pepperknit

Happy New Year, all! The past month has been an absolute whirlwind of travel, fun, visits, and parties, and I’m just now finally starting to settle down. I’m back in Singapore for the month of January (the switch to Food Blog will commence!), but first we need to weave in some loose ends.

Christmas really really snuck up on me this year, as I know it did a lot of you. Stupid late Thanksgiving! Also, this was the first year I have done Xmas with anyone other than my nuclear family. Which meant I needed gifts for a whole branch of my family. Somehow, I whipped them all out in the two weeks before the holiday—three of them in the three DAYS before Christmas.

After finishing that 2×2 hat in Manos, I just ignored knitting for a while. But in a spurt of productivity, I knit a Koolhaas in two nights. The more complex pattern was always intended for my Uncle Mark, of course, host of our holiday gathering:

Note the deep-fryer in the background! Christmas dinner was a deep-fried turkey. I may have found the sole reason to move to the suburbs.

And then I hit this downward spiral of bad planning and even worse time management. Ultimately I did manage two more FOs, both completed on December 24 (one started that morning!).

This 2×2 hat was for my cousin Patrick, whose head is huge. The fact that it goes on his head is accomplishment enough for me!

My cousin Meaghan got a bulky moebius cowl in seed stitch. Back after Thanksgiving I’d seen Carrie knit one off a pattern, and I liked it enough that I “unvented” it for myself. I estimated about 22″ around, put in a twist, and knit until it looked tall enough. I never even measured it. It’s not as wide as Carrie’s, but it fits nicely.

Also knit but ultimately a total FAIL was a pair of fingerless gloves for my aunt, whose hands didn’t fit in them. Luckily (?) I only finished one of them. So I’m back to square one there. I have them with me and have already made progress on reknitting them.

Still, all in all, I couldn’t believe I finished ANYTHING in time! Go me! This brings my total FO count for 2008 up to new highs. I’m pretty thrilled. Recap for the year to be posted soon!

You know how sometimes you just suddenly want something new—a diversion, an idle fancy, a fling—and before you know it you’ve gone and done it?

Last night I got the urge to cast on with this Manos that has been in my stash forever. And tonight I finished a simple watchcap that I’m now in love with. I had a recipient in mind, but seeing as how I’m sitting in my roasting hot apartment still wearing it, I may have some trouble parting with it.

2×2 hat
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay
Color: 105
Skeins: 1
Needles: US 8
Cast on 108, knit for just over 5 inches, then started decreasing. Did in multiples of 12 to start, and worked a blank row (no decreasing) between decrease rows until there were 5 stitches between decreases. Then I picked up the pace and decreased every round, til there were 9 stitches. Drew through, and called this baby finito.

As always, most thankful for the food

But also for the friends!

Happy belated Thanksgiving, all!

The brick down here in Bay Ridge is different. It’s darker, or redder, or arranged differently—I can’t quite put my finger on it. But it’s distinctive and really pretty. And when I fell in love with this wall, I knew immediately I needed to knit something and take my FO shots in front of it. And now. The yarn I bought at Webs was the perfect color, and the geometry of Norah Gaughan’s Swirled Pentagon Pullover was perfect.

Totally perfect.

Swirled Pentagon Pullover (my Rav page)
Yarn: Valley Yarns Colrain in Steel, bought at Webs in October
Needles: US 8
Skeins: 10 (9.25 or so, I’d say)
Started: Sunday, November 2
Finished: Friday, November 14
Notes: I didn’t get gauge exactly, so I knit the small size to get basically the extra-small. I knit the body in the round, adding one purl stitch for a faux seam (I’m not sure why I wanted a faux seam, but I like it). The sleeves are semi-deliberately too long, which I like—makes the whole thing more cozy (I knit them in the round, so I worked 10 rounds in between decrease rounds, rather than decreasing on the 10th round). And the turtleneck part isn’t the 9 inches called for, because that was strangulating me; I think it’s more like 7.

Otherwise, I followed the pattern exactly. I will always trust Norah Gaughan—when picking up stitches for the neck, I initially didn’t trust the number given in the pattern for some reason. So I decided to just pick up what seemed natural, making sure it was a multiple of 4. And then I counted my stitches—92, exactly what the pattern said!

Oh, there is a small typo in the pattern—my trust doesn’t go too deep, apparently. The half-pentagon for the back yoke says something like “continuing in 2×2 rib” but that is wrong—it’s got to be 1×1 rib just like all the others.

I wore the sweater to my grandmother’s surprise 80th birthday party yesterday, and though I yammered on to anyone who would listen that I’d finished it the day before, the response was generally, “Wow, I thought you got that at a store!” Which, I have to say, was the best compliment I could have gotten. And now it’s in all the family portraits!

The new apartment is slowly taking shape, little by little and bit by bit, and I’m knitting like a fiend on a sweater I started a week ago Sunday when I needed some relatively mindless knitting to get me through the election. I am determined to have it finished and ready to wear by Saturday, so wish me luck.

But if you’re a fellow foodie, check it out! One of my pictures is the Photo of the Day on SeriousEats.com. I’m tickled that it caught Adam Kuban’s eye.

There are no words. Just the best game ever invented, and the best Halloween costume I have ever made.

I am not a Halloween fan, never have been. But Katamari Damacy? That I love. And when my friend Nanda suggested I be the Prince of All the Cosmos and she be the Katamari? And she was willing to dress up like this on Halloween proper, her birthday? Oh. Yes.

There’s a pattern for the earmuffs, which I read but mostly ignored, “unventing” the earmuffs myself. The sides of the prince’s head are really quite straight, not rounded, and I wanted accuracy! There’s a disc of cardboard in there to stabilize the edges.

I’ll put the full details on Ravelry. . . . Getting the band across to be flat was stupidly complicated; the pattern recommends double knitting, which would have made sense and solved it, but I thought I was going to attach it to a headband, but that wasn’t working right. Ultimately, I interfaced corduroy and lined it with that. Um, there is interfacing on my costume, which was supposed to be just an off-the-cuff knit. I had to find the iron in half-unpacked boxes (not to mention the interfacing and fabric!). But it’s worth it.

No one knew what the heck I was—but everyone smiled or laughed at me. People at the bar came up to ask. I was sitting in the front window of the bar, right at a busy corner on the Lower East Side, with my back to the street, and all my friends kept laughing as strangers did doubletakes. I got a lot of props from people when they realized that I’d made the costume myself. I also had a little visual aid, so people would see the prince in full—the small felt toy my friend Melissa made me!

The best moment was on the subway home. I wore the earmuffs because, being 100% wool, they are awfully warm and totally functioned as earmuffs (throughout the night at the bar I was saying “I’m sorry, what?” because I couldn’t hear anything). Pulling into one station, a throng of about 10 teenagers on the platform saw me and burst out laughing; one stuck his head against a window and howled in joy at me. They clambered into the subway car I was in, stomping and laughing, and one finally was like “Miss!!! What ARE you!” And I showed them the tiny prince and said I was the Prince of All the Cosmos, of course! He was like, “not the princESS?” And I said, “no, there isn’t a princess. there’s a queen, but the prince is cooler.” he then jumped up and started dancing around in front of me (awesome popping/locking). They caused such a ruckus that other riders were stonily irritated, but I was just enveloped into their fun times. It was so nice!

I’m one of those people who gets sick after a stressful event. In college, I got sick on every visit home; for a while in Philly I was getting sick each weekend. I moved to New York, and the constant stress was such that I didn’t actually catch a cold until the week after I stopped working at my job. So after these past few weeks, in which I had a lot of fun but did a LOT, I’m now sick! And home on a Friday night, so I’m talking to you guys for the first time in ages.

First, I started the apartment hunt. Anyone who’s lived in New York knows that finding an apartment in this city is one of the most painful experiences you’ll ever have. In truth, my search was relatively easy . . . and I found the most gigantic apartment ever, at a supremely affordable price, and near to some new friends!

Then, while packing up my life, Jocelyn_ came for a visit. She’s been a Flickr/email friend for two years, and she was my inspiration for starting the 365 self-portrait project. We played in the big city, of course.

The same day Joce left New York, I flew to Boston to visit with my closest bloggy friends. We email daily, but there’s just no match for hanging out for reals. And did you see the mittens Maritza made for me? Gorgeous. I’m carrying them around with me whenever I go out, but honestly it’s not cold enough. So I pet them on the subway.

And THEN, because I’m not greedy enough for knitterly goodness, I went to Rhinebeck! Anne-Marie chartered a bus for the Sit ‘n’ Knit New York group, so we all went for the day on Saturday. I got to see some bloggers I hadn’t seen since last Stitches, and, um, I bought more yarn. But you wouldn’t know it from the photos, because I only had eyes for the changing leaves. Just believe me, I was there.

The end to all this fun was the actual move. I packed up my postage-stamp-sized apartment on the Upper East Side and the movers carted it all down to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I am loving it down here—it makes me think of South Philly, actually, and in so many ways it feels like home. Unpacking is . . . going slowly. And like I said, I’m now battling a gross head cold. But the apartment is cozy and big and just totally, totally awesome.

To make myself feel better, and also to christen the new kitchen (gas finally got turned on today), I made my favorite black bean soup. The original recipe is just a jumping off point for a lot of tasty variation—today I used 2 chipotle chiles in adobo instead of fresh jalapeno, and I didn’t have a tomato so I just left it out. It’s easily made vegetarian (in which case, I highly recommend a chipotle, so you get some smokiness, which I get a double-punch of with the bacon), but please, please don’t make it vegan: the cilantro-lime sour cream is the condiment that makes this soup.

Here’s how I make it.

4-6 bacon slices, chopped (substitute some vegetable oil if making vegetarian)
3/4 cup finely chopped celery (a few ribs)
3/4 cup finely chopped onion (half an onion)
3/4 cup finely chopped carrots (2-3 carrots)
3/4 cup finely chopped leeks (one large leek)
2 or 3 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained (3 is preferable but I only had 2 tonight)
4-5 cups low-salt chicken broth (or veggie stock, of course, but both preferably homemade)
1 large tomato, chopped
1 cup (packed) fresh cilantro
1/3 cup (packed) chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 jalapeño chili, minced or 2 chipotle chiles in adobo or heck, both!
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander

3/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Additional chopped tomato

Cook bacon in heavy large pot over medium heat until brown but still soft, about 4 minutes. Add celery, onion, carrots, and leeks and sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Add beans, chicken broth, tomato, 1/2 cup cilantro, parsley, garlic, jalapeño, vinegar, cumin and coriander. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer soup until beans are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour.

Puree with immersion blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before continuing.)

Mix sour cream, lemon juice, lime juice and 1/2 cup cilantro in small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls. Place dollop of sour cream mixture atop soup. Garnish with additional chopped cilantro and chopped tomato.

I’ll be living in Brooklyn. Sorry for the dead-silence, but I’ve had some patterns in the works, an apartment hunt to complete, and right this minute I’m sitting in the midst of half-packed cardboard boxes and yarn. So just some fun with a flashlight.

Edited to add: You may actually next see me at Rhinebeck! I’m going up for the day on Saturday (I move on Monday, but I’m still going to buy yarn!). Look for me!

You, too, can now hold your yarn and form your stitches just like me! Watch below, where I’ve slowed myself down and even explained a bit.

So many of you commented on the last video, that I crank out FOs because I’m fast. Note that I also knit a lot of small things—the true definition of a product knitter. Being faster was all part of the plan!

I’m always fascinated by the thousands of different ways there are to knit. People learn from books, from teachers, from grandmothers, from mothers. We all make it comfortable for us, in our own ways.

My mom taught me to knit when I was about 8 years old. She knits English, so that’s how I knit. But even then we knit differently—back then, we only had straight needles (long ones!), and mom tucks the needle into the crook of her elbow, something I find impossibly awkward. I’ve since moved exclusively to circular needles, and after taking a class (in double knitting, natch!) at Stitches East, in which I sat next to a woman who knit Continental, I’ve switched to knitting with my left hand. (So I’m a completely self-taught Continental knitter—I saw it in action out of the corner of my eye, and I just unvented it for myself when I was back home.)

I’ve mentioned before, but I’ll say it again: Making the switch to Continental was really rather difficult. Getting an even gauge and even feeling comfortable with the motion (heck, remembering to knit Continental, and not just go back to the old way) took a lot of time. The payoff is so so worth it, though—I’d been a quick knitter before, but I’m lightning-fast now. And since I’m a product knitter, I like speed. (I’m also just an impatient person, so speed works for my personality.)

Here’s a video of me knitting. I don’t try to show you how to form a stitch, I don’t explain how I wrap the yarn: I am just working on my project. Note: This isn’t only knitting—I’m doing a k10, p1. Because purling looks so wacked out, and because I didn’t want people to be confused and think I was actually knitting the entire time, I say “purl” when I get to the purl. (So those of you who haven’t purchased the Tapestry Cowl or who don’t know me in person will get to hear my voice! If I sound stuffy, it’s fall allergy season.)

It’s funny to watch it and dissect the actions. Damn, I move the tips of my index fingers a LOT! Much more than I thought I did. In all the various times I’ve taught someone to knit, I’ve noticed more and more quirks to my style—how I hold the stitch I just knit with the tip of my right index finger. But there are some things I’d never realized until today—I feed myself more yarn by lightly pressing the middle finger of my left hand against the yarn.

I just filmed three short videos showing my technique in slower-motion—more of a tutorial on my version of Continental—with the aim to share that with you, too, but I’m having trouble getting them up onto the web. (And putting all 4 in one post might have been too much for the blog, anyway!) I hope I’ll be able to share them soon.

Knitting is so visual, and yet we rarely take the time to really look at how we do it. I’m loving making these little videos, and I hope to include video with all my future patterns so that the patterns are as clear as possible. But I maybe need some actual video editing software—as it is, I’m uploading straight out of the camera! Does anyone have a suggestion for something easy and, preferably, free?