Thai Laab Dinner

Summer is coming to an end and this is one of my favorite summer meals.  Quick and easy too!  My neighbor is from Thailand and she makes this dish quite a lot.  Laab or larb.  She shared it with me a few years ago and we make it nearly as often as she does.  Sweet, tangy and refreshing.  I love this meal.

-1 lb. ground pork or turkey
-1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
-juice from one lime
-3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
-3 tablespoons chopped mint
-1 large shallot, sliced
-1 teaspoon chili oil
-1 tablespoon roasted chili paste

-cooked rice
-a couple heads of romaine hearts, washed

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat chili oil and add shallots.  Cook for a few minutes until soft.

Add ground pork or turkey, cook until browned.  Drain grease, stir in chili paste.  Remove from heat.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl mix fish sauce, lime juice, cilantro and mint together.

Stir in cooked meat.

Peel a few leaves off the the romaine hearts.  Add some rice and top with laab.  Fold up and eat like a taco.

 Serve with thai ice tea!

Eugene Celebration Parade 2011

This past weekend was the Eugene Celebration and my yarn bombing group decided to march in the parade on Saturday!

We created an Octoscarf using donated sweaters and we all knit while we marched.  Sandra and Lillian held up our banner that we also created using scraps from the sweaters.  And Kacy with Rowan and David (our two yarn bombers in training) helped pull our big "yarn bomb" along with extra supplies.

photos by Melissa Mankins.

I had so much fun and even did an interview for KMTR while I was marching (and knitting.)

Later that evening we got called down to accept our award for runner up for Judge's Knows Best.  That's awesome!

Please visit  The Knotty Knitters blog
to read more about it.

Mayhem Giveaway

It's my first freebie giveaway! Today this blog has reached over 10,000 hits. In the grand scheme of thing, that's nothing. But for me, it's huge! Since a lot of the hits came from my tutorial on Kool Aid ice cube yarn I thought I would give away that same yarn!

How do you enter?

1- Follow this blog if you haven't already.

2- Leave a comment on this post.

If you do those two things, I'll enter your name for a chance to win my Summer Popsicle yarn. For greater odds, post this competition on your blog or tumblr (just let me know where and follow me on tumblr). I'll enter your name twice.

Sorry!  This contest has now been closed and the yarn has been gifted.  Thanks to everyone who entered.  Continue to follow me for a chance to win more prizes in the future!

Yarn details:

Name: Summer Popsicle

Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Peruvian Highland Wool

Weight: Bulky

Yards: 137 yards

Pick Your Own Swap

My favorite group on Ravelry, Knit Knack often holds knitting swaps or exchanges. Usually there's a theme and a designated dollar amount and you're given a partner. You knit and find goodies for them based on their preferences and within the theme.

The most recent swap I hosted called Pick Your Own Swap swap. This time, each person got to pick their own individual swap theme and not explain or define it in anyway. That way whoever was their partner had to interpret the theme however they wished.

The theme that I chose was Recycled/Upcycled/Secondhand. I was lucky enough to get Kim aka Chickenlady. She wrote in the note that everything but the yarn and the pattern had come from her- wasn't bought. That's exactly what I wanted! She gifted me a book on knitting and felting, beautiful yarn and a pattern to knit a cowl with them (can't wait!), little owl note cards (the Knit Knackers logo is an owl), pumpkin decorations and a haunted house with candles. My family is a little bit obsessed with Halloween. I love these goodies!

The main project is a fabric scrap crocheted rug! It's amazing. The colors are perfect and the construction is great! I've always wanted a rug like this but never got around to making one. Thanks Kim!

In this same swap, the person who I had to knit for was Mary aka SeaHagMary. The theme she picked was Twin Peaks. I embroidered a wall hanging dedicated to that Twin Peaks cherry pie. I gifted her some amazing local coffee from Wandering Goat and some good Oregon chocolate as well. I sent her an owl pin and my husband helped me make her buttons out of a log (branch) from a tree in our backyard.

Lastly, I knitted her fingerless mitts based on the design of the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks. I'll have the pattern for the mitts up shortly. Edit: Mitt pattern now available here.

This was such a fun swap! Can't wait for the next one!

Stitch N Pitch

...beer, balls and babes.

Last Friday night our local yarn shop, Soft Horizon Fibres hosted their annual Stitch N Pitch. A bunch of knitters get together at a baseball game and knit. Most cities hold one, look for one in your area! This game the Eugene Emeralds played against the Tri-City Devils and we won! It was also Star Wars night!

Kelsey and I got our photo with Chewbacca!

The Knotty Knitters enjoying the game.

We, The Rebels were winning right from the get go!

Prince Puckler ice cream in a baseball hat cup.

Fireworks were displayed after the game.

Nail Polish Collection

I love fingernail polish. It's cheap. Comes in every color. There are so many possibilities. So many moods.

I recently ordered nail wheels on ebay so I could swatch my nail polish collection. You can get a better sense of the color on a fingernail as opposed to simply looking at the bottle.

Here is my nail polish collection. You can view larger photos of the wheels on my flickr page and you can read my spreadsheet to get the names of the colors.

Each polish was done without a basecoat or a topcoat. And nail has two coats of polish.

 The glitters are shown by themselves and then I painted them over black nail polish.

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Another Mystery Knit Along

Last month, Leethal announced she was doing another mystery knit along. I loved the last one she did, I blogged about it here. Before she released the knit along, she asked if anyone was interested in test knitting the pattern first. I signed right up! So I knew that it was a hat, and I knew I'd be using sport weight yarn. But I'd just be knitting blindly and then give Lee feedback about the pattern.

The first part (Week 1) was the brim.

The second part (Week 2) was the body of the hat.

The last part (Week 3) was for decreasing the crown.

The yarn I used I got at Black Sheep Gathering at the Eugene Textile Center's booth. It is a lovely Argentina Yarn Polwarth/Silk blend dyed naturally with indigo. It's wonderful and was great for this hat pattern.

I love this hat and wore it camping. You can buy Leethal's hat pattern here.