-N- – Page 712 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Out Looking Around

Being in vacation mode means – being in vacation mode! But as my last week begins, the organizational part of me returns. This means a return to patterns of daily living, such as coffee set up the night before, getting up at 5:30-6:00, and following the morning routines of reading the news, blogs I enjoy, and perusing the patterns on Ravelry, and what everyone is knitting. And this brought me to the current issue of Twist Collective, for which I had considered sending in a pattern or two. Well, I never got around to that! However, this morning I sat down and went through the current edition, and was really impressed by a lot of what was on it.

Latvian cast-on? That possibility caught my eye on this hat with knit-purl-cable patterns that are very pretty in all their combinations. This is the Crown of Leaves hat by Faina Goberstein.

A lot of sweaters caught my eye, too. Mostly they are traditional patterns – I don’t do innovative well – that are on the tailored side. Wellfleet by Cecily Glowik MacDonald presents with a tidy appearance in a very unconservative and cheery color.

Continuing on a traditional note with innovative design is Hallett’s Ledge by Elinor Brown. It is easy to see why this is a popular sweater on Ravelry – design and construction! And the name – where did that come from?

Finally, there is Acorns by Carol Sunday. The entire design of the sweater is very attractive. It is knit from the top down, in one piece. The name of the sweater got my initial attention – I really love oak trees – but then the sweater itself showed its appeal.

A part of me wants to order these patterns and get to work! Self-control must step in, but this post certainly will remind me what got my eye! (I still have other projects to work on . . . ) And this is not to say there are not a lot of other wonderful patterns on Twist Collective – there are far too many. This season’s issue is, in my opinion, one of the best. But then, I say that about most of their issues.

Hearing Miracles

I came across this video today that was especially delightful. An 8 month old baby, deaf from birth, had cochlear implants placed in his ears, and this video is his reactions to hearing his mother’s voice for the first time. The delight on this baby’s face says it all!

The cochlear implant itself is something of a miracle, and while it is nothing new, it allows the deaf and hard-of-hearing a way to interact with the world. According to this brochure on cochlear implants from the NIH:

A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. The implant consists of an external portion that sits behind the ear and a second portion that is surgically placed under the skin (see figure). An implant has the following parts:

A microphone, which picks up sound from the environment.

A speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone.

A transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receive signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses.

An electrode array, which is a group of electrodes that collects the impulses from the stimulator and sends them to different regions of the auditory nerve.

An implant does not restore normal hearing. Instead, it can give a deaf person a useful representation of sounds in the environment and help him or her to understand speech.

There are people and organizations who believe that if a person is deaf he or she should remain deaf, without the aid of a cochlear implant or whatever. They may also believe that stem cell research is immoral. I cannot agree with this approach. Life is a risk. When we have the ability to cure birth defects, diseases, or disabilities, we should use our technology to help and cure. We do angiography and place stents in arteries to repair damage done by a heart attack, we immunize our children against deadly illnesses – why not bionic ears and eyes, why not new organs grown from stem cells? Let’s improve what we can!

Apricot Tart

With summer, the stone fruits beg to be eaten, made into jam, baked in pies and tarts, added to fruit salad! The beauty of this recipe is that you can use any summer fruit, adapting the recipe as necessary for whatever fruit you choose. I hope you enjoy my recipe!

Apricot Tart
You will need about 12-18 apricots for the tart, depending on size.

The puree should be made ahead of time and cooled – if it is not cooled, the buttery dough will melt and the tart will not be as pretty as it could be – but it will still taste good!

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place rack for tart pan in lower 1/3 of oven.

Apricot Puree
12-15 ripe apricots

Make this before you begin the dough – you can make it the day before you plan on serving the tart.

Cut 10-12 apricots in half, removing seeds and any spoiled areas. Add more apricots if necessary. Put into heavy pan with 2-3 T. water; cook apricots in water until tender, stirring so as to make sure apricots do not burn. Cover apricots between stirring to reduce water evaporation. This will take about 10 minutes. Once apricots are soft, add 3 T. white sugar and any spices you may wish to use as flavoring, such as mace or cardamom. Cook in open pan until thickened – another 10 minutes or so. If it does not get too thick, don’t worry about it. Cool thoroughly before placing in tart.

Crust
2 c. flour
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. sugar
12 T (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
4 egg yolks

Cut butter into small dice; work into flour until resembles coarse meal. Knead into ball in bowl. If dough is crumbly, add a little bit of water (1/4 t. at a time) until you can create a smooth dough. Do not overwork. Cut off about 1/4 to 1/3 of ball. Reshape both into balls; wrap in plastic and let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Apricot Slices
4-6 ripe apricots

Cut apricots in half, then cut the halves into quarters. These will be used to top the apricot puree.

Assembling the Tart
Take larger of the two balls of dough, flatten a bit, then mush into a 9-10 inch tart pan (one with a removable rim), covering the bottom and up the sides.

Use about 1/3 to 1/2 c. apricot preserves (I microwave mine a bit to make it easier to spread) and spread in a thin layer on top of dough.

Pour apricot puree over the jam, spreading evenly. Place sliced apricots on top of puree in a pretty pattern, or randomly. Just try to cover the top of the tart evenly so it will look nice.

Take smaller ball of dough and break off small pieces and place them evenly over the top of the tart.

Bake at 350 F for about 60-75 minutes. At 60 minutes, check it. If you use a convection oven, check it at 45-50 mins.

Very good served warm, at room temperature, with a bit of cream or marscapone or ice cream, or all alone!

Lucette

. . . has arrived!

This is a hat I named after the lucet, which is a tool used to make cords, as well as after one of my favorite designers, Lucy of A Black Pepper (click the link at the right to go visit her), who does beautiful designs with cables and bobbles.

This hat is begun with the Estonian cast on, which is really easy to do, but nearly impossible to describe in words. You can find Nancy Bush’s video of it on YouTube, or on the August 8, 2010, entry here. This cast on is incredibly stretchy, as well as neat and tidy. If you look at the bottom two pictures, you can see how much the hat will stretch out to accommodate a head!

What to do on a sunny day?

This morning was bright and warm from the moment I got up – at 6:30.

I really don’t want to be indoors. My thoughts are in a lot of different directions. I could transplant some roses. I can set up the ink and paper outdoors, and wander into when I want. I could download an audiobook (the newest da Silva is calling) and finish up my little knitting projects. This last sounds really good! I’ve been a bit too focused on one thing . . . do like to break up patterns . . .

Especially nice to see this morning is the plumeria finally bloomed!