Embossed Leaves Socks

{ Tuesday, October 16, 2007 }

Embossed Leaves Socks
Originally uploaded by Kraftykay

Purple leaves to (not quite) match the gold and yellow ones starting to drop from the trees.

The pattern is Embossed leaves socks by Mona Schmidt from the Winter 2005 issue of Interweave Knits. I knit these on US 1 Clover DPNs out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in a color which I believe is called Grapevine.

When I started planning this project, I decided that I would knit these socks toe up, allowing me to try them on as I went, thus avoiding the need to knit a gauge swatch. I really like the way the leaves are oriented; however, so I planned to alter the lace pattern to have the leaves point the same way even even I knit them in the opposite direction. It seemed simple enough, but after three tries, I had to admit defeat! What was coming off my needles bore no resemblences whatsoever to either the picture in the magazine or the chart in the pattern. I'm certain that this is doable, but its going to take a bit more than just knitting the chart from top to bottom rather than bottom to top. Maybe I'll still work on that with some scrap yarn, but I wanted to move forward with this project.

In the end, I knit the pattern exactly as written--top down with no modifications. They fit wonderfully and I'm very happy with how they turned out. (And I'm pleased with my decision to hold off on the photo shoot until I had some natural lighting--you can actually see the leaves in the picture!) I knit a good portion of these socks during the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival over the summer and they bring a smile to my face when I remember knitting them and camping at the festival with my sweetie.

The arrival of fall also has me yearning to be in the kitchen. I love to wake up early on a brisk day, get out the pots and pans, and cook the day away! Lately, I've been trying to master Indian food--specifically Palak Paneer, one of my favorite dishes. Since the first of the year, I've been eating a vegetarian and mostly vegan diet and I'm determined to make a vegan version of this dish indistinguishable from the classic one.

The recipe itself is simple enough--cook up spinach, tomato, green chilies and some spices until wilted, then process until smooth. Using clarified butter, fry up onions with more spices, then add spinach mixture along with fried paneer (Indian cheese). Tofu sustitutes easily for the cheese, which doesn't melt and has a similar texture to tofu, and I've been substituting oil for the butter, but the whole thing turns out a little flat. A posting on fatfreevegan.com suggests that the butter adds a richness which may be what I'm missing. The author substitutes soy yogurt, but reports that the results still aren't quite right. I'm thinking I'll try her version and maybe add a little vegan margarine for good measure. Hopefully, that will do the trick!

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