herringbone.

mmmm herringbone. and knitted socks. my first pair actually. not sure how i've gone this long without making any, but alas, here goes.


they're knitty's red herring socks, but not red, or made of fish...

perhaps i can finish them while it's still cozy sock wearing season.

roasted tomato soup.

this was last night's dinner. it was perhaps the tastiest soup i've made so far (which may be saying something as soup is the only thing i seem to make deliciously).


it was incredibly easy to make and didn't take much time as soups go. i was also a very filling tomato soup because of the addition of the pasta (which you can just barely see peeking through near the bottom of the bowl). i did the whole thing in our cast iron dutch oven so that i could go from stove top to oven back to stove top without dirtying multiple dishes. here's the recipe, i strongly suggest trying it out for yourself:

-2 lb tomatoes, halved
-1 large onion, chopped
-1 bulb of garlic (~10-12 cloves, peeled)
-8 tbs olive oil
-handful of mint
-2.5 cups vegetable stock
-1-1.5 cups small pasta (i used mini shells)
-salt and pepper to taste

preheat oven to 425F. meanwhile, saute the onions with half of the olive oil until soft and slightly browned. add tomatoes, garlic, mint, salt and pepper. transfer to oven and roast, uncovered, 20-30 minutes (time is really flexible here--with more time you're just going to develop deeper flavors).

let cool slightly and then puree mixture with remaining oil. return to pan and add stock. bring to a boil and then add pasta, cooking until the pasta is cooked to your taste. check seasoning and adjust as needed

serve with a generous helping of ricotta cheese, a little mint, and, in my opinion, a couple (or several) dashes of hot sauce. i served ours with a nice side salad. it would also be super awesome with grilled cheese or a nice crusty bread, but i'm trying to make better life choices :D

it's delicious. i promise. you will not regret it. next time i make it i think i'll add a red pepper or two to the roasting mix. the soup ends up a bit sweet (depending on your tomatoes probably) and benefits greatly from the ricotta and hot sauce.

sock monster.

he's very cute. and striped. and he has a belly button. i used danger crafts' sammie the sock monster pattern and added the striping.



joggless stripes in the legs really tested my patience and my ability to hold proper tension. too tight and the legs twisted all up into little leg spirals and too loose and the jogs still showed. worked out pretty well in the end. sadly the socks cover up all my hard work.


i made him for jon. i think he's going to live in his office. he still needs a name though. any suggestions?

swimming.

one of my favorite things to do at the zoo is to watch the polar bears swim. once while we were there a polar bear was doing laps back and forth across the pool--front stroke in one direction and the back stroke in the other. saved him the effort of turning around i suppose.

i drew this picture at work over several days during several teleconferences, hence the blue lines in the background. i thought about cleaning the picture up in photoshop, but kind of like it this way.

mayhaps i'll make this into a t-shirt.

more mitts.

i made these some time ago, but i'm just now getting around to posting. they're janelle master's reading mitts, published by ewe yarns. i made the first pair while traveling to and from england. they were a fairly quick knit and the end product is incredibly wearable. the lace work at the top and bottom provides additional support as well as warmth.


becca saw them while we were staying with them and asked me to make a purple pair. for these i used a wool/cashmere blend, which turned out softer and more flexible then the wool/cotton blend i used for mine.


all in all they were a nice project. a relatively simple knit with a very usable result.

mooses.

for christmas, jon and i made napkins for our 'moms' (my mom, jon's mom and starla). it was a fun process, even if it ended up being a little more involved then i originally anticipated.

we started with fabric and i cut and machine sewed each one. we then screen printed them with a moose design that i made. jon has to do the screen printing with our current set up, because i'm too short to consistently get a good pull. hopefully we'll be building more libby compatible workspace soon.


it was nice to actually mass produce something for once. screen printing involves so much initial set up that it's less satisfying to do one off designs. i think the last thing that we mass produced was our wedding invitations.



i'm now regretting that we didn't make any of these cute guys for ourselves. they look mighty exciting on the dining room table.