And that brings me to the other point of this post– Lasagna!  I have a lovely dish bubbling away in the oven, and thought I would write up the recipe.

No Boil Lasagna

I don’t know about you, but I hate boiling lasagna noodles.  Especially the rice noodles that I have to eat.  They rip and stick together and are generally, well, like wet noodles.  I learned a while ago that I could bake lasagna, and let the sauce and ingredients soften the noodles while they cook!  It’s a miracle.  I forget who taught me this trick, but it’s a good one.  So, with no further ado:

Ingredients

• A box of lasagna noodles.  I love Tinkyada.
• Two big 28 oz cans of your favorite crushed tomatoes
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1/2 lb spinach
• 2 medium yellow onions
• 1/2 lb spicy italian sausage
• 1.5 lb ground turkey
• 3 T crushed garlic
• 2 T italian seasoning plus a little for a garnish
• 1 T white pepper
• 2 C ricotta cheese
• 1 C cottage cheese
• 1/2 lb blended Italian cheese, or 1/4 lb mozzarella and 1/4 lb parmesan, or your favorite mix of cheeses
• 1/4 lb parmesan or asiago for the top

Prep

Chop the onions into small (1/4 – 1/2″) squares.  Chop the spinach as well, into fork sized pieces.  I frequently use the pre-chopped frozen stuff, but I’m lazy that way.

Remove the casing from the Italian sausage, and brown thoroughly in a large sauce pan, chopping as you go.  Add the ground turkey, and brown that as well.  Lift from the pan with a slotted spoon, and set aside in a bowl, leaving the juice in the pan.

Add the onions to the pan, and cook until they are translucent and golden.  Add the spinach, and continue sauteing until they are thoroughly wilted and well mixed with the onions.  Remove to a bowl and set aside, leaving juice and even some onions and spinach in the pan.

Add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste to the pan, and bring to a simmer.  Add garlic and italian seasoning.  Leave sauce at a low simmer.

Mix cheeses, other than what is reserved for the garnish, in a bowl with the white pepper.  Stir them together thoroughly.

You now have three bowls of stuff, and a simmering pot of sauce.

Preheat oven to 375°

Assembly

Spoon a generous amount of sauce into the bottom of the pan– enough to easily cover the bottom.  Add a layer of noodles.  You will need at least three layers of noodles.  In my pan, I do three layers of three, and have three left over.

Spoon 1/2 or 1/3 (depending on if you want 3 or 4 layer lasagna) of the meat mixture over the noodles.  Spoon 1/2 or 1/3 of the veggies, and then 1/2 or 1/3 of the cheese.  Add another layer of noodles.

Repeat all of that: meat, veggies, cheese, noodles one or two times more, ending with noodles on top.

Pour the remaining sauce over the layers.  You may have too much to fit in the pan; if so it will be a lovely pasta sauce for another time.  Enjoy the leftovers!

Add the garnish cheese on top of the sauce, and add the garnishing Italian seasoning on top of that.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until the cheese is brown and the sauce is bubbly.  I put an old baking sheet on the shelf below the pan, because that’s easier to clean than the bottom of my oven.  ;-)

Enjoy!

The first five (cinq) (cinco) (5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. (No refunds… no exchanges!!!!)
2. What I create will be just for you, with love from me.
3. It’ll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. I may even create something totally unbelievable and surprise you!! Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note/post of your own and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to it.
7. Send your mailing address if you don’t live close to me! Feel free to email your mailing addy to me.

IMPORTANT: This offer is null and void if I do not see you post your own note to pay this forward.

and it was nice.  It felt good.

Suddenly I’m knitting away merrily on the socks again, making fantastic progress.  I know they’re not my socks.  I don’t know yet whose socks they will be.  But I know whomever gets them, they will want a pair, so I will make #2 as much like #1 as I can make it, bind it off in the same place, and wait until I know what sorts of feet will be at the end of these lovely legs.  Someday, hopefully soon, I’ll rip back the cast-off and put feet on them.  For now, I’m knitting, and it’s flying.

There’s also a sort of overflow into other areas.  I removed *this* block, and suddenly it’s a little easier to write that stupid report at work, a little easier to file that piece of paper rather than adding it to the stack, and hey!  While I’m filing, why don’t I take care of the whole stack?  It’s a little easier to do a lot of things.  Somehow I’ve oiled my emotional gears, and things are moving more freely.  It’s a nice feeling.  I’ve cleared a bunch of niggling nagging tasks off my to-do list today.  Yay me!

This weekend there are a plethora of things on the plate.  Baby boy & I each have a hardware credit on our cellular accounts, so we’re going shopping.  And he has a Target gift certificate burning a hole in his pocket, so we’ll get Bakugan or somesuch as well.  We have cleaning left over from last week, and gardening and laundry to do, and perhaps some ice skating.

Zach most wants to spend some quality time with the boys on the block, since he’s been gone the past two weekends, so we’ll make sure that happens.  I have the knitting bags to get off my plate.  I’m looking forward to a homebody weekend, with very minimal time spent out doing stuff, and as much unstructured time at home as possible.  I think we all need that.

But I’m too far in to rip.  Yak knee socks looking for someone to love them; sock swap preferred.  And knee socks, Bob damn you!  For size, the calf is closer to 15″ than 14″.  length at least 13″ – please don’t make me rip.  Ankle 9.5″.  Foot tbd- haven’t knit that bit yet.  The 4×2 rib doesn’t have much stretch, so you would need to be close to this.  Anyone?  Bueller?

I’ll be the one over here shedding tears on my yak.

In other news, I’m going to start writing up the pattern.  Watch this space.

cuff of second sock

cuff & calf of first sock, drying after its bath.

Mcho Ficchu detail

I also did something that wasn’t on the agenda- I photographed my stash.  The pictures aren’t great because they were taken in the basement with a flash camera, so the color is off.  But they should at least help me remember what I have, once I link them to the stash database on Ravelry.

For today I want to do the final finishing on the Ficchu, which should be quick, get the knitting bags done, and then when Z gets home we’ll tackle the house cleaning.  If he is effective at it, I’d like to take him out to Target to spend his gift certificate from my family and also his allowance.  Oh, and the garden work, if it gets warm enough.  It peaked at 34° yesterday, so gardening?  Not so much.  Today is forecast to make it to 42°, which is vaguely plausible for digging holes in the ground.

For the moment I’m still lazy in bed.  Which I think is entirely justifiable, since it’s Sunday morning and I have only slept 4 hrs.  :-D

Right now I have two knitting projects on the needles, and three knitting bags in my backlog, one of which (apologies, Summer!) I’m still trying to find an interfacting to allow me to complete.  And it’s making me feel a bit queasy.  I want to get the shoulder wrap (Macho Ficchu!  hee!) off the needles this weekend and get back to the yak socks.  And I want to get Squid’s bag completed and off to her, as well as Andey’s.  Summer’s too, if I can make it to the fabric district to scour the shops for a heavy black interfacing that won’t shrink when ironed.

Seriously.  What good is an interfacing that shrinks during the iron-on process, leaving awful bubbling puckers in the dress fabric?  I had a terrible moment with that when the adhesive was setting and I couldn’t find a free corner to get it off already.  I did manage to peel it away from the silk beore they were permanently bonded, but I was terribly worried that I had just destroyed the precious sari silk.  phew.

Also on deck this weekend are tasks in the “maintenance” category, which is stil one I struggle with.

I have bulbs that were purchased too late last fall, which have sadly wintered over in their bags on the front porch.  I’m hoping I can pop them in the ground now and coax them into surviving the insult.  My spring pansies suffered the same fate, as well as a few perennials that had the poor planning to go dormant before getting bought from the garden center at Home Depot, and so were rescued from the trash pile.  I look forward to them being lovely black eyed susans and daylilies and I forget what in the fall, but first I have to convince them that they are only dormant, not actualy dead.  :-)

The fish tank… eh.  The light bar has been broken for ages.  All of the lovely plants that were the purpose for the tank have died, except for one lotus that refuses to give up the ghost.  I at least need to change the water in the tank, and return carbon to the filter now that the snail plague has been erradicated.  I would like to dismantle the light bar and determine what parts are needed; I finally found someone at the company who will help me restore it.  Alternately, I could declare the project dead, and dismantle the whole tank.  I’m down to a couple bottom feeders I should be able to dump on some nearby pet store, or send away via Craigs List.

And last but not least, the truly uninteresting but essential maintenance task- house cleaning.  I’ve been out or busy for three weekends now, and the house shows it.  I’ve spot cleaned a room here or there, but the place needs a good sweep and vacuum, and the bathrooms are in sad states.  Somewhere this weekend that must be addressed.

Saturday morning 9am.  We’ll see how far I’ve gotten with this by Sunday night.

Fichus need to be beefier in the mountains of Peru. This one is made of dense cables, and shaped with short rows.

Materials

• Malabrigo Chunky in colorway “Cinnabar” 3 skeins (104 yds / 100 g per skein)
• size 11 needles
• stitch holder

These gauntlets are an introduction in heavier weight wool to techniques you need for sock knitting.  There are short rows, a sewn bind-off, a couple Kitchener stitches, and a chart to read.  They are also an exercise in understanding the various m1 increases, left and right leaning, as well as knit and purl.  Since you’re working in larger yarn on larger needles, it’s easier to see how the yarn is moving, and understand how these techniques work.

Materials:

• about 150 yds of Aran weight yarn.  I used Alpaca, for the +3 warming factor.
• tapestry needle
• size 6 dpn’s, or weapons of your choosing for working your yarn in the round.

Gauge:

• across the 15 pattern stitches: 2.75″
• in unstretched ribbing: 6 st/inch
• in stockinette: 18st / 4 inch (4.5 st/in)

Notes:

• m1t – make 1 twisted. (Make one through back loop) Lift the running yarn between stitches in the row below from front to back, so that it sits like a knit stitch, and knit through back loop.
• m1r – make one reversed.  Lift the running yarn between stitches in the row below, lifting it from back to front, so that it sits backwards on the needle.  Knit through the front leg.
• m1tp – make 1 twisted, purl.  (Make one Purl through back loop) Lift the running yarn between stitches in the row below from front to
  back, so that it sits like a knit stitch, and purl through back loop.
• m1rp – make one reversed, purl.  Lift the running yarn between stitches in the row below, lifting it
  from back to front, so that it sits backwards on the needle.  Purl
  through the front leg.

*** NOTE: I know how I make these increases, but my knitting style is … idiosyncratic.  I don’t know exactly how other people make them.  If you don’t know what I mean by these, ask me: jennigma@gmail.com

Directions:
Cast-on 41 with a stretchy cast-on.  I used the long tail.

I recommend dpn’s, with the first 15 stitches on the first dpn and the remainder distributed more or less evenly, but do as you like.  I divided them as 8-10-8 on my 4 working needles.  You could also do 12-14 if you prefer 4 dpn’s.  Shouldn’t matter.  Working on two circs is also nice; in that case I would put the pattern stitches on one set and the ribbing stitches on the second.

round 1: place marker, k15, place marker, (p2, k2)6 times, p2.
No markers needed if you’re keeping the first 15 on their own dpn.

round 2: k2, p11, k2, (p2, k2)6 times, p2.
This gives a garter edge to the pattern, keeping it from curling and helping it look nice.  :-)

round 3: begin following chart over first 15 st, continue the remainder in ribbing as set.

Work until you have two complete repeats of chart.

Thumb increases:
NOTE: Continue pattern stitch as set on the first 15 st. Directions below are for the ribbing stitches only. If you’re working on two circs, shift the stitches a bit so
that you make the thumb on the pattern stitch needle– otherwise you will end up with too many stitches on the back needle.  If you work
two at a time this way, you would shift the outer stitches on each
gauntlet to the front needle, so that you get a right and a left
gauntlet.

Right glove:
1: p2, k2, m1t, p2, m1r, (k2, p2)5 times.
round 2 and all even rows: work stitches as established.
3: p2, k2, m1t, k1, p2, k1, m1r, (k2, p2) 5 times.
5: p2, k2, m1tp, k2, p2, k2, m1rp, (k2, p2) 5 times.
7: p2, k2, m1tp, p1, k2, p2, k2, p1, m1rp, (k2, p2) 5 times.
9: p2, k2, m1t, (p2, k2) 2 times, p2, m1r, (k2, p2) 5 times.
11: p2, k2, m1t, k1, (p2, k2) 2 times, p2, k1, m1r, (k2, p2) 5 times.
13: p2, k2, m1tp, (k2, p2) 3 times, k2, m1rp, (k2, p2) 5 times.
15: p2, k2, m1tp, p1, (k2, p2) 3 times, k2, p1, m1rp, (k2, p2) 5 times.

Left glove:
1: (p2, k2) 5 times, m1t, p2, m1r, k2, p2.
round 2 and all even rows: work stitches as established.
3: (p2, k2) 5 times, m1t, k1, p2, k1, m1r, k2, p2.
5: (p2, k2) 5 times, m1tp, k2, p2, k2, m1rp, k2, p2.
7: (p2, k2) 5 times, m1tp, p1, k2, p2, k2, p1, m1rp, k2, p2.
9: (p2, k2) 5 times, m1t, (p2, k2) 2 times, p2, m1r, k2, p2.
11: (p2, k2) 5 times, m1t, k1, (p2, k2) 2 times, p2, k1, m1r, k2, p2.
13: (p2, k2) 5 times, m1tp, (k2, p2) 3 times, k2, m1rp, k2, p2.
15: (p2, k2) 5 times, m1tp, p1, (k2, p2) 3 times, k2, p1, m1rp, k2, p2.

Knit 4 more rounds, or until the gauntlet edges wrap around the base of your thumb, and easily touch.

Removing thumb stitches
Slip the increased stitches to waste yarn, so that there is a purl stitch on either side of the opening, and rejoin the round.  You will have p1, (k2, p2)x3, k2, p1 on the waste.  PULL THE STITCHES TIGHT as you work past the join the first couple times.

Work until you have 4.5 pattern repeats, and check length.  I worked 5 repeats in the initial pair, but others are finding 4.5 is a better fit.  Continue until the gauntlets are desired length.  You can either work a finishing row of garter across the pattern stitches and bind off, or make the short row knuckle guard, below:

Optional knuckle guard:
NOTE: Start this when the palm side of the glove is the desired length.  It’s better, but not essential, to start after an odd row in the chart rather than an even row.  If you start after an even row you will either have to work the increases and decreases from the purl side of the work, or work an extra plain row to get back on track.  It’s ok to do that– it won’t visually disrupt the pattern enough to notice.

Knuckle Guard set-up

• Work the 15 pattern stitches one more round as set.
• p2, k2, then bind off 15 stitches.
• Move all remaining stitches to a single needle, preparing to work back
  and forth.  You will have k2, p2, 15 pattern stitches, p2, k2 on the
  needle.
• k2tog so that the last bound off stitch doesn’t interrupt the ribbing, but merges into it.  19 st. total on your needles.

From here on, you will not work the increases in the pattern, but continue to work the decreases.

Short Rows
If you stopped on an even row instead of an odd, this is where you insert an extra row.

row 1: Work 18 stitches in pattern, excluding the increases.  The two decreases will reduce the stitch count. 
Turn your work to the purl side; you will have one stitch on the first needle from the previous row that you didn’t work. (17 st. total; 1 resting)
row 2: YO, and then work back 15 stitches across the purl side of the knuckle guard in pattern.  Turn your work. (17 st. total; 2 resting)
row 3: YO, work the pattern, excluding the increases, for 14 st.  Turn your work.  (15 st total, because of two decreases; 3 resting)
row 4: YO, work the purl side for 11 st.  Turn your work.  (15 st total; 4 resting)
row 5: YO, work the pattern, excluding the increases, over 10 st.  Turn your work.  (13 st total; 5 resting)
row 6: YO, work the purl side for 7 st.  Turn your work. (13 st total; 6 resting)
row 7: YO, work the pattern, making only one decrease over 6 st.  Turn your work.  (12 st total; 7 resting)
row 8: YO, work the purl side for 4 st.  Turn your work.  (12 st total; 8 resting)
row 9: YO, knit the 4 stitches, then pick up all of the resting stitches by knitting a YO together with each one.  So you will knit through the stitch left from row 7’s wrap, and then knit the YO with the stitch from row 5, etc, until all stitches are worked.  (12 stitches; 4 resting)
row 10: turn, and purl back across the row, picking up the short rows at the other end of the knitting.  (12 stitches)
row 11: turn, and purl back across the row, creating a garter ridge.

Bind off.

Here’s a chart that may help and may confuse:

Thumb:
This is where you start Kitchenering.  It’s intimidating, but not hard.  Deep slow breaths.  Chocolate.  Wine, if you like.  It’s only a couple stitches– honest.  :-)  There are several reasons to work the thumb in this manner.  The first is that it mimics the shape of your hand better.  There is space between the thumb and the palm, and closing off some stitches makes for a better fitting glove.  The second is related to the first– your thumb is smaller around than the base of your thumb, so you needed to increase more stitches to get to the thumb comfortably than you actually need to work to make the thumb itself.  The third reason is cosmetic; it’s hard to start a finger in a glove without having a little gap at the base where you join on the new yarn.  Picking up and kitchenering makes for a seamless join at that point.  Strictly speaking you don’t have to Kitchener; you could just work all the thumb stitches as set and have a sort of loose thumb that’s too close to your palm.  But you’re up for the challenge, aren’t you?

Pick up the first two live thumb stitches on either side of the opening on dpn’s, removing them from the waste yarn.  You want to have two stitches from the palm side on one dpn, and two stitches from the pattern or back side of the gauntlet on the other.  There will be a purl stitch close to the hand, and a knit stitch close to the thumb.

See, that wasn’t hard, was it?  Now for the tricksy bit.

Using your main yarn, starting with the stitches closer to the thumb, working towards the hand, you’re going to Kitchener off these 4 stitches, in pattern if you feel adventurous. 

You’ll end up with a loose tail near the palm, and live yarn ready to work the thumb.  So you’re using the free end of the yarn, with a tapestry needle, to Kitchener, and then after you finish the Kitchenering, you’ll work in the other direction and start knitting as usual off the ball of yarn.  Hopefully this has clarified what I mean rather than muddied it further.

To Kitchener:
There are many sites with tutorials.  Here are a few:

• knitty.com
• stitchdiva.com
• knittinghelp.com video

The goal is to sew the loose stitches together.  You are doing this in a way that mimics the path yarn takes through a knitting stitch, so it appears seamless.

### I need to test knit and write instructions

Now pick up the remaining stitches from the waste yarn, and work in the round until thumb is desired length.  I worked 8 rounds on the original, but 6 worked better for test knitters.  Try it on to see what works for you!

Sewn Bind-off
Once you have enough length on the thumb, you will cast-off with a sewn bind off.  Sewn bind-off’s are great because, when worked properly, they are nicely stretchy.  The first one I ever worked was impossibly tight, though.  The trick is to leave a fair amount of slack when you work it, so that you’re not distorting the stitches you’re binding off at all, just sort of looping yarn through them to keep them from raveling.  Not too tight, not too loose, just enough to hold them.  A good way to test is to work a couple, and then stretch your knitting.  If there are big loops when it’s stretched tight, you are leaving too much slack.  If the bind-off is less stretchy than the knitting, you’re working too tight.  Adjust your tension as needed.

Cut your yarn.  Leave yourself lots of slack.  Thread end of yarn on your tapestry needle.

You need to work about 3 inches, probably, to get around your thumb.  Technically you need at most 4x that, or 12″, to work the sewn bind off.  I would cut two feet of yarn.  maybe three.  Running out mid bind-off is annoying, to say the least.

Looking at the stitches you have to work, imagine numbering them from the first stich on the needle: 1, 2, 3, etc.

1. Sew through stitches 1 and 2, working in the direction you are knitting.
2. Sew back through stitch 1, in the opposite direction, back towards where you started.
3. Drop stitch 1 off the needle. You’ve bound off one stitch!  this is what you repeat for each stitch, but I’ll go thorugh it once more:
   
   
4. Sew through stitch 2 and 3, working in the direction you are knitting.
5. Sew back through stitch 2, in the opposite direction.
6. Drop stitch two off the needle.

Repeat for remaining stitches.

Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?  :-)

Finishing:
Weave in tail left from the Kitchenering so that it closes up any hole at the base of the thumb.

Weave in other ends, and enjoy!