Chapter Seven: Friday Update 5.11.18

© Food Network

Today I cut a cooked rump roast into chunks and put them in a slow cooker with a bunch of spices and diced tomatoes. I'm trying to simulate my husband's favorite "Pot Roast Tacos" recipe using what I have on hand. I hope it works!

One thing's for certain: the house smells like heaven now! I had a little taste and it's way too spicy for me (at least by itself). Once the shredded meat and tomato mixture is heaped into corn tortillas, it might tone things down a bit.

I'll link to the recipe after the page break.

Tyler Florence's Mexican Pot Roast Tacos

© Food Network

GO TO MEXICAN POT ROAST TACOS ON THE FOOD NETWORK

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And now for the knitting update...

FINISHED OBJECT

SWEET BUNTING BY LAURA CHAU

Sweet Bunting Cardigan 

It's done! Now, the baby isn't due until August. I'm totally ahead of schedule. But I was so excited when I saw this pattern, and really needed to try knitting my first baby garment.

I made this for a future baby girl but I think it would be adorable for a baby boy as well, using a different colorway. 

The only change I made was to do a ribbed cuff on the sleeve rather than a seed stitch cuff. Oh, and I wanted more pennants on the garland so I omitted some spaces in the chart. 

I'd like to do this one again, using wool or a wool blend yarn. I used acrylic for the ease and convenience of the baby's parents, who may not know how to care for wool, but I didn't like how it knit up at all. The stitches are uneven in places and the under-arm stitches that were placed on hold stretched way out and required lots of doctoring to close the gaps. Blocking didn't fix things like I'm used to, either.

Regardless, I think it's cute, and I feel like young parents will like the design. 

Did you notice the hanger? I crocheted a matching cover for the hanger and will give that as part of the gift. 

I'll do a tutorial for the hanger cover in another post.

I knittied the body in Bernat Softee Baby in Flannel and the garland in Softee Baby in a multi called Pink Rainbow.

GO TO SWEET BUNTING ON LOVEKNITTING

GO TO SWEET BUNTING ON RAVELRY

WORKS IN PROGRESS

HITCHHIKER BY MARTINA BEHM

Hitchhiker never stops!

Yes, I'm still working on this shawl. It widens by only a few stitches every 8th row. It's been okay though. It's a perfect no-brainer shawl for watching Game of Thrones reruns (woo hoo!) with my husband at night, and I love watching how the colors change ever so slightly. 

I started with the only unused skein I had from the sweater I frogged, and the garter stitches looked lovely and even. You can see at the top of the shawl, the darker color near the needles, that when I started with the unraveled yarn the garter stitches look all wonky. I am really hoping that blocking will fix this!

Look closely at the yarn and you can see how wavy-gravy it is!

I'll be at this one for a while. It just goes on and on, and at some point I know I'll have something that I can actually wrap around my shoulders, but right now it's not of much use. 

I watched one of my favorite podcasters, Minna S, recently. It was an older episode, where she had knit a shawl shaped similar to this one, and she  said she couldn't really figure out how to drape it. That made me feel a bit better. Minna has over 150 projects listed on Ravelry but she is as inexperienced as I am, in matters of long and narrow triangle shawls.

The yarn is Cascade Pacific Color Wave in blue-green. Hitchhiker is free pattern on Ravelry.

GO TO HITCHHIKER ON RAVELRY

SKULLY SOCKS BY CARYN LEIGHTON

Short little pirate socks!

Hey, recognize that yarn? If you're in any of my Ravelry groups, you just might, because they're three of the four colors I used in my Menta & Liquirizia shawl: 

Menta & Liquirizia by Francesca Lozza

I completed this project in March, before I decided to post my FO's and WIP's every Friday.

Anyway, back to my pirate socks!

Both the teal and the variegated yarns looked so similar to the sample in the Skullie pattern (see my post about the book this pattern came from!) that I went straight to my stash and cast on. 

The tan part of the sock isn't making me happy at all. I am so inexperienced in estimating how much yarn is left in the ball, in regard to how much of it I will need, and so I freaked out and started using the tan yarn on the instep/foot. It goes with the other colors just fine but I really wish I could have continued with the teal and variegated stripes.

I have an idea though!

I'm going to run to JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts in Melbourne tomorrow morning and buy another 9" circular needles in size 1, and I'm going to start the second sock and go all the way to the place where I ended the stripes and started the tan yarn. 

From there I can better judge what's happening with my yarn.

I've seen some people knitting two socks at once. That looks incredibly complicated (I haven't even had the courage to learn Magic Loop). But it seems to me that doing two at once would help with the running-out-of-yarn fear. Or, playing "yarn chicken," as podcasters often say.

Come by and see my Friday Update next week, and you'll find out how my socks turned out!

The Menta shawl is paid-for on Ravelry.

GO TO MENTA & LIQUIRIZIA ON RAVELRY

And for the socks, I'm really sorry but the Skullie sock pattern isn't available anywhere except in the book, Socks à la carte Colorwork. My friend lent me her book and I copied the pattern before returning it to her.

To find the book you can check your local library, used book stores, Ravelry (some people may have copies to sell or trade). Or... you can click this gratuitous link and go to Amazon and perhaps buy it! I will get a small commission, for which I thank you very much.

Currently $9.40 at Amazon