Betrayal

After all these years of trust, I don’t know what I can count on any more.

To my shock and absolute horror, it occurred to me for no reason whatsoever to just check out the ingredients in my multivitamin.  What I found was worse than I could ever imagine.  I don’t want to say exactly what has been contaminating my body, but I feel dirty and nauseous every time I think of it.  How can companies get away with this type of shit???

I’m so enraged, I need to move on.  So all of you out there who are vegan, I need your help desperately!  I now have no multivitamin, and at this point my health is still somewhat fragile and I need to find a new one as soon as possible.  What do you use, where do you buy it, and for how much?

Fuck corporate America, I don’t want to hurt animals every time I want to add some extra nutrients to my diet.  The whole idea is completely repulsive. 

Hannah (BitterSweet)4 Comments

Wee Bunny

More free stuffed animal patterns? A very generous motion by Wee Wonderfuls – Go take advantage of the opportunity and make your own! It’s even the perfect time of year to make a sweet little bunny, with Easter on its way and all.

I liked the end product a lot more than my rendition of the pointy kitty, and it would have been even better if I hadn’t read the instructions as if I had the brain power of a green bean. Meaning; I didn’t really read them at all. Brilliant, huh? That’s why I ended up with the opening for the stuffing on the bottom, instead of the back. Let me too you, it’s surprisingly difficult to hand-sew in a perfect circle while trying to keep the stitches invisible. The bunny butt looks like it got mangled or chewed on! Bleh! Just… don’t turn it over and it looks fine. I guess.

Another stupid mistake left my bunny with a bit of blush, if you noticed. This is due to… crazy glue. You know how it is… I was busily gluing on the little beady eyes when – Oops! – I hit the side of the fabric with the glue brush. Of course, crazy glue give no margin for error, and it was immediately set in, with only chemicals strong enough to melt through skin that would be able to remove it. Considering my options (None), I decided that this is exactly what I had intended all along. Yeah, isn’t it cuter with blush?! ..Yeah…

Oh, and those ears… I managed to instantly loose the pattern piece for the ears, forcing me to draw my own… Not too horrible, in my opinion. I had a lot of trouble accepting that you were supposed to just zig-zag across the raw edges… I really hated the way it looked. Cutting out new pieces, I made them slightly larger for a seam allowance, and turned the pieces just like the body was made.

At least one thing worked out exactly right: I had just enough matching light pink yarn scraps to make the little pom pom tail.

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Imperfect Brownies

They’re not the ones.

Brownies are quite variable things, depending on your preferences. From the light and fluffy to heavy and indulgent, almost every baker (Or eater, in addition) has a different idea of what the “perfect” brownie would taste like. Generally, I think of brownies as falling somewhere between fudge and a cake, because otherwise… Well, they would be either a fudge or a cake, right?!

With so many recipes floating around out there on the internet and in nearly every cookbook ever written, I decided to just dive in. Gotta start somewhere, I figured.

This pan of chocolate goodness was kindly submitted on Recipezaar, which I decided to jazz up a bit to create a light background of strawberry flavor on the unsuspecting palate. To do so, I merely substituted the apple sauce for pureed frozen strawberries, and used the exact same cheater’s frosting as on my cupcakes, drizzled on top.

Their shortcomings, of course, are in the texture department. As you can see from the above photo, they do have a moist, dense crumb, but are still rather cakey when it comes to brownies. This is not to say that they were a total failure of course. The plate that I brought to share at school was devoured within 2 hours of being unwrapped! What made me happiest, however, was when my mom told me that when instead of taking aspirin for a headache she opted to eat two of these brownies, and it cured her pain almost instantly.

If you’re looking for a more intense flavor of strawberry, I might suggest adding in some chopped strawberries, or even a teaspoon or so of strawberry extract. I think that the whisper of added flavor makes them more interesting, personally.

A good effort with tasty results… but the quest for the perfect vegan brownie continues.

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Fits Like a Glove

With all of the dazzling, intricate stitches and patterns that can take shape in any of knit item you can dream up, sometimes the simple cable just has a certain simplistic appeal.

I happen to love making them; So simple, barely any interruption from the regular knit stitch, just a few select strands weaving around and around, dancing for all time. These in particular made me think of the ocean, with modeled blue waves ebbing and flowing toward the beach of my pale, sandy skin.

Alright, enough lame prose from me today.

This is the perfect time of year for arm warmers, as the temperatures begin to finally rise, but are not quite warm enough for t-shirts alone.  I have tons of arm warmers made from old knee socks because I have an inability to throw anything out, but these are really much nicer.  Especially the fact that they won’t fray at the end, and even have snug little thumb holes.

From the March issue of MagKnits, I might suggest these to someone who’s slightly weary of cables.  It’s a great way to practice, since there’s nothing else more complicated going on.  I was slightly confused over which needle size to select, since I didn’t understand the directions on how to make the stitches “ridged,” so I just knit normally on… Oh, what was it?  Maybe #3 DPN?  I don’t even remember anymore.  They came out very small, which worried me at first, but since I’m a small person, they fit just fine.

I was so happy to use this yarn, since it’s probably been hiding at the very bottom of my stash longer than any of the other skeins.  I only wish I could get more, but strangely enough, I got it for free from a library book that my mom was processing (She works at an elementary school library) because she couldn’t include the extras on the shelf.  Heh, don’t they always say that the best things in life are free?

Hannah (BitterSweet)1 Comment

Of Cabbages and Kings

When I actually buy a book, whether it be for leisure reading or knitting patterns, it is a rare occasion indeed. I like to think of myself as “thrifty,” but truth be told… I suppose can be rather cheap. That’s what makes my purchase of Knitorama by Rachel Mathews even more of a painfully upsetting let-down.

Tell me, what does this look like to you?

Not only is it a terrible picture, but this is supposed to be a cabbage. Sadly, it looks like a horribly swollen Brussels sprout, some sick joke if you ask me. I really hate it. The picture in the book looked so much nicer… and bigger. Oh, and by the way, what on EARTH is a “yrn”?? It’s definitely not a “yarn,” and it doesn’t even list it in the glossary of terms in the back!

I also tried the facial mask as per a request from my aunt, and yielded similar results. I ended up having to make it up along the way, and try to interpret what those instructions could possibly mean.

Maybe I’m just dense. God knows I can be more than just half a bubble off in the intelligence department… Either that, or the author wrote this while under the influence of some illegal substance. It looked like a really awesome book; Quirky, unique, and with a number of patterns I would actually want to make. I had never seen it anywhere else… but now I guess I’ve figured out why.

Hannah (BitterSweet)4 Comments

Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies (The 5 C’s)

Quick, drop everything you’re doing. Knitting, reading, fighting fires, creating world peace, whatever; Nothing is more important that baking these cookies.

Forget about the best vegan cookies – These are the best cookies, period. The days of dry, tasteless, cardboard-esque “cookies” are over. I swear, these chocolate gems are moist, chewy, and most of all INTENSELY chocolatey.

I made this recipe for the first time in order to thank a friend at school for being… Well, a friend. (I don’t have enough of those… So I feel I must maintain their loyalty through baked goods!) Stopping me periodically in the hall throughout the day, she told me again and again how amazing they were, and that everyone else she shared with liked them so much, she herself had only eaten two! By the time lunch came, the entire box was already cleaned of the very last crumb. The demand was so great, in fact, that I came home that same night and made a second batch! Seeing as my neglected homework was piling up, I had less time to shape and pat the second batch, but just dropped them on the sheet in haste. They still turned out just as good, if slightly less photo-worthy, (Thus, no picture) but honestly, these cookies won’t stick around long enough for you to really admire their beauty, anyways.

Of course, this is yet another fantastic recipe from the
Post Punk Kitchen, titled quite simply and accurately, Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. I made absolutely zero changes or substitutions, because I believe that these are truly the perfect baked goods. Clearly, they will be seen much more often when I’m asked to bake something with chocolate… Which is in fact my most common request.

If only I had known about these before becoming vegan… To think, I’ve been missing out for all these years!

Hannah (BitterSweet)7 Comments