Three skeins of the Lorna’s Laces Lion and Lamb was plenty. I removed one repeat from the increase section (which narrowed the width of the scarf). In the straight rows section, I only did ten repeats. I probably had enough yarn to do eleven and maybe even the full twelve repeats. But I think the Clapotis is long enough as it is. Hopefully my mom will like it!
Tonight’s dinner was pretty simple:
1. Beef Stew using McCormick’s Beef Stew Seasoning — I have made this a number of times and have tweaked the recipe to my liking. Eight servings = four dinners for the two of us! Yay! I am all about having lefovers!
2. Broccoli
3. Fried egg — I added a bit of soy sauce to my egg…yummm.
In mid-June, I tried knitting a Clapotis for myself and ran into numerous problems. After struggling for two weeks and becoming super frustrated, I frogged the entire thing and put the project on the back burner.
Last Tuesday, I decided to start the Clapotis again. This time around, I am using the Lorna’s Laces Lion and Lamb because this Clapotis is a Christmas present for my mother. And guess what? I haven’t run into any problems!!! I got through the entire increase section without frogging any of it! Here is a photo taken right after I finished the increases:
The colorway is #205 Irving Park. Right now, I am on the third repeat of the straight rows section. I’m so thrilled that this Clapotis is going well, though I’m not sure exactly why I had so many problems in my previous attempt. The pattern doesn’t seem that hard at all. Maybe the time away from it allowed me to get a fresh perspective and move away from the frustration. By the way, I love, love, love Lion and Lamb. It is incredibly soft and easy to knit with. But I am slightly worried about not having enough yarn, especially after reading about what happened to Cyndi. I only have 3 skeins (which I got months ago), and the store that I bought them from doesn’t have any more. I bumped up my needle size to 9 (instead of using 8 as directed in the pattern) so that my knitting wouldn’t be so tight. I already cut out 1 repeat from the increase section, and I’m planning to cut 2 repeats from the straight rows section, so I hope I have enough. I’ve been going back and forth about whether I should just buy another skein from a different dyelot so that I can make it to the full length. What are your thoughts about that?
The in-progress Fiery Bolero came off the blocking board, and unfortunately blocking didn’t improve the issues that were bothering me. So the Bolero will be resting at the bottom of my knitting basket until I decide what I want to do with it.
In cooking news of the week…do you want to guess what DH and I cooked? =o) Yup, another Rachel Ray pasta recipe: Gran’pa Emmanuel’s Macaroni with Sausage and Cannellini . It looks pretty similar to last week’s pasta, so no new picture. All three of her pasta recipes that we’ve tried basically have the same base, so they have all been good and they all taste about the same. This week, we used Aidell’s Chicken and Apple Sausage in place of the bulk hot Italian sausage and bulk sweet Italian sausage. And I didn’t add cannellini beans. It still tasted good. I told DH that next week we’ll make something with rice since we have made pasta two weeks in a row.
Lastly, when we were in the Bay Area yesterday, my mother and I stopped by Creative Hands in San Carlos. I really wanted to go there because it’s where I bought the yarn for my first knitting project last November! And now that I know I little more about yarn, I wanted to see their selection. It was great. =) The ladies who work there are also really nice and helpful. I exercised great self-restraint and didn’t buy more yarn (which I don’t need anyway) — I just picked up a pair of Addis and a shawl pattern (which I did need). But if you live the South Bay, Creative Hands is having a sale next Saturday (August 20) from 10am to 4pm — 10% off everything (15% off if you are a member of their club).
Hope you have a great week! Happy knitting!
Thank you for the comments and suggestions about the Fiery Bolero. I appreciated all of your input. =o) I will block it later this week and see if it looks any better. If it doesn’t, it will go to the bottom of my knitting basket, waiting for a time when either the holes won’t bother me or I have the motivation to rip back and re-knit the ribbing.
Meanwhile, I finished the Irish Walking Hat! It’s a bit bigger than what I wanted, so if I knit this again I would probably remove one repeat. I think this one will still fit the intended recipient, though. It needs blocking, but here it is anyway:
I don’t have anything on the needles right now. I’m debating between starting an Artyarns ZigZag scarf or the Clapotis again. Both would be Christmas gifts. I’m already a bit concerned that I won’t finish my Christmas presents in time. I might have set my expectations just a tad too high, though, like…does my mother need a Branching Out, a Clapotis, and a Flower Basket Shawl all at once? Probably not, right? =o) Maybe I will do the Flower Basket Shawl later and give it as a birthday present in February. That might be more realistic.
In our culinary adventure of the week, DH and I tried another Rachel Ray recipe — Emmanuel’s Pasta, Peas, Proscuitto, and Onion. It actually looked decent enough to be photographed.
I doubled the amount of crushed red peppers and garlic, and the sauce had a nice kick to it. We both loved the spicy flavor and the light texture of the sauce, but next time we will probably use Aidell’s Sausages instead of proscuitto. Neither of us had tried proscuitto before, and found that we didn’t like the texture or the taste. But overall, the pasta was still yummy and the recipe is a keeper!
