I got this recipe from my friend Cara, who is a knitter with two small children and thus understands the value of a recipe you can throw in the slow-cooker and walk away.  This recipe is easy and can be varied in dozens of different ways.

Place in the slow-cooker, in this order:

• 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Seasoning of your choice (I use Penzey’s Southwest Seasoning. You can use anything here: chili powder, taco seasoning, or just salt and pepper.)
• 1 can of black beans, rinsed
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• 2 cups of salsa of your choice

Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 6-8 hours. During the final half-hour of cooking, shred the chicken with two forks. Stir in one 8 oz. package of cream cheese and replace lid, letting cream cheese soften. After half an hour, stir to combine. Serve over rice.

I’ve also had great success serving this over cornbread. Yvonne mixed the chicken with rice and served it up stuffed into burritos.  You can vary the salsa for a totally different taste; for example, Yvonne used mango and chipotle salsa. Kelli used pineapple salsa. The possibilities are endless!

Announcing the biggest sale ever at Natural Stitches! From October 3 – 9, 2009

Come help us get ready to count everything in the shop by making sure there is less for us to count!

Every Cotton/Cotton Blend yarn is 25% off!
Every Sale yarn is an extra 10% off!
EVERY other yarn is 10% off (yes, this means every yarn we have!)!
ALL Books, Patterns and Magazines are 10% (or more) off!
All needles are 10% off!
Orphaned yarns are an extra 10% off!
EVERYTHING ELSE in the shop is at least 10% off!

All sales are final, absolutely no returns or exchanges.
Sale good on in-stock merchandise only.
Sale prices do not apply to special orders, holds, or layaways.
Sale items may not be placed on hold during this sale.
Excludes yarn in the Last Chance Bin.
Winding services will be limited during this sale.

It’s been a busy week at Natural Stitches! First and foremost, we’re so happy to report that we made it through G-20 with no problems whatsoever. It was quiet and peaceful, and we really enjoyed having customers hunkering down with us for knitting, food, and fellowship.

Kelli led a charge to reorganize the entire needles and notions wall.  We’ve grouped all the notions together to make them easier to compare. We got word from Skacel that the new versions of the Addi Clicks are coming soon!

We received a HUGE shipment of Malabrigo this week, with brand new and new-to-us colors of Silky Merino and Worsted, plus restocks of Sock and Lace yarn.

We are thrilled to announce that Yvonne is designing two new finishing classes! Stay tuned for more details.

We hope you’ve had a great week. As always, our living room is open and we love to have you visit.

We have a new bargain bin called “Last Chance Yarns”. These are deeply discounted yarns for $5, $3 or $1 a ball!

There’s some nice stuff in there!

It does seem a bit odd to be posting recipes on a yarn store blog, but we figure we never met a knitter or crocheter or spinner who doesn’t like to eat!  Food, like yarn crafts, can be a wonderful communal experience, and so in that spirit, we begin the Natural Stitches Recipe Box feature.

We love so many things about our new coworker Yvonne: her humor, her grace and kindness, her willingness to seam up our sweaters…but perhaps most of all, we love her baked goods. (Okay, no, not really, we love her for herself.) While we couldn’t winkle her famous brownie recipe out of her, we did get her recipe for the Ho Ho Cake that so many customers enjoyed last weekend.

Ho Ho Cake

Bottom:

1 box duncan hines cake mix. Recipe calls for dark chocolate; I use german chocolate because I prefer more of a Little Debbie swiss roll taste than a Ho Ho taste.
Prepare according to package directions; bake in jelly roll style pan (lipped cookie sheet) for about 20 minutes until done. Cool.

Middle:

5 Tbsp. flour
1 1/4 c milk
1 c granulated sugar
1/2 c. Crisco
1 stick oleo
1 tsp vanilla

Mix flour & milk; cook over medium heat until pasty. Cool completely. Beat remaining ingredients until blended. Add “paste” & beat the living daylights out of it to make it fluffy. If you have a Kitchen Aid, this is where you just turn it up & let ‘er rip.

Spread over cooled cake. Refrigerate.

Icing:

1 stick oleo
1 tsp. vanilla
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
3 tbsp. hot water
1 egg (beaten)
3 c. 10x sugar
Blend oleo, vanilla, chocolate & water over low heat. When melted/blended remove from heat. TEMPER YOUR EGG (beat a little of the hot mixture into it then return it to the rest of the hot mixture) then beat in sugar. Pour/spread over filling. Refrigerate.

Devour, or bring to your friends and let them have quiet moments in the corner with their pieces of cake.

Show and tell is our favorite part of working at Natural Stitches!

Sarah shows off her Mommy Snug, knit with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.

Georgia continues her knitted Noah’s Ark with a pair of camels.

Summer of Socks and Lace winner David holds up his Girasole, knit with Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport.

We understand that many of you won’t be going to work during the G20 Summit next week. Why not come hang out with us? We will be open our regular hours: Thursday and Friday 10:00 am to 9:00 pm. Our living room is always open, and we’ll have tea, coffee, and cookies ready.

Martha says I have to let other people take turns putting together the Color Choice basket.  This month, Yvonne put together a selection that evokes the shades of the late summer harvest. Can you guess all the vegetables represented here?

Keeping the basket company is Monica’s Sunflower Doll, knit with Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Dyed Cotton.

And while we’re on the subject of summer harvest, we’d like to thank all the customers who have brought us baked goods made with produce from the local farmers markets. From the still-warm peach crumble to a lovely red raspberry pie, we have been well-fed and very happy! Thanks again!

Dear Carla,

Signed,
Gardening in Greenfield

I’m so glad you are coming back to your sweater. We are all so busy in the summer it’s easy to let winter garments lag. First thing I would suggest is getting out a large bar of chocolate. That way it will be ready if you get frustrated. Or if you just deserve it!

Seriously, get out the sweater and the pattern. Determine what portion of the sweater you are working on. Have you taken the sleeve stitches off onto a piece of yarn or do you still have all the stitches on the needles? Now read the pattern. Start from the place where it says “Knitting. Now the fun part at last!” If you have taken the sleeve stitches off the needles then you are on the body and need to just knit until you reach your desired body length (or until it is time to start your ribbing). What is your desired body length? Look at the measurements page that tells you how long we figured your sweater should be. Now you are back on track and can follow the pattern from there finishing the body, then slipping the sleeve stitches on to needles and knitting those. Don’t forget to do your sleeve decreases! It’s in the pattern under “Sleeves”.

If you have not yet taken your sleeve stitches off the needles you are in the increase section of your sweater. Again, get out the pattern and start at “Knitting. Now the fun part at last”. Do your increases (the one we use is knit into the front and the back of the next stitch) before and after each marker every other round until you reach your raglan measurement. You will find that measurement on the measurements page. It is measured down the increase line of your stitches. When you reach that measurement take your sleeve stitches off on to a piece of yarn (as described in the pattern) and continue the body as outlined above. Remember, you can come in to the shop and get help doing that part. It is very easy to do but hard to understand if you have not done it before.

If you see a theme running through this it is this. Look at both the sweater AND the pattern. Just looking at one of them won’t help you. Chances are you will be able to find your way and get back knitting all on your own.

If all that fails bring your pattern AND the sweater to the shop. You can email me at Carla@naturalstitches.com and I will give you the hours I will be working the floor so you can talk directly to me. Any of the staff can help you get the stitches flowing off your needles again so feel free to just drop in and ask. We are glad to help but we ask you to understand that if we are busy we can’t just stop everything to do it. Weekends are especially busy for us so are not good times to seek help.

So there you are, Gardening in Greenfield. That should get you back to your knitting in no time. Oh. BTW. Since I never stop knitting I don’t garden so if you should have some spare zucchini…..lolol.

Huggs,
Carla

We are getting in to the final countdown for the Jacket Knit-A-Long.  We cast on in just 6 days at 6:00pm on Monday, September 14.  If you want to be ready to start here are a few things you can do to get ready.