All posts by Chris

Knitting, Those Cats

An update and a fickle tangent

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I’ve been making good progress on the Chaotic Black Purl Jaywalkers. Yup, lookie there – it’s the black blob again! I must have a camera setting screwed up or something.

Of course, being as fickle as any other knitter, when I read Norma’s post about knitting red scarves for “’emancipated’ foster children who are in college,” I remembered that one of my knitting resolutions for this year was to do more knitting for the community and immediately scrounged through my stash for suitable yarn. I discovered that I had no red yarn. Hmm. I’m in Stashalong, so romping out to a yarn store wasn’t really an option. I considered dyeing some yarn with Wilton’s cake dye, but I’ve never been able to get the reds to set. Norma gave me a tip on resolving that problem, so I was digging through my stash for yarn to dye when I discovered a lovely skein of Anne in reds and pinks, with some orange and rust bits tossed in for fun.Since using stash yarn “as is” seemed much better than filling my condo with fumes from wet wool and hot vinegar, I found an easy garter lace scarf in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and got started.

The scarf will be much more lacy and open after it’s blocked. Deadline to drop scarves off for this project is January 31 at any Einstein Brothers Bagels. (For the curious, I’m doing surprisingly well knitting with a color that’s so far off of the Chris acceptable color chart, which includes deep greens, purples, and black.)

“Things are gonna change around here, you betcha. This photography crap is making me very cranky.”
Gluten Free, Recipes, Those Cats

And we had a little party…

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Jeanne came over to my place this evening for some flourless chocolate cake, Rex Goliath 47-Pound Rooster Pinot Noir, and a present to celebrate her birthday.

Strangely, we took no photos during our eating, drinking, and knitting. But I do have a few pictures from earlier today. I was working at my computer when I heard a little tearing sound.

“Chaos, what are you doing to Jeanne’s present?”

 

 

“I don’t know how that happened. Who could’ve done that?”

 

“I’m looking and looking, but I just can’t figure out where the culprit went.”

Hmm. I have my suspicions…

Anyway, to make up for the lack of party pictures, here’s a recipe for the world’s simplest flourless chocolate cake, which is gluten-free and can also be dairy-free:

One Bowl Flourless Chocolate Cake
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 c butter or margarine
3/4 c sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa

Grease a 7- or 8-inch springform pan or round pan. Line bottom with a circle of wax or parchment paper and grease paper.

Break chocolate into pieces and put with butter or margarine into a microwave-safe bowl that will be big enough to ultimately hold all the ingedients. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and microwave until chocolate and butter are melted, being careful not to burn them!

Remove from microwave. Stir until chocolate and butter are well mixed. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs and mix well. Sift cocoa onto mix and stir until just mixed.

Pour into greased pan. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool cake for 5 minutes, then invert onto a plate.

Dark Chocolate Glaze
4 oz bittersweet chocolate OR sweet dark chocolate or 1/2 c double chocolate chips
3 T butter or margarine
1 T milk, soymilk, or almond milk
1 T light corn syrup
1/4 t vanilla

In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt broken chocolate with butter. Stir until smooth. Stir in milk, corn syrup, and vanilla. Set aside to cool slightly. When glaze is cool, pour onto center of cooled cake. Use spatula to smooth glaze and coat sides. Chill about 10 minutes to set glaze.

Enjoy!

Those Cats

You again?

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No particular knitting excitement to report – I started my second Black Purl Chaotic Jaywalker last night, but since it’s still a tiny piece of toe, you can just go the start of the first sock from last week and get the same effect.

“You again? Always with the camera. Sheesh. Can’t a cat have a little privacy?”
Randonymity, Reading

I have crushes on fictional characters…

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Yes indeed, I have crushes on some fictional characters. I’m not talking about characters in tv shows or movies, but about characters in books. Characters described by the author, but whose final form exists only in my imagination.

Come on, admit it – if you read, then you do, too.

One of my particular favorites is “Roarke” from the Eve Dallas mysteries by Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb. Roarke’s a way sexy bazillionaire who lives in NYC, circa 2059. Here’s a description from Origin in Death:

His face – the strength, power, and yes, the beauty of a fallen angel with no regrets – was framed by the thick black of his hair. His mouth – full, carved, irresistible – smiled as he came toward her. And those eyes – impossibly, brilliantly blue…

Ok, that reads a little trashier out of context than in… wait, who am I kidding? Sheesh, it leads to several pages of steaminess. *fans self* Trash all the way, baby.

My other particular favorite is “Ranger” from the Stephanie Plum mysteries by Janet Evanovich. (Are you noticing a naming trend here?!) Ranger’s a bounty hunter/man of mystery in Trenton, NJ, described in High Five as follows:

Ranger’s…features are Anglo, his eyes are Latino, his skin is the color of a mocha latte, and his body is as good as a body can get. He had his black hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was wearing a black T-shirt that fit him like a tattoo and black SWAT pants tucked into black high-top boots.

Why, yes, I would be a sucker for the tall, dark, lean, and handsome bad boy type. How’d you guess?

Any fictional favorites you’d care to share? Hmm?

Alongs, Those Cats

If the fox in sox counted his sox, how many sox would the fox rox?

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Lynda is hosting Count Your Socks, which will give us all a chance to simply show off all our socks or win a fabulous prize for having knit the most pairs of socks during the year. Why I am participating? Simply for the fun of it (and to see whose house I need to run a sock raid on, of course). I’m starting with 17 pair – nothing compared to Theresa’s amazing 39 pair!

“Why are there more socks on the floor than usual?! And wow, most of them are clean. Now that’s a change.”
“I wonder how many socks there are?”
“You are growing sleepy. When you wake up, you will remember only that there were more socks than you’ve ever seen in your life.”
Knitting, Those Cats

Chaotic Dance of the Jaywalker

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Some more photos from yesterday. In the comments, some have noted that their cats don’t get to play with knitting projects. Neither does Chaos, usually. However, when I bring out some bit of knitting to photograph, things just seem to gett out of hand quickly…

Sorry about this shot, Chaos… (It shows off the spot on his tummy that doesn’t have any guard hair. I think this spot is supposed to be white, based on the stray hairs nearby.) Anyway, I’ll let him take his bow:
Randonymity

The most alarming commercial of the year…

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Alarming non-knitting content ahead. Not even any cats. You have been warned.

If you watched the Tour de France, you saw this already… The Kinetic commercial of mountain bicycling champion and Tour de France commentor Bob Roll cycling naked has got to be one of the most alarming and yet strangely fascinating commercials of all time. It’s a spoof on Annie Leibovitz’s photo of Lance Armstrong cycling nude.

It’s quite possible that I need to get out more.