Finished my Fair Isle hat!

I finished my Fair Isle hat yesterday!  I love it!  It is warm and cozy and super-soft.  I wore it out last night because I just had to show it off.

Here is a quick pic.  That's all; I just wanted to share!

Have a happy Daylight Savings Day - I hope you all got enough sleep!

Cheers,
-Erin

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe

I made this awesome slow cooker chicken tortilla soup last night, so I thought I would share the recipe.  My mom sent me this recipe a while ago, but I made some minor modifications to it this time around, and it turned out fantastically well!  It is full of lean protein and makes a hearty meal.  The flavor is chili-like, although the soup is more broth-based than chili-style.  I love it - and it's a good thing, because I live alone, so I will be eating it for the next week!

Slow cooker chicken tortilla soup - garnished with sour cream, a tortilla chip, and a sprinkle of chili powder

This recipe only has four "hard" parts:

1.  Chopping the onion
2.  Mincing the garlic
3.  Shredding the cooked chicken
4.  Trying not to eat the whole pot once it's finished!  :)

The rest of the recipe is just dumping everything into a slow cooker and waiting for it to cook.  I find the easiest way to make this soup is to start the recipe in the morning before I go to work.  Then, I shred the chicken first thing when I get home in the evening, and I eat it an hour or so later.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
Makes 3.5 quarts
165 calories per cup

Ingredients
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 19-ounce can dark red kidney beans, including liquid
1 15.5-ounce can black beans, including liquid
2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, including liquid
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 15.25-ounce can whole-kernel sweet corn, drained
1 package taco seasoning
1 cup chicken stock
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds total weight)

Instructions
1.  Mix onion, garlic, kidney beans, black beans, tomatoes with chiles, tomato sauce, corn, taco seasoning, and chicken broth in 4-quart (or larger) slow cooker.  Stir well until completely mixed.
2.  Place chicken breasts on top of soup mixture.  Push to the bottom of the slow cooker so the chicken breasts are completely covered with liquid.
3.  Cook on low heat 6-8 hours.
4.  Remove chicken breasts from soup.  Shred into pieces with two forks.  Add shredded chicken back into soup.
5.  Continue cooking for another 1-2 hours to allow flavors to soak into shredded chicken.
6.  Serve alone, or garnish with tortilla chips, sour cream, and/or a dash of chili powder.

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!  Just the thing to warm you up on a cold wintry day.  :)

Slow cooker chicken tortilla soup - garnished with sour cream, a tortilla chip, and a sprinkle of chili powder

First quadrant of Celestial Dragon - FINISHED!

Well, THAT took awhile - but here's a pic!

"Celestial Dragon" by Teresa Wentzler - first quadrant finished!

I am going to work on the bottom right quadrant next.  It only took me a year to finish this one...

I also finished a fluffy afghan for one of my pregnant lady friends!  It is slightly less square than it should be, but hopefully some blocking will tighten up the corners.

Is anybody else working on any fun projects this weekend?  Please share if you are!

Oh, and thank you to everyone who left such nice comments on my Fair Isle piece - I appreciate your encouragement!  It's always nice to know people are popping in here to look.  :)

Have a great weekend!

-Erin

My First Venture into Fair Isle Knitting

Hello, readers!

Things have settled down in my Etsy shop lately (phew), so I have been taking advantage of the lull to work on some "for fun" knitting projects.  My officemate, Jassia, gave me some lovely dusty blue Debbie Bliss cashmerino yarn for a Christmas present, and I coincidentally had most of a whole skein of gray (also Debbie Bliss cashmerino!) left from  a brain hat, so I decided I would put them together and try my hand at Fair Isle knitting.  It is surprisingly easy!  I am knitting the Fair Isle Hat from Lion Brand Yarn's free pattern database, and it is going quite quickly.  I have finished row 13 of the pattern:

Fair Isle hat - my first attempt at this technique!

I am going to try to have this hat finished by the end of this coming weekend.  I really like it!  The yarn and the pattern are both gorgeous.

I also have quite a few pregnant lady friends (congratulations!), so I have been knitting baby gifts for them.  I would post photos, but then it would spoil the surprise!  I will just tell you that I have so much lavender, pink, and white yarn in my apartment, it looks like the Barbie aisle of a toy store after a bomb hit it.

And, last but not least, a bit of stitching...

I finished my first model sampler for Deb at The Stitching Bear, so as soon as it is published (March 4), I will post a lovely picture of it here!  She is sending me another piece to work on soon - it is from her "God and Chocolate" collection.  I can't wait to get started!  It sounds delightful.

That is it for my quick update - I have a busy day in lab today and have class this afternoon, but I will be in touch!  Thank you for stopping by!

Cheers,
-Erin

Quick V-Day Update from Boston Airport

Hello, readers!  Happy Valentine's Day!

I am posting a quick update from Boston Airport, because I am heading to Houston to spend the weekend with my fiancé.  We have been together for three years, but the first time we have ever gotten to spend Valentine's Day together, so I am pretty excited.  :-)  Tonight, we are going to dinner at a French restaurant in Houston, and then we are going to spend the long weekend relaxing and enjoying each other's company. <3  I am a lucky girl.

Thank you to all of you for your well wishes over the blizzard weekend! :-) We got about 30" of snow, most of which is still piled on the sidewalks.  Unfortunately, I did lose power, so my stitch-a-thon wasn't quite as productive as I would have hoped (stitching by candlelight gives me a wicked headache), but I did manage to almost finish the bottom left quadrant of Celestial Dragon, and I finished my last brain hat and mailed it yesterday.  I will post pics of Celestial Dragon next week after I finish that quadrant! I also finished and framed the owl from my last post; now, I just need to get him photographed properly and listed on Etsy.

I do have some wonderful stitching-related news!  Sunday, I signed a contract to work as a model stitcher for The Stitching Bear, a really awesome cross stitch pattern design company based out of Missouri. Deb, the designer, sent me my first design this week, and it arrived yesterday. I can't post any pictures until the design is published in March, but it is a very cute pattern called "4 All Seasons Sampler Part 1 - Spring." Aside from getting paid to stitch a really pretty design, I also get to keep the beautiful leftover threads from The Gentle Art for my stash!  There are 23 colors in all, so I will be looking for a fun project to use the rest of the floss in.  The colors are all shown in the bright and beautiful photo with this blog entry.  :-)

Well, my plane is boarding soon, so I have to run!  Take care, everyone, and have a great Thursday!

-Erin

First Finish of the Snowpocalypse - "Wise Owl"

Well, I have completed my first finish of the snowpocalypse - "Wise Owl" by Sandy Orton. Here he is, all stitched and framed!

"Wise Owl" by Sandy Orton - first finish of the snowpocalypse!

We are getting some serious wind and snow here - including a few flashes of THUNDERSNOW!  It is pretty intense.  There are about six inches of snow on the ground, with more coming down by the minute.  I went outside and took a picture so you can appreciate just how serious "Nemo" is!

Snowpocalypse 2013 - Wollaston, MA

I hope you are all staying safe and warm - I will be back tomorrow to check in!  Next up on my stitching list is a few hours of work on "Celestial Dragon."

Happy stitching!

-Erin

Snowpocalypse Stitch-a-Thon - and a Free Snowflake Pattern!

Brrrr, readers!

Here in the blustery Northeast, we are battening down the hatches for a good old snowstorm.  The snow started coming down at about 11:00 this morning, and it is already starting to accumulate on the ground!  The weather forecast says we should get about a foot of snow by tomorrow morning, with more to come tomorrow.  Gov. Patrick has declared a statewide emergency, there is a run on bottled water and batteries at the local Stop & Shop, cars are sliding all over the roads, and Beantown is in a general state of chaos.

So what does this mean for you, my loyal readers?

Well, my office is closed for the day, and the MBTA will shut down at 3:30 this afternoon, so I am officially snowbound!  That means... STITCH-A-THON!!!!!  I am quite excited, because I am building up half-finished projects more quickly than snow is piling on the sidewalks below.  So, I will be spending the weekend happily stitching away, by candlelight if need be.  I want to finish the owl and finish my current quadrant of Celestial Dragon, as well as finish the last (pink) brain hat in my order queue.

So, in the middle of this winter storm, if you need a new project, or if you are looking for an excuse to start something fresh, I have even put together a little free snowflake pattern to help you on your quest.  :)  Here it is!

Free Snowflake Pattern

Free snowflake pattern.  (c) Erin E. Turowski, 2013.  For personal use only.

Dimensions:
30 squares wide x 30 squares tall
14-count: 2.1" x 2.1" (5.4 cm x 5.4 cm)
16-count: 1.9" x 1.9" (4.8 cm x 4.8 cm)
18-count: 1.7" x 1.7" (4.2 cm x 4.2 cm)

You can stitch this in any color you would like, although I think whitework would look quite nice.  For the "dots" in the pattern, you can either use French knots or seed beads for a bit of shimmer.  You could also add some blending filament (try Kreinik #032 in Pearl!) for a bit of extra sparkle.

So... stay safe, stay warm, and happy stitching!  If anyone else is stuck in this wonderful winter weather, please feel free to link to your own stitch-a-thon below!

Cheers,
-Erin