Bona Fide Knitter . . . BACK!

I'm ba-ack! I'm a knitter again. No baking for a week now, although I did just order two new pans yesterday. But I digress.

I've been knitting. Here's the evidence.



Okay, so it's not the Great American Afghan. It's a dishcloth. Whadidya expect? It's a start. While looking through my cotton yarn stash for something suitable with which to make facecloths, I found this lone ball of Lily Sugar 'n Cream in a colorway I remember buying because it said "Cape Cod" to me. The colors fit right in with the decor up there. Actually they also match my powder room here . . . hmmmmm . . .

Anyway, you will notice in the picture that although I am at the end, I did not bind off. You might also have been able to gloam in on a couple of mistakes. My tinge of OCD reared its ugly head and I just might frog the whole thing and do it over. It only takes a couple of nights in front of the TV. We'll see.

However, on a more substantial knitting note, my copy of the new Knitter's (Summer 2009, K95) arrived last week and I actually got an urge to knit, really knit. The magazine had been leaving me cold luke warm in recent issues. Even the big Soxx contest didn't stir me much. This time I have actually ordered yarn to start one of the sweaters pictured. It's the butt ugly shrug pictured on pages 74 and 75. Ooops, perhaps somebody who reads this intends to knit it as is. I'm sorry. It's not "butt ugly." It's just that the colors as combined are not to my liking. But (to use a different "but"), it is exactly the kind of shrug pattern I looked for during last winter. I even faved a few on Ravelry and never went farther because they just weren't it. I'd been looking for a BIG shrug and did not find the right one. I think this is it. I want something big to wrap up in and a shrug, at least any I'd ever seen before, was more of a skimpy shoulder and arm cover. Hmmmm, I guess that's why it is called a "shrug"--because it's for your shoulders--shrug your shoulders. Get it?



I think this more substantial one in Knitter's is just what I was looking for and I have ordered yarn for it from KnitPicks. I changed the colors trying for color harmony using a color scheme based on warm analogous colors. I can picture myself keeping the heat down low next winter wearing some flannel pajama bottoms (which I am going to make from my fabric stash) with coordinating tees (which I will buy from Chico's on sale) and wearing my coordinating hand knit or machine knit socks with Fit Flops (if I ever knit a pair of thong socks) or Birkenstocks, while working in my newly completed garage-turned-studio. I have just created an image that should get my knit back on for sure!

Hurry, KnitPicks! I need that yarn yesterday!

Bona Fide Knitter (needing instant gratification)

No Knitting and a Little Baking

My weekend knitting, which was to be a Sunday washcloth marathon, turned into a day of searching the Internet for just the right cloth pattern for the Elann.com, Coto Canapone (52 % cotton/48% hemp) yarn that arrived last week just a few days after I ordered it. It is the closest I could find to a worsted weight linen or cotton-linen blend at a price I was willing to pay. I ordered color #3, White Sand. The nice oatmeal color is just what I had in mind for my washcloths. I envisioned spa-like color, not quite as soft as Peaches & Creme, perfect for the bath. Instead I got really nice yarn with a soft hand, slightly thinner than the worsted weight I expected and maybe too nice for washcloths. That being the case, the yarn called for a special pattern because it will become washcloths anyway.


Yesterday I found HIS and HERS at Etsy for $4. I'm still waiting for the email with the pattern PDF. Today I found His Cloth and Her Cloth for FREE (my favorite four-letter word). I also found free Easy Peasy Dischcloths which are knit on large needles using double yarn. That might be the answer for this slightly thinner yarn. I don't I want to go as high as 9 mm (US 13) needles as suggested though. I feel a swatch coming on.

Baking is happening much easier than knitting these days. This past weekend's masterpiece was a cake baked in my newest pan, a Lemon Tea Cake. Yes, it tastes as good as it looks and was "easy peasy" to make. I feel another cake pan purchase coming on.

Bona Fide Knitter . . . really

The Bake Goes On

I am still baking and not knitting. Well, not knitting enough and baking too much. I actually forgot, FORGOT, to take waiting room knitting with me on three, THREE separate occasions. Woe is me! I'm at the heel flaps for the plain vanilla socks and at the first round of color B on the shawl. I just printed off a couple of dish cloth patterns. I need a break.

But back to baking: On Memorial Day I created my first disaster. It was to be limoncello cupcakes with limoncello buttercream icing. My 12 cup muffin pan was missing, probably lost in the kitchen redo of a two years ago. However, it was a perfect opportunity to use one of my cupcake cake pans. Instead of the giant cupcake cake pan, I used the one that makes four "mini" cupcakes. (They are really very large, two-part cupcakes.) I used a recipe from a blog I stumbled upon.

At one point when I looked in the oven, the batter in four of the wells had overflowed and risen and four had fallen! A little while later, close to time to take them out, they had all fallen. Disaster!

They were like cookies, cookie liners for a cupcake pan! And they had the nerve to be tasty! I couldn't get them out without a chisel so I soaked the whole pan in water and threw the sodden mess away. What happened, you wonder? So did I. In printing the recipe from the blog some mysterious symbols appeared in the printout. What did me in was a "1" that showed up in front of the "1/2 cup" of sugar. I used a cup and a half of sugar! No wonder I got cookies instead of cupcakes!!

So, off I went to ACMoore and Michael's with 40% and 50% discount coupons in hand and bought a 12 cupcake pan, some cute cupcake print paper linings and matching boxes that hold four cupcakes each.


Unfortunately, my next disaster was about to occur. I used another blog recipe to make Martha Stewart's Gingerbread Cupcakes. I should have used the recipe straight from Martha's site and I would have known to use "large cupcake papers and two jumbo muffin tins" to bake these cupcakes. Or at least I would have known to bake 18 - 20 standard size ones. Here is what I got:



and these that overflowed because I filled them too high trying to use all the remaining batter:


And then the yummy limoncello cream cheese buttercream icing was a little too loose to get a thick coat on them. Too much limoncello I'm afraid.



Not the prettiest and not for gift giving, but they taste really good. Another lesson learned: I will not use my cute lining papers on dark cupcakes again. You can't even see the design. Light papers need to be used to contain light batter, not gingerbread and certainly not chocolate. Who knew?

All was not lost over the holiday weekend. I can end on a high note. The day before the cupcake fiasco I made a beehive honey cake. It looks good and tastes even better.

Bzzzzzzz.

Bona Fide Knitter

Bona Fide Baker?

While my knitting vibe vacillates, my addiction to the Food Network has taken over. I am now the owner of a waffled pancake pan, an ebelskiver pan, and a shortcake basket pan, all of which I have used this week. They will reside alongside the Belgium waffle iron and the giant cupcake cake pan and its sister that makes four smaller cupcake cakes.

The shortcake basket pan arrived late yesterday afternoon. In the evening I had these:

I made the recipe included in the packaging. I thought it would make the exact amount I needed. However, it overfilled the wells just a tad and they looked like muffins that didn't quite rise. Perhaps my partially melted butter (instead of softened) and skim milk (instead of whole) made the difference.

Anyway, they turned out of the pan just fine.

And the resulting strawberry shortcake was scrumptious . . .

. . . even up close and personal.

Strawberries are plentiful and very reasonably priced in my neighborhood right now. The markets are full of them and thus, so is my refrigerator. They are not just for dessert or cereal. I found a place for them in a "toad-in-a-hole" breakfast (egg, cinnamon raisin toast).

Knitting still consists of the shawl of a lifetime and the plain vanilla socks. The socks are at the heel turn. The shawl is at the first color change, which isn't very far along considering the rounds so far have 1,800 stitches. My mind has turned toward another old standby, "warshrags." I have an overwhelming desire to knit a few linen or linen/cotton blend wash cloths. I have loads of Peaches & Creme and Sugar'n Cream, 100% cotton, worsted weight, but I want some linen content. I absolutely cannot use the hybernating Sasha Skirt's pricey, stashed Euroflax and Claudia linen. Is this an excuse to buy a little yarn, ya think? I'm afraid so.

Bona Fide Knitter/Baker

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Saturday I had a wonderful day out, a day trip all by myself with an audio book (The Street Lawyer, by John Grisham, a favorite author of mine, narrated by Frank Muller, my favorite narrator) for company on the 2.5 hour drive to and fro. Dunkin Donuts decaf on the way down and cinnamon and sugar encrusted almonds on the way back, aaaaah bliss.

The Festival was, as always, mobbed and chock full of fiber, equipment and supplies. Of course there were the usual live suspects: sheep, goats, rabbits, llamas, alpacas, old friends and new friends, and of course food, lots of food.

I may have been so relaxed and laid back having a day to myself that I leaned toward feeling jaded. I found nothing to get excited about. Sock yarn? No, been there/done that, got the stash to prove it. Weaving yarn? Yes, a little. I haven't done enough triangular loom weaving to know what I need or want, but I bought some silk/wool blend skeins that should work up nicely on my small (18") tri loom. I also succumbed to four large skeins of the denim blue mohair that was being sold at a price I couldn't refuse. I have visions of a seven foot fringed shawl that goes great with jeans. I can dream, can't I? But no sweater or felted bag kit beckoned me. I think I've had my fill.

One of the high points of the day was when a shopper walked up to me and inquired, "Bona Fide Knitter?" I was so surprised! My avid follower proceeded to make me feel very good about my efforts, so good that I'm going to get back in the swing of it. Thanks Melodye!

It was good to run into three of my fellow sock machine enthusiasts during the day and catch up on what I've been missing and learn I've been missed from the fray. The sock machine demonstration started at 3:00 p.m. I was just an hour from home by then. A couple of years ago I was one of the demonstrators. How the mighty have fallen. My space-consuming hobbies have been put on hold while a garage conversion is being planned to give me a "studio" where it can all be kept together. Well, maybe not all of it . . . That's a story for another day.

The fiber thrill just wasn't there for me this year. It seemed to me that there was an inordinate amount of roving being offered--naturals, colors, wools, silks, you name it, all lovely. I missed last year's Festival so perhaps this trend has been forming and I didn't notice it. Every hobby has its day. I think spinning is really coming into its own. I don't spin. I've been tempted, but I don't spin. I have no wheel and don't want one. I don't spin. I have no drop spindle and I don't want one. No spinning for me. You heard it here first folks.

Anyway, I didn't have my usual MD Sheep and Wool vibe on, but I thoroughly enjoyed the half day I was there and am happy with my purchases. Oh, I forgot to mention the maple syrup and cranberry honey. Yum!

I didn't take my camera with me so I will end with a favorite picture from the 2007 Festival:

Hey! Watch those clippers!

Bona Fide Knitter

Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!

It is actually May Day, May 1, which has a different meaning altogether. It's either a labor or pagan holiday depending on where you live or what you feel like doing. However, this is the perfect day for me to take liberties with the international call of distress which is "MAYDAY" said three times in a row. A Mayday call may only be made when life or craft is in imminent danger of death or destruction. My craft is in imminent danger of destruction. Okay, so I'm stretching the meaning of "craft" quite a bit. I'm talking about my knitting. My life is in imminent danger of destruction from overwhelming responsibilities and excessive pity parties. But I digress.

Since this is, for the most part, a knitting blog, let me tell you about my knitting, or lack there of. I have not blogged since April 1. That should tell you something. Anyway, when last I blogged I had cast on 1,800 stitches to start the mind-numbing shawl of shawls. As it turned out, I had cast on only 1,790 stitches, a mistake I discovered by accident and corrected by doing 10 increases on the second knit row in the area where I was 10 stitches short. With all those stitches in such fine yarn (finer sock yarn than the pattern calls for) the fix will never be noticeable. So I am knit along alternating with the plain vanilla socks when out and about and it's all well and good except I have no . . . joie de vivre. That is as close as I can come to describing how I feel. "Joy of living" is what it means literally. I'm getting no thrills, no excitement, from this knitting is what I mean. No, what I really mean is . . . I don't know what I really mean. Evidently it's a feeling I need to express in another language and I don't speak any other language.

Getting back to "crafts" I have a boatload (pun intended) of UFOs I could work on yet none of them are calling to me. I haven't even been tempted to start something new. I got the new Interweave Knits magazine a few days ago and felt a slight twinge when looking through it, especially at the Grotto Wrap, but nothing that lit a real fire under me.

Check out the bonus pictures. The pattern is a free download.

It's a rainy, dreary May Day here. This picture from a window shows the roof of my minivan and the houses across the street.



Maybe a day of solid knitting by the TV is in order. But alas, responsibility beckons and I might have to weather the storms and make an across town trek. I guess if I can brave similar weather tomorrow to drive three hours to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, a 40 minute trip across town today should be doable.

Bona Fide Knitter

1,800 Stitches Cast On

April Fool!

Well, not exactly. The supersock shawl really does call for 1,800 stitches to be cast on and I do have 1,200 of the 1,800 required stitches on the needles. I would have them all cast on by now, but I paced myself waiting for my KnitPicks order to arrive. I'm casting on using Denise needles and cable. I decided that I need turbo speed needles if I plan to complete the shawl within my productive years and I that need a thin, pliable cable of the first order. Enter KnitPicks once again.

Although I have both sets of Options (Harmony and Nickel Plated), the additional sizes and duplicates of some, I decided that along with a 60" cable, I need another pair of size US 5 nickel plated needles to hold this shawl of many stitches. Who knows when the former Queen of Unfinished Projects will be able to free up this set. I might need US 5s many more times before the shawl becomes a FO (Finished Object). If my timing is right, I will have all the stitches cast on just in time to knit them off the Denise and onto the KnitPicks for the first round.

Another thing about this blog entry that makes it suitable for an April Fool prank is the very fact that I'm blogging twice within a week/seven days. Can you believe it? I guess there should be a picture in here someplace, but I'm coming to you from my laptop where my pictures aren't.

And now back to reality.

Bona Fide Knitter