It’s Furious Balancing

Another Finished Object for 2009, my second ever pair of socks!

Tonks’ Socks

Pattern: Inspired by Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Knitted Socks.  I used the stitch counts for the six-stitch patterns, but I substituted a knit 5, purl 1 rib.  Since I was using a wildly-colored, self-striping yarn, I wanted to highlight the yarn –  not a complicated stitch pattern.

Yarn: Limited edition Harry Potter Sock Yarn by Opal, “Tonks” colorway.  I love the mix of bright and tepid colors; the self-striping bit makes me look like an amazingly clever knitter.

Size: Ladies small.  I wear a US size 6.5B, even though I have the Monster German Potato Farmer Calves from Hell.

Needles: US size 1 (2.25 mm), Lantern Moon Rosewood DPN’s

Shoes by Dr. Martens

Mods: I’m working on tweaking the “top-down with a  heel flap” type of sock to fit my feet.  In this pair, I shortened the heel flap by about 15%.  That did eliminate some of the bagginess around the ankle, but not entirely.  For my next top-down pair, I want to experiment by working in some extra decreases just prior to the the heel flap, as well as going down a needle size for the last inch of leg, the heel flap, and a portion of the gusset.

Yes, I am well aware that they don’t match perfectly, and that they’re fraternal twins instead of identical twins.  I had no intention of trying to get them to match.  If you’ve read the Harry Potter books, you know that Nymphadora Tonks is hardly the kind of girl who’s going to worry about such an anal-retentive concept as perfectly matched socks.

And I bet she wears Doc Martens, too.

It has been a while since I’ve indulged in my fondness for LOLs — so here’s one cat straight from the mean streets of D.C.

Another Obama photo I discovered soon after Inauguration Day needs no caption; it speaks volumes.

The winds of change, cats and kittens.  We haz it.

Yes, gentle readers, it’s another cooking post.  Fret not; there is no pork involved in this one.

I have made cupcakes.  From scratch cupcakes, mind you, and there’s a back story.

One of the recent additions to my blog roll is Cake Wrecks (“When Professional Cakes Go Horribly HIlariously Wrong”).  When I discovered it, I spent more than a few hours reading through the archives; Jen, the blogger, is quite the humorist.  A side-bar advertisement there caught my eye a few weeks ago.  Despair, Inc. — famous for it’s demotivational posters — was selling Valentine’s Day candy conversation hearts.  They’re marketed as Bittersweets and I knew right away that I had to get them.

They did not disappoint.  When I had the lovelies in my eager little hands, my first thought was, “What can we make with these?“ 

Cupcakes.  Lemon cupcakes with icing and a snarky heart on top.

The Lemony Cupcakes of Snark

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sour cream

Frosting Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon milk

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Add lemon peel and vanilla.  Mix well.

Combine dry ingredients and added them to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream.  The batter will be thick.  Fill greased or paper-filled muffin pan with 1/4 cup of batter.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter and sugar in mixing bowl.  Add lemon juice, vanilla, lemon peel, and milk.  Beat until smooth.

Frost cupcakes.  Add snark as desired.

Sometime between my last blog post and this blog post, there was this spate of Internet Craziness — Testosterone-Fueled Internet Craziness — about Barbecued Bacon Logs.

It all started with a post on a BBQ blog a few days before Christmas.  Someone had contacted the bloggers about a recipe for barbecued bacon, and the bloggers rose to the occasion.  In spades.

I first found out about it via The New York Times online edition, but a  Google search I did today had over half a million hits.  The Bacon Explosion has turned into a full-blown Internet meme and now appears on YouTube and Wikipedia.

I know several guys that had the “I Must Make This” response to the recipe, The Husband among them.  I figured that it would be an amusing thing to do over a lazy winter weekend. Why not?  There’s a lot of text out there on the ‘Net about this recipe, so I don’t hope to add anything to the dialogue.  I do, however, have some WIP and FO photos.  Pork Pr0n.  It was darned tasty.