Trust me - never, never turn on the food network late at night because it’ll make you crave all kinds of amazing sweet or savory, succulent stuff and most stores are closed by then.  However, if you are very lucky, you might have the ingredients on hand to throw something together that will at least keep body and soul together until the markets re-open in the morning.

Such was the situation last night as we watched Rachael Ray traipse through Las Vegas, attempting to eat well for $40/day.  We got past the paella and the buffet just fine but when she got to the garlic-cheese bread with tomato sauce, we looked at each other and groaned and off into the kitchen we went.

We talked about how to do this and, interestingly enough, we each had come up with a different method.  Myria’s idea was to butter and garlic powder several thick slices of bread and put them under the broiler to brown, removing them part way through to add cheese.  Mine was to grill the bread - as though you were making a grilled cheese sandwich.  We went with my method only because it was so hot and humid that we didn’t want to turn on the stove.

Ingredients

4 thick slices (3/4” - 1") of Italian bread
1/4 c soft butter or margarine
1/2 tsp garlic powder
4 slices cheese of choice
1 c spaghetti or pizza sauce - whatever you have on hand.

Pour your spaghetti sauce into a microwave-proof bowl and lay a paper towel over the top.  This is critical with spaghetti sauce because it travels.  It bubbles and pops and will get all over the inside of your microwave if it isn’t contained somehow.  A paper towel is enough; it absorbs whatever the sauce tries to throw off and keeps things nicely under control.  Now, put your paper towel covered bowl into the microwave.  Don’t do anything to it yet, just set it inside, ready to go.





Now, in a small bowl, mix the butter and the garlic powder together.  Spread on one side of your bread slices.  Place slices, butter side down, in a pan over medium heat.  Once the slices are in the pan, butter the other side - the side facing up.  Do this carefully :) Keep an eye on things because when the bread starts browning it can go from golden to charcoal in a very short amount of time.

When the bottom of the bread is golden and crisp, flip it over.  Now place your cheese on top of the slice to get nice and melty while the bottom browns.

Just before you put your last batch of bread into the frying pan, set the microwave for a minute and a half at full power (this may vary depending on the size and strength of your nuker).  Be careful when you move this from the nuker to the table - the bowl will be very hot.





And there you have it :) Dip bread into sauce and scarf!

As a spur-of-the-moment experiment, this worked out pretty well.  It satisfied the craving using ingredients we already had on hand, was quick and relatively easy and didn’t heat up the kitchen.  Next time, we’ll probably try the broiler method and see how that shapes up!

Enjoy :)

I think I’ve found my next project - sort of :) I’m not sure I have enough yarn for it at the moment or that, even if I do, that I want to make the item out of what I have on hand.  Heheh - why keep things simple when, with a little effort, you can complicate them beyond belief, eh?

I have Martha Waterman’s Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls out of the library and have fallen head over heels for the Kerry Blue Shawl.  The link is to a page with a good picture of the finished item and also corrections to the printed pattern.  Is that a humdinger of a shawl, or what?

So I spent most of Sunday trying to cast on.  I can manage a cast on for something done circularly, but usually I’m starting with lots of stitches.  This business of casting on 3 stitches onto each of 4 DPNs is for the birds!  However, after much cussing and many, many ripped out attempts, I finally got the hang of the durned thing.

The image on the left was done with worsted weight wool on size 6 needles (actually, all of these were done on size six needles).  Not a suitable yarn for the pattern but I had hoped that having some substance, this yarn would help me manage the cast on so I could practice a bit.  The image on the right was done with a double strand of Shadow Merino lace weight and I worked it through the sixth round on straights.  Yes, “chicken” is the right word :) Then I spread the work out over four needles and, after I’d worked a few more rounds, sewed up the gap.  This approach works, but only barely.  Note that not only am I chicken about casting on a wee number of stitches on a large number of needles, I am also nervous about working that single, tiny little strand of lace weight yarn all by itself.  I may eventually conquer that skittishness, but now’s not the time :)

The merino wasn’t coming out too badly, but my mind kept going back to the hand-painted rayon thread and insisting that I work that in somewhere.  So this was halted and yet another piece was started:

Look familiar?  This time it’s only a single strand of each - the merino and the rayon.  It still looks nice and shows every evidence that the fabric will still have the same gorgeous drape as the scarf did (though that has been frogged) but will be a bit lighter in weight.  And, believe it or not, I got the cast-on right this time - didn’t fumble anything, didn’t screw anything up.  It just worked.  I don’t know if my fumble-fingers had finally acquired the knack or whether some benevolent and merciful knitting god was taking pity on me.  Normally I would eschew any such offer made on that basis but this time?  I’ll take what I can get :)

Now… I probably don’t have enough of the wool to make this shawl; it’s fair sized and the pattern doesn’t give yardage (or needle size, for that matter, insisting that the reader pick the yarn they want to use and needles appropriate for said yarn.  There is no apparent realization that knowing what types and quantities of these items went into the original is helpful to the fledgling lacer - even if they don’t want to clone the original).  So my assumption is that Kerry will take a lot of yarn.  Better to err on the side of too much than too little.  Except that I don’t even know how to guess.  My base assumption is going to be that 1200 yards is the minimum and 1600 might be better to start with.

And since I don’t have that amount of the Campfire Merino, I’d need to order more.  Ahem...or I could order another color entirely (there may not be any more Campfire in the right dye lot) like Vineyard, Jewels, Sunset and Grape.

And this won’t happen immediately, but it is something to shoot for.  After all, I can’t let all that cast-on larnin’ go to waste!

This is my friend Laurie and I made the lace scarf for her birthday.  Doesn’t it look nice on her?  You may be able to tell, if you look carefully at the bottom of the picture, that I also made scones.  She deserved them :)

Do you find yourself at a point where projects, as in unfinished projects start to pile up on you?  I do because I can seldom resist the temptation to start a new project but I generally lack the discipline required to finish most of them.  However, as I was mulling this over last night, it occurred to me that lack of discipline may not always be the problem.

I was thinking about this:

And this:





The first has been annoying me since I started it because it has been constantly whispering that it would rather be mittens.  Telling it to shut-up or just ignoring it has gotten me nowhere so it’s going to get deconstructed and reassembled as hand wear rather than neckwear.

The second, for all it’s lush hand and coloring, is also going nowhere because neither I nor Myria needs another scarf - and neither of us owns anything that these colors would work with.  Yes, I realize that the colors might work very well for someone else, but I don’t really want to make another scarf.  This too will get disassembled (very carefully because of the four tiny strands of yarn) and re-incarnated later.  A fancy stole might be a possibility.  Hmmmm....

I do want to finish this and am looking forward to the cooler weather that will make it possible to work on without perspiring all over it :) And most of it is already done - I just need sleeves, collar, buttons and trim.  Shouldn’t take much to finish up :)

Now for a couple of “oldies” -

I’ve thought and thought about this but I really don’t see it going anywhere.  It was a fun idea in the beginning, but the fun fizzled and it just looks funny to me now - the colors, that is, not the pattern.  I still want to make the Lady Eleanor stole (from the book Scarf Style) but I don’t really want to use this yarn and I don’t have anything, at the moment, that would do the job.  So I’ll frog what’s here and use that yarn for something else.  I have faith the right material for the stole will jump up and announce itself eventually :)





Remember this?  I started this last summer spurred by Bron’s realization that life’s too short to waste good yarn.  It got set aside for other things (easier things, to be honest) but I definitely want to get back to this.  I thought then that it was going to be beautiful and I think so even more now. 

Yeah, yeah, there’s the socks too.  I’m committed to finishing them next month so I have to get going on those.  It’s the turning-the-heel math that’s hanging me up.  Every time I sit down to figure it out my brain shuts down.  I just need to find a quiet spot and do it :) And there’s the Mourning Dove Tee on which I’ve done a few desultory rows now and again.  I don’t want to rip it, but I seem to have lost where I was going with it and don’t quite know what to do now.  I guess I’ll let it sit a little while longer and see if things become any clearer.

Have a great weekend!

Erk…

I didn’t get to sleep until close to 5:00 this morning - not something I want to make a habit of!  I did, however, get all the patterns converted to PDF format.  The regular HTML link is available, as always, by clicking on the pattern’s name.  The PDF comes up when you click on the here of “PDF here”.

I also found a bowl so that I could give Myria back hers :)

This is bamboo, and has a nice, smooth finish.  It’s about 8” wide so it’s stable and holds a couple of projects or several balls of yarn.  I had been kind of holding out for one of the Lantern Moon baskets.  However, I finally got to see them “in person” a couple of weeks ago and was disappointed to find them rougher than I had expected.  I was afraid they would snag both yarns and projects and reluctantly decided that maybe they weren’t what I wanted after all.  Even the small one would have been too big for the coffee table anyway :)

Let me know if you have any problems with the PDFs!
Happy Thursday :)

Well, the warm weather isn’t quite gone yet, but it’s on its way out.  The temperature this morning was a delicious 64ºF with a light, dry breeze.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh :) The mid-day temps are still in the 80s, but it’s getting cooler and cooler at night and, thank heaven, there isn’t the kind of humidity there was a couple of weeks ago.  Goodness, I’m beginning to feel nearly human again!

The most recent little hat is complete:

The Wings yarn is very nice to work with.  I don’t know why it was marked down, whether it’s been discontinued or whether maybe just these colors have been.  It certainly doesn’t seem to be seconds; there aren’t any breaks, snarls or mis-spun areas on the yarn. Shrug.  But I am definitely going to keep my eye open for more of this - lovely stuff :)

And, because I’ve been at a bit of loss the last couple days (finishing up a project always does that to me), there’s this:

The pumpkin color is the only one of which I was able to get more than one hank.  So I thought there could be a scarf to go with the hat.  Nothing fancy, just texture stitches - and I’m trying to figure out how to work in a little of the plum (I have a bit left from the hat).  The intarsia concept is rearing its ugly head but so far I’m doing my best to ignore it :)

I’ve been giving some thought to making PDFs of the patterns available.  Personally, I like that format and it makes it very easy to save a file to your own computer.  The regular HTML version will remain available as well; the PDF will just be an additional option.  It’ll probably take me a little time to get this worked out, but sometime soon, coming to a blog near you...!!  Ahem… Eventually there will be PDFs :)

Note 1, 9:35 PM: Sharp-eyed Bev Smith noticed that I had missed a “p2” in row 5 and kindly let me know.  I have fixed the pattern and humbly thank Bev for pointing out the error to me!

Note 2, 8/23/05: Toni, over at Stitchingirl has very kindly created a chart for the scarf lace - please see pattern for link.  And go have a look at Toni’s Forest Path scarf - incredibly beautiful!

I am doing the happy dance because the lace scarf is finally finished and I think it’s just beautiful.  And yes, this is the same yarn I made the Ruffled Snowdrop out of and I probably still have enough of that yarn to make another scarf.  Scary, ain’t it? Heheh…

I finished the knitting Saturday afternoon.  Then came washing…

...And blocking.





I had to do the blocking twice.  I blocked the scarf doubled (because there wasn’t enough room to block it at full length) and missed a couple of points on the lower half while I was pinning it out.  So the scarf spent most of the weekend, drying on the kitchen counter, stretched to within an inch if it’s life :) And it stretches way more than I expected it to!

The pattern is written out below and is also listed on the sidebar under Knitting Patterns.  Please enjoy and please let me know if you have any problems with or questons about the pattern!

Happy Monday! 

Notes: I made this scarf by knitting two separate halves (make first half, place on holder.  Then make the second half) and then joining them with a three-needle bind-off.  Yes, grafting would work too but I haven’t had a lot of luck with that and I didn’t want to be practising with mohair!  It didn’t occur to me until I was nearly finished with the second half that there might have been a better way of going about it.  That would have been to provisionally cast on the stitches, knit down through 12 repeats of the pattern and bind off.  Then, undo the cast-on, pick up the live stitches and knit down the other side for another 12 repeats.  When I make this scarf again, I’ll probably give this method a try.

With the addition of another leaf panel and another razor shell pattern (or two!), this could be expanded into a rather nice stole.

There is a selvedge stitch on each side which I slipped to get a chain edge.  This is accounted for in the stitch count and in the pattern. 

Seaweed and Shells

Chart (will open in a new window)

Information

Gauge - Not terribly important, slightly over 3 sts/inch, blocked

Width - 12.25”, blocked
Length - 72”, blocked

Materials

Bucilla Melody - 50% mohair/50% acrylic, 100 yards/ball - 4 balls (This is a vintage yarn and probably not available easily.  Any mohair or mohair blend that works to worsted weight will do nicely).

US size 8 needles - one pair straights or 1 circular - whichever you are the most comfortable working with.

Tapestry needle for working in the ends.

Key

K - knit
P - Purl
Sl1-k2tog-psso - Slip one stitch, knit next two stitches together, pass the slipped stitch over and off the right needle.
K3tog - Knit 3 together
Yo - yarn over

Cast on 46 sts.

Row 1: K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2, p2, k9, yo, k1, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, p2, k2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2

Row 2: (and all even rows) Purl

Row 3: K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2, p2, k10, yo, k1, yo, k2, sl1-k2tog-psso, p2, K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2

Row 5: K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2, p2, k3tog, k4, yo, k1, yo, k3, (yo, k1) twice, sl1-k2tog-psso, p2, K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2

Row 7: K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2, p2, k3tog, k3, yo, k1, yo, k9, p2, K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2

Row 9: K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2, p2, k3tog, k2, yo, k1, yo, k10, p2, K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2

Row 11: K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2, p2, k3tog, (k1, yo) twice, k3, yo, k1, yo, k4, sl1-k2tog-psso, p2, K2, yo, k3, sl1-k2tog-psso, k3, yo, k2

Row 12: Purl

Repeat rows 1 - 12 for pattern and do 12 pattern repeats for each side of the scarf.  If you knitted each piece separately, join in the center with your preferred method.  Wash and block (I teased the ends into points), trim, fringe or tassel as you like - and enjoy your lace!

Scored a few hanks of the good stuff yesterday, marked down to about 25% of it’s usual price.  Yippee, Yee-hah and all that!  ‘Course the color selection was a mite limited (though the colors they had were nice) but that’s just fine.

It’s Classic Elite Wings, 55% Alpaca, 23% silk and 22% wool.  It’s also described as having a hollow core so it should be nice and warm.  I love finding good wool at bargain basement prices and this goes into my Dulaan knitting stash.

Of course I couldn’t leave it alone and had to start something :)

The main hat is a deep plum/brown (there was only one hank of that, which is why it’s not in the yarn picture - it’s being used for the hat!) and I plan on using the butternut for a little diamond fair isle kind of border and for assorted trim and what not.  I may do a little bit of the top of the cap in it too.

Hey Ryan!  Any word yet on Dulann 2006?

Otherwise, there isn’t a lot to report just now.  The lace scarf will, hopefully, be done by Monday and I will post pictures and pattern for that.  The sock is ready to have its heel turned and so I’m getting ready to do that.  I believe I’d like to try a round heel if I can find instructions for it. 

The baby alpaca/rayon scarf is just sitting on the coffee table, glowing.  I work a couple pattern repeats every now and again on this, but I’m taking my time.  Once it’s completed and washed, blocked, dried and put way, I won’t have the pleasure of looking up and seeing it all the time, shimmering in my peripheral vision.

Have a great weekend everyone :)