Moody Kerchief - Color to Fit Your Mood

A new knitting project just started is the Moody Kerchief, available on Ravelry.  It is a fun one and quick to knit, with a zillion color combinations you can choose.  Only your imagination limits you.

Designer Kirstin Kapur's picture of her design:

Finished Measurements: 42” across top edge, 14” from top edge to base of curve 

Knit Picks says about this the wool/silk blend I chose to work with:

Gloss DK is a luxurious blend of soft Merino wool and lustrous silk. The fiber blend takes dye very well, resulting in glowing saturated colors. Gloss DK has a large spectrum of colors, which are ideal for combining in color work projects. It is next-to-skin soft, and good for wearing around your neck or on your wrists, since it’s not itchy. Its sheen and drape produce a very sleek fabric, which shows off the stockinette stitch.

That Gloss DK is soft, squishy, and easy to handle.  I like that it has silk in it, and the greys look lively, which seems like an oxymoron to the color grey.  Here are the color choices in my project that will look good with blacks, reds, and even peach colors:

(and this Ella Rae sock yarn held together with both the peach and red yarns)

The Knit Girllls (Lala, actually) talked about this design on her podcast in August, saying she had made several from this pattern, and that it was quick to knit and ingenious.  I concur!  And I already know I'll be making another scarf from this same pattern.

Finished:

Sharing Recipes (on a laptop?)

(okay, maybe it was a joke they shared)

Here is the best scone recipe I found from Amateur Gourmet:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup heavy (or whipping) cream
1 large egg
1/4 cup vanilla sugar, plus more for sprinkling on the scones
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, chilled
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or dried currants)
Zest from 1 small orange
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (or, if your oven runs hot, 350 degrees F.)
2. Place the cream, egg, and 1/4 cup vanilla sugar in a medium-size bowl and whisk until fluffy and well blended.
3. Place the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a food processor and pulse to combine.Add the chilled butter, then pulse again until fairly well blended. Then add the cream mixture and pulse until the dough just holds together.
4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface.  Sprinkle the cranberries and orange zest over the dough and knead for 30 seconds, making sure the cranberries are well distributed throughout the dough. Pat the dough into a round about 1/2 inch thick
5. Cut out the scones using a floured 2-inch round cookie cutter. Gather up the extra dough, pat it out again, and continue cutting out the scones. You should have 16 to 20.
6. Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush the tops with the melted butter and sprinkle them with vanilla sugar. Bake in the oven until golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes. 

YUM!

A Little Brag, A Big Confession

The Wilhelmina Shawl from the book What Would Madam Defarge Knit? (Creations Inspired by Classic Characters) is finished.   Your can read more when it was  posted back here.  So I am bragging that it is finished, and turned out pretty well.  See what you think:

The sun was not out this morning when I snapped the pictures, so the pretty greens look more muted in the picture than what your eye would see.  But you get the idea.


Over 500 6 mm glass beads were knitted into the border of the shawl in the last two rows.  It really did not take that long using the YouTube video from Random Knits:


But I will confess that I did not follow Chrissy Gardiner's exact instructions on the lace charts because I did not understand it.  The improvisations are ok, but her scarf looks prettier if knitted according to her pattern.  And I added those beads, because it was easier than knitting nupps.  So that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

(Knit pattern is from the first edition hardcover of What Would Madam Defarge Knit has been sold out, but you can order the digital download here.) Details on Ravelry are here.