Steam Punk Convention

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the steampunk convention in San Jose. It was amazing! it was my first convention and what a way to start! I was amazed by how great everyone's costumes were and how all the vendors had such amazing and creative items. There was even a tikki Daleck! Miss Kalendar's tea room was beautifully done and a haven to retreat into. I definitely want to go next year and plan ahead so that I too can have a good costume!

Sweet Pickled Pearl Onions

A few weeks ago I learned to pickle quail eggs from Kitty Sharkey of Havenscourt Homestead. They turned out so well that I thought I might just try to put together something of my own.

I developed a delicious recipe for sweet pickled pearl onions which go well in salad or as a zesty side to sandwiches, burgers and barbecue. Best of all, they are super easy to make and I’ll tell you how!

Peel and trim 2-3 cups of red pearl onions. White pearl onions will work too but won’t be quite as sweet. Though I haven’t tried it, you could also coarsely chop 2 large onions. In a bowl, cover the peeled onions with boiling water and let them sit for 5 minutes. Drain them and fill the onions into a jar or two.

In a non-reactive saucepan combine the following ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes.

• 1 c. white vinegar
• 1/2 c. red wine vinegar
• 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/2 tsp. kosher or pickling salt
• 1 cracked bay leaf
• 2-3 large cloves of crushed garlic
• 1 tsp. cracked pepper corns
• 1/2 tsp. ground clove
• 1/2 tsp. celery seed
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Pour the brine over your filled jar(s) of onions without filtering out any of the spices and allow them to soak up flavor for at least 5 days before serving. They will keep in the refrigerator for at least 1 month.

If you would like to keep these for longer follow proper canning process as recommended by a reputable agency(USDA, FDA, National Center for Home Food Preservation, etc.) once you’ve filled the jars. If they are canned, they ought to keep for months and months.

Now, I’m going to go enjoy some of those onions!

*This entry cross-posted from peculiarpurls.com

Real Winter and International Yarn

I've been back for a month and am finally starting to settle back in.

Germany was a perfect winter wonderland. The photo above was taken in full color! Celebrating a real white Christmas was truly special.

I managed to finish all 8 gift projects I had going the night before Christmas and they were splendidly received. Everyone was thrilled and impressed! My aunt, and trip benefactor, even nabbed her husband's scarf within the week and pulled the "communal property card" when I raised my eyebrow at her.

Understandably, I've been pretty burnt out on knitting since then, but I did start creating a pattern with some gorgeous hand-painted yarn that I picked up at a wonderful shop in Berlin. Fadeninsel was located just around the corner from the apartment Boy and I stayed in for 5 days. It is a wonderful little shop which emphasizes handcrafted yarns and local products like Opal yarn which I brought back for Riastiltskein.

Now that I'm home, I've gotten back into several new hobbies. I'll share tales and photos as soon as the projects are underway or complete.

Ron Yarn!

Freya went to Germany for forever (ok, about 2 months, but still). She came back recently and is getting settled back and unpacking. She came up to me and said that she had gotten something for me in Germany, while grinning menacingly , which was worrisome, and then she pulled out this! It is Germany Harry Potter yarn! With Ron on it! He is my favorite, absolutely. And it even says Harry Potter und der Halbblut-Prinz! Awesome!

Pattern: Wildhood Cowl

It is pattern time!

Earlier this winter, I did a lot of shawls. Like, a LOT of shawls. I had shawls coming out my ears. I think I knit five slightly different versions of the Swallowtail shawl.

When that was all said and done, I decided I wanted to knit something radically different. So, naturally, I decided on something for relatively the same part of the body, knit with similar yarn on similar needles.

Having looked through the cowl patterns on Ravelry and on Knitty, and not being able to find one I liked, I decided to make up my own pattern. I wanted something slightly lacy, but with enough body that it would keep my ears warm. This is what I came up with!

Unnamed Cowl (seriously, does anyone want to name this for me?)

ETA: WILDHOOD COWL! (Thanks, Naomi. It is perfect!)

Yarn: less than one skein Malabrigo lace. You could, I suppose, knit this longer and use an entire skein.

Needles/notions: I used 24" circulars in size 6 (4.0 mm.); it was a bit of a stretch at times. You could use shorter needles or DPNs easily. You will want a yarn needle or crochet hook to weave in the ends.

k2tog: knit two stitches together
kfb: knit through the front and back of a stitch.

CO 120 stitches loosely. Join, being careful not to twist.

Rows 1: Place marker at the beginning of the row, then k all
Rows 2-3: k all
Row 4: [yo, k2tog] to end of row
Rows 5-9: k all
Row 10: [k2tog, yo] to end of row
Rows 11-15: k all

Repeat rows 4-15 until the cowl is as long as you would like it to be; mine is around 15 inches. Stop at the end of row 13.

Edging:

Row 1: [k2, kfb] to end of row. You should now have 150 sts.
Rows 2-3: k all
Row 5: [yo, k2tog] to end of row.
Rows 6-10: k all.

To bind off: I used the elastic cast-off found at the end of the Swallowtail shawl pattern; make sure to cast off loosely.

This is long enough to be worn as a hood or as an abbreviated scarf-thing. It's much warmer than it looks! Enjoy, and please let me know if you find any problems with the pattern or have any questions!

(I have mostly been blogging over here of late; I promise I'll do more knitting/spinning posts soon!!)

Annis Part 2

I have casted on (successfully finally) and knit much of the Annis shawl. I am liking it once I finally got over the first few rows. I am knitting on larger needles with fingering weight wool instead of lace. I also cut out 10 repeats, so it wasn't insanely large. There is a user on Ravelry that listed the solution to the short rows with a different number of stitches. I don't want to link without permission, but I found it by searching Annis and then searching helpful notes. I am really loving the short rows. I may have to cast on another shortly. I see why Sarah has become addicted to the shawls.

Annis Shawl

I casted on, knit a few rows, ripped out this shawl so many times over a week and a half, that I think I have gone a bit crazy. I tried to do the pattern as written. I sized up to a bigger needle and bigger yarn. I cut repeats. I managed to get about 5 or 6 rows in and had to rip it all out because of mistakes that were too large to gloss over.The last time that I pulled it out and cast back on, after hearing the frustration as I realized I would have to pull it all out again, Warebeast borrowed it and hid it. Not very well, I found it the next day, but still, maybe I ought to let this one go for now.