Not My Cats

As we wait for me to finish up my hyacinth Greenjeans, let me just throw a cute picture out for you. I think it's a universal truth that knitters love cats, so here are my friend Denise's cats Quick and Silver. I actually do have a cat, Spot, but he doesn't stand still for pictures. Denise's cats are pretty cute, though. And why wouldn't they be, with a hot mom like this?

Staycation Day

Butterscotch the goat, courtesy of my pretty darn good iphone camera

Today I'm not going to bore you with my ribbing. Suffice it to say, it's done, yippee, and I've definitely decided on making a short-sleeved version of my hyacinth sweater because I'm sick of it. Plus I finished one sleeve already and hallelujah, it's done.

Someone needs to exfoliate

Yesterday we took the girls to the zoo and had a really great day - it was perfect zoo weather: cool and a little overcast, but not cold. The animals were all out and we had no agenda, so we just wandered around in a very relaxed way. Anna even had time to stand still and sketch when the subjects were cooperative.

Ribbing

I'm not sure why this is taking So. Incredibly. Long. I feel like I've been working on this ribbing forever and making no perceptible progress whatsoever. I keep measuring from the armhole to the edge and it's always 10".

My 15 Minutes

Maybe it was worth only 14 minutes of fame, but I was the "10 Questions" person in our local newspaper last week. Here's the link if you want to check it out.

And in the meantime there's a photo above of another WIP I'm working on - the Fan Neckwarmer - while I crank out the rib and cable part of Mr. Greenjeans. I'm hoping to have the body done before too long....

And the Children Sang My Praises...

My children have never set foot on the Iberian Peninsula. They hate Spanish class, they sunburn like crazy, they are light-eyed (except for brown-eyed Mary) and they basically exhibit no evidence of hispanic heritage except for one: they looooves them some Spanish food. And why not? The new interest in Spanish cuisine may be, well, new, but Spanish food rocks the house. Excellent olive oil, good wine, fresh ingredients, fabulous cheese - you can't go wrong.

Yesterday's dinner was a tapa of chorizo with bread, a main course of tortilla de patata (the national dish of Spain - if you don't believe me look at how many images you can google. Spaniards are passionate about tortilla.) with sliced organic tomatoes, and a dessert of homemade vanilla ice cream. And the children sang my praises.

PS Here's a video tortilla tutorial, with English translation...not definitive, but you'll get the idea:

Progress...

Despite a very busy schedule this week, I've managed to make a great deal of progress on several projects. I don't usually post progress shots, as you know, but if we wait till I'm finished it might be weeks before I post again!



Here's one item that's fit for public consumption - that is, it finally looks like more than an amorphous blob of yarn. It's a version of Mr. Greenjeans in Malabrigo Merino Worsted, colorway Jacinto, which means hyacinth in Spanish. I've converted the cardigan to a pullover, and I'll admit I didn't put a lot of thought into it so I'm hoping it will turn out okay in the end. It's looking sort of small right now, too, which is surprising for anything I knit. In the end, whoever fits it best will get a new sweater.

Just Enough Ruffles

Here's another Malabrigo worsted project, a Just Enough Ruffles scarf.



This takes under two skeins of Malabrigo and results in a luxurious, warm scarf.



You do have to be prepared to knit across 600 stitches in stockinette and then bind off in purl, but it goes very quickly and it's completely worth every stitch.

Turquoise Fetching

You may think, dear reader, that I haven't been knitting anything at all since I haven't posted in two weeks. But you'd be wrong, my friend. I've been knitting like wildfire, and doing about a million other things (like this, for example - the first and last time you're likely to see me in a suit).



Here you see a pair of Fetching (Fetchings?) in some wonderfully soft turquoise Malabrigo worsted. This is actually the second time I've knit this pattern, but the first time was probably two years ago and I gave them away without taking a photo!



I did make some mods to the pattern. I knit an extra repeat of the cable both at the cuff and at the fingertips; I added a couple of rows before starting the thumb, after the thumb, and on the thumb (details on Ravelry) and I bound off in purl to give a little gartery goodness on the edges. I love them!

A Quiet Hat

This is just a simple hat made from the leftover Malabrigo I used for the Target Wave mittens. The color is Frost Gray, and the merino wool feels like cashmere. Quiet and soft.

Twilight Mittens

Happy New Year! I'm just checking in quickly with a pair of mittens inspired by the movie Twilight. Fiona's a big fan of the books and I think she's seen the movie...is it three times now? I'm not sure, but I got dragged out of my cozy house one evening for one of the viewings, which is a testament to her persistence.



Did you see the mittens in the preview above? I will say, if you're a knitter, Twilight is worth seeing for the mittens and scarves, and of course if you liked the books you'll have to see the movie, right?



I read the books while I was down with the flu over the holidays - they have a strangely compelling hold once you start them. The writing isn't that great and I wanted to smack Bella through 90% of the 1600 pages I waded through, but there you go - I read them just the same. Those books are literary crack.



There are a couple of patterns for Bella's mittens out there; you can find the pattern I used for these here. The yarn is Cascade Eco-Wool - very soft.

Happy Holidays

Wherever you are, we are neighbors in this world. We wish you blessings of the seasons and peace in the new year - the McNeils

It's a Blizzard!

After a gorgeous, sunny weekend with temperatures all the way down in the 50s at night, we finally have snow in Windanseaville! Okay, it's fake snow made of egg whites and dipped in chocolate, but still. It is a little misty with a tiny bit of drizzle outside, which is what passes for winter weather around here.

The snowcaps are from Tyler Florence's recipe and they are super easy to make. I had the egg whites left over from making sablés yesterday, so I whipped these babies up and popped them in the oven last night so they could sit. The meringues are very sweet, but the semisweet chocolate balances them nicely. If you make them, you can make your own superfine sugar by whirring regular sugar in the food processor just a bit; also, they're sticky to the touch - they stick to each other and they will stick to your fingers, so have a little powdered sugar on hand and dip your fingers into it from time to time so they'll slide right off.



PS Just in case you doubt this is Southern California, witness the avocado next to the snowcaps in the top photo...you never know when you'll need a little guac.

Shortrow Sideways Hat

Just a quick FO! In between my other projects, I had to cast on for this little donation hat because I knew it would be quick quick quick, and it was! It took less than 100 yards of cotton dishcloth yarn, but I might make it again using some variegated yarn in a larger gauge. The pattern is here (scroll down) if you need a fast gift.

It's Beginning to Smell a lot like Christmas

In another blog-inspired impulse, I just finished enjoying a rainy morning in the kitchen baking molasses cookies. I followed the recipe as Ree has it, except that I made a double batch, I whisked my dry ingredients together to distribute everything evenly, and I rolled the cookies in demerara sugar before popping them into the oven. I think I rolled them a little smaller than hers too, because I ended up with about five dozen cookies instead of the expected 36 and they're still a nice size. The fragrance is incredible - I shelled and ground my own cardamom in my old coffee grinder (not because I'm crazy - it's because I bought it a few months ago for another recipe and I could only find it in the pod - right now it's in the stores pre-ground probably cuz it's in a bunch of Christmas recipes) and between the spices and the molasses and the demerara sugar baking, I wish I could bottle the smell and sell it as Eau de Noel.


PS John came home for lunch today and proclaimed these the best molasses cookies he's ever eaten...he's something of a connoisseur, so that's a great recommendation! If you bake them, and you should - they're easy - don't overbake. They're best after they've cracked but are still a little on the chewy side.

Rainy Day Baking

The rainy weather here in Windanseaville is just another excuse not to leave home, in my opinion. This is as close to winter as we get, and with a pot of chicken tortilla soup on the stove and the fire lit it's heaven on earth. A little knitting, a little baking, a good movie on tivo....even if I have to do a little work, the rest of the day is fantastic. Directly after reading this post by Bea this morning, I went to the kitchen and baked donut muffins. I even doubled the recipe so I could deliver some to a friend I had a meeting with and still have plenty for the girls.



Did I mention that Fiona is home for winter break? The tortilla soup (the Barefoot Contessa recipe with leftover roasted chicken shredded into it) was for her - I promised I wouldn't make it until she was home to eat it! The soup was last night's dinner, accompanied by a pumpkin tarte. The tarte was a hit, so you're seeing what's left over, i.e., not much. The filling is basically the recipe on the Libby's can except that I used eggnog from a carton in place of the evaporated milk, and I baked it in a tarte pan with a gingernap cookie crust. Topped with maple whipped cream (3 cups heavy cream, whip until soft peaks, add about 1/2 c maple syrup - not pancake syrup - whip until the consistency you prefer) it is all kinds of good things on one plate. It makes enough for a 10" tarte plus 4 little 4" tartelettes (cuz you know you've gotta taste it before you serve it to people!).



The muffins are pretty fab, too - I only dredged the tops in powdered sugar so they're not actually too sweet - good with a cup of coffee on a rainy afternoon.

Mitered Mittens

We <3 the LJ Christmas Parade!

December is always such a busy month, I barely have time to catch my breath! Last weekend alone we had a parade, a triple birthday party, and a regatta...these were just the main events and don't even include the errands and life in general, or the things we couldn't do because we were busy with parades and regattas. And if you think I've made any progress on stimulating the economy, guess again. No progress. No stimulation has taken place.



I did make a gorgeous chocolate cake for the birthday people, though. It's the Chocolate Buttermilk Cake from Magnolia, with their chocolate buttercream on top. It may well be the best chocolate cake I've ever eaten. I ended up short on the unsweetened chocolate called for in the cake and had to substitute some very nice cocoa and even more butter, most likely bringing the butter-to-person ratio up somewhere in the this-cake-will-kill-you range, but it was definitely worth it.



On the knitting front, I've been working away on mittens, mittens, and more mittens. I just love them. These are the Elizabeth Zimmerman's Mitered Mittens and they are super fun to knit.



The pattern shows the Noro Silk Garden off beautifully, and the mittens are matched but mismatched at the same time - very cool. I cast on 40 sts, knit 5 rounds of garter stitch, 2.5" of cuff, and away we went.



Rather than using EZ's thumb method for this mitten (snip a stitch and unravel live sts), I used Kathryn Ivy's technique and put in a thumb gusset right after the cuff. She's right, it distorts the palm of the mitten less. I also quit decreasing at the top when I had 12 stitches total and kitchenered the fingertips. I bath in Eucalan and a rest flattened them right out to the shape you see here - they were a little gnarled before blocking.

Target Wave

Isn't this a great pattern? These Target Wave mittens are from Knitting Nature, one of my favorite books for knitting inspiration. I'll admit I haven't knit very many Norah Gaughan designs, but I love the organic quality of her creations.


The gray is Malabrigo Worsted in Frost Gray, and the cream is some wool I had in my stash...Lana Gatto, I think. The pattern calls for knitting these mittens flat, but you know me, I hate to seam. I adjusted for the seam stitches and knitted the cuffs in the round, knit back and forth for the thumb hole, and joined again for the fingertips.


For the thumbs, I picked up stitches all around the thumb hole, adding a couple of extras where it looked like there might be gaps. Those I dispatched with a k2tog on the first round of knitting and then continued to the thumb tips.


The finished mittens were a little wobbly looking, what with all the curves and color changes, but I cut out a hand shape from an old Amazon box and steamed those babies smooth. I love them!

Crew Hats

With the holidays here I'm working on a lot of smallish projects: mittens, hats, cowls, etc. They're my standard instant-gratification knits, even given my usually severe case of second-mitten syndrome.

Pretty chipper for 6:00 am!

Last week, between two pairs of mittens, I whipped out some hats for Anna. Anna rows every afternoon and Saturdays starting at, really, the crack of dawn (good thing John likes the early morning because I'm just starting my coffee infusion when it's time to drive down the hill), and it gets pretty cold on the bay (at least until she starts really going, and then it's hot). These crew hats are super easy basic beanies knit in thick user-friendly yarn. In fact, the checkered one landed in the bay on its first outing and lived to tell the tale. I used Encore Chunky for both hats in black and a light yellow - not my favorite yarn, but these hats are probably destined to meet a bad end.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's Anna taking a pecan pie over to our next-door neighbors...I wish we could share with you, too! Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Care Package Knits

Just a quick post today - I mailed a care package off to Fiona this last week containing the multicolored scarf I finished last week, a brown cabbage rose scarf based on this design (and modified to be a little asymmetrical in the points) and a Noro striped scarf based on this. I think she's keeping the sideways striped one so the other one's for her Thanksgiving host, and the cabbage rose scarf is for her roommate.



I had to have cataract surgery this week (!!! Get your eyes checked! I'm not that old!) so I've been taking it easy and getting used to my new bionic eye. I'm still adapting to reading and looking at my computer screen and focusing properly, but knitting and TV are definitely doable so I'm entertained. And I can drive, so hurray for that. I'm more than halfway through a pair of mittens I started yesterday, so stay tuned for more knitting before our thoughts turn to Turkey Day cooking!