Past Crafting

So, in the rush that was trying to get things done in time, I've neglected to post about a few finished objects. Here's my catchup post!

Anna's Fetchings[R]:

Pattern: Fetching[R] by Cheryl Niamath
Materials: Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran [R]; 90m/50g; 55% Merino wool, 33% Microfibre, 12% Cashmere; color: 300008 (brown) dyelot: 44
Purchased at: Woolworks
Amount: 1 skein, just barely
Needles: size 6 clover DPNs
Gauge: what's that? (aka, never checked)
Cost: $8.28

Started: First glove started:12/19 -12/20; Secong glove: 12/20-12/21
Finished: 12/21
Total time: 3 days

Finished gloves:



Gloves with care sleeve:


Gloves with Artsy Clutch:


These were enjoyable to knit. I wish I'd read all the reviews on Cashmerino Aran before choosing to knit with it. It's a very soft yarn, and the resulting fabric is extremely soft, but everyone who says it pills is right. I will probably use this yarn again, but maybe not for such a high use object as gloves.

The pattern was exactly what I hoped for. It was interesting enough to keep me going and fast enough I was able to finish it in a few days. If I'd knitted more on a given day, I could probably even finish this sooner. The one thing I didn't love about the pattern was the picot bind off, and if I do these again, I will probably change the bind off. To me, it makes the bound off edge looser than I'd want it, though it does look pretty. Also, as you can tell if you look closely, I forgot to reverse the cables on the second glove. I hadn't realized it until I was in the main body ribbing part, and I decided I didn't want to frog it back. Next time I knit this, I plan on reversing the cables. All in all, a satisfying knit. Hopefully, the recipient will like it too! As you can see in the bottom picture, this will also be given with an Artsy Clutch. That's my second FO of this post....

Anna's Artsy Clutch:

Pattern: Artsy Clutch from Bend the Rules Sewing
Materials: 3 fat quarters; could be made with two
Purchased at: Dragon fabric and lining butterfly fabric were purchased at an open market in Hilo, Hawaii years ago. The black fabric for the front and the black button are from JoAnn's Fabric.
Cost: $3 for black fat quarter (still have a lot left); $2 for button (still have one left) other fabric (both prints as well as lining flannel) from stash; 3$ for elastic (still have a lot left) total: $8

Started: 12/23
Finished: 12/23
Total time: 2 hours, maybe less

A closer look:

A look at the lining (with a glove inside):


I loved this project. Loved it. I see why it's as popular as it is! When I finished sewing, I was amazed and incredibly pleased by how polished it looked. I made my pouch slightly smaller than the pattern in the book, partly because of the size of some of my scrapps. It's just big enough to be a pencil or pen case, or as a small purse. I decided to have a 'cuff' of the dragon fabric instead of having the entire bag in that fabric for a few reasons. First off, I thought the pattern would be overwhelming if it was the entire bag. The way it is now, you have the two dragons looking down on the 'front' (aka, folded over) piece, and the rest of the black sets them off. One thing I did do, thanks to the suggestion of someone on the blogosphere (though I forget who) is reverse the pattern of the dragon on the folded over flap so that it looks right side up when it's upside down. Other than that and the size adjustment, I followed the pattern. I will make many more of these, I'm sure.

Christmas Wishes with a recipe

Well, it's Christmas! Merry Christmas, and secular happiness to all! I have more making things excitement for you, but, in honor of the holiday season, that will wait a bit.

My big 'family' celebration was last night. My older stepbrother had returned home from a multi-month-long trip around South America early (as in, 1am), so our happily blended family was all present for, I believe, our first Christmas together. Since my stepfather is ethnically Jewish and my mother and I aren't really all that Christian, our Christmas celebration was much more about family than Jesus. Personally, that's just fine with me. We had a very large, wonderful meal, a wonderful desert, and opened presents. I made half of the desert, and as a holiday treat, I'm going to include my (mostly made up, partly adapted from a bajillian sources) recipe for you.

Our menu:
Wilted spinach salad with canadian bacon, shallots, and a reduced balsamic vinaigrette
Roast beef tenderloin
Tomato Maidera Coulis
Roasted fingerling potatoes
Broiled tomatoes stuffed with breadcrumbs and herbs

And, for desert:
Chocolate soufflé and chai poached pairs with cream sauce

Now, for the recipe!

Chai Poached Pears with Cream Sauce
serves 6 (or as many as you please)

For the pears:

• 6 pears, preferably Bosc
• either 1 teabag or 1.5 tsp looseleaf Chai per pear (so, in this case, 6 teabags, or 3Tbsps chai)
• 1/4 cup sugar or less per pear (so, in this case, 1 1/2 cups sugar)
• 1 cup water per pear (so, in this case, 6 cups water)

The pears are very easy to make.

1. Peel the pears. You may core them if you really want, but the desert is most attractive when you do not core them and when you leave the stem in.
   
2. Bring water to a boil.
3. Once water is boiling, steep teabags for 5 minutes. If using looseleaf tea, use a paper tea filter or some other contraption to allow you to remove the leaves once done steeping. After 5 minutes, remove tea.
   
4. Add sugar and bring to a low boil.
   
5. Once mixture is boiling, add pears. Reduce temperature to 'low' or such that pears can simmer.
6. Let pears cook at least 20 minutes. Check occasionally to make sure liquid does not completely boil down, and when checking, roll pears over on their sides.
7. Remove 2 cups of poaching liquid, and, in a separate saucepan, reduce. You may use this, reduced, as a sauce if you do not want to make the cream sauce. It will still be delicious.
   

For the cream sauce:

• 1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream
• 1 or 2 oranges worth of zest, reserve some
  
• 5 slices of candied ginger
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 cups reserved poaching liquid

1. Mince candied ginger.
2. Combine ginger, honey, first portion of zest, and cream. Heat on the stove until honey is melted. Do not let cream boil.
3. Simultaneously, cook poaching liquid to a boil and let it reduce.
4. Once poaching liquid is reduced enough for your taste, lower the heat, and pour the poaching liquid into the cream mixture, stirring constantly.

To plate: In a bowl, place 1 pear per person. Pour cream sauce into dish. Finish with a pinch of the reserved orange zest, and, if you'd like, a drizzle of honey and a sprig of mint.

That's it! The pears are a very delicious and simple desert by themselves, but the cream sauce makes them a little more fancy for special occasions. As a big chai drinker I tend to have many different kinds lying around, and if you are able to choose, I'd recommend a chai with a hearty dose of cardamom and pepper. (If your family is adventurous, or loves heat the way mine does, the pears also are delicious with a grinding of black pepper.) Enjoy!

New York, New York

I'm back from new york! It was an exciting five days, and very tiring.

Tuesday:
Tuesday started earlier than I necessarily would have liked, but the ‘performance’ lifestyle, followed by my two weeks of vacation, does not lend itself toward early mornings. My friend M and I drove to Bryn Mar, where she’s currently a graduate student. We met up with her boyfriend and had lunch at Cosi. I had heard of the chain before, but never eaten there. I got the Chicken TBM and it was tasty! I’ll admit, I chose Cosi over other restauraunt possibilities because of the name - say it aloud! Cosi! Cosi cosi cosi! It sounds like cozy. Very friendly! We missed our SEPTA train so we just hung around a bookstore until the next one. I was able to get some knitting done on my sock in the train, so that was nice. We met up with D, the friend we were staying with for the first few nights, at Penn Station, and one wrong train later finally ended up at his house.
Wednesday:
Wednesday M had plans to meet an old professor for lunch outside of the Met, so I was on my own. Where to go? Alice’s Tea Cup! Arthur, a similarly tea obsessed friend of mine from college, went to Alice’s sometime during school and brought back some of the Birthday tea. Delicious! I’ve wanted to go there ever since. I ended up having not just the tea, but high tea! It was delicious – a salmon sandwich, a pumpkin scone, the birthday tea and assorted cookies. I wish I’d purchased some loose leaf from them – M and I had planned to go to another of their locations later, but it didn’t happen; of course, my tea collection is currently overflowing so I didn’t need any more.
Tea was followed by the afternoon at the Met and dinner with M, M’s friend Casper, and D. As I was making my way to dinner, I fell down the last tier of steps at the Met. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of those steps – there are a lot of them! I fell smack down on my ankles, and slid down the remaining steps. Oww! As I’m writing this up, five days later, my right ankle is STILL swollen, and my left leg is still VERY bruised. This did put somewhat of a damper on all the walking we did, but I survived. =]
We went to Hampton Chutney Co for dinner and Rice to Riches for desert. Rice to Riches is a rice pudding bar. I felt majorly under-hip, but the pudding was good. It’s right next to Pinkberry, so I convinced M we should come back later so I could try the Pinkberry I’d read so much about.
Thursday:
Thursday started with meeting D for lunch. Nothing exciting there – just Chipoltle in St.Mark’s Place. I have to say, as far as fast food goes, I’m a big Chipoltle fan. Then it was wondering around SoHo until I found Purl, the yarn store. I was overwhelmed! The selection was modest – at least, more so than my LYS – but it had new exciting yarns I’d never seen before! I bought three skeins of Organilk in Jungle, a lovely greenish brown heather that looks as though the green glows brown somehow, and two cones of Habu yarns, one of the silk and stainless steel and one of a matching mohair. Someone at the shop had knitted the Kusha Kusha scarf and was describing it to another customer. I’m not the biggest fan of that particular shape, but I loved the yarn combination. The steel gives some structure to the fabric. You can crumple it and have subtle folds, almost like paper. I’m very excited to work with this!
After Purl we poked around SoHo some more. I convinced M to go to Pinkberry with me. So delicious! I have to say, I think David Lebovitz’ version tastes almost as good, if not better, but the texture of Pinkberry’s yogurt was superior to my attempts at Lebovitz’ recipe.
We met our friend A for dinner at Crispo, and then he gave us a quick tour of his office – at Google! It was the second time for me visiting him, and all I’ll say is that it was awesome. Part of me still thinks of my future in terms of ‘how will this make it easier for me to work for Google’.
Friday:
Friday was a much more relaxing day, and I was ready for it! M and I went to M’s friend Sarah’s house, and pretty much just watched Firefly all day. I’d never seen it before, despite being a Buffy fan, so it was lots of fun. We went to ColdStone for icecream and they had pumpkin icecream. Yay! As I think I’ve mentioned, I’m a fan of ANYTHING pumpkin, especially deserts. I got graham cracker crust and Heath bar mixins, and the icecream was delicious! We ended the day by watching more Firefly. A nice relaxing day.
Saturday:
The day started with homemade chocolate chip waffles, made by my friend Sarah. What could be a better way to start the day? M and I went back to Manhattan and unloaded our bags at our friend A’s before going to see Pygmalion.

The show let out about half an hour before we expected it to, so I convinced M to go to The Drama Bookshop with me. I bought way more than I should have:
The Viewpoints Book by Anne Bogart & Tina Landau
A Director Prepares by Anne Bogart
His Dark Materials by Nicholas Wright based on the novels by Philip Pullman (the ‘new’ edition, revised and with an introduction)
Rock ‘N’ Roll by Tom Stoppard
The Fever by Wallace Shawn (a signed copy! I didn’t nottice THAT until just now! Cool!)
Women Beware Women by Thomas Middleton

Dinner was with M, A, Sarah and I at Zen Palate. I had two different kinds of soy protein in my meal, and while I’m not stranger to soy – or to vegetarian food – I wasn’t the biggest fan of the mango entrée I got. M got ‘sweet and sour nuggets’ which were much tastier, and had a more enjoyable texture. After dinner it was off to Penn Station and home! I got some more knitting done on the train home, but then I made friends with my neighbor. Knitting can happen any time – train friends are unique.

Back home:
I’m glad to be back! Living in New York still holds an appeal for me, but I know realistically I wouldn’t be able to afford living anywhere I’d want to live. It was nice visiting friends and seeing art and having new food adventures. I do like travel, and I forget sometimes how much I miss it. It’s nice though, also, to be able to lounge around outside and enjoy the sounds of the birds (I heard our owl!) and of the trees moving. I’m not sure if I’m a city girl or a country girl, but for now, I think a nice mix of both is best.