Going Roman with MissKnitter and Fuzzband

New Haven has farmers' markets. The philosophy is local, organic, community, connecting, etc. I do like the idea, but the practical side leaves something to be desired... It is sort of a local farmers bring their products to sell to the urbanized trendy. As the Fuzzband and I discussed, there is a certain lack of congruence in the  sellers and the customers. Trying to make a livelihood and ostentatious consumption meet. There is also something about being yelled at twice in the first ten minutes at the market that tends to put me off... But whatever. We went last Saturday to check out the beets, but ended up buyin rhubarb and zucchini flowers. Zucchini flowers! Fiori di zucca! Yay! I loved these stuffed with ricotta and fish when I lived in Rome. Yummy! So we bought ten (for $2) to try to recreate my culinary memories from 2000-2001. Very exciting!

Yesterday evening the Fuzzband and I went over to my friend MissKnitter's place, so I brought the zucchini flowers and a filling I concocted from memory, and a couple of recipes from the internets. The Fuzzband flipped a coin, and so we did baked instead of fried fiori di zucca.

Preheat oven to 350-400 F (175-200 C)

2/3-1 cup ricotta
a few good spoonfulls of parmesan
parsley
1 egg yolk
1 hand sized fillet of fish baked and flaked
salt
pepper
zucchini flowers

Mix all the ingredients for the filling. It can be refrigerated for a while prior to filling. Pry the flowers open, and fill with a few teaspoons of the filling. Fold the petals around the filling and place on a lightly greased or baking paper clad baking sheet in a vague hope that the filling will not explode the petals open, spraying your friend's oven... Bake for ca 10-15 minutes until the filling is hot and the flowers are even more golden than they were prior to insertion into oven.

I have not figured out how to rotate images from my smartphone in a way that maintains the selected rotation in the blog. Irritating. 

We also discovered that once they have been baked and cooled down, they could be reheated! Good to know for potential party contributions.

MissKnitter made a delicious linguine and clam sauce dish for the main course. The recipe was sort of following a recipe from the internets. It turned out ridiculously good! 

MissKnitter also had a salad based on self-construction. As I am allergic to a lot of salad stuff, she gave us greens, chopped green bell peppers, chopped jalapenos, blueberries, blackberries, olives, and a vinaigrette to freely mix and match. Oh, and for appetizers she had antipasti and olives. Dessert was raspberry sherbet the Fuzzband picked up when he ran to the store to pick up some portobellos. Delicious meal all around! And of course the relaxed company was a big part of it all. As visiting guest stars we had Honey Dog and the cat Whiskey. Scampi the cat was busy guarding MissKnitter's yarn stash in the office, but we paid our respects to her anyway. 

Oh, and we bought beets elsewhere: more on those another time...

Professionally Pink

Several years ago (fall 2007) a historian of medieval law visiting at the Yale Divinity School sat in on the seminar - are you ready for the name? - Medieval Law! It was being taught in the Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Library Rare Books and Manuscripts reading room and was one of those epic experiences professionally, recreationally, anecdotally, educationally, and socially. It was also the semester my Degenerative Disc Disease had a glorious relapse and I was on pain medications that sent me into hysterical giggles ca 30 mins after taking  a pill. Of course, in order to sit through a seminar I had to medicate myself right before class. I am deeply grateful to the Professor and my colleagues for their patience, support, and help. Minus points to the Law School for disabled access to the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, though. I could not take the stairs for months, so I had to take an elevator up to the modern library, trundle my wheely bag across the way, and take another elevator down to the basement... To figure this out required discussions with two librarians, two security guards, a call to the Disability Access office, and several friendly law students who carried my bag and let me lean on them. 

I know you wanted that back story.

Anyway, the medieval law historian. Let us call her Ms. Law Mentor.

 Ms. Law Mentor took me under her wing, and has been extremely helpful and supportive in my career. Plus, she is bucketloads of plain, pure, fun and has fabulous common sense. And as my adored sister-in-law would say: Common sense - not that common. But Ms. Law Mentor has it. Part of this common sense is realizing when to let go of things. So she let go of 14 skeins of Cotton Classic yarn by Tahki Yarns, and gave them to me! We are talking beautiful mercerized cotton any knitter would kill for. Unless they hate knitting in cotton, but we are ignoring that possibility in this utterly common sensical blog posting. The color was black. Now, I almost never wore black at the time, and even now only if I can pair it with bright colors. Preferably bright oranges or pinks. At the time, I did not do pink. There is a follow-up to that statement.

So, what should a non-black wearing girl do with such a treasure? Well, the answer came browsing Ravelry, of course. Hilary Engebretson's design Emerald Seas was the perfect solution! It is a top, knitted with a series of eylet rows down one side through which one threads ribbons of potentially very bright, contrasting colors. See where I am going, eh? So I knit the top, with some modifications: I reduced the ribbing at the hips, and shaped the top quite dramatically by decreasing needle sizes twice. As I had about half of the yarn left over, I knit myself a skirt, too! And had just enough  to finish the piece! I actually had to use left over needlepoint floss to stitch the waist elastic in...

Then the question was: what color ribbons do I use? I settled on burnt orange, red and pink. But Jo-Ann's Crafts and Fabrics did not have the perfect colors! So I did two shades of pink and a red:

Niece, eh? Here's a full frontal view:

I particularly like the decapitated look. And the pink. It was my first foray into pink, and since then I have become increasingly excited about the color. Preferably in combination with orange (this is me, after all), but I now own several items that are unequivocally: pink! 

And notice the shoes? My Fuzzband convinced me to get those once upon a time, and they are amazing! The ensemble from the back: 

This photo really should have been taken with stockings that have seams in the back, I know.

I have since mainly worn the ensemble at conferences! With a read suede jacket I bought at the Amsterdam Airport back in the early 2000s, or with a burnt orange cardigan, or with a lavender top... It is surprisingly versatile, and incredibly comfortable. This past five weeks I had three conferences in Europe, and I wore it at all of them. In fact I presented two of my papers in it, at separate conferences, of course. I wore sensible black Clarks Wave.Run walking shoes in Huddersfield, and cute little Söft kitten heels in Leeds. As Söft does not have an image online of them, here they are via my smartphone:

All in all, the ensemble is fabulous for conferences. It is comfortable, travels well, is unique, and flattering. I felt great! Oh, and the papers went well, too. Is there anything like presenting your research in an outfit you have hand made from yarn given by an academic mentor, I ask? The answer must be "No". Thank you Ms. Law Mentor!

Guy Fawkes Cake

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

I have just finished a conference paper, so to reward myself I am going to throw some more photos up here. This time baking! The poem above is famous from the movie V for Vendetta, starring Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman from 2005. But contrary to what movie goers might think, this is of course a much older tradition. 

Guy Fawkes is celebrated on November 5th, traditionally by burning a Guy Fawkes effigy. Why was Guy so disliked? Well, he tried to blow up the British Parliament in the so called Gunpowder Conspiracy. This did not make him popular, and the day has become fixed in British memory as something between celebrating justice, reminding people what happens to match happy anarchists, and of course all about burning things! Yaah! And really, who couldn't get behind that?

A friend and colleague of mine threw a Giy Fawkes party in New Haven last November. Of course  we went! I even brought a little effigy of things in my life that needed to be burned. I also brought a theme-cake:

 Yes, it is a gunpowder barrel shaped cake. The cake itself is a chili-chocolate cake, and the icing is chili-chocolate buttercream. The iron bands, and rivets, are fondant. 

 The exposed "gunpowder" was black buttercream with chili sprinkled on top for gunpowder discoloration effects. 

I love, love, love the rivets! I also really like the recipe, which I would post, but it is at home in New Haven, and I am now elsewhere. My husband is not crazy about the chili-chocolate cake, which mystifies me. He is the chocoholic in our family, after all. For the party, however, while I brought themed dessert, he brought themed facial hair:  

Compare:

Image source: Geek Alerts, Gadgets for Geeks

Now, let's see if I can read this conference paper in 20 minutes...

Bridal Butterflies!

One of my very best friends - and really, Grad School is worth it even just for the friends - is getting married! In Australia...

Fair enough, she and her fiancé are Australian, and it makes sense to get married back home. I know it will be an amazing wedding, and I really wish I could go. But we cannot have everything we want in life. However, some of us did throw her a bridal shower today! And by some of us, I mean three did the organizing and most of the cooking, and I hosted. And made cupcakes! It was a lovely party, thanks to the amazing women present! Many could not come, but know that it was awesome and we missed you.

Now, as I have a 30 minute conference paper on saints and medieval marriage theology to write, I am posting about the said cupcakes as I wait for a decadent number of Kir Royals (and that Wikipedia page is an example of semi-useless to be proud of!) to clear my system...

First I made Hummingbird Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook: Coconut, banana, pineapple cupcakes. I left out the toasted walnuts as I am allergic. The Bride is not, but whatever, she loves me enough not to want me to die at her shower. 

Then I desiccated ca 3 mm thick pineapple rounds. It took hours longer than the recipe called for, but how productive could I be: desiccate pineapple, write paper, clean bathroom, do dishes, pilates...

To give the pineapples the right floral shape they are set for the final dry in muffin tins.

 

One of the ladies brought over her cupcake stand, and here I have added cream cheese frosting to the baked good.

 In case you were wondering where the pineapple flowers go.

I then added these fabulous edible sugarpaper butterflies from Sugar Robot off Etsy.

Shameless plug for Sugar Robot! Friendly, quick, lovely! Edible!

Same cupcake tree, two different lightnings and angles.

The Beautiful Bride! (with cupcake)

Asian Tapas

Food is a wonderful thing. Friends are a wonderful thing! Food and friends combined is one of my favorite pastimes. Last March, two lovely friends, let us call them H and S, came to New Haven for some cooking and hanging out. When briefly in DC, I browsed S's cookbooks, and one is a book on Asian Tapas. I am unable to find the book on Amazon, so memory will have to suffice. We picked a bunch of recipes to make together, and I brought the book with me to New Haven.

H and I spent Saturday morning at a local high school as Connecticut History Day Regional judges. Meanwhile, S arrived on a train from DC, and the Fuzzband picked him up for some grocery shopping and hanging out. We went to Swagat, our favorite Indian restaurant in the Have area, making sure we had leftovers! Once back home we set to work cooking amazing Asian tapas from our list!

Coriander ginger shrimp with sweet Thai chili sauce.
***

Tender punjabi chicken kebabs with mint sauce.
***

Crisp asparagus rolls with cheese and xo sauce.
***

Tropical shrimp salad (at left) and scallop ceviche with xo sauce.
***

Coconut pannacotta with lavender jelly, mangosteen, meringue, and melted chocolate.
***

In case you did not see the amazing layering of the pannacotta and the jelly in the previous shot... Xo sauce and meringue in the background...
***

So yummy, and so nice to hang out with friends we don't see too much of: S lives in DC, and H in Wooster, Mass. Next time we see them for S's graduation! His folks are coming from Australia, and we are hosting a 5 o'clock tea with baked goods!

Archeology and knitting meet at Dura Europos

In graduate school one is bound to bump into other craftspeople in general, and knitters in particular. One especially distinguished contact is our former Western European Subject Librarian (a medievalist, no less!), who not only has helped me with research and navigating Yale, but is a wonderful person to get together with and talk about knitting and books and all kinds of things.

Obviously my librarian friend came to mind when reading Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. The History & Techniques of Handknitted Socks. (Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1994) I came across the following texts: "The oldest surviving examples of what has been identified as knitted textile fraghments date from A.D. 256. They were discovered at the site of the ancient Syrian fortress city of Dura Europos ... Three wool fragments found there, now in the collection of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, are made of what appear to be knitted stitches." (p.11) There is an image on p. 12, but here is a better one:

Source: Yale University Art Gallery e-catalogue (accessed March 21st, 2012).

I brought up the possibility of going to see these fragments with her, and another knitting Yale library friend of mine, Missknitter, and brainstormed a bit where these fragments may be kept. I was thinking the Peabody Museum of Natural History, but my librarian friend floated the idea of the Yale University Art Gallery. We agreed that I would scan the relevant pages for her and we would get on to locating the pieces. But lo and behold! Before I could even get to my computer, she had sent out queries, and located the fragments: indeed The Yale University Art Gallery! The super helpful associate curator informed us that "The knitting fragment will be on view in our new Dura-Europos gallery, which we are just about to install. The official opening date for our renovated galleries is Dec. 12, 2012, but the Dura gallery and ancient Mediterranean may well be open sooner, by late summer or early fall." (e-mail correspondence on March 21st, 2012).

Field trip! I am so excited, and amazed at the efficiency of the librarians and curators involved. Amazing people!

The excavations of Dura Europos were conducted by a French-American team of archaeologists (Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters) in the 1920s and 1930s. For an informative tour of the excavations, see the Yale University Art Gallery website on the project.


Maybe I should try to reproduce the stitches in the fragment? It looks like textured knitting with button loops in crochet, no? However, Julie Theaker at Knitty has written an article arguing that the Dura Europos "knitting" is in fact nålebinding! See her delightful 2006 article among Knitty's featured articles here, complete with visual evidence of a pair of socks that very much look like they are knit, but are, in fact nålebinding. I cannot wait to see the pieces in person, and maybe look up some more information on the textile while I am at it...

So, look for updates on Circia Fortuita meets Archaeology!

Svale BSJ and the Ducky Sweater

Back in 2010 I decided to venture on the famous Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket (aka BSJ on Ravelry). I made one for Johanna, the daughter of Grad school friends, and for Elmer, the son of dear friends back in Finland. I used some lovely yarn left over from other projects. For Johanna's I used Dalegarn Svale left over from some dresses I had made:

The cotton/rayon/silk blend is lovely to knit with, and I had so much fun! The buttons were from my LYS (Local Yarn Store), when Yarn LLC still had a branch on Whitney Avenue, within walking distance of both home and campus. I did not know if Johanna was going to be a girl or a boy when I made this, but decided that if I loved the colors for the Hillmans, then chances were they would appreciate them, girl or boy. Besides, Mum and Dad Hillman are not very gender hysterical at all, and especially not with colors I imagine... I finished Johanna's Svale BSJ in May, according to my Ravelry archive, and apparently knit it in seven days! It was fun and fast, I remember that!



In fact, only a few months later I knit Elmer's BSJ from more leftover yarn, this time a gift from Laura of Lankadontti fame: Novita Nalle. Hence the Ducky Sweater came to be:

I of course love, love, love the colors here (wild!), and the hood with the I-cord. For the buttons I had duckies in mind - rubber duckies being the cultural emblem of us Swedish-Speaking-Finns, and the family this went to are part of the Duck Pond, just like me. OMG: there is a Wikipedia article on the pondishness!!!

Anyways. My friend Missknitter and I went to Stitches East just about the time I was ready to think about buttons, and found these AMAZING ducky buttons:

I wish I had grabbed a card from the merchant - or put it in a logical place to find later - so I could a) give credit here, b) get more! These are so much more articulated than the duckies from JoAnn, my usual button haunt. I love buttons here in the US! Not something you see listed as one of the benefits to immigrating to the US, that: "Upon moving to the US, a marvelous plethora of over-the-top and often sickly cute and utterly desirable buttons will become available to you at ubiquitous stores like JoAnn crafts and Michael's..." Too bad, really. The crafting culture, wildly different from Back Home (I sense a future post in this...), in North America is really fascinating. A big part of it is the commercialization of crafting, which has produced such magical things as the ducky button.

I mailed Mummy and Daddy Johanna and Mamma and Pappa Elmer the sweaters, and of course they very much appreciated them. Johanna's Mum showed it to a knitting friend, who commented on the interesting design. Yay! It made me, and still makes me even though the kids have outgrown the sweaters ages ago, so happy to think of them wearing them.

That is always one of the highlights of knitting stuff for Finns - they all automatically appreciate handmade items. It is just such an ingrained part of our culture. Not to say peeps here in the Americas don't. Many do, and I dare to claim ALL my friends and relatives very much appreciate handmade gifts and items in general - Johanna's parents are great examples! But there is an amazing amount of individuals who actually prefer store bought to hand made in the Americas. I know, shocking. I should have given warning before making such a terrible disclosure. I don't think I actually associate with such people, but I have met them. I should have taken photographs and done interviews...

OK. Enough cultural analysis!

What did I like about the BSJ and making it, I hear you ask?

I should have taken WIP (Work in Progress) photos to illustrate this: I love how the sweater is knit in one piece and then origamied into a sweater!  The only seams are across the shoulders. I, of course, love colors, and I love the way the striping emphasizes the structural design of the sweater. You can see in Johanna's Svale BSJ how the stripes go straight across the back, and then come and "turn a corner" on the sleeves and the front.

I also love the ease with which one can use up leftover yarn for it in fun and creative ways. Many BSJs are knit in self-striping or self-patterning yarn, according to a quick Ravelry browse of the 16908 projects, in 3891 queues, and while the results are marvelous, I really like the opportunity to use stash yarn and be all creative with it. In fact, I might have to start a new BSJ pretty soon, just so I can revel in the origaminess and destashiness of it all!