mmmm, peanut butter

Since work is slim today, I decided to try out a new recipe for dog biscuits. Reilly's always a willing taste-tester though he's probably not really the best judge since he'll eat just about anything. lol

I used the peanut butter dog treat recipe from Chloe's Kitchen. With only four ingredients (whole wheat flour, water, molasses and peanut butter), it couldn't be quicker or easier. The most time-consuming part is cutting them out.

They are definitely Reilly-approved!

"Stay" only last so long when homemade peanut butter biscuits are involved!

This has quickly become one of my favorite cookbooks and I'm so glad I splurged on it!

gradient

I dyed up another small hank of yarn to try out a new technique. This time, I used neon liquid food coloring. I first dyed the 35g hank of winter white wool in what was supposed to be turquoise (according to the box), but the wool took up much more of the green than the blue even though there was very little green added. lol Once this was dyed and rinsed, I wound the hank into a ball and mixed added it to a bowl of dark purple. Sorry, no process pics this time.

The result:

I'm loving the mix of colors! The 2nd color is mostly taken up on the outer layers of the wound ball and in lesser degrees as you move inward. I did squeeze the ball a few times to help the purple soak in a bit further. I definitely plan to try this again in the future!

Any suggestions for 35g of a worsted weight wool in a gradient?

stash reorganization

A couple weeks ago, I decided the stash needed a good toss (and a serious culling). My intention for awhile now has been to get my stash down to just what would fit into my vintage steamer trunk. This is what I started with:

Lots of plastic bins full of yarn!

This is where it ended up:

The bag is sock yarn. Sock yarn doesn't count, right? lol

Wanna see inside? The bottom layer is all wool and wool blends, mostly in sweater quantities:

The next layer is smaller amounts of wool, alpaca and a bit of cashmere, surrounded by smaller bags of linen, cotton and bamboo:

Then, I filled out the top with more cotton and linen and sock yarn in larger quantities:

The top tray now holds my needles, hooks, a styrofoam head for blocking hats, purse handles, my ball winder and some cotton blends perfect for baby items:

Sadly, my swift is about an inch too long to fit in the trunk in the tray. I might have someone cut it down jsut a bit though so it will. I love having it all in one spot like this. =) As I work on a design for a tiny house, I'm keeping this trunk in mind. I'll have to work it in somehow.

I've sold a good chunk of the yarn I culled, but still have some to go. I don't mind holding on to some of the wools since I can overdye some and use those, but most of the acrylics are going one way or another. If they don't sell soon, I'll be donating those. I have nothing against acrylic, I just don't really enjoy using most of them and I have too much great yarn to waste space on the cheap stuff. =)

adventures in striping

Thanks to a break in work - I had work, but we were not allowed to work, waiting for possible changes to the rules that never actually changed. Yeah, thanks boss for costing me a whole day of work. :-/ This waste left me with free time on my hands yesterday and this morning so I pulled out a skein of winter white Patons wool and got to work with a plan to make some self-striping yarn. =)

What I stated with:


I pulled out my swift and started wrapping:

I used roughly a 10-yd repeat for this one for thicker stripes. I'm thinking of making a cowl with this.

Getting the colors together:

teal - 4 pkg berry blue, 1 pkg lemon lime and about 1/2 pkg grape


brown - 2 pkg lemonade, 1 pkg orange, 1 pkg grape and I added about 1/4 tsp brown Wilton's icing paste to darken the brown

After about an hr in plain water, the divided skein went into the color and into the microwave:


Nearly clear water took 4 2-minute stints in the microwave:


Success!


After I had the skein rinsed and hung to dry, I still had time on my hands... and more yarn! So I set up for a 3-stripe skein:

Really glad I got this type of swift - no need to build a separate board to do this! =)

I went more basic with the colors on this one:


Super simple!


And very spring-y!

This one was about a 6-yd repeat. I'm thinking socks. =)

Next, I'll have to do a gradient...

meet my new roommate

Annie was born in a humble home - can it get more humble than a reused applesauce jar? No one expected much of Annie. Though she had simple beginnings, but she had high hopes for herself. She knew if she worked hard, she could accomplish great things and be more than just "Applesauce Annie." So, she began to grow and grow, until one day, she was ready to bake her first loaf of bread. No, it wasn't perfect, but it showed promise and hints of the flavor she knew she could someday produce. She was still rather young after all. Annie knew she needed a new home, a larger home where she could grow bigger and live up to her potential.

So Annie got a new home:

and decided to reinvent herself. This was no applesauce jar. This was the home of a lady. Annie decided she would now be called Arianna. She was quite "airy" at this point. =) She now has high hopes for her future, imagining many wonderful loaves of bread, stacks of pancakes, batches of muffins... the possibilities are now endless!

(For those curious or maybe wanting their own Annie, I used the sourdough starter recipe here though there are  of course other ways to start. My Alaskan sourdough cookbook's starter uses thick potato water. It also says to not use a metal spoon, go with wood.)

trying new recipes =P

About a month ago, I used part of an Amazon gift card and bought a new vegan cookbook, Chloe's Kitchen (kindle). I went through and highlighted all the recipes I want to try. Um, yeah, maybe I should have highlighted the few I don't intend to try. heh This is one thing I really prefer about the digital format (other than saving tons of space, of course). I highlight what I want to try, then delete the highlight and add notes after I've tried it. Makes it easy to find recipes quickly. I need to do this with some of my older digital cookbooks.

So, want to know what I've tried?

Doughnuts!

These were ridiculously good, glazed or unglazed. There's nutmeg in the batter - yum!

Teriyaki Sauce

Came together quickly and it's SO good! I'm a huge teriyaki fan so I'm thrilled I can now have it anytime I want. =)

Fettuccine Alfredo

The sauce uses raw cashews ground in the blender with water and a few other ingredients. This really could not have been simpler and it's amazingly good.

Chocolate Walnut Fudge

Minus the walnuts. lol Uses coconut milk and comes out nice and creamy and the perfect fudgey consistency after a chill overnight. Next time, I'll try adding some peppermint extract. Adding ribbons of peanut butter would also be yummy.

The only disappointment so far was the macaroni and cheese.

Her recipe uses nutritional yeast as the base of the cheesy sauce. Yeah, not such a fan apparently. It was okay, but not something I'll be making again. It comes together quickly though so if you like nutritional yeast, give it a try. I've heard many really like it. As for me, I'll be sticking to the mac & cheese recipe from Vegan Comfort Food. Now, what to do with a canister of nutritional yeast...

cushy!

So, even though I've been doing so well at getting rid of yarn lately, I caved this past weekend. I had a couple really good coupons for Jo-Ann's and Michaels and went in both looking for organic cotton or linen. I forgot Michaels doesn't carry fabric, but in my wandering, I spotted this yarn on clearance:

It just screamed KITTY BED!

It works up ridiculously fast.

I cast on 12 stitches and alternated colors ever two rows in stockinette stitch. This stuff is so thick that curling wasn't an issue. Working on such big needles and with suck bulky yarn, I felt like a kid playing with my mom's knitting. lol

Phoebe approves. =)

Yarny details can be found on my Ravelry project page.