Shop Update Today!

I’m adding boatloads of new stuff to the shop today.

From Hello Yarn we’ve got Single Color BFL Lace skeins, Single Color Sock, a successful attempt at re-doing Herbal Fat Sock, tons of Sock in happy colors, hand-dyed BFL, Corriedale, Superwash Merino and 21 micron Merino spinning fibers. I’ve also bagged up lots of thrums. Sarah from Maisy Day Handspun sent Merino sock yarn and lots of gorgeous handspun, including a thick and thin called Cupcake that I want to steal and lots of 2 ply.

Come see us at 2pm EST.

PS: I think the newsletter worked! Well, at least for one of you!

PPS: The Flickr set of everything Sarah and I made for this update is here.

Thanks for all of your purchases! We’ll have to do these updates more often. :)

8 Comments

A Little More Tomten

I left you last with a description of the Tomten’s modified waist shaping, underarm gusset, and v-neck. The hood is finished now, and fits very well. I’ll describe changes in both stitch counts and percentages, since I played around with the original pattern and altered the stitch count a bit for fit, casting on 120 instead of 112 stitches.

You can see the v-neck shaping well in this photo. My original front section stitch count was 15. I reduced that, decreasing at the neck edge every other row to 6 sts., or 40% of the original count.

This brought my hood stitch count down to 42 from 60, or 70%. Increases were done as described in pattern, resulting in 56 sts. for the body of the hood. I’m finding this to be a very nice depth, taking into consideration the addition of the button band, which continues up and around the hood.

Instead of weaving the top of the hood together, I used a 3 needle bind off with the right side facing. It creates a nice, sharp edge.

Now, on to arm fit. I shortened the length of the armscye only a small bit (by 2 ridges). I’ve been using a favorite jacket as a model for my Tomten from day one, since this old jacket fits like a glove. The Tomten is a thicker fabric, so I’ve been upping the sizing a tad, but being able to follow the shaping of this jacket is great! I matched the armscye length to this jacket and away we went.

To shape the shoulders and make the sleeves angle down a bit instead of sticking straight out in a big T, I’m adding short rows to the shoulder area. At 7 ridges in, I short-rowed (wrapping but not knitting up the wraps, and it looks very nice) the center 20 sts. I then knit 2 ridges and short-rowed again. I’ll get back to you about whether this creates the proper angle. Things look promising.

On a happy final Tomten note, I think there’s enough yarn. :)


Comment Spam:

People, comment spam is going to be the death of me. I’ve been using Akismet all along, and added HashCash today. Akismet is great- it catches every bit of comment spam and puts it in a folder I can moderate. The crummy bit is that it sometimes catches legitimate comments, and at 1,000+ spam comments a day, I just can’t go through them all. It’s a shame that people take the time to comment and I never even see it. Hashcash is supposed to be able to tell the difference between bots and actual people, not allowing the bots to comment. I don’t think it’s working very well, as I just installed it a half hour ago and have 50 spam comments already. If you happen to use WordPress and know of a great spam plug-in, would you let me know? Thanks!

10 Comments

Black Beans and Brown Rice with Corn Tomato Salsa

This is my new favorite and I made it up, so I can share.


That new camera takes such pretty food pictures!

Make your own:

This makes a big pot- I’d think you could feed 6 or 8 with it.

2 cups brown rice (I used basmati)
4 cups water
splash olive oil
½ tsp. salt
1 lb. 13 oz. (the big one) can black beans, rinsed well and drained

Put everything but beans in big pot, bring to boil, then cover and simmer 40 min. (I like my beans really squishy, if you like yours more firm, wait until rice has cooked 50 minutes, add beans and cook 10 minutes more). Add black beans and stir to combine. Simmer 20 more minutes, until mixture is moist but not wet. Remove from heat.

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
½ tsp. salt and black pepper to taste
7 oz. can chopped green chilies, including liquid
½ tsp. chili powder

In small saucepan (I like to use a small saucepan because it ½ sautees, ½ simmers.), heat oil and add onions, garlic, and salt. Cook over low heat until translucent, 10 minutes. Add chilies and chili powder. Cook over low heat until liquid is cooked mostly off, a few minutes more. Remove from heat.

After these two pots are done cooking, stir onion mixture into beans and rice. Serve topped with shredded cheese, corn and tomato salsa, and sour cream. Avocado would be good, too.

This would rock as a burrito, too.

Corn and Tomato Salsa

2 cups cooked corn kernels (frozen then thawed works, too)
2 tomatoes, chopped
a few tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped roughly
juice of 1 lime
¼ tsp cumin
salt and black pepper to taste
splash of balsamic vinegar

Mix together and chill until ready serve or serve at once.

16 Comments