Caught in the act

I found Butler and Chica doing a whole lot of snuggling today.

They are such good friends.  Butler recently taught Chica how to play.  She was always one for chasing string and Butler carried toys around in his mouth and chased them all over the house.  Now she’s doing the same thing with the toys.

Those guys!

Only a little bit left of my cuff to knit. Not sure I like the colors I chose but I didn’t have any large amounts of leftover yarn so I had to use a few different at once.  We’ll see how it turns out.

 

Blocking a scarf for my mom

My parents visited over the weekend. Since I already have the supplies and she doesn’t, my mom brought along a finished scarf that we were going to block. That is until we decided to just sit down for a few minutes to relax and ended up falling asleep. So I blocked it yesterday and I’ll bring it along with me the next time we visit them.

My mom knit the Killington Scarf at my suggestion. I knit this earlier this year and it was my first attempt at anything with lots of yarn overs. I was pleased with my results.

The scarf comes off the needles very curled.

The blocking really brings out the pattern.

And here it is finished!

And for comparison, here it is next to my finished Killington. My scarf needs to be reblocked as it’s starting to roll from wearing it.  Also, I suspect that my yarn is thinner than the yarn my mom used on hers.  She might have even used a bigger needle size.

In the spirit of procrastination, I’m thinking of making one of these cuffs this afternoon.

Grilling Pizza

A few summers ago, my friend Jenn introduced me to grilled pizza.  Last night we decided to do a comparison.  Which is better – a pizza made straight on the grill or a pizza made on the grill on a pizza stone?

On my way to Jenn’s, I  bought dough from a local pizza place to skip the step of having to make dough ourselves. Jenn provided the other ingredients. We used fresh tomatoes, pizza sauce, sliced mozzarella and basil. The olive oil is to keep it from sticking to the grill.

When Jenn and I make grilled pizza we’re purists.  Just cheese, tomatoes, sauce and seasoning. But there are so many great ways to top it. Here’s an example of a few varieties of grilled pizza from my friend Kate.

We placed one rolled out piece of dough (um, we had some problems with our technique on rolling this one – it seems the first grilled pizza of the season is always a new learning experience) on the rack.

And the other one on the stone.

The dough cooks quickly so it’s important to stand by and check it after a minute or so. You can already see the difference when we flipped them.

We lowered the heat, topped them and shut the lid.

When the cheese was perfectly melted, we took them off.  We tasted a piece of each pizza.

Look how thin and crispy!

And for comparison, the back of the stone pizza:

And the back of the rack pizza:

I think I decided I like grilled pizza right on the rack best.  But Jenn and I agreed it wasn’t a fair comparison as the doughs weren’t rolled out the same so it’s hard to say if it was the dough or the method on the grill. I still like the novelty of grilling it on the rack best.  I like seeing the grill lines like in that picture above.  And I like how extra crispy and charred it gets.

I guess either way, it makes really delicious homemade pizza.

Finished: Cable Necklace

I finished my cable necklace which was a brief departure from the projects I was already working on. The pattern is clear and I am pretty pleased with the result.

The only thing I didn’t do was crochet a chain to make the loop. I tried but I just did not like the results and ended up adding a piece of yarn that I cut off from weaving in my ends and making a little braid.

I looked in my button stash (all except for two are the extras from clothing) to find the perfect button to finish it off.

I narrowed down my selection.

I ended up going with the brown one which I bought at my LYS.

I’m excited to wear this necklace but I suspect that I won’t like wool on my neck until it’s a little cooler. I don’t want to rush summer, so I’ll be patient.

Grilled Cheese on the Grill

Grilled cheese is my number one. I’ve been wanting to open a grilled cheese restaurant for possibly ten years. But I’m a reluctant entrepreneur. I get the ideas, but I’m scared of the risk. Anyway, I like anything that is grilled cheese-like.

Last night we made Pesto, Olives & Tomato Grilled Cheese.  We found some flat rocks in the yard, washed them and covered them in foil to press the sandwiches on the grill.

This was another easy dinner that tastes so great. We had them with a salad with a lot of home grown (not my home) and farmer’s market vegetables.  Great evening, great dinner, great company!