Here’s the last and final prize for drawing winners. Kathy wanted a needle roll and said she liked red and here’s the result. The smallest roll is for sock needles and shows the outside color. The middle one is for longer DPNs and the largest roll is for straights. Hope these meet with approval Kathy!
Yesterday morning I went to a crop and worked on my albums. I love the pumpkin pictures but obviously still need to do some journalling on these pages. I also bought albums for the pictures we’ll be taking in a few weeks on our Colorado trip.
We’ve had our first harvest of Lincoln peas. I can’t wait to eat those! I also found some gorgeous local strawberries at the market yesterday and turned some of them into a salsa to go with my salmon and brown rice, yum!
Strawberry Salsa
2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced and sauteed until soft
1/4 cup basil, torn into small pieces
salt and pepper to taste
juice of a lime
Toss together all ingredients, serve immediately.
The first double eyelet sock is done. This critter just flew right off the needles. I did intend to have the second one cast on before tonight and was done ahead of that quite easily.
The double eyelet sock is growing quickly now that I’m back on task again. I sub’d an eye of partridge heel for the slip stitch one called for but other than that I’ve made no other modifications. The first one will be done in no time!
So the Tropicana sock is frogged and there’s already a new one flying off the needles. This is Leslie’s Double Eyelet from Mountain Colors and it’s much easier on the hand and couldn’t be easier to knit as is evidenced by the amount of sock already produced. Mountain Colors doesn’t have very good pictures of their socks on their patterns but Elegant Ewe has several sample socks knit up so it’s easy to see how nice they are. I definitely need to collect some more of these patterns!
They’re baaa-aack! The sweet peas have just begun to bloom. I’m really looking forward to having fragrant little bouquets of sweet peas on the table all summer. They colors seem a bit different each year. Last year I had strong dark colors and so far this year seems to be more pastel. As long as I don’t let them dry out they’ll bloom all summer. It helps to deadhead them of course but since I cut them so often for the table there isn’t usually much need for deadheading. They can dry out pretty quickly in their pot so this weekends rain will really be good for them as they were just beginning to brown a bit at their bases.
Usually as soon as I get out of bed in the morning Gwen hops right up and gets into the warm spot. Often if I’m not up quick enough she’ll come and walk on me until I get up and leave. yesterday morning when I went up to shower I discovered her in a new bed. Jason was up earlier than normal to get the smoker going for me and had left open his dresser drawer. Gwen promptly made herself right at home.
I’m not sure why but I really prefer my mac and cheese with broccoli in it. I steam the broccoli and stir it in at the end. Perhaps it seems a tad healthier? This was a new recipe I tried with a bit of cream cheese, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce stirred into the usual cheese sauce but I wasn’t too fond of it. I’ll stick with my basic cheese sauce next time.
Here they are all finished at last. I wasn’t too crazy about this pattern. I think the heel flap is too large and it makes a huge gusset so that the sock is loose on the bottom of your foot- that said, it’s easy enough to fix by making a shorter flap and a smaller gusset. I also altered the toe to decrease faster on the second half- something I pretty much always do now. Maybe I have short toes, the socks certainly fit more nicely with that adjustment.
One of the things I strive for is to include more whole grains in my diet. I still have not learned to like wheat bread but one place where I’ve been really successful is replacing white rice with brown rice. This week I made a little fried rice using the brown rice and I really do like it just as well as the white rice version.
Brown fried rice
4 cups cook brown rice, cooled completely
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn
one carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 egg, lightly beaten, cooked into a flat round and chopped
1/2 cup sweet onion
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Saute the onion and carrots in 1 tablespoon canola oil until soft. Add the peas and corn and heat until cooked through. Mix 2 tablespoons canola oil and 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce into the rice and add to the pan. Stir to distribute veggies and then let sit over medium heat for a couple minutes. Continue to cook 6 or 7 minutes, with occasional stirring. Drizzle over sesame oil and serve.
When I plied the lollipop I had a bit of one of the white singles and a bit of the colored left over so I conducted a little test. I plied the remainder of the white with the colored and then the remainder of the colored onto itself so I could compare and see which I liked best. I’d like to eventually knit swatches with all three and see how those look as well.
I was intending to knit Tropicana socks next with some of Rose’s sock yarn. I love the way it looks but all those increases and decreases are too much for my right hand at the moment. Some years ago I injured it and it’s never been the same. I added a jumbo flyer to my wheel this week and tried too hard to turn the screw thus irritating the old injury. I’ll knit something else with this and come back to the pattern later in the year when my hand is feeling better.
Daniel is off for the summer quite soon so I’m taking the advantage to spoil him a little. Most of the year I must be "mean mom" so it’s a nice change. He’d asked for biscuits but I was out of buttermilk so I looked for a scone recipe and adapted it to my likes then added some cinnamon chips. I think they were a hit.
Cinnamon scones
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter, cut into pieces
1 cup milk
1 cup cinnamon chips
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Combine the dry ingredients (except chips) in the bowl of a mixer. Add the butter and beat until the mixture is crumbly. Beat in the milk until not quite combined and then add the chips and beat just until they are well distributed.
Pat dough out on a floured surface and cut into 2 1/2" rounds. Transfer to a baking sheet. Bake 17 minutes or until golden brown.
Here’s the last and final prize for drawing winners. Kathy wanted a needle roll and said she liked red and here’s the result. The smallest roll is for sock needles and shows the outside color. The middle one is for longer DPNs and the largest roll is for straights. Hope these meet with approval Kathy! 
