The Better To See You With...

I am working on a new project -- something for me this time. After the Chicago winter last year; the 40 below temperatures we had; and predictions that this winter will be even worse, I am making myself a hooded scarf. There were a handful of patterns for them in Ravelry and I decided on Little Red Riding Hood--a free pattern by Lion Brand Yarn.

This pattern has an interesting stitch called Granite Relief Stitch. I swear that I have seen it before under another name, but could not find it. (If you know what it is please comment below and stop my wondering!) The pattern is highly textured but not one that you could knit brainlessly while watching television. While I have not yet made any errors which required serious 'tinking', I have had to count my stitches on a regular basis.

The texture of the pattern and the complexity of it both come from the fact that one row of the four row repeat decreases by nearly half of all the stitches with a k2tog -- then on the next row increases back up with kfb. The k2tog has already started my index finger aching as I tend to grab the yarn with the fingernail while I slip the needle under both stitches.

The yarn that I am using is Knit Picks Full Circle in Cardinal colorway. It is a worsted weight 100% yarn which is from recycled fibers. It is a nice red which leans towards purple as opposed to orange. The yarn is pretty "sticky". I have had to tink back a few stitches and it isn't a clean trip back. This would make a great felting yarn. I just hope I don't have real problems keeping straight on the pattern or this scarf will be a mess.

Happy Knitting!

Throwback Thursday -- Tobacco Road

This was a HUGE bed quilt that I made for one of our sons. It is about a queen sized quilts and is done in 3 different versions of black and brown -- Tobacco colors.

The colors were definitely manly which is what I was going for.

This quilt was completed in 2008 and the pictures were taken with an old camera, so it was hard to get good definition.

The piecing was a real bear and seemed to take forever. My DD spent a lot of time with the rotary cutter helping me get it done.

Happy memories!

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!