Category Archives: Kitchen

Preparations and Recipes

Crocheted Assorted Kitchen Items

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DSC07430 I crocheted these items for the kitchen with Premier Home 85% cotton, 15%, #4 crochet yarn.  I bleached the blue rimmed green one in the upper right in hot water, and dried it in the dryer with my kitchen whites. I did not wash the others, yet

.DSC07432  I made the blue multicolored mat on the right in triple crochet.  It is very suitable for a hot mat.    I included the small blue, green, and white double crochet coaster for size comparison .  I like how the Premier Home ombres look  in these radial patterns.

I made the yellow mat with five rounds of crochet, from center out,  two round of single crochet, a round of double crochet, a round of triple crochet, and lastly, a round of single crochet.

Conclusions:

  1. This Premier Home yarn is standing up to use very well.
  2. Double crochet and triple crochet with this Premier Home cotton, with its short runs of color, look great on these radial little mats.  The colors look great, and they are flat.

 

Crocheted Dishcloths

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After wishing for crochet cotton that is larger than number 10, I found some about equivalent to sport or worsted weight yarn ,  numbers 3 or 4.  Premier Home brand, which is 85% cotton, and 15% polyester.

DSC06611  And thereafter, I indulged in making several dishcloths, which are popular to make now.    The top rainbow-colored one weighs 1.4 ounces, and has a nice feel wet.  It also looks nice, with the only detractor being the that the rows in the middle make the edge gather up, due to the fact that I double crocheted in the chain one space between the previous rows.

DSC06612  For this one I tried, unsuccessfully, to pick a complementary color for the square to go with the leftover yarn from the cloth. This time I crocheted in the top of the double crochet of the previous row, and it does have a nicer edge.  The detractor here in addition to the edging not harmonizing in color, is that the edging is too big, being a repeat of chain five, skip two chains, and single crocheton the first edging row.

DSC06616 Here I show a solid blue dishcloth, which I purposely made a little smaller, inspired by a Premier Home free pattern.  The weight of this one came out to be nearly exactly one ounce.    This lower weight does not give as good a feel in the hand.

Conclusions:

1. Be careful withe mixing rows of double crochet in to spaces made by chaining one in the previous row, if the same row also contains double crochet into double crochet.

2.  Rainbow multicolored yarn does not look good outside of maroon solid colored yarn.

3.  1.4 ounce dishcloths feel better wet in the hand than 1.0 ounce dishcloths.

Summer Kitchen Garden

Garden, Kitchen, Plantains, ,

DSC06624 Trimmed plantains at the beginning of the summer.  I like their filtered light.  We have just two small clusters so far this year.

DSC06617 A lime growing on our key lime tree.  Last year we did not get any limes.  The tree has grown quite tall, so we will not be able to reach all of them from the ground.  They will become available starting in about six weeks, if all goes well.

DSC06628 Our garden, in which the herbs of the spring are going to seed.  Still I could get parsley, oregano, and some pictures.  This is along the lines of what I originally wanted, a kitchen herb garden.  Right now it is rather hot, and these kinds of things do not grow so well here.  I haven’t planted anything here.  Some things came up from self seeding last year, and  I expect some will re-seed themselves for next year: cilantro, marjoram, parsley, dill, even oregano, and maybe carrots and parsnips.   The sorrel leaves are not really usable, because now the “hungry, hungry” caterpillars can eat them.