A Knitting Project that Started at the Farmers' Market

One beautiful Tuesday afternoon in June, I was just entering the farmers' market when a blond woman in an orange sleeveless sweater  caught my eye. I coveted her colorful knit top, so I approached her and asked  where she bought it. I was expecting her to name a store where I could find it, but she hesitated just a moment and told me that she had knit it. She added that she got the pattern and yarn from a wonderful company called Quince and that it was easy to knit. We both went about our shopping and I swallowed my disappointment. Then it came to me that my sister was an expert knitter and with the information the wearer had provided we could easily track down the sweater and maybe she would knit it for me. I have mentioned my sister Lucia before and praised her talent for arts and crafts– she did a vintage jeans repair for me in 2017 which I documented:  Find HERE

When I called her in New York to discuss my request, I was thinking about my mother's old sewing patterns from McCalls and knitting patterns cut out from various women's magazines in the '50s, like the one above. Lucia definitely inherited my mothers skills, so she's kept some of those old patterns and precious childhood fabrics stored in the same Scandinavian rosemaled trunk that my mother Isabelle used.  We're so lucky to still have that old thing in the  family.

Luckily, Lucia agreed to the knitting project and I started investigating the Quince&Co. website to find the item I had seen. This was easier said than done. The site was confusing and didn't yield a shell like the one I wanted, not to mention that my memory was vague, having seen the piece for only a few minutes at the market. Lucia had to explain about knitting web sites which often bundle patterns and yarn together. We then exchanged photos of Quince&Co. options and finally hit upon a pattern called "Kai" and a color called rosehip.  Then came my big surprise ---  patterns no longer come in paper packages that you buy or clip from magazines. These days you download the directions that the company provides after you've paid for them. So Lucia ordered the kestrel yarn to be sent to her and directions that she would download.

Photo & description of Kai on Quince&Co's website

"Kai is our sophisticated color block shell, with a split hem and the slightest of finishing trim on neck and armholes. We love the contrast of light, clear Wave and deep coral Anemone, but what colors will you pick?"

The following is Lucia's account of the project:

"When I learned that the wearer of the sweater had said it was from Quince&Co, I knew that I had heard of Quince, a small high quality yarn purveyor in Maine. I even had a pattern published under their auspices.  I was intrigued by the idea of trying linen -- I usually only knit with wool -- and I didn't know how forgiving it would be on my hands. Quince&Co offers two weights of linen, but the pattern called for Kestrel, the heavier of the two weights of linen yarn they offer. When I opened the package and saw the lusciously colored skeins, I was surprised to find the strand flat, not cylindrical like "regular" spun yarn. They call it a tape yarn, but it knit up easily on # 8 round needles, with the resulting texture being nubby and uneven. Attaching in a new skein was a bit of a quandary, but it must have been for others too because Quince provided a blog post on the very subject, with suggestions and tips:

https://quinceandco.com/blogs/news/working-with-kestrel

Knitting up the tank top was quick and easy, a perfect summer project, and I was happy to give this gift to a beloved sister less skilled with her hands.

So the moral of this story is if you see someone wearing something you like, ask where he/she got it. They will  take it as a compliment, and it may end up in a sartorial adventure."

Here are Lucia's comments in texts she sent as the knitting progressed

Friday June 25th                     "Yarn arrived,  color is beautiful"

6/25/21                                            I sent the measurements she requested 

  

       6/27/21                                "Progress on knitting"

7/10/21                                             "Sideways progress, It's fun to knit"

8/21/21                                     "Not the greatest angle but you get the idea"

8/31/21             "Finished knitting but now I have to finish off the ends. Still big job ahead"

9/13/21                                                             "Here she is"

I love it

Package arrived safely          

9/15/21

After I unpacked the hand-knit shell and admired it, I tried to imitate the market shopper's outfit and it was a good match. It was exactly what I wanted!!  Now all I had to do was take it to the farmers' market on Tuesday and find my twin

Maida Heatter's Key Largo Oatmeal Cookies--with Potato Chips

My faded 1977 copy of her first book

My expert hairstylist Maria, who is also a talented baker, mentioned  Maida Heatter's Key Largo oatmeal cookies last week. We then launched into a conversation about her recent death at 102 years old, and this kooky recipe with a secret ingredient. I've baked many oatmeal cookies in my life but never one with potato chips. I had to have the recipe. I hoped that it would be in Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies, which I own.        

My small collection of her many cookbooks

I went home and checked all of my Maida Heatter cookbooks for the recipe and came up empty. Then I went online and tried to locate Key Largo oatmeal cookies. I found nothing linking Ms Heatter to Key Largo cookies. The only recipe I found for these cookies was from a website called The Family Cookbook Project which listed Nancy Watson as the contributor. No mention of Maida Heatter.  Here's the reference:

Key Largo Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

  Tried it? Rate this Recipe: 

  

 

This recipe for Key Largo Oatmeal Cookies, by Nancy Watson, is from The McCormick Family Cookbook, one of the cookbooks created at FamilyCookbookProject.com. We'll help you start your own personal cookbook! It's easy and fun.  Click here to start your own cookbook

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I started to wonder if the  the Key Largo cookie was actually a Maida Heatter original. I suspected it was, since she lived had lived in Florida her entire baking career, so I kept searching and finally found the  attribution in a website I have come across before called  Eat Your Books. It's a frustrating site because, though it highlights the recipe you're looking for and includes all the publication details, it only gives the ingredients but doesn't include the directions. I personally am not confident enough to waste time and money on a recipe lacking such important information. At least I did confirm that the recipe is included in Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great cookies which is one of many of hers that I don't own.  

Now I had the full recipe from The Cookbook Project and I knew it was included in a Maida Heatter book. All that was left was to buy a bag of potato chips and start baking. I soon made a batch and declared them winners. They are now included in my bulging file of favorite oatmeal cookies. As Maida said "Baking cookies is a great escape. It's fun. It's happiness. It's creative. It's good for your health. It reduces stress"

Key Largo Oatmeal Cookies (reprinted from The Cookbook Project)

4 oz salted potato chips
6 oz (1 1/2 C) walnuts
2 C sifted unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 packed C light brown sugar
2 eggs graded large
2 C old-fashioned (not instant) oatmeal
10 oz (2 c) dried pitted sour cherries (raisins or cranberries could be substituted. Or a combination of all or any two. I use only the cherries.)

 

Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat oven to 350º. Line cookie sheets with baking parchment or aluminum foil, shiny side up and set aside. Place the potato chips in a plastic or paper bag and squeeze the bag a few times with both hands to break the pieces just a bit. They should be coarse, not fine. They should measure 2 packed cups, set aside. Break the walnuts into large pieces. Set aside. Sift together the flour and baking soda. Set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft.. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat until mixed. Add the eggs and beat to mix. The add the sifted dry ingredients and beat on low speed only until incorporated. Add the oatmeal and beat to mix. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Transfer the dough to a larger bowl (if you don't have one, you can do this in the same bowl, just not as easily.) With a heavy wooden spatula stir in the cherries and nuts. Finally, stir in the potato chips. The chips should still be visible. This takes a strong arm and some heavy stirring.   Each cookie should be made of 1/4 C dough. You can use two spoons and guess at the amount, a 1/4 C measuring cup or (this is best), or a small ice cream scoop (the scoop that measures 2 inches in diameter is the right size). Place a large piece of aluminum foil next to the sink and place the mounds any which way on the foil. Then wet your hands under cold water, shake them off, but do not dry them and with your damp hands roll a mound of dough into a ball, flatten it to about a 3/4 in. thickness and place it on a lined baking sheet. Continue to shape the cookies and place them 2 in. apart (no more than 6 on a 12 by 15 1/2 in. sheet. Keep your hands damp as necessary. Bake two sheets at a time for 18 to 20 minutes, reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back twice during baking. (If you leave one sheet on the lower rack for too long, those cookies might become too dark on the bottoms). When done, the cookies should be lightly browned all over. Do not over bake. If you bake one sheet alone, bake it on the higher of the two racks and reverse it front to back once or twice during baking. When you bake one sheet alone, the cookies will bake in less time. Let them cool briefly, then with a wide metal spatula transfer them to racks to cool.   These can be stored in an airtight box or they can be wrapped two together (bottoms together) in clear cellophane, wax paper or aluminum foil. (Always store these two together, bottoms together).

                                          

Bookstore Rearrangement

 

The Lion Sleeps Today

 The Lion Sleeps Tonight sung by the Tokens

A stunning photo taken in Uganda by my  friend Jenny Michael. She focuses on birds in her latest  BLOG, but she sent a few animal shots from Africa when Dean and I asked her to. She reports that there are more birds in Uganda than in all of North America

            Another prize winning shot of a baboon--- one of the thousands of pictures she's taken so far   

                                        

              A Malachite kingfisher she photographed in Botswana. Makes me want to go to Africa 

Elaine De Kooning - One of the Ninth Street Women

 

Self portrait of Elaine De Kooning in 1946

Here sits Elaine De Kooning in two self portraits, painted when she was 26 years old. She was the brilliant, talented, energetic and beautiful artist who was the emotional center of a group of creative spirits known as the "New York School."  These were a close knit group of artists, poets, dancers and musicians who lived in lower Manhattan in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

I've recently been introduced to her in the engrossing book Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel. The Berkeley Public Library site offers this summary:

"The rich, revealing, and thrilling story of five women whose lives and painting propelled a revolution in modern art, from the National Book Award finalist. Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting--not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come."

Among the five women artists discussed in the book (De Kooning, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchel), it feels like there is a disproportionate amount of space devoted to Elaine De Kooning, probably because she had the most dynamic personality and the most exciting life. Besides working as an abstract expressionist, she started painting self portraits in the '40s and then went on to become a talented portraitist. Her most famous subject was John F. Kennedy, who sat for her in Palm Beach.  As an ardent liberal, she was captivated by JFK and painted numerous works of him, as seen in her studio below.

                   A clearer detail from the large painting above. She's still on the ladder painting JFK

Such a fascinating person deserves a more detailed rendering, so I would recommend checking out her bio HERE or better still, reading the book Ninth Street Women. 

Bloomin' gorgeous

 

These brilliant flowers are bee and butterfly magnets 

I bought this local bloom at the El Cerrito Farmers Market on Sunday. It was too stunning to pass up. Negligence in the garden isn't often rewarded, but when left unpicked the edible buds of the artichoke open into spectacular flowers like the one above. I photographed flowering artichokes in 2012 when I had just started my blog and I'm still at it.

June is Busting Out in Berkeley

 

This scene greeted me first thing Tuesday morning

Bali wind chimes ringing in the fog on June 1st