fo + wip

pattern: seamless yoked baby cardigan, by Carole Barenys

yarn: quince and co. chickadee, leek, 2 skeins

needles: U.S. 5 (3.75 mm) bamboo circs

my Ravelry project page

notes:

The stitch pattern on the yoke and collars is super cute and fun to knit. I worked five buttonholes total. I wish the instructions for the length of the body and sleeves were more explicit. It is a free pattern, though. I love the yarn -- it is delightfully springy and woolly. Same yarn that I am using for the Sunny Lou dress, just a different color. I bought it right after Quince and Co. launched five years ago!

We have a work-in-progress underway here, too -- a baby girl, due September 13! We are through the moon, and we are hoping that Erik adjusts well to his new role as big brother. So far he enjoys reading My New Baby and Waiting for Baby, and today he declared that one of the tiny babies at storytime was "his," so we are hoping for the best. Any tips or book suggestions are very welcome.

I knit this Window Cat for Erik using some leftover (sadly discontinued) Knit Picks organic Simply Cotton. I have christened it Moxie Jr., since this cat allows Erik far more liberties than our actual marmalade tabby ever does.

 exhibit a: eye-poking

springtime in the Upper Midwest

Spring's arrival has been hard-fought in the Upper Midwest this year. Brrr... Today's another hustery, blustery, chilly day, but at least the tulips and hyacinths' much-anticipated blooms make it look like spring around here.

I knit something spring-y during the doldrums of March and April, and the cheery color makes me think of baby chicks and daffodils and other lovely things:

pattern: in threes, by kelly herdrich

yarn: three irish girls springvale dk, creamsicle

needles: clover us 5 (3.75 mm) bamboo circs

size: 0-6 months

my Ravelry project page

notes:
Quick, easy pattern! I'll definitely revisit it. I cast on for the smallest size, but made it even smaller by using DK yarn and size 5 needles. Jennie the Potter made the whimsical bicycle buttons, which I found at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival last fall. Happy to find a good use for them!

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I've seen that some parts of the country are reveling in rhubarb already, and I'm envious! Yesterday I tried Leslie Land's easy fruit and jam crostata recipe. Pretty much amazing. Even better than my usual jam tart recipe. Leslie gives all kinds of suggestions for fruit and jam pairings -- the perfect way to clean out your freezer (I used rhubarb, blackberries, and strawberries, with raspberry jam). 

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Other signs of spring in our backyard:

the mad hatter strikes again

Erik is sporting a new handknit hat these days. It is going to fit his large head (ninety-fifth percentile!) for approximately five minutes, so I'm not waiting for Christmas for him to wear it.  Stranded colorwork is my knitting bête noire, so I'm glad to finally make some progress.

pattern: sheep may safely graze, by caoua coffee, adapted for a hat

yarn: patons classic wool merino, leaf green, 1/2 skein

knitpicks swish worsted, grey, 1/4 skein

needles: US 4 + US 7 circs + DPNs

my ravelry project page

notes:
I was inspired by blanchn's beautiful adaptation of a sock pattern. I love bighorn sheep! I folowed blanchn's notes and cast on 72 stitches, using US 4 needles for the 1x1 ribbing, then I switched to size 7 since I wanted a larger hat. The ribbing's a little tight -- I'd use US 5 next time. I followed her notes other than that, and it turned out super cute. I wish I had used cream yarn for the sheep for more contrast, but Erik hasn't complained.

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Lots of hats off the needles lately! I've already blogged about the Saint Anthony cable hats and the Milanese lace topper, but new to the collection are Barnwood, Magnolia, and Betsy.

Magnolia (above) and Betsy (below) are essentially the same stitch pattern -- a nice lace pattern that has an almost cabled look. Magnolia is a free pattern for worsted weight yarn, whereas you have to pay for Betsy, which is written for chunky yarn. The crown decreases are very different. I ran out of yarn on Magnolia and had to do some improvising on the decreases, so it's not quite as pretty as it could have been. The perils of stashbusting! The yarn is Malabrigo Worsted in Bobby Blue.

I had plenty of yarn for Betsy (more of the lovely Orange Flower Twist HW yarn that I also used for two Saint Anthony cable hats), so I followed the pattern as written. Barnwood still needs to be blocked, so full details another time.

one

How quickly a year passes... Erik turned one, and we celebrated Peter Rabbit-style. How I love this sweet, funny boy of ours.

Carrot cake, which Erik loved. He didn't know what to do at first, but then just about polished off his whole cupcake (though a good number of crumbs bedecked his high chair afterward).

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Wee bunny-shaped chocolate sugar cookies with just their fluffy white tails frosted.

I made a traditional Swedish kladdkaka -- a cross between chocolate cake and brownies. I used a nonstick kladdkaka pan with raised fluted edges, but any nonstick 9-inch cake pan would do. No need to break out the mixer for this recipe! It's easy to mix by hand.

Kladdkaka 
Swedish Chocolate Sticky Cake

1/2 C. butter

1 1/3 C. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract (or 1 T. vanilla sugar)

1/8 tsp. salt

1/4 C. high quality natural cocoa powder (I like Penzeys natural high fat cocoa powder)

2 eggs

1/2 C. flour

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9” cake pan.

- Soften butter and add sugar, vanilla extract/sugar, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix well by hand.

- Stir in the eggs until the mixture is smooth. Add flour, stir until combined.

- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake on the lower rack of the oven for 25-30 minutes. Don’t overbake -- a tester will still have sticky crumbs.

- Allow cake to cool for 15-20 minutes. Then hold a plate over the pan, invert the pan, and release the cake.

- Optional: Serve dusted with powdered sugar, or with ice cream or whipped cream.

Serves 6.

in which I am proven wrong yet again

Erik's new barley hat isn't all that big after all. Our little woodland sprite celebrated his first birthday in Door County last week.

It was a magical vacation -- fresh air, fall colors, lots of firsts. Erik was initially skeptical of the hiking backpack, but he warmed up to it and loved riding up high and looking around.

 And goofing off at Newport State Park:

Plus Erik managed to sport an amazing number of handknits -- not only his barley hat, but also his burnett cardigan and October vest.

The cardigan in action at Al Johnson's (mmmm... lingonberries! Scandinavian kitsch!):

urbs in horto

Chicago's motto is urbs in horto, "city in a garden." Sometimes the garden seems hard to find amidst the bustle and busy streets, other times you can't miss it.

I took a tour of the Lurie Garden yesterday. The autumnal air was cool and crisp, and the perennial plants were looking decided fall-ish. You can see Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion in the background, along with the Smurfitt-Stone building, Two Prudential Plaza, and the Aon Center. An unmistakably Chicago backdrop to a lovely garden.

 A mix of native and non-native plants, a quiet spot in the midst of the city.

I have to remember these peaceful city moments when I long for nature and want to get out of dodge. We drove seventy-five minutes to meet friends at a pumpkin patch last weekend, and while it was lovely, it was essentially in a suburban subdivision.

Erik enjoyed the pumpkins, the baby goats, and testing out his new hiking backpack, and we all munched on apple cider donuts and luxuriated in the beautiful, warm day. Despite the pumpkins and autumnal trappings, it didn't much feel like fall -- it felt like summer's last hurrah.

autumn already?

These early autumn days are flying by. Cool, crisp mornings, pumpkin spice lattes, lots of baby hugs and kisses, swinging at the park, even a jaunt to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.

I met up with Rue at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool and had a lovely time. My purchasing was rather restrained, which is just fine since our flat is already full to the rafters with wool. Some Briar Rose merino wool for a sweater for Erik, a beautiful skein of Sun Valley laceweight just because, and whimsical buttons by Jennie the Potter. I also ran into the lovely Caffeine Girl at the Briar Rose booth. So nice to meet her in person at last!

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Some bad to go with the good -- making three trips to Minnesota in four weeks to help with some family health problems was exhausting, but all seems to be well now, and we're thankful for modern medicine.

I knit Erik a hat while sitting at airports and waiting in hospitals.

pattern: barley, by tin can knits

yarn: orange flower sw merino worsted, about half a skein

needles: US 5 and 7 16" circs and DPNs

size: child

notes:

Erik has a large head, so I went with the child size rather than the toddler size. That was overkill! This won’t fit him for another year or two.

Well-written pattern, lovely yarn. I will definitely use both again. I learned about tin can knits' free, truly easy "Simple Collection" of patterns with tutorials for new knitters from the Double Knit podcast, which I've been enjoying during my lunch break.

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A child-sized hat doesn't take too long, so I knit a shawlette while I was waiting, too.

pattern: mirabelle texture sampler shawl, by Zehava Jacobs

yarn: madelinetosh tosh sock, turquoise, 1 skein

needles: Clover US 7 bamboo circs

notes:
The yarn was extremely disappointing -- many, many knots. Weaving in lots of ends in a lacy shawl is a pain. Tosh light more to my taste than Tosh sock anyway.

I ran out of yarn partway through section 9. I bound off purlwise on row 7, doing a p2 tog, slip stitch back to the left needle bind-off.

I love the texture in this shawl, but the dark yarn was too murky to show off the stitches. I also hate doing the butterfly stitch. It ends up too taut for me, and in one case I missed purling the slipped stitches together and had to go back and make a creative fix.

As noted by others, there are some typos in the pattern, but it is not too bad. I would knit this again, using a lighter colored yarn with more yardage, and I might substitute a different stitch pattern for the butterfly stitch section. 

I learned something from this experience -- I tend to knit with yarn that's already wound. There were many skeins of yarn in my stash that would have worked better in terms of color and yardage, but I was in too much of a hurry to wind them.

I finished another shawlette, too, but will save the details for another post.

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Pasta with Roasted Eggplant and Mozzarella

Serves 6

1 lb. eggplant, diced
1-2 large red bell peppers, diced
4-6 medium-large tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, pressed or chopped
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 T. olive oil, divided
1 lb. conchiglie (medium shells), rigatoni, or penne
1/2 lb. spicy Italian sausage (pork or chicken, loose/removed from casing)
8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, diced
1/2 C. Parmesan, shredded
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees for the veggies. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta.

In a large bowl, combine the eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, and 2 T. of olive oil. Toss to coat the veggies thoroughly. Spread the veggies on a baking sheet or shallow pan -- it's best if they are in a single layer, so you may want to use two pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the peppers are tender. Toss with a spatula a couple of times during baking.

Once the water starts boiling, drop the pasta in and cook until al dente.

Brown the Italian sausage, breaking it up as it cooks, and drain.

Drain pasta thoroughly in a colander and place in a large bowl. Add the veggies to the pasta along with the remaining T. of oil. Add the sausage, mozzarella, Parmesan, salt, and pepper, and toss.

NB: A good vegetarian option would be to substitute oil-cured black olives for the Italian sausage.

savoring these summer days

walks at Winnemac Park, where reclamation of the natural prairie is underway:

 

splashes in the backyard:

 

crafting -- a sweet knit baby doll for Erik's friend's first birthday:

pattern: knit baby doll pattern set, by Amy Gaines

yarn: knit picks comfy worsted, in honeydew, peony, ivory, and creme brulee

needles: US 4 Brittany straights
my Ravelry project page

notes:

This knit baby doll was fun and fairly quick to knit! I followed the directions (aside from making the body a couple rows longer) and knit it flat. I saw some versions knit in the round on Ravelry, but I think the seams give it a little more structure. The finishing work was a little fiddly, but it really wasn't too bad. Embroidering the face was the hardest part. I'd definitely make this pattern again -- I found it much less painful than many other knit toy patterns. Perhaps because I wasn't monkeying around with DPNs?

The yarn was leftover from some crochet projects, including yet another diagonal box-stitch baby afghan that I recently finished!

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summer eats:

crockpot North Carolina pulled pork

smitten kitchen's zucchini bread (recommended by Tinks and Frogs Rue)

easiest fridge dill pickles (also from smitten kitchen)

spicy squash refrigerator pickles

rhubarb season

Rhubarb season comes later in the Upper Midwest and stays longer than in other parts of the country. I tried a new recipe for cinnamon-rhubarb muffins, and they were delicious! The batter relies heavily on sour cream, and it has a texture unlike any other muffin batter I've made.

I made Martha's rhubarb syrup again, and we tried it in champagne cocktails, which were sadly rather disappointing. Far too sweet! And I'm a Nordic type with a sweet tooth, so that's saying a lot. I'll try it again, but with brut champagne. On the other hand, a rhubarb gin fizz is amazing.

Rhubarb Gin Fizz

2 oz. gin

a generous dash of rhubarb syrup

club soda 

2 lemon slices

Pour the gin, rhubarb syrup, and club soda in a lowball glass with ice cubes. Stir. Top off with soda water, squeeze in a slice of lemon, stir again. Garnish with the second lemon slice. Relax and enjoy, preferably while sitting on the veranda.

I'm knitting a Buttermere shawlette with this lovely rhubarb-colored yarn that I picked up at last summer's Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair -- Knitting Notions Classic Merino Bamboo in "Ruby." Easy pattern, perfect for toting around with me. The picture just shows the plain-jane stockinette part, but I just knit the lace border, and let me tell you, it was so nice to knit. Lace is the best.

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Erik inherited my love of books, though he's more interested in gnawing on them than I am. He takes Sandra Boynton's smaller board books everywhere. I swear, that woman must sleep on a pile of money. 

 Showing off his lovely teeth! Another one is about to pop through on top.

a blanket for Elise Viola

A housemate from my Madison days just had a sweet new baby girl, so I whipped up another crochet blanket using my favorite pattern.

Sadly, my favorite organic cotton yarn (Knit Picks Simply Cotton) has been discontinued, so I used Knit Picks Comfy instead. It's soft and cozy, definitely a bit more lightweight, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it will pill more than Simply Cotton. That said, it's easy on the hands and wrists and it comes in a lovely palette of colors.

pattern: swaddle me blankie, by crochet kitten

yarn: knit picks comfy worsted

honeydew (8 skeins) + peony (1 skein)

hook: clover soft touch g

my Ravelry project page

notes: 
I always love this pattern -- crocheting it feels very natural and it goes quite quickly. As usual, I skipped the hood portion of the pattern.

spring cleaning, part 2, or, Elsie revisted

Another project done and dusted! This wee cardi just needed blocking and buttons.

 pattern: Elsie Cardigan by Jane Richmond 

yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton, 2 skeins

needles: US 6 (4.0 mm)

 size: 6 months
my ravelry project page

notes:
Another Elsie Cardigan off the needles! I think this is no. 3. Great little pattern knit from the top down. I do think the sizing runs a bit small. I keep knitting this pattern since I love working the crochet picot edging at the end. Rowan Wool Cotton is nice to knit, but I'm not sure how well it washes and wears. Oh well, it just went to a fellow knitter's sweet new baby, so at least it won't get put through the dryer on high!

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 This is how Erik likes to wear his crochet earflap hat:

 

And this is how I like him to wear his hat: 

 Silly boy!