Knitionary: March 2012

Sunnyside

Sunnyside, aww, such a dear name for a dear little sweater.

Knit in mommy friendly Cascade Superwash Sport.
It's baby friendly too, it's as soft as a puppy's ear.

The free pattern by Tanis Lavallee of Tanis Fiber Arts
has a cabled boy version and a lace girl version.

It's a well written pattern, and like most baby knits,
it just seems to fly off the needles in record time!

Ravelry link.

March 30, 2012
5 Comments

Hello Water's Edge. So we meet again.

dog

Another day, another Water's Edge. Hee hee.

A Wee Water's Edge, mini-sized for my granddaughter

to match her flowery Easter dress.

I found the perfect button at Stitches West.

Knit in a cotton/wool blend. It was easy to change the pattern to an xxs.

But behind these serene pictures is a flurry of activity.

A very furry flurry of activity.

So now we have to take a break from modeling for just a bit.

It's mine.

Grrrr.

No, it's mine.

Please boys.

Please try to play nicely.

Please leave us to our modeling.

Ahh, here we are, serene again.

All the particulars are on my Ravelry page.

March 21, 2012
7 Comments

Annie's Sand and Sea Shawlette

knitting

My granddaughter liked my Sand and Sea so much she thought she might want one too.

She wanted her scarf in gray and green.

She was here for the weekend and I got some beautiful photos of my pretty little girl.

This pattern is from my latest crush, the Coastal Knits book, pattern by Alana Dakos.

I used Malabrigo Sock in Playa colorway for the body

(left over from my Celery Cardigan) and

Isager Strick Spinni Wool 1 in chartreuse for the lace

(leftover from my Volt).

I love feather and fan lace, so pretty but oh-so-easy.

Ravelry link here.

Her Easter sweater is also from this book.

Hope to have that done in a few days.

I'm also working on ADORABLE baby sweaters!

A new baby will be in my orbit soon, and I'm going a little crazy knitting itty bitty cardis.

Also, I'm still working little by little on my Chihuly Scarf.

And one evening devoted to the finishing of my Wildflower Cardigan and it will be done.

Knitionary

March 19, 2012
13 Comments

St. Patrick's Day

cooking

We're celebrating St. Patrick's Day a little early this year.

Every year I poke around my cupboards and look for some green inspiration.
I always pull out my vintage green carnival glass goblets.

It's fun to round up different "greens" to decorate. Love the long lasting protea.

The table cloth is a Karen Lee Ballard Design and the napkins are Le Jacquard.

The white plates are Cambria from Pottery Barn.

Flowers are just grocery store flowers, sometimes they can't be beat.

With such a pretty table, I just had to improve on that tired old boiled dinner.

I traded in the soggy boiled veggies and opted for oven roasting.

Just toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 400 until tender.

Add the asparagus at the very last, they take about 10 minutes.

And a new recipe for me, roasted cabbage from Martha, brilliant!

I put the corned beef in the slow cooker on low for 8 hours
and served with mustard and horseradish sauce.

Dessert was Cashew Shortbread.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, even if you're not Irish!

Knitionary

March 15, 2012
5 Comments

Cashew Shortbread & Wee Water's Edge

baking

Shortbread is such a nice little cookie to improvise with. Starting with a basic short cookie dough, you can gussy it up with any number of things.

Basic Shortbread recipe
10 tablespoons softened butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a mixer bowl beat butter and sugar, salt and vanilla until fluffy. Mix in flour. Press into a buttered and floured 8" round cake tin or 8" sq. pan (I use a tart pan with removable bottom) and sprinkle with additional 2 tablespoons sugar. Cut into wedges or squares and pierce with fork tines. Bake at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes or until lightly browned. While it is still warm, re-cut the wedges or squares along the scoured lines. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Sprinkle with sugar, score and pierce with fork tines before baking.

Just out of the oven, recut along scored lines.

For a change, in addition to the all the ingredients in the above recipe I add:

Lemon Shortbread: Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon lemon zest (I like it lemony!)
Chocolate Shortbread: Add cocoa and shaved bittersweet chocolate
Pepper Shortbread: Add 1-2 teaspoons of black pepper, depending on taste (sweet and peppery!)
Toffee Shortbread: Add 1/3 cup or more of Heath Toffee Bits
Cashew Shortbread: Add 1/3 cup chopped roasted and salted cashews and 1 tsp. almond extract.

I've read that shortbread has a long shelf life but it never seems to stay around long enough for us to test that out even though I always double the recipe.

This is my 3rd Water's Edge. Right now I am at the applied i-cord bind off, my chosen method to finish off the edge.

As for knitting, I'm working on an Easter sweater for my 11 year old granddaughter. Her dress has yellow and white flowers on a black background so I choose a black cotton/wool blend to make a mini Water's Edge sized down for her little self. I'm keeping notes if anyone is interested, but yesterday I found out that the girls behind Coastal Knits, from where this pattern comes, are sizing the patterns down for a new book for little ones! Great idea!