Out of alignment

After a crazily busy month, this Sunday is a day of rest and I can't emphasise enough how much it is needed.
In the past month we have been to three weddings, I have a new job and just as an example of the business yesterday we helped load the van for the company who runs our LARP (it is the main event of the season next week) and then had friends over for the evening. A day off is very welcome.

It is going to be an especially relaxing day for me as I dislocated and broke my little toe yesterday, so I am currently on the sofa with it elevated, and have been informed that I am to not move from this spot. Why yes, there are pain killers in my life, thank you for asking.

A full day of knitting sounds perfect to me, though there are some hiccups.
The shawl sample I am knitting for easyknits is one thing where there is a hiccup. The pattern is Orbit and it is my first attempt at a circular shawl. It is pretty, the yarn is lovely, and everything was going swimmingly. Until I thought to myself "gosh, there are quite a few rows to go, and not much yarn left". So I weighed the yarn and it came in at 11.4g, with more than ten 500+st rows to go.
I knit doggedly on (after having PMd the designer) and lo and behold, I have run out of yarn.

That is on hold while I wait for Jon to get back to me.

I think today may be a day for continuing to knit my Orchid Thief. With a fair wind, I may be able to get close to completion.

I am supposed to be knitting a water bottle carrier for the event next weekend. The pattern calls for cotton yarn and so I am double stranding dishcloth cotton with some leftover Rowan Tweed I had kicking around the stash. The truth of it is, though, that I hate knitting with dishcloth cotton, so I am disinclined to do anything to it.
Is having a broken and very sore foot an excuse for knitting exactly what I want instead of what I ought?

First cooking post

The title of the post promises knitting, spinning and cooking and so far there has been a distinct lack of food posts. That is mostly because I have been making old staples, easy food that doesn't take a massive amount of time to cook. In a future post I will link to some favourite recipes (this is another link free mobile post).

About eight years ago I started getting a veg box delivered in a desperate attempt to get myself to eat more vegetables. When I was growing up while my mother loved vegetables my dad only really liked sweet corn, and I think that made it acceptable for us as children to not bother developing a taste for vegetables. I've been trying to reeducate my palate ever since. 

The theory behind the veg box was that the vegetables would arrive and because I hate waste I would be forced to eat them and hopefully over time learn to like them. 

And to a massive extent it has worked. My fidelity to veg boxes has waxed ad waned over the years based on my financial situation at the time, but right now is a veg box phase. 

And cauliflower is the bane of my life. I don't much like it, we often get them, and every time one arrives B suggests cauliflower cheese. The whole point (to me) of eating more vegetables is health, and so to slather the cauliflower in a cheese sauce twice a month kind of defeats the purpose of eating the bloody thing in the first place. I tend to suggest things like a daal with phanch phoran, but we have run out of both the right daal, and the spice mix, and so I had to get creative. 

Thus last night we had roast cauliflower fajitas. I roasted the cauliflower with a chopped yellow pepper and a sliced onion coated with a teaspoon of oil and a generous coating of fajita seasoning. We then wrapped this with salsa, sour cream, guacamole and salad in tortillas. 

The cauliflower mix took about 20 minutes in the oven and I was amazed at how good it was. It's another one for the list of 'dishes where you don't miss meat' for me, and I think it will become part of a regular rotation for us. 

In knitting news things (sock, orchid thief, blanket squares) have been mostly pushed to the side. I signed up to help easyknits make some samples for an upcoming pattern book and the yarn arrived earlier this week. 

The pattern is a circular shawl and this will be the first one I've knitted in fingering weight yarn. It's currently the size of a large doily and over 200 stitches. 

The yarn is easyknits deeply wicked. I am

Not sure of the name of the colour way, but the colour is so bright and vibrant. In the skein I hated it a little but the more I knit with it the more I find it really cheerful. 

I also sneak in a mitred square for the blanket every now and then. They're so little and cute and brainless for when I'm exhausted.