Steadily on

LifeHacker has an article about Cooking Essentials. This got me thinking about my most basic kitchen.

That would be my Passover kitchen – the items I store 51 weeks out of the year, more or less. This means I only really want the essentials – I can only store so much. However, I need that equipment to make at least two, if not more, Thanksgiving level meals for up to ten people.

So. What do I have? First, I do kasher my big stockpot and my gravy boat – I don’t have room to store the stockpot and the gravy boat is metal anyway.

So. Stockpot – have to make chicken stock for soup and for ingredient.

Meat supplies:

Chef’s knife. This is my one and only santoku style knife – my husband bought it for me a couple of years ago so I don’t need to use the horrible laser-sharpened piece of foil I’d been using for the past decade and a half. It works fine – it works far better than the other. I don’t plan on using one year round.
Paring knife.
Peeler
Tongs
Wooden spoons/spatulas/slotted spoons
One soup pot and cover
One sauce pan and cover
Three frying pans – one covered saute pan
One glass casserole dish
One glass pie plate
One steamer basket
One plastic grater
Can opener
Small wooden cutting board

Dairy supplies:
Chef’s knife (cheapie, but better than the old fleishig one)
Paring knife
Shares peeler
Wooden spoons, etc.
One sauce pan and cover
One frying pan
Can opener
Small wooden cutting board

Most roasting/baking etc is done in disposable aluminum foil pans. Most of the pots and pans are very flimsy, teflon coated junk, but as they’re never used for more than a week or so a year, they’ll last me forever.

And, honestly? Throughout the year?

I use a chef’s knife and cutting board, a peeler, a “stir-fry pan” – large, deep, flat-bottomed but curved teflon pan, a saute pan and my soup pot. Sometimes a grater, either box or rasp. More rarely, a stockpot. Even more rarely, a saucepan. Plus tongs and spatulas and serving spoons.

I just gave away something I’ve knitted before taking pictures of it – I made a pair of socks for my dermatologist.

I seem to making things to give away – in the past few months, three out of four pairs of socks have gone to someone else, and every large project – the lace scarf, the alpaca cable scarf, the pull-over sweater and the little girl cardigan (that last still in pieces) and the current Laminaria were or are for other people. Even the next project is spoken for – I’m making a sweater vest for my stepfather. The last thing I made for me was a lace shoulderette.

Okay. Current socks are mine, but the next project after Lenny’s vest will also be mine. And I don’t mean a beret, either. I saw a couple of pretty sweaters in a magazine I might tackle.

1. Big Gent’s Sweater

Pattern: Big Gent’s Pullover from Lucy’s Knits
Yarn: Cascade 220 Brown Heather Superwash
Needles: Addi Turbo US 5 and Inox US 4

Big Gent’s Sweater on my big gent.

Notes:
1. The yarn was, of course, great to use – look at the definition of those cables. The sweater itself has been washed and dried, and it shrank just enough to fit perfectly, and to even out some stitches.

2. I added the 3×3 cables myself, to add interest to what would otherwise be a huge expanse of stockinette. I figured that would be boring just to knit as to look at. I did them without a cable needle, making them both twist to the center.

I also made them on the back of the sweater.

3. The pattern itself was both good and bad.

The good – it had sizes beyond that of my recipient, plus directions for a shortrow “tummy pocket” (she doesn’t use the term short row, but that’s what they were) that makes it fit better. She also adds directions for longer arms or other adjustments for differing shapes of large men. I also like the little detail of a garter ridge between the ribbing and the stockinette. I’ve incorporated it into another project.

The bad – the math was *terrible*. At several points, we’re directed to reduce X amount from *each* side, but the stitch count in the pattern is only reduced by X amount, not 2X. This threw me off so badly I ended up frogging the entire back and starting fresh (that’s when I added the cables and also learned a good way to knit alternating rounds from two skeins, as I had an odd skein.) After this, I checked all the math myself. I still needed to frog and restart my first arm because the math was badly off there, as well – she subtracted at the wrong point, I think. Again, I was able to do the math myself to get from 128 stitches to 44 (after increasing to 134) without getting extremely long arms – I reduced every third row, as directed, but only kept track of reductions.

The sleeve design was also not good – I had to attach the front and back (already very large) at the shoulders and then pick up 128 stitches around the armholes and knit each sleeve down from there, flat. It was extremely awkward, and very heavy by the time I got to the second sleeve. I think I’d rather have knit the sleeves separately and seamed them on.

The collar, which you can see in the first picture, is also on the large side. Most of the stitches for the collar were kept live on stitch holders (okay, circulars) until I was finished with the sleeves, with 20 or so picked up around the shoulders. This meant I really couldn’t adjust the size of the collar to fit my husband, and I’m a bit worried about the stablility of it. I’m seriously thinking about crocheting around the base. I have searched for an errata page and not found one. If I make my husband another sweater, I’ll use a different pattern.

However, it made a handsome and warm sweater, he got it in time for our anniversary and he’s actually wearing it now.

2. Tofutsies Socks

Pattern: My own. Toe-up with flap-and-gusset heel, using k3p2 rib
Yarn: Tofutsies – discontinued colorway
Needles: Knitpicks Harmony US 1 32″ circular

Notes: The colorway was lovely, but I don’t think I’m using this yarn again. I felt like I was knitting with string – there was no spring in it at all, and I tried several different stitch patterns before I gave up and settled on a deep k3p2 rib for both interest and elasticity. They are comfortable if slouchy to wear, though, and this pair has actually been washed and dried several times, and they look fine.

One thing I did try that I like – I did the sole flap and the back of the heel in heel stitch, but I did the heel turn in plain stockinette. This way I didn’t have to worry about the heel stitch matching in the heel turn, which looked much better.

3. Stepfather Sock

Pattern: Seed Stitch Ribbing from More Sensational Knitted Socks, top-down flap-and-gusset heel
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Superwash Sock “Silver Streak”
Needles: Knitpicks US 0 Options 32″ circular

Stepfather Socks (will be my stepfather’s afikomen present on Pesach.)

Notes: I used the garter ridge from the sweater pattern after the ribbing in these socks. The stitch pattern is sort of obscured by the colorway, but it makes a nice, elastic sock and was fun to knit. Also, this yarn was an absolute springy pleasure to knit after the Tofutsies. He hasn’t received them yet (I’m not sure he’s aware I made them), so I don’t know what his reaction will be.

4. Palindrome Scarf WIP

Pattern: Palindrome Scarf.
Yarn: Handspun alpaca (bought at an auction)
Needles: Inox US 6 16″ circulars

Notes: It’s less than half done, but I love the way it’s coming out – the pattern is clever and the cables look great in the very fuzzy yarn (I feel like I’m eating it when I knit it.) It’ll also be nice and warm for my father-in-law, the intended recipient. I recommend this pattern.

Yeah, I know. I haven’t been saying anything in the past few weeks.

I did finish something, but between illness and other problems, plus an uncharged camera, we haven’t managed to take pictures of it. I’ve worn it and loved it, and there will be pictures, b”n, but not soon.

The real problem is two fold. 1. My baby blanket has been frogged and will now be a sweater. Except for #2.

My right thumb is not happy. It’s stiff and painful, and sometimes, if I manage to bend it, it doesn’t want to unbend. So, I’m taking a break from knitting. My sweater is sitting, two inches in, waiting for the second twist to the cables. My husband’s socks are sitting – one completed and one nearly at the point of turning the heel, waiting for me to pick them up. And they’re sitting. I’m not touching them until after Passover, when I have an appointment with my orthopedist. I miss it a lot – I’ve gotten very used to having something to do while watching television or talking to people. But, you know. Thumbs are important.

However, let me describe the sweater I’m designing. I’m using the yarn I bought for the baby blanket – Knitpicks Swish in green and grey, and I’m using Ann Budd’s book on sweater design. The body is moss stitch with two “relaxed” cables on either side, running over the front and back. The cuffs, hem and collar (which will be peter pan, I think) will be grey, and possibly the sleeves if I run out of green. I might also make the sleeves 3/4. The arms will be stockinette, with a strap shoulder and the cable running all the way up. Or maybe I’ll make the sleeves moss, too. I’m not sure.

I just hope I can knit it.

That picture I posted yesterday?  It’s a big *swatch*.  Yeah, that’s what it is.

And it told me that I needed to cast on twice as many stitches to make the hat fit Mr. Great Big Head.

Because k1p1 rib?  doesn’t count the same way stockinette does.

So, I did as told.  184 stitches on a 16″ circular.  It’s all ruffly, and I think I spent fifteen minutes getting it all to lie flat and in the right direction before I even knit one stitch. And at one point, I turned it inside out *again*.

Note: it’s better to tink back an entire row to knit again in the right direction, even if it is 184 stitches than it is to frog back.  And it’s never too soon to put in a locking stitchmarker so you know which is the right side.

Sigh.  I *hate* this hat. 

It’s all learning, right?

I’m knitting the *socks* today.