Winter Loot!

TA-DA! I'm finally done with the sweaters! I'm so excited, cannot wait to wear them this winter.

Cotton Candy Waves

I made this last winters. Well the body and sleeves, but wasn't able to sew the seams cause every time I tried the sweater looked really misshapen and boxy. I was quite disappointed, cause I loved the pattern and it wasn't that hard to follow the instructions and make alterations. The original pattern was a cardigan, but I wanted a sweater so I modified. It wasn't rocket science tho, for which I'm thankful. And I really wanted to wear it with this lovely cola colored skirt and black boots. So this time I tried a different technique to sew the sems up and well... it still looks boxy but what the hey, I'm gonna wear it anyways. I made it and I love it.

The aggravating thing about crocheting sweaters is that you have to crochet everything in twos. It drives me nuts cause by the time I'm done doing the front body or one sleeve, I DO NOT want to do it all over again for the back or the other sleeve. I tend to lose all patience and just want the thing to be DONE so I can wear it. I have quite a few front bodies of sweaters all waiting for their backs or sleeves. :P

Sooooooooo... to that effect I hunted and hunted and reasearched like mad to find out a way or pattern that will cut down on the crochet time, I do not have to deal with front/back, fixing sleeves (which is a killer) and the entire thing should FIT. And guess what? Weeeeeeeeeee! I found this brilliant method that allows you to check the fitting AS you crochet.

The Top-Down Raglan style sweater is easy as peasy, you start with the neck and crochet the yoke in either a square or in rounds. The body and sleeves follow the same system and man was it fun. I made the next puppy in 4.5 days flat!! And I checked the fitting as I went. Which doesn't mean that I didn't screw up here and there, one sleeve is tighter than the other, there are a few missed stiches, the body is a tad bitty more tighter than I wanted it be and I fudged the yoke a bit so the top part sits a bitty skewed when I wear it.

But, all in all I'm verra pleased! This was a good exercise and I plan to make and experiment more!

Food Frankenstein

In a bid to eat more healthy I usually try and "cheat" myself by combining few vegetables with other ingredients making a dish/item that is indeed more palatable to me. And I do think I'm mighty clever to be doing that... *pats back*!

The most common and easiest way is to steam/boil the icky offender, puree it and then knead it with flour to make interesting looking and tasting roti's. For example my fav. is spinach, I buy like hordes of that stuff, steam/boil then puree it and mix it up with wheat flour to make phulkas or puri's. Love the greeeeeeeeen color, makes it look so much more interesting than regular plain-jane phulkas! Also, lately I have been experimenting with radish, fenugreek, and BEETS!

Man, I luuurrrvvvveee the beets roti's, the awesomely lovely red color just looks absolutely gorgeous. I remeber as a kid chomping on my crayolas, trying to see if the colors had a distinct taste (of course they didn't and tasted vile btw!) and always chomped harder on the Red ones cause I especially fancied them. The beets Puri with Milk (my fav puri combo!) almost come close!



I can now also eat eggplant and peas by adding them to Vegetable Pilafs or with Paneer. Actually truth be told I'll eat anything with Paneer, so I normally will add the ickyness with a Paneer dish and just gobble the whole thing up. I wish I had this much sense as a kid... oh well.

I have found another awesomely awesome way to avoid heartburn, tummyburn, and well... next morning pottyburn... *snicker* not too much anyways! I buy green chillies, the small incredibly theeki ones, dry them in the sun till they turn crackalicious, then grind them up either really fine or with bitty flakes on. I use this instead of Red Chilli powder in all my curries and cooking and man... it tastes, smells wonderful. Love the green chilly sun-dried scent. The only downside is (not health-wise) that the dish does not have that yummy mouth-watering reddddddd color to it. But that's ok, I have the beets phulkas na!

Flattery is the secret to my giant ego!

So, these two young "boys" stopped me and Cher on our walk this evening with a hesitant "excuse me...".
I stopped and looked up, "Uh-huh?"
Bitty more confident, "Can I talk to you?"
Bitty more wary, "About what?"
"Ohh, just like that."

Ahh. Ohhhhhh. TeeHee. This is crackalicious.

Snicker, "Drop it. I'm way older than you boys. Go home!"
A tad surprised and skeptical, "How old?"

THIRTY TWO!!

Hahahaaa. The expression was priceless! Loved it. The other kid with the romeo started guffawing with glee as I walked away. On my turn back, the kid is still hanging around and he stops me again and wants to know if I'm lying! I wish. He couldn't believe it and told him like the proper disapproving matron I am, "You should be hitting on girls in your school!" The kid goes with due umbrage, "I'm not in school, I'm in college!!"

Oops.

TeeHeeeee.
That was nice. Like a second second helping of Custard Apple Sorbet. Satisfying and enormously pleasing!