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: Catching Up

Apologies for the lack of a Friday Roundup post last week! I attended a three-day writing conference Thursday-Saturday, and I barely had time to feed myself, let alone throw together a blog post. But now I’m back in the swing of things and ready to fill you in on another week.

Me and writer buddies at the end of the conference—we were all exhausted, but happy!

What I’m Knitting

The lace/cable blanket squares are all done (woohoo!) and blocking commenced this week. Now I need to crochet them together and decide whether another blocking would be advisable. I’m thinking it would be nice to ensure nice straight edges, but that’ll require figuring out where I can block something that big without danger of toddler or cats getting into it.

While the squares were blocking, I also started a new design! It’s a colorwork top for a little girl out of the yummy Swan’s Island yarn I showed off last week. It doesn’t look like much right now, but here’s a shot of my swatch to show you the cute cat silhouettes I came up with:

The knitting is going really fast on this one, so stay tuned for an update next week!

What I’m Cooking

My big new experiment this week was lentil sloppy joes! I used to love sloppy joes back when I ate meat regularly, so I was hopeful that these would turn out okay. They were really good!

What I’m Reading

I met the adorable and lovely Julie Murphy at the conference I attended last week, so I picked up her latest release, Dumplin’! It’s really, really good so far. Highly recommended.

Friday Roundup: Hoot Sweet Hat and Mitts!

What I’m Knitting

I had a pattern (actually, two) released in a magazine this week! This is the Hoot Sweet Hat and Mitts, published in Love of Knitting, Fall 2016 issue:

Photo by Carmel Zucker

The magazine is available for purchase online here.

Since this set is sized to fit toddlers to big kids, it’s worked in an easy-care yarn, Berroco Vintage Chunky. I’ve worked with this yarn before and love how soft it is! I think the owl motifs look so cute in the chunky yarn, and as a bonus, these accessories are really quick to knit.

These were some of the secret projects I was working on at the end of last year. It’s so nice to finally be able to show them off! I still have at least three more waiting in the release queue, so stay tuned…

What I’m Cooking

I missed getting pictures of the yummy curry I made for my weekly meal for a crowd this week, but I did manage a shot of these banana/walnut/oatmeal cookies. I don’t usually make an effort to bake gluten-free treats, but these were quite good! My son liked them a lot, although he refused to believe that they were cookies and insisted on calling them muffins.

What I’m Reading

I’m about to start The Morrigan’s Curse by Dianne K. Salerni. It’s the third book in a series I’ve really enjoyed so far, so I have high hopes!

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: A Friend’s Book!

What I’m Knitting

There’s been a whole lot more secret knitting this week—but my secret projects are getting closer to completion, so hopefully I’ll be back to things I can show you next week! I did manage to take this pic of my two WIPs at the moment, which explains why my fingers are so confused right now (that’s light fingering on US #2s and super-bulky on US #15s!):

Oh, and I wanted to mention two other knitting-related things. First, I finally took the plunge and started an Instagram account! I’m @trionadesigns if you want to connect with me there. I’m posting fun pics of what goes on behind the scenes around here (which often involves a lot of toddler wrangling), as well as sneak peeks of upcoming designs and things I find inspiring.

Secondly, I’m planning to raise prices on my patterns slightly on Ravelry next week (after the 15th of the month). Most of my garment and accessory patterns are currently priced below the average, and I’ve been meaning to raise them a little higher for a while now to bring them more in line with current costs of production (which include editing, photography, and so on). I’m proud of the work that goes into my patterns and want the price to reflect that!

So if you’ve been meaning to purchase any patterns from my Ravelry store, you can take advantage of the advance warning and save a few bucks this week. :-)

What I’m Cooking

Well, this is embarrassing… I didn’t cook anything worthy of photographing this week (meaning, nothing entirely from scratch). Thanks to a few late work nights for me and the hubby, we did more than our usual share of picking up food or cobbling together quick dinners from frozen or convenience-type ingredients. I’ll try to be better about it next week!

What I’m Reading

Okay, definitely saved the best for last. One of my very good friends had her debut novel come out this week, The BFF Bucket List! I preordered it, so it arrived a day before the release date and I’ve been happily reading it ever since. It’s so good! She has a knack for writing books for tweens that make me really remember what it was like to be that age. You can pick up this book for yourself or your tween friends/family members from your local big bookstore or Amazon.com. You won’t be disappointed!

Friday Roundup: Hey, It’s Still Friday for Two More Hours

What I’m Knitting

I’m deep in the throes of secret commissioned knit design, which means I don’t have anything I can show you this week. So to distract you from the lack of actual knitting content, please enjoy this cute picture of my son. He grabbed my ChiaoGoos from where I’d left them on the couch, ran up to where I was standing, and shouted, “Knitting!” while clicking the needle tips together delightedly.

Heart. Melted.

What I’m Cooking

I’ve made vegan quiches with chickpea flour before, but this week I decided to go traditional with a tofu base. This recipe also used hummus, though, which gave it an awesome savory flavor! I paired it with garlic/almond green beans and salad. Yummy!

What I’m Reading

As promised, I finally finished the Zahn Star Wars saga. I picked up The Infinite Sea at the bookstore today. I really liked The 5th Wave, the first book in the series, so I have high hopes for this one!

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!

Friday Roundup: New Year’s Edition!

What I’m Knitting

A fairly low-key day (not a day off—freelancers have it tough sometimes!) means plenty of time for knitting! I can’t show you the whole sweater I’m currently working on for a publication, but I can give you a teensy peek. Look at that gorgeous, rustic yarn:

I’m also working on two(!) other designs for publication with a similar deadline, so there’s going to be some frantic knitting around here for the next few weeks. Wish me luck!

What I’m Cooking

Family in town means lots of eating out, so not too much to show this week! I did manage to make a double recipe of this tasty tortilla soup, which everyone appreciated:

What I’m Reading

Is there anything better than getting a big stack of books for Christmas? I’m working my way through, starting with this one that’s been on my wishlist for a while:

Happy New Year!

Friday Roundup: Yummy Yarn and Yummy Cookies

What I’m Knitting

I’m hard at work on two of the three secret deadline projects that are due soon after the holidays. So no pics there, unfortunately. But in other yarny news, I did receive a most excellent package in the mail a few days ago:

That’s a grab bag of Madelinetosh Tosh DK from WEBS! I usually manage to restrain myself when they put these grab bags up, but this time I had a very healthy PayPal balance and couldn’t resist. You can’t specify colorways, but they try to honor requests. I asked for blues and greens, as well as multiple skeins in the same colorway for a bigger project. I think I made out very well! (That green especially is luscious. I’ll have to come up with a perfect project for that one.)

And for a bit of enabling… it looks like WEBS still has Tosh Sock grab bags available—so hop over there if you don’t want to miss out!

What I’m Cooking

The Great Cookie Extravaganza of 2015 has come and gone. I made quadruple batches of three different types of vegan cookies: peppermint brownies, sugar cookies, and healthy-ish jam thumbprint cookies. Then I packaged them up in individual boxes and gave one to each family who attended my parents’ annual Christmas party. It was exhausting, but they went over really well!

After all that baking, I didn’t have much energy for cooking for the rest of the week. I did manage to get this udon/miso stir fry whipped up on one of the days, which was very tasty and fulfilled my cookbook challenge requirement for the week:

And for my weekly meal-for-a-crowd, I tried a new recipe: pot pie with biscuits cooked right on top in place of a crust. It was delicious, but next time I’ll make twice as many biscuits and cover the whole top.