On the Table: Plum, Gewürztraminer, and Vanilla Bean Jam

Yet another recipe from Mes Confitures: a Plum, Gewürztraminer, and Vanilla Bean Jam. Pictured above are the plums in question, an Italian prune-plum purchased at the farmer's market. Those plums are mixed with sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla beans (split lengthwise to release the innards):


Heated over the stove:


Then the Gewürztraminer is added (I used a 2006 Villa Wolf Gewürztraminer), it's all canned, and then it ends up looking something a little bit like this:



Also on the table: a peach, cinnamon, and pinot noir (specifically, Castle Rock's 2006 Mendocino County Pinot Noir).

In the Stash: Catherine's Red Gooseberry Jam

Ordinarily, I don't post about stash additions in this blog, because I wouldn't want to draw attention to the disparity between the (high) rate of stash increase and the (low) rate of project completion. However, this addition to my stash is too cool not to share with the world. Back in July, Ms. Numma Numma did me a huge favor in getting some yarn to me super-fast so I could make the Go Blue! Afghan in time for my dad's surgery. As a token of my appreciation (and as a get-well to Allen for her own surgery), I sent her a jar of my homemade Gooseberry Jam.... and almost by return mail came a skein of Numma Numma Toasty in a new flavor called Catherine's Red Gooseberry Jam! Allen completely nailed the color of the fruit-- its deep reds, pale pinks, and pale greens-- and I am so flattered to be immortalized in one of Allen's delicious yarn names.

Now I just have to think about what to do with this scrumptiousness; my first thought was halcyon, but what would you do with ~475 yards of fabulous fingering-weight yarn? More photos below:

On (and off) the Hook: Go Blue! Afghan

Have you ever wondered, "Could I make an entire afghan in 9 days?" Apparently, for me, that answer is yes. I started this afghan officially on July 4th and finished it yesterday. (Why the clarification of "officially", you might wonder? Well, I tried two other patterns and two other hook sizes before I finally settled on this pattern and hook size, which means I technically started the project on June 30.)

I used ~3500 yards of Numma Numma's Texas Toasty yarn in Blue Corn Masa; I doubled the yarn and used an 8mm "L" hook. (And yes, picking a hook size was a bit of a Goldilocks process: the N was too loose, the K was too tight, and the L was just right.) The pattern is Plain and Simple from Quick and Cozy Afghans; it's a pretty straightforward pattern to memorize and debug, and I just love the scalloped edges (which are sort of the inverse of each other-- see photos below).

My finished afghan is about 43" wide x 55" long. I increased the pattern widthwise by one repetition because I thought it wouldn't be wide enough. I haven't blocked it yet, but it looks like it'll grow quite a bit lengthwise when I do.

   

On the Needles: Mediterranean Lace part 2

The above photo is what my Mediterranean Lace shawl looks like after I picked up the stitches around its perimeter for the border. I never realized how painful a process that would be, but now, 1,108 stitches later, I've got the foundation for my border. I had all the math worked out so I'd make the body of the shawl the right size; the original pattern called for 2 stitches picked up for every 3 pattern rows, so in order to keep that ratio, I ended up making the shawl 22 repetitions + 20 extra rows.... for a total of 89,676 stitches. And when it came right down to it, I didn't do a particularly great job of keeping with the 2 out of 3 ratio, but I think it ended up OK (tip for anyone else doing this pattern: once you've gotten one side done, put locking stitch markers on the other side to make the picking-up process a little easier). With 26 repetitions of the border pattern, I'm using just about every stitch marker I own. Oh, and I dropped down to size 1 needles for the border (was using size 2 for the body); the pattern called for a size 0, but all the reports I'd read from other people's shawls indicated that going down two needle sizes could be problematic.

Here's what it looked like all stretched out on my red striped rug, just before I started picking up stitches for the border. Unblocked, it measured about 58" long. I was worried that it might be too short (which is why I did so many repetitions of the body pattern), but now that I see it all stretched out, I realize that it'll be just fine.

On the Table: Gooseberry Jam

One of my favorite things about summer is making jam, and I finally got back in the swing of things last weekend with the gooseberries pictured above, purchased at the local farmer's market. As usual, Christine Ferber's's excellent Mes Confitures provided the recipe, which consisted of about 2 pounds of gooseberries, sugar, and lemon juice.

On the Table: Garlic Scape Pesto

OK, I have a confession: one of my favorite foods in the whole wide world is garlic, and the best part of the garlic are the garlic scapes. The only bad thing about garlic scapes is that they're around for just a few weeks a year.

I'm a shareholder in the Bull Run Farm CSA (what this means, in short, is that I pick up vegetables from a local farmer once a week from June to October-- there's more information about Community Supported Agriculture here), and early in the season, he always brings tons of garlic scapes.

I've traditionally added the scapes to stir-fries or steamed them with veggies (yummy with broccoli) or rice, but this week, I decided to make garlic scape pesto. I mostly followed this recipe, but since I don't eat cheese, the recipe was simplified down to three ingredients: garlic scapes, walnuts, and olive oil.

I started with about 10 scapes and chopped them up:


Took those (it was about 1 cup), added 1/3rd of a cup of walnuts, threw them in the food processor until well-minced, added the olive oil, and ta-da:


Oh, and as a bonus: my entire kitchen now smells like garlic!

Summary: Garlic Scape Pesto
~8-10 garlic scapes, chopped into 1/4" bits (approx. 1 cup)
~1/3 cup walnuts
1/2 - 3/4 cup olive oil

1) chop dry ingredients in food processor
2) add olive oil, give it a few more whizzes
3) eat.

On the Hook: Mini-afghan (sampler!)

I did a lot of travelling in January and February, and I decided to use the time away from home living in hotel rooms to learn how to crochet. So I picked up a copy of Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks because it would give me a lot of different patterns with a lot of different kinds of stitches and techniques. It ended up being a great strategy-- I loved the book, and I loved seeing all of Eaton's different color and pattern combinations (she showed a lot of her blocks in multiple color combos, so even though there were 212 blocks, that's not 212 unique patterns.... but there was still way more than enough to keep me challenged).

Overview: I used Rowan Pure Wool DK in lots of different colors: white (snow #012), three different blues (glacier #005, marine #008, navy #011), three different pinks (tea rose #025, hyacinth #026, and hydrangea #027), two greens (avocado #019 and emerald #022), two oranges (honey #033 and spice #034), and red (kiss #036). Blocks are made using a F hook (4.0 mm) and ended up being 5.25" square.

I can't decide how much bigger I'm going to make this-- my original plan was to make it into a lap blanket to keep at my office, but it's a little thin (I totally should've doubled the yarn!) and I've since moved on to other projects. I've made 28 blocks so far, and I'm stitching them together as I go, so I'll probably just decide it's finished whenever I either run out of yarn or decide that there are no other blocks that I want to make!

Below is a sampling of some of the blocks I've made so far. These blocks are all square and have been blocked, but the angle makes them look not-so-square.

On the Needles: Here & There Cables scarf

There's no reason for this week's project still to be on the needles; I started it in July of 2007! The pattern is Here and There Cables from Scarf Style; I modified the pattern to add one extra repeat widthwise. It's a really easy pattern to remember and makes a nice scarf that's very stretchy and warm.

I have a tendency to pick really fine yarns for really large projects, and this is no different; I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (80% superwash wool, 20% nylon) in the Tahoe colorway, on size 5 needles. And that right there is the incentive to finish this up sooner rather than later, because I need those needles for another project!

The scarf right now is 5" wide and 66" long; I'm going to finish up my current skein of yarn and then bind off!

On the Hook: Green Afghan

This week's featured project is a wool afghan pattern from Quick and Cozy Afghans; the pattern is called Spring Throw but I've obviously picked not-so-springy colors for my version.

Overview: The pattern is crocheted in strips that are then stitched together, which makes it a surprisingly portable project despite its ultimate size. I'm using Ella Rae Classic in three colors, from darkest to lightest: Green Heather (#110), Moss (#16), and Light Green Heather (#109). Purchased at Knit Happens in Alexandria, VA. I'm using a smaller hook (G, or 4.5mm) than the pattern calls for, so each strip has more repetitions (96) than the pattern originally calls for.

Current status: I've finished and stitched together 7 strips; it's currently 24" wide and 54" long. It's a little bit shorter than I was hoping (whoops - should've checked my gauge!) so I'm planning on adding some kind of border either around the whole afghan or just across the short end to make it a little longer. A couple of ideas:
- two-color border
- afghan border
- shell path edging (I like this because it mirrors the pattern of the afghan, but I don't want it to compete)
- cathedral edge
- biscuit edge

Here's a close-up of what the corner looks like:

On the Needles: Mediterranean Lace

I've been meaning to start this blog for a while now, and now is as good a time as any. This is the inaugural of what I hope will be a weekly feature called "On the _____" to showcase a knitting project (or crochet, or other creative endeavor) currently in progress.

Today: Mediterranean Lace shawl from Meg Swansen's A Gathering of Lace. I modified the pattern from its original shape to be a simple rectangle (inspired by bluegarter.org, specifically this post).

Overview: The shawl is 24 repetitions of a 28-row pattern, with a 50-row border added to it afterwards. I'm using ArtYarns Cashmere 1 in off-white (color #250) and size #2 needles. This project is a lot of firsts for me: first lace project, first project reading from a chart, first project in needles/yarn that small, etc.

Current status: Started this project on March 9th and have finished 9 repetitions so far (yay!). 9 repetitions x 28 rows x 141 stitches = 35,532 stitches (yikes!). The yarn comes in skeins of 510 yards; I'm very close to finishing one skein (it's hard to believe that 500 yards of yarn makes only about 2 feet of finished fabric). I've made two somewhat noticeable mistakes.... but when the shawl is finished, I doubt they'll be noticeable to anyone besides me.

And here's a little before/after:



(those adorable little stitch markers came from Miss Purl)