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Stix and Strings and Lace

Posted in Knitting Projects, Uncategorized, tagged on March 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This probably should have been one of my first posts, but, better late than never.  For about 45 years I was what you would call an average knitter.  I made useful things like, afgans, sweaters, scarves- you know, simple things.  Then one day I picked a Vogue Knitting magazine, and in it was a picture of the lady wearing a knitted lace sweater.  I had to have it.  I went to the local variety store and came home with Knit Crocheen.    It wasn’t long before I was witnessing magic taking place right before my eyes.

This first project in lace, definitely tweaked my sense of creativity.  I loved learning the new stitches, and had great fun with all the needle gymnastics involved in the pattern.  Knitting wasn’t boring anymore.

From there I moved on  to a little more challenging pattern.  This one featured a spider web pattern on the front.

It didn’t have sleeves, but this old lady does not feel comfortable without them.  So.. I made some.  I wear it quite often, changing the color of the tank I wear under it to go with the rest of my attire.

Now I was really on fire to to something intricate.  so I began my first “real” lace shawl with “real lace” yarn.  The Print o Wave shawl  I made for my daughter, was offered aa a free pattern on the web, by Yuny Jang, of Interweave.   I designed the header of my website with it.

Following that, I ventured out to make two more shawls, one for a friend,  and one for my daughter-in-law.  They were followed by a lace scarf for my sister-in -law.

Southwestern Shawl

by Fiber Trends.

Pacific Northwestern Shawl

by Fiber Trends

Maple Leaf Scarf

by Heartstrings Patterns

Next, came my greatest challenge in attempting the “Princess Shawl” from Heirloom-knitting.com

Here is the edging I am still working on. It’s my travel project.

All this is to say, that new adventures in knitting have taught me to be patient, to be willing to take out and redo, practice stitches and new techniques until I get them down smoothly, and most of all, not to be in a hurry to finish.  I have learned to enjoy the process.  I hope you have, too.

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Short Row Heel, with a Tweak

Posted in Knitting Tutorials, Uncategorized, tagged on March 11, 2010| 1 Comment »

I don’t know about you, but I have had a ball this past year clicking on all the wonderful knitting websites.  I have downloaded great patterns, and lots of tips, tricks, and just plain great ideas.  I love trying them all out, and making samples to keep in my knitting binder.

Now, I’m sure there are many of you who know how to do this already, but humor me,  I just love writing up tutorials.  It keeps me out of trouble.  So today, I am offering you one I just finished on short rows heels.

First off,  let me show you the result of my experiment.

This heel sample turned out to be the smoothest short row heel of my collection.  Yes, I make them up for fun.  I’ve tried every wrapped one, and now I’m  into the unwrapped.  But so far, for me, this one works great. But one never knows, there may be another lurking just a click away.

Here it is!  Give it a try!

j’s shortrow tutorial

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Snow/Fresh Bread and Knitting

Posted in Uncategorized on March 10, 2010| 1 Comment »

As the  smell of fresh garlic and onion bread wafted through the house today, I sat knitting on a pair of socks, and watched the snowflakes fall from the winter sky.   Wow, I thought, it can’t get any better than this.

Then it occurred to me as I removed the bread loaves from the oven, that you might be interested in my infamous Garlic Onion Bread recipe.  So I decide to share it before I made my next couple of knitting posts which will be on short row heels and toes.

Believe me when I tell you that this is my “secret” weapon in our household.  My husband would do anything for me, just to have this bread on hand.

I developed this recipe after years of baking, and just plain “dinkin'” around with all kinds of breads.  The one advantage of this particular bread is that it retains it’s moisture longer than most.  Of course, it doesn’t last very long with someone slicing on it every chance he gets.  Anyway, I thought you might like to try it.  Here goes!  This recipe make 2 large loaves.

Day one– or 24 hours before you want to make it,  in large bowl, mix together 2 cups of white bread flour, 2 tablespoons of dry yeast, and 2 cups of warm water.  Cover and let sit at room tempt over night.  * I usually give it the full 24 hrs.  You will use all of this “sponge” for your bread.

Day two – Finely chop 1 cup of onion, and place in colander to drain.  Mean while, measure 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 cup chopped garlic( I get mine at Costco) 1/4 cup vinegar(either kind) and place them into a small sauce pan.  Add drained onion, and heat ingredients to simmer, stirring as needed. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool slightly .

While this mixture is cooling, pour the soured bread mixture (sponge) into the large bowl of your mixer. Get out your dough hooks.  Next, mix 6 cups of flour with one tablespoon of sea salt, and stir together to blend.

Once the onion garlic mixture is cool enough to touch, turn your mixer on medium speed and start adding the onion/garlic mixture in a spoonful at a time.  Let it mix for about one minute.  Now turn your mixer on slow, and start adding in the *remaining flour. Mix until your dough cleans the sides of the bowl.

Remove dough from mixer. If it is a bit sticky, use some bench flour to knead in just enough for it to leave your hands.  Now, grease the surface, cover it up and place it in a warm place to double in size.

Next, punch it down and divide in half.  Knead each half lightly and place on greased cookie sheet, or divided French bread pan. Turn on oven to 400 degrees.  Cover bread and set on top of stove to rise (I do this because the oven vent seems to work great for this purpose).  When the bread is ready to bake, spray the surface of the bread with plain water.  Bake it for 10 min.  Spray it again.  Bake 10 min.  Spray it again. Let it bake 10 more minutes (30 minutes total). Remove and cool on rack.  Enjoy!

* I recommend that you add all but one cup of the flour mixture in.  Why?  Because onions, evened drained, have varying degrees of moisture. So if they are bit dry, you might not need all the remainder of the flour mixture to get it to the point of leaving the sides of the bowl. Also, if you do not have a Kitchen Aid like I have it is easier to knead in some extra by hand.

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