Fiber Fool

If you’ve been a reader here in recent years, it is no secret that I love my pumpkin! Really, that extends to pretty much any orange fleshed squash or tubar with pumpkin being my all time favorite. That is certainly one of the many reasons I love fall so much. I can go just about anywhere and enjoy something pumpkin-y from a latte to a bagel and cream cheese or donuts (though they aren’t really on the list this year). I even tried pumpkin fudge one year - that wasn’t really my thing, but then fudge isn’t often my thing so I shouldn’t have been surprised. Anyway, that means this week’s 10 on Tuesday is pretty easy for me. It will mostly be a trip through my archives. Though the photo up top is for a recipe I plan to share tomorrow for a savory pumpkin dish that is great for gatherings.

1. One of the really obvious ones is in the form of pumpkin seeds. I love pumpkin seeds and they are a great source of iron! Who knew? Not to mention fiber and good fats too. My favorite way to spice them up is with a kind of curry inspired mix of sweet and smokey spices.

2. Pumpkin Scones are a wonderful seasonal weekend indulgence, especially when paired with a honey cinnamon butter. Yum!

3. For weekday breakfast on the go I’ve been loving some pumpkin molasses muffins somewhat similar to those I posted about back in 2007. Though I have to say I’ve improved upon that recipe greatly tossed in a few little sparks of texture and flavor and have a phenomenal recipe going in the final edition of Nourishing Knits.

4. Then there is a long time favorite of mine, a copy cat recipe of a Great Harvest bread - pumpkin chocolate chip bread! Yum! I haven’t made any this year. I’m a little scared to run the numbers on it, though really it has lots of whole wheat in it so I may not be quite as bad as I think.

5. I love making pumpkin butter too! It is so good on pepperkakor as well as scones or morning toast. I only wish it could be safely canned. But since it is so dense and can’t be canned I just make sure to freeze enough puree for a batch that I do around the holidays so we can share it with friends and family.

6. There is of course also the traditional pumpkin pie, which I adore! I think I’ll be making a crustless version when my family is here is Thanksgiving since 4 of the 5 humans are watching their diets.

7. Oh, and how can I forget? I’ve managed to sneak in 2 of the minis this month, the pumpkin pie blizzard at Dairy Queen! So good! Though I can sort of satisfy my craving if I wear a blindfold and make a green pumpkin smoothie :-)

8. I made a wonderful pumpkin soup in the slow cooker from The Art of the Slow Cooker cookbook that we enjoyed all of last week. I tired of it a bit towards the end, but spiced it up with some chipotle powder and made it into a full meal with the addition of some white beans.

9. A local restaurant makes a wonderful pumpkin pecan waffle that I haven’t had yet this year, but will have to do an extra round of treadmill work here soon and indulge in it.

10. Our last batch of fruit-sweetened granola that I made was sweetened with pumpkin and banana puree. I over baked it a tad, but it has promise. Unfortunately that was the first time I decided to double the batch and use the full size oven (hence the over baking, I had been using our convection toaster oven over the summer).

I have a long list of pumpkin recipes I’d like to try yet. I ended up starting a pumpkin board on pinterest and will likely slowly add links to recipes that made my autumn linkity posts last year as I have a few minutes to spare here and there.

And don’t forget to pop by tomorrow for a savory pumpkin recipe I’ll be sharing!

I showed you a glance at Buttercream in yesterday’s post. I’m sure choosing a favorite pattern from the book is like saying one child of many is your favorite. But boy did I enjoy designing and knitting these gauntlets! They totally flew off my needles in record time. Thanks in part to cabling without a cable needle, though that isn’t required.

One of my favorite parts (other than the obvious cabling of course) are the thumb gussets. They are anatomically correct and actually grow out of the center of the palm, just as your flesh starts to form the thumb pad. It makes for a fabulous fit and helps keep the design better centered on the top of the hand. Of course if you have a favorite thumb gusset construction you could always substitute that in, though I would encourage you to give this one a try. You might never make another type of thumb gusset again!

The fingerless gauntlets are fully shaped with the decreases and increases worked right into the pattern. The two mock cables running along the side continue along the sides of the hand.

If you couldn’t already guess, the Buttercream pattern is paired with cupcake-related recipes for the book. I share my favorite cake/cupcake filling, rhubarb and a well-balanced almond buttercream frosting.

Amanda and I had a blast on this photoshoot, despite the cramped quarters of my dining room (Dear Santa, I need a wider angle lens for Christmas please). It was Amanda’s first time piping frosting and I think she did a wonderful job! We of course also had to sample our hard work…

Buttercream is written in one circumference with two different lengths (the longer length is shown here) for fingering weight yarn. This version is knit in Frog Tree Yarns’ Pediboo, whose bamboo content gives it enough sheen to really pop the twisted stitches. The longer length does require two skeins of Pediboo, though many other yarns can produce them with just one skein. For the longer length you’ll need roughly 290 yards, the shorter requires only 245 yards. Additional circumferences can be accommodated by changing gauge slightly. This sample pair fits both Amanda and myself (another @&* pounds heavier than she). In fact, I’ve been wearing them a bit this week while the weather is trying to decide between summer and fall. As with the other patterns in Nourishing Knits, the recipes are only in the book. If you wait for the pattern to be released separately it does not include the recipes.

Monday’s Nourishing Knits update was the final one until the whole book is released. So, when the next installment comes out the price goes up!

I’ll also be putting together a blog book tour once the book is complete. If you’d be interested in hosting a stop on that tour, let me know by dropping an e-mail to aberka at designedlykristi dot com. Please include your blog address in the e-mail!

1. I made pumpkin soup on Friday.

2. I also made some pumpkin muffins, a first round at developing my own recipe.

3. And I froze 8 cups of pumpkin puree.

4. I finalized this pattern for fully shaped, twisted stitch gauntlets with an anatomical thumb gusset - Buttercream! It is part of the latest version of Nourishing Knits that was updated yesterday.

5. I also made a few final tweaks on this pattern, Ciabatta, which is also in the NK update from yesterday. BTW, this one isn’t just for the men, Amanda wears it with 6″ of ease for a cozy sweater to cuddle up in. And, I just discovered that it fits my new shape nicely with some negative ease (photos coming in a few weeks).

6. Which means I also worked on this recipe which goes with Ciabatta.

7. And this recipe which goes with Buttercream.

8. Lest you think it was an all working, all the time weekend I assure it was not. On Saturday I went on a mini fiber field trip with Amanda and Ashley to Boulder where we visited Shuttles Spindles & Skeins and Gypsy Wools.

9. I was restrained, but did purchase 1 ball of sock yarn to make myself some yoga socks as I’ve been getting chilled in Yin class after weight lifting and am thinking some socks will help that situation a bit. With Yin you don’t often need too much grip or that, but I will leave out the toe and heel for the occasional time we do down dog or the like. It is so nice to have something completely mindless on the needles. I’m keeping it simple and just doing a 3×2 rib. I do have something in mind for the top of the foot that won’t be quite as mindless, but I’m a ways from getting there.

10. I had my first ever matcha latte at a local coffee shop. It was kind of like a warm and frothy green tea mochi ball. Not something I’ll likely get really regular, but it is a nice option if I don’t feel like coffee and I’m sure I will get it again.

How about you? What did you do this weekend? Don’t forget to check out 10 on Tuesday over at Carole’s for more participants!

This pattern, a crew neck pullover with a compound raglan called Ciabatta, is very near completion. I handed of the pasted-up, fully tech edited pattern (and it’s companion recipe) over to the editor. I think I’ll go ahead and put out an update with this pattern in it since it has been so long since an update. I’m working hard on the next pattern paste-up. If it goes smoothly it may be a two pattern update. We’ll see.

Thanks for the well wishes while I was battling fatigue. Things were nailed down and some changes made and I think I’m lifting out of the fatigue thanks to an entire rest week of no exercise but Yin yoga and vitamin D supplements.

Have a good weekend! To those who get Monday off, enjoy it!

The great closet clean out of 2011 has beaten me down with allergies (or I got a summer cold, not sure which). It has taken everything in me just to get to the gym for my regular classes/routines. The bike has been garaged as energy is not high enough to bike to/from the gym or beyond. Frankly, I’ve resorted to making deals with myself that involve the use of the steam room and dry sauna if I go to class. So, no walk and no biking either.

This was a shot from last week when I hit the coffee shop post-workout. I hit the lovely point of stockinette around and around so I read a book while I knit and sipped on a light frappaccino. It is now ready for sleeves, so it has progressed well since this shot. You’ll be glad to know it is the second to last design for Nourishing Knits! Now that I got a bunch of secret projects out the door for fall/winter publication with Interweave I’m back with the nose to the grindstone on Nourishing Knits. Boy does it feel good!