Monthly Archives: February 2009
A Scarf & Some Cookies
After twenty-four hours (it’s really humid here) of blocking, my mom’s scarf is finally done. The ends are even woven in and the tails are cut, there’s nothing left for me to do except give it to her. I love how this came out. The yarn is so soft, the cables pop beautifully (look at the picture below) and even the bobbles look good. The only problem I have with it is that the edges keep trying to roll in a little, but I think I can live with that.
Look at the squishy cables, I love cables.
The Details:
- Pattern: Fair Isle Jazz from the book Scarf Style
- Yarn: My handspun, around 600 or 700 yards. I spun three skeins that were equal, around 200 yds each. It’s a three ply, around DK weight. The fiber is a 50/50 Rambouillet/Llama blend from a local farm.
- Needles: US6/4mm
- Modifications: I only knit the cabled section of the scarf, left off the fair isle.
- See more on my Ravelry page.
I made cookies again today. These are my favorite cookies, my mom used to make them all the time when I was little and the were the first thing I could bake by myself. I even had the recipe memorized. The recipe is from my mom’s old Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, it’s the one with the red and white gingham cover that is a three ring binder on the inside. My grandma gave it to my mom when she got married in 1972. These cookies are rich, buttery and crispy. They have a very strong peanut butter flavor and they will melt in your mouth.
Peanut Butter Cookies
from The Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Thoroughly cream butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg and vanilla.
- Sift together flour, baking soda and salt; blend into creamed mixture.
- Shape in 1-inch balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
- Press 5 peanut halves atop each or crisscross with fork tines.
- Bake at 375° for 10 to 12 minutes (mine were done in about 6 minutes, but I have a dark cookie sheet).
- Cool slightly; remove from pan.
- Makes 4 dozen.
Wednesday WiPs.
Wednesday seems like a good day for WIPs, so here are mine. Scarves. There is the handspun yoke sweater but I’ve run out of yarn and haven’t been able to go to Joann’s to pick up some more, so I’ll have to wait a bit before I can work on it any more. I also ran out of yarn for my mom’s scarf which is about half as long as it needs to be and I’m spinning more for it now. I have a little over two thirds of my singles spun and I should be able to finish them either tonight or tomorrow and start plying tomorrow. I still wish I had an endless supply of this roving so I could knit everything I make out of it, it’s that nice. The little black lacey blob you see there is about half of the edging of a scarf from Victorian Lace Today, you can kind of see it in the picture from the book.
Here’s a better shot of the edging, stretched out a bit. This is called “Scarf with French trellis border from Weldon’s 1890 and bramble leaf center” (such a romantic name, eh?) and I’m using some KnitPicks Shadow in Midnight Heather that is leftover from Irtfa’a. The directions have you knit the edging first then bind off and pick up stitches along the top for the center of the scarf, then knit the other edging which is attached as you go. This is half of the first edging which is taking a ton of concentration to knit. The top section is stockinette stitch with the lace patterning every other row (so on the wrong sides you just purl) while the bottom section is garter stitch with lace on every row (plus increases on on each row and one row with bind offs to make the points). There’s just a lot going on at one time so it requires attention and time, it isn’t good computer knitting. That said, it is awfully pretty and interesting to knit (which to me is more important than how it looks).
I’m going to start the coffee and get things ready for dinner (waffles). Maybe I’ll post my spinning tomorrow.
Cookies
I had a busy day doing boring non-crafty stuff around the house today and ended up not taking any pictures of my knitting or spinning like I had planned so here’s a cookie recipe. I made these today, they were very easy and fast and used ingredients that I already had, plus, they’re really tasty. I also made lasagne, mmmm.
Kourabiéthes (Greek Butter Cookies) from Vegetarian Cooking Around the World by Alison Behnke
- 2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. almond extract
- powdered sugar for sprinkling
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and egg until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and almond extracts and mix well. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until well blended.
- With your hands, form dough into balls, crescents, or S-shapes, using about 1/2 tbsp. at a time.
- Place cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Put on middle oven rack and bake 15 minutes, or until barely brown around the edges.
- Remove cookies from sheet with a spatula and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
- Use a flour sifter to sift powdered sugar over cookies.
Back to normal crafty things tomorrow!
