Cake and stuff
Today I made a cake!
It was inspired by Mariko's recent post about a recipe for cake with pudding mixed in. My friend's mom had this recipe too (it appears to have been quite the cake in the 70s), but made with vanilla pud and chocolate chips instead of pistachio. Yum. This cake also gave me a chance to test out my new fancy silicone bundt pan, which, I am here to tell you, totally works--that cake slid right out with nary a stick. Anyhoo, there's plenty of cake left over, so Laurie, any time you want to hit the ATX, there'll be cake a-waitin'. Y'all come down!
Also made today:
Hmm, what's this? Well, it was originally supposed to be this:
but after much debate about whether the side-to-side knit would be a) flattering, b) simple to alter for length, and c) too much boring stockinette, it is instead going to be this:
That being the unfortunately named Freida from Debbie Bliss's Alpaca Silk book. (Do you really want the name of your sweater to say "Unibrow!" quite so loudly? I thought not.) I already feel challenged by the cables but I think it'll be a good learning experience. The yarn is the actual Alpaca Silk in Color #12, which is a nice plummy berry. Y'all, this yarn is to die for. It is like knitting with yarn made from the fur inside the very tip of a puppy's ear. I want to fill an entire bathtub with this yarn and curl up inside forever and ever, that is how much I love it.
Sadly, it seems not to be so fond of friction, which I noticed when I pulled out my first swatch on #8s (gigantor row gauge) and re-knit on #7s (perfect!)--there was lots of fuzzing. So although I was very tempted I did not bust out the new ball winder--instead I'm knitting right from the (very loose) dumpling-ball that it came in. No problems so far.
You might notice up there that there are two ends sticking out of the bottom. This is because I'm being an extra-good girl and switching up yarn from two different dye lots every two rows. I ordered a bunch of the yarn from Wool Needlework up in Canadia because it was butt-cheap (by Alpaca Silk standards) but then I panicked and thought maybe I wouldn't have enough and went and bought 3 more skeins at my LYS because I was too impatient to wait for another shipment from Canadia. I don't think there's a real color difference, but I thought it was better to be safe than sorry. Also I'm doing it on the back of the sweater, because as Ma Ingalls always said, what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.
You might be asking yourselves, should a girl who is supposed to be finishing her dissertation be baking a cake and starting a sweater? And in return I ask you, who can work when the space under her desk is full up of dog?
It was inspired by Mariko's recent post about a recipe for cake with pudding mixed in. My friend's mom had this recipe too (it appears to have been quite the cake in the 70s), but made with vanilla pud and chocolate chips instead of pistachio. Yum. This cake also gave me a chance to test out my new fancy silicone bundt pan, which, I am here to tell you, totally works--that cake slid right out with nary a stick. Anyhoo, there's plenty of cake left over, so Laurie, any time you want to hit the ATX, there'll be cake a-waitin'. Y'all come down!
Also made today:
Hmm, what's this? Well, it was originally supposed to be this:
but after much debate about whether the side-to-side knit would be a) flattering, b) simple to alter for length, and c) too much boring stockinette, it is instead going to be this:
That being the unfortunately named Freida from Debbie Bliss's Alpaca Silk book. (Do you really want the name of your sweater to say "Unibrow!" quite so loudly? I thought not.) I already feel challenged by the cables but I think it'll be a good learning experience. The yarn is the actual Alpaca Silk in Color #12, which is a nice plummy berry. Y'all, this yarn is to die for. It is like knitting with yarn made from the fur inside the very tip of a puppy's ear. I want to fill an entire bathtub with this yarn and curl up inside forever and ever, that is how much I love it.
Sadly, it seems not to be so fond of friction, which I noticed when I pulled out my first swatch on #8s (gigantor row gauge) and re-knit on #7s (perfect!)--there was lots of fuzzing. So although I was very tempted I did not bust out the new ball winder--instead I'm knitting right from the (very loose) dumpling-ball that it came in. No problems so far.
You might notice up there that there are two ends sticking out of the bottom. This is because I'm being an extra-good girl and switching up yarn from two different dye lots every two rows. I ordered a bunch of the yarn from Wool Needlework up in Canadia because it was butt-cheap (by Alpaca Silk standards) but then I panicked and thought maybe I wouldn't have enough and went and bought 3 more skeins at my LYS because I was too impatient to wait for another shipment from Canadia. I don't think there's a real color difference, but I thought it was better to be safe than sorry. Also I'm doing it on the back of the sweater, because as Ma Ingalls always said, what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.
You might be asking yourselves, should a girl who is supposed to be finishing her dissertation be baking a cake and starting a sweater? And in return I ask you, who can work when the space under her desk is full up of dog?
posted by Ashley at 1:41 AM
3 Comments:
Aww, the dog's so cute! I love that Freida design, but the name is... less than attractive.
I am totally impressed that you're alternating dye lots. I don't think I would ever in a million years do that, even though I know I should. That sweater looks great (both the ribbing and the picture from the pattern).
yeh yeh the sweater's gonna be lovely but today my eye is on CAKE. i've been reading those recipes around too. now i need to find out what would be an equivalent to your 'pudding' in my country. we just call pudding whatever you eat after dinner, ie 'dessert'. not so specific.
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