A haiku a day keeps the poet at play

I've been a writer before I could even really write, scribbling pretend letters along with my doodles.  Once I learned my ABCs, I was putting them together to make all sorts of things, including poems.  This has lead to some truly, truly embarrassing attempts at rhyme.  Let's just say that there was a time when I grasped for a phrase to pair with 'fun' only to end up with 'hot dog bun'.

Thankfully, these word choices refined slightly by the time I was in high school, taking part in poetry slams which began my freshman year, and continued at least a few years after I graduated as far as I know.  I even attended one or two as an alum.  Now that I think about it, I should see if it's still happening, and volunteer to judge or something.  Continue on the tradition, as it were.

On a personal level, I've continued the tradition slightly with one of my guideline resolutions, keeping a journal on hand as much as possible, and so far filling it with at least one haiku a day.  For the most part, these are not compositions I would ever attempt to perform or publish.  They are meant to be more like mental puzzles for me to complete each day.  Instead of jotting down at the end of the day something like, 'Went to work, had meetings, came home and watched TV,' several times in a row, putting it in haiku form forces me to think about the day in a different way.  Some days, it's an abstract list of the highlights of the day.  Other days are scribed based on a particular moment.  And still other days I end up writing more than one haiku, along with any other random writing ideas that spring to mind.

Having to carefully choose the words to fit into the 5-7-5 syllable format so far has felt more like an opportunity and a challenge than an annoyance.  As I'm walking to the coffee maker, I'm counting syllables and deciding whether today's musing should be dedicated to my desperate need for caffeine.

Of course, the end of January is hardly the time to be declaring a resolution a success.  But it's a start, at least.

Inspiration Saturday: Hello, yellow!

The Australian Open wraps up in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.  Whoever ends up taking the tournament (please be Andy Murray, please be Andy Murray), I think one of the lasting legacies this year will be not a particular match or player, but rather, a color.

Yellow.  I don't know exactly how it happened, but it seems that all of the sportswear labels decided that 2013 is going to be the year of yellow, and they paraded out their army of sponsored athletes to enforce this mandate.  I don't want to violate any photo rules, so if you want to see some of the collections of yellow on the courts, check out this USA Today gallery.  As for me, yellow is a color that I like, but only in certain shades.  I like sunshine, I don't like Grey Poupon (unless it's in my Brussels sprouts).  Bright, happy yellow is my tone of choice, as a cheery pop of color.

I got this thermal top at Target the other day on clearance, warm and fun:

Photo credit: Target.com

I think the pink birds make it even more fun.  And because my body seems to have lost all of its ability to self-heat, long sleeves are always a good idea.

Of course, there are yellow-inspired patterns as well for all of your styling needs:

Yellow Brick Road by Mona Schmidt

Photo credit: Mona Schmidt

This cowl looks toasty warm.  Would look really nice in a rust brick color as well, but I like bright sunshine yellow for knits that are going to be worn on dreary, cold days.

Yellow Submarine Cowl by yellowcosmo

Photo credit: yellowcosmo

We all live in a yellow submarine!  This is so cute.

Spring Yellow Tulip Flowers by HappyBerry

Photo credit: HappyBerry

These are so pretty.  I think it would be nice to maybe have a bouquet on my desk, bring a little color without having to worry about who is going to water them over long weekends.

And then, there's the yarn...so many possibilities, but here are a few:

Handspun Blue Skies Ahead from SpinningWheelStudio

Photo credit: SpinningWheelStudio

Hand-dyed yellow and grey sock yarn from twogreydogsdesigns

Photo credit: twogreydogsdesigns

Hand-dyed yellow single-ply yarn from TheFiberists

Photo credit: TheFiberists

Thoughts on yellow?  Love?  Hate?  And don't forget to read more inspiring stuff at Woolen Diversions.

FO Friday: The warm glow of success

My first FO Friday, huzzah!  This is the first week of 2013 to see something worth defining as an FO, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  The fact that I'm finishing knitwear, and that we're experiencing a short warm spell here in Central Texas is probably also helps with the warmth factor.

I'll start off with something that I technically finished earlier in the month, but was so slight a piece of crafting that I hesitated to call it an FO all on its own:

It's really just a single-chain of crochet to make a double-loop necklace.  The pendant is something I bought from The Modern in Fort Worth years ago, during a high school field trip.  For years I've tried to think of the best way to wear/display it.  Finally I decided that a crochet necklace made from my very own handspun was kind of perfect.  I love how the colors are so reminiscent of the water as well.  So while the crochet part of this only took a few minutes, if you count the spinning it was a little more involved.

In another first, I took on my first test knit last weekend.  I've wanted to test knit for a while now, but was reluctant to sign on to any particular project when it came down to it for fear of not having the skill to critique a pattern or being able to complete it on time.  Then Alicia at Woolen Diversions said she needed to get a Malabrigo Quickie pattern tested for publishing earlier this week.  She even had the Malabrigo Twist to supply for it, so I jumped in.  Introducing, Dissipative!

I'm so glad I did jump in, because it was a great experience all around.  I worked with a yarn I hadn't tried before, and it was absolutely luscious.  Twist is different because it's plied, but it still retains that legendary softness.  Add to that, the pattern itself was practically perfect when I got it.  It has written as well as charted instructions, as well as thoughtful explanations of anything that might be unclear.  Alicia is having a sale on all of her patterns through Monday, just in case my cowl is so gorgeous you just have to have one for yourself.  Check out her blog for more details.

I've shared my mom's WIPs before, so I might as well show off her FO from last weekend as well.  She had some Knit Picks Imagination leftover from a shawl and decided to turn it into a warm, gender-neutral scarf.  Or in fact, species-neutral, as it's modeled by a duck here:

It's a tight stitch pattern that has more of a woven look, simple but effective and not overly bulky.  I know she likes it because she's making another already in an alpaca yarn, and then she's also talking about knitting a third!

So we've been pretty busy over here, but you can also find other FO posts over at Tami's Amis.

Cubicle kitchen: Marmalade-n Savory Thumbprints

The company I work for has locations around the world, so I have teammates across the country and the globe.  The disadvantage for those whose cube do not dwell in the same office as mine is that they can't taste my treats.  I'm working on this, but in the meantime, one of my colleagues has figured out how to get involved on the front end.  He works in Arizona, but he's visited a few times.  On one such visit, he mentioned having made some habanero pepper orange marmalade.  This drew oohs and aahs from myself and others.  For the holiday season, he sent us a few jars.  Savory Santa!

I knew instantly that my jar was going to be 'paid forward' in the form of treats, the question was in what form.  The heat from the habanero had me leaning in a decidedly savory direction, especially because the serving suggestions were to glaze meat, or spread sparingly on toast.  I didn't want to try and make orange cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and then throw it of by hiding a spoonful of this inside.

I liked the simplicity of this recipe, with just a handful of ingredients, I was sure that I wouldn't have colliding flavors.  I made my own addition of some cornmeal because I feel like corn and heat in baked goods is a natural combination.

There's more marmalade in the jar (and more cornmeal in the bag), so I'll be trying out more savory treats in the weeks to come.  Maybe a marmalade-swirled bread?  I am open to suggestions.

Marmalade-n Thumbprints
(adapted from Megan's Cookin')
made 40 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 2 Tablespoons Brummel & Brown spread
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• about 1/4 cup habanero orange marmalade

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cream together cheese, butter, and spread with a hand mixer.  (Megan used a food processor, this is probably easier, but I didn't feel like putting that whole thing together and then cleaning all the parts.)
3. Add flour and mix until you've created a crumbly dough.
4. Roll the dough into balls of about a teaspoon each.  You might need to form these a little, as I said, the dough is crumbly.  
5. Place balls onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and into the oven for five minutes.
6. Carefully remove the cookies from the oven and, using the end of a wooden spoon or other utensil, make a small indentation in the cookie.  Spoon a little marmalade into the created crater, and return the cookies into the oven for another 10 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are just lightly browned.

WIP Wednesday: Bake, knit, repeat

So what do 'normal' people do with their time?  I mean, are they really just watching the football game?  I guess they are also probably surfing the web.  Me, I'm shredding cheese for savory cookies, glazing cupcakes, and walking back and forth across the living room as I shape the armholes of my cardigan.  And hopefully never mixing up any of those verbs and nouns, otherwise disaster might ensue.  Also, I'm following up the football game with tennis from the Australian Open.  So I think I'm just an anomaly of the sports fan demographic.

So since I've run out of cats, here is my WIP along with the other, tastier, markers of progress from the weekend:

I'm currently working on the arm holes.  It's hard to show the shaping right now, but you can see it's longer at least.  Just a few inches away from starting on the shoulders, and I'm almost through the first skein of yarn.  There's something about a garment as opposed to an accessory that feels like 'real' knitting, so even though it's just knitting all the way, no fancy stitches, it's still pretty gratifying.  I'll have to remember this feeling when I'm doing all the finishing.

While I work on my cardigan, I still find my mind wandering to the other projects that I plan on starting later, trying to decide whether I'll cast on Color Affection or something smaller and less knitknitknit.  Similarly, I'm already narrowing my list of possible baked goods to make this weekend.  Ideas for what to bake next tend to occur to me as I'm mixing the ingredients for the current recipe.  Maybe it's just a part of my multitasking tendencies that I can't just be doing what I'm doing, I have to also be thinking about what I'm doing next.  But again, as long as I don't mix up my verbs and nouns, I'll be okay.

On a related note, I veered away from my library loving to do my first test knit, but I'll save that for Friday, since I was able to finish it in record time.

Check out Tami's Amis for more WIP posts!

Cubicle kitchen: 'If you like Pina Coladas' Cupcakes

This week, I baked a little overboard.  First, I made some savory cookies, which I'll blog about later this week.  And then, I started feeling like I needed to make something sweet.  I'm not sure if it was a sense of balance, or just my sweet tooth that really spurred me on, but it had to be done.  Thankfully, we usually have enough on hand for me to make those kind of decisions on a Saturday morning.  Especially when it comes to ice cream in the freezer.

I have to once again highly recommend melted ice cream as an add-in for boxed cake mix.  You get a really moist cake, and the opportunity to play around with some flavors.  And it's the combining of flavors that really attracts me to baking, while not wanting to risk messing around too much with the delicate science of baking and creating something that didn't rise/spread/whatever.  This is a great coming together of convenience and experimentation.

And every instance of this cake has gotten rave reviews.  Everyone screams for ice cream.  This time I thought I would give everyone a chance to escape to the tropics with a beachy bake.  Because in Texas, we all like Pina Coladas, and we could use a little more rain...

'If you like Pina Coladas' Cupcakes
made 24 cupcakes and about 30 mini cupcakes

For the cake:

Find the recipe for the cupcakes at Cookies & Cups.  To make sure you have the right amount of ice cream, melt it and measure out 2 cups rather than relying on the pint not having too much air whipped in.

I used:

• Pineapple cake mix
• 1 1/2 cups coconut sorbet, melted
• 1/2 cup toasted coconut ice cream, melted
• 3 eggs

For the glaze:

I made my stand-by glaze with powdered sugar and pineapple soda, drizzled onto the cakes after they had cooled.

Inspiration Saturday: Five stars for stripes

Ah, Saturday.  Time to veg out, knit, bake, and inspire!  Don't forget to check out Alicia's post as well. I'm working on a test knit for her right now, and without revealing anything, I will say that it might have a little something to do with my subject matter this week.

Stripes are such a simple way to do something interesting with your knits, while still just...knitting.  No lace work, no pattern to keep track of, not even any purls are necessary.  And the only thing better than one gorgeous yarn is another to go with it.

I've used stripes in a couple of projects already.  I made my first improvised shawl striping a navy and light blue alpaca:

I had made a few shawls at this point, so I took the basics of a triangle shawl with a center spine and just did my own thing.  The sense of empowerment I got from that is probably what got me through the picot bind-off.

I made the Perpendicular once for someone else in a swap in a non-color shifting yarn, but it looked so interesting in the Noro I had to make one for myself as well.  I loved watching the one set of stripes turn from pink to a dark-purple-almost-black while the other went blue, green, and grey.

And I think the tassel totally makes it.

And then, my most epic striped project so far was a tunic dress I made when Mission Falls first went out of business:

The original pattern (which came from Mission Falls Duet though it doesn't show up in the list of patterns) was done in a single color, but faced with shelves of pretty purples in a yarn that was going to disappear soon, I was surprisingly cavalier and added that detail myself.  It worked out great, except for all of those darned ends.

I'm definitely not done striping yet, though.  There are too many other cute patterns out there.  Heather Dixon of Army of Knitters just released two new pattern books, which includes the Zena Cloche:

Photo credit: Heather Dixon

And also from Dixon, a couple of years ago, I also love this striped tank top, Erquy:

Photo credit: Heather Dixon

Leftie is a different kind of stripe:

Photo credit: Martina Behm

My mom just got Derecho during a free pattern promotion:

Photo credit: Laura Aylor

I love the log cabin effect of this shawl's striping, I might have to borrow the pattern and make it myself.

And, of course, there is Color Affection:

Photo credit: Veera Välimäki

I might be the last knitter to actually make their own, but the hard part of choosing the colors is done at least.