So, this is the eyelash yarn I picked up on Saturday, to make a scarf for Mom. Anyone have any pattern suggestions? I could just do a drop stitch, or I could do something a little more interesting. I don’t usually do much with novelty yarns and haven’t knitted with eyelash before, so I feel like I could use a little guidance, suggestions, input and such.

We had another beautiful day today, but it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. I’m on row number 200 of my Peacock shawl. There’s 223 rows on the pattern chart, and then the edging. The end is sort of in sight, but not exactly nearby!

I can never exactly pinpoint if I’m a process or product knitter. I think more process, because I love the act of knitting, the creativity, the way of passing time, but the closer I get to the end of a project, the antsier I get about seeing it done. I’m not about to rush through to the end of this shawl, but it’s far enough along, and still looking like a big, old messy pile of yarn. I know that blocking it (you know, about a month from now!) will perform the usual magic, but . . . I want to see! (Is that wrong?)

The book I’m currently reading is “Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin. It’s an odd, interesting kind of book, not quite a fantasy, but not exactly mainstream fiction, either. It came out in 1983 and I’ve read it several times since then, but it’s a hard book to “match” to my mood–I have to be looking for just the right kind of read to be able to work my way through it. It’s got whimsy and wonder–never a bad thing in a book–some interesting characters, and it’s certainly an ode to winter . . . especially winter in New York City. (And I’d still like to know what kind of hot drink an Antwerp Flinder is!) And yet, it’s hard to pin it down. For example, take a look at this excerpt:

Though Mrs. Gamely was by all measures prescientific and illiterate, she did know words. Where she got them was anyone’s guess, but she certainly had them…. Mrs. Gamely’s vocabulary was enormous. She knew words no one had ever heard of, and she used words every day that had been mainly dead or sleeping for hundreds of years. Virginia checked them in the Oxford dictionary, and found that (almost without exception) Mrs. Gamely’s usage was flawlessly accurate. For instance, she spoke of certain kinds of dogs as Leviners. She called the areas near Quebec march-lands. She referred to diclesiums, liripoops, rapparees, dagswains, bronstrops, caroteels, opuntias, and soughs. She might describe something as patibulary, fremescent, pharisaic, Roxburghe, or glockamoid, and words like mormal, jeropigia, endosmic, mage, palmerin, thos, vituline, Turonian, galingale, comprodor, nox, gaskin, secotine, ogdoad, and pintuary fled from her lips in Pierian saltarellos. Their dictionary looked like a sow’s ear, because Virginia spent inordinate proportions of her days racing through it, though when Mrs. Gamely was angry a staff of ten could not have kept pace with her, and a dozen linguaphologists would have collapsed from hypercardia.

“Where did you learn all those words, Mother?” Virginia might ask.

Mrs. Gamely would shrug her shoulders. “We were raised with them, I suppose.” She didn’t always speak incomprehensibly, in fact, she sometimes went for months at a time strapped down firmly to a strong and worthy matrix of Anglo-Saxon derivatives. Then, Virginia breathed easy, and the rooster was so happy that had he been a chicken he would have laid three eggs a day. Or was he a chicken? Who knows? The point is, he thought he was a cat.

How can you not love an author who can construct a segment like that?

Oh, I was asked to provide that bread recipe, which I’m doing with the understanding that it’s not my recipe but that it’s not under any copyright restrictions of which I am aware. It’s in the extended post, if you’re interested.

Four days until my vacation!!

Grapenut Bread from the Daggett House.

Now, remember, this recipe was a staple of the Daggett House Bed & Breakfast on Martha’s Vineyard until it closed. They used to readily hand out recipe cards, and the recipe was posted on the MVOL website up until recently–so I’m assuming there are no copyright issues. But just in case they are, I’m giving full credit here to the inn–it’s their recipe!

Makes 2 loaves

Mix:

2/3 c Grapenuts

1/3 c wheat germ

3 T butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 c dark brown sugar

1 1/3 c boiling water.

Stir and let cool to barely warm.

Then, combine 1 T yeast, 1 tsp sugar and 2/3 c warm water, and let stand until bubbly.

Add yeast to the dry mixture. Add 4 c all-purpose flour.

Knead until soft and smooth, then return to bowl and let rise, covered, until double in volume.

Punch down and divide into two loaves, knead for a few minutes, and put into greased loaf pans. Let rise until double in size.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

• Tags: Baking, General, Knitting/Spinning, Reading • Permalink:Tuesday Musings //