Fig and Plum

The best (knitting) purchase I ever made in my whole entire (knitting) life

2010-08-22T10:49:15-05:00

Oh! There's something I forgot to tell you about yesterday!

Update: If you click the photo, you can see details - or just click here to go directly to Patternworks: The Circular Solution.

Knitting, the Long View

2010-08-21T12:13:15-05:00

It's tiresome to read a blog that begins each entry with "well, it's been a long time since I posted, but . . .," so I won't begin that way. I have no intention of discontinuing Fig and Plum, but I must come to terms with posting just about once a month. Oh well. We'll just have to agree to take the long view, non?

So anyway. I was cruising Flickr the other day and there was Jenna's pretty, lush-looking Metro Cardigan (pattern) looking squish and done up in Camelino, a yarn that was new to me. But lo, it's on sale at WEBS! Usually I'm pretty good about not buying yarn on impulse, but I can't resist a lovely rustic brown in a soft yarn. So I bought 10 balls in Sable, which you see above, which to me, are calling to be a cabled pullover for fall.

While I feel like years of J. Crew catalogs demonstrate that comfy cabled pullovers exist in the world, I found surprisingly few patterns on Ravelry that I liked. Seems like many cabled sweaters are an excuse to display cables, sometimes in designs that do more for the cables than the wearer. And lord knows, I don't have room in my dresser for that kind of project.

After a lot of searching, I may have settled on the Acer Cardigan [Ravelry] by Amy Christoffers, a new-to-me designer. (Oooh, and look at these cute goldfish mittens!). The idea is to (possibly) convert this into a crewneck because, you know, nothing can ever be easy.

But, I get ahead of myself. There are two long-term projects on the needles that I've actually been working on that need to be finished first. One is a Baby Tomten started about a year ago for a baby that's now four months old. Good thing it ended up way too big! Here's a progress shot from a couple of weeks back:

It's basically done, though, so I'll post an FO shot soon. Insane that it's taken so long, but there have been bizarre setbacks, which you'll hear about in the next post. I'm eager to share the solution I found for attaching the loops for toggle buttons.

The other exciting knitting is that my navy cowl neck, started back in (gulp) 2008, will almost certainly be finished by Rhinebeck.

This one also had its share of setbacks, mostly that I lost my notes for the pattern and didn't have the brainpower to redo them, and I wasn't sure of the best way to accomplish the slightly curved front neckline I wanted while working in the round. Of course, the answer is short rows. I'm almost to that part of the sweater now, so cross your fingers it works. If it does, look for a short lady in a sweater with a huge, comfy cowl neck tramping around Sheep & Wool this year.

I can't believe Sheep & Wool is still two months away! My girls and I have already started planning, most importantly by planning an amazing country getaway for our first ever upstate overnight Rhinebeck adventure. We've found ~~a great place~~ an even better place, and we are psyched!

Okay, a couple more random things to share. I'd be remiss if I didn't pass along this awesome recipe for one of my favorite decadent-feeling dishes, seared scallops:

Seafood dishes with pan-Asian-ish sauces usually bore me, but it works perfectly here. But even more than that, I'm proud to say that Chris has finally learned exactly how seared a seared scallop ought to be. I mean, just look at them. Yum. Here's the recipe.

I'll leave you with a snap of a glorious New York sunset from last week, which appears to be, like, the most photographed sunset in the city's history. You know it's good when I'm not the only idiot standing in the middle of Vanderbilt Avenue trying to capture it.

Until next time, mes amis!

Strawberry Sorbet

2010-06-20T13:12:47-05:00

I am (you might have noticed) working my way through The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. We're trying to alternate between ice creams and sorbets, you know, to stave off those heart attacks for a few more years in exchange for, erm, diabetes? Aaaanyway, I consider sorbet another method of preservation, like canning, although frozen desserts don't last quite as long as their counterparts in jars, and it's a bit more difficult to go for quantity.

This recipe is supposed to yield 3 cups, but I think maybe we got a scant 2 cups out of it. I continue to have issues getting the ice cream maker to go for more than 15-20 minutes or so without seeing melting at the bottom of the vessel, which concerns me and makes me stop the churning and head for the freezer. (Am I doing the right thing or should I be pressing on?) Don't get me wrong, it tastes good if a little too sweet, but it's disheartening not to be able to get the right texture.

I am told that the telltale sign of done-ness with a KitchenAid ice cream unit is a "knocking" sound, and I got there with the first couple of things I made in our old apartment last year, but not with this summer's efforts. I had thought it was maybe our hot-ish kitchen (no A/C) but now suspect our freezer is to blame - both not getting the unit cold enough and not getting the finished product all that hard once it's done. Our fridge and freezer run off the same temperature control, which is set on the low side, because in the past when we've turned it up, things have frozen in the fridge.

I'm not quite sure what to do here. Alas, I'll have to comfort myself with a frosty scoop of a little-too-sweet strawberry sorbet while I figure it all out. So much for "preserving."

(Aside #1: sorbet is the perfect remedy for a summer cold, i'm finding. like a popsicle, but classier)

(Aside #2: We met Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Ice Creams yesterday! We rode our bikes to the big island for a free tasting at Steven Kasher Gallery on 23rd Street, and Jeni was there scooping. We had a nice chat with her about her book, which will be out next year, and of course about her ice creams, which are American-style but still sort of "tempered" even without the eggs. Her Meyer Lemon Frozen Yogurt opened up a whole world of yogurt ideas for me. YUM.)

Simple Caesar Salad

2010-06-12T15:04:36-05:00

I think this recipe originated with my Aunt Eileen, and our family's been enjoying it for many years. To be a Caesar salad, one must have oil, lemon, garlic, egg, and parmesan, so this the essence of Señor Caesar, and as basic as possible. You can add chicken or garbanzo beans to give it a little more standing as a main dish. Don't let it freak you out that this salad has raw egg in it. Seriously, people have been eating this for like a thousand years and they don't get sick. If you're really worried about it, though, omit it.

INGREDIENTS
1/4 c. olive oil
juice of 1-2 lemons
1 garlic clove, halved
1/4 tsp. salt
dash pepper
1 large head romaine lettuce (or 2 small heads)
1 c. croutons
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
4 anchovies
1 egg

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Let stand at least 50 minutes. Ten minutes before serving, tear lettuce into dressing. Add cheese, croutons, and anchovies (if using). Toss well. Add egg, toss well again.

Note: This recipe first appeared on Fig & Plum waaaay back in 2003, and it took me seven years to illustrate it! But the recipe is such a keeper, it's worth repeating.

In a Pretty Pickle (or a Jam?), Garter Stitch Ennui, and More

2010-04-28T22:29:34-05:00

Hey y'all, just checking in here, missing la blog. I am currently bogged down in what should be a small project - a Baby Tomten for a brand new baby friend of mine. (Heh, "bogged" makes me chuckle when used in reference to an EZ project. This ain't no Bog Jacket!) Garter stitch is just so deceptive. It seems like your pal because it's straightforward, knit knit knit! But it hides dirty secrets: it eats yarn because the fabric is so dense, and because the fabric is so dense, it takes forever. Then there's the added drag of having reworked the math for a different gauge yarn, and the extra computation always makes it hard to put a project down and pick it up again.

I think my next project shall be a lovely lace stole - something with an interesting stitch pattern but minimal shaping. Oh yes. Until then, my Tomten and I repeatedly stare each other down.

But enough complaining! I've picked up yet another new learning in the kitchen: canning! (hm. I skipped juice I guess?) Last weekend I had the pleasure of a pickling and "jam session" har har, at the hem of the lovely and talented Virginia of Virginia's Edibles. I picked up four pounds (!!) of ramps, two pounds of jewel-red organic strawberries, and several stick stalks of the brightest rhubarb I've laid eyes on, courtesy of my beloved Food Coop. V picked up a couple of pounds of blackberries and we got to it.

We made two types of pickles - refrigerator pickles and hot pickles. For the refrigerator pickle, we used this recipe from Serious Eats, and for the hot pickle, we adapted a recipe for pickled garlic. The pickles need to, erm, pickle for a week or so before we can try them - can't wait! In the meantime, I'm brainstorming uses for pickled ramps. So far I've only come up with "With Meat." So . . . suggestions welcome!

And finally, did you read Sadie's post on Jezebel - The New Decornographers? Without saying too much, I'm mulling a post on this topic. Any of you out there written about it yet?

PS - I POACHED AN EGG!

Veyla Mitts for Connie (Spiders Mitt Swap)

2010-03-21T16:18:59-05:00

Pattern: Veyla by Ysolda Teague [Ravelry]
Yarn: Louet Gems Fingering Weight (2 skeins) [Ravelry]
Needles: US 2 circular (magic loop)
Recipient: Connie!

Notes: Good luck defined: drawing a recipient in a knitwear swap who not only has fine taste and is a talented knitter and designer, but whose hands are preeeetty much the same size as your own. These are for the lovely and fortuitously small-handed Connie Chang Chinchio, my partner in the annual Spiders swap, which this year was for handwear. Connie couldn't make it to the swap this year :( so she couldn't model them, but these are on their way to her now.

I hadn't seen Veyla before, but came across it in Connie's "favorites" on Ravelry. It's a novel little pattern, with the cuff made separately and the glove picked up from the side of the lace panel. The Louet I have less love for - there were quite a few knots and even weak spots in the yarn, boo. That made for a ton of ends to weave in: shame on you, Louet! In any case, the result is delicate and ladylike, and nicely fitted - right up Connie's alley (if her designs are any indication). Connie, I hope you enjoy them!

And ps - here are the awesome mitts I received from Lisa. The yarn is SQUISHY and amazing. Thanks, Ms. D!

pps - there were SO many inspiring, lovely mitts at hand for the swap! Hard to pick a favorite, but I'm definitely adding these Fiddlehead Mittens that Maya made for Katy to the queue. I adore the b/w outer and brightly colored lining!

Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day

2010-03-06T16:37:14-05:00

Knitting progress has been slow lately, and secret (some mitts for this year's Spiders swap!), so here are some photos of another craft I have been trying my hand at in recent weeks: artisan breadmaking.

These efforts started with the much-touted Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, whose authors maintain an informative blog where basically any question you might have has already been answered. It *is* a lot of white bread, so once I get comfortable with the basic methods in the first book, I plan to try their second book of whole-grain breads, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

I've been keeping notes over at Flickr. Can't imagine they are all that informative, since the chemistry of bread is all quite new to me. But I'm definitely enjoying baking my own, so to speak!

Good Old Fashioned Yarn Pron

2010-02-28T00:59:38-05:00

Just checking in with a squishy photo of my favorite impractical yarn, Morehouse Merino 3-Strand. Handwash. Pilly as can be. But I'm under its spell nonetheless. Today cast on with this for a Baby Tomten Jacket (Ravelry) for some expecting friends. One forgets how fast garter stitch moves on US 7s. Joy!

Jenny's Shooting Mitts

2010-01-20T08:51:31-05:00

We're back! I'm slowly posting photos from our honeymoon (amazing! want another honeymoon!) on Flickr, and will likely recap the greatest hits here at some point, but for the moment here is a superskimpy FO post:

Pattern: Susie's Reading Mitts (free download from Dancing Ewe Yarns) (Raveled)
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton, 2 balls
Needles: US 4 DPNs

Notes: A thank-you gift to our lovely and talented wedding photographer, Ms. Jenny Jimenez, for those chilly evenings shooting in the Pacific Northwest! If you like, you can check out Jenny's beautiful post on our wedding, where she has posted a lot of our favorites from the day. Le sigh - want to go back to wedding day, want to go back to honeymoon!

Heart Hats for Big and Little Sisters

2009-12-17T08:47:07-05:00

Pattern: Improvised (will eventually post here - it's pretty simple) [Ravelry]
Yarn: Cascade 220, one skein each color (Big Sister), Knitpicks Sierra, one skein each color (Little Sister)
Needles: US 7 16" circulars / DPNs (Big Sister), US 10.5 16" circulars / DPNs (Little Sister)
Recipients: The Niece Squad

Notes: I am desperately trying to destash. Maybe it's because I went through this phase where I thought I needed yarn for loads of baby projects, but somehow I ended up with like two skeins of everything in my stash - too much to justify a "one skein" project, not enough for anything substantial. This black and white yarn was originally purchased for a diaper cover that I changed my mind about (although I think it's cute, figured mom might not go for "prison themed"). So part of it went into a little black and white striped hat for Ms. Mayarn's little dude (must have thought Mayarn wouldn't mind "prison themed").

The rest seemed a natural fit for my niece, who's a girl, but a bit of a rock star rather than a girly-girl. I thought this hat, along with one for her little sister AJ, struck the appropriate balance, and with some colorwork around the brim, provided some extra warmth (they live in Canada, in a milder area, but still, brrr):

The patterns are slightly different, as you can see, on the loopy and easily delighted AJ:

(above pics courtesy of my sister)

You can see the heart pattern and shape of the hat a little better here:

Also, my nieces clearly have huge heads (and brains) whereas mine is kinda dinky - because Lorin's hat was pretty big on me!).

Neither pattern is particularly complex, but after our honeymoon (we leave Monday!!!) I may get round to posting it here.

Internet Drought!

2009-12-04T11:34:00-05:00

Sorry it's been so quiet here - the UFO project continues but we moved apartments and are still without internet! I'm posting this little dispatch from the office (shhhh!) . . . but stay tuned!

In the meantime, go get yourself some visual stimulation:

This Isn't Happiness
Natalie Dee
Rubber Duck Project

Oh, So That's Picot.

2009-11-23T08:06:46-05:00

Over all my years of knitting, for some reason I never tried picot edging. So when the pattern for these gave instructions for all those yarn overs and k2togs, and a turning round, I was totally confused but just followed orders. And there it was! I had no idea.

Then I gave myself a sticker for being a special knitter. In my defense, the pattern pic didn't show the edge clearly.

These mitts are a thank-you gift for a friend. Can't wait to give them to her.

Color Week!

2009-11-22T11:58:54-05:00

I missed most of Color Week last week, but made up for it on Saturday (purple) and Sunday (pink). Really enjoyed browsing the pool of other folks' submissions, though. Next time round, I'm vowing to make it all seven days!

The Wedding Files: Gocco Coasters and CD Favors

2009-11-14T08:40:50-05:00

Dear Readers, you are certainly sick and tired of reading about our wedding! You have my promise that this is the last wedding craft post, and it includes a project most people thought was funny but some people found kind of sick and weird: coasters with our faces on them.

When we were researching invitations, we saw a few that featured instead of a nice paisley motif or floral flourish a letterpress rendition of the couple's faces. It's a matter of taste, of course, but it was arguably a little strange and maybe even tacky or narcissistic. But after completing our invitations, I was on a little bit of a roll with the Gocco, and was scouring the universe of things that could be printed and images we could use.

The bike we had used for the invitations and totes was altered (by pixel and pen) from some clipart found online. Then I remembered playing with the Stamp filter in Photoshop, which allows you to turn a photo into an image that appears to be stamped. These images, which do not contain much gradation, are perfect for Gocco. And one of our first experiments with the filter was with a photo of us, and it turned out so well we decided we had to use it somehow. (And honestly, I was getting a lazy at this point and didn't feel like experimenting with 5000 different images).

We used a photo of us taken at Carrie M.'s wedding:

But how to avoid the narcissism issue? Well, maybe it's still a little narcissistic, but, erm, what wedding isn't a LITTLE bit that way? But to address it, we decided to put ourselves on something lowly and utilitarian. Napkins? No, because we knew our venue had cloth napkins and we wouldn't want to create waste by introducing paper ones. Why not coasters? Sure, we'll hold your drink, on our faces! Yeah! Funny, not narcissistic (I think).

Plus we knew our venue would be using paper coasters anyway. We also came up with a plan to do two other designs, one of the Brooklyn Bridge, and one of (yes, sadly) our cat.

Problem is, at some point during coastermaking, I ran out of steam with the Gocco. I had already completed the invitations and tote bags at that point, and the wedding was approaching fast. And I had done the coasters of us, but none of the others. Oh. Well.

Anyway, here they are being put to excellent use at the wedding by Carrie, Sandra, and Marie:

Plain paper coasters for stamping or Goccoing can be purchased online at Blockheads

The final Gocco project of the wedding was a labor of love, as the day was drawing near and we were both getting tired. This idea was almost directly ripped off from these folks, and Debbie was helpful in pointing us in the direction of the kraft paper cases, which are from Calumet Carton. The CDs were a joint project - we came up with the playlist together, Chris burned and printed the CDs, and I laid out the CD design and printed the covers with Gocco. The tree image was taken at Valentino Pier, where we got married. I accidentally used fabric ink for the title, which is why it's so splotchy. Whoops.

So that's it for the wedding craft debrief! I hope this didn't bore you too much!

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream w. Virginia's Blueberry Sauce

2009-11-14T00:55:05-05:00

And for dessert . . .

. . . baby's first ice cream! We used the recipe for French-Style Vanilla from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz (formerly of Chez Panisse, and now apparently living as some kind of ice cream god in Paris). It involves steeping the vanilla seeds and pods for a good long while in the custard ingredients, both before and after cooking. Great flavor, a little on the sweet side.

The above was served with a damn tasty blueberry sauce from fellow knitter Virginia who's got herself quite a little canning business at craft fairs around NJ and NY. Follow her on twitter if you would like to know where she's headed next, or to order up some of that goodness!

Now here's that vanilla, buck nekkid:

Not bad for a first effort, right (second if you count that Concord Grape Sorbet)? Although I enjoy it from time to time, I'm not really an ice cream person (I know, and I also don't like potatoes. Chris made Guiness Lamb Stew the other night and I made him substitute parsnips and celeriac for them. Those of you with rotten tomatoes in hand, please be merciful.), but making it is pretty fun. I could become an ice-cream gifter paretty easily! If only it traveled a little better . . .

(ps two posts in one day, WHOA. Plus, I've got two FOs to show you soon, and another one on the way. DOUBLE WHOA.)