Osborn Fiber Studio

I read/look at the photo-rific sustainable-farmy blog posts of fellow Marylander McKenzie whenever she posts them. She takes these scrummy pictures of wherever she’s working/whatever she’s eating that are transporting in their loveliness. So when I finally got around to making squash flower quesadillas the other night, I brought my camera with me.

Every summer I wait tensely for the zucchini and other summer squash to arrive. I love them sauteed to within an inch of their lives in just a bit of oil, anointed with parmesan. We don’t have home-grown squash yet (the ones we had with the quesadillas were from Shop ‘N Save. I live in a part of the country where it’s considered good marketing to give new grocery stores appalling names like “Shop N’ Save” and “Bottom Dollar.” Doesn’t that make you want to buy produce there?) but our own plethora of squash plants are flowering like mad. We only used the “male” flowers, so our squash production will not be inhibited. I briefly cooked them with some caramelized onion and some poblano pepper that I’d roasted and peeled, and they went in with the gobs of mozzarella. Yum. (Recipe here.) Sadly, the other flavors overwhelmed the flowers, but the peppers and onions and cheese were delicious. If we get another batch of flowers, I’ll probably just do as I was served in Mexico, and throw the raw flower straight into a warm tortilla with a little cheese.

My midsummer socks are done as well, nipped out during Harry Potter IV. (We’re watching all the movies this week before the midnight showing on Thursday. Glee! Loads of knitting time for the Mega-I-Mean-Mama-Poncho.) I seem to have gotten into some sort of pattern taking pictures of knitting, alcohol, and TV. This time the booze wasn’t mine. I do watch this much TV, but I promise, I’m not this much of a sod.

Pattern Review: The “Ukrainian Socks” from Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks are the cover pattern for this famous book. Unlike nearly every other pair, this time following the exact directions for yarn size, needles, and rows produced socks that fit my feet exactly. The charts are clear, and most of the time the floats in the fair isle are short (a personal pet peeve; I find wrapping for long floats very tedious). I’m not sure how I feel about the big green losenges on the toe, but it’s my fault that they’re green, so I will probably get over it. And how can you not love a pair of socks that you can easily produce in about five movies’ time?

Yarn review: I didn’t want to break the bank getting four enormous hanks of DK-weight yarn, so I went for Berroco’s “Comfort DK.” I spent a total of 14$ before tax, and have plenty of leftovers, though not enough to make me feel obligated to make another pair. I have used the Comfort line multiple times, and I’m always content with it. I’m generally not a fan of 100% fake yarn, but Comfort tends to be soft and smooth, meaning it doesn’t develop (or hasn’t yet developed) that sickly sticky halo that acrylic/nylons tend to do. I liked the colors on the original, but I have a sort of allergy to doing things exactly like someone else has done it, so I swapped out the gold for green. I think the funky contrast is very fetching, though a couple people have asked me if they are for Christmas. I think this pair is staying with me, so they might well become Christmas socks.

Now this pair – the last pair of Nancy Bush’s socks that I will knit in this house – are blocking in the summer sun. I am getting peckish – I’ll definitely have to make my way to the farmer’s market on Thursday and pick up some squash from a more local source. Squash casserole, Squash on pasta, Zucchini pancakes – I love summer!