Super fast, cheap & easy burritos

1/3 c. precooked beans, warmed
2 tbsp. salsa
1 flour tortilla, large
2 shakes of cumin, turmeric, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika
Handful of shredded cheese (or a few slices off of a block)
1 tsp. oil

Put oil into skillet & warm up under medium heat. Add tortilla and place cheese in the center. Add warmed beans to the top of the cheese, forming a line covering the center 2/3 of the tortilla. Sprinkle on the spices, salt & pepper. Once the cheese is melting, fold the tortilla into 3rds and tuck in the ends, turn it over to make sure it gets a little crispy on both sides, and then plate it. Pour salsa over the top.

Total cost: Made with dried beans & inexpensive cheese, under $1 each.

Projects a'flying, but stash is mostly packed!

Well, this past weekend was a packing frenzy at the ol' homestead. We got tons done; and thankfully, I put my stash in a separate room in plastic tubs so I can dive into it. Which is a good thing, considering I am knitting along with my knitting cohort Melissa - we are making the Many Buttoned vest from Folk Vests; I'm not sure what yarn I'm going to use yet but I'm hoping for something in the stash. It'd be very nice if the yarn I got for the now deceased "Lili's Vest" from Knitpicks worked for this one...ugh.

I'm also knitting along the Knitted Simple Bodice with the folks over at the Sexy Knitters Club (which I'm now a member of) - it's drop dead sexy and designed by Stephanie Japel, one of my favorite knitting designers. The pattern is here - http://www.stitchdiva.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=SDS-026 - and any ideas for inexpensive substitution yarns would be welcomed :)

Lastly, this weekend I finished my first sock for my Daddy - here are three photos of it:
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~xilet/sarah/bill_sock1.jpg
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~xilet/sarah/bill_sock2.jpg
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~xilet/sarah/bill_sock3.jpg
They're taken on my feet, which are a bit smaller than his, so ignore the bagginess. I'm pretty amusingly pleased with these!

We're moving! A larger house...a room just for crafty things...and - gasp! - more stash storage!

Thankfully I keep most of my stash in bins that will make the moving easy; I just have to box up my patterns, books, & needles. Then again I have four bookcases full of books that have to be moved, and too much stuff in general. I think it's time to Freecycle & Goodwill some of it.

Knitting progress:

I'm still 2/3 finished with the second of four squares; gah.
I have to tink & re-knit four rows of toe stitches on the fixation socks, then they're done.
I'm knitting the heel flap for the DK weight merino socks for Daddy - I LOVE this heel pattern (k1, slip 1, repeat). It's nice and dense and quite pretty, too.
I have two rows of the Lili's vest complete; I just don't think I did that first one correctly so I'm holding off until I do a little more research.
I'm getting ready to cast on to do the shawl for Cherry's wedding present - I'm making it in a lovely DK weight pure white wool yarn from elann.com, and am going to try working it up on size 9 needles to see how it goes.

So...we'll see how the knitting progresses during the move...oy!

Crafting weekend was a great success! At one point or another, we had knitting, spinning, quilting, chain maille making, papermaking, and electronics work going on!

My personal accomplishments list includes:

Finishing off a cabled afghan square
Getting 1/2 finished on another afghan square
Starting a sock in DK weight superwash merino, and getting within 20 rows of completing the leg
Weaving in the ends on the sweater
Finishing knitting and felting a bowl in black Paton's wool (I didn't like the shape, so I'll be looking for other patterns to help with that part)
Gauge swatching for a pair of fingerless gloves for Jim

I'm still almost done with the leg on the second sock for John, as well, and I hope to be starting the heel on that by the weekend!

My fingers hurt now. But it's a good, busy, successful hurt! I'll work on getting pics up soon.

First of all...YAY! I won some Fleece Artist Wensleydale Top in Sherbet - 100g worth - because I donated money to the Dyana Afghan Women's Fund as part of my participation in the Tour de Fleece! I'd encourage you to take a look at the DAWF and consider donating some money their way - they are working to encourage women's literacy and eventually to give them opportunities to be more self-supporting through their handcrafts and other opportunities - their website is http://www.dawf.ca/ .

I've got two braids of Fleece Artist roving at home that are in my "oh dear lord I want to get to these SOON" pile; I can't wait to see just what color "Sherbet" turns out to be! The dye work that they do is just delicious. Yet another good reason to move to Canada :)

I'm doing some "wanking" knitting. Nothing big going on the needles, until I can get my stash sorted out & see what I have enough yarn to make. I did get some superwash merino from Tom - he brought me five skeins of a vanity lable yarn, I believe the actual manufacturer is in Canada but he got it from a shop in Cape Cod, MA. So far, I've tossed some of it on some size 2 needles to start up a pair of socks for daddy; the leg is going in a 4 X 4 rib pattern. I'll get an inch or so in, and decide if I want to keep going with it.

I'm a little over half of the leg complete for the second of the colonial blue socks for Scherz. Getting a ride to and from the office a few times a week gives me some good working time on these!

I also started working on the first felted bowl last night, with some worsted weight Paton's yarn on size 11 DPN's. It's clumsy feeling to have such heavy needles (they are the white thick ones) with such a light yarn. But we'll see how it plays out. It looks like it'll be a quick knit - five inches, then decrease & finish the bottom, then felt. It'll probably hit the machine this weekend. Then...well, then we'll see what it comes out like!

That's about it. It's just too damn hot to knit much of anything larger than a handful of yarn's worth. Fortunately tomorrow it'll be back down in the 90's.

Good grief, did I just say that?

Rambing and planning

I'm at this interesting point in my knitting, where I'm working on things that are all almost complete. I have four squares to knit - one is half completed. I am 28 rows from finishing my sweater (approximately 1 week if I stay on track). I'm on the second sock of the Fixation pair - and two inches down on the cuff now (I'd estimate two to three weeks to complete). So still in the "to be done" list:

-Pair of half-fingered gloves & matching scarf for friend Jim who got me the yarn to knit them with
-The sweater vest from Knitpicks - I'd like to get this one done by the time fall rolls around
-Pair of socks for Daddy - no pattern or yarn picked out yet but I'm working on it - he wants thick wool socks, so I'm going to go through the stash & see what I can find. If nothing is in the stash, I might save up and pick up a skein or two of Trekking & make his socks out of that.
-Pair of socks for Joel. No clue yet what he'll want but I'm sure I've got something appropriate in the stash!

Toss in the assorted xmas presents, to include a sweater for the wanna-nephew (he's walking now!), various & sundry felted bowls, some handspun rug yarn for Tom's mother, and some scarves / hats for whomever. I think I'm booked through the end of the year now!

Project Photos - mostly mine, but one of Joel's too

Here is the first sock for Scherz...made out of Cascade Fixation. I only ripped the heel out to redo it three times:
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~fortryll/knitting/sock1.jpg

And my Dream Swatch scarf, knit out of a lovely dark teal 100% silk yarn:
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~fortryll/knitting/scarf.jpg

Joel's first mitten - the second one is still MIA:
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~fortryll/knitting/glove1.jpg

My three-ply alpaca - the other (much larger) batch is on the niddy noddy. This is my Tour de Fleece project which was successfully completed, even if it's not quite as good as I'd hoped it would be:
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~fortryll/knitting/yarn1.jpg

A previous yarn project that I just got photos of - two ply mohair in burgundy & green:
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~fortryll/knitting/yarn2.jpg

And, finally, my sweater - still about thirty rows from completion, but at least it's not all stockinette now!
http://xilet.dnsalias.org:8000/~fortryll/knitting/sweater.jpg

TdF

I have successfully completed the Tour de Fleece, despite drive bands breaking, illness in the family, trips out of town, and spinning the wrong direction for an entire bobbin.

Pics later!