Tale of a Giant Hat

DH's San Francisco Giants hat was a really fun and easy knit. I could have gotten it done much faster but for time. Time busy doing other things (when I would rather be knitting) and time spent unknitting almost 1/2 of the design grid. Somehow, I accidentally created an increase and had an extra stitch that I did not notice for quite sometime. This is a good enough reason to count your stitches every couple of rows as counting takes less time than unknitting!

As an aside, my husband was upset with my last post. He said ,"Giants are an NL club so there is no DH in San Francisco." I guess in his mind DH can only mean Designated Hitter...oh darling husband of mine.

I will try to post the grid to my patterns page in a day or two if you have your own SF Giants DH!

Happy knitting!

Throwback Thursday -- Remember the Inheritance?

Remember this? I am slowly connecting all the squares to finish someone else's project. I figure I will do a large sofa pillow, but it is hard to do. After all the white of the wedding dress, it is even hard to do off-white!

 

I am working on two nine patch sides. I figure when I get done connecting all of them - which could be done in an afternoon if I could concentrate - I will connect them with a brown or some other color. As long as it isn't too close to white.

Happy Crocheting! 

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!