on a roll

I knew it. Finishing something would lead to a flurry of activity and a cascade of other items checked off my "in progress" list.  I'm feeling a little more in control of my projects than I was at the beginning of the month and a little less like an octopus trying to gather in all the moving pieces of my life. Taking the incomplete Juneberry Triangle in hand and casting off the border a mere three days later, I realized that a few projects could be finished in mere days, too.

I told Z I'd finish her colorwork cowl before she arrived home from a trip, so that was the obvious item in the queue after the Juneberry.  She'll hopefully get good use out of it this winter--her college is in south central Michigan, where the snow and freezing temperatures are extreme, at least compared to our current location.  It coordinates with a pair of mittens and a hat that I made for her.  The yarn is Tukuwool Fingering (a favorite!) in the colors Sake and Hohka, but I don't know how much of each I used.  Possibly a whole skein of the red and maybe 1/2 a skein of the white?  I've been at this knitting gig for almost two decades--long enough to have a giant bag full of tricks.  Imagine my surprise when this project taught me some new things.  The first: chart out more of the pattern than you think you'll need.  I didn't add enough rows to my chart and discovered a mistake when I'd almost completed the colorwork section.  Can you spot it?  If this cowl were for me, I'd have ripped it back and re-knit.  But I know Z.  She won't care about the mistake and she'll be exasperated at my perfectionism.  The second: for all charts, use graph paper with bold lines every few squares, or darken some of the lines yourself.  This really broke up my knitting and instead of having to count (and recount) and lose track of longer sections, I was able to keep track of my stitches more easily.  The rows flew by when I restarted my count every five stitches.  The third and last thing I learned was also something that will transfer to other patterns: instead of buying some fancy place keeper, a piece of paper and paperclips will do the same job.  Frugailty FTW!

I did some bullet biting last week and ordered three Wiksten patterns I've been wanting to try for the last few years, and will use them for several lengths of fabric in my stash.  Dear Reader, have you ever ordered fabric without a clear vision for it, find the perfect pattern after it arrives, and then put off ordering said pattern because of the pattern's price?  I kept hoping I'd be able to talk myself into using one of the patterns I already own, but no.  In my mind's eye, the fabric could only be the patterns that dip into my wallet.  The green double gauze will be a shift dress (I sprang for a paper pattern for this); the green Kaufman Brussels Washer Linen will be a tank or possibly a dress, with a black linen version to come; the Tova I picture in natural or black linen, which I'll wait to purchase in person.  I still have a length of Essex Linen in an unusual brown color; it's far more orange in person than it was on my screen.  The pattern for it that keeps springing to mind is the Estuary Skirt by Sew Liberated, but I have no idea what color top to pair with it!  So I may turn it into a dress, like one I already own or another one from the same pattern book, just to save myself the trouble of matching shirt and skirt.  

Two new food adventures have happened in the last week, too.  (When I'm on a roll in one place, it flows in waves to everywhere else.  Except the laundry.  Suggestions welcome.)

My mother-in-law brought me several containers of a pimiento cheese I like when she visited in June.  It's a Southern thing.  The pimiento cheese reminded me that I've been wanting to try a cheese and pickle sandwich, so I made my first (delicious) one after years of wondering about it.  Branston pickle is not quite what I expected--much sweeter and...smokey?--but it works in the sandwich.  

I made Caesar salad dressing myself!  One of our family's go-to summer meals is chicken Caesar salad with homemade croutons.  The store dressing versions aren't that great, except for the one I ate as a child.  I tried out a recipe from Joshua Weissman's cookbook*, with a few modifications and we all loved it!  I may or may not have used a spatula to scrape the last tiny bits out of the jar so I could enjoy them.

My recipe:

Put the following in a jar with a mouth wide enough for an immersion blender:

1 clove of garlic
3-4 anchovy fillets

2 tsp of dijon or brown mustard

1 large egg yolk

juice of 1 lemon

Blitz the ingredients until mixed.  Then, with immersion blender going, drizzle in until emulsified:

2/3 cup of neutral oil

Stir in 1/2 c parmesan cheese.  Freshly grated is best, but the powdered kind will do in a pinch.

Toss with salad and enjoy!

* My mom gave me An Unapologetic Cookbook at Christmas, in which my boys have earmarked over a dozen recipes they want me to try.  The pictures are gorgeous; the recipes I've made have been delicious.