Orange You Glad

As it turned out, I had a surprise day at home last Friday. There were plenty of other things I probably should have done, but I spent the morning making orange marmalade. I had picked up some beautiful oranges earlier in the week, had plenty of sugar on hand, and finally the time that I could commit to staying at home and getting it done.

Even though I've made lots of jams and preserves in the past, I've never attempted marmalade. I'm not sure why. I love it, and good orange marmalade--really good orange marmalade is expensive. Last year I picked up a jar made with champagne that was delicious.

While I was having my morning coffee, I did a quick search for a recipe and found one on the Food Network from Alton Brown. His recipes have been reliable in the past, and so I printed it up and dug in. The first step, of course, is prepping the oranges with a quick bath and slicing them up for the cooking process. I have a mandolin, but it's not a very good one, and as I suspected, wasn't up to the task of slicing oranges. No problem. I have lots of good, sharp knives, and it's only four or five oranges.

Once I threw them in the pot, I was tempted to go down and grab a bottle of champagne in place of the water. Hmm? Wouldn't the sugar in the champagne offset the amount of sugar that I would add later? As tempted as I was to recreate what I had found in the store, I decided to stick with the recipe this time.

Here's what it looks like as it cooks down:

The sliced oranges simmering with lemon zest, juice, and water.

After the sugar is added, the color changes as it slowly gets to the right temperature to set.

Ready for the jars!
(I went for a thicker set jam so that the orange slices wouldn't all rise to the top in the jars.)

This is the fun part.

And then you wait for it--that wonderful sound of the lids popping into place while they cool on the counter. How satisfying is that to know that this will be something we'll enjoy for weeks to come? Some Florida sunshine in the middle of a Minnesota winter.

The next morning, I printed out some labels so that I can give away a few jars. I've been the happy recipient of some friend's labors in the past, so it's time for me to share.

What's next? I've been reading One Man's Wilderness--a story set in Alaska--and it's made me hungry for sourdough, so as the jars were cooling, I mixed up a batch of starter. Some biscuits with marmalade...

Adult Tomten Coat

The Zimmermann winter progresses as I put the finishing touches on my Tomten Coat this week. I cracked the whip and hand-sewed the zipper in before I could even think about putting aside to do "later." Eww. Zippers. But it's what I knew would look the best and be the most practical for easy wear. (Either that or practice saying, "Just a minute honey, I'm coming. I only have ten more buttons to go.)

The Tomten pattern is one that I've wanted to try for a long time. I love its simplicity and the fact that it's easy to adapt to any size. Once you knit a swatch and do some simple math, you're on your way.

My original plan was to try and stay as true to the original pattern as possible , but there were some modifications that I decided were necessary to get a better fit. And that's always been the beauty of Mrs. Zimmermann's patterns; they are meant to be adapted to your own style and needs. I put most of the notes for this project on my Ravelry page--just in case I ever decide to do it again. In fact, as I was knitting this one, I got a great idea for another one. We'll see.

Overall, I would have to say that this was a worthwhile project. There were times when I ended up knitting and re-knitting some of the sections of the jacket, but I think I learned a few things about shaping and design. The Lite Lopi was a good choice for the project. It's warm and lofty and will hold up well over the years. I'm also glad that I knit in the cuffs on the sleeves and went with the zipper front. Both choices make it more jacket-ish. I really like the color combination, too. That was just the dumb luck of having a couple of good contrast colors in my leftover bin.

Now I can get back to my other Zimmermann project, the (Red) Green Sweater. I've got the steeks cut and am working on the handwork for the facings--only slightly more interesting than applying a zipper. More good experience, right?

Victory

Even small victories are victories nonetheless.

Mine came this week through a few technological changes that I've been meaning to make for quite awhile. The most daring of all was updating my laptop to Windows 7. Updating the operating system on a computer is basically like playing with fire--you don't wonder if you're going to get burned, but when.

I've had the software for weeks, and every time I moved it around on my desk to find something else, I debated whether or not I was actually going to go through with it. After all, apart from a few freeze-ups once in awhile, my laptop works great. Why mess with it? But then I kept hearing about some of the new features that sounded cool, and I'd be tempted to try.

Well, this week I did my research, backed up my hard drive, and went for it. I was sure I had doomed myself to a day or two of aggravation in the form of downloading updates and searching for fixes. But no. It couldn't have been easier. Everything works. Stunning.

I also had to spend a day dealing with cable connections and audio settings to get the remaining TVs in our house into the twenty-first century. We've been ditching a couple of the last old, heavy tube TVs around the place. Between old computers, TV sets, and stereo equipment, we had better start saving now for what it's going to cost us at our city-wide recycling day this spring.

The Tomten jacket is coming along. The second sleeve went much faster since I had done the figuring and reknitting on the first. By mid-week, I had picked up the stitches for the hood and gotten one skein knit up before I ended up ripping back to re-do the method of increases.

There are several different modifications that have been done on the hood by other knitters. I liked the idea of bringing it in around the neck, so I knit even for the first three inches and then decreased eight stitches on the next row over just the stitches at the back of the neck. On the next right side row--the outside of the hood-- I began the increases. Initially, I did the increases with a M1L and M1R on either side of the middle stitch every two garter ridges, but the increases stuck out and looked awkward. I took out the knitting back to the decrease row and tried again by knitting into the front and back of each stitch on either side of the middle stitch to make the increases. Much better. It's smooth and should be almost invisible after blocking. I'm not exactly sure how many increase rounds it will take for the hood. I guess I'll know when to quit.

Fresh Coat

Just when you think you can't take another day of winter, we get a snowfall that reminds you of how beautiful it can be. Oh sure, that's because I didn't have to drive around in it. I only had to shovel it and snap a few pictures while I was out filling up the bird feeders.

I doubt the picture does it justice, but it was a snowfall where every flake is distinguishable and all neatly stacked anywhere it landed. A fresh coat on the grimy, icy remains of our last storm.

The garden is well protected this winter with a deep layer of snow. Last year's bitter cold and light snowfall were hard on some of my perennials. So were the rabbits. I am hoping to have better news this spring thanks to the snow and some strategically placed hardware cloth fences around a few of the tastier stems.

Speaking of coats, I'm still knitting miles and miles of garter stitch for the Tomten Jacket. (Perfect knitting while watching the first episode of the new season of Lost! No distractions.)

The first sleeve is finished after a couple tries. After reading about other knitter's modifications to the sleeves, I was fairly certain that I wanted to stick as close as possible to the original pattern. I actually like the boxy look of the construction, so I didn't worry about short rows for the shoulder shaping. Once I got the contrasting bands knit and the bound off underarm sleeves incorporated into the sleeve, I originally started working the decreases on the middle of the sleeve every third garter ridge, as suggested. It wasn't long before I realized that at this rate, the sleeve was going to be entirely too wide at the cuff, so I frogged it back to the color bands and started again making the decreases every two ridges, and it's much better. When I got the right length, the sleeve was begging for a cuff, so I added a few more rows, knit in some contrast rows to match the upper sleeve, and cast off.

So, I'm on to the second sleeve. By now, this knitting project has become a blanket on my lap while I knit. Not a bad thing in February in Minnesota---except for when the phone rings.