Dog-tor Evil

The Labradors have been swimming at the Tailrace in the rain. Harki has also been mudlarking about. Peri has not, she stayed nice and clean and well away from the gluggy mud!!! She was actually on a mission to get a pelican and a ducky, but failed miserably on both counts. The water seems to attract the birds, it is fast flowing as it has just been through the hydro power station. I think they must like its swirliness.  We saw a Mother Duck with her ducklings swimming behind her in a flotilla. Harki and Peri turned instantly into real dogs and they wanted to 'get' the duckies: they were all alert and pulled on their leads and really wanted to run into the marsh and chase the ducks. Of course there is no chance of that, and they quickly revert to Un-dog-tors Evil, or Dog-tors Good!!!

MrsDrWho is behaving very inappropriately: she is holding my special ChocMint sock wool, from The Knittery, hostage. She has even started cutting off little pieces. And now she is letting Cleo 'play' with my wool, it will be all covered in cat spit :-(  I really wanted to just knit a pair of plain socks with it, but instead I have had to break out the pink and green Opal Acapulco and start The Narnia Girl socks. These are fairly plain, but I am ribbing half the stitches, the back of the sock. The Narnia Girl herself has slim ankles and legs and I think the ribbing will shape the socks nicely, without having to increase or decrease. I should have these finished by October 19th. I shall have to see how I go with that. I do like stripy wool though. There is something very satisfying and speedy about seeing the sock grow when there is a self stripe.

The Henry VIII Socks are finished. I am very pleased with the pattern and they look very nice on an actual foot too!! I made them from Katt's Moss hand-dyed wool and used 2.75mm needles and 64 stitches.

Daylight Saving has caught up with me and I have been feeling really tired. I can't get to sleep of a night and then we all wake up when Peri wakes up, however early that is. So I have been lounging on the couch reading books. I have read 10 books this week, I just finished the latest Alex Rider, Snakehead, this afternoon. The Alex Rider series spans the year he is 14, and at the moment we are at mid-November, so I'm thinking there might only be one more book. I do like that there will be an end to it though, and we won't be left in literary limbo. MrsDrWho is hoping his parents will magically appear alive. I am not holding out any such hope. It has also finally come to my turn for the Amy Butler book, In Stitches, from the Library. Craft people must be very nice as the paper patterns are in pristine condition and even the little sticker inside is not torn. I am looking forward to sewing some things from the book.

I have won a prize from YARN Magazine. It is a spindle and some unspun wool. Though I am exceeding excited, I have no idea what to do with them, at the moment they are a decorative addition to my house, but I know I am meant to do twirling and stuff!! The wool must have a lot of smells in it, because The Labradors really, really want it so badly!!! Thanks YARN Magazine, I love my prize, and one day I might even do spindling, though I fear it will take me to the Dark Side!!

I can see that lots of people would like to win a prize for my Bloggiversary, and I still have to make/buy/do anything about it, but rest assured I work best under pressure!! There are such lovely and happy comments and even one from Harki's godmother, so I am very chuffed!!!

The recipe today is inspired by BH&G Magazine. I made these for supper on Thursday at Sewing. Friends and I went for lunch at a Vegetarian cafe, and though the roasted vegetables with garlic aioli and beetroot relish and the stuffed mushrooms were delicious, I still can't come at a lentil burger!!!

Mini Pizzas

• 2 sheets of butter puff pastry, thawed
• tomato paste, I had one with extra herbs and garlic OR
• basil, and garlic etc extra if you have plain tomato paste
• a little grated cheese, cheddar, parmesan or some Camembert
• punnet of cherry or tiny Roma tomatoes, halved
• thinly sliced deli meat, I used hot salami, but whatever you like, or you can be vegetarian.

Preheat oven to 180*C (350 F) and line 2 trays with baking paper. Cut the puff pastry into 12 or 16 even pieces, depending if you want one or two bite-size pizzas. Spread on a little tomato paste, then add a little meat and be very sparing with the cheese. I think the trick is less, rather than more here. Finally add 1/2 a tomato, salt and pepper and then bake for 12-15 minutes. If you are adding fresh herbs, you add them now, right as they come out of the oven. Serve piping hot, but these are just as tasty cold the next day. I also made a few with a Fetta type cheese topped with Cabernet paste and I think smoked salmon and Brie would be delicious too.

   

Comments

[Rose Red]

Stripey socks definitely go faster! Nice prize from Yarn Mag - congratulations!

[AmyP]

Those Narnia socks are really violently coloured, are they not.
I have been making a plea to MrsDrWho on your behalf, to no avail.
The Henry vee-eye-eye-eye socks are fab - is that your own pattern?

[Sue]

Love the stripey socks. COngrats on winning a prize!
Once again my mouth is watering at your recipe!

[Nicole]

I love the Henry VIII socks.

[Katie]

Congratulations on your win!
I'm too afraid to try spindling, I'm afraid I'll like it and then I'll have to give up sleeping so I can fit all my fiber pursuits in.

Do you really think the girls would catch the ducks?

[Terri]

Lucky you winning the spindle. You must learn how to use it now. :o) Perhaps if you made yourself a pair of socks with the yarn you spin, the labs will "heel" very nicely and follow you anywhere. ;o)

[mrsdrwho]

mwha ha ha ha ha

[Katt]

socks look good..Love how the moss came out

Oooh hostage wool...how awful.

yes i find striped socks knit fast...

I have been really tired of late too! have been wondering why..must be the daylight savings.

Katt

[Jejune]

Why, oh why?! Poor hostage yarn! I hope an intervention can be staged soon, with no lives lost!

Wunnerful socks, and I'm glad the ducks were safe in the end :)

I'm like you with the spindle stuff - my Dotter has TWO spinning wheels and a drop spindle, and keeps trying to tempt me to the dark side... but I don't think I can fit another fibre passion in right now (plus it's nice for her to be the expert at something, and know a lot more than her mum ;)

[Nora]

Sheeba wanted to 'get' anything that moved. She was always running after some poor, unsuspecting animal, bird or insect. Of course, she's stop as soon as she heard my voice and go back to being a sweet little girl. :)

[Larjmarj]

I LOVE lentil burgers. There is a health food store not far from my work that has them and I grab one every time I stop in.
Holding wool hostage? Isn't there a law?

[Tinkingbell]

Gotta love the tailrace - and a labrador's ability to find distraction - and potential retrieval!!! Sound like a great day - Boo MrsDrWho on the hostage thing!!!

[Ann]

Congrats on your win - now you have to learn spinning - that will be interesting. Love the colors of the Nardia socks - reminds me of summer & watermelons!

[Michelle]

momo and coco never likes to play in the water. oh well. anyway, thanks for sharing that mini pizza recipe!! gotta try them one day!!

[Taphophile]

Wow, you have been productive! Congrats on the spindle win. I'm about to take the plunge with a top whorl spindle - the bottom whorl one doesn't do it for me at all.

[Monika]

It's always so much fun reaading your posts. ;o) The Henry VIII socks look great, at first I didn't see the patterning, but with the close up I could. Very nice. Lucky girl, winning a spindle and roving as well, now get it wirhling! IT's a pity about the connection socks, they DO look insteresting. I don't like daylight saving time, ours comes to an end in a couple of weeks; thanks to the US president it's longer then before, why bother to set it back at all? Your mini pizzas look yummy!

[Debby]

Our daylight savings time will end in a couple of weeks and I'm not looking forward to it. We'll get one extra hour of sleep in exhange for darkness at 5pm -- no cycling after work until April!

Congratulations that you won a YARN prize, but Harki and Peri did not win a duck prize.

[amanda j]

I love knitting stripy socks too. They seem to go much quicker when you can say to yourself "I will just finish this stripe!"

There are some good tutorials for spindle spinning on youtube. If you search for spinning you might also find yourself with another new hobby - pencil spinning. Very interesting and not at all easy!

[Kate]

Lucky thing! Isn't it fortunate that the prize was both the spindle and the roving?? You would really have been stuck if it was either/or!!!
And of course you have the issue with the spindling instrutions - just dig it out from under that towering edifice of FOs that is making us all green with envy ;P
and stripey socks go faster!!!

[Shan]

Hmmm, me-thinks if the pups pull the right name from the contest for the last post that the roving and spindle could be the perfect prize - hee!

[Helen]

Congrats on your prize from Yarn. Watch out for the spindle, dogs love wood, but you probably know that already. When we go to the factory to make puzzles and sock blockers my dog loves to chew on the cut off bits.

I can't reply to your comment on my blog and I don't have your email but wanted to let you know that Eco Wool do make a green! It is number 6898 & 7009, Meaghan at Yarns Online may bring it in for you, I love green too so I may get some for myself also.