and now, back to our knitting

Posted on Posted in designing, food and garden, lace/shawls, projects

with several hard frosts this past week and temps plunging into the 20s most nights, garden production has ceased for the season completely. all that’s left to do is harvest the last few root vegetables which are sweetening undeground. and some greens—they never quit til the snow falls heavily.

i have the last of the tomatoes ripening indoors, but the plants have died back and any remaining fruit has frozen on the vine (it’s ok; we’ve had as much as we can fit into our freezer and our diet for now).

the leaves are falling heavily now and perennials are putting on a low-lying show of late color throughout the planting beds, mostly in reds and oranges. the gardens are done.

in fact, it snowed on friday night and we woke up saturday to a light dusting of white everywhere. david spent yesterday afternoon, which was too drizzly for roofing work, “rearranging the compost” in anticipation of a big yard cleanup once the roof project is done (almost there).

i actually took a mental health afternoon on friday, after feeling unusually sluggish all week—i suddenly realized midway through morning email that i had worked at least fourteen days straight and maybe that was the cause. heh.

i fled my desk in short order and headed for the kitchen—i wanted to warm myself and the house up by working at the stove. i washed some parsnips, celery, carrots, potatoes, celeriac, leeks, and parsley. i thawed out some pureed acorn squash i stashed in the freezer in august and peeled some of the garlic michele sent me.

i cut everything up into chunks and layered it all in a roasting pan with pepper, salt, bay leaf, celery leaves, and whole branches of sage and rosemary, then dotted the top with cherry tomatoes and drizzled olive oil over it all. into the oven it went to roast, covered at first, then uncovered for a while.

while that roasted, i sauteed some garlic, scallions, and the white part of the leeks in a little butter. once the roasting veggies started to brown, i pulled them out and added them to the pot, with some vegetable stock to cover. after simmering til everything was completely tender, i pureed the whole lot in the cuisinart with some more stock.

i adjusted the seasoning (cough, cough), added the pureed squash, then put it back on the stove to simmer for a bit. not very long—too much cooking dulls the flavor.

some of this mixture went into freezer containers for future dinners and some of it stayed in the pot for our supper. i made an impromptu invitation to beckie and mark to join us for dinner and they accepted (beckie and i can use any excuse to get together and knit).

i scrubbed some french fingerling potatoes and put those on to soak in preparation for roasting, then decided to square away a large bag of peppers hiding in the fridge, waiting for me to do something with them. i had stuffing in the freezer left over from an earlier batch, so that made it easy—stuffed peppers it was.

by the time all that was done, a good nap was in order—nothing like grabbing an hour of sleep on a friday afternoon before dinner, mmmm.

when i woke up, i realized i had not thought about bread to go with the soup. i got the potatoes into the oven and made some biscuit dough; these could be baked alongside the potatoes in a hot oven.

a splash of cream into the soup and dinner was ready. we all gathered for a nice end of the week feast, opened some wine and sat to eat. it seemed a fitting way to use up the last of the fresh produce—almost everything on the table was from our garden (or someone else’s).

after supper, beckie and i got out our knitting—she’s working on a little red sweater for kian and i worked on my delicato scarf

it felt good to be settled in for the evening. from here until next april, there will be more time for knitting, now that the garden is put to bed for the year.

the scarf has grown hasn’t it? it’s been a good project to take along on various outings this week—doctor’s appointment, sewing lesson with helena, after-supper entertainment—all added up to quite a few inches. i would say i have at least one-third of it completed.

the more i knit with this nimbus cloud yarn, the more luscious it gets. it’s on sale this week, BTW—all week.

i started my second bougainvillea mitt too, but haven’t gotten all that far. the ribbing is done and i’m poised to begin the lace pattern (the fun part). i need to make these a bit more of a priority so i can send them off to my niece. i weighed my yarn nervously, because that remainder ball doesn’t look all that big, but the scale says i’m good—the mitt used .9 ounce of yarn and i have 1.0 left over. close, but it should do (and i like living on the edge, haha).

now that my slate is pretty much completely clean of secret projects, i have been back to work on the wasp and rose shawl. is the fiber isle kami bison working up beautifully? look at that gorgeous sheen . . . the color—rose petale— is like the last breath of roses, isn’t it?

i have section A almost completed and i need to sit down and get my charts squared away for section B. i’ve been putting it off to get other pattern work completed, but now i need them.

this piece is starting to be an addiction, which i’m grateful for. i had a hard time settling in with it over the summer, due to other distractions, but now i’m anxious to see it take shape.

though i’m committed to spending most of my time on it for the near future, i can’t help but think of the next new projects—my current small projects are done or close to done and i need to think up new ones.

i’m mulling over a pair of socks to start and maybe some mittens for the kids for christmas. and now that it’s getting truly cold, i’m hankering for a warm sweater to wear around the house—not an especially tailored one, but a loose, raglan cardigan, maybe with some texture to keep me motivated.

i started playing around with a batch of briar rose pilgrim i’ve had for a while, which happens to have all of those gorgeous colors from the photos i showed above.

this is a light, lofty, worsted weight singles, with a slightly felted surface (so it resists pilling). i fell in love with it when i knit the high peaks hat and mittens; chris sent me this batch for a sweater shortly after.

i love how airy-light it is; i like me a weightlessly warm sweater. it takes color well, offering bright highlights and cindery lowlights. the fabric surface is velvety, with soft but distinct stitch definition. great yarn for a saturday sweater.

i’m not sure of anything yet—except the style of sweater. i’m just playing with yarn and stitches to see if any of my ideas are IT. i know everyone will want it to be worked in one piece, but personally, i love seamed sweaters, especially ones for everyday wear—they take a beating and seams give them good support. i might just seam this one for myself, then write the pattern and test knit it as a one-piece sweater (can i do that?).

i’m also mulling over a simple, unisex lace wrap design—something to knit in cozy or rustic yarn for winter. maybe for david’s christmas gift (although i see that another of his sweaters is wearing thin and he might need a replacement). and he’s going to need a hat, too, one that fits over his hair.

haha, have i got enough new ideas yet?? trust me there are more, but i don’t allow myself to think about them all at once.

OH! i have an announcement—this comes to you from jen at woolgirl, who has opened registrations for a couple of new clubs for 2011. one that i’m involved in designing for is the victorian writers club

A one‐of‐a‐kind knitting club brought to you exclusively from Woolgirl.
Whether you’re a novice when it comes to knitting or have years of experience behind you, the Victorian Writers knitting club promises to have a bit of something for you. And whether you prefer lace or cables, silk, wool or cashmere, we’ll have a variety of techniques and yarns all wrapped up into one special year!

as you know, i love reading, so i’m very excited about the possibilities for this club; i’m getting a chance to fulfill a long-standing dream to design a shawl inspired by virginia woolf, one of my literary heroes.

interested? please visit the kits and club page at woolgirl.com for registration and more information about club options and cost.

to end, i’ll leave you with some yarn prøn, this time from a pair of wonderful dyers near nuremburg, germany. i first noticed these yarns while checking out projects posted in our knitspot ravelry group—kalessin and haramis17 were posting some beautiful finished shawl projects in yarns that were, well, to die for.

below, the baby alpaca and silk laceweight in colorway dead wood

when i commented on how lovely the yarns looked, nicole and cordula offered to send some samples. a trip to their etsy shops—dye for wool and dye for yarn—is like a trip through the looking glass into the old curiosity shop, full of wry and unexpected delights.

to start with, they have corralled yarns in some of the most luxurious fiber blends imaginable, then dyed small batches of them in the ethereal, subtle tones of lost and forgotten things. many of these haunting, faded colors prick at my memory, yet i can’t pinpoint why; i just like the no-color color of them.

some vivid colorways are shown as well, such as romeo’s death, pictured above in merino/silk laceweight—colorways range from soft and elusive to rich and velvety.

the kicker is in the naming—if you love words, you will adore browsing these shops. i’ll say no more—just go look.

this delicious tussah silk laceweight singles is right up my alley in colorway mashed blue- and blackberries. i can tell right now that this dark gray/lavender will be haunting me til i give in and do something with it.

and with that, i think i’ll stop and let you drink it all in. time for me to get some other work done, too.

18 thoughts on “and now, back to our knitting

  1. I love those Autumnal colours in your garden and will try your idea about seasoning as I make soup this week. Our leaves are faling heavily now and I shall spend tomorrow raking them up. I have just looked at the most wonderful names at the Dye for Yarn and Dye for Wool websites and I will confess to making a purchase (or two)! Thanks for being an enabler!

  2. Beautiful knitting and the food sounds delicious. I bought beets today for the first time in my life…any suggestions on how to cook them?

  3. Did Chris dye that Briar Rose Pilgrim from a photo of your fall colored epimidiums? It’s a gorgeous colorway as are the leaves.

  4. Virginia Woolf?! She’s one of my literary heroes too 🙂 I did a Bachelor’s thesis on “The Waves”. I know your shawl will be amazing!

  5. spent the morning in the garden pulling peppers, brussel sprouts and tomatoes – this time of the year is anticipated and and resisted! Good to see you back at work on the knitterly things that we NEED for you to create! As always – you encourage and inspire my knitting life, thank you!

  6. Cool nights in Missouri as well and the knitting is rolling right along. I think the Victorian Writers knitting club sounds like a fabulous idea. How can you miss with writing/reading, knitting, and beautiful fibers?

  7. The wasp and rose shawl is looking luscious, and I just happen to have a skein of Kami in that very colourway stashed away – please tell me there will be a one-skein option in the pattern!

  8. So many luscious colors in this post! And I’m so glad you’ve discovered Dye for Yarn and Dye for Wool – Nicole and Cordula are so sweet and so talented. I confess to a bit of a buying binge on their sites:)

  9. I just had breakfast but you are making me very hungry with all those delicious food that you cooked. Please design a seamless cardigan as I will love to knit it!

  10. The cozy loose fitting raglan sounds like a winner…..with the little hint of snow the other day and winter upon us, can’t think of anything better than a warm cozy sweater. Of course I like the seams too but either works and gives me something to look forward to knitting next. The design looks fab!

  11. Oh, the delicato scarf is gorgeous! I am totally drooling over the wasp and rose shawl. And that swatch for the sweater – I am totally taken! And yes, you can knit it flat and then have it test knit in the round. I would suggest designing it to be knit in the round and then just adding seam sts for knitting it flat, but whichever way you go, I’m sure it will be gorgeous. That yarn used in the sweater swatch is just to die for! I might just have to knit myself one of those. So much to knit – so little time!

  12. oh wow, i am SORELY tempted to sign up for your mrs. dalloway shawl– i normally don’t do these club things because i like to know what i’m getting into & i have fairly specific tastes in color. but virginia woolf is one of my faaaaaaavorites, and i know you’ll come up with something beautiful. the only problem is that i just returned from a fiber festival & am feeling like my fiber budget has been maxed out for now. 🙁 but i’m bookmarking the page & i have a feeling i’ll find myself coming back to it in a few weeks when i’m feeling less poor!

  13. Can I come for dinner at your house? Yum, yum, nothing like roasted veggies you’ve grown yourself! My own garlic for next year’s crop just got into the ground and I’m hoping that three days of rain won’t drown it completely!

    Love, love Virginia Woolf, what a cool idea for a club. That must have been a fun designing project.

    Delicato and Wasp and Rose look so lovely and a Briar Rose sweater is always eagerly anticipated!

  14. i have never joined a knitting club, but this one sounds so fun and interesting. your food also looked good and interesting. the photos made me hungry.

  15. Just looked at the Dye for Yarn and Dye for Wool websites and those names are wonderful, only exceeded by the colorways of the yarn. I see I could lose myself on those sites and might not come back up for air. LOL. Thanks for opening my eyes to another way to spend my $$$.

  16. You got snow? I’m so jealous!! I was up early Saturday morning, just watching for the stray flake or two that was predicted but…nothing. Love your swatch with the Briar Rose Pilgrim. 🙂

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