Category: Knitting

It’s lovely to have a long weekend, even better when you can share part of it with friends. We’re doing dinner today, with all the usual fixings.

Baby back ribs!

John is out firing up the smoker so we can drive the neighbors insane for the next several hours with good smells.

Baked beans!

There will also be potato salad and homemade cheddar biscuits, with lots of beer to wash it all down. John found fresh corn on the cob at the market yesterday, so we might do some of that too. You can’t have too much food at a picnic, I always say. I am definitely my mother’s daughter in that regard.

Here is my baked bean recipe. As always, ingredient measurements are mostly suggestions. Feel free to adjust to make these your own.

3 cups great northern beans

Large yellow onion, chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

Bacon-4 thick slices chopped, 4 whole

Aleppo pepper* 2 tsp

Chile powder**, 2 tablespoons

Molasses 1/2 cup

Ketchup, 3/4 cup

Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons

Dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup

Worcestershire sauce, 3 tablespoons

3/4 cup dark rum

Black pepper*** 1 tablespoon

Salt, about a teaspoon or to taste

Water

Soak your beans. You can either do this the night before, or do a quick soak like I do. Pick over your beans, rinse, then put in a large saucepan, cover with a couple of inches of water. Bring to a boil, then turn off and let them sit while you get everything else ready.

Sauté the chopped bacon in a big Dutch oven. When it is crispy, take it out, leaving the bacon fat behind.

Add the chopped onion, sauté just until translucent, add the garlic and stir for maybe 30 seconds.

Add all the seasonings and rum. (I usually prep these ahead so I just dump them in.) Stir it all around a bit.

Drain and add the beans along with water to cover, you will need 3-4 cups.

Bring everything to a simmer, then turn off, put the bacon strips on top, cover.

Put in a 350 degree oven for about 90 minutes, then turn the heat down to 275. It will take at least 2-3 hours longer for everything to get done. Check it every 30-45 minutes or so and make sure it doesn’t need more liquid. If it’s still soupy when the beans all look done and brown, crank up the heat and take the lid off for a bit to cook it down.

These can be made well ahead, they’ll keep in the refrigerator for several days, though I guarantee they won’t last that long.

*Aleppo pepper can be found in fancy supermarkets, or here. If you want to leave it out, just add more chile or black pepper.

**I make my own, using just chiles, usually a combo of ancho and New Mexican red. You can substitute commercial. You can also leave this out. I like spicy.

***See note above about spicy. If you want yours on the blander side, adjust accordingly.

Is having just a few minutes for a cup of tea and knitting before I head off to work. I finished the sleeves for Rogue yesterday and picked up the stitches around the neck for the hood, which is full of delicious cables.

Here’s another shot of the cables. It’s tough to get a decent photo this time of morning.

Several weeks ago I received a copy of the Vogue Knitting book from the publisher, with a request to review the new edition*.

I also have the original version of this, published in 1989. Honestly, I haven’t used it much, but it was nice to have for comparison.

Much of the content of the new edition is similar. Overall, the text is much easier to read. All text, including chapter headings, is on a white background, with a bigger and cleaner font. The old edition had “tip boxes” with dark colored headings, so it was hard to read the text. Here is one comparison. The first photo is the from the old edition.

A lot of the text is similar, though cleaned up, and key points in the text throughout are in bold so are easier to find. Similarly, many photos and illustrations are the same, but are larger, and a lot of the swatch photos are either redone or lightened so stitch patterns are easier to see.

There is expanded information on new fibers and tools. There are 11 new cast ons shown. The sections on increases and decreases uses terminology that is much clearer, and matches current pattern writing.

There are brand new sections devoted to cable knitting, lace knitting, advanced techniques (brioche, double knitting), directional knitting (entrelac, center-out knitting), and new sections on designing shawls, hats, and hand and foot coverings. The cable and lace sections alone are worth the price of the book. It includes instruction on knitting from charts, as well as shaping in lace patterns.

The section on understanding knitting directions is expanded. There is more on gauge, and detailed sizing charts that are new. This section has one of the simplest explanations of darning that I’ve ever seen.

The section on circular and double point knitting includes expanded information on newer techniques: magic loop, the jogless join, Moebius knitting, and knitting with two circulars.

In the chapter on designing, the goofy wooden body models are gone.

Instead you get this:

The accompanying text has numbered descriptions of each of those measurements.

Other new features that I found include a more extensive discussion of short row shaping, including double stitch German short rows (Melanie Berg uses this in many of her shawl patterns). There are also updated shoulder and sleeve construction options.

There are a couple things from the old book that were left out. The introductory chapter on the history of knitting is gone. I doubt that anyone will miss it. The stitch dictionary is gone, but much of that info is now in the appropriate chapters on cables and lace. And the handful of very dated sweater patterns at the end of the book are gone. I’m quite certain that I’ll never get the itch to knit an oversized bulky sweater with reindeer on the front.

I probably wouldn’t have had this on my radar screen to go out and buy. There is so much useful information on the internet that I don’t haul out my knitting books much. This book is a great addition to any knitting library, and I anticipate that it won’t spend nearly as much time on the bookshelf as the old edition. I would highly recommend this one.

*In full disclosure, I received the review copy for free, but I’m not getting any other compensation for this.

Or,

My Yarn Box Runneth Over

I either need to knit faster or buy another plastic container. And no, I’m not going to admit publicly just how many of those boxes I have. Let’s just say that I have it all recorded in a spreadsheet with photos, since if the house burned down, USAA would never believe I have that much invested without proof.

We’re having a friend over for Easter dinner tomorrow, so today is baking day. The main course is an herbed and roasted boneless leg of lamb, with a potato gratin and asparagus. This morning I made some bread to go with dinner. I’m making an orange chiffon cake next. Here’s the bread.

I’m pretty sure that won’t make it until tomorrow before it gets “tested”.

In other news, I bought a set of 3 resistance bands for strength training. They didn’t last a day before one went missing. Yesterday I wedged the other two under a set of dumbbells to secure them. This morning John found one of those two on the stairs, and the third seems to have permanently disappeared.

I’m pretty sure this is the culprit.

All I can say is that she better be showing some muscles.

I can’t tell you how many dozens of pairs of socks I’ve knit over the years. I still get gusset holes sometimes, which really annoys me. Here’s a closeup.

It’s always on that same side. It just pisses me off, even though I can fix it later with duplicate stitch.

But isn’t that some pretty sock yarn? I just keep knitting and knitting to get to the next color stripe.

And one last photo.

This is that lace shawl I showed in the last post, just stretched out a bit so you can see how pretty it will be.

Back to knitting!

It’s a good thing that my phone calendar has a reminder feature, or I’d have missed my own “blogiversary”. It’s actually tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure if I wait until then, I’ll forget to post something.

I’ve been a very neglectful blogger in the past year. I’m hoping to change that. I’ve got all sorts of new stuff going on in my life to talk about, so hopefully I can get back into the habit of writing here.

First up is my current projects.

That is Rogue. I have just a bit of one sleeve to finish, then the hood, which is full of pretty cables, so that should go quickly. I have a little fixing to do on the front right neck. When I pulled it out of the bag to take a photo, the stitch holder carrying the right front cabled stitches had come out, letting all of those stitches go. Fortunately Peace Fleece sticks together pretty well, and I have the other side to compare, so I should be able to get it together without too much of a mess.

This is Trillian, knit in Schaefer Anne. It’s a lot less garish and much more girly than that photo would lead you to believe. This is pretty simple “TV” knitting. You’d think that I would have it finished by now.

Next up is my Winter Solstice shawl. This is even less photogenic than a blob of lace usually is, I stopped right in the middle of the row to get a photo. I have about a billion rows left to knit.

Last but not least, my latest sock. I simply adore this yarn. It is from Trailing Clouds, the color is Mind the Gap, inspired by the 12 colors of the London Tube map. The shop has been sold out for awhile, but fortunately I have a couple other colors of this in the stash.

That’s it for today. Next time I have a knitting book review for you!

I have been knitting socks almost since I learned to knit almost 20 years ago. Since then, I always have a sock in progress, as soon as I finish a pair,  I cast on another one.

My finished sock stash is starting to show its age a bit. I still have a dozen plus good pairs, but some of those are getting a bit thin in places. My hand knit socks far outlast commercial socks, but they don’t last forever.

I’m hereby declaring 2018 to be the year of sock knitting. God knows I have sock yarn to spare. I have yarn in those boxes upstairs to knit well over 200 pairs of socks.

Here’s what I am working on now.*

I’m thinking I could finish those with a couple of good football games on deck.

What about you all? What are your knitting plans for 2018?

*Just because someone almost always asks, the small red spool is Wooly Nylon. I use it as reinforcing thread for heels and toes.

The Daily Bread:

1.5 cups white flour

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

1.5 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon buttermilk powder

1 cup water

1 tablespoon molasses

1 egg

1 tablespoon yeast

More flour/water if needed for the dough

I am using a bread machine for this one. My hands have gotten old enough that I have trouble kneading dough by hand, plus it is just easier. I generally use the dough setting and bake the bread in the oven.

I use King Arthur flours, they are top quality and worth the slight extra cost. You can get buttermilk powder in the baking section of most supermarkets. The vital wheat gluten is from King Arthur as well. I use it with whole wheat flours (or rye) to help the dough rise. I use about a tablespoon of the gluten per cup of whole wheat.

The yeast that I use is Saf Red Instant yeast. It is foolproof, and you can just add it directly to your bread machine with everything else.

Posted with Blogsy