I love chocolate, but...

I had an errand to run in SF's chinatown on Saturday. Unfortunately, navigating the streets was slow because it was the day before the night of the Chinese New Year's parade and the streets were packed with people.

I decided to stop at the historic Eastern Bakery to pick up a few treats.

It was there that I saw them -- chocolate covered mooncake! I grew up eating mooncakes once a year, so this just seems so wrong. But then again, who am I to talk -- I made chocolate covered bacon.

FO: Gemma capelet

This is the Gemma capelet from Knitting Off the Axis. The yarn is di.Ve Autumno, which is a merino yarn. I'm not really a capelet person, but I love how this particular one looks and I love how it's constructed. The bottom part is knitted cross-wise. My row gauge was a little finer and I didn't really know exactly what size to make, but I could wrap it around myself as I went along and stop when it felt about the right amount of ease. The top yoke is picked up and knitted upward to the neck, so you can easily adjust the number of stitches and rows to get a good fit. I really like the shoulder shaping because it results in a very crisp and squared look. The collar is nice and fluffy because it is double layered.

I decided to use a seed stitch for the button band instead of the double garter pattern because I wanted a tighter band and one in which I could center the button holes. I used needles 2 sizes smaller for the band to help make it denser. Since I did a seed stitch button band, I went with seed stitches on the collar also instead of ribbing. I also did some increases on the collar at the shoulder lines to make it a bit wider at the bottom. I skipped the cable pattern on the underside and just used stockinette.

I'm hoping I won't feel silly wearing this. I think it looks a bit like something out of Dickens and I should be using a hand muff to go with it. The Other Half thinks it looks like a cross between Sherlock Holmes and something out of Dr. Who.

Chocolate covered bacon

Gay over at tu tu knits inspired me to make some chocolate covered bacon. I don't really eat that much chocolate or bacon. They are, after all, full of saturated fat, and I'm all about limiting my intake of saturated fat. However, this doesn't mean that I can't enjoy a small treat now and again.
I baked my bacon at 350 degrees in a convection oven. That's probably about 375 degrees in a conventional oven. I used a broiler pan so that they would not be swimming in grease as they cooked. I baked them until they were browned, and it took longer than I expected -- probably at least 25 minutes. Here they are after being baked and cut into smaller pieces.


For chocolate, I used Ghirardelli 70% cacao baking chocolate. I melted it in a double boiler and dipped the bacon and placed them on wax paper. Here they are after dipping before going into the fridge for cooling.


It didn't take long for the chocolate to harden. Here they are in their finished state. They were delicious!

One taster suggested a 60% cacao. Another suggested perhaps a thicker cut bacon would be nice. I used a smoked bacon, and I'm thinking that a peppered bacon might interesting.

FO: modified cropped topper

This is a highly modified version of the #28 cropped topper from Vogue Knitting Fall 2011. The yarn is called "RichMore Stame", which is a Japanese brand of yarn that I purchased in Tokyo on my 2010 vacation. I really like the yarn -- it's very lofty and very warm and very lightweight.
Here's all that went down with my knitting of the pattern and how my sweater ended up so different:

• I liked the pattern for its broken rib stitch pattern and I don't mind the boxy shape if there is ribbing because ribbing will naturally shape the garment a bit. I had to re-do the stitch counts because my yarn is worsted weight instead of the recommended bulky weight


• I decided to make it a little longer than the cropped length


• After kniting the back and one of the fronts, I decided that I did not want to do the wide ribbed front band because I wanted something different, so I decided to knit a 6" wide scarf to be sewn on for the fronts and collar. I like the way a scarf-type collar sits on the back of the neck.


• After finishing the body and the scarf, I had two skeins left over so I decided to just pick up stitches and add some 3/4 length sleeves. Each sleeve used up most of one skein.


• When I was all done, the 6" wide scarf looked odd just sitting on the front, and it was also stretching in length. I folded it inward and held the fronts together with a big pin and I'm quite happy with the end result.

FO; Neck Warmers

I made three, count em', three, of these neck warmers. I made one for myself and the other two as gifts for a couple of friends. The yarn is Burly Spun by Brown Sheep, and it's a really fun yarn to knit with. I used two skeins for the 3 scarves, and I have enough to make one more slightly narrower and shorter one. Each one takes very little time to knit.

I used my favorite reversible stitch pattern over 14 stitches:
K1, *K2, YO, K2tog, repeat from *, K1 on every row, and slipping the first K1 on each row.

Happy New Year to all of you out in the blogophere, and I wish you all a great 2012!

FO: Leaving

I FINALLY finished Leaving, from Twist Collective Winter 2010. I started it at the beginning of the year (I think), and stopped when the weather got warm. I picked it up again a couple of months ago but progress was slow, partly because I got bored with it. The pattern calls for the panels on both the front and back, and the stitches involve some knits and purls through the back loop, which can be tedious. The yarn is Valley Yarns Northfield hand-dyed, which I really like. My sweater had to withstand a lot of handling because it took so long to knit and the yarn is very elastic and durable. It's also very comfortable against the skin.

I started this so long ago that I'm not sure I remember what mods I made. I do know that I changed the shape from a-line to a low empire, which is what I always do with a-line shapes. I also made it a couple of inches longer than the pattern's length. I'm not that fond of full length sleeves, but in this case, I really like having the full sleeve length with the stitch pattern.

I really like the lace panels on this sweater, and it fits well enough, but I think I'm not going to knit any more fitted pullovers that have one central vertical panel down the front. If the sweater has negative ease, the panel will always stretch too wide at the bust line, and I dislike that look. I think it gives this illusion of top heaviness. The drape neck top doesn't have as much of a problem because it has much more ease.

FO: Fingerless gloves

The lovely Claudia and her lovely knitted gloves has inspired me to try knitting some fingerless mittens. I had lots of really nice Silk Maiden yarn left over from this sweater, which remains one of my favorite basic pullovers. I found this free Ostrich Plume Mitts pattern
on ravelry, so I was all set. I wanted to see if these fingerless style mitts would really keep my fingers warm even though the fingers are not covered, and they really do work! They are also very quick to knit, even though I still dislike knitting small things in the round because it's just too fussy. Its also easy to adjust the sizing and fit as you go, and I can see knitting different pairs just by changing the stitch pattern on the back. I made mine a few rows longer on the wrist and a tiny bit wider on the hand section.