Tofu Scrambie

This is my first recipe post!  I love looking at aesthetically pleasing recipes and wanted to create one for you all!  This is an adapted recipe of a tofu scramble that comes from Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia C. Simpson which is an amazing cookbook that has delicious recipes for biscuits, gravy, mac and cheese, etc.  I hope you enjoy!



I love serving tofu scramble with hash browns and, of course, ketchup and sriracha!

P.S. This took a long time, and not just because of the photo editing.  I don't know how you food bloggers do this all the time!!

Portland Zine Symposium And Coming Home

So, as I've mentioned practically ONE HUNDRED TIMES, I flew up to Portland last weekend for the Zine Symposium!  I had racked up enough miles flying home during college that I got the flight for free.  I woke up early, early, early on Saturday morning, took a shuttle to the airport, and got into Portland at around 8.  I was astounded at how cheap their public transportation is ($5!! For a WHOLE DAY!), had a lovely breakfast at a place called Junior's, and then headed over to the Symposium.  I hung out all day going to several workshops and checking out all the tables.  I finally met the lovely Amber of Fight Boredom Distro in person got to see Maranda and Neely again (we met in San Francisco earlier this year!).  Corina, the creator of Portable Fortitude as well as many other beautiful illustrations was such a sweetheart and right by my roommate's table.  And Kione's hand made sign was too cute not to photograph!  I wish I'd taken more pictures of tables, but I felt intimidated asking.  But I'm working on it!  And hopefully I'll be a little bit more outgoing for the SF Zine Fest and East Bay Alternative Book And Zine Fests coming up soon!

Sunday I explored Portland as a tourist visiting Fat Fancy, Powell's, and several yarn stores.  And on Monday I hung out with a new friend/QT who I'm remaining in close contact with.  n_n  Portland was gorgeous and I definitely want to visit again soon!  I was so intimidated to travel solo, but having folks to hang out with once I was IN Portland made it a perfect experience!





And these last photos are some things I've been up to since I got back.  Porch hangs, Hedwig (who missed me a bit... :3), and crafternoons with Scout and Emil!

Episode 6: You Can Never Have Too Much Yarn

Double Chin Knitting Episode 6: You Can Never Have Too Much Yarn from Double Chin Knitting on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy this week's podcast!  I did a little bit of editing and even though it took a bit longer to get onto Vimeo, I'm really happy with how it turned out!  :)  Tonight I'm going to bake some muffins since I start school tomorrow and it'll be good to have snacks during class.  I hope you're all having a great Monday!

Finished Objects:
Noro Baby Cardigan (only sort of finished...)
Knitted Wit 2 At A Time Socks

WIPs:
Jekyll & Hyde Socks

Swearing In Cursive Issue 1

I finished my first zine!  I'm so happy with the way it turned out and hope to be making another one in the very near future.  It's titled Swearing In Cursive and I write about my experiences with having a phobia, accountability processes, and my relationship with the internet.  The pages are full of found illustrations and cursive type.  And, as if I haven't already spouted this out enough, I'll be at the Portland Zine Symposium and hope to do some trades.

The pictures above are from my zine workspaces, both the digital and cut-and-paste side of things.  I also finally photographed the yarn I dyed with black beans and the hat I knit on my road trip up to Eugene, OR a couple weeks back.

On Tuesday I leave for LA for a wedding and then I'll be back for a split second before heading off to Portland!  I'm hoping to record an episode of Double Chin Knitting tomorrow but we'll see what happens.

Buy Here!

Bitten By A Travel Bug

 These are a few pictures of the many I've taken since the beginning of July!  July has been treating me very well thus far.  The last four pictures are from my house's anti-patriotism July 4th extravaganza (with some queers).  It was such a great party for so many reasons!  The people were all great, even the people I didn't know were such a joy to be around, the drinking wasn't excessive, and the food was delicious!  I didn't get a picture, but I made vegan mini corn dogs.  Yum.

Last week I road-tripped up to Eugene to help my roommate sell hats for her family's business at the Oregon Country Fair.  I wish I could go into more details about my experience, but I don't want to bore you.  The politics of the place were tedious and exhausting, but I made some money, which I wasn't expecting, and I got out of the house.  Hedwig was happy for me to be home and, unexpectedly, the next month is also going to include a lot of traveling for me.

On July 30th I'll be headed to LA to see my family and attend a wedding and on a whim I've decided to head to Portland for the Zine Symposium from the 10th to the 12th!  If you or anyone you know would be willing to house me for a night or two, I would be extremely grateful!

Take Care!
Mckenzie

Episode 5: Socks! Socks! Socks!

Double Chin Knitting Episode 5: Socks! Socks! Socks! from Double Chin Knitting on Vimeo.

If you are familiar with Downtown Berkeley, there's a sign for a store that says "Hats! Hats! Hats!" and every time I see it I chuckle.  That's where the inspiration for the name of this episode comes from.

Finished Projects:
Terra Shawl
A Loved Thing

On The Needles:
Jekyll and Hyde Socks
Toe-Up Knitted Wit Socks

Summer Days

The past weeks have been quiet.  Some tarot readings for guidance, writing for cover letters and a zine, finishing the first two seasons of Buffy, and a lot of animal cuddles.  The two dogs in the first picture (Pancakes and Buffy) live with me, and the blue-eyed kitten is my little fluff muffin, Hedwig.  I've been stealing herbs such as lemon balm, pineapple sage, lavender, santolina, and camomile for tea and baths.  I can't wait for our garden to be producing plants that I can use for natural dye as well as herbs.  But there's so much work left to do.

This weekend I'll be going to Trans March in San Francisco, but aside from that will be hiding from the Pride festivities happening in the Bay Area.  I'll talk about that more some other day.  Tonight I'm going to A Verb for Keeping Warm for a talk by Stephen West.  Ysolda Teague will also be there to sign books!  Of course, the only people I fangirl over are knitting designers and trans* reality tv stars (that story is also for another day).

Take Care,
Mckenzie

Keeping Busy

I keep wanting to say that I'm having a hard time keeping myself busy, but then as I'm reflecting I realize that it's not that I'm not keeping myself busy, but I'm having a hard time convincing myself that I'm being productive while I'm not making money.  I'm privileged to have some time to think about what I want to do, because even though I walked in graduation, I still have one class to take next semester.  Not having my degree yet puts me in an odd place and limits what jobs I can apply for.  So I'm going to keep taking pictures, writing, reading, knitting, and gardening while I can and hope that I start to get some responses from some of these applications I keep sending out!

The first couple pictures are from Donut Farm which is a brilliant vegan donut/weekend brunch place in Oakland.  I got biscuits and gravy that were to die for, but they also have chick'n and waffles, breakfast burritos, and tofu scrambles!  There pictures of some SCOBY and the preparation of some kombucha, which is fermenting perfectly.  There are some pictures of Hedwig, my little cream puff, and my qt housemates.  My Ravelry page is linked in the sidebar if you want more info about my knitting projects.  I'm planning on filming another episode of the Double Chin Knitting podcast later today or tomorrow, too!

The Beginning

About a month ago I moved into a beautiful old house in West Oakland.  The only thing I know about it at this point is that it used to be a sober-living/transition house and that it'd been empty for some time before any of us moved in.  After living primarily in San Francisco for three years, I was STOKED to find out that I would have access to my own little green space!  As lovely as community gardens have been for me, building a garden from scratch has been a dream of mine!  Above is what the backyard looked like initially: overgrown weeds, an overgrown tree (I had already chopped it down by the time this was taken, it's that pile of twigs!), and some weird oddly spaced rosebushes and sticks.


But here's what we've done so far!  The plan at this point is for my housemates and I to re-fresh the soil with some compost and build three planter boxes on the left side, tear up that granite walkway, plant fruit trees around the perimeter, and some grass for the doggies living here.  It's going to be a lot of work, but look at it already!  I hope that summer won't be over before we can start having some yummy veg growing out here.  The front yard is also going to be a lot of work, and I'm hoping to plant herbs out there as well as plants that create good natural dye like euphorbia and marigolds!

Episode 4: Zine Things

Double Chin Knitting Episode 4: Zine Things from Double Chin Knitting on Vimeo.


Off the Needles:
Shea's Appreciation Cowl
Mom's Common Bean Shawl

On the Needles:
Jekyll and Hyde Socks

Other Links:
Maranda Elizabeth's Blog
Maranda Elizabeth's Etsy
Fight Boredom Website

- Mckenzie

Episode 3: Small Stash

Double Chin Knitting Episode 3: Small Stash from Double Chin Knitting on Vimeo.

Off the Needles:
Bandana Cowl
Miette Cardigan

On the Needles:
Jekyll and Hyde Socks
Appreciation Bandana Cowl

Other Links:
Loop & Leaf (LYS)
Knitted Wit (Her Etsy is radddd!  Seriously, go check it out!)

I think that's it!  Apologies for the awkward, cut off ending!

-Mckenzie

Episode 2: Procrastiknitting

Double Chin Knitting Episode 2: Procrastiknitting from Double Chin Knitting on Vimeo.

Off the Needles:
nada!

On the Needles:
Pop Blossoms Shawl
Jekyll and Hyde Socks
Purl Bee Bandana

Episode 1: Introductions

Double Chin Knitting Episode One from Double Chin Knitting on Vimeo.

Off the Needles:
Scalloped Colorblock Sweater
Pop Blossoms Hat

On the Needles:
Socks!

In Queue:
Better (?) Socks!
Pop Color Shawl


More Links!
Fibershed Marketplace
Twirl Yarn
Cast Away LYS (Their website is ADORABLE)
Knitterly LYS


I think those are all the links I wanted to add!  If you have a knitting video podcast, I want to watch it!  Leave a comment and say hello!

- Mckenzie

Hand Knit Scalloped Color Block Sweater

I have been working on this sweater since November!  This morning I weaved in all the ends, grafted the underarms together with the kitchener stitch, and finally finished it!  I based the shape and seed-stitch on the Freya Sweater but made my own color chart for the scalloped color transition.  I love the way it turned out and cannot wait to wear it out!


And it fits great!

 On the needles:
- Pop Blossoms Hat

 Off the needles:
- Scalloped Color Block Sweater