RACE TO THE FINISH
As mentioned earlier, I have the joy of increased familial demand for baby blankets. In fact, I just found out about a cousin who is expecting a baby within the month. So what’s to do? Go stash-diving to find a good candidate yarn, preferably in a quick-to-knit gauge, then knit it up for expedited shipment.
In this case the best candidate quick-knit yarn to hand is a bag of Lion Brand Kool Wool in a vivid tomato red. This discontinued yarn has been stashed for a couple of years, ever since I found it for a song at a local odd-lot retailer. It’s a superbulky, super soft, noodly 50% acrylic/50% merino wool yarn – marked at 12 st and 18 rows to 4 inches on US 10.5 (6.5mm) needles. The texture ensures that I will need to be creative when end darning happens. I’ll probably have to separate the yarn’s many plies and bury them in different directions in order to avoid inconveniently ugly joins.
Why red? I happen to like bright colors for babies. Regardless of ethnic origin, babies are such pallid, helpless creatures to begin with, giving them a jewel like surround seems warranted. But I am violating a core precept – this yarn is marked as hand wash in cool water. I generally avoid hand-wash yarns for baby gifts, but the 50% acrylic content makes me want to risk it. One sign that shrinking/fulling will be less of an issue – I can’t spit-splice this yarn. I will be washing this prior to giving it to the recipient, just to make sure that the red stays where it’s supposed to and there are no other laundry surprises.
Now what to make…
I happen to like lacy patterns. At first I thought about doing a simple lace panel in the yarn’s big gauge. Some quick experimentation showed that decreases in this pudgy yarn are clumpy looking and unattractive. The knit togethers used in modular knitting also rule out simple directionals. Then I thought of doing something center-out, like a big medallion or swirl. Ditto. It’s just too bulky to show fancy patterning to any good advantage. Rather than continuing to fight the materials, I’ve opted to take advantage of what this yarn does do well – simple knit/purl, and work up a heavily embossed knit/purl repeat, edged with moss stitch. After some noodling around, I’ve picked the Elongated Diamond Pattern from B. Walker’s first Treasury (p.35).
As I experiment with this pattern I encounter the prose direction challenge. I know that lots of knitters prefer their directions to be written out rather than charted. Visually impaired knitters have good reason to want this because charts can’t be voice recorded easily, or fed into computer based reading assist programs. And some of us are wired differently – charts can be confusing if you’re not visually attuned to them, there’s no shame in that. But I’m firmly in the charts-good camp, and find prose directions mind numbingly frustrating. So the first thing to do was to graph up the Walker pattern:
Once graphed, the basic logic of the pattern becomes easy to see. The duplicate column of stitches at the end (or beginning) of each row is easy to spot, as is the stepwise movement of garter stripes around diamonds formed by knit stitches on a purl stitch background.
I’ve cast on three repeats plus 4 stitches of moss border and an edge stitch on either side:
Repeats Edge
((3*22)+1) + 2(4+1)) = 77 stitches
And worked 6 rows of K1, P1 moss stitch. This being an odd number of stitches, each of my full width moss rows begins with a K1. Here are the larval beginnings of the project, on circular #11s, which I chose to increase softness and drape.
We’ll see how happy I am with it as the project as it grows. With luck, it will quite quickly because it will be a race to see which is hatched first: target baby or her blanket.
CELEBRATE CREATIVITY!
Most of you who visit String are probably here just for the Kureopatora Snake Scarf. I’m surprised at how popular that pattern has been, and its popularity keeps growing. I’ve seen postings from folk all over the world who have made it, with knitters in Japan taking it up first.
Now comes an additional bit of cleverness. Jill from Michigan made several Snakes, and then seamed them together to make a throw. She used Kaleidoscope 100%wool, and calls this her Hummingbird Wrap. Here’s her picture of it, reproduced with her permission:
I hadn’t thought of doing that, and it’s a great idea!
If you ever knit something from one of my patterns please feel free to send me a snapshot. Since I do this for knit-love not knit-money, seeing what my pattern-children are up to out in the real world is my main payback. And if you give permission, I’ll post it here to the gallery. Thanks, Jill for this bit of inspired happiness!
CENTER OF IT ALL
Work continues on the green tablecloth. I finally knuckled under and got a second long circ of the requisite size. I’m now working on the thing in two-circ mode, which means I can finally smooth out the center to show off the patterning:
It’s going to be nifty, to be sure!
REALISM AND AVAILABLE WALL SPACE
Some time back, I posted about having the perfect place for a tapestry, and contemplated the effort involved in stitching up a massive needlepoint kit. Examining my life, I finally came to the conclusion that eternity would in fact be involved. So I found a reasonably priced jacquard woven reproduction. This weekend past we installed it over the living room fireplace.
It’s a big fireplace – that tapestry is 52 inches across and could have been bigger. Even so, it works in the space, and we’re pleased.
To assuage my needlework hunger, I did score an interesting find. I dropped off Elder Daughter at her college orientation. While we were in New Paltz, NY we wandered through an antique shop in the town’s center. My find is a piece of stamped linen intended for embroidery. I found it jumbled in a pile of vintage kitchen linens. The design is clearly Stuart-era inspired, and is intended for working in crewel wool. The linen is thick, and of excellent quality. Although the fold lines are prominent, the linen itself is not damaged. Gentle steam (no pressing) will relax the creases.
Doing a bit of research, I suspect that my find may in fact BE a find. The tag says “An Embroidery Masterpiece by Needlecraft House.” On the flip side it reads “Stuart Series Design II, Design M751… Needlecraft House – West Townsend, Mass.” The style is strongly reminiscent of Elsa Williams work and her needlework school was located in West Townsend, but she is not credited.
There are no directions, and the label reads “These pieces are prepared for the embroidery who appreciates fine materials and perfection in design. There are no instructions or color diagrams provided for these pieces. You plan you own color scheme to suit your personal taste. All designs are adaptable to your own favorite stitches and may be worked in solid areas or in simplified detail….” Looking over the Web I do find that there is an Elsa Williams “Stuart I” kit with the number 750. Unstitched it’s offered for sale at over $80. Mine cost $4.00. The picture below links to the site where #1 is offered for sale. This is their photo, shown here to illustrate the general style of the work:
Elsa Williams was the author of Heritage Embroidery. She and Erica Wilson were two of the chief disseminators and proponents of the 1960s era Crewel embroidery revival. If in fact my printed linen is hers, I suspect that it was issued prior to the release of Williams’ book in 1967. After that point she was widely famous in needlework circles, and her kits and other publications all bore her name. She sold her business to JCA when she retired in the late ’70s/early ’80s.
So I now have a dilemma. Do I stitch up my kit, or do I flip it for a profit to the cognoscenti? Somehow I suspect the former… Eventually.
EYELET DETAIL
UPDATE: THIS SPOT MOTIF CAN BE FOUND AS AN EASY TO PRINT PDF AT THE KNITTING PATTERNS LINK ABOVE.
Return to knitting!
Here’s a minor detail from the chart I’m working now. It’s a six petal daisy eyelet, but cleverly done in the original to make a nicely defined motif. The German language note accompanying the chart had a notation about dropping one of the three YOs in each triple YO set, but it’s hard to tell the difference between a numeral one and a lower case l in the reproduction volume, so a bit of confusion ensued.
I’ve redacted this to modern notation, and graphed it with the motif centered as a stand-alone. This motif can be spotted all over a surface, placed willy nilly in other framing units, or can be used as either vertical or horizontal panel repeats. The chart contains evil gray no-stitch boxes. Ignore them when you are working. They’re just there to maintain logical presentation, and serve no other purpose. Click on the chart for a full size copy, but it’s rather large and may challenge folk with slow connections.
In any case, as you can see, I’m still plodding away on Olive Tablecloth…
PAELLA ON THE BEACH
O.K. I’ve gotten a couple of requests for the paella recipe. I’ll try to write one up, but it’s more of a method description than a quantity accurate and totally reproducible transcript.
We grill ours in a traditional soft carbon steel iron paella pan, placed directly on our barbecue grill. The grill we bring with us is the small Weber Smokey Joe Silver. It’s a small, portable, covered kettle form charcoal grill. This particular model is widely available and inexpensive.
We’ve found that this particular grill accommodates a 14″ pan perfectly. We got ours on line, it was also very inexpensive There’s no need to spend a fortune on a designer pan, just to set it over the coals. Also (believe it or not) – a well seasoned carbon steel pan actually adds flavor to the dish.
To keep the fire going in the grill while we cook we hook three standard department store steel S-hooks over the edge of the grill, then set the pan on top. This provides just enough air space between the pan and the grill to maintain the coals. Without the S hooks, the fire will smother. The hooks don’t hook onto the pan, they just provide a tripod of balance – enough to keep the pan stable while leaving about a quarter inch of airspace all the way around its bottom.
Taking care that the grill is level, we set a medium-large bed of coals going. The fire will need to start hot, then continue for about 45 minutes, so a largish one is in order.
While the fire is heating up we prepare:
INGREDIENTS:
Cooking Vegetables:
About 1.5 cups of diced sweet onion
About 1.5 cups of diced green pepper
4-5 cloves of garlic (more if they’re small), minced fine
Meat:
1 flavorful sausage, preferably linguica, although we’ve also used andouille, chorizo or other garlic sausage, cut into 3/4 inch slices, about 1.5 to 2 cups
6 chicken thighs, bone in. If large, cut into two parts, leaving one with bone and one without.
Highly optional – a piece of good ham, about the size of a loin pork chop, cubed. The sausage and chicken is more than enough meat, but if you have to use a lesser sausage, the ham will add additional savor.
Seafood:
2.5 pounds mixed seafood, to include shelled, deveined raw shrimp (tail on), fresh scallops (cut into two hemispheres if large); cleaned squid bodies and tentacles with the bodies cut into rings, then fringed by making nicks around the edges about 1/4 inch apart. We’ve also used fresh monkfish or other mild, white flesh large flake fish, but we prefer the squid/scallops/shrimp combo.
One dozen small steamer size or littleneck size fresh clams. Mussels will do in a pinch, but the clams are best. It helps to pour some boiling water over them just before they go into the dish, especially if they’re littlenecks or larger.
Highly optional – one small chick lobster (1.25 lb), raw, but cut into manageable segments, with the body rinsed and cleaned of tomalley (reserve roe if the lobster is a female and stir it into the rice before adding the meats). Very luxurious touch, but in my opinion it’s just gilding the lily.
Broth:
1 quart chicken stock, preferably low-salt if using store-bought
1 medium size sweet onion peeled but left whole
1 WHOLE VIAL of good quality Spanish saffron – about 1 gram (Nepali saffron although less expensive isn’t a viable substitute). Since we stay out in Truro in Cape Cod we get ours at Atlantic Spice, just down the street.
Other stuff:
3 cups of short grain rice. We use Kokuho Rose or Nishiki California grown Japanese style rice. We find they’re higher quality (less broken grains/dust) and more tasty than the rices sold under the Goya or other specialty market brands.
Olive oil
Dry white wine, about a cup
Fresh ground black pepper
Finishing:
A 6oz jar of roasted pimentos, drained and diced
About 6 oz (half bag or whole box) frozen plain petite peas (do not use canned!), run under tap water until they unclump.
Salt (very little of this is needed because the seafood and sausage are both salty)
Optional: Capers for garnish
COOKING METHOD:
Put the broth, whole onion and ENTIRE 1 gram vial of saffron into a sauce pan and bring it to a simmer, then reduce the heat. The onion is just there for flavor and won’t be used in the final dish.
Once the coals are ready, we spread them out taking care not to lump them all in the center of the grill. You want a horizon to horizon stable hotness, not a volcano in the center surrounded by cool edges. We fit the pan onto the grill taking care to ensure that it is as level as possible.
We put a goodly amount of olive oil into the pan and when it’s hot, toss in the sausage (and ham if we’re using it). We sear the meat until it’s lightly colored, then scoop it out and set it aside. Then we add the chicken, skin side down to the same pan (adding oil if necessary). We sear that, too – cooking it on both sides until it’s almost but not entirely done, then we take it out and set it aside.
After the meat and chicken are cooked we cook the seafood. We usually start with the scallops because they are the wettest, letting the oil become maxhot again, then searing them on both sides and removing them to a separate bowl from the meats. After the scallops we cook the shrimp and then the squid, both just enough to firm them up and color them, but not enough to cook through (they’ll be added back and cooked more later). All of the cooked seafood can be set aside in one bowl together, although each element should be cooked separately. If you’re using a fin fish, cook it last and very lightly, again just enough to barely firm it up, then remove it from the pan and set it aside.
Now let the oil heat up again. Replenish if necessary. Toss in the garlic, green pepper and diced onion and saute until the onions are lightly translucent. Toss in the rice on top of the veggies and saute the rice for a couple of minutes, long enough to moisten all of it with hot oil and loose that raw rice look.
Now it’s time to begin adding the saffron-laced hot chicken stock which by now should be ultra fragrant and very yellow, almost orange. Don’t bother straining it, let the saffron threads flow freely into the rice. Add a good size ladle full of stock to the rice/veg and stir it slowly over the fire until it’s about 80% absorbed. Add another ladle full and repeat. Then add a cup of the white wine and stir similarly, almost like you’re making risotto. Continue adding stock and wine alternately, slowly and stirring until you’ve got only a cup or so of the stock left and all of the wine is used. The rice should be on its way to being cooked, and the grains should not be as totally soft and amorphous as risotto. At this stage they should still be minorly crunchy in the center. Add ground black pepper to taste, salt too – but remember that all that seafood and sausage is salty and you’ll need way less than you think.
We’re ready to add back the other ingredients. Toss in the peas and diced pimentos and stir. Then add the sausage and chicken, taking care that they’re nicely distributed. Ditto the cooked seafood. Take the in-shell pre-warmed clams and bury them in the rice hinge side down. If the paella looks like it’s dry (there’s nothing bubbly) add the reserved stock.
Now comes the fun part. Pour yourself a glass of wine, admire the beach sunset and watch the thing cook totally uncovered. Wait for the clams to open. Keep an eye on the pan though. The rice at the bottom should make a yummy golden brown crust, but if the fire’s too hot that crust can become charred. If necessary, slow your fire down by lifting the pan (with pot holders!) and sprinkling the coals with a cup of water. Otherwise just watch the paella bubble. Taste a grain of rice now and then. If it still seems crunchy when the clams are beginning to open, add the rest of the stock. If you’ve run out of stock, add a ladle of water. In the pix below we’ve just combined the whole thing and are watching the bubbling goodness, waiting for the clams. This takes about 15 to 20 min or so, depending on the fire.
Open clams and soft rice = done. Take it off the fire, put it on a trivet (the pan is HOT), sprinkle with a couple tablespoons of capers, grab some nice crunchy bread and more wine, then enjoy! This pan feeds us as a voracious family of four for a main course dinner, with enough leftover to be a side dish for another night or two.
A lot of work for beach food? Not really. It’s a half hour of prep mostly dicing the veg and cleaning the seafood, then about another half hour standing over the grill with a drink in hand.
BACK TO CIVILIZATION. WHY?
Back from our annual sand-fest on Cape Cod, and sad that there’s another 51 weeks to go before we return. It was supremely relaxing. A room right on the bay-side beach up near Beach Point in North Truro, lots of books to read and things to knit. No phones and no computers. The day consisted of consulting the tide chart for a relative fix on the time, cooking or going out when we were hungry, walking the beach and taking the occasional hike and paddling the kayak from the strand right in front of our room.
The big highlight of our week was a hike across the stone breakwater at Woods End at the lower end of Provincetown, to explore the isolated beach beyond. Not my pix here (obvious because it’s a good shot). Here’s another one. The rock hopping stroll was about 1.5 miles each way. Being a klutz I rolled a 2 on agility and fell at the far end, but although I was banged up a bit, no major damage was registered, and we all returned back the way we came.
On the beach dining included our now traditional over-the-coals paella (identical to this one from years past).
plus (on other days) chicken rubbed with lemon and olive oil then roasted on the grill, beef kabobs, steamed lobsters, and the usual kid-friendly hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch.
Dining out included Terra Luna in North Truro (always excellent); The Mews (our no-kids Date Night – exquisite food, very highly recommended), and Nappi’s in Provincetown (a good place to take kids to make up for Date Night); Mac’s Shack in Wellfleet (best fried seafood on the Cape). And an indulgent brunch snack at Provincetown’s Portuguese Bakery (kale soup, malassadas, and sweet potato turnovers to die for).
I read several books: the sheep detective story Three Bags Full, River of Darkness – a suspense/mystery set in post WWI Britain, and my annual bit of beach self-indulgence, See Dephi and Die, yet another Lindsay Davis Falco novel. Of these three River of Darkness was by far the strongest, with a well plotted mystery, intriguing characters, and a strong sense of place/time. Three Bags Full was quite breezy and entertaining for a murder mystery. Seeing the sheep confront human behavior was very amusing. The Davis book however was one of the author’s weakest. The main character suffers extreme lack of opposition and foils in this one, amusing just because by now the setting and cast are so familiar.
And yes – I did knit. Lots. I brought three projects, the Kyoto, my Truro blanket and my green tablecloth. I am almost finished with the Kyoto’s sleeves. Blocking and assembly (and pix) will soon ensue. My tablecloth grew by about five rows. I didn’t do anything on the blanket, chiefly because I have mislaid the exact needles I was using. They’re an in-between size, an older set somewhat between 2.5 and 2.75mm I didn’t like the variant gauge I was getting with standard 2.75s and I didn’t have any 2.5s with me in my bag.
So there you have it. One well rested/well fed but slightly bruised knitter. With vacation laundry and that 51 week infinitude stretching out ahead…
GRADUATIONS AND THE BLOB
There’s been precious little knitting shown here of late, an egregious oversight for a knitting blog. As usual, I plead too much work and too little time, with the added complication of kid graduations/celebrations – Elder Daughter from high school, and younger daughter from elementary school.
Fun events to be sure, complete with family/friends, but time consuming none the less.
What little time I’ve had to knit I’ve used to work on my olive tablecloth, which at this point is better named “The Blob”
Right now unstretched it’s about 24 inches from needles to center, with something upwards of a thousand stitches on the needles and I’m not done yet. You can see how densely the stitches are packed onto my too small needle:
That’s a 2mm, by the way. At this point I don’t dare let it free from the stitch keeper unless I’m actually working on it. The thought of dropping those thread-fine stitches makes me hyperventilate.
The good news is that I’m only 40 or so rows from completion. At the rate of 1.5-2 rows per week, I’ll be working on this for quite a while yet.
I do have an interim knitting decision to make. This is NOT a good piece to take with me on our midsummer vacation. It’s best worked on in one spot (you can see I didn’t move it far from my favorite knitting chair for the photo, above). But what to bring?
Perhaps I’ll bring along the Kyoto I still haven’t finished for Elder Daughter. I’m mid sleeve, in boring stockinette, with just the last 8 inches of sleeve to go plus finishing. And I’m also considering bringing my Truro Counterpane. At this point it’s a traditional summer knit for me, and with only nine mega-motifs done I still have miles to go before I can deploy it as a blanket. Or I may decide to do something else entirely. I’ve got a few sweater-sized lots of cotton stashed, any one of which would be an excellent quick-knit summer top for me. Decisions, decisions…
SAND
I’m being eaten alive by work deadlines as usual, limiting my time for knitting and blogging, but I did take off this afternoon to work on the Resident Male’s Fathers Day present. Elder and Younger Daughter helped, of course.
Back story: Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai movie is one of this household’s all time favorites. On more than one occasion we’ve pointed out that the Resident Male is vastly outumbered here, surrounded as he is by a sea of females. And on more than one occasion I’ve threatened to make him a “odd man out” banner inspired by the one raised to rally faltering spirits in our favorite move:
Today we did it. We made a beach flag inspired by the movie. The movie banner says “Farm,” but in our case “Sand” is more appropriate, because we intend on flying this on our annual Cape Cod vacation. Calligraphy for “sand” is courtesy of Ted Goodman and family, local Aikido instructor and all around good guy. (Thanks again, Ted!)
Younger Daughter helped with the sewing, learning to use a sewing machine in the process. Elder daughter helped create and ink the circles and triangles.
Resident Male was quite tickled by the gift, which we gave early – there being no effective place to hide a four foot tall banner in this house.
ANOTHER YEAR
An uneventful birthday weekend, squandered on laundry, work, housecleaning, and more work. Sigh. Still I am of the opinion that if one doesn’t celebrate, then the event didn’t happen and the incremental addition to one’s age need not be acknowledged.
I also have to report a misfortune occurring in our wider circle. Long time readers here will remember that my kids adore Roads End Farm – a paradise on earth for horse-mad girls, run by the Woodman family for more than 35 years.
Elder Daughter spent about nine summers there, Younger Daughter has been there for three. Apparently over Memorial Day weekend there was a fire at the farm. No horses, humans or other critters were harmed, but the camp lost its dorm block and a storage barn just two weeks before the start of the early summer session. Roads End does not go down easy though. They are planning on rebuilding and as far as I know will be opening for the season, albeit with some improvisation on living arrangements. If you’re a REF alumna who has landed here, please consider writing a note of support and appreciation to Tom, Alicia and the whole REF family (address at link, above). They’ve worked hard to keep the magic in the place, and now could use a wave of our collective wands to ensure that it stays.
In knitting news, I continue on the green tablecloth. It’s big and getting bigger. Unfortunately, it’s not photogenic. Yet another blurry picture of a huge olive green snood is not going to be an edifying experience. So I soldier on, visually undocumented.
One thing we are looking forward to here at String is Elder Daughter’s high school graduation this weekend. Soon she’ll be off to the wide, wide world of college. Another knitter released to the wild.
A bittersweet week to be sure.
String-Or-Nothing 