Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Double sided Two Tone Scarf [Knitting Tutorial]

Double Sided Two Tone Scarf
I've been wanting to do a tutorial on double sided knitting scarf for a long time. The picture above is a scarf that I made for my husband few years ago. I do not take any credit on the method I use because in fact I learned this technique through www.knittinghelp.com. They have a lot of great tutorials there. This pattern does not look as boring as the other ones if you are just a beginner and ready to advance so no one knows you are just doing purl and knit. And yes, this pattern only requires you to purl and knit. Isn't that awesome? The tricky part is to change colors frequently. This scarf is thick so it is very suitable for super cold weather.


The pattern I have here is as little different from above but I believe it will still look great. I am knitting it while doing this tutorial so I don't have a finished picture yet. Hopefully I'll get it finish it soon and put up a picture here soon.

Download Pattern Here



Keep in mind, each block equals to 2 stitches [Color A: Knit; Color B: Purl]

st = stitch
K = knit
P = purl
A = Color A
B = Color B

*When knitting or purling one color strand, you will always bring the other color strand together but just knit/purl with the color you want.

Cast On: 21 st with both color strands together. [This will create 42 stitches in total]
Make sure when you cast on with both strands, the color pattern remains the same throughout [i.e. Color A, Color B, Color A, Color B...etc]

Long Tail Cast On: Make sure the color strands pattern goes consistently

Row 1: Knit both colors together, *K1 (with A), P1 (with B), repeat from * for 18 times, Purl the last stitch with both colors together. [You will basically always knit/purl the first and last stitch together]
This is how I did my knitting.

Row 2: Slip St. Begin the first row of your pattern chart. *[K1 (with B), P1 (with A)], repeat from * for 8 more times, K1 (with A), P1 (with B), repeat from * again for the rest of the row until the last stitch. Purl the last stitch with both colors again.

Row 3: Repeat Row 2 except switch the colors from A to B, B to A.

Row 4: Slip St. Begin the 3rd row of your pattern chart. i.e. *[K1 (with B, P1 (with A)], repeat from * 7 more times, K1 (with A), P1 (with B), do * once, K1 (with A), P1 (with B), repeat * again for the rest of the row until the last stitch. Purl the last stitch with both colors together.

Row 5: Repeat Row 4 but switch the colors instead.


Please also visit THIS PAGE to see a tutorial that Knittinghelp.com did for double knitting.



The rest of it should make sense by following the chart. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. Hope you have fun knitting this two color scarf! :)

Monday, August 4, 2014

Petting Food: Marugame Monzo

Went to this Udon place in Little Tokyo this past Sunday and enjoyed some very nice udon. 



Date
August 3rd, Sunday night, quite crowded
Parking
You know how it is for Little Tokyo’s parking. You either get lucky enough to park on the streets, or you pay for public parking. We had to park quite far for to get a street parking. And you know how it gets a little be creepy at night on the streets so I would actually prefer public parking that’s close to the restaurant.
(I normally park next to pinkberry if I go to Little Tokyo)

Wait Time
♥♥
It was about 15-20 minutes wait for four of us. But compare to Daikokuya next door, I do consider the wait time to be short. The restaurant is not that big, so you will have to wait for sure.
Please note that this restaurant might not be the best place for large groups.

Cleanliness
♥♥♥♥

Food
When you enter the restaurant, you can see a udon chef hand-rolling the udon dough inside the kitchen. All the udon in this restaurant is hand-rolled which makes the udon chewy but smooth.

My husband tried this Sea Urchin Cream Udon. The taste of the cream and sea urchin matches perfectly well. Their creamy soup is not like the ones in Fu Fu Tei [which is more soup and salty]. This Sea Urchin Cream Udon is creamy and thick, but not as filling as it seems to be. It is a little pricier but it is definitely worth the try. You may think they might put so little sea urchin inside the soup, but that’s not the case. They actually have quite a bit of sea urchin for you to finish the udon without running out of sea urchin.

Sea Urchin Cream Udon $15.95
♥♥♥♥♥

I had this Curry Udon which comes in a thick curry paste/soup with udon and some beef inside. In my opinion, the curry sauce/soup was too thick and too salty. It would be great for rice but for udon, it was a little bit too much. I became so thirsty at the end that I couldn’t even finish the whole udon. The sauce to my taste is a little bit spicier and less sweetened than regular Japanese curry.


Curry Udon $9.50

Miso Cabonara $12.50



Chicken Skin



Price
♥♥ Other than the sea urchin cream udon being pricier than the other dishes, I still consider this as a pretty good deal. I do think the sea urchin cream udon is worth that price.






Marugame Monzo
329 E 1st Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 346-9762
Visit their Yelp Page here