Oh man, I made the greatest breakfast today–bacon wrapped eggs over toast. Delicious! Here’s a step by step guide of how to make your own!

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease the cups of a cupcake pan using oil, butter, or bacon grease.

2. Brown your bacon briefly so that it is lightly cooked, but not crispy. 1.5 slices per egg.

3. Wrap one slice of bacon around the edge of each cupcake cup and then fold half a slice in the bottom:

4. Crack one egg into each cupcake cup:

5. Season the eggs. I used salt, pepper, dill, thyme, and garlic powder:

6. Bake the eggs at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes depending on desired doneness:

7. Serve alone or over toast:

8. Enjoy!

I recently participated in a knitting swap, and had the pleasure of knitting for my friend Lisa. A frequent shawl and scarf knitter, I knew that Lisa would enjoy receiving something that she didn’t knit as often, so I decided to create a pair of socks for her. The design incorporates lace elements reminiscent of the beautiful shawls she regularly knits, as well as 3-strand cables, representative of her three children.

Lisa, like me, is a fan of gorgeous blues and teals, so it was not difficult to find a yarn in my stash that would suit her. I ended up using Sundara Sock Yarn in an old limited edition colorway, Denim over Teal to make the socks for the swap and these photographs. This pattern looks great in semi-solid colors that don’t compete with the lace and cables.

The name of this pattern came to me based on a trip that Lisa and I both took with a group of our friends. While we were all together, we took group pictures of everyone jumping all at once. As you can probably imagine, it is not easy to coordinate a group jumping shot with a large number of people, so we took a lot of pictures in order to get a good one. In one of the pictures, Lisa made a huge leap, absolutely perfect for the picture…except that it was about a second after everyone else, leading to a picture where we are all on the ground, but she’s getting some serious air. That image stuck in my mind when I thought of how to name the pattern inspired by this awesome lady (and the alliteration didn’t hurt either).

One challenge came when it was time to photograph these socks–I have the great fortune to be friends with an amazing photographer in Tricia Soto, however, Lisa’s feet are so tiny that I needed to find a similarly diminutive model. Enter Terry Epstein who provided her excellent modeling skills for our photo shoot. Thanks so much Tricia and Terry!

If you would like to purchase this pattern to create your own socks for leaping in, you can do so through Ravelry at the link below. Happy knitting!

This past Christmas, my family decided to do an all hand-made Christmas. For me, naturally, this meant knitting gifts for everyone. I also decided to design each of the gifts I made. Joo-Yun is the first of these designs, named after my sister-in-law, for whom the hat was designed and knit.

I have never been much of a hat wearer, but I love the look of the slouchy kind of hat that has been in style lately. Combined with a simple lace pattern and a luxurious sport-weight yarn, this hat combines easy styling with effortless elegance. I’ll be making one for myself very soon!

Yarn: 1 skein Madelinetosh Pashmina, pictured in Hollyhock

Needles: Size 5 and size 6 circular (for magic loop) or DPNs

Gauge: 5.5 st / 8 rows per inch in stockinette with smaller needle

Sizes: Child (Medium, Large) / 15 1/4 (17 1/2, 19 1/2)” circumference unstreched

Available for purchase through Ravelry here:

Many thanks to Tricia for the photography and Carrie for the styling assistance and supplemental modeling!

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of experiencing Next Restaurant’s “Childhood” menu–dishes inspired by those enjoyed by chefs Grant Achatz and Dave Beran’s childhood in Michigan. Because the chefs are about the same age as I am, and I’m also from the midwest, this fortuitously pretty much amounted to dishes inspired by those from my childhood as well.

We start the meal with a word from the chefs:

And first on the menu–a present! Who doesn’t like getting presents? So many of the dishes on the menu were meant to inspire a type of child-like whimsy through the flavours or the presentation, and getting to unwrap a gift certainly set that tone right from the start!

And inside the present–”PB&J”! This was sort of like a small peanut butter beignet, filled with warm liquid jelly and resting in a bed of crushed peanuts and gelled fruit. It was one of my favorite things on the menu.

Next up–what’s this? Doesn’t look like anything from my childhood?

But then a broth is poured in…

Et Voilà, chicken noodle soup! Except the one thick noodle IS the chicken (that’s what it’s made from) and the big lump of white stuff in the middle there is chicken infused butter. Yum! (sorry for the blurry photo)

Next on the menu–fish ‘n’ chips! This was another of my favorites. Kinda looks like me, right? lol

Obviously the fish n chips are somewhat deconstructed–there’s a small piece of perfectly cooked fish, with a crispy potato crisp, sliced cucumbers, and the little pile of stuff in the corner is a herbed breading. The drawing is made from sauce (malt vinegar maybe?), and the sun is some type of lemon purée. We weren’t sure what flavour the foam was. They also made a boy version for dad! (though obviously didn’t get his hair quite right…)

What could this next dish be…

The waiter removes the glass tube to reveal…

Mac ‘n’ cheese! Yum! I cannot possibly count the ways I love mac ‘n’ cheese, from its purest to most impure (read: kraft) form. Note the little orange noodles there on the side which were made to mimic that most delicious of blue boxed treats. Colored using the same type of seed that gets powdered to make the original!

This dish was made to resemble a walk through the woods. Served in a log filled with fragrant smoldering coals and grasses. Up top is some crispy kale, a variety of mushrooms and leafy greens.

A brief interlude from the description to show what Lesley’s place settling looked like at this point–they had been bringing drink pairings with each course and she now had 3 different glasses of red wine to enjoy

This course, believe it or not, is a hamburger! There’s a nice little chunk of very tender short rib in there, surrounded by all the fixings. The dish also played with texture by including two elements of the bun–some crispy breadcrumbs as well as the sesame seed-dotted paste, which I initially mistook for crackers.

Next came one of the things I was most excited for–a course served in vintage 80’s lunchboxes! I was hoping for he-man, but no dice. I did, however, get the Muppets’ Pigs in Space, which was also kinda cool. And a Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers thermos.

Inside the lunch box–a homemade “funyun”, some beef jerky, an oreo made with truffles incorporated into the cookies, a homemade fruit roll-up, a pudding cup, and then the thermos was filled with some sort of combination of wine and fruit juice. There was also an inspirational note from “dad”!

The pudding cup–chocolate pudding on top with banana pudding underneath and some carmelized nuts (I think) on top:

This course was another of my favorites, for 2 obvious reasons–foie gras and puns. These are apple cider donuts, along with a beater dipped in “Foiesting”–i.e., foie gras frosting. Mmmm, very tasty!

Finally, what childhood would be complete without playing with fire? The campfire for our final course was placed and set ablaze:

Only to be revealed that the “logs” were actually part of our dessert–they were bits of sweet potato, now nicely carmelized, to be combined with the other elements on the plate and a toffee sauce to create sweet potato pie. Yum again!

After we’d cleaned our plates, we were given a cup of hot cocoa to send us on our way to bed, and a copy of the menu to take with us (sorry again for the blur).

All in all, it was an incredibly satisfying meal that tantalized all of the senses at various points, with a good dash of nostalgia to boot. While we dined, soundtracks from movies such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones played in the background, just to make it that much more immersive.

I think I actually liked this menu even more than the Thailand menu (which I’ll also blog about one of these days), although sadly we didn’t have the chef’s table this time, which was incredibly awesome. We visited the kitchen after dinner, but Chef Beran looked pretty busy so I didn’t get to say hi, much to my disappointment (while at the chef’s table, he would come and chat with us, which was very cool).

I definitely plan on trying to visit Next for every new menu they launch!

Now that’s a show I would have a shot at winning!

There was certainly a lot of knitting going on this weekend, as I hung out with some of my Internet besties–Sarie, Ceylan, Jen, and Christin, as well as cool chicks from home like Carrie and Terry (between Carrie, Terry, and Sarie, my tongue was twisted the whole weekend, as evidenced by when I mortally offended Sarie by turning to her and saying “Hairy”).

Aside from the knitting and friends though, the weekend was all about food! (as is pretty much any trip I take. Well, every day in general actually). We started the party by having dinner at the Deschutes brewery. I’m not a big beer drinker, but the food was excellent. Here are several of our beverages, in all the colors of the beer rainbow–light tan to….well, dark tan.

Later that evening was a stop that should surprise no one–the infamous Voodoo Doughnuts, home of the maple bacon bar, which was my first donut of the evening (but not my last!) Behold, the unveiling–

Drooling again already.

We didn’t spend much time at the actual Summit itself–we were turned away from the Opening ceremony for arriving late (Sock Summit Rejects!), then got too distracted by our epic dinner at 50 plates and missed the Sock Hop (seriously people, eat at 50 Plates if you’re in Portland–it was excellent).

One event that I couldn’t miss, was my own pattern signing! Woot! Kollage Yarns offered a limited edition pattern booklet at Sock Summit featuring 5 designs, including my new Adora Scarf, which is now available through Patternfish as a stand-alone pattern, featuring both scarf and shawl width directions. I’ll add the link to the sidebar soon.

Here’s a less professional-looking picture of my shawl version as it was blocking:

I really love this shawl, and already have plans to make one for myself. Possibly in orange again, so I can wear it to Giants and/or Bears games!

The signing was together with all the designers from the booklet, including Carrie Sullivan (irishgirlieknits), Jen Hansen, Sandi Rosner, and Anne Hanson. It was great hanging out with such accomplished designers for the afternoon!

We may not have spent much time at the Summit, but we did spend probably too much time at the Marketplace there, particularly in the Plucky Knitter booth, where Sarah had brought tons of ridiculously gorgeous yarn. Her yarns are kind of difficult to get online, so it was amazing to see so much of it all in one place in person! I started off responsibly, only buying a couple of skeins. But by the end of the weekend, I’d made a couple more purchases from the booth, of ever-increasing size, oops.

Here’s a pic I got of me and Sarah, who is one of the loveliest, sweetest people you will ever meet:

I’m wearing a tiny little sweater that I knit up in yarn she dyed–hopefully I’ll get my act together soon and get the pattern drafted and released. My idea for it was to make a barely-there sweater that I could put on over dresses where the top of the dress is maybe a bit too scandalous to wear on its own. It worked perfectly!

I’m working on another secret sweater design, to be released this Winter, which I am SUPER stoked about, and can’t wait to show you. But I must! Until next time!

Anyway, what’s been going on since February? Sounds like time for another knitting round-up! Well, highlights at least. And some of these were done prior to February, oops. If you’d like to see everything I’ve knit since then, check out my Ravelry projects page!

In January, Kollage Yarns published a new shawl pattern that I designed, called Ysabell (when I’m stuck on names for things I have a tendency to turn to my favorite books–in this case Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series). Knit here in Kollage’s Creamy yarn (a milk fiber and cotton blend), the pattern comes in two sizes, a shawlette and a full sized shawl, and can be downloaded here.

Here’s a better view of the pattern:

Next up, I finished some socks as a gift for my friend Erin. One of these days, I will get around to writing up the pattern, I hope:

They’re knit with Madelinetosh sock yarn in the Shell colorway.

Not the greatest picture, but these socks are pretty awesome! This is yarn that I spun myself, from wool dyed by Hello Yarn. I love the happy colors!

Another not-so-great photo, thanks to forgetting to turn the flash off outside. This was my own copy of the Blair sweater mentioned a few posts ago. I really love this sweater, and I’ve worn it a bunch of times! Knit in Madelinetosh DK in Norway Spruce.

I really love these socks. I designed and knit these for my friend Jen, who’s some type of science-y chick (that’s the technical name for her job, I’m sure). I called them “Jen’s Genetic Abomination” for when she finally goes rogue and creates a new dinosaur-like life form that terrorizes the city.

All dinosaur-y business in the front, DNA party in the back! Knit in The Plucky Knitter fingering MCN in ‘Momentum’.

This one, Josefin, was a test knit for my friend Elin’s new pattern, knit in Madelinetosh Pashmina in ‘Iris’. It’s a super classy sweater that’s totally work appropriate! (as though almost anything isn’t work appropriate in my book)

I took a trip to my friend Ceylan’s lakehouse last month, and finished up a couple of projects–first up is a new sweater design that I need to write up one of these days:

Simple and flattering, knit in The Plucky Knitter MCN worsted in ‘Early Light’. Sadly, I finished it just as it was getting far too warm to wear.

And last but not least, another pair of socks knit from my handspun, this time spun from fiber that Ceylan dyed. They’re super warm and cozy!

That’s it on the knitting front for the moment. For anyone who’s heading up to Sock Summit at the end of July, I’ll have another pattern in a booklet that Kollage will be offering at the show. I’ll also be bumming around Portland, eating bacon donuts, so feel free to say hello if you’re there!

My sweetie always knows how to pick something beautiful =) Yay love!

Recently I’ve seen Valentine’s Day referred to as VD all over, and it amuses me to no end, so I thought I’d continue that trend here =P However, I wish you all a Valentine’s with no VD, preferably!

I was incredibly honored and excited when my cardigan pattern was accepted into the Winter 2010 issue of Twist Collective. Diving head-first into the world of sweater design has been quite an adventure!

Blair is a top-down raglan cardigan, knit all in one piece. The eyelet details give it some visual interest, but still maintain the simple quality of the garment, so that it’s suitable for everyday wear–perfect for throwing on over a t-shirt and pair of jeans. The simple construction makes it a good choice for all levels of knitters, and the simple shape makes it appropriate for a wide range of body types.

Before I sent the sample sweater in to Twist, I couldn’t resist taking a picture for myself, even though it was much too small for me. I’m working on my own size now, and can’t wait to wear it! Though it’s shown in my picture below with negative ease, I would advise aiming for as close to zero ease as possible, or slight positive ease, depending on what you plan to wear under the sweater.

I got the inspiration for this sweater while watching the Olympics last Winter. During the ice skating competition, I saw a girl wearing a sweater backstage with an eyelet detail running down the sleeves. After some swatching and brainstorming, I came up with the design you see above. When I saw the mood board for the Winter issue of Twist, and that it featured a segment inspired by ice skaters, I knew I had to submit it, even though I was pretty nervous about heading right into the big leagues with my first sweater pattern! The sketch I submitted is shown below:

When naming the sweater, I finally settled on Blair as an homage to Bonnie Blair, the 5-time Olympic gold medalist speed skater, who grew up in my hometown of Champaign, IL. Growing up, I took skating lessons on the same ice where she learned to skate, looking up at banners congratulating her on her wins.

I hope you enjoy this pattern, and I can’t wait to see what you create with it!

Blair can be purchased and downloaded from the Twist Collective, here.

The Ravelry page for the pattern is here.

Rob changed things up this time around by getting a different color of roses. I think they’re so cool looking! =) They’re apparently called “Pink Passion” roses.

My guy spoils me =)