Martinis, et. al.

All right, here's my mango-tini recipe, but it's seriously half-assed and not what you would call a Good Quality Drink. It's like the Diet Pepsi of martinis. The husbeast and I are notorious for mixing up drinks out of whatever we've got laying around the house. (And if it's got vodka in it, I shake it with ice, pour it in a martini glass, and pretend I'm a Bond Girl.) Sometimes we turn out something good. Occasionally I write it down. I should dig out the recipe for new year's eve punch we came up with about ten years ago... it's barely legible, since I'd had a couple before one of us said "Hey, maybe we should write this down."

Uh, anyway. Mangotinis. Ideally they are made with pure mango juice. Yeah.

SAMURAI MANGOTINI:
-Two parts Snapple "Mango Madness". (You could make a real drink with real mango juice.)
-One part Grand Mariner and vodka, about half and half.
-Shake over ice.
-Pour into a martini glass, sip, and try to look sophisticated while picking graham-cracker-baby-spit paste off your oldest tee shirt.

As for my poor, already lamented martini shaker, at least I've still got the glasses that came with it (yes, a photo of drink glasses - nothing but wholesome fun here at Samurai Knitter):

The new glass is on the right. My old ones, example on the left, have stems of a lovely cobalt blue (doesn't show too well in the photo), but over the years I'd had complaints about how the twisty stem made them hard to manage after a few refills. And so, the new ones; the stem/base is solid, heavy glass, and sort of sit themselves down with no twisting or figuring out just where the stem is in relation to the bowl and base.

Still pissed about the shaker, though.



So, knitting. I am doing some.

The other night I noticed this interesting variation on my steeked jacket:

There were no martinis involved in the making of this mistake; it was READING (J D Robb, if you must know) that caused this lovely little, uh, fuckup. If this happens to you, just duplicate stitch over the mistakes with the proper color. If you miss an entire row, well, there's nothing for it but to tear back down and add the row. (Or you could cut it apart and graft in the row, though in two colors, grafting is a real pain in the ass. But it is physically possible.)

For all steekers (not just the ones currently knitting on steeked jackets), join your yarn in the center of the steek. Knit the center stitch with both the old and new yarn, and then keep going. If you're doing a checkerboard steek and the center stitch is supposed to be the opposite color, knit the center stitch with all three yarns - proper color, and old and new joins. Then keep on going. Later, when the steek is stabilized and cut, you'll stabilize those ends along with the rest and won't have to worry about darning them in. It's a nice shortcut. (It works with sleeve/armhole steeks too, but we won't be doing those.)

If you're using lopi, you can always do a spit-splice instead, anywhere in the garment. (That's what I'm doing.) This method's great because you knit up every last damn inch of your yarn. But it only works on loosely spun icelandic wool. (The big drawback.)

I've got a couple pay checks coming in soon for some writing, and will be buying a heap (a positive HEAP, I tell you) of undyed wool, heavy on the sock yarn, to dye and post on Esty. The husbeast is supportive, with only minimal muttering about vinegar smell in the house (he hates vinegar, and it can reek if you keep the crock-pot going all day). I've gotta be stocked by March 1, because I just sent an article to Knitty that mentions I have an Esty shop. The article will come out at the beginning of March. It would be good to have a shop by then. Haha.

So. What color socks do you like to wear, my little target audience?