Yarn tales

I have decided to pick one craft, crocheting, and stick with it.  That way I can get really good at one thing.  As a scientist, I have decided to approach it like I would anything else.  I am doing research, getting opinions, getting to know experts (ie.: one of my good friends, initials E.F-M from the U.S.A.), writing notes and of course, my favourite: experimenting (this is why I am a scientist in real life).

You can't crochet without knowing a bit about yarn.  It all started because I bought some yarn from an artisan hand spinner on the Isle of Skye.  The yarn wasn't labelled, and the spinner just said, use big needles and drop lots of stitches.  To someone that doesn't know how to knit and could barely crochet, I didn't know what that meant.  So, I brought it home, picked an easy scarf pattern that I thought would work for me, and then proceeded to crochet it.  I used the wrong hook size and needless to say the project didn't work out.  This was three years ago.  I had always intended to unravel and start over.  Three years later, I decided to unravel and start over. But, as I unraveled the yarn, it started unwinding too.  This made re-crocheting like re-crocheting a bunch of hair.  Not to mention, it had lots of kinks and twists in it.

The yarn

Fortuitously, my good friend (EFM) recently sent me some cotton yarn that she had unraveled and reworked.  She said she washed it, dried it, and wound it into a ball.  So I wondered whether I could do the same with the Alpaca yarn?  Since it was alpaca and not cotton, I wondered whether this technique worked for any type of yarn.  So, I went on the internet, as you do, and found some additional resources that suggest the same technique for lots of different yarns.  Unwind, wrap, soak in hot water (with hair shampoo or wool wash if washing), spin cycle, dry, wind.  Most of these are from people that unravel old sweaters and recycle/upcycle the yarn by making it into new project, selling it, or donating it to charity.  I also found a great way of estimating yarn weight, using the WPI or weight per inch technique.  Basically you wrap your yarn around a ruler and measure how many wraps you get per inch. Then you use a chart that estimates yarn weight by the number of wraps per inch.  So now I know my yarn is bulky or chunky and requires a hook between 6.5-9 mm.  I will update this post with the washing results.

My attempt at an easy dinner to use up leftover white wine

Weekday dinners can sometimes be a dilemma.  I need to make something easy, healthy, tasty, toddler friendly and quick.  I also wanted to use up some left over white wine that was now past the point of drinking.  I had some fresh haddock fillets, so I thought I would try making up a cream-free and butter-free garlic and white wine sauce....a small experiment.  I think it turned out quite nice....everyone ate it anyway :)

This is more of a "work in progress" recipe:

Ingredients:

2 large Haddock fillets
1 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of dried dill (will try fresh dill next time)
1 cup of white wine (this was a nice Greek wine)
1/2 cup of water
2 teaspoons of gluten-free flour (can use regular flour too)
Rapeseed oil
Salt, to taste
Black pepper--freshly ground, to taste

Heat the oil in an oven-proof dish and sweat the onions until they are soft.  Turn the heat down to medium.  At the same time, heat the oven to about 170 degrees C.  Add the garlic and saute till fragrant.  Add the flour and stir till it coats the onions and garlic. Then add the wine and let it simmer.  Add the dill and continue to let it simmer.  Add enough water to make a thick sauce.  Add the salt and pepper according to taste.  Place the fish in the sauce so that they are completely covered and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are cooked.  I served this with steamed carrots, stir-fried pak-choy and baby new potatoes.

Unfortunately, there are no photos. I will definitely try this again using fresh dill, which always works well with fish.