We have a very large store cupboard at home of various and sundry ingredients collected over many years. I would like to overhaul the contents but there is a lot of perfectly edible food in there. To this end I have resolved to make one meal from the store cupboard at least once a week in an effort to free up space and use up all the funny packets. If anything is really old (and likely stale) I will chuck it but I am hoping that that instead I will have a lot of meals for really cheap.

To give you a sample of my “basic” store cupboard items I will list some.

Dried Porcini

Flame Roasted Peppers In Oil

Rose Harissa

Risotto Rice

Cous Cous

Pearl Barley

Yellow lentils

Lentils vert

Red lentils

Tinned Palm Hearts

Tinned Tomatoes

Tinned Cannelini Beans

Tinned Kidney Beans

Tinned Snails (don’t ask!)

Vineger (7 types, Balsamic, Malt, Sherry, White Wine, Red Wine, Cider, Rice)

Rice Wine

Marsala Wine

Sherry

Oil (7 types, Vegetable, Sunflower Oil Spray, Olive Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Greek), Chilli Oil, Garlic Oil, Toasted Sesame Oil)

Nuts and Seeds (Walnuts, Cashew Nuts, Macadamia Nuts, Pumpkin Seeds, Salad Seed Mix)

Pasta, Rice, Flour etc.

Noodle (2 types, Udon and Dried Egg Noodles)

Olives

Anchovies

Capers

Creamed Coconut

Lazy Ginger

¾ of a Chorizo sausage in the fridge.

Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa)

Rose Water

Leaf Gelatine

Glace Cherries

Meringue nests

I decided not to list all my herbs and spices but I have an extensive collection including Kaffir Lime Leaves, Nigella Seeds, Asfoetida, dried lavender flowers and fish stock cubes.

This makes for a great “basic” ingredient list and with the odd half an onion and some veg from the garden this is easily a meal a week. Basically I want to get my cupboards in order before Christmas and I will try and keep a record of whatever I make here just in case I stumble upon an amazing combination.

So last night we had Chorizo and Cannelini Bean Stew with Rice

Ingredients:

Onion, Tin Cannelini Beans, Tin Tomatoes, Leftover Olives, Leftover Goats Cheese, Garlic Oil, Slice Chorizo, Stock, Rice, Dried Oregano.

Method:

Fry the finely chopped onion in the garlic oil until translucent and then add the chorizo. Continue to fry so that the fat in the chorizo melts and coats the onion with the paprika flavoured fat. Add the tinned beans and tinned tomatoes with stock seasoning and oregano and a little extra water. Simmer until it reduces to a thick sauce.

About five minutes before serving add the olives and then just before serving stir in the cubed cheese so that it is softened but not melted when you serve it.

Serve with rice made with stock as per my usual.

Variations of this meal are a bit of a store cupboard favourite of mine and we have eaten them on multiple occasions with different cheese, different beans etc. It is very versatile and with the chorizo a little can flavour the entire dish so it goes a long way and lasts for ages in the fridge (if you buy it as a sausage that is and not in the pre-packed salami style slices).

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I think that this new online magazine/catalogue is exactly what the knitting world needed. If Ravelry has revolutionized the way we communicate I think that Twist will be a revolution in the way we buy patterns and value the work that goes into them.

The basic idea is that this is an online magazine format where you can buy all the patterns directly from the designer one by one, picking and choosing the ones you want. This has the obvious advantage that you only buy the patterns you intend to knit but get all the editorial content for free. The magazine is run by the designers for the designers (hence “collective”). I believe that part of the impetus came from Annie Modesitt and her defiance of Interweave Knits new terms and conditions for designers which left them with almost no rights. Designing knitwear is notoriously badly paid and getting worse, one of the only perks was being able to sell stand alone copies of their patterns on a website after they had been published in a magazine and this was the very thing the new Interweave terms were going to prevent. Annie has written eloquently about this on her blog. The idea of the collective was to publish a magazine to showcase their work and get paid decently for it.

I think that the first issue is very good. The articles are interesting and there is a great free socks pattern by Cat Bordhi which is very intriguing. However I was mainly there for the patterns. I have already name checked Cat Bordhi but the gallery of stars contributing patterns to this magazine is stellar – Kate Gilbert of Clapotis fame is the editor, then there is Mimknits, Cookie A, Ysolda Teague, Hello Yarn, Anne Hanson, Mona Schmidt so I was expecting great things and I was not disappointed. These are great patterns. They are advanced and complicated – the sort of thing that you might get one or two off in a mainstream magazine but no more because they might put people off.

I was excited and challenged by them. They are all really beautiful designs with a good range of jumpers and socks many of which I am tempted to make (they had other things as well but these categories were my favourite). In fact I ended up buying Wisteria.

These are some of the best and brightest designers (both independent and established) in the online and print knitting world so as a group they rightly can demand at least my attention.

I was somewhat surprised to see that the Magazine has attracted a fair amount of criticism on Ravelry which seems to fall into the following categories

1. People didn’t like the layout

- well you can’t please all the people on this one, I did quite like the style but I think this is a fairly minor problem.

2. People thought that it was going to be a free online pattern magazine like Magknits and were disappointed.

- this complaint actually rather annoyed me. The TC have been vary clear on their website from the start what this was going to be, free editorial and patterns to buy. It has been discussed a lot around Ravelry that this was a good model because it meant only having to spend money on the patterns you actually wanted. If some people are sad because they made an assumption it would be free and it was not then this seems faintly ridiculous. Someone even described it as a “bait and switch” which I think it completely inaccurate and really hurtful. I think as knitters we have been completely spoiled for free patterns in recent years. Knitty, Magknit (r.i.p), Knit on the Net, Knotions and Popknits have all provided an amazing resource but we shouldn’t assume everything is for free and I fear that the level of free stuff out there is starting to create a trend where we don’t appreciate or value all the work that goes into the design process.

3. People think that the cost per pattern is too high.

- Well for me this is the point, I know that I am paying the designer a fair amount for the work they put in. For me I don’t mind buying less patterns and knowing I am buying a quality product for a fair price. There is a reason I buy fair trade goods and won’t buy sweat shop clothing – I might buy less in the end but at least I am spending my money consciously. The patterns are also very well presented and detailed with a very professional finish and many may size versions (far beyond the usual range). From what I can see on the site they are also intricate and at a fairly high level of complication. Well $7 for a complicated jumper is exactly what I spent on Rogue and I really felt that it was cheap when I saw the 19 pages of clear directions I got. $7 is really nothing for a complicated yet clearly written pattern which must have take someone hours. People seems to be happy paying many many dollars for artisan sock yarn and I am sorry that patterns do not seem to be treated in the same revered way. The patterns you buy from TC are in a totally different league in terms of presentation, complexity and detailed instructions to Knitty (not that Knitty isn't a great resource but they are just not the same thing!)

4. People are disappointed that you do not get discounts for buying multiple patterns.

- since each designer gets the money directly this just wouldn’t work as they would be seeing the usual benefit of bulk buying, they would only be seeing a cut in the monies. For the reasons given above I am very happy paying the price as it is.

I hope that this is the start of a real revolution whereby artists not only get paid what they deserve for great products but have a much greater command of their own destinies. There are so many advantages for the knitter as well, we get ideas from the designer which are not modified by what the magazines think we want and that is very valuable to me. I am interested in great ideas, not great ideas If this is the future of knitting then so far I think it looks really good.

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I have been quietly sock knitting away (still) and am currently still working on the Austrian socks which are a slow labour of love and the Uptown Boot Socks both from (surprise surprise) Favourite Socks.  They are both heavily cabled which is pretty hard on my hands, but worth every crossover.

When I picked knitting all the socks in Favourite Socks as a challenge it was because of something Miss Violet of Lime and Violet once said.  She originally suggested the idea of taking a knitting book and knitting everything in it on the grounds that even knitting something you didn't like would teach you something.  I decided that Socks would be perfect for this because even if I didn't like something it would be small and I could easily give it away.  However she was right about the learning.  I am about 1/2 was through the odyssey and now seems like a great time to post some lessons learned.  Lessons I am fairly confident I will carry with me forever.

1.  When knitting socks you want the top of the calf bigger than the bottom.  Forget casting on over two needles.  The most reliable way to achieve this is by starting the sock and knitting the first 4 inches on needle 2 sizes bigger than you knit the foot on.  So normally in my case I knit socks on size 2.5mm dpns which means I start the calf on 3mm dpns.  This is so simple, doesn't require any counting or shaping and looks great.  I don't know why I didn't do it before but now I shall do it forever.

2.  Cables.  For anything up to a 4 stitch cable I now no longer need a cable needle.  This is what knitting the Austrian Socks and the Uptown Boot Socks at the same time has taught me.  I think that they would have take me forever if I had used a cable needle.

3. I passionately dislike short row toes but at least now I can say I have tried them.

4. American sock yarn is MUCH thicket (on average) than European and my normal gauge of 9 stitches per inches appears to be the finest gauge that is acceptable in US sock books.  Little do they know I sometimes knit at 11 stitches to the inch!  However this makes sourcing some yarns a little harder (and some of the patterns are not easily converted to the finer gauges).

I wonder what the next 10 pairs will reveal to me!

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 Fri 8th Aug

We are now in Florence, Italy having flown in at about 6.00pm local time.  We are in a hotel here in the city for one night before heading out to a villa between Arezzo and Prugia in Umbria where we will be staying in a Villa for a week with J's parents celebrating his Step-Mom's 50th birthday.  I think that this is a very very fine way of celebrating anything!

After we hit our clean and basic hotel (with a disappointingly weak air conditioning unit) and showered we ventured out into Florence for an evening meal.  This was a more complicated process that you might think as we were a good 10 minute drive out of the city but we navigated the bus routes appropriately and ended up somewhere we recognised from the last time we were here.

Now I am starting to develop a theory about Firenzian restaurants.   Both this time and the last time we ate out in Florence we started out looking for a particular restaurant recommended in some guide book.  We failed to find said restaurant and instead stumbled upon an amazing place in the back streets.  I now believe that you do not go looking for a particular place to eat in Florence.  You walk out into the city needing food and Florence will present you with a great place to have dinner/lunch etc. Just trust your feet.

This time we found a tiny and yet amazing place where I had noodles with black truffle to start (J had pear and cheese parcels in a sort of cream sauce). This was really interesting as it was the first time I have ever had tried truffle.  It smelt like a cross between a strong blue cheese and a really good mushroom.  It tasted like a mushroom but the flavour was much stronger and MUCH more complex.  I am not sure I can even describe it.  I really liked it thought and the presentation of the pasta with some butter and truffle was both simple and great.

J ordered a second course of suckling pig with potatoes.  It came all wrapped up in tin foil and was cooked with whole garlic cloves and sprigs of rosemary.  It was a little salty but fantastic and I was really pleased but neither of us could finish it and there was certainly no room for dessert.

Nothing ticked off the list but I can now say I have tried truffle and I like it.

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One of my 101 challenges for the year was to go to an expensive posh restaurant and on a recent mini-break near Padstow in Cornwall I decided to book a table for lunch at the Rick Stein Seafood Restaurant.  Both J and I are big seafood fans so this was something we were both looking forward to very much.  We decided to go for the taster menu because even though it was expensive (£65 a head) it would give us a range of tastes to try and I wanted to experience as much great food as I could.

There was an emphasis on fish (clue's in the name of the eatery!) and fresh local produce.

The Menu looked like this:

Lobster Salad with Chive Dressing - this was one of my favourite dishes on the menu.  It was incredibly simple; a pile of cooked, chilled lobster meat, a small salad of mainly Frisee lettuce and a chive dressing.  It was very delicate and really delightful.  The lobster meat was certainly the sweetest I have ever tasted and the Frisee complimented it really well in texture.  The chive dressing was subtle but in a good way, meaning that it did not overpower the lobster.

Grilled Scallops with Hazelnut and Coriander Butter - I adore scallops, absolutely love them to its and these were good scallops, fat and juicy.  They were cooked perfectly, neither over not under done and the corals (the orange bit) were let on which I was very pleased about since I love the taste of the corals and many people take them off.  The hazelnut butter and coriander was tasty and interesting but not mind-blowing.  Mostly I was impressed with the quality of the scallops.

Fillet of Red Mullet with girolle mushrooms and a rocket and sun dried tomato salad - This was J's favourite dish overall.  I think that it was the first time I had tried red mullet and I wasn't prepared for the intense musky flavour although it was very very nice.  Again it was cooked perfectly, moist and the fillet just flaked apart.  The girolle mushrooms were a great compliment and so were the rocket and tomatoes.  I broke an important habit for this dish - which is that I ate different things on the same fork.  J often teases me that when I eat a meal I have a definite "order" in which I eat the items on my plate and I don't tend to mix the flavours.  I start with my second favourite item and then finish all of that then I eat the least favourite flavours and finish with my favourite bit.  I have no idea how I developed this habit but I must have had it since childhood.  I certainly never noticed until J pointed it out one day.  Anyway he insisted that I eat a mouthful of mushroom and fish at the same time.  I did and it was lovely.

Crab, Ginger and Coriander Broth with Mussels - This was the item on the list I was looking forward to most because although I love scallops and lobster my favourite seafood of all is crab.  I spent holidays at Cromer in my childhood which is famous for its delicious fresh crab and I developed a real taste for it.  Sadly crab seems really hard to get anywhere else (certainly not the fresh stuff) so I only get to eat it rarely - which of course increases its appeal. Sadly I didn't get the huge mound of crab I was hoping for.  This was entirely my own fault as "broth" shouldn't mean "an entire dressed crab" but the dish was a really flavourful Asian style soup which was a good palette cleanser after the earlier richer dishes.

Char-grilled Fillet of Sea Bass with a tomato, butter and vanilla vinegrette - This was actually a main course and so also came with new potatoes and green and broad beans.  The fish was again cooked perfectly and the sauce nice (although I couldn't actually taste any vanilla) but these weren't my favourite parts of the meal.  Strangely it was the simple veg.  I am not a huge potato fan but these were seriously the best new potatoes I have ever eaten.  They had an amazing flavour which I really wasn't expecting.  Similarly the broad beans tasted like they had just come from my Dad's garden which is just how I like them.

Baked Chocolate Mousse with Mango and Mint Coulis and Mango Sorbet - this was the one dish that J and I weren't too sure about.  It had the texture of a dense cake rather than a mousse and I couldn't tell if this were deliberate or not.  Also I am not convinced about the combination of flavours of mango and chocolate as both of them seemed so rich I would rather had something like orange to lift the chocolate.  However it was tasty and nicely presented so I don't really have a complaint to make.

Coffee and Petit Fours - this was a lovely round up to the meal especially since instead of coffee I could get fresh mint tea.  Fresh mint tea has a refreshing delicate taste and is really simple to make since it is just boiling water and fresh mint.  I can normally only get it in Morroccan restaurants so I was very happy.

Overall I really enjoyed the experience.  I think going for a lunch made it feel more relaxed and less formal which was a good thing.  I would definitely consider doing it again but J and I have decided that instead we will save up and try the Fat Duck. 

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Oh oh!  Our internets died at home!  I can not upload pictures, etc right now, which makes me sad.  We've found a new service provider, but it will not be up and running for a another week or so.  I will be back to normal posting as soon as I can.

Cheers!

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Since the last time I updated on the sock knitting I have finished one pair and started two new pairs.

Firstly I have started the Austrian Socks from Favourite Socks.  This is a very hard pattern and so I am taking it nice and slow, and keeping it on the back burner whilst I knit other pairs which are more suited to knitting in front of TV or on a train.

I am using the gorgeous Easy Knit Apple Blossom which really makes the cabling stand out.

Austrian Socks (in Progress)

Secondly I started and finished the resoleable socks out of some left over Violet Green hand dyed wool in Witch and plain black Opal Sock yarn.  These are supposed to be knitted in a worsted weight yarn but they are easily resizable and I prefer knitting socks at a lots of stitches to the inch as they are more comfortable underfoot that way.

Resoleable Socks

This means that I am up to 13 socks out of the 25 in Favourite Socks and I have another 1 on the way in the Austrian Socks.

To give myself a little break to do something different I knitted my next socks out of Knitting on the Road.  These are some fairly plain Dalarna socks in plain orange cherry tree hill yarn.  I am not so impressed with the cherry tree hill yarn in this instance.  The sheen on the yarn makes it look a little odd knitted up and shows up all the slight tension imperfections in the knitted fabric.  Maybe they will look better after blocking.

Dalarna Socks 2

Dalarna Socks (in Progress)

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Challenge 96 on the 101 list was to spend a day at the seaside.  As a child growing up in the UK holiday were almost always seaside holidays where I would do all the traditional activities of rock pooling, sandcastle building, swimming (although not after dinner), picnic-ing, kite flying etc etc.  I haven't done this in a surprisingly long time because I actually enjoy it a great deal.  This is why it ended up on my list in the first place.

This weekend we had a long weekend in Cornwall with friends and I finally got to revisit my childhood.  The following things have not changed at all:

• People still wear swimming costume and sunbathe in 20 degrees C and on a cloudy day.
• There is a still a complicated process of putting up windbreaks
• The sea is still 14 degrees C
• Sand gets everywhere - even in my pastie.
  

I picnic'ed and read a book, also swam, built a sandcastle and did lots of poi.  It was my first time on a beach with a little doggy companion which was great fun as well.

I had a fantastic time and remembered all the reasons that I love days out at the beach!  I am so pleased that I put it on my list so that I could really remember how much I like that sort of thing.

In fact poi was really successful this holiday as I learnt another new trick from R - previously I have only been able to achieved a 2 beat weave and now I can do a 3 beat weave, not especially smoothly but I have got the basics and will make time to practice.

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There are so many new Indie dyers springing up all over and especially in the UK at the moment.  I am trying out a very new one at the moment called Knot Another Knitting Yarn and my first two purchases have arrived:

This is Bamboozle which is a bamboo, wool, nylon blend.  The colour is more peach in person than orange but it looks good and was reasonably priced.

Bamboo Sock Yarn - Tropic

This is the yarn I am most excited about.  It is 50% Yak and 50% Wool, again it is very reasonably priced and has generous yardage at over 500m:

Yak Sock Yarn - Poppy

However as always I reserve judgment until after the wash and wear test.  I am very keen to use the Yak yarn to make the Coriolis Socks by Cat Bordhi, it will show of the colour really well I reckon.

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Sheeps and goats!  Oh my!  Sunday was a day to focus on the fibery friends that have filled my life.  There were all sorts of breeds to see.  The Scottish Black Face is by far a favorite with the Shetland running a close second.

Ahhh, look at the sheepies!

The Scottish Black face is in the bottom row.  How could you not love that face?

mmm...such nice fleece....so tempted to take a scissors to it and run back to my wheel.

After the animal fun, the rest of the day was spent wandering the booths, making final purchases, and spinning.  Here's a few things that were added to the stash:

toots leblanc

Toots Leblanc BFL/Pygora lace weight blend

Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles

mohair

4 oz. mohair from Peppermint Pastures

This roving is fantastic!

It goes from bluish colors to greenish to bluish again and it's all one piece!

mag

A Retro Reynolds pattern book.

I may not use any of the patterns, but the pics are great entertainment.

dishclothes

Cotton dishclothes...because I am too lazy to knit them myself

bmfa

2 skeins of Socks that Rock in Kaw Kaw

Seemingly Simple Vest

And that's it!  No really, that's all I got!  Well along with the three fleeces and drop spindle and a couple of books and the things from Websters....

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