Happy 4th!

To get the weekend started off right, I celebrated with a little bit of this:

(Plus a few beers).

Two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock yarn in ‘Old Rose’ and ‘Spring Frost.’  Ewe & I got in two big bags of the stuff the other day, and after sticking price stickers on the labels, I couldn’t resist buying some.   Side note: Did I mention that I work there now?  Well, yes, yes I do.  Stop in and say ‘hey’ if you’re ever in Narberth.  And then I’ll direct you to the French Patisserie for some raspberry cookies.

I think these skeins are the beginnings of Christmas knitting, which will finally give me something new to blog about!  Imagine!  I could even return to bi-weekly posts, with substance

In related news:

301 hexagons down, 87 more to go.  So. Almost. There.

I’m off to Lancaster county to celebrate my nation’s birth with the oldest 4th of July celebration in the country.  Please, vote for me, Dulle Griet, for Lititz’s Queen of Candles ‘08!  Happy holiday, for those of you who celebrate it, and happy weekend, for those of you who don’t.

Well Trained

At work today it was brought to my attention that I have not blogged in a long while. Blame my absence on the hexagon blanket: while it is growing, it is not at an interesting blogging stage. And the other stuff I’m knitting right now are secret for one reason or another. After appeasing my blog-guilt by posting about food last time, I felt like it would be a cop-out to put up another non-knitting related post.

But this afternoon, my brother very kindly gave me something to post about!

Tom and my dad just flew in from here:

and brought my sister and I a little bit of this back home with them:

Mmmmm!

It should be said that although my nom-de-needles is Dutch, I am about as Dutch as the Amish of Pennsylvania. As I told a very annoying political telephone survey-er the other day, the nationality I identify with other than American is Irish. My mother’s family still lives on the west coast, and my dad’s family is from Northern Ireland. Beautiful, traditional yarn can be had for very cheap over there, so I’ve knit quite a few projects with Irish wool already. I don’t know what I’m going to do with this yet, but that heathered green is destined for greatness. I can smell it. It reeks of lanolin.

typical Dutch.

I’ve been thinking about/talking about/hankering after these for a long time.  And today I finally made them.

Poffertjes met Aardbeien en Slagroom

(poffertjes with strawberries and whipped cream)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup buckwheat flour

3/4 cup flour

1 cup room temperature milk (I used skim, and that’s fine)

1 egg (beaten)

2 tsp dried yeast

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

butter

powdered sugar

strawberries

whipped cream

Poffertjes pan, or another pan with little dips in it.

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the milk.

Sieve the buckwheat flour, regular flour and salt together into a medium sized mixing bowl.  Carve out a hole in the middle of the mixture.  Pour in milk & yeast a little at a time, slowly stirring all the while. Then add the egg and vanilla extract in the same manner.

Cover with a towel and let sit somewhere warmish for 15 minutes.

Put pan on high heat, butter the dips.  Pour batter in so that each dip is 1/2 way full.  When the bottom turns golden brown, flip and let the other side cook.   Flipping is easiest with a fork or chopsticks.

For the simplest way to serve the poffertjes, put them on a plate, add a bit of butter and cover in powdered sugar.  Add strawberries and whipped cream if you like.  These also taste great with chocolate sauce and strawberries… Or raspberries… Or apples and cinnamon…..

Poffertjes are best when you eat them hot, and the batter is a little gooey in the middle.   They’re usually eaten as a snack in the middle of the day,  but I think they’re so filling they’re better for brunch or as breakfast-for-dinner food.

Here they are in progress:

The original recipe is here, but I tweaked it to make them lighter, sweeter, and a little more flavorful.

Hexagon blanket update: 217 hexagons down, 187 to go.  I’ve decided to make it a queen sized blanket and just be in it for the long haul.

A meme?

The lovely Eliza tagged me for a meme, and as the hexagon blanket does not make for very exciting reading at this point, here you go:

First, a related photo:

(The view from my Glasgow residence.)

Ok, to the rules:

Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Now, the questions:
1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Um, 10 years ago I was 13 years old, and in 8th grade. This week I would have been leaving middle school for good, and I think I was saying good riddance. You all were middle-schoolers once, so I believe that’s ‘nough said.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

1. Clean the basement to make room for my studio stuff.
2. Meet with a lady who’s buying a painting.
3. Go to Williams-Sonoma and buy a poffertjes pan. (They say it’s for Ebelskiver, but I think those are only slightly larger than poffertjes, so I should be good.)
4. Do my laundry
5. Knit more on the hexagon blanket with some Noro Kureyon in new color-ways!!!!

3) Snacks I enjoy:

1. Tostito’s chips and salsa (mild)
2. Chocolate chip cookies
3. Pineapple
4. Guacamole
5. Ice cream- Ben & Jerry’s especially the kinds with chocolate chunks/ cookies in.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Move back to Glasgow.
2. Visit Galway and Mayo as much as I want. (I have nice family members there, and it’s absolutely beautiful.)
3. Establish many scholarships for Fine Arts Education.

5) Places I’ve lived:

1. Bryn Mawr, PA
2. Drexel Hill, PA
3. Havertown, PA
4. Baltimore, MD
5. Glasgow, Scotland
6. Groningen, the Netherlands

6) Six people I would like to tag are:

jenjerpeach, hadley, mariss, kate, lisa, and you!

Water, water…

…everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

Or, in my case time’s everywhere, but I’ve got none of it.  Classes are finished, but my week has been flying with all of the post-school tidying going on.  I’m moving out of my studio, and my sister and I are going to be sharing a living space.  With all this shuffling, I’ve  been thinking about organizing my stash.  Particularly as my sister is a knitter as well, and two merged stashes will not be any fun to separate when we move away from each other.

Which leads me to my first non-knitting-FO to be posted on the blog.  Also, the first object I’ve sewn since high school.  I’m not counting hemming pants, patching things, and the like.  It’s a DPN case!

The seams are wonky, the button hole’s a little goofy, and the fabric is bunched, but it does the trick.  And I didn’t buy anything to make it.  The fabric is scraps from Sean’s blanket, a few fat quarters from a fabric store near my boyfriend’s house, and some old scrap bed sheets.  I found the button in my tin- it is probably circa 1970.  Amazing.

And the hexagon blanket has progressed to this:

It’s getting harder and harder to photograph the whole thing.   Right now, it’s spread out on a queen sized bed.  Those odd patches sticking off the edges are where my last full round of hexagons are going to go.  After that, I’ll be filling out the corners and doing a bit of edging.  I’m down to my last ball of kureyon today, but I have a plan for how I’m going to afford to finish this blanket… you’ll see more on that later, I’m sure.

And a big, huge thank you to everyone who bought my Nora Pullover pattern so far.  It’s great to know that people are interested, and as a result, I’m a happy camper.

Nora- the new pattern

A month of finals meant that a lot (a lot) of items have been added to my to-do list. Some with deadlines, others without (looks like I’m going to have to wait another week before attending knitting circle at Rosie’s). Publishing this pattern means I can check one item off my list!

Nora

Specs:

1 set size US 7 double pointed needles

1 size US 7 circular needle

tapestry needle

Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in:

Sky: 3, [5] skeins

Drift: 2, [4] skeins

Fern: 1, [1] skein

Thistle: 1, [1] skein

Shrimp: 1, [1] skein

Nora is knit in Blue Sky Dyed Cotton and is available in two sizes: Size 1 (fits 30-38″ busts), and Size 2 (40-48″ busts). Here’s where you say: “What? Only two sizes?? How can that work?”

Well, the lace pattern is very, very stretchy, and forms to the curves of the figure. Please note that both of the models seen above are wearing the same sweater (Size 1). The petite lass on the left wears an XS/S, and on the right you see myself, and my 38″ bust. A miracle of modern knitting, no?

The pattern is a 5 page PDF, complete with written instructions, color charts, and lace charts.

You can follow this link to buy the pattern for $4.00 US through the blog.

Payments can be made with Pay Pal. I’m still working on sorting out my Ravelry store so it can accept money. Until then, only the free patterns are available for download at the store. When you buy through the blog, Pay Pal will notify me that you’ve sent the money to my account, and I’ll email you a PDF download of the pattern within 24 hours. And, of course, once you buy the pattern I am here for you support wise.

Thanks!

Hexagon Blanket Errata!

As the lovely Lisa just pointed out, the number of stitches you chose per side must be EVEN.  I’ve updated the tutorial itself with the correction, but I thought I should make a post to let you know as well.  I imagine that if you’ve already chosen an odd number of stitches to work, when you get to the last 2 rows you could do something like this:

Row 1: K1, K2tog

Row 2: K2tog

Gratuitous photo of chocolate:

“Bobby’s Garden” Hexagon Blanket Tutorial

I am naming this pattern after my friend Bobby. He doesn’t have a garden, but I think he’d use a blanket like this for having pancake picnics and building forts.

Materials:

Yarn: So much Noro Kureyon that you can barely breathe. Or pay next month’s rent.

Colors: I’ve discovered that Noro uses a lot of the same colors over and over again, combining them in different ways. Given that fact and the patchy-collaged nature of the blanket, it doesn’t really matter what color-ways you chose to use, just go with what looks right. My rules for selecting color-ways are:

1. No yellow or bright orange. If I like a color-way that has yellow or orange in it, I break off the yarn and tie it up to the next color that appears.
2. All skeins must have a shade of green in them. This usually also means that there will be purple or pink in the skeins, and it keeps things a little unified.

Needles: 1 set DPNS- I used US size 5, for a nice dense fabric. If you want to knit the gauge Noro recommends, I think you need US size 7’s.

Yarn needle.

1:

Remember that hexagons are made up of six sides. Easy right? Ok, good. Since this is a blanket, you can really go with whatever size hexagons you want. I try and limit each hexagon to having 1 or 2 colors- this keeps things neater and keeps the color changes from overwhelming the blanket pattern, or looking too much like targets. Do yourself a favor and swatch a full hexagon to see how many color changes you get, this way you can see what you like and go from there.

Absolutely Indispensable Rule: The total number of stitches you cast on for your hexagons must be divisible by 6.  The number of stitches you chose for the sides must be EVEN as well.  For instance, you can have 10 stitches per side, but not 11. Obvious, I know, but so important. Casting on anywhere from 20-12 stitches per side should get you a healthy sized, evenly colored hexagon. Again, SWATCH. Gauge is not an issue here, it’s a blanket! You just want to make sure too many colors aren’t appearing in each hexagon block.

2:

Cast on! For your first hexagon cast on the full number of stitches you’ve settled upon. This means 6 x 20, or 6 x 12, whatever. If you’re using DPNs, distribute the stitches over four needles so that needle 1 has the equivalent of 2 sides worth of stitches on it, needle 2 has one side of stitches, needle 3 has 2 sides of stitches, and needle 4 has 1 side of stitches. If you chose to use circulars, just keep in mind how many stitches per side.

For all other hexagons: From the second hexagon onward, you’ll need to cast on for the free standing sides, and you’ll need to pick up stitches along the sides of the pre-existing hexagons for the bits that are connected.

3:

Yeah, I know, that last bit wasn’t very clear. Hopefully this photo will straighten things up for you. Below my right hand, you can see the stitches cast on for the free standing sides. In my left hand, you can see the stitches that I’ve picked up for the beginning of the connected sides.

For hexagon #2, you’ll cast on for 5 sides, and pick up for 1. For hexagon #3, you’ll cast on for 4 sides, and pick up for 2. And so on, and so on.

4:

When you’ve finished casting on/picking up, your needles should look a bit like this. You can see that I have 5 needles here. This is because I’ve begun working round one.

To work the insides of your hexagons, you want to keep the number of stitches you’ve allotted per side in mind. For the sake of writing this pattern out I’m going to pretend we chose 10 as the number of stitches per side.

Round 1: K2tog, K 6, SSK, repeat until end of round (see, 10 stitches total?)

Round 2: K

Round 3: K2tog, K4, SSK, repeat until end of round

Round 4: K

Round 5: K2tog, K2, SSK, repeat until end of round

Round 6: K

Round 7: K2tog, SSK, repeat until end of round

Round 8: K2tog

Then break off the yarn from the ball with about a 3″ tail. Thread the tail through a yarn needle, and loop the yarn through your 6 remaining stitches. Tighten so the center closes. On the wrong side, knot the yarn. Weave in ends. Hexagon done.

No matter how many stitches you’ve chosen per side, the pattern will work this way, you’ll just have a few more of the beginning rounds to work. If you’re getting a nipple effect after you tie off your final 6 stitches, then eliminate the last K round.

*******************************************

I am going to publish the final blanket pattern as a PDF. This probably won’t be until July. I have to finish my version first so that I can get all the yarn amounts, make a few charts, and write down all the color-ways. If this tutorial isn’t specific enough for you, or if you want to wait until I’m done to see how to treat the edgings, etc, then let me know and I’ll email you when the final pattern is written.

For those of you who are going to use this as a spring board for your own blankets- Good luck, and please let me know how it goes!

Copyright 2008 Dulle Griet. All rights reserved. Do not knit or otherwise reproduce this information for resale.

mary, alice, sean, and liz

Mary was my maternal great-grandmother. She made this:

A pineapple lace chair-top doily, crocheted with teeny-tiny yarn. My Grandmom says it was made around 1940. I don’t know much about Mary, but I do know she and her mother, Alice Gallagher, both taught knitting to women in the community. I also know that Alice knit a new sweater for each of her grand kids every year- that’s something like 12 sweaters a year. What a lady, eh?

Sean is my newest family member, he’s six and a half months old. My sister Liz and I made him this:

Sorry for the blurry photo- we were in a rush to give him the present. A full 6.5 months late, but we were still hurrying.

Specs: Sort of like Mason Dixon Knitting’s Bunch a Squares blanket, before I screwed it up. Looking at Kay’s original makes me want to try this pattern again, but bigger, and you know, actually following the directions.

Yarn: Elann.com’s Sonata (100% Mercerized Cotton)- 2 different shades of red, 2 greens, 4 blues, 1 yellow, and 5 skeins of beige

Gauge: 22 sts = 4 in

Finished size: 25 x 25″

Extras: 1.24 yards Kaffe Fassett’s shot cotton in green for the back

Notes: Yes, this blanket is hella-wonky. Liz lives three hours away during the school year, so we both knit the squares individually and then I sewed them up. Apparently, we agreed that the blocks would be 9 x 9″, but my brain forgot this at about square number 2, and I began knitting to 8 x 8.” Whoops.

When I pieced them together, I staggered the blocks and managed to make a fairly even square out of them. Liz knit the border in seed stitch, and then I backed the whole thing in the green cotton so we wouldn’t have to worry about having neat ends. That’s right, we cheated big time. What would Mary have said? Good thing we know Sean really doesn’t care.

The yarn, Elann Sonata, is fine for the purpose, but I don’t think I’d ever use it again. It’s machine washable (score!) and is dirt cheap (double score!). But the mercerized cotton is super shiny, and it feels kind of gross and squeaky while knitting. I think Liz liked the yarn a little better than I did, but we both agreed that if money weren’t an object, we would have used Blue Sky Organic Cotton. Next time, next time.

Sean’s going to be the last baby in our clan for a while, so we’ll have plenty of time to hoard Blue Sky scraps for the next incarnation of this blanket. Where, I promise, I will stick to the predetermined block size.

P.S.:  Thanks for all the comments on last week’s sweater!  I’m going to post the pattern any day now….

Done, and done.

Oh, Blog!  How I have neglected you!

But now, school’s finishing up, and soon I’ll be writing up the patterns for all the projects I’ve been posting about.  Here are a few photos of the most recent pull-over:

A tutorial on the Noro blanket, a stuffed badger, and a few patterns coming soon…