Fiber Fool

I hope all of you who celebrated the holidays this weekend enjoyed lots of good food and quality time with friends and family! As usual around these parts lately we played it pretty low key, though we went for a nice 3+ mile walk to the grocery store and back.

This week I’m grateful for:

1. Good coffee and the accoutrement to brew it well. More specifically, the burr grinder DH gave me for our anniversary several years ago and my french press. Because you can’t get through a Monday morning (especially an overcast one like today) without a good cup of coffee!
2. DH who puts up with me and my PMS. Emma and Brandon too. I think they sense it because Emma uncharacteristically cuddled with me this morning and Brandon is pretty easily coaxed to act as a heating pad.



3. Nice, well kept and well equipped outdoor spaces. This week I took a run around the lake and then interval trained on an outdoor fitness course Fort Collins has at City Park. It was a fantastic way to get in some different exercise and enjoy the outdoors at the same time!
4. My homemade granola. It just elevates yogurt and fruit to have that bit of crunch. And right now, anything ready made and not requiring extra energy is especially wonderful.
5. Amanda, for helping me save a bit extra on some new compression workout wear. My old compression wear is now baggy and thus no longer compressing.

What are you grateful for this first week of April? Sunshine? Flowers? Green grass? We don’t have those last two quite yet.

Now, April is my birthday month and I want to celebrate! So, for the entire month of April you can save 15% on any of my patterns on Ravelry! Just use the code HAPPY37 on the code redemption page. No minimum purchase necessary and you may use it as many times are you wish. This discount also applies to Nourishing Knits!

As an added bonus, one lucky person who makes a purchase on Ravelry this month will get their purchase refunded. I’ll assign each purchase a number and let Random.org pick the winner on May 1st and issue a refund for the total of your purchase. If you make multiple purchases, you’ll be entered multiple times, but only the purchase that corresponds to winning number will be refunded.

For the last couple of years DH’s family has done a handmade gift exchange. It is quite enjoyable as everyone is quite talented. Food and drink gifts are a popular choice, though we’ve gotten stained glass, jewelry and such too. Last year we gave out a smattering of preserves and kits for the DIY game, 1000 Blank White Cards. This year, we put together yogurt parfait kits as it seems almost everyone is watching what they eat and we didn’t want to saddle them with a bunch of things they wouldn’t be able to eat or would throw them off their journey to healthier living. It was a great pick too because the division of labor was much more distributed between DH and I.

Drew made the yogurt from cream top milk from a local dairy delivery service. Normally I wouldn’t advocate gifting a brand new recipe and we hadn’t made yogurt before, but as an experienced home cheesemaker we felt pretty confident jumping right in with the gift yogurt. Though we opted for the cream top rather than low fat milk for the first batch just because we didn’t want to run into any troubles with lower fat milk. It seems our concerns were invalid, as this week DH made his first 2% milk batch and it turned out even thicker and richer tasting than the first!

Oh and a note on the labels - last year I went to a lot of trouble to design and print labels for the lotion bars I gifted only to find out no one realized they were handmade. They all thought I bought them at one of the boutiques in Old Town! So, this year I decided to go handdrawn so there was no mistaking that we made these gifts. I kind of like the charm of the imperfect, hand drawn snowflakes.

Along with 2 cups of yogurt, we gave out 4 oz of a spiced cranberry jam inspired by Maria’s recipe (which funnily enough was inspired by a tea I was drinking this fall) and a mostly fruit sweetened granola inspired by Gourmand in the Kitchen’s, but I tipped mine in the direction of gingerbread by using prune baby food and lots of cinnamon, ginger, clove and nutmeg.

Given as pictured, with a 12 oz jar of granola there is enough of everything to make about 4 parfaits with twice as much granola as pictured - you needed to be able to see the cranberry jam! I often go with only 2 tablespoons anyway to keep my carbs in check, but sometimes if I’ve had a big cardio day I’ll go with the more common 1/4 cup per 1/2 cup of yogurt. Any extra granola can be used on store bought yogurt, ice cream or even tossed into pancakes for a bit of crunch.

Ever since this summer I’ve been eating a lot of yogurt parfaits. Once we stopped getting fresh produce at the farmer’s mark though it dropped off because I’m not a fan of unadulterated yogurt, but most flavored yogurt is much too sweet for my palette. Then I read a suggestion that one should always add their own jams and fruit spreads to plain yogurt as the fruit on the bottom varieties are essentially that, but by adding your own you have control over the sweetness level and balance of fruit to yogurt. I don’t know why that thought never occurred to me, but ever since my yogurt parfait for dessert in the evenings has become more regular again. My favs are flavors of yogurt you don’t usually find in stores too - pear, spiced peach, pumpkin and of course the cranberry. Then last week, my sister texted me that peanut butter stirred into vanilla greek yogurt was fabulous. I haven’t tried it yet, but that as well as chocolate almond butter are on my to try soon list. We don’t keep vanilla yogurt around so I think I’ll just add a splash of vanilla extract. What are you favorite things to top yogurt (or stir into)?

The granola recipe is still in need of a bit of tweaking. Right now I don’t think the spices are forward enough, though when paired with spiced preserves it has a good balance. But I’ll be sharing it when I feel it is at its best. I’ll post next week about our yogurt making adventure. Since Drew has been the yogurt maker I need to run the post by him first to make sure I get the steps right, but the photos have been taken.

Did you give any homemade edible gifts this year? Were the recipient of any and what were your favorites? How about handmade gifts in general?

I’m personally super happy that the nephew, Henry’s, saltine toffee is nearly gone. OMG, that stuff is awesome tasty, though not waistline friendly. And SIL1 gave us Italian macaroons made with almonds and pine nuts that were really good along with a red and white wine she made. SIL3 made half aprons for everyone and the women’s even have a bit of elastic in the ties so when you sit down it is still comfortable - I thought that was quite clever. SIL2 gave us peach preserves and some dried tomatoes from her garden with a recipe for sundried tomato and feta biscuits that sound like another super tasty and waistline unfriendly indulgence! I think we’ll wait to bake those until the bikes are back out on the road ;-)

Okay, and what I’m sure many of you have been waiting for - the Jane Austen Knits winners! Numbers 1 and 15 were the lucky winners - Laurie of Ooh Shiny and Carol. An e-mail has been sent to each of you. If I do not get a response within a week with your mailing address I’ll draw a new winner. Thanks for playing, and I’ll have some more news about JAK in the coming days.

There are two three things that make today special. It is the birthday of two wonderful women, one historical and one contemporary. It is also the kick off the Nourishing Knits blog tour! The first stop on the tour is at one of the members of my Monday night knitting group - Kathryn aka Alpacamundo. Coming up, Nourishing Knits will also be found at Twisted Knitter, Mrs. Pao, The Independent Stitch, and PoMo Golightly!

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I had the privilege of having three designs published in Interweave Press’ first special issue of Jane Austen Knits (Ravelry).

The smallest of the patterns, but probably the most challenging to write was the Pemberly Slippers. The model size was not my size so I’m kind of itching to knit myself a pair soon. I’m looking forward to it even more since I wore through my last knit slippers. Knitting new ones are more fun than darning old ones :-) I just don’t know what color I want… Hmm….

I’m not certain which sweater was more knitting. This one, the Elinor Tunic, was a larger gauge but larger surface area. I was inspired by the empire waisted dresses of the time, but shortened them to a tunic that can be worn over a long skirt for a classic look or worn over leggings or skinny jeans for a more modern flare.

Barton Cottage Shrug I think was my favorite to knit. There was something magical about carrying an entire sweater project around in a sock knitting project bag :-) All the stockinette stitch meant it was a great choice to work on while traveling too. It is another one I really, really want to knit in my size. This one fit my mom quite nicely, but I have a much more prominent chest than she so I’m not certain if this sample would ever fit me, even at my target goal weight.

I was especially honored when the editor of Jane Austen Knits, Amy Clark Moore, asked if she could borrow my sample shrug to wear to a birthday tea in Jane Austen’s honor. I was flattered and only asked that she share a couple pics.

Amy posted today at Spinning Daily about attending the tea. If you were not aware that there was a Jane Austen Knits group on Ravelry, check it out.

Now, onto the important bits - the birthdays! Today is Jane Austen’s birthday, but it is also my friend and editor, Amanda’s birthday! Both seem like a great reason to have a giveaway, don’t you think?

I knit on both the Barton Cottage Shrug and the Pemberly Slippers while I was in Minnesota this past May and grandma ooo’d and ahhh’d over them. I knew I’d want to send her a copy to peruse even though she hasn’t knit in many years. But then I heard they had sold out of the first print run and was worried I wouldn’t be able to get an extra copy. So, when Amanda was in a local store with some in stock she picked me up a copy. Then I got my package from Interweave and they sent me a copy per pattern! So, I now have two more copies of Jane Austen Knits than I need so it is time to give them away!

Since I’ve had my nose to the grindstone working on Nourishing Knits I haven’t read my own copy of JAK yet. So, to enter the giveaway, post in the comments which pattern you would cast on first (or have already cast on) to get one entry. Be sure to leave a valid e-mail address so I can contact you if you’ve won.

If you’d like more entries, you can post once per day to Twitter, just be sure to include “@fiberfool” in your tweet so I’m certain to see it and link to this post. You can also “like” the Designedly, Kristi group on Facebook for another entry, just leave a separate comment saying you have liked the page. You have until next Thursday, 12/21/2011 at midnight MST to enter. As a bonus, I’m giving away a copy of Nourishing Knits when the likes reach 150, 200, 250 and so on to a random follower there.

I’ll assign a number to each comment, and then each Twitter post in the order they are received and will use Random.org to choose two numbers. I’ll announce the two winners on Friday, 12/22/2011. Best of luck to you all!

I’m digging back into the picture archives this week. Way, way back actually to the first round of Project Spectrum back in 2006! That was the project that really sparked my love of photography and began developing my skills, so these aren’t the best photos you’ve seen around these parts, but not too shabby for being 5 years old.

I’m on day 6 of intermittent nausea and it is taking its toll on me in a variety of ways - most markedly the lack of desire to cook with lack of energy coming in at a close second. With the Easter holiday on the horizon though my mind always jumps to the thought of deviled eggs. They are not something that shows up at our house often as I’m the only one who eats them, but I do enjoy them.

A month or two ago I made some deviled eggs to bring to Monday night knitting when our eggs had piled 3 cartons high (we get a dozen delivered each week with our 1/2 gallon of milk). I did them a touch bit differently this time. Growing up it was always Miracle Whip and mustard mixed with the yokes, usually in roughly equal proportion. Sometimes we put in finely minced onion. For this version I did just a touch of Greek yogurt and much more Gulden’s Spicy Brown Mustard - just enough for the yokes to be moist. Then I added about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of ground sumac for 6 yolks. I blended some smoked paprika with some aleppo pepper to sprinkle on top for some added punch in flavor and color. It was a subtle change, but it seemed to produce a bit deeper flavor profile. It also lowered the fat and sugar a fair bit too which is always a bonus in my book.

Did your family have deviled eggs at Easter? What is your quintessential Easter indulgence?

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Okay, now onto what I’m sure you have all been waiting for…

The random winner of two skeins of Chickadee yarn from Quince & Co to make the Masala slippers from Nourishing Knits is….

Beverly aka PoMo Golightly!! Congrats Beverly. Start choosing your color combination and watch your inbox for an e-mail from me. I hope you’ll stop by and share your slippers when they are done :-)

Many thanks again go out to Pam and the rest of the crew at Quince & Co for providing this wonderful yarn for the giveaway!

You should be seeing the Masala slippers over at Quince & Co’s blog soon. In the meantime, they have been generous enough to donate two skeins to make the slippers. So, anyone who has purchased Nourishing Knits by 11:59 PM MDT on Tuesday will be entered into a drawing to win those two skeins! The winner will be announced in Wednesday’s post.

Now if you are especially anxious to knit that particular project from Nourishing Knits you can tweet, blog or post to Facebook about the contest, linking to this post. Be sure to add #NK or #nourishingknits in your tweet so I’m sure to see it. Please limit tweets to no more than once an hour. If you post to your blog or Facebook, please comment on this post with a link direct to those posts. For each post I’ll add an extra entry in the drawing.

Okay, now onto the Linkity…

Crafty:

• Free Easter Scavenger Hunt printables. I found nothing more fun than a good scavenger hunt as a kid.
• Issue #4 of Ennea Collective is out, this time with a Celtic theme to the knitting and spinning projects and articles.
• Mini-Eco is a new to me blog with a lot of recycling crafts that would be good to do with kids. Though kid-less, I think I may still find the site inspiring.

Yummy:

• Nothing says springtime like a pea frittata!
• Or maybe rhubarb is a better harbinger of spring? Here is a collection of 5 rhubarb recipes from Rodale.
• Then again, there is strawberries as well. I’m totally intrigued by these Balsamic Roasted Strawberries from Heidi Swanson’s (she blogs at 101cookbooks) latest cookbook, Super Natural Everyday, which I *have* to get as I loved the first one so much.
• Craft linked to a new way to filter bitters, which I think could come in handy with my Chai Concentrate and our homemade liqueurs, though we did recently add a brewer’s funnel to our arsenal and that has helped.

Pixely:

• Use your photos to decorate eggs!
• Lens Corrections in Lightroom 3 (gee, I really need to upgrade…)

I hope you all had a nice weekend. What did you do?