing line "I don't care that you married your brother". Maia & Beryl don't have a website but I'll let you know if/when they are performing again. After the pics is a video of their ukelele/double bass Elvis cover.

Here's the video taken with my iPhone its not great quality sorry about that.

TSPC Week 9 - Donating blood

2012-05-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

The Stop Procrastinating Challenge Week 9

This is was a real one. By that I mean something I've been meaning to do for ages and have been putting off for no good reason. I've donated blood in the past and its really easy, it hurts a little and takes a couple hours but actually saves lives. I forget sometimes just how much of a difference something so small can do. It just gets pushed to the bottom of the list and then it falls off the list completely and then I forget that it was ever on the list at all.

Then last month my dear friend Rhian was rushed to hospital, I felt completely helpless since there was nothing at all I could do. I could send her virtual love and support but I couldn't actually help her in any way. I hate feeling helpless, I like to control things and do things and fix things. When she mentioned that she was getting a blood transfusion it occurred to me that this was something I could do. I don't want to get too sappy but this is genuinely what went through my head. Someone else had actually gotten off their ass and had saved a complete stranger's life. They had never met Rhian, they didn't give her blood because she's an amazing person, maybe they were doing it for someone they knew, or because they wanted to be nice, or they'd been doing it so long it had become a habit. But the result was that someone gave their blood and their time and it helped someone I care about. I really felt like I had a duty to do the same. I'm not trying to be holier-than-thou I really felt driven to do it, like I owed the world one pint of blood.

So today I made an appointment with the Red Cross, they were wide open possibly because of Mother's Day, everyone was commenting on how quiet it was.

I said no but honestly I've never asked.

I met with one nurse who looked me up in her database, I had to give her my Social Security Number so she could check someone wasn't donating in my name, thankfully they weren't because that would be the weirdest case of identity fraud ever. My blood pressure and iron levels were good and I was left alone in the room to answer the questions on the computer. I passed thanks to never having something called "Babeiosis", or to my knowledge had sex with an IV drug user. I was, as always, made uncomfortable by the questions what bar gay men from donating since I believe (as the Red Cross does) that those restrictions need to be relaxed based on better testing for HIV and that it discriminates against gay men who are sure of their status and wish to donate, not that I believe in the slightest that this is a reason to boycott donating especially with the knowledge that the Red Cross wants the policy changed.

Once done I went to the main room and met my nurse, Paul, who was super friendly and funny. He got my vein first time which in the history of my blood donations & blood tests (including when I was getting weekly tests for blood thinners) no one has ever done it was so quick and didn't hurt. We chatted and watched my blood drain, he went off to get a drink and the person he asked to watch me while he was gone asked if I was feeling dizzy. I honestly wasn't, I felt fine but I was trying to make conversation and said I just felt like blood was coming out of me which made me feel weird. I apparently did not make this joke well because the whole room freaked out. She lay my chair back further and had me bring my knees up, someone else came and put a wet cloth on my head, Paul rushed back and I felt really embarrassed. Next time I'll keep my awkward jokes to myself.

No beer but they do have movie ads!

Once I was done I was given instructions to stay hydrated and watch out for dizziness and not to drink alcohol today. I mentioned that when you donate in South Australia you get given beer or wine by the nice little volunteer ladies, they thought it was a bit strange. I agree but it was an awesome feeling sitting there a little light headed, drinking a beer thinking "Man this is a bad idea, I've got to drive home now". Here you got juice, you served yourself and free choice of the box of snacks on the table. No sandwiches and no old ladies with poor hearing you have to ask for it from. Sad.

Kitteh cares about my booboo, also that it's dinner time.

And that was it. I'll apparently get a donation card in the mail and can go again in 3 months or something, I mean to make it a habit this time. It took just over an hour and the place is located right on Claremont & College where there are a bunch of restaurants including Southie where I had a delicious sandwich and a chocolate bread pudding.

Mmmm... reward.

So go do it, or at least see if you're eligible.

TSPC Week 8 - Verb for Keeping Warm (and others)

2012-05-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

The Stop Procrastinating Challenge Week 8

Saturday I discovered I had some spare money. As part of my attempt to stay on budget I take out cash on Fridays and use that money until the next Friday. Any money I have left at the end goes in an envelope for splurge spending. I wanted to make the Colour Affection shawl and decided to buy one skein of fancy yarn for it and use stash yarn for the other two colours. All my friends rave about Verb for Keeping Warm (which I had actually thought was Verve for Keeping Warm) but I'd never been. Right next door is Actual Cafe which I'd been meaning to check out so off I went.

Verb is a super nice store with lots of amazing yarns and some fabrics. There were some women chatting and knitting and the staff were really friendly. Turns out they happened to have 18% off that day so that was a nice surprise. I bought a skein of this amazing green from Medelinetosh which is a tad brighter than it looks in the picture. I think will look good with the KnitPicks bare (which I had bought to practice dyeing but I decided to use plain instead although there should be enough left) and the KnitPicks Jack Rabbit Heather which is kind of a greyish brownish colour. I know the shawl is probably going to drive me crazy with the massive amount of plain garter stitch there is but I like to have a project I can work on that doesn't involve thinking so I can chat.

Actual Cafe next door is a pretty cool place. They sell themselves on being really local and community orientated and have a Laptop-Free Weekend policy, where they don't allow people to use their laptops on the weekends (I believe you can still use them during the week). I read a news article about when they started this and the comments are hilarious, like somehow a business saying "Hey we don't want you to buy one coffee and drain our electricity, bandwidth and space for 7hrs" is some how the biggest infringement on someone's rights in the world. Lots of comments were along the line of "How dare they try to impose their beliefs on me!". Maybe I'm getting ancient but it seems so weird to me that people think they can treat a business like it's their own living room. The coffee was good and they had some cool art on the walls, my favorite was these cartooned Star Trek characters hanging out in Oakland which I sadly forgot to photograph. They also had seed bombs in like a gumball machine that I forgot to buy. I was distracted by my pretty yarn.

Sunday Chase was meant to be selling at the Laney College Flea Market but apparently its weirdly/badly organised and she couldn't actually get in. Since I've been waking up at ungodly hours of early for no reason I suggested if it didn't work out we grab breakfast. I'm kind of glad it didn't, although its sad that she has a car full of stuff she still needs to get rid of, we did get to eat delicious food at Aunt Mary's Kitchen. I love breakfast foods especially southern style breakfasts. Chase & Dennis did the right thing and ordered fancy things (Chase had the grits waffles) but I was boring and went for plain boring eggs, biscuits & gravy & sausage. There's something about simple breakfast foods done really well that is better than anything else to me. (Oh Australian friends biscuits are like scones and its a white gravy that is delicious, come visit and I'll show you). Aunt Mary's has a massive line most weekends apparently but since we were all up early we missed the rush. Oh and I can't remember what coffee they serve but it was delicious.

I also made it to Article Pract which yet another yarn store although I didn't buy anything but they have some beautiful stuff including one which is 10% bison. Yup bison.

We also went to the Center for Creative Reuse which I've been to before and is still the coolest place in the world. I bought a sheep art. I'm calling it An Art because I don't really know what else to call it it looks like french knotted yarn on burlap and I love it.

Next week: Donating blood.