Sushi Candy!!

Ok, so one of my friends from work went on vacation recently and brought back little gifts for us, and mine happens to be Alien Sushi Candy. It's a good joke because I'm a big fan of Japanese culture but I don't eat seafood AT ALL.

Well, I decided to do it up in style since you just don't come across alien sushi every day. Now what I thought was really cool was that the meal came came with it's own chopsticks. Until I opened up the package and found out they were really cheater sticks.

Those would not due at all! So I went and got my own, as well as a nice black plate to really show the sushi off, a cup of peach iced tea, and a table napkin.

I must say it was quite good, I was a little worried about it not being refrigerated, but suffered no ill affects. The texture was very gummi, and I would have never thought that aliens would taste like blueberries.

Chunky Slaw with Ranch & Peppercorn Dressing

So I've never liked coleslaw, mostly because I think it's a little bland & detest the dressing. I'm not a big fan of mayo and to add sugar to it just makes it worse, but I like all the veggies. In fact cabbage is one of my favorites. So I was rummaging around in the fridge for something when it occurred to me that I had the fixings for slaw but I could just make up a dressing.

I used 1/2 of a smaller head of cabbage, a good hand full of pre-cut carrots, about 1 cup of chopped daikon, and 2 or 3 stalks of celery, for the veggies. I chopped it all up in similar sizes and put it in a bowl.






Then in a small bowl used a couple good tablespoons of ranch dip for the base.








All I did was add enough water to give it more of a dressing like consistency, using my finger to judge how thickly it would coat. I got it to the point that I could just see my finger through it, and added freshly ground pepper.





Then all I had to do was drizzle it over the veggies and give it a good toss. I thought it turned out pretty well though next time I make it I think I might use half ranch and half plain yogurt to smooth out the flavors a little.

Kreativ Blogger

Yay, someone thinks I'm Kreativ! Thank you Lunaticraft for the nomination!


Ok, so to business...
Here are the rules for the nominees:
1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 8 other bloggers.
4. Link to those on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated.


So I'd like to nominate...

Owlishly

Scrumdillydilly

Monster Crochet

Little Sheep, Big Sheep

Knitwithit

Green Kitchen

Anna The Red's bento factory

Mettetations

Knit Picks, Most Bodacious

I have always loved the relatively inexpensive yet quality products and knitting help offered by Knit Picks. Who have completely outdone themselves with this, they have all new accessories and some of the great finds are their ball winder for $19.99 and it's convertible, you can clamp it to a table or there is a handle attachment you can use instead. Usually they are at least $40 but more often than not I find them for over $60.

They now have a set of 15 stainless steel blocking wires w/T-pins also for $19.99, to go with that you need a blocking mats of course, and they have for you guessed it $19.99! Their mats are completely modular and break down for easy storage. The wires I think I've seen for as low as $25 other places but more commonly I find them for around $35 to $40, and the blocking mats are usually somewhere closer to $40 to $80 depending on the type.

Lastly there are the sock blockers at the fantastic price of $13.99, yep it's about 1/2 of what I normally see them for.

But don't forget their yarn, they have a variety of fiber types, it's all very economically priced, and I think the quality is pretty darn good. I mean you can actually afford to buy 10 balls for a project, and they have a good pallet.

Oh and their needles! Knit Picks Harmony needles are a laminated, multicolored, layered birch, and they have a nice point to them. Right now I only have 1 pair of these in size #3 and I LOVE them. I've always liked using bamboo because I don't loose stitches as easily and I just like the feel better. The problem with bamboo is that the points aren't all that sharp to begin with and only get worse over time, causing knitting difficulty & split stitches. The other problem is the give and lack of tensile strength in the smaller sizes, I've broken a couple, and permanently bent others. They also have a nickel plated set for those who prefer the slickness of metal. These needles are also very economically priced my size #3s w/32" cord were only $5.99, and I don't feel like I'm going to break them when I'm using them.

My First Amigurumi!

Ok so I've made a couple of simple crochet projects before but nothing where my stitch count mattered or that I actually had to pay attention to what I was doing. But for a friend's birthday I wanted to make her a Cthulhu so I had to give it a shot. The biggest problem for me turned out to be that there is a crease at the beginning of each increase round that after ripping it out several times I was able to reduce the crease but it's still there, mocking me.

Before I try my next project I'm going to do a swatch and try just skipping over the stitch you'd normally place a slip stitch in and see if that fixes it. Unfortunately I didn't have time to troubleshoot it for this project, due to the fact that I'm a horrendous procrastinator, and in true procrastinator fashion I didn't start the project until 2 days before her birthday, brilliant.



I used a 20mm eye instead of the recommended 12mm (because I couldn't find cat eyes in a smaller size at my local craft store). I think it worked out well, it looks more like an innocent baby Cthulhu, though from what I found out in net searches there really is no such thing.



Once I had all the pieces made, and the body stuffed...



I used sock needles to position the arms placing the left one strategically over most of crease from the increase rounds. I left the needles in to hold the arms in place while I sewed them on.

Then It was time to wrap it and head out to my friend's party.

The Yard Disaster

My parents are getting the well redug and haven't had running water since the 6th, the work has completely destroyed the yard, damaged the driveway, and on top of all that is 2+ inches of snow.

Introducing the Knit Kit!

It's a knitter's supertool! Set to debut March of 2009!

The Knit Kit has a tape measure, stitch counter, thread cutter, crochet hook, folding scissors(TSA approved), tip protectors, and stitch markers; all contained in a compact like body. You can't really see it in the picture so the dimensions are 4 3/4"x3 1/2"x5/8", it weighs 4 oz., and the estimated price is going to be $19.95. I'm really excited about it and am planning on picking one up as soon as one of my lys gets them in.