OK, let’s start with the new pattern. You might have already heard that the new Twist Collective is out. It’s a great issue with some fabulous articles and a great selection of patterns. I especially liked all the socks. I have a pattern in the collection called Pidder Pat (above). It’s a baby sweater crocheted from . . . → Read More: Potage, Baguette, and a New Pattern]]>

OK, let’s start with the new pattern. You might have already heard that the new Twist Collective is out. It’s a great issue with some fabulous articles and a great selection of patterns. I especially liked all the socks. I have a pattern in the collection called Pidder Pat (above). It’s a baby sweater crocheted from Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK.

I know I said in my last post that I didn’t see obvious creative connections between the books on tape I listened to and my design work. It appears dinner is a different story. I was nearly done preparing our Sunday meal before I realized that an influence must have occurred.

It’s not unusual for us to make a big pot of soup on Sunday that will get us through a few nights the following week. This week, I decided to make yellow split pea soup with potatoes since we were trying to use up an over-abundance of tubers. In Dragonfly in Amber, the protagonists have just returned from France to their farm where they harvest a large crop of potatoes and make potato soup. My soup ended up a lovely amber color due to the addition of some tomato paste to add a bit of tanginess.

We don’t have a bakery here in Cordova, so when I do make soup I always bemoan the fact that we can’t have a crusty loaf to go with it. Occassionally I’ll make bread from scratch, but since I prefer the no knead recipes, that takes a little forethought. Today I decided to try making some dough in the bread maker, then baking it in my baguette pans. We’ve had the bread machine for about 13 years, and I’ve never used it just to make dough, but it was so easy and worked perfectly.

The baguettes had just the right crustiness and texture inside, and took only about 15 minutes total of hands-on time. (Really, not enough for my taste, I like to get my hands into dough when I make bread–but it was fast and yummy!)

I can see using this feature for making regular loaves and pizza dough too.

Here are my recipes:

Amber Potage

3 T olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 lb carrots, diced
1 lb yukon potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T thyme
1 quart organic vegetable broth
2 quarts water
1 lb yellow split peas, sorted and rinsed
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 sm can tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste

Sauté onion until translucent. Add garlic, carrots, potatoes and sauté until vegetables start to get tender. Add thyme and cook 2 minutes more. Add broth then water and peas. Cook over medium heat until vegetables are soft and peas are cooked through. Using and immersion blender, purée the soup leaving some chunks of carrot and potato intact. Stir in tomato paste and stir until it’s completely incorporated. Add apple cider vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.

Bread Machine Baguettes
Adapted from the Black & Decker All-In-One Deluxe Automatic Breadmaker Operating Instructions & Cookbook Classic French Dough recipe

1 1/4 c water
2 t sugar
1 1/2 t salt
3 1/2 c organic unbleached flour
1 1/2 t active-dry yeast
2 T cornmeal
1 t. canola oil

Place the water, sugar, salt, flour and yeast into the bread machine pan in the order listed above. Set your machine to the “dough” setting. Grease baguette pans and sprinkle wtih cornmeal.

When the dough is finished, remove it from the machine, and on a clean surface, separate the dough in half. Stretch each piece into a long flat rectangle and then roll the rectangle into a baguette shape. Place the baguettes into the pans seam side down.

Cover the dough with a towel and allow to rise again in a warm spot (approximately 30 minutes). Preheat the oven to 400F. Slit the baguettes down the middle with a sharp knife. Bake for 25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reads 190F on an instant read thermometer. Remove baguettes from pans and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Here he is after the ceremony. Do you think he looks happy to . . . → Read More: Crocheting in spite of me…]]> On Saturday, we attended the Hamilton College commencement ceremony because it was the last commencement where my dad would be College Marshall–the person who leads the ceremony and directs everyone. (Here he is calling the ceremony to order.) He retires this year.

Here he is after the ceremony. Do you think he looks happy to be finished?

He doesn’t look old enough to be retiring! He’s not actually going to stop teaching. As an emeritus professor, he’ll teach one course per semester, but not have any administrative work that goes with a full time job.

My dad is an English professor, and he is a huge influence on my career as a writer. His influence began when he read to me as a little kid–everything from nursery rhymes to Robinson Crusoe. He reviewed and commented on practically everything I wrote through grade school, high-school, and college; he’s taught me more than anyone about how to write.

Anyway, after all of the marching in at the ceremony, once the speeches had started, I pulled out a sock I was crocheting and began to work on it. Selma, who had forgotten the book she was going to read, was watching me intently, and after a few minutes, I handed her the sock. I had tried to teach her to crochet a year or so ago, but she wasn’t interested, so I didn’t push it. This time, however, I didn’t really teach her, I just gave a little non-verbal advice when she got stuck, and it all came naturally–I think the fact that I couldn’t talk (because we were in a ceremony) helped–I probably would have given too much advice and annoyed her. This way, I let her work it out on her own. I also think the smallness of the sock yarn and hook may have been a better fit for her small hands than worsted weight and a big 5mm hook. Here she is continuing her work at the picnic after the ceremony.

Of course, she has another new fiber love, she learned to spin at Maryland sheep and wool:

She also designed her very own batt on Rebecca’s drum carder:

So it will be interesting to see what keeps her attention.

Today the movers came and took away our express shipment including, (GULP!) all my stitch dictionaries. I’m feeling a little naked without them.

Here are the official details:

Event: Old Takoma Knitting and Craft Fair Date: Sunday, May 18 Time: 12:00 – 4:00 pm Location: Old Takoma . . . → Read More: More Takoma Park Indie Fiber Goodness…]]> If you had fun at the Homespun Yarn Party (or you didn’t make it), you should c’mon out to the Takoma Gazebo (in old town) for the Old Town Knitting and Craft Fair.

Here are the official details:

Event: Old Takoma Knitting and Craft Fair
Date: Sunday, May 18
Time: 12:00 – 4:00 pm
Location: Old Takoma Gazebo – Red Line Metro to Takoma Station, four blocks North on Carroll Avenue
(across the street from House of Musical Traditions)

Join some of your favorite local yarn dyers, including Mama E’s C*EYE*Ber Fiber, Storm Moon Knits, and Woolarina, plus designers, writers, jewelers, and crafters for an afternoon of wool-inspired bliss. Designer Amy O’Neill-Houck will be signing copies of hers latest book, The Color Book of Felted Crochet. Also enjoy the Takoma Park Farmer’s Market which will be open from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

—

I won’t have any of my handspun (below) for sale, since I’m spinning just for the fun of it, but I may bring my wheel, to demonstrate my novice abilities!

This is Maggie Casey–here she’s spinning fiber right off of a comb. For years, I’ve ignored the lure of the spinning wheel, but somehow the impending move to Alaska made me change my mind. I signed up for Maggie’s two-day . . . → Read More: Maryland Sheep and Wool!]]> Here’s a quick round-up of my Sheep and Wool week which started on Wednesday with a class!

This is Maggie Casey–here she’s spinning fiber right off of a comb. For years, I’ve ignored the lure of the spinning wheel, but somehow the impending move to Alaska made me change my mind. I signed up for Maggie’s two-day beginning spinning class, and I was hooked. Spinning is fun. Really fun. Also, learning to spin has taught me a lot about yarn, which I’m sure will inform my knitting and crochet work. Making yarn is cool–and I actually have no aspirations to make yarn for any knitting or crochet projects–I just like playing with the fiber. I liked it so much that I asked for this for mother’s day:

James, being an avid cyclist, I think was partially convinced to buy it because my new toy contained an actual wheel. (When I first told him I had signed up for a spinning class, he thought I mean the exercising kind!) When I told my dad about the wheel, he said, “Wow, you’ve really gone over the edge.” I have to say I agree, but I went over happily.

I chose the Lendrum wheel after trying Maggie’s. I loved how it spun and she advised me that it was easy to care for and right for the kind of yarn I’d like to make. (On the thinner side, good for crochet).

The first day of the class we learned about carding and about preparing fleeces for spinning, then we learned about “woolen” spinning. Woolen means that while you are spinning, you let the yarn twist between your front hand (which controls the twist) and the back hand which is drafting (drawing the fibers apart. Woolen spinning is bouncy, elastic and soft. Woolen yarn is made with “carded” fiber. It’s Maggie’s favorite kind to spin. It’s good for soft things but because it’s fuzzier, woolen yarn can pill and wear–maybe not a great choice for say, socks or even fancy textured work because the stitches don’t show up as well. I liked spinning woolen too because we got to learn the “long draw” method which is a dramatic way of pulling the fiber back about an arm’s length–it’s a fast way to make lots of yarn, and it’s not as hard on your body as other methods.

The next day, we tried plying yarn. I had tried plying at home with some yarn I spun just to see if I could, in preparation for the class. In the class I found out plying is great for fixing some imperfections in your “singles” (the yarn before it’s plied)–for instance, you can possibly straighten bits of over-twist, something I do a lot as a beginner.

After plying we learned about “worsted” spinning. Worsted yarn is made from combed fiber. Maggie showed us how to use combs, and then she showed us how to comb using our carders. I loved taking a small lock of fiber and coming it, then spinning it–seems like instant gratification–you don’t have to prepare a whole skein’s worth at a time, and you can sort of “design” the yarn as you go by choosing different fibers and colors. Spinning worsted, you don’t let the yarn twist at all between your hands, and you draft the yarn by pulling forward with the front hand (the opposite of what we were doing the day before. This was a little hard for me to do after having spent so much time with the woolen spinning, but I finally got the hang of it. I especially liked spinning “over the fold” where you take a combed lock of wool and fold it over your index finger, spinning it from there. Worsted yarn is much smoother than woolen and therefore is good for cables, socks, things that require durability over softness.

Today I finally washed the yarn I made, and it’s drying in the sun. I’ll get a proper photo once my camera battery has charged.

So, on Saturday at the festival, I spent the morning in the Cloverhill Yarn Booth where I was selling my patterns–what fun! Jolene, the new owner of the Cloverhill Yarn Shop put together a booth of *all* indie yarn dyers and spinners and invited me to sell my patterns. The booth had a great location and drew big crowds. After lunch, James and I bought the wheel, then we all went home–so I didn’t look at the booths at all. Luckily, we came back on Sunday.

Saturday night, we went to the Ravelry Party. I’ll let you read Emily‘s round-up of the party. Also, Martha has a great photoset on Flickr. (Pay special attention to the photo of Barbara after she had set her pattern on fire–only my mom thought to dunk the pattern in a drink–the rest of the folks at the table were too busy looking for their cameras so they could take a picture for their blogs!) Emily and I showed up in time to help out handing drink tickets and raffle tickets to the party-goers. My mom was a “bouncer” keeping people out of the main area until it was time to come in. The party was such fun–it was great to meet so many ravelers in person, finally.

On Sunday morning, we were exhausted, but we went on back. The weather was milder, the crowds were thinner–it was lovely. I looked at all the booths, and had a great time buying bits of fiber. I wasn’t in the market for yarn, but couldn’t resist some Savannah (a organic cotton/wool blend from the Fibre Company that was on sale).

Here’s a slide show of all my photos.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.