Peter's Epic Road Trip (PERT)

The boys (well, two of them) departed yesterday on their Epic Road Trip. Peter drove for two and a half hours before requiring a nap. They made it to Boise on the first day and plan to see Robb and Tish today. Then they are off to the Grand Tetons.

Having no one to suggest it was time to go to bed, I stayed up until 1:00 am, watching 30 Rock on Hulu and sewing yet another sundress. Last weekend, I picked up some Bali cotton at Fabric Depot's 40% off sale, which was in addition to the 60" wide cream and chocolate brown linen I needed for a bias cut sundress. I finished the Linen Swirl Sundress last week, but still need to choose a pattern for the accompanying jacket. I thought I would just cut out the Bali cotton, but ended up sewing 'just one more seam' until it was finished. Alas, the boys took the camera on the Epic Road Trip (PERT) so it will be awhile before I can post pictures of the dresses.

Room With A View

I love the view from my living room window. We finally furnished the room (with something other than Thomas the Tank Engine and Star War Legos) and it's now my favorite place to sit and contemplate life. Earlier this spring, I moved the tall phlox that was overpowering the front porch and planted it just outside the living room window. It's on the right. When it blooms, the view will be even more relaxing. The leaves of the hydrangeas still got a bit crunchy during the 90+ degree weather, and I admit to cheating ... there were a number of times during my vacation last week when I set the sprinklers on manual and gave them an extra 15 minutes of water. Luckily, Craig doesn't 1) read my blog or 2) pay the water bill.

Third time's the charm ...

I first saw this pattern advertised in Katy's knitting magazine and immediately knew I had to make it. The yarn is Sidar Breeze from All About Yarn. The sweater is knit from the bottom up and begins with 300+ stitches. Casting on is not my favorite part of knitting. The pattern is fairly simple and straightforward; however, the front edges are finished with an I-Cord edging. The last three stitches in each row are combinations of slip, purl, and knit (easy, right?), but different for each wrong side/right side row, as well as beginning/ending row. So, four different combinations. The first time I started this project, I had about three inches done before I noticed that one of the edges had a mistake. I frogged the entire project and started over. The second time, I made significant progress and had finished the four repeats of decreases (each with seven rows in between) when I discovered that I had missed a decrease a number of rows back. I frogged back to where the decreases started. At least I didn't have to cast on all of those stitches again. So now I am paying careful attention to the edges, as well as the number of stitches between markers after each decrease row. Knit and learn, right?

As for the yarn, I'm a bit disappointed. I love the color and the texture (very soft), but there have been several knots in each skein of yarn. I kind of expect that from cheap yarn, but I've never thought of Sidar yarn as being cheap.

Paradise Point

The board met at Paradise Point in San Diego and I attended in case any questions arose regarding financial aid. Meetings ended by 2:15 pm, and I spent the rest of the day sitting by the pool, knitting and reading. Very relaxing. Significant progress was made on the One-Button Cardigan ... that should be my next post.

The beach was just a few yards away from my room and the view was great. My favorite view, though not easily photographed, was at night when the lights from the bridges and docks reflected off the water.


The flora and fauna were spectacular. The blooms on the White Lace Hydrangas were at least twelve inches in diameter. And the rooms were nice ... quaint bungelows with charm and character. The one drawback: the whole resort is fairly car-oriented. It would have been much nicer to have footpaths winding between bungalows, rather than two lane roads.

The Del has always been my favorite hotel, and I think it still is. But it wouldn't take much to convince me to return to Paradise Point.

Finished!

The denim jacket is finished ... finally. No question, the buttons were a necessity--not for functionality, but definitely for appearance. It looks great with navy linen pants and a white linen tank top.

I still need to hem the sun dresses. Just what do I do with my time?

So long Chili's ... maybe we won't miss you

Now that Chili's has closed, the quest for the perfect Chocolate Molten Cake recipe has intensified. While looking for something else last week, I found a recipe that I had clipped from the February 2005 Sunset magazine. The oven was already heated for Friday night pizza and it took just a couple minutes to stir together the batter and scoop into muffin cups. Twenty minutes later ... Chocolate Molten Cake. Perfect Chocolate Molten Cake. The search is over. These cakes--or cupcakes, really--were so easy, and so good. Wonderful with Vanilla Bean ice cream. I didn't take the time tonight, but dust the plate with cocoa and powdered sugar, add a few squiggles of chocolate sauce ... perfection.

So, here's the recipe:

1 1/3 cups chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup flour
6 large marshmallows (I used the new Strawberry flavor)

Melt chocolate chips and butter and stir until chocolate is melted (I microwaved for 1 minute, but the recipe said to use a double boiler). Whisk in sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Stir in flour. Fill 6 1/2 cup muffin cups with half of the batter. Press a marshmallow into each of the muffin cups. Fill cups with remaining batter. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes, or until tops are cracked and dry. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes (or until you can run to the store and buy vanilla bean ice cream). Run a knife around the edge of muffin cup, and gently remove cupcake from muffin cup. Serve warm with ice cream.

I used my silicon muffin pan and it was perfect for this recipe. I suspect that the cupcakes might not be easily removed from a metal pan without some sort of preliminary intervention, like greasing or spraying the pan prior to filling. Cupcake liners would also work.

Button, Button ... Button?

The denim jacket is finished ... maybe. I bought buttons, but can't decide if I want buttons ... or not. The pattern calls for snaps, then buttons sewed on top of the snaps. Well, that's just plain dumb. I'm not trying to avoid buttonholes; my sewing machine actually does a great buttonhole. I just know that I would never actually button the buttons. But still, I think it might look a bit unfinished. I'm thinking maybe three buttons on the yoke.

I'm really into sewing these days. I've thought about changing the name of this blog to One More Stitch, Please, which would actually work for both knitting and sewing. I have several knitting projects started (as always), but am now working on another poncho, this time for Sophia. I gave Sara the poncho for baby-to-be R, and when Sophia was visiting the office last week she confided that she wanted a poncho. White. Exactly the same. So now I'm making the Hooded Baby Poncho, size 3. Exactly what I should have done without having to be asked, but I wasn't thinking.