Work in Progress--Convertible Gloves/Mittens

My boyfriend is one of those hearty northeastern folks who like to go the whole winter without a proper coat. Instead, he piles on layers of thermal shirts, button-ups and flannels and hopes for the best. A few years ago (before we were dating), I insisted on making him a hat. This winter, I decided he needs some gloves.

I combined two patterns to make fingerless gloves with a mitten flap. I used almost the entire pattern from the Flap-Top Mittens pattern from Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays. The other pattern is a fingerless glove pattern from, I believe, Weekend Knitting, which is another Melanie Falick title. I have knitted both of these patterns before, so I felt comfortable combining them. The only real adjustment to the Flap-Top Mitten pattern I had to make was that after I knitted the flap, I had to increase 12 sts so I would have the right number of stitches for the fingers. I did this by doing an m1 k1 m1 increase at the beginning and middle of the row (corresponding to the sides of the hand), followed by a row of all Knit stitches, until I had increased 12 stitches. Easy! Then I just followed the pattern for the fingers.

I don't have a clever name for these yet. Fingerless mittens? Glittens?

Two views of the same mitten. I'm still working on the second!

Six months of my life....

were dedicated to this baby blanket. My boss and his significant other are expecting their first child this October, and I, rather excitedly, decided to knit them a baby blanket. I figure that handmade baby items tend to carry more emotional weight; when I was a child, I was pretty attached to the crocheted blankets and hand-sewn quilts that my maternal Grandmother made me. I knew that it was going to be a big project, but I didn’t realize exactly how long it was going to take. I’m glad I chose the easiest type of blanket imaginable- it’s straight garter stitch, with no fancy borders, meaning I could basically zone out and watch the entire season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer while only having to pay attention to the colorwork. I read somewhere that newborn’s eyes can only really tell light from dark, and that high contrast colors would help them train their eyes to focus. I didn’t want to make a black and white blanket, so I chose two colors that would contrast nicely- pale yellow and dark blue. These colors are also the colors of the Brazilian soccer team, and since the mama-to-be is Brazilian and the father-to-be is a soccer fanatic, that worked out nicely, even though I didn’t plan it that way. Anyhow, I made the stripes in an alternating shuffle, so one end starts out blue and then the blanket fades to yellow, and vice versa!

I finished it with an hour to spare before I had to go to the baby shower! Frankly, after completing this task, I didn’t feel like knitting for a good long while, but unfortunately, with not a lot of disposable income lately, tons of yarn, and Christmas approaching, I have to get going on some presents for the family and the boyfriend. I find it pretty gratifying that, since finally learning how to knit two years ago (my aforementioned crafty Grandmother tried to teach me in vain when I was younger, but it never stuck), I’ve actually only made myself a scarf and a pair of gloves. Everything else has always been for other people! With that in mind, I did decide to sit down and make myself something new for the fall- a ribbed cowl. It’s already almost done, so I hope cooler weather will soon come to Louisiana so I can wear it out and about. Optimistically, fall will be here in about another month, but really, it most likely won’t be cool enough until November. Sigh.

Labor Day

Peach Cobbler with Farmers' Market peaches, ginger and cinnamon.

We served it with blueberries and vanilla soy dream. My entire Labor Day weekend basically revolved around my craving for Peach cobbler.

Homemade Scones and having a well-stocked kitchen

Even though they are almost exactly like muffins, which I make all the time, scones always seemed like the kind of thing I buy, not make. I have, until recently, felt this way about a whole slew of things that I now make, including pickles and barbeque sauce. This morning, the last friday before I start my last semester of grad school (woohoo!), I wanted to make breakfast. But because we crib most of our recipes off the internet and keep them in a stack of disorganized papers crammed in between copies of Veganomicon and the Joy of Cooking, I couldn't find our usual muffin recipe. So, scones. I scanned a few of our cookbooks, including Beard on Bread and the back-to-basics How it All Vegan. I found what I was looking for in the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook--a classic scone recipe, dense and slightly sweet and easily adaptable to whatever fruit or chocolate goodness you want to put in there. I adapted the recipe slightly (more oil so they would be thicker) and used blueberries instead of raisins. 4 C unbleached flour 1/4 c sugar 3 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1 1/2 C soy milk 1/2 C oil 1 C blueberries (thawed in sink if frozen, you don't want them to release too much water and thin out the scone) Preheat over to 400 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together. Make a well in the middle and add in wet ingredients and blueberries. You may have to knead with your hands a little, because scones form more of a dough than a batter. You can just spoon them onto a cookie sheet if you're feeling casual, or if you want something a little more presentable, roll out the dough so it is 1/2" thick and cut into wedges. The original instructions said to bake them at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes, but it seemed like my scones were going to burn on the outside before being completely cooked on the inside if I did that, so I lowered the temperature and ended up cooking them for about 20-25 minutes. They were perfectly cooked: dense on the inside and brown on the bottoms. Making these scones this morning also reminded me what a pleasure it is to have a well-stocked kitchen. I didn't have to run to the store for flour, sugar, or baking powder. We had blueberries in the freezer, ready for impromptu breakfasts. There was once a time when I would have bought flour and sugar in small quantities for very specific recipes, and each time it made cooking seem like a chore and it made it feel more expensive than going to the coffee shop and forking over $2.50 for a scone. Now, when I run out of flour, I buy more, and the same goes for sugar, vanilla, and a whole range of other ingredients for simple dinners, like beans, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, coconut milk, etc. Being able to open your cabinets and throw something together makes cooking a pleasure, and saves me the cost of running down to the overpriced "organic" corner store to purchase $5 tempeh or $4 boxes of pasta.