[29 before 29] bread of the week

Crazy, stupid good. I can't even explain.
On Sunday morning I made English muffins. It was a pretty fast and simple process, and the result is so delicious. It's really really difficult to eat just one at a time.

 

This is the recipe I used, from Michael Ruhlman's blog.

On the needles: workhorse socks

A simple pattern in a self-striping yarn

Slow progress during short breaks from reading

Knitting Very Important Facts into each row

By the time exams get here, I'm going to have to wear about 10 pairs of socks and 4 or 5 hats and probably a sweater in order to make sure I've got all my knit-stored memories within easy reach.  Maybe I can change halfway through each of the five exams to get the most out of every handknit?

practicing kindness: self, apples, & wholeness

My "practicing kindness" banner has a close-up of an apple on it. I am slowly but surely becoming a huge fan of apples, and here's why: if I had to pick a fruit to represent my personality and my current state, it would definitely be an apple.

Actually, that's not true. Given the choice, I'd pick something more complicated, like a pomegranate, or more adorable, like a clementine, or even something more mysterious and exciting, like a kiwi.  But when it really comes down to it, I'm an apple.

Apples are simple, nutritious, a fine source of fiber, and good at being friendly with many other types of foods, including peanut butter and cheddar.  They're basically sweet with a bit of a tangy edge, just enough to be refreshing.

They are tasty on their own, excellent when folded into a pastry crust, and fabulous even when you boil them and smash them for applesauce: adaptable, no?

Apples are also thin-skinned and easily bruised, but hardy for all that.  That core with the seeds shouldn't be ignored, even though you can get away with a lot before you hit it.  Plus if you carve a little face and leave the apple out to dry, it can be pretty dang scary at Halloween!

So all in all, apples aren't too bad.  The other quality that really appeals to me right now is their straightforwardness and obvious wholeness.

An apple is an object easily grasped; it's one of the first subjects an art student might tackle in a still life composition and one of the first snacks you might grab in the grocery store's produce section.  With an apple, there aren't too many surprises, and there's nothing secretive or complicated about it.  What you see is pretty much what you get.  I work fairly hard to be that way, actually, to be transparent and honest and whole in my interactions with other people, and so part of practicing kindness with myself means being content and pleased with being a simple, wholesome apple.

What fruit or vegetable are you, and why? 

all images except the first found on weheartit

Friday: Link Love!

Hooray for another Friday and another busy but wonderful week. This week's link is for a site I've been enjoying for its daily dose of knits that make you drool, together with links to projects and patterns.  It's like Ravelry light, for when you can't handle the overload of 85 million recently completed items made by all your talented friends. Below you'll find a smattering of my recent faves (apparently I am in a red cables kind of mood lately).

Knitting, F*** Yeah!

link to pattern

link to free pattern

link to pattern

Any links you found this week that you'd like to share in the comments? Send us to those inspiring blogs!

On the needles: cabled cotton

Yarn: Araucania Patagonia 100% cotton in color 206, a blend of purple, pink, and sort-of-orange. I got these two skeins (105 yd each) during my knitting group's latest yarn exchange, and I'm so glad I did! The colors are gorgeous and I'm enjoying working with this bulky cotton. It knits up fast, that's for sure.
Needles: US 8 dpns
Pattern: improvised and still in abbreviated notes form; a (free) full version will be coming soon after I knit up a few more samples in wool to test it out.

[29 before 29] Red Kale, Dutch style

It's not particularly glamorous, but it sure is delicious! Meet my spin on a traditional Dutch winter meal (vouched for repeatedly by my Dutch friend, who was totally right about its filling, warming qualities), using new-to-me veggie #2, red kale.

Ingredients:
4 stalks or so of red kale
6-8 baby potatoes, red or yellow, your preference
1 cup or so of baby carrots
1/4 milk
1 tbsp butter or margarine
salt and pepper to taste

Boil some water and add chopped potatoes and carrots.  Chop the kale and set it aside for a few minutes while the other veggies boil away.

When the carrots and potatoes are nearly fork-soft, add the kale to the pot to wilt for about 1 minute.

 Drain all the veggies and do a rough mash with butter and milk, then add salt and pepper.

Enjoy your simple, hearty meal or side!  This probably makes enough to serve 4 people, but I ate it in two sittings because I treated it as a main dish.

Comments on kale -
This green is a little bit bitter for my taste, so in future I'll probably try to disguise that a bit by preparing it with some kind of sweet sauce or dressing.  Nonetheless, it was great in this dish to balance the heaviness of the potatoes.

A flurry of FOs, #2 & #3

Mittens! Good for winter thrills and chills.

Yarn: Trekking XXL
Needles: US 2 dpns, set of 5

Pattern: This one I made up for myself.  Basically I started with a ribbed cuff, knit up in stockinette to make a nice long cuff that could be tucked inside a coat, and made a thumb gusset. I left the live thumb stitches on waste yarn while I knit up for palm and fingers, then did what's pretty much a sock toe, decreasing to a very small number of stitches before kitchenering things together to create plenty of room for finger wiggling.  I did this for both mittens, then I packed them up very nicely in a plastic bag with the yarn and buried them in my stash for two years.

Yes, I am that weird/dumb/ridiculous.

This weekend I pulled them out, completed the thumbs, did some weaving in of ends, and added them to the winter accessories rotation. Woohoo! Near-instant project satisfaction!