Recipe: Easy Eggdrop Soup

My poor husband, who shall remain nameless, is miserably sick right now with a nasty sinus infection.  So soup happened.

Eggdrop soup has always been one of my favorites.  As a kid, it was as ubiquitous and necessary a dish at a Chinese buffet as the fortune cookie, or those ridiculous little fried doughnut-ball things that were covered in sugar (you know the ones).  Turns out eggdrop soup is like...the second easiest soup in the entire world to make.  Second only to warmed up clear broth.

So here's what ya do!

Easy Eggdrop Soup (as opposed to the difficult kind, which does not exist)

Prep time:  stupid quick
Cook time:  stupid quick
Serves:  this is enough to make 2 huge bowls, or 4 small bowls, of soup

Ingredients

• 6 cups chicken stock
• 6 eggs
• 2 Tbsp white pepper
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 dash five spice powder (not too much)
• 1 slice fresh ginger

Method

• Dump the stock into a pot, and add all other ingredients except the eggs.
• Bring the stock to a boil.  While it's heating, beat eggs lightly in a separate bowl.
• Once the stock is boiling, reduce to a simmer.
• Slowly pour in the eggs, stirring constantly.  The eggs will feather out and cook all whispy-like.

Tips and Variations

• Paleoize it:  Soy sauce contains gluten and (obviously) soy.  Substitute coconut aminos for the soy sauce for a squeaky-clean paleo version.  Or for a gluten-free (but still soy-full) version, use tamari.
• If I really loved my nameless husband, I'd have snipped some fresh scallions over our bowls of soup.  But, well...you know how it is.
• You can really use any stock you have on hand.  Chicken stock will give you the classic clear broth, but full disclosure:  I used homemade goose stock here.
• Serve with hot tea - oolong tea is the traditional choice for the classic Chinese-buffet experience.  For the sickie, I made Pink Pepper Chai from Savoy Tea Co.  And for myself - Lapsang Souchong from The Tao of Tea.  This last tea hails from Wuyi, China, so it was definitely the most authentically Chinese thing on our table tonight.

Sasha's Top 10: Valentine's Day Roundup

Valentine's Day is less than a week away, and boy I've been surfing Pinterest like I have a room full of baby furniture that I don't want to assemble!  Or something.

Anyway, I'll be the first to admit, there's a lot about Valentine's Day that makes me gag.  I don't go in for artificial sugar, y'know?  Food coloring, heart vomit and sparkly, glittery, "LOOKIT HOW IN LURVE WE ARE, SHNOOPY SHNOOPY!" are really not my thing.  That said, it can be a fun excuse to show a certain someone or someones in your life how much they mean to you - said someones to include significant others, children, good friends, cats or even thy sweet self.  Also chocolate.  There is SO MUCH CHOCOLATE lying around this time of year, and that can only be a good thing.

So I've compiled a collection of Valentine's Day ideas that I actually quite enjoy.  I think there's something for everyone here, so I hope that no matter who you are or who you're with, you'll find something you can enjoy here.

Cherry Cordial Cupcakes, by Lemon Sugar

These decadent cupcakes are perfect for you, your sweetie or your best friend.  They're impressive to look at, easy to make, and Lemon Sugar lays out the whole recipe for you.

Chocolate Raspberry Cups, by The Frugal Girls

Step-by-step instructions on how to create your own edible chocolate cups, to fill with whatever kind of berries or deliciousness you want, really.  Or you could spend lots of money for the same thing at Godiva.  I vote handmade, of course!

Chocolate-Dipped Clementine Hearts, from Premeditated Leftovers

If, like me, you're actually capable of getting sick of all the ooey-gooey sugary crap you have to wade through this time of year, this simple technique will be just the thing!  Easy, and healthy and bite-sized!  The darker the chocolate you use, the more anti-oxidants you get, you know.

DIY Fingerprint Heart Print, by Restoration Beauty

An easy, personalized gift - perfect if you have kids, or are in a polyamorous group relationship.

Hot Chocolate Bar, by Clean and Scentsible

Oh man, I would TOTALLY have my husband, who shall remain nameless, wake up to this on Valentine's Day!  If Valentine's Day weren't on a workday this year.  Instead, I think I shall blunder around trying to put clothes on right-side-out before the sun rises and save this for another year (and the idea for another holiday!)

Pretty much the best Valentine's Day cards ever, by Castle McQuaid

No really, you have GOT to check out this guy's Etsy shop.  There are many more cards where these came from, each one as geeky and great as the last!  I don't care what you think of Valentine's Day, if Yoda Cupid and Heart-Throb Lando don't make you smile, then man...I can't help you.

Shakespeare Chalkboard Printables, by Mad in Crafts

I love these printables.  Lovelovelove them!  They're cute without being cutsey, they're literary and they really mean something.  If you don't know how to express your love, you can't go wrong letting the bard do it for you, with these free printables.

Dried Strawberries, by The Worldwide Gourmet

Another quick, healthy snack that still gets the "look, we're going for pink things that are vaguely heart shaped and sweet" thing across.

Burlap Valentine Wreath, by The September Tree

I love this wreath, because it fits the theme with a nod to the lingering winter.  

More Unusually Awesome Valentine's Day Cards, by Landeelu

These free printable cards say things like "You are pretty much my favorite husband," and "You're the one I want to be next to when you're on your computer and I'm on mine."  They're awesome cuz they're true!

Recipe: SUGARY SUGARY BUTTERCREAM!!!

Now I'm not saying I'm above eating cake frosting with a spoon out of the can, but let's face it:  making your own buttercream is the way to go if you've got a few extra minutes (which you do while your cupcakes are baking).  It is stupid simple, all natural and ridonkulously tasty.  Here's the recipe I use.

SUGARY SUGARY BUTTERCREAM

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups (3 sticks) butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

• Beat the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
• Sift the sugar over the butter and mix together.  Start on low speed so you don't poof a cloud of sugar right into your face, and then increase to full speed.
• When combined, your buttercream should be frosty and spreadable.  If your icing is more crumbly than spreadable, add more butter 1 tbsp at a time until you reach the right consistency.  If your buttercream is still buttery and slippery, sift more sugar into the bowl, 1/8 cup at a time, until it looks how it's supposed to.
• Splash in the vanilla extract and mix everything up well.

Tips and Variations:

• Your buttercream will be the color of whatever butter you used - likely the yellower the better.  It takes coloring well, though.
• For some color and added flavor, try adding pureed strawberries, raspberries or blueberries.
• For still more flavor (but not necessarily much in the way of noticeable color), try adding some mashed banana or banana extract.
• A small amount of beet juice will get you a nice, vibrant red or pink without actually tasking of beets.
• A small amount of tumeric will get you a nice yellow color without actually tasting of Indian food.
• For April Fools cupcakes, dump in the tumeric and add some curry powder.  MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Basic Non-Ugly Icing Technique:

I am not a professional cake decorator, and I do not have children who require Martha Stewart-level birthday confections.  I do not own a piping bag, and if I did I wouldn't know what to do with it (ALL those NOZZLES!).  But here's a cheap and basic way to ice cupcakes that comes out a bit more polished-looking than haphazard slathering.  I also used this technique to create the dots around the base of this cake.

• Let your cupcakes cool completely before icing, or your buttercream will become a melty, runny mess (or at the very least, be hard to spread evenly).
• Transfer buttercream into a ziplock bag and snip a tiny bit off of one corner.
• Squeeze the buttercream out onto the top of each cupcake in a spiral pattern.  If you work from the outside in, you'll be able to form a nice peak in the center.
• You can leave the spiral pattern as-is.  This will also give you a good, even base if you're inclined to smooth everything down with a butter knife.

CUPCAKES!!! With a snazzy free printable.

We're kicking off the busy season at work today.  I won't go into details (they're the boring kind, not the "if I told you I'd have to kill you" kind), but the season goes by the acronym "SWT."  The "S" stands for summer - not that it's REMOTELY summery here in Kyiv at the moment, but it's essentially us gearing up for the summer.

So I decided to celebrate the kickoff by bringing cupcakes to work.  Cupcakes with RIDICULOUS CUPCAKE TOPPERS!!!  Muahahahahaaaaaaa.......

Click here to download the PDF file.

Folks, this is my first go creating printables, so please pardon the crude design.  I rather dig the crude design, actually.  I feel like toppers for cupcakes meant to celebrate the insane season at work sort of ought to look like they were drawn in crayon by a 4-year-old.  I figure none of you will have much use for cupcake toppers that say "SWT," so I'm just including a sheet of all-purpose "OMG" toppers for download.  If you DO happen to be in my same boat, though, and actually want SWT cupcake toppers, send me an email and I will totally hook you up.

You'll find cupcake topper printables online in perfect cirlce-shapes or even scalloped flowerdy-shapes.  These require a special paper punch to cut out neatly.  I do not own a special paper-punch (I'm a scrapper, for sure, but I am Not.  A.  Scrapbooker).  So I designed these to be cut into squares on straight lines between the suns.  Like with scissors.  You're welcome.

A lot of people tape these to lollipop sticks.  Some people tape them to cut-up popsicle sticks.  I figured I should be able to find toothpicks at the grocery store, but I was WRONG!!!  I've seen them at restaurants, I looked in all of the logical places, but the score wound up Kyiv 1, Sasha 0.  Fortunately, decapitated Q-tips will also do, in a pinch.

Shared on...

Good to be home.

I have had such a stressful whirlwind few days.  On Sunday, I flew to DC for the Foreign Service Oral Assessment - a grueling day-long series of exercises and interviews that is the final step in the selection process for Foreign Service Officers (ok...not counting security clearances and all that).  I won.  So in a few months, barring some unforeseen catastrophe, I will begin training to be a US diplomat.  But oh my dear sweet lord, was it ever a long, rough few days surrounding that.

So I've spent the past couple of days at home recuperating.  I've been taking it nice and slow, spending time knitting and baking.  Bread and granola and (not pictured) onion soup and asian-style coleslaw.  Maybe crackers and granola bars today.  And there's a ridiculous bete noire in the fridge, compliments of my husband, who shall remain nameless.

I'm home with my kitties and my person and my kitchen and my yarn, and I'm going to be a diplomat.  Everything is good today.  :-)

The Secret Ingredient is Lurve

The incredible blond lightening bolt turned 9 the other day, and he wanted a Pokemon cake. In addition to the fact that his father, who will remain nameless, and I are broke, said child is allergic to red dye! So it was looking grim.

Then we came up with this. He asked for a lemon cake with strawberry icing - easy, just add lemon juice in place of vanilla to a basic white layer cake recipe and mush up some strawberries into plain buttercream. It came out pretty much the shade of Mew, so we let our imaginations run from there. The incredible blond lightening bolt came up with pretty much the entire facial construction, and I did the tail. How lucky was it that we had this perfectly-shaped cutting board (which ordinarily looks like a swan)?

Not much knitting at all has been going on, I'm afraid, but I'll update you on that shortly all the same.

The Best Bread

Here's the bread recipe I've been promising you. Since discovering the idea of no-knead bread, I literally have not bought bread from the store. For months, I have enjoyed a steady supply of fresh, healthy, home-made bread. The secret is making a large quantity of dough that keeps for up to two weeks in your fridge. When you need more bread, you break off a hunk of dough, let it sit for an hour and a half, and then pop it in the oven. That's it. No kneading, no carefully timed rises. It's brainless, and involves about 5 minutes of actual work per loaf.

And it's GOOD! Crusty with a nice, moist crumb, this bread has the tiniest hint of tang, reminiscent of sourdough (though it's not a sourdough). The addition of wheat bran and germ round off that tang and make it a little bit rustic. I've looked and not found a recipe that works like this that involves whole wheat flour, so for now the bran and germ make it healthier than white bread. Well, that and the complete lack of additives of any kind. Unless you...like...wanted to add them...for some reason...then you could.

Here is the recipe. Try it and marvel at how insanely easy (and cheap!) it is to have fresh, crusty artisan bread on hand at all times.
Makes dough for three loaves
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
3.5 cups warm water
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
6 cups all purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, mix together the yeast and salt.
2. Add the water.
3. Mix in the wheat bran and germ.
4. Add the flour, mixing thoroughly until all lumps are gone. This is most easily done 2 cups at a time, stirring between each addition. The dough will be quite wet and sticky, and not entirely smooth, but there should be no pockets of dry flour when the mixing is done.
5. Cover, but not with an airtight lid, and let sit for at least 2 hours and as many as five.
6. Bake now, or store dough in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
7. When ready to bake, break off 1/3 of the dough (per loaf), and place in a greased and floured bowl (a cereal bowl will do fine).
8. Sprinkle liberally with flour, and let sit for about an hour (up to two, if dough has been refrigerated). It's ok to be very approximate with this time.
   
9. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
   
10. Let bread stone warm to temperature as oven preheats.
11. Carefully transfer the dough from the bowl to the hot stone. The dough will still be very loose, but arrange in a nice, round mound. Slash the top three times with a sharp knife (this will be easier the more flour you dusted it with earlier).
12. Bake for 35 minutes, or until bread sounds hollow when thumped.
13. Cool on a wire rack until it's just cool enough not to burn you.
14. Slather with butter and devour while still warm.

Hints and Variations:

• This is a great recipe to add stuff into. Nuts, seeds, garlic, olives, mushrooms, cheese, dried fruit, diamonds...mix it in before you start adding the flour, maybe a handful per loaf.
• This bread can also be baked on a cookie sheet or in a greased loaf pan, but the baking stone really enhances the crust and the shape of the loaf.
• On a related note, these would probably make great dinner rolls. One slash on the top, maybe brushed with an egg wash. They'd need to be baked for a shorter time than a full loaf. I shall experiment and report back!
• When you're done stuffing your face, wrap the still-warm loaf in a cloth napkin until fully cool, then store in a zip bag. The warm bread will not become stale as it cools, even overnight, but it will become soggy if it cools in anything airtight.
  

Vive la France!

And now, a few useful formulae:

scone + strawberry jam + whipped cream + strawberries = strawberry shortcake

scone + blueberry jam + whipped cream + blueberries = blueberry shortcake

scone + strawberry jam + whipped cream + blueberries = BASTILLE DAY SHORTCAKE!!!

No amount of sparkling could make up for what they're missing...

So if you were to take it into your head to grill a head of garlic out back with your steak, you might then realize that the leftovers, in combination with some raw cloves, would make a nice garlic-infused olive oil. Were you to then dump said cloves into a pot of extra virgin olive oil and heat it gently until said oil were infused with garlicy goodness, you might then be tempted to remove said cloves, now sweet and warm and mushy, and spread them all over some fresh-baked crusty bread. Were you to succumb to said temptation, you would have yourself quite a nice little midnight snack.

I'm almost ready to say I have this bread recipe perfected. I have one more permutation of the wheat bran to wheat germ ratio to test, and then I will post the recipe here. :-)

If Pies Were Jobs, I'd Be Saving The World Economy

Behold, the fruits of my unemployment! (Get it? Fruits? There's fruit in there. Strawberries, anyway, I'm not sure if rhubarb qualifies as fruit).

Funding for awesome Slavic-related summer activities did not come through for me this year, so I'm trying, with very little success so far, to find a job. As I'm sure many of you know, it is very easy to become a useless layabout when unemployed. After two days of sleeping until 1 in the afternoon, I decided this must not be. So I figured the least I could do is get up while it's still am. I've been setting my alarm for 8am, with the goal of being out of bed by 9am. I've been doing quite well, though it's really, really hard when there's nothing in particular that you're getting out of bed for. Today I've decided that I need to revise my personal edict to include being dressed before 10am. For some arbitrary reason.

It's not that I don't have things to do. I have knitting projects to finish and submit/put up for sale. I have swords and a big, flat backyard. I have a guitar I keep saying I'm going to learn how to play. I have rhubarb in the fridge that needs to become pie (check). I have dead and/or made-up languages that need learning! I have - gasp - pleasure reading I could do! Oh, and let's not forget, I have jobs that need applying for. Also blogging. You'd think I'd be updating my blog more frequently now that finals are over. Evidently, you'd be wrong.

The problem with all of this is that it's all stuff I can do on my own time. I can very easily do all of this at 3 in the morning. I can even do some of it in bed! But I'm less productive when I work like that, and even when I do get things done, I feel like I've wasted the day. I try to spend time in parks, I try to get errands done without using my car. But it's sooooooooo easy to spend 2 hours checking your email in your PJs.

This is why I must never be a housewife or stay-at-home-anything of any sort. Even the super-industrious home-business variety. I need a reason to leave the house every day and to interact with people. I need a reason to be out of bed by a certain time. I need structure, damnit. I can make the lack of structure work, I can be all self-starting and rah, but God, it's like pulling teeth!

Lunch from the Farmers' Market

The farmers' market by my house is open again! Rejoice! It's still a bit early in the season for selection and prices to be at their best, but it's good enough for me for now. I'm basking in produce (and cheese. Cheesecheesecheesecheesecheese. God bless Wisconsin). :-)

After we got home from the market, I whipped this up for lunch to go with last night's steak leftovers. It's so quick, easy and good, I thought I'd share the recipe. This is best with really fresh mozzarella, but the local provonello we found today was great.

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

1 medium cucumber
1 medium tomato
a few generous slices of provonello
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
a dab of mustard
a pinch of salt
a couple of twists of a pepper grinder

1. In a small tupperware, combine the vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt, pepper and half the mint.
2. Close up the tupperware. Shake. Lots. Let it sit there for a few minutes, while you prepare the vegetables, or longer.
   
3. Slice the tomatoes, cucumbers and cheese and arrange on a plate.
4. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the vegetables and cheese.
5. Just before serving, sprinkle the remaining mint over everything. This lets part of the mint flavor the vinaigrette while part of it remains fresh and crisp.
   

Yum Kitchen and Bakery

Why yes, those cupcakes were as good as they look! :-D Upside-down rhubarb cupcake and a dark, moist chocolate cupcake that you wish and hope will have the classic dollop of white cream on the inside, and it DOES!!! These cupcakes were everything I'd hoped they would be.

Anyway, this past Sunday, my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, and I stopped in at Yum Kitchen and Bakery for lunch on our way back from the bike shop. The bakery case was the first thing we saw and, believe it or not, it just got better from there. In addition to these flirtatious morsels, we split a steak sandwich with arugula and red pepper aioli. Mmmmmmmm, dear God that was good. It came on crispy, toasted herb focaccia, with delicate potato chips and a big 'ole salty pickle. Seriously, the pickle was heaven. Not too tart, still crisp - I'm very particular about my pickles. I typically don't like them, but when they're right, oh, they're just perfect.

Anyway, if you find yourself in uptown Minneapolis any time soon, I suggest you stop in. It's a bit on the pricey side but if you split an entree with someone you love, it works out quite reasonably. I tried to reproduce the red pepper aioli and failed...tastily? What I made is not red pepper aioli, but it's still good. I'll post a recipe here if I ever come up with anything worthy of the moniker.

Happy finals, everyone! I'll try not to abandon the blog completely this week and next, but if I do, know that I'm on a series of hot dates with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and that I'll be back before too long.

I'm back!

You, of course, did not realize I'd left. I had not mentioned it. But I did leave. And now I have returned.

My boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, and I spent the weekend in Muncie, visiting my grandmother. We met my father and brother there and had a wonderful time. I love getting to spend time with my family. It's relaxing, like a deep, intellectual sigh, and I love how my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, fits into the mix. I am often reminded that some people dread spending time with their families, or enjoy the company of their families as long as it's kept to small doses. I feel very lucky to have such good people in my family. I can't spend enough time with them and would be satisfied to turn out like any of them later in my life - even the wackiest, most idiosyncratic of them is a really good person.

We stayed at the McDowell-Nearing House, and if you're ever in Muncie, I highly recommend you stay there. The proprietor, Jane, is very friendly and an excellent cook! Her breakfasts were much heartier than I'm used to...in a good way...and absolutley delicious! Breakfast on our first day was a slice of pound cake, fresh fruit, a breakfast casserole, cheesy grits and this baked apple...sausage....thing....God, it was good. Plus, of course, coffee and various types of juice and tea. After 3 mornings of this, my body was begging me for a salad, but I said, "NO!!! This stuff is GOOD!!!" My brother had to leave at the crack of dawn this morning with no time for breakfast, so she left him some cake and yogurt in the fridge. The rooms were spacious and comfortable. I have nothing but glowing, wonderful things to say about this place!

Brought some knitting along, didn't get much done. I guess I did, but it's a long, thin thing, so progress isn't really the spectacular kind. No, you don't get pictures yet. :-P For my upcoming birthday, my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, got me a bread stone! With it, I made this. I'm getting seriously into baking bread. I've discovered the world of no-knead bread, in which one can have bread-dough ready to rise and bake on hand in the fridge at all times. You can find a basic recipe here (adapted by the New York Times from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François).

In other news, I returned home to discover three things. 1) I did not get a fellowship for next year, which is ok because I need to teach at some point anyway. 2) A good friend of mine got tenure. w00t!!! 3) Another good friend of mine from undergrad was accepted to the department of design studies here at UW Madison. This means not only will I have a good friend with whom I go way back living here in town, it means my friend is TOTALLY GETTING A PH.D. IN KNITTING, I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING, PEOPLE!!! Yes, you heard right. Ph.D. In knitting. HOW COOL IS THAT???

I think this deserves its own post.

I did good!

The best weekend ever, from a chocolate standpoint.

Guess who's up with the sun and baking for her man? Ok...half of that statement is true (a scant quarter, actually, when you consider how much of the cake I intend to eat myself). :-)

One year ago this weekend, my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, flew in to see me for the first time in...about a year, I'd say. We'd been friends for a while but were now living in different states and had just realized that the huge crushes we had on each other were mutual. So we decided to give it a go.

Also this weekend includes Valentine's Day. Also this weekend includes his birthday. There will be chocolate, friends. Oh yes. There will be chocolate. I never thought I'd meet a man who appreciated chocolate on the same deep, spiritual, I suspect neurochemical level that I do, but damn. It has enriched our relationship. :-)

Better pictures to come later today, when it's iced. I wish I could upload the way my house smells right now. This cake involves chocolate and cherries and BEER!!! What could be better, my friends? I actually have a number of ideas, but I don't want to mess with the little "adult content" flag Blogger offers, so......yeah. :-D

"Black velvet in that little boy's smile..." *sigh* Happy.

The Economics of Knitting Part 2

Yarn
When I first started knitting, back in college, it was with...like...Lion Brand and Red Heart acrylic stuff. The cheapest stuff I could get my hands on, essentially. Since then, I'm afraid I've developed rather more expensive tastes in yarn. This wasn't such a problem back when I was working full time, but now that I'm back to being a broke-ass student, well...yeah.

I'd say that my strongest preference when it comes to yarn is natural fibers. I realize this is somewhat arbitrary. There are some nice synthetic blends out there. It's part a crunchy-granola thing, and part the fact that I grew up in The Land of Spontaneous Brush Fires, not far from The Land of Spontaneous Hurricanes, where we have a deep appreciation for the miracle that is 100% cotton. But cotton isn't all that's good and pure in this world. Natural fibers in general breathe better than synthetics, and even in winter, when you're wearing layer upon warm layer, acrylics will make you sweat when wool won't.

I'd like to be even pickier in my yarn selection. I'd like to buy more locally produced fiber, wool from manufacturers with documented humane standards of treating their animals. I'd like to buy organic cotton and yarn dyed with the environment in mind. There's lots of locally, responsibly produced wool to be had in my area, and some gorgeous hand-painted artisan yarns. I'd like to focus on these, to help my community and vote with my dollar, but damnit, I can't afford to.

Not only can I not afford to, being a responsible consumer sometimes seems like an impossibly daunting task. A lot of people are faced with unacceptable choices - if there's not much locally produced organic produce to be had, for example, your decision to buy organic might send a message to the industry that buying local isn't important to you. If you want to buy locally, you may be sending the message that there's no demand for organic produce. Industry can spin your economic vote to further restrict your choices, if it's in its own financial best interests, and that is so frustrating when I think about it. I'm lucky, in that I live in an area in which I can buy my produce at farmer's markets and, during the right time of year, not spend any more than I would at the grocery store. Locally produced wool, however, is still beyond the reach of my wallet.

So...unfortunately, regarding this area of the economics of knitting, I just don't have any answers. I'm not going to give up my knitting because I can't afford to be as responsible a consumer as I'd like. That's not going to happen. I'm obviously not going to give up my graduate studies so that I can make enough to afford all-natural, organic, humane, locally-produced yarn. And I'm not going to start knitting with cheap-ass acrylics, which frankly, for all I know, could be environmentally destructive to manufacture (I really don't know. If you do - comment!).

It goes back to my reasons for knitting. It's a sensual experience. If I hate the yarn I'm using, I won't enjoy it enough to continue. But I also hate the idea of spending more than I would for a store-bought garment. I can pretty much knit small things, hats and scarves and whatnot, for considerably less than what I'd pay in a store, but I start to get diminishing financial returns when I move up to, say, sweaters. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and pay through the nose for what you love. But I will not pay ~$100 for a sweater no matter how nice Rowan Cocoon is!

So I continue to bargain hunt. Every once in a while, you'll find some nice, yummy wool in a gorgeous color for $6 a generous skein, and then you buy those puppies up! I'm going to start looking in thrift stores for sweaters to frog - we'll see how that goes, I'll post about it here when I get around to it. Gift cards to yarn stores allow me to splurge. Felting being all the rage these days, the big yarn companies are coming out with more 100% wool yarns, so if I'm knitting, oh, say, a blitz of Christmas gifts, I can actually find wool that's worthy, nice and not too expensive at my local big-box fabric store. I'd still rather support local businesses and...y'know...shop in a store that feels like a store and not a warehouse.

The Economics of Knitting Part 1

Why I Knit
I knit for 4 main reasons, at least...4 that I've been able to think of just now.



1) Relaxation: If you've read Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, you may remember that when Morgaine spins, she enters into a sort of trance state. I'm not saying I have visions when I knit, but it is definitely a meditative experience. When I knit, it gives my mind a chance to wander, to passively mull over things that are on it, rather than actively stressing about them. As my mind wanders undirected, it often finds paths that wouldn't have occurred to me in a more deliberate, active frame of mind.

2) Luxury: Leaving aside, for a moment, the delicious things you can get as a result of knitting, knitting is a pleasing sensual activity. Yarn is nice. It comes in pretty colors, yummy textures, it feels good in your hands and it looks luscious as the fabric you're creating grows like some living thing into whatever shape and pattern you've chosen for it. Yarn is soft and pretty and good.

3) Creativity and control: Once you get the hang of it, making things for yourself ensures that what you end up with is exactly what you want. I don't have to spend lots of money on a beautiful scarf that's kind of itchy, or a wonderful sweater that fits not quite just right. Fine, shaping and fit is something I'm still in the process of mastering, but in a materialistic sense, knitting and making things makes you the master of your own fate. This is where my reasons for knitting really intersect with my reasons for making things in general. If I want legwarmers to match my hat perfectly, then I shall have them! If I want carbonara that won't kill my boyfriend, who shall remain nameless, with cholesterol, then I shall leave out the egg yolks! If I want a pot-holder that matches both the mustard yellow of the kitchen counter and the avocado green of the stove top, I shall make it so! Creativity is liberating.

4) Saving money: As you may have deduced elsewhere on this blog, I am a broke-ass graduate student. Saving money is, for me, a necessity, but that doesn't mean I can't still have nice things in my life. I can knit myself a matching hat and scarf pair that's nicer and cheaper than one I'd find at, say, The Gap. I can make really great shirts and skirts out of old t-shirts that I never wear (more on that when it warms up outside). I can't afford to eat out much, but that doesn't mean I can't afford to eat well at home.

I know that I won't always be a broke-ass graduate student. At some point, I'll have the degree and the job and the house and the disposable income. At this point, I expect my first two reasons for knitting to really start conflicting with the last two - actually, more just #2 with #4. I think, however, that even then I'll value knitting as a means of saving money, and not just out of habit.

As much as I like pretty things, I have a definite anti-consumerist streak in me. I like showing "The Man," "The Powers That Be," "The Gods of Capitalism," or whomever that I am not a slave to the market, that I don't need what they're selling, that I can do perfectly well for myself. There are, of course, limits to this. I'm not about to run off and start homesteading. But I take pride and a subversive glee in not being a predictable consumer. If a company wants my money, they're going to have to put some effort into it, and not treat me like a non-existent generic member of my demographic. Give me real options, or I will make my own!

The next two installments of this series on the economics of knitting will deal with being a responsible consumer within this framework - because even as an independent, unpredictable consumer, I am still a consumer of yarn, of materials, of patterns, of ideas. But it will always boil down to why I knit.

Tea and Toast...or Why I Don't So Much Do Cozies

Sometimes, thank God, luxury is cheap. Particularly now that it's cold, I like to make myself tea and toast in the afternoon when I get back home from class. Lunch is wearing off about that point, and I'm cold and could use a subtle caffeine hit. In addition to fairly low levels of caffeine, tea contains l-theanine, a sedative compound naturally found in the body. This makes tea, in my experience, the perfect after-school drink. It relaxes you while it revives you. It won't make you feel wired and jittery, and it won't lead to a caffeine crash later on. And then what's not to like about sourdough toast with honey and blueberry jam? Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Quick and easy and cheap and yum.

I really like my teapot. It's a nice cobalt blue that I think sets off my dishes nicely, and it holds enough for you to have tea even when you're not alone! I really like using it, and this is why I'm never going to knit a tea cozy. It's not that I object to cozies themselves (although I have heard from admitted tea snobs that they "stew the tea." I'm not 100% sure what that means). But why would I want to hide such a nice thing as my teapot behind some flouncy, squooshy dish-sweater?

I avoid tea cozies for the same reason I avoid tablecloths. My roommates have a really nice dining-room table made out of rich, dark wood. Why would you want to cover that up? I love the look of wood (although what you see pictured is "birch veneer," courtesy of Ikea. It's fake, but I still like the look of it). I suppose if you happen to prefer the look of lace to the look of wood, it would make sense to strew your surfaces with doilies and cloths. I prefer the surfaces themselves. I love the texture you can see in a smooth piece of wood. I love the way the light plays off of the shiny surface of my teapot. I guess I could go for a table-runner, as long as it didn't detract from the look of the wood.

There seems to be a cozy-craze afoot in the world of knitting at present. If you look hard enough, you can find a pattern for a knitted object that will fit nicely around anything. That just seems a bit excessive to me. Maybe it's just that my aesthetic happens not to involve covering things, but can't we think of something useful to knit? Is a layer of yarn really going to protect your iPod if you drop it on the sidewalk? Is your decoratively floral box of kleenexes really so hideous that it needs its own ruffly sweater? I thought I'd seen the cozy-craze at its worst when I found this ice-cream pint cozy, but then an image flashed into my head: I'm blundering toward the freezer in the dead of night. I need ice-cream. All I want is to stand next to the freezer blearily devouring ice-cream from the carton, but my hands...dear Gods, I can't feel my hands!!! That sweet, treacherous ice-cream has frozen them completely numb. So I'm willing to admit that the ice-cream pint cozy is absolute genius.

This cozy-craze is delightfully expressed by the character Emerson Cod in the shamefully canceled series "Pushing Daisies." Emerson is a tough, cynical PI with a heart of stone. He is also a stress-knitter. His office is filled with objects wearing little object-sweaters - there is a file-holder cozy, a pencil-holder cozy, he even tucks wads of cash away in a drawer, lovingly arranged in little green money cozies. It's the juxtaposition inherent in this image that tickles me. It's why I get a kick out of knitting a sweater on the bus with my rapier leaning against my seat. And it's why I am so pleased that this motorcycle cozy exists!