Basic Mediterranean Pasta

I've made this recipe a few times now and it's delicious, and super simple. I have yet to take pictures, but trust me, it's delicious.

Basic Mediterranean Pasta

Servings: about 3


Ingredients

• 6oz baby spinach 
• 14.5 oz can of tomatoes, try to get Hunt's Diced Tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 1 cup feta, try to get some with herbs, like President Feta with tomato and basil
• salt and pepper
• 1 lb or more fettucini and linguini

Directions

1. Cook spinach. (Add a little water into a pan, throw the spinach in there, and simmer for about 5 or 6 minutes.)
2. Boil water for pasta.
3. Drain spinach water so only about 1/4 cup remains.
4. When the water is boiled, add pasta and cook as directed.
5. Add tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper and mix. Put heat on low and let cook.
6. Add feta, and mix until cheese melts, at least partially. You should have a light red sauce.

Serve warm over pasta, adding the tomato and feta sauce from bottom of pan for taste.

If you have more than three people, use more than one can of tomatoes, more spinach etc. You could actually use more than a 6oz bag of spinach; when it cooks down it isn't that much. I hope you enjoy, it's one my new family favorites.

This is the eighth part in a 16 set of posts of things I need to blog about. See more information here.

5. The Alligator

This is the seventh part in a 16 set of posts of things I need to blog about. See more information here

Baby Gators by Anna Hrachovec from her first book, Knitting Mochimochi knit at her class given at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in New York City

Yarn: Lion Brand's Vanna's Choice in Fern and Vanna's Choice Baby in Duckie

Needles: US 6

Started: August 29

Finished: September 14 (haha, I was so lazy doing the legs. I hate little ami body parts, and then trying to sew them on is such a pain, though Anna showed us mattress stitch, which is easier, but it's still a painl.)

I'm really glad I took the class. There were a lot of things with the construction I couldn't figure out and it was nice that she was there to help. I also learned how to knit small tubes, by doing it as an i-cord instead of fiddling around with 6 stitches on 3 needles and having them slide to and fro.

1. The "What to Do in November?" Problem

This is the sixth part in a 16 set of posts of things I need to blog about. See more information here.

It's November 3rd, and I haven't gotten this post up (or made my mind up) about what exactly to do for the month. I wanted to do a "do something every day" type thing, or at least something. My choices were:

Vestvember
I don't know the details, I just heard it around the Internet. I'm guessing you knit a vest during the month, which isn't that bad.

Pros:

• a knit wearable!
• I can knit this vest from a booklet I just bought from Berroco.

Cons:

• I've never knit something that requires shaping and such like this.
• would I have to buy yarn?

It seemed like it'd be the easiest one, but I wasn't too thrilled about it.

NaNoWriMo
November is National Novel Writing Month, and for this you write a 50,000 word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Pros:

• novel!
• I already have an idea.
• this will make up for last year which I didn't finish, and a computer virus took out at least half of my writings.

Cons:

• will I have the time with work, school, getting Christmas presents done?

NaKnitMo
Similar to NaNoWriMo, you knit a minimum of 30,000 stitches.

Pros:

• I'll be knitting a ton anyway.
• this will probably be a piece of cake.

Cons:

• does crochet count?
• the main offender: how exactly do I could the stitches? I can't just estimate either because of the OCD.

Finally, I figured I could just do a granny square - a - day like I did in April and May. I have to finish my grandma's afghan, and there's always granny squares, granny daughters or hexagons that can be finished in my house. I wasn't sure what to do, and then my semi-bad cold turned into [what seemed like] a lethal one and I was out of commission over the weekend. Monday I ended up doing a square, but felt like crap still yesterday and had a bad day at work so I didn't even want to look at crochet. So what I've decided to do is actually knit or crochet something everyday, a little bit of something, and to get my Christmas gifts finished! I know they might increase my hours in December, and I don't want to be scrambling around knitting as well. Next year, maybe we'll try NaNoWriMo again. I was looking forward to it, but Monday I didn't even look at my computer. In fact, I might take a nap now and regain my strength before my 4.30 class. So much for waking up early and doing stuff.

4. The Socks

This is the fifth part in a 16 set of posts of things I need to blog about. See more information here. 


Oh socks, oh dear socks.
:(

Remember the socks I was knitting and was so proud about, like when I turned the heel?

Beautiful yarn! Nice stitches! Smooth, wooden, expensive sock needles! Interesting pooling!

I kept going, and put it next to my foot to see how it was coming along. And I noticed this:

It didn't really look that wrong at first, but then I realized that socks just aren't supposed to look like that. Instead of turning the heel at the bottom of the cuff, I knit it at the wrong side. It's confusing and looks correct, but if you look at an actual sock or foot:

then you can see the heel in mine is nowhere near the cuff. I posted about this a while ago, albeit without pictures so now it's a bit easier to explain. I was thinking if I should frog it completely, or make a frankensock and then knit the next one properly. I decided to frog, and frogging just gets confusing, so these are my socks now:

Alas. One day I'll come back to sock knitting, but for now it's a no go.


P.S. In response to the Ripple Problem post: I'm going to use the yarn in the bag and just make a big granny afghan (because I've always wanted one, and that's something every crocheter does) and do white/color/white/color. I'm going to use some yarn Sarah/EssHaych sent me to make a ripple pillow. 

14. The Ripple Blanket

This is the fourth part in a 16 set of posts of things I need to blog about. See more information here.

So I'd really like to make a ripple-ghan. But I have a few concerns. First, the yarn issue. I already have two scrapghans going, so I don't want another one of those. I have a bag full of yarn:

There's red, peach, two whites, green, yellow, and a pink.

that I already have slated for an afghan, but I'm not sure if this is enough. I want to make it wide enough to cover myself, but don't want to run out at the end. And if I make it too short width-ways, I don't want it to come out as a rectangle. I don't want to make a small baby blanket either. It's not like I know what brand this yarn is either, because it's unlabeled. (I'm just assuming it's acrylic because it came from the thrift store.)

And I was also wondering what kind of color combination to do. Should I (a) have a set color combo, like green, red, white, etc. (b) do it completely randomly, like picking numbers or something out of a hat or (c) do color, white, color, white, color, white? Grah.

My original plan for this yarn was to make knit blocks from 200 Knitted Blocks by Jan Eaton and then make an afghan. I'm starting to think I should stick with that and give up on doing a ripple with this yarn.

2. The Monstie

This is the third part in a 16 set of posts of things I need to blog about. See more information here.

Remember my Inga's bag, from the spring? I wanted to line it, but didn't know how so Cindy/craftADDchick was kind enough to make a lining for me. I got in back in August, and still haven't sewn it in (badbadbad) but will soon! So as a thank you gift, I made her a Monstie.

The Monsties by Sarah Hearn/EssHaych

Yarn: unlabeled blue worsted; Bernat Boa in Phoenix

Hook: G (4 mm)

Started: August 10

Finished: August 23

The crocheting actually only took a night or two. It was finding my hot glue gun to put the eyes and mouth on, then making the hair (I used Sarah's tutorial HERE.) and then giving him a hairstyle. Also, instead of making the bottoms of the feet in their entirety and sewing them on, I slip stitched them on. They warped upwards/inwards now, but it makes it really easy for him to stand. 

Glad you like Cindy!

3. The Hats

This is the second part in a 16 set of posts of things I need to blog about. See more information here. 

A while back I heard Sarah/EssHaych's cousin had twin boys, Alan and Roy. She made some octopi for them, but since she doesn't knit and I do, I decided to make them two hats to mark the occasion.





Umbilical Cord Hat by Jennifer L. Jones from Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitters Handbook, by Debbie Stoller
Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream Ombres and Prints in Cool Breeze Ombre and Summer Splash
Needles: US 8 (5 mm)
Started: August 19
Finished: August 23


Followed the pattern straight from the book. These hats are so cute! I hope Alan and Roy and their parents liked them!

15. The New Feature

This is the first part in a 16 set of posts of things I need to blog about. See more information here. 

Yes, these might be crazy out of order. But that's the fun, no? Anyway, we're starting off with a **new** feature! Yep, something else I'm supposed to do on specific days and not do it, yay! But this one, and all my others, I'm going to seriously try to do. So we'll see how that goes. The new feature is... drum roll... Work in Progress (WIP) Wednesday! I was reading other blogs, and one click led to another blog, and a woman had WIP Wednesdays, and I figured that's a fantastic idea, especially since I always have WIPs, and never have any FOs. Oops. I need to work on that. Today I have four to show you, and excuse the semi-lame picture quality. Though my iPhone takes awesome pictures, this is the best it can do in the low-light.

And did you know you can see what my WIPs are and their status regardless of WIP Wednesday? On the right hand sidebar, the first gadget entitled WIPs is linked directly from Ravelry. (Any knitter or crocheter needs to have an account with them.)  Just another fun way to keep track of things.

First we have a scarf. I know, a scarf right? I hate scarves. It seems like miles and miles of endless stitches and no progress. But this is Lion Brand's Wool Ease Thick and Quick on size 13s, so it's going by quickly. This is for John, another reason why it's not too bad. We saw one like this at Purl Soho, a moss/seed stitch scarf in charcoal grey, but it was from some chunky Cascade. He didn't want to buy the yarn then, but I remembered I had some T&Q in my stash. I bought another skein because he'll probably want a hat. I'm alternating two rows between each skein so the difference in dye lots isn't drastic. I'm doing moss stitch because garter stitch looks too rustic and homemade and stockinette stitch curls. This creates a nice pattern and is interesting enough that I don't want to chuck it across the room halfway through. 

Christmas project! I got the new issue of Crochet Today! and was flipping through, and there was a Christmas tree garland, and I knew I had to make it. I don't have any Christmas colored sock yarn, and knew I had red, green and white in my stash so I didn't go buy any, and whipped up some. They're a tad bigger, but that's ok. They're currently waiting for me to measure the mantle and see if 6 is ok or I need 9. Then they'll get their ends woven in and be finished and ready for December.

This WIP has been removed. As a gift for my mom, I'm not sure if she reads this blog or not, so I can't have it hanging out in public. See the Ziggity Zag via Ravelry, which she doesn't have an account with, for more details. Thanks.

And finally, this is a shark. Doesn't look like it now, but I promise it'll look like a shark. (Or at least a dead alligator.) This is Anna of Mochimochi Land's pattern for the baby gator, and remember how I said when it didn't have arms or legs it looked like a shark? I redid the pattern in plain stockinette with grey and red yarn, and will knit him up some fins so I have a little shark. Cute!

And so that commences the first edition of WIP Wednesday. Hopefully next Wednesday, the tree garland and shark will be finished, I'll have gained a lot on the two scarves, and I might even have some more projects to show, especially since I have a very bad case of startitis. 

The List of Future Blog Posts

I realized I have been severly lacking in posting things, especially Finished Objects. So I'm going to start a list here of things I need to blog about, and hopefully do a post a day, along with features. I just hope this list doesn't become a running list and I add things to it and it never gets finished, ah!

1. The "What to Do in November?" Problem
2. The Monstie
3. The Hats
4. The Socks
5. The Alligator
6. The Cowl
7. The Yarn I Just Bought
8. The New Books (2 Mine, 2 Mom's)
9. The Sweater and Hat for John
10. The Meditteranean Recipe
11. The Pictures of Fonzie
12. The Pictures from NYC
13. The Pictures from DC and the Textile Museum
14. The Ripple Blanket
15. The New Feature
16. The List of Projects to do in Little Blue

Goodness, so much to discuss! I'm also doing this on my 101 in 1,001 blog, so check it out, too!

P.S. I've also realized I need to make a decent inventory of the supplies I have in my craft closet. That will take time, but I think I might make a new page for it at the top. I'll most likely find some weird things I forgot I bought which will merit interesting blog posts, like a bag of almost 50 zippers. In only pale blue and pale purple. (I'm a hoarder, I know.)