Sunday, February 14, 2010

Kitchener Stitch on garter, stockinette and even ribbing! Coming March 2, 2010

On March 2, the Spring 2010 Interweave Knits will hit the newsstands, and, among the interesting patterns and fascinating articles will be an article by TECHknitter (that's me!) about Kitchener Stitching (also called grafting).


TECHknitting blog has already shown how to Kitchener stitch stockinette in an easy way, using a knitting needle rather than a sewing needle, but this magazine article covers different ground.

Specifically, article shows how to use a tapestry needle to Kitchener stitch any fabric according to a formula, whether garter stitch, stockinette, reverse stockinette. In addition, there will be a new "unvention:" a method for grafting ribbing without the dreaded half-stitch jog (could also be applied to grafting seed stitch in pattern).


There will be scads of illustrations and a handy chart summarizing all.

I hope you will like it!

--TK

Monday, February 8, 2010

Peach crumble--Knitters have to eat, part 2

Every so now and then, TECHknitting strays into the kitchen. Last time there, it was no-mess muffins, and this time, it's peach crumble. (Click to enlarge the photos)


This idea is from a blog, and the finished product looked so good. The orignal recipe called for a box of yellow cake mix, a stick of butter, and a full cup of brown sugar. That's out of our league, so the recipe got tweaked. Still, the result is recognizable and makes up as easy as the original. As a plus, kids'll eat it too.


To make, you need:
  • round or square glass baking pan, 8 or 10 inches
  • 1 15 oz can of peaches in juice
  • 1/3 cup cake mix--any kind of vanilla cake mix seems to work, OR--you can use the no-mess muffins mix previously posted on this blog. 
  • 1/3 cup regular (long-cooking) oatmeal
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil--we use canola around here
  • 1/3 cup chopped pecans
Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour the peaches + their juice into the ungreased pan. Cut them into bite sized pieces with a pair of kitchen shears (no need to get your fingers wet!)

Sprinkle the dry cake or muffin mix evenly over the peaches, then the oatmeal on top of that. Drizzle the oil as evenly as you can. There will be large areas with no oil, but that's OK--you're shooting for a little oil in each serving, not necessarily each bite.

Plunge a table knife through the dry topping, then twirl in place. This makes a little "well" where the liquid can bubble up through the dry ingredients while baking. Make about 8 or 10 of these wells, mostly in the middle of the pan. Top with the chopped pecans, spread evenly. 

Bake 40 minutes. Yield: 4 servings

Eat hot or cold, good with coffee.
--TK

PS:  If it turned out a little dry?  Next time, add a couple of tablespoons of water to the peaches.