Yarn Along

I nearly finished the Lady Pearl sweater, but I pulled back a bit to play with some of the colors and shaping a bit more.  I specifically use the word “play” because I sort of intended to play from the beginning, and I’m really enjoying myself.  I’m sure there’s probably an easier way to do it, but this part is just easy stockinette stitch, and I wanted to try the shaping out 2 different ways from the beginning.  I tried the easier way first, and after I tried it on, I decided that the second option would lay nicer.  In theory that is, because now I’m trying out the second method.

I specifically picked Swans Island yarn for this type of “play.”  This stuff is heavenly.  The last few months I’ve been working on a pattern collection, and it’s easy to get in the “get it done” drive.  The more I stress about it, the more I desire to get into an artist mindset instead of a managerial mindset.  It’s much less stressful, and I find more joy in it.

I’ve been fearful lately that I need to pull back on knitting, as it seems to have gotten in the way of me mothering more and more.  I get stuck on a design, and obsess about getting it done in the timeframe I allow myself.  Sometimes I wonder if I should be putting out designs at all.  But then I realize that the knitting isn’t the problem, the priorities are the problem.  So I’m pulling back deadlines, and focusing on what needs to be focused on in the house.

That still includes turning on my artistic brain and getting something just right from time to time.  It’s about claiming sane moments instead of adding stressful ones.  This time of year, though the opportunity to do that doesn’t come as often.

For reading, I’ve been looking through this amazing cookbook (The New Midwestern Table) that is new to our home.  I love cookbooks, and stupidly decided to wander into the cooking section of a bookstore with Silje a few weeks ago.  I know how bad I get in that section.  I could not put this book down.  I brought it home with me that day not only because I wanted to keep reading it, but because I knew I would be reading it 100 more times.

This is such a beautiful book.  It’s 400 pages, hardbound, with 200 recipes in it.  Oh, the recipes.  First they’re based off of midwestern food.  So many times I pick up a cookbook from New York or Texas, and I simply cannot get the ingredients listed.  This cookbook is based off of foods I can get.  There’s a whole chapter on lake fish for goodness sake.

Not only are all the ingredients ones I can get locally, but they’re real food ingredients.  You see, she scoured church cookbooks and family cookbooks, and went to restaurants all over the midwest, all the way up into Canada, and published the best of the best, with her own twist to them.  So many of those cookbooks have recipes that include cream of something soups, etc.  No, this chef picks real food.  I’m not saying they’re all healthy food, but they’re made from real ingredients.  I really appreciate that.

I also love the pictures in this book.  I would sit down with it just for the pictures.  It’s not just of food pictures, but she captures the whole midwest culture in these photos.  You see blue collar workers eating down home cooking, and old kitchens with grandma’s old bowls.  Plus, so many of the recipes have a history, and that history is told right alongside the recipe.  She talks a lot about the immigrant culture, from the early Scandinavian and European settlers to the modern immigrants of Hmong and Somalis to the midwest, and how that all effects the foods and flavors that we eat.  I cannot put this book down.

Yesterday was Knut’s birthday.  For his birthday breakfast we had the “Cardamom Caramel Rolls” from this cookbook.  They were the best caramel rolls I’ve ever had in my whole life.  There’s about 199 more recipes in here that I’m dying to try.  OK, I’ll be honest.  There are about 180 recipes in here that I can’t wait to try.  There’s a few that I know won’t be my thing.  But still, 180 new recipes in my arsenal isn’t a bad thing.  I’ll take it.

Oh, and the recipes go into detail.  I like that.  She doesn’t just tell you what to do, but why it needs to be done that way.  I’m a curious rebel.   When someone tells me to do something a certain way, but doesn’t know why, I’ll do it the opposite way just to see what happens.  So I love the explanations of why certain ingredients or methods are used.  It feels like you have an experienced relative in your kitchen with you, telling you exactly how great-grandma did it, and why she did it that way.  It’s enamoring.

Linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along.