Tuesday, February 17, 2009

E-2 Corn and Beans and knitting progress


One more SBS block done, E-2 Corn and Beans. I ended up using the Marti Michell templates for this. I have quite a few now, and rather than pawing through them willy-nilly, I put together a spreadsheet (one of my favorite things to do) with all the pieces (almost all, still have a few to add, like the Feathered Star…) and what the finished size was. Then I sorted by type and size and put an illustration next to the type so I can find things easily. The actual templates are in different tins, one with the 4” block bits, one with the 3”, and one with 8-pointed Stars and Feathered Stars. Somewhere I have the sunburst too, I think, need to get more organized. Anyway, doing that made it easy to see if I had the right pieces for Corn and Beans, and I did, so I used them.
Started another dishcloth this weekend, and finished it last night. I am much better at keeping an even tension now. Cotton is very unforgiving, no stretch or easing like wool that hides that unevenness a bit. So, I had to get better, and I did. I now hold my yarn a bit differently, more like the pictures I have seen, with the double wind around my finger, instead of just one, holds better, thus better tension. So this morning I started another swatch for my socks, using US size 1 needles, and with my new improved technique, actually got 7 stitches per inch, which is what I was shooting for! So now I can figure out how many stitches to cast on and start my first pair of socks, Woo hoo!
Made Russian Cabbage Borscht from the Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katzen, last night, using mostly Farm share produce (beets, cabbage, carrots, celery), along with some staples (onion and potato). Tonight will be either lamb stew or Ham, yams and apples.

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