New Knitting Pattern - Lesia Loop

After much positive feedback and interest from blog readers and Ravelry members, I'm happy to announce the publication of my latest pattern, Lesia Loop.

The light, soft Brushed Suri yarn from Frog Tree creates a lovely halo similar to that of mohair and the resulting scarf is equally light and soft with a lot of drape.  

Although Brushed Suri is listed as a fingering weight yarn, the fiber halo allows it to be knit up in a variety of gauges, depending on your needle size. I think another fantastic yarn choice for this pattern would be a mohair or mohair blend.

I love the simple, beautiful stitch pattern that looks pretty from both sides, 

allowing this wrap to be worn in a variety of ways, including doubled as a cowl, 

buttoned along one side through the eyelets in the stitch,

or given a half-twist, Moebius-style, and re-buttoned as a shoulder wrap as shown in the photo at the top of this post.  

The pattern stitch is presented in both charted and written form, and the design's garter stitch selvages, button and buttonhole bands lend a clean, modern look. Lightweight shell buttons add a little shine and don't weigh the piece down.

I named this pattern in honor of a very sweet friend I made while traveling in the Ukraine some years ago.  Lesia is a name meaning "of noble kind."  What a beautiful thought.

Some of you may recall this design from earlier posts, and I wasn't certain I would actually publish this as a pattern since I already published a chunky-weight version,  Lingonberry Loop, in December.  

But after many folks said they prefer to just purchase a pattern that gives exact details rather than modify it to suit their preferred yarn, I decided to go ahead with it. Thanks everyone for your enthusiasm and great input!

I currently have two introductory promotions running for this pattern, both through the end of March.

For all Ravelry members, when you purchase the Lingonberry Loop pattern, you will receive the Lesia Loop pattern for just $1 when you add them both to your Ravelry shopping cart.   Anyone who has previously purchased the Lingonberry Loop will also be eligible to receive the special price.

But...  I also want to offer a little something extra special to my blog readers.  After trying unsuccessfully to navigate the murky waters of adding multiple promotions to my Ravelry Pro account for this pattern, I've decided to offer you a free copy of Lesia Loop with the purchase of any of my other Ravelry patterns.

If you purchase any of my patterns through Ravelry, just drop me a Ravelry PM or post a comment to me here in the blog, and I will send the free pattern to your Ravelry library.  I apologize to anyone who tried to use the faulty promotion link previously posted here!

Thanks again everyone, and peace, blessings and happy knitting to you!

Goodbye Summer and a Peachy Recipe

 

As expected, summer has flown by!  The empty swings at the park made me feel just a bit wistful as I contemplated the season's passing, but I love autumn and am definitely ready for cooler weather.  

I can't believe it as the end of August already and I've hardly managed to accomplish half my to-do list.  At least I did finish a few knitting projects and I've started a few more.  

Off the needles this week was my grey-beige alpaca lace Lesia Loop cowl project, currently blocking. The Brushed Suri alpaca yarn makes this a lovely, cozy knit.  Although the brushed fiber is slightly difficult to frog back - as I soon discovered! - it's not quite as tough as ripping out mohair.  

I've also finished my lightweight alpaca lace shawlette, but I'm waiting to take photos for that momentarily. 

This week I'm beginning a mohair pullover, and working on several gift cowls and hats, including this lace cowl in natural-color Kid Mohair blend by Feza.  It's not my favorite mohair yarn, but I had it in stash already and wanted to use it up.  I plan to knit this again in something softer, probably alpaca.  I am using a traditional Estonian lace stitch for this project.

The garden has lost it's steam with the record heat and lack of rainfall, but I still go out every morning and pick a ton of ripe tomatoes, chives, rosemary and other herbs.  I think I feel a marinara sauce coming on!

This time of year I also love to indulge in fresh peaches - as pies, cobblers, smoothies, slightly warmed and topped with creme anglaise, cooked into preserves or compotes, or just plain sliced and eaten as is.   Although we mostly stick to a low-glycemic lifestyle, we still love to make room for special occasion treats.

 

Last week we celebrated the dog's third birthday (any special day is a good excuse for a treat like this!) with a special peach pound cake and ice cream. And yes, the dog had a tiny taste of each too!

I must say that I LOVE to cook, but I love to knit more.  So to balance out these two things, I usually use little cooking short cuts, in this case, a good-quality packaged cake mix as the base for this recipe.  Doing this also allows me to keep just a few basic mixes in the cupboard without the need to take up space with full-sized packages of things I use only occasionally - flour, sugar, etc, and saves me more time to knit!

The chopped peaches in this recipe cook on the bottom and create a sort of baked-in fruit compote that works wonderfully when the the cake is turned updside-down to eat.  We like a slice just barely warmed and top it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and a few fresh peach slices.   I hope you enjoy this easy, quick summer indulgence. 

Upside Down Peach Pound Cake

Ingredients:

8 oz. butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar or equivalent substitute (I use stevia)

1 tsp. vanilla

6 eggs

1 yellow cake mix, 1/4 cup reserved (mine is Trader Joe's brand)

2-3 cups chopped peaches (fresh or frozen, I like it sort of gooey so I use 3)

Several fresh peach slices to garnish, if desired 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*

Grease a 9x13 cake pan (I use the empty butter wrappers to do this) and set aside.

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar/ substitute in large mixing bowl with an electric mixer.  Add vanilla, then, one at a time, add eggs, beating thoroughly after each addition.  Slowly add cake mix, beating thoroughly.  Set aside.

In another bowl, stir reserved cake mix over peaches to coat, spread coated peaches evenly in bottom of cake pan.  Pour batter over peaches into cake pan.

Bake until center of cake is done and the top springs back slightly to the touch, about 50-60 minutes.  Cool before serving.  This cake can be eaten immediately after cooling, but it is even better if it rests, tightly covered, for several hours or overnight before serving.