Natural Stitches: Knitting On

When you grow up in Western Pennsylvania with the legacy of a steelworker family (okay, I’ll just say it, if you’re a Hunky), stuffed cabbage, or Halupki, is a big, big deal. My grandmother made sure my mother knew how to make it for my father. When my brother got engaged, my mother gave his fiance a cooking lesson on the intricacies of stuffed cabbage. When I was pregnant with my son, my mother filled our freezer with stuffed cabbage. My sister makes a fancy version with bacon and ground turkey. But stuffed cabbage has always eluded me, so I was thrilled to see Carla’s easy version for the slow-cooker.

• 1 large or 2 small heads of cabbage chopped large
• 3 lbs ground beef browned and drained
• 4 jars (32 oz?) spaghetti sauce
• large onion chopped
• Brown sugar. I like mine sweet and non acid so I use about 1 1/2 cups. Adjust that amount to taste.
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper

Combine all. Put in 2 large crock pots. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or until cabbage is cooked through, stirring about every 1 1/2 hours.

Cook on the stove about 2 lbs of your favorite pasta. Add this to the cabbage mixture and let it soak up the juice. Or you can use rice if you prefer. You can also add the pasta or rice when you serve it.

I cook big and freeze portions for later use. You can easily cut this recipe in half.

In Knitting Lace Triangles, Evelyn Clark, master of shawl design, writes that knitting a shawl is like “creating a hug for you or someone else.” After the seemingly endless snow of this winter, I think a yarn hug is exactly what we all need. Knitting or crocheting shawls, I’ve come to learn, is an addictive process. The benefits of shawls are legion: they showcase lovely yarn, they become a sampler for new lace techniques, and best of all, unlike sweaters, they always fit! However, if you’re anything like me, or Martha, or Yvonne, you have a drawer full of shawls that you never wear. We’re going to change that. Break out your shawls and join us for our Show Us Your Shawl Extravaganza on Saturday, March 20 and Sunday, March 21!

Here’s how it works. Come into the shop wearing a shawl that you made. We’ll take a picture of you for our blog, and in exchange for Showing Us Your Shawl, we’ll give you 10% off your entire regular-priced purchase. At the end of the weekend, we’ll have a lovely online journal of our favorite shawls.

Never made a shawl before? We encourage you to follow our store theme of Expand Your Fiber Comfort Zone in 2010 and try your hand at one. Here are some suggestions:

If the idea of lace frightens you, try a simple triangle. The Boneyard Shawl, shown here in Crystal Palace Mochi Plus, uses basic increases to show off a beautiful yarn. I used the same basic idea for this similar shawlette for Steven made in sock weight yarn.

Mochi Plus

Sock yarn

Kelli and I are both making a Citron Shawl, from the most recent issue of Knitty. Kelli reports that this is a great pattern for advanced beginner knitters because it allows you to practice two different kinds of increases. Here’s mine in Malabrigo Sock, but two great things about this pattern are that you can make it in any weight of yarn that you want, and that it’s written for just one skein of Malabrigo Lace, which means that you can make a cute shawl for only $8.80!

Stay tuned in the days to come for more shawl ideas, including ideas for first lace projects and suggestions for those of you who want to move on to more challenging lace shawls. See you soon!

Steven made it to the podium on Sunday afternoon! His Knitting Olympics project is Jared Flood’s Huron sweater, knit in two shades of Cascade Eco Wool.

Did you finish? Let us know in our Ravelry group and come in to the shop to stand on the podium and wear our Tiara of Victory. If you signed up on the Yarn Harlot’s blog, you can head over there and claim your medal!

In other news, we’ve made a change to our Group Schedule. Tuesday night is now SciFi/Geek Night, so grab your Dr. Who scarf and join us on the couch. Ravelry Night has moved to Thursday night. See our complete schedule of groups and events here.

And finally, we had such a great response to David’s Steek Workshop that we’ve scheduled another one! The next steek class will be held on Saturday, April 3 from 1-3. Call the shop at 412-441-4410 to register.

We said goodbye to the Winter Olympics last night, but if you still have Olympic spirit in your heart (and in your knitting needles), we’ve found some online patterns that have reverse-engineered some of the accessories worn by the Olympians. While patterns for the stunning cabled turtleneck worn by Team USA during the opening ceremonies and the absolutely gorgeous Cowichan sweaters worn by Team Canada last night will be quite awhile in the making, accessories are quick and easy. Here’s a few:

• The USA Olympic Ring Hat worn by Lindsey Vonn
• A recreation of the marled hat worn by Bode Miller.
• The fair isle reindeer hat worn by Team USA during the opening ceremonies
• And finally, this is a paid pattern, but considering you can’t get these mittens for love or money right now, a recreation of the famous Canadian Red Mittens. Proceeds from this pattern will go to charity.

Monica, humming the Finnish national anthem, made it to the podium with her Shalom cardigan on Friday afternoon.

Anna finished her Ulmus this afternoon.

We’ve had two Olympians cross the finish line!

Nancy Eddy steps on the podium with her knitted clogs on her hands.

Yvonne cries tears of joy over her completed Shetland Triangle.

Still working? Don’t fret, there’s still today, Saturday, and Sunday until the flame goes out. (Steven suggests pausing the tivo to prolong this moment, but we feel that might be cheating.) We are having our FINAL RUN on Saturday from 1-4, but as always, if the door is open, the couch is open.

By David A.

What is your immediate reaction to “STEEK”?
a)  Steek?  Did you mean “steak”?
b)  EEEEEK!  You want me to do what with my knitting?
c)  Bring on those scissors!!

If your answer is either a or b, then you must “Expand Your Knitting Comfort Zone” by participating in Natural Stitches’ Steeking Workshop.  Steeking at its most basic is cutting your knitting for sleeve and neck openings.  WHAT??!!  Cut my knitting?!  Yes, that sounds like an ominous deed to perform on a sweater that you’ve spent hours knitting.  However, steeking has been done for many, many years and has been used most successfully by Scandinavian and Fair Isle knitters.

The first Steeking Workshop will be held on Saturday, March 13 from 1-3 and space will be limited to 8 participants.  In the workshop, you will explore two (of many!) common steeking methods:  crocheted steek and machine-sewn steek.  The workshop will also cover why we steek, fibers for steeking, and setting up steeks.  A sewing machine will be provided.  Overcome your fear of steeking by stopping into the shop or calling today (412-441-4410) to register for the workshop. The cost is $25 per student.

Before and After of David’s steeked Alberta Vest.

An old adage says something like “Ask six knitters a question and you’ll get seven answers.” Knitting is simultaneously an art and an imprecise science; there is no “one true way” to do any given technique, and to prove it, I asked the staff the simple question “Do you use stitch markers when knitting lace patterns?” The answers were varied, and they all boiled down to it depends.

Anna: It totally depends on what I’m doing and how confident I feel about reading my knitting. When I first started knitting lace patterns, I needed the markers to tell me where I was: my February Lady Sweater had markers every seven stitches, which was, um, a lot of markers. Then I started knitting patterns that couldn’t rely on markers because the stitch count shifted with every repeat, like the Springtime Bandit. I had to learn to read my knitting, and some patterns, like the Traveling Woman I just completed, make that easier because there’s a purl stitch or some other stitch built right into the pattern that let me know that I was at the end of a stitch repeat.

Anna's Traveling Woman, in Dream in Color Smooshy. Note how the purl stitch runs down the shawl to serve as a built-in marker.

Carla: Yes.  Yes. Yes.  Why think more than you have to?  You know you should be starting the stitch repeat each time you hit a marker.  And it makes it easier to find errors.  No need to look through all your stitches to find where you missed a YO and such.  It’s much easier to count the stitches between the markers and narrow down the search.

Kelli: I use them ANY time that it will make my life easier!!!

Martha: I would say that about 90% of the time I use markers in my lace knitting. I find they help me keep my pattern repeats separate and help keep track of when special events happen (Extra increases, decreases, etc.) Occasionally I’ll find a pattern where I cannot put in markers and often those are ones that don’t really need them to keep things straight.  For much of my knitting (lace or otherwise), I find that a marker reminds my fingers that I need to pay attention for just a moment before moving on.

Melissa: Unless I’m marking off very large pattern repeats (like 15 or more stitches on the Serenity Blanket), then no.  I find that it’s easier for me to “read the knitting” than rely on stitch markers.  If I make a mistake, it seems like I realize it sooner by watching the patterns of yarnovers & decreases than by needing to keep a set number of stitches between each stitch marker.  And the debate with Carla continues to rage. 

Yvonne: My answer is it depends on the project. I have the Mandala shawl that has stitch markers all over it, I have the Adamas shawl with no stitch markers, and I have the Shetland Triangle (from Wrap Style) that has one stitch marker to mark my center stitch.

Note: All links go to free patterns, and we are so grateful to these designers who have shared their hard work with us for free.

Recipe  from Giada DeLaurentis, adapted by Yvonne

Ingredients

* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus 2 teaspoons
* 4 anchovy fillets, minced*
* 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
* 2 tablespoons orange juice
* 2 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh basil leaves**
* 1 teaspoon lemon zest
* 1 teaspoon orange zest
* 6 skinless tilapia fillets
* Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions
Cook the butter and 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in a heavy small saucepan over low to medium heat just until the butter is melted, stirring frequently. Add the anchovies and stir until the anchovies dissolve, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat. Stir in the orange juice, basil, and lemon and orange zests. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt.

The bagna cauda sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, then cover and refrigerate. Rewarm before using.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper and brush both sides of the fish with remaining 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil. Working in 2 batches, fry the fish until just opaque in center, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer fish to platter. Cover with foil and keep warm in the oven while cooking the second batch of fish. Drizzle the sauce over and around the fish and serve.

*I used anchovy paste instead of the anchovies.
**You can substitute about 2 tsp. of dried basil leaves instead of the fresh basil.

This recipe was so good that even my youngest son, the most finicky eater in the house, ate TWO pieces of this fish.