Knitterly Resources

I spend a lot of time on the internet - I'm a programmer after all. Here are some of my best finds for knitters.

Ravelry is the best place to find patterns and yarns, discuss them with other knitters, and make knitting friends. It is really a remarkable site, and I believe the wait list is down to a couple of days now.

Garnstudio in Norway publishes DROPS patterns, hundreds of them, for FREE on their site, garnstudio.com. They bring out new collections every season, and their printed pattern books are also available for a couple of dollars.

Nordic Mart sells all Garnstudio yarns. They make a lovely, reasonably priced Alpaca.

Elann has a wide selection of their own brand yarn, and also some closeouts of other brands. Their shipping is expensive (they are a Canadian company), but the yarn prices are very low. I love their Baby Silk and Baby Cashmere blends.

Knit Picks is a great company that sells their own reasonably priced brand of yarn plus needles and patterns. Their interchangeable circular needles will change your life.

Yarnzilla sells lots of gorgeous luxury yarn, and is the place to go for a splurge. They have good sales, too.

Webs has a vast selection of yarn. Awesome sales, and they give a volume discount.

Knitty is an online knitting magazine that has free patterns every season and some interesting articles.

Banana Chocolate Coconut Bread Pudding

This dish would be fabulous for brunch (like French toast, but baked. So much easier!) with baked eggs w/parmesan and herbs, home fries w/sausage, fresh berries, coffee and Mimosas. If you're as thin as you want to be, make this with leftover croissants. Feel free to miss out the coconut and chocolate, and add pecans or almonds instead.

Banana Chocolate Coconut Bread Pudding

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 banana, mashed
2 cups milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups cubed day-old country white bread or croissants

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put bread cubes in an 11 x 7 glass pan. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and milk, add the mashed banana and pour over the bread cubes. Let sit for at least 1/2 hour. When bread has absorbed the milk mixture, scatter chocolate chips and coconut over bread and mix gently together. Bake for 30 minutes, let cool slightly and serve warm with whipped cream, ice cream, or with nothing at all.

Summer Treats

A few of the recipes I've added to my Epicurious recipe box most recently:


Raspberry Chocolate Ice Pops



Peaches 'n' Cream eclairs with bourbon caramel sauce


Coconut-macaroon and lemon ice cream sandwiches


Vegetable pesto salad with warm goat cheese toasts



Toasted-almond cake with strawberries in rose-water syrup



Orange-scented beignets

On the Needles

A-line Jacket, from the fabulous DROPS-Garnstudio folks, made in Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks in Iris Heather, on my pretty Knitpicks Harmony interchangeable circulars.

Flowers

We've put a lot of time and effort into our garden this year. We've taken out some plants we didn't like (holly with those prickly leaves! and a sick-looking evergreen) and planted LOTS of roses. I am afraid I have a weakness for roses, even with their drawbacks - diseases, insects, short blooming time.

I really like to arrange flowers, especially ones I've grown myself.

Home Toy Day

Well, Thursday is Home Toy Day here, which means Jack can bring a you from home to play with at daycare. Now I just think of Thursdays as Home Toy Day. Today he took this book: Planes, by Byron Barton


Barton's books are nice for younger kids - they have very bold simple graphics. We've also started reading Winnie-the-Pooh, an old edition that was mine when I was young. Robin read it to my stomach when Jack was in utero, but now he is a good age to start reading some books with more text than pictures.

For you West Virginia culture fans, I leave you with 2 windshield pictures:


My personal favorite bumper sticker: "God was my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him."

Sallydog

This is the story of our dog Sally. We decided in April of 2008 that we wanted to get a dog. We had adopted one the year before but it was a young dog and jumped all over Jack and he was afraid of it. So we sadly took her back to the shelter so she could find a home better suited to her. Jack was potty training at the time and that experience seemed to set him back. He still wasn't potty trained a year later.

We picked out a hound named Lincoln, and we visited him and took Jack to visit. We were all set to adopt him, and I went to the shelter in the morning to pick him up. The people right in front of me took him - the first adoption of the day. I was disappointed, but I decided to look around.

I made the circuit of the kennels, but didn't see any dog that called to me. Then I stopped at the last kennel near the door, and there was Sally. She looks just like a little black wolf. She came right up to me and wanted to be petted, and was so friendly and happy. She had been at the shelter for 4 months, and had been brought back from one adoption because she chased livestock. She didn't seem to mind the shelter at all. She had her blanket, and some friendly people around and that was all she needed.

I called Robin and he told me to do what I thought was best. So I brought her home. She didn't want to get in the car, but when I picked her up and put her in, she was good as gold. I took her to work to meet Robin and then home to meet Jack. Jack was worried about having a dog that barked, but Sally never barks. She has never had an accident, never chews, loves to ride in the car now, and will chase anything on 4 legs. She is always up for a walk, has comfy beds all over the house, and loves veggie burgers, croissants, vanilla ice cream and especially sausage. She will let Jack sit next to her and feed her pieces of kibble from her bowl. She is so gentle and loving with us and every other person she has ever met. She is very aggressive toward other dogs, squirrels, cats, deer, etc. and must always be on the leash when we walk. But we all have our quirks!

Jack was fully potty trained, with no night time accidents, a month after we got Sally. We think he just needed something else to occupy his mind. She has been such a blessing for us.