Don't buy...DIY

Just bake...

 While I can't take credit for execution of any of these misleadingly simple recipes, I can take part credit for choosing a husband who makes amazing food and tries new recipes and techniques.

Today he said, "I'm going to make Cheez-Its." 

"Really?  Is that even going to work?"

"Oh yeah, I found a recipe on the Internet.  It only has 4 ingredients.  The reviews say, 'Yeah, they taste exactly like Cheez-Its.'"  

...and serve.

And indeed they do taste exactly like Cheez-Its.  If you have a pasta wheel, you can make the edges look nicer.  A skewer creates a hole in the center to make the experience more pleasant.


The birds like them too.


-吴碧芙

Knitting Block

Rick Rack right side

After suffering from "knitting block" for over two weeks, I finally settled on a pattern for this yarn that I ordered with a specific person in mind.  I like the colors so much that I wish I had ordered more than one scarf's worth.  And now the colorway, Knit Picks "Nevermore," is discontinued.

The cast-on edge of the yarn is fuzzy because I probably cast on over 20 times, in different patterns, including, at first, the Rick Rack design.  I did want to make this Rick Rack scarf from the very beginning, but the first time I started it, the stitches were too tight and hard to knit in the pattern.  I foresaw myself doing this very tedious knitting for months, so I decided to abandon the idea.  I couldn't find anything else to knit, although I did try a number of patterns.  I even paid for one of them, but still decided not to go with it.  

Rick Rack wrong side

I thought I had settled on a "cross stitch" pattern, but it was kind of annoying.  The Rick Rack pattern appealed to me again because it has the look of the "cross stitch" pattern, but it's broken by knit stitches, providing a break if the pattern is too tight or hard to knit.  Furthermore, the "wrong side" is not objectionable.  In fact, it looks pretty normal, like 1x1 ribbing with slightly wide stitches.


Even in this pattern, I cast on 7 times with 3 different sizes of needles and 4 different stitch counts, settling on #7 needles and 42 stitches.

-吴碧芙

3 Does a Collection Make

When I'm around on the weekend, I like to meet up with my Chinese exchange partner.  She's a doctor at one of the main hospitals in town.  I originally started meeting with her a year ago, but now my Chinese is in steady decline.

We spent the last few weekends with each other's  parents.  I mean, my parents came to visit and then we went to Sioux City the next weekend.  ("Each other's" sounds like we switched places, right?)  

The following weekend we had a nice weekend in Omaha.  Omaha is my Hong Kong.  In the vast wasteland of people and food traditions I don't understand, Omaha is a breath of fresh air.  Contrarily, while Hong Kong is where we would go to get rare American foods and experiences, Mexican food, pizza, and tortillas to take back to Shantou, Omaha is where we go to get better ethnic foods, including Chinese baozi, something we haven't been able to buy at home, ever.

Folksy Owl

So last weekend was our first weekend home in a long time, and my first weekend to practice Chinese in a few weeks as well.  As I turned to leave, I saw the Folksy Owl all alone with a few little owl appetizer plates on a little table in the cafe.  It's quite a unique looking owl cookie jar, and a happy addition to my little collection.  

Imagine that previously I was looking in vain for an owl cookie jar, and now I have found 3 unexpectedly.

-吴碧芙 

Fascinating New Things

I'm trying out the updated Blogger interface, which seems to have many new capabilities and looks pretty.  For example, in old Blogger, I was unable to figure out how to set the copy beside a figure, which is somewhat of a default in new Blogger.

I have been working and knitting lately.  My new project is a ZigZag Scarf, and I am far beyond where I was when I snapped this picture.  The goal of the scarf is to be colorful, without being "rainbow."  As with any knitting project, I learned two new techniques to throw in my box of tricks: the mitered decrease "md" that decreases 2 stitches (seen on the left, downward point in the photo), and Elizabeth Zimmerman's make one "m1" that uses a "backwards loop" (seen on the right, upward point in the photo). 

The ZigZag is kind of a placeholder, while I think about what to do next.  It's also kind of a monster, since I pulled out all of the colors of yarn I own, which are now scattered around the living room, waiting for me to decide which color to use next.  So far, 14 different colors have been used, and it measures about 4 ft. long.

-吴碧芙

Le Pièce de Résistance

I'm glad to report that I have finally finished that great masterpiece of heart-breaking genius, testing the mastery of knitting and crochet skills, trying the limits of human patience and diligence...Penelope Scarf, you are my Everest.

I restarted this scarf three times in the round. This version is knitted flat. The finished scarf is about 9 ft. long, and by it's weight, it will surely stretch longer, meaning at least once around the neck is obligatory, lest tails drag on the floor. It is also about 10 in. wide, including the black crocheted border.


I couldn't resist modeling for the film shot, although it's not super comfy to wear it like this, especially in 42 degree weather over here on Feb. 1(!).


The worst part is, now that I'm done with this, I don't really know what I want to do next.
-吴碧芙

Owl's Well...

I went to meet an old Iowa friend in Omaha a few weekends ago. There at Anthropologie, there was a great array of owl cookie jars, presumably retro remakes. However, they had a hefty price tag of almost $100 each. I mean, they weren't THAT awesome, but it was still hard to leave without the cute one that had mostly green glaze on it. I just thought to wait, until it goes on sale, or until it goes out of style and people want to get rid of it and sell it to me for cheap.

But last weekend, while out shopping for other things, I came upon a brighter, more colorful, and at a less prohibitive cost...right here in my own city. See how cute?


-吴碧芙

Coming Undone

Knitting this scarf has become a Sisyphean ordeal. At first I assumed that the pattern's 80 stitches (in the round) would yield a scarf too thin for my taste, so I cast on 120 stitches. After putting in 1.5 feet's worth of work on it, I decided that 12 in. wide was too wide, especially in the round--the doubled fabric made the scarf very bulky.

I frogged (knitspeak for unraveling massive amounts of stitches) the whole thing and started over with 88 stitches. After 2 feet of work and about 5 months of the scarf hibernating within my stash (knitspeak for massive amounts of yarn, none of which is assigned to a project), my husband asked me what ever had happened to my Penelope scarf.

The film starring Christina Ricci greatly influenced my need to find a pattern and make the scarf for myself. The unique, stained glass-esque scarf plays a big role in the movie. Christina Ricci's character "Penelope," born with the curse of a pig's nose, is kept cloistered in her parents' mansion, until she decides to run away, wearing the scarf to hide her nose from the public. I first saw the movie on the plane home from China, so it was bound to be associated with good feelings for me.

After the inquiry from my husband, I pulled the scarf out of my stash about a week ago, to start working on it again. However, this was the 88-stitch version, and after a few rows, it still seemed too wide. I decided to frog it again and eventually cast on 72 stitches. I was determined to finish the 72-stitch version. So I spent most of last week working on it, and last night it measured 1.5 feet. I mean, it's knit in the round, so not only was it wide, but also doubly thick fabric. When knitting in the round, one must do double the knitting for the same length or scarf. Also irking, the colored hexagons in the movie scarf are smaller, but let's not be too picky when there are very few free patterns available (that mention the movie specifically) for this project.

A new Ravelry search for "stained glass" yielded a pattern I hadn't seen before. I started the small version this morning and frogged the original for the last time this afternoon. "Stained glass" has smaller colored circles and is knit flat. I enjoy knitting it, and feel like all the work is actually adding to the length of the scarf rather quickly.



Perhaps it is fitting that the name is also connected to Penelope the wife of Odysseus, who, while waiting for Odysseus to return home (which took 20 years total), staved off her persistent suitors by weaving a shroud. She said she would choose a suitor when she finished the shroud, but at night she would unravel the work, so as to postpone her choice, over the course of THREE years. That's commitment...both to a husband and a project.

-吴碧芙