Hey look crocheted baskets

An interesting product I saw at the MoMA design store a couple days ago. The set goes from $220. MoMA lists them as knitted baskets, but up close it is clear they are crocheted.

They are made out of neoprene, a flexible rubber used in the automotive and plumbing industries. Interesting material, soft to the touch and holds the bowl shape well.

The designer is Rosanna Contadini. She and two other designers, Isabella Nardone and Analia Restrepo, design handbags, home decor products, and jewelry all produced from neoprene. Check out there other items at Neo

Mitered Hanging Towels and Scroll Shaped Semolina Bread

The Pattern: Mitered Hanging Towels by Cristina Bernardi Schiffman published in Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines and available online at canadianliving.com
The Yarn: 3 balls of Red Heart ECO Cottom in vanilla, denim, and linen marl - one of each color (145yd/133m per ball)
Needle size: US8/5.0mm

Started: 6/17
Finished: 7/10

I made these for a gift, but I still don't have a recipient in mind. This was a nice project to give me a break from Anthemion (This thing is taking forever!). You could knit one of these in a day or over the course of a couple evenings.

I bought this yarn with no particular project in mind. I just happened upon it when I was at Knit-A-Way. I loved the look of the denim and linen marl colors. The yarn is 75% recycled fabric remnants from t-shirts and 25% acrylic. It felt a little bit stiffer than other cotton blends I've used in the past. It is a good yarn for householdy items. So when I ran across this pattern in Mason-Dixon I decided to dig out the Red Heart.

The buttons are 28mm in diameter and made of horn. I got them at M&J Trimming on 6th Avenue between 37th & 38th. They broke my bank at about $5 a piece, but they are so handsome and perfect for these towels I couldn't leave them behind.

Here is my latest baking creation.

Pane Siciliano. Again from the Bread Baker's Apprentice. I didn't get the shaping quite right. I think the problem was the surface tension on the dough. So when they rose they sort of just melted together, making the scroll shape less obvious than the loaves pictured in the book.

I ate one loaf over a week and froze the other two loaves. They weren't quite as good out of the freezer, but they make good cheesy garlic bread.

This is how I do cheesy garlic bread:
Place desired number of slices under the broiler to toast.
Crush one clove of garlic and rub it on the toasted bread.
Place a layer of cheese on top. I use shredded parmesan, but you could use mozzarella or whatever.
Stick the bread back under the broiler until the cheese starts to brown. Enjoy!

Gulf Oil Spill: How you can help...

Photograph by Sean Gardner, Reuters

For anyone interested in helping out with the oil spill disaster, here are a few organizations that have set up oil spill relief funds.

Greater New Orleans Foundation – Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund
National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Emergency Fund
(You can also donate $10 by texting "WILDLIFE" to 20222)
Oxfam America Gulf Coast Oil Spill Response Fund
United Way Greater New Orleans Gulf Oil Spill Fund

And check to see if your employer will match your donation.

It has been estimated that the spill is already far larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill from 1989.
BP spill vs Exxon spill comparison chart.
NY Times article on the rate of oil flow into the gulf

More info on the oils spill and how you can help:
EPA
The Daily Green
Deepwater Horizon Response
Google News
National Wildlife Federation
NY Times
Oil Spill Volunteers
Take Part
White House

Prairie Tunic and Focaccia Bread

The Pattern: Prairie Tunic by Veronik Avery
Size: 33
The Yarn: 2 1/2 skeins of Valley Yarns Sheffield in Mirage (545yd/498m)
Needle size: US6/4.0mm

Started: 4/14
Finished: 5/22

I've been wanting to make this for 3 years now. Not sure what was stopping me. It is a great little top.

I am a bit unsure of what to wear under it. I've been experiementing with a couple tanks - one regular tank and one racerback.

The instructions tell you to knit this in two pieces, but I'm terrible at seaming. So I wanted to do this in one shot. So I cast on for both the front and back and joined to knit in the round. About 5 rows in I realized that there are supposed to be slits up the side - will I never learn to read a pattern before I start? So I frogged it tand started over.

This time I cast on the back piece and the front piece using two different balls of yarn, then knit two at a time (like with socks or sleeves or other things that come in pairs). Once they were 4" long I joined to knit in the round (the pattern calls for 6 inch slits, but that seemed really long to me). When joining make sure that you are on a RS row and that your work isn't twisted. I continued like this until I got to the the triangle shaping.

Then I knit the left triangle about 50 times. I had two problems.

One: When you get to the triangle decreases you also need to adjust where you start and end the lace panels. BUT the pattern doesn't say by how much. By looking at pics of finished Prairie Tunics on Ravelry I decided to eliminate one decrease and yarn over from the beginning and end of each panel on each third row.

Two: There was errata that I didn't know about. Note to self - always check for errata. The errata isn't much different than what's in the pattern already, it simply eliminates one of the decreases on the inner side of the triangle. Once I discovered the errata it went smoothly.

The twisted cord took me a while to get right. I kept dropping the ends when I was twisting. I finally tied loops in the ends and hooked them around my index fingers. Then I just rotated my wrist to get the cord to twist. I also stood to the side of the door knob that I had the other end looped around, rather than directly facing it. When I was facing it the end kept slipping over the knob.

I have one glaring mistake. I messed up one of the lace repeats. Whoops! It's really obvious to me, but hopefully I'm the only one who notices.

The yarn was good. It is a cotton/silk mix, so there is a little bit of shine. No problems with splitting. I usually avoid plant based fibers, because I like the strechiness of animbal based fiber. But a cotton mix is good for light summer clothes like this. I used about 2 1/2 skeins, there was 22 grams of the 3rd skein left over.

I also made this really yummy focaccia bread. It is from the Bread Baker's Apprentice. It takes about 3 days to make, but it is so worth it.

It is great plain or dipped in marinara sauce.

Textured Shawl & Braided Bread

My third shawl for 10 shawls in 2010.

The Pattern: Textured Shawl by Orlane
Size: 44in/112cm neckline; 28in/72cm sides; 20in/51cm neck to tip
The Yarn: Three balls of Valley Yarns Sheffield in Light Grey (360yd/329.2m)
Needle size: US9/5.5mm and US10.5/6.5mm

Started: 4/4
Finished: 4/13

This was a really quick knit. Its simple and beautiful. I wanted to use a light solid color to show off the textured pattern. Dark colored yarns work well with lace because you get light shining through to highlight the pattern. But with a solid peice like this I felt that a dark color would just eat up the textured pattern. I also decided against varigated yarn because I thought it would make the texture disappear. I love how the textured portions look against the simple stockinette stitch. I think this would be lovely adapted into a blanket.

The Sheffield yarn was ok. It feels nice and was priced well. I think I just don't really like yarns with angora. I find that they shed alot. So the entire time I knit this I was a total mess. The yarn was shedding all over my lap and the little hairs would float up and stick to my face. Yuck. But it does look really pretty and feels soft.

I cast on using a crochet method where you make a crochet chain and then knit into it. I don't think this was the best choice. If I were to do this again I'd use a cable cast on. But if your interested in the crochet chain cast on Eunny Jang has a good tutorial here: Invisible Crochet Cast On II.

After casting on here's what I did:
26 rows of stockinette
9 repeats of textured pattern
18 rows of stockinette
9 repeats of textured pattern
18 rows of stockinette
7 repeats of textured pattern
BO with US10.5/6.5mm

Leaving me with only had 94in/23cm of yarn.

When I look at Orlane's shawl I think mine turned out kind small. Ooops. We have approximately the same yardage (Orlane used 328yd/300m), but different weights (I used worsted and Orlane used DK). So maybe that's why? I didn't swatch or anything before hand. I typically don't unless I'm doing a sweater or something where the fit matters. I might try blocking it again to get it just a little bigger. But I kind of like the kercheif size.


Here is my latest baking attempt.

It looks so pretty. It's cranberry walnut celebration bread from Bread Baker's Apprentice. Along with the cranberries and walnuts there is also orange zest in the dough. And surprisingly it is really easy to make the braided shape.