{Knitting} A Manly Herringbone Scarf

I just finished this Manly Herringbone Scarf I started in October for my Hubby. I haven't finished a knitted project in A WHILE, so this one felt really great to finish. 

The yarn I used is Dirty Water Dye Works "Edna" yarn in a great mustardy yellow color. I bought the yarn on a trip to Burlington, Vermont in September at a shop called Nido.

The needle size recommended by the yarn label was a size 5-7, but I wanted a super thick and warm scarf, so I used a size 4 (circular needles). I went through almost 2 skeins of this yarn, at 380 yards be skein! NO WONDER IT TOOK SO LONG! 

The scarf is about 14x70 inches and it looks GREAT on my Hubby with his dark charcoal wool coat. Considering it took me almost 2 months of seemingly constant knitting, if he loses this thing I am definitely going to make him suffer!

Then, because my husband wouldn't pose for the camera, I attempted a shameful selfie. I know it is a sad attempt and I apologize for subjecting you to it. Also, my forehead isn't 300 shades darker than the rest of my face. I promise. 

That's another finished project off of My Bucket List! Check out My Bucket List for all of the projects I want to complete, and check out My Finished Projects for everything I've completed so far (including lots of food!). Also, check out My Flickr Page for another summary of my finished projects!


Thanks for checking in! 

HOLLER!

Knitting Needle Roll

Last week I did some more sewing for myself! To compliment my crochet hook roll, I made a knitting needle roll out of the same fabrics, a black and white linen and sketchbook-ish raspberry red floral print.

 

I wanted this roll to fit all sizes of knitting needles up to a 17, and in both the shorter  9/10 inch height and the taller 16 inch needle height. I also wanted the top flap to completely cover all of the needles, so that none of them slip out if I am carrying the needle roll around in a bag.

Don't they make quite the pair? Now onto a Double-pointed Needle Roll and a Circular Needle Roll!

Check out my Flickr page and Finished Projects page for all of the project I've knocked off My Bucket List.

HOLLER!

Some Sewing

As most of you know, April 15th has come and gone and now this CPA can get back to some normalcy for the first time in a long time. 

I worked on a few projects sparingly throughout busy season, but none of them are in a state to be photographed for your enjoyment. 

I've done my fair share of day dreaming over the past few months and knew that one of the first things I would work on was getting organized!  First up .... a revamp of my knitting and crocheting tools was in order for sure. 







I totally ditched my previous crochet hook organization before I could snap a picture of it for you, as it was pretty hideous. It was one of the first projects I worked on when I started sewing a few years ago and it was truly atrocious. 

I happened upon this really great black & white linen fabric and decided to use that as the outer fabric, and then walked by this raspberry red sketchbook-like floral print that I quickly became obsessed with. Do you think they pair well???

I originally wanted to embroider each section with the respective needle size, but knew that if I did that before I actually sewed the thing together, there would be no chance of the embroidered section actually lining up properly. So I opted out. I also tested some fabric stamping, but it just wasn't crystal clear enough for my liking. 
 

I tested a few different models of this baby before I settled on this exact pattern.

For such a simple item, it certainly took a lot of thought. I considered the number/sizes of steel crochet hooks vs aluminum vs wood, the varying heights of the different styles of hooks as well as the different brands of hooks, etc.

Do you love it as much as I do?

How much would you pay for it at a craft fair? 

I am sooo excited to get organized after a hectic busy season and was even more excited to knock another item off my Bucket List. See this project and my other projects at my Finished Projects page and Flickr Account.

HOLLER

A Favorite Dish {Tuna Tartare}

A very favorite dish of mine can be found at many restaurants, including The Cheesecake Factory and a local spot called Aperitivo (amazzzinnggg).

I love Tuna. I love it in sushi. I love it seared and served over rice. I love it seared and cooled over a salad. I love it in carpaccio. But, my heart skips a beat whenever I am served Tuna Tartare. 

 

I've ordered this dish almost every time I've seen it on a menu. I've almost always seen it served layered with avocado. Sometimes it has matchstick radishes, sometimes it has a layer of tempura (I don't like that), sometimes it has diced mango (love that).

My Husband's Uncle caught a BLUEFIN tuna while fishing off the coast of the cape. They know of my deep love for all things tuna, so they saved the belly (or Toro) for me. 

My Inlaws and Husband aren't die hard fans of eating raw tuna, like me. I thought that my favorite dish is a nice gateway dish to introduce them to tuna raw.

 

My Mother in Law found a great recipe for Tuna Tartare in Bon Appetit magazine. I stuck to the recipe when I made it, but I would definitely alter it a bit, because there were a few things that I wasn't a huge fan of. They mashed up 1 avocado with 1 tbsp of olive oil, and I didn't like that at all. I don't think that the avocado needs any oil, it is creamy and wonderful all on its own. They also only used 1 avocado for 4 people, but I used 2.

TUNA TARTARE RECIPE

Ingredients: 

Dressing

2 tsp finely grated lime zest

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp + 2 tsp soy sauce

2 tbsp champagne vinegar

2 tbsp grated ginger

Wonton Crisps

8 wonton wrappers, sliced diagonally into triangles

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp sesame seed seasoning blend

Tuna

10 oz sushi grade tuna minced** (we had Bluefin Toro, the best of the best in the world. I am seriously spoiled)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp minced chili (serrano, jalepeno)

1 tsp minced shallot

Kosher Salt

2 avocado, halved, pitted

4 radishes thinly sliced and then cut into matchsticks

A few drizzles of chili oil

**A good tip for mincing tuna is doing while it is a little frozen. I put our belly in the freezer for a half hour before you are ready to mince**

Recipe: 

Dressing

1. Combine the lime zest, lime juice, sugar, and 2 tbsp of water in a small saucepan
2. Bring them to a boil, and remove from heat
3. Cover and let cool completely
4. Strain through a mesh sieve into a medium bowl
5. Whisk in soy sauce, vinegar, and ginger until combined
6. Chill until ready to use

Wonton Crisps

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment
3. Put wontons on parchment
4. Brush face up side of wontons with olive oil
5. Sprinkle with sesame seed blend
6. Bake in oven for ~7 minutes, or until golden brown

Tuna

1. Toss minced tuna with olive oil, shallot, and chile
2. Scoop avocado flesh into a small bowl, with a pinch of kosher salt, and mash until there are only a few chunks. 
3. Divide avocado among plates
4. Top the avocado with the tuna mixture
5. Drizzle a tbsp of the dressing onto each of 4 stacks
6. Top with radishes
7. Drizzle with chile oil
8. Make plate look pretty by adding wontons
9. SERVE
10. I recommend putting the dressing on the table too, as people will likely want more.

I have had a very hurt back for almost 3 weeks now, and my Husband got me this gorgeous sunflower to brighten my day.

Naturally, glamor shots to follow.

Hope you enjoyed! This is another meal off of My Bucket List, another item added to My Finished Projects.   

HOLLER!

Food Preserving {Roasted Plum Tomatoes}

I have been in food-mode lately. Well, let's be honest, I am pretty much always in food-mode. 

On week nights, I constantly struggle with my desire to cook a gourmet meal, and my lack of time to adequately do so. I need to complete meals from start to finish in about 1/3 of the time that it currently takes. I need to plan for easier meals during the week, so I can get all of my other crap done timely. Therefore, I am dabbling into thoughtfully preserving more. 

I know, people have been preserving forever and I am just getting started. But I'm only 26, so leave me alone. 

I follow Marisa's blog over at Food in Jars on a regular basis. I have merely tested the waters on canning, but I have gone full force into the other preserving methods she talks about, primarily freezing.

I am freezing everything these days. More importantly, I am trying to freeze foods in the serving sizes that we would actually use on recipes we frequently make:

• Chopping and freezing our red peppers that we plucked from the garden in little baggies and I can saute them up for our quesadillas/fajitas.
• Making eggplant cutlets and freezing in baggies, two ways. Large freezer baggies are for dinner sized portions of eggplant parm and smaller bags are for my husband to take to lunch.
• We eat homemade pizzas probably once a month. I generally don't like sauce on my pizza, but husband does. So instead of letting the sauce go bad in the fridge until its time to make another pizza, I froze it in small tupperware containers (just enough for me to make him another 2 pizzas). 

I love love love tomatoes. We haven't really had an amazing tomato year, but when I saw this recipe for Slow Roasted Tomato Dip. I knew that I had to acquire some romas and make it, STAT.

Of course, before I could start with that recipe, I had to make her Slow Roasted Tomatoes. 

I went to the farmers market last week and got some gorgeous plum/roma tomatoes and followed her recipe to a T.

Here is roasting them after 5 hours at 200F. 

Here are these little gems after 12 hours in the oven. Don't they look amazing???!?!? In Marisa's recipe, she says they are so good that they barely last through the night. She was 100% correct. These little concentrated tomato bites were truly irresistible.

 As she does in her recipe, I put them roasted tomatoes onto a cookie sheet in the over to freeze. After that, I froze them in half-pint jars, in 2 cup increments (according to her recipe for the dip). 

Then I just had to make a batch of her dip for a BBQ we were having. I followed her recipe pretty closely. I did increase the amount of goat cheese in the dip to 1/2 cup, and in retrospect, I should have decreased the amount of garlic I used. I think that the recipe calls for 2 cloves of garlic, which I did use. However, my cloves could have been twice the size of hers. 

You know what else would be good? If I had roasted garlic on hand (freshly roasted or frozen). That would have been amazing in this dip. I love the depth of flavor and creaminess that roasted garlic adds.

Using my immersion blender, I busted up the tomatoes, then added the chevre, sour cream, garlic, and basil leaves plucked from the garden.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the finished product. It was devoured before I even got the chance. Trust me, it was amazing. I served it with red pepper strips and pretzels. 

MMMMmmm you know what it would be good with? Homemade sourdough pretzels!! Next time we have those, I will make another batch of this dip. 

Ok now I'm hungry. Hope you enjoyed. Check out my Bucket List and my Finished Projects.

HOLLER!

My Sweet Charli Bed Set {Wrap Up}

I am so excited to show you the fully completed project that I've been working on for my Goddaughter Charli. 

Excuse this post, as it is going to be a very self-indulgent-glamor-shot-heavy-post.

When my girlfriend Tricia first asked us (Husband and I) to be her daughter's Godparents, we were thrilled. Neither of us has ever been such a thing, and we don't have little ones of our own yet (we're only 26, mind you). As a crafter, the first things that crossed my mind were, "OMG what am I going to make Charli? It needs to be awesome."

I asked Tricia if she has picked out a bed set for Charli for once she is out of the crib. She said no. I said amazinngggg. I planned to make her a Twin Quilt, with a matching Pillowcase, and Pillow Sham.  I wanted her to have a totally completed bed set. 

Now I love quilts. I love everything about them. Except... that it is so difficult to find matching pillowcases! Making Charli a full set for her bed was the perfect solution. 

 
See all of the My Sweet Charli related posts by typing "Charli" into my search bar. Because I am UBER slow at completing things, there were probably 15 posts in total over the past 8 months.

First, I had some clean up work to do. I don't have a serger, and am not really interested in having ANOTHER piece of machinery around here. But I did want to secure the inside seams of both pillows just so that they don't unravel in the wash. 

I decided to zig-zag stitch around all of the seams. As you can see, it looks a lot more secure. 

  (Before)

 (After)

I also wanted to totally clean up the quilt. It has been laying around for months now and it really needed to be de-linted. I also wanted to give it the once over for threads, etc. 

Now it's time for some Glamor Shots. I am actually really proud of this project. It turned out exactly as I had planned, with pretty much zero failures. That doesn't happen often. 

I really love how everything came together. I like how the fabrics from the pillow cases come directly from the quilt fabrics. MAN are they soft too!! I was worried that the pillow case wouldn't be as soft because its not 9,000 thread count egyptian cotton. Not to worry, these Tula Pink fabrics are equally luxurious.

I loved this quilt so much. I am going to be sad to see it go, despite the fact that it is going to a good home. I can't decide which prin tis my favorite, they are all so lovely.

I can't remember if I showed you the back. I did the back entirely in the print below. I just love it. The front is definitely girl, with the reds, pinks, purples, etc. But just in case our little Charli or her mama get sick of pink, she has the green side to flip to. 

I quilted this quilt with straight lines. It is by far the easiest to do for me with this sized quilt. I have no idea what the finished dimensions are, but it is a large twin quilt. 

A few final shots of the quilt. I love how the pattern is definitely geometric. Rectangles and straight lines. But then the fabrics are so pretty and girly. I hope Charli likes it. I know her mama will, the colors are so up her alley.

This Twin Bed Set is off to Germany to live with its new family, complete with a little note for Charli ...

This is another project completed and off My Bucket List. Check out the My Finished Projects page for all of the projects I have completed to date. 

HOLLER!