The New Resolution - HOWE Girls Cook!

In 2010, we Howe women took on a New Year's Resolution to knit, knit, knit. The goal was simple- to summon delightful creations from our fingers and to encourage, drag, and pull each other to new levels! Now, as 2011 approaches we are proud to say we have reached our goal! Alas, the Howe women never rest. Encouraged by our success we have decided to learn a new talent. This year we will take on the task of cooking. Don't worry, the knitting will continue as we learn HOWE to do new stuff!

The Plan
Our goal is to expand and challenge our cooking repertoire.  Each month we will focus on various cuisines - check out the calendar to the right!  With freedom to create any type of dish within each cuisine, the only rule is to create something never attempted.  Our posts will contain pictures of our culinary creations, as well as the recipes and lessons learned. We will slice and dice our way to 2012!

Bon appetite! 

You Know You are a Cute Little Heartbreaker

 I delivered the good news to my nephew today... Mr. Fox is done!  This project has been my longest so far, a whopping 4 months!  I learned many new techniques for the little guy, including how to knit those darn fingers and toes.  Anyway, I am going to just show the fruits of my labor instead of blabbering on about the knitting process.  Introducing, the fantastic Farmer Fox!

A "tail" of two cities...started in LA,
finished in Boston.

Gone to pieces...

Caught in a bad romance...

It'll cost ya an arm and a leg...

Stay tuned!  I am ___ (this) close to finishing Mr. Fox.  Woooo hooo!  One more little leg to go!

its about time!

so ive recently been spending a ton of time on ravelry looking for a new pattern because...wait for it... i finished my beach bag!! and its about gd time. ill be honest. the bag was really not that hard to make. but those silly straps took me forever and just annoyed me to no end! but its done, and im super excited!! so here it is!

this is my bag after i laid it out to block it!! didnt have anything to hold down the sides to stop them from rolling besides nail polish- which was not very good!

and there it is! i absolutely love it! not sure what im going to do with it yet. debating lining it with some bright-ish fabric or i just might use it to get produce at the grocery store. its all still up in the air- luckily i have a while before its beach season so i dont have to decide yet!!

now i just need to find Twinkles Town and Country Knits and i can start teaching myself how to cable knit!

Fox Gloves

Ok all you wonderfully talented knitters out there.  My fox has a body, tail, and half a head.  I am approaching the dreaded little fingers again.  Does anybody understand how to knit fingers/hands and then attach them to the arm???  Helpful links to videos or simple directions would be lovely.  If not, I will be giving this fox the finger for real, and it won't be attached to his body, it will be attached to mine!

(directions as written from designer Jennie Eveleigh Lamond...

CO3 sts using black.  Place one st on each dpn and join into round.
Row 1: kfb in each stitch [6 sts]
Row 2: k
Row 3: [k1, kfb] 3 times [9 sts]
Rows 4 and 5: k


break off yarn and place first 4 sts on one holder and last 5 sts on a second holder (safety pin works great).  This is one finger.  Repeat finger twice more - you will have 3 fingers.

For last finger, do not break yarn and do not place stitches on holder. 

now here is the tricky part...
Palm Row 1: K first 4 sts off of the finger still on the needles (finger #1), and slip the last 5 onto one dpn to knit at the end of the row.  Then k first 4 sts off of finger #2, and first 4 sts of finger #3.  Using a new dpn, K last 5 sts off of finger #3 and last 5 sts off of finger #2.  Using the third dpn, K last 5 sts off of finger #1.




So, yeah...good luck with that!

Hold up, wait a minute, put a little sister love in it!!

meg came to town this weekend and we had a sista love in. well, kind of.

mom sent a strongly worded email before i was even alive saturday morning, telling me that i needed to send her a pic of the beautiful scarf she made me for christmas last year. my first attempt w my blackberry was wobbly, but this pic turned out great!! megs all smiley and sparkly and moms scarf is amazing. win!

heres meg and i, knitting on the couch, watching a woody allen movie. just like a normal sunday night!

and heres meg and i really knitting, wo the posed pic. thats just how we look.

howe girls knit!!!

Fox this!

Ugh. I know. It has been over a month since I posted and it was seriously my turn. The excuses would fill two pages so I will spare you the pity party. Let's move on to my current project, Mr. Fox. This adorable little toy was supposed to be completed for my nephew's birthday, on August 3rd. Now it is almost October and what have I got to show myself? Even less than I had a month ago! I was nearly finished with the tail when I noticed that somehow I switched from knitting to purling. Usually this would be no big deal but I have been knitting on dpns so I wasn't sure if I was up for taking out the 5 rows of purl to try again. I got myself a glass of wine and felt a little confident so I took those bad boys out. I started knitting again and WTFox! I was "knitting" but my stitches were coming out as purls. So I said "Fox this!" and just cut it off right then and there.

The last few days I have tried to work up some energy to start this project again. I know when I call Nephew Josh tomorrow he will tell me once more that I have had long enough to get this done. Oy.

There is some good news in my knitting world. I have set up a knitting room in my new apartment. I am waiting to find the perfect comfy chair on craigslist to complete the room but in the meantime I have my baskets, some of my favorite Marmie projects as inspiration, and a cozy spot.

A friend recently sent me some llama yarn from Argentina so as soon as I finish my fox I am going to make my first knitting room project something amazing. :-)


I hope all you knitters are celebrating more success than I am. Hopefully I will post a complete toy within the next two weeks.