Linguine for Supper

I sort of combined several existing recipes to come up with a yummy meal tonight:

Linguine with Shrimp and Asparagus

3/4 lb ~ 1 lb. linguine
3/4 lb. fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 bunch fresh asparagus, cut into 2" lengths
3 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. minced garlic (1 clove)
1/2 cup fresh shredded Parmesan
salt and freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes, to taste

Cook linguine (about 10 minutes after water boils.) Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup pasta water. Meanwhile, in skillet, heat oil and butter. Saute asparagus and a sprinkle of salt, covered, till asparagus begins to brown slightly. Add shrimp and cook till pink. Add garlic and cook till brown. Add a little pasta water. Turn off heat and add parmesan. Place linguine on plates and ladle shrimp and asparagus sauce over it. Sprinkle with more cheese and black or red pepper flakes. Serves 3~4 people.

There is no project so easy...

that I cannot find a way to screw it up!

A month or two ago, I found some lovely handspun wool for sale at etsy.com, and when it came, the spinner also included a photo of the sheep who had produced it!



This is a sheep named April, who lives at Grand View Farm in Vermont, and whose owner spun a lovely earthy natural colored 2-ply from her fleece and sold it to me!
(http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=11790)

So I debated for a while what to do with it and finally decided that it was just the right amount for a handy little bag to take on walks to hold keys and some cash or whatever.

So I cast on 56 stitches and knit in the round on size 9 needles till it was about the right length. So far so good. But then I wanted i-cord for the strap and a fold-over flap. But did I have enough left? Kristen and I started on opposite ends of the same skein and she knit i-cord while I knit the flap. When the cord was the right length, I knew how much I had left, and bound off with literally 2 " of yarn leftover. Kristen sewed in the i-cord tightly, and we took a look at the end product, and well...it was wrong! The flap was too short and I had managed to put some stockinette into what was supposed to be garter stitch! (How the heck did that happen!) Plus, the edging of the inside was supposed to have been garter stitch done in the round, but by mistake I had done reverse stockinette, and it didn't behave all nice and firm like garter stitch would have done.




So after knitting in haste, I had time to repent at leisure, and decided to do it over. It took an hour to pick out the stitches that held the i-cord in place and to undo the cast-off. And then I tried again, this time decreasing to a triangular flap. I had to re-do parts of that a few times too, but in the end, success! (though Kristen thinks the flap looks disturbingly like a thong, but we won't go there. The idea of this very wooly wool as a thong is too horrible to contemplate!)



Now back to the regularly scheduled lace knitting! The thing is, I want a simple mindless project to alternate with the attention-needing lace, but as soon as I start a mindless project, I spend all my time on it till it's done, and then all I have left to knit is lace!

Japanese Feather Shawl

I was feeling so cocky after finishing my Branching Out scarf that I immediately cast on with laceweight yarn for a stole (or maybe wide scarf) in the Japanese Feather pattern.

It's 56 stitches across and 28 rows to complete each repeat. I got to row 22 last night (with bleary eyes and a couple of mistakes) and this morning managed to ball it all up, so I ripped it all the way out and started over again. I finally made it to row 28 just before dinner. Will I survive this? Time will tell!

I branched out! :-)

I finished the Branching Out lace scarf! I’m really pleased with myself that I persevered with this. I gave it a quick dunk into Eucalan and pinned it out on a dressmaker’s board on the patio, but I see now that if I go any further in lace knitting, I will want to own a blocking board and maybe even wires, because even this small thing grew a lot and the board isn’t really big enough to do it justice.

blocking

There is one major error in my knitting, but let that be a testimony to my own imperfection! I am delighted with my first real lace! I am inspired to try bigger and scarier things!

Happy 4th!

Kristen's bento

Kristen has been making herself a lovely bento almost every day for lunch, and today I was home to capture a picture of it.

And matching booties

I cobbled together the Lion Brand toddler socks pattern (which uses a short-row heel) with Grandmother Owl’s Really Good Booties, and then tacked on my own pattern for a leaf. The heel didn’t come out quite right (I also used various instructions for short rows, none of which I completely understood), so there are holes. But at least they all line up, which is pretty much the definition of a pattern. I do love this leaf. I also love the pointy little toes, achieved by simply stopping at 8 stitches and gathering the stitches together like a mitten, instead of Kitchener-stitching like socks.

All in all, I am happy.