Thursday, November 30, 2006

I made love pie!














Here's what's in love pie: peaches and black cherries. Mmm!
Now, there is a story that goes along with this pie. It has to do with crust. Yes, yes, my skills are awesome with shaping the top crust into hearts and letters (lightning bolts were too hard). But there is more to this crust that meets the eye, and it's not always good.


My friend Lauren and I had the idea to make this pie, so we went for it after school one day. We didn't have any shortening, but no worries, says Mom: there's this Earth Balance margarine in the fridge that works great!
Thanks, mom. (Margarine with no partially hydrogenated oils? What IS it, then?)

Okay, so the pie is made, we bring it to a party, and it gets eaten.
That is, the filling gets eaten... Somehow, strangely, the masterfully shaped crust tasted, well, awful. Really, it was bitter and chewy. No one could figure out why. (And the fact that Lauren's backpack fell on it, projecting excess pie juice everywhere into the car definitely has nothing to do with it at all.)

A week later, it was Thanksgiving! My dad, a connoisseur of delicious piemaking, made two pies to contribute to the feast. (I created decorative designs in the tops of those with a pokey thing. They looked awesome, I wish I had gotten pictures!)
So after Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family, we slice the pies and start to eat them. Before long, the conversation took a violent shift when my great aunt Nancy barked, "John, what'd you put in this crust. It's terrible." Oops. She was absolutely appalled to know that we had actually used expensive, healthy, eco-vegan-approved buttery spread in the pie crust. "What ever happened to lard?" She then proceeded to reiterate the point to anyone who would listen--including my grandmother who, about to stick her fork in, was immediately warned, "wait till you taste the crust."
My poor dad! The sense of wastefulness and shame towards his beautiful pies that, apparently, my great aunt Nancy "wouldn't feed to a dog." The very next day, he went out and bought shortening and made a whole new pie, with good old-fashioned trans fat and everything.
The moral of the love pie story is that if you can't taste your arteries becoming clogged, you're completely okay.

Onward to the knitting content! Check out my hot new addi c tions to the (already blooming to be voluptuous) stash:






















When it rains, it pours. And when I get new yarn, I get just a little tiny bit of yarn that appears to multiply post-purchase.

So, who wants some racy closeups? Yeeeeah...












(Again with the nasty lighting--it's late.)
Knit Picks Salishan. DK Wool/Cotton. These colors remind me of Native American stuff. The long, black hair; the red clay; turquoise; brown leather. I was lucky that all the shades Knit Picks had left on sale meshed together so remarkably.




















Monidal Genius. Colors that remind me of Valentine's Day, but aren't too obnoxious.






















Katia Mexico. Hues that swing through hot, candy-colored pinks, warm sunset orange, magenta, and a little bit of bright blue. Undertoned by grays, purples, and a touch of emerald.
Since these colors perfectly illustrate my friend Lauren, she's getting an entrelac scarf out of this yarn. (Otherwise, none of these new yarn purchases have anything to do with Christmas--isn't that disgusting?)





















Ironstone Yarns. I can't find the name of the line, but this is a pretty direct knock-off from one of the dye varieties of Berocco Foliage. That's okay. It was about 50 cents cheaper, that's all that matters.
Are you noticing a trend here? I can't get enough heavy-worsted, single-ply wool in crazy dyes. If different colorways of these yarns were all I could knit with for the rest of my life, I might be okay for a while.

6 Comments:

At December 02, 2006 11:38 AM, Blogger Anushka said...

Excellent pie story. I shall attempt Love Pie one day.
And fab yarn. I wish wish wish KnitPicks posted to the UK! Cruel tempresses (everything would be sooo much cheaper).

No, not disgusting about xmas knitting - very sensible in fact.

 
At December 02, 2006 3:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have really been liking Knit Picks lately. I tend to buy cheaper acrylic blend yarn becuase of cost, but now I can buy cotton when I want =D
lol on the pie story. I love pie, but the whol lard tihng kind of grosses me out. It's a good thing one can buy Vegetable shortening now.

 
At December 04, 2006 12:24 PM, Blogger rachel iufer said...

good news! lard has only 2-5% trans fat versus some margarines that have 45%. we just won't mention the cholesterol. :)

and LOVE the new stash additions. that salishan stuff isn't on knitpicks anymore, i wonder if they're sampling a new yarn or an old one? hrm. tell us how it knits up though, will ya? i'm quite interested.

 
At December 05, 2006 1:47 PM, Blogger Anushka said...

It is common knowlege that I cannot type.

"tempresses" = temptresses (or temptors)

 
At December 16, 2006 2:21 AM, Blogger 安淋 - Kessa said...

Pretty peach pie (delicious too, I bet. =P) The knitpick yarn does look like red indian colors. ryn, yep, we drive on the left side here! Lol.. I can't imagine driving on the other side too. Just a matter of what you're used to, I guess. ;)

 
At December 20, 2006 9:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

a love pie! AWE!

I just love me some love pie!

 

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