Tag Archives: Friday knitting group

That Sarah!!!!!!!!!

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A week ago, Sarah pops up after a couple of weeks’ absence at Friday Morning Knitting and doesn’t she just have way too many things for show and tell! Little show off!

That Sarah!

First, she pulls out this adorable yellow baby sweater. It is made with Green Mountain Spinnery’s Cotton Comfort and the pattern is the yarn company’s Grandma’s Delight, which requires only two skeins, making it cheapo cheapo. Check out the buttons – if you can – they are Beatrix Potter bunnies – Peter Rabbit himself, I am sure. The whole thing is just so damn cute ya wanna puke – or knit one yourself. I can tell you, Sheri went online via her iPhone within an hour to downloaded the pattern, came to K2Tog while I was working and picked up some sale yarn to make her own. Sweel. Now I gotta make one.

Okay, as if that was not enough to impress us all, next out of her bag comes

Cusco Vest

this gorgeous dusty purple vest. It’s called The Cusco Vest and is from the book Knitted Jackets with Style by Cheryl Oberle. She made with it Cascade Pastaza. We all just loved the color on her, and the drape of the front collar was particular flattering. Sarah was worried she should perhaps close the front collar with a shawl pin, but we all thought that made it look dowdy – a “look what I knit” kind of thing. But without, we though the line and drape of the front was quite elegant. Beyotch.

But what really chapped my butt was the last piece she pulled out – a baby blanket or throw done in a simple but elegant basketweave pattern. But here’s the thing – the beyotch AGAIN spun the yarn herself and then knit the damn thing. Yeah. That’s right. She bought the fleece n one of her annual forays to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It was a 2 lb. “Jacob” fleece. Sarah could not say how many yards that translated into, but it was enough for this gorgeous rug/lapthrow/baby blanket.

We hate her, right? Well, we would if she wasn’t also just one of the nicest, most generous and funny people we know. I love you, Sarah.

Italian Food Fest

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Last Saturday evening, my Friday morning knitting group, which has been meeting for at least 6 years, first at Skein

Around Karen's Table

Lane and now at Skein Lane Studio, carried the Friday morning festivities over into Saturday night for the first of what we hope will be a regular international food themed meeting complete with knitting and adult beverages. For our first gala, we met at the home of Karen King for a table-groaning array of Italian goodies.

I drank it before I could take the pic

We started with some drinkipoos – my favorite – with Merle mixing up some Campari cocktails. I had two (2!!!!!) of these beauties as I was making the marinara sauce and heating up the bolognese. Merle’s recipe is an equal mix of Campari, orange juice and sparkling water or club soda served on the rocks with a slice of lime. YUMMA. They were light and refreshing – never mind that Cameron thinks Campari tastes like chalk -  and made me think of Italy. Actually, everything makes me think of Italy these days as May will make it 1 year since Terry and I were there. I’d kill to go again. Thus, I think, I wanted to make Italian food for my friends.

While I was cooking, we opened up the appetizers folks brought. These were just delicious – very filling and could have

Sheri's Arancini

been a meal on their own just because of the quality, never mind the quantity. Sheri made a savory arancini – a ball of risotto filled with a dollop of melted mozzarella cheese. These were GREAT!!!! She also made a yummy plate of asparagus spears

asparagus

wrapped in prosciutto and baked in the oven – a really nice gesture from a vegetarian! They were also delicious. Hell wrap bacon around a pencil and I’d probably eat it. Janie Rose brought a plate of phylo dough stars with a spoonful of sundried tomato yumminess in the center. YEAH BABY. But as her

Janie Rose's phylos

husband made them (keep that guy, Janie), I don’t have the recipe. And Jean made a dish called “Deviled Shrimp” that several us felt was like a shrimp ceviche.

Jean's Deviled Shrimp

To make it, you will need:

2 lbs medium raw shrimp (Jean bought hers cooked at Tokyo Fish Market)

1 lemon, thinly sliced

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

2 small cans black olives

2 T chopped pimiento

1/4 C vegetable oil

Merle and the drinkipoos

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T dry mustard

1 T salt

1/2 C lemon juice

1 ! red wine vinegar

1 bay leaf, crumbled

dash of cayenne

chopped parsley

Shell and devein shrimp. Bring 1 qt salted water to a boil, add shrimp and cook for 3 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water, drain and set aside. In bowl, combine lemon, onion, olives and pimiento and toss well. Combine oil, garlic, mustard, salt, lemon juice, vinegar, bay leaf, cayenne and parsley and add to bowl with lemon mixture. Arrange shrimp on a plate and pour marinade over. Cover and chill no longer than 3 hours.

I was responsible for the main course, a pasta bolognese and a smaller pot of marinara sauce for the 2 vegetarians in our group. Whatever! I made the bolognese 3 days ahead so its flavors could sit and meld and mingle, and I made the marinara at Karen’s house because I don’t think that gets better with age.  The marinara recipe came out of Lidia Cooks from the Heart Of Italy, a cookbook I got for Christmas last year.

The finished meal

Now, as for the bolognese. I combined two or three different recipes, taking things from each that I thought sounded good. Here is my best approximation of  what I made – and I doubled the amounts below.

Bolognese Sauca

1.5 lbs ground meat, preferably organic, grass-fed. Mine comes from Marin Sun Farms

1.5  lbs ground pork, preferably organic. Ditto above.

2 T olive oil

8 cloves garlic, preferably fresh

4 ounces pancetta, housemade if you can get it. Mine comes from A.G. Ferrari

2 C white wine

Sheri

1 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 28-ounce cans of whole Italian tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, passed through a food processor to crush

2 bay leaves

Drunkipoos

2 C red wine, preferably Chianti

1/2 C tomato paste

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese rind

red pepper flakes

sea salt

pepper

1 C milk

fresh oregano

fresh basil

1. Combine meats and white wine. Cover and chill overnight.

2. Heat oil in Dutch oven or other large, deep pot. Add pancetta, garlic and veggies. Saute until onion is translucent

Sheri, Sarah, Janie Rose

and pancetta is browned.

3. Add meat. Cook until meat is browned and almost all liquid has evaporated. If there is a lot of liquid, you may drain it off.

4. Add tomato paste, tomatoes, red wine, cheese rind, red pepper flakes and bay leaves. Cook over low-medium heat for a good while – several hours if you can. Let the liquid reduce. It is good if you can store it in fridge overnight and heat up again the next day.

5. About an hour before serving, add in chopped fresh basil and oregano to taste. Add in milk and let cook. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over a good quality, meaty pasta. We used Rustichella d’Abruzzo pappardelle, which can be bought at The Pasta Shop or Andronico’s. YUM.

When we finally sat down to dinner we had two delicious, crisp salads provided by Carolyn and ????? YOUR NAME

Cheers

HERE! And Karen made – MADE – Italian bread. For me, this was incredibly good – even better than some from the excellent bakeries we have in the East Bay. Karen, too, has been non-responsive in sending the recipe, so I’ll kick her butt when I see her Friday and try and re-post.

About halfway thru dinner, we decided our nest food fest would be Mexican, would be in July, and would be at Cameron’s house (MARGARITAS!!!!). About then, Karen’s husband Chris came in and just stopped dead at the table,  aghast at the bounty before him . . .

We took pity and fed him

Sarah's Lemon Bars

The Ellen Vest

Just before dessert, Karen surprised Ellen with a birthday present – an original design called the Ellen Vest she had knit up for her. It is beautiful! As soon as Karen published it, I will post a link.

For dessert, we had lemon bars (Sarah), cream puffs (Jan) and chocolate hazelnut torte (Cameron). Everyone worried that their dessert had not set properly, or was too gooey – AS IF THAT COULD EVER BE A PROBLEM WITH DESSERT – and I think we all had a piece of each. Cameron did not make hers, so I can’t give you the recipe, but here’s a link to Jan’s (and a link to the vanilla custard she filled them with)  and here’s a copy of Sarah’s . . . .

Lemon Bars:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter

Mix together with hands until crumbly. Pack into 8"x8" glass pan. Bake at 350 for 20 min.

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 T lemon juice (or 3/4 T with 1/4 t lemon rind)
(I used more because I used meyer lemons and I did include some rind too).

Beat together for 5 min. Pour over baked bottom layer. Bake at 300-350 for 20-25 min until set.
Don't overbake. The topping puffs during baking and falls away upon cooking.
Sprinkle top with confectioner's sugar.




Jan's Cream Puff



 



Cameron's Torte

The Yarn Overdose that is Known as Stitches

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Oh boy. We did it. We gals in the Skein Lane Friday morning group went to Santa Clara to attend Stitches and we

Jan and Sheri, after one bloody mary

survived. Barely. It was wonderful! A few highlights – bloody marys in the hotel bar at noon; bloody marys in the hotel bar at 5; wine in our rooms, dinner at Piatti‘s and more yarn and fun than should be legal for adult women to have without a license. It was great. Here’s my very subjective recap of some of the great things I saw and bought.

Miss Purl

I have a lot of yarn. And I work in a yarn store. So I don’t necessarily go to Stitches to buy, buy, buy. I do go to get inspired. And I go to admire the creative minds of vendors and other knitters. That said, the first place I opened my wallet was a little tiny booth – a half of a booth – taken by “Miss Purl,” a young lady named Danielle Dowhaniuk who makes and sells stitch markers. Now, lots of people make and sell stitch markers. I could make and sell stitch markers. But what separated her from the pack was her packaging – each set came with a tin, coordinating decoupaged tin, many of them decorated with pretty washi and other handmade papers. Some also had pin-up girls from the 1940s on them. They were DARLING. And, you could buy just the tins, which I did – three of

I gave one away

them!

Another half-booth I was very impressed with was Feltz Etc, where designer Carol Galasso was featuring her spectacular knitted and felted bags. Now, again, you can’t swing a 32″ circular needle with a dead cat on the end at Stitches without hitting a felted bag. But these were different. For one thing, they did not look like a knitter raided the bottom of her stash for old bits of sparkly crap that may or may not match. These things had design. They had shape. They had thought behind them. And they were very reasonably priced. The bag I liked best was a heathered teal blue number that came with lining fabric, feet, buckles, etc and was only $50. Carol sells her completed bags and her kits on her Etsy store, which I have linked to above. Go and take a look. She’s also on Ravelry, and her name is FeltzEtc.

Janelle at Snicklefritz

Another place I stopped was Snicklefritz Yarns where designer Janelle Gunther hand dyes her yarns. Again, there is more hand-dyed sock yarn at Stitches than a whole league of knitters chould work through in their lifetimes. But to my eye, there was something special about Janelle’s. Plus I liked that she’s a local gal – she dyes in Pleasanton, Calif., – and she has a set of gnomes she travels with.  This guy in the picture has been to such hots spots as Utah and Norway, Janelle reported. Here’s a picture of the yarn I bought from her in colorway “Diesel Gnome.” It is a blend of merino, bamboo and nylon and is superwash, of couse. I love it. Janelle also has a blog and her Ravelry name is Nannyknits.

my Snicklefritz

Where to next? I must tell you about a wonderful experience I had at Stitches which reinforced my belief that knitters can save the world. Last year, I bought myself a rather expensive set of handmade wooden cocobolo needles from Asciano Fiberarts Tools. I utterly loved them – a size 5 lace-point set of circulars that felt like sex when you knit with them. I am not kidding. I made several things with them – and then broke the needle at the join. I can’t remember what I was trying to do with them at the time – manipulate a bobble? force a slipped stitch over something? But I remember I was really forcing it and when they snapped, I thought, Oh, Kimberly, why did you do that with a wooden needle? Now, Deborah Doyle, the brains and artistry behind Asciano,  guarantees her needles. But I really felt it was my fault they broke. So I wandered into her booth, picked up a pair of the demo needles and began knitting, trying to work out whether I wanted to buy another pair or wait til next year. While I was knitting, a customer came up and asked if I liked them. I said, yes, I liked them – they felt as good as sex. She bought a pair. Another person asked me the same question, similar answer and I think she bought a pair, too. Then Deborah told a customer she was helping to ask me if I liked them because I had said I owned a pair, right? I said, well, sort of right. I did own a pair but I broke them. And I told her I thought it was completely my fault. And do you know what she did? She asked me what size, what tips, and she gave me a new set of needles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People, this is how you run a small business. This is how you make customers for life. I hugged and kissed her, told her I’d blog about her and her fabulous needles, and now I want to tell you all that you should buy these needles. They are the only wooden needles I like (and I way more than like them) and I plan to buy myself a pair every year. AND her needles are made by a small family group in Mexico, so it’s a good thing to do! She also has spindles, crochet hooks and straight needles. Go and check out Asciano – and tell Deborah Kimberly and her size 5s say hello.

Who else did I buy from? OH! I loved the buttons – the kind you pin on, with a slogan, not the kind you use to close a sweater – offered by Laura Lundy of Slipped Stitch Studios. Here are some examples of her work:

“I knit because I am smarter than you.”

“Yes, I am a knitter, No, you may not touch me.”

“Yarn Ho.”

“Yes, I sniff yarn.”

I bought all of those! Laura has an Etsy store, too, so go and buy a couple of these and some cool project bags, which I also admired.

Jan and Sheri and I dropped into BagSmith‘s booth, where we admired their, ahem, bags. I was particularly taken with

Becca Smith of BagSmith!

a travel bag they had – not really for knitting, but you know how you can never find the right purse/travel bag? Well, they had one. I hope you can find it in their online store – it was called The Travellers Bag and sold for $35. It had two separate places for currency – one for your bucks and one for your Euros, or whatever. Wish I had this when I went to Italy. Jan and Sheri each bought another of their knitting bags, beautiful shoulder bags in metallic pink and purple. Lovely – and at $20 the steal of the show! BagSmith is very into big-needle knitting and crochet and we got a private Tunisian crochet demo. Which was very cool because Becca Smith, who is BagSmith, gave us the demo, just as she did on Knitting Daily TV – so we were in the presence of a knitting celebrity! HI BECCA!!!!

And I bought some lovely undyed silk from AffectionKnit, who came from Canada for the show. This was the day

AffectionKnit yarn

before the US-Canada hockey final, and I sad “GO CANADA” as I left as a way of expressing my joy in the Olympics. What can I say? I am an idiot. I plan to use this to make another version of the Lead or Follow scarf I purchased at the Beehive Wool Store when I was in Victoria, B.C. last year. Maybe I just had Canada on the brain. Anyway, Affectionknit had some lovely yarn and they were giving away a free pattern with a purchase of some. I got this really nice “Silky Twizzle Scarf” pattern, which I will use with a different yarn. Nice! Thanks, Canada!

Socks that Rock!

What else? I bought some Socks that Rock  from because, quite frankly, they do. I got a skein of lightweight in the colorway “Grimm’s Willow Wren.” I also ducked into Margit Sage’s Fiber Fiend booth, as I said I would in my previous post, and picked up that lovely Colette pattern. I also bought her Multnomah Falls pattern, which I can’t show you here because it will be mailed to me March 9. But you can go to Fiber Fiend’s online store and check it out – it is listed in the left column. I think it is interesting that I bought 3 patterns at the show and two of them were from Margit. She does good work.

Okay. That’s a long blog entry. I gotta go knit. I will blog later this week about the fun we had.

I’ve Been Busy . . .

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. . . making stuff. When I haven’t been chasing dogs and acting as a referee for them. Sigh. It’s getting better everyday, but I be tired.

Here are some of the things I have made lately.

Pearl mandala

I seem to be really attracted to beading and making circular items right now. Is there some broader message in this? Am I on a wheel just spinning and spinning? Or is it that all my beads are round, so circles come naturally? Nah. I think I just like circles. I call this the Pearl Mandala and  I just posted it for sale on Etsy.  I was inspired by some vintage Miriam Haskell jewelry I inherited from my step-father’s aunt, who was a costume jewelry saleswoman. It’s made of pink moonstone, Swarovski glass pearls, size 11 and 15 seed beads and green quartz.

Like I said, circles, circles, circles. Here’s another one . . .

Amber Mandala

I call this one the Amber mandala. It is  based on a design by Takako Samejima.

I haven’t done as much as I had hoped to, largely because my desk has looked like this:

Scary, huh? It’s somewhat better now. Now there is room for the computer.EEEEEEK!

I haven’t featured the things some of my Friday Knitting Group friends have been working on, so let’s do that now. Below is a picture of Barbara’s “Great American Afghan,” which she has turned into a lap quilt and just about finished . . .

Barbara!

And below here is a sweater Merle made for her great nephew, Abel.

Merle!

I wrote about this little sweater, from Green Mountain Spinnery, before, complete with links to the yarn company’s website where you can purchase both the pattern and the yarn. It has options for trains, cars and boats, I believe – every little boy’s dream.

I’ve been knitting a number of things. I just finished the first of a pair of socks designed by Cookie A from her new book, Sock Innovations, which my son Chris gave me for Christmas. I am using Dream In Color  “Smooshy” purchased at Hill Country Weavers in Austin, Texas. I like the pattern  – a kind of barbershop pole of lace – very much. Cookie A’s designs are quite interesting and keep you going all the way through. But the flip side of that is you begin to long for some idiot knitting, so after I finished this first one, I picked up a ball of Malabrigo sock yarn in Tiziano Red and began a very basic sock of my own design, using Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I am using a baby mock cable stitch and will post the how-to here when I am done.

Skein Lane Retreat

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Off we go - Sheri, Jan and Sally

Off we go - Sheri, Jan and Sally

Last Friday, I had the good fortune to be one of 42 knitters to head off to the glorious Point Reyes National Seashore area for a two-night Skein Lane Retreat with Sally Melville and Nancy Bush. I have attended several Skein Lane Retreats before – two with Chris Bylsma, one with Melissa Leapman – and all were lots of fun, lots of work and lots of inspiration. But this weekend’s trip was my favorite, by far. I would even call it revolutionary in terms of my knitting.

We left on Friday morning – me, my friends Jan and Sheri and Sally Melville, who spent the night before the retreat at my house (shall I auction off the sheets?). We took my “senior fun bus,” otherwise known as my minivan, and headed out through a very foggy morning, across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, over which we could see nothing but the grey gauze of the fog, and on out to Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. But once we hit West Marin County, the fog disappeared and there we were driving through the green field and the deeply shaded redwood forests that make that part of the San Francisco Bay Area among my favorites.

Our first stop was in Olema, where I showed the girls the beautiful back yard behind the

We walk the plank (bridge)

We walk the plank (bridge)

Point Reyes Seashore Lodge and Conference Center. Why did I do this? Both Sheri and Jan are big hikers (okay, Jan is a big hiker) and it is hard to tell people how to find the path that leads from this yard over a creek and a fence, through a cow pasture and on to Bear Valley Trail. The four of up tip-toed over the plank bridge that spans the creek and navigated our slippery way up a damp slope to the pasture. There was the mountain looking at us – a great intro to the area and the weekend.

Pine Cone Diner

Pine Cone Diner

Next we drove into Point Reyes Station, as no trip to this part of the Bay Area is complete without a stop at Black Mountain Artisans. The owner, Marlie de Swart, has been making and selling her fabulous knits and ceramics for as long as I can remember. We got lots of inspiration here and promised to see Marlie and Mimi, owner of Windrush Farm, at the retreat that night, where they would both be talking about their individual approaches to wool. Then we met up with Carolyn, our fabulous hostess and owner of Skein Lane, and Nancy Bush. We had lunch at the Pine Cone Diner – “good food, prickly service” – and on to Cowgirl Creamery – another must-do here. I picked us up some Pierce Point, Mt. Tam and Red Hawk cheeses (all handmade on the premises) and off we went to the retreat.

We buy cheese!

We buy cheese!

The Marconi Conference Center, where the retreat has been held for years, is on the north side of Tomales Bay. As we drove along the winding shore of the bay, we saw alpacas, horses, cows, bay birds and lots of boats. The conference center sits on a hill overlooking the bay and is woven with paths over and among the hills, many with beautiful views, all padded with pine needles. We checked in – my gang was in Sandpiper 104 for the second year in a row – and set off to find a place with a view to sit and knit. Boy, did we ever find it.

The view

The view

DNS - "Does Not Suck"

DNS - "Does Not Suck"

At about 4, it became time for some adult beverages, so back to our room we went for some, and, thanks to our roommate Cameron, who brought a small stereo system, some fabulous tunes. We were joined by the girls from our Friday knitting group – Ellen, Karen, Emily (an honorary member) and by Sally and Nancy, who both immediately decided they had to have some of this fabulous cheese to take home. The knitting came out, and we partied down, glasses in one hand, yarn in the other.

At 6, we all trudged up the hill – the mountain! – to the dining hall. The tables were set for the two groups conferring this weekend – us crazy knitters and a group of faculty member from the University of San Francisco. GUESS WHO WAS MORE FUN???? As usual, the food was good – but any food I do not have to shop for, cook and clean up after is good food. I had barbecued ribs and vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce. Yum!

Foooooooood

Foooooooood

After dinner, we all made “the Trek.” The Treacherous Trek, as it might best be called. This is the journey all retreat knitters must make from their rooms on the hill to Buck Hall halfway don to the road. There are three paths you can take, Grasshopper, but all of them require a flashlight. And durance brave. But once you get there, an oasis of knitting fun awaits you. The hall is lit, warm and full of fibers for you to buy and try. And there are 42 women – (and one token man, a spouse who apparently couldn’t be trusted to stay home on his own for what was his birthday weekend!) – just as addicted to the stuff as you are. Heaven!

In Buck Hall

In Buck Hall

This first night at Buck Hall is given over to introductions, first of Sally and Nancy, who sat knitting away in the back, and then to Marlie and Mimi, who brought with them many excellent wonders and goodies – piles of yarn that they had sheared, spun and dyed for our knitting pleasure. There was angora, merino, goat locks, silk, wool and bamboo. There was worsted weight, lace weight, bulky weight. There was drool. Mimi talked first about how she had given up her life in Berkeley to buy a farm – a lifelong

Mimi!

Mimi!

dream – where she now raises sheep and alpacas and holds spinning, dying and weaving classes. She took American sheep farmers to task for not raising more sheep for their wool than for their meat (alas, but they taste so good, too!). Then Marlie gave us an exhibition of art sweaters she had recently shown in a

Marlie's art sweaters

Marlie's art sweaters

gallery. There were audible gasps of pleasure and joy.

We surprised Marlie and Mimi with a fashion show of things we had made with yarn purchased from them in previous years. This was so much fun, and I hope it was better than any verbal “thank you.” There were hats and sweaters, ponchos and afghans, scarves and neckwarmer-thingies. All were luscious to the feel and beautiful to the eye.

The Marlie and Mimi Fashion Show

The Marlie and Mimi Fashion Show

THEN THE SHOPPING FRENZY TOOK HOLD AND THERE WAS PANIC IN THE AISLES!!!! Okay, not really. But it was really fun! People bought a lot of cool stuff. And we left a little bit for the rest of you, which you can purchase from Marlie at Black Mountain Artisans, or from Mimi, who has a table at the Point Reyes farmer’s market every Saturday – conveniently located just across the street from Black Mountain. GO THERE.

Windrush Goodies!

Windrush Goodies!

Marlie's Goodies!

Marlie's Goodies!

After the shopping frenzy passed, it was time for us students to introduce ourselves. And this was one of my favorite times of the weekend! This year, we were joined by some really wonderful first-time retreaters. There were two sets of sisters, one woman who had only been knitting for about two years (more on her later), and one woman who found out about the retreat THE NIGHT BEFORE and was lucky enough to get a place due to a last-minute cancellation. The distance award went to a woman who came all the way from the Bahama Islands. Now, that’s a knitter!

Then the trecherous trek again – uphill, in the dark (both ways!) and we hit the sack. Breakfast was at seven (HAHAHAHAHA) and class was to begin at 9. Check back for more. And just for fun, one more picture . . . .

Fall foliage outside our rooms

Fall foliage outside our rooms