I thought it would be refreshing to show you today’s “update” photo of Autumn Rose in “reverse,” as it were. As in, from the inside. I mean, it looks pretty good from the inside, too, and I wouldn’t want you getting bored looking at basically the same photo every day, with incremental progress, so . . .

Besides, variety is the spice of life, right?

And, anyway, at least you can see the progress is being made. it’s getting wider, which is a plus. But still . . . there are 104 pattern rows until the I get to the underarms and I’ve only done 20 so far.

On the plus side, at least I’ve finally got the stitch marker thing worked out. I’ve said that I kept losing my place on the chart, so I reformatted my chart to have bold, vertical lines at the “center” stitch of each repeat, and that’s it. Not every 10 stitches like on the original chart. That kept messing me up. This is working much better. That, and my colorized chart.

Now, remember when I talked about adjusting the colors? Not so much because I didn’t absolutely love the autumn-inspired colors, but because, well, I like to tweak. So, I did. Tweak the colors. I’m shifting the light colors one row off from the dark colors. It’s a very subtle change. Here’s a picture of my original swatch (left) against my sweater-in-progress (right). It’s barely noticeable, the difference, and you might not see it at all. (And, really, it is easier in person.) Instead of changing both colors at the same time, so that the “stripe” is more pronounced, my color changes overlap, just a little.

Like I said, it’s really, really subtle.

I saw Julie’s post about absorption pasta a couple weeks ago and thought it sounded really interesting. I read the original post that inspired her, and then browsed around  . . . what an intriguing idea! Basically, it’s pasta cooked like risotto. I used this post as my inspiration. There wasn’t much handy in the kitchen, but I sauteed some garlic in olive oil, tossed in some ziti and stirred to coat. Then I added about 3/4 cup of leftover meat sauce, some frozen corn, and topped it off with enough boiling water to cover and added some seasonings. After it had simmered for a few minutes, I added some fresh asparagus, and then cooked the whole thing until the “sauce” was reduced down to reasonable quantities.

I really have to tell you, this was so easy, and it came out absolutely delicious. Only one pot to clean, too. Actually, Mom and I tried another variation the other night–pasta, onion, garlic, squash, corn, tomato, and a box of chicken broth. It was also delicious. I think this is my new favorite method for cooking pasta. Especially since I’m really not a big fan of tomato sauce. Although tomato sauce is a tricky thing in our family–Dad and I don’t like chunky sauces. Mom can’t stomach too many spices or too much garlic. Or peppers. She and I like vegetables, but Dad doesn’t. Although I don’t like cooked tomato chunks at all. (Those “chop tomatoes and toss with fresh basil” recipes that so many people love, I can’t abide.) Finding a sauce that we can all agree on is always difficult. (I won’t tell you the name of the one sauce we can mostly all agree on, because the minute I put the name out there, the tomato-sauce-gods are going to see it and stop making it.) Anyway, my point is that, any way that I can come up with for pasta that’s NOT just pasta with tomato sauce dumped on top is definitely a plus.

Oh, and for the record, freshly-cooked, “real” tomato sauce is a whole ‘nother story. If it’s just been simmered and the flavors still taste fresh . . . you know, like at an italian restaurant . . . that’s just fine with me. I’ve even made homemade sauce which even I find delicious . . . but the minute the extras have sat in the refrigerator for longer than 24-36 hours? Um, no. By then, it tastes like it came out of a jar and I’m just not interested any more!

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Tags: Baking, Knitting/Spinning // 8 Comments »