It’s almost summer, and that means it’s time for pesto! I took pictures when I made my last batch of basil pesto and put it together in a photo tutorial. Enjoy!
And in case you’d like it in a more condensed version, here’s the recipe written out:
Five-Minute Pesto
Ingredients (all measurements are approximate):
1/4 c olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic
1/3 c pine nuts
2 cups basil leaves
1/3 c grated parmesan
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 tsp salt & pepper
Makes about 1 1/2 cups of pesto.
Step 1:
Strip leaves off about 2 cups of fresh basil and toast about 1/3 cup pine nuts.
Step 2:
Mince 3-4 cloves garlic in food processor.
Step 3:
Add basil and pine nuts and blend until well-chopped.
Step 4:
Squeeze in the juice of 1/2 a lemon and throw in about 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese.
Step 5:
While the blade is spinning, pour in about 1/4 cup olive oil (or until desired consistency) and add salt and pepper to taste.
Eat and enjoy! I love it in pasta, tossed into salads, slathered over roast chicken, or just on a pita chip!
You guys! My giganto-blanket is #19 and #20 on this Buzzfeed list. How cool is that? Thanks, Buzzfeed!
I also wanted to give y’all a sneak peek at my newest giganto-thingie.
This is a cabled throw I made as a wedding gift for my dear friends Jen and Stephen. I’ll do a full post with details and the cable chart in a few days.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about my giganto-blanket, head on over to the FAQ page. Thanks!
Hello everyone. It’s been a while, I know. Here’s a little recap:
First I was in New York City for a week, it was inspiring and exhausting. I got to see three shows, “Once” on Broadway (so beautiful), “Sleep No More” in an abandoned warehouse in Chelsea (very unique and thought-provoking), and Alan Cumming’s almost-one-man “Macbeth” on Broadway (whoa… no words). Here are some pictures:
Where Harry met Sally, more or less.
At Katz’s Deli.
At the Natural History Museum.
Taken from the High Line
This bird scuplture is made up of nails. Pretty cool.
They make you wear these masks to Sleep No More. You should go. It’s hard to explain
Okay, so maybe not America’s favorite…
Then I went to three weddings, three weekends in a row. One in Los Angeles, one in Sonoma, and one in Santa Barbara.
Los Angeles Wedding
Land of palm trees
Sonoma Winery
UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens
Score @ A Verb for Keeping Warm
Santa Barbara wedding – bridesmaids’ dresses
The weddings were all so lovely, but by the end I was completely run down and sick, and this is all I wanted to do:
I’m starting to feel better again, though! So I promise real knitting content soon, including a new cabled version of my giganto-blanket!
First of all, I want to say, loudly and without equivocation: I AM NOT A STATISTICIAN. In fact, I haven’t taken a math class since high school, so my data analysis skills are, ahem, a little rusty. If you think you could do a better job, please do! Here’s the data:
There does seems to be a general correlation between weight, shoe size, clothing size and height to calf size. Though there is a lot of variation within each group, you can generally assume calf size increases as each of those variables also increases.
That said, measurements vary WIDELY. There’s no such thing as “normal.” If you can get a measurement you’ll be better off.
Now onto the more specific results:
Let’s start with the CLOTHING SIZE measurement. I should note that these sizes are self-reported and we all know how variable clothing sizes can be from brand to brand. The idea is to get a generalization of clothing size and go from there. Anyway, enough caveats. Here’s a chart (all data in inches):
Sample Size
Median
Lowest
Highest
Range
average
XS
12
13.00
10.50
14.50
4.00
12.88
S
38
14.00
11.75
17.00
5.25
13.88
M
49
14.50
11.75
17.50
5.75
14.65
L
38
15.75
13.00
19.00
6.00
15.82
1X
28
16.13
13.00
19.50
6.50
16.17
2X
13
16.50
11.50
21.00
9.50
17.58
3X +
not enough data
Sample size is the number of respondents in each size group. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough data for sizes 3X and above, so I had to exclude them from this one.
Now onto for SHOE SIZE. Here’s the data plotted out (click image for full res version):
I had excel calculate the trend line, which was y = 0.6306x + 9.8918 — I then plugged this in to each size I got the following results, rounded to the nearest quarter inch:
Shoe Size
(U.S. Women’s)
Calf Circ. (inches)
5
13
5.5
13.25
6
13.75
6.5
14
7
14.25
7.5
14.5
8
15
8.5
15.25
9
15.5
9.5
16
10
16.25
10.5
16.5
11
16.75
11.5
17.25
12
17.5
To me, this one seems pretty useful. It could just be because I wear a size 9.5 and my calf size is 16″, so I happen to fall into the trend.
Next we have the HEIGHT data.
Same story here, and the trend line is y = 0.0971x + 8.8301 — the resulting data:
Height (inches)
Calf Circ. (inches)
60
14.75
61
14.75
62
14.75
63
15
64
15
65
15.25
66
15.25
67
15.25
68
15.5
69
15.5
70
15.75
71
15.75
72
15.75
73
16
74
16
75
16
76
16.25
77
16.25
78
16.5
Finally we have the WEIGHT data.
This trendline was y = 0.0356x + 9.4028. On this one I removed the highest and lowest weights just to try and keep the outliers from skewing the data. I didn’t know if this was a good idea or not, but feel free to download the raw data from the link above and try it yourself. Here’s the trend results:
Weight (pounds)
Calf Circ. (inches)
90
12.5
100
13
110
13.25
120
13.75
130
14
140
14.5
150
14.75
160
15
170
15.5
180
15.75
190
16.25
200
16.5
210
17
220
17.25
230
17.5
240
18
250
18.25
260
18.75
270
19
280
19.25
290
19.75
So, that’s what I have to share. I’d like to keep collecting data and revisit this in a few months to see if a larger sample set would help clarify things, so if you haven’t submitted your information yet, go for it! The more info we have, the better!
What do y’all think? Is this helpful? Will this info be a good aid in your knitting? Let me know!
First, I want to thank everyone who entered my calf-size survey. Of the 157 entries I received (you all are awesome, btw), I picked the 6 winners—I realized I didn’t ask for anyone’s names so please check your email to see if you’ve won!
But here are the preliminary results: we’re all waaaaaay too self-critical!
Seriously, though! I got so many submissions with little disclaimers attached about how their calf circumference or weight were either too big or too small. One person made sure to let me know their submission wasn’t a typo, it was just “abnormally large” (they were actually exactly average, based on my data), and others added little comments of same nature. LADIES, LISTEN UP: we need to stop obsessing over our body shapes. They’re all different, and they’re all valid.
Look, I’m just as guilty. I’ve wasted so much time (likely years of my life) fretting that my size and shape weren’t good enough. I still feel that way sometimes. But I’m trying to break myself of it, and you should, too.
Okay, enough preaching (to the choir, I’m sure). I’ll be back in a bit with some real data to share with y’all. Thanks SO MUCH for submitting—you’re all rock stars!
Women of the world, I need your help! I’m working on a new boot-topper pattern but I can’t find any standard measurements for calf circumference. This might be because there aren’t any standard measurements for calf circumference in existence, which is where you come in.
I’m gathering data to try and get a sense of how calf circumference relates to clothing size. If you’re willing to measure your calf at the widest point and fill out the form below I’d be so grateful! And I’ll share the results with everyone so we can all benefit! As a thank you, I will be giving away a FREE copy of my book, Picture Perfect Knits, as well as FIVE FREE sets of all my self-published knitting patterns.*
And know that I’m not tracking your personal data — all I see are numbers. All that’s required are Calf Size (in inches, please) and Clothing Size, but if you’d like to add in the rest of the data it could prove useful. HOWEVER, if you would like to be entered in the giveaway you must enter an email address! I’ll pick winners on April 7, 2013.
Make sure to measure your calf at the widest part. Thanks!
In case you haven’t heard, this week the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases related to same-sex marriage. I’m a knitter and I stand for marriage equality, so I made this to share with like-minded knitters who are interested:
It’s a (photoshopped — I didn’t have time to actually knit up a sample) remake of the Human Rights Campaign’s red and pink logo. Feel free to borrow, rework — whatever! I just know I can’t be the only knitter who is excited to see change on the horizon, so I wanted to share!
I felt like doing a little stash busting recently, so I decided to make one of Susan B. Anderson’s reversible knit toys. I thought this little duck/bunny toy was irresistibly cute (and the pattern is free to boot!), so I took a stab at it. Here it is in action:
This isn’t knitting-related, but I thought I’d share the video I took this morning from my balcony:
This is a time-lapse video of the 2013 L.A. Marathon runners. The marathon runs right below my apartment every year, so I like waking up and cheering them on. It’s so inspiring!
Details (copied from YouTube ’cause I’m being lazy):
Time lapse of the beginning of the 2013 Los Angeles Marathon, March 17th, 2013. Taken from a hill in Angeleno Heights, looking over Elysian Park Avenue, just before the 1 mile mark.
This time lapse is 932 frames taken over 62 minutes (from 7:29 to 8:32 am), and should show every single runner in the race, except the wheelchair racers and the elite women (sorry, I didn’t get it set up in time for those!). The first group you see is the elite men, followed by 24,000 runners.
Are any knitters also marathon runners? Tell me your story in the comments!
Now that my Cabo Cardi has been released in the wild, I thought it’d be fun to look back at how the pattern came into this world.
Back in May 2012, I saw a call for submissions on the Ravelry Designers forum for Knit Picks’ first-ever pattern collection. (Here’s the original post.) I checked out their mood board and thought I could come up with something for them, so I started sketching.
First, I just drew a bunch of black and white line sketches. Because I’m pretty terrible at drawing, I usually print out a croquis and then trace over it on plain paper. I usually sketch about 5-6 different looks before I settle on one. Here’s one of my abandoned sketches from that early stage:
I didn’t hate it, but it just wasn’t really working for me. But when I sketched this one, I thought it looked pretty promising:
The next step was to scan the line drawing and get some color going. Knit Picks had specified particular colors they wanted in the collection, so I went to their site and downloaded the actual color swatches. I set those as patterns in Photoshop, so I could then paint with the exact colors and while maintaining a bit of the yarn’s texture. Here’s what a screenshot of my photoshop work looks like:
In addition to adding the colors in, I made sure to point out any important design features and include a few swatch images to show what type of stitch I’d like to use. Knit Picks requires a one-sheet submission, so the next step was to write up a little copy and put it all together on one page.
Here’s what I came up with: (click the image for a larger, more readable version)
So, remember, this was all the way back in May — nine months ago! I submitted my design on May 16, 2012, to be exact, and then more or less forgot about it. Then, on July 3, I got an email from Knit Picks saying my pattern had been chosen for their collection. Woohoo!
The deadline to submit my finished pattern was August 15, 2012. Luckily, this collection didn’t require me to knit up my own sample, so I only had to come up with the written instructions and send it off to their test knitter. I worked on a few swatches, finally coming up with a stitch pattern I liked. That’s when I ran into the first problem with my original design: Knit Picks didn’t have enough of the Cotlin DK in Sagebrush, so they asked me to pick some new colors.
It was difficult to come up with a new color combo without seeing the yarn in person, but I went with “Coffee” as the main color and kept “Celery” as the contrast color. Towards the end of August, the test knitter got in touch with some questions and notes, and I submitted a second draft of the pattern in September. In November, I completed the final edits, and received a PDF proof of the final pattern in mid-January. Then, on February 13, the pattern collection went live, and included pictures of the final product:
I love the way it turned out, and I’m so happy to be included in the awesome Knit Picks First Light collection.
Hopefully this has been interesting to y’all! I know a lot of people who’d like to design but don’t know where to start, so I thought this might be helpful information.
