One more thing about the Chinese Waves stitch…

Does this shape look funny to you?  This swatch looks wider to me across the top than I think it should.  My rule of thumb is that the angle formed at the bottom of the shawl should be a right angle - 90º and this looks wider than that.  Taking measurements and employing our old friend the Pythagorean Theorem we find that this is so; a² + b² is somewhat smaller than c².

I would guess this is the result of the compression cause by the slipped stitches.  Does this mean anything?  It means that a shawl you make this way isn’t going to have the depth of a standard triangular shawl and that if you do make it deep, you’ll have enough width to wrap around two people.  Well, that’s a bit exaggerated but you know what I mean?  It’s going to be wider across the top and shallower from top to bottom tip than usual.  I don’t see this as a detriment at all - it’s simply another shape to play with :)

Those beautiful eggplant that we got at the farm stand last week? 

They got used last night.  I made an eggplant parmesan for the first time and it was just awesome :)  I had looked up various recipes and adopted the ingredients and techniques that appealed to me.  An incredible dinner was the result.  I’m afraid I don’t have the usual photographic accompaniments; I didn’t think of it because I had never made this before.

Anyway, this is how it went:

Eggplant Parmesan

2 med/large eggplant
3/4 c milk
2 c breadcrumbs
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 lb mozzarella cheese
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
1 (1lb, 10 oz.) jar spaghetti or pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 375º F.  Butter (or use cooking spray) 2 cookie sheets and a 13 x 9 baking dish.

Slice the mozzarella.

Place milk in one bowl and mix the breadcrumbs, basil and oregano in another.  Peel the eggplants and slice into 1/4” slices.  Dunk into the milk, then into the breadcrumbs and place on cookie sheet in a single layer.  Place cookie sheets into the oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until eggplant is fork tender.  Remove from oven, but leave the oven on at the same temperature.

Put a good spoonful of sauce in the bottom of the baking dish and smear it around.  Cover bottom of dish with a layer of eggplant.  Place a layer of mozzarella over that.  Repeat layering sauce, eggplant and cheese until you run out of eggplant or the baking dish is full.  Save enough sauce so that it’s the last layer and then scatter the grated parmesan over all.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and everything is bubbly :)

Serve and feast!

Notes

I used the eggplant I had on hand, but it was only barely enough.  They were definitely medium and I would absolutely look for large next time.

You don’t really need 2 whole cups of breadcrumbs - I wound up throwing about half of it away.  As breadcrumbs are cheap, this isn’t really a big deal but I hate throwing away good food.

I used Ragu tomato, basil and Italian cheese spaghetti sauce because it’s what I had available.

I looked at the cheap, store-brand, grated mozzarella because it would have been easy to use.  Then I looked at what I know to be a good brand of cheese (Dragone) and it was only 10 cents more per pound.  So I got that and sliced it myself.  Really - go with the good stuff if you can because the flavor is so worth it!

Have a grand weekend!

Playing with yarn again last night - what else?  I was looking through lace stitch patterns with the idea of putting a few of them together when I ran across the old Chinese Waves dishcloth stitch pattern:

Odd number of stitches

Row 1: K1, *sl1, K1; repeat from *.
Row 2: Knit.
Row 3: K2, *sl1, K1; repeat from * until two stitches remain, K2.
Row 4: Knit.

It doesn’t look anything like garter stitch but it’s a very simple garter stitch variant where you’re just slipping every other stitch.  The yarn, as you bring it past the slipped stitch to knit the next one creates a little curve to span the distance - hence the wave part of the name. (Why they are Chinese waves and not Argentinean waves or Icelandic waves, I couldn’t guess!)

And I got to thinking about how to work this the way many shawls are worked - from the point up?  And believe it or not, it’s even easier than the stitch pattern above.  You don’t have to worry about staggering the stitches because the increases take care of that for you.

Set up rows

Cast on 1 stitch.

Row 1:  K1, yo, K1 all in the one stitch. (3 stitches)
Row 2:  Knit across.
Row 3:  K1, yo, K1, yo, K1. (5 stitches)
Row 4:  Knit.

Pattern Rows

Row 5:  K1, yo, K1, *sl1, K1*, yo, K1.
Row 6:  Knit.

Repeat rows 5 and 6 for the pattern.  That’s all there is to it.

Because it’s basically garter stitch, it makes a nice, flat fabric with no curl and the slipped stitches provide a bit more density, a bit less stretch and a completely different look.  It also goes quickly because on every wrong-side row, you’re slipping half the stitches instead of knitting them :)

This yarn is Red Heart acrylic worsted weight.  I chose the big needles because of the stitch pattern’s inclination towards density with the hope of loosening things up a bit.  This works but I suspect that even larger needles could be used to good effect.  This would make a nice, warm shawl.

This yarn is KnitPicks Shadow, merino lace weight and at this scale, the effect is completely different.  While this is not an orthodox lace pattern, a lacy fabric is produced.  It reminds me of chain mail (the assemblage of which is also referred to as knitting (scroll down to Manufacture).

While the worsted weight sample isn’t anything like lace, the lace weight sample (being done on a much larger needle - proportionally speaking to the weight of the yarn) does take on a lacey aspect which I think is very pretty :)

Now - what can I do with this? - Muwhahahahaha :)

Last week, I got up one morning and noticed (while I was making my coffee - first things first, after all!) that there was a metal disk lying on the porch roof under the kitchen window.  It wasn’t close enough to identify (assuming it was anything I could identify in the first place!) so it wasn’t until Myria went out and got it that we could see what it was:

This sucker is heavy!  It’s a little beat up, but perfectly recognizable and, presumably, perfectly spendable.  The question is, how the hell did it get there?

I have come to the conclusion that the scarf is not going to be wide enough; it’s just over 4 inches and that’s not going to do it.  I can ( and probably will) block it out a little - and that will help - but it needs more than that.

In experimental fashion, I knitted a swatch of stockinette with slip stitch borders (which is what I typically do on scarves).  When it reached a reasonable size, I picked up the other three sides so I could experiment with knitting a border.

The first issue was how many stitches to pick up.  I figured three out of four - or three quarters of the number of rows.  I had been hoping that I could simply pick up the slipped stitches along the side but that wouldn’t have given me enough.  I think the slipped stitches only came out to about 2/3’s.  Anyway, I got that figured out and got the right number of stitches picked up.

Then I went around the circumference of the swatch piece for several rows, increasing 2 stitches in each corner, every other row.  This unlovely but instructive piece is what I came up with:

Of course I realized afterwards that making the center in lace or just some kind of patterned stitch would have helped distinguish the middle from the edging but so be it.

The corners look lousy because I was playing with yarn overs and various other methods of increase.  However, the basic idea - 8 stitches every other round seems sound.  The edging is straight with no pulling or puckers.  What is bothersome is the picked up edges.  The right one isn’t too bad but the left one is atrocious and sloppy looking.  Is this a result of the slipped stitch edge, I wonder?  And if I try this on the scarf, am I going to get something that looks this bad?

I think part of the problem is that the swatch is in kitchen-type cotton which can be sloppy looking because it’s so inelastic.  The edge of the scarf looks nice and even and not loose at all.  I suppose the only way to know will be to try it.  My other thought would be to crochet an edging (perhaps a ruffle?) if picking up the stitches to knit proves disastrous.

Oh, and I can now make a formal introduction, thanks to all your thoughtful and (sometimes) hilarious suggestions.  I am pleased to present:

It dawned on me that many stitch patterns are directional and that would mean making two pieces and grafting or starting in the center and working out in both directions.  I didn’t really want to do that for this scarf, so I settled on the Cameron Scarf pattern (on the sidebar under Knitting Patterns.  It has a nice, textured look and couldn’t be anything but feminine in this color.

So I got started.  I’m pleased with the look, but it’s a little narrow and I’m wondering what, if anything, I can do to ameliorate that without ripping out what I’ve already got…

Yesterday, I was thinking about the way many patterns deform the cast on/off ends of a piece into points, scallops, etc…and wondering if working both ends from the middle would be possible.  I thought maybe a rigorous blocking might take care of the issue, but there was only one way to really find out :)

So I did a provisional cast-on for the Fish-Scale Lace Panel pattern from the 365 Knitting Stitches a Year calendar (May 31st, if you’re curious), adding 2 garter selvedge stitches to each side of the panel.  I worked two repeats of the pattern and then undid the provisional cast-on and worked two more repeats in the other direction.  I wet it and blocked it and left it to dry overnight.  This is what I got:

The experiment worked well enough.  I had worked three rows of plain stockinette in the center as I thought that might help alleviate the tendency of the swatch to deform the fabric.  You know, spread it out a little to kind of diffuse the effect?  Next time I wouldn’t bother because except in the very center, it sort of blends in with the pattern.

However, there was an odd thing.  I cast on 21 provisional stitches to start - 17 for the lace panel and 4 for the garter selvedges.  But, when I unzipped the provisional cast-on, there were only 20 stitches.  I lost a stitch on one end.  I vaguely remember reading something about this some time ago and it wasn’t difficult to replace the stitch but…  Where did it go?

Saturday, after we’d had a lovely lunch at The Wayside Inn, dad decided to check out a Salvation Army thrift shop in a neighboring town.  He loves being able to get a good shirt for $1.00 or so and surprisingly, he is often able to do so. 

At the shop, we went our separate ways - since I haven’t much interest in menswear and he isn’t thrilled with books or kitchen paraphernalia.  And as I wandered down the aisles, I saw this:

She was in nice shape, no burst seams, no spots, stains or obvious wear and cute as the dickens.  I don’t really have a lot of places for her to sit but I knew if I left her there on the shelf, I’d still be thinking about her when I got home.  So, for the grand sum of $1.99, she was liberated.  She’ll live in the front room where she can preside over my knitting, but she needs a name.  And no, Baaa-bara isn’t acceptable :)

Happy Monday!

The desktop works!  The desktop works!  The desktop computer, that is :)  It’s been lying fallow and disassembled for about a month now after a disastrous attempt to replace a fan rendered it inoperable.  We’d replaced the CPU - nothing.  Yesterday we found a power supply tester at CompUSA so we got that,  But we also lucked into a Socket A motherboard (slightly older technology, but what everything in the desktop is based on) in our acceptable price range.

We went home and Myria tested the power supply - no problems there.  Nothing left but to change the motherboard and bingo (well, not exactly “bingo”; it takes time to swap out cards and find all the right connections, etc)!  We were up and running!  Now it’s just a matter of reloading some software and configuring a few things.  What a relief :)

We had to be out early for an appointment this morning (you may have noticed this post is a little late?) and on the way back, Myria suggested stopping at a farm stand that we’ve driven by dozens of times but never checked out.

Boy, was that ever the right suggestion!

Butternut and acorn squash, eggplant, beets, tomatoes and fresh basil!  Enough veggies for a while and all of it gorgeous.

The eggplant is going to get grilled, I think.  Myria has a little Foreman grill that we’ve just begun to discover is good for many, many things.  We’ll probably slice it, coat it with a little olive oil and plop it into the grill.  I don’t think Myria’s ever had eggplant and I haven’t had it for years, so we’re really looking forward to this!

I’ve never bought beets with the greens attached before, they’ve always been cleaned and stemmed beforehand.  We’re going to have these tonight and we’re going to steam the greens as well - just to see what that’s like.  We both enjoy the earthy flavor of good, fresh beets so these ought to be great!

These were the real find because if they’re kept in a cool, dark place, they’ll keep for months - not that they’ll hang around that long.  We both love good fresh butternut squash.  For years I’d get an occasional craving and go buy the frozen stuff.  But once we tried the real deal, fresh off the vine, the frozen seemed pretty watery and tasteless in comparison.  They are a bit awkward to peel, but it’s so worth the effort :)  I haven’t had acorn squash in a long time and Myria has never had it.  It has a lovely sweet/nutty taste and is easy to prepare - at least I think it is; my mother always just baked it.

Finally, there were these:

These were labeled seconds but there didn’t seem to anything wrong with them except that they weren’t the most pristine looking tomatoes you ever saw - oddballs, in other words - and assorted types.  The fellow in the back right of the bowl got cut up for my lunch (and the flesh filled a soup bowl!) as he was pretty soft and wouldn’t last much longer.  I dressed him with some mayonnaise, a grind of sea salt and a lot of grinds of black pepper :)  Ooooh baby!  I haven’t had a tomato that tasted like that in 20 years.  Accompanied by a grilled cheddar cheese sandwich, this was a most excellent lunch.

Tonight I’m going to make a pasta salad with some of the tomatoes, some of the basil, chicken breast chunks and feta cheese.  And pasta, of course.  We’ll have the beets and greens alongside.  If I don’t die of sheer unmitigated tastebud overload, I’ll see you all on Monday!

Have a savory weekend :)

Ahh - Maine was beautiful, the more so because yesterday was such a beautiful day.  Aside of getting my hair cut (which it badly needed - I was in danger of being named best of breed by the Olde English Sheepdog Association!) I spent a good amount of time standing in the surf.

The tide was coming in and the line was a lot further up the beach than usual.  In fact it was nearly up to the parking lot when it’s usually 100 yards away.  Reflective of storm activity out at sea despite the glorious sun at the shore.  We have seen it this way here once before, about 6 years ago.  There was a hurricane off shore - but not very far off shore and on that occasion the incoming tide was actually smashing up against the foundations of the hotel.  And it was raining sideways - literally!

This guy and a bunch of his cronies were hanging around several big puddles in the parking lot.  I guess it’s possible that the surf did get that far at the last high tide - or maybe there had just been a prodigious rain the night before.  The gulls were drinking from the puddle but I have no idea whether that means it was fresh or salt water.  Can gulls drink salt water?

On our way out, we stopped at Anthony’s Food Shop in York (right on Route 1) and sat down with two of the biggest pieces of pepperoni pizza you ever saw.  Delicious and not chintzy on the cheese either!  If that isn’t enough to get you to stop by the next time you’re in that neck of the woods, they also offer free wireless net connection :)

When we got home, I started another swatch.  The motif is simple - I suppose it might count as a bobble, but it isn’t really because it’s worked over several rows instead of all in one go.  To make one:

When you get to the spot where you want the motif, K1, yo, K1, yo, K1 - all in one stitch.
When you get to it on the next row, P5.
When you get to it on the next row, K5.
When you get to it on the next row, P5.
When you get to it on the next row, SSK, K1, K2tog.
When you get to it on the next row, P3.
When you get to it on the next row, sl2, K1, p2sso.

It makes a nice teardrop kind of shape that stands up from the surface of the knitted fabric.

I learned something valuable working this swatch because I hadn’t thought it through before I started.  This motif doesn’t work on a background of stockinette.  First, there isn’t enough contrast between the motif and the background fabric for it to stand out very well (see the first two motifs in the bottom sequence of the swatch)  Second, the motif will not stay on the surface - it keeps sinking through to the other side (see the second two motifs on the bottom).

Seeing how that spectacularly didn’t work, I switched to a reverse stockinette for the background for the second set of motifs.  Ahhh - much better.  The teardrops stand out nicely from the background and they stay right where they should - on the surface of the fabric.  This now becomes a possibility for the scarf - perhaps alongside the strawberries, like little leaves? 

I hope your Thursday soars!

The Universe has a way of shaking you up sometimes - just to see if you’re paying attention :)

I had some medical tests come back with elevated numbers so my doctor scheduled some further tests to check things out.  For the last week I’ve been existing in a state of low grade panic and been utterly unable to knit.  Finally, yesterday he was able to tell me there were no abnormalities or anomalies.  The numbers were what they were and it may mean another round of chemotherapy sometime later on (this will be the third time - ugh!), but for now things are okay.

So, of course, last night I knitted :)  There’s a sweet lady at the hospital who takes care of getting my medical information to my insurance company when they ask for it.  It’s a pain in the ass job because, well frankly, I don’t think my insurance company could find its backside with both hands and a flashlight - and I don’t imagine any other insurance company is any better.  And this dear woman has to deal with all the insurance companies of all the cancer patients.  She manages to do this calmly and efficiently and never blames the patient.

I wanted to show my appreciation so I started playing last night with scarf ideas.  As this woman has a beautiful pink complexion and snow-white hair, I’m going to use the Cherry Blossom wool of the Andes.  It will be gorgeous on her!

I tried a plain repeated razor shell as in the lovely Lace and Agate scarf.  It didn’t look bad but it wasn’t exciting either.  I’m playing now with a trinity stitch variation used to make the Strawberry Afghan.

The stitch is interesting, consisting of the usual (k1, yo, k1), P3tog sequence.  The increases, however, are worked over three more rows before being decreased away.  There is also a little “stem” for the little raised bubble that is formed.  It’s very pretty, but having gotten through a repeat and a half of the pattern, I can see some problems with my initial assumptions.

I like a scarf to have a border and my favorite border is seed stitch.  However, because the strawberry stitch is so highly textured itself, the seed stitch just makes for a somewhat visually messy look (I think).  Also either the side borders should have been narrower or the bottom border should have been worked for a few more rows.  So what’s shown in the above picture will be frogged while I re-think how to do this.  Perhaps isolated, single columns of the stitch would look better than making the whole fabric that way.

We’re off up to Maine today, as much to celebrate as for any other reason and we apparently have a gorgeous day for the trip.

Sometimes, things work out :)