Elder Daughter is now in the Doc Martins and camo phase of teenage self expression. That expression has spiraled out to her immediate surroundings. As a result, last fall we replaced her pre-teen starry night sheets with a bed-in-a-bag set on this theme:

It came with a top sheet, a fitted bottom sheet, a comforter and a pillowcase. And for some reason - a bed skirt. To those who don't suckle at the breast of Martha Stewart, a bed skirt is a somewhat prissy patterned dust ruffle that lies between the mattress and box spring on most beds, with the fashion fabric curtaining off the under-bed area from general view. Far be it from me to question the wisdom of the marketers who thought that someone favoring camouflage patterns might use and appreciate such a thing.

In any case, her bed is a high platform with built-in drawers underneath and a bed skirt is irrelevant. Still, the skirt came with the set, and I abhor waste, so together Elder Daughter and I decided to remake it into a pair of narrow valences for the windows in her room. It's taken this long to start the project because my ancient Elna sewing machine has been up on blocks awaiting repairs. The machine has now been overhauled and I am no longer able to endure the puppy looks and pleading, so I've begun.

Here's our general plan. My goal is to minimize sewing as much as possible, by re-using existing finished edges and seams:

I'm at the first step (upper left of the diagram), slicing the camo fabric off from the foot of the skirt and picking out the box pleated corners:

We have no ideas on what to do with the excised bit from the former foot. Various pillow and stuffed animal suggestions have been floated. I also considered (then discarded as too fiddly) the idea of using some of it to make curtain tabs rather than a simple rod casing.

I think I'll take this opportunity to introduce Elder Daughter to Ancient Elna. Long straight seams are easy and sewing is a life skill. More on this as we progress.

Technorati : sewing

And the Chicken Viking Hat it is. Turns out that in addition to his week-old baby boy the recipient has 1) a sense of humor; 2) a wife similarly blessed; and 3) backyard chickens. It's a perfect fit:

So far it's been a quick knit. Two evenings knitting while watching a movie and I'm finished with the hat body. You can see I am starting on the protruding ornamental drumsticks. Chicken Viking knit up with no problems. I worked the whole thing on DPNs rather than a small circ. Newer knitters attempting this one should remember that "continue in pattern" means that as the decreases that make the crown happen, the placement of the one-purl goosebumps should follow the established distribution and spacing, even if the decreases eat into the beginnings of the repeat sequence. As a result post-decrease rows won't begin at the specified spot described in the goosebump stitch pattern sequence. But the pattern is extremely simple and figuring out the right place to begin won't be a problem.

My only departure from the written pattern so far is that instead of ending off the ear flaps by binding off the last four stitches, then attaching some strands of yarn to braid to make the ties, I reduced those last four down one final time to two stitches, then made my hat strings by working a two-stitch I-cord of requisite length. It came out nicely, sort of like lucet cord, I-cord's ancient cousin. On the materials, nothing special here. I used remnants of a mass market 100% acrylic, in the "grade inflation" weight that is labeled worsted but has a natural gauge of 18-19 stitches = 4 inches. I did this because I wanted to make sure the thing was absolutely washable, and because of the heft of the yarn. This stuff has heft. The drumsticks will stick out on their own. A cotton as recommended would work well, too but most wool blends and all wools would make soft, droopy drumsticks. So it's Soylent Green for this project.

I expect to knock this hat off by mid week, even allowing for the severely decreased knitting time that accompanies deadline crunches at work. Stay tuned.

Technorati : knitting

Sometimes the materials speak:

On the knitting front, I've been totally consumed again at work. I've managed to do a couple more rows of the spiderweb section on my olive green tablecloth, and a little bit more on the OpArt blanket - but not much of either.

I've also received a special request for an unusual baby hat, the amazing flood of co-worker fecundity continuing unabated. I am contemplating either the now classic Chicken Viking Hat or the Baby Squid Hat, although I am open to suggestions of other similarly absurd headgear.

Technorati : knitting

Here's a present for the new year, or to celebrate arrival of fall, whichever has more meaning to you. I post my grandmother's savory noodle kugel recipe - from the same grandmother whose latke and blintz recipes I've shared before (but not on String - I'll have to fix that). I see lots of how-tos on the web for sweet noodle kugels, with cottage cheese, sugar and even cinnamon and raisins, but very few for non-dairy savory ones to serve as a meat meal side dish. As a kid, this noodle kugel with onions was one of my favorites, especially alongside roast chicken.

One quick note about noodles. The curlier the ribbon style noodle, the looser texture your finished kugel will be. Many brands of bagged egg noodles have a very slight spiral to their shape, to make them look fluffier when cooked. You can see the spiral in these:

If you can find them, choose a flatter rather than a more curly noodle, preferably of medium width. This will make a denser, moister kugel. If you can't find flatter noodles, use the others, but be prepared for a final product that's drier, crunchier throughout, and that falls apart when cut. Manischewitz, Streits and Goodman all make the "old fashioned" flatter type noodles.

You can use either yesterday's leftover noodles (which is what I do when I make a little kugel), or cook up noodles just for this dish. If you cook up noodles to make this, you'll get the best results if they are room temperature or cool from the fridge rather than just-drained and steamy hot.

On what to cook this in - I strongly suggest a Pyrex dish or pan. A clear or tinted glass pan will let you see when the bottom is brown and done. A glass pie plate will work in a pinch, but I prefer something deeper, and depending on the size of my kugel will use either a clear glass loaf pan, 8" square baking dish, or a slightly larger oval glass casserole dish. Whatever pan you use, make sure that it is both VERY well oiled, and pre-heated before putting the noodles in it. Doing both will eliminate sticking.

Apologies for not having pix of the finished product, but we ate every bit of it before I thought to write up this entry.

Minnie Leibowitz' Noodle Kugel (in three sizes)

Small - (Fills one loaf pan, about 4 servings)

About 2 cups of leftover cooked egg noodles (measured after cooking)
1/2 medium onion, sliced very thin
2 Tbs vegetable oil
3 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Large - (Fills one 8" baking dish, about 8 servings)

1 whole 12-oz box or bag of egg noodles, previously cooked.
1 medium onion, sliced very thin
2-3 Tbs vegetable oil
5 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Giant - (Fills one large oval glass casserole dish, about 10-12 servings)

1 whole 16-oz box or bag of egg noodles, previously cooked.
1 and a half medium onions, sliced very thin
3 Tbs vegetable oil
6 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Method (all)

Preheat oven to 350, pour oil into Pyrex pan and oil the bottom and sides very generously. Pour remaining oil out of Pyrex pan and into a saute or small frying pan. Saute onions in oil until they are golden. While sauteing, put the Pyrex dish in the oven to heat it up.

When onions are done (takes about 15 min or so), beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl and dump in the noodles. Scrape the onions into the mixing bowl. Toss noodles, egg and onions together to separate the noodles and combine the ingredients, adding salt and pepper. When well mixed, remove the Pyrex pan from the oven and turn the noodle/egg/onion mass into it. Return Pyrex pan to oven, turn the heat down to 325 and cook until noodles are brown and bubbly on the bottom and crunchy on the top, about 45 min to an hour, depending on the size of your kugel.

When done, it's best to let rest a few minutes before cutting into portions, especially if you used a curlier noodle. Can be served hot, warm or cold.

Enjoy!

Technorati : cooking, recipie

Two steps forward, one step back.

A minor scuffle on the OpArt baby blanket. I had decided to finish it off after an 8 ridge yellow and 9 ridge green garter section. I knit away at my yellow, and was just at the beginning of my last knit row of yellow when I reached for my final skein of yellow yarn.

Unfortunately, I had miscalculated. Although I was sure I had equal numbers of yellow and green to begin with, and have used more green than yellow, there wasn't another yellow to hand. A frantic stash hunt turned up no more. Since that last yellow stripe as-is would interrupt the vortex effect, for want of about 40 yards it had to go. As a result I am ripping out the final yellow band, and will finish out the blanket with a wide edge of either green (widening the existing green stripe), or screaming orange (using up all three remaining skeins of the stuff).

A caution to those working the thing. The ever increasing diameter and stripe length conspire to play havoc with one's running estimate of yarn consumption. Those outer stripes eat a lot of yardage. Don't be surprised if you run a tad short like me, if like me you throw caution to the winds and sub in a yarn of different gauge.

Technorati : knitting

Monday's post inspired a rare comment here. Lillian sympathized with the flock of ends problem that this blanket poses, and suggested a method for beginning/ending strands that I hadn't used before. Thank you!

The back to back join as described by TechKnitting is a very useful method, and is an excellent one to have in one's bag of tricks. I would be extremely useful for joining thinner yarns, woolly yarns, and for adding on a new ball when spit splicing isn't possible because of fiber content. It's new to me, but it will be something I'll be playing with in the future. But it didn't work out well for me on my blanket.

This particular project adds two complications that limit the effectiveness of the back to back method. The first is the yarn I'm using. It's a very dense, round cotton, made up of a zillion little hard strands. As a result, it's difficult to compress easily. The distortion produced by the two-strands-thick change-over stitches stands out very prominently on both the back and the front. The second is that the first stitch of a new color stripe is also the stitch that bears the row increase (either a k1 in the back and front, or a p1 in the back and front, depending on the garter stitch row being worked). The double strand distortion is magnified in that increase stitch, making a very prominent lump, visible here at the stitch marker:

Given my yarn choice (and remember that I'm not using the medium lofty washable wool as recommended by the pattern's author), the best, most invisible method for working in the ends is the old fashioned method of darning them in locker style - thread yarn through backs of stitches in color in one direction, snick up any looseness, then reverse direction and pierce the same strand on the return trip, burying the yarn into itself before snipping off. This does leave a small caterpillar like lump on the reverse side as a slight thickening of a garter ridge, but is totally invisible from the front side. Here you see the reverse, with two green caterpillar end-offs in the center.

In my particular case, an even more invisible treatment is to take advantage of the nasty splitting habit of my chosen yarn. If I take my darn-in end and split the plies into two bundles, then darn each bundle in separately (and in opposite directions), the resulting caterpillar bumps on the reverse are smaller and less noticeable. My pix of that refinement will have to wait until tomorrow.

Technorati : knitting