some pictures of things i made!

Hello, internets! I can't flatter myself by saying you all have noted my absence, but just in case you have, I've been busy doing a lot of studying and keeping a secret second blog. By which I mean, not updating a secret second blog or the first, non-secret blog. I've really bitten off more than I can chew.

But I'm still doing crafty things as often as I can! In fact, I cranked out a few quick knitting projects and then enlisted the help of my lovely photographer friend Britt to document some nice, outdoorsy pictures of them. We picked probably the best day ever - fall comes fast in Portland.

So I want to share a few of these amazing photographs with you, internets, and also plug Britt because I'm super grateful to her, and crazy impressed by her work. Some of these projects did not look impressive on their own, but somehow Britt brought them to life with her magic.

my first post-surgery project

I had this crappy wrist surgery in March. The second I was even remotely better, I had knitting needles in my hands. And I didn't start with no piddly shit, either. I pulled out the big guns and cast-on for Jared Flood's Leaves of Grass. I liked the idea of a giant blanket-y shawl. Also, lace.

I don't often photograph my projects on people, but Erceg pretty much does whatever I tell her to, and it only cost me one beer. We got to hang in the sun in picturesque Cathedral Park and listen for ghosts while she worked the shawl. Seriously, what a babe.





It took six weeks to make and is the least painful project I've knit in a year and a half. Consider me healed.

things that get me excited

I've had this yarn for a couple years now - 11 skeins of 50% merino and 50% yak. Yak! It's soft and warm and light and would be perfect for a nice wintery sweater. Except I kind of hate the color. So I threw a swatch into a pot with a tiny drop of orange food coloring and voila! A tolerable color.


I am so pumped about this, it's ridiculous.

pecan butter: made up recipes are easy and delicious!

Geoff and I recently had dinner at a local restaurant which served waffles with pecan butter. I was amazed to discover it wasn't pecans ground up into a paste, like peanut butter - it was pecans AND butter. The perfect combination of boredom and inspiration struck and I tried my hand at a homemade version of this and...well, I really need to be careful to moderate my intake. There's serious potential for gluttony here.


I toasted something like 3/4 cup of raw, whole pecans for maybe 15 minutes. They looked a little burnt so I whipped 'em out of the oven post haste. Then I processed them into a meal with the food processor, sprinkled some brown sugar in there (maybe half a cup or less?) and dumped a whole tub of whipped butter (a cup? I guess?) on top of that. I reserved some ground pecans to adjust the texture to my liking. I left it a little low on the sweet side. I would almost prefer more salt, but apparently my ability to taste salt has tanked lately and then my sweet-salty treats turn out inedible to others.

The whipped butter is perfect because it's spreadable all the time! So I just pull the jar out of the fridge and spread it on some cookies (Trader Joe's Bistro Biscuits, in case you were wondering, are deeeeelicious with this). Um, I admit I have eaten it by the spoonful.


A moment of genius struck when Pablo and I discovered you could make tiny cookie sandwiches out of these. We are achieving food nirvana here, dudes.




So this is a super easy thing that you can do with two delicious ingredients to enhance their delicious-abilities. Apparently it keeps forever because I made this two weeks ago and it tastes the same. Yum!