Monthly Archives: June 2013

Desserts, tried and true

Posted on June 26, 2013 | 5 comments

I hosted a going away party for our outgoing pastor last Monday. Who knew you could get 40 people in my house? There were six of us on the committee; we were each charged to supply a dessert and two bottles of wine. Being an overachiever, I made two desserts. The recipes have been here on the blog before, but I’m posting them again as things that are simple and that can go on a picnic or sit out on a buffet for a while and still look good! (This is not the time for homemade ice cream.) I like to experiment and try new things, but sometimes you need to go for the reliable old standards.

I baked a blueberry cobbler, which actually works well for a picnic dessert, too. Although I like it best with vanilla ice cream, a can of aerosol whipped cream will do in a pinch.

These are not blueberries from my garden. Mine are close, but they’ll be ripe in the next week or two. Store bought was the next best thing.

This is my favorite cobbler recipe. It’s fabulous with fresh berries, but I also make it with frozen berries from my garden throughout the year. If you use frozen berries, it will take an extra 10 minutes or so to bake. (Shout out to my friend Vickie, who sent me this recipe in 1986, when we still wrote letters via snail mail. I had just moved away to New York. I showed her the letter last month, and it really startled her that I still have it. It’s on my fridge.):

Berry Cobbler

For the batter:
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 TBSP butter (I admit that I misread her 4 as a 9, and have been using 8 TBSP, or 1/2 cup, of butter. Yum. 6 is a good compromise.)
3/4 cup sugar (I reduce to 2/3 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
3 cups berries

Stir together flour, baking powder, salt. Cream butter, sugar, vanilla; beat in egg until blended. Add flour mixure and milk–beat only until smooth. Spread in buttered 8 inch square baking dish; scatter berries on top.

TOPPING:
1/4 cup soft butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour

Combine topping ingredients and beat until smooth. Drop teaspoonsful of topping over berries. Bake @ 350 degrees for one hour–toothpick should come out without batter, and top is golden. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream, or both. Yields 9 servings, because I cut things in grid patterns. I can’t help myself.

I also made chocolate chip shortbread and cut it into 36 bite sized pieces. This is an old picture, so these are not the 36 squares!

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips or butterscotch chips (I used mini chocolate, but I’ve also used butterscotch)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour and salt, and then beat these with the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in chips. Press into an ungreased 9 inch square pan.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until edges are golden. Cool 20-30 minutes in pan on wire rack.

Score shortbread with sharp knife into desired size servings, but do not cut all the way through. Invert onto rack and cool completely. Break into pieces.

What are your go-to dessert recipes?

Obligatory knit content: Still knitting away on my Garland shawl. Repeat 12!

5 Comments

Posted in foodies!, recipe

Tagged cobbler, recipe, shortbread

Garland KAL: math, gauge, halfway point!

Posted on June 23, 2013 | Comments Off

Math is my friend on my Garland shawl KAL project. I want to use as much of this lovely Knitted Wit Cashy Lite as possible in this piece. The ball weighed in at 4.5 oz, or 127 grams, 495 yards. That’s a lot of yarn! I didn’t check my gauge before starting. I knew I’d be weighing my yarn as I worked, so no worries about not having enough. I just had to come out with a fabric that I liked. I just checked now, and I’m getting 19 st/4 inches, which is way looser than the 23 st/4 inches specified in the pattern.

I’ve completed 9 repeats in the increase section, and used 54 grams of yarn. I’ll need 54 grams for the matching decrease section, too, so that means I have 19 grams left for the single repeat in the center section. The 9th repeat took 9 grams of yarn, and the center one will take about the same. 19 grams is plenty of yarn for that single repeat, but not enough to do an additional increase/decrease set. Math portion of my shawl is officially done! Now that I no longer need to keep weighing my yarn, this becomes a portable project with the help of my new beading tin.

For comparison, test knitter Rachel knit at 24/st inch. After 9 repeats in the increase section, she had used 47 grams. (Her 9th repeat took 7 grams of yarn.) She needed 47 grams for the matching decrease section, so that left her 33 grams for the center section, more than enough for the 7 grams it would take. We could have added another increase/decrease set, but I wanted the pattern to work for a skein with less yardage, too. (Cashy Lite comes in a BIG skein, but not all fingering weight yarns do.)

My shawl is knit with the same number of stitches as Rachel’s, but mine will be larger because of the difference in gauge. I love this construction because it is so easily adaptable for YOUR yarn and YOUR gauge. The pattern has it all planned for you, but if you have more or less yarn, or you deviate from the specified gauge, all you need is a kitchen scale.

One more thing: I counted my garter stitches, and I’m missing one. I missed an increase somewhere along the way. It’s hard to tell where I missed it in the garter stitch, but I think it’s 40 rows back. If I can’t see it, no one else can, either. It’s not a big deal; I’ll just skip a decrease later. No stress! Knit on…

Comments Off on Garland KAL: math, gauge, halfway point!

Posted in KAL, Knit

Tagged Garland KAL, gauge

Showtime at TNNA!

Posted on June 21, 2013 | 2 comments

I’m not at TNNA…at least not in person. But I’m there in spirit! My Filigree Shawls are at Knitted Wit’s booth for Sample It. Lorajean just snapped this pic for me.

This is my scarf design that I reworked with a crescent shawl shaping to showcase Knitted Wit’s beautiful Shine yarn (50/50 merino/tencel). I liked the scarf, but I love the shawl. Shapings for scarf and shawl are both included in the pattern.

The shawl comes in two sizes.

I love its sister shawl and scarf, Webfoot, too.

If you’re at TNNA, stop by and see Filigree in person at Sample It tonight, or in Knitted Wit’s booth during the show. Have a great show, all! And have some Jeni’s ice cream for me…

If you’re not at TNNA, you can still knit your own. I’m knitting one for me, right now.

2 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged filigree, Knit, Sample It, TNNA

Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet

Posted on June 20, 2013 | 1 comment

My Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of the migration of yarnies to Columbus, Ohio today. They say they’re heading there for TNNA, The National Needlearts Association summer trade show. But I think they’re equally excited to be in close proximity to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. I first encountered Jeni’s when I went to TNNA last year. I was hooked. I went to Jeni’s every day!

The kids gave me an ice cream maker last Christmas. Was it a gift for me, or a gift for them? Hmmm. I don’t use it a lot, but I love it when I do.

The first thing I made with it was Bourbon Vanilla ice cream, which was their ulterior motive for this gift. It turned out great; we put it in profiteroles.

This outing, we made Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet using Jeni’s recipe. It tastes just like a ripe pear, even with riesling in it. Delicious. (And do you sense a theme?) This was my favorite flavor in Columbus.

I used Anjou pears, and Brooks Winery‘s Tethys, a late harvest riesling. The wine was probably nicer than it needed to be, but drinking the rest of the bottle was great! (I did have help.) Here’s the recipe. (Thank you, Jeni, for allowing me to post this.)

Riesling-Poached Pear Sorbet
A surprisingly rich sorbet with the texture of a ripe pear; sweet Riesling notes shine on the finish.

This flavor works well even with underripe pears—you just have to poach them a bit longer. If your pears are superripe and juicy, you won’t need to poach them for more than a few moments.

Pairs well with: Cocoa Zin Ice Cream with palmiers and whipped cream.

Makes about 1 quart

6 medium Anjou, Bartlett, Bosc, or Comice pears (about 1 3/4 pounds), peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Riesling
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup

COOK
Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue cooking for 5 to 8 minutes, until the pears are soft. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

CHILL
Puree the pear mixture in 2 batches in a food processor until completely smooth. Force through a sieve.
Fill a large bowl with ice and water. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

FREEZE
Pour the sorbet base into the frozen canister and spin just until the consistency of very softly whipped cream.
Pack the sorbet into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

This is a fabulous book, full of innovative flavors. On to the next flavor! I’m missing TNNA, but my ice cream fix is here…

1 Comment

Posted in foodies!, recipe

Tagged ice cream, jeni's, sorbet, TNNA

Managing your beads for knitting

Posted on June 19, 2013 | 13 comments

Still happily knitting along on my Garland Shawl for the KAL. Based on Sarah’s comment yesterday, I absconded with an Altoids tin from CollegeKid’s room. (He’s home for the summer. The tin has been there much longer…) It’s just the right size for a short tube of beads, a magnet, and my Bead Aid. The tube keeps most of the beads corralled, so if I spill, it’s just a few beads that go flying.

It was a little bit noisy with the beads rolling around in the tin, so I cut a scrap of craft fun foam to fit the bottom of the tin. Now the sound of rolling beads won’t disturb DH when I’m doing my night owl knitting. The foam also makes it easier for me to pick up a bead. The magnet holds my Bead Aid, and it also secures the fun foam to the bottom of the tin.

Perfect tool, and free! Thank you, Sarah!

13 Comments

Posted in beading, KAL, Knit

Tagged bead tin, beads

The siren song…

Posted on June 17, 2013 | 22 comments

…of yarn! I’m usually a monogamous knitter. At most, I’ll have two projects, if one takes more brain power than can be managed at knit nite. You should always have some simple knitting for social occasions.

I’m knitting away on my Garland shawl for the KAL. I have six repeats done, and am expecting there to be 17 total. Don’t hold me to that number; my scale will help me figure it out when I get closer to the center. (And the color is much more vibrant than this in real life.)

I have the pattern memorized, but I don’t know that I’ll be knitting this away from home. It’s about the beads. Having a little dish of beads next to me is just an opportunity to spill! I could probably manage it at knit nite, but not in a car or on the go. So I need a knit nite type of project to take with me.

This is the beginning of a Filigree shawl for me. It’s Knitted Wit Shine in Silver Lining. I knit a smaller version of this when I designed it for Lorajean to take to TNNA, but I really want a bigger one for me. I have the 20 stitch lace edging repeat mostly memorized, and the pattern PDF lives in my phone, too, so it’s pretty easy to take with me. Once I get to the short row shaping, it’s super simple. Perfect take-along knitting.

But wait, there’s more. I have an idea for another shawl design. I’ve gotten as far as charting out the lace I want. And this Knitted Wit Bling is begging to be cast on, at least for swatching. (Look at the sparkles!) What’s a knitter to do?

My drawer of fingering weight yarn is overflowing. Casting on would be the responsible thing to do, in order to reduce the stress on the yarn in the drawer. Right? Right? Hello?

How many projects do you have on your needles?

22 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Yarn and laughter hangover

Posted on June 12, 2013 | 2 comments

Monday’s Garland KAL cast on party at Twisted? Fun!

I made party favor stitch markers:

And Sarah, maker of Bead Aids, made me these beautiful earrings. Aren’t they stunning? She is very talented!

They go perfectly with my shawl to be. (Better than the picture below would suggest; the color is much richer in person)

And yes, there was a giant cookie, as promised!

There’s still 2/3 of the cookie left…it was huge.

Also, I had this message from Sherecie on the PDXKnitterati Ravelry forum last week. It made me laugh out loud.

…so, I’m a really bad knit-a-long-er.
I couldn’t wait to cast on & thought I would get started last weekend. It was among other WIPs, so I thought I would knit on it a little, here & there, until the official cast on date & then work on it exclusively…

pdxknitterati, I think you need to add a warning message on this pattern… something like “This thing is hugely addictive” and “Let your other projects know you’re starting this & tell them you won’t be back to them until it’s done.”

I’m finished.
It’s blocking outside.
I’m in love with it.
I’m sorry I didn’t knit-along with all of you, but I will be watching and squeeing at all the pictures as you go!!

I did tell her she could knit another one with us. What’s your summer knit?

2 Comments

Posted in KAL, Knit

Tagged Garland KAL

Garland Shawl KAL cast on day

Posted on June 9, 2013 | 3 comments

It’s cast on day for the Garland KAL. I’m meeting with local knitters this evening at Twisted, 5-7 p.m. I’ll bring some appetizers, party favors, and a giant cookie tray that I picked up yesterday.

Gee, should I bring a pizza cutter for it? But it seemed appropriate for a summer KAL.

Here are a couple tips for Garland, just to get started. First of all, the special bind off. It’s really stretchy, and makes it possible to block the leafy edging to its full glory. You can use a regular bind off, but it’s much easier to pin out with the stretchy bind off described in the pattern. (If you’ve already cast on, you can change mid-project. No one will look close enough to see that they’re not the same.)

Second tip: I like to put a marker between stitches 13 and 14 on the edging. That way I don’t have to count to know where to start the next leaf after the bind off row. It starts right at the marker.

Remember, there’s Garland KAL chatter in the PDXKnitterati group on Ravelry, so pop over there and join the party!

It’s Rose Festival here in Portland, and the weather has been uncommonly nice. Usually it rains for Rose Festival, but it’s been spectacular here. Remember this rose planting with the Royal Rosarians in 2010?

Here’s the rose today:

It’s really happy in its space!

And I snapped this picture in my back yard last night at dinner. I think it’s St. John’s Wort; there’s a ton of it growing under my bamboo.

I didn’t even realize the tips of the stamens were pink until I looked at the picture. Sweet!

Is it summer for you yet?

3 Comments

Posted in KAL, Knit

Tagged Garland KAL

Shortcake, and yarn

Posted on June 6, 2013 | 5 comments

I’m still between projects, trying to decide if I’m going to start something before the Garland KAL cast on Monday. I want to have the right needles free when it’s time to start!

The yarn is definitely ready. There was a drive-by yarning here Wednesday.

My Peacock and Janet’s Moody Blues. And the beads I bought at Shipwreck?

They look to be a perfect match. I have way more than enough. There are about 150 beads per strand, and I have 6 strands. I don’t know if you can tell, but the beads are clear, with a peacock lining.

There is still time to join the KAL; we don’t cast on until Monday. The coupon code for the discount on the Garland Shawl pattern is GarlandKAL. Join us! And if you’re local in Portland, join us at Twisted this Monday evening from 5-7 for a cast on party.

What else is occupying my thoughts?

Strawberry shortcake. (Please excuse the lighting; it was late at night.) Local strawberries are just coming into season, but I haven’t had any yet. I’ve been making do with California berries. Let’s just say I’m practicing for the real thing. Here’s my current shortcake recipe. They’re like my scones, only more butter, and no egg. Crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside, especially when they’re still warm from the oven. They also reheat well in the toaster oven.

Strawberry Shortcake
serves 8

2 pounds fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and sliced
2 tablespoons sugar (or more, to taste)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or both

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a medium bowl, stir together the strawberries and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and 3 T sugar. Cut the butter into pieces and then blend them into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Combine milk and vanilla and add to flour mixture; stir until just combined.

Using your hands, gently divide mixture into 8 equal size balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 12 – 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Cool on a rack, just a bit. To serve, split a warm shortcake in two, and serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or both.

What’s your favorite summer dessert?

5 Comments

Posted in foodies!, KAL, Knit, recipe, yarn

Tagged Garland KAL, kal, shortcake

Filigree and Webfoot Shawls pattern release sale

Posted on June 6, 2013 | 2 comments

They’re here! New shawl versions of Filigree and Webfoot are now live.

The small version of the Filigree Shawl

And the larger version.

The larger version is two repeats wider than the smaller version, but about the same depth.

These are knit with Knitted Wit’s Shine (merino/tencel blend). It’s great to work with, and has a beautiful sheen. It takes well to blocking, too. This pattern and yarn combination will be featured by Knitted Wit at TNNA’s Sample It later this month.

This is the Webfoot Shawl in Hazel Knits Entice, an MCN blend. It is lovely to work with, and so squishy soft.

I only knit the larger shawl for this design, but you can always go smaller if you want to. I wouldn’t, because this is so nice to wrap around yourself.

Both new patterns have instructions for the original crescent shaped scarf, as well as two shawl sizes. It was a lot of fun to play with the shaping and get a different accessory personality from it. I think the shawls are more useful to me, but your mileage may vary.

Remember, if you’ve purchased the previous Webfoot and Filigree Scarves pattern, you’ll receive both the Webfoot and Filigree shawl/scarf patterns as updates. You should be receiving an update email from Ravelry with instructions on how to get both patterns. That’s two patterns for your original $6 purchase. Please update by June 30, 2013.

If you didn’t purchase the previous pattern, I have a special offer for you, too. To celebrate the launch of these two patterns, they’re each $1.50 off through June 15. Use the coupon code TwoNew to receive your discount on the Filigree page or Webfoot page. You have to purchase them separately, though; the system can only give one discount at a time.

And now I have absolutely nothing on my needles. What an odd feeling. But I have a new design idea, two gifts to knit, and the Garland KAL starts on Monday. No idle hands for long!

2 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged crescent shawls, filigree, Knit, Webfoot