Today is food day.

I had a great discussion with a few of my friends on Twitter this morning all about food. I’ve also been thinking about things to eat a lot because I’m going to my friends’ apartment tonight, and they are making me vegetable tempura! I am very excited, because I love Japanese food and tempura is no exception. (Sure, it’s not the healthiest thing, but once in a while it’s fine.)

To thank my gracious hosts, Tammy and Lora, I am bringing dessert: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies! They’re delicious and I thought it would be nice to share the recipe with all of you. It’s a modified version of the “Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies” printed inside the lid of each tube of Quaker Oats.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional; I happen to like cinnamon with chocolate)
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups oats, uncooked
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Heat oven to 350°F.

Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

Beat together margarine (or butter) and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour mixture in portions, beating well and fully incorporating each portion before adding more. Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and walnuts and mix well.

Spread onto lightly greased 10″x15″ cookie sheet. Bake 20 – 28 minutes.

Cool on wire rack, then, cut into about 1-1/2″ squares. Makes 48 cookies.

Yummy!

My own fingerless gloves!

I have a slight obsession with fingerless gloves. I spend most of my pattern-browsing time looking at them, and even when I pick out yarn I think of the gloves I could make. Yet, I did not have a pair to call my own. My hands are always cold, especially when I’m on the computer; well, now they won’t be! I’m wearing them even as I type this.

Green, lacy fingerless gloves!

The gorgeous pattern, called “Cafe au Lait Mits”, was written by Paula McKeever. You can queue the pattern on Ravelry here, or see my project here.

Tussles with tassels.

This evening, I learned how to make a tassel from yarn. (The linked site was extremely helpful!) Why did I learn this?

So that I could complete Liz‘s HELP! scarf, which has tassels on both ends & is now finished!

I’ll be taking photos tomorrow morning, but I won’t post them on this blog until she gets her present. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise of her seeing it for herself… though it is awfully tempting!

I’m proud of myself for the rate at which I’ve been making things, lately. I have been zipping through projects in much shorter amounts of time than I ever did before, which in turn inspires me to create more things. I had a slight setback this morning in a pair of fingerless gloves that I was making for myself, but rather than be upset about it, I learned from what I’d done wrong and will try to make it fit better tomorrow. Everything in due time. It feels so nice to not stress and worry over what I’m doing–even when I mess up, I am enjoying myself. It’s a relief.

Peek through the keyhole…

…because I made a cute keyhole scarf for my friend, Jenny!

A lovely, ruffly, keyhole scarf!

 

It’s funny–I’m not much of a scarf person, myself. I like that they keep my neck warm, but I never really get excited about the prospect of knitting a scarf. (Fingerless gloves, on the other hand, send me into another realm!) Yet there was something different about this honestly easy pattern that made me go, “Oooh, I really want to knit that!”

I found Armina Parnagian’s wonderful pattern on Ravelry (my project is here). The original used a brown yarn, which I liked, but I much prefer the yarn I used: Lion Brand Homespun, in the color “Ocean.” I think the way the colors flow through the scarf’s long length take it from simply nice to truly amazing. If you want to knit this “Ruffled Keyhole Scarf” too, here is the pattern.

Easy Knitted Easter Eggs

My mom found an old wire Easter basket downstairs, and she didn’t have anything to fill it. I thought, what would go better in an Easter basket than Easter eggs? I looked online for patterns, but there weren’t any that I liked well enough… so I came up with my own. This pattern is very simple–even a beginner could knit these eggs! They also take up very little yarn, so you could use leftovers from other projects to make them.

Mom's Easter basket, filled with eggs!

Finally, some progress!

The last few days I have been making leaps and bounds in my knitting, and I couldn’t be happier about it! I finished a lovely pair of slippers for Jaime–and though I took pictures, I don’t want to post them until she gets her present! (I do love giving surprises…) Liz’s scarf is still on the needles (it’s long!), and I’ve also started a scarf for my friend Jenny.

One step back: I had to give up on the hat I had started for Ann. The yarn I chose was simply too bulky for the pattern I’d liked. However, I found a new pattern that I think will be wonderful for the yarn; I have to get some larger knitting needles, but that won’t be hard to do. Also, once I have those needles in my possession, I will be able to make all sorts of lovely chunky-weight hats with the yarn that I so adore.

I promise that next entry I’ll have some pictures to post; I have all sorts of inspiration from browsing patterns on Ravelry, and I’m knitting quicker than ever!

Slowly moving along…

I managed to finish a pair of thigh-high rainbow legwarmers for my friend, Tammy. We’ve known each other since we were five years old: we met in kindergarten. I was happy to finally finish this project for her!

…what I am not happy about, though, is the fact that I currently have one legwarmer here, while the other is at Tammy’s apartment. I need to have the two of them together before I can post a lovely photo of her modeling these! I’ll likely see her either this or next weekend, so she’ll receive her second legwarmer then; she liked the first, so I’m hoping the second one matches exactly. It ought to, anyway; I’m very meticulous about the notes I keep while I am knitting from a pattern. I like having the ability to accurately reproduce anything I have previously knitted–or, conversely, making sure I do not repeat the same mistake I made the previous time.

Currently I have three projects going for friends: a hat for Ann, a scarf for Liz, and slippers for Jaime. Hopefully they will be completed soon!

Gloves for Suzette.

This is a tale of two types of gloves.

On Sunday evening I ordered a pair of support gloves from Lion Brand, to protect my apparently fragile wrists. I attempted to curb my knitting while I waited for them to arrive, but I simply could not resist starting a present for my friend Suzette. Today is a doubly wonderful day because my support gloves arrived for me and I finished a lovely pair of red fingerless gloves for her!

I love these fingerless gloves.

 My project made from the pattern is posted on Ravelry here. These “Cherry Red Handwarmers” by Creativeyarn – Zen and the Art of Handicraft were quick, wonderful and–best of all–gentle on my wrists. I hope that Suzette will like them as much as I do!

Now that I have my support gloves, I can continue knitting gifts for my friends and not need to worry about my wrists. I’m grateful for little things like this.

The Walrus Was John-Paul.

…for that is his name. Dad named him that because he had a hard time deciding between the two names (what with John Lennon declaring himself the walrus in “I Am the Walrus” and yet claiming that Paul McCartney was the real walrus in “Glass Onion”… so very confusing).  So here I shall present to you my first knitting pattern, John-Paul the Walrus!

John-Paul the Walrus

 

Not ready for defeat!

The knitted walrus is going okay–faster than I expected, especially for my first pattern–but he’s not totally fabulous. Maybe once he gets his eyes and his tusks he’ll look a bit cuter? I think the tusks will be a big part of his personality, actually.

Everything has been going smoothly in the process of writing his pattern, luckily! I write down what I want to do exactly as I’m about to do it, and if I change something I edit it right away. I have a hard time keeping track of what I’ve done without writing things down anyway, so this is just keeping me on my toes. I’m pleased with how clearly it’s coming out; I won’t have to edit much before I’m ready to post it online!

My right wrist is feeling better, but now my left one is acting up a little. (There wasn’t a loud alarming noise like there was with the other one, but it is sore.) When I knit, I look like a mummy with bandages on both hands! I will definitely invest in wrist support gloves for the future safety and support of my hands and wrists. They can’t take much more of the abuse that I am so fond of heaping upon them.