Excuses, FO!

For anyone alarmed at the volume of knitting I'm pumping out (*cough* Mom *cough*), let me just say that this was almost entirely done while staring at outlines for various finals. So, studying and knitting, all at once!




This is Excuses from the latest Magknits. It took very little yarn (two of the Louisa Harding and three of the Paton's wool), and consequently I broke my sweater speed record which I had previously set with my Tangled Yoke. Mine is the first FO (other than the designer's) on Ravelry, and as a guinea pig, let me say that the pattern for the 34" size is absolutely perfect and error-free. :) The only thing I'd change is add an inch or two to the length, but that's a personal taste kind of thing.

Uh, yeah. I need to find something new to work on now... Back to studying?

Ravelry Secret Santa strikes!

How totally awesome. I signed up for a Secret Santa swap on Ravlery, and my package came trough today, full of awesome goodies!



Wrapped up all nice, complete with festive furry yarn acting as a ribbon...



And the goods! Three skeins of Fantasy Naturale cotton in awesome colors, which I think I have plans for already. Plus, a recipe for making those knitted ornament covers! I'd seriously been contemplating how people do that, and now I know, along with having some great fluff to try it out with! (These will be SO perfect on the pink Christmas tree. Seriously.)

Still-secret Santa - you rock my world, and I think you read my mind. :)

Another FO!

These are flippy-top mittens to mail off as a Christmas gift. They're based on the Urban Necessity mitts with a few modifications. I did the large size on size 5 needles to get a slightly denser gauge with the called-for Cascade 220 Superwash.

I'm sending wool to a vegan person; he swears he's okay with it though after a discussion of the ethics of various types of animal fibers.

Now I'm going to go see Spamalot.

THEN I'll get to the exam studying and panic.

Another one...

Yes, it's another freaking Foliage, out of Malabrigo chunky in a gorgeous red called amoroso. This one is getting mailed off to Claire; it is a companion to the beaded gloves I did last month. Oh, and her branching out as well. The total time for this project was a mere 2 1/2 hours, two of which were spent in my new knitting group!

This all came about on Ravery. In attendance were Marcy, Shaun, Amanda, Meg, Jessica, and Kendra. Woot! It was an awesome group of people, and now I feel like I'm making steps toward being a bit more sociable in my city. A weekly knitting group? Completely stinking awesome. Bah. Enough rambling...

Lush

I'm going to leave behind the knitting content for a while; there is knitting going on, but most of it is semi-secretive holiday stuff, so I won't be able to post until they're FOs. I'm not sure how many of the recipients read this, but I don't want to risk it!

I've mentioned a few times before my love of alcohol, especially gigantic bottles of stoli. It usually just gets mixed with cranberry juice, but lately I've been mixing it into a bunch of random shots to spice things up. It's really important to me this time of year, when looming exams give that extra law school pressure...

I didn't photograph them, but I made a batch of Pudding Shots. In mentioning these, most people gave a confused expression. Pudding and alcohol? Yes! It can be done! And if you enjoy the taste of Irish Cream/Kahlua, you will probably enjoy these.

Chocolate Pudding Shots

Ingredients:

• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) package of instant chocolate pudding mix


• 3/4 cups of milk


• 1/4 cup of vodka


• 1/2 cup of Irish Cream/Kahlua (your choice)


• 8 ounces (yes, an entire tub) cool-whip

Mix pudding and milk until well-blended. Add vodka and Irish Cream, mix well. Fold in cool-whip. Divide into individual servings. (I usually get 18-20 shots out of a batch!) Place in freezer.

And that's it! After the day or so, they are about the consistency of soft-serve ice cream, and they're tasty, with a definite chocolate aftertaste.

What did I make tonight?



Classic jello shots in berry blue, my favorite flavor. I'm thinking the cranberry-raspberry flavor might be really good as my next attempt! These are actually a lot less complicated than the pudding shots, and I think there are a lot of neat variations out there... midori and watermelon jello, anyone?

Easy Jello Shots

Ingredients:

• 1 small (3 oz.) package of Jello (any flavor)


• 1 cup boiling water


• 1 cup chilled vodka

Mix jello with boiling water. Stir until the jello is dissolved. Add chilled vodka, stir in. Separate into individual servings, and put in fridge. Let set for 2-3 hours. Makes 12 shots.

Obviously the jello shots are much more potent than the pudding shots... Surely this makes up for a lack of knitting content... right?