Wednesday, April 04, 2007

I did up through the armhole decreases on the back of the Kenobi jacket last night. Couldn't quite bring myself to stay up to finish the back.

I also have been working on another pair of socks - using the Lichen Ribbed Sock pattern from "Vintage Knitting Socks." I'm using a Steinbach Wolle sportweight (because they're 60 st socks, and from experience, 60-st socks are NOT big enough for me when made out of sockweight yarn. I've done the heel turn on them - it's called a "Welsh heel" and I've never seen it before.

It's kind of weird.

I'm not sure I'd use it again. It involves four decrease points on the flap, and has yarnovers at the start of each row (which, yes, leave small holes...just one of the reasons I tend to avoid the true shortrow (non-flapped) heel is because of the funky little holes*).

(*And yes, I know there are techniques that allow one to do an "hourglass" or "no-flap" shortrow heel without the holes. But those kinds of heels fit my foot badly so that's the real reason I don't use them. Which is also why I've never done toe-up socks; most of the patterns I've seen have that kind of heel. And I tend to feel: why make socks if they're going to fit you imperfectly?)

The Welsh heel is also "not perfectly smooth" (as even the original Weldon's instructions indicated). I think I like the v-heel or the French heel that I typically use better.

Still, it's kind of fun to try different ways of doing things, and the 3x1 rib looks good with the stripe pattern of the yarn. (it is an odd combination of colors: blue-grey, yellow, pale green, pink, and sort of a light reddish brown.)

****

And speaking of veggie cooking and cookbooks: another cookbook I've been looking at is called the "More with Less" cookbook. This is one I "liberated" from my mother's cookbook collection (well, actually, she GAVE it to me...she saw me looking at it one day and said, "I never make anything from that any more, would you like it?"). It's a cookbook produced by a Mennonite group. I tend to respect the Mennonites because they are a group (or at least the individual Mennonites I have known) who tend to really THINK about their convictions and whether the way they live their lives is bearing those convictions out...they are concerned about hunger and justice and the impact they are having on the environment. Hence, there are a lot of vegetarian recipes in the book, and also a lot of recipes that are fairly economical.

The main reason I wanted the cookbook is that it has a bunch of good looking granola recipes in it (and even a recipe for homemade Grape Nuts). There are also a lot of homemade breads. But it also has many good vegetarian recipes, and a few recipes from other nations (There's an East Indian Vegetarian dinner menu, for example).

There are some things I don't agree with, for example, the argument that one person makes that essentially boils down to "cake is sinful because it doesn't really add food value to the diet but still costs resources" but most of the stuff, I can get behind.

And there are also soap recipes in there, and a simple paste recipe to use for children (it has oil of cloves in it as a preservative...I think THAT is probably the evocative paste-smell I remember from my childhood).

I wish I had more time to bake bread and stuff. But when you get home at 4 pm (or even later some days) and need to be in bed by 9 in order to get enough sleep, and you also have to fit the time to cook dinner in there, it's hard.

1 comment:

dragon knitter said...

sounds like you've been having food adventures. i love trying new things, but i have to be in the mood. the mood has been striking me more often lately, which tickles my eldest son to bits. hubbie will try what i make, as long as i don't say "taste it, you'll like it" (he hates surprises). my toughest audience is the younger son. and he's getting better. remember mussels di napoli?

and i love the lichen socks. at first, i thought they were named for the yarn, until i read further. i'm behind on my blogs, lol