Saturday, Mom heard on regional news that Sunday was the last day of a yarn fair held all last week in Kaysersberg, a little town an hour away by car, so we spent our Sunday afternoon walking around in the sun and… buying fibery things. The fair was small, only eight or ten exhibitors, but really varied and nice, with a mix of weavers, knitters and felt-makers, and products ranging from organic yarns (dyed in vegetable dyes) to felt jewelry to hats and bags, etc. Mom found great felted wrist warmers/mitts (not knitted and then felted, but wet felted only) for a friend of hers with a birthday coming up. I nearly bought a felt hat.

I did buy 2 skeins of a fat single ply of wool-linen blend (260m) in a wonderful acid green to knit a quick scarf for a friend (I’m thinking 7mm needles and the Yarn Harlot’s one row scarf pattern), as well as 100g of a tweedy hairy wool (mohair blend?) in a wonderful tawny rust color highlighted with a discreet strand of lurex. That one is much thinner, DK or sport, perhaps even thinner.

Both came from the same table and are the work of the dyer Catherine Morel for her shop ‘L’atelier de Laine Garance’, which Google found only one mention of in all of the internet, here, in 2005. I will keep her card preciously, as her yarn looked wonderful. I’ll to ask her for a color card.

I have started knitting the scarf and stopped when I had used the whole first skein; my plan is to knit a pair of mitts with the second skein, which won’t use all of it, and then to use the rest to lengthen the scarf. The first mitt is done, though I fought tooth and nail and messed up the kitchener stitch about 5 times, ouch. I’m trying to knit a second one twin to it, which might prove hard as I sort of improvised loosely, once more, on Ysolda Teague’s wonderful garter stitch mitts pattern. I’m doing these in a very different gauge, with a different stitch count, and this time not even in garter but in stockinette, so… Wish me luck that I can replicate what worked once!

(The reason I couldn’t resist casting on to try those in stockinette is that I desperately needed a reason to put into practice the fabulous Japanese short rows method I finally “got” the other day. I’m not using a pin, because now that I got it, I don’t need to - and oh, this clever trick fills me with such joy!)

I hence inherited 380g of undyed aran wool I had no project for. Quickly, an idea presented itself: I could not resist trying to knit a Hemlock Ring blanket, because it’s a such a gorgeous pattern.

Let me share a secret: I’d rather knit something from a written out pattern than from a chart. Charts are great to help me understand what’s going on, yes, but when it comes to following the pattern I prefer to read out written instructions. Which in this instance was great, since the Hemlock Ring is written out and not charted. Still, I am also tempted to chart it, just to put the chart out there - it seems a little sad that only the latter, expanded part of the pattern that Jared charted exists out there (most likely, this idle thought of mine will never lead anywhere. but it’s a nice thought for something useful to do one day!).

The knitting went well, though it was tiring in places, because I was of course dealing with an increasing amount of stitches on a limited circular needle. Then I hit the end of my 380g of Dales pure British wool, and I wasn’t done. I could have stopped there, of course - backtracked and knit the border and call it a small lap blanket, but I wanted it bigger.

Fortunately, I had in the stash two skeins of undyed DK weight French wool (sheep from the Pyrenées, wool washed, carded and spun in Ardèche, bought on a market in the Massif Central). So I knit a few more repeats of the pattern holding this yarn double. I thought it’s be interesting, color-wise, later on, because there was no doubt that both yarns would absorb dye differently. Before I started I saw on Ravelry that variegated yarns obscured the central motif, so I was confident that my choice of a solid was right, but that did not mean a colored ring effect wouldn’t be lovely on the finished object… Which it is, as it turned out.

The I hit the border. I am in love with the border as it appears on Jared’s pictures. I was therefore very disappointed when I realized that I could not, no matter what I tried, construct my border in a way that would make it look remotely like that. The patterns proposes two possibilitis for the edging: a knitted and a crocheted variant. Clearly, Jared’s is the knitted border (it says so on Flickr, if you’re doubtful), which goes like this:

k2tog, O, k2tog, turn, p 1, work 5sts in next st– to work 5sts in 1 (k 1, p 1) twice in the same st, then k in the same st. once more, P 1, sl 1, turn, bind off 7sts (1 st remains on right-hand needle) repeated as many times as possible. (O = yo)

I tried to knit it as written; I tried the same with only one strand of my DK wool instead of too when that looked too bulky and blah; I tried making it less “round” (to better match the picture) by knitting only 3 stitches in one instead of 5. I knew of course that the picture I was trying to match was of a blocked blanket edging, but even with the magical blocking to come, I could not believe that the bulky round scallops I was knitting would ever become anything approaching that image I loved so much.

In the end I opted for the crocheted border, which I chose to do with the grey-white variegated Monoprix yarn Rayure Double (Ravelry link), since my plan was to dye the blanket blue once the knitting was over.

Crocheting it went by much, much faster, too, and though I see now that blocking probably would have made the difference, I’m not sorry.

It’s not very big - under 4 feet across, smaller than Jared Flood’s I think (which kinda bugs me because I used a lot more yardage than him, seems like!) and there are rather big mistakes in the beginning, right past the flower, but even though they’re big I don’t think people will see them. Much. When I’m not pointing them out, anyway.

Apparently this is the long tail cast on, when what I’ve been doing all along is this, aka the twisted German cast on, that I was mistakenly calling long tail. I found this out through a comment with embedded video on Livejournal in the knitting community. I’m still sort of in shock, heh.

I’m surprised, too, because the person who posted the video mentioned that it’s a stretchy, springy cast on. I’ve always found it quite tight, and its tightness is actually part of the reasons that made me think it was the long tail cast on, which everybody always notes is tight. I think tubular is stretchy, but twisted German? Not so much…

In other news, I have a ton of pictures to edit, of the yarn I added to the stash during my trip to the UK, and of several FOs: the Hemlock Ring blanket I knit last week (which I just dyed blue - it’s cooling as we speak), a ribbon scarf I knit out of bamboo for my friend in London, and the Noro Silk Garden vest I knit sideways for Mom this week. But I’m a little too tired to fiddle with that right now, so it’ll be for another day!

A Dutch designer called Greetje van Tiem makes yarn from old newspaper; Italian artist Ivano Vitali is already all over that.
I love how the comments from the dezeen.com post are teeming with people who want to buy some, to make some, and who’re already trying to reproduce the result. Enthusiasm is fun.

-

I can’t believe I completely missed the latest Anticraft! By months! Where  was my head.

Ad it’s an entire issue on our friend the pig  (like we used to say with the most gluttonous of my Exes: “le cochon est notre ami”. Derivation of sorts on the French classic saying “tout est bon dans le cochon”). Of most worthy note, the embroidered Bacon of Hate. I’m having a phase, being more and more drawn to embroidery; I think this has to come on the list of things to embroider in the summer.

Though I might have spoken too fast, because the recipe for bacon chocolate fudge and the angel crafted out of bacon are indeed also noteworthy.

-

I’m knitting! It deserves an exclamation mark because for a month or two I found myself utterly unable to settle on a project. I finshed one or two pitesouly small an uninteresting WIPs, then gnashed teeth and frothed at the mouth while trying to pick ssomething else to do. Since knitting is rage-therapy, and well, therapy period, for me, not knitting meant a lot of bile and anger to repress. And yet, strating something was suddenly impossible, as I had infused everything with a sense  not of urgency but of *importance*. I was looking at the yarn I’d recycled and dyed and trying to pick a “worthy” project for it; I was eyeing patterns I could noy afford to buy (I’m poor at the moment) and getting frustrated over them even though there are a thousand free patterns waiting for me to get to them; I found myself squinting at large pieces, garments and shawls, when all my yarn buying has always been limited to 2 skeins of the same thing at a time, pretty much. All in all, everything was generally inadequate, either me or the projects or the world, and it was irritating and craziness-inducing.

Thankfully, it faded out. And so, I’m knitting my first adult garment that is not a scarf or hat or mittens - a short cardi-like thing based on this recipe for a ’sassymetrical’ top. Mine is horizontally striped, and I had to adjust the numbers of course (not the same gauge, plus I am NOT an XS). I did picot edging for the first time ever on the sleeves’ edges, though one of them is giving me trouble and I might have to undo and redo for the third time. For once instead of putting stuff up into Ravelry and then having to mark it hibernating or frogged, I decided to wait until i can upload pics of the finished project, ha. Exciting!

I’m using a heathered dark purple-brown-bronze bamboo from La Droguerie, part of a kit I received as a present and dismantled as I am wont to do, and 3 balls of Karabella Frost in a faded red or crushed raspberry color (color 9259 - 30% cashmere/30% silk/40% viscose) that I bought second hand from the adorable Cosette Cornelius-Bates from Cosy knits, literally
fame at the same time as I bought her a signed copy of her book, Knit one, embellish too. You can see why I need her patterns, what with being a small projects knitter and all. That, and they rock! (I’ve wanted to know how to make a root vegetable hat for ever).

In summary: yarn, yaye.

I have enjoyed quiet New Year’s Eves several years running — big parties in the streets are not my type, I have a deep phobia of the sudden popping noises of firecrackers — but this one might take the cake with its exceptional calm.

We were done eating our wonderful roast duck meal at about 9.30, and an hour later the pie had been gleefully consumed, too. Mom dozed in front of the TV while me and my brother puttered each at our laptop for a while.. It’s now just gone over into 2008 and Mom’s in bed already!

I might follow soon; I got up after a mere 5 hours of sleep last night. I only wanted to post this recipe I improvised for my stew, because I think tomorrow it’ll be the yummiest start of the year, along with the New Year Concert of Vienna.

In a cast iron pan:

- first, on medium-high heat, sautee a red onion and a shallot finely chopped in a glug of oil
- add in thick a 1/3 cup worth of dice cuts of bacon (smoked or not) to make them start sweating the fat
- throw in your meat - I had two pork cutlets w/ bone today, but chicken would work, either noble breast bits or wings or legs. You only want to brown the meat some, seize the outside and get the yummy Maillard reaction going. (meat w/ bones is good in things like this because it’ll stew a long time at low temps and the meat will come off the bone in the end anyway).

- reducing the heat, pour two cans of coconut milk in the pan, then the equivalent volume of water
- add 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic and the equivalent volume of ginger root; if you have it, throw in the same amount of fresh lemon grass,
- add two tablespoons of soy sauce,
- add a 1/2 teaspoon each of : ground black pepper, cumin powder, red pepper flakes
- now is time to add carbs and veggies before you leave the stew to simmer for hours. I chose a can of mushrooms, drained (the equivalent amount of fresh would work too - if you notice, a lot of this is eyeballed anyways), and a smaller can of chickpeas.

- Leave to simmer on low for at least two hours, checking and stirring once in a while. Reserve. Reheat and bring to a simmer the next day, ENJOY.

(you can eat it the same day you made it! It’s just better reheated.)

This is the first thing I’ll eat in 2008… Except for the deep mint flavored 70% cocoa piece of chocolate I just had.

Darning, I have a cramp. Look like this year starts w/ RSI. Augh.

Hope your festivities are going well!

In culinary news, yesterday I tried this recipe for experimental dark chocolate chip / bacon cookies.

I messed up and put the bacon bits and chocolate chips in the dough at the same time as the flour.. So the whole thing ended up less bit-heavy that it should have been: the chocolate and bacon got chopped fine fine fine by the food processor. Still, an interesting experiment, and I will know better next time! I like the result a lot. It was also my first time ever making sugar icing, which is easier than pie! Yay for icing.

On Christmas day, I went to see friends and brought the one piece of Christmas knitting I had done to finally gift it to its tiny recipient:
Gaspard got his Baby Surprise Jacket. I am so proud! The pattern is as magical as everybody says. Next time I do one with a variegated yarn, promise.

Earlier, I decorated our tree… Which proved very hard to photograph at least for my poor skill at it.

Yet before that, in the week prior to coming down here to celebrate, I hand sewed a cushion from a recycled sweater made of part angora as a Xmas present for my brother.

I particularly like the underbelly of it.

At the same time as I was finally doing my Christmas crafting I decided I should really knit myself mittens, since it had become really cold. It was clear by then that my endpaper mitts had entered hibernation, as ravelry puts it, and my focus was nowhere near where it needs to be for knitting colorwork.. Thankfully, Ysolda Teague had just come up with a handy pattern! I jumped at it and improvised a version w/ a different stitch count to match the bulkier yarn: I wanted them in Manos. Tada! In less than 24 hours I was done with my wonderfully warm mittens. Mmmm, toasty.

Whew! I think the catching up is done - let’s leave the November leek pie and punkin biscuits to the mists of history where they now belong.

I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season, whether you celebrate them or not. Let’s hope 2008 can be kind to us all.

ETA: A picture!