Things You Don’t Say to a Knitter

I’m going to pretend that it didn’t hurt a little when I wound “Deeper Shade of Soul” into this cassette tape yarn ball.

There are things I keep because they remind me of events or people, things I keep because I think they’ll be useful one day and things I keep because I don’t want them to end up in a landfill. Three bags packed with cassette tapes that I’d collected over the span of a couple decades had become a bit of all three. I haven’t had a cassette player in years, yet I couldn’t convince myself to throw the tapes out. I kept telling myself, despite the fact that I was sure the sound quality would be subpar, that I would buy the necessary equipment to turn them into mp3s. Or that I would, at the very least, get nicer storage units for the tapes and a player so I could use them again. But, truth be told, they’d been languishing under my former couch for a couple of years now. I decided it was time for them to go. But when I told my friend that I knew that there was a service that would recycle unwanted CDs and CD cases, but that I didn’t think there was a parallel service for tapes, he said: “Why don’t you turn the tape into yarn?” I’m sure he was kidding, but then he noticed that far off look on my face.

Holding on to the Last Bit of Green

All it took was a couple of nights when it dipped below 60 degrees and I felt I was ready for a heartier dinner. Never mind the fact that it has inched its way back into the 80s (phew . . . I still have time to pop out a couple of pairs of socks, at least). I wanted substance.

I’d had some tempeh in a chicken-style marinade for a week now that I knew I needed to finish off soon. Add to that the fact that I rarely have the ability to make traditional bread crumbs because I rarely spend the money on gluten-free bread, and suddenly I was digging around my kitchen for something to coat the tempeh with. I came across the tail end of some coconut flakes, a little bit of puffed brown rice cereal and sliced almonds. So, of course I tossed it into my coffee grinder and came up with a crumb coating. It was surprisingly good. I ate this two nights in a row and even liked it enough to come up with a kiwi-mango dipping sauce to accompany it the second time. This sauce features fake coconut milk.” I will always love the Millennium cookbook that suggested adding coconut extract to a vegan milk to create coconut milk. Sometimes I do bring coconut milk in my kitchen, but I never use it in time (or, even think to pour it into ice cube trays). The benefit here is that this works quite well for the splash or two of coconut milk that is required in some sauces and curries.

Fall Is Coming

When I left for San Francisco I swear it was still summer in New York. And I know “they” say that it will be in the 80s by this weekend, but even on this 75 degree day, in a sleeveless dress and a medium-weight cardigan, it feels a little chilly. Which concerns me a little because not only do I not have much in the way of winter clothing, but I have so many things on my Crafting For Other People list (and this excludes holiday gift-making!) that I’m absolutely convinced this will be the winter I freeze to death.

Even though fall brings with it the fear of freezing, it also ushers in some lovely food items: pumpkins, squash and lovely pears (you’ll note the absence of apples . . . is it OK to admit that, other than Macouns, I’m mostly tired of apples). Below I’ve put some of the season’s best to tasty breakfast purposes:

Even though I halved the sugar in Isa’s The Best Pumpkin Muffins and used brown sugar instead of regular, I can see how, unaltered, these would be The Best muffins. What I really wanted was “the best to hold up to a liberal slathering of Earth Balance,” though, which is why I cut back on the sugar. In my next round, I’ll probably sub applesauce for the oil so I can justify an even larger slathering of EB. The quinoa pudding turned out well, too. I really wanted to use pears instead of apples, but I wake up before most of my neighborhood on Sunday mornings, so I had to make do with what I could find.

Later in the day, I was able to take my new Anthropologie capelet variation for a ride. I finished it as my flight was taking off in New York. It’s photographed here at the lovely boutique hotel, Hotel California, which houses the Millennium Restaurant:

Herringbone Lace and Seed Stitch Detailing

Guess What I’m Making . . . Again

I can’t help it. The yarn’s already there. I . . . I . . . well, it’s a variation at least. I had originally wanted to use a leafy lace pattern, but I started the lace section at work and things got too busy for me to overlay one of the leaf patterns over the original capelet pattern, so I plugged in my tried and true herringbone lace instead.

I decided the herringbone would be better anyway because I can do it in my sleep and was supposed to have a date last night at Vatan. This means, of course, that I was considering knitting on a date, but I think it’s one of those things that has to be done as a test. After all, I knit all the time so it’s a little dishonest of me to trick men into thinking I don’t. Not that it matters what he may have thought, because with two hours to go, he canceled “due to sickness.”

Finished!

Here I am, so happy the capelet’s complete that I almost manage a smile . . .

Once I got the rhythm down this thing flew. I still need to weave in some yarn, but that’s not happening until I find my needle. I wish I’d bought more at Seaport Yarn yesterday because I’m afraid to go back in there today.