G is for Garlic, Gourmand

G is for Garlic. I love garlic. Very conveniently, Alex also loves garlic, so this is not a problem (the key issue that we both like garlic to the same extent, which is a lot). Most of the time when we cook and we have to halve a recipe, we just simply won't have the garlic.
As mentioned, I made garlic bread some days ago, using BitterSweet's recipe. It involves 2 heads of garlic, so you really must love it. I must confess that it didn't taste as garlicky as previously advertised when I first eat it, but that was because I had been surrounded by the smell of garlic for the previous 2-3 hours, so I was somewhat accustomed to it. It tasted deliciously garlicky this afternoon when I had it as my post-work snack.
I am posting this picture in the hopes that the smell will permeate from the computer onto you, and hope that you too love garlic!

However, G also appears to be for something else! G is for Gourmand.
Last week, during lunchtime, I was talking to my coworkers about food. I like food, and I like cooking. So, the conversation turned to fish, and I demonstrated a "superior" knowledge of fish. My coworkers decided that it was not normal, and it was all because I was a "gourmet". The word for a person is gourmand, gourmet is an adjective, so I seem to be also a pedant.

I don't really consider myself a gourmand, but I do like my food and occasionally will go out of my way to get nice food: as per the conversation above, I will sometimes look for a proper fishmongers and get my fish there, taking the opportunity to absorb fish knowledge from the fishmonger. They will give you tips and tell you about the best ways to cook the fish, and most of them are really passionate about it, which is something I really love.

In an accidental effort to prove them right, this weekend I made to gourmet meals, and decided it was a good idea to share it.

First, we made the Thai Fish Cakes from Gordon Ramsay's Cooking with Friends.


Then, on Saturday, Alex and I got fish from our local Loch Fyne, and made sushi.


Both meals were delicious, although I have not had the opportunity to share this with my colleagues to reassure them that I am a gourmand. Being a Garlic lover Gourmand is delicious!

/is grumpy

Apparently I can't knit today. Started seaming sizzle, and messed that up royally. No problems, I tell myself, we'll put it away and start Ishbel. Cast on with 3.75mm and realise it's way to tight. Cast on with 4.0mm, which this weekend was way too lose, and now it's ok. Some rows into it, mess up the yarn overs in an irrecoverable way. Rip it all off again.

Thankfully I've also been making garlic bread, which smells and looks delicious. It's now in the oven, and it'd better taste as well as my knitting has sucked today. Mmmm garlic...

ETA: Garlic bread was lovely. When I tried to cast on for Tuscany, I screwed up even before I cast on, tangling the ball horribly. /hangs head in shame
Maybe tomorrow will be a better knitting day.

Be squared!

Bottoms up continues at good pace. I might have it finished before Easter.

I picked up Sizzle after a long hibernation. It only had 2 cm left of knitting, which is already done, and the top is now blocking.


I got Whimsical Little Knits on the mail, and love it. I can't wait to start Ishbel. In fact, I did start Ishbel, and then discovered that my needles (4mm) made the fabric too lose, so I have to wait until I got to my LYS to start it again.

F is for Foot, Fractured

So, a while ago I broke my foot. It was a clean, not displaced break (5th metatarsus) and, although it was still a bummer, because I had a broken bone. Estimated healing time: 4-6 weeks.

4 months later, foot is still partially fractured. I can walk on it: barefoot at home (carefully), with my boot and one crutch outside. The bone has healed half-way through, but not completely, so it still won't take full weight without some pain.
This is my usual work do:

This, however, is my usual home do:

You can see the bone I fractured on black, the green being the fracture line.

I do have a hospital appointment via the NHS in another month, and I'm trying to get a second opinion privately via work's insurance. Hopefully I will have answers soon. Because, frankly, this is getting quite old. Though at least it saved me having to think of an F


- ABC along in ravelry
- My ABCs

Organic Cotton Sock yarn

It's very difficult to find sock yarn when you can't tolerate animal hair. I keep queueing socks, and then not being able to make them because of this. There are some sheepless sock yarns, but normally you have to import them.

Lo and behold, sheepless sock yarn from the UK! My etsy persusals have final yielded fruit, and I now own a skein of YarnAddict's Organic cotton sock yarn (55% organic cotton/45% Tencel) in the Fresh Water colourway. I am being very restrained and not casting on inmediately, but that is mainly because I have only one skein and many sock pattern ideas.

I'll let you know how it knits up (it's very recent, I had to enter the yarn into the Ravelry database), but I'm very very excited about this!