Baby

Friday Roundup: We Have Blocking!

What I’m Knitting

The baby blanket is blocking, woohoo!

And let me just say that wet-blocking a blanket at 38.5 weeks pregnant is not for the faint of heart, yo. But I managed. I’m soooo happy to have the knitting and finishing done on this one. I only ended up using about 5.5 skeins of Malabrigo Rios, which is about what I’d use for a sweater, but somehow it seemed like so much more.

My little model should be along within the next few weeks, so expect modeled pictures sometime in the near future. :-)

What I’m Cooking

This week’s meal for a crowd was something I haven’t tried for a while: enchilada casserole (also known as Mexican lasagna). I tried a new recipe that came out really, really well! Pardon the craptastic phone picture, but trust me—it was delicious.

I also made some banana/oat/blueberry muffins. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of these.

What I’m Reading

I’m focusing on writing middle grade fiction right now (for roughly ages 8-12), so I’m trying to read some of the more popular MG books I’ve missed over the past few years. I started Princess Academy last night and am enjoying it so far! The setup is great.

Friday Roundup: Anticipation

What I’m Knitting

I’m still plugging away on the blanket squares! I’m at the tail end of square #8, so there’s just one more to go and then the joining and finishing.

I’ve enjoyed making this blanket, but as with any larger project, I’m impatient to start something else. I’m eyeing up these beauties that have been in my stash for a while with the idea of making a girl’s top of some sort. We aren’t finding out the gender of the baby arriving in about a month, so there’s a 50/50 chance that I’ll get the right variety of model… hey, I like to live on the edge!

What I’m Cooking

My main culinary endeavor this week was a new recipe for veggie burgers! These mostly consist of mashed sweet potato, brown rice, and black beans. They turned out really tasty! Because they were oven baked, they were also just the right consistency—much easier than frying burgers like I’ve done before.

What I’m Reading

On a whim, I grabbed The Face on the Milk Carton off my bookshelf. I hadn’t read the book in probably twenty years, but I devoured it over two days. I forgot how compulsively readable this book is!

Friday Roundup: Catching Up

What I’m Knitting

Whew, it was so busy around here last week that I completely missed the last Friday Roundup post, whoops. Oh well, I’m back at it today! I finished all my commissioned design projects, which means for the first time since December(!), I don’t have anything on a deadline! Let me tell you, it’s a good feeling.

That means I get to go back to my Malabrigo lace and cable blanket—and not too soon, either, since I just hit 32 weeks of pregnancy and really don’t have a ton of time to get this thing done before baby arrives.

Although I only have six squares of the planned nine done, I decided to go ahead and try sewing together the four squares that are blocked. After much trial and error, I decided on a slip-stitch crochet seam:

I think that’ll work nicely, and as a bonus, it’s not terribly annoying to work. I’ve cast on for the seventh square, so hopefully I can get at least that done by next Friday!

What I’m Cooking

I’ve been trying to incorporate more dark leafy greens into my diet recently, since they’re so good for baby. My go-to quinoa, lentil, and kale soup was extra delicious this week. I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything differently than usual though—maybe I just really needed the nutrition?

For my weekly meal-for-a-crowd, I took another stab at a recipe that didn’t come out perfectly the last time I made it, a vegan lasagna with spaghetti squash in place of the noodles. This time I nailed it. I had several people checking to make sure it didn’t have dairy or gluten, because it was that tasty.

What I’m Reading

I got started on The Morrigan’s Curse… and then realized I’d read the previous book in the series so quickly (and at a time when I had so much going on) that I didn’t remember a lot of what came before! So I’m going back to the previous book and re-reading that one before continuing on.

Friday Roundup: Hat FO!

What I’m Knitting

I finished the cabled hat and even managed a photoshoot! (It was a bit of a chore to go through and crop out the 6-months preggo belly on all the pictures, though!)

Here are the specs!

Pattern: My own, currently titled “Tierney Hat,” although that may be subject to change. I have it up for testing now, so hopefully I’ll have the pattern released in about three weeks.

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Jade. I looooove this colorway. It’s probably one of my top three desert-island colors. And the Tosh was so nice to work with that I didn’t even mind all that purling!

Notes: My original concept was for a mostly simple and basic hat with a pop of visual interest (and interest for the knitter!). I had to fiddle with the closed-loop cable a bunch to get it to work out the way I wanted, but I’m really happy with the way it came out!

I’m back to working on secret projects next week, but hopefully I’ll have something I can show off by next Friday!

What I’m Cooking

Some overripe bananas inspired me to make these tasty banana-walnut muffins this week (sometimes I think 90% of my baking is inspired by overripe bananas, haha):

And although the picture is nothing to write home about, the Pad Thai I made for my weekly meal-for-a-crowd came out awesome! I finally got the timing just right so the rice noodles were perfectly done, something I’ve had trouble with in the past.

What I’m Reading

I finished the second book in the Masterminds series last night. This one ended on a huge cliffhanger just like the first one, grrr! So since I have to wait for the next one to be released, I picked up another Gordon Korman book from the library, one that I’ve seen recommended quite a bit as being a very funny middle grade novel.

Friday Roundup: Winging It

What I’m Knitting

I hoped to have a finished hat to show off today, but alas, that was not to be. Because the cable motif came out nearly a full inch shorter in the hat than in the swatch (??? I still don’t understand how that happened—same needles and everything!), the top decreases have been giving me fits. Here’s where I am now, after I ripped back to the start of the decreases for the fourth or fifth time:

I think I’ve finally come up with a solution that will work, so stay tuned to see if it does!

What I’m Cooking

Quinoa, black bean, and corn stuffed peppers (adding avocado on the top definitely kicked them up a notch. SO GOOD.):

I had a craving for buttermilk-style biscuits at the beginning of the week. I haven’t had many cravings, despite being nearly 28 weeks pregnant… but when one does strike, LOOK OUT. I began assembling my ingredients to make some yummy vegan biscuits, and then nearly cried when I realized we were completely out of almond milk, soy milk, or any reasonable substitute.

Cranky pregnant woman wanted her dang biscuits, so I improvised with the thin liquid from a can of coconut milk and crossed my fingers. Turns out adding more fatty liquid makes biscuits even more tasty—who knew? (Although I feel like I could have predicted this.)

They weren’t very pretty, though. Well, I take that back. They were gorgeous if all I show you is this shot:

But that was actually the only one that came out looking like someone over the age of 5 made it, haha.

What I’m Reading

I finished Masterminds, which was great but had a killer cliffhanger ending! So I picked up the next one in the series, which is just as good so far. Hopefully this one doesn’t do the same type of cliffhanger, because the next one isn’t written yet…

Friday Roundup: Getting Creative

What I’m Knitting

I finished the secret knitting (yay!), although pattern writing is still happening behind the scenes. But I was itching to get something else on the needles, so I cast on for this trial swatch. It’s a heavily modified version of a closed-loop cable from one of the Barbara Walker treasuries, and it required several false starts. But I really like the final result!

I think this will end up in a hat. This is scrumptious Madelinetosh DK, so if I get it together to knit the hat up before the end of the month, I can participate in the fun activities happening for Madelinetosh May over in the Tosh Lovers Ravelry group, hmm…

What I’m Cooking

I love baking, but I try to keep sugar low. My husband and I certainly don’t need it, and anyone who says toddlers don’t react badly to sugar is lying through their teeth, in my experience! My son loves muffins, but most of them have tons of sugar. I tried out this muffin recipe sweetened with only ripe bananas and raisins this week. It was pretty good!

I was asked to bring a dish to pass to a get together yesterday. Since I was arriving late, I figured cookies would be a good choice. These are vegan, maple syrup-sweetened jam thumbprint cookies—one of my absolute favorite recipes! And they look so pretty, see:

What I’m Reading

I’m on a middle grade kick after reading my friend’s fabulous book, so I picked up one I’ve wanted to read for a while—Masterminds by Gordon Korman. I’ve been reading his books since I was a preteen, and this one is just as awesome as I remember!

Friday Roundup: Spring!

What I’m Knitting

It’s really starting to feel like spring around here, and that always makes me want to trade in my big bulky yarns for lightweight ones. Luckily, I finished the first of my secret designs (bulky yarn on US #15 needles!) and got to switch to another in light fingering weight yarn with US #1 & #2 needles. I can’t show you much, but here’s a little sneak peek at the yarn—the most gorgeous tonal gray—and the beginning of the item:

What I’m Cooking

Spring weather calls for spring rolls, don’t you think? I adore spring rolls, and this new recipe I tried with kale and tofu (from www.minimalistbaker.com) is now one of my favorites:

Peanut butter cookies were also made and summarily devoured.

What I’m Reading

I’m still working away on The Infinite Sea. While I really like this book series, and I think it’s extremely well written, I also find it a bit intense for long blocks of reading. There are lots of kids in mortal peril, something that didn’t bother me quite as much before I had a kid of my own! But I’m enjoying the read and will hopefully be done with it by next week’s roundup.

Friday Roundup: Yummmm

What I’m Knitting

I got another square of the baby blanket done and blocked this week—that’s four down, five more to go! But the yarn for the commissioned designs that I’ve been waiting for arrived today, so the blanket will have to go on hold for a little bit.

My son helped me knit the last few rounds of the square by shoving DPNs into the WIP:

I can’t tell you much about the designs, but trust me, this yarn is goooorrrgeous. It feels like kittens distilled into yarn. Here’s a teaser pic:

What I’m Cooking

Some extremely tasty banana muffins with chunks of apple this week:

And pure vegan comfort food, quesadillas with onions, peppers, roasted corn, and olives:

What I’m Reading

I’m just starting the last book in the Star Wars cycle I’m reading! I don’t want it to end… but at least I have the new Rogue One movie to look forward to in December. (Have you seen the trailer yet? It’s awesome!)

Friday Roundup: Square Deal

What I’m Knitting

I finished the blanket square from last week and blocked it! I love, love, love the way it turned out. (Side note: I can’t get an accurate picture of this yarn’s color to save my life, even with post-processing fiddling. It’s actually more blue than green, although it looks the other way around here.)

The pattern was really fun to knit, although I guess I might be singing a different tune after I knit at least five more of them…

I have a couple of commissioned deadline projects coming up, so knitting pics might be thin on the ground here for a while. But I’ll try to get some sneak peeks!

What I’m Cooking

I made some lemon-blueberry muffins this week. My son and his little friend weren’t huge fans (maybe the lemon flavor is more of an acquired taste), but the adults DEVOURED them.

I also finally made homemade fried rice! It was so incredibly easy that I can’t believe I haven’t been doing it this whole time. Just stir fry some veggies, pop in some cooked rice, and pour a little soy sauce on top while you stir it for a few minutes. I served it with some vegetable gyoza from Trader Joes—mmmm.

What I’m Reading

I’m still working on Heir to the Empire (forgot how much I love this book!), but I should be wrapping it up today or tomorrow. The book I had on hold at the library is in, so I’ll have to decide whether to start that one or book 2 of the Thrawn trilogy next, hmmm.

And just because it’s Friday and we’ve been having such nice warm weather this week, here’s a bonus shot of a little boy who was really, really happy to finally get back out on the swings:

Friday Roundup: New Beginnings

What I’m Knitting

I think I’ve finally figured out a cable pattern I like for the Malabrigo Rios blanket I talked about last week! This is most of it, just minus a couple of rounds of cable/lace patterning and a garter stitch border:

I’m a teensy bit worried about how well the superwash yarn is going to hold a block, since I had to pull the square pretty tight to get the pattern to show up well. But oh well, I figure I’ll finish this square off and block it, then manhandle it a bit and see what happens. The nice thing about doing blankets in squares is that you’re not getting unpleasant surprises at the end of knitting a whole huge blanket.

What I’m Cooking

Hey, I’m starting to feel a little better! The morning sickness isn’t quite as bad as before—enough that I actually managed to cook and eat several things this week that I couldn’t have even contemplated a few weeks ago.

First up, my old healthy standby: quinoa, lentil, and kale stew. I’ve made this stew a lot, but it never fails to amaze me that it’s so tasty. I mean, it doesn’t really SOUND that tasty, does it? But it’s delicious, trust me.

I also made some vegan chili from a new recipe. It had several secret ingredients which sounded really odd to put in chili (maple syrup and lime juice???), but it was totally amazing! I also made some really tasty cornbread muffins and a salad to go with:

What I’m Reading

I have several books I want to read, but they’re all checked out at the library… so while I wait, I’m revisiting one of my old favorites. This is the first book in the Hand of Thrawn series by Timothy Zahn, sequels to Return of the Jedi. I liked the new movie, but I have to say, this will always be my favorite account of what happened after the original trilogy!