It looked a lot like ramen noodles. After an hour or so, I rinsed the yarn and then hung it up to dry.

You can probably tell the 2 smaller skeins were my first couple of tries at winding the yarn. By the last one, I had figured out what I needed to do. I took out my yarn swift that my Dad made for me (thanks to the instructions on Instructables) and started to wind the yarn on there. The other thing I learned is to make sure you wind the skeins tightly, otherwise, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of that ramen noodle look. And those crazy little udder looking things at the bottom of the skeins – those are weights, fishing weights to be exact.

I bought a couple of packs of fishing weights (sinkers? I think that’s what they are called – is that right,Dad?) and I had some thick brass wire that I just used to weigh down the yarn to hopefully pull out some of the kinks in the yarn.

I tried another sweater the next day.

Here’s a couple pictures of what the sweater looked like before I recycled it. It was a great looking sweater but just way too big for me. I’m assuming that it was a men’s size small because it was pretty large.

And here’s a couple of close ups

And here’s a close up of the sleeve: (that’s Kink’s paw taking a swipe at the sweater. She apparently felt left out of the photo shoot)

And here’s what the tag said: That’s says 100% Kilcarra Yarn. Score! (a quick search found Kilcarra yarn being sold for around $9/10 for 90 yards)

One thing that kinda bugged me about this whole process was, that i didn’t really know how much yarn I actually had. I did a little research and thanks to The AntiCraft website, I headed over to Lowes and with $3, I made myself a Niddy Noddy.  Now I was able to get a a rough idea as to how much yardage I would end up with. (those are Bob the Christmas Trees needles. He went to Christmas tree heaven this weekend – aka they mulched him).

You should have seen the guys at Lowes when I tried to explain what it was that I was making and what it was going to be used for. Apparently they had a couple of college guys come in and ask for help with making a beer bong. From what the Lowes guys told me, it sounded like the college guys used what I can only imagine was duct work for their beer bong. I would assume at that point it’s more of a keg bong. Anyway, when I finally showed them what I needed done, they were happy to cut the pipe for me. Note to self – next time have them cut a length of pipe for a 2 yard measurement as well as 1 yard measurement. I ended up having to wind the yarn twice. Once to count the yardage and once to make sure the hank was long enough.

Here’s the second sweater hanging up to dry:

I figured out that i got roughly 1400 yards of yarn out of this sweater. So here’s the breakdown of cost for everything:

Sweater – $6 each – seriously… I love Goodwill

weights – $9

Niddy Noddy – $3

I did also buy tension shower curtain rod to hang in the shower to dry the skeins – a budget busting – $10 So the total for 2 sweaters worth of yarn -$34 I couple of costs that i didn’t really factor in here was the brass wire and the wool wash as I already had them.

Going forward, I may have to invest in a bigger bottle of wool wash. Next time the only cost to me will be the cost of the sweater and of course the time it takes to unravel, wash and dry the yarn. If I find a cotton sweater in good condition I may try it try recycling cotton as well.

The other thing I did this weekend was make a Clementine cake and the Zuni Cafe roast chicken recipe from the Smitten Kitchen website. This website has become my new favorite website. Everything I have attempted to make from this site has been fabulous. The clementine cake was a big hit. I was rather easy and it made the whole house smell soooooo good.

The Zuni Cafe chicken was also good. The only problem was that my smoke detectors are so touchy that they go off at the drop of a hat. So everytime the chicken would spit or pop, it would hit the heating coils in the oven and smoke. So I ended up taking all the batteries out of all the smoke detectors in the house and opening the door and a window. So needless to say, it was a bit chilly in the house for a bit and I probably should have cooked the chicken a bit longer, but I thought the threat of losing the tips of my toes and fingers to frostbite far outweighed a tasty chicken.

Oh and John, here’s the run down of Sherlock Holmes actors who have been in some form of a Masterpiece Theater Classics (or a Jane Austen movie).

Mark Strong who played Lord Blackwood – played Mr. Knightly in the 1996 Masterpiece Theater version of Emma (among several other PBS/BBC productions of classic literature) with a bad hairpiece.

Eddie Marsan – Inspector Lestrade – was Pancks in Little Dorritt – He was also in Happy Go Lucky with Sally Hawkins (who was Anne Elliot in the recent PBS version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion) and Elliot Cowan, who played Mr Darcy in Lost in Austen (also sporting a really bad hair piece). On a side note, I’m pretty sure this image is why your friend watches Lost in Austen so much. I thank God everyday for tivo because of this image. Really, a body like that should only be brought out on certain occasions. You can’t just parade that around whenever you want. You could start riots with that body. Right John? I mean you and Elliot have a very similar build.

Kelly Reilly – Mary Morstan – She played Caroline Bingley in the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice.

William Houston – Constable Clark – played John Boucher in North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell- and not the Patrick Swayze US version (RIP Patrick Swayze).

Hans Matheson – Lord Coward – was Alec D’Urberville in Tess of the D’Urbervilles

And finally the big dude – who was also 300 – Robert Maillet, was in fact a WWF/E (whatever the heck they go by these days) wrestler by the name of Kurrgan.

And I didn’t even talk about who appeared on Mystery or Poirot or any Agatha Christie shows.

And just one last thing, Rachel McAdams, if you’re reading this, could you lay off things like the Notebook and the Time Traveler’s Wife? Dear God, what piles those movies were. Talk about overly romantic and sappy. And that’s coming from someone who loves Jane Austen.

On the plus side, I have lost a total of 7.4 pounds!  I started at a whopping 150 lbs.  I was, um… plump.  Now I’m down to 142.5!  And I’m doing my best to make good food choices.  Every morning I have a bowl of mini frosted shredded wheat (which has been a life saver.  I also have it for a snack without milk.) and a cup of coffee.  After that I try to bring my lunch.  If I can’t then I’ll go to Subway and get a 6 inch turkey breast sub with all the veggies, and a little bit of oil and vinegar – No mayo and no mustard.  And honestly I don’t really miss it.  Then when I come home it’s something real simple.

Today after our weight watchers meeting, where they were talking about making kale chips (yeah I know it sounds gross, but they are darn tasty), I headed immediately over to the farmers market and got a couple of bundles of kale, paneer cheese, and some zucchini.  All for $10.  After that I came up with an idea.  Every week, I’ll hit the U-district Farmers Market every other week, with $40.  $20 to spend on veggies, $20 to spend on cheese, bread and/or meat – if it’s needed or looks good. Then if I need veggies, during the week, I can go to the other farmers markets during the week and spend no more than $10.

When I got home, I made 2 small bags of kale chips – one seasoned with sea salt, the other with, what else, bacon salt.  Very very tasty.  I also made a quick veggie dinner – italian style stewed tomatoes, paneer cheese, zucchini, and kale.  And then while the was on the stove, I did a dry rub of garam masala, curry powder and a little chili powder on some chicken breasts so that I can have them for lunch and possibly dinner tomorrow night.   And because there was so much left of the veggie dinner, I’ll have another meal of that this week.

And I have to admit that I am in love with Zrock.  This show kills me.  The drummer even mention a maloik!  This show is the reason you should have cable and the IFC channel.  That and the IT Crowd.

Check out this video of one my favorite IT Crowd moments.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt9j80Jkc_A]

I’m not sure this is a banquet I want to go to.  What is black ach?  I believe my cat might have the black ach.  I mean, he gets some mean hairballs…

Things like that make my days a little bit happier.  You know what else makes my days a little bit happier… pie!  I made two pies the other day.  One was a peanut butter pie

and a maple walnut pie.

Both were really good and rather easy to make.

I also finished The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.  It’s about the building of the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893.  More specifically it’s about Daniel H Burnham the architect who is responsible for the construction and the vision of the World’s Fair and a charming doctor by the name of H.H. Holmes who is considered the first American serial killer.  I know it sounds like a bizarre idea for a book.  But it’s quite fascinating.  I think that the fact that these two things (the building of the White City- the World’s Fair and the killings of H.H. Holmes) are happening at the same time in the same city really made the book that much more interesting to me. I’ve been listening to it at work and  I think if I had been reading this before I went to bed at night, I would either have some really awful dreams or I wouldn’t be able to sleep.  It’s a really well written book and the author definitely takes you to a completely differernt time and place.  But I have to admit, the next book is going to be a bit lighter in topic.

My mom also mentioned that her and my dad had come cavatelli (cav-a-deal is how we always pronounced it).  Cavatelli is like gnocchi but in most cases it’s made with ricotta cheese, flour and eggs.  Gnocchi is typically made with potato.  So that got me wanting some cavatelli.  Apparently Seattle is a cavatelli free zone.  I will admit I suppose I could have tried going to Pike Place Market and checked to see if DeLaurenti’s had them.  Or I could have tried, Remo Borracchini’s (which to me, is not an italian bakery.  When I asked if they had pignole cookies, they looked at me like my hair was on fire.  And their canoli’s are severely lacking.  But I hear they make one heck of a cake.), but I just didn’t want to pay a ton of money for something that costs a total of $3 for the ingredients.  So I decided to see if I could find a cavatelli recipe and make them.

I found an awesome recipe online.  The dough took a minute to make.

The cutting and rolling is what took the most time.  But in the end it was worth it.

After that wild little trip, I’m now bunkered in waiting for the next storm.  So far they’ve told us that we should expect power outtages and snow between a dusting and 5 – 8 inches.  So I’ve got my candles, blankets, reading material and whatever else at the ready.  But for now, I’ve only seen a small flurry of flakes and I’ve watched Gosford Park and am getting ready to start knitting the Cabaret Raglan Sweater with some yarn from my stash.  I figure it’ll be my airplane project.  But before I start that, I’m going to make some cookies for our office Christmas party before the power goes out.  And maybe I’ll be able to watch another movie or two.

When I got home I decided to try out a new recipe.  If it tastes good, then it might be used for a few Christmas presents.  It’s in the fridge now.  So in a couple of hours I suppose I’ll know if it’s good or bad.

I’m also finishing up the last of the dishclothes.  One more to go!  After that I’ve got a few other little things to finish up for Christmas.  Hopefully I won’t be all knit out by the time I have to fly home.  I’m praying that’s not the case.   really would like to knit up this little pattern… or perhaps this one…  Then again, maybe I have nothing to worry about.