Spring Shower Shawl

The yarn candy from Elvincraft is being transformed into the lightest of pretty Spring Shower Shawls. This stitch pattern is the one I have a chart picture of here, Shower Stitch from Barbara Walker's first Treasury, turned from an 8 row into a 16 row repeat by adding straight purl rows. It's one of those perfect matches of yarn to pattern. I love it.

Bowl of Yarn Candy

I just got this Spring Garden yarn from Elvincraft Homegrown Yarns on the Isle of Skye, which is not buying local, but so what. I love the soft colors and the wonderful texture. Kate Duncan is an inspired artist. Time to cast on a Spring Shower Shawl.

Showgirl Color Palette

Here are some colors that make me think happy thoughts of Spring, though I would never dream of wearing them. The fabric is on a box I use to "organize" my junk, and this flyer from the 60s was in this box. So I guess I do have an organizational system after all: color coding. I don't know where I got this piece of paper. Inside a thrift store book? (Thrift store books are treasure troves of stray ephemera, especially if you collect shopping lists.) Did my grandparents give it to me as a souvenir from one of their smoke-filled Catalina driving treks to this slot machine and supper club oasis? Long, long ago there was no such thing as "riverboat" gambling...

Happy Friday the 13th!

The main item I've had a lot of people try to buy off my junkzine site is The Vinegar Valentine, as illustrated above in A BOARDING HOUSE COOK:

You slobbering thing you, your hash is full of hairs,
And your tough old steak tastes if it were a bear’s.
The hungriest cannibal that ever wore a clout,
Would not eat the cooking of such a filthy lout.
A fitting trade for such a slovenly old dunce,
Is to try pot-stewing; go make the change at once.

Ouch, that's mean! I guess these VVs are worth some money, given the public clamor. (I won't sell!) I got them a long time ago cheap, cheap, dirt cheap, at the Carondelet Flea Market. As a special Valentine's Day treat, I'm going to share with you all my world famous coconut brownies. These taste like a Mounds Bar, and will make you happy. (If you like chocolate.) Enjoy!

2oz unsweetened Baker's chocolate, melted with 1 stick butter and cooled slightly
I cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup flour (I use the sorghum or brown rice gluten-free kind)
Mix everything together till fluffy, then stir in:
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (available at Whole Foods. The sweet kind would make these way too sweet.)
Bake @ 350° for 30 minutes in a 9 x 9 pan.

Eat Better For Le$$

I love James A. Beard. He had the right attitude about Life: enjoy it. I bought the paperback of this great cookbook, How To Eat Better for Less Money, years ago at the Best (But Alas No More) Flea Market that ever was, held monthly at the Carondelet Saturday Morning Athletic Club (now torn down for that Lowes at the corner of Loughborough and I-55.) The paperback had initially been given away as a freebie in the early 70s with a carton of Parliament ciggies, so was not that sturdy. Not held together with high quality glue at all. Mine fell apart a month ago, but given the atmosphere of economic gloom, I thought I better have it on my shelf again — in a more sturdy form. I bought this hardcover edition online. Left to my own devices I would eat like a pauper and enjoy it. Eggs, anchovies, and veggies, that's all I really need. I've been a member of local organic veggie CSAs, but found them incredibly wasteful, because I would get either two measly leaves of spinach or ten pounds of kohlrabi. The excess was never of a veggie I knew what to do with. So this year I'm going to go to Soulard every Friday and just buy the stuff I really, really love. Turnips, beets, greens, peppers, and salsify, stuff like that. And not enough of it to rot in the crisper, either. One of the most fun parts of this book is Beard's list of essential pantry items. It's very heavy on the canned fish. Anchovies, 6 cans: check. Minced clams, 4 cans: check. Sardines, 6 cans: check. I feel like an acolyte. There's a recipe in here I must try: Clam Panackes! As long as you've got eggs, wheat pancakes transmogrify into brown rice pancakes fairly easily. Will update on the outcome of this experiment soon. Gluten-free note: quinoa flour tastes like boll weevils. Yuck.

Power Outage Bloggers Unite!

I am beginning to consider this a power outage blog. Yes, today our electricity went out again for the nth time in a month. It was out for only an hour — the Hail Marys might have helped — and the mild weather made it more of a nuisance than serious annoyance, but it interrupted a fascinating TV show on contemporary Mongolian horse nomads. Their horses are small, almost pony sized, but boy can they zoom! I want to run away and become a Mongolian horse nomad. Then I wouldn't give a shit about electricity, because I'd have more important things on my mind, like the far horizon. To ride all day with the wind, like the tattooed Siberian Ice Princess of two thousand or so years ago, that would be heaven. As soon as the power came back on again I cranked up the White Zombie, and tried to remember the days when I felt powerful all the time. I got a glimmer when Blood, Milk, and Sky came on. Oh, the good old days of fearless Bohemian youth! But at least I now know how to knit. Item #1: Noro Striped Silk Garden scarf (#272 and #275), knit in my comfort stitch, Brioche: fluffy, reversible, yarn extending, and easy. Item #2: Neck ruff. Two fast presents made from the yarn I slurped up during yet another recent power outage...

Power Outage Luck

Every time the power goes out, I have the most powerful urge to shop after it's restored. Frugality and frightening economy are forgotten as I try to buy my way back into a feeling of civilized safety. This Good Luck ashtray was found this morning up in Cowtown's thrift store after spending the night in Flea Bag Motel there. Yesterday I felt all pleasant and modern after finally popping for a Hi-Speed satellite internet connection after years of dial-up. (How the hell did I put out my junkzine with dial-up? It was mighty slow going, but it still got there.) Now, however, I can watch my favorite Mr. Magoo commercials on YouTube like a normal person, from any room in the house, thanks to that marvel of modern technology, the wireless router. And I can download the rest of the first season of Bewitched without having to go to the Bread Company for Wi-Fi. Yes, yesterday Life was complacent and purring until bam, darkness fell. I get all humorless and uptight and lacking in grace under pressure now when that happens, but I know the routine: fish out LED lights from various drawers, call AmerenUE, pile blankets on the bed. And if AmerenUE has the wrong time frame for restoration, as it did last night, hustle the husband and chihuahua out of the freezing house. "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you a better shopper."

Tropical Splendour

The sun goes down after five and is up before seven these days: the dark cold night of winter is shrinking. Hallelujah and pass the the banana liqueur!