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Stuff I Made That Is Awesome

The end of year crafting extravaganza has begun. I love making presents for people. “People” also includes myself. Okay, mostly myself, haha. Seriously though, I have started two of the three knitting gifts I plan on giving this year, one of which is about 75% completed.  So I’m way ahead of my “OMG it’s December 15th??? I should get started on the present making!!” I usually wind up with.

So no pics on those till after Christmas. They’re awesome, though.

Hey, so I finished Liesl and I love her.

Liesl - Finished

You can also get a nice view of my sassy wood paneling up in there.

She fits nice. Here is a crappy picture I took of myself in my “vanity” area, and it is a mess so ignore the laundry all over the place.

Liesl - Finished

Not only is that a fairly crappy picture, but it’s an “in the mirror” picture, haha! But as you can see, Liesl looks super cute on.

Though I will fess up to the fact that even though there are six buttons they don’t all close. I should have stopped making button holes after four, but, whatever.

Basically I knit the 46″ size, but didn’t, you know, swatch, or use the right needle or anything, so it’s a miracle that I like it and it fits! And I did the picot bind off, which is kinda twee but I think works for this highly girly knit. The buttons are from the La Mode vintage reproduction line. I found them at JoAnn’s. They cost more than the Vanna yarn, heh.

The other thing I made is this awesome beret:

#14 Beret

#14 Beret

I made this out of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, which is an awesome fingering weight yarn. Very silky feeling. I used a #3 US needle. I should have used a smaller needle for the ribbing because it blocked completely ridiculous. Like, too huge to fit. So, annoyed that all my hard work had been negated by a very necessary block, I bought some red elastic thread and sewed it into the cast on edge. You can’t even see it, but it salvaged the knit spectacularly! I noticed that a lot of store-bought berets have elastic in the edge, so it must not be that uncommon for the edge to be a little too big. But that would be my recommendation on this pattern (#24 lace beret in the latest Vogue Knitting Holiday mag) to not be lazy and actually knit the edge on smaller needles. I think the pattern actually tells you to do this, but, whatever. Now it fits great.

#14 Beret

Anyway, so aside from the Christmas projects, I have also cast on for a sweater out of some gray wool-ease I had lying around. Much like the Liesl yarn, I suspect that I bought this way on sale. Here’s the initial design for the sweater:

graysweater

I’m winging it, as usual, so we’ll see A) how long it keeps my interest and B) if it even does what I want it to. Basically I want it to have a yoke of some sort, whether garter stitch or cabled I haven’t yet decided, sort of blousey sleeves with a narrow cuff and a sewn hem for neatness. Worked top down. I already have the top rib started and need to look in my stitch books for the yoke part.

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Vacation Time (for 2010)

I have somewhat injured myself and seriously must lie down for the next two days. Damned lunges and also squats. I am so tired and achy, which may also be a symptom of being dehydrated. Made it into work though, where I am diligently working hard. *ahem* At any rate, I full on feel like crap.

I have been talking to my Texas friend Tara via Facebook and we have decided that we will do the South Beach diet starting after Thanksgiving.  Our reasons are thus: Tara’s getting married next year and wants to look awesome, and I also want to look awesome for this event. I have been wanting to do the 2 week Atkins metabolic reset that starts out your South Beach experience because I really felt great the last time I did it. I was going to do this in January, but having Tara do it at the same time will be a supportive bonus, because no carbs is SO HARD for like three days, you think you are going to keel over and croak, but by the end of the two weeks you are really feeling awesome.

Speaking of Tara’s wedding, I asked her if they’d set a date, and they have! July 31, 2010 – which, honestly, is like the most perfect time for me to take time off the job. I was going to go regardless of workload/meeting schedule, but now I can take a little more time off and really enjoy myself! Since 7/31/10 is a Saturday, I am thinking that I may take off 7/29-8/6/10.  I won’t spend all that time in Texas, but I will certainly spend a chunk!

(Incidentally, I wonder if Tara realizes she is getting married on Harry Potter’s birthday?)

I also found this picture and I think I found the style of dress I will wear to the wedding:

anthrodress

Isn’t that cute? I love Anthropology stuff. Made out of cotton jersey or just regular cotton would be a nice, cool, and flattering fashion statement. I want to whip out the sewing machine this winter, so hopefully I will acquire some Mad Skillz to make it. I haven’t actually sewn anything in about 18 years, so I’m a little, uh… out of practice. I think boots would look awesome with this dress, however being realistic I have to say that boots in Texas in late July would be stupid as it is approximately 800 Billion Degrees that time of year there.

My friend Sarah has started sewing recently and has really surprised me with her enthusiasm for it, so I kind of figure that if she can get going with it, so can I! I’ve been toting a sewing machine around the country for five years, I oughtta use it, don’t you think?

Anyway, I’m pretty stoked about going back to Texas for a few days next summer. It’s my favorite place, after all. I’m a little bummed I didn’t make it out there this year, but every other year seems to be the schedule so this will be right on track.  PLUS my friend Daphne is out of grad school in Arizona so I will be able to visit with her.  I haven’t seen her since I moved away – she was out of state when I was there in 2008.

So, brace yourself, San Antonio. I am returning to your hallowed ground in a mere eight months!! bwahahaha

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How corny.

Having received a real-live-actual invitation to Thanksgiving I am now backed into a corner re: my least favorite holiday because I was summoned to bring something to eat.

So I replied to the email summons that I would bring a corn pudding.

I like corn pudding.

I had not actually made one.

So, I putzed around on the internets and found myriad recipes for corn pudding until I came across one that would only cost me a couple of dollars because I actually had most of the ingredients, including about 4 cans of creamed corn in my pantry (wtf?). Last night I made it as an experiment and it turned out pretty good.

Here is the recipe:

CORN PUDDING THING

1/2 Cup Butter
2 Eggs
1 can creamed corn
1 can regular corn
1 box corn bread mix
1 Cup sour cream

I actually used the following:
1/2 Cup Fake Soy Butter
2 Eggs
1 can creamed corn
1 16 oz package frozen white corn
1 box Jiffy (8 oz, I think) cornbread mix
1 cup lite/light sour cream

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 9×9 pan (MY MOD: 8×8 nonstick pan… because that’s what I had.)
  2. Melt butter/fake butter on the stove, in a small pan/pot. Drain the regular corn of excess packing water. Throw all ingredients into  a big bowl and stir until everything is mixed. Looks kind of like lumpy cake or cornbread batter when you’re done.
  3. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven (MY MOD: Since I was using an 8×8 pan instead of a 9×9, it took a good half hour longer to bake, because of the thickness of the batter). It’s done baking when the top is golden brown, and the pudding is “set”. Also, you stick a knife in the middle and it comes out relatively smoothly. Serves six or more, depending on serving size.

cornPudding
(image “borrowed” from here. Please note that my version had a bunch of knife holes in it where I poked it to see if it was done. And also it was square. But it looks really similar other than that! hehe)

Note: I didn’t thaw my frozen corn before I made this so I think that combined with the smaller pan definitely had an impact on baking time.

It turned out really nicely, moist and tasty. As a further modification, I think adding some chopped jalapenos to this recipe would be awesome. Then it would be like that chile rellenos casserole that my mom makes that is so delicious. Only with corn.

So if you like corn stuff, I would definitely recommend this recipe because it’s kind of a cross between corn pudding and cornbread. It’s also not too terrible fat-wise, though it’s pretty carby, so watch out for that, if that’s something you’re watching out for.  I like corn a lot, but in my quest to eat lower carbs, or make better carb decisions (whole grains, etc.) I don’t really eat it all that much since it’s not really a vegetable, it’s mostly a starch/grain. Because I used fake soy butter and lite sour cream that also added to the lower-calories/sat fat results.

Also if you’re looking for something less cholesterol-y I think you could probably substitute egg beaters for the eggs, but I’m not sure yet how to do substitutions like that. Food science, like the amount of canned corn in my pantry, remains a mystery.