Monday, November 29, 2010
Waffles for Your Feet
Nice, right? This is the third time I've used this pattern and yarn combo, the pattern is great and easy to memorize without putting me into a coma :) The yarn was in my stash, 2 skeins of Berroco Comfort DK in the Agean Sea colorway - this is a great vegan yarn for house or bed socks, nice and cozy. I've also worn socks made from this yarn with my heavy winter boots and stayed warm and comfy.
I'm glad that I'm making some nice progress on gift knitting, I still have a few projects to go but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Oh, and if you're wondering, my mom doesn't read my blog so I'm safe to post about her gifts :)
-kala
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Vegan Curried Butternut Bean Soup
Last night's dinner was a bit of an experiment. And lucky for me, it was a success. It was my turn to make dinner (not my favorite task, I'm much more into baking) so I went pantry diving to find something easy and yummy. I ended up pulling out a bag of dry soup beans and a few other ingredients for a slow cooker soup. Then I saw the curry powder on the spice rack and everything came together! This easy to prepare recipe for Curried Butternut Bean soup is perfect for busy days around the holidays when you might not have time to labor over dinner but you still want something healthy and hearty. Enjoy!
Vegan Curried Butternut Bean Soup:
16 oz dried soup bean mix (or any combo of dried beans, rinsed and picked over for rocks)
16 oz Organic Butternut Soup from Pacific Natural Foods
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cups water
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 TB hot curry powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
fresh black pepper to taste.
Makes about 6 generous servings.
Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and stir. Cook on high for about 2 hours then turn the heat down to low for the remaining 4 hours. You could also cook the soup on low the entire time but it will probably need some extra cooking time. Check the soup after the first few hours and if the water level looks a bit low, add one extra cup of water. Serve soup with a few sprigs of cilantro and spicy garlic chili sauce for an extra kick!
-kala
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Our Vegan Thanksgiving
Yum! We had spicy mashed sweet potatoes with cilantro and coconut milk, stuffing, a Gardein Stuffed Turk'y, and two kinds of gravy. There was also pie, cookies, and Silk Nog for later. This was our first experience with the Garden Turk'y, in the past I've had Tofurky (hate it!) and we've also made main dishes from scratch. But everything we've had from Gardein has been delicious so we thought we'd give the turk'y a try. And I'm glad we did, it wasn't quite as awesome as I was hoping, but it was pretty darned good. My complaints are with the stuffing and gravy that it comes with. The turk'y is breaded and stuffed, the stuffing tastes really good but the texture turned me off, it was much too mushy. The gravy was just gross, it tasted a lot like I remember turkey tasting like (and no, that's not a good thing) and I'm glad we had a backup gravy for the meal. Overall, I'd have it again but skip the gravy it comes with and make sure I had my own stuffing to serve on the side. Because really, Thanksgiving for me is ALL ABOUT THE STUFFING!
So what's your favorite part of yourThanksgiving meal?
-kala
Friday, November 26, 2010
Black Friday Sale!
Large Giraffe Gardens Bag:
Large Birds of a Feather Bag:
Large Pink and Black Bag:
Large Sugar Skull Bag:
Large Organic Cotton Forest Friends Bag:
Large Winter Rain Bag:
Large Green With Envy Bag:
-kala
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Giving Thanks...And Vegan Cookies!
Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating today! Our celebration will be pretty low key, it will be just the husband, me, and a whole lotta food. If I get a chance I'll try to get some pics of the feast and share them soon, we'll be having the new Gardein Turk'y, mashed sweet potatoes with cilantro and coconut milk, stuffing, gravy, pie, and cookies. Yes, cookies. I don't really like pumpkin pie but it's the husband's fave so I make it every year, I suppose the guy should get what he wants once a year, ha ha :) Anyway, last night I whipped up a quick batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies with coconut and cherries added in. I may have had one with breakfast, shhhh, don't tell!
I hope everyone has an fantastic day!
-kala
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Gift Knitting - Two More Projects Done!
The pattern was from the Holiday 2010 issue of Knit Simple and it was a nice and easy knit. The yarn was some Sirdar Snuggly DK that I had in my stash, it was great to work with but I think I wish the end product was a little more smooth. To make sure they fit Shane, I made him close his eyes and try the first one on :) The magazine also has a ladies version of the mitts, so maybe I'll make them sometime with a different yarn.
Last night I finished a pair of socks, I've managed to work on them in front of the husband without him asking me about them, so I think these might even be a surprise! I decided on some basic vanilla socks because they're so quick to knit and nice to wear in the winter. This was another project made from stash yarn, I used 2 skeins of Panda Soy in the Fudge Brownie colorway:
Oh, and if you're thinking, "wait, won't he see his gifts here on the blog?" don't worry, he is forbidden from reading my blog ever for that very reason :)
So how's your gift crafting going?
-kala
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Roller Derby!
Last night the stars aligned and my husband finally had a day off that coincided with a Minnesota RollerGirls bout! I had never been to roller derby in my life, but I kept hearing about how much fun it is so I finally decided to check it out. My husband used to go fairly often, but that was before we met so that doesn't count, ha ha ;) The event was at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Saint Paul, I had been there before to see the Arcade Fire a few years ago, and I have to say that that place is much better suited to derby than music. And thanks to my friend Jen, we had pretty awesome seats!
Overall it was a fun night, but for me that was because I had friends there to meet up with, the actual derby action didn't do much for me. Maybe it would have been more exciting if I was rooting for a specific team or had a friend that was a Roller Girl. But I've never met a sport that didn't bore me horribly so maybe I'm hopeless :) Although there was an awesome leprechaun mascot dude so how can I complain?
Has anyone else been to roller derby before?
-kala
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Vegan Sweater Knitting - A Yarn Guide
While I'm on the subject of vegan yarn, I thought I'd share some thoughts on sweater knitting. Like I said in my last post, I get a lot of questions about vegan yarn and crafting in general so I'm hoping these posts will help new vegan knitters or even non-vegan knitters who are looking for something a little different :)
Since I live in Minnesota, keeping warm during the Fall and Winter is a big consideration. The best yarn I've found for warmth is Tatamy Tweed Worsted, a worsted weight machine washable yarn - the dk version is also top notch! Tatamy Tweed is a cotton/acrylic blend that comes in many lovely tweedy colors. Tweeds are rare in the world of vegan yarn and Kraemer Yarns has definitely done it right. I wear my Cobblestone Pullover that I knit in this yarn a few years ago pretty often it the winter and it keeps me warm but also breathes because of the cotton content.
Another of my favorite sweater yarns is Berroco Comfort. Comfort, just like it's sock weight cousin, is nice to work with, affordable, easy to care for, and comes in tons of beautiful colors. I knit this Tree Jacket in the Agean Sea colorway and love how it came out:
What I also love about Tatamy Tweed and Berroco Comfort is that they're great for all kinds of cold weather accessories, I made a pair of tweed mittens that I wore constantly (sadly I lost one!) and kept me nice and toasty.
Fiber content is the most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a sweater yarn, you need to think about how much warmth you're looking for (for instance, don't knit a sweater from 100% cotton and expect it to work in sub zero temps) and how much structure you want. Synthetic yarns will generally have a bit more structure than drapey natural fibers like linen or hemp, so just make sure you match up the right yarn with the right project :) Ravelry is great for helping with that, just find a pattern you'd like to knit and see if anyone has used a yarn that you're interested in using (or one with similar properties).
So what's your all time favorite sweater yarn?
-kala
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Vegan Sock Yarn - Best of the Best
Since I get a fair amount of questions about yarn, and vegan sock yarn in particular, I thought it would be fun to do a post about my two absolute faves! Socks are definitely my favorite thing to knit, I just checked my Ravelry notebook, and I've knit 33 complete pairs of adult socks in my relatively short knitting career (I think I've been knitting just about 5 years now).
If you've been reading this blog for long, you can probably guess my number one desert island love it forever sock yarn - Panda Cotton! I've knit almost 20 pairs of socks with this yarn and I absolutely love it. It's nice to work with, comes in a wide range of colorways, and washes and wears beautifully. I wash and dry all of my handknit socks in the washer and dryer and my Panda Cotton socks stay nice and soft. The husband and I wear handknit socks all Fall and Winter long and we have yet to have a sock wear through or get a hole, so that's pretty good!
My second favorite sock yarn is one that's grown on me over time - Berroco Comfort Sock. When Comfort Sock first came out, it was very exciting because it was one of the first vegan self patterning sock yarns. That first range of colors was a bit dull, but the color options have improved greatly. I love this particular yarn for socks that I wear in my big winter boots - they keep my feet toasty without getting icky and sweaty, yes that's important! I also love the price of this yarn, it's nice being able to knit a pair of winter socks for just under $9!
so what's your favorite sock yarn of all time?
-kala
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Letterpress Love
Cute, right? This is the second anniversary card I've bought from Paper Parasol (love them!) here's the one I bought in the spring:
One of my other favorite letterpress card shops on Etsy is Pup and Pony. They have really cute and fun cards like this birthday card:
Do you guys have any go-to places you like to get cards from?
-kala
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Snow Day!
It's been snowing pretty steadily since then too, luckily I'm nice and warm in the apartment :) This kind of weather makes me feel like building a fort on the couch (or maybe just snuggling under a blanket) and knitting all day. I had to do some sewing for the shop though, but now that I'm done I think I'll be working on some socks for my husband. A few days ago I made a list of all the gifts I want to knit and pretty much horrified myself with how much I need to get done. These will be a gift for the husband since he really loves and appreciates handknit socks:
These are a pair of plain vanillas in some Panda Soy I had in the stash. So what are you crafting for the holidays this year?
-kala
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Front Page Happy Dance!
And extra double thanks to Button Soup Jewelry for creating the treasury that made it all possible!
-kala
Sunday, November 07, 2010
That Which I Must Knit
I'm so in love! I'm not sure if I'd knit it short sleeved but I'd consider it since I'm always super hot in any room that has the heat on (knit night is especially sweltering) - I'm not a fan of winter and I'm really not a fan of heaters, bleh. Without fail, if I'm inside in the winter I'm in either a short sleeved top or a tank so maybe a short sleeved sweater is just what I need!
So what grabs you from the Vogue preview?
-kala
Friday, November 05, 2010
Interweave Knits - Winter 2010
The Kinetic Cowl by Amy Polcyn has a great shape and would look really nice with just the right yarn:
I also like the graphic simplicity of the Art Deco Argyle Stockings by Lisa D. Jacobs:
So what you do like from the new issue?
-kala
Thursday, November 04, 2010
New Sockage
It's hard to get a good pic of the stitch pattern at this point, but it's very pretty in person! I'm using Panda Cotton again (big surprise!) in the Berry Compote colorway. And as you can see in the picture, I'm using the Chart Keeper that I bought from Knit Picks, I'm planning a full review so I won't say much about it right now :)
So what are you guys working on?
-kala
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
New Goodies - AND VOTE!
Ok, time to share some of the new goodies in my Etsy shop (Vegancraftastic), here's a peek:
Large Birds of a Feather Project Bag (also great for holding gifts!):
Large Green With Envy Project Bag:
Baby Panda Keychain (great stocking stuffer!):
Furry Friends Sheep Project Bag:
On the Rocks Project Bag:
Large Winter Rain Project Bag:
Large Organic Cotton Forest Friends Project Bag:
Which one is your fave?
-kala
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