urban earth mother

slightly crappy webcam photo I've decided I'm just not cut out for scarves. Not that I don't have a variety of very nice ones, it's just that they don't seem to entirely work in the cold weather. Both scarves and neck gators seem to have the fatal flaw of leaving bits of skin exposed either above or below and letting the wind whip right through. Enter: The Dickie. I admit, I got the idea of knitting dickies from watching Big Bang Theory with Howard's ever-present neck accessory, but it seemed like it might be quite practical. I whipped out one on some random circular needles with some yarn I had in my office (what, you don't have yarn in your office?) and after wearing it once I was sold. Dickie #2 (pictured) I made for Spouse. I used two stash yarns at the neck, switching just to the blue for the tails. This one has a particularly long front so that it can be tucked in to a wide variety of necklines. The double bulk at the top is exceptionally warm ...

This is a bit of a catch-up on some knitting. I joined a knit-along Google Group and hadn't made anything (wasn't really into the patterns) until June. The June pattern was this market bag . It also allowed me some stash busting of random acrylic yarn. The handle did end up too long for me (stretches a crazy amount when full) but it works for Spouse. For July, I suggested an Aran sweater tea cozy . It wasn't chosen, but I decided to make it anyway. Here is the Sprog showing it off. And a close-up of the front And here's the back. This one used some wool I bought at a farm shop a few years ago. I only had one skein so was limited to a small project. This seemed the perfect user for it. And I think the tea pot looks quite dapper!

We started the Bay Rum aftershave tonight. Here am I, disheveled from work, and very sleepy child making the concoction.

Over the past few weeks I've used my crockpot more than I had in the previous year or so of owning it. It's a tiny one with only one setting ("On") but it got us a good batch of Hoppin' John on New Year's day, some okay "baked" beans, and most recently I've used it for easy seitan! I haven't eaten land animals in decades but I do like a chewy, "meaty" mouthfeel in food. So far, the best homemade seitan recipe I have found is from the now defunct blog A Veg*n for Dinner. It's the Seitan Fillet Mignon and I probably should have taken a peek at it before making seitan last night. Still, my batch, based on a ratio of 1 part vital wheat gluten to 3/4 part liquid, was pretty tasty. The biggest boon, however, was simmering it overnight in the crockpot. TONS of flavour and no hassle! I flipped it over in the broth once a few hours after putting it in but other than that I didn't touch it until this morning when I remo...