Hey, that could be a country-western song!

I’m nearly done with that endless baby blanket. I have to say that I almost wienied out on doing the I-cord that this pattern suggests. By the time I got to the last pattern row, I had 544 stitches on the needle, and the thought of doing I-cord around all that was enough to make me want to drink bourbon.

Wait, I already drink bourbon. Oh well.

Here it is. I’ve almost finished three sides, so don’t have too much left to go.

I really like this yarn. Since it’s taken me so long to finish this thing, I’ll forgive you if you’ve forgotten what I’m doing here. This is Knitpicks City Tweed, in the heavy worsted weight. It’s very soft and squishy, and I just hope it holds up well. It’s soft enough that I’d worry a bit about pilling and wear, but we’ll see. Baby blankets don’t need to last forever, after all.

I’ll be glad when I get this done and off in the mail before the intended recipient is old enough for college. I need to finish John’s True Blue sweater next, since the Major Knitter and I have just committed to a knit-along starting November 1st. Here’s what we’ll be knitting. We were planning on doing a Rogue knit-along, then saw this, and fell hard. Within about thirty minutes, we’d both changed our minds and ordered the Black Water Abbey yarn for Faery Ring. Mine will be in Haw, which is a lipstick-scarlet red. I believe the Major will be knitting hers in Wine.

Here are the Ravelry links for the pattern. There are two versions, but the only difference is the range of sizes. The pattern is free, which makes up a bit for the fact that I just bought a couple thousand yards of yarn for the danged thing. There’s even a Ravelry group, of course. Anybody want to join us? We’ll see if either the Major or I can hold off on casting on until November 1st!

Here’s how the grilled pizza turned out. First of all, the review. It was definitely something I’d repeat. It sounds fussy, having to make dough, but if you wanted to cheat a bit, you could buy ready-made pizza dough. The recipe makes enough for six individual pizzas, and we made two and froze the rest of the dough in two-pizza servings. Next time all we’ll have to do is top them and grill. The recipe is from Sunset Magazine.

With a bread machine, this is a snap.

Have I told you about my new bread machine? No? The old bread machine worked just fine, that is, until we bought a gas generator and had it set up. The boys had to put in a new circuit breaker panel to get it going, and in the process of testing it, blew out a bunch of crap in the house. Most of it was just small appliances, and fortunately I’d had the sense to unplug the computers, or they’d be toast, too. There was one near-disaster, with a surge protector in the pantry that nearly started on fire and filled the house with burned plastic smell. That was fun. It left black soot all over the desk in the pantry.

But, I digress. Back to the pizza. I got a new Zojirushi bread machine out of the deal, and that’s it, up there.

Here’s the prep work:

After you finish the dough, you pat it out on oiled parchment paper (waxed paper would work as well). Don’t even think of combining the dough and making one big pizza. It would be a little tricky to manage flipping and turning on the grill that way.

Then you grill the first side, without the toppings.

Take it off the grill, turn it cooked side up, then put the toppings on the already grilled side. We used a local farmer’s goat cheese, a bit of tomato sauce out of a jar*, fresh heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced sweet onions, and added the basil at the very end.

Put it back on the grill, uncooked side down, and finish. Really, this only takes a few minutes for each side.

Poor another glass of wine, and enjoy.

*We used some really good stuff from Trader Joe’s. I normally make spaghetti sauce from scratch, but this stuff is good in a pinch.

I actually partly finished something today! Actually, it’s one sock of a pair, but that’s something, right? Everything else has sort of taken a back seat lately to 1)Spinning; 2) Feather and Fan baby stuff; and 3) Finding a new job and getting all the ridiculous paperwork done that is required, even though I’m not changing states or moving to a different hospital. And I haven’t even started with the HR stuff yet.

Anyway. Today was such a nice day, that I got to do a little knitting outside. The heat wave that we’ve had has passed, and I’m not sure it even hit the mid-70’s today, but it was nice and warm out in the sun. We went to the Steilacoom farmers’ market, which is only about ten minutes from our house, and found a lovely spot to have lunch on an outside deck. Knitting in public ensued.

After we got home and put away all the veggie loot, I sat down and finished the first sock. Here I am, trying it on to make sure it’s long enough before I close the toe:

And done.

Pretty, eh? That’s Zoe sock yarn from Shalimar, in the color Peonies. You can get your very own at the same place I did.

And second sock started.

There was more knitting loot that arrived at my house today. I have a set of the Knit Picks Options needles, and a set of the Harmony wood tips. They came out with acrylic Zephyr tips, and I had to have those as well. A lot of people despise plastic needles, but they have their place. They are a lot easier on my hands than metal needles, for one thing. Those lovely Signature sock needles up in that photo are beautiful, but they really make my hands hurt if I work with them for hours on end. They also have lethally pointy tips that I would not try to sneak on an airplane.

Here are the Zephyrs.

I’m off to make pizza. Sunset magazine had an article about making grilled pizza recently, and the dough is all done and ready to go (made in my brand spanking new bread machine). We have all sorts of options for toppings, but I think tonight’s version is going to be white cheese, basil, and perhaps some of those heirloom tomatoes from the market. I’ll take photos!

With “Real” Knitting!

Well, maybe only partly real knitting. I’m still working on that baby thing. The secret thing. Yes, I know, the baby’s almost a month old. What I’m knitting won’t be usable for a few more months anyway, since it’s very heavy wool. Which is why I’m not done with it. We’ve had an unusual heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, and knitting with a ton of heavy wool in my lap is just not fun.

If your name is Janet, go do something else for a few minutes. You’ll see it when it’s good and ready.

Here’s what it looks like at the moment.

OK, it still sort of looks like crap. It’s in the round, so it just looks like a bag of wool. Trust me, this stuff is squishy and warm. I want a king sized bed version of this, except I’m already sick to death of feather and fan.

I’ve discovered that when you’ve got nothing for the blog, post photos of loot. On the Alaska trip, I managed to find a few yarn shops. One in every port, as a matter of fact.

Here’s the shop in Ketchikan:

Cool, eh? My husband has no idea how I manage to unerringly find yarn shops where-ever I am.

Here’s the loot.

All of those are local, except the one on the far right, which is laceweight from Estonia. It’s prettier than it looks in that photo. Oh here.

That still doesn’t do it justice. It’s just gorgeous.

And I need more lace yarn. I didn’t blog this before, but while we were on the ship, someone made off with my Langsjal Jóhönnu shawl. I had it at dinner one night, and had it across the back of my chair. The next day I didn’t have it, and nobody ever turned it in to lost and found. If you see it on anyone, grab the damn thing off her back and shoot me an email.

Here’s a photo to memorialize it.

Don’t mind me, I’m just spinning away. Real post to follow, soon. Really.