I caved :)  I was determined not to start this for a while but I couldn’t resist the temptation to try it.  This is the beginning of the Lady Eleanor entrelac stole from Scarf Style.

This has taken off like a house afire and I’m, so far, very pleased with the results - not that there’s much to see just yet :)  If you haven’t tried entrelac yet, all I can say is that it’s simple, simple compared to the way it looks.  I learned how to do it from Stanfield and Griffiths book The Encyclopedia of Knitting.  The explanation and directions were so clear and uncomplicated that I just sailed in without any difficulty at all.  As I recall I made a huge swatch (in hideously mis-matched scrap yarn) with which I then went around boring everyone I knew.  It was just so awesome to see the complex looking finished product and have the inner smirk of knowing how easy it was to produce.

This is the yarn I’m using.  It’s Caron’s Simply Soft in their new Brites color line.  These aren’t the venomous neon oranges, greens and yellows that usually show up under that sobriquet, but a collection of clear, mouth-watering, saturated,  shades.  The ones in the above photo are (from left to right) Blue Mint, Papaya, and Berry Blue (in Caron’s parlance) or Turquoise, Coral and Periwinkle (in mine).  Along with this, I am stranding white, Red Heart Soft Baby sport weight to both get gauge on the 10 1/2 needles recommended by the pattern and to somewhat soften the impact of the brights without leaching off any of their clarity.  I’ll know better once I’ve worked several color repeats, but I think it’s going to look pretty cool :)

I took that polar bear picture down at Roger Williams Park Zoo many years ago.  It amused me, this morning, to imagine Goldie staring at the desk top monitor and wondering who the hell this guy was!

Notes: Crochet patterns (not that there are that many - heheh…) now have their own section on the sidebar.  So do recipes :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

I had a brother, once.

He was thirteen when he died, doing some stupid bicycle trick too near the traffic on a heavily traveled road.  That was nearly 36 years ago.  I was fifteen then and didn’t have much of a clue.  For a while, it seemed as though my mother and father were falling apart and that, somehow, was even more frightening and upsetting than losing my brother.  Eventually we got it together.  Life goes on and you either go with it or you don’t.

I went out yesterday to do some grocery and “basic supplies” shopping.  Cupboards were getting a bit bare and we needed quite a few things.  Myria’s foot is still swollen (although much better than it was) and is still rather painful.  She certainly didn’t want to traipse around the supermarkets all afternoon and, frankly, I didn’t want her to either.  So I went solo.

I turned on the radio to our local classical station, WCRB.  I listen to this station a lot when I’m in the car by myself.  As I was pulling on to the highway the strains of Antonin Dvorak’s New World Symphony floated out of the speakers.  It is a beautiful piece and I hadn’t heard it in a long time.  It also called my brother to mind as it had been his favorite piece of classical music - in so far as a thirteen-year-old can have a favorite piece of classical music :)

Heading north on Rte 3, I settled into the strains of the piece and acknowledged my brother’s ephemeral presence in the car.  I felt just a bit guilty because it seemed to me that I should miss him.  But I don’t any more, it’s been too long.  So I tried to explain to him how I did feel.  He died at a point where our relationship was somewhat antagonistic.  What can I say - we were teenagers!  But, in a perfect world, we wouldn’t be teenagers forever.  We would grow up, develop other interests, have jobs and families of our own.  We would mature and our relationship, hopefully, would mature as well.  We would be very different from one another; that was obvious even thirty-six years ago.  But there would likely be areas of commonality (perhaps surprising ones) through which we would be able to reach each other effectively.  But since he died so young that was never going to happen.  I felt cheated and, expressed my regret that I would never get to know him as an adult.

All this I tried to explain to him - and to myself.  It made sense.  When I have dreamed of my brother (not frequently, but every now and again) he has always been the correct chronological age - a year-and-a-half younger than me.  Now I understand why.

I felt surprisingly mellow and comfortable.  I understood what had happened.  I had finally been able to articulate and express a resentment, a sorrow that I had been lugging around for a very long time.  Let’s face it, in my case, serenity was not part of the original equipment package.  I do aspire to it, but rarely achieve it, so I was surprised at how tranquil and peaceful I felt.

And then the Dvorak ended and I arrived at the first of my shopping destinations. 

All the places I had to stop at yesterday were bad, but this first was the worst.  People climbing up your backside, cutting you off and practically taking things out of your hands.  It’s not unusual for this place but I hadn’t mentally geared up for it (dealing, as I had been, with other issues), nor did I have Myria to act as a buffer for me.

A single incident out of many:  I needed to get cat food.  As I steered my carriage into the narrow aisle, I had to stop because there was nowhere to go.  The gentleman who’s carriage was blocking the aisle was contemplating a can of 9-Lives and was completely oblivious to the rest of the world.  Eventually he decided that can was acceptable, put it in his wagon and moved the wagon down sufficiently far that I could at least get into the aisle.  I made sure my carriage was pulled well over to the side so that people could get past and turned to get my own canned stuff (we’re a Little Friskies household :).  Immediately, two elderly women stepped in front of me and began their own little cat food expedition.  I must admit, they were very good - have probably worked out, honed and fine-tuned this routine over many years of tag-team shopping.  No one, not even Jesus, Himself (should He have chosen that moment to return) was going to get anywhere near the cat food until those two had gotten what they wanted.

Side thought: How do parents handle situations like this when teaching their children how to deal with them?  Because given the nature of the world, it almost seems that teaching kids to be polite and courteous will do nothing but hamstring them.

When I was finally done and able to head back home, some three hours later, I was exhausted, keyed up and resentful.  I just wanted to get my groceries upstairs and close the door on the world.

But, wouldn’t you know it, as I was pulling off the highway, just about a mile from the apartment, the radio began to play a series of waltzes, light and pretty, and also by Dvorak.  I couldn’t swear to it, but I suspect my brother was around somewhere, reminding me that the time I spent in resentment would be completely wasted time - without even so much as a decent memory to show for it. 

He was absolutely right.  And I spent the last mile of my drive, smiling, all by myself in the car.

Corned beef hash omelet with broiler toast

Julia Child taught me to make omelets many years ago on The French Chef.  I follow her instructions to the letter every time I make one.  It’s extremely simple and very, very fast.  You’ll spend a lot more time on the prep than you will actually making the thing.  And an omelet is a wonderful thing, from the breakfast variety filled with and/or accompanied by your choice of pork product to the dinner variations.  I was introduced to the concept of a dinner omelet in Kansas City, MO where I had an elegant creation filled with artichoke hearts and asparagus and topped with Hollandaise sauce.  The memory of it still makes my mouth water :)

This corned beef hash number is a good deal more prosaic than the above paragon, but a delicious and filling meal, never the less.  You will even make the hash yourself, but don’t worry - that doesn’t take much preparation or much time.

For two people, you will need the following ingredients:

12 oz corned beef (leftover brisket if you have it, canned if not), diced
3 small potatoes (whatever type suits your fancy or whatever you have on hand), diced small
6 - 8 large eggs
1/2 c shredded cheese (I used cheddar but Swiss would be awesome too)
3 tbls butter or margarine
1/2 loaf of French or Italian bread
Salt and pepper to taste

Note: If you’re using canned corned beef, your going to have to deal with this critter:

I don’t have an electric can opener and the can opener I do have won’t handle the sharp angles on the dad-blasted can.  So I use the key and you may have to too - it comes standard on every can of corned beef.  You remove it from the little metal tab that holds it on the can, reverse it so that the loop of the key hands below the bottom of the can and place it back onto the tab.  Now you just turn the key - all the way around the base of the can (removing the label, or as much of it as you can, is helpful here).  As you turn the key, a small strip of metal is removed so that the meat can be gotten too. 

Be extremely careful when you’re getting the meat out.  The edges of the can where you removed that metal strip are horrendously sharp.  The only serious damage I ever did to myself in the kitchen was with a stubborn corned beef can - cut my finger right down to the bone.  If the can seems not to want to let go of the meat, try running a knife between the can and the meat.  Using a can opener to punch a couple of holes in the ends often helps too.

Put the diced potatoes in a microwave safe bowl somewhat larger than you need for just the potatoes - you’ll be adding the corned beef a bit later.  If you’d like some onion in your hash (Myria doesn’t care for them so I generally leave them out), now’s the time.  Chop a medium yellow or red onion rather finely and add it to the potatoes.

Add a tablespoon of butter to the bowl, drape a paper towel over the top and microwave, on high for about three minutes.  Stir well and return to the microwave for another 2 minutes.  Potatoes and onions should be soft.  Add the diced corned beef and nuke for another minute or so.  The beef is already cooked, but you want everything to be at least warm before you add it to your omelet.

Now you’re going to prepare your toast.  You do this now because once you start cooking the omelets you won’t have time for anything else.

Turn on your broiler.

Take your bread and slice it horizontally through the middle so that you wind up with two large hunks.  Butter the cut surfaces and place on a foil lined baking sheet, butter side up.  Place under the broiler and watch like a hawk until the surface is golden and crisp!  In my stove, browning the bread takes less than a minute.  The first time I did this, I put the bread under the broiler and set the timer for two minutes thinking it would take at least that long.  Let’s just say there a reason there’s no such thing as toast flambé :)

Now, on to the omelets themselves. 

Crack three or four eggs into a bowl and beat them well with a fork until thick and golden making sure the whites and the yolks are well integrated.

Put a large skillet on the stove.  This will work best if the skillet has sloped sides but is do-able in a straight sided pan.  Turn the heat on high and let the pan get hot for a couple of minutes.  Drop a tablespoon of butter into the pan.  It should sizzle and start to melt immediately.  Once it has melted, tilt the pan and let the melted butter run around the sides.

Then add the beaten eggs.  Shake the pan to make sure the eggs aren’t sticking anywhere (and they shouldn’t be as long as the skillet and the fat are very hot).  With a spatula, start drawing the eggs towards the center of the pan, letting the uncooked part move out towards the edges.  Be a bit gentle, you don’t want to break the eggs.

When the omelet is almost-but-not-quite set,  scatter half the cheese over the surface.  Now turn the heat off.  The eggs will continue to cook on their own heat for a couple of minutes so turning them off now keeps them from being overdone.  Carefully, spread about half of the hash over the cheese.

Now, bring your pan over to your serving plate, shaking gently to make sure the egg isn’t sticking anywhere and tip it gently so that the leading edge of the omelet slips out onto the side of the plate.  Don’t tip too far - you only want about half the omelet to leave the pan.  Now, turn the pan over (towards the plate) so the second half of the omelet leaves the pan and folds over the first half.  This whole process has only taken a couple of minutes.

Place one of the broiled bread pieces alongside your masterpiece and serve with a green or a fruit salad.

Feast on!

I finally figured it out!  Or, at least, I figured out something similar that worked for me :)

I worked out the technique Friday night and did the actual bobbling and assemblage on Saturday.  I’m very pleased with how it turned out.  It doesn’t have the random character of the scarf in the book, but it certainly seems to have its own personality never the less :)

As you can see, the ends did come out rather whimsically after all.  That’s mostly because each of the colors was one entire small hank of yarn.  So I simply used one until it was all gone and then attached the next.  While these hanks are roughly the same length, they vary by a few inches from one to the other - hence the ragged ends.  It would be amusing to attach long fringe (in the fuchsia and mustard of the bobbles, I think) and trim that even - just to watch people’s expressions as they tried to figure it out.  I’m not going to though - I like the scarf just the way it is.

I spent yesterday looking through various sites and books for a fast, simple capelet that would lend itself to cotton yarn.  There’s one in Scarf Style that’s a possible - but the very fact that it looks so cute on the slender young thing modeling it gives me pause since I am neither of the above :)  Still, it’s on the “possible” list.  I found another 4 or 5 things scattered around the web but none of them struck me strongly.

I also experimented with knitted ruffles in the same manner as the crocheted ruffles of Friday’s post.  While I don’t have a picture, I can tell you what I did if you’re curious enough to want to try it yourself:

Cast on 3 stitches.

Row 1 - (K, YO, K) in each stitch, 9 stitches
Row 2 - Knit across
Row 3 - K in the front and back of each stitch, 18 stitches
Row 4 - Knit across
Row 5 - Very loosely, bind off 15 stitches.  Return stitch on right needle to left needle, 3 stitches on left needle.
Row 6 - Knit

Repeat, ad nauseum, for alternating motifs.  You can also purl the rows back rather than knitting, if you prefer.  This doesn’t produce a ruffle the way the crocheted piece does though.  What you end up with is a crescent shaped piece.  It ‘s still kind of neat.  I suspect that knitting every alternate row is what’s keeping the ruffle from forming - still, it was fun to play with.

Hope all your weekends were warm and fun!

Okay, so I kinda got carried away with the idea of ruffles and I started playing around with an idea and a crochet hook.  My original idea of starting with 10 stitches didn’t work out.  Even doubling the stitch count every row didn’t give me ruffles.  So I changed two things.  I started with 1 stitch and instead of doubling the stitches I tripled them.

That worked!

So here is a pattern for a crocheted, ruffled scarf, modest, but mine own :)  Please enjoy!

Materials

Caron Simply Soft, color of your choice, 2 skeins
Size G (4.25 mm) crochet hook
Tapestry needle

Dimensions

Width:  About 4”
Length:  As desired

Note: A wider, drapier scarf can be made by changing the size of the hook but more yarn will be required.

Make a slip knot and ch 4.

First motif:

Row 1.  Skip three ch and make 4 dc in last chain (3 ch + 4 dc = 5 dc).  Ch 3, turn.

Row 2.  2 dc in same place as turning ch, 3 dc in each of next 3 dc, 3 dc in turning chain, ch 3, turn (15 dc).

Row 3.  2 dc in same place as turning ch, 3 dc in each of next 13 dc, 3 dc in turning chain, ch 3, turn (45 dc).

Second and subsequent motifs:

Row 1.  4 dc in same space as turning ch (5 dc).  Look at the base of your shell in relation to the first motif.  Count 4 dc along the edge of the first motif and sl st into that 4th dc (the yellow circle in the above picture goes around the stitch you want to sl st into).  Ch 3, turn.

Row 2.  4 dc in same place as turning chain, 3 dc in each of next 3 dc, 3 dc in turning chain (15 dc).  Now you’re facing the last row of your first motif.  As in the previous row, sl st in the 4th dc from the end closest to your hook (see picture above).  Ch 3, turn.

Row 3.  2 dc in same space as turning chain, 3 dc in each of next 13 dc, 3 dc in turning chain (45 dc).  Sl st in 4th dc of previous motif as before.  Ch 3, turn.

Repeat instructions for second motif (last three rows) for desired scarf length.

When you’ve finished your scarf, go back and look at the beginning.  Because you didn’t have anything to attach that first motif to, there’s a gap with a roughly triangular projection extending into it.  If this doesn’t bother you, you can just leave it as it is.  If you find it troublesome, take a few stitches between the sides of the triangle and the sides of the gap.  Presto!  No more gap!

This style probably doesn’t lend itself to fringe, but a single colossal tassel on each end might be cute!  It wouldn’t be difficult to change colors for each motif either and so use this project as a kind of stash buster.  You could even change colors on each row, if you so desired (and had the stamina!).

Have a wonderful weekend!

I tend not to be a girl-girl type and usually look for clothes that are typically not trimmed - with anything.  No sequins, no beads, no ruffles.  This isn’t because I don’t like these things - as an observer, I like them very much for the color and flare they can add to an outfit.  But I have never felt capable of carrying off this kind of style myself as I am big and plain and, generally, look far better in plain, unadorned clothes cut on simple lines.  I tend to use color as my fashion statement and this has suited me pretty well so far :)

But there has been an upswing in very feminine accoutrements over the last couple of years.  For knitters, I imagine that the new novelty yarns are part of what’s behind this but the fact is lovely things can be made with plain old, garden-variety worsted.  The thing that has caught, and keeps on catching, my eye is the ruffled scarf.

There’s one in Scarf Style which is made with short rows.  It’s a clever technique but to me, the working looks tedious and the result a bit messy - yes, I suppose I am a bit anal about that :)  On the other hand, the example here at Hong Kong Knitter is lovely (scroll down - it’s the cream angora) and persuasive.  I really wonder, sometimes, if Interweave Knits has something against showing off their patterns to their best advantage.  The photographer(s) doesn’t always seem terribly concerned with the item being photographed.

There are many patterns available that seem to be variations of this Ruffled scarf where the ruffles are relegated to the ends of the scarf.  This can be a pretty effect except that in most cases, the ruffle looks too short to my eye.  Making it slightly longer would provide more balance to the overall structure.

Now this Crochet Spiral at Fuzzy Galore is very cute and would be fun to do.  I like the look of it very much though I would probably both widen and lengthen it a bit.

Really though, the idea is pretty simple.  You start with a certain number of stitches (however long you want the scarf to be) and increase prodigiously and rapidly.  The stitches, fighting for “living space”, move up or down and create the ruffle.  Being what I am, it occurs to me that casting on a large number of stitches and decreasing might be even more fun because then each row is shorter than the one before :)  I suppose for a really lush look, you could then increase out the other side.  Probably use a lot of yarn, but might be worth it too :)  It would work with either knitting or crocheting.

Of course this idea isn’t original, a friend mentioned something very similar last night and there are numerous comparable notions floating around the web.  But it’s fun to play with ideas.

For example (and this probably isn’t original either, but it did just present itself in my head and I don’t remember running into it elsewhere)...

Say you start a scarf, worked in the usual fashion, with 20 stitches.  On the next row, you increase that to 40 stitches and on the next row, 80 stitches.  Then reduce the number back to 20 and start over again, repeating as necessary for the length
 
I’m curious enough to give this a try this afternoon.  Me, doing ruffles - imagine that :)

Note: This is considerably later than usual because the server was down for most of the morning.  How unutterably appropriate :)

Well, yesterday was a bit of a lemon…mope, grump, bitch, moan, whine, etc…

We had a lot of running around to do and had to be out first thing in the morning.  This sets the tone for the day.  I can wake up gracefully and easily if allowed to do so over a decent period of time say, an hour and a half?  I am not an “up-and-at-‘em”, “rarin’ to go” type in the morning.  I am a slug.  All I want is coffee and even then, I remain a slug for a while.  A caffeinated slug, but a slug never the less.  I may rise, but I refuse to shine.

We were racing the weather.  There were several things that needed to get done and we wanted to be home before the storm hit sometime in the afternoon.  I had an appointment yesterday morning (the reason for the early rising), I had a bag full of tapes and DVDs to drop off for a friend, we had some shopping to do and I had to drop by my father’s.  When we left the apartment, though the sky was grey and lowering and it was raining, the temperature was about 47° F - cold, but not terribly uncomfortable.

The appointment went well, if slowly.  People late, other things cropping up - you know how it goes.  It took twice as long as usual.  From there I went to my friend’s place of work to deliver the media.  As it happened, she was in a meeting.  I was disappointed not to be able to see her, but I wrote her a note and left the bag with the receptionist.  Then to the store to pick up a few essentials.

When we came out of the store, there had been a noticeable drop in temperature and the rain was turning to snow.  You know what that meant, right?  All the rain that had been falling was going to freeze, making every outdoor surface as treacherous as Benedict Arnold :)  We headed to my father’s from there.

We didn’t stay long because every time I looked out the window, the snow was falling thicker and faster and that was making me a tad nervous.  Time to get home and off the roads.  Unfortunately, as we were going down the back stairs, Myria fell.  The temperature change had already been sufficient to freeze a thin film on the steps which immediately turned into silent, passive predators :)  I swear I could hear non-human giggling as she went down.

I helped her up as she assured me (and my father who was standing in the doorway) that she was all right.  I got her to the car and we went on our way.  As it turned out, while there was no major damage, she managed to scrape about all the skin off the top of her left foot as well as wrenching, probably, most of the little muscles and tendons south of the ankle.  Very fortunately, the ankle itself was undamaged and able to bear weight without trouble.  She also slightly wrenched her right shoulder.

Her foot swelled up in standard fashion and began to turn colors…pastel colors; nothing was broken but everything was pissed off.  Her poor little toes looked like they had been stuck on to a black and blue balloon.  It’s better this morning.  The swelling has abated somewhat and she’s moving more easily than she was last night.  But that foot’s going to look like the dog’s breakfast for a while.

Finally, after she was settled and supper was over, I sat down to work on the scarf.  I finished the final strip and started to work on the bobble part of the pattern.  And I couldn’t make it work to save my life.  I must have tried a dozen times and all I succeeded in doing was making a mess.  Then I tried a different approach, crocheting bobbles that would be attached somehow to the front and back.  That didn’t work either.  Finally, it occurred to me that all I was doing was using up my limited supply of bobble yarn and I put things away for the night.  I know I’ll figure out something in the end, but I was really peeved at having gotten to this point with the scarf only to be stymied by the !@#$%^&* bobbles.  Sigh…

And there aren’t any pictures today because, while I took quite a few, they were all crap and I lack the patience, currently, to try it again.

So, who has a good lemonade recipe?