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2/20/2004 11:53:18 PM
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Curious about Quecha
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Hi!
Why Quecha appeals to me....I live in the south, by chance, not choice, so although I would LIKE to work in nice cushy wools all the time, I don`t...it is toooooo hot! It was 65 today...and I remember the year it was 96 in Feb!!!!
This is a DK weight, with alpaca, so I can get a lighter weight softy sweater. For me, and only for me, I knit so loosely that I have no hope of making gauge unless it`s a DK or smaller.
I wanted to make "moonlight at her window" which Eileen made months ago, and it`s a sweater that will require a lot of concentration, so I was looking for a yarn I would love enough to make it worth it, and I think this is it! It will be worth the effort.
And the dark purple is so pretty!
(Now if it came in RASBERRY.....ah!)
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2/20/2004 11:59:35 PM
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A new pet peeve
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Why Corrina,
I thought the Celery would be just your speed. ;-)
I`m on the fence about the pomegranate...is that a coral red or a blue red...I have the impression there`s a coral cast to that. Feedback?
I got my new Knitter`s and there`s a cap in there that can be made up using ONE ball of Quecha! That has possibilities too!
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2/21/2004 12:05:59 AM
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Looking for advice (aout knitting, not Quecha, lol)
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The way that`s knitted side to side, I was wondering if just crocheting it would give the neckline enough body. I was thinking a knit seam tape sewn in (You know, make it look like it "finishes" the inside of the jacket neckline) OR Crochet around the neckline with some "invisible" DMC floss, which also might give the neckline more body.
Theresa, lighten up on the nanny, she`s our age, if not younger. (Yipe!)
B
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2/21/2004 12:15:18 AM
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Seemingly Endless Seaming
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Hi-
No, but I am careful not to let the layers stretch. Tissue UNDER the mess might not be a bad way to go....your foot and both layers are visible then. The thing is, baste it in...don`t let the feed dogs get carried away. If you DON`T like it, stop, run away, yank out the basting, and do it by hand. It`s a 15 minute experiment. I advise trying it on a piddly project.
B
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2/21/2004 4:25:13 PM
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Farmin - you`re amazing
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Sarah-
It is not a hobby if you can serve it for/with a meal. Really. It`s hard to get anyone to make a SANDWICH these days without paying for it...maybe if you involve them.......
Corinna was also in Southern Living last year, which means that she really does work her tail off, and her home photographs at something near perfection! I would love to help with the fruit and canning...I like to! It`s very satisfying. (acutally, I would like my home to photograph as something near perfection too, but only if I can quit work too!)
Corinna, Benne, and any other lookers and lurkers-
I need an AMAZING strawberry recipe for DD to enter in competition. She came down from her mom`s about 18 mos. ago, and this is her first and only time she will be able to enter in the youth category, where they are normally (more) generous...the winning recipes are auctioned off, and the kid splits the $$ with the scholarship fund. There is limited refrigerator space and the entries may sit for 2-3 hours before judging, and 2 more before auction, so any inspiration you can provide would be wonderful! She has moderate cooking skills, but can follow directions.
B
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2/22/2004 2:27:00 AM
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Farmin - you`re amazing
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Hi Kaolin (!?) and Sarah-
No, originality is not a requirement, so if you are famous for it at your house, we would like to try it here!
Sarah, I have a recipe for apple butter that`s made in a slow cooker...it might be a good "intro to canning" recipe later this fall. You only need counter space for actually canning, and that`s less than two hours. Might be a good thing to do one weekend prior to Christmas, when you want an excuse to stay home and work on gifts!
Any recipes welcomed heartily!
B
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2/22/2004 7:38:05 AM
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Curious about Quecha
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http://www.3gcs.com/adcock/free%20patterns/handmade_knitting_needles.htm
Christine-
Three cheers for expanding someone`s world...it stuns me when (today, in the US) I meet adults who have never been to the zoo, or can`t tell me the principal product of Detroit MI! I am blown away by the differences in school systems! Good for you!
I know for a fact I saw instructions on how to make needles in one of my magazines last week, but since I was filing, I don`t have much hope of figuring out WHICH magazine! Here`s a URL with instructions, tho.
Have a good week!
B
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2/22/2004 7:51:49 AM
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Lace Knitting Needles
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Hi Christie-
I looked, and Smiley`s has a pair of 29" circular size 0 (2mm) needles for 2.99. That`s pretty hard to beat. If it`s a set you want, try a German dealer.
I don`t know what gauge your bedjacket pattern is in, but there are some beautiful alpaca and angora blend yarns here...you are talking to the budget queens when you talk to us!
If your grandma is like my family, ANYTHING you make will be special.
B
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2/22/2004 12:15:57 PM
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Farmin - you`re amazing
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Geez! MacChickie, you do everything full out! I`m in the Bible belt, so no, they might blow a gasket...or they might step out for a nip behind the barn(heh heh!)....hard to say, but what the heck! Or maybe if she brushes a chocolate cake with strawberry liquer before frosting... or maybe both!
And thanks for the strawberry bread recipe Sarah, I know there`s a quick bread division, so this WILL get entered.
Ok-
Gingered Apple butter in the crockpot-
4 lbs cooking apples, unpeeled-cored and quartered
1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1 c. freshly squeezed apple cider (just dawned on me that there`s no such thing, but that`s how the recipe reads-I buy juice or cider, it doesn`t matter)
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 T. grated fresh ginger (may be omitted, or swap this for a cinnamon stick, if you prefer)
In a 3 1/2 qt slow cooker, combine apples, sugar, cider, lemon juice and zest. Cook overnight on low (200F) until the apples are VERY soft (8 hours).
Stir in the ginger (or cinnamon), and cook for another 8 hours uncovered on high (300F) stirring occaisionally, til it`s reduced to about 3 cups (8-10 hours).
Rub the apples thru a sieve placed over a bowl, removing the peels as you go. Spoon the butter into hot sterile jars, and process. (This recipe does not give directions for hot water bath processing, but directions usually come with the jelly/jam jars.) Makes about 2 pints.
This doubles VERY easily...and who the heck wants to so all that work for 2 jars!?! Don`t peel the apples before cooking, as the peels contain pectin, which helps it set. If you can find unwaxed fruit, all the better, and your house will smell fabulous when you make this!
B
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2/22/2004 4:51:33 PM
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Farmin - you`re amazing
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Sarah...
(What I think Corinna meant) and what I meant-is in this day and age, anything made by hand is significant...don`t toss food prep in the hobby category...a lot of women`s efforts get slotted into insignificant hobby categories when their husbands are playing VIDEO games or watching sports! If it`s productive, you can`t talk trash about it! That`s all, just be proud of it!
(I don`t eat peanut brittle often, but we make a ton of it here! Great Christmas gifts!)
B
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2/23/2004 1:48:36 AM
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Memory
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What Christine said. I rarely buy cotton unless it`s blended with something...unless it`s for something like a T-shirt.
B
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2/23/2004 1:59:32 AM
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Farmin - you`re amazing
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Nooooooo!
Putting your foot in it is MY job....I am also the champ at spitting my toes out of my mouth....you don`t get those jobs. Did not mean to jostle or shove you...I think my reaction is based on a lot of things I`ve heard over the years...I am very good at betty crocker stuff, and while it`s ok for us to be self-deprecating, it`s NOT ok to go to work and work our tails off, come home and work our tails off, then have someone phsssh! our hard work like we have nothing better to do all day.
That`s all. Please take my olive branch of apology away before i smack myself in the face with it.
B
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2/23/2004 8:25:41 PM
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Farmin - you`re amazing
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Vanilla bean-
any expensive store...we`ve got a lot of "local" spice companies that offer them in little cellophane packets. If that doesn`t work, go to Penzey`s on-line. Or the King Arthur Flour company. Penzey`s is REALLY expensive, but sign up for the catalog, it`s FUN!
In Germany, you split the bean open, leave it buried in sugar in a jar for a while, then the sugar picks up the flavor, and that`s what you season things with, not extract. I`ve seen recipes where you simmer it in milk too, but that seems a little la-la to me!
Bets
(Oh, and my whole family thinks you are the business for sending a cordial recipe!) Especially the minor!
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2/24/2004 4:29:39 PM
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*BURP!* Sated on Quechua
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Hi-
Ok, got the aubergine, I`ll confess to getting an extra ball in case Scully needs one, but I was BAD!!!! I KNOW I needed to get a lighter color, but the charcoal was hollering at me. Got sweater quantities in those 2 colors, and a 1 skein snack in the parchment, moonstone, thistle and pomegranate...because I found a hat pattern that will be a GREAT Christmas gift for all the teens on my list. Oh, no more, because someone is gonna have kittens if he sees that quantity come out of the box.
Too late Benne, I already HAVE your address. But that`s ok, your secret is safe with me. I AM amazed there are still quantities left in all the colors...
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2/24/2004 4:32:01 PM
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Ram wools
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I love to LOOK at their catalog, but kinda got my nose out of joint when they started pricing everything in USD. It stopped being a good price then.
B
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2/24/2004 4:36:30 PM
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Sarah NYC! I think I stepped on your feelings!
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I apologize. Did not mean to hurt your feelings, but I think I did. Sometimes I suffer from "won`t shut up!" It`s chronic.
Bets
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2/26/2004 2:42:52 AM
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Whoa Miss Bets, a little hottie in two very hot tops!
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Actually, those 2 tops have been buried in the back of her closet for about 10 months...her friend was here and we were having a loud (not angry) debate over hand-knitting (she doesn`t like large gauge, at the end of it all), so she had to try them on, got tons of "How cute!" from her friend, decided she looked less like a hoot in the green, decided the coral one was "not bad", and so now they actually might get worn. She`s shown interest in "Audrey" from Rowan 35, so she might actually ASK for a sweater. So thanks, Benne. "Hey, that top`s not bad!" is high praise from a teen-ager!
Les, so unfair, I can`t wait for my newletter now!
Bets
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3/1/2004 11:52:09 PM
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UK yarns update-
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Hi everyone-
Just got back a few hours ago, and I have to say, the UK`s got nothing on this site. I went to at least 3 John Lewis`, 2 Debenham`s, Peter Jones, Creations, and C&H fabrics on yarn scouts, as well as Liberty`s...and it`s looking kinda sorry in the UK these days...plenty of Rowan and Jaeger (sister brands, I think) a lot of Sirdar, a little Patons, Emu, and Wendy, and very little else. I didn`t see a single skein of Colinette, and the exchange rate is so bad, you might as well just stay home and order it...Kid Silk Haze was 11.50 per skein there.
So so sad...
B
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3/2/2004 7:43:15 AM
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Bets - what pattern?
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Hi--
I knit it a year ago, so I just dragged out my binder...remember how I said "adapted from"???? I started with VK Fall 2002 # 36, which is REALLY ugly. For the notch, instead of casting on all the stitches, I casted on less than the pattern called for, and added them in subsequent rows. (It was supposed to come out curved, but oh well...)
It`s knit in the round, so after I had stairstepped all the add-on stitches and knit it even for a few inches, I started the cable, which actually joined the whole thing together. The whole thing is knit in ribbing, so as long as you move the count correctly, (work your cables so you always have a purl stitch framing the cable) you`ll be fine, it won`t matter if your cables are actually asymetrical. Then, instead of a round neck, I made a V, and let the cables start the v shaping for me.
Desiree was a merino angora blend, so it was a little fuzzy, which helped camouflage any boo-boos, and made it kind of "sweater girl" ish. Sexy, but not trampy, if you get my drift, and you probably do, because you are someone`s mama (yes, there is such a thing as elegantly sexy...Hollywood should try it once in a while).
The pattern was sized to work @ 21 stitches per inch on 8s, so a light worsted or chunky DK (oxymoron!) would be appropriate...I think I knit mine on 7s.
Teenagers are NOT cute...remember that we were young women when we first got them!!!!! ;-) (Keep that phrase in mind the next time someone calls you old fashioned!) Holler if you need more details, and I`ll drag it out of the (not quite) back of her closet.
B
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3/2/2004 7:54:54 AM
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UK yarns update-
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Hey Debbie-
I was disappointed...the UK used to be a mecca for creativity in knitting...I was prepared to go to Kaffe Fassett`s studio in Bath, and e-mailed for details...gee, he`s in California now. I went to look up Debbie Bliss`s London shop...closed at the end of 1992. I looked HARD for the Colinette, couldn`t find any, and I know I`d bought it at John Lewis previously! Maybe I wasn`t holding my mouth right or something.
The exchange rate right now is ALMOST 2:1...I did the majority of my souvenir shopping at Waitrose and Boots, but fortunately, my family has simple tastes. (To anyone besides Debbie, it`s the equal to souvenir shopping at Safeway and Walgreens). I have NEVER seen it this bad, and yes, I survived UK shopping in the 80s. But maybe your mum knows exactly where to go???
Bets
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