Improvisation

I like having progress bars for my projects on the sidebar, because it is always a good feeling to nudge one up a few percent every once in a while, and see that I am actually getting somewhere with the big projects I am working on. Funny thing is that most of the time, I do loads of little projects that never make it to the sidebar, mostly because I'm too lazy to put them up there before they're done.


Case in point: a pair of leafy socks in a pretty spring green yarn (Louet Gems Fingering Weight in the colour Baby Willow, if you care.) This is another free pattern from Knitty that I am making in between the half-dozen hats that I've committed myself to in the last couple of weeks. More on that later. Anyway, these socks have a pattern like little leaves, which I realize you can't see very well in the photo. If I get a chance to model them on actual feet, it will be more apparent. If you're wondering why the sock looks so fabulously blocked, it's because I jury-rigged myself a sock blocker this afternoon out of some plastic & foam board that I had lying around here. (I have to say that, as much as I love those tv shows about tidying up one's space and getting rid of useless junk, it's so nice to have that same junk still lying around when you finally think of a use for it.) It will totally work until I can get myself something nicer, i.e. when I spend my money on sock blockers rather than on yarn and fabric. Could happen.

So I have the first sock finished and am about a quarter of the way through the second. Good thing I only do one at a time, or I'd have had to make two of the sock blockers.


Meantime, I made some decadent brownies last night, which are just about perfect. They have that little crispy layer on top, but are still moist -- or what the cookbook referred to as 'stodgy' which I love in this context -- in the center. Don't listen to my HLM when he tells you they're too sweet. They aren't. I even substituted some bittersweet chocolate for semisweet squares, when I ran out, so how could they be? Just because they have three kinds of sugar (including corn syrup, which I didn't have, so I actually spent half an hour concocting a substitute corn syrup before I could make the brownies, which only called for one tablespoon anyway. No, I'm not crazy.) They are awesome. And stodgy.

What do you get when you cross a skunk and a porcupine?

Something like this?

I took a couple of days off from the stripey cardi (and started planning what I will knit after it's finished, believe it or not) and then had a problematic attempt to make the collar as written -- I was not really thrilled with how it was going, and then when my cast-off row was way (way) too tight, I decided it was a sign and frogged the whole collar. This will put my buttonholes in slightly wrong places, but I'll make do somehow. Worry not, faithful reader: this will turn out great anyway.

So if you didn't figure out what's going on in that photo (and I'm sure that it's hard to, if you're not actually in the process of making this sweater right now, and -- let's face it -- none of you are) I'm working on the sleeve cuffs now. Soon, soon... *rubbing hands together*

And hey, look:

Brownies!

And not just any brownies -- these are Black Russian Brownies, so they have a dash of Kahlua and Vodka in there. They're pretty darn good, though not quite the heavy fudge brownies I know and love. Maybe I'll adapt my regular recipe to incorporate some alcohol. (Note to self: that might just be a good all-around policy for cooking.) I will say that the one thing that really grabs me about these is that there is a bit of freshly ground black pepper in them -- You put it in with the melting butter and chocolate at the very beginning. The oils from the peppercorns really come out that way, and it gives the brownie a bit of a bite that is unexpected. Yum.