First thing from the garden

It was time to do a little snipping to my basil plants to get them to leaf out even more. By the time I finished snipping I was excited to see I had enough leaves for a small batch of pesto! MMmmmmm, pesto :)So I picked off all the leaves and tossed those into the blender. Then I threw in a few cloves of garlic and some olives. I then drizzled it with olive oil.

Other great additions, if I had been prepared, would have been grated parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and sundried tomatoes.
Then I pulse the blender. Because this was a small batch I had to keep pushing the stuff back onto the blades. Went you do a larger batch the stuff seems to stir itself a little better. I didn't mind the extra effort, we were gonna have fresh pesto tonight for dinner!!!

Still blending...but almost there!

Perfect!!!

As it settles, the oil will rise to the top and seal in the freshness. The flavors will start to blend together and by dinner time, we will be able to have pesto over pasta, pesto on some toasted bread, pesto in spaghetti sauce, pesto on top of crackers with cream cheese...oh my gosh, I am suddenly very hungry!

I L-O-V-E hats!!!!!

I am a hat person! Everyone who knows me has seen me in all kinds of hats. Baseball caps, country cottage hats, knitted beanies, berets, ear-flap hats, bandanas, ANYTHING! I love 'em!

Well, this hat sky-rocketted to the top of my list! I started it on a Friday and finished on Wednesday and my poor wrists were not happy about the constant knitting!

This thing is soooo cool. You knit it flat and sideways! So your row is the brim to the crown and back. There are short rows for the decrease in the crown and the band around your head is super cool too!

I have already cast on my next one! Duet Yarns of course and I am doing it double stranded. It's going to be sooo pretty!!!

A commentor was kind enough to pass on this amazing info!!!!

Just some info. you might want to know:I did some internet searching and found that the hat book can be downloaded in pdf format for £11.50 (or about $22.00 US dollars) directly from the author: http://www.woollywormhead.com/going-straight/The author also is selling some patterns from the book for $5.00 each through patternfish - and I think the pattern you used is one of them.PS: the hat looks great on you!!

Too hard to resist!

Admittedly, Duet Yarns are my favorite yarns and I realize I may be a little biased :)

I love the base yarn and I love the colorways. Of course...otherwise I wouldn't make it.

There are some batches, however, that I just cannot bare to put them all on the website and this was one of these batches!

These puppies just SCREAM summer!!!!

Daffodil, Peaches, Mandarin yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!

I do my best to resist keeping one of every color I make...but my will power was not strong enough on this batch. Yep, I admit it! I kept a couple colors for myself! If you want to get your hands on any before I keep them all for myself, I suggest you get on by the website as soon as possible!!!!!!!

Gwen's Preformance

Over the weekend, Gwen-a fellow knitter, was in a belly dance preformance at a local pub.

What a cool experience. I had never been to such a thing!

In addition, if you ask me, I think Gwen's preformance was the very best one!!!

Here is a little snippity of her preformance!

Thinking about Father's Day and new babies?

Have you started thinking about Father's Day? Are there some new babies you are knitting for? Then you will be very excited about the new Sale Bundles of Duet Yarns! These are absolutely perfect for a pair of socks for Dad.

Or soooooooo cute in little girls matching hat and socks set.

Or just right for that rough and tumble little guy in your life.

Sale yarns do not happen often at A Swell Yarn Shop, but when they do it is an awesome time to score some great deals.

Come by and check out these bundles! And remember you are just in time to get a pair of socks done for Dad for this Father's Day!

Another step closer to green

As time to goes on, I continue to find new ways to live a 'greener' life. Reducing waste, reusing things that can be reused for different functions, and so on.

The next step on the list were reuseable sandwhich bags!

I got coordinating fabrics and nylon for the lining. I made an 8"x8" pattern for the front and a 8"x8" with flap pattern for the back. I grabbed my handy dandy rotary cutter and cut out all the pieces in no time flat.

Then I stacked the pieces together and stitched them up. Each lined with the nylon for moister resistance for even the juiciest sandwhiches or tomatoes waiting for their future salad.

After I got them seamed and topstitched, I used heat set velco for the closure.

These are totally washable and can be used for anything we would normally put in a plastic baggie and toss in the fridge.

It is a small effort to stop using those little plastic bags, but it makes a big impact on the earth. I love these little things!

Eat healthy-On the cheap!

It is a general misconception that eating healthy, real or natural foods is expensive. I beg to differ!

To prove myself, I am going to share some easy, inexpensive food ideas with you-starting now.

BEANS

Beans are about a buck a can at the grocery store. I know this because I used to buy dozens of cans at a time. I do love my burritos, so these were a must have in my cupboard. Dozens of cans was about $12-20 of my grocery bill and that's a lot of money!

A cheap alternative...make them yourself in less time than it takes to drive to the grocery store.

First you hit up a bulk store. We have Cash n' Carry here. It's like a mini Costco, with no membership dues and better prices. It aint a fancy place and what's available is limited, but for price-they are tought to beat!

Get a 25 lb bag of beans for about $10 or less. That's $0.40 a lb (about a $1.60 less than a regular grocery stores dry beans)

Grab a couple/few scoops full and put them in a bowl. If you are doing black beans, don't use your nicest ceramic bowl...it will stain the sides.

Now fill it up with water-(I use filtered).

Now forget about it. Total prep time=less than 1 minute

24 hours later, drain and rinse your beans. This makes it so you don't have a family of 'tootie pants' people. Yep, washing off the soaking water also washes away the tootie enzymes!

Now, pull out that crockpot that hasn't been touched in years...it's the thing your mother passed on to you in the very very back of one of your cabinets.

Put your rinsed beans in the crockpot, fill with water (I use filtered), set to low.

Now forget about it until tomorrow. Total time =2 minutes

12 hours later, test your beans. If they are to your tenderness liking, flip them up to high for about 10-15 mintues to get them super hot.

Grab some jars and put your beans in them, filling the rest up with liquid. Put your lids on. Total time=2 minutes

Now, let them cool. You will hear the jar lids pop when they have sucked all the air out. These can be stored in your refridgerator sealed like this for up to a month. That's it- you are done!

Total time and cost=Less than 5 minutes, and about $1.00 for about $8 of grocery store canned beans.

I usually do two or three batches at a time, when one is cooking, I am soaking the next bunch of beans and just rotate them. The crockpot in on the counter for three days and I have over a months worth of beans made and waiting for me in my fridge.

Perfect for burritos, southwestern breakfast scrambles, stews, chilis and on and on.

Pinto beans are great if you puree them before you put them in jars-refried beans without the fat!

Viola!

I need a new pair of socks!

I decided I needed a new pair of socks, so I cast on these on Sunday afternoon.

I wanted a mindless pair to work on, but I needed a little bit of a pattern to keep me interested. I don't know if you can see the diagonal pattern (easier to see on the left one from this angle), but it is a simple shift of one purl each room. Mindless, but interesting.

Since my wardrobe has shifted from browns, reds and greys of winter weather to orange, green and pink for the spring season these will be great with everything!

They are going so quickly, I am be done in just a couple weeks! I love nearly instant gratification when knitting!