crafty_packrat

My supervisor actually told me not to try to come in today.

It's nice to have a boss who is reasonable -- the fact that he takes the same route to work (ie bus and Metro) makes it pretty nice when there is an obstruction like this.

Now, on to something do to today... I might make myself a cake, considering my birthday is tomorrow... or maybe turned the failed brioche from yesterday into bread pudding.

... so I'm making Mint Brioche before I eat all the bread I have in the house.

Let me tell you, kneading sticky dough for 12 minutes is quite a work-out. I'm glad that I'm into the 2 hours of rising, now.

Also, I am wondering if I'm going to get to work tomorrow, as the Metro is still closed today.

I picked up a chicken to roast at the grocery yesterday, because now that I have my dutch oven, I want to get back to eating chicken.

But I also picked up a 5lb picnic shoulder because it was on sale and I can cut it into smaller portions today -- but does anyone have good recipes for that? It's an awful lot of pork, you know?

In this case, Brisket Braised with Thirty-Six Cloves of Garlic...

( Nom! )

The trick is to not cut the garlc cloves, so they're very mild when you saute them and then sort of infuse the brisket as you cook it. I did add extra vinegar (used cider vinegar, as usual) to help with the tenderizing, as well.

I stopped by the gift shop today, as I wanted to work on planning for the sock-knitting on 2 circulars class I'm scheduled to teach starting at the end of the month.

However, when I asked, it seems that *no one* has signed up for the class yet. This is unhappy-making, and confusing, because I thought that *three* people had signed up, at least the last time I talked to the yarn lady there.

What happened? Did those three students withdraw? Never sign up entirely? Something else entirely?

since the Metro is closed at all above-ground stations do to ice.

Fortunately, I've got enough hours of leave to miss one day -- but I really need to get groceries (the farmer's market consisted of ONE vendor today -- Smith Meadows, which sells pasta, meat and eggs, not fruit or vegetables), and the easiest one to get to Giant across from Silver Spring Metro. I *might* be able to hike to the co-op but it's going to be a trip across residential sidewalks and packed snow/ice, which is never fun. :P

I've got slightly more than a week to finish the socks I started the other day and ship them to my niece.

Fortunately, it seems to be going quite fast, after a false start or two.

I'm using the Wanida pattern from Sock Innovation, because it's quite simply the easiest pattern in the book, with no cabling or purling in the pattern stitches.

( And it looks smashing... )
and rather sparkly, but I think that's a plus with the intended recipient.

I'm knitting the Jasmine mitts with Crystal Palace Mini-Mochi (color 101, Intense Rainbow), and since I'm 2/3rds of the way done with the second mitt I find a knot in the yarn.

A knot tying orange to *green*.

Needless to say, *that* will ruin the color progression like a ruin-y thing.

I might be able to salvage things by frogging the mitt completely, turning the yarn around, and knitting it in the other directions, because I cast on at greenish blue.

But this does disrupt my plans to make the niece socks out of Crash Into Ewe's Jewel sock yarn (in Pink Tourmaline). Admittedly, she does wear almost the exact size of shoe I do, so I can finish up the Simplicity Socks and have them ready to give if I can't get the pink socks done in time

So, if I'm making a dish that calls for savoy cabbage, are there any other varieties I can substitute in, because I'm thinking finding a savoy cabbage might be a little tricky..?

I'm making socks for my niece for Christmas.. using the 'Pink Tourmaline' yarn from Crash Into Ewe's Jewel Collection.

( It's shiny! )

Now I'm trying to decide which pattern out of Sock Innovation I should use... I'm thinking Devon might be good, but mostly I want one of the simpler ones without much purling.