Her grand debut:

Desert Rose is finished! I mean, totally finished this time. I unpinned the sweater this morning and tried it on for real for the first time, and I'm sooooo happy with her! Definitely a keeper.

First, I tried taking a picture myself in Carlton's bathroom mirror, but, eww, spit and boogers and toothpaste don't frame a newly-knitted sweater very neatly.



So, I had Carlton, who is working from home today, take the picture for me. Eventually, Vespa had to be in the picture as well!



Added later:
Carlton suggested a photo shoot outside in the gorgeous sunshine, to show off the sweater's true color and detail, and to take a picture of the pup squinting in the light:


And, yes, it is over 80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, light breeze, and Puppa is running around naked with no collar on today!

Shine On

Two weeks ago today, I was called by my jeweler here in Scottsdale. My ring was ready and waiting for me.

It's a cocktail ring that once belonged to my grandmother, whom I always called Mama (pronounced Mawmaw, but she always spelled it without the w's in birthday cards and other letters). Mama passed away two years ago this July. Papa, from what I see, hear, and sense, is coming along okay. He's always been so busy with life - the vegetable garden, flea markets, VA appointments, sprucing up the flower gardens, pissing off the cats, working in the shop out back....

This past Christmas, we continued our time-honored tradition of having Christmas Eve dinner, presents, and games with the very closest of family and friends at Papa's house. We've done this ever since I was a very little girl. I remember leaving late one Christmas Eve night and seeing a red tower light off in the distance, and my dad telling me "That must be You-Know-Who!!!" The food is always so casual: honey baked ham that was cooked yesterday to ease the rest of the preparations, deli turkey slices, an assortment of sliced cheeses, a few loaves of bread to choose from, and lots of sides: fresh-from-the-oven homemade cornbread, chips and Fritos with onion dip, baby veggies (I always attack the cherry tomatoes), and sometimes even Velveeta/chili dip in the Crock Pot.

This past Christmas, as we all trickled in two, three, four at a time, I saw Papa waiting for me to come through the marquesina door. (Don't ask me why in the world the room was named "marquesina," I just know that it's always been called that, and nobody else in the world around me knows what the heck I'm talking about.) As soon as he spotted me coming through the door with cookies or pie or something sweet, he helped me take off my coat, and pushed me on down the hallway of the ranch-style house. He brought me into Mama's bedroom, where he's obviously troving through lots of old things - mostly coin collections, but nevertheless, lots of old things. He gets out a small white leather box and opens it up. "Now, you know Kristen has one similar to this. It's not just like this, because hers is a mix of diamonds and marquis-cut rubies. But it's similar, and that's why I wanted the two of you to have these two rings. Now, I don't think you'll really remember Ouida [Mama] ever wearing this fancy jewelry, but she did when she was younger and I want y'all to enjoy it now. I'm ready for you to love it like she did. Now, obviously, you can't wear it because her figers were tiny, and yours, well, they ain't, so you'll have to get it sized to wear it, but I want you to wear it and like it. Do you like it?"

It was such a sweet and touching, and somewhat funny moment. I say funny only because he is such a character when he gets excited, and he was obviously excited to give this to me. And, thanks Papa, for pointing out how tiny here size 4 1/2 fingers were compared to my size 8 1/2!

Of course, I accepted the gift with a gracious and happy heart, and vowed to take care of it for the rest of my life, and wear it with honor and pride.

So, about a month ago I finally took the ring to my jeweler here in Scottsdale, and he took great care of it. He was surprised to see such a young girl bring in such a specialized, custom ring and be so overly protective of it. (I warned him to take care of it for me and to let me know as soon as the sizing was finished.) Papa bartered and traded with a local jeweler, and sifted through lots of jewelry scraps to make quite a few pretty custom jewelry pieces for Mama. These two rings that my sister and I have were two of his own creations. The jeweler says that I've got a grandfather with impeccable taste in timeless cocktail rings. It was appraised, cleaned, sized, photographed, and admired before he called to let me know it was ready to be picked up.

And, oh, what a ring it is.



(Please ignore a potter's need for a manicure.)
(And, I must give thanks to some special in-laws for gifting me such a fantastic camera!)

My very first blocking experience

Well, it's official: Desert Rose is finished! The waist - which I mentioned before - was a bit snug, and has been let out about 2 inches and works perfectly now. The neckline has been finished with a short ribbed pattern to match the sleeves and waistline.

To 100% finish a knitted piece of work, I have taught myself by watching some fantastic videos on YouTube. I learned how to knit in the round (a tube-shaped piece by using either two needles connected by a plastic wire, or using three or more needles with points on both sides), and I have learned how to make multiple other stitches in order to knit just about any lace pattern I could come across. The very last step to knitting anything is often skipped - as I have done on every scarf I ever made. Blocking, which I mentioned here, includes two steps - a light wash, and a stretching dry.

Here, I am washing the sweater in warm water with Vespa's lavender-scented pup shampoo. It's very mild, basically like a baby shampoo, so I figured this should work as well as those expensive soaps made specifically for the blocking process. Look at the water! It turned a funky plum color as I washed the sweater. I was expecting a small amount of color to leak from the yarn, but not this much!




Finally, after gently squeezing as much water from the sweater as I could without wringing (and misshaping) it, I laid an old blanket on the mattress in our guest bedroom to keep the mattress from turning purple or pink and began the backache of stretching and pinning the sweater, all the way around. One pin for every inch. Whew! It seemed to take forever. It stays here until the sweater is completely dry.



Blocking teaches the fibers to cling to each other, wrap around each other, and hold their shape much better than they would otherwise, so I'm happy to do this each time the sweater is washed to ensure a long and happy life. Hopefully Desert Rose will be dry by tomorrow and I will be able to model her for you!

Creamy Lemon Squares

I really, really want to make this recipe.

Shredded Chicken Fajita Soft Tacos - a hit!

Carlton came home hungry today at 4:45 and I had to cook up something fast and tasty!


Shredded Chicken Fajita Soft Tacos:

Two whole boneless, skinless frozen chicken breasts
Taco size flour tortillas
Chopped 1/2 of each: green, red, yellow bell pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup water
1 can stewed tomatoes, and their juice
1/2 cup green chile enchilada sauce
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1/2 lemon
Lots of shredded cheese
Lime wedges
Cilantro
Chunky salsa
Sour Cream (Representin' SC lovers everywhere, Katie Anne!)


Carlton called me at 4:30 and asked what was for dinner. When that question surfaces when he 's only on his drive home, I know he'll be a grumpster before long at all, so the chicken breasts I had out thawing were going to have to speed up the process if they wanted to or not. Got out my big chili pot, because I don't get to use it hardly ever, and I decided I wanted to tonight. Probably because Martha Stewart's show was all about pot today...(it was a huge joke throughout the whole show with Jimmy Fallon who moves entirely too much to be on television).

Chopped up two garlic cloves and tossed them into a tablespoon of hot olive oil in the pot. Then chopped the half of each bell pepper that needed to be eaten anyway (because they were first cut in to last week and these things only last so long), and tossed them into the sizzling garlic. Added juice from half a lemon. Covered, stirring occasionally, for about 7 or 8 minutes, until the peppers started browning. Added 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of ground cumin (taco seasoning is pretty much the same thing here). Water came to a boil in no time, and tossed in about a half can of canned stewed tomatoes, and all of that juice. Added some "Pepper Sauce" and about a half cup of green enchilada sauce, just because they were in the cabinet and had been for a long time. Dumped both chicken breasts in and covered the pot, letting everything lightly boil until the chicken was finished all the way through (about 12-15 minutes, I think). I stirred every couple minutes to keep anything from burning to the bottom, and had to add about a 1/4 cup water about halfway through because it was getting too thick.



Once the chicken breasts were finished all the way through, I took one out and shredded it with two forks and put the shredded pieces back into the pot to simmer in the sauce. The other I just sliced thinly, just in case Carlton didn't want the tomatoes and peppers mixed in with his chicken. Turns out, he actually preferred the shredded! I just warmed up a few soft flour tortillas in the microwave, got out the toppings we wanted to eat on the tacos, and we each built our own.





20 minutes to success! And, there are plenty of leftovers for another night this week - for two people eating two fully-loaded tacos each, I really could have only used one chicken breast for this.

A birthday (and getting started on my Toula)

Carlton's 26th birthday was two days ago, on Friday. Since we're trying to save up all the spare moo-lah we can for our spectacular upcoming European Cruise Sensation, we kept the birthday boy's spending pretty modest this year.

We started off the day with a trip to Mesa (about 25 minutes each way) for a delicious and indulgent breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Carlton ordered some biscuits and sausage, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. Oh, and a pancake, because he wanted "dessert." I ordered the Old Timer's Breakfast, with biscuits and gravy, grits, eggs, bacon, and hash brown casserole. Needless to say, we were full as ticks! Of course nobody can finish that much food, but we ordered it anyway and enjoyed every bite we could eat.

Once we got home, all I wanted to do was get started on my next knitting project. That's right! I FINALLY got finished with the baby blanket. Wow, that thing was starting to take a little bit of my soul each day that it endured its unfinishedness. I started wondering if I had actually started knitting my very own black hole, because after about midway through, it never really seemed to grow anymore. Well, I also FINALLY got to get started on my previously-announced next project, the tulip cardigan. Knitting is sweet again.

Since we had made plans for later in the evening, we opted to take the afternoon to just hang out (and digest our breakfast). It was a gorgeous day outside - about 80 degrees and clear skies with a calm and cool breeze, and Vespa was out patrolling the yard. No birds DARE land on her lawn, lest they wish to gamble their very lives! (Oh, whatever. I spent plenty of time Friday afternoon studying her stalking and pouncing techniques, and let me tell ya, the only bird she'll ever have the chance of catching is a stupid quail.) So, yeah, back to the beautiful afternoon. It was so pretty outside that I brought my knitting along with me and sat in the shade on the patio and knitted while Carlton opted to sit in the sun on Puppa's outdoor bed and read a new magazine. What a nice afternoon.

Then later on that night we had tickets to The Comedy Spot in downtown Scottsdale and made sure we had enough time before our 8:00 show to have a nice bite to eat at Stax. I got the tiny little sloppy joes (sooooo good!), and Carlton enjoyed a turkey burger and a beef burger. As always, that was delicious. The comedy club was just a few blocks down, and we still got there early enough to get a great parking place NOT run by valets, and enjoyed the show which got over at 10:00.

{Since Carlton never really got a cake for this birthday (other than his pancake at breakfast), which I'm having horrible guilt over, I'm hoping to take him over to Sprinkles for a special treat this afternoon.}

Happy (late) Birthday Carlton!

Yellow

A blog I follow, A Friend to Knit With, follows a blog called House on Hill Road. The writer of that blog is hosting a "Yellow Week" and encourages all her readers to find a special piece of yellow each day this week, photograph it, and post it on their blogs. I've been watching her pictures, and find that I am more and more attracted to the color yellow. It's so... happy. And this afternoon, I found a yellow myself and have now found myself sucked into Yellow Week.

... poor little guy....

Lilly is here!

Cynthia from AYW (work) went into labor yesterday! This means that I must, must, MUST finish this baby blanket I've been working on so diligently. I'm soooooo over this solid lavender color, and must say, I'll be glad to give this one as a little gift to the new mommy and baby girl! I'm considering even knitting a little knitted head wrap with a huge flower on it in some of the yarn remnants to coordinate with the blanket. That would definitely make for an adorable duo on a new baby girl, I must say! I'll hopefully get to see Cynthia and the new baby Lilly in a week or so.

This blanket, I feel, is the most boring and monotonous piece I've ever worked on, including all my simple scarves. It's just so... blah. Very useful for her, very blah for me to make.

Most of all, I have about 4 projects ready and rooooooarrrrrring to go!, but just can't seem to finish this blanket. And I've promised myself to finish the blanket before I indulge myself once more.

Just gotta push through these last few lines of K2, K2tog, YO, K2tog, K1, YO, K2tog, K to end of row, repeat. Oh, this got old soooooo long ago! My eyes have officially crossed. Permanently.

But Little Vespa seems to like it just fine.

Knitaholics Anonymous

I just found something by accident, by clicking through blog links, and I have no idea how I actually got to this page. But this thing that I found... I need it... so... desperately!

http://www.theknitkit.com/

The only setback is, it doesn't actually include any actual knitting needles. I remember back when I first learned to knit. I wanted to bring my knitting supplies onto the flight with me, but packed them in a checked bag because I didn't want to get to bagage check and have them confiscated (the needles were a souvenier from Paris and I wouldn't let them go without a fight!). Then once we boarded our flight, I turned to my right and saw an itty bitty granny just a-knitting away. Crap. After a short amount of online research, I just looked up all prohibited items TSA's website and it says Knitting needles are ooookay!!!

I've been wondering what in the world I'll keep myself entertained with on the flights to and from Venice in May, and this would be soooo perfect! Dang, I could get an entire project finished on the flights!

Yeah, I'm geekin'.

Sweet Delivery!

Today a special package was delivered to our front door - a gift from Katie Anne! To Carlton, me, and "Puppa," this package was filled with candies made by a very special, thoughtful, and sweeeeeeet little girl!

I immediately brought the box inside after the doorbell rang (*delivery!*), and opened it right away. Heart-shaped chocolate candies for Carlton and me, and special homemade chocolate-dipped doggy treats for the little one all exploded from the box! A cute little embellished picture of Katie Anne said a nice little "Happy Valentine's Day" and I even got a special baggy of my very own! I opened it up and - low and behold - it's a handmade piece of art from KA! A little purple glittery pin I can wear to brighten my own day and those who get to see me on V-Day. Of course any homemade, handmade gift is glamor-fied by cellophane wrapping! But I must admit, one of my most favorite details was the cute ribbon that the ladies selected to tie everything up so neatly. Very posh!

Puppa immediately took a treat, carried it over to a pile of towels I was folding in the living room, and broke it up into *her* bitesize pieces. Then she pulled off a

funny little trick!

Vespa took the chocolate-dipped half of her first treat outside so I couldn't get to it!

Thanks Katie Anne and Mommy Katie for sending such a special gift! This definitely brightened our day!!!

Sprinkles!

After work this afternoon I took Pup alllllllll the way across Scottsdale to the vet. I knew it was getting pretty close to her last round of vaccinations, and she's past due for her flea/tick & heartworm medications. On the way back, since I was driving past the place anyway, why not stop at Sprinkles? I know, it would be a travesty not to! Carlton just devowered his chocolate cupcake with peanutbutter icing and chocolate sprinkles while I'm cherishing every bite of my ginger cupcake with lemon icing.

Mmmmm....

Tulip Cardigan

Desert Rose is currently 95% finished. The neckline needs a K2P1 border like the sleeves and waist already have, and the finished waist needs to be let out a bit... and I need to think for a while on how I can actually do that. Then comes the blocking, and voila! Desert Rose will be ready for the streets. I wore the sweater for about an hour last night and she was quite comfortable, I must say. I don't want to post any pictures yet, at least not until the neckline is finished and blocking begins.

Today after work I began shopping around for a new project, and found one that's perfect for me!

Tulip Cardigan, thanks to The Smith Island Pattern Factory:

She's my new muse. For some reason, I think this one should be named Toula the Tulip Cardigan. It reminds me of the sweet cardigans that Toula would wear in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, after she gave herself the make-over. It looks slightly second-hand store, slightly Urban Outfitters, totally handmade.

To keep this sweater more wearable around more of the seasons, I'm going to knit only 3/4 length sleeves instead of full-length, and I'm using a cotton yarn in lieu of wool. Lion Brand's Cotton Ease feels really nice and has an easy elasticity to it, which will be nice in the spring, or well, whenever, really. The main color will be the lime/kiwi green, around the shoulders will be cream, vines/hearts will be light/dark indigos, and the terracotta color will be the tulips. I'm glad that the colors are a little more muted and softer than the original pattern calls for - I don't think I've been in the mood for bright colors lately. Anyway, here's to a new sweet sweater!

Crazy Weather!

Last night, I fell asleep to the sound of rain falling outside. This morning, I woke up to the sound of rain splattering on the ground outside. Yeah, they don't even bother to put gutters on the houses out here.

This afternoon around 12:15 a coworker Maci called to see if I could work her shift for her (she's the one who always sports the super-dee-duper southern accent in my honor). She had been sick all morning and was scheduled to close the store at 6:00, meaning she would actually get out of the store around 7:00 or a little after. I didn't mind filling in for her, and got dressed and ready to head out to Deer Valley, about 20 minutes away, where I work. On the way to work, I drove in amazement, and had to whip out my camera phone and take a couple pictures. There were huge, fluffy clouds - some were white and bright and some were doom-and-gloom dark gray, and there was bright blue sun-shiney sky popping through everywhere. And boy, oh boy, was it windy!

Propped the camera phone on top of the steering wheel and snapped this shot

of the crazy clouds:

Sat the camera phone on my window sill and snapped this shot as I drove down the highway. Check out the blue sky and sunshine popping through!

Shortly after I got to work and relieved Maci of her duties, I got a voicemail from Carlton telling me that it was actually HAILING at the house! He snapped a few shots with the real camera (because, of course, he knew exactly where it was, hyuk-hyuk).

Carlton got this shot and used his hand to show scale of the tiny hail... but hey, hail is hail when the sun in shining!

Now, at 10:45, it's raining yet again! What weather this is, and how welcome I hope it feels! I know I'm enjoying it.

It's 80 degrees outside...

Today was yet another warm, warm day. It feels like April/May in Georgia right now... crazy, I know! Because of the nagging warm weather, and because of a blog post that Katie made a couple days ago, I was inspired to grill out for dinner tonight.

On Superbowl Sunday, Carlton was invited to a Superbowl party at a coworker's house, and I was invited to come along with him. We showed up just in time for Geoff (party host) to start throwing tons of meat on the grill - beef ribs in marinade, beef ribs in bbq sauce, pork ribs in bbq sauce, bone-in chicken breasts in bbq sauce, and some kabobs... your choice of steak or chicken with bell peppers, onion, and zucchini mixed in. On top of all the meats, there was a gigantic self-serve salad, a 7-layer bean/guac/sour cream/salsa/cheese/etc dip, and another fruit salsa with plenty of chips for scooping. Annnnnnnd, margaritas, of course! Drinker's choice of original flavor or frozen strawberry. Of course, the frozen strawberry margaritas were a hit with me, as with the 5-ish geeky computer programmers and QA analysts.

Geoff and his wife are originally from California, lived in Boston for a few years, and are now currently in Arizona, about 45 minutes from us. Their roots, however, are in the Polynesian Islands. And I must say, Geoff's marinated ribs and kabobs were definitely a hit! No matter how much any of his guests raved about his marinade, he wouldn't give up the recipe... smart man! I finally got a few ingredients out of him, and he admitted to pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and a few other "choice ingredients." Needless to say, I just had to try and recreate this marinade tonight for the kabobs I grilled! Oh, those Polynesians!

So. Our grocery store didn't have just a plain pineapple juice. Can you believe that? I know, huh! I did find a pineapple + coconut juice and figured that would work well enough. And instead of buying soy sauce, ginger, and other "choice ingredients," I just went for good ole, reliable Dale's. Dale's already has all those ingredients anyway. I know, I'm smart like that.

Here's what you'll need:

bamboo skewers, soaked in water for at least 15-20 minutes

1/8 cup pineapple + coconut juice

1/8 cup Dale's marinade

1/4 cup water (my pineapple + coconut juice was pretty syrup-y so this was necessary)

2 cloves chopped garlic

3 bell peppers - 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green

1 sweet onion

fresh whole mushrooms

2 zucchini

2 small ribeye steaks, or your choice cut of steak (our grocer had ribeyes on sale and I got 2 small steaks weighing 1.25 pounds total for 7.25!)

I whisked the juice, Dale's, water, and chopped garlic together in a glass pie dish - I like to marinade in these dishes. Cut steaks into cubes about 2" square-ish, and the onion and bell peppers the same. Dump meat and veggies into the dish with marinade, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for as long as you can wait. (Ours only got to marinade for about 30 minutes before the grill got started because somebody got hungry.... I would recommend marinading longer than that if you can help yourself!) I didn't put any mushrooms in the marinade until I started putting other things on the skewers because they tend to soak up anything and everything around them very quickly. So right before you start sticking things on the skewers, dump your mushrooms into the marinade. I also prefer my zucchini cut into quarters and cooked lightly over the hot flame, so I kept them cut large and just sat them directly onto the grill instead of skewering them.

Get the skewer out of the sink/soaking dish and stab on a few of each chopped ingredient - steak, peppers, onion, mushrooms, repeat until the skewer is full, with about 2-3" on each end. Grill them all until you've got the beef as cooked as you prefer! We like medium-cooked steaks, so they stayed on the grill for about 8 minutes, I turned them once, and they cooked again for about 4 minutes.

My marinade was still not close to Geoff's, but it was closer than I was expecting! I guess nobody can cook like a Polynesian except a Polynesian.

I also chopped up a few red potatoes, tossed them in plenty of e.v. olive oil, a salt/pepper/herb mixture, and topped them very generously with about a hole brick of freshly-grated parmasan cheese. Wrapped them up in tin foil, popped them in a 425 degree oven for about 45 minutes, and they're done. Since I severely underestimated how long they would take to cook compared to the already-grilling skewers, I popped them in the microwave for 6 minutes after they had baked for about 15 minutes and they were perfect, except that they didn't get to crispen up at all... :(

Along with some totally-not-healthy-at-all cheesy breadsticks we had in the freezer, this made for a huge, delicious, very satisfying meal... with leftovers.

Okay, now back to Little Miss Desert Rose!

Casting on #4...

Thanks for all the suggestions on re-naming this pattern for my own emotion's satisfaction. Anything was going to be better than that never-to-be-mentioned-again name! So, she is now named Desert Rose. Woohoo! This is such a great name for this particular color and pattern because a) obviously, the pattern on the front will remind you of a climbing vine of pretty flowers, and b) the color I'm knitting this in is definitely characteristic of any rose that would dare bloom in the desert - it's a dusty pink color with flecks of gray and peach very discreetly heathered in.

Now there are three full skeins invested in the sweater. Starting with skein #4 tonight!

Canis Tid-bittius Velocitus

Rare action shot of the Tiny Fast Pup