Fiber Fool

One of the gifts I received this year was a cookbook by the woman behind 101cookbooks.com (and mightyfoods.com, which I didn’t know about until I got the cookbook), Heidi Swanson. I’ve occasionally shared my adventures trying recipes Heidi has shared on her blog and have been quite happy with every one I have tried. When I got the cookbook I was super excited and had to jump right in as soon as we returned home of course!

The book is Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking and focuses on using foods as close to their natural state as possible. This means there is no white flour or refined sugars in the recipes. There is a chapter that includes info on how to stock your pantry in a natural way. The recipes are divided into four categories - grains, cooking by color, superfoods, and natural sweeteners and each of these chapters also includes more detailed info on ingredients to incorporate (or in some cases avoid) into your cooking. I’d guess if you ignore the gorgeous photography the amount of information is about equal to actual recipes.

I had already made one of the recipes in the cookbook that was quite good. For New Years Eve we decided to have a special meal and I tried the Chocolate Black Turtle Bean Tostadas with Chile de Arbol sauce (cut in half for just the two of us - and we’re still enjoying leftovers as garnish). The result was fantastic and refreshingly different. We did decide it was not a great choice as a main course (I served it with roasted garlic soup form The Border Cookbook : Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico), but it was fantastic anyway and I am thinking of ways to incorporate it into portable appetizers we can take to potlucks or game nights etc. as I think many of our friends would enjoy and appreciate this rich and complex, yet meatless dish.

On New Years day I decided to jump right back into the cookbook and set about making the all natural Thin Mints. I was not disappointed. My results varied from the recipe, yielding double the amount of cookies despite 2/3 of the them being thicker than called for. Also, since the cookies were thicker and so dark I don’t think I baked them quite as long as I should have so they are not crisp, but the flavor balance is fantastic and you’d never know there is no white flour. Instead the recipe calls only for whole wheat pastry flour which Swanson says you can sub 1:1 for white AP flour in any recipe.

One cannot completely judge a cookbook by only three recipes. But I have read all the introductory info and through each and every recipe. Overall, I think this is a great cookbook for all natural foods that is not overly “granola” in taste if you know what I mean. Everything is vegetarian (though not vegan). I do think those of us in middle America might find it a bit challenging to be able to fully utilize the recipes as some of the ingredients will require mail ordering specialty ingredients such as teff or wild rice flour or pomegranate molasses. Swanson did anticipate that and included a pretty thorough list of sources for some of the hardest to source ingredients. From the three recipes that I’ve made I have to say I do not think this cookbook is for the faint of heart or those who prefer quick cooking. Lots of the complexities in the savory food is created through the use of special sauces or spice mixtures that need made in addition to the main portion of the recipe. Those extra steps can greatly increase the prep/cooking time. I do think it is worth the effort when you have the time and energy though.

Overall, I’m still quite glad I got this cookbook from SIL1 and her family and I am sure it will get used. I do think it will not be one to reside in the limited space of the kitchen with the other frequently used cookbooks due to the more obscure ingredients and increased effort required to make the dishes. However, if I’m in search of something vegetarian that will impress or is different from standard fare Super Natural Cooking will be one of the “go to” cookbooks for inspiration.

Pattern: Wisteria
Designer: Kate Gilbert
Source: Twist Collective, Fall 2008
Yarn: Brown Sheep Prairie Silks in Jeweled Moss (18 3/4 skeins ~1655 yds)
Needles: US8 Turbo
Size: 51″ (w/ mods)
Completion Date: December 23rd, 10pm (nothing like cutting it close, LOL!)
Modifications: Many, keep reading for details.

I previously wrote about wanting to put in short rows. I opted to start them at 1 inch below the armholes with the shortest short rows and progress to longer ones. I worked 5 pairs which added ~ 1.75 inches (the average of the various sources and measurements I saw on figuring out how much to put in). I was going to show you a picture with lifelines marking the short rows, but the sweater, light and camera never came together. Perhaps on the next sweater. But, that did put the shortest of the short rows at the crest of my bust which was what I was aiming for. I am quite happy with the addition of the short rows and this was a great pattern for doing so since the center section was all stockinette stitch.

Originally, short rows were the only mod I was going to make. But as I knit on the sweater and looked more and more at the schematic the more I realized that it was going to become a dress on me and that the “waist” would hit at my high hip. I was also worried that it could be even worse if my washed and blocked gauge swatch lied to me as we all know they can do. So, once I finished the short rows I immediately set about recalculating all the shaping of the torso area. The result was to raise the waist by ~1.5 inches (I’m quite short waisted - like my hip bones nearly touch my lowest ribs short waisted - no lie). Then I decided since I was making mods I should take a closer look at the hip area. There was a leap of two chart repeats between the second largest and largest size at the bottom of the sweater. I decided to split the difference and work 18 charts around the bottom rather than the 17 stated for my size. In retrospect, I probably could have skipped that mod, but it isn’t bad as it is either. Doing that also changed my shaping in the mid section.

As I was knitting the bottom chart I realized that if I completed the chart it was still going to be a bit long, so I cut out a vertical repeat. This had the added benefit of lightening the hip area which was a good thing for my shape. I prefer it to leaving the cabling out all together as some people have done. To me what really made the pattern was the repetition of the organic looking cables. I did the same to the sleeves which I’m glad I did as they would have also been too long even though I started the sleeve chart as soon as I was at the proper stitch count. And while I normally would consider the sleeves as they are to be too long they aren’t. They are nice and fitted so they stay put and don’t seem to get in the way at all.

The yarn worked quite well. Despite it being a singles yarn with mohair the stitch definition of the cables is great. I matched stitch and row gauge right off the bat. The 88-yd skeins were somewhat annoying, especially when 4 of the 19 hanks I broke into had knots in them too. The yarn is not next to the skin soft. I do have to wear a turtleneck underneath which isn’t really required as the sweater itself is quite warm. But that mohair in there just gets annoying after too long. But overall the final sweater is great and I am sure will get plenty of wear even with a turtleneck underneath since I tend to run cold in the winter.

I loved knitting this pattern. I loved that it is visually interesting (and the knitting of it was interesting too) yet still allowed for lots of modifications to make it fit my body and its idiosyncrasies. I am no longer scared about making modifications to patterns so that they fit well. As I told my mom, “It looks as though someone knit it just to fit me!” :-) Just what I was aiming for! Nothing is more flattering than a good fit! All-in-all, not a bad FO for ringing out the old year! And, I now can dream about my first sweater of 2009, LOL! What will it be?

Just popping in to wish you all a wonderful holiday season and share some of the beauty around our house right now. For those traveling, please be safe. I’ll be back in the new year (perhaps earlier, we’ll see).

‘Tis the season for last minute and inexpensive gifts! This past Sunday one of my knitting groups hat a holiday gathering at the mountain home of one of the founding members. We were asked to bring a handmade gift with materials adding up to $10 or less. We did not *have* to make the gift, though that of course was highly encouraged. We drew numbers and each person could steal an already open gift or open a wrapped gift. Each gift could only be stolen twice. After that it was at its permanent home.

My plan was to make a handbound knitting journal with a hand felted cover. Nothing was going quite right in terms of the handbound book and was working on it at the very last minute (of course), so I went with plan B and bought a blank journal at the bookstore. Despite the store bought journal it was one of the gifts to get stolen the maximum number of times.

The cover used dyed corriedale roving in several different colors which I hand felted using bubble wrap to aid in the agitation. Because it wasn’t a large piece I skipped the stabilizing sheer fabric. Once the felt was dry I wrapped it around the journal, folding the front edge to form a pocket that hooked on the front cover of the book. I used needle felting to close the pocket seamlessly and also to attach a length of handspun mohair yarn for the closure. Three different buttons before sewing them to the cover to wrap the yarn around. I chose to not make a back pocket because the edges of handmade felt are so interesting.

It was a really economical project in both time and funds and is one of my favorite things I’ve made this year. Go figure! LOL!

Spread Spectrum is the quickest and simplest (at least in the actual knitting, though some may argue about the construction) of my three patterns in Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns.

What was the inspiration behind this design? All those skeins of handpaint yarn I have scattered around the house that are just too pretty as they are to actually be knit. Come on, fess up! I know you have them. Spread Spectrum is a pattern that really lets the yarn take center stage and show off the artistry from all the talented independent dyers.

Have you ever noticed how different handpaint looks when it is in a hank where you can see how the dye was applied to the skein? Remember how drastically different it looks after you’ve wound it into a ball and all the colors have mixed? That was what spurred me to knit the leg of this pattern in intarsia strips of varying widths. Changing the stitch count by as little as 2 stitches can make a huge difference in how the different colors lie and interact with each other.

This pattern will work best with yarns that have long-ish sections of color that will pool or diagonally stripe when knit traditionally. The fewer the colors and higher the contrast between those colors the more the construction of the sock will stand out. The Blarney Stone colorway of Socks That Rock used for the book was dyed in a palindrome (A-B-C-C-B-A color sequence) fashion. If the yarn you are using is dyed linearly (A-B-C-A-B-C), alternate the direction of your yarn butterflies for each intarsia strip and you’ll have a higher energy look to the leg of your socks. You could even dig out all those self-patterning yarns that you’ve grown tired of and put them into this pattern for a completely different look.

Because of the non-traditional construction of this sock it is important to pay attention to the note on sizing. Gauge is critical here because stockinette stitch is not nearly as stretchy vertically as it is horizontally. That means for the best fit you need to match your foot circumference as closely as possible to the sock’s circumference and this is done by your row gauge. That makes row gauge of more importance that in most sock patterns. For a snug fit you’ll want to knit the foot 10-15% shorter than your actual foot length. The foot length of the sock is determined mostly by your stitch gauge (the heel and toe are knit normally so row gauge makes a difference in how much those contribute to the length of the foot).

See more of my design work on Ravelry or in my Fiber Arts Store. Don’t forget, today (Thursday, Devember 18th) is the last day to get Guided By Love! After that, the pattern is officially retired!