stitch marker

blocking a grass house

The next shawl in the Viking Love Song series is blocked, and the two versions of it--fingering weight and DK--are both gorgeous. They were knit by Michelle, seen here blocking with me, and by Annmarie.

The shawl is worked sideways, and the stitch that makes the sweeping edge is called Double Garter or Backstitch. I believe that once it's practiced a bit, this stitch pattern is fascinating to watch develop. A treat, like extra foam on a latte. At first glance, my mom exclaimed that the shawl was pleated! (And how did I do that?!)

It's all in the wrist, right?

It's pretty with yarn like Black Bunny Fiber's green fingering weight--a color called Jungle, which I think should be changed to Grashús. Maybe Carol would consider that.

(looking up the roof toward the chimney of the reconstructed Viking house in Iceland)

When you look up close, you'll see that when slightly stretched the Double Garter stitch has strong ridges, and in between them it has an interlocking criss-cross thingie that is very beautiful. In DK, the pattern highlights the fall-ish rust and lavender of Malabrigo Arroyo.

The pattern is to come soon, after I manage to take some photos that do justice to the work of these two knitters.

blueberries, basil, peppers, dill, yes!

 

These are pickled blueberries, above. They have nothing to do with last night.

Last night, we had snacky dinner (no big entree, lots of little gems of tasty things and fruit, wine and cheese). I had frozen blueberries from berry picking with Michelle and our kids. I used my little Kitchen Ninja--which I love!--to mix up a couple things. *

Blueberry Dill Sorbet

1.5 to 2 cups frozen blueberries (if you have fresh ones, pop them in the freezer for a while; they work well ice cold)

1/4 c frozen watermelon was on hand here, thought I wouldn't buy any just to put in this sorbet.

1/4 c vanilla sugar (from the big canister of organic sugar with a vanilla bean in it; thanks to Sarah.)

1 t. vanilla extract

3 or 4 tiny pinches of fresh dill

water as needed

Whiz this in the food processor, adding water until it makes a thick, smooth yummy goo. Not watery! Freeze.

We're also going to have some Romesco Sauce, maybe with breadsticks, maybe with crackers. (I'm losing steam cooking here.)

Golden Romesco Sauce

Romesco is a delicious pepper-based Spanish sauce, which is typically a dark orange-y red. My version is orange-y yellow and does not have the typical slice of stale bread or tomatoes in it. I think it would be good with a couple croutons blended into it, but I love it this way too. It's garlicky but mild and somewhat sweet. The pepper roasting takes some time. Start an hour ahead. The rest is super fast.

2 big orange peppers

olive oil

1/4 cup almonds/hazelnuts (I mixed)

1/3 c. or so of dry, grated Parmesean

1/2 t. chopped garlic

salt & pepper

dash of paprika

Roast the peppers on a cookie sheet in a 390-degree-F oven.

I cut mine in half, stems on, drizzled with a good amount of olive oil (not like Turkish wrestling amount, just some) and cook 20-3o minutes on each side. The idea is to get them browned in some spots and soft all over. Remove them from the oven and place into a paper bag, roll it up, and let them sit in there about 20 mins.

The skins should peel off easily. Cut off stems and either remove or leave in seeds based on how hot you want things. Slice into a few big pieces.

Whiz all the ingredients in a food processor. Like the Kitchen Ninja. That I love.

* Note on the Ninja: Through the vagaries of amazon, it looks like it's $60. Mine was $17.99 at Fred Meyer.

how about...lichen?

Thank you all for your lovely name suggestions for the shawl. I really spent a long time considering them all, every one. Thank you to the person who suggested I might simply call it Lichen. In the end, that worked really well.

So, it's here! Modeled by a lovely mom from our school named Pia.

Her baby boy Elliott stayed with us and played while we took the photos.

If I thought I struggled with a name, I did twice or three times as much suffering over photos. Here is one I love, but in which you see my desperately messy hair distracts from the shawl.

I love the background, especially given the Icelandic theme of the piece. You may know that we live on the side of a volcano. Martin, Sebastian and I walked up to the cinder cone, and I hopped a fence to take pictures! But the background just didn't work out. Maybe for another design, now that Martin and I learned some of the mechanics of taking a picture of such a bright knit against a nearly black rockface.

Last and greatest, here is Martin's masterpiece shot of this shawl. Alas, it was taken as a practice shot and there is a gutter in the background. But look how pretty that stitch definition is! And those 3-D ruffles.

See the pattern on ravelry. Lichen.

struggles in naming a striking shawl

In case you find my naming struggles interesting, or might have advice.

This shawl is the next in my Viking shawl collection – a series of romantic, love-inspired shawls and wraps. But it’s designed after something that at first doesn’t sound romantic at all. It’s inspired by lichens. And I think it looks damn like one.

When I visited the old farm in Iceland, lichens were spread out underfoot, all the way to the horizon, where they met the giant, roiling sky.  One of my characters uses them to dye fiber in big iron pots, and throughout time they’ve been used as medicine or food.

Frilly white lichens, scattered like small bouquets on the rocky ground, become one of the elements that define the farm for my lost-in-time character. They’re mentioned in some of the most romantic scenes in my book.

And yet, Lichens Underfoot does not seem like a lovely name for a shawl.  Not Liverwort either. From there, the possibilities get worse. Consumption Moss? Poultice!

At times while knitting a new design, I’ll feel like its name is there in my mind all along. And at times while knitting this prototype, I’ve thought Curvaceous. It’s a lush name. It might be compelling to people who are not familiar with the shawl series (which is an overwhelming majority of the world.) The word curve appears so many times in my novel, I’m thinking I have to search and destroy before finishing the draft.

And yet, Curvaceous doesn’t capture the stunning resemblance to the composite life forms that inspired it. If it didn’t look so darn like a lichen, I would be comfortable with that.

But this!

The one name that’s grabbed my attention so far is Bitter Tonic. One can be made with lichens, and it’s a seductive little name for a knitting design. But it’s not the point of this piece, really.

After all this, I’m left with only some resolution. What do you think?

p.s. Mycobiont is not a pretty name for a shawl. I think it means something about codependent fungus.

a pterodactyl in spring

Here it is, the mystery...thing! It's called Dactyl.

You may have gotten my newsletter or seen the final result on ravelry. It's a tiny shawlette, with a pretty point in back and a 16-row-deep ribbing that folds in on itself at several points making a sort of saurian wing shape. As you know it is a one-skein project using Malabrigo Merino Worsted. Yesssss!

For those who'd like a copy of the pattern, I'd like to give away 7 of them, to the first 7 commenters who go over to ravelry.com and like or queue the design, then come back here and tell me you did. I'll drop the pattern in your ravelry queue.

If you are not a ravelry user, but you do use Facebook, an alternative is to link to this page, and also come let me know you did.

I hope you'll do this only if you actually like the pattern. I guess if you want a copy you must have some affection for it, right?

And how cute is my friend Minka? Director Park was lovely that day.

 

a bird, a plane

craftygrrrl is the winner! Yay for craftygrrrl.

I loved hearing your guesses. My favorite had to be Joan who asked "Is it a squid?" I might as well call it that, because I honestly don't know what to define it as.  I think basically it's a scarf. But it has crescent shaping done with short-rows, which puts it in the shawlette camp. Yet, its point is just 8.5" at the back of the neck. So it's a scarf?

It's certainly petite and pink.

I have plans to photograph this on my lovely friend Kristin (who has rust colored hair!) next week at a beautiful park in downtown Portland. (Honestly, I'll wait while you go look at that park. Let the pictures go by for a minute. It is my favorite park in all the world.)

can I give you some yarn?

I went for a title that would grab even the most inattentive knitter in town, right?

For my blog-reading friends, I have this idea about a springy design I have coming out on April 30th. I'd like to give away a kit right now, as a very short-term sneaky peek for one of you. (Since by the time the kits reaches you, it will be very close to that date anyhow. But still.)

This month, I'm part of the Malabrigo Quickies, a series of designs that use 1 or 2 skeins, with small projects that are...errrrr....quick to knit. You may have read my interview with Malabrigo (I look so young. I should stick with that photo forever.)

If you read it, you will know about my fondness for their Merino Worsted. (If you have not, you really really should try this yarn. Squishy and warm, richly dyed to create a watercolor effect with great depth in changing light. On and on and on.) So my Quickie design uses it.

With my arm injury getting better but persisting through these painfully gorgeous clear and cold knitting days, my friend Michelle knit the sample of this new design in the very lipsticky color Geranio. She knit it in like 2 minutes (she is amazing and no-nonsense) and I just gasped when she brought it over the other day, because it is super cute. Like a flower.

So the kit. Michelle, you shouldn't enter! Because to win, you just need to comment and guess what it is. I will give you a couple clues. 1. It's diminutive, or perhaps daintily and springishly sized, for its kind. 2. It takes one skein.

Your answer does not need to be right to be entered, so guess away with abandon. Just comment with an idea about its identity by midnight Pacific Time, which is I think 3 AM for the people from my homeland. (That is, the East Coast of the US.)

Okay.

"i like your knitting design, mommy!"

Awww heck, how cute is that?

We fought ALL day long yesterday, and then at dinnertime he noticed this swatch, and he busted out with saying he loved it without any prompting. These see saw days make me feel so stupid, if you know what I mean. Struggling and trying to be hard-nosed for half the time, suddenly to be struck by something sweet that makes you feel like you're the mean one.  But you're not! Your heart just feels like it. It's so incredibly confusing.

Like the scarf so far?

sunday morning

 

It's one of those quiet mornings that I imagined, when we first had a child. I'm at the big table working on my projects, he's in the living room on the floor, tongue sticking out while he concentrates on building a circuit. There is coffee, the soft rushing of the shower in the other room, no one is jumping on anything or whining.

It's here! It happened! This kind of morning! I need to call my friend Sarah.

Granola

4 cups oats

3 cups mixture of cashews, hazelnuts and roasted sunflower seeds

1/4 cup brown sugar

pinches of nutmeg and cardamom

1/4 cup wheat germ

2/3 cup oil

2/3 cup honey or maple syrup

2 t vanilla 350 degrees, on 2 cookies sheets lined with parchment, 25-30 minutes.

Watch out at the end. Granola burns fast!

this is what i do

Ideas and projects are piling up, while I sit glumly with tendonitis. I have six designs ready to be knit! Writing Gloves in Glacier colored yarn from Quince & Co. (that's the bottom center,) a cowl called Arrowbite in the Parsley & Sabine (on top,) the lipstick colored scarf I mentioned in my last post, a Melrakki shawl (Old Norse for arctic fox,) a crazy scarf for a Zauberball.

Not to mention the underlying novel. Which is getting so close to being drafted, well drafted, readable, givable to people.

Even writing hurts my hands. I should not be posting this. I should not be knitting these things.

But this is what I do. I make up fictional Old Norse bedtime stories about Saga-esque men with names like Hundr Blacktooth and I pile yarn on top.

Really, I do.