Category Archives: Knitting Creations

My Hero

My hero recovered the lost photos from the camera’s memory card, he is so good to me, isn’t he?

Now I can show you our visitors:

A Quail family visiting our front yard

Click to enlarge as I had to keep the photo quite large for you to be able to see the little ones! I love the way Mom and Dad Quail take care of their little ones, one day I will manage to catch them walking in their straight arrangement: a parent in the lead and the other one on guard at the end, they are so cute. By the time we got to the camera this time they moved from the paved part to the gravel and there the line dispersed.

I can also show you photos that show my Argosy better:

Argosy Scarf Isn’t that nice?

Argosy flying mid air Another view of the flying Argosy

Weird

The weather is weird – after a few really hot days (around 43 C at the peak) it became very windy and it really cooled off yesterday and even rained in the late evening. Today it is still quite cold for May and grey and the rain keep coming to visit – I am so happy!

The weirdest thing just happened – I downloaded a bunch of photos I took earlier of the Argosy Scarf I knitted for Sam. I saw them in the folder and wanted to delete one that was really fuzzy, I chose it and clicked the delete and all the photos I downloaded disappeared, I can’t find them anywhere, that piss me off, the scarf is on its way to Toronto so I can’t take other photos,,, oy oy oy!

Did you ever knit while you sleep? No, not in your dreams, really knit? I think I did it last night. I woke up on the sofa with my knitting in my hands, I finished the row I was working on and turned the work around and as I have to do decreases every other row, I checked where I am and I can swear I should have been at the end of the previous row! My conclusion – I was knitting and sleeping at the same time! Today when I picked up my knitting and start working I noticed I knitted many stitches into the yarn – just another proof I was indeed asleep while I knitted these stitches! – I think this should be entitled the weirdest but the previous sentence doesn’t go well with weirder so I think I will have 2 weirdest if you don’t mind!

To entertain you, here are some photos taken during our camping trip last weekend:

Knitting in the Morning Knitting on the Edge Better look at the view at the ridge of the Mogollon Rim, Arizona I am such a serious knitter

In them you can glimpse my Argosy, I knitted it in Lucia of Posh Yarn in the colour: Chorus Line – I enjoyed this yarn so much I knitted it three times before I finally decided I like the Argosy well enough to let the yarn stay in it.

Fava Bean, Peas and Pearl Barley Soup

What should a girl blog about when she is very loyal to one knitting project that is not a very photgenic big blob these days:

My Pi Shawl that may turn into a throw

(The colours are quite off in this photo, the yarn I am currently knitting is more like a very rich red wine mixed with purples).

I wanted to tell you about our trip to Idyllwild, California last weekend, where we celebrated our anniversary and show you some pretty birds we spotted on the way back home but the soup that is now cooking on my stove won the spotlight.

It is a fresh Fava Beans, Peas and Pearl Barley soup and what made it blog worthy was the process of getting to the part of the Fava Bean that went into my soup! As the idea to blog about it came only when we saw those lovely beans, we had to take the photos in reverse so you will have to excuse our garbage can!

I found the recipe for this soup in an Israeli cookbook called: Haim Cohen & Eli Landau Mevashlim = Cooking (male plural) – the name in English as it appears in the book: Haim Cohen & Eli Landau’s Cook Book. I like this cook book because it is arranged by vegetables and has the most beautiful photos in it and also (probably mainly) because anything I tried from it turned out delicious.

I never cooked Fava Beans before, I don’t know why, In the back of my mind I have some reservation about them but as hard as I try, I can’t remember what it is!

In the chapter about these beans you can find instructions how to clean the fresh beans: they tell you that it is quite easy to take the beans out of the pods

The outer shells of the Fava Beans

but in order to get rid of the thin skin you need to put the beans in boiling, slightly salted water and let them boil for one minute, then strain them and after that it is quite easy to peel this skin.

I opened the first pod and found in it a light green bean that didn’t seem to me to have any thin skin on it. I called Joe to have a second opinion, he looked, opened another pod and said he can’t see anything either but we better do as instructed and see what happens. Instead of going back to his desk he brought the garbage can and helped me open the shells. After awhile he said the pods are quite sensual (no wonder he decided to volunteer and help me,,,,) and he was quite right. the pods are large, easy to open, feel cushiony and have an inner white layer that looks like very soft fur. While we were peeling, I told Joe these beans are really spoiled, look at the tender soft shelter they grow in!

I followed the instructions in the book and after the boiling we found out that the light green outer part of the bean is actually a skin and not so thin at all:

The inner skin of a Fava Bean

Look what we found inside those skins:

Fresh Cleaned Fava Beans

I think there really is something very sensual in these little beauties!

And the soup you ask?

My Fava Beans,Peas and Pearl Barley Soup

Suffice is to say that I am not sure we have enough soup for lunch tomorrow; I ate one bowl and no, we didn’t have any company for lunch today! My man is a well known lover of soups in general and yummy new ones in particular.