Mondrian-inspired scraps blanket

I have lots of odd skeins and partial skeins of yarn, and had begun to think about doing a scraps blanket.  We could use another blanket, and while thinking about how I might go about creating a scraps blanket, I came across some of the Mondrian-inspired projects on Ravelry--dresses, pillows, and, of course, blankets.

But could I create a Mondrian-inspired blanket without buying yarn?  This is a concern, since I'm enthusiastically participating in the Lord of the Rings Group's StashQuest to work down my stash.  So could I create a scraps blanket out of different weight yarns, of differing colors, and differing fibers?

I had a brainstorm:  what have I got to lose?  If I don't like it, I can frog it and start over.  If I like it, then I'll have a blanket!  I pulled out all the candidate yarns, selected the blue wool, and knitted horizontally, putting in a black stripe of cotton, then choosing the green wool...then the red cotton...then I picked up along the long edge, knit more black, and used the white wool (the black stitches at the bottom are all live, on a string of yarn serving as a stitch-holder).  So far, it's a long strip, and I like it!

Homemade Graham Crackers

Photo by Paul

Homemade graham crackers are faster to make than we had imagined and so very delicious!  We adapted the recipe from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book: we found that recipe too sweet, so omitted the sugar but kept in the syrup.  We also go ahead and melt the butter rather than mixing it in softened.  We use fresh ground whole wheat flour, so don't need to the flour the counter to roll out the crackers.

1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg, well beaten
4 tablespoons honey or agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups graham flour (or 6-1/2 ounces fresh ground whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup (3.5 ounces) white flour

Oven at 350F.

Combine the melted butter and honey or agave, and beat well with a whisk; add the egg, and beat well.  Dissolve the baking soda in the water and then add to the mixture.  Add the salt and flours to the mixture, and blend thoroughly.  If the dough is too tacky to handle, add a little more flour.

Roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch (flour the counter if necessary).  Cut into squares or rectangles, about 2 inches wide.  Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, and prick with a fork.  Bake for 8 minutes on one side, then turn over and bake for 7 minutes more.  Remove from the oven and cool on racks.

Georgian dinner

We've long been fans of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's cookbook Seductions of Rice, but we just got their Flatbreads and Flavors--I'm so glad we did!  The first recipe we tried was fenugreek and corn bread, and it was delicious--we were having a busy weekend, and we followed the recipe almost exactly and they were fantastic.  The only thing we did different from the recipe was baking the breads on a stone in our oven rather than on an oiled baking sheet.

So last weekend, when we had more time, Paul closed his eyes and wiggled a finger into the cookbook to choose a recipe at random: potato and herb filled bread (khachapuri ossetinski) from Georgia.  We decided to make walnut and eggplant roll-ups (badrigiani, also from Georgia) to go with it.  It was an incredible meal--absolutely delicious:

It was our first time making these breads, and I've never seen any person, so we kind of winged it:

We also cooked these breads directly on our baking stone in the oven, rather than on oiled cookie sheets, and they were great!

We did have leftover potato and herb filling, which we had for breakfast the next day; we mixed it up with a beaten egg into a patty, fried it, and had it with egg on top--delicious!

Swatch, no, dishcloth

I recently purchased some Farmablefibres cotton from my favorite yarn store, Claddagh Yarns, and when working up a gauge swatch, realized I might as well turn it into a dishcloth:

Here are my pattern notes:

I used 4.5mm needles, with Farmablefibres 100% Cotton yarn, and my gauge came out to 16 st/4 inches before washing & blocking, and a dish cloth that is 7.5 x 7.5 inches.

Cast on 30 stitches.

Work 4 rows of moss stitch.

Work 35 rows with 4 stitches of moss stitch at the ends, and stockinette stitch in between (about 6.75 inches from beginning at this point).

Work 4 rows of moss stitch.

Bind off in moss stitch pattern until you have 3 stitches left, and work these 3 stitches in moss stitch.

Work an i-cord on these stitches for about 3 inches, then pull yarn through stitches & tie off; sew end of i-cord to cloth to make a loop.