DH Left His Heart In San Francisco

Ever since the DH was a little boy, his favorite baseball team has always been the Giants and that was his father's favorite team. We have a subscription to MLB TV and get to watch every one of their games, so I figure it is time that the DH wears his devotion -- not on his sleeve -- but on his head. I am going to use the same pattern that I used for a hat for my son. This pattern is really easy to modify the fair isle band which I have done with an eleven stitch pattern of the SF logo. The pattern is 110 stitches wide so there will be 10 instances of the pattern.

According to the actual pattern, there is supposed to be a silk blend yarn as a liner around the ears in part to hide the mess that occurs as a result of the two color work. But I am just going to start out with the burnt orange color. The yarn that I am using, Cascade Yarns Cash Vero DK is a Merino, Microfiber, Cashmere blend which will be plenty soft against the DH's ears.

The lime green that you see in the picture, isn't one of the official colors of the San Francisco Giants. But don't worry, Dear Husband, it is only the yarn used for the provisional cast on and will be removed soon. I have used a crocheted chain for my cast on. If you are unfamiliar with this technique, there are several tutorials out on the internet -- I like this one from The Purl Bee!

Happy Knitting! (Boy, it has been awhile - it feels good to say that again!)

Throwback Thursday -- Unfinished Star

Here's an oldie but a goodie. This is an unfinished project on which I was last working in the summer of 2006. My original plan had been to make this into a large wall hanging. It is in a bin with all the fabrics that I was using. The paper pieced pattern has a flying geese border which I have not yet begun. I am trying to decide if I want to finish this one now; and if I do, should I just put a simple border on it with left over olive green or go ahead and do the paper pieced flying geese. If I go simple - it will be done fast. . .otherwise, check back in 2022.

What to do, what to do?

Happy thinking!

Julia Child - The Way to Cook - Recipe 3 - Fish Soup

I have been trying to incorporate more fish in our diet and since we've been trying to loose weight, I really can't justify eating it fried or breaded all of the time. So, when I found The recipe for Soupe de Poisson in Julia's book The Way to Cook, I thought that it was something that I could try. For this recipe, I did quite a bit of modifications for both lack of ingredients and for lack of time. I found an on line version of Julia's recipe here and below, I have written out my version of what I did:

Soupe de Poisson - Quick Style

2 T olive oil
1 c sliced onion
2 T pre-chopped jarred garlic
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 8 oz. bottle clam juice
4 c water
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t fennel seeds
1/2 t turmeric
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
2 lbs frozen pollock fillets (no need to thaw)

I put all of the ingredients except for the fish in a four quart capacity pressure cooker. After it got up to heat and began rocking, I let it rock for about 20 minutes. I then quick cooled it in the sink under cold water to release the pressure and added the 2 lbs of still frozen pollock fillets, placed the lid back on the pot and brought it back up to rocking again and let it rock for 2 minutes.

I served this over freshly made brown rice. Yum. And yes, I received the official "Are-there-any-seconds?-DH-seal-of-approval!

Happy eating!

Julia Child - The Way to Cook Recipe 2 Beets

I promise that I am not going to go all Julie & Julia on you and make every recipe in this book and make you read about it. I am certainly not "cook" enough to do that job. However, it is fun to try out new recipes now and then -- especially with vegetables. My usual ways of preparing them is either steam them or slice them and eat them raw. Occasionally, I go out on a limb and will bake a winter squash in the oven with butter on it. (Sorry, I don't mean to go all wild and crazy on you.)

Only a couple of pages away from the Hominy dish was a recipe for Grated Sauteed-Steamed Beets. I love beets! They are one of my favorite things. My mother used to pickle them herself when I was a kid and I ate the by the jar. The recipe is easy - only four ingredients and takes but a few minutes to cook. But unless you have a Mouli Julienne or a food processor it is a bit of work to grate up the beets. I did not have any red wine vinegar as was called for in the recipe, so I substituted cider vinegar. I used 3 Tbls butter and I was pretty heavy handed with fresh ground pepper, but I liked the spiciness of the finished product.

I served it along side a Spencer Cut Rib Eye Steak. The DH gave it his "Yeah-I'd-eat-it-again" seal of approval. I found an on-line version of the recipe here at healthy-beets.com. So, let me know if you try it.

I need to get a better plate for pictures if I'm going to keep blogging about food.

Happy Eating!

Throwback Thursday - Triplet, A study in pears.

This is an art quilt that I did a number of years ago in June of 2006. It is called "Triplet, A study in pears" obviously my attempt at a pun. The 27 X 12.5 panel features three pears which are all done with different techniques.

The pear on the left is done with melting crayon into fabric.

The center panel is hand appliqued with an embroidered leaf.

The right panel is a pear in fabric paint and a leaf painted on a piece of green fabric fused to the background.












I quilted this myself on my home machine, a Bernina Activa 220. The little workhorse on which I sewed DD's wedding dress. I had fun adding a couple of words - "Ripe" and "Pears".



I even had a lot of fun making the label -- which was almost as big as the quilt itself.

Happy quilting!

Julia Child - The Way to Cook

My DH is a book freak. If there is a book store in the area, he wants to stop in to look around. So this past weekend we were going past Half Price Books and the DH had to stop. This time however, I was the one to find a book to bring home: Julia Child's The Way to Cook. This, her seventh book, is a collection of over 800 recipes. I just had to have it.

So when I couldn't sleep last night, I picked up this huge door stop of a cook book and started to read recipes. I found one that was not only simple but the ingredients were cheap! So guess what we had for dinner?! Hominy Sautéed with Butter and Herbs on page 340. I only had dried herbs on hand so I guess in Julia Child's world, I must have cheated, but it was pretty good anyway!

I did find an online copy of the recipe here if you want to try it. If it is worth anything, my husband's comment was that he would eat it again -- and then he took seconds. I guess I will cook it again!

Now to find something else just a little different from what we usually eat. I think I saw a recipe for brussel sprouts in that book last night...

Happy cookbook reading!

The Wedding Dress - Requested Close Ups

Rhinestone Embellishments

Yes, you thought after my last post on The Wedding Dress would be the last one, right? Sorry! I was requested by a couple of people to show close up pictures of the "bling" that was on the dress. The picture above is of the large design that was on the side of DD's dress and also of the trim that went around the bodice and the bottom of the dress.

Placement of applique 

You can see that I placed the large design so that about two thirds of the design was on the front half of the dress and one third to the back. The braid was only on the top edge of the bodice and the bottom of the bridal skirt. We did not put the braid at the bottom edge of the bodice because it looked way too busy.

While the braid came from China, the head piece was purchased from the same vendor in Turkey who made the large applique. The veil was not attached to the head piece but attached to a separate comb. That way the veil could be removed for the reception as was the long skirt.

Headpiece

Happy embellishing!

An Unfinished Inheritance

Now, that the wedding dress is finished and the wedding is over, I am finally getting with long put off projects. This morning, I started cleaning out my basement and going through the overflowing bins of yarn and fabric. There are many unfinished projects in various stages ranging through knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, sewing and quilting. There is one quilt that I started over 30 years ago. It is embarrassing to see the "quitter" that I can be!

But, there are a few that I have been given - projects whose creator died and whose inheritor thought of me. I wish I could ask the creator what it was they were making, who they were making it for, etc. Take the project photographed up top. There were only a few granny squares and half of a skein of yarn in a bag. No instructions or notes. So, I dragged it upstairs to count the number of squares and see if anything could be made of them. Upon closer inspection, I found that there were actually squares which were obviously made by two different crocheters with two different yarns. There are 20 squares that were crocheted by one person and 14 crocheted by another. You can see the color difference in the picture at the top of the page. One yarn is slightly yellower and the other has a pink cast to it.

But that isn't the biggest difference.  One crocheter was very good and one. . . not so much. The granny square on the right is very, well,  square. However, the square on the left is not square at all. So what was the difference that made the left one lopsided and rounded? Stitch count.

The square on the right, like all of its sister squares, has even stitch counts on each of the four sides and the corners are consistent in the number of increases. Each side has three stitches in the first round, 7 stitches in the second round, 11 stitches in the 3rd round and 15 in the forth and final round.

The square on the left also has three stitches in the first round, but in the second round there is seven stitches on one side and six in each of the other 3 sides. The third round has 11 over the seven, then 10 stitches over the next side and 9 overt the last two sides. On the final round, there are 14, then 11, 12, and 13 stitches. This is one uneven square! It just goes to show how important counting your stitches can be.

There are enough good squares to make a nine patch pillow, so that is what I think that I will do.

Happy crocheting - er - counting stitches.