The Vegetable Revolution

I watched Jamie Oliver's TED acceptance speech yesterday. I highly recommend scraping together 20 minutes in your day to take a look at it - it took me a couple weeks to get around to it. But after watching it I realized some things. I want to eat better food. I want everybody to eat better food and know how to make it. I want to know how to make better food too, because I certainly have some things to learn myself. And I'm going to do it, because I deserve to eat better. You deserve to eat better. My family deserves real food, every day. And I'm going to learn right here where anybody can find it, and everybody can help and be helped. I have to re-learn to cook real food. I know some, and I'll share what I can and learn what I can.

My vegetable revolution began yesterday. I hope you'll learn and share with me.

Yesterday's haul:

That's a Roma tomato ($0.30), a bunch of kale ($2.49), "baby" green Vidalia onions ($1.79), two avocados ($2.78), and two zucchini (rung up as cucumbers, they cost $1.98). I don't like tomatoes so they will be lacking in our diet, but my husband likes them and I plan to use this one in tonight's dinner.

February Stashdown Report

Hey, I almost forgot to do my first monthly Stashdown Report! This is a part of my goal for 2010 to use up more yards of yarn than I buy. In February did better than I did in January and even have pretty good excuses for my purchases. I took a trip to WEBS to meetup with my Harry Potter crafting game friends, so I took the opportunity to get a few things that I knew I couldn't get at my LYS. Then The Periwinkle Sheep had a closeout sale on her merino sport yarn and, well, I couldn't let that get away from me (she still has a couple skeins left!). And last but not least, I did buy some yarn for a crochet sock race challenge that begins tomorrow. I'm one of seven people from my group racing three other groups of seven to produce a pair of crocheted socks. The pattern release is in about 14 hours, which is 3am my time! I kept waking up last night and looking at the clock, even though it was a night early. I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from getting up and beginning when the pattern is released! I also received a gift of a beautiful skein of sock yarn. I am a very lucky person.

Now on the exciting flip side we have the yarn that I've used up! I've blogged about some of these but not others. I gave away a bag full of different eyelash and novelty yarns to one of my House Cup friends, Vertigo, who was at the WEBS meetup. That was pretty exciting, because they've been here lurking in the stash for a couple years doing nothing and she is using them to make pet beds.

I made a house colors cup cozy for those too-hot coffee cups, my Hufflepuff rat of course, coasters, two pairs of socks (one pair here), a beaded bracelet, a colorwork hat, and I finally finished the Saoirse Shawl I started last October. Phew!! A pretty productive month.

So now for the numbers...

February yarn in: 5975 yards
February yarn out: 2988.2 yards
Year-to-date in: 10,508 yards
Year-to-date out: 3491.7 yards

Yards to go until I break even: 7,017 yards

As you can see... I have some crafting to do.

One more thing!

Today is the last day to sign up for the Evenstar Mystery Shawl KAL. I signed up last night on a whim - it's a circular shawl, clues every other week, optional beaded edging, and 1700 yards of laceweight. The pictures of progress so far up on Ravelry are gorgeous! So I took the plunge and signed up. I'll probably start it in May (to use as a three-month project for the Harry Potter game) but the pattern won't be released to everyone until June.

What next??

I took the opportunity during the Ravelympics to wrap up a few things that had been rattling around in my brain or WIP basket for far too long. I ripped out six partial projects that I just didn't love anymore or would have a better future as something else.





I crocheted an adult-sized pair of socks for the first time.



I finished the knitting on a WIP that I started last October, the marathon Saoirse Shawl. I still need to sew the pieces together, weave in the ends, and send it for a dip in some warm water, but for Ravelympics purposes the project is done, done, done, finally at last it is done! Finished photos to come, of course.

I overdyed two types of Brown Sheep yarn, a skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky and a skein of Nature Spun. Unfortunately, in photographs it's practically impossible to tell that the yarns are now both deeper blue all over and have new purple splotches. It isn't what I was going for, but I like it. I might dye it again though and go for more purple so it doesn't look quite as much like an accident.

Bulky Before and After



Nature Spun Before and After


I also dyed a 50g skein of sock yarn that I just love. I used yellow and orange food coloring. Spike has stolen this skein to put on my sweater drying rack twice - I guess he likes it too. This skein's fate is with a skein of black in colorwork, but I'm not sure what just yet - maybe Endpaper Mitts.



And for one of the designer events, I wrote down the pattern for some crochet mitts I made in January. I want to have it tested before releasing it into the wild, but the part where I get the initial thoughts onto a page is done. Pictures and making sure other people understand it, well, I have no idea how much of a challenge that will be...

So what's next? I'll be making a child-sized Saoirse Shawl, a pair of lime green mittens, a beaded necklace or two, finishing my Laminaria, and some sewing! Yes, sewing! March is going to be great!

Overboard!

Have you ever had an idea that, once it popped into your head, you just couldn't not see it through? I love it when it happens to me. Of course I only remember the very best results from these flights of fantasy, but it seems like they turn out rather well in general. A few years ago I felt so inspired by a ball of yarn and my first set of Addi Turbo needles that I designed a baby sweater. I'd never even knit a sweater of any sort, or designed anything, and had only been knitting for about a year and a half, but a week or so later there it was. Eventually I'll get around to writing that pattern up.

I participate in a game on Ravelry called the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup. Everybody is sorted into houses from the Harry Potter books and some players are professors, offering a class prompt each month and making at least a loose connection back to the Harry Potter universe. I've been playing since last September and it's really been motivational for me to get things made and finished. So this month one of the classes required that we make something that scares us and then another class focused on making the scary thing no longer scary (the tie back to HP was a boggart that transforms into the thing you fear, and that laughing at the fear made it go away). One of the students in my house has some pet rats (real pets, just to be clear) and she writes little motivational cheers starring the rats. They've gotten more and more involved, and it seems to cheer people up and get them going. So for my boggart classes I made a stuffed rat for the thing that scares me:



and a cheerleading outfit to make the rat not scary:



Because who could be afraid of a rat in a cheerleading outfit?

The rat is loosely based on Yuki the Rat, and the outfit and pompoms are improvised. (Ravelry links for the rat and the outfit)

I know that a crocheted rat in a cheerleading outfit is not how many people would choose to spend their time, yarn, and energy, but I love it. It's just something I had to do, and it makes me smile.

(Huzzah Hufflepuff!)

Carried Away

I seem to be getting a little carried away with things lately. In an effort to reduce the ridiculous amount of yarn in my house, but not institute an outright ban on new yarn, I've made it a goal to track yardage in and out for 2010. Yardage out includes finished objects and any yarn I give away or sell. I was in the clear until January 14 and it's gotten disastrous since then thanks to a couple sales. In fact, I think - no, I'm certain - I've bought more yarn in the past month than I usually would have. Ack!! So, starting in March, I'll be posting my totals here at the first of the month. Hey, the more public the accountability, the better.

In January I made a couple bookmarks out of embroidery thread.




Raveled here and here.

It's a scarf pattern for an adult made with a tiny hook and thread.

I made a beautiful little baby hat. (rav here)



It was my first experience with Knit Picks Swish Worsted, which is a superwash merino wool yarn. It was fantastic to work with and made a beautiful hat. Unfortunately, after I washed it according to the label directions, it looked like this.



So, I made another hat in an acrylic yarn (Red Heart Soft Touch), modeled here by Zee (age 8 months). (rav here)



If anybody has any thoughts on living in peace and harmony while machine washing superwash wool, I'd love to hear them. I have 5 more skeins of the Swish.

Chili Cook-Off: Week 4

I apologize for the delay!

To finish out the chili cook-off series, here is the recipe from the final week of January. This one surprised me once I looked it over closely and I realized that there are no tomato products!


INGREDIENTS
*2 tablespoons EVOO
*2 cups cubed cooked chicken
*2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) white beans, drained and rinsed
(I like to use one can of Navy Beans and one can of Great Northern Beans
*1 cup chicken broth
*1 can (4 1/2 ounces) chopped green chiles
*1/4-1/2 of a small onion, diced
*1 teaspoon ground cumin
*1/2 teaspoon oregano
*1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
*1 can of corn, drained (or 1/2-1 10 oz. bag of frozen corn)

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour EVOO in large soup pot, heat and then add chicken. Cook chicken until browned.

2. Place remaining ingredients in soup; mix well. Bring to boil on medium-high heat.

2. Reduce heat to low; simmer, uncovered 15 to 20 minutes until heated through.



Modifications:
This one was very straightforward and no modifications were made. Shocking, I know!


Cost:
chicken = $2.50
navy beans = $0.79
great northern beans = $0.89
chicken broth = $0.58
chopped green chilis = $0.99
corn (frozen, partial bag) = $0.75

Olive oil, spices, and onion are on hand.

Total $6.50
6 servings
$1.08 per serving

Verdict:
Even though I don't even like tomatoes, I missed them in this chili. In fact, it almost seemed like more of a soup without the liquid inherent in a soup. However, the taste was very good and it improved over the week as I slowly ate it all for lunches. I really enjoyed the addition of the chopped green chilis and was surprised by the navy and great northern beans - I didn't think that I would like them, but they were just right.