Fiber Fool

Well, I hope you all are planning on being hungry this month! I’m hosting SnB at my house this month which means I have even more reason to spend some quality time in the kitchen! When I posted about my roasted red pepper hummus I asked for other smart snacking suggestions - especially dips for veggies and several of you suggested white bean and herb dips. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that. We’ve made such dips around here before and one of our local Italian restaurants serves a really great one surrounded by olive oil and topped with fried garlic when they bring the before dinner bread. So thank you all very much for the reminder!

It seems there are many a recipe that calls for rosemary as the primary (and often only) herb in white bean dips. But I’ve really enjoyed some white bean soups that had tarragon in them so I decided to mix it up for my version. Tarragon is the primary herb, but since it is a pretty delicate and mild flavor it is supported by a bit of basil and rosemary. I also chose to use lime for the acid (mostly because I wasn’t thinking ahead when I went to the grocery, but I *love* lime). I also chose to roast the garlic to make it more mild so it wouldn’t overpower the tarragon. To round out the flavor I chose to use smoked sea salt, though if you do not have any handy kosher salt will be fine (cut amount by half if using regular table salt).

Tarragon and Lime White Bean Dip

• 1 - 14oz can Canellini Beans, Low or No Sodium preferred
• 5 cloves roasted garlic
• 1 lime, juice only
• 1½ Tbl fresh tarragon, coarsely chopped and lightly packed
• ½ Tbl fresh basil, coarsely chopped and lightly packed
• ½ tsp fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
• ½ tsp coarse smoked salt, or to taste
• ¼ tsp fresh cracked pepper
• dash cayenne pepper
• ¼ C extra virgin olive oil

Place drained and well rinsed beans, garlic, lime juice, herbs and seasonings into food processor and pulse until contents are roughly chopped and combined. Place olive oil in auto drip tube and run until a paste is formed and all of the oil is incorporated. If you do not have an auto drip tube, add olive oil in small amounts by hand. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Makes about 2 cups and keeps in fridge for about 1 week. Serve with crackers, pita chips or fresh veggies.

Remember my “Christmas” sweater from December? Well, it never became my Christmas sweater, not even for the delayed MN Christmas. I should have known that there were still major problems even after recalculating my own sleeve cap numbers. Whenever I procrastinate on something it is a real sign of a problem. The fact that I kept putting off sewing the sleeves on should have tipped me off. I am probably about 80% product knitter and 20% process knitter. When I near the end of a project, especially a larger one, the sight of the finish line propels me forward - often to put in crazy hours.

Despite the unflattering appearance of this sweater I thought some of you may appreciate the problems that make it unflattering. I had a nice round gauge with the Cascade Eco+ I was using. Since time was of the essence if I was to wear it for Christmas I decided to follow some pretty standard numbers when knitting it. I knew my basic measurements (bust, waist and hips) but I did not bother to measure a sweater that fit me in a similar fashion as I was envisioning my Aralia sweater. I just knit onward and while I occasionally voiced my concerns as I was knitting the body it seemed to look okay on Kurki (my duct tape dressform) and friends and family gave it the okay when I tried it on without the sleeves.

In hindsight, I suspect the numbers for larger circumference sweaters in my source skew towards men once a certain chest measurement is reached. At what point the scales tip I’m uncertain, but definitely at 48″ it is skewed towards a male frame. The armholes land almost a full 4 inches below my actual armpit. Combine that with my pretty severe short waistedness and I had set-in “dolman” sleeves that came out of my waist. This hides the slimmest part of my body. There was a pretty good hint that those armholes were going to be a problem when the sleeve cap knit as written came out to be almost a foot long! I recalculated and got that down to about 8 inches. But even for a plus sized sweater that seemed a little over the top. These also caused the bust short rows I put in to not be placed properly and I still end up with the upside down “U” framing my gut in a most unflattering way.

Another problem is the shoulders. They too wide - by about 2″ (clearest in the right portrait oriented photo above). The shoulder seam lands quite a ways down my shoulder. Even fixing just that (with the help of friends to pin it in place, sorry I had no camera handy at that time) made a fairly big difference in the look of the sweater as well. This was one place where Kurki failed me and I failed myself. Because they are stockinette stitch, the shoulder edges curled and I never tried blocking them out or unrolled them when the sleeveless sweater was tried on. Otherwise I would have likely figured out that the across back measurement of the sweater was probably nearly a full 4 inches wider than my body’s.

I’m abandoning this one. At least for now. A different formation of it may make an appearance come fall and the return of cooler temperatures. I had already pushed off some other more pressing projects to get it to this point and I can’t really give it anymore time right now. Plus, I’m thinking the cowl at this sort of gauge didn’t help make it flattering with my chest (it might be fantastic on my sister though). I think I’ll stick to finer gauge cowls on my sweaters in the future.

Speaking of the future, some things I’m going to be certain to do when designing specifically for my body - have handy the most current measurements and more than just your standard chest/waist/hips circumference and arm length. I’m going to also have my armhole depth, nape to waist, nape to high hip, nape to full hip and across back width. Quite probably above and below bust chest circumferences. Oh, and for calculating the short rows (I have a spreadsheet that I use so those measurements were taken into account here as they were already recorded) - neck to waist at the front to compare to nape to waist in the back. I will also quite likely measure some of my sweaters and shirts to get a better ballpark - even if they don’t fit ideally they will give me a jumping off point as well as checkpoints along the way. And lastly, I hope I listen to myself better the next time I procrastinate!