Pomatomus, Mermaids & Pond Scum, oh my!

My current knitting project involves all of these things.

• Pomatomus--the original sock pattern which begged to be fingerless mitts
• Mermaids--the name of the fingerless mitts that inspired me
• Pond Scum--the name of the Blue Moon Fibers colorway---the yarn I am knitting with

I came across the beautiful fingerless gloves titled Mermaid on Ravelry. They were knit up by Craftoholic who was inspired by Cookie A.'s Pomatomus sock pattern on Knitty. I hope you are following me...a little confusing. Try knitting them.



I am following the pattern chart for the Pomatomus sock, but I changed the ribbing to a picot edge for a more femine look.

Onions! Belated T-day Pics

Onions! Onions! and more onions! My family really likes their onions. We always seem to run out of them at the holiday table even though it feels like we cook more each time to avoid running out of onions. Heavens no!

So this year we cooked nine, yes nine, packages of onions. All different colors...white, yellow and purple. Very colorful indeed. All of these onions were fresh so therefore all of these onions needed to be peeled. Lots of peeling, but everyone is willing to chip in on this task despite the potential tears.

Here they are peeling away. (I was helping, but put my knife down to take the picture---what a photo op.)

Two full cookie trays of onions went into the oven to roast with a little olive oil, salt, pepper & fresh thyme. Yummy! One spoonful of onions was all that was left over. I think we might have finally found that right amount of onions for our family. Nine bags for 18 people---you do the math. And a hint...not everyone eats them. Talk about onion breath!

What can I say...

...my cat, Cleo, has good taste. Last night a couple of my knitterly friends came over to help me greet the trick or treaters. My Lexi Barnes knitting bag was on the table and Cleo helped herself by climbing right in and making herself comfy.

She wasn't too happy when I started snapping pictures and she eventually turned her back to me with her ears turned back. Classic cat for..."leave me alone!"

She was cute though so I didn't disturb her...even though my cashmere lace hat was on the needles beneath her. Don't worry--all stitches stayed on the needles.

Rhinestones are a girl's best friend...

I just don't understand how people enjoy knitting lace. People actually make whole shawls out of lace...crazy! I am just terrible at it. Although I do like the way it is coming out...when I am not ripping back. I picked up a skein of 100% cashmere at Rhinebeck from Still River Mill in Connecticut. They had an example of a cute knitted lace hat (Buffalo Gal Lace Cap). Their hat was knit from buffalo fiber, but I wanted the greyer color and went with the cashmere instead.

This project which is only a quarter of the way started has required several life lines and the purchase of reading glasses. That's right...I went out and bought reading glasses (the inexpensive kind that are magnifiers) so I can stand some chance of seeing the stitches when I make a mistake. The bonus: The reading glasses have rhinestones!



It is hard to see in this picture but the holes (intentional holes) are coming along quite nicely. I just really have pay attention when working the lace repeat. And then count at the end of each row to be sure that I have the right number of stitches. Paranoid I know...but I have messed up so many times that I figure it is better to be safe than sorry.

I bought a sheep!

That's right I bought a sheep! It isn't a Shetland, or a Jacob, or a Blue-faced Leicester....it is stuffed! Fooled you! He is a stuffed hand puppet named, Baaah...ob. He was one of many things that I couldn't resist this past weekend at Rhinebeck (and for you knitting muggles, that is one of the largest fiber events in the area). We had a great time searching for fiber among the bales of hay.

My purchases fell into 3 categories: fiber, animals/smelly stuff & notions/etc.

I bought six skeins of Socks that Rock yarn (2 for a hat, 2 for mittens and 2 for socks), a skein of cashmere for a lacy hat, some merino embroidery thread and a mitten kit from Morehouse Farm.

Here is Baaah..ob my sheep along with the smelly stuff "Moth Beware" from Got Soap?. It actually smells quite nice which is good because everything that was in the same bag with it smells the same. The black sheep is a sachet filled with lavender and was for fun.

Here are the miscellaneous items. I bought small wooden pins for blocking, but I really am going to steal a friend's idea to make knitting ball Christmas ornaments out of scrap yarn and two of theses pins to look like knitting needles. And then I bought a small original etching of asparagus (one of my favorite veggies) I really wanted to buy this print, but it was a bit out of my price range...there is always next year.

And Baaah..ob has already begun making pals with my cat Winston.

Yarn Harlot Fun

For those of you who A: enjoy crossword puzzles and B: like the Yarn Harlot...here is a little crossword to test your knowledge of knitting and Miss Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

Crossword

So True...

A good friend sent me this postcard this week. I guess she knows me all too well when it comes to the yarn stores.

Thanks Monica!

Yummy Mediterranean Dip!

This is the dip I made for the yarn swap party. A bunch of you asked for the recipe and I have finally got around to writing it down for you. Enjoy!


Mediterranean Layer Dip

You can use as many or as few layers as you want depending on your tastes!

• Line a medium bowl with plastic wrap- it is better to use a wide based bowl if you have one
• Blend in food processor ¾ bar of cream cheese, half a small tub of ricotta cheese, ¼ cup of parmesan cheese, salt & pepper to taste
• Spread a third of cheese mixture into bottom of bowl
• Spread ½ cup of olive tapenade over cheese mixture (I used a jar of pre-made from Trader Joe’s)
• In food processor finely chop a jar of roasted red pepper (drain liquid) I found that the peppers were still a little too moist so you may want to let them drain in a coffee filter to get rid of more of the juice, then layer the chopped roasted red peppers onto top of the olive tapenade
• Take a third of cheese mixture and mix into about ½ cup of basil pesto and spread onto pepper mixture
• In food processor blend a jar of sun dried tomatoes with the oil (it becomes too pasty to spread without some of the oil) spread onto pesto mixture
• Take remaining cheese mixture and spread on top of sun dried tomatoes
• Let chill in frig for at least 1 hour & invert bowl onto serving plate and serve with bread or crackers