Cattywampus

Food. Fall is about food.

Is it that this is the time of year when our ancestors used to harvest and store food, is it the natural turn of the seasons that signal our bodies to want hearty, warm meals?  I don't know what it is, but in the fall I want to cook and I want to eat hearty, filling, and probably fattening foods.

Friday I was off and I spent a good bit of time cooking.  For lunch I made curried roasted butternut squash and put it on a salad with crunch sprouts (these are new for me, I love them!), goat cheese, & french lentils.

This week I went to a class on indian cooking and learned to make a few things (theoretically).

 

Hmf.  That came out smaller than I anticipated...

Anyway.  So yesterday I roasted my own spices.

 

So that's a no-go with the plastic spoon, it started to melt.  That's a first.

Then I ground them in a coffee grinder and made chicken curry that ACTUALLY tasted like real chicken curry, not just an acceptable at home substitute, but real chicken curry.  YUM.  Of course I forgot to take a pic of that, the eating took precedence there.

I also made what the instructor called mint chutney, this is what I know as the green stuff that comes with the papadum at restaurants.

 

And I made the papadum to go with it.  First of all, this is enough green stuff to serve at a dinner party and second of all, it was so hot that you couldn't eat more than two bites without crying.  We both like spicy food, so this was no meager level of spiciness.  I think this may be my fault, the recipe said green chiles, the only green chiles I found at the market were serrano chiles, and they're green, so I put in two of those (recipe said four, but they smelled really hot, so I held back).  Maybe serranos are hotter than those little green chiles?  Either that or I got super, super hot chiles.  Whatever happened, I have no idea what we're going to do with this much of it!

Verdict:  Delicious and worth all the effort with the spice roasting & all that.

Tonight - chicken parm

 

with fresh pasta from DiBruno Bros.  Again I say YUM.

Tomorrow - leftovers baby!

The Knitter's Book of Wool

Clara Parkes' much anticipated new book, The Knitter's Book of Wool, is out, and it is every bit as wonderful as you hoped it would be.  I also have her Book of Yarn - I learned OODLES from that, and this book takes it one step further.

When I first heard what it was about I thought it would be a book aimed at spinners, but happily for me and everybody else who doesn't hear the siren song of the wheel, it is aimed at anybody who is interested in wool and in turn, the sheep it comes from.

Maybe you don't have an interest in where your wool comes from, but you have an interest in why different types of wools perform the way they do in a finished garment, this book will help you understand that too.

I now understand why yarn made from specific breeds is more expensive than generic yarn, and because of that I will be more willing to pay a premium price for those yarns in the future.

Here is a picture of locks of fleece from different breeds next to each other - no wonder they end up as completely different finished products!  

Personally, as an aside, BFL is one of my FAVORITE yarns to work with and it is the only type of yarn outside of merino that I am able to tolerate directly next to my skin.  (and now I know that it's a longwool with a demiluster shine)

Clara takes you from the sheep through the processing, so if you've ever been curious about the details of how the fleece gets turned into yarn you can read about it here.  After that she goes into details about specific breeds of sheep and what types of garments that yarn will be good (and bad) for.

Getting on to my favorite portion of the book, the patterns!  There are many lovely patterns in this book, mittens, a few hats, a family of sweaters, two cardigans, a handful of socks, a lace tee, and a few other things I probably missed.  For the most part all these patterns are accessible to beginner to intermediate knitters, but my favorite - as my obsessions have led me lately - are the shawls.  There are four, two stoles and two triangular shawls.  Two of them really caught my eye; first this triangular shawl by Evelyn Clark (Prarie Rose Lace Shawl) using sock yarn or doubled lace weight, perfect for a fingering weight that you can't bear to put on your feet.

And second, I fell hard for this Sivia Harding beaded stole, Tibetan Clouds.  It is shown here in Sundara Fingering Silky Merino, but there are many gorgeous fingering weights that could be used for a lower price point.  I have already investigated my stash and just need to order some beads to be able to start on this one.

What to knit, what to knit?  Too many gorgeous things to make and not enough time.  

One of the things I love about both of  her books is that Clara takes the time to tell you why the yarn shown in each particular pattern works for that pattern and what other things could be substituted, in some cases, like the Prarie Rose Lace Shawl, it is even shown in two different yarns so you can see the way the chosen yarn changes the finished project.

Bottom line:  Even if you don't care where your yarn comes from this book is worth it for the patterns alone.  (but I hope you do care, because I'm a big geek and think it's fascinating)

Disclaimer:  I did receive a complimentary copy of this book for review, but I would have loved it just as much if I'd paid full price for it.  

Hat update!

Turns out, it shrunk even a little more in the dryer and it's all good.  I am pleased!

 

 

In fact, I like the color combo so much that now I'm going to order yarn in similar 

colors to make a scarf and mitts.  So much for stash busting...

And now for something completely different

This week I spent getting over my cold so I have slept a lot and am not longer a big ball of negative energy.  I imagine I am much more pleasant to be around these days.

I am having a bit of project malaise.  I have two sweaters stuck on sleeve island - one with one sleeve down and one to go even, three lace shawls in process, two sweaters just cast on, one sweater I'm knitting on when we travel, one sock about 3" in, and one lace scarf that has unintentionally gone into hibernation.   The rest of those are things I consider active knitting - meaning I have knit on each thing at least once in the last week.  Sheesh.  My energies are a bit spread out.

I do not lack for things to knit.

But.  Yesterday in this insanely unseasonable weather DH asked for flip top mittens, that got me looking at patterns for winter accessories, and that had me pulling out all my half balls of yarn seeing what I had that I could work with.  So, this morning, there I was with about 20 colors of worsted weight flung about me, trying to find colors I liked that had enough left to work with...and what was I making?  

Not a pair of flip top mittens...oh no, a hat.  A colorwork hat from Hats On by Charlene Schurch.  For dh, at least?  HAH.  You do jest.  Nope, for me.  

In my defense I don't love any of my hats.  I have three, one is too loose, one is too tight, one doesn't cover my ears - so I am still looking for the one that is JUST RIGHT.  I have hopes that this hat will do the trick.  With the colorwork and multiple layers it will certainly be warm, and that is the point.

So I chose this deep purple and a reddish orange, they compliment each other nicely.  And after a day of solid knitting I finished it.

It has this funky construction - you turn the knitting after knitting the brim and going the other direction, knit another layer underneath, then knit the top.  I didn't do the colorwork pattern in the center b/c I didn't think I had enough yarn - which I didn't, so that was a good thing.

 

I used my new found colorwork skills that I picked up in the jared flood class and I do believe I am much improved.

Unfortunately, it doesn't fit me.  This was not my goldilocks hat - when I blocked it the silly hat stretched out and easily fits my husband.  It practically touches the tip of my nose.

I put it in the dryer to see if it would shrink up at all.  Be back with you in a sec with the results...

Well.  Maybe that worked after all.  The camera just died, so I don't have much to show you, I'll get a better shot one day this week.  It's still big, and quite long, but no longer looks like floppy cloche.

 

I know, it's a FAB picture, ACK!  Oh well.  We're all friends here, right?

Maybe I'll try another one next weekend.  I'll see how I feel about it after a good night's sleep.

Here pixie is lying on my various knitting projects & bags.  Why lay on a perfectly good dog bed when you can lay on this stuff?

 

You'd think it might be prickly, what with all those needles in there, but apparently that doesn't bother her.

Lily Chin's Knitting Tips & Tricks - a review

I was lucky enough to receive review copies of Lily Chin's Knitting Tips & Tricks (check out Cat Bordhi's review of the book on Amazon) as well as Clara Parkes' new book, today I'm going to review Lily Chin's book, my review of Clara Parkes' book will be up in a few days and then I'll do a little give away of a book or two just to say thanks.

I know that Lily Chin offers a very popular knitting class entitled "Tips & Tricks" and I know that she is also a phenomenal knitter as well as a designer, so I was excited when this book turned up on the review list!

 

Flipping through the book at first glance I see a dense book with lots of pictures and charts - great for those of us who are visual learners! 

The first quarter of the book would be really useful for a beginning knitter.  If I had had this book when I first learned to knit, I wouldn't have twisted my stitches for the first two years!  

Getting into the meat of the book there is the most thorough explanation and illustration of provisional cast ons that I have ever seen, fantastic!   Even better - I learned how to calculate how much yarn you'll need to pull out for a long tail cast on - there's a method for this?  Who knew??  Certainly not me.  (Lily obviously did.)

As you move towards the end there is a section on seaming and buttonholes - both of these are things that continue to frustrate me at this stage in my knitting, so I will go back and read that again to make sure I've gotten every little bit of information I can out of it.

This book doesn't have any patterns in it, so there isn't an immediate wow factor, I can't tell you I must knit this or that or how I've fallen in love with the color of such & such yarn, but there are nuggets of gold hidden in here that made me (I would qualify myself as an advanced intermediate knitter) go 'Ooooohhhhh, THAT is how you do that!'

Ever wonder how to fix a miscrossed cable?  Fix a fair isle mistake or turn a knit into a purl with duplicate stitch?  How to seam stripes?

If you know a knitter who is just starting out or you want to see what's in here that would help you improve your own skills I definitely recommend checking out this book - good knitting is all about the details and there are details galore in this book!

(The oohing and ahhing will come into play with Clara Parkes' book, stay tuned!)

Nothing goes right sometimes

I managed to come down with a cold on Friday, the day before a three day weekend.  In general, that sucks.  So all weekend I was pretty miserable to be around, short tempered, not sleeping, and screwing things up right and left.

Knitting things, that is.

This sweater will soon be done, but I had to redo the length of the front & back pieces 2x each.  Twice - each time AFTER I seamed the shoulders and realized something wasn't right.  The first time they were just too long, either I'm short in the armpit to shoulder area or this pattern had lots of extra room, either way, they were too long.  The second time I realized I had pulled the front back further than the back and I had 2 extra inches of back compared to the front.  How did I do that?  I just don't know.  

 

I am doing set in sleeves from the top down, so I did the math, picked up the stitches and started working the sleeve cap back and forth.  About 90 minutes later, as I'm reaching the end of  the short rows I realize I'm at the end of stitches on one side, but not on the other.  I count them again and somehow the 58 stitches I had on there had turned into 53 stitches.  I was missing 5 stitches on one side.  Right.  So I ripped that back and put it down, the yarn from that bit is still in the corner of the living room.  I'm too annoyed at it to pick it up.  I think I'm doing okay this time though, I tried it on and it doesn't seem lopsided or anything, so that's good, but at this point I just want this sweater done, and if it doesn't fit when I'm done I'm not going to salvage the yarn to use for something else, I'm just going to take the whole thing and walk outside to the trash can on the corner and throw it away.

This is not to say that the whole weekend went awry, it didn't, but the combo of being sick and not sleeping made it feel like everything little that could go wrong, did go wrong.

Today, on my holiday when I  had all sorts of grand plans and ambitions, I was still feeling crappy, so I sat on the couch and watched movies all day and knit on the desdemona shawl.  For some reason I was bound and determined to complete the center section of it.  There is a center square, then you pick up the stitches around that and knit the border.  
 

I don't know if you can really tell from the picture but the first half on the right side is MUCH tighter than the half I knit today.  I measured them, just to see, the repeats are measuring 3/4" on the right side and 1" on the left side.  Right.  On any other piece of lace this would barely be noticeable, but this is supposed to be square.  Ultimately I'm going to figure it'll block out okay and if my square is a little lopsided nobody will notice, but still - why would my gauge change THAT much in a few weeks?  I've picked things up after not touching them for 6 months or a year and never had an issue like that.  I blame the sick.  The good news is that I'm about 8 rows short of finishing the center square, then I can get to the round & round border part, that's what I'm looking forward to.  

Also, I'm looking forward to not feeling like this.  Bonus - the first day I feel human will most likely be tomorrow when I'm back at work.  Who doesn't love spending an entire 3 day weekend feeling crappy only to be healthy for work again?  Yes.  I am bitter.  It comes with the tired and cranky, I can't help it.  But tomorrow is a new day and with a little help from benedryl hopefully I will be well rested & much less cranky for the (thankfully) short week.

Stealth dog!

Almost forgot - my secret project balled up & turned black & white so as to give no indication of anything, but I am knitting it, so I'm showing it off!  Reveal will be in November when I gift it, but I had to put a teaser in.

Fall is here

Today was a gorgeous fall day and after perusing the October Bon Appetit, the mood to make fall foods struck me.

I started with a lentil and roasted squash salad for lunch, I forgot the goat cheese, it was good without it, but it would have been even yummier with that addition.  

Then I made an apple spice cake, mine's not that pretty, but it sure is good!

 

I am also making white beans with garlic & sage along with beef roast with root vegetables for dinner.  I guess I was feeling adventurous today.  The root vegetables I chose include carrots, turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and celery root.  Should be interesting, I have no idea what turnips or celery root taste like!  The white beans will get good use later this week in soup and in a red sauce with some sweet sausage.  Yum!  

Now it's a bit late in the day, but I am finally sitting down to knit, I have decided to pick up a shawl I had started and then put down months ago.  (spring things)  Here is where I last left it.

 

The first section is straight forward enough, so I'm going to make it my tv knitting for a while.  Something has happened to my knitting focus lately.  My sweaters have completely stalled - I have NO desire to finish up the sweaters I have in progress.  I just want to knit lace.  So lace it is!  There's no point in fighting that, I knit for fun, so I'll knit whatever strikes my fancy, and right now it's lace.

Moving back in time one day...

Yesterday I took two classes with Jared Flood.  I don't have much to show for it though.  The first class was colorwork & steeking.

 

Here he is looking at Craig's work.  (Craig owns Loop, our fab LYS)

 

That's what I accomplished.  The class was really helpful, I definitely understand a lot of things better and I hope I've learned those little tricks that make colorwork look right.  Handily, this is also my swatch for the knitpicks vest I am planning making.  He did also take the swatch he was working and *eeek!* steeked it, watching him do it really helped me have confidence that it really does work.

The second class was about EPS (EZ's percentage system), which I've used a number of times, but there were a few things that I just wasn't really understanding, like the short row shaping to raise the back neck.

Jared was a great instructor and watching him talk about the different aspects of EPS while showing us those bits on his sweaters really helped.  

Last night we tried to go to a street fair but quickly realized that we are definitely too old to have fun at those things.  Too many people, too much noise, too many lines, too much everything - so we wandered and read menus until we got to a restaurant we had been meaning to try for a while and to my utter delight - they had veal.  I know I shouldn't eat veal, I shouldn't WANT to eat veal, I should be against the whole idea of it - but darn it it's SO DARN GOOD.  I only have it 2 or 3 times a year and we hadn't found a place in Philly that had veal that was worth it.  I cut it with my fork.  Heaven.

All in all, this was a fabulous weekend, as dh said, the only way it could have been better is if we'd won the powerball!  I hope you all had an equally fabulous weekend!