mmm, this is what we had for dinner on easter sunday. roasted vegetable and fish chowder.
i sorta made it up as i went along, but it turned out great and we enjoyed it. plus there are plenty of leftovers to have during the week, yay.
instead of sautéing all the soup veggies one by one, i just spread them out on a baking sheet and drizzled them with olive oil, then added pepper and salt, and slid them into a 450° oven. while they roasted i worked on a swatch.
when they were almost done i browned some cod fillets in the bottom of a big pot with a little garlic, parsley, and oil
til it broke apart easily, then added the roasted veggies, about 6 cups of stock, and 2 cups of tomato puree. i let all that cook til the veggies were good and tender (and worked on my swatch), then added frozen corn and green beens, plus about half a cup of cream and about one cup of soy creamer (it was a very big pot, and i added just enough to make it milky, but not thick). then adjusted the seasonings and we ate it. seriously easy to do, leaving plenty of knitting time.
i took a break yesterday from knitting on big projects and spent the whole afternoon swatching with fine, fine laceweight yarns. yarn that is finer than we normally talk about here, but which i admire from afar on blogs such as alice’s.
this is one idea for the fearless fibers laceweight alpaca i have.
working with yarns this fine (about 600 yards per 50 grams) is not something i do all that often. for one thing, it’s tricky to find the right stitch patterns; they have to be large and pretty tightly shaped to have any substance i think. the one above was the first successful one i had after about six false starts with other motifs.
and you know, i want it to be fun too, so even though a couple of other motifs worked well visually, i knew i would hate knitting them after just a couple of repeats. and a scarf (even a little one) is an endurance project after all.
then finally, it’s fairly slow going with the fine yarn and tiny needles. especially with alpaca yarns, which do not have the loft and grip of merino; they feel extremely thin and slippery on the needles. and i am lazy and impatient, so there you go. not a territory i venture into all that much.
however, i was sent several laceweight yarns in the last few months that i love, and have been petting and stroking while waiting for the chance to set to work with them. i can get used to the yarn i think . . . so, i’m exploring.
i’m not done yet; i have another one i want to try with this colorway too, and i have a good feeling about it. more on that tomorrow.
i also took out this skein of dicentra designs alpaca laceweight that lisa milliman sent me.
since it is about the same weight i figured i might as well swatch for this too, while i was in the right mindset. it doesn’t hurt to have a few scarves planned out that i can grab and go with when planning time is short.
of course after a long afternoon of those swatches, i wanted something completely different.
i went shopping in my stash and came up with this skein of melosa merino laceweight, from one planet yarn and fiber.
doesn’t it just say SPRING?
this will be perfect for another little nothings scarf and i might was well swatch for it while i’m of a mind to do it. i’ll be knitting a shawl later in the summer with the same yarn in a different color, so this will be a good chance to bond with the yarn a bit. just gotta find the right stitch.
and then there was something else on my mind.
now, i know i don’t exactly have time for this right now, but i have been seriously jonesing to get another sweater project underway. and i have this gorgeous BFL yarn, a gift from briar rose
i didn’t get very far with this swatch yesterday but i’ll pick it up again this evening for a while.
i have what i hope is a good idea for a fun, comfortable fall sweater.
tomorrow or the next day, when everything is soaked and blocked a bit. i’ll show you the results and analyze them a bit.
i just realized that i have fallen headlong into the early stages of a case of startitis. see what happens when i’m left to wander?? somebody slap me—quick.
24 thoughts on “fish in a dish”
What’s wrong with a little startitis after such lovely, but long projects. Especially if you’re swatching. I love that first lace swatch, it has so much dimension!! The way it catches the light is beautiful.
Oohh…the pink and green definitely screams Spring!
You deserve a little fun starting. And the melosa yarn matches tulips — I’d love to see a tulip. Instead of more snow…
Okay, now I’m *really* hungry.
Mm, I love the texture on the teal swatch, and the color of the pinky-brown yarn is quite appealing.
My startitis includes Snowflakes in Cedar and Gale. I couldn’t decide which one to knit first so I started both! It’s a good thing!
I love the idea of roasting chopped veggies for soup. I have never roasted things that small before, and it sounds like something I will need to do!
Startitis comes with spring. I vote for any springlike project at all. On my blog I’ve been talking about “knitting spring into existence.” I finished my aran-weight alpaca/wool socks today (yum).
Now I need to find something springlike at least in color, and dive in. I have some fingering-weight alpaca in greens which would make perfect socks for the melting, early-spring season.
Hmmm, how do I start those when I promised Brian some socks for *his* birthday the end of May? With all my work-related knitting (and taxes this week) I wonder if I can make both pairs happen in time.
I don’t have to *finish* during spring, do I? After all, the point is to hurry the beginning of the season. It just might work out.
I love the sweater swatch and colour,,, hmmmm,,,, and here in Arizona I can start waiting for next fall with the temps climbing up so fast,,, and those lace yarns look so fluffy,,,, I suffer enditis here,,, not too successful at it, maybe I should join you with the startitis, it is so much more fun,,,,
I’ve not been one for lace weight projects but I’m hoping that one of these days I’ll conqure one. Good luck!
Ymmm, I love roasted veggies but never thought of using them in soup. That fish soup looks like just the stuff to bring in the spring eating season.
Gust is slowly building and I’m enjoying the process very much. After 6 repeats the pattern is memorized. 🙂
I also find such fine lace yarn to be fiddly and hard to match to a stitch pattern, so I’m eager to see what you come up with (yes, I’m lazy)! The Lanas Puras is so perfect for spring. Who could help coming down with a case of startitis with that yarn?
Your fish soup looks delicious. Roasting vegetables has become one of my favorite ways to prepare them—also easy prep, easy clean up, and even good eaten as is!
Now that sounds like a portuguese dish, except for the corn and the beans! As for fine lace yarn, I like to knit with real large needles to add for lay effect. I’ve even used once 6 mm needles for a shawl!
Mmmm, your chowder looks fantastic, I’d eat a bowl of that right now… for breakfast!
It usually takes me a few hours to ‘get used’ to the fine lace weight yarns but once ‘there’ it’s pretty easy sailing… except for the alpaca… it takes longer… :^)
Did you hear a strange ‘whump’… that would be me when I saw the colours in the sweater yarn…
(I’m making that soup sometime this week! Thank you!)
Anne- I adore seafood chowder- we had it in Nova Scotia- mmmm!
The blue in the laceweight looks like a Tiffany box (wishful thinking)
*SLAP!*
Oh hell, I take it back. If I had your stash, I’d have startitis too.
It’s not startitis. You are doing necessary exploratory work for your craft.
wow…that soup looks good, especially since I’m home sick today (I always want soup when I’m sick). I’ve never tried making soup before, but I want to. I may have to give this one a shot.
When you say 6 cups of stock, what type of stock did you use?
I love that melosa merino laceweight.
oh man – I wouldn’t know which one to play with first ! they are all so beautiful.
and yeah, I totally agree – that yarn screams SPRING! (bring it on baby)
That briar rose yarn is GORGEOUS!
The swatches look so light & etheriel! Very pretty!
I have a silk merino blend that’s 600yds/50g that is a dark pink with an ever so slight color change going through it…lovely. Ideas, ideas!
When you get startitis, you get it on hyperdrive, baby! I can’t wait to see what all of these turn into 🙂
I think that if I had half as many knitting projects on the go at once as you *just started*, I throw my hands up and go grab a cross stitch project that’s been languishing and work on that for a while instead. LOL
is there a problem with startitis??? so what if I have 50 UFO’s… I like a little variance… ohhh I love that FF Alpaca… so pretty I’m thinking I might have to get some of that for a lovely lace shell I have been thinking of making… oh deb why must you put crack in your yarn!
Ooooh so many lovelies. Gosh I think I’m drooling here. I do love watching things germinate like this. I’ve got startitis too. I’m resisting but that won’t last. Must be something about spring.
“but i have been seriously jonesing to get another sweater project underway.” Ahem, what about that ole sweater pattern you were thinking of writing up? Maybe you could prep for the new one by writing the other one? 🙂
Nice cookie cutter felting*
your startitis is only a problem when it rubs off on the rest of us…!
that one planet laceweight is absolutely gorgeous – perfect spring color. all the yarns are lovely, for that matter. makes me want to pick up something new myself…see…your startitis could pose a problem…
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