Fiber Fool

It is International Waffle Day today! For many of you there is still time to sneak in a waffle today…

A few of us gathered for brunch this morning at a newer eating establishment, Dempsey’s. They are our new favorite restaurant. They have an amazingly huge breakfast menu that is very vegetarian friendly (even more so than most breakfast joints) and they serve breakfast daily until 3pm! But, they are also incredibly veggie friendly for dinner and they have the best french fries in town!

This is nearly 4 pounds of mill end slivers from the Brown Sheep mill that came home with me last week. I have no idea what they will grow up to be, but the second we walked into the room with the mill ends Ashley and Hannah both exclaimed that they had just my colors out, LOL!

It was kind of funny. Looking in the trunk at all the various bags it was easy to figure out who the owner of the bag was. We definitely stuck to our certain color preferences :-)

The rush on book one has lessened so I’m concentrating on finding my desk top in the studio so that making them goes smoother. I’m getting really excited now because they are sending me fabric samples and such from the interior decoration so I can make them mesh with the home even more!

I am getting ever nearer to the straps on the Ribs and Lace Tank now. DH and I watch an SNL episode last night that aided that progress and I also made sure to spend 30 minutes outside with Emma yesterday afternoon and I knit during that as well. It is kind of amazing how quickly stolen moments can add up!

Have a great weekend everyone! I’m off to water aerobics…

Wow, did switching from US10s to US4s make a BIG difference in my progress on the Ribs and Lace Tank! Okay, that makes me sounds like I’m an idiot and did not realize that it would take many more stitches per inch to create the same amount of fabric. Yes, I know that. What I wasn’t counting on was having to be very diligent about pacing myself once I got to the 4s. The worsted weight, mostly cotton yarn on US4s is a bit of a strain on my hands. I’m still moving forward and the end is in sight. I had originally thought it would be washed and blocking overnight and ready for FO Friday shots this afternoon. Well, it isn’t going to happen. I’m 4 rows from starting the neckline. Then there is the remainder of the back to do once the front is done.

I will certainly have an FO next Friday, but again it may not be the tank. It seems I’m in a bit of feast cycle here right now. There was a project for pay just a few weeks ago and I have another similar thing on my plate with an April 2 drop dead date. Then I’m in a wholesale deal with a company about a few of my sock patterns. That doesn’t take a lot of work, but there will be some slight reformatting for them. Then yesterday I was contacted by a development company out of Florida who commissioned two collaged blank books. I’m excited about the project, though a little intimidated as the homes these are being made for are in the multi-million dollar category! Yikes! And, if they like the books there could be more in my future…

The first book has a 14 day rush (don’t worry, I made them pay for the rush) on it so at the least that book needs to be done by next Friday. This also means that the Ribs and Lace tank is going to be pushed aside to only getting attention during drying times, at least for the next week so I may not yet get that wrapped. I’m kind of bummed. I was looking forward to saying that I completed a garment in my size in a week! Oh well, you got take your pay where you can get it!

This weekend I eased back into more of my usual activity and baked. We were invited to a St. Patrick’s Day/Spring party at some friends of ours. I was jonesing for chocolate cupcakes, but decided they were not quite properly attired for the occasion. DH dyed some powdered sugar green and we dusted them with the green icing sugar to make them a bit more festive. Both the cupcake and the frosting were so light that it was almost like eating chocolate clouds!

Chocolate Cloud Cupcakes

1 box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devil’s Food Cake Mix
1 C Cold Water
1/3 C Dark Roast Coffee, brewed strong and cooled
1/2 C Pasteurized Egg Whites (I used All Whites)
1 Large Egg
2 T Vegetable Oil
2 t Almond Extract
2 t Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees for standard pans or 325 degrees for dark finish or glass pans. Place all ingredients in a mixer bowl and beat for 10-15 minutes. Yes, beat 10-15 minutes, no short cuts! The batter should form ribbons and appear glassy. Fill greased or paper lined muffin pans 2/3 - 3/4 full and bake for 19-22 minutes. Makes ~3 dozen cupcakes.

The cupcakes are light and fluffy and nicely moist so they do not require frosting, but this frosting is a good match.

Frosting:
4 oz Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate (I used Scharffen Berger), roughly chopped
1 Stick Unsalted Butter
1/2 c Powdered Sugar
2 T Dark Roast Coffee, brewed strong and cooled
2 t Vanilla Extract
6 T Pasteurized Egg Whites (or equal two 2 lg egg whites)
1/4 C Granulated Sugar

In a double boiler, melt chocolate. Meanwhile, whip the butter, powdered sugar, coffee and vanilla until light and fluffy. Let chocolate cool for 3-5 minutes and add to butter mixture and whip more. Whisk together the egg white product and granulated sugar until the consistency of shaving cream. Fold into the chocolate mixture.

NOTE: If you choose to use fresh egg whites for the frosting you will need to heat them and the sugar in a double boiler until they reach 160 degrees F to pasteurize them.

Frost cupcakes with an offset spatula and enjoy!

Some of you may recall a post I made back in October about some socks I knit that I couldn’t really show you. Well, now the world can and has and will see them! They are on the cover of the Spring 2007 issue of Spin-Off Magazine!

I have already gotten some e-mails and comments from some of you with congrats as well as some very kind blog posts about the article as well. Thank you very much! I also heard back from the Spin-Off staff that someone is already knitting them! I’m flabbergasted by such quick responses. In fact, my own subscription copy hasn’t even arrived in my mailbox yet (I had a really cool photo idea in my head if it had, but finally decided I could wait no longer to share the news). The joy is bittersweet however, as we discovered there is some errata in the charts. Some lines got inadvertently cut from the Key and Chart B. If you click on the following images you can download the omitted portions. Spin-Off will have new graphics up on their web site soon as well.

In case you’d like to see the socks as I originally photographed them, without all the blurred out craziness…

I have to say, I’m beginning to wonder if I am ever going to be able to get myself to wear these socks as I do the rest of my hand knit socks. I’ve had them back for over a week and they have sat in my drawer. I smile every time I open the drawer and reach for my crappy store bought socks. The photo at the top of this post is the first time I put them on since they returned and they were on for less than 10 minutes, LOL! Perhaps in time I will get over it. This isn’t my first publication, but it is my first ever cover and my first ever knitting or spinning publication so right now I just feel like everything should be kept pristine. I haven’t even read my comp copy of the magazine. I’ve been waiting for the subscription copy to arrive already slightly beat up from going through the mail to read that. At a party on Saturday one of my friends asked me if I brought a copy along and I had to fess up to my current obsession with keeping the copy I have in pristine condition. Perhaps I should get the socks mounted with the cover of the magazine and framed, LOL!

I’m pretty sure I’m going to have another “through the roof” moment when I see it on the newsstands. I think it’ll seem a bigger deal to see it at Barnes and Noble rather than one of the LYS, but that might be awfully exciting too. If you are not a subscriber it is scheduled to be out next Tuesday, the 27th of March.