Attention!

Knitters of the Internet:

I have a washing machine in my basement. It's a top loader. I don't have to pay to use it. I can't knit fast enough to keep up with all the felting I will be doing this summer. The basement might have a nice serial killer vibe going for it but I don't care. I'm too excited to worry about the strange room in the back corner. Felting! Now I know what an adult feels like. Stay tuned for my Summer of Felting posts!

-Rita

Hellooo?

It's been crickets and tumbleweeds around here for months...I guess Rita and I have both been having kind of a weird year. I just completely stopped crafting at all for a long while, but I picked it back up again this month and finally have a little something to post about. On the left is a pom-pom wreath I made after seeing a few different versions on the Internet. It was lots of fun to make and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm thinking about making really simple pom-pom ornaments for next year. On the upper right is a baby sweater made from a Knit Picks kit; other than spacing the buttons a bit weirdly I'm happy with it. I actually started it way back in the summer; more than anything I'm just glad to be done with it! And on the lower right is a hat made from a WWII pattern; not much to say about that one. Here's hoping I can keep it up in the new year...

Pestopotatopeafennelsausagepasta

No, this isn't a food blog, and clearly I'm no food photographer, but I'm so in love with this recipe that I'm sharing it anyway. I had spaghetti with potatoes, green beans, and pesto for lunch at an Italian place a few weeks ago and ever since I've been making some version of at home two or three times a week. Cheap, fast, so tasty.

It's just 1 large red potato, 1 large fennel bulb, and 2 Boca Italian sausages, all sliced 1/4 inch thick, sauteed with 2 cloves of garlic in butter and/or olive oil until potatoes are soft & everything is nice and brown around the edges. Add fresh or frozen green beans or peas at the end & continue to cook/toss until they're heated through. Salt, pepper, & crushed red pepper to taste, then toss it all with 1/2 pound cooked pasta & about 1/2 cup of pesto. Feta or parmesan cheese are both great on top of this. Best to have a glass of wine with this! Trust me, it's better than it looks in the photo. The potato-fennel-sausage-garlic combination is also fantastic on pizza.

Dino

Here is a nice little dinosaur from the book Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor - such a great book. I used the same recycled yarn that I made the EZ baby sweater with, plus some of the remnants of the $2 wool (that one skein is still going!). He's going to live with a baby boy.

And just for fun, here's what I got at my public library branch's book sale a couple of weekends ago. A Brief History of Time (!), a film book for my husband, a fun historical costume book, a catalog of beautiful paintings by an artist I hadn't heard of before, and this cool kids' book about fibers of all kinds, even Kevlar! I gave that to a coworker for her kid. I do love my library.