Carol Ventura has a great post today about how she designed the Sunburst Bowl that’s in the current issue of Crochet Today (A must-have issue, by the way, that features top designers and great editors working within the strict constraints of using only one family of yarns–Red Heart–doing a fabulous job of creating home and fashion projects.) Carol is an amazing evangalist for tapestry crochet–she shares her immense knowledge with love and generosity and it shows. More and more people are trying out the technique as evidenced by the lively ravelry group on the subject.

This afternoon, my book club met at my house. The book for this month was Joe Biden’s Promises to Keep. I don’t usually read autobiographies, but I enjoyed Biden’s and I liked learning more about someone who could eventually be vice-president. It was a cold and rainy Sunday, and I wanted to make a meal that was simple and warm, and used the vegetables I had from my weekly produce box. (Actually, at first I thought it might be fun to make book-themed food, but it turns out Joe Biden’s favorite meal is pasta, and his favorite dessert is oatmeal-raisin cookies, so that didn’t really fit with what I wanted to serve).

Last night, I set some dough for No Knead Bread, using a combination of white and white-whole-wheat flour. This afternoon, I took half of the dough out of the refrigerator, formed it in my baguette pans and let it re-rise. I used a bit too much dough and the baguettes overflowed their chambers a little, but they came out quite tasty.  I I found a sweet potato soup in Robin Robertson’s Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, and I had nearly all of the ingredients from my box; I only had to buy fresh ginger. I made a salad with greens, olive oil, salt and pepper and some sliced oranges and their juice. For dessert, I used some plums that I had sliced and frozen right before our trip to Hawaii, and I made a cobbler. The cobbler turned out especially well, so I thought I’d share the recipe. The topping was adapted from a recipe for Pear, Cranberry and Vanilla Crumble from Regan Daley’s In The Sweet Kitchen: The Definitive Baker’s Companion.

Plum Cobbler

Filling

5-6 cups sliced ripe plums

1/4 c. flour

1 orange supremed and chopped

Zest of 1 orange

Topping

3/4 c. flour

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. margarine

3/4 c. rolled oats.

Combine filling ingredients in an 8×8 glass dish. In a medium bowl, mix flour and sugar and cut in margarine. Add oats and combine. Sprinkle topping over the filling. Bake at 350 until topping is brown and crisp.

When Selma was a baby, I took a class at the Yarn Gallery in Seattle–my then neighborhood yarn store–from Morgan Hicks and I learned to make a crocheted scarf that was double-sided. It’s made with two colors of yarn, one worked only on one side of the work and one only on the other. While it sounds like double knitting, it more resembles thermal fabric. I found the scarf recently and I wanted to reproduce the technique and play around with it, but I could remember neither the name nor the method. A quick e-mail to a designer list I participated in revealed the mystery. The technique is known by a few names: waffle weave crochet, honeycomb stitch, thermal crochet, reversible crochet. Basically it’s worked, most often in two colors, in alternating loops to create a double-sided fabric. There was recently a ravelry discussion about it on the Crochet Liberation Front board that Dee pointed me to. She made cute two-color scarf with the technique that you can see on Ravelry.

Vashti Braha–one of crochet’s truely brilliant minds has made a few projects using a variation of the technique she developed, including a coffee cup cozy that converted the technique into the round:

Vashti says, “Sometimes crochet just isn’t thick enough.” Vashti’s pattern is from the book Kooky Crochet. It uses sock yarn and it’s a great project for using up scraps.

Here’s a scanned instruction on how to create one variation on the stitch, called Reversible Afghan Stitch. Here’s a web archive which includes photos of what the author calls Helena’s Potholder Stitch.

I’m hoping to play with it soon, and I’ll share the results. I like the idea of a double-thick hat to keep warm in Alaskan winters. Have you tried this technique? I’d love to see what you made.

I’m entranced by this embroidery created by miss_glass on flickr. (via Manhattan Craft Room)

The September issue of Crochet Today magazine came out while I was in the midst of moving, and I didn’t get to see a copy until I was in Hawaii (I found it at Safeway!). I have a pattern for toe-up crocheted socks. Toe-up socks are my favorite method. They do have one challenge, and that is getting a roomy-enough heel so the sock is easy to put on, but the ankle still fits. These are ankle socks because they were originally meant to be in a summer issue, but they ended up in fall instead.

I crocheted two pairs of these, and numerous step-out-bits, because the socks (not me) are going to be featured on Knit and Crochet Today–the companion TV show for Crochet Today that is on PBS. It looks like my socks will be on episode #205, so once the show airs the socks will be available as a free PDF download. I’ll link to it once it’s posted.

The toe and heel are worked in single crochet. I wanted to have a lacy pattern for the ankle and foot, but a solid footbed so the socks are comfortable to walk on. I couldn’t use single crochet because the double crochet from the lace pattern would cause some distortion since it’s so much taller than a single crochet. To solve the design dilemma, I used linked double crochet stitches on the footbed and double crochet for the lace. When worked in the round, the linked dcs have a very nice, smooth fabric which is perfect for the footbed. The ankle is worked in crocheted ribbing, attached as-you-go. The socks could just as easily be made longer. I used two balls of Heart & Sole sock yarn, but had some left on the second ball. Each ball is 213 yards. Working in self-striping yarns can be quite a challenge in crochet–it’s easy to end up with odd pooling or a camouflage effect. Here by playing with the stitch pattern a bit, I was able to get the colors to cooperate.

Hopping between the two outlying states of Alaska and Hawaii is a great way to experience extremes. James is in Hawaii with the ship for training, and last week, the Kids and I flew down to visit. When I left Cordova, fall was settling in, each day, the temperature was dropping a little bit, so we were transitioning slowly into winter (after an unusually chilly and rainy summer even by Cordovan standards). But last week, I spent a lot of time like this:

Aside from the knitting, this is not my usual vacation pose. (The socks, in honor of Socktoberfest, of course, are being worked in Mountain Colors Twizzle, and would have zoomed along nicely during the vacation if I hadn’t decided to change the stitch pattern after I was about 5 inches down the ankle.) I’m not typically a pool-side or beach-y person. I don’t like wearing my swimsuit (or anything above my knees for that matter), and I don’t really like just sitting in the sun, but Hawaii had its effect on me. I even got to be fond of fruity drinks. My favorite was the lava flow: Coconut milk, strawberry puree, pinapple juice, vodka.  The pool was the best place to relax because the kids could safely play while adults socialized. You can’t see it in this picture, but the beautiful, blue pacific is right behind me and you can hear it, and see it if you just turn your head.

One thing I do like about warm weather is sandals and the toes to put in them (funny that I’m knitting wool socks, but it was the best travel project I had ready to bring). Our first day there, I was able to sneak in a pedicure.

We stayed in a hotel which was in proximity to great beaches, the zoo, the aquarium and lots of fun things for kids to do. But if we go again, I’m hoping we’ll be able to find better meals–one of the downsides of Waikiki was the food. Everything is so commercial, it’s hard to find restaurants with fresh food. We stumbled upon our best meal after going boogie boarding at Bellows Beach on a day we rented a car. (Turns out we love boogie boarding!)

After the beach we stopped at a strip mall with a Vietnamese noodle shop. I had one of my favorites, the Vietnamese sandwich which is fusion of french and Vietnamese cuisine in the best way. A baguette prepared with mayonnaise, pickled veggies like carrots, cabbage, cucumber, cilantro and some protein–mine was fried tofu. Yum! James and the kids had excellent noodles. Towards the end of the week, we started to get a little more creative about food like bringing takeout from Whole Foods to the pool. (If you want to see more Hawaii pictures, they’re on flickr.)

On Sunday morning, we arrived back in Anchorage after a night flight and we had a day’s layover before our flight home to Cordova. Insted of leis, here’s how we were greeted when we stepped off the plane:

Brrr…. Back home now and I’ve got major inertia, I’m finding it a bit difficult to get back into the swing of things with writing and work. There’s no snow in Cordova, but the White dusting on the mountains is moving lower every day, it seems.

Check out this vest crocheted by cheryl (ravelry). She says in her Ravelry project page, “I love the looks I get from those who remember what this is.”

I’ve been loving Twitter lately. Many months ago, my brother (my arbiter of all things geeky-cool) got me to sign up, but I went a long time without understanding why he liked it. Then, when the number of people I was “following” reached critical mass, it clicked. Twitter became a fun part of my day online, but not in an obtrusive or time-consuming way.

What is Twitter? It’s another darn Web 2.0 social networking thingy. Basically, it’s “micro-blogging.” People write up to 140 characters about what’s happening or what they’re thinking right now. So, it’s current, it doesn’t take planning or effort, and you don’t have to do it if you don’t have anything to say. A post on Twitter is called a “tweet.” Also, you can respond to something someone else has said, creating a micro-conversation.

Who sees your tweets? Unless you specify that you want them to be private, tweets are like a blog. If you go to my Twitter page, you see not only my status, but the status of anyone I’m “following.” If you’re following someone that you’ve subscribed to, you’re alerted when they’ve posted a new tweet. Here’s where things start to get interesting. Within a social circle, you’ll find that many people are all following each other, so when someone tweets, others tweet back, and you can observe the interaction. It’s almost like a chat room. If people’s profiles are public, you see not only what they are tweeting, you also see whom they are following. The twitter API or engine is available for developers to play with, and they’ve come up with some fun applications. You can use TwitterTroll to see whom your friends are following and get suggestions on new people to follow. You can use TweetWheel to see a visual graphic of how your friends are connected.

So, you still might be wondering, why is this cool? What’s in it for me? I like it because it’s simple and quick. There are no pictures, and no big time investment. You can do it from your phone, your Blackberry or your computer browser. You can tweet when your kid says something funny or when you see something particularly aggravating in an online article. As my brother says, “Of all the forms of publication that have been invented, Twitter takes the least time and effort.” It’s amazing, because unlike this blog post, which is taking me over an hour to compose, a tweet takes seconds.

We’ve had four dry days here–and a little sun each day, which has been a wonderful change from the previous several weeks. Yesterday was particularly glorious–people really appreciate the sun here. Selma’s third grade teacher made sure the kids had extra time outside canceling science class in favor of an hour on the playground. People everywhere were out walking and hiking and boating and berry picking. I should have been berry picking but I was mostly working. James and the ship left yesterday for Hawaii, and I was catching up since we had spent the weekend doing family stuff.

Today was my drop-in class at The Net Loft–I spend two hours a week there just helping whoever comes in. I had a full table today and taught spinning, crochet and sock knitting in the space of two hours.

Tonight was the Berry Festival sponsored by the Copper River Watershed Project, a non profit whose mission is to protect the environment and encourage responsible land use in the area. The “festival” is a potluck dinner, silent jam auction, and raffle. We like potlucks here because there are few restaurants and no professional caterers to handle fund-raising events. I like them because there are a lot of great cooks in town and its fun to see what people will make. This time, all potluck items (even the savory ones) were to include local berries, and the items were automatically entered into a contest and the best in each category won prizes. (I don’t know what the prizes were). My dessert didn’t win (and even Selma preferred the winning desert to mine; she said mine was second best), but I thought mine was pretty yummy, so you get to have the recipe. A few of the ingredients are indigenous to this area, and I’ll note substitutions.

Fireweed-Nagoon-Pear-Custard Bars

For Crust:

1 c. flour

1/2 c. butter or margarine (non-hydrogenated like Earth Balance)

1/2 c. fireweed honey (substitute 1 c sugar or 1/2 c agave syrup or honey)

Mix flour, honey and margarine until combined. Press into parchment lined 8×8″ baking pan and bake @ 350F until edges are slightly golden (about 15-20 minutes).

Filling:

2 ripe pears, thinly sliced

1/4 c. fireweed honey

3 T Nagoon berry jam (substitute raspberry or blackberry)

1/3 c. flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

juice of 1 small lemon

Combine flour, baking powder, lemon, honey, salt, and jam. Gently toss pears in filling mixture. Remove pears and arrange evenly on top of the crust. Pour the extra filling over the pears. Bake @ 375F for about 20 minutes or until the filling is puffy and no longer jiggly.

Allow to cool slightly before slicing into small squares.

Back in May, just before leaving Maryland, I was asked to record some instructional crochet videos for a small startup company called Monkey See that’s making how-to videos and posting them online. The videos are finally up, and although I have a hard time watching myself, you may find some of them useful. A Tangled Skein graciously agreed to be our hosts for the filming; I love the backdrop of all the yarn. Emily came along and was a big help with setting up and crocheting little “step out” pieces.

Here’s the Introduction:

There are videos on:

Crocheting a chainless foundation

Crocheting linked stitches

Crocheting ribbing and attaching single crocheted ribbing (great for folks who are making the Sombrero tea cozy).

Making post stitch ribbing

Crocheting crossed stitches in my favorite method.

Crocheting V Stitches

And three clips on crocheting in the round:

Starting with a chain

Starting with an adjustable ring

Increasing in the round

I’m looking forward to referring folks to the videos in my patterns since it’s sometimes challenging to succinctly describe a new concept with just words.