June 10, 2004

Knitting blab from all over the place.

The weather has gotten so hot that all I'd like to do is sit around with a cold glass of agua de horchata* and my feet in a bucket of ice. Instead, I'm shopping for yarn. Yes, more yarn. But it's cotton yarn, dammit! I'd show a picture of it, but I'm feeling too slovenly to pull it out of the bag. As soon as I've had my agua de horchata, I'll pull out my new yarn and admire it, and then leaf through my pattern books so I can decide what my next project will be. I'll probably poke through my stash and swatch one or two things, too. Oooooh, how I love new projects! The very thought of new projects makes me feel like sticking my head out of the window and singing "Twist and Shout" really loudly, even if it annoys the neighbors.

As for my current projects, here is where I am now (click for expanded views):

1) Tutti-frutti striped cotton sweater. Let's see...all seamed and only lacking a neckband. I've already woven in most of the ends. Woot!

2) Purple wool/cotton bucket hat. All finished and blocked. Just need to weave in the ends and decide if I'm going to add any embellishments.

3) Audrey. I cast on for the back piece yesterday evening and got midway through the waist shaping. And you know what? Knitting with Calmer gets better every time, oh yes it does. If I had to choose between a skein of Calmer and a chocolate truffle, I'd have a hard time of it.

*Just for you, here's my own personal recipe for agua de horchata:

Ingredients: 1 and a half cups of uncooked white rice (I use 1 cup of dessert rice and 1/2 cup of long-grain), half a stick of cinnamon, 2 cups of water, 2 cups of milk, about 3/4 cup of granulated sugar.

How to make: Soak rice and cinnamon in water for at least 2 hours. Place rice (together with water and cinnamon) in a blender with milk and sugar. Blend well. Let it settle for a few minutes, then serve with ice. Yum!

« Category | Main

30 comments to this entry:

Becky, great progress! I do think you should allow yourself a new project... I used Calmer for the first time recently (for Rowan's Iris pattern) and really enjoyed knitting with it too. If you are suffering from the heat, you should know that in Paris it is currently bucketing down (no pun intended!) so by tomorrow you may well have the same weather in Lyon - and very welcome it is too!

[sarah s on 10 jun 04 @ 05:17 pm]

Ah, the languid days of summer. Lemonade, a bucket of ice and a light cotton-blend. Sigh. (Lovely work, as always.)

[Leslie on 10 jun 04 @ 05:25 pm]

I love your tutti-frutti striped sweater - knitting stripes in cotton is such good fun! Ends? We laugh in the face of ends....

[Anita on 10 jun 04 @ 05:33 pm]

Ooh! That striped sweater looks marvelous...the shoulder looks perfect. I once again am in awe of your finishing abilities! And I might add that I've learned about interesting drinks on your blog than anywhere else....agua de horchata sounds deliicous!

[Carrie on 10 jun 04 @ 05:48 pm]

Agua de Horchata sounds so yummy. I will definitly have to try it. It is so hot in NYC already, I'm really afraid of what it's going to be like in August. I'm already sticking my head in freezer once a day just to cool off. Yikes.

[Jenn on 10 jun 04 @ 05:58 pm]

I'm glad to hear it's hot SOMEWHERE in the world! The weather in the Bay Area has not been hot enough to wear my newly finished tank! I can't believe how quickly your tutti-fruiti sweater has come together! Can't wait for the "twist and shout" action shots of the sweater!

[Evelyn on 10 jun 04 @ 06:32 pm]

Horchata is grand, I'm also partial to just about any fruity agua fresco... Tutti F looks delish, and I'm partial to some springy grosgrain ribbon trim on that bucket of yours...leaf green? Pale pink? Polka dots?

[Silvia on 10 jun 04 @ 07:06 pm]

Agua de horchata sounds like drinkable rice pudding! yummy. It's scorching hot here, too. Glad to hear someone else out there has eclectic tastes in music, too. ;) That Bucket hat looks wonderful! I'm making paper hats for now. (hee!)

[yoko on 10 jun 04 @ 07:50 pm]

Becky, Becky, Becky, what are we going to do with you! You are postively speederific and putting all us lazy knitters to shame! 3 projects simultaneously - I like the way you work! On another note, I have the buck-o-chic hat pattern and wanted to know if it was substantially different from the bottoms up in the way the finished hat looks. Basically: is it worth buying the other pattern or are the finished products too similar? It is hard to see all the little details on bonnie marie's site. Keep on truckin'!

[Kyla on 10 jun 04 @ 08:18 pm]

Yum yum, I've got to try that agua de horchata recipe. And your projects are all so darn lovely, and cheerful, and summery! It's 100 humidd degrees in NY (ok, 81, but it feels like it) and I'm knitting winter stuff! Idiot, I am.

[Jackie on 10 jun 04 @ 08:48 pm]

Thanks for the recipe . . .I never even thought about making horchata from scratch! Lucky me, I can buy it in the grocery store already made . . . I'm sure, though, that it's MUCH better if made fresh.

[chris on 10 jun 04 @ 08:51 pm]

I had some agua de horchata in a little family-run place across the street from the boardwalk in Santa Cruz last summer. It's hot here in Austin too - I wanna go back to Santa Cruz! Waaah. Your stuff all looks delish!

[TAMARA on 10 jun 04 @ 09:05 pm]

I just finished the baby pixie hat you linked to and have to say, it's the cutest thing ever. I made it for a friend's baby but now want to save it for my own future pixie. Great work on the bucket hat and tutti fruitti!!!

[melanie on 10 jun 04 @ 09:25 pm]

Waow! I love the stripes on the tutti-frutti sweater, especially how they match nicely at the shoulder. Is there a special technique to make them match? So far, I only know to match stripes with raglan because the stripes come to the edge at the same angle on both sides so that the width of the stripe is the same on both sides. However, for a set-in sleeve the stripe from the front is perpendicular to the edge but the stripe on the sleeve comes to the edge at an angle and therefore the width of both stripes are different, so that the stripes don't match... Not matching stripes is one of the things that drive me crazy, so I would be interested to know how to do it. Evelyn, I agree! Even in the East Bay where it is usually freaking hot, I have to wear a sweater... Good luck with the warm weather, Becky. Enjoy your aqua de horchata!

[Caroline on 10 jun 04 @ 09:45 pm]

Look at that lovely shoulder seam! Once again you have put us all to shame with your faboo knitting ability. And slow down girl - the world might run out of knitting patterns for you. Then you'll have to design your own, release a book and make a million. What a terrible thing that would be...!

[Leisl on 11 jun 04 @ 12:59 am]

Should I venture to try and make a horchata, though I should really be practicing cooking ;-) I have one question, do you cook the rice first? or is soaking it enough?

[Orli on 11 jun 04 @ 07:44 am]

Thanks everyone! Sarah: Let's hope it comes down here. And if it doesn't, let's have some more ice-cold agua de horchata. (P.S. Iris is on my wishlist!) Anita: I agree! Knitting stripes is so fun the ends aren't even a bother to weave in. Silvia: Thanks for that ribbon idea. Just what I need to get myself to La Droguerie so I can fondle the ribbons there. P.S. Have you tried agua de flor de jamaica? YUM-MY. Kyla: The two patterns definitely do give different looks if you're not doing the felted version. I plan on using the variegated Plassard yarn for the Bucket-o-Chic, as the yarn would look more interesting with the construction of that hat than with the Bottom's Up. Chris: Store-bought horchata! Don't let my grandma hear you say that. You're right; homemade is better. It's the only way to drink it :-) Caroline: No special techniques, and the sleeve cap is shaped like an average sleeve cap with a final bind-off width of about 8 cm. Orli: Definitely do not cook it. It will come out too thick and will taste starchy. The rice will still be hard when you blend it, which is why you should let it settle for a few minutes before serving. Try it!

[Becky from fluffa! on 11 jun 04 @ 08:18 am]

I love tuning in and getting updates on your projects. It's like a good TV series (and we don't have TV, so this makes up for it!) Your site makes my day! ;-) Hope you get rain.

[Jenny on 11 jun 04 @ 09:07 am]

Huh! I never really knew what horchata was. It was just in that great big clear plastic jug at every mexican restaurant I go to.... sister Christy always gets it. I prefer me a margarita, rocks, salt... Love the stripes. Totally.

[Rachael on 11 jun 04 @ 09:28 am]

You should really think about opening a knitting cafe at which you will serve up knitting wisdom, kirs and horchata! Like the cult idea, I'm full of 'em. Oh, wait, you already have the cafe! You just don't have to clean up after people or show up for work on a regular basis. Never mind, this way's better. I love love love the stripey sweater. I think I love the colors the most, so even if I were to make your stripey sweater out of the SnB book I could adapt the colors to fit it, perhaps? Thanks for making my day a little bit better.

[Rachel on 11 jun 04 @ 04:02 pm]

I am with Rachael and the margaritas, ice and salt. I love that bucket. The color is lovely and a ribbon would look fab--polka dots would look great. Not for your bucket but I really liked those felt embellishments La Droguerie had. I picked up a couple of butterfly ones there.

[Kathleen on 11 jun 04 @ 05:31 pm]

You have a great sense of color. Your colors always pop. The ends have always influenced my desire to knit or not knit strips, but results like that definitely make them knit-worthy.

[froggy on 11 jun 04 @ 06:30 pm]

very interesting recipe - i'll have to try that out. (two nights ago i WAS soaking my feet in cold water. while knitting, of course!)

[carolyn on 12 jun 04 @ 12:16 am]

Hi Becky! I will definitely try your horchata recipe, the grocery store has those chalky mix packets, and I used to drive down about 10 miles to one restaurant to get the homemade stuff. Yummy!!! On the lace camisole--it's from Sarah Dallas' book, but the Rowan 35 version is by her as well--maybe there's a slight difference? I finally finished mine, let me know what you think!

[MJ on 12 jun 04 @ 04:28 am]

Don't you just love knitting with a great yarn. It always is an added bonus.

[Chelee on 12 jun 04 @ 05:42 am]

I love the receipe!! Rice! Yum. Cinnamon, my favorite spice!! Double Yum. And your WIP's!! Triple yum!!

[elisabeth on 12 jun 04 @ 06:22 pm]

Becky, I love your blog -- and I had serious withdrawal when you didn't post every day on vacation! You're a powerful knitter and a good writer. And turns out you make your own horchata! No end to your perfection! Thanks for making my days -- Beverlee PS -- I'm starting Audrey on Monday

[Beverlee on 13 jun 04 @ 01:37 am]

Becky, I'm addicted to your agua de horchata. I had never heard of it before but wanted to try it. WOW! At first taste, it tasted a little like chai and a lot like rice pudding. MMMM, I can't seem to leave it alone. Very refreshing. Especially since we've had 98 degrees but the weather channel said it felt like 111!! This is South Georgia's weather right now. Ugh!

[Gloria on 14 jun 04 @ 04:06 am]

Mmmmm! There's a bottled drink here you can get in the liquor stores called 'Horchata.' I used to drink it when I was young and didn't care what I put into my body, lol. It's got cream and partially hydrongenated oils and sugar and all kinds of crap. Yours sounds *delicious!* I'll bet it's just as good made with soy milk [since I'm not a milk drinker]. You're projects are looking great. I wish I had more time to knit and blog these days. I'm just so tied up with packing and remodeling and garage sales - Ugh! I want my leisure time back! ;)

[Alysia on 14 jun 04 @ 04:24 pm]

I'm so glad that others are trying the agua de horchata, and liking it! Enjoy :-)

[Becky from fluffa! on 14 jun 04 @ 10:18 pm]

June 10, 2004

Knitting blab from all over the place.

30 comments to this entry:

Post a comment: