When we last met, I was in the throes of categorizing ALL OF THE YARN that was not attached to needles. It was finished with minimal difficulty and/or trauma.

SEE,

with a few extra leftover pieces, but we'll skip them ^_^

Now a Knitter’s stash consists of 4 key parts; untouched yarn (which I devoted an entire post to), finished items, unfinished items and the items that were supposed to be sent to people that STILL haven’t been sent much to your great chagrin.*

Finished Items

The sweater I made in high school. On the bright side, it’s still too big for me. On the down side, it’s WAY too big for me and my first lesson in THOU SHALT MAKE A GAUGE SWATCH BEFORE KNITTING.**

BLUE MARSHMALLOW OF DOOM

Doll sweater. I entered it in a competition in high school and I got a RIBBON. Yes, I am still proud of it.

...I think this is like 8 years old now...

Ah…this. This is supposed to be a headband. Honestly, I just wanted to do an entrelac pattern that was short.

This was made with a handpainted yarn called Noro. It's PRETTY.

This is a Vacation scarf. No, really. THAT’S THE NAME OF THE PATTERN. I also made on the trip to my grandmothers funeral…so kind of like vacation?

It's a bit young-ish, in retrospect, but playful looking

UNFINISHED PROJECTS:

Once upon a time, there was girl. Lets call her Yuxin. Yuxin bought the author some yarn called ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. The author was highly amused. With said yarn she made a Zombie! Annis shawl. The author enjoyed the pattern so much that she made another. Neither HAVE BEEN BLOCKED.***

*WHINE* I HATE BLOCKING. *cries*

First of all, this is never going to be finished. EVER. Once upon a time, I decided to make a shawl out of PURE MOHAIR YARN. I made a mistake and attempted to undo it. NEVER AGAIN.****

*SCREAMS*

These are FINISHED pieces of a Celtic Tote. Note the word pieces. I need to sew it together and felt it. *sigh* I should finish it shouldn’t I…

-_- I really need to work on finishing things...

Finally, this. I finished the pieces of this sweater, Classic College Cardigan. BEFORE I WENT TO COLLEGE. I’ve now started graduate school. It’s still not sewn. I am a horrible horrible person. This probably why my resolution this year is to FINISH WHAT I START. =_=

*CRIES* IT'S NOT DONE YET

ITEMS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GOING TO PEOPLE BUT HAVE BEEN DELAYED… A LOT or I AM A HORRIBLE PERSON.

No, this is not a mutilated ball of yarn. This is an octopus. That’s blind… and missing a leg. And was supposed to be a present for Mish. *cough* It still IS going to be a present for Mish. Once the last leg is sewn on and eyes and a mouth are added. I need to go to the craft’s store.

I really want to name it Bob...or Cthulhu

This is a hat and scarf set! For Samantha! It’s FINISHED…it hasn’t been sent yet. BUT IT EXISTS!

I need to get a box and actually mail it...

BONUS CATEGORY (i.e. What I’m working on now)

Isn’t it PRETTY! This is a KAL (knit-a-long) that I’m doing with a former classmate of mine. She’s finished hers. I haven’t finished mine. But it’s like forty percent finished. And I have incentive/guilt to finish it since my little sister’s Chinese tutor wants it.

SQUEEE I LOVE THE COLOUR

But look at the lacy-ness!!

LACE AND TEXTURE

Okay, I’ll stop.

Sidenotes

* Most people just have three categories. I’m special.

**Consequently, I’ve only done it ONCE. I AM A REBEL KNITTER

***I will block and blog these. AS SOON AS I GET A NICER THING TO BLOCK ON.

So, I decided to organize my yarn stash and upload it to Ravelry–think facebook for knitters–so I would have an actually record of what I have.

This is what I had:

LOTS OF YARNS, I HAS THEM...

On the bright side, my stash is smaller than my room…right? Moving on.

So, what exactly was in my stash?YARN

PLYMOUTH YARN GALWAY. Galway is a nice worsted weight wool yarn and I bought 10 balls (approx. 2100 yards) last year from Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival for a sweater. Which I still haven’t made. Because I still haven’t decided on what pattern to use. And how to alter it for my shape and etc, etc.

This colour is called "HAPPY GREEN". I kid you not.

This is Brown Sheep. It’s the name of the company. It’s not called that because it’s brown. In particular, this yarn is from their Lamb’s Pride worsted line. And I can’t remember if I wound it into balls for my mother’s–which is highly likely– or if it’s actually mine… Not sure, how I feel about the colour… so it’s most likely mum’s…

Baaaah! BAAAAH!

More Brown Sheep, same line but this time in a purplish-rose? Also, ziploc bags BEST THING EVER FOR KNITTERS.

Pinkish purple? Purplish pink?

This is called Super Kydd. It is a mohair yarn. I was bought from Elann.com. They neglected to tell me that mohair yarn is the devil’s spawn. DO NOT. I REPEAT DO NOT MAKE MISTAKES WITH THIS YARN OR YOU WILL REGRET IT. *pulls out hair*

I think I'll call this colour Elmo. *glares*

So, I actually don’t know the name of this yarn. I saw it on Ebay. I liked the colour. AND THEN I BOUGHT IT BECAUSE IT WAS FREAKING CHEAP.

It's pretty....

This is Dream by Knitting Fever. It’s a ribbon yarn. It forms a very drapey fabric when knitted. I got it from my mum, who got it from a knitting seminar she went to. It’s alright? I haven’t figured out what to use it for yet…

It's also referred to as a novelty yarn. i.e. pretty/expensive and usually useless.

This is Crazy Zauberball by Schoppel-Wolle. It is marled (two-colour plied) yarn. It is a wool/nylon blend. It is hideous. Lets move on.

It is German...and somewhat...homely. Are these two facts related?

Did I mention that ZIPLOC BAGS ARE A KNITTERS BEST FRIEND?! I did? Well THEY ARE. They keep your projects nicely separated and organized and as an EXTRA BONUS it keeps your yarn from getting tangled with everything else in your stash. Trust me, de-tangling a few hundred yards of yarn is not fun. EVER. Anyway, both of these yarns are from KnitPicks.com which is a really nice store. And affordable. Did I mention affordable? The one on the left is Knit Picks Stroll in Grass and the other one is Knit Picks Palette in Caribbean. Fitting names.

Ziploc bags are amazing

So, last year DBNY was offering bags of discontinued Brown Sheep yarns. I bought it. So the following yarns are ALL Brown Sheeep.

Okay, clockwise from the candy-coloured one, which for some reason is called Mystical Pink…

Mystical Pink: Lanaloft Worsted line. It’s similar to Lamb’s Pride except for the fact that it’s all wool as opposed to a wool/mohair blend. I still say Candy would have been a better name.

Purple: Lamb’s Pride Worsted. Colour: Amethyst. Personally, I would have named it royal purple…

Blue: Lamb’s Pride Bulky. Colour: Winter Blue. Not terribly crazy about the name.

Green: Shepherd’s Shades. Colour: Mild Mint. I can not make this up. They named it MILD MINT.

Darkish Gray: Lamb’s Pride Superwash Bulky. Colour: Charcoal Heather. It’s called superwash because it’s from the planet Krypton it doesn’t shrink when you wash it.

Blue/Gray/Brown Mix: Lanaloft Worsted again. Colour: Aqua Depths. It kinda looks like the bottom of the ocean which explains the name?

One skein/ball of each. I know I had a semi-good reason for buying this?

Finally, my most recent additions to my stash! My little sister’s Chinese tutor saw me knitting and she was like “I have yarn. I’ll give you it, if you give me that scarf you’re knitting.” Me: “…okaay?” Cue being handed a bag with 7-8 skeins of sport or fingering weight yarn. It’s pretty and RED…except for that one russet skein but it’s ALL PRETTY AND FREE AND MINE ALL MINE.

Free yarn takes up negative space...on your wallet at least.

This is all of my UNUSED yarn which totals to about 45 skeins… next post is going to be on my USED yarn i.e. projects…

Shaved Brussels Sprouts

For this recipes you will need at the absolute minimum:

Fresh from the farmer's market, but you can use frozen but defrost them first. And the result will probably be slightly softer but still delicious.

and

Red Onion, medium to small chop

The rest is fairly malleable.

First, we shaved the brussels. In this instance, I would prefer if you didn’t get the razor by your bathroom sink and instead use a lovely piece of technology called a food processor which will give a result akin to this:

please use the SLICING BLADE and not the other one....

and

I mean it. USE THE SLICING BLADE OR SLICE BY HAND

Now, if you don’t have a food processor, you can just slice the sprouts by hand. Just don’t use a razor. Yes, I know it’s called shaved brussels. Don’t use a razor. OR I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN. Moving on.

Get a pan. I like my wok.

A wok. With oil.

But any old saute-esque pan will do. The main thing you want is space for the sprouts to be tossed around in. So, please don’t use a tiny pot  or I’ll cry.

Anyway, pour a little oil of choice into the pan. Just enough to coat the bottom of the pan and the sides, if you’re using a wok, and turn the heat to medium and let sit for like a minute. Now toss in the sprouts.

Brussel sprouts in wok

Let the sprouts cook for like five minutes stiring frequently. Eventually, the sprouts will get a little brighter/darker and look more like this:

a few minutes later

Now we add the onions:

And now we add the onions

If you’re wondering, “Hey, was the onion a bit larger?!” It was. I threw it into the food processor for a few pulses so it would cook quicker when I tossed it in but you don’t need to. So, let this cook for a few more minutes. Then it’s time to add some liquid. In this case, I added some vegetable broth–which I made a week ago– with some orange juice mixed in to lend a cirtusy flavor to the dish.

broth with juice

After you add the liquid just keep cooking until the liquid is absorbed or longer if desired.

post-liquid sprouts

Just don’t burn it. And by burn, I do not not mean “Some of my sprouts are browner than the rest!” I mean, “OH DEAR LORD I’VE SCORCHED HALF THE PAN!” Distinct difference. This probably also when you may want to add spices and such if you haven’t added them already. Like salt. Or pepper. Or chiles. It’s flexible.

So, I took the liberty of attempting to plate it somewhat nicely. This was utterly waste on my siblings. BUT THE EFFORT COUNT.

So I grabbed a few cilantro leaves from the plant we have and attempted to SPRINKLE them artistically. Yeah. Martha Stewart/Ina Garten, I AM NOT.

So, yeah. Shaved brussels sprouts. A non-abusive way of serving brussel sprouts. A tiny tip for cooking with brussels sprouts is that they’re essential tiny delicate strongly-flavored cabbages. Flavors that go well with cabbage should work out with brussel sprouts. But experiment and see what works for you.

And now I’m hungry.

OM NOM NOM....note to self. Don't do food blogs close to midnight. It just makes me hungry.

Bon appetit!

I just want to cry.

I’M NOT A COMPLETE FAILURE!!

Repeat from * with horrible dance moves.

yay.